Good Riddance

 Hello Monday!  It was cold this morning.  According to Accuweather the temp was 29 (F) outside, that'll Definity put frost on the pumpkins.  Afternoon temps, however, are again predicted to climb up into the mid 50s (F).  One of these days I'll have to check out UGI (my natural gas company) to see how much money these warm temps are saving me.  You won't find me complaining, as long as hot temps during the summer don't offset my winter's savings.  This past summer we missed much of the heat and it did wonders for my electric bill.

The retail world was slow yesterday.  

I'm off today.  Usually Mondays are work days, but I requested off, firstly for a physical, but then that got cancelled because my countertop was scheduled to be installed today, but then they installed it a week earlier because...?  Maybe because it wasn't a difficult installation?  The installers were only here for bit over an hour.  One thing they did that I truly appreciated was take the old countertop away.  There was supposed to be a charge for that, but I was told not to worry about it as one of the men carried it out of the front door.

Another expense was added to my debt, a new TV.  My old Sonia Bravia was over 7 years old (really 8 because it was a 2015 model I bouth 10/23/2016).  Turning it on it meant a 2 minute wait just to load all of the tiles on the main screen.  Two years ago, my Disney subscription needed to do an upgrade the TV could barely handle (I had to clean out the cache, and 2 other files).  It happened again last week with Paramount +, it wouldn't download and upgrade.  So, tomorrow, a new LG C3 arrives.  It seems as though everything I have is beginning to break down due to old age.  Rats!

I'm going to be planting milkweed!  It's a great plant for pollinators and Monarch butterflies! It's going to be replacing the Burning Bush that was in front of my porch.

And for those who haven't seen the news, Timmy Scott is ending his campaign to be president.  Tim should have looked around at the other candidates.  He's the wrong color.  Republicans only want white men for candidates.  That's why Haley and Ramaswamy will also, eventually, drop out.  

And here's a bit to make you laugh.  Ronna McDaniel, head of the RNC, has said that even if Trump is found guilty, Republicans will stand behind him.  That's right, Republicans would rather commit political suicide than offend a single member of the Trump Cult.  Yep, they would rather drink the Kool-Aid than admit he is pure evil.  These people will never look the truth in the eye, that would mean admitting they'd sold their souls years ago for the promise of money and power.  Good Riddance, Republicans.

And so it continues

 Friday.  Stayed up late.  Got up early.  I'll probably take a nap sometime this afternoon.  

Yesterday was fine.  I talked to, at best, 3 customers at work.  Tis not the season for flooring installations.  I still have access to the numbers for the district.  All stores are down in revenue.  Very shortly they're going to be cutting part-time hours, no doubt there.  That's why I saved my vacation and my personal time.   

I began watching The Rig last night on Netflix. That and Amazon Prime are the only two networks I can stream.  For some reason, my 7 year old Sony Bravada smart TV is not updating anything.  In fact, I can't even update Google without getting an error message telling me to check my Wi-Fi. Since I don't have cable, I'm dependent upon Wi-Fi, and that's working quite nicely.  Since I mostly use the TV for gaming, my alternative is to sign up for these streaming services using either Microsoft (Xbox), or Amazon.  Believe me, that's a lot less expensive than buying a new TV.

And for anyone who thinks that the Republican shit show is going to go away anytime soon?  Well, that ain't gonna happen.  We're looking at 2 years of dipshitery if McCarthy some how manages to get elected Speaker.  And if he does find a legitimate reason to stay in Nancy Pelosi's office, who knows for how long.  A month maybe?  It seems as though the only thing he hasn't promised those 20 insurrectionists holding the House hostage is his first born son... at least not that we know of.

Oh, and evidently Kevin McCarthy still doesn't have the votes.

And now for a bit of a palate cleanser.  I took this picture inside a Buddhist temple while on a tour around Mt Fuji a long time ago.

Today is also the anniversary of the Insurrection.  Some say the 20 insurrectionists will vote for McCarthy today as way of getting a win to celebrate.  I'd be surprised if they do.  This is not about Kevin and his lack of qualifications, it's about disruption.  It's about creating a stink.  The Democrats are doing quite well by just sitting back, snacking on their popcorn, and voting for Jeffries.  Dragging this out only hurts the Republicans, not that many understand this.  It's up to them to do the right thing.  Nominating a very moderate Republican, one who the Democrats could accept would do 2 things:  1) end this shit shoe; 2) piss the hell out of the 20 insurrectionists.  Will they do it?  We'll have to wait and see. 

