The End of Oak Street

We have 59 (F) outside and last night was great sleeping weather!  Sunshine is on the menu for today, with temps in the 70s (F).  That's another plus.  Tomorrow, however, skies are supposed to be overcast and there's supposed to be rain.  That's okay.  I work.  Our daily highs in the long range forecast might hit the low 80s (F).  That's fine, too.  I'm looking forward to autumn.  Looking back, except for those 3 weeks during which our temps were simply scorching, this hasn't been a bad summer.  But we did have severe storms.  We had another yesterday afternoon.  While there were some serious gusts of wind, the torrential rains were what caused all of the flash flood warnings.

No yard work was done yesterday because the threat of rain was constant.  So, I puttered around the house, and worked on the book.  The Cassadas, Carlos and Mary, have entered the plotline.  I'd sent the first chapter to a reader for an opinion and received the comment, "at least no one's name ends in S."  Some people have a problem with names ending in S when you make them possessive.  Should the name be Cassadas' or Cassadas's.  There are a lot of rule books, and depending upon which you follow, either example can be correct.  So, I promptly informed the reader that he hadn't met the Cassadas yet.

I went to see The End of Oak Street last night.  Set in the early 1980s, a family wakes up to discover that a 2 mile diameter section of their suburb has been transported back several million years.  That's right, there are dinosaurs in the neighborhood.  This movie rocks!  For a long time scientists thought dinosaurs were large reptiles, then, as discovery and discovery was unearthed, they realized they were not related to lizards but to birds.  Believe me, a T-Rex with feathers is far more terrifying than one without.  Put simply, this is the story of the Platts trying to survive as their neighbors become dinosaur food.

So, someone in the White House is leaking the dirt on Natalie Harp.  Rumor has it that the leaker is none other than Karoline Leavitt.  Supposedly she's royally pissed that Orangie left her on the decoy plane to be blown to smithereens.  I also understand that the cultists are all fluttery (key feathered raptor image) in a good/bad way.  To them, he is a celebrity president who is now embroiled in a scandal they find most titillating.  And the administration is so flummoxed they paid Melanoma an untold sum of $$$ to put in a personal appearance with Orangie yesterday.  Can you hear me laughing?  No one is going to believe that expensive charade.  Truthfully, they may have done more damage than good.  Obsessives like Natalie, while knowing secrecy is imperative, desperately want the world to know that she is Orangie's personal binky.  In fact, some are pondering if there's a boiled bunny in her future.

For those who are intersted, here is one of her letters to Orangie.

 

Melania Tries to Jump Ship

Our outside temps are in the mid 40s (F), and they're supposed to be climbing into the mid 70s (F).  They chill off a bit overnight, but after tomorrow they're going to be climbing again.  Forecasters are saying we'll be have several days where they climb into the upper 80s (F)  It's way too early in the season for that too happen.  Our window A/C unit sales are going to go through the roof.

And yesterday was a good day, at least as far as accomplishments go.  Sadly, I did have to spend the afternoon sitting at the flooring desk getting paid to basically do nothing.  No customers.  No sales.  My supervisors did come over to piss and moan about how all she gets is disrespect from management.  I know that she had been counselled about her rather authoritarian approach to her position.  Like too many other people, however, she did not prioritized those sessions and invest them into her own style of management. Now she will nurture her anger for years to come.

On the bright side, I did get a decent workout in yesterday morning.

On an even brighter side, my first editor has returned his copy of The Body in 4:4 Time with his notes and criticisms.  He did add that this is his favorite book so far.  As expected, I suggested we get together for lunch so he can shower me with praise in order to do a deeper dive into his opinions.  He does think that some of my chapter titles aren't musical enough, or not apropos to the chapters themselves, so here's a pic of some them.  You may want to save this for future reference.

