They Look Away

 It's Saturday, and I'm not in a park, and it's definitely not the 4th of July.  Outside, there is rain.  This is what we call a soaker.  A slow steady drizzle that's going to hang around most of the day.  This is Spring weather.  They used to say "April showers bring May flowers, however last year we had showers throughout March, April, and May with the sun finally putting a regular appearance in June.  I can't wait to see how it plays out this year.

Yesterday was pretty meh.  I did get a nice fast walk in on the treadmill.  

My neighbors were loud most of the day.  She warned 3 times after they moved in that they were loud, and since there is no insulation in the wall separating our 2 houses, I hear them.  Sadly, they don't like it when I'm a little loud, and this past Thursday evening I watched Halo and while the dialog is quiet, the action sequences are loud.  They will just have to deal with that the same way I deal with her playing the radio loud when she cleans, or them yelling at each other.  This is how life works.

As I go through The Body in the Tower to prep the manuscript for audio, I find that I'm editing it once again.  Some of the changes are small, words get changed to give a more precise meaning, and some things are being excised because they just aren't needed.  Once this is done, I will republish the updated version; ebook in Barnes & Noble and Amazon, paperback in Amazon.

And I saw this and thought it very appropriate.

One of the things that does piss me off is the way the media picks up on every slip of the tongue that Biden makes, while ignoring the incoherent word salad spilling from Trump's mouth.  The Guardian reported that Biden confused Gaza with the Ukraine, that was one of their headlines, yet they totally ignored Trump spewing out about languages coming into this country.  He does this quite often, sputtering out nonsensical gibberish because his mind has lost focus.  Trump does this frequently, and too often the media looks away, especially the print media.  There seems to be a terrible lack of responsibility in their reporting.  A day doesn't go by when they aren't publishing some sort of poll and the sad thing is that many Americans still believe polls. The New York Times is having big problems with this, thinking that headlines regarding Biden's age are going to generate subscriber interest.  They don't.  Almost everyday I go into Threads and see that someone has cancelled their subscription.  If they don't stop looking away, and Trump manages to get elected, it will too, too late for them.

The Force

 Holy Crap was it windy yesterday.  The March lion was definitely on the prowl in Central PA.  Not only did gustiness abound, yesterday was also garbage day, so quite a number of unfettered garbage cans roamed the neighborhood, propelled by winds with speed up to 35 mile per hour.   Having a driveway in which to park, my car was relatively safe, however those cars parked along the street were fair game.

Today I'll drive to the Municipal Building a pay my taxes.  There was a time when I'd go inside, but now I just put the envelope with the check in the drop box.  I could email my bank and have them send a check, but I'm also going to have to hit my local giant for walnuts.  

So, I watched "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" last evening, or I should say watched most of it.  For some reason, there have been issues both times I've tried to watch it.  The first time the sound wasn't synced right.  I sat through the entire 2 hours and 19 minutes with words never matching lips.  Last night the sound was right, and I was enjoying my second viewing until 20 minutes from the end.  Then, a blue vertical rectangle popped up in the center of the screen, about 2 inches wide and 6 inches tall.  It was right in the middle of the screen.  The movie played for another few minutes and then shut down.  I had the option of restarting, but chose not to.  There's nothing wrong with the TV, but there does seem to be some force out there which wants to prevent me from watch this movie.

I posted this to my YouTube channel yesterday.

I find it amusing that Dominion is releasing all of these emails and texts sent by the on-air personalities of Fox; people whose on-air personas are extremely right wing complaining about Trump.  These says a lot about their lack of moral fiber.  They had no problem pushing Trump's outlandish claims of election fraud basically to insure they were getting a paycheck.  It makes you wonder if Tucker, and Laura are still being phony; do they take their programs seriously?  Is Rupert still pulling their strings?

Word is that a certain someone is going to be indicted this afternoon.  I give a name, but, if it's true, I wouldn't want to jinx the chances.  If it is true, there will be joy in Mudville this evening.

Abandoned

Okay, so today's Friday.  I thought yesterday was Friday for most of the day for some odd reason.  This is how things go when you're not working a regularly scheduled 40 hour work week.  As time goes on, I find my inability to remember which day is which seems to have little relevance.  I suspect those working from home are discovering they also have this issue, no set five-day work week to mark the regular passage of time.

