We Are Smaller Than The World

 Good Morning world!  Our outside temp here in Central PA is 58 (F).  That's mild.  I've been outside wearing just my shorts and T-shirt, my way of transitioning to summer.  Storms did blow through the area last night, lots of loud thunder and lightening, and heavy rain.  The forecast for the next 3 days is pretty much the same, and then we're going to cool off.  Some of our lows next week are predicted to be in the high 20s (F), which downright cold.

I did work yesterday and it was slow.  We are not hitting our forecast plan so far this week... by a lot, and with the weather forecast calling for showers and colder temps, I'm not expecting sales to pick up.  I did get my monthly review yesterday, yes, that's right, we now get them monthly.  Once again my focus is supposed to be on signing people up for credit cards.  That discussion led to a conversation about interest rates and how the rate on our cards was so high.  Not surprising, my supervisor was fairly clueless on the subject, once again telling me it was not my responsibility.  That's one of the big problems in not only America, but the world.  No one wants to accept responsibility.  It's always someone else's fault.  

And in a comment, Treaders asked me if I didn't have a recycling place nearby.  No, not really.  There used to be a landfill about 5 miles down Wertzville Road, but that shut down years ago.  Hershey, Dauphin, and Cumberland county have drop-off spots for yard waste.  I did check, there is a scrap yard on the other side of Harrisburg, but their rates for dropping of scrap metal are what I consider exorbitant.  To make up for this, Waste Management has given us all supersized garbage containers, so bit, it usually takes me a month to fill both the garbage and the recycling bins.  I will have to go online and make an appointment for them to pick up the treadmill base.  This is a hassle.  We used to be able to just set one piece out, but now their garbage trucks have robotic arms that pick up your cans and dump them into the top of the truck.  No more garbagemen.  This is what our cans look like.  You can see the metal bar the robotic arms hook onto.

And, of course, the stock market sell-off continues.  As soon as I saw that China announced retaliatory tariffs of 34%, I knew Wall Street was going to crash even farther.  With zero tariffs for Russia and high tariffs for every other country in the world, many think the Orange Anus is following orders from his blow bro Vlad.  You all know who Vlad is, the dictator who has already sacrificed almost a million Russians in a war that only supposed to last 3 days?  That man has totally over estimated Russia's strength by a very large margin.  In his mind, having the United States as a vassal state would give him Supreme Power.  He simply does not understand that we are smaller than the world.  The world is not going to cower before Trump and his blow bro Vlad.  Nope.  Trading alliances are circumventing us.  Orangie is going to crush the world's economy.  This is how the Republican party dies, and don't be surprised if it takes Evangelical Christianity with it.

Bodies

 Wednesday has arrived.  Temps are comfortable.  The sun is shining.  All that's supposed to change late this afternoon as thunderstorms move into the area.  I'll have to deal with that.  Looking at the long range forecast, I'd have to say that summer is approaching: more sun and less rain.  I like this type of weather.  Are there scorching days ahead of us?  Can't say, but if the weather pattern holds, if this year is like the past 2, then I'd have to say probably not.  By the way, temps are cooking in those rabidly Right Wing states of Texas and Florida.  That's fine with me.

Usually, on my first day off after working 3, I tend to do as little as possible.  Not that I'm worn out, or tired, I just like to... well, do nothing.  No, that's wrong, I did things, just not chore related.  Reading, writing, and just a touch of cleaning, like doing the dishes by hand.

I shoved the two area rugs that had been in the writing room into my garbage can and took it to the curb for pick-up.  When Waste Management took over, they gave everybody oversized garbage cans, so they easily fit inside.  The cans are so big, I can fit just about anything inside, except for the dog sofa.

This morning, I'm going to either cancel my Amazon Prime, or reduce it greatly.  There's nothing interesting to watch, except for the occasional originals, and I can't see paying for something I'm not going to watch.  Netflix, however, has things I like.  Last night I finished watching "Bodies," which I really liked.  It's the story of 4 detectives investigating the same murder victim decades apart.  It's almost like an anthology series since each detective is dealing with issues, and all of them choosing to make a sacrifice.

Of course, they had closing arguments yesterday in Trump's election interference trial.  He was a little miffed that his defense team couldn't go last, which is odd.  After all of the people he has sued, you'd think he would have realized that Karma was going to put him in the same shoes as all of his victims.  One of the things I've found very satisfying is that while he pays his attorneys to call him Mr. President, Judge Merchan calls him Mr. Trump.  That, among so many other unpleasant things, must be burning his ass.  In fact, for a few moments I'd thought of calling this entry Burning His Ass, but decided would only lead to too many truly vulgar thoughts.

