Well…running about on time for a Sunday…got up a little before 7 and headed straight out to get the paper and the cool temps woke me up pretty well with the top down on the car….but, I need more coffee….had an okay day yesterday and didn’t have to make a noise call so the counter starts at one again….got two good rides in and took my tablet on the second one to take some pictures of the trail and posted them to fb….working on the second week of no flats on the bike and I think I’ll change out the rear tire soon but the bike is working so well I don’t want to screw it up…even the 5-6 shift is working and every time I take the rear wheel off changes that….so I may just wear the rest of the tread off before I change it….it looks like the rain that was forecast today is not coming so I won’t get a rest day until later in the week…we really need rain out here but it never comes and I wonder if that will hold into the winter when this place gets all the lake effect snow? I wonder if I’m doing potatoes wrong since they keep falling apart when I boil them for potato salad…I don’t remember ever having this problem before and I guess I’ll have to go out to the internet to check what the problem is….not much to do today….Sunday is the one day that I try to not do any work and just relax and not feel guilty…and there are races and soccer that I want to see so that will give me something to do later today….more later…

Well…I felt pretty exhausted yesterday and that showed last night…fell asleep on the couch and didn’t get to bed until after 2 and didn’t get out of bed until almost 8 this morning….and I still feel pretty worn out today and I am really hoping for a rest day tomorrow since it’s supposed to rain all day…at least that was the forecast yesterday and I haven’t looked at the weather yet today…I do know it only 55 out here right now and that means a long sleeved t-shirt when I get out here in a few minutes….didn’t even get to coffee until after the machine turned off and that happens about twice a year….had an okay day yesterday and cooked lots of food so it will be leftovers for the next few days but I do want to make another batch of potato salad and cut up some carrots and celery for healthy snacks to have with ranch dressing that I load up with horseradish…very yummy…if I get the rain day tomorrow, I’m going to change out the rear tire and put the new one on and lube up the chain….will probably do the chain later today after I get the rides in so it can dry by tomorrow…not much to do today…just going to do the rides and a little cleaning but I’m not feeling I have enough energy to do much more…I do have another one to do today about the malaise I have been feeling lately but I need to flesh that out on the first ride….more later…

Well…it’s uncanny that I keep waking up at 6:30 every day give or take a couple of minutes….and that is better than 3,4, or 5 o’clock that was the pattern for a long time….I wonder what the next pattern is going to be? Had an okay day yesterday but the noise started up again in three different houses that I had to shut down…and the officer I talked to said this is the end and these folks are going to get fined from now on…it’s about damn time….I did see a stoat on the ride yesterday…the small animal that looks like a ferret and is a member of the weasel family…it just ran across the main drag out to the beach right in front of me…pretty rare to see one…I know it’s only the third one I’ve seen in my long life and that was pretty cool….I’ve had almost two weeks since the last flat and I am getting cautiously optimistic that the electrical tape I added to the rim solved the problem but I am going to have to change out the bald old tire with the new one over the weekend and that could introduce another variable to the experiment….we’ll see….not much to do today…going to take the car out for an errand and I hope it will get the rest of the air out of the system..it should be okay since I put the same amount of coolant in that I took out but you have to very careful with Miatas since they don’t take well to overheating….I do need to cook today and I am getting enough green beans out of the garden to have some every day so that is cool….can’t wait for tomatoes to start ripening….more later….

