Well…damn, it’s warm enough to get out on the bike when it gets light but the wind is shaking the house so it looks like an indoor ride to start the day…feel pretty crappy this morning and I know it’s from not eating enough after all of the turmoil from yesterday…and I need to cook today with doing a chicken stir fry and then ham soup tomorrow so I I’ll have food for a few days…and I’m going to eat out of the freezer until it’s clear enough to clean it since it’s been months since I’ve done that…I need to get everything done before 10am when Man U plays so that means I need to get off my butt and get going soon…but I need coffee first…had way too much of that yesterday with still drinking it at 2pm and that might be part of why I feel like crap…didn’t get much done yesterday and the coffee is going to have to carry me if I’m going to get much done today…going to toast a bagel before I get on the weight work and I do need to have an orange at some point since I still have 4 pounds of them and I don’t want to waste food…not much to do today…just need to get started and that looks like a hard task right now…more later…

Well…today started out really sucky when discount Tire refused to balance my tires since they were 10 years old and they have a rule that they don’t touch tires that are that old…it doesn’t matter that there is no weather cracking or any other problem with the tires…I mean they still have 2/3rds of the tread left and there is no way I’m throwing away tires that are still fine…so I found an independent tire shop a couple of miles from me owned by a guy named Chuck who looked at the tires and laughed since they are in such good shape…his shop is old school with no lift but just floor jacks on the apron in front of the place…and that took me back to hanging out in those kinds of places when I was a kid…an old converted gas station that the smell took me back to when I was a teenager…and he did only the two that didn’t have weights on them but said they were pretty bad and took a lot of weight…and two tires only cost me 30 bucks when discount wanted 30 bucks each…and the car was smooth on the way home…so if I need to have the other two balanced Check said to just give him a call and he’ll get it done…that is how business should be run…no overhead or scheduling, just good value for service…thanks, Chuck…

Well…that kind of sucked…woke up at 4:03 this morning but was able to get a little more sleep and out of bed a little before 5am…so, I’m going to be dragging later but still want to get out for and outdoor ride since it’s going to be in the 50’s and I may even be able to wear shorts…it’s only 35 here right now and that is just frickin wrong for May…I may have to make some extra coffee this morning to have some to take with me to get the tires balanced on the car…haven’t made any pour over coffee in a while and I think that’s going to happen today…need to hit the grocery store after the car work since I forgot carrots and want to make ham soup this weekend…so I need to take the bones out of the freezer this morning…have chicken in the fridge to do another stir fry and that may be today…but I have 4 lbs of pasta that I got last week for a buck a box and that would make an easy meal today…and I still have lots of breaded chicken patties to make sandwiches and I need to use up the free head of lettuce I got last week before it spoils…don’t have anything do to on the yard after getting the weed killer down yesterday but we do need some rain that is not going to happen til Tuesday…oh, well….more later…

Well…after skipping the weight work today, my well developed sense of guilt wouldn’t let me skip two parts of my workout so I dragged the long johns out, suited up, and got 13 miles in…it was cold but I had my insulated work gloves on instead of the riding ones so my hands were okay…I’m hoping that this was the last ride in the 40’s until next fall but with how cold it’s been this spring, I’m not holding my breath…I did see some turkeys and deer today and that was fun…I did get some yard work done and got the weed killer on to keep them at bay for at least a couple of weeks…it’s supposed to rain a bit over the next couple of days and it’s even getting to almost 60 tomorrow so I can get a ride in wearing shorts…I do have to be at discount at 9:15 tomorrow morning to get the tired balance and I hope that the last time until I wear these out…just want some time to enjoy the car…time to read…

Well…it now appears that 5:23 is the new wake up time and I wonder if I should just accept that or keep trying to reach the goal of 6am to get out of bed? Probably not since all that does is cause me stress…I did sleep kinda okay last night and it does feel good to get things done around here…today is going to be a little easier with just the normal stuff and hitting the yard with weed killer again since the damn things are all over again…oh, well…I’m really sore from the string trimmer and mowing yesterday and I can’t remember the last time my forearms hurt from yard work…and that pain includes my hands that are not used to that abuse…I did get an outdoor ride in yesterday and I’m going to try to do that again today but the high is only going to be 51 and that is the lower limit of what my hands will take in the riding gloves…I did buy some chicken yesterday and am thinking of making another stir fry with the added mushrooms and green pepper that I got yesterday…I do have one last pizza in the freezer that take those same ingredients so that might be an option for the weekend instead of the ham soup I was planning…but I bought celery for that so I guess I’ll do lots of cooking this weekend…not much to do today…just the normal stuff I need to get on right now since it’s 6am and I don’t want to get behind for the day…more alter…

