Well…I’m sure you’ve heard about the huge pipeline serving the east coast that went down last week and the hand wringing that went along with it since it was supposed to be cyber terrorism…yeah, not so much…the truth came out yesterday that the pipeline company shut the line down since their accounting system was hacked and they couldn’t be sure to be PAID correctly…yep…they caused the deaths of at least two panicked people who filled their cars with gas cans and cost consumers across the country a billion dollars in higher gas prices all because these idiots couldn’t figure out how to get paid when their automated systems stopped working…there was never anything wrong with the pipeline at all….and, of course, they couldn’t tell the truth since it was not sexy to have their accounting system hacked but it was to have a huge pipeline that supplies most of the gasoline for the east coast hacked and shut down. Of course, no one is going to be held responsible for these lies or for terrorizing half of the country…that’s just not how it works anymore…lying all of the time has become a virtue for half of the country and infests everything that happens….I’m really starting to hate these kind of people….I’m sure they could have asked their customers for their data on how much fuel was delivered since their accounting systems weren’t hacked but I guess blaming a screw up by the company on terrorists makes them feel better…and these days, that’s all that counts…geez…
May 17th
Well…running late this morning and just can’t get going….had a pretty crappy day yesterday with the idiots around here just having to have their music so damn loud I could hear it in here with the windows closed…so, two calls to the cops stopped that and I e-mailed the city manager and the neighborhood officer to try to get them to do something different so I don’t have to call all day every day….slept okay last night but it was another night of sleep aids that I don’t want to do every day…it leaves me groggy all morning and feeling really slow…and I sure don’t like that….I did get 20 tomato plants out in the garden yesterday and I hope at least half of them will survive…if not, I have many more downstairs since I know that I have to brute force them to have enough for me later in the summer….still struggling with the peppers, though, but I do have a half dozen of them coming up but I’m not sure that will be enough since I only yielded about 2 peppers per plant last year…and none of the jalapenos have come up but I have tons of those in the freezer from last year since they are the only peppers you can freeze….not much to do today…the new couch is coming today so I need to prep for that and move this one out of the way…but, from what I read in the comments about the delivery company, they won’t move the old one onto the front porch so I guess I just move the old one to the side and wait until someone visits to move it out there….more damn complications that I don’t need right now….more later….
Got my new gloves…
Well…yeah, don’t feel like doing any political stuff today after putting in 30 miles on the bike and having the worst heartburn and reflux I’ve had in a year and the antacids aren’t working at all…so, I’m pouring water into me to try to dilute the acid and that’s not helping much, either….but, I did get my new riding gloves yesterday and they are pretty nice…bought the same brand as the first ones and can’t believe how nice they are compared to the 6 year old ones I had been using…they actually fit like they’re supposed to and they have silicone grippers on the gel pads that are pretty nice and that the old ones didn’t have…have used them for both rides today and my hands like it a lot….the only thing is they were 5 bucks more than the old ones that I got for 8 bucks…I can live with that at 2 bucks a year if I get 6 out of this pair like the last ones….
May 16th
Well…decided to change it up this morning and come here and do this before I read the paper…just had to get a night’s sleep last night so I took a sleep aid to help that and am paying for it right now with feeling pretty slow….but I didn’t get out of bed until almost 6:30 and am just getting to my first cup of coffee and it’s 7:30…so, I’ll be running late all day today but late for what? I did get into shorts this morning for the first time this year and that is almost a month later than normal with how cold it’s been….and I’ll be able to get on the bike as soon as I want since it is already 50 out there and that means that it will be another double on the bike today…I am going to skip the bagel this morning so I can have two meals today…I don’t think a bagel should count for a meal with it being only about 350 calories with cream cheese but if I’m ever going to lose any weight, I need to watch everything I eat and make allowances for it….didn’t get anything done yesterday but I really do need to start putting my plants in the garden today…I have about 20 tomato plants that are ready to go and I even have a few pepper plants that have come up but they won’t be ready for a couple of weeks….but, right now it is raining outside and I need coffee and to read the paper so I’ll end here….more later….
The mask mandate is lifted here in Michigan..
Well…I guess things must be getting better with the vaccines here in Michigan with the announcement this morning that masks are no longer mandated for those of us who are fully vaccinated…yeah, I see the problem with that, too…how the heck are stores, bars, and restaurants going to tell if you are vaccinated or not? I know I have a photo of my vaccination card on my phone but I’m pretty sure no low paid employee is going to ask for it….and the assholes who infest this state will raise holy hell if anyone asks them for proof of vaccination…so, this is progress and a small move back toward normalcy for those of us who are civic minded and wanted to do our part to protect our fellow citizens by getting vaccinated…I think I’m still going to carry my mask with me just in case when I go out for the paper tomorrow morning….and I am going to go out to the new bar opening down the street next Friday….need to find a home bar since it appears that I’ll be out here for a while…maybe….
