Better Under Biden

 Ha!  The forecasters were wrong.  We did not drop below freezing last night.  Nope.  Howie woke up around 4:15 AM heeding the call of bladder nature and I checked the temps while he was outside.  At that time our low was 35 (F), which is still cold, but nothing was freezing.  Now, ain't that nice?  Today we start warming up. I'm fine with that.

Not a lot was done yesterday besides going to work.  I did a little putzing around the house before leaving to put in my 5 hours at the flooring desk, but nothing to mention.  Before heading home, I did pick up another pack of flooring for the workout / computer / music room.  The first pack I put down looked so good, I thought I cover some more of the old hardwood flooring.  

Today is garbage day an a large part of my treadmill is sitting out front in my garbage can.  Once it gets dumped into the garbage truck later this morning, I roll it to the back of the house and put the rest of it in for next Tuesday's pickup.  I did the same thing when I got rid of my elliptical.  I get asked why I didn't try and sell it.  No one wants the buy used treadmills, in fact, for most people, a purchased treadmill ends up being a storage unit.  The number of people who buy these things and then only use them for a week or two is vastly greater than those who use them regularly.  I am in the smaller group, but even I know when it's time to say goodbye.  This is what the updated room looks like so far.

Of course, there was no super crash on Wall Street yesterday, just the constant erosion billions of dollars.  One of my associates told me his wife looked at their retirement account and was surprised by how much it had dropped.  He said they're hoping it comes back up in 4 years, that's when he wants to retire.  I reminded him that there was a good possibility the stock market had not stopped crashing.  He groaned and said something derogatory about the Orange Anus.

Bloomberg has this really great video detailing how his tariff formula is poo poo.  It's my understand that those people in his administration behind the tariffs relied on AI to generate the formula.

It has come to my attention that a number Orangie's billionaire bros are more than a little dissatisfied with his handling of the economy.  They are losing money... lots, and lots, and lots of money.  That's fine with me.  One of the few things I find pleasing these days is the knowledge that many of that 1% who celebrated Orangie's victory by giving him a million $$$ are now finding themselves on the losing end of the stick.  Isn't it nice to know that hidden in amongst all of their frowns and complaints they're muttering, "hell, I was doing much better under Biden?"  This is what we call Karma.

Worthless

 So, I stayed up a little later and so slept a little later.  The outside temp was 68 (F) when I woke up.  That's nice.  Today's supposed to be cooler, low to mid 80s (F) and I can deal with that.  Sunday, however, the heat will be returning for a few days.  There's no getting around the fact that it is summer.  Possible rain is also in the forecast.  That would be nice.

When I got to work yesterday, one of my fellow associates told me that one of my measures had sold.  That gives me over $3000 in sales for the week.  However, later on, before I left for the day, I went in to check the order and the wrong product was attached.  It looked to me as the someone from Home Depot Measurement Services went in and changed the product.  Rather than call the customer, I first sent an email to the associate who sold the order, copying one of our Customer Order Specialists to see if the customer had originated this change.  The last thing I wanted to do was call the customer.  If this change was done by one of our associates, it would make us look like big douches.  And if it was a mistake, this might also let us fix it without the customer knowing about it.

I finished watching Lockwood and Co. on Netflix last night.  It was... not bad, a little too predictable in the last 2 episodes.  Perhaps if what they were looking for was the most evil thing ever created I might have enjoyed it better.  The minute an older character befriended a younger character I said to myself, well, I know where this is going.  And I was right.  The first 2/3 are really good, it's just in the last third that the stereotypical ending takes over.  When I copied the trailer link, I saw that the series was canceled after only 1 season because viewership declined.  I don't doubt for a second that it was the last 2 episodes that killed this series.

For those who haven't heard, AT&T was hacked in 2022... and we're just finding out about it now.  Personally, I believe they should lose that great tax break given to them by the Orange Anus.

