Nothing Is Close

 Tuesday.  I don't work.  Daytime temps over the next 3 days are going to hover in the mid 80s (F).  Today's the only one of those three that I have off.  I'm going to try and make the best of it.  I can hear yardwork calling my name.

Yesterday's retail world was slow, though I did manage to get 3 measures.  I only need one for the week.  I have some old quotes that I'm trying to cancel, since there's no response from the customers for over 3 weeks the assumption is made that they're not going to be forking over the bills to pay for the install.  A small problem has cropped up with this, however, corporate wants them to stay active for 90 days.  Sorry, I am not going to be harassing people for 3 months by leaving them voice mails and sending them emails.  I can't think of a better way to lose a future customer then by trying to contact them every 3 days.  

Last night when I got home from work, I spent some time talking to my neighbors.  She hates it here.  They're from a town called Lititz, which is 45 minutes away.  She doesn't know anybody here, and doesn't seem to want to go out of her way to make friends.  Her husband is another story.  He talks to people.  Walks their dog around the block.  She stays inside with the blinds drawn.  Because they come from a small town, they think 45 minutes is a long drive, it isn't.  It usually takes me 20 minutes to get to my sister's house, and she lives on the other side of the river.  Traveling distances increase when you move to a small city, and Harrisburg is well on its way to being a medium-sized city.  Nothing is close anymore.

I have baby peaches!  And baby spiders!

Trump's trial resumes today.  Will we once again get to see him sleeping his way through another day of testimony?  There is a good likelihood that's going to happen.  Rather than have rallies on his three day weekend, he decided to go golfing instead.  You wouldn't think that would be exhausting, knowing how he cheats, but I'm sure to his addled brain it must be torturesome.  

And word came out that Noem included the story of her shooting her dog to appeal to the Orange Anus.  That, in itself, tells you how screwed up these people truly are.  She evidently didn't realize how such a heinous act would impress upon America just how big of a loser she is.  Of course, she doubled down on her story, again, and again, and again, because to do otherwise might show weakness, and there's no way Trump would choose her for his VP if she demonstrated a lack of a spine.  She is a loser.

Discovery

Well, it's Friday, outside it's sunny, and I have the day off.  Temps are predicted to climb into the mid 60s (F).  Now, doesn't that sound like a wonderful day for yardwork.  I've a branch on one of my river birch trees that's broken and needs to be cut completely off.  I might even get out the weed wacker.

As expected, yesterday was slow I work.  I did manage to get $2000 vinyl floor tile sale.  That was nice.  I don't expect any of my flooring measures to sell, so that might be all the sales that I get this week.  

I like Star Trek and have been watching the last season of Discovery.  I don't like the one story arcs a lot of TV series have become very fond of over the past few years.  I prefer episodic storylines.  Star Trek dove into the deep end of the story arc pool right from the beginning and, in my opinion, has been struggling ever since.  Each season the Galaxy is about to be destroyed, and they always seem to be up against an advanced technology that always proves to be weaker than the captain and crew of the Discovery.  This year's no different, and I sit there out of loyalty to the series feeling glad that this is the last year.  Discovery is not what Gene Roddenberry envisioned.

Rock and Roll is my preferred choice of music, and that includes what was once called alternative rock.  I also have, possibly some might think it a bad habit, of fixating on one group when I begin writing a new book.  For years it was Fallout Boy.  For The Body in History, I've gone back a few decades to a little known Aussie band called Midnight Oil.  Here they playing one of their little ditties called Sell My Soul.  It should be played very loud.

Since I did work yesterday, I only got to read snippets of the Trump trial in NYC.  There's a great video of him speaking at some point, probably during the lunch break, where he's outside and a gust of wind grabs his hair and lifts it up proving to the world that he wears a wig, or a rug, or whatever you want to call it.  There were lots of mini-bombshells dropped during Pecker's testimony, including the fact that Sarah Huckabee Sanders was in on the payoff.  That should not be surprising to anyone.  She's such a load.

And, as expected, the Supreme Court is going to wait their decision on Trump's immunity until the end of June.  The conservative branch is going to help their god as much as they can.

 

Court Room Edition

 Monday.  I have to work a full 8 hours.  Outside, the weather is cool but not cold.  Overnight temps dropped down to 40 (F), which was better than what they had been predicting.  Yesterday afternoon I received a text telling me we were under a freeze watch... of course, a watch is better than a warning.

I paid off my trip to Greece this morning.  That's one less bill I need to be concerned with.  Now, all I need to do is save up the money I spent so my checking account is nice and plump again.

With The Body on the Lawn, I've decided that I'm going to deal just with Audible and Itunes.  This means I'm not going to go with Findaway.  While that was a good learning experience, it was just that.  And I'm still learning.  I've been watching educational videos at ACX University.  ACX is the publishing part of Audible.  They cover everything from pre-production to publication of the audio book.  Findaway made it easy, however there were glitches along the way, like The Body Under Ice only getting submitted to certain retailers, rather than all I had selected.  Findaway is now owned by Spotify, which is moving into the audiobook business.  

