Well….yep, had another flat on the bike today but this one was different…it was on the outside of the tube and was a puncture and not the inside of the tube that I have been fighting for a month now….and the damn staple went through the sidewall of the tire where the tube protectors end…and there was another good thing…I knew I needed to change out the bald old tire for the new one that was in the basement but I didn’t know how thin it had gotten…I could almost stick my finger through it in places and the cords were showing through in places, too,….so I think my fix using the electrical tape has worked since it has been almost 3 weeks without a flat and it still looked smooth so I hope I can stop worrying about it now…oh, one other good thing…I was able to ride it all the way back here at speed…and that is a good thing in the rain….
July 16th
Well…another night of crappy sleep and woke up at around 5 or so but didn’t get up til 6:30….and I feel worn out still but I’m not sure what to do about it….only did one ride yesterday and that didn’t help so I’ll do two today and get back to the old routine….didn’t get anything done yesterday and I think I’m going to take the weekend off and just veg out a little and then get back into working on this place next week….have been out of synch lately and can’t figure out what it is that is doing it….I guess I’m not too good at just living without the next big thing coming down the road…I mean this is the last place I’ll live and that is a little depressing….hmmmm….I do need to run an errand this morning to meijers to get some red potatoes to make some more potato salad and get some pickling spices to make some homemade pickles since I have a couple of cukes that can be picked soon…I’ve gotten loads of beans off my plants so far….lots more than I got all last year and I hope I don’t get tired of them….still waiting for tomatoes to ripen and will have to figure out how to use them all when they do….not much to do today…F1 qualifying is on later this morning and I need to get two rides in before then so I need to get going here soon….more later….
A little surpise…
Well…as I sit here contemplating if I should go out on the bike since the rain has stopped, a little surprise in the infrastructure bill that is getting ready to get passed by reconcilliation, which will bypass the filibuster, made me smile a bit…in that 3.5 trillion dollar bill, the dems have closed one of the biggest holes in medicare…that it doesn’t cover dental, vision, or hearing problems and all of us who have medicare have to pay for all of that out of pocket…even medicare advantage like I have only covers tiny amounts of those…no real dental work…maybe one cleaning a year…but that’s about it for dental….but this bill will cover everything including hearing aids, glasses and all dental care…for me, that is really welcome since I have been putting off the thousands of dollars in dental work I need to be able to eat ice cream again and fix the loose molar I have on my right side….so, I guess I can suffer a few more months if it will save me a couple of thousand dollars…it probably wouldn’t take effect until the next sign up period that ends Jan 1 of next year….I’ll keep my fingers crossed…
July 15th
Well…man, I got scorched out at the beach yesterday….went out to get a swim in and spent a couple of hours out there…the water was just right and I spent at least an hour just fooling around in it…might just start getting the biker tan evened out….didn’t sleep too well last night and was up around 6 this morning feeling pretty worn out….and my legs are feeling pretty flat…but the excuse of rain I was going to use to take the day off is missing us again so I’m sure the guilt will kick in and I’ll be out to ride in a few minutes….I do need a day off soon but I don’t know when that would be…I can’t believe how dry it is out here…all of the rain we were supposed to get in the past week never happened…it either goes north or south of here and that sucks…..didn’t get much done yesterday and today looks the same…just have no motivation at all and I’m not sure why that would be…probably just depression that has been happening a lot lately….I need to get the exterior paint next week and get started on the door frames…I am glad that the frames and the bricks in the foundation are the only things that need painting on this house….I hate painting windows and won’t have to do these ever…just need to clean the rest of them…and might get some of them done today….more later…
Back to the middle ages…
Well…the repubs truly are trying to take the country back to the middle ages…just yesterday, Tennessee repubs fired the head of vaccinations for telling the truth to a question about whether kids could get vaccinated without their parents consent (the SC there said they could)….so the repubs fired her and then went even farther to end any vaccine outreach at all for children…that’s all o fthe effective vaccines…whooping cough, diptheria, measles, mumps, rubella and even polio will no longer even give information out when they are asked that has any state seal on it…the seal has to be removed first and the health department will no longer be allowed to coordinate any vaccine events at schools or anywhere else…and they specifically said it was because the repubs pressured them into it…so now, Tennessee has gone back to before vaccines were developed and are going to willingly kill children just because of some right wing conspiracy theory that was created whole cloth out of lies…but the repubs and right wing media don’t care if they kill a few more children…after all they were responsible for over 400K Americans dying during the pandemic that is still raging in red states so what’s a few more dead to add to the total? I hate those guys….geez…
July 14th
Well…darn, woke up when it was still dark this morning and that sucks…didn’t sleep well and that is a little strange after how exhausted I felt yesterday….it used to be you slept well when you were tired but I guess that doesn’t work anymore…oh, well….didn’t get anything done yesterday but I need to get some more grass seed down today since it may rain tomorrow…the lawn is filling in slowly and by next year I may have a good looking one…but, I really don’t feel like doing much today after I do the grocery run…I do need to hit target to get another set of bath towels since it is so huimd out here that the towel never dries and I need another set to change them out at least once a week…and only having one set of towels is a little weird when you think about it…I was going to go to menard’s to get some stuff but items are so hard to find in that store that I don’t feel like doing that much work this morning…I still have 3 stores to hit without menards and that is still going to be a lot of work…I did finally get the air bubbles out of the radiator of the car and it looks like it is now working like it’s supposed to and now I just need to change the oil at some point but I need to get a filter but that won’t be til next week….not much to do today…just the grocery runs and then on the bike but my legs hurt this morning and I can’t figure that out…..probably part of hitting the wall yesterday and I wonder how much rest I need to recover…still feeling it this morning and that’s not good….more later….
