Take it to the Limit

 This morning's Central PA temp was 60 (F), that's almost as cool as cucumber!  Temps will be rising though, both today and for the beginning of the week.  By Wednesday we should be topping off with a high around 93 (F) with high humidity.  Thunderstorms are supposed to be hanging around the area, but the chance of us getting a storm is 55%, so I'd say that's iffy.

Yesterday was a good day as far as writing goes.  No workouts were done.  No walking done. But as long as the words are going into the laptop things are good.  One thing that is making this easy is the dealing with the time when Eli's mother was still alive.  I'm old enough to remember what things were like around 40 years ago.  You know?  What songs were playing on the radio.  Here's a bit that may or may not be important to the plot.  One of the biggest hits back then was by a band called The Eagles.  One of their many hits was a song called Take it to the Limit.  Where as an enormous number of pop and rock songs are written in 4/4 time, Take it to the Limit is written in 3/4 time, also known as Waltz Time.  Does Waltz Time come into play in a mystery titled The Body in 4/4 Time?  Stay tuned.  Here's a live version of that song from 1977.

I did work yesterday and actually got 2 measures, neither is going to break the bank for the customers.  One is a small bathroom that'll probably cost around $800, and the other is a single bedroom.  The house is for sale, however there's ink on the bedroom floor and no one is making an offer.  this is a good example of how many people try to get their asking price without fixing anything up before the house goes on the market. The carpet is not going to match the rest of the carpeting in the house.  The seller, himself, wouldn't make an offer, so he's putting in the cheapest carpet we have to try and get his asking price.  I'm hoping he doesn't get it and has to reduce his asking price.

I'm betting Orangie's having wet dreams over his meeting with his Blo Bro Vlad.  This meeting is not a good thing.  Orangie will give away the bank in order to give old Vlad a cuddle or two.  

One thing I do find amazing is that MAGA cultists are truly ignorant of the hate Orangie is generating towards them and their party.  These people are in their own little world, totally clueless.  True, some are beginning to scratch their heads with the Epstein scandal, but many of them are still delusional.  Nothing is going to change that, unless they do manage to start a war and America starts hanging their treasonous asses.

What's in a Noem... I mean Name

 So, it appears that the weekend is going to start off with springtime temperatures with daily highs only reaching up into the mid 80s (F).  That will change as we move into the week, but even then our high temps are only predicted to be in very low 90s (F).  The chance of rain is minimal at best.  If our highs were higher, I'd say this was a normal August, but they're not.  This is good for my electric bill just like last year's cold winter was bad for my gas bill.

Yesterday was mostly unproductive.  I did some chores, only one load of laundry.  I feel I should have done more.  However over 1000 new words were added to the new book, so writing wise, yesterday was good.  I finished the chapter "If you hum a few bars," and moved into the next chapter "reel to reel."  Remember, this is a musical mystery, and I can tell you there will be an "intermezzo time" next up on the writing agenda.  I am trying to keep a good balance going between two stories, one of Eli's mother, who died when he was five, and, of course, the murder mystery.  The idea of having a musical code which needs to be deciphered has been replaced with something more... interesting.

I am scheduled to work today.  

I also tried to find the clip from South Park where Kristi Noem's face falls off, sadly, the only clip I could find was her recruitment video, the one where she shoots the puppies, so consider that a cautionary warning.

My sister called yesterday to ask if I'd seen that the new guy in charge of the IRS is now the old guy, Billy Long, after 2 months.  I hadn't.  Scottie Bessent is now in charge of the IRS.  Billy, who was approved by the Senate, now has to be approved to be the Ambassador to Iceland.  That sounds like a demotion to me.  Perhaps Billy's bribe to the Orange Anus just wasn't big enough for the job he got.  There's also the possibility that Billy just wasn't corrupt enough to suit Orangie... nah, it probably has to do with the fact that he goes by Billy.  Let's be honest.  Billy is not a brass knuckle kind of name.  Nope, it's more of a stealing one of grannies checks and forging her signature kind of name.  Not that Scottie's a much better name, but Scottie's a super billionaire and in Orangie's book, that puts him near the top of the "Billionaires I want to be friends with" list.

Price Increase in aisle 1... 2... 3.......

 Good Morning World!

On this sunny Friday morning, the outside temp is sitting a comfy 64 (F).  The forecast for today is: mostly sunny and our chance of precipitation is 1%, now, that's pretty damn low.  We all know what that means, don't we?  My first load of laundry is in the washer.  The drying rack awaits.

Yesterday was pretty doggone good.  I vacuumed up all the Howie hair upstairs, and there is a lot.  Got lots of words written.  A fairly decent upper body workout was done, 239 calories were burned off.  Enough pulled pork was cooked to last for the next few days.  And I did 20 minutes on walking pad.  I like it.  It is really a mini-treadmill, except it folds up.  It will stay down in the writing room.  Yesterday I set it up in front of the desk, on the area rug.  That I didn't like, so I'm going to relocate it behind the desk onto the hardwood floor.

A BJ's Wholesale Club opened up about half a mile from where I work.  It's one of those membership clubs that sell discounted products.  Right now a promotion 1 years membership cost $15 and I'm thinking of joining, what with the cost of everything going up.  My neighborhood Giant supermarket offers points for every dollar you spend, so $100 = .10 off a gallon of gas.  However, they also offer promotional items where, for example, if you buy a 4 ounce bottle of Pom you get 40 points. There have been times when I've gotten up to a $1.00 off the price of a gallon of gasoline.  That's nice.  With food prices set to go through the roof, the points might be better than the discount card... that is unless my neighborhood Giant decides to change the way their point system works.  The higher prices would let you rack up the points faster.  

And prices are going up.  I took this picture on Wednesday, the day the tariffs went into effect.  The new "low" prices are now higher than the old "high" prices.  Every aisle is filled with these price mark-ups.

And, speaking of the Orange Anus, did everyone get a chance to see him announce how the job numbers released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics were wrong?  He used a chart with a graph pointing upwards and said the numbers were great.  Oh, and he said that they used numbers that hadn't been available before.  Social media went wild since apparently someone gave him access to a large piece of poster board and a sharpie.

And finally, evidently Kristi Noem, aka Ice Barbie has a real cranky hair up her butt because of how she was physically portrayed on South Park.  She's not complaining that in the episode she shot a puppy every 8 or 9 seconds, or about how ICE brutally kidnaps people, or about her violent recruitment video.  In fact, she's saying they ignore those terrible things about her... they didn't.  Nope, ICE Barbie's upset because after all of facial work she's had done, hair extensions, and cheek implants, they made fun of how she looks.  And the Orange Anus put this loser in charge of Homeland Security.

The Big Reveal

 Good morning!  Our temps today are once again predicted to climb into the low to mid 80s (F).  Yesterday?  Well the forecast was kind of off, we had mucho grande clouds.  We even had drizzles in the afternoon and early evening.  Today, supposedly, cloudiness is predicted to be at a minimum, there is bright sunshine outside at present. 

So I actually used the walking pad yesterday.  I like it, however, there is one teeny problem.  Where as the treadmill had all of the controls in front of you, the walking pad has an app.  They want you to download it into your phone.  Not me.  I'm a bit funny about which apps are in my phone: nothing financial, no apps with Chinese above the English wording.  You know, those apps that might provide access to the slim amount of personal data I already have in my phone.  So, I put the app on a tablet.  The max speed on this pad is 6 miles per hour, that's a jog not a walk.  I hate jogging, so that will never happen.  Those with max speeds of 4 mph are less expensive, take that into consideration if you're thinking of investing in one.

