Well…running late this morning…again…haven’t been able to get started and it’s 8 and I just poured my first cup of coffee…so, it’s going to be a while before I can get going on the errands I have to run today…going to wait til I get back to ride the bike…but then I’ll be in for the rest of the week….and I don’t mind that at all…have lots of work to do after finishing the first window yesterday…hope to get the other kitchen window done this week and then work on the door frame and baseboards in there….and I need to make soup to use a couple of the ham bones I have in the fridge but that will wait til tomorrow….still have to get the kidney beans that go in it and that means a Meijers run this morning….going to use the instant pot since that takes the cooking time from 4 hours down to about an hour…but I do need to find room in the freezer for the two containers that will need to go in there…maybe I’ll get some crusty bread to dip in it….it is so comforting to have the furnace working again after the fix of the thermostat yesterday….and 66 is pretty warm and I don’t have any chills today…..not much to do today…just the errands and riding the bike…and I may order the rest of the blinds for the kitchen and living room since they take a week or so to get here and I don’t want to live with newspaper on the windows for too long…..more later….
All posts by James DeVol
Some good news on energy…
Well…as prices for wind and solar power continue to fall, their use continues to rise to be the second most used source of energy in the US. Last year, renewables including geothermal and biomass made up 22% of the energy used and it is predicted that these sources will grow by another 10% next year…and that is good news for the planet as coal use continues to fall…and for some reason, private equity is even getting involved in new ideas in fusion generation of electricity…and that has been a government investment to this point so why private investment now? In my lifetime, fusion has always been “10 years away” and never closer and I’m not sure why individuals would invest the billions necessary build a fusion plant that is no closer being viable that it was in the 90’s…haven’t read of any breakthroughs lately and if there were, people would be shouting it from the rooftops and all I hear is silence. So, let’s take this one with a huge grain of salt…after all, not one fusion plant has ever produced as much energy as has been put in to get the reaction going….but I would love to be proved wrong…
Got the blinds up….
Well…finally….the blinds were delivered around noon and I have them up already…pretty easy job and they look pretty darn good with the grey against the white of the window frame…and now they are level and even with each other, too, something the old ones weren’t. So now, only 10 more to go and I’ll get started on those tomorrow…and I’ll post a photo on FB later after the sun goes down and the crappy camera on my tablet can take a picture that shows anything….break time….
Dead batteries in the thermosat…
Well…has a little scare this morning when I felt a chill and just couldn’t get warm…thought I may be coming down with something and we all know what that would be…then, it dawned on me to look at the thermostat since I hadn’t heard the furnace run for a while and it was blank…so I pulled it off the wall and put new batteries in it that, luckily, I had picked up fro HF a couple of weeks ago…once I put the batteries in, it lit right up again and even had the programming still in it…and the temp in here was only 58 degrees when I have it set for 66 degrees normally…once I put it back on the wall, the furnace lit right up and now it’s all the way up to 62 in here already and feels damn good…it may be too warm at 66 degrees…probably not…I’m just glad that was all it was…the furnace has been really reliable and I need to keep my fingers crossed….
December 27th
Well..running a little late today with waking up around 6 but going back to bed depressed that it snowed last night….stayed in bed til 7:30 or so and had some weird dreams that involved me lending people stuff and everyone of them brought the stuff back broken…and my car never came back so I wonder what that is about? I was going to run an errand this morning but that will have to wait til the snow melts this afternoon and I think I could wait til tomorrow….need some more drop cloths to put on the kitchen counter and sink so I can get sanding the small window in the kitchen….and if the blinds come today, I’ll put them up, too….and I need to get back on the indoor bike since I feel like a slug with not riding yesterday…I think I’ll need to shovel the snow from last night, too since we got a couple of inches and I’m not sure how warm it’s going to get today…could wait for it to melt but I know it’s getting colder later in the week and I don’t want ice on the walks….not much to do today….just the bike ride and work on the house…and I think I’ll shovel before I get on the bike since I’ll be too sweaty if I do it after the bike ride…..but I need more coffee first….more later….
