Well…hey, Tom…after you got your new car, I’ve noticed that almost every damn car out here is a Subaru….I wonder if they are issued to people when they move here? Where the heck can I get mine? Okay, that’s not what this is about…you know I’ve mentioned that you can see the curvature of the Earth from my boardwalk seat at the beach and today I saw proof of it that I had never seen before. When I was pulling up to the bench, I notice that the Lake express ferry was heading out of the entrance to Muskegon Lake..well…it was probably 5 miles or so out, and heading straight West and after it got out quite a few miles, I noticed something strange…to me anyway…the ship started to disappear over the horizon and, over the next half hour or so, more of the boat disappeared until the last part of the top sank below it…I can’t remember ever seeing that before…I guess it took a big ship heading straight toward the horizon to do it…I guess that proves the Earth is round…at least to me…to the flat Earthers…not so much….
I feel better about Muskegon…
Well…after the debacle of yesterday, I was starting to question buying this house and moving out here…but, after chatting with the officer last night and having the community officer just stop by to meet me and talk for a while, I am feeling better about Muskegon. When I told him that I have thought about selling and moving out, he seemed to be a little hurt…and then he said that he has lived in Muskegon his entire life and they love to have people like me move in and help to make the city better…he even gave me his personal cell number so I could call him for any reason and he will answer….he stressed to please not sell the house, that any problems can be fixed if I just call them and let them help….I know that this is going to be a long process to get people to understand what the rules are and to follow them….and he did reiterate that the 50 foot rule is the law…so I really don’t have to listen to anyone since all of the houses around me are more than 50 feet away….but, we’ll see…at least I have hope that there is a path forward and I can enjoy my house again…
Wake up, Joe…
Well…Joe, Joe, Joe…..I know you remember the bipartisanship from your time in the senate a long time ago, but are you listening to these assholes who you are trying to do a deal with? To start, turtle mcconnell has stated bluntly that his entire job is to make sure you are not successful and that any bill that will help the American people will be blocked and the tax cuts for the rich are set in stone and will not be touched…some bipartisanship, huh? Yesterday, after the idiot mccarthy walked out of the meeting you held to try to find common ground, he scurried right to the microphones and called you “corrupt Joe Biden” and promised that he would not even try to help the American people….so more bipartisanship? Look, Joe…these guys have shown you for years and years that they will never buy into anything that you are proposing so just leave them behind…your bigger problem is to get Manchin and Sinema to stop covering for ole mitch and start acting like dems…that is your real problem and is something you need to deal with and right now…or you can kiss your very popular agenda goodbye…get after it…
May 13th
Well…darn, I feel pretty crappy this morning and my head is plugged up completely with all of the tree pollen…and I have trees out here that I can see which are in bloom so I think I’m going to have to take something for it this morning…and I think I’m going to lose the bean plants in the garden today with the temp down around 30 right now…but, this should be the last day of freeze and the temps are supposed to start getting warmer…we may even get to 70 next week and get back to almost normal highs for this time of year…so that means double rides to try to get my mileage up….I did start working on the old bike to try to replace the drivetrain but it looks like I need a puller to get the pedal arms off and then a special tool to get the crankset keeper off….I know I’ll need to do that to the current bike when it wears out so I should get on it…I did buy a new pair of riding gloves and a big bottle of chain lube yesterday since I am almost out of lube and I have been using my gloves for almost 5 years now and they are pretty much worn out….they have been good ones so I bought another pair just like them and can justify the 13 bucks with all of the use I get out of them….I did discover that there are a few other people out here who are getting tired of the loud music and have been calling in noise complaints…talked to another police officer last night who confirmed the 50 foot rule…that music can’t be played so loud it can be heard from more than 50 feet away and she welcomed the noise calls that come from it…while I was talking to her, one of the people who is responsible for the noise came up and said”why would walmart sell me a speaker that is too loud if playing it loud is illegal?” Man, that is some twisted logic right there…I am making it my goal in life to build a nice, quiet neighborhood here…and I don’t think the long time residents get that things are changing out here and they have to follow the rules since it has been the wild west for so long….and they have been able to to whatever they want…no longer…more later…
Don’t screw with Darth Vader…
Well…it looks the idiot trump and his minions got their way in removing Liz Cheney from her leadership post in the House…but, I think their high fives are going to be very, very short lived…do they even remember who her father is? Yeah, that Dick Cheney…the one who has overthrown governments, approved torture, and lied us into the Iraq war…and that was just on a Tuesday…the Dick Cheney who is still plugged into the old boy repub networks that control the money going into the party…do they really think Dick got the nickname Darth Vader by being a Star Wars fan? Cheney is the guy who works behind the scenes to get what he wants…and you never see him coming as he shivs you in the back…does anyone think that the idiot trump or Kevin McCarthy can go up against him? When he takes slights of his family just like an Italian mob boss does? We saw some of his behind the scenes machinations when he got over 100 former state and defense department heads to put out a letter warning trump about using the military to overthrow the election…and it is well known that he thinks trump is just a washed up game show host who never should have been president….and this diss on his daughter is going to be the last straw and he will use his power to torment trump for a while as he goes after McCarthy too…and he is going to end any possibility of McCarthy getting what he wants, and that is to be speaker of the house. Now, I hate Dick Cheney with a burning passion for what he did to harm the US while he was VP, but if his Vaderishness can be turned on idiot boy, I’ll watch that…
