Musk and the Nerdy Young Men

 Today's high temp is supposed to be in the low 40s (F), however, we are planning for a quick dip tomorrow.  Today we're supposed to have partly cloudy skies, tomorrow?  A mixed bag of precipitation including a little bit of snow flurries, and a little bit of ice, and a little bit of rain.  I'm off both today and tomorrow, so I'll get my shopping done today and then home-it tomorrow.

I did work yesterday.  I sold one of my installs and got a measure, otherwise it was very slow.  The aisles were empty.  To pass my times, I chatted with associates and got my laps in: over 12,000 steps.  My name was drawn for the Salesperson of the Month award.  The prize was a $25 gift card for the store.  I used it to get furnace filters and some seed starter kit.  I'm thinking of putting in a few tomato and pepper plants in my front yard along with the Dahlias, maybe create some sort of flowery, Veggie potpourri garden.

When I did get into work yesterday, I saw that they had put our DEI board back up... sort of.  All the information that had been there is once again posted.  However, the three words across the top, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, have been removed.  A majority of Americans don't realize how DEI works, however they are being fed a diet of racial hatred by a small group of white people who believe that unqualified  people of color are being put into positions of importance simply because of their skin color.  If that were the case, this country would be lurching backward guided solely by pandemonium and chaos and that is not happening.

Of course, the stock market didn't crash yesterday because the Orange Anus caved.  Reports coming in were that the crash on Wall Street was going to be brutal, a bloodbath some called it, and that scared the bejesus out of him.  Hearing him tell it, however, both Mexico and Canada caved.  We are oh, so lucky that president of Mexico, and the Prime Minister had the receipts to prove the agreements Orangie said he demanded had already been in place.  Even more amusing was the fact that the 10,000 troops along the Mexican boarder were already in place.  CNN talked about the Canadian deal, but I'm not aware of any other Main Stream Media outlet posting this information.  

And more and more Americans are hating that fact the Elonia is involved in dismantling the government.  People just do not want him and his bunch of young male henchies having access to their personal information.  And... just a quick question, am I the only one who noticed that Elonia's proteges are young, nerdy males?  The oldest is 24 and the youngest is, I believe 19.  Could it be that Elonia is revealing a certain preference for whom he wants to associate?  Is it because they think he's a god?  I mean, it does make one wonder, doesn't it?

Not in our DNA

 The new week.  Temps are predicted to be nice and warm today.  The should be in the low 50s (F).  Tomorrow they're calling for warm temps, though not as hot, with average temps being in the mid 40s (F).  Hopefully the weather will stay fairly warm as I suspect energy bills are going to go through the roof.

I did work yesterday.  A customer set up a measure.  Two other customers returned a book of roller shade fabric samples, they want to speak to the associate who's exceptional at blinds.  I wanted to say that now might not be a good time to spend a couple thousand dollars on blinds.  We also got word that on February 10, our free carpet installation is going to go away.  We will now charge .49 a square foot.  There was actually a charge for installation, it was in the cost of the carpet pad.  Now they have to pay for the carpet pad and the installation.  I think business is going to slow down greatly.

I canceled my subscriptions to Paramount, Peacock, and Amazon Prime this morning.  The Amazon subscription just renewed in November and they charge by the year, so I will still be getting the benefits for the next 277 days.  There was a time when the channel was worth the money, but now except for the few original movies, everything is rent or buy.  I did keep up my subscriptions to Disney/Hulu and Neflix for the time being.  

I've been trying to take selfies of Howie and myself; this can be quite difficult.  Here's our latest, Selfie #2

And today is going to be... difficult for some people.  There is a good possibility that Wall Street might crash because of Trump's tariffs.  Stock futures are not looking too good.  I do think many Trumpers thought that the shift to an authoritarian government, one that they dictate, would be relatively painless.  They are about to discover how wrong they are.  Sometime today, after Wall Street opens, their 401Ks will begin to suffer as stocks drop in value.  They will take years to recover, if they recover at all.  At some point protests will begin, first in blue states and then in red states as the general population begin to realize that prices are never going to come down.  Conservatives have never understood the American public.  They have always believe that all they needed to do was be in charge, to yell "shut up! we're in charge," and the American people would act like docile lambs and obey.  They simply don't understand that for a vast majority of Americans, that docility is not in our DNA.

Pure Greed

 It's cold outside.  When I woke up the temp was 18 (F).  Tomorrow the temps are predicted to be in the low 50s (F).  I'll take the warmth over the cold any day of the week.  It's not that I don't like the cold, I just don't like the heating bills.  Right now it appears that $$$ might be going into a short supply.

I did work yesterday.  It was fairly slow.  I did get a measure.  Management likes that.  I have a feeling that very soon measures and flooring installations are also going to be in short supply.  Prices are going to go up, this is why I bought a dehydrator.  And those prices that go up?  They're not going to be coming down.  Corporations are not going to be taking a cut in pay just to make your life easier.  

One thing that was obvious yesterday when I went into work, Home Depot is scrubbing its DEI initiative.  Our boards were stripped.  This doesn't mean they're going to stop DEI hiring, just that they are not going to promote this necessity.  And it is just that.  When I began working for the company 16 years ago, you could count associates of color on one hand, that is not the case today.  It turns out that many of the white people who apply are... well, to put it bluntly, lazy.  We have a higher turnover with our white associates than with our people of color.  This doesn't mean that they both can't be lazy, just that our white associates don't last too long.

This is very important. I don't know how long this administration will allow access to it, so you may want to print it off.

And, of course, the Orange Anus has initiated Trade Wars.  Honestly, this man is as dumb as a fucking brick.  I do not doubt that in his tiny Adderall riddled brain he thinks this is a smart move.  He truly believes everything he does is a smart move.  We have this problem because he has surrounded himself with people who joyously shout "Yo!  Orangie, you're the smartest, most brilliant businessman in the world!"  He is a narcissist who basks in other people's deceitful compliments.  Truthfully, he is, and I'm going to repeat myself here, dumb as a fucking brick.

He also has a super big problem, maybe, as he might put it, the most monumental, super greatest problem in the world with Elonia, another man who is dumb as a fucking brick.  Elonia now has access to the Treasury.  Many think he's going to drain Social Security.  Nope.  As Elonia said some time ago, he wants to turn Zitter into a Financial Banking Service.  As a way of growing his wealth, Social Security payments will need to be process through Shitter, and he's going to charge Americans for this service... say 2%.  That means if you get a monthly Social Security payment of $2000, you're going to need to deduct $40 every month.  Over 71 million people collect Social Security.  That would mean Elonia would be pocketing almost $3 billion a month.  And he's going to do the same thing with your Income Tax refunds.  In fact, every payment the Federal Government makes will need to go through Shitter, and every payment is will need to pay a Service Fee.  Everything this administration does will be focused on Greed.  It's what these billionaires live for.

Sheer Stupidity

 Say hello to Saturday and the day is going to be sunny, but chilly, with our high only climbing up into the upper 30s (F).  That's fine with me.  I work this afternoon.  The weathers to cold for spring planners, but wait until Thursday.  Temps are supposed to be in the low 50s (F), and that will bring out the early bird curb appealists. 

