Kissing Conservative Prayers Goodbye

 Well, it's Thursday and it's raining.  A steady drizzle is soaking the ground.  Howie came in wearing his favorite Wet Dog cologne, though he's not soaked to the point of needing to have a good shake, though he is still wearing his muddy doggy boots.

Yesterday was a good day.  Not only did I get both aquariums cleaned, I got in a 9 mile bike ride and, most importantly, Howie and I took our first walk in Adams-Ricci park.  He got to meet 2 other dogs, a lab mix who he had a good sniff with, and a little hair thing with big ears that frightened him.  

The initial paragraphs are done on the next book, The Body in 4/4 time.  This one is going to be more mysterious, with an old house and a musical code.  Yep, you read that right.  At least one of the major clues will be musical.  For those of you who are interested, Bobby Tussel will try and play the piano, that is when he isn't guzzling beer from his very own micro-brewery Hunky Donkey Draft.

The Lebanon VA pharmacy is overnighting my Atorvastin, that's my cholesterol med.  We have this issue every year.  I have a prescription for 4 ninety day refills, however that was originally set up when my yearly appointment was in January.  Three years ago my appointment was moved to June.  The prescription was never updated.

President Mush had his first cabinet meeting yesterday and he let the Orange Anus get in a word edgewise.

According to Orangie, everyone in his cabinet is pleased to have Elonia take charge... and if they don't well that's too damn bad.  Sadly, we did learn something, that Elonia and his team had accidently shut down an Ebola prevention, but don't worry, when they realized what they had done, they started it up again.  Elonia then went onto say, "mistakes are going to be made," as if that's a valid excuse.

While my brother didn't say so out loud, I'm certain he believes that Orangie is going to turn America into a socially conservative country with a socially conservative authoritative government.  I'm certain this is what he and millions of other Christians have been praying for, however what they're getting is Elonia, a Nazi.  Being dumb, I don't think a lot of social conservatives understand that Nazis believe in an Arian Nation, nor do that understand that while some Arians might believe in God, they definitely don't believe in either Jesus or the Holy Spirit.  Ouch.  Even worse, many Americans see Elonia as a successful businessman.  Well, he's made one or two shrewd investments, but those companies he bought have all gone on to suffer.  Tesla's stock is crashing.  Everyday it drops.  And can we talk about Twitter?  Elonia paid $44 billion for the social media platform and it's now worth $9 billion.  His idea of free speech is Nazi propaganda.  He doesn't understand why corporations don't want their advertisements book cased by Nazi shriekings.  These flaws in Elonia's ego driven vision of himself will lead him to destroy everything he touches.  So, all of those Christians who voted for Orangie thinking they were going to get a socially conservative, albeit authoritarian government, can kiss their dreams goodbye.

Ugly

 Well, it's still cold out and we're still under a wind advisory.  Looking from my window, however, the branches of the river birch in my yard are barely moving.  Today the temps are not expected to make it out of the 30s (F), but starting tomorrow they are going to rise.  If the long range forecast is even close to being correct, we'll be warming up into the mid and upper 40s (F) by Sunday.  Rain, rather than snow, is also supposed to be on the way.

I did get a small leg workout in before going to work, this is new.  Before my bike was always my go to for legs, but I've added some dumbbell squats and lunges.  At my age, it's all about maintenance. \

Work was boring yesterday.  One customer showed up who wanted needed blinds designed.  There was a time when I would have enjoyed that, however about a year ago the large home improvement retailer I work for decided to change the software.  Prior to the change, if someone else sold a measure for blinds and you designed them, you'd get credit.  No more.  Now, an associate can spend 5 minutes with a customer and sell them a measure, and you can spend 2 hours designing their blinds, the associate who sold the measure gets all of the credit.  There is no longer any incentive to design blinds another specialist's customer.

Evidently associates were also told that according to corporate part-time hours were going to cut.  This usually happen after the New Years, never in December.  The store is actually making a lot of money.  On Black Friday we did almost half a million $$$.  So, this is really nothing more than corporate greed.  Prices are going to go up and hours are going to go down in all companies.  I suspect that pay increases will be lower to this year.  

And I think America is finally waking up to the fact that this man is a real problem.

He bought Trump for at least $250 million, not that Trump unwillingly sold himself into indentured servitude.  Orangey will have no problem kowtowing to the richest man in the world as long as he gets to stand besides him in pictures.  I've said this before, and I'll be saying it again, and again, and again.  Billionaires are not beneficent, in spite of what Conservatives want to believe.  Their own personal bottom line is the only one they are interested in, you and I do not exist.  Musk is false.  Even his face has been artificially constructed and built into the image above.  Where as Trump is a genius at the Con, Musk is not.  He was smart enough to purchase Tesla, a company built by other much smarter men, and has slowly been driving it into the ground.  I do not doubt that he bought Twitter in order to show the world his profundity and has, instead, proven that all his plastic surgery did was mask the fact that he's a selfish, incompetent brat with no integrity.  This man is Ugly, and he is going to attempt to assert his ugliness not only upon America, but upon the world as well.

Uninstalling Twitter

 So, the temperature did not drop below freezing last night.  Now, isn't that nice for December?  And we're in for another day in the mid to upper 50s (F).  This doesn't mean that the rest of the approaching winter season is going to be the same.  Mother Nature might decide to nail us with winter storm, after winter storm, after winter storm, though as time moves on through Climate Change, those types of weather patterns seem to be fading in this region of the country.  Who knows?  In 200 years, Pennsylvania might be a tropical island paradise.