May 12th
Well…my sleep seems to be deteriorating over the past couple of days but at least I’m consistent with waking up before 5…and I feel okay so I guess I should stop bitching…but, damn…it’s 32 degrees outside right now and that means I’ll lose my bean plants that are in the garden…how the hell can it be 32 on May 12? Oh, well…that means I’ll have to wait until Friday to get at planting the tomatoes that are ready downstairs…but still no green peppers or cukes to replace the ones that died in the garden…I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday with the grocery run and then mowing the lawn and that was a lot of walking…but I think I’m getting used to walking the mile it takes to mow it since only my big toe is hurting right now and my calves used to scream at me after I was done…probably the shoe change I made after the first mowing…still not losing any weight after cutting back on cocktails and nuts and that is a little disappointing…especially after cutting down to one meal a day…I mean all I had to eat yesterday was a bagel with cream cheese and a third of a chicken breast…no lunch or dinner and a hard ride, too, so that is a little confusing…might have to wait for getting double rides in next week…I am going to make a small pork shoulder in the instant pot for lunch and may make some pork tacos to go with the pickled red onions I made yesterday…have tomatoes in the fridge that need to be used, too, so I’ll need to start that by 9 or so…or 8:30 since it takes a while to get up to pressure and I want to get out on the bike by around noon or so and the potatoes and carrots take a cycle, too…more later…
Concert tickets…
Well…ever since I moved out here, I had it in the back of my mind that I saw a concert at Heritage Landing…the park at the end of my street just down the hill and something just made me look for it to confirm…and yep, I saw Joe Walsh and Buddy Guy there in 2000 and that was pretty cool…see, my memory is not completely gone….and, while I was looking for that ticket, I found tons of others that I kept…from Peter Gabriel, the Who, Neil Young, lots of Steely Dans, and, get this, I have a ticket for the Eagles when I saw them in 1974 out at Grand Valley…spent a whole 5 bucks on that one….who would hang onto a ticket for 47 years? I guess weird people like me…I still have my ticket from seeing Led Zeppelin in Chicago in 1975 somewhere and that was only 7.50 while Joe in 2000 was 17 bucks…still worth it and would do it again in a minute…I wonder if I have the ticket for Joe and Bob Seeger when I saw them here in Muskegon, too…and that was at LC Walker arena that is also just down the street from here, too…man, I would like to see one more concert before I die…
Wildlife…
Well….when I got up this morning and looked out the kitchen window as I normally do, I really had to smile since there were three young deer just standing in the yard next door…and when they moved off, it was with no urgency at all…just strolling as they sniffed the ground looking for something to eat…and that is a little surprising since most of the yards are fenced in out here like mine is and access is pretty limited…but, I have seen deer of this age easily clear a 4 foot tall fence so I guess it wouldn’t be too hard for them to get around…not sure it the other sight I saw this afternoon is wildlife but those 5 kittens I saw following their mother the other day were all playing in a shrub next to the garage next door…climbing up and knocking each other out of it as they play fought…not wildlife but pretty fun to see…all long hair kittens when their mom is a short hair gray cat…genetics at work…
Traitors…
Well…why the hell are Kristin Sinema and Joe Manchin even called democrats? With the debate on federal protection for voting rights being debated in the senate today, both of these dems in name only are going along with ole mitch’s lies about it..agreeing that the bill would be a “power grab” by the federal government since elections are normally run by the states…how damn blind can these two be? Do they remember the voting rights act? Where any changes to election law in states who had constantly tried to keep minorities from voting had to be approved by the courts? Until the Roberts’ court and Roberts lied his ass off saying that racism in voting didn’t exist anymore and gutted the VRA, all of the states that now are passing hundreds of voting restrictions had to have the changes approved by the courts and never would have gotten one of their changes approved since they are just so obviously aimed at making sure that minority voters can’t vote that no court would approve them. And now we have Sinema and Manchin feigning concern that this really might be a federal takeover when this bill is just a response to all of the repub voter suppression that have happened in the states they control. If they are so damn dumb that they can’t see that McConnell is playing them, they sure don’t deserve to be in the senate and have anyone listen to them….it’s bullshit they think this way and I don’t get why they trust anything mcconnell says…no one should…geez…
May 11th
Well…damn, my forearms are sore from using my pole saw yesterday so it looks like I’m going to need to wait a couple of days to get back to working on the dead branches….and that’s okay since I do have to mow the lawn today after the grocery run and Man U plays at noon…and I have to do a little more conditioning of the garden soil to do and start planning when and where to start planting the tomatoes…I am a little concerned that I am having so much trouble getting the green peppers to come up downstairs and I may just have to bite the bullet and buy some plants…oh, I did get up around 5:30 this morning and, with no hope of getting back to sleep, I just got up and got started on the day and my annoyance of that is getting smaller as the days of being good go on….I did go out to what was supposed to be a car show at the distillery along shoreline road but there were only two cars there so that was a bust but I got to drive around a bit with the top down on the car and that was cool…I sure wish it would have been warm enough to ride the bike over there since it is only about 3 miles and you don’t need any space to park…not much to do today…just the grocery run and outdoor work but it looks like the bike ride will wait until after Man U plays at noon…I do need to start getting doubles in every day or I won’t get anywhere near to 3K miles that is the small goal for the year…I did turn over 700 miles a couple of days ago and that is not much but better than nothing….and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate next week so I can get a morning and an afternoon ride in…so, yay! More later…