Yesterday was a laundry day.  I also worked on the book.  But that's about it.  I made my version of celery potato soup using some scraps of beef that had been in the freezer.  It was fine.  I spent some time on social media, but not much. I like to stay quietly informed.  If I spend too much time looking at comments I tend to get aggravated.  

Howie did Howie things.  That means I have a new pile of sticks and twigs on my kitchen counter that he's bartered for snacks.  

I'm scheduled to work this afternoon.  The only day I start working before 2 is Sunday, those days tend to be slow.  Being the first Saturday of the month, we do our Kid's Workshop.  It's a nice concept, teaching kids how to work with kid tools.  They get their little orange aprons and put together a very simple project.  We usually get over 300 kids.  Projects that need to be painted are the worst; we end up with paint smears all over the store, on appliances, carpet samples, you name it, little painty fingers leave their mark.  The store is very busy, and since they're in the store most parents will buy something.  That's the real reason for Kid's Workshop.  It's all about the sales.  This is a promotional picture, no real children were involved.

And, of course, the tariffs begin today.  Will they do anything to make the rich richer?  Nope.  Many think they run for a few weeks, prices will go up, and then the Orange Anus will claim victory and either reduce them greatly, or put an end to most.  Oh, and prices might come down slightly, but they will never again be what they are today.  This is really all about impressing the cultists and making money for the billionaire boys club.

I understand Zuckerberg is getting a divorce.  Now we know why he got that shitty perm; he wants to look young and nerdy again.

Elonia got into government computers yesterday, places he shouldn't have been.  Social Security numbers?  You can bet he'll be selling them to the highest bidders because he doesn't give a shit about people.  Someone said he's going to do to the US Government what he did to Twitter, wreck it out of sheer stupidity.

The DEI Scapegoats

 Well, it's Friday and the skies are overcast.  We've had the drizzles.  We can use the rain.  We had a bit of snow a while back, but a half foot of snow is equivalent to about a quarter of an inch of rain.  The long term forecast has things warming up.  People down south will think that summer has arrived.  They don't understand how hot things will be for them this summer.

Yesterday was a very slow day at work.  Basically, nothing happened.  I did my laps, got my steps in, and watched the shit show on Social Media.  We have inventory next week so most people are focused on that.  Not me.  Though, for the first time in years I'll be scheduled to work on inventory day.  Back when I was involved the process was stressful, management needed to stay until the first inventory figures came back from Atlanta.  This meant a 14 or 15 hour day.  Now, the whole process is complete in about 5 hours, and no one has to wait.  

And I'm playing Skyrim right now.  I've played it many times before.  Skyrim is the Bethesda game that changed the rules on what a Role Playing Game was about.  To give you an idea how popular the game is, it was released in 2011 and is still in the top 10 games being played on PC and console.  If you want to see every aspect of the game, do every quest, go to every cave, dungeon, town, and city, expect to spend at least 235 hours.  

And Trump, the Orange Anus, tried scapegoating minorities yesterday in regard to the air crash that happened in the skies over Washington.  He is the embodiment of Evil.  One thing that made me glad was reporters giving him pushback on his lies.  One reporter named Alexander tried to pin him down, asked for specifics, and that pissed off Orangie from here to Hell and back.  As a result, he signed an executive order placing blame for this crash and for all future crashes on Biden and his push for diversity.  The Washington Post, which has been so catering to him, pointed out that in his first administration he left all hiring standards in place.  This man is spineless.  He will always place the blame on others rather than take any responsibility.  While his MAGA cultists may have approved this, a large majority of Americans found his actions disgusting. 

Adding insult to injury, the new Secretary of Transportation, some reality contestant named Duffy actually said, "It is not standard for aircraft to crash into each other."  Yes, this man is really this stupid, but he is a Trump loyalist and that all that matters to the Orange Anus.

The Bigger Stick

 Say hello to Thursday!  We're in for more sunny, fairly warm weather today.  Again the high is predicted to be in the 40s (F).  Yesterday, we cracked the 50 (F) degree mark.  Now how nice is that.  Since February begins on Saturday, I thought I'd post a reminder about the warm-up that always comes in the 2nd month of the year. It never fails.  During the past warm years, the temp has climbed into the low to mid 60s (F), this year, because this winter has been a tad colder, expect those warm days to easily hit the mid 50s (F).

Yesterday was odd in that I didn't do any sort of workout.  Except for taking Howie on a walk around the block, I pretty much sequestered myself inside.  I did look at my dumbbells for a bit, but left them lying on the floor.  My treadmill did not run.  My bike's tires did not spin.  There's lot of stuff going on inside my head about the new book.  This doesn't mean I celebrated the hours pretending to be a slug.  Chores were done.  Dirty laundry was washed.  I changed the filter on the dryer.  But for the most part, it was a meh day.

Evidently I'm part of a class-action lawsuit against Erie Insurance Group, that is if I sign, date, and mail back the forms.  If I do, I could get a check for between $25 and $500.  Thinking about it, I'll probably not return the authorization.  This is part of what's wrong with America, so many are continuing to litigate because so many of us think that we are owed, and I really don't want to be part of that "I'm going to make you pay," mentality.

This afternoon I get to go work.  This will be the last week I'm scheduled for 22 hours, from then on out it appears that I'll be working either 17 or 18 hours a week.  I can live with that.  As the weather warms up, I'm expecting to begin spending more time at Adams-Ricci.  

And yes, the sticks keep getting bigger.

Last evening a commercial jet liner collided with a military helicopter which evidently had it's transponder turned off, meaning that the controllers at JFK airport did not know it was in the air.  I've heard that this was a military transport with only 3 on board.  This means it had either dropped someone of some importance off, or was on it's way to pick someone up and it was being done... shall we say off the record.  That's the only reason it would not have been broadcasting it's position.

And Robert F Kennedy Jr was in the hot seat yesterday during his confirmation hearings to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.  He proved his incompetence by failing to answer so many questions.  Probably the most shocking was the fact that he tried to put distance between himself and his espousing the anti-vax community.  This man has made millions by speaking out and writing books about the evils of vaccines and then yesterday he said no, no, no, he never said that, or wrote that.  He betrayed everyone who ever believed he was speaking with some bit of authority.  I wonder how many people died because of him.

Presence

 Our Central PA temps are predicted to climb up into the mid to upper 40s (F) today.  The snow showers that were forecast for Friday are now rain showers.  Does this mean our warm-up has begun?  I don't see any reason why we shouldn't believe so.  I'm fine with that.

Since I do drink the occasional glass of wine, people have asked me if there was a specific wine I prefer and I always tell them red, though the occasional dry white is fine.  The vintner I prefer is Josh Cellars, so much so, I've set myself up as a member with a drop shipment happening every 2 months.  Yesterday I received my first shipment.  When I opened the door, the UPS driver looked down and, upon seeing Howie said, "Oh, you have a different dog."  The same driver had delivered a box of wine a year ago.  At that time he'd tried to give Lily a biscuit and she refused.  Isn't that an interesting point to remember?

