Disapproval Ratings

Can you believe it?  Our outside temp is sitting at 37 (F), which is quite warm when you consider last week we were lucky if our daily high made it out of the teens.  This doesn't mean that our nightly lows are going to be be... well, low.  They are.  The long range forecast has them still dropping down into the 20s (F), but this is a nice beginning to the end of winter.  

Much was accomplished yesterday.  Shopping was done.  So was laundry.  I got a very nice 10 mile ride finished.  Editing is proceeding.  Over all, I'm quite satisfied with yesterday, and today began early.  0500 found me working on the edit.  While some might same I'm editing, this is also a period where I rewrite.  Things get moved around.  Some points are enhanced.  Details get added.  Words get dropped off.  The Body in 4:4 Time is in a flux of variations.  Fundamentally, everything stays the same.  This period is actually a lot of fun.

I will be baking bread this afternoon.  Ah, the smell of freshly baked bread.

Today, among other things, I'm going to need to work on the aquariums.  The algae problem seems to be returning.  The fish don't seem to mind.  I'm thinking of replacing the 50 gallon tank in the writing room with a 20 gallon, within the next month or so.  I'd combine the two tanks into one, but the one in the living room as Barbs, and they're not good with other fish.

I needed a pic for this morning, so I just ran upstairs and took one of Howie on the bed.

And the shit show continues.  Airspace around the El Paso, Texas airport has been shut down for the next 10 days because of security reasons.  As someone else pointed out, the last time airspace was shut down was during 9/11.    Back then America knew what was happening.  Is this Orangie just causing chaos for the sake of chaos?  Could this, perhaps, be another attempted distraction from the Epstein files?  Personally, I think that's more likely.  Both Congressmen and Senators are able to review the unredacted files and except for the few wack job, cultists, most are stunned, some visibly.  There's a video of Lauren Boebert leaving the building.  Her comment was that Ghislaine Maxwell deserves more time in jail and in a harsher prison.  Bobo was very upset.  An hour ago Senator John Thune was call for a full release of the unredacted files.  Oh, and did I tell you that the airspace of El Paso has been shut down?

According to NBC, this is where Orangie's approval rating sits.

And his Bureau of Labor Statistics just released the jobs report for January.  Don't believe it.  They're saying that 130,000 jobs have been created.  He needs this lie to back-up the lie that the economy is doing great.  He and his administration are not renowned for either their honesty, or accuracy.

The Big Reveal

 Good morning!  Our temps today are once again predicted to climb into the low to mid 80s (F).  Yesterday?  Well the forecast was kind of off, we had mucho grande clouds.  We even had drizzles in the afternoon and early evening.  Today, supposedly, cloudiness is predicted to be at a minimum, there is bright sunshine outside at present. 

So I actually used the walking pad yesterday.  I like it, however, there is one teeny problem.  Where as the treadmill had all of the controls in front of you, the walking pad has an app.  They want you to download it into your phone.  Not me.  I'm a bit funny about which apps are in my phone: nothing financial, no apps with Chinese above the English wording.  You know, those apps that might provide access to the slim amount of personal data I already have in my phone.  So, I put the app on a tablet.  The max speed on this pad is 6 miles per hour, that's a jog not a walk.  I hate jogging, so that will never happen.  Those with max speeds of 4 mph are less expensive, take that into consideration if you're thinking of investing in one.

I did file a complaint yesterday about the probably fake account I was direct messaging, not that I think it will do any good.  The account has "no content available," which means it was either deleted or Threads shut it down for breaking community rules.  I did send a message to the person, however since he doesn't follow me on Instagram, it went into his "message request" folder where it will sit for 3-4 weeks unless his PA either reads it or deletes it.  He is not known for his social media presence.  And, since this is turning into a nothingburger, I've decided to post the first part of a conversation that went on for almost week, one that was totally focused on Eli and Max.

