Stuff

 Good Morning!  Today's entry is made up of a variety of stuff mostly because this is my weekend, both Saturday and Sunday all wrapped up in one.  Today will be spent doing laundry, hanging a few bits of art upon the walls, and playing Valhalla.  Tomorrow it's back to work for another 5 days in a row.  Now, doesn't that sound simply wonderful?

We had a lot of rain yesterday, so heavy at times you could hear it pounding on the roof of the store and then, just before I left, the winds began blowing away the clouds.  Nice.  The Temps are cool now, and the breeziness is still here.

I watched the last episode this year's The Expanse last evening.  I thought the ending weak.  Most of the 10 episodes were building towards a war between the earthers and the belters... and that really didn't happen.  The proto-molecule was released (in case you're interested), which means Thomas Jane will return for next season.

Tom's the one in the hat

One of the bits of big news is that the big boat in the Suez is moving.

And isn't Debbie Birx spilling her heart out?  Every time I glanced at the media yesterday there was some headline about her, or a phone call from the Spawn of Satan, or how she felt she might actually help by staying silent, or some such nonsense.  

Of course, there were more shootings.  Virginia Beach this time, I believe.  They're happening too often.  A day doesn't pass without a shooting headline.  And the embattled NRA is silent.  This is what they wanted: daily shootouts.  

And finally, I saw that Biden's approval rating has hit 75% for his handling of the pandemic.  That will also translate into higher approval ratings in other areas.  Republicans hate this shit.  Perhaps if they hadn't chosen to embrace the fringe elements of society they might get more respect... nah, that'll never happen.  They're too desperate to dictate and control to ever consider changing.  They don't care how low their approval ratings go as long as they're in charge.

In need of a palate cleanser

Well, it's Sunday.  Sometime last night I hit my 'hump moment.'  Unfortunately I slept through it and was unable to celebrate.  This is how life is; I've gotten used to it a long time ago.
I saw that a 'disgruntled' man killed 11 people in Virginia Beach.  That word bothers the hell out of me.  He was disgruntled, which means he was unhappy.  He was fed-up with the way things were going at his job.  So, instead of getting another job he got a gun.  He didn't specifically target those who had made him unhappy, he shot randomly.  One of his victims was in a car outside the municipal building.  Now eleven families have been traumatized, their grief is palpable, because he was angry... and he had a gun... with a lot of ammunition.  First off, he should not have had access to a weapon.  This mental instability of his did not just appear out of no where.  Gun laws are much stricter in France.  You need to pass a psychological test before being issued a gun permit.  In the United States, however, we have sanctified the Holy Gun.  Secondly, where the hell were this man's supervisors and his co-workers?  Disgruntled people don't hide the fact that they're angry.  They don't bake cookies and take them into work one day, and the next go in and shoot people.  People don't just snap.  There are always signs.  When you see them in a co-worker, you need to bring it to someone's attention.  This means you need to care about the mental state of people you work with because if you don't, instead of packing lunch some morning they might pack a gun.  This doesn't mean you need to like them, but you do need to care about their emotional stability because your life might be at risk if you don't.
Now for something different.  The honeysuckle is exploding all over my back fence... unfortunately I have not been able to take pictures yet... be patient.
And since the next book is going to take place in the ghost towns of the Colorado Rockies, I thought I'd toss this out on this Sunday morning.  Here's a little palate cleanser.
Can anyone guess which one of my characters is going to end up buying a pair of chaps?