The Fire Grows

 Because we're not in the park, and it certainly isn't the 4th of July, I'd have to say that this is just another Saturday, a day when I'm always scheduled to work.  Outside temps are in the upper 30s (F) with the probability of climbing into the low 50s (F).  Buds are popping out all over the place.  

Much was done yesterday!  The big aquarium was cleaned.  The cleanings are happening frequently in order to eliminate the black algae.  Salads were made for lunch and dinner today: a Greek cucumber salad for lunch and a bean salad for dinner.  This means today is going to be meatless.  I do them every now and then.  There are two boneless ribs in the little crockpot on their way to becoming pulled pork for tomorrow.

I also managed to get in 2 workouts, a 15 minute row in the morning and a good upper body dumbbell workout in the afternoon. 

Of course, there was more to the day than that.  I had to listen to my neighbors having a argument... that sounds better than saying they were fighting again,  If they go an entire week without screaming at each other at least once, I count it as a good week.  This has not been a good week.  He sorts mail for the post office in Lancaster, probably not one of the most secure jobs right now.

This is happening.

The image is old.  It was very popular a number of years back, and its popularity is surging.  AOC and Bernie Sanders held a rally in Denver, CO, and 34,000 people showed up.  The terrible truth for Conservatives is that it take more than being in charge, for them, that belief has been set in stone for decades.  "Shut up, we're in charge," was their creed.  Except for that to happen a large swath of the population needs to say, "okay."  That ain't happening.  Not at all.  And Republicans simply don't understand.  Harriet Hageman doesn't realize her constituent's are going to tar and feather her, and then run her out of town on a rail.  

AOC and Bernie Sanders are doing a 30 city townhall tour against the Oligarchs, NBC reported Friday's event in Las Vegas, The Guardian reported on yesterday's event in Denver.  CNN reported on the march 20 townhall in Las Vegas as well, but nothing about Denver.  There's a saying, "a day late, and a dollar short."  Is it any wonder more and more Americans are tuning out the MSM and turning to Social Media for their news?  Choose your news sources wisely.

And finally, Harold Lutnick, the billionaire Secretary of Commerce only fraudsters would complain if they didn't receive their Social Security check.  The blowback on Social Media was instantaneous.  These billionaires have no idea what kind of fire they are playing with.  People talk about the Orange Anus getting lava angry, this anger would make lava look like a popsicle.

Greek

I woke up around 0300 for a call of nature... this sort of thing happens more often after the age of 60, and as is my habit I looked out the bedroom window.  Now I don't have a really great view  because there's a river birch growing right outside, but I can see down to my driveway.  I was more than a little surprised to see the interior lights were on in my car.  Shit.  So, I got dressed and went down to turn them off, luckily they're LED and don't take much power, with this mystery roiling around in my head:  How did they get turned on.  The car was locked, which meant they had to have been on for quite some time.  One light is turned on by pressing a button, you turn the other on by pressing the light, itself.  Both button and light are about an inch apart.  I was back in the house and halfway up the staircase before the answer flashed into my head like a little light bulb.  Big Seig's Nose.  I took the dogs to the park yesterday.  Big Seig likes to stand between the driver's and passenger's seats.  On occasion his nose will touch the rear view mirror.  Yesterday he must have nosed the interior lights.  Now I know to check next time I take them to the park for it will, undoubtedly, happen again.
I tried to stream a little of the debate last night,  To my surprise, most media outlets were streaming... updates, rather then the debate itself.  It was just Sanders and Warren and Mayor Pete and Beto.  One of the headlines I saw this morning was "What ever happened to Beto?"  Well, I've said this before, he needs to go back to Texas and win and election.  Tonight it's Biden's turn... oh, and there's going to be some others on the stage as well.  This needs to change soon.
I rode the Meteora route yesterday... in Greece.  It's a short, 5 mile, great ride.  my pulse hit 193 at the beginning, which is super high.  Normally it sits around 126 when I ride.  I think that's because you start off in the town, and like every 3 or 4 seconds you turn, and you're going really fast.  The pace is neither casual or slow by any means.  Shit!  Once I started climbing, which is about 3.5 miles of the route, my pulse dropped back down to my normal riding pulse.  Interesting, huh?  The same thing happens if I'm riding along and suddenly another cyclist pops up close to me.  I don't like it when someone is chasing me.
Anyway, I get to go back to work today.  Can you feel my excitement.
I also bought a workbook to help me learn my Greek alphabet.  What I find really interesting at first was that it sounds a lot like Latin.  And then I thought... duh.  The Greeks colonized Italy and took their language with them, along with their gods, and democracy, and a lot of other stuff.   This means that the root language for Latin is... Greek.  Which is why some things are Greek to a lot of us.

