When you hit middle age you really only have two choices: you can get fat and lazy until you roll over and die, or you can can get off your ass and do something, like maybe ride a bike.
Bluntness
I've also been told I have little tact, so if this offends you simply ride on.
We have a Sunny Day! At 61 (F), our morning is a bit cool, but that's fine, we had a good night for sleeping. Unless something changes, our forecast is calling for good sleeping weather for the rest of the summer. Long range forecasts, however, are telling us that we're going to be getting a lot of rain next week, so it looks like Autumn's rainy season might be getting here a bit early. Having a wet spring and a wet fall is better than dealing with a drought.
I did work yesterday, and managed to get a measure for a blind installation. Otherwise, I endured a long five hours at the flooring desk. I did get my steps in, so there is that. Fifteen minutes of that time I spent talking to a customer about vinyl plank flooring, but mostly it was just me, myself, and I.
The day wasn't a complete loss, I did get some words written on a chapter titled Cacophony. I'm also making notes on the next chapter tentatively titled I Hear a Waltz, but that could change.
I have not heard from Xerox regarding the broken printer they sent me since Wednesday afternoon, so later this morning I will be giving them a call. The great orange home improvement retailer I work for would have been on this problem in a hot minute, as my friend Patty likes to say. Sometimes you need to remind companies that the review they get relies totally on their efficiency of resolving complaints.
And here's a picture of the boxer thief caught in the act.
And last evening Orangie patrolled the streets of Washington DC with a small entourage of police and national guardsman. When I first heard this was going to happen I wondered if this was just an excuse for a quick road trip to MacDonalds. However, it didn't take me long to realize he was just pulling a page out of Kim Dumb Jerk's playbook in an attempt to make himself more popular with the people. No doubt some cultists looked upon this stunt with glowing admiration. I'm talking about those who fail to realize that Orangie would never go anywhere his team deemed to be unsafe. He must have had a long nap in the afternoon since he appears to have a problem with sundowning.
And Fox Entertainment did release some good information yesterday. They said that if Mamdami wins in New York, they will move their operations to Florida. Now tell me, doesn't that bring a smile to your face?
Well, we had rain on and off yesterday. Misty rain. Drizzly rain. Steady rain. There were no cloudbursts and nothing torrential, when it falls in sheets across the highway. Temps stayed in the lower 70s (F). We have the same forecast for today. Tomorrow things are supposed to brighten up, however if our long range forecast stands, it looks as though summer's quickly moving out of the picture.
And how can I describe yesterday? There were highs and lows. The highs were good and the lows weren't really that low, more like a heavy sigh that says "you've got to be kidding me."
The high: I've mentioned how my neighborhood Giant supermarket was out of walnuts, so I went to my brand new BJs wholesaled discount store. Their walnuts are... our you ready for this? 2 pounds for $9.99. Giant's price was $7.49 for one pound. So I bought 4 pounds for $18 and change. That should last me for a while.
The low: At 12:55 PM UPS dropped off my new printer. I moved the box into the writing room and began unpacking. Once unpacked, I moved the printer to its proper place and began the process of pulling off all the tape according to the instructions. When I lifted the scanner lid to remove the foam insert I discovered that the scanner glass was broken, and said, "you have got to be kidding me." Mind you, there were no obscenities. Not even a simple, "oh, shit." What I did do was go to my laptop and start a chat with their customer service. That led to a phone call, which led to an email with pictures. The printer has been packed up and is now sitting in my living room. Xerox will let me know when it's going to be picked up. I was told the process will take between 3 and 7 days. Here's a pic. I'm thinking that sometime during transit it was dropped.
Anyway, I ended up spending little time on social media because my focus was on my printer issues. Honestly, it seems to me that yesterday was a low profile day for the Orange Anus. About the only thing worth mentioning was Just Dance Vance and Petey Hegseth getting booed and hissed at while walking through Union Station. There was so much unmitigated bile being thrown in their direction. There were people loudly shouting "couch fucker!" Can we talk about misreading the room.
And this just in: Orangie's overall approval rating has dropped to 39%. That's just his overall rating. I haven't seen any specifics yet on how that breaks out. Last week is approval rating on the economy was down to 37%; that has probably dropped since he's evidently pulling a TACO with some of the European tariffs. His ratings are in a death spiral because he's an idiot. His bragging about being a great negotiator got the carpet ripped out from under it because of his Alaskan fiasco. He left the European leaders sitting for an hour so he could go call his boss and that's not good. Everybody needs to start reminding themselves that everything Orangie touches dies.
Well, we have the drizzles and according to the forecast, they will be hanging around for most of the day. That's okay. Temps are only supposed to climb into the mid 70s (F). I guess this should be expected since Autumn is only a month away. Though, if my memory serves me correctly, the sunny days of summer used to last well into September. Of course, our cloud cover might be the edge of Erin's skirt as she moves up the eastern seaboard.
Yesterday was a good day and a bad day. Good in that many chores were completed. I even got a decent upper body workout done in the afternoon. Bad in that I'm out of walnuts. They are part of my breakfast. In my book, nuts are nuts. Since they are grown and not manufactured there's little difference between one nut and another. For this reason I usually buy store brand or generic nuts. Yesterday, my local Giant supermarket was out of store brand nuts. Fisher's nuts were the only ones left on their shelves and they are twice as expensive, $16.49 for a 12 ounces. So, after I finish writing this I'll be driving over to my local BJs to buy their store brand which is considerably less expensive: $12.99 for 32 ounces. That's what I call a deal.
My new printer arrives today. I had thought of going out and buying a printer table but have decided to use what I have on hand. I still have to move a few pieces of furniture, but that shouldn't take me long. Here's the tile I'm using for a table top, but it's going to relocated next the big aquarium in the writing room.
