Well…this is a little weird coming here before the coffee is even done but I’ve been up since 5:08 and I’m already getting bored with Dragnet on tv and reading all the news already…I was good last night and was in bed early so the 5:08 isn’t that bad and I didn’t toss and turn too much so I think I feel pretty good so far…and I hope that continues….had a good day with not coughing too much yesterday but I am doing it a little right now…think the measures I put in place to help the allergies seem to be helping some but my eyes are still itchy and I can feel a little pressure in my head but it is so much better than it was a couple of weeks ago so I’ll take it…I did get a bike ride in yesterday but it was on the streets since the trails are snow covered with slush under the snow and that is just no fun…and I am getting used to road riding here in the city…something I couldn’t do when I lived in the south end with no bike lanes on any street out there…took a new route yesterday and that was fun and I may do that again today after it warms up and I get my hair cut….then I need to make a run out to DD to get some cheap chicken strips…how can you pass them up at 5 bucks for 5 pounds? I need to get something in the freezer for the days when I just don’t want to cook…not much to do today…I did make some progress on the spare room again yesterday with getting the big holes plastered and getting the door frame repaired but now it needs sanding before I can paint but I will get that done today…there is a huge dent in the bottom of the metal frame that needs to be pulled out, too and I think I’ll need to drill it and put a screw in so I can try to pull it out and I want to get that done today, too…might not get to painting this week but I’ll have that done and the door rehung next week and then it’s going to be a week off with just cleaning…more later…

Well…only made it to 5 this morning and feel worn out again…and part of that was in that half sleep where you’re still aware that you’re not sleeping but you’re not really awake either…and that doesn’t actually count as sleep so it was another short night with staying up late to watch the end of the Oscars…didn’t get on the bike yesterday and it looks like I won’t be riding much this week with the snow we got yesterday…will have to take to the streets to get my miles in if they got the bike lanes plowed…took some time yesterday morning to go up to the hospital to visit my younger sister who had a mild heart attack to go along with the chemo she is undergoing for bone cancer…hadn’t talked to her in a few years and it was nice to catch up….she now has to have a stent put in tomorrow before she can go home and back to the cancer treatment…so I didn’t get much done with the start of the racing season on tv and just having no motivation at all…and I’m not sure what I’ll get done today…need to put the second coat of plaster on the big hole repair in the spare bedroom and get started on the rest of the cracks and nail holes so I can paint later in the week…have to do something if I can’t get on the bike and I want to start wrapping up the repairs and start getting my tools and repair materials put away so I can start the deep cleaning and detail work….more later…

Well…almost forgot to come here this morning since it’s Sunday again and I got distracted by the newspaper…slept all the way through til coffee o’clock this morning…for the newbies here that is 6 am when the coffee maker turns on…and that made it almost 7 hours of sleep last night which broke the string of 5 hour nights but I’m not sure if one night of okay sleep is enough to make up for the deficit I’ve had lately…we’ll see…still feel pretty worn out today even with skipping the bike ride yesterday but I am going to get out as soon as the temp comes up to near 30…will probably have to do a street ride with the snow that fell yesterday which will make the trails too icy to ride…and there is supposed to be more snow coming starting at around noon today with 3-5 inches forecast so it looks like I’ll be off the bike for a few days but I’ve gotten a head start on the calorie restrictions I need to eliminate at least 600 per day from my diet to make up for not riding…just had a bowl of soup and a salad yesterday and will do the same today…just a bowl of soup for lunch but I should make chicken in the instant pot today but I’m not sure about that yet…it would put me at about 1500 for the day and that is too much for a no riding day….I did get the big hole patched in the spare room yesterday but I don’t think I’ll get any more done today…my youngest sister had a mild heart attack yesterday to go with the cancer so I should go to the hospital and see her…after all, it’s just up the street from here and that’s not too much to ask of me…more later…