When I write about locations, accuracy is very important.  I look at a lot of pictures as part of my research before I begin describing places, especially if I have never been there.  I've spent some time at the Louvre, so in The Body in the Tower I had no problem writing about tapestries and staircases.  In The Body in the Loch I ran into a bit of a problem.  I have never been to an abandoned abbey.  Since my description may come across as rather weak, here is what I hope readers visualize when I talk about the abandoned abbey at Adairton (not a real place).

I understand Lauren Boebert, that Cracker Jack Crazy Freshman Congresswoman from Colorado, is pissed off.   Seems as though she has been getting death threats because people believe she's the one who led unauthorized tours the the halls of Congress.  She's also the loser who Tweeted out Pelosi's location during the riot.  This woman has so much hatred for Democracy, I can't understand why she didn't moved to Moscow years ago.

Oh, and the Evangelicals seem to be in a bit of a quandary.  The Idiot Jerk in the White House now seems to be more Satanic than Godly.  I like the bit where the one pastor says God has abandoned him because of his arrogance.  Excuse me, but where has this fool been for the past 4 years?  They loved his arrogance.  They said he was brash.  And they're saying he's been abandoned?  I don't know about you, but when I see and smell horseshit, I call it horseshit.

And... the heat is on

It's Saturday and the temp is supposed to hit 98 (F) today.  It was 99 (F) when I left work yesterday, and last evening, after things had cooled down to a sweltering 95 (F) my mowed his lawn... with a push mower.
I have 15 more miles to go before I complete my Trek Challenge - a lot of those will be done today.  Inside on my trainer, of course, since riding around outside today might be considered grounds for committing me to the nearest cycling asylum.
Interestingly enough, I least I think so, in The Body in the Tower Eli and Max fly down to Pau, France, for the mountains stages in the Pyrenees and yesterday this year's tour was actually in Pau.

 I did see, as I copied that link, Amazon has the paperback version on sale for Prime members.
So, besides riding what am I going to be doing today?  Well, lotsa laundry.  My, doesn't that sound fun.  Remember, it's going to be at least 98 (F) outside.
And, of course, even though the Idiot Jerk tried to distance himself at first from the racist chanters at his rally, now he's defending those white supremacists.  That should be no surprise.  He wants to turn himself into a god for his base, a group of aging white people committed to the denial of science.  They are desperately clinging to the dark ages of the 1950's as though they are the last life preserver from the Titanic.  They don't know the smart people, the ones who used their noggins, are the ones who got in a lifeboat, or jury-rigged a raft.  There is no salvation for them... literally.  The heat is on and instead of understanding they need to work to save the ship they're jumping overboard.
Finally, I started watching "Dark" last night on Netflix.  It's a bit of a scifi supernatural thriller and it is... good.  Here's the trailer.

Rest Day

Today is Tuesday.  This is the first of 2 rest days in the Tour de France.  Those cyclists deserve it, they've ridden over 1300 miles in 10 days (give or take a mile).  They will relax and eat pasta and build up their strength for the stages in the Pyrenees which come next.  Eli and Max spent the first rest day up in Montmartre.

That evening found us having dinner with Walker Beresford and her fiancé Henri d’Eauville at Le Poisson Blanc, a basement café in Montmartre.  The long dead souls of Beat poets filled the air around us while people wearing berets smoked cigarettes in long, eloquent holders.  This was a shadowland of past and present, where shiny cell phones lay on tables next to wine glasses and ashtrays filled with unfiltered cigarette butts, where some conversed and others listened to the pale, smoothly flowing sounds of a jazz flautist.  A transfixed moment from a Romantic age now only chronicled in books and on film.