I saw a really good movie last night.  "Presence," directed by Steven Soderbergh.  It's not really a ghost story, and yet it is.  A family moves into a house only to discover there is a presence already there.  Since this is a Soderbergh film, the family is dysfunctional, with the mother doting on her son, and the father doting on his daughter, and of course, there is the Presence... just who is that?

And, as we all should have been expecting, yesterday was another day of Chaos with the Orange Anus playing host.  Surprisingly, not everybody knows this, but around 3 PM every Medicaid portal in every state shut down.  This meant that no claims could be filed, and probably more important, no claims could be paid.  Health providers were angry as wasps who nest has been attacked.  Two hours later the portals were turned back on.  Orangey's administration says the outage was accidental.  Me?  I think they floated a trial balloon to get a reaction.  They learned that if they do something so stupid again, they're going to be faced with open hostility.  Curiously, at about the same time, Mike Johnson, the Idiotic Speaker of the House said Republicans would be willing to work with Democrats on the debt ceiling.  Coincidence?  Orangey is learning that if Congress won't put up guardrails, the American people will.

That brings me to Inflection Points.  When historians look at the world, they see certain points that change the direction of society.  Often they lead to wars.  One thing is always true, there is no going back to what was before.  The last major Inflection Point was the French Revolution in which the ruling class, the oligarchs, so to speak, were on the losing side.  In fact, authoritarianism has always lost.  I suspect that these Inflection Points happen mostly because Authoritarians never, ever learn from their past mistakes.

DeepSeek

 Wonder of wonders!  The temp outside was 37 (F) this morning when I let Howie out for his morning pee.  They had called for flurries, but if the fell, they flew by too fast to see.  Even better, according to the forecasters temps are supposed to stay this warm until Sunday when they're expected to dip down into the mid 30s (F).  I can handle this.  

Yesterday was a boring day at work.  I spent the 5 hours getting in steps.  This is the slow time of year.  As far as I can tell the only ones  spending money are the Conservatives who don't understand the economy is going to take a deep dive because of fiscal policies.  They are also going to be the first to complain when things go south.

On a really bright note this morning, my Income Tax Refund hit my bank account this morning.  I wasn't expecting those dollars to be available until next Friday at the earliest.  The refund will be used to pay off my windows, but not until after I've used it to earn some interest.  That means it going to be working for me in my savings account.  

As I've said, I'm thinking of downsizing my aquariums.  When I cleaned the big one last week, I started by removing one of the Greek statues.  There was a lot of algae growing on it, and at first I thought that I'd bleach it clean, making it nice and white again.  However, I discovered that in the drying process the algae created a rather interesting patina on the statue.  Now I don't think I'll bleach and of them.  I mean tell me, doesn't this look freaking awesome?

And for those who didn't hear about it, Wall Street went through a correction yesterday, if that's what you want to call it.  Something called DeepSeek, a Chinese AI program put American AI programs to shame.  It's less expensive and does a better job, but then American Greed has bloated our AI programs because our developers are focused on making money, not producing a good product.

This doesn't mean that I've suddenly gone overboard on AI.  While there are certain aspects I find interesting, it does truly need to be carefully managed.  

The Orange Anus also signed an Executive Order reinstating everyone of those members of the military who were discharged because they refused to be vaccinated for Covid... with 4 years of back pay.  This is how you start to build a private army.  This is not going over well with those hundreds of thousands who got the vaccine.  This grows loyalty in a small and most likely insignificant group of people.  Remember, anti-vaxers will always end up dying first.

Charged!

 Amazing as it sounds, the temps in Central PA did climb up into the mid 40s (F) yesterday, and if the forecasters are correct today is going to be a repeat of yesterday.  If the long range forecast holds, there are only 2 days in the next week and a half when our daily high will be down around freezing.  I'm fine with that.  

Yesterday was another interesting day in the world of home improvement retail. Because of football sales were low; this is Philadelphia Eagle territory.  In spite of the fact that many stayed home to watch the playoff game, I sold 2 more measures and signed up a customer for an indoor shutter consultation.  I also had another $1200 in sales, so basically last week I hit the trifecta + for a specialist.  Management should be very happy.  

Within an hour or so I should be hearing from Faulkner Subaru regarding my battery situation.  I am prepping my mind for a worse case scenario, you know, where the script says that battery that is only 1 year and 2 months old died because of a bad alternator or some other car part that's going to be expensive to fix.  I hate additional expenses since my income is allocated to specific needs.  Right the main focus is paying off those windows I had installed.  Once that bill is buried I'll be a much happier camper and right now I'm looking at an internment day in May.  The interest free period doesn't run out until September, so I'm not concerned about that.  I just don't like owing money.  

Battery update:  bad battery, I'm getting a new one for free.  Sometimes you can actually take advantage of a warranty.  

And here's a pic of Howie in the snow.

And, as we all expected, Chaos got a little rough yesterday with Colombia.  Fox says they caved, everybody else is reporting negotiation happened.  Orangie doesn't handle pushback well and Colombia pushed back.  In reality, his little temper tantrum will cause Colombia to search for another large trading partner, one that's friendlier, and that country will probably be China.  Sales agreements with the United States will disappear.  That's something Orangie will never understand.  He's pushing  hard for the EU to buy more from America, that will fail.  He will try tariffs and sanctions to force them, and they will turn elsewhere.  Right now we have the largest economy in the world, soon that honor will go to China.  This is going to be anything but a golden age.

Trump's Approval set to Sink

 So, here it is Sunday and the outside temp is 25 (F) and we're headed up to the low 40s (F) today.  I can live that.  I don't mind snow, but after the first day or so it's no longer pretty to look at and thanks to the cold temps we've been having, this white stuff has been hanging around longer than needed.  Our future forecast has our daily highs all in the upper 30s (F) to mid 40s (F).  I'm fine with that, too.

After a bit of a difficult start, I did go to work yesterday.  I managed to hit my goal in measures, 3, even though foot traffic is the store was down.  That should keep management happy.  Our inventory is a week from Thursday, and so they want us to be busy working in the aisles, pulling product down from the overhead and restocking our shelves.  Because I'm a specialist and need to be free to work with customers, I can pretty much slough that off.  I'm fine with that.  There are playoff football games on TV today, so things should be slower than usual.

And the difficult thing I had to deal with yesterday before going to work was a dead battery in my car.  That heated my temper up slightly.  There are very few things that get me angry at my age, and a dead battery is not one of them.  Mostly, it was a terrible inconvenience.  What was most irritating was that it's only a little over a year old.  My neighbor across the street gave me a jump and I drove it to the dealership.  They gave me a loaner to use until Monday.  Even with the cold temps we've been having, that battery shouldn't have held a charge.  Anyway, here's pic of the loaner.  It's white.  I really do hate white cars.  

And did anybody catch our morally degenerated felon of a president rambling in California?  The man is a blithering idiot.  Who's in charge?  I have no freaking idea.  He's putting the Project 2025 plans in to play, but I suspect someone is telling what he needs to do, one of his sycophants no doubt; the same one who hands him Executive Orders and a Sharpie.

