All posts by James DeVol

Find the cost of freedom…

Well…this is not really a political one…or it may turn into one as I get going here…we’ll see…I think I’ve done one like this the past couple of Memorial days and I still think it fits the true meaning of sacrifice for your country…but, after listening to all the crap going on at the races over the weekend and every one of the speakers talking about these service people dying to protect our “freedoms” and I really don’t think it is why they died in many cases…and I think the new “freedoms” thing is a right wing construct that they have used to usurp the true meaning and add it to their short hand of propaganda..I mean what is freedom to these people? It sure isn’t freedom for women to control their own bodies…it sure isn’t gay people having the freedom to love who they love…it sure isn’t schoolchildren having the freedom to come home alive from school…it sure isn’t the freedom for black people to not be killed by the police all over the country…and it sure isn’t the freedom to make this country a better place that the repubs have blocked at every turn…so, I call bullshit on the right…shouting freedom is only another way that they bludgeon people into being silent…they don’t care about freedom at all unless it is the freedom for the white, christian males to continue to dominate this society and run it for them and no one else. As I always do, I end with the poignant little song by Stephen Stills called “Find the cost of freedom”….”find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground…mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down” Have never found a more succinct statement on the cost of freedom…Stephen understands it…the repubs sure don’t…

Porch couch!

Well…for the first time ever, I am writing one of these from my porch couch…have all the windows open and the is wind blowing the curtains around and I have my last cup of coffee sitting next to me and things are okay…I am waiting for the boom boom boom to start but I am going to enjoy the sound of the wind blowing through the trees until it does…this porch really need to be cleaned, though, and I may work on that this afternoon…or I may not…it is nice not having the tv on for a change and just listening to other things….had an interesting morning going out to look for shoes at Dunham’s…they didn’t open til 10 so I had about 45 minutes to kill…luckily the store is near all the other ones I use so I started the time wasting at Target since I needed another set of bath towels…I mean a grown man should have more than one set, right? So, I even color coordinated it with the grey that I painted the bathroom so now I have a blue and a grey set that I can rotate in there…and it only cost me 13 bucks for the new set so that is cool….but I still had lots of time after that so I shot over to the dollar store and got a bunch of stuff including one of those static dusters like a swiffer for doing my blinds and other stuff when they get dusty…which is all the time, and it only cost 1.25 instead of the 10 bucks a swiffer costs….and I got lots of other stuff…some stainless steel scrubbers, some dish scrubbers, and a new pair of garden gloves all for about 5.50 so that was a bargain…but, I still had time to kill so I went over to Aldi’s to get a couple of things I needed and then it was 10…so back to Dunham’s to look at the shoes,and they were ugly so I didn’t get them…and that kind of sums up the day so far….I am going to get to a political one today but I need to make lunch first…it’s heading toward one and I haven’t eaten anything yet…so I need to do that right now….more later…

May 30th

Well…another 5;37 morning and I am getting damn tired of it…ha, ha…that’s a funny, unintended joke….feel worn out today and that is going to make the ride here in a few minutes pretty brutal….and the wind is blowing 15 out of the south that will make the uphill run back here into it pretty darn hard….I wonder if I’ll ever take care of myself and take a day off? I do need to run an errand this morning to Dunham’s to take a look at some Fila running shoes they have on sale for half price and it’s a pretty good deal for 20 bucks…I need a new pair to ride and walk in since the NB’s that I am using now have never been very comfortable and I need a new pair if I decide to start walking to get ready for the UK trip next year….and it looks like I’ll be out on the bike by 7 since it is already over 70 out there and I’ll still have to wait to run the errands since nothing opens out here until 9….it looks like I’ll get to the first thousand miles on the bike this week and to 2K total by early next week but I need to start riding at least 45 a day to hit 6k this year…and that seems like a daunting task with how I feel right now….and I think back to the first time I got to 500 miles in a year and thought that was such an accomplishment…didn’t hit that until late August that year and I wonder how I lived without doing thousands of miles like I do now? Oh, well….not much to do today….just the errands and riding and not even cooking since I still have leftovers…and I really don’t feel like eating anyway so I could easily just skip it altogether….more later…

Cripes…

Well…yeah, I’m not doing my job by doing a political one today but I’ll get back to it tomorrow…I hope…today was not as bad a day as yesterday and it was pretty quiet until right now so I had to make another call to have the cops come out and shut down the same house as last night…but, that’s not what this is about….after I got my morning ride in, I parked the bike in the back yard since I knew I was going to get back on it at some time today…and I did but just as I took off from the alley, the damn bike had a flat rear tire…so I put it back in the garage and took the back tire off and went downstairs where my tools and parts are to replace the tube…and I found what had pierced it which is normally a relief…so I put a new tube in the tire and aired it up but didn’t notice that I had run over something that had cut the sidewall of the tire and had made it unusable…so I had to take the whole thing back apart to put a new tire on, too, and that took me a half hour altogether and didn’t get back on the bike until after 4:30 which made me late to come here and finish up for the day….I did need to replace that tire at some point since it was pretty bald so I don’t feel bad about that and I am going to try to repair the tube since it was punctured with what looked like a small piece of wire and I should be able to fix it for a spare tube…I hope….will save me 8 bucks…

Plans change…

Well…damn, I had this day all planned out but everything had to work perfectly for that plan to work…and, it didn’t…it rained in Monaco and that put the race back an hour and it just ended so there is no time to get the second ride in before Indy starts in a half hour…so, what to do? There is a window in between Indy and the world 600 at 4 or so and, while I don’t like going out that late in the day, I just may do it today…still can’t figure out why I can’t just not do the second ride and give myself a little break but I can’t and that’s just me….need to burn those calories every day or I’ll end up fat again…even feel like I’ve gained 5 pounds over the past few days even with getting double rides in every day and not taking in any extra calories…oh, well…who the hell do I have to look good for?  At least there are no houses going nuts with music so far today…probably shouldn’t have written that, huh? More later…

