Disclosure Day

For those of you living in Central PA, we're going to have a beautiful day.  Temps are going to be in the low 80s (F).  Humidity is going to be down.  Tomorrow?  Probably not so nice.  We've got a 59% chance of rain, possibly in the form of a later afternoon thunderstorm.  So, if you're not working, go outside and have a blast.

Yesterday was interesting.  I had breakfast with my brother.  That was interesting.  Despite being polar opposites when it comes to politics, we get along well.  When I got home, I finished and the posted my blog.  And then, I began the publication process.  This is usually an easy process.  Everything was going along ducky until I got to the cover art.  The scanned copy needed to have 300 DPI (dots per inch) and mine only had 195.  Well, hell.  I've never had this problem before.  So I made several attempts at increasing the DPI, including downloading Photoshop.  That only raise the DPI to 212.  I decided to rescan the artwork and lo and behold that's where my problem was.  The Xerox printer/scanner I own allows you to select the level of DPI, either 200, 300, 400, or 500, and I had originally scanned it in at 200.  I rescanned it at 400 and voila!  No problem.  

I went to see Disclosure Day last evening.  I liked it.  A lot.  Some people are having a problem with the last 30 minutes.  Quite probably this is because they were expecting something akin to the ending of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, neither does it have an ET ending.  Perhaps the film is too cerebral for some. The ending is, instead, provocative.  Emily Blunt is outstanding, so is Josh O'Connor.   I will watch it again when it streams.

For those of you who are paying attention to the incompetence surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, things have gotten worse.  Not only has a fence been erected around the pool, but overnight blue tarps were hung from the fence keeping the public from looking at and possibly taking pictures of the algae growth.

The primaries in New York have rattled a lot of old school Democrats, and well they should be.  Their 1960s playbook has not worked in a long time.  Fresh faces with new, aggressive ideas are needed.

And, of course, we all know that desperate times call for desperate measures, but honestly, I didn't think the GOP would be this desperate.  Last evening, when I got home from the movies, I checked my texts and was surprised to find this in my inbox.  Let's be honest, they must be truly desperate to send this to me.

Chowder

Thursday, and the skies are sunny and the temp is sitting at 75 (F).  That's lower than yesterday morning, though yesterday's high did get up to 98 (F) again.  One thing that did change was that the Hight Heat Warning was suddenly extended to include today.  Today's forecast is for slightly cooler temps and thunderstorms are supposed to move through the area this evening bringing with them cooler temps.

I did managed to get two of my smart plugs connected yesterday, but then power went off for about 2 seconds and one of them lost connection.  I didn't really put a lot of effort into it because it's just not that important.  And, as I reevaluate things, I've decided to throw the Alexa I have upstairs out.  I never, ever use it.  I have one downstairs that I will occasionally use to play music, but that's about it.  I'm not one of those people who talk to their Alexas; I know some people who are forever asking silly questions.  I would rather be more dependent on my phone or computer than a device which might be sending all sorts of information to Bezos' world.

I did get a nice workout in yesterday.  I also made some New England Clam Chowder for dinner.  I try to keep mine healthy by using olive oil rather than butter when making my roux.  I also switched away from V8 to the store brand vegetable juice.  Food prices are going up.

I saw that the Orange Anus got the CIA to say his attack on Iran's nuclear building facilities created significant damage.  Don't believe it.  He needed some sort of false verification in order to save face.  

Also interesting is the fact that his administration is no longer going to give intelligence briefings to Congress.  This is how authoritarians like Putin work, they control the information getting out to the public.  This lets them lie at will.

Someone posted that real estate stocks in New York City were dropping because Mamdani got the Democratic nomination.  If this is true, it really is fascinating because they are acting like he's already won the election.  It's also why I'm calling this Republican propaganda.  Of course, Christian Nationalists are flipping out.  For them, like the great de-churching, this is one more sign that their religion no longer has the power it used to have.  This does seem to be the case.  Perhaps if after Martin Luther the church hadn't continued to splinter, or perhaps if the Evangelicals hadn't made Christianity so selfish, but those things happened.  Perhaps if they had pushed love and compassion rather than hatred, but than love and compassion take away the ability to pass judgement.  Sometimes I wonder if it was always meant to fail.

Bombshells

Well we have another warm morning here in Central PA.  The temp was 76 (F) when I rolled out of bed this morning.  If the forecast holds, the high today will be 97 (F), which is one degree less than yesterday, however, that one degree must make a world of difference because we're not under a heat warning today.  There is a chance of thunderstorms this evening, so maybe that's the reason.

Yesterday was rather productive.  I did get another 10.7 mile bike ride in.  And I did get a good, jolly laugh in as well.  As you know, I've been drying my laundry outside on a drying rack, it makes hot, sunny days a way to save on the electric bill.  Yesterday was no exception, except for one thing.  Usually Howie ignores the laundry.  Yesterday he didn't.  For some reason, he pulled a pair of my boxer shorts off and was running around the back yard with them in his mouth.  It took me 2 puppy cookies to get them back.  And it really did make me laugh.

I'm thinking of making some New England clam chowder today.  I have all of the ingredients.  Or, I might make tomato soup with a grilled cheese for dinner.  You'll notice I'm saying grilled, rather than toasted.  I don't know anyone who actually toasts a cheese sandwich.

Christos in Greece got his copy of The Body in History yesterday.

So, now we know why Orangie dropped the F bomb yesterday:  his used of bombs to stop Iran's nuclear turns out to have been rather impotent.  I mean, all his braggadocio and in reality he didn't even hit the pre-ejaculation stage.  The intelligence briefing for Congress was canceled because telling our Representatives that Iran had only been set back a few months was tantamount to admitting failure.  I do think there is a serious chemical imbalance going on in his brain because now he's saying dropping those bombs was like the US nuking Hiroshima.  

And Mamdani won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor; this is considered a bombshell vote.  Christian Nationalist heads are exploding everywhere.  So are the Old Guard heads of the Democratic Party.  This is fine.  Change is good.  Because of the great de-churching, I do believe that many Americans don't really care about an individual's faith.  This is a growing movement.  We are, after all, a country where there is supposed to be Freedom of Religion.