Some things were accomplished yesterday, but not as many as I had expected.  No matter how much I plan, this always tends to be the case after I work for a few days, not because sitting at the flooring desk is so exhausting, but rather because I've always struggled with procrastination, and as I get older, I find myself giving in to it more and more.

One of the chores on my list for this morning is to drive over to the store to pick up the necessary supplies for tiling the rest of the backsplash in my kitchen.  Also, the doorway into the kitchen is going to get primed.  

And just maybe I might bake some snickerdoodles, one of my favorite cookies of all time.  Now I know that for many chocolate chip cookies are the pinnacle of their cookie ladder, that's not the case here, and I am talking about American cookies here, not the British biscuits; snickerdoodles should never be chewy.

As have so many millions of others, I uninstalled Twitter from my phone.  There was a time when I enjoyed it, in fact there were even people who followed me and liked my smart ass comments.  Now I know that my removal of the app isn't going to hurt Elon Musk personally, but all those millions switching to some other app?  That's creating a financial headache for him, which is good.  I'm tired of getting notifications from hate groups and far right extremists.  I'm tired of having to block people who love perpetuating views that glory in hatred, or espouse the rule of dictators.  While I'm all for free speech, that doesn't mean I want to be harangued daily by peoples who's views are anything but free.  While Elon claims his new version of Twitter is all about free speech, he evidently didn't put much thought into the fact that if you dislike it, you can uninstall it, and that's happening.  Twitter's attrition rate is high.  Ad sales are way down; according to Bloomberg over $1.2 billion down since Musk bought the app.  Someone should have told Musk that Free Speech does not mean you can be forced to listen, or read the shit Twitter is now putting out.  Nope.  Not at all.  Believe me, it's quite easy to uninstall.

The Consequences of Public Opinion

 This Thursday morning the temp was 23 (F) when I jumped out of bed.  To celebrate our drop into the lower to mid 20s (F), I pulled out my wool blanket.  Now, I know a lot of you think wool is scratchy, but this wool is soft and supple.  Here's an interesting bit most of you don't know.  Tuxedoes are made from wool.  Yep, 100%, at least the good ones are.  They also started off as a variation of a military uniform, beginning with the peak lapel tailcoat.  

Yesterday was one of those ho-hum days.  I took care of some chores, but mostly putzed around doing dishes and laundry.  I did get some quality treadmill time in and am hoping to get more in today.  

I'm also halfway through the final edit of The Body in Motion.  One thing that's changed about the process is that the changes are mostly being done in Word.  I used to sit down, read the manuscript making manual changes.  While I still like to do that, it turns out that I usually end up ignoring my notes and the changes that are being made are more spontaneous.  This doesn't mean I'm skipping the read through from a hard copy, just that I'm not relying on those notes for changes and rewrites.

I saw this bike being advertised this morning while reading through the Washington Post!  Wow.  Believe me, if I weren't paying for the kitchen, this baby would be ordered!  I did print off a screen shot and will probably wait until sometime in the spring.

Henry Kissinger died yesterday.  He was 100.  Very Old.  He was not a very good man, still quite a number of presidents turned to him for advice.  He was a good negotiator, but didn't really give a shit about humanity.  Fame and ego were everything to him; people were not.

And the funny of the day come from Elon Musk.  For someone who loved being praised for being a great businessman and innovator, his death spiral couldn't be anymore entertaining.  He bought Twitter (notice, I don't say X, formally known as Twitter) saying it was going to become a platform of Free Speech.  For Elon, however, Free Speech put a lot of focus on conspiracy theories, fascist groups, and hate speech.  He simply didn't realize that Free Speech, itself, has some limitations.  You can not say anything you want without having to deal with the consequences of public opinion, and that's something he just does not understand, probably because in his small mind, his is the only opinion that counts.  Anyway, his jumping onboard an antisemitic conspiracy theory seems to have been the straw that broke the advertising camel's back, because advertisers are heading to safer grounds; they don't want their ads airing next to pro-Nazi bullshit, among many other things.  So, in a pique of anger Elon lashed out yesterday, telling advertisers that if they didn't like what was on Twitter they can "go fuck yourselves."  Ouch!  Can you hear me laughing?

Zooming in on the Wall

 Can we all say hello to a brisk Tuesday morning?  Temps outside my window are a cool 31 (F), which is borderline cold.  We had snow flurries earlier.  They surprised me by blowing in my face as I opened the back door to let Lily out.  She did her did her morning pee and was back in the house in a snap.  This is what happens when the temperatures drop this low.  Our high today will be in the mid 30s, though tomorrow we're supposed to start a warming trend.

Yesterday was slow in the flooring department, in fact there were only 3 busy departments: Hardware, always a seasonal favorite since every dad wants a Tool; Appliances, this is the best time of the  year to buy that new refrigerator you want; and, of course, Garden.  Artificial trees have been more popular than real trees for some time, and that's true again this year.  I've always like the natural look, but let's be honest, unless you're setting the tree up on a tile or hardwood floor, needle cleanup, when you take it down, is a real bitch, and those decorative skirts you put around the base don't seem to do the job well.

Also, in case you didn't hear me, I climbed onto the scale yesterday morning to see how much damage I could blame on Thanksgiving... Holy Crap!  The time has come to start burning off calories, at least until Christmas, which is a few short weeks away.