And yesterday we learned, that's if we're going to believe anything that drips from the mouth of the Orange Anus, that slavery wasn't really that bad. Those thinking slavery was truly terrible are Woke. In case you haven't realized it yet, in the MAGA world Woke is synonymous with Compassionate. They may feel passion, but not compassion, and half of the time I think their passion is simply synonymous with greed. They have a passion for money, and a passion for selfishness, and a passion for disliking those who actually feel compassion. They are simply husks of humanity who love to pass judgement. They don't lack the ability to understand, they avoid it. They feel sorry, but only for themselves and those just like themselves. These people have always existed, it's just that right now they've managed to get themselves onto the main stage. They do not know there time there is limited.
Finally, Dan Bongino seems to have disappeared. He was is the right wing podcaster who took a job as the assistant to Kash Patel, Director of the FBI. It seems Danny found out the terrible truth about how often Orangie is in the Epstein files. Now he's gone quiet. Reports are he's going to be leaving the administration completely. If this were Russia, I warn him to be careful because over there getting close to an open window is dangerous.
And we are having another chilly morning here in Central PA with the temp being a cool 61 (F) when I crawled out of bed. Once again our temps are predicted to only climb into the mid 702 (F),though the skies are predicted to be seriously overcast for much of the day. No rain, but cloudiness galore. We have the same forecast for the rest of the week. I'm not wild about the cloudy days, but there are things that do need to get done around the house.
I worked yesterday and it was boring. Since there was no business, I caught myself up on all of my training, which was tedious to say the least. I have to take refresher classes on bias, security in the workplace, proprietary information, and cyber security, you know/ Phishing, smishing, and vishing? These classes are not that bad the first time you work through them, however I have to take these refresher course every 6 months or so which is horrifically boring. And, unfortunately, you can not test out. I also know that not everybody has to take them. So, maybe I'm cursed because of my former position in HR.
My new printer arrives tomorrow. I was going to put it by my desk, but because it's going to be bigger than the laser printer that is now in the garbage, I'm going to relocate it to another part of the writing room.
One of my Navy friends posted this on Facebook. For some reason or other we all had nicknames. No one ever called me Dave, occasionally I'd get a Snyder, but usually I was called Oz. Now you know one of my deep dark secrets. When we were at sea there were 3 shifts working either 8 hours on and 16 off, or 6 on and 12 off. We had an artistic guy in my shift who drew up this group caricature of my team. Honestly, I don't remember being quite that tall.
And instead of having a hard shell TACO yesterday, we got one of those soft, floppy ones, and the entire world was watching. Orangie's blow bro Vlad thought this between his pet and Zelensky was going to be a dunk and score, but then Europe decided to show up. And Vlad got zippo. Well, that's not exactly right, halfway through this meeting Orangie had to excuse himself and go call Vlad for advice. Holy Crap! You see, Orangie is not a skilled negotiator. That ability is not in his extremely limited skill set. And while Orangie was just on Fox Entertainment saying he didn't tell the European Leaders about his phone call because it would have been disrespectful to Vlad, the entire world knows all about the call. Basically, the European leaders depantsed hm in front on live television. Wait! Stop! Do not think about that! I don't want you going through your day visualizing Orangie being depantsed... even though, verbally, that's what happened. Yep, yesterday we got the soft taco shell, and all Vlad got out of this was a more unified Europe... make that world. As of this morning 30 countries from around the world had signed onto security measures for the Ukraine.
We have a chilly start to the day, that's if you think 67 (F) is chilly. I don't. We also have quite a bit of a breeze, the leftovers from a cold front that moved through the area late yesterday afternoon. We did get rain, heavy torrential rain that fell in sheets across the highway as I was driving home from work. And this wasn't like one of those quickie thunderstorms that's a flash, bam, thank you mam kind of storms. We had heavy rain for over half an hour, heavy enough that I had to drive through waves. What an adventure! Today our high temp will only rise into the mid 70s (F). That's fine.
Yesterday work was steady for the first three hours, but then it died off. The store did not hit plan last week. This is going to continue. I did set up a measure, but other than that the afternoon dragged on and on. I had planned on stopping off at my neighborhood Giant supermarket on the way home, but by the time I got out of our parking lot the rain had started, and shortly after that drivers were slowing down and putting on their four-way flashers.
I did make Ukrainian Borscht yesterday morning before heading off to work. One of the big differences between Ukrainian and Russian is that the Ruskies eat their borscht chilled, while the Hungarians eat theirs warm. The recipe made a lot, so I'll have meals for the next 2 or 3 days.
And, of course, Volodymyr Zelensky is going to be meeting with the Orange Anus sometime today, possibly this morning, maybe this afternoon. Orangie has already attempted to lay the groundwork, the Ukraine needs to give up Crimea and not join NATO. Zelensky has already told him to pound sand. Some things everybody needs to remember are that Orangie is weak and caves under pressure, that's why they call him TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out). At the same time we need to keep in mind that he's been given order by his idol, Vlad. His shoe leather heart has been crushed and he's desperate to make things kissy, kissy again. I don't think that's going to happen. Vlad never wanted to be kissy, kissy with him in the first place, but Orangie did make a convenient tool for Vlad to use... and abuse. Like a bad poker player, Vlad has played his hand too soon, probably because he's already lost a million Russian lives in this failed war. Vlad is a tiny tyrant who wants his tiny feet to fit into much bigger shoes and that's not going to happen. So, what will happen? I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if Orangie raises the tariffs on Europe to 75% because being the terrible businessman he is, that's the only card he can think of playing.
Today is Sunday, a day of work. This is also a day when our afternoon high temp is predicted to be in the mid 90s (F), that is until the storms arrive... if they do. If the weather forecasters are correct, this should be the last 90 (F) degree day we have for a while. Erin's is going to be crawling up the eastern seaboard and the cloud cover she is brining will keep our skies overcast for the next week. That will cool things off.
I did work yesterday, otherwise I didn't really do much of anything. Howie got his Frontline for the upcoming month. He doesn't care.
