Squirrels

 Our out door temp is 65 (F).  It's going to be a stinker of a day.  For the next 3 days our highs are going to be in the mid 90s (F).  They'll drop back into the upper 80s (F) after that.  No rain is in sight for the next 10 days.  It looks as though summer has arrived 2 weeks early.  So be it.

I did get a decent workout in yesterday.  I've signed up for another 3 months of Trainwell.  The results so far are, by my standards, impressive.  The goal is not to just maintain muscle, but build it, too.  And, well, I have biceps now.  My core muscles are stronger and they are essential if you have lower back issues.  They keep you spine in place, don't let it jiggle around so much when you walk.

Work yesterday was filled with issues, all of them other people's problems that I got stuck fixing.  My first 3 hours zipped by.  The last 3?  They were on the slow side.  I did hit my measure goal for the week, one of them a commercial tile floor installation.  Management will be very happy if that goes through.

Without any rain in the forecast, I will need to water my garden every day.  In case you're wondering, this is what it looks like.  The only problem I'm having is with the squirrels digging up the seeds I've planted.  

And, while having a meeting in the Oval Office, the Orange Anus fell asleep yesterday... again.  He has also now officially canceled his Freedom 250 concert and will now be the lone speaker.  Or, at least right now that's the plan.  Believe me, this will change. His declining health will require he share the spotlight.  I don't doubt that the crowd will be small.

Also, yesterday Pammy Jo Bondi said that Todd Blanche, Orangie's personal attorney, was solely responsible for the release of the Epstein files.  While this is probably true, it shows she's desperate enough to throw Blance so badly under the bus.

Trump, the Human Stain

 We were supposed to have our super warm temps yesterday, on my day off.  Well, that never happened.  We're getting them today, on a day that I'm scheduled to work.  This afternoon's high is projected to be in the low 80s (F).  Rain is also in the forecast for this evening, even possible thundershowers.  After that, temps will drop.  Boy will they drop.  We will be getting frost warnings for at least one day next week.  This happens every year and is supposed to be expected.

Yesterday was another good day. The big tank is nearly drained.  I moved the live plants from that aquarium into the one in the living room, and threw out the fake plants.  I've had an aquarium in that spot on and off for a number of years, so I'm thinking this might be the final location.

I got a ride in yesterday afternoon.  That was fine.  

My first editor sent me an email.  He say's he's enjoying the entertainment value of The Body in 4:4 Time.  This is a good thing.  The last thing you want to do is spend 10 months writing a book, only to be told it's boring.

This afternoon I will be heading into the store.  With this afternoon's expected warm temps, our garden department will be busy.  No one's going to be expecting the frost warnings that will be coming this week. 

And there was a problem with one of my sales.  One of my customers ordered 5 inch wide hardwood planks, however, the sku entered was for thinner planks.  So there will have to be a credit and a reorder.  Why didn't I pick up on the fact that the wrong sku was ordered?  I don't know.  Honestly, I'm thinking that when the order was set up, he was fine with that width plank.  Either way, it will get fixed and he'll have his installation.

Here's an updated picture of the tank.

And evidently both Kegsbreath and Orangie lied when they told America we had air superiority over Iran.  Two jets were shot down, and 2 Apache helicopters were damaged, their crews injured yesterday.  Ouch.  One of the pilots was recovered, the other was not.  Is he still alive?  If he is, the horror of his situation is beyond belief.  Things are only going to get worse.

There are rumors that moving Pam Bondi is just the first change coming to Orangie's administration.  The American people are very unhappy.  Gas is now over $4 a gallon.  Jeff Van Drew, the Republican Congressman from New Jersey, District 2, told his constituents that if they thought things are too expensive they should get a 2nd job.  That's not going over well.  The Republican's biggest problem, however, is that they believed American's would  cave and give the GOP what they've been praying for, unlimited power.  Because of this delusion, Congress and the Senate allowed our idiot president to surround himself with sycophants.  While he's desperately trying to be an authoritarian, there is, in reality, no one in charge.  Kegsbreath is firing our top military leaders because they disagree with him and all Orangie wants to do is talk about his ballroom.  Will Orangie shitcan Kegsbreath?  That would be nice.  It would also be a sign of desperation and another example of how much of a human stain our failed president is; keep in mind, he doesn't believe he ever makes a mistake.

