The Hardliners are killing us

Monday, the 2nd of 3 days off in a row.  Almost a mini vacation.  I'm going to go pay my real estate taxes today - now ain't that gonna be fun?  That means stopping by Member's First to get a cashier's check.  Last year I paid with a regular check and had to wait almost 3 weeks for the money to come out of the account.  No Way.  I worked in accounting for 35 years so when it comes to $$ I'm very precise.  I don't understand people who dick around with shit like this.
My syn got put back on the trainer yesterday.  I only managed to ride about 3.5 miles.  I'd had the X6 on until I got my crank fixed.  Switch back meant recalibrating... necessary when using a smart trainer.  Getting the traction right between the rear tire and the roller can be a time consuming process:  too much and you feel like you're climbing hills constantly, too little and you tire will slip.  We deal with these little things in life.
Oh, and I saw where the Idiot Jerk  said in an interview that the EU is our foe.  Dumb Fuck.  He's going to give the farm to his Blow Buddy Vlad.  And two of the Idiot Jerk's appointed dicks, Mnunchin and Pompeo, have told pretty much everybody that if they trade with Iran there will be no tariff waivers.  These hardliners are killing the country.  So, is the same thing going to hold true for Russia?  Or is he going to give his Blow Buddy Vlad a free pass?  Do I really need to ask.  The Idiot Jerk is so desperate to have a dictator call him a 'Strong Leader,' he'll do back flips if necessary.  And those allies whom we've counted on for years?  They'll move closer to China.  We will be left with no one.  This is what Putin has wanted all along, to isolate us from the rest of the world.  That isolation makes us more vulnerable.  His plan is to topple us out of Number One.  With his power over the Idiot Jerk, he will succeed.
On to a lighter note.  I tend to have luck with roses.  Here's a pic I snapped yesterday of some. 

They don't have much of a scent, but boy are they pretty!

Winners and Losers

Well, it's Monday and I get to go back to work after having just one day off and yesterday was, except for a few things, pretty much a waste.  Blame it on the snow.  Now snow doesn't bother me since I have no problem shoveling.  For the dogs?  Play time city!  They went out for about 10 minutes, and then they came back in and I'd dry them off, and then after about 20 minutes they'd go back out again.  This was repeated frequently through out the day.
I did watch the UCI Cyclocross World Championship live from Valkenburg, Netherlands.  Many of the people who attend these races wear funny hats and drink lots of beer, and yesterday I'm sure they drank more beer than usual since the temperature over there was 1 (C).  The winner was a gent named Wout Van Aert, from Belgium - give him a round of applause for his 3rd win!

Oh, and my Dad's Eagles finally won their first Super Bowl.  My Dad was a lifelong Eagles fan.  Yesterday would have made him so proud.  They get a round of applause as well - I'm sure the city of Philly will be green for a number of days to come.  I wonder if the Idiot Jerk in the White House will invite them to visit - last year there was a bit of a problem - no one wanted to get that close to a dirty, stinky scumbag.
Last evening, while just about everybody else in the United States was watching the Eagles win, I went to the movies with my friend Patty.  What did we see?  "The Shape of Water."  What a great film.  Every accolade you hear about this movie is true.  This is a modern fairy Tale - "the story of a princess, and the monster who tries to destroy her happiness."  Sally Hawkins owns this film, but the supporting performances are simply stunning.  Octavia Spencer is remarkable as Eliza's true friend, and Richard Strickland as her artistic other best friend, the one with the bad toupee, gives a keystone performance; both are nominated for Supporting Performances.

And just a wee mention of the Idiot Jerk in the White House... and how releasing that silly memo has actually put Republicans on the defensive.  Like that wasn't to be expected.  And the spawn of the Idiot Jerk?  Their response demonstrates just how stupid they truly are, calling the imbeciles would be too kind.  This is life, and they are losers.

