The Independents

 The new week is starting off with temps in the mid 70s (F) here in Central PA.  Yesterday our thermometers climbed up into the upper 90s (F), in fact the temp was 98 (F) on my ride home from work.  That was a bit warmer than the weather forecasters had predicted.  Their prediction for today is a high in the upper 80s (F), we'll have to see how close they come.

And yesterday was pretty much a meh day since I spent most of it at the flooring desk.  I did hit my measure and lead goals for the week, and no, I didn't not set up follow up appointments in order to try and force customers to buy.  This is not only about closing that sale as soon as possible, but also about micro-managing your associates.  Believe me, the great orange retailer I work for has always been micro-management oriented.  It is corporate headquarters in Atlanta who decides when the A/C goes on in the summer and the heat goes on in the winter.  

There was a moment of brevity yesterday when a senior woman came up to me and showed me a 1/4 inch nut and told me it was brass.  She then asked if I had brass nuts, of course I knew what she meant and told her where she could find brass nuts.  Still, that bit of levity was shared by myself and others several times over.

I've been watching Murderbot on Apple TV.  Who ever that that Alexander Sarsgaard could be funny.  One of the many things I like about the show is its opening theme.  It reminds me of those old TV shows that had themes composed by up and coming composers, like Lost in Space.  How many know that the composer behind that theme was John Williams... you know, the Jaws, John Williams.  Here's the theme from Murderbot.

So the Senate is going to start voting on different line items today for Orangie's tax break legislation.  They're trying to make the tax break he gave billionaires back in 2017 permanent, and then give them another tax break because billionaires can never have enough money.  This piece of legislation is vastly unpopular.  Do you think Orangie and the rest of the billionaires care?  Absolutely not.  Who likes this tax bill?  Republicans.  Of course Republicans have never actually been economically savvy.  I find it pathetic that so many Cultists believe this bill will bring them tax breaks.  This is because in their tiny minds they know how much Orangie lies, however, they just don't believe he's lying to them.  And when things fall apart, they will blame the Democrats because blaming themselves would mean they'd been lied to by their fearless leader.

Will this legislation die?  I don't know.  As I said this legislation is unpopular and it is growing more so by the minute.  Still, these legislators are terrified or Orangie's base.  Without those votes they will lose their jobs to Democrats, and staying  in power is what drives them.  What they do not comprehend is that Orangie's base is a minority group and it's the Independent voters that put them, and then keep them, in office.  Right now Independents are totally pissed off at this legislation.  If this bill dies, it will be because of the Independents.

The Big Terrible Bill

 Here in Central PA we had lots of warning of impending thunderstorms yesterday and there were large swaths of heavy rains surrounding us, but all we got were simple rains.  They did little to drain away the heavy humidity, though this morning it's not nearly as thick.

Yesterday morning I was out in the backyard with Howie when I heard a clunk.  The two tops screws holding my garden hose reel popped free, so only the two bottom screws were holding it to the wall.  I remember that when I installed it I'd wondered how long it would hang there.  The problem is that I have aluminum siding and there is a gap between the siding and the actual frame wall of the house, and that wall is only about a half inch thick.  So, I pulled it free and filled the holes with silicone.  The reel still works, it's just not waist high.

Retail was slow yesterday.  I did set up appointments for a fencing consultation, as well as a carpet measure.  I did not set up a follow up appointment for the carpet measure.  

And right now Republican senators are reading aloud Orangie's big, shitty bill.

Will it pass?  Probably, but certain things will be cut out, such as Mike Lee's amendment to sell public lands.  However, they're still going to cut $930 trillion from Medicaid.  Conservatives hate Medicaid.  They damn it as Socialism.  They think the poor should be more fiscally responsible, should be able to pay for their health expenses without assistance from the government.  At the same time they don't want to raise the minimum wage because, in their view at least, that would hurt corporations and corporations provide a lot of campaign donations.  Most Republican Senators and Congressmen are wealthy and they're more interested in giving themselves a tax break than anything else.  What the Cultists don't understand is that their elected officials simply don't care about them.

And if anyone thought Murkowski or Collins was actually going to demonstrate concern don't be disappointed that they're voting party line.  After all of this time you should have realized those are the parts that have been assigned to them to play.  They are a big part of the problem.  

Not a Phisher

 We've got cloudy skies here in Central PA.  The humidity is also thick.  A cold front went through that brought us drizzles and cooler temps that hung around all day yesterday.  Sometime this afternoon warm temps should announce their arrival with thunderstorms, at least that's the forecast.  

Yesterday was sort of a meh day, sort of not.  I did get over a 1000 words written in the new book.  That's good, but really that's about it.  No games.  No TV.   Very little social media.  No accomplishments I can point to, other than all those words.

Today things are different.  A load of laundry is in the dryer; there's no way it would dry outside on the rack.  And I've just uninstalled the Panda Security from this laptop.  I've had issues with it blocking certain websites in the past, but this morning it decided that Blogger was a security risk.  Yes, after all of these years Blogger has become a phishing site.  And, rather than go through the process of setting up Blogger as a safe site, I simply deleted Panda Dome.  I have Microsoft Defender, so I did have a bit of security redundancy going on.

I've been thinking about hiring an online trainer.  They're usually less expensive than a personal trainer and honestly, I don't know if I want someone critiquing my crunches and squats.

Here's a picture of Howie watching Aliens.

And, of course, the Supreme Court took another swipe at Democracy yesterday by telling Americans that Federal Judges and make rulings that effect the entire country.  While this is bad, the Court also allowed a glimmer of light through in this decision:  It also effects the decision of Federal Judges loyal to the Orange Anus.  

And Jeff Bezos gets married today... I think, at least there's a lot of shit on social media about a wedding.  If it is today, wouldn't it be amusing if the proceedings were interrupted by drones?

The Win Win Situation

 So, yesterday was hot and sticky, then we had some rain (not a big storm), and no it's cool.  Nice and cool.  After a number of days of 90 degree (F) weather, our temp is only going to climb into the mid 70s (F) today.  I can live with that.

I also worked.  It was meh.  They have initiate a new process within the specialist departments.  They now want us to set up an appointment for the customers to come back and talk about their quote after they have been measured.  While I can see the logic in this, I also know it's really a way for us to sell the installation as fast as possible.  Honestly, I don't think it will work that well.  Too many people have to juggle their schedules in order to get the measure set up and a measure only takes 5 minutes.  The convenience of coming in when they have the spare time is going to be lost.  Most will also realize we're setting that appointment not so much for us to go over their quote with them, but for them to pull out their credit card and pay for the installation.  This is true for all specialty associates, so if someone comes in to look at an appliance, you're supposed to set up an appointment for them to come back and purchase.  As I said, I don't think this program is going to go over well.

I stayed up late last night watching TV.  Actually, I watched one of my favorite movies:  Aliens.  This was the first film in which a strong, female protagonist was the store.  Sigourney Weaver has never been better.

