On the Pulse of a Morning

 Well, it does seem as if the Arctic Blast has hit us... sort of.  When I woke up this morning our outside temp was 30 (F) and that's cold.  Oddly enough, areas to our geographic south were much colder, so maybe the Susquehanna Valley is in a bit of a bubble of warmness.  Tonight is not supposed to be as cold, with the low sitting around 31 (F).  Yeah, I know, like 1 degree makes that much of a difference.

The cold temps also mean the beginning of oatmeal season.  I usually cook up barley for breakfast, but once the chilly willy mornings begin I switch to oatmeal with peanut butter and honey.  I almost always use honey as a sweetener. It's not that I don't like using refined and processed sugar, which I do think about, but because I like the flavor.  The best honey I've had came from Greece.  Seriously, that was so yummy.

My brother sent me a video on Facebook of Fred Rogers playing a screamin' guitar.  I pointed out the name Soros at the top and let him know that it was AI generated.  I really do dislike AI.  In my mind, AI is for lazy people who are creatively barren.  Self publishers are supposed to notify their readers if they use AI, but you know there's a lot of wannabe pseudo authors that don't.  They have no idea with being a fraudulent human being.

I popped 6 pork loins into the freezer a bit ago.  I'm going to be dehydrating them and nearly frozen pork makes for easier slicing.

And here are 2 more pics of my history.  They are from Bill Clinton's first inauguration.  Yes was there.  I, along with a million other people got to hear Maya Angelou recite On the Pulse of a Morning.  My words of advice to people:  If you ever get the chance to participate in history, do so, those moments will stay with you forever.

And I saw that Orangie is in the process of striking up some sort of deal with Syria.  He began by lifting sanctions, and I seem to remember one of his minions mumbling about some sort of framework being discuss for another Orangie Tower, or Resort.  The funds being funneled into his pockets are no doubt coming from Saudi Arabia as the work to spread Islam.  You can do this when you're one of the wealthiest countries in the world.  

Also, this morning I saw that Orangie is shrieking about the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning his tariffs, ie his personal grift machine.  It seems that all of these trillions of $$$s he's been bragging about seem to... have... well, possibly disappeared?  Or... it does appear that he saying there's no way they can pay them back to the companies individuals who paid higher prices.  Well, Damn!  Isn't this a big blow to our economic pulse and this cold, autumn morning?

Bashar Assad

Holy Moly!  Today's temps are predicted to go up into the low 50s (F).  That's exceedingly warm for this time of year.  They will, however, be dropping down into what is considered unseasonably warm for the rest of the week.  In this case, unseasonably warm means temps in the mid to upper 40s (F).  

I got a nice, 9 mile ride in on the bike yesterday.  I felt good afterward.  Today, rather than ride, I'm going to be doing my dumbbells and bands.  Upper body.  

Work was okay yesterday.  I sold a measure to a woman who is never going to purchase an install.  After living in their home for 9 years, they're moving and she's going to be in the cheapest carpet possible.  She'd been to our blue competitor and received a quote which she said was too high.  So, after picking out the cheapest carpet we install, and the cheapest padding, I did a quick manual estimate:  $3800.  She paid for the measure, then told me our competitor had been less expensive.  She showed me their quote: $3082 and then tapped our brochure where we claimed we would match prices.  So, I tapped the sentence under that stating the price matching would be for any comparable carpet.  The carpet she chose from us was $1.89 a square foot, and it's crap, plus the cheapest pad possible, .84 for a total of $2.78 a square foot.  The quote she showed me was $2.24 a square foot, padding a carpet combined, which means it's worse than crap.

This also happened yesterday.  Our fire sprinkler system developed a leak and we had to evacuate the building for about half an hour.  It was cold standing outside, and while interesting, not exciting.  This is evidently not the first time leaks have happened.

Bashar Assad has left the building.  Or, if you're to believe Russian media, he has left Syria.  Or, if you're to believe Adam Kinzinger, there is a very good likelihood that he was killed last night.  This is a serious blow to the Orange Anus' blow bro Vlad, since he's been backing Bashar (I hope he doesn't mind that I call him Bashar) with a military presence in Syria for over 7 years.  In fact, the Russian military has also left the building.  No doubt, they're on their way to the Ukraine where they will sacrifice themselves on the alter of Vlad Putin's ego.

