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 Holy Crap!  We got above freezing yesterday!  All the way up to 34 (F).  And, wonder of wonders, it's going to happen again today... and possibly tomorrow!.  Tuesday is going to be a different story.  

I did work yesterday and, as expected, we were slow.  I did cut a small section of carpet, 12 x 5, but that's about it.  I sold a carpet installation to a customer who had set up her measure on line.  Oh, and I talked to a customer about blinds.  He was not happy when he discovered how expensive it is to buy blinds for his house.  We do sell cheapo plastic ones, but they come in selective sizes and they can't be cut.  Curtains or drapes are much easier, and, unless you go with custom drapes, are far less expensive.

Of course, when I got home from work the Steelers were playing (they're a football team) and so my neighbor's TV was blaring, and he was shouting, and so this week, probably Tuesday evening, I'll watch something on my TV.  If their loud, I play mine at normal volume.  

I got a nice walk in on the treadmill yesterday before I left for work.  I may try to get small one in today, but I changed my schedule, so instead of going in at 2, I start working at 12.  Since I work on the new book every day, I'll have to get the rewrite done before I leave the house, which means zero time of exercise.

And I've got about 3 more week of editing before The Body in History is ready for my readers.  I snapped this pick yesterday and sent it to Christos.  The translation is The Little Steps.

I did make a donation to the Pasadena Humane Society because it's the right thing to do.  There are so many people in need out in Los Angeles, so if you can afford it, send a donation.  It doesn't need to be to the Humane Society; there are so many other charities working out there.  So many people have lost the basic necessities, and you know anyone involved with the Republican Party will send nothing, they'll do nothing.  

Some of the biggest lies have to do with the water pressure, there was none, hydrants were dry, however, the same thing happened in Gatlinburg in 2017.  With the Orange Anus as the president-elect, the truth is never going to come out.

Kamikaze

 So, California is getting rain.  A Navy buddy of mine posted pictures on Facebook this AM and I was polite.  I didn't tell him that is what most rain storms look like here in Central PA because they don't have the amount of rain that we do.  Two years ago there was a heavy drought in the southwest, today they're getting too much.  This means I need to make a really bad joke:  Isn't this how it usually is?  When it rains, it pours?

Anyway, yesterday was oh, so boing at work.  I did have customers show up who I'd sold blinds to last week.  They got a phone call, the product they wanted was out of stock and there would be a 3 week delay until production could begin on their blinds.  That does happen on occasion.  What does irk me, however, is this belief by some customers that they can show up on Sunday and resolve the issue.  While our store may be open, Bali blinds, Levelor blinds, and Venetia blinds are closed on the weekends.  True, we can reach their customer service reps, but all they can do is look at notes on a customer's order, which is what I can do.  The customers are coming back later this morning when we will be able to get some answers for them.

It seems as though I have Kamikaze snails.  Here's one racing towards the edge of the clam shell.

And so the Orange Anus had made it official, he will not be participating in the RNC debate with the other candidates.  No surprise there.  Gutless and spineless are two very good words to describe the former president.  He doesn't care that most of America now sees him as a coward extraordinaire, not as long as 71% of the Republican party trust him more they they would a member of their own family.  When I saw that figure I was stunned, but only for a moment.  Just think of how these people act, and talk, and dress.  They are a cult, and Trump is, and this is something he truly doesn't understand, their Kamikaze leader.  All together, they are going to wrap themselves up in a great red MAGA flag and do a swan dive directly into history.  Believe, it can't happen soon enough.

There goes Florida

Yesterday was busy for me:  I had a nice bicycle ride down the coast of Ireland, Skibbereen, along the Atlantic Coast.  12.75 miles.  It was nice.

I had ordered more plants for the tank from Aquarium Co-op.  They're based out in Washington.  They arrived and have been planted.  The three little angels love them.  Pictures will be coming soon.

Oh, and I cut my hair!  How's that for excitement!

California  is in the process of shutting down... again... because of people.  Don't you find it interesting that one of the first thing that gets shut down... again... are bars.  There is that certain segment of America that is happy unless they're getting cocktailed.  And, of course, we've been getting a non-message from the administration because it's okay to spread Covid as long as you're spending money.  At least Gavin Newsome has a head on his shoulders, and knows how to think.  He's trying to keep California from becoming an epi-center.

