Not Christmas Eve... yet

When I got up this morning, the temp was a balmy 47 (F) outside.  That, unfortunately is going to be our daily high.  The thermometer has already dropped by 5 degrees.  We are supposed to warm up on Christmas day, but then temps are going to drop.  Friday is predicted to be a sleeting, freezing mess, at least for the afternoon.  That is just what the retail industry needs, bad whether to keep shoppers away.  Those people getting gift cards are going to want to spend them as soon as possible.  

As I'm typing this, I'm listening to my bread machine die.  Sadly, the paddle stopped turning just seconds before the 2nd knead was finished.  After this loaf is baked, the machine will go into the trash and I'll have to think about buying another one.  Though not right away.  As I said, they've cut my hours back to twelve.  That money will cover my living expenses, my movies, the occasional pricy bottle of wine, and nothing else.  

This also means I'm going to put a pause on my personal trainer for a month or two.  While I like the routine, and my trainer is really nice, I would rather sacrifice that for a few weeks than cancel my subscription to Mubi, Dekko, France Channel, and In Film... and skip that occasional pricy bottle of wine.  I'm making a list of all the exercises he has me do and on which days, so I'll still be doing the workouts, I just won't be reporting them to him.

And today is the day before Christmas.  For those who don't know, this is pre-Christmas Eve.  Eve stands for evening, not morning or afternoon.  This is just a short public service announcement from me to you.

And Orangie was up all night hate posting on Truth Social.  He hosted the Kennedy Center Honors last evening  I did a check on the overnight ratings to see how well or poorly the show did.  First thing I saw was that the ratings were the best they've been in years; the top show on TV last night.  Remember, however, The Kennedy Center Honors aired on CBS and CBS is in Orangie's pocket, and we all know how bad he is with numbers.  Other assessments are coming in and it doesn't appear that the show was everything CBS was hoping for.  Initial reports are that viewer ship was down 9% from last year.  The real barometer, I suspect, for last night's ratings is Orangie's hate postings.  He was pure hate and venom.  He shit posts a lot, but when he gets bad news he hate posts, and he was angrily hate posting last night.  There was one about wishing Colbert would die.  Yikes!  I'm betting Orangie's getting a lot of coal in his stocking this Christmas.

The More, the Merrier

 Happy day after Christmas!  It's cold here in  Central PA, but not cold, cold.  That means the temp is below freezing (F), but it's not down in the 20s (F) or teens (F).  In fact, this afternoon our temp should be up in the lower to mid 40s (F).  Oh... and rain is on the way.  Looks Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we'll be in Rain Land, with a total accumulation of about 1 inch

Yesterday was... a day just like another here.  Well, almost.  My new neighbors had 2 shouting arguments in the morning.  Part of at least one, maybe both, maybe have been because of me.  You see, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve she decided to blare her music while she cleaned.  2.5 hours of rumbling bass.  We share a connecting wall.  My TV is on my side.  They put the sofa against their side and complained that they could hear my TV.  Out of consideration, I either used headphones or kept the volume low.  On Christmas Eve?  I did neither.  My TV has been against that wall for the 32 years I've lived in this house, so this is not my problem.

Dinner was ham.  It was tasty.  I talked to my sister for a while, though had to send a text to my brother to get a Merry Christmas.  Being a devout Christian, he used to be a huge Trump supporter.  For some reason, I don't think he's to appreciative of Orangey's move into the position of Vice President.  Of course, this might have something to do with it, too.  Social Conservatives desperately want a socially conservative authoritarian government, the one Orangey is setting up is perhaps not what they had in mind.  But then, you do have to remember that the Republican party is focused totally on Selfishness and Greed.

Of course, there's always the possibility he's not too pleased with the fact that Orangey's charging $100,000 to join him in a prayer service.  If this isn't what social conservatives were expecting, then it's their fault for not paying more attention.  The guy's been grifting off Jesus for a long time and that hasn't bothered them.  

It seems as though world emperor wannabe Elonia Musk is upset social media is not giving him the respect he's convinced himself he deserves.  His bot makers are releasing many, many bots on Threads and Bluesky.  If you make a snarky comment about Elonia, one of them is bound to pay you a visit.  I've gotten 3 visits so far.  They all have some variation of his first name underscore and his last name with the message that he wants to talk to me personally and a link.  They all have zero followers.  They all get blocked immediately.  I don't doubt that this is the reason I'm seeing so many snarky comments about Elonia.  The more, the merrier, and the sooner his brain falls apart.

Almost Christmas Eve

 It's Christmas Eve... morning, so it's not really Christmas Eve yet.  Give it 12 hours, than, legitimately, it'll be Christmas Eve.  The forecast said we might have snow... and didn't.  The temps did warm up from yesterday, though, instead of being 12 (F), it's 27 (F).  That's a good thing when you have a puppy who doesn't really know what cold is and wants to stay outside.

I did work yesterday.  The store was fairly dead until around 6 PM, then customers began trickling in.  Luckily, none of them wandered over to the Flooring Department, not that I expected any to do so.  This close to Christmas, most people are looking for that cheap tool to get Dad because social standards say that all Dads want power tools.  They were also looking for Christmas decorations and artificial tree; they're all marked down and if you want a deal, now's the time.

