Small

 Our temps are borderline freezing, though expected to climb up into the low 40s (F) this afternoon.  As this Arctic Blast approaches they're supposed to begin to slowly drop, though the forecasters have already begun to modify how cold it's going to get in Central PA.  Their first forecast had us down to 12 (F), now it seems as though we're not going to be getting that cold.  They've added 12 degrees onto that, so, I guess we'll have to wait and see how cold it actually gets.

Yesterday was fairly meh, and today feels like it should be Monday.  No doubt it's the holiday effect.  I did some laundry.  Played Indiana Jones and the Lost Circle.  Cooked pork and sauerkraut, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.  It was tasty!

 But mostly I worked on the book.  The most difficult thing I've had to deal with so far is eliminating the car sections.  I knew that Delphi was small when I decided to use the town for a locale and had my guys driving from one place to another chapter after chapter.  However, it wasn't until I actually walked down the streets that I realized how small the town was, and that meant the car had to morph into walking conversations.  You can have a decent conversation walking from a hotel to.. oh, let's say the museum, however  it would take 3 minutes to get into your car, fasten the seatbelt and drive there, so any references to them riding, or sitting in a car, or driving somewhere had to be replaced.  To give you an idea, here's the street my hotel was on looking from one end to the other.  There are only 3 streets in Delphi.  At the far end is where you turn left to walk the half-mile to the museum.

There was excitement yesterday.  A tragedy in New Orleans, and a cyber truck explosion in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.  These incidents are not the prelude to a dream, but they might become common place when the moral degenerate takes office, especially with more and more individuals understanding how much he and the conservatives who want an authoritarian government have lied to the people.  As the Orange Anus, and his boss Elonia, push for more cheap immigrant labor, more and more Americans are going to lose their jobs.  When people realize Elonia relies so deeply on China and little on the United States, American anger will seethe.  There is this terrible misconception among authoritarians that all they need to do is put them in charge and everyone in the world will fall in line and comply.  Both conservatives and authoritarians have always been stupid.  In reality, they have very small minds, and small minds always fail.  I'm betting that a year from now, very few of the people who voted for the Orange Anus will admit that fact.

Awesome Greece

 Hello America and Greece!  The temp outside here in Harrisburg is 59 (F) and is predicted to rise into the 80s (F).

So, let me tell you about Greece.  It was amazing!  Great views!  Great history!  I had so much fun, and learned so much.  Did you know that the root word for "gym" means naked?  Now tell me, doesn't that add a whole new meaning to the word gymnastics?  And I'm betting that from now on, every time someone uses the word gym, you're going to mentally substitute the word naked.  I'm betting this bit of information is going to make it into my next book, The Body in History.  And how did an athlete clean himself off after a good naked workout?  With olive oil and scrapping tools.

One of the people who made this tour so amazing was our Tour Leader, Christos.  So, what does a young man with a degree in Math and Physics do when he decides he doesn't want to teach?  Become a Tour Leader for Explore.com.  He is much more patient than I am.  He stayed with me on that rigorous 999 step climb up to the Palamidi Fortress.  Believe me when I tell you that I thought my legs were in shape for anything and discovered they weren't.  On the Mani peninsula, as we were deciding which of us were going to participate in another rigorous hike over rugged terrain to the lighthouse on Cape Tenaro, and even though he was wearing sunglasses, I saw an "oh, shit," moment flash across his eyes when I said, "I'm going."  There is nothing wrong with testing yourself.  Never relegate yourself to the sidelines because you think something might be too difficult. I don't think he remembers, but I actually laughed out loud at that moment.  Here's Christos.

There were 11 members in my group, and on the last day we were asked what was our favorite moment.  That question was so difficult.  Mycenae was amazing!  I took pictures inside the tomb to show a friend at work because it's exactly the same as the tombs in Assassin's Creed, Odyssey.  The frescoes in the chapels at Mystra.  The way those colors popped after so many thousands of years was incredible.  For me, however, what impacted me most was walking into that big room of the Olympia Museum and seeing all of those statues that had adorned the top of Zeus's Temple.  As tears welled up in my eyes, I found it almost overwhelming.  

And, of course, there was Delphi.  Since The Body in History takes place in Delphi, I became very analytical.  How was this location going to fit into the story?  The town is small, a little over 3000 people, and there are only 3 streets, and I immediately began twisting the story tighter.  One of the first things I did was text a picture to Cori, my cover artist, saying, "this needs to be changed."  The Tholos of Athena is about a mile away from the archeological site.  I thought it was part of the site itself.  It's actually next to the gymnasium (also known as the naked training area).  So, I guess the question you'll be pondering until the book cover is revealed, is how will this play into the cover art.

And finally, there was supposedly another possible assassination attempt on the Orange Anus yesterday.  This makes number two.  This one comes after the "eating dogs and eating cats" scandal, and after the bad debate, and after Vance admitted on TV that he will make up lies to change the topic of conversation.  I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to have one of these every time the shit gets too real for Trump's campaign team.

Delphi

 Hello from Delphi!  We had showers when we left from Olympia, I even snapped a pic of a rainbow out the window of our bus, but by the time we arrived at our destination point, it was sunny and hot.  While I've grown use to sunny and hot weather, if I ever do decide to buy a 2nd home here, it would be in the north where winters are cool.