And, as usual, the shit show and, or, clown circus of this administration continued yesterday.  The drunkard Hegseth gave some sort of presser yesterday morning in which he yelled a lot.  He was overly animated, some say because he was drinking.  Honestly, I think it's because he's so completely unqualified for the job and in his alcohol riddled brain such animation is a sign of strenght.

Orangie approved of his animation.

This morning Governor Newsom of California sued Fox Entertainment because they lied about his phone call with the Orange Anus.  He wants $787 million and an on air apology from Jesse Watters.  Since he no doubt recorded the conversation, this should be a slam dunk.  Fox will never learn.  In Rupert Murdoch's mind, as long as they're making more than $787 million it's a win, win situation.

 

Chowder

Thursday, and the skies are sunny and the temp is sitting at 75 (F).  That's lower than yesterday morning, though yesterday's high did get up to 98 (F) again.  One thing that did change was that the Hight Heat Warning was suddenly extended to include today.  Today's forecast is for slightly cooler temps and thunderstorms are supposed to move through the area this evening bringing with them cooler temps.

I did managed to get two of my smart plugs connected yesterday, but then power went off for about 2 seconds and one of them lost connection.  I didn't really put a lot of effort into it because it's just not that important.  And, as I reevaluate things, I've decided to throw the Alexa I have upstairs out.  I never, ever use it.  I have one downstairs that I will occasionally use to play music, but that's about it.  I'm not one of those people who talk to their Alexas; I know some people who are forever asking silly questions.  I would rather be more dependent on my phone or computer than a device which might be sending all sorts of information to Bezos' world.

I did get a nice workout in yesterday.  I also made some New England Clam Chowder for dinner.  I try to keep mine healthy by using olive oil rather than butter when making my roux.  I also switched away from V8 to the store brand vegetable juice.  Food prices are going up.

I saw that the Orange Anus got the CIA to say his attack on Iran's nuclear building facilities created significant damage.  Don't believe it.  He needed some sort of false verification in order to save face.  

Also interesting is the fact that his administration is no longer going to give intelligence briefings to Congress.  This is how authoritarians like Putin work, they control the information getting out to the public.  This lets them lie at will.

Someone posted that real estate stocks in New York City were dropping because Mamdani got the Democratic nomination.  If this is true, it really is fascinating because they are acting like he's already won the election.  It's also why I'm calling this Republican propaganda.  Of course, Christian Nationalists are flipping out.  For them, like the great de-churching, this is one more sign that their religion no longer has the power it used to have.  This does seem to be the case.  Perhaps if after Martin Luther the church hadn't continued to splinter, or perhaps if the Evangelicals hadn't made Christianity so selfish, but those things happened.  Perhaps if they had pushed love and compassion rather than hatred, but than love and compassion take away the ability to pass judgement.  Sometimes I wonder if it was always meant to fail.

Bombshells

Well we have another warm morning here in Central PA.  The temp was 76 (F) when I rolled out of bed this morning.  If the forecast holds, the high today will be 97 (F), which is one degree less than yesterday, however, that one degree must make a world of difference because we're not under a heat warning today.  There is a chance of thunderstorms this evening, so maybe that's the reason.

Yesterday was rather productive.  I did get another 10.7 mile bike ride in.  And I did get a good, jolly laugh in as well.  As you know, I've been drying my laundry outside on a drying rack, it makes hot, sunny days a way to save on the electric bill.  Yesterday was no exception, except for one thing.  Usually Howie ignores the laundry.  Yesterday he didn't.  For some reason, he pulled a pair of my boxer shorts off and was running around the back yard with them in his mouth.  It took me 2 puppy cookies to get them back.  And it really did make me laugh.

I'm thinking of making some New England clam chowder today.  I have all of the ingredients.  Or, I might make tomato soup with a grilled cheese for dinner.  You'll notice I'm saying grilled, rather than toasted.  I don't know anyone who actually toasts a cheese sandwich.

Christos in Greece got his copy of The Body in History yesterday.

So, now we know why Orangie dropped the F bomb yesterday:  his used of bombs to stop Iran's nuclear turns out to have been rather impotent.  I mean, all his braggadocio and in reality he didn't even hit the pre-ejaculation stage.  The intelligence briefing for Congress was canceled because telling our Representatives that Iran had only been set back a few months was tantamount to admitting failure.  I do think there is a serious chemical imbalance going on in his brain because now he's saying dropping those bombs was like the US nuking Hiroshima.  

And Mamdani won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor; this is considered a bombshell vote.  Christian Nationalist heads are exploding everywhere.  So are the Old Guard heads of the Democratic Party.  This is fine.  Change is good.  Because of the great de-churching, I do believe that many Americans don't really care about an individual's faith.  This is a growing movement.  We are, after all, a country where there is supposed to be Freedom of Religion.

The Ceasefire is Kaput

 It was 78 (F) this morning at 0600 which means today is going to be a hot one.  We are under a heat warning... however, the forecast no longer has us breaking into triple digits.  Nope.  Our high is now supposed to top off at 98 (F), which is the high temp we had on both Sunday and yesterday.  And it is all downhill from today on.  I can live with 98 (F).  

Yesterday was sort of meh.  I did get in a nice band/dumbbell workout.  I want to get a ride in this afternoon.  I had bought a small window A/C unit for the workout room since there's no Central Air vent in it; my house is over 120 years old and venting was not big in the early 1900s.  It was cheap and worked well for one year, and okay for the 2nd year.  Now, it's basically a big fan.  So, one of these days I'll carry it downstairs and throw it out.  

I did sent an note to Christos in Greece, his copy of The Body in History is out for delivery.

I did start playing a new game:  the remaster of Oblivion.  The remaster looks simply great!  It was the first game I downloaded with the new T-Mobile internet.  For a WiFi download, I was pleased that I had speeds up to 145 MBS.  With the FIOS I was lucky if I got 45 MBS.  That's a big difference.  Anyway, here's the trailer.  It's a Bethesda RPG game.  If it looks familiar, it's part of the Elder Scrolls series.

And for those of you who were worried that ceasefire between Iran and Israel might actually do it's intended purpose of raising Orangie's approval rating, fear not, the deal he said was going to last forever has fallen apart after only 3 hours.  Both sides have violated the terms.  Those grandiose fantasies he has about himself are now nothing more than soiled linen.  And now all of those who so quickly jumped aboard are stained as well because they believed someone who's only successful at being a liar, a cheat, and a con.  Everything Orangie touches dies and when it does he blames Biden.

 

The Sleepers

 Good Morning World!  It's 89 (F) outside.  It's only going to get hotter, so I've decided to take some personal time and not go into work today.  The temp was 99 (F) yesterday when I left work and that was the coolest of the 3 days of this mini-heatwave.  Temps are supposed to be warmer today, though according to Accuweather we should top off at 97 (F), which would actually be cooler than yesterday. I don't think that's going to happen.

Yesterday was very slow in the retail field.  I don't doubt this was because it was so hot.  I did make my sales goal for the week, but that's it.  While the sales will be appreciated by management, the fact that I didn't sell any measures will goad them just the tiniest of bit.  That's fine.  Numbers wise I'm almost as good as the 40 hour a week specialists.

