Brace For Impact!

 Holy macaroni, the temps did drop overnight.  They fell all the way down to 30 (F).  My heat is on and I'm burning up $$$ in natural gas.  According to our weather forecasters the next few days are going to be chilly willy cool, however our nightly lows are predicted to stay above freezing.  Come on, Spring.  We're all waiting you!

Since I'm tired of losing my ds when I type, I'm charging up an old Razer keyboard to use.  It doesn't have batteries, so it will need to be recharged from time to time.  I changed it out because I hated having to deal with that extra charging wire.  However, I'd rather deal with that than invest in another keyboard.  I have another spare just in case the wire really begins to bother me again.

And yesterday was sort a meh, not so much meh day.  Things were accomplished.  Several loads of laundry were done, and the floor in the compu/gym/music room is now complete.  I like it.  It's spongey, cushiony and is easily cleaned.  Cleaning is essential because Howie, unlike my other really short haired boxers, sheds a lot.  All you have to do is rub you hand across his back and a cloud of Fox Red Labrador hair flies up into the air.  I mean, you can actually see it, so dusting and vacuuming it are now necessary.  Where before I could skip a week or two, that is no longer possible

I went to see Death of a Unicorn last night.  Big Pharma is satirized in gloriously gory fashion.  After a young unicorn is accidently hit by a car, it's discovered that its horn, and its blood, cure acne, allergies, and stage 5 cancer.  Untold wealth awaits the Leopold family, except for one small detail, momma and poppa unicorn are not happy.  This movie is very funny at times, and always very smart, it's also a bit on the gory side, some of which was also very funny.  

Brace for impact!  The tariffs kicked in at midnight.  Wall Street is going to drop... again.  To make things worse, China has not only retaliated with higher tariffs for the US, they've dropped the prices on a lot of their products for the rest of the world.  For those who don't know, that's a big Ouch for the United States since that will help offset the tariffs set by the Orange Anus.  In fact, you are going to see more and more countries circumventing the United States, broking deals that are far better than that offered by Orangie.  

On the bright side, and yes there is a bright side, all those billionaires who gave the Orange Anus million dollar gifts when he was inaugurated are suffering.  While your 401Ks are losing thousands, they are losing millions and billions.  Elonia and Peter Navarro, ie Ron Varra, are at each others throats. I don't doubt that soon Zuck and Bezos will be in the mix.  They live to be super wealthy, to be the uber rich, and the second their wealth starts to fall they start to rage.  And, while you and I can brace for the impact of higher prices, the devaluation of their portfolios is far far worse for them because selfishness and greed are not close to being sturdy enough to survive the coming impact. 

Repeating 1929

 Today started off as cloudy with the temps in the mid 50s (F) with the possibility of rain on an off throughout the day.  Temps are not supposed to vary much.  This is downer weather in my opinion. Sadly, we will be dealing with this soup for the next 2 days.

My lower back is a bit achy this morning, the result, no doubt, of my dragging the treadmill down the staircase in bits and pieces, some of which were on the heavy side.  This is how it always works for me, the aches and pains show up about 2 days later.  The same thing happens with muscle soreness after I workout out too much.

As for computer/workout/music room, one of the old area rugs was rolled up yesterday.  There was quite a bit of sand underneath from the backing breaking down, an the rug itself had become foldable.  It's now rolled and folded and sitting on the back porch.  After garbage day on Tuesday, I'll dump in in the bin with the rest of the treadmill.  Now all I need to do is figure out what to do with the floor, which was never sanded down or refinished.  Here's what it looks like now.  For those interested, the wall is cover with Romeo and Juliet to give the room a little Shakespearean class.

