Well…with the dire warnings that this is going to be the worst ice storm in the history of the world and we’re all going to die, I decided to do a little prep just in case I lose my power for a few days…have been charging everything that needs a charge…have both of my spare batteries, my phone, and my mp3 player all charged up along with my car starter that I can plug the car adapter into and charge everything for days if I need to…or I can charge stuff with the car if it goes on for a long time…have a full tank of gas in the car and I just realized that I can warm up in the car if it gets too cold in here…and I just found three boxes of 6 inch “emergency” candles downstairs…and yep, they are actually labeled home emergency candles…so I have 15 of those along with others and that should last me for a while…I do have 8 flashlights that will light up an entire room, too…and enough batteries to do a change in each one of them so I think I’m covered there, too…and I got my sleeping bag out of the basement and laid it out in my bedroom to air it out even though it was just recently washed and that should keep me warm enough to sleep…after all, it kept me warm when I slept in the sub in Muskegon with my cub scouts and that was unheated in the middle of Feb….I think the water will stay on and that’s the biggest thing for roughing it with no power…and I think the water heater will even work since it is self contained and is not connected to electricity….by coincidence, I just washed my riding clothes, too, and they keep me warm riding in the mid 20’s so I think things will be okay…one good thing is that I won’t have to do any work around here until the power comes back on….I’ll keep updating until I lose my internet…

Well…sitting here waiting for the power to go out and thought I’d better get one of these done before it happens….haven’t had an ice storm since I moved in here so I’m not sure how fragile the power supply is yet but I guess I’ll find out later today and into tomorrow….I sure hope it only last a day or so…going to get my warm clothes ready just in case and make sure my backup batteries for the phone are charged….if it’s a long outage, I may have to buy a generator for the next one….oh, well….slept really crappy last night and I think it might be from having cocktails last night and I don’t think I’ll do that anymore…just is no fun so what’s the point? I did get out for a long bike ride yesterday but it will be the last one for the winter it appears…with all the rain, the trail will be flooded for weeks…I may be able to get out and ride the streets but I washed the bike to get it ready to put on the trainer and don’t want to get it dirty again…didn’t get much done yesterday but with no bike ride today, I really should get some work done today…but, I’m going to start the day with more coffee and some soccer first….more later…

Well….that was a little weird night of sleep…got up for the first time at a little after 12 and then every couple of hours after that but I still feel okay this morning…that might have something to do with being good for 5 days in a row…or it might be that I have really been trying to eat enough, too….or the bug may finally be leaving…who knows? I do know that I have this strange energy this morning and I am going to ride that wave to get a bunch of stuff done…need to get out to get some food then I’m going to wash the car and the bike just in case it needs to go downstairs on the trainer…but, I’m going to try to get a ride in today before that…or what’s the point of washing it just to get it filthy again on the trail?  I am feeling a little guilty about not getting much done lately but I have just not had any energy at all and just doing this every day has been wearing me out…I think I just need to get at it and not think about it…and I’ll try to do that today…but I do need to watch a little of the car auction this afternoon since they are selling the original “Bullitt” Mustang today and am a little curious about how much it is going to bring in it’s unrestored condition…not much to do today…well… that’s not true…I do have a lot to do and it is going to be a test of how well I’m really feeling…oh, my youngest sister turns 61 today and I look at that with a little bemusement…damn, we’re all getting old…more later…

Well…running quite late today with not getting up til almost 6:30 and having to take a look at the news before I came here…slept okay last night and don’t feel bad this morning with being good again last night…still have that low grade soreness everywhere but that’s pretty normal now so I shouldn’t bitch about that….didn’t get on the bike yesterday with it being so damn cold and I think that may have helped my back a little since it doesn’t hurt much this morning….and it looks like a long wait to get out today but it needs to happen before the rain starts…it’s supposed to rain about an inch over the next few days so I will be dodging raindrops for the next few days…and that will keep the trail from draining so I guess I’ll just have to get used it being flooded until spring…I can ride on the street if it gets bad I guess….I did get out to shoot pool yesterday and that was fun and it was nice to get out of here for a while…I do have to try to find things to do that will get me out of here for a while at least once a week just to make sure I don’t get too comfortable with just hanging out here….I know it’s winter and I do normally hibernate quite a bit but not talking to anyone for a week is kind of isolating and I’m sure it’s not good for me….not much to do today…I do have an errand to run this morning and the bike ride but I really do need to get back to work around here, too….have shades to hang in the last room and it need to be repaired and painted so I can start using it…not sure what for but I know it’s not going to be storage….more later….

Well…woke up coughing like crazy this morning and I really hope it’s this damn low level cold finally breaking…was so exhausted yesterday that all I wanted to do was veg on the couch and that is just not right….really tried to eat more to make sure that was not it so we’ll see today….feel okay this morning with being good again and I think I’ll continue that all week…it can’t be bad for me to rest the liver for a while and it’ll save me a hundred bucks a month so that’s a bonus….I did get out for a bike ride yesterday but I’m not going out today with the temp forecast to not get out of the 20’s and the light dusting of snow won’t melt til tomorrow…that will leave the ice covered and hidden and one thing I know is I don’t want another crash…feel old enough as it is and hurt enough without it…didn’t get a lot done yesterday and today will be the same other than I have the grocery run to do this morning… and it is pool day! Can’t wait to get out of here for a while…might have almost a new record for driving the car of only 3 1/2 miles in the past week and that is not good for the car or for me…so I guess I’ll have to work tomorrow…need to do the wood floors again but that is going to be much more work with having furniture in here…but I do like the way they look shiny and moving everything will be worth it….more later….

