Guard This

 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.

  

Price Increase in aisle 1... 2... 3.......

 Good Morning World!

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.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

 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.