The Conservative "Woe is Me," Act

 Well, didn't yesterday surprise us here in Central PA.  The temps climbed up into the80s (F), in fact the house got so warm the Central Air kicked on.  When it's 76 (F) downstairs, it's much warmer upstairs, so I even used the bedroom ceiling fan last night.  This afternoon, however, temps are once again predicted to climb into the 80s (F) and thunderstorms are expected to move into the area.  No steady soaking rains, just storms that will sweep through the area.

I had some bloodwork yesterday to check my sugar.  My PCP got back to me in late afternoon, everything's okey dokey.  It seems that after a certain age, diabetes runs in my family.  My sister's full blown.  Me?  I've been borderline all of my life.

And that sneezy sinusy head cold thing that gave me a sore throat yesterday morning?  It's all gone today.  I had some slight concern that the congestion might move south into lungs, but that didn't happen.  That sound you might be able to hear is me knocking on wood since I haven't had a chest cold in... maybe decades.

So, after lazing around and wasting time for a few days, I seem to be back on track.  Things are planned for today, like a quick drive over to Dick's to get some whey.  I had planned on stopping in yesterday morning because my bloodwork was done over in Rossmoyne, however the blood draw was finished in a snap and I didn't want to putz around in Dick's parking lot for a half an hour until the store opened.

And here's a pic of Harrisburg taken Tuesday morning at sunrise.  I didn't take it, someone else did and posted in on Facebook.  Nice? huh?  It almost looks European.

And, as usual, yesterday was another shit show with the Orange Anus.  The Epstein survivors had a presser and Orangie arranged for jets to flyover 3 times in an attempt to disrupt the proceedings.  This is because Orangie is all over the files.  Isn't it interesting that he had no problem with being a pedophile until he got his slimy ass elected and now he so desperately wants to keep those sins swept under the rug.

Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, attempted to get legislation passed that would for the administration to release the Epstein files.  It failed because Republicans realized that the contents of those files would prove to the world how terrible a pedophile Orangie was, and the ensuing anger by the American people would kill the party.  They will accept any evil as long as it keeps them in power.  And don't believe it when you see politicians like Nancy Mace and Anna Paulina Luna wringing their hands in a phony "woe is me" act, they will always vote party line because for them, like every Republican, it's all about power.

Finally, Florida is going to eliminate mandatory vaccinations for schools.  This is turning the clocks back 150 years.  Not only will childhood disease come roaring back, they will turn Disney World and Universal Studios into plague zones.

Joy

 Good Morning People!  Outside, the temp is a comfortable 63 and the sun is supposed to shine all day.  We have the same forecast for tomorrow, too.  In fact, the forecast for the next 3 days is nice.  Tomorrow I'm going to wack weeds and mow grass. We're not supposed to get any rain again until Saturday, when we're supposed to get another drenching. 

I talked to my friend Justin about coming to trim back the holly bush I have out front.  Because he's 6 feet, 6 inches, he'll be able to cut back the top and I will not climb up on a ladder.  A word of advice to everyone out there, make sure you have at least one tall friend.

I drove down to Lebanon yesterday to go over my bloodwork with my new primary care physician, Dr. Rai, pronounced rye.  He's a very nice gent in in mid-40s.  That's a good thing.  I'm tired of having my doctors retire on me.  As for my bloodwork, I'd already looked at the results.  He asked if I wanted to continue with testing my PSA and I told him I didn't think it was necessary.  The big bugaboo was my blood sugar.  It's high... sort of... 138.  This has always been an issue.  I am not overly concerned.  It's a genetic thing.  My sister's is diabetic.  She laughed at that number, telling me, "that's low."  Since this is a "been there, done that," situation, I know how to get my sugar back to acceptable levels:  less grazing, more exercise.  What joy.

Besides the doctor's visit, yesterday was a necessary day away from news and social media.  I played video games and watched TV.  There is so much bad going on in the world right now, breaking away for a day was such a joy.

The oregano I have growing on the windowsill has teeny, tiny flowers.