After listening to soooo many auditions, I've finally settled on a narrator.  An actor named Dermot, who's an Irishmen living in Madrid.  While I was happy with the work the previous narrator did, he was not open to suggestions.  He also managed to get cast in an Indie film and communications with him seemed less important, something he could get away with putting on the back burner.  Anyway, I'm thinking the audio version of The Body on the Lawn should now be out on Audible around the first week in August. 

And I saw this yesterday and thought it rather appropriate.

Today will be the actual first day of the Moral Degenerate's trial.  Opening arguments will be heard.  Donnie will have to try and stay awake.  You may not find this surprising, but I'm not the only person to have doubts about his not napping his way through the 4 years of his presidency. Maybe that was why conversations with him needed to be peppered with praise.  This is also probably the reason he doesn't read; after the first sentence he's out like a light.

Also, his rally in North Carolina was canceled because of rain.  I'm betting it wasn't because he was worried about his cultists, either.  Most likely he was worried his make-up might run

Picture This

 Oh, my gosh!  It's Saturday.  I have to work.  Weather wise our temps are predicted to climb into the mid 60s (F), though the wind will be steady at 20 - 25 miles per hour, with the occasional gust.  Spring.  Isn't it nice that it is so easily undefined, a potpourri of weather patterns that shade and shine across our lawns, filtering with colors that both dim and dazzle.

Anyway, yesterday was interesting.  I've begun to play around with the digital camera I bought, a Canon.  It got good reviews, which is nice, and it was fairly inexpensive, which is nicer.  I used to have a Nikon, and the only thing I liked about it was that it was red.  Photo storage was cumbersome, the Bluetooth never stayed connected to my phone, and Nikon wanted you to use their cloud storage called Nikon Spaces.  Most digital cameras have the same set-up, so if you know how to work one you should be able to work another, meaning the Canon is quite similar to the Nikon, but without the crappy Bluetooth, and storage problems.

And, as is my habit, now that The Body in Motion is published, I started actual work on The Body in History.  I think of it as a little tale about identity theft and the intervention of fate.  The plan was always for it to take place in Greece, and now I'm going there.  Will Eli and Max meet a Pythia?  Will they have to deal with the Cult of Phoebus?  You'll find the answers to these, and other questions next April.

One of the settings for The Body in Motion is the Adelphi Theater, which was torn down in 1970 so they could build a Hilton Hotel.  One of the pieces of history that were lost during demotion were the murals painted by Mortimer Lichtenauer.  Among his other works is the ceiling of the Shubert Theater, in NYC.  Here's a photo of one of the murals in the Adelphi Theater.

Of course, I'm looking forward to Monday, as are many people in the country.  Trump in court.  Of course, this will on be for jury selection, and one thing you can count on, the Orange Anus will have his attorney's object to every possible juror.  There is no limit to the number of jurors an attorney can want dismissed, but for dismissal to happen, the attorney needs to have a reason.  Thin lips or narrow eyes doesn't count.  Trump will try and use this as a delaying tactic because he knows he's going to lose.  He also knows that the media will broadcast every filthy detail in All Caps.  This is just another way for him to destroy the Republican party.  More power to him.

Rainy Day Friday

Our flood warning expires today, though skies will remain overcast until sometime tomorrow.  We might have showers, and then we might not.  Tomorrow morning we've been told to expect snow flurries.  Highs will not get out of the upper 40s (F) until sometime on Sunday, then they'll be climbing up into the mid 60s (F) for a while.

Tomorrow, being that it's the first Saturday of April, will be our Kid's Workshop at the store.  Kid's Workshop is the reason my start time on Saturdays is 1300, or 1 PM, whichever you prefer.  While people think this workshop is good community outreach, we do it mostly because parents normally buy at least one thing while they're in the store.  They also have to deal with associates trying looking for leads and measures.  If Kid's Workshop wasn't a great resource for growing our sales, we wouldn't be doing it.  

The sun did come out yesterday afternoon and I got things done.  Grass seed was planted.  Twigs, sticks and branches were picked up.  I took the small Samsung TV off the wall in the training / computer room.  It still works, even though it's over 15 years old, so I'll see if I can find someone to take it off my hands.

I have a list of chores to do today.  I'm hoping the sun comes out again.  That would be nice.  Sadly, according to Accuweather, the day's supposed to be dreary.

I'm thinking this show looks very good. 

I will have to go to the post office today to buy stamps, a pack of 12 probably.  I rarely send things through the mail, but occasionally stamps come in handy, like in mailing my ballot for this years Primary.  There are a lot of Democrats running for all of the positions and they've all been sending me fliers.  The one thing that stands out among all of them is that they all claim to have stood up to Trump, or the MAGA cult.  One of them, Jenelle Stellson, is going after the insurrectionist Scott Perry in a very public way.  Whether it will help her or not, is something the voters will have to decide.  

We don't have open primaries in Pennsylvania.  You can only vote for your own party.  Democrats have money.  Republicans have Trump, so I'm wondering if they're candidates are mailing as many fliers.  

And, speaking of the Orange Anus, only 10 days to go until his first criminal trial begins.  Prepare yourselves, he's going to fly completely off the rails because he's going to have to sit in the courtroom through the proceedings.  This is Karma on a grand scale.