The $1.776 Billion Dollar Theft

Our outside temp here in Central PA is 72 (F).  Last evening, on my drive home from work, the temp was 94 (F).  Today was supposed to just as hot, but now, maybe not so much.  The forecast is for temps to be just shy of 95  (F), which is just a mite cooler than yesterday.  Tomorrow, we should be topping off in the mid 80s (F).  Then we're heading back down to more seasonable temps.

Before going to work yesterday, and after my workout, I did begin to seasonize my house for summer.  The little window A/C unit is now in the training room.  It's a Media which gets good ratings, however, I need to run it on high for it to work well.  Why put a window unit in the workout/computer room?  Because that room has a shared vent with the big bedroom.  Because of the way my vents are set up, the Central Air in my house is super great downstairs, not so great upstairs.  I blame the installer who was more interested in selling an install then in upgrading the venting.  My return vent on the second floor is on the floor.  That does absolutely nothing when it comes to circulating the air.

Flooring was slow yesterday.  After 1:30 PM, I was the only sales specialist at the flooring desk.  There was also an aisle associate, but when I left at 7, it was just him, and him alone.  Needless to say, sales were not good, so the staffing was not needed.  We did do good business in window A/C units, however.  

And yesterday this happened.

It happened just before I went to work, before it became a raging inferno of anger.  This morning, all I could do as I scanned through burning headlines, and scrolled down through the searing comments on social media, I could only wonder at the overwhelming stupidity... and greed, of this president.  And if the theft of tax payer dollars wasn't bad enough, nestled in this agreement is a statement saying that neither this president, nor any member of his family, nor his companies, can ever be audited again.  If this is allowed, he and his children will be allowed to steal and grift for all of eternity.  To say this is not sitting well with the American people would be an understatement.   Some think he's going to use this money to set up his own private army, not me.  That would mean spend money.  He only spends other people's money, never his own.  I think he and his advisors know the midterms are going to be brutal, that he's going to be impeached a third time.  I suspect that this $1.776 billion will be moved someplace safe.  After the Republicans lose badly with the midterms, I think he's going to create as much chaos as possible, and then take the money and run.  This is what he's done in the past, with his bankruptcies.

The Painful Lesson

 Once again we have sunny skies here in Central PA.  The forecast is for us to have another warm one, with our high temps hitting the mid 90s (F).  That's right toasty in my book.  Tomorrow it will be warmer and by Tuesday we should be topping off at around 103 (F).  That is very hot for June.  These are Tampa, FL temps in the middle of July and we're getting them here in Central PA.  I am hoping this is not a forerunner of what our summer is going to be like.

I did ger a 7 mile ride in yesterday; one of my old favorites in San Remo, Italy.  Tuesday I'll be taking a longer ride, indoors of course, perhaps something with hills.  Even though I hate them, hills are good.

For the time being, this will be the last week that I work Thursdays.  They're cutting hours because it's summer, and while summer business is better than winter business, sales are never robust.

And I'm pleased to say that I'm growing a carrot.  Supposedly, in a week or so, I should be able to plant this outside and in a month or so should have another carrot.  We shall see.

Last night the Orange Anus did something unthinkable to many of us, he let Benni Netanyahu sucker us into a war in the Mid East.  This isn't to say that Orangie wasn't an easy mark.  Everyone in the world laughing at his shitty birthday parade had crushed his ego so badly, he was desperate to prove he was a strong authoritarian.  And Netty?  He's going to sit back and let Americans die.  And Orangie?  He will be so hated by the world.

Americans will be hating him even more.  Some people are pointing out similarities to W's Desert Fart, me?  I'm thinking farther back.  I'm reminded of Vietnam, a truly unpopular war that America lost.  Prepare yourselves for protests.  If Orangie tries to iron fist us, Americans will punch back hard.  The smack back coming to Republicans will be horrendous.

And, of course, none of this is going to play well on Wall Street.  Those billionaires despise chaos and Orangie is rattling the world with his incompetence and indifference to human life.  He epitomizes the "shut up!  I'm in charge!" attitude pervasive in Conservatives.  They are about to learn a painful lesson.

Taking the High Road

 Well, here it is, Monday morning already.  The temp in the cycling, gaming computer room is a warm 78 (F), only a few degrees warmer than it is outside.  Tomorrow, the mercury is supposed to crack 101 (F), a rarity for us.  The prediction is for spotty thunderstorms this afternoon, by spotty they mean that they'll bypass Enola.  This seems to happen a lot on the West Shore, with many of the recent storms trekking up the valleys to the north and south of us.

