Kristallnacht, part II

 It rained all day yesterday, the steady, soaking rain.  It was constant.  Temps hovered in the low 60s (F).  Today are temps are predicted to climb into the upper 60s (F) and instead of rain we're only supposed to get showers, meaning that the steady rain had become irregular rain.  Either way, it's still going to rain.  Tomorrow the temps are supposed to rise a little, but we have basically the same forecast. 

And, as expected, yesterday was slow in retail.  There was the rare, chatty customer who was looking for something in another department.  For example, one tall gent was looking for gate hinges, so I left the flooring desk and walked him over to lumber to where the gate hinges were located.  It was more fun than just putting in laps; I got over 11,000 steps in.

When I got home from work I discovered that Mr. Mousy had been digging in a planter that I have on my kitchen counter, so, before I go to work today, I'll put a little peanut butter in a trap.  Peanut butter is very good bait.

I've gotten a few questions about just which supporting characters are going to be in The Body in History since I do have a nice sized group of players that show up in the books from time to time.  So, yes, the Von Trapp Family Boxers do put in an appearance or two.  No, Tag is not in this book, though there's a distinct possibility he will show up in Los Angeles for The Body in 4/4 Time, Rock On!

I had a nice chat with Cori, my cover artist, giving her a sketch of what I thought the cover for this book should look like.  She nodded, pointed to an inky smudge and asked, "what's this?"  "A torch," I answered.  She nodded, saying "torches are good."  Here's a clue.

At a speech in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump evidently called for one day of legal police violence where they were going to round up immigrants and those they thought were illegal aliens, or in other words, anyone with brown skin, or who speaks with an accent, or both.  The cultists loved this and in his small, meeting hall applause roared.  Some said he was calling for an actual Purge, as in the horror movie, other were likening it to Kristallnacht, that terrible night in German when the Nazis began rounding up Jews.  Social Media erupted.  The Main Stream Media stayed silent.  They want this to be a horse race since that will get them many, many clicks on their websites.  They do not understand that should he actually get into power, with the immunity the Supreme Court has given the president, he would shut them all down except for the one that praises him the most.  If they want proof, they need to look at Russia, and China, and North Korea where there is one State Radio.  Other media outlets no longer exist.  They don't understand that the tax breaks he promises them no longer matter if their voices are silenced. 

The Mouse

 Supposedly the rain is going to be hanging around until Wednesday.  I don't know if that going to happen, Wednesday is when my chair is getting delivered, though I'm sure it will be covered in plastic when it arrives.  Until then, our skies will be filled with clouds and drizzling rains.  Today's temps are predicted to be the coldest, hovering in the mid 60s (F).  Tomorrow, they will warm up into the 70s (F) again, and then they'll stay there for the next few days.  

All of this rain means a good mowing for my lawn sometime next week.

Work was so terribly boring yesterday.  I have a window decor customer who I was hoping would stop in so I could design their blinds.  They didn't.  I ended up walking laps to get in my steps: 8062 isn't bad.  I'm in for a full 8 hours today, and since it's Sunday, I'm betting they'll show up today.  We have a 40% sale going on in shades, that's a magnet.

I have a mouse in the house.  To be perfectly frank, I've probably got more, an entire family, no doubt, and they've been eating at the fruit in my fruit bowl.  Not all of the fruit, only the pears and the plums.  They evidently don't like bananas and oranges.  This means I will have to set out traps, and then recycle their tiny bodies back into nature on the hill behind my house.  This is what they did to a pear.

One thing we can look forward to on November 5 is the Republicans denying their loss.  Prepare yourselves, they will be very loud.  Even when the Orange Anus loses by a landslide, they will shriek election fraud.  This is because the only way they can win is through the Electoral College, and when they swings into the Democrats territory there has to be cheating because those red states would never change color, never go from red to blue.  Of course, Orangie is already shrieking this, in between the gobbledygook incomprehensible word salads he spits out daily.  He is worse than he was in 2016, mostly because 8 years ago he still managed to speak in semi-complete sentences.  Back then, people didn't have to be paid to show up at his rallies. and they didn't leave in droves once the payoff hit their accounts.  No matter how much the Main Street Media tries to sane wash him, his decline is obvious.  Even Fox Entertainment is now cutting away from his speeches because.... he's beginning to hurt their ratings.

Instincts

 Well, we have a rainy Saturday ahead of us.  Showers and drizzles with a high in the mid 70s (F).  I am watching the thermometer.  This is the time of year when you try and wait as long as possible before turning on the heat.  Will I make it into October?  With only 2 days to go, that's an affirmative.  The house is a little cool, outside temp in the upper 60s (F), but I'm still in a T-shirt and shorts, though donning a sweatshirt would make things a bit cozier.

And I do get to work today.  Normally, Saturday's are one of the busiest days of the week.  With this weather, however, that's probably not going to be the case.  I work yesterday, and while customers were beginning to come into the store when I was leaving at 7, shoppers were few and far between.  As for today, there are only 2 specialists scheduled, a man who loves 3 day weekends (he's already scheduled off Sunday and Monday), and myself, so I'm fairly confident it will be me, myself, and I at the Decor desk.

At bit about Maggie Smith:  I do hope she realized how much of an impact she had on people's lives.  It's good when greatness is achieved through quality and talent rather than mere popularity.  Honestly, she was the only reason I watched Downton Abbey.

I do believe I will need to be buying a fitness watch, my Fenix 6 Pro is slowly dying.  It connects and disconnects with my phone constantly.  Charging that little Lithium battery can take hours and the charge just isn't holding.  The next watch is going to be less expensive.  I don't need all the goodies that came packed in this one:  Golf maps?  Give me a break.  I'm thinking maybe this one will do, it's an Instinct 2X.  Snazzy, huh?  I'll have to do a little research before I make my decision.

