Well….just a little burned out on politics right now so I’m not going to talk about that…maybe later, but not now…it’s been a pretty productive day today even though I didn’t plan it….when I was sitting here with my morning coffee about 8:30 this morning, I suddenly got the urge to get the rest of the painting done in the dining area…having to go over a bunch of parts where the pink bled through even after two coats…just couldn’t sit here with something to be done to finish it up…so, I painted it and just finished up putting the trim back on it so now the dining area is finished…except for the window that overlooks the street but that frame needs to be stripped and sanded before I can paint it and the strip really stinks the place up so I may wait until I can open the windows in the spring…I did get a bike ride in today but there was so much snow on the trail that it took quite a bit of work and paying way too much attention…and I only got it out of 5th a couple of times…but, I did get it done and I hope that the snow melts some today so I can really ride tomorrow…only have about 13 left to go to get to my 4,500 mile goal so that will happen tomorrow or Monday…so, after all that, I think I’ll take the rest of the day off and just find some sports to watch…
December 21st
Well….to start, happy winter solstice….from today on, the daylight starts to increase and that will be welcome to those of us that need the light to keep depression at bay…but it also means that it will be starting to get dark around 4 and that is depressing…slept okay last night but feel a little slow this morning with having cocktails last night and I wonder why I did that…I mean it’s not much fun anymore and I prefer to just feel old in the morning…I did get a few things done yesterday but it was a rest day after doing the painting thursday…I did get the trim for the dining area sanded and painted and I needn to paint the pink that soaked through before I can re-install them…and I think I’ll do that this morning…but, after coffee and soccer…I am hoping to get out on the trails today for a full ride but I think they will still be covered in snow and ice…went out yesterday but only got to the old dump before turning around since there was no clear parts of the trail…so I rode 5 miles on the streets and that is just way too scary with the narrow streets around here…way too many close calls, snow and ice to make it fun….not much to do today….just going to watch soccer and veg this morning and the ride after lunch but that is about it…more later….
Found a french press…
Well…as I get settled in here, I have started to look through the cupboards and storage that I haven’t really thought about before…and today, after getting a short ride in with the trail being covered with ice and snow still, I got back here and thought I’d look through the high cupboards above the fridge just to see if there was anything there…and I found some stuff that might be interesting…my son left behind an all in one bread maker that I remember him getting back in ’99 and I plugged it in and it appears to still work so I will be trying that at some time over the winter…and half of that cupboard has all kinds of booze in it, but weird stuff and cheap tequila…so I’m going to ignore that…but what I did find was a Bodum french coffee press that I also remember him using all the time when he was still living at home…and I always wanted to try one…so I cleaned it up, put some coffee in it, added water and made coffee….and I will say this, the coffee is much better than what comes out of my Mr. Coffee drip maker…it actually tastes like something and now I’m torn about using it instead of my coffee maker…but, it is too small to replace it so I think it may be for those times when I want just a couple of cups…I used the same coffee as I normally do and it appears the grind is okay for the press…and now, I’m all caffeined up in the middle of the afternoon and that is not going to be a good thing for later in the day…oh, well…
They found their spine….
Well….as you know I’m not a religious person and I have railed at the hypocrisy of the evangelical movement…wholeheartedly supporting the amoral idiot trump just to get judges who would enshrine their hate for a generation…but, just yesterday, the evangelical magazine Christianity Today, a magazine started by Billy Graham, published a scathing editorial calling for trump’s removal from office for his amorality and criminality…but he goes on to say that trump needs to go so that “they” can be saved…that the damage they are doing to their faith by supporting this waste of a human being will resonate for a generation or more and will do more damage than any secular attacks…and he goes on to remind them who they really serve…and it’s not supposed to be this amoral piece of shit trump but the god they profess to follow and love. But, this is only one publication and only one voice and my take is “what took you so long?” It has been clear for three years now…and even longer…who trump is and it hasn’t mattered at all to these folks who are still comparing trump to Jesus as recently as Wednesday during the impeachment debate. So, as the old saying goes “actions speak louder than words” so what are you folks in that community going to do about it? Are you still going to support the criminal trump or are you going to live by the principles that trump craps on every day? I’m not holding my breath…
December 20th
Well…I’m just sitting here shaking my head at how much just doing little things hurt as I get older…I mean just painting the small dining area yesterday has left me sore everywhere and that is a little amusing to me…yeah, pain makes me smile but you know I’m a little weird…I did sleep okay last night and feel pretty good today and part of that is I’m going to take the day off from working around here other than getting the trim ready to put back in the dining area…I am going to get a bike ride in this afternoon as it warms up some…and it looks like I’ll be able to ride every day til New Years with the little warm up that is starting today…it is going to be in the 40’s almost every day til then so I will get to my goal…will have to be careful today, though since I don’t think the ice will have melted off the trail….I’m going to make the first of the venison steaks for dinner today and I can’t wait to saute it in butter and garlic…I think I can eat out of the freezer for the rest of the year but I may get one more ham for my holiday dinner so I’ll have another ham bone to make ham soup….we’ll see….not much to do today…going to just ease into the day with coffee and some news and then get to work after a while….more later….
