Don't Let Me Down

Good Morning, World.  It's a chilly 21 (F) here in Central PA, and that's going to be about as good as it gets today.  Well, not quite, temps will rise, but only around 7 degrees if we're lucky.  This means Howie's time outside is limited and he has only so much time to find a stick, or a twig, or a rock to trade for a piece of Puperoni.  Don't let anyone tell you dogs aren't smart.  He's long past the barter stage and I'm surprised he hasn't installed a little stick stand on the back porch with the only currency accepted being a tasty little treat.

There are chores on the menu for today.  Baking bread being one of them.  Here's an interesting thing that I've noticed:  it takes a long time for mold to grow on store bought bread.  I have had pieces in the bag for over a week and a half and, surprisingly they're not even stale.  Home baked bread, however, the kind which doesn't include lots of chemicals will start to mold in about a week, and will be stale in a day if not wrapped tightly.  

Yesterday at work, I sold a measure.  That was fine.  Sadly, $2680 of vinyl plank flooring that I sold two weeks ago was returned because... well, I have no idea.  That information is not provided.  So, instead of having a positive sales figure at the end of the week I was in the hole -$475.  Don't that suck.  And we have our store inventory coming up in 3 weeks, which means they want constant aisle maintenance.  This means filling as many holes on our shelves as possible, which in turn means I will actually have to work.  Can you hear the excitement in my voice.

One of my favorite groups, Milky Chance, recorded and released one of their best songs with a small Viennese orchestra.  There is a 2 album set coming out and I'm thinking it might not be a bad investment. 

I saw this morning that China is considering selling TikTok to Elonia.  I hate to tell you people, this will be very bad if it happens.  For one thing, his ties with China run deep.  They make the batteries for his cars, hell, they even make the cars.  One of the biggest concerns about TikTok is that the Chinese are using it to infiltrate American businesses, that they're stealing American secrets.  So what would be worse than having the man who bought the Orange Anus owning the app that Conservatives fear most.  It almost makes one wonder if that's why the Supreme Court is seriously considering banning TikTok unless the Chinese sell it... to Elonia.  Well, that didn't come up in the arguments, but you know them Conservatives love the idea of bowing down to the richest man in the world.

 

The Lesser of Two Evils

 And we're scheduled to have another sunny day with a high in the low 60s (F).  This will be it for a while.  Oh, sure, the forecasters are saying that tomorrow the temps are going to stay this warm, but rain is going to be moving into the picture and the temps are predicted to fall.  Keep in mind, we're not even halfway through February, though we are now halfway through winter.  See, a bright spot!

Many things were accomplished yesterday.  It always makes me feel good when I can say that.  And today?  I'm finally going to begin working on the floor.  I don't know if I'll get the entire thing finished today (it's not that big), but I am going to be spending a lot of time down on my knees, using my rubber mallet and my tapping block to lock the tiles into place.  I also want to get in a fast walk and a row, and maybe a short dumbbell session.

I deleted TikTok from my phone.  I got tired of all of the reposting of videos from the few content providers I had friended.   One was putting reposting and / or posting new videos every 2 hours and I got bored.  And, since I'm speaking about social media, am I the only one who's fed up with all the ads on Instagram?  I'm wondering how many times I need to hide the Fanduel ads before Instagram finally listens.  

Here's a picture of Lily on the porch from last summer.  She was watching me as I chopped down and dug out the burning bush, which I learned is a predatory plant.  

And, of course, the special counsel released his report on Biden and the documents he'd had at his home.  No charges are going to be pressed, mostly because, according to this guy, Biden is an elderly man dealing with memory lapses.  Of course, Democrats went through the roof.  For years now, they've been down playing any hints of senior memory loss, trying to make Joe's brain look like its as snappy and fresh as it was when he was much younger.  Is the guy who did this a Trump loyalist?  Possibly.  He was appointed by Trump.  Still, this is a problem Democrats should have been more focused on.  There are going to be 2 candidates in this year's presidential election, one is 81 years old, the other is 77.  Both are a bit forgetful.  But one is entirely focused on revenge, and the other just wants to do a good job as president.  Sad as it is to say, this year people will be voting for the lesser of the two evils.  Vote Blue.  Save Democracy.  Put Trump in jail.

