Relying on Dishonesty

 So, that damn cold is hanging on just like that old Supremes' song that all too easily send an ear bug into your brain.  Normally, when I get a cold it's here and gone in the blink of an eye.  This one?  Evidently I'm dealing with a slow blink.

On the other hand, our weather is nice.  The nights have been cool and good for sleeping.  Our days have been warm, upper 70s (F) and low 80s (F).  Yesterday we had rain... twice.  The first time was in the afternoon and Howie was out and got wet.  So, he and I had a fun game of towel, towel, who's got the towel.  Then last evening a thunderstorm moved through the area and we had more rain.  

And I've been wrangling with  CDW, the company that sold me the broken Xerox printer.  While they did replace it, as should be, they don't want to pay UPS to pick it up at my house.  The customer service rep emailed me, "but that would cost us money."  So, I've got to load a71 lb. (32 kg) printer into my car and drive it over to the UPS store.  Well... damn.  After reading that email, the first thing I did was go out and punch in the hand holds in the box to make carrying it easier.  I was a bit surprised when I picked it up; it wasn't that heavy.  Later this morning, I'll drive it over to UPS.  CDW?  If they send me a review, will have to deal with some professionally scathing comments.

Here's a pic of Howie and the gaming towel.

And RFK Jr testified yesterday and it was a rough day for him.  Good.  This guy has a liberal arts degree in history.  He has never taken a single medical course while in college.  He's also openly admitted to injecting heroin for 14 consecutive years.  Yesterday he was called a liar to his face multiple times.  He would say, "I never said that," and both Republican and Democratic congressmen had the receipts.  They quoted him verbatim, and still he lied.

Yesterday ADP released their jobs report for the month of August.  It was dismal.  Only 54,000 jobs were created in the US.  Companies are simply not hiring.  The biggest non-hiring states are those GOP run states in Center of the country.  This means that the job's numbers Orangie releases will be fudged to make him look good.  He has never, ever relied upon honesty.  If it doesn't make you look good, then change it.

Trump Bends Over

 We're under a flood warning.  Overnight we've had between 1 and 2 inches of rain, with possibly another inch on the way.  Today was supposed to be partially cloudy and warmer.  That forecast has been put on hold for the time being.  Right now the outside temp is 62 (F) and a drizzly, misty rain is falling.  Wonderful.

Yesterday was kind of a meh day.  That doesn't mean that I didn't do anything, I did.  I had lunch with my cousin and her husband.  Mexican.  I had a chicken chimichanga.  It was delicious.  We all had fried ice cream for desert.  I've had it before, and this was... not quite as good as I remember.  There was less crunch and not as much cinnamon.  We're planning on hitting a Russian restaurant next, some place called Tatiana's.  I will have to do a search and see what their menu looks like.

For some reason, perhaps boredom, about 2 hours after I was home I ate 2 large pieces of that pizza I made.  That was not a good idea.  Immediately afterwards I felt bloated, and that bloat hung with me for the rest of the evening.  Now my shoulders are a bit achy and there's a crankiness in my stomach.  Crap.  Was it something I ate?  I've had this before.  The crankiness as well as a pain in the upper left side of my chest and down my left arm.  Of course I thought the worst and made an appointment to see my doctor.  It turned out I was developing an ulcer, one that was not caused by the Orange Anus.

So, when I checked my bank account this morning, I discovered the great orange retailer is popping a special $$ into my account tomorrow, a day that isn't a payday.  I'm impressed, how about you?

The shit show was truly on display yesterday, from the Orange Anus kissing up the Saudis, to Kristi Noem being lectured, to Robert Kennedy Jr saying that people should not take advice from him when it comes to vaccines.

Noem was thanked for taking out from her constant costume changes and photo ops to come in to testimony.  She was totally unprepared to be questioned and looked like a petulant 14 year-old who's already had way to much plastic surgery refusing to answer, and when she did, she lied, and her lies were obvious and thrown back in her face.

There were outbursts during Kennedy's hearing, one happened when he was asked why he had stopped funding research for children's cancer.  Of course he denied doing so; I'm sure his brain worm must have cringed at the outburst.  He also denied saying that there were millions of dead fetus parts in the measles' vaccine, and there was another outburst.  His brain worm simply doesn't understand that everything this man says is recorded, and reported, and there is so much proof that he's lying.

And a funny thing about that Qatari jet; it seems as though they've been trying to sell it for 4 years and have had no luck getting a buyer.  Perhaps it's because no one wants to buy a flying, golden whorehouse.  Or maybe no one wanted to spend hundreds of millions of dollars refurbishing it.  So, basically what they did was dump it into Orangie's happy hands.  They know how to play this fool.

The truly funniest thing, however was Pete Buttigieg saying, "I may be gay, but Trumps the one who keeps bending over." 

Howie's Vet Visit

 It did rain again last night.  Every drop helps.  The outside temp is in the upper 40s (F) and is only expected to climb a few degrees higher.  According to the forecast, at least some amount of rain should be falling over the next three days.  I hope they're right.

