When you hit middle age you really only have two choices: you can get fat and lazy until you roll over and die, or you can can get off your ass and do something, like maybe ride a bike.
Bluntness
I've also been told I have little tact, so if this offends you simply ride on.
Well, we got drizzles. Our high temp for this afternoon was supposed to be in the low 80s (F), now, however, it appears we'll only be in the high 70s (F). That's fine. I'd like to save on the cooling expense until it gets hot enough to be essential. I also see that the mini-heatwave we had last week has now arrived in the UK. These weather anomalies are going to become more and more frequent as the climate crisis continues to grow.
Yesterday was very productive. My lawn, front and back, was mowed. Shopping was done. Gas was bought for the car. $46.00! And that was with 30 cents off of every gallon. I got a nice 9 mile ride in on the bike in Fausto, Italy. It was so boring. I will never ride in Fausto again. In the evening I played some Crimson Desert. It's interesting. I'm not impressed with the combat. That may change.
The Bluetooth keyboard I use with my writing laptop stopped working. Actually, it might still be working, I just couldn't get the Bluetooth to connect. I tried a 2nd keyboard and had the same problem. It might be the drivers. I may spend some time putzing around with it this afternoon, but not much, the laptop keyboard works just as good.
And since my roses have started blooming, I thought I share a pic of the peach colored climber I have by the front porch.
In today's segment of "aren't numbers fun": Of the 18.7 million registered voters in Texas, only 855,00 showed up to vote Paxton or Cronyn. Think about that.
And on Orangie's 3rd physical in 13months? Seniors with serious medical issues are going to have frequent physicals because they can go downhill so very fast. They are desperately trying to keep him alive for as long as possible since there's no one as charismatically evil to run the cult.
Yesterday, RFK Jr put out a video of himself playing with snakes. This is video without relevance. He was bitten, and that grinning sack of shit stood there... grinning. I had to laugh because you do know that so many of his followers, the ones that drink the raw milk, are going to run out and try the same thing... and get themselves snake bit. And some of them might die.
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.
Sunday, and since I work it's a not so restful day of rest.
The temps are forecast to go up into the mid-90's today... tomorrow even warmer. People forget we're only halfway through summer. That's right. It doesn't end until September. I guess a good way to describe this season so far is to say it's been sweltering.
I had some Crazy Christians buy vinyl sheeting yesterday. Five kids around the cart and a 6th on the way. The father was wearing a biblical T-shirt with verses on both the front and back. They don't understand that "be fruitful and multiply" is a nice way of telling them they're nothing more than breeders.
There was also this woman who bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner. She asked me what our return policy was, so I told her usually 30 days. She asked, "so, I can bring it back in 30 days?" I told her most people bring things back much sooner if there's a problem. "But if I don't like it, I can bring it back in 30 days?" she asked, again. Could she have been any more obvious? "We call that rent for free and really frown upon that type of behavior," I replied. She looked at me and said "well, everybody does it." She did purchase the vacuum. On the way to the register, she asked the Front End Supervisor the same question. And, while paying for it at the register, she asked the cashier the same thing. We all know that in about 29 days that Dyson's going to be returned.
For those interested, I rode a little over 57 + miles this week. The shortest ride was 7.66 miles, the longest 14.78. My heart rate averages around 124 BPM, that includes the hills when it goes up. I need to complete two 16+ rides to get to the next level, one of which is all up hill. Shit.
I have over 31,000 words done on the next book and our heroes are just getting the first of the snakey parts. rattle rattle, rattle rattle.
And I guess manufacturing is in decline. This is not good for the Idiot Jerk in the White House. This is also to be expected because this man is a blowhard. He is stupid. His own history, with 6 bankruptcies, proves he is hapless as hell. What his adoring throngs fail to realize is that this is how he runs his business. It's all fucked up.
For those who read my books, you know I have a recurring character named Bobby Tussel. A police officer from Baltimore, he is on permanent disability, the result of brain trauma: he has a bullet in his brain. He drinks wine straight from the bottle, likes warm six-packs of Anchor Beer, runs a semi-pornographic website where he's known as the Hunky Donkey, all of which are a result of his injuries. But the one thing he does that leaves people in awe is dance. A combination of ballet and gymnastics, people who see him dance are truly amazed. He's going to do a little dance in The Body in the Well. As always, I like to pick a song to play over and over again as I write these sequences. This time I chose wonderful little tune by Owen Pallet which I think exemplifies the art of Bobby's dance.
Well, I get to go back to work today... for today and tomorrow, then I'm off for 2 more days. A permanent schedule like this would be wonderful...
Anyway, I'm going to spend a few moments here bragging about my snake. Now, I don't want anybody getting jealous, but my snake is big... real long, probably longer than most of imagine. Oh, and he's black, of course I don't really know if I have the gender right since I didn't roll him over to see if he has a little snakey penis. So, you ask, how long is my snake? Well, I'd say he's easily over 5 feet long with about a 2 inch diameter. He's very quiet, in fact I was quite surprised to find out he was living here. Yesterday morning was the first time I actually saw him. I looked out the back door window and there he was, casually snaking his way across the sidewalk. That's how I know how big he is, the sidewalk is 4 feet wide at that point. Now I know why my chipmunk population has been on the decline. A friend asked me what I was going to do about him and I said "nothing." Hopefully he will take care of my mouse problem and mousetraps will be unnecessary this fall.
