Well…I think I hit the wall today and I am just so damn tired of working all the time….got on the bike for the first ride a little after 9:30 and then back here to mow the lawn…the fix on the mower crapped out after almost all the mowing and that was disappointing…so, right after lunch, I waded back into trying to fix it again….used JB again but filled the stripped out screw hole with it and then screwed the screw into the hole to get it as tight as I could and I hope the JB will hold it in there…and I made a clip out of some extra siding and glued that over a flange on the part of the actuator that has a broken screw in it and I hope that will relieve the pressure on the JB and hold it in place…an that took an hour and a half and I am just getting done and it’s almost 2:30….may have to buy a new mower if this doesn’t work since I need one to pick up the leaves and I can’t get a new transmission….and that sucks since I really do like this one…oh, well…and I feel guilty that I only did one ride today…but it is going to rain here in a few minutes so that is my excuse…..maybe more later…
October 15th
Well…that kinda sucked…woke up at 5 this morning and tried to go back to sleep for a while but that didn’t work…I feel okay so I guess I can live with it…it is pretty darn cold out there right now at 47 degrees so it looks like I won’t be on the bike until around 10 so I have to find something to do until then…I am going to mow the lawn this morning and I am a little curious how my repairs to the mower will hold up…still don’t have a lot of leaves down so I think I’ll just mulch today instead of bagging but there is some trimming I need to do so I may start a bag for branches and the trims….it’s not supposed to rain again for a week or so and I hope the new grass will survive…at least it’s not hot so the ground won’t dry up as fast…not going to water it since I don’t want to pay the big dollars for the water…had a funny thing happen when I was out putting in grass seed yesterday…the chickens that have been roaming the neighborhood came running toward me in a group while I was holding the bag of seed and I think they thought I had food for them…so, if they’re here again today, I think I’m going to feed them some stale bread I have since that is a food they like….that may be fun….didn’t get much done yesterday but the seeding and errands but I think I want to clean my fridge today since I haven’t done that in a while….and I need to measure the dining room shades so I can get new ones and clean those windows…so, I’ll be puttering around here this morning getting a few things done while I wait for the lawn to dry out and the temp to come up…need to adjust my days to allow for the cold and accept that I may have to ride later in the day if I want to get two rides in…only have about 50 more miles to do to get to 4K for the year and that will probably happen over the weekend….more later….
Got a second ride in…finally…
Well…I think I’ve been running late all day today and I really didn’t think I was going to be able to ride at all with how much rain was forecast…and with it raining this morning, I decided to get a couple of errands run so I don’t have to do them tomorrow…had to hit Menards where I spent another 40 bucks on lawn stuff…fall food, more seed, and some weed killer…I did get the food for about half price so that was cool…and I think this may be the last bag of seed I’ll need for this year since I still have half of it left and have filled in almost all of the bare spots…I even have grass coming in on an area that I call the sandbox since that’s what it is…pure sand and I never thought grass would grow there…after getting the seeding done, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was only going to get one ride in but then the sun came out about 4:15 and I couldn’t pass that up…so, back on the bike later than I ever go out and I’m just now getting the rest of the stuff done I needed to before I can relax for the night….The Wings season starts tonight and I do need to take a look at that until they start losing but then back to Justified and Deadwood….re-watching both of them at once so it gives me something to see and I don’t get bored…oh, and the chickens were back today…I think they are free range now and that makes me laugh…
Still looking for a topic…
Well…as I sit here waiting for the rain to stop so I can get on the bike, I thought I’d come here and do one of these…but a good topic escapes me…oh, here’s one…do all repubs not pay their debts? We all know that the idiot trump stiffs everyone that works for him…and after one time, I wonder why anyone would work for him…he still owes money on his casinos that have been torn down and people continue to give him more money for some reason…but, he’s not the only repub that doesn’t pay his bills…just today it was reported that ole Newt still owes almost 5 million bucks from his failed run for president in 2012…and he has no intent to pay any of it back…even though he could afford it with the millions he makes from fox news…this is the rot that has infected the modern repub party…I remember when they were fiscally responsible folks…but maybe they never were…I mean I’m an old guy and maybe my memory is crappy….don’t think so, though….geez…
October 14th
Well….damn, just can’t get started today…got up at 6:20 and it’s already 7 and I’m just getting to this…my brain is in neutral and wants to stay that way…but, I’ll give it a try….I did get lots of stuff done yesterday but I already wrote about that so I won’t do that again…there was some good news on the ground here yesterday when surveyors did the lot across the street and it looks like there is going to be a new house on it…and prep started on another lot just across 7th for another new house…I have never seen this much building in an established neighborhood in a city before and I wonder what is driving it….I did talk to my brother the realtor last night and he thinks that I may have made around 30K on this place since I bought it and that means I have around 70K in equity now…it looks like I bought this place at exactly the right time for both the investment and as a place to live….and that is pretty cool…and that makes it only 10K away from my goal of having 6 figures in assets and that should happen early next year…not bad for being broke and borrowing money from my daughter two years ago…I wonder if I should burn some cash on a nice dinner to celebrate? Yeah…that’s probably not going to happen but it is nice to have that option…not much to do today…it looks like it’s going to rain here in a few minutes so I’ll have to wait to get on the bike today and I’m okay with that….should probably get started on cleaning the windows for winter and I do need to order a window bird feeder so I can have bird tv this winter….but not right now…I need to have more coffee and read the news as I ease into the day…..more later….