So, I saw this morning where the Orange Anus wants to have another census in order for Republicans to cheat better.  This is a timely process and if it does happen in say, oh... 11 or 12 months a majority of Americans will know the numbers have been fudged.  The biggest problem for conservatives is that they simply don't realized that in a country that is armed to the teeth they need to have a majority of the people behind them.  Right now Orangie's approval rating sits at 38%, that's every Republican.  About 10% of that number is stupid people.  And now his tariffs are upon us.  Higher prices will continually erode his approval rating.  Any moment now he's going to say "let them eat cake," and we know what happened the last time those words were spoken.

Where's the Beef?

 We're under a heat advisory for today.  Right now our outside temp is 76 (F) and it is only going to get hotter.  Now that doesn't mean the mercury in our thermometers will be climbing into the triple digits.  Nope.  The forecast is for our temp to hit 95 (F), it's the "real feel" of 104 (F) that's the reason for the advisory.  Thunderstorms this weekend will knock our temps back down into the upper 70s (F) to mid 80s (F).

Yesterday was definitely a meh day when it came to getting things accomplished.  I was scheduled to work and that put a damper on my enthusiasm to do anything else.  I did get some words written, but just a few.  I also got a mini-upper body workout in, but even that was lame.  Certain muscles need more than 48 hours to recover, that's why the week gets broken up in to specific days, such as leg day, and back day, and arm day.  Muscle growth is slow to achieve.

Work, itself, we pretty meh, too.  My supervisors needed to help me cut vinyl.  She doesn't know what she's doing so it ended up all flippy floppy.  The roll should have been firm and it was saggy.  She's a dip.  In her middle 60s, she wants to move up into management and so she's focusing mostly on numbers.  She's taking the wrong tact.  She spends much of her time sitting at a computer and ignoring the fact that even our store manager is out in the aisles packing down product, filling holes in the shelves.  She doesn't understand that the position she wants is a labor intensive 50 hour a week job.  They're not going to promote someone who just wants to supervise.

For those who are counting pennies, the cost for a pound of ground beef is $6.19 here in Central PA.  That beats the national high of $6.12

For those who didn't see, Volkswagen missed their plan by $1.6 billion.  They are the 2nd car company in less than 2 weeks that missed by over a billion.  This is because they're eating the tariffs.  Wall Street is not going to let this continue.  Those car tariffs are going to be coming our way and the cost of a new car is going to go through the roof.

There is chatter that a trade deal with Japan might actually get signed, which is terrible.  The new tariff is supposedly 15%, the old tariff was 2%.  Those added costs are going to be passed on to the consumer, and the added revenue will be paid to billionaires.

Jerome Powell publicly disagreed with the Orange Anus yesterday on live TV.  Orangie's butt was already burning from South Park mockery.  His ego can not deal with this public ridicule.  And he's leaving for Scotland where everybody hates him.  There are going to be protests.  Good.

New approval ratings were released and Orangie's overall approval rating is 37%.  What's truly devastating about that number is that is approval rating among Independent voters is down to 27%.  That number is simply horrific since neither party can do anything without the Independent voters, and right now less than one third of them approve of Orangie and his administration.

Failure: The Only Option

Wednesday. Our skies are slightly overcast.  There is a bit of humidity in the air.  I did laundry yesterday but used the dryer because rain was in the forecast, and rain it did.  Lotsa rain.  We had some wind on my little hilltop, however in the areas surrounding me trees were blown over.  Everybody got the rain.  Some places got inches.  There are tons of pictures of flooded streets and trees down.  Forecasters are predicting today to be rather calm; not as hot and not as humid.  Tomorrow the threat of thunderstorms returns.

My aquariums need a light cleaning, that will be taken care of this afternoon.  Cleaning.  That's actually what's in store for today.  There are many small chores which need to be taken care of, including at least two more loads of laundry.   

