Social Conservative

 Well, as of 0400 we went into a snow warning and here it is 3.5 hours later and nary a flake is in sight.  A quick look at the weather radar map indicates that most of the precipitation is falling south of us and possibly, by 0930 we will have flurries.  The longer it takes for this to arrive, the less snow we're likely to get.  Crap.  And here I was thinking I'd wake up to a winter wonderland and right now all I'm wondering about is when the snow is finally going to land.  Supposedly, our heaviest snowfall will happen between 2 and 6 PM, when I'm at work... or was supposed to be at work.  

Yesterday was one of those meh days.  I had a zoom call scheduled for 3 in the afternoon with my Navy buddies.  Oddly enough, scheduling calls, or for that matter scheduling anything can easily throw off my day, mostly because it gives me a reason to procrastinate.  My reasoning is that I don't want to start something and then have to interrupt what I'm doing and thus I have a reason to do nothing but wait.

The call went well.  However, they're talking about getting together for a reunion somewhere in the middle of the country.  During that part of the conversation I was mostly quiet.  I enjoy the Zoom calls, it's nice to chat for an hour with men I've known for over 50 years, but spending one or two days with them?  We have all changed so much.

In spite of my procrastination yesterday, Howie had a busy a day.

So, I had an interesting text session with my brother yesterday.  He's 61, had been laid off from his job about 6 months ago.  About a month ago he was hired by New York Life.  Oh, and he works in IT, usually as part of a Help Desk team.  I asked him if he was concerned about the Orange Anus' flip on H-1B visas and... I kid you not, he didn't really know what I was talking about.  Being a social conservative he voted for Orangey, and like so many social conservatives can simply not comprehend that Orangey played his Evangelical base like a 2 bit whore.  I asked him about staffing at New York Life and he told me that about 70% were Indian and 15 % were Mexican.  I told him that he really needs to start paying attention to what's going on.  He simply does not understand, but I'm sure he does pray daily, probably more than once.

Update on the weather:  It is now snowing heavily, so I'm going to stay home and bake a loaf of bread.

Zoom into This

 Sunday, and here in Central Pa the outside temp is 64 (F).  Nice sleeping weather.  My A/C rarely runs during the day and it's set at 73 (F).  I'm sure the River Birch tree and the Gingko trees help with keeping the inside temps down.  So far the summer has been fine here in Central PA, however we still have all of August and half of September to get through.

I had my Zoom call yesterday, and for the most part it was boring.  Only eight of us participated.  One of the problems is that the the guy who organizes them believes they need to be held on Saturday afternoons as that is the time when most people are available.  That is simply not the case.  We are all retired, or semi-retired and for those with families, weekends are the times when they get together with their kids and grandkids. And so there were excuses from those who didn't attend: one was kayaking with his wife and grandkids, another had chartered a boat to go deep sea fishing, another was visiting a flower show with his wife and daughter, one was on the golf course.  Anyway, here's a pic from it.

And for those who didn't know it, Barbie is smashing box office records, with Oppenheimer distantly on her heels.  Conservatives are flipping out as their carefully curated shrieks of Wokeness are falling on deaf ears all across the country.  While the director, Greta Gerwig, did not openly eviscerate the Cracker Jack Crazy Conservatives, she did jib and jab at them enough for Benny Shapiro to buy Barbie and Ken dolls and set them ablaze.  While I'm sure his followers nearly wet themselves with glee, the rest of America looked at his prank and realized he's as big of a dick as Ronnie DeSantis.

Speaking of Ronnie, he's doubling down on his "slaves benefitted from being slaves" rhetoric.  He is not moving to the far right, he's just becoming more and more extreme about his racism.  You look at his campaign, and at what he's doing to Florida, and you think he can't get any worse and then his administration pulls something like this.  I can't even imagine what world he's living in.

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.

Sing

 The temps outside are a cool 26 (F).  There was some snow in the forecast yesterday, but we're too far from the lakes for them to effect us.  Not so for Buffalo.  They've had 5 feet  (1.52 meters), with more on the way.  Of course the climate deniers will be pointing at this and ask how can be global warming when this happens.  Believe me, many have tried, there's no fixing stupid.

Yesterday was busy.  Just because I chose to sleep in doesn't mean I didn't get much accomplished.  I did.  

This afternoon, I have a Zoom call with my Navy buddies.  That should be interesting.  These calls have turned into an annual event.  It is interesting to see how age is effecting us.  Some are handling the years gracefully, others, unfortunately, are having difficulties.  By the same token, some of us have been more successful than others.  That alone is very interesting.  

Final prep work for painting the new laundry room will be finished by the time I sit down for in front of the camera.

So, I'm into the final chapter of The Body Under Ice, tentatively titled:  Karaoke.  Tell me, do you think somebody is going to sing?  While this picture has nothing to do with the book, I'm surprised no one has made this into a movie yet.

And Merrick Garland has assigned a Special Council to multiple Trump cases; he and his supporters are flipping out.  Badly.  The move was done to take away any implications that what is going to come, and it is going to come for those waiting in anticipation, is not politically motivated.  Jack Smith is now, and has always been registered as an Independent voter.  He has a reputation for bringing his investigations to a rapid conclusion.  He wins.  Knowing how meticulous Garland is, a man whom also wins, this decision was made some time ago.  I wouldn't doubt if Smith has already been hard at work.  Indictments are coming.  Notice I'm using the plural form.  I wouldn't be surprised if multiple people find themselves on the wrong end of the law.  And some of those other people are frightened.  The tenor of fear in their voices says so much (also notice, I didn't say sing, that's too bad of a pun).