And, of course, the shit show is continuing.  The fact that states are going to be activating their National Guard troops for this weekend should tell you they know that a very unpopular president is doing something vast numbers of people don't like.  Protests are planned throughout  the  country for  this  weekend.  Rain is predicted for the Washington DC area, so it's quite possible Mother Nature is going to rain on Orangie's parade.  

Are we heading into another Dark Ages?  Maybe a different variant of those old Dark Ages.  Too many Americans are rushing headfirst into selfishness and greed.  They have been taught that credit is the answer to being able to afford everything they want.  Inflation is going to be a ballbreaker.  Too many want an authoritarian government without understanding that for the vast majority, such a life would be totally unacceptable.  As I've said before, I feel we are approaching  an inflection point.  There may be a serious loss of life.  Will society collapse?  Certain aspects will struggle.  Mostly, however, it will be geographical here in the states, and those areas loving their Republican authoritarianism the most will also suffer the most.  They are simply not prepared.  For them, these Dark Ages will be black, and somehow that gives me joy.

The Distraction

 Well, a storm went through yesterday.  I was getting all sorts of warnings:  lightning is striking in your area;  heavy winds are a blowin'; flash flooding is probably inevitable.  We got a steady rain for about 20 minutes.  No lightning.  No thunder.  No gusting winds.  All of that stormy stuff went to our north and south.  The temps did drop, however, and the humidity dissipated.  Predictions are for on and off rain for the next 2 days, with us getting as much as an inch tomorrow.  After that temps are supposed to hang around in the low to mid 80s (F).

Yesterday was better than the day before as far as getting things done.  After doing a search on laptops with nonfunctioning screens, I did a power reset on the writing laptop and got it working again.  Since there was already a problem, that one has now become my permanent sporting laptop and the sporting laptop, which is a much better computer, is now my main writing/research laptop.

I looked over the results of the bloodwork I had done on Tuesday.  Everything is fine, except for my glucose.  I'm pre-diabetic.  I was pre-diabetic last year as well.  And the same for the year before that.  My mom had the same problem and my sister is diabetic, so this is something which runs in the family.  As you can probably tell, I'm not that worried.

Orangie and Elonia are still not talking and one can only guess how much vitriol they are spitting at each other behind the curtain; quite a lot, I'd presume.  So much, they needed a really big distraction and so Orangie decided to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador to face phony charges.

You did notice how quickly this miracle came about, didn't you?  And to sweeten the distraction, they're charging him with human trafficking. Where's Maddie when you need her to be stopping the car?  Of course, so many are falling for this gimmick.  The only reason Kilmar is coming home is to change the conversation; stop people from talking about the Orangie/Elonia shit show. 

Of course there's too much other stuff going down as Orangie's reign of Chaos seems to be picking up speed.  The jobs report claimed 139,000 jobs had been created while the ADP report claimed 37,000.  While there's usually a variance between the two reports, the differences have never been this widely off.  If this report is accurate than the government would have needed to have hired almost 100,000 individuals into government jobs.  Don't worry, this administration is going to lie about  inflation, too.

 

Behind the 34 crimes

Can you believe this?  The clouds have gone away and the sun has come out!  A sunny day is to be had by all.  I feel like dancing in the streets!  

Yesterday was one of those terribly boring days at work.  I did manage to get a measure, but mostly all I did was walk around to get my 7500 steps in.  Nothing happens when there aren't any customers in the store.  

Audio for 5 more chapters needs to be uploaded for The Body on the Lawn before I can submit it to ACX (read Audible), and then I'll have top wait a few weeks for them to review the recordings to see if they meet their standards.  The more I've been playing around with this, the more I've been toying with the idea of just recording the next book myself.  Most of you haven't heard my speaking voice, but it ain't that bad.

I'm scheduled for bloodwork this morning, my annual physical is next Friday, which means fasting, except for black coffee, and so I'm hungry as Hell is for Donald Trump's slimy, fat ass, so I'll be finishing this when I get back.

Well, 3 vials of blood later, I'm back, and I didn't have to pee in a cup!

One of my most favorite groups is back with a new song, Naked and Alive, and, according to them, it's about self love... the physical kind.  I like this song.

