Well…I’m not sure if doing two of these a day on my life is cheating or not but I have time and a few things to say so I guess I’ll just do it…and, I never promised more than one political one a day…or, did I even promise that? Who knows? Didn’t have much of a day today since I was resting my hands trying to get the cracks in my fingers healed and it has helped quite a bit…my thumb still hurts a bunch but I have been living with that long enough that I can cope with that pretty well…I feel pretty good that I only spent 26 bucks on groceries today when I budget for about 60 a week…and I officially have no room left in either freezer so it looks like I won’t be buying much next week either…I need to just use what I have and get out of the habit of buying protein when it is on sale…bought some boneless skinless today and I am marinating some of it to make some chicken burritos tomorrow…I did get the window in my room finished…finally, and got all the dust and paint chips cleaned up and that is a relief after how much work that one was…only two more to go but they are in much better shape so much less work…I did get a bit of good news today….the new bike will be here Saturday, along with the new tire liners and tools to install them…. just in time for a double on Sunday with the temp getting to almost 60…but that means I need to get the tire liners in and the computer on the new one Sat night, oh, and put it together first…but that should only take an hour or so…I am geeked to get the new one and get a couple of hard rides in without having to think about how much pressure I can put on the pedals to keep it from skipping…and to be able to fly again…can’t wait…
Monthly Archives: March 2020
Super Tuesday part two…
Well…the voting is over and it appears that Joe Biden is the big winner in the primaries from yesterday….just a couple of weeks ago, the pundits were all saying his candidacy was dead and Bernie was going to take the nom easily…but, guess what? The voters had other ideas and those who wanted someone who could beat trump rose up and decided that Joe was the one…and it looks like his votes were a cross section of America…bolstered by AA voters, Latinos, and even some young people who are just so damn tired of the idiot trump that they voted for pragmatism instead of progressivism. I feel a little bad that Liz didn’t do better but what a VP candidate she would make…with Joe setting the agenda and then Liz doing what she does…making a plan for that. I’m not sure if we can count on Bernie’s supporters for the general with his comments last night that were basically a rant against people in the dem party who didn’t choose him…not a good look with all of the anger..but that is Bernie and if Joe wins, we need outreach to his supporters to get some of them on board….the hard core Bernie supporters are gone…they are almost as much of cultists as trump supporters are…okay, no…that’s not right..they are tired of the status quo and they feel Bernie can deliver change that no one else can….but, if they don’t come along, there may be no change but for the worse if trump steals another election. That has got to be the message to them…that they are welcome and Bernie’s ideas are welcome…we are the big tent party after all and should welcome anyone who can help…this is going to get even more interesting in the next month or so…next we need Bloomberg gone but not his money…if it used to defeat the idiot trump….
March 4th
Well…that kind of sucked…after the good sleep yesterday, I was really hoping that it could turn into a trend but 3:04 came and blew that up…but, I did fight to sleep all the way to 5:27 so I guess I can call that a semi win…I did skip the ibuprofen and antihistamines last night and don’t feel too much worse this morning so I think I’ll try that again tonight…need to make sure I keep that stuff for when I really need it…okay, this is a little weird…for the first time since I’ve been here, the grocery run is only going to be Aldi’s this morning…no Meijer’s since there is nothing I really need from there…and I don’t need much from Aldi’s, either….so this is going to be a cheap grocery week with no cocktail materials either…damn, not sure if being good is worth it but it is sure nice to save 100 bucks a month…as you saw, I did order the new bike yesterday and I am excited to have one that works instead of skips…I did check out the cost to replace the entire driveline of the old bike and it looks like about 125 bucks for the parts since I have a new shifter that I bought last year on sale and got it for under 20 bucks…I did buy some tire liners for the new bike and splurged on some tire removal tools that will make installing them easier and should protect the paint on the wheels….and, since I have been playing a lot of vinyl records lately, I needed to buy some anti static cleaner to replace the d-3 discwasher fluid that I have finally used up …they don’t make it anymore and the bottle I have I know I bought back in the 80′s….only 40 years on a bottle that cost 8 bucks? Okay, that’s not a bad deal…not much to do today…going to take another easy day since that seems to help the cracking on my fingers and I really don’t have much left to do in here…need to store up some energy for the huge amount of work that needs to be done outside….more later…
