All posts by James DeVol

October 22nd

Well…running early today and my back is hurting again…crap….had been hoping it would continue to be okay but no such luck….slept okay last night but feel a little slow this morning…I know I didn’t eat enough yesterday but it is becoming harder to eat when I never feel hungry….I did have fun yesterday getting my fall drive in and I’m glad I did it….today will start the rain and it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow, too…so it looks like a day off the bike….I am going to get out today as soon as the sun comes up but it is already really windy out there….at least I have brakes on the bike again….not much to do today…I have been saying I’m going to clean and today I might….or I might not…who knows?

No politics today…

Well….as you can see, I didn’t come back for another one and part of it is I just forgot…had some stuff in my head when I was on the bike but got distracted….I did get a two park color tour in today…60 miles just screwing around since it looks like today was going to be the last warm day this year that it won’t be raining…and it is supposed to rain the next 4 days or so….the new brakes on the bike are working pretty good if I use both of them….I do miss the disc brakes on the mountain bike…only ever had to use the back brake and it just stopped….but, I think I am going to wait until next year to buy a new one….okay, the Michigan game is starting so I think I’ll watch that….

October 21st

Well…running a little early today…have been up for 45 minutes and I am bored already…so that’s why I’m here this early….had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get a lot done but putting the new brakes on the bike….not sure if I’ll do better today since I want to take a color tour drive today after the Man U game at 10….it is kind of weird to sit here waiting for the sun to come up to get on the bike…it is warm enough but just dark….slept okay last night and I feel better than I should but I still have a little cough that is annoying….and I feel a little slow to go with it but I’m not sure what the reason is…okay, I do…but I’m not going to talk about that….more later….

Got the new brakes…

Well….the new brakes for the bike came today and I just installed them….I can use the center pull brake levers again and it even stops just using them….so that worked out pretty cool…I was feeling a little concerned how the brakes were working…or not working on the fast downhills and the pads were leaving black crap on everything…. and vibrating so badly that the front wheel would go into a death wobble….I guess 40 years is the limit for the pads, huh? I’ll give the new ones a good test tomorrow when I get out early…and the new pads even came with new, metal valve caps that have rubber seals inside of them to keep the air from leaking out…pretty cool for 10 bucks total…and no shipping charge…

Another thing about Kelly…

Well…if you haven’t yet seen Lawrence O’Donnell comment from last night about Kelly’s screed and attack on Congresswoman Wilson, you should go out and find it…it really put some background to the racist attack…but, that’s not what I wanted to talk about now….one little detail of Kelly’s speech flew under the radar and I think I need to make sure it doesn’t…during the speech, Kelly basically said that the only people that have the right to comment on anything about the military are people who have served or lost a family member who was serving in the military…now, to use Kelly’s favorite word, I am “stunned” that a person who has sworn an oath to protect the constitution would so casually discard the protections that come from the first amendment…we ALL get to talk about anything we want and being in the military doesn’t make you better or give you more rights than the rest of us…which is what he implied when trying to smear Congresswoman Wilson…this is just bullshit…I have had enough of the military fetishism in this country and  that soldiers are to be “revered”…yeah, they do a tough job at times but so do a lot of people….so enough of this crap…a line from one of Graham Nash’s songs just ran through my head as I was writing this…”military madness is killing this country”.

Kelley is no different than trump…

Well….I know there have been many in the media that said that the idiot trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, was going to be the adult in the room that would rein in trump but that was just so much bullshit. With his nasty, lying press conference yesterday, he has shown that he is no different than trump…going out there with the pure intent of smearing Congresswoman Wilson, who was in the car when the idiot trump said “he knew what he signed up for” to the widow of a soldier killed a month ago in Africa. His smear included that he was “shocked” that she listened to the phone call…but the one thing that Kelly purposely  ignores in his smear campaign is that they were in a car heading to the airport to pick up the slain soldiers body and the phone was on speaker….what was Congresswoman Wilson supposed to do? Put her fingers in her ears and go la, la, la so she wouldn’t hear it? This entire debacle was caused by trump starting the lying when he said he never said “he knew what he signed up for” when there were at least 4 people in the car that heard him….but it was the ugly, poisoned trump administration and it’s attack dog Kelley that made it so much worse….these people are not fit to even live in the US let alone run it….just damn resign already…all of you…impeach…

October 20th

Well…running a little late today…didn’t get up til 7 and that is really late for me….and I don’t feel that hot today….my lungs are scratchy and I have been coughing…yeah, that has been going on for a week now and I’m not sure what is going on….had some problems with the bike yesterday that I finally figured out and had a nice ride….going to stop talking about my back since it has been good for over a week now and that is a relief…..didn’t get anything done yesterday other than a little cleaning but I need to do more today….going to work on the car today for a bit and I need to get out to the bank for some cash since I have 2 bucks in my pocket…..was going to wash the car today but it’s going to rain over the weekend so I think I’ll wait…more later….

Thank you, Chef Andres….

Well…with the trump administration’s racist abandonment of the people of Puerto Rico…leaving over 80% of them without electricity and almost 50% of them without food or water….there have been private citizens who have stepped in to try to keep people alive that I want to recognize since they have been doing this with little fanfare…just hard work and caring. One of these private citizens is Chef Jose Andres who took it upon himself to do something, to provide food for the people who have none….and his organization has opened over a dozen kitchens in Puerto Rico and have provided over a million meals in the past three weeks…more than twice what the federal government or the Red Cross has done….and this is not the first time he has thrown his entire being and all of his connections  into relief efforts…he did the same thing for Houston after hurricane Harvey and stayed there until people could survive on their own…and he did it again for the people of Mexico after the huge earthquake there. One of the things I found inspiring was when Chef Andres said that he will stay until he is no longer needed….until things are recovered enough so people don’t need him anymore…contrast that to the idiot trumps response that relief efforts can’t be open ended and they cost too much….so, thank you Chef Andres…you are a true human being….

October 19th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday and I got a few things done…sorted out the credit card thing with the bank and should have one coming next week…the first step in getting my credit restored….slept really crappy last night but don’t feel it too much this morning so that’s a plus….and my back is not hurting for the 5th day now and that is a relief….well…it doesn’t hurt a lot but it does still twinge some…I think I’ve decided to wait on getting the new brakes for the car until spring…there is still plenty of pad left so I’ll just have to grease the pins next week before it turns cold…or, I may even do that tomorrow if it doesn’t rain….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I will clean today…need to cook today, too…think I’ll have chicken for lunch or make a stir fry….more later….

Trump is an oafish buffoon…

Well…if you thought that the idiot trump could sink no lower, you were really, really wrong….he did it again yesterday when he was shamed into calling the wife of a soldier who was killed two weeks ago in Africa…after lying that he always calls the families of fallen soldiers, he really did call one yesterday…and he is so damn dumb and lacks any shred of empathy that he said this: “..he knew what he signed up for…but when it happens it hurts anyway…” and, after the call, the grieving wife said that he didn’t even know her husband’s name. Now, in any universe, is this the right thing to say to a grieving wife who was 5 minutes from seeing the casket come off the plane? Trump just frickin has to go…every day he stays in office shrinks the presidency and our standing in the world so much it probably won’t be repaired in my lifetime…..what an oafish buffoon…impeach…