Travel Insurance

 Yesterday was beautiful.  We reached a high of 77 (F).  That was fine.  My lawn was mowed, leaves were raked, and pruning was completed on the rose bushes out front.  I've even weeded a bit.  Today, however, the overcast skies with their showers are back.  Tomorrow the forecast is simple:  rain.  That means next week I'll be mowing my lawn again.

The passport photo went well.  Maybe I'll scan one of the pictures and post it here.  Me without glasses.  I do look somber.  I suppose that's because most people don't smile, or at least not as much as we think we do.  That's something I was thinking about at work the other day, that I seem to be smiling less frequently.  But then I don't know.  I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about smiling.  So many things are running through my head, most of which are not happy, smiley thoughts, and I wonder if I've always been like this?  Probably.  Most people don't smile, unless they have a reason.

I need to get travel insurance for my trip to Greece, so I was shopping for options yesterday.  Simple coverage is not that expensive, it's when you add in the cost of getting a cancelation reimbursement that sends it through the roof.  It would be nice to be reimbursed should something happen and the trip would get canceled.  However, once I started looking at the exceptions that weren't covered, that I began to question if it truly was worth the cost.  My cousin and her husband were supposed to go to Israel and of course the war happened.  Now, the insurance company is making they jump through all sorts of hoops to get their refund, you see the insurance company still wants them to go.

The tulips at the side of the house.

Of course, Arizona's Supreme Court using an 1864 law to set a precedent on abortion in the state is roiling the Republican party big time.  I find it rather humorous.  For decades, the Republican party has catered to the the anti-abortion crowd because they saw this group as a constant, steady voting bloc.  Now that they're getting their way, the RNC has realized that all their catering is now cratering their candidates in local and state elections.  How smart is that?  But then, no one ever said the GOP was smart.  The truth is they never really thought about it.  Their only goal has been to get themselves into power.  To do that, they have turned, and twisted, and jerked themselves into all sort positions to satisfy fringe groups in order to get themselves elected.  Now... well, it seems as though they're starting to realize they've been shitting in their pants for years, and it's the American voters who are going to change their dirty diaper.  Republicans have always been more desperate than smart.

Excitement

 We have a bright sunny day scheduled here in Central PA.  Warm, too, with the temps predicted to climb as high as 78 (F).  That's really warm for this time of the year, and my lawn is going to go zoom, zoom, zoom, growing faster than you can believe.  Tomorrow, on the other hand, that temp is supposed to drop back into a more season 66 ish (F).

I have my passport appointment this morning.  It's going to take longer to drive to the Post Office than it will to have my pics taken and hand in the forms.  I am, however, going to kill 2 birds with one stone.  While I'm there, I'm going to drop of my Mail in Ballot.  One good thing is that I have my expired passport to use for my identification.  I'm going to take a birth certificate alone, too.

And, of course, yesterday was the Solar Eclipse.  I put CNN on the monitor at work so I and my fellow flooring specialists could watch.  My manager made one of those box viewers and was walking around with it.  Since I didn't buy any glasses, I hadn't planned on going outside... until they announced it over the store system. "Any associates wishing to see the eclipse can meet out in front of the building."  There were only 4 or 5 people in the store, so I went out front.  Here's blurry picture I took.  Not a big crowd, just employees passing around one pair of glasses and the box.  A few customers joined us.  I will admit I was surprised by all of the excitement.  It was neat to actually see it.  It was a dusky, not dark, and the light itself seemed to be coming through a filter... which it was, sort of, as the sunlight slipped past the moon.  I can't wait for to see the next one in 2045.

And, as expected, there were no biblical events, no Hand of God manifestations, no earthquakes, no tidal waves, just the government of Arkansas sitting tightly in their sate of emergency.  This is what happens when you choose mythology of science.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were quite a few social conservatives who were sorely disappointed that nothing did happen.  Many no doubt wished the eclipse would have been a sign, and it was, just not the one they were looking for.

Of course, yesterday the Orange Anus said he believed abortion rights should be left to the states, that was another sorely disappointing message for social conservatives.  You see, the Evangelicals want to desperately believe that he was sent by god to give them what they want, and his statement doesn't fall in line with their wants and desires.  You'd think they would have realized that everything he says has the taint of deceit, so nothing coming  out of his mouth can be trusted.