The Not So Happy Reels

So, we have an overcast sky overhead, and drizzles are in the air.  Our temp is a chilly 42 (F).  We will be warming up today, with our afternoon temp reaching into the low to mid 70s (F).  Tomorrow will be warmer, but then the temps on the old thermometer are going to be dropping again.  In anticipation of the warmer temps to come, I've taken the woolen blanket off the bed and packed it away for next year.  

I di work yesterday.  Those 5 hours were bothersome.  Our store is hosting a Store Manager meeting to day for the manages of several districts.  That meant every one was supposed to be working to make the store look spiffy diffy for today.  While these managers will walk around, they will be much too busy talking on their phones to actually scrutinize our store.  The few breaks that they get will be spent dealing with the constant issues each store manager handles daily.

There was good news.  Our supervisor, who was not not too good at supervising, is being moved to another department starting Monday.  People are joking that the associates in her new department will soon be asking for transfers.  I'm sure she's disappointed since she's done all of the necessary training to get herself promoted.  That will never happen.  Her problem is that her idea of leadership involves constant criticism.  This is a big problem for a lot of wannabe managers and is why many of them get stuck on a lower rung of the ladder of success.

And, of course, yesterday Pam Bondi was removed from her post as Attorney General.  She will always be remembered for refusing to acknowledge some of a Epstein's victims.

Todd Blanche, the Assistant Attorney General is now the acting Attorney General.  Orangie will keep him as acting AG to avoid having him go through the nominating process.  The hard core cultists are upset.  They believe him to bee a RHINO.  

Other names are also supposedly on the chopping block including Nutlick Lutnick because he's jut not scum sucking cruel enough.  Even though he's a rotten apple, he's just not wormy enough for Orangie.

And Hegseth has gotten rid of so many high ranking military officials control of our military is on the point of foundering.  I understand this started off with his refusing to promote women and people of color.  This drunkard needs to go before he causes the deaths of thousands of young men and women in our military.

Finally, word is leaking out, as it always does, that some of Orangie's staunchest allies are seriously concerned about his only being shown the happy reels of his war with Iran.  These sycophants need to understand he only wants to see the happy reels and refuses to watch anything that proves he's made the worst mistake of his sorry life.

 ColumnPhilip Kennicott

The Trump presidential library would be a giant tower of grift

An AI-generated video, with glitches, suggests the president will be raising billions of dollars for a new Trump tower.

Pammy Jo's Burn Book

36  days until Spring.  This is my way of saying that the temp here in Central PA is 29 (F).  The day is supposed to be partially sunny, with a high temp in the mid 30s (F).  This is not bad for mid-February.  Temps are predicted to slowly, but continually rise.  This is a good thing.  I turned my thermostat back down to 70 (F), and in a week or so I'll be setting it at 69 (F).  

And yesterday was a good day.  Much time was spent editing about 3 pages.  I like to think of this as an enhancement stage.  Some details get added, other dropped.  The first two chapters take place in Rumplestiltskin's which was a bar located in Hummelstown, PA.  They had live music on weekends.  Sadly, the bar was torn down to make way for a strip mall.  I couldn't find any existing pictures of Rumpelstiltskin's but I do remember the dance floor. 

I got a good workout in yesterday morning.  A loaf of bread was also baked.  I didn't work on the aquariums as much as I wanted, that will happen today.  

Here's some not so surprising big news:  Zuck is moving to Florida because California is going to pass a 5% wealth tax.  He's not alone, and you know, I'm thinking that having so many billionaires located in one place might not be such a bad idea.  He'd rather spend $250 million on a beach front property in a state that gets devastating hurricanes than pay 5% to California.  Just because people are wealthy, doesn't mean that they're smart.

