Well…you know, I was going to take the day off and just try to heal my self abused body for a day…it sure needs it but I just couldn’t do it… after getting to 10 am with only doing some work downstairs, I kept looking out at the lawn and the weird growth that had sprouted after the rain so I just had to cut it for the first time to even it out…and that lead to walking around and picking up sticks and part of the tar overlay on the cement driveway that I had shoveled up over the winter…and I am trying to get the 12 coats of paint off the copper downspout with some paint stripper that I put on and am just going to leave it on for a week and see how it works…I could buy new ones for about 60 bucks each and that may be a possibility if they are in too poor of shape when the strip is done…they look like they have been repaired a few times so replacing them may be easier….I did skip the bike ride today with the wind blowing over 20 and a high of 42 degrees…and the soreness, did I mention that? Everything still frickin hurts and it hasn’t been this bad in quite a while…I do feel better about how the front of the house looks but it still needs more work but it doesn’t seem so overwhelming….I can’t wait til I can get the outside projects started but it’s too big of a pain int he ass to try to get any supplies right now with lines waiting to get in and stores limiting everything…I guess I can prep and get ready for when things open up again…

Well…I really do need to take the day off today…everything from the neck down hurts and I think the only way to help that is to rest…I think the double rides every day for the past week may not have been such a good idea…and along with the beating that chopping out stumps did, I can’t even sit here without something hurting…I did get the power washer out yesterday and it took off the loose paint from the gutters but didn’t do anything to the paint that hasn’t started peeling…but, it still looks better so I can just wait out the rest of the paint…it was kind of a weird night last night with starting to fall asleep on the couch at 8 and forcing myself to stay awake until 11…and you would think that I would sleep then when I went to bed…but no, and I am worn out today from it…just noticed that my hands really look beat up from all the work lately and maybe the rest day will help them heal…they are really stiff and have cuts all over them and the blister still hasn’t healed all the way….oh, well….I did get some flower seeds from Meijers yesterday so I can plant them in a few weeks to add a little color to the front of the house…and I took my first shot at getting the shrubs trimmed up but they have been let go so long I’m not sure what I can do other than even them up some and make them look less shaggy…I did talk to discount yesterday and the new tires are being shipped in and should be here in a couple of days…so, I’ll have new ones by next week… and the car really needs them…more later…

Well…yeah, I was right…I hurt everywhere this morning but it’s tolerable so I’m going to wait to take anything for it for a while…and I’ve been up for a time but just couldn’t get my brain started to do this…and it appears to be stuck in 2nd gear right now so who knows how this is going to go? It does feel good to make progress on the outside of the house and that should continue today since it is going to be the last nice day for the rest of the month…going to get the power washer out and try to get some of the paint off the gutters where it is peeling and at least stake out the garden outlines…I’m going to have to try to hide the stumps that I removed in the garbage since they don’t take yard waste but I don’t have anything else to do with them…I don’t think today will be a double ride day since my legs were so flat on the second ride yesterday….it looks like I’ll get to 800 miles by the 16th which is when I got outside last year with 600 miles ridden indoors…but, the weather is going crappy and cold so I’ll be back in thermasuit tomorrow…oh, well….I did get to sit on the front porch and watch some storms last night and that was cool but I need to get my folding rocking camp chair up in the front closet so it will be handy when the next ones come….not much to do today…going to do a grocery run and try to get some cuke seeds and some flower seeds at Meijers along with the few things I need for groceries…after that, I really don’t need to go to the store for a month and I think I’ll do just that….I did thaw too much food for the next week so some of it will go back in the freezer if it’s still frozen…needed to make room to put the rest of the ham in and wanted to change up the diet for a while…more later…

Well…I don’t know how these busy days keep happening…I know I haven’t been planning them but I look up and I’ve been working on something all day…today started out with the idea that it was going to be an easy one with the only thing I was going to do was run an errand this morning to make a little cash and then come back here for a bike ride….but that bike ride turned into two after lunch and I was pretty used up after the second ride so I was going to just take it easy the rest of the day….but that lasted about an hour when I saw that it was 70 outside so I decided to get back at digging and chopping the rest of the stumps out of the front of the house…there were five of them and I figured out that if I sharpen my hatchet in between every one, it goes much easier but it was still a lot of work…and then I got after the ugly ground cover that had infested the entire plot and ripped all that out and by the time I was done I had 2 1/2 hours in working on the area that is 12 feet by 4 feet…even got a little sunburned so I’ll have to remember that the next time I’m out in the yard….I was sore after just doing the bike rides today and throwing all of the chopping, digging, and bending in there, there will be ibuprofen tonight after avoiding it last night…and it’s supposed to be a no cocktail night tonight but damn, don’t I deserve a reward for all that work? We’ll see….don’t have any shows to watch so maybe not….

Well…4:14…that sucks…but to be expected with how things have been going lately….going to be exhausted later today but I don’t think I’ll be doing a double on the bike today…went without ibuprofen last night and I am sore this morning but nothing that is too bad so I can live with it…my earbuds quit working on the bike yesterday and it was the second set of skull candy ones that quit so I ordered a different brand from Amazon yesterday for 15 bucks that got good ratings and look pretty cool but it is going to take 2 weeks to get them with all the traffic through Amazon…and I had to order a new eIectric toothbrush and a spare tube for the bike to get to 25 bucks for free shipping but I needed that stuff anyway and saved about 9 bucks getting them on line….did find the ones that came with my walkman and I can live with those for a couple of weeks….still didn’t hear back from Discount on the new tires but should hear from them today… the old one on the car have hardened up so they are like rocks and I can’t wait to get them replaced….not much to do today…I do need to run an errand this morning and I may have to plant more pepper seeds since none of them have come up yet…all of the tomatoes have come up and they should be pretty big with having to wait a month to put them outside…I might get to starting on the garden plot since it will take some time to get the sod out…but the grass is so bad in the back yard it may not be too much work…more later…oh, one thing I forgot…my daughter was worried about me and ordered a washable face mask for me to use when I go out….was just going to use the dust masks I have here for that but I’ll give this a try….