I did file a complaint yesterday about the probably fake account I was direct messaging, not that I think it will do any good.  The account has "no content available," which means it was either deleted or Threads shut it down for breaking community rules.  I did send a message to the person, however since he doesn't follow me on Instagram, it went into his "message request" folder where it will sit for 3-4 weeks unless his PA either reads it or deletes it.  He is not known for his social media presence.  And, since this is turning into a nothingburger, I've decided to post the first part of a conversation that went on for almost week, one that was totally focused on Eli and Max.

So, I saw this morning where the Orange Anus wants to have another census in order for Republicans to cheat better.  This is a timely process and if it does happen in say, oh... 11 or 12 months a majority of Americans will know the numbers have been fudged.  The biggest problem for conservatives is that they simply don't realized that in a country that is armed to the teeth they need to have a majority of the people behind them.  Right now Orangie's approval rating sits at 38%, that's every Republican.  About 10% of that number is stupid people.  And now his tariffs are upon us.  Higher prices will continually erode his approval rating.  Any moment now he's going to say "let them eat cake," and we know what happened the last time those words were spoken.

Big Balls

Our skies are overcast and our morning temp is 70 (F).  If the weather forecasters are correct, we're not going to break out of the 70s (F) today.  The chance of precipitation inches up a few degrees, but is still negligible.  Both temperature and humidity will be slowly climbing over the next few days.  By Sunday, we should be in he high 80s (F) and the dew point also be high.  By Tuesday, however, rain should be moving into the picture.

Yesterday was... different.  I don't usually follow celebrities on social media since most of their posts are done not by them, but by their personal assistants and are in one way or another promotional.  However, back on July 24 a celebrity posted a bit about a project he was involved with which I found interesting.  Even for non-celebs I always click on their profile to check their bona fides.  There were direct links to both this person's Instagram account and the project he was involved with, so I followed.  Two days later, I received a direct message to my Threads account from someone in this person's organization welcoming me, asking for my preferred pronouns, and where I was located.  I provided the correct pronouns, the same generalized location I give everyone (Central PA), and added a bit about the Eli  and Max mysteries.  Over the next few days a number of direct messages went back and forth concerning Eli and Max, and then the messages stopped.  I waited a day and sent another message, no response. I clicked on the account and found out that it has been entirely deleted.  Wow.  While there is no longer an account, I still have the DMs.  I've taken screen prints of them and emailed them to myself.  Was this a fake account?  Might someone working for this celebrity be on a fishing trip?  The messages all revolved around Eli and Max, how interesting it was that they were together for 19 years, and that they solved murders.  There were no questions about personal information, no requests that I call a specific phone number.  I'm actually enjoying the mystery part of this.  Either today or tomorrow, I will DM this celebrity's profile on Instagram and detail what happened.

Anyway, my walking pad came yesterday.  It folds up nicely.  Now all I have to do is decide in which downstairs room I'm going to put it.

And for those who haven't heard yet, Big Balls was assaulted.  You all remember Big Balls?  The 19 year-old who worked for DOGE?  The one who had access to all of our data?  It happened around 0300 in DuPont Circle.  For those who don't know, DuPont Circle is a prominent gay neighborhood in Washington, DC.  Did I tell you that the police response was at 0300?  Supposedly, 10 black youths were attempting a car jacking.  That's right, there were 10 of them.  Supposedly, a woman was involved and Big Balls pushed her into (?) the car and told her to lock the doors... must have been a very old car.  Anyway, when the police arrived there was no sign of the youths, just a shirtless Big Balls looking like he may have been smacked in the face.  Oh, and the youths stole his IPhone.  IPhones are extremely difficult to sign into without the password.  Did I tell you DuPont Circle is very gay area of DC known for it's bars and bath houses?  Did you also know that DuPont Circle is also considered to be one of the safest places in DC?  Could it be that this group of 10 black youths might just have been after Big Balls?

Striking the Match

 We have another cool morning here in Central PA.  Yesterday, the temps climb fairly high on the thermometer, upper 80s (F).  Even though our afternoon high is only supposed to be in the low 80s (F), I'm suspecting today will be a repeat.  We are under an air quality alert.  I suspect it's the wild fires in Canada.  Oddly enough, I don't remember all of these wildfires taking place when I was a kid, but then things are different today, we have satellites, and air monitors, and people who get paid to keep track of such things.  Back then the weather forecaster would look out the window and decide if the day was going to be cloudy or not.

I worked yesterday and so my routine is not even close to what I like to think of a normal.  I like to write starting in the mid to late afternoon, however when I work writing needs to be done before I leave.  Sometimes that works well for me, but frequently it doesn't.  Yesterday it worked well, but then the storyline is at point where action is happening and things are moving quickly.

Even though the store is making plan, foot traffic was very slow, mid-February kind of slow.  One of the hardware associates was complaining about hours being cut.  Evidently at one of the morning meetings last week an announcement was made that fewer hours are going to be scheduled.  Right now this only  concerns part-timers.  This also means that there are going to be gaps in the coverage when no one will be schedule to work in certain departments.  This is all related to the tariffs.  If the orange home improvement retailer I work for isn't going to raise prices, they're going to have to cut expenses and the easiest expense to cut is payroll.

And this was Howie's birthday present.  He loves the stuff, unfortunately it costs $4.59 for a little 12 ounce can.

And the Democrats from Texas have temporarily relocated to several other states to avoid pushing through Republican redistricting in order to give the Orange Anus 5 more seats in the House of Representatives.  The fact that Republicans are trying to increase their count to avoid the Orange Anus from being impeached tells you what's terribly wrong with the GOP.  The party that wants authoritarian rule in the United States has a big, big problem: they're a minority party who simply can not deal with the fact that a majority of Americans hate them.  The anger is growing and they don't know how to handle it, you see they convinced themselves a long time ago that all they had to do was get themselves in charge.  They truly believe that if they say, "shut up, we're in charge," everyone will simply bow their heads and meekly say, "okay."  That isn't happening.  America is watching as the Republican party proves they will accept any evil if it helps them stay in power.  This has always been the problem with Authoritarians, their ability to comprehend is at a minimum at best.  This is why they've always ended going down in flames.  They will torch themselves and burn themselves to the ground without ever understanding that were the ones who struck the match.

Mohawk

 Well, we had another cool wakeup this morning, with our outside temp a comfortable 60 (F).  If the long range forecast holds out, over the next 2 weeks only one day will have temps reaching the 90 (F) mark.  There's not a lot of precipitation in the forecast, which means daily waterings of the tomatoes, but that's fine with me.

Yesterday was uneventful mostly because I work the entire day.   We did have a senior customer who sat and talked for about twenty minutes.  She was very nice.  While she didn't tell us how old she was, I'd estimate she was easily in her mid 80s (F).  I showed her pictures of Howie, and she said she'd seen many colored Labradors before, but never one that was red.  We did have her laughing, which made me feel good.  I do think there are times when seniors go out just for the socialization, that's why I talk to all of them.  Some of them are quite interesting.