And it's always sometime in the next 2 weeks that that the presidential race get's it's October Surprise.  As far as I can see, the Republicans don't really have anything... I mean, they've already surprised America with their eating of dogs, and cats, and pets in Springfield, what could be more surprising than that?  The Democrats, on the other hand, have Jack Smith's 180 page brief detailing Trump's crimes on leading up to and on January 6, and I understand that some of those details can be released as soon as next week.  These are crimes the immunity given to him by the Supreme Court doesn't cover.  His legal team has been given a copy of it, which many are thinking is the reason his rally speeches have become so demented.  What joy!

The Anniversary

 Outside, the temp is a very humid 71 (F).  Our skies are supposed to remain overcast until Tuesday and every day we have the same forecast:  cloudy with rain and, or showers.  Sometime on Monday, the remnants of Helene are going to wash over us and, after that, temps will drop down into the upper 60s (F) and our Autumn weather will resume.  

The only odd thing about my Greek adventure happened with the great, orange retailer I work for, they changed the way they payout vacation pay.  As a result, they paid me for 56 hours of vacation for a 40 hour work week.  So, I got a very nice paycheck today... and I transferred most of it into my savings.  Were I fulltime, this would have pissed me off, however, I'm part-time, and after this week, I'm only going to be work 3-4 days a week, between 20 - 24 hours.  

And, while I was in Greece, I celebrated my anniversary date with said home improvement retailer.  16 years!  How did I get here?  Well, after college, I started in the accounting department of the Harrisburg Marriott and was there for 11 years.  Then, I caught the HR Director doing something incredibly unethical, filed a complaint, and discovered corporate will always side with upper management.  I resigned and spent the next year living off my bank account.  My next job was with Woolworth, where I managed the payroll for all the Woolworth stores, as well as the employees in the Woolworth building in NYC.  Woolworth, sadly, went bankrupt and I was laid off with quite a number of other people.  I applied for an accounting job with International Paper and was hired, so literally one day I was working for Woolworth and the next I was was behind my desk at International Paper.  I managed Accounts Payable for the Eastern Seaboard until my job was exported to Krakow, Poland, and I was once again laid off.  Never one to worry, I told myself, "I'm going to give it 5 months to see if I can get another job," and 4 months and 27 days later I applied for the Human Resources position with the orange retailer.  Five months and 3 days later I was hired, and that was 16 years ago.  How did they celebrate this anniversary?  With a badge and a brown paper bag of candy..

One of the things that is pissing me off in this election cycle is the way the Main Stream Media is sanewashing Trump.  His ranting, ramblings are not covered.  Fox Entertainment likes to broadcast his so-called rallies, but they all too often cut away when he ventures into dementia territory.  Another thing that is truly pissing me off is the way the MSM is constantly attempting to make it seem as if the Harris campaign is on it's last legs.  This morning one of the headlines read, "The Dems and Their Hail Mary."  For those who don't know, the Hail Mary Pass originated in American football, when in the last seconds of the game the losing team attempts an almost impossible pass in their attempt to win the game.  This is either a broad attempt to demoralize Democratic voters, or, possibly, given them an incentive to go to the polls.  I'm thinking it's the former, rather than the latter, though unfortunately for most Democrats it's turning out to be an incentive.  Get your ass to the polls this November and help send a spawn of Satan back to Hell.

Rent (not the musical)

 So, it's Thursday morning and we have rain.  The temperature is predicted to climb up into the mid 70s (F) today, humidity is supposed to increase, and late this afternoon or early this evening we may or may not be having additional thunderstorms.  This is the weather pattern we're under for the next several days.  Most of the rain from Hurricane Helene will have dissipated by the time her remnants roll into Central PA, at best they're saying we might get another inch of rain.

I went rowing yesterday rather than cycling.  Different muscle groups.  I should have remembered what happens when new muscle groups, those that haven't been stretched or worked in a while, get used.  I didn't, and last evening I got a cramp in my right quad when I stood up.  Honestly, it was a very good thing I wasn't holding a glass of wine.  

One of the conversations I had while in Greece was about how expensive it was to live in Athens, that a decent apartment went for around 900 Euros a month.  (I checked, for a one bedroom apartment, the average rent is between $700 and $900 per month.)  And I said something to the effect of that being similar to what people pay in Central PA.  Being a home owner, I was clueless when it came to knowing what people pay for rent.  Also, being the curious type, yesterday I spent a few minutes checking to see what the average rent payment withing a 5 mile radius of my house.  Wow!  was I wrong.  While you can get a studio apartment for around $1000, it's tiny.  The average cost for a one bedroom apartment with appliances is between $1400 and $1600 a month.  I also know that the average take home pay from one of our full time plumbing specialists is around $1900 a month.  So, over here we get paid better, but our rents are about $500 a month higher, and that's in Central PA.  An apartment in a city comparable in size to Athens would be much more expensive.

Here's an old picture of me holding my first Cannondale.  This was taken around 25 years ago.

And it seems as though Eric Adams, the Mayor of NYC, was caught taking... handouts from foreign governments like Turkey, and Israel (there are several more listed).  When ever I hear things like this, I just want to smack these people up side their heads.  I get angry because they turn out to be that stupid, thinking they're going to get away with it.  Why are so many, so easy to corrupt.  Why do they fail when it comes to making a moral judgement?  I don't feel sorry for this man in the least.  He rationalized his way into make a terrible decision, and now his historical footnote will be that he was corrupt.  

