Penalties Will Be Paid

 Well, here we are, another late post.  I had breakfast with my brother this morning, so it's an excusable delay.  Right now our outside temps are 63 (F).  At the crack of dawn we were a bit chillier with our low being at an even 50 (F).  The big question will be if our temp hit the big 80 (F), which is where our forecast has it's sights set on.

Yesterday was somewhat busy.  The Wednesday laundry was done.  I got a 9 mile ride in on Corsica.  I also drove to BJs for a small bottle of wine.  I should set up a spread sheet to calculate just how much money I'm saving simply by purchasing them there.  The membership cost me $15 and so far my savings has been around $21.  An annual membership costs $60 and if I simply buy a bottle of wine every 2 weeks I'll be saving about $130, so that would indicate paying the renewal fee would be in my financial best interests.

Since I had a Denver Omelet for breakfast, today's going to be a salad day.  The omelet itself?  Red peppers were used instead of green, there was some ham, but not enough to provide any real flavor, and the cheese?  I'm thinking they used Velveeta.  It definitely didn't taste like cheddar.  There were hash brown potatoes, too, but you can really screw up frozen hash browns when all you have to do is throw them on the grill for a few minutes.  The one nice thing was that there wasn't an extra charge for the eggs.

I was going to take a picture of breakfast, but forgot, which is probably a good way of describing the meal.  So, instead, here's another failed attempt at a selfie with Howie.  

I saw where Chief Justice Roberts burbled out some sort of nonsense about fearing that Orangie was taking the immunity the Court gave him and using it to destroy Democracy.  Now, isn't that rich?  I'm betting that Johnny boy realizes there is a serious crisis approaching and blame might get smeared all over his name, and his Court.  Fingers will be pointed in many directions when this shit show is over and penalties will need to be paid.  Johnny's court now has a big target on its back.  Why did they give Orangie all of this immunity?  Did they think he might surround himself with people who might manage his corruption?  Or did they just delude themselves into believing he simply couldn't be this bad?

And Orangie's approval rating is still spinning downward in a death spiral.  Only 37% of Americans approve of him.  YO!  All of you authoritarians out there, the big secret of having a successful authoritarian government is having a popular authoritarian running the country.  This is essential.  Putin did it.  Orangie?  All of his bluster and bullshit is continuing to drive his ratings lower.  The only thing he will be successful at is failure.

 

Striking the Match

 We have another cool morning here in Central PA.  Yesterday, the temps climb fairly high on the thermometer, upper 80s (F).  Even though our afternoon high is only supposed to be in the low 80s (F), I'm suspecting today will be a repeat.  We are under an air quality alert.  I suspect it's the wild fires in Canada.  Oddly enough, I don't remember all of these wildfires taking place when I was a kid, but then things are different today, we have satellites, and air monitors, and people who get paid to keep track of such things.  Back then the weather forecaster would look out the window and decide if the day was going to be cloudy or not.

I worked yesterday and so my routine is not even close to what I like to think of a normal.  I like to write starting in the mid to late afternoon, however when I work writing needs to be done before I leave.  Sometimes that works well for me, but frequently it doesn't.  Yesterday it worked well, but then the storyline is at point where action is happening and things are moving quickly.

Even though the store is making plan, foot traffic was very slow, mid-February kind of slow.  One of the hardware associates was complaining about hours being cut.  Evidently at one of the morning meetings last week an announcement was made that fewer hours are going to be scheduled.  Right now this only  concerns part-timers.  This also means that there are going to be gaps in the coverage when no one will be schedule to work in certain departments.  This is all related to the tariffs.  If the orange home improvement retailer I work for isn't going to raise prices, they're going to have to cut expenses and the easiest expense to cut is payroll.

And this was Howie's birthday present.  He loves the stuff, unfortunately it costs $4.59 for a little 12 ounce can.

And the Democrats from Texas have temporarily relocated to several other states to avoid pushing through Republican redistricting in order to give the Orange Anus 5 more seats in the House of Representatives.  The fact that Republicans are trying to increase their count to avoid the Orange Anus from being impeached tells you what's terribly wrong with the GOP.  The party that wants authoritarian rule in the United States has a big, big problem: they're a minority party who simply can not deal with the fact that a majority of Americans hate them.  The anger is growing and they don't know how to handle it, you see they convinced themselves a long time ago that all they had to do was get themselves in charge.  They truly believe that if they say, "shut up, we're in charge," everyone will simply bow their heads and meekly say, "okay."  That isn't happening.  America is watching as the Republican party proves they will accept any evil if it helps them stay in power.  This has always been the problem with Authoritarians, their ability to comprehend is at a minimum at best.  This is why they've always ended going down in flames.  They will torch themselves and burn themselves to the ground without ever understanding that were the ones who struck the match.

Carried Away

 And here in Central PA the rain continues.  Purportedly, the showers and thunderstorms should end sometime tomorrow an we'll have a few days before they start up again.  Overnight lows are in the mid 50s (F), which is nice sleeping weather.  While the constant rain may be somewhat depressing, on the positive side everything I've planted is growing by leaps and bounds, but then so is my lawn; it will need to dry out before I can mow it.

More chores were done yesterday than I had been anticipating.  Having Monday's off is nice, however that extra day does mess with my mental calendar.  I was just sitting here thinking that it's Wednesday and payday is Friday, only to realize I've just moved into Tuesday.  

