Death and the Washington Post

Outside, the them is 12 (F).  We are heading into a week of cold weather with only one day matching the bone chilling cold we had all of last week.  After that, warmer air will move into the area.  Will it be a February thaw?  I somehow doubt that.  I suspect our temps will not be climbing into the upper 40s (F) and low 50s (F) until the end of February.  

Yesterday was productive.  The two aquariums were taken care of, loads of laundry done, and decent little workout.  I only left the house once, and that was to go pick up a nice bottle of wine.  In a way I was celebrating.  The first draft of The Body in 4:4 Time will be wrapped up today.   And, most importantly, my Income Tax refund was deposited into my bank account.  That alone was reason to celebrate.  Not that I'm going to buy something extravagant.  Nope, most of it's going to be big, lump some payment on the principal of my car loan.  I'm going to see if I can pay that sucker off in a year.  That will be a Woo Hoo! moment.

I also signed up for Amazon Prime TV for a month, no commercials.  I like the Fallout TV series, and unfortunately that's on a Bezos owned streamer.  After I watch the 8 episodes, I will cancel.  For those of you who don't know, this is how you do it nowadays.  Subscribe for a month and then cancel, especially something like Prime, which now wants you to rent just about everything they stream.  As for the commercial free?  I'd rather pay that $3 than sit through 10 minutes of commercials per episode.  I can think of better things to waste my time on than have to watch or listen to advertisements for products I'm never going to buy.

And the Washington Post continues to rapidly decline.  This was one of their headlines this morning.

You'll notice that this is from the editorial board.  No one is brave enough to put their name on this opinion.  It's a good thing the bottom is falling out of their subscriber service.  I saw this little graphic, which says quite a lot about which Main Stream Media corporations Americans watch to get their news.

Apparently most Americans get their information from a wide range of sources.  Most of the minority party, the Republicans, get their news from Fox Entertainment.  While the Main Stream Media will sanitize the Orange Anus, Fox entertainment glorifies him.  To balance out that glorification, they espouse hatred for everything else.  If you don't bow down to Orangie, not only are you a loser, you're evil.  One of Fox's only bright spots is that for some odd reason they like to have Pete Buttigieg on to tear the network a new butthole.  

Later this morning, Orangie will be speaking the National Prayer Breakfast where he'll whine and complain about the 2020 election, and where a lot of phony Christians will thank God for letting them sell their souls to a Spawn of Satan. 

Not in our DNA

 The new week.  Temps are predicted to be nice and warm today.  The should be in the low 50s (F).  Tomorrow they're calling for warm temps, though not as hot, with average temps being in the mid 40s (F).  Hopefully the weather will stay fairly warm as I suspect energy bills are going to go through the roof.

I did work yesterday.  A customer set up a measure.  Two other customers returned a book of roller shade fabric samples, they want to speak to the associate who's exceptional at blinds.  I wanted to say that now might not be a good time to spend a couple thousand dollars on blinds.  We also got word that on February 10, our free carpet installation is going to go away.  We will now charge .49 a square foot.  There was actually a charge for installation, it was in the cost of the carpet pad.  Now they have to pay for the carpet pad and the installation.  I think business is going to slow down greatly.

I canceled my subscriptions to Paramount, Peacock, and Amazon Prime this morning.  The Amazon subscription just renewed in November and they charge by the year, so I will still be getting the benefits for the next 277 days.  There was a time when the channel was worth the money, but now except for the few original movies, everything is rent or buy.  I did keep up my subscriptions to Disney/Hulu and Neflix for the time being.  

I've been trying to take selfies of Howie and myself; this can be quite difficult.  Here's our latest, Selfie #2

And today is going to be... difficult for some people.  There is a good possibility that Wall Street might crash because of Trump's tariffs.  Stock futures are not looking too good.  I do think many Trumpers thought that the shift to an authoritarian government, one that they dictate, would be relatively painless.  They are about to discover how wrong they are.  Sometime today, after Wall Street opens, their 401Ks will begin to suffer as stocks drop in value.  They will take years to recover, if they recover at all.  At some point protests will begin, first in blue states and then in red states as the general population begin to realize that prices are never going to come down.  Conservatives have never understood the American public.  They have always believe that all they needed to do was be in charge, to yell "shut up! we're in charge," and the American people would act like docile lambs and obey.  They simply don't understand that for a vast majority of Americans, that docility is not in our DNA.

