Well…after working my butt off yesterday getting my clothes washed and packing started, today I didn’t do a damn thing but the two bike rides this morning…I’m already close to having everything ready to put in the suitcase and I still have 4 days to do that and get the house ready for me to be gone 16 days…and that means mowing the lawn Wed and going to the library to get books for the 7 hour plane ride to Italy…I did buy a bunch of stuff yesterday that was supposed to be here today but it almost 6pm and nothing yet…and I really wanted to get the bike lights so I could charge them and install them so I could use them in the dark tomorrow…oh, well…have heard a little glitch in one of the pedals on the bike so I bought a new set on sale…and new riding gloves to replace the old holey ones I’ve been using all summer after I discovered the length of the newer ones was crimping the nerves in my wrists and causing a lot of pain…so tomorrow I get back to getting ready to go with putting the garbage out and cleaning the fridge of things that will spoil in 16 days…so I’ll be eating out of the freezer with lots of potatoes to use up the bag in the kitchen…and I have two pork chops to use so that will get me to Wed…but I won’t resort to fast food since I haven’t eaten any since I moved out here 5 years ago…so this will be interesting…okay…time to read until tv…
Lawless bastards…
Well…even though the constitution says that the executive branch (the idiot trump) has no role in elections and the courts have said that his plot to use the USPS to screw with mail in voting can’t go forward, I don’t understand how these lawless bastards are ignoring the courts and are still rejecting mail in ballots across the country…and one egregious example is in Florida where the USPS wouldn’t deliver any ballots since some of them had a barcode that was .2 of an inch different than what the postal service said they had to be…who the hell gave the USPS that power? They are supposed to deliver the mail…period…there is nothing in the constitution that gives them any power to screw with mail especially if it conforms to the size requirements they are allowed to set…and now all they rulings by lower court are going to the SC who view the constitution as whatever they say it is and will allow idiot boy and his cronies to take over the elections to cheat their way to a win…this is the reason this SC needs “reform” all of the conservatives that ignore the constitution in this case need to be impeached and remover if we actually climb over glass and win this fall…bastards all…geez…
September 13th
Well…slept a little better last night with not getting out of bed til 5:30 or so and I feel okay this morning so I’ll take it…need to get my butt moving to get the rides in before 9am when the F1 race comes on but that is going to be a tall task…I did remember to add a rechargeable bike light to the order from yesterday since it’s a little spooky riding on trails that I know but can’t see at all…had a weird thing yesterday when my bank sent me a replacement for my expiring credit card that I thought was just going to go away but now I still have 3 in my wallet with over 14K in credit available…a far cry from 7 years ago when I had no credit at all…and my credit score is still over 800 but that doesn’t matter since I’m not ever borrowing money again…got a bunch of packing done yesterday and will work on that again today but it looks good to be finished by Wed…I really could be ready today if I needed it…have the timer on the lamp in the living room and I am waiting to see if I have it set right…it looks like all of my order has been shipped and will be here today and that will be the last one before I go…okay, need to toast a bagel and get my butt moving…more later…
Getting there…
Well…after getting up at 4am today I really had to get after getting everything ready and packed for Italy…did two loads of laundry and have packed a lot of stuff…have enough t-shirts and boxers but I only have 5 polo shirts and I needed at least one more and needed another set of pedals and a new pair of riding gloves so I bought all of them…got a cotton polo shirt for only 8 bucks and the pedals were 3 bucks less than the last set and the gloves were only 5 bucks so some good deals that will be here tomorrow…and I can check in for the flight to Richmond the day before so I can breeze through the airport…still going to take more than 3 hours to get there but I have learned patience and with a book to read, it’s no big deal…still have lots of details to get ready but with 5 days to do it, no problem…I did see the turkeys on the 2nd ride today and they are just huge…and they pay no attention to me just like the deer and I think that’s cool…going to be warm in Virginia and Italy so I’m only bringing a couple of light fleeces and can layer under them if I need it…and I can hit the library for the books I need Tues or Wed since I get them for three weeks and I’ll be back here on the 4th to take them back…starting to get excited about going and seeing my daughter for the first time since the UK trip 3 years ago…and get to spend some time with her…going to be fun…
Okay, a rant to start…
Well…okay, a little bit of a rant again to start the day off…just got triggered by a commercial for an outdoor speaker where the idiot brings it to all the spaces where it used to be quiet like golf courses, beaches, and forests…isn’t there enough noise without some asshole bringing one of these damn things and ruining the quiet? I know I’m triggered by this bullshit and the last thing I want to hear when I’m sitting on the beach and enjoying the sound of the wind and waves is someone else’s musical tastes thumping away and ruining it for everyone but him…that is the problem I see with American society as a whole…that selfishness is being lauded as a right…and it’s your right to impose yourself on everyone everywhere you go whether it’s one of these damn speakers that they tout as being a good thing that they are loud, or the assholes who drive by my house shaking it with their damn hip hop so loud I have to put my fingers in my ears to prevent the pain from it being so loud…there is no respect for anything anymore…just me, me, me and tough shit to anyone who doesn’t like it…geez…
September 12th
Well…damn, up at 4:14 this morning and that really, really sucks…already feel worn out and haven’t even done anything yet…but this will give me time to get the weight work done before I head out by 6:30 to be done with the rides before 9am so I can see F1 qualifying and then the Motogp sprint at 10…going to be a good sports day today with Michigan playing at noon and lots of soccer on which will be perfect for doing laundry and packing…might have to make extra coffee again today but we’ll see…started the day with 8 cups in the pot so that might be enough if I don’t take any on the bike…I do like the new front tire on the bike and the old one must have been failing for a couple of weeks since the bike no longer thumps going down the hill here and it had been doing that for a while…it’s always funny when I pack to go somewhere since I really don’t have very many clothes and they all go into the suitcase…so I’ll be wearing whatever I can dredge up this week…traveling with electronics is sometimes a pain when I have to remember all of the charging cords and adapters…have cords for my shaver, my extra battery for the mp-3 player, the phone, computer, tablet, flashlight…lots of them are interchangeable so that makes it easier but still a pain…I did get the lawn mowed yesterday and will have to do that again on Thursday so it’s not too long when I get back…so today is going to be more of the same and maybe I’ll get a nap in later…more later…
It’s been a day…
Well…I know this is the sad anniversary of 9/11 and I do feel it that way even though I didn’t know anyone killed in the attacks…I grieve for my country and what has happened to it since that day…the hate and racism against Muslims and anyone else who didn’t agree that we should attack a country that had nothing to do with the attacks…and that led us to the idiot trump and his asshole cronies who have done more damage to the US than those planes flown into the buildings that day…but the day will always be personal to me since my MIL died that day from a long illness…this tiny little middle eastern woman who took one look at the hippie with hair down my back and welcomed me to dinner at the very dining room table that now sits in my dining room…I loved her like a mother and she returned that by loving me like a son…and I will never forget that…so today has been bittersweet as it always is and I don’t mind that…it’s part of being a human and I am a better person from knowing her….