Lazy day…
Well…my lack of motivation is still hanging on so I don’t think I’ll be doing a political one for today…still feel pretty lousy and my stomach is iffy and I wonder if just having a bagel to eat for the day can support two rides? I did do two rides out to the beach today and it is funny that, once you have to pay to use the beach, it is about empty when every other day almost every space is filled…have been having problems with the shifter on the bike the past few days and I wonder if it has sand in it? The 5-6 shift has been hanging up and I have adjusted it a couple of times a day when it normally works once I get it adjusted and never have to touch it again…so I washed the shifter out with the hose before I watered the garden and will see how it works tomorrow…don’t see any frayed shifter cable that would cause the problem but I have never replaced the cable on this bike and it has lots of miles on it so maybe it’s coming apart inside the housing? Should probably take it apart to see but don’t feel like it right now….and I should plant some tomatoes today, too, but don’t feel like doing that, either….so maybe I should declare this a lazy day and just give up…who knows?
May 15th
Well…running late this morning with having cocktails last night and not having any motivation to do anything right now…and I am sore from doing almost 40 miles on the bike yesterday and am hobbling around here like I’m a hundred years old….so, yeah…pretty normal for a Saturday morning…had an okay day yesterday with Tom coming out to show me his new car and me showing him how easy it is to get to the beach now that I know my way around a little…then I rode over to the bank and then out to the beach and fooled around out there and added some miles to get to more than a double for the day…and I’m only on my first cup of coffee this morning so I’m not starting the day off too easily….don’t think I ate enough yesterday, either, with only having a bagel and a pork shoulder wrap even with doing the double ride…so that may have something to do with how I feel today…it looks like Amazon split the order I made the other day so I’ll be getting my new riding gloves today but the chain lube won’t be here til late next week…and that’s okay since I just cleaned and lubed the bike thursday and have enough in the bottle to do one more…and I can use the gloves more with the old ones being worn out and pretty shabby looking….not much to do today…going to get out on the bike by around 9 or so since it is not freezing out there today…finally…and then start cleaning in here to prep for the new couch coming on Monday….I think I’m going to wait to plant until Monday but who knows? I may just get started today with the rain coming tonight….more later….
It’s a trap!
Well…how many of you knew that was a often repeated line from Star Wars? This time it applies to the repub response to the infrastructure bills that the dems are proposing…while the dems have included repealing the repub tax cuts for the rich to pay for it…the repubs have made it a key to their plan to raise taxes on the middle class and poor by instituting user fees that hit those groups the hardest as a percentage of income….and the dems are letting them go on about not repealing the rich people tax cuts as they prepare to go it alone after the repubs will invariably blow up the negotiations over Joe’s insistence that no one making less than 400k a year will have their taxes raised…and that is the trap that has been set by the dems…they know that the repubs will never allow their pet tax cuts for the rich to end and they are going to allow them to whine and bitch about it for a while…as the dems then plan to go it alone to pass this popular bill repealing the tax cuts that the public wants and then will hammer the repubs with it in the 2022 election…all the while emphasizing that the repubs tried to block the plan…pretty subtle and effective…and mcconnell is going to lose this one bigly….
May 14th
Well…yeah, running a little late today and just can’t get motivated…just had a thought…I don’t think I’ve talked to so many cops in such a short time in my life…and every one of them were really nice and listened to what I had to say….that’s a little new to me…okay, I am an old white guy and it probably shouldn’t be that much of a surprise but it is still welcome…it was pretty quiet around here yesterday and I’m hoping that will continue today…damn, I just forgot what day it is…I guess that’s a product of not having anywhere to be…I do need to start planning when to put my tomato plants out and that may happen this weekend…I did notice that a couple of the sunflower seeds have sprouted in the back of the house where I planted them and I have 8 more planted in cups downstairs so I’ll need to figure out where to plant them if they sprout….I may put them next to the garage or along the fence but I need to make sure they will be easy to trim around…I think I may adopt a vacant lot across the street and clean it up and keep it mowed but I can’t find the organization that does that to make sure it’s not already assigned to someone….I guess I can just do it and let them come to me…I know I already have too much work to do to get this place in shape but I know I’ll feel better to look out my front windows and see a nice, clean lot….not much to do today…I did get a double ride in yesterday and am going to try to do that again today…need to ride over to the bank that is about 5 miles away to deposit the comcast check so that will be one of the legs of my ride today….and then the normal one out to lake Michigan….need to clean this place up some, too, since my new couch is supposed to come Monday and I need to be ready for that….more later….
This is a little weird…
Well…if you’ve been here before, you know of the ordeal I had trying to move my modem from the GR house to here when I moved…it took a tech 3 1/2 hours of wending his way through the stupid phone system with his secret phone numbers…but today, I got a weird little surprise from comcast…a check for 50 bucks that the tech said he was going to get me for all of the crap I had to go through just to move the modem and having them hold the whole thing up since they owed me money…and they have only been taking 15 bucks a month out for my internet so I’ve been getting 10 bucks a month off, too…I knew I liked the tech who was here….