Well…it appears that Eric Prince has a new scam he’s running out of Qatar…he’s renting planes and charging people 7400 dollars to get them out Afghanistan…you can guess that whenever there is suffering in the world, ole Eric will be there trying to make money from it…oh, and let’s not forget what his Blackwater thugs did in Iraq when they murdered more than 20 Iraqis just because they were scared…and that makes ole Eric a war criminal…I wonder who is responsible for him even being able to use the US controlled airport there? This is just bullshit that he is not in jail somewhere….he has been connected to so many sketchy things including damn near every scandal in the idiot trump years that you know he moved to Qatar just to avoid prosecution since they have no extradition treaty with the US….I think…another one of those born rich assholes who think they can do whatever they want and the law doesn’t apply to them….geez…
All posts by James DeVol
August 25th
Well…pretty worn out again today but I haven’t had any coffee yet so that may go away in a few minutes…I hope…slept okay last night and still didn’t need to turn on the ac so it looks like I probably won’t run it again this year…not sure when I’ll take it out of the window to get more air flow but probably in the next week or so….my allergies have exploded the past week or so and I’m pretty miserable from it….must be the goldenrod and ragweed that lines the trails that have just bloomed…feel like I have a cold my head is so stuffed up….going to have to just power through it since the meds don’t really help much….or they may be working but I’m not going to stop taking them to see how bad it is without them….I think it rained overnight and that will help with the lawn and I may be able to not water it today….I know we could use a couple of days of steady rain out here but who knows if we’re going to get it…after the dry of the summer, I am hoping for a wet fall and looking forward to it cooling off some…it’s supposed to be almost 90 out here again today so it may be a beach day again…and that would be a record of three days in a row…I do have to do the grocery run today so that will put me on the bike late and might mean a one ride day today….but the guilts won’t allow me to do two one ride days in a row….so I will be out there twice today….more later…
Two in a row…
Well…it has been another busy day but only did one bike ride since I wanted to go out to the beach for the second day in a row..and tomorrow might be three…the water has been almost warm and takes no time to get used to…and today there was a sand bar about 50 feet off the beach that you had to swim to but when you got there the water was only knee deep and it was a little cool to just wander around on it for a bit….oh, before that, I got the lawn mowed and I think the new rule is going to be only one ride on mowing days…don’t feel nearly as worn out today so maybe that’s a smart thing to do? After I got back here, I decided that with the rain forecast, I would put some more food on the lawn…and it did rain! Not much but probably twice as much water as I put on it with the sprinklers…and there may be more coming later tonight so it should green up nicely and fill in the spots that I seeded this week….it’s already looking so much better than when I moved in and I may have a good looking lawn by fall instead of next year…but, I do need to get more seed and soil for a big bare patch that hasn’t filled in too well and to do the back along the alley…I know now that you have to keep the patches constantly watered until the grass gets to be a couple of inches tall and I hope to get some help in that with rain this fall…and I want to get some garden blocks to make a pad for the garbage bin to sit on in back of the house since it kills all the grass I have planted there…so, not a bad day today…have way too many tomatoes that I just picked so tomorrow I’m going to get the blender out and puree some of them and then put them through my wire strainer to strain out the seeds and then freeze the puree….had a pretty good garden this year but next year it will be better….more planning and less brute force…and some herbs, too…
The anti vaxxers could cost me 5 grand…
Well….when I was on the bike this morning, a thought hit me that really, really pissed me off…with the anti vaxxers getting sick and spreading delta everywhere, these assholes could cost me 5 grand if I get sick and have to go to the hospital…see, even with my Medicare advantage plan, I am on the hook for 5 grand of co-pays if I end up in the hospital and that is pretty damn personal for me…and for the retirees who are still on regular Medicare, the plan only pays 80% of the bill and the patient is on the hook for the rest…and you know that weeks in the hospital with constant care is not going to be cheap…it could run up to half a million bucks and that would leave the patient with a bill of 100K….and I don’t know of many retirees who could foot that bill with leaving them completely broke…so here’s another reason to hate these selfish assholes who are solely responsible for the trouble this country is in…and who are responsible for me and many others masking up again when we did everything right by getting vaccinated to help our country…I have had enough and have no sympathy for those who chose to not get vaccinated and who are killing our healthcare workers…shame on them….geez…
August 24th
Well….running a little late today and I’m not sure why…I did stay in bed a little later than normal but was still up before 7…just can’t get started and I wonder if it’s from only having one meal yesterday? Will have to try to fix that today….I did have a few dreams last night but don’t remember them at all…it’s just nice to have them for a change….I think I’m growing the beard back since I have weird lines that start at the edge of my mouth that it hid and make me look like I’m frowning all the time….and it’s a real pain to shave my upper lip without nicking it…oh, well….I do have to mow the lawn today with the front getting really long after only 5 days but it may rain later today…yeah, right…and the back is looking pretty uneven so that will be done after I get the first ride in…will have to remember to get more gas for the mower later in the week since I only have enough in the can to mow today…and I need gas in the car, too, so it looks like I’ll make a special trip sometime this week….started to pull plants out of the garden since the cuke plants were done and dying but I have the one along the back of the house that still has a few on it so I’ll let that one go for a while….I wonder what you call a large group of squirrels?A herd? I had about 20 of them running around my yard when I got back from picking up the paint yesterday and had all three colors of them mixed in…but most of them were black and that was kind of cool to see….not much to do today…just the rides and mowing but I do want to get the door frame prepped so I can paint but I may wait till it’s cooler next week….it’s supposed to be in the high 80’s again today and tomorrow so I need to make sure I get enough water…my toe has been edging up to hurting again and that is a sign that I’m not drinking enough….and I don’t need it to flare up…more later….