And Biden gave a one hour press conference last evening.  I actually watched a snippet, the bit were he said Vice President Trump, then I turned it off.  There is no denying he is an old man.  Will he withdraw from the race?  Probably not.  Will he be getting my vote?  Of course.  I want to be able to complain like hell if he loses, which I don't think will happen.  Voting also gives me the right piss and moan if, during his second term, he does something I don't like.  If I don't vote, then my opinion is mute.  Back when I first started working as a Flooring Specialist, I worked with a bald gent who had very strong liberal opinions.  One day, while were cutting carpet for a customer, he told me he and his wife never voted, they just didn't see any point in it.  Being the outspoken person I am, I immediately told him that since he didn't vote, his opinions were worthless, that they had no merit.  America doesn't need armchair voters, those constant complainers who fail to see the need for participation.  Their loud voices too often have little or no value.

How Democracy wins

Yesterday it rained.  There is still a slight drizzle falling.  From the container I have out back, I'd say we got almost 3 inches.  Now temps are dropping, but it's not going to be nearly as cool as the forecasters were predicting, our daily highs are still going to be climbing up into the low to mid 60s (F).  I have the heat set at 70 (F), and so far it runs rarely.

As I'd said yesterday, two of my friends from work, Tony and Brandon, got married yesterday.  The wedding was supposed to have been outside.  I understand they had a lot of canopies for their guests to stand under.  I told one of my friends to take his "floaties" just in case.  I'll find out today how everything went.

I had a nice chat with the kitchen designer yesterday and he asked if I was going to drive down to Philly (Philadelphia) to pick out the slab of granite I want for my countertop.  I told him no, so he showed me how to get toe the MSI (the installers) website to look at their inventory.  Of course, the slab I like has some issues, he said there's probably some pitting in the surface.  He also told me they may be able to use that slab since I've only got 41 square feet to cover and the slab is 69 square feet.  I'll find out when they call to set up the appointment to create the template.

Also, the new flooring is here.  Only 8 boxes (I ordered extra just in case), and except for one, they're all sitting in the back of my car.  I opened one and set out a few tiles.  This is what they look like against the sink cabinet, which has been primered, but not painted yet.

I've heard that little Jimmy Jordan and his team of insurrectionists are making a big push to get Republican congressmen to vote him into the Speaker of the House position.  While Republicans are publicly saying that his is a lost cause,  I consider every loss he suffers through to be fitting.  Some conservatives call him a little firebrand, they're wrong.  He's an authoritarian instigator and insurrectionist.  Every time he loses, Democracy wins.  

The Illustrated Band

 Well, another day of rest has arrived that isn't going to be too restful.  The weather forecast is hot and humid, though for us here in Central PA, hot means in the mid 80s (F).  We had thunderstorms yesterday, and they're predicted again for today... and tomorrow... and Tuesday.    This is fine.  At some point in the day on Tuesday I'm going to need to mow my lawn.  That's fine.

The angelfish is still alive.  

Business was slow yesterday.  I did almost have a measure, but then they decided that rather than pay the $35 deposit (which gets deducted when they purchase) they decided to check out Lowe's.  They said they'd most likely be back, but they never returned.  Honestly, I don't think they had any intention of going through with it.  Believe me, our competition has a variation of the same deal.

The band workout I've started doing is different.  I've never really worked with them before and they are so different than free weights, or any of the equipment I use at Planet Fitness, where the weight you are working with is constant.  With bands, tension builds.  It does feel different.  Some swear by them, I'm still in wait and see mode.  Here's a brief video from Fit Gent to illustrate what I'm talking about.  Fit Gent, by the way, is not the guy on the bands, it's a gym, in case any of you were wondering.

And, of course, the Russian coup is over... maybe... we don't really know.  People are scratching their heads wondering just what in hell happened.  There are a lot of theories out there.  The one I like is that Priczgoin (sp) thought other members of the military would join him, and they didn't.  He evidently didn't realize there is a big difference between the military and a mercenary group.  Now people are waiting to see if he does fall out of a window, or eat a plutonium sandwich (thanks Treaders).  Either way, there are now 25 thousand mercenaries without a leader, who are probably not too keen on working with Moscow.  Ouch.

And the Orange Anus gave a speech in front of Evangelicals last night and pretty much told them he was sent by God.  So, he's not only going to take out the Republican Party, Evangelical Christianity is also on the memu.