Fallout

Welcome to the new week!  It was 41 (F)) when I rousted myself from bed this morning.  The forecast is for us to climb another 9 degrees.  That might happen, might not.    

Since I have a humidifier, I thought I'd order some fragrance oil to make the air smell like lavender.  First off, I have to say it is a humidifier and not a diffuser, though when you check on line there really isn't that much of a difference between the two.  Secondly, I have the humidifier running at a rather low setting, since the air is not desert dry.  Thirdly, the only way you can smell the fragrance is if you're about 2 feet away.  Maybe if I ran the thing at full force the room might smell like lavender, but all that humidity wouldn't be good for fabrics, and wall coverings, and anything else on which moisture might accumulate.  

Yesterday was boring at work. There was not a lot of business, at least not in flooring and decor.  This was probably because we had rain on and off throughout the day, and some of those on times were substantial downpours.  I did hear a customer up at the service desk sounding surprised as he said that he'd thought there would be more people in the store since it was raining.  He evidently didn't realize that a lot of people don't like to get wet, and so when it rains they stay home watching sports, or a movie on TV.

And those of you with Amazon Prime, put April 12 on your calendar.  This is going to be great.

And I don't know about you, but it seems to me that with the expulsion of George Santos from the House of Representatives things are turning... well, bleaker, shall I say.  All of last week was not a winning week for them, to be honest.  The faux debate between Newsome and Ronnie D totally failed to pop Ronnie D's numbers.  Not good.  Hunter Biden volunteered to testify before Congress as long as it was an open session, not behind closed doors, and the Republicans shit a brick.  That's the last thing they want.  Bridget and Christian Ziegler began to answer the question of what happens to a socially conservative couple when their menage a trois goes awry.  I'm betting Christian does time in the big house.  And in a speech he was giving, Trump told the crowd he had 3 children... until and aid reminded him about Baroon.  

Price Increases

 The for this weekend is going to be Soggy.  Ophelia has arrived.  Now, I know that most of you out there think of Shakespeare when you hear that name, as she was the one told to "git theeself to a nunnery," and, of course, before the young thing can go, she ends up drowning.  In current day, however, Ophelia is a tropical storm which may become a baby hurricane for a little bit, and she's churning up the east coast with her final destination being somewhat south and west of us.  Right now the prediction is that we're going to get at least 2 inches of rain, possibly more.  I hope Bob and Carlos have their waders ready because they're probably going to get a few more inches then we do here in Central PA.

The rain is going to drive retail sales down.  For those who need some form of definition: today and tomorrow are going to be slow at the great orange retailer I work for.  This means I'll be sitting quietly at the flooring desk, most likely making notes for the smashing conclusion of The Body in Motion.  

I saw where Amazon Prime is going to begin charging those customers who wish to avoid commercials.  They're saying this is necessary to pay for the extensive entertainment they are providing.  Wrong.  For those of you who aren't paying attention, there's a writer's and an actor's strike going on right now and I don't doubt that studios, including Disney, Netflix, and Amazon, will give those striking much of what they want, but it is you and I who will be footing the bill.  Corporate profit is everything to these entertainment behemoths.  What viewer really need to do is start a boycott to reign in these price increases.  Hah!  That will never happen.  People are too weak.  What would they do if they couldn't watch Peacock, or Paramount +?  Read a book?

Paradoxically, and possibly on a bright note, once the strike is over production is going to begin on Troll 2.

And, as you might expect, the country is turning to the chaos that has overwhelmed the Republican party.  Their Just Say No tactic is backfiring is a very public way, with many media outlets now pointing to the complete collapse of what ever governing skills they might have once had.  Their refusal to compromise may satisfy that vary small minority that makes up the ultra-far right, but the rest of the nation is looking at them and a total failure of the conservative movement.  Of course, they don't get it because that would mean their beliefs are anti-American, keep in mind, however that in their vision, American has a far right, authoritarian government.

