Well…with the launch of Jeff Bezos rocket with him in it today and getting to space, my reaction to it is who cares? Who cares that a billionaire has taken his vanity project and spent a lot of money on it? This rocket has no purpose other than to put people into space and it’s just like Branson’s flight last week….another toy for rich people to spend money on….you could say that this rocket was built by you and me since Bezos brags that he doesn’t pay any taxes on his billions…and his tone deaf comment after the flight that the rocket was paid for by the people of Amazon and it’s customers shows how out of touch he is….and I’m sure the underpaid and abused workers at amazon’s warehouses will just love to hear that their abuse allowed this rich prick to fund his vanity project while they take their 5 minutes of breaks in a 10 hour shift. I really have had enough of the rich getting to do these kinds of things because of the inequality in our system…wouldn’t it be better for the US and the world to have Bezos pay his damn taxes so we can fix the roads and schools instead of buying a new toy for the richest person in the world?
July 20th
Well….woke up at 6:22 and stayed in bed 9 more minutes so I could be consistent with getting out of bed…don’t know why I did that but I don’t know why I do a lot of things….even with abusing the heck out of my elbow yesterday, it doesn’t hurt much right now and I have hope that it really is healing this time….I did get some scorching out at the beach yesterday and I may have to do that again today…I can’t remember a time that I was at the beach two days in a row other than Harbor Springs where we used to go for vacations every year…but I really should get at cleaning the siding on the house so maybe not…..I guess I’m not too good at being retired yet and I wonder if I will ever get to the point where I can just blow off a day and do nothing? Yeah, probably not….I did see a woman paddling a kayak at the beach yesterday and it looked like fun so I think I’m going to start looking for one…it would be cool to be able to get out on the water and get some upper body exercise and just fool around….lots of places to explore and could even go up both branches of the Muskegon river to look around….it already looks like just the 15 minutes or so of watering the lawn is helping it green up some so I’ll do that again today after I get my work done….I don’t think I’m going to mow until late in the week since I don’t want it to burn….we may get some rain on Thursday so I may wait til Friday to mow….not much to do today….feeling kind of slow right now but I think I’ll be out on the bike by 8 or so….I think I’ll take a photo of the side of the house on my tablet so I can do a before and after post on fb….need to remember to do that for all of the work I do…but I forgot to do that for the stairs and that irritates me some….more later…
Too many busy days…
Well…you know, I really thought that being retired was going to give me some days off and I wonder why I just can’t take any….today started as normal with getting on the bike at 8am and getting back here around 9:30, then I took a scrub brush and a bucket of suds to the front steps that lead up to the porch since they were covered with green algae and looked like hell…and they look pretty good now….then back on the bike until 11:40 or so and then decided that I needed to get out to the beach for some color and a couple of swims, and that took until almost two…oh, and I forgot to have lunch so only one meal today….then back here to work on the garden and and put the sprinkler out and move it around the yard to try to keep the lawn alive….I do need one that is more suited to the size of this yard, not the postage stamp sized one I bought it for….and it is now 5:30 and I have just finished up the dishes and can take it easy for the first time today….okay, sitting on the beach is taking it easy so I guess this is the second time…still a damn busy day….I’m beat….
So now they’re the tax cheat party…
Well…with the dems doing everything they can to pass the infrastructure bill and think of ways to help pay for it, one of which was to give more funding to the IRS so they could go after the rich tax cheats that steal hundreds of billions of dollars every year by not paying their taxes. But today, we found out that the repubs are now the pro tax cheat party since they refuse to agree to have the rich tax cheats pay their fair share….it is one of the millions of “red lines” that they say they won’t allow to be crossed…and all of those millions are about raising revenue…they prefer to have their big donors have the ability to cheat or they will stop giving them money….and they can’t have that…or fairness in taxation….can’t have that…or these rich cheats paying one penny more…can’t have that….you get the idea. Now, it’s damn time for dems to act like dems, tell the repubs to go to hell and pass this bill without them since the repubs never negotiate in good faith and everyone knows that but we keep treating them like honest brokers…and they just can’t be trusted…geez…
July 19th
Well…another day, another time up at 6:31 and I just realized something….I haven’t had any dreams in months and that is a little concerning since you normally do when you get into rem sleep…so I wonder if I’m getting to rem every night? Just another thing to worry about….my brain is probably slowly turning to mush….oh, well…had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get anything done but I am going to make sure I do some work on this place today….will probably work on cleaning the front steps to get the green gunk off them but I’m not sure when…still do want to get two rides in so it will have to be in the afternoon…..I may have to re-think not watering the lawn since it is not going to rain out here again for a couple of weeks and I’m already losing the young grass that grew in from the seed I planted….might do that today on a test plot just to see if it will work…..I am a little impatient trying to get a yard to grow in the bare spots….I really thought it would have grown in by now but it still looks pretty scraggly…..I’m not going to say not much to do today…I have way too much to do and that is a little overwhelming especially since I want to go to the beach, too, and I don’t want to be a slave to this house….I guess there is always the winter to do the interior work….more later….
