All posts by James DeVol

Good idea to skip the beach today….

Well…I had waffled a bit on the idea of skipping the beach today but it has turned out to be a good idea and is making for a productive day today….after I got the groceries done and took the second ride, I got right on doing the trimming on the lawn and finished that up by noon and that would have been enough time to get out to the beach but I didn’t want to rush and had lots of other things to do instead…got the laundry started and now in the dryer, got both the garden and the flowers watered and had some pasta salad for lunch but still need to put the groceries away and get to cleaning the living room and bathroom…but I have two hours to get that done before soccer at 3 and it is really nice to just take a relaxing day and give my skin a rest…..and that will make tomorrow a free day so it will be back out to the beach thurs and fri….I still have sand in my fingernails even with showering and using my fingernail brush a couple of times since yesterday…I think it’s going to take me weeks to clean it all up out of the house and car after beach season is over….but, I’ve enjoyed the beach a lot even if I don’t know how to relax…..right now I need to get moving again if I’m going to get anything else done….

They are not good people…

Well… with Liz Cheney losing her primary to an election denying moron and the media still trying to rehabilitate her and Adam Kinzinger…let’s all just remember these are not good people…they voted with trump over 90% of the time and continued their attack on voting rights by voting against the restoration of the voting rights act that the supreme court gutted, voted against disclosure of presidential candidate tax returns, voted against the John Lewis voting rights act…and let’s not stop there, they both voted against abortion rights, transgender rights, and they both voted for cutting taxes on the super rich and corporations while trying to get the ACA repealed so that regular Americans would lose their healthcare….and they both never saw a war they didn’t love and were against getting out of Afghanistan even after we were spending money and lives there for 16 years….these are despicable people who only did one thing right…opposing a violent coup from the idiot trump…so, let’s not get too carried away…neither of these people are a “national treasure”..they can be commended for their January 6th committee service but that is a very low bar to get over…it used to be all repubs would have opposed the fascism on the right..but no more..they love them some trump and the permission he has given them to be the worst people they can be….and these two went along until now…geez…

August 17th

Well…damn, that was the worst sleep I can remember in a long time…up too many times to count with a result of about a 2 1/2 to 3 hours night…ick….had an okay day yesterday and did get out to the beach but the lake had turned again and it was just too damn cold to go swimming and that sucked since it is the major reason I go to the beach…so, I may skip today and just clean the house some since I noticed I have lots of spiders in the corners and I’ve let the living room and dining room get pretty messy…and my skin does need some rest since it feels tight today…and I do have the grocery run to do this morning after I do the first ride….don’t have a lot to get but I do need to stock up on paper products since I will be getting back at working on this place right after labor day…and I need to get more drain cleaner to keep the kitchen drain flowing…don’t have a lot of food to get since there is no cheap protein on sale….going to live on big salads using my own tomatoes for the next week or so and that will help me keep the calories down…not that I need to think about that, I do that by accident almost every day….not much to do today….need to get on the bike here in a few minutes but don’t really need to rush since it is still dark and I need to be able to see….and I’m hitting the local Meijers today instead of the nice one on the east side since it will take time to put gas in the car and get the rest of the Meijers stuff before Aldis opens at 9….then I’m just going to work around here after the second ride…should be out by 10 for that one….but I’m damn tired this morning and wonder how I’m going to fare with little sleep…is there a nap in my future? Who knows? More later….

No news…senate races…

Well…it appears to be a slow news day so I think I’ll just start to write and see what happens….it looks like we may be able to keep the senate and even expand our majority there with our side being ahead in 3 races where we are trying to replace retiring repubs…in Pennsylvania, Fetterman leads the carpetbagger Oz by almost 10 point and the trends are favoring our side….in Ohio, Tim Ryan leads Vance by 4 or 5 points…and one outlier poll in Florida has Val Demmings ahead of Rubio by 4 points but that is just one poll and I really don’t think she is ahead but it is close….and even in Wisconsin Mandela Barnes is ahead of the Russian traitor Johnson by a few and there is a real chance that we could pick that one up, too…one big key in all of this is the repub senate election committee has pulled almost 15 million dollars in ads that were to run this fall since they are having fundraising problems and we are out raising them by 2 to 1….and the push from our side is going to be the extremism of even the “moderate” repub candidates and will pound them with the overturning Roe and the rush to take women’s rights away…a winning strategy since 72% of the people in this country want those rights restored….now we just need to hold the house and we can make new laws that will guarantee that women will keep their rights…fingers crossed…

August 16th

Well…damn, I’m exhausted this morning and I know part of it is from not sleeping well at all and my stomach is very upset to the point I need some antacids…but that means I didn’t eat enough yesterday and, thinking about it, I was under 1k calories again and I need to stop doing that to myself….I think I can fix that today with making tacos for dinner later and having a big container of pasta salad that I made yesterday…but I still do need to eat it and that is the hard part…didn’t get out of bed til quarter to 7 today but that is not as good as it looks…tossed and turned all night and only got about 4 hours again and that is just not enough….oh, well…I did get some stuff done yesterday and with mowing the lawn, I don’t have a lot to do today other than the normal routine but I’m not sure if I’m going to the beach today…just got a little burned yesterday and that wears me out, too so I may skip today….man, I need to get going but I don’t feel like it….I know I’ll feel better when I get on the bike but I have no motivation right now….and it’s only 56 out there so it will be pretty damn cold…it will wake me up but I’m so tired…can I just sit here and read the news? Nope…more later….

Ow….