So, what will I do today now that I'm not working?  I will do laundry and hang it out to dry.  In this heat it will dry fast.  I'm planning on getting in a nice workout this afternoon.

This past weekend I finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.  While it is not my favoritest of all games, it is probably number 2 on that short list.  Even though I got to "The End," I actually only covered 50% of the game, so I will go back and actually complete the whole thing at some point.

A bit on the Pirate Ship:  France is going to charge import duties or taxes on a paperback book, Greece, however, will not.  I find this fascinating.  We don't think about how different countries operate.  Of course, these taxes might be due to the fact that we have an idiot in the white house.  For those who haven't seen it, Orangie  has bulldozed away the White House Rose Garden in order to put in a patio similar to the one at Mar a Lago.

So, why did Orange bomb Iran?  I know a lot of people are trying to complicate this question when the answer is quite simple:  his feelings got hurt.  He threw a birthday parade and people laughed.  The word TACO now means something completely different.  He said he'd make a decision in 2 weeks about Iran and people laughed.  All of this hurt made him angry.  He wants the world to see him as powerful and instead it's laughing at him.  So, he retaliated by doing something very stupid.  Orangie is not now, nor has he  ever been smart.  He has 6 bankruptcies to prove this.  What's the proof?  Little Marko saying they had no intelligence that Iran was making a bomb.  Bennie Netanyahu told Orangie they were building one and that's all he needed.  And because Orangie is a one dimensional thinker who believes he can do whatever he wants, he obviously didn't think about retaliation.  More than one source is saying that Iran warned him that they would activate "sleeper cell" terrorists already in the United States.  Ouch.  Prepare yourselves.

The Painful Lesson

 Once again we have sunny skies here in Central PA.  The forecast is for us to have another warm one, with our high temps hitting the mid 90s (F).  That's right toasty in my book.  Tomorrow it will be warmer and by Tuesday we should be topping off at around 103 (F).  That is very hot for June.  These are Tampa, FL temps in the middle of July and we're getting them here in Central PA.  I am hoping this is not a forerunner of what our summer is going to be like.

I did ger a 7 mile ride in yesterday; one of my old favorites in San Remo, Italy.  Tuesday I'll be taking a longer ride, indoors of course, perhaps something with hills.  Even though I hate them, hills are good.

For the time being, this will be the last week that I work Thursdays.  They're cutting hours because it's summer, and while summer business is better than winter business, sales are never robust.

And I'm pleased to say that I'm growing a carrot.  Supposedly, in a week or so, I should be able to plant this outside and in a month or so should have another carrot.  We shall see.

Last night the Orange Anus did something unthinkable to many of us, he let Benni Netanyahu sucker us into a war in the Mid East.  This isn't to say that Orangie wasn't an easy mark.  Everyone in the world laughing at his shitty birthday parade had crushed his ego so badly, he was desperate to prove he was a strong authoritarian.  And Netty?  He's going to sit back and let Americans die.  And Orangie?  He will be so hated by the world.

Americans will be hating him even more.  Some people are pointing out similarities to W's Desert Fart, me?  I'm thinking farther back.  I'm reminded of Vietnam, a truly unpopular war that America lost.  Prepare yourselves for protests.  If Orangie tries to iron fist us, Americans will punch back hard.  The smack back coming to Republicans will be horrendous.

And, of course, none of this is going to play well on Wall Street.  Those billionaires despise chaos and Orangie is rattling the world with his incompetence and indifference to human life.  He epitomizes the "shut up!  I'm in charge!" attitude pervasive in Conservatives.  They are about to learn a painful lesson.

Falling Down

 Here in Central PA, our morning has started off fine.  We've got a nice 70 (F) temp for us and sunny skies.  An interesting bit about those sunny skies: I just got a notification that, according to Accuweather, rain is going to be ending soon.  Looking at the skies, I can see that far to the west, near Carlisle, it's very overcast, but here in our little neck of the woods we're all sunshine.

While my transition from Fios to T-Mobile internet had been seamless, yesterday there was a blip.  I had made an appointment to return my router, something they recommend, however when I got to the Verizon store there were 2 people ahead of me who had made no appointments and only one associate was working.  I ended up waiting 40 minutes to process a 3 minute transaction.  That was a bit aggravating.  If they send me an email asking for a review it will be bad.

Today is an anniversary for me.  Ten years ago I had serious back issues.  I was constantly falling down.  L4 an L5 had already fused, and L3 and L4 were in the process of fusing, and my spinal cord was awash in disc jelly. I had to sit on my butt to go open and down the stairs, and when downstairs I relied on a walker that I was crashing on a regular basis.  I was going to have surgery, a laminectomy, but my insurance refused.  So I switched to another specialist who told me to walk, walk, walk.  Ten years ago today was my first day back at work, and though I was using a cane, I was no longer falling down.  For some reason, this is the picture I posted to celebrate that event.

Two funny things:

First, I saw that Orangie's blow bro Vlad said rather tersely that Iran does not have any nuclear weapons. This is because Iran has based their authoritarian government on his and he considers them not only staunch allies, but besties as well.  I don't doubt for a second that this is why Orangie put his 2 week hold on bombing Tehran.  I'd say that Putin is not happy with his puppet.  I would have thought he'd have realized a long time ago that for Orangie ego is far more important than anything else in the world.  I suspect Benny Netanyahu is learning this as I type.

Secondly, and this is a real hoot, I saw that Pakistan has nominated Orangie for the Peace Prize.  Remember that for him everything is transactional so they have to believe he's going to be giving them something in return, like maybe lowering their tariffs.  I'm sure most countries in the world are wondering the same thing.  Sadly for them, he's a liar and a cheat, and no matter what he promised, it will not take effect until after that prize is in his dirty little hands, which will never happen.

The Two Week Hiatus

 Welcome to Friday!  Our outside temps here in Central PA are hovering in the mid 60s (F).  We are, however, under a heat watch.  Yepper, this coming week our temps will be climbing into the mid to upper 90s (F).  This means that my store will be selling lots and lots of window A/C units because... instead of being pro-active, so many people wait until they decided it's just too "stinkin' hot."  This is what I call seasonal ignorance.  A reverse trend happens during the winter when people wake up to a foot of snow and say, "gee, I need a snow shovel," or even the more extreme "we need a snow blower!"  Now, however, they call them snow throwers since blowing snow sends the Cracker Jack Crazies in paroxysms of eroticized horror.  The same thing happens when you look at them and say "weed wacker."

So, I worked yesterday.  It was slow.  I do have a flooring install that will probably sell on Sunday. 

One of the things that has changed with my switch to T-Mobile internet is that I can no longer say "Alexa, let there be light," and have specific lights in the house turn on.  That's not going to happen anymore. I'm keeping my Alexius (mine has a male voice) since I play Spotify on it, but I'm going to be walking to the lights and turning them on manually.

I trimmed Howie's dew claws this morning, other wise he will snag me.

