The First Sybil of Billionaires

 When I woke up this morning the outside temp was 50 (F), it is now 47 (F), so I guess that might be an indicator of how the day may be going.  According to the forecasters, temps are going to continue to drop throughout the week.  Next week, we're supposed to be getting some actually... well possibly, temps that will... maybe be close to frigid.  The low temp is already beginning to rise.

I worked yesterday.  Boredom reigned.  I did do design a roller shade for a customer, who was disappointed the same fabric couldn't be used in a Roman Shade.  I showed her the fabrics she could use for Roman Shades and she was unimpressed.  She also balked at the $400 price tag for one blind, so I told her to wait for a sale, they run sales weekly.  Most people who are buying blinds or shades now are usually waiting for the sale pricing.  Keep in mind that even with sale pricing those companies selling them are still making boodles of money.  There is no such thing as a deal.  Most people don't understand this.

Howie destroyed another one of those sofa pillows that I've given him as toys.  It's a lot cheaper than buying him stuffed toys to shred.  In fact, the only difference is that the pillows don't have squeakers.

And, sadly, Jimmy Carter passed away yesterday.  The outpouring of sympathy from both Democrats and Republicans, as well as world leaders is amazing.  He was a man of honor, who, in his final mortal act, has done something remarkable.  All American flags need to be set at half-mast for a full 30 days after a president dies as the nation mourns its loss.  So, on January 20, when the Orange Anus is sworn into office, flags will be at half-mast and the nation will be mourning.

And while the tributes for Carter come in from all corners of the world, Elonia has been spending a lot of time on Twitter complimenting himself as Adrian Dittman.  That's right, there's more than one Elonia in the world, though Adrian is a figment of imagination, perhaps the invisible childhood friend who was never left behind.  Adrian is not an alter-ego, in case you're thinking that.  Nope.  In Elonia's mind he's real.  I honestly don't doubt that eventually Elonia is going to be diagnosed as the first Sybil of Billionaires.  

Kamikaze

 So, California is getting rain.  A Navy buddy of mine posted pictures on Facebook this AM and I was polite.  I didn't tell him that is what most rain storms look like here in Central PA because they don't have the amount of rain that we do.  Two years ago there was a heavy drought in the southwest, today they're getting too much.  This means I need to make a really bad joke:  Isn't this how it usually is?  When it rains, it pours?

Anyway, yesterday was oh, so boing at work.  I did have customers show up who I'd sold blinds to last week.  They got a phone call, the product they wanted was out of stock and there would be a 3 week delay until production could begin on their blinds.  That does happen on occasion.  What does irk me, however, is this belief by some customers that they can show up on Sunday and resolve the issue.  While our store may be open, Bali blinds, Levelor blinds, and Venetia blinds are closed on the weekends.  True, we can reach their customer service reps, but all they can do is look at notes on a customer's order, which is what I can do.  The customers are coming back later this morning when we will be able to get some answers for them.

It seems as though I have Kamikaze snails.  Here's one racing towards the edge of the clam shell.

And so the Orange Anus had made it official, he will not be participating in the RNC debate with the other candidates.  No surprise there.  Gutless and spineless are two very good words to describe the former president.  He doesn't care that most of America now sees him as a coward extraordinaire, not as long as 71% of the Republican party trust him more they they would a member of their own family.  When I saw that figure I was stunned, but only for a moment.  Just think of how these people act, and talk, and dress.  They are a cult, and Trump is, and this is something he truly doesn't understand, their Kamikaze leader.  All together, they are going to wrap themselves up in a great red MAGA flag and do a swan dive directly into history.  Believe, it can't happen soon enough.

Waiting for the Big Guns

 Finally, my 3 day work weekend is over.  Not that I find that time at the store stressful, mostly the passing minutes are slow and tedious because customers in the flooring department are few and far between.  I did design an $8,000 order of blinds yesterday.  Yeah, read that dollar figure correctly.  Honestly, I'd need to have far more disposable income than I could ever dream of to spend that kind of money on blinds.