Leveling things out

 The cold weather has arrived.  Blustery, the high temp today is predicted to be 27 (F), with tonight's low dropping to 14 (F).  Tomorrow, forecasters are predicting the temps to climb into the mid 30's (F).  By Monday, our daily highs are supposed to be back in the low 50's (F).  I've no problem with that.

I was on my way to my local Giant supermarket yesterday morning, when I stopped and talked to two of the workmen from next door.  They drywalled the attic, so it's now one large room. What used to be the enclosed back porch has been turned into a bathroom, the new toilet should be coming next week.  One of them said that he and his wife would probably move in until they managed to sell the place.  With interest rates what they are, they may be living there a long time.

The dry rack arrived yesterday.  It's assembled and folded up, awaiting it's first use.  

In order to intensify my treadmill speed walks, I've been increasing the incline.  Yesterday I was at a 5.5% grade for almost a mile.  Holy Crap were my legs sore!  It was a good thing I had to work yesterday.  I had the chance to walk it off.

Speaking of work, I had a customer who wanted to do a project this weekend; several rooms (?) are going to be turned into an Air BNB and he intended to lay vinyl plank flooring, something he knew nothing about it.  Two bathrooms.  Neither he, nor his wife / girlfriend had any idea of the dimensions.  They had no idea what their square footage was, so when he asked how many boxes he was going to need, all I could do was shrug.  He did the same thing with floor leveling compound. He was not pleased when I told him I couldn't tell him if he needed to buy a little bag or a big bag.  What they ended up doing was buying a lot of everything, intending to return what they didn't use.  When they checked out, he told the cashier he was a contractor.  She and I laughed.

Yesterday, the Republican held House of Representatives passed a decree denouncing Socialism.  Here's a chart defining Socialism, and Capitalism, and Communism.

Republicans hate anything and everything that hints at socialism.  They see it as a scourge against Capitalism, where basically anything goes and the consumer / citizen takes the brunt of the financial pain.  I've talked to people who do not understand there is a difference between Socialism and Communism, one woman actually asked me why I think we'd be better as Communists.  That is what Republicans are selling, that Socialism is the same as Communism.  

For these Republican congressman, Social Security is socialism.  Once elected, these same congressmen are set for life: a nice pension and free medical.  Why would they care about the average worker in America.  I do believe Congress should pass legislation which eliminates their pension and their insurance.  If Republicans what pure capitalism, they need to deal with it like the every other American.

Dueling Fascists

 So, I hope everyone is having an enjoyable, relaxing Sunday.  I am, but then I don't have to work today.  Downstairs, Alexa is playing Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.  For those interested, I was introduced to Stravinsky at at Yes concert in 1973.  Yes does not use a warm-up act when they tour.  Most often they have used Stravinsky played very loudly.

One thing I will not miss from summer is the mosquitos.  I don't know if it's because the Susquehanna river is only 3/4 mile away or not.  But every summer we seem to swarmed with mosquitos.  My neighbor across the street is constantly burning punk sticks to keep them at bay.  I prefer citronella candles, bot inside and outside the house.

I picked up my new flooring yesterday when I left work.  4 boxes should do the trick.  I'm going with a marble look that has a bit of a shine.  Hopefully, since this only a walk-in closet (62 sq ft) installation should happen fast.  Needless to say, I will have to spend sometime down on my knees (can you hear them creaking, yet?).

One of the things I used to do on Twitter was call out the liars.  Twitter didn't like that, said it sounded threatening.  So, I've changed words to something less hostile.  Now, when Jim Jordan, or Ronna McDaniel (?) spit some fresh turd at the public, I simply type 'horseshit.'  Innocent, yet truthful.

And, evidently, Trump had a rally in Ohio yesterday?  I understand he called for the death penalty for human traffickers, you know, like Ronnie DeSantis?  Notice the subtle dig at Ronnie?  He's terrified Ronnie's going to become more popular.  Ronnie's soon going to be fighting back.  Just wait for it, dueling fascists, each trying to be more extreme than the other.  This is how you destroy a political party, from within. 

