I stayed home two day from work because of feeling like shit. I ached all over. Hell, I couldn’t even stand up straight on Thursday, the pain in the left side of my lower back was so extreme. And it only got worse when I went to bed. By then it was starting to work its way down the outside of my left leg. Not what I wanted to be happening.

Thankfully the pain wasn’t extreme enough to keep me awake. I put myself to bed around 7:30 or so. I fell asleep easily enough. And I woke up when my alarm went off at 4:30 AM. However, I was still feeling crappy. Exhausted. I finally managed to get myself up out of bed around 6:00 AM or so and hobbled my way downstairs to e-mail work I wasn’t making it again. I then went right back upstairs and fell back asleep, not waking up until Tina asked me how long I was going to stay in bed. That was around 12:00 PM.

That’s right. I slept for over 12 hours. And the kicker? At around 7:30 this evening I once again felt tired. But I didn’t want to find myself waking up at 3:00 in the morning so I forced myself to stay up. However, I’ve hit my limit. It’s time for me to sleep. Hopefully I’ll have no trouble falling asleep – hell I just yawned while typing that.

You all have a great Friday night. Me? I’m going to totally sleep with my bed.

Seems I cannot get my blog to load. It gives me an error message. That ain’t right.

Update: After much chatting and clearing of History and Catches of my browsers I am next contemplating rebooting my routers. Not something I’m really wanting to do as it interferes with Tina’s surfing. Oh well…………

Update II: And now it’s back. Cool. I really hate rebooting the routers.

What a disaster. The storm that blew through last night and woke me up at 3:00 AM sure tore up Duluth and Hermantown. Tina and I lucked out in getting the place we have – it’s protected by the bluff behind, as well as an arm of the bluff that extends out to the north of us.

(duluthnewstribune.com) Severe thunderstorms roared through parts of the Northland like a hurricane early Thursday, with winds estimated as high as 90 mph downing trees onto powerlines, blocking roads and damaging many homes.

As of 1 p.m., about 75,000 customers were without power across the region. Minnesota Power estimated that a third of the city’s 65,000 customers were without power Thursday morning.

Minnesota Power was using helicopters in addition to ground crews to assess the damage.

The Duluth Fire Department advised no travel in the city of Duluth until later in the day because of downed trees and power lines and the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office suggested the same in rural areas near Duluth and in the Ely area.

Like I said, I had no idea.

The outages were affecting the Duluth antenna farm, knocking most Duluth TV and radio stations off the air for a time.

Power also is out at the city’s main Lakewood water pumping station, which means no new water is being pumped into the city’s massive reservoir and water tower system.

(Booman Tribune) I think Chris Cillizza is guilty of being both too cynical and not cynical enough. Of course, this is forgivable, since watching Ted Cruz and Donald Trump can be a dizzying experience. As I explained last night (and I am much more confident in my assessment this morning), I believe that Donald Trump knew exactly…

It a bit of a read, but it really does make sense. Trump’s ego required that Ted Cruz be humiliated over the lack of an endorsement. It really isn’t that hard to see.

Not really sure what to write. Just felt like tapping the keys on the board before getting into the shower.

I left work early yesterday because of an upset stomach that not only made me feel like I was going to vomit, but prevented me from taking the nap I so desperately wanted once I got home.

Now, it’s already humid as hell, with the promise of an absolute soaker of a day. Living on the St. Louis River at the point where it flows into Lake Superior has its advantages. Usually it’s anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the rest of the region, with a breeze coming of the water. But I don’t think that’s going to be the case today.

Well, anyway, that’s enough for now. I’m going to hop in the shower and get ready for work. You all have a good day – unless you’ve made other plans.

Just wanting to welcome you all to a wonderful Monday Morning! Wait. What’s that? Some of you hate Mondays? Huh. Didn’t know that was possible. Well, if that’s what you want to do, by all means, go ahead and hate. Don’t let me get in your way. I’ve made other plans.

Okay, so I ended up buying a portable air conditioner for the upstairs bedroom. It was always the plan anyway – spending the tax return money of 2015. And it was on sale. So, yeah, kerplunk! Oh, and I used Apple Pay on my iPhone, which was cool.

This morning it’s shopping! I’m going to get into the shower pretty quick, then it’s off to Walmart, Whole Foods, and Super One. Hope the rest of you are having a wonderful time this Sunday Morning.

No, really?

(Mother Jones) The team found that when fruit flies are fed regular doses of sucralose (brand name: Splenda) over an extended period, they consume 30 percent more calories (compared to sucralose-free control flies) when they they have access to naturally sweetened food. And when the team removed the sucralose, the effect vanished.

Because in the end Mother Nature is still supreme, no matter how much we try to chemically improve on her.