Everybody seems to be talking about the stock market as if its crash over the past 2 days was unexpected. I mean, I don't know about you, but I was expecting it, just not this soon.  I'd figured that steady downhill slide that began when he mentioned tariffs would continue for a few weeks, but then China retaliated.  Something I'd read about the crash of 1929 was that it took about 3 years until it finally stopped, but by then we were heading into the great depression, and the only thing that stopped that was the start of World War II.  Are we going to be repeating ourselves because Republicans never paid attention in history class?  Or is that the believe that if they don't think about the problem they're creating it will just go away?  I'm suspecting the latter.

And, since Trump seems to be spending most of his time golfing, people are beginning to wonder just who is running the country.  Many are beginning to suspect that it's Stevie Miller, another idiot of the first degree.  Oh, and with some input from wingnut Laura Loomer.  This means that the shit is only going to get a lot deeper.

We Are Smaller Than The World

 Good Morning world!  Our outside temp here in Central PA is 58 (F).  That's mild.  I've been outside wearing just my shorts and T-shirt, my way of transitioning to summer.  Storms did blow through the area last night, lots of loud thunder and lightening, and heavy rain.  The forecast for the next 3 days is pretty much the same, and then we're going to cool off.  Some of our lows next week are predicted to be in the high 20s (F), which downright cold.

I did work yesterday and it was slow.  We are not hitting our forecast plan so far this week... by a lot, and with the weather forecast calling for showers and colder temps, I'm not expecting sales to pick up.  I did get my monthly review yesterday, yes, that's right, we now get them monthly.  Once again my focus is supposed to be on signing people up for credit cards.  That discussion led to a conversation about interest rates and how the rate on our cards was so high.  Not surprising, my supervisor was fairly clueless on the subject, once again telling me it was not my responsibility.  That's one of the big problems in not only America, but the world.  No one wants to accept responsibility.  It's always someone else's fault.  

And in a comment, Treaders asked me if I didn't have a recycling place nearby.  No, not really.  There used to be a landfill about 5 miles down Wertzville Road, but that shut down years ago.  Hershey, Dauphin, and Cumberland county have drop-off spots for yard waste.  I did check, there is a scrap yard on the other side of Harrisburg, but their rates for dropping of scrap metal are what I consider exorbitant.  To make up for this, Waste Management has given us all supersized garbage containers, so bit, it usually takes me a month to fill both the garbage and the recycling bins.  I will have to go online and make an appointment for them to pick up the treadmill base.  This is a hassle.  We used to be able to just set one piece out, but now their garbage trucks have robotic arms that pick up your cans and dump them into the top of the truck.  No more garbagemen.  This is what our cans look like.  You can see the metal bar the robotic arms hook onto.

And, of course, the stock market sell-off continues.  As soon as I saw that China announced retaliatory tariffs of 34%, I knew Wall Street was going to crash even farther.  With zero tariffs for Russia and high tariffs for every other country in the world, many think the Orange Anus is following orders from his blow bro Vlad.  You all know who Vlad is, the dictator who has already sacrificed almost a million Russians in a war that only supposed to last 3 days?  That man has totally over estimated Russia's strength by a very large margin.  In his mind, having the United States as a vassal state would give him Supreme Power.  He simply does not understand that we are smaller than the world.  The world is not going to cower before Trump and his blow bro Vlad.  Nope.  Trading alliances are circumventing us.  Orangie is going to crush the world's economy.  This is how the Republican party dies, and don't be surprised if it takes Evangelical Christianity with it.

Act of God

 Well, the temps didn't climb to 77 (F) yesterday.  Drizzles did abound, though.  We have the same forecast for today before the temperature drops down into the mid 50s (F) tomorrow.  The extended forecast is calling for cool temps for the next week or so before cooling off a little more.  Two weeks from now our overnight lows are predicted to be in the low 30s (F).  

Yesterday was still chow down day at the store.  There were more personal pan pizzas, and pulled pork, and thousands of cookies, and snicky snacky things to satiate the robust grazer.  In a short while I'll be stepping on the scale to see how much damage was done, even though I realize that when go to work this afternoon there are still going to be leftovers.