Well…when I go my new car, it really felt like a car that had been sitting for a long while…it didn’t run right and the clutch was so hard to get a smooth take off and it made the shifter very notchy…but lately, all that has changed after I worked on bleeding the clutch, putting a new set of spark plugs in it and hitting it with injector cleaner…all of that has come together to make the car a lot of fun…have been tearing around just behaving like a nut…now I can just drive it and enjoy it without having to think about what needs to be done to fix it…pretty cool…it’s been a busy day today with getting the indoor stuff done, doing the grocery run, mowing the lawn, and getting an outdoor ride in that was cold but fun…I did get some chicken at aldis that I’m going to use to make another batch of stir fry using some mushrooms and green pepper I got at aldis, too…only spent about 30 bucks this week even with the 12 bucks worth of chicken and I am still amazed how cheap it is when you’re not having cocktails…so now it’s time to go back to reading and to start thinking about meals starting tomorrow…probably some ham soup to go with the stir fry…but then I’d better take the ham bones out of the freezer..

Well…I’m really not proud of the fact that I had to take something to sleep last night to try to relieve the exhaustion I’ve been feeling lately…not sure if the trade off of feeling like crap is worth it, though, but I guess I’ll see as the day wears on…it’s damn cold here at 36 and the high is not getting over 50 so I won’t get an outdoor ride in today or tomorrow…but I am going to mow the lawn after the grocery run so at least I won’t feel guilty about not doing enough…need to get some weed killer at menards today since I’m out and there are still damn weeds all though the lawn…will probably treat it tomorrow…I did get a few things done yesterday and will again today but I’m not sure what that would be after doing the lawn…don’t have much to get for groceries today with no protein on sale but I may buy some boneless/skinless chicken to use in recipes that I’m not sure about yet…the ham bones in the freezer are calling out to me to make another batch of ham soup while I still have celery to use and I may do that over the weekend…and I have 4 pounds of pasta to use and I am going to make some pasta salad this weekend, too…not much to do today…just the grocery run and the lawn and I’ll use up the leftovers so I don’t have to cook…but I am going to have a bagel to get some fuel in me before I start the weight work…more later…

Well…getting up so early really does help get my day done early…got the normal stuff in and was done with that by 7:03am and then read the news and put the laundry in…then I suited up and went out to run the string trimmer all over the fencelines and the front of the yard…it’s not easy getting a 2 stroke running when it’s 45 degrees but after what seemed like a hundred pulls, it fired up and I got the work done…the I used the grass killer to do the sidewalks and the growth in the back corner of the yard and then put poison on the ant nests in the sidewalks…then I put the laundry away and now I’m going to read a bit before lunch…I did get the wheel balancing scheduled for Friday morning…on two of the wheels the adhesive for the stick on weights is all that is left so it has to get better after I have it done…and I think they have special weights for cast aluminum wheels like are on my car and I hope I don’t have to ever have that done again….

Well…at least I got out of bed after 5am this morning and that is a lot better than the 4:30 from yesterday…I did get a 21 mile ride in yesterday with getting outdoors for the first time in over a week with how damn cold it’s been here…and we return to the cold today with highs just barely getting to 50 so I have a decision to make…do I drag out the winter clothes again and ride outdoors with full thermasuit or do I just give up and accept that I’ll never get out again? That’s what it feels like anyway and there is no damn way 50 in May is any kind of normal…I did get out to run an errand yesterday after I pulled the rattling heat shield off the cat and it is so nice that at least that is fixed…I did notice that two tires on the car have thrown their weights leaving only the tape behind so I need to get at least those two balanced this week and I’m going to take it back to discount to get that done…need to get on their website to schedule it after I’m done with this…didn’t get much done yesterday and today will be the same after I get the normal morning stuff done…need to do some meal planning and will be eating out of the freezer with nothing on sale this week and I guess I’ll have to get used to not being able to afford protein…and that sucks…more later…

Well…I think I’ve figured out the vibration with the car…two wheels don’t have any balancing weights on them…there is the remains of the adhesive from the stick on weights but no weights…and I’ve never seen a tire that didn’t needs weights to balance it… so, I’ll make an appointment some time to have them done…another hundred bucks going out but if it will stop the vibration, it will be worth it…and there is still more than half tread on these tires so I’ll be using them for a while…and I found the rattling from under the car and it was the cat heat shield that had corroded…so I tore it off just like I did with the 94 and there will be no problem with that…after all it’s just the one that protects grass from starting on fire if I park on it and I can’t think of any time I’d be doing that…so, so far, a productive day and I’m going to get out on the outdoor bike before the wind comes up at 11am…more later…