Well…up at 6:05 this morning after a night of fitful sleep and I feel really slow this morning…but I need to get moving to get out on the bike before 7 so I can get a ride in before I do the grocery run…and that will set me up to get the second ride in right after I get back at 9:30 and then get started on washing the siding on the front of the house after lunch…it’s pretty dirty and needs a good scrubbing…not sure how my elbow is going to hold up to that today but it feels a little better this morning so I guess I’ll find out…I did get all the stuff I need to get all the work done on the car yesterday and I think I’ll start on the cooling system first next week…then I need to do an oil change and I am going to try to use the ramps my brother gave me by backing the car into the garage and then put the ramps on the concrete that is at the entry and driving it onto the ramps just outside the garage door…there may be too much slope there but I’m going to try it and see if it works…would make the jobs much easier than jacking the car up….and I do have a bunch of 2×4’s I can use to level the ramps so I think it will work….not much to do today…just the grocery run and then some work on the yard…I did get my ant killer on the ant nests yesterday and need to water that in since it was supposed to rain but didn’t…so I have busy day again….more later…

Well…I think I may have bought my house at the right time…while I was reading the news after I got back from running my errands this morning, I came across an article on housing prices that put a little smile on my face…since I bought my house, prices are up almost 5% so that means I’ve made almost 5 grand in equity in the past 4 months…and the predictions are that prices will rise almost 15% in the next year so that means my equity will be up almost 20 grand in  a year and I’ll have almost 60 grand in equity in this place and that is kind of cool…for me, but not for other people who are trying to buy a house in this weird market. I am still amazed how many things fell into place that allowed me to get this place, and even with the noise problem, which is 80% better by the way, I do like owning a house and being able to do what I want with it….and I have a yard that is coming in and a garden that has already given me enough beans to make a side dish and is showing lots of tomatoes that I should be harvesting by the end of July….and I got through a ride without a flat this morning and will be going out again after the match and the rain…things could be worse….

Well…running really late this morning with not getting out of bed until almost 7 and I’m not sure why I would have slept okay…I did run the ac unit last night with how humid it was out here and I didn’t sweat at all so that was cool…but, I’m not sure how it’s going to cope when it gets to 90+ out here…part of my sleep might have been riding the bike back here 6 miles on a flat and I’m still sore this morning from it…I’m almost at the end of ideas on why the flats continue on that wheel but I tried replacing the spoke protector band with two layers of electrical tape wrapped around the wheel….it fit perfectly and covered more of the inside of the wheel so we’ll see if that helps when I get out this morning…the weird thing about the flats is that I got a week this last time between flats and that doesn’t make any sense…..I do need to run out to menards this morning to get oil for an oil change and a gallon of coolant so I can get the old stuff out since it has changed into a gel…and I am going to get some ant poison since I have these huge ant colonies all through my lawn that are annoying as hell….it was supposed to rain all day today but there is nothing on the radar so I may be able to get two rides in too….not much to do today…going to get on the bike here in a few and then out to menards before noon so I can watch the England/Germany match….I cleaned the back steps yesterday so I’m not sure if I’ll clean today….maybe….more later…

Well…running late today with waking up at 5:45 but staying in bed for another hour….but that didn’t help and I am worn out this morning…I wonder when I can take a day off and not be so busy? Probably never…I did get a bunch of stuff done and I’m glad I mowed the lawn since it appears like it’s going to rain this morning…I am going to get a ride in before the rain gets here and then wait til the afternoon for the second one….it been a week since the last flat on the bike so I may have fixed it…but I need to put the new tire back on the new wheel and will probably screw it up and start the flats coming again…I think it may have been the small stone I found in the wheel…but the tire that I have on the new wheel is bald and coming apart so it needs to be done…I do need to get out and get some exterior latex paint to do the trim on the garage entry door and all of the doors that have been replaced since they just have the primer on them…but I’m not sure if I’ll do that today…don’t feel like doing anything right now and I think I’ll just have coffee and read some news before I drag my butt out and get on the bike….more later…

Well…as you’ve probably guessed, I’m not going to do a political one today since I’ve been darn busy all day….started out with getting on the bike for the first ride at 7:30, then back here for coffee and the F1 race, mowed the lawn, cleaned up the window and put the ac unit in, made lunch, and then back out for the second ride and I found out something about that today…that I can go out when the wind is blowing 20 if it’s coming from the south…and got back here at three and now it’s time to take it easy for a while…the damn camera in my phone died today so I need to buy a new phone and that will be over 200 bucks but I can buy it over 2 years with no interest so that will be easier…and I am going to get a rate cut on my plan or I’ll move to another company where I can get a better deal….I did try the ac unit after I installed it and it only takes about 10 minutes to cool my bedroom to make it comfortable so that’s nice to have that just in case…oh, one last thing, the pain in my right arm has expanded down my forearm all the way to my wrist and it was torture to use it to cut the supports for the ac unit with the skil saw…not sure what I’m going to do about it….might have to go back to gr to see my doctor if it doesn’t improve soon…