And the cringe level posting by the Orange Anus continued last evening when he posted an actual video of a woman being beaten to death with a hammer on his Truth Social account.  Was this because Melanoma gave a speech in which she spent 6 minutes trying to tell the world that she and Orangie weren't introduced by Jeffy Epstein, and that she was never, ever an escort.  This denial caused many people to post pictures and videos of her and Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jeffy, and, of course, the Orange Anus.  

The video might also have been a continuation of the hate he was throwing at his one time MAGA influencers, like Joe Rogan, and Meg Kelly, and Tuck Carlson, who, among many others, decided to start aiming spitballs of shit in his direction.  They're claiming this was not what they voted for, well, that's a lie, they all did want an authoritarian government, except not the one we have.  

Or maybe it's because military personnel who have survived the attack on Kuwait have begun speaking out.  They're calling both Hegseth and Orangie liars to their faces.  These victims of Orangie's idiocy are telling the world that they were completely unprepared for any sort of drone attack, that there was no warning system in place.  

Oh, and word has just come out that inflation roared last month.  This should have been expected.

Zooming in on the Wall

 Can we all say hello to a brisk Tuesday morning?  Temps outside my window are a cool 31 (F), which is borderline cold.  We had snow flurries earlier.  They surprised me by blowing in my face as I opened the back door to let Lily out.  She did her did her morning pee and was back in the house in a snap.  This is what happens when the temperatures drop this low.  Our high today will be in the mid 30s, though tomorrow we're supposed to start a warming trend.

Yesterday was slow in the flooring department, in fact there were only 3 busy departments: Hardware, always a seasonal favorite since every dad wants a Tool; Appliances, this is the best time of the  year to buy that new refrigerator you want; and, of course, Garden.  Artificial trees have been more popular than real trees for some time, and that's true again this year.  I've always like the natural look, but let's be honest, unless you're setting the tree up on a tile or hardwood floor, needle cleanup, when you take it down, is a real bitch, and those decorative skirts you put around the base don't seem to do the job well.

Also, in case you didn't hear me, I climbed onto the scale yesterday morning to see how much damage I could blame on Thanksgiving... Holy Crap!  The time has come to start burning off calories, at least until Christmas, which is a few short weeks away.

Don't know if I told anyone or not, but I signed up for TikTok and amazingly everyday some new sex worker lovely, young woman starts following me, even though I haven't posted anything.  As a result, I've decided to post short videos of my books.  You never know, maybe one or two of those sex workers lovely, young women might have a hidden urge to read.  Maybe, for the first one, I'll zoom in for a closeup of the wall.

Quite a few people will be attending a memorial service for Rosalynn Carter today, including Melanoma Trump.  I was truly surprised to see her name on the list of living first ladies who will be there.  Because of who she is, I suspect there's some sort of grift involved, possibly BOGO pics of her standing next to Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

I saw where that antisemite Elon Musk flew to Israel in the hopes of doing some damage control after spouting off in favor of a racist, antisemite conspiracy theory that was debunked decades ago.  True, he'll garner a headline, but nothing else.  It's too late for him to repackage his identity, especially after his debacle with Twitter (notice, I'm not us the X name).  I haven't deleted the app from my phone yet, but I suspect that will happen soon, mostly because I get emails from them saying "this is interesting," and it's all hate mongering.  Twitter used to be entertaining, now it's a shit show overrun by conspiracy theorists, and hate mongers.

The Mole at Mar a Lago

 Temps are supposed to climb into the mid 70s (F) today, and being that it's Saturday, I'm scheduled to work.  In fact this week the weather forecasters are predicting the weather to be nice, warm, with only the occasional shower.  What a shame I have to work on Thursday.

My phone is going crazy with notifications want to let me know that Charles is now king.  Not being an Anglophile and never really liking the man, I could care less.  His family is one of the most publicly dysfunctional groups of people I've ever seen, and they seem to have absolutely no idea on how to fix themselves.

