Well…you know when a sports figure that has been there for your entire life dies, it makes a difference…especially one as special as Al Kaline who played his entire career with the Tigers and was part of the team from the time I started to love baseball when I was about 5 years old….Mr. Kaline died yesterday at the age of 85 after a short illness and for once, there is nothing but good to say about one of my heroes…he was one of my role models growing up with his innate goodness that he showed every day of his long life…I actually met him once and got his autograph when I was about 10 when my father took me to see some of the Tigers that were traveling around the state before the season started…I know there were others there but I don’t remember any of them…but I do remember Al….There will never be another one like “Mr. Tiger”….RIP Al….
April 7th
Well…4:14…that sucks…but to be expected with how things have been going lately….going to be exhausted later today but I don’t think I’ll be doing a double on the bike today…went without ibuprofen last night and I am sore this morning but nothing that is too bad so I can live with it…my earbuds quit working on the bike yesterday and it was the second set of skull candy ones that quit so I ordered a different brand from Amazon yesterday for 15 bucks that got good ratings and look pretty cool but it is going to take 2 weeks to get them with all the traffic through Amazon…and I had to order a new eIectric toothbrush and a spare tube for the bike to get to 25 bucks for free shipping but I needed that stuff anyway and saved about 9 bucks getting them on line….did find the ones that came with my walkman and I can live with those for a couple of weeks….still didn’t hear back from Discount on the new tires but should hear from them today… the old one on the car have hardened up so they are like rocks and I can’t wait to get them replaced….not much to do today…I do need to run an errand this morning and I may have to plant more pepper seeds since none of them have come up yet…all of the tomatoes have come up and they should be pretty big with having to wait a month to put them outside…I might get to starting on the garden plot since it will take some time to get the sod out…but the grass is so bad in the back yard it may not be too much work…more later…oh, one thing I forgot…my daughter was worried about me and ordered a washable face mask for me to use when I go out….was just going to use the dust masks I have here for that but I’ll give this a try….
Another busy day…
Well…I really wasn’t planning on having a busy day today but it’s funny how that works out sometimes….have been running since about 7:30 this morning starting with getting the mailbox cleaned up and painted…then I had to wash the bike since it was just so gross and making noise from all of the dirt and sand in it…then out on it for a 15 miler and then as soon as I got back here, I got started on removing the grass and the stump from the other side of the porch…that one came out pretty easily since it didn’t have an 8 inch tap root like the last one but it had a bunch of inch thick spider roots that I had to dig and chop out…and some of them were 3 feet out under the lawn and I had to dig those up so I could reset the block edging…only have 4 more of those to go and I’ll have all of the big stumps out of the shrubs….after that, I washed the car, then I got back on the bike for a second ride and just got back here a few minutes ago…so, I haven’t had time to even read the news to get a topic for the day…but, I am going to do that right now but I can’t promise that I’ll be back soon…pretty worn out and I need to take a break….
April 6th
Well…5:18….that’s all I have to say about that….damn, I’m getting bored with not being able to work on my projects around here….and with the weather changing back to crappy Thursday we’re not going to get out of the 40’s until May….maybe that will keep the idiots indoors and leave the trails to me….I had forgotten until last night that it usually takes two days for the abuse I did to my body chopping out the stumps Friday to show up…and it did all of a sudden while I was trying to catch up on some shows last night when the pain in my back and right shoulder flared all at once…and it was a night that I was trying to avoid taking ibuprofen but that went out the window after I couldn’t get comfortable even just sitting here…it seems better this morning but we’ll see after I start abusing it again and get started working on the next stump…going to have to put a band aid and some duct tape on my thumb since the blister hasn’t healed yet and I’ll be using it the same way today…but I need to paint the mailbox first after working on the rust yesterday….and get it put back up before the mail comes later today…but I don’t want to paint downstairs so that will wait until 10 or so when it gets over 40 outside….not much to do today…having a hard time getting started so I’ll need more coffee before I do much of anything….I do have to wash the bike before I ride today since it is filthy and I need to get all the crap out of the chain and idlers…and I probably should wash the car, too but we’ll see how the day goes….more later…
Evolution…
Well…okay, am starting to get back into politics in the news and the evolution of the right’s response to the virus is just frickin stunning….if you remember 6 weeks or so ago everyone from rush to trump to hannity were bleating out of their mouths that the virus is just a hoax that the dems were using to attack trump since they couldn’t convict him in the senate….then they moved to “it’s just like the flu” and 40,000 people die from the flu int he US so no big deal if a few people die…then the classic “don’t make the cure worse than the disease” that trump picked up from some idiot on fox “news” was the excuse that trump was going to use to “open the country” by Easter Sunday…remember that gem? The next evolution was that only old people are going to die and they are old and are takers anyway so they aren’t worth anything…then the spin got up to 10,000 rpm when trump and his enablers on fox declared that “only” 100,000 dead meant that trump did just the bestest job that any president had ever done or ever could do so he should be congratulated and fawned over forever…now, in the sickest thing I have ever seen in my lifetime, the right is now saying that dying is the greatest thing that can happen to you and the people who live are the unlucky ones….now, did you have any question that the repubs have become a death cult and will do anything to protect the worst leader in the history of the world just so they can continue to get their unqualified judges rammed through the senate by the grim reaper McConnell? How many dead is that worth? A quarter of a million? A million? Every damn repub has blood on their hands….I guess trump CAN kill someone on 5th Avenue and his followers well stay with him….
