Well…as you know, I put up a bird feeder on one of my living room windows and am no waiting for the birds to show up…today will mark 6 days it’s been up and still no birds…I even put some seed on the windowsill and on the sidewalk just to get some more surface area of seed and increase the chance that some bird will stumble on it…if they don’t show up, I don’t know what I’m going to do with the 40 lbs of seed I bought…maybe just put some piles out for the squirrels? I did get an indoor ride in this morning and finally got the bike adjusted on the trainer so it’s a little less noisy and that is cool…getting used to it and it is kind of a luxury to just be able to ignore the weather and walk downstairs to ride….I think I may up the mileage to 10 every day since I can do the 8 in about 45 minutes and I can spare an hour easily….my hair was getting a little shaggy so I did a quick cut on it and I appear to be getting better at it after I decided to use my beard trimmer to do the detail work…..so now, it’s football time until the F1 qualifying race comes on in an hour or so….

Well…damn, it snowed out here last night and all of my leaves are covered in snow…but, it’s raining out here right now so that should all melt by the end of the day and I hope the lawn dries up enough to pick them up Monday…this rainy/cold snap had made a bunch of them fall so it appears I’ll get most of them off the lawn this week…got a neat little gift from my daughter yesterday when she sent me the couch blanket she had been knitting for me…it is dark red made out of the softest Peruvian wool I have ever felt…feels more like silk than wool and she has has tags made she sewed on that say “handmade by J”…it is so well done I would guess it would go for a hundred bucks in a store…and it is going to be well used when it gets cold out here…or stays cold I should say….I really like having a clean fridge and the hour and a half I invested in cleaning was well worth it…not sure what took me so long to do it but it won’t be that long again….looks like another day on the inside bike with the rain going on out there and that isn’t bad…much more work to ride that one so 8 miles is more than enough to do….especially since it is one long ride with no rests and I come away soaked every time I use it….not much to do today…need to do some cleaning but I still have leftovers so no cooking…I did make chili the other day and had to remember the recipe since I can’t find any of the ones that were hanging on the fridge…it came out just like it should so I must have gotten it right….more later…

Well…I finally got off my butt and took the fridge apart and cleaned it from top to bottom…it was pretty darn dirty and I can’t remember if I cleaned it before I moved in…with how bad it was, I’m pretty sure I didn’t since it still had stickers on the shelves that I had to remove with a razor blade and goo gone and all kinds of spills under the drawers and I know I didn’t spill anything….it came out great and sparkly but that is the only thing I have done today and I am contemplating not riding at all today…still pretty sore from riding in the wind yesterday and, if I ride at all, it will be downstairs since it is even windier today…I hope the wind keeps up and keeps blowing the leaves out of my yard…I will have to pick them up Monday and get them out for pickup but I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as I feared….I do need to try to find a political topic for alter but I’m not having any luck right now….more later…

Well….damn, got up at 6:23 but don’t feel like I slept at all….my ribs hurt for some reason and I feel stiff even without doing much work yesterday…might be how I slept last night….and that sucks because I’m getting old and that happens….it looks like a wasted day today with the rain that is coming in waves so I’m going to stay off the outside bike today but will probably ride downstairs…I keep forgetting that I have that bike set up…I am going to clean the fridge today and probably do some dusting…don’t have to cook with having leftovers but need to plan food for later in the weekend to get more food out of the freezer before t-day so I’ll have room for the carcass…still have two ham bones in there for ham soup but I may just discard those since I have a container of ham soup in there, too, and don’t need 4 of them…I am going to wait until next Friday to buy my turkey so I can just thaw it and then cook it on t-day…I think I left it in the fridge too long last year when I bought it on the wed a week before t-day and it was a little off….I wonder what I’ll do if there aren’t any available that day? Just shrug it off I guess and cook something else…not sure what that would be…maybe a chicken? Not much to do today…need to run an errand this morning but I’m not too motivated to get out yet so I’m going to sit here and have coffee for a while…going to watch the new James Bond movie tonight but I just noticed it is over 3 hours and that is just weird….most movies are 90 minutes to two hours so I wonder why this one is so long? One good thing is that it will take up almost the whole night and allow me to not think for a while…more later….

Well…I went into today with the idea that I wasn’t going to ride the bike at all with all of the rain and wind that was forecast but when I had a couple of cups of coffee and noticed that is was already over 50, I decided to suit up and at least take a bill over to the post office…the wind was blowing pretty hard but, being the idiot that I am, I took a right turn on 7th and decided to give a ride a try. Going out was pretty cool with the wind blowing at my back at about 15 and I was able to just fly…and for once the wind changed in my favor before I started back and swung to the south which isn’t bad since my ride back goes generally west to east so it was more of a cross wind and it was not nearly as brutal as I expected…I even entertained doing a second ride but, thankfully, it started to rain just as I was putting the bike in the garage so I didn’t do something stupid…after getting back here, I took most of the afternoon off and just made chili for dinner…oh, I think I may have seen an otter today along the shore of  Muskegon Lake…sure moved like one but it could have been a muskrat….hmmm….the leaves have started to fall finally and I can start picking them up soon…if it stops raining…yeah, I’m not bitching about rain…we really need it out here so I’ll take whatever we can get to help the lawn prepare for winter…today was surely the last day out in shorts…the temp is going to drop like a rock over the next few days so thermasuit will be necessary….tomorrow may be the day off if the rain comes in and I can use one…have lots of work to do around here and the fridge is first on the list….I’m done for the day….

