Well….as the title says, I can’t think of a political one that grabs me enough to cut through how overwhelmed I feel about the happenings in the world…just too much going on right now and I don’t have the energy to sort through it…so, let’s talk about music for a bit…when I was on the indoor bike yesterday, it dawned on me that the music that was in my ears was all nearly 50 years old…the Allman Brothers live at the Filmore east, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the Cars, CSNY’s 4 way street, the Beatles and on and on…and I wonder if any of you are the same way? I’ve talked about this before that I have stopped listening to new music and I wonder why that would be? I know I may be one of those snobs that think that the best music was done when I was young…but, can you argue with “In memory of Elizibeth Reed” live from the Allman’s in 1970? Or “Southern Man” from 4 way street? Or the story from “Doctor Wu” that takes you from happiness to despair and back again in a 6 minute song? I admit that as I age the emotional aspects of songs have more meaning to me…or maybe I’ve become more perceptive to them as I spend more and more time alone? Who knows? I’m sure I’m bringing some of my own interpretations to the meanings and that fits with what is going on with me right now…to a point, but a lot of it relates to what I’ve been though in this life from the time my older brother played Elvis, Buddy Holley, and Roy Orbison that I guess I absorbed without knowing it at the time. Don’t get me started on Steely Dan or Pink Floyd…especially Dark Side where the run of “Time” and “Great Gig in the Sky” always takes my breath away and talks to me as I get older…and with SD, I see myself in the characters and worlds they create…about the losers and the underachievers and the people who just can’t help themselves like in “Black Cow” where the protagonist has poured everything into helping his friend or lover “talk it out til daylight” but then realizes that it’s over and sends her away…or from “Your Gold Teeth” where a woman comes back into a man’s life that she burned at least once before but he knows what’s coming and the dismissive line “you don’t have to dance for me, I’ve seen you dance before” describes that fact…I guess what I’m saying in this long one is that music has always been important to me and I wonder if anyone else has the intimate connection that I have or if it’s unhealthy? I know that even if it is, that won’t change how I feel….
April 16th
Well…dang, the moon was so bright last night it looked like a spotlight was shining into my bedroom from about 2 am on and that was not good for trying to sleep…after tossing and turning for a few hours, I gave up and got up at 5:37 but still feel okay so I can live with that…my hands are pretty puffy this morning from all of the abuse I’ve been heaping on them and that won’t stop today since I want to paint the closet in the bedroom after doing the trim yesterday for some reason…but covering the dark blue in there is going to take two coats…and I need to get that done before Man U plays at 10…why, I don’t know since they have been stinking up the place for months now and will probably do it again today…I was going to take the weekend off and clean but that can wait til this afternoon….and I am going to take the entire day off tomorrow to get ready for the big push to finish the bedroom next week…and I am wavering on taking the summer off since I could get the painting done in the dining room and living room in a couple of weeks….but I may take a few weeks off anyway…with the bedroom going better than I thought, I still may be able to get those rooms done before the end of May which was my goal anyway….not sure if my body will hold up, though, and the yard is going to take about a week of prep work to get it ready for summer…damn, all I do is talk about work anymore…I wonder what happened to science, astronomy, and sports? I will make an effort to broaden the topics out in the future…it seems I have tunnel vision right now but working on the house has become my life and I know I’m getting tired of it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a few minutes and the straight into the closet painting and I know I’ll have paint all over me from the tight space…but it will be worth it….still have dust patrol to do later since I am so tired of having everything coated….more later….
Still worked today…
Well…you know, I was going to take the day off today after painting the bathroom yesterday but, you know me, I just can’t do it…so after the bike ride today, I headed out to run errands and try to get parts to rebuild my front gate and got the corners I needed but they only sell the rail I need in 10 ft lengths and I only need about 30 inches…and it was too cold to put the top down on the car and stick it in the seat and up in the air, so I couldn’t buy that part of it…the rail costs 20 bucks so the repair now is about 32 bucks but still cheaper than the 120 bucks they want for a new gate so I guess I can live with it…so, I’m going to have over 7 feet of rail left and I need to figure out what to do with it…maybe use it for the hummingbird feeder hanger that I wanted to make? I decided against the blocks for the garden border since menards is such a pain to deal with when you need construction materials…and once I measured the garden, it was going to take 50 bricks and I just don’t feel like setting that many of them right now…and can always do that later if I get bored this summer and have some extra cash…but I did work on the closet in the bedroom…cleaned it up and painted the baseboards and trim in there and will need to paint it grey in the next couple of days…but I’m not going to paint the ladder right now…just going to clean it and leave it for another time since it needs so much detail work…oh, and I hung the new blinds in the bathroom, getting one step closer to finishing it…just need to do the register next week when it’s warmer and I can paint it outside….so I did work today…maybe I’ll take the weekend off…yeah, right….