Weird thoughts…
Well…with the dire warnings that the peak of deaths from the virus is going to happen in a 6 to 11 days and we could see 7,000 deaths a day in that time…I had some weird thoughts while out on the bike today…what if this 8 months we are all going to lose is taken out of the last year I have? As we age, the comparison of what we have left to the time we are going to lose to this gets higher and higher….after all, at best I’ve got maybe 10 years left and if I lose one to this virus, that’s 10% of the time I have left and will necessarily mean that there are going to be things that I was planning to do that won’t get done from lack of time…I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re young, you can afford a year out of your lives…it’s not a good thing, but there is still time to carve out a normal life if you’ve got 40 more to live….okay, I said they were weird thoughts…I wonder if it’s from being cooped up here? Whatever it is, it is a sobering thought that just because of the bungling of the moron in chief I have less time to live my life…thanks trump voters…
April 5th
Well…running about on time for a Sunday and didn’t get up til coffee o’clock so I guess that’s something….I did sleep okay but feel pretty flat this morning and I think it’s going to take some time to get going…one cup of coffee hasn’t done it so I hope the second one will…the virus looks like it’s going to peak around here in the next two weeks so the new advice is that you shouldn’t go anywhere for that time…no groceries, no outside, no nothing, but that is not going to work for me….I do have enough food to get through that time but I won’t give up my bike rides…it is the only thing I have to clear my head and feel better so I am going to keep doing it until they ban that, too….I discovered that alcohol on a broken blister hurts like crazy after going out to get the paper this morning and cleaning my hands during and after…but it is starting to heal so that’s a good thing….I did have a lot of cleanup to do downstairs yesterday and then got some weed killer on the back lawn but that was about it…not going to do much today but make a pizza and get the bike ride in…I do have to remember to make the weekends special by taking them off from working around here and trying to not feel guilty about it…my hands can use the rest after beating the crap out of them a few days back….but, the damage to my shoulders and back seem less than I expected so that is cool….more later….
Some of my seeds have sprouted!
Well…had a lot to do downstairs today with having to dry out a bunch of stuff after some garbage bags sprung leaks and the downstairs project became a bit of a pain in the ass…after changing out all that stuff and blowing a fan on it for a few hours, I got to the point that I could put it all back together…during that time, I noticed that some of my seeds for the outdoor garden have sprouted! All four of the cherry tomato seeds came up along with one of the better boy and the other regular tomato that I can’t remember the name of right now…oh, it’s celebration….none of the peppers have sprouted yet and I’m not sure if I’m going to plant the green beans inside or wait for it to warm up outside…I am going to wait to plant the sunflowers since I can’t really deal with a 15 foot plant inside…and I am going to try to get some cukes and some flower seeds at Meijers if they are still allowed to sell them….oh, that’s the other things stores are being forced to do…it’s too attractive to still have everything for sale at Meijers so they are going to rope off everything but groceries and the pharmacies so you can’t buy anything….so no more bird food or anything else that is not food for humans…this is right up there with the most stupid ideas I have ever heard….
People are back to being idiots….
Well…I was wrong the other day when I congratulated the people of Michigan for doing a good job on social distancing…at least about the idiots who are infesting the trails with the warmer weather…I mean 8 guys riding bikes in a group taking up the entire trail? And people having a frickin picnic in the pavilion with at least 20 people there….people…stop being idiots…you are going to get us old folks killed if you keep this crap up…you know, I was okay with all of the restrictions on everything but all of the stores keep ratcheting things up to the point where I won’t even be able to go grocery shopping with making people wait outside so only a certain number of people are in the stores at one time…and this is all spurred on by people being idiots and not distancing and taking the whole family to the grocery store for a damn outing….so, I’m going to do one more grocery run this week and stock up on everything I can and then plan on not being back there for a couple of months….so, I take it back Michigan….you are acting like idiots and we’re all gonna die…
April 4th
Well….5:23….that’s all I have to say….okay, I will say that I did sleep okay but feel worn out today…and I think part of that is doing 25 miles a day for the past two but it looks like a single or maybe no ride at all today with the rain that is coming in…doesn’t look as bad on the radar as forecast so I’m going to try to get out this morning…back to thermasuit, though, and it’s going to get cold enough that I won’t be out in shorts until late April after early next week…ick…I was right that my shoulder and back were going to hurt today after chopping out the stumps in the front of the house yesterday….but it was nice to get started on the outside yesterday….not sure if I’ll get out to do more today since my hands are sore so I may just find something to do inside…and there is lots of cleaning to do so I guess that could be a plan for the day….I do need to order the new tires for the car today so I can get them put on next week…the old ones are bald and weather cracked…and discount will allow people to stay in the car as the work is done so there is no contact…so it will be like a pit stop….not much to do today….just going to ease into it today and have more coffee before I do anything else….more later….