And sales wise, the store was busy yesterday.  The Flooring / Decor department probably broke a record in sales last week.  My sales were fine.  Corporate, while enjoying these min salad days, understands sales are going to to go into decline.  How do I know?  We've staffed a lead table.  Customers play a little game and win either a snack, or a beverage, or a coupon, all the while an associate talks to them about the home services we offer.  Leads are good any time of the year, but quite often they help us reach plan during the slow months of winter.  Pushing leads this time of year is an indicator of what corporate thinks is indicative of sales in the coming months.  

Elonia held a rally in Wisconsin for a very select crowd:  employees and carefully vetted supporters.

While his rally did get national media attention, as far as I can tell on Fox Entertainment broadcast any of it.  The fact that he was too terrified to have open attendance is not a good indicator, he was worried about protesters managing to make it into the auditorium and creating a disturbance.  This means he failed... terribly.  The idea was to generate votes for the Republican nominee for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but speaking to a selected audience is not going to grow the Republican voting base.  Also, given the fact that his attempt at bribing people to vote Republican has gotten terrible press proves this was more of an act of desperation than anything else.  The Orange Anus has an approval rating of 41%, and Musk's is in the negative digits.  Someone said it's below the floorboards.  Ouch!  The Republican party has believed that it's always about the money, well, only if you've sold your soul to selfishness and greed.  What might be the stake through President Elonia's heart, might in fact be the stock market.  I haven't looked at figures yet, but from what I've heard it's looking red in anticipation of Orangie's tariff announcements.  Tariffs that are, supposedly, going to be aimed at every country in the world.  Would the markets crashing on election day be considered an Act of God? 

Babies, Babies, Babies

 Well, if the forecasters are correct, we're going to be cooking records today, that is the temps do indeed climb to 84 (F).  That's short sleeved shirt weather, and I'm going to wear one to work.  We had rain last evening, steady and soaking.

The forsythia on the hill is in bloom.  I didn't plant it, which means that some bird at a seed and pooped it there, and it grew.  I didn't realize that I had planted so many bulbs, but I must have since they're springing up all all over the place.  I don't even know what half of them are.  One thing I am certain of is that none of my dahlias survived the winter.  It was very cold and the ground froze days, if not weeks, at a time.  I did save some seeds from the flowers, so rather than plant tubers, this year I'm just going to throw out some seeds and see if they take.

Howie has gotten very picky when it comes to eating.  For a while, it seemed as if he preferred the more expensive kibbles, then he seemed to go for the less expensive brand, then yesterday afternoon he began snubbing both.  I put out some canned food and, after giving it a sniff, walked away.  What does he like to eat?  Fruit.  I loves blueberries and bananas.  So, I'm going to have to get experimental and try different combinations. 

My new heart rate monitor is out for delivery.  Good.

And here's a pic of my daffodils.  The ones out front are in full bloom.

And wasn't yesterday a fun day on Wall Street.  Inflation is heading our way much faster than Republicans expected and the stock market reacted as expected.  Wowz!  And prepare yourselves, Orangie's tariff retaliations come on Tuesday and they're bringing with them another ouchy ouchy drop on Wall Street.  Larry Kudlow started his show on Fox Entertainment last evening with a whine about the stock market, and the tariffs, and the taxes the Republicans want to raise on the average American.  See... even billionaires are beginning to worry.  I'm thinking a good stock market crash would do them all a bit of good, why, we might even see one or two jumping out of windows.

And Elonia was on Fox Entertainment again last evening.  Doesn't he seem to be having as many "on air" interviews as his toy president?  Anyway, one of Elonia's complaints was on the slowly declining world population.  In case you're wondering, his worries are not about the future of mankind, but rather the future profitability of corporations.  You see, if there are fewer people to buy products revenue will fall.  That's the big worry. His concern is about continuing that annual 5% growth.  To maintain that, he wants people worldwide to become breeders, making babies, babies, babies.