  

The Competition

 It's Tuesday, which means it's part of my mid-week weekend, the first day to be precise.  Mowing the lawn is on the list of chores for today, so is getting a haircut.  Yep, it's that time of year.  I try to get as few haircuts as possible.  I dislike the entire process, mostly because I end up having to deal with a barber who feels compelled to talk.  My idea of the perfect haircut is sitting down in the chair for 3 - 4 minutes while your hair is being cut and then leaving.  Unfortunately, that never happens.

It seems to be Blogger's been running slower lately.  When this happens my suspicious eye always looks at Microsoft.  My new computer runs Windows 11 and Microsoft is in competition with Google, or Alphabet, or whatever it's called right now, and, of course, Blogger is a Google product.  So, is Microsoft practicing a bit of competitive slowness?

I've started watching Amazon's Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power.  So far, so good.  The only issue I have is that there are only 8 episodes in Season 1 and if you have to wait a year between seasons, well, this thing's going to run forever and I'm only going to live for so long.  Of course, this is a problem I have with series in general, it doesn't make a difference whether it's Amazon, or Netflix, of Disney, in order to get these shows to run for decades, they give you 8 - 10 episodes and then tell you you're going to need to wait over a year for the next season.  They are competing against each other and, over time, this will work against them over time.  Because so many shows are being put into the competitive cycle some other series will become more popular.

There's an interesting bit in The Hill that the GOP's problem with Trump is worsening.  No surprise there.  This guy is a shit show in action.  He has become an anime from Hell.  Extremist imagers from his rallies set people's teeth on edge, especially those teeth of independent voters.  The classified document issue is making things worse.  I don't know if anyone has seen the bit about his legal team not wanting to tell the Special Master they requested exactly which documents he declassified.  And just think, next week we're going to have another Prime Time Jan 6 hearing.  

And the DA in the Georgia investigation has said thought her inquiries were going to lead to Jail terms.

And everyone is waiting to see what happens in New York.

It's almost as if all of these investigations were in competition with each other to see who can bring down the Orange Anus first, which means the GOP problem with the Idiot Jerk Trump will continue to worsen.

 

The Order of the Moral Degenerate

 Hello Work Week!  Don't it just fill you excitement to know you're going to spend 8 hours today in a cube, or an office, or at a desk, dealing with issues, or people?  I know I get to go to work... for 8 hours and sit the flooring desk, and deal with customers.  I can honestly tell you that my excitability bucket is nowhere near to overflowing.  It's not even close to being full.  However, I just paid my quarterly garbage / sewage bill so today's hours will allow me to keep banking my social security checks while only working part-time hours.  

Yesterday, a day I didn't work, was a day of mostly accomplishment.  I didn't take a single nap!  The lawn was mowed, laundry was done, grocery shopping completed, and the dishes?  hand washed, not popped into the dishwasher.  And I still had time for a long phone conversation with a friend to set up plans for next Sunday and get some Super Special armor in Elden Ring.

I also spent some time dickin' putzin' around with my TV.  I can't sign into Google Play Store, which is why the Paramount + app didn't update.  Shit.  I rebooted the TV, the router, cleaned up the Paramount cache.  Nothing was working, so I deleted the app and signed up for Paramount + through Amazon Prime; .99 a month for 2 months before the 9.99 charge kicks in.  I can probably live with that.

Here's another picture during my glory days in the Navy.   The date is Sept 73, which means it was taken almost 49 years ago.  I was 22 at the time. The blue thing in my hand was a piece of cloth that unraveled.  A few of us gave it a name as though it were a pet, Cleetus, if I'm remembering correctly.  Soon after it was thrown into the trash.

Politically, yesterday was fairly quiet.  There was a bunch of banter about Bannon's bullshit.  While most of us are smart enough to know he never had Executive Privilege, I'm sure MAGA world must be spinning on its head: a loyal member of the Order of the Moral Degenerate has lost his protected status.  Son of a bitch!  Will Bannon squeal?  Well, the January 6 committee may have to delicately parse his words to find slivers of truth as he belches out his testimony.

And finally, has anybody heard from Mark Meadows lately?  Cassidy Hutchinson mentioned him multiple times and we've heard nothing from his camp.  Could it be he's crawled so far back under his rock that we'll never hear from him again?   Or is there something else going on?

