Yellow Snow

 Good Morning World!  We had snow most of the day yesterday!  Most of it melted because the temps were just not cold enough.  It was a dreary day, so it was a good thing that I worked.

Yesterday was a little more productive than the past 2.  I got 30 minutes in on the treadmill and, thanks to laps at work, I managed to get in over 15,000 steps!  Wowza.  

We had our store holiday party last evening.  There were about 40 people there.  For the amount of time I was there, it was enjoyable, but then I only go for the food.  They had  a DJ who did a fine job, he was a store employee with somewhat eclectic tastes in music, which turned out to be fine.  The main reason I had for not staying any longer was the fact that I have a 4 and a half month old puppy who desperately needed to go potty outside.  I was so proud of him!  He left no presents waiting for me when I got home, and that was after leaving him alone for over 7 hours!

Here he is tinting first yellow snow.  Here's picture of that momentous occasion!  And this morning?  He made some more!

One of the things people need to keep in mind is that for a $1 million for a billionaire is "chump change," so when these billionaire give the Orange Anus $1 million, they're not bending the knee, that's just a token to him for letting them participate in turning America into an Oligarchy.  A good crash on Wall Street will send them all reeling.  The last time we had a good crash, millionaires jumped out of windows when they realized they were now worthless individuals.  The American economy depends totally on American's buying power, reducing or stopping Social Security reduces that buying power of senior citizens.  Privatizing Medicare and raising rates for health care will limit that buying power.  Of course, conservates have always been stupid.  There's an old adage that says "give them enough rope, and they'll hang themselves."  Because they believe their stupidity makes them smarter than everyone else, they feel that adages no longer apply.  They will ignore the sage advice "do not eat yellow snow."  I don't think Zuck, or Elonia, or Bezos will jump out of a window when they find themselves broke, but they will eat the yellow snow.

Not so Total Wine

 Yesterday was busy.  The weather was nice, with the sun popping out from behind the clouds regularly to brighten up the day.  Throughout most of the day, the temps hovered in the mid 40s (F).  I work today, so I haven't really be paying much attention to the forecast.  Tomorrow?  Rain is in the picture.  Possibly 3 inches of rain.  Forecasters are warning of possible flooding because we do still have some snow cover, with around 2 inches remaining.

I did spend the early part of the day in York, with my friend Betsy.  We did our usual Chinese buffet and Dairy Queen desert.  I had a Snickers Blizzard, and decided it wasn't that good; the chunks of caramel were too large.  

And, of course, last night we had our associate holiday party.  The only reason I go is for the food, and last night it was... iffy.  There was fish, possibly tilapia, which was truly flavorless, a chicken cordon bleu (?) that had come packaged and only reheated, and shredded roast beef that required artificial flavoring.  I can remember when the roast beef was actually sliced for you; those days are gone.  I don't drink, but the cash bar was expensive, so I stuck with the premixed lemonade and water.  The biggest surprise was that I won one of the drawings!  A gift card from Total Wine!  I never win anything, so I was really pleased... until I got home and discovered that the gift card could only be redeemed at a Total Wine store, and the closest store is in Towson, Maryland.  There's no way I'm going to drive 65 miles for a bottle of wine, so, in an odd sort of way, I didn't win anything.

And the Golden Globes were last night.  I didn't watch them, never do, but I'm wondering if this is going to be the year of Oppenheimer?  

And it looks as though the Democrats and Republicans have managed to put their heads together and come up for a funding plan for the country.  Now, isn't that nice.

Most of the political news is going to be about Iowa Caucus.  Wow.

Rake This

 Well, it was cold enough outside this morning to chilly your willy off, a crispy cream 28 (F) cold, should you be foolish enough to have him face that freeze.  On the flip side, our temps are heading back up to 50 (F).  There's not a lot of rain in the long range forecast, however, and we sure could use some.  That soaker we had last week help a little but not a lot; one of those every week for the next 5 weeks would be fine.

I accomplished a lot yesterday, including the annual raking of the gingko leaves.  While some rake theirs out onto the road for the street cleaner to vacuum up, my get gathered around the base of my gingko tree because during the winter they break down and become mulch (sort of).

I do have to work this afternoon.  Mostly it will be to chat with my work friends, talk about Thanksgiving, and the approaching Holiday Party.  It's in January, so there are the usual whiners who are complaining because it's not a Christmas Party...  duh.  We're retail.  Our holidays, supposedly our busy season doesn't end until both holidays (Christmas and New Years) are over and it celebrates both holidays (Christmas and New Years).  But then some people have small minds, just like the Cracker Jack Crazies who put the retailer I work for on the shit list because  we use the word Holiday.  

