Decent into Dementia

 Saturday.  Temps are middlin' and we have wind.  We have a lot of wind, in fact we're under a wind warning.  This means that things blow around.  I've seen visual proof:  as I was letting Howie in, one of my neighbor's cardboard Coca Cola boxes blew over into my yard.  This happens frequently because, rather than put them in their garbage can, she simply throws them out the backdoor.  She does the same thing with bags of garbage.  Does she do this because she's lazy?  Possibly.  They also drop their beverage containers and soft drink cans outside their car instead of bringing them in the house and throwing them away.  That's means they blow around the neighborhood.  Maybe they don't know better, or, as I'm suspecting, they're just not that smart.

I do get to go to work today.  I look at it this way: it's an easy way to make spending money.  I also use those paychecks to pay for groceries, as well as cover my utility expenses.  

Howie chewed out the large rubber ball that was in his Wubba.  He's excited.  It squeaks loudly.  He will probably never touch the rest of that toy again.  This is how it goes.  

And I did spend yesterday working on the edits I have for The Body in History.  For those of you interested, this is what it looks like.  I'm actually working on 3 edits simultaneously, though you can only see one individual's name.  It's not as complicated as it looks since corrections and suggestions are highlighted in different colors.

Has everybody noticed how frequently the Orange Anus is managing to get his mug on TV?  While we're suffering though his little lie fests daily, like we did during Covid, there are way too many of them.  This is his ego, his need to make himself seem important.  There is absolutely no need for him to do this, however, if there is one smidgen of a shining spot, it's that his lies are so easily fact checked, something even some mainstream media platforms are beginning to do with the same frequency.  While we all know that his failing facilities tell him this saturation is good, especially since he believes his ratings are the best ratings known in the history of man, he is actually publicly detailing his decent into dementia.  Even though Republicans know these appearances endear him to his cult, I'm sure they also realized that very soon, he will be admitting how big of a traitor he is to both democracy and the United States.  They understand that he is too late to be edited, which is why they're moving as fast as they are before the bottom crashes out.  

Disturbances

 So, when I checked the weather this morning I saw what I consider an odd forecast.  Today the temps are supposed to be up in the low to mid 50s (F).  Instead of saying things are going to be warming up, or warmer, the forecast was "not as cool."  I kid you not.  "Not as cool," implies temps are still going to be low, but 52 (F) is much warmer than 34 (F), so I think there description is a bit off.

I did work yesterday, and it was slow.  We're not going to hit plan this week.  This will continue the trend that started when Trump was inaugurated.  I'm not thinking that things are going to be changing anytime soon.  One thing that does appear to be changing is my schedule.  I'm down to between 16 and 17 hours, so I suspect they believe sales are not going to be rebounding anytime soon.  Payroll is the easiest expense to cut.  

Things are so much different with Howie than with my other dogs.  He is much more active.  Where as I used to make coffee and then sit down and peruse the headlines, now I make coffee and play with Howie for a least a half hour.  We play fetch, and he loves to wrestle, and, lucky for me, he's learned to faux bite.  This means he acts like he's biting me, but doesn't really... at least most of the time.  He loves that.  From time to time I attempt a joint selfie, Howie and I.  This is the latest.  And for those curious few, that's a Christmas ornament dangling from a window lock and not some ghosty demon dancing over my head.

My Social Security check gets deposited on the 2nd Wednesday of every month and usually I can see that deposit on Friday of the week before.  I just checked and so far there's not deposit.  This doesn't mean that Orangie and and his toady Elonia are not going to pay it, just that they may have gummed up the gears.  That is something we all need to be certain of, their screwing things up.  As part of the 1%, they have no concept of everyday life; none of the wealthy do.  Take Larry Kudlow, a man of little vision and pure greed.  He said on Fox Entertainment that there is a -2.81 decline expected in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which indicates a downturn in America's economic health in the first quarter of 2025.  He said "there will be disturbances," or in layman's terms, things are going to be getting more expensive for the common man.  Unless there is a complete crash of the Stock Market, Kudlow will never know of difficult and "disturbance" can be for you and I.  Truthfully, we all know he doesn't care how bad Americans suffer.  

And, of course, the on again, off again, some are still on tariff wars are still... well, right now they're on, and off, and Canada's keeping their retaliatory tariffs on... for now.  Right now the Dow is up around 84 points and they're calling it a rebound.  Sorry, that's not a rebound.

Trump's told to Pound Sand

 It rained yesterday.  All day.  Steadily soaking into the ground, giving Howie the opportunity of digging deep.  The temps stayed in the mid 50s (F), cooling off only a bit.  Now they're in the mid 40s (F) where, if the forecasters are correct, they will sit for most of the day.

Yesterday was again one of those meh days.  I'm blaming the rain.  Chores were planned and ignored.  One thing I've done is cut back on my trips to my Giant supermarket.  I found I was driving there every other day.  Such frequency means that I end up spending money on things I don't need, sometimes on things like cake and ice cream.  

I did spend time working on the musical code for The Body in 4/4 Time.  It has been a long time since I wrote down music.  The initial code is written, now I've got to add all the flourishes needed to create the intro to a song that will never be finished.  Right now I have 16 measures written, and, as you all might expect, they're all in 4/4 time.  I may add a couple of sharps and flats to complicate things a bit.  
And I'm thinking of adding a visual to the book so reader can see and possibly trying and decode the message.

Dinner was pulled pork, which is funny.  When I was growing up, my mom would make the same thing except back than we called it pork barbeque.  She also made beef barbeque with ground beef.  Of course, barbeque means something different now, too.

And now English is the official language of the United States.  It was always the official language, but now it's officially official.  Orangie signed this Executive Order because so many of his base hate foreign languages, especially Spanish.  I wonder when one of his base is going to go to Lancaster Country, PA, and tell all of those Amish who have been speaking Pennsylvania German for centuries that now they need to speak American English.

For those who missed it, Orangie blew a fuse yesterday. Here is one of several posts he made to Truth Social.  

Now his cultists are as burning mad as Orangie.  What could bring on his unmitigated ire?  Tariffs.  You see Orangie, in his attempt to prove to the world that he's a great business man and negotiator, a man who is so successful at the "art of the deal," initiated 25% tariffs on products from Canada, Mexico, and China, with other tariffs to come).  Naturally, Canada, Mexico, and China retaliated with 25% tariffs against American goods and Wall Street reacted badly.  One of his sycophants to Orangie this was crushing his rep, so so he tried to staunch the flow of bleeding in the stock market by making Trudeau an offer:  we will remove our tariffs on the automotive industry if you totally remove your retaliatory tariffs.  Instead of caving, as Orangie expected, Trudeau told him to pound sand.  One of the comments I saw was, "we're not going to go through this bullshit every month."  This is a blatant failure of Orangie's policies.  To top it off, he's getting the same blowback of Mexico and China.  Brace yourselves, things are going to get worse.

Constant Fools

 Holy cow!  The temp was 54 (F) when I woke up this morning, though rain is on the way, lots of rain, according to the weather forecasters.  We need it.  Spring is a rainy season, and I have no problem if the showers arrive early.  The only problem I might have is Howie, as he has no problem turning himself into a muddy mess, and while Biggie and Lily had problems with getting rained on, Howie seems to glory in that wet dog smell.