My local Giant supermarket had a deal on Spam last week and it turns out that Howie loves the stuff.  It's a little pricy at $4.59 for a 12 ounce can, so it's a treat he's only going to be getting on special days, like today.  What makes today special for Howie?  It's his birthday.  He's one year old today.  So instead of cake and ice cream, he's going to get Spam, and more than just 2 or 3 slices.

About 50% of all the carpets we sell in the store are manufactured by Mohawk.  The company has taken a stand on the tariffs.

Supposedly the great orange home improvement retailer I work for said that they weren't going to be raising prices because of the tariffs. However, first there was Procter & Gamble and now Mohawk, who knows what other prices are going up as well.  My feeling is that price increases will quietly be passed onto our shoppers.

For those cultists who are still lost in the haze of hate surrounding the Orange Anus, the Find Out stage is going to kick in quickly.  Halloween and Christmas depend on China cheap prices.  These cultists are not even preparing for higher prices.  I can give you an example of these price increases.  I bought a walking pad on 7/31, yesterday, while at work, I showed it to a friend and to my surprise the price had increased by $100.  These price increases are going to be everywhere.  Americans are going to be paying a lot more just so that billionaires can get a tax break and earn more money.

Pirro Wine

 Last night was great sleeping weather!  When I woke up this morning our outside temp was 58 (F).  Today's high is once again only supposed to climb into the low 80s (F)  No rain is in the forecast, or I should say we have a 1% chance of rain today, tomorrow, and a 4% chance on Wednesday.  Thursday it's up to 6%.  This means I will be watering my little garden, which is down to just tomatoes.

I did manage to get in an upper body workout yesterday before I headed off to work.  A small one.  I did something to my lower back about a week ago and it was in a really cranky mood for several days.  That has now passed.

A new Walking Pad was ordered, it will be arriving Tuesday.  Because it folds, I'll be keeping this piece of exercise equipment downstairs.  It will fit in quite nicely under the futon in the living room.  The thought had occurred to me that I might walk and play video games at the same time.  That might be interesting, especially in combat situations.

The increase for my car insurance came in the mail yesterday.  As expected, my rate did go up with the  new car.  A nice surprise was that the cost only went up by $13 a year, which is $1.08 a month.  Both the insurance agent and I were surprised.  I was expecting a much higher increase and evidently so was he.

And Jeanine Pirro is now the interim US attorney for DC.  This calls for a glass of wine or 10, depending on if you're happy or not.

For those who don't know, Jeanine is another Orange Anus pick who comes from Fox Entertainment; Rupert Murdoch must be pleased to no end with his ability to influence American politics.  Anyway, Jeanie's a wino, a conspiracy theorist whom Fox actually took off the air for a bit because of her insane views, and a wino.... oh, wait, I already said that.  Every Republican voted for her.  

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

 What a difference a day makes.  Our temp this morning in Central PA was 58 (F).  Our high today is predicted to hit the very low 80s (F), which is fine.  No rain is in the forecast for at least a week.  I'm happy about that.  Things need to dry out.  I don't mind watering the tomato plants. 

I did get things done yesterday, most importantly a new area rug to cover up the tiny hole Howie made.  Otherwise, yesterday was pretty much rather forgettable.  I did get some words writ.  That was nice.

I listened to the first chapter of The Body on the Lawn I put on Audible.  What a difference a year makes.  I definitely could have give the narrator more direction.  The voice he used for Max is way too deep, in fact the first thing I thought of was Himbo, and Max is anything but.  Still, there's nothing I can do about it now.  The idea has occurred to me that if I do any more audio books, I might narrate them myself.  My speaking voice isn't that bad, just don't ask me to sing.

And here's a pic of Howie on the new rug.  He's almost fully grown, now.  

And the tariffs kicked in yesterday.  The plum tomatoes at my Giant supermarket went from $1.69 a pound to $1.99 a pound.  Of course, they come from Mexico.  There is some produce which didn't go up in price, it's locally grown, however we're heading out of growing season here in Central PA.  Prepare yourself for other higher prices.

And then there was the jobs report.  ADP has been reporting the serious drop in hiring for the past 3 months.  Their reports were legitimate.  The reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were skewed horribly higher, no doubt to please Orangie.  Yesterday they reported the truth.  The woman in charge was immediately fired because she told the truth.  According to the BLS only 73,000 jobs were created last month.  As one economist put it, "that number will probably be adjust downward, so it may only have been 7000 jobs."  Orangie is killing the economy.  Remember, he has already racked up 6 bankruptcies.  Also, historically speaking, the Republican party, the party of selfishness and greed, has always ended up destroying the economy.

Bad

 Our outside temps were 67 (F) this morning here in Central PA.  Temps are supposed to climb into the mid 70s (F), a cool beginning to August.  If the long range forecast holds out, we're looking at high temps in the low to mid 80s (F) for the next week.  And all of that rain we were supposed to get yesterday, it passed both above and below us.  We got maybe a drop or two.  That's it.  So this morning I went out and watered my raised garden.

The only thing I did a lot of yesterday was eat.  Oh, my.  I haven't stepped on the scale this morning, but I'm certain I gained about 20 pounds.  That is an exaggeration, of course, but believe me when I tell you that poundage was added.

Certain chores are already scheduled for today, number one being the purchase of either a runner, or a small area rug.  Howie was bad.  He was told so in no uncertain terms.  What did he do?  Chewed a hole in my area rug.  He did get a scolding, and then afterwards he couldn't be nice enough, or friendly enough.  Working in the flooring department, I have to tell you that this is not a first, we have had many customers coming in looking for small sections of carpet to repair spots their dogs have chewed up.  In fact, one of our managers had to buy a rather large piece to fix a big hole his daughter's dog had feasted on.

The jobs report is out this morning.  It's not good.  Only 73,000 jobs were created in the United States last month.  It's also reported that jobs figures for the past 2 months have been revised down.  NBC has reported that this  is not a good sign for the economy.  And the Orange Anus has just announced more tariffs and increased tariffs.  Believe me, things are going to get worse.  He's going to crash this economy so badly.  Corporations are going to fall apart.  Stocks will crash.  And Orangie will do what he does best, blame Obama.  Except it's not going to work.  Time is not on his side in so many more ways than one.

And regarding the Proctor & Gamble price increases, it's not just cleaning supplies, it's Crest tooth paste and Old Spice everything, to give you just two more names.  There are many more because Proctor & Gamble has pretty much of a monopoly on certain types of products.  

Howie's Rocks

 Good morning world.  Here in central PA our outside temp is 77 (F).  The sun is still shining, but that's going to change.  Much rain is in the forecast.  Showers are to begin sometimes this morning, followed by storms and thunderstorms this afternoon and this evening.  Rain is always appreciated, especially in what are traditionally our dry months.  Our green lawns will not be turning brown this summer.

Yesterday was a good day for getting things done.  I started off the day by baking a loaf of bread, and went on to do 4 loads of laundry, clean out the big aquarium, and vacuum up tons of doggy hair using the vacuum with the cheap bags.  I finished one chapter in the new book and began another:  Can you hum a few bars.  It's an old joke, so I'm not expecting all of you are going to get it.