In case you haven't noticed it, the Blow Bro Vlad is having problems all over the world.  His puppet regimes are falling apart everywhere.  Romania has annulled an election that would have bound their ties with Vlad because of Russian influence.  He's having to use North Korean troops in the Ukraine in attempt to keep the Russian death toll from reaching 1 million.  Wow!  His authoritarian government is getting flushed down the shitter fast.

 

Sit on it and Spin

 The outside temps are anything but balmy.  22 (F) is cold.  Nights are going to be cold from here on out, or at least until they begin to modulate next week when daily highs will be in the mid to upper 40s (F).  Today, we're supposed to hit the upper 30s (F), but according to the forecast every day is supposed to be just a little bit warmer.

Yesterday the retail world in flooring and decor was steady.  We had been busy during the past week.  In fact, as of yesterday, our department was not only number 1 in the store, but number one in the district (9 stores), as well as number 1 in the region (90) stores.  Why so busy?  Well, I don't think it's because Christmas is approaching.  Nope.  It's either one of 2 things, either the Biden economy is booming, or people realize that Trump is going to trash the economy.

And, it's one of those days.  My neighbors had a loud argument this morning, there were so many F bombs exploding I'm surprised there are still walls standing.  Normally, he leaves for work around 0600 but this morning he didn't leave until after 0700, so what ever the problem was, it caused him to be late.  While Mike and Karen (the previous owners) had loud arguments, they were pretty much a rarity, maybe once a year.  My current neighbors?  They seem to have one every two weeks or so.  She hates Enola (she's told me that), and they both hate the house.  It was staged to look like a much more expensive house than it was, and when the realtor took out the staging they discovered problems that a simple home inspection would have red flagged.  I used to feel sorry for them.  Not any more.  Both of them are in their 50s, and where a younger couple would have been able to roll with the punches, they're too old and too set in their ways.  Their son is at Temple University in Philly, and the last time I talked to her she hinted that they were deciding what they were going to do when his school year was over.

And then there's this.  The Orange Anus wants this man to run the FBI.

For those cultists who think the Orange Anus care about America, I've got a surprise for you.  He doesn't.  As one of my friends said, "now that he's elected, he doesn't need them anymore."  He will try and tear it down because his hate is so great.  He won't succeed, mostly because he's stupid.  The only thing he was successful at was taking people to court for long enough periods of time to bankrupt them.  Those days are gone.  In spite of Main Stream Media's attempt to sane wash him, things aren't going well.  His cabinet nominees are a cluster just waiting for the fuck to begin.   When Orangy lied about what the Mexican president said, she, in a very politically polite manner, told him to sit on it and spin.  Trudeau flew down to Mar a Lago for a chat, and the only words coming from the Orngy's team is that the talks were promising.  Translation:  in private Trudeau told him to sit on it and spin.  

And, on top of that, Orangy's blow bro Putin is dealing with shit shows all over the place.  His cozy guy Assad from Syria fled to Moscow because the powerful rebel army is on the brink of taking the country away from a Russian sympathizer.  There are massive riots in Georgia (the country) because Putin sympathizers there are trying to keep the country from joining NATO.  And multiple European countries are allowing the Ukraine to use it's biggest and best weapons against Moscow.  It seems as though many countries in the world are telling Putin to sit on it and spin.

Getting ready for the walk

It's Thursday morning.  I have a bit of a cranky belly.  That's fine.  We all have our aches and pains.  I don't blow mine out of proportion.  There are some who have serious issues... and then there are some who mentally think they have serious issues.  I work with an associate who has Crohn's Disease... and everything else.  In fact, that's one of the first things this associate tells people when he meets them for the first time.  Nice, huh?  No matter what might be ailing you, he has the same thing... only Worse.  I once asked him why this is?  He had a bit of a meltdown.  He claimed I was insinuating he was using his health problems for getting attention.  I'll be honest, I was, and it's true.  Someone tells him they have a headache and he says "I have migraines, 2 to 3 times a week, and they're real killers."