The 118-year-old floor

 This morning, because the temperature was a comfortable 58 (F), I decided to switch to my fall wear, which is also pretty much the same as my winter wear: sweatpants and sweatshirt.  I love sweats, big, and baggy, and warm, but only as casual wear at home.  There are those who think they're great casual wear in public.  Nope, not for me.  A pair of pants and a shirt are nice for the simple reason that not everybody looks good in sweats... in public.  Just like yoga pants.  You have no idea how many times I have come to being blinded by women showing up at the flooring desk wearing yoga pants that are stretched to the max.  When you can see their stretch marks through the leopard skin pattern, there's a problem.

And yesterday was a day of accomplishment!  I have a big home improvement project coming up.  Currently, my washer and dryer are in the basement.  That's changing.  They are being relocated to the 2nd floor walk-in closet.  I'm speaking American floors here not European, where they think of the first floor as the ground floor.  Right now, there's carpet... or I should say was carpet there.  I removed it yesterday.  This is what that 118-year-old floor looks like.  I'm betting there's lead in that paint, so I'm not sanding it down.  Rather, I'm going to be putting in some marble plank flooring that I'll be picking up from work today.

And, of course, yesterday the DOJ filed an appeal with the 11 District Court regarding failed judge Ailleen Cannon's decision to join Trump's defense team.  That is what people are saying, in case you didn't know.  Perhaps it's because she is completely ignoring the facts.  Even though the 11 District Court is a bit lopsided, 6 Republicans 5 Democrats, the belief is there will be no problem.  Siding with Trump would shit away all precedents and prove that the district is corrupt.  I'm not saying that isn't going to happen, just that it's unlikely.

Ronnie D, the governor of Florida is coming under a lot of fire for his political stunt of flying immigrants from Texas to Martha's Vinyard.  Ronnie doesn't think about the details, though.  When he attempted to parade the smugness of his stunt at a press conference, his braggadocio stumbled badly.  His hands fluttered and flailed almost as bad as Donnie Jr.'s on a good day.  As someone pointed out, this is why Ronnie doesn't want to debate.  When things move away from his prepared statements, he flounders and gets angry.  I suspect Ronnie will be a one term governor.

The White Gloves

 So, it's Easter Sunday and I'm quite pleased to say I slept in a bit and already have one load of laundry in the washer.  Work shirts.  Now, if you'll excuse me for a few minutes, I'm going to put them in the drying and pop in my 2nd load, sweat pants.

There, that didn't take long, did it?

I had a customer stop by the Flooring Desk yesterday who frequents the Paint Desk.  He took up about a half-hour of my time asking questions which always ended with 'don't you agree?'  His behavior hasn't changed since I used to talk to him about paint.  He never bought paint, but wanted to reassured his viewpoints had validity.  I don't remember him every buying paint, but he still shows up over there at least once a week.  He will never buy carpet.

There was also a couple who were interested in Plantation Shutters.  I set them up with an appointment for a representative to talk to them.   Shutters are very expensive.  They will never buy.

A few months back I purchased a small, inexpensive table to put beside my desk downstairs.  As I unpacked the parts and readied them for assembly, I found a pair of white gloves had been included.  I didn't use them while putting the table together, however they do come in quite useful when I'm handling the photo paper for printing off color pictures.  No finger prints.

And for some, today is important for religious reasons.  Notice, I didn't call it a holiday.  Holiday infers to a day that is supposed to be fun, a vacation away from work.  The Cracker Jack Crazies take today very seriously.  Me?  I'm going to drive over to my local Giant supermarket, and then clean up the dog crap in the yard.  I want to get in a ride or a run, it's been too long since my legs have done either.  For me, there is nothing holy about this day.  The fact that Easter is not a fixed day, but rather changes yearly should be an indicator it's not nearly as important as they want to believe.