Today is not going to be a chore intensive.  Though things do need to be done.  I'm thinking of buying a walking pad, which is like a treadmill but much smaller, some are foldable.  The treadmill I tore apart and turned into a raised garden was just too massive.  I do like walking, it's good for my lower back.  I might not be able to stop the arthritis, but I may be able to slow it down considerably.  I don't want to be one of those seniors who lets aches and pains infringe upon my daily life.

I believe I've mentioned before that Howie likes to bring stones and rocks into the house and trade them for puppy  cookies.  Well, a while back I decided to save them.  This is Howie's rock pile.

For those of you who missed it, Proctor & Gamble is going to be raising prices.  Some of the products sold by P&G are Tide, Downey, Mr. Clean, and Swiffer.  These are all products that the great orange retailer I work for sells in our cleaning department.  While our corporate headquarters has said they're not going to raise prices I'm betting these increases will be passed onto the customer.  And we only sell a smidgen of the products P&G's going to be raising prices on.  So remember, every time the Orange Anus shrieks about how much money his tariffs are raising, he's talking about your hard earned money.  Remember, those billionaires running this country don't give a shit about you or how difficult it is to make ends meet.

Fantastic Four

 Good Morning people!  Our high temp for today has been revised... down.  Our high for today is only predicted to be 96 (F), which means the little red thermometer indicating heat warning is no longer in our forecast.  Now, isn't that nice?  We have a 40% chance of thunderstorms.  Tomorrow that % is up where our high temp was supposed to be today.  If the weathermen are right, Thursday and Friday will be filling up our rain gauges again.

Yesterday was one of the meh days that substitute as Tuesdays.  When I bought my car the dealership recommended I make an appointment with their tech expert in order for her to go over all of the functions and apps on my car.  I cancelled.  The differences between what I had in the Crosstrek and what I now have in the Outback are not that different.  In fact, in today's world of computerized automobiles I suspect there isn't really much difference between one model and the next, so a Ford, or General Motors vehicle is going to have the same apps as a Subaru.

So far today has been much more productive than yesterday.  The first load of laundry has been washed and hung out on the rack to dry, and the second load is in the washer.  One thing I need to do when hanging clothes out to dry is use clothes pins, otherwise Howie will pull T-shirts and shorts off the rack and run around the yard with them in his mouth.  The bread machine is kneading a loaf of bread; I included some wheat flour since I still have about 3 pounds left.  

I went to see Fantastic Four, First Steps last evening.  I liked it a lot.  I have been a fan since the series came out, yes, I am that old.  One of the main reasons was Johnny Storm. What was not to like about a blonde teenager who was so hot he could set himself on fire?  Joe Quinn does not disappoint, even though his Johnny Storm is much older than a fourteen year old boy.  Pedro puts in a great performance as well playing Reed, a man who can stretch his body, but who's logic is much less flexible.

Supposedly the economy grew by 3% which was higher than most economists were predicting.  Before everyone gets out their rah rah pom poms and starts dancing around, we have to remember that this administration has no problem fudging the books in a way to make themselves look good.  We also need to ask ourselves how much of this growth was the result of pre-emptive buying?  You know?  Like me and my new car?  You do know that one of the main reasons for my purchase was the impending price increases brought by tariffs.  So, you need to ask yourselves how many other people are just like me?  Buying when the price is right.  I've already suggested that might be why high priced installations are being purchased.  I don't doubt that there are quite a number of Americans who would rather buy now and save later.

And of course, Orangie did say some truly vile things yesterday about Epstein stealing two of his spa workers.  This is the 3rd reason that he's given for their breakup.  Another was that he discovered his pal Jeffy was having rather unsavory relations with very young women.  The reason most likely to be true was that his pal gypped him on a real estate deal.  Since we all know how long Orangie holds grudges, I would say that is possibly the real reason his friend was arrested and was murdered committed suicide while Orangie was in office.  There are whispers that it was Ghislaine's team that leaked the birthday book to the Wall Street Journal.  Could she be out for a little vengeance?  If this is the case, I wouldn't doubt if she has a veritable treasure trove of dirt on Orangie.

Fox Entertainment

 So, we're in the middle of mini heat wave.  Temps are going to be in the high 90s (F) both today and tomorrow.  Right now our outside temp is 74 (F) with a "real feel" of 85 (F).  I did a search to find out how "real feel" is calculated and it's a combination of heat, humidity, wind, and.... get this... solar intensity.  Solar intensity is measured in watts per square meter.  In reality, I don't doubt that someone stands outside for a few minutes and, upon coming back into air conditioned comfort and, ignoring the reading on the thermometer, says "wow!  that feels like 85 (F)."

I did work yesterday and it was slow.  Only myself and an aisle associate were scheduled.  I did talk to a few people, but mostly chatty conversations about old houses, and which floor leveler was best for a wood floor.  Usually I take something for dinner when I'm working that shift, yesterday I didn't thinking there would something left over from the weekend and there was:  yogurt.  

Since this is my first day off, my first load of laundry is in the washer.  Rather than use the dryer, it will be hung out to dry on the rack, however because we're supposed to have high humidity, it may take a long time to dry.  This means it might be the only load for the day

The picture of Max the cat which was posted yesterday was actually scheduled for today's post.  A bit on Max.  I got him when he was 8 weeks old and he lived to be 21 years old.  He's the only pet I've had who's buried here.  He was a good cat, and is the namesake for Maxwell Sullivan, one of the main protagonists in my books.

So today, instead of Max, you're going to get a picture of Harrisburg.  This was taken from a drone looking east.  My house is located to the left and behind the camera.  The island in the middle of the picture is City Island.  A long time ago, before they built the baseball stadium, they used to have concerts there.  I saw, among other groups, The Grateful Dead there... twice.

Isn't it fascinating how even without the Orange Anus's tariffs kicking in, prices are still going up.  Many people don't know that a lot of them are on hold because TACO.  Supposedly, according  to that horse's ass Howard Lutnick (notice I didn't say Nutlick) they're officially starting on August 1st.  This is interesting because Chinese sources are saying that an extension  has already been agreed to because TACO.  

And I read that Orangie wants Rupert Murdoch to be deposed within the next 2 weeks because Orangie is worried Murdoch, who's 94, might die.  Orangie better hope that Rupert lives as long as possible because when he dies control of Fox entertainment goes to all of his children.  Except for Lachlin Murdoch, all of Rupert's children hate Fox Entertainment. so with his death great changes may happen there.  Changes not to Orangie's liking.

Max, the Smart Ass

 

Scottie the Billionaire

 Okay, so it's hot here.  Our outside temp is 75 (F).  If the forecast is correct, will top off at 95 (F).  That is warm.  We are beginning a mini heatwave.  Tomorrow and Wednesday our temps will climb into the upper 90s (F).  Keep in mind we are much farther north than most of the country, so those down south will be suffering through a scorcher.  Thursday showers and thunderstorms will be moving into the area and temps will dive back into the high 70s (F) and low 80s (F).  The extended forecast for August looks to be on the cool side, but we all know how fickle forecasts are.

I did work yesterday.  They were providing breakfast all day again, so I didn't take a lunch.  Unfortunately, it was a grab and go breakfast, inexpensive individually wrapped pastries with a high fat content, and Nutra-grain bars.  Boo!  Hiss!  Oh, and there were day old pancakes, so make that a double hiss.  I ended up stopping off on my way home and picking up a frozen pizza.  Yesterday was not a healthy diet day.