Many conservatives have this fascination with Putin and how he runs Russia.  To them, he is a great role model for running an authoritarian government.  Like I've said before, mostly what they want to do is shriek "Shut up!  We're in charge!"  What they don't understand is that Putin spent years playing the part of "Nice Vlad" to put himself in the position he is; his PR was constant.  Xi of China did the same thing.  Each one of those authoritarians had a majority of the population supporting them.  This is not the case with the Orange Anus.  He started this term with only a 49% approval rating.  For him to have even a moderately successful authoritarian presidency he needs to improve that bigly, however instead of concentrating raising his ratings he's doing what that minority group of conservatives want him to do, and that's shriek "Shut up!  I'm in Charge!"  Conservatives, instead of taking the time to make their hardline agenda more palatable are simply using Orangie to shove it down the throats of a majority of Americans.  No one every said they were smart.

DEI hires

 So the forecasters were wrong yesterday, we barely cracked the 30 (F) degree mark.  The sun shone brightly most of the day and that helped get rid of the snow, but temperature wise we were still cold.  Today, if they are hopefully correct, out temps should climb up into the mid 30s (F).  Tomorrow?  If we're lucky, we will hit the 40s (F).  That will seem like a heatwave.

I got pretty much done yesterday, including a decent cleaning of the big aquarium in the writing room.  On of the Greek statues has been removed and is waiting to be scrubbed clean.  I've had that tank for a while and enjoy it, however it's not glass and scratches easily when you're scrubbing algae from the sides.  So, I'm thinking of either downsizing to a smaller tank or getting rid of it completely.  Possibly, I might get rid of the big tank and move the 30 gallon tank from the living room there.  I've been mulling over these ideas for a while, all I have to do is wait and see which one comes to fruition.

I do get to work today.  Can you read the excitement in my words?  Home Improvement retail is a good barometer for reading the general public.  You can tell which people pay attention to what is going on in Washington from those who are... detached.  For example, if I was an Asian working in the United States who wasn't here on an H-1B visa, I wouldn't spend $3000 on new blinds for my house.

And yesterday was big for Howie!  He got a new box of toys from Chewy!  It was part of a buy 4 get one free deal.  All of them are made by Kong, which means they're going to be very durable.

And a Christian Nationalist is now in charge of America's military, one of the greatest military forces in the world.  Old Petey Hegseth has never managed any more than 100 people at a time.  He is also a man who will do what ever the Orange Anus tells him to do.  We can only wonder how long it will be until the United States invades Greenland.  We can only wonder how long it will be until he makes a catastrophic blunder which causes the entire world to sanction us, because that's going to happen.  Also, for those who don't know, Christian Nationalists are not at all appreciative of other Christian Faiths, so how long do you think it will be before, oh, let say the Episcopalians get attacked.

It's my understanding that individuals considered DEI hires in the Federal Government are being let go, not surprisingly many of them appear to be Women of Color.  The faster they get dismissed, the fast the unemployment rate goes up.  Believe me, that sucker is going to go so high people are going to believe it has wings.

A note to Jaime Dimon

 Holy Crap!  The outside temp was 16 (F) when I woke up this morning!  Even though forecasters only predicted yesterday's high to be in the low to mid 20s (F), it actually climbed up to 28 (F), and today they are telling us that we're supposed to hit the low 30s (F).  Knowing that the change in weather patterns is effected by the Earth's rotation, I'm wondering if this Polar Vortex is going to continue across the Atlantic.  If it does, people in the Europe prepare yourselves, it's a real cold biter.

The new thermostat is working well.  It's toasty in my house, well, except for the living room which has always had a bit of a winter chill.  That has more to do with a lack of insulation, something that did not exist when the house was built in 1905, than anything else.  To be perfectly honest, you only really notice it when we have subzero weather.

Work yesterday was ho hum heh.  The full time associate had customers.  I didn't.  Not that I had a problem with that.  They have me scheduled for 22 hours for the next few weeks, but then in the 2nd week of February I'm down to 17.  Years ago, when I was first hired as a part-time cashier, the February doldrums meant I might get 5 hours a week.  This is not a good time to be a part-time cashier.

So, tell me, do you think Howie did something bad?

So the Orange Anus has set up a DEI snitch line.  If you're a bitter white person who believes that your company or organization is hiring People of Color instead of white people, you can send a snitch email accusing them of... what?  Racism?  I saw several bits about this yesterday, all of which included that detestable email address so good, American citizens could flood, and hopefully crash the website. 

Orangie's administration has also put a freeze on hiring minorities because they feel it is so much better to give an unqualified white person that job.  I don't know what the number is, but quite a few People of Color working for the Federal Government have been put on paid leave.  In case you think this is just a temporary problem, don't, this is the work of that white supremacist Stevie Miller and that apartheid Aryan Elonia.  Every time Orangie makes an appearance, he tends to lose incoherence.  While this continues, the unemployment rate is going to constantly increase as these decent human beings lose their livelihoods.  This adds to the Chaos, and let me remind you again, Wall Street hates Chaos.  Wall Street hates unemployment because that means people who aren't earning wages are not spending money.  Wall Street needs people to spend money.  Conservative stupidity has always crushed the economy, and it's doing it again.  Jaime Dimon, a billionaire douche if there ever was one, said yesterday that Americans are just going to have to get used to paying higher prices.  Here's a note to Jaime, people can't spend it if they don't have it. 

the 1950s

 Yay!  The temps out side are a balmy 6 (F).  That's better than 1(F), which is what they were yesterday, and the forecast is for them to reach up into the mid to upper 20s this afternoon.  The Polar Vortex is leaving.  Warmer, and yes I do mean warmer, air is slowing pushing the frigid mass that's been chilling America out to sea.  Now, isn't that nice.

There was excitement in the house yesterday.  I made an appointment to have my thermostat switched out with Raddle Electric.  As I've said before, Joe Raddle was killed in an automobile accident and his assistant Jordan is taking over the business.  On arriving, Jordan told me he'd never done anything with thermostats before and, after taking it off the wall and examining it for about ten minutes said he would feel more comfortable if I went with a plumbing/heating contractor. He put the thermostat back on the wall and left, and I called Webber plumbing and heating.  Three hours later, I tried to adjust the temp down and the thermostat fell off the wall.  Twenty minutes later Jordan was back since I no longer had heat.  I told him, "let's put the new one on," and we did.  I pulled up a photo of where the colored wires were to go, and he followed the picture.  I now have heat.  He had a learning experience.  I actually thought the whole thing was rather humorous.  He did mutter "fuck" a few times, which made it funnier for me since I could pretty much figure out what was going on in his head.  As you can see, I'm going to need to touch up the paint.