Royalty

It's Sunday morning, and even though the rain hasn't started, I can smell the change it in the air, you know what I'm talking about, that scent of Petrichor, that earthy smell filling the air when the first drops dash themselves to death upon stones and concrete.  Of course, if I'm smelling it we must already be under a bit of a drizzle.

And yes, it is going to rain today.  Heavy at times.  And we are under a snow watch for later this evening when the cold air descending from Canada overwhelms the moisture ridden air from the south.  Nothing to actually write home about; the ground temps are going to be too warm.

I saw that Ryan O'Neal died and made the mistake of reading his obit.  He made one good movie (Paper Moon), but everything else was pretty much he and his agent trying to cash in on his pretty boy looks.  You know there were problems in the family when he and one of his sons got arrested for drug possession.  

I am working today.  The rain will keep shoppers away.  Well, most of them at least.  Since I haven't work this past week, I've not experienced seeing the disappointment in the eyes of those potential customers when they're being told that "no, it's too late to have your carpet installed by Christmas."  Sometimes they get angry when they hear those words.  To me, it's like rain off of a duck's back.

I've started putting little videos of my books on TikTok.  Maybe one or two of those sex workers who friended me will buy one.

Here's a cute picture of Lily sitting on a pillow looking out the window.  This is what royalty looks like, in case you didn't know.

Will this be a foray in to fun filled politics?  The Orange Anus will be taking the stand again in NYC trying to save his business.  There will be an appeal when he loses most of his fictitious financial empire.  This is how he works.  His pricy legal team will attempt to litigate every one of the 91 charges against him to death.  Been there, seen it before, and it will happen again.  The more this happens, the angrier he's going to get, as every one of his lies gets torn away, like so many layers of his thin skin, until the only thing left will be the hulking skeleton of the Spawn of Satan.  

 

Zooming in on the Wall

 Can we all say hello to a brisk Tuesday morning?  Temps outside my window are a cool 31 (F), which is borderline cold.  We had snow flurries earlier.  They surprised me by blowing in my face as I opened the back door to let Lily out.  She did her did her morning pee and was back in the house in a snap.  This is what happens when the temperatures drop this low.  Our high today will be in the mid 30s, though tomorrow we're supposed to start a warming trend.

Yesterday was slow in the flooring department, in fact there were only 3 busy departments: Hardware, always a seasonal favorite since every dad wants a Tool; Appliances, this is the best time of the  year to buy that new refrigerator you want; and, of course, Garden.  Artificial trees have been more popular than real trees for some time, and that's true again this year.  I've always like the natural look, but let's be honest, unless you're setting the tree up on a tile or hardwood floor, needle cleanup, when you take it down, is a real bitch, and those decorative skirts you put around the base don't seem to do the job well.

Also, in case you didn't hear me, I climbed onto the scale yesterday morning to see how much damage I could blame on Thanksgiving... Holy Crap!  The time has come to start burning off calories, at least until Christmas, which is a few short weeks away.

Don't know if I told anyone or not, but I signed up for TikTok and amazingly everyday some new sex worker lovely, young woman starts following me, even though I haven't posted anything.  As a result, I've decided to post short videos of my books.  You never know, maybe one or two of those sex workers lovely, young women might have a hidden urge to read.  Maybe, for the first one, I'll zoom in for a closeup of the wall.

Quite a few people will be attending a memorial service for Rosalynn Carter today, including Melanoma Trump.  I was truly surprised to see her name on the list of living first ladies who will be there.  Because of who she is, I suspect there's some sort of grift involved, possibly BOGO pics of her standing next to Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

I saw where that antisemite Elon Musk flew to Israel in the hopes of doing some damage control after spouting off in favor of a racist, antisemite conspiracy theory that was debunked decades ago.  True, he'll garner a headline, but nothing else.  It's too late for him to repackage his identity, especially after his debacle with Twitter (notice, I'm not us the X name).  I haven't deleted the app from my phone yet, but I suspect that will happen soon, mostly because I get emails from them saying "this is interesting," and it's all hate mongering.  Twitter used to be entertaining, now it's a shit show overrun by conspiracy theorists, and hate mongers.

