Bombs

 I hope everybody had a nice, relaxing Christmas, that everybody stayed safe and warm inside their homes as frigid cold from Canada bombed America.  We did have single digit temps here on Saturday, the 24th, but no snow.  Yesterday things began to warm up, temps climbed into the low 20s (F).  Today they're predicted to reach 30 (F), and by Wednesday we should be a balmy 52 (F).

Here in Central Pa, Christmas day was quiet.  There was ham, corn, and mashed potatoes... lots of ham, that will be eaten as sandwiches and turned into ham salad.  Some will be frozen.  The dogs will have the juicy fat served up to them with their dinners this evening.

Oh, and Biggie and Lilly got cake and ice cream.  The dainty, lady Lily took her time, licking her ice cream the way you do an ice cream cone.  Biggie, who's head is the size of a personal watermelon, swallows things whole.  For him, it's not about the taste, it's about the consumption.

I watched Glass Onion, a Knives Out mystery on Netflix.  It was only released into around 700 theaters back in November, and only for a week or so before Netflix pulled it.  Reviews were middling.  I didn't like it.  Not one bit.  This was more of a bomb than a hit.  In Knives Out, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) ask questions to solve the mystery, in Glass Onion rather than deduce, he makes statements; he tells the audience what they saw using different camera angles.  By the time the ending comes along, he is no longer the star of the movie, that honor goes to Janelle Monae.  I don't know about you, but I like it when my mysteries have a brain.

Besides Trumps ranting and ravings about the stolen 2020 election, other thing making the news this past holiday weekend, was Texas' governor Abbott sending bus loads of immigrants to Kamala Harris' home in Washington.  You don't need to excuse my lack of political correctness, but Greg Abbott is truly a cripple, both physically, and emotionally, and politically.  He shits on human beings in order to win approval from the MAGA Republican base.  There was so much outrage on social media, people quoting scripture, as though their words were going to punish Abbott.  They didn't.  Abbott doesn't care what Jesus thinks.  Abbott cares about Abbott.  In case you haven't realized it yet, he's running against DeSantis for president in 2024.

Oh, and Kari Lake lost her case in Arizona.  The judge actually told her, "you lost."  Of course, Lake has vowed to appeal because that's what her lord and savior Donald Trump would do.

The large bat

 Yesterday was a good day.  The sun was shining.  The temps climbed up into the high 80s F).  Yard work was done.  I bought a spankin' new hose for the yard - 100 feet long!  This one will stretch to the driveway, should I ever have the desire to wash my car.

Oh, and I bought a 'saw on a stick,' at least that's what I like to call a branch saw.  I have a number of trees surrounding my yard with branches that need to be trimmed back or removed completely.  Investing in a branch saw was much safer than climbing up on a shaky ladder with my chainsaw.

Last evening, I went to see Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.  This movie is definitely non-brainer entertainment.  A cornucopia of CGI effects, the plot is a bit thin.  Spiderman, No Way Home introduced the multiverse, Dr. Strange tries to explain it... kind of, but my way is better:  there are many parallel universes, and we all exist in some way, shape, or form in each of them.  My movie buddy said, as we were leaving the theater, "they must have been doing some really fine drugs when they wrote that."  I have to agree.

Next Tuesday, Pennsylvania has its primary election.  We are one of those odd states where you can only vote if your registered as either a Democrat or a Republican.  Those registered as independents always sit out primaries.  More people are registered as Independents than the other two parties.  This means no one should look at Tuesday's election as an indicator of what's going to be happening in the state this November.

Too close to call, is what they're saying about the Republican primary.  Three candidates are neck and neck.  That's right.  Three.  McCormack, the guy from Connecticut who seems to be dropping in the polls, Oz, Trump's choice who seems to be climbing in the polls, and Kathy Barnett (sp), a black woman who has never held political office and who out MAGAs the other two.  That's right.  This woman is so far to the right she makes Oz and McCormack seem mainstream.  Tuesday will be interesting.

As expected, the vote for WHPA failed yesterday.  Democrats need to take that and turn it into a large baseball bat and start to batter the hell out of Republicans.  The time has come to take action.

Elections skew towards the center, oh, and Kentucky fails.

As many know, yesterday was Election Day.  Here in Cumberland County, PA, there was not a large turnout, at some polling station it was as low as 20%.  That is not a good thing.  Special interest groups tend to do well when this happens because the Crazies rally.  This is how we get wack jobs like Ted Cruz in Congress.
Out of 153,000 registered voters in my county, only a little over 40,000 voted.  What I did find interesting while looking at the numbers is that out of 40,000, a little over 14,000 people voted straight down the party line.

