Well…don’t really feel like doing a political one today with feeling like crap and hurting my back shoveling the snow today….and I’m not sure what is going on but I just can’t take the cold anymore and haven’t been able to warm up since being outside…I guess it might be that it was only 6 degrees when I went but that’s no excuse….and I had to wade through knee deep snow to fill the bird feeders since I have a cloud of sparrows that have been attacking them and emptying them as fast as I fill them…filled them twice yesterday but I refuse to go back out to fill them again today…just too damn cold and I’m running out of food…and the funny thing is I’m using a bag of feed that they wouldn’t touch earlier in the winter and I guess that must be because the other people in the neighborhood have stopped filling their feeders with how much snow there is out there. Had 15 sparrows on the two feeders at one time and that was causing some pushing and shoving and a couple of them just climbed into the food and sat down while they ate and attacked any other bird that tried to land…that was kind of funny….okay, that’s enough….I know I haven’t been eating enough and that’s why I’m so damn tired today…800 calories just isn’t going to cut it I guess…i need a nap…

Well…just couldn’t bring myself to shovel the driveway again before I went out to get the paper so I’m going to have tracks in it again that will probably take the rest of the winter to get rid of…but, it’s only 7 degrees out there and that’s not something I want to face this early…I did sleep okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until after 6:30 but I did notice the mattress on my bed is offset by about 6 inches and that means I tossed and turned all night and it could be why I feel so worn out…again…didn’t get anything done yesterday but…nope, didn’t get anything done but shovel the snow and that looks like what I’ll do today….I did talk to K and J and they are in to help for the move so I’ll have 6 people for this one instead of the three I had last time so that should make it easier…I am so glad this is my last move….or if it isn’t, I’ll spend the cash and have a mover do it next time….now I’m just waiting for my close date so I can get the utilities switched over to my name….I can’t wait to get started on the new house but I think I am going to take a week off after I move in and just relax…there is plenty of time to get the painting and stripping done and I need to put a plan together for the colors I want to use….not much to do today…it’s not snowing right now so I can wait a while before I get out and do the snow…this is going to be the coldest week of the winter with Friday only getting to 2 degrees for a high so there will be lots of packing and hibernating going on….more later….

Well…as you know, I bought a house out in Muskegon and have my move scheduled for the 27th of this month and it looks like a good date with only needing the appraisal to come back to be able to close…and there should be no problem there since I am only borrowing around 50K and the house should be worth almost double that…and, instead of trying to do the whole move with just me and my son and his wife, for the first time I’ve asked some friends  to help and every one of them have said they can…and K and J have said they can borrow a big covered trailer for the extra stuff that I am taking so I can get the smallest box truck again…and Tom is bringing his jeep that can hold some stuff so I won’t have to make so many runs out to the new house in the Miata and that will save some wear and tear…I still don’t have a lot of stuff but this means I won’t have to take the bikes out on the carrier or put the summer tires in the car to move them….damn, it’s nice to have friends and this will allow K to see both houses since she always wanted to see this one before I move….feeling a lot better about the move with how bad my back has been lately…..

Well…made it all the way til 6 this morning and I wonder why I feel so worn out? Barely have enough energy to sit here and do this and just want to go back to bed…and no dreams to speak of so I must not have slept well…and I am really sore from all of the snow shoveling that I had to do…I think we got a total of 18 inches of snow the past couple of days and the snow piles are so tall that I can barely throw the snow on top of them….and there was another two inches last night that I am going to have do this morning…didn’t get much done yesterday but the snow but will be packing today and getting stuff staged so I can start moving when I close in a couple of weeks…I have some chicken thighs in the fridge that I need to cook today but I really have no appetite so I may just freeze them instead since I am only eating one meal a day now to try to keep the weight off…it’s not working but I have to keep trying….and, with all of the snow, I won’t be getting back on the bike before I move unless we get a heat wave and that is not going to happen…highs are going to be in the teens for the next week or so and I am really getting tired of this winter…so, I’m going to have more coffee and read some news as I contemplate what I’m going to do today….more later…

