Surprise!!

I had another post planned for today... and then yesterday happened.  No, nothing horrifying happened, the dogs are okay, I'm healthy, and no meteor smashed into my backyard.  Everything was so normal.  I did a few loads of laundry, got in a 12 mile ride, made my version of shrimp scampi for dinner.  Everything was fine until UPS dropped off the DVD player I ordered.  He was sly about it, even the dogs didn't know he had slid the package across the floor.  The first notification I received was a test shouting out "Surprise."  Well, it didn't really shout out surprise, but it was very surprising that the dogs hadn't started barking.  They love their UPS drivers.

Anyway, since I was working on a paragraph of the new book, I grabbed the box with my new DVD player and took up stairs and then returned to my laptop to finish what I had started.  An hour later when I finally sat down to open my new present, I noticed immediately something was very much awry with the packing tape.  Instead of sealing tape, the box was sealed with scotch tape.

Exhibit 1 - scotch tape

That's right, this box had already been opened.  Of course, my first natural instinct was to speak French.  Deciding to see if it worked, I unpacked it, connected it to my TV and powered it up.  Everything was going fine, so I grabbed one of my cycling DVD's and popped open the tray and found.... there was already a DVD in the player.

Exhibit 2 - The Real Housewives of Melbourne

Rather than speak French again, I began laughing.  Have you ever heard of anything so absurd?  Instead of a new DVD player, they sent me one that was not only used, but one with a DVD left in by the original owner.  I can only wonder if The Real Housewives of Melbourne is so bad they needed to return the player with the disc still inside.

Amazon is giving me credit, of course, an email with some toasty little words has been sent to the 3rd party seller.  I did off the DVD to my friend Justin who said, "sorry, I'm not a Real Housewives kind of guy."

On a lighter note, while the Republican party in Washington is desperately trying to shore up loyalty to the failed 45th president, an Exodus away from the party has commenced in the heartland.  Actually, it's not just in the heartland, Republicans are changing their affiliation all over the place. over 5000 in Pennsylvania alone.  And it hasn't stopped.  Moderate Republicans are furious with the Crazies.  And the Crazies, because they are crazy, don't understand moderates outnumber the party's delusional base.  At this time, I'd like to remind you all of Dave's Axiom:  A popular president can move the country to either the left of the right, an unpopular president will always move it in the opposite direction.

 https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/536113-tens-of-thousands-of-voters-drop-republican-affiliation-after-capitol?rl=1