And, as Six pointed out, I didn't post anything for Juneteenth.  The truth is that, as with most holidays, it's not a priority.  Some may think that sounds bad, but in general I don't really think about holidays, possibly because since I'm retired a holiday doesn't mean getting a day off from work.  In fact, being in retail I end up working most holidays.  Anyway, better late than never.

And, speaking of Juneteenth, I guess everyone saw that the Orange Anus said of the holiday, "there are already too many paid holidays, people don't like them."  He sounds a lot like Scrooge telling Bob Cratchit that Christmas is just an excuse for people to take a day off from work, don't it?  But  then Orangie epitomizes greed.

And, Orangie's decision to bomb Tehran is on a 2 week hiatus.  Yesterday social media was rife with jocularity with his apparent intention to serve TACOs to Iran.  I had an enjoyable moment watching Karoline Leavitt looking and sounding flustered as a reporter pointed out that hysterically this 2 week period signals Orangie's intention of doing nothing.  Adam kinzinger was one of many who pointed out that with Orangie it's either 2 weeks or 90 days, and now the sale of TikTok has taken a 90 day hiatus, again.

 

Puff of Smoke

 Hello Thursday!  The sun is shining!  The temps here in Central PA are in the low 70s (F).  There is the possibility of thunderstorms this afternoon, but that's okay as long as it's only a threat.  Winds are predicted to pick up as well, which will help dry things out.  I'm okay with that.

Much was accomplished yesterday even if the number of tasks completed seems low.  In fact, only 2 things were actually accomplished:  the mailing out of books, and the setting up of the new internet.  The shipping of the books was a good learning experience.  I always used USPS for all my shipping before, mostly because I didn't know any better.  Now I use Pirate Ship and get amazing savings.  It's only costing me $30 to send a copy of my book to Athens, Greece.  The USPS would have charged me $90.  

As for setting up the new T-Mobile internet?  It took about 20 minutes.  The one thing I was concerned about was changing the Wi-Fi on my devices from Fios to T-Mobile.  It was so easy peasy, mostly because I chose a password that wasn't a hodgepodge of letters and symbols.  The only thing left to do is call Verizon and cancel - that will probably be the most difficult thing to do because they will be terrible.

My tomatoes are doing fine, and I have green peppers, but my zucchini and cucumbers aren't going anywhere.

To all of those idiots of the world breathlessly waiting to see if the Orange Anus will bomb Iraq prepare to be told he's going to wait 2 weeks.  Actually, he's pretty much already told the world that, though with different words because he's waiting to see if they surrender.  They won't.  However, being secretive keeps the world's attention on him and that is what his ego lives for, full media coverage 24 hours a day.  That will change the minute he does anything and some will damn him while others love him.  I do suspect that some of his advisors have let him know that this is a no win situation as far as his approval ratings go, not that he'll believe them.  

And Elonia had another rocket blow up on him this morning.  For those of you unaware of the situation, thanks to his buddy the Orange Anus, Elonia's Space X is now fully funded by US taxpayer dollars, so this morning $2.4 billion of your dollars went up in smoke.  This is not, as Elonia tweeted, just a scratch.  This guy's a freaking idiot.

The Life of Chuck

 Outside we have clouds and drizzles and a lot of humidity.  Our temps are sitting in the low 70s (F), so we're warmer than we have been, but the chance of storms is going to be hanging around until tomorrow at least.

Since I send out a number of books and my handwriting is terrible, I bought myself a label maker.  Even though it was advertised as being able to print out mailing labels, the printer was incompatible with the Pirate Ship software I have started to use. So I returned it to Staples.  As unfortunate luck would have it, the woman in front of me was attempting to return a package to Amazon without a QR code, or even an email with which the clerk could look up the return.  She actually said to the clerk, "well... I thought you could do all of that."  Knowing this was going to take time, I was moved to a different desk where my return went quite smoothly.

Otherwise, yesterday went quite well.  I got a muscle building workout completed.  I know it was muscle building because Garmin told me so.

Then, last evening I went to the movies, however on my way to the theater I had to stop and save a large turtle that was wanting to cross a busy road.  When I drove past him and realized he was basically going to commit suicide, I put on my four way flashers and pulled to the side of the road.  Waving my arms to move traffic into the center lane, I hurried back to him and picked him up.  Big meaning he weighed about 5 pounds, his shell was over a foot long and about 8 inches wide.  And as I lifted him off the macadam he eyed me and then hissed.  He's the third turtle I've save since moving here, so I guess you could say we're rather turtly. 

The movie I saw was The Life of Chuck.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Very different.  It's based on a short story by Stephen King.  It's the story of Chuck Krantz, a 39 year-old accountant who's dying of brain cancer.  While there are some sad moments, you learn that Chuck's life had quite a lot of joy and happiness.  What gave him the most joy?  Maybe dancing.  Believe me, seeing Tom Hiddleston dance is simply amazing.

And, of course, the question of the hour is are we going to have TACOs in the Middle East?  Word is that Orangie's blow bro Vlad is furious about Orangie's possible intent to attack Iraq, Vlad's bestie in the Middle East.  This is how Vlad learns that Orangie's loyalty only runs one way.  It doesn't make a difference how hard Vlad worked to get Orangie elected, in the end Orangie will do what he believes will serve his own ego the best.  The word is that if Orangie bombs Iraq than Tulsi Gabbard, one of the most powerful Russian assets in this administration will quit, and that would indicate a serious breakup between Orangie and Vlad.  Only one thing is certain, everybody is talking about Orangie and that is the only thing he cares about.

On a lighter note, Noem, the puppy killer, was taken to a DC hospital yesterday.  Evidently she had some sort of allergic reaction to a cosmetic procedure.

Death of Millions

 Here it is, Tuesday morning and as usual, we have cloudy skies, though our temp is in the upper 60s (F).  Humidity will be high all day, and the clouds will be gathered low and, being substantial, will give us constant shade.  Remember, technically speaking we are still in Spring... at least for another few days.

I worked yesterday.  It was slow.  We did have a customer who is struggling with a carpet decision.  She doesn't want any seams and her room is too big to install carpet without a seam.  There are people out there who believe you can see a seam.  You can't, unless the installer is an imbecile.  Because of the size of rooms today, having wall to wall carpet will always mean seams.  At one point she suggested throwing a throw rug down over the seam, so I said "sure, you can do that."  I don't mind selling foolish people unneeded throw rugs.

I'll be leaving soon to have my blood drawn for the AC1 test.  I'm excited.  So, this will be short.

For those who missed it, the Orange Anus signed an agreement to work on a trade agreement, again under the ruse that it was an actual agreement.  When he went to reveal this latest deceit, he dropped the papers on world wide TV.

He also left the G7 early because?  I think there are several reasons why he's back in DC... or is it Mar a Lago?  Whatever.  Mostly I think it was because he received a rather cool reception.  None of the other members seemed to want to talk to him, or listen to him rant... he does that a lot, making up facts to suit what ever thought is rattling around in his head.  The important thing is that he was not getting the attention he felt he deserved.  This was on top of that shitty parade the world laughed at.  