The coffee maker I have grinds and brews, but here lately the grinding seems to be a bit off, the coffee is not as strong as I like. I have a coffee grinder that decades old and still works, so I've started grinding them myself. The coffee is so much better.
And, as should be expected, the world is still talking about Orangie's and his blow bro Vlad's date, if that's what you want to call it. Certain things didn't happen. The fancy luncheon? Nixed. The golden desk statue, and American eagle? That was never given. There is truth in the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Take a look at this one. You'd almost think that Orangie and Vlads bromance is over.
Notice how Vlad has a chirpy little smile on his face, while Orangie is looking more than a little disgruntled. Someone should tell him he needs to take that frown and turn it upside down. What makes him such a gloomy Gus? I'm betting Vlad teased him with the promise of a possible ceasefire in the Ukraine. However, Orangie's face tells me Vald said, "sorry, babe, that card ain't on the table." You know, I'm suspecting Orangie has just realized he's holding none of the cards.
When I heard that Zelensky was scheduled to meet with Orangie tomorrow, I will admit I was a little concerned. So many reporters from around the world noted how everyone from Orangie's team was ashen faced when they entered that press conference. It was almost as if they knew something really bad was going to happen, and I'm not just talking about Putin taking charge of the press conference. So, I will admit to being relieved to discover Zelensky is being escorted by the Prime Ministers of Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. All four will be sitting in that room beside him. And you know they're all going to tell Orangie to pound sand, at which point Vlad will probably start dropping the dirt he has on Orangie since he is now a useless tool.
We're starting out a bit warm here in Central Pa with our outside temp sitting at 75 (F). Mugginess abounds. I haven't checked what the dewpoint is, but I'm betting it's fairly high. Will we have rain this afternoon? I work, so I don't really care.
I will also be working 4 days next week. That's unusual, so someone must be on vacation. I don't mind. Extra hours mean a little extra money and after yesterday I'm going to need a little extra.
And yesterday? Things began well but then pivoted sharply into "well, that sucks" territory. It all started with the loaf of bread I was baking. I use olive oil instead of butter and usually I measure in the required 2 tablespoons. Yesterday I just poured in what I thought should be 2 tablespoons. I was wrong, so I ended up so I ended up with a bread cake, rather than a loaf of bread.
Then I tried to print something off. My laser printer, which is probably abut 3 books old, sat there doing nothing. My print screen said it was ready, however, my system said it was offline, and when I checked the printer settings in HP Smart, it said it was sleeping. Well, nothing I did seemed to wake it up. I then tried printing to my color laser jet and got a print head failure. I contacted Hewlett Packard and the tech told me my laser printer was gone. Unfortunately, my ticket was for the laser printer, not the color laser jet and I would need to begin the process again. Since I'm going to need a new printer, I went to the Staples website and ordered one. Ten minutes later I get an email from Staples telling me the printer I ordered is unavailable and that they will be crediting my account. Someone else might have gotten frustrated. Not me. flexibility in the face of adversity has always been the key. I'd had enough of Hewlett Packard, so I went to the Xerox website, checked out their laser printers, looked at some online reviews, and made my purchase: a color laser printer. Because it was my first time purchasing from Xerox I got a 15% off, which made this printer less expensive than the one I had tried to buy from Staples. Here's the new printer:
And, as you might expect, I spent a bit of time yesterday watching the Orange Anus getting steamrolled by his blo bro Vlad. By the way, that was a reporter on Fox who said Orangie was steamrolled. Here's Brian Tayler Cohen on what Fox had to initially say.
I don't know about you, but I was embarrassed as hell watching Orangie standing there on the red carpet, as giddy as some school getting to meet K-Pop, waiting for Vlad to arrive. I hope that I wasn't the only one to see Vlad give Orangie the double thumbs up as he hurried towards him. Vlad played Trump like a two bit whore. Vlad sang the golden oldies that Orangie cherishes, like the 2020 election was stolen, or that mail in voting is crooked. Later on in the evening Sean Hanity threw him some powder puff questions. He didn't ask him why Karoline Leavitt and Witkoff, and everyone else on Team Orangie, walked into that press conference looking ashen faced; this was universally reported. Something was off. Witkoff left the room before Putin began speaking. Even Orangie looked soggy jowled. And, of course, there are those videos of his slow, lumbering climb up into Air Force One after his treasonous meeting with Putin was over. This was not a good day for America.
Well hello World! Here in Central PA we did break into the low 90s (F) yesterday. Not a drop of rain fell, even though there was a 55% chance. Today's high will chill out in the upper 80s (F). Again, there is that stubborn 55% chance of precipitation. I'm thinking it's not going to happen. The long range forecast has us cooling down, with highs in the low to mid 80s (F). Again, we shall see. We're 2/3 of the way through summer, so that might be a possibility.
Yesterday was one of those days when I did get pretty much accomplished, including a decent upper body workout, and yet I have this vague feeling that I should have done more. That may not be the best way to describe it. Perhaps a better way of putting it is that when I look back on what was accomplished, I wonder why they seemed to take so much more time than usual.
Ah, well. Today may or may not end up the same. I've already got a loaf of bread in the bread machine. Howie's not wild about the noise it makes when kneading the loaves.
And I did get what will no doubt be be the first of many letters from Sky Protection. They are one of the millions of companies who provide independent "service agreements" for your vehicle. And yes, this is for the new Outback that I just bought. Amusingly enough, on Tuesday I received a letter from Subaru detailing the extensive service agreement that came with my purchase of the vehicle.
Here's another release from Governor Newsom's press office. I'm betting that each and every one of these is like razor blades under Orangie's fingernails. Being taunted is not something either he or his administration is good at dealing with. Orangie wants bow down respect, and it ain't happening. For those of you who haven't noticed, these mocking attacks are picking up speed. His team is having problems with responding to the memes that are rapidly growing in number. He has become a very large, stupid target.