Man, I hit the wall today…
Well…I knew this was coming…have felt pretty worn out the past couple of days and was just waiting to hit the wall and it happened today…went out hard at full sprint on both rides today and then fell off the cliff this afternoon….have been exhausted all day and it feels different than just tiredness…. and I know part of it is trying to keep the calories down, too, and I might be doing better at that than I should…but the big thing is that I need a day off the bike and everything else to just veg out and restore my body….but when will that happen? Not any time soon unless we have a day full of rain…and that isn’t going to happen out here…although I did get wet on the bike both times today but looked at the radar and one little cloud was over here while the rest of the state was being flooded…..it was cool on the second ride when a thick fog rolled in at the beach and took visibility down to about 30 feet…I couldn’t see to the end of the boardwalk or the beach from just across the road….I need a new phone so I can take pictures again….
Finally, a push for voting rights…
Well…after the repubs spent the first 6 months after the election trying to prevent dem voters from voting by almost 300 voter suppression laws, it looks like Joe is finally getting the idea that this is the most important thing to get done…part of the new emphasis I think came from the 50 dem Texas legislators who fled the state to DC to prevent the worst laws of all of them from being passed there…and who have been threatened with arrest from Texas’ governor for their actions. This afternoon, Joe is giving what is being called the most important speech of his administration and will be calling out the repubs as the un American pricks they are….and here’s the thing, they really are trying to steal the country since they have no ideas that anyone except for their rabid base likes…taxing the rich to pay for infrastructure and elder care is supported by 80% of Americans and yet that was the first thing the repubs wanted out of the infrastructure bill….and making it harder to vote is only supported by their fox news watching cult followers…where more than 65% of Americans want voting easier. So, as with the rest of us on the left, we need to keep up the pressure on every legislator to pass this voter protection legislation…or we will lose our democracy forever….geez…
I was wrong…
Well…after all my bitching and complaining that it never rains out here, I was wrong…it did rain overnight since there are puddles on the roads and I even got wet out at the beach when it started raining like crazy out there…but it quit after about 5 minutes and I rode back here with it just spitting…but, it looks like there is more rain coming in soon and we may even get a small thunderstorm so I showered up and am going to wait til the afternoon to go back out…rain I can take…but not lightning…
July 13th
Well…I wonder if it’s ever going to rain out here? It has been forecast for quite a few days in the past few weeks and it never comes…I was really planning on a day off the bike today but it looks like I’ll be out there in an hour or so….darn….slept okay last night but still feel pretty slow right now and that seems to be the new normal these days…I did get out of here for a little while last night and I needed that…just jumped in the car and took a cruise out to the beach and stopped at the joint down the hill for a beer…need to get out of the rut I’ve been in and start doing things…but my brain has not been too amenable to doing that lately….I did have my 3rd day of quiet up here yesterday and that is pretty relaxing but I know it’s not going to last…there seems to be a cycle to it but I am still going to keep up quashing the idiots when they pop up….I just noticed that the swelling is down in my elbow and it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it did even with abusing it yesterday by mowing and feeding the lawn…it has been months since it was pain free and I welcome any improvement….not much to do today…I was planning on just taking it easy and getting some cleaning done but that looks like it’s not going to happen without the rain….rain was my only excuse to not ride today so I may have to re-think rest days….have done almost a month of 30 miles a day and I’m worn out…more later….oh, I did see one cool thing on the way back from the beach last night….a huge mass of at least a hundred bike riders on a guided tour with all kind of riders and bikes in it…need to find out what that is about….