Don't know if I told anyone or not, but I signed up for TikTok and amazingly everyday some new sex worker lovely, young woman starts following me, even though I haven't posted anything.  As a result, I've decided to post short videos of my books.  You never know, maybe one or two of those sex workers lovely, young women might have a hidden urge to read.  Maybe, for the first one, I'll zoom in for a closeup of the wall.

Quite a few people will be attending a memorial service for Rosalynn Carter today, including Melanoma Trump.  I was truly surprised to see her name on the list of living first ladies who will be there.  Because of who she is, I suspect there's some sort of grift involved, possibly BOGO pics of her standing next to Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

I saw where that antisemite Elon Musk flew to Israel in the hopes of doing some damage control after spouting off in favor of a racist, antisemite conspiracy theory that was debunked decades ago.  True, he'll garner a headline, but nothing else.  It's too late for him to repackage his identity, especially after his debacle with Twitter (notice, I'm not us the X name).  I haven't deleted the app from my phone yet, but I suspect that will happen soon, mostly because I get emails from them saying "this is interesting," and it's all hate mongering.  Twitter used to be entertaining, now it's a shit show overrun by conspiracy theorists, and hate mongers.

Wiping Things Clean

 It's Saturday, and we have a 98% chance of rain today.  The temperature might climb to 91 (F), that's iffy, I suspect, depending upon the rains get here.  We did have rain last night, which seems to be the weather pattern we seem to be stuck in and the longer we stay in it, the less likely my yard will turn brown.  It's nearly August and my lawn is lush and verdant.

Whereas Thursday had been very productive, yesterday was not so much.  I did get things done, but I'd wanted to go for a ride in Corsica and that didn't happen.  Not that I spent the rehearsing to be a lackluster dullard, the front aquarium did get cleaned, the dishes done, and words written. There was just nothing physical, nothing to burn calories, which is always aggravating.

I don't know about you, but I truly despise the new Twitter logo.  An X.  It looks stupid on my phone, and evidently Musty Musk doesn't have the trademark.  Excuse me, but isn't that the definition of stupid?  Change you company's logo without owning the trademark?  

Yesterday I did pull the hard drive from that old Dell Inspiron laptop I have.  To make sure it's totally destroyed, I'm going to drop it into the industrial compactor at work this afternoon.  

Here's one of my dahlias.  I love the color.

So, the attorneys for our morally degenerate former president, ie the Orange Anus, met with the DOJ on Thursday.  Everybody was anticipating more indictments.  Well, disappointingly enough, that didn't happen, however yesterday we learned that more charges had been added to the Mar a Lago document case.  He evidently wanted to have the server for the security cameras "wiped clean."  This information comes courtesy of a first hand witness.  In case you didn't know, wiping the server clean, erasing all documentation of whom he was showing those secret documents to, is obstruction. 

And then Sammy Alito claimed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that Congress can't enforce ethics changes at the Supreme Court.  Sounds like Sammy wants to be a two-bit dictator of sorts, don't it?  Sammy's also a bit mistaken.  In fact, people are saying it appears that he's gone off the deep end.  I don't think anybody would be surprised if that's true.

Stating Facts

 There is the possibility we might have rain today.  The sky is overcast and the temps are supposed to climb all the way up to 80 (F).  Yesterday, our thermometers hit the upper 80s (F) and you would have thought we were in a screaming heat wave the way people were reacting.  Crimany!  You'd think they were going to start melting the second they hit the parking lot.  My Central Air did kick on a bit, but only for a few minutes.  

I did have an elderly woman with serious arthritis as a customer yesterday.  She was going to live with her son and was having new carpeting put into her bedroom.   She was paying for her room and he was paying for the rest of the house.  This is going to be a bit of a complicated installation since they both want their carpet installed on the same day.  I felt bad for her.  She was fine once she was sitting in the chair, but I had to lift her up into a standing position after she'd chosen her carpet.  That was a first for me, getting up close and personal with a stranger.

And, if any of you are wondering what I do when the days are slow and boring, besides wandering the store and getting thousands of steps in, I work on the next book.  I take notes.  Sometimes they're random points that I feel are going to need to fill in gaps, and sometimes it's who sections of chapters.  This is what I did yesterday.

I guess most of you have heard that a small, submersible (read minisub) has disappeared while taking wealthy tourists down to see the Titanic.  One of the was billionaire Hadish HamishHis stepson sent out his "Thoughts and Prayers," which surprised me, since I only thought Republicans did that when there was a school shooting.

And for those keeping score.  I was banned from Twitter for making a comment that went against their rules.  And what was it that I said that was so terrible.  Well, it was in regard to Marjorie Taylor Green.  A few day ago, after she spit one of her standard lies, I typed:  "Some day someone's going to punch her in the mouth."  That comment broke Twitter's rules and, of course, I chose not to retract it because in my mind I was merely stating a fact.  She has Tweeted far worse things than that, but than she's on Elon's friend list.

The Unsaucy Truth about Meatball Ron

 Well, Tuesday has come and gone.  We're a number of hours into Wednesday now, and so far the day has been quiet.  Temps are predicted to be nice today.  Lots of sunshine is predicted.  I love sunshine.  At some time this morning I will need to drive over to my store to buy some weed wacker string.  Had I known, I'd have picked some up on Monday and saved myself the trip.  While there I'll pick up a can of primer.  Yes, there is more painting needing to be done.

Production began yesterday on the audiobook.  It will be completed in segments, each sent for my approval.  We had discussion about the voices yesterday.  I haven't heard his vocalization of Bobby Tussel yet, so that should be interesting.  How do you sound like a man who has no filters because he has a bullet in his brain?  I hope it's good.  Readers like Bobby.