Well…the two days of 5 hours of sleep is starting to catch up with me and I am damn exhausted and it is only 1 in the afternoon….I think I will attempt to take a nap in a little while just to see if it’s possible…I have decided that there will be no bike ride today or tomorrow with all of the snow we’ve gotten are going to get later today and tomorrow…I may try to do a street ride tomorrow after they work on the streets some but we’ll see…I did make the lasagna soup from the new recipe yesterday and it came out really good and even tasted better for lunch today..that one is going to join the refrigerator recipes as a keeper since it so easy to make and is so damn filling that I had one bowl and that will probably keep me for the entire day…and it’s not too unhealthy with just a little ground chuck in it but lots of veggies so I can have it about once a month and still not feel too bad…I did get the 4 inches of snow that we got here cleared already since I wanted to get at it while it was still light and fluffy and easy to push…and I cleaned the kitchen some since the sink and counter was needing some work but I’m pretty sure that will be the extent of the work today with the morning coffee wearing off and with me running out of steam already…oh, and I vacuumed the car with a little shop vac that I found in the garage since the driver’s footwell was full of crap and it was annoying the hell out of me….and I filled the bird feeders again…hey, I already did quite a bit today…I guess I don’t have to feel too bad about trying to take a nap…

Well…yep, didn’t come back for a second one yesterday with getting a call from Tom for a surprise pool day and it was fun to get out of here for a while….it was a long day with getting up at 4:30 and not getting a nap in the afternoon and the strange thing is that it didn’t make any difference on how much I slept last night…back up at 4:30 this morning so that makes it two 5 hour days in a row and something has got to give…and one bad thing about getting up so early is that I have all of my news sites read by 6 or so and that left me edging toward boredom way too early…so, I got started on the kitchen blinds and the small curtain that is on the window over the sink…cripes, I thought the blinds and curtain were tan colored before I got them washed but they are both white now and they look pretty good…so, with it still being early, I got after the last remaining blind on the front dining room window but the blinds are so old that the fabric that the slats sit on ripped in a few spots so I had to repair them but now I have clean, functioning blinds and the only thing I have left to do in the kitchen is repair and paint the windows and it will be done…I did get a bike ride in, too but I’m not sure about today with the snow that was on the trails yesterday and the additional dusting from last night….we’ll see after it starts to warm up later this morning…not much to do today…going to just sit here for a while and watch some soccer and have coffee to try to get enough energy to get moving….more later…

Well…it’s another 4:37 morning this morning….and that makes it only about 5 hours total in bed last night…I know I bitch about not sleeping a lot here but, damn…I remember what it was like to get a whole night’s sleep…but, the weird thing is that I don’t feel tired at all…even got started washing the small curtain from the kitchen window already and have it hanging to dry in the bathroom and will get the metal shade down to wash in a little while…I still can’t believe that some of this stuff hasn’t been cleaned since the early 2000’s…how do you live that way? I did skip the bike ride yesterday and that has really helped with the overall soreness I felt from getting back outside to ride…but, I will get out today if just to look and see what the trails look like after the snow yesterday…I do need to get the recycling bin out this morning since I have filled it and today is pick up day…I think it’s pretty cool that it’s free to recycle all the papers, bottles, etc that would normally end up in the trash…but no trash to put out today and I think that makes it over a month since the last time I put it out…and I may not have the bin filled for a couple of weeks yet….I do feel a little good about progress on the last room yesterday but I am still trying to figure out how to patch the big hole in the wall…may have to cut a filler pattern for it since it is almost 2 inches deep and I’m not sure that the plaster I use will fill something that size…I just noticed that I didn’t cough much last night and haven’t much this morning, either…and even after working in the dust and dirt of the last room…still feel like my head is plugged up but I’ll take that over coughing anytime…not much to do today….going to clean that shade in a minute so I can let it dry before putting it back up…if I keep the old ones, they are going to have to be painted this spring since they have chips and rust on them that looks like crap…but that’s not today…need more coffee and a little news first….more later….

