Well…after finding out about the big C, out on the bike today a thought came to me…wouldn’t it be ironic if the thing I’ve been doing for many, many years to try to stay healthy is the thing that causes the cancer that kills me? And to add to that, it would be the ultimate irony if I won the 600 million dollars in cash in the powerball tonight and the cancer kills me before I have the chance to spend it…okay, this is the last time I go to black humor as this process plays out…probably won’t mention it again since I still do have a life to live…although I may re-think doing any more work on this house…why should I make it nicer for the next owner? Okay, that’s it..I am going to take today off to digest everything but then back to normal tomorrow….more later….and I will do a political one in a few minutes…just need to read the news a bit first….

Well…with the doctors appointment yesterday and what was discovered in my colonoscopy last week, along with my elevated PSA test, this is one that I had hoped to never write about…my doctor is worried that I have prostate cancer…yep, the big C and that really, really sucks. So the process starts to find out for sure in the next couple of weeks with a referral to a urologist for more tests and probably a biopsy to see what is going on…one tiny bit of hope is the weird effect that riding a bike hard has on the PSA test…it is supposed to raise the PSA like crazy and I did a full hour on the indoor bike going as hard as I could yesterday morning before they drew blood so I’ll bring that up when I have the urologist appointment…at least this will give me a topic to write about over the next few months…I’m glad we have found out about this early so the prognosis should be pretty good and normally prostate cancer grows pretty slow unless I have the aggressive one that could kill me next year….so, maybe there won’t be a UK trip after all…oh, well….

Well…it really is nice when I feel that I did enough to keep the guilts at bay and today is one of those days….started out really early by getting on the bike downstairs by 7am and getting a good ride in…I did have to replace the earpieces on my ear buds since the rubber ones had rotted away and looked pretty shabby…so, I dug out the box for the betrons and found that there was a spare set of silicone earpieces that fit perfectly and do a better job of keeping the wind noise out of them than the rubber ones did…and I am still amazed at how long these things have lasted…going on 5 years now and I’ve never gotten more than 6 months out of any other ones…okay, back to the day….after I got the ride done and got cleaned up, I headed out to my doctors appointment that went well and I am waiting for the results of the PSA test to be sure that I’m in the clear…then, as soon as I got back here, I jumped on the bike for the second ride of the day, had lunch, then back out to work on the yard and spent 2 1/2 hours running the string trimmer and edger then cleaned all that up and finished about 2:20 or so…so, I think I did enough today and plan on taking the rest of the day off and having a couple of cocktails tonight after being good for the past week and getting my blood pressure below 130…and now I have tomorrow afternoon off after getting the work done today…yay…oh, I did hurt myself more today but it’s not my back or any parts that hurt before…it hurts on my side just under my shoulder and that is a familiar pain that I’ve had every time before when I abused those muscles doing the edging…oh, well…

Well…had a bit of good news during the doctors appointment this morning…when they weighed me, I was under 180 pounds for the first time in over 20 years…and that was with jeans and my shoes on…almost 3 1/2 pounds less than the last time and that makes me smile a bit…I’ve really been working hard at losing weight and I’m happy I’m still going the right way…only about 9 pounds more to get to my goal of 170…but, when I get there, I’ll probably move that goal to 160…going to have to buy all new clothes for the trip next year if I hit that goal…but I need them anyway….more later…

Well…I could just say 3:11 and then 5:54 and you’d know what I was talking about and that means I need to change things up a bit…still pretty sore around my trunk but it’s not the gasping pain it was a couple of days ago…but it’s still annoying and I am going to hurt it more again today with running the string trimmer and edger to finish up the lawn work that I need to do for fall….there are more leaves to be picked up but I think I’ll wait til they are all down to do that…probably early next week…had a good day yesterday but today is going to start out  a little slow with skipping the coffee to keep my my blood pressure down for the doctor’s appointment at 9am….I still have some health problems that need to be resolved today that came from the colonoscopy last week and I sure don’t need to have this stuff hanging over me…I did buy some powerball tickets yesterday but I didn’t win but no one else did, either, so the jackpot is going to be 1.2 billion dollars for the drawing wed so I think I’ll blow some more money with the off chance I could win some bucks…damn, it’s November and I still haven’t started on the dining room and that is a little depressing…still too many other things to do and I think I’ll just have to suck it up and start next week…it won’t take more than a couple of weeks to finish it and it would feel good to have another room done….not much to do today….just the doctors appointment and then back here to do an outdoor ride…going to do an indoor one here in a few minutes since it won’t be light early enough to get out before the appointment….haven’t edged the walks in a few months so it will be some work this afternoon but it is going to be about 60 today and that will make it easier….but it is still going to hurt…oh, well…more later…

Well…since I cleaned and filled the window bird feeder a couple of weeks ago, there has been a lot of activity on it and that is fun to watch…have had a lot of chickadees and didn’t have one last winter so that is pretty cool…and today, I got a new bird on the feeder that looks like a chickadee but has a long beak instead of the finch-like ones the chickadees have…so, of course, I went out to the internet to take a look to try to find out what it was…it appears to be a white breasted nuthatch that has the same black cap as a chickadee and similar coloring…and that is pretty cool to see a bird I’ve never seen before..but I am still confused that the sparrows haven’t found the feeder yet…I’ve seen them around a block away but none of them in my yard so far…just had a huge bluejay on the feeder and I think he’s the one who has been coming all year and through last winter….it is nice to have my bird tv to watch as I sit here and do these…lots of fun…