If I hadn't cleaned the big aquarium, yesterday would have been pretty much of a meh day.  I did go grocery shopping, mostly to pick up some ice cream to celebrate Howie's birthday.  He's 7 months old.  Just think, in another 5 months he'll be a year old.  My doesn't time fly?  By now I can tell that he's not going to be as tall as Biggie, who was so much larger than your average Boxer, but he is longer, and that's not counting the length of his tail.  Howie's also much more active.  One thing he does have in common with my other dogs is that he loves to sit in the front of the yard watching the world go by.  He will sit there for hours if I let him.

The over all tone for The Body in 4/4 time will focus less on the dramatic and more on the humorous, I can say this because Bobby Tussel will be playing a larger part.  His total lack of filters make him a fun character to write since he allows me creativity without limitations.

And, of course, so many are talking about the Orange Anus spewing bullshit during his State of the Union address last evening.  I didn't watch.  I played Skyrim.  To be fair, I never watch speeches, presidential or otherwise.  I don't find them in the least bit inspirational since, to again be fair, there's very little honest to goodness truth in them.  They are chock full of misleading generalities and quite often media outlets add in their own substantiation.  Also, there is the fact that the Orange Anus is a pathological liar.  Anyone who believes him is one of those "fool me once, fool me twice, fool me thrice" people who will never accept the fact that believing in him makes them constant fools.

And there were protests.

Al Green, the Democrat from Texas was removed.  Praise be to Al Green, the representative from Texas.

There were rumors dropped by the Secretary of Commerce yesterday that Orangie might be walking back some of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico.  While that would be nice, I believe he's simply blowing more smoke up America's ass.  Last night he said something to the effect that he's going to spread the tariffs around and now include India and South Korea, among other countries.  Prep yourselves, the recession is on our doorstep.

Art of the Failed Deal

 Skies are overcast here in Central PA.  We may have showers... we may not, precipitation prospects are iffy.  Temps might climb into the mid 50s (F), which will be nice.  Looking at the long range forecast, it seems that are daily high temperatures have upgraded themselves into the upper 40s (F) and low to mid 50s (F). so I'm thinking Spring is meandering our way.

Work was interesting.  I had changed my availability reducing my hours and was politely asked to work more hours, so I increased them by 2 hours.  Certainly this has nothing to do with my performance, but rather has more to do with the fact I'm capable of working in multiple departments.  Other part-timers who don't share this talent will most likely loose hours, and losing hours is no doubt on the way.  We did not make our plan last week, in fact, we missed it by over $100,000.  When I left last evening at 7 the store was only halfway to hitting daily budget.  Ouch.  

My neighbors were loud last evening, so I cranked up the TV.  This morning, I'm going to set up the sound bar again.  I can always beat them on volume.

A potato rolled off the counter yesterday and the minute it hit the floor Howie swooped it up.  He's 7 months old today, so when I do my shopping at Giant, I'll pick him up something special.  I know it's difficult to see, but here he is with the potato.  For those of you who are curious, he's around 60 pounds right now.

And for those of you who haven't been paying attention, the tariffs that the Orange Anus promised kicked in last night.  How will Wall Street react?  Ever since Orangie was sworn in, the Dow has been on a slow but constant decline.  It looses, gains a bit back, and then loses more.  I own neither stocks nor bonds, so I'm not concerned.  When you hit a certain age, you need to cash in your 401K and I hit that age a short time ago, though to be honest, I cashed in my 401K and my IRAs when I hit the age where I could no longer be penalized.  If you are in any type of retirement program, I would be concerned.

The reason Orangie's pulling the tariff crap is because he believes that he epitomizes the ideal businessman.  For him, everything is a deal.  This deceit is so deeply imbued into his psyche he paid a ghostwriter to pen the book "The Art of the Deal," which is ironic when you look at his business failures.  Anyway, he's attempting to strongarm every nation, except Russia, into admitting that he is the exemplary businessman.  Unfortunately, he has accumulated quite a number of business fiascos which mottle and speckle his resume thicker than the rash of measles on an unvaxed Texas child.  Like that spreading Texan epidemic, expect the jitters of Wall Street to continue like so many tremors preceding an earthquake.  Deaths will be racked up, fortunes will fail, and the only sure thing you will be able to count on is Orangie screaming, "it's Biden's fault."

Here Comes the Religious War

 It's cold outside.  0830 and the temps are still below freezing.  The forecast is that they're expected to rise up into the low 40s (F) today, with a more decent warm-up tomorrow.  Wednesday they should be near 60 (F), but the forecasters are also calling for rain.  

Being a Sunday, and being that I didn't have to work, yesterday was rather noneventful.  I did drive down to York for lunch with my friend Betsy.  I'm a bit worried about her.  She's a bit older than I am and still works full time.  She'd like to retire, but doesn't know if she can afford to do so.  She's also one of those people who, if she's not getting up and going to work, will lollygag around the house doing nothing.  Oh, she might turn the pages of a book, but that's the only exercise she'd be getting.  When you hit a certain age, you need to either maintain your activity level, or increase it slightly.  Slowing down will only speed things up, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of increasing my activity level, as I sat at my desk downstairs going through my email, I knew the time had come to start in errant on the next book.  I've done notes so far, even dashed out a chapter or two, but the writing does need to commence.  

I did watch the Oscars last night.  I'm sure some people may be upset because their favorite movies won nothing.  This is how the Oscars fall.  I didn't get a chance to see either The Brutalist or Anora.  As far as I know, neither of them played around here, or if they did, they were in and out in a week.  Even though there were 10 films nominated, there were only 3 or 4 that were actually contenders.  It was good to see Goldie Hawn, for being 79, she's held up pretty well.  Meg Ryan?  Wow, she's had way to much work done.  And who ever thought Mick Jagger could be so funny!  I was not impressed with the Quincy Jones tribute.  The Wiz was not, by any means imaginable, a hit.  He has done far more impressive work, but I guess the producers felt they needed a production number since they choice to cut out the nominated songs.

And this is the fortune I found in my cookie yesterday.

President Musk, his mother, and one of his test-tube kids flew in Air Force One from Mar a Lago to Washington last evening.  An official car met them at the airport and chauffeured them to the White House where, it seems, Elonia has taken up residence.  Nothing strange there.

The fact that the Kremlin is saying the United States is no inline with their political views is wrong.  There are a small number of mindless Republicans who desperately want to model America after Russia.  The vast majority of Americans realize that Putin is our enemy.  These Republicans don't understand that the Russian Orthodox Church is the state religion in Russia.  One country, one religion.  Here in this country we have so many varied and different denominations because we have freedom of religion.  The Evangelicals desperately want to run the country, however I'm fairly certain the Southern Baptists would disagree.  They don't really like each other.  And the Catholics?  Alito may be one, but obviously no one has ever told him that Evangelicals simply despise Catholics.  They call them false Christians.  And this is the set before adding the Episcopalians, the Methodists, the Lutherans, and the Presbyterians, just to name a few.  Now, I don't know about you, but I see a very bloody religious war happening if the Republicans get their way.

