Cheap Republicans

 Okay, so I assembled my new computer desk yesterday... in only 4 hours.  I had anticipated 2 maybe, however that was before I realized you needed to use a tiny allen wrench to tighten every screw.  

The tiny wrench and one of the 2 inch screws

No fast screwing here.  The keyboard tray was not installed because, following the instructions, when it's in place there's no way to tighten the locks holding the desktop in place.  Of course, I now realize I don't need the tray, the shelf works simply fine.  This is what you get when you choose to purchase a piece of  'inexpensive' furniture.  The simple truth is not to believe you're going to get quality when you go cheap.  Those who think 'cheap' is good lie to themselves.  Time will only continue to make the inexpensive less valuable.

I was planning on a ride or run yesterday, sadly neither happened because it took so long to put together my new desk.  I did make some meatballs for a soup I'm making in the new Instant Pot.  Three minutes cooking time.  Now, that's nice.  

Evidently there was some sort of on camera brush-up between McCarthy and Cheney in regard to our failed president speaking at CPAC and his future involvement with the party of failures.  I didn't watch any of the clips, but plenty of people were talking about it.  There is so much seething anger within that party.  Seriously.  You see, like their one time president, they have continuously told themselves they were winners.  This is why so many of them believe the Big Lie.  In their minds, if the Big Lie was truth, then they are not only losers, they are extreme failures.  This is why many of them will take their belief in the Big Lie to their deathbeds.  To believe otherwise is crushing.  Like inexpensive furniture, you get what you pay for and not much else.   

Old and New

 I can't think of a better way to say this then to blurt it out.  I go back to work today!

I've already taken my temp 96.6 (F).  This means that when I give you the cold shoulder, I give you the cold shoulder.  And, I've done my health check.  No, I don't have Covid.  I do know when I get there I will find lots, and lots of candy, which means once again I'll working on my inverted hour glass figure.

This morning, I also stepped on the scale for the first time since I began my little staycation.  Up 3 pounds.  No matter how many times I tell myself I cook without calories, my little scale always proves that to be false.

Last evening I ordered myself a  new computer desk.  Nothing fancy.  Not like my writing desk downstairs.  At present, I'm using my grandmother's old make-up table, which means it's very old.  There used to be a mirror attached to the back, however that disappeared long before I took ownership.  For those who don't know, Riding On gets written upstairs on my Cyberpower gaming PC, which is also where I pay my bills, and play some of my games, as well as read the news feeds I get.

Old Desk

The writing of the books, my taxes, my language courses, and odds and ends are done on my new desk downstairs.

New Desk

And, of course, the impeachment came to an end yesterday.  The dead Republican Party, or at least most of them, have chosen to bury themselves with their wannabe tinfoil dictator.  McConnell voted to acquit: he said he though the procedure was unconstitutional, but then he ripped Trump a new asshole, proving he has neither a chin nor a spine, only a bony thistle he calls a heart.  This is really all about power.  Those choosing to nail their souls to the failed president only see the 74.2 million votes he received.  The fact that moderates and independent voters are running for the hills doesn't make it into their rivaled little consciousness.  They are guilty of the same old shit they've been charged with before.  And get ready.  They're going to get crazier as they continually move towards their own extinction.

It's... here!

Well, it's Thursday and I get to go back to work. Yippee.  I work 4 days, have off 1 and then I have a 40 hour work week.  Shit.  Then I have 2 days off and another 40 work week... double shit.  We have a new scheduler who's just learning the ropes.  I'm going to be patient.
I guess about 74% of those who watched the Idiot Jerk's speech approved of it.  Ratings wise, he had about a million more viewers than last year, but that # is actually less than his best at 48 million.  Keep in mind those 46.5 million viewers equal about 14% of the total population.  So, who really watched the Idiot Jerk?  Republican, and some Independents... that's all.  So, when they say he got a 74% approval rating... well, that's what you would expect if only his base was watching.  Duh.
And... of course, yesterday, being Wednesday, meant my desk arrived.  It was delivered by 2 nice, young me who picked it up and carried it in... without taking off the door.  This delay could have been avoided if initially they had just taken it out of the box.  I'm going to have a friend come over to help me lift it so I can straighten out the rugs, but other wise it's just ducky dandy!

In case you are wondering, the books on the shelves are original copies:  Tom Swift on the top, Jerry Todd on the bottom, so, in case you were ever wondering, Tom tops Jerry.
Here's another angle.  If you look, you can see Big Seig's head.  He celebrated the arrival by walking around squeaking his purple squirrel for about two minutes.

I started organizing my drawers last night, in between working on the new project.  Let me tell you... I have sooooo much space.

