Well…it’s a little weird that I woke up at 5:17 this morning and my brain cheered “alright” that it wasn’t 4:33 so maybe that’s progress and heading to getting out of bed at 6am? It’s going to be a busy day and I’ll be running all day with needing to get the indoor stuff done, then a run out to the bank to get cash for Monday, and then yard work including the first mowing of the lawn since the front is getting pretty long…I’m holding my breath to see if the 50 bucks of seed will actually sprout and if I’ve fixed the mower…I guess we’ll see…going to hope that my riding shoes have dried up after riding through 9 inches of flood on the trail yesterday…may not be able to get an outdoor ride in today since it’s only going to be 52 and windy and I’m already sore without doing any work yet…so there will be ibuprofen in my future…have no leftovers after finishing them up yesterday so I will have to cook something but don’t want to tackle the masala after all the stuff I need to do today…but I may make it for dinner if I can muster the energy…I would say not much to do today but that’s not the case…going to get running here in 45 minutes and won’t stop until the yard is done…more later…

Well…stumbled upon a documentary about the making of “The Dark side of the Moon” yesterday that I’ve never seen and it focused on one of my favorite songs from that album, “the Great Gig in the Sky”…that song never fails to trigger emotions in me especially now that I’m getting closer to that time when it will happen to me…I especially liked the extended interview with Clare Torry and what it was like to come in out of nowhere and do one of the most moving singing that I have ever heard…and you know that this song is about how someone deals with death and even though it’s wordless, she captures the rage and then acceptance that comes with someone close dying…and when she describes the first take and then the second which was used on the record…and then her stopping in the middle of the 3rd saying “I think you’ve got enough” and walking away, she knew she’d done what they needed…but it was funny that she didn’t even know they had used her singing until she walked into a record store and heard the song playing…still my favorite Pink Floyd song of all time written by Rick Wright…

Well…that didn’t work…really tried to stay in bed til after 5am but 4:50 came and I just couldn’t lie there anymore…decided to take my BP this morning after skipping it for a while but I was curious to see if the no cocktails was helping and it appears it is…117/74 is not bad and that was before any BP meds…I may even skip the meds for a few days and see what it’s like without them…it raining again and it’s going to be doing that off and on until this aft so there will be an indoor ride to get me started and then I’ll try to get an outdoor one in after lunch…I did get the front of the yard seeded yesterday and tomorrow is going to be work on the yard day with raking the fencelines and doing the first mowing since the front is getting pretty long…and with 4 books left, I won’t have to hit the library til Monday and that will go with the 4/20 errand…so I need to get some cash out of the bank…and that means going inside the bank since the damn atm is too high to reach in my car…going to have to insulate the outdoor faucet Sat night sine it’s going to get down to 31 and I don’t want the new valve to freeze…it is just wrong to have 31 degrees this far into April…what’s next, snow in May? At least it’s not the 56 day drought like 2 years ago…not much to do today…the leftovers will finally be over so I’ll need to figure out meals and clean some…more later…

Well…damn, out of bed at 4:33 today and have poured the first cup of coffee before 5am and there just seems to be something wrong with that…I don’t think I’ll ever get back to sleeping to 6am or later and I know that 6 hours total with tossing and turning all night is not enough…oh, well…it looks like it will be raining all day today so the possibility of getting outdoors on the bike is pretty small and I can use an easy day after working my butt off yesterday…I probably should clean the bathroom today or the kitchen, not sure which but I know my microwave is going to be cleaned….need to take the chicken out for masala today to be ready to cook Friday or Saturday and then plan what the second meal will be…haven’ had pasta in forever so that may be the choice…need to see if I’m able to taste garlic bread and if not, that sucks…going to have to mow the lawn soon and get the fencelines raked…the yard waste pickup has started so I can fill a big bag and have a place for the clippings and sticks to go…it’s going to freeze again Sunday so I’ll have to figure out how to insulate the outdoor faucet so I don’t lose the new valve I put on when I opened the tap…god, I hate the frickin cold…the high is only going to be 40 and the low is 30 and that could freeze everything…crap…at least it won’t kill any new grass that comes up…not much to do today…just an indoor ride and then cleaning so I will have the chance to read today….more later…

Well…have been running since 6:30am but it’s now 1pm and I am done for the day…it started with an indoor ride since it was raining and then straight out to run errands and I was able to put the top down on the car and that was fun…I had a guy stop at Menards and told me the car looked like fun and I had to agree with him…bought some really expensive bluegrass seed that has a coating that absorbs moisture and keeps it in the seed as it germinates so I’m hoping that will work with the dry times out here…but it’s going to rain off and on for the next week so maybe the patches I seeded this morning will grow…I also put weed killer on since the weeds were perilously close to taking over the yard…I’m still finishing off the coffee at 1:15 pm so you know it’s been too busy to drink it earlier…even got an outdoor ride in with just a t-shirt and shorts on and that was fun…but I’m used up and need to rest a bit and read some to recharge…it’s warm enough to open the windows a bit and air this place out…yay!