Retail Greed

 Well let's say "hello" to a bright sunny, albeit cool morning here in Central PA.  The overnight temps dropped down into the upper 20s (F), which is definitely on the chilly side, and it looks like today's high is going to be in the mid 40s (F).  Tomorrow, however, our high is going to be cruising around in the mid 50s (F).  According to NOAA, "there ain't gonna be no White Christmas in this neck o'the woods," (my paraphrasing).

Many chores were accomplished yesterday, including a good dusting and vacuuming.  The vacuuming should be done more often, Lily's a bit sloppy with her biscuits (not the UK version of cookies), leaving crumbs all over the place.

Both the grout and the thin set were purchased for the small amount of tiling needing to be done in the kitchen, and yesterday turned out be a rather fortuitous day to pick them up.  I'm using a premixed grout this time, and, as the Orange retailer I work for is still desperately trying to hold onto their market share, prices went up.  A full $1.00 per quart.  For those interested, that's not inflation, that's greed.  Anyway, there are 2 facings of grout (2 rows on the shelf), and only one of the prices had been changed, so being the savvy home improvement shopper I am, I pulled off the lower price tag and proceeded to the register.  For those looking at the financial side of things, we have 2700 stores, if each store sells 10 quarts a week that's an increase for $108,000 in a month.  Think how much additional revenue that will be in a year, and keep in mind that was not the only product to get a price increase.

Here's a picture of my Christmas cactus blooming again.

So, Trump's blow bro Vlad gave a speech in which he said his plans have not changed in regard to the Ukraine.  No surprise there.  The only way they will change is if he gets his ass handed to him on a platter, or if the Russian people decide that enough of their young men have died.  

The GOP led House of Representatives has opening up and inquiry to see if they should impeach Biden even though many of it's members, including that derelict Chuck Grassley, they don't have grounds for such an inquiry.  This is all political, nothing else.  Troy Niels said it best in a dropped mic moment, "this is all for Trump in 2024."

And the Stock Market popped yesterday to the highest level in its history.  Republicans did not bring that subject up in their conversations.  

Something's Coming

My next schedule was published late yesterday afternoon and  I have 4 days off in a row,  one is going to be a vacation day and the other 2 were requests off.  At least I'm getting consecutive days off.
I understand there was a bit of a raucous.  There, that's a nice word for it.  I didn't watch.  I prefer gleaning the important bits from various media sources the next morning.  I guess Fox News was shrieking "out of control!"  "out of control!"  Evidently some of the candidates chose to ignore the moderator.  Some of them were out for blood.  The problem all along has been too many freaking candidates, and now that the voters are going to have their say, those candidates are freaking out.  They are complicating what should be a very simple issue.  We need the Idiot Jerk removed from the White House.  Unfortunately, a number of these candidates do not understand this is not their time, and it is not their place.
And, speaking of raucous, there was another fun-filled ride on Wall Street yesterday.  Yowza!  Don't look at your 401k's.  There's a good possibility the same thing is going to happen today.  There's a fly in the economic ointment... or maybe I should say 'bug.'  You know what I'm talking about.  That little thing called Covid-19... is that still what they're calling it?  People are getting sick, and not just in China.  A long time ago, back when I was taking Biology 101, we did a little experiment.  The professor passed around a tray of sugar cubes, 2 of which had been dosed with a  harmless bacteria.  Every student took one, rubbed it into our palms, and then walked around the classroom shaking hands.  We each grew the results in a petri dish.  It's rather interesting to see how disease spreads from one person to another, skips the person who shakes the most hands while targeting the one who only shakes 2 or 3.  Obviously the Idiot Jerk in the White House has never taken Biology 101, otherwise he would never have said the Coronavirus has been contained.  The CDC is right.  It's coming.  And, of course, the Republican response has been... tepid.  I mean, we're talking about them spending tax dollars in order to help the Common Man.  They don't understand.  Now, I'm not religious, but if I were I'd say their Judgement is coming.
Anyway, I thought I'd leave you with Tony's warning.

