Well…I’ll admit I had a pretty big smile on my face when I read the news that Paul Manafort was yanked off a plane this morning in Miami and his passport revoked as he was trying to make a run for it to Dubai….and it seems a little funny that this would happen to the fully pardoned trump flunky unless there are other things going on at the Justice department that are going to break soon…like more crimes in Ukraine to go with the the ones he already committed there that helped lead to Putin’s invasion….or even maybe that this could be part of a criminal complaint against the idiot boy (we can hope) that could land them both in jail and the JD is making sure he is going to be here to face the charges…and this time he will stay in jail since he doesn’t have the idiot to give him a pardon and that fact may even get him to cooperate this time. This will be an interesting one to watch over the next couple of weeks…and it couldn’t happen to a bigger crook…oh, okay…trump is a bigger crook and I hope they get him in this one, too…geez…
March 23rd
Well…all I have to say is that sucked…slept the worst than I have in a long time and feel like crap this morning…and it is so damn confusing when you do the same thing every night and get different results…maybe I’m just getting old….I did get some work done yesterday and I am happy how the trim came out in the bathroom…and I’ll say it again…I really like the paint I chose…the eggshell finish looks quite rich and it does hide a lot of flaws….I think I need to take a day off to let my right side rest and do some cleaning around here…and I do have some dust in the bathroom that needs to be cleaned up after sanding the filler I used for the trim….I guess I can wait to work on the window til Thursday….and I want to take some of the gravel they left in the street and put it on the raw dirt in my driveway so it won’t get muddy when it rains….and then I won’t have to buy bags of it….I do need to do the grocery run this morning after the bike ride but I don’t have a lot to get so the spend won’t be much either…will probably get out with less than 30 bucks since I don’t need any protein this week…have a freezer full from last week and probably should use that up….not much to do today…I have been pretty consistent with riding the bike downstairs…no, really consistent and I am heading toward 600 miles down there so I may just take an extra day off soon to let my legs heal….won’t be outside on the bike again until April so that will have to be in the next week or so…I do need a little rest….more later….
Who knew Kid Rock was secretary of state?
Well…damn, who knew that Kid Rock was the secretary of state for the idiot trump? It was revealed yesterday that, when he was golfing with hid great buddy trump, idiot boy asked this crappy musician his opinion what he should do with North Korea, even bringing out maps (that were probably highly classified) to point out to him what he was talking about…and no one on idiot boy’s staff said a word to him that maybe it was a little inappropriate (or even illegal) to show classified information to a civilian…again, I’ll do the imagining exercise…imagine what the repubs would have done if even Hillary had been invited to give advice to Biden? In public at a golf club in front of other civilians? You would still be hearing about it today even in the confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson and it would be in every add for the 2022 elections…but with idiot boy? Not a peep as the hypocrites in the repub party continue to ignore the 48 times that it is clear trump broke the law…typical repub bullshit…geez…
Got the bathroom trim done…
Well….after three hours or so of work, I got the bathroom trim sanded and painted this morning and it looks okay…with how bad the trim looked, I am happy with how it came out and I like going back to the original white that was in the house years ago…not sure if the look is modern or not but it has that classic cottage look that I was going for…and it looked like they didn’t even clean the trim at all before they sloppily painted it, leaving all kinds of crap in the paint and runs everywhere…not sure if I got them all but with the eggshell finish on the paint I’ve been using, it hides a lot of flaws…and gets me back to the “good enough” standard that I have been using once I started on this place and realized I wasn’t going to do the work necessary for it to be perfect…still have a few detail things to do where I was cleaning the paint that oozed under the painters tape and took paint off the trim, too…but I’ll wait a while for that…I need to rest my right hand, elbow, and shoulder since they are really hurting right now and doing the window will abuse them some more…so, now I’m going to look for a topic and read some news and will be back shortly….more later…
March 22nd
Well…that was a little weird…didn’t wake up til 5:16 and slept through the night without any tossing and turning and that is something that I am just not used to with all of the problems I’ve had sleeping in the past…I wonder if this is just part of the progression from the sleep aids and cocktails that is still ongoing? I was even able to go back to sleep until after 6 and that was pretty cool…I think part of it was getting so many miles in yesterday and I am going to try to get an outside ride in today, too….can’t wait to get the trim painted in the bathroom today and see what it looks like after getting rid of at least a part of the ugly blue in there…after I get that done, I will start on the window Thursday and that should take the rest of the week to get it ready to paint next week…then I’ll have three weeks to get the walls ready to paint before I can mask off the trim…it was really nice to get out on the bike in just shorts and a t-shirt yesterday but those days are over for a few weeks…and it is supposed to start raining later today and rain for a couple of days with up to an inch coming so I think that will green up the lawn some if we can just get some spring temps….the big gash in my arm is healing up nicely and I really need to remember how sharp the new chisels are so I don’t do more damage….not much to do today….just need to get on the bike here in 8 minutes or so and then get on the bathroom…don’t think the painting will take more than a a couple of hours to do two coats even with doing the sanding first…and then I need to make lunch and use some of the chicken I got last week…and then outside for a ride if I can get going before the rain comes in….more later….
Not guilty anymore…
Well…after finishing up my work for the day before 3, I was feeling a little guilty for not doing more today…but then, when I saw the temp was almost 65 at 5:15, I jumped on the bike to put in another 13 miles outside…so with the 8 miles downstairs, that makes 34 miles in today…so I don’t feel guilty anymore but I am going to be sore tomorrow..and that’s already started with my legs but I can deal with that with only having sanding and painting to do tomorrow…but, I am finally done for the day…no more later….
