Tuesday

 We gained an extra hour of sleep this morning, for those of you desperately feeling the need for an extra hour.  It really is just a transitory hour, since we will lose it in the spring.  The temp was 38 (F) when Howie went out for his morning pee.  The day's supposed to be cool, with a high in the low 60s (F).  It will be warming up. No rain is in the forecast.  That's not a good thing.  We're very dry here, and I don't doubt there will soon be daily warnings about starting fires outside.

I bought a child gate yesterday to keep Howie from going upstairs while I was at work because he could up the steps but couldn't come down the stairs.  As I should have expected, no sooner did I have the gate set up, when he climbed the stairs, and then promptly came down... without falling.  No problem.  I can use it to keep his inquiring nose away from so many other places in the house.  For him, everything is a chew toy.  

Yesterday work was slow.  The next two months are going to be chaotic for our closing specialist.  The aisle associate who works that shift, who covers his lunch, and has a lift equipment license to bring down pallets of flooring, is having one of his knees replaced.  There is no temporary associate assigned to replace him.  And, when he does return in about 2 months, kneeling is not going to be much of an option.

And on Tuesday, we will be electing a new president.  Everyone is on edge.  They know about 70 million people have already voted, but they don't know who they've voted for, and so there is so much speculation about gender, and age.  Polls are constantly being adjusted.  Main Stream Media is desperately trying to create a horse race.  And everybody is throwing their opinion around like it actually has some sort of merit.  Well, last evening all our questions were answered.  Here, for you purveyors of polls, is the most accurate one I could find.

And, even though there are hints of positivity regarding the Harris campaign, and they might be true, now is not the time for us to take our foot off the gas.  The last time we did that we ended up with a moral degenerate as president.  And after he lost to Biden, we had to deal with another four years of unadulterated bullshit.  Out job is not to simply win the presidency.  Nope.  Our job is to annihilate the Republican party.  The only way they will learn is to put through the meat grinder of reality.  A slap on their hands will never been enough.  They've been slapped before, and it has never worked.  They need a severe kick to the nuts, and then when they're down they need to be stomped until every little Jim Jordan, and Scott Perry, and Rick Scott are nothing more than smears of the pavement of a bad memory.  Trump needs to be humiliated so badly he becomes not only an embarrassment to the GOP, he needs to become the laughing stock of the world.  His Karma approaches.

Here comes the Sun

 So, my alarm clock went off this morning at it's usual 0530 time and I turned it off, rolled over, and went back to sleep.  Happily, when I did finally roust myself from bed, I opened the drapes and sunlight poured into the room like a warm wave rushing to shore in the Gulf of Mexico.  That was a bit ago.  It's still sunny, somewhat, though clouds are moving in, and it's still cold, around 18 (F), which is really nippy for those of you using Celsius.

Oh, and it's gotten windy, so all of that fine, powdery snow we've gotten over the past few days is blowing all over the place, and all of that shoveling my neighbors did yesterday is all for naut.  I will take a shovel out shortly and clear a path, the operative word being clear.  Tomorrow the temps are supposed to climb up into the mid 30s (F), Sunday they'll hit the 40s (F) and rain is expected on Tuesday.

And I do get to work this afternoon.  Will it be busy?  I have no idea.  Those who are adapting to the cold will be out, but I suspect many others will stay warm and cozy in their homes and any outside expeditions will mostly be for essential, except for younger people.  They seem to have fewer problems when it comes to facing the elements then their seniors.  

I plan on making Moroccan chicken to eat for the next few days, spicy.  I like spicy.  Too many Americans have trained their mouths to avoid anything that makes their tongues tingle.  Back when I was at the paint desk, I remember a mother warning her daughter about a peppermint candy.  We had a bowl of wrapped candies and the little girl wanted one and her mother asked, "are you sure?  It's spicy."  And I couldn't help but think, hell, it's peppermint, if she thinks that's spicy, then she's doomed to eat bland foods like boiled potatoes and rice for the rest of her life.

And here's a picture of the sunshine.  Bask in it.

And there's a lot of noise being made about Fanni Willis and the prosecutor assigned to the election fraud cases down in Georgia.  I usually push things like this aside because they're always tend to be political in nature.  Today I read a bit, and it seems as the the soon-to-be ex-wife of the prosecutor is behind many of the allegations.  Their divorce is pending, and from what I've seen, she seems to be one of those women who holds a bitter grudge for eternity.  She's going to make him pay, even if it means helping Trump cheat the system.  I don't understand how some people can be so selfish.

The Bendy Ankle

 Sunday!  And I don't work!  And the weather is nice, cool, but that's okay.  This is autumn; cool days and cooler nights.  The sunshine is so bright I had to pull the curtains shut to keep it from blinding me while I type.