The Rebuttal

Well, today is Wednesday, my 3rd day off in a row.  Ain't that exciting.  I have a dental appointment this morning.  Also, the desk arrives today, sometime within a 3 hours window:  11-3.  It's about time!  If the company I bought it from hadn't tried to cheap it out on the first deliver, I'd be writing at it by now.
I did my taxes yesterday.  I am getting money back.  However, the $$$ are on par with what I used to get back when I was able to itemize... before the house was paid off.  With all of the 'wahooing!' and knee-slapping by the Republicans when they got their precious tax bill through Congress, I thought I might get more.... Shit!  That's Right.  I'm in the wrong tax bracket to get the big bucks!  Those bucks will be going to the likes of DeVos, and Mnunchin, and Schultz (the coffee guy.)  We know they're going to take those refund checks and buy something to help grow the economy, like those tailor made suits from a nice guy in Hong Kong,  or that handbag made of Italian leather from in Serrano, Italy.  You know, the kind of people who think Saks is just like Target, only with a better selection.
Oh, and the Idiot Jerk in the White House gave a speech last night.  Evidently he accused Democrats of not kissing his ass.  The women wore white... his favorite color, so you know he couldn't stop looking at them.  He still wants his racist Wall.  Main Stream media was fair, from what I can tell.  I didn't check, but I'm sure Faux News chortled their Hosannas the they they always do.
I did watch some clips of Stacey Abrams' rebuttal.  She was calm, and well spoken. 

How shrewd of her to call out the 'shutdown' as an engineered plot by the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  He thought that would be a great bargaining chip.  He's always been an asshole.  I liked the fact that their were people behind her, listening to her, representing America.  I wonder how many Republicans nearly broke their fingers changing channels in order to avoid seeing her.  It will be interesting to see how she does in the ratings.
Finally, I guess the Idiot Jerk complained about all of the investigations... it seems like a new one is popping up everyday, doesn't it?  Anyway, he cited them (at least that's what he seemed to be saying) as keeping him from doing his presidential duties.  Shit. This guy has 60 Executive Hours each week.  All he does is watch Fox News and eat McDonalds.

Out of the Box

Well it's Wednesday and I'm heading back to work today.  Ho Hum.
I was supposed to get my desk yesterday and... well, the delivery guys had taken it off of their truck and had it sitting in it's packaging in my driveway  But then a problem cropped up.  The desk, as advertised, is 30 inches high,  30 inches wide, and 60 inches long.  My front doorway is 31 inches wide.  It's a normal front door, in fact most front doors are between 30 and 32 inches wide.  If the front door needs to be used by a person with a disability it needs to be 36 inches wide.  As I said, my front door is 31 inches wide.  The packaging for the desk, however, is 33 inches wide.  My first thought was "what problem, it's 30 inches wide, you take it out of the box."  But then the delivery guy who's been on the phone with his boss says to me "my boss says we can't take it our of the box."  Silly me, I should have realized taking it out of the box would be unpackaging, and these guys are paid deliver.  We have this problem from time to time at the orange home improvement retail giant I work for: delivery people who never do anything other than deliver.  At times they leave things, like dishwashers and refrigerators and boxes of hardwood flooring sitting in a driveway because for them, that's the definition of delivery.  Now, the driver today did say "I can leave it for you, but it's really heavy, I mean really heavy."  Of course it's heavy, it's solid wood and weighs in at 275 pounds.  And where were they going to leave it, on the sidewalk?  The box was too big for my front porch.  I'd never be able to get out of my front door.  So he says "you can refuse it and we'll take it back," and that's what I did.
Of course I immediately contacted Cymax, they're the middle men between myself and Hooker Furniture, and informed them that they needed to issue me a $2300 credit because the delivery guys refused to take the desk out of the box.  Then I contacted Amazon, because Cymax is one of their 3rd party vendors, and let them know I had not accepted delivery because the delivery guys refused to take the desk out of the box.  Naturally, Amazon notified Cymax about the problem and told them to give me a phone call... which I still have not received.
Later, while texting a friend, he asked if I thought Cymax was really going to take that kind of a financial hit.  They not only lose the sale of the desk, they still have to pay the freight charges.  I know that at my store when something goes this wrong with a delivery, we go out of our way to make it right.  At this point, however, I don't know if there is a way to fix this.  The delivery agent they hired delivers packages, not furniture, and because of that will never take the desk out of the box.

This is reality

Today is Tuesday.  We are now over 1/3 of the way through winter.  The government shutdown continues.  It's day 31.  And, of course, the problem is the Republicans.  You see once again they made a very stupid assumption, in fact it's the same one they made back when Reagan had his landslide re-election.  After the Idiot Jerk managed to get elected (by a technicality), and with control of both the Senate and the House, they actually believed they would rule this country forever. Not only were they convinced this was the Holy Truth, they saw themselves as the lawgivers of the land.  If you didn't like the results of the election they smugly smiled and said "get over it."  However, a majority of Americans looked at their small minded beliefs and said, "shut up," and voted against them in the midterms.  They went from having a 23 seat majority in the House to being a 41 seat minority and this fact shatters what they so desperately want to believe, that they have been chosen.  They are totally clueless when it comes to compromising and the Idiot Jerk president they praise turns out to be the worst deal maker in history.  This is why they fail. Their failures will continue to grow.
I saw this in Towleroad regarding the school of hate run by a diocese in Kentucky.   You know, the one where students are taught to harass people of color, including our indigenous peoples, the ones who were here first.  It seems they also refused to let a gay valedictorian make his commencement speech... perhaps because he wanted to speak out in favor of gun control... or maybe it was because he was gay.  That alone should have educated people as to what type of diocese this is:  a right-wing hate group of the Republican Party.
And, of course, since it's Tuesday, my desk arrives today.  I was told between 11 - 2.  Well, I'm prepped.  The walks are shoveled and free of ice.  The kitchen table has been cleared.  Around 0800 it will be taken apart and placed on the porch for next week's garbage.  I tried giving it away but no one wanted it because it's old and sagging in the middle.  Or, maybe, instead of throwing it away, I might just break it apart and put the wood up on the hill behind my house where mother nature can do with it what she wants.
And finally, yesterday I was making notes about my current project and realized the house was rather silent, so I went looking.  What did I find?  Two dogs and a duck on the bed.

