Well…another day up at 5:04 but I don’t feel too bad so I guess I can live with it…it is a relief that my legs don’t hurt as much this morning but they have a fullness that comes with the damage I did to them…we’ll see in a few minutes how much they have recovered when I get out on the bike…my back has hurt like crazy the past two days too, but I welcome that pain since it means that something is moving around back there and it may help my foot…okay, no more bitching, didn’t get a lot done yesterday other than on the downstairs project but I was a week or so late on that work after waiting for the gas meter to be moved…and I have more to do today but that will be only about an hour’s worth and easy and I’ll get that done after F1 qualifying at 9…I have too many cukes coming from the garden and I need to find some way to use them or give them away…anybody want any? I’m pretty sure they don’t freeze well…I wonder if there is a food bank that would take them? And some jalpenos? I froze about 20 of them yesterday and have another 20 on the plants that will have to be picked soon…I am surprised that I am tolerating them again when I had a spell that I couldn’t eat them without distress…and they are pretty hot so you really don’t need to use much…it looks like I’ll have tomatoes to make salsa next week since some of the big better boys have started to turn red but I want to just taste them with some salt and pepper first….I can have tomatoes every day, especially just picked from my garden….not much to do today…just the normal Saturday stuff with races and soccer and not a lot of work….more later…

Well….when I was out on the bike this morning, my legs hurt like crazy and I couldn’t figure out why that would be…they never really hurt much when I ride…they get flat with no energy but very seldom do they hurt like they did today….and they continued to hurt as I ran a couple of errands as they do now…and then it dawned on me that this is the pain I was expecting from painting the awnings and, when I think of it, it is right on time…the second day after being on the ladder for three hours painting the big one out front…and you know it’s kind of a relief to figure it out even though they really hurt and I know I’ll be taking some ibuprofen later to be able to sleep tonight….even my feet hurt…from the time I got up this morning my feet have been hurting in weird areas like the balls of my feet…and they are stiff…how the hell do your feet get stiff? I hurt so much today that I skipped the second ride…but then aggravated the pain by doing some work on the downstairs project for a couple of hours which put me on my feet again…so, I guess I’ll take the rest of the day off and let everything stop hurting….I will get to a political one at some point but politics is depressing the hell out of me right now and I just don’t have the energy to even read more about it….but, I’ll try…

Well….okay, the cure is worse than the disease…took another otc sleeping pill last night and won’t be doing that again…I did sleep more than 6 hours last night but feel like crap today and I don’t like it…but, my foot still doesn’t hurt so I guess that’s something….and I think my back is gradually re aligning itself since I can feel it cracking as I move around here all day….my foot is still a little puffy but better than it has been so I can live with that gradual improvement…it is so much better than it was at the peak of the swelling that I barely notice it anymore…okay…that’s enough of the old guy bitching…was out in the back yard yesterday and watched a goldfinch pulling seeds out of the heads of one of the sunflowers to eat and it was a pretty cool thing to see…he hung upside down to get at the seeds then climbed onto the back of the head to spit them open and eat them…after he was done, I took a look at the back of the head and found a huge pile of shells that he had left there…that is exactly why I planted them and that made me feel good…saw a female doing the same thing the other day and she was just tiny, almost the size of a hummingbird….can’t wait to see how big the flower is on the 12 foot tall one I’ve going out there…or two actually and the trunks on them are almost as thick as my wrist….not much to do today…I think I’m only going to do one ride today since I have work to do on the downstairs project and I have a couple of errands to run this morning…but, who knows…I know I struggled a little on the second ride yesterday and I really should take better care of myself….more later…

Well….finally…the damn gas meter is outside and I don’t have to think about that anymore…they have been working on replacing the old steel lines with plastic but that started almost a month ago and I have been waiting for them to finish it for weeks….so today, one of their people came and finished it and did a pretty nice job…the meter was hung on the side of the house straight and he even made the pipe work that was up against the floor joist without cutting a new hole…and now I don’t have to keep disrupting the downstairs project every morning…but, I didn’t get anything else done but fool around…I did notice a computer speaker set up with a subwoofer in the garage…well…I noticed it a long time ago but didn’t think about trying it until today…and when I plugged my mp3 player into it, it worked like a champ and now I have music in the garage when I want it…it has three small speakers to go with the sub and it doesn’t sound bad….so now I have something else to annoy my neighbors with…I think I’ll take it with me when I move….oh, my bat didn’t come back today…darn….and my foot survived all the ladder work yesterday and doesn’t hurt at all today…weird….

Well…man, I’m sore this morning but I got the biggest awning on the front of the house painted yesterday…up and down the ladder a hundred times to get the two coats done…and using a roller worked out really well…it looks pretty darn good and now I only have 5 more to go….and my foot survived and doesn’t hurt at all today…I think I may have even cracked my back with all of the twisting and reaching on the ladder and the swelling is down some in my foot too, it was nice to finally work with still being able to walk afterwards….I even slept okay and didn’t get up until 6 but that took some aid to do that…I can probably take that again tonight or even for a few days to help fill the sleep deficit I’ve had for the past few months…I did have my own personal bat that I found sleeping under one of the awnings yesterday…was getting rid of the wasp nests that are constantly being built there and thought it was a big mud wasp nest…had to go and get my glasses to figure out what it was and it was pretty cool that a small brown bat was sleeping under there….it left to go hunting last night and it doesn’t appear that it is coming back…going to check again after the sun comes up…not much to do today…they are coming to move the gas meter this morning so I need to get a ride in before they come…only did one yesterday since the awning took almost 3 hours from start to finish and beat me up pretty well…going to try to do two rides today but I need to text my brother to find out when I can pick up the bike I’m buying from him….and I need to start to prep the next awning I’m going to paint…the rest of them are much smaller so I may be able to do two a day….more later…

