What's Mikey eating?

This morning Lily licked my nose twice to wake me up - that's her way of telling me she needed to go potty-outside.  A few minutes later I found her sitting patiently in the dining room.  As I opened the back door, I heard the galoot that's Big Seig get out of bed (there's always a thud when his front paws hit the floor) and begin his early morning ramble downstairs.  This is what mornings are like in my household.
Today is day 4 of my 6 day work stretch.  Can you feel the excitement in my words?  I will have to wait another 2 weeks before I once again get 2 consecutive days off.
My brother sent me a text asking me to his house for Thanksgiving.  I respectfully declined.  He lives 50 minutes away, I'm going to my sisters who lives 15 minutes away.  His dinner begins at 4 PM, my sister doesn't have a big, family get together, there will be like 7 of us there and hers starts as 12 noon.  Oh, and Thursday is my only day off.
I did download one of those Swiss rides, but rode one from Deutschland last evening, just 8.5 miles out of 26 mile ride: long with lots of little hills.  I will ride the whole thing one of these days.  Not tonight though.  I usually take 2 nights a week off - no cycling.  Rest days can be very essential.
Oh, and Michael Bloomberg is running for president, in case you didn't know.

Another rich, old white guy who also happens to be a Democrat.  As I've said before, there is so much anger built up over the Idiot Jerk in the White House, even Donald Duck could beat him in an election.  That being said, Mike is no duck.  Unlike the morally degenerate squatter in the Oval Office, he actually has political experience: Mayor of New York City for 3 terms.  He is a life long Democrat who switch parties to win the Mayoral race... and then became an Independent.  While popular with Democrats in the city, he is far more popular with Independent voters.  For those who don't know, Independents are the largest voting block in the country.  For them, he will be a magnet.  Will he release his tax returns?  Possibly.  Long ago he realized the total worthlessness of the Idiot Jerk in the White House, so he's going to probably release tax information as a form of attack.  This man is the 9th richest man in the United States.  If you haven't seen his ads, you will shortly.  He's better than Donald Duck, how much better?  I don't know.  But I can tell you, if the Idiot Jerk was scared before of losing the election and going to jail, that fear is turning into terror.  There's a very good possibility Mike might eat him for breakfast.  You see, the Idiot Jerk, in his supreme idiocy, focused all of his attention on Joe Biden.

StayCation day 3 (or Biggie goes to the Vet)

Yep, it's day 3 already... my, how time flies when you're having fun.
Yesterday was fairly busy:  had the car serviced, shined the candelabra:

I took the dogs for a walk in the park, they loved it, though Seig was exhausted when we got home.  He's good for short bursts of speed and walks around the block.  I also rode 12.19 miles of a 16.18 mile ride in Canyonville, Oregon.  Rouvy has a little clip if you want to see what I see.  The clip shows several cyclists and usually it's only me.  Occasionally there are other riders, but we never really get close.

Gallup has an interesting article on how the number of people who respect organized religion is continuing to drop.  They cite several reason:  the priest scandals of the Catholic Church and Evangelicals forcing their way in to politics.  Their comment about the latter was something like: Republicans may like it but Democrats and Independents don't.  Remember, the election will be here before you know it.
And finally, Seig goes to the Vet today.  He needs his distemper and rabies shots.  As always, I like to remind people with pets that they need to manage their Veterinarian.  He may talk puppy or kitty talk to you pet in a very trustworthy voice but the bottom line is he is running a business.  He is a lot like the big, home improvement retailer I work for in that he wants to fill your shopping cart.  Here's one example:  Seig was wormed when he was a puppy, yet they wanted me to bring a stool sample so they could run a fecal test for parasites.  A small modicum of research on the Internet will educate you on what symptoms your pet will exhibit if he have worms.  The last time Seig weighed in at 118 lbs, it's why we call him Biggie.  He does not have worms, but that's not going to stop them from charging me $40 to run a fecal exam... just to be on the safe side.  Once you begin to manage your Vet he will learn to reach into someone else's pocket to pay for his Mercedes.

Things that are funny

Okay, so here it is Wednesday.  I have the day off.  Good.  I slept through most of yesterday getting up just to give the dogs their toys.  The toy of the hour was not the 6 foot snake with 12 squeakers.  Nope.  Nothing could compare to the red, naked woodpecker that honked... that's right, a woodpecker that honks.

Both dogs wanted it.  When I told Seig I'd only bought one he gave me a very sad look.

And then turned away in disdain.

They do switch off, he'll have it for a while, and then Lily will have it for a while, and at some point one of them will chew off the nose or the toes and it will not longer honk and they'll move onto something else.
Today will be an interesting day for the Stock Market.  Funny how the Idiot Jerk is sill blaming the Fed.  Glance at any financial page and you'll see most reporting takes the Fed rate hikes into account, but what's really creating the havoc is the Idiot Jerk and his administration.  Mattis leaves and he wants to give the job to someone with no military experience and only 2 years at the the Pentagon... oh, but he used to work for Boeing (I think).  And then yesterday he started telling people they should buy 'the dip.'  You can bet Mnuchin is, that's how he made his money, buying stocks after the 'W' crash.
And Gallup did give the Idiot Jerk some good news.  He has the most stable approval rating of any president to date.  With all the other presidents, their approval rating goes up and down, they do something the country likes, it goes up, they do something Americans don't like, it goes down.  The Idiot Jerk's approval rating doesn't do that.  Nope.  It has never gone above 45% or below 35%.  In fact, his approval rating seems to be most comfortable at around 39%.  That % includes the 29% of Americans registered Republican, and 10% of everybody else registered to vote.  This is not a good thing if he's planning on trying to get re-elected.