All posts by James DeVol

Quit using facebook…

Well…with the revelations that have come out about what goes on inside of facebook over the past couple of weeks, people just need to stop using facebook for all of the damage it has done across the world. And just today, an article came out that shows that Zuckerberg runs the whole show and the board of directors is just a sham and have nothing to do with corporate governance….so now we know that it is Zuckerberg alone who is responsible for all of the lies and misinformation that oozes from it…and for getting trump elected and giving us the January 6th insurrection since facebook was used by the attackers to organize and plan the attack. One person should never have that much power and something needs to be done about it, whether it is breaking up the company, forcing it to take on an independent board of directors…or my favorite, just stop using it and get it the hell out of our lives….you can live without it…as I do….the only thing I use it for is to keep up with my family but not even very much of that….just today, one of the company’s officers warned the employees that there is going to be more and more bad news about facebook and what they have been doing to help the right wingers destroy this country…and all for just money…just for Zuckerberg’s greed. So, just stop using it, when you do that ad revenue goes down and you aren’t helping that idiot wreak more damage just so he can line his pockets…geez….

October 25th

Well…this is one of those mornings where I just want to go back to bed…for the rest of the day….I think I’m finally resigned to the fact that my thumb is never going heal enough to be able to move it much…it’s been almost a week and I have no movement in the second joint…and it still hurts like crazy…oh, well….must have slept okay last night since my right shoulder hurts and that means I slept on it all night without the normal tossing and turning….it looks like it rained all night and it is still raining right now so I won’t be on the bike til later in the day…if I get out at all, so that means I have a morning free to do what I want and just ease into the day….but, how do I do that? Have laundry and cleaning to do so I guess that will be the plan for the day….didn’t do a lot yesterday but feeding the lawn and cleaning windows but I finished that and that makes me feel good…I am thinking about stripping the oak window trim and I searched for colors that go with it and was surprised that I can still use the grays that I had planned to paint this place if I do….looked at a bunch of photos that show how it will look but I’m not sure if I like it or not…not much to do today…I do need to get my ballot filled out and drop it off and continue looking for a dentist out here…and I need to go to the Verizon store to see if they can fix my phone and get the camera working again…but that is too much for one day so that will be for later in the week….more later…

Got a ride in…

Well…finally did get a ride in this morning but it was in almost full thermasuit and only 38 degrees when I left about 10…wasn’t too bad but my damn thumb still made me wince every time I upshifted and I am getting really tired of that…with taking yesterday off, you would think my legs would be great today but no, they hurt and felt really flat and are still aching right now and that’s not normal…I did get the food on the lawn and the rain is on it’s way to wash it in here in an hour or so…and then I just hunker down here until Tuesday with high winds and rain coming in tonight…probably should clean the last two windows today before the rain and I just might but the F1 race starts in 40 minutes and I don’t think that’s enough time to do them both….I guess I could start and then if the race gets boring, I can finish them up….okay, I think I will….

October 24th

Well….how the heck can I be running late with getting up at 5? I did go back to bed until 6 or so and I think that has something to do with it….my thumb is still stiff and painful and it’s not getting better fast enough for me…tried to work the joint last night to make sure it doesn’t freeze up and I can never move it again and that didn’t do much…but I need to keep doing that to get any range of motion back into it…it’s only 36 degrees right now so it looks like I may not get out on the bike until later in the morning but I do need to get out at least once before 11:30 when Man U plays…and I’m going to get the winter food on the lawn around 9 or so with the big rain that is coming tonight and tomorrow…will probably not get on the bike Monday since it is supposed to rain all day…so I’ll get  to cleaning the whole place and finish the windows…and I need to clean up the axle that fits the bike trainer and get the Specialized bike on it to ride for the winter…I am curious what I’m going to see with the lake level this morning….it was down a foot or more Friday and I still haven’t figured out why that happened….not much to do today….haven’t even read the news yet and need to get that done before 9 so I can feed the lawn and then get on the bike….and I may do the last two windows today but there are races on this aft that I want to see….more later…..

A rainy day…

Well…this is a little strange…it has been raining all day out here with being on the back side of the low pressure area that went through setting up showers that have run down the coast all day…and it’s colder than heck so I’ve called it a day and I’m not going to ride…I’m hoping that the rest will help my thumb since it has been swollen and painful all day…and it won’t bend at the joint yet but the nail bed is starting to get less painful so that is a plus…and I haven’t had to bandage any of the damage today…I did get three windows cleaned today so that leaves only two more to do tomorrow and I’ll have all of them done….and I took down the ugly curtains that were in my bedroom and cleaned the shades that are in there since they looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in 10 years….we’re supposed to get high winds out here with more rain tomorrow night so I am going to try to get the fall lawn food on it in the morning and I’ll be done with the lawn other than mowing it til spring…they have a gale warning that takes effect tomorrow night through Monday morning with winds of 35+ possible…so I’m pretty sure I won’t be on the bike Monday, either…need to get a bike on the trainer downstairs so I can keep riding with the crappy weather that is coming….there is also a freeze warning for Tuesday and that will make it too cold to go out unless I’m in full thermasuit and will have to be careful if there is ice on the trail…can’t have another crash until this one heals….