May 29th

Well…it was a pretty crappy day yesterday and I didn’t sleep at all last night which just compounds it…it seems I’ve lost all of the progress on noise that I’ve made over the past year and it’s all back to square one and I see another long slog in front of me to get the quiet back…even had an officer come to visit me for a chat to make sure they understand my frustration with what is going on…and it doesn’t help that I’ve been fighting depression again, either, since this crap just adds to it and feeds it…and I told him that they are going to hear from me as many times a day as it takes for them to shut this bullshit down….so, today starts out with the anticipation that it is going to be another crappy day even on one of my favorite days of the year…it’s race day with F1, Indy, and the world 600 on today and will keep me entertained all day….and that starts at 9 so I need to get out on the bike before 7:30 to make it back here for the start…and then there is a window of an hour and a half between the end of the F1 race and Indy that I can fit the second ride in and it is warm enough already to go out in a t-shirt so that will be nice…and I had the top down on the car going out to get the paper and enjoyed that little ride….so, small pinpricks of light in a sea of blackness…and that sucks….but, we move on…one foot in front of the other until things get better or don’t…I know I can control how to react to this crap and need to get back to that….something else to work on….more later….

Darn, busy again….

Well…darn, even with feeling pretty crappy, had another busy day today and it is getting pretty old to have to keep doing it…I know, it’s part of owning a house but I wonder if I’ll ever get a day off the rest of my life? Started out with getting on the bike before 7:30 to make it back to see F1 qualifying at 9…but the problem was that qualifying wasn’t on til 10 and I must have read it wrong…so, back on the bike for ride two about 9 or so and that was pretty brutal with no rest between the rides…so I got back here a little after 10 and watched qualifying, then out to mow the lawn, run the string trimmer, and getting some grass killer along the fence on the east side of the house that the neighbor doesn’t trim and lets the grass just grow until it’s two feet tall in my fence…so, just as I did last year, I am going to kill all the grass along the fence line….I still have to hit some ant nests and do weed killer but I think the weeds will wait til tomorrow…just made the food for my hummingbird feeder and I’m going to fill it and set it on top of my regular feeder here in a minute…and then I am done for the day…have been running since 7:30 and it’s two now and that is enough work for one day…more later…I hope…

May 28th

Well…running a bit late today and just can’t get started and need to if I’m going to get out on the bike before 7:30 and make it back here for F1 qualifying at 9…and I still feel pretty crappy today and really should take a day off the bike to recover but that’s not going to happen without a good excuse…and there is no rain in the forecast for that for at least the next week…so I may just have to do a no excuse day off…I am getting old after all….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I do have to mow the lawn today and probably should do some edging, too, but I’m not sure if I will…it will all depend on how I feel after I’m done mowing….I am tired of waiting for the temp to come up to get out on the bike…it’s still only 48 out there right now and that’s pretty depressing…it’s going to warm up tomorrow so maybe that will be the end of it…I had to laugh yesterday when I was riding and looked down to see yellow streaks on my green t-shirt…that is how much pollen there is in the air out here…and my bike and I were coated with it by the time I got back here and it’s no wonder I have a sinus headache that has gone on for a month….and nothing is working to help so I may have to take some of the allergy meds that make me feel like crap….okay, that makes no sense….I feel crappy so I’ll take something that will make me feel a different kind of crappy….but still crappy..so I guess I need to decide what kind of crappy I want to feel….not much to do today…did the laundry yesterday so I guess I’ll just work outside and then maybe clean a little in here today…I am going to figure out where to put my hummingbird feeder up today….someplace that I can see it so maybe I’ll just sit it on top of the window feeder for now…we’ll see…more later….

We need a general strike…

Well…as usual, the repubs are trotting out the tired old bullshit to make sure nothing gets done about gun violence in this country…and since we can’t get one damn repub on board to pass some sensible gun reforms, it is time to call a general strike across this country to shut the whole thing down until they agree to do something about banning the assault weapons that been involved in every damn shooting in this country for the past 10 years. Ever since the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire in the 90’s by the damn repubs…again…there have been millions of these things sold in this country…and to emphasize how dangerous these weapons are, even the damn Marines don’t allow trained soldiers to carry them around on their bases…they are locked up and only issued when there is a deployment or training. There is no damn reason an 18 year old, untrained kid should be able to go in to any store in many states and buy as many of these death machines as they want…and as much ammunition they want to go with it. So, if the repubs don’t listen to the 90% of the people in this country who want sensible gun control, let’s just strike and shut this country down until they do…and then vote every damn one of them out of office in the fall…

Back on Daily Kos…

Well..not sure what prompted me to go back to the Daily Kos website yesterday but I guess I wanted to see if my username was still usable…and to be honest, I was bored silly and it gave me something to do…so I went out there and tried to sign on and it didn’t work…so after a message to the help desk, they informed me that everyone was asked to reset their passwords back in 2016 and then gave me the instructions to change it and it worked…and I did one post out there that they call diaries, and after that went out to my profile and found that yow! I hadn’t been out there to post since 2013…now I read the site every day to get some news and some good natured, progressive friendliness…but to not be signed on since 2013 was certainly a surprise to me…so now I have to think what part Kos is going to play in chronicling my life that I do here most of the time…probably not much since I control this site and one of the reasons I left Kos was the people who were trying to critique my writing and to prove my opinions wrong…now, I do that to people who are so damn wrong it’s obvious…but to do it to someone just to start a pie fight and to feel like you’ve scored points has no appeal to me…so, we’ll see what happens going forward….at least I’ll drop in there for some comments until it gets to be too much work…