Got up bright and early and joined a group ride on Zwift that was doing a metric century. It wasn't as painful as I had envisioned --- I think my average watts were around 120 which is just about perfect. Hit my 5,000 mile goal on Strava with this ride.

We're taking down most of Christmas today --- might leave up the lights on the outside porch and the small Christmas tree since it's so cute, plus easy to take down, but for the most part we're ready to bring in the New Year.

Lots of drama in our area yesterday --- around noon on Facebook I saw where an entire neighborhood in the older part of our village was being evacuated and the swat team was surrounding a house. Supposedly someone in the house had shot his mother in the head, was holding his sister hostage and had doused gasoline all around the house and was threatening to blow it up. So this turned out to be a prank. The family was fine and not at home, which is good because the swat team broke down the door. I hope whoever did this is caught and prosecuted to the max.

Then later there was a shooting outside the local mall. Steve and I had gone into town to make a trip to Lowes and noticed a lot of flashing red and blue lights in the area, so we avoided it. I guess they caught the idiot but jeez...

Steve's grandkids spent the night and will be with us until around noon, when their other grandparents pick them up. Their dad is a minister and is officiating at a wedding in Kansas City, which means an overnight stay. Steve and the oldest spent the afternoon assembling a piece of crap Hot Wheels track that was given to them as a gift --- the instructions were awful and in the end, it didn't go together quite like the illustration on the cover of the box but it somewhat works. By the end of the evening the two youngest had pretty much destroyed it anyway, so I suspect it's bound for the garbage soon.

Steve's right knee (he had left replaced two years ago) needs to be replaced and he's in constant pain. He was waffling on whether to do it early this year or at the end of the season. I pointed out that any events he might miss will be there next year. The constant pain is affecting his sleep now. So he's going to get it taken care of sooner rather than later, probably in February. Going to a different surgeon this time as his experience was less than stellar with the first replacement.