Sea of Peonies

My 3 day weekend started late.  That's right, I ended up with overtime - a full hour, most of that taken up by an Hispanic whose wife had set up an online measure for laminate flooring without providing a product.  He wanted a quote for installation, but didn't want to chose a product.  Our system doesn't work that way.  We're in the business of selling products, the installations are handled by a Regional 3rd part group.  He also told me his floor was "squeaky."  I explained that they will not install on top of squeaky floors.  If your floor squeaks when you walk on it, then your floorboards or plywood sub-floor are moving.  I ended up choosing a random laminate and emailing our measurement services, asking them to contact him once a quote was built.  This happens fairly often, customers setting themselves up with online measures without understanding that the product they choose is going to change the installation costs.  There, how's that for a tirade?  Vicious, wasn't I?
The new watch band for my Fenix 3 was waiting for me when I got home.  No instructions, but easy to figure out.  Took me all of 5 minutes to take off the old one and put on the new one.  During the process I realized how scuffed up it was and realized that at some point I will need to buy another one.  The battery has about a year of life left... maybe.  They're expensive so I'm going to hold off as long as I can.
I have to ask, did the Idiot Jerk in the White House do anything other than stupid yesterday?  Or one of his minions?  I did see where the bottled blond he has as a Press Secretary released his banking information by holding up a blank check.  I wonder how many hackers filched that information. 
My face masks are causing the top of my nose to break out.  Where as many people only need to wear theirs only when they go shopping, I'm supposed to wear my throughout my entire shift.  We do take them off when we're back in the lunchroom since wearing one makes it difficult to eat (that's supposed to be funny).
I have a lot of buds on the peony bush out front.  When it blooms I will have a sea of peonies.

Everybody say "cheese"

So, this morning I slept in.  I had set the alarm for my usual early hour but about 20 minutes before it was set to go off I got up and turned.... it off.  Even the dogs slept in.
I had a really big flooring sale go through yesterday...  A husband and wife are putting in new carpet and hard wood flooring.  His credit cards have a $20,000 limit, so they used hers.  She works in the field of medicine.  I know because the emailed receipt went to Spinal (something or other).  While sitting there, she started talking about another flooring project which was going to be expensive.  That's fine.  While the cheesy guy with the 5 kids from earlier in the week felt it necessary to talk about his $100,000 travel trailer, and his house at the shore, they talked about their dog.  It was very interesting.
Oh, and a funny thing.  A friend of mine who's read my book told me I had another book listed.  Well, I don't.  There's just the one so far.  However, if you go to Amazon and search for my book you can go my author's page by clicking on my name.  I did this.  There is another book... or I guess you might call it a pamphlet, or a tract, or crazy propaganda (only 40 pages long), listed.  The title:  "The Road to Sodom, Purity in the Age of Perversion," and it's a guide for Christians.  And... I am not the author.  In fact, there is no bibliographical information listed.  This thing is more of a text than a book.  I wouldn't have known it was there if a friend hadn't told me.  An email has been sent to have it removed.  The last thing I want is to have my reputation sullied by some Crazy Christian piggy backing his hatred on my creativeness, what a cheese head.
And yesterday the White House put out some sort of statement how the Mexican government was working with them on the immigrant issue.  And today the Mexican government denied the claim.  They said it's not true.  Of course the only ones who believe the Idiot Jerk's administration, is so crazy gone they believe every lie he spits out is the truth.  I understand that next week he's planning on telling the world the moon is made of cheese, and there's no such thing as climate change.

Black Friday

It's Black Friday!!
I got up early, or actually I should say I woke up early.  Mostly I snoozed on and off till around 0430, which is when I normally get up.  Morning person here.  Oh, and I get to go work.  Joy of joys.
Just before I left work on Wednesday I sold around $2500 of flooring... well, I didn't actually sell it, the customer decided he was going to come in today and buy it... and take it home since he was going to have his father's truck.  I told him "it's going to be Black Friday.  The store will be busy."  He said, "I'll probably be there around noon."  That should be fine.  By then the crazy Black Friday shoppers will have cleared out; that starts happening around 1100.  To be honest, he, himself, isn't buying the flooring - his father is.  In the 15 minutes it took me to sell the flooring his father told me a lot of things:  that he has a big Ford truck, he showed me pictures.  He uses his big truck to haul around his $100,000 camper / trailer (he made certain I knew how much it cost).  His father told me he was letting his son borrow the truck this weekend because he had to go down to the beach house and clean out the refrigerator.  He told me he had 5 children.  He thought he was impressing me.  He wasn't.  I do not doubt for one second that he voted for the Idiot Jerk in the White House.
Speaking of the Idiot Jerk, I guess everybody knows now he's signed another Executive Order giving the troops down at the border the authority to 'shoot to kill.'  Those damn Mexicans.  He will do anything to keep them out of this country.  What a loser he is.
Yesterday I had Thanksgiving lunch (it's not really dinner since we ate at 1230) with my sister and her family.  I was there for... oh... maybe an hour and 45 minutes.  It was nice.  My sister and I get along.  I even got her to have her picture taken with me.

