Storm Damage

Outside, our temps is a comfortable 70 (F) and the humidity is gone.  Today is supposed to be nice and sunny, and, since today is Sunday, I have to work.  This is a pisser since I do have... yardwork* that needs to be tended to.  The rest of the week is supposed to be nice and sunny, with daily highs in the low to mid 80s (F) with no humidity.  This means that I'll have plenty of time to do my tending.

I postponed my workout for yesterday morning.  My knee was feeling a bit cranky.  I'm thinking of not renewing my Trainwell subscription when it expires at the end of August.  I'm looking at what expense I have and the fact that I am, as I get older, working less and less.  This means starting to rely on my social security, something I'm loathe to do at this point.  Even though it's easy to rationalize spending over $500 for an online trainer, I do realize that sometimes the rationalization is being forced.

And at work we discovered that there was an improvement in the recording of our sales goals.  There was a time when if you set up a measure for installing blinds and someone else built those blinds, you would both get credit.  That disappeared.  Well, it seems that corporate has decided to bring that back, so yesterday when I checked out my sales I had a nice little $3000 credit.  This is a good thing.

*The yardwork.  Last night we had some storms come through.  We got the warnings for lightning striking, but nothing on the high winds and torrential rain.  Well, we got all three: lightning strikes, high winds, and torrential rains.  We lost power for about 10 seconds.  Then this morning when I went to let Howie out, I saw that there was also storm damage.  Several large tree limbs were ripped from the maple trees on the hill behind my house.  The back corner of the fence was smushed; that'll be an insurance claim.  Of course, Howie was delighted.  I could almost hear his little heart singing, "look at all of those sticks, sticks, sticks!"  I got rid of my chainsaw years ago; it was broken, and though I do have my saw on a stick, it's no match for these limbs.  My brother has chainsaws, but he hasn't used them in years, and they run on gas.  I sent out a number of texts and, probably not surprising, none of my friends happen to own a chainsaw.  This means I'm going to have to buy one.  Shit.

On the political scene, it seems as though Lisa Murkowski is going to vote against all legislation that contains the Save Act.  Lisa's not running for re-election.  She has also been served up several plates of shit even though she's been a loyal Republican.  Obviously, Lisa has been reading the Tea Leaves.  If she wants to run again in 2029, she knows she's going to need to get on the side of the majority of Alaskans, who now hate the Orange Anus.  Without McConnell's vote, the Republicans need every vote to pass any legislation.  This is a good thing.

Prepare yourselves, the Iran war is about to go from bad to worse.

Pissing on McConnel's grave

If the long range forecast is correct, our daily highs should be in the mid 80s (F) for the next 2 weeks.  Keep in mind, this is a long range forecast and they're reliability is always questionable.  We have 69 (F) outside now, with overcast skies.  The clouds are supposed to remain.

Sometime today I want to get out my saw-on-a-stick and begin cutting up the branch that was torn from the tree behind my house.  I will also need to check on my container garden to see how dry the soil is.  Last year my plants were spindly.  This year, they're so "get out of the way," overgrown.  Next year, I will need to locate them in other areas of the yard so they all have room to grow.  

Yesterday afternoon I got a nice bike ride in along a canal in France.  I rode over 10 miles, and the ride was long and flat.  There was a hill with a steep 10% grade, but it was up over a highway and then down again.  My trainer wants me to bring back the hills.  He also wants me to start doing squats again.  That's probably not going to happen.  I have always hated squats.

Yesterday Big Boy came to my home town.  Who or what is Big Boy?  The last functioning steam locomotive in the United States.  Big Boy stayed overnight in the Enola railyard.  At one point, the Enola railyard was also the largest in the United States, stretching over 5 miles.  The Enola railyard is the reason Mechanicsburg is called Mechanicsburg, because that's where all of the train mechanics lived.  Just to put things into perspective, the Enola railyard is a little over a quarter mile away from my house.  Today, thousands and thousands of people are expected to flock to the Enola railyard to see and take pictures of Big Boy.  A friend of mine whose son works for the Enola police department told me to avoid US 11/15 because the traffic is going to be a freaking nightmare.  I will stay away.  Here's a pic of Big Boy arriving yesterday.