And this also happened yesterday:

For those who don't know, that's Pammy Jo Bondi testifying before Congress yesterday, though testify is not the write word.  Standing behind her are some of the victims of Epstein's sex trafficking ring.  She refused to acknowledge them.  She lied and Ted Lieu, a Congressman from California called her out for it.  Ted has the receipts.  She had what's called a burn book with her.  A burn book is a binder with tabbed pages containing insults, a reference book, if you will, that allowed her to personally attack every Congressman in the room.  For example, she called the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and antisemite.  This is so much like something Orangie would do.  The only one to praise her was Gym Jordan.  He kissed her ass.  To paraphrase Pammy Jo, that hearing should have been used to praise Orangie and talk about how high the Dow and the Nasdaq were instead of focusing on Epstein's child trafficking.

And the El Paso airport is open again.  Evidently the Department of Defense shot down a party balloon because they thought it was a drone.  The stupid is truly beginning to bubble.

One Battle After Another

The outside temp here in Central PA is 64 (F) and it isn't going to get much higher, a few degrees perhaps.  Overnight we had on and off soaking rains.  We need them.  The showers are supposed to hang around for a few hours, the wind is supposed to pick up, and the temps are supposed to climb a few degrees.  This looks and feels a lot like the beginning of Autumn.  How seasonal things get is anybody's guess.

I did fix the left drain in the sink yesterday, for the most part.  There's still a bit of a dribble.  The problem was that the red rubber gaskets located where the joints screw together have begun to deteriorate.  With the seals going, water begins to drip, drip, out.  Two of the seals have been fixed.  This morning sometime I will fix the thirds and final seal.  Yes, that's right, I was deal with three seals, and not the barking kind.

Yesterday was also cardio day, so I rode over 11 miles in Corsica.  It took me over 45 minutes, and my average heart rate was 122.  Total calories burned? 404.  I was happy.

And for the first time in a long time, I went to the movies last evening to see One Battle After Another.  I liked it for a number of reasons:  it's definitely pro-immigration making it quite relevant.  It mocks white Christian Nationalists; one of the main antagonists being a group of ultra rich white men belonging to supremacist group called the Christmas Adventurer's Club.  And, besides the occasional foray into drama, for the most part it's funny, almost zany at times.  Lots of Oscar nominations for this one including DiCaprio and Sean Penn.  

For those who missed it, Pammy Jo Bondi had to testify at an Oversight Committee hearing yesterday, at least that's what was supposed to happen.  She refused to answer so many questions and when she did she always deflected.  An example:  when asked if she'd seen pictures of Orangie with underage girls in the Epstein files she started her response with "What about the fires in California."  This was a yes or no question.  She could have said "no," and many Republican Senators would have sighed in relief.  However, she deflected.  Perhaps she realized that a negative response might possibly lead to perjury charges against her in the future.  People who are certain about what they believe the future to be will always lie, so I suspect Pammy Jo may be a bit uncertain about certain things.

Finally, AOC said the Stephen Miller is 4 feet 10 inches tall.  Truthfully, he's probably an inch or so over 5 feet.  Still, now we know one of the reasons he's such a vile, angry man: he suffers from short man syndrome.  So, maybe we should start calling him tiny Stevie.

Rapture Incoming

 And will are chilly.  Overnight, the temps stayed in the 60s (F) which was fairly nice sleeping weather, but skies are going to remain partly cloudy keeping the warmer temps at bay today.  Rain is in the forecast for later this week, as well as much cooler temps.  We are officially in Autumn now, so I guess those goal posts are gone.  That's fine.  Leaves should begin turning color around here, but they've already started falling without changing, so that may not happen around my house.

