Well…up before 5am today and that is about normal lately…feel okay after the 8th day of not drinking and I think that is the new normal that I don’t need to think about anymore…I was a little curious how being dry affected my BP and it appears pretty good…115/70 and I’m hoping I can get back into the single digits as time goes on…lots of work to get done today and it’s warm enough to ride outdoors but I’ll probably do one ride as I want to get the garage swept out and the car cleaned from top to bottom…and that means a total vacuum, the glass cleaned and rainx’d, washing the interior, and then waxing it and that will take a couple of hours…still not going to be too warm but I can live with it being in the 50’s…and I got the outdoor faucet opened up yesterday and I think I’ll wash the bike, too as I do with the leftover car wash in the bucket…and I do have to use the wheel cleaner that I found last year that works like a champ and the car wash soap that is easy on the paint…still have leftover pork shoulder that will last a few more days but I’ll have to do some meal planning for later in the week…and I know that will be Masala…really don’t have much to get on the grocery run since I need to empty the freezer before I get anything else…more later…
Plans had to change…
Well…when I got up this morning, the plan was to get two rides in outdoors since it was already 48 degrees and that is plenty warm to go out…but, once I got the first ride almost completed the wind came up to 35 and I was struggling to get back here…and it got even worse when I got to the top of the climb up to here I broke a spoke in the rear wheel which stuck into the chain and damn near pitched me off the bike…so I crippled the bike back here and got to work replacing it with one from the wheel that broke and that was a long process since you have to remove the tire and tube and the rear cassette to get access to it…so I put it all back together and re trued the wheel and reassembled the bike but the wind was still blowing like crazy so I parked the bike with 13 miles in for the day…but it was warm enough to fit the new valve to the outside water tap and climb in the crawlspace to turn the water on…man, I’m getting too old to fold myself through a 2×2 foot door and I really hurt myself doing it…I did clean all the crap out of the space so at least there are no more old paint cans or bug killer in there…so I can do a complete clean on the car tomorrow if it isn’t raining…need to wax it and clean the interior and rainx the windows…race time…
Orban loses…
Well…in great bit of good new for Hungary and the rest of the EU, victor orban has lost the election that jd vance tried to interfere with and democracy is returning to Hungary…after orban cheated and tried to rig the election as he has done since 2012, the people of Hugary were having none of it…and it appears the Magyar’s party is going to get enough seats that they can undo all of the autocratic bullshit that orban has done with limits on the free press and wholesale rigging of the judiciary that allowed him to jail his opponents…and suck up to putin while blocking aid to Ukraine…those days are over now and this fall it’s our turn to turn the country back into a democracy just like the Hungarians did…this gives me hope that the right wing assholes are on the run and can crawl right back under the rocks they came from…good riddance…
You ain’t seen nothing yet…
Well…as Iran rejects the idiot trump’s bullying to end the war, he has now upped the ante and has said he will blockade the strait of hormuz so no one can get through…and if you think gas prices and inflation are bad now, you ain’t seen nothing yet…and this really is an act of war and Iran has shown they are not going to just fold up to idiot boy’s threats…this really kills any thought that vance had to be the next president since he is just a failure in everything he tries to do…I mean cripes, going to Hungary to try to save Orban when the people there want him gone…oh, and after jd went there, Orban’s chances of surviving today’s election took a nosedive as the people of Hungary see that vance and trump are just putin’s stooges and they have rejected the crap they are selling…so idiot boy just keep floundering as 5 dollar a gallon gas will be here Monday and inflation on everything else explodes…this is what you did to the world maga assholes…do you feel good about yourselves? You shouldn’t…geez…
April 12th
Well…yesterday was the 7th day of no drinking and I think I’m still feeling it since I feel pretty sluggish today…slept okay and didn’t get out of bed until 5:30 or so and I should feel better but I think it’s going to be a process to get my body back to normal but I’m sticking with it…today could be the first day of the year with two outdoor rides since it’s already 48 and that’s warm enough to get out…it’s going to be in the 60’s for a high today so I’m going to get outdoors as soon as it gets light…but I need the coffee to work…it’s going to be a relaxing morning until it gets light and I can head out…I’m looking forward to the first 25 mile day of the year…the rain has gone to the north and it looks like just showers here for the rest of the day…we are entering a stretch of 60;s for highs this week so I’ll have to get off my butt and get yard work done…I think I may climb into the crawlspace today and turn the outdoor tap so I can wash the car tomorrow even though it’s going to rain…and I can finally wash the bike, too, and it’s really needed it…not much to do today…it’s going to be centered on getting the rides in first and then the race from Bristol later…still have leftover pork shoulder for both meals today but I will need to start planning for later in the week…more later…