And I did get a rowing session in yesterday.  I tried linking the rower to my Garmin account and there was an error.  I'd tried it before and got the same error, so I guess Concept2 and Garmin are having problems communicating.  I may try it again today.  Maybe I'll make the attempt using my tablet, since sometimes it depends upon the device you're using.

Did everyone hear about Republican Mike Lawler's Townhall?  An elderly woman who's unhappy with the Republican party was carried out. 

I find it fascinating that the political party that so desperately wants to yell "shut up! we're in charge!" has totally failed to take into consideration the wants and desires of their constituents, those people who actually voted them into office.  I can't even imagine the mindset these Republican Congressmen and Senators have that permits them to think those people who cast their ballots did so in order to lose the benefits many of them consider sacred.  I know several Republicans who are furious that their Social Security might now be in jeopardy.  These people posted numerous memes on Facebook telling their representatives to stay away from their Social Security.  Now they're upset because those same representatives are ignoring them.  These Republican townhalls would not be erupting in chaos if these voters had simply paid attention.  But no, when the Orange Anus said that he wants to be a dictator for at least a day, they shrugged it off, saying "he doesn't mean it, that's just the way he is."  Now they're discovering to their horror that he really did mean it, and they're being carried away.

Social Conservative

 Well, as of 0400 we went into a snow warning and here it is 3.5 hours later and nary a flake is in sight.  A quick look at the weather radar map indicates that most of the precipitation is falling south of us and possibly, by 0930 we will have flurries.  The longer it takes for this to arrive, the less snow we're likely to get.  Crap.  And here I was thinking I'd wake up to a winter wonderland and right now all I'm wondering about is when the snow is finally going to land.  Supposedly, our heaviest snowfall will happen between 2 and 6 PM, when I'm at work... or was supposed to be at work.  

Yesterday was one of those meh days.  I had a zoom call scheduled for 3 in the afternoon with my Navy buddies.  Oddly enough, scheduling calls, or for that matter scheduling anything can easily throw off my day, mostly because it gives me a reason to procrastinate.  My reasoning is that I don't want to start something and then have to interrupt what I'm doing and thus I have a reason to do nothing but wait.

The call went well.  However, they're talking about getting together for a reunion somewhere in the middle of the country.  During that part of the conversation I was mostly quiet.  I enjoy the Zoom calls, it's nice to chat for an hour with men I've known for over 50 years, but spending one or two days with them?  We have all changed so much.

In spite of my procrastination yesterday, Howie had a busy a day.

So, I had an interesting text session with my brother yesterday.  He's 61, had been laid off from his job about 6 months ago.  About a month ago he was hired by New York Life.  Oh, and he works in IT, usually as part of a Help Desk team.  I asked him if he was concerned about the Orange Anus' flip on H-1B visas and... I kid you not, he didn't really know what I was talking about.  Being a social conservative he voted for Orangey, and like so many social conservatives can simply not comprehend that Orangey played his Evangelical base like a 2 bit whore.  I asked him about staffing at New York Life and he told me that about 70% were Indian and 15 % were Mexican.  I told him that he really needs to start paying attention to what's going on.  He simply does not understand, but I'm sure he does pray daily, probably more than once.

Update on the weather:  It is now snowing heavily, so I'm going to stay home and bake a loaf of bread.

Cheap Black

 The temps stayed cold yesterday and we had flurries on and off through out the day.  I kept getting notifications that the snow was going to be ending soon over and over.  We had zero accumulation.  Today the temps are supposed to climb into the low 40s (F).  The same is true for tomorrow.  After that, our temps are supposed to take a deep dive for the (cough, cough) inauguration.

Business is the store was very slow yesterday.  That doesn't mean I didn't talk to people, though all I really did was answer questions.  No one has any interest in opening up their house at this time of year, especially since it's cold so far.  If we start warming up, that might change.  We have had polar vortices during the past 2 years, just like the one we're having now, but they were earlier in the season.  After that warm temps returned.  I'm hoping that happens again this year.  

My neighbors started to get loud last evening, so I got loud and for around 4 or 5 minutes I was very loud.  Honestly, I don't know if it bothers them that much.  Maybe I'm using the same tactic everyone of their previous neighbors used.  One thing I have noticed is that when the husband is home, things are much quieter.  It's only when he's working that she gets loud.  I usually only watch TV one night a week, it's not something I need.  I never watch any of the trendy shows, I just don't find them interesting.  And since I don't have cable, the number of series I watch is limited.

Howie is this big at 5 and a half months, easily over 50 pounds... and still a very playful pup.

While at work yesterday, one of my associates came to me and asked if I was working Monday.  I am.  I work every Monday.  She then told me that I should wear black, you know, as if I were going to a funeral.  So I told her that I don't own anything black, well I do have a pair of patched, faded black jeans, but that's it.  Being an earth tones kind of person, I'm not into black clothing.  The only reason I have that one pair of jeans is because they were on sale at Community Aid for $4.99.  So, I suppose you could say I do wear cheap black.

Of course, the only reason she wants me to wear black is because it is inauguration day.  It's supposed to be one of the coldest inaugurations in decades.  Not that they'll be cold on that stage.  You can bet that the Orange Anus will be trying to blow so much hot air and smoke up America's ass things will be quite toasty.