And, of course, yesterday afternoon, judgement began for Donald Trump.  You'll notice that I said began, since this is just the start.  For those of you with friends who simply don't understand, you need to explain he was found guilty of Election Fraud, among other things, not simply paying off Stormy Daniels.  A lot of people are confused about that.  Tell them that 10 years after the fact, Trump was worried that his having sex with a Playboy Bunny and a porn star would be terrible for his campaign, and so chose to pay for their secrecy.  Because he didn't want these payoffs linked to him, he set up a fake company, and then hired fictitious employees to create a fake payroll expense, and then used the money for that fake payroll expense to write checks to Michael Cohen who then used those funds to payoff the Bunny and the porn star.  The payoff was the sole purpose of the fake company and fake employees.  To do this he broke 34 different laws.  Ouch.

Republicans are outraged.  Their Orange Anus deity turns out to be just as fake as the fake company he started.  I do believe his minions and sycophants believed the country would rise up in protest, in fact, they were very vocal about their revenge and so far... crickets.

One thing I did find funny was that upon leaving the courthouse, his motorcade heading to Trump Tower came to a standstill after getting caught up in a traffic jam.   

 

Remember Riunite on Ice?

 We had spotty showers yesterday.  The same thing is predicted for today as well.  We're still not supposed to hit that 60 (F) degree mark.  I'd like to say I can't wait for summer, but that means the heat and we never know about that.  Luckily, those 100 (F) degree days have missed us here in Central Pa.  At some point our luck is going to give out and then people are going to complain.

I had my blood draw yesterday for the physical I have scheduled for next week.  They only took 3 vials, and of course the standard cup of coffee scented pee.  Usually I have milk in my coffee, but on blood draw mornings I forgo the milk because of... fasting.

And yesterday was also fitness day.  Around 10 am I drove over to Planet Fitness for the first time since the pandemic.  I have dumbbells but I can be very lax when it comes to using them regularly.  It turns out that 10 am is the perfect time, the gym was fairly empty except for older people, so there were no waiting times to use any of the equipment.  

Adding to the fitness fun, later in the afternoon I rode 14 miles in Italy.  That was good, too.  I averaged around 16 miles per hour.

There's a section in the new book were the team orders Chinese food and, of course, they need to pair their dinner with the perfect wine.  Well, it turns out that you should drink Lambrusco with Sweet and Sour Chicken, and since I can't ever remember drinking Lambrusco I thought I should at least give it a try.  Well, my local store only carried Riunite and besides having a twisty cap, it's very cheap.  I do think quality is reflected in cost, so rather than buy something inexpensive, I ordered a more expensive bottle, not so expensive that if I find it not to my liking I'll have problems pouring it away. 

And yesterday the Russians said they thwarted an assassination attempt on Putin by taking down two drones that had been sent to kill him.  Nobody believes them.  Nobody believes the Russians anymore except those who want to ally themselves with an authoritarian government.  The Russkies also told the world the drones had been sent by the Ukraine.  Nobody believes that either.  If there were drones, they were most likely sent by anti-Putin forces in Russia.  His 3 day war with the Ukraine has been going for quite some time now and many of Russians are becoming dissatisfied with what they are seeing as his failure.  There is the possibility that they're going to use this as an excuse for more intensive rocket attacks against Kiev.   Who knows with the Russians.

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And evidently Jack Smith sat in on Mikey Pence's testimony before the Grand Jury.  Interesting.  They even talked afterwards.  While this does not make them bosom buddies I'd say it probably doesn't bode well for the Orange Despot wannabe.

 

In the Light they can be defeated

 And my mid-week weekend began with some chest congestion and a slight sniffle.  I'm debating whether I want to waste another one of my free Covid tests.  I will probably wait and see if things progress.  These days it's too easy to slip into panic mode.  Nope, wrong word.  I don't panic. It's more of a son of a bitch mode, you know what I mean, more of a pain in the ass than anything else.  There's things needing to be done.  The washer and dryer arrive tomorrow.

