Well…I knew it rained a lot here Tuesday when I noticed that the animal water container was full to overflowing when I only filled to half full…and I just read in the news that we got 3.35 inches of rain in that storm…that’s a hell of a lot of rain for a few hours and it even flooded US 31 under the overpass near my house and they had to close it with 4 feet of water there…yow! But that still won’t help my yard at all since it’s built on sand and all of the water just drains through when it rains…but I’ll take whatever we can get…I did order some stuff for the Italy trip today… another pair of shorts, a power converter that gives me American outlets when I plug it in to European electricity…and I also added another kilo of espresso beans since I could still get them for 14 bucks…I needed the shorts since it’s supposed to be near 80 for a high in September in Italy and there is no way I’m walking around in jeans…and that stuff will be here between 4 and 8am tomorrow…now I just need to do an early check in with Southwest for my trip to Richmond to hang with my daughter for a couple of days before we fly to Italy…might look for a couple more shirts to take with me since I only have 5 and I’ll be gone 2 weeks…maybe we’ll have a hotel with a laundry again like we did in Scotland…that would be cool…

Well…damn, I don’t know how I’m doing it but I didn’t get up til almost 6am this morning but I don’t feel better from it..it’s only 56 degrees out there so I’ll have to wear a modified thermasuit this morning…okay, a long sleeved shirt…that’s not as dramatic sounding…I think I did get the hornet thing sorted since there aren’t any downstairs but I’ll have to take a look outside when it gets light…got every little crack and crevice cemented over yesterday so there is no way for them to get back in…or out for that matter…so, I’m not getting on the bike til almost 7am since I do need more coffee and to toast a bagel to have some fuel for the rides…not sure what else I have to do today…made another jar of pickles and one of pickled red onions y3esterday and I added a bit to that recipe to give it some bite…a little cayenne pepper just like I add to the pickles…need to be able to taste something…added the 2% milk that I bought yesterday to my coffee but I can’t taste any difference…maybe I will when I drink it for lunch…who knows? not much to do today…need to clean the kitchen and probably will with nothing else on the agenda but putting brush killer on the crappy shrub so I don’t have to keep trimming it…and I do need to cut the perennials down and clean up the side and back of the house that I can now get to without the damn hornets swarming….more later…

Well…up at 5:10 this morning to be able to get out to get the rides in before the grocery run…and I had to hit menards for brush killer and bug spray before I went to aldis and Meijers and then to the library…where two of the 4 books I got are repeaters and that sucks…so I wonder if I’ll go to the library again or just not read for a bit…haven’t read much of anything today since I had to continue to work on getting rid of the hornets…plugged up the inside holes with cement before I did the same with the entrance holes outside and I hope that will finally get rid of them…at least the ones that are out in the wild can’t get back in now but I’ll keep an eye on it anyway…it did rain like crazy last night for almost 3 hours and the trail was flooded and I soaked my shoes which won’t dry for days…oh, well…and I made another batch of pickled red onions and pickles and now I’m about done for the day…I do have to cook for dinner and I’m making a small ham with mashed potatoes and corn and I really should get on peeling the potatoes right now and then grind the beans for tomorrow’s coffee…man, it has been busy but one thing I learned is that I can amuse myself without a book going…oh, I tried my new shoes for Italy on the grocery run and they are pretty comfy and they even look stylish which is not me at all…still need to breaking in but not as much as leather ones do…okay, peeling potatoes…

Well…up early today but this is the plan for the day…want to get the rides in before the grocery run so I need to get on the bike at 6am and that give me a half hour until then…it’s going to be a busy morning with hitting 4 stores…or maybe 3 not sure yet since DD hasn’t updated it’s ad yet and I’m not going there until I know what’s on sale…going to wear the new shoes out for the run to start breaking them in before Italy….and I confirmed that my Capital One card can be used in Italy with no fees or any of that bullshit just like the UK trip…lucky I chose that card that gives me cash back, too…worked on getting the damn hornets taken care of and will keep working on that today to get to the point that I can cement up the holes they’re using….I must have killed a couple of hundred of them yesterday….not sure what I’m going to do after the grocery run and hitting the library today but I should clean the kitchen…and I need to heat up the little ham I got last week along with making some mashed potatoes to go with it and that will be enough food to last through the weekend with the leftover chicken in the fridge…and I’m going to get more so I’ll have protein to eat…it did rain pretty hard here last night and it lasted for at least three hours which we really needed..puddles on the trail this morning…okay, need to pour more coffee and start prepping to get on the bike….more later…

Well…damn, I started the day out late with not getting out of bed til 6:04 and that really stressed me out even though I still got everything I wanted to do done…so how strange is that? I mean cripes, I have no damn schedule anymore and yet there I am struggling to “catch up” as the day started…shaking my head about that one…but I did get the rides in and saw the turkey family again…twice…and the little ones are getting pretty big…and fast…but they have to stop trying to cross the busy street up to the beach…they almost got whacked by some idiot in a Lincoln going 50 in a 25 zone…I did get the trim on the garage door painted so I don’t have to look at the peeling but next summer I’m going to do it all again with better paint so it will last a couple of years…had the hornets back again today but I think I killed most of them..going to keep up spraying until they are gone and then cement up the holes they are using so they won’t come back…still not exhausted again today so that’s a good thing…and it may rain tonight…ha,ha…I don’t know why I keep saying that with the last 5 times it was forecast we got nothing so I think I’m on solid ground to laugh…no book to read but I think I’ll go out and read some news…

