Well…up and running a little later than normal today since I didn’t get to bed til almost midnight and was still up at 6am…still pretty beat from the traveling yesterday but I can fix that with some coffee in a few minutes…I think the only plans we have today is to go to Monticello and then out to dinner tonight for some Thai food and that will be cool since I’ve never had it before…I did sleep okay but I still have a problem with sleeping in a new place but the earplugs helped…it’s my daughter’s birthday today and she turns 49 which is still freaking me out a bit…I remember what it felt like to be almost 50 and it felt better than 73 but I still can move around fine so I guess that’s something…they live in a townhouse neighborhood that is really quiet and I can’t wait to see the mountains that you can see from here…didn’t get in til after dark yesterday and it will be cool to see it in the daylight…so, I need to get moving and and get the day started…more later…

Well…just sitting down to do this at 11:20 and that is really late for me…the plane travel was plane travel with late planes and gate changes and we didn’t get here to my daughter’s house until 9:30 when we should have gotten here at 7…and I am just worn out after getting out of bed at 4:30 after waking up at 4am….but I’m still wired as heck so sleeping is going to be some effort…it was nice to hang out with my daughter and SIL after we got here…and she has taken a new job making twice what I ever made so good for her…so maybe I won’t write the check for the trip…who knows? We are going to Monticello tomorrow for the tour of Jefferson’s estate and I am looking forward to that…and the trip sounds even cooler than I knew…we are going to have huge amounts of fun and see lots of stuff that I never thought I would and she is already talking about another trip in 3 years…ha,ha…that seems to be the pattern and I’m not sure how I’ll be doing in 3 years but I guess I’ll keep my fingers crossed…I did get two rides in before I left this morning but that will be the last ones for a while…I did find an economy lot at the airport that only costs 14 bucks a day and I can live with that…so that will be only a couple hundred bucks to park for the 16 days…it’s not raining here but the weather widget says heavy rain there so that’s good for the lawn but it will make it grow too much to where it will take 3 cuts to get it back to normal…oh, well…okay time to read some news before I crash…

Well…that sucked….tried to get some sleep with all the traveling today but was up at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I’m going to be hurting later…and I still needs to get on the bike for two rides in a few minutes to get the day started…think I have everything packed and just need to close the suitcase and dry off my toothbrush to pack it and I’ll be in the car by 12:30…then to the pain in the butt that is air travel…maybe I can sleep on the plane…still need to finish getting the house ready by putting out the trash and I think I’m going to do a load of laundry to make sure I have clean sheets when I get home…but I need to do the weight work first to try to make this a normal day..at least it’s not raining like yesterday but it is cold at 57…cold to me anyway…need to remember to run off the router and modem before I go…no sense in leaving them running for 16 days when I’m not using them…okay, not much else to say this morning but I will be posting every day when I’m in Italy…more later….

Well…after I get the rides in tomorrow morning my streak of riding every day ends at 1,065 days in a row…every day since I got back from the UK trip…and I don’t think I’ll ever hit that many again but who knows? I know I’ll start the new one on October 4th or 5th when I get back…and I’m back early enough to at least get one ride in on the 4th so I think that will be the plan…I did get to the library and now have 2 big books to take with me for the 20 hours I’m going to be on planes over the next 16 days…I also got the lawn mowed but only one ride since it was spitting and cold and after getting the shivers and having to wear winter clothes to fix that I sure didn’t want to get wet…have finished packing and just checked in for my flight tomorrow so all I have to do is get my suitcase tagged and I’m good to go…have a window seat for the long part of the flight but a middle one for the last hour so that’s not bad…and I have to change planes at BWI but I already have the gate info on the Southwest app so all I have to do now is get there and sit and wait…and that was the most stressful part of the whole thing…so I’m going to relax tonight and maybe have a cocktail with the Lions and truck race on tonight…time to read a bit…

Well…damn, that was a weird night’s sleep with waking up halfway through the night and shivering like it was 20 degrees in here…and that triggered the Reynaud’s in my hands and they turned white…so I had to dress like the middle of winter and then sweated through the rest of the night…crap…and now it’s going to rain as I need to get the rides in and mow the lawn today but I guess I can wait to do that until tomorrow morning…so this one is going to be short since it’s supposed to start raining in an hour or so and I do want to get one outdoor ride in before that…still have a few things to do to get ready for the trip but that should only take an hour or so and I have all day so easy…I do need to go to the library to replace the books I’ve already read but that should only take a few minutes and I have time…trying to not leave any food in the fridge that will spoil but I’ve been working on that all week eating out of the freezer…okay, need to get off my butt and get moving…more later…