I worked yesterday.  And, I got a measure!  Though, honestly, I don't think that will keep management happy.  The measure goal for the department is 14 and as of yesterday we had a total of 4.  In spite of this, the department is hitting it's sales goal, but not with installs; mostly it's Do It Yourself customers saving themselves the expense of having us do the work for them.  That is a sign of how poorly the economy is doing.  If customers can afford it, they'll have us do the work, if they're concerned about expenses, they'll do it themselves.

For those who don't know, Howie's a bit particular about what he eats.  For years I've fed my dogs Beneful.  Well, Howie doesn't like Beneful.  I did try to get him to eat it, but no, he prefers a more expensive Purina Chicken kibble.  And Spam.  And cheese.  I do believe he's spoiled.

And, almost like clockwork, yesterday this story broke.

Let's be honest here, did anyone ever really doubt that Tommy Homan was a crook?  This unscrupulous loser has been an in our faces asshole from the very beginning.  He's cut from the same fabric as Orangie, a lying, duplicitous, pull the wool down over their eyes textile that's so loosely woven $50,000 fell through it.  And there's a video to prove it.  Better than audio, is the video of the money drop into his hands.  And Orangie's Department of Justice buried this bit of bribery.  You expected anything less?  

Another bit from yesterday was Orangie accidentally posted a Direct Message to his Truth Social account that was meant for  Bimbo Bondi.  It was copied by sooooo many people and posted all over the place.  So much so, that even Main Stream Media is reporting it.  With his deteriorating mental capacities, don't be surprised if the frequencies of his public screw ups pickes up speed.

Finally, for those of you concerned.  There are a bunch of Cracker Jack Crazy Christians who believe that The Rapture is going to happen Tuesday.  I am not sorry in the least bit that many of them are going to be disappointed.

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.

South of Midnight

 If Accuweather is correct, today's going to be filled with heavy humidity, the occasional shower, and what seems to be the ever present thunderstorm with torrential downpours.  We are in a flood watch.  My house is on the top of one of the highest hills around, if I have to deal with any floodwaters, they'll be in my basement.

I spent a full shift at the store yesterday and I only talked to two customers.  The first was an older woman from Trenton who was here helping her daughter put carpet in two of her rooms.  The second was a middle-aged woman and her mother.  Her main concern was the carpet padding.  The padding she was looking at was top of the line with a moisture barrier on the top.  She was concerned about spilling something on the carpet directly over a padding seam and having the spill soak through to her subfloor.  I told her not to worry, they tape the padding together to create a complete moisture barrier.  This was a non-issue that she chose to amplify, at least in her mind, into something major.

I started started a new game, South of Midnight, where I play a teenage black girl living in the bayous of Louisiana.  I've never played as a this type of character, so this is different.  The game is interesting.  The only drawback is that it uses the same game mechanics as Star Wars: The Last Jedi and I'm used to Skywalker running along walls, and double jumping.

And the Idiocracy from this administration's cup of incompetence continues to overflow.  Puppy Killer Noem was fact checked on Fox Entertainment about FEMA's terrible response to the floods in Texas.  I don't doubt Kristi was expecting some softly padded questions.  She evidently didn't get the memo that Fox Entertainment is now and has always been tabloid entertainment.  People dying because she was too busy playing dress-up is just the fodder they need to feed their regular audience.

The Epstein story has longer legs than Orangie want ever wanted.  He thought people would obey him when he said it's time to move on.  Frankie Graham's in the mix, too.  The fact that Orangie was most likely in the sex-trafficking business with Epstein makes both Frankie and his version of Christianity look bad.  Pammy Jo Bondi is also getting put under a microscope since she was the Attorney General of Florida over the years that Epstein had his business located in that state.  Was Pammy Jo on the take to turn her head?  Is that why she never prosecuted Epstein?  Stay tuned, this story is going to run Orangie straight to Hell.

 

Bongino, Bondi, and the B Movie

 When I woke up this morning, the outside temps was 75 (F) and the skies were overcast.  Once again we have a 40% chance of precipitation in the form of possible thunderstorms.  That's right, it's the same forecast as yesterday. We have the same forecast for tomorrow.  On Monday it's supposed to change.  The probability of precipitation goes up. 

