Reuben

 Rather than continuous rain yesterday, our showers (and they were just showers) were spotty throughout the day.  The temps were cool, but not cold.  Today we're supposed to get more sunshine, with the temps holding steady in the mid 60s (F).  Tomorrow, however, rain is again in the forecast.  

Biggie had a bit of an episode last evening which was, I suspect, related to his Cushing's Disease.  His most frequent symptom is an episode of heavy panting which last about ten minutes .  The vet told there's nothing wrong with him, this is just the result of his pituitary working just a little too much.  Still, it is a bit offsetting at times.

Yesterday was good for me at work.  Another $6,000 carpet sale and another measure.  I'm actually doing better than one of the full time associates.  Management is very happy with me.  

My new glasses have arrived. The ones with the clear lenses.  The pair with the yellow lenses will be used for backup purposes, should I need them.  They were, unfortunately, a waste of money.  

Dinner last evening was a Reuben sandwich.  Tasty.  I slow roast my corned beef until it's quite tender.  Yum, yum.

The Orange Anus had a rally yesterday in Waco, Texas.  Honestly, I just didn't want to take the time to find out what he was saying.  I did see some sort of horseshit that brain dead Ted Nugent was there spitting out some sort of lies that floated through the audience like over-buoyant turds.  The only thing of interest I did see was his failure to mention either Ted Cruz or Greg Abbott.  Those 2 have become political enemies since they now support DeSantis. 

Mostly people seem to be waiting for the New York Grand Jury to reconvene.  People are hungry for an indictment, even centrist Republicans.  I don't doubt many of them realize that the party will be torn asunder, however, it won't be until afterwards that the rebuilding can commence.  I don't doubt that the future Republican party will be kinder and gentler, and oh so very much weaker.   

  

Living in a Haze

The skies are overcast and we have light rain showers outside.  Temps are predicted to climb up into the low to mid 60s (F) today.  That will be nice.  Tomorrow, however, they're going to tank, though the definition of tanking is relative when you take into account how warm it's been this winter.  For us, the mid 40s (F) means our temps are tanking.

Rather than riding the bike, I've been spending a lot of time on the treadmill.  Usually I keep the speed at a fast walk, between 3.6 and 3.8 mph, but I've been increasing the incline to over 5% so I'm walking fast up a continual hill.  Believe me, you don't need to run to get a good cardio workout.  An interesting side effect is that my Garmin Fenix 6 tracks that incline as a staircase, so a 2.5 mile walk will show me going up 45 flights of stairs.

Milky Chance released their first song of their next album.  That will be available in June.  Here's the song, Living in a Haze.  Can we talk about versatility?  They go from singing about smoking pot in Colorado to wanting to be a disco boy in this song.  Enjoy.

For those who didn't see it, and I'm one of those, Merrick Garland was testifying yesterday in front of some Republican hack committee trying to prove one of their conspiracy theories.  I did watch a clip where that buffoon Ted Cruz accused the DOJ of leaks regarding to photos from the Mar a Lago raid.  When Garland pointed out that the photos Cruz was using as a reference hadn't been leak, rather they had been part of a press release, the buffoon quickly played his 'no further questions,' card.

Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to Rupert Murdoch asking that Fox not air their re-edit clips of the January 6 attack on the the capital in order to avoid further violence.  I don't doubt that Rupert is not in a happy place right now.  With that letter being publicized, should Fox go ahead and air anything that incites violence, they will be to blame.  They may shriek Freedom of Speech, buy any and all public disorder will be laid upon their doorstep.  And, of course, there is the Dominion law suit.  You can that's going to play into old Rupert's decision, he's already on record as saying Fox out and out lied about the election.  I hope he's enjoying this haze he's put himself into and wonder if all he really wants to do right now is be a disco boy.

 

The Big Lie... again, and again

 Well, it's Friday, a none work day for me.  That's right.  I am unavailable to be scheduled on Fridays.  The same is true for Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  At some point, I will add another day in order to have four days off per week. 

Being off today is a good thing since we had snow last night.  Not much, around 4 inches, meaning I'll have to do some shoveling later.  And later, since I have the ingredients, I'll make some chicken soup, they say it's good for the soul.  I don't really think that's true, but it is tasty.

