Well….5:23….that’s all I have to say….okay, I will say that I did sleep okay but feel worn out today…and I think part of that is doing 25 miles a day for the past two but it looks like a single or maybe no ride at all today with the rain that is coming in…doesn’t look as bad on the radar as forecast so I’m going to try to get out this morning…back to thermasuit, though, and it’s going to get cold enough that I won’t be out in shorts until late April after early next week…ick…I was right that my shoulder and back were going to hurt today after chopping out the stumps in the front of the house yesterday….but it was nice to get started on the outside yesterday….not sure if I’ll get out to do more today since my hands are sore so I may just find something to do inside…and there is lots of cleaning to do so I guess that could be a plan for the day….I do need to order the new tires for the car today so I can get them put on next week…the old ones are bald and weather cracked…and discount will allow people to stay in the car as the work is done so there is no contact…so it will be like a pit stop….not much to do today….just going to  ease into it today and have more coffee before I do anything else….more later….

Well….have been busy today and haven’t had time to get into reading the news much so I’m going to skip politics today since I am pretty beat and just don’t want to do the work it takes to be even semi lucid…but, I will talk about the day a little and start it off by saying that I love my new 9 buck angle grinder I got at HF…getting ready to dig the two stumps out of the front lawn and had to figure out how to put a better edge on my hatchet since it didn’t come very sharp when I bought it…so I put the 99cent grinding wheel on the grinder and put an edge on the hatchet that was sharp enough to shave with…almost, and that was going to be all I was going to do…but, as always, I wanted to try out the new edge so I decided to get at the first stump and dug out around it so I could get chopping about 8 inches down…there was no way I was going to try to take the whole thing out roots and all since it was in there like concrete….so, after a half hour of chopping in close quarters, I finally got the two stumps out and then filled the hole back up but not before putting a huge blister on my thumb and screwing up my shoulder and back to boot. And all this was after putting 25 miles on the bike…so, needless to say, I won’t be getting to the second one until everything heals and that one should be easier since there is room to get at it from every direction and I may even be able to swing my axe at that one….so now, I’m going to get another glass of water and veg it out for a while…my damn cough is back and I need to take is easy….should be back at politics tomorrow….

Well…man, I’m tired this morning and I’m not sure if it is the long hard bike ride yesterday or getting up at 5:44 after staying up later than normal…and I can still smell and taste the coffee so that’s a sign I’m not sick…but I am coughing again and that is tiring, too….feel pretty miserable with the allergies flaring so much that only half of my nose works…okay, that’s enough bitching…it sure was a nice day yesterday and I was out in just a t-shirt when I was changing the wheels on the car and today looks like it is going to be just as warm…I think I’ll wait to get out on the bike until I can go in a t-shirt again today and that will be after noon so I have the whole morning to fill…I think I’m going to use it to put a new edge on my hatchet so I can cut the stumps out of the front yard and then maybe organize the garage some…and maybe prep the garden plot…I’ll need to take out some sod so I can till the soil a bit and I would put some manure in it to get it ready but the garden stores at depot and Meijers are closed so I will have to make do with compost…I did make a big ham yesterday so I’ll have food for the next week or so…won’t be able to get through all of it before it starts to spoil so much of it will go in the freezer…and I’m going to use some of it to go on the pizza I’m going to make this weekend and that will help…and it will be nice to have some in the freezer….but, something is going to have to come out to be able to fit it in…need to stop buying protein for about two months and use everything in the freezer…more later….

Well…with the nice sunshine today, I have been watching the back yard to see if the plot I was going to use got enough sun all day and it doesn’t…so, it looks like I’m going to have to put it in the back of the yard since that is in sun from about 10 o’clock until now as I write this at 5…and it will probably be in light until 8 or so and that is plenty to support the veggies I have planned…and I just noticed a little area right next to the garage that could support something…maybe some cukes or something…or maybe I’ll put my beans there and put the cukes in the big garden…I may run it almost all the way across the back of the yard but there is some garage shadow there right now that I hope will go away when the sun gets higher in the sky….I did get the summer wheels back on the car today getting ready to buy the new tires next week if Discount is still going to be open….car shops are supposed to be “essential” so I think they will be…and it’s not a bad price at 200 bucks out the door…will probably not need another set of tires before I die…and that is something that has been creeping into my thoughts lately…but, not a lot…after all, I did get a hard 20 mile ride in today but there are idiots on the trails still with groups of people out again…I’m pretty sure the three women with 8 kids don’t all live in the same house…but, I’m not going to dwell on that…I was out in a t-shirt and shorts today and that will be the dress for tomorrow, too…might just do a double and get 25 miles in tomorrow…

Well…running a bit late this morning with not getting up until after 6…but, that was expected after getting only 3 hours or so yesterday…and I feel crappy and warm again today and I just can’t figure that out….and I forgot to turn the coffee maker on last night and I never do that…hmmm…so my day is not getting off to the best start but it doesn’t need to…don’t have anything to do today so I am going to just let it happen without any schedule or urgency…it’s not like any day has urgency….anymore…there was some good news that came out yesterday that trump and his asshole cronies bowed to pressure from everyone and are going to issue the 1200 buck stimulus payments to SS recipients who don’t file taxes without having to file fake tax returns…the system already exists to do that and I couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t just use it to add additional money to our accounts…but with the incompetents running this country, they always figure out how to screw things up…just like the coronavirus response that Rachel eviscerated on her show last night…I haven’t been watching her lately since I know how bad trump is at everything and I don’t want to be more depressed with the prospect of a million people dying because of him….not much to do today…I am going to cook the big ham I got yesterday and try to get two rides in but that is about it…feel pretty crappy right now and just want to have more coffee…I should run out to HF but I think that will wait til tomorrow…or next week…no urgency there, either….more later…