Anyway, here's the ring of leaves.

And before I raked leaves, I took a picture of two of my roses still blooming:

And I saw that one of Derek Chauvin's fellow prisoners stabbed him.  While I don't wish for anybody to be stabbed (except possibly the Orange Anus, though for him I suspect I'd rather enjoy to see him pilloried better) this is Derek's Karma.  Killing a fellow human being by kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes is terrible thing to do, the fact that Derek though he was justified in doing this makes it all the worse.  They've reported that his injuries were serious but not life threatening, that's a good thing, I wouldn't want him to die, but I do believe there's nothing wrong with a serious scar to remind him of the evil of his ways.

Short Circuit

Well, it's Tuesday.  I slept late again this morning, possibly because I'd slept so poorly the night before.  Ingesting so much pasta after 8 PM is definitely not conducive to my getting a good night's sleep.  Note to myself:  don't do it again.

Because attendance had been so low at the party (which wasn't really a party), there was lots of food left over, mainly pasta.  I worked for 4 hours yesterday, which means I had a bowl.  Not a big one.  It had red sauce.  meh.  Since I make my own at home, I'm a bit of a stickler about sauces, and I can tell you this one tasted like it had been poured right from the can.

The indoor dryer exhaust I bought requires a filter pad which needs to be changed.  Individually, they last about 1.5 months.  Sadly, they also cost $16 for two.  Being the creative person I am, I'm going to improvise, using chair batting (very inexpensive) rather than the filters, which I think are pricey.  I should be able to get 24 filters pads for $12.

And I started replacing the circuit boards on my treadmill yesterday.  I was a bit leery at first since I've never done anything like this before.  It turns out to be rather easy peasy.  Taking a picture insure you plug everything back correctly, pictures like this.  Oh, and wear gloves since the oils on your fingertips are not kind to circuit boards.  Oh, and if you have a color printer, it doesn't hurt to print the pic off.

George Takei runs a small media outlet called SecondNexus. They posted a survey from Civiqs showing Republicans are growing very unpopular.  That should surprise no one.  Remember, Republicans are only concerned about their own self-interests.  While they like to call themselves conservative, the America they work for has roots in authoritarianism.  Civiqs leans left, it's surveys are open to just about anyone, which means it can be stacked by either liberals or conservatives, so, let's say it's fairly accurate.  Even if it's only fairly accurate, and not quite 64% of Americans don't like the Republican party, there's still a good chunk of Americans who believe they're leading us down the wrong path.  This is not good.  The longer they are in charge, the more they hurt themselves.  Telling Americans it makes sense to raise the age for Social Security because people want to work longer does not put them in a win / win situation.  But then most of us know their brains started to short circuit a long time ago.

Martin Luther King day

The Monday holiday.  I still work this afternoon from 3 - 7.  Business should be slow. 

It is, however, and acronym holiday, mostly because Americans are lazy.  Instead of saying Martin Luther King day, we say MLK.  How much respect is in that?  Not much.  The holiday is for a great man, land it's been reduced to 3 letters.  That's it.  No more.  We no longer have a president, we have a POTUS.  Personally, I think that sounds like some sort of anal disorder.  Can't you picture someone turning the head askance, partially covering their lips, and whisper in a derogatory tone, "he has POTUS."   And believe me, while I don't like Amy Cony Barrett, I do believe she suffers from scotus, and am truly amazed how she manages to cover up all of her itching and scratching.

We had our associate Holiday Party last evening.  Ten 8 foot folding tables were put together end over end to make one 80 foot table.  For a store with 165 associates, around 55 showed up (some with friends, spouses, or other family members).  They bought food for 180.  I brought some home.  The dogs are getting meatballs.  When I go into work this afternoon, I'll have another bowl.  There were supposed to be decorations, it was supposed to be a holiday party, after all.  No decorations.  They had hired a DJ, but there really wasn't anywhere you could dance.  I don't like eating that late, but I did.  By 9:15 PM I was heading out the door since I like to go to bed around 10ish.  Morning person here, remember?

I don't know if it was because I ate so late, but I had a weird dream, sort of a Star Trek version of a Hindi ceremony that was so vivid I woke up repeating one sentence.  I wrote it down for you all to see.  "The one who is chosen is the one who choses to make the sacrifice."  Does anybody have any idea of what that means?

And since today is Martin Luther King day, here's a picture of him.  Give the man his due and say his full name.

