When you hit middle age you really only have two choices: you can get fat and lazy until you roll over and die, or you can can get off your ass and do something, like maybe ride a bike.
Bluntness
I've also been told I have little tact, so if this offends you simply ride on.
Outside temps are 68 (F) and, so far, if the forecast hods, we're going to have a nice day in Central PA. Sunny skies, with a few scattered clouds are on tap. The temperature is going to climb a little, with our afternoon high being satisfied to reach the low 80s (F). However, as with all weather, the temps are always in flux. Saturday's high is supposed to be in the low 90s (F). After that we'll be seeing afternoon highs back in the mid 80s (F). Fine with me.
After my morning workout yesterday, which is done mostly on the piece of equipment, I grabbed my trusty chainsaw and cut up the rest of the limb in my backyard. I still need to deal with the treetop on the other side of the fence, but the main goal was to start getting my yard to look like a yard. Because the weather is going to be so cooperative today, I'm going to start chipping away at all of the smaller branches I tossed onto the hill. This should make for a nice pile of mulch.
An interesting bit about my raised bed garden: 3 of the tomato plants have fruit, one doesn't. I have poblano peppers but no green peppers. There are eggplant (s), but only one cucumber, and that cucumber vine is all over the place. There is a problem with the tomatoes in that they are all growing together creating a veritable tomato jungle. Next year, I'm going to place the containers around the yard to give them some room.
Here's the new cover of Rolling Stone. This is going to piss off a lot of Republicans.
Neither Republicans nor Conservatives have any problem with the Orange Anus being corrupt; the only thing they care about is being in charge. So what if the $13 billion from the sale of Venezuelan oil has disappeared? And what about Orangie's Peace Council? Didn't the US donate (?) a billion + dollars to that? And then there are the bribes he gets, and his selling of pardons. Remember, the Republican party has always been the party of selfishness and greed.
And yesterday they went after Dr. Fauci because their beginning to lose their MAGA base. Affordability is a major concern but don't expect the GOP to talk about that anytime soon. If they did that more cultists might begin wondering about the missing moolah, moolah that Orangie has been pocketing. For him, it has always been about the art of the steal. He and his party have driven over the cliff and still don't realize that there is no bottom in sight.
Well, our temp is in the mid 60s and we have sunshine. It's supposed to be a very nice day outside. Isn't it a shame that I have to go to work? According to the long range forecast, we're going to be stuck in this weather pattern for the next 3 weeks (at least). This would be decent summer weather. These middle of the road temps make things delightful.
Yesterday was a good one. Many chores were completed, including a mowing of the lawn. I prepped the wheelbarrow/planter for painting. The garden was fertilized. That's a first for me this year, using fertilizer. Since everything is in containers, I decided that might not be a bad idea. It has made quite a difference. Last year the cucumber plant was scraggly, this year it's taking over the backyard.
The only fly in the ointment was my neighbors. Around 0130 they decided to play their stereo. At first it was loud, then their addled brains realized that the volume might be a problem, and they turned it down a tad. An hour later, they turned off the stereo. I wouldn't be surprised if that side of the house was haunted, as my old neighbor Mike would occasionally get drunk and play his guitar very loudly for about 20 minutes in the middle of the night. Oddly enough, the new neighbor's name is Mike, too, so he might be Mike 2.
As I said, my container garden is doing well. Here's a pic of some of my Italian tomatoes.
In case you missed it, the Orange Anus revealed his Qatari gift plane yesterday, refurbished by hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars, I might add. This was a personal gift to him from the Qataris, which means he's planning on taking it with him when he leaves the White House. This got me to thinking about what happens if he not only gets impeached for a 3rd time, but there are enough votes to remove him from office? Can the government put a lien on his assets as a way of compensating the country for all of the money he's stolen, like the tax payer dollars he's used to fix up this jet? I don't know. If we can, how about the government also slapping a lien on Donnie Jr's drone business, the one that borrowed $620 million from the DOJ? And wouldn't it be great if once the Assholes are out of the picture the government started canceling all of those Starlink contracts? Maybe we should follow Brazil's lead.
We have drizzles here in Central PA. Our temp is going to be very static today, neither rising nor falling, but hovering at 65 (F). That's not a bad temp for Spring. Our skies are seriously clouded over and, as I said, we have drizzles. If they'll develop into soaking rains is anybody's guess, though that possibility certainly exists. At this time of year, rain is nice.