Just bought the new bike…
Well…after paying my capital one credit card bill yesterday, I decided to not wait any longer before ordering the new bike so I just did it…it was a little painful to spend 369 bucks but I was going to do it anyway so why wait? Bought a dark gray and black one this time so I can tell the bikes apart when I have them both in the garage…when I get the new one, I can then start on rebuilding the old one without having to worry about not having a bike to use while I tear it down and order the parts…if I can tear it down and order parts that is…I’m not sure how to get the swing arm bushing out to replace it and that goes for the front drive sprockets, too…but they put it together so it should come apart…I guess fixing it will depend on how much it will cost but it would be cool to have an old bike to trash out in the rain and mud while keeping the new one for dry days…I guess I’ll find out after I get working on it…one more week and it should be here…I’m a little excited…
Super Tuesday…
Well…the process for picking a dem candidate is going to get a big jolt today with the super Tuesday primaries across the country that will award over a thousand delegates toward the 1600 or so that are needed for the nom….and we had three candidates drop out over the past couple of days after the the results of the SC primary saw Joe Biden win by a large margin….look, you know my choice is Liz just because she has the policy chops and the steel to get things done for our progressive agenda…okay, what is called progressive these days was mainstream stuff just a generation ago…I mean, not locking kids up in cages? Up until the idiot trump that was something everyone was in agreement with…and respecting the constitution? The only party that still does that is ours and who thought the flag wavers on the other side would abandon that? Okay, I did…they are all craven liars who do nothing but hate…one thing I have to stress and I can’t stress it enough to the Bernie bros and the Warrenites is that if your candidate doesn’t win the nom, remember what’s at stake and stop the damn whining about sitting this one out if your person doesn’t win…any one of our candidates is light years better than idiot boy…and you know that the winner is going to welcome ideas and policy from those who didn’t win…we are all in this together and the overaching goal has to be to beat trump…cripes, learn how to compromise people…the country is at stake and you’re going to throw a hissy fit? That’s the best way to ensure that none of our ideas to make this country better get enacted…so, suck it up and pull together to remove the stain of trump and his cronies….
March 3rd
Well…unfurl the flags and sound the trumpets! A miracle has happened…when I rolled over to look at my phone to check the time this morning I actually said “wow”….it read 5:50….and with going to bed at 10 last night, that makes for a solid 8 hour night! It has been so long since that happened that I don’t even remember when it was…but I’ll take it and the energy that comes with it….I feel pretty damn good today and I know part of it is that I was good last night, too, so I think that will continue for the rest of the week…and that will save money that I can put toward the new bike that I am going to order tomorrow….I am getting pretty excited about having one that works so I can start doing the doubles I need to get to 5K miles this year…I’m already pushing toward 400 miles for the year on the old bike but I need to get to a thousand by the end of April if I’m going to get to the goal…I did get some work done around here yesterday even though I was supposed to take the day off and let the cracks in my fingers heal but I just couldn’t do it…had to work on the window that is giving me fits and then I washed the car and bike after the bike ride….it is nice that the trails are open and I can get 11 miles in with no cars to think about…have started to plan the outside work that I am going to start on in the next couple of weeks….have to take down the awning over the door on the driveway side so I can get to the dormer and I hope it’s not too heavy for me to do alone…it is made out of aluminum so I’m estimating it weighs 40 pounds or so but it is an awkward shape that might give me some trouble….I think the idiots that lived in the rental next door are gone…there hasn’t been any cars parked there all week and I saw a rental truck there a couple of weeks ago…but, I don’t want to get my hopes up since it may just be spring break…maybe I can take the stakes out of the front yard that are keeping them from parking on it….not much to do today….going to just enjoy the energy I’ve started the day with and get a bike ride in this morning…I may put the summer wheels back on the car since there is no snow in the forecast for the next two weeks at least and I hope winter is done….then I need to find tires but that has to wait until next month…more later….