Retail sales for the past week were good, though as a head cashier pointed out to me, footsteps in the store were low.  This means that the buckos going into our bank account are being put there by customers doing large projects.  In flooring, a hardwood installation worth $17,000 went through.  

There are several games that Howie and I play:  Trade the stone for a cookie; Chase me for the sticks in my mouth; and that ever popular Sock Race.  Sometimes he gets quite excited by these games.

Again, the Orange Anus is bragging about a trade deal, this time with the European Union.  Again, this is just the framework for a trade deal, the deal itself has not been signed into law.  If and when it is signed we can expect costs for wine, cars, and a host of other things we buy from Europe to go up by 15%.  While Orangie screams that exporters will be paying these tariffs, you need to keep in mind that he's a pathological liar.  People like Scottie Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury, know and lie about this. Keep in mind that every company in which Scottie owns stock will be raising prices and that will increase their revenue, and that revenue will be taxed less because of Orangie's Big Beautiful Pile of Shit Bill.  So Scottie, the billionaire Secretary of the Treasury, will get even richer while you, and everyone who voted for Orangie, will get even poorer.

Zero Accountability

Today is supposed to be a carbon copy of yesterday, same temps, same humidity, but a greater chanced for showers and thunderstorms.  In fact, we have light rain as I type we have very light rain.  supposedly the sun is going to shine down on and off until the storms arrive.  I work today, so it doesn't bother me.

I worked yesterday and was schedule to sit for an hour at the dreaded Lead Table, however when I got to the store I discovered that some not too brilliant mind had decided that setting up a dunk tank in the parking lot would be better.  If you're at a festival where there are thousands of people dunk tanks can draw a small crowd.  There were not thousands of people shopping our store yesterday.  This is my way of telling that in my brief time at standing under the canopy offering customers free hotdogs only one customer attempted to dunk the associate in the tank.  And my time there was brief.  Ten minutes after I took up my position, I glanced to western horizon, pulled out my phone to check the weather radar, and then turned to the manager on duty and said, "the storms should be here in about 10 minutes."  We spent that 10 minutes packing things up and moving them inside until the storm had passed.  

Except for a decent upper body workout, everything was same old, same old.  I made teriyaki beef to take to work for lunch, so I over ate pancakes and sausages as well as the beef.  They're serving breakfast all day again today, so I won't need to take in lunch.  That's nice.

This made me laugh.

Orangie is still in Scotland, hoping that the Epstein scandal will disappear.  It won't.  People are pointing out that his Department of Justice meeting in secret with Ghislaine Maxwell reeks of corruption.

Oh, and speaking of corruption, how about Ryan Walters, the Christian Nationalist from Oklahoma getting caught watching porn on a TV during a meeting.  Ryan's the guy running the department of education in Oklahoma, the one who wanted to put one of Orangie's Chinese made bibles in every classroom of the state.  One of the witnesses said the porn he was watching involved naked women and an examining table, so maybe Ryan would rather be playing doctor.  Sadly, we all know that Ryan will probably make a tearful, public appearance, possibly with his wife, and announce that he has asked God for forgiveness, and everything will be hunky dory with Jesus.  One of the reasons for the Great Dechurching effecting Christianity is that it has become a religion with Zero Accountability.

Ghislaine

 Well, the weekend is here.   Was everyone working for it?  I wasn't.  I never do.  Our weekend temps are supposed to be in the mid to upper 80s (F).  We've got a 55% chance of showers and thunderstorms today and a 95% chance tomorrow.  In fact, there are predictions that we might get as much as an inch of rain tomorrow.  If we do, that will keep my lawn green and mowable.  On Monday the temps start heading back into the 90s (F) and the threat of storms goes down. 

Yesterday was one a fairly productive day.  The downstairs was dusted and vacuumed   Both are essential because I'm dealing with a lot of Howie hair.  There was some dog hair with Gertie, Lily, and Biggie, but nothing like what I'm dealing with now.  I have 2 vacuums, an inexpensive one upstairs and an expensive Miele downstairs.  Well, it looks like I'm going to be dragging that inexpensive one up and down the staircase because Howie hair fills the bags in no time; Miele bags are expensive, the others are cheap.

I also got an 11.9 mile ride in yesterday on the hills of Corsica.  Even though I hate them, hills are good for my legs.  Here's my ride.

And the Department of Justice interview Ghislaine Maxwell yesterday; the second interview in 2 days.  They gave her temporary immunity in order for her to give them the answers they're looking for.  There's talk that Orangie wants to pardon her, a convicted sex trafficker in exchange for her telling the world he is not in the Epstein files but other people, Bill Clinton for one, are.  While this might satisfy many in his base, a large majority of Americans will see it as pure corruption.  Personally, I think Maxwell is much safer behind bars.  Let's be honest here, Orangie is not known for honoring his agreements, in fact, just the opposite is true.  Right now she's getting 3 square meals a day, a roof over her head, and her internet capable cellphone.  Outside, she is a walking, talking, and breathing threat.  Someone needs to tap her on her shoulder and remind her that it was under Orangie's last watch that her buddy Jeffy Epstein died under mysterious circumstances.  If she does get pardoned, she needs to make a beeline to a safe country where she can ask for asylum.  Sadly for her, there are not a lot of countries that are going to give her that option.

Where's the Beef?

 We're under a heat advisory for today.  Right now our outside temp is 76 (F) and it is only going to get hotter.  Now that doesn't mean the mercury in our thermometers will be climbing into the triple digits.  Nope.  The forecast is for our temp to hit 95 (F), it's the "real feel" of 104 (F) that's the reason for the advisory.  Thunderstorms this weekend will knock our temps back down into the upper 70s (F) to mid 80s (F).

Yesterday was definitely a meh day when it came to getting things accomplished.  I was scheduled to work and that put a damper on my enthusiasm to do anything else.  I did get some words written, but just a few.  I also got a mini-upper body workout in, but even that was lame.  Certain muscles need more than 48 hours to recover, that's why the week gets broken up in to specific days, such as leg day, and back day, and arm day.  Muscle growth is slow to achieve.

Work, itself, we pretty meh, too.  My supervisors needed to help me cut vinyl.  She doesn't know what she's doing so it ended up all flippy floppy.  The roll should have been firm and it was saggy.  She's a dip.  In her middle 60s, she wants to move up into management and so she's focusing mostly on numbers.  She's taking the wrong tact.  She spends much of her time sitting at a computer and ignoring the fact that even our store manager is out in the aisles packing down product, filling holes in the shelves.  She doesn't understand that the position she wants is a labor intensive 50 hour a week job.  They're not going to promote someone who just wants to supervise.

For those who are counting pennies, the cost for a pound of ground beef is $6.19 here in Central PA.  That beats the national high of $6.12

For those who didn't see, Volkswagen missed their plan by $1.6 billion.  They are the 2nd car company in less than 2 weeks that missed by over a billion.  This is because they're eating the tariffs.  Wall Street is not going to let this continue.  Those car tariffs are going to be coming our way and the cost of a new car is going to go through the roof.

There is chatter that a trade deal with Japan might actually get signed, which is terrible.  The new tariff is supposedly 15%, the old tariff was 2%.  Those added costs are going to be passed on to the consumer, and the added revenue will be paid to billionaires.

