Negotiation

 It's a sunny Saturday morning and it's cold outside.  Over the next week, the temps are only predicted to go above freezing twice... though that will probably change as the Arctic Blast moves north and east.  As far as the temps go, the forecast has already been moderated upward several times.  We are still supposed to get snow on Sunday night, so I brought the snow shovels up out of the basement.

I got some stuff yesterday, however the planned workout failed to materialize.  Was it the cold cloudiness of winter?  Well, temps were rather moderate, so nice that I took Howie for a walk.  He loved it.  The neighbors down the street have a German Short Haired pointer and he and his owner were out, so we stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes.  The dog was never socialized so he's very jumpy bouncy, more so than Howie, who wanted to say hi.  We didn't.  We were told that jumpy bouncy was difficult to control.  

I do get to go and work today.  I'm not excited.

The neighbors were loud again last night.  If they're loud again, I'll plug in my soundbar and give them a taste of their own medicine.

Howie's 5 months old today.  For the most part, he is housetrained doing most of his business outside.  Every now and then he slips up.  Interesting bit:  all I need to do is look at him and lower my voice when I discover the done deed and he knows he's been bad.  If this were a Dune movie, I guess I'd have the power of the voice.

I understand that Orangey is a little upset that he's still going to be sentenced for his election interference.  No jail time, but probably community service of some sort.  Picking up garbage along the roadside would be nice.  Don't doubt for a second that he will try and get out of it.  

So here's a funny thing.  Mikey Johnson was re-elected as Speaker of the House yesterday.  The far right hates him because they feel he's been compromised by negotiating with Democrats to get legislation passed.  For years these negotiations were quite common, until Newt Gingrich decided to form the Just Say No party.  Yesterday Newtie advised the hard liners that they needed to vote for Mikey which basically told them that it was okay to negotiate.  This doesn't mean that they are going to change how they operate.  What it does mean is that nothing on the Republican agenda will be accomplished because they have such a very slim majority, they are going to need Democratic votes to get bills passed, and that means negotiation.  These next few years are going to be Hell for Republicans.

For a Good Time

 So, here it is January 3 and forecasters are calling for some snow this afternoon, about an inch.  I don't mind.  Unless it's a wet snow, that will blow away in the slightest of breezes.  Sunday in to Monday, however, we might get as much as 4 inches.  If we get that much I'll probably take the day off at work.  I'm smart enough to realize that as I get older, my reflexes are slowing down.  I'd rather be safe and warm at home than stuck in a ditch alongside the road.  As for the snow?  That'll be nice.  Free cardio, but barely.  You need a good 8 or 9 inches of snow to really get the old ticker going as you shovel.

Yesterday was an odd day at work.  Customers streamed by the flooring desk regularly.  Sales, however, were scant.  I did manage to get a backsplash measure, and sold some flooring to customer.  That should keep management happy.  

The neighbors had another fight last evening.  This past summer she had complained to me how when he yells he can be "so hurtful."  You can call me cold if you like, but I had a problem with that.  Since I'd already heard them arguing loudly, I knew she could be just as hurtful as he was, so her playing the victim just wasn't going to work.  At some point, I don't doubt that they will move.  I think they will find that easier than doing any of the work the house needs done.

I would rather poke my eyes out than watch one of the far right news services, but last evening Matt Gaetz, who has his own show on OAN, premiered his new face.

I suppose he's trying to make himself more desirable to prepubescent girls, or maybe he's trying to make himself look like the 14 year-old boy he never was, since older pictures of him show he was on the homely side.

This afternoon the House of Representatives will be voting for their next leader.  Will Mike Johnson, the phony Christian who bows to the Orange Anus be re-elected?  Probably, but not on the first vote, maybe not on the second either.  Orangey needs a Speaker of the House in order to be certified, though most of us already know he is certifiable.  

Isn't it interesting that a growing number of Cultist are beginning to complain about Orangey?  No matter how often they were stupid and gullible to believe the Orange Anus, they did anyway.  Their Find Out stage, while it will be bad for all of us, is going to be horrific for them.  They will be wounded terribly bad, and what they deserve more than anything else is for us to rub salt into that wound, and we should try to have a good time while doing so.