Special Surprise

Well, it's Friday.  For some the weekend begins.  Not for me.  Of course, I only have to work 3 day before I get off 4.  Of course, after that my schedule sucks.  Black Friday is only 3 weeks away.  Give me a break.  That week I work 40 hours.  I will get paid for 48, which is nice, but let's be honest, I think I'd rather have the day off.
Today I also get to sell the flooring to that "special" racist customer who talks about those "terrible migrants."  I will have to bite my tongue... literally.  I've decided I'm not going to tell her the installers are going to be black and Latino.  Doing so would open up the 'ugly box.'  I'm just going to let this be her 'Special Surprise.'
The new sound bar arrived yesterday.  What a difference.  I had no idea the old one was producing such inferior sound.  Because the new one is a Sony, I can connect it to the TV with an HDMI cable.  Now one remote can turn both the TV and the sound bar on at the same time.  Believe me, that a really nice surprise.
Another 'Special Surprise' is going to be happening Tuesday.  Since I don't read crazy conservative lies, I can only go by what Bloomberg, and the WSJ, and the NYT, and Reuters, and The Hill, and the Huffpost are saying.  It seems as though the White House is in Chaos mode.  You see the Idiot Jerk and his spawn don't like investigations in which they are the subject.  In fact, a lot of the people he has surrounded himself with are now entering that "oh, shit" stage of their phony political careers.  Many of the appear to be looking for the nearest exit ramp, including Steve Mnuchin.  He, of course, is quietly saying it's his bimbo wife who wants him out.  That's it, blame the the wife.  She is evidently getting a lot less respect than your normal trophy wife, and hates it.  She thought she would float into Washington with her bottled blonde hair and people would fawn.  My, didn't she get a 'Special Surprise.'
Then there's Ryan Zinke, you know stinky Zinke?  His scumbaggery is so bad, even the Republicans are giving the Justice Department control.  He never figured on possible jail time.  Now won't that be a 'Special Surprise' for him?
Every single cabinet position has the possibility of being vacated... rapidly.  Conservatives like to run things... as long as they don't have to worry about transparency, and ethics, and morals, and just simple decency.  For every one of them, those attributes are an ugly 'special surprise.'
And all those special interest groups, like the White Evangelicals and the NRA?  They had better be preparing themselves for the wrath of the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  The blame for losing the House will be on their heads.  He will damn them from here to hell and back for getting out their voters.  Just thinking about that makes me smile.  How's that for a 'Special Surprise?'

Apps olutely irritating

So I have a Smart TV.  It access the Internet.  It's a Sony and Sony gives you so many Apps.  I have access to Play Store, which lets me add other Apps.  I also have got myself an Amazon Fire which gives me access to more "TV" Apps.  I was pleased to see that the Amazon Fire gives me access to NBC Sports.  You see I have a yearly subscription to the NBC Sports App on my laptop since they show many the the cycling races.  Sounds good right?  Wrong.  You see the 2 are not connected.  The App for the TV only gives you highlights.  I can't sign in with my password and "watch a race."  If I want to watch cycling, I have to connect the laptop to the TV.  Ain't that a bitch?

A lot of Apps need you to buy a subscription, which doesn't bother me since I know what I'm getting.  There are a number, however, that will not work unless you have a cable provider.  Excuse me, but if I got rid of cable because I didn't want to pay for all those hundreds of useless channels, why would I want to pay for cable in order to get one or two Apps for which I will need to then pay for a subscription.  So, guess which Apps I can live without?

Amazon Prime Failure

Every now and then we find ourselves blindsided by something and all we can do is say WTF.  This just happened to me with Amazon Prime.  It's a fairly good service, for the most part.  I buy a lot from Amazon.  Since most of my purchases are planned out I usually take the standard 5 - 8 day free shipping; Amazon Prime will get it to you free in 2 days.. if you're that desperate.  They have a nice music service, I used mine three times for a total of about an hour and a half.  What I subscribed for was the TV / HD movies.  The free movies tend to be older, the newer ones you have to rent.  This morning, since I had a credit, I decided to rent "The Hobbit."  I was notified immediately that there was a problem:  my viewing device was not compatible.

Above is a picture of my television, a Sony Bravia KDL-46EX500 which is, I said above, incompatible.  Well, let me correct that, it's only incompatible when it comes to streaming HD movies.  This means that if I truly wanted to watch "The Hobbit," I could rent it and watch it in SD (standard definition).  This is what everybody wants to do, isn't it?  Rent an SD movie and watch it on an HDTV?  Needless to say, my subscription has been cancelled and a refund issued.  I suggested to Amazon's customer service department that they require individuals wishing to subscribe to verify their TV's are compatible.  Personally, I don't know anybody who would chose to watch an inferior quality movie on a superior quality television.  To not do so is a failure by Amazon Prime.

China's North Korean Problem

There are a lot of people who believe Sony Entertainment should have released "The Interview."  Me?  I think they probably played it smart.  Except for some serious hacker groups, everybody seems to believe North Korea was behind the Sony hack.  I'm one of them.  The operative word is 'behind.'  This doesn't mean they, themselves, did it, much more probable it means they were the force behind the hackers.  In other words, they most likely paid more talented people to hack Sony.  This being said, one needs to understand they could also pay for violence.
Interestingly enough, the US has reached out to China.  Whether they want to admit to it or not, China is the parent of North Korea.  It was through Chinese aid that North Korea managed to remain communist.  That was, however, a long time ago.  Where as China has grown more mature in the ways of the world, North Korea has gone from a spoiled brat, through a juvenile delinquent stage, and ended up as a common criminal.  And China is still maintains parentage.

Geographically they are linked, but philosophically the distance has grown wide.  Every time North Korea pulls some stunt, the world looks at China in a negative way.  They are, whether they like it or not, the responsible party.  When their little satellite country jumps into a pile of shit, it's the Chinese who end up cleaning up the mess.  They may not do it publicly, but they are the ones in charge of the smack back.  North Korea is China's problem.  One of these days they are going to have to deal with it if they really want to achieve and great status in the world.