Look at all those names ending in 'A'

Ammunition

It rained hard last night.  The first thing I did this morning was check in the basement for water.  Very old stone foundation here and with heavy rains I can often look down and see that a river runs through it.  The deepest it's been has been 18 inches.  Today there were just some damp patches so there was no need to pull the pump out.
I only did a little over 4 miles on the bike last night.  I'd chose a new route which started off with a hill.  That will only be a good idea if I do a shorter ride first to loosen up my legs.
And what about that racial flap circling around Biden?  A few of the contenders want to knock him out of his Front-runner status, this, however, is not the right way to do it.  Their desperation to get points in the polls is taking them into divisive territory.  Dividing the Democratic Party just so you can make points is a bad idea.  Bernie did it in 2016 and no matter what people want to tell you, the party never truly came back as a whole and... we ended up with the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Racially dividing the base is a bad idea, and if they are not careful that is what will happen.  Let me tell you, if you think the last 2.5 years with the Idiot Jerk have been bad, an additional 4 years will the total ruination of this country.
Part of the problem is that we have too many candidates.  Except for Biden, Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg, no one stands out....  Beto's fifteen minutes are over for the time being, he needs to take a step back and do something in Texas, like take out Ted Cruz.  Bill de Blasio?  Nope.  Booker?  Nope.  Let me toss out a few other names that just roll off your tongue when you think of presidential candidates:  Delancey, Gabbard, Inslee, Swalwell, Williamson, and Yang.  And there are more.... but I think I've already made my point.  I had the joy of seeing and hearing Obama speak in Harrisburg a number of years ago.  He spoke of many issues which needed fixing: health, education, women's rights, human rights, the economy.  Many of today's crop of candidates have only one issue they're going to fix... and with some it isn't even a major issue.  We have 2 nights of debates coming up.  Very few will watch both nights.  Personally, I think the Democratic Party set the bar too low.  They should have raised the criteria to reduce the number of candidates.  Because they didn't do this, these candidates will begin to attack each other in order to grow their own base.
By blowing up this issue of Biden working with Segregationists a long time  ago, Booker and Harris have given the opposition sound bites to use against Biden in a National campaign, if he gets the nomination.  Oh, shit.  Do not give the Idiot Jerk ammunition.

Looking forward

Well, here it is... Thursday and I get to go back to work for another 5 days.  I'm not excited.  Working is essential, not so much because of the money, rather we need to keep ourselves busy.  Doing nothing is boring as hell.  A long time ago, I went to a dentist in Hershey and I had the same dental assistant for years.  Two years before I changed dentists, she retired, and when I asked her what she planned on doing she said "sit on my porch and read."  That's it... nothing more. Shall we talk about what happens to muscles when you don't use them?  Or more important, your heart?  And though there are those who like to say that your brain is a muscle, it isn't, it's an organ, and sitting on a porch reading may keep it occupied, but it isn't making it work, it's not doing something it hasn't done for years and years and years.  Being occupied is not exercising, and while reading can be stimulating, I seriously suspect the books she preferred to read were not going to be much of a challenge. 
I dropped my Cannondale X6 off at World Cup Ski and Cycle in order for them to do a little work on it while I'm surgically impaired, like get rid of the purple electrical tape I wrapped around the handle bars.  That's right, it was purple, the only thing I had on hand when the black tape started to unravel.  They're also going to put in a new tube in the front tire and fit it as closely as possible to where it should be as far as fitting me.
And looking at all of the political viewpoints out there that are Centrist, Independent, and Liberal... and even some Conservative ones, the common consensus is that had anyone other than Hillary run, the Idiot Jerk in the White House would have lost.  One year after that defeat, they are still pointing their fingers at each other.  This needs to stop now.  We need a unifying voice.  Bernie needs to fade into the shadows where he can quietly advise.  Hillary needs to do the same, not publish a book that's main intent is to validate her campaign.  Donna Brazile has a 'tell all' book coming out because she needs to point her finger too.  Anyone who had anything to do with that campaign needs to take their curtain call and get off the damn stage.  As a party, we need to move on.  We need a neutralizing, level headed person who can be come our spokesperson... now, because time is ticking.  We need someone to take the helm whom everybody can get behind.  There was a lot of dirt in that campaign, the kind of dirt we've come to expect from Republicans.  We are better than that.

Finally, I ordered a pair of jeans from Amazon yesterday, Wranglers (sexy name), because I have a 29 inch inseam and the only jeans out there with that kind of inseam have boyish waistlines.  I'm getting another pair because one of the pairs I wear to work has a hole in the ass.  Now, if I was 25 years old that wouldn't bother me because back then my ass was shapely, not that's it's lost its shapeliness, it's just matured.  More importantly, I need to set a precedent at work.  No one wants to be thought of as the slutty old guy.