The Review

 Well it Wednesday and that means rain, or maybe I should say that rain is in the forecast.  Wonderful rain, just like we had yesterday, and like we're expected to get tomorrow.  And, for those of you not paying to the national weather, Hurricane Helene is going to hit the Florida panhandle tomorrow and move almost directly north for a few days before it's remnants bring more rain to Central PA.  Temperatures are predicted to stay in the 70s (F) for the foreseeable future.  I'm fine with that.  Why turn on the heat when it isn't necessary.

There's something wrong with my Garmin Fenix 6 watch.  It frequently disconnects and then reconnects with my phone.  I'm going to do a factory restart, see if that helps.  It's 5 years old, and the normal life expectancy is between 5 and 7 years, so a new watch may be in the offing.

For many years, one of my duties with the large, orange home improvement retailer was to review customer opinion surveys.  I still do, from time to time, when my curiosity gets the better of me.  This means I also don't mind filling them out when they get emailed to me.  When I got the survey from Explore, I responded rather quickly.  Yesterday, my curiosity again got the better of me and I went to the Explore website to see if any of the others in my group had responded.  Three had filled out the survey, which, being nearly 50%,was not bad, myself and Bill provided our names and there was an anonymous response.  I've always felt that anonymous responses demonstrate a lack of character (Tim).  All 3 reviews were glowing, though 2 of them had gripes saying that the hikes were a bit to rigorous (I found them challenging).  Their complaints prove that they never read the first page detailing the tour where it states:  Pace - Full On.  Full On does not mean a casual stroll through the ruins.  To give you an idea, here's a pic of me after a more than strenuous hike to the lighthouse on the tip of Cape Tenaro, the path we took is behind me, up a bit from the shoreline. (I really have to thank my photographer for this great shot.)

And from what I've heard, yesterday, Georgia, Trump turned into a mini-Evangelist by praying on stage.  This man is desperate.  I'd say he's worried about losing the Evangelical vote since there are now Evangelicals for Harris groups forming in a number of places.  The Hard-liners will stick with him, to do otherwise would mean their hearts lied to them and that's something they'll never be able to accept.  That's why their Republicans, they can never, ever be wrong.

Things Happen at the Tholos

 Today is my first day off and rain is in the forecast.  We had a steady, drizzling rain all day yesterday, and the forecasters are saying it will hang around until Thursday.  Temps are cool, but not cold, the perfect weather for sweat pants and sweat shirts; comfy clothing, you know?  While I truly love the shorts and T-shirts of summer, I also love the comfy sweats of autumn.  

My cold is beginning to dry up.  I'm still taking Benadryl, but only when needed, which is not too often.  From what people have been telling me, this nasally, sneezy, coughing thing is going around and quite a number of people are suffering through the symptoms.  I'm so glad it showed when I got back to the states rather than back in Greece, that would have, to be perfectly honest, pissed me off a lot.  Katie, the wife of the quiet policeman, had to deal with one through out most of our journey down the Peloponnese.  In Delphi, they were in the room next to mine and she coughed through most of the night; I felt so bad for her.

Cori, my cover artist, has the updated notes on the artwork for The Body in History.  Some major changes took place, the biggest being the setting.  It turned out that the original art was focused around the Tholos of Athena and not Apollo's Temple.   Well, that's fixed.  Now, all you have to do is wait 8 months for the reveal.  For those interested, this is the Tholos of Athena and it's located almost a mile away from the temple.  Do not despair though, things do happen at the Tholos.

Trump had some sort of Q & A with a couple of farmers from Pennsylvania yesterday during which he said he was going to put tariffs of 200% on John Deere tractors and they applauded and cheered because... well, they were no doubt paid to do so.  They obviously don't understand tariffs increase the customer cost, they don't reduce it.  Tariffs do not force manufacturers to reduce their prices, this is something MAGA cultists simply don't understand.  Trump preys upon their ignorance.

Finally, think about this:  Everything Trump touches dies.  Someone should have told the Evangelicals.

The Group

 Monday is going to be a chilly one here in Central Pa, with temperatures sitting in the mid 60s (F).  We will be warming up into the 70s (F) for the rest of the week, but today's going to be a cool one.  I'm fine with that.

Yesterday was the last day for our Success Sharing bonus celebration.  The big orange retailer I worked for popped a nice little bonus into my bank account, additional funds are always accepted with a smile.  They did, however, screw up my vacation during my time in Greece.  As as result, they're paying me for 56 hours during what was a 40 hour work week instead of the 24 hours that I had requested.  This means that on Friday there is going to be another very healthy deposit into my bank account.  

I also have to work today for a full 8 hours.  I am not excited.  They have me scheduled for 32 hours this week, and I am definitely not excited for that.  Sadly, my sales are great for a part-timer and if I were full time, I'd be trouncing the other full timers, so they give me more hours.  I went in yesterday and cut my availability in half, and I may cut it even more.  

On our tour through Greece, there were eleven members in our group:5 from the UK, 1 from New Zealand, 2 from Australia, 2 from California, and myself.  We took a number of groupies (selfies but with a group) but this is the only one in which we posed.  There was a quiet police officer and his wife (who had a terrible cold), a retired military man and his wife, who was a retired Head Mistress, a couple who ran a very successful business, and I have no idea what Tim had done for a living, but he always wore blue.  You have no idea how often I looked around myself and thought, "gee, this is the perfect cast for an Agatha Christie mystery, I sure hope no one dies."

And Janet Jackson has sort of recanted her apology for say she didn't think Kamala Harris was black.  It evidently came from a member of her team who wasn't her manager.  In fact, it turns out to have been one of her publicists who has since been fired.  In case you hadn't guessed it yet, Janet is sticking to her story that Kamala Harris isn't black. I do believe she suffers from the same entitlement curse as her brother Michael, out of touch from the real world and surrounded by yeah sayers who will happily agree with whatever it is she says.  I do think it's time for her and Beyonce to have a "conversation."  

