The Learning Lesson

 And... here we go!  Another week is upon us.  New week and my first load of laundry is already in the washer.  Outside, it is a cold 25 (F), though the temps are predict to rise into the mid 40s (F) today.  They got warm yesterday, though I don't know if the got that high.  Tonight they're supposed to drop back down into the cold zone.

My shift yesterday was different, shorter, earlier.  12-6  I liked it.  I may change my shift on Thursdays to reflect the same hours.  I like getting home earlier than 7:30.  I actually have things I can do in the evening other than watch TV or play games.

I did sell some flooring to a couple.  The large orange retailer I work for has this policy where if you want a product and we don't have a large enough quantity in the store, they tell you to which store you need to go to pick up your purchase.  They used to do store to store transfers, but that stopped about 10 years ago.  Now, if the quantity you want is available is somewhere else, you have to pay to have it shipped to your home.  Example:  if you want 51 cases of flooring and we have 13 in the store, and 40 at another store, you either have to drive to that other store, or you can pay $75 to have all 51 delivered to your front door.  Before, you could have all 51 delivered to the store and pick them up without the charge.  Sucks, don't it?

So, I sent some things to Christos about The Body in History since he has become my Greek advisor, so to speak.  His response:  "I'm on a tour in Vietnam and it is not downloading because the Wi-fi is spotty, will look at it when I get home."  That made me laugh because I've been to Vietnam.  

I asked my friend Jon yesterday if his church was taking donations to send to the fire victims in Los Angeles and he told me nothing had been said, so far.  So, I poked my brother with the question, he said he was going to bring it up at council meeting on Tuesday.  Maybe it's about Christians started showing their compassion.  I told him I had sent donations, there's nothing wrong with teaching them compassion with a little guilt.

This is what sleepy looks like.

Evidently Newty Gingrich is tell people that Orangey's immigration will fail if he follows through with them.  Of course, Newty doesn't have the pull he used to have with his party.  He's been replaced with Elonia, the white supremacist who grew in South Africa when apartheid was still going strong.  I did like that Newty said that if Orangey's plans include the separation of children from their mothers there will be blow back the OA will not be able to withstand.  The same is true with everyone of his cabinet choices.  They are all extremists and, or, billionaires, or both, who relish their hatred of America.  They are that whiny bunch that have always said, "if I ran the country, it would be different."  What these people have never understood is that nobody wants people like them running the country.  The next 2 years will be a terrible learning lesson for them, a lesson they are all going to fail.

The Bastard Republican Child

 Friday... and it's raining... again.  There is a steady drizzle falling which is going to keep me from mowing my front lawn this afternoon.  Temps were supposed to shoot up into the low 70s (F), but now I see on my Accuweather app that they're not going to get out of the 60s (F).  Now the sunny days and warm temps are supposed to happen while I'm at work.  Isn't that how it seems to go?  

Yesterday, I feel I got a lot done.  Today hopefully is going to be a repeat.  Some painting needs to be done in the kitchen: cabinets.  The only demo happening will be the removal of the sink cabinet, which will happen first.  Then the drywall will be hung.  After that, the new sink base will be installed (the drywall behind it doesn't need to be finished, and the other 5 cabinets will be installed.  I'm not going to order the new flooring until that's done.  Tuesday, Lindsey is bringing the drywall, which will mean more clutter.

I really do hate clutter.

I made a three bean salad yesterday with just a touch of jalapeño pepper heat and a bit of shredded Swiss cheese.  

I did get a big laugh when I saw Raw Story did a piece on Newt (Just Say No) Gingerich's confusion with the current GOP.  You'll notice that I did include the famous lesson he taught: Just Say No.  Back in the 1990s that was his call to arms.  Hold the Democratic president hostage until he concedes.  Now, it seems as though old Newty wants to disparage the spawn of his political loins.  The fact that he failed to grasp his tutorage would lead to the inevitable breakdown of the GOP, indicates how little time and forethought he gave to this policy and where it would lead.  Now, instead of shrieking "what have I done!" he's looking at the hardliners in the House and whining "what's wrong with you?"  It was he who set the Republican party on this political course, and now that they're about to sail off the edge of the political world he wants to refute the reality that he is the father of this bastard Republican child.