Since I did work, I didn't get to enjoy the beautiful day, sunny with a bit of a breeze.  Today there is the possibility of rain (read that rare showers).  I'm pretty much going to ignore that forecast.  When it comes to precipitation our local forecaster's accuracy has be rather unpredictable.

Chores are planned for today, as they are for everyday.  As well as a trip to my local Giant supermarket.  And, of course, Lily gets her walk.  That's something she loves.  We didn't get a lot of walks in when Biggie was still alive because it was a chore for him to just get around the block.  Don't get me wrong, he loved those short walks, but once we were home he'd just lay done and pant for a while.  Now, Lily and I go daily.  She will be 10 in August and she's still bouncy as hell.

Here's an update on my peaches.  If I've counted correctly there are 4 on the tree, a big difference from the 100s I used to get. Here's a pic of one.

And the GOP presidential race is beginning to really heat up.  Mikey Pence announced.  Today Chris Christie is announcing.  Both of them are going after Trump.  Nikki H is also lobbing small hand grenades towards the Orange Anus, none really strong enough to actually make it explode.  Supposedly there is open warfare between Ronnie D and Donnie T, though to my mind it's only small arms fire.  I'm waiting until they both decide to bring in the Big Guns.  I suspect that will happen once Donnie T gets indicted for espionage... or some other crime against Democracy.  When that happens they're going to try and verbally nuke each other.  Who loses in this approaching shit show?  Why the GOP.  Every aspect of their political machine is going to be damaged.  All the "anti legislation" is going to take a back seat at the back of the bus because no one is going to care except their petty base.  You know, those rarified individuals who live in Magadonia.

 

Climate Change

 So, the new work week begins today.  I'm scheduled for a full 8 hours.  Of course, I only work 2 other days this week, Wednesday and Sunday, so I guess I'll survive.

And yesterday was steady at work.  I will tell you, for all the griping about the economy, we are busy as hell.  They may have started some pre-Black Friday sale-a-thon I'm not aware of, but customers were packing in through the front doors until late afternoon.  

And I'm kind of not dealing with a customer from California over the phone.  He wants to have in-stock blinds installed.  We don't do that for several reasons, the biggest being there's a good possibility we're not going to have the proper width blinds in stock.  I told him this when he set up the measure.  I've repeated this several times and he keeps saying, "we've got to figure out how to get the blinds at a lower price, it's a rental."  If he wants in-stock blinds, he will need to send his maintenance person, if he has a maintenance person, into the store to buy them, and then install them.  Maybe he should have thought of this before buying an investment property 4000 miles away.

And now a bit about Climate Change.

Everybody except Conservatives and certain religious groups understand this is happening, they deny because of their greed, or their preference of scripture over science, or both.  Because of this group, the coming changes will be devastating for some.  Besides droughts, floods, storms and fires, one of the things Climate Change will do is spur Evolution.  Those who can better survive the heat will adapt and thrive.  The same is true for animal and plant life.  Greed may be tempered for a while.  What will definitely go extinct is the life we know of today.  Religious beliefs will also either evolve or die off.  The weak Climate Accord over 200 countries signed will slow this process down, but not stop it.  This is good in that the longer we have, the number of species that can adapt and survive will increase.  What will we look like in a couple hundred years?  I would not be surprised if the Sahara blooms again.

Blinding oneself

 Today is my Thursday.  I am so looking forward to tomorrow being my Friday.  Alas, I'm scheduled for one of those crappy 1 day weekends on Thursday.  After that I'm working 2 on and 1 off for almost a week.  I don't get a full 2 day weekend until may 19.  I am really looking forward to those 2 days.

Yesterday I deal with a couple who had originally bought blinds with pull cords.  Cordless blinds, the ones you just push up and pull down, are more expensive.  Frugal customers opt for cords.  There was just one problem with these corded blinds.  The wife is tiny, not even close to being 4 feet tall, and the cords were too high for her to reach.  This turned into a really big issue.  I don't deal with complaints, so luckily I was out of the loop on this one.  However, I was the one who had to redesign their blinds.  They were nice, but took advantage of their problem and changed colors because they didn't like what they had originally chosen.  Honestly, I really dislike dealing with Custom Blinds, but then I don't like them,  Perhaps it's negativity of the word itself.  There isn't a single blind in my house.  I have drapes and curtains I can either pull open... or pull shut.  There's no way I'm going to blind myself.