For a Good Time

 So, here it is January 3 and forecasters are calling for some snow this afternoon, about an inch.  I don't mind.  Unless it's a wet snow, that will blow away in the slightest of breezes.  Sunday in to Monday, however, we might get as much as 4 inches.  If we get that much I'll probably take the day off at work.  I'm smart enough to realize that as I get older, my reflexes are slowing down.  I'd rather be safe and warm at home than stuck in a ditch alongside the road.  As for the snow?  That'll be nice.  Free cardio, but barely.  You need a good 8 or 9 inches of snow to really get the old ticker going as you shovel.

Yesterday was an odd day at work.  Customers streamed by the flooring desk regularly.  Sales, however, were scant.  I did manage to get a backsplash measure, and sold some flooring to customer.  That should keep management happy.  

The neighbors had another fight last evening.  This past summer she had complained to me how when he yells he can be "so hurtful."  You can call me cold if you like, but I had a problem with that.  Since I'd already heard them arguing loudly, I knew she could be just as hurtful as he was, so her playing the victim just wasn't going to work.  At some point, I don't doubt that they will move.  I think they will find that easier than doing any of the work the house needs done.

I would rather poke my eyes out than watch one of the far right news services, but last evening Matt Gaetz, who has his own show on OAN, premiered his new face.

I suppose he's trying to make himself more desirable to prepubescent girls, or maybe he's trying to make himself look like the 14 year-old boy he never was, since older pictures of him show he was on the homely side.

This afternoon the House of Representatives will be voting for their next leader.  Will Mike Johnson, the phony Christian who bows to the Orange Anus be re-elected?  Probably, but not on the first vote, maybe not on the second either.  Orangey needs a Speaker of the House in order to be certified, though most of us already know he is certifiable.  

Isn't it interesting that a growing number of Cultist are beginning to complain about Orangey?  No matter how often they were stupid and gullible to believe the Orange Anus, they did anyway.  Their Find Out stage, while it will be bad for all of us, is going to be horrific for them.  They will be wounded terribly bad, and what they deserve more than anything else is for us to rub salt into that wound, and we should try to have a good time while doing so.

The Shit we Scrap off our Boots

 It was 35 (F)F when I let Howie out this morning at around 0500 and there was frost on my windshield.  However, this morning was the coldest in the forecast for the next few days.  This coming week our high is again expected to be in the mid 70s (F); that will be very warm for November.

I dealt with a really nice Indian couple yesterday.  Probably in their mid 30s, they're buying their first house. They told me something I didn't know:  that in India you are always barefoot because wearing shoes inside is considered very bad.  They carry that over here in the states, except they permit themselves to wear slippers, that they keep just inside the front door.  I don't know about you, but usually I only wear socks inside.  The only time I put on my shoes is when I'm going outside.

The Plumber is coming tomorrow morning.  Finally, I'll be able to turn on the water and do laundry.  I know some of you were probably expecting me to say shower, but I do turn it on briefly for that, but then I turn it off again.  Showering takes a few minutes, laundry?  The washing part takes at least a half hour, that means a half hour of drip, drip, drip.  Sometime this afternoon I'm going to try and remove some of that bad fix I put around the connect so he as free access

Yesterday I gave Howie a Tator Tot to see what he'd do with it.

And last night, in case any of you in America were hiding under a rock, the Orange Anus held his rally in Madison Square Garden.  Maybe I should correct that statement, even if you were hiding under a rock, I fairly certain that you've heard the fallout.  Wait, fallout is not a strong enough word.  Neither is backlash.  The alarms have finally begun to go off in the Main Stream Media.  Vile and vulgar are just two of the many words I've seen in my morning scans of the headlines, and these are big, front page, bold faced headlines, not those little things they used when they were sanewashing him.  I don't know if any of the main media outlets carried Trump's rage storm, but if they did, the average American got and eye and ear full of hatred, of unadulterated white supremacy, of racism, of bigotry.  I have this bad feeling that Trump and his allies believe that are terribly in tune with those of America.  Boy are they wrong.  They are worse than the shit we scrap off our boots.  I've said this before, and I'm going to repeat myself again, his Karma / Judgement is coming, and it's going to be bad because the gates of Hell are figuratively going to open for Donald J. Trump.

Online Only

 I cannot believe it's Friday, nor can I believe that they're calling for possible showers this afternoon.  I don't work today, and I want it to be sunny.  I need to mow my lawn.  At least we've had a few dry days for the grass to dry out, though after all of this rain I'll be wearing sweat pants rather than shorts to keep the gnats from turning my legs into a smorgasbord.  Temperature wise it will be fine, in the mid 70s (F).  

As expected, work was truly boring yesterday.  No measures.  I made a few phone calls.  Talked to some customers and answered the same stupid questions.  What stupid questions?  Well, we sell quite a lot of vinyl plank flooring, much of which we carry in the store.  We also have a selection that is "Online Only."  This selection is clearly marked in bold letters, "Online Only."  Yet a day never passes when a some customer who can't read asks, "does this mean you don't have any in stock?"  There are times when the smartass in me wants to raise his smug, little head and say, "if we had it in stock, it wouldn't say online only," but I don't.  Nor do I point out that the in stock product is clearly marked "in stock."  Why is it that some people never think and have to be told everything.  "Online Only," is fairly self-explanatory.

I went to see Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola's new film.  It's about creativity; how an artist, whether he be a musician, a painter, or a writer, can stop time.  It's a fable set in New Rome, so there are a lot of old Rome names, like Caesar, and Claudio.  Too many people, like the ones who ask about "online only," are not impressed because it doesn't fill in the lines they need it to fill:  the CGI is a bit off, the dialogue is a bit too creative.  It's a fable.  It is flexible, not rigid.  Statues move.  I thought it was great.  There were moments when time stopped.  

