Well…finally did get out in the garage to check out the old opener and found a burned section on the board where the solder was gone…and my soldering iron has been missing since I moved so I went out and got a new one that has lights and everything in it…and soldered the places that were burned but that didn’t do anything so I’m guessing that the components that got really hot…hot enough to melt solder and leave a burn mark on the board, and that ruined them…so, I will be buying a new one in a couple of weeks and it looks pretty easy to hang it but I may have to cut out some of the shelf to make it fit if the motor unit is bigger…and I have to take my new broom out and sweep the shelf since it is covered in dust and crap and I want it cleaned….I forgot that I can use that for storage, too…and I like my new ladder…it may be a little tall to use with the garage door up but it will make it comfortable cleaning off the shelf and the windows outside…along with the power washing the siding on the house….and I really like how light it is…I can throw it up on the hooks so easily that I can do it even when I get really old….oh, and some damn animal dug a hole under my sidewalk that I had to fill back up and I’m going to put some fencing and a piece of concrete over to keep them either in the hole or from digging it again….
April 25th
Well…that was a little better… slept okay last night but feel pretty slow this morning and I know I need to eat more…just did the math and was under1500 calories for the day yesterday and I think that has been the pattern for almost a week now and I know that is not sustainable when I’m riding every day…but I still have 20 pounds to lose so maybe I do need to keep it up….had a nice visit from my son and his wife and their dog yesterday and it was cool to have them see the place…their dog loved the yard and ran around like crazy…and he is still a puppy…only 2 months old and weighs 40 pounds….huge dog….if it ever warms up, they can come over here and we can go to the beach with my free parking passes that should be here in a few weeks….not going to get on the bike today with the high only getting to 48 out here today and that is 15 degrees under the average high for this part of April and I am getting tired of it…and after 2 days of normal, the rest of the week is going to be just as cold with no relief in sight….I wonder if this is going to be one of those years where we don’t have a spring but it goes straight into summer? Oh, well….I can still work on the yard and get the garden prepped for the seeds I have planted in the cups inside…and I do need to work on the garage door opener either today or tomorrow but Man U plays in 45 minutes and that goes straight into the Indy car race at 12:30 and then nascar at Talladega at 2:30 so I may just wait til tomorrow to work in the garage…and I do need to figure out food for the week…haven’t bought any protein for a couple of weeks so I will need to look in the freezer to see what’s there…lots of chicken and soup so I should thaw some….more later….
They don’t care about governing…
Well…it here is one thing clear about the repub party over the past few years it’s that they don’t even care about governing anymore…they don’t care about making things better for anyone or dealing with the problems this country faces, the only thing they seem to care about is attacking trans kids and passing laws to keep them from playing sports or using the bathroom…or passing laws that keep people they don’t like from voting…as evidenced from the 400+ laws that are in the works that would restrict voting rights, or passing laws that would allow drivers in red states to run over peaceful protesters or restrict the first amendment rights to protest that are enshrined in the constitution…and they don’t care that these laws will most likely be overturned by the courts…they only care about the “performance” and not the results…again showing that they don’t care about governing anymore…just hurting people they don’t like…and it is all based on lies…lies that the last election was rife with fraud when it wasn’t, lies that the BLM protests burned down cities across the US when there are no burned down cities, and lies that trans girls will have an advantage over other girls in kids sports. The repubs have become the grievance party, using government to push hate and lies all the time…it is time for every damn one of them to go…
April 24th
Well…that was crappy…probably the worst night’s sleep in weeks and I’m feeling it this morning…and that was night two of cocktails so that’s it for the week…maybe I’ll sleep better tonight from it….but I think part of it is my allergies exploded yesterday and I could barely breathe all night…and that continues now and I may just have to take something for it this morning…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and got a look at the new sculpture they are installing out at the beach…not sure if I like it or not…seems a bit cutesy with the colored glass and moving lights but we’ll see when it’s finished…and I got the whole thing in without a flat but I thought about it the entire ride since I couldn’t figure how the tube failed and worried I may have missed what caused it..but, I was happy that the tire and rim weren’t damaged and the bike still rides smooth so I’ll take it….I did get some work done on the yard yesterday with getting more grass seed down after I got back from riding…was counting on it raining today but that chance looks slim right now with nothing on the radar….my son and his wife are coming out to see the house this morning after taking their dog to a vet appointment in GH so I need to straighten up after I read the news and have some more coffee…and I really want to work on the garage door opener to see if it can be salvaged…it would be really cool if it’s just a fuse and I could get away with just buying an opener for it…but the new belt drive ones with battery backup look pretty cool and they are only 159 bucks….and I can get a stripped down one for about a hundred so I need to think about this a bit….more later…
They’re just not serious…
Well…with all of the talk of “bipartisanship” in trying to get an infrastructure renewal bill through the senate, you just have to look at the repub proposal to see they are not serious…almost 3 times smaller that what the dems have proposed and and with a hard no on any increase in revenue…so that means that any money spent on the serious problems we have in this country will have to be offset by cuts to other programs that are already operating at severely reduced levels….and they go on to whine about the tax increases on the rich and corporations that the dems propose to pay for their bill lying that it will mean a loss of the jobs created by their tax cuts when every damn study has concluded that the only thing the tax cuts did was make the rich richer and allow corporations to buy back their stock…no damn jobs created at all. They all know that and yet they keep lying and lying…another reason why their proposal is just not serious…but the modern repub party doesn’t operate on facts or the truth as evidenced by the hundreds of voter suppression laws based on the big lie of voter fraud that just doesn’t exist….and now an infrastructure proposal that they think is “enough” is based on hypocrisy…they never asked to pay for trump’s huge tax cuts for the rich but now it is their reason for being….I say leave them behind and fix this country without them…after all, 70% of the country support Biden’s proposal and want it passed…even 50% of repubs want it done…so do it…
Got my new ladder….
