Well…I am looking for a political topic for later today but not right now….got such an early start today that it is 10:30 and I have everything done that I had planned…got on the bike around 7:20 and was done a little after 8 and that felt pretty good…got a nice ride in with very little pain and then got after the window sanding and re-filling…it’s such a pain that cleaning up the dust afterward takes more time than the actual work….and it looks like I’ll be ready to paint Thurs…can’t do it wed since I have a huge set of errands to run…have to hit 5 stores to lay in enough supplies for a couple of weeks and get some stuff that I have been needing for a while…need to get a shower curtain liner from Target and some more curtain rings from the dollar store….plus two grocery stores since Aldi’s has chicken leg quarters for 49 cents a pound Wed…have to buy a 10 lb bag but that’s okay…and then I need more filler and melting salt for the sidewalks at depot…so it’s going to be a busy morning…but, I’m about done today other than cleaning and cooking so it is going to be easy until Man U plays at 2:50….more later….

Well…woke up at 4:50 this morning but was able to go back to sleep until a little after 6 so I guess that’s a win….and had dreams again for the 7th day in a row and the reason must be skipping the cocktails for the same time…but, while I felt better most of the week, over the past few days I don’t feel any better being good so I wonder why that would be? Felt really lousy yesterday afternoon and I don’t think it could be not eating enough and I even took the day off and didn’t feel better…and that sucks…but, I’m going to keep it up for at least this week to see if it may take longer for my body to re adjust after having cocktails for so long…..have had a low grade headache for weeks now and I know it has to be allergies so I think I’ll try some nasal allergy meds this morning….taking it easy yesterday at least has helped with my back pain and that feels pretty good today but my right elbow has been screaming and it will get worse when I sand the window later this morning but it’s a familiar pain I’ve had for years so no big deal…okay, that’s enough bitching about my old body….I guess it’s not just Muskegon that doesn’t take care of their roads on the coast…it seems that every school system  has cancelled classes with the ice we got yesterday and I hope the warmer weather that is coming tomorrow and Wed will melt it so I can do the grocery run Wed…it’s going to be cold out here with a high in the teens and single digit lows today but I’m staying in so it doesn’t matter….not much to do today…need to ride the bike first and then get at the window for the first sanding after I filled it sat…then I need to fill again and sand and I’ll be ready to paint Wed or Thurs and then I need to order the new blinds for the rest of the windows so I’ll have them here as I get them done….sure hope it doesn’t take 10 days to get them…it shouldn’t since the holidays are over….more later….

Well….it really is eye opening how windy it is out here in Muskegon…we are under another gale warning today with steady winds of 20-30 mph out of the southwest with gusts of up to 50 mph and I can hear it howling out there right now…one good thing is that we have no big snow in the forecast until late this week and that will help healing up my back from all of the shoveling I had to do wed, thurs, and fri….and the pain has been subsiding a bit but it still hurts and I hope staying off the bike today will help, too….it’s too windy for the birds to even land on the sill or feeder and I’ve only seen one all this morning and I was hoping to see what I saw yesterday with lots and lots of the Juncoes coming back…at least the sun is shining for the time being and that is a welcome occurrance with how gloomy it’s been out here lately….okay, time to take it easy and figure out what I’m going to do for lunch…

Well…running a little early today with getting up a little after 6 and then going out to get the paper even with the streets out here solid ice…almost buried it in the snow on the last turn coming onto 7th but I had just enough momentum to get through….it’s nice to get back to the normal Sunday routine and it’s going to be an easy day without riding the bike today….need a rest day at least once a week….and I am going to take the day off of everything and just relax….and that’s pretty hard for me and will probably clean some later…or not…who knows? Had a good day yesterday and got a bunch of little things done that I hadn’t planned at all…they just kind of happened when I was wandering around here…I feel pretty good about getting started on freeing up the front forks on the black bike but I don’t think it will work as good as new again but it’s certainly going to be better than it was frozen…that was hard on my hands when I hit bumps on the trail and it shook all the way into my shoulders….will keep hitting it with wd all winter to make sure it doesn’t freeze up again….and I tried one of the repaired tubes int he front tire to see if that works at all…it never has before so I’ll be surprised if it did….I did have my 6th day of being good yesterday and I tried to eat more to see if that was why I was so exhausted the past couple of days…I am pretty excited to have a day off today to just veg out and do nothing…I do have to remember to get some salt wed since my walks are pretty icy and the last thing I need is to slip and fall and break something….not much to do today….just going to play it by ear and have more coffee and see if there is soccer on that I can put on in the background as I read the news….more later…

Well…after sitting around here with no energy all afternoon, the idea that the front forks on the black bike were frozen started to bug me so I decided to go down in the basement and take a look at it to see what I could do before I start looking for a new set of forks…so, I pulled the rubber seals off the top of them and flooded it with wd just to see what that might do…after banging them hard on the floor they started to move again…very stiff but moving so I kept that up for a while until my back wouldn’t take it anymore…but it did start to move…not smooth like the grey bike but they moved again so I may try some rust remover on them since there was rust under the seals when I took them off…and I had to change the tube out on the front wheel since it had gone flat and I tried one that I had patched to see if it would work…if it does, I’ll patch the one I took out and use that for a spare….so I guess I got things done today…and I am feeling a little bit of energy so I probably should eat more to see if I can keep that going….