Here in the United States we have a Moral Degenerate, and Idiot Jerk in the White House who is proving he will stoop to any level in order to get himself re-elected.  He is justifying his racism by call those voices unifying against him as unpatriotic... un-American..  Four of those voices are women of color.  He is trying to rip a page from McCarthy's playbook.  For those who don't know, McCarthy was a Republican politician who saw Commie, Pinko Sympathizers every where.  He got Congress to hold hearings on Un-American behavior.  The Idiot Jerk wants to do the same thing, except his targets are minorities.  It's the 'old, white thing' you know?
One of the opinions I saw this morning on NBC News claimed he'd flipped the race card on Pelosi, tying the entire Democratic Party to the far Left.  That might be true if we already hadn't seen 2 years of the Idiot Jerk.  He is inept.  He has henchies like Stevie Miller telling him what he needs to do to hold on to his base.  This is what he is desperately trying to do, make sure they go to the polls in 2020 and cast their votes for racism.  If you weren't prepared for this, you should have been; he will pull every dirty trick in the book.  He is a desperate, angry man who represents an aging white America that steadfastly refuses to even try to understand evolution.  We are changing... and it's worldwide.  The dominant gene is brown, not white.
There will be no rest day in politics until the Idiot Jerk and his minions are voted out of office.  Vote Blue. 

Day One

Today is Saturday, a day off for me.  I requested off because of... Kid's Workshop.  Even though this is a really great thing, having 300 plus kids banging away with little hammers less than 100 feet away is not conducive to good sales.  You can't hear your customers talk, and they can't hear you.

A way more important reason for taking off was today is

The First Day of The Tour de France!

This is the reason why I have a subscription to NBC Sports Gold Cycling.  I can watch it live... commercial free.  The first stage this year is Live... From Belgium.  In fact, the first 2 stages take place in Belgium.  Tomorrow is the first Team Time Trial... and hell, I have to work.  Today's state is 194 km (120 miles) long.  Right now their average speed is 44 km per hour (27 mph).  That's fast.  My average speed is between 15 and 16 miles per hour.  Since I'm not in Brussels, I took some snaps from my big screen TV.

I wrote about the colors and the crowds in The Body in the Tower.  I also wrote about those cameramen on motorcycles.

The jobs report came out yesterday for June.  It was good... and the stock market went down.  Investors would rather have a bad report in order for the Fed to drop interest rates because Americans at work have less appeal to them then the % they're going to have to pay in interest (88% of thee investors are foreign). 
Two days after the 4th and many Americans have decided they weren't impressed with the Idiot Jerk's ego parade in Washington.  What ever happened to the America being the land of Opportunity?  Don't ask foreign investors, you won't like their response.

The Truth about Ratings

Okay, so it's Monday, the 2nd of my three days off in a row.  Yesterday it was supposed to be rainy... didn't happen, at least not over my house.  I got so much yard work done.  Today the weather is not going to be as accommodating.   I was surprised this morning to see Accuweather has us under a Flash Flood Watch... until tomorrow afternoon.  That sucks.
Yesterday, besides the lawn work, I also got a haircut and trimmed my mustache, just in case anybody was wondering.
Even Fox News is releasing polls which show the Idiot Jerk in the White House in trouble.   How accurate are these polls?  While not being spot on, they're closer than those used in the 2016 election.  Algorithms have been adjusted; now they incorporate fundamental questions skipped back then, like 'are you a middle-aged, white person who loves to run around wearing a MAGA hat?'  Of course, the GOP is using these polls to scare the shit out of his base.  They're terrified power is going to wrenched from his dirty, little fingers and he'll go into self-exile in Moscow.  They have reason to fear.  They have a moral degenerate in the White House who has no problem telling George Stephanopoulos he'd have no problem colluding with a foreign government if they offered him dirt on his political opponent.  This is a really, really bad replay of the Trump Tower meeting.  How much do you think that little turd did to his approval ratings?  It doesn't make a difference who the Democratic nominee is, that sound bite will air constantly up until the second the last polling station closes, and they know it.  Pardon my language, but this guy is a dumb as a fucking brick.
Speaking of ratings, if you buy The Body in the Tower, or have bought The Body on the Lawn, please go to Amazon and give it a rating.  They mean everything on Amazon.  No matter what people go to that Internet Retail Giant looking for, be it mystery suspense novel, or coffee maker, or headphones, the first thing they click on is the rating.  Customers like to buy something which has been rated 'good,' they don't like to gamble.
And finally, yesterday I received this comment:

AnonymousJune 16, 2019 at 12:20 PM

Your book, "The Body In The Tower" is now part of the collection at The Stonewall National Museum And Archive.