Wasn't that a great speech by Biden yesterday?  I was working, so I didn't get the chance to see it in its entirety.  It did piss off a lot of Republicans.  Just as many confederates never got over losing the Civil War, they will never come to terms with Trumps defeat.  Their policies, their beliefs, all were rejected by over 7 million Americans.  And what did Trump do?  Spit out the only thing Republicans can believe in: The Big Lie.  Of course, politicized Evangelicals have believe it, to do otherwise might indicate that God doesn't have Trump's back, and if that were the case... welll... oh.... shit!  Their desperation might have caused them to make a really big mistake.

And I understand Ted Cruz was on Tucker Carlson last evening.  Evidently Carlson dropped his drawers and turned around in order for Cruz to obligingly kiss his ass.  One comment I saw hit the nail of truth right on the head:  Cruz is more concerned about Carlson's opinion then he is the opinions of his constituents.  Cruz doesn't understand the minute he flew to Cancun last year, he wrote his own ticket out of Congress and no amount of kissing Carlson's ass is going to save him.

Mid-Terms are coming up.  Vote Blue to save America.

Eggs, and other things

So, they drew my blood yesterday morning.  Only 4 vials.  I guess their wonderment is over, or else my new Dr. didn't feel the need.  Oh, and I didn't have to pee in a little plastic cup.  Crap, and purposely drank 4 cups of black coffee to insure they knew it was 'ground' not instant.

And the weather was fairly nice through out the early morning hours, so my veggies got planted.  I also took a few pictures.  They'll be forthcoming.  Something else took precedence.  Something that momentarily put the brakes on everything.  A 'son of a bitch' moment that sent me upstairs looking for answers on my computer.  And just what was that moment.  This:

My angelfish laid eggs across the back wall of the tank.  Now, if I wanted to I could run out and buy a separate tank, and filter, and heater, and use a turkey baster to move them to the new tank.  If I did that many would survive.  Or, I could let nature run its course.  Most of the fry would become food for the other fish and may 2 or 3 might survive.  I'm opting for the nature route mostly because now that I know I have a breeding pair, I can expect this same thing to occur every 3 - 4 weeks.  That's a lot of baby angelfish.  I will stop by PetSmart after I leave work and pick up some sort of 'fry saver,' to give the babies a fighting chance.

I didn't really pay any attention to what the rabidly raving Republicans were doing yesterday.  Too much other stuff was happening.  I did see Green and Cruz have begun some sort of insanity roadshow.  This is fine.  They will satisfy their every shrinking base.  Come election time the Texas airwaves will be spinning with his adventures in Cancun  during the Great Freeze.  And if that isn't going to be enough, the Texas legislature is working on a little agenda to make the taxpayers pay for fixing a system that killed quite a few of those very same taxpayers over.  And as for Greene?  Everything she says and does is going to bite her in the ass.

Finally, for those of you who don't know, one of my favorite bands of all time, if not the all-time favorite, is Yes.  I had a good time last night watching this classical musician analyzing one of their greatest songs Close to the Edge.  As I said in my comments to him, I've had the pleasure of seeing Yes perform this song 4 times in concert.  Here he is:

And here's a live version from 1972 ( I saw them do this song in San Diego that year).  Oh, and that spangly, gold cape Rick Wakeman wore was about 15 feet long.

 

Photogenic Excuses

Okay, sometime today, or this evening, Flo is going to make landfall.  Torrential rains are forecast.  Because she's a bitch, she might just choose to sit on her ass for a couple of days and piss all over the Carolinas.  I'm not talking buckets here, I'm talking feet.  If you're in a low lying region, run for the hills, literally.  Getting hit by a wall of moving water is just like running headfirst into a wall of bricks.
Oh, and the guy from FEMA says they only gave $10 million to ICE.
On a lighter note, Betsy DeVos got a boot up her ass.  Where as the Obama administration had a problem with predatory schools, Betsy doesn't.  She doesn't see anything wrong with a school that lies to you, makes phony promises, and fakes statistical records in order to sign you up for high interest loan.  To Betsy, that's just American Capitalism.  Her government should not have to police these scavengers.  If you sign on that dotted line, then you, and you alone, are responsible for the financial wreckage that loan will cost.  Except 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, sued ol' Betsy, and a Federal Judge said they were right and she was wrong.  So far there's been no comment from the Department of Education.  No doubt Betsy doesn't know how to respond to someone telling her to "just shut up."
On the even funnier side of things, articles are beginning to pop up about the mid-terms.  Conservative political pundits are scratching their heads.  They don't understand how, with the economy this good, so many can hate the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  His approval rating has dropped to 39.9 - that's really terrible, especially with an economy that's this good.  These conservatives believe if you're making money, you should be happy with any scumbag sitting in the Oval Office.  They don't understand why people don't say "well, so what if he's a reprehensible dick, I'm making money."  And they are muttering about the up coming elections, about how that non-Hispanic Ted Cruz is struggling against that Irish guy Beto O'Rourke, (don't let the last name fool you, Beto is proud of his Hispanic heritage).  I saw one article in which the suggestion was made that Beto must be surging in the polls because he was more photogenic than Ted... 