Well…I’m pretty sure that getting 3 1/2 hours of sleep is not a good thing…I am so damn beat right now that it’s tough to just sit here and do this…but the weird thing is that I tried to take a nap and got about 15 minutes before I woke up and I can tell that any more is just not going to happen….so, I decided to to defrost the upstairs freezer…well…not really defrost it so much as just scraping the frost buildup out of it….and I found that my car ice scraper works perfectly for it and makes short work of it…so that was cool…I did get out for a grocery run this morning and the car started right up after the dead battery Sunday and just running it for 15 minutes or so then….so it was good to drive it a little…it doesn’t like sitting and is not idling right but getting some injector cleaner should help that….I do need to put the summer wheels back on this week so I can order the new tires for it next week after I pay off my Capital One card…and I got everything I needed at the grocery store…really just wanted to get a Cooks ham for 89 cents a pound and got that so I’ll be eating off that thing for a week…and I got my green bean seeds to plant so I think I have everything for the garden….but, I’m so damn tired…not sure if I should try to do more or just give up and veg…probably just veg and start over tomorrow….I do want to get out to HF to get my new little compressor this week and they have micro fiber towels on sale for 4 of them for 69 cents and they are really hand for dusting around here so I need some of those, too…will probably spend 60 bucks or so there but then I shut everything down and no more spending for quite a while….especially since they are going to stiff people who are getting SS and don’t have to file taxes…no 1200 buck stimulus check and it’s trump’s fault since he told the IRS not to pay anyone who is so poor they don’t owe taxes…what a prick…

Well…damn…it was a 4:01 morning today with getting up at 2 for the first time….so that makes it a 3 1/2 hour night and that takes me back to my college days when I had those kinds of nights for 4 years…but, I was in my 20s then and pretty invincible…not the old guy I am now…was a little worried yesterday that I was getting a fever and it was going to progress into something bad…but, I almost stopped coughing and the fever stayed low so I think it will be okay…I do have a bug of some kind but it feels more like a cold than anything else since I’m not sore or tired…and I should be with not sleeping much…it’s a little weird to get up so early to have to wait for 2 hours for the coffee to brew but I don’t want to start too early so I’ll be out by 7….didn’t get much done yesterday and today is probably going to be the same with not sleeping….I know my energy is going to run out really early and will probably only last until the bike ride later this morning…I am going to head out for groceries this morning to try to get a cheap ham at Meijers and a few other things that I need before they start restricting who can get what and there are long lines out the door while they limit the number of people in the store at any one time…with the ham, I don’t have to go out again for 6 weeks or so…I will miss having milk with meals but I guess I’d better get used to it since I am not going to stand in line for hours for food…booze maybe…but not food….more later…

Well…things are getting pretty dire around here when I’m three weeks past the time to get a haircut and all of the places I use are closed to stop the virus spread…so, I decided to do my own hair this morning using my beard trimmer since it was annoying the hell out of me…just finished it and it doesn’t look too bad…it’s the same way I have it cut when I go out for a haircut…a number 3 clipper over the whole thing with a number 2 on top….I think if my clippers weren’t 20 years old it would have looked a little smoother and I have to figure out how to trim over the ears and around the back but I have lots of time on my hands so I think I can….after all, it’s just hair and it will grow back…but I just bought myself another month so that’s cool….and I saved 13 bucks….woo hoo…

Well…up at 5:24 this morning and that pretty much puts things back to normal after the late morning yesterday…and yep, I have some kind of bug….woke up kind of sweaty this morning and have been coughing up lots of stuff and I don’t think that is all caused by allergies….but, I don’t feel too bad so I will be back on the bike this morning to get the miles in and may even be up to doubles starting thurs with a little warmer temps coming in…I am almost to 700 miles for the year and that puts me ahead of where I was last year at this time…but getting to 5K is still pretty daunting….haven’t been too motivated lately and I’m not sure why that would be….I know I haven’t been feeling too hot but that’s normally not the problem….maybe it’s that there is so much to do outside and the weather hasn’t been cooperating…and I know that the abuse my hands are going to get is going to be quite painful when I start chopping out the stumps in the front of the house….I know that all I need to do is just get started and take it piece by piece but I need paint and other supplies that I can’t get right now…not much to do today….I am going to ease into the day until I get on the bike around 10 or so and that will still be in full thermasuit for the next couple of days….I really should clean but I’m still not too motivated…more later….

Well…okay, have had really bad allergies for months now but this feels different…I have started to feel warm this afternoon and just weird…still coughing but that has been going on for months so that’s not a new one…I’m not sure if I’m eating enough and that always makes me feel warm the following day…I mean I had two eggs, two pieces of bacon and two slices of toast along with two pieces of pizza yesterday…and I figure that is over 1500 calories and that should be enough…although the day before that I only had half a chicken breast and couple of bowls of soup…and so far today I’ve had half a chicken breast and a handful of fries and that is only about 400 calories so I could be behind for today…and I am trying my hand at baking bread right now I am so bored…so I’ll have a couple of slices of that in a few minutes….all I know is this feels different than normal…like I have a bad cold coming on…do colds still exist? No one is talking about that right now…crap, I don’t need this right now…or ever…I guess I’ll keep you posted if this gets worse….