Well….as I’ve said over the past week or so, I’ve have had another bout with depression that had me essentially shut off from everything but I’m a little happy to say that the veil seems to be lifting some today and I have been able to enjoy the bike rides and have even got some work done on the house…got the tuck pointing finished on the brick on the porch and have worked on watering the lawn a little but I still do need to buy a cheap little sprinkler so I don’t have to use the nozzle on the hose supported by blocks to water it….have been looking for one of those little ones with a turret that has different holes for different shapes but haven’t been able to find one…and that’s weird….oh, and I got a text from my youngest son that his wife is getting close to delivering and they are thinking of inducing labor so it could be any day now…and I am a little excited about that…and he made me laugh when he told me he is growing a “dad” mustache and he thinks he looks like me from when I was younger…I always had a mustache then and I think it’s kind of cool that he thinks of me….that made me smile…
All posts by James DeVol
July 28th
Well…another morning of getting up at 3:37 and I’m pretty damn tired…but, my foot doesn’t hurt at all and the swelling is improved too so I’ll take that…it feels weird to be able to walk without pain but everything else hurts but I guess small progress is all I can hope for right now…yeah, I know, I could take something for it but you know how much I avoid that since I do like to have working kidneys….and I know part of the pain is from pulling all of the crab grass out of the back yard and the abuse that it did to my thumb…and I really expected to hurt worse from all of the bending over but I think it helped stretch my hamstrings and that helps on the bike…I did do the full 36 miles yesterday even though I’ve been trying to convince myself to take a day off but the weather didn’t cooperate by giving me an excuse….so that means I’ll need to rig up my sprayer for the front yard today so I don’t lose it to the heat and drought…I think I figured out what was wrong with the receiver on the garage door not having any power…just some corroded wires that I cleaned up and it has been working fine for the past two weeks…but that means the new receiver that I ordered from depot has to be returned and it just got here and I haven’t even picked it up yet…I wonder how that is going to go? Not going to spend 37 bucks for nothing, though…not much to do today…I am going to test out my foot on a ladder out front today to get some grout repair done and start working on the last of the trim around the front porch and maybe even start prepping the gutters on the garage to paint them…the weather is going to be a little cooler so I need to take advantage of it….more later….
Things got a little better today…
Well…it seems that nothing is easy anymore, even ordering checks from my bank. Back in June, I ordered checks for my checking account since I was down to the last booklet and I write a lot more checks since I moved in here….so the whole thing turned into a fiasco with the check company sending the checks to my old address for some reason and they just disappeared…the company said they were sent on the 2nd of July but I had still not seen them this past Friday so I called to find out what had happened and the person I talked to freaked out that I hadn’t gotten them and cancelled all 140 checks…but he couldn’t get the charge for them removed or order me new checks so I had to go over to my branch to get that done this morning. The woman I talked to was quite a bit of help and took care of everything in about 5 minutes and also changed my checking account to a better one since I keep a high balance in it and that gave me free checks so I got my 30 bucks back and didn’t have to pay for the new ones…and getting it straightened out was basically painless other than the drive over there. So, things got a little better today…oh, and I finally remembered to change the address on my car insurance so I’ll get the bill and can pay it on time…and that only took about a minute so that was cool….still haven’t gotten my new tabs yet but the expiration has been extended until Sept 30 so that should give them enough time to get them to me….I’ll probably start working on on them in a month or so just to guarantee that I get them on time…I’ll take the baby steps…
There are still funny things in the world…
Well…okay, have been quite down lately but I can still appreciate that there are still funny things in the world. Just the other day when hurricane Harvey hit Texas one of those funny things happened…you remember that the idiot trump boasted and boasted about his “big beautiful, strongest wall in the world full of high tech that the world had never seen in a wall”….well, that big , beautiful, strongest wall in the world just got blown down by 60 mph winds…it just collapsed like every other piece of crap that trump has ever built…and I find that not only funny but perfectly descriptive of trump…every damn thing he touches turns to crap….if only all he touched was just the wall…but his tiny little stubby fingers are in healthcare, the pandemic, and everything else in this country and the results are all the same…nothing but crap where everyone but the idiot gets hurt…cripes, November 3rd can’t come quick enough…