Hello, Autumn!

 Sunday.  The temp outside is 67 (F) and the skies are overcast.  We had some serious thunderstorms last night.  I check the rain bucket on my back porch when I got down for my 2nd cup of coffee to see how much we received.  For the next week or so, it looks as though daily highs will hover in the mid 70s (F).  I'm fine with that.  I can get the wool blankets down and prepare to layer them on the bed.  Honestly, one of things I like about winter is being able to snuggle under a thick layer of warmth throughout the night.

This is the weekend for our bonus sharing party at work.  I like the added money to my bank account and usually the food is good, but yesterday?  But yesterday?  Ugh.  They served prime rib which must have been cheap since it was 30% meat and 70% fat, and disgusting as it sounds, the meat itself was a bit chewy.  I suffered through some of the meat, than filled up with cookies, and snack foods with a very high sodium content.  Crap.  Today we're getting more sweets.  I'm going to take moussaka for lunch.  

Even though it was slow, I did manage to get 2 measures for blind installations.  Hopefully someone else will design the blinds, since I'm attempting to put my blind designing days behind me.  I prefer the slow times because that gives me time to... are you ready for this?  Work on The Body in History.  And no, I don't work on the actual manuscript, there are firewalls keeping me from signing into Microsoft, but there's what I call a mini-Word app which lets me write notes.  So, when there are no customers, I sit at my desk writing sections of the book.  I print them off, and when I get home, all I have to do is rewrite them into the book.  If I wanted, I could email them to myself and save the paper, but sometimes I also scribble notes on the paper, too.  The first draft is half finished!

And, since I talked about rain earlier, and in previous entries about rain in Greece, I thought I'd expose you all to a rarity.  On our drive from Olympia to Delphi there was a lot of rain around us, and looking out the bus window I saw an amazing thing, my first Greek rainbow.  Now, how cool was that?

And, of course, there will not be another debate.  Harris accepted CNN's offer, but spineless Trump said no.  He said, "She's already wiped the floor with my dumb ass once and I'm not that deep in dementia to let her do it again I've already done 2 debates, that's enough.  It's too late."  Sadly, his cultists will nod and agree with him.  Everybody else can read what's underneath the strikethrough.

He had another rally yesterday and once again, people started leaving early.  Even the NYT had a video on their website of people walking away after just 28 minutes.  If you see it, you'll notice that those leaving are not cultists, no Trump gear or paraphernalia, so they must all be foolish people who don't realize just how bad his rallies are.  These are Republicans who most likely will not vote for Harris, but there's a good possibility they won't vote for him either.  They will join the crowd who will let this election cycle pass them by, which is one of the reasons while he's going to lose.

Rain in Pylos

 Good Morning, people of the world!

I thought yesterday was going to be the last day our temps were going to be climbing up into the 80s (F).  I was wrong.  That'll happen today, if it happens, because we're basically borderline 80s (F).  Sometime this afternoon, the showers and thundershowers will move in and our temps will begin to fall.  That is until we get our yearly blast of Indian Summer.  For those of you who don't know, Indian Summer occurs after the first frost of the year and our temps will zoom upwards for about a week.  

Speaking of rain, when I got to Greece the country was going through a serious dry spell.  Melena, our guide for the Acropolis in Athens told us that olives were normally harvested in December, "but who knows this year because we've had so little rain."  Well, on our last night in Pylos we got rain.  At dinner, we chose a restaurant that had an awning in anticipation, the rain, however, didn't begin until after midnight.  And it did rain.  There was thunder.  It was still raining the next morning.  One of our our group who wasn't prepared, texted our tour leader Christos telling him he was going out to try and find a store that was open in order to buy an umbrella.  While trying to find him, Christos got soaked, only to find that the group member was safe and dry back at the hotel. Anyway, the rain was all everybody was talking about, and how it was going to be raining when we got to Olympia.  I don't know how many times I told them not to worry, "it's not going to rain."  Of course, when we got there the sun was out and the temperature was climbing.  Did they really think the gods were going to let it rain on my visit to one of the best preserved archeological sites in Greece?  For those who don't know, this is Hermes.

Of course, the Mark Robinson scandal is creating serious chaos in the Republican party and the Orange Anus will not take back his endorsement.  Orangie can't.  That would mean he made a mistake, and his ego would never survive such an admission.  This is going to hurt him badly in November, for only the cultists will have no problem voting for a man who's endorsing a Black Nazi.

And finally, what about Sean O'Brien, soon to be ex-president of the Teamsters Union.  First, he shows up at the Republican convention.  Then he releases a fake poll showing more Teamsters support Trump than Harris, telling America the Teamsters are endorsing either candidate.  Then, the Teamsters unions across the nation tell him to screw off and endorse Harris.  Then, his VP, who was in the room the day the endorsement decision is made, goes public, telling America everyone in the room that day wanted to endorse Harris, except O'Brien.  How stupid can you be?

Beetlejuice

 The outside temps were 56 (F), 13 (C), this morning when I woke up.  Today is the last day they're predicting we hit the mid 80s, after that it looks like we're going to start the down hill slide into Autumn.  Daily highs next week are only supposed to be  in the low 60s (F).

The new chair I purchased will be arriving on October 2.  When it arrives, the writing room will be complete.  The most difficult thing to do so far was set the delivery date.  This was because for some dastardly reason the store has me scheduled for way too many hours.  Next week it's 32 with only 2 days off.  That is so much more than what I want.  The only reason I continue working is because I know I'd turn into a slug if something wasn't getting me out of the house. 