Newty's Doody

 Well, it's Mittwoch, formerly known as Wondenstag until the 10th century, when people decided that Woden wasn't special enough to have a day named after him.

The weather was nice yesterday, not that I was outside that much.  While I did clean the living room tank, most of the day was spent on my kitchen floor.  There was a bit of a raging date in my head for about 30 minutes on whether I should take the flooring down to the hardwood or now.  Harwood floors are an asset when it comes to resale, but the floors in my kitchen have suffered greatly during the 118 years they have been tread upon.  Originally, there would have been a large iron coal stove which would have been used for heating as well as cooking.  Yes, this house is that old.  As a result, cinders and hot coals have scared the wood.  Then, when plumbing came in, there was evidently a problem with sinks, not that they leaked, but locating them in the correction place.  Because of this, there are a number of holes about one foot in from the wall around the perimeter.  There are other holes, as well, that were made when the coal stove went out and radiators came in.  After much back and forth in my head, I've decided to leave the floors covered and go with my initial plan of putting down vinyl planks.

Here's a pic of the progress.  The window and all of the holes are going to be covered with drywall.

And, as expected, there is still blowback coming from Republicans about the informal dress code.  Susan Collins began threatening to wear a bikini.  Someone should take her aside and let her know that there's a difference between Fetterman in his hoodies and shorts and her fat ass and her floppy boobies.  Sadly, she feels her absurdity will make a point, and in her own true Susan Collins style she's failing. 

Not surprising, the hard core right wing of the Republican party in the House of Representatives is going to screw over, (are you ready for this?) their own party.  Newt Gingrich has groomed the Just Say No party extremely well.  Kev McCarthy, in an unusual moment, stated that this will hurt the party more than it will the Biden administration.  However, Newty did his doody well and taught them to be extremists; unless you get your demands, Just Say No.  This is like watching a tank of toothless piranhas gnaw each other to death. 

The Ice Bridge

It's nice and sunny outside and the temps are supposed to climb into the mid 50s (F).  Overnight, temps did drop down to freezing, but those days will soon be coming to an end.  Spring is edging closer and closer.  I'm fine with that, even if it does mean getting out the lawn mower and trimming the verge.

I do get to work today.  Short shift.  1 PM to 7 PM.  No lunch, though I'll take a break.  I'm glad it's the afternoon.  Sometimes Monday mornings are busy; contractors come to pick up supplies for the coming week's jobs.  By the time the afternoon rolls around, they've made their purchases.  One thing I've noticed in Flooring is that since our remodel, we get less contractors coming in to buy the cheap carpet we carried on rolls.  We also don't get the sheet vinyl customers we used to get.  This is fine.  Nobody in the department likes to cut sheet vinyl.

Yesterday afternoon was terribly slow in the retail department.  As I said to one of my fellow associates, I don't really mind those days.  I usually spend that down time doing research on the the Flooring computer.  In the next book, I was thinking of having my guys wander down through Central Park, possibly stopping by the Delacorte Theater to take in some Shakespeare in the Park, or maybe listening to some music at the Soundstage.  So many possibilities.

One thing that plays a part in The Body Under Ice is the ice bridge.  The only way to get to Mackinac Island is by ferry.  During the winter, when Lake Huron is frozen, people drive snowmobiles across the frozen lake using what they call the ice bridge.  On a sunny day it takes about 12 minutes, however on a moonless night it can take much longer.  Here's a video I watched about people driving across the ice bridge and taking a tour of the island.  It looks very cold.

Here's a funny thing:  Newt Gingrich is concerned about some of the legislature the Republican of Florida are proposing under Ronnie D.  In particular, he's upset with the bill which would have bloggers register if they were going to talk about the state government, and Ronnie D.  Why is this funny?  Because Gingerich was the instigator that started the Republican move towards authoritarianism.  The Tea Party, remember?  He was the one who initiated the "shut up, we're in charge" doctrine, as well as the constant, unswerving attacks on Democracy.  Now, he's having an "oh, shit," moment.  I suspect Newtie is now realizing that the extremism he was pushing has now grown cancerous.  Keep in mind, it was Newtie who had no problem with Trump and his leprotic government.  However, now that the chips are falling, his concern is growing apparent.  Keep in mind, it was Newtie who joined Trump and his group of insurrectionists on a rainy golf outing last summer so they could freely speak far from microphones.  Believe me, Newtie is going to get everything he deserves.
 