I did it…
Well…I finally did it…took the day off and did absolutely nothing today…I was going to put the new blinds up but they were pushed back another day so I’ll do that tomorrow….I did find the brass cap for the outdoor faucet and put that on yesterday since one of the plastic valves I left on it had started leaking after it got cold out here…was pretty sure it wouldn’t survive the winter but couldn’t find the cap until yesterday…so, no more leaks…at some point, I’m going to have to climb into the crawl space and put a new valve in….that’s a summer job…I did get some new neighbors this week in the house that has been under renovation across the street but probably won’t meet them until spring since I don’t have anything to do outside but shovel snow if it snows….I will have to do another one meal day today with not riding and that sucks a bit since I spent 3 bucks on a loaf of rye bread to go with the ham I made…I suppose I could put it in the fridge to keep it from spoiling too soon…darn…
This is rich….
Well…as we all know, fox news is all anti vax, all the time and push their brainwashed zombie watchers to not get vaccinated on every show…but today they changed that…they have a new meme they are pushing that is blaming Biden for the pandemic not being over…and that ran right after another anti vax segment this morning…okay, I don’t watch fox news so I had to read about this in another source…and with all the people they have killed with their lies and bullshit, I find it really rich that they are blaming Biden for their stupidity since the new omicron/delta surge is of the unvaccinated…and there is only the right that is pushing their followers to die…we all know they have cornered the market in hypocrisy, but damn, these guys have all gone over the edge…I wonder if they ever listen to themselves of if this is just acting on their part and when they go home, they get out of character and become normal? Yeah, probably not…but I still don’t understand the business model that kills your viewers…where is the profit in that? There are quite a few counties where enough people on the right have died and that will give us a chance to win in 2022…and that is pretty sick even how much I hate these assholes…geez…
December 26th
Well….up at 4:45 this morning but I was able to go back to sleep for an hour or so…and I went to be early last night so that’s not too bad….just ran out of steam at 10:15 last night and I’m not sure why other than doing an outside ride and getting lots of fresh air….I wonder if that’s why my back hurts today? Didn’t get anything done yesterday except the bike ride but that set’s me up for taking the day off the bike if I want….I really do need a repair day every once in a while…but, we’ll see…it’s supposed to be in the 40’s today so I may just go outside for a ride again today…..the blinds might be here today so I might have to work some this aft and put them up but I sure don’t feel like doing it right now…just want to sit here for a while and have coffee…it looks like the EPL matches have been cancelled so no soccer for me today and that’s disappointing…but the Lions are going to lose this afternoon so I guess I could watch that…not much to do today…going to ease into it and get to reading the news here in a minute…it is so nice to have my car in the garage and to not have to scrape the ice off the windows to go out for the paper….and to not have to shovel the snow so far…keeping my fingers crossed that we don’t have any blizzards this winter….more later….
Got an outdoor ride in…
Well…I really was going to take the day off today but around three the sun came out and it was 42 so I dragged the bike back out of the basement and rode out to the beach….it was okay with the wind only blowing about 10 or so out of the nw and it was fun to see the changes that have happened in the month I’ve been inside…the lake is down what looks like a couple of feet to where the depth gauge in Muskegon Lake isn’t even in the water anymore….I did put the bike in the garage just in case I can get out one last time this year…oh, I did hear from one of my sons today and that was cool…and got pictures of my granddaughter which was really cool…..so now I can relax and have a nice night tonight….but, I am skipping dinner…need to cut back the calories…
December 25th
Well…got all the way to 6:55 this morning and now I’m watching the launch of the JWST that is set to go in 2 mins…slept okay last night but still feel pretty worn out even without doing much yesterday so I may take it easy today and skip the bike ride but I don’t think my guilt will allow that…I did get over 4800 miles on the bike yesterday so everything else I do will be a bonus over what the goal was for the year….okay, the launch was successful but we’ve gotten spoiled by spacex launches and all of the cameras they have on their rockets….this is all animation and nowhere near as exciting….I really do need to ease into the day today with how I feel….walking in cement again today and could go back to bed easily but I won’t…have a damn headache right now and I’m sure it’s from allergies that have been bugging me since I started working on the windows and having so much dust around here…and that will probably continue all winter as I do the remaining 10…but the rest of them are not as bad as the first two so I may get some relief….not much to do today….it’s already 43 degrees out there and I may be tempted to ride outdoors today for the last time this year…but, we’ll see if it’s going to rain…don’t want to get the bike gunked up and have to wash it again….more later….