I got many hours of sleep last night.  When the alarm went off, I let Lily out and the fed her, and then the two of us went back to bed for another hour.  This always happens when my schedule gets changed.  Normally I'd be going in to work this morning, but I'm off, I worked Thursday instead.  I like have my 4 days off in a row, I get more things done around the house which is important with my kitchen renovation.  Not that I don't get things done.  All of the new cabinets have their first coat of paint, next up, a bit of light sanding and then on to coat number 2.  I will probably do 3 coats since paint is a finish, and being in a kitchen where dings and dangs happen, the stronger the better.

Work was exceedingly boring yesterday.  Not that I didn't talk to customers, it's just that the all though our pricing was too expensive.  The new software they've saddled us with is still twitchy as hell.  This is piss poor planning.  They should have rolled this out in mid-January when business is a lot slower and associates would have the time to learn how it work.  Now they're going to be dealing with costly complaints.

I check Facebook every morning to see if everybody I know is still alive.  This morning this pic popped up from 5 years ago.  Isn't it amazing how bendy my ankle is?

And, of course, the Republican shit show in Congress continues.  Now that the little fascist Jimmy Jordan got rejected it seems as though the floodgates of wannabe Speakers has opened up.  The last time I checked I believe there were 10 Republicans vying for the position.   Because there is no obvious choice, the chaos will continue.  Three or four will probably get nominated, however the rules the Republicans themselves set up will require the victor will need to have some Democratic support, and the GOP has decided they don't want to work with Democrats.  Having to compromise means they can't go around shouting "shut up, we're in charge," and that's a stake for every MAGA who bought into the cult.

Free Thinkers

 I slept in again today.  That's becoming a bit of a habit, not necessarily a bad one either.  That's a sign my back is improving, no painful muscle spasms waking me up every 2 hours, and no need to apply a heating pad for 45 minutes.  With a return of the sleep come the odd dreams again.  Last night I dreamt I was investigating deaths in high rise nursing homes and instead of finding bad stuff, everyone was nice, plying me with food... on every floor.  They were so nice, I found myself doing laundry in the basement using jet powered washers, until I finally ended up at the dessert tables (plural) at my college reunion.  Food played a major role.

As for my back, an MRI has been scheduled for tomorrow morning.  Getting the call was a bitch.  My phone kept thinking the Radiology Department at the VA was a spam caller and kept disconnecting.

I understand Kristen Sinema is not happy.  Now, isn't that a shame.  Some say she's trying to be an iconoclast, I say she's stuck in 'free thinker' mode.  Look at her history.  She was with the Green Party for a while, then a Bernie Babe, and now... well, she got enough Democrats in Arizona to voter for her to get her into the Senate.  She has always been a free thinker.  She likes that, to be able to change her mind when she wants, to choose a different viewpoint because it tickles her neurotransmitters differently.  She doesn't want to explain herself, and so rarely gives interviews, and her statements are mostly framed by negatives.  She's being badgered to explain herself, and she can't.  To do so would mean she stood for something.  Free thinkers rarely stand for anything which will lock them down.  Getting behind something, giving reasons why you object to something, or are voting against something takes away your freedom.  Believe me, she will never stand for anything.

The New Commandment

 And the mood of the day is???? 

Holy Moly!  I got almost 7 hours sleep last night with only a short (28 minute) heating pad session around 0330.  I have not gotten that much sleep in a long time.  And  it's wonderful!  My body battery is recharged, at least that's what my Fenix 6 Pro tells me.  I could easily slip in another few winks, but I do have to work today.

I bought a new shower head before I left work yesterday, this one includes a 'hand held' that I may use sometimes.  This is replacing a Delta that sprayed out the shower door onto the floor.  This was more of a nuisance rather than a hazard, having to mop up the floor every time I showered.

And some of my dahlias in the backyard have finally begun blooming.

Not surprisingly, the Republicans are still moving ahead with their phony audits in a number of states.  At this point, they are on only hoping to sow discord among their base, pushing the concept there's fraud in every election they lose.  This is merely a reflection of their Savior, the Orange Anus' own ego.  Oh, and speaking of Loser #45, I understand he had one of his minions remove praise  of Cyber Ninja because not only did they failed to feed his Big Lie, they reported he had lost by an even larger margin.

And not a small number of Texans woke up yesterday to discover that overnight their groveling governor had cowed his head to the Orange Anus; there is going to be an audit in several counties even though the Anus won the state.  Evidently, the OA has set forth a new commandment:  Let there be an audit to grow disatisfaction.