July 27th
Well…running a little early this morning with getting up at 5:23 and not sleeping worth a damn…and the rain that I was counting on to keep me off the bike fell apart coming across the lake so it looks like I’ll be back at the grind here in a few minutes…but, I don’t want to…don’t really want to do anything today….at least my foot doesn’t hurt so I guess that’s something….and I noticed that I have reached the last hole in my belt when I was going out for the paper yesterday and that means I’ve lost about 2 inches off my waist this summer which normally I would be happy about but who cares? Didn’t get a lot done yesterday but work outside on a few things and I think I’m going to have to water the front lawn today just to keep it alive until the next rain that who knows when is going to come? This damn weather is just wearing me out….I can’t remember a summer where it has been over 90 so much and doesn’t cool off much overnight….everything is so damn sticky all the time with the high humidity and it is almost impossible to get relief from it…and yet I’ll be out on the bike in a minute sweating my butt off because I don’t know what else to do…not much to do today….sweat, sweat, and sweat some more and I’m going to try to work on the outside of the house some to see if my foot will hold up to it…it’s kind of nice to be able to get my shoes on without trouble but I know that will end if I’m out in the heat and on my feet too much….more later…
Another depressing day…
Well…it’s been another depressing day in a depressing week that is turning into a depressing life and I’m sure I don’t like it much…not getting anything accomplished with the damn heat and knowing that if I work in it it’s going to flare my foot again and I’ll be off my feet for another week…but I need to get off my ass and finish this house soon since all of my efforts now need to be focused on finding a house that I feel is going to be impossible with the weird assed housing market right now…prices are exploding and I’m pretty sure I’m priced out of the market…houses that were going for 120K a couple of months ago are now priced over 150K and that’s too rich for me….and the prospect of going back into an apartment at my age is just too ugly to contemplate….so, I’ve got about 5 months to figure something out….and the stress from all of that is always in the back of my head so I can’t really enjoy anything anymore….I’m getting too old for this crap…and my option of just pulling up stakes for somewhere else is gone with two of my kids expecting grandkids and I do want to be part of their lives…so taking what cash is left and moving to Costa Rica is off the table….I don’t even enjoy getting on the bike anymore but I still do it because I’m supposed to and I have a goal that I need to meet…don’t even care about that anymore…can you tell I’m depressed? I can….and my sunflowers are dying and my three important plants out back are dying, too and I’m not sure why that would be…and my tomatoes are dying to the point that I’ll probably get a dozen tomatoes off 20 plants and that is depressing too….should probably just pull them all out so I don’t have to take care of them anymore…have already pulled out 6 of them that weren’t growing any tomatoes on them and chopped down 6 sunflowers that were attacked by that damn squirrel and a couple that were just mutated and weren’t going to blossom….oh, well…I’ll get over it in time…and maybe something will happen that will lift the depression…what that would be, I don’t know but it’s happened every time and just took time….so I wait….
The economy is not going to recover…
Well….how’s that for a click bait headline? I wanted to add “until the virus is controlled” but that telegraphs a little too much so I didn’t. But it is true…you just need to take a look at Florida where the outbreak is uncontrolled and unemployment is skyrocketing to see it….who the hell is going to go out and spend money (other than the maga assholes) when there are 15,000 new cases a day and the government is doing nothing to stop it? Even here in Michigan where we were down to around 150 cases a day has seen them jump to over 600 a day with the re-opening of bars and people relaxing their social distancing that got us in control of the virus. So, the bars are closed again and more restrictions are in place for mask wearing in all stores to try to stop the increases…and even here, old people like me are not going out to the restaurants that are still open and even youngsters are apprehensive of trying to go back to their old lives so they don’t spend money either. Without demand, the economy is not coming back any time soon…ignoring the virus continues to make the economy worse across the country so we need to concentrate on controlling it first, and no amount of wishful thinking by the idiot trump or his toady governors is going to change that…and opening the schools and turning them into huge virus incubators that is going to kill teachers and children is not going to help anything…especially since the repubs don’t want to pay for safety measures that could possibly protect our vulnerable children…of course they don’t, once you’re born, you’re on you own with these assholes….