I saw where the Idiot Jerk in the White House had a bit of a meltdown yesterday as well.  The Syria thing, you know?  Every time he opens his mouth about his foreign policy debacle he splatters shit.  He thought he was a tin foil dictator, but this action is proving how much of a puppet he is to his Blow Bro Vlad.  Oh, and his impeachment firewall is beginning to crumble.  Yippee!

And can we get a moment of silence for Elijah Cummings, who passed early this morning.  

Finally, here's another snippet from the GoPro.  I take the dogs for a walk Just about every morning.  Biggie gets excited.  Lily (also known as Lillian) is always ecstatic.  I was wearing the camera on my head so the ceiling looks a lower then its actual 10 foot height, and the rooms look smaller.  Oh, and Lily isn't like this all the time.  Mostly she's a petite,little flower.  However, mention walk and the Adrenalin explodes. 

The Nice Day

Well, it's Saturday and the temperature will hit the mid 80's (F) again, and I decided to take the day off from work.  That's right, I called off.  This will give me 5 days off in a row.  Very nice.  I've had a lot of sales this past week, so I'll probably hit 200% of my goal, which should make everybody happy.
I saw this AM that we shot missiles at Syria.  This is the 2nd time we've shot missiles at that country.  The first time the Idiot Jerk in the White House called the Russians to let them know in advance... and of course Syria is a close ally of Russia.  This time the Idiot Jerk Tweeted up a storm on how we were going to fire missiles.  Stupid things like "get ready, here they come."  Ooops,  Let's make sure they have enough time to move their war toys out of the target zone.  Now the Idiot Jerk is crowing "mission accomplished."  Excuse me, someone with at least an average IQ should tell him this was a mission failure.
And I watched some of "Lost in Space" last evening.  I like it.  There are a lot of references to the original series, including the end music.  Dr. Smith is... really bad.  For those who don't know, or who don't remember, Dr. Smith was really bad for the first season, when the series was in black and white.  In fact, that whole season the show's focus was much more dramatic.  It wasn't until the second season that Smith became a caricature.  The Netfilx reboot is much more like the first season.  Let's hope it stays that way.

The only thing I didn't understand was the chicken.  So, if anybody knows how a chicken got on one of the Saturn space ships, please let me know.

And because today's so nice, the back door is standing open so the dogs can run in and out.  They will be sleeping well this evening.

Recovery

Well, here it is a couple of minutes after 8 on a Wednesday morning and the Dow is already down over 300 points.  Oops.  And inflation data is going to be released a little over half an hour from now.  The Middle East is set to explode, and stock market's dropping ever lower on a weekly basis, gas prices are surging... this is making America great?  Of course not.  What you're seeing is the Idiot Jerk running towards another bankruptcy.... except this time he's going to crash the country.  In case you didn't know, this is what the Evangelicals voted for...  Now we know who to blame.
On the Middle East, I wouldn't be surprised if this time the region does explode.  Mostly because we have an Idiot Jerk in the White House.  He's dumb as a brick.  The Russians are more interested in disrupting the American political landscape than Syria, and the Idiot Jerk is giving them exactly what they want.  He is diminishing the greatest nation in the world.  His policies will crash the economy.  Hold onto your bootstraps, this is going to get messy.
And, of course, I have four more work days until I have 4 days off.  And, of course, the weather is going to be beautiful during those 4 work days and crappy as hell when I'm off.  Tomorrow the temp is supposed to hit 70 (F), on my days off the high is only supposed to be in the upper 50's.  That sucks.
I'd no longer seeing Kilmore Eye Ass for my glaucoma.  Yesterday I made an appointment with the VA.  I can go to the clinic in Camp Hill, which is 4 miles away.  Very nice.
Yesterday my Supervisor told me he got a par-time job at a bike shop in York.  He, too, is an avid cyclist, though he's more crazy at it than I am.  He knows a lot about bikes but has no structure, if you know what I mean.  His organizational skills always seem to be about one step behind where they're supposed to be.  Being ex management I tend to help him out.  He's a nice guy who tends to run from responsibility.  That's frustrating.  I stepped down because I didn't want to have to deal with this kind of shit anymore.  Ah, well, this too will pass.  Just like the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  I just hope the recovery isn't going to be too painful.