As for Orangie's meeting with his blow bro Vlad today, expect nothing but another fawning session, with Orangie shooting furtive glances at his idol. Will he get a private pat on the head? I'm betting it's the only thing he ever prays for. I'm betting that most world leaders are prepared to see him shit in his diaper; they know how easily praise, no matter how phony, will have him groveling.
Finally, did everybody see that Orangie apparently placed an unexpected call to Norway to ask them to give him the Nobel Peace Prize. This is so far above audacious. The fact that there are a number of people out there who believe his lies and think this is normal is disappointing as hell.
So, what's in store for Central Pennsylvanians today in the weather department? Pretty much the same as yesterday. We should have a high in the upper 80s (F) and we have a 50% chance of precipitation. The sky did manage to squeeze out some minor showers yesterday afternoon, barely enough to wet the ground. This means I'm going to have to go out and water my veggies later.
Nothing much happened yesterday. I had lunch with my cousin and her husband at a Russian restaurant called Tatyana's. It was way over-priced. The presentation was nice, but the food was in no way distinctive. We will not be eating there again.
I tried moving the walking pad over behind my writing desk onto the hardwood floor. House that are over 120 years old usually don't have level floors and my house is no exception. The difference is much, perhaps 1/8 inch, however it was enough to lift the back of the pad off of floor so when I walked you could hear a bumping sound. The walking pad has now been moved back onto the carpet. When it's open, this is what it looks like.
While I do occasionally look at Bluesky, mostly I comment on Threads. One of the people I follow is Governor Newsom of California. I have to tell you, his offices is doing some Grade A trolling of the Orange Anus. He seriously mocks the hell out of that 79 year old pedophile by posting Threads like this:
So, because today is a day ending in Y I'm betting the Orange Anus is going to have another press conference this afternoon. I was talking to my sister and she said "Dave, he's on every f*****g day!" This is just like those dark days during Covid, when Orangie gave daily updates, when he suggested possibly injecting bleach into someone's vein might cure the disease. While he didn't make a lot of sense back then, the truth is he makes even less sense today. As in those Covid days, he always has several ass kissers backing him up, individuals who are no doubt tranquilized to keep their expressions minimized, no eyerolls please. They stand their like mannequins, neither nodding agreement nor frowning in distaste as he talks about things like... grass. He says he knows a lot about grass because he owns golf clubs. Everything is self-gratification for him. And every day his dementia dances in front of the camera so critics can cut out sound bites to mock him. He is, by far, the worst president this country has ever had, and for that he and his party need to be ground into the dirt by the heel of Democracy.
According to the weather app we are experiencing light rain. Nope. Not happening around my house. The skies are for the most part clear and we have bountiful sun. Yesterday, our temps did get up into the low 90s (F), though I'm sure the "real feel" was in the low 100s (F) because you wrap the humidity around you like a soggy duvet. The threat of thunderstorms is high for both today and tomorrow. We could use the rain; my lawn has gone brown.
Yesterday was a fairly decent day. Several loads of laundry were done. In the afternoon I completed an 11 mile ride in Bavaria. Words were written and re-written. I'd started a chapter called The Sounds of Silence (an old Simon and Garfunkel song but with a different relevancy here), however, looking at it again realized it was crap and rewrote it.
I also went to BJs and picked up my membership card. Of course, they wanted me to not only upgrade but get a second card for a member of my family. I amusingly told the kid that Howie was not going to be shopping at BJs. He didn't find it amusing. I also told him I didn't need to open a BJs credit card, remember, retail wants you to drown in credit. Then, with my new card in my wallet, I wandered through the store. Generally, prices were about the same as I paid at my local Giant supermarket. Fresh produce was more expensive. I bought 96 ounces of Pompeiian olive oil because it had a nice discount. And then... I strolled through their wine and beer section. Holy Crap! One bottle of the Josh Cellars wine I prefer was a full $6.00 cheaper than what I normally pay. Three bottles will pay cover the $15 I paid for the membership, and a measly 10 bottles will pay for the yearly subscription, and I do believe I drink more than 10 bottles of wine in a year.
And the National Guard arrived in Washington, DC. Some of them stood around with tourists to get their pictures took.
While I'm sure Fox Entertainment will dredge up old videos of the Watts Riots to show Orangie's cultists how badly these troops are needed, everyone else in the world is seeing images like this. Now I'm not saying there isn't crime in DC, it just isn't on the Mall, or around the national monuments. All these imbecilic photo op moments do is prove how totally unnecessary this deployment is.
And this E.J. Antoni who Orangie put in charge of Labor and Statistics is going to shut that bureau down, or at least stop releasing reports that show how badly the economy is failing. He's a conservative, a Heritage Foundation guy, and we all know how much they lie through their teeth. Having the largest economy in the world, everyone relies on the trustworthiness of our numbers. When that fails, they will look elsewhere. I find it interesting that in their own need for greed billionaires may actually be turning themselves into sacrificial lambs. More power to them.
Good morning. Our outside temps are a not so cool 70 (F). The forecast has changed. Over the past few days those guys who predict the weather told us that tomorrow was going to be the hottest day of the week. Now they've decided that today is going to be hotter than tomorrow. So, instead of topping off in the mid 90s (F) tomorrow, out high today will barely crack the low 90s (F). The odds for rain tomorrow have stayed the same, 55%. We could use a sprinkle or two, but I doubt if that will be happening any time soon. While we don't have the heat of August, we do have the lack of precipitation.
I got a decent upper body work out in yesterday. A bunch of writing was done. And then I went in to work and meh happened. Nothing. As I expected, our store didn't make plan last week. We missed by over $100,000. This is how it goes. Believe it or not, they should be setting up our Halloween display and I'm interested to see how extensive it will be. This may surprise some people, but us, Halloween is just as big, if not bigger than Christmas. All of our Halloween and Christmas decorations come from China, however, I did see yesterday that the Orange Anus pulled another TACO with the Chinese tariffs.