Got some work done today…
Well…after working on the dining area for weeks to repair all of the plaster that was cracked or gone, I finally got to painting it today and that was a frickin marathon…took me three hours to put two coats on and the front wall looks like it is going to need a third coat from the window sill down…the paint just sucked into it and left it with a pinkish tint and there are still areas that look like I didn’t paint over the pink at all in the corner. But, I didn’t notice it until after I had disposed of the roller cover and cleaned up the brush and pan and I am not going to waste another roller cover to do such a small area…so it will wait until I get the final room prepped and ready and start painting there…the rest of it looks good so I can live with it for a couple of weeks…now I just need to sand and repaint the corner trim tomorrow and then replace it this weekend and the room will look finished…then I need to figure out how to get the sticky stuff off the floor that won’t come up with anything I’ve tried yet…think I may try WD since that is supposed to take off gunk…or, I remember a product called goo gone that really worked on sticky stuff so I may try to find some of that next week….it feels good to accomplish something finally…but I did really hurt my thumb and it is throbbing so it is going to need some ibuprofen and some rest for a few days before I use it hard again…crap…
Damn, I was right about something…
Well….okay, I don’t get to say this too often but it feels good when I can….Damn, I was right about something…after the impeachment votes last night, Nancy Pelosi came out and alluded to something that I wrote about earlier…that she may delay sending the impeachment articles to the senate until she is sure that there will be a fair trial there…and by fair she means that not one rigged by moscow mitch to guarantee that the idiot trump is not removed even though he is an admitted criminal. I know she couched it in more vague language that I would have, saying that she needs to know what the playing field looked like before she could put together the team to present the prosecution, but Adam Schiff made it abundantly clear that moscow mitch is rigging the trial and that will be a consideration whether or not the articles will be sent. Now, I don’t know how much leverage this gives Nancy but the idea that they can keep hammering moscow mitch in the press for the corrupt asshole he is must be appealing since they have little else they can do. We’ll see if moscow mitch doubles down on his corruption this morning since he is having a press conference this morning at 9:30….that should be good…
December 19th
Well…okay, I’ll admit it…I had a few cocktails last night watching the impeachment votes and, while I feel bad physically, I feel good that the criminal in chief has finally paid some small price for his criminality…but that’s a post for later today…I did sleep okay last night but woke up with a headache and my head stuffed up even with using some allergy meds last night and that is a little disappointing….and I’m coughing some, too but I think most of it is from the cocktails and the abuse that does to me….I did get the last prep work done on the dining area yesterday and was planning to paint today but that just might wait until Friday with how I feel right now…still have to prep and paint the trim pieces so that might be a little work to do today just so I don’t feel like I’m not accomplishing anything….it was too damn cold to get out on the bike yesterday and it looks like I’m going to have to wait til late in the day to get out today if I do…it is going to be in the 40’s for almost a week so I may just wait until it warms up some and the ice gets off the trail so I don’t have to think about that….not much to do today…going to just sit here and have some coffee for a while until I get some motivation to start the day…and that may take all morning….more later…
It’s impeachment day…one last chance repubs…
Well…today is the day that the totally unfit lying cheater is going to be impeached for his total obstruction of the lawful duty of the House to do it’s job of oversight of the executive branch…and covering up his crimes and extortion in Ukraine to get them to help him cheat in the 2020 election…and you know I have talked about the 50 other things he could be impeached for…I mean, paying a 2 million dollar fine for using his “charity” as a slush fund for his campaign, something that should be enough to throw anyone out of office but his protectors in the senate are just as corrupt so he will escape conviction and removal. I have only one thing to say to the repubs that are fully behind trump and his criminality…today is your last chance…your last chance to uphold your oath to the constitution…your last chance to show that you put the country ahead of your own power and party…and your last chance to show you are a true patriot, no matter what the consequences. This is something that only one of the parties in this country understands…and it is the dems to a person who understand the danger that trump and his criminality poses to this country and even those in trump leaning districts are going to do their duty even though it may mean they will lose their seats in 2020. What this means to us in the fact based world is that we need to work even harder to protect these protectors of the constitution and to make sure that the idiot trump’s enablers, Moscow Mitch and Lindsey Graham are sent to the scrap heap where they belong…and their legacies are only that the two of them helped trump damage this country every damn day….they all need to go if they can’t escape the cult of the repub party….this is the last time I’ll say this…impeach!
December 18th
Well…that was too good to last…I really had hoped that the good sleep of Monday would be repeatable but I guess not…tossed and turned all night and finally gave up at 5:15…but I feel okay this morning so I guess there is something to this no cocktail thing…it seems to be getting easier to not have cocktails than to have them and I think that’s a good thing…so I’ll keep that up until at least Friday and only have a few over the weekend….I did get a few things done yesterday but not much on the house…got my hair cut and some new long pants to lounge around here at Meijers…they were only 9 bucks and I really like them so I think I’m going to get another pair with the grocery run today…got some new socks, too, and they are a little strange but I like them…they are calf length crew socks that were only 70 cents a pair for 10 pairs so I am set for socks now for the winter…and they work like compression socks and keep my feet warm on the bike so that is cool…I did get a bike ride in yesterday and that gets me down to about 30 miles left to 4500 and that should happen this week with a warm up coming after the bitter cold today…it is a little weird how my mindset has changed after getting my gas bill….knowing it is not going to be outrageous stops me cringing when the furnace comes on and I may even turn it up two degrees…but, probably not…I’m used to 65 degrees in here and I have lots of blankets for the couch….not much to do today….need to finish the sanding on the kitchen walls and get started on the trim pieces…then I need to look for screws to replace the bad ones I took out…will probably have to buy some but who knows? Still may be able to find them in the garage….more later….