Yesterday was... sort of fun, sort of meh, sort of maybe I should just take a nap.  This is how most Tuesday's are turning out after I work the weekend and Monday.  It's not that I'm tired, it's just that everything seems to be a chore.  Adding to that is the fact that I didn't sleep that well Monday night.  My Garmin watch, which tracks my sleep indicated that I had slept poorly, and that my body battery hadn't replenished nearly enough, and that it was going to be a ho-hum kind of day.

I got my water bill yesterday.  That little leak I had in the bathroom wasted around 700 gallons.  That will give you an idea as to how bad it was.

Howie did have his first Vet visit yesterday and it went well.  He has a slight entropy on his right eye, that means the eyelashes on his bottom eye are sort of turning in and scratching his eye.  It's not serious.  In fact, his new vet said that it's quite probably the issue will fix itself as he gets older and his head grows   Stat wise, he weighs 30 pounds, or 13.5 kg.  His final weight will be around 80 pounds, or 36 kg.  She recommended that he go from puppy chow to large adult dog food, so a bag has been ordered from Chewy.  Here's a blurry pic from the Vet.

And if you haven't been paying attention, Social Conservatives are furious over Trump's choice to have Kennedy run the Department of Health.  He's pro abortion.  I suppose he feels that he's not going to need anymore Evangelical votes.  And Dr. Oz to handle Medicare and Medicaid?  Seniors prepare to pay more for your health care.  And for those who don't understand, those tax dollars which should be going to benefit Americans, will be used to offset another big tax break for billionaires.

There are joyous things happening if you look for him.  Yesterday the Orange Anus and Elonia were down in Texas to watch one of Elonia's rockets launch and... it exploded.  This is what's called symbolism, or, possibly foreshadowing.  Maybe it's a combination of both.  

Elonia slashed the workforce at Zitter, the dying social media platform, because he needed those dollars to help pay off that $40 billion dollar loan he took out to buy it.  Stupidly, he's going to try and do the same thing with the American economy.  He and Orangie have about the same IQ, a little below average, and that shared stupidity will come back to haunt them.

Raw Milk

 We had rain overnight.  It was good, especially since there was only supposed to be a 60% chance of rain yesterday.  Any and every rain drop is welcome.  Today, our temps are expected to climb up into the mid 50s (F).  While that's not unusual for this time of year, what is unusual is that we've only had one day in which temps have dropped below freezing.  Over the past few years, we've been heading into the end of November with a really nice cold snap.  Thanks to Climate Change, that may not happen this year.

Much was accomplished yesterday.  I am pleased.  Hopefully, today will be just as good.  There are only 2 mandatory chores that need to be done.

Things that were done yesterday included a trip to the Orange retailer to pick up 6 more bags of topsoil and some bricks.  Howie seems like digging at one area of the fence, the bricks will put an end to it.  I had him out leash training, that went well.  I picked up 2 new pair of work pants from Community Aid.  The cuffs will need to be hemmed because, as I've said before, I have little legs.  Some weight training was done.  Some cleaning.  I have about 12,000 pages left in the first draft to finish; I'm pleased with that.

The leaves on my gingko are still in the process of turning yellow.  This morning, as I went to take a picture of it through the bedroom window, I noticed that high up in the branches was a bird's nest.  Can you see it?

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As expected, the Orange Anus continued to shock the world yesterday with his continuing nomination of completely unqualified people for cabinet positions.  Hopefully, some of the Republican Senators who handle the confirmation process will grow a pair and keep people like Gaetz, and Kennedy out of the administration.  One of Kennedy's pet projects is to bring back raw milk.  For those who don't know, milk is pasteurized to kill all those nasty little microbes in it that will make you sick with silly little things like dysentery.  Just because it doesn't make cows sick, doesn't mean your belly is going to handle those bacteria.  He will also be in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, unlike in Europe and most of the rest of the world where Health Care is free, Americans should expect their costs to go up and benefits to go down.  Oh, and he is an anti-vaxer.  This means there will probably be a rather entertaining war between him and Big Pharma.

As for Gaetz?  Well, I guess we'll all get to see if Trump gets to put a pedophile in his cabinet.  

The Countdown Begins

 So, it's 58 (F) outside and the temps are predicted to climb into the mid 80s (F).  By Wednesday, the forecast is temps in the mid to upper 90s (F).  See?  I told you summer wasn't over.

Retailers, however, don't have a very good handle on the seasons, mostly because their focus is on selling shit merchandise, and for them seasonal translates to holiday sales.  This means that all of fans and A/C units are being bundled up and stored in the overhead racking in order to make room for the Halloween display, which will be set-up at the beginning of the week.  And, in case you're wondering, people will start buying that Halloween shit merchandise the instant it's on display.  Last year we had some guy loudly pissing and moaning complaining because our website advertised this ragged, little dwarf  skeleton and our display team hadn't unpacked it yet.  Seriously, he was very loud, shrieking about false advertising.  And then he stood glowering, and whining about how long it was taking to find the box so we could unpack it and sell him his ragged, little dwarf skeleton.  The only thing he was missing was a MAGA hat.

