To Chip or Not?

This morning wasn't as cool as yesterday.  Our overnight low stayed in the lower 60s (F).  This is summer, after all.  For the next week, at least, daily highs will be hovering in the low to mid 80s (F).  That's fine with me.  We might get a little rain on Monday, but the odds are 50-50.

Yesterday was a somewhat busy day.  There was yard cleanup.  My fence is now cleared of branches and luckily the damage could have been worse.  The top supporting bar has a new angle, but is still standing.  I still have a ten foot limb in my backyard, though that should be gone by sometime on Tuesday.  I also began tackling the limb on the other side of the fence.  Limb is the wrong word, to be more precise, I have a tree top lying there.  That sucker's going to be a challenge.  Also, I've been thinking of buying a wood chipper.  The thought of renting one had also occurred to me, until I saw the cost:  $200 for 4 hours, almost $600 for a day.  I can buy one that chops branches up to 2 inches in diameter for $194.  I'll have to go out and measure the diameter of the branches.

Beside the yard cleanup and getting my lawn mowed, yesterday was sort of a meh day.  Because I was outside so much, I moved my upper body workout to this morning.  

My Roma tomatoes are beginning to turn red.  I have 2 Big Boy plants, one has tomatoes, the other has zilch, and my eggplant has.... eggplants.

The rescheduled White House Correspondents Association (or whatever you want to call this group) was last evening.  Here's a pic from Al Jazeera.

I was too busy playing Balder's Gate 3 to pay any attention as to what was happening on social media.  Not that I missed anything.  Orangie, who likes to think of himself as the ultimate showman held a small rally that, without his paid cultists, left the room embarrassingly silent.  While cabinet members and their staff laughed because this is what sycophants do, the rest of the correspondents showed Orange how little he is appreciated.  Even the Washington post's leading headline was about his insult laden speech, and that it drew stunned silence.  As a result, he will lie today.  Are the bells beginning to toll for the Orange Anus?  Stay tuned.

 

Trump's Thai Restaurant

Good morning world!  We have another comfortably sunny day on tap here in Central PA.  Our outside time is 57 (F).  Our high this afternoon will once again be in the low 80s (F).  If you want my opinion, this is perfect summer weather.  Without the cloying humidity and stinking hot temps, working outside is fine, and believe me, I have been working outside.

To be honest, when I walked out my back door last Sunday morning and saw what Saturday night's storm had gifted me, I stood there for a second, and then said, "Well, fuck."  Then I went to work... and bought a chainsaw.  I'd had one, but threw it out about 2 years ago because it needed work.  Since I worked on Monday, I couldn't start the actual cleanup process until Tuesday.  To my surprised what I thought was going to be a daunting task turned out to be rather invigorating.  There is some joy in looking at a branch, deciding where to make the cut, and then making the cut, and then seeing that cut did exactly what it was intended to do.  I did have some serious soreness across my back Tuesday night, but other than that I feel really well.  While I do workout, this is not the same thing.  This is physical labor, and you might find this difficult to believe, but it actually feels good to work and accomplish something.

I'm sitting here listening to Brahms Serenade No 1 in D, Scherzo.  For those who don't know, this is what Carey Murgatroyd played for Margaret Stanley back in 1982.  For those who do, is it any wonder she was nearly smitten.

And for those who haven't seen some of the changes the Orange Anus is doing to the White House, here's an example.  As someone else said, he appears to be doing a very good job at designing a Thai restaurant.  Let's be honest, his tastes have always been Trashy Tacky.

Brent crude oil is again over $100 a barrel.  This is what happens when your put an imbecile in the White House.  He epitomizes the Republican "shut up, we're in charge," style of governing.  When someone doesn't shut up and fights back, he is dumbfounded.  He doesn't even ask "how can this be?"  Nope, that's never going to happen.  His reaction, like the GOP's, is to get angry and pile threat upon threat, upon threat.  Now the Houthis are involved... and the conflict grows.  And prices will continue to go up because how could a man with 8 bankruptcies be wrong?  On top of this he has, for a small bribe, decided to allow Saudi Arabia, a country actively involved in Islamic terrorism, to begin enriching uranium.  Honestly, I don't doubt that in the future, historians are going to look back at Orangie and wonder why he just didn't stick to designing Thai restaurants.

