Vermouth

 Today will be our last day of fun in the sun for a while.  Overnight temps are going to be dropping and tomorrow's drizzly high will be in the 50s (F).  There are going to be at least one frost warning later in the week.  Our weather is flip-flopping,  central air on one week, and heat on the next.  Don't worry, the heat is still coming, and will be arriving sooner than you think.

Yesterday was sort of a meh day.  I didn't work.  literally, I didn't really do much of anything except go for a 10 Mile bike ride.  There were also 3 loads of laundry done as well.  Also, I did a little lawn work, including throwing out the hose reel system.  Looking back, I guess I'd have to say the day wasn't that much of a waste.

This is the season of pay increases.  I got mine, a whopping 3%.  Now, those are going to be some big bucks you can take to the bank.  For some reason, I was the only one who could see mine.  Usually, they give you a piece of paper with your increase printed on it.  That still may happen before payday.  But everyone should be able to see their increase on their online payroll file.  But as of Thursday, no one else could see their increase.  I find this interesting.  I'm wondering if others might be getting a lower % and that might be why their files haven't been updated yet.

The Strait of Vermouth is not open, neither is the Strait of Hormuz.

This is in spite of what the Liar in the White House says.  One thing I'm seeing more and more of though, is people calling out Main Stream Media for simply regurgitating everything he says as though it's a fact.  He is a pathological liar.  Everyone in MSM knows this, yet every time Orangie says something, they repeat it as though it were fact.  Orange  says this, and Orangie says that without so much as a nod to the fact that nothing he says is true.  By now most people have also realized that he uses his phony announcements to manipulate the stock market.  Billionaires just keep getting richer.  At some point it's going to break, then I don't doubt many of them will drink a bottle of Vermouth and jump out a window.

The World is Watching

Good morning world. Outside temps are in the low 50s (F) with a projected high to be in the low 70s (F) with full on sunshine.  Today's going to be a perfect day for a peaceful rally here in Central PA.  The weather will change towards the end of the weekend.  Some forecasts are predicting an inch of rain on Monday.  We need the rain.

Yesterday was a good day when it came to getting things done.  The 2 aquariums were cleaned and I painted more of wainscoting in the bathroom.  I will be finished with that soon.  After that I will move on to bedroom doors and freshen them up.  A few years back, when I was running the paint department, one of associates was from India.  He and I got to talking about, of all things, painting, and I was surprised when he told me that in his culture people rarely repainted rooms.  He told me that if there's a hole, or scratch, or scrap, they will simply patch it and just touch the area up, and I thought their walls must be spotty as hell since time changes everything.

Trainwell is making changes to their app.  Now you'll be able to move your workouts around, change the times, or only do certain exercises.  This is all starting Monday.  I'm wondering, hoping they're not moving to some sort of AI format.  That would probably not be good for the people they hire to be trainers.

My sister told me that my brother in law came home from work on Wednesday and told her he'd retired.  This was rather abrupt.  Originally, he was supposed to work until December, and then go part-time for a while.  He managed dry wall installations, and she'd also told me there wasn't a lot of work and that he'd said "people were just standing around."  That's a wasted payroll expense.  I don't doubt that America's sinking economy is to blame.

And, of course, today is the 2nd No Kings Day.

The world is watching.  A bold statement is being sent the the Conservatives in power, one they simply cannot believe:  No one wants an authoritarian government in America.  I've said this before, these people are delusional.  They truly believe that all they need to do is shout out "shut up, we're in charge," and Americans will simply accept this as true.  These people are idiots.  Not only are they idiots, they are a minority group.  Their small numbers need to be taught a painful lesson.  No matter how badly they want to dictate how we live our lives, they are not in charge.  By voting, Americans hire them for a period of time.  This means they can also be fired.  Because they are incapable of reading the room, the firings are going to commence.  

Where's the Beef?

 We're under a heat advisory for today.  Right now our outside temp is 76 (F) and it is only going to get hotter.  Now that doesn't mean the mercury in our thermometers will be climbing into the triple digits.  Nope.  The forecast is for our temp to hit 95 (F), it's the "real feel" of 104 (F) that's the reason for the advisory.  Thunderstorms this weekend will knock our temps back down into the upper 70s (F) to mid 80s (F).

Yesterday was definitely a meh day when it came to getting things accomplished.  I was scheduled to work and that put a damper on my enthusiasm to do anything else.  I did get some words written, but just a few.  I also got a mini-upper body workout in, but even that was lame.  Certain muscles need more than 48 hours to recover, that's why the week gets broken up in to specific days, such as leg day, and back day, and arm day.  Muscle growth is slow to achieve.

Work, itself, we pretty meh, too.  My supervisors needed to help me cut vinyl.  She doesn't know what she's doing so it ended up all flippy floppy.  The roll should have been firm and it was saggy.  She's a dip.  In her middle 60s, she wants to move up into management and so she's focusing mostly on numbers.  She's taking the wrong tact.  She spends much of her time sitting at a computer and ignoring the fact that even our store manager is out in the aisles packing down product, filling holes in the shelves.  She doesn't understand that the position she wants is a labor intensive 50 hour a week job.  They're not going to promote someone who just wants to supervise.

