Saturday Night

 Well, it's cold out.  Not freezing cold, but cold enough for me to see my breath as I'm standing outside waiting for Howie to do his morning business.  Today is the last day for the chilliness, tomorrow starts a warm up which will again take up up into the 70s (F).  If the winter stays as warm as this autumn has been, it will be another cheap year as far as my heating bills.  I have no problem with that.

I didn't work yesterday.  Sadly, it turned out to be one of those... slow days.  I wrote.  I did some cleaning.  But mostly, I sat and scrolled through my phone looking for juicy bits that I found entertaining.

I do have to work this afternoon.  I'm not excited.  I changed my availability so I can only work Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday in the afternoon, and then 8 hours on Sunday.  I'm going to have to lose one of those afternoons. I now have a puppy that needs to be taken care of, and it's difficult to house train when I'm out of the house for 6 hours at a stretch.

Last night I went to see Saturday Night, a movie about the first night of Saturday Night Live, a TV show of skits, and musical acts that started 50 years ago.  I remember those shows.  I, along with millions of other people my age, glued ourselves to the TV every Saturday night for years laughing at the sometimes very absurd, usually adult humor.  I liked the movie a lot.  NBC did expect it to fail and was surprised when it became a big hit.  How original... live television every Saturday night.  The casting is good, most of the actors bear a resemblance to the original cast members.  The bits and pieces of the sketches they do in rehearsal are still very funny.  While it was nostalgic, most importantly, the movie gives the audience how complicated live television can be, and how talented those young people were in order to make it work so successfully.

And yesterday the Orange Anus had another really bad day.  He was in Chicago to interviewed about his economic policies and... failed in a very public manner.  There are so many snippets of his bad interview to watch.  I do believe he thought this was going to be nothing more than softball questions he could avoid and just bloviate about whatever he wanted.  That was not the case.  My favorite was when he was corrected after calling Governor Newsome,  new scum.  His reaction was to say, "you're the first person to correct me."  Now how big of an Ouch is that.  He was then scolded on air with, "Any CEO of a Fortune 500 company saying that would be terminated immediately."  I'm surprised none of you could hear me laughing.  

Later yesterday evening he had a rally in... Wisconsin, I think, and it went poorly because his brain was still seething.  This is a man who, like the a large number of Republicans, is used to saying "Shut up, I'm in charge."  That is not happening.  His concepts of unformulated plans are being mocked by so many people.  As a result, last evening is standard word salad was run through a meat grinder in front of a live audience.  Does anyone know if that meltdown was televised?

In the Kraken's Grotto

 A new begins.  The front page of Accuweather had a notice that the rain will be ending in a few hours, the sun is rising on a cloudless sky.  Also, the forecast there is 0% precipitation for the next 3 days.  It has now been changed to "no rain for the next 60 minutes."  They need to get their act together for us early birds. 

Either way, temps are predicted to be cooler today, even if it is sunny, not that it makes much of a difference since I'm scheduled to work for 8 hours.  This is the last Monday that I work an 8 hour shift.  I fixed my availability problem.  There may be more fixing ahead.  I can remember when I worried if 20 hours a week would give me enough spending money.  That was so long ago, before Biggie and his expensive meds.  No problem. 

And yesterday was a boring 8 hours.  I began doing laps again.  One of my friends asked where I'd be traveling to next, so I reminded him that I was getting a puppy.  I didn't tell him I'd already talked to my movie buddy Patty about that, nor did I tell him she said (very sarcastically, since she has 4 dogs) that it would kill her to take care of another pup while I traveled.  So, I guess he asked a valid question.

And, as most of you know, I like to listen to music when I write, so, if I heard an interesting song while I was in Greece, I'd pull out my phone and do a "song search."  This is why in a number of pics taken at dinner, I'm looking down at the table rather than smiling for the camera.  One of the songs that caught my ear was called Shik, Shak, Shok, which was a remix of an Egyptian song from 1974, a remix that had a strong Grecian twist.  I listened to this song a lot while working on a chapter called In the Kraken's Grotto (catchy, eh?)

I suppose quite a few people know that the Orange Anus is going to lose the election.  I also suppose that quite a few understand that he's going to attempt to start something.  There will be some rocky times between November 5 and certification of the next president.  His cult will result to mob mentality, however, this minority crowd simply cannot comprehend they will be dealing with a vast majority of Americans, and the patience of that vast majority has run out.  Over 2/3 of the nation is going to put the hammer down on what used to be the Republican Party.  And then Evangelical Christianity is going to be put under the microscope.  I would not be surprised if, because of their push into the political arena, churches lose their tax exempt status.  It's about time.  

The Approaching Fall

Okay, so my weekend has just begun.  My back is only slightly cranky.  The temp is a crisp 59 (F), so I have some windows open letting in the cool morning air.  In a few days we'll hit the Autumn Equinox and fall will be official.  Interestingly enough, here in Central PA, we have one of the longest fall foliage seasons because we're smack, dab between the north and the south.  Occasionally we get bright, brilliant colors, but mostly we're rather subdued.

I did an adjustment to my work availability.  They can schedule me Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.  That way I'm guaranteed a day off between shifts.  The way it had originally been set up in the system, it was possible for them to schedule me 5 days in a row.  That's not why I'm going part-time.

Last evening, when I got home from work, I updated the drivers in my printer.  Evidently a large update happened back in March and I didn't receive notification.  I didn't try printing anything yet because, well, honestly, if it doesn't work I'll just have to get another laser printer.  

If the barbershop is open today, I'm going to get a haircut.  Believe me, I need one.

Here are some tasty tidbits of information:

For years we've been told to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.  Drink 8 glasses of water a day.  Now they've discovered hydration is different for every one.  8 glasses might be too much for some people, and not enough for others.  I read this and thought, hell, this is what happens whey you try and standardize everything.

Most of us with event the slightest bit of savviness have know this next one for a long, long time.  White, Cracker Jack Crazy Christians are really in it for the power.  Even though they might claim they're working for a higher power, the dark secret in their hearts is that all they're concerned about is the power to dictate and control.  Oh, and many believe in white supremacy because they they've convinced themselves they have chosen.  

And finally. the Hillsborough, Florida GOP have a bit of a problem.  It seems their anti-vax, anti-mask bookkeeper was a software developer who wrote the application for the finances.  Unfortunately, he was wrong about the vaxxing, and the masking, and died of Covid last week without telling anyone how to access their financial information.  Ouch!!