And there are so many types of blindness.  I work with a young guy, a young Republican, who tried to correct me yesterday when I said "vaccinated people will help us reach Herd Immunity."  "Being vaccinated has nothing to do with that," is what he said.  He has already had Covid and has told me he figures he's got  8 - 10 months immunity, after which he just might get infected again.  Blindness, you know?  This is the voice of a man who's political party is in a slow death cycle.  One can only hope things speed up, for clear eyesight is never coming to them.

Count to 10

Well, even though it's Sunday, I suspect today's not going to be a day of rest for me... I work... at the store.  I had to deal with a really bad MAGA head yesterday.  A short, middle-aged woman without a mask.  "I need blinds cut," she huffed, and walked over to our roller blind section.  "Three room darkening."  I pulled out three light filtering and she barked "those are the wrong ones!  I said room darkening."  Another customer wearing a mask, who also needed a blind cut, joined us.  After cutting them, she said a fourth was needed, 37.5 inches long.   I informed her I'd have to cut a larger, more expensive blind.  "Well cut it!"  I looked through the larger blinds and found no room darkening.  I told her.  "There's a million blinds there," she yelled.  "You didn't look!  Move!  I'll look myself."  And she gave me one of those 'you are so damn stupid glares.'  Believe me, wearing a mask does not mean you can't glare back.  I did, as I politely said.  "Well, let me check," and I pulled out every blind in the bin, over twenty.  I stacked them nicely in the next bay since I didn't want to lay them on the floor.  No room darkening.  I told her.  "You didn't look through all of them!" she yelled, pointing to the cream colored and fabric blinds.  "I've never been treated so rudely!  I don't want your blinds!  I'm going to Lowe's!"  and she stormed off, leaving me with the blinds I'd already cut.  The customer who was waiting patiently, nodded her head and said "just count to 10."  I believe the real problem was that I was wearing a mask.  

When you look at someone who refuses to wear a mask, you are looking at the face of the Idiot Jerk's base.  And they are angry.  The core of his base has always been angry.  Through him, they vent their anger... and he's losing.  That makes them angrier.  His not wearing a mask legitimized their beliefs in him.  The pandemic is a hoax, they believe... and then yesterday he wore a mask in public.  That will make them angrier.  They will think he caved... and he did, out of desperation.  While I can stand there and count to 10, they cannot.  They can't even get to 5 before their anger boils over.  They're furious because their savior is turning out to be a loser... just like them.  

Here's a little bright spot.  Another one of my dahlias.

And remember, all we have to do is count to 10, and wonder if they'll even make it to 5.

Lying for Years

It's Friday!  I'm off tomorrow!  Kid's Workshop!  I work Sunday and then... I begin my weekend.  I have the same schedule for the next three weeks.  Now, ain't that nice?  I sold fairly expensive blinds yesterday to 2 customers.  I really don't like selling blinds.  They have a lot of problems.  I dealt with one yesterday.  A customer bought 2 blinds for her 90 year old mother.  She wanted wands to open and close them... long wands - 48 inches and 60 inches.  When they arrived, the shorter one was made of wood and the longer one plastic.  They don't make 60 inch wooden wands.  I told her this when she ordered.  This is also printed on her order.  A shit storm ensued.  She wanted a 60 inch wooden wand and felt that for the money she was paying she should get... a 60 inch wand.  Management ended up giving her a nice discount.  For them it is more important to keep her as a future customer.
So, my new Shimano cassette arrives today, as does the tool I need to complete setting up my new trainer.  Will I ride this evening?  Probably not... well, I don't really know.  We'll have to wait and see.
Oh, and the Idiot Jerk in the White House openly asked China to investigate the Bidens.   Ho Ho Ho.  Republicans said "look, this is how he does business, this is normal for him."  Except, they forgot one little thing.  He didn't threaten to withhold aid to China, didn't threaten them.  He made an open request, didn't underhandedly try and extort.  Of course, dumb Republicans aren't going to know the difference.
And, horror of horrors, new tariffs have been enacted.  Irish whiskey and French wines are some of those where pricing is going to go up.  Son of a bitch.
Oh, and the jobs report comes out today.  It's expected to be soft.  Some are claiming the possibility we may see 'ugly' numbers.  How do we know the administration isn't somehow managing to inflate these numbers to make everything look rosie dosie?  I mean, Republicans have not been know for their honesty.  Like the Idiot Jerk, they've been lying for years.

