Well…on this St. Patrick’s day, I’ve been ruminating on heritage a bit and what it means to me….I’ve really never thought about it much throughout my life other than to make a little sense of why the heck I’m the whitest person I know…even bordering on transparent and that really does mean northern European…and there is French and Irish that are predominately the two nationalities that come from my grandparents on both sides…my father’s parents were from France (and his father still had a bit of an accent although I can’t be sure of that since I only met him like three times in my life) and I remember my mother’s parent’s explaining why there were Irish people who wore orange instead of green…protestant versus catholic…so I’ve simplified my heritage down to those two to just make it easier…like everyone else from Europe, if you go back far enough you’ll find German, Dutch and others included in the main nationalities and that is how it is with us…but I like French and Irish…and when I was young, my beard grew in red so there has to be some Irish in there somewhere…I am looking forward to seeing Ireland in 2023 when my daughter is taking me to the UK and we’ll get to spend a few days in Ireland…not that there is any longing for me to discover Ireland in my blood but I’ve always liked the Irish people and loved what that Island looks like…so, Happy St. Patrick’s day! Hope you all have a good one…think I may have one drink to celebrate….
More companies to boycott over support for Putin…
Well…even with most US companies pulling out of Russia in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and his committing of war crimes there, there are still a few companies that have always supported Putin or his predecessor Stalin or even Hitler in WWII and are staying there…and you can guess at least one of them would be Koch industries whose war profiteering in Germany in support of Hitler gave us the Koch brothers who have done more to damage this country than just about anyone else…but guess what Ada, Michigan based company is on the same list as the Kochs? Yep the ultra right wing DeVos and VanAndel’s company Amway has stated they are staying in Russia…and, are you surprised? You shouldn’t be if you watched the damage the DeVos’s did to public education here in Michigan and across the country as Eric Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos tried her best to ensure that we couldn’t compete with the world in our children’s education all the while trying to make our whole system a for profit one that her rich cronies could milk dry before they moved on to steal somewhere else. These are not the only companies who have decided to stay in Russia to support Putin’s murdering and war crimes…how about Nestle? Yep, they’re staying along with all of the brands they own…like Gerber baby food, Purina cat foods along with Friskie…you get the picture…please take a look at these companies and boycott them from this point forward…buying from them supports children being murdered in Ukraine…it’s that clear…geez…
No work two days in a row…
Well….okay, that one is not really true…I didn’t work on the inside of the house today but I did work on the lawn and picked up branches and trash all over my lot…and I did get the sod that was torn up on the terrace out front replaced and smoothed out and some more of the dirt and concrete raked off it so when it rains tomorrow, it should wash the rest of it down into the soil and give me a better looking front of the house…there was still ice under the sod that was torn out so I couldn’t get it to lay flat but that should happen with the rain tomorrow….and I did get out for an outdoor ride on the bike that was fun with the bike working so well after sitting all winter…still haven’t started to sprint at all out there since my legs and lungs are not ready for it yet even with riding over 500 miles downstairs….I do have to remember that mileage since I am in training mode outside and I don’t have to be…I normally take about 300 miles to be ready to go hard but I have already done that downstairs….and my butt is already 300 miles hard and doesn’t hurt at all…but no ride tomorrow with the rain that is forecast to come in about 7am and last all day and into Saturday….but I will get on the indoor bike for my miles…and then back on the work in the bathroom so I can get painting the trim in there…hope I have enough paint…might have to get a gallon tomorrow…
What the hell is he thinking?
Well…cripes, normally when you are in a hole, you stop digging to get out of it but not with the moron Putin…just yesterday he gave a “speech” that basically attacked everyone in Russia that aren’t him and threatened to close the borders in a return to the bad old days of Stalin and basically make everyone in the country a prisoner who would not be able to leave…so, guess what the response was? everyone who could get out of the country did…and a striking thing was the 300+ private jets that made a run for it, heading to Dubai and other middle eastern countries and I would guess full of family and friends of the owners of the jets….and these weren’t the only people getting the hell out of dodge…since the invasions and war crimes started, everyone who could afford to get out have gone…and the Russian airlines have had to double and triple their flights out of Russia to meet the demand…and so far, almost 400,000 Russians have voted with their feet and everyone is scrambling to get out…and, in a real example of the crazy that is left in Putin’s government, one of his crazy assed “ministers” said the other day that Russia is “owed” all of the territory it has ever given up and the war will continue until it is returned to them…and that includes Alaska and other parts of the Northwestern US….so now we see where this is all going…Putin is going to continue to spiral down into madness until there is nothing left in Russia except a hollowed out husk that will never be a player on the world stage again…how’s that working out for you puutie boy? what a moron…geez…
March 17th
Well…sure hope I can figure out what the heck I did last night but I was able to breathe and didn’t wake up til 6:30…and have just a hint of a headache and I’ll take that all day long…oh, and Happy St. Patrick’s day! I do have some Irish heritage so I may lift a glass later today…not sure what is going to be in the glass but I’ll lift one just the same…not making any corned beef and cabbage this year since I couldn’t find any that isn’t way too much money…I mean I got it for 2.99 a pound last year and this year it’s 4.99 and I really don’t need to spend that cash when I can get chicken for 39 cents a pound…we’ll see if it goes on sale after today and then I may buy a small two pounder…it was nice to get outside on the bike yesterday and it is warm enough to get out right now but it’s still too dark so I’ll be back on the indoor bike this morning…I do want to wash the car after the ride and then get the outdoor ride in before Michigan plays in the tournament at noon today so I’ll need to get going to get everything done before then….sill need to get some work done in the bathroom today, too, so I guess I should get going….going to finish up the leftovers today and cook some chicken later that I can use for a few things…probably some chicken tacos since I have the pepper and tortillas leftover from the pork….more later….