My cold is still hanging on.  Crap.  For me, a cold usually last 2 or 3 days; always a runny nose and nothing else.  With this one I'm coughing (dry cough), and I'm still having nasal drainage (didn't I say that nice).  The last time I can remember having a cold this bad was back when I still lived in the apartment, and that was over 30 years ago.

I went to see Beetlejuice last evening (even with the cold).  The story turns out to be rather interesting as 3 generations of the Deetz family return to the ghost house for... a funeral, though I have to admit, I was looking forward to the afterlife segments more than anything, and they are tops.  Michael Keaton's Beeltejuice has aged quite well, so I'd give it a Thumbs Up.  My only criticism is that the song MacArthur Park is used in a segment and you really have to be of a certain age to appreciate how it's used.  I don't think younger people are going to get the references.  Anyway, here's the trailer.

And of course... Hahahah, Mark Robinson, the large, bigoted pastor, minister, or whatever you want to call him, had his campaign rocked by scandal yesterday.  Let's see, among other things, he referred to himself as a Black Nazi (ouch), and evidently used to enjoy watching transgender people have sex on a black, porn website.  Of course, he's staying in the race because... it turns out yesterday was really the last day he had to withdraw and ballots had already been printed.  How timely!  To be fair, he was already polling far behind the Democrat running for governor, so this was just the icing on the cake, so to speak.  He's earned this bad Karma, I hope he's enjoying it.

Process This

We had a drizzly day yesterday.  Temps were comfortably cool.  Today they're going to warm up, climbing up to around 84(F), or 29 (C).  Sunny is on the forecast as well, so my first load of laundry is in the washer.  I have off both today and tomorrow, and I'm going to enjoy them.

My late summer cold is still hanging around.  It's not as bad as it could have been, but, seeing that I haven't had a cold in around 20 years, I calling it... somewhat bad.  Very little coughing.  A runny nose.  While I was at the store yesterday to buy milk, I bought some Sudafed to help with my draining sinuses.  Honestly, the only thing I think it did do was keep me from operating heavy equipment. 

I have not ridden the bike, or rowed, or even been on the treadmill since I got back from Greece.  I need to change that.  Perhaps I'll begin to get back into the swing of things by mowing the lawn this afternoon.  One thing I admired about Greece was that most people didn't have lawns, they had olive trees.  I could live with that.  And that does remind me of an amusing moment.  Driving through grove after grove of olive trees, a member of our group said that with all of these trees, she didn't see any processing plants, even though we had passed by a number of them.  She didn't understand that because you only begin harvesting olives in December, there was no need to staff the plants during the off season.  

So, the Teamsters, one of the largest unions in the United States released a statement yesterday saying they were not going to be endorsing either Trump or Harris.  This is the first time this has happened in decades.  The president of the Teamsters, Sean something or other, showed up and gave a small speech at the Republican convention.  For those who don't know what a red flag is, that was a red flag.  One of the things Sean sort of let slip out was that most of the Teamsters supported Trump.  For me, that sounded like a gender issue rather than anything else, since these burly men who drive trucks would feel more comfortable with one of their own gender in the White House.  However, shortly after Sean released his statement, state Teamster Unions began endorsing Harris:  California, Hawaii, Michigan, Iowa to name a few.  Evidently, Sean something or other's statement had been misleading.  And now I'm hearing whispers that his job as President of the Teamsters is not as safe and secure as he might have once thought.  There's also speculation that his presence at the Republican convention might have been bought and paid for.  Ouch!

Page This

Wednesday, and weather forecasters are calling for rain.  That "unnamed storm" that drenched North Carolina is going to pass over us.  They got most of the rain, so we're not going to get anything close to 18 inches.  We're approaching the last day of summer, so the long range forecast has things cooling down.  It will soon be time to pull out the blankets for the bed.

I have a head cold, no doubt picked up from one of the passengers on the flight from Heathrow to Philly; there were a lot of sneezers and coughers on that flight.  So, now my head is all stuffed up and my sinuses are inflated to their max.  Because of this, I'm going to call off today.  It's not that I think I'm contagious, that probably happened while I was a work on Monday.  Nope, I just don't want to be sneezing, and coughing, and hacking when I try and talk to customers.  There's nothing worse than sitting down with a customer and sneezing at them.

One of the things I did when I went to Greece, was to take my big cameral.  It didn't take me long to realize that was a mistake, not a big one, but a bulky one.  It felt really clunky hanging around my neck, so after the first week I left it in the hotel room.  After that, I took most of the pictures with my phone.  Because my phone is linked to the Microsoft cloud, all I needed to do was go into my Gallery on either the laptop or my PC to post them on either Facebook, or in this blog, or on Instagram.  That being said, because Christos was taking pictures of all of us and sending them to us on What's App, I have a couple of me with my clunky camera.  It was almost like having a professional photographer traveling with us.  Here I am after visiting another fortress at Monemvasia.

And, what about those exploding pagers in all of those Hezbollah pockets?  I'm betting Trump's not too happy because that story knocked his faux assassination attempt out of the headlines, relegating it to yesterday's old news.  Honestly, when I first heard about this, I thought "this comes right out of some science fiction story, where multiple pagers explode simultaneously."  Not only does this hurt Hezbollah, it hurts their sponsor, Iran, as well as Hungary, since it may have been there that the explosives may have been loaded.  Poor Victor Orban, not only is the Prime Minister of Hungary, he's also one of Putin's henchmen.  You know what they say?  When things go wrong, they go wrong.

Tzatziki

 Good Morning people of the world!  Right now the temp in Central PA is a comfortable 64 (F) with a high expected to climb into the low 80s (F).  Today's my day off, so I can live with that.