The White Trash Republican Party

 Well, it's Friday and the temp outside is 51 (F).  According to the forecast, we'll get a few degrees warmer.  We are in February.  Normally this past week would have been called a 'winter thaw,' but we've been too warm for anything to really freeze.  When the temps are cold, we count down the days until Spring, this year I suspect we will simply slide into our next season.

Yesterday, I used my drying rack for the first time.  The only thing I didn't like was the sock clips, though they're not really clips, so I just laid them out on the middle rack.  It worked well.  In fact, I was surprised at how quickly everything dried.  

I had to laugh when I heard that James Carville said that the Republican party is White Trash.  I don't know about you, but I realized that a long time ago.   The trashing of the party began with the Tea Party, and Newt Gingrich scooted it into the fast track.  Prior to that the party catered to intelligence, but then they realized there was an untapped source of votes in those who barely finished high school.  Power to the people, the party yelled and those people turned out to be easily manipulated.  They preferred red meat and didn't care if it had been rotting in the sun for quite some time.  And then John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate.  It's been downhill for the party ever since.

Of course, George Santos is being investigated by the Ethics committee the Republicans gutted.  This is a waste of time.  McCarthy needs Santos' vote, so he will stay.  Even though Santos makes the party look desperate, he will stay.  Santos is trash, and he is the face of the Republican party.

The same is true of Marjorie Taylor Greene.  If you watch her face as she's calling Biden a liar during his State of the Union speech, it's obvious she's having a grand old time.  She was enjoying herself.  White trash doesn't understand there is a time and place.  White trash simply doesn't care. 

Newt Gingrich's Lament

 Well hello, Friday, my day off.  It's sunny here in Central PA, though cool, almost cold.  The temp when I first checked was a very chilly 25 (F).  There was frost on the car windows.  Winter is only 3 weeks away.  How cold will this year be?  It's anybody's guess.  Of course, the Climate Change nay sayers will call it hokum if the temps go really low.  They will never understand, mostly, I suspect because it's too complicated.

My little laundry room cart arrives today.  Truthfully, it's actually a bar cart.  Tall, almost 34 inches high, with a shelf made for bottles of booze detergents, dryer sheets, and sundry cleaning supplies.  It will have to be assembled; I don't mind.  My first load of the day (bed sheets) has just been moved from the washer to the dryer.  The washer uses between 12 and 14 gallons (roughly 48 litres), which is a big drop from the 25 + gallons my old washer used for each cycle.

Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee, got her comeuppance yesterday by the 11th Circuit when they said her ruling for a special master was shit.  Well, they didn't quite say it was shit, but their wording implied their total dismay with her for even making such a decision.  Could her impeachment be in the works?  There's a possibility.

Kanye, the dotard, has been kicked off of Twitter.  I haven't checked this morning to see how the Cracker Jack Crazies are taking it, but I suspect not too well.  You see, when their definition of freedom of speech means they can go hardline hate and incite violence without any repercussions.  I'm certain they're quite disappointed Elon has limits.

And Newt Gingrich has, as certain people say, the sadz.  He's lamenting... wait, that word's a bit weak, Newtie is whining that Joe Bide is far more successful than Republicans thought he'd be.  In an out turn of phrase, he compares Biden to both Eisenhower and Reagan. HOLY SHIT!  Newtie is upset because the tactics he developed to attack both Clinton and Obama are not working.  Biden is getting things accomplished, and he's doing so because Republicans are crossing the line.  Uncle Joe's agenda is popular with Americans, and when Republicans vote against it they look terrible.  Take yesterday, with the vote to avoid a rail strike Republicans did something good, but then they shit in their pants by voting to not give railroad workers sick pay.  They gave all of those MAGA railroad workers what they Republicans think they deserve: nothing.  And so Newt's lamenting.  He says they need to change their tactics, of course, that would mean they'd need to come up with an agenda to help the average American, not big business.  That ain't gonna happen any time soon.

The Last Subpoena

 Okay, so there's no other way for me to put this, yesterday work was boring.  While I did talk to some customers, most of my time was spent checking out headlines.  We hired a Jordanian to replace the Haitian and he seems to be working out much better.  The last we heard of the Haitian, he was up in Canada and didn't know if the United States was going to let him back in.  We shall have to wait and see.