Well…up and running at 5am again today and I still haven’t had a good nights sleep since I started this boozeless journey…but I still feel so much better that I’ll keep this up maybe forever…got a lot done yesterday and it’s going to be another busy one today with doing the grocery/menards run since I need to get grass seed and topsoil so I can start working on the bare patches in the lawn…it’s raining right now so the ride will be indoors to start but I’ll try to get and outdoor one in later…I do need to get the weed killer on the lawn today so reading is going to take a backseat…I hope it stops raining before I head out so I can put the top down on the car…it’s already 54 out there so that is warm enough for that…would like to get some patches started since it’s going to rain almost every day this week and that will help get them get growing…still have leftover pork shoulder for a few days but I do need to plan for the masala and I think I’ll take the chicken out for it…aldis has boneless/skinless chicken thighs on sale but I really should eat out of the freezer instead…I guess we’ll see…more later…

Well…man, this has been a busy day starting at 7:30 when I went out for the only ride of the day…and as soon as I got back here, I started on the garage and car and working on that til after noon…got the garage swept out that took me an hour and got rid of a bunch of crap that had been piling up in there…and then I did the car from top to bottom starting with the wheels using the armor all wheel cleaner that is the best one I’ve ever found…actually the first one I’ve ever found that would clean the wheels…then I cleaned the interior of car, did the glass, and washed and waxed it and it looks pretty damn good after winter had really trashed it…need to get on the lawn as soon as I have a couple of hour window so I can get the weed killer on before the damn things take it over again…and I’m hoping that will be tomorrow… and then I need to rake the fence lines and get the string trimmer out along with re assembling the mower so I can do the first cut and vacuuming of the year…I do need to get some grass seed since the blight really hit the lawn hard and that will take most of the summer to fix…oh, well…so I guess I better get my reading in so I can be ready to get out tomorrow…

Well…up before 5am today and that is about normal lately…feel okay after the 8th day of not drinking and I think that is the new normal that I don’t need to think about anymore…I was a little curious how being dry affected my BP and it appears pretty good…115/70 and I’m hoping I can get back into the single digits as time goes on…lots of work to get done today and it’s warm enough to ride outdoors but I’ll probably do one ride as I want to get the garage swept out and the car cleaned from top to bottom…and that means a total vacuum, the glass cleaned and rainx’d, washing the interior, and then waxing it and that will take a couple of hours…still not going to be too warm but I can live with it being in the 50’s…and I got the outdoor faucet opened up yesterday and I think I’ll wash the bike, too as I do with the leftover car wash in the bucket…and I do have to use the wheel cleaner that I found last year that works like a champ and the car wash soap that is easy on the paint…still have leftover pork shoulder that will last a few more days but I’ll have to do some meal planning for later in the week…and I know that will be Masala…really don’t have much to get on the grocery run since I need to empty the freezer before I get anything else…more later…

Well…when I got up this morning, the plan was to get two rides in outdoors since it was already 48 degrees and that is plenty warm to go out…but, once I got the first ride almost completed the wind came up to 35 and I was struggling to get back here…and it got even worse when I got to the top of the climb up to here I broke a spoke in the rear wheel which stuck into the chain and damn near pitched me off the bike…so I crippled the bike back here and got to work replacing it with one from the wheel that broke and that was a long process since you have to remove the tire and tube and the rear cassette to get access to it…so I put it all back together and re trued the wheel and reassembled the bike but the wind was still blowing like crazy so I parked the bike with 13 miles in for the day…but it was warm enough to fit the new valve to the outside water tap and climb in the crawlspace to turn the water on…man, I’m getting too old to fold myself through a 2×2 foot door and I really hurt myself doing it…I did clean all the crap out of the space so at least there are no more old paint cans or bug killer in there…so I can do a complete clean on the car tomorrow if it isn’t raining…need to wax it and clean the interior and rainx the windows…race time…