September 12th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday but I woke this morning to the most pain in the left elbow than I have had all summer…and now there are twinges in the right one, too, that are starting to really annoy me….could barely lift the groceries this morning and I hope that the ibuprofen will help…slept okay last night but I still feel worn out today…think it may be the lack of calories again but I am going to do something about that today….I did have to make a run to the north side yesterday and I used the air in the car since it was raining…I still can’t believe how well it works…never had to put the blower above one…nice to know….not much to do today…I do need to get on the bike in a few and I am going to make some pickles with the two cukes I have left in the fridge…oh, and today is the last episode of “Burn Notice”…it’s going to be hard to let that one go….more later…

Just a short one on some news…

Well…just wanted to relate something that I read today about some economic analysis that has recently been completed…the numbers are in people, and we now have the largest income inequality in the history of the country…yep, even worse than the depression, even worse than the gilded age of the robber barons whose trusts stole everything while their workers died and people starved…oh, sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Sounds just like now….with the repubs trying to steal everything that is not nailed down for their owners like the Kochs…and then cutting food stamps by forty billion dollars so people really will starve…they will literally starve citizens of this country just so the rich can have another summer home or Ferrari….this is just so sick I can’t even believe there are people like this in the world…we can do something about this, we just need the will…and the repubs to die off…geez…

On the trail…

Well…politics is rife with the normal repub crap of giving corporations and the rich more tax cuts while they take the food out of the mouths of the unemployed and poor…but, that is not what I want to talk about right now…I have been concerned about the lack of butterflies and grasshoppers on the trail this year when there were clouds of them last year…well…at least the grasshoppers have finally come back…and in almost as large as the ones from last year…it was really funny this morning when, for almost the entire run, they were swarming and hopping as I rode by with may of them hitching a ride on my t-shirt…pretty neat but much later than last year…the swarms were present last year in July and August…I wonder if it will have an effect on next years swarm with them being so late…one other thing…saw the biggest garter snake in my life yesterday trying to cross the trail…must have been 2 feet long and a good inch or more in diameter…and really, really slow…I could have just reached down and picked it up….cool stuff…

September 11th

Well…if you want some maudlin crap about 9/11…not here…it was a nice day yesterday with a trip to the beach and then the normal stuff for the day…and it was a no cocktail night so I feel okay this morning…I was dead on the bike yesterday and I barely made the 15 miles…can’t remember being that worn out on the bike in quite a while but I hope today will be better with eating more yesterday…got all the way to 1500 calories or so but I know I need more than that…oh, well…slept okay last night, too, but the dreams were non-descript and not worth reporting…not much to do today…I am going to get to some cleaning today after the bike ride and making lunch…going to foil pouch cook some big ribs today and I am looking forward to it….more later…

I was right….

Well…if you look back a few days, you will see my take on what should be done on Syria…basically to use diplomacy to twist some arms and throw around a few rewards to get this problem solved without using the military…and, guess what? That’s just what Obama and Kerry have been doing getting Russia to put some pressure on Syria to give up their chemical weapons to international supervision without a shot being fired…but I do think the idea of the war talk and Obama twisting some arms in congress to get the authorization really did put Assad on notice that the game was up and that there was going to be change…maybe this is the eleventy dimension chess that some on the left think Obama is capable of…I’m not sure if that is what happened here, but it appears we are farther from attacking than we were a week ago and that is progress in my book….geez…

September 10th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday with a nice lunch with T to top it off…slept okay with some weird dreams and that was cool, too…sitting here thinking if I should go to the beach or not today…it is already over 80 at 7:30 and it is supposed to be sunny and hot….a nice drive might break up the monotony and I could use swimming one more time…and, with school being in, there should be no children screaming so that really makes it attractive…and, I do need to take a day off the bike to get some repair going in the legs so maybe I will go….not much to do today…other than the beach that is…

On the trail…

Well…it was a long day on the trail but a nice one…and no, this is not the political one that I promised a few days back but there just is nothing going on in politics that I haven’t already commented on…and I can’t get farther behind so I need to do this one about any topic I can come up with…so you’ll get trail comments today…with it raining just before I went out, there was no one on the trail but me…no dogs, not families taking up the whole thing, and no people walking the wrong way…so that made it easy to go and I did…it is pretty neat that the trail really has some strong scents after a rain…the pine was so strong today but was mixed with other ones that you never smell…like flowers and others that I can’t place but there is normally a surprise in every mile…the last thing that was cool out there today (not for the bird) was a bird that had been run over by a bunch of cars that had flattened it into the same pose as the Archeopteryx, the first feathered dinosaur, that was discovered in China many years ago…weird, I know, but still kinda cool…

September 9th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday and had a little fun going out for a couple with K…and I had weird dreams that included a new Miata that got stolen after I had it for about 15 minutes, a running gun battle, and a missing car dealership…yep, weird, I know….but slept okay and I feel okay today if just a little tired…I may even take the day off riding the bike with the rain but it looks like the storms are moving out so I may be able to get to it…but, having lunch with T today so I may not have the time…other than that, not much to do today…I should clean some but not sure if I can muster up the ambition for it…I will come back for two more today since I am running behind…

September 8th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday with getting a few things done around here and with Michigan beating ND last night…slept okay but I feel just worn out this morning…but, I still need to get on the bike in a few minutes…don’t want to but I need to…still sore everywhere but it’s not as bad as yesterday so I guess I’ll survive it…the Lions start their season today and I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to it…just disappointing for the past 50 years…not much to do today….after the bike ride, it’s just a total veg day for me…might meet up with K for a couple later but that’s it…more later….

What’s wrong with diplomacy?

Well…have been thinking about cleaning my bathroom but this looked easier so I’ll give this a try…one of the questions that I have with this whole Syria nonsense is “what’s wrong with diplomacy?” When did our entire foreign policy devolve into using military force for everything? What is wrong with talking to the world about it and trying to find a diplomatic solution? We used to do a good bit of “horse trading” to get what we want with the use of the military being the last resort…I think it would be a good idea to try that for a while and not be in such a hurry to bomb everything in sight…it’s like the old saying ” when you are a hammer, everything you see is a nail”…..so, let’s talk for a while…Syria isn’t going anywhere….geez…