I don't know who Anonymous is, but if this is true I do believe it's a bit of an honor.  Unfortunately, it was posted by an 'unknown person,' so I can't really thank him or her personally.  I don't even know how you put a book into this collection.  Anyway, whom ever you are... Thanks!!

Cover this Up

Okay, so it's Saturday.  I work today.  I woke thinking I had the day off, however, as I turned off the alarm and looked at my calendar I realized I was wrong.  They're forecasting rain and showers tonight into to tomorrow afternoon.  Figures, doesn't it.... I don't work.
I understand the Idiot Jerk in the White House has sent a 'want ad' to quite a few sanitariums in the deep south.  He's looking for a white, pathological liar to take over for Sarah (she who speaks with forked tongue) Sanders Fuckleberry.  I wonder if Roy Moore's going to apply, just so he can wave the Ten Commandments as he lies.
I saw where a detective down in Tennessee, who's also a Crazy Christian, is having his cases reviewed.  You see, he preaches about hating the gays.  His name is Grayson Fritts.  He has his own Baptist Church, of course, and claims to be "just preaching the Bible;" make that selectively teaching the bits he's cherry picked, the one's he believes legitimize his hatred.  In case you're wondering, he preached something about "gays being worthy of death."  I suspect he needs to be institutionalized.
When I decided to start self-publishing I put a lot of thought into what I want for cover-art.  Many books today use either a photograph or a collage of photo images for cover-art, except for romance novels which rely on romantic images of long-haired men without shirts.  I didn't want that.  No pictures for me. I work with a woman (I used to be her boss at one time) who's very talented.  She runs her own cake decorating business.  Right now she's painting a mural for a school.  I asked her one day if she'd like to do the cover-art.  She gave me one of those "what the hell are you talking about" looks.  I explained that for The Body on the Lawn I wanted readers to see Carlotta Valdez walking to her death.  Cori suddenly smiled and said "yeah, I can do that."
With The Body in the Tower I said "how about bullet holes?"  We talked about what should be depicted inside them.  I suspect she would have liked to include something from the catacombs, but there's no light.  As Florien says "it is very black where we are going."  At one point she asked "do you want blood around the crashed bicycle?"  I said "no," but she did put in a crushed water bottle. It was her idea to have the background go from yellow to blood red.  I liked that.  Such a nice touch for a murder mystery, action thriller.
With all this being said, I'd like you to meet Cori, the artist behind the covers.

I told her I had already started work on The Body in the Well and she said "give me at least a year."  I think 8 months is more realistic.  And, in case you are wonder, both books are available at Amazon.

Meet Gloria

Thursday!  Day off!  Rain... again.
My lower back is bothering me, so I'm going to start doing my 'core' routine again.  Arthritis, you know?  The disc jelly has gushed out and my lumbar vertebrae and they are slowly fusing together, which is actually more of a nuisance than anything else.  Core exercises keep things flexible, unfortunately I've been lax.  It's time to pull out the purple yoga mat, and the red, green, and yellow bands.
And the Idiot Jerk has been busy: his Executive Order on documents related to the 2020 census question on citizenship are now off limits to Congress; he said he'd listen to foreign 'dirt' in an election (like the Russkies?); the Budget gap worsened by $739 billion... and he said nothing.
What this does is define him more sharply as the most racist, crooked, and financially stupid president in America's history.  This is why he is a dream come true to Republicans.  They've always been selfish as hell and dumb as bricks.
And now I'd like you to meet Gloria.  Back when I was almost finished with The Body on the Lawn, I decided I needed readers.  Friends are good for giving feedback but they aren't always as objective as  you need them to be, so I started looking for a voice that could say "nope."  I was a supervisor back then, and one day sitting in staff meeting I said something to Pat, a fellow supervisor, about my predicament.  She said "my Mom might want to do that."  A couple days later she told me Gloria had said she'd read and critique the manuscript.  This was gamble, you see Gloria is an Italian, Catholic, great-grandmother.  I had no idea how she was going to react to a book in which the main characters were 2 gay men in a long term relationship.  She loved it.

She told me that in The Body in the Tower her two most favorite characters were... Bobby Tussel and Jules Laurent, one an ex-Baltimore cop, and the other a member of the Paris police.  I wonder what she'll think of Sunny Rigalito, a character in the next book who cold-cocks her husband when he tells her she'd look prettier as a blond.

