Well…with the stress from finding and buying a new mower and then mowing the lawn and doing lots of other yard work yesterday, I was just worn out today so I decided to take a really easy day today…all I did was do the early normal stuff and then just hung out and read all day with the races on in the background…and now one more race from Indycar that starts in a few minutes and then I think I’ll finish off “Hail Mary” that I started Friday night and only got about a half hour in when my lawnmower came and I went out to put it together and just didn’t feel like a movie after that…I did go out yesterday and insulated my outside faucet since it’s getting down to 27 tonight and that would freeze and crack the new valve..I’m hoping that the heat from the inside of the house will keep it warm enough to not freeze…it never got over 42 here today and that was just too damn cold to go out…don’t want to have to wear long johns and heavy gloves anymore until winter…I do need to go out and run an errand tomorrow morning and I hope I can get some deals like last year…

Well…it’s just wrong that we have a freeze warning just issued on the 19th of April…and tonight is going to be even colder at 27…I can’t remember having the heat come on so much in any April since I’ve lived out here…oh, well…at least I don’t have a garden to worry about this year…I think today is going to be an easy day and I’m just going to do the weight work and an indoor ride since it’s never getting above 42 today and I really don’t want to be that cold…so reading and races today with not having to cook since I did Masala and pasta yesterday and have lots of leftovers that will last 4 or 5 more days…I really don’t understand why I’ve been avoiding pasta lately when it tastes good and it’s easy…and I have a loaf of garlic bread that’s been in the freezer for months that needs to be used…getting the new mower and getting the lawn mowed yesterday relieved a lot of stress and now I can just relax about it and have a nice day…not much to do today…should probably clean but I want to finish up the last book so I can get more tomorrow so that will be the plan for the day…more later…

Well…I did get the new mower set up today and mowed the lawn for the first time with it and I can say it’s okay…my big concern was that it wouldn’t be fast enough for my walking speed but the thing will run away from me when I have the belt pulled tight so that’s cool…and the bag was easy to put together and it is huge…I only had to empty it 4 times to do the whole lawn…the height adjustments are cool, too with just one for the front and one for the back that are easy to adjust…it started after three pulls and then just one easy one to restart it…and I used the clamp that came with the toro to hold the on/off bar down so I don’t have to think about that…I do need to adjust the tension on the drive belt to take tension off it and make it smoother but I’ve already made it much better as I used it…so now I have another last…the last lawnmower I’ll ever buy…and that’s okay…

Well…backslid on sleeping time last night and was out of bed before 5…again…and that sucks…and we have already hit out high temp for the day and it is going to slide into the mid 40’s by the afternoon and then it gets worse from there with a low of frickin 27 Sunday night…27 in the end of April? That is the definition of sucking…I just hate the cold…going to have to insulate the outdoor faucet so it doesn’t freeze up the new valve I bought for it…I did get the new mower put together after it came about 7:30 last night and all I have to do is add oil and gas and it will be ready to go…I do have to assemble the grass catcher but that should take 5 minutes or so…it looks like it’s going to be too cold to ride outdoors today and that works with doing Masala for lunch but I still need to figure out a 2nd meal for the next few days and I’m thinking maybe pasta since I haven’t made that in months…not much to do today…just want to get the lawn mowed at some point but that may wait til late morning until it dries up out there with all the rain we’ve had…more later…

Well…after I tried to repair my 25 year old Toro mower, I came to to the realization that it was beyond repair this time so I went out and bought a new mower today… a DeWalt with rear wheel drive, aluminum deck 21 inches, and a Briggs and Stratton engine…and it only cost me 388 bucks which I think is a deal…I was going to buy an electric one but none of them had enough run time to do the entire yard and everyone bitched about going through long grass…so, they are supposed to deliver it today since the carton wouldn’t fit in my car..I am looking forward to having only the 3rd new mower in my life and not having to worry about the drive breaking all the time… this one has a huge bag, too so I’ll be able to do more than 15 feet of leaves before it needs to be emptied…and it is pretty cool to just be able to buy something I need without worrying about if I could afford it or not…

