Well….that was a little bit better…was able to get back to sleep after waking up at 4:15 and didn’t get up til 6:30…and the coughing is not as bad this morning but it’s still here and still annoying…and tomorrow makes it 2 weeks and I am tired of it…other than that, I just feel worn out today and I think that is the effect of not sleeping more than 5 hours for months now…man, I hate bitching about this stuff so I think I’ll stop now…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and I hope to get out for another one today but that will have to wait til this afternoon since it is cold and raining out there…I do need to start taking the gardens out today…or maybe not since I have a couple of weeks to do it and it shouldn’t take more than an hour for both of them…and I’m not putting the plants out in the trash for a couple of weeks…I do need to run an errand this morning to get some margarine since the stuff I have has turned rancid again and I need it for the mashed potatoes I made yesterday..this is the second container I’ve had go bad in the past month and I wonder how old the stuff is that I have been buying…I guess I’ll have to look at the sell by dates more closely…cripes I wonder if my taste buds are going weird on me again like they did a couple of years ago? Back then, my toothpaste tasted like ashes but I haven’t noticed that…yet…not much to do today….think I’m probably going to veg it out a while before I run the errand and the race from Texas was moved to this morning with the rain they had yesterday so that will give me something to do at 10 and through lunch…more later….

Well…I am getting damn tired of this crap…back up before 5 with coughing like crazy again and didn’t sleep much at all…so, there will be a nap later on…can’t go on with 4-5 hours of sleep a day…and I had to take something for the coughing this morning…it’s been two weeks since this started and I still hurt like crazy from coughing…this is just so damn tiring….had an okay day yesterday but didn’t do much with all of the sports that were on but I am going to get some cleaning done today in between the stuff that is on today…and I do have to cook again today and I am looking forward to having some chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy…I did put jeans on to go out for the paper today and it was kind of funny with how much weight I’ve lost riding so much this summer…they were falling off and I should have put a belt on….normally when I go into jeans, they are pretty tight but not this year…I should be sore after getting back on the bike yesterday but I’m not and that is a little strange….the only thing that hurts this morning are my abs from all of the coughing….okay, my thighs are a little sore but not much…I am going to try to get back on the bike this afternoon but it is supposed to rain some…nothing on the radar yet so maybe it will hold off a while…more later

Well…have been trying to find a topic in politics to write about today with no luck so I think I’ll talk about this….I got a bike ride in today for the first time in three days and it felt good to get out and get some fresh air…but it was only 42 degrees when I went at 11:30 and that is borderline for going out in just my riding gloves…but the sun was shining and it was clear when I left but that turned into a cloudy day and I was freezing by the time I got back here and haven’t been able to get warm since….I think I’ll have to start thinking about my winter hat and full gloves if I go out tomorrow….my lungs were okay for the entire ride but I’m back to coughing and wheezing again but I think I’m better than yesterday….we’ll see how the rest of the day goes…I did make chili this morning and it came out pretty good once I remembered that using my tomatoes meant that I would have to add more brown sugar than I normally do to tamp the bitterness down…and I put a little frank’s in, too, and that brought it to life…I even got the chicken in the brine but had to use my big roaster since the chicken was too big to fit in a gallon bag…it’s almost 7 pounds and that’s a pretty damn big chicken….so that will keep me fed for a week and at 79cents a pound, it’s a pretty good deal….maybe more later….

Well…damn, I’m so tired of feeling crappy and coughing all the time…and my abs hurt so much from it that it hurts just to move at all…and let’s top that up with a headache I’ve had for a week now and it adds up to feeling miserable…I wonder if part of it is not being on the bike for two days with all the rain we’ve had? I am getting out today but it will wait til the afternoon since it is cold out there right now and I don’t want to do full thermasuit just yet…..what a waste of a day yesterday…didn’t do a damn thing but put the trash out and roll the empty bins back behind the house…they finally picked up my recycling after a couple of weeks of trying so I can get back to it again instead of putting it in the trash…I had things to do but just couldn’t get motivated with all the coughing and feeling sore…and today will probably look much the same with all the soccer and racing that is on this morning and Man U plays at 12:30 so that will put me out on the bike at 2:30 unless they are losing…I do have to get the chicken in brine to cook tomorrow and make chili today so that will be fun to do….but right now I’m watching MotoGP qualifying and then F1 qualifying and having my coffee…and there will be news in there,too….more later…

Well….you know I talked about the pasta sauce in this morning’s post and I was not too sure about it…with the bitterness that comes from using fresh tomatoes that I had to try to smooth out by adding a little sugar…okay, what a difference a day in the fridge makes…just made some pasta for lunch and it doesn’t even taste like the same sauce…I guess sitting in the fridge overnight gave it a chance for the flavors to smooth out and meld together and all I wanted to do was make another batch of pasta to have more…I didn’t, of course, since it is the second day of not riding with all the rain and can’t afford the calories….I was disappointed in the sauce yesterday but I am so pleasantly surprised today that I may just freeze some of it for another time…yummy…