Much was accomplished yesterday. Two more veggie plants were purchased and planted. I'd been hoping to find an eggplant, that hope was smashed when I walked down row after row of seedlings and found mostly tomato and pepper plants. I stood and counted, there were 17 zucchini plants and 9 cucumber plants. Since I've already planted 6 tomato plants, I went with 1 green pepper and 1 cucumber. I also bought a pink thing. The idea is to surround the raised garden with flowering plants to make the veggie flowers interesting to all the flying insects, bees included, in my back yard. Here's the pink thing, it's supposed to get about a foot wide.
Howie got a hold of one of the small, disposable plastic containers and brought it into the house where, using a slice of ham, I bribed him into giving it to me. This morning I threw it away. As I walked down the back steps, I told him "this is trash," and after throwing it into the recycle bin I turned to see my neighbors heading back into their house. I did what I always do when I see them, I said a cheery "morning," and was ignored. They had a loud argument either very late last night or very early this morning. This is the new normal I got ever since they moved in.
And oil prices are dropping again this morning. There was a TACO yesterday, and evidently a memo regarding the Strait of Hormuz. I'd seen a while back that Orangie was looking for a way to get out of the war he started with Iran. He wants to walk away and claim victory, in order for gas prices to go down. He needs that to happen to in order for the Republicans to not totally lose out during the midterms.
Oh, and by the way, that little ballroom he wants to build? It's now going to cost the tax payers $1 billion. That's going to be a terrible burden for everyone young. Their futures are going to be crippled because of the GOP.
Saturday was nice and sunny with the temps in the low to mid 60s (F) and a nice Spring day was had by almost all, not me though, I worked. Today we're going to be a few degrees warmer. It's going to be sunny again. I also work again this afternoon.
Our flooring department is not busy. Our garden department? Like a big sponge it's sucking in customer cash. Lots of buckos are flowing into our registers... or maybe not so much cash since many people no longer carry greenbacks. Now they mostly just whip out the plastic. Seriously though, I will admit to being astounded when I looked at the financials just before leaving. Our garden department alone made more than the entire store's plan. That's a hell of a lot of mulch. While customers were buying other things, yesterday mulch was king. We have something called a mulch pit consisting of hundreds of pallets of mulch lining a lane wide enough for a truck to drive down. The store walkie-talkies were constantly going off, "assistance needed in the mulch pit." Customers were buying 20 - 30 bags of mulch at a time.
Speaking of mulch... I don't. I have too many squirrels. I mulched one year and they dug it up and carried it all over the lawn.
For the most part, I'd say that yesterday was just like every other Saturday. I was supposed to get a bike ride in but did a mini workout instead. Otherwise, the day was interchangeable with every other Saturday over the past several years.
Oh, and this is why everyone was lining up for mulch.
As expected, ceasefire talks between us and the Iranian's broke down. Was it because the Iranians showed with the wrong style couch? Even though that's a rather amusing thought, I doubt that's the explanation. More likely Vance's incompetence at negotiation is too blame, that and the fact that he was with a real estate agent and Orangie's son-in-law. The only thing those two are interested in is striking a deal that will enrich themselves. Remember, with Orangie, everything revolves around the deal. Also, keep in mind that he is not the wheeler dealer he claims to be. His problem is that he approaches every deal with one line of thought in his head, "what's in it for me?"
There's a big election in Hungary today. Viktor Orbin might finally be voted out of power. He's a Putin henchie, who's been ruining Hungary for over 15 years in order to kowtow to his boss. If, for some terrible reason he wins, a majority of Hungarians will know that he cheated and will rise up. I do not think his government is prepared for that.
And finally, Orangie's ship of fools is foundering even more. He flew down to Miami to go to a cage match and people booed him terribly. Fox Entertainment said he got a raucous welcome, trying to spin it positively. Patrons recorded the hostility on their phones. His base is shitting itself into tiny little pieces. He's a lot like his budso Vik, who's ship is going down fast by the bow.
It's Wednesday and the outside temps are in the mid 60s (F), they will warm up this afternoon, though they won't climb into the 80s (F) the way yesterday's temps did. Overall, yesterday was splendid. Today's shaping up to be splendid, too, just a little cooler.