One of my readers

Crap, yesterday was Whit Monday and I missed it...  Actually, I saw it on my calendar and had to look it up because no one I know seems to give a whit.  Yep, just another faux holiday the growing majority find unimportant.  Now, if companies started making it a paid holiday... wait, that'll never happen because they don't give a whit either.  That would cost money.
I'm reading my way through the paperback copy of The Body in the Tower, so far I've found 10 typos I missed, which will be corrected.  One of the things I thought I'd do with this book is try and take pictures of the readers and cover artist (if they'll let me) and post them here so you can meet them.  A bit of recognition, you know?
This is Patty.

Patty got to read the first draft.  She went through it with a pink highlighter.  Pink is not my favorite color.  There were so many pink 'question marks, her way of saying "what's up here?"  She's the one who said there was too much cycling and not enough story.  She said the cycling bits were... boring.  Shit.  She's also responsible for Bishop Halsey showing up when he does.  For those interested, Patty graduated from the Anne Marie school of artistic linguistics, so things are never just... boring, and it's never just "what's up here."
Anyway, I guess the Idiot Jerk in the White House tried to put some distance between himself and Nixon, another Republican scumbag who got his ass elected.  I've said this once I'll say it again, when all the dirt comes out on the Idiot Jerk, he's going to make Richard Nixon look like an alter boy, and we know what happens to alter boys.
Of all the games introduced at this year's E3, there were only 2 that tickled my fancy.  Cyberpunk 2077 gets released in 2020, but The Outer Worlds is getting released in October.  I already have my pre-order in, because that's only like... oh, 4 months away.  Enjoy the trailer.  Love that rock and roll.

Favorite line so far:  "The board... their lackies... they're all a bunch of swine!"

Mexico caved

After today I have 2 more days off.  I'm excited even though weather forecasters are predicting Monday will be a washout.  Rain, you know?  More rain,  That means I will need to get the lawn mowed tomorrow.
So, the wife of one of my Navy buddies posted a list of the "10 best reads for the summer" on Facebook yesterday.  Good humoredly I asked her where my book (s) were.  Her response was to ask if I was going to read 'her book,' a 118 page volume of essays she'd published in 2016. which was only available in paperback format.  I had no problem buying her book, I can give to my friend Betsy as a Christmas present.  This morning I find a comment from her; she purchased the less expensive Kindle version rather than the paperback, which has the same cost as her book.  Cheap.  I replied by saying I was anticipating her "sparkling review."  Let me tell you, I was a bit irritated.  The fair thing for her to do would have been to pay the same $$ as I was paying.
And, in case you didn't see the headlines, Mexico caved to the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  They should have paid attention to China, learned from them, but they didn't.  What they have done is put themselves in the same position as the contractors who do work on the Idiot Jerk's properties.  Any time he wants he can claim they're not holding up their end of the bargain, and once again threaten them with taxes.  The probability factor of this happening is extremely high.  If they're not holding their breaths, they should be since it's just a matter of time.
Oh, and there's a new couple on the block:  Xi and Vlad.  They're getting quite cozy, going boating together and doing 'what not' in private.  This must be infuriating for the Idiot Jerk.  Chinese exports need to go somewhere, and Russia's just as good as the United States.  Oops!  Whether you want to understand this or not, the Idiot Jerk has in fact initiated World War III.  He's going to bloody the world's economy because he's stupid.  He is the end of the Republican Party.  The GOP has been setting up their downfall for years and their MAGA head base will follow them into oblivion.  Mitch McConnell's 'do nothing' legislature tactic is going to smash him into a bloody pulp.  You see, they never understood Karma, that 'what goes around comes around' because they never understood "I" and "me" and "my" are not the three most important words in the human language.  No one ever said Republicans were smart.