Well…damn, how the heck do I hurt myself just mowing the lawn? Sitting here now, my right sideĀ  and back just hadĀ  a stabbing pain in them that has continued as pretty persistent and tight which makes it quite stiff and a little uncomfortable…oh, well…I did get a lot of stuff done today and was pretty busy most of the day…I even made some more pasta salad with some tricolor rotini that I got from Aldi’s that came out pretty good and I can’t wait til it gets cold so I can try it….and got some tomato sauce that was just what my homemade salsa needed and I can now use it when I make tacos tomorrow….had to pick up some more allergy meds today at Meijers since I’m down to my last four and I noticed that the ragweed is blooming right now along the trail so I expect I’ll get hit with that later in the week….and that is the worst for me and started me down the allergy path about 25 years ago…I do have a small self rising 4 cheese pizza in the freezer that I’m going to enhance with pepperoni, green olives, green pepper, and onions along with just a bit of the shredded cheddar I have for the tacos…and that will last me the rest of the week so I won’t have to cook again until the weekend….and that will be out of the freezer since there is not any protein on sale this week…so far, we’ll see about DD on wed….time to read some news…

The noose tightens…

Well…yeah, I’m running late today with doing the two rides, running some errands, going to the beach, and then mowing the lawn…so, it’s been a pretty busy day…but I did want to talk about some good news that came out of Georgia over the past couple of days…after trying to keep from testifying to the grand jury in Georgia by claiming immunity by being a sitting US senator, a judge called bullshit on Lindsey Graham and said he has to testify…and he has a choice to make…tell the truth and throw the idiot trump under the bus or perjure himself since you can’t take the fifth in front of a grand jury….whatever the choice, the noose it tightening around ole Lindsey and there is no way he can bullshit his way out of this one….he did try to get predominately black votes thrown out with his call to the SoS and that is against the law in Georgia….oh, and here’s the one that really made me smile…Rudy Giuliani has been informed that he is a target of the investigation into election interference in Georgia and has to testify next week after trying to get his testimony delayed by claiming that his doctor said he couldn’t fly because of some illness…and the judge in the case told him they would send him bus or train fare but his is going to testify when scheduled…he is going to jail along with Lindsey and the idiot trump….but I guess they’ll have to wait in line until after the feds are done with trump….some good news for a change…geez…

August 15th

Well…damn, didn’t even pour my fist cup of coffee until 7:14 this morning and I just can’t get started…or I don’t want to get started…not sure which…I knew I was going to have a hard time this morning when I woke up before 6 but just laid in bed til 6:43…not sure if it’s a bout of depression that is starting or what…maybe I’m just bored with my normal routine….I did sleep okay last night and I’m not sure why I’ve been feeling cold for the past couple of days but I’m sitting here with socks and long pants on and had covers on to sleep last night….and it’s frickin August…supposedly the warmest month of the year…it’s supposed to be in the 90’s this month but it’s not going to get above the 70’s for the rest of the month….still might go to the beach today but I’m not sure yet….I did make some homemade salsa yesterday but didn’t have and tomato sauce to put in it so I may run out to get some today along with some more tortilla chips since I have tomatoes coming ripe and I like to have them with the chips…and I am making tacos today and it will be nice to have lots of chopped tomatoes to put on them…but I am almost out of big tomatoes on the plants and that sucks just when I’m getting used to having them…what a crappy year for the garden….oh, well…not much to do today….man, I sound like a broken record…bike rides and then wing it blah, blah, blah….I wonder what would happen if I just didn’t do anything? Probably die of guilt…I still remember being able to do nothing and enjoy it…..but that was a long time ago….more later….

Here comes the IRS…

Well…if you listen to any of the bleating coming out of right about the IRS these days, it is getting pretty wild…in the Inflation Reduction Act or IRA that was just passed by congress, there is increased funding for more IRS agents to build the service back to about half the strength it was before the repubs started gutting it…and now the repubs are screaming about it and I wonder why? Could it be that they have been cheating on their taxes? Like writing off the vacation cabin as a work retreat or taking friends out to expensive dinners and writing those off as a business expense? Or just not paying taxes at all…you would think that someone is trying to drown their puppies the lies have gotten so wild….did you know that they are going to add 87,000 IRS agents and give them all M-16’s and they are going to come to your house to collect taxes at gunpoint? Or that they are going to confiscate your guns and cars and food to pay back taxes? Yeah, these are just a couple of examples that are being shouted into the air by the hyperventilating morons on the right…I wonder why they want to protect the millionaires and billionaires who cheat on their taxes to the tune of 165 billion dollars every year? Oh, yeah…they get paid by those cheaters to protect them so they don’t have to pay taxes…but, there is not a damn thing they can do about it…the law has passed and will be signed this week…and if I were a dem running, one ad at least would say “why is my opponent protecting billionaires who cheat on their taxes” or something like that…let ’em squeal…I’ve had enough of these traitors trying to ruin this country and steal everything that is not nailed down…and then they steal the nails…geez…

Got two rides in…no pain…

Well…this is kind of weird…just had to open the front door and a back window to warm it up in here…it’s 68 outside and only 66 in here so I had to do that to keep the furnace from coming on…in frickin August…I did get two rides in this morning and with no pain other than the pinched nerve I always get when I lose some weight and padding near the end of the summer…but that one really hurts as the pressure gets on my left sciatica and then the pain shoots down my left thigh…but it goes away as soon as the pressure does so I guess I can live with it since this has happened ever since I started to ride….I do need to do the weed walk this afternoon but I think I’ll wait until after the soccer match I’m watching right now since there is enough time between that and when the race starts at 3…and I need to see if there are any ripe beans out there, too…the cukes are just not big enough to make pickles yet but I am going have probably 10 of them on the one plant that survived and that is enough for me since the only way I like them is as pickles….okay, need to go read some news to try to find a topic for later in politics….so, more later…