Of course, things did happen in the political circus yesterday, one of most amusing being that the Dockworkers are no longer on strike.  The Republicans had thought they could turn this into an October surprise which would hurt the Democrats.  Ooops, not going to happen.  Even funnier are all of those people who ran out and ordered, or bought thousands of rolls of toilet paper because the of this non-strike.  Will they learn from this panic buying?  Absolutely not.

And the Orange Anus had a rally in Saginaw, Michigan yesterday and only filled 1/3 of a high school gymnasium.  For those who don't understand this, let me explain.  This small group represents the number of people who will actually vote for him.  He will refuse to accept this.  He will either try and start something, or he will run away when the results become clear.  Reagan started the lie, Donald Trump will end it.

Jimmy Carter

 October 1's and it's raining... still.  It hasn't stopped for 3 days.  I think everyone in PA is relieved that we're not getting the drenching rains North Carolina had to deal with.  I feel bad for those people down there.  Once again, temps are going to hover in the lower to mid 60s (F).  Tomorrow, our temps will attempt to climb up into the low 70s (F).  That's fine with me.  Turning on the heat is not one of my priorities, so the longer I can wait to do so, the better.  

Speaking of heat, climate change kept the temps here in Central PA fairly warm last winter, and as a result I used less Natural Gas to heat my house.  Because of this, rather than have to make a payment gas bill in September, I had a $63.55 credit.  No payment necessary.  Since I'm on the payment plan, I'm hoping this will drop my monthly charge down to around $70 a month.

I set the trap for the mouse last night and no bites.  

Pete Rose died yesterday.  No loss.  Never liked him.  Charlie Hustle was all about ego.  This is why he had no problem betting either for, or against, the team he was managing.

And Jimmy Carter is 100 today.  He is the oldest living president.  I'm pleased to say that I voted for him.  He has always been resolute in his faith, and in his compassion for his fellow man.  He has become a legend.

America is going to hear quite a lot about Carter today.  There will accolades galore.  He has become synonymous with Habitat for Humanity.  He is a man who came from the obscurity of being a peanut farmer to become president.  His unbridled decency after leaving the presidency is unmatched.  He has set his mark in history that is indelible.  Believe him when he says he's going to live to not only vote for Harris, but see her win the presidency.  

Who will not praise him?  Republicans.  Carter stands for ethics, and values, and morals, all of which Republicans have sold off in their search for greed and power.  One great thing about today?  It will be a flaming dagger into the heart of Donald Trump, because in his dirty heart, he knows America will never, ever talk about him the same as they do Jimmy Carter.

Hello, Autumn!

 Sunday.  The temp outside is 67 (F) and the skies are overcast.  We had some serious thunderstorms last night.  I check the rain bucket on my back porch when I got down for my 2nd cup of coffee to see how much we received.  For the next week or so, it looks as though daily highs will hover in the mid 70s (F).  I'm fine with that.  I can get the wool blankets down and prepare to layer them on the bed.  Honestly, one of things I like about winter is being able to snuggle under a thick layer of warmth throughout the night.

This is the weekend for our bonus sharing party at work.  I like the added money to my bank account and usually the food is good, but yesterday?  But yesterday?  Ugh.  They served prime rib which must have been cheap since it was 30% meat and 70% fat, and disgusting as it sounds, the meat itself was a bit chewy.  I suffered through some of the meat, than filled up with cookies, and snack foods with a very high sodium content.  Crap.  Today we're getting more sweets.  I'm going to take moussaka for lunch.  

Even though it was slow, I did manage to get 2 measures for blind installations.  Hopefully someone else will design the blinds, since I'm attempting to put my blind designing days behind me.  I prefer the slow times because that gives me time to... are you ready for this?  Work on The Body in History.  And no, I don't work on the actual manuscript, there are firewalls keeping me from signing into Microsoft, but there's what I call a mini-Word app which lets me write notes.  So, when there are no customers, I sit at my desk writing sections of the book.  I print them off, and when I get home, all I have to do is rewrite them into the book.  If I wanted, I could email them to myself and save the paper, but sometimes I also scribble notes on the paper, too.  The first draft is half finished!

And, since I talked about rain earlier, and in previous entries about rain in Greece, I thought I'd expose you all to a rarity.  On our drive from Olympia to Delphi there was a lot of rain around us, and looking out the bus window I saw an amazing thing, my first Greek rainbow.  Now, how cool was that?

And, of course, there will not be another debate.  Harris accepted CNN's offer, but spineless Trump said no.  He said, "She's already wiped the floor with my dumb ass once and I'm not that deep in dementia to let her do it again I've already done 2 debates, that's enough.  It's too late."  Sadly, his cultists will nod and agree with him.  Everybody else can read what's underneath the strikethrough.

He had another rally yesterday and once again, people started leaving early.  Even the NYT had a video on their website of people walking away after just 28 minutes.  If you see it, you'll notice that those leaving are not cultists, no Trump gear or paraphernalia, so they must all be foolish people who don't realize just how bad his rallies are.  These are Republicans who most likely will not vote for Harris, but there's a good possibility they won't vote for him either.  They will join the crowd who will let this election cycle pass them by, which is one of the reasons while he's going to lose.