For those who are counting pennies, the cost for a pound of ground beef is $6.19 here in Central PA.  That beats the national high of $6.12

For those who didn't see, Volkswagen missed their plan by $1.6 billion.  They are the 2nd car company in less than 2 weeks that missed by over a billion.  This is because they're eating the tariffs.  Wall Street is not going to let this continue.  Those car tariffs are going to be coming our way and the cost of a new car is going to go through the roof.

There is chatter that a trade deal with Japan might actually get signed, which is terrible.  The new tariff is supposedly 15%, the old tariff was 2%.  Those added costs are going to be passed on to the consumer, and the added revenue will be paid to billionaires.

Jerome Powell publicly disagreed with the Orange Anus yesterday on live TV.  Orangie's butt was already burning from South Park mockery.  His ego can not deal with this public ridicule.  And he's leaving for Scotland where everybody hates him.  There are going to be protests.  Good.

New approval ratings were released and Orangie's overall approval rating is 37%.  What's truly devastating about that number is that is approval rating among Independent voters is down to 27%.  That number is simply horrific since neither party can do anything without the Independent voters, and right now less than one third of them approve of Orangie and his administration.

The Bad, Bad Bill

 Well, hello world.  Temps are comfy here in Central PA.  It's 67 (F) outside and the sun is shining.  Wouldn't it be nice if this weather lasted, unfortunately, at least according to Accuweather, thunderstorms are going to be rolling into the area this afternoon.  They were predicted to arrive yesterday afternoon as well but skirted us.  Those communities around us didn't fare as well.  Some places in Lancaster county go up to 7 inches of rain, and for those uninitiated, we here in Central PA call it Lan kiss ter.

Because of the weather threats yesterday, I dried my laundry inside.

Yesterday was also a day of cleaning, and of writing, and a really good dumbbell/ band workout.  Overall, I was fairly satisfied with all I accomplished.

Sadly, I did have to order and controller for my Xbox, the right toggle on my current controller is shot, my character keeps trying to move forward no matter what I'm doing.  This makes killing zombies, marauders, and bandits extremely difficult.  I order another red one.  It should be arriving on Tuesday.

My friend Justin is supposed to stop by this morning to trim the top off my holly bush.  He has some acuity problems because of a brain bleed, so he may, or he may not.  He's a nice guy, though his life is rather chaotic.  

Here's a nice pic showing how Orangie's bill is going to hit PA hard.

Of course, Republicans think that none of these people are  white.  Nope.  They truly do believe that everyone getting assistance from the Federal Government is a minority.  If there were that many minorities in the country, Republicans would never get elected.  Ironically, these poor, white Republicans who use SNAP to help feed their children simply are not smart enough to understand this will be crushing to them.  They also fail to comprehend their elected Republican Senators and Congressmen simply do not care about them, or their families.  These officials have no problem in starving their constituents in order to tow the party line.

And ADP released their jobs report for June.  Orangie's policies were supposed to grow the private sector job market by almost 100,000 jobs.  Instead, there was a stunning loss in private sector jobs.  This is the first time in years that America has had negative job growth.  Damn!  Republicans believe that inflation will either level off or grow slowly.  They don't realize that Orangie's foot is heavy on that gas pedal and acceleration is the only option.

They Did it in the Rain

 Yesterday, I slept.  The weather was nice.  I did a load of laundry and hung it out to dry.  I went for a 2.5 mile walk in Adams-Ricci, enjoying the wonderful weather, and then... around one PM, I laid down on the bed and slept for an hour.  Damn.  I hate when that happens.  The day was going so well, and then I lost an hour.  And when I woke up I didn't feel like doing anything. 

Well, that makes it sound like nothing was accomplished.  That's not true.  I sealed the grout on my backsplash, I cleaned a bit, and went to my neighborhood Giant supermarket.  And I drove out to the airport to locate the long term parking lot, and got lost trying to find my way back to the highway.  I haven't been there in over 15 years and things at the airport have changed.  And yes, I am doing long term parking.  I'd have no problem getting a ride to the airport for my departure flight, however, my return flight is supposed to land at 10:30 PM, which means it might actually arrive closer to 11, and you can add another 15 minutes onto when I finally get my luggage, which would be an inconvenience.

When I woke up yesterday afternoon, I went downstairs and watched this:

What an amazing opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and they did it in the rain.  In a four hour time period, France set the bar so high for opening ceremonies it's doubtful anyone will ever reach it.  There were no puppet parades around the inside of a stadium.  Instead we got high opera, low opera, and heavy metal.  We saw a headless Marie Antoinette singing in a window, and a tour through the Louvre. Ravel played on a grand piano in the rain.  And nobody complained.  And, of course, the Olympic cauldron is suspended from a hot air balloon over a fountain in the Tuileries!  I've sat in a chair at that fountain and let the world pass me by on two occasions.  And, of course, there was Celine Dion.  

True, some Parisians got out of town, but that happens every time the Olympics are held.  And there was some petty crime, but there was also petty crime at the Republican convention, and there was petty crime at the Super Bowl.  Every time you have this many people, there is going to be crime. 

I also understand the Religious Right in the country found some of the bits upsetting.  They will not get over it.  We need to keep them out of power.  

Finally, on the political side, the Orange Anus gave a speech yesterday in which he told his audience to vote for him.  "If you vote for me, in four years, everything will be fixed.  You won't have to vote.  You won't have to vote ever again."  He is desperately sowing seeds of rebellion. He needs to lose, and lose badly.