Well…after doing an indoor ride this morning and making lunch, I decided to drag the bike up the stairs and go out to see if I was close on the adjustments…and I was but the thing about it is the shifter and the rest of the parts are so worn out that I’ll never get it better than it is now…which is okay…at least I have downshifts again and the front shifter works so I can ride it without it being a pain in the ass…so I went out for a 15 miler and it was good…I like the new rear tire and the bike looks normal again…so I’m going to have to order the rebuild parts to have them here when the chain starts skipping soon…the 7th gear teeth are no longer square as they should be but have worn down into points and the fronts have done the same thing so that means they don’t have much life left in them…I just hope they last until outdoor riding is over for the year…30 days or so and that means another 900 miles so I’m not sure it will make it…we’ll see…I did get my pump sprayer out and sprayed the weeds that are taking over the yard but still have 3/4ths of it to do before the snows start…let the weeds grow last year and when the snow melted they had taken over the whole yard so I hope this works…okay, time to settle in for the night…I just discovered that Jeffrey Deaver, who does the “Reacher” books had another of his characters “Lincoln Ryme” turned into a tv show and I’ll start the night watching that on plex…
Inflation at 6.5%
Well…yeah, we all knew this was coming…wholesale price increases hit 6.5% on a yearly basis in today’s reporting and it’s all the idiot trump’s fault…I guess this is what happens when you put a moron in charge of the economy and staff it with other morons… and the idiot trump doesn’t care; labeling the affordability crisis a “hoax” and lying that he has brought prices down over the past two years…and with a functioning repub party, you wouldn’t have idiot boy threatening to make inflation even worse by imposing more tariffs and idiot boy making things even worse by saying that he is not looking for a “deal” to end the Iran war which is responsible for a lot of the inflation that is still in the pipeline…and now we have netanyahu putting the heat on the idiot to resume bombing Iran which would cause another oil price shock and push the inflation rate to 10% or more…I guess Biden’s 3% inflation is looking pretty good right now….and I say that to all of the idiots who voted for trump saying that inflation was the major reason they did…god, this country is full of morons…geez…
November 13th
Well…damn, this is weird…didn’t get out of bed until 6:15 and now I’m just taking it easy since I’m only going to do one ride indoors this morning with it only 33 degrees out there with wind and snow showers…and I need to do the fine tuning on the outdoor bike later and may do one outdoor ride but no rush for any of it…and I really don’t know how to act without bring in a rush…so I’m going to sit here and have coffee while I think of something to say…I am going to get to the leaves either Sat or Monday to get them out for pickup…oh, happy Friday the 13th for those who celebrate…boy, this not rushing is harder than it looks…I do need to figure out meals for this week and I may make the 99cent pizzas I bought at DD and thaw the last of the chicken to have mixed in with pasta…I bought a spicy vodka pasta sauce when the Prego stuff was on sale a couple of weeks back that I’d like to try so that will be 4 days of meals…not much to do today…just the one indoor ride and maybe a little cleaning with a load of laundry later…got some grease on my bike rug so that is in the washer with dish soap pretreating it…maybe I’ll do a load of rugs this morning…don’t want to have clothes in with the rugs….more later…
Bike trouble…
Well…after suiting up ad heading out in the cold this morning, I remembered that the bike has been acting screwy when I was shifting both the front and back shifters…the back one wouldn’t shift down and I had run out of adjustment for it and it reminded me of a cable starting to fail like has happened before…so, after crippling though the two rides, I carried the bike downstairs to let it warm up enough so I could work on it…didn’t want to do it outdoors since it was cold and raining…so, after I had my coffee, I went down to get started with first taking out the old rear cable and yep, it had started to fray inside the sheaths that it runs in and I could barely get it out and that’s probably why it was hard to downshift…so I put a new cable in and flipped it over to attach the cable to the shifter and adjust it…then I worked on adjusting the front shifter since it was not working right either…so now I think I have them right but couldn’t go out to test it with the rain off ad on all day…and I just didn’t want to get cold again…while I had the bike upside down, I adjusted both the front and back wheel bearings and put the new tire on the back so now they match again…and then lubed everything with light oil to keep it from rusting and sticking..and all of that took about an hour and a half and I noticed that the the whole driveline is about worn out and I hope it lasts until I put the bike downstairs for the winter…I’ll have to order the parts soon so I can replace the front crankset, the rear cassette, the rear shifter, and the chain and that will be almost 100 bucks but it needs to be done…and I probably should do that to the black bike, too but maybe not…it’s nice to have a parts bike…time to read…
The diesel never got here…
Well…this is so typical of the idiot trump where he touts a “biggest deal” and when the media stops following it, the deal falls apart and idiot boy then just ignores questions about it…do you remember the “deal” to import Russian diesel fuel to lower prices here in the US before the election? Probably not but I’ll fill you in…oh, the bottom line is not one drop of that crappy diesel fuel ever made it to the US since no one here was stupid enough to break the law to get it…and really, less than one day’s worth of this crap wasn’t going to make one bit of difference in prices here since diesel prices are global…and let’s remember that the US is an exporter of diesel so we already have enough here…so what was this deal about? The election, of course, but more than that it was an excuse for the idiot to remove some sanctions on Russia that I’m sure it was “suggested” he do that by putin so now ole pootie has more money to kill Ukrainians and idiot boy doesn’t care…the only thing he cares about is his stupid ballroom and arch that the dems have promised will be torn down to erase any mention of the idiot after we win the WH in 2028…oh, and the last tanker turned around and headed back to Europe yesterday where no one wants the fuel, either…great deal, donnie…geez…