What's in a Name

Late entry today because I stayed up late... watching "The ABC Murders" on Amazon.  I had read the book... oh, 40 some years ago and remembered it well.  Writing a mystery is really all about misdirection.  There is a murder and you provide a number of alternative suspects with enough clues to make you think they're guilty, all the while dangling the real killer in front of the reader's eyes.  Agatha Christie did this very well.  This is why they still make movies and TV series out of her books today.
My name will never be as famous as hers, which is fine with me.  There was an issue with Amazon, however in regard to my name.  Hat's off to Sixpence for pointing this out to me.  You see, I am not the only Dave Snyder who is an author publishing on Amazon.  I have a very common name.  At one point there were actually 17 Dave Snyders in the Harrisburg phone book, 3 of them living in East Pennsboro (Enola) alone.  When you initially set up your author's page, you type in your name and a list of authors comes up and he chose the wrong Dave Snyder.  This does not effect the royalties, but it does list me as being the author of his books which is a problem since I write mystery, suspense novels with gay characters and he writes faith based fantasy... well, I don't really know if they're fantasies but they are faith based, with titles like The Road To Sodom and Managing the Fold.

Here's the link to my page https://www.amazon.com/Dave-Snyder/e/B07HZT8L8Q?ref_=pe_584750_33951330

Definitely not something I would write.  Anyway, Amazon is fixing the problem for good.  I was told my titles might disappear for 1 - 3 days, but then they will be back.
And I guess we're going to have tariffs on products coming from Mexico.  I suspect that till all is said and done, the Idiot Jerk will end up crashing the world's economy.
Also, from what I saw yesterday, polls do not look good for him getting his orange ass re-elected.  Biden has a double digit lead in states the Idiot Jerk needs to win.  In fact, states like Texas, which swallowed his shit in 2016, are now questionable... that's right, questionable.  The simple truth is Americans don't want a moral degenerate in the White House.  Conservatives are going to get their asses whupped.

Not your Average Saloon Girl

It's Saturday, June 1.  Being the first Saturday of the month, we have our Kid's Workshop.  Because the weather is supposed to be nice, we are going to be swamped with kids, well over 300, who's parents fail to comprehend we are a warehouse home improvement store.  We block aisles and use lift equipment.  Many of our customers have long since passed through the 'parenting stage' and now see so many children as a nuisance.  Because the mothers and fathers of the 'over 300' don't understand this, chaos will reign.  I'm seriously thinking of requesting off the first Saturday of every month.
For those interested in purchasing a paperback copy of "The Body in the Tower," use this link:  it's in 'books' at Amazon.  It's 278 pages long, which is 41 pages longer than the first book.  And remember, reviews... reviews... reviews.  They are important.  I buy a lot from Amazon and I usually try and leave reviews.  Mostly their good.  Every now and then I buy something that's not quite up to snuff and I let them know.  Hopefully, your reviews will be good.
And regarding the new project:  my original notes called for a restaurant / diner, similar to Denny's.  Last evening, however, I realized that wasn't going to work.  The current day Rattler's Den (town name) needed something more, something with a little more pizzazz.  So while I was doing my cardio, I started thinking about saloons, something a little crusty, a little touristy, and, of course, something from my childhood popped into my head.

Anybody out there remember Miss Kitty?  She was not your average saloon girl.
Oh, and by the way, the Idiot Jerk has threatened Mexico with a tariff... because of the immigrants.  Humans have been migrating for thousands of years, but the white Republican party doesn't like migration, the flow of human beings from one location to the next.  They want to build walls.  Maybe, instead of doing that they should read a little chapter from the Old Testament called... Exodus.  I mean, they were brown people, too, in fact they looked a lot like Syrians, and Iraqis, and Saudis, and Iranians... but don't tell that to the Evangelicals.
Oh, and the administration also downgraded India out of 'favored nation' status in order to raise export prices to them.
In case you didn't realize it, the Idiot Jerk in the White House is a terrible businessman who's only good at selling lies about his business acumen. 

The Body in the Tower

My timer was a bit off.  Actually, the electronic version was up yesterday, all I'm waiting on right now is for the paperback version to be ready.  Hopefully, that will be live and ready for purchase by later this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  If you purchase, please be good enough to leave a review, they do help advertise the book.  So, without further ado, I give you The Body in the Tower.

The thought of following the Tour de France, from the first stage to the last, seemed like a great idea.  What better way to spend a 30-day vacation in France?  But then an early morning phone call from Walker Beresford to her mother changed everything for Eli and Max.  A man had been shot at the Eiffel Tower and the Paris Police have taken Walker and her fiancé into custody.  Complicating things, the police are worried Eli’s going to run off half-cocked and get himself killed, and a germaphobic computer genius shows up unexpectedly.  With only a week to go until the 100-man peloton reaches the streets of Paris, their investigation takes them from the lofty exhibit halls of the Louvre to the blackest depths of the catacombs, as they race to solve the mystery of The Body in the Tower.

