The Fart of the Deal

 Our outside temp is 41 (F).  The forecasters are saying we're going that temp will climb into the low 70s (F), that's fine with me since I don't work today.  When I go to work tomorrow, it's going to be in the low 60s (F), that's fine with me, too, since I'll be working.  Looking ahead, our temps are going to be seesawing for the next week or so, up one day, down the next.  There's not a lot of rain in the forecast, but then April and May tend to be our wettest months.

Yesterday was more productive than your normal Tuesdays, the first day off after 3 days when I kind of zone on and off.  Everything but a workout.  I was pleased.

The finger's still sore, but it looks so much better today.  Normally I heal very fast, but this little nick was on the knuckle, and we all know how often we bend our fingers, especially if we are using a keyboard, or throwing tennis balls, or anyone of Howie's other toys.  He has a lot of energy, but than he also takes long naps.  

My neighbors are having had another loud disagreement this morning.  He's louder than she.  If I'm in the kitchen they're voices are clear and I can hear what the argument is about.  I give them their privacy.  There's nothing wrong with being 50 something first time home buyers, their problem is they bought the staging and not the house an are sorely disappointed.  He works, she doesn't, so all of the expenses are on his shoulders. 

I bought myself a new kitchen scale with a chargeable battery.  It coordinates with my countertop.  That wasn't planned.

So, the Orange Anus and his blow bro Vlad came up with some sort of phony ceasefire for the Ukraine, one in which  the country was shut off from all military and intelligence aid, and then the blow bro broke the ceasefire.  Orangie made a big announcement and then Vlad shot that to hell.  Nothing new here.

And word is that Orangie is planning trillions in tariffs against soooo many different countries, not just our main trading partners because... he's desperately trying to prove he's more skilled in bargaining than anyone else.  I think he should rename his book The Fart of the Deal.

Chuckie Schumer's been running the talk show circuit in his attempt to prove he didn't cave to the Orange Anus.  He's not winning many over to his argument.  Chuckie is past his expiration date.  He actually said that once the Republican's "dump that turd Trump, they can go back to being the Republican party of old."  Crap!  He's just like those brain dead Republicans who are trying to turn the country back to the 1950s.  He doesn't understand "that" Republican party is long gone, which is why he can't stop playing with those old time rules.

 

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

 Well, good morning to you all.  The outside temps are cool, in the mid 30s, (F) though they're predicted to climb up into the mid 60s (F) this afternoon.

And first off, I need to apologize to Chris Platt for confusing him with that other Chris.  He does not work in film, but with The Harmony Project, a group that puts sustainability and nature at the heart of learning.

Chris Platt

About a week ago, I nicked my knuckle at work, of course being  the knuckle of the forefinger of my right hand, there was an immediate challenge to healing.  As a result, it's a little infected.  So, this morning, while I'm not licensed to practice in Central PA, I played doctor.  

And I did work yesterday.  Retail is slow.  Without giving away the bank, I can say that we are well below our sales plan for the year.  There was some excitement, however!  While one of our fork lift operators was pulling a pallet of water softner salt from a top rack, the weight shifted and around 800 lbs. came crashing down into the Paint Department smashing the display.  No one was injured, but it was very loud.  There was lots of expensive damage.

And one of the headlines I found so uplifting this morning concerns Chucky Schumer, who is "in the worst fight for his political career."  Good.  One of the Democrats biggest problems is Michelle Obamas comment about taking the "high road."  Taking the "high road" does not mean you cannot be aggressive, yet Schumer and other high ranking Democrats seemed to have redefined "the high road," as being complacent.  Complacency is not an option.  When I read his comment that he was voting for the CR because the Orange anus was going to do shit anyway, I thought: this is like being diagnosed with cancer and deciding not to go through chemo because you'll probably die anyway.  I don't think he understands that he crapped on his own legacy, perhaps that thought never crossed his mind, perhaps he was more interested in getting on with his book tour.  

Rolling Stone asks if Democrats are tired of surrendering?  Damn right.  There are way more Democrats in this country than there are Republicans.  There are far more people in America that hate the Orange Anus than like him.  We need to do more than just put our foot down.  The time has come for us to Shake, Rattle, and Roll!