And in another attempt to take us back to the 1950s, the Orange Anus completely eliminated the EEO.  For those not old enough to remember, back then white man were the office workers, not women.  A woman could be a secretary, that was about it.  Also, if you were a married woman and got pregnant, you could be fired; they didn't want you taking time off from work.  There was birth control, but it was condoms.  Catholics used the Rhythm Method and had very large families.  Of course things were much less expensive, too, and if a married couple lived modestly, wives didn't need to work.  Oh, and everybody got married to someone of the opposite sex.  Women who didn't get married were called spinsters and for the most part frowned upon because not getting married and not having children proved they were failures.  People of Color were forced to do the shit jobs, and they definitely knew their place in society.  Disabled people didn't work, they were supported by their parents, or siblings, or put into homes.

This is not going to go over well at all.  But then Conservatives have never, ever really been known for their intelligence.

The Bishop

 It was 1 (F) degree when I left Howie out this morning.  He was long enough to do his business before scooting back in super fast for a peanut butter puppy cookie.  Today's high is expected to be in the upper teens, though by tomorrow it should be in the upper 20s (F).  Now, won't that be nice.  And they will continue to rise.

The cold temps are a bit bothersome because my thermostat is on the "fritz," as they used to say.  The furnace turns on and works well, however, once the set temperature has been reached, it switches to Air Condition and the fan simply circulates air, so instead of the temp being a constant 72 (F), it's around 69 (F).  I find this frustrating, so I drove to the store yesterday and bought a new one with the thought of installing it myself.  I looked at the instructions and said, "nope, I'm calling someone."  Sometime this morning I will call Jordan and make an appointment.  For those who don't know, Joe, the electrician I used previously, was killed in a traffic accident and his assistant, Jordan, is now running the business.  

Otherwise, yesterday was like most of my Tuesdays, spent not doing much of anything.  This behavior pattern repeats regularly, and always on Tuesdays.  I don't know why.  Even when I was off for a week, Tuesday was spent doing practically nothing.  

Howie is getting some new toys.  Chewy had a sale, 4 for the price of 3.  None of them have plush.  All of them are made by Kong, a company that knows how to make durable dog toys.

And then yesterday this happened:

And last night on Truth Social the Orange Anus called her a nasty bitch.  So much for thinking that might be any tiny bit of Christian compassion in the Orangie's administration.  Do not doubt that so called Christians have problem with her calling out their wannabe morally degenerate savior.  

Evidently every mention of LGBTQ individuals was expunged from every government website yesterday, I'm sure that must please the Log Cabin Republicans to no end, emphasis on the No end.

At this point, I'm just wondering when the protests are going to begin.  Every day I see reminders of the 1960s, when there were protests all over the country against... well, just about everything.  This time, if there's a Kent State, those shooting the guns will find people defending themselves and shooting back.  Chaos will ensue, and Wall Street will take a Hell of a hit, and the billionaires will run for their lives.  I understand Zuck has some sort of underground compound in Hawaii - that doesn't seem very smart since the Hawaiian Island chain is volcanic.

Seig Heil

 It's cold outside.  4 (F).  Our precipitation forecast is looking dry for about a week, until temps begin to rise.  Until then we will be getting no snow or ice.  I feel bad for those people down south who may experience this type of weather maybe once  in a lifetime.  My warning to them:  unless it is essential for you to go out, stay home, your roads are going to be treacherous.

I worked yesterday.  It was slow... except for one half-hour period.  I signed someone up for a credit card, and sold some vinyl plank flooring.  The sale was over $7000, so I'm set for the week in sales.  That's a lot of money to spend on flooring, but that did include a $452 bulk purchase discount.  Also, prices are going to be going up.  Anyone who doesn't think so might one to check themselves into a dementia clinic.

Here, in frigid PA, I am letting Howie out, but only in the hopes that he does some of his business outside.  Unfortunately, he wants to spend most of his time looking for small sticks and leaves that haven't been buried by  the snow.  I have no problem cleaning up a little puddle on the vinyl floor of the bathroom if he has an accident.  Gertie used to use that same vinyl floor if she couldn't make it outside, so I suppose you could say that's traditional.

As expected, I didn't watch the inauguration, though I did wear black to work to participate in the National Day of Mourning.  Well, kind of black.  My shirt was old and gray with some black striping, and threadbare cuffs.  I did see a number of customers wearing black, though I didn't know if they were participating, or simply thought they were being stylish.  

And, of course, the Orange Anus (and his boss Elonia) were foremost in everybody's mind, and not for good reasons.  There was this:

Can we talk about an eye-opener?  For comparative measures, I chose the split screen picture.  Elonia did this twice in order for people to be perfectly clear on just what he was doing.  The only thing he didn't do was shout out Seig Heil! I don't doubt that a lot of Americans saw this and had an "Oh, Shit!" moment.  I wonder what they're going to think when the fact hits home that Elonia is going to have an office very close to the Oval Office.  I keep seeing people saying this is going to be a very rough 4 years.  As I've said before, I give it 2.  In spite of the Orange Anus signing an Executive Order charging members of his team to work on lowering prices, they are not going to go down.  There's an old saying that "you can't get blood from a stone," well, the billionaires running the country are going to try damn hard to make that happen.

Resistance

 Well, we did get snow yesterday, about 5 inches... maybe a teensy bit more.  Several times I looked out the window and saw we were having gray outs, which is close to a white out except I could still see the outlines of the houses across the street.  And, of course, the Polar Vortex has descended upon us.  Bitterly cold temps are in store for the next 3 days.  One thing I have noticed is that on Wednesday we were supposed to be deep into the negative numbers, now they're only predicting it to go down to 4 (F).

For those who are interested, Howie doesn't like the snow.  Every time he goes out, he comes back in with one of those "what the Hell is this white shit" looks on his face.  His problem?  The snow has buried all of his precious sticks and leaves.  There is nothing he can bring back into the house except snowflakes and ice crystals.

I did take a personal day yesterday and am glad I did.  The snow was falling heavily until roughly around 7 PM.  While my car is made to get around easily in snow, the last thing I wanted to be doing was dealing with blowing snow on my drive home... after dark.

What I did do is bake a delicious loaf of bread and cook up some rice pudding.  Yummy.

And in spite of what some of you might want to think, this is not a picture of the taverna outside The Kraken's Grotto.  Honestly.  Seriously.  You must believe me.

And something truly terrible is happening in Washington today, on this National Day of Mourning.  Conservatives are wresting control of the country away from a majority of Democracy loving Americans.  They do not care about your rights.  The only thing they care about is shrieking "shut up, we're in charge," at the top of their lungs.  If you look at the other authoritarian governments around the world, many of them have had some form or authoritarianism for centuries.  We have not.  Those other governments?  They have all toppled at one time or another.  Putin is not the first dictator in Russia.  Xi is not the first dictator in China.  Many have come before them and all of them have failed.  The Oligarchs gathering in Washington?  They are not prepared for the resistance they will face.  The minute Americans begin killing Americans chaos will erupt and Wall Street will collapse.  They simply do not understand their greed is also their Achilles tendon.  Musk has said Americans need to suffer through 2 hard years, and we will soldier through them, and in the end he will be gone.

