Well…while I was out on the second ride today, the damn squirrels attacked my last big sunflower and killed it…so this means war on the brown squirrels that are big, fat bullies that terrorize the black and grey squirrels…think I’m going to get a wrist rocket sling shot and start shooting at them whenever they are in the yard…won’t kill them but it will hurt if I hit them but I will need to buy some steel shot since I don’t have any rocks around here…I wonder if there are any along the shore of the lake that would be the right size? Whatever I have to do I will to get rid of those parasites…..just hate them….
Monthly Archives: August 2022
People on the street…
Well…as I ride around here every day, I start to notice some people who are almost as invisible as I am and I wonder what their stories are…over the past month or so, there was a been a woman living in her car at the municipal boat ramp on Muskegon Lake…she has an old, mid 90′s Monte Carlo that she parks next to the porta john and I do wonder how she got to that point in her life…and what it must be like to just survive instead of live and have a roof over your head…I know there are others who use the trails as their home but all of them are men and I wonder if it’s a choice or if circumstances have conspired to leave them no choice….one other guy that I’ve noticed for the past few weeks parks his car at the ramp and sits there for hours just reading…he’s there when I go out at 7 and when I come back for the second time around 10…so I wonder what his home situation is like if he spends 3-4 hours every day sweating in a hot car and that is the better choice? It reminds me of a line in a Neil Young song: “people on the street need a place to go” and I guess they do….especially in winter…what then?
August 6th
Well…damn, another 4:58 morning and I am pretty worn out from it…especially when you start with a max of 6 hours of sleep possible and then take an hour to get to sleep and toss and turn all night….oh, well…had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done since I decided to not mow the lawn until Monday or Tuesday after the rain that is forecast…okay, here is where I normally insert a laugh after I talk about rain but it’s not that funny anymore….I need a day off…but I’m going to get on the bike here in a few minutes but I don’t want to…just damn tired…I did get out to the beach for 5 days in a row yesterday and my skin is going to thank me for the rest it is going to get the next two days….it is going to be hot out here with the high near 90 the next two days and it is even going to be 75 for a low so I may have to run the ac tonight to be able to sleep at all…I think I’ve only run it twice all summer but it’s nice to have the option….I can’t wait to get the first big tomatoes off my plants and that should be early next week since I have a few ripening but still don’t have a lot of tomatoes on the plants…the garden has been a bust this year but I do have nice flowers along the back of the house so I guess that’s something….not much to do today….just the rides and a little cleaning if I can get motivated but that looks iffy right now….damn, the only thing I don’t like is all the sand that gets everywhere from the beach runs….even after a shower yesterday, I still had sand in my toes that lasted til late in the day….and it was in my bootie socks that I washed so I guess I’ll have to turn them inside out before I put them in the washer…I want a day off…..more later….
First tomato from my garden…
Well…just picked and had the first tomato from my garden today…but that is a good 6 weeks later than they were last year and it was only one little cherry tomato…and the weird thing is that the other 6 that are in that bunch show no hint of pink at all so they won’t be ripe for weeks yet…I do have some regular tomatoes that have started to ripen but I can’t believe how small they are even with feeding the heck out of them…but I do have 4 cukes when I expected to have none this year since the vines were all pretty sickly earlier in the summer and I can’t wait to make some home made pickles when they are ready….can’t wait to slice a few tomatoes and have them with salt, pepper, and tortilla chips for a meal…I can use the vitamins and fiber…..need a different approach to the garden next year to make bigger tomatoes and get some peppers going early….I still have jalpenos in the freezer so I can survive until next year…
Any other president…
Well…with the astonishing jobs numbers that came out today, any other president would be carried around on people’s shoulders with parades thrown in his honor…but with Biden? Nothing…and his approval ratings are still in the tank…so what’s the deal? Look, the economy was predicted to add about 25k jobs with the fed trying to slow down the economy to tame inflation but employers added 528K and the unemployment rate is down to 3.5%…so where’s the recession? Jobs should be dropping if we are in a recession as employers look out a ways and see the slowdown…and it still may happen in a few months but not now. It appears that another huge bill is going to pass, too, to go along with infrastructure, gun control, and all of the others that Biden has gotten done and yet no one gives him any credit for it…again, if any other president had gotten all of this done in his first two years…including getting the #1 of al queada just this week, his numbers would be in the 70′s and I still think part of it is the media still both siding everything and the lack of the dems getting the message out…most people still don’t think Biden has gotten anything done and that has to change…and we only have 3 months to do it before the mid terms…got on it dems…geez…
August 5th