Much was accomplished yesterday:  the lawn mowed, 2 loads of laundry washed and hung out to dry, a 3.25 mile walk in the park.  Nothing was packed, though I did spend a few seconds looking at my suitcase.  The pack I bought has many little pouches, so today I will probably store my extra charges in one of them.  I did download an app from a link Explore.com sent me regarding my itinerary.  It's quite informative, with lots of juicy information, including the weather in Greece.  Currently, they're temps are about about the same as those here in Central PA,  During the height of the summer, their temps are closer to those in Tampa, FL.

The 7 day countdown begins today.

And I don't think there's anything that can quite compare to the stupidity of Republicans.  James Comer, in an attempt to disparage Walz, said that "Minnesota is not your normal state...they have a huge population of residents who come from other countries and have very different ideologies that don't really respect capitalism."  That's right, Jimmy Comer just insulted the entire voting population of Minnesota.  You cannot make this shit stuff up.  Or, perhaps what he was trying to say is that Minnesotans do not embrace the Republican values of selfishness and greed.

For those who didn't know, RFK jr now supports Trump.  This is because Trump promised him he could run the Environmental Protection Agency.  It's illegal to promise someone an position in order to get their support.  Orangie tried to create a big "to do" about Kennedy switching his allegiance from the Democrats to the Republicans.  Mostly, the Democrats either yawned or made jokes about Kennedy's brain worm.  Orangie didn't mention that the entire Kennedy clan has come out in support of Harris, or that Kennedy's supporters were Republicans, not Democrats.  Ouch.  

Republican Masks

 Happy 5th of July!  I know it's not a holiday, but decided to throw it out there just in case any of you were still in the holiday spirit.  

The quiche did not get baked yesterday, it will be dinner this evening.  I actually didn't do much yesterday.  I did do the dumbbell workout, but the ride was scrapped in favor of a nap.  That's one thing I've notice about my schedule, after working 3 days in a row, I inevitably feel napping should be prioritized on my next day of rest.  Not that Lily minds.  All I have to say is that one little word and she racing up the stairs to the bed.

She was a bit disappointed this AM when I made my breakfast: no bananas.  I cut up the last one yesterday.  Rather than drive the 5 minutes to my local, neighborhood Giant supermarket, I did without the morning.  Lily love bananas, so she had to do without as well.  I tried substituting a walnut since it's just as healthy and she didn't want anything to do with it.

I'm planning on uploading another one of my little videos to my channel today on the next book.  I'm going to try and upload one weekly, just in case anyone wants to watch the creative process in action.  

A funny thing about the Kennedy campaign, Republicans who anticipated his taking voters away from Biden are now finding out they were wrong.  In reality, it seems as though he's bleeding voters away from Trump.  

A small bag of white powder was found in the White House and as usual Republicans think this is another way for them to kick Hunter Biden.  They have a problem, however, most people think this tiny bag was most like planted by a Republican desperate to keep kicking a dead horse.  

And then there's the flag Trump posted on his Truth Social account, the one that read Fuck Biden.  Ouch.  Just when you thought every Republican mask had been ripped off, another makes an appearance waiting to be torn away to reveal even more evil.  The heart and soul of the Republican party stinks with the stench of pure evil, and of course, the MAGA Cult ate it up.

Damage Control

Well, today's timeline got screwed up somehow.  I'm running a tad behind... or, at least I was.  I cut my morning ride short, only 7 + miles in 24 minutes.  This is how it goes sometimes.
Bad thing in Annapolis yesterday.  This guy Ramos has been charged with 5 counts of First Degree murder.  He'll plead insanity.  He'll claim that after years of hating this tiny newspaper his anger got the best of him.  He's really just a sorry assed sore loser.  He filed a lawsuit against this paper and lost.  Now 5 people are dead.  He will pay for those deaths with the rest of his life, either in jail or in a padded cell.  Survivors will file lawsuits against Ramos and everyone connected with him.  He is an example of the ultimate failure.
Another example of failure is the Republican Party, a minority group who managed to get a majority of senators in the House and Senate.  Because of voter apathy, they also managed to get the worst possible candidate in America's history into the White House.  Now they are planning to shit on the majority without understanding the voters have the real power.
Keep in mind that the most important thing to a politician is his job.  His beliefs are totally dependent upon what the majority of voters in his district want.  He tries to fill as many of their little, dark desires as possible in order to get re-elected.  If those voters say "hate gays," he will hate gays.  He will become very good at channeling his hate, so good change becomes impossible.  Attitudes evolve around him and he ignores the evolution.  He will cling to the loud voices, even as their numbers decrease.  He doesn't understand how they could fail him, they've kept him employed for so long.  Fail they will.
The Idiot Jerk in the White House will try and replaced Chief Justice Kennedy with an individual who will also channel Conservative hate.  He will do this with votes of Conservative Senators who have no problem hating the beliefs of a majority of Americans.  The only way to combat this is to vote these haters out of office.  Put this minority group into their proper place.  The only way to muzzle the Idiot Jerk in the White House is to turn both the House and the Senate Blue.  We may not be able to prevent the damage they plan to do, but we damn well are going to show them we know how to control it.  Vote Blue.  Take Back America.