Leveling things out

 The cold weather has arrived.  Blustery, the high temp today is predicted to be 27 (F), with tonight's low dropping to 14 (F).  Tomorrow, forecasters are predicting the temps to climb into the mid 30's (F).  By Monday, our daily highs are supposed to be back in the low 50's (F).  I've no problem with that.

I was on my way to my local Giant supermarket yesterday morning, when I stopped and talked to two of the workmen from next door.  They drywalled the attic, so it's now one large room. What used to be the enclosed back porch has been turned into a bathroom, the new toilet should be coming next week.  One of them said that he and his wife would probably move in until they managed to sell the place.  With interest rates what they are, they may be living there a long time.

The dry rack arrived yesterday.  It's assembled and folded up, awaiting it's first use.  

In order to intensify my treadmill speed walks, I've been increasing the incline.  Yesterday I was at a 5.5% grade for almost a mile.  Holy Crap were my legs sore!  It was a good thing I had to work yesterday.  I had the chance to walk it off.

Speaking of work, I had a customer who wanted to do a project this weekend; several rooms (?) are going to be turned into an Air BNB and he intended to lay vinyl plank flooring, something he knew nothing about it.  Two bathrooms.  Neither he, nor his wife / girlfriend had any idea of the dimensions.  They had no idea what their square footage was, so when he asked how many boxes he was going to need, all I could do was shrug.  He did the same thing with floor leveling compound. He was not pleased when I told him I couldn't tell him if he needed to buy a little bag or a big bag.  What they ended up doing was buying a lot of everything, intending to return what they didn't use.  When they checked out, he told the cashier he was a contractor.  She and I laughed.

Yesterday, the Republican held House of Representatives passed a decree denouncing Socialism.  Here's a chart defining Socialism, and Capitalism, and Communism.

Republicans hate anything and everything that hints at socialism.  They see it as a scourge against Capitalism, where basically anything goes and the consumer / citizen takes the brunt of the financial pain.  I've talked to people who do not understand there is a difference between Socialism and Communism, one woman actually asked me why I think we'd be better as Communists.  That is what Republicans are selling, that Socialism is the same as Communism.  

For these Republican congressman, Social Security is socialism.  Once elected, these same congressmen are set for life: a nice pension and free medical.  Why would they care about the average worker in America.  I do believe Congress should pass legislation which eliminates their pension and their insurance.  If Republicans what pure capitalism, they need to deal with it like the every other American.

The hell of holiday retail

As someone who works in retail, I can tell you the holidays bring mostly hell.  First of all there is the merchandising: somebody in corporate always knows the best way to merchandise no matter whether you are a high volume store or a low volume store, or even where the store happens to be located.  After you do you Christmas set you hear from two kinds of customers, those who love it and those who hate it.  A classic example is "every year it gets earlier."  These complainers don't seem to understand that if people didn't come in and shop the merchandise it wouldn't be displayed.  If they don't like this they need to start throwing bricks as those customers busily browsing away.  This year there were some customers who couldn't wait for the display to be set.  If they buy it early, it will be put out early.

If doors are open, they will shop

This year a lot of people pissed and moaned because some retailers were open on Thanksgiving day.  This is America and American Capitalism rules supreme.  Blame the shoppers, not the retailers.  If a Wal-mart or a Target opens their doors and customers show up, those doors are going to be opened.  If the doors are open, they will shop.  All you need to do is look at history.  At one time all of these United States had what were called Blue Laws.  Stores were not legally allowed to be open on Sundays.  Then supermarkets started staying open.  After a while large retailers began to take notice, Sears and Woolworth's and Montgomery Ward's and they thought, hhhmmm, if the supermarkets are making money then so can we and their doors started opening on Sundays.  Nothing is going to change.  This is America and Americans want to make money.  If that means retailers are going to need to be open on Thanksgiving, they are going to be open.  Americans also like to shop.  They like to think they are getting a good deal.  There is no going back to the way it was.