Now you know what's inside the bullet holes.

Part II - Going to the dogs

Well, my friend Patty is back from the Med Center - her eye is bandaged.  She's fine.  They did something with some sort of implant in roof of her eye socket... which means they had to take out her eye...  I will spare you the details.
Prior to leaving to pick  her up, I had been in the process of making hot dogs (Nathan's skinless beef), and in my rush to get down to Hershey I left the buns on the counter.  Did I ever tell you big Seig is BIG?  After stop by Rite Aid first, and then dropping her off at her house, I returned to find about 1/2 of the plastic bag sitting on the futon.  The buns and the other 1/2 bag are no doubt in Seig and Lilly's bellies.  This means I'll be eating bareback hot dogs.
On the way home I also stopped off and picked up a bottle of wine to celebrate publication.  I got myself a nice Pouilly Fuisse.

For those who don't know, you can tell the difference between a bottle of this and a bottle of $7.99 stuff.  If you're interested, 2000 years ago, the wine they drank was much closer to the $7.99 stuff.
We're under a Tornado Watch until 10 PM this evening.  Yippee.

More roses

Well, here it is, a non-holiday... for me at least.  Many have a 3 day weekend in the US... I don't.  My weekend begins tomorrow, and it isn't a holiday weekend, I only get 2 days off.  Oh, and then I get to work for another 6 days in a row... it's retail.
Here are a couple pics of the roses in front of the house.  One of my jobs tomorrow is to get rid of all the leaves with 'black spot' and spray them with Neem Oil.  I also need to get the weed wacker out... and possibly the chain saw.  Me and power tools?  Wonderful.

The yellow rose is a climber... with nothing to climb, so it spreads out and requires constant clipping.

 And I don't know where the red bush came from.  It just showed up around 4 years ago.  It has what are called antique or vintage blooms.
One of these days the Dahlias will start to bloom... that's right, I also have Dahlias.
And, of course, I've added something interesting to my layout

Armed and....

Well, it's Monday and I'm starting another weekend... retail, you know?  Our weeks swing different then yours.  And, of course, I slept in 0530.  Sleeping was odd last night.  Stormy weather hit the area, booming thunder and fireworks lightening spent about 3 hours time dazzling the area from about 10 PM on, though that didn't really bother me.  And the dogs sleep through storms.  What bothered me was my arm.  Arm, you ask?  Yes, my arm.  The right one to be precise.  You see, I decided that since I was going to have 2 days off, I might as well stop in at Giant and pick up some ice cream, maybe Cherry Garcia.  The wind was gusting badly across the parking lot as I walked towards the building, and just as I was about to step under their portico a stop sign they had anchored in a concrete base blew over... and hit me in the arm.  I'd like to see a video of the incident since I don't understand how it only hit my arm... which was at my side.  The customer walking up behind me said "Holy Fuck!"  As I turned, the sign was laying flat on the pavement and only my arm was injured.

It doesn't really hurt, but I will admit my sleeping was off.  I kept waking up, which means I'll probably nap today.
And Mayor Pete was on a Fox News Town Hall last evening.  The Idiot Jerk was not amused.  He shit out some angry Tweets.  On his part, Mayor Pete brought up not only the Moral Degeneracy of the Idiot Jerk, but also that of phony Christian, bottled blond Laura Ingraham as well as that White Supremacist Tucker Carlson.  As for the angry Tweets, people need to learn that if you squeeze the Idiot Jerks zit brain hard enough, it's going to pop.
And finally, a brief interlude from Joni Mitchell.  The song is about David Geffen, a very busy man, whom she saw quietly relaxing at a cafe on the Champs Elysees in 1973.  And, even though this is an interlude, it's also a bit of a prelude.

Impatience

Holy crap!  I was mistaken!  Instead of having to work 4 days before my next days off, I only work 3!  Today's my hump day!  Now, that's a nice surprise.  It isn't that I don't like working, honestly, I don't really mind going to the store.  There is, however, that desire to do other more constructive things hours with that 40 hours per week, like spend time putzing around my yard.  Growing things is fun and prettiness is the reward.  Here's a shot of this year's first rose.