Well….darn…woke up at 4:55 this morning but was able to go back to sleep until a little after 7 so I guess that is all I can expect….don’t feel too bad today and I don’t hurt a lot so I’ll take that…have had Aja running through my head all morning and I’m not sure why that would be….haven’t heard the song in quite a while and I can’t remember if it is in any of my SD playlists…hmmm….I did get two rides in yesterday but it was supposed to rain today and I was going to take the day off or ride inside with the wind out there but I just might try to get one in here in a few minutes…the rain band is way over in Illinois and won’t be here til later in the day…but I do need to rest my legs and don’t want to do another day of coming back into a 15 mph wind….I am stiff from running the edger two days ago but there isn’t much pain so I won’t take anything for it…still waiting for the leaves to fall so I can get them picked up and out to the curb before the end of the month…they are changing colors so the fall should come soon with cold weather coming in this weekend….not much to do today….should clean some and today would be perfect for doing the fridge but not right now…still working on the first cup of coffee and will need two more of those before I even think of doing that….more later….

Well…dang, I know I sound impatient but it’s been three days with the feeder up and not one bird yet..what the heck is wrong with the birds out here? Okay…I know it took two weeks for them to find it in GR and that was in an area with a lot more birds than I see out here….so, I guess I’ll be patient…or try to be….can’t wait to have another sparrow mosh pit…last winter, I could even recognize individual birds and their behavior and I would like that to happen out here, too….and soon…

Well…man, I’m worn out this morning but I am surprised that my elbow and shoulder don’t hurt more than they do after abusing them yesterday….it appears to be pretty cold out there right now with the temp only 28 degrees and a big storm coming tomorrow….we are going to be on the rain side of it but they are forecasting 30 inches of snow on the other side and I am not ready for it to start snowing…the waves are supposed to be 5-10 feet with winds of 30-40 mph so I may have to take a drive out to the beach to see them…it may be the perfect day to take off the bike or to ride downstairs but we’ll see….slept okay last night but must have slept on my right eye since it is puffy and I had to massage it to get the swelling down…geez, I hate getting old…I do need to do the grocery run this morning but I’m going to do it close today…need to check for tubes for the bike and the other Meijers didn’t have any Monday…going to eat out of the freezer for the next two weeks to clear it out to make room for turkey and the carcass for soup….I can’t pass up turkey at 33 cents a pound but I’m not getting it til next Friday so it will have the right time to thaw before t-day….not much to do today….just the grocery run and getting at least one bike ride in…I think I’m going to clean the fridge today since I haven’t cleaned it since I move in here and it could use it….I do need to manage how much I do every day as I get older but I sure don’t like that…running the trimmer/edger yesterday took a lot out of me and it shouldn’t…and that pisses me off….more later…

Well….this is getting to be a habit and I’m not sure if I like it or not….I really had planned to just ride the bike twice and then take the rest of the day off with all the work I got done yesterday….but, it was almost 60 out here and I had one last thing to do to the yard that I do at the end of every fall…I like to clean the yard up and take the string trimmer to everything and then edge the sidewalks…and I have a lot of walks to do both around the house and out front and it really hurt my right elbow and shoulder…but I did get the trimmer head figured out and didn’t have to take it apart once doing the whole yard…and it’s going to rain for a few days and get cold starting thurs so I needed to get this done today….I really do like having the garage organized…it is just much easier to get around and it is nice to have specific places to put things so I don’t have to think about where they go….oh, on day two and still no birds at my feeder…the last time I put one up it took about two weeks for the birds to find it…but once one does, it should fill up pretty fast…one last thing…the chickens are back…fun…

Well…feel like crap this morning and I think I overdid it with all of the work yesterday…sitting here last night I felt like my body was made out of rice krispies…all snap, crackle, and pop as I moved and that was a little weird….not doing that this morning but I am still sore and just want to sit here for a while…I may have to take it easy today and I would like a day off at some point….it would be a luxury to just do nothing and watch tv all day but that is just not something I have the capability to do….maybe when it’s snowing….even with the wind blowing pretty hard yesterday, it was nice to get out and ride in shorts but that is coming to and end over the next few days…going to get cold Friday…and it looks like there is a shower out there right now so I won’t be on the bike for a while…..and I’m okay with that this morning…have been thinking about whether I should do a turkey for t-day this year…haven’t been happy with how they turned out the past couple of years but how do you pass up protein for 33 cents a pound….I mean a 15 pounder for around 4.50? Will have to clear out the freezer before that to have room to freeze the leftovers so I can’t buy anything for the next two weeks….want to make chili soon and probably should take the burger out for that today….not much to do today….the leaves haven’t fallen much so I don’t have yard work to do so I think I’ll clean some today…need to try some test stripping to see what path the inside work is going to take…..want to see if I can salvage the hardwood floors in the bedrooms and get the adhesive off them….but that will be later…need more coffee…and more coffee…and more coffee….more later…