Biggie is much better, but then I, personally, adjusted his gabapentin.  He now gets 900 mg twice a day.  The vet had prescribed 600 mg in the morning, 300 mg in the afternoon, and then 600 mg in the evening.  I think the gabapentin helps him more than the carprofen he's on, so I might cut that dosage back to half a tablet in the morning and the 2nd half in the evening.

I'm still waiting for Barnes & Noble to get back to me on publishing.  The hang-up appears to be with my W9.  Evidently, they didn't get it when I initially emailed it to them.  When I can publish, my books will be available in either paperback or eBook.

Back on 9/11 the Twitterverse was in full speculation mode; Trump had suddenly, and without notice, arrived at Dulles airport in a rented jet.  People wondered if he was ill, or if he had arrived to give some secret Grand Jury testimony, or if he was going to be indicted and had flown to Washington to avoid a perp walk similar to the one Steve Bannon had taken.  No One Knew!  The secrecy began to unravel yesterday afternoon at his golf club.

He, and eight of his co-conspirators had a golf outing... when no one played golf.  Devin Nunes was there, so was Kevin McCarthy, and Eric, and Newt Gingerich (you can see him in the top photo).  The reason for such a clandestine outing is to keep people from knowing it's taking place.  Obviously, the secrecy bit failed entirely.  There are quite a number of videos of them driving around in their carts and standing, talking in the rain.  Ooops!  And at first people wondered why.  Then the news began breaking.  So, why did Trump suddenly fly into Dulles?  Over the past week, the DOJ has issued over 40 subpoenas, and confiscated 2 cell phones from his close allies.  This is an 'oh! shit!' meeting.  They need to get their stories straight.  This is the gang that couldn't shoot straight, try to make sure they can corroborate their stories in secret.  The bottom picture has been dubbed Da Vinci's Last Subpeona.

Blood on the Ax

So, I have a blister on my left hand, right below the middle finger, the result of digging out a 20 year old lilac bush from the corner of my front yard.  In the 5 days I have off, that was one of my main goals.  And like all things blistery, I suspected I was growing one as I hacked away at the roots with my 20 lb, heavy duty pick.  When I looked down and saw there was blood on the ax, I knew I'd be reaching for the band-aids and Neosporin shortly.
And in case your wondering, the blood on my ax was much more real than that on the ax Newt Gingrich sought to grind yesterday.  Every member of Congress was bending over backwards except for this horse's ass who blamed the Democrats, on Fox News, a right wing propaganda channel that  no longer claims to be fair and balanced. Yesterday, when there was serious bipartisan concern, numb nut Newt started spitting out turds, no doubt to get himself some attention.  What a loser.  And this morning, as I glanced through the comments by some of my Navy buddies who are lost in the school of conservative foolhardiness, I could see that he was not alone.  They all have their little axes to grind.

And, of course, there was so much brouhaha going on about the shooting, many failed to notice that the Washington Post noted that evidently there is an ongoing investigation of the Idiot in the White House.  Of course, it's the big news today.  Obstruction of Justice.  Happy Birthday Idiot.  And, as you might expect, he started chopping away on Twitter.
Anyway, I think that tomorrow morning Big Seig and I will head over to Home Depot and pick out something to plant where the lilac bush once grew - something that's not going to grow too big, or too wide, like maybe a shrub.

Nasty Newt

Just a quick note before I slip off to work... I saw that Newt Gingrich is opening his crazy, trash mouth saying things like "we should test all Muslims to see if they believe in Sharia," and I'm thinking to myself that believing in Sharia doesn't make one evil, and it doesn't make you a terrorist.  Of course Newt doesn't care about this.  All Newt wants to do is throw red, juicy, raw meat to the GOP base, he wants to spoon feed the Trumplodites.  It's a terrible thing to say but I think the Republicans need the the Muslims the same way the Nazis needed the Jews, as a focal point for hatred, and Newt is a mouthpiece.  And you can bet he's loving this, creating a palpable threat.

He is one of the villains in this piece of Trumplomania.  They don't really care who gets hurt, just as long as they get someone in the White House.  They want to make America great by branding it in their own likeness, very white and dressed in their version of Christianity.