Jerome Powell publicly disagreed with the Orange Anus yesterday on live TV.  Orangie's butt was already burning from South Park mockery.  His ego can not deal with this public ridicule.  And he's leaving for Scotland where everybody hates him.  There are going to be protests.  Good.

New approval ratings were released and Orangie's overall approval rating is 37%.  What's truly devastating about that number is that is approval rating among Independent voters is down to 27%.  That number is simply horrific since neither party can do anything without the Independent voters, and right now less than one third of them approve of Orangie and his administration.

Anora

 Well, Thursday has started out all bright and sunny and warm.  Temps are in the mid 70s (F).  Our projected high is in the low to mid 90s (F) and we are under a heat advisory.  Thunderstorms are not in the forecast, at least not until Saturday and Sunday.  This is what summer is:  hot sunny days.

Yesterday was interesting.  I did a short, low impact upper body workout.  Muscles need time to recover. My main goal is to maintain the muscle mass that I have and, possibly, maybe grow a few more muscle cells.  I've seen men in the 90s who look like big babies because they decided to just sit around and let their bodies atrophy with the years.  That's not going to be me.

I also spent some time chatting with an Hewlett Packard tech who finally got my color printer to work.  Something happened when I switched internet providers and I couldn't get the wifi to work.  He had me connect it with a USB cable to my laptop and then remotely went in and reset it.  The printer is still under warranty, a good thing since it took him about 15 minutes.  I watched as he typed different numbers on different screens and truthfully, there is no way I could have gotten it working again.  Now it prints fine.

I watched Anora last evening.  It won the Palme d'or at Cannes, and the Oscar for Best Picture.  It's about a sex worker who meets and marries the goofy, spoiled son of a Russian oligarch.  It's explicit at times, not X rated, but there is plenty of T& A for those of you who appreciate that sort of stuff; believe me, Black Swan was far more explicit, or Beautiful Things.  Anyway, once they get married the movie turns into a sort of slapstick/screwball comedy.  Oh, and there is a love story, but not between Ani and the rich kid.  I liked it a lot.

Also last night, South Park premiered it's 27th season... and it went after the Orange Anus in a big way.  I tried to find the clip on YouTube where Orangie strips down naked and climbs in bed with Satan who rebuffs him.  Orangie's small genitalia are mentioned several times.  I cackled.  I laughed.  I guffawed.  Video clips were all over Threads, so I suppose they're all over both Zitter and Bluesky.  And what makes this episode so great is that there's no mention of the Epstein files.  Nope.  But Orangie in bed with Satan who rejects him is golden.

And, as everyone should have expected, the Wall Street Journal did drop another tasty piece of dirt about the Epstein files.  Tell me, is any body really shocked to find out that Pammy Jo told Orangie his name was in the files back in May.  Of course, most of us already knew he was quite aware of how his name simply permeates those files, so her dropping that bit of info was no surprise to him.  And because Mikey Johnson shut down Congress for the next month the administration is left with trotting out old chestnuts like Hillary's emails.  August is going to be juicy. 

Intros & Narrators

 Our morning mid-week temps here in Central PA are still in the mid-60s (F).  Daily highs tomorrow will start climbing back up into the 90s (F).  That's find.  We are in summer, as season where nights are hot and days are hotter.  Friday's high temp should be in the mid-90s (F),but then the cool off begins as we head back down into the 80s (F).  The risk of afternoon and evening thunderstorms seems to be waning a bit.  These are the dog days of summer.

Yesterday was a day of massive accomplishments!

I talked to my friend Justin about the holly bush out front; he had just gotten off working the night shift and was in no condition to do any trimming.  So I pulled on my big boy britches and went out and trimmed the bush myself.  An hour later the bush was trimmed back to a normal sized and cleanup was complete.  That was in the  morning. 

In the afternoon I went for a 10.87 mile ride in Corsica, a ride with some decent hills.  During that 50+ minute ride I maintained an average heartrate of 128 beats per minute.  I was very pleased.

As some of you know I will, on occasion, listen to music when I write.  When I do so it's usually just one specific artist that manages to hit one specific note in the theme of the book.  This process is serendipitous.  While writing The Body Under Ice I listened to quite a bit of Spanish guitar music.  For The Body in the Tower it was Fallout Boy.  For The Body in 4/4 Time, what I'm calling a musical mystery, it seems as though I've settled on Bastille.  Here's a song called Intros & Narrators that might help you understand what I'm talking about.

No one should be surprised that Mikey Johnson shut down the House of Representatives a day early, his only other choice would have been to let Congress vote on releasing the Epstein files and that was a vote Republicans would have lost terribly.  A lot of people believe that Republicans are protecting a Pedophile, and they are, but most importantly they are protecting their slim hold on power.  Except for his personal polls, most polling shows his approval rating sitting in the very low 40s.  That number is going to keep on eroding.  Tariffs are kicking in and Americans are going to be paying more, much more for certain products.  And don't doubt that Americans will be paying the difference.  General Motors missed plan by $1 billion and Wall Street will put a stop to that loss very fast.

I saw some clips on Threads last evening where the Orange Anus was speaking at some meeting.  He was talking about cavities in the earth that had oil, and that we had drained, and that we had filled up again.  Total nonsense.  And I'm frightened that it is the likes of Pammy Jo Bondi, and Stevie Miller, and Noem the puppy killer who are actually running the country.  Having Orangie in charge is bad enough, but having losers like this acting as co-dictators is a recipe for total disaster.

Be Flat

Can you believe it?  Our outside temp is 64 (F).  Not only is that good sleeping weather, it also means that today's high temp in the low 80s (F) is going to be simply marvelous.   After today, however, that daily high is going to start climbing and by this weekend it will once again be in the low to mid 90s (F).  Honestly, that's fine too.  We do need a break from the afternoon and evening thunderstorms.  We had a mosquito problem over the last couple of years and that issue is continuing this summer.  

Yesterday was a fairly good day.  Some cleaning was done.  Some writing was done.  I completed 6 in The Body in 4/4 Time, it's called B Flat. It's a musical pun on Be Flat.  Our daily lives are filled with ups and downs.  There are moments when we smile and moments when we frown; highs and lows are constant.  While there are some who wish these ups and downs would level out, the truth is that when things are flat there is virtually nothing.  How sad would that be?

I did buy and insect repellent yesterday but I need to use it with caution.  Howie finds the scent interesting.  He tried licking my leg and that simply can't happen.

He and I went on a search for Sven yesterday.  Sven is a gray, hard rubber toy shaped like a hedgehog.  Sven is one of Howie's most favorite toys and Sven decided to go missing.  He was eventually found hiding behind the large aquarium stand in the writing room.  This is Sven.

I saw someone jokingly said that Pammy Jo Bondi was going to open a Department of Justice investigation to find out if the Confederacy did, in fact, lose the Civil War.  This is sadly amusing because of the Orange Anus's name saturates the Epstein files, and he's and his minions are desperately trying to change the subject.  This is the reason Pammy Jo is revisiting, and Orangie, himself, are screeching about a 9 year old election.  Their hopes that this Harpy song will change the course of the conversation away form Epstein will only be justified by their hard core base.  Mikey Johnson's decision to hold off on a House vote for releasing the files until after their summer recess increases the damage Orangie is doing to himself.  They keep digging themselves deeper and deeper.  Their cries demanding things be flat are, in fact, shrieking sharply out of tune with what America wants.