And, of course, because yesterday was so nice, more yardwork was accomplished.  Of course, more would have been done if I hadn't run out of string for my weed wacker.

I made a BLT for dinner last evening.  No toast.  While I do like toast in general, I like my sandwiches to be made with bread, or rolls, or buns... anything but toast.

And is Ronnie DeSantis' campaign already toast?  That's possible.  His poll numbers among Republicans are tanking.  This is to be expected.  Meatball Ron is not as saucy as his ego tells him he is.  He's officially announcing late this afternoon on Twitter, with that Twat Elon Musk. 

And, speaking of Twitter, Musk's trying to do to the platform what Chris Licht is failing to do with CNN, cater to the Far Right.  While he may get advertisers the same way Fox used to get advertisers, Musk is going to learn that audience levels are going to drop.  I understand that Benny Shapiro is also moving his podcasts to Twitter.  I'm betting most of his audience were already following him on Twitter, so there's not going to be a lot of growth there, not that Musk cares, he just wants a platform from which to spew his own personal agenda.

Elon's Premature Ejaculation

 Well, here we are again, at Friday.  Who'd have thunk the days could fly by so fast.  It seems like yesterday we were also enjoying the end of the work week.  Well, I guess I should clarify that, work week for some, not me.  I'm scheduled to work tomorrow and Sunday.  This is how it goes.

My movie buddy Patty and I were supposed to go see Renfield last evening.  We did... and we didn't.  When we got to the theater we found out that they changed the start time.  On Sunday when I looked it started at 8 p.m., however at some point in the week they changed the start time to 7:15 p.m. so we arrived at our local AMC too late.  I was a little irate, since I want to see that movie in the theater.  

I was out doing yardwork again.  Today I'll be out again to mow the lawn.  The joys of being a homeowner.  I'm also working on getting rid of the English ivy.  I bought a spray that's supposed to kill it.  I will probably use it this afternoon on the ivy that is growing in the front yard hedge.  

Yesterday, I also installed a retractable hose outside.  It will still need to be taken down in the winter, but no longer will I be coiling it up on the sidewalk in front of the faucet.  Yippee for me!

And for those who didn't know, yesterday Elon Musk had a very public premature ejaculation so to speak.  His very large rocket lifted off and then exploded.  Everybody in the world is talking about this because... well, he's turning out to be such a dimwit.  The town where he located his launch site is not happy with him.  The dust cloud kicked up was immense, lots of clean-up to be done.  

Yesterday was also the day he took away the Blue checks on Twitter... sort of.  They disappeared from so many names and groups, but not all.  Stephen King still has one, though he says that he isn't paying for it.  I believe him.  And, evidently, Twitter can take away the Blue check, but they can't take away the verification they originally did.  Searching with certain filters shows even without the checks people are still verified.  Elon's turning out to be a real dolt.

Goggle This

 Monday, and the sun's supposed to shine, though the temps are to be around normal, that means in the mid 50s (F).  That's fine with me.  Things will be warm enough, soon enough.  Many people can't wait for summer and then when it finally arrives they complain about the heat so much I wonder if they have mid-term memory issues.  Don't they remember that summer does not mean temps are going to stay in the comfortable 80s (F), but that there will be times when they climb into the high 90s (F) or early 100sk (F)?

They gave me Specialist of the Month yesterday.  Some think this is a great.  Me?  I know there are only so many Specialists and only so many months in the year.  For a part-timer, my sales are good, better than some of the full-timers, in fact, and that's what they look at.  Still, getting the award does let me order a special gift from an Award Catalog.  Every other time I've won, I've chosen a nice water bottle.  This time?  Maybe a thermometer.

And the new glasses arrived. They're garnet colored.  For those who don't know, garnets are a deep, almost blood red color, at least the ones I've seen.  My grandmother used to have a garnet necklace - big stones. I like them.  They're a big change up from the blue and the lenses are clear.

Elon, the moron, Tweeted yesterday that only verified Tweeters, those paying $11.99 a month were going to get their Tweets prioritized.  This is nothing more than a way for the loser to inject some sort of revenue into the platform since advertisers have been bailing.  A number of those I follow retweeted his post and let their followers know they weren't going to pay the fee.  Many said that if things continued to deteriorate, they could be found on Post.  Transitioning to a new platform will not be difficult.  Right now, it seems that most of the Tweets that pop into my feed are either ultra right wing, or Republicans.  Believe me when I tell you that I'm tried of telling Elise Stefanik that she's nothing more than a lying sack of shit.

And Baby Bibi Netanyahu has reversed, or at least is been stymied by demonstrators who have managed to derail that is authoritarian agenda... for the moment.  I'm sure he's seething.  Conservatives in the US need to pay close attention.

 

Tis the season of indictments

 So, when I checked the weather on my phone this morning there was a notification that "snow will stop in 20 minutes."  Looking out the window I saw no snow.   Curious, I checked the regional map and sure enough, Central PA was covered by a light blue cloud of snow.  Still, we were flakeless.  Honestly, it would be nice to have a little, just enough to use my snow shovel at least one time.

