The Icing on the Cake

 Let's see... it's Saturday, the sun is shining brightly through the window and there isn't a cloud in the sky... and, as is the case on all Saturdays, I have to work.  Yesterday the sun didn't come out to play until after 6 PM and the temperatures hung around in the mid 60s (F), meaning the weather forecast was way off.

The ground here was wet, the grass had dew drops hanging on the blades most of the day, and so it didn't get mowed.  And, even though I felt I should be napping constantly, I did manage to get things done.  The tank in the living room was cleaned, the bathroom cleaned, and I cut down the rest of my peach tree.  I didn't plant the tree to feed the squirrels, and that's precisely what happened.  My neighbor across the street had the same problem, no peaches because of the squirrels.  With the tree gone, my yard suddenly got much larger and I realized how much I like it that way.  

When I remodeled my kitchen, I had a range hood put in over the stove, LED lights, really nice.  Well, yesterday one of the lights died and needs to be replaced.  So, what did I discover?  They sent me the wrong hood.  When it arrived, I never really looked at it, I just gave it to the contractor.  Big mistake.  Checking, it looks as though they sent me a more expensive model, which isn't a bad thing.  However, changing the lightbulbs is going to present problems, as it seems as though I actually have to replace the entire fixture.  Not a good thing.

And I received an email from Cumberland County notifying me that my mail-in ballot was on the way.  Yippee!  It will be filled out and mailed the day it arrives.  The only probably with mail in ballots in Pennsylvania is that the Republican party and decreed that they can not be counted until November 5.  You see, it's all about delaying the process, making it take as much time as possible to find out the results.  It's my understanding that there were around 199,000 ballots requested for Bucks County (Philadelphia).  I tried to get an accurate figure for my country, Cumberland, and found it extremely difficult.  Needless to say, not of them will be counted until November 5.  The alternative would be to stand in line and vote, and believe me, lines might be long.  Long lines are a discouragement for seniors and people who might have disabilities, and even though senior citizens tend to vote Republican, the GOP doesn't care.  I suspect that in the end, Harris will have enough of a lead in Pennsylvania, the mail-in ballots will just be the icing on the cake.

While Republicans Scratch their Ass

Well, here it is Friday, the end of the work week for some.  Surprise!  the work week has changed.  Because of Covid - 19 more people are working from home rather than going to the office.  Be aware that if your company finds this much more cost effective than paying rent for a brick and mortar building, this will become your new reality.  When you work from home, the protocols for a Monday through Friday work week change.  Be prepared.
As of yesterday, the number of Covid - 19 cases in Pennsylvania stood at 1687.  That's a spike of 560 cases in 24 hours.  Cumberland County is up to 15.  Conservatives still don't get it.  The believe this thing is going to end in a week or so...  I am serious.  The nod their heads every time the Idiot Jerk speaks.  For him he is the truthsayer.  Their inability to understand he's a lying sack of shit will be the death of them... well, some of them, not all of them, but probably enough of them to shake their little Conservative world.  They look at Spain and Italy and shake their heads... "so heartbreaking," they say.  In their heads it's 'over there,' it's 'not here.'  The can not even conceive of how infectious this thing really is, or that a lack of social distancing is going to increase the rapidness of its spread.
Whereas the Idiot Bush had his Katrina, Covid - 19 is going to be the Idiot Jerk's Vietnam.  The reality is we may lose over 58,000 Americans.
You have to look on the bright side, however, those taking the necessary precautions, who are avid about practicing Social Distancing are Democrats and Republican.  We keep a distance of at least 6 feet between us, and the scratch their heads.  We wash our hands and they scratch their ass.  We'll be keeping ourselves safe and secure and they'll be crying at Granny's funeral... well, they're going to learn funerals are going to become passe.  They'll find out that anyone touching Granny while she was alive is too sick to attend.
On a brighter note, "The Body in the Well" is heading into it's final edit.  I talked to Cori yesterday and reminded her that April is fast approaching.  Let's be honest here, reading a new mystery / thriller might be the best way to spend some of that self-quarantine time.  Since I like to let readers know which songs have found their way into the manuscript, this is the last song from which I've sampled lyrics.   Don't you just wonder how this could play into the story line.