Small

 Our temps are borderline freezing, though expected to climb up into the low 40s (F) this afternoon.  As this Arctic Blast approaches they're supposed to begin to slowly drop, though the forecasters have already begun to modify how cold it's going to get in Central PA.  Their first forecast had us down to 12 (F), now it seems as though we're not going to be getting that cold.  They've added 12 degrees onto that, so, I guess we'll have to wait and see how cold it actually gets.

Yesterday was fairly meh, and today feels like it should be Monday.  No doubt it's the holiday effect.  I did some laundry.  Played Indiana Jones and the Lost Circle.  Cooked pork and sauerkraut, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.  It was tasty!

 But mostly I worked on the book.  The most difficult thing I've had to deal with so far is eliminating the car sections.  I knew that Delphi was small when I decided to use the town for a locale and had my guys driving from one place to another chapter after chapter.  However, it wasn't until I actually walked down the streets that I realized how small the town was, and that meant the car had to morph into walking conversations.  You can have a decent conversation walking from a hotel to.. oh, let's say the museum, however  it would take 3 minutes to get into your car, fasten the seatbelt and drive there, so any references to them riding, or sitting in a car, or driving somewhere had to be replaced.  To give you an idea, here's the street my hotel was on looking from one end to the other.  There are only 3 streets in Delphi.  At the far end is where you turn left to walk the half-mile to the museum.

There was excitement yesterday.  A tragedy in New Orleans, and a cyber truck explosion in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.  These incidents are not the prelude to a dream, but they might become common place when the moral degenerate takes office, especially with more and more individuals understanding how much he and the conservatives who want an authoritarian government have lied to the people.  As the Orange Anus, and his boss Elonia, push for more cheap immigrant labor, more and more Americans are going to lose their jobs.  When people realize Elonia relies so deeply on China and little on the United States, American anger will seethe.  There is this terrible misconception among authoritarians that all they need to do is put them in charge and everyone in the world will fall in line and comply.  Both conservatives and authoritarians have always been stupid.  In reality, they have very small minds, and small minds always fail.  I'm betting that a year from now, very few of the people who voted for the Orange Anus will admit that fact.

Happy Wednesday!

 Golly Gee Whiz!  Can you believe it?  Another year has come and gone!  The weather outside is decent for January 1.  The temp is 42 (F).  That's not bad.  The bottom  is going to fall out this coming week and things will freeze over.  That means I'll have to act fast when Howie does his outside business, otherwise it will freeze to the ground until the next thaw.

Yesterday was good, for the most part.  Lots of chores were done around the house.  Several loads of laundry were done.  The living room aquarium was cleaned.  I took Howie for a walk, he loves that.  I made soup out of some sort of mystery broth I had in the freezer, using up both extra ham and turkey.  The neighbors were loud for a bit, but around nine last night they turned the volume down.  I did stay up until midnight, not because I wanted to welcome in the new year, though.  I watched the last 3 episodes of Dr. Who on Disney +.  I'm sure it's why so many conservatives hate Disney, the series is definitely "woke," as they say.  

And it is now my sad duty to inform you that Howie's Christmas present, Bunny Crinkle-Ears has met his tragic demise.  He squeaked his last at 7:37 last evening.  He survived for a week.  Had I known he was much more stuffing than crinkle, I would have passed.

And, of course, last night at a mini pre New Year's Eve presser, the Orange Anus said he was all for bringing more trained H-1B immigrants into the country in order to layoff American laborers whom Corporations deem way to expensive...  I have to admit, that last bit was mine, but it is the reason both he and Elonia are rooting for this incredible increase in H-1B tech workers.  In fact, it's not just tech workers.  As someone else said, everyone of his properties in the US employs cheap immigrant labor rather than Americans.  Selfishness and Greed will destroy the American economy, and these inexpensive, indentured employees are just the beginning.