Those who read my books will know that one of my protagonists, Max Sullivan, started out as a nurse working for the #1 heart team in Old Towne.  Not knowing anything about cardiologists and heart teams, in the 3rd book I had him change careers, becoming a Physical Therapist (I've had PT) and actually got a scathing review telling me no cardiologist would ever do such a thing, even though I'd never said he was one.  For 3 books there's been only passing mentions of his new career.  That may change.  Max may become more 3 dimensional.  One of our new associates is not only a physical therapist, he attending a local university to get his doctorate.  I'm planning on having a conversation with him to see if he'll let me pick his brain.

I have this unusual feeling that this Sunday's Oscar ceremony may be one of the most watched in a long time.  Not because a lot of blockbusters have been nominated.  I suspect people will be tuning in because the nominations this year are filled with diversity.  I know I'll be watching for a number of reasons, one of which is I want to see them do Naatu Naatu live!  Just thinking about it makes me laugh.  What a great song!

For some odd reason, Twitter seems to have decide to add the crazy voices of Elise Stefanik, and Kev McCarthy, Tim Scott, and Casey DeSanits to my feed.  Even though some of them have been muted, they still show up regularly.  I don't doubt this is the result of a billionaire decision.  Rather than waste time calling these people out for their lies, so many others are already doing that, I'm simply muting them again.  The fewer people who see their Tweets, the weaker they become.

And it looks like we might finally be heading into indictment season, someone noted that it usually runs from March to June.  As I've noted before, once they begin to fall, Trump's base is going to unite around him.  They will become more aggressive.  Their lies will not only increase, but become more outlandish.  They will begin to attack every Republican who doesn't bow down to him.  They will become uglier and possibly violent.  While they do this, more and more Americans are going to see them for the evil they represent.  The death of the Republican party is not going to be quiet.

 

Santa's on his way

Good Morning!  Biggie's at the Vet.  I was telling everybody his appointment was for Wednesday - well, I was wrong.  This is why I put everything in my calendar.  Sometimes things stick in our minds of which we are so very certain and turn out to be incorrect.  Why did Wednesday stick in my head?  Was I thinking of the Netflix series (which is pretty good), or was the first date the Vet suggested Wednesday, tomorrow?  I'm thinking that's probably the case.  Of course, there I go thinking again.

Work was very slow yesterday.  We're down in measures and sales.  Seriously, when I look at sales for the district, the numbers are almost spot on with our sales pre-pandemic.  That's a reality many corporations don't want to deal with.

The garbage men took my old garbage can.  I had just gotten home from dropping Biggie off, when they drove my my house.  No problem.  It was very old.  The bottom had large holes in it.  One of the wheels had fallen off so it no longer rolled.  I got my money's worth out of that purchase, since it survived over 14 years.

There's big storm a brewing!  It's supposed to begin on Thursday in the Midwest and move east.  This little map looks bad.  According to this I should hit the liquor store prior to getting screwed.  Accuweather says we're going to be getting mixed precipitation on Thursday, snow to rain on Friday, and then the temperature is predicted to crash on Christmas eve, with the high only reaching up into the mid 20s (F).  I think I'll play it safe and pick up a bottle of wine. 

For those who don't Tweet:  Elon lost his poll and decided to change the rules.  If you want to vote in one of his Twitter polls now, you need to purchase and $8 monthly subscription.  Some will pay, I will not.  I'm on Post, signing up for Mastodon, and already on Tribal.  Of the 3, I suspect Post will become the most popular, except for MAGA bots.

And, of course the celebrating has just begun.  As everyone knows by now, the January 6 committee has recommended the DOJ indict the Orange Anus on 4 different charges.  The BBC has a nice take on the matter, but then so does everyone else.  It will be interesting to see how the effect the Republican party, especially in the House of Representatives where the American Freedom Caucus worships the shit beneath his feet.  Social Conservatives who believed they were going to declare holy war on America are now embattled in war with each other.  And as for the Evangelicals, their holy grail has sprung a leak.  What will the DOJ do?  Indictments will follow more rapid than eagles, and as leaves that before the wild hurricane fly when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky. Santa's on his way.

 

Elon's Loss (corrected from this morning).

 Monday - this is going to be an abbreviated work week; I'm scheduled for 2 days, Monday and Saturday.  Today I'll rack up 8 hours, Saturday I work 5 hours.  Today will be boring.  The only departments that will do any business on Friday will be Garden (marked down Holiday decorations) and hardware (that last minute drill for dad).  I did put in for 6 hours of vacation pay even though I've earned 4 hours of holiday pay.  Biggie's expenses are approaching.

The actual new owner of the house next door showed up yesterday for about 10 minutes.  He pulled his black Escalade in front, put on the four way flashers, and proceeded to follow his worker into the house.  He's probably in his mid 30's, had a large gold chain that swung away from his chest when he walked, and I was not impressed.  I suspect the new owner discovered just how much rubbish the previous owner left behind.  Buying a house 'as is' means you're getting it as it is.  It's not going to be cleaned out and ready for painting.  'As is' also means there was no way that house could pass a home inspection.  If a deal is too good to be true, it's almost always too good to be true.

Our new store manager arrives today.  In fact, she's probably already walking the aisles of the store.  Some of our newly promoted assistant managers may have problems.  They will have to go through a learning period.  They may have a rough time of it.  I have no problem with that.

A bit on Troll:  it is the most popular non-English film in Netflix history, people have watched over 128 million hours as of last week.  Could Mads have anything to do with that?  Some people like it, others don't, but overwhelmingly people are sympathizing with the troll.  Now, isn't that interesting?

