The Brown Beaver

Okay, so it's Tuesday and I get to go back to work... for 3 days.  Today will be hectic at the Returns Desk as unwanted or unneeded gifts get returned.  People will show up by the droves to check out the marked down Christmas decorations... and expect us to mark them down even more.  And those gift cards people got?  Instead of holding on to it until Memorial Day when there will be another big sale, they're going to rush in and spend it on a tool being sold at full price.  Their loss.
Oh, and I saw where the Idiot Jerk in White House was taking full credit for people saying Merry Christmas l- what an asshole.  What is even more pathetic is that there a hordes of clueless supporters who don't realize just how much he lies.  I'm waiting for him to say that if he'd been in charge of Creation, he'd have finished it in 5 days... and everybody would have really, really nice orange skin.
My sister and I picked up my Mom yesterday and took her to my sister's for Christmas Dinner - and later my Mom called my sister to tell her how all her grand kids had been to visit... and to ask her if she'd had Christmas Dinner at my sisters....  What's even funnier (and we do think it's funny) is that my sister had called my Mom to remind her about Christmas Dinner and we got there... that's right, she was sitting at her table in the dining room... eating.
Now I don't know about you, but I got a really, really big laugh when I saw that someone had sent Steve Mnuchin a box of shit for Christmas.  I'd have laughed even harder if I'd heard that his bimbo of a trophy wife had opened it up and said, "oh, look Stevie, someone sent us a big box of fudge!"
Of course, the dire predictions are beginning for the 2018 elections - especially for the Republicans who are starting to realize that their great tax overhaul and job creation is not going to win them any support from middle class voters.  I guess we should begin to see this great tax cut starting in February.  I don't think I need to tell you that his supporters are expecting much more than a $10 a week increase in their paychecks.  They're expecting big bucks.
And out of all the toys the dogs got for Christmas, Big Seig's favorite is.... the brown beaver.

He walks around with it drooping from his mouth.  Jeez, I thought I'd raised him better than that.

Lily's Beaver

So, I did my 35 minutes on the eliptical this AM and sitting here at the computer scanning the news and sipping on my Gatorade Frost, when Lily began barking from downstairs.  Where as Big Seig will just bark for the hell of it, she usually barks when she wants something.  I found her sitting in front of the sofa with her beaver in her mouth.  That's right, she has a beaver... a toy.  They both do, or did.  Big Seig ate his and then threw it up because fake fur is non-digestible.  Sitting down on the sofa, I reached for the beaver saying "you want to play?"  She took a step away and, looking up at the staircase, barked again.  She wanted to play alright, but not with me, with Big Seig.  Little hussy.

Anyway, during the 1st quarter of this year, the Economy weakened.  And, of course, the Trumpophones are spitting out their sour note excuses, one of which is... 'the weather.'  Isn't it amazing that every time the economy under performs one of the main reasons is always 'the weather.'  They're saying things are going to improve when the "tax cuts" kick in... but there's no guarantee that they're going to kick in.  And when they do?  Well, I don't know a single company out there that's going to say "oh, we just got a nice big tax cut, let's hire some unnecessary labor!"  But then this is always the problem with Conservative Economics.  Isn't funny how these people who want to reduce the size of government, lay people off to cut our expenses, want someone else to hire people to just sit around.  Nobody hires anybody until the demand for labor is actually there.  I have never worked in a place where an associate gave their notice and a new hire was brought in before they were actually gone.  That's wasted payroll hours, you know?  Nobody hires somebody in with the expectation that down the road there's going to be more work.  When I worked for International Paper we took over the billing for the entire Eastern Seaboard and they waited to see how our current staffing would handle the additional invoicing.  It wasn't until we were a month into it that I had to deal with my first interviews.  This is how life is.  A fact Conservatives like to ignore.

 

Matching Beavers

Well, it's Christmas morning here in Central PA and Santa is still in the building.  He's laid out all of the new toys for Seig and Lily and shortly will begin removing the tags.  As you can see, most of his elves work at Kong - no problem, he wants to make sure all of his doggy toys are durable with as little stuffing as possible.  This year 2 of the toys come with extra squeakers - now isn't that smart!

Santa is in the building

They were all excited when I put on their new collars, fluorescent yellow with reflective stitching, but it was their matching beavers which seems to have been the greatest bit of all.

Matching beavers

Anyway, I was talking to Ved, one of my cashiers / paint associates, and I asked him if they celebrated Christmas in India.  He said, "of course, we don't do it for the religious thing, but we all get presents."  I suspect this might be the true meaning of Christmas, a time of giving, of spreading joy and happiness, of lending a hand and, maybe a stronger set of shoulders, a holiday that is evolving to be all inclusive for all races and all religions.  Ain't that neat!  You all have a Merry Christmas!

Drat, one of the beavers has already lost her squeaker!