July 26th
Well…running really late today and it was just a choice…I remembered to come here but only after I was suited up to go out on the bike so I decided to go out instead…so, here I am late as normal for Sunday….and it was another 3:40 morning with only fitful sleep after that so I am still a little worn out today….and I need to get back on the bike in a few minutes so I can get the second ride done before Man U plays t 11:00…jut talked to my daughter and she and her husband just bought 80,000 dollars worth of new cars and that is pretty cool…so glad they are doing so well….my foot doesn’t hurt much again today but the redness is coming back and that normally means my toe will hurt here in a while…have been taking vitamin c and lots of water to try to avoid it but we’ll see…I did make the pulled pork in the instant pot yesterday and made a southern vinegar based thin sauce that I will be trying today….very spicy with cayenne and red pepper flakes but it tastes good…but I only had two small sandwiches for the whole day yesterday so that may be one reason why I was struggling on the bike on the first ride…damn, I need to get going…it’s already 9:15 and I need to get ride two in….more later…
July 25th
Well….crap, another 5:15 morning after going to bed late too so that means less than 5 hours…again…and getting up at that time always reminds me of the Who song from Quadrophenia….I may have reached the point where I have to take it a little easy on the bike for a few days or take a day off completely with the overall pain I have been feeling the past few days…I hurt everywhere and have been running out of energy so much lately that I even cut the second ride short yesterday and only did 34 miles for the day. And something I’m allergic to just bloomed yesterday and left me coughing and with a plugged up head on the second ride and I am still feeling it this morning even with taking something for it last night….that could be why I felt so lousy yesterday…I guess we’ll see when I get out this morning….I think I’m just finally feeling my age and can’t go like I used to…but, I’m not willing to accept that just yet. I made up a new rub for some pork shoulder and tried it out on a small piece off the 7 pounder I bought this week…tasted great but I forgot to put the brown sugar in it but I will do that for the rest of it I’m cooking in the instant pot for lunch…going to make some pulled pork sandwiches out of it and then think about what else I can use 5 pounds of pork for….thinking of trying a vinegar based thin mustard sauce like they do in SC but I’ll have to look that up…and the pulled pork should go great with the jalpeno pickles I made the other day….not much to do today…I did chase the damn squirrel that is attacking my sunflowers yesterday and I m going to try to hit him with a rock if I see him today…and I got some other outdoor work done but I really need to get at the garage soon…but, not this weekend…I am going to take the weekend off except for cleaning and cooking and try to heal up and get back at it hard Monday….and I will get to a political one later today…just have been hovering on the edge of depression the past week or so and that makes it hard to focus and make sense here….more later…
they just hate Americans…
Well…watch what happens over the next few days with the repubs and the next relief bill and you will see how much these assholes hate Americans. While every reputable economist is calling for much more help for working Americans who are facing eviction or losing their houses since they can’t pay the mortgage with being out of work and the economy undergoing a “dead cat bounce” on the way to an even more severe recession as the virus rages across the country and the stimulus payments expire, the repubs just can’t help themselves and have loaded this next bill up with business bailouts while slashing the aid to individuals….with no work and no aid, there are potentially 20 million Americans that will face homelessness if nothing is done. But does that matter to the repubs? Nope, not at all as they go on and on about the extra unemployment payments keeping people from working for work since they can make more money staying home than going back to the crappy jobs they were laid off from….and the repubs can’t get it through their heads that there are no damn jobs…40 million Americans have filed for unemployment because their jobs are gone…have the repubs magically created 40 million jobs while no one was looking? Yeah…that’s a big no damn way and typical repub magic thinking…as the economy dives again with the virus surge and the cuts to aid hit and further kill demand for anything since no one will have any money they will be willing to spend. So, of course, the repubs will blame someone other than themselves for the tanking economy…after all, “I take no responsibility” is the repubs new mantra…..throw them all out…