Aren’t motorcycles annoying enough already?
Well…today as I was taking my water break out on the boardwalk by the lake, a loud group of motorcycles came by, shattering the nice quiet of the beach but this group came with a new, more annoying twist…at least a couple of them had the loudest damn stereos on them I have ever heard…and the thought came to me: Aren’t motorcycles annoying enough already? Whey the hell do they have to add to the 100db from their pipes with 100db in crappy music? Are they so insecure that they need another way to shout “look at me”? I will be so happy when all of the damn cycles leave here after today…It has been a pain in the butt to have to hear them and have them racing all around here since last Thursday….I wonder what the next annoying thing is going to be around here? Okay, it’s not that annoying…the people look like their having fun and I know they bring a lot of money in to the businesses here and, after the last year, I’m sure they all can use the cash….I guess I’m still adjusting to a new town….
July 18th
Well…another 6:30 morning today and another struggle to get out to get the paper…but again, the cool, top down run out to Meijers helped wake me up but my eyes are full of stuff from allergies and it’s a pain trying to clear them up….and I wasted the day yesterday and didn’t get anything done other than the rides and taking care of the garden….I need to get at the front steps this week since they are covered in green from algae and look pretty shabby…more scrub brush work and I think my elbow will take it…it doesn’t really hurt today and the swelling is way down so it just may be healing….I don’t think I’ll get much done today with the F1 race on at 10 and then nascar on this afternoon and I’ll need to wedge the second ride in before 3 so it will be a little bit of a rush this morning…need to get out of here before 8 and that is only 37 minutes away and I haven’t read any news yet….or had my second cup of coffee….so I need to end here, fill up the coffee, and read some news….more later…
Hubble is back up and running….
Well…if you are a science/astronomy nerd like I am, you must have had concern when the Hubble went down a month ago and everything they tried to get it running failed….but the smart men and women at NASA kept at it and just yesterday they switched the telescope to a backup system and it fired right back up and is running like normal….and these people figured all this out with the telescope out of reach over 500 miles in space…and if they couldn’t get it working, Hubble would have become just another piece of space junk since there is no spacecraft that could get to it and stabilize it so spacewalks could be done to fix it….but I think we who have enjoyed the science and beauty that the telescope has provided over the past almost 30 years have to get ready to let it go…after all, it is 90’s technology that has a fixed life and it will die at some point…but I hope it’s not before the James Webb Space telescope is launched next year…it would be so damn cool to have two great scopes in the sky at one time and have them work together to do things that they can’t alone…fingers crossed…
July 17th
Well….running about on time this morning with getting up at 6:30 again…I think I slept okay and don’t feel too bad today so I’ll be getting out on the bike here in a few….my elbow seems to be getting better and I can pick up my coffee cup with just a little stiffness but it will probably get worse as I get back to work around here…need to get the rest of the siding cleaned but I am going to take the rest of the weekend off for my birthday and veg a little….rode down to the motorcycle event yesterday and it looked like a staged cliche with all of the harleys, fat guys, and leather…and bad cover bands playing way too loud….just way too weird for me…I do have some cukes that will be ready to pick in a few days and I’ll be making some pickles from them…not a big fan of cukes but I am of pickles so that is normally what I use them for…will be giving a lot of them away….I am pleasantly surprised about how many beans I have been getting from my plants…have already gotten 10 times what I got last year and they are still setting new ones…and my peppers are starting to get going and I am going to have lots of them this year, too…only got a few green peppers last year but lots of jalapenos and I will be freezing a bunch of those again this year….not much to do today…just going to watch the tdf and some racing and maybe do some cleaning…still have windows to clean and some peeling paint to take off the garage door frame to get it ready for painting but I’m not sure if I’ll work on that or not….more later….
No spandex boys this year…
Well…yeah, probably won’t do a political one today…just can’t find a topic that gives me any outrage and I need that to motivate me…so, let’s talk about fun stuff…you’ve heard me many times notice that, during the Tour de France, there are lot of newbie riders out on their new bikes with in full spandex that not one of them should be wearing…I mean, a fat 250 pounder has no business squeezing himself into what is essentially a sausage casing…and they look like bad sausage when they do it….but, out here, I noticed that there are some serious riders and they are the only ones wearing spandex…and they are thin enough to pull it off…..and there are lots and lots of riders on the trail every day if you go out in the afternoon…even saw a half dozen tandem bikes riding together today and that was a little weird…I’ve ridden them and never found them to be as fun as a single….I did see a group of about 30 riders this morning each wearing the same outfits…a day glow lime green that really hurt the eyes….I wonder if I’m going to have to go out early in the mornings on the weekend? It was crowded with no one paying attention last week so it was hard to get into a rhythm and get any speed going….I guess I’ll just have to take a deep breath and bear it….