Social Conservative

 Well, as of 0400 we went into a snow warning and here it is 3.5 hours later and nary a flake is in sight.  A quick look at the weather radar map indicates that most of the precipitation is falling south of us and possibly, by 0930 we will have flurries.  The longer it takes for this to arrive, the less snow we're likely to get.  Crap.  And here I was thinking I'd wake up to a winter wonderland and right now all I'm wondering about is when the snow is finally going to land.  Supposedly, our heaviest snowfall will happen between 2 and 6 PM, when I'm at work... or was supposed to be at work.  

Yesterday was one of those meh days.  I had a zoom call scheduled for 3 in the afternoon with my Navy buddies.  Oddly enough, scheduling calls, or for that matter scheduling anything can easily throw off my day, mostly because it gives me a reason to procrastinate.  My reasoning is that I don't want to start something and then have to interrupt what I'm doing and thus I have a reason to do nothing but wait.

The call went well.  However, they're talking about getting together for a reunion somewhere in the middle of the country.  During that part of the conversation I was mostly quiet.  I enjoy the Zoom calls, it's nice to chat for an hour with men I've known for over 50 years, but spending one or two days with them?  We have all changed so much.

In spite of my procrastination yesterday, Howie had a busy a day.

So, I had an interesting text session with my brother yesterday.  He's 61, had been laid off from his job about 6 months ago.  About a month ago he was hired by New York Life.  Oh, and he works in IT, usually as part of a Help Desk team.  I asked him if he was concerned about the Orange Anus' flip on H-1B visas and... I kid you not, he didn't really know what I was talking about.  Being a social conservative he voted for Orangey, and like so many social conservatives can simply not comprehend that Orangey played his Evangelical base like a 2 bit whore.  I asked him about staffing at New York Life and he told me that about 70% were Indian and 15 % were Mexican.  I told him that he really needs to start paying attention to what's going on.  He simply does not understand, but I'm sure he does pray daily, probably more than once.

Update on the weather:  It is now snowing heavily, so I'm going to stay home and bake a loaf of bread.

In the Round

 The weekend is upon us.  The temps are cold, but not bitter cold, I know this because Howie's pee doesn't freeze into little stalagmites. their sharp little points thrusting up from the frozen ground.  Around here, the temps actually climbed into the 40s (F) yesterday day.  They're supposed to do the same thing today.  And then the Polar Vortex arrives with a flurry of snow.  Forecasters are calling for 3-6 inches starting tomorrow morning.  Yippee.  It's Sunday, so I'm scheduled to work 12-6.  I will have to wait and see what the roads are like before deciding if I'm going to drive to the store.

Things did get accomplished yesterday.  But mostly I spent time on the book, and cooking up a bean stew with ground beef and carrots.  It is really tasty.  There's enough left over for tomorrow's and Monday's meals.  That was the last of my ground beef.  I'm debating if I want to buy more.  I was never a big red meat eater, I like pork and chicken, or maybe I should say pig and fowl, since I like ham, which is pork, but everybody calls it ham.  I've been trying to schedule the occasional meatless day at least once during the week, and so far it's been working.

I started reading the 3 books used for The Three Body Problem a long time ago.  I've finished the first 2 volumes, though I'm struggling through the third.  My problem is that the story covers hundreds of years and instead of having one narrative thread as in The Lord of the Rings, it's structured around short stories and novelettes and at times the connecting threads are tenuous at best.  I like the things I read to have continuity.  It's also very pro-isolationist.  The thesis of book 2 is that space is like a dark forest and you don't want to shine your light, otherwise some other more advanced civilization with come and conquer you. 

And, of course, the inauguration has been moved indoors.  It's now being held in this shabby little joint.

The Capitol rotunda is just the right size for holding an intimate inauguration for Trump and his coterie of billionaire blow bros.  A vast majority of those who have tickets for the event now find that they have been shat upon.  Now, I'm not saying that the frigid temps might not have something to do with the change of venue, but this is 2025 and large heaters are no doubt already installed beneath the stage to keep the 1% warm and toasty while Orangey rants for an hour and a half.  And do not think for a second he has one wit of a concern for that half a throng of cultists who have descended upon DC to watch him being sworn in.  However, since their votes have been tabulated, they no longer have value.  Though that half throng might be more of a reason than the cold.  People have been checking, and it seems that few, if any, of the hotels in the DC area are booked to capacity.  To give you an idea how small the crowd was going to be, those who have traveled to our nation's capitol to watch, can do so in the warm of the Capitol One Arena.  For those who like numbers, this arena, when at full capacity, seats a little over 20,000.  Ouch!  For a loser who's so desperately in love with large crowds, this would be the fail of a lifetime.

Cheap Black

 The temps stayed cold yesterday and we had flurries on and off through out the day.  I kept getting notifications that the snow was going to be ending soon over and over.  We had zero accumulation.  Today the temps are supposed to climb into the low 40s (F).  The same is true for tomorrow.  After that, our temps are supposed to take a deep dive for the (cough, cough) inauguration.

Business is the store was very slow yesterday.  That doesn't mean I didn't talk to people, though all I really did was answer questions.  No one has any interest in opening up their house at this time of year, especially since it's cold so far.  If we start warming up, that might change.  We have had polar vortices during the past 2 years, just like the one we're having now, but they were earlier in the season.  After that warm temps returned.  I'm hoping that happens again this year.  

My neighbors started to get loud last evening, so I got loud and for around 4 or 5 minutes I was very loud.  Honestly, I don't know if it bothers them that much.  Maybe I'm using the same tactic everyone of their previous neighbors used.  One thing I have noticed is that when the husband is home, things are much quieter.  It's only when he's working that she gets loud.  I usually only watch TV one night a week, it's not something I need.  I never watch any of the trendy shows, I just don't find them interesting.  And since I don't have cable, the number of series I watch is limited.

Howie is this big at 5 and a half months, easily over 50 pounds... and still a very playful pup.

While at work yesterday, one of my associates came to me and asked if I was working Monday.  I am.  I work every Monday.  She then told me that I should wear black, you know, as if I were going to a funeral.  So I told her that I don't own anything black, well I do have a pair of patched, faded black jeans, but that's it.  Being an earth tones kind of person, I'm not into black clothing.  The only reason I have that one pair of jeans is because they were on sale at Community Aid for $4.99.  So, I suppose you could say I do wear cheap black.

Of course, the only reason she wants me to wear black is because it is inauguration day.  It's supposed to be one of the coldest inaugurations in decades.  Not that they'll be cold on that stage.  You can bet that the Orange Anus will be trying to blow so much hot air and smoke up America's ass things will be quite toasty.

Red Sky in Morning

 We have a red, red sky this morning.  Supposedly there is light snow falling... there isn't, though forecasters are predicting some for later this afternoon, but only flurries.  The temps are predicted to pop above freezing tomorrow, but only briefly.  After that they will be dropping down for at least another week.

Yesterday was a pretty decent day as far as getting things done.  I made some beef jerky.  Some of it's okay, some is... well...  I wanted to try my hand at dehydrating beef but didn't want to spend an exorbitant amount at my neighborhood Giant supermarket, so I bought clearance beef.  These were good cuts for cheap.  A learning experience occurred.  You need to loose lean beef when making jerky.  All that tasty marbling which adds flavor to your steak, or pot roast?  That's fat and fat doesn't dehydrate.  Nope.  Fat melts.  So I have 2 bags of jerky.  One consisting of lean pieces, and one that got very dry, except for the fatty parts.  I used a garlicky marinade, so both types are quite delicious, it's just that one needs to stay refrigerated.  It will get eaten first.