Well…it’s after 1:30 pm and I am just getting to sit down on the couch for the first time today…and finishing up my last cup of coffee…could have extra today with not being able to have any tomorrow morning with my doctor’s appointment and trying to not raise my blood pressure..at least I won’t have any before the appointment…I did get quite a bit done this morning with getting on the bike when it was barely light and the sun hadn’t come up yet…it was damn cold on the bike and I probably should have worn gloves but it was 50 so I thought I could get away with my riding gloves with no fingers in them…I survived it so I guess it was okay…after the first ride, I had errands to run that started with a stop at the atm to get some cash since I’ve had empty pockets for a week and I wanted to have some cash just in case…the I stopped at the gas station to get a gallon of gas for the string trimmer and put some in the car since I was down to about an eighth of a tank and I never let it get that low…then into Meijers to buy my powerball tickets since the jackpot is a billion dollars for tonight’s drawing and I could use 600 mil in cash…then I went to the pharmacy to get some allergy medicine I was running out of and for the first time in a month, they had the big box of 48 so I can go 6 weeks without thinking about that…then over to Menards since I needed more lawn bags and wanted to look at those 3 buck adjustable led lights for my work area downstairs…bought two of those and they do put out a lot more light than the single led bulbs I had down there and I even bought another one like I put in the garage to put in the main light that comes on with the downstairs switch…yow, that lights up the basement and even gives enough light to see in my cabinets when I’m looking for stuff….and now I have enough led single bulbs to replace the cfls that are in one bathroom fixture over the sink…and I need to do that this afternoon after I finish my coffee…don’t really like the cfls and get a lot more light for the same electricity cost with the leds…and they last forever so I’ll never have to replace them…so, all in all, got lots of stuff done today and still need to clean and cook for dinner…and maybe get one more of these out for the month….Happy Halloween….

Well…that was kind of okay….didn’t wake up til 5:20 and was able to go back to sleep until a little after 6 and even had a dream in that short time so I’ll take it…but my back and trunk still hurt so I am moving a little gingerly today like I have for almost a month now…I will ask the doctor about it tomorrow but I don’t think he can or will do anything about muscle aches…and I’m going to hurt it again here in about an hour when the sun comes up since it is already 50 and I need to beat the rain that is coming in around 9 or so….and that will set me up to get a second ride in after I run an errand after the first ride…the powerball is up over a billion dollars so I need to get 3 tickets…but that means I need to hit the bank first and then need to get fuel for the car and for the string trimmer/edger since I want to to the final trimming of the yard this week…and I want to make a run out to menards to pick up a couple more led lights for the downstairs so I’ll have light in my work area…and they have the adjustable ones for 3 bucks and I can’t pass that up….and I need more lawn bags for the rest of the leaves so I can get them all picked up by the end of November when they stop picking up yard waste….so it will be a busy day at least this morning and then I need to cook today since the leftovers have run out….finally making the pork stir fry for lunch or maybe for dinner…not sure when yet….not much to do today…just the rides and errands…didn’t clean any yesterday so I should do that today…my daughter is sending me some gently used and new clothes later in the week and I’m a little excited about that….most of them are name brand stuff that I just won’t spend the money on like under armor and north face and I feel like Christmas is coming early for me….more later….

Well…sitting here watching the Lions and they are up 21-7 in the first half and I really don’t know what to think about that….I did get two outdoor rides in this morning but they were the hardest I’ve done in a long time…not hard in going hard but hard to get through since my legs were so flat…from the start of the first ride my legs were not doing what I expected and by the middle of the second they were in pain and it was a struggle to get back here with my left sciatica pinched since I have very little padding left back there…and I was up off the seat about every 100 yards to just deal with the pain and my back even started to hurt…so this is starting to concern me because it’s like nothing I’ve felt before…at least I have a doctor’s appointment Tuesday so I can ask about it…whatever it is, I sure don’t like it at all…

Well…feel pretty crappy this morning and the coffee hasn’t started to work and that is not a good combination….my back isn’t as bad this morning but it still hurts all around my trunk a bit…even into my abs and I’m still wondering if it was just going into the wind that hurt everything…still haven’t taken anything for it and I’m going to try to get through the day again without painkillers for some reason….slept okay last night but don’t feel like it right now…just so frickin worn out that I could just curl up on the couch and watch tv all day but I know I won’t….need to get out on the bike by 9 or so to get two rides in outdoors today but the temp needs to come up about 5 degrees before that…it’s only 36 out there right now so I will have some time to have coffee and read the news….only got the small bit of yard work done yesterday and I will need to clean in here today to keep the guilt at bay but I sure don’t want to right now…don’t have to cook today with the leftovers that are in the fridge but I will need to plan for tomorrow and the rest of the week…I am going to make stir fry pork tomorrow but need a second meal for a few days and I’m not sure what that will be yet…need to look in the freezer to see what’s there…there is no protein in the ads for the week so I’ll have to empty the freezer…something I wanted to do anyway….there are pork loin pieces in there to use and I did pick up some breaded chicken strips last week that are loaded with calories but are handy that should keep me going for  a while….not much to do today…just going to ease into the day as I wait for the sun to come up and to get on the bike….and I need to get the bills set up to be paid and I’ll do that while I’m watching the races and Man U today….have already read the paper and it’s only 7:15 and I really do need lots more coffee….more later…