Well…that was a really terrible surprise when I got up this morning to find a blanket of snow on everything…I know, it’s Michigan and we can expect at least one snowfall in April but it’s one thing to know it intellectually and another to actually have to start the car to warm it up and melt the snow. This just puts a damper on the day and starts it out all wrong….it was an okay weekend, didn’t do much but watch the Wings and races….I didn’t get anything political out over the weekend but I have an excuse….nothing really grabbed me and got the brain working in overdrive like I need it to….I’ll try harder today…not much to do today…as I said before, I am gong back to jeans for the next few days, I really hate being cold and that even trumps my ego….but I won’t wear socks…how’s that for a compromise? More later….

One last thing I need to add….I did watch “Winter’s Bone” yesterday and it was a pretty good movie…one of the “small movies” the I like a lot that replaces explosions and bombast with character studies….I did feel that it unfolded a little too slowly and some of the characters’ motivations were unclear even until the end…but still a good movie that shone a light on a part of the country that not many of us get to see….

Well…I know I’m late but as you know, this is getting to be my pattern for Sundays, I usually do need coffee before I can think at all and with last night being a cocktail night, I really needed it this morning. I have gotten my coffee and read the Press so now I’m ready to get going for at least a few minutes and try to write something lucid. It was an okay day yesterday but I didn’t do much but watch the Wings and the races…it was way too windy to get the bike out but I’m hoping to go for a short one later this morning if it warms up…I did go back to jeans today…it was just too cold this morning for shorts so I’ll have to reset the clock on that…I did have a talk on the phone with M about his parents house and I feel better about it…lots of friends and family coming together to help and that reminds me that even in these fractured times, people can surprise us with their generosity and caring. Not much to do today…of course the race from Talladega and I am going to get the bathroom cleaned and a couple more posts out…okay, you’ve heard that promise many times on Sunday and I haven’t been very good at keeping it…you’ll just have to come back to see…..

Well…got a bit of bad news this morning when I got a text from M saying his parents house burned down last night….I had that happen to me when I was 12 and I can still smell the smoke and remember the sound of the flames when I ran upstairs to wake my brother up…..I feel so bad for them since it was the home that M grew up in. Kind of makes the rest of this post pointless in comparison….so I’m going to end this here and reflect for a while…..

Okay…back to work….it was kind of a nice day yesterday with not much to to…how many times have you heard that? I do have HBO for free for the weekend so that helped to pass the time…and it was a cocktail night which helps even more….I did get the brakes fixed and the pedal feel really hard again but I still need to take it out on the e-way and bed them in….today is going to be okay with the Wings on at one and then races later in the day….will probably just veg today and take it easy but maybe clean the bathroom…not sure yet…and maybe a Wings update after the game…..more later….

Well….it has been an interesting day today that has taken me quite far out of the normal routine…so I don’t think there will be any political comments, at least right now since the papers are only a distant memory and I don’t know if I want to go back and re-read them right now…so, I’ll just give an update of the morning and the wonderful weirdness that has happened. As you know, if you look down at the mornings first one, I was planning on working on the brakes on the wreck…and I did go out and get the parts, but broke my lug wrench jumping on it to get the tires off….so I had to go back and get a socket to fit them and use my breaker bar to get them off. After that, the brakes actually came apart pretty easily and things were going well until I installed the wrong pad in the back of the driver’s side and then the other side wouldn’t go together…took quite a while to figure out I had made a mistake and had to take both sides back apart and install the pads in the right places….this still only took a total of about 45 minutes so I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much….but I get to since this site belongs to me….and it was a good idea to to get this done today since the thinnest pad had less than 1/8 inch left on it…way too thin for the brakes to be effective. This should be the last time I do brakes since the car is just rusting away and I think I may wake up some morning, go outside, and the car will be gone…leaving just a small rust pile where it would have been….

Well….Tuesday was Thursday yesterday and it was pool day…I did win but Tom did a lot to help me so I’m not that happy about it….okay, a win is a win so I’ll take it. The brakes on the wreck need to be replaced and I’m going to see if I can get it apart here in the lot….they’re not grinding yet so If I need to take it out to Tom’s to do it Monday I can….it will give me something to do today and with the grocery shopping this morning, it is going to be a busy day….other than that, not much to do today….I am going to take it easy once I get everything done with a Neflix movie coming today and cocktails tonight….I did have some dreams last night…yay…but they were kind of disturbing with T in them….well…not disturbing just strange with 28th street and Indiana Jones in it…told you it was weird….I will have topics for later and a brake update once I get into it..hope it doesn’t rain….