Well…..as you know, the plan for this morning was to change out the coolant in the car since it had changed over to a rusty gel substance that just isn’t good for it…and Miatas should have the coolant changed once a year…and the last time I had it changed was over 5 years ago so I may have to do it again before winter because you never get all of the old coolant out…I did find that the radiator has a drain plug and that made the job so much easier not having to take the bottom radiator hose off….the coolant that came out was pretty much black instead of the green it was when it went in and that was ugly…I did have to take the overflow tank off and wash that out since it was filled with brown goo and it needed cleaning badly…that stuff had the consistancy of 100 weight gear lube and it’s supposed to be like water…and I let water run through the radiator for 15 minutes until it ran clear coming out so I hope this helps…the new ramps that my brother gave me worked like a champ and I felt comfortable being under the car without stands…going to use them again when I change the oil in a couple of weeks…so, I guess I can get on the bike here after this cup of coffee and watching some of the TDF….more later…

Well…didn’t get out of bed until 6:30 or so this morning and I should feel more rested than I do…just want to lay down on the couch and go back to sleep…not sure why I’m so worn out but I am sure I don’t like it…if finally did rain last night and it’s still spitting out there right now but I was really hoping that it would rain all day and give me an excuse to stay off the bike today…I have work to do on the car and need to get it done…I think I’ll work on the coolant today if I can get the lower radiator hose off to flush it out…the coolant has turned into gel and that can’t be good for the car…not sure if I’ll get on the bike first…I think I can take a day off to do other things but if the job goes well, I can ride this afternoon…I did have to work on the entry door to the garage yesterday since it had stopped latching and there is no way I was going to leave it unlocked…had to move the striker plate and make it more stable so the latch would connect with it but that only took about 15 minutes and now it locks….the garage is 80 years old and whoever set up the latch just cobbled it together like a lot of the stuff around here….not much to do today….just the car stuff and laundry…I wonder if i should change the oil today, too? The stuff in the car only has about 2,000 miles on it and it is a full synthetic so I guess it could wait a while…and I need to pick up a filter…got the new oil last week and just forgot to get a filter…and I need to see if I have any blue silicone to seal up the drain plug…probably should just get a new drain plug…maybe I’ll do that and wait to change the oil….more later…

Well…darn…the rain that was supposed to hit us last night has skimmed by to the north by about 50 miles and it looks like it’s happening again right now…and it would have rained all night and into today if it would have happened…darn…but it looks like it may rain later today so I’ll keep my fingers crossed….I did sleep okay last night and I’m not as sore as I should be after the abuse I heaped on my body yesterday but my legs do hurt some and I can live with it….not feeling too motivated right now but I know I have to do the grocery run here in a little while and then on the bike….I did have to run the ac unit last night with all of the humidity but I shut it off when I hit the sack after running it for an hour to cool my bedroom down….and that seemed to work okay….and it’s only going to be in the 70’s out here today so I probably won’t have to run it again….I am going to hit the beach later in the week and get a swim in…I am still contemplating a do nothing day soon….I mean I’m retired and should be able to do one of those once in a while….just fooling around should be the reward for working my whole life since I was about 11 and started mowing lawns….I do need to work on the guilt I feel when I’m not being “productive” and just let it go but that is going to be really hard for me….especially since I have so much to do around here and no one else is going to do it…oh, well….more later…

Well…I’m not sure how much of an accomplishment it is, but that last post was the 9,000th one I’ve done since I started this thing many, many years ago….that kind of makes me want to think about if I’ve really done what I’ve wanted to do with this site….could it be better? Of course it could…but damn, I’ve sat down at this computer 9,000 times…not sure what else I’ve done 9,000 times that has been a choice…I know I try to be honest about my life and how I feel about politics and the other topics that I talk about, and a lot of you keep coming back to read it so I must be doing something…not sure if it’s right or not, but it is something….and it looks like I’ll keep doing it as long as I can and have something to say….it really does give me something to do and, even after 9,000 of these, I still look forward to doing it every day…my constant outrage about things has waned some over the past couple of years, but this old guy can still do a rant or two that is semi lucid….I’d probably still do it if no one was reading but it is nice that quite a few people come here every day…thanks for that….