For those who missed it, Ronnie Johnson was on the Chuck Todd show yesterday being very evasive.  When Chuck asked him why the GOP was focused solely on Hunter Biden's laptop and not Jared Kushner's $2 billion gift from the Saudi's, Ronnie avoided the issue completely.  He later posted a clip of his interview on line, and that section had been edited out.  Here's a link to the Rolling Stone article.  Ronnie was not a happy camper.  He evidently has chosen not to make the sacrifice.

How to Not Organize a Holiday Party

Outside, the skies are cloudy, a constant breeze is rippling through the branches of the river birch just outside the window, and the temp is sitting at 30 (F).  Today is supposed to be the only day that's cold.  Beginning tomorrow temps are predicted to start warming up.  This does not mean they've been cold.  With average daily highs in the mid 40s (F), so far this has been a relatively mild winter.  Now, the real question is going to be if by saying that I just cursed the hell out of it.  😎😎😎

I talked to the people working on the house next door yesterday.  Their plans have changed.  They were going to rehab and rent, now they're planning on a full remodel and sell.  He told me they were going to ask $180,000, which they figured would net them a $30,000 profit.  They should have no problem getting that price.  As of yesterday forenoon they had been up in the attic (she described it as creepy) but hadn't started to empty it.  The dumpster out front is full, so I don't know if they're going to be getting another one or not. 

Our Holiday Party is tomorrow.  I work a full shift (until 7), and it's going to be in the store.  That's right.  The mini-manager in charge thought this would be great, leaving more money for food and gifts.  This mini-manager is a dumbass.  There was supposed to be a buffet catered by Olive Garden, the restaurant said there would be no problem with a group of 200.  However, the mini-manager waited until Thursday (3 days before the event) to call and order the food.  Basically Olive Garden said "what world are you living in?  We need at least a week's notice for a crowd that size."  Members of the committee were calling around, trying to find someone who could hand that size crowd on such a short notice.  End result, there may be no food at the party.  I will decide when I'm at work tomorrow if I will go or not.

Last night I watched Matilda, the Musical on Netflix.  I'd heard good things, but...  (sigh), I didn't know if I was up for a musical with a lot of kids.  It's very enjoyable.  I highly recommend it.  Here's one of the songs, Bruce.  Now, ain't that a great name for a song!

Garland's decision to put the Biden document problem under the the watchful eye of a Special Counsel has evidently pissed off quite a few Republicans in the House.  You see, now that it's under investigation, they are unable to shoot out subpoenas. This keeps it from becoming a Dead Horse they can kick repeatedly.

 

The gift of Coal

 Yesterday was fairly slow at work.  Covid is beginning to rage and Christmas is coming, so most are putting flooring purchases on the back burner for now, except for those who do not celebrate Christmas and they seem to be growing more concerned about the Virus.

Snow is in the forecast for Central PA; about 3 inches are expected during the day tomorrow.  After tomorrow, I'm not scheduled to work until Thursday - on Wednesday they're predicting over 8 inches.   We shall have to wait and see.  

Rather than have a Holiday Party this year, our store is doing the 6 days of Christmas.  Starting on 12/19 associates are going to be treated to food and small gifts, one of which is going to be a succulent.  That's nice.  I do love my succulents.

A new ornament arrived yesterday for the winter theme of my all season tree.

I saw where the Orlando Sentinel retracted their endorsement of Mike Waltz.  He was one of those members of the House who signed that Amicus supporting the Texas lawsuit.  They said something to the effect that when they endorsed him, they had no idea he was going to attempt to throw out 231 years of Democracy in order to keep the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Guess what's in his Christmas Stocking?

And, speaking of the Idiot Jerk, I understand he's raging.  He truly believe that all he had to do was follow Putin's game plan and he'd be able to make himself president for life.  He has vowed to 'fight on.'  There were demonstrations of support for his lies in a number of cities yesterday.  In Washington, a white supremacist, nut job named Nick Fuentes had his band of MAGA's chanting "Destroy the GOP," while down in Georgia the demonstrators were calling David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler RINO's.  This is what a losing failure looks like.  Looks like Santa IS GIVING them  all the gift of coal.

Hello... It's me

 Sunday.  Yesterday was busier than I thought it was going to be and as a result went by fast.  I am definitely not opposed to fast days at work.  I did have some customers who were moving into a new house (for them) before Christmas and wanted new carpeting put in.  Sorry, that dance card is already filled.  Right now we're looking at installs sometime in the first week of January.  