Yesterday was my first day back at work and I knew instantly that I'm going to need to reduce my availability.  After talking about my Grecian adventure with the Store Manager, I asked him if I'd missed anything.  He replied, "well, we fired a scoundrel," then he looked at me and said, "I can tell you the details."  It's nice to have been a Human Resources representative if you want to get the dirt.  The associate was fired for theft, a top reason we terminate people, mostly because they believe they're smarter than the system.  They're not.

Here's an interesting bit:  Friday night, as I was grabbing my suitcase from my car, I saw a white, domesticated bunny in my yard.  When I walked towards it, the bunny turned and I saw that the fur on the left side was brown and mottled, like that of a wild bunny.  When I walked towards it, the bunny turned it's wild side to me and hopped away.  Tame vs wild, I thought.  I found the symbolism intriguing.  When I told my friend, Patty, she said, "meh."  2000 years ago, that bunny would have been seen as a sign from the gods.

One of my core beliefs is that when you travel, you should eat the cuisine of the area, country, region you are in, and since I like Greek food, I had no problem with this.  This did not apply to other members of my group, who stuck with the same basic food groups they ate in their homelands.  Not me at all.  I did learn things though.  Our local restaurants serve Tzatziki as an appetizer eaten by itself, so when I ordered a dish, that's what I did.  It was only later that I learned that it's most often spread on thin slices of bread.  Tzatziki is a mixture of yoghurt, cucumber slices, and garlic... a lot of garlic, so much garlic that, as Christos said, "you could kill a fly a 5 meters."  Anyway, on Saturday, since I like Greek cuisine, I made moussaka (think of it as Greek Shepard's Pie), and it is delicious.

And a lot of people are upset because the Main Stream Media has left the eating of the cats and dogs behind and moved onto the phony assassination attempt.  This should have been expected.  Remember, they are always looking for their next hot topic because reporting on the same old cat and dog eating stories get old.  The American faux news consumer is always looking for fresh meat.  To those who are complaining, I say "Fear Not."  Trump's mind is like a garbage dump.  Because he can't help himself, it's only a matter of time be for he vomits up something new and vile.  Also, keep in mind, each regurgitation will be worse.  Probably the best thing we can all do is to sit back, eat a big bowl of Tzatziki, and breath in his direction.

Awesome Greece

 Hello America and Greece!  The temp outside here in Harrisburg is 59 (F) and is predicted to rise into the 80s (F).

So, let me tell you about Greece.  It was amazing!  Great views!  Great history!  I had so much fun, and learned so much.  Did you know that the root word for "gym" means naked?  Now tell me, doesn't that add a whole new meaning to the word gymnastics?  And I'm betting that from now on, every time someone uses the word gym, you're going to mentally substitute the word naked.  I'm betting this bit of information is going to make it into my next book, The Body in History.  And how did an athlete clean himself off after a good naked workout?  With olive oil and scrapping tools.

One of the people who made this tour so amazing was our Tour Leader, Christos.  So, what does a young man with a degree in Math and Physics do when he decides he doesn't want to teach?  Become a Tour Leader for Explore.com.  He is much more patient than I am.  He stayed with me on that rigorous 999 step climb up to the Palamidi Fortress.  Believe me when I tell you that I thought my legs were in shape for anything and discovered they weren't.  On the Mani peninsula, as we were deciding which of us were going to participate in another rigorous hike over rugged terrain to the lighthouse on Cape Tenaro, and even though he was wearing sunglasses, I saw an "oh, shit," moment flash across his eyes when I said, "I'm going."  There is nothing wrong with testing yourself.  Never relegate yourself to the sidelines because you think something might be too difficult. I don't think he remembers, but I actually laughed out loud at that moment.  Here's Christos.

There were 11 members in my group, and on the last day we were asked what was our favorite moment.  That question was so difficult.  Mycenae was amazing!  I took pictures inside the tomb to show a friend at work because it's exactly the same as the tombs in Assassin's Creed, Odyssey.  The frescoes in the chapels at Mystra.  The way those colors popped after so many thousands of years was incredible.  For me, however, what impacted me most was walking into that big room of the Olympia Museum and seeing all of those statues that had adorned the top of Zeus's Temple.  As tears welled up in my eyes, I found it almost overwhelming.  

And, of course, there was Delphi.  Since The Body in History takes place in Delphi, I became very analytical.  How was this location going to fit into the story?  The town is small, a little over 3000 people, and there are only 3 streets, and I immediately began twisting the story tighter.  One of the first things I did was text a picture to Cori, my cover artist, saying, "this needs to be changed."  The Tholos of Athena is about a mile away from the archeological site.  I thought it was part of the site itself.  It's actually next to the gymnasium (also known as the naked training area).  So, I guess the question you'll be pondering until the book cover is revealed, is how will this play into the cover art.

And finally, there was supposedly another possible assassination attempt on the Orange Anus yesterday.  This makes number two.  This one comes after the "eating dogs and eating cats" scandal, and after the bad debate, and after Vance admitted on TV that he will make up lies to change the topic of conversation.  I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to have one of these every time the shit gets too real for Trump's campaign team.

The Heathrow Quickie, or The Dropping of the Shorts

 I know I said I wasn't probably going to be posting again until Monday, but felt I should at least pop in a Quickie to tell you all about my flight back from Greece.

From Athens to London's Heathrow, it was a nice, quiet 4 hour flight during which I napped.

At Heathrow?  That's where the fun began. 

I should have hand an inkling when I went through customs.  It was a slog.  Very long.  Overly detailed, from any other time that I've flown.  After putting everything into the tray, including my sneakers, to be scanned, I was told that I needed to remove my belt.  I warned them, "my cargo shorts are going to fall down," and they didn't seem to care.  So, off came the belt, and when I stepped into the scanner and lifted my hands up, my cargo shorts went down and everyone got to see my blue boxers.  As I was putting my belt back on, and being the smartass I am, I couldn't help but ask the security guard "aren't you glad everything was in it's proper place?"