Doesn't the little bit of hair I have left look dark?

I told her we both look fat.  She told me to speak for myself.  We talked about the snow last Thursday and how bad it was.  We didn't talk about our Mom.  Nobody did.

Carpet?

So, since I'm not a flooring / blinds specialist, I thought I'd chat about customers, since this breed is different than those I dealt with when I ran the paint desk.  For one thing, these people are debating, for the most part, about spending a lot of money.  Carpet can be expensive.  Hardwood is expensive.  Laminate... well, even though it's popular, you can end up with a lot of problems with laminate; it's not uncommon to have issues because most floors, in spite of what we want to believe, are not totally level, and with laminate 1/4" can ruin an install.
I had a carpet customer yesterday whom I'll call Sandy.  She told me she was selling her house.  We hear this a lot, and than the customer usually puts in a lower end carpet.  Not Sandy, she was looking at middle range price points.  She didn't want to pay for a measure, but she sure did want to take home samples... about 15, and she also signed out a sample board.  She also told me her husband needed to approve the color and style...   The sample board she signed out was for patterned carpet, which is unusual for someone wanting to sell their house; I mean, what if the buyer doesn't like it?  Will she buy new carpet?  Probably not.  She spent over an hour and a half looking at colors... you don't put that much time into carpet if you're selling your house.

And then there's another customer I'll call Josiah, a nice young man who lives in the heart of Harrisburg's gayborhood who's just bought a townhouse.  I get the notice that his measure is done so I give him a call and I get the following message "This mailbox is full, please try again later."  Not a good sign.  So I tried again the next day and got the same message.  This does not bode well, I mean, if he can't empty his mailbox he has a bit of a problem.  I did manage to get a hold of him yesterday and he told me he'd stop in to pick out his carpet....  Often, when the customer says that, it's like saying "the check is in the mail."

Anyway, I do get measures and I do get sales and so everybody is happy.  The only thing I really hate is cutting roll carpet and vinyl... I'm very clumsy when it comes to putting it on the cutter and usually ask for assistance.  Besides, it's a cheap product, and I never go cheap, and I can't understand why someone would want to install their own carpet or vinyl...

"I'm having my nails done at 9"

When I managed the paint department, most of the customers I dealt with were nice, some were assholes.  The same is true as a Specialist, though these assholes tend to be more pretentious.  Take the couple I sold carpet to yesterday.  She is an RN, I know this because RN is part of her email address.  He appears to be some sort of businessman.  He had his hair in a brush cut and dyed a pale blonde in order to hide the gray (with highlights of Trump orange, if you know what I mean).  I didn't really sell them carpet as much as he decided to "do this."
As part of the process of setting up the measure, I needed to gather certain information about their house: the room, approximate size, current flooring, subfloor, year the house was built, are there condo rules?  That sort of info.  Every time I asked a question he gave me one of those "you should already know this information" looks, definitely trying to make sure I knew just how low I was in this whole process. And, of course, they were both pretentious as hell.  When they were choosing the date for the measure, she had to check her calendar... she actually said about one particular date "well, I'm having my nails done at 9, but that only takes an hour so I should be home."  And the date was 2 weeks out.

When it came to paying for the measure, she asked if we had the chip reader and then, after I told her yes, inserted her card in upside down.  This lead to a private conversation between the two of them.  I say private because I was totally excluded.  And it was really weird.  I mean really.  It was almost as if I had suddenly disappeared off of the face of the planet.  I did say something... and I was totally ignored.  

They were so caught in their own specialness nothing else really mattered.  People like this make America bad.  Unless they know you from the Country Club, you're an inferior. They're going to spend over $2000 to carpet their family room.  I don't mind taking their money.  Early in the conversation, when I was telling them about our free install, I said that their total purchase needed to be over $699.  His comment to me was, "it will be much more than that."  Impress me?  Not in the least.