These people are so fucking stupid.  Their tones are low as they discuss other Senate races, the ones they thought of as sure things.  What did they think was going to happen?  Did they really think a majority of the American People were just going to sit back and swallow their shit?  And instead of dealing with the problem, they're looking for photogenic excuses.

Digging and Picking Propecia

Well, here it is Wednesday and I have the day off.
My neighbor's sewage problems are far worse then they thought.  Yesterday 6 feet of cast iron sewage pipe were removed - filled with rocks and debris (and I don't use the word debris lightly).  PVC piping replaced the damaged pipe.  They checked my side, and there's no drainage problem.  There's still more blockage, however, on their side, so the plumbers are back today.  They're going to use pressure 4000 psi to blow out what ever blockage is left in their pipes. 
I had breakfast with my brother this AM.  Pickpockets hit is wife at Michael's, took her wallet with all the credit and debit cards.  In the 15 - 20 minutes she spent browsed the store before heading to checkout, they stole almost $7000 by buying gift cards at a Target 2 blocks away.  Of course, Target shut down the gift cards and the debit and credit cards are all frozen.  They didn't really lose any money, but this has been a learning experience.  Her wallet was filched from her purse, which was setting on her shopping cart, when she turned to answer some questions from a man to her rear. This is how it goes.
Evidently the great big super tax cut the Republicans isn't working the way Republicans said it would.... so says Marco Rubio.  Now why am I not surprised?  Probably because Republican tax cuts have always played like a broken record... they keep repeating the same faulty belief that American Corporations will use their breaks to reinvest in the American Worker.  Truth is they do, but only in a very minor way.  Mostly they buy back stocks, give bonuses, and pay dividends.
And a funny thing is happening on the way to the Texas Midterm election.  Rafael Cruz is being challenged in a big, big way by Beto O'Rourke.  Not only is Beto raising big bucks, he's challenged Rafael to 6 debates... 2 of which are supposed to be in Spanish.... Oops.  Seems as though Rafael's Espanol is not so great... not so good, well, maybe he's as good as a beginner.  This is about what you'd expect from a Republican who's trying to put a lot of distance himself and his ethnicity.  Oh, and by the way, in case you didn't know, Rafael is the son of an immigrant.
And finally, it seems as though the Idiot Jerk in the White House takes Propecia  His personal physician prescribes it for him.  Maybe we should all be digging Propecia, picking it up anyway we can.  Why?  Because Propecia apparently does amazing things to hair follicles, tickles and stimulates them.  If we all took Propecia we could all have hair like this!!!

Vacation - 6 days of Cars, Cruz & Cycling

Well, today is Sunday and my 6th day off, vacation you know?  And tomorrow I go back to work.  Actually, I did a little work today, finishing up 2 reviews I need to give.  I had a fairly long list of things I wanted to accomplish over the past 6 days - crappy, rainy weather cut that list down.  I did manage to plant tomatoes and green peppers (twice for the peppers since Big Seig ate the first ones I planted).  I also started my 'car search' which is going quite well.  Went to see "The Jungle Book," which I'd call enjoyable - never saw the original, animated version or read any of the stories so I went in pretty much a blank slate.  The weakest part was the kid.  With realistic CGI talking animals sharing just about every scene, he didn't stand much of a chance.
I got a good laugh when John Boehner said Ted Cruz was "Lucifer in the flesh."  Not being the religious type I'd have to say Cruz reminds me more Greg Stillson, and am just waiting for him to use a baby as a shield.  Let's be honest here, can't you picture him holding up a toddler and screaming "Go ahead, make my day!" (oh, wait, wrong movie).
One of things I had planned to do was to take the bike off of it's trainer and go for a ride.  This didn't happen because of the rain - I don't ride in the rain, nor do I ride when it gets cold.  As an alternative I did get a subscription to Cycling TV where I've watched a couple of stages from the Tour de Yorkshire.

Tour de Yorkshire

Honestly, I never knew Yorkshire was that big.

Another thing I did was to eat way too much, but, since I was on vacation, I'm certain that was justified.  Maybe the next time I take vacation I shouldn't schedule so many lunches...maybe limit myself to just bread and water.  Right.