For those who don't know, Delphi is located on the side of Mount Parnassus... literally.  There are only 3 streets running through the town, and instead of side streets there are staircases.  I will definitely need to revisit Chapter 2.  The Delphi I was picturing was more of a level playing field, not a town sloping steeply up a hill.  Of course, that's just a minor issue.  The bigger problem I have is with the floor of Apollo's temple.  It's not exactly smooth.  So, tell me, if you were going to stab someone to death in the temple, would you do it in the front, or perhaps closer to the rear. There will be blood, stabbing wounds always have blood, and because the victim isn't that tall, it doesn't need to be a big area, but it does need to be level.

One myth that needs to be dispelled is that all Greek statues are white marble.  The truth is that ancient Greeks loved color and everything was painted, even their statues.  They wanted to make them as lifelike as possible.  Here's a pic where you can see some of the original paint.

And here's some original Greek music.

And for those needing it, here's some gratuitous Greek nudity.  It is important to note that Greek politicians and important people were clothed, only the athletes were naked.

And for those interested, there are eleven people on this tour, from the UK, from New Zealand, from Australia, and California, and everyone is laughing at Donald Trump.  He truly is a joke to the world.

Also, this will probably be my last entry until I get back to the states. Though, if I get bored waiting for my next flight at Heathrow, I might pull out my laptop and jot down a few lines....

Nah, that ain't gonna happen.

 

Is John Schneider stupid?

 For those who don't know, today is the shortest day of the year!  Tomorrow will be longer, and slowly we'll get back to those nice long sunny days we like so much, unless you're a vampire.  As with most of the country, there will be no white Christmas here in central PA.  In fact, on December 26 the temps are predicted to climb into the upper 50s (F).  If these temps keep up, my roses will soon be blooming in January.

I was going to stay in today, but as I was getting my breakfast together, I realized I was low on cereal.  The thought did cross my mind that I could cook up some oatmeal instead, however I realized I've become rather spoiled with my morning cereal with fruit and nuts.  So, after I take my morning shower, I'll head on over to my local Giant supermarket before it gets busy.  I'm also thinking about baking sticky buns for Christmas morning, that will mean stocking up on brown sugar.

Both tomorrow and Sunday afternoon I'll be putting in some hours at the store.  Believe me, it's not going to be busy.  I may sneak a book in and read.  Yes, an actual book... one with pages and a cover.  This one to be precise.  It's all about the research, you know?

Being that it's this close to Christmas, there's not a lot happening politically.  We're all going to have to wait on the Supreme Court decision on whether the Spawn of Satan, Donald Trump, is immune from prosecution for January 6 because he was president.  I'm betting they'll say "nope."  They've made a number of bad decisions, those that favor Conservatives, and as a result have put themselves into a serious bind.  America has become very dissatisfied with the Court, and dissatisfaction often leads to rule changes the Justices may not appreciate.  You can bet they're not going to jeopardize their own positions to benefit Donald Trump; they know all too well the probability of him losing in 2024 is great.

And there is that little flap over John Schneider saying Biden should be hung.  When I saw his comment on Threads, I asked, "is he really this stupid?"  Evidently yes... kind of, though someone must have given him a wack up side his head, since his comment has been deleted.  Too late, of course.  I'm betting he's already been contacted by the Feds regarding his possible threat against a sitting president.  Yes, he is this stupid.

Rejection

 Is everybody sleeping in on the cloudy Sunday?  Looking at the weather maps, I'd say cloudiness is hanging over most of the eastern seaboard, from Florida up to New York.  For those in the northeastern states?  Don't worry, it's coming your way and it's bringing with it a lollapalooza amount of rain.  We here in Central PA are under a "flood watch," with up to 3 inches of rain expected (in certain areas, since those rain bands can not be counted on to dump equal amounts everywhere).

And, as expected, yesterday was slow in the retail world...  Well, our hardware and garden departments were busy.  We did have a lot of Lookie Lous, though.  You know who I'm talking about, those individuals who wander through, looking at our products, and asking questions, knowing full well they have absolutely no interest in an installation.  We did sell $800 of artificial grass to someone who's son had just bought a home and there was no yard, evidently dog urine had killed off all the grass.  We have a number of people who do that, put in the fake stuff.  

I saw this neato picture of Delphi this morning and thought that I should probably print it off as a reference for my next project, The Body in History.  This is the Tholos at Delphi, what it probably looked back then, and what it looks like today.

And for those who haven't heard, Moms for Liberty has run into a host of problems these fascist women never thought would happen; that often happens when you embrace your hatred of things you can't control.  And it's not only Bridgit Ziegler's three ways causing the problems.  This past election cycle they got their butts whipped by American voters.  Their candidates lost something like 78% of their races.  Rejection is a terrible thing to have to deal with, I'm enjoying the rejection handed to the Moms for Liberty.

And I some a headline that Trump quoted Putin in a speech.  No surprise there.  And no Republicans called him on it.  Again, no surprise.  These people do not care about what happens to America as long as they can be in power.

Update on the weather, it's begun to rain.