Monday is also the day my new schedule starts.  The total number of hours stays the same, but now I have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday off.  Personally, I preferred the 4 sequential days off, but having 3 and then 1off isn't bad either.  September 4 is my anniversary date and I'll be getting 80 hours of paid vacation.  Even though I'm not planning on using it for any specific purpose, it comes in handy.  I used 24 hours when bought my washer and dryer so I didn't have to take too much out of my savings.

I got a nice upper body workout in yesterday using the new band.  All the band exercises were bumped up 10 pounds.  Rather than increase the weight when the reps get too easy, I increase the number of reps.  My main goal is to increase strength not muscle size; bulging biceps are for younger men.

Last evening's dinner was a nice shrimp salad.  The leftovers will be today's lunch before I head off to work.

I see where Metallica has filed a cease and desist order against Pete Hegseth because he used one of their songs in some idiotic commercial about drones.  He is a clueless TV personality whom Orangie things looks good on TV; that's the only reason he got the job as Secretary of Defense.

And the saga of the Epstein tapes has taken another twist.  Danny Bongino is threatening to quit his job as Director of the FBI if Orangie doesn't sack Bondi because she lied about the Epstein list and files.    You see releasing that file and list was a big campaign promised made by Orangie.  Many of his cultists believe that George Soros and high ranking Democrats figure heavily on that list.  Bondi, however, now knows that it isn't Soros but Orangie who is saturating the pages of those documents.  The cultists almost understand this now, which is why they want everything revealed: it's the only way to prove Orangie's innocence.  Can you hear me laughing.  If that list is made public it will be the end of Orangie.  And Bongino wants Bondi gone so the truth may be told.  However, Bondi knows too much now.  This is almost like watching some really bad B movie because you know the ending is going to because we already know the ending.

 

Assumptions Gone Wrong

 My Tuesday is the first of 4 sequential days off.  Usually I rather enjoy having this many days off in a row, but the weather forecast for the next 4 days is not that good: high humidity with thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon.  High temps are forecast to be in the mid to upper 80s (F), but the chance of thunderboomers is going to limit the time I can use my drying rack outside.  

I had a nice long chat with Verizon yesterday because they processed my monthly autopay.  I'd canceled the service and returned the router over 2 weeks ago.  Well... it seems as though I only canceled my router, and not my FIOS internet.  They assumed I was going to be using my own router.  Don't you just love when it's okay for corporate America to make an assumption, but you the consumer simply cannot?  For them it is always a gray area, but for you and I it always black or white.

Before going to work yesterday, I got a very decent upper body workout complete.  Work, itself, was oh so boring... except for my first 15 minutes on the floor.  When I got to the store yesterday the parking lot was nearly empty and I assumed it was going to be slow.  Nope.  We had one aisle associate scheduled and I walked into the department and found 6 customers waiting.  Of course, when those customers were taken care of there was no one else for the next 4 and a half hours.  No one, except myself and the aisle associate.  Slow days are upon us.

And the cultists went into overdrive yesterday when Orangie's pet Attorney General made the statement that there was no Epstein client list.  "How can this be?!" they shrieked on Truth Social and Zitter.  After everything they'd been spoon-fed for years, Bondi had to be lying.  As several people said on Threads and Bluesky, "they are so close to getting it."  Sadly, I do believe that truth is always going to be just out of reach for them.  They are correct, however, in believe she and Kash Patel are lying.  Their dark little hearts are terrified that these lies have one singular purpose, covering up the fact that Orangie's name is practically synonymous with Epstein.  They both had a penchant for little girls.  Someone else brought up the fact that Orangie had bragged about walking through the dressing rooms of the Miss Teen USA Pageant when those young ladies where half dressed.  The truth is right in front of their eyes, but they would rather assume he's telling the truth rather than deal with the black and white of reality.