Nothing Spells Irrational like MAGA

 When I got up this morning, the outside temp was 54 (F), and the forecast is calling for showers and thunderstorms this afternoon,  After they pass through, temps are predicted to drop a bit, with the high tomorrow in the low to mid 50s (F), the same as we had yesterday.  These are the same storms that passed through Mississippi yesterday.  Will we get tornadoes, too?  So far they're not in the forecast, but then forecasts are not for their accuracy.

I worked yesterday.  Business was middlin,' meaning we had customers in the store until around 3 PM and then things slowed down.  The weather forecast for today hints that business is going to be slow, of course, you never know.  There are always certain individuals whose minds fall to comprehend that during severe weather there a better, and safer, things to do than go to a home improvement store.  Yet they will show up when the scent of ozone is high, with bolts of lightning slamming into the ground a hundred yards away, and expect to have 5 bags of mulch loaded into the back of their SUV.  Sometimes, they will even be wearing a little, red cap because nothing spells irrational like MAGA.

For those interested, Howie's hip measures 21.5 inches off the floor, that's over 54 centimeters.  I tried to measure him at his shoulder but he thought the measuring tape was some sort of new fangled toy.

There was a protest in Harrisburg yesterday, unfortunately, I worked.  As far as I know, there's been nothing at the Tesla dealership, though that's located on a stretch of road heading towards Carlisle, PA, and there's nothing around it except other car dealerships.  Protests do their best when they draw attention.  Standing in front of the Capitol building  will get people on the local news.  Standing along a highway isn't going to get the same amount of attention.

And Chuck Schumer has a book tour starting tomorrow.  Protests are planned.  Personally, I think Congressmen and Senators should not be allowed to have a book published while their in office.  They are in Washington to serve their constituents, not stroke their ego, or grow their bank accounts hawking some sort of political book they've written.  It takes time to write a book, I know, time they should be spending dealing with the Orange Anus, figuring out ways to control him.  There are about 16 cities on Schumer's book tour.  Protests are planned for each and every city.  Good.  He needs to do his damn job and leave the irrational behavior to the Cultists.

This is Not Normal

 Okay, so our outside temp is 43 (F) and the forecast is for partly sunny skies this afternoon.  Yesterday's weather was pretty spot on to what had been predicted, so I'm guessing today's going to be a repeat, though only a bit warmer.

Sor some reason, yesterday was almost a meh kind of day.  I didn't seem to have much of a desire to do anything, though things were accomplished.  No workout, but the aquarium in the living room was cleaned, and I hung to old shutters on the front fence to protect the grape vine I planted last year.  This necessary since Howie loves to chew on both sticks, and vines, and even roots.  The shutters do not help with the curb appeal, but they do the job.  I'm more interested in functionality rather than impressing those few who walk by with their dogs.

One thing I did yesterday was thin out my oregano seedlings.  I had quite a few old glass candle holders sitting on a shelf down in the basement and decided to repurpose them as planters.  I'm hoping to keep one or two plants per glass.  They should look quite nice on the window sill once they're fully grown, and harvesting fresh oregano will be so easy.

And, for those of you who haven't been paying attention, Chuck Schumer and 8 other Democrats caved yesterday, voting to legitimize the Orange Anus's budget.  Chuck's excuse was that Orangie was already doing dirty deeds to as many Federal agencies as possible, and shutting down the government would not stop him.  So, instead of putting up roadblocks, Chuck legitimized Orangie's destruction.  Obviously, Chuck thinks he's dealing with "business, as usual," even though absolutely nothing is usual about what Orangie is doing.  Chuck in in his 70s, and has just made term limitations more relevant.  I get this feeling that Chuck doesn't want to upset the apple cart, when history has shown that Orangie is weak, and tends to fall apart when he has to deal with pushback.  Someone needs to pull Chuck aside and tell him to resign, the same way he did with Biden.  Chuck simply doesn't understand that this is not normal.

Chaos is Coming

 It's Friday.  It's going to be overcast most of the day, and temps may climb up into the mid 50s (F).  We have started a warming trend that should see our daily temps in the mid to upper 60s (F) by Monday, though thunderstorms are also in the forecast.  I honestly don't mind Spring weather.

For the record, I also like Daylight Savings Time.  Even though I'm a morning person, there are not a lot of things other than reading through the news, paying bills, and writing this blog done in the morning, so there's no need for an early sunrise.  However, there are things that are done in either the afternoon or evening, like dog walks, or working outside, when evening sunshine is appreciated.  If I had my druthers, we would stay in permanent Daylight Savings Time.