Well…darn…went to the library this morning and it sucks that 2 out of the 3 books I checked out I’ve read already and that’s the problem with reading so much…I’m running out of new books to read and I’ll have to back tomorrow to get more…going to be on planes for almost 20 hours in the next 2 weeks so I need at least 2 books to keep me busy…I know I can sleep on the way over to Italy and back but I don’t sleep so I can’t count on that…oh, well…I did take the car out to the library and DD today and I can’t believe how much better the transmission is starting to get…even from cold it works better now than it did before I changed the oil…and it is supposed to get better as time goes on..can’t wait til it gets cold to see how it works…it has to be better than it was with barely being able to get it into 1st and having to warm the car up before I could drive it…worth the 65 bucks I paid for the oil…I did try to get everything into the suitcase and it all fits with just a little squishing so I’m good to go Friday…I did finally hit the balance goal in my checking account today so I can afford to pay for my trip and I’ll still be in good shape financially…I told the librarian that I was going to Italy this week and he said not to worry about when the books are due…to just bring them back when I have time after I get back…that’s some small town stuff there and it made me feel good…I do like living here…most of the time…oh, I did try the cascade effect on my rear bike light today and it’s pretty cool…nothing like just flashing and I just sat there watching it at the beach water stop…okay, time to read a bit before tv…

Well…running about on time again today with getting up at around 5am and it’s nothing worth noting…still having a hard time getting started and it will be a struggle to get on the bike by 6am along with doing the weight work…I did figure out the timer for the lamp yesterday so it will appear like someone is here…and that is a little iffy since they won’t see me here at all and I’m always moving around…get to use the light on the bike today and I am a little geeked about that…I did have the chain jam on the front sprocket a couple of days ago and I’m not sure how that happened…overshifting that pushed the chain over the big sprocket and between the sprocket and the guard…but it rode okay yesterday so I think it’s fixed with no damage…I do have everything ready to be packed and I am going to try to put everything in the suitcase today to see if I have to make decisions on what to leave out…taking a light fleece and a jacket since it’s supposed to be cool in Venice which is the first place we’re going…can’t wait to see it and be a tourist…have to charge up the battery box to put in the trunk along with the tire patching kit I bought just in case…it is a little strange to be able to sit the car for weeks and have it start but I’m not taking any chances…so, I need to get my butt moving to get the rides in before I go to the library for trip books…more later…

Well…damn, didn’t think I’d be done with packing three days early but there it is…I still have to put all the bags in the suitcase and lock it up and charge a few things but I’m basically done…just did the last load of laundry to get my light fleece and a jacket clean to pack…I am going to do a trial pack tomorrow to make sure I can get everything in the suitcase and I think it will be tight but doable…packing for 16 days in one suitcase is not easy and I may have overpacked a bit but if I have room, I always feel better to have everything I need…I did get out to do an outside ride after riding one indoors and I sprinted the whole 15 miles to make up for only doing 23 miles today…will be out in the dark again tomorrow so I can use my light and I think it’s cool that I can go anytime I want now without waiting for it to get light…with the rain we had and what’s coming, I went out and planted some grass seed to see if I can grow some in the bare spots in the lawn…I will be curious to see that when I get back…sure hope my ballot comes while I’m gone so I don’t have to screw with that…I may even have a cocktail tonight as I relax but I’m not sure of that yet…time to read a bit…

Well…it’s raining out there so I need to decide if I’m going to do a ride indoors or try to wait the rain out and go outside later…probably do an indoor ride to keep my streak going for these last 4 days before I fly out…so that gives me time to sit here and do this and have lots of coffee…out of bed at 5:10 again today but I feel okay so I can live with that…had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get anything done but try to clear out the food so I don’t have anything to spoil when I’m gone…and I’m having problems with the timer for the living room light…it shut off fine but isn’t turning on…so I may have to use one of the other timer days to see if it works…it has 20 different ones so I can keep trying…still need to continue to pack today and should finish that up tomorrow…have one more load of laundry to de before that and I need to wash the fleeces since Venice is supposed to be cool when we’re there so I’ll need layers to be comfortable…and we are taking a boat ride to one of the islands there so that should be cool too…going to mow the lawn Thursday to make sure it won’t overgrow while I’m gone and I think I’ll still get the last ride in Friday morning since I don’t fly out til 3:20 in the afternoon…going to pour another cup of coffee and have a bagel before I do the weight work and then get on the indoor bike…looks like the rain is backed up through Illinois so it will be raining a bit….more later…

Well…after I got the lights for the bike yesterday, I installed the clip for the front light on the handlebar so I could use it today…and all I have to say is it’s pretty darn cool…even at my advanced age, little things like that still make me smile especially with how it works…I set it on the next to highest light output and the thing lit up the trails 50-60 feet out and I could see reflective signs over 150 feet away… the light itself is tiny only 4 inches long and about an inch and a half wide…and it has a rubber cover for the charging port that makes it waterproof along with a display on the top that tells you what intensity or flashing the light is on along with a battery meter that shows you how much charge it has left…and if today was any indication, I should only have to charge it once a week…the rear light is just as cool with 2 intensities, blinking, and a cascade effect that starts with the top LED and moves down to the bottom which I think is pretty neat looking…all for 15 bucks and I wonder why I’ve never bought one before…going through the pitch black tunnel of trees this morning I could see the trail out far enough that I could go as fast as I wanted and couldn’t outrun the lights…I do feel a lot more comfortable in the dark with the lights on since I do have to ride in a road bike lane a couple of miles and now the drivers can see me…might blink the rear light tomorrow just to see if it’s annoying or not…the front clip was thin enough and has a clever way of tightening it on the handlebars that I could fit it right next to the stem and point it straight up the road and it doesn’t shake at all…pretty damn cool for 15 bucks and I can just leave both lights mounted until they need charging…okay, back to reading…