 

For those who haven't been paying attention, Elon had a poll.  Should he stay as CEO of Twitter, or leave.  Elon lost.  Now the questions is will he actually resign.  He has been very quiet.  I'm suspecting he thought his bots would pull of a victory for him.  While this is the current sturm and drang on Twitter, some saying this chaos is what his backers want, I'm seeing elsewhere that they are very unhappy with the man / baby.  While they may have wanted him to move the direction of Twitter to the Right, they had not anticipated he would bring such mayhem.  For many, the total disorganization is unbelievable.  As for the poll?  Well, Elon, as with most billionaires, has very thin skin; he finds it almost impossible to admit he's wrong, that he made a mistake.  Tesla stock is tanking; other electric vehicle makers have less problems and are more reliable.  Investors are upset.  We shall have to wait and see if he publicly admits that he's a loser.  I'm betting he'll install a puppet CEO, so he can quietly, behind the scenes, continue to drive Twitter deep into the ground.

Troll

 Can I get a happy hello to Friday?

The rain, sleet, slushy snow is predicted to end this morning.  The temps are supposed to climb to 44 (F), but then the their supposed to tank, meaning drop, not explode like the round aquarium in Berlin.  I feel so bad for those 1500 fish, dying because of stupidity.

Yesterday was so slow at work.  I talked to 2 customers.  A husband and wife.  They were disappointed that the mosaic tile they were looking at on her phone didn't look like the mosaic we carried in the store.  I explained to them about color accuracy, and how back lit colors are never true.  They also didn't like the fact that they were looking at a natural stone mosaic which meant each mosaic was going to be different, that there was no way to guarantee uniformity.  He shook his head, "well, that's sad."

I did stop off on my way home and picked up a small bottle of merlot and watched "Troll."  I liked it, but then I've always been a sucker for monster movies.  Not all fairy tales are about fairies.  At some point, I will watch it again.

For those of you planning on purchasing any of Trump's NFT trading cards, I hate to disappoint you, but they're sold out.  This means Santa's not going to be leaving a little Christmas grift under your tree.  I did show his little commercial to associates at work yesterday and everyone laughed hysterically.  As someone pointed out, this was a great money laundering scheme with buckos coming in from all over the world.  The Orange Anus will always rely on the con to get money from his supporters.  More power to him.  The more he steals from his MAGA base, the less they'll have for other candidates.

And, of course, the Twitter exodus continues.  What used to be an amusing social media platform is now becoming simply tedious.  Suspending accounts simply because they point out the deceit in Musk's supposed 'free speech' is bad for business.   There is a difference between posting an opinion and posting disinformation.  Phony fact attacks do promote discourse, so using them to draw in subscribers is a failed endeavor.  Journalists are now posting their new addresses on POST, Mastodon, and Tribal before Musk suspends their accounts.  Musk's bullshit about being doxed is nothing more than his anger at finding out that a lot of people simply don't like him.

The very petty Elon Musk

 Around here, Tuesday is garbage day.  This is also the day I put out my recycling.  All of those Chewy boxes are put out on the curb.  Because I live alone, I put my garbage and recycling out every 2 - 3 weeks.  Sadly, that does not drop my quarterly garbage and sewage bill.  When I moved here, that bill was $65 ever 3 months, now it 3 times that amount.  Families who line the curb with 3 or 4 garbage cans weekly are supposed to pay more.

The replacement part for my bar cart arrived yesterday.  Assembly will be completed this morning.  That means the laundry room will be one step closer to being completed.  I'm going to hold of installing the 2 folding doors until after Biggie's test expenses have been paid off.  I'm also going to be buying an area rug to put in front of the washer and dryer.  The vinyl click / lock floor I put down is nice, but static electricity on the surface has turned it into a horrendous dust magnate. 

Nine days until the shortest day of the year.  I cannot wait until the winter solstice has passed.

For those who are interested, I am on Twitter, mostly because I find it amusing.

While I can scroll through the comments on my PC, more often than not, I'm on my phone.  By now, everyone knows that the richest second richest man in the world purchased the social media platform for around $44 billion dollars.  As a result, chaos has erupted.  While Elon wants the world to think he's... well, possibly a genius, he's really on smart at certain things, like listening to his advisors.  Electric cars?  He was smart about that.  Going to Mars?  Well, he's done a lot of the space program.  With his purchase of Twitter, however, he's revealed his pettiness.  His release of the Twitter file?  Well, all of those boring little emails are not shaking the Twitterverse.  Only a handful crazy conservatives seem to care.  With every misstep he makes, his pettiness lashes out.  He wants recognition and a majority of Twitter users are calling him a dumbass.  Most are actually calling him worse.  

A little over 24 hours ago Dave Chappelle invited him up on stage and Musk was booed.  Loudly.  For almost ten minutes.  There are videos all over YouTube.  Those posted to Twitter were deleted.  Those posting the videos had their accounts shut down.  Petty Elon was pissed at his public humiliation.  Now only links are posted, no videos.  Of course, petty Elon was not finished.  Yesterday, Musk disbanded the Truth and Safety council.  Believe me, he will get worse as more and more people mock him.  Me?  I have accounts set up on both Tribal, and Mastodon, and am waiting my approval from POST.  In the meantime, whenever I pick up my phone and go on Twitter, I'm blocking advertisers.  If you're on Twitter do the same thing.  That hurts Elon more than anything.

And finally, a bit of a ho ho ho.  The Trump legal team appealed to judge Aileen Cannon on some sort of horseshit regarding the FBI and Mar a Lago and she declined to hear the argument saying it was out of her jurisdiction.  No doubt Cannon has been advised that her legal career might be expiring soon.