So, Scott Jennings told the world he talked to Mitch McConnell for 20 minutes yesterday.  John Thune said the same thing.  Other Republicans as well claimed to have had conversations with Mitch.  No one believes them because Republicans lie more often then they blink.  It didn't take long before thousands upon thousands of people on social media were making the same claim.  I think that's rather fitting, Mitch McConnell becoming the brunt of black humor joke.  Isn't it nice to know that in death... or possibly near death, Mitch's name elicits a joyful mockery, something almost as much fun as pissing on his grave.

The Orange Anus was supposed to release the unredacted Epstein files yesterday.  He didn't, and, as everyone should have expected, the war with Iran is back on.

Dimwitted Wannabe Bomber

 Okay, so a new week has started.  This morning's temps were cool, but a warming trend is on the way.  By the end of the week we might actually hit 90 (F).  I'm ready for summer.

I did work yesterday.  I made both my measure goal and my sales goal for the past week.  Management is happy.  In fact, I was kidding around with the store manager yesterday and that very subject came up and though he and I were laughing, he didn't shy away from saying my sales were comparable to those of a full time flooring specialist.  While no specific names came up, all I have to do is look at the figures to see there is one in particular who is not approaching expectations, let alone exceeding them.

And, shock of shocks, we did have a mini-terrorist activity at the store during one of my days off; a wannabe bomber was arrested.  Now this not too brilliant individual wasn't planning on bombing the store; rather he was intent on acquiring bomb making ingredients and components in order to make a bomb.  Knowing that the purchase of such materials could be traced, this dimwit decided to steal them... and was caught... and arrested.  A short time later his wife and mother showed up to pick him up and were told he was not at the store, and was, in fact, in police custody.

The Wertzville Road is now open and I don't have to take a detour to get to work.  However, during the storm last week, my neighbor's cedar tree lost a number branches, both bit and little.  Being the consummate stick connoisseur, Howie found one and brought it into the house.

For those who missed it, Ukraine carried out a successful drone operation that destroyed at least 40 irreplaceable Russian aircraft.  The drones were smuggled into and launched from inside Russia.  This says a lot about the ineptitude of Vlad's boarder security.  And, this mission had targets as far away as Siberia.  This is not a good look for Vlad or Russia.  It also proves how wrong the Orange Anus was when the told Zelensky he didn't have any cards.  I'm betting Orangie's blow bro Vlad is wondering if Zelensky what other cards Zelensky might be holding.

In spite of what some might think, and while Fox Entertainment is truly doubling down on Biden's supposed decline, Main Stream Media seems to have noticed that attacking this administration's policies is getting them more clicks than praising the Orange Anus.  Blowback is starting all over the place, except for CNN, because networks are going to go where the money is, and the money is in the clicks.

Storm Damage

Well, it's Wednesday and it's raining... and I'm off - don't work today or tomorrow.
Yesterday was interesting for several reasons:  we had primary day in PA - and there was a pink / blue surge... a rather large one, which most likely dumbfounded vast numbers of the GOP - How could large numbers of voters... including a sizable number of women, vote for candidates not associated with the GOP?  No one ever said they were smart.  I'm wondering if there was any relation between the weather and the politics.
Yesterday, at 4:41 my phone buzzed.  My watch buzzed.  The store phone I was holding buzzed.  Tornado warning.  So, what did quite a few of the customers do?  Walk into the plate glass vestibules that mark are entrance and exit to watch shit blow by outside.  That's right.  Carts are careening across the parking.  Branches and chunks of wood are flying through the air, and these people decide to stand in an area that has glass to their left... glass to their right... and glass directly in front of them.  They wanted a 270 degree view of destruction.
When I got home from work I discovered the high winds had ripped a number of  branches from my trees. Storm Damage.

Those are 2 branches the winds ripped from trees on the hill and blew 40 or so odd feet.

And this one was taken from my back porch, looking towards the hill.  Halfway up, on the right hand side, you can see the top of my fence.  Somewhere underneath are my garbage and recycling cans.  Oh, and there are more branches beyond the fence - to both the left and the right.  If the rain lets up, I'm going to go out and start cutting them up.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get out chainsaw.  That means I'll get to wear my lumberjack outfit.