Well…man, I’m tired…it’s been another busy day and I am now waiting for the pain to start to build for the rest of the day…started out with doing the grocery run and hitting Aldi’s and Meijer’s…forgot to buy milk and I’m not sure how the heck that happened…but, I have a gallon and a half here so I may be able to get through the week without it….then I got out for a hard ride in the wind…it was blowing 18 to 20 mph with gusts of 25 but it was from the south and, with my route mostly west and east, it was tolerable….and that’s something I wouldn’t have said last year….then I got started on edging my front sidewalks with a spade since the grass had grown over the walk by almost a foot so that took a little work…okay, a lot of work and I am surprised my back allowed me to get through it…and I took the sod and dirt that came from it and filled the back entrance to the yard and it looks pretty good…no more 2 foot deep holes and, after it grows in with some rain, I think I’ll be able to easily drive in the back yard to wash the car….so, progress! Still haven’t done much in here but I can live with the interior as long as I get the outside cleaned up…and now I’m making an 8 pound ham with mashed potatoes and corn for dinner since I skipped lunched to get the work done…almost want to have cocktails tonight since I earned them but nope…have to be good again tonight and tomorrow…discipline….
Confiscate all the damn guns…
Well…when is it enough? How many damn people have to die from shootings here in the US before we do something about it? 20 more dead just this week and we don’t even get to absorb what happened in the last one before another one happens….and that is just too much. I think we truly need to start thinking about repealing the 2nd amendment since no one on the right will go along with even the popular, basic first steps to regulate who can buy a gun and what kind…so, let’s just buy back all of them and make guns illegal…okay, I don’t want to go that far but when AR-15’s have been used in almost every damn mass shooting over the past 5 years there is a reason…and that is you can get huge magazines and they are rapid fire…and will empty the mag just as fast as you can pull the trigger….and don’t give me the bullshit that they are necessary for “protection”…from what? The Taliban coming across the East Beltline? I’ve just had enough of the gun fetishists being so damn scared that they need to be armed everywhere and then the rest of us suffer the stress from seeing these idiots carrying guns around and not knowing if this is the time that the idiot goes off and starts shooting. If they won’t compromise, lets just get rid of all guns…no guns, no more mass murders…I’ve had enough…
March 24th
Well…running about on time this morning and had a pretty good night of sleep with getting up at 4:14 and then being able to go back to sleep until after 6 so I’ll take it…I am pretty sore after the yard work yesterday and my shoulder bugged me all night trying to not sleep on it to make the pain worse but it’s nothing I can’t handle…I am going to work on the front of the house again today and edge the sidewalks with my spade and that should take a couple of hours but it will be worth it when I get done and have that finished look it gives it….once I get all of that stuff done, it will be easy to maintain it and it will look good all summer…the fence does need some repairs and I wonder if I should paint it black…that will a project for later once the rest of the lawn work is done….I did take a ride along the beach trail yesterday to take a look at the damage the high water did last year and that entire part of the trail is trashed and will probably take a couple of years to restore…most of is it washed away and the pavement is in the lake…won’t go that way again since I just had to turn around and some of the approaches to the bridges were pretty sketchy…but they are working on it and making progress…not much to do today…I do have the grocery run to do here in a couple of hours and I may be able to put the top down for that run…and I think I’m going to buy a spiral ham at Meijers today…only 87 cents a pound and that will give me protein for almost a week and I can’t wait for ham and swiss sandwiches on rye bread…really don’t have anything else in the fridge so I’ll have to cook it today…I should use some of the chicken thighs I have in the freezer and I’ll probably start thawing some today….more later…
Darn…that was a waste…
Well…yeah, I almost forgot to come back here today and do another one of these and no, it won’t be about politics…it may be about bitching a little but I probably shouldn’t do that since that’s not what I’m about anymore….I did get into GR today and was supposed to meet up with T but she texted me a few minutes before were supposed to meet and said she just got out of bed and wanted to move the meet back a day…and then texted and moved that one back a day so it looks like Thursday now…but, I got these texts after I was already in GR so all I did was pick up some leftover stuff and drive back here…I did get to have the top down both ways so that was cool but a waste of time and mileage on the car….so, when I got back here I got on the bike and did 20 in shorts and a t-shirt and then worked on the front of the house until my back wouldn’t take any more…I did get the fence cleaned up with the string trimmer and chopped out a bunch of bushes that had grown into the fence and raked some of the leaves and trimmings….and it does look a lot better but I have to use my spade to trim the grass that has grown over the sidewalk and that is going to take a full day with how wide the lot is….I sure hope it rains tonight like it’s supposed to and waters my grass seed….I am so damn sore right now that there will be an ibuprofen in my future…I am tired of hurting so much…darn…