Beating Elon Musk

 Well, as expected, yesterday was oh, so slow at the store.  I did manage to sign up a woman who wants someone to go to her house with display books and take to her about curtains and draperies.  Those Leads usually never sell; the cost is to exorbitant.  

Being that it was slow, I spent sometime putting together details for the denouement of The Body Under Ice.

I understand our Fun Committee is planning on a Holiday Party this year.  Don't tell certain religious organizations that, the packaging on some of our holiday decorations uses the word Christmas and that makes them swoony with joy.  It says a lot about such organizations when they're happy merchandisers are using the word Christmas without understanding its sole purpose is to target their wallets, pocket books, and credit cards.  They are so easily bought.  

At 0930 this morning, the electrician will arrive to install my dryer hookup.  I'm excited.  He's also installing a 2nd outlet in the kitchen.  I asked if the work could be done in a single day, the answer was yes.  The more I think about it, I'm certain he'll only be here for a few hours.  If that's the case, I may actually start painting the new laundry room.

I saw Musk has permitted Margie Taylor back on Twitter.  While he claims he's reinstating people because of free speech, more and more it looks like this is his way of say "screw you, I'm rich enough to do what I want."  At this point, while many say they are staying on the platform, many are moving to a more regulated platform.  Hate speech is not free speech.  What am I seeing?  Lots of MAGA hatred.  Many comments about how the extremist left is going to destroy America.  They get lost of responses, mostly calling these haters out.  I rarely respond since the Stevie Millers, and the Margie Greenes never look at the comments.  Their main goal is to Tweet something so reprehensible it begins to trend.  When no one replies, they fail.  Seeing one of Stevie's Tweets only garnering 40 responses after 6 or 7 hours brings joy to my heart.  Don't take their bait.  This is how you beat both them and Elon Musk.

Two Unarmed Gay Men

 The holidays have arrived, or, at least they will in relatively few days.  First up will be the crassly commercialized Thanksgiving with its football, followed by that ever popular Black Friday.  Is it me, or does it seem like corporate retailers no longer have dominion over the American Household?  Not that there still aren't enough wack jobs out there who fail to realized those great deals are nothing more than corporate manipulation.  

Anyway, I am scheduled to work today.  I'm supposed to be an appliance salesman.  They do this every year.  Usually, it doesn't happen.  I almost always hang around the flooring desk.  Today, will probably be the same.  You see, I'm scheduled to start at 0930, and the temps are cold.  Not quite bone chilling, but a very brisk 22 (F), outside.  Customers might venture out this afternoon.  And there are a lot of wack jobs out there who still think the best deals are only on Black Friday.  

I worked yesterday and it was oh, so slow.  

Tomorrow, the electrician comes to install my dryer hookup.  He will also be installing 2 outlets, one in the kitchen, and another upstairs for the washer.  These are dedicated lines.  Nice.

A lot of America is talking about what happened at Club Q.  Another tragedy.  One thing that I read yesterday stands out above all else: two unarmed gay men did what the heavily armed police force in Uvalde couldn't do.  Take a few minutes and let that thought sink.  They took the shooters handgun away from him and hit him with it.  I hope they hit him in the face, maybe broke his nose, and all in self-defense.  Two minutes after the police arrived, this 22 year-old loser named Aldrich was in custody.  Five poor souls died, but the actions of two unarmed gay men saved countless of others.  America saw a sense of strength in Colorado Springs they were not expecting.

I saw where Elon Musk quietly reinstated Kanye West on Twitter, and the exodus continues.  For those worried that Trump might actually return, I understand he has some sort of financial commitment to Truth Social.  Money is the golden calf he prays to.  West's anti-Semitic Tweets will appeal to a certain crowd, a group whose numbers do not nearly compensate for numbers of people who are leaving.  I'm actually wondering if Twitter does go under, if he can somehow claim his $44 billion investment a loss, and use it as a tax write-off.

And finally a funny.  I read that what corporate American wants most from the Republican controlled house is a $183 billion tax cut.  Corporations donate a lot of money to Republican Super Pacs, and that's what's important to Republicans, not the American people.

 

Frustrations

 Well, it looks as though we're in for a cool, cool Sunday.  The temps might climb up into the mid-40s (F), however some of the forecasts have that high as much lower, the mid 30s (F) is what some weathercasters are predicting.  I work, so I really don't care.  

Yesterday, I had a Zoom call with some of my Navy buddies and of course there were some logistical issues.  I couldn't hear what they were saying for the first 15 minutes.  They could see and hear me, so they heard every "fuck" I said.  I took the call on my writing laptop, the one I use to make videos, so I checked sound output.  That's where I discovered the issue:  most likely during one of my Windows updates, the sound output had been switched to the microphone.  So, I changed that, and still I couldn't hear them.  Nothing was working..  It turns out that Zoom sound output works independently of they system output, so I had to tell it which output to use, and, of course, it was trying to play sound through the microphone.  Lessons were learned.

I've had several invitations for Thanksgiving.  Hhhmm.  All of them, I kid you not, put me in contract with rabid Trumpists.  I find it frustrating to keep from lashing out, so I've decided to stay home and work on the book.  Subconsciously,  I decided this a while back, going to far to purchase a turkey breast in advance.  It's slowly thawing in the refrigerator.