The Punishment of Tariffs

 Temps here in Central PA took a little crash dive last night dropping to 18 (F).  That chilly willy.  Starting tomorrow, they will begin warming up.  By Wednesday forecasters are predicting we'll be in the mid 60s (F), if only for a day.  Let's be honest here, Spring has got to start sometime, and I'd prefer it sooner rather than later.

I got an upper body workout in yesterday before going to work.  It felt good.  Not too much will be done today as I'm heading down to York for lunch with my friend Betsy.  That doesn't mean I won't get a ride or free weights in when I get home, just that it's not very likely.  

When I got to work yesterday, I was told I was late and, indeed, I was.  The two afternoons I work during the week my start time is 2 PM.  Saturdays it's 1 PM.  Even though I've had this Saturday schedule for over 3 years, all of sudden it doesn't feel natural, so when immediately after I punched in, I change my availability for Saturdays.  Now I will start at 2 PM, like the other two afternoons I work.  I suppose I'm entering the age of uniformity.

The store, itself, was only semi-busy.  Without giving any proprietary information away, I can tell you that we are not going to make plan this week.  It is my understand that this is district wide situation.  I can also tell you that we have not hit our budgeted sales once since the Orange Anus was elected.  Our President's Day appliance sale has always brought in great sales figures and those few days stand out, this year they flatlined.  On a graph, last year's sales were a mountain and this year's sales are a desert plain.

And then there are the protests.  I find them rather pleasing.  So far, except for the outside the Tesla showroom in NYC yesterday, they've been peaceful.  And the townhalls, too.  Republicans are still holding them, but they are becoming more and more contentious.  The GOP is not used to their own party members objecting.  They don't seem to understand that they owe these people their jobs.

As I was looking over headlines this morning, I saw in Reuters that the Orange Anus is modifying one of the tariffs in regard to lumber.  Even though it is American lumber that is being exported to Canada and Mexico, it is going to be taxed when that wood is imported back into the United States as furniture.  The minute I saw that I realized that these tariffs are how Orangie is meting out punishment to those countries who disagree with him.  He is going to make them pay.  The fact that this will financially hurt Americans is not even part of the equation.  

Betrayal

 While the weather here in Central PA is moderate, the mood is stormy.  Marched came in like a lamb, for those of you who remember that saying.  Does this imply that it's going to go out like a lion?  We shall have to wait and see.

And yesterday was quiet.  I didn't shop.  I didn't buy anything on line, hey, I didn't even browse.  Sadly, I didn't use the time to do anything really constructive.  I did cook a nice chicken dish for dinner, and last evening I played Skyrim.  It is escapist.  Let me tell you, there is nothing more satisfying to killing orcs, and bandits, and daedras is a good way to release pent up frustrations.  Sometimes I use a Dwarven great sword to lop of heads, other times I use a mace and throw fire balls.

I do get to go to work today.  I'm interested in seeing if we made our plan yesterday.  The area around me is rather conservative, so whether enough people stayed home might be questionable.  I did see that Wall Street gained a bit, but not enough to offset losses.  Yes, February was a losing month for all of those owners of stocks and bonds.  And on Tuesday, the tariffs kick in because we have a moral degenerate in the White House who's referencing 1880 when validating his belief in tariffs.

Of course, Orangie and Vancey Pants, following Putin's order, created a scene in the Oval Office... and the world was shocked.  A telling fact is that Tass, Russia's national media arm, managed to get a reporter into the press pool and if not for the eagle eye of Reuter's reporter would have been broadcasting live to Russia; they knew what was planned and they were prepared.  It's nice to know that the White House had to scramble, claiming there had been a mix up, before the Tass reporter was expelled.  Isn't it interesting that the Russian national press can get in but the Associated Press can't?

Except for the MAGA cultists, Americans see this as a betrayal, siding with Orangie's blow bro Vlad instead of Democracy.  Condemnation was universal on social media, except for the cultists who demanded an apology.  Good luck with that.  Here's a short list of those reviling Orangie's attack.

One of the things that stood out to me in this ambush of Zelensky was Orangie's comment about being a business man (can you hear me laughing?)  He might be very good at laundering Russian Rubles, but when it comes to business his history of failures is long.  His startup businesses have all failed badly after the initial grift is earned.  

On Tuesday, Orangie's tariffs are going to kick in and our trading partners, the countries we've traded with if not for decades, than for centuries, are going to go elsewhere, you know?  Like the waiting arms of China.  What we do import, will be at a much higher price, and our exports will diminish.  It's going to get very expensive fast.  The world is going to punish us and their ain't no stoppin' it.  We are racing towards the FO stage of American political evolution.

Boycott

 Wow!  The sun is glaring in through the window.  We have a partly cloudy sky, which means that different parts of the sky are cloudy while other parts are sunny.  A sunny part is passing overhead and the brightness flooding into the room is brilliant.  The temps are in the upper 30s (F).  They will climb up into the upper 40s (F).  That will be fine.  Howie will get a walk in, though in the neighborhood, not up at Adams-Ricci.

Work yesterday was interesting.  One of my blind measurements stopped by the flooring desk to have a set of banded shades designed.  They're expensive.  He said that with the 35% discount the cost shouldn't be that bad. Hahahaha.  He wanted to purchase 30 shades.  His cost before discount was over $14,000 (Hahahaha).  After his discount it was over $9000.  (Hahahaha).  As you might guess, he decided to wait.  There might be a better discount next week, maybe 40%.  I emailed him a link to the design so he can review it in the comfort of his home, and where he can, should he want, pick a far less expensive shade.

Sales are down.  This is to be expected.  Prices are only going to go up.  And it is Friday, February 28, the last day of the month.  I stole this from Six.

And today is the first of hopefully many boycotts.  It will be interesting to see if any of the Main Stream Media outlets report on it.  I suppose everything depends upon how successful we are.  Honestly, every little bit helps.  Remember, this doesn't only apply to products, but to services as well.  

Jeff Bezos took a sledgehammer to the Washington Post again, turning their opinion columns into pro Orangie praise pieces.  There are still some naive people out there believe Jeffie is bending the knee.  Wrong.  Being the billionaire he is, Jeffie is aiding and abetting the Orange Anus.  Any billionaire siding with Orangie is doing the same thing.  They are all member of the billionaires club and like the Three Musketeers, they are all for one, and one for all.  Everyone of them believe they are supreme beings.

And you know?  I was thinking last night that with the size of the universe, a million, maybe a billion planets have already gone through the shit we're going through right now, that is if social evolution follows the same path on every planet with life.  This is, of course, a concept Conservatives will never be able to understand.  They desperately want us to be alone.  That's the only way we can remain special.  Sadly, they're wrong. 

Kissing Conservative Prayers Goodbye

 Well, it's Thursday and it's raining.  A steady drizzle is soaking the ground.  Howie came in wearing his favorite Wet Dog cologne, though he's not soaked to the point of needing to have a good shake, though he is still wearing his muddy doggy boots.

Yesterday was a good day.  Not only did I get both aquariums cleaned, I got in a 9 mile bike ride and, most importantly, Howie and I took our first walk in Adams-Ricci park.  He got to meet 2 other dogs, a lab mix who he had a good sniff with, and a little hair thing with big ears that frightened him.  