So much was accomplished yesterday. My raised bed bucket garden is almost complete, the only problem being I didn't buy enough top soil. I thought 2 bags would be enough, well, I thought wrong. I'm going to need to pick up at least 3 more. Also, it seems as though I was mistaken about those seeds I planted. I thought the pepper seeds had sprouted, not, as they've grown, I've realized it was the tomato seeds that started growing. This means that hopefully, I will have lots of tomatoes this year. I have no problem with that, I can always dry them.
Usually, after working the weekend, Tuesdays are used for relaxing. That was not the case yesterday. Today is going to be the meh day, mostly because I stayed up late, I've been playing Avowed, and I, as gamers say, "I beat the game." The combat was fun, the story interesting, but I will admit that I'm glad to have finished it. At this point I have no desire to play it again. I was not overly enthused with the companions; they all talked way too much and I didn't really care about their backstories.
I am starting a new game this evening: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It's a turn based RPG by a French studio. I can't wait to see if it's as interesting as it looks. Once a year, the paintress awakens to inscribe a number on a monolith. If your age matches that number, you will die that year. Hhhhmm.
And the Orange Anus has been in office for 100 days, and while he is not universally despised, those days are coming. He had a rally in Michigan in which he spewed out pure hatred, you know, the usual blame game pointing dirty fingers at everyone except himself. More and more, however, it seems as though the Main Stream Media is calling him out, asking him about his lies. You see they are more concerned about the clicks, so if confronting him and calling him out earns them more clicks, that's what they're going to give the general public. Even, on occasion, Fox Entertainment is beginning to do this because Rupert is more concerned about the coin than kissing his ass.
I saw where UPS is planning on laying off 20,000 because of Orangie's tariffs. Don't worry, there are more to come, and not just UPS. One of the things that surprises me is that so many people don't understand how trade has become so globalized. They don't know that the tomatoes that make ketchup come from Mexico, or that it's more lucrative to export our wheat than sell it to ourselves, so the wheat in your hamburger bun may come from Canada. Anyone who believes we should be completely self-sufficient doesn't understand the business end of things, and at this point it's nearly impossible to change without crushing the world's economy.
Overcast. That's the word for the day here in Central Pa. We've had showers overnight and more are on the way. Our high yesterday was 95 (F). Today the mercury is only supposed to climb up into the low 80s. As an outside working temp, the low to mid 80s are on the spot. Now, let's hope the humidity stays down.
I planted my small garden yesterday. I took out some of the back pavers from the veranda and moved them up front. Underneath the pavers is a layer of pea gravel. While providing great drainage, I didn't know how well it would be for growing so I bought a couple of bags of dirt. Because of the trees around my property, it's difficult to find a spot where there is a lot of sunshine, not that my yard isn't sunny, they just change location as the sun crosses the sky. I'm thinking of having the large maple tree on the hill behind the house topped, that will let in a lot more sunlight.
Two tomatoes, one pepper, and a zucchini
I saw where that celebrity legal case so many have been paying attention to is now over, at least for the time being. I never paid any attention to it. My sister said it was really about 2 drunks fighting in public. My sister can be very, very smart.
There was another mass shooting yesterday. So, what else is new? Oh, there is a bipartisan group of senators working on some sort of gun control legislation. One of the Republicans involved is Susan Collins. I supposed she's trying to show she can do what her constituents want, especially after Kavanaugh used, and abused, her vote in order to get his ass on the Supreme Court.
71% of Americans have no problem with same sex marriage. That may make you happy but remember the 29% of Americans who hate it managed to get a majority of seats on the Supreme Court. How do we make the Supreme Court toothless? Vote blue this November. If the Democrats can win enough seats in the House and Senate, we can take the bite out of the conservative losers.
And we're racing through another slow weekend. This is always the case.
Today is lawn waste pick-up day, and I have no waste. Tuesday or Wednesday, when I have off, I will wack my weeds. pick up a few small branches that have fallen, and that's about it.
So far I've harvested 5 cucumbers, several banana peppers, and there's a 3rd eggplant waiting to be plucked. The tomatoes and the cantaloupes failed. Maybe I should plant them in the front yard next year where they will get full sun. Because of the trees surrounding my house, in the backyard they only get about 5 or 6 hours.
I had some customers yesterday who are selling their house and wanted a refresh of carpet to make it more attractive to potential buyers. They have 195.67 square yards, or 160.60 square meters for all of my metric readers. That's a lot of rug. Even with the dirt cheap carpet their tally came to over $4300. And they balked at the price. He asked if they could skip the padding. Carpet without padding is like raw pasta... hard. Welcome to the real world. As I handed the printed final quote to them, he laid his phone on the desk and I could see he was already checking out our competitor. Fine with me.