Well…a kind of fun night last night…went out with G for a few and to watch the Wings…they had me a little concerned after the first perlod with the lack of work from the whole team but once the second started, the real Wings showed up and we scored the next 4 goals. Even Hudler got one….crap, this is supposed to be a sports post later…so no more Wings now….must have sent and gotten 50 texts…it is kind of weird to watch the game with the group by text. I didn’t sleep all that well last night but there were vestiges of dreams that I can remember so maybe they are coming back….that would be great. Just took a look at the radar and it looks like there is rain coming so maybe no bike ride today…just when I am getting over the hump with pain and my lungs are getting better..oh, well…I’m already 130 miles ahead of last year so I guess I can take the day off. Not much to do today..don’t think I’m meeting up with K today so I might write Tom and see if today could be pool day….who knows? I will have at least two more later…the Wings one, of course, then I’m sure I’ll have comments on the Obama speech…more later…

Well..another day of being good an I am almost used to it…but that will end tonight with the first Wings playoff game…feel okay this morning and slept pretty well but I’m still wondering where the dreams went…I kind of miss them…love to be entertained when I’m sleeping….watched ‘Unstoppable” yesterday and I think it was one of the first times I was bored with a Tony Scott movie….it was nice to get my workout and the bike ride in before lunch yesterday but is still pretty damn cold….where is the April warmup that is longer than one day? There may even be frost and snow later in the week and that is really depressing…..oh, well….not much to do today…I am going to meet up with G later for a couple and the Wings, of course…can’t wait to see which team comes out tonight….have to get the gear out and show the winged wheel for at least the first one….more later…

Well…home for another night…it seems my schedule is undergoing a bit of an upheaval and major changes are in store for the near future…I knew this was coming at some point but it doesn’t make it any easier…I’ll share more about this later but I don’t really have it straight in my head yet so I don’t want to comment. Pretty much a bore of a day yesterday since the wind was blowing so hard I didn’t want to take the bike out and with G canceling, my Monday could not pass too quickly. I did sleep okay, which I didn’t expect, and with being good, I feel okay today and hope to continue the cleaning process here; catching up on things that I have been avoiding for a while…could this be spring cleaning? Kind of a cliche, I know, and my life is turning into one so maybe it’s a good fit. Not much to do today….might be having Monday on Tuesday if I meet up with G tonight…no pool today since Tom has some work to do and we are moving that back to thurs or fri…..hoping to have some topics for later if I can keep the dogs of doubt at bay for a little while longer….

Well…it was kind of fun day yesterday with a nice SF with K and the Wings winning their last game…I really thought we had put Chicago out of the playoffs but Dallas couldn’t win their last game so that put Chicago in…oh, well…I was a little disappointed that I watched the radar all day yesterday waiting for the big storms but they kept forming to the north and south of us…I don’t think we even got a drop of rain and now the front has moved on to the east with nothing left behind it….at least I should be able to get a ride in later in the dry but if the wind id blowing like it did yesterday, I think I’ll skip it since it is really no fun to go out into a 40 mph blast. Not much to do today….resumes, of course, and I have to put the golf clubs back in the car for the summer….probably won’t go out and hit some until later in the week but I need to soon just to see where the pain will be this year…my elbow is starting to hurt again and I hope it’s not all summer like last year….maybe some of those padded bike gloves will help…who knows? More later…

Well…I had forgotten how wonderful it is out on the bike on a Sunday morning unencumbered by either sweatshirts or biting cold…just a t-shirt this morning and it feels good to sweat….I think the caffeine helped, too, since I had much more energy today than yesterday. I am going to cheat a little today and put out a second one of these instead of, or maybe in addition to, a political one since I have some stuff to share about the ride today….the swans were back in the pond this morning and I am in awe of how they get their huge bodies out of the water with just a couple of beats…almost stopped to watch but they were gone too fast…I do have to remember to look up when I’m out and riding, sometimes I get too focused on the tiny little world of the bike and and keeping the pace up that I forget that there are other reasons to be out and about….

There was one phenomenon that I wanted to share from today, I had the weirdest thing happen at about the 9 1/2 mile mark…it was like my brain was flying above the pavement and I reached this zen-like state that I couldn’t feel my body at all….geez, I hope it’s not a stroke….hey, you know I’m kind of weird….