Well…that was better…didn’t get out of bed til almost 6am this morning and that makes it a huge success in my book…and I slept okay and feel okay right now and that’s without any coffee…but I just poured a cup and I’m going to chug that one to get me started…it looks like I have an easy morning ahead of me since it’s only 50 out there and I am going to wait for the temp to come up before I get on the bike and that won’t happen til 9am so I have some time to ease into the day…and it is foggy out there so I have to put the rain gear on when I go…still have three books to read so it looks like I won’t be hitting the library til Friday for more books…the highs are going to be in the 70’s this week so maybe spring is here? Ha, ha…no, the lows are still going to be in the 40’s some days and that is not spring to me..don’t have to cook today with all of the leftover chicken and potatoes I made the other day but I will need to do some meal planning later in the week…have lots of chicken in the freezer so I think I’ll start by thawing some today…not sure what I’m going to make with it but I may just bake it for sandwiches…thought about some chicken fettucinni alfredo and I may do that in a couple of days…we did get rain yesterday and I hope it salvages my lawn but with no rain in the forecast all week, I don’t have much hope….more later…

Well…we have a nice little storm coming through right now at 9:15 am and that has made it an interesting morning…the initial forecast called for rain around 10 am or so and that appeared to give me enough time to get 2 rides in…after the first one, it got so dark here that the street lights came on but the radar said I had an hour before the rain would get here so that motivated me to haul butt on the 2nd ride but I put on my rain gear just in case…when I got out to the beach, the front fender on the bike came loose and fell off so I had to stuff it inside my rain gear to get back since I never carry tools with me… within a minute of getting back and putting the bike in the garage, the sky opened up and the storm started at 8:45…and it’s still thundering like crazy…so, I flipped the bike over and took off the front wheel so it would be easier to put the fender back on and it was after I WD’d it…so now all I have to do is the weight work and reading until Man U plays at 11…

Well…darn, out of bed a little after 5 this morning and need to get moving in a few minutes to get the outdoor rides in before the rain comes in around 10am…so I’ll be on the bike at sunup even though it’s only 51 out there…but we have a nice run of upper 70’s coming all week this week so that will be welcome after the damn cold here…and we did get rain here yesterday that we needed but we’re still inches of rain under the average for this time of the year and I think I’ve lost the lawn for the 4th of 5 years I’ve lived here…oh, well…going to take an ibuprofen here in a minute since I’m still sore as heck and doing 2 outdoor rides is not going to help that…and I do need to eat something before I go out with the light meals I had yesterday not giving me enough calories to fuel the rides…didn’t get anything done but the rides yesterday and cooking but I don’t have to cook today as I need to finish up leftovers of what I made before the chicken yesterday…not much to do today…it’s supposed to be the best race day of the year but with them moving the F1 race and all the rain postponements, it doesn’t appear that they’ll get Indy or the Coke 600 in today…so I guess I’ll just read and watch old movies today…more later…

Well… I did make the chicken/potatoes/carrot Italianish dish today but didn’t put rice in it since I turned it down to low and went out for a bike ride while it cooked…it was still yummy but a little too watery so I’m going to make rice tomorrow and pour the veggies and sauce over it…I did find that I had some green pepper and 3 mushrooms that needed to be used so I put them in, too…and I used my cast iron half dutch oven that my daughter gave me since it gave me plenty of space in it to get all of the food and liquid to cook it…and I did get a nice ride in and the wind was only 15-20 out of the east so that was easy coming back…but tomorrow looks like another day of an indoor ride since it is supposed to rain all morning and that may move the outdoor ride to the afternoon after the Indy 500 ends…still pretty darn sore but didn’t take anything for it with being pretty used to being in pain..both races tonight appear that they are going to be rained out so I may be able to watch “Svengoolie” and an old horror movie…almost took a nap today but the extra coffee I made today wasn’t going to let me…oh, well…and now I have extra coffee for tomorrow…yay!

Well…with the announcement today that Kyle Busch died from a severe case of pneumonia that turned into sepsis, and I remember the same thing almost happened to me…when I was in my 30’s, I came down with what I thought was a cold that just hung on for weeks…and then one night I started to shake uncontrollably and my temp spiked to 104 and I couldn’t breathe so we headed to the hospital and when I got there I was gray and my ox level was down to almost 90% which is usually fatal…they said that if I would have gotten there 15 minutes later, I would have died…luckily, I responded to the tons of antibiotics they filled me with and the full stream of O2…but I was in the hospital for 5 days and when I got out it took me weeks to be able to breathe right again…before they announced it, I knew what killed him since I lived that same thing…and he was just living with the illness how I did and it just got away from him…I feel sorry for his family…