Well…even with how worn out I’ve been feeling the past two days, I got some work done today that I really hadn’t planned to do…got all of the first layer of filler done and I think that is all I’m going to do today…felt okay when I got up and had some energy but that ended around noon or so and now I’m worn out again and the only thing it could be is not eating enough…so I’ve been eating a bit more today…still only had a small plate of spaghetti and garlic bread for lunch…and that can’t be more than 500 calories so I think I need to eat more later but I don’t have anything planned other than a small pork chop and some tots which will be another 500 or so calories so I may have to make some popcorn with butter later to make up for it…I’m so damn tired of feeling worn out that I have to do something…and I’ve been good for 5 days now so I should feel better, shouldn’t I? At least my back didn’t hurt riding the bike this morning so I guess that’s something…but not much…

Well…the Juncoes that have been hitting my feeder the past few days are pretty darn aggressive….they just chased a Bluejay off the sill and it is 3 times the size of the Juncoes…pretty fun…but the coolest thing is the new bird that just landed on the feeder…had a Northern Flicker and that was just so cool…large bird with tan and white with a red patch on the back of it’s head…it’s in the woodpecker family and very seldom visits feeders so that is doubly cool….finally, starting to get some bird tv going and that will keep me entertained for a while….

Well…okay, the snow shoveling pain in my mid back just showed up after I got out of bed and it  hurts…unless it is from sleeping wrong…my left side is so stiff that any movement hurts like crazy so I guess I won’t be doing much today….I have gotten into REM sleep every night for the past 5 days and that means lots of weird dreams, too…like last night where there were spies and redi mix concrete poured into fountains…yeah, I don’t know what that means, either….but I kinda like the weird and I know it’s from being good…it didn’t snow overnight and that’s a good thing with how sore I am but we’re supposed to get freezing rain overnight and I am really happy that I have a garage to keep my car in…I think they might have finally plowed the roads out here last night but I’ll have to walk to the end of the alley to see for sure…would like to go out and get the paper tomorrow morning but we’ll see how the roads are….I do have to remember to get some salt to salt the walks on the grocery run this week along with some more bird food since I have some birds hitting the feeder now with all the snow….but that will all be covered by not buying cocktail materials and I can even throw in a couple of spare bike tubes since I need to stock up while no one else is buying them….not much to do today….just the bike ride and working on the window but that may be curtailed by the pain….might try an ibuprofen here in a minute to see if that will help….more later….

Well…I finally have some new birds on the window feeder and I had to look them up on the internet to figure out what they are…it appears that they are a small sparrow species called a dark eyed juncoe…I guessed that they were juncoes and the only place I would have gotten that information was in 3rd grade where I had a teacher, Miss O’Beirn, who was a bird watcher and passed that on to the class..I even went bird watching with her and a couple of classmates early on a Saturday morning when we piled into her 59 Ford and went out into the fields armed with binoculars and birdcalls to see what we could identify….I got part of my love of science from this grey haired, 60ish woman and I can still see her face this 60 years later…teachers are important and I wish people would appreciate them more than they do….oh, and juncoes are a lot more fun than the titmouses that were here earlier….they act a lot like the brown sparrows I had in GR…

Well…after being good all week, I really expected to have energy all week like I started out…but I hit the wall today and feel exhausted and I wonder why that would be? Have been sleeping okay or no worse than normal but as I sit here doing this, I am just drained and don’t want to do any work at all…I know I’ve been shoveling a lot of snow the past couple of days and that is not easy but it didn’t have any effect yesterday…I wonder if I’m back to not eating enough? I had a half a chicken breast and some cauliflower for dinner and a small plate of spaghetti for lunch and I guess that’s only about 800 calories and if I’m honest, I know that’s not enough with the bike ride burning 600 and snow shoveling another 400…but I need to maintain my weight this winter instead of gaining the normal 12 pounds….just don’t feel like working on the windows today…I do need to remember to just live instead of working all the time but the work won’t get done unless I suck it up and get at it…aargh…