Bonus Points

 A steady, drizzling rain began yesterday afternoon, the sort of thing we call a soaker, and it hasn't really stopped.  Temps dropped.  We're now in the mid 50s (F), and the weather forecasters say this is where we're going to hang for the rest of the day.  Good thing I didn't pack my sweatpants and shirts for the summer.  I'd just sit home and wait it out, but I'm running low on milk and bread, so later I'll be heading out to my local Giant supermarket.

Speaking of Giant, they did not bring back the super bonus point deals. That's a shame.  It means buying gas for the car is going to get pricier.  This is corporate greed.  The bonus points could not only be used to buy gas, but to buy groceries as well.  The few bonus points you provide, the more people have to spend.

Retail was slow yesterday as well, for the most part.  They are really pushing us to get leads and measure, for a lead, you sign up a customer to have someone go to their home and try and sell, them doors, or windows, or sign them up for a hot water heater installation.  Measures are when you sign them up to have a measure tech go to their homes and measure for carpet, or doors, windows.  Measures and leads are seen as guaranteed sales. They push measures and leads all the time, but mostly during the slow months of winter.  Not anymore.  If we make plan for the day, it's usually because some customer has purchased an installation.  People just aren't spending the money they used to spend. 

I made an appointment yesterday to have them pick up the dog sofa in 2 weeks.  Waste Management will do it for free, but it does need to be disassembled for them to do so.  This is what it looks like now.  Oh, and I'm also going to be getting rid of those ugly area rugs.  I bought them when they were on clearance, $29 each.  

Stormy testified again yesterday.  That woman is nobody's fool.  She has painted so many terrible pictures I don't want to think about, scared they'd stick in my brain for ever, like Donald Trump in silk pajamas, or even worse, in boxer shorts.  I probably shouldn't have written then, because now you'll think about them too, and those images will be stuck in your head for all of eternity.

Of course, people are also talking about the Orange Anus and his meeting with the CEOs of the Big Oil companies... and the promise he made them, to gut the EPA, all for the price of a measly billion dollars.  Reports say he said the money was to be used by his campaign, well, we know that's a lie.  He has legal bills that ought to be paid and he's already using campaign funding for that purpose.  And I say ought to be paid because he has a bad habit of not paying, if fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't offer them bonus points in lieu of payment.

Cheesy

Okay, so today is my Friday, even though the calendar says that it's actually Saturday.  I'm off for 2 days and then get to work for 5.  That's not so bad.  After that I have 3 days off in a row.
Pennsylvania politics got ugly.  A 'wanna be' Idiot Jerk running for Governor, Scott Wagner, posted a video in which he claimed he was "going to stomp all over Tom Wolf's face wearing spiked golf shoes."    Scott is angry because Wolf aired an ad in which a valid statistic was quoted, a statistic which proves Wagner to be an "Idiot Jerk wanna be."  That statistic?  Wagner's company, Waste Management, Inc., has sued over 6,200 individuals.  Wagner's explanation is "that's how you handle delinquent accounts."  I'm calling bullshit on that statement.  At one point in my accounting career I worked in Credit Management.  You don't file lawsuits, unless you're the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Nope.  You turn them over to a Collection Agency.  So, Scottie's angry, and his video is making National News.  And he looks like every other Republican scumbag.
And something else is making National News, besides the devastation of Michael, and Kanye's audition for the position of Court Jester.  American Cheese is dying.  Millennials aren't buying the artificial, non-nutritious substance.  You know?  The fake food the Idiot Jerk likes on his hamburgers?  The orangey, yellowy slices Kraft sold as individually wrapped singles?  It seems that millenials want to eat real cheese rather than a substance with chemically induced flavor molecules.  Evidently that's not the only food-like substance on the decline.  Breakfast cereal has slipped into the fade zone.  People are turning away from it's sugary enhanced goodness.  And golf, too, which is turning into the sport of pretentious rich guys with artificially enhanced hair and chemically induced skin color so redolent of a product formulated in a laboratory.

People thought the Idiot Jerk's skin color was sprayed on, which would entail him actually standing naked while someone hosed on color.  Now we know the truth.  He's the perfect example of what happens when all you eat is American Cheddar.