All posts by James DeVol

December 29th

Well…that sucked…had a rotten night of sleep and that is even worse with sleeping well for a couple of weeks…so I’m worn out today and need more coffee than I have to get moving….oh, well…at least I don’t hurt much and I’ll take that…was thinking about getting outside on the bike today but it’s been raining and I don’t want to be cold and wet and get the bike dirty…so I’ll ride indoors today and for the rest of the year….had such an easy day yesterday that I do feel a little guilty for not getting much done…and today looks about the same with some soccer on and no cooking to do…going to make more potato soup tomorrow that will last me most of the week and then start to figure out other food to eat…I think that will start with pasta using some 5 bucks a jar sauce my daughter left me from July…I am going to try to take a day off at some point but I really don’t know when that will be…need to keep losing weight and that won’t happen if I don’t work at it…not much to do today…going to sit here for a bit since it’s only 7 and I don’t need to get on the bike til 8…or 9…who knows…more later…

An easy day…

Well…this was one of the easiest days I’ve had in quite a while with just doing two rides downstairs and cleaning a little in the kitchen…and I don’t feel bad about it one bit….even though I hate elon with a passion, I am going to watch the launch of the x-37 space plane on the Falcon Heavy tonight at 8…should look pretty cool as a night launch…and they will probably try to land the two outside boosters and I can’t remember if I’ve seen a night landing or not…stayed with the one meal plan again today with about a half a bowl of soup and a couple of brown and serves…for about 600 calories for the day…but I am going to have some cheese and crackers later for a snack…need to cut up some celery since I have a stalk and a half in the fridge and only need about 3 pieces to make another batch of potato soup…will make hams soup next week since I do need to use the celery for that. too, along with the carrots I’ve had for a week…and that will refill my soup stock and add to the two containers of turkey soup I made last week…I really do need to start varying my diet some…that will start next week…

Oh, so it wasn’t slavery…

Well…we all know how much the repubs hate teaching about history or even knowing any history and the latest thing is to ignore that slavery ever existed or that it was the cause of the Civil War…a few days back when one of the front runners for the repub nomination, Nikki Haley, was asked if she thought slavery was the cause of the Civil War and she couldn’t even say slavery but launched into a word salad about freedom and lots of other bullshit when she knows her state, South Carolina, launched the war and were quite blunt that it was all about slavery…no “states rights” or any other made up reason…just frickin slavery and being able to own other human beings…now I think this should be the question all of the repubs should be asked every time they pop their heads out from under the rocks they live under…let’s get their radical right wing asses on video and then crank out the ads…geez…

December 28th

Well…up at 5:37 this morning and feel pretty worn out…just poured the first cup of coffee and I would really like it to work soon…haven’t looked outside yet to see if it’s raining but it’s supposed to be…it’s warm enough to get out on the bike but that ends today with highs going down into the 30’s….okay…the weather widget just changed to 40 degrees with light rain so I guess the rides will be indoors today…and that’s okay…cleaned the bike up yesterday and I can leave it downstairs….got a few things done yesterday but that leaves me with nothing to do today and that’s okay, too…I can clean and probably should do the kitchen…got the biggest stalk of celery I’ve ever seen at aldis yesterday for 95 cents and that reminds me I need to make more potato soup and cut some of it up to use for snacks later…a little ranch dressing with some hot sauce in it would be good…not in too much pain today and I really should be after all the riding this week…my thighs were howling on  the bike yesterday and the pain was moving around like it normally does….not much to do today…it’s still before 7 so I can just sit here for a bit before I get going…and I think I will…more later…

Saw a weird thing today…

Well…almost forgot about this…today when I was out on the second ride along Muskegon Lake, I saw a Bald Eagle flying north to south across the lake and it was flying like I’ve never seen an eagle do…not the normal lazy spirals but it was flying flat out like he had somewhere to be and he kept it up until he was out of sight…I wonder what would make an eagle do that? I’ll have to keep my eyes up more to try to see that again…it’s been a good day and I got lots of stuff done…the grocery runs first, then two bike rides, cleaned the bike and just finished working on it downstairs, then laundry that is in the dryer and I’ll have to put that away when it’s done…so, pretty busy but now it’s almost 4:30 and I am done for the day…it’s the 10th day in a row of only one meal and I really am starting to see the weight come off with being able to ride outdoors…but that ends tomorrow I think with rain and cold coming in…and that looks like the end until the first week of January…oh, well…I do have more “Goliath” to watch downstairs…