Shoveling Out

First they said a dusting, then they said 1-3 inches and... well, this morning I checked and we had a 44% chance of getting 1-3 and a 43% chance of getting 3-6 inches of snow.  Guess what we got?

That's almost 5 inches of snow.  The dogs have been having a blast.  No ice or freezing rain this time, just snow.  When I finish this, I'm going to go shovel out my car... shouldn't take long, around 15 minutes.  Easy Peasy.
I designed some blinds yesterday for a customer... very nice blinds... almost $7000 in blinds.  She's going to bring her husband in today to approve of the colors:  white and pale grey.  They're building a new house and she's being very specific about what she wants.  I would never spend that much on blinds, in case you were wondering.
A while back I slowly began giving away my old vinyl.   I'm talking old here.  Most are going to my brother-in-law, he's a vinyl audiophile.  Usually what I do is grab 20 - 30 albums and give them to my sister when we have breakfast (I have a lot of vinyl).  I don't really look to see which groups I'm giving him.  So, last night I'm working on the manuscript and I get a voice mail from my sister:  "Just wanted to let you know we're having a very enjoyable evening sitting here listening to the Carpenters."  She was being facetious, of course, and I had to laugh.  At some point in my life I must have bought a Carpenters album... I think I must have been really drunk at the time.
In case you're wondering, he's not getting the Broadway albums... he might like them and that would way too surrealistic for me to handle.
So, I guess Mike Cohen talked about Russia yesterday... behind closed doors.  Very interesting.  Adam Schiff made a statement and that's about it.  Cohen's testimony must have been quite compelling, otherwise we'd have heard from some snotty nosed Republican whining about how it was nothing but 'lies.'  They said nothing.  Sadly for them, back when they controlled both the House and the Senate, they set a number of precedents while attacking Hillary Clinton.  Oh... shit.  They now suspect it's too deep to ever shovel themselves out.

Roll This

Well, not only is it Sunday, but we moved the clocks ahead an hour.  I didn't get up at my standard 0500 because that would have meant getting up at 0400 (if time hadn't shifted).  The end result is that today is now a rest day, as far as working out (well, I may do some weighted crunches before I go to work).
Evidently China is on its way to getting an emperor again.  They've had one for millennia so for them this is almost genetic.  How this will play out for the country?  I have no idea.  We'll all to wait and see.
The Idiot Jerk was out near Pittsburgh yesterday - they're having a special election to replace some Republican moron named Murphy, a minor scumbag who had his mask ripped off.  What the GOP had thought of as being a sure thing, isn't going so well for them.  The replacement Republican is apparently several sizes to large and that shoe looks like it might fall off.
I designed and sold some shades, and, or, blinds to several different people yesterday.  For those who don't know, there is a difference between a shade and a blind.  It's complicated.  Shades, for the most part, are composed of cells.  Blinds are either slats or rollers.  Solar Shades are actually Roller Blinds.
Anyway, one of my customers was a nice woman whose son, in his early 30's, had bought his first home and... moved out.  She told me he was very nervous, mostly because he now had a mortgage and bills to pay.  I've met him.  He seems like a nice man who, to be blunt, needed to be kicked out of the house.  His Mom is so happy, she bought him $1500 in roller blinds, brown, cordless, and with no valances (she doesn't like them).

Cordless roller shades, no valances

She also told me that he started "warming up" to his new home once he saw the rooms with some furniture in them...  Of course, she's having the blinds shipped to her house because he works during the day.  Oh, and his new home is a 'condo' with 6 windows - that's it.  I find that odd because my house has 14 windows and light floods in on sunny days.  Her son must have bought a cave.