Well….I know it’s early, but I just had dinner that I cooked in my slow cooker all day and it came out way better than I expected…it could be the best thing I’ve ever made in it and it was all by accident really…just threw stuff together and let it cook all day with bottled traditional pasta sauce as the liquid with a little water that I used to rinse out the jar when I poured it in…that along with the chicken leg quarters, onion, potatoes, carrots, garlic, and some celery I had in the fridge..oh, and I added quite a bit of Italian seasoning…but I think what made this dish was turning it up to high and adding half a box of elbow macaroni for the last half hour since it thickened the sauce up so it stuck to everything….this is comfort food that I am going to make again and again over the winter…oooo, some sausage would go good in it, too, it doesn’t need it but I may try that next time and I may de-bone the chicken, too so I don’t have to pick through it as I eat….and I don’t think it has that many calories in it since it is mostly veggies, pasta, and chicken….but whatever is okay since I skipped lunch in anticipation of eating a lot for dinner…man, I’m full…
Ian…
Well…with the reports coming out this morning from sheriffs in the Ft. Meyers area of hundreds dead from hurricane Ian…and I hope that’s not the case…I think there are a couple of reasons why people didn’t heed the warnings and evacuate…first, and I’ve written about this before, is the fact that almost 60% of the people in this country can’t cover an unexpected emergency of 400 bucks since they don’t have money in the bank for it…and, with a 3 day evacuation costing upwards of 2 grand for the travel and housing, they just couldn’t afford to leave and that is on us in the US…we should be able to take care of our fellow citizens if only the asshole governor of Florida, DeSantis, didn’t spend money on political stunts and actually cared about governing instead of his culture war bullshit that he is focused on…and the other reason is that the right wing has done a really good job of teaching people to not trust the government…so when even the president comes on tv and pleads with people to evacuate, they think it’s some kind of conspiracy and reflexively won’t believe him since the “libs lie all the time…look at covid” conspiracy that has been pushed and pushed on fox news over the past week…so we have the perfect storm of people wanting to leave but can’t afford it and people who won’t leave because fox news taught them not to trust the government…and the result is hundreds dead…I truly hope that’s not true but with many coastal cities under 9-12 feet of storm surge, I fear that the worst is yet to come….and I feel for Floridians no matter what their politics….
September 29th
Well…that was okay…tossed and turned a bit but I had some dreams and only got up once at around 3 and then not out of bed til after 6 so I’ll take it…and I feel pretty good this morning…compared to how I felt with having cocktails at night…I’m still old and creaky but I can live with that….had a good day yesterday and I am looking forward to today with loading up my slow cooker with chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, and pasta sauce…and I just had the idea to add some pasta at the end and I’m not sure if it is going to be the half box of elbow mac I have or the 8 lasagna noodles that I can break up or some egg noodles that I have…or maybe a combo of all of them that I will add at the end so they don’t go too mushy…I am going to get out on the bike for two rides today but I’ll have to wait til 11 or so to get started since it is pretty cold out there right now and I still want to go out in shorts…I did get laundry done yesterday so I only have working on the house to do today and I’ll get at that after I get the slow cooker going….still haven’t healed my back or obliques even with the two days off the bike and I think part of it is the straining I’m doing with the sanding on the door so I guess I’ll just resign myself that I’m going to hurt until the work on the house is done…I did have a surprise the other day when I went out to work on the door opener in the garage…it was cold so I dragged out a pair of jeans that always were too tight and they just slipped on and were even a little loose and I got a little smile out of that….have been working hard to control my weight and it’s nice to see some success….not much to do today…just going take it easy and have some more coffee, read the news, and enjoy the day….I do have to figure out why I have such a headache this morning and how to deal with it….it’s probably from the dust from sanding combining with my allergies so I’ll just have to live with it or suffer the side effects of allergy meds…and I think that is worse….more later….
Got a bike ride in…
Well…I was planning on doing two rides today but I got a surprise call from my brother who had time on his hands and wanted to go to lunch at the place down the hill to get the lunch special…and it’s a pretty good deal for a half pound burger, a bunch of fries, and a beer for 6.95…but that was a good 2k calories so it will be my only meal for the day…I did get out on the bike for a ride around two and it was pretty windy but nice to get out after two days off…and I did ask him if he could take me for my colonoscopy and he said he could so that’s a load off…I even got the door and the frame sanded for the first time but I am re assessing how I’m going to do the work from this point forward…I am leaning back toward “good enough” instead of doing hours and hours of work to still not have it look that good so I think I’ll just clean things up and get them painted….I can live with just having things clean and the other bedroom is going to wear me out and I need to keep some energy for that…and I have lots of windows to be done and that takes weeks to do each one…I did get everything I needed on the grocery run this morning and now I have food for a couple of weeks…didn’t run the slow cooker today since I didn’t need to with going out for lunch so that will be tomorrow morning as I wait for the temp to come up from the low of 34 tonight….okay, that’s enough….need more water and to read some news and I may even come back for another one later if I find a topic…
A big difference…
Well…I sure hope the media compares the disaster response from Joe Biden to the idiot trump over the next few days…with the huge hurricane that is coming ashore right now plans have been in place for over a week from the Biden administration and it didn’t matter that Florida is a red state or that DeSantis is an asshole who attacks Biden almost every day, Biden did what a president is supposed to do…take care of all Americans, not just those who voted for him…and he has every department of the government already on the ground there and Biden hasn’t said on thing about the constant quid pro quo’s that trump thrived on…and he hasn’t thrown paper towels at Floridians or tried to steer the relief aid to his unqualified cronies like trump did in Puerto Rico….that is the difference between dems and repubs…we believe that government is there to help the people of the country and that government, when done competently like Biden does it, is really a force for good that can help alleviate suffering of Americans everywhere….just watch and see the repubs try to take credit for Joe’s work just like the have been with all of the bills they have voted against that will fix the roads and bridges in this country…cynical bastards, all of them…..geez…
September 28th
Well…that was a little better…still had choppy sleep but I feel pretty good this morning after getting out of bed at 6:05…and there is something to this being good again…got a bunch of stuff done yesterday and today is going to be really busy with doing the grocery run getting the slow cooker going when I get back, doing some work on the door and frame, and getting back on the bike for two rides today…and I have to hit 5 stores this morning to get everything I need so it is going to take a while…read some good news yesterday when it was announced that Medicare premiums are going to go down along with the almost 9% increase in SS so next year should be better and I can get back on track of saving 8K for the new Miata next spring….and yet most old folks still vote for the asshole repubs who want to end both programs and leave us all to starve…I will never figure that out….okay, that’s another topic for another time….I think it will be time to take the last of the tomato plants out this weekend since we are going to get a freeze here in the next couple of days and that will kill them and the flowers out back…..I did get the lawn mowed yesterday so that leaves me with doing the weed walk later if I have time since I see a lot of them in the yard…I won’t say not much to do today because I am going to be really busy and have lots to do but I can’t get started on that til around 8 and that will give me time to read some news and have the rest of the coffee….more later….