Of course, word is going around that a leak back in 2014 regarding the Supreme Court's decision with Hobby Lobby can be sourced to Sammy Alito.  Why should that not surprise anyone? What this does imply is that Sammy has been working for some time to tear down the wall separating Church and State.  And here people thought he believed in that separation, however that couldn't be farther from the truth.  He wants a devoutly Christian state, in which religion plays the most prominent role.  This revelation also makes it quite probable that Sammy, being quite pleased with the decision to turn over Roe, had to just tell a few of his Christian extremist friends.  He must be rather frustrated to see that the American people are so soundly rejecting his efforts.

And, finally, headlines flashed that Elon Musk was reinstating Trump on Twitter.  He based his decision on a poll he ran on Twitter.  The response was not overwhelming.  Of the hundreds of millions of people on Twitter, only around 25 million responded.  An understatement would be that the app is in horrific turmoil.  Over 1200 employees took his severance package offer.  Long time users are turning to other apps: Mastadon (God and George Takei, among others are there), and Tribel.  Musk is going to completely ignore the fact that Trump used Twitter to incite an act of sedition, mostly because if Trump comes back, he's going to bring with him about 100 million followers.  That's a lot of money if they choose to stay and pay for the blue check mark.  The truth is that everyday, Musk is growing more and more frustrated because everyday his level of incompetency seem to rise.

Twitter and the Hate Mongers

 Let the mini-summer begin!  Or, as some call it, Indian Summer since, for the next few days, temps here in Central Pa are going to be in the mid to upper 70s (F).  Unfortunately, starting Wednesday we're going to be back to seasonal weather.  I have no problem with this unseasonably warmth.  A little respite from the heating bills is always nice.  Honestly, I find paying utility expenses such an unfair expenditure of my money, especially since utility companies have decided they want to be major players in American Capitalism.  

Take electricity.  I received an email from P. P. & L. my provider, that beginning in December rates for the average family using 1100 kwh per month will increase by about $22.  That's a big jump.  I immediately checked my bill to see how many kwh I use in a month.  As a single person, I use about 550 kwh, so my bill will only increase by around $11.  I like using my air fryer, but that little oven burns up electricity like it's going out of style.  From now on, I'll probably only use it for hamburgers and French fries, foods that only take about 10 minutes to cook.  Everything else will be cooked in my gas oven which is a lot less expensive way to cook.

Here is one of my autumn roses. 

I saw Bibi Netanyahu won the election in Israel by the skin of his teeth.  What a shame.  The country was making some very nice advances in it's approach to the Arab states which surround it.  I don't see that lasting since he's a hardline conservative.  There will be no compromise, a word conservative despise.

Isn't the Elon Musk's Twitter fiasco entertaining?  Instant layoffs, corporate advertising pulling back, people complaining about having to pay to be certified?  That $8 monthly charge is pissing people off.  Verification used to be related to certification, ensuring you were not a bot.  Now, if you've read what the Chief Fool has said, it's totally dependent on your paying the fee, meaning everyone who pays will be verified.  I suspect that's really what's pissing off the advertisers; Subway doesn't want it's ads sandwiched between Tweets of raging racism and hatred.  The Chief Fool doesn't understand this.  Only the foolish will pay that fee.  Everyone else will move to another platform.  There is a good possibility Twitter will become a lot like the fiscally underperforming Truth Social, catering mostly to hate mongers.  Note to the Chief Fool, hate mongers rarely click on ads, they're too busy foaming at the mouth.

Countdown

 Well, a happy late good morning to those you normally read Riding On while enjoying their first cup of coffee.  And no, I didn't stay up late and sleep in.  I had an appointment for bloodwork at 0730.  They took five vials of my iron rich, 100 % proof DNA filled blood, as well as a small cup of urine, which smelt like black coffee even though it was a pale yellow.  This is all prep work for my physical which is scheduled next week.  Tuesday, to be precise.  Not only is November 8 my birthday, it's also election day. Make sure you all give me a very nice present.

Yes, that's right, I'm a full blown Scorpio.

After I finish this entry, I'm going to round up the dogs so the 3 of us can take a nice nap.  Both of them were restless last night.  Lily had to go potty outside twice.  Biggie?  I have a small stash of biscuits in the bedroom and didn't that stinker lay in front of them and whine, like he hadn't been fed in weeks.  

I got the estimate for fixing the kitchen ceiling.  Not bad.  Work will start after the electrical work is complete.  

I'd say let the countdown begin, but it began a long time ago.  If you think the Republican party has been vile so far, prepare yourselves, you ain't seen nothin' yet.  Elon Musk either has, or will shortly, terminate some of those associates on Twitter who were moderators.  No matter what he claims his intentions are, free speech, for one, don't believe him.  He doesn't care what people Tweet, as long as Twitter becomes a money maker.  To this end, he will permit Republicans to lie like hell, and be as morally degenerate as they want.  His accountants are looking at the numbers.  The more followers Tom Fitton has, or Tulsi Gabard, the better it is for business.  He's raising the $5 for being verified to $20 per month.  It's all about the money.  He will ruin it of  course, that's because he's the Chief Twit.  For those who don't know, he did Tweet that now he's the Chief Twit.  I don't think he knows just what a Twit is.

And, as I said, the election draws nigh.  Because of this, every wannabe political pundit is going to be citing polls.  Believe them not.  Do not believe that America is more concerned in the economy and crime than it is the flipping of Roe.  Polls create drama.  Drama means clicks on media websites, and that generates a corporate desire to purchase ad space.  And so you'll see headlines  such as "Walker leads Warnock by 3%."   It's all horseshit.