Well….that was a weird night of sleep…went to bed early last night but was up for the first time at 2:23 and then for good at 5:27 and with the tossing and turning I think that makes about a 5 hour night…or maybe a little more…but, I feel okay this morning with being good for a while now and I am going to keep that up for the foreseeable future….it will save me lots of money and I really don’t need the calories…I did get out for a bike ride yesterday but the damn thing started to skip in 7th on the rear cassette and the last time that happened it had started to come loose so I’ll need to take it apart and check it out before I go out this morning…but that doesn’t take long so no big deal…the trail was really flooded on the back side of the swamp yesterday and Sunday so having to backtrack added a couple of miles to the ride…and it looks like the water is going to take quite a while to recede even after the river goes down….it’s going to rain/snow the rest of the week so that won’t help any…oh, well….I did get a few things done yesterday and have a couple of errands to run this morning but really do need to work more around here…will probably skip the bike ride tomorrow with it snowing and being in the 20’s so that will give me time to get things done….it was nice to finally have a sunny day yesterday and I went around this place opening the shades to let it in…couldn’t believe how much the sunlight affected my mood but we’re back into the gloom that is going to last most of the winter so it’s time to hunker down and endure it….more later…

Well…feel pretty lousy this morning and with the hot and cold flashes yesterday, I think it may still be the cold I’ve had hanging on for a couple of weeks now…and I am still coughing, too…even have been thinking about taking the day off the bike but I really can’t ignore this run of good riding weather we’ve been having…and that looks like it’s going to continue for the next week at least…so, I’ll suck it up and keep going to try to burn out the bug by going harder on the bike…slept okay last night and even had some dreams again but they were about butterflies that could change shape and that is just a little too weird for me….woke up before I could find out if they were dangerous or not and I didn’t mind that much…didn’t get anything done yesterday but I am going to try to start to get back to a schedule today by restarting the prep work for the last room I need to paint….I was going to run errands today but have decided to wait until my normal day on Wed…have plenty of food here and really don’t need anything else and that will help with not spending any money that I need to do this month….so this week looks kind of boring to start but who knows what will happen? More later….

Well….at least I remembered to put January in the title of this one…the past few days I was locked into December for some reason and had to come back and change a few of these…and no, it’s not from getting old…it’s from getting started before coffee and the jump start it gives my brain…at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it…slept okay last night and just feel sore this morning and I know what that is from, too…the river finally flooded the trail yesterday and I had to turn around and run the trail backwards to get my miles in…and that added about 4 miles to the ride so I got 16 in yesterday and went pretty hard, too so I guess I’ve earned the pain…and there were multiple other place along the trail that were just inches from flooding so I am curious what it’s going to look like this morning when I get out…I did get dome work done around here yesterday…spent some time working on the furnace to get the noise out of the blower and was somewhat successful…had to re align the motor and tighten the hold down bolts along with tightening the set screw that holds the pulley since that was loose…then, I had to tighten the belt with some shims and that helped get rid of some of the slapping from the belt but not all of it so I need to work on that some more today…but it is quite a bit better so I may just let it run for a while before I work on it again….it does look like the dog poop idiots that were living next door have moved out since I haven’t seen a car there in over three weeks and the mailbox is overflowing with junk mail…the weird thing is I’m here all the time and never saw a truck or anyone move anything…and there were at least 6 people living there….we’ll see…just hope whoever rents it again doesn’t have dog and takes care of it better….okay, I need to check to see if there is any soccer on and read the rest of the news…more later….

Well…another crappy night of sleep and I was tempted to get up at 4:03 when I woke up with having so much trouble getting back to sleep…and now I feel tired and slow that I hope won’t go on all day…I did just notice that my thumb is quite a bit better today and really doesn’t hurt much and that is a welcome change from the pain I’ve had for the past few months….it still spikes a little but I can live with that…I did get out for a nice bike ride yesterday and took the chance that the trails would be clear and they were passable so I didn’t have to ride into town on the streets…but the river is only a foot below the trails so I am curious if it got over the river portion of the trail overnight….will have to wait a while for that since it is cold out there and I don’t want to be cold just yet….I think the idiots next door that had the dogs that crapped all over my lawn moved out and I can’t be happier….haven’t seen any of them since before christmas but I’m not going to get my hopes up just yet….maybe the owner of the house will have to do the clean up I had to do here and get rid of the trash, old grills, and fire pit that is in the back yard…I can hope…didn’t get a lot done yesterday and today looks the same but my internet tv is not working again so I won’t be able to watch sports until I can text my son to take a look at it…but that won’t be until later…most people don’t get up when I do….so, I may have to clean some until he can get it fixed…more later….

Well…running a little late today and I’m not sure why….I did stay in bed til 6:30 so that may be part of it…I did sleep okay and had some weird dreams that were welcome after not having any for so long…I do need to ease into the day, though since I’m feeling a little slow and unmotivated right now…and I’m still getting used to the fact that they changed all of the shows I ran in the background on tv in the morning on the first of the month….I had gotten so used to the Lone Ranger that I never really thought about it or watched it as I did the first one of these and then got to catching up on the news…but now, the new shows actually get my attention which interrupts me and I’m sure I don’t like it…okay, just a little crabby this morning with the big orange idiot trying to start another war in the middle east that I will talk about later…..didn’t get a lot done yesterday after working on the bike and getting a ride in after the flat but I do need to do better today and get some cleaning done…the dust is turning from bunnies into wolves and need to be dealt with before they turn into raptors….but that is going to wait until more coffee and some news…and maybe another one of these before the ride…who knows?  More later…..