I got a nice upper body workout in before heading into to work to discover retail was very slow yesterday.  The store was barely making plan, however when I left last evening at 7 were were still around $60 thousand under, so there was no way were going to hit that goal. I did talk to an older woman (60 ish) about having vinyl sheet installed in the family bathroom.  She told me this long story of how she and her husband had installed a new medicine cabinet that came with "terrible" installation instructions, and even though they followed them thoroughly, the cabinet fell out of the wall and damaged their flooring. (sigh)  She wasn't happy that there's a charge to replace an existing toilet with a new one, and complained that one of our competitors didn't charge.  I politely told her that was nice, but we charge.  Then!  a customer walked by with a golden retriever on a leash and she complained.  I nodded, and smiled, and pointed out that we have dog treats at our desk, as does every other department; PetSmart is at the end of our parking lot and a lot of people will bring their dogs into the store.  She frowned and said, "I can see this flooring job isn't going to work with your store," as she stood up.  I apologized to her back as she walked away.  She evidently doesn't understand that the customer isn't always right.

As I go through the edits of The Body in History, I'm trying to decide just what should go on the back cover.  I'm leaning a lot towards this one of me in Greece.

There is a lot of tension right now on whether the Democrats should help fund the government for another 6 months.  Anger is high among Democrats and this seems to be the perfect time to punch the Orange Anus squarely in the face.  Chuck Schumer is getting horrific flack because he wants to pass the funding measure, saying shutting it down would give Orangie the option of deciding which departments stayed open and which ones were closed.  First of all, I think people need to understand that we are not dealing with Orangie at all.  Any sane person who listens to him speak for more than 2 minutes realizes much of his brain is missing spatial connection.  So, who is in charge?  Elonia?  He bought the presidency, so that's a very good possibility.  Putin?  He definitely has a lot of leverage.  Both of them, probably.  All Orangie wants to do is play golf and stay out of jail... oh, and continue his reality TV show:  Live... From the White House."  To be honest, I don't think it matters if the government is shut down or not; both Elonia and Putin want to set the stage for calling Martial Law.  Whether it's shut down on not, serious protests are on the horizon.  Giving the Republicans the opportunity to shut down Medicare would work against them, and though the GOP believes it's prepared for protests, they are totally in over their heads and have no idea what an angry America is going to do to their party.  In spite of all the anger at Schumer, it doesn't really make a difference, chaos is coming.

Conservative Fashionistas

 Today begins the first of my weekly 4 days off from work.  I should probably come up with a word for this time period since it's not a weekend and for many that word is synonymous with time spent not working, though in reality most of those people do some form of work on the weekend.  You know what I'm talking about: putting in the pansies, and petunias to give your home curb appeal, mowing the lawn, or for some of the ambitious types out there: painting a room.  For many the weekend does not denote hours spent reclining on a chaise while some dappled lovely feeds you dainties.  Nope!  Today, I'm going to be hard at work tearing up the rest of the floor in my kitchen.  

The weather is supposed to be beautiful!  I'm up for that.  One of the out-of-doorsy things I'm going to be doing is deadheading my flowers.  Does anyone know how easy it is to grow dahlia seeds?  Usually you buy the tuber and plant that, but how difficult is it to start them from seed?  And when do you plant them?

Yesterday was one of those horrifically boring days at work.  This doesn't mean that I didn't have to deal with some customers, but mostly I did not.  Sales are down.  Hours are being cut.  I can easily survive on 20 hours a week, but for some part-timers 14 hours a week can be devastating.  So, why are they cutting hours?  Well, those conservative, billionaire stockholders need to be kept happy.

There was also some confusion yesterday when I mentioned Chuck Schumer's decision to relax the dress code, part of it my fault.  He relaxed the informal dress code, not the formal dress code, which means those of you who live to see a conservative in a navy blue, two piece suit will still be able to satiate your cravings by watching Republican press conferences.  Here's a little piece of happiness for you 😎😎😎

And for those of you who relish your conservative female fashionistas, I give you Marsha!

Ah, I do find myself rather amusing sometimes. 

My Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and things started moving
The meds in my throat are now really quite soothing
The snake with twelve squeakers is waiting in silence
With the red rubber chicken, they're timing their entrance,
And Biggie and Lily will have such a day
With a new duck and rooster, they'll pull and they'll play
And I will be reading and watching the tube
As the Idiot Jerk becomes more of a boob
Oh wait, that's the wrong word, cause boobs can be nice
I should ask for Coulter's or Limbaugh's advice
Cause they know the hate words that scathe and that burn,
They use them to make the Idiot's brain churn
We all need a wall, they scream and they shout
What are you?  a fuckhead?  How can you have doubts?
"I'll shut down the government," he shouts out with glee
"This shutdown is mine as you sucker's can see!"
And Nancy and Chuck just sit there and smile
For just like in scrabble the proof's in the tiles
They're spelling impeachment, oh yes, that word fits
While Mueller's indictments give the Idiot Jerk shits
Our future looks brighter with each passing day
And like Biggie and Lily, we'll soon get to play.

Camp Paradise

Camp Paradise is back.  That's the Chaturbate site with the naked, blond Russian chicks who for some reason find my blog interesting.  I should thank them for being loyal readers, so here goes  "Hi!  Naked, Blond Russian Chicks crawling across the bed!  I'm glad you like my blog!"
Do you think the exclamation marks were too much?
And here's some breaking new!  Kathie Lee is leaving what ever the hell that morning shit show is she hosts.  It's a rather sad day in America when that headline gets as much attention as the "Chuck and Nancy Show," which premiered yesterday.  I didn't catch the entire episode, just a small clip where the Idiot Jerk kept repeating "Chuck, I need 10 votes.  You got to guarantee me 10 votes."  Of course Nancy kept interrupting with "We start with the White House."  She did that on purpose, you know, patiently goading the Idiot Jerk over and over again.  I'm sure his supporters must have been freaking out.  How could she treat this moral degenerate in such a way!  Didn't she know he was sent by Satan God?
And, of course, there were the private comments in which words like 'skunk' and 'tinkle' were bandied about.  How infuriating that must be for the Idiot Jerk, knowing men... and women (especially women) are laughing at him.  My money says he regretted skipping his daily session of Camp Paradise in order for him to guest on the "Chuck and Nancy show."

"See Chuck.  See Chuck smile.  Smile Chuck, smile."  Did you notice how Pence just sat there while Schumer sat there and smiled, not nodding, barely turning his head from side to side, like a statue?  Doesn't he remind of Norman Bates in the last scene of Psycho?  I didn't blow up the picture to check, but can anybody tell me if there's a fly on his nose.  Or maybe he too is thinking Camp Paradise would have been the better option.

Voters First

Well, here it is Tuesday and I'm off work.  Nope, no cold, no sniffles, this is, however, the last week of the fiscal year and they're cutting hours.  When they asked... I accepted.  Tomorrow I'll put in for 8 hours vacation pay since I budgeted for 40 hours this week.
Now I know there are Liberals out there who think that Schumer blinked in order to keep the government open for another 14 days... he didn't.  What he did do was get a "promise" from old Mitch McTurtle regarding immigration.  This means that in what?... 2 weeks?  the government is going to shut down again.  This also means that when it does the word 'liar' is going to start falling from Democratic lips.  You see, Mitchie also lied to Susan Collins, that Centrist Senator from Maine about immigration.  No one lies as much as a Republican.
And for those of you who don't know, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court hand the state Republicans a healthy plate of truth yesterday when the Court ruled that their gerrymandering was unconstitutional.  What makes this so sweet is that in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices are elected by the people, not appointed, and the Democrats have a majority: 5 - 2.  Of course the Republicans are running around like their hair is on fire, shrieking about how they're going to take this to the US Supreme Court.  They have a problem, however.  You see the ruling cites the State constitution, not the Federal Constitution and the US Supreme Court doesn't usually hear cases regarding State Constitutionality.  Oops.  To give you an idea how badly the Republicans have shit on the American Right to Fair Representation, take a look at this district.

What makes this even more pathetic is that this district is represented by Patrick Meehan.  You know who that is, the Senator who was just kicked off the Ethics Committee for hitting on a younger aide and then using office funds to pay her off. 
Now the districts have to be redrawn before the March 18 primaries.  Republicans all over the state have been rolling around in apoplexy.  They are freaking furious that someone might actually want to put the Voters First in Pennsylvania.  As John Gray says "hey ho."
Anyway, it's time for me to hit the free weights.  If you listen carefully, you can hear the 25 lb dumbbells calling out my name.