Jimmy Swaggart died yesterday.  He was a scumbag televangelist.  Over the years, my mom sent him hundreds of dollars.  At one point when she was in the hospital after a heart attack she asked me to take her Discover card and send him $30 and ask him to pray for her.  I did not.  He was a soulless Christian who preyed on the naive and gullible.  An indicator of how morally bereft he was came this morning when the Orange Anus praised him, telling the naive and gullible how good he was; Orangie and Swaggart were cut from the same cloth.

For those of you who are curious, here's a picture of my carrot.

Yesterday was a big day in Washington.  Vance, the vice president, was the tie breaking vote in Orangie's big transfer of wealth.  Idiot cultists are dancing around singing "yes, yes, let's make the 1% richer!"  That minority group has no idea what they are going to be getting if the House of Representatives passes this piece of shit legislation.  76% of Americans are against this bill, of course Republicans only care about their wealthy benefactors.

There were a number of clips with Lisa Murkowski being confronted by a reporter asking about her vote.  She actually attempted to stare him down.  When that failed, she gave some lame excuse of how, knowing that the legislation was truly terrible, she attempted to carve out a tiny safety net for Alaskans.  If the bill was that bad, she should have voted against it, but then that would have been going against party lines.

What Murkowski and so many other Republicans fail to understand is that Orangie's approval rating has dropped to 32%.  He's entering into W. Bush's territory.  The country is growing angrier and angrier and Republicans don't care and right now it looks like failure is their only option.

The Tiny Bit of Joy

 Well, a dreary Saturday is upon us.  Temps are only suppose to rise into the mid 70s (F).  Rain and thunderstorms are also expected this morning.  Yesterday's sun began hiding behind clouds in the early afternoon, and drizzles began in the early evening.  They've been continuing ever since.  Tomorrow should be a mite nicer, but I work, so there will be little time for yardwork.

While I feel as though little was accomplished yesterday, as I think back, I have to admit that is wrong.  A large section of the weeds, sticks, and branches by my neighbor's garage was cleared out. I'm going to plant something there that can spend time in the shade. I planted 6 flowering plants in front of the porch since that area is also in shade, if they grow, I'll consider planting more next to the garage.  

The big aquarium was also cleaned. 

Some work was done on The Body in History.  I'm looking at the middle of May for publishing it.  Sometime next week I should be getting the cover art.  I'm nervous/curious about that.  Usually I get to see rough sketches, this time that hasn't happened, though Cori has been asking me lots of questions.  

The Pope's funeral is today.  I saw pictures of the crowd, it's massive.  The Orange Anus was relegated to the 3rd row.  Don't worry, I'm sure he'll brag about how his crowds were larger.

I did see a few pictures of he and Zelensky sitting in chairs supposedly having one on one negotiations.  I guess some people might be impressed, the dolts and dummies that make up his base.  I don't doubt the rest of the world sees this as nothing more than a photo op, hence no picture in today's blog.  Zelensky knows exactly what kind of idiot he's dealing with, as does the rest of the world.

 Remember during Covid how the Orange Anus spent an hour or so every afternoon splashing his face across TV screens as he gave completely unnecessary updates?  Well, he's still playing those daily gigs, though now he's not talking about Covid.  Now he takes softball questions from allies in the press corps which let his diarrhea run for endless stretches of time.  Everything out of his mouth is a lie that only cultists can believe.  He loves every minutes that the cameras are on him.  His lies become more and more outrageous, recycling old bits and pieces of deceit.  You do know, his sycophants keep telling him his approval ratings are the best.  I don't know about you, but every time the truth catches up with him, as with his complaint about Fox Entertainment talking about his terrible approval rating, a tiny bit of joy surges into my heart and and I cannot stop myself from smiling.

The Goddess of War

 Well, here we are at the end of the work week.  Friday.  I will have Friday's off from here into perpetuity.  Believe me when I say it's so nice to say that.  To celebrate, Mother Nature has given me nice weather, with afternoon temps reaching into the upper 70s (F).  Surprisingly, the forecasters are calling for a cool down in a few days.  Then the afternoon temps will reach into the upper 60s (F), to low 70s (F).  Since we haven't had rain for a few days, we're under a fire watch.  In fact, there are several wildfires burning out near Shippensburg, that's about 45 miles away.