I did sign up for one of the $15 BJs memberships, so this morning I'll be heading over to pick up my card and check out the savings.
I've been listening to a lot of Matt Maeson lately. Here's his latest. He has a great range.
As expected, the Orange Anus had the Federal Government take over (sort of) Washington DC yesterday. I watched so many snips and clips of his speech while at work yesterday (I told you it was boring) it was quite easy to see he's not in charge. Nope. Not at all. He rambles incoherently. He said he's going to Russia several times, he's not, he's going to Alaska, which used to be owned by Russia. So, I don't really think he's running the show, which makes that meeting he's having with his blo bro Vlad bad. Every world leader knows that a simple compliment and he'll give you whatever you want.
Our outside temp is a cool 62 (F). That's a bit cool for this time of year, but fear not, things are going to get a bit toasty over the next few days. Our high today is predicted to be 88 (F) and from there it's up into the 90s (F). While it's true we're going to be dealing with some warm days ahead, none of them are going to be warm enough to put us in the red zone.
Looking at the calendar, I admit that seeing we're almost halfway through August is surprising. Days seem to be suddenly disappearing n the rear view mirror. I don't know who's driving this car, but I wouldn't mind slowing down just a bit. Supposedly time speeds up the busier your are, however, they also say your age plays a large part in this acceleration; all of those seconds and minutes you have accumulated over the years evidently put you on the fast track. This make me wonder how fast they'll be going when I hit 100.
Because I always work a full shift on Sunday I did relatively nothing yesterday except sit at the flooring desk. Well, that's not quite true. I did get in over 13,000 steps. That's a lot of laps around the store. Oh, and I dealt with a customer who is going to be a nightmare. He had set up his measure while there were promotions running, but since he couldn't get measured before they ran out, they extended them for him. This meant over $500 in mark-downs. That's way above my pay grade. Also, this was just the beginning. He didn't know why he was being charged for this... and that, and why was an $800 underlayment necessary? Unfortunately for him it was a Sunday. Our installers are closed. Our Customer Order Specialists, who could answer some of his questions don't work weekends. I spent an hour with this customer. He was not an angry individual, but he was insistent. He also came into the store last week to get this taken care of and was told and was told by the individual at the flooring desk that he needed to come in and talk to the associate who had sold him the measure.
Howie and I were playing with Sven, his hard rubber hedgehog for about twenty minutes and then this happened.
A lot of people are upset that the Orange Anus is deploying National Guard troops to Washington DC. On every post that I see, I repeat the same response: This is a distraction in order to change the subject to something other than the Epstein files. This administration is throwing everything they can come up with at the wall in order to change the conversation. They have a serious problem though because their tiny dingy of lies is constantly being swamped with so many bad truths. The Epstein files are a horrific problem for Orangie, but so, too, are the increasingly high prices Americans are paying for the necessities. He keeps shrieking about how good Wall Street is doing because that's all he cares about. Wall Street represents that satisfaction of billionaires, it does not represent the satisfaction of Americans, or the fact that food prices are rapidly climbing. Corporations make more money when Americans pay higher prices and that makes both corporations and billionaires happy. Do they care that Americans are not happy? No, they're too busy looking at their bottom line and dancing around singing "yeah, yeah, yeah." Seven out of ten Americans are very unhappy that the cost of living is continually going up. Does Orangie care? Nope, he's dancing around with all of those other billionaires, except when he dances it looks like he's jerking somebody off.
This morning's Central PA temp was 60 (F), that's almost as cool as cucumber! Temps will be rising though, both today and for the beginning of the week. By Wednesday we should be topping off with a high around 93 (F) with high humidity. Thunderstorms are supposed to be hanging around the area, but the chance of us getting a storm is 55%, so I'd say that's iffy.
Yesterday was a good day as far as writing goes. No workouts were done. No walking done. But as long as the words are going into the laptop things are good. One thing that is making this easy is the dealing with the time when Eli's mother was still alive. I'm old enough to remember what things were like around 40 years ago. You know? What songs were playing on the radio. Here's a bit that may or may not be important to the plot. One of the biggest hits back then was by a band called The Eagles. One of their many hits was a song called Take it to the Limit. Where as an enormous number of pop and rock songs are written in 4/4 time, Take it to the Limit is written in 3/4 time, also known as Waltz Time. Does Waltz Time come into play in a mystery titled The Body in 4/4 Time? Stay tuned. Here's a live version of that song from 1977.
I did work yesterday and actually got 2 measures, neither is going to break the bank for the customers. One is a small bathroom that'll probably cost around $800, and the other is a single bedroom. The house is for sale, however there's ink on the bedroom floor and no one is making an offer. this is a good example of how many people try to get their asking price without fixing anything up before the house goes on the market. The carpet is not going to match the rest of the carpeting in the house. The seller, himself, wouldn't make an offer, so he's putting in the cheapest carpet we have to try and get his asking price. I'm hoping he doesn't get it and has to reduce his asking price.
I'm betting Orangie's having wet dreams over his meeting with his Blo Bro Vlad. This meeting is not a good thing. Orangie will give away the bank in order to give old Vlad a cuddle or two.
One thing I do find amazing is that MAGA cultists are truly ignorant of the hate Orangie is generating towards them and their party. These people are in their own little world, totally clueless. True, some are beginning to scratch their heads with the Epstein scandal, but many of them are still delusional. Nothing is going to change that, unless they do manage to start a war and America starts hanging their treasonous asses.
So, it appears that the weekend is going to start off with springtime temperatures with daily highs only reaching up into the mid 80s (F). That will change as we move into the week, but even then our high temps are only predicted to be in very low 90s (F). The chance of rain is minimal at best. If our highs were higher, I'd say this was a normal August, but they're not. This is good for my electric bill just like last year's cold winter was bad for my gas bill.