Texas runs our foreign policy?
Well…when you go to the grocery store and avocados are 5 bucks each and you can’t find any veggies, thank the idiot governor of Texas who has taken it upon himself to run both foreign and trade policy in direct violation of the constitution. This bullshit started earlier in the week when he told his state police to do “truck inspections” for every truck coming across the border from Mexico which has resulted in miles long backups at the border and lots of rotting fruit and vegetables as the trucks wait for days just for a stunt as Abbott tries to make inflation worse to hurt Biden and the dems in this fall’s election. And now, he has taken foreign policy into his own hands which the constitution says is the purview of the federal government only by making “agreements” with the heads of Mexican states to allow their trucks to freely pass as he extorts them probably into giving him cash for his re-elections which is also against the law. My question is what is the biden admin going to do about it? They need to hold this asshole accountable by fining suit today to force him to stop this illegal bullshit and the companies who are losing their drops to spoilage need to sue him for damages today to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and do it personally so the taxpayers of Texas don’t have to foot the bill for his criminality…typical repub bullshit….geez…
April 15th
Well…darn, I wonder why I don’t sleep well on the days where I work my butt off? Tossed and turned all night last night and feel worn out today but part of that may be only having a square of lasagna to eat all day….when I don’t get to eat til after 2 in the afternoon, it is too hard to try to force a second meal in before the end of the day so I normally don’t…and I didn’t ride the bike in or out yesterday so I shouldn’t have eaten more anyway…will do better today with the big ham in the fridge and not a lot do today…probably should clean the closet in the bedroom I’m working on since it is still full of dust from the repairs in there and I need to paint it to get rid of the ugly blue…going to paint it the same color as the kitchen and bathroom since I have 2/3rds of a gallon of that paint left and have no plans to use that color again….I wonder if my hands feel like they would from a bare knuckle fight? They are so stiff, cut up, and sore that I know they should be rested today but I still have work to do so that probably won’t happen….thinking of going out to Menards to get my gate repair parts so I can do that next week and check out the bricks I need to make a border around the garden this morning….I need 42 of them and I think I’ll make it red with some grey accents like I did with the trash bin landing pad….and that will be about 150 pounds in the back of the Miata and that is about the load limit for it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a minute to get a ride in and I do have the blinds for the bathroom I can install today….and I need to order blinds for the bedroom window so I can install them as soon as I get that painted and take the newspaper down….damn, this became another house one and I didn’t want to do that…oh, well….more later….
Bathroom is done!
Well…damn, finally have the bathroom painted and it is such a relief to have it done…but the damn tape peeled off some of the paint from the trim and that is pissing me off..it even pulled paint off some trim that had the old paint on it that has been there for 20 years so I guess letting it cure wasn’t enough…I’m now thinking that it is the cheap HF tape I’ve been using so before I do the bedroom, I’m going to spend the big bucks on 3m tape to see if that is better…it costs about twice as much but if it will do the job without making more work for me, the cost will be worth it…damaged both index fingers today cleaning up the light that goes over the sink on the sharp edges on the back of it…it is just a cheap stamped steel that is razor sharp and rubbing on it to get the paint off that was the last paint job did a number on my fingers…so now I have bandages on both hands and my right thumb has told me enough so I’m glad I have a couple of weeks until I need to paint again…the grey paint looks pretty cool in the bathroom and much more modern than the weird blue they had in there…and the white baseboards and trim add a nice accent to it…but, I am beat and still drinking coffee at 2:30 in the afternoon…and still haven’t eaten anything yet today but I just want to relax for a while and read some news before I get back to work and re-hang the lights and mirror in the bathroom….I guess I could let that stuff wait til tomorrow or much later today…the paint still needs to dry and I don’t want to push it…owww….