Rather than have a Holiday Party, we're going to be celebrating the '6 Days of Christmas.'  Lots of food on the near horizon, so I had to check out the calendar - I only work 4 of the 6 days.  I'm going to be their for the Mission Bar-B-Cue day, but will miss out on the sub and sandwich day.  Oh, and I'm going to be getting a little basket.  Believe me, I'd rather have a bigger basket than a smaller one, but when it comes to baskets beggars can't be choosers. 

And I took a picture of myself while taking my temp at work.  Because the scanner didn't like my camera in front of my face, you can't see I was a scorching 96.7 (F).  Yeah, now you know.  I'm cold.  Been that way all of my life.

Oh, and the Idiot Jerk held another super spreader event yesterday down in Georgia.  This was after he called the Republican Governor and threw some sort of shit fit over the phone, demanding a special section of the legislature be called in order to give their electoral votes to him.  I saw an interesting comment about that phone call, referencing the Idiot Jerk's phone call to the Ukraine.  Similarities, you know?  Angry demands by a rotten loser.  

And I saw where there's talk of starting to sanction the Idiot Jerk's baseless lawsuits.  Evidently there is concern they might begin to overwhelm the legal system.  Do you think he cares?  Nah.

Having your cake

Here it is... Monday.  Some of you are going back to work for a day, or two.  I have been scheduled off.  I was off yesterday as well.  Did little, except for our store's Holiday Party.  As I age, I find I'm less and less of a party person.  Ours has been at the same venue for the past 5 years.  They always order the same menu.  Desert was either chocolate or carrot cake., both mass produced.  I've baked carrot cakes.  They're very moist, but there is texture.  Like this:

The carrot cake last night was more like a boiled pudding which had been way over-cooked and the artificially flavored cream cheese icing was... about as palatable as the cake.  Nothing changes.  Same thing goes for the music.  Meh.  One of my fellow associates sitting at my table said of the music:  It's okay to dance to, but I would never listen to it.  Sorry, but I listen to the music I dance to; I don't shut down my brain to the notes being played and lyrics being sung.  Oh, and it's all about sex.  I can remember when dancing used to be about having fun, when there were many focal points, now every song seems to be about banging bimbos.
So, what's planned for today?  Some grocery shopping.  Some cleaning.  I have a rocking chair up in the attic which used to belong to my Mom.  I'm giving it  away.  That's one less thing up there to get rid of.  And, of course there's going to be a ride.  I have no idea where or for how many miles.  What I do know is that I stepped on the scale this morning and... Let's just say I need to burn about 50 million calories.
If you leave a comment you'll see I've begun moderating again.  I had hoped maybe our troll had moved on... nope.  Obviously the poor thing doesn't read much since his comments never relate to the blog.  They don't seem to be anything more than a puerile attempt at crude humor.  I wonder if he's one of the Russkies who so often show up in the stats.

Fine

Last night I went to our Holiday Party - it was okay.  They kept the same menu as last year:  some sort of beef with mushrooms and dried chicken Parmesan.  I won a door prize:  a $10 gift card to Subway (which I gave a way) and a bag of Butterfinger candy bits (which I gave away).  I don't table-hop like some do... just not my style.  The truth is I'm not a big party person and as I grow older I'm even less of one.  The large corporation I work for, just like every other large corporation, wants you to be best friends with your associates.  That will never happen.  The last thing I want to do is spend time with my friends talking about work.  I do not bring my work home with me.  I do not take work with me when I got out to the movies or to dinner.  My life is simple, I like it that way.  My life is fine just the way it is.
And evidently last night Christian Bale won a Golden Globe for playing Dick Cheney in "Vice."  I understand he thanked Satan... in his very fine British accent.

Inspiration comes in all forms and shapes, doesn't it?  

And today is Monday and I get to go to work.  I have off Tuesday and Wednesday which is nice.  For the next couple of weeks I'm only working 32 hours per week.  That's fine, too.

There is also an interesting clip floating around out there of Faux News' Chris Wallace calling out Sarah Sanders Something or Other for lying.

You know you've been caught lying when Faux News starts fact checking you.  This was fine with me.  She gets paid to lie.  She spoon feeds the Republican base their bias and their racism for big bucks.  I'm not saying she doesn't believe those lies.  I suspect there is an ugly crook in her heart and she's fine with that because she believes.  She doesn't understand that her grandchildren will mostly likely marry people with brown skin.

And this morning, before I ate my oatmeal, I sat on the sofa for a bit, Big Seig on my left and Lily on my right, and let me tell you those moments were very fine too.