I also got a decent leg workout in yesterday, you know?  The hated squats and lunges.  

I also get to work today.  As I've said early, we're heading into inventory, so they may want me to do some physical labor.  We'll see how much I really do.

Here's a pic of the sunrise.

Yesterday Frankie Graham said the fires in Los Angeles are probably not God's Judgement on the state.  This surprised me.  Frankie's been an avid supporter of the Moral Degenerate soon to be in the White House.  He has asked people to pray for the Orange Anus.  Claiming that the fires probably were judgement would have helped Orangey with his divisive tactics, so I'm wondering if there might be some small, unspoken rift developing between Orangey and his Evangelical base.  He no longer needs their votes, and he's never once admitted to even believing in God.  Could it be that Frankie's realizing that Orangey has no intentions of making this a Christian country?  None of the wannabe Oligarchs has ever exhibited any true religious sentiment... well, Elonia seems to be favoring Aryanism and that has it's own god network.  One thing we all need to keep in mind is that Orangey will do anything to curry favor from those who are much richer than he is, and that's a bad thing.

 

Sticks

 We have 19 (F) degrees outside, and the expectations are for it to only get a few degrees warmer.  Tomorrow, things are going to heat up a bit, but then we're supposed to have flurries spreading through the area.  Warmer temps are only expected to arrive next week, then we should be up in the 40s (F).

Much was accomplished yesterday.  Normally, on Tuesdays, the day after I've worked for 3 days straight, some things get done, but many of the chores get put off until later in the week.  This was not the case yesterday.  I baked a loaf of bread, cleaned the tank in the living room, prepped 2 pounds of beef so I can make jerky, completed an upper body workout, and that's not all of it.  And last night, I got a really good night's sleep.  That doesn't happen all of the time.

This morning some gent from UGI (my gas company) is coming to change out my gas meter.  The one I have is old.  I don't know if the new one is going to be more accurate, or if it's just going to be a change of color.  Right now, the one in the basement is brown and tech who checked it out 3 months ago told me they don't use brown anymore.

Howie has learned a new game.  He brings a stick or leaf into the house every time he goes outside and then trades his little bit of detritus for a treat, usually a small piece of Puperoni or a biscuit.  I've been savings them because it is kind of cute.  This is what I've accumulated so far.  Today they get thrown out and we'll start again. 

So, Pete Hegseth was questioned by the Senate yesterday as part as his confirmation hearing to run the United States military.  The man is incompetent.  I'd say a majority of the US Senate knows this, however they will confirm him and put him in charge of the largest military force in the world because...?  They want to please the Orange Anus?  When civil unrest happens, and notice that I say when, not if, he will try and use our military to put it down.  I don't doubt that Americans will die.  At some point he will be removed from the position, perhaps by falling out a window.  I don't doubt that a year from now many who voted from Trump will deny doing so.  Wall Street hates chaos, and that is exactly what Hegseth will bring.  There's a good probability the economy will crash.  There are a number of hard line Republicans who hope this happens, believing they are going to rebuild the country the way they want.  That will never happen.  This will be their time of learning.

Don't Let Me Down

Good Morning, World.  It's a chilly 21 (F) here in Central PA, and that's going to be about as good as it gets today.  Well, not quite, temps will rise, but only around 7 degrees if we're lucky.  This means Howie's time outside is limited and he has only so much time to find a stick, or a twig, or a rock to trade for a piece of Puperoni.  Don't let anyone tell you dogs aren't smart.  He's long past the barter stage and I'm surprised he hasn't installed a little stick stand on the back porch with the only currency accepted being a tasty little treat.

There are chores on the menu for today.  Baking bread being one of them.  Here's an interesting thing that I've noticed:  it takes a long time for mold to grow on store bought bread.  I have had pieces in the bag for over a week and a half and, surprisingly they're not even stale.  Home baked bread, however, the kind which doesn't include lots of chemicals will start to mold in about a week, and will be stale in a day if not wrapped tightly.  

Yesterday at work, I sold a measure.  That was fine.  Sadly, $2680 of vinyl plank flooring that I sold two weeks ago was returned because... well, I have no idea.  That information is not provided.  So, instead of having a positive sales figure at the end of the week I was in the hole -$475.  Don't that suck.  And we have our store inventory coming up in 3 weeks, which means they want constant aisle maintenance.  This means filling as many holes on our shelves as possible, which in turn means I will actually have to work.  Can you hear the excitement in my voice.

One of my favorite groups, Milky Chance, recorded and released one of their best songs with a small Viennese orchestra.  There is a 2 album set coming out and I'm thinking it might not be a bad investment. 

I saw this morning that China is considering selling TikTok to Elonia.  I hate to tell you people, this will be very bad if it happens.  For one thing, his ties with China run deep.  They make the batteries for his cars, hell, they even make the cars.  One of the biggest concerns about TikTok is that the Chinese are using it to infiltrate American businesses, that they're stealing American secrets.  So what would be worse than having the man who bought the Orange Anus owning the app that Conservatives fear most.  It almost makes one wonder if that's why the Supreme Court is seriously considering banning TikTok unless the Chinese sell it... to Elonia.  Well, that didn't come up in the arguments, but you know them Conservatives love the idea of bowing down to the richest man in the world.

 

The Learning Lesson

 And... here we go!  Another week is upon us.  New week and my first load of laundry is already in the washer.  Outside, it is a cold 25 (F), though the temps are predict to rise into the mid 40s (F) today.  They got warm yesterday, though I don't know if the got that high.  Tonight they're supposed to drop back down into the cold zone.

My shift yesterday was different, shorter, earlier.  12-6  I liked it.  I may change my shift on Thursdays to reflect the same hours.  I like getting home earlier than 7:30.  I actually have things I can do in the evening other than watch TV or play games.

I did sell some flooring to a couple.  The large orange retailer I work for has this policy where if you want a product and we don't have a large enough quantity in the store, they tell you to which store you need to go to pick up your purchase.  They used to do store to store transfers, but that stopped about 10 years ago.  Now, if the quantity you want is available is somewhere else, you have to pay to have it shipped to your home.  Example:  if you want 51 cases of flooring and we have 13 in the store, and 40 at another store, you either have to drive to that other store, or you can pay $75 to have all 51 delivered to your front door.  Before, you could have all 51 delivered to the store and pick them up without the charge.  Sucks, don't it?

So, I sent some things to Christos about The Body in History since he has become my Greek advisor, so to speak.  His response:  "I'm on a tour in Vietnam and it is not downloading because the Wi-fi is spotty, will look at it when I get home."  That made me laugh because I've been to Vietnam.  

I asked my friend Jon yesterday if his church was taking donations to send to the fire victims in Los Angeles and he told me nothing had been said, so far.  So, I poked my brother with the question, he said he was going to bring it up at council meeting on Tuesday.  Maybe it's about Christians started showing their compassion.  I told him I had sent donations, there's nothing wrong with teaching them compassion with a little guilt.

