Well…as you can see, this site has been down for a couple of days while the cloud people did some server work…I guess they ran out of space and had to add more and configure it…so, I’m back…did you miss me? I sure missed coming here and doing this…it left a big hole in my schedule that I tried to fill over on Mastodon but the 500 character limit and my rule against not posting political stuff there just didn’t work out too well…haven’t been sleeping for crap with getting about 4 hours a night for the past three nights and I am exhausted…don’t want to go back to the sleeping pills again so I guess I’ll just live with it…had two meals yesterday but that was too much so I’m back to one today…I am a little challenged when I tried to make bread on Friday and it still looks like a brick so I may add some baking powder to it along with the yeast next time to get it to rise and look like normal bread…won’t have to cook much since I got some stuff at DD this week and will have a roast beef sandwich tomorrow since I got 5 ozs of it for 89 cents….and I am going to have some cheese and crackers with provolone and pastrami tonight so I really don’t need to have a second meal…will try to come back here later for another one….more later…

Well…this morning, after I got the two rides in, I had a couple of errands to run…taking my ballot request over to the the city office dropbox, and then went inside to pay my water bill since I was right there anyway…then over to the library to pick up a book from a recommendation from a writer that I like and they had two from Becky Chambers so I checked out both along with one from Patricia Corwell I haven’t read yet….and it was just so nice that I could park right in front of the city offices and the library and that they are only two blocks apart and only 5 blocks from my house…doing all of the errands only took me 15 minutes…and that is one of the nice things about living in a small town…no traffic and no one else in line at either the offices or library…so now I have three books to read in a couple of weeks…yay! Going to get started on the turkey/lentil curry that I’m making today in a little while….can’t wait to try it….

Well…man, I feel crappy this morning…woke up at three, at 5:10 and refused to get out of bed so I put earplugs in and stayed there til 6:45…but that is making getting going and on the bike by 8 a bit of a chore…need to run an errand this morning to pay the water bill, drop my ballot request off at the drop box, and the go to the library to see if I can get a novel that a writer I follow recommended…then I need to make the next recipe of the three I’m doing this week….still need to watch what I eat to continue the weight loss I’ve been working on…darn, it’s 7:21 and I need to get on the bike in 49 minutes and the coffee hasn’t had a chance to work yet…used my Abbey Road mug this morning for some reason and I’m not sure why I don’t use it more often…I have this habit of putting things away instead of using them and i wonder why I do that…they don’t mean anything to anyone but me and will be donated when I go so why not use them? Not much to do today…just the rides, errands, and cooking but isn’t that enough? As time goes on, even the mundane becomes a lot of work…more later….

Well…had a pretty good day today getting the grocery runs done early so I could make the chana masala today and this is going to be a repeater…very tasty with just the right amount of heat with cutting back to one Jalapeno instead of the 2-3 Serranos that the recipe called for…and it will last me 3-4 more days but I am going to make a turkey/lentil curry tomorrow…tried a new rice called jasmine today but I overcooked it…still edible but I’ll keep a closer eye on it next time…started my upper body weight program using my hand weights yesterday and did 45 minutes again today…need to tone up my upper body and fill my arms out a bit since they are pretty spindly and saggy…gonna hurt tomorrow…oh, well…

Well…up at about the normal time for me today at a little before 6 and I’m feeling worn out today as I do every day before the coffee starts to work…moving my schedule up by a day since I want to make a new recipe today called garam masala that is an Indian vegetable dish that is like a curry and I’m really getting into the spices that are in them…and I have the longest grocery list that I have had in a long time with having two more new recipes that I’m going to make this week…slept okay last night and I didn’t wake up with any new soreness and I’m happy about that…just the normal soreness and that’s enough…still can’t figure out how the heck I bruised my earlobe but it is getting better so I guess I can just chalk it up to the fact that I’m weird…one of the writers that I follow recommended a new series of sci fi novels that I need to see if the library has them and I’ll do that this week…but not today…it’s going to be a busy day today with the grocery runs, getting the rides in and then cooking so the afternoon will be needed to rest a bit….more later…