This asshole needs to be the focal point of every conversation, the subject of every media story flashing over the airwaves.  And so he starts warning Iran, hinting that we're going to attack the country, and voila, his dirty, little heart is getting what it so desperately craves.  He will end up being the cause of death for millions.

Arrested!

 Well, we have a chilly start to Monday.  When I got up, our temp was 58 (F).  The forecast is for things to warm up to around 68 (F) this afternoon, with rain.  Yepper, we're are still in that rain cycle.  More is expected tomorrow.  I work this afternoon so I don't care.  Tomorrow I don't work.  That'll be a bummer.

I do have to get some blood drawn tomorrow morning.  This is for an AC1 blood test which will check my sugar for the past several weeks.  My blood sugar has always been borderline, like my cholesterol and blood pressure, so I have been through this before.  After tomorrow's test, I will most likely be scheduled to have another blood test in about 6 weeks.  That gives me some time to lose weight.  In the past, that has always made things closer to borderline.

Since my plans for yesterday afternoon were canceled, I got in a really good workout.  I'm adding new exercises.  I had a total of 40 sets.  I'm planning on getting in a row before I got to work this afternoon.

On occasion, I do try and take selfies with Howie.  Yesterday's attempt got me a side eye.

As Rex in DC said, Orangie is vindictive as Hell.  Now, I don't know if it's because everyone in the world laughed at his stupid parade, but at some point yesterday he decided that ICE was going to focus on cities run by Democrats.  Though I think most will agree with me that this is mostly Stevie Miller's doing than Orangie's.  After his short speech at the end of his birthday parade yesterday Orangie just stood on stage and had to be told it was time to leave.  I found it amusing that Melanoma gives him a quick Howie side eye.  

And, of course, that Christian Nationalist assassin has been captured.  This is good.  Even better, he's being charged by the state rather than the Federal Government.  This means that if he is proven guilty the Orange Anus cannot pardon him.  Honestly, that was the first thing that went through my head when I heard that the police had made an arrest.  Also, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the DOJ attempts to take this case over for that very purpose.  Orangie needs to keep his wack job Christian base happy.

Playing With Fire

 It's Sunday morning and 60 (F) outside.  Rain and drizzle is predicted for the entire day.  Accuweather warns that this may impact Father's Day celebrations.  I thought I'd let you know, just in case any of you are fathers.  I don't want you to be disappointed when Mr. Blue Sky stays away.

I worked yesterday and it was boring.  I had to stand at the Lead Table for an hour.  Most associates are scheduled to work it in an attempt to generate leads; a lead is where you try and set a customer up for a free consultation in the hopes of getting them to buy a very expensive installation, like windows or fencing.  Corporate sets a lead generation goal for each store.  I checked.  None of the leads scheduled at the Lead Table sell, still, it does help the store reach its goal, which is all that corporate wants.

Last evening my friend Betsy from York called to cancel our lunch plans for this afternoon, she has a bad cold.  This means I have the day all to myself.  For the first time in a long time I'll be able to get a workout in on a Sunday.

And yesterday the Orange Anus got his military parade.  In his tiny mind he thought this was going to be a huge event.  It failed miserably.  The administration got approval form the Park Service for 250,000 tickets and attendance didn't even come close.  On top of everything that happened this past week, his birthday parade was a monumental catastrophe, and he knew.  This is his pouty/angry face in case you were wondering.

Yesterday was also a day of tragedy with Democrat Melissa Hortman being assassinated by Vance Boelter, who was among other things, an Evangelical Christian Nationalist and huge Trump supporter.  Boelter also murdered Melissa's husband and shot their dog before moving on to two more victims.  Boelter's wife Jenny was pulled over by police who discovered she had a firearm and ammunition in the car, she was, however not arrested.  He rented a room part-time and texted his roommates that he might soon be dead.  Translation:  this sack of shit loser is going to ask God for forgiveness and then commit suicide.  This man is truly a gutless sack of shit.

Minnesota governor Tim Walz canceled the No Kings protests out of concern that others might be injured or killed and in response over 60,000 people showed up at the capital.  Republicans are so out of touch they have no idea they're playing with fire.

No Kings Day

 Well, here we are on Saturday and we have drizzles that are expected to continue on and off all day.  That's fine with me because I have to work.  According to Accuweather, Central PA isn't going to see any change in this pattern until Tuesday.  This is not a very auspicious beginning to the summer season, but by no means can you say that we're going to have a cool, dreary summer.

Even though much was accomplished yesterday, it still feels like one of those meh days.  The backyard was mowed (it looks nice now), laundry was done, and the big aquarium was cleaned.  I also washed the dishes by hand.  Still, I didn't write and I didn't get either a ride, row, or workout in.  I did feel like taking lots of naps, and around 3:30 ish my nose began to run.  The drainage was constant for a few hours, so I'm thinking I probably had a cold.  That is usually the extent of my symptoms when I do get a cold, though yesterday I wanted to take lots of naps as well.  Maybe it's an age thing.

I did finally get a chance to watch some episodes of Mid-Century Modern.  It's very funny.  There is only one problem, it has a laugh track.  Sorry, I don't need canned laughter to tell me something is funny, or to make me laugh.  The show would be so much better if they simply just... canned the fake laughter.

And I did order the T-Mobile internet yesterday morning.  My FIOS will be canceled once it arrives and is set up.

And this is a No Kings Day.

We all know the drill.  The peaceful protests are growing in size and number. And Orangie's approval rating?  It's now negative numbers all around.  The one area where he was at the break even point was immigration, and now that down by 2 points.  Americans don't like what he's doing in Los Angeles.  Americans don't like ICE wearing masks. And while I don't have any solid facts, I'm certain that a large majority of Americans don't like Cosplay Kristi, the puppy killer.  That woman is despicable.

As the Orange Anus continues to fail, the protests will continue to grow.  This is not what either Republicans or Conservatives want.  It makes them very angry, so prepare yourselves, they will strike out.

And, of course Israel and Iran are now at war with each other.  Tucker Carlson, one of Putin's American mouthpieces said this will cause Americans to loose their lives.  This means Vlad's pissed, he's good buddies with Iran.  His puppet, the Orange Anus is falling down on the job.  He, of all people, should have realized how incompetent the Orange Anus truly is.  This growing war in the Middle East is going to further erode Orangie's ratings.  Good.

Playing with Fire

 Can you believe Friday has arrived?  The end of the week.  Here in Central PA our outside temp is 71 (F).  That's warm.  Humidity is on the rise.  Normally this would be a bother, but with the humidity comes the rain.  There is abundant rain in our forecast for both tomorrow and Sunday, and both here in Central PA and down in Washington DC.

Yesterday was really productive.  My laser printer is working.  I did some rearranging of furniture in the writing room.  The aquarium in the living room was cleaned.  Lots of words were written.  I also got a decent workout done.  Overall, I will admit to being rather pleased.