I Almost forgot again…
Well…darn, as you can see it’s 7:22 and I almost forgot to come here and do the third one for the day…I did get out to do an outdoor ride today but it was only 43 when I went out and that is just wrong for April 11th…it was a good ride and day and I’m getting through the 7th day of no more drinking and I’m starting to get used to it…there is a race on from Bristol tonight so I’ll be watching that instead of burning shows from my queue on plex…but the new “Hail Mary” movie is out there and I really want to see that…maybe tomorrow night…it’s going to rain tomorrow so I’ll have an easy day with just one ride…I skipped the weight work today since I’ve done it every day for three weeks and I really needed to have a rest day to let my muscles recover…I sure hope that not drinking will help me lose 10 more pounds…my vision was quite clear on the bike today and that’s enough to keep me going with it…time for the race…
Chickenshit repubs…
Well…as the idiot trump stumbles around crashing everything that the US means, the people who could stop it sit on their hands and do nothing…impeach the sonafabitch and remove him…they have the votes right now to do it but there is not one once of moral fiber to any of them…they sit there while he hollows out the justice department and turns it into his personal vendetta department, they sit there while he sends his thugs to deport American citizens, they sit there as he destroys the government that made the US, and they sit there while he destroys our standing in the world with his crazy assed illegal war in Iran and his threats to our allies…the repub party is going to go down in history as the enablers of this orange asshole and the blame sits clearly on their shoulders…what a feckless group of spineless assholes…geez…
April 11th
Well…that was a little better…didn’t get out of bed til 5:33 this morning but there was a lot of tossing and turning…as always, but I feel okay after day 6 of no cocktails…and I can taste the coffee this morning and that is a good sign…I wonder when this damn cold is going to break? I mean cripes…32 degrees on the 11th of April? Sure hope it warms up enough to get outdoors on the bike today but the high is only supposed to get to 52 and that won’t happen til late afternoon…I really want to get the outdoor faucet turned on so I can do the spring cleaning on the car and the bike…I’m still thinking of buying one more bike since I used up all the spare parts from the black bike to keep the grey one running…and it’s got over 65,000 miles on it so I guess I got my money’s worth…if I do that, I’ll have to buy a new handlebar bag and a new computer for it to keep track of the miles I ride…and it will take a couple of years to get it set up the way I like…I did make a pulled pork sandwich for dinner yesterday but that made three meals for the day and I can’t do that every day…not much to do today…just need to get off my butt and get going so I can get the indoor ride in before 8am…more later…
Finally, a great pork shoulder…
Well…today was pork shoulder day in the instant pot and finally, it turned out great…tender and falling apart…so I guess I hit the amount of cook time at an hour and a half that I was always under before…and I just winged it on a rub with garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, chili powder, and cayenne pepper with salt and pepper…I cooked with chicken broth as the cooking liquid and threw some bay leaves and garlic cloves in…to flavor the gravy, I put onions, celery, and carrots in the instant pot as it cooked…by far the best one I’ve ever cooked and now I’ve got it down so I can repeat it…the smoked paprika made the gravy come out with an orange tint that was a little strange but it tasted good…so, I’m going to have a third meal today with a pulled pork sandwich with barbecue sauce and dill pickles…yummy…I did hit the library today and just wandered a bit there to look for more authors and ran across the guy who does the “Reacher” series named Lee Child and I like the Reacher tv shows and like the first book I’ve started…so that gives me another dozen books to read…Yay! Okay, back to reading…
Giving national security to the Chinese…
Well…selling out this country seems to be one of the hallmarks of the idiot trump and his cronies, starting with letting netanyahu call the shots on the Iran war and now letting don jr. and trump’s cronies coszy up to China by letting a company run by one of jr’s hunting buddies make the case for letting a Chinese company have access to national security data…is this frickin treason? It’s al grift all the time for these assholes who don’t care a bit about the US of the damage this will do to us…they only care about monetizing any and all relationships no matter the cost…they don’t give a damn about anything but themselves…and what the hell is don jr. doing talking to anyone about nation security? He didn’t pass the vetting to get a security clearance but I guess that doesn’t matter to these assholes…it sure didn’t matter to idiot boy when he stole thousands of classified documents and tried to use them to make money for himself…I sure hope all of this crap is investigated when we take back the house in the fall…geez…