Seniors get screwed again…

Well…as the details become available on the bills wending there way through congress, one thing is clear…seniors get screwed again. Where the initial bill started out with dental, vision, and hearing being added to Medicare coverage…the version of the bill that is going to pass has none of those in it…they may include an 800 dollar “voucher” to cover some dental work but I think they will probably sacrifice that to Manchin and Sinema since they are so in the pocket of big business that don’t want anything good for the people of the country if they can’t make a profit from it. They have no problem giving the Pentagon 46 billion dollars they don’t even want, but they can’t get seniors out of dental pain or pay for community college for our kids….this is such a slap in the face for everyone on Medicare and I hope the dems will use the repub opposition to everything in this bill to beat them over the head with it in 2022…if two fricking repubs would have negotiated in good faith, we could have taken care of a wide swath of the country and made their lives better…made my life better…now, I can afford to spend a couple of thousand on the dental work I need, but the majority of seniors can’t and it is just sick to make them suffer to avoid taxing the rich just a tiny little bit…god, I hate these people….geez….

October 23rd

Well…didn’t get up til after 7 this morning…but that was the second one…woke up around 6 from pain in my thumb…must have slept on it since it still hurts right now…even more than yesterday and that is disappointing…thought I was healing but now I’m not so sure…I did sleep okay last night and feel okay if a little worn out this morning…I think the 7 hours of go yesterday took a lot out of me…but I will get a reprieve today with rain in the forecast for the morning and lots of sports to watch….and the swelling is back in my hand so it will be hard to get my gloves on for the bike ride…it is nice to have clean windows to look out of for the first time here and I wonder why it took me 8 months to get it done? I guess I’m just not as young as I used to be and doing all this crap is wearing…and I haven’t even started on the interior of the house….a weird thing happened on the rides yesterday when I noticed that Muskegon lake’s water level dropped by about a foot between the rides leaving small beaches exposed all along the shore that are normally underwater and that is really strange…I wonder what could cause that? A low pressure system over Lake Michigan? I’ve seen that cause the lake to retreat 20-30 feet up in Petosky in front of a strong storm and that was pretty cool…can’t wait to get out and see if the water is back this morning….not much to do today….I’m pretty much resigned to a one ride day and that will be okay….still feeling pretty beat up and sports start at noon with Michigan playing NW and I am not going to feel guilty even if I don’t get on the bike today….I just hurt so much that it is going to be torture to get on the bike….more later….

I miscounted my windows…

Well…when I was talking about cleaning windows earlier, I said that I had eleven of them to do but I forgot about the bathroom window so I really have twelve…so, with the three I did today, I still have five of them to do and those are the ones I haven’t even cleaned at all so they are going to be pretty time consuming….I did get two rides in today in half thermasuit since it was only 44 when I went out for the first ride…my thumb survived it and it appears to be healing up some…some of the swelling is down and I wasn’t wincing as much shifting the bike as I have the past couple of days so that was welcome….after I did the kitchen window waiting for lunch to cook and had lunch, I was just going to do one more window but I had time before F1 practice so I did another one here in the living room…they look so cool from both the inside and outside…very shiny and clear….but I had another long day of work from 8:30 til 3:30 and I am ready to make dinner and take it easy for a while…movies and cocktails tonight….going to watch the new version of Dune later…and that will take up most of the night…2 1/2 hours? That’s a long movie…

Topics are getting harder to find…

Well….I wonder why I am having such problems finding topics these days? I know I’ve done almost 10,000 of these but there are still things happening in the world that interest me….and I still read a lot so that can’t be it….I haven’t done one on science in a long time and I wonder why that is? There are cool things happening with the James Webb space telescope getting ready for launch in December….and that instrument will resolve 10 times fainter objects that even Hubble and it isn’t even going to be in orbit around the Earth…it is going to be set at one of the Lagrange points a million miles from Earth in a stable orbit that will trail the Earth in it’s orbit…it has a mirror that is 6 times larger than Hubble and will see in infrared light that will allow us to see through the dust and gas towards the center of the galaxy and may even be able to see the black hole that is there and that would be pretty cool…and it will happen in my lifetime but it may be the last cool telescope that is launched before I’m gone….hey, I found a topic! Okay, it’s cheating a little bit but I need to get on the windows in here and get these two done…I did get the kitchen one done already and I got two bike rides in so I guess I could put these off…nope, going to do at least one before soccer comes on….

October 22nd

Well…damn, got a nasty surprise yesterday afternoon when my entire thumb turned black and blue so I must have really damaged it in the crash…and it still hurts like crazy today even without riding yesterday….it looks like I’ll be out in half thermasuit with long pants if I get out today…it’s only getting to 49 for a high so I might even have to wear gloves if I get out his morning….the new pillows were a hit last night and I slept okay but I still feel pretty slow today and I think part of that is from the damage from the crash and being in pain so much…I still hurt everywhere and that takes a lot out of me…I did get two windows in the kitchen cleaned yesterday and have one left in there and 6 more in the rest of the house…they cleaned up really well and I’ll probably get to the last one in the kitchen today…I am really hoping that getting the grass to grow in the yard will keep the dirt from blowing everywhere and filling them up with grit….the chickens were running around the yard yesterday and I may try to feed them today if they come back and it’s not raining…they are just funny to watch running around….not much to do today…just going to ease into it and wait for it to get light and try to get on the bike….and I should clean some but we’ll see how my thumb holds up after the ride…..I am so damn tired of hurting and I hope taking the day off yesterday will heal me some…but, I’ll probably just hurt the thumb again shifting…oh, well….more later….