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.

Desperate Republicans

Well, the viral infection has moved... I repeat, the viral infection has moved... south.  Initially my Dr had recommended chloroseptic and Tylenol, neither of which did a thing to stop the torrents of mucus raging down my throat.  I ended up doing Mucinex and Ibuprofen.  They worked.  I slept well last night.  A thank you goes out to the Mistress who recommended Gin...  the liquor store was out of Bombay Sapphire, which is why I went with the Meds.  As I started to say, the infection has moved south and located in the general vicinity of my Adam's apple, using my vocal cords as some sort of camouflage.  I sound like a rusty gate when I talk.  When I asked the dogs if they had to "go potty outside," they both gave me a WTF stare.
Oh, and in case you haven't heard, we have a partial government shut down.  I repeat, we have a partial government shut down.  The wall, you know?  Poll after poll, except for those the crazy right-wingers fudge, point out that only 31% of Americans want a border wall.  In case you don't know, that's the total sum of registered Republicans, with about 2% Independent voters added in just for shits and giggles.  The Idiot Jerk is telling a majority of Americans to screw themselves just so he can give his base what their little, racist hearts crave.  This is desperation.  They really need to stop lying to themselves about their own popularity.
I saw where the Taliban is claiming victory of the United States.  Now isn't that a great message to send terrorist groups?
And the stock market dropped a lot last week... the most in 10 years.  The list time this happened the Idiot Bush was president.  Remember, Republicans have always been failures in regard to the economy.  Always.  The Idiot Jerk wants to fire Powell.  The real problem is Powell, it's that the stock market was terribly over inflated... by greed.  We have the cheerleader for American Capitalism in the White House and he's nothing but a turd, spitting out cheap words for greedy people.
Today will be another slow day at the store.  Tomorrow will be slower, and Monday slower still.  I work Monday.  Odds are they will let me go home early.  That's fine with me.

The beginning of Judgment?

Well, it's Saturday and we're in the middle of a Nor'easter... or, I guess I should say, since we're not getting a lot of wind, that it's raining... again.  Some areas of the North East are getting pelted.  Not us.  All we have is steady rain, sometimes light showers, sometimes heavier, nothing torrential.
This was a bad week for the Stock Market.  Don't look at your 401k's.
And, of course, they captured the 'mad pipe bomber.'  How jolly delicious that he turned out to be a rabid supporter of the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Have you seen pictures of his van?

And Republicans are freaking out!  Well, that might be putting it mildly, especially this close to the midterm elections.  Like every Republican president since Eisenhower, he was... "missing in action" for the past 3 days.  There were no calming words for a country seeing first hand the fruition of his hatred.  Nope.  Perhaps because there was deep suspicion the 'mad bomber' might be one of his acolytes.  Then there was some brief praise for the FBI once Sayoc had been arrested, not much though, because when the police took little Cesar into custody the ugly truth was revealed.  The hatred the Idiot Jerk has been fomenting was thrown back into his face.  For him, truth is like Holy Water on a Vampire.  My, how loudly he shrieks and runs for the shelter of his lies.  This is what Judgment looks like.
Oh, and Megyn Kelly, that bottled blonde of phoniness has been fired.  I understand her lawyers are 'negotiating' her exit.  Which means, in not so subtle words, they're trying to decide how far up her ass that boot is going to go, the farther up, the more expensive it will be for NBC.  Stupid network banked on superficiality.
In the next 10 days, the the prurient horror of the Idiot Jerk is going to become more and more apparent. The lies will fall from his lips like shit blossoms from a cow's ass.  Republicans have always been bad losers.  Be strong!  Hold to your values!  Vote Blue!!

