The Painful Lesson

 Once again we have sunny skies here in Central PA.  The forecast is for us to have another warm one, with our high temps hitting the mid 90s (F).  That's right toasty in my book.  Tomorrow it will be warmer and by Tuesday we should be topping off at around 103 (F).  That is very hot for June.  These are Tampa, FL temps in the middle of July and we're getting them here in Central PA.  I am hoping this is not a forerunner of what our summer is going to be like.

I did ger a 7 mile ride in yesterday; one of my old favorites in San Remo, Italy.  Tuesday I'll be taking a longer ride, indoors of course, perhaps something with hills.  Even though I hate them, hills are good.

For the time being, this will be the last week that I work Thursdays.  They're cutting hours because it's summer, and while summer business is better than winter business, sales are never robust.

And I'm pleased to say that I'm growing a carrot.  Supposedly, in a week or so, I should be able to plant this outside and in a month or so should have another carrot.  We shall see.

Last night the Orange Anus did something unthinkable to many of us, he let Benni Netanyahu sucker us into a war in the Mid East.  This isn't to say that Orangie wasn't an easy mark.  Everyone in the world laughing at his shitty birthday parade had crushed his ego so badly, he was desperate to prove he was a strong authoritarian.  And Netty?  He's going to sit back and let Americans die.  And Orangie?  He will be so hated by the world.

Americans will be hating him even more.  Some people are pointing out similarities to W's Desert Fart, me?  I'm thinking farther back.  I'm reminded of Vietnam, a truly unpopular war that America lost.  Prepare yourselves for protests.  If Orangie tries to iron fist us, Americans will punch back hard.  The smack back coming to Republicans will be horrendous.

And, of course, none of this is going to play well on Wall Street.  Those billionaires despise chaos and Orangie is rattling the world with his incompetence and indifference to human life.  He epitomizes the "shut up!  I'm in charge!" attitude pervasive in Conservatives.  They are about to learn a painful lesson.

No Kings Day

 Well, here we are on Saturday and we have drizzles that are expected to continue on and off all day.  That's fine with me because I have to work.  According to Accuweather, Central PA isn't going to see any change in this pattern until Tuesday.  This is not a very auspicious beginning to the summer season, but by no means can you say that we're going to have a cool, dreary summer.

Even though much was accomplished yesterday, it still feels like one of those meh days.  The backyard was mowed (it looks nice now), laundry was done, and the big aquarium was cleaned.  I also washed the dishes by hand.  Still, I didn't write and I didn't get either a ride, row, or workout in.  I did feel like taking lots of naps, and around 3:30 ish my nose began to run.  The drainage was constant for a few hours, so I'm thinking I probably had a cold.  That is usually the extent of my symptoms when I do get a cold, though yesterday I wanted to take lots of naps as well.  Maybe it's an age thing.

I did finally get a chance to watch some episodes of Mid-Century Modern.  It's very funny.  There is only one problem, it has a laugh track.  Sorry, I don't need canned laughter to tell me something is funny, or to make me laugh.  The show would be so much better if they simply just... canned the fake laughter.

And I did order the T-Mobile internet yesterday morning.  My FIOS will be canceled once it arrives and is set up.

And this is a No Kings Day.

We all know the drill.  The peaceful protests are growing in size and number. And Orangie's approval rating?  It's now negative numbers all around.  The one area where he was at the break even point was immigration, and now that down by 2 points.  Americans don't like what he's doing in Los Angeles.  Americans don't like ICE wearing masks. And while I don't have any solid facts, I'm certain that a large majority of Americans don't like Cosplay Kristi, the puppy killer.  That woman is despicable.

As the Orange Anus continues to fail, the protests will continue to grow.  This is not what either Republicans or Conservatives want.  It makes them very angry, so prepare yourselves, they will strike out.

And, of course Israel and Iran are now at war with each other.  Tucker Carlson, one of Putin's American mouthpieces said this will cause Americans to loose their lives.  This means Vlad's pissed, he's good buddies with Iran.  His puppet, the Orange Anus is falling down on the job.  He, of all people, should have realized how incompetent the Orange Anus truly is.  This growing war in the Middle East is going to further erode Orangie's ratings.  Good.

Comey's Numbers Game

 We're supposed to be under a fog warning.... No fog.  There is a possibility for thunderstorms this morning as well; more rain that we don't really need right now.  Weather forecasters are saying that this weekend should be nice, but I work.  They're also saying that next week is going to be a repeat of last week with a daily chance of showers and thunderstorms.