My kitchen ceiling is patched and ready to be painted.  I checked with the Paint desk to see if Behr was going to be going on sale soon and was told 'no.'  Of course, having managed the paint department for a number of years, I can tell you more than likely a paint sale is coming up.  Over all, paint is not making its plan, so corporate will want to increase sales and to do that they'll run a sale.  The mark-up in paint, as with so many of the things we sell, is high, so a $5 or $10 off coupon is not really going to make a dint in the profit margin.

Biggie was supposed to go for bloodwork late this afternoon.  They called and postponed it; the vet had to take his father to an appointment.  No problem here.  While Biggie does lay around a lot, he's also going to be 8 years old on 12/25, which, given his size, means he's most likely considered nearing the age of a geriatric dog.  Not that he doesn't still have a lot of bounce, he just seems happier to be doing this, napping against my leg while we were waiting for the drywall contractor to finish.

Time to moisturize his nose again

So, the Defense of Marriage Act is going to get a vote today.  As it stands now, it will not codify same sex marriage into law because... wait for it... 3 of the Republicans who originally voted for it have reneged.  Mike Lee, a Trump ass-licker, added a religious amendment to the bill, to satisfy the GOP's every shrinking Christian minority.  Given the chance, Republicans will desperately try to force their mutating social conservatism onto America.

The Washington Post had an interesting take on the festering sore in the GOP.   Of course, this is something most of us knew a long time ago.  Trump's election loss, and the Big Lie, just tore away the bandages.  Their hatred for minorities, and I'm including everyone who isn't white, male, Christian, and straight, has always been there, masked by their deceit of really caring for all Americans.  It was Trump who openly began acknowledging this lie.  There were good people on both sides, he said, knowing white nationalists and supremacists would feel welcomed.  It didn't make a difference how deep your aniti-American hatred ran, as long as you were loyal to Trump and the GOP you were accepted.  There is a good side to this dark side of the Republican party.  Thanks to Trump, we now know their names, Fuentes being one of them.  They are no longer scurrying around in the shadows.  In the light, they can be fought and defeated.

Countdown

 Well, a happy late good morning to those you normally read Riding On while enjoying their first cup of coffee.  And no, I didn't stay up late and sleep in.  I had an appointment for bloodwork at 0730.  They took five vials of my iron rich, 100 % proof DNA filled blood, as well as a small cup of urine, which smelt like black coffee even though it was a pale yellow.  This is all prep work for my physical which is scheduled next week.  Tuesday, to be precise.  Not only is November 8 my birthday, it's also election day. Make sure you all give me a very nice present.

Yes, that's right, I'm a full blown Scorpio.

After I finish this entry, I'm going to round up the dogs so the 3 of us can take a nice nap.  Both of them were restless last night.  Lily had to go potty outside twice.  Biggie?  I have a small stash of biscuits in the bedroom and didn't that stinker lay in front of them and whine, like he hadn't been fed in weeks.  

I got the estimate for fixing the kitchen ceiling.  Not bad.  Work will start after the electrical work is complete.  

I'd say let the countdown begin, but it began a long time ago.  If you think the Republican party has been vile so far, prepare yourselves, you ain't seen nothin' yet.  Elon Musk either has, or will shortly, terminate some of those associates on Twitter who were moderators.  No matter what he claims his intentions are, free speech, for one, don't believe him.  He doesn't care what people Tweet, as long as Twitter becomes a money maker.  To this end, he will permit Republicans to lie like hell, and be as morally degenerate as they want.  His accountants are looking at the numbers.  The more followers Tom Fitton has, or Tulsi Gabard, the better it is for business.  He's raising the $5 for being verified to $20 per month.  It's all about the money.  He will ruin it of  course, that's because he's the Chief Twit.  For those who don't know, he did Tweet that now he's the Chief Twit.  I don't think he knows just what a Twit is.

And, as I said, the election draws nigh.  Because of this, every wannabe political pundit is going to be citing polls.  Believe them not.  Do not believe that America is more concerned in the economy and crime than it is the flipping of Roe.  Polls create drama.  Drama means clicks on media websites, and that generates a corporate desire to purchase ad space.  And so you'll see headlines  such as "Walker leads Warnock by 3%."   It's all horseshit.