Well…it’s a little weird that I woke up at 5:17 this morning and my brain cheered “alright” that it wasn’t 4:33 so maybe that’s progress and heading to getting out of bed at 6am? It’s going to be a busy day and I’ll be running all day with needing to get the indoor stuff done, then a run out to the bank to get cash for Monday, and then yard work including the first mowing of the lawn since the front is getting pretty long…I’m holding my breath to see if the 50 bucks of seed will actually sprout and if I’ve fixed the mower…I guess we’ll see…going to hope that my riding shoes have dried up after riding through 9 inches of flood on the trail yesterday…may not be able to get an outdoor ride in today since it’s only going to be 52 and windy and I’m already sore without doing any work yet…so there will be ibuprofen in my future…have no leftovers after finishing them up yesterday so I will have to cook something but don’t want to tackle the masala after all the stuff I need to do today…but I may make it for dinner if I can muster the energy…I would say not much to do today but that’s not the case…going to get running here in 45 minutes and won’t stop until the yard is done…more later…

Well…stumbled upon a documentary about the making of “The Dark side of the Moon” yesterday that I’ve never seen and it focused on one of my favorite songs from that album, “the Great Gig in the Sky”…that song never fails to trigger emotions in me especially now that I’m getting closer to that time when it will happen to me…I especially liked the extended interview with Clare Torry and what it was like to come in out of nowhere and do one of the most moving singing that I have ever heard…and you know that this song is about how someone deals with death and even though it’s wordless, she captures the rage and then acceptance that comes with someone close dying…and when she describes the first take and then the second which was used on the record…and then her stopping in the middle of the 3rd saying “I think you’ve got enough” and walking away, she knew she’d done what they needed…but it was funny that she didn’t even know they had used her singing until she walked into a record store and heard the song playing…still my favorite Pink Floyd song of all time written by Rick Wright…

Well…that didn’t work…really tried to stay in bed til after 5am but 4:50 came and I just couldn’t lie there anymore…decided to take my BP this morning after skipping it for a while but I was curious to see if the no cocktails was helping and it appears it is…117/74 is not bad and that was before any BP meds…I may even skip the meds for a few days and see what it’s like without them…it raining again and it’s going to be doing that off and on until this aft so there will be an indoor ride to get me started and then I’ll try to get an outdoor one in after lunch…I did get the front of the yard seeded yesterday and tomorrow is going to be work on the yard day with raking the fencelines and doing the first mowing since the front is getting pretty long…and with 4 books left, I won’t have to hit the library til Monday and that will go with the 4/20 errand…so I need to get some cash out of the bank…and that means going inside the bank since the damn atm is too high to reach in my car…going to have to insulate the outdoor faucet Sat night sine it’s going to get down to 31 and I don’t want the new valve to freeze…it is just wrong to have 31 degrees this far into April…what’s next, snow in May? At least it’s not the 56 day drought like 2 years ago…not much to do today…the leftovers will finally be over so I’ll need to figure out meals and clean some…more later…

Well…damn, out of bed at 4:33 today and have poured the first cup of coffee before 5am and there just seems to be something wrong with that…I don’t think I’ll ever get back to sleeping to 6am or later and I know that 6 hours total with tossing and turning all night is not enough…oh, well…it looks like it will be raining all day today so the possibility of getting outdoors on the bike is pretty small and I can use an easy day after working my butt off yesterday…I probably should clean the bathroom today or the kitchen, not sure which but I know my microwave is going to be cleaned….need to take the chicken out for masala today to be ready to cook Friday or Saturday and then plan what the second meal will be…haven’ had pasta in forever so that may be the choice…need to see if I’m able to taste garlic bread and if not, that sucks…going to have to mow the lawn soon and get the fencelines raked…the yard waste pickup has started so I can fill a big bag and have a place for the clippings and sticks to go…it’s going to freeze again Sunday so I’ll have to figure out how to insulate the outdoor faucet so I don’t lose the new valve I put on when I opened the tap…god, I hate the frickin cold…the high is only going to be 40 and the low is 30 and that could freeze everything…crap…at least it won’t kill any new grass that comes up…not much to do today…just an indoor ride and then cleaning so I will have the chance to read today….more later…