Yesterday was mostly unproductive. I did some chores, only one load of laundry. I feel I should have done more. However over 1000 new words were added to the new book, so writing wise, yesterday was good. I finished the chapter "If you hum a few bars," and moved into the next chapter "reel to reel." Remember, this is a musical mystery, and I can tell you there will be an "intermezzo time" next up on the writing agenda. I am trying to keep a good balance going between two stories, one of Eli's mother, who died when he was five, and, of course, the murder mystery. The idea of having a musical code which needs to be deciphered has been replaced with something more... interesting.
I am scheduled to work today.
I also tried to find the clip from South Park where Kristi Noem's face falls off, sadly, the only clip I could find was her recruitment video, the one where she shoots the puppies, so consider that a cautionary warning.
My sister called yesterday to ask if I'd seen that the new guy in charge of the IRS is now the old guy, Billy Long, after 2 months. I hadn't. Scottie Bessent is now in charge of the IRS. Billy, who was approved by the Senate, now has to be approved to be the Ambassador to Iceland. That sounds like a demotion to me. Perhaps Billy's bribe to the Orange Anus just wasn't big enough for the job he got. There's also the possibility that Billy just wasn't corrupt enough to suit Orangie... nah, it probably has to do with the fact that he goes by Billy. Let's be honest. Billy is not a brass knuckle kind of name. Nope, it's more of a stealing one of grannies checks and forging her signature kind of name. Not that Scottie's a much better name, but Scottie's a super billionaire and in Orangie's book, that puts him near the top of the "Billionaires I want to be friends with" list.
On this sunny Friday morning, the outside temp is sitting a comfy 64 (F). The forecast for today is: mostly sunny and our chance of precipitation is 1%, now, that's pretty damn low. We all know what that means, don't we? My first load of laundry is in the washer. The drying rack awaits.
Yesterday was pretty doggone good. I vacuumed up all the Howie hair upstairs, and there is a lot. Got lots of words written. A fairly decent upper body workout was done, 239 calories were burned off. Enough pulled pork was cooked to last for the next few days. And I did 20 minutes on walking pad. I like it. It is really a mini-treadmill, except it folds up. It will stay down in the writing room. Yesterday I set it up in front of the desk, on the area rug. That I didn't like, so I'm going to relocate it behind the desk onto the hardwood floor.
A BJ's Wholesale Club opened up about half a mile from where I work. It's one of those membership clubs that sell discounted products. Right now a promotion 1 years membership cost $15 and I'm thinking of joining, what with the cost of everything going up. My neighborhood Giant supermarket offers points for every dollar you spend, so $100 = .10 off a gallon of gas. However, they also offer promotional items where, for example, if you buy a 4 ounce bottle of Pom you get 40 points. There have been times when I've gotten up to a $1.00 off the price of a gallon of gasoline. That's nice. With food prices set to go through the roof, the points might be better than the discount card... that is unless my neighborhood Giant decides to change the way their point system works. The higher prices would let you rack up the points faster.
And prices are going up. I took this picture on Wednesday, the day the tariffs went into effect. The new "low" prices are now higher than the old "high" prices. Every aisle is filled with these price mark-ups.
And, speaking of the Orange Anus, did everyone get a chance to see him announce how the job numbers released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics were wrong? He used a chart with a graph pointing upwards and said the numbers were great. Oh, and he said that they used numbers that hadn't been available before. Social media went wild since apparently someone gave him access to a large piece of poster board and a sharpie.
And finally, evidently Kristi Noem, aka Ice Barbie has a real cranky hair up her butt because of how she was physically portrayed on South Park. She's not complaining that in the episode she shot a puppy every 8 or 9 seconds, or about how ICE brutally kidnaps people, or about her violent recruitment video. In fact, she's saying they ignore those terrible things about her... they didn't. Nope, ICE Barbie's upset because after all of facial work she's had done, hair extensions, and cheek implants, they made fun of how she looks. And the Orange Anus put this loser in charge of Homeland Security.
Good morning! Our temps today are once again predicted to climb into the low to mid 80s (F). Yesterday? Well the forecast was kind of off, we had mucho grande clouds. We even had drizzles in the afternoon and early evening. Today, supposedly, cloudiness is predicted to be at a minimum, there is bright sunshine outside at present.
So I actually used the walking pad yesterday. I like it, however, there is one teeny problem. Where as the treadmill had all of the controls in front of you, the walking pad has an app. They want you to download it into your phone. Not me. I'm a bit funny about which apps are in my phone: nothing financial, no apps with Chinese above the English wording. You know, those apps that might provide access to the slim amount of personal data I already have in my phone. So, I put the app on a tablet. The max speed on this pad is 6 miles per hour, that's a jog not a walk. I hate jogging, so that will never happen. Those with max speeds of 4 mph are less expensive, take that into consideration if you're thinking of investing in one.
I did file a complaint yesterday about the probably fake account I was direct messaging, not that I think it will do any good. The account has "no content available," which means it was either deleted or Threads shut it down for breaking community rules. I did send a message to the person, however since he doesn't follow me on Instagram, it went into his "message request" folder where it will sit for 3-4 weeks unless his PA either reads it or deletes it. He is not known for his social media presence. And, since this is turning into a nothingburger, I've decided to post the first part of a conversation that went on for almost week, one that was totally focused on Eli and Max.
So, I saw this morning where the Orange Anus wants to have another census in order for Republicans to cheat better. This is a timely process and if it does happen in say, oh... 11 or 12 months a majority of Americans will know the numbers have been fudged. The biggest problem for conservatives is that they simply don't realized that in a country that is armed to the teeth they need to have a majority of the people behind them. Right now Orangie's approval rating sits at 38%, that's every Republican. About 10% of that number is stupid people. And now his tariffs are upon us. Higher prices will continually erode his approval rating. Any moment now he's going to say "let them eat cake," and we know what happened the last time those words were spoken.