I'm halfway through Expedition 33.  What at first seemed to be a standard story in which a villain needs to be eliminated has turned into the tragic story of the Descendre family and their inability to deal with grief.  Verso, the only son, was killed in a war and his mother (the Paintress) keeps him alive in a canvas she painted.  His father, Renoir, wants to destroy the canvas and bring his mother back into the real world to deal with her grief.  Last night I started Act III in which Verso and his sister who was horribly scared in the war, try and stop their father from destroying the canvas.  It's complicated.

I'm having router issues.  It's the original router I got when I had FIOS installed which was probably about 10 years ago.  Last week I had a buffering problem with Netflix.  At least once a week I will turn on the TV and have to wait for the network connection.  The same thing happens to my Xbox Series X.  Last evening I had to download an update to Expedition 33 and at one point the download speed was 453 kbs.  Ouch.  So, I attempted to contact Verizon.  That was a waste of time, though I can order a newer model for $99.99, which I didn't do.  I have T-Mobile on my phone and I have never had a problem.  There's a T-Mobile tower less than 3/4 mile away, and I can get their Internet for less than what I'm paying Verizon.  So, this morning I'm contacting T-Mobile.

So, Israel attacked Iran... that should have been expected.  Little Marco said the US was not involved, well, we now know he lies... a lot.  Some sources are saying that the attack was coordinated with the US.  Orangie's blow bro Vlad is deep allies with Iran.  I think we should prepare for this to escalate.

There was an interesting article in The Guardian this morning on how America's Main Stream Media is ignoring the rising anti-Trump sentiment.  I believe that the MSM is truly concerned that the Administration will cut them off like the did the Associated Press, so they will continue to broadcast Orangie's lies and deceit.  They are not even trying to balance things out.  Their big problem is that these protests are growing in size, something the administration truly hates.  As The Guardian put it, soon MSM will no longer be able to ignore the protests.  This is why the administration is doubling down on their ICE attacks.  It's why they are forcing a confrontation in Los Angeles.  This is why cos-play Barbie (Noem the puppy killer) said troops would remain in Los Angeles until the evil mayor was gone.  This administration is playing with fire and, in the end, will end up torching itself.  When that happens, Noem and her hair extensions will be leaving on a jet plane to Russia, where she'll soon find herself working on a potato farm.

Cake

 Well, here it is Thursday.  Outside the temps are in the upper 60s (F).  It's nice.  They're supposed to climb up into the lower 90s (F) today.  That will be nice, too.  I do have lawn work to do.  Most importantly, however, is the fact that there is no rain in the forecast, not until tomorrow and Saturday, at least.  I work Saturday, so the weather is not going to bother me in the least.

Plans for today include not only some yardwork, but a trip to Staples.  I simply cannot connect to that HP laser printer.  I tried a factory reset and it remains offline.  As a last resort I'm going to do a hardwire connection and to do that I need a USB 2.0 A/B cable.  No cable was included because it was deemed unnecessary; everything is wireless these days.  This will entail rearranging things around my desk.  So be it.

Yesterday was one of those, sort of do nothing days because I had lunch with friends.  I've known Tami for over 45 years.  We used to hit the bars together a long time ago.  We don't reminisce a lot, rather we talk a lot about things that are happening now.  Her partner Ann just finished reading a book about Johnson & Johnson, and all the terrible things they've done for greed.  And, as might be expected, we discussed the Orange Anus because it's good to share detestable thoughts about that losing sack of shit.  And, since my blood sugar is a bit high, I celebrated by having a slice of Chocolate Lava Cake for desert.  It was tasty, but I don't doubt it was premade, frozen, and then nuked for my gastronomic pleasure.

I understand they're hiring people to fill the stands at Orangie's parade on Saturday.  Pay's pretty good, $1000, but it's in Crypto, which means it's pretty worthless, just like our phony president.

And, if you happen to have plans for heading into DC for the weekend, don't go.  Many, many roads have been shut down to make way for the parade.

I see that David Hogg is not going to be running to be part of the DNC after they decided that his and Malcom Kenata's elections were invalid.  David and Malcom's real problem?  They're young.  They rock the boat.  Aging Democrats want someone more mature, like 73 year old Chuck Schumer, who said he's waiting for Republicans to come to their senses.  He is out of touch with the real world.  

Advocacy groups are reporting that dozens of activated National Guardsmen are very unhappy with being sent to Los Angeles.  The only people who are happy about this are Republicans, of course they have been spoon fed hatred since birth:  Democrats are evil, communist monsters who will destroy America.  There is no way of getting them to see reason.  They are a minority group that will need to be punished extensively for years to come.

Joy

 Good Morning People!  Outside, the temp is a comfortable 63 and the sun is supposed to shine all day.  We have the same forecast for tomorrow, too.  In fact, the forecast for the next 3 days is nice.  Tomorrow I'm going to wack weeds and mow grass. We're not supposed to get any rain again until Saturday, when we're supposed to get another drenching. 

I talked to my friend Justin about coming to trim back the holly bush I have out front.  Because he's 6 feet, 6 inches, he'll be able to cut back the top and I will not climb up on a ladder.  A word of advice to everyone out there, make sure you have at least one tall friend.

I drove down to Lebanon yesterday to go over my bloodwork with my new primary care physician, Dr. Rai, pronounced rye.  He's a very nice gent in in mid-40s.  That's a good thing.  I'm tired of having my doctors retire on me.  As for my bloodwork, I'd already looked at the results.  He asked if I wanted to continue with testing my PSA and I told him I didn't think it was necessary.  The big bugaboo was my blood sugar.  It's high... sort of... 138.  This has always been an issue.  I am not overly concerned.  It's a genetic thing.  My sister's is diabetic.  She laughed at that number, telling me, "that's low."  Since this is a "been there, done that," situation, I know how to get my sugar back to acceptable levels:  less grazing, more exercise.  What joy.

Besides the doctor's visit, yesterday was a necessary day away from news and social media.  I played video games and watched TV.  There is so much bad going on in the world right now, breaking away for a day was such a joy.

The oregano I have growing on the windowsill has teeny, tiny flowers.

And, of course, the shit show is continuing.  The fact that states are going to be activating their National Guard troops for this weekend should tell you they know that a very unpopular president is doing something vast numbers of people don't like.  Protests are planned throughout  the  country for  this  weekend.  Rain is predicted for the Washington DC area, so it's quite possible Mother Nature is going to rain on Orangie's parade.  

Are we heading into another Dark Ages?  Maybe a different variant of those old Dark Ages.  Too many Americans are rushing headfirst into selfishness and greed.  They have been taught that credit is the answer to being able to afford everything they want.  Inflation is going to be a ballbreaker.  Too many want an authoritarian government without understanding that for the vast majority, such a life would be totally unacceptable.  As I've said before, I feel we are approaching  an inflection point.  There may be a serious loss of life.  Will society collapse?  Certain aspects will struggle.  Mostly, however, it will be geographical here in the states, and those areas loving their Republican authoritarianism the most will also suffer the most.  They are simply not prepared.  For them, these Dark Ages will be black, and somehow that gives me joy.

