The Bishop

 It was 1 (F) degree when I left Howie out this morning.  He was long enough to do his business before scooting back in super fast for a peanut butter puppy cookie.  Today's high is expected to be in the upper teens, though by tomorrow it should be in the upper 20s (F).  Now, won't that be nice.  And they will continue to rise.

The cold temps are a bit bothersome because my thermostat is on the "fritz," as they used to say.  The furnace turns on and works well, however, once the set temperature has been reached, it switches to Air Condition and the fan simply circulates air, so instead of the temp being a constant 72 (F), it's around 69 (F).  I find this frustrating, so I drove to the store yesterday and bought a new one with the thought of installing it myself.  I looked at the instructions and said, "nope, I'm calling someone."  Sometime this morning I will call Jordan and make an appointment.  For those who don't know, Joe, the electrician I used previously, was killed in a traffic accident and his assistant, Jordan, is now running the business.  

Otherwise, yesterday was like most of my Tuesdays, spent not doing much of anything.  This behavior pattern repeats regularly, and always on Tuesdays.  I don't know why.  Even when I was off for a week, Tuesday was spent doing practically nothing.  

Howie is getting some new toys.  Chewy had a sale, 4 for the price of 3.  None of them have plush.  All of them are made by Kong, a company that knows how to make durable dog toys.

And then yesterday this happened:

And last night on Truth Social the Orange Anus called her a nasty bitch.  So much for thinking that might be any tiny bit of Christian compassion in the Orangie's administration.  Do not doubt that so called Christians have problem with her calling out their wannabe morally degenerate savior.  

Evidently every mention of LGBTQ individuals was expunged from every government website yesterday, I'm sure that must please the Log Cabin Republicans to no end, emphasis on the No end.

At this point, I'm just wondering when the protests are going to begin.  Every day I see reminders of the 1960s, when there were protests all over the country against... well, just about everything.  This time, if there's a Kent State, those shooting the guns will find people defending themselves and shooting back.  Chaos will ensue, and Wall Street will take a Hell of a hit, and the billionaires will run for their lives.  I understand Zuck has some sort of underground compound in Hawaii - that doesn't seem very smart since the Hawaiian Island chain is volcanic.

The Super Nova of all Meltdowns

 The cold is upon us.  Well, maybe not cold, but chillier than it had been.  Our high today is supposed to reach way up into the 60s (F).  In fact, this will be the normal high for the next few days.  It is Autumn, after all.  These temps are to be expected.  I'm fine with them.

Yesterday did not go as planned.  During the morning, I realized that a nasty little bacteria had taken up residence in my lower gastro intestinal track, so I ended up calling off work.  That damn little bug made my life miserable through out the afternoon and over night.  There were times when I will admit to thinking I might have been infected with a Xenomorph. I am pleased to say, however, that damn nuisance has now been eliminated.  

As it was, I did do some laundry yesterday, but mostly what I did was nap.  I am napped out.  What will I do today?  Well, Howie no longer needs to be constantly watched to make sure he doesn't chew on something rather expensive, so I'm thinking I might get a short bike ride in.  

I have to drive to my neighborhood Giant supermarket to pick up a jar of non-chunky peanut butter.  Howie's getting a Kong today.  For those who don't know, a Kong is a hard rubber toy that you can fill with peanut butter.  It keeps puppies busy for hours.

And no matter how often I tell people there were lots of cats in Greece, they simply don't believe me.  When our group leader posted a picture of cats on Facebook, I thought, wow, this is perfect.  I can finally show people.  Now, this picture was taken on one of the islands, but it is not unusual to see cats every where.  At Delphi, our tour guide paused to take a bag of cat food out of her satchel and pour it into a feeding bowl as we walked to the front entrance.

Last night on CNN, Harris said she believed Trump was a fascist.  Of course, he flipped out.  That's fine.  When he melts down he says the most ludicrous things.  The words coming out of his mouth don't even justify being called a word salad.  When he melts down, he talks about Arnold Palmer's dick.  Or he dances.  His closing argument heading into the final days of the campaign is not about policy.  Nope, he's in pure attack mode.  He will be as racist as he can possibly be.  His vulgarities will embarrass swing voters.  Centrist and left leaning Republicans will either stay home, or vote for Harris just to punish him.  The references to Hitler?  You know it's bad when Republicans are trying to defend the most evil man the world has ever know.  And if he loses super bad?  Prepare for the super nova of all melt downs.

The Gift

So, I get to go back to work today.  Ho... hum.  We will be busy at the Returns Desk as customers bring back the impulse buys, those gifts which somehow failed to ring the bell.  There will also be those looking for deep discounts in our remaining Christmas decorations.  They will probably be sorely disappointed.  We dropped them by 50% a week before the holiday.  All that remains is the shit stuff no one really wants, like ugly inflatables.  They weren't as big a seller this year as they have been in the past.  Let us hope that like all trendy things they have peaked.

And, out of all the toys the dogs got, their favorite is not the one humans liked.  Maybe we should think more like dogs... and cats, for that matter.  The adorable T-Rex sits silently on the hallway floor, abandoned by Lily and Biggie as another toy has completely stolen their attention.  I uploaded this from my phone, so my apologies if it plays sideways. (It only turns sideways if you blow it up)

That's the Wuba Fish from Kong.  And I thought Biggie would just walk in... wrong.  Now it's one of those moments the world gets to see.

Gallup posted one of their regular polls.  The Idiot Jerk's approval rating has actually gone up a couple of points... since the impeachment hearings have started.  This was always the potential problem.  Not from Democrats, mind you, but from Independent voters.  They are the largest voting block in the country.  Our hardliners need to keep that in mind.  No matter how watertight they might believe their case against the Idiot Jerk to be, the Independents will be the ones who make the decision in the ballot box this coming November.  We may think they want a T-Rex, but really, it's the Wuba Fish they're going to find most satisfying.

Matching Beavers

Well, it's Christmas morning here in Central PA and Santa is still in the building.  He's laid out all of the new toys for Seig and Lily and shortly will begin removing the tags.  As you can see, most of his elves work at Kong - no problem, he wants to make sure all of his doggy toys are durable with as little stuffing as possible.  This year 2 of the toys come with extra squeakers - now isn't that smart!

Santa is in the building

They were all excited when I put on their new collars, fluorescent yellow with reflective stitching, but it was their matching beavers which seems to have been the greatest bit of all.

Matching beavers

Anyway, I was talking to Ved, one of my cashiers / paint associates, and I asked him if they celebrated Christmas in India.  He said, "of course, we don't do it for the religious thing, but we all get presents."  I suspect this might be the true meaning of Christmas, a time of giving, of spreading joy and happiness, of lending a hand and, maybe a stronger set of shoulders, a holiday that is evolving to be all inclusive for all races and all religions.  Ain't that neat!  You all have a Merry Christmas!

Drat, one of the beavers has already lost her squeaker!