Torching Republicans

 It's 57 (F) outside and I'm wearing a sweat shirt and sweatpants.  Autumn wear.  Temps will be warming back up to more summer-like ranges, highs in the mid to upper 80s (F) as the week continues.  Right now, however, it was so cool I put another blanket on the bed.

I got some sad news yesterday, Joe Radle, the electrician I've been using for the past couple of years was killed in an auto accident.  One of the reasons I used him was because he advertised he was "pet friendly," and every time he was here, my dogs seemed more important than me.  He will be missed.

Work was boring.  No measures.  I did sell a pallet of porcelain tile.  Really, what I'm doing right now is counting the days until Greece.

I pre-ordered the new Assassin's Creed and the new Dragon Age games.  They won't be out until late October.  Assassin's Creed is set in Japan and you get to play as either a Samurai or some other character that's female.  I'll be the samurai.  That should be fun.

Of course, last night was Day 3 of the Democratic convention.  Have I been watching it?  Yes, but I watch it my way.  Around 10:30 PM, I turn it off, then the next morning I watch the important speeches on YouTube.  

While I like Bill Clinton, last night I thought he talked for too long.  And Nancy Pelosi?  I was scanning social media on my phone while she spoke.  Bill was important.  Nancy?  This will probably be her last public, official appearance.

Stevie Wonder was great!  

And during a rally yesterday in an attempt to steal away some of the convention's thunder, Orangie Anus, upon seeing a woman suffering a medical emergency, left the safety of his bulletproof glass booth and went to help.  Can you hear me laughing now?  Two weeks ago Tim Walz did something similar, handing out bottles of water to a woman who was showing signs of heat exhaustion.  Orangie must be very desperate to stoop to such phony theatrics.  Did his team truly think this was  going to make headlines?

Orangie's not the only one worried.  After a series of texts from a conservative friend, I can tell you that Conservatives are furious.  Running against Biden and his age was going to be a winning ticket for them.  They believe this election was going to be a cakewalk, and now those beliefs have been shattered.  Harris is filling up venues and Orangie is struggling.  His dearly beloved Project 2025 has gone through several name changes and is still getting roasted multiple times a day.  

The DNC is rocking the ratings!  The first night it beat the Republican convention by 21%.  Night 2 the DNC whipped the RNC by 55%.  Wowza!  Saying Republicans are furious might be a bit of an understatement.  This is a good thing.  The angrier they get, the more frequently their candidate will make mistakes.  Any day now, Orangie's switch will flip and his public meltdown will torch the Republican party for good.

Women: The Republican Problem

 We're going to have another nice day.  Temps in the low to mid 80s (F), mostly blue skies, and a light breeze are predicted.  Yesterday was gorgeous.  I hung out 2 loads of laundry and they dried fast.  Temps are supposed to begin climbing as the week continues, but no day in the mid to upper 90s (F) are expected.  

I've also started looking at the long range forecasts.  My trip to Greece is only a few weeks away, and temperature was one of the things that came into play when I made my reservationist.  The country can get very hot there in the summer, and I didn't want to be climbing through different archeological sites sweating my cojones off.  I'm figuring that the weather should be nicely warm when I'm there.

Yesterday was a good day for getting things done.  I mowed my lawn!  Went on a 9 mile bike ride.  Wrote lots of pages.  These are all good things.  I do have to go to work today, but only for 5 hours.  I've changed my availability for when I get back.  I'm going to be working less hours, only 1 eight hour day, that'll be Sunday.

I saw this and thought it very appropriate.

A number of Christians, the Evangelical sect comes to mind, do believe that God sent the Orange Anus specifically to overturn Roe v Wade.  They hate the idea that a woman should have a choice over what's happening in her body, they prefer women to be vessels.  This is a bit ironic because many Evangelical women have only allowed their body to be a vessel a few times.  Even more ironic is the fact that this Bobo Supreme Court, when overturning Roe v Wade, said that states should have the right to decide on this issue, not the Federal Government.  Because of this many women and men have started collecting signatures.  They want to enshrine a woman's right to an abortion, should she feel the need for one, in their states constitution.  Five states have already passed this initiative, including Ruby Red Ohio, where the conservatives are flipping angry as Hell because Americans told them to shut.  As of yesterday, 8 more states have qualified this same initiative to be on the ballot, including Republican held Missouri, and Ronnie DeSantis' red state, Florida.  In every state where these initiatives have passed, Democrats have also beaten Republican candidates by a large margin.  Ouch!  This is not what the Alito court wanted.  It's not what Republicans want.  Women are not going to be subservient to their wishes.  Republicans have a very large problem, and they simply refuse to understand.

Orangie and the Technical Difficulties

 Temps are again predicted to be in the low 80s (F) today, with nearly cloudless skies and light breezes.  That being said, my first load of laundry is outside drying as I type, and the 2nd is in the washer.  

Yesterday, work was fine.  I got my mandatory 2 measures, and had a $1500 sale go through, so I'm ducky dandy for the week.  

I've plenty on my menu for today, including getting my hair cut.  I'd had it cut a while back thinking it wouldn't get shaggy before I left for Greece.  Boy, was I wrong.  While it's getting cut, I'll have them take care of my eyebrows, too.  

