Well…I’m just having one of those days that I don’t feel like suiting up in full thermasuit and braving the wind to get a ride in today…and I am trying to not feel guilty about it. I wonder if being good offsets the lack of motivation I feel today? I sure hope it does since the only thing I want to do is sit here and watch a little tv…I did get half of the basement cleaned up and the stuff put away and I cooked some chicken in a mushroom cream sauce over brown rice that came out pretty good so maybe that’s enough to do for one day? Sure hope so since I’m pretty much resigned to taking it easy the rest of the day…cripes, I haven’t even taken a shower yet and it’s almost 1 pm….and I’m not motivated to do that even…so can I call this a wasted day? Not really wasted but with less accomplishment than I hoped for…but, I still haven’t taken any time off to rest after the past few months of busting my butt…maybe this half day will have to do?

Well…Okay, didn’t get up for the second time until almost 6:30 so I guess that’s something….and I had a really busy day yesterday trying to get a bunch of stuff sorted out that I did successfully and that gave me a little bit of a relief…only have one more thing to get done and that is to get my mortgage set up to come out of my checking account automatically so I don’t have to write checks to pay it…I did sleep okay last night even if I tossed and turned a bunch and slept on my right shoulder again but that pain went away after I got off it….not sure what I’m going to do for the next two cold days with not getting on the bike but I think one thing is going to be cooking with my new cookware today…going to make some chicken thighs in a mushroom cream sauce with brown rice and I have a deep sauce pan in the new set that will be perfect for a one skillet meal….I’m looking forward to something other than ham that I’ve had for the past week…I may get out for more yard work today but I probably should start the indoor work to get this place organized and get the rest of my stuff put away…we’ll see….not much to do today….just cooking and cleaning up but not until I have more coffee and read the news…and I need to check to see if anyone won the Mega last night….more later…

Well…damn, another busy day and I’m just now getting the first chance to breathe…the whole thing started with doing the grocery run today since I wanted to get my Mega tickets for tonight and I had to stop at the dollar store for more sunscreen and a new set of sunglasses for riding…then over to Aldi’s for a bunch of stuff to make mushroom chicken tomorrow in one of my new pots and then to Meijers for the rest of the things I need…cheap day with not buying any booze…I think I only spent about 20 bucks at both aldi’s and Meijers combined so that was cool…and then over to the bank to cash and deposit my 600 buck check and then back here…before I got started, I had to call PNC bank to make sure my first house payment got applied to my account and get a pin to set up my online banking with them…after I got back here I had two hours on the phone with comcast trying to get my accounts straightened out and finally got that done so now I can take a break and just relax for a bit…no bike ride today since the wind is just howling out here and I had to weigh down my leaf bags to keep them from blowing away until they picked them up this afternoon….this has been a lot more work than I wanted to do but that takes care of everything that I had to do this week other than pay a bunch of bills that will burn through another 1200 bucks before it’s all over…but the next big thing that I have to pay for is my taxes and car insurance at the end of August…so I need to start saving right now for that…that should be another two grand…yikes…

Well…running about on time for a change with getting up around 6 but with having trouble getting to sleep last night I only got about 5 hours but I feel okay this morning with being good last night…my hands and arms are sore again today with all of the chopping and raking I did on the lawn yesterday but I did get the back of the yard finished and will probably start work around the house today…need to trim the long grass around the foundation and do another repair on the fence to keep animals from getting through it…and I think I need to buy a reciprocating saw from HF to cut the brush out of the fence, too…but I am going to wait for the 1400 dollar check to come before I do that…and that should be next week…I do need to get a lawnmower, too, and my oldest brother said he had one so I need to check that out before I burn 500 bucks on a new one…but, I need a self-propelled one since this is a pretty big yard….and I want a mulcher and bagger, too, so we’ll see….and once I get the grass cut out of the fence, I’m going to treat the fenceline with grass killer so I don’t have to trim it too much….not much to do today…it’s going to be a busy one with doing the grocery run today and hitting the bank and phone calls to comcast and the new bank that now has my mortgage so make sure the check they cashed for the first morgtage payment was applied to my loan…looks like I may not get on the bike today with the wind blowing over 25 already and getting gusty later today….more later…

Well…damn, just got the 600 dollar check that I had to file a tax return for! And the 1400 dollar check is going to be sent on the 2nd of April…yay! It took a damn lot of work and bitching to get this one so I really do hope the next one comes without any work since the IRS has my info now so it should be easy…the operative word is should…but, we’ll see…all I know is that I can sure use this money…going to call a plumber or drain cleaner and get the kitchen drains cleaned next week and probably get an estimate on taking down the dead tree….and I can now afford a ladder, garage door opener, and a grill so I’ll be set for the summer….this is just such a damn relief….