The initial paragraphs are done on the next book, The Body in 4/4 time.  This one is going to be more mysterious, with an old house and a musical code.  Yep, you read that right.  At least one of the major clues will be musical.  For those of you who are interested, Bobby Tussel will try and play the piano, that is when he isn't guzzling beer from his very own micro-brewery Hunky Donkey Draft.

The Lebanon VA pharmacy is overnighting my Atorvastin, that's my cholesterol med.  We have this issue every year.  I have a prescription for 4 ninety day refills, however that was originally set up when my yearly appointment was in January.  Three years ago my appointment was moved to June.  The prescription was never updated.

President Mush had his first cabinet meeting yesterday and he let the Orange Anus get in a word edgewise.

According to Orangie, everyone in his cabinet is pleased to have Elonia take charge... and if they don't well that's too damn bad.  Sadly, we did learn something, that Elonia and his team had accidently shut down an Ebola prevention, but don't worry, when they realized what they had done, they started it up again.  Elonia then went onto say, "mistakes are going to be made," as if that's a valid excuse.

While my brother didn't say so out loud, I'm certain he believes that Orangie is going to turn America into a socially conservative country with a socially conservative authoritative government.  I'm certain this is what he and millions of other Christians have been praying for, however what they're getting is Elonia, a Nazi.  Being dumb, I don't think a lot of social conservatives understand that Nazis believe in an Arian Nation, nor do that understand that while some Arians might believe in God, they definitely don't believe in either Jesus or the Holy Spirit.  Ouch.  Even worse, many Americans see Elonia as a successful businessman.  Well, he's made one or two shrewd investments, but those companies he bought have all gone on to suffer.  Tesla's stock is crashing.  Everyday it drops.  And can we talk about Twitter?  Elonia paid $44 billion for the social media platform and it's now worth $9 billion.  His idea of free speech is Nazi propaganda.  He doesn't understand why corporations don't want their advertisements book cased by Nazi shriekings.  These flaws in Elonia's ego driven vision of himself will lead him to destroy everything he touches.  So, all of those Christians who voted for Orangie thinking they were going to get a socially conservative, albeit authoritarian government, can kiss their dreams goodbye.

Reading the Room

 Will Wednesday be wonderful?  Possibly, at least as far as the weather is concerned.  Right now our thermometers are sitting at a nice 45 (F) and it's only 0900.  If the weather forecasters are correct, we should just about hit 60 (F) today, of course, the temps will fall back to what is considered normal on Friday, still, I do think we should enjoy them while they last.

As with most Tuesdays, yesterday turned into a nappy, let's not get much done kind of day.  This doesn't mean nothing was accomplished, but that's statement is pretty much on target.  I honestly don't know why that is, but it is now a fact that Tuesdays have become a "no work, no chore, lay around the house" day.

Actually, that's not completely accurate, I started working on the back cover art for The Body in History.  This is an early conceptualization.  I might end up going with color.  I might go with the color version, but I do have to admit the black and white is rather nice.  It lends atmosphere.  The patina is from having the statue sit in the bottom of the big aquarium for several months.

And I had breakfast with my brother this morning.  He feels that if Biden had done what he said he was going to do and leave office after one term, Democrats would have had more than 3 months to prep a candidate to run against the Orange Anus.  He surprised me by telling me he thinks a ticket of Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro would have knocked the sock off the Orangie/Vance ticket.  He claims to be in the wait and see mode, though to be honest, I don't think he realizes how much damage Orange and Elonia are doing.  I doubt if he will ever understand, at least not until the damage punches him in the face.

As expected, the Republican House of Representatives passed Orangie's tax cut bill last night.  Oh, and apparently they've decided to not hold any more townhalls with their constituents.  Golly gee whiz, if these losers think those people who voted for them are angry now, give them another two weeks.  Since every day another load of shit is dumped on them.  This also goes to prove we've be wrong about Republicans.  We've always thought they were incapable of learning, and here they are demonstrating they do believe in educating themselves.  In fact, it's almost amazing that they have learned that if you don't go into the room, you don't have to read the room.

Macron

 Tuesday.  Our outside temps are in the low 30s (F).  This afternoon they should be in the mid to upper 50s (F) and those are temps I can live with.  There is the possibility of an occasional shower, but what's a little drizzle when the temps are, after this past winter, close to being tropical.

I rode almost 9 miles yesterday.  It was good.  Again in Corsica.  I haven't decided if I'm going to do the treadmill or go for another ride this afternoon.  Or possibly I work with the dumbbells and bands.  Strength training can burn a lot of calories, but it does need to be done in conjunction with cardio.

This morning I'm scheduled for my annual eye appointment.  If there are no substantial changes, I'm hoping exams will only be necessary every two years.  Of course, that might be wishful thinking when I think about my age.  One thing that's true about getting older, we do tend to break down a little easier.  When I had my physical last year, they asked me if I wanted to start setting my appointments for every 6 months.  I declined the offer since I don't feel that's necessary.

Howie was bad this morning.  I found him drinking out of the toilet bowl.  It was clean, but still.  For a while, when Biggie and Lily were alive, I had a water bowl upstairs.  I'm thinking that might be something I start doing again.

Now I know the French are not always happy with Macron, but yesterday, whether they understand it or not, he made them proud.  As one person put it, he began his press conference with the Orange Anus by lightly blowing smoke up his ass... and then, he tore him a new ass, which means, I suspect, Orangie's now going to have to wear a second pair of Depends.

Let's see... Macron called Orangie's blow bro Vlad "a butcher."  Ouch!  And he interrupted Orangie in the middle of a sentence saying "that is wrong, let me explain how it really works."  That's right, one of our greatest allies called Orangie took Orangie to the woodshed and gave him several wacks.  Macron is not alone, other European leaders are also speaking out, but he is the first to do it live on American TV.

This is just another example of Orangie's blow bro Vlad making another terrible mistake.  You see Vlad made the mistake of invading the Ukraine because he believed they would cave.  Almost one million dead Russian soldiers later he's realizing he was wrong.  Vlad also believed that a win by Orangie would rattle Europe so bad, they'd be shaking in their boots.  Well, that didn't happen either.  In fact, they are more united than ever and Vlad has another black eye.  Vlad also thought that he and Orangie could put their two corrupt heads together and decide an outcome for the war he started which would benefit Russia... well, that fell apart.  Now Vlad's saying that the Ukraine does need to be involved with the talks.  I suspect that right now Vlad's trying to save face with the Russian people, because the last thing he wants is any sort of revolution public displays of dissatisfaction. 

A house upon the sand

 We're going to start this brand new week with a rise in temps... a decent rise, up into the lower 50s (F) today and even higher tomorrow.  A word of caution however, lest we think this is a good Bon Voyage to winter.  We have 3 weeks until the official arrival of spring, and after this week our temps will be falling back into the chilly zone, but only for a bit.