The final season of The Umbrella Academy is streaming on Netflix.  Since I enjoyed the past 3 seasons, I thought I'd give it a watch.  It's... okay.  Because it can take up to 2 years between each series of episodes, the cast has aged... a lot.  Originally the characters were young adults, in their early 20s, now they're adults and two of them have children.  Elliot Page looks and sounds like he's in his 40s (he's actually 37).  Megan Mullaly joins the cast for the final season, and I kept wondering why?  She's a good actor stuck in a two dimensional character.  It's not that I didn't think some parts were interesting, but mostly I kept thinking that this was a sad way to end a series, and when the final credits rolled I asked myself "that's it?"

Remember when Ronnie DeSantis announced his candidacy on Zitter?  Well Elon interviewed the Orange Anus last evening... after a 40 minutes delay because of technical difficulties a cyber attack that only effected Orangie and Elon.  No one else on the platform had a problem.  Ronnie D experienced the same technical difficulties cyber attack.  Orangie's appearance on Zitter caused Truth Social's stock to crash (dear me).  And when the interview finally happened, it turned out to be a rambling conversation with softball questions.  Only a fool would have expected anything else.

Here's a quote from the former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

Just think about that.  60% of Americans despise Orangie.  Sadly, his squeaky wheel is not going to get any grease and the squeaking is only going to get louder and angrier.  Of course, when he loses on November 5, he's going to lie again, claiming the election was rigged, and that the Democrats cheated.  That is if he's still able to speak coherently.  The angrier he gets, the more those tiny blood vessels in his orange, little brain come closer to popping him over into raging insanity. 

One of the things that had me laughing was that supposedly ranking members of the GOP are telling Orangie he needs to refocus.  Dear Lord, I'd have thought they'd have realized that this is as focused as he ever going to get.

Be Sad. Be Happy.

 Well, so here it is Wednesday.  The outside temp is 72 (F), though forecasters are saying we're only supposed to heat up into the mid 80s (F).  We are getting rain, what you might want to call intermittent showers which may, or may not end this morning.  We're cranking around here with some serious humidity and they're projecting the possibility of thunderstorms.  We've had a number of those lately.

Yesterday turned out to be a rather good day: I got a 2.5 mile walk in at Adams-Ricci, and then later in the afternoon 13 mile ride in, in Thailand, of all places.  For some reason Garmin has a number of Thai rides on the Tacx app.  To me, it looks a lot like the Philippines.

My turntable, and speakers, and record cabinet were also moved downstairs.  Part of this is new window prep.  I'm trying to cut down on furniture in the master bedroom, and they were an easy thing to relocate.  They are now situated where the dog's toybox used to be.  That's right, the dogs had their own toybox and it was filled with toys.  I'm hoping not to spoil the new puppy as badly, but we'll have to wait and see how that goes.

I wrote yesterday how Nikki Haley's election PAC had chosen to support Kamala Harris, and was correct to a point.  It was evidently not her primary PAC and the $$$ was less.  This is the one that switched loyalty and Haley's group immediately sent out a cease and desist order.  She's also telling her supporters that they need to vote for Trump.  Someone should let Nikki know that many of those votes she got were protest votes from Republicans who despise the Orange Anus.  Please tell me she isn't that dumb.  Here's a copy of the order.

And speaking of the Orange Anus, evidently his team has chosen to stop holding in very inexpensive outdoor rallies, not that they were ever heavily attended.  As for indoor venues being costlier?  Well, it's not as though he ever paid for them.  He has that terrible reputation of defaulting on bills, that's because he believes that someone as evil as he should never have to pay... for anything.  That's why he has lackies.

Biden's going to speak on national TV tonight.  His speech is going to be quite touching, probably making a lot of people cry.  Be sad.  Be happy.  Be glad, because all of those Republicans standing on the sidelines are going to be gnashing their teeth as a decent and honorable man begins to say his goodbyes.  Biden will make points that will carry through into Kamala's campaign.

I'm a 71 year-old man living in Central PA, and I know the assignment.

Revenge

 The forecast for Central PA is drizzle and showers throughout the day.  Yep.  I hate to sound like a broken record, but the forecast for May is the same forecast for this month we've had for the past 2 years.  Growing up, they used to say "April showers bring May flowers," and while we do have the flowers, the skies have overcast far more than they have not.  If this is a trend, then this summer will be warm, but not hot.  It will be interesting to see if the pattern holds.

Yesterday much was accomplished, and there was a lot to get done, including a mowing of the lawn.  I went out right after I posted my blog and began mowing.  Good thing, too, because the drizzles began around 10 AM and continued throughout the day.  By 4 PM we were stuck in a sustained steady drizzle until well late into the evening.  I have no idea when it stopped.

On this cloudy morning, I'm having peanut butter oatmeal for breakfast, instead of my normal cereal; the weather calls for it.

And I went to the movies last evening, and it wasn't to see The Fall Guy, you know, the Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt vehicle.  Nope, I went to see The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.  I will admit I'm not too familiar with the franchise.  55 years ago, the original film had that stunner of an ending, though the sequels were weak, and after that I lost interest.  I partially watched the Markie Mark film, too, and thought that was a waste of time and so paid little attention to the follow-up films focusing on Caesar.  So, why go to see the latest installment?  Curiosity.  It's getting a lot of good whispers, and they're well deserved.  It has one of the finest story arcs I've seen in years.  Characters grow and develop, a lot.  The film does have a big Wow factor.

