Cajones

So, how is everybody today?  Ducky Dandy?
I usually eat 4 taquitos (chicken) when I get home from work because... well, I like taquitos.  Think of them as an appetizer before the protein shake and Chobani yogurt I eat before cycling.  I put them on a paper towel and bring them upstairs to nibble on while I go through my emails, and read blogs.  When that's done, I get into my 'cycling gear' to put some mileage on the bike.  Last evening, while I was changing into my spandex, Seig came in - not unusual for him. Sometimes he will lay on the floor.  Dogs do that, in case you didn't know.  While I was putting on my lizard socks, he got the paper towel without my noticing....  I found a tattered corner, all that remained, on the bedroom floor.  This is not the first time and I know it will come out in the end.
Shea butter was also ordered for Lily's dry, chapped nose.  I go through nose butter regularly, but I've read that Shea butter is just as good and less expensive.  I had stopped in at the pet store to see what they had and the clerk sold me on something Burt's Bees puts out...  Well, it's shit.

There was also a debate last night.  As usual, I didn't watch.  In fact, I don't know if any network actually telecasted the event in it's entirety.  I think most of those interested get their info from the Internet since there are only 2 or 3 people on that stage anybody is really interested in hearing.  I did see that the Idiot Jerk in the White House Tweet out some sort of snotty comment about ratings...  Someone should tell that fool Faux News stopped telecasting his rallies because of... very low ratings.  Holy Shit!   Maybe he doesn't know...  Maybe no one had the cajones to tell him.... That would be so freaking hysterical, wouldn't it?  I mean he is stupid enough to believe the whole world is watching.  We all know they could show him a recording of one of his old rallies and he'd never know the difference.  That is something his sycophants would do, you know?  Because they don't really have the cajones to deal with him either.

Greek

I woke up around 0300 for a call of nature... this sort of thing happens more often after the age of 60, and as is my habit I looked out the bedroom window.  Now I don't have a really great view  because there's a river birch growing right outside, but I can see down to my driveway.  I was more than a little surprised to see the interior lights were on in my car.  Shit.  So, I got dressed and went down to turn them off, luckily they're LED and don't take much power, with this mystery roiling around in my head:  How did they get turned on.  The car was locked, which meant they had to have been on for quite some time.  One light is turned on by pressing a button, you turn the other on by pressing the light, itself.  Both button and light are about an inch apart.  I was back in the house and halfway up the staircase before the answer flashed into my head like a little light bulb.  Big Seig's Nose.  I took the dogs to the park yesterday.  Big Seig likes to stand between the driver's and passenger's seats.  On occasion his nose will touch the rear view mirror.  Yesterday he must have nosed the interior lights.  Now I know to check next time I take them to the park for it will, undoubtedly, happen again.
I tried to stream a little of the debate last night,  To my surprise, most media outlets were streaming... updates, rather then the debate itself.  It was just Sanders and Warren and Mayor Pete and Beto.  One of the headlines I saw this morning was "What ever happened to Beto?"  Well, I've said this before, he needs to go back to Texas and win and election.  Tonight it's Biden's turn... oh, and there's going to be some others on the stage as well.  This needs to change soon.
I rode the Meteora route yesterday... in Greece.  It's a short, 5 mile, great ride.  my pulse hit 193 at the beginning, which is super high.  Normally it sits around 126 when I ride.  I think that's because you start off in the town, and like every 3 or 4 seconds you turn, and you're going really fast.  The pace is neither casual or slow by any means.  Shit!  Once I started climbing, which is about 3.5 miles of the route, my pulse dropped back down to my normal riding pulse.  Interesting, huh?  The same thing happens if I'm riding along and suddenly another cyclist pops up close to me.  I don't like it when someone is chasing me.
Anyway, I get to go back to work today.  Can you feel my excitement.
I also bought a workbook to help me learn my Greek alphabet.  What I find really interesting at first was that it sounds a lot like Latin.  And then I thought... duh.  The Greeks colonized Italy and took their language with them, along with their gods, and democracy, and a lot of other stuff.   This means that the root language for Latin is... Greek.  Which is why some things are Greek to a lot of us.

Look at all those names ending in 'A'

Business

Okay, so it's Monday.  I'm off tomorrow.  I can not wait.
Yesterday... it rained... all... day.  This creates a problem.  Big Seig does not like to get wet.  He'll go outside and do his business in a light, sprinkling shower but not in a steady rain.  He's a big dog, remember, and big dogs do big business.  And so he holds it until, like a small child racing to the potty, he's forced to make a made dash to the river birch in the back yard.  Sometimes there are accidents.  They are not pretty.  Yesterday, luckily, we had a 5 minute break in the rain around 6:20 PM.  There are many ways to spell relief, Big Seig can probably tell you all of them.
I saw where the Idiot Jerk in the White House Tweet some sort of nonsense about raising the tariffs on China again.  In case you didn't know, this is how he demonstrates his business acumen to his base.  Okay, so was anybody surprised?  You shouldn't have been.  This is his standard operating procedure, just a slight variation he pulls on the contractors who build his properties.  "I'm not satisfied with your work so I'm not going to pay you what was in the contract."  Here he's telling the Chinese "you weren't fast enough, so I'm not giving you what you want."  The problem is he's not dealing with a contractor here.  His bankruptcies prove he makes a lot of mistakes, others always pay the cost.  He doesn't care.  His only concern is for his own, personal business.  Now, ain't that the shits?
One of the first things I saw this morning was that we're also sending a carrier group to the Middle East.  That's another bit of business aimed at the Conservative base, most of whom are in their mid-40's and older, and who constantly remind themselves how wonderfully religious they are in their beliefs.  In their tiny little minds our superior military will stomp out evil Iran.  How quickly they've forgotten W's "Awe and..." whatever they called that war, and how it dragged on... and on... and on.  But their only business is to be good Conservatives, they don't like to use their brains; it hurts too much, and then they realize they need to wipe their shitty asses.  Like the Idiot Jerk, they believe themselves to be smart... however history proves them to be anything but smart.
On a brighter note... I have peaches!!!