  

 

The Clean up Continues

Another cool morning here in Central PA.  The outside temp was 59 (F) when I got up.  That's really good sleeping weather.  We have another day of abundant sunshine scheduled.  According to the long range forecast this weather should be sticking around for the next 2 weeks.  What isn't in the forecast is rain.  This means I'll be watering my garden.

If you're wondering how my raised bed garden survived that storm we had last Saturday, the answer is fine.  Except for one tomato plant that blew over, I's suspecting it's a goner. 

Much yard cleanup was done yesterday.  As I'd mentioned before, I did wear my heart rate monitor.  Total work time was 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The last half hour I was averaging 130 beats per minute, burned 415 calories.  Everything was going well until my chainsaw broke.  Damn.  I could probably have spent some time trying to fix it, but chose instead to order another with same day delivery from the orange retailer I work for.  Well, the new saw was never delivered.  I checked before I went to bed and saw that delivery had been scheduled to between 6 AM and 8 PM today, so I cancelled.  They had over 5 hours to get it delivered and failed.  What they want you to do is pay for an expedited delivery with the guarantee that your purchase will arrive in 3 hours or less.  

Anyway, my yard went from looking like this:

to this:

So, the Republicans pushed through a piece of legislature yesterday that would stop members of Congress from buying stock while they were in office, however, attached to that bill was Orangie's precious SAVE Act.  Eight Democrats voted for this bill.  I don't doubt that they did this because they wanted to be on the record as ending insider trading, and because they know there are not enough votes in the Senate to get it passed.  These 8 congressmen failed to realize that no one was going to commend them for voting against insider trading.  Nope.  Now they're being damned for helping the SAVE Act advance to the Senate.  They failed to understand that in the scope of things, Orangie's extreme voter regulations are a far more serious problem for America and Democracy than trading stocks on Wall Street.

Am I the only one who believes Jim Jordan should be arrested and tried for treason?

Cleaning Up

Yesterday was a good day.  The weather was very, very nice.  The temp went up into the mid 70's (F).  Warm temps mean the back door stands wide open; the dogs go in and out at their own whimsy.  I cleaned up along the side of the house and started clearing away the winter debris from the back corner of the fence, filling 2 big 30 gallon bags.  I took pictures.  Here's one.

That's my hill behind the fence.  It's very steep.  My land extends another 25 feet back from the top of the hill.  One of these years I'll have someone come in and clear away the scruff, run a pathway up, and extend the fence.  My yard is large, it's a good selling point, the hill, unfortunately, is not.
And I saw where Joe Biden is having what they're calling an 'Al Franken moment.'  An assemblywoman from Nevada is claiming he kissed the back of her head.  She claims she was mortified.  When you look at the horror stories which have surfaced as a result of the #metoo movement, when you look at what Al Franken was accused of... groping a lot of buttocks (he's evidently an ass man) these accusations are enough to make you wonder.  Biden's accuser talks about getting justice... and I'm thinking, wait a minute, she did not have a Brett Kavanaugh moment.  He did not throw her down on the bed and drunkenly try and rape her.  For those who don't know, Joe Biden is a touchy-feely kind of guy.  He touches everybody, and not just women, he touches men too, lays his hands on their arms or shoulders, and even knees.  Google it.  There are literally thousands and thousands of pictures of Joe Biden touching people.  Instead of writing about how 'mortified' she felt, she should have searched for pictures of 'Joe Biden kissing women on the tops of their heads.'  Is a touchy-feely Joe Biden a problem?  Well, for some I'd say that answer is probably yes.  Is his being touchy-feely a reason vilify him?  No.  If he gets the Democratic nomination for president they're going to have to decide?  Vote for Joe, or possibly endure another 4 years of the morally degenerate Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Think about it.  Oh, and I just saw that Lucy Flores, the woman behind the accusations, is a Bernie Sanders supporter.