Benched

 Yesterday the weather was nice.  Temps were in the mid 80s (F).  Today's supposed to be a repeat.  In case you didn't know, we're sitting on the front doorstep to summer.  Looking at our midrange forecast, we're predicted to have sunshine and rain over the next week and a half.  That's fine with me.  I'd rather my lawn be nice and green instead of brown and crunchy this early in the season, that will happen in July and August.

Retail was busy when I got to work yesterday, but around but as the day wore on began to slowly die.  When I left at 7 PM there were no incoming hordes of shoppers pulling into the parking lot.  Sales for the past week were flat. The couple with the expensive blind order never came into purchase, now that sale price is gone and their blinds will cost more, that's if they decide to purchase. 

Today will probably be the same as yesterday, only slower.  There will the be standard after church rush, but then the quiet will ensue.

As I was preparing to leave work yesterday, I got a text from my bank saying that someone had tried to transfer funds out of my account.  When I first saw it, I spoke vulgar French because my debit card had been hacked not too long ago.  However, once I saw that my bank wanted me to sign in to my account to fix the problem I became suspicious. What I did do was wait until I got home and then, on the computer not on my phone, I signed into my account.  Oops.  No warnings.  There was nothing wrong at all.  However, this means someone out there knows the bank I use, probably from the card hack, but not my account number.  Believe me, that text looked very official.  Even the logo was spot on.

So, about a year ago I gave away my weight bench and now, 12 months later realize that was a mistake so I bought another.

Newsweek sometimes repeats the articles they send to me which can be annoying, especially since I only rarely read them.  Three times over the past 2 days they've sent me an op - ed by Marianne Williamson.  She is once again running for the Democratic nomination, not because she thinks she has a chance at winning, but because she likes her reputation of being a spoiler.  Ralph Nadar had the same problem.  He enjoyed taking votes away from the candidate most likely to win, and during the presidential race would run as an independent.  She's going to do the same thing.  It's all about ego.  Nothing else.  It's a shame there isn't a way she could be benched.

 

Hacked

 For those of you celebrating a 3 day weekend, the fun should already be underway, that is if you plan on having fun.  For some of you I suspect this might just be 3 days of rest and relaxation.  For me?  Well, as with most holidays, I work.  

Historically, the Memorial Day weekend has always been one of the strongest for the orange retailer that I work for, but this year that's up in the air.  For my store, sales can pop over the $1 million mark over the long weekend, mostly from purchases made in our garden department.  Grills and curb appeal, that's what people buy, mostly grills.  Cookout season has arrived.  

I cut down my nectarine tree yesterday.  There were more dead branches on it than live ones.  

My only bit of really big news is that someone's been attempting to put charges on my debit card.  The first was for $132.95 from Agoda (something or other).  My bank shot it down.  They didn't get into my bank account, but they had my card number, which meant closing that number and getting another.  Of course that didn't mean the perpetrators were going to stop trying.  Last night someone tried to buy something from Dealsdirect, but the old number is now inactive.  I guess this means that at least 2 different individuals had that number.  Naturally, I started thinking about where I used that card.  The only subscription I have linked to it is Planet Fitness, so it's possible someone may have wormed their way into that database.  Two weeks ago I used it twice down in York, for lunch and then again at Dairy Queen for desert, so it's not like I use it frequently.  This is a curious thing, isn't it?

And, since this is the holiday weekend, predictably nothing political will happen.  Oh, sure, the debt ceiling talks will continue, but with both sides saying they're very close, nothing to worry about there.  Old Kev McCarthy isn't stupid enough to force the country into default just to satisfy the far right, mostly because he knows that in the end a large majority of the country will blame him and the Republicans.  

Oh, and evidently they have incriminating audio recordings of Trump and one of the witnesses in his NYC  corruption trial.  Ouch, that's must hurt... okay, you can stop laughing now.

Tasty

I'm back to work today... for one day, and then off again.  Then it's back for 4, off 2, on 2, and then off for 5.  I have this vacation I need to use before September, so I'm taking time off in July and in August.

Yesterday was slow and uneventful.  The temps were hot, but didn't crack that 100 (F) mark which had been predicted.  In the evening we had brief dry thunderstorm, that was very loud for a few minutes.  Since there was no rain, I ended up going out and watering my garden.  My eggplants are getting large.  I picked 2 of my banana peppers.  

For lunch, I made a cold meatloaf sandwich on fresh, homemade bread.  It was delish.

Windows is doing an update, so everything is slow.  I don't know if this is part of the Windows 11 package, but things have changed in the way I find pictures.  Something new to learn.

For those of you who didn't hear, last week the RNC was hacked by the Russians... or at least one of the cybermobs funded by the Russians.  Now, I don't know about you, but I think this is rather amusing.  I wonder if Load #45 even cares that his Besties are trying to find out what his party is up to, probably not.  Or, maybe they were just interested in getting all the email addresses for every MAGA head in America. 

Hey, and I even saw where McConnell is beginning to really push his constituents to get their asses vaccinated.  Oooohhhh.  Maybe Mitch has finally realized his old ass can't get re-elected if half of his supporters are either dead or ventialted.