Michael Cohen did testify yesterday.  Was he brutally honest?  Well, he was brutal.  I understand that the Orange Anus sat with his eyes closed throughout his testimony.  For someone like Trump who demands the ultimate in loyalty, this would have been the ultimate betrayal.  Cohen admitted he hates Trump, and that he did want revenge, but wanting revenge doesn't mean lying.  Sometimes the sweetest revenge is in the simplest of truths.  Honesty is a virtue and everyone admits that Cohen has admitted there is little that is virtuous in his life.  Is he doing this for the betterment of America?  Possibly.  Mostly, however, he's doing it for payback.  Was he corrupted by Trump?  To some extent, but then for someone as evil as Trump, corrupting the weak is oh, so very easy.  Will the jury side with Cohen, we can only hope they're smarter than the Orange Anus.

Dead Americans

 Say hello to a drizzly Sunday.  Yepper!  We're in the middle of a long, soaking rain which will continue throughout most of the day.  Temps are moderate, cold enough on occasion for the heat to turn on.  Yes, that's right, unlike some people, I didn't turn the furnace off for the season.  Last year, spring was cool and rainy, and it seems as though I've learned my lesson.  Also, for the past few years, we've received more rain in May than we did in April, even though April showers are supposed to bring May flowers.

I got loads done yesterday, including another 11 mile ride on the bike in San Remo.  One thing that's different with my bike rides is that I no longer listen to music.  Instead, I've started listening to lectures.  I made the attempt to listen to podcasts, but could get interested two or three people having a conversation about a subject I didn't find interesting.  I don't have that problem with lectures.  Perhaps it's the eternal student in me, always finding interest in learning new things.  Right now, as some of you might suspect, it's a series of lectures on ancient Greece.  

This morning my narrators sent me chapters 2 and 3 to listen to, unfortunately I do have to work today, so I'll have to listen to them this evening when I get home.  There have been a few changes that I've suspected, but not many.  His pacing is quite good.  The Body on the Lawn, even though it has less words than The Body Under Ice, will no doubt be closer to 8 hours in length, 3 hours longer than The Body Under Ice.  This has all been a valuable learning experience.

And I thought this to be very funny.

And that is not Mike Pence holding the sign

Evidently, Trump had a private fund raiser last evening and during his ramblings likened the Biden administration to the Gestapo.  He has already stated that he will not accept the results of the 2024 election if he loses.  This rhetoric should frighten you, because in his mind it is all about saving his ass.  He needs to win in order for him to have full immunity from all of his charges.  This is really about saving his ass, and if he needs to goad his cultists into starting a war to do so, he will.  I'm sure he will be quite pleased if his cultists give their lives in order to sustain his freedom.  He is a businessman, after all, and dead Americans would be a small price to pay for him to be the ultimate CEO.

Shitzinpantz

 Well a good Friday morning to all of you out there in the world.  It's a nice day here in Central PA.  The outside temp is in the low 60s (F), though if the forecast is correct clouds will come rolling in later this afternoon.  That's okay.  We might warm up another 15 degrees if the weather forecasters are correct, that is not always the case.  Yesterday, on my ride home from the store, the temp was 92 (F) which should have broke a record, though that might have been the official temp.  Officially, temps in the air around my car are rarely taken into consideration.

My 2nd load of laundry is already in the washer.  I've taken to dry certain things, like T-shirts, and towels, and... well, just about everything except pants, outside on the drying rack, at least on warm days.  I'll use less electricity.  The dryer is nice for pants, that way there no need to iron out the wrinkles.  Iron?  Does anybody still iron anything?

I'll also be going to my neighborhood Giant supermarket later this morning.  They've gotten cheap with their bonus points, which is irritating.  You earn bonus points by spending $$$.  They would also run lots of specials where you could earn more points by buying, oh, say $35 in meat.  Beginning last week, those deals disappeared.  You can still earn bonus points, but the good deals are gone.  Now you can earn 30 points by buying 4 pounds of bananas.  That's a lot of bananas.

I thought this was cute.

I was going to post a picture of Von Shitzinpantz, but thought them all to be too crass, I do have my limitations.  For those who don't know, that was Michael Cohen's nickname for his boss, the Orange Anus himself, Donald Trump.  That came out yesterday at his election interference trial.  Now, I don't know about you, but it has been my experience that nicknames are usually based on some sort of fact, act, or occurrence, and while talking about bodily functions is the fodder of four year-old humor, it wouldn't surprise me in the least that Donald Trump shits in his pants... regularly, and is, no doubt, the reason he wears Depends.  Let's be honest here, we all know that Donald Trump is now, and has always been, full of shit.

Fake News

 Well, it's a partly cloudy Thursday morning.  Temps are in the mid 40s (F) here, with a predicted high in the mid 60s (F).  Supposedly we're in for a quick cool down, followed by a mini-scorcher during which our high temp will top off at 90 (F).  I guess it's time to prep for an air-conditioned summer.  Will this summer be as cool as last?  If the trend continues that will probably be the case.

Yesterday was so boring at work.  Today is going to be more so.  We are fully staffed... on a Thursday.  We need to be fully staffed over the weekend, unfortunately we have associates in the department who don't like working either Saturday or Sunday, so they call off.  And calling off is soooo easy now.  There was a time when you actually had to speak to a manager who might give you attitude.  Those days are gone.  Now you can call off, or let the store know you're going to be late by using an app we're all forced to use.  You no longer have to talk to anybody, not that talking to a manager was much of a deterrence.  The app just makes calling off soooo much easier.  Sadly, no one's going to call off today, though I was already by one of the specialists that he's not going to make it in on Saturday.