Straight Party Votes

Candidate Name	Party	Election Night	Absentee	Total Votes
Democratic	Democrat	4385	125	4510
Republican	Republican	9258	244	9502
Independent Judicial Alliance	Independent Judicial Alliance	230	3	233
Libertarian	Libertarian	2	0	2

This means that while the number of voters in this mid-term election is rather low, most of them are paying attention to just who they are voting for, not just voting straight Republican or Democrat, and this is a problem for the Republicans because this is a Very Conservative County.  Instead of sweeping power into their corner, it's split between both parties.  This is a long way from one Party domination, in fact, this is very centrist voting.

On a side note, I saw that Kentucky now has a GOP Governor, some walking failure who supported Kim Davis.  How do I know he's a walking failure?  He has promised to "gut' Obamacare.  This guy is dumb as a brick.  His name is Blevins.  He's going to shit away a lot of Kentucky money trying to do what both the Republican controlled House and Senate have failed to do. Oh, and he's going to give Kim her way and diminish the value of marriage in Kentucky, but that's okay because at least there's a Republican Governor in Kentucky, and that's what's important.

Summer Acquaintance

One of my Facebook friends put out a notification regarding a reunion type event for all the kids who grew up in Avon (the 'a' is pronounced with a short vowel sound, not a long vowel sound) at the Avon playground.  I had to attend an HR meeting at the Lebanon store, about 1/4 mile from Avon about 2 years ago, and being in the area, drove through the town and out to the playground, which is more of a park.  Sadly, except for 1 pavilion, everything I remembered was gone.  Not knowing if she was aware of this, I sent her an email.  First of all, she was aware of the drastic changes to the playground.  Secondly, she was a bit befuddled to hear from me.  You see, even though she and her two sisters lived 8 houses up and on the other side of the street, she doesn't remember me.  This is surprising since almost everybody remembers me.  Of course, as always, there is a logical explanation.

It's a school district thing.  Back then Lebanon, PA,had a population  of  around 26,000 and was its own school district.  Everyone outside the city limits either went to schools in the Northern District or schools in the Southern District, and that line cut through Avon (remember, short vowel).  Unfortunately that line did not cut through the center.  No, it barely grazed the edge.  It did, however, run right down the middle of King Street.  There were 15 houses (4 kids) on the north side of King Street.  We were bused 12.5 miles, through the city of Lebanon, to Ebenezer Elementary School.  Everybody on the south side of King Street, 40 + kids, (picked up at 3 bus stops), was bused 3.5 miles to South Lebanon Elementary. Go figure.  Different schools, different activities; most of those kids hung around together twelve months out of the year.  I tried out of Little League and, of course, had to try out for a team in the Northern School District.  A coach came flat out and told my Dad they couldn't put me on a team because we lived too far away.  Go Figure.  While most kids make friends with the kids in their neighborhood, my were only summer acquaintances.

  

Acronym Hell

I've been thinking a lot about acronyms lately.  We use some of them so often they have become words unto themselves.  Take NASA, for example.  I'm sure if you asked people on the street what those four letters stood for you'd get a lot of wrong answers.  Does it make a difference if some people think it's an Agency and others an Administration?  Or that the first two letters do not stand for North American?  Not a bit.  Everybody know what NASA does, just as they know what the CIA and the FBI do.  Acronyms save you time, it's easier to say NASA then National Air and Space Administration.  There are some acronyms, however, which seem to have been created by lazy pudding heads.  Take POTUS, for example, an acronym for President of the United States.  I think this is pretty freaking stupid.  If you're an American citizen living in the United States, and you're talking to someone about the President, you're not going to use POTUS unless you want to sound like an ass.  Everybody knows which president you're talking about.  You do not need to clarify which president.

And then there's FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States).  What kind dick calls her that?  Yet I was checking out the headlines on the MSNBC website and there it was - FLOTUS, not First Lady.  I live in Pennsylvania and we have, as does every other state, a Governor.  When his wife is introduced at functions she is called the First Lady of Pennsylvania.  Maybe, instead of calling her that, they should call her the FLOP.  Shouldn't the same principles be applied to every First Lady of every state?  Do you see where I'm coming from?

Then, of course, there is the SCOTUS.