The men working on the house next door did show up for an hour so late yesterday afternoon.  They, too, seem either terribly dysfunctional or completely disorganized.  I suspect it's the latter.  Originally they were going to rehab and rent the house out.  Then they decided they were going to upgrade it and sell it for a lot of money.  That plan has changed again, according to one of the workers.  I suspect they still might try and sell it, but at a much lower price since most of the amenities they were going to include have dumped.  Yeah, that's right, no marble countertops.

Being that I work this weekend, I made cheesy scalloped potatoes with ham yesterday.  Some of it was frozen and the rest will provide me with lunches through Tuesday.

And you'll notice I'm not going to ask if it's just me thinking that a day doesn't go by without someone, somewhere, flipping over another rock and finding more dirt about Clarence Thomas.  That man deserves all of the negative press he gets, and then some.

Of course, the big news yesterday was that at least eight of the fake electors in Georgia have been granted immunity.  For those who need a translation, this another way of saying that they flipped.  Purportedly, the charge they're going for is racketeering.  That's a very good charge.

There does seem to be a lot of flipping going on, doesn't there?  People are talking about the Mole at Mar a Lago, sounds like a snappy song title, doesn't it?  I'm surprised Randy Rainbow hasn't come out with a catching little ditty everyone is playing.  So, who is this mysterious individual who's decided to give all for America?  Some think it's Melanoma Melania.  I don't know about that.  I keep thinking about King Lear and how it's was his daughter's who did him so much damage.

Up Front

Well, it's Friday and I get to go back to work.  I'm so excited, in case you didn't know.
I watched some of the drone footage from the Florida panhandle - When there is only a concrete pad left, you know people have lost everything.  I feel bad for them, but then that is the price some will pay for living on the shore.  With rising seas caused by Global Warming, that land will be underwater in a number of years, which makes one ponder if those people are foolish enough to rebuild.
And I see that there some problems down in George with voter registration.  Seems like the white Secretary of State, who's also running for Governor, is trying to stymie an increased number of black people who want to vote.  Of course, he's shrieking "no, no, no."  Hahaha.  Of course he is.  Or maybe I should say "they are."  You know?  Those white Republicans who are terrified of colored skin.  And it's not only black skin that scares them, brown is not too popular either.  The last thing those white Republicans want is a black Governor.  That idea simply horrifies them.  If they could rewrite the genetic code to make 'white skin' the dominant gene, they would.  Sadly for them, however, no matter how desperate they are to play God, they can't.  If they fine their future so unbearable, maybe they should move some place else.
And I saw something really funny regarding the Idiot Jerk's trophy wife, Melanoma.  Evidently some fool asked her if his infidelities bothered her.  Her response was something about being "too busy" changing my wardrobe to think about it.   Well, that's not exactly what she said.  The "too busy" was her, the wardrobe thing was me... still, think about it.  I mean, excuse me, but she's been bought and paid for, and her purchase price included "not giving a shit."  I can't believe some sort of bumblehead believes there is some sort of love between her and the Idiot Jerk.  Well, there is in a way.  It's there love of $$$.  That's the only thing they have in common.  She was a model / high class hooker at one time, so she doesn't care who bangs her as long as she gets the cash up front.

Down on the Farm

My weekend is over.  I get to go back to work... on a Friday knowing that my next weekend will not happen until next Wednesday.  That's sucks.
I was down on the farm yesterday - my brother's farm.  He and his wife have a very large garden, they do need to spend more time weeding.  My grandparents had a large garden and my grandma weeded for a couple of hours every day.  They are a lot of work.
He has chickens and turkeys and a pot bellied pig, as well as an old dog.  Oh, and there's a 5 foot black snake living in the barn... somewhere.  I told him to let the snake alone, it will eat the rats.  There are always rats because of the grain.  That's also why cats are a valuable asset.  They just love eating rodents.  I snapped a pic of him in the barn with two of his turkeys.

I asked him if they're going to be eaten.  He said, "nah, they're pets."  My brother has a pet farm.  They'll get eggs from the chickens, but that's about it.
They also have walnut trees.