April 14th
Well…darn, up at 5:14 this morning…oh, do you wonder how I know exactly what time it is when I get up? Don’t have a clock in my bedroom…at least one that has the correct time, but I do have my phone in the drawer of the small table that is next to my bed and I can just roll over and reach it…I used to be able to tell what time it was innately without a clock and it was always fun to guess and then check the time with a clock…and I did that this morning and only missed it by about 8 minutes…yeah, I know I’m weird…but I did sleep okay and feel okay today but I think I’m skipping the indoor bike ride…my legs are really sore from riding hard outside yesterday and I think they need a rest today with too much wind and cold to go out…and that’s okay since I need to go out and get paint and work on the bathroom anyway…so that leaves me with a little time to do this and have some unrushed coffee this morning and I sure do like it….should be able to get all of the prep work done on the bathroom today and then get it painted tomorrow but it is going to be a pain to paint with how small and tight it is…and then I need to get some garden soil to get my tomatoes started from the seeds I have left over from last year but that may not happen til next week…normally, you can’t plant outside until late May to avoid any remaining frost so I don’t need to rush…it is going to be nice to take the weekend off this week and just fool around on some small stuff around here…and after the last of the dust today, the kitchen and dining room will need to be scrubbed to get it back to acceptable clean….then no more dust! Damn, I’m tired of having everything coated…okay..there will be some dust when I start on the baseboards and window in the dining room over the summer…not much to do today…just out for the paint and then the bathroom work…I may get on the inside bike later today but I’m not going to be anal about it….the bathroom will be enough work for the day….more later…
A busy but good day…
Well…cripes, I may be getting used to these busy days…just sat down for the first time at around 4 and 48 minutes later, I’m ready to find something else to do…got the grocery run in and got my big ham and then hit aldi’s, depot, and the dollar store to get everything I needed for today and found that I didn’t need to stop at depot since all I needed was a drop cloth and the dollar store had them for 1.25 which is half price of depot so I guess I’ll be getting them there from now on…and I got new led bulbs for the fixture in the bedroom, too…then, when I got back here, I got right at painting the ceiling in the bedroom and got two coats on by 11:30 and then cooked the big ham and the rest of the food to go with it and had a huge lunch…so only one meal today I am still so full….the ceiling came out better than I had any reason to expect but it’s just the paint and not me…although I did get lots of painting practice on my son’s house so it’s pretty easy to do it right….and after the paint dried, I hung the fixture up and put the glass shade on it and it looks pretty cool with the shiny copper finish…after that, I decided to do the last repair on the wall above the sink in the bathroom so I can sand it all out tomorrow and get everything masked off so I can paint Friday…need to go out for paint tomorrow….again…but I should be able to finish the bathroom in a couple of hours…and then I am taking the weekend off to get ready to start on the yard as I wait the two weeks for the paint in the bedroom to cure….and I need to order the blinds for the window in there so I can hang them as soon as I get it painted…break time…oh, and after I repaired the wall in the bathroom, I had a two hour window of no rain so I got on the bike and did 15 miles…almost forgot about that….busy day…
Do you need a better reason?
Well…please tell me you’ve been following the news about the criminal Rick Scott, you know the one, whose company paid a 200 million dollar fine for defrauding Medicare? The one who is now a senator from Florida? He said the quiet thing out loud last week when he put out a repub economic plan that they are going to pass if they take control of the congress in 2022…the highlights are raising taxes on 100 million middle class Americans…so if you make 50K a year, your taxes are going up by almost 5K a year…and if you’re one of the rich, you get a tax cut that will be paid for by the middle class….and if that’s not bad enough, his plan eliminates SS and Medicare in 5 years…leaving everyone who needs it to stay alive to fend for themselves or go back to work at 80 years old…essentially saying if you weren’t able to grift the billions he did, it’s just too damn bad and you can just lose everything and starve….this is what the repubs have always wanted…every person for themselves and the hundreds of thousands you paid into SS is just gone…poof…so they can give that money to the rich since they need it so badly…look, do you need a better reason to vote against every damn repub in the fall? We’ve paid our way our entire lives but that isn’t enough for these pricks…unless people are poor and dependent on them to throw them a few scraps, the repubs won’t be happy….we need to stop them…there is no better reason to crawl over broken glass to vote these assholes out…or they are going to steal what you worked your entire life for….just damn vote…geez…
Got the painting done…
Well….got the painting done in the bedroom! The white anyway….and now comes the two week wait for the paint to cure so I can mask it off for the grey for the walls…I am really looking forward to see how the bit darker grey is going to look in there…should be pretty cool…I hope….I am really happy how the trim and ceiling came out even with the 82 year old plaster….and my patches on the ceiling are so much better than the ones that were in there that I can live with them…and I’ll keep chanting French Chateau every time I notice how flawed they are…but they are good enough for me and look so much better than they did…like I almost knew what I was doing…almost….can’t wait to see how the wall patches look after painting and then start to gradually move my stuff in there…not sure how I’m going to set it up yet but I have options I don’t have in the small bedroom…..I think the echo in there is going to be a little weird but putting the bed and dresser in there will probably help with that….man, I never thought I’d get to this point with it when I was deep into it…glad I decided that I had done enough work in there and didn’t keep trying to make it better…cripes I’d still be working on it next year….