At least they kept the bedclothes kind of neat....

The Travel Agent From Hell

First off, for those who are interested, my desk arrives on Tuesday.  Delivery will be between 11 and 2.  It's made of solid wood so hopefully I won't have to treat it like hardwood flooring and let it acclimatize for 3 days before using it... just kidding.
The archway is patched and painted, smooth, but not drywall smooth.  It'll do for me.  Back 114 years ago, there was no arch, just a regular door.  At some point someone ripped out the door and put in the arch which is over 6 feet wide.  Nice.
I guess the Idiot Jerk in the White House is going to make some sort of silly statement today... when the northeast region of the country is under a Winter Storm Warning.  No, he's not going to volunteer to come shovel your walks clean.  That's manual labor.  He'd have to use muscles.  You know?  Like minimalist cardio?  And we all know the only exercise he gets is walking to the bathroom to piss away all the diet coke.  This means he's going to start caving, giving the Democrats some of the things they want as long as he gets his wall.  He's getting desperate.  The shutdown is making both he and his party look bad.  And Nancy's not going to let him lie for 90 minutes in a State of the Union lie fest.
What we're beginning to see as this thing drags out is more and more commentary on the Idiot Jerk's inability to make a deal.  What we've seen is a man who throws temper tantrums and, slamming his hands on a table, storms out of rooms.  In his mind, this is a negotiating tactic.  And people are  beginning to make fun of him.  This AM I read this on NBC News where they called him the Travel Agent from Hell.  Believe me, this almost had me in stitches because in the Real World the Idiot Jerk is petty as a two bit whore, of course that is where his sexual tastes seem to run so none of us should be surprised.  He's nothing more than white trash with money.
And, of course, we're supposed to be getting a winter storm.  The Weather Channel has named it Harper. Depending upon which weather station you're watching, I'm going to get between 5 inches and 12 inches of snow and then freezing rain.  That will make it  crispy crunch and heavy to shovel.

There is also supposed to be some sort of Arctic Blast coming as well, so on Monday the temp will climb to 18 (F).  Tuesday, the day my desk arrives, we're supposed to hit a balmy 28 (F).  I just hope there's parking out front for the truck.

Wait and See

First of all a big 'thank you' to everyone who wished me (and the dogs) a great 2019... the year in which the Republican Party slices and dices itself in one horrific blood bath.  I saw in BBC where Mitt Romney has already thrown the first 'sucker punch.'    Isn't it funny how their boy Mitt loves the tax break which, as very, very wealthy man, benefits his bank account greatly.  He is a conservative, of course, which means he is an automatic member of the Party of My.
Yesterday I went down to York, PA to see my friend Betsy.  We had lunch at Panara and went to see a movie.  Initially I'd thought we might get tickets for "Vice."  However, the more I thought about it, the more I decided I was going to wait and rent it.  You see, even though it is a comedy and you do get a chance to laugh out loud at that imbecilic ass wipe, in the end nothing happens to him.  He doesn't go to jail.  He shoots another, very deserving conservative, in the face and gets away scott-free.  And it isn't like Cheney cares what people think, that they're going to be sitting in their movie seats laughing at him.  Hell, no.  As a conservative, and member of the Party of My, he doesn't care about people... nope, just himself.  His credo is, and always will be, 'I did it all... and I did it My Way.'
I'm thinking of buying a desk for downstairs for what used to be the dining room.  The upstairs computer is used for blogging, and playing games, and watch gaming Youtube channels.  Occasionally I do write upstairs, but mostly the writing and the research are done downstairs.  Yeah, I know it's weird.  It's easier to understand if you consider the downstairs writing is 'work' and that area is a 'work space,'  That work space is nice, but I think it's a bit cluttered.

The writing Room

Yes, you are seeing correctly, I write at an old kitchen table.  Storage space would be really nice.  Right now I find myself shuffling through notes looking for reminders of things that need to be either added, taken out, or revised.  I was looking at desks that were immense, some up to 76 inches wide, and they are all way to big.  So I've changed course, smaller, for once, might be better, and maybe kidney shaped.  That style would go much better with my Von Scheirholz porcelain.  We shall have to wait and see.