This is what happens when dems run the place…

Well…as you probably already know, after fair districts were drawn here in Michigan and enshrined in the constitution, the dems took charge of the entire state government while the repubs just sat there and sulked since they couldn’t cheat anymore…and what did this control do for the people of Michigan? The latest good thing is that our governor Whitmer just signed a bill into law that will make all of the electricity generated here from renewable sources by the year 2040…no more coal or gas plants so Michigan will be doing it’s part to combat the climate damage done by dirty fuels…and entire state on renewables? I can’t wait to see the plan and I wonder if they will have subsidies for people to install solar? Man, I’d love to do that but just don’t have the finances for it…just another example where elections have consequences…so go out and vote….

December 27th

Well…that was weird…slept all the way through the night until 5:44 this morning and that never happens…I really can’t remember the last time that I didn’t wake up at least once overnight….I wonder if it has something to do with getting the health insurance sorted out? Have to start planning meals for after the ham runs out and I really think I need to make some pasta for a change…not a lot of food in the freezer but I do have 2 pounds of ground turkey that I can make chili with…and I’m going to make another batch of potato soup in a couple of days and then some ham soup when I use up the ham and mashed potatoes….going to go through the food my daughter left me and use that up…still have lentils and other dry goods to use…it’s only 36 outside so I may have to wait til the afternoon to get out on  the bike and it’s still going to be cold when I do…and tomorrow is going to be rainy so I’ll be inside….not much to do today…just the grocery runs and the rides but I should clean a bit and do laundry and probably will….more later…

That takes a load off…

Well…while I was sitting here tonight, I realized I still hadn’t heard from Priority Health Medicare whether I still had coverage and January 1st is coming up…so I decided to give them a call and got through…talked to a very nice woman who told me that still had my address as my son’s house in GR…but if they sent paperwork there, my son or daughter in law would have called me to let me know…so she changed my address and told me I was still enrolled and will send me all of the things I should have gotten…two cards, and a catalog for the OTC benefit…so this takes a big load off me and I don’t have to wonder anymore…I really did think they cancelled me for costing them 77K for my surgery this year…so, I’m going to have a cocktail to celebrate tonight…

Got another two outdoor rides in..

Well…Man U is stinking up the place again so I thought I’d come here instead…once the rain turned into a heavy mist about 8:45 this morning, I decided to suit up and head out with my rain gear on…there was just a little wind so that made for some good rides and I came back sweating from working hard…it was around 47 degrees when I left and that is plenty warm when I’ve got the raincoat on….didn’t get too wet and when I finished the first ride all I did was fill the water bottle and got right back on the bike since I was covered in grit from the wet trails and didn’t want to track it all over the house…as it was, after the second ride, I stood in the shower as I brushed the dirt off the back of my pants and raincoat…I may be able to get one more day of outdoor rides in tomorrow but it might rain so we’ll see…it is going to rain Thursday and then the temp crashes to highs in the 30 so I’ll be indoors for the rest of the year…haven’t done much else today other than straighten the place up and clean a little…and now I need to go out and put the trash bin out for pickup tomorrow…

The polls are turning…

Well…there has been a lot of hand wringing on the left with a poll back in November that had trump leading Biden in the 2024 election by a few points…and it was generally accepted that the poll was an outlier whose mechanics was off but that didn’t matter and the pundit class tried to tell us it was the death knell for Biden’s re-election prospects…not so fast…of the 8 polls done since, Joe is in the lead in every one of them and the trend is up for him as more and more people are starting to see the real idiot trump and the good economic news from Biden’s team’s competence in how they are handling inflation and recession fears that have been shouted by the pundits, too…look, we are living in the best economy in 20 years or more…do you think the idiot trump could do better? If you do, you need to get your head examined…and fast…geez…