Tom Eats Bad Men

Well, here it is Wednesday, and I get to go back to work for one day.  I'm off tomorrow.  How cool is that?
I saw someone gave "The Body on the Lawn" a good review.  The funny thing is that every time I pick it up I see problems and mistakes.  It's almost as bad as seeing 'dead people.'  They're everywhere.  Fortunately most of them are in my head.
So, Subaru has this thing called Starlink which is their version of Onstar.  I've had the option of purchasing Onstar in the past and never did; the benefits offered did not justify the cost.  I did upgrade the Starlink to their 2nd level package for 3 years.  If at the end of that time I find it was a waste of money, I'll either downgrade or get rid of it completely.
And the new coffee maker arrived yesterday.  Very nice.  Fast.  And the coffee is hot rather than lukewarm.  While the old one hasn't been thrown out yet, it will be shortly, except possibly for the carafe.  I might be able to turn it into an interesting planter.
I saw "Venom" last night.  What a mish-mash.  Tom Hardy has some really good moments as Eddie Brock... however, he's dealing with a symbiot who, over the course of the film, tends to become cartoonish.  Riz Ahmed plays a nice, cool villain even though you never really get a chance to see that spark of insanity which makes him bad. 

The problem here is that Venom is a dark character.  He eats people.  Men are on the menu.  That's right, Tom eats men.  Bad men.  The producers and writers are desperately trying to make Venom into a nice guy.  He has the one-liners people laugh at, not Tom.  Perhaps because Tom, himself, while pretty to look at, is not that important, which is why the movie is called "Venom," and not "Eddie Brock."
And, of course, the Stock Market is in a slow decline.  It loses a lot, gains a bit back, loses more.  I'm waiting for the Idiot Jerk in the White House to tell people they need to look at their 401k's.  The last time I had check mine it had lost about $5 since April.  And he's doing what he always does, what all Republicans have done since the dawn of time, blame someone else.  The truth is he's not really that good of a businessman.  The country is learning this... slowly.

October Surprise

I get to go back to work to day.  Oh... shit.
I also climbed on board my scale... Holy Shit!  Now I will be the first to admit I've grown lax in both my cardio and my free weight training.  Some of this has to do with my shift change.  I used to get all of my workouts done before I went to work.  Now I need to get them done when I get home.  Some days the laziness just takes over.  I've been working to break these bad habits and slowly, I've been turning myself into an evening person rather than a morning person.  Changing years of routine is difficult.
Yesterday I put a down payment on a new car.  A Subaru.  And I'm buying this one.  For the past 16 years I've leased my vehicles.  Leasing is a nice way to get a lot of car for not a lot of money.  Of course, there is always a car payment when you lease.  I'm tired of car payments.  The real curse of leasing is that you have no trade-in value.  Well, maybe about $100, depending upon the model car you've been leasing.  There's not much there to knock down the price, which means you need to have a fairly decent down payment.  I do.  So yesterday afternoon I stopped in at my bank and transferred money from one of my IRA's into my checking.  The agent I talked was obviously Pro-Lease.  Her comment was "well, if you can afford it, leasing is great for those who want to avoid upkeep."  I said nothing, even though sharp retorts in spite of the flashing, neon objections almost blinding my thought processes.  Why would you want to be indebted to a car company for the rest of your life?  is buying a set of tires every three or four years that terrible?  Or was she just suffering from fiscal laziness?
I saw the stock market failed to rebound yesterday.  That's not good for your 401k's. 
And Stormy Daniels had her defamation lawsuit kicked out of the court system.  What Stormy needs to understand is that her role in dethroning the Idiot Jerk in the White House is now over.  She needs to move on and stop trying to profit from her experience.  She needs to be thankful for her book royalties.  She needs to stop saying "what's in it for me."  Move on, Stormy, move on.
The midterms are approaching.  We have not had our October Surprise.  There's is always an October Surprise.  Like Comey and the Clinton emails.  We've only 3 weeks to go.  I can hardly wait.