March 23rd
Well…that was a normal night for a no cocktail one…up at 3, 5, and then for good at 6:11 so that gets me here about on time this morning…I seem to have slept okay and don’t feel too bad…I am starting to get used to no cocktail mornings and having a little energy…I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday mostly outside with filling more holes and seeding all of the bare spots in the lawn that I hope will sprout after we get rain for the next few days…I did have the top down on the car yesterday while running errands and that was cool…and I need to run into GR this morning and it looks like I can have the top down out and back but the wind is going to be blowing pretty hard and that will move the car around a bunch….have to remember sunscreen or I’ll be baked red by the time I get back here…have already stated to burn on the bike rides so I need to remember that before I ride…I did get a ride in yesterday with the wind blowing about 18 mph so I am finally getting used to it and it won’t keep me off the bike this spring and summer…now, if it’s gusting to 25 or so that might be a chore but we’ll see…not much to do today….need to go into GR to pick up the rest of my stuff and meet up with T for lunch…haven’t seen her since last year…it could be almost 6 months….yow….more later…
Why shouldn’t DC be a state?
Well…with the hearings that are taking place in the house today on making DC the 51 st state, my question is “why shouldn’t DC be a state?” It has more population than Wyoming and they get a rep and two senators and get the right to vote for them…so why not DC? Since the district was formed in 1790, not one resident of the area has been allowed to vote for a rep or senator…they pay all the same taxes as the rest of the country but get no representation and they are ruled by congress who can overrule any laws passed by the city council…so, basically the residents have no say in how they are governed at all….and we know why repubs are so against statehood…the district is a majority black/brown area and the repubs are doing whatever they can to make sure that minorities can’t vote all across the country….and, with the prospect of the 51st state sending two dem senators to the senate, the repubs chances to take control of the senate in 2022 goes way down….but, this is all about fairness and one of the reasons we fought the revolutionary war…”no taxation without representation”…and that is just what is happening to those American citizens…so, I think this needs to happen…there is no reason why almost a million Americans should be treated differently than the rest of us….let’s get this done, dems…
March 22nd
Well…I guess the thought of the day is “be careful what you wish for” as I sit here in howling pain in my left shoulder…just yesterday, I was hoping that the pain I was having in my forearms and elbows would move somewhere else since I was so tired of how badly it hurt whenever I used them…and last night, while I was just sitting here staring at the tv, pain started in my left shoulder and continued to get worse as the night went on….and now it still hurts like crazy even with taking an ibuprofen last night as I normally do….and the pain meant that I was going to toss and turn all night since sleeping on it made the pain worse….damn…oh, well…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and, when I was sitting on a bench out at the beach, I noticed that the unobstructed view allows you to see the curvature of the Earth in Lake Michigan and that is just too cool…and the ride out there and through the forest makes a loop that is 12 miles and that is almost enough for a daily ride…just need to find another 3 miles to get to 15 for the day or to do two for 30 miles…I did discover that there are two sledding hills on the route that are built into the dunes right near the beach that have stairs to get up them and I think I may have to go out there in the winter to try them…a tube would be fun to ride and a hoot…and one of the hills has to be 500 feet tall that empties into a cool little park at it’s foot…still discovering what’s cool about his place and, even though I’m old, I want to take advantage of it….not much to do today…need to make a run out to Menards to get grass seed and some more dirt to finish filling in the holes in the yard entrance…I think I can seed now since it is getting warmer slowly and spring is the right time to seed….and I need to continue to work on the yard to get it growing and cleaned up….more later….