And isn't it interesting how sounds from the past can sometimes be a source of creative inspiration? Like this.
And doesn't that Ronnie DeSantis have one hell of a Covid problem? Abbott from Texas? He, too, is in a bad way. They both remind me of Ronnie Reagan in that neither has the ability to see other options. Back when Ronnie got his Reagonamics passed, the economy was in a sorry state. It took a while for the Conservative legislation to kick in, so almost daily Ronnie would say we need to 'stay the course.' And for a while, it seemed to work, but the rich never spend as much as they need to for the economy to grow, so it began dying. So it goes with Covid. And both DeSantis and Abbot are going to 'stay the course.' Because of that, every day there are fewer Republican voters in the country.
The French Bread I baked in my new bread maker is... delicious. The load shape is odd. Oh, and because I used the timer and the mixing, kneading process began while I was still sleeping, I didn't have the chance to removed the little kneading paddle. This meant cutting off the bottom of the loaf to remove the little sucker. Pain in the ass. I may try an artisan loaf tomorrow, since I'm off work.
Yesterday at work we were hectic busy for a while in flooring. Our Garden department went through the roof as far as sales were concerned. People are spending money. So am I, but not to the same degree. Tonight, after I punch out, I'm going to pick up some furnace filters (my central air uses the same venting), and veggie plants. I'm also going to stop off at my local Giant and do my shopping, rather then go tomorrow.
One of the managers at work flipped the radio station to the 80's again yesterday and this little gem played. I bought this album. Loved it. As I listened, I realized the lyrics were very usable to a writer who crafts mysteries. Take a listen and tell me if you don't agree. Hhhhmm. Who knows where they might show up.
And since I can't leave the dogs and fly down to New Orleans, I've been watching YouTube videos. The walking tours are chock full of good information, and a great way to sit in your armchair and flesh out possible settings.
Oh, and I saw where Marjorie Taylor Greene has decided to claim she's abandoning her white supremacist group. Personally, I think this is just her putting on her liar's mask to please the complainers of both parties. There's no changing the evil in her heart. Remember, she's one of those Q heretics. There's no way she's going to privately eliminate the ugly from her system.
Yesterday the temps in Central Pa hit 76 (F) and I took the dogs for a walk. They loved it. And everybody else was taking their dogs for a walk. This is fine... as long as they keep their distance. Like people, not all dogs get along. I don't know what it is... maybe something about the way their butt smells, but some dogs have an instant dislike for other dogs. This is something I don't worry about when we go for a walk at Adams-Ricci Park because dog owners there will warn you. Walking around my neighborhood? That is not the case.
I did a little yardwork yesterday, but not much. Believe it or not, we're still in winter. The upcoming forecast has quite a few days where our highs are only going to be in the mid - 40's (F).
This year I'm putting my tomato plants in the ground. The pots I used last year were only good for peppers. Looks like I'm going to have a lot of peppers this year.
In case you have seen this vid, click on it. Simply amazing. Filmed in a bowling alley, bar, restaurant, and theater up in Minneapolis as a way to drive up attendance now the the Pandemic appears to be winding down, this uncut drone footage has grabbed the attention of film makers in Hollywood. This is a Wow moment.
I only watched a portion of Biden's speech last night, but I was impressed as was, I suspect, most of those who watched him. This is how you steer a country back from extremism. There's something so human about having a president simply talk to you, one adult to another adult. Americans are taking notice. I'm going to repeat Dave's axiom here. A popular president can move the country to either the left or to the right, an unpopular president will always move it in the opposite direction. This is how we make America great.
Since I eat a lot of fresh vegetables, I usually plant them, usually tomatoes, zucchini, and at least one pepper plant. This year I tried my hand at squash. I like squash. It's very versatile. You can boil it or broil it, bake it, and fry it, if you want. Because I'd never planted squash before, I only purchased on plant. This is what I was supposed to harvest:
However, the little plastic name tag must have been wrong, or else the plant just didn't want to grow properly, because this is what I plucked from the vine:
That's right, it's next to a creamer. Big, huh? I don't know if it's edible or not. And if it is, it's like... what? Two bites? Every time I look at it I think, 'my, what a cute little pumpkin.' And, even sadder still, it's the only one. I had tons of flowers but ended up with only one little, bitty squash.