Another Nail in the Coffin

Friday morning... and I'm off today.  The dogs let me sleep in until 0530 - wow! but then they started jumping around on the bed - that was 180 pounds plus of a canine 'good morning.'
I had a $5200 carpet sale go through yesterday from a customer who could easily afford the expense, his shiny, black wingtips sang of 'money.'
Also, measurements came back for a customer and his wife who are buying blinds - so I designed their blinds... basic price came to a little over $2200 for basic blinds.  He hyphenates his last name, which seemed odd for a man, so I Google'd him, evidently he's a prominent bankruptcy attorney so I'm betting they gussy up those blinds a bit.
Since I was up this AM I started watching the opening ceremonies from Pyeongchang.  All of a sudden the stream stopped and I received a message asking me to verify my cable company - I don't have a cable company which ended the 'live stream' from NBC Sports.  My first thought was that this was the result of the Idiot Jerk, and the Republicans, trying to eliminate Net Neutrality; where you need to have a 'service provider' to use the Internet.  I have FIOS, but I don't have cable.  And I'm pretty sure that whole Net Neutrality thing is locked up in the courts.  So this was most likely NBC Sports being stupid.
And what about Wall Street yesterday... oooohhh.  Now it seems as though there are those who have decided that this is a... market correction.  I believe are defined by losses up to and including 10%.  However, if the Market continues to drop - then this is something other than a 'correction.'  Problems abound.  The government is going to have to borrow $1 Trillion to pay for that wonderful Republican Tax Cut.  Lower unemployment leads to higher prices and inflation, which means we need a certain level of unemployment; it also leads to interest rates going up.
And, unfortunately for the majority of Americans, we have a numb nut in the White House, a Jerk who took credit for the Stock Market going up, who now has to deal with the fact that every point the Dow drops means another nail in the Republican Coffin.

I bet there will be dancing at this wake.

Blood Bath on Wall Street

My, wasn't yesterday interesting? 
I got about $1400 in sales at work - they track our sales figures, we don't work on commission, but we still have a weekly sales goal we need to reach.  I did well last week, over $11,000 in sales - they were happy.
Oh, and I understand that Faux News broke into their normal programming to give the Idiot Jerk in the White House a slap in the face.  You know?  About the Stock Market... dropping. At one point it had dropped 1600 points, the most it had ever dropped... ever... in all the recorded history of Wall Street.  According to Bloomberg, there was a period when the trading floor was a virtual 'blood bath.'

And, from what I've been reading, this is far from over.  But then, this was to be expected.
To complicate things even more... the government runs out of money on Thursday.  The House, of course, is pushing another temporary measure since that's the only thing these losers can do...  which is going to have a negative effect on Wall Street.  Ooops.  They also need to borrow $959 Billion to pay for the wonderful Tax Cut they gave to corporations and to the wealthy.
For those who don't know, the two overriding principles of Republican economics are Greed and Selfishness.  This is why every time they managed to get a majority in both Houses, and an Idiot Jerk in the White House, the economy always ends up going to shit.
Anyway, we'll have to wait until the end of today to see the markets are sitting, if this is a simple correction you should expect them to drop a total of about 10%. 
Keep in mind that all of this doom and gloom is even worse for his supporters - just imagine their horror as the 'big bucks' he promised are not going to come rolling in.  Think of all of those ultra-conservative Mom and Pops who dumped their savings into the Stock Market because they believed his lies.  It's a shame that they'll lose so much, but then they shouldn't have been so gullible, shouldn't have let their hatred guide their vote.
Anyway, for the rest of the week I work a day, and then am off a day, work a day, and then am off a day, and next week I'm taking vacation.
I downloaded a nice ride for tomorrow - almost 13 miles long.  I can't wait.  Soon I'm going to start working on hilly rides - can you hear my legs screaming in anticipation? 
Oh, and don't check the financial news unless the sight of blood doesn't bother you.