Physical Day

 I'm off to see my doctor for my annual physical.  

Later.

They Are Wrong

 As expected, we had rain yesterday... a lot of rain.  Temps dropped.  Outside it's a comfy 63 (F), though there is a persistent drizzle that's more of a foggy mist.  Predictions are for the sun to come out this afternoon.  Temps will be climbing up into the high 70s (F).  Tomorrow there will be more sun.  The high temps for the next few days should be in the low 80s (F).  That's quite acceptable.

Yesterday was slow at the great orange retailer I work for.  In spite of that fact, I managed to set up install measures.  That's 6 measures for last week.  I didn't hit my sales goal, and didn't sign up one person for a credit card, but that's fine.  

Since I'm having so much fun playing Expedition 33, I thought I give you a little information about the voice actors.  They are not simple voice actors going from game studio to game studio voicing characters is a number of games.  Most of the time these voice actors are established actors.  One name you might recognize is Charlie Cox, who is currently in Disney's Daredevil series.  Another name many of you might know is Andy Serkis.  Among a host of other characters, Andy was the voice of Gollum in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

And while everybody was talking about Los Angeles yesterday, except most of the Main Stream Media, the Orange Anus fell while going up the staircase to Air Force One.  Here's a report on the incident from Meidas Touch.  If you don't follow this group of brothers, I recommend that you do.

As for Los Angeles, there's a lot of hype coming out from both sides. You also need to understand you cannot believe a single thing coming out of Orangie's mouth, he lies.  Orangie's shrieking about activating 2000 National Guard troops, but evidently only about 300 showed up.  His henchies are repeating his lies.  Let's be honest here, if it weren't for falsehood, these people would have nothing to talk about.

Also, keep in mind there is very little validation on social media, so someone will repost a video from 2 days ago, however the repost will have been made 20 minutes ago, so be wary if it says "happening now."  In fact, I just saw a repost with that same phrase and there's a big problem.  It's 0535 in the morning out in Los Angeles, the sun is just beginning to rise, and the video is in broad daylight.  Keep in mind, too, that there are Orangie supporters who desperately want to incite violence.  They want confrontation.  In their tiny minds they believe that Democracy will be easily crushed by their stupidity.  They are wrong.

Reaching the Inflection Point

 We did have some rain yesterday, but not much.  What we did have was some serious humidity.  Our temps hung around in the low 80s (F) which meant that things were rather uncomfortable sitting at the flooring desk.  This is because the huge, orange retailer that I work for micro-manages both heat in the winter and the A/C in the summer, and since it's not legally summer yet we have no air conditioned comfort.  So, our customers, as well as the staffing, will suffer through the uncomfortable humidity even if uncomfortable customers do stay in the store for shorter periods of time and buy less.

Except for the 5 hours I spent at work, yesterday was one of those uneventful days.

In Expedition 33, I'm in the Sirene section prepping to kill the 2nd Axon I need to kill in order to progress farther into the game.  

And I have tomatoes!  Sure, they're tiny now, but they should grow to be Big Boys!

And, of course, the shit show expanded to Los Angeles yesterday.  And yes, it did start at the Home Depot in Paramount, California, a Latino suburb south of the city.  The Orange Anus claims to have sent in 2000 National Guardsmen, though the last I saw, there were "no boots on the ground," as they say.  There are Republicans who've had wet dreams about this moment, when they can use force to say "shut up, we're in charge!"  These are people who don't have the faintest concept of America.  They want to turn back the clock to a time when white people ruled the world, well, that's the truth they desperately want to believe.  

I believe we're at this juncture because Democrats thought it was better to take the "high road," that a majority of Americans were with them.  However, by taking that path, they did nothing to push back on the seeds of hatred people like Newt Gingrich were sowing.  Instead of pushing back on the Tea Party, they allowed that minority group's anger to fester and grow.  Instead of shutting down the Republican party, Democrats allowed the constant sniping to continue.  Are we at an inflection point in our history?  Well, I think that's a distinct possiblity.

The Distraction

 Well, a storm went through yesterday.  I was getting all sorts of warnings:  lightning is striking in your area;  heavy winds are a blowin'; flash flooding is probably inevitable.  We got a steady rain for about 20 minutes.  No lightning.  No thunder.  No gusting winds.  All of that stormy stuff went to our north and south.  The temps did drop, however, and the humidity dissipated.  Predictions are for on and off rain for the next 2 days, with us getting as much as an inch tomorrow.  After that temps are supposed to hang around in the low to mid 80s (F).

Yesterday was better than the day before as far as getting things done.  After doing a search on laptops with nonfunctioning screens, I did a power reset on the writing laptop and got it working again.  Since there was already a problem, that one has now become my permanent sporting laptop and the sporting laptop, which is a much better computer, is now my main writing/research laptop.

I looked over the results of the bloodwork I had done on Tuesday.  Everything is fine, except for my glucose.  I'm pre-diabetic.  I was pre-diabetic last year as well.  And the same for the year before that.  My mom had the same problem and my sister is diabetic, so this is something which runs in the family.  As you can probably tell, I'm not that worried.

Orangie and Elonia are still not talking and one can only guess how much vitriol they are spitting at each other behind the curtain; quite a lot, I'd presume.  So much, they needed a really big distraction and so Orangie decided to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador to face phony charges.

You did notice how quickly this miracle came about, didn't you?  And to sweeten the distraction, they're charging him with human trafficking. Where's Maddie when you need her to be stopping the car?  Of course, so many are falling for this gimmick.  The only reason Kilmar is coming home is to change the conversation; stop people from talking about the Orangie/Elonia shit show. 

Of course there's too much other stuff going down as Orangie's reign of Chaos seems to be picking up speed.  The jobs report claimed 139,000 jobs had been created while the ADP report claimed 37,000.  While there's usually a variance between the two reports, the differences have never been this widely off.  If this report is accurate than the government would have needed to have hired almost 100,000 individuals into government jobs.  Don't worry, this administration is going to lie about  inflation, too.

 

The Joy of it All

 Outside the temp is a balmy 74 (F), the skies are overcast, and weather forecasters are predicting on and off showers for today, with a good possibility of thunderstorms this afternoon and this evening.  Our weather yesterday was very muggy, and it did get hot. It seems as though a front will be moving through the area, and temps will be dropping back into the 70s (F).

Yesterday was coming along smashingly until... well, a bit more on that later.

The big news is that I'm writing this entry on my sporting laptop.  My writing laptop died this morning.  It was not a slow painful death.  Nope.  I lost connectivity, so I went upstairs to check on the router and everything was good, so I came back down to my desk and rebooted....  And it never restarted.  Pressing the power button turned the keyboard lights on briefly, but then they'd go off.  Shit.  I tried powering it up several times and it never fully regained consciousness.  The sporting laptop is nice.  It has a touch screen which I do use on occasion, so I'm thinking about simply turning this into my writing laptop and buying a cheap one just to use for my athletics. 