Starting at noon yesterday, I worked retail.  No exercise was done. I ended up putzing around until it was time for me to leave.  Work, itself, was boring.  I did manage to get a measure, and sold $700 in shades to a customer who was surprised by the cost... they were only buying 2 shades, but they were sheer shades with a double layer of striped fabric.  Nice.  They really dress up windows, however $350 a shade is a bit more than I'd be willing to spend... oh, and that was the sale price, already marked down 40%.

Business was slow.  I had a nice conversation with the store manager.  Business is slow across the entire region, 90+ stores, and it started to decline before the mini stock market crash on Friday.  From what I've been able to garner, Walls Street is set to recover a bit today, but will that recovery eliminate Friday's losses?  Probably not.  For that to happen there would need to be some really good financial news and I don't see that on the horizon.

I did stop off on the way home and picked up a new heater for the large aquarium.  My fishies are now swimming in much warmer water.

And, as far as I know, this is not real, though it is amusing.

Our door and window specialist stopped by the flooring desk to have small chat with me yesterday.  Earlier in the day, he'd had a conversation with the "associate," I mentioned last week, the one who thinks Elonia is doing a good job.  I did experience a moment of not too stunning surprise when I was told that the "associate" had said, "of course I voted for Orangie, you didn't think I'd vote for her, did you?"  This is very telling.  For a while I thought it might be possible that Elonia had indeed managed to hack into voting machines, however this statement plus the fact that the extreme right in Germany failed to take control of the country leads me to believe otherwise.  Nope.  We have the Orange Asshole because too many people in this country saw him as a better alternative than "her."  And now they're in the Find Out stage.

Will Orangie destroy Democracy?  I don't think so, though he's mounting a significant challenge.  Unfortunately, it seems to be turning out that many of these people voted for him because of gender, rather than "her."  Now, ain't that sad.

And another unqualified incompetent has joined his administration:  Dan Bongino (sp), a right wing podcaster who may, at one time, have also been a commentator on Fox.

I saw that James Carville has said that he doubts very much if this administration can last another month before it all comes crashing down.  I wouldn't be surprised if the trigger is the attempt by conservatives to shut down Medicare, or Medicaid, or possibly putting the United States Post Office into the Department of Commerce.  With all of his supposed real estate acumen, you'd have thought Orangie would know not to build a house upon the sand.

The Krasnov Connection

 Temps are supposed to climb up into the mid 40s (F) today.  I work.  Tomorrow they're predicted to hit the low 50s (F), and I work.  Tuesday, however, they should be up in the mid 50s (F) and I'm off.  I don't mind warmer weather.  We've had a cold winter, colder than it's been in quite a few years.   Of course, temps will cool down a bit because we are just approaching early spring.  

Yesterday was satisfying.  Much was done.  I will need to stop off at PetSmart on the way home to buy a new aquarium heater, the one in the big tank is kaput.  Right now the temp is sitting at round 68 (F), and that's too cold for tropical fish.  They barely move.  My battle with algae continues.  I've been scooping out huge netfuls of gravel and dousing them hydrogen peroxide, which kills the algae.  After they're dry, I pop them back into the aquarium.  It's a slow process, but it works.

I also got an 8 mile bike ride in yesterday and felt good afterwards.  For a while, I was listening to Greek and Roman history while I was riding.  Now I'm listening to Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.  It's an English translation.  There's no way I could understand all of the French geological terms he uses to describe a trip into the center of the Earth.

Of course, CPAC was this weekend, and while videos make it seem like there were thousands and thousands of people in attendance, there were only a little over 1000 tickets sold and believe me, everyone who purchased one is a certifiable nut job.  For those who don't know, CPAC is the Conservative Political Action Conference and his held to celebrate conservative crackheads, or maybe I should say Ketamine heads as one of the most memorable moments this year was Elonia wearing sunglasses to hide his Ketamine eyes while brandishing a toy chainsaw.  This is the stuff conservative wet dreams are made of.

As expected, the Orange Anus was allowed to ramble for far too long.  

And, of course, there is the Krasnov connection.  Probably the one story to continually pick up traction is the claim by some Russian spies that Orange was recruited in 1987.  In fact, when I did a search on it, I was notified that this is a rapidly changing story, that it's been constantly updated, even as I type. They're saying that not only was he recruited, but that he used is phony business empire to launder Russian Rubles.  Suddenly things begin to make more sense.  This is worse than the pee tape, if you know what I mean.  Those who did the recruiting are named, and someone warned them about walking near open windows.  If this is true, I'm sure they have the blessing of Orangie's blow bro Vlad, perhaps because he doesn't think Orangie is acting fast enough. Or, possibly, Orangie has simply outlived his usefulness, at least in Putin's eyes.

Trump, the Certifiable...

Well, it's Saturday and I don't have to work, and it's truly weird.  The temps are predicted to climb up into the low 40s (F), which means Howie's backyard presents are going to thaw, and yard work will need to be done.  And the temps?  They're going to continue climbing until they hit the mid 50s (F) by Wednesday.  Then, as we should all expect, they're going to sink back down into the more seasonable 40s (F).

Yesterday was a good day.  The big aquarium was cleaned, the old filter was thrown out, and the new filter installed.  More work will be needed until it's ready, but that's okay.  Yesterday was a very good start.  I am concerned that the heater might be going, so I hung a small thermometer on the side so I can get a decent temp reading.  For some odd reason, I don't seem to have a lot of luck with heaters as they need to be replaced every year or so.  I also threw out a UV filter which was supposed to help limit algae.  It didn't.

I got a nice upper body workout done.  That's 3 days in a row and I don't doubt for an instant its the result of spring taking aim at our weather patters.  The sun doesn't set until after 6 PM, and the additional hours of daylight are simply invigorating.  Once the days are warm enough, I'll be taking Howie up to Adams-Ricci for walks.  Being the bundle of energy he is, that should be exciting.

Dinner was a stuffed pepper (homemade).  In total, 5 were made.  2 will be lunch/dinner tomorrow, and 2 will be lunch/dinner on Monday.

I posted this on Facebook because... well, for the compassionate soul out there it speaks volumes.

Who is this going to devastate?  Seniors, for one, but in truth anyone who lives in rural America who relies on Teledoc for their healthcare advice.  Think of all those people who live in a small town that doesn't have a doctor.  The ones who need to drive over 30 miles to get to the nearest clinic.  You know?  The same people who voted for the Orange Anus because they believed illegal immigrants were going to move into town and steal their jobs.  People will end up dying, and smug conservatives will throw out thoughts and prayers before claiming that it's not their fault these rural Americans, and Seniors, didn't make appropriate plans.  

While I don't know what Fox is reporting, most of the major media outlets I checked on this morning are talking about the anger that's begin to seethe within the hearts of America.  Constituents don't want their elected officials bowing down and kissing Orangie's ass and they are becoming extremely vocal.  As a result, Orangie favored Truth Service with a long meltdown because he hates this.   He hates it that, as one woman in Georgia shouted, Americans are calling him a megalomaniac.  He hates the fact that Elonia is now one of the most despised men in the world.  You see, every time someone writes about this, or talks about one of these instances, it's a sucker punch to his face.  Each one is like a neon headline screaming "you're a damn idiot," and, as everyone should know, Orangie is a certifiable... 