Blessed

 So, I ended up sleeping in late again this morning... and I went to bed early, no staying up watching mult-episode series on Netflix or Amazon Prime.  I did go for a 12.5 mile ride yesterday.  Since my treadmill is now dysfunctional, I'm back to riding more.

I also baked another loaf of Italian bread.  Why buy when you can bake?  I'm using the Italian yeast I bought during the lockdown, when you couldn't buy yeast in the store.  It works great!

And what about my title this morning?  Blessed.  In case some of you are wondering, I have not found that 'old time religion.'  But yesterday morning, when I returned home from grocery shopping, I paused to look at that rose climber I planted by my front porch.  It took 3 years, but it's bloom like Hell.  Then, one rose caught my eye.  Wow, I said, that one looks different.  Can you see what makes this rose special?

One rose with 2 buds

Now, isn't that a Blessing?

Back on Sunday, before going to work, I'd been look for restock dates for the Xbox Series X gaming console.  They're rare because of the chip shortage.  There are certain retailers I usually shop, Walmart is not one of them.  But on Sunday, I went to their website.  Wow!  They were in stock!  So I loaded that sucker into my cart, put in my credit card info, and pressed 'buy.'  A few seconds later I received this message:  "Sorry, we are now out of stock.  This item has been put into your 'save for later' file."  Honestly, I wasn't that upset since I know I'm going to buy one eventually.  Well, this morning I check my email and there's a notification from FedEx that my purchase from Walmart.com is out for delivery.  it should be here before 3 PM.  I have to wait and see just what it is they deliver.  Could it be Walmart made a mistake?  There is no charge on my credit card.  Son of a bitch!  I might really be Blessed.

I saw where a portion of the memo as to why Liar #45 was released, the meat and potatoes section being redacted.  We all know this was done to keep the Justice Department under Billy Barr was as corrupt as the phony president in the White House.

A bit about benefits

Monday!  I'm off.  Originally I had read my schedule wrong and thought I had off 2 days, worked a day, and then had off again.  Turns out I have off a day, work 2 days, and then have off 2 more days.  Does that count as dyslexia?
Maybe that's what's wrong with the Republican party.  Even after a bruising midterms, they continue to go about as though nothing has happened, business as usual.  Do they see going from a majority of 23 to being the minority party by 39 / 40 seats as normal?  Or is there something twisted in their brains which lets them see that loss and still say "hey, we got this!"  I mean, they've always been great on denial and pointing fingers.  Of course, they are terrified to point those fingers at the Idiot Jerk in the White House - that would mean they've made a terrible mistake, that they're completely out of step with a majority of Americans.  Come to think of it, being out of step has never stopped them before.
So, I went on line last evening to order the dogs their Christmas toys.  Well, the first thing I saw at the top of Amazon's home page was an announcement about Aquaman.  Amazon Prime members could actually purchase tickets to see the movie a week before release.  That's right, while the rest of America waits until 12/21, those who have Amazon Prime get the chance to see it early.  So, of course, I bought tickets.  Now, I call that a really nice benefit.

Finally, a bit about Met Life.  If you're my age, or there about, you will remember The Peanuts Gang and Snoopy.  They were unbelievably popular with daily cartoons in the paper and specials on TV.  The specials on TV were almost always sponsored by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.  Both of my parents bought Met Life insurance policies - it was the thing to do.  Well, now I'm dealing with Met Life.  They are greedy as hell.  I notified them on 11/16 of my Mom's death.  I was told they would mail me paperwork in 7-10 business days.  I notified them on Friday 11/30 that I still had not received the paperwork.  Their agent reminded me they had 7 - 10 business days "and there have been 2 weekends and a holiday since the 16th."  There agent then went on to tell me that once they receive the paperwork back, with the death certificate, they have another 7 - 10 business days before they have to mail out the check.  This means it could be over a month after I notified them that I receive the insurance check.  When I told her there might be people out there who might be in dire straits and might desperately need these funds, she said, "this is our policy."  In my opinion, this defines failure.  So, if you have annuities or polices with Met Life be forewarned, they will hold onto your funds with their tight little fists as long as possible.  They are not there to provide a benefit.