Growing

At around 0230 this morning Biggie woke me up.  He was walking around on the bed.  When a large dog does that you feel it.  Everything moves.  He jumped off and went into the Computer / Gym where I heard him throw something up.  That sound always creates a bit of a sinking feeling... especially that early in the morning.  I really hate having to rouse my ass out of bed and go clean up dog vomit.  But I did.  And what did I find?  Not dinner.  Nope.  There, lying right next to the weight bench, I found that Biggie had regurgitated a... (are you ready for this?)... fabric antler.  Four inches long and an inch and a half wide.  That's right.  The antler had somehow been torn off their toy moose and Biggie, because he's a dog, thought it might make for good eats.  Well, it didn't.  Now it's in the trash.
Yesterday Accuweather call for rain in the morning.  They were wrong... again.  It rained all day.  They need to work on their accuracy if they want to call themselves Accuweather.
Anyway, in the rain, I drove to downtown Harrisburg, about 8 minutes away, to file my Mom's will.  Parking is always bad.  I ended up parking my car in the University of Harrisburg garage ($10) an hour, and walking 6 blocks (in the rain) to the Courthouse.  It turns out every thing I had been told was wrong.  The Funeral Director had said anything over $10,000 needs to be filed, that I might be able to do a short probate.  I went to numerous online websites - they said that a probate needs to be filed for estates over $50,000.  My friend Patty needed to hire an attorney.  Everyone I talked to told me I was going to need to file the will.  At the courthouse I was told that because I and my Mom had joint bank accounts, and that since there were no other assets, I didn't need to file the will... at all.  The clerk told me to hold on to it "just in case something crops up in the future."  Now ain't that just duckie?
Oh, and Paul Manafort lied.  Stop laughing.  Stop laughing!  This guy has lied his whole life.  There is no way in hell he could stop.
And the race between Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy has tightened.  Finding nooses hanging from a tree near the state capital doesn't help the Republicans.
Also, the official flip count right now is 40 House seats.  That number is higher than the number of seats which flipped in the election after Nixon resigned.  Holy Shit!  In fact, the number of those voting Democrat slammed through previous barriers.  This is what happens when you have an unpopular president in the White House.  Republicans are terrified because the wave... is continuing to grow.

8.6 millions reasons to give Thanks

It's Thanksgiving, a floating holiday, floating because it's not a specific date, it's a day.
The dogs are playing downstairs.  In case you're wondering, yes, Big Seig has taken off a few pounds and is much more active.
Thankfully, I am going to my sister's today.  My nephew and his girlfriend are going to be there.  I will have to act surprised because they're going to tell me they're expecting their second child.  I will do this.  I will eat, smile, and chat for about an hour and a half and then leave.  No, we do not gather for hours and talk football.  I had a couple of glasses of wine last night so I'll stay dry.
I started watching "The Haunting of Hill House" last evening.  It's good, though I'm still waiting for either Michael Huisman or Oliver Jackson-Cohen, or both, to start taking off their clothes.  I have a funny feeling that isn't going to happen.
And finally, on this great Thanksgiving day, I have a little statistic which causes Crazy Christian Conservative Republicans to burst into tears.  This past midterm election?  Even though the counting is still continuing, and Democrats keep racking of both state and national seats, the vote was overwhelmingly Anti-Idiot Jerk in the White House, Yeah... (this should put a shine on your Thanksgiving) by about 8.6 million votes.  The last time the popular vote swung so wildly to the left was in 1974... in the the mid-term right after Nixon resigned.  Back then the total was around 8.7 million voters.  There's a good possibility we will meet and surpass that 1974 number.

Today's the day

It was supposed to have been repaved yesterday, but it seems as though, for some odd reason, they couldn't get it done so it's happening today.  I realized this around 0710, by which time they had already prepped by spraying liquid tar up and down Cumberland Road.  I sent a text to the store telling them I'd be late, and also one to the scheduler so she could find lunch coverage for my one associate... and she gave me a ration of shit and said I should have planned for this.  I replied by saying it was planned for yesterday and that she just needs to "deal with it."  No response, but then I didn't expect one.  She doesn't like to be told what to do.  She thinks she's special.  She isn't.  Anyway, I should be able to drive on it in about 2 - 3 hours and will head over to the store then.

That's Big Seig in the lower left hand corner

Today's the day New York also holds its primary election and both Clinton and Trump are expected to win.  And, of course, the GOP doesn't understand that as a party it's going to need to pull its head out of its ass and deal with reality for once.  Trump has pretty much predicted riots in Cleveland if he doesn't get the nomination and the Republicans just don't understand how bad that's going to make them look as a party.  They never learned the important lesson of the Gore / Bush election.  They went strictly by the rules back then, overriding the popular vote in favor of the Electoral College in order to get one of their own in the White House.  And, of course, they gave us the 2nd worst president in the history of the United States.  But then they never will learn, will they?