Retail Crush

 Can you believe the weekend has arrived?  Forecasters are calling for snow here, followed by possible freezing rain, though in may end up just being rain.  Forecasters have us getting about one half inch of snow.  The freezing rain will total out at possibly .03 of an inch, which, if we were sitting on a donut, would be considered a very light glaze, probably so light you'd be embarrassed to call us a glazed donut.

I left my barley cook dry while I was making my breakfast.  Blame Howie.  I was busy throwing his new pink octopus and wasn't paying attention.  I ate one bowl and then fed the rest of it to the birds.   My house now smells like over toasted barley, or well maybe that's not right, possibly light burned might be a better description.

My sporting laptop shut down in twenty-two minutes into a ride yesterday.  I was not happy.  This has happened before, and every single time it seems to have been triggered by an update.  Yesterday 2 (one from Garmin and one from Microsoft) downloaded simultaneously.  When it shuts down like that, everything is lost.  Boo.  Hiss. 

And now for something light.  I'm playing through Skyrim again, and there are 20+ characters you can team up with, let's call them followers.  Each follower will add a bonus to your skills.  Many of them will only add that bonus up to level 30.  After lever 30 the benefits no longer have any value and so they just tag along making silly comments.  Except for one.  Roggi Knot-Beard.  His benefits are good up until level 60.  So, I'd like you to meet my new follower.

I am scheduled to work today.  I don't know how busy it's going to be, since we are supposed to get a dusting of snow, though I can tell you we have been slow.  Because our customer footsteps are down, I was not surprised to see this graphic in Bloomberg.  This past January, retail sales dropped.

Is it Trump's fault?  Off the cuff, I'd say that a damn good possibility.  Unless you have a lot of bouncing buckos in the bank, I would not purchase any big ticket items for the foreseeable future.  This is terrible news for all of those retail giants who toasted Orangie's win, believing they were going to get both a big tax cut and golden sales.  Ouch.

And, in case any of you missed it, Orangie's team fired over 300 people who maintain our nuclear arsenal... and then quickly hired them back once they realized what their zombie brains had done.  I'd put money on the fact that this stupid team is anything but Woke.

The Dark Ages, (part 2)

 Here it is, Sunday morning, and it's cold.  Temps are in the 20s (F), and today's high, like yesterday is only predicted to top off in the mid 30s (F).  Don't forget, winter is still a week away.  Will it be a cold one, or warm like the last two.  So far our weather pattern is repeating itself.  Only time will tell.

For those interested, the barley for breakfast is going well.  I boil up one cup of barley in 2.5 cups of water, that's gives me 3 cups barley which I then refrigerate.  It's a grain, so it has a very mild nutty/wheaty flavor.  Cost wise, it's about .35 a breakfast, or if it were boxed, like Grape Nuts, it would cost about $2.10 a box.  That's something you can take to the bank.  On top of that, there are absolutely no preservatives, meaning I'm not ingesting chemicals whenever I eat it.

Yesterday was one of those, I'm not doing anything days.  It was cold, I stayed home.  I wrote.  I had thought about working out with dumbbells, but that came to naught, as did the desire to put in some time on the treadmill.  I did spend some time examining my bands, but beyond the examination nothing happened.  

I played some Dragon Age.  I'm at the point where the final Boss fight is just around the corner, unfortunately, the game itself doesn't feel complete, and sadly, I am ready for it to be over.  That says more about the writing than anything else.  Most of the companion stories just are interesting enough, that's because their quests tended to be lame.  I'll probably finish it over the next few days and then download the new Indiana Jones game.  It's from Bethesda, and everybody I talked to loves it.

For dinner last evening I cooked some of my homemade pasta.  The pasta was good, the meat sauce, however, left a little to be desired.

And, of course, a large part of the reason yesterday was one of "those" days were the thoughts I had about our incoming president, and how bad things are going to get.  When I tell people that the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO was just the tip of the iceberg, I know many don't understand.  Conservatives expect Americans to just sit there and eat every spoonful of the shit they want to hand out and that isn't going to happen.  Both Canada and Mexico are going to tell Trump to go to Hell (you can bet they're talking to each other as we speak) and that will begin the Chaos that Wall Street hates.  The Orange Anus is going to put out a slew of Executive Orders on day one, and though many will have to work to work their way through the court system, they too will rock the country.  His cultists have no idea of the evil they have potentially unleashed.  Is the world heading into another Dark Ages?  That's possible.  Things that will not survive if we are:  Conservativism, Christianity, Wall Street, Billionaires.

December Morning

 This morning started off brisk, that is if your definition of brisk is 19 (F).  Yepper, it was that cold when I climbed out of bed.  The skies are overcast, though weather forecasters are calling for partial sun later today, with the temps popping up into the mid to upper 30s (F).  And it's not yet winter!  Of course, and I'm going to repeat, so far we are experiencing the same weather pattern we've had for the past several years: nights with temps down in the teens, and days when the temperature has barely hit freezing.  And then in early to mid January, things warm up and daily highs are in the mid 40s (F).  We shall have to see if the pattern holds true.  If it does, this is another example of climate change.

Yesterday, the day after Black Friday, the store was busy in the morning.  I missed that, since I didn't start to work until 2 PM.  I have the same schedule today and tomorrow.  This was my schedule back during Covid, except I was working 5 days a week.  Now it's either 3 or 4, and as we get deeper into winter the number of days is likely to decline.  That's fine, too, unless, of course, the Orange Anus decides to screw around with Social Security.

I'm trying something new for breakfast, cooked barley.  I've been eating Grape Nuts for years now, and I've decided that it's time for a change for two reasons:  Even though it's supposed to nutritious, I suspect it's probably closer to eating cardboard than anything else, and it's expensive (but than so is every breakfast cereal).  It's also part of the Mediterranean diet, not that I follow one diet plan, but I've always been one to try and eat as healthy as possible.

And if you don't own a Bible and don't mind buying into blasphemy, there's this:

It's leather bound and is, in case you didn't notice, the official signature edition, for just $1000.  Most Bibles have two simple words on the cover, Holy Bible.  This one?  The Orange Anus needs his name and title on the cover in what's known as the Top Billing space.  He is... basically, taking credit for the Holy Bible.  This is what every Evangelical has prayed for:  Donald J. Trump destroying Christianity.

Oh, and he wants Kash Patel to run the FBI.  Republicans refuse to understand that a majority of Americans will not stand for an authoritative government.  They will have to be taught a lesson, won't they.