Okay old folks, this is for you…
Well…I’m going to start this one today with piercing the falsely cynical idea that both political parties are the same…I’ve heard that too damn many times from people who should know better and who are going to get run over by the repubs new ideas on Medicare…just yesterday, the idiot trump rolled out an insurance company plan (paid for by millions of dollars given to the idiot) that would end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a set amount of money given to individuals to then go buy there own policies from insurance companies…yeah, you can see what is coming…replacing the Medicare rules and regulations that protect we old folks and throwing us to the wolves on our own to negotiate with no negotiating power…and it would return us to the bad old days of pre-existing conditions as a reason to jack up the rates or to deny coverage completely…have you ever had cancer? No coverage…do you have high blood pressure? Pre-existing condition that would allow them to not cover you…diabetes? You’ll never get insurance again unless you are willing and able to pay 1,000 dollars a month for coverage…you get the idea…they want to sell us out and take away what we paid for our entire lives…and you know it’s not the dems doing it…they try to make lives for all better by shoring up SS and Medicare while the repubs just want the corporations to control your entire life and pay for tax cuts for the rich by eliminating Medicare…that’s their goal…they have been trying to end Medicare since it’s inception in the 1960’s and if you keep voting for these assholes they just might do it…there is a difference in the parties…get off your butts and get out to vote…it may be the last chance to protect the programs that keep us alive…geez…
September 11th
Well…up and moving at 5:07 this morning and it is damn cold at 52 degrees and we are quickly heading into long pants weather on the bike but I think I’ll go out in shorts when I go out today…this is a really sick thought…I’m getting used to getting up around 5am and having time to have coffee, do this, and get the weight work in with no rush before getting on the bike…better than rushing around all the time like yesterday…have to continue getting ready for Italy and packing today and need to do laundry so I can pack clean clothes…I’m packing a lot of shorts since it’s going to be near 80 every day but I do need long pants to go to the Sistine chapel in Rome since they don’t allow shorts…so I’ll be living in my 2nd choice clothes for the next week as I pack all the good ones…did a lot of work on the bike yesterday that was needed…had to tighten up the rear swingarm bushing and reset the handlebars to get them aligned with the front tire as they were a little out of it…not sure how that happened but the screws holding them were not tight but that is to be expected how many miles the bike has on it…I think I’ll change out the rear tire so they match before Italy since it is down to half tread already…the new tires have about 3 times the tread depth as the old ones and appear to be quiet…not like the knobby tires that came on it that made a lot of noise…not much to do today…just going to get on the weights and maybe have a bagel…just made another pot of coffee so I’ll have some to take on the 2nd ride…oh, I did see a new flock of turkeys in the rich people’s development yesterday…15 adults so I knew it wasn’t the flock I’ve seen since the babies were little…never saw one turkey when I was young so that’s pretty cool…more later…
A damn busy day…
Well…I have been able to get caught up all day and I didn’t even get any time to read…but a lot of that is my fault so I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much…the day started with the first ride3 where I got almost to the beach and the front tire started to fail with a huge bulge in it thumping away through the handlebars…so turned around and rode back and that took me out of being able to get two rides in before the grocery run…got back here and luckily I bought a couple of tires months back to change onto the front…then I did the grocery run and forgot my 12 bucks in coupons so I had to come home to get them and go back to Meijers…after that I did the run to aldis where I didn’t get any cream cheese because I don’t like the plain stuff…so it looks like just toasted bagels with butter until the trip…after DD I wended my way through town and all of the construction to go to the city offices to pay the water bill and taxes…and the check for the taxes fell out of the bill so I had to come back here to get it and then back to the offices to pay it…then I got on the bike for the 2nd ride a little after 11 and didn’t get back here til almost 12:15 and then I had maintenance to do on the bike that took about a half hour and discovered a crack in the seat tube in the frame so it looks like I’ll have to get the black bike working and that means a complete rebuild since I’ve been stealing parts off it for years to keep the grey one going…after that, I did more packing and didn’t get that done til almost 4pm…oh, Meijers sent me a coupon for 7 bucks for bounty paper towel so I had to use that along with ones for free stuff…so yeah, it’s been a damn busy day and I am just worn out…I do like the new tire and will put the 2nd one on the rear so they match…probably not until I get back from Italy, though…yay…I get a half hour to read….