Our skies are overcast and our morning temp is 70 (F). If the weather forecasters are correct, we're not going to break out of the 70s (F) today. The chance of precipitation inches up a few degrees, but is still negligible. Both temperature and humidity will be slowly climbing over the next few days. By Sunday, we should be in he high 80s (F) and the dew point also be high. By Tuesday, however, rain should be moving into the picture.
Yesterday was... different. I don't usually follow celebrities on social media since most of their posts are done not by them, but by their personal assistants and are in one way or another promotional. However, back on July 24 a celebrity posted a bit about a project he was involved with which I found interesting. Even for non-celebs I always click on their profile to check their bona fides. There were direct links to both this person's Instagram account and the project he was involved with, so I followed. Two days later, I received a direct message to my Threads account from someone in this person's organization welcoming me, asking for my preferred pronouns, and where I was located. I provided the correct pronouns, the same generalized location I give everyone (Central PA), and added a bit about the Eli and Max mysteries. Over the next few days a number of direct messages went back and forth concerning Eli and Max, and then the messages stopped. I waited a day and sent another message, no response. I clicked on the account and found out that it has been entirely deleted. Wow. While there is no longer an account, I still have the DMs. I've taken screen prints of them and emailed them to myself. Was this a fake account? Might someone working for this celebrity be on a fishing trip? The messages all revolved around Eli and Max, how interesting it was that they were together for 19 years, and that they solved murders. There were no questions about personal information, no requests that I call a specific phone number. I'm actually enjoying the mystery part of this. Either today or tomorrow, I will DM this celebrity's profile on Instagram and detail what happened.
Anyway, my walking pad came yesterday. It folds up nicely. Now all I have to do is decide in which downstairs room I'm going to put it.
And for those who haven't heard yet, Big Balls was assaulted. You all remember Big Balls? The 19 year-old who worked for DOGE? The one who had access to all of our data? It happened around 0300 in DuPont Circle. For those who don't know, DuPont Circle is a prominent gay neighborhood in Washington, DC. Did I tell you that the police response was at 0300? Supposedly, 10 black youths were attempting a car jacking. That's right, there were 10 of them. Supposedly, a woman was involved and Big Balls pushed her into (?) the car and told her to lock the doors... must have been a very old car. Anyway, when the police arrived there was no sign of the youths, just a shirtless Big Balls looking like he may have been smacked in the face. Oh, and the youths stole his IPhone. IPhones are extremely difficult to sign into without the password. Did I tell you DuPont Circle is very gay area of DC known for it's bars and bath houses? Did you also know that DuPont Circle is also considered to be one of the safest places in DC? Could it be that this group of 10 black youths might just have been after Big Balls?
We have another cool morning here in Central PA. Yesterday, the temps climb fairly high on the thermometer, upper 80s (F). Even though our afternoon high is only supposed to be in the low 80s (F), I'm suspecting today will be a repeat. We are under an air quality alert. I suspect it's the wild fires in Canada. Oddly enough, I don't remember all of these wildfires taking place when I was a kid, but then things are different today, we have satellites, and air monitors, and people who get paid to keep track of such things. Back then the weather forecaster would look out the window and decide if the day was going to be cloudy or not.
I worked yesterday and so my routine is not even close to what I like to think of a normal. I like to write starting in the mid to late afternoon, however when I work writing needs to be done before I leave. Sometimes that works well for me, but frequently it doesn't. Yesterday it worked well, but then the storyline is at point where action is happening and things are moving quickly.
Even though the store is making plan, foot traffic was very slow, mid-February kind of slow. One of the hardware associates was complaining about hours being cut. Evidently at one of the morning meetings last week an announcement was made that fewer hours are going to be scheduled. Right now this only concerns part-timers. This also means that there are going to be gaps in the coverage when no one will be schedule to work in certain departments. This is all related to the tariffs. If the orange home improvement retailer I work for isn't going to raise prices, they're going to have to cut expenses and the easiest expense to cut is payroll.
And this was Howie's birthday present. He loves the stuff, unfortunately it costs $4.59 for a little 12 ounce can.
And the Democrats from Texas have temporarily relocated to several other states to avoid pushing through Republican redistricting in order to give the Orange Anus 5 more seats in the House of Representatives. The fact that Republicans are trying to increase their count to avoid the Orange Anus from being impeached tells you what's terribly wrong with the GOP. The party that wants authoritarian rule in the United States has a big, big problem: they're a minority party who simply can not deal with the fact that a majority of Americans hate them. The anger is growing and they don't know how to handle it, you see they convinced themselves a long time ago that all they had to do was get themselves in charge. They truly believe that if they say, "shut up, we're in charge," everyone will simply bow their heads and meekly say, "okay." That isn't happening. America is watching as the Republican party proves they will accept any evil if it helps them stay in power. This has always been the problem with Authoritarians, their ability to comprehend is at a minimum at best. This is why they've always ended going down in flames. They will torch themselves and burn themselves to the ground without ever understanding that were the ones who struck the match.
Well, we had another cool wakeup this morning, with our outside temp a comfortable 60 (F). If the long range forecast holds out, over the next 2 weeks only one day will have temps reaching the 90 (F) mark. There's not a lot of precipitation in the forecast, which means daily waterings of the tomatoes, but that's fine with me.
Yesterday was uneventful mostly because I work the entire day. We did have a senior customer who sat and talked for about twenty minutes. She was very nice. While she didn't tell us how old she was, I'd estimate she was easily in her mid 80s (F). I showed her pictures of Howie, and she said she'd seen many colored Labradors before, but never one that was red. We did have her laughing, which made me feel good. I do think there are times when seniors go out just for the socialization, that's why I talk to all of them. Some of them are quite interesting.
My local Giant supermarket had a deal on Spam last week and it turns out that Howie loves the stuff. It's a little pricy at $4.59 for a 12 ounce can, so it's a treat he's only going to be getting on special days, like today. What makes today special for Howie? It's his birthday. He's one year old today. So instead of cake and ice cream, he's going to get Spam, and more than just 2 or 3 slices.