The 28%

 And so... the warmup begins.  Today weather forecasters are predicting that our temps will hit the mid to upper 30s (F).  That's nice.  For 3 sequential days next week, they're telling us that are temps will hit 50 (F).  I'm fine with that.  I have a lot of yardwork to do.  Many sticks to pick up, so Howie doesn't bring them into the house to barter.

Not only did I work yesterday, but I got a nice 7+ mile ride in.  Corsica again.  A long time ago, this was a 55 mile ride, but wisely, Tacx has done a re-ride, cutting it into smaller sections with updated footage.  I've ridden the older version and it's interesting to see how much things have changed in a few years.  

And I did work yesterday.  It was terribly slow.  There was a note for me concerning the sale I had on Monday regarding a balance due.  For some reason the customer is being charged and additional $500.  There was no explanation, however, they did want me to call the customer and to collect the $$$.  So, I sent the note back asking why this cost has suddenly gone up.  They also know that I won't be back to work until Sunday.  Honestly, I'm hoping the customer has a change of mind and cancels.  

Today the big aquarium gets a new filter.  It's in place, I've just got to do one more cleaning before I toss out the old one.  I'm looking forward to this.  Hopefully, the fish will appreciate it, too.

Needing to keep myself informed, I just glanced at the Dow, as in Dow Jones Industrial Average.  Not being a stock market person, I realize the necessity of trying to understand all aspects of America, Wall Street being one of them.  Yesterday Walmart took one to the chin.  There's been some sort of mini-rally in Hong Kong, though Futures are down.  The outlook is not perky because inflation data is going to be released and everyone knows that prices have gone up.  Nothing has gone down in price. The more expensive things are, the less people buy.  The last time I bought eggs they were $7.49 a dozen, that was on Valentine's Day.

There have been several Town Halls that have not gone well for Congressmen.  One down in Georgia with some guy named McCormick who won in a Red district by 60+ % turned into a shouting match.  Isn't it amusing that these cultists are all for cutting the size of the government as long as they aren't the ones losing their jobs.  From what I understand, a large part of the CDC is in Georgia and 1300 jobs were cut.  That's a lot of people who will have to look to the private sector for employment, and all at the same time.

Elonia was at CPAC wearing sunglasses.  It's also my understanding that if you're a Ketamine addict, you tend to frequently wear sunglasses because, not only do you pupils dilate, your eyes rove around trying to find something to focus on.  The words that came out of his mouth didn't make a lot of sense.  

And finally, Orangie's approval ratings are tanking... badly.  Even Fox Entertainment is sounding the alarm.  Did they really think people were going to celebrate our fall into recession?  People hate Elonia, and by now, a large majority understand that old Orangie has no interest in running the government, and all of these decisions are being made by Musk.  The anger is already spreading to other billionaires.  That's fine with me.  For those who don't know, that 28% is the entirety of the Republican party.

Lack of Cohesion in Trump's Brain

 So, is today gong to be the last cold day for this winter?  Right now it's 15 (F) outside.  That's many degrees below normal for this time of year.  Sometime tonight our warm-up is predicted to begin, with the thermometer climbing up into the 30s (F) tomorrow and the 40s (F) by Friday.  Those temps will feel downright balmy.

Yesterday I began assembling the new filter for the big aquarium.  The process was a bit frustrating because the assembly sheet that was included was not for my filter.  Nope.  The directions were for a much different filter, so assembly was achieved by looking at the picture on the front of the box.  

I also had lunch with my cousin who at one time was a big Orange Anus supporter.  Times have changed now that Social Security might be involved.  She and her husband are in the FO stage.  

Otherwise yesterday was pretty much a day of slack.  Well, for the most part.  I did do laundry, and hand wash the dishes.  I'm going to be doing that more and using the dishwasher less.  Water consumption, you know?  Or maybe I should say water expense.  This winter is going to be very expensive when it comes to my heating expense.  To compensate I want to lower my water bill.

And then yesterday this was one of the many things that happened.

Of course, that was just one of a number shit show extravaganzas that happened.  The Orange Anus called Vladimir Zelensky a dictator.  Even conservative Ben Shapiro is calling that lie a lie.  If I might, let me play the devil's advocate and say there's probably not a lot of cohesion in Orangie's brain right now, nothing more than random thoughts trying for put forth his blow bro Putin's talking points.  Let's be honest here, he's a 78 year old man who'd rather just spend the rest of his sunset years cheating at golf.  Sadly, that does appear to be what he's doing while Elonia runs the government. 

Let me return to my cousin and her husband, they are aged Republicans who believe a lot of the GOP's propaganda.  They are very concerned about their Social Security, and not in the inane Susan Collins way, where concern is a quick wrench of her thin fingers and a momentarily furrowed brow.  They are worried, though rather than blame Orangie, their ire is directed at Elonia.  They were almost joyous talking about the protests, telling me how they had watched thousands of people all over the country protesting Elonia.  Being the kind spirit I am, I didn't let them know that those protests were against Orangie, too.  If this continues, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the MAGA leopards who end up eating Elonia's face.

Mastery of the Con

 We're in the 2nd day of our current Polar Vortex.  The high today will be in the mid 20s (F), and, as in past winters when we had long periods of sub-freezing weather, I am climatizing.  While I know it's cold, I'm no longer experiencing the bitter Brrr when I go outside.  As a species, we are quite adaptable, otherwise we would never have survived for so long.  Still, I am looking forward to Spring and the warmer temperatures it will bring.

I had my hair cut yesterday.  Haircuts are one of those things I have always had dislike for, unfortunately I don't like long hair either because it takes more time to maintain.  A simple shampoo and air dry is fine with me.  Having to spend money in order to maintain a certain appearance should not have to be a priority in life.  With prices predicted to rise, I will start giving myself buzz cuts again.

Also, much was accomplished yesterday.  A new pump and filter was bought for the big aquarium.  The overly large pump and filter that sits on a shelf beneath it is going away.  I've always hated having to change the filtering medium.  Its replacement will hang off the back of the tank.  

I also got a 6 mile bike ride in.  That was nice.  In Corsica.  I've done the ride before, but Tacx has updated it.

And I went to see Captain America:  Brave New World.  I liked it at lot, possibly because right now it might not be a bad idea if there was a super hero Democracy could count on. Anthony Mackie does a good job transitioning a character many identify with Chris Evans.  Harrison Ford played against character, which was interesting.  Not all of the reviews have been kind because, in the end, this is still a Marvel movie with a superhero.  I mean, what were these reviewers thinking?  That Marvel might decide to do a version of Jane Eyre?  

As for politics, for the most part, I stayed away form social media, however, what I did see and notice is that certain outlets are beginning to push back and Orangie and his cultists.  I did watch a short clip of Stevie Miller shouting over a correspondent about how much fraud they were finding, shouting over a question about prices and the fact that they were still climbing.  They are getting frustrated.  As I've said countless of times before, he and his cultists have always failed to understand there are both consequences and ramifications to their actions.  For example, they evidently fired essential people who were researching Bird Flu.  These fools, however, don't just terminate the position, they eliminate all information regarding the unemployed individuals, including phone numbers and email addresses, so, when they discover these people are necessary, there's no way to contact them.