Today is pretty well planned out.  I'm staying home.  There's nothing I need at the supermarket.  Right now I've got a loaf of bread in the machine.  Later I'll be baking another coconut pie and some corn pudding.  Christmas is going to be just like Thanksgiving.  Quiet.  My sister called yesterday and I was busy, so it went into voice mail.  I haven't heard from my brother.  He's been awfully quiet.  I was going to give him a poke about president Musk today, but, seeing that it's almost a Christian holiday, I'll just send him well wishes.  I was going to send him this, but instead, I'll just post it on Facebook.  

Congress did give America a Christmas present yesterday!  They released the Matt Gaezt report.  Wowza!  $90,000 to women who were not necessarily sex workers, but who had no problem getting paid to sleep with him.  Oh, and he also made 2 Statutory Rape payments of $400 each.  Having to pay for sex tells you a lot about Matt Gaetz.  I read some of the text messages that went back and forth between he and "the ladies."  They were pure business.  Do you party?  What's the going rate?  Is $400 enough?  In the real world, I suspect he is truly repulsive.

And then, of course, is the fact that the Merrick Garland had this report and did nothing is important, As is the fact that the majority Republican party in Congress knew what was in this report and were prepared to let the Orange Anus make him the Attorney General is down right horrific.  I don't doubt for a second that this is exactly what all of those Christians were voting for.

Clarence Thomas and his White law clerks

 Well, happy Christmas eve everybody.  We got drizzles here in Central PA, and they're supposed to be lingering throughout the day.  Fun stuff.  Temps are going to hover around in the mid 40s (F).  Tomorrow, however, they're supposed to climb up into the 50s (F).  Keep in mind, even though 2023 has been the warmest year since humans have started keeping records, there is no such thing as global warming, at least as far as many of the truly religious are concerned.  God wouldn't let that happen to us.

As expected, yesterday there were not a lot of customers in the store yesterday.  For the most part, the 6 hours I spent there were truly boring.  I did talk to people, but scheduling was lite; management must finally be reading the room.  I did sell some flooring yesterday, and one customer signed up for a credit card.  We did have 2 customers, a husband and wife, who scammed us on getting a military discount.  We knew there was a problem, but they knew exactly which bells and whistles to tap and blow in order to get their 10% discount.  I have no problem with people who are thrifty, and frugal, and who try to save a penny, but those that lie and cheat in order to pay the lowest price they can possibly get?  They are one of the reasons retailers raise their prices.  Corporate is going to do everything within their power to make Market Share, even if it means raising the prices for everybody.

And I saw this picture in the Washington Post this morning.  Tell me, what stands out in this photo of Clarence Thomas and his law clerks?

Do you think it was that there was only one black person standing in front of a lot of white people?  Does this mean that Clarence doesn't like black people?  He, himself, rose in the ranks with the use of affirmative action, yet he has also stridently worked against it.  Maybe he believes minorities should be hired by others, and not him.  Or, perhaps he thinks that if he hires minorities he'll be showing reverse prejudice.  Or, and this seems to be the most accurate possibility, Clarence wants to be white, and so surrounds himself with white people.  He's been called an Oreo, black on the outside and white on the inside, for a long time.  For those of you still wondering this is a good illustration of an Oreo.

The Birthday Boy

Today is Saturday, December 23... yipee, and it's the last day I work this week.
Tomorrow is Sunday, December 24 and it is a very, very big day.  No, no, no, not because it's Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow is Big Seig's birthday!  That's right, he's a Christmas Eve puppy and he's going to be 3 years old.  Tonight, on my way home from work, hopefully after most of the pre-Christmas shoppers have already been to my local Giant, I'll stop off and pick up his birthday present:  white cake and vanilla ice cream.  That's right, my dogs get 'people' food on their birthdays.  And even though he doesn't want to, he'll be sharing with Lily because she's special too.

The Birthday Boy

I also did some time on the new bike... on the new Cycleops trainer this AM.... Holy Shit.  Hills are simulated, by shifting gears you can to turn a flat surface in a 12% grade.  Most people have no idea how steep that is until they actually try walking up a hill with a 12% grade - if you have a treadmill try and see how difficult it is, then imagine doing it on a bike where you're mainly using one muscle group... Holy Shit.

Yesterday the Idiot Jerk in the White House signed the Republican Tax thingy.  Evidently Mike Pence made some sort of 3 minute speech in which he went deep diving up the Idiot Jerk's rectum... sorry, my computer censors that type of perverted pornography.  Just about every economist on the face of this great planet has stated in one form or other that at best it will achieve nothing, but more likely it will just make things worse for most people.  Interestingly enough, the stock market actually went down after he scratched his name on the bill.  Does the Idiot Jerk and his party care?   Hell no, they'll do what they always do, blame Hillary's emails.

And I did see this little bit in the NYT about the steel industry losing jobs... in a big way.  Now, this is the type of Christmas present most people should expect from the GOP.  You see, they're good at failing.