The picture above is stock since I had neither my phone nor my camera with me. The truth is I may never see him again. Black snakes are nocturnal. They hunt at night. In case you're wondering, the dogs didn't see him. I kept them in the house. They would have killed the poor thing.
We're a year and a half from the 2020 election and polls are revealing things that are not too surprising, in other words this is what most Americans suspected. Evidently only 38% of female voters are planning on voting for the Idiot Jerk, that's your Crazy Christian crowd and your Crazy Conservative crowd, and a small percentage of non-thinkers. In case you didn't know, women are one of the largest voting blocks in the United States and everything the Idiot Jerk does to please his Crazy Christian base goes against the grain of 62% of that voting block. This man is dumb as a brick. He relies on Crazy Christian sycophants who tell him he was chosen by God to give them what they want. They are depraved. I can only wonder what they're going to do when he gets voted out of office.
Well, today's Wednesday and I'm off. I was a little surprised I made it through my second 6 day stretch, of course the chores have accumulated during that time. Yard work is planned for today, and tomorrow... and at some point I'm going to need to get a haircut and cut my nails. How's that for la-de-dah?
And I do believe today is the last day for the Idiot Jerk to spreading discord and discontent in the UK. There were a lot of protests. I don't think they bother him, rather he likes to think of himself as an interrupter, he creates disruption in order to cover the dirt. He desperately wants to be the champion of Greed, that being the most obvious sign of success. I find it interesting with all the billionaires in the world, he seems to be the only who's had to file for bankruptcy... often.
Oh, and I saw where Hope Hicks was going to turn over documents to Congress relating to the 2016 election and the White House is trying to stop her from doing so... which is what you do once you've been exonerated... unless, of course, they show how the Idiot Jerk knew Russia was helping him get elected. You know, that is what he said...until he deleted the Tweet. That Tweet will make a nice campaign poster for the 2020 election, won't it?
I had read an article a while back which stated the two times in a person's life when they are the most creative are their 20's and their 50's. If that were true, than I'd have to say I came little late to the party. Of course, for me that isn't true. I thought I'd write about that today. This article, however, is what caught my attention this morning. I was surprised by how much this defines me. My brain never stops putting things together, even when I'm sleeping. In fact, no matter what I'm doing different ideas will touch each other, form a junction, and go jointly into some new direction. Yesterday morning I woke with the idea of having Eli, one of my main characters, riding down a trail on a mountain bike. As I headed back to take my morning shower, I knew he needed to be following another character. During my shower I realized the character he was following needed to point to the left and say "snake," in order for them to turn to the right. Stepping out of the shower, I understood that in the new book snakes needed to be a metaphor for the truth, and how some people avoid the truth for the same reason they avoid snakes. I know not everybody is going to understand this, but snakes are very important. We learn from them.
Now, I know some are thinking the Idiot Jerk is a snake... they're wrong. He's a festering sore who will go gangrene if we don't treat him the way he needs to be treated.
As for coming late to the party? I think I've always been at the party.
My weekend is over. I get to go back to work... on a Friday knowing that my next weekend will not happen until next Wednesday. That's sucks.
I was down on the farm yesterday - my brother's farm. He and his wife have a very large garden, they do need to spend more time weeding. My grandparents had a large garden and my grandma weeded for a couple of hours every day. They are a lot of work.
He has chickens and turkeys and a pot bellied pig, as well as an old dog. Oh, and there's a 5 foot black snake living in the barn... somewhere. I told him to let the snake alone, it will eat the rats. There are always rats because of the grain. That's also why cats are a valuable asset. They just love eating rodents. I snapped a pic of him in the barn with two of his turkeys.
I asked him if they're going to be eaten. He said, "nah, they're pets." My brother has a pet farm. They'll get eggs from the chickens, but that's about it.
They also have walnut trees.
I got some tomatoes and peppers as well. I told him they need to start making sauce.
Oh, and I saw that Melanoma's parents became citizens in a private ceremony yesterday. Isn't it interesting how the Idiot Jerk says that's a shitty way for immigrants to become Americans... but it works for him just fine. Another funny thing is that the Idiot Jerk's administration now wants to make becoming a citizen even more difficult. These people are so damn two-faced it's ridiculous.
I was in the lunch room yesterday and one of our hardware / cashier associates came up to me and asked "What would you do if someone came up to you with a snake around their neck?" It turned out he had been working on the Outside Garden register and a female customer had come up to make a purchase wearing a Boa Constrictor around her neck. A lot of people don't like snakes so why someone would go to a home improvement store with one around their neck is beyond me. When the associate asked the girl not to get too close, she agreed, but her boyfriend evidently more then grunted his disapproval. Me? I would have asked her if she had a thing for cold-blooded phallic symbols. Nah, I probably wouldn't have... that might cost me my job. But one does have to wonder if perhaps these individuals just happened to step out of the room on the day they were handing out brains.
Obviously they weren't thinking about the snake. Yesterday was cool, the temperature only got up to about 65 degrees Fahrenheit - much too cold for a Boa to be outside. Yet there they were in Outside Garden, where there is no roof, no heat in the winter and no air conditioning in the summer - jello heads all the way. And while the associate was unhappy at having to deal with these people, I must admit to feeling sorry for the snake. Of course, it it had been any warmer she probably wouldn't have had it around her neck, because then it might have started squeezing.