Passing Gas

Well, it's Saturday.  Yippee Skippy, I get to go to work!  I am off tomorrow, Super Bowl Sunday.  Whoopee Ding Ding!  Now, I know I should be rooting for the Eagles, since Philly is only about 90 miles away but... well, tomorrow morning the Men's UCI Cyclocross Championships are on live!  That's what I'll be watching.
And yesterday was very exciting, now wasn't it?  The Nune's Memo was released, a bit of fiction which was supposed to be so explosive Americans would be sent reeling by the revelations that the Democrats were so vile, conspiring to foist lie after lie on gullible voters in their attempts to remove the Idiot Jerk from the White House.  Ho... hum.  What really happened was that most people fanned their noses a few times and wondered who 'cut the cheese' in Washington.  Well, that answer is simple enough - those crazy to the right Conservatives, that's who.  When the Idiot Jerk Tweeted out something about how "people should be ashamed," I don't think he realized those may have been the first honest words to come from his mouth in what?  Years?  But then again, I doubt very much if he knew he was talking about Republicans - that's to be expected.  He's not the brightest bulb in the box.
Oh, and the stock market dropped.  Oops.  Checking Bloomberg this morning, it actually tanked by 744 points! Wonder what that did to your 401K.  Looking over the financials this AM, almost every one agrees:  they don't know if it's over yet.  There is the possibility that the Dow may continue to fall in the coming weeks.  Ooops.  How's your 401K... oh, wait, I already said that.  Maybe we should ask the Idiot Jerk in the White House.
Finally, there was a older gentleman in the flooring department yesterday setting up a measure - he was not my customer.  I don't deal with people who don't shower, or shave, or wear bright red baseball caps that read "Make America Great Again."  You have no idea how difficult it was for me to not pull out my phone, open the Bloomberg App, and shove it in his face.  While I would have had much satisfaction, that would have been considered really bad customer service.

So, all I did was fan my fingers briefly in front of my nose, which is about all you can do till these little farts pass.

Diving in

Well, it's Monday and some of you are going back to work.  Not me, I'm sitting right in the middle of my Leave of Absence, not that I couldn't have gone back to work today... but why?  The discoloration south of the incision is rapidly disappearing and the stubble is surging, thank God I'm into cotton and not some poly blend (can you imagine all of the pulls?) no ouchy, ouchy for me.
I may go see "Justice League" tomorrow evening, haven't decided yet.  I would like to see Jason Momoa, fins and all, however

I suspect that in real life he's pretty much of an asswipe.  And then there's Ben Affleck as Batman... after 3 films with Christian Bale in that role, Ben just doesn't quite cut the mustard.  The fact that he's so unsuited for the role leads me to believe that this was not a casting couch decision, which means someone needed to be pretty drunk to think this was good was a good idea.  Rumor has it that this will be his last dance in the bat cape... we can only hope.
Yesterday I watched some Cyclocross racing on NBC Sports Gold, live from Belgium, and where I normally really like this type of bike racing, yesterday it was just okay.  For those who don't know, Cyclocross racing is taking your bicycle off road, and then having to ride over an obstacle course. 
There are hills

and barriers, and you need to be in really, really good shape.

Yesterday's race, however, was a women's race, and as the camera panned over the riders I saw that some of them had chosen to wear makeup....  Now, why would you put on makeup if you know there's a really, really good chance that you're going to do a header in the mud?

Notice, I almost wrote this entire entry without diving into the Idiocy in the White House, or the fact that thousands of Christian Ministers, and pastors did a header yesterday by failing to call out Roy Moore?  If you don't condemn, you condone.

The NRC defined

I get my cardio in one of two ways, either on my bike or on my eliptical.  That's right, I own one, and it's big.  Call it a size thing.  While I always wear an HRM while doing cardio, I almost never turn on the GPS when I'm on the eliptical since I'm not really going anywhere.  Yesterday... I turned it on.  Tracking was, shall we say, sporadic as far as location.  Even though I had never left my dining room, according to the map I was all over the place.  I'm posting it below so you can see what I mean.  If you look at the red elevation line you can see I'm also going up and down, and not by just a couple of feet. How's that for accuracy?  Don't they use GPS when they're dropping bombs?

As I said the eliptical, a Sole E95, is large.  It's in the dining room because it was too big to get up the stairs, like I said, it's a size thing.  Perhaps if it hadn't been delivered almost completely assembled things would have been different.  I'd have more space in my dining room and the eliptical would be upstairs, in the weight room, where it was intended to go.

The bike I ride is a Cannondale X6 Cyclocross.  Back when I  bought it, Cannondale was still building their bikes by hand out near Johnstown.  This is no longer the case.  The gears are different then a road bike and it has wider tires.  A friend of mine has a nice Cervelo road bike.  Where as I can take mine off the road he can't, at least not without worrying he'll hit a teeny, weeny stone and bend one of his expensive rims.

Finally, I thought I'd throw in a pic of one of the NRC's (naked rubber chickens).  This one has a hole in it's belly and has lost it's squeaker, and is the only one the girls can take outside.  The other still squeaks.  That's right, they have two.

It's the little things, you know.