About 50% of all the carpets we sell in the store are manufactured by Mohawk. The company has taken a stand on the tariffs.
Supposedly the great orange home improvement retailer I work for said that they weren't going to be raising prices because of the tariffs. However, first there was Procter & Gamble and now Mohawk, who knows what other prices are going up as well. My feeling is that price increases will quietly be passed onto our shoppers.
For those cultists who are still lost in the haze of hate surrounding the Orange Anus, the Find Out stage is going to kick in quickly. Halloween and Christmas depend on China cheap prices. These cultists are not even preparing for higher prices. I can give you an example of these price increases. I bought a walking pad on 7/31, yesterday, while at work, I showed it to a friend and to my surprise the price had increased by $100. These price increases are going to be everywhere. Americans are going to be paying a lot more just so that billionaires can get a tax break and earn more money.
Last night was great sleeping weather! When I woke up this morning our outside temp was 58 (F). Today's high is once again only supposed to climb into the low 80s (F) No rain is in the forecast, or I should say we have a 1% chance of rain today, tomorrow, and a 4% chance on Wednesday. Thursday it's up to 6%. This means I will be watering my little garden, which is down to just tomatoes.
I did manage to get in an upper body workout yesterday before I headed off to work. A small one. I did something to my lower back about a week ago and it was in a really cranky mood for several days. That has now passed.
A new Walking Pad was ordered, it will be arriving Tuesday. Because it folds, I'll be keeping this piece of exercise equipment downstairs. It will fit in quite nicely under the futon in the living room. The thought had occurred to me that I might walk and play video games at the same time. That might be interesting, especially in combat situations.
The increase for my car insurance came in the mail yesterday. As expected, my rate did go up with the new car. A nice surprise was that the cost only went up by $13 a year, which is $1.08 a month. Both the insurance agent and I were surprised. I was expecting a much higher increase and evidently so was he.
And Jeanine Pirro is now the interim US attorney for DC. This calls for a glass of wine or 10, depending on if you're happy or not.
For those who don't know, Jeanine is another Orange Anus pick who comes from Fox Entertainment; Rupert Murdoch must be pleased to no end with his ability to influence American politics. Anyway, Jeanie's a wino, a conspiracy theorist whom Fox actually took off the air for a bit because of her insane views, and a wino.... oh, wait, I already said that. Every Republican voted for her.
What a difference a day makes. Our temp this morning in Central PA was 58 (F). Our high today is predicted to hit the very low 80s (F), which is fine. No rain is in the forecast for at least a week. I'm happy about that. Things need to dry out. I don't mind watering the tomato plants.
I did get things done yesterday, most importantly a new area rug to cover up the tiny hole Howie made. Otherwise, yesterday was pretty much rather forgettable. I did get some words writ. That was nice.
I listened to the first chapter of The Body on the Lawn I put on Audible. What a difference a year makes. I definitely could have give the narrator more direction. The voice he used for Max is way too deep, in fact the first thing I thought of was Himbo, and Max is anything but. Still, there's nothing I can do about it now. The idea has occurred to me that if I do any more audio books, I might narrate them myself. My speaking voice isn't that bad, just don't ask me to sing.
And here's a pic of Howie on the new rug. He's almost fully grown, now.
And the tariffs kicked in yesterday. The plum tomatoes at my Giant supermarket went from $1.69 a pound to $1.99 a pound. Of course, they come from Mexico. There is some produce which didn't go up in price, it's locally grown, however we're heading out of growing season here in Central PA. Prepare yourself for other higher prices.
And then there was the jobs report. ADP has been reporting the serious drop in hiring for the past 3 months. Their reports were legitimate. The reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were skewed horribly higher, no doubt to please Orangie. Yesterday they reported the truth. The woman in charge was immediately fired because she told the truth. According to the BLS only 73,000 jobs were created last month. As one economist put it, "that number will probably be adjust downward, so it may only have been 7000 jobs." Orangie is killing the economy. Remember, he has already racked up 6 bankruptcies. Also, historically speaking, the Republican party, the party of selfishness and greed, has always ended up destroying the economy.
Our outside temps were 67 (F) this morning here in Central PA. Temps are supposed to climb into the mid 70s (F), a cool beginning to August. If the long range forecast holds out, we're looking at high temps in the low to mid 80s (F) for the next week. And all of that rain we were supposed to get yesterday, it passed both above and below us. We got maybe a drop or two. That's it. So this morning I went out and watered my raised garden.
The only thing I did a lot of yesterday was eat. Oh, my. I haven't stepped on the scale this morning, but I'm certain I gained about 20 pounds. That is an exaggeration, of course, but believe me when I tell you that poundage was added.
Certain chores are already scheduled for today, number one being the purchase of either a runner, or a small area rug. Howie was bad. He was told so in no uncertain terms. What did he do? Chewed a hole in my area rug. He did get a scolding, and then afterwards he couldn't be nice enough, or friendly enough. Working in the flooring department, I have to tell you that this is not a first, we have had many customers coming in looking for small sections of carpet to repair spots their dogs have chewed up. In fact, one of our managers had to buy a rather large piece to fix a big hole his daughter's dog had feasted on.
The jobs report is out this morning. It's not good. Only 73,000 jobs were created in the United States last month. It's also reported that jobs figures for the past 2 months have been revised down. NBC has reported that this is not a good sign for the economy. And the Orange Anus has just announced more tariffs and increased tariffs. Believe me, things are going to get worse. He's going to crash this economy so badly. Corporations are going to fall apart. Stocks will crash. And Orangie will do what he does best, blame Obama. Except it's not going to work. Time is not on his side in so many more ways than one.
And regarding the Proctor & Gamble price increases, it's not just cleaning supplies, it's Crest tooth paste and Old Spice everything, to give you just two more names. There are many more because Proctor & Gamble has pretty much of a monopoly on certain types of products.