Well…darn…another before 6 morning and the hope that I had gotten into a better sleep mode is rapidly fading… and I feel it this morning…feeling kind of slow but part of that is only eating one meal with only riding once….I’m sure that a pork chop and two spoons of potato salad is not enough even with only doing one ride…and I am going to try to get two rides in today but to have that happen, I need to get out by 7:30, and that is in 5 minutes…didn’t get a lot done with all of the rain yesterday…I should have started on the inside but I am leaning toward waiting until fall for that…and winter since it snows so much out here that I’ll have lots of days where I’ll be staying in…it’s nice to not have the gutter overflowing on the front steps and even in the heavy rain it didn’t leak a drop so that is cool….my grass has grown about 4 inches this week with the rain and me feeding it again….and it is really green so I’ll have to mow tomorrow…or later today…not sure of that yet….and there is grass growing in where I seeded it so I will have a yard later in the summer…I hope the sunflower seeds I put along the fence sprout but it is getting late in the year for them to mature…oh, well….not much to do today…there are lots of races on and I’ll have to fit the rides in between them…and I think there is soccer on, too, so I won’t be bored…or too bored…it seems I’m always bored these days….more later…

Well…darn, the string was broken this morning with getting up a little before 6 and that is disappointing….had really hoped that I would be getting 7 hours or so from now on but no such luck…oh, well…it’s raining out there right now but it looks like I may be able to get on the bike here in a while and get a ride in between the waves of storms that are supposed to come…and my downspout is working with no overflow so it looks like a relaxing day with nothing to do but cleaning….lots of sports on with the tour de France starting this morning and that is perfect background noise for doing this…and MotoGP and F1 qualifying on in while….my damn elbow is hurting again and I may have to just rest it to try to get the swelling to go down…I know it howled at me just carrying the ladder yesterday and that means I really can’t do much without hurting it…maybe I can use that as an excuse to take it easy today? At least I can pick up my coffee cup this morning and I’ll take it….the 6×6 patch in the yard that I seeded and watered has started to grow grass and I hope that the seed I put in yesterday will grow too…I must have put 20 lbs of seed in so far and still have a couple of pounds of seed to use to get after the bare spots…not much to do today…just going to have more coffee and watch the radar to see if I can get on the bike…I had planned on taking the day off with the forecast of storms all day but it looks pretty spotty right now and I just might be able to do one….more later…

Well…man, it took a long time for the rain to stop so I could get the ladder out and work on the downspout to get it to drain….and I started to take it apart but then thought I’d check the gutter itself for leaves and other stuff to see if that was the problem…and yep, there was a  quarter inch thick mat of leaves and other debris that had solidified over the downspout hole…and it had sealed it so perfectly that not a drop of water could get through it…cripes, if I tried to seal it off with rubber and adhesive it wouldn’t have worked that well….so it saved me from taking the downspout off and only had to replace three screws and put the extension back on…so, that was easy and only took about 10 minutes including getting the ladder out of the garage and putting it back. There must have been 50 gallons of water in the gutter and at 7 pounds a gallon, the gutter was holding up 350 pounds and I know it’s not built to do that…and I even got a bike ride in and got some grass seed put in the bare spots in the back yard and raked that in since it is going to rain the next couple of days…so it looks like I’ll have a full day off the bike tomorrow with the storms that are supposed to happen starting in the morning…but the rain is going to start around midnight and go all day tomorrow….and it will be nice to not have the water running onto my front steps…now it’s time to take it easy for a while after getting some stuff done today….

Well….damn, I really thought that my elbow was getting better when it didn’t hurt when I got up this morning…but after just cleaning up the AC unit, I can barely lift my coffee cup again and that is just so disappointing….but, the AC unit is clean and works, but it still has some leaves in the fan that I hope will break up after it runs a while…the noise isn’t bad and will be outdoors so I think I can live with it…and this one is even modern enough that it has an led display of the temp you want it to be and it will automatically keep that temp….but it hasn’t been used in almost 10 years so I was surprised when it started to blow cold after a while….after that job, I have  decision to make…the rain is going to stop in a couple of hours so I need to decide whether to get a ride in or tear the downspout apart and get the clog out of it….okay, maybe I’ll do the downspout and then get on the bike…but only if I feel like it…yep, it’s the downspout since leaving it like it is would be really annoying since the water is running over the side of the gutter and I can hear it spilling onto my front steps…so downspout it is…but first I wait for the rain to stop…

Well…running about on time this morning with waking up at around 6:30…again, so it does look like that is the new normal…I’m crossing my fingers that the improvement in my elbow will continue today after the pain started to subside yesterday…I was even able to pour my coffee one handed today after having to use two hands from the pain the past week or so…after the easy day yesterday, today looks even easier with it raining already and that will continue all day so it looks like the day off the bike I’ve been needing…and the gutter work will have to wait til tomorrow so I guess I’ll clean up the ac unit after I have my coffee and read the news….my yard has really started to grow in…finally…and it looks like I’ll have a one by the end of summer as I was hoping…but there are still a couple of bald spots that I need to put seed in and I may do that between the periods of rain today…we’ll see…I did pick the first 5 beans out of my garden yesterday and I hope that more of them mature so I can have enough of them for a side for a meal in a couple of days…even with 10 plants there aren’t enough so next year I’ll put in 20 or so….less tomatoes, too, since I am going to have way too many of those…I have enough room there to expand it but I’m not sure I’ll need to….not much to do today….with no bike ride, I have an extra 2 1/2 hours to kill and that might be a little tough…it was yesterday with only doing one ride so I guess I’ll have to get creative today…or just clean…and I have a lot of that to do….more later….