Fear of Missing Out

Well, here it is... Saturday, and, of course, I do get to go to work.  I will be off for the next 3 days, however, so that's okay.   And, left early yesterday... it's the time of year, you know?  Well, maybe you don't.  People rarely do 'home improvement' projects at this time of the year in this part of the country - temperature - no one wants to have their doors or windows open when it's cold outside.  In case you didn't know, the weather was rainy but balmy yesterday, now the thermometer is on the way down with 'highs' over the next couple of days in the upper 20's (F).
Yesterday I did cardio, today will be strength training with a focus on my legs.  I don't know anyone who enjoys working their legs - the largest muscle group in your body, the greatest reaction to lifting, squatting, and lunging.  Training doesn't always create soreness, but mostly it does to some extent, and soreness in the arms, or abs, or shoulders, or back, is easier to take then leg soreness.  You don't want your legs to hurt when you walk.  Still, leg workouts are a necessary evil if I want to climb hills easily when I'm out on the bike.
Oh, and I see that there is a Porn Princess Payoff in the Idiot Jerk's recent past.  How's that for a humdinger... of course, that might be what he $130,000 for... a humdinger.
One of my Navy buddies is a serious Idiot Jerk supporter.  He and I have some very interesting discussions.  We don't argue with each other, just snipe, little nips, you know?  Anyway, he said that no matter what I personally thought about the Idiot Jerk, wasn't I pleased with the economy?  So, I talked to him about FOMO.

Financially, FOMO happens when you watch the stock market rise, and that rise creates a terror in you which screams into your brain "I need to be a part of this!"  As a result you buy stocks, either online or through a broker (in today's computer world, most people do it online).  FOMO deceives you into believing the Stock Market will continue to climb and if you don't buy into it, you're going to miss out on making lots and lots of money.  As a result, you buy overvalued stocks and help to drive their price even higher, where someone in the throes if FOMO will buy them, sending them even higher.  There is a price for this greed.  A correction to the market is coming.  The steeper the overvaluation, the steeper the correction.  A drop is inevitable.  This correction is unavoidable.  Will there be people who are financially hurt?  You bet.

Portrait of Trump

So I had breakfast with my brother this AM.  When I told him I was moving funds from my 401K to more safer investments he looked rather blank, so I explained to him that I was worried about the stock market.  Right now that baby is bubbling like a champagne bottle that's been shaken (by DT) and, I suspect, maybe after his inauguration, the cork is going to pop.  My brother doesn't understand.  He thinks climbing almost 100 points everyday is normal.  He thinks DT is having a positive influence on Wall Street.  I don't.  I'm too old to have my 401K drop like a rock.  I'm playing it safe.
And this whole Russian thing is very funny.  You see DT doesn't understand politics.  The idea that Putin might see him a a dolt, a very rich reality star who believes saying "you're fired" puts the two of them on the same playing field, and he's wrong (of course).  DT doesn't understand world domination.  To him the idea that a foreign government, which has been our enemy much longer than our friend, might want to set him up to knock us down is ridiculous.  DT doesn't realize he's had to file for bankruptcy 4 times because of his own bad decisions.  The truth that DT is a bad man, a very, very bad man who will make us suffer for his own stupidity.  Will he make it through 4 years?  I doubt it.
Anyway, I went to visit my 83 year old Mom today.  She signed herself up for a painting class.  Once a week she goes and and paints a picture.  Spiders.  She's been painting spiders about as well as any 83 year old woman with slight dementia.  This is her portrait of Putin.

He has 12 legs.  If you look closely you can see she's written "not again."  I don't ask.  I took a picture of this one because she likes the blue background.  There are others.  All spiders.  Not all of them have 12 legs, some have 8, some have 6, and one has 10.  Or maybe it's not Putin, maybe it's Trump.  I mean, every time he turns around there's going to be a finger pointing.  Makes more sense, doesn't it?  Trump saying "not again."