Well…after skipping the bike ride for a rest day, I decided that I needed to get my butt in gear and get some stuff accomplished around here…and I did which really surprised me with how unmotivated I have been lately…got all of the extra furniture out of the last bedroom and moved it upstairs to clear it out for painting and then I took the broken door off since how the idiot repaired it was just annoying the hell out of me and I wanted to do it right…so, after removing it, I found all of the pieces that were broken out around the hinge and glued that back in so I don’t have to have the stupid looking braces that the idiot used instead of just glueing it back together with wood glue…and the welded upper hinge pin was loose, too but I took the easy way out on that one and just tried to use some JB weld on that since the frame that it mounts to is metal and there is no access to replace it…if that doesn’t work I’ll cut a hole in the door frame big enough to work through and replace the pin with another bolt and a nut to hold it in place….after all that, I got the trash and recycling out and got what little snow we got shoveled…so, all in all, not a bad day of work so I don’t feel bad about taking a break and vegging a little now…oh, and I got out to get the stuff I need to make the lasagna soup and will do that tomorrow or Saturday….it does feel good to get some work done…

Well…damn, coughing like crazy again this morning and I am just damn tired of it…think I may even take something for it if it doesn’t get better soon…I’m even a little sore from it and that is annoying, too…I did sleep okay and stayed in bed til 5:43 but that didn’t help with feeling so damn tired this morning…and part of that may be that I had to go hard on the bike just to stay warm with going out when it was 27 degrees…probably one of the hardest rides yet this year and I am going to go out around 10 this morning if it’s warm enough…we didn’t get the 3-5 inches of snow that was predicted so I am going to try the trails and see how they look with the inch or so we did get…the radar looks like more areas of snow showers are coming in so we’ll see later…didn’t get much done yesterday other than the grocery run….I did find a recipe for lasagna soup in the Free Press yesterday that I want to try so I will need to go out and get some burger to put in it tomorrow and I need some tomato sauce, too but it looks good and easy to make…and I need to expand what I cook since I am getting bored with the same old food…this recipe even has melted mozzerella on top that you need to brown under the broiler…could be yummy…not much to do today…just the normal work around here and some cleaning but I feel so damn worn out today that it is going to be a while until I can get started…more later….

Well…it does look like I’m feeding every sparrow here on the west side with the quantity of feed they have been going through…I mean only one day to empty the feeder? When I started feeding them, it took them almost a week to eat all of the food in the feeder, but as the days have gone on there are more and more of them coming in and they are banging into each other in the air and pushing each other off the feeder…I even counted 8 of them on my small feeder at once and there is just not room for that many at a time. It does look like a mosh pit out there at times and some of them are sitting on the windowseal to rest before they go back into the fray….a couple of them have even given up and figured out how to land on the clear feeder to be able to eat in peace….so, I am starting to be entertained…but I think I’ll need another bag of feed next week…

Well…damn, I thought I’d escaped the effects of the downstairs work on my allergies yesterday but no such luck…started to get miserable in the afternoon and that extended right into the night and continues this morning…it was such a luxury to not cough for the past few days but I guess that’s over for a while…didn’t sleep too badly though so I guess I can live with it but I slept on my left shoulder all night and now that hurts like crazy and that won’t be fun with the snow that is coming tonight and into tomorrow..damn, I’m getting creaky in my old age…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and it looks like I’ll get one more in today before the trails are iced over again and then it looks like I’ll be back to the streets for a while since I don’t want to go back to the trainer in the basement…still, it hasn’t been a bad winter so far and it’s only three weeks til March so it looks like we’ve survived another one…and now it will turn ridiculously cold and we’ll get a blizzard that will last til April just from my saying that….not much to do today…I do need to do the grocery run but only to Meijers today…have a lot of food in the freezer that I need to use so I only need a few staples today….more later…