Things were slow in the home improvement retail world yesterday.  I did set up a measure for a carpet installation in a rental property.  The owner's putting in really cheap carpet.  The owner told me she's going cheap because the tenant that moving out did some serious carpet damage.  She didn't say what, but most of the time the damage is pet related; they have a cat that doesn't always go in the liter box.  Otherwise the day was slow.  I got in lots of steps.

I will have to try and get some lawn work in today.  The grass in the backyard needs to be wacked.  Hopefully, if there are any thunderstorms in the area, they will skirt my house.  

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is getting so many great reviews, I'm thinking it might get Game of the Year.  It was developed by Sandfall Interactive, with a small of team of between 20 and 30 people.  At present, I've completed 17% so I've much more to play.

My Itoh peonies are starting to bloom, and yes, they're yellow and peach in color.

Walmart is raising prices.  That shouldn't surprise anyone.  The Walton family needs more money, so does the Walmart corporation.  They need to keep Wall Street happy, so rather than take a tiny hit, and for them the hit would be rather small, they're going to pass those price increases onto the consumers.  There are a lot of Walmart shoppers in both Blue and Red states, so all will pay, but Red states tend to be poorer, so it will hit them harder.  What will cause Walmart to actually consider taking that hit?  Consumers curtailing their spending.  This will happen automatically as inflation kicks picks up speed.  Unfortunately for most shoppers, billionaires are unaffected by these price increases, so they will try and sit this out.  My advice to anyone who needs to make a purchase, by now while the savings are hot.

Has the Orange Anus completed his giveaway trip to the middle east?  What an asshole.  He's dealing with countries that sponsor anti-Christian terrorists.  While he, himself is in no way shape or form a Christian, there are many Americans and Europeans who are and his gifts are going to keep growing the hate.  Also keep in mind, those billion dollar deals Orangie loves bragging about very rarely come to fruition.

Finally James Comey did something with seashells that has the Cultists running around like their hair was on fire.  For those who missed it, he used 8647.  In slang, 86 means to get rid of because it's no longer necessary.  If we have a white subway tile that's no longer in stock and not coming back, we will 86 the sku number.  So, in a roundabout way, Comey might have possibly said we should 86 the 47th president, i.e. Orangie.  There are a lot of ways to 86 Orangie:  impeach him again; arrest him: make life so difficult for him he flies home to Mother Russia.  The cultists are, however, choosing a different meaning because they are extremists.  Personally, I'd rather have that asshole sitting in a jail cell.

Groan... Groan

Here I am heading in to my 5th day of work.  Luckily for me and my brain I'm off tomorrow.  After that I'm supposed to work for another 5 days straight.  Where as my schedule had been great for a few weeks - now it sucks.  I'm set up for 'consecutive days off,' and that's not happening for the next 3 weeks.  This is why one accumulates personal time.
The dogs just ran by on their way into the bedroom with their purple wubba.
Anyway, I'm going to pick up a couple of bags of mulch when I leave work this afternoon.  My Mom always said mulsh instead of mulch, I think she thought it sounded sophisticated.  My Dad did the same thing with Hawaii, he always pronounced it Havaii trying to make it foreign and exotic.
So, I'm wondering if there's infighting among the Idiot Jerk's sycophants since he's been flip-flopping quite a bit lately.  First he's 'cocked and loaded' for Iran, than it's '150 people might be injured,' and ICE is going to pick up thousands of illegal immigrants, and then it isn't because of the Democrats.  That last one is really funny, you know, trying to put the blame on someone else because he's incompetent.  2020 is approaching and the last thing the GOP wants is an unpopular war.  His problem is Bolton wants a war, so does that Crazy Christian Pompeo, they just want to kill themselves some Muslims, but only the ones who aren't buying weapons from us.
On the utter laughable scene, Jared the Stupid revealed a Middle-East Peace Plan which is solely dependent upon investment... $50 billion in investments.  Money is evidently the answer, especially for the investors who are hoping to make a boatload of money.  Nobody's buying, well, maybe Netanyahu because Jared's a nice Jewish boy who comes highly recommended by his father-in-law.
Well, it's time for me to get ready for work... groan... groan

Dash of Color

Wednesday means weekend... at least for me... at least for this week.  I'm off today and tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be very nice with temps in the mid 70's.  Oh, and the sun is supposed to shine as well.  I suspect the dogs and I will be sleeping well tonight.
While I had originally thought "The Body in the Tower" would be out in mid-July... well, it looks like I was wrong.  Things appear to be coming together faster than I had originally anticipated.  This is fine with me.  There is just one reader with an outstanding copy.  I've personally read the entire work through 4 times... that's a lot of reading, and am approaching the point where I start to skim.  I've already passed what I call the 'decorative stage,' when color gets added, where the lap pool gets some shimmering blue tile with goldfish accents.
And, speaking of color, more than a dash is beginning to explode across my yard.