Republican White Elephant

So, it's Sunday morning and some of you are sleeping late.  I'm not.  Nope.  Got up at the usual time.  The holidays, in addition to having that nasty pharyngitis, have screwed up my schedule and finally I'm easing my way back into what I like to think of as normal.
Our store is having it's Holiday Party this evening.  Of course there are that small number who complain that it isn't called a Christmas Party.  I don't doubt most of them voted for the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  These are the same people who criticize the commercialization of the holiday but have no problem going out and buying themselves their own 'special' Christmas present.  For them, their religious beliefs seem to be directly linked to the purchase of an expensive gift.  As they mount that flat screen TV or proudly show off their new Apple watch they will call it a Blessing.  They will say "The real Blessing is that I got it on sale!"
I saw that a few hours ago another ranking Pentagon official handed in his resignation.  This is frightening because the Idiot Jerk is going to try and promote some like-minded moral degenerate.  Of course there is the good possibility that will never happen.  Legal issues, you see.  And there's the wall.  That White Elephant...

is only popular with his base, and in spite of their number chicanery, they are a minority group.  And just like the elephant, they too are white.  The funny thing is just like those phonies who count flat screen TV's and watches as Blessings, he thought he'd gift himself this wall for Christmas and say "oh, what a deal."  The longer the shutdown continues, the stronger the sentiment grows against his 'wall,' and the deeper he sinks in his shit hole.  Does his base care how bad or how selfish they look?  Absolutely not.  They don't understand a White Elephant is not something to cherish.  No one ever said they were smart, greedy and selfish yes, but smart?  Never.

Jane gets titylating

Well, we had our Holiday / Christmas Party last Sunday - I did go, for a bit, didn't stay long as the dogs had been by themselves in the house for over 11 hours.  Jane was there, of course.  In case you've forgotten, she's 77.  She'd invited one of the young guys who work for Solar City, kid around 24 or 25 years old.  He cancelled, said he'd gotten sick (wonder why).  This mean she was running solo.
Jane was dressed to the nines, shimmery, silver sequined shawl over a spaghetti strap dress, at least this is how her attire was explained to me since I only saw her briefly.  Anyway, Jane did dance with Glenda, another Solar City sales associate.  Upon returning to her table she complained about how hot she was feeling, all that dancing, you know?  So she decided to take off the shiny shawl, pulling it up and over her head.  To the horror of those at her table, her spaghetti strap dress had fallen while shew as dancing (at least that's what they're telling themselves) so the top was now below her boob line.  That's right.  Visualize it.  Think about it.  The 7 other associates at her table got doubled dosed, shot right between their eyes, with a pair of 77 year old tits.

Anyway, Jane's not happy with me at all.  Yesterday I found her at her register, waiting on a customer, while at the same time addressing Christmas cards to store associates, and she had an employee listing that included ID numbers and personal phone numbers... laying right out on the counter.  So, I took it from her and pissed her off.

As I was getting ready to leave for the day, one of my head cashiers said "looks like you're not going to get a Christmas card from Jane."  And then I laughed, and then he laughed.  Can it get any better than this?

The Christmas Gift

We had our store holiday party last evening. And I went, for a bit.  I'm not a big party person, not because I don't enjoy having a good time, rather I really hate when some horse's ass, who I have nothing to do with... ever, decides to connect with me and make me a best friend.  So, the party started at 7, however I had to close the store and didn't get there until 7:45 and discovered that the seat which had been saved for me was occupied... by a department manager I shall call Cate.  When told she was in my seat she evidently said, "Oh, we can make room for him," which meant a table set for a comfortable 8 was now a crowded 9.  Why didn't Cate do the nice thing and move?  That was something she wouldn't even consider.  You see, nobody likes her.  I describe her as a "fountain of bitterness and hate."  She constantly derides her associates.  She is always complaining about everybody and everything, and always starts by asking "Don't you agree?" or "Don't you think?"  Like "Don't you think Bob in paint spends way too much time in the break room?  I mean, don't you agree he is just a waste of payroll and they should get rid of him, don't you think so?"  My friend Patty says she is one miserable human being.  And Cate likes to share the misery.  While plowing her way through an over-filled plate of food last evening Cate suddenly paused, and then claimed she'd found a hair.

And nobody really reacted.  My friend Patty, who was sitting to her left, quietly said "you should say something," but that was it, nothing more.  Rosemary, who was sitting to Cate's right, did the same thing.  Those were the only 2 people at a crowded table of 9 who even acknowledged her complaint.  Me?  I thought, this was her reward for ruining the seating.  Karma, you know?  And I couldn't help but smile just the littlest bit knowing she'd received a fitting Christmas Gift.