Well….damn, that was weird…didn’t get out of bed til 6:04 this morning and it has to be all the work I did yesterday and running all morning…but I’ll take it other than I should be out on the bike getting the rides in but that won’t happen until 7am or so now but that will still give me time to work on the garage door and get it painted in time for it to dry before the rain comes in later today…still don’t have my regular energy but it’s better so I’ll take it…but that means I’ll have to eat a lot again today and that is going to be harder since I’m not eating before I get on the bike…it is nice to have the whole yard done but I should start taking the perennials down so I can put them out with the trash next week but I’ve got a week so it doesn’t have to happen today…it’s going to be strange getting out when it’s light out there after going out in the dark for more than a week but that’s okay…need to stop being so rigid about my daily schedule…need some time to relax and just wing it but that’s harder than it looks…so today is going to be a little easier than yesterday but I still want to get some stuff done…need to get the grocery list put together and figure out what can go in the freezer after getting it half empty…have thawed a lot of food that will keep me going for the rest of the week…more later…

Well…not sure if I had more energy today or it came from working my butt off this morning…got the rides in and then right into all the yard work of edging my sidewalks, running the string trimmer on the fencelines, and then mowing the lawn…but, after I was done with that, it was still only 10:18 so I loaded up the car and went to the beach to get a swim in…and I was still back here by 12:15 for lunch…and I’m not exhausted like I was yesterday…but I still do need to do the weight work but I’m thinking this should be an off day after wrestling the equipment around for an hour and a half…so, I guess we’ll see…it was probably the nicest day at the beach with temps in the high 70’s, low humidity, and a nice breeze blowing to keep me cool…and the water was the best it’s been this year…just cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough so I could stay in for a half hour…so, a pretty good day today and I still have a little bit of a book to read….time to go back to it…

Well…up at 5:00 am again today and the exhaustion I was feeling yesterday is still here and the only way I know how to help that is to pour a lot of coffee down me…so that’s what I’m doing…I guess we’ll see how it works…I did make another pot this morning to go with the leftovers from yesterday that I’m starting out with…and that will leave me with enough to fill the contego for the 2nd ride…slept the same crappy sleep I have been for years so I’m not going to talk about that…have a lot of work to do today after the rides but that seems like too much with how I’m feeling…I think I may have to lighten the riding up to see if that helps…after all, I’ve been doing 26 miles a day since April and my body could use a light day…but then I’ll feel guilty and it will ruin the rest of the day…still no rain here for weeks so I’ll only have to mow the front today…but the rest of the lawn is looking shaggy in spots so I guess we’ll see…I do need to cement over the hornet holes today, too but that will only take about 5 minutes to add to the painting…still should be done by 11 or so but resting doesn’t help so I’m not sure what I’ll do…I do know that I used up all the leftovers yesterday and need to cook some chicken so I’ll have sandwich material to have with the pasta salad…I’ll need to thaw some pork loin fillets to have later so I need to get those out of the freezer before I head out on the bike….more later…

Well…spent another day exhausted and I am starting to wonder is exhaustion normal for someone as old as me? Have had no energy all day and even lying on the couch reading seemed to be a lot of work…took a short nap this afternoon of about 15 minutes and that didn’t help at all…I ate a ton of food today starting with a toasted bagel with cream cheese for breakfast…2 dogs and a good sized helping of the pasta salad I made this morning, and then a pork chop with mashed potatoes and corn for dinner…that has to be 1,500 calories or so and that should be more than enough to not feel so damn tired…and I’m even going to have a snack later of ham, swiss and triscuits so that should put me well over what I need…oh, well…didn’t do any work today but I’ll get back to it tomorrow with edging the front lawn and mowing it but won’t do the rest of it since it doesn’t need it…so that will give me time to prep and paint the garage door trim and finish up the outdoor work for the summer….I was out on the bike before 6am this morning and it was really, really dark…I may have to buy a light for the bike if I keep that up…and I really need to to have the rides done before 8:30 so I can get on with the rest of the work…okay, done for the day and need to find something to watch….

Well…up at about the normal time of 5:15 today and I didn’t really sleep too well but that’s pretty normal, too…ned to get on the bike in a half hour or so and need to make sure I eat something before I go…legs have been going flat about halfway through the 2nd ride and I’m pretty sure it’s from not eating before I go out..but who knows? It could just be from getting old and that will suck it it’s true…stayed above 70 overnight but there doesn’t look like any beach weather this week with highs in the 70’s and cloudy for most of the week…but I’m going to try to get out there a few times to end my summer…didn’t get anything done yesterday and I’m not holding out hope that I’ll do better today…need to prep to garage door trim so I can paint it this week and then the outdoor painting will be done for the year…have some black mold on the west side windows on the house and I just need to spray them with some bleach solution to fix that and I’ll do that today…but I really don’t have any motivation to do more…going to make some pasta salad this afternoon so I’ll have a side to go with whatever else I’ll be cooking starting tomorrow after I use up the leftovers today…I salvaged the celery I need for the pasta by cutting off the bottom of the stalk and putting it in water which firmed it up to usable…time to get moving…more later…