Trump and the AI

 My, didn't that weekend zip by so fast?  Outside, our temps are a comfortable 71(F).  That's fine with me.  Even better, there is not a drop of rain predicted in today's forecast and our high temp is only supposed to be in the mid 80s (F).  We have the same forecast for tomorrow.  This is quite doable.

My first load of laundry for the week is done and is hanging out on the drying rack.  I've not been able to do this for some time because of the frequent rains we've been getting  The less I use my dryer in the summer, the happier I am.  My only issue is with the mosquitoes.  The instant I stepped out the door I was swarmed.  The way I see it I have 2 choices:  wear sweatpants outside during the summer, or invest in some insect repellent.  Were I one of those people who spends hours and hours outside then a bug zapper would also be put into that mix, however I'm only outside a few hours a week so buying one would be a waste of money.

Work yesterday was slow.  Our plan has been lowered for the summer so we might have hit it.  I wasn't really paying that much attention.  On days when it's slow, I go into wordpad and write.  Somedays I can get quite a lot of words written.  Yesterday was one of them.

There was a charge for an additional line on my T-Mobile account this morning.  If they're going to charge me for an additional line and the $55 a month for the internet, this no long becomes a good deal.  I will have to talk to them in order to get this issue resolved.

Overnight Orangie has been posting different AI videos of Obama getting arrested, or in jail epitomizing how much he truly hates our first black president.  I find it interesting that he has always put a token black person in his cabinet and that token usually ends up being a corrupt Christian, an individual who believes he was put into that position to get as much free shit as possible.  Orangie does this in an attempt to influence people of color, hoping they run out and vote for him.  Sadly, there are people dumb enough to believe this, but then there are a large number of dumb people in Ameica and a majority of them are white.

One of the things that went through my head when I saw that JD Vance met with Murdoch in a hush hush meeting was succession.  Now I'm seeing more and more people are looking at that and thinking the same thing.  Could that be why Vance is out of the country so much on vacation, so that he's clean when it comes to not only the Epstein shit, but everything else that's piling up on Orangie?  The big, beautiful bill has already been signed into law, so at this point Orangie is useless.  Vance is far less popular among the cultists than Orangie, and this Epstein shit show has really begun to divide them.  Hhhmm.  Interesting. 

The White Snake

Our outside temps are a bit warmer than yesterday and humidity has crept heavily back into the picture.  Once again the threat of thunderstorms is again on our weather bingo card.  They will probably sweep through the area this afternoon bringing little relief from the humidity.  The temps?  They're not really that hot, upper 80s (F) and sometimes low 90s (F).  That's fine.  We are in summer after all.

I flipped the cushion on the futon in the living room over yesterday.  Way back when Big Seig and Lily were around one of them had discovered a loose thread on one of the seams.  Well, a red fox Labrador who shall remain nameless discovered that weak spot and puzzled at it with his paws until the seam ruptured, spilling foam and stuffing out into the world.  This unnamed lab thought this was a great toy!  He would dig out a piece of foam and then come sit in front of me with an inch or so hanging out of the corner of his mouth.  Such a tease.  So now that cushion has been flipped, and there's no seam, no foam, and no tease.

While the store wasn't going to  make plan yesterday, the flooring department had a steady stream of customers.  I sold some flooring but didn't go out of my way to sell any installs.  I talked to 2 different customers, answered a lot of questions, but didn't push for them to pay for a measure tech to go out to their houses.  I did let both of them know that they could set up measure appointments on line.  Online sales are split between the three of us who are sales associates, and that's fine with me.

Yesterday, in the long stretch between those 2 customers, I decided to get in some steps by walking up the the Service Desk to pick up returned merchandise for the department.  Halfway there, I saw one of our cashiers approaching me.  As I got closer I realized that he had a white snake around his neck.  Some people have an aversion to snakes, I have no problem with them.  So we chatted a bit about snakes, and frozen rats.  He was excited because he'd bought a baby boa earlier in the day.  I asked him if I could take his picture and he said yes, so here's Connor (sp) and his white snake.

And of course yesterday was just one more day in the continuous stream of days that make of this administration's shit show.  Many people believe that Orangie is terrified of the Epstein files being released.  I don't think so.  I do think Orangie is incapable of knowing fear.  Anger? Yes.  Rage? Truly so.  I understand he was rage posting last night on Truth Social about Obama and the 2016 election.  Hate and blame are his meat and potatoes.  Oh, and pleasuring in pedophilia.  Orangie is not scared of what might happen to him.  He is seething, and I don't doubt for a second that if you get to close to him he will physically strike you.  And this is a good thing.  

Murdoch vs Trump

 Our outside temp here is a cool 68 (F), the skies are cloudy, and we have a persistent drip, drip, drip of rain.  A warmup is expected... somewhat, this afternoon, though the humidity is predicted to soar into the uncomfortable zone.  I work this afternoon, so it really doesn't bother me too much.  Tomorrow we're back to our standard highs in the upper 80s (F) with the usual 45% chance of showers and thundershowers.

We are halfway through July and so far our weather patterns are different then what we've had in the past.  Temp wise they're about the same as in past years.  These are the dog days of summer and it's supposed to hot... and dry, and that's where the difference is.  We have, so far, and if the forecasters are to be believed, are in the middle of a rather wet summer.  There is the possibility that the dry spells will begin in August, so we can't rule them out.  Still, unless something changes, there will be no long, hot, sunny days with the cicadas plaintively singing for a mate.

I got a really good upper body workout done yesterday.  Some words were written.  

The firefly left the bottle and found a safe spot on one of the kitchen cabinets.  Last evening I scooped him up and set him free in the outside world.

And I don't know about you, but I'm safe.

I was not surprised yesterday when I saw that the Orange Anus was suing the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, and Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion.  If you weren't expecting this, you must be living on Jupiter.  This is standard operating procedure for Orangie; when he doesn't like something, he sues.  That dollar figure alone is certain to get more people talking about Orangie and Epstein.  There had been communication between Orangie and the Wall Street Journal prior to the bombshell article being published, so you can bet he threatened them with a lawsuit.  After Murdoch's $787 million out of court settlement with Dominion over Fox's lies about the 2016 election, you can bet that's he's learned from his mistake.  The odds are probably quite high that the WSJ has more damaging information regarding the Orangie/Epstein relationship.  While I don't doubt that the Oligarchy is tremendously pleased for the tax cut, I would not be surprised if most of them despise Orangie.  They all know he's a puss bag.  They also know it would suit their purposes better to have someone less reprehensible in the White House.  With all of their billions, I'm surprised that the know so little.

Politicalized Cancellation

 Well, the end of the work week has finally arrived.  Our current outside temp is 75 (F).  If the forecasters are correct, it's only going to be climbing another 7 degrees until it reaches today's predicted high.  We shall see this afternoon how accurate they are because since summer began, their highs have been low.

I worked yesterday.  It was slow.  I did sell vinyl planking for a staircase.  I'm about halfway to my sales goal for the week.  

Something nice did happen.  A fan of my books let me know she was finding The Body in History compelling.  That's such a nice word to hear when you write something, that it's being appreciated.  However, I asked her if she was picking up on any of the mythological elements and she wasn't.  Ouch.  Sybil is another way of saying oracle and there are a number of famous Sybils in Greek mythology, three of which stand out.  And, of course... are you waiting for it?  There are 3 Sybils in The Body in History.