Retail yesterday was successful, measure wise, I got 3, though one shouldn't really count because I made a mistake and asked corporate to update a customers information.  They did, however in doing so they broke the link to the quote and the 2 systems stopped communicating.  We used to have an old Legacy system that did everything and worked well, but what good is software that can't be updated?  Now we have Design Builder for doors, windows, and blinds, HDMS for flooring and back splashes, and Order Up where quotes are built, changed, and paid for, and, as you might suspect, there was zero training because... well, I suppose that would be too much of an added expense.  We were actually told that tenured employees might have problems dealing with the new systems, however new learning them from scratch would do just fine.  Not surprising, even the new employees hate the system.

Did you know that Athena carried both a sword and a shield because she was the goddess of war?

Tell me, has anyone figured out what's going on with the tariffs?  I do not think this is intentional, rather this is what happens when you a bunch of blithering billionaires who are all trying to out-manage each other as they fail to run the country.  The United States cannot be run as a business.

Yesterday Reuters/IPSOs poll had only 37% of Americans thinking that the Orange Anus was doing a good job of handling the economy.  It that's true, that's base Republicans 28% and some idiot Independents who are too focused on their greed to understand how incompetent Orangie is at handing the economy.  According to Fox Entertainment, his approval rating is down to 44%, I think that's too high, but then again this did come from Fox, an, as expected, Orangie got all hissy.  To be honest, all he wants to do is play golf poorly and sign Executive Orders as though they were decrees.  And, in case you're wondering, it's only going to get worse.

The Amateur

 Today's temps are predicted to climb into the mid 80s (F).  As might be expected, I have to work, though not until this afternoon, so some yardwork should be accomplished this morning.  After today, a cooldown is expected, though for this time of the year that means day time highs in the mid 70s (F).  I can live with that.

And yesterday, even though the weather was wonderful, ended up being a rather meh day.  I did do a little yardwork, but just a little.  I did learn a valuable lesson, though.  On Tuesday I had planted the bean seedlings that I'd started in peat pots, well Howie likes to run around with those same peat pots in his mouth.  For him to do that, he had to dig them up, so out of 6, only one remains.  If I'd desperately been hoping they would come to harvest in order to eat beans, I'd be upset.  But they really are only beans, and all I need to do sis pop some in the ground sans peat pots.  None of my tomato seeds sprouted, but the green pepper seeds did, so I've got to Howie proof those seedlings when I plant them out.

I went to see The Amateur last evening.  Remi Malek stars as a nerdy computer guy who works for the government whose wife is killed in a terrorist attack.  So, yes, it is a revenge movie, though in a very nerdy way.  People do die, but not in your standardized revenge movie fashion, where the hero pumps them full of bullets.  You see, Remi's really smart and is not really a killer at heart.  Lawrence Fishburne is a killer who, sort of trains Remi.  Both are extremely good in this movie.  I liked it a lot.  It was goo to see a fresh take on a revenge film that doesn't included bloody violence.

And the on again, off again, on again, off again tariffs are, I think, on again... maybe.  Most of the media outlets are reporting that China played the Orange Anus, not that he'll feel humiliated, he'll do what he always does, blame someone else, probably Biden.  Some of his cultists are saying he's playing 4D chess.  Wrong.  He's not even playing checkers.  He is, as some economists are saying, creating an economic catastrophe because he's incompetent.  Is he using negotiating tactics for the 1950s?  That might be too much of a complement.  Orangie's biggest problem is that he played a successful businessman on a reality TV show for 6 years and believes his own bullshit.

You know he's failing when Fox Entertainment tells his cultists his approval rating is the lowest of any president in history, even lower than his first term.  Their only problem is that they said it's at 44%, which, like everything Fox Entertainment says about him is bloated.  Right now his approval rating is between 40 and 41%, an the only direction it can go is down.