Well…it feels darn good to be able to  come here first thing in the morning after not being able to for two days…after almost 9,000 of these, I still look forward to doing this every day and my day is just wrong when I can’t…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until 6:30 and that makes three days in a row of sleeping through and I’m not sure why that is happening….I’ll take it but I sure wish I could figure out the keys to doing it all the time…didn’t get out on the bike yesterday with the cold, rain, and wind and it looks like this is going to be a pretty crappy week with temps in the 50’s today and tomorrow but down into the 30’s wed and thurs and rain showers almost every day so riding is going to be iffy starting then….I should be able to get back to yard work this morning and I want to finish the back of my lot today…still have trimming and raking to do and then I’ll start on the rest of the yard…not sure when I’ll get started on the interior of the house but I am starting to feel stress about getting going…and that shouldn’t be…after all, I don’t have any schedule to meet and I am perfectly fine living in the house the way it is….and I want a summer off to just enjoy myself…don’t know how many summers I have left and it would be a shame to spend them all working on a house that someone else will enjoy….not much to do today….I am going to try to get a ride in today and the yard work done and the dirt races at Bristol are on starting at noon so I may have to fit the ride in between the trucks and cup cars….more later…

Well….after working and working to try to get my relief payments and not having any luck, I went out to the IRS website on Saturday and put my info in and they have information on me and they are sending one of the checks on the 2nd of April….so, I’m not sure which payment it is going to be but I’m guessing it’s the 1400 dollar one and that would be so cool…have burned so much cash in the past month that I was going to have to basically stop spending any money to make sure I still have a good sized reserve left….I need a garage door opener and a grill..and my kitchen drain cleaned…maybe by the middle of April…yay!

Well…I’m back! Did you miss me? Had a little snafu with my domain name expiring and my son being too busy with an outage at his work to fix it until just now…so now I’m back…and damn, it’s hard to not do this for almost two days…so let’s get to it…hmmm…I did sleep okay last night but still feel pretty crappy even this late in the day so it looks like I’m going to skip the cocktails tonight and just have water…or more water since I’ve been drinking glasses on glasses all day today…I’m really not as sore as I should be after chopping out a bunch of stumps yesterday with my axe and that should have screwed up my shoulder but it feels okay today…but my back is still iffy and stiff and that has been going on for a long time and I’m not sure what to do about it….I did get a comment from one of my neighbors on how nice the sidewalks in front look after I edged them with my spade and that made me feel good that someone is noticing…and I got all of the vines chopped up and bagged yesterday but I am out of space in the garage so the leaves will have to wait a while until they start picking them up in a couple of weeks…I didn’t do anything today but watch sports and veg since it was so cold and windy out here…steady winds of over 20 with gusts to 40 with rain and I just don’t want to get wet working outside…I did talk to my neighbor about the amp he has in his van…I heard it the other day and could not believe how loud it is…but he’s my neighbor so I’m not going to bitch…and he’s a nice guy…oh, he has 2,000 watts in the thing and 4 12 inch woofers in it…made me laugh….okay, that’s enough to get started again…might be back for another one later after I let my brain get back into writing mode….

Well…running on time this morning with getting up around 6 or so…I know I could smell the coffee so it must have been a little after 6 so that makes for a good night after crashing out about 10 last night…I did get up a couple of times and the pain in my left ribs didn’t let me sleep in my right side…yeah, that’s weird…I could sleep on it but sleeping on my right was too damn painful….and I was good again last night for the fifth day and I feel good about that…that’s two weeks in a row and I am close to making that a new habit…I did get my new stainless steel pots yesterday and I can’t wait to try them out but need to read the pamphlet that came with them to care for them and make them the last pots I need…after all, I am pretty damn old an they only need to last about 10 years or so…didn’t get on the bike yesterday since I really did need a day off I was so sore…and I may take today off, too, with the cold and showers that are forecast but we’ll see…I can use some exercise but I’m not as anal about it as I used to be…it is going to be cold the next few days but I am ready to go back to my thermasuit if I need to….not much to do today…I should get into planning the painting project for the living room and the bedrooms but I still haven’t taken the two weeks off I said I was going to after I moved in here and I wonder if I will ever do that….there is still a lot to do and it is hard to sit here with it not done…and I do need to not spend any money until next month since I spent close to 2500 bucks this month and that is more than I had come in for the first time in years…and that is not sustainable….more later…

Well…with the package that just came with my new Cuisinart cookware that my son and daughter in law bought me, I’ve had a really nice day that started with T coming out to see the house and then going out to lunch and talking for a couple of hours…it was nice to catch up with her since I hadn’t seen here since last year and, with everything that is going on in her life, I think she needed and old friend to just sit and listen a while…and we laughed and smiled and just talked as old friends do…and that made me smile that I could give her a couple of hours where she could live in the moment and not think about the hard decisions she needs to make….I felt useful for the first time in a while and that made me feel good…hope I helped…