Amazon Prime Deals

Well, today is Amazon Prime Day, case you didn't know.  Amazon sells it as a day of super deals.  Walmart is afraid.... they are very afraid, but then Walmart sales figures just can't seem to hit their mark.  This is retail.  Anyway, there are a lot of "great" deals on Amazon today.  These sales are staggered in order to keep customers hitting their website over and over and over again.  If you want, however, you can check out all of the deals and find out when they're going to hit.  And, as was the case last year, these "great" deals are pretty much junk... well, that's not exactly right, let's just say many, many of the items on sale are not what I'm looking to purchase.  Unlike the vast majority, I don't shop.  I don't spend hours looking at things and thinking "wow, that's a great deal."  Nope.  People who do that waste a lot of money.  I knew exactly what I wanted before the sales began.  So, what did I buy?  Well, I was hoping Miele vacuum cleaners would be part of the Prime deals, but they aren't, so I didn't order the one I was looking at for the upstairs.  T-shirts were ordered, an additional 30% off with my Prime Card.  And a Stuhrling watch, again the 30% off.  They're running a deal on the X-Box Ones (already owned) but not the Playstation 4's (might have bought).  That's about it.  Way, way too many people buy shit because it's on sale and they think they're getting a deal, things they might use in the future, but then again might not.  Not me.

Oh, and I did order a copy of the remastered "Doom," Bethesda's First Person Shooter; only $30 for the hard copy.  The game was advertised at 50% off, but that wasn't exactly true.  Download copies were still at the $60 original price, and I'd check the pricing on it last week:  $34, so in reality I got a $5 deal, still $5 is $5, at least I know it will be used.

Amazon Prime Failure

Every now and then we find ourselves blindsided by something and all we can do is say WTF.  This just happened to me with Amazon Prime.  It's a fairly good service, for the most part.  I buy a lot from Amazon.  Since most of my purchases are planned out I usually take the standard 5 - 8 day free shipping; Amazon Prime will get it to you free in 2 days.. if you're that desperate.  They have a nice music service, I used mine three times for a total of about an hour and a half.  What I subscribed for was the TV / HD movies.  The free movies tend to be older, the newer ones you have to rent.  This morning, since I had a credit, I decided to rent "The Hobbit."  I was notified immediately that there was a problem:  my viewing device was not compatible.

Above is a picture of my television, a Sony Bravia KDL-46EX500 which is, I said above, incompatible.  Well, let me correct that, it's only incompatible when it comes to streaming HD movies.  This means that if I truly wanted to watch "The Hobbit," I could rent it and watch it in SD (standard definition).  This is what everybody wants to do, isn't it?  Rent an SD movie and watch it on an HDTV?  Needless to say, my subscription has been cancelled and a refund issued.  I suggested to Amazon's customer service department that they require individuals wishing to subscribe to verify their TV's are compatible.  Personally, I don't know anybody who would chose to watch an inferior quality movie on a superior quality television.  To not do so is a failure by Amazon Prime.

Verizon's act of desperation

Beginning Sunday, 4/19, Verizon (FIOS) is going to start offering what's being called 'skinny bundles.'  This is their attempt to stave off Cable Cutters and try to maintain some degree of market share.  Some are calling it a bold move.  To me, it's an act of desperation. I don't need a package offering 149 channels when I only watch 3 or 4.  I get all of my news (local and national) on the Internet because updates are current.  Why would I want to wait until the evening news broadcast on cable to find something out?  In fact, with my job, I'm rarely home at that time.
One of the articles I've read suggested it might too little, too late, and I suspect that is true.  The business model both Verizon and Comcast have been relying on is geared towards an aging population.  I, myself, signed up for Amazon Prime.  Because I have an X-Box 360 I can watch it on my really big screen TV.  I can also sign up for Netflix, and Hulu should I want.  So why do I need FIOS TV?

I don't.  Everything is changing.  Of course not everybody is going to change with the times.  My 82 year old mother loves to channel surf.  She rarely watches a show in its entirety.  She is not alone.  There are a lot of people out there who are just like her, they need the super smorgasbord of 189 channels.  To them the idea of only watching a few shows is totally alien.  Under the new Verizon 'skinny bundles' these people can have their addictions satiated, for a fee.  

Will Verizon's act of desperation work?  I suspect not.  Will more networks and cable channels go the subscription route?  I suspect so.  If FIOS is still around 15 years from now, it's going to be a completely different beast.  That is if it survives.