Well…I really wasn’t planning on having a busy day today but it’s funny how that works out sometimes….have been running since about 7:30 this morning starting with getting the mailbox cleaned up and painted…then I had to wash the bike since it was just so gross and making noise from all of the dirt and sand in it…then out on it for a 15 miler and then as soon as I got back here, I got started on removing the grass and the stump from the other side of the porch…that one came out pretty easily since it didn’t have an 8 inch tap root like the last one but it had a bunch of inch thick spider roots that I had to dig and chop out…and some of them were 3 feet out under the lawn and I had to dig those up so I could reset the block edging…only have 4 more of those to go and I’ll have all of the big stumps out of the shrubs….after that, I washed the car, then I got back on the bike for a second ride and just got back here a few  minutes ago…so, I haven’t had time to even read the news to get a topic for the day…but, I am going to do that right now but I can’t promise that I’ll be back soon…pretty worn out and I need to take a break….

Well…5:18….that’s all I have to say about that….damn, I’m getting bored with not being able to work on my projects around here….and with the weather changing back to crappy Thursday we’re not going to get out of the 40’s until May….maybe that will keep the idiots indoors and leave the trails to me….I had forgotten until last night that it usually takes two days for the abuse I did to my body chopping out the stumps Friday to show up…and it did all of a sudden while I was trying to catch up on some shows last night when the pain in my back and right shoulder flared all at once…and it was a night that I was trying to avoid taking ibuprofen but that went out the window after I couldn’t get comfortable even just sitting here…it seems better this morning but we’ll see after I start abusing it again and get started working on the next stump…going to have to put a band aid and some duct tape on my thumb since the blister hasn’t healed yet and I’ll be using it the same way today…but I need to paint the mailbox first after working on the rust yesterday….and get it put back up before the mail comes later today…but I don’t want to paint downstairs so that will wait until 10 or so when it gets over 40 outside….not much to do today…having a hard time getting started so I’ll need more coffee before I do much of anything….I do have to wash the bike before I ride today since it is filthy and I need to get all the crap out of the chain and idlers…and I probably should wash the car, too but we’ll see how the day goes….more later…

Well…with the dire warnings that the peak of deaths from the virus is going to happen in a 6 to 11 days and we could see 7,000 deaths a day in that time…I had some weird thoughts while out on the bike today…what if this 8 months we are all going to lose is taken out of the last year I have? As we age, the comparison of what we have left to the time we are going to lose to this gets higher and higher….after all, at best I’ve got maybe 10 years left and if I lose one to this virus, that’s 10% of the time I have left and will necessarily mean that there are going to be things that I was planning to do that won’t get done from lack of time…I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re young, you can afford a year out of your lives…it’s not a good thing, but there is still time to carve out a normal life if you’ve got 40 more to live….okay, I said they were weird thoughts…I wonder if it’s from being cooped up here? Whatever it is, it is a sobering thought that just because of the bungling of the moron in chief I have less time to live my life…thanks trump voters…

Well…running about on time for a Sunday and didn’t get up til coffee o’clock so I guess that’s something….I did sleep okay but feel pretty flat this morning and I think it’s going to take some time to get going…one cup of coffee hasn’t done it so I hope the second one will…the virus looks like it’s going to peak around here in the next two weeks so the new advice is that you shouldn’t go anywhere for that time…no groceries, no outside, no nothing, but that is not going to work for me….I do have enough food to get through that time but I won’t give up my bike rides…it is the only thing I have to clear my head and feel better so I am going to keep doing it until they ban that, too….I discovered that alcohol on a broken blister hurts like crazy after going out to get the paper this morning and cleaning my hands during and after…but it is starting to heal so that’s a good thing….I did have a lot of cleanup to do downstairs yesterday and then got some weed killer on the back lawn but that was about it…not going to do much today but make a pizza and get the bike ride in…I do have to remember to make the weekends special by taking them off from working around here and trying to not feel guilty about it…my hands can use the rest after beating the crap out of them a few days back….but, the damage to my shoulders and back seem less than I expected so that is cool….more later….

Well…had a lot to do downstairs today with having to dry out a bunch of stuff after some garbage bags sprung leaks and the downstairs project became a bit of  a pain in the ass…after changing out all that stuff and blowing a fan on it for a few hours, I got to the point that I could put it all back together…during that time, I noticed that some of my seeds for the outdoor garden have sprouted! All four of the cherry tomato seeds came up along with one of the better boy and the other regular tomato that I can’t remember the name of right now…oh, it’s celebration….none of the peppers have sprouted yet and I’m not sure if I’m going to plant the green beans inside or wait for it to warm up outside…I am going to wait to plant the sunflowers since I can’t really deal with a 15 foot plant inside…and I am going to try to get some cukes and some flower seeds at Meijers if they are still allowed to sell them….oh, that’s the other things stores are being forced to do…it’s too attractive to still have everything for sale at Meijers so they are going to rope off everything but groceries and the pharmacies so you can’t buy anything….so no more bird food or anything else that is not food for humans…this is right up there with the most stupid ideas I have ever heard….