 Fifteen minutes into my scheduled 3 hour wait, British Airways announced that my flight was going to be delayed for 3 hours, so now I had a 6 hour wait.  Shit.  There was a technical issue.  Talking to the Scottish co-pilot, He told me, "they knew about the issue, but thought it would be fixed in time."  Well, it wasn't. An hour and fifteen minutes later, they announced that we were going to be moved to another terminal where we could board another plane to Philadelphia.  But there was a catch, the new planed needed to be cleaned, and the catering, as well as our luggage needed to be loaded.  That delay was only going to cost us 2 hours.  So, rather than leave at my scheduled time of 1340, my plane taxied down the runway at 1640.

On the plus side for some, we had an open bar for most of the flight back to the states.  That was, no doubt, to ease the aggravation of all those who missed connecting flights, and there were many.  I had a glass of merlot, and while it wasn't excruciatingly bad, it was still bad.

Philly was so much better.  I only had to wait 5 minutes for my suitcase, and when I got to customs, while everyone else was waiting in a long line, I was walked through the line for air crews, so, basically, all I had to do was hand the agent my passport to be scanned.  I have no idea why I was given special treatment, but it was nice.

When I got to my gate, I had a 15 minute wait before boarding my plane, and instead of a 60 minute flight, we landed in Harrisburg 36 minutes later.  Don't ask me why it was so short, but I did thank the captain as I deplaned.

Tomorrow, I will begin talking about Greece, and how I had such an awesome experience.  Until then, here's Teddy Swims.

Delphi

 Hello from Delphi!  We had showers when we left from Olympia, I even snapped a pic of a rainbow out the window of our bus, but by the time we arrived at our destination point, it was sunny and hot.  While I've grown use to sunny and hot weather, if I ever do decide to buy a 2nd home here, it would be in the north where winters are cool.

For those who don't know, Delphi is located on the side of Mount Parnassus... literally.  There are only 3 streets running through the town, and instead of side streets there are staircases.  I will definitely need to revisit Chapter 2.  The Delphi I was picturing was more of a level playing field, not a town sloping steeply up a hill.  Of course, that's just a minor issue.  The bigger problem I have is with the floor of Apollo's temple.  It's not exactly smooth.  So, tell me, if you were going to stab someone to death in the temple, would you do it in the front, or perhaps closer to the rear. There will be blood, stabbing wounds always have blood, and because the victim isn't that tall, it doesn't need to be a big area, but it does need to be level.

One myth that needs to be dispelled is that all Greek statues are white marble.  The truth is that ancient Greeks loved color and everything was painted, even their statues.  They wanted to make them as lifelike as possible.  Here's a pic where you can see some of the original paint.

And here's some original Greek music.

And for those needing it, here's some gratuitous Greek nudity.  It is important to note that Greek politicians and important people were clothed, only the athletes were naked.

And for those interested, there are eleven people on this tour, from the UK, from New Zealand, from Australia, and California, and everyone is laughing at Donald Trump.  He truly is a joke to the world.

Also, this will probably be my last entry until I get back to the states. Though, if I get bored waiting for my next flight at Heathrow, I might pull out my laptop and jot down a few lines....

Nah, that ain't gonna happen.

 

Olympia

 Today we hit the archeological site of Olympia, home of the first Olympic games.  When we left Pylos it was raining, and right from the beginning people were wondering what the weather was going to be like in Olympia.  Will it be raining? they asked.  We stopped for coffee and cookies (I bought 3.  They were delicious.) and someone asked, "what time does the rain start in Olympia?" And I said, it's not going to rain.  The weather was nice and sunny.  After touring the museum, our tour guide walked us through Olympia, itself, she glanced at a cloud in the sky and said, "you may want to hurry before it starts to rain," and I said, "it's not going to rain."  Later, I reminded Christos, our tour leader that I'd told him it wasn't going to rain.  😎😎😎

I learned so much today:  gym, as in gymnasium and gymnastics comes from the Greek word meaning naked.  Doesn't that add a spin to what that pommel horse guy did in this past summer's Olympics?  Stadium comes from Greek word meaning "to stand."  The stadium in Olympia could hold 45,000 men (no women) standing.  Just imagine that many men standing there, watching sports for the entire day, I'm betting whoever had the wine bar concession made out like bandits.

Seriously, seeing the statuary in the museum was enough to make me tear up.  The only words I could say were "Oh, my Gosh!"

Let's start off with Hermes, whose sculptor used leather and fine grit to give him his sheen.

And then we have the statues lining the top and front of Zeus's temple, the largest in all of Greece with just the columns 13 meters high (and yes, I did use meters, since that's what the rest of the world uses).

And this is Apollo, we'll get to meet him in Delphi.

And this is what the entire thing looks like.

There was a debate last night and evidently Kamala Harris wiped up the floor with Don. While I didn't watch any of it, from what I've read, Donnie boy did not do well with getting fact checked, but then liars never do.  

Even better, while Donnie's singing "Don't nobody bring me no bad news," Taylor Swift endorsed Harris.  Now, I now know some of you don't like Taylor, but let's be honest 30 million Swifties going to the ballot box is something the Republican party never, ever dreamed of.  Trump's Karma is comin' at him full speed ahead.

Chapels on the Hill

 Today, in Pylos, the temp is 71 (F).  They're predicting a high of 84 (F) with the possibility of afternoon showers.  In fact, for the rest of my stay here in Greece, it looks as though the temps are going to be hovering in the comfortable range. 

