Toy Time

 Well, the temps did climb into the low 80s (F) yesterday and it was... nice.  What a shame that I had to work.  Temps are supposed to be warm again both today and tomorrow, however storms are predicted to spoil everything in the late afternoon of both days.  Tuesday, my day off, the forecast is for us to return to season temps which are... a tad cooler.

And the warmer temps brought out the shoppers yesterday.  The last time I had checked the flooring department had sales totaling over $36 thousand.  I began working at 2, however by 3 foot traffic was in an obvious decline.  We did have a customer who's attempts to wheedle us with various coupons and discounts on his phone that we were forced to put a stop to his sale.  At one point he wanted to apply for a pro-contractor credit card in order to get the pro discount.  He had difficulty in understand that having a business was not the same thing as a person who's sole income come from remodeling a bathroom, or a kitchen.  Luckily we had an assistant manager working with him and she politely educated him on the difference.

This is also a Success Sharing weekend.  They bring in food.  I've been counting calories, but decided to stop yesterday and today since I happen to be a grazer.  Yesterday we all got a personal pan pizza with the toppings of our choice.  I chose a white pan pizza with mushrooms and artichoke hearts.  Scrumptious.  Today is ice cream sundae Sunday.

And my new heart rate monitor arrived yesterday.  It has a much needed upgrade: you can easily replace the battery.  With older models you needed to removed 4 teeny weeny screws with a tiny screwdriver,  That's no longer the case.

For those who don't know, it's always toy time here.

In case you haven't been able to read the signs, the Orange Anus is lava level angry, that's about ten grades above and beyond his being furious.  Remember, in his world he never makes mistakes, he is never wrong.  This Signal Chat screw up has exposed his total incompetence.  He put in unqualified idiots into his cabinet, idiots who would always say "yes," and now the world is laughing at him, and he's doing what he does best:  making things worse by doubling down.  How can I (we) tell?  He said that he's absolutely not going to replace any of the people on that chat, that would mean he screwed up by picking those idiots.  an even better example is his saying, "we are taking Greenland."  I can't even imagine the protest that will happen if he follows through on that.  The worst example was him saying in an interview that he "doesn't care if auto prices go up."  That's right, he doesn't care if American's suffer.  Shit!  But than Orangie has never cared for the American people, he's never cared for America.  In his mind we are just another product he can barter with.

Supreme Failure

 Forecasters are saying we're in for another day in the 80s (F) and the skies are still supposed to be hazy with Canadian wild fire smoke.  People with breathing issues might have problems, I'm not one of them.

My lawn did get mowed yesterday.  I talked with the owner of the house next door, again.  He is a rather disreputable individual who seems to think he's shrewd.  He told me the house is going on sale in about 3 weeks and that he's not going through a real estate agent.  He said, "if you know enough people agents aren't necessary, so why should I pay one commission?"  Translation, he's going to try and sell it without having a home inspection done.  This also means someone's going to be buying a house with a lot of problems.  

As far as exercising, yesterday was pretty much of a bust.  I did get in the dumbbell workout, however my Heart Rate Monitor died.  It just stopped communicating with every device it was connected to; nothing could find it.  According to my phone, the last sync had been on 6/27 and at that time the battery was full.  I've had problems with it before, so, after muttering a few obscenities and cutting my ride really short, I ordered a new one.  Free overnight delivery.  It arrive this morning around 0700.

And I uploaded another little video to my YouTube channel on the next book, The Body in Motion.  Here it is for your enjoyment.

As expected, the conservative Supreme Court threw out Affirmative Action for universities and colleges yesterday.  And, as expected, Clarence Thomas, a man who took advantage of Affirmative Action to get where he is, voted against it.  For him, I suspect it was more about revenge than anything.  Purportedly, when he was going to Harvard, thanks to Affirmative Action, he complained to friends that he felt like a 2nd class student, that others thought he was there only because of Affirmative Action, rather then on his qualifications.  He evidently still doesn't realize that his qualifications wouldn't have gotten him a place on the door stoop.  That man is so filled with hatred.

Oh, and the Koch group is raising money to find someone they deem qualified to run against Trump, at least $70 million so far.  They know that if he gets the nomination he will set back conservatism decades.

Suunto - almost great, but not quite

After the bad experience with Polar, I looked around, there were other HRM's available but nothing quite caught my fancy till I saw "The Volcano."  Suunto's red faced HRM looked like it would give me everything I wanted in an HRM.  The monitor, itself, was and still is one of the most comfortable I've ever worn; there was no heavy plastic involved.  The connection to the transmitter, however, was a bit on the flimsy side and I so I purchased a 2nd just in case I broke it - which I did.  My main difficulty was with all of the buttons, too many, and the sequence in which they needed to be pressed was cumbersome at first.  Even once I'd become familiar it was not unusual to press the wrong button.  This was also my first experience with wireless transmittal of data, which was super!

Look at all the pretty buttons

I'm not longer using "The Volcano" because about 4 months ago it began exhibiting software issues.  I started having problems getting into the main menu so I changed the battery (you can do that with the Suunto) to no avail.  We went to Standard Time and I was stuck in daylight savings time.  And then the readout started fading and since I'd recently changed the battery I new that was not the issue, so the Suunto was retired.

Polar bites it big time!

The polar I am referring to is the Polar who puts out Heart Rate Monitors.  Why do they bite big time?  For several reasons.  I was suckered into my first Polar HRM because it seemed like a good deal even though you needed to mail it off to get the battery changed.  Then, when I needed to have the battery changed, I found out how much it would cost: roughly $25.  There was also the time factor of between 1 and 2 weeks I would have no HRM.  Sooooo, I did without for about a year.  I still went back to their website because I still thought they offered deals and it seemed like everybody was using Polar.  Eventually, I bought another one and realized I had the same fricking problem.  This time I thought I should be able to change the battery myself.  After taking off the back I realized the battery seemed to have been built into the HRM.  Why would they shit on their customer base in such a manner?  Were they that damn greedy.  Sure, very pricey models were available that allowed the consumer to change the battery.  But why did Polar make them so fricking expensive?

Sucky piece of shit

Here is a picture of the last Polar product I will ever purchase.  Not only because the company seems to have no problem shitting on their customer base and sucking every conceivable penny out of them, but also because I purchased an Imac and Polar is not Apple friendly.  I checked out their website and in this day of the Ipad could find no compatible app.  I did go on to purchase a Suunto HRM which I used for a couple of years (you can change the battery on their models) and finally graduated to Garmin.  More on that later.