Second day off the bike…
Well..dang, it’s been raining off and on out here all day so it looks like it is going to be a second day of being off the bike…and even if it wasn’t raining, the wind is blowing out of the NW at around 20 is how I hurt my back that I’m still struggling with so I don’t want to aggravate it…I did get some work done today with sanding and filling more of the door and will start on the second side tomorrow…and I got the first fill of the frame done today, too, so that will have to be sanded tomorrow and then refilled…but I am pulling back how much work I’m going to do on this stuff…this house is 82 years old and I just don’t want to work as hard as it would take to make it perfect….I did get the hinges for that door out of the strip and wire brushed to get them ready to paint in the next couple of days…and I took the ac unit out so I could close the window and get rid of the drafts that have been blowing through here with the high winds…and the heat has been on the past few days and I don’t want to heat the outdoors….so, I did get some stuff done today and will start working on the yard tomorrow…had a big branch fall in the wind that needs to be cut up and bundled along with mowing the lawn…I think I’ll wait to take the tomatoes out til the weekend since I may get 4 or 5 more off the plants by then….but right now it’s time to relax a bit…I did see some video of the dart spacecraft hitting the asteroid and I can’t wait to see the plume that was generated from the Italian cubesat that was right there when it hit…should be later today….
The party of no….
Well…sitting here thinking about politics to try to find a topic today and it dawned on me that there is only one functioning political party left in this country…and you know what one that is…the repub party has become the party of no…no to capping insulin at 35 bucks a month, no to expanding and strengthening SS, no to women’s rights, no to trans rights, no to same sex marriage, no to reading books, no to fixing our crumbling infrastructure, no to bringing jobs back to the US….you get the picture…since 2016 when they ditched their platform and policies for blind allegiance to the idiot trump, they don’t stand for anything other than making this country worse for everyone but the rich and corporations and they embrace the fascist policies that are a cancer on the world…even cheering today when it was announced that a fascist won the top job in Italy’s government and has started to turn back the clock to Mussolini and the damage he helped hitler do to Europe, and to listen to her, you get the echoes of the 1930’s when this bullshit killed millions. So the repubs don’t stand for anything but getting power back to hurt their “enemies” and they have already started to talk about impeaching Biden once a week if they take back the house…impeaching for what, I don’t know…for getting legislation passed that helps the entire country…or signing emergency legislation to help the red states when they get hit by natural disasters like the hurricane that is happening to Florida this week? We really do need to make sure we keep both the house and senate in November…if not, the repubs will unleash a hellscape on this country…but we can stop it…get out and vote….please…
September 27th
Well…that was expected, hit bed at 11 last night but didn’t get to sleep until almost one…then up at 4:01 and got about another hour before getting out of bed around 6:30 so about 4-5 hours last night and with it being the first no cocktail night in a while, that is about how it’s going to go as I take the next 5 weeks off to prep for all of the doctor’s and dentist appointments I have scheduled….had a day off the bike yesterday and it’s raining and cold out there right now so it could be two in a row and I’m okay with that but my lower back hasn’t healed much and it still hurts to move so I hope that gets better today….my shoulder doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would after scraping one side of the bathroom door but it is pretty stiff…want to get the rest of the prep done on the door today but the filling will have to be sanded tomorrow and I hope to get it painted by the end of the week…and I need to do the same to the frame but they are in such bad shape that I’m not sure how it’s going to come out…I guess I’ll just live with what I can do….will be taking the tomato plants out this week along with cutting the flowers down at the back of the house and I need to mow the lawn at some point….and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate after today….not much to do today…going to just have more coffee and ease into the day and then get to work on the house and have to figure out what to cook…I am going to refill the freezer with ten pounds of chicken from aldis tomorrow at 69 cents a pound and that will keep me going for a while…I do need to try some other ways to cook it, though, since I’m getting bored with just baking it…..more later….oh, I did watch NASA slam a spacecraft into an asteroid live yesterday and it was pretty cool to try to figure out how to protect the earth from and asteroid strike and I can’t wait for the pictures from the cubesat that was launched along with dart vehicle….pretty cool….
Still drinking coffee at 2pm…
Well..this is pretty weird for me…still have a cup of coffee going and it’s after 2 in the afternoon….this will probably make my sleep tonight even worse than it normally is but there was not enough left in the pot to have tomorrow and I just didn’t want to dump it out…I guess this will be an interesting evening since I’m back on the wagon for the next month or more so that won’t be putting me to sleep either…oh, well…and my heat has been on all day….