“Vulture” capitalism has to go…
Well….do you miss Sears, K-mart, Toys r Us, and any of the other retail operations that were doing perfectly fine until what I call “vulture” capitalists swoop in and buy companies across this country with no intent of keeping them going concerns but to strip them, sell off the parts, and walk away with millions for just a few people? This usually leaves the employees holding the bag when their healthcare and pensions disappear and they are left with maybe 10 cents on the dollar if even that much…and now, the vultures are circling around our food supply with many of these “capitalist” VC firms buying up small and large farms to hold for a while until they can figure out how to strip mine these businesses, too….and now especially with the explosion of farm bankruptcies caused by idiot boy’s tariffs, the vultures are being handed another part of this country with no concern for the damage that they have done everywhere else they have been…and this damage is not only limited to the farms they are buying, but when they consolidate small farms into large ones, they sure aren’t going to buy supplies from the local stores that supported the family farms but they will look for national contracts from other supply behemoths that they can squeeze every penny out of from the economy of scale….so a system that was working perfectly fine for small farmers until trump and these vultures came along is going to be destroyed just so the 1% can steal even more money from the rest of us….this is one of the reasons why inequality has ballooned in this country and has to be ended by any means necessary since VC really serves no role other than to transfer wealth to the 1%….okay, candidates, what’s the plan to fix this?
March 2nd
Well…you know, I remember times when if you had a busy day with a lot of work and some physical activity in it you would hit the sack and get a solid 8 to 9 hours of good sleep in…I guess that mechanism doesn’t work for me anymore…back up at 5:03 this morning and that makes around 5 1/2 for the night…oh, well…at least I had a pretty productive day yesterday so I guess that’s something…okay, here’s something weird…the coughing I have been suffering with was mostly gone and I was feeling better until last night when I used some of the OTC flonase nasal spray to try to help the stuffiness that exposure to the dust from sanding the window gave me yesterday…but, my night was miserable with severe coughing and sneezing that continues this morning…and I remember that I was using that stuff almost daily when I was having the cough that sent me to the doctor so I wonder if that is the culprit? I think I’ll go back to the little red dot allergy medicine when I need it and see if that helps…I really do think I am going to take the day off today…ha, ha…yeah, I found that funny, too…every time I say that it seems that I work harder and get more done than when I plan to work….we’ll see how it goes today…I do know that I am going to get a bike ride in this morning if it doesn’t rain…almost got out in shorts yesterday but it looks like it will be thermasuit for the next two weeks with temps mostly in the 40′s….at least it appears that there will only be scattered snow flurries in the forecast so I am optimistic that winter is over….more later…
Another busy day…
Well…staying out of politics again today since my brain just doesn’t want to deal with it right now…and, I’ve been pretty busy since I got up at 5 so I don’t feel like a slacker at all…started out getting the newspaper for my Sunday ritual of looking at the ads and for topics that I can talk about later in the day…then I had some work to do downstairs that took a while, then Man U played and looked okay but tied and that sucked a little…while that was going on I was in and out of my bedroom working on the window since the plaster had finally dried and I could get to sanding it…got that done and then got the first coat of paint on while I was making lunch then got out for a 10 miler on the bike…oh, I forgot that I did laundry before I started on the window…and when I got back from the ride I put the second coat of paint on and then put the laundry away and did the dishes…and re-filled the bird feeders since the suction cup one almost fell off overnight and all of that feed ended up on the ground…oh, and I put the light cover that I repaired back on the garage door opener so that looks finished again…cripes that’s a lot of work for taking the weekend off…maybe I’ll take the day off tomorrow? Not sure how my days off keep turning into work days but I do know that I’m not bored….
March 1st
Well…it’s starting to look like we’ve survived another winter intact and that is cause for a little celebration…and this really hasn’t been a bad winter…I don’t think I’ve shoveled snow more than 10 times and with the break in the cold today, I think I can let my thoughts turn to spring…yeah, I know, it’s Michigan so we can get snow into April but the forecast for the next two weeks is okay…I don’t know how to act with getting here so early for a Sunday since I’ve been up since quarter to five…and I have to wait for another half hour before I can go out for the paper so I thought I’d do this one now so I don’t forget…had an okay day yesterday with getting a bike ride in and then heading out to have a couple with K but didn’t do much of anything else…and today looks the same with Man U playing at 9 and then I’m going to get the first ride of the day in around 11…shooting for a double today to make up for the 4 days off I had last week and I may even be able to get out in shorts for the afternoon ride with it getting to 52 this afternoon….I think I’ll let my hands rest for one more day before I get back to working on the windows…I do need to do laundry this afternoon and that can be done during the napcar race when I will be taking a nap after getting up so damn early…again….more later….