November 12th
Well…damn, I’m exhausted this morning and it even entered my head to not ride at all today but I know that’s not going to happen…and this is an extension of how I felt yesterday…no energy at all but I just poured the first cup of coffee so we’ll see how that works in a few minutes…didn’t get up til 5:25 today but was up and down all night…man, I hope I can take a nap later…tomorrow may be the first time in a while that I’ll be on the indoor bike since it’s supposed to only be 30 with snow showers…and that cold is going to last for a few days…oh, well…it is November in Michigan….I do like the new power bank I bought and it looks like it will last for about a month before I need to charge it again…I think I’ll pick the leaves up this weekend and whatever is left over I’ll just leave on the lawn…might go out to depot this morning t look for a new snow shovel but that is going to depend on if I can muster any energy after the rides…and yeah, I’m going out in a few minutes in the cold and dark…not much to do today but a little cleaning after the rides…got so cold yesterday that I was under the heating pad all day and I think that will be needed again….more later…
Way too darn early…
Well…it has been a good day so far but it started way too early…out of bed at 4:30 and on the bike about 5:30 to get both rides done before the grocery run…and I did that but I think I have a rear shift cable fraying inside the shifter since the downshifts have become very hard and erratic…so when we have the cold weather later this week, I may take the bike downstairs to tear it apart just to see what’s happening…I have a bunch of extra cables so no big deal…adjusting it is always a pain but I’ve done it enough so I know how to do it…the new power bank ran the mp-3 player for 2 1/2 hours today and hasn’t moved off the 99% it started with so that’s cool…after the rides, I started off on the grocery run and I hadn’t driven the car in a week so the tires took a bit to become round again just like when I got back from Italy but in about 4 miles they were okay again…got two more furnace filters from menards so I’m set for the winter with the new one I put in yesterday…nice to have spares since this house is so dusty…then over to aldis where I started to get the stuff I need for t-day and discovered another new mustard…this one is a honey/dijon and I can’t wait to try it…then to Meijers to continue to build the t-day dinner and use up some coupons…and then over to DD to get some buffalo turkey slices and ham for 99cents for a half pound…so now I’m set til I get the turkey in a week or so…took a container of ham soup out and still have two left before I’ll make some turkey with the carcass after t-day and put that in the freezer…the car was just so much fun to tear around in today…and I even put the top down for the run to DD and home…it was only 37 when I went out on the bike but I dressed for it so I was comfortable…and the heater in the car is more than capable of keeping me warm with the top down in the cold…got gas at Meijers for 3.77 today so I filled the car up and won’t need gas again for a month…okay, time to read…
11 dems don’t show up…
Well…they held a vote on impeachment of the drunk hegseth and 11 dems didn’t even show up…so this is how Jeffries handles his caucus? He can’t even get his members to show up for an important vote like this? And massie teed this up for us to make a bipartisan vote and still Jeffries couldn’t do it…I know that once our new caucus is seated in January it would be easy to get a majority vote with 260 dems but then the repubs will be screaming that the impeachment is a “partisan witch hunt” and it’s all Jeffries fault…this is not the way to start for an incoming speaker…it just shows he doesn’t really have the pulse of the caucus or the respect of members that would get them to show up to vote…of course one of the no shows was haley stevens who hid in the repub cloakroom instead of doing her job…and I guess she will be the star of the 2028 repub convention just as the rest of the losers are…not a good way to start…geez…
November 11th
Well…I really don’t know why I do this to myself but I was out of bed at 4:45 this morning to get 2 rides in before I head out for the grocery run…and it’s only 37 out there but I am going to see if I really do have the thermasuit figured out…okay…the weather widget disagrees with my phone and says it’s 42 so that’s a little better but I’m still going full thermasuit just to get ready for the 31 degree low tomorrow morning…slept okay last night and feel okay this morning but I could have slept in if I didn’t have the run to do…oh, well…I put the last new furnace filter in yesterday so I need to stop at menards on the run to get a couple more so I can change it out in Feb…I did get my new power bank yesterday and I’ll try that out this morning after charging it up to 99%…sure hope it lasts like the first one so I can get a week or so out of it…it appears to work just like the first one, too so I don’t have to learn anything new…have the lights charged, too so I can see out there…it doesn’t appear that the wind is blowing too hard so that will make for okay rides…going to pick up the leaves Sat and call it good for the year so I can put them out Tues…going to start getting the t-day meal bought today so I’ll have everything ready for smoking the turkey….more later…
An easier day…
Well…today was an easier day after all the work yesterday and all I did was continue to clean off the dining room table and got food out of the freezer to use later in the week…the rides were really cool this morning with getting out for the first one before 6am…it was dark and clear and the stars made the sky look huge and when I got to the beach, Orion was right in front of me over the lake and that was really cool, too…on the way back on the 2nd ride, the sky had started to lighten up with just a few wisps of clouds on the horizon that lent some pink color to the sunrise…very nice rides today but it gets progressively colder overnight until the lows are near freezing and even a little below…but I know the thermasuit to use for those temps and I can take the cold…don’t know how but I am getting used to it…still not going as hard as I can and that is still working to keep the pain from my legs so I’ll keep that up for a few days to let the healing continue…I did get my new power bank today and it is exactly the same size and weight as the earlier one and I figured out what I’ll do with the old one…I’ll charge it as high as it will go and then stash it and a cable in the bike bag to charge the front light if it goes dead while I’m riding…need to still use it since it does still work…okay, just started a new book and want to read a bit…