Father's Day

 Sunday.  This is my Hump Day.  I'm excited.  Hitting the halfway point is always exciting.  After today, everything will be moving downhill and I have Wednesday and Thursday off.

I did ride the San Remo route yesterday.  14 Miles.  Slow and easy.  I used to compete with myself, racing to beat my previous times.  Not any more.  Speed doesn't necessarily contribute to a good workout.  One of the reasons I ride is for heart health.  Cardio is great for so many reasons.  My sitting heart rate is in the low to mid-50s.  That's pretty good.  On more than one occasion I've had a medical professional look at me quizzically and have had to explain.

Today's Father's Day.  I remember my dad well, just not the year he died.  I've never been good with dates.  For years, I had had his birthdate wrong, and would call him a day late.  Never once did he correct me. That was once, but I do wish he would have corrected me. Not once did he tell me he was born on March 20 rather then March 21.  I don't know if that's a good thing to say about him or not.  It's one of those questions I will ponder from time to time.

An old pic of my Day holding me when we lived in Mississippi

There is an interesting article in The Guardian and their subservience to Trump.  The truth is that these people are Zealots who are still believing the Big Like imitated by Reagan, that the country is religiously conservative.  Well, America is Centrist.  Our Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution to keep it that way.  Republicans want to rewrite the Constitution.  We need to stop them.  White Evangelicals believed God was acting through Loser #45 to give them what they'd been praying for ever since Ronnie Reagan had his landslide win.  This means they need to believe The Big Lie, other wise they would need to come to terms with the idea that God let them down.  How do we keep these Zealots at bay?  We vote them into obscurity.  We need to treat them like the minority group they are.

The people over there

 Yesterday was slow in the store.  I spent most of the day fixing problems:  an expensive Coolaroo blind needed to be remade, the measurements were wrong, build a quote for 2 bathrooms that hadn't been included when a job was sold... same old shit... crap... stuff.

One funny thing happened when I got to my locker.  One of our associates was standing waiting for me.  I know this because he said, "I've been waiting for you."  I told him I had been on vacation, and he shrugged.  Swinging open his locker door he said, "I bought your books, can you sign them for me?"  Of course, what's an author to do?  Later, when I found out he was planning on selling them on Ebay, I laughed.  My signature is worth about 2 cents.  On the bright side, he did buy for books!

When I got home from work, I discovered some sort of vague imprints on the outside of that little 5 gallon tank I set up for the Goldies.  It's sitting on top of the record cabinet, so I'm figuring Biggie stuck his nose against the glass while checking out the new fish.  Later in the evening, I found him sitting in front of the tank just watching them swim back and forth, and I'm sure his little doggie brain was thinking "simply fascinating."

This morning, I'm going to do one the rides I like on Tacx.  San Remo, possibly.  San Remo is 24 k railroad line that has been converted into a bike trail, though a lot of people walk rather then ride.  It is very scenic.  I usually ride 14 miles.

So, Iran had an election and a hardline conservative won... by a landslide, not because he was popular, rather many, many people chose to boycott and not vote.  Ouch.  While we over here didn't have voters boycott the 2016 election, a large proportion of the voting public stayed home... and look what we got, and Orange Anus, a loser extraordinaire.  That over here.  Over there?  Iranians may have something worse to deal with... a hardline conservative who sees no middle ground.  I'm sure it will not be long before the people begin to realize they've made a mistake.

Taking it home to Granny

It's Monday morning and I get to go to work and wear a mask... face mask, that is.  Mine is a tubular piece of synthetic fabric, a lot like a baggy nylon stocking.  We are supposed to wear them up over our mouth and nose constantly.  That's not going to happen, not until I get used to wearing it.  An amusing side note: I can pull it up over my entire head.  I have no idea what I look like, but people laugh when I do it, so maybe I'll bring it along home this afternoon and take a picture.
There were no protesters yesterday, and the day turned out to be nice and sunny.  The line to get into the store was fairly long.  I am impressed by the patience of people in this time of crisis.  I need to amend that to say most people.  There is that minority group out there who hate being told what they can and cannot do.  Isn't it interesting they, themselves, want dictate to us what we can and cannot do.   Hhhmm.  Many of them don't understand what's going on.  They don't care about anything but their own selfish wants.  In America, this is the new definition of Conservatism.
On a lighter side, I rode 64.9 miles last week.  Five days in a row I was on the bicycle, three of them in San Remo (through the magic of Tacx).  Yesterday, however, I was in France riding stage 2 of Liege-Bastogene-Liege.  One of the hills has a 17% grade.  Interestingly enough, it was filmed on race day so I was riding with actual cycling teams.  Let me tell you, the feeling was rather surreal seeing the Lotto cyclists riding towards me.
There's supposed to be a big protest in Harrisburg today, which is in Dauphin County... which has a fairly high infection rate.  15% of those tested have been positive.  Ouch.  Governor Wolf said "if they want to come and protest, let them come and protest."  Of course, they might end up taking something back home to Granny, but that's okay.
And now even that idiot Pence is saying the "cure might be worse then the disease," which is his way of justifying the loss of life.  He's always been a failed human.
Finally, I took another picture of my tulips, this through one of my rose bushes.  For those interested, I've marked Glen.  He.... she.... It seems to be doing find.  I suspect that might change as he becomes conflicted over his... her... It's inability to bloom.

Republicans Need a Scapegoat

It's Monday and I get to go back to work!  I get to go back to work!  I get to... wait, I've been working all along.  When do I get to stay at home?
Yesterday was an odd day at work.  We had a lot of celebrants in the store.  One woman argued with an Assistant Manager because some of the cashier were wearing masks.  Neither she, nor her husband, were wearing masks.  No gloves either.  And she thought wearing them inappropriate, that they were frightening people.  That's right, she said inappropriate.  Damn Republicans.
Otherwise, lots and lots of little plastic Easter eggs were hidden around the store for associates to find.  Three of them had Gift Cards in them.  The rest of the eggs had candy inside.  I prefer candy over gift cards.  Candy is yum.  Weighed myself this morning and found I had gained 1.8 pounds, and that was after riding over 14 miles yesterday afternoon in San Remo. 
Weather is supposed to be crappy today.  Storms with some high winds.  That will keep the customers down at the store.  I am putting together a list of things I'll need to buy as I'm off tomorrow.  I also plan at stopping off at Giant on the way home.  As a single person living alone, I don't have a lot that I need. 
Evidently there's some sort of petition going around to have the guy in charge of WHO fired.  This is from Fox News, so I'd say it's very safe to say that most of those signing this are Republicans.  You know how they are.  Always find a scapegoat.  Always blame someone else.
And I also saw that an interesting bit about those little updates the Idiot Jerk celebrates daily.  His base loves them.  I do believe they seem them as a reality show.  The other half watching his antics hate them, they're turning on for the Science Guys.  It turns out his viewers are extremely partisan.  He can crow as much as he wants about his rating, he's not growing his base.  In fact, he's actually damaging himself with Independent voters.  This is all fine.  Come November, his base is going to be stunned.  They'll never realize all he did was bedazzle their brains.
And, of course the time has come for me to tease with a bit of the Cover Art.  Without further ado, here it is...