Ted Cruz truly is a terrible person…
Well….after the repubs lost the two senate races in Georgia and others across the country, their response was not to ask why people weren’t buying what they are selling when it includes hate and misogyny…nope, they are pefectly happy to continue to have no policies that people want…or no policies at all other than a blind allegiance to the idiot trump and tax cuts for the rich….and their big takeaway from the huge turnout of voters both on the left and right is that they can’t let that happen again….so in state legislatures across the country their have been almost 300 bills that would make it harder for people to vote even though this last election was one of the most secure and accurate in the history of the country and the only purpose for these bills is to make sure dem voters can’t vote since it is the only way that repubs can win. The dems response to these bills is HR1 which would codify a minimum set of voting rules that states would have to adhere to such as any reason absentee voting, 15 days of early voting, election day registration, and other things that the repubs just hate…and now we get to ole Ted…last week, ted was caught on tape saying that if HR1 passes, the dems will control the government for a “hundred years” and we will have rampaging socialism that will ruin this country…all that just for making it easier to vote and taking the ability to gerrymander out of the hands of repubs…and, of course, cruz is lying his ass off when he told the group that “illegal aliens” will get the right to vote along with child molesters and rapists…and not one word about any policy that will help the American people like the dems passed recently, but just more and more of the terrible bullshit that spews out of ole ted’s mouth….this is what happens when the repubs have nothing to offer, no policy, and nothing else…just hate and white supremacy…and I do kind of like the idea if HR1 passes the dems will be in control for a hundred years…won’t happen but it is nice to contemplate…
March 21st
Well….running really late this morning and decided to read the paper first before coming here…and I laid in bed until almost 7 after waking up at 5:41…just wasn’t ready to get out of bed then so I didn’t….and that made me late, too, so that’s why I’m here at 8:19 and not two hours earlier as normal….I did sleep okay but I think I’m done with cocktails for the week after two days…that seems to be enough and I think I may be moving to cutting them out completely since I don’t enjoy them as I used to…that may change as it gets warmer but we’ll see….my darn ribs still hurt as my forearms and hands do and I think I’m taking something for it before I get on the bike today….I wonder if two ibuprofens a day is too many? Don’t want to kill my kidneys and liver but I think 400 mg a day is not an excessive dose…I’ve read of people taking 2,000mg on a regular basis so I think I’ll be okay….I’ll be glad when the pain moves to another part of my body as it does every year….I did talk to another neighbor yesterday and he told me we have a skunk that cuts through a hole in my fence so I need to repair it…luckily, I have the light wire that I cut out of the back of the house and was going to just dump in the trash but I think I’ll dig it out and keep in the garage for repairs since I do have a couple of places that could use it….not much to do today…going to rake a bit today and cut up the vines and put them in bags to go out in a couple of weeks and then the bike ride but that’s about it…still haven’t taken the couple of weeks off that I was planning after I moved in here and I think I really need it…I hurt everywhere and the only thing that will help that is rest….more later…
Feel pretty lousy…
Well…as you can see, I’m not going to do a political one today since I feel so lousy right now….I feel like I pulled something in my left ribs cutting out the lamp post yesterday and it hurts to just breathe…but I hurt everywhere and have all day today…probably should have taken something for it earlier before I got on the bike since that aggravated it a bunch…and I am just exhausted…not sure why I would feel this way other than I’ve been under with calories for the past few days…but I couldn’t even eat a whole pork chop for dinner since I felt so damn full…and I should be able to eat more than a small burger (1/8th pound) and a handful of chips and a pork chop with asparagus for the day yesterday, especially with doing 15 miles on the bike today…I know that’s under a thousand calories but to feel this lousy is just weird….and it can’t be the cocktails from last night…cripes, I only had three and they were the first ones for the week…..so, I don’t know what is going on….all I know is I don’t like it and don’t know what to do about it….crap….I did want to have cocktails tonight but now I’m not so sure if I will….oh, well…oh, I did get my first gas bill for this house today and it was only 64 bucks for the month…so maybe the 80% efficient furnace is doing it’s job….