Remember back when you were a child and most summer evenings meant chasing and trying to catch fireflies?  Well, nowadays I don't have to do that.  One of them has made it into the house and taken up residence in the bottle I use to water my plants.  I will set him free this evening, that is if I can get him out of the bottle.

In case you haven't heard, CBS/Paramount has decided to cancel the Stephen Colbert show because of... financial reasons.  Of course, that's not the true reason.  In the real world Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder or Paramount wants to sell her shares to Skydance Media.  The sale is/was huge and required government approval.  In order to make this sale a done deal, Shari paid off Orangie's administration with a $16 million dollar bribe... calling it an out of court settlement for Orangie's claim that CBS had edited a Kamala Harris interview.  On July 7 the government approved the the sale.  Because Colbert is on occasion critical of Orangie, who's ego gets bruised very easily, many believe the termination of his show, the most popular on late night TV, was politically motivated.  I'm with that crowd.  Maybe greedy Shari will suffer through scabies for the rest of her life.

And finally, Orangie's administration revealed that he has some sort of venous issue going on. This revelation is odd because he's always in perfect shape.  Again, many believe something more serious is effecting him and I agree with them, however, I also believe this is just another piece of shit Orangie's throwing at the wall in order to get people to stop talking about Epstein.

The Distinct Possibility

We had rain yesterday, thunder during the late afternoon and drizzling showers.  We did get rain overnight, I know because Howie's mud puddles are full of water.  We're under a heat warning for today.  Even though the temps are only supposed to climb into the low 90s (F) Accuweather is saying that the heat index will be around 104 (F).  I have questions.  Wouldn't the actual temperature be worse for you than what the temperature feels like?  And does the heat index effect everybody, or just certain people?  I mean, people who are hot and bothered when the temp is 75 (F), are they all melty on the ground when the heat index hits 104 (F)?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Things did get done yesterday.  A nice upper body and ab workout in the late morning followed by words getting written in the afternoon.  I spent some time getting to know the new car.  I'm discovering all sorts of little, specialties.  For example, when you open the driver's door a night a light goes on that illuminates the ground so you can see where you're putting your feet.  It had never occurred to me that this might be a beneficial feature.

I do get to work today.  I'm not excited.  I suspect business will be slow, not as slow as in February when no one is leaving their houses, but slow enough to get in a lot of steps.

And by now most people know that Trump is not into little girls because he tends to be mendacious, as in this bit he posted on Truth Social.

Yes, he actually posted this.  Can you here me laughing?  Loyalists like Mikey Johnson are supposedly breaking with Orangie and calling for the release of the Epstein files.  Even JD sofa man Vance has publicly called for their release.  This implies several things: there could be some serious AI work going on to alter and/or remove Orangie's name from the documentation; or there is a behind the scenes movement on to dump him using the 25th amendment.  Conservatives do need him, or at least his physical presence, to satisfy his base, however, once they achieve their agenda he's no longer necessary.  Take for example the $9 billion in finance cuts the Senate passed in the early morning hours.  Main Stream Media is calling this a win for Orangie, yet these are the very same cuts Conservatives have been salivating about for years.  Does this mean Orangie is just a figurehead president?  That's a distinct possibility.  

Superman

 So, this is the 2nd time I've written this today.  What happened?  Google so desperately wants me to use AI to write this a window popped up over halfway through today's post asking me if I wanted to use AI, when I clicked on no, everything I'd written disappeared.  That's the 2nd time this has happened.

Anyway, yesterday's weather did not follow the forecast.  Instead of having thunderstorms in the afternoon, we had sunshine.  True, the humidity was high, but the storms stayed away.  Supposedly we're going to get the rains today.  One thing that is for certain is that it's very humid right now.

Yesterday was another one of those days that things got done but not a lot of things were accomplished, if you know what I mean.  The problem was that I didn't make a list in the morning,  If I don't create a "to do" list my mind will dawdle on the unimportant.  Running around yesterday morning was one of the things I did.  Picking up a new aquarium light for the tank in the living room was one of the few concrete chores completed.

Last night I did go see Superman.  I liked it a lot.  David Corenswet is good as the Man of Steel.  I think, perhaps, the strongest performance was by Nicholas Hoult.  You know Lex Luthor is bad, but his malignance is hidden behind layers of smooth talking affability.  Just as you think you know where the story is headed, a reveal takes you in another direction.  Whereas most superhero movies use the first half to set up the big fight during the last half, in Superman you are hit with new surprises even during the fight. Even the true insidiousness of Lex Luthor is a surprise.

Of course, the Epstein scandal is still dogging the Orange Anus.  His entire political is based on forming one coalition consisting of many conspiracy groups and now reality has come to bite him in the ass.  Believe me when I say we should really fell sorry for reality.  Now, the GOP, which has wallowed deeply into this swamp in order to gain power, is stuck in quicksand.  Do not doubt that sucking sound you hear as they get sucked under is a great joy to many ears.  Every day there is a new desperate twist or turn, so many flips and flops they're struggling to keep up with the changes.  Things are flying at them so fast, I don't think many of them realize that every sound bite, every tweet, every interview is going to come back to haunt them.

And then there are Orangie's bruises, the ones that are being covered up with make-up because too many people were beginning to pay attention to them.  They imply he is not in the best of health.  If something were to happen to him, we'd be stuck with Vance, a man whom every one derides. 

The Good Thing

 Well, we did have rain yesterday afternoon.  We had a lot of rain.  Inches. I'm going to guess at least 4 inches fell in about an hour's time.  This storm was the reason certain parts of New Jersey are under a state of emergency because of this storm.  Certain areas of New York City were flooded as well.  The temps did drop afterward, but today's forecast is for the humidity to climb, so that this afternoon there will be, once again, the potential for heavy rains.

On result of the heavy rains was that my backyard did flood.  Outside the back door the water was about 2 inches deep.  Howie has no problem with rain or puddles of water, however he did decide to dig a hole and in doing so created made his self rather muddy.  Fun and joy commenced when  he came back into the house.

For me, yesterday was both eventful and noneventful, mostly because I ended up sitting at Faulkner Subaru for 3 hours.  No, my Crosstrek wasn't in need of repairs.  The original plan back in 2018 was to buy a car that was going to last for 15 years.  Well, I realized 7 years into the plan and had to put 4 new tires on my car that maintenance was going to get very expensive. It was also going to need new brakes.  And we do have these stupid tariffs; prices will go up and the probability of them coming back down is slim to none.  So, on days when I was working, I began searching.  I ended up choosing a Subaru Outback, much bigger than my Crosstrek.  As always, the color was very important.  I went with a color called Mahogany Pearl, or, as I've been telling people:  Purple.

From what I did see yesterday, the big news was that Charlie Kirk, the Cultist with no upper lip, flip-flopped on the Epstein problem.  After calling for every bit of the Epstein files to be released, this lipless wonder now says that we should move on...  Of course, this flip came after he received a personal phone call from the Orange Anus.  I'm betting that call was filled with coercive threats rather than casual requests.  Right now the question is whether Kirk's followers will drink the Kool-Aid.  Some may, but many, I suspect, believe so deeply the Epstein files will prove George Soros and high ranking Democrats are child traffickers, that it has now become one of their core values.  Crushing that belief will crack them apart mentally.  This is a good thing.