Shrek Porn

Happy Saturday!  Today is my 13th anniversary of working for the orange home improvement retailer.  This is the longest I've ever worked for one specific company, not that feel the need to change jobs every 10 or 11 years, because like so many other workers in America I've been laid off.  Twice.  From 2 major corporations that proved they were inefficient at dealing with change.  Not that I'm complaining.  I received good severance packages from both that allowed me to pay off my house, go to France, buy my first boxer, and so many other things.  I do believe dealing with their failures have made me a better person.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I bought a portable heating pad to wear under my shirt while I'm at work.  The meds, ibuprofen and naproxen, don't really help much, but heat therapy?  Simply amazing.

And, of course, I do have to go to work today.  I had a very large sale yesterday, blinds, almost $6000.  A couple with 5 boys are buying a new house, in fact they were the reason the wife said they needed to buy blinds... almost $6000 in blinds.  She was the driving force behind the purchase.  The husband was nice though hesitant.  I'd have been more than hesitant.  I can think of a better use of $6000.

I also have another flooring sale going through today that's close to $8000.  They're going to miss me when I go part-time.

Why the picture of Shrek?  Well, in case you haven't heard Tik-Tok is the advance guard of the cavalry in Texas.  A number of content providers on Tik-Tok are so furious over that Texas anti-abortion they've been flooding the 'whistleblower site' with Shrek Porn, among other things.  Or I guess I should say they were flooding it.  You see, the site was hosted by GoDaddy and GoDaddy has dropped it because it was breaking fundamental rules.  What rules?  How about gathering personal information about people without their authorization?  You see the idea was to turn average citizens into vigilantes, providing anonymous tips, making accusations about women without needing to provide information about themselves.  In other words, anybody can be an accuser with no accountability for their accusations.  Just think about the legal ramifications.  Guess who looks bad here, besides the Texas legislators?  And that dumb shit Abbott who signed a piece of legislation that is so obviously flawed?  Those 5 conservative members of the Supreme Court who let this law stand.  Evidently not one of them is a true constitutional scholar. 

 

Tacos or Bigfoot

After today, I get 3 days off in a row, a mini-vaca, so to speak.  Today is also August 1.  We are heading into the dog days, that time of the summer where temperatures are high and rain is scarce... just like we've been having for the past month.  I look at the weather app on my phone and see rain north of us and south of us, Central PA, however, seems stuck in a band of dryness.  My little potted garden is suffering.  I do have tomatoes and peppers, jalapenos and poblamos, and my basil is doing okay, but the cucumbers are tiny.  Since the dogs don't eat them, next year I'll plant them in the ground.

So, I see the Idiot Jerk in the White House is going to ban TikTok with an Executive Order.  He gives a lot of reasons, but remember, he lies constantly.  Also remember that it was people on TikTok who claimed responsibility for trolling his Tulsa rally to death.  While that validity of that statement is questionable, it did make a lot of headlines... and the Idiot Jerk in the White House has been known to hold a grudge.  He hates it when people mock him and make fun of him, which is exactly what TikTok did. So, it wouldn't surprise me if this banning has more to do with revenge then anything else.

There was an interesting article in Politico concerning polls for Florida.  Floridians were evidently rejecting the 13% spread of the Quinnipiac  polls siting past errors.  Okay, so 13% is extremely high.  Unfortunately for the Idiot Jerk, even Fox News is putting him into a deep hole.  The article in Politico didn't address the rest of the polls so those complaining must have no problem them.  The fact that the Idiot Jerk has been increasing spending in the Sunshine State (by a lot) indicates internal polling is showing the same thing.  Ouch.

Finally, I'm trying to decide which socks I should wear on tonight's ride.  Tacos or Bigfoot?