Well…just got back from getting my new tires and it was pretty painless…didn’t even have to get out of the car and it took a grand total of about a half hour from start to finish….these tires ride so much nicer than the old, hard ones even with the 35 psi that they put in them but I am going to lower them to 32 which is what I always run and that will make them even better…the turn in on corners is a little squirmy but I think I feel that since the old tires were almost bald and had no tread left to have give in it…and they are not directional so I can move them from side to side, too when I rotate them instead of just front to back and that will help them last longer…it feels good to finally have that taken care of so I don’t have to worry about one of them coming apart since the old ones were so weather cracked from age….can’t wait til the stay at home is lifted so I can get out and do an e-way run up to Mt. P and see how they are on the highway….
Selfishness on display….
Well….I didn’t know that not being able to plant flowers or get a haircut was a threat to the “freedom” of the people of Michigan. Yesterday, spurred on by fox news, you know, the network that said that the coronavirus was a hoax…a bunch of rural, white repubs decided that trying to prevent the spread of the virus was not “‘murican” and not being able to go out to bars and gun ranges was the “greatest” threat to freedom in the history of the country….and a few of them even got out of their cars to gather on the steps of the capital to wave their guns, confederate flags, and trump 2020 flags and “own the libs” by ignoring social distance recommendations…. after all they say, that most of the infections are in “urban” areas which is racist code for black areas and they just think they are immune from the virus since they live in the country….now, I’ve raged about the selfishness of repubs here for years now….that they don’t care about any crisis unless it hits their immediate family and this puts that selfishness on full display…that even minor inconvenience…well, the stay at home orders are more than a minor inconvenience to many people who have lost their jobs and their businesses, but what are their lives worth? Again, the right is trotting out the “economic anxiety” excuse for the protests, that people need to get back to work, but that is the same reason that they used to explain the election of trump that has been exploded many times…and the true reason is that unless you are straight, white, and christian, you don’t count at all and it is okay that you die or get locked up in cages since you are “the other”….what other reason would there be for waving a confederate flag? I know that this lockdown is hard on people…even for someone like me who is used to being alone…but this “protest” of these morons is going to get people killed just like the 90% of coronavirus deaths here in the US that could have been avoided if trump and his cronies had done their jobs instead of playing politics with the response…I guess we are not “in this together”…but over the past 30 years we never were….
April 16th
Well….5:20 again this morning after getting up at 3 or so…ick….and I’ve been good for 4 days and have gone 4 days without allergy meds and I’m not sure how I feel…not much different than when I take them so I need to rethink taking them at all…I think I’ll know how bad my allergies are going to be after I get outdoors some…I am going to get on the bike this morning even if it’s in full thermasuit but that will be after a while…I mean, damn, it’s frickin 26 degrees out there and it’s the middle of April….and I need to take the car out to have the new tires put on at 9 today but that is about all I have to do for the day….so I think I’ll clean some…the living room needs some work and I need to start on the downstairs since I have let it go some with the rest of the work I’ve needed to do around here….I got a brain storm yesterday and I am going to build the world’s smallest barbecue pit out of the extra blocks that are behind the garage so I can use the big bag of charcoal that is still unopened in there….have found a grate to use and think it would be fun to do some outdoor cooking in the next week or so…can you tell I’m a little bored? It only needs to be big enough to cook 4 chicken thighs and I think I have enough grate for that….and I haven’t had any grilled food for almost 4 years….not much to do today….just going to wing it after I get the tires done and probably start doing some meal planning for the next week or so…got a bunch of boneless skinless chicken cheap yesterday so I’ll be incorporating that….maybe some chicken alfredo? More later….
I got groceries…
Well…it has been an interesting morning with trying to get out to get the stuff I need to not go out for a month…and I got most of it so I’ll be in for the next month or so…I did forget to relay one thing I found out when I was talking to my youngest son yesterday…somehow we got on the subject of masks and he casually mentioned that he is printing masks for he and his wife along with his inlaws on his 3-d printer…and that made me laugh…of course he is…he is one of the smartest people I have ever met and what else did I expect? Oh, and I did talk to discount today and they have my tires that I am going to have installed tomorrow morning….and that is the last thing I have to do other than stuff around here so I really do think I’ll be here for the next month….I really do need to stop spending anything to get to having 40 K for my house down payment….so I’m going to count every penny and lay low….
This is just sick…
Well…just when you think the idiot trump couldn’t go any lower, he gets the damn shovel out and digs another 6 feet down…the latest bullshit from the bullshitter in chief is he just HAD to have his name on the relief checks that are being sent out like it is his own money that is being sent….and that one change to stroke this asshole’s vanity is going to cause the checks to go out at least a week late and maybe more…so people are not going to be able to pay their bills on time or even eat just so this narcissistic ass can have his name in front of the millions of people that need to money to just survive…and I know why he is doing it…he thinks that people will be thankful to him personally that they are getting the money…and to some of the ill informed followers of his, this may be true…but to the rest of the country who need this money asap to stay alive…the extra week or two that this signature is going to cost means that children go hungry, that old folks can’t buy their medicine, and people are going to die…just for this asshole’s vanity. Just like the 40,000 or so Americans who are dying or have died so trump could go golfing and hold his rallies in Feb as he downplayed the virus and did nothing. Okay, media…and dems, what are you going to do about it…media: ask that question at today’s propaganda conference…and dems, get an ad out today informing the people that it is trump’s vanity that is delaying your relief….now is the time for push back on this insanity…geez…why do we even have to do this?
