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.

Eating dirt

 Sunday Funday is here.  Well, I don't really know how much fun it going to be had.  The temps are sitting in the mid 40s (F) and the wind is blowing, some might even say it's breezy as Hell, if Hell is breezy that is.  We'll be warming up into the low 60s (F).  

Because we have sunshine and milder temps the store might be busy this morning.  Working in retail, I can tell you there is a large group of people who do not attend any sort of religious services on Sunday morning, unless, of course, buying a patio set is religious experience for them.  As is the case every Sunday, usually after 11 AM, the church crowd will arrive.  They stand out because they're still wearing their Sunday finest, men in suits, usually Navy blue, and women in boldly colored dresses.  I always find it amusing that the vast majority of women look like they're ready for a hot night on the town rather than a church service, I suppose the believe that hot and gaudy is synonymous with rich an arrogant, neither of which should apply to a Christian, unless it's a Republican Christian.

Our retail plan has not been too successful this past week, we are deep in the red.  This is how it goes.  One of our associates was arrested, and while that actually has nothing to do with our not making plan, it does have something to do with money.  This is always the case.  In my 16 years of working with the Orange retailer, this is the third time I'm aware of the police being called to take someone away in handcuffs.  Idiot.  

Here's an updated pic on the oregano I'm growing on my window sill.

And the Orange Anus caved again yesterday: laptops, phones, and computer chips.  The Chinese gave him nothing in return.  Xi is going to make Orangie eat dirt.  There are those who are saying that this wasn't really a cave-in, but rather the tariff relief that Apple, and Microsoft, and IBM, and a slew of others paid for when they bestowed their $1 million dollar gifts on Orangie after he was elected.  Me, I don't think that's the case simply because of the ratio of money gifted to money saved.  These companies are going to save hundreds of millions without having to deal with tariffs and I can't believe Orangie would give them that sort of gift while only getting a measly million in return.  This doesn't meant that there isn't some sort of behind the scenes shenanigans in which he gets paid under the table.  Making this more interesting, is the fact that we haven't hear neither hide, nor hair of a crow coming from him.  He's not bragging about being successful.  Mostly because Xi made him eat dirt.

Stealing the deal

Well, Black Friday's come and gone.  Was it worth it?  Nah, it never is.  Sure, like every other retailer out there, we had a good day, one of the best dollars and cents days I can remember.  Analysts say, however, that sales were a bit light, most likely because buyers are still wary of the economy.  What jello heads they are!  Most retailers have been swamping their customer base with Pre-Black Friday deals for the past 2 weeks.  And now we're in the Post-Black Friday deals, which are quite similar to the Pre-Black Friday deals.  Consumers learn fast!  This year our in-store specials were also available online so there was no need to deal with the crowds or the cold weather.  Also, this year the crowd waiting at the door wasn't nearly as large in previous years, however we did have a much, much larger crowd 4 hours after the doors had opened then we'd ever had on past Black Fridays.  And, as I said earlier, it was one of the best, if not "the best," as far as the dollars and cents go.

And, as far as the steals go, someone is always trying to 'five finger discount' the merchandise.  Most of the time we don't know about it until after the fact.  This year we had a woman, middle-aged, go to Self-Checkout with a rather full cart.  The cashier started to ring her through (we do this with full carts, it keeps things moving) when all of sudden the woman complained that a price was wrong.  While the cashier went back to her station to get the ad, the woman pushed her full cart past, and out the door.  $84 had been rung up, but there was much more merchandise in the cart, including some fairly large ticket items.  This is how it goes sometimes.  For some people there is nothing like stealing a little deal on Black Friday.