This is what sleepy looks like.

Evidently Newty Gingrich is tell people that Orangey's immigration will fail if he follows through with them.  Of course, Newty doesn't have the pull he used to have with his party.  He's been replaced with Elonia, the white supremacist who grew in South Africa when apartheid was still going strong.  I did like that Newty said that if Orangey's plans include the separation of children from their mothers there will be blow back the OA will not be able to withstand.  The same is true with everyone of his cabinet choices.  They are all extremists and, or, billionaires, or both, who relish their hatred of America.  They are that whiny bunch that have always said, "if I ran the country, it would be different."  What these people have never understood is that nobody wants people like them running the country.  The next 2 years will be a terrible learning lesson for them, a lesson they are all going to fail.

Donate

 Holy Crap!  We got above freezing yesterday!  All the way up to 34 (F).  And, wonder of wonders, it's going to happen again today... and possibly tomorrow!.  Tuesday is going to be a different story.  

I did work yesterday and, as expected, we were slow.  I did cut a small section of carpet, 12 x 5, but that's about it.  I sold a carpet installation to a customer who had set up her measure on line.  Oh, and I talked to a customer about blinds.  He was not happy when he discovered how expensive it is to buy blinds for his house.  We do sell cheapo plastic ones, but they come in selective sizes and they can't be cut.  Curtains or drapes are much easier, and, unless you go with custom drapes, are far less expensive.

Of course, when I got home from work the Steelers were playing (they're a football team) and so my neighbor's TV was blaring, and he was shouting, and so this week, probably Tuesday evening, I'll watch something on my TV.  If their loud, I play mine at normal volume.  

I got a nice walk in on the treadmill yesterday before I left for work.  I may try to get small one in today, but I changed my schedule, so instead of going in at 2, I start working at 12.  Since I work on the new book every day, I'll have to get the rewrite done before I leave the house, which means zero time of exercise.

And I've got about 3 more week of editing before The Body in History is ready for my readers.  I snapped this pick yesterday and sent it to Christos.  The translation is The Little Steps.

I did make a donation to the Pasadena Humane Society because it's the right thing to do.  There are so many people in need out in Los Angeles, so if you can afford it, send a donation.  It doesn't need to be to the Humane Society; there are so many other charities working out there.  So many people have lost the basic necessities, and you know anyone involved with the Republican Party will send nothing, they'll do nothing.  

Some of the biggest lies have to do with the water pressure, there was none, hydrants were dry, however, the same thing happened in Gatlinburg in 2017.  With the Orange Anus as the president-elect, the truth is never going to come out.

Ham Loaf

 Once again, the forecasters missed the mark on high temps yesterday... sort of.  They did say low to mid 30s (F), and they were right about the low part.  We hit a high of 31 (F).  So, is that low enough?  And we had snow over night.  They're prediction for this afternoon?  Like a broken record, with a bad skip, they're telling us we should hit the mid 30s (F).  Tomorrow, however, our temps are supposed to climb into the 40s (F).  Guess it's time to dig out the Bermuda Shorts.

I did get a nice little leg workout in yesterday.  And cleaned downstairs.  I've also been moving some furniture around, end tables, lights, nothing big, nothing you night think of as a redecoration.  These changes are not because I have this inner urging for something different, rather they're because Howie's balls sometimes roll either behind or under and I spend to much time on my hands and knees reaching either around or beneath in order to continue playing.  

I also get to go to work today.  I had 2 measures last week, it will be interesting to see if any of them have sold.  January and February are the slow times, more so this year since it's colder than the past 3.  No one wants to have installers tramping in and out of their house when the temp is 31 (F) outside.  If you're heating with oil that can add mucho buckos to your heating bill and we're all paying too much already to those billionaire leeches that own big oil and gas.

I made a small ham loaf for dinner last evening.  What's a ham loaf you ask?  Well, it's a meat loaf that's made with ground ham instead of ground beef.  The ham is left over from Christmas.  I froze the left overs for just this sort of thing.  I top it with Swiss cheese.  Believe me, it's quite tasty.

I read that supposedly hard right Republicans are upset with Elon Musk, saying his agenda is different from the goals they're aiming for.  That might be true, and it might not.  Like the Orange Anus, they do love their billionaire leaders.  But you also need to take into account that more and more countries are giving Elonia grief.  This is a good thing.  The last thing the world needs is to be run by selfish, self-centered billionaires.  It will be interesting to see how the Religious right deals with them, because the last I heard, Zuck, thanks to his Asian wife, was pretty much of a Buddhist, and Elonia seems to be drunk with Arianism (Nazi religion), and the Orange Anus worships himself.  I wonder when the Evangelicals who voted for Orangey are going to start realizing this, and when they do, will they protest.  I don't think they understand yet how rough this crowd is going to be on Christianity. 

  

Molar

 The forecasters lied, the temps did not rise above freezing yesterday.  They didn't say they were wrong, but they are predicting that we will crack the 32 degree mark today.  I'm debating whether I should hold my breath or not.  

Today is the last of my 4 day mini-vacation.  While I enjoyed it, I will also admit to looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.  I'm not one to sit around, however with the temps as cold as they've been, that's how I spent the time.  Sure, I worked on the book, and watched TV, but I get bored quickly.  Besides, it's slow at work and I can get my 7500 daily steps in.

I'm almost halfway through the final draft of The Body in History.  I haven't reached that point where I'm ready to be done with it, but I know that it's approaching.  I know this because I'm already starting to think about the next on.  The title is already set, so I suppose that will give everybody a clue as to what it will probably be about.  I like it.  The Body in 4/4 Time is snazzy, eh?

Yesterday was one of those days where things sort of got accomplished... sort of.  I did get a bike ride in.  I was pleased with that.  I made a Shrimp Lo Mein for dinner and it was tasty.  Otherwise, it was pretty much the same old, same old.  If the weather was warmer, I'd take Howie for a walk.  But 27 (F) is just too cold.  He did lose a tooth in a rather amusing way.  We were playing fetch with a ball and he dropped it on the floor in front of me, look down at it, and then this tooth fell out of his mouth.  It's a molar.

And, of course, the Orange Anus gets sentenced today.  He went to the Supreme Court to try and get it thrown out and they rejected his plea.  I was more interested in the way the justices voted and, as I expected, the decision was close with the Alito, Brown, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch being the cultists in the group.  If you didn't know they were going to vote this way, I've got some land in Florida you might be interested in buying.  

I was surprised to see that a lot of Americans view Biden's term unfavorably.  He has accomplished a lot, I do believe, however, that it is his age that gets in the way when it comes to people understanding what he's done.  My biggest problem with him is that he refused to accept that he was a caretaker president.  He is old, and unfortunately, his team did an excellent job of hiding his shortcomings.  Had he done like Lyndon B. Johnson and announced that he was not going to try for a second term, I'm fairly certain we would not be in out current situation.  This is a terrible way to learn from his mistake.