April 15th
Well…running about on time this morning but got up at 5 for the first time…tried going back to bed and it kind of worked until coffee time so I guess that kind of a win…still didn’t get my 1200 bucks yet and that is a little irritating…don’t really need it but it would be nice to have…I did sleep okay with doing my 3rd day of being good and the third day of no allergy meds or ibuprofen…still have that low grade headache and sinus pressure but it’s tolerable so far….and I am pretty sore even without riding the bike but I think that is just carryover from the last time and from lifting the power washer into the car….there is damn snow on the ground this morning and it is only in the 20′s so it looks like another day of no ride unless I wait until late this aft…don’t have a lot do to so I really can wait…I am going to try to go out for groceries today since DD has chicken on sale for 1.29 a pound and I need some potatoes, too…going to try to do the 3 store run today but I will probably bail if the new regs are too much of a pain…I can make it for a month without going out except for no milk so I guess it’s not really necessary…I am going to call discount this morning to see if they are going to get my tires or if I have to go somewhere else….and that will probably make me wait until this whole thing is lifted in a month or so….didn’t get a lot done yesterday and it looks like not much today, either…the snow will have to melt before I can get on the garden but I have time to wait for that…can’t plant until May anyway so that gives me a couple of weeks….more later….
What a bore of a day…
Well…with the second day of high winds and cold, it has been a bore of a day here with not getting out to ride….I did wedge the power washer into the trunk of the Miata and took it back to my son over where I used to live…and it was nice to talk to him for a while…it made me laugh that he organized an online video chat with his brothers and sister and he said that they talked for almost an hour just to catch up…it’s nice that they are staying in touch….and it was nice to run the car for a while since I’ve only driven it about 10 miles this month and that is not good for it….I did get a little work done on the downstairs project today and started to clean some but lost my motivation pretty quickly for some reason….I’m sure it has something to do with the high temp being 35 in the middle of April but that is going to break early next week and we should be getting back to around 60 which is the normal for this time of year…the big project is going to be getting the garden prepped next week so I can plant as soon as possible…so that makes the rest of this week pretty boring too, since the weather is not going to cooperate….man, I am tired today and just can’t shake it…I wonder if it’s from not eating enough…again….I did have two pieces of pizza today but without a bike ride, that should be enough….oh, well….
So sorry repubs, it didn’t work…
Well….if you looked at the news over the past week or so, you saw the mighty voter suppression efforts by Wisconsin repubs to try to save a supreme court seat that even involved the US supreme court who dutifully weighed in and handed the repubs the tools they needed to try to steal the seat….and this included making sure that most polling places were closed in dem areas and forcing in person voting instead of the safer vote by mail that the dem governor was championing. But, a funny thing happened….dem voters braved the coronavirus and hours long lines to do their duty and thwarted the bad faith efforts of the repubs to rig the election….and three of Scott Walker’s hand picked judges went down to defeat…most importantly, a true progressive won the 10 year seat on the supreme court, whittling away at the repub majority who have done their best to support making it harder and harder for everyone but repubs to vote. The vote wasn’t even close and pundits are chalking that up to the dem voters being pissed and really, really motivated to make every damn one of the repbus to go away….and this time, even some of the repub base was snared in the voter suppression net and had to endure the long lines just like we always do….maybe it will open their eyes to the fact that their “leaders” are only out for themselves and to retain their power…they don’t give a damn about their voters…these results leave me with a glimmer of hope that there is a landslide coming this fall….maybe we can even take back the government here in Michigan…that would be cool….
April 14th
Well…running a little late this morning and this time it’s almost on purpose….woke up at 5 or so after tossing and turning all night but decided to try to go back to sleep and did for almost an hour…didn’t sleep much but I think it helped…and it was the second night in a row of no ibuprofen or allergy meds and I am surviving it but with a low grade headache that I know is from sinus pressure…but I can live with it…so far…not sure if that will continue with some heavy work to get done outside….need to get the garden plot chopped out of the back yard and skim the soil from the old plot that was just behind the house that has some good black dirt in it…and that will take it down to the level of the rest of the yard…but then I’ll need to seed that and that won’t happen for a month or so since I can’t get seed…I did get some cleaning done yesterday and I think I’ll do the bathroom today and maybe even the living room but that will depend on whether I get out on the bike today and if I hear about the tires for the car….and I need to put the power washer in the car and take it back to my son today or tomorrow…not much to do today…still on the first cup of coffee so there is going to be easing for the next hour or so as I wake up more and get caught up on the news….more later….
Thanks Bernie…again…
Well…just read that Bernie Sanders just endorsed Joe Biden in the online forum that Joe was using to talk about some of the issues today…and it was exactly what I was looking for, asking his followers, independents, greens, and even sane repubs to support Joe and return this country to sanity….and Joe talked directly to Bernie’s supporters and thanked them for their ideas and enthusiasm and promised to earn their votes in the fall…now, this is exactly what I was hoping would happen…but I would have gone a little further even and had Joe promise that Bernie is going to be an integral part of the campaign and administration that Joe puts together…here’s the thing, too…even when being attacked during the campaign, Joe was always the gracious, decent human being that this country needs right now…but that is Joe…no flash or soaring rhetoric but an innate goodness that trump and his cabal of idiots just don’t possess…and that needs to go into lots of ads starting now…split screen with Joe consoling an American and trump screaming at one of his “rallies”…cripes I could write a hundred of them…again…thanks Bernie…