I got some tomatoes and peppers as well.  I told him they need to start making sauce.

Oh, and I saw that Melanoma's parents became citizens in a private ceremony yesterday.  Isn't it interesting how the Idiot Jerk says that's a shitty way for immigrants to become Americans... but it works for him just fine.  Another funny thing is that the Idiot Jerk's administration now wants to make becoming a citizen even more difficult.  These people are so damn two-faced it's ridiculous.

Fashion Faux Pas

Friday morning.  Some of you are dancing around because this is the end of the work week - me?  Today is the 3rd of 4 in a row.  Then I get to work a day and have another 2 off.  We're heading into  slow season.  The middle of both summer and winter tend to be slow.  No wants to do much of anything during the cold of winter, and summer?  Well, people are too busy to do home improvements.  Also, I suspect savvy people are going to begin to take a moment and look at what's happening.  People buy less big ticket items when the prices of their everyday needs go up. 
And what about Melanoma and her jacket from hell?  This was a little bit more than a fashion faux pas.  I believe Reuters pointed out that the temps in Texas were very warm, and there really was no need to wear a jacket... at all.  I would have thought that her wardrobe assistant, or dresser, or whomever, would have told her what was considered appropriate attire.  Seeing that the retail cost of that jacket was $39 speaks volumes.  That's tip money for the Idiot Jerk at McDonalds. 
One of the funny things about this immigration problem is that hard line conservatives totally do not understand how ugly this makes them look.  Those hard line conservatives also happen to be... Republicans.  Dealing with this crisis has totally ripped off their mask and they are sinfully hideous. They care only for themselves, their money, their taxes, their religion, their control.  All other voices have no value.  Now, however, they are beginning to learn how expensive the price is for a pound of flesh.  Good people are scrutinizing their behavior, their lack of values, their inability to look beyond themselves and saying "tough shit."  Their Karma has been bad for a long, long time.  Oops.
I also got a 30 minute ride in with Tyler Stein, this AM.  Holy Crap, he sweats more than I do. 

Cycleops has a number of training videos.  Rouvy lets you import, so I will probably pick those I find most exhilarating.  This morning's ride was most fun.

Blue

Well, it's Thursday and I get to go back to work... for 4 days, and then I'm off for 2, back for 1 and then off again.  The following week's schedule is shit since I don't have any consecutive days off, however in 3 weeks I will have 3 days off in a row.  I guess that makes up for it.
The dining room walls have been painted.  Juniper Berries is much bluer than I was anticipating.  This turned out to be a 3 day project, 1 day for stripping, 1 for patching, sanding and priming, and the third to put on 2 coats of paint.  That's right, I always put on 2 coats of paint.  I'm not a big fan of the single coat coverage paint that's out there.  For one thing, I always tend to miss a couple of spots on the first go through, or I don't apply the paint thick enough.  The 2nd coat doesn't take that long, and personally, I think the finish is better.  Once I have everything hung back on the walls I include pictures.
I went to see my Mom yesterday.  This is always an interesting experience.  Dementia, you know?  I found her sitting in the lobby without her glasses.  She told me "they told me to sit here and I left my glasses in my room."  When I asked who told her to wait there she said "I don't know."  She seems to be stuck in the past, about 50 years ago, since those are the memories which come up in the conversation.  She knows they're in the past, but doesn't know how far back she's going when she talks about Rusty.  Rusty was an Irish Setter, and her most favorite dog in the world.  She will say "I wonder how he's doing."  We don't tell her he died half a century ago; that makes her cry.
Evidently Melanoma is having a birthday.  Just what do you get a Trophy Wife, especially one contracted to the Idiot Jerk in the White House?  A 'Get out of Jail Free' card?'
And I was reading how things are really beginning to look bleak for the GOP in November.  So many people retiring, such high disapproval ratings, and fundraising that's somewhat lackluster.  There was a cautionary edge to the article, though, saying it's "too early to call the election a blue wave," evidently they can't say it's a blue wave until the election is upon us.  Instead they're going to say things like "there might be," and "the possibility exists," and "voters are much more appreciative of the Democrats."  And it's only 6 months away.