Pig in Shit

 The weather today is supposed to be superb.  Our high should be in the mid 70s (F) with partially cloudy skies.  We have the same forecast for tomorrow.  I always have off Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Sadly, we have the same forecast for Thursday and unfortunately I have to work.  I'm thinking that maybe I should take some sort of Spring sabbatical or something so I don't have to go to work.

I did work yesterday.  Someone purchased a big ticket window install, otherwise we would not have made plan.  Unless I was exceedingly comfortable financially, there is no way I would make any large purchase right now.  I had a conversation with my supervisor in which I told her that sales are going to continue to slow down as prices go up, and more and more people become concerned.  Her response:  "well, that means you're just going to have to work harder."  Did you hear me laughing?  They have me scheduled to work at the Lead Generating table on Sunday.  Yippee.  Out of curiosity, I did go in to check to see if any of the leads they'd been generating with the table were actually selling.  Nope.

Howie has decided he's not going to eat his Beneful dog food.  That's a problem since I just had another large bag delivered by Chewy.  He eats everything else, treats, snacks, bananas, blueberries, but not his dog food.  I'm going to need to start monitoring him when he's outside to insure he isn't supplementing his diet with sticks, and grass, and plants.  I have a friend whose daughter's dogs like to chow down on fireplace kindling.

And you never know when a bolt of lightening might save your life.

I saw this morning that Thailand has put tariff negotiations with Orange Anus on hold until certain issues have been resolved.  Vietnam has already told the administration they want zero for zero tariffs, that means no tariffs at all, and I believe Switzerland has made the same decision.  Let's be honest here, the Orange Anus has managed to, trade wise at least, united the world against us.  Everyone knows he has put himself in the unenviable position of aggressor, and everyone knows how easily he will cave.  They're just holding out until he accepts the offers they're going to make.

After causing the Pope to have a stroke, I see that J.D. Vance has moved onto India.  His wife is Indian, so he might get a better reception there than he's been getting from the other countries he's visited.  Of course, he has converted to Catholicism, so they might tolerate his wife, and ignore him.  I don't think anyone sees him as a serious negotiator for... well, anything, except for chaise lounges and loveseats. Wait until he finds out the Indian mascara he uses comes from China.

And Orangie's approval rating has dropped to 42%.  Frankly, my dears, I don't think he gives a damn about his approval rating.  As long as he has his toadies and sycophants surrounding him, he's happy as a pig in shit... which is pretty much the truth.

Adaptability

 Today the weather forecasters are calling for on and off showers and thunderstorms.  Yippee!  I'm off, first of 3 days, so it's going to be a lazy, laundry, cleaning day.  My real weekend begins tomorrow.  

Right now the skies are overcast and the temps are sitting at 75 (F).  After today, a heat dome is supposed to position itself over the center of the country.  We here in Central PA are close to the edge, which means our temps are predicted to be tolerable.  

This afternoon, I do plan on climbing onto the bike.  I need about 7 miles to hit my 55 mile goal for the week.  A ride through Amsterdam should do the trick.  Here is a list of my favorite Rouvy rides.  I've downloaded them, so I'm wondering if I can move them over into the Tacx App.

I see where Biden's approval rating has dropped.  People also don't see the country moving in a positive direction... because infection rates are rising all across the country.  Honestly, what did people think was going to happen?  You have a specific group who refuses to get vaccinated.  Because of this, more and more of them are going to get infected.  Some will survive, others will not.  The rising infection rates are causing the economy to stall.  What did people think was going to happen?  This is what happens when you have one group of people who are bent on destroying everything they don't like.  I suspect we're in for a bit of a rough ride.  I also suspect that the variants are just beginning to roll out.  Covid will mutate regularly.  This think isn't going to go away because people don't like it.  Adaptability is the answer.

The same thing is true with the approaching high temps. I think few, if any, ever thought we'd be living in an age when Darwin was going to be proved right so frequently.