Yesterday was a boring work day.  I did get a measure.  I sold some carpet, somebody else's measure so they'll get the sale.  I also designed some blinds - a really big order, probably around $24,000.  There was a time when you could sell a measure for a blind install, but the associate who designed the blinds would get most of the credit.  They changed a while back.  The associate who sold this measure didn't work yesterday, and will not be working today when the customer will probably buy.  Myself and another associate will put in the design time and the credit will go to the individual who spent 5 minutes setting up the measure.  This is an issue which needs to be fixed.

Anybody what to guess how Myra Gershwin comes into play in The Body in History?  (Can you hear me laughing).

And in just 6 weeks I'll be in Greece.  I did get an update from Explore.com.  After I land in Athens, I will need to go through immigration, get my luggage (1 suitcase) and go to the airport entrance where I should find someone holding up a sign with my name on it.  At least, this is how it's supposed to work.  When I went to Paris, I had to call the hotel and have them send my ride.  I'm looking forward to  seeing this:

I also saw where they're beginning to think the attack on Trump's ear as Domestic Terrorism, rather than a shot fired at his earlobe.  It turns out that the shooter was not the one who made a $15 donation to a Blue Pac, that was a much older white man from Pittsburgh with the same name.  So far, they're not finding anything in his past to indicate he had a grudge against Trump (even though so many of us do).

I saw where Melanoma put out some sort of statement about the "violent bullet" that struck her husband's ear.  Someone needs to tell Melanoma that bullets are violent, shooter are.

Both Democrats and Republicans, as well as their presidential candidates and ask for calmness on both sides: the Republicans are not listening.  Representative Mike Collins, another wack job from Georgia, is publicly saying that Biden put out the hit on Trump.  Their base is angry, and they're going to do everything in their power to enrage them even more.

Finally, some unknown senior Democrat has supposedly said that a number of Democrats have resigned themselves to four more years of the Orange Anus.  This individual is a spineless sack of shit who needs to be identified and rooted out.  Taking the high road doesn't mean giving up hope at the drop of the hat, and I don't doubt for a second that person still believes in polls.

Troll Farms

 Supposedly, today is the last day of this heat cycle we've been stuck in for the past week.  The outside temp was 76 (F) when I woke up, with the predicted high for the day to be around 97 (F).  However, this afternoon storms should be moving through the area (the remnants of Beryl) and they're saying that is going to cool us off.  Tomorrow, temps are predicted to be more seasonal.

Being that it is so warm, my forays outside have been rather limited.  Mostly to my local Giant supermarket.  However, I've bought my way through all of the bonus point deals for this week, and since I have more than enough food in the house, will be spending money there until Friday or Saturday.

Even though I hate doing it, I've realized that I need to begin counting calories again.  Rats!  I had to order a new kitchen scale because my old one stopped working.  It lights up, and you can change from ounces, to pounds, to milliliters, however it just doesn't weight things.  No matter what you put on the scale, the readout says it weighs nothing.  This would good if it meant food had no calories.

I started watching Hit Man on Netflix last evening, and after about a half hour turned it off.  This was supposed to be Glenn Powell's breakout roll, his character, however, is just not that interesting.  This might because of his constantly changing appearance.  The makeup is very good, but so many changes make it difficult to identify with the lead character.  Which Glenn Powell are you supposed to like?  Hit Man is another one of those Netflix movies that only played for a week in theaters to make it eligible during award season.  This is a good indicator that they thought it didn't have box office legs, not even little ones.

Honestly, I can wait for this election cycle to be over.  I feel so terribly sorry for those who have cable, who have to watch commercials, because they are just beginning.  And it's not just commercials, it's every where.  I'm tired of getting texts begging for money.  The fact that so many have access to my phone number is frightening.  As soon as the text show up, I just block the numbers.  If I get a text asking me whom I'm voting for?  I block it.  I don't respond to any of them.  I do believe my feelings and my actions are common among so many people.  Do not believe anything you read or hear about the candidates.  The troll farms are working overtime.

Do not vote for a candidate, vote for Democracy.  Republican authoritarianism will destroy America as we know it.  They truly don't care if they burn down the country if they can rebuild it the way they want, however, I've yet to see an arsonist do that.  Mostly, they just glory in the ashes like pigs in shit.