Got some new tools…
Well…as I talked about earlier this morning, I was going to hit HF for some tools that I needed to make my life easier as I work on this place and make my slow progress from grimy and ugly to acceptable…to me anyway. I needed a set of wood chisels to help with the detail work on all of the wood there is in here and I have already used them to both work on the trim in the bathroom and to injure myself when the smallest one slipped scraping the heating grates and I dug a big chunk out of my arm…pretty darn sharp chisels and they worked great on the trim so I can’t wait to work on the window in there with them. I also got a new half round file, a new wire brush, and a masonry chisel to cut down the blocks that I am going to use to fill in next to the house so I won’t be curling my garden hose in the mud anymore…and the space I’m going to fill is triangular shaped so I’ll need that chisel a lot…and filling in the whole area will give me a place to put a gas grille if I ever pull the trigger and buy one….now I’m done for the day other than getting a ride in outdoors in shorts around 2 o’clock after the showers end out here….worn out again…darn…
Back to the 15th century..
Well…in case you haven’t been paying attention, let’s summarize what the repubs end game is now that they have captured the supreme court by chicanery and lies…first you know they want to overturn Roe and make abortion illegal again across the repub controlled states and that is going to happen in the near future as telegraphed by the unqualified right wing assholes that trump and mcconnell stole seats for….but that’s not all they are coming for..since their ideas are so damn unpopular across the country…even with mainstream repubs, they need to have the court legislate from the bench and return this country to the 15th century where women were property and the church is the only law. We can see this by the latest repub talking point that Griswold was “improperly” decided…you know the one…that struck down all of the laws that made contraception illegal….and now their next target is the ruling that gave gay people the same rights as everyone else and that one will be struck down next year with the cases that are now wending their way through the courts with the express purpose of giving the SC the chance to overturn Obergfell…the ruling that expanded US rights to include gay people. The latest attack on rights is the idea that a state can extend it’s authority to women as they try to go to other states for legal abortions…and they are using the the SC’s non ruling in the Texas abortion case where they let stand the bounty system that allows anyone to sue any person involved with helping a woman get an abortion…and that goes against the constitution’s guarantee that the laws of one state stop at that states borders…can you imagine if all you needed was one blood red state allowing slavery again and then all states would have to abide by the laws of that state? That is exactly what the repubs are trying to do through the SC and, with the right wing hacks on the court who have no respect for precedent or the constitution, they just might get their wish even though 80% of the country doesn’t want any of this crap….now do you understand why it is essential to vote in every damn election? We need to get a big enough majority in the senate to expand the court without Manchin or Sinema or this country is doomed…geez…
March 21st
Well…running a little late today with not getting up until 6:17 and now I only have 14 minutes to get this done before I have to get on the bike for the indoor ride for the day….slept okay and I am really amazed how well I’ve been sleeping since I quit all of the aids that I had been using for years….and trying to sleep was one of the most anxiety generating things I did in those years…but that is pretty much gone now and being officially retired has helped that….with no schedule to keep anymore, if I have a bad night where I don’t sleep I can adjust my day to fit how I feel…and that is a luxury that everyone should have….had a normal Sunday yesterday with not a lot of work but I did continue removing the paint from the second heat register and I may be able to finish that up today…but it is going to be a busy day with the indoor ride, an errand out to HF, filling the trim in the bathroom to get ready to sand tomorrow, and then getting an outdoor ride in after lunch…and I may even be able to get one in tomorrow but then the weather goes back down into the 40’s for the rest of the month and into April….and that sucks….but that makes it a little urgent to get the indoor stuff done before I need to put all my time into getting the yard cleaned up and getting the garden border done along with choosing what perennials I want to plant around the back of the house…I did notice I have crocuses popping up in the dirt there so that will be cool and I am thinking about some small bell shaped plants that we had around the house when I was growing up…okay, just had to check the name and they are called Lily of the Vallies….and they thrive in shade so I can plant them on the east side of the house…time to get on the bike…more later….
TV reviews…
Well…you know, when you get invested in a show for most of it and then when the show runners try to get “edgy” they screw it all up…and that’s how I feel about the prequel to “Yellowstone” called “1883”….and there are going to be spoilers in this one so if you haven’t finished or seen it yet, probably better to stop reading right now. Up until the last episode, it was a pretty good if violent show but I’m not sure if it was really a true depiction of what life was like on the plains as people moved west…I mean, no boredom or anything like that but just death, death, and more death…much like if Mad Max had taken place on the plains of the US instead of Australia…and at the end, when the entire final episode was a dragged out death of what I saw as the main character…a young woman coming of age on the trail, the investment of the viewer was betrayed by the need of the show runners to continue the shock value that permeated the show…and then when the trail boss played by Sam Elliot kills himself sitting on the beach of the Pacific Ocean after the wagon train falls apart, it was just gratuitous and didn’t need to happen…I know the character had a tough life losing his wife and daughter to disease and then the death of the young woman who had become his ersatz daughter hit him hard, too…but, do we need that much reality? I know that the late 1800’s were pretty whitewashed as we were taught as kids but I wanted to be entertained not slapped in the face and that is just what the ending did. I’m not sure what Taylor Sheridan was thinking when he wrote the show that way, but making your audience work that hard to enjoy some escapism is just too much….and it turned me off “Yellowstone” to be honest…