Trampling North Carolina

I see where North Carolina has passed some hate law designed to specifically keep transgender individuals out of restrooms entirely, at least that's what those wacky Republicans say.  In reality, they have proven Einstein wrong and transported the state back in time, circa 1956 (or there abouts).  What most people don't understand, however, the real purpose of this law is not to eliminate LGBT rights in the state.  No, that would only be regionalized hate; they want to fry much bigger fish.  You can bet they spent long hours working on the wording to insure some more progressive judge in the state will declare it unconstitutional.  And they would counter, of course, because their real purpose is to take this to the Supreme Court.  Tit for Tat, you know?  The Court said yeah to marriage equality so North Carolina wants a national referendum to take away other rights, which is why the Republicans are saying nay to any Supreme Court nomination Obama puts forth.  Of course, those dumb shits are going to lose.

Because their time machine doesn't really work.  Einstein was right.  Time travel is impossible.  Their presidential candidates went to the Dumb and Dumber school of politics.  Right now two of them are in a pissing match about their wives - and they're doing this publicly.  The only thing missing is one of the Kardashians... oh, wait, Bruce.. no, no, that's wrong, I mean Cait, is joining forces with Ted.  Or maybe he'll end up siding with Trump, since that guy really knows how to treat a woman.

Anyway, this North Carolina law is nothing but horseshit and those North Carolina lawmakers know it.  They're just trying to get a little smack back before they're totally trampled under foot.

Candidates Kids

For those of you who didn't see the news flash, Bristol Palin dropped her second 'cow' (child outta wedlock) just before Christmas, and while mamma Palin wishes people would be sayin' "holy cow," most of America is saying "look, another cracker."
Anyway, I thought I'd write about children in politics since Ted Cruz made some tiny headlines complaining about a cartoon drawn by a cartoonist who publishes with the conservative Washington Post.  His two daughters were depicted as trained monkeys and, of course, he started shrieking about the liberal media since that's red meat to conservative Republicans.  First of all, the cartoonist got it wrong, they're not trained monkeys, they're more like little animatronic robots silently waving at the the crowd.  Secondly, Cruz immediately prostituted the image by asking for $1 million dollars to fight the "liberal Media," but then that's how he works.  Thirdly, while many, many politicians parade their kids on stage, I can't remember a single one of them capable of doing tricks.  You would have thought that when Palin pushed all of her brood out they might have been able to do at least one barrel roll.  Nope, they all just stood there and waved.  Even Chelsea Clinton stood there and waved.  And, of course, I've never been to a Cruz rally so maybe his little girls do tricks to please the crowd, maybe a somersault or two, but I doubt it.
In fact, the only time I can ever remember giving a candidate's kids a second glance was when Romeny's boys walked out on stage.

That was when I realized what Conservative Preppie Porn was, all T-shirts and flannel.  But even they didn't do tricks, all they did was stand there looking like they were waiting for 'Vogue' to start playing, and, unfortunately for Mitt, it never did.  I can't even imagine what kind of crowd pleaser that would have been. 

Chris Christie - flowers to his enemies

I've been reading a lot of stuff today about the GOP's failed shutdown and a lot of what's being said is interesting and then there's the funny stuff, like the ultra-conservative pundits.  They don't seem to mind if someone takes it on the chin as long as it's not their chin.  A lot of those mongering their utter contempt for the Republicans in the House are financially well enough off the shut down didn't hurt them.  Of course I never have been overly impressed by super critical pundits, whether they be on the far right or the far left.  I've always been of the opinion that if there were any real value behind what they were saying they'd be running for office, not sitting behind a microphone or in front of a keyboard.  You know?  Put your money where your mouth is, try and be something more then a bloated, armchair dictator.  Of course that will never happen, they might lose and one can't even begin to imagine how devastating such a thing would be to their egos.

Another point I find interesting is that three of those representatives who voted against the measure have let it be known, through various sources, they would like to run for a higher office, mainly the one which is oval.  Didn't anyone tell them their actions will haunt them in negative campaign ads?  Why would you mollify your base at the expense of the rest of the voting public? The numbers of the Tea Party are anything but vast.  Sarah Palin can talk about her 'rack' as often as she likes, maybe even flash it one or two times, she's still not going to turn enough moderates or independents up at the polls to elect a Republican president.  Cruz may have actually given himself the 'black spot' with his marathon talkathon.  Who did their little shindig help?  Chris Christie.  I hope he sent all of them flowers.