I wonder how many more Republicans will abandon ship before the truth hits home?

Messages abound

It's Sunday, and I don't have to go to work... and there is so much funny shit going on!  Mostly because of stupid ass Republicans.  I'm waiting to see a cartoon inspired by this headline:  Paul Ryan Tweets PA Teacher's Praise for Tax Break.  That's right, a teacher in Lancaster, PA was 'mildly surprised' to find an additional $1.50 per week in her pay check.  Of course, he deleted the Tweet, but only after the hysterical laughter had started.  This is indicative as to what these morons believe satisfies the average worker when it comes to getting a "Tax Break."  By the way, I first saw while reading the BBC this AM - this means the whole world is laughing.
Then there's the Idiot Jerk tweeting some sort of nonsense about the Nunes memo vindicating him.  You don't even need to cup your hand to your ear to hear about 67% of America laughing at that one.  This is an ideal example of just how much of a cretin this man is, I mean I'm sure those fools at Faux News started this knee slapper going.  We all know Faux News wouldn't lie to him.
And how about Melanoma's media moments, when the media tried to make you feel sorry for her?  Give me a break.  She was bought and paid for at the Trophy Wife Store.  She knows all about the Idiot Jerk's predilections for kinky sex, like golden showers.  I wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't advised Stormy Daniels which issue of Forbes to use for slapping his fat ass.
And then there's this bit about Michele Bachmann, that hoot and holler princess from Minnesota.  Evidently this lass with the Lollygag eyes saw Al Franken's empty Senate seat and decided to ask the Almighty if she should return to politics.  While she seems to no longer remember her campaign finance issues, He evidently still does, which is no doubt one of a multitude of reasons he disapproves.

Will Michele listen?  Now you have to admit that humor would abound if this addlepated hate monger actually did chose to run...  and lost as badly as Roy Moore, with almost 44,000 people either voting against you, or writing in someone else's name.  How hysterical would it be if more people wrote in Al Franken's name rather than vote for Michele.  I would say that would be a very clear and concise message from the Almighty.

Stopping Traffic

My legs hurt like hell.  It's that damn trainer working too well.  I was working my vastus intermedius really hard... well, for about 6 minutes at least.  That's all it took.  I had such a burn going on.  So, I turned off the trainer.  And I got off the bike.  Tomorrow I will do a less extreme workout since I'm going to need to build up some strength in my legs.  Well, just one specific area of one muscle group.  A lot of people don't realize that your muscles are broken down into subgroups; each quadriceps has 4 different sections.  Walking relies on one section more than any other, running uses multiple sections, and cycling?  Upper thighs mostly.  If you ever look at the legs of a cyclist you'll see they have teeny weeny calves and big thighs.  Now I have to train my upper thighs in order for them to roar like thunder when I ride.
And what about the Idiot Jerk in the White House and his pissing match with the Idiot Jerk in North Korea?  Am I the only one who sees them acting like petulant 12 year olds?  Don't worry, they'll start taunting each other's mothers any second now.  Of course, this is why the Idiot Jerk is... well, the Idiot Jerk.
Also, Melanoma gave some sort of speech.. yesterday, I think.  I don't remember exactly because I was blinded by that neon pink road crew dress she was wearing.  Do you know what I mean?  You do have to give her credit for trying to bring a stylish new wardrobe to Flagger Force.  Gee, they would no longer need to stop traffic with a sign, just stand their with their arms out.

For decades First Ladies set styles, created trends... until now.  All this one seems to be trying to do is  stop traffic.  To be perfectly honest, I think it's inflatable and the Idiot Jerk just pumped in too much hot air.