Pretty much everything is set to go for my trip to Greece.  Now, all I have to do is wait 5 months.

And, of course, thanks to David Pecker's testimony in Trump's Campaign Interference trial, we all know that headlines such as these emblazoned across the national Enquirer were all lies.

It's been said many times before and will continue to be said, that everything accusation from Trump and the Republican party is nothing more than a projection.  They have already, or are still committing the crimes.  The lies and deceits they blame on everyone else are merely a reflection of their own crimes and misdemeanors.  They want to exclude themselves from rules, and regulations, and laws they are constantly claiming others are breaking.  The fact that their cultist base knows, understands, and accepts this should be a wake-up call for all normal Americans.  

One thing I find funny are the polls.  In 2016 polls showed Hillary with a large lead, and she lost because Democratic voters stayed home because they thought she was going to win.  And here we are in 2024 and the polls are doing the same thing, this time many of them have Trump in the lead.  And Republicans are happy with these polls.  Am I the only one who sees their mistake?

Excitement

 We have a bright sunny day scheduled here in Central PA.  Warm, too, with the temps predicted to climb as high as 78 (F).  That's really warm for this time of the year, and my lawn is going to go zoom, zoom, zoom, growing faster than you can believe.  Tomorrow, on the other hand, that temp is supposed to drop back into a more season 66 ish (F).

I have my passport appointment this morning.  It's going to take longer to drive to the Post Office than it will to have my pics taken and hand in the forms.  I am, however, going to kill 2 birds with one stone.  While I'm there, I'm going to drop of my Mail in Ballot.  One good thing is that I have my expired passport to use for my identification.  I'm going to take a birth certificate alone, too.

And, of course, yesterday was the Solar Eclipse.  I put CNN on the monitor at work so I and my fellow flooring specialists could watch.  My manager made one of those box viewers and was walking around with it.  Since I didn't buy any glasses, I hadn't planned on going outside... until they announced it over the store system. "Any associates wishing to see the eclipse can meet out in front of the building."  There were only 4 or 5 people in the store, so I went out front.  Here's blurry picture I took.  Not a big crowd, just employees passing around one pair of glasses and the box.  A few customers joined us.  I will admit I was surprised by all of the excitement.  It was neat to actually see it.  It was a dusky, not dark, and the light itself seemed to be coming through a filter... which it was, sort of, as the sunlight slipped past the moon.  I can't wait for to see the next one in 2045.

And, as expected, there were no biblical events, no Hand of God manifestations, no earthquakes, no tidal waves, just the government of Arkansas sitting tightly in their sate of emergency.  This is what happens when you choose mythology of science.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were quite a few social conservatives who were sorely disappointed that nothing did happen.  Many no doubt wished the eclipse would have been a sign, and it was, just not the one they were looking for.

Of course, yesterday the Orange Anus said he believed abortion rights should be left to the states, that was another sorely disappointing message for social conservatives.  You see, the Evangelicals want to desperately believe that he was sent by god to give them what they want, and his statement doesn't fall in line with their wants and desires.  You'd think they would have realized that everything he says has the taint of deceit, so nothing coming  out of his mouth can be trusted.

The Long Blinks

 Well, we're under a flood warning here in Central Pa that's in effect until Saturday...  and it's only Wednesday.  Today the temps will climb into the low 50s (F), which is only a few degrees warmer than the high 40s (F) we had yesterday.  The rain is not steady, arriving in waves that can be drizzles, or soakers.

I'm going to have to go out into it today to him my local Giant supermarket.  I need dryer sheets.  And paper towels.  And, according to Accuweather, we are under a yellow zone of heavy rain right now.  Hopefully that will pass by the time I leave the house.

Yesterday, I signed up for 3 months of Greek on Rosetta Stone.  I'd take some courses about 2 years ago through Pimsleur, they were fine, but not great.  The idea is not to become proficient, that would only happen if I moved to Greece, rather it's to become knowledgeable.  I mentioned this to a friend who told me that "most of the Greeks speak English well," and I'm certain that's true, but I'm of the belief that knowing a little instead of none at all is a sign of respect for the culture.  But then for the longest time I've had this deep interest in the country, so for me this seems to come natural.  Would I learn Swedish if I were going to Sweden?  Probably not.  

I made ribs in the air fryer for dinner last evening and they were delicious.  I was going to take a picture of them, but didn't think you wanted to see a pile of bones.  However, I will tell you that this is what they looked like before they were eaten.

Keith Edwards had a clip of the Orange Anus on his Instagram account this morning that I sort of watched, sort of being the two most important words here.  The sound is always turned down, especially since I can't stand the sound of Trump's whiny voice.  Rather than listen to the lies, I watched his eyes as he spoke, and, as is the case with most liars he blinked frequently.  Something else I noticed, when he blinked his eyes were shut for at least one - two seconds.  That's a long time.  I Googled what Long Blinks mean, and discovered that if the person is listening they may indicate understanding.  However, if the person is speaking they can mean something entirely different.  Long Blinks can be a sign of nervousness, or anxiety, or over thinking.  Since we know he's a pathological liar, we also know his deceit is spontaneous, he doesn't think about the lie, he just says it.  Trump doesn't care if he's getting fact-checked more and more, so I suspect there's something else bothering him.  Possibly his upcoming Hush Money / Porno Trial is upsetting him, the fact that he might be publicly humiliated and lose in a court of law.