Justice Scalia tries to cure SCOTUS with broccoli 

The first thing that crossed my mind when I heard SCOTUS had nothing to do with the Supreme Court.  I thought the reporter had mistakenly dropped a consonant and was speaking about male genitalia.  When I understood my mistake I new for certain that Pudding Heads abound.  Think about it?  Doesn't SCOTUS sound like some weird testicular fungus?  Something Justice Scalia might truly be suffering from?  Or Justice Thomas?  Sounds a bit vulgar, doesn't it?  The sort of thing our parents might whisper about a bad neighbor?   "I hear he has scotus."  I know some people might disagree with me, but I think it definitely doesn't describe the highest court in the country.

For the most part, I believe this is just one of those crazy fads which sweeps through the halls of Journalism from time to time.  Some pudding head some where was trying to be cool and catchy.  I doubt very much if the general public is going to adopt POTUS, and FLOTUS, and SCROTUS... I mean SCOTUS into their vocabulary.  It will pass.  But until it does we will have to endure this acronym hell. 

Dog License Day

Here in Pennsylvania, as in many other states, dog owners are required to license their dogs.  There are various rates available depending upon certain circumstances.  For example, if I were over 65 or handicapped I could get a discounted rate.  Since I'm under that age and have no disabilities neither of those two options apply.   However, I can take advantage of the spay / neuter discount.  I have no interest in dealing with puppies so both of my dogs have been fixed, Gertie 4 years ago and Lilly just this past Monday.  Knowing I would need documentation I held off on Lilly's license until today.  Now I could have just zipped up to the township office, a 5 minute walk for the standard license, but there is one more option for dog owners.  You can purchase a 'lifetime' license if you don't mind driving to the County Treasurer's office.  For me, this is a 25 minute drive to Carlisle.  The cost for this license is $31.45 - gee.. no brainer, right?  At 9:30 this A.M. I clambered into my CR-V and headed down Interstate 81 to the County Seat.  I could have saved myself the trip.

To get the $31.45 rate for a lifetime dog license you not only need to provide documentation that your dog has been surgically sterilized, your beloved pet also needs to have been either tattooed with a serial number or had a microchip implant.  Lilly has had neither.  This means she is not qualified to get the lifetime license at all, unless, of course, I decide to spend the money to have her either tattooed or chipped.  Suddenly that lifetime license is such a deal.  How do I know?  I talked the implant thing over with my Vet - they charge $50.  Add that to the lifetime license fee and you got $81.45.  The standard fee for a spayed female is $6.45 per year.  If she lives 12 years that's only $77.40.  Does she really need that lifetime license?  Will I actually buy her a new license every year?  Was that drive to Carlisle a waste of time?  Did I answer 'yes' to anyone of these questions?

Now I can understand the license thing to a point.  If your dog gets loose and ends up in the pound it's a way for them to contact you.   However you don't see a lot of stray dogs running around my neighborhood.  Most people here take care of the pets.  My yard is fenced in and the gate is locked.  If I am going through that gate the dogs are in the house.  Outside of my house and my yard, my dogs are vulnerable.  They would be like children in a world they do not understand, so I keep them safe.  As of today, they do both have licenses.  I suspect the license fee is just another way for the state to put money in its coffers.  This is, I believe, the reason most states have dog license laws on their books.

Clint speaks!!!

No, I didn't chance to hear Clint Eastwood speak during the Grand Finale of the Republican Convention, though when they announced a surprise speaker his is the name I thought of first.  Why?  Because party organizers knew he would hit a home run right into the waiting gloves of all the young Republicans watching the final nights coverage.  Actually, that's not true at all.  A lot of young people, Republican and Democrat a like, will recognize the name but will not be able to put it to a face.  Their parents are the ones who went to see "Dirty Harry," not them.  If you say to them "make my day," they look at you clueless.  If they wanted these kids to vote, the organizers should have put as many young, vibrant Republicans on that stage as possible speaking as often as they could put a microphone in their hands.  Instead, they enlisted a quiet spoken, octogenarian who evidently spoke to an empty chair.

Every Which Way But Loose

Who knows what they were thinking?  Maybe they wanted to appeal to the loyal Senior Citizen vote.  Of course, in Pennsylvania the new Voter ID law is going to keep a lot of loyal seniors from voting because at a certain age they stop driving.  This means the Republican party will save a lot of money since they will no longer need to bus Seniors from their nursing homes to their polling stations.  Of course the real reason Clint was their was because he's white, and rich, and familiar to the 50 something crowd.