 

For Generations

 So, how does the Memorial Day weekend begin?  With the forecast for thunderstorms today, tomorrow, and Monday.  Will storms put in an appearance?  Possibly. They were supposed to show up on Thursday and stayed away.  One thing I have noticed about the latest predictions is the use of the word "hot."  Today is supposed to be "hot," but the high is only expected to reach 87 (F).  To me, that's not hot.  97 (F) would be hot.  It's not hot until I have to turn on the Central Air.

Speaking of hot, has anyone heard if Florida and Texas are still super hot?  Boy, those babies will be cooking by the time July and August roll around.

I did get much accomplished yesterday.  The lawn was mowed.  I took the weed wacker into the dog yard (that fenced in area) and cut that back.  Now I'll be able to mow the entire thing with my lawn mower.  I worked on the writing room floor, mopping the entire thing with Murphy's Oil Soap.  Lying down on it, though, I think I could still smell a bit of dog.  I have some spray cleaner that should eliminate that, and, as a last resort, I can put down another layer of polyurethane.  

Swatches arrived with sofa fabrics, and I'm going to go with a brown velvet.  It will coordinate with the drapes and will pop on the yellow area rug.  It's also going to be great at camouflaging dog hair.  

Being a holiday weekend, things will most likely be rather quiet on the political front.  I'm thinking that might be a good thing.  Things are quite turbulent.  America is restless.  While growing up, I had been taught that history was broken up into 2 parts, BC (Before Christ) and AD (After Christ).  Well, that was changed a while back to BCE (Before Current Era) and CE (Current Era).  Christ was taken out of the picture since for a vast majority of peoples in the world he is irrelevant.  In the United States, I don't doubt we, too, will speak of eras, splitting our history into 2 parts: BT (Before Trump) and AT (After Trump).  He has become historically relevant, not because he is good for the country, rather it is the polarizing effect he creates.  He will lose the election this November and about 45 % of the population will be upset, and those losers, like those who loved the Confederacy, will be around for generations.

School's Out

 Well, our temps hit 84 (F) yesterday and our forecast high for today is 88 (F).  There is a heatwave moving across the country.  I think we should all enjoy it for now, because temps are going to fall back into the normal range within a few days.  By Monday, the 15th our temps are predicted to be back in the mid 60 (F) range.

I'm going to invest some money in one of those wheely things you wind your hose around. (not the kinky type).  In fact, I did the bold thing and just ordered one.  It's a garden hose reel with 124 feet of hose that will need to be attached to the side of my house.  It should be arriving Saturday.

And I did cut a branch or two down using my saw on a stick.  I'm off tomorrow and a bigger bough on the maple tree on top of the hill behind my house will be coming down.  I will have to get out my chainsaw to cut it up once finished.  This is fine.  My yard is darkened and in shadow by way to many leaves.

I was surprised this morning when I woke up to get a text from my brother letting me know I was getting a belated birthday present:  Tickets to see Alice Cooper in concert at the Hershey Theater.  I've always like Cooper, even owned a few of his albums, but was surprised to see his tour was stopping at Hershey.  Tickets were very pricey and while I didn't mind paying that cost to see Paul McCartney or Elton on his farewell tour, for Cooper I thought they were a bitt to exorbitant.  Well, surprise, surprise, I'm going to see Alice Cooper on April 30.

A brief comment on the Dianne Feinstein issue:  she needs to resign.  She's 89.  She needs to put her ego aside.  I've seen people her age and older who are extremely functional, however, I do not believe they should be put in charge of helping out country run.

Ronnie DeSantis is running directly into the brick wall known as Donald, the Orange Anus, Trump and not loving it.  Tough.  DeSantis has never seemed to be an intelligent man, his only smarts being in that he thinks the MAGAs are destined to rule the United States.  His war with Disney show full fledged idiocy.  Lucky for America he's a Republican.  He will never stand down or back away, that would mean he'd made a mistake and Republicans never make mistakes.

Kansas tells Republicans to go to Hell

We're have a mini heatwave here in Central PA.  The temps, predicted to reach the mid 80s (F) yesterday, actually topped off in the 90s (F).  And I mowed my lawn.  There's not a lot of humidity, though, as my friend Tami likes to say, I was 'glowing' with a nice sheen of perspiration by the time I finished.  

Yesterday was busy.  Besides the mowing, I picked up Seig's gabapentin, stopped by the store to buy a container for mixing thin set, prepped the wall behind the stove for tiling, did laundry, wrote almost 1000 words (wow), and beat a boss in Elden Ring.

Today might be just as busy.  I'm going to see if I can squeeze a ride in on the bicycle later this afternoon.