It’s official…
Well…I know there has been a lot of discussion about what the SS cost of living percentage for next year was going to be and I even wrote one of these about the speculation…as of today, it was announced that the raise is going to be 5.9%, higher than any raise in over 40 years and I am smiling about it…..that means almost 130 bucks a month extra for me and I can use the cash even though I’m already putting almost a grand a month in the bank from my check now…so, that means that this raise is going to buy me lots of stuff that I would have waited on…like my new snowies or a garage door opener or a weight machine…all three of them would only be around 750 bucks so that would leave almost half of the raise left over…I know I have to plan for higher food prices that I’m already seeing…there is no cheap protein any more so I’ll need to look at what is cheap….I did get some American and Swiss cheese singles that are 12ozs for only 1.35 at aldis so I am going to make some grilled cheeses with that stuff….I know they’re not good for you but they are cheap and I haven’t had one in years and years….and they’re only about 300 cals so that should help….
Eating helps…
Well…I guess eating enough helps…feel okay today even after working my butt off today…started off with doing the grocery runs and the on the bike for the first ride, back here for about 10 mins and then back on the bike for ride 2….they were both pretty good ones with much less wind than yesterday but the legs are still a bit flat…when I got back here, I put the rest of the seed in the bare spots and then put the mower back together and gave it a try…after adjusting it, the thing moves faster than I can walk so that is cool…it may have been broken from the start since it never went this fast before…just hope the jb weld holds until the end of fall and then I’ll take it apart and drill and tap the bracket mounting holes on the transmission and put bolts back in them…but there isn’t much meat around the current holes so I’ll have to be careful…but it the jb does hold, I may just leave it til it fails or I need a new belt…it felt pretty solid but we’ll see after I run it over my bumpy lawn a few times…so, it’s now time to take a break since it is 3 and I need to read the news for a while…another 7 hour work day….
We can’t afford it?
Well…the whiners on the right are trying to torpedo the infrastructure bill that the dems are negotiating with them for by saying that “we can’t afford it” and the 350 billion dollar a year pricetag is just too high….to put that in perspective, we just have to look at the amount of money that billionaires have made in the last two years of the pandemic. It was reported just yesterday that these folks net worth increased by almost 1.9 trillion dollars…yep, that’s trillion with a t and that is just sick….look, if we just taxed these people at the rate that regular people pay, around 20 percent, the whole bill would be paid for with an extra 30 billion left over…and that doesn’t even include what could be done if we finally has a minimum corporate tax rate of say 15% which would bring in another 100 billion a year at least…so, again, the repubs are lying when they say “we can’t afford it”…we CAN afford it, if they would just get out of the way and let government work for the people for a change….geez…
October 13th
Well…running really late today with just getting out of bed at 7:26 and I’m not sure why I’m so late…must have been exhaustion from being so burned out yesterday….but we’ll see as the day goes on….no dreams to speak of so I won’t…I did have a little weird thing happen last night when I had 4 chickens walk through my yard…have never had that happen before but I’ve heard them to the west of me since I moved in…I took a picture of them to post on facebook….strange….man, I felt lousy all day yesterday and I guess I can’t exist on 600 calories a day…I did get two meals in yesterday so I was close to 1200 so I hope that helps…I do need to get two rides in today along with doing the grocery run so I’ll need to get going soon…haven’t even had coffee yet so I probably should get a cup to get the caffeine flowing….I think I’ll be able to put the top down on the car for the errands this morning but it will probably be the last one…going to get cold later in the week and will probably stay that way til spring….closed up the basement yesterday and will probably have the heat on later in the week…darn….more later….
Boats are disappearing..
Well….I very seldom turn around when I go out on the bike but today I just had to with how hard the wind was blowing…18-20 steady with gusts of 35 or so right into my face…was all the way down to 2nd on the rear sprocket and got hit by a gust that stopped me dead…too damn much work…as I get used to the rhythm of this place as I go through every new season for the first time, I noticed something pretty funny as it moves on to fall…boats are disappearing…every time I ride past the marinas, a few more boats are gone…but I never see them leave…it’s like one of those time lapse movies where a car or building is there and then just disappears….I wonder when they will all be gone? Just kinda funny…