The individual doing the edit on The Body in the Tower is working ever so slowly.  I'm be honest.  My patience is beginning to wear thin.  If I'd known dawdling was going to be involved I'd have never offered the job.  When I start a project, I finish a project.  Chop Chop!  Pardon my French, but I don't 'dick' around (and that's not really French, but I thought I should give a warning for my more sensitive readers).
Evidently China is not going to back down when it comes to tariffs, and that means we most likely have a problem.  It's not so much that their going to teach the Idiot Jerk a lessons, he's unteachable, so instead they will teach America a lesson:  There's a price for electing a dumb shit.
Oh, and I guess Theresa May's on her way out.
Here's a shot of one of my red peonies.

It will be completely open sometime later today.
I want to pick up some hostas tomorrow before leaving work to plant in between the tulips along side the house.  I want something to get big and green which doesn't require a lot of care.
And my impatience may get the better of me.  I may do another quick read through and publish.  Believe it or not, it's been 9 months and I'm ready to give birth.  I really am itching to get started with The Body in the Well...  shit!  that was supposed to be a secret!

Dash of Color

Wednesday means weekend... at least for me... at least for this week.  I'm off today and tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be very nice with temps in the mid 70's.  Oh, and the sun is supposed to shine as well.  I suspect the dogs and I will be sleeping well tonight.
While I had originally thought "The Body in the Tower" would be out in mid-July... well, it looks like I was wrong.  Things appear to be coming together faster than I had originally anticipated.  This is fine with me.  There is just one reader with an outstanding copy.  I've personally read the entire work through 4 times... that's a lot of reading, and am approaching the point where I start to skim.  I've already passed what I call the 'decorative stage,' when color gets added, where the lap pool gets some shimmering blue tile with goldfish accents.
And, speaking of color, more than a dash is beginning to explode across my yard.

And things are getting a bit rocky in the mid-east.  That's to be expected.  We have an ultra-conservative Idiot Jerk in the White House who has ultra-conservatives into positions of power.  The problem is that ultra-conservatives have a very, very sensitive gag reflex when it comes to negotiation and compromise.  Their selfish nature always makes them vomit at the mere suggestion they might want to talk... and maybe give a concession.  Their most favorite word in any language is "my.'  Their 2nd most favorite word is "no."  They never weigh the pros and cons in the decision making process.  They, and the Idiot Jerk  in the White House, have one striking commonality:  they never think things through.  They see things in either black or white... and in their tiny, little minds they are always white right.  The fleeting thought of a dash of color simply terrifies them.

Shorty

Shorty blog today.
Well, I ordered my Avengers tickets for tonight.  I'm not big on online ticket purchases, not because it isn't convenient, it is; rather I like to keep the ticket stub.  I have hundreds.  Each has the date and time I went to see that specific movies.  With an online purchase, all you get is a piece of paper... oh, and the bar code they texted to me.  Oh, and there is also an extra charge.  I spent $13.98 for 2 senior tickets, which isn't bad.
I got the 2nd last copy of 'The Body in the Tower' back yesterday.  There were some interesting notes.  So far, everybody likes the 'good guys.'  Villains are so much more fun to write.  You get to be so very devious in writing a villain.  The truth is some villains have redeeming qualities which don't make them any less bad, just more understandable. 
And Joe Biden had his first rally yesterday.  I agree with many that he is too old to be running for president.  That being said, however, Idiot Jerk in the White House nearly blew up his phone with hateful Tweets.  The Idiot Jerk is scared shitless of Joe Biden.  And if you read between the lines, it's not only Joe that scares the Idiot Jerk.  Evidently there are several Democratic candidates that give his tighty whities and a nice deep wedgie (has that image burned itself into your brain yet?  Give it time).  If Joe win the nomination, and he might, he's going to need all of our support. 
And finally, today is my Friday.  I know this confuses a lot of you.  That's fine.  Unfortunately for me, I do believe the forecast is for rain on my weekend.  That's okay.  I have plenty of chores to do around the house.  There's a table I want to paint.  And, of course, cardio.  It seems as though the more creative I get, the more exercise I do.  Healthy body, healthy mind.