Well…cripes, I was right….I knew my elbow wouldn’t react kindly to mowing the lawn today and the swelling is back in it again….not as bad as it was but I really had hoped that it was healing enough so I could get some pain free time over the summer…and I finally was able to go full out on both rides today both out and back and the last run back from the beach I kept the bike in high gear the whole 6 miles and went as hard as I could…full sprint for 6 miles and I wonder what took so long to get to that point his year…I mean, I’ve got almost 2k miles on and just got fit enough to do that? Normally, it takes only about 500 miles to get to that point but I wonder if I was ready and just didn’t do it? I do know that my legs are sore and stiff from it and I really hope the rain we’re supposed to get tomorrow will keep me down to one ride…oh, it did rain out here last night and there were lots of puddles along my route but the storms had fallen apart all day over the lake so I thought the last one that was over Wisconsin when I went to bed would do the same…it made mowing much less dusty and that was welcome….it is so damn humid out here that when I opened my freezer, it looked like it was filled with dry ice and the clouds filled it…never saw that before….

Well…running late this morning with not getting out of bed until 7 or so but that doesn’t mean I slept well…tossed and turned all night and feel like I didn’t sleep at all….and I can’t figure out how my right elbow still hurts when a lot of the swelling is gone…it’s not as bad as it was but it’s going to hurt even more after I mow the lawn today….sat here and watched the storms fall apart…again… last night and I wonder when it’s going to rain again….it’s been pretty dry out here and I think we’re now in the drought area that takes up most of the center of the state….but, I’m not going to water my lawn at all…will just let it go dormant but that means I’ll probably lose the young grass that just came up…..I think I’m going to need a day off of everything soon just to make the pain go away from riding too much…and forcing myself to keep going every day is wearing on me…it would be nice to just get up and do nothing for one day…you would think that would be my life being retired but my well developed sense of guilt won’t let me waste a day….that was going to be the plan after I bought my house but I don’t think I’ve taken a day off since I moved out here….and I won’t today….need to get on the bike here in a minute and then back here to mow the lawn and the vacant lots and then cook for lunch…..I am going to roast some green beans to have with the chicken I’m making for lunch….going to use the same method I use for asparagus with  olive oil, garlic powder and dried onions in high heat…have had beans for a couple of weeks now and I may have enough plants to have them almost every day…I do want to try pickling some of them later along with the cukes….that should be good….more later…

Well….again, there have been a bunch of small things happen that really couldn’t support doing a whole one, so I think I’ll just do a shorty with a few in it…first…I found a multi tool in the middle of the street a couple of days ago that looks like it’s made out of stainless steel and is in pretty good shape….not sure if I’ll ever use it but I couldn’t let it sit there and get run over by cars…I’ve gotten over a week without getting a flat on the bike after I added the electrical tape over the spoke ends…so I may put the new tire back on that wheel soon…but I’m having trouble with the shifter on the bike, having to adjust it every day to keep the 5-6 shift working, so I may take it apart to see what is going on….I did look for pontoon boats to buy but even ones from the 70’s are over 3 grand and I don’t want to spend that much…and a marina slip is over 300 bucks a month and that is almost my house payment so that won’t work…the deer out here are weird…twice in the past week I’ve had on just standing next to the trail so close I could reach out and touch it and it never moved…I have been looking for a cheap motorcycle to buy since I’d like to have one more of those before I can’t ride one anymore…if I can find something under a grand I think I’ll buy one…probably a Japanese one since they are reliable and probably something small like a 650 or so…oh, and I think I may have to get my rides done in the morning there was a traffic jam of bikes on the trail and no one appeared to know that they can’t clog up the whole trail…didn’t get out for the second ride until almost one and that might have something to do with it…one last thing…I did get out this morning and picked up a little one gallon pump sprayer for 10 bucks and got all of the weeds treated with just 4 ounces of weed killer…took a lot of time but I can use the exercise…and I picked up some coated screws to fix the front porch boards that were loose and they even came with the star tool to fit in the head….and my cheapo drill/driver put them right in so that was cool…okay, that’s it…no more later….