And things are getting a bit rocky in the mid-east.  That's to be expected.  We have an ultra-conservative Idiot Jerk in the White House who has ultra-conservatives into positions of power.  The problem is that ultra-conservatives have a very, very sensitive gag reflex when it comes to negotiation and compromise.  Their selfish nature always makes them vomit at the mere suggestion they might want to talk... and maybe give a concession.  Their most favorite word in any language is "my.'  Their 2nd most favorite word is "no."  They never weigh the pros and cons in the decision making process.  They, and the Idiot Jerk  in the White House, have one striking commonality:  they never think things through.  They see things in either black or white... and in their tiny, little minds they are always white right.  The fleeting thought of a dash of color simply terrifies them.

Business

Okay, so it's Monday.  I'm off tomorrow.  I can not wait.
Yesterday... it rained... all... day.  This creates a problem.  Big Seig does not like to get wet.  He'll go outside and do his business in a light, sprinkling shower but not in a steady rain.  He's a big dog, remember, and big dogs do big business.  And so he holds it until, like a small child racing to the potty, he's forced to make a made dash to the river birch in the back yard.  Sometimes there are accidents.  They are not pretty.  Yesterday, luckily, we had a 5 minute break in the rain around 6:20 PM.  There are many ways to spell relief, Big Seig can probably tell you all of them.
I saw where the Idiot Jerk in the White House Tweet some sort of nonsense about raising the tariffs on China again.  In case you didn't know, this is how he demonstrates his business acumen to his base.  Okay, so was anybody surprised?  You shouldn't have been.  This is his standard operating procedure, just a slight variation he pulls on the contractors who build his properties.  "I'm not satisfied with your work so I'm not going to pay you what was in the contract."  Here he's telling the Chinese "you weren't fast enough, so I'm not giving you what you want."  The problem is he's not dealing with a contractor here.  His bankruptcies prove he makes a lot of mistakes, others always pay the cost.  He doesn't care.  His only concern is for his own, personal business.  Now, ain't that the shits?
One of the first things I saw this morning was that we're also sending a carrier group to the Middle East.  That's another bit of business aimed at the Conservative base, most of whom are in their mid-40's and older, and who constantly remind themselves how wonderfully religious they are in their beliefs.  In their tiny little minds our superior military will stomp out evil Iran.  How quickly they've forgotten W's "Awe and..." whatever they called that war, and how it dragged on... and on... and on.  But their only business is to be good Conservatives, they don't like to use their brains; it hurts too much, and then they realize they need to wipe their shitty asses.  Like the Idiot Jerk, they believe themselves to be smart... however history proves them to be anything but smart.
On a brighter note... I have peaches!!!

Recovery

Well, here it is a couple of minutes after 8 on a Wednesday morning and the Dow is already down over 300 points.  Oops.  And inflation data is going to be released a little over half an hour from now.  The Middle East is set to explode, and stock market's dropping ever lower on a weekly basis, gas prices are surging... this is making America great?  Of course not.  What you're seeing is the Idiot Jerk running towards another bankruptcy.... except this time he's going to crash the country.  In case you didn't know, this is what the Evangelicals voted for...  Now we know who to blame.
On the Middle East, I wouldn't be surprised if this time the region does explode.  Mostly because we have an Idiot Jerk in the White House.  He's dumb as a brick.  The Russians are more interested in disrupting the American political landscape than Syria, and the Idiot Jerk is giving them exactly what they want.  He is diminishing the greatest nation in the world.  His policies will crash the economy.  Hold onto your bootstraps, this is going to get messy.
And, of course, I have four more work days until I have 4 days off.  And, of course, the weather is going to be beautiful during those 4 work days and crappy as hell when I'm off.  Tomorrow the temp is supposed to hit 70 (F), on my days off the high is only supposed to be in the upper 50's.  That sucks.
I'd no longer seeing Kilmore Eye Ass for my glaucoma.  Yesterday I made an appointment with the VA.  I can go to the clinic in Camp Hill, which is 4 miles away.  Very nice.
Yesterday my Supervisor told me he got a par-time job at a bike shop in York.  He, too, is an avid cyclist, though he's more crazy at it than I am.  He knows a lot about bikes but has no structure, if you know what I mean.  His organizational skills always seem to be about one step behind where they're supposed to be.  Being ex management I tend to help him out.  He's a nice guy who tends to run from responsibility.  That's frustrating.  I stepped down because I didn't want to have to deal with this kind of shit anymore.  Ah, well, this too will pass.  Just like the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  I just hope the recovery isn't going to be too painful.