And Orangie and Elonia had some sort of love/bro fest on Fox where the only thing they didn't do was canoodle. Even though some think they'll be at each other's throats soon, I'm suspecting they are too enraptured with each other's mastery of the con. 

The Damage Done

 Well, it's a chilly willy 16 (F) outside and the temps are only expected to climb up into the mid 20s (F).  We have the same forecast tomorrow.  However, after this mini polar vortex slides east towards Europe, our temps are supposed to bounce back into the mid to upper 40s (F).  That will be nice. 

Much more was accomplished yesterday than I had been expecting.  2 long loads of laundry, you'll notice I'm back to long loads is an effort to cut down on my water bill.  The big tank was vacuumed.  Oh, and I worked, selling an $8000 flooring installation to a very nice, but very odd woman.  She's involved in local theater.  A long time ago I was involved in local theater, and so we had several old acquaintances in common.  It would have been nice to have conversation with her, but other customers showed up.

That irascible Howie chewed off the back of my left slipper.  This is the first time he's actually damaged something, so he got a  swat that he ignored.  Now I have a good right slipper, and the left one is more of a slipper flop, if you know what I mean.

Not surprising, about 25% of Americans have stopped shopping at their favorite store because of politics.  Can you hear me laughing?  This is because many retailers wanted to support the Orange Anus because... well, he's going to give them a whopping big tax cut, and so they dumped their DEI policies.  You would have thought that at least one executive in these retailers would have pointed out that this might hurt sales.  Or maybe they thought that the tax break would compensate for their loss in revenue.  However, when such a large number of your customers stop buying from you, you're going to have problems.  I'm sure many of these retailers are now focusing on Damage Control, and how this bad decision is going to hurt their stockholders.

Yesterday was a day of protests against Orangie and Elonia.  Hundreds of thousands of people, all over the country, gathered and quietly held up signs.  So far, these protests are peaceful.  However, I agree with James Carville in that as more and more people are screwed over by this administration, these protests are going to get louder and angrier.  As he said, they are "going to turn into an out of control freight train," and the damage they do to this administration will be great.  

There's a saying that if you want to be successful, you need to read the room.  This has always been a problem for conservatives, they want to be authoritarian without understanding they need to have a majority of the people behind them.  Orangie doesn't.  His approval rating continues to slide.  And Elonia?  The hatred for him is growing hour by hour.

 

The Rabid Cultist.

 It rained like Hell yesterday.  You could hear it pounding down on the roof of the store, and a customer looked at me and asked, "is that rain?"  Of course, it was, and then came the high winds ushering in a new Polar Vortex, though this one is not supposed to be as Polary as the last one that came through the region.  No below 0 (F) degree days are in the forecast.

The retail business was very slow yesterday.  I did manage to get a blind measure.  Oh, and once again I had to go through the blind department taking down signage about our new prices.  Some fool things that by posting them in the faux wood, mini-blind aisle sales are going to be generated.  Wrong.  As a customer pointed out to me, the installation is only for special order blinds.  We do not install in-stock blinds.  If you work in retail you know, there's always going to be that one belligerent customer who's going to see that sign and demand we either install the blinds he just picked from the shelf, or he's going to sue.

Otherwise, yesterday was pretty meh.  I did stop off and pick up a bottle of wine on the way home, thinking I might have a glass or two, and ended up playing Skyrim instead.  The wine will not spoil.  I also bought a small stromboli to eat with the wine.  So, while the wine sat uncorked, I did eat the stromboli.

I'm off tomorrow, and besides getting a hair cut, I'm going to have to drag out the vacuum because the house is awash in Howie hair.  Oh, for those wondering how he spent Valentines day, well, he got a pink octopus.

Now something about Medicare.  Originally there was Social Security.  Then, realizing that private sector health care was stealing senior citizens blind, the Democrats decided to take a % of Social Security and form Medicare, a place where seniors could purchase necessary insurances without being taken to the cleaners.  This is the thing Republicans hate.  They say the government should not be in the insurance industry.  Being the party of selfishness and greed, Republicans desperately want to end Medicare.  They want seniors to should have to pay much more than they can afford in order for the profiteers in the health industry to take home big, fat bonuses.  They want to use the sweat of seniors to slack the greedy thirst of Wall Street.

And, on a personal note not related to Medicare, I happen to work with a rabid cultist; the very stupid, serious kind.  Yesterday, I asked him what he thought of Elonia.  He told me Elonia was doing a great job, finding all sorts of fraud.  Of course, he couldn't mention and single instance of fraud being uncovered.  I then asked asked what he thought of the termination of those people responsible for managing and maintaining our nuclear arsenal.  he had no idea what I was talking about.  He refused to tell me where he gets his information from, though I'm certain it's Fox.  He then went on to tell me everybody, except his private information site, lies.  Reuters?  "They lie."  The Guardian?  "They lie."  He then burst into laughter, claiming that we were all so pissed that the Orange Anus won by a landslide...  I'll give you a moment to think on that.  For some reason, I don't think this gentleman will mentally survive the FO stage.

The Assumptions of Trump

 Golly gee whiz, can you believe it, we've got another damn polar vortex slamming southward and, sad as it is, Central PA is not on the fringe.  True, right now the temps are in the mid 30s (F) and expected to get as high as 50 (F),  but this afternoon high winds are going to blow the cold  into the region.  Shit.

You'll notice, I'm not using my sailor language.  I think it behooves me to keep things rather PG oriented, but, just in case you're interested, the fucks fly freely from my mouth when I'm verbalizing my opinions.

I did work yesterday.  It was slow... at least for me.  My fellow flooring specialist managed to get 2 measures while I focused mostly on getting in my steps.  We all have our priorities in life.  My measures and sales are so good right now, I can use this slow period for other more important things.  For instance, while my associate spent an hour describing the fascinating, intricated differences between a polyester carpet and a nylon carpet to a husband and wife, I was using my PC to check out the marriable followers in Skyrim.  I know how to keep my eye on my priorities.

Not that there wasn't some excitement.  One of our customers brought his pet tortoise into the store.  This guy is over 18 inches long and weighs over 45 pounds.  Wowza!  

While there are those who believe the Orange Anus moves with purpose, more and more I'm thinking he is simply blundering around, throwing as much shit on the wall to see what sticks with his base.  Because of his multiple bankruptcies, he is known mostly for being wily con-artist relying on the court system to keep him afloat rather than as a shrewd businessman.  He is more comfortable playing the part of a door to door bible salesman than reputable retailer.  He makes many mistakes, carelessly blustering through them without concern or consideration for who might get injured, and by doing so he is making the worst mistake people in power can make:  he assumes.  He assumes he's smarter than anyone else, and so he brags about it.  Then something bad happens and Orangie blusters quickly onto something else.  One of the many things he's said that define his reliance upon assumption was that those Federal workers being terminated from their positions can get jobs in the private sector.  Another assumption of his is that people will accept all of these spending cuts, even when they are effect personally.  He is non-thinker.  His assumptions blind him, and his base, on the true effect he is having on America; he is pissing millions upon millions of people off.  Chaos is coming, and he assumes he can deal with anything.  Like so often in the past, he is wrong. 