Well….damn, my whole chest hurts from coughing again yesterday and last night and it is all from working in my own personal Chernobyl downstairs for only a half hour yesterday…and now I’ll be suffering all day today and probably for another week until my body recovers….but, I’m almost done down there so my exposure will be pretty limited until I’m done…slept okay last night and don’t feel really crappy today… a little crappy, but I can live with that….didn’t get out on the bike yesterday with all the rain but I am going to try to get out as soon as it gets light since it is 66 out there right now and I can get out for the last time in a shorts and a t-shirt if I can beat the rain and storms that are coming in…it’s going to be a race but I won’t feel bad if I don’t get out…there is a long line of storms and rain that are just to the northwest and the weather channel says it may storm around 10….then the temp is going to plunge later in the day and I’ll be back to full thermasuit tomorrow…I did make pasta sauce with my veggies yesterday and it came out good but forgot to put sugar in it to compensate for the bitterness of the tomatoes…but I fixed that after lunch and that made it much better…and I’m going to cook over the weekend…have a whole chicken to get in the brine tomorrow and I need to make chili with some burger that I have thawing downstairs and I’ll use up the rest of my tomatoes…dicing them to replace the canned ones I normally put in….not much to do today…just want to get a ride in before I start thinking about the rest of the day….more later….

Well…yeah, no political ones as yet but I’ve had a lot to do and have most of it done so that feels good…just sitting here now waiting for the pressure to release from the instant pot so I can get to the rest of the process of making the sauce…I did find my blender and got that cleaned and ready to smooth out the sauce and then it needs to go into my two biggest pots to thicken on low….oh, I just remembered I have a big pot that I can use or I can just put it back in the instant pot to thicken it….I did get to shutting down half of the downstairs project this morning and took the equipment down…it will only be about 56 days until I can shut the rest of it down for good and start cleaning up after it and I am looking forward to that…I think I torched my lungs again this morning working downstairs since I am coughing again right now….damn…I will get to a political one this afternoon once I find a topic but I need to get on finishing the sauce right now….more later….

Well…made it all the way to coffee start this morning! But, I still feel pretty darn crappy and the cough is just as bad as it was yesterday and that makes it over a week that I have been suffering with it…it may be a little better since I was able to stop taking the medicine for it and still slept some…and I got out for a bike ride that was okay and didn’t have any shortness of breath so I guess that’s progress, too…damn, I just want this to be over and to feel well again…I do have some work to do downstairs today so it will probably get worse later….crap…but the work needs to be done so I’ll have to suck it up and live with it…and I am going to try to make some pasta sauce in the instant pot to use up the ripe tomatoes I have sitting on the kitchen table…I did get out to strip the gardens of what peppers and tomatoes that were left and I am hoping that some of them will turn red…I already froze the jalapenos and I have enough of those that I don’t think I’ll plant them for next year’s garden and I have some half sized green peppers that will go into the sauce today…have to drag the blender out to puree it after it cooks…this is going to be the first time I’ve made sauce since I was in my first house and we had spaghetti parties and I am just winging it without any recipe but how hard can it be? I’m going to make chili tomorrow or Saturday and use the rest of the tomatoes for the diced ones I need for it…not much to do today….just cooking and the downstairs work…and probably no ride since it’s supposed to rain all day….more later…

Well…hey, slept 11 minutes later this morning than last night…but, I’m coughing like crazy again this morning and my chest muscles hurt again so I must have coughed all night too….I am damn tired of this and can’t wait until the source of the coughing is gone….feel so worn out today that I could go back to bed and stay there…cripes, it’s even hard to do this since my brain isn’t working too well after days and days of this….I did get out for a ride yesterday and it wasn’t awful…was able to breathe through the entire 12 miles so I thought I was making progress but I guess I wasn’t with how I feel right now….damn, I just want one day where I don’t have to bitch about feeling so lousy…I may be able to get out in shorts this morning with temps already in the 50’s but I need to do the grocery run first…I have a bunch of tomatoes that I need to use so I think I’m going to make slow cooker pasta sauce in the next couple of days…it looks like an easy one with just throwing the ingredients in the cooker and letting it cook on low for 8 hours or so…will probably have to run it through my blender to smooth it out after it’s done…I even have a green pepper on the plants that I can add to it…it’s small but I think it will be enough….not much to do today…have to do the grocery run and clean some but that will be about it…just don’t feel up to doing much more with this damn headache I’ve had for a few days now…more later…

Well…this just frickin sucks…felt pretty good yesterday afternoon and wasn’t coughing at all but that all changed last night and I woke up at 5:19 this morning coughing like crazy and feel like crap right now…and that’s why I’m running late today…laid back down on the couch and slept a little while since I just couldn’t do anything else….and I’m so damn exhausted that I don’t think I’ll get out on the bike today…yesterday’s ride was so damn hard with not being able to breathe that I’m not sure if I want to chance it today…hmmmm…I wonder if the work I did downstairs yesterday caused this relapse? I was in full haz mat suit while I was doing it and I do have a little more to do today but I think I may put that off with how I feel today….didn’t get much else done yesterday but the ride and laundry so I don’t have much to do so I may just take the day off….I do have some bills to pay but that won’t take long and I can get that done this morning after I have coffee and read the news a bit…I have been cutting out calories to compensate for only riding once a day and I wonder if that has something to do with how exhausted I am? It feels that way so maybe I’ll try to ramp that up and see if that helps…more later…