The Admirals and Generals are Unimpressed

 We had a chilly night in Central PA.  One down and more to come.  While I didn't rise and shine at the crack of dawn, the outside temp when I climbed out of bed was 54 (F).  Our daily highs for the next several days will be in the mid 70s (F).  That's fine.  Weather forecasters are even predicting that we'll be warming up a bit, with daily highs climbing up in to the upper 70s (F).  As long as I can save money on the heating bill, that's fine with me.

And for a Tuesday, when I usually spend my time decompressing from working the weekend, was a good day for getting things done.  Three loads of laundry, though I have to be careful with what gets hung outside since Howie likes running around the yard with one of my T-shirts in his mouth.  Shopping was done, including a trip to BJs, where I bought another 20 pounds of rice.  I'm not set for rice.  I also picked up walnuts and oatmeal.  The generic oatmeal at my neighborhood Giant supermarket is $4.99 for 2 pounds.  The cost for name brand oatmeal at BJs was $9.99 for 5 pounds.  This is a good thing.

I also got a 12 mile ride in, which pleased my trainer.  Will I be losing fat and gaining muscle?  Only time will tell.  I'm signed up for 3 months.  I probably won't renew since the routines should be pretty much ingrained by then.

Oh, and the fratboy Secretary of War gave a speech yesterday.  It did not go well for him.

This is because he thought he was talking to a bunch of beer drinking fratboys who were simply gaga about seeing him in the flesh.  Instead, he was prancing back and forth in front of an audience of 800 plus Generals and Admirals, many of whom have Master's Degrees and Doctorates.  He failed to comprehend that they are not only well educated, but well versed in military command and who have, most importantly, sworn allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.  If you get a chance, watch the conclusion of his speech, where he's expecting a rousing college cheer of support and gets stony silence.  As someone else said, it's so satisfying to watch the light fade from his eyes before he turns and walks quietly off the stage.

He was followed by Orangie who speech was long, rambling, low energy, perhaps because he, too, was expecting Petey to get a rousing round of applause.  During his hour of trying to create blunt force trauma, Orangie whine and complained about Biden, wanting the Nobel Peace Price, and suggested using American cities as training grounds for American troops.  I don't doubt that in his addled mind this speech was supposed to overwhelmingly unite the United States military behind him, a dedication of pure loyalty that would stun the world.  His failure in this was utterly complete.  He wants the military behind him.  Yesterday Orangie discovered that is not going to  happen.

With this is mind, is it any wonder he sent out deepfake videos of Democrats as his party shut down the governmnet?

 

This is What Greatness Looks Like

 Well, the temps climbed into the upper 80s (F) yesterday, and it was humid... (understatement).  Right now the outside temp is 73 (F) and it is humid.  In fact, that does appear to be the word of the day for Central PA. We might have spotty showers this morning, but this afternoon the temps will climb into the upper 80s (F) and it's supposed to be humid.  This is summer, after all, and for the time being, these temps are just a little higher than those we had over the 2 previous years, though it wasn't nearly as humid.

Work was slow, until I was about to leave, then customers began showing up.  Our aisle associate is on vacation, so there's only one specialist from 7 until closing, and while he's a very nice man, my loyalty to the orange home improvement retailer I work for ends at 7.  The inability to staff sufficiently is a corporate issue.  Bringing someone one in to replace the aisle associate's hours is a payroll expense.  Frequently, customers are having to make do with the fact that there are no people on the sales floor to help them.  The current HR rep was complaining, corporate only gave her 187 hours for scheduling.  That may sound like a lot of hours, but not when you're staffing a store that sells over $1 million a week.  There are going to be some serious gaps without a scheduled associate in Hardware, and Plumbing, and customers are just going to have to deal with that fact.

Of course, Joe Biden gave one the last speeches as president last night.  I watched it.  

Stepping aside is the right thing to do.  He is elderly.  There were times that I felt bad for him. but he also made me proud.  I don't think many people understand how difficult it is for an older person to come to terms with their age on public TV, and that's what Joe Biden did.  As we age, we like to keep those very personal moments private.  There are those who never accept the reality of getting old and fight it, but there comes a point when we should all sit ourselves down and admit to ourselves that we are not nearly as spry, or as fit, or smart as we used to be.  This is what greatness looks like.

And now the fun begins.  The Republicans have so many things going against them and one of them is their complete denial of reality.  Republicans live in their own jagged, little world where narrowed tunnel vision is the norm.  It's not that they refuse to see America as it really is, they simply can't, it's not within the scope of their vision.  This will be their downfall.  They will define failure for political parties for far into the future.

Plumb This

October has arrived.

Sunday has arrived!  The temps are supposed to climb up into the lower 80s (F).  I don't doubt there will be those out there calling it the beginning of Indian summer.  Wrong.  Indian summer happens after the first frost, which is when the temps drop down to around freezing, 32 (F).  That's probably not going to happen for at least a month... if it happens then.  Climate change, you know?  If this year is similar to the last 2 we're going to have a bit of a deep freeze in mid-to late December, possibly another 2 weeks of really cold temps in January, but the rest of the winter will be mild, at least for Central PA.

For those who don't know, today is Homemade Cookie Day.  Guess who is not going to be making any cookies?  I did completely debox the dishwasher this morning, and it looks as though I might be doing that install myself.  Yippee!  And it also looks as though I'll be doing the plumbing for the sink, as well.  I figure, if it can save me $400 why not.  I have done plumbing before.  I also have a somewhat Ace in the Hole, as Jon, the PT who's giving me PT advice on The Body in Motion, is also a plumbing specialist.  I guess I'll find out just how good he is.  At his suggestion, I've already bought some supplies.

And, as you all know, Congress avoided the dreaded shutdown again.  This was after Mitch McConnell said the Senate Republicans would not vote for the 45 day extension.  What is telling is that in the House of Representatives, Republicans voted with the Democrats to move this piece of legislation forward.  90 Republicans voted against it, including Green and Gaetz, voted against it.  When push came to shove, Centrist Republicans pushed back against the shoving crazies.  Their party is in disarray.  Chaos reigns.  Will these hardliners learn their lesson?  Nope.  These are the diehards of the "just say no," party, the ones who so desperately want to say "shut up! we're in charge."  Their end is nigh, brought on by the Spawn of Satan, Donald Trump.