Well…with the doctors appointment yesterday and what was discovered in my colonoscopy last week, along with my elevated PSA test, this is one that I had hoped to never write about…my doctor is worried that I have prostate cancer…yep, the big C and that really, really sucks. So the process starts to find out for sure in the next couple of weeks with a referral to a urologist for more tests and probably a biopsy to see what is going on…one tiny bit of hope is the weird effect that riding a bike hard has on the PSA test…it is supposed to raise the PSA like crazy and I did a full hour on the indoor bike going as hard as I could yesterday morning before they drew blood so I’ll bring that up when I have the urologist appointment…at least this will give me a topic to write about over the next few months…I’m glad we have found out about this early so the prognosis should be pretty good and normally prostate cancer grows pretty slow unless I have the aggressive one that could kill me next year….so, maybe there won’t be a UK trip after all…oh, well….

Well…it really is nice when I feel that I did enough to keep the guilts at bay and today is one of those days….started out really early by getting on the bike downstairs by 7am and getting a good ride in…I did have to replace the earpieces on my ear buds since the rubber ones had rotted away and looked pretty shabby…so, I dug out the box for the betrons and found that there was a spare set of silicone earpieces that fit perfectly and do a better job of keeping the wind noise out of them than the rubber ones did…and I am still amazed at how long these things have lasted…going on 5 years now and I’ve never gotten more than 6 months out of any other ones…okay, back to the day….after I got the ride done and got cleaned up, I headed out to my doctors appointment that went well and I am waiting for the results of the PSA test to be sure that I’m in the clear…then, as soon as I got back here, I jumped on the bike for the second ride of the day, had lunch, then back out to work on the yard and spent 2 1/2 hours running the string trimmer and edger then cleaned all that up and finished about 2:20 or so…so, I think I did enough today and plan on taking the rest of the day off and having a couple of cocktails tonight after being good for the past week and getting my blood pressure below 130…and now I have tomorrow afternoon off after getting the work done today…yay…oh, I did hurt myself more today but it’s not my back or any parts that hurt before…it hurts on my side just under my shoulder and that is a familiar pain that I’ve had every time before when I abused those muscles doing the edging…oh, well…

Well…had a bit of good news during the doctors appointment this morning…when they weighed me, I was under 180 pounds for the first time in over 20 years…and that was with jeans and my shoes on…almost 3 1/2 pounds less than the last time and that makes me smile a bit…I’ve really been working hard at losing weight and I’m happy I’m still going the right way…only about 9 pounds more to get to my goal of 170…but, when I get there, I’ll probably move that goal to 160…going to have to buy all new clothes for the trip next year if I hit that goal…but I need them anyway….more later…

Well…I could just say 3:11 and then 5:54 and you’d know what I was talking about and that means I need to change things up a bit…still pretty sore around my trunk but it’s not the gasping pain it was a couple of days ago…but it’s still annoying and I am going to hurt it more again today with running the string trimmer and edger to finish up the lawn work that I need to do for fall….there are more leaves to be picked up but I think I’ll wait til they are all down to do that…probably early next week…had a good day yesterday but today is going to start out  a little slow with skipping the coffee to keep my my blood pressure down for the doctor’s appointment at 9am….I still have some health problems that need to be resolved today that came from the colonoscopy last week and I sure don’t need to have this stuff hanging over me…I did buy some powerball tickets yesterday but I didn’t win but no one else did, either, so the jackpot is going to be 1.2 billion dollars for the drawing wed so I think I’ll blow some more money with the off chance I could win some bucks…damn, it’s November and I still haven’t started on the dining room and that is a little depressing…still too many other things to do and I think I’ll just have to suck it up and start next week…it won’t take more than a couple of weeks to finish it and it would feel good to have another room done….not much to do today….just the doctors appointment and then back here to do an outdoor ride…going to do an indoor one here in a few minutes since it won’t be light early enough to get out before the appointment….haven’t edged the walks in a few months so it will be some work this afternoon but it is going to be about 60 today and that will make it easier….but it is still going to hurt…oh, well…more later…

Well…since I cleaned and filled the window bird feeder a couple of weeks ago, there has been a lot of activity on it and that is fun to watch…have had a lot of chickadees and didn’t have one last winter so that is pretty cool…and today, I got a new bird on the feeder that looks like a chickadee but has a long beak instead of the finch-like ones the chickadees have…so, of course, I went out to the internet to take a look to try to find out what it was…it appears to be a white breasted nuthatch that has the same black cap as a chickadee and similar coloring…and that is pretty cool to see a bird I’ve never seen before..but I am still confused that the sparrows haven’t found the feeder yet…I’ve seen them around a block away but none of them in my yard so far…just had a huge bluejay on the feeder and I think he’s the one who has been coming all year and through last winter….it is nice to have my bird tv to watch as I sit here and do these…lots of fun…

Well…it’s after 1:30 pm and I am just getting to sit down on the couch for the first time today…and finishing up my last cup of coffee…could have extra today with not being able to have any tomorrow morning with my doctor’s appointment and trying to not raise my blood pressure..at least I won’t have any before the appointment…I did get quite a bit done this morning with getting on the bike when it was barely light and the sun hadn’t come up yet…it was damn cold on the bike and I probably should have worn gloves but it was 50 so I thought I could get away with my riding gloves with no fingers in them…I survived it so I guess it was okay…after the first ride, I had errands to run that started with a stop at the atm to get some cash since I’ve had empty pockets for a week and I wanted to have some cash just in case…the I stopped at the gas station to get a gallon of gas for the string trimmer and put some in the car since I was down to about an eighth of a tank and I never let it get that low…then into Meijers to buy my powerball tickets since the jackpot is a billion dollars for tonight’s drawing and I could use 600 mil in cash…then I went to the pharmacy to get some allergy medicine I was running out of and for the first time in a month, they had the big box of 48 so I can go 6 weeks without thinking about that…then over to Menards since I needed more lawn bags and wanted to look at those 3 buck adjustable led lights for my work area downstairs…bought two of those and they do put out a lot more light than the single led bulbs I had down there and I even bought another one like I put in the garage to put in the main light that comes on with the downstairs switch…yow, that lights up the basement and even gives enough light to see in my cabinets when I’m looking for stuff….and now I have enough led single bulbs to replace the cfls that are in one bathroom fixture over the sink…and I need to do that this afternoon after I finish my coffee…don’t really like the cfls and get a lot more light for the same electricity cost with the leds…and they last forever so I’ll never have to replace them…so, all in all, got lots of stuff done today and still need to clean and cook for dinner…and maybe get one more of these out for the month….Happy Halloween….