3 Cases Here

So, left work late yesterday afternoon to begin my 4 days off in a row and decided to stop in at my local Giant.  There were a lot bare shelves, no paper products what so ever, though there were canned goods and frozen foods available for purchase.  While walking to their wine aisles, I ran into one of our cashiers.  He told that there were now 3 cases of the virus in Cumberland County and that the school districts were shutting down.  I had no problem checking out.  Right after that the panic buyers arrived.  An hour later, with all registers open, there was a 45 minute wait.  Me?  I did not alter my schedule one iota, I came home, drank some wine and ate some Ramman Noodles.
This is not the time to panic.  This is not the end of the world.

The 3 cases in Cumberland County:  2 adults and one child.  2 of them were in a country where the virus was prevalent.  They did not provide information as to how long ago that was. One case is looking like it might be part of a Community Spread; they are researching to find out where that person might have come into contact with the virus.  That is not good news, though oddly enough I am not really concerned.  I have no problem staying home from work. Should they decide to quarantine the state essential services will continue:  neither the Giant nor the Weis Market will shutter down.
Not surprisingly, 84% of Republicans feel the Idiot Jerk is doing a fine job handling this crisis.    My money says they are the ones who will break quarantine because the Coronavirus is "just like the flu," and "you can go to work if you have it," and "it'll be gone soon."  They are the ones who will continue to spread the Virus.  Stay away from Republicans... and Evangelicals, they are unclean.
I have a funny feeling I'm going to get a lot of lawn work done in the next couple of...maybe weeks.

Essential Scrutiny

Well, here we are... it's Sunday and the first of a 3 day stretch at work.  I'm off for 4 starting on Wednesday.  I can't wait.  While I don't mind working, I can't wait until I can cut it back to 4 days a week.
Yesterday I rode 17.5 miles down Cow Creek.

I have no idea why it's called Cow Creek... I didn't see a single cow, though there is a creek, as well as some serious lumbering.   The record time for this ride is 29 minutes, that's an average speed of over 27 miles per hour.  Mine was 19 miles per hour.  I see a challenge coming up.

As always, whenever I go for a ride, the dogs bark.  Now and then it's because someone walks by the front of the house, though occasionally it's because there's a bunny in the yard.  Yesterday, as I was going over my post-ride stats, they started.  Walking into my front bedroom, I looked out the window and saw Jake Miller getting into his car.  Jake is the Democratic candidate for Treasurer for Cumberland County.  He's getting my vote.  What was he doing at my house?  Leaving me info on all the Democratic candidates for the election this Tuesday.  What he didn't leave me, and what came in the mail was something on Lisa Grayson.  She's one of those phony Democrats I was warning you about.  You see, Lisa is a Conservative Republican who registered Cross Party.  That's right.  When you go to vote Tuesday, Lisa is going to be listed on the ballot as both a Democrat and a mud sucking Republican.  Not only is she a mud-sucker, she's a dedicated supporter of the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Read the info the Democrats are handing out.  Scrutinize your ballot.  Those lying bastards will use any trick possible to stay in power.

These pretenders are so evil, so much worse than snakes in the grass.  At least rattle snakes give you warning.  Not these guys.  All they want to do is poison the world you live in.

Elections skew towards the center, oh, and Kentucky fails.

As many know, yesterday was Election Day.  Here in Cumberland County, PA, there was not a large turnout, at some polling station it was as low as 20%.  That is not a good thing.  Special interest groups tend to do well when this happens because the Crazies rally.  This is how we get wack jobs like Ted Cruz in Congress.
Out of 153,000 registered voters in my county, only a little over 40,000 voted.  What I did find interesting while looking at the numbers is that out of 40,000, a little over 14,000 people voted straight down the party line.

Straight Party Votes

Candidate Name	Party	Election Night	Absentee	Total Votes
Democratic	Democrat	4385	125	4510
Republican	Republican	9258	244	9502
Independent Judicial Alliance	Independent Judicial Alliance	230	3	233
Libertarian	Libertarian	2	0	2

This means that while the number of voters in this mid-term election is rather low, most of them are paying attention to just who they are voting for, not just voting straight Republican or Democrat, and this is a problem for the Republicans because this is a Very Conservative County.  Instead of sweeping power into their corner, it's split between both parties.  This is a long way from one Party domination, in fact, this is very centrist voting.

On a side note, I saw that Kentucky now has a GOP Governor, some walking failure who supported Kim Davis.  How do I know he's a walking failure?  He has promised to "gut' Obamacare.  This guy is dumb as a brick.  His name is Blevins.  He's going to shit away a lot of Kentucky money trying to do what both the Republican controlled House and Senate have failed to do. Oh, and he's going to give Kim her way and diminish the value of marriage in Kentucky, but that's okay because at least there's a Republican Governor in Kentucky, and that's what's important.