Retail Crush

 Can you believe the weekend has arrived?  Forecasters are calling for snow here, followed by possible freezing rain, though in may end up just being rain.  Forecasters have us getting about one half inch of snow.  The freezing rain will total out at possibly .03 of an inch, which, if we were sitting on a donut, would be considered a very light glaze, probably so light you'd be embarrassed to call us a glazed donut.

I left my barley cook dry while I was making my breakfast.  Blame Howie.  I was busy throwing his new pink octopus and wasn't paying attention.  I ate one bowl and then fed the rest of it to the birds.   My house now smells like over toasted barley, or well maybe that's not right, possibly light burned might be a better description.

My sporting laptop shut down in twenty-two minutes into a ride yesterday.  I was not happy.  This has happened before, and every single time it seems to have been triggered by an update.  Yesterday 2 (one from Garmin and one from Microsoft) downloaded simultaneously.  When it shuts down like that, everything is lost.  Boo.  Hiss. 

And now for something light.  I'm playing through Skyrim again, and there are 20+ characters you can team up with, let's call them followers.  Each follower will add a bonus to your skills.  Many of them will only add that bonus up to level 30.  After lever 30 the benefits no longer have any value and so they just tag along making silly comments.  Except for one.  Roggi Knot-Beard.  His benefits are good up until level 60.  So, I'd like you to meet my new follower.

I am scheduled to work today.  I don't know how busy it's going to be, since we are supposed to get a dusting of snow, though I can tell you we have been slow.  Because our customer footsteps are down, I was not surprised to see this graphic in Bloomberg.  This past January, retail sales dropped.

Is it Trump's fault?  Off the cuff, I'd say that a damn good possibility.  Unless you have a lot of bouncing buckos in the bank, I would not purchase any big ticket items for the foreseeable future.  This is terrible news for all of those retail giants who toasted Orangie's win, believing they were going to get both a big tax cut and golden sales.  Ouch.

And, in case any of you missed it, Orangie's team fired over 300 people who maintain our nuclear arsenal... and then quickly hired them back once they realized what their zombie brains had done.  I'd put money on the fact that this stupid team is anything but Woke.

Blind Installations

 So, it was an early morning, though not early, early.  Howie's little bladder was full, so at 0500 this morning I found myself standing by the back door as he casually wandered out into the yard and relieved himself.  It was cold, 28 (F), and it was dark.  And when he was finished, he went to find a barter stick.  Yeah, that's right, he's got the barter thing down pat.  He always comes back into the house with either a stick, or a twig, or a chunk of ice, and then stands by the counter waiting to trade his "goods," for either a piece of Puperoni, or a biscuit, or a doggy cookie.  Now, of course, he's sleeping on the bed because... well, I guess he's tired.

I did work yesterday.  Prices are going up.  Blind installations used to cost $119 for 10 blinds, less the $50 measure fee.  Not anymore.  Blind installations now cost $249, and after we deduct the measure fee they now cost $199.  That's extremely pricey if you only want to have 4 or 5 blinds installed, which is the number of blinds most customers have installed.  And where we used to have free carpet installations, we now charge .49 a square foot.  They have dropped the cost of all carpets by that amount, but no one believes this deduction will last too long, maybe two or three months, and then it will disappear.

Because there were so few customers in the store, I managed to get in quite a number of  laps.  On one of them, I swung by the paint desk and was surprised to find that some Crazy person had pushed a religious brochure into "pick up paint here," sign holder.  I did the proper thing by pulling it out.  When I gave to the paint desk associate, she frowned, crumpled it up and threw it away.  This was a good thing.  

For lunch and dinner yesterday I made a Greeky bean salad that turned out to be quite tasty, so tasty, I wrote down the recipe.  

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you've heard me talk about visiting my Giant supermarket.  I'm pleased to say that Giant Grocery is one of those businesses that has not bent to the knee to the Orange Anus and his DEI hatred.

And the tariffs are kind of off for now... at least until April 6, at which time Orangie will decide if he will push them down the world's throat.  Sadly, that doesn't mean that companies are going to proceed with an anticipatory price increase.  Believe me, it's already happening.  What I find fascinating is that the only people claiming that prices will come back down are Conservatives, and I don't doubt that's to tamper down fears that the economy is going to go to Hell.  Believe me, it's going to go to Hell.  The last Republican president to not herald in a shitty economy was Dwight D. Eisenhower.  He was president when I was born.  That's a long time ago.  You'd have thought have so many years Republicans would have learned at least thing about their failed policies.  Of course, Conservatives never learn, that's why their presidents keep repeating the shit show over and over again.

Boogering with America

 Yesterday we had snow.  Today we have rain.  The clouds are supposed to be a passing thing, at least that's what forecasters are saying.  They're claiming that this afternoon a little sunlight is going to leak through before the winds arrive.  Yes, we're going to get windy.  And the temps are supposed to drop again.

Yesterday I got my butt on the treadmill again.  It's been a month.  I hit my step goal and reviewed the Greek language.  I also managed to get in a bit of ho-hum time, of course that's somewhat misleading.  I have Howie to entertain, and like a 4 year-old child he does need to be entertained.  He's a Labrador Retriever.   We play fetch at least 4 or 5 times a day, and I don't mean for few minutes.  Our fetch sessions run between 20 and 30 minutes.  I throw one of his toys and he retrieves.  He loves it.  

Yesterday I discovered I was making a big financial mistake.  I bought a high-efficiency, front load washer last year.  One of the settings is Quick Wash.  It only takes 25 minutes for a load of laundry.  However, and this is a big however, when you use Quick Wash, none of the sensors are used.  It doesn't measure the weight of the clothing.  As a result it just dumps a lot of water into the tub, not as much as my top loader did, but then that tub was bigger.  No matter how much clothing is being washed, it still dumps in gallons, and because the tub is smaller I'm washing a lot more loads of laundry.  And then yesterday I got my water bill.  All those quick loads added about $20 to my bill.  So, I'm back to doing normal loads.

And I did attempt a chicken souvlaki in the crock pot yesterday.  It was terrible.  I'm calling it a learning experience.

And of course, the entire world is laughing at this.

Honestly, it is still beyond me that this... extremely surreal press conference even took place.  I can't look at this without laughing.  This was like watching some terribly bad 80s sitcom without the laugh track.  I know that everyone in the world laughing at Orangie pissed him the hell off.  He had only one recourse, to put himself in charge of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  This means we can say "hello," to month performances by Kid Rock and the Village Person...oh, and probably the occasional dramatic reading by Kevin Sorbo.

And, no doubt, sometime in between the kid picking a booger and his saying "you're not the president, you don't belong here," Orangie and Elonia etched out a deal for the Federal Government to buy $400,000,000 in armored Tesla cars.  So, I'm wondering why DOGE isn't on that wasteful bit of spending?   

Inflation went up.  Prepare yourselves, it's going to go higher.  Unemployment is going to go up.  All of those people Elonia is firing will need to find jobs in the private sector (can you hear me laughing?)  Who in their right mind believes that corporations are going to increase their payroll expense?  And all of these cuts in expenses?  They're not going to benefit you.  They're going to go to giving the !% another Tax Break.  I do believe we're at an inflection point.