Casting for Darth Trump

So, I got up around 5 this AM and have spent much of the morning putzing around, doing little chores, cleaning up the yard (big dogs = not a small task).
I've been checking to see if the air strike in Syria did anything to improve the Idiot's approval ratings...   Can't find a single thing.  I saw Rubio was on some talk show huffing and puffing about Assad and ISIS, but that doesn't surprise me, I've always thought he was pretty much of a huffer.
And, of course, your seeing blow back on social media because runways weren't targeted.  I wonder if that's where the Russians park their planes... and the Syrians as well.  I did post a comment in Facebook this bit of Idiot Bluster, that a "Crime against Humanity" was only worth 59 Tomahawk missiles and it just happened to coincide with a dismal jobs report.  The fact that both happened on Friday is even more... shall we say interesting.  Keep in mind that those attempting to govern are Republicans, and they have never been too creative.
Of course, right after this bit of foo foo retaliation every one who is any one in the media was asking how this was going to change the Idiot's approach to Syria.  If they'd only waited until yesterday morning, they'd have had their answer.  Nothing's changed.  At all.  This is almost like watching Star Wars, with Putin playing the part of the Evil Emperor and the Idiot desperately wanting to be Darth Vader.  He wants the Force to be with him... now ain't that funny.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day outside, the temperature is supposed to balmy and... I have to go to work.  When the weather's this nice I open both doors so the dogs can have full run, and they love it.  Smart move, because when I leave to put in my 8 hours they're going to be tuckered out.

What retaliation?

So, there was a 'crime against humanity' in Syria and the Idiot in the White house.... retaliated, kind of, well... maybe not as strongly as the initial reports might have led people to believe.  Evidently the airfield is back in operation.  I understand, if you want to watch, there's drone footage of the 'destruction' that's been provided by... the Russians.  Yet there's no indication that any Russian aircraft were destroyed... or damaged, and yet I do believe the Russians use that base to fly missions against those rebels trying to remove Assad from power.
One of the problems Americans have is that when they're told that missiles hit airplane hangers, they picture large, cavernous spaces made of steel and aluminum.  Not in Syria.  The truth is that most of their planes are stored in places much more like bunkers, made of re-enforced concrete.  This doesn't mean that they did take any damage, but nothing as serious as Americans most likely imagined.
And then there's that little fact that the runways weren't targeted...  Ooops.

As time goes on more and more are beginning to understand that the Idiot in the White House has no problem with lying.  He does it regularly.  For him it's okay.  This was more a 'wag the dog' type bit of propaganda than a retaliation.  Unemployment figures also came out on Friday and they were anything but flattering and they needed something to keep the press from talking about that.

Missile Strike?

Opinionated little me, here, with a little discourse about the missile strike last evening, or, I guess, early morning if you happened to be in Syria.  The Idiot in the White House muttered Crimes Against Humanity as a prelude and now there are a lot of people in America who are themselves are muttering, 'ah, he managed to do something right.'  I'm not part of that group.  You see, I'm waiting for the next chorus of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" because they've already started humming the tune.
Let's be honest here, 60 Tomahawk missiles are not going to teach Bashar al Assad anything.  To him, people are expendable, besides, he has more than one airfield.  I wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't called his friend Putin (that's right Vlad is on his side) and wondered why there were only 60, and why only one airfield.
And now the Russians are acting pissy, saying they're not going to be part of some very low level agreement on airspace incidents...  A little huff, and puff and a bit of smoke.
The Idiot's Trumplodite hoards are jumping around, waving their flags on Social Media and shrieking that this is something Obama would never have done, or that Hillary would ever have done, and they're not alone.  People with normally sane minds are viewing the footage of this missile attack and whispering 'yes' to themselves, even though nothing has changed.

What people should be doing instead, is wondering if this means we're going to put 'Boots on the Ground.'  Weapons of Mass Destruction, remember?  Crimes against humanity?  To be perfectly honest, the really cynical side of me is shaking his head, believing the real purpose of this missile attack had more to do with politics than morality, that an improved approval rating was the main goal.  As I said earlier, 60 Tomahawk missiles are not going to dissuade Assad from doing anything.