My new clock will be arriving later this morning, or early afternoon.  I can't wait.  I didn't realize, until after the old one broke, how often I relied upon it.  The last one chimed on the half hour and hour, the new one does quarter hours, too.

I don't know if any of you are following the Fetterman / Oz race to replace that scumbag Pat Toomey in the Senate, but it is fascinating to see how easily a strong Democrat can dismantle his Republican opponent... use honesty.  This is why Republicans are scared shitless they're going to lose PA

And, of course, there were primaries yesterday in several states.  In some states, Trump back Republicans won, however, not one of them had a landslide win.  They won by getting 46% of the vote (Kari Lake in Arizona), or 41% (Tudor Dixon in Michigan).  Compare these wins to 100% of the vote (Mark Kelly in Arizona), and 100% of the vote (Gretchen Witmer in Michigan).  This is not the face Republicans want to show the American people, a party that is splintering with about half of their voters still loyal to Trump.

Perhaps the greatest indicator of the problems facing the Republicans comes from Kansas, a state where they believed everyone would jump on board the idea of amending their constitution to outlaw abortion.  A whopping 68% of the voters told the Republican party to go to Hell.  I saw one comment noting that Republicans evidently didn't spend enough time on their knees praying for victory.  The reality is that this party, for so many years, rather than try to read and understand Americans, was far too interested in saying "shut up!  We're in charge!"  This party is in serious trouble and, like the horse that runs back into the burning barn, they are going to push ahead.  To do otherwise would be to admit they were wrong.

 

Simply Tasty

Well, I head back to work today.  Now, isn't that thrilling news?  Dealing with customers?  One thing that will keep foot traffic down will be the high temps.  We're supposed to crest the 100 (F) wave today... and tomorrow.  In fact, tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter then today.  And if you decide to shop my store, don't expect the A/C to cool you off the moment you walk through the door.  Nope.  It's going to be roasty toasty because we have so many large doors that allow in the smothering heat.  For example, one of our roll-up doors in the back of the building is  twenty feet wide, and it's open most of the day to accept deliveries.

Of course, this is a mini work week.  In 4 days I'll begin another 6 day vacation and shortly after that I'll have another 3 weeks vacation on the books.

I made one of my favorite dishes yesterday for dinner, Shrimp Lo Mein.  Simply tasty.

I understand the figures from the last census get released today and there's fear the Republicans are going to use them to gerrymander the country to hell in order to stay in power.  This is... rather amusing.  Why?  Well one of the pre-release tidbits that came out yesterday is that the country is rapidly diversifying.  Translation?  White people simply aren't making enough babies.  All I have to do is look at my nieces and nephews to see the truth in that.  And the Republican Party is the party of the white voter, a party that is in deep denial about the changes happening in America.  They don't seem to understand that at some point their grandchildren are going to begin paying the price for this denial.

Ah, well, this is how it goes.

 

Heatwave

 As was expected, the booboo paw is gone, made all better by a little bit of time... and an extra biscuit or two.

The five foot black snake has returned this year to my brother's barn.  He posted a video on Facebook and, of course, there were a number of negative comments from stupid people, dumb shits who don't know snakes eat rats.  And you know that some will say it's better to have rats then snakes.  The bubonic plague was spread by rats carrying infested fleas.  Snakes work better at killing rats then traps.  Just think about that, and the plague, and why people hate snakes.

I had set up biometrics on my new phone:  both facial and fingerprint recognition.  One I find easier then the other to use.  I'm usually in too much of a hurry to get my finger in the right spot, whereas the camera recognizes my face, even when I'm talking.

And I am off tomorrow.  That will be nice, even though there is a 50% chance of thundershowers.  Oh, and the temps are supposed to climb to the mid 90's (F).  That's fine.  I have Central Air.  It's been kicking on through out the night.  Yesterday at work, they were wondering how people survived before there was A/C, and I pointed out we've only had this luxury for what?  75 years?   That's not a long period of time.  And while they're calling this a heat wave, it's isn't.  They will come later this summer.

Liar #45 was spewing his falsehoods yesterday down in North Carolina.  This is to be expected from scum suckers like him.  Let's be honest here, he gives rats a good name.  Anyway, he's spouting off about how he's going to be reinstated by August.  I'm suspecting he's going to try and use the phony audit of Arizona for justification in spite of the fact that the votes of that state have already be certified.  I'm thinking he's picked August because he believes he's going to be indicted shortly after that, and if he doesn't have presidential immunity he's going to go to jail.  I can't think of any better justice then to have him suffer through an orange, jumpsuit heatwave.