Well…up early this morning to the beautiful sound of rain hitting my siding after not getting any rain here for 16 days…not sure if it will save my lawn but it looks like it’s going to continue for a few hours so the first ride may end up being indoors for the first time in quite a while…and that will be okay after coming back into a 25 mph wind…twice…yesterday and that has left me sore everywhere…so sore that I’m going to take an ibuprofen here in a minute…my hands even hurt from pulling so hard into the wind…it still feels good that I can still do it so I’ll stop bitching now…I did sleep okay and even had a few dreams that I can’t remember and feel pretty good as the coffee goes down pretty easily…the truck race was rained out and was rescheduled for this morning at 8am so I really need to do an indoor ride to keep the string alive until I go to Italy in September…so that means I need to get off my butt and get on the bike by 7am but the weight work needs to be done before that so I’ll have one more cup of coffee before I get started…I do need to cook today and I think I’ll make my chicken, potato, and carrot concoction I make in my big frying pan with pasta sauce and water…haven’t made that in a while and it’s an easy one that I just need to load up and simmer for a couple of hours…need to remember the garlic and bay leaves…and I do need to brown the chicken in olive oil before the veggies and sauce goes in…may even add some rice at the end with some added water to make it even tastier…more later…

Well…up and running at a little after 5:30 this morning and I don’t think of that as a win because I tossed and turned all night..and I just can’t get started but I guess I don’t need to with how cold it is out there and needing to wait until the temp comes up so I can get the rides in…only 46 here right now and the heat is on…again…but maybe that ends today? so, it looks like another morning of just easing into it but I do need to do the weight work since I skipped yesterday to try to get my arms to heal up without a lot of luck…I did order some wiper blades for the car yesterday since I could get a pair of silicone edge ones for 10 bucks which is even cheaper than Ollies…and for 10 bucks I really don’t care how long they last…will probably do the same meals as yesterday and add a bagel this morning to try to keep my body from flaming out on the bike again…I do have chicken in the fridge that needs to be used or frozen and will probably cook a couple of breasts tomorrow…got a letter yesterday saying that my dentist has sold his practice but everything will go on like nothing happened and I’m not sure I believe it…have been with them since I moved out here and I really don’t want to search around for a new one…I guess I’ll give them a chance…not much to do today…just the rides, I guess…I did put the brush killer on the trash trees that are ruining my fence and now I hope it rains to get it started…more later…

Well…I did get the laundry done today but not much else…coming back from the 2nd ride I was just dead on the bike…and I know I whine about this a lot but I don’t think half a chicken breast and two spoonfuls of pasta salad was enough to support riding 26 miles a day for the past week…so today I had a chicken sandwich with some pasta salad for lunch and then 2 pieces of pizza for dinner and that should be enough to get started on tomorrow..it’s been a while since I felt so lousy on the bike but that’s what happens when you balance calorie intake on a fine edge…I did see a tiny, tiny snapping turtle hatchling on the trail today and had to stop to pick it up and move into the grass at Heritage Landing where I think he was heading toward water…have seen quite a few snappers out here and I hope this one survives…the trip to Ollie’s was a bust since they didn’t have anything I wanted but that’s pretty normal…I did put the top down for the errands today and even at 48 degrees it was fun…and I got more books so I’ll have them for the weekend…okay, back to reading…

Well…it’s May 21st and the heat is still coming on here and it’s just wrong for it to be so cold this near to June…41 frickin degrees…so I won’t be getting out to ride until after I run an errand at 9…Ollies has guildan t-shirts for 1.99 and that is a pretty good deal for 100% cotton irregulars…and they have Michelin wiper blades for 4.99 and I can use a pair since I haven’t replaced them since I bought the car…and I need to hit the library since they are closed tomorrow through Monday for the holiday and I don’t have enough books to keep me reading til then…I just discovered that they are not running the Monaco GP this weekend and that screws up my best race day of the year…since I was a kid the race was on Memorial day weekend and I wonder what genius decided to throw that away…stupid, stupid people…so, I have an easy morning with just having the weight work to do before 9am and that means I can sit here and have coffee until then since I’m not doing the rides til later…not sure exactly what I’m going to do for all that time but I may toss some reading in there…the c,b, and v are wearing off the laptop keyboard so I’m going to have to put stick on letters on it so I can see what key is what…how much do you have to use a keyboard to wear the letters off? I guess as much as I do…more later…

Well…have had another busy day today with getting the first ride in when it was still almost dark, then doing the grocery run and stopping at 4 stores, putting gas in the car…yikes! and then getting the second ride in after I got home…it was still pretty chilly when I did the run but I put the top down anyway and my car is starting to be so much fun having such a nice car to fool around in now that I have the clutch sorted…and I almost have the tires balanced but I’ll have to go back to Chuck and get the other two balanced to get it completely fixed…have felt just worn out again today and I think it’s from getting up at 4:31 this morning…my last remaining brother gets up at that time every day but damn, I don’t know he deals with running out of steam later in the day…I do have Tom to thank for clueing me in on how to trim my ratchet belt so it’s not 6 inches too long…took about a minute and I took off 3 1/2 inches and it fits much better now…I even used my kitchen scissors to cut it like he did and they cut through the leather like nothing…so now I don’t have to thread the extra 6 inches through the belt loops…I did get some brush killer at menards this morning and I’m going to dose the trash trees in my fence to get rid of them…not cheap at 17 bucks but getting ride of that trash is worth the money…I did get deals at DD today and may have gone a little overboard with buying 4, 4 cheese self rising pizzas when I still have one in the freezer…but for 1.29 each? I’m making that one tomorrow and then I’ll have to find room to fit the other 4 that are now sitting on top of my ice cube trays…okay time to read a bit…