Because I use Microsoft 365, or whatever it's called now, all my photos have been stored in the cloud, even this one.  This is Musk's shiner from a few days back, no doubt the first sign that things were already on seriously rocky ground, and then yesterday?  I could not put down my phone!

I do hope everyone was having as much fun as I was watching Orangie and Elonia come to verbal fisticuffs.  The possibility of a reconciliation died when Elonia said Orangie was in the Epstein files and that's why they weren't released.  The world now knows that Orangie is a pedophile.  

There was an emergency meeting last evening of Orangie and his team because Orangie doesn't deal well with this kind of beat back.  I follow Kara Swisher and her take is that while there will be a public faux make-up, there is an all out war between these two losers.  We all know how petty and vindictive Orangie is, and the instant the Epstein files were brought up... well, and then Elonia topped that by saying Orangie should be impeached.  The joy of it all!  It made me want to dance, it did.  Orangie was in some sort of presser when a reporter asked him about the impeachment comment.  Wowza!  The look on his face.  The presser was instantly shut down and all media persons rapidly removed from the Oval Office.  The joy of it all!

In that instant, Elonia took an ax to the Republican party.  A vast majority of the comments made on Truth Social to Orangie's attacks on Elonia were negative.  Many conservative Republicans believe in Elonia, believe DOGE is doing a good job.  They felt it was wrong for Orangie to threaten him.  This is kind of like explosive splintering.  

The hatred between these two narcissists with their fragile egos is now insurmountable, a rift that can never be crossed.  There will be no happy alliance.  Ahhhh, the joy of it all! 

   

The Bilious Bill

 Our temps did hit 90 (F) yesterday.  We had full sunshine, too.  The day was very nice.  The same forecast is on tap for today as well, but then the chance of thunderstorms begins to increase.  I did turn on my Central Air because my upstairs gets quite a few degrees warmer than my downstairs, often by 10 degrees or more.  Since my bike, rowing machine, and dumbbells are upstairs I try and keep the temps comfortable; I don't want to suffer heat stroke on one of my rides through Italy.

To counter the expense of running my A/C, I'm drying more loads outside on the drying rack.  Everything except pants; they dry wrinkled and I don't want to have to iron them.

I mowed my front lawn yesterday, baked a loaf of bread, so I'm counting yesterday as a good day. I have a list of chores to do today and I think it's pretty extensive.  We'll have to see how many items I end up checking off.

So, this week I have 4 days off, Tuesday thru Saturday.  My schedule is the same next week.  Because I've have so much time off I thought I'd be able to get much accomplished, especially in the writing department.  Well, that ain't happening.  This doesn't mean I'm not getting a lot done around the house, I am, it just means that I'm not sitting down at the computer and firing up Word.  I'm hoping to change that today.

So, it looks like Tomwellborn has come up with a variation on the Orange Anus.  Nice.

And it seems as if Orangie's Big Bilious Bill is in trouble.  You see because Republicans have a small majority in both the Senate and the House, they thought they had enough rubber stamp votes to easily get this piece of tripe passed.  Sadly for them that while some, like Marjorie Taylor Greene (sp) did just that, others didn't, they read the entire piece of legislation and found some serious problems, like borrowing trillions of dollars for Orangie's tax break.  This borrowing is a standard practice for Orangie.  When he's neck deep in debt, he'll point to all of his borrowed cash and say "look how rich I am."  He lives for the appearance of being wealthy.  This is one of the reasons for his 6 bankruptcies, rather than fix a problem, he throws more money at it.  

And in case you were wondering, the chaos is only going to get worse.  

Senior Moment? Or Not?

The outside temps are a nice 60 (F); those adverse to heat need to prep themselves because if the forecast holds we're going to top off around 90 (F).  I find this amusing since my neighbors have been running their window A/C units none stop for the past month, even on those days when the temps dropped down into the 40s (F) over night.  They are going to melt if we get an extended stretch with our temps in the upper 90s (F).  We have another 2 weeks until we legitimately hit summer.

For a Tuesday, I think much was accomplished including 2 loads of laundry which were dried outside.  

I did have my bloodwork yesterday morning, they took 5 vials, rather than the normal 4, as well as a urine sample.  Amusingly enough, I had a senior moment, or maybe I didn't.  My blood gets drawn at the Rossmoyne Clinic.  I used that clinic regularly for years.  Then, 6 years ago my PCP retired and he was replaced by an Asian woman who was a Physician's Assistant.  A few months into Covid, I did something to my shoulder and couldn't move it without having severe pain.  So, I called to make an appointment and... she refused to see me.  She wanted me to leave a voicemail detailing pain, inability to move my shoulder and arm in order for her to decide if I should have x-rays taken.  When I reminded her assistant that I worked for the Great Orange Retailer and was considered an essential employee and was dealing with hundreds of people daily, her assistant told me, "it doesn't make a difference, she's not going to see you."  In my opinion this physician's assistant failed totally; it's why I go to the Lebanon Clinic.  So yesterday, after filling my pee cup, I stepped out of the restroom and saw her assistant sitting next to where I'd sat to have my blood draw, scrolling away on her phone, and that memory flashed through my head and... I walked by the tray where I was supposed to put my specimen.  Was it a senior moment?  Possibly... and possibly not.

Howie's 10 months old today.  He told me he's ready for his closeup.

Orangie's steel tariffs take effect today.  Can a steel TACO be far away?

Because his superior army was only in his head, estimates are that after 3 years of war Orangie's blow bro Vlad has sent one million young Russians to an early grave; if you need to see an actual number, this is it:  1,000,000.  I do think that in his addled brain Orangie was going to be the Ace in the Hole for him to play.  Vlad's problem is that Orangie has done so much damage to America's rep the world is going around us.  

Remember when Orangie told Zelensky he didn't have any cards?  The Guardian is reporting that in fact he's is holding several more cards and is just waiting to play them.  

And, finally, is Orangie's Big Beautiful Tax grab failing?  The truth is that there is so much bad shit in that way too salty piece of legislation that more than a few Republicans are sounding the alarm.  One of the many problems with this hit bit of party authoritarianism is the fact that so many Republican ilk simply rubber stamped it instead of taking the time to read over 1200 pages of horseshit.   Even that horse's ass Scott Perry is complaining, though in his case I think he's more worried about getting re-elected than that fact that this is a piece of donkey trip legislation.

The 2 TACO day

 Our temps are supposed to climb into the 80s (F) today.  This is the first day in a long list of days that we have not had rain on my day off.  In fact, for the rest of the week the weather is supposed to be nice.

Today's entry is short.  I'll be heading out to have blood drawn shortly.  Yes, it is that time of year.  And I'm hungry.  Fasting to check my blood sugar is ridiculous.  They should come up with some sort of gradient scale that takes into account eating breakfast.

Since this is a short entry, and for those who didn't hear, we had 2 TACO incidents yesterday.  One TACO happened with a number of the tariffs for China.  The other TACO happened with the Iran nuclear talks.  So, yesterday was a 2 TACO day.

And, since this is a short entry.  I'm simply going to post a random picture of....