Finally made some progress…
Well…it’s been another busy day but I finally got some stuff done….did the first ride early, then went out and got the paint I need for the door frames and it was only 20 bucks so that gallon should last me the rest of the time I’m here since I have very little that needs to painted….got back here and got the rest of the grass seed in…then out on the bike for number two…shaved my beard off just to see what I look like without it…and then out to the beach for a swim…had a beer in my Contego sippy cup and must have shaken it a bit much since it blew the top off and sprayed beer all over me and shot the thing six feet away…so that meant that I had to spray off my beach chair and clean everything when I got back here and do laundry to clean my towel so I thought I’d do bedding, too….so, I skipped lunch so I could get out to the beach sooner and I put that hour to good use….need to get the washing into the dryer so I’ll end here…taking the rest of the day off…
Just remember this…
Well…with all of the attacks on Biden about his handling of the exit from Afghanistan and the Taliban taking over…again…just remember one thing, the Taliban offered to surrender and give up all of their weapons in 2001…but ole GW and his war mongering neocons wouldn’t accept since their biggest donors needed the war to go on for the purpose of profit and to prove they were the baddest army on the planet…so, 20 years of death and destruction and 2 trillion dollars later, the idiots who gave us that war are now criticizing Biden for ending it? These chickenhawks should just shut the hell up and go away, they have been wrong on every point starting with the WMD’s in Iraq and could have gotten us out of Afghanistan 20 years ago…and the media needs to stop feeding the right wing talking points to the rest of the world…just a sordid bunch of lies to sell papers and to try to weaken Biden so they can have a “horserace” in 2024….geez…
August 23rd
Well…that was a little weird…around 5 am my bedroom was flooded with moonlight and I thought I had left the lights on….weird but pretty cool…slept okay last night and feel just a little slow today and I hope the coffee will work soon since I need to get on the bike in about an hour to get the first ride in…might only do one today since my legs feel like they could use a little rest…and there is rain on the way….yeah, right….and more forecast for tomorrow and wed but I’ll believe it when I see it…think I’ll run out and get the paint for the door frames this morning and maybe I’ll skip the second ride to prep the garage door frame….might have to mow the front of the yard but the rest of it will be fine until later in the week….and I need to figure out how to fix the gate in front, too but I have until winter to do that…but, I need to get off my butt and get moving on some projects soon….and, I also need to get out to the beach a few more times before labor day, too, but I am going to try to not stress myself out about any of it…it has been pretty quiet up here for the past week and I am a little relieved about that…I wonder if it will ever be normal to not have to call in noise complaints? Hope so….not much to do today…just going to sit here for a while and have more coffee and read the news for a bit….need to figure out what to make for food today and I do need to process some tomatoes into sauce to freeze to use up the tomatoes….I’m getting tomatoed out….more later…
Did they change the definition of affordable?
Well…yeah, I know, I’ve bitched about this before but reading about a new condo project that is going to go up on the lakefront in the area that they have been cleaning up all summer and that the bike trail I ride goes through, I just had to comment…and I have the question: “did they change the definition of affordable?” In the story there are a couple of things I have a problem with…first is the affordability of the 300 condos they plan on building on the site that will sell from 599,000 to 999,000 thousand dollars…now, is that affordable to you? My house is affordable…I only paid 90K for it…but 600K? I really don’t know many people who can afford a 600K condo and stats show that more than 60% of Americans can’t even absorb a surprise 400 dollar bill let alone a house or condo payment of 3,000 dollars a month…so I wonder who will buy these things? Oh, and the second part…the developers say they are going to keep the lakefront open to the public and I really don’t think that is going to happen…if these people have enough cash to pay 600K for a condo, they sure are going to want an exclusive use of the property and are not going to like the idea of having to mingle with the riff raff…and I’ll bet that my bike trail, that runs along the shoreline and that the developer has promised will stay where it is, is going to be closed as “under construction” for a few years until people just get used to it not being there and they will tear it out….I know, pretty cynical thinking but just looking around here on my rides, everything is behind fences and gates and rich people just love them some fences and gates to keep everyone away from them….so, I guess I’ll believe it when I see it…if I live that long…
August 22nd
Well….running about on time this morning with getting up at 6, running out for the paper, and now doing this since I have to get out on the bike by 7:30 to make it back here for the Man U match at 9….and I had the headlights on in the car for the first time since about April…it is still so humid out here that I am sweating at 7 am just sitting here….had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done but ride the bike and cook…and today looks the same with lots of soccer, racing and the Michigan team plays in the LL world series and I would like to see that…and that may mean only one ride today and I’m okay with that…my legs went flat during the second ride but it was still a good one….my water bill went up by 30 bucks a month with trying to get keep my lawn alive but I can live with that to have a nice looking lawn…and it has to start to rain at some point…we are now down by almost a foot of rain this year out here and I hope that doesn’t carry over through the winter…although the prospect of shoveling all that snow does not make me smile….still haven’t been able to find a used snowblower but I need to keep looking….I am thinking about going out to the beach every day this week to wind down the summer but I do need to paint the exterior door frames before it gets cold out here….not much to do today…just what I described earlier and I should do some cleaning…my bathroom needs work and the floors need to be cleaned with all of the sand that gets tracked in….more later….