Well….damn…5:08 again today and I am just worn out…again…and being back on the bike for only two days and I am stiff and sore just like before…okay, part of that may be climbing on the ladders to do the awning and will be doing that again today to paint the large awning over the living room window…I think I’m going to try a roller to get a better finish on this one and to be able to reach all of it…that will be a pain having to climb up and down for every roller full but it should be a lot easier if the roller will reach down into the corrugations….we’ll see….I may have to cut down an extension handle to reach everything but I won’t know that until I get started on it….I did start to feel a little better about the election in the fall with Biden’s VP pick yesterday and I need even some little crack in the darkness that has smothered this country since 2016…but I don’t talk politics here so I leave that where it is….I am going to take some allergy meds today since I am miserable and plugged up today and this is the time of year they normally get really bad…and I wonder if that is one of the reasons I’m so tired lately? I think I’m going to have to try to figure out how to sleep more or take some of the otc sleeping pills I used to use every day…might have to try one on a night I have nothing going on the next day since I know they leave me groggy…not much to do today…need to get the first ride in here in a few, then the grocery run, and then painting but I think that will be enough for the day depending on how hard the painting is going to be…the second ride was a chore yesterday but I do want to go over 3700 miles today and it will take two rides to do it….more later…

Well…sitting here waiting for my mp3 player to charge up so I can get on the bike for the second ride and thought I’d use this time for something other than tv or reading the news…got all suited up and suncreened and noticed that my player wasn’t charged so now I sit and wait for a while until it gets enough charge to make it through the hour and a half on the bike….I did make some progress on the house today and got the small awning on the round window painted with two coats of paint. I looks pretty good so I am going to do the big one on the living room window tomorrow  but that one is at least 4 times bigger so it will probably take a couple of hours at least and will probably keep me off the bike for the second ride…climbing on the ladders is already hurting my foot so I may not even be able to work tomorrow…who knows? But, it does feel good to accomplish something finally…

Well…it stormed last night and the power didn’t go out! A pretty low bar to make me happy but with it going out for 10 and 6 hours the last two storms, it was pleasant to be able to sit outside and watch it and then stare at the tv for a while and have light and fans running…same old sleep so nothing there to report but my allergies are starting to get bad again so I think I’ll take something for it today…I think I’ve gone long enough so I can buy more next week and I have 10 of them to last til then…I was stupid and got back on the bike for two rides yesterday but the stiffness from it is not too bad this morning and I was able to move around okay all day yesterday…but I think I’m going to work on a new schedule where I’ll do the first ride, then work around here, and then see if I want to do the second ride….have been too fixated on getting the two rides in that I’m not getting much done around here and I’m running out of summer….I am finally getting some produce off my gardens and filled a container with jalpenos, beans, and tomatoes yesterday so it looks like I am going vegetarian for a few meals over the next few days…got a 14 inch long cuke off the vines, too and have quite a few more that will be ready in the next week or so….need to start finding more things to use them for other than pickles since I can’t give them away like I planned….I do have two of the big sunflowers that survived in the back yard that are already over 10 feet tall and have just started to bloom so I wonder if they will get to the 15 feet that they are supposed to? Still looks pretty cool…not much to do today…I am going to get at the small awning in the front today and get it painted so I can see how they are going to look….need to take a before and after photo so I can send it to my son for his opinion…but any color will be an improvement since they have very little paint left on them and they look pretty shabby….more later….

Well…another 5 hour night and I am still a little worn out today and I am a little stiff from sleeping last night but the legs are still good from the rest day yesterday…not as good as they were last evening but I’m always a little creaky when I get up in the morning…it was nice to get the new router up and running with not much problems and now the computer starts as it’s supposed to without forcing it and it seem to be faster than the old one…but it should be with 15 years of improved technology in it…so I guess it’s worth 65 bucks…but, with paying my car insurance, I need to not spend any more money for about a month…that was over 700 bucks going out and that stings a little….I am going to get on the bike this morning and get at least one ride in today but I may just ease into getting back to two rides a day….I really want to see how the one day of rest works and if I can get by with only taking a little time off to heal….I really don’t want to go back to hobbling around like I was but that might just be unavoidable since I do want to get to the awnings this week….but, it looks like it may rain this afternoon so I might have to wait til tomorrow….would hate to have the rain ruin the finish and have to sand the whole thing down and repaint…not much to do today…need to have more coffee and think about the day a bit before I get moving but I will get something done…not sure what yet….more later….

Well…as you know, I have been taking the day off to try to repair my damaged body and have been pretty good at that so far…I damn near got out on the bike a little while ago, though but it’s almost 90 out there and I just couldn’t get motivated to get out….but damn, the guilt has been pretty strong all day but I have tamed it, knowing that I just can’t keep up 36 miles a day…and a weird thing happened…was just taking care of a few things downstairs and noticed that I am walking around almost normally with little stiffness or limping and it is so surprising to be able to walk like I used to…I really can’t remember being able to do that since I started the 36 milers every day and I kind of like it…and it is relieving to know that I can repair my body with just some rest and the pain and stiffness is not permanent. Didn’t even have to take any ibuprofen although I thought about it earlier today….that I may need to use some to help the inflammation and start the healing but it looks like that’s not necessary…but, one thing that is a little strange too, is having almost 3 hours to kill today that I would normally spend on the bike….boredom has crept in even with races on all day…but it appears like I will survive it…I may even just go out and walk around in the yard to just feel it….okay, my new router just got here so I need to try to set it up…