Relying on Dishonesty

 So, that damn cold is hanging on just like that old Supremes' song that all too easily send an ear bug into your brain.  Normally, when I get a cold it's here and gone in the blink of an eye.  This one?  Evidently I'm dealing with a slow blink.

On the other hand, our weather is nice.  The nights have been cool and good for sleeping.  Our days have been warm, upper 70s (F) and low 80s (F).  Yesterday we had rain... twice.  The first time was in the afternoon and Howie was out and got wet.  So, he and I had a fun game of towel, towel, who's got the towel.  Then last evening a thunderstorm moved through the area and we had more rain.  

And I've been wrangling with  CDW, the company that sold me the broken Xerox printer.  While they did replace it, as should be, they don't want to pay UPS to pick it up at my house.  The customer service rep emailed me, "but that would cost us money."  So, I've got to load a71 lb. (32 kg) printer into my car and drive it over to the UPS store.  Well... damn.  After reading that email, the first thing I did was go out and punch in the hand holds in the box to make carrying it easier.  I was a bit surprised when I picked it up; it wasn't that heavy.  Later this morning, I'll drive it over to UPS.  CDW?  If they send me a review, will have to deal with some professionally scathing comments.

Here's a pic of Howie and the gaming towel.

And RFK Jr testified yesterday and it was a rough day for him.  Good.  This guy has a liberal arts degree in history.  He has never taken a single medical course while in college.  He's also openly admitted to injecting heroin for 14 consecutive years.  Yesterday he was called a liar to his face multiple times.  He would say, "I never said that," and both Republican and Democratic congressmen had the receipts.  They quoted him verbatim, and still he lied.

Yesterday ADP released their jobs report for the month of August.  It was dismal.  Only 54,000 jobs were created in the US.  Companies are simply not hiring.  The biggest non-hiring states are those GOP run states in Center of the country.  This means that the job's numbers Orangie releases will be fudged to make him look good.  He has never, ever relied upon honesty.  If it doesn't make you look good, then change it.

The Bad, Bad Bill

 Well, hello world.  Temps are comfy here in Central PA.  It's 67 (F) outside and the sun is shining.  Wouldn't it be nice if this weather lasted, unfortunately, at least according to Accuweather, thunderstorms are going to be rolling into the area this afternoon.  They were predicted to arrive yesterday afternoon as well but skirted us.  Those communities around us didn't fare as well.  Some places in Lancaster county go up to 7 inches of rain, and for those uninitiated, we here in Central PA call it Lan kiss ter.

Because of the weather threats yesterday, I dried my laundry inside.

Yesterday was also a day of cleaning, and of writing, and a really good dumbbell/ band workout.  Overall, I was fairly satisfied with all I accomplished.

Sadly, I did have to order and controller for my Xbox, the right toggle on my current controller is shot, my character keeps trying to move forward no matter what I'm doing.  This makes killing zombies, marauders, and bandits extremely difficult.  I order another red one.  It should be arriving on Tuesday.

My friend Justin is supposed to stop by this morning to trim the top off my holly bush.  He has some acuity problems because of a brain bleed, so he may, or he may not.  He's a nice guy, though his life is rather chaotic.  

Here's a nice pic showing how Orangie's bill is going to hit PA hard.

Of course, Republicans think that none of these people are  white.  Nope.  They truly do believe that everyone getting assistance from the Federal Government is a minority.  If there were that many minorities in the country, Republicans would never get elected.  Ironically, these poor, white Republicans who use SNAP to help feed their children simply are not smart enough to understand this will be crushing to them.  They also fail to comprehend their elected Republican Senators and Congressmen simply do not care about them, or their families.  These officials have no problem in starving their constituents in order to tow the party line.

And ADP released their jobs report for June.  Orangie's policies were supposed to grow the private sector job market by almost 100,000 jobs.  Instead, there was a stunning loss in private sector jobs.  This is the first time in years that America has had negative job growth.  Damn!  Republicans believe that inflation will either level off or grow slowly.  They don't realize that Orangie's foot is heavy on that gas pedal and acceleration is the only option.

The Private Sector

 Yesterday turned out to be very nice. The weather was quite summer-like with the temps sitting in the mid 80s (F).  Much was done.  And then last evening lightening and thunder roared into the area bringing with them torrential downpours.  We got possible and inch of rain.  We need the rain.  While it would be nice if we didn't get it all in a single hour, every drop helps.

Yardwork was done yesterday.  My raised container garden is complete... almost.  I have a few tomato plants still wanting a container.  Not counting them, I have 13 tomato plants.  If they all produce, I'll have sauce for the  winter season.  If I have too many tomatoes, I can always give them away.  Pepper, cucumber, and zucchini plants are also growing nicely. There's also dill, spearmint, and Greek oregano. This just might be a tasty summer.  

My exercise equipment has been idle for almost 3 weeks.  I've got to fix that.

And I do work today.  I'm not really excited.  I have a large carpet installation that would please everybody, but it's a big job and I really don't want to sit down with the customers for an hour or so going over the details.  There is the possibility they may have stopped in at the store and purchased it yesterday.  That would please me.

Here's an updated picture of the oregano I'm growing on my window sill.

And here's a bit of interesting news:  While the Fed said that employment stayed about the same, with over 177,000 jobs being created, the ADP report said that only 62,000 jobs had been created.  So, does this mean that the figures on the Federal Jobs report were fudged?  The two reports don't always correlate, however the variance is usually about 15% when they don't jive with each other.  When the difference between the two is 115,000, well, that's more than 15%, a lot more.  Of course, there have been times when the variance between the two has been hire, but I can't find a single report in which there was a 55% difference.  More importantly, the ADP report indicates that the private sector, the healthcare industry, retail, and service related industries are not hiring.  This is not good news, since a vast majority of Americans work in the private sector.  The recession might already be here.