Well…another 5 am morning but I was able to stay in bed until almost 6:30 and I’m not sure if that is a win or not…don’t feel like it is and all I want to do is go back to bed…but, I won’t since i need to get on the bike in the next 22 minutes to get my day started…ick….got a few things done yesterday and I am contemplating mowing the lawn today but I may let if go til Monday since it is not really that long even with the rain we had out here…when I did the weed walk yesterday, it was crunching under my feet so I probably should just let it go for a while…and it is supposed to rain over the weekend…yeah…that’s funny to me too….and leaving it longer might help it grow a bit….the premier league season starts today with crystal palace and arsenal playing this afternoon and I am looking forward to that distraction….but that means I need to get all of my work done by 3 but I don’t have a lot do do so that will be pretty easy even with getting a beach run in…damn, I don’t know why I feel so fat today even with only having two meals yesterday and no snacks….so that was only about 1200 calories and all I want to do is cut that back to around 800 or so and continue to lose weight…and that is a problem with riding two hard rides where I sprinted out and back….not much to do today…just a normal day with two rides and a beach run and then back here to do laundry as I watch soccer…this place needs to be cleaned but I’m not motivated to do that…I am going to pick the first cherry tomato today and I have a few others that are getting ripe so I’ll need to get some tortilla chips and start eating them and I can’t wait….more later…
Car is still not leaking…
Well…yeah, I’m probably going to jinx it, but I checked the coolant in the car after driving it for a week and the radiator is still full and I can’t figure that out…okay, I did put some old stop leak in it that I had in the car stuff tote downstairs, but there was maybe a fifth of the bottle if that much so it shouldn’t have stopped the leak…and a weep hole leak in the pump normally won’t stop with that stuff but heck, I’ll take it if it gives me another month of not having to burn 800 bucks to have a new water pump put in….weird…and I did get some work done around here today pulling some of the weeds, doing the weed walk, and cutting up the sunflower that the damn squirrels broke…..oh, and I noticed that I have a blood clot under my tongue when I was doing my teeth a few minutes ago and I wonder what the heck that is about? No pain or anything so I guess I’ll just watch it for a few days to see what happens…cripes…what else is going to happen?
We could win this fall….
Well…the general consensus is that the president’s party loses seats in the midterm election in normal years…but this is is far from normal and the polls are showing some surprising changes that none of the pundits saw coming…and those changes can be seen in the vote in Kansas Tuesday where almost 70% of voters turned out to ensure that women’s rights were not destroyed by the repub majority…and the overall turnout was higher than any midterm in history….and that is all we need to keep the senate and house…turnout of our side since there are a lot more of us than there are of them. In three senate races, our side is ahead and if that holds, we end up with a Manchin proof majority in the senate where we can expand the supreme court to make Alito and his other liar colleagues shut the hell up…and prevent them from doing any more damage. So, folks…get out and vote, that’s all we need to do to make sure the adults are running this country and we can have nice things again…and the rich assholes start paying their fair share of taxes….so vote…vote…vote…
August 4th
Well…that was a little better…didn’t wake up til 5 or so and didn’t get out of bed til 6:23 and I’ll take that any day…and it looks like there isn’t any wind out there this morning so it will be pretty easy rides today…I do still feel pretty good about having lost weight this year and that makes me want to lose more to get down to my goal of 170…it was nice that it rained out here yesterday and with the food I put on the lawn, it should green up pretty well….and I’ll probably have to mow tomorrow….and it’s going to rain again Sunday so I can put the hose away for a few days other than watering the flowers and garden…I am a little excited the I have some cherry tomatoes that are ripening but they are almost a month later than last year and I’m not sure what is going on…and I noticed I have a few cukes on the plants and I can’t wait to make some pickles from them but that will be a couple of weeks yet…didn’t get anything done yesterday and the plan for today is to do nothing again…it is going to be almost 90 today so it is going to be a beach day and I’ll get more sun and tan and a swim in…they are still working on the beach and almost have the pond filled in but I hope they don’t take the hill away…it makes for a good view when I set my lounger up on it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a few minutes to get the day started and then I’m just going to wing it for the rest of the day….I am finally getting in to the whole summer off thing and relaxing…but that’s almost over and I’m going to have to get back to work…but not today….more later…
It’s finally raining…
Well…damn, it’s about time…it’s finally raining out here after having the storms miss to the north and south the past couple of days and it looks like it is going to rain off and on for a couple of hours and we can sure use it…I thought it was going to miss us again after a big thunderstorm slid by to the north just as I was finishing up the second ride this morning…but I got both of them in and was almost going to hit the beach until the thunder started but I still may go out later if the rain stops…I got lucky when I was out at Meijers when I heard thunder just as I walked in the store so I went back out to put the top up on the car and a few minutes later the skies opened and it was pouring so much that it was loud in the store…but again, this Meijers is to the east of here where the storms popped up and it barely even rained here….let’s hope it keeps up for a while to make use of the food I put on the lawn yesterday….so now what do I do? It’s hard to just sit here but I don’t want do do any work, either…so let’s hope for more rain and maybe I’ll watch some tv….