Well…I wonder why almost everything I do has to be harder than it needs to be? Just today when I was out trying to buy a new ladder to work on stuff around here, you would think you could just pick one up, take it to the checkout, and pay for it…but no…every one of the 8 ft. ladders they had in stock didn’t have a bar code on it so I had to have the cashier look it up on the computer…after about 15 minutes of that, the ladder I wanted didn’t show up anywhere so then she just charged me for a different ladder and I got 5 bucks off…but now, if the damn thing fails on me, I won’t have a correct receipt and I’ll have to explain it to the return people…that is if it fails…I’ve never had one fail so I don’t think that is going to happen…the ladder did fit in the front seat easily and I got it home with no problem….and the hooks I put up yesterday will hold both the ladder and the pole saw that I decided to keep so that is cool….but still, nothing easy…at least my legs only hurt a little after all the work yesterday…yay!
April 23rd
Well…that was a mistake…I gave in to having cocktails last night after the busy day I had and I am feeling it right now…and to keep to my 2 day a week schedule, that means no cocktails for either tonight or tomorrow night and I’m okay with that…after all of the walking and the flat tire ride yesterday, I expected my legs would be really sore today but surprisingly they are just fine…and my right calf is normal after mowing and I think it may have to do with getting out my old mowing shoes and not using my rubber garden shoes…whatever it is, I’ll take it since I’m walking around with no hobbling at all….changing out the tube in the back tire was a mess yesterday since I had a slime tube in it that is supposed to plug off any small hole in the tube but there was no way it could fix a half inch hole and all of that sealer ended up inside the tire and leaking out onto the rim…so, that meant I had to wash all of that crap out of the tire before I could put it back together…and the sealer is a bright green that looked like crap…and I hope that leaving it a little damp won’t hurt it….not much to do today…I have to run an errand to get my Mega tickets since the jackpot is almost 300 mil and then I need to buy the ladder I want and I hope it will fit in the passenger’s seat with the top down…and then I need to take the garage door opener apart and check if it has a fuse…it would be cool if I can just replace a fuse and not the opener but I may wait til tomorrow to do that…it is supposed to rain and I like working in the garage in the rain….more later…
Had a damn flat today…
Well…yeah, I know I haven’t come here this afternoon but I have a good reason….had a damn flat on the bike today in the worst possible place…all the way out to the beach at exactly the halfway point of my daily ride…okay, a little under halfway but I was still 6 miles away when it went and that meant either walking back or riding the damn thing on the flat so, of course, I rode it back…after all 7 mph riding for 6 miles is much better than walking at 3 mph for 6 miles…and no damage to the tire or rim but the tube had a hole in it as big as my little finger so I think it was just a failure with the tube being an old one that I found in my totes that must have been at least three years old….so, no political one today after all the work I’ve done…I need some time to rest after mowing and feeding the lawn and putting the hooks up in the garage for the ladder I’m getting tomorrow, and of course, riding back on the flat that is no fun at all…
April 22nd
Well…that was okay, only got up once at about 4 and didn’t get out of bed til after 6 and I feel okay this morning…and I discovered or re-discovered something overnight…if I sleep on my right side, my nose stays clear and I can breathe quite well all night and I think that has something to do with how I feel this morning…and I was good for the fourth night and tonight will be five in a row and that HAS become my new habit….man, it’s cheap not buying cocktail materials every week….I’m still walking without pain this morning and I am going to test that today with mowing the lawn, putting weedkiller down, and feeding the new grass for the first time so we’ll see how I feel later today….damn, I have so much work to do around here….need to put hooks up in the garage for the new ladder I’m buying tomorrow and put a shelving unit together to store all of the stuff that is spread all over it….and with it warming up over the next few days, I need to get the weeds pulled from around the house so I can put in my flower seeds and keep them watered until it rains….and I still have 6 windows to be cleaned along with buying a couple of new shades for the dining room since the ones there are dirty and don’t work….so I won’t say not much to do today since I do have lots to do….now I just need to get to it….more later…oh, and I ordered my free parking passes for the city parks on Lake Michigan last night just in case I want to take the car out there this summer…a small perk of being a Muskegon city resident…saves about 10 bucks in parking fees every time…pretty cool…
I’m walking again…
Well…cripes, big yards are expensive to restore and maintain….went out to get supplies to do just that this morning and spent 72 bucks on food, weed killer, a new push broom, seed, a hose end sprayer, and a pack of green pepper seeds…but, the good thing was that I was able to walk around Menards with very little pain…no heel pain, no calf pain, no back pain and I almost have my normal gait back after favoring everything with how bad the pain was…it may have helped that I skipped riding yesterday and I’m going to skip again today since it’s snowing here again today and I just refuse to ride in the snow again…so, some good news that I hope will survive after I mow the lawn and feed the new grass and walk all over spraying the weed killer on it tomorrow….and I started the day with over 17K in my checking account which give me some breathing space and it is about 5K more than I had after closing on the house in Feb….but, I’m going to burn a bunch of that this week buying my new ladder Friday and the new garage door opener next week….but that will be the extent of what I’m going to spend until June….I almost got to just living today…so close but no cigar…I think it’s coming soon…