Twinless

 The outside temps this morning when I checked was 29 (F).  While our afternoon high will not be hitting the 50s (F), our thermometers will be recording temps in the mid 40s (F).  Heading into the dead of winter, I'd call that a win.  Temps will slowly increase over the next few days until rain, once again, arrives in the region.  Then, they will drop once again. How low will they go?  Well, that's anybody's guess.

I did work my full 8 hour shift yesterday.  When I walked out of the doors on my way home, we had made plan for the day.  This is good.  Wednesday and Sunday were the only days that we hit our goal, all of the other days were misses.  We have a few weeks left in the fiscal year, and I'm guessing store management is hoping that we don't miss by $1 million.  In my 17 years with the orange retailer, I've never seen us be this far under plan.

We also had a not too bright customer attempt to make return.  A woman came up the the returns desk with an armful small pieces of molding, trim, and quarter-round, the longest being about 15 inches.  These were the leftovers after her project had been completed.  She was upset when she was told that in order to get a refund, she needed to return the entire 8 foot piece she had paid for, not the 15 inches she didn't use.  

Last night I watched a really good movie, Twinless, with Dylan O'Brien playing identical twins.  Rocky is gay, and Roman is straight.  After Rocky dies suddenly, Roman goes to a support group for twins whose other half has died.  The movie's listed as a comedy, but there are moments  of both laughter and grief as Roman learns to live without his brother.  And in case you're wondering, you do get to see Dylan's... pornstache.

Of course, nothing changed yesterday, we're still living in the same old shit show, or maybe I should say variations of the same old shit show.  

Orangie posted a picture of himself as the "acting president of Venezuela," on his Truth Social account.  I'm sure that's going to go over well the the paramilitary groups down there.  Everything he's doing is giving them one more reason to kill Americans.  One of my associates in flooring has a son in the Marines, so I asked him if his son had said anything to him, and I was told there are rumblings about sending troops.  I think this will be a certainty, rather than an option.  Orangie is pissed that the CEO of Exxon Mobile told him that Venezuela is uninvestable.  Since Orangie has no regard for human life, I don't doubt for a second he and his minions have decided to fix that.

Because Orangie wants the FED to drop interest rates again, the DOJ is attacking Chairman Powell.  Prepare yourselves, he is going to bankrupt the country.  That's the only thing he's really good at.

Flood Warning

Well, here it is Tuesday, I'm off work, and we're under a Flood Warning!
I have about 1 inch of water in my basement.  Not that I'm concerned, I have pumps.  This has happened before.  My parents grew up in a small town called Pine Grove.  It made the news yesterday.  Hershey Park was closed yesterday.  We had flooding like this about 12 years ago and some of their animals drowned.  Now they take extreme precautions.  Right now, we have a steady rain, not heavy, the kind we like to think of as a 'soaking rain.'  That's fine.  My basement floods when we get torrential downpours.
Sticking with that water motif, I'm going to segue into Aquaman.  Cute, huh?  Sounds a bit fishy to me.  Anyway, the trailer for Aquaman was dropped at Comicon.  Looks good, very colorful.  Best line in trailer in decades:  "Redheads, you gotta love 'em."

I'll go see it, not because I'm a big Jason Mamoa fan.  I always thought he came across as a bit too scaly.
Finally, a bit about the economy.  Everybody is smiling.  The Idiot Jerk in the White House smugly gives a thumbs up "see how it's growing under my administration."  For those who don't know, the economy grows when people spend money.  The more they spend, the faster it grows.  True: unemployment is low.  False: people are making more money.  That's where the stink comes in.  Personal debt is growing by leaps and bounds.  Banks don't care.  Retailers don't care.  And sure as hell, the Idiot Jerk in the White House doesn't care.  They don't care if the average person is spending around 26% of his or her paycheck on debt alone.  Their philosophy is:  just give them more credit.  As long as people are spending money like it's going out of style the economy is going to grow.  This is why the Fed increases interest rates, to slow down that growth, to keep it from becoming overwhelming.  Corporate America likes to fluff over interest payments.  They want  Mark and Mary Moron to just get another credit card, or apply for a Home Equity loan in order to go on vacation.  Conservative economics say that if you spend more money, businesses will make more money and they will, as a result give out larger pay increases.  Well that never happens.  Pay increases are bad for the bottom line.  For them the P & L is Holy.  In fact, that's one of the things you hear about this economy.  Where are the pay increases?
So, is the economy great?  Sure, as long as you don't look at personal debt.  High interest payments are at the point of breaching the dikes of our personal savings.  Financially, the country is under a severe flood watch.  The flood warning is just around the corner.