Well…running a little late today with not getting out of bed until after 7 but I don’t feel like I slept well at all but that might be that I have just gotten started on the coffee and I normally have a couple of cups in me by now….didn’t have any dreams last night and that is pretty normal but I miss them when I don’t have them….it looks like we got a bunch of snow last night and it is going to take a while to shovel it this morning even after shoveling last night…at least I got the heavy stuff off the driveway last night so this stuff should be lighter…glad I don’t have anywhere to go today so I can get at it at my leisure this morning…for the first time since I’ve been here, there are drifts on the walks and driveway and it looks like more snow over the next few days as the lake effect crap is going to start later…oh, well…I did get an e-mail from my rep’s aide that the IRS is going to call me about not getting my 600 dollar check and I am really surprised about that….maybe I’m going to get it after all…we’ll see….not much to do today…just packing and cleaning and snow removal but that is about it…more later…

Well…was just outside shoveling the first of the snow and when I got to the end of the driveway, a city plow truck came by with a frickin green laser shooting out from the front of it showing the driver just where the edge of the plow was going to be…and I couldn’t help but grin at the sight…frickin lasers on snow plows…pretty cool…

Well…if you come here often, you know about the ongoing saga of me trying to find out why I didn’t get the 600 dollar relief check that everyone else got…after exhausting every avenue on the internet, I took the step of writing to my new rep Peter Meijer’s office and to Senator Debbie Stabenow’s office to tell them about the fact that there are many people like me who have fallen through the cracks since we don’t pay income taxes on our SS benefits so to the IRS, we don’t exist. To my surprise, I got a response from rep Meijer’s office yesterday but the news is a mixed bag at best…the deadline for getting the checks is tomorrow and if it’s not in my mailbox by then, I’m not going to get it…and that means I won’t get the 1400 dollar check either that is included in the next round of relief payments unless the IRS constructs a way for us to enter our information…which I have no hope for. So, at least they responded to my e-mail and asked for additional information to use to talk to the IRS but I’m just one person that doesn’t have a million dollars to donate to them so my cynicism says that I’m shit out of luck…I really could have used that cash…

Well…damn, I think I’m in a rut…up at 5:20 again today but was able to go back to sleep until almost 6:30 so I guess it was an okay night…still pretty worn out, though, and feel like I could go back to sleep for another few hours…had some repeating weird dreams about the rich guy that let me stay in his house and mounted these strange adventures with strange people…haven’t had that one in a while….this one included cross country racing in those little three wheeled vehicles that meter maids used to use…and I think there were helicopters in there, too, but I can’t be sure of that….it looks like today will be the last day of riding for a while with the 5-8 inches of snow that is forecast for tonight and tomorrow so it looks like I’ll be hibernating for a couple of days and just shoveling snow and packing….probably should wash the bike today and get it ready to be re-lubed since I have been riding it in the salt the past few days and that is not good for it….and I need it to last for at least another year as I settle into the new house….not much to do today….just going to take it easy since I did the grocery run yesterday and don’t really need anything else…I do need to do laundry but that can wait until after I have coffee and read the news…more later…

Well…made it all the way to coffee maker start this morning but I wonder why I still feel so damn worn out….it could be all of the stress that came from trying to get the mortgage stuff done and the fact that I have to organize another move soon….or it could be from not eating enough but how the heck can I be gaining weight only eating 1,000 calories a day? But, I’m not too sore today so I guess that’s something….I do have some back pain from working on the garage door yesterday but that will go away soon so I won’t take anything for it….I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday but I think I need to up the miles again to get to 10 a day and need to do it now since I’ll be off the bike next week…I am going to set the new bike up on the trainer when I move since it has the computer hooked up to the back wheel and that will register the miles I do on it….and that will take away the guilt of not getting my miles in….then I need to save for a new weight machine to start to get toned up again….not much to do today…have to do the grocery run this morning and then I’m going to take the rest of the day off…or just start packing again…not sure yet how I’m going to feel later….more later….

Well…finally, have all of the paperwork done for the mortgage broker so all I have left to do is wait for the closing date…but it wasn’t easy and I have been working on it for the past two days…running all over town and that took up my entire morning….then, after I got back here, I had to ride the last paperwork over to the broker but when I tried to open the garage door, one of the springs had pulled loose and the door would only open about 18 inches…so I had to crawl under the door and help it open from the inside and then reposition the bracket about an inch into some better wood since I had already repaired this once when it came loose before and this time it just pulled all of the wood out and there was nothing left to bolt the bracket to. So, it’s been a damn long day and I haven’t even gotten to reading much news to get a topic…so that will have to come later since Man U is playing right now and I have been waiting all day to watch that….more later…