Governor Ronnie DeSantis from Florida, however, is just beginning to realize his state is now a growing epi-center.  Over forty hospitals are maxed out - no room at the inn, so to speak, and it's getting worse.  And those Republican Senior Citizens down there?  They're mad as hell. They're realizing that Ronnie lied to them.  They want him to shut down the state.  And Ronnie?  He knows if he does that the Idiot Jerk in the White House is going to skin him alive.  You see the Idiot Jerk desperately needs to give his acceptance speech in front of a crowd... a very large crowd.  The way things are going, the Republican Convention is either going to be cancelled, or be seriously restricted.  Florida might actually be... shut down.  Ouch!  Can you think of a better nail in the political coffin of the Idiot Jerk in the White House?  Why are Republicans so stupid?  I do not doubt for an instant that Ronnie now understands his political career is ending.  Good riddance to Ronnie.

Finally, AI teammates come to Breakpoint tomorrow.  I'm excited.  I had played Ghost Recon: Wildlands and had a lot of fun.  The game was still difficult, but you can use your AI teammates to create distractions, to do re-conn.  They are very handy.  Ubisoft decide to eliminate them in Breakpoint.  They wanted you to to play what's known as co-play, joining up with other online players.  Ubisoft makes more money with co-play.  People spend more money buying accouterments you can't earn, weapon skins, uniforms, badges, even canteens.  Single player gamers hated this approach, and there are a lot of us.  The blowback was fierce.  Breakpoint was listed as one of the worst games of 2019.  Ubisoft listened.  Tomorrow, AI teammates come to Breakpoint.  I will start to play it again.

California Safe

My 83 year old mother came home from the hospital yesterday, and by home I mean the senior living facility where she lives.  I went over after she was settled back into her apartment, talked to the staff, and spent about an hour with her.  Last evening she called about 8 to let me know that she was out of the hospital and back in Graysonview just in case I didn't know.  This is how it goes.
Yesterday was also when a friend of mine from Oregon made a comment on Facebook about DT's using National Prayer Day to mention the TV show he's producing, asking for prayers to make it a success (or something to that effect).  Another friend, who unfortunately is a Trumplodite, commented that he was surprised DT hadn't mentioned the deplorable fact that California is a Sanctuary State.  Of course, I needed to add my 2 cents.  I said DT will rattle swords, but not much else; he and too many members of his cabinet have extensive business interests in the state and pissing off that many people would be detrimental to their bank accounts.  His reply was that DT was no longer concerned about the cash flow in regard to his business interests....  These people are so damn stupid.
The resistance needs to begin hitting DT where it will hurt him the most, his pocket book.  I've always thought the real reason he's never released his taxes is not because he's got ties to Russia, but rather that he doesn't have nearly as much money in the bank as he claims.  In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he's been robbing Peter to pay Paul for years and years and years.

This is why California is safe.  His money is very, very important to him.  I wouldn't be surprised if he listens more to his accountants than he does Steve Bannon.  The minute the say the word "loss" he says "shit."  DT has many, many Achilles heels and this is but one.  Note the companies below:

Public stock investments within his portfolio include General Electric, Chevron, UPS, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Comcast, Sanofi, Ford, ConocoPhillips, Energy Transfer Partners, Altera, Verizon Communications, Procter & Gamble, Bank of America, Nike, Google, Apple Inc., Philip Morris, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Whole Foods, Intel, IBM, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Caterpillar, Kinder Morgan, AT&T 

It's important you let these companies know what you think of DT.  Don't we all want to be California Safe.

Successful Business do not create jobs!

Today is Labor Day and I'm working.  I'm in retail, an ASDS in a Home Depot store.  I wasn't always in retail and for a vast majority of my adult life I had off every labor day, until September of 2009 when, at the height of the recession, xpedx, a subsidiary of International Paper decided it was fiscally prudent to outsource my job to Krakow, Poland.  And it wasn't just me, every one in my department lost their jobs, a the height of the recession (notice how I repeat myself?).  To add insult to injury they paid to fly in our Polish replacements so we could train them.  These decisions were made by a successful business man name John Feraci.  For some time now we have been fed this notion that if you're a successful business man you know how to create jobs.  That's nothing more then pure horse shit. Successful business men trim fat, they cut programs, they kill jobs in order to be successful.  When they're successful they don't decide to suddenly get fat again.  They want to stay trim because that's what makes them money.

Meg - compassionate or callous?

Take Meg Whitman, she made a nice fortune running Ebay.  She then ran for the position of Governor of California, spending some of her own money to have the voters reject her.  The people of California decided she was unfit to be Governor.  Now she's running Hewlett-Packard and cutting 27,000 jobs.  She's going to make Hewlett-Packard successful.  Does she care about the people who are losing their jobs?  Hell no.  She's getting paid another fortune to make that company make money, not to demonstrate care and concern.  That's not part of her persona.  She doesn't want to be Mother Theresa.    She wants to be in charge.  This is true for all successful business men, it's not about creating jobs, it's not about about controlling people's lives, because people don't matter to successful business men.