Today is free for us to do what we want.  My plans are to take some leisurely walks along the shorefront, short ones, and to spend most of the afternoon working on The Body in History.  I know some of you are no doubt thinking that sounds a bit absurd since, after all I am in Greece, and since I'm here I should be hitting every archeolgoical site possible.  But there is this bit inside me that keeps poking me, saying, "you need to write this shit down!"  So, unless something drastically changes things, that's what I'm going to be doing.

Yesterday, we walked through Mystras, one of the largest sites from the Byzantine period, and while it wasn't Byzantium, I'm thinking it was probably close.

There were a number of chapels built between the 11th and 13th centuries AD.  Like most of you out there, I'd never seen an ancient fresco before.  They were amazing.  Mystras is on a hill, a very big hill, though rather than climb to the top, we walked down.

The view was spectacular, though rather than post any spectacular view shots, I thought I dazzle you with a shot, or two, or three of the frescoes.

And, of course, here is one of the chapels.

Finally, the debate is tomorrow night.  One of the things I've read about it that is most pertinent is that Harris is going to be debating a pathological liar.  I'm betting that his team is far more worried about this than her team since they know he's going to be speaking in word salads, and, if he loses his temper, something that is quite likely, might drive the Trump Circus clown car right into a brick wall.

To the Lighthouse

 Good morning, from Gythio, Greece.  If the weather forecasts are correct, we will have a break from our temps in the mid 90s (F) 20s (C).  But only for today on our ride to Pylos.  Tomorrow we will back to normal late summer temps.

Before I left for this adventure, several people told me to start packing so I wouldn't forget anything.  And me, if you know me, said that was not necessary, that I wouldn't forget anything.  Well, I have to admit that I did forget one thing.  My comb.  Holy Crap!  One of life's essentials.  So, here I am raking my fingers through my hair trying to look somewhat presentable and the only thing I can think of saying is, to quote Eli Zinneman/Myers, "Shit."

Yesterday we had a hike to the lighthouse on Cape Tenaro, after hitting Girolimenas and the fortified city of Vathia.  The latter was interesting because there was a church with signs of the zodiac on the outside.

After Vathia, we had an interesting bus ride over very narrows roads and around sharp, hairpin curves until we reached the Cape for our hike.  Well, to be honest, it was more of a trek along a rocky path.  According to Garmin, I had a vigorous workout.  What stuck out in my head more than anything was that 2000 years ago, it wouldn't have been any easier, and yet they had the fortitude to build a lighthouse at the tip of the cape, the southernmost tip of Europe.  Being honest, those men building the lighthouse would have been younger than I, but on the other hand, they would have been wearing sandals rather than nice, well-fitting running shoes.

One of the true standouts was the Roman mosaic we saw on our hike.  At one time, there had been a statue of Poseidon, now there is just intricate tile work.  What an amazing thing to see.

After the hike, we stopped off for lunch and a swim at a beach.  Well, some went swimming, I paddled my feet.  This beach was so nice, and not at all what Americans think of when they think of beaches.  I could spend days there.

Does Anybody Know What These Big Balls are for?

 So, this is Friday.  I think I screwed up my posts... posting Wednesday on Thursday.  I set up my phone for international calling, so I have both local time and home time on the screen, and I don't always pay attention to which time is current.  The weather has been sunny and hot.  My melanin has kicked in and, I kid you not, were I to be running around in a skimpy swimsuit I'd be brown as a toasted almond in no time.

Here's a shot I took last night walking back to our hotel in Gythio.

This morning, we left for Monemvasia where there was another hill to climb.  On the way, we stopped to take some pics of a shipwreck.  Sixty years ago, cigarette smugglers ran their ship aground trying escape from the police.  

At Monemvasia, there was another hill to climb, not as difficult as the one at Palamidi.  Actually, this one was fairly easy, with a great view, and a church with an olive tree at top.  Can you count the olives?

The church picture was taken by one of my fellow Explorers, Di M.

I only have one question after today's adventure, can anyone tell me just what these big balls were/are used for?

As for back in the states?  Wowza!  YouTube shuts down Tenet Media because some of their biggest stars, Dave Rubin and Tim Poole to name some, are Russian Assets, getting paid more than $100,000 per week.  Two Trump associates have been arrested, again because they're Russian Assets, and Trump's campaign has gone into "black out" mode with people being threatened with termination if they talk.  Oh, and Orangie had a word salad Q & A in which he claimed that tariffs were going to pay for childcare.  The debate, if it actually takes place, might be one of the funniest things to ever happen on the political stage.  It would be hilarious to hear Harris ask the moderator if he can get her opponent to speak in complete sentences.

Tuesday in Greece

 Well, here it is, Wednesday.  The temps here in Nafpoli, Greece was 90 (F) this afternoon.  They could use some rain, and there were clouds overhead, but that didn't happen.  Oddly enough, when I checked my phone, Greek Accuweather indicated that the rain would stop in 40 minutes.  As I said, that didn't happen.

So, it's been a busy day so far.  At last count, I'd burned off over 900 additional calories, this was, no doubt, because I climbed over 900 steps up to the Palmidi Castle, and I only needed to rest 3 times.  Now, I know there are a lot of you out there wondering how high you have to climb to get in over 900 steps, so, when we were finished, I took a picture.  You can see the castle at the top, in the center of the picture.

Here's what Nafpoli looks like looking down from the castle.

And here it is from another angle.

And here's an artsy fartsy picture I took looking out over the Aegean Sea.

Our Tour Leader laughs almost as much as I do.  Though, to be honest, everybody appears to be having a really good time.  

Coming to Greece was one of the smartest things I've ever done.

Oh, and I've been corrected, the debate between Kamala Harris and Orangie the Anus isn't unto 9/10.  Thanks, otherwise, I would have spent the rest of this evening glued to my computer for updates.