Feeel pretty lousy today…
Well…after getting on the downstairs bike this morning with little pain, I felt like it would be a good day to take a second ride outdoors and step up the intensity a bit..but, after I got back here I started to feel like crap and still feel that way…feel warm and exhausted and have that damn headache back again…even though I have been masking up again, I wonder if I may have gotten covid somehow? I am contemplating using one of the 8 tests I have here just to make sure that it isn’t and is just my allergies going into overdrive with the warmer weather…I know I have been under a bit on calories the past two days…but is some pork shoulder, and spoonful of potatoes and gravy, and a pork soft taco with no cheese too little? It is close to 1200 calories and today I had a small rib and a handful of oven fries and that’s it…so I know that 600 calories is not enough with doing two rides but I am not hungry at all right now and I probably should be….crap…oh, well…at least my grocery bill for the week is under 30 bucks…but I may go out to save a lot Friday since they have a special of chicken leg quarters for 39 cents a pound…so, ten pounds for 3.90? Don’t have a lot of space in the freezer but how can I pass that up? Oh, well….I’m tired…
Putin looks like he’s going to lose this war…
Well… I have been trying to avoid commenting on the point that Putin is going to lose in Ukraine as there are still untold war crimes he and his troops are committing there by targeting civilians and continuing to kill thousands of them…and it seems to be disrespectful to sit here on my soft warm couch and opine while Ukrainians are fighting for their lives…but, it does appear that with the latest round of support for the Ukrainians from across the globe, the tide is turning as they start concerted counterattacks on the Russian invaders. One of the things I find most stunning is that the Russian military, once thought to be one of the best in the world appears to be a hollowed out shell of itself…incapable of the things that normal armies do as a matter of course…I mean they are even using cell phones and commercial walkie talkies to try to talk to each other and even those aren’t working to coordinate attacks like a normal army does….and it is clear they can’t supply the army with even the basics of food and water as the videos of Russian soldiers stealing chickens and looting grocery stores show….and this just supports what I proposed in an earlier post, that 2 squadrons of A-10 attack jets could defeat this whole Russian invasion all by themselves…and if a NATO army was brought to bear on the Russian forces with all the force that entails, it would take a day or less for Russia to be defeated and driven from Ukraine….one last thing to remember is that Putin is now going to be isolated in Russia and will never be able to leave there again or he will be arrested and taken to the Hague for trial on the war crimes his troop have committed…this is a far cry from the superpower that he postured Russia to be…and maybe this will be his end…we can only hope…
No voting rights but bullshit…
Well…I guess the senate has devolved into a ceremonial body that can’t or won’t take on the true problems plaguing our country but are just so damn happy to work on nonsense to make it look like they are doing something. I’m sure you’ve followed the saga of trying to get a federal voting rights bill through the senate but Manchin and Sinema just don’t think it’s important enough to protect our democracy from the repubs who are trying to steal elections all over the country…but, just yesterday, they found something they could get behind as being so important that it needed action now…I wonder if you can guess what that was? Still thinking? I guess I’ll have to tell you…with the advent of daylight savings time this week where we moved the clocks forward to where they would be if there were no DST, enough people whined and bitched to their senators who thought this was the most golly gee important thing they could be working on and got right to it…and passed a senate bill that would eliminated DST right now and make sure that people don’t have to be subject to the horrors of having to reset their clocks twice a year…and with that, the country is saved! Yeah, that’s a bit of sarcasm on my part since I am so damn frustrated that the real issues in the US are not even being talked about in the senate…but they have time to get to bullshit like this that just doesn’t matter and pretend that it is important…and that’s one problem with the senate these days…the fake bipartisanship that is displayed when it means nothing but doesn’t happen when it does…and that sucks…geez…
March 16th
Well…damn, that was a 2:14, 4:44, and 6:02 night last night and I am feeling it today…still can’t figure out how my allergies have gotten so bad so fast this year but I did notice that the trees have buds on them already and will probably start the pollen explosion in the next couple of weeks…my eyes are so full of stuff this morning that they are blurry and that is a pain in the butt trying to do this…and will suck heading out to do the grocery run this morning…oh, well…it is a little strange how many different muscles are used riding the bike outside as inside…my core muscles hurt today and I wonder if it from the bike ride or from wedging myself into the corners in the bathroom? Whatever it is, I can live with it but there may be the need for ibuprofen later….it will be interesting to see what hurts when I get on the indoor bike here in a minute…it is supposed to be in the mid 50’s today and I may just get out in shorts for the ride if I wait til later in the afternoon….not much to do today…need to do the grocery run and then wash the car and I may take my rubber shoes with me and do it between Meijers and aldis unless I have to go over to Sternberg road this morning….more later….
Got some work done, too…
Well…it has been quite a busy day today with the two bike rides and I even got some work done in the bathroom, too….got all of the trim masked off to start working on getting it ready to paint…and that meant sanding about 8 feet of the baseboard and then doing all of the filling on that section since it had huge flaws in it from painting over the paint that was chipped off in places….but, I’m not sure if sanding is going to do it for the trim around the back of the toilet with how crappy the paint job is and how much plaster and filler it has all over…so, I may wait til I get the heat gun and peel off a bunch of it instead but we’ll see, once I get started on a job, I don’t like to wait for anything so I’ll probably try to wedge myself in there and try to get the sander on it and see how it comes out…I am sore from just the two hours I spent on it today with how I had to contort myself to get into the small places….will be back at it tomorrow…maybe, I do have to wash the car in the morning after the grocery run so the work may wait a bit….