Well…you know you’re getting old when you hurt yourself sleeping…woke up this morning with my left shoulder hurting all the way over to the shoulder blade and a bruise on my left earlobe…yeah, I have no clue how that happened other than having it fold over and then sleeping on it all night with it pinched…all I know is it looks weird and I cannot remember hurting an earlobe like that…and my back hurts all the way across the lower part from riding outdoors the other day…so I feel damn creaky today and I don’t like it one bit…I think I may be getting my dehydration fixed since my right big toe is not hurting and I started to sweat like normal on the bike this morning and got off it soaked from both rides…poured down 5 quarts yesterday and I’m on number 4 for today so I’ll get to 5 easily…Michigan plays at 5 and I’m a little nervous about that…the good Michigan team has to show up or they’ll lose….oh, well…

Well…here we go again…it’s another year starting and I wonder what this year is going to bring? Last year was an interesting one with having cancer and then getting to do the dream trip to the UK and Ireland and still getting over 5,000 miles on the bike…but I skipped riding yesterday but won’t do that again today…slept okay last night and got out of bed at 5:44 so I have a couple of hours before I have to get on the bike and I’ll get 16 miles in to start the year…not too sore today with taking the day off yesterday and using voltaren and heat on my back last night…today is a great football day with Michigan playing Alabama later in the afternoon…I picked out three new recipes to try this week so I’m going to move the grocery run up til tomorrow so I can get started…going to do a new recipe for three days in a row and get a lot healthier with two of them being vegetarian….and I’m going to cook with lentils and chick peas that I’ve never done before….lots of Indian influences in the new ones and I like the spices since I still can’t taste a lot…not much to do today…just going to have more coffee and on the bike in an hour and a half…might do a load of laundry today but I don’t have to….more later…

Well…decided to take the day off the bike so I can post the total miles for the year…Inside-1,726 miles…outside- 3,394 miles for a total of 5,110 for the year…not too bad when I had a goal of 4,000 and it’s only 1,000 under my record year of 6,109 miles…next year’s goal is going to be 7,000 miles and I should be able to hit that if I don’t have any health problems that kept me off the bike for 3 months this year…

Well…woke up pretty depressed this morning and I’m not sure why that would be…I wonder if today is going to be that elusive day off I’ve been thinking about?  It’s the last day of the year and I really don’t want to think about how bad of a year it’s been…I mean having cancer and two sons who don’t talk to me anymore? That would suck in anyone’s book…but I’m not going to wallow in it…pretty damn tired today and I know it’s going to be hard to get started but I know I will…but I’m not sure about riding today…I hurt everywhere after mixing indoor and outdoor rides yesterday and I wonder if I’m at the point where riding 30 miles a day is doing permanent damage to me? When you get old, recovering from this much work is much harder…okay…enough of that…going to just revel in the fact that I made it through another year and I should get to my 71st birthday unless the cancer comes back…should I just eat anything I want to today? That would be luxurious and I think I may have earned one day of that…I guess we’ll see…more later…

Well…after doing 16 miles downstairs this morning and then making soup, the sun shining was just too much for me to resist so I dragged the clean bike up from the basement and did 15 miles out there…a very nice, hard ride and the clicking is almost gone so I’m working on the right area of the bike…once the trails ice over, I’ll take the bike back down and pull the idlers in the rear shifter and clean them completely and that means taking them apart…the still have some sand in them but I can live with it until later…I did hurt my right thumb and I’m going to have to put some voltaren on it since it hurts to do this even and I’m not sure how I hurt it…oh, well…the soup came out good and I have three new recipes ready to go after I do the grocery run this week and can’t wait…still only going to do one meal today even with riding 31 miles today…need to lose another 8-10 pounds…