Voting for Survival

 Showers are on the menu for today.  The morning temps were 69 (F), though they've already climbed to 71 (F).  Besides the spotty showers (yes, no steady rain, just occasional drizzles that will do nothing to help the dryness) our high is supposed to be in the upper 80s (F).  Just a little bit less nice than yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, it was another day of accomplishments.  A walk in the park (2.3 miles), a ride on the bike, and the big aquarium got cleaned.

I'm also trying something new and odd with my kitchen floor.  Old houses like mine do not have a subfloor.  My hardwood planking sits right on the studs.  Over the past 119 years flexibility has crept in, they will go up and down slightly when you walk on them.  To fix this, I installed MSB because it was cheaper than 3/4 inch plywood.  This doesn't eliminate the movement, but reduces it a lot.  Still, those floor boards do shift a little.  To eliminate the possibility of the vinyl planks unlocking, I'm gluing them down.  I'm also going to be cementing all of the seams to make them look more like porcelain tiles.  When that's done, I'm going to poly the top since there's going to be at least one dog in the house when I get back from Greece.

I was looking to see if the RNC convention gave the Orange Anus any boost in the polls, and so far there's none to speak of, which seems about right.  This loser survived a domestic terror event and got zilch.  That tells you what America thinks of Donald Trump.  Even though polls lie, he's pretty much tied with Biden, the 81 year old candidate who's possibly in decline, across the board.  What people really need to come to grips with is that this election is not about the candidate, not at all.  It's really about Democracy vs Authoritarianism.  Because the Supreme Court gave the presidency far reaching powers with their decision that they have to a large extent full immunity for their actions, if Trump is sworn into office he will immediately begin spitting out Executive Orders over ruling everything.  Nothing he does will help the average American and when all those millions realize he and the Republican party have no problem hitting them with the shitty end of the stick, chaos will erupt.  I've said this before, Trump's blow bro Vlad doesn't want us as a political partner, he wants to knock America out of it's place as the number one Super Power in the world.  Putin wants there be violent civil unrest in America.  So, for all you dummies out there, it's not about voting for the candidate, it's about voting for survival.  

Floored

 Well, it's sunny today.  Yesterday, as almost everybody knows, it was overcast, rainy, and windy.  Overnight, the temps dropped down to the low 30s (F), and today's high is expected to be in the low 40s (F).  So, while it bright and sunny outside, it's a bit on the cool side.  

I had planned on getting in a fast walk on the treadmill, and a couple thousand meters on the rower yesterday.  That didn't happen.  Instead, I spent the entire morning and early afternoon finishing off the kitchen floor.  I like it.  Lily doesn't.  I had path her way to the back door with area rugs.  She'll get used to it. I think it looks great.  White quarter round, and almond colored cove base are the only things left to do, and that shouldn't take long.  Though, it won't happen today.  I need to buy those things first from my local orange home improvement store.

And, speaking of the orange home improvement store that I work at, Corporate has finally come out and said that Americans are no longer interested in large home renovations.  In fact, both orange and blue home improvement have come admitted this publicly.  This is a problem of their own making.  In fact it's a problem for all retailers who failed to grasp the fact that increasing prices in order to hit their profit goal with cost them in the end.  Prices are beginning to come down.  The American consumer is not going to bend blindly to corporate greed.

Here's what my floor looks like.

And like everybody else in the country, I was floored by yesterday's Supreme Court decision.  We now have proof that not only are they corrupt, but they're gutless has Hell.  Common consensus was that a guilty verdict in any of Trump's Federal cases would have killed his chances for getting elected in November.  Now those Federal cases are on hold, probably until 2025.  This is what the Orange Anus wanted.  But it does more.  Had the Court said he wasn't immune, Conservatives would have blamed them, this decision to delay things gets them off the hook, at least in their minds.  Now, if Trump loses in November, it's his fault and his alone.  

And there was some bright stuff yesterday.  Trump tried to play let's make a deal by offering to pay $100 million of his $454 million fine and got rejected.  Mitch McConnell is going to step down at the end of his term, which is in 2027.  I'm betting he doesn't make it.  He'd like to go out on a high note and instead he'll end up proving how big of a failure he is.

Flooring, and other tidbits

 Okay, so we've made it to Sunday, the end of the week, the day of rest, except for me.  I always work on Sunday.  Today is supposed to be sunny, too.  Temps climbing into the middle 409s (F).  Short range temps are to continue climbing, reaching the low 60s (F) by Wednesday.  There is some rain thrown in there, but the we are nearly in spring, when spring showers drizzle.

I've finished more of my kitchen floor yesterday.  It's... approximately 3/4 complete, and most of that area by the chimney, and under the refrigerator.  I will need to have to do some serious cuts around the floor vent, but I don't see them as being so difficult as to cause much of a problem.  After the tiles are in, there's the quarter round needing to go in around the perimeter, and the almond color cove base under the cabinets before the construction is finished.  I will be glad.  While it's taken me longer than I though to do this myself, the alternative would have been expensive.   With the floor prep, the cost for someone else to do it would have been around $1000, and that's a conservative estimate.

Lily is back to being an upstairs / downstairs dog, and by that I mean she goes upstairs in the evening to go to bed, and then downstairs in the morning.  The rest of the day she spends on the sofa in the writing room, or chewing on one of her snacks.  She's eating fine.  Her stubby tail is wagging again.  What was her problem?  Well, she has a cyst on her wrist that shrank in size, meaning there was some internal leakage, and she had a swollen gland on her cheek that caused her nictitating membrane  to swell.  All is back to normal.  

SAG awards were last night.  I didn't watch.  But Oppenheimer continued to steamroll it's way through award season.

As expected, Trump won the Republican primary in South Carolina.  59.5% of Republicans in that state voted for him, however, his victory was not a slam dunk.  39.5% of the voters chose someone else, mostly Hailey.  He has lost the loyalty of these people.  That is something the Republican party simply doesn't understand.  They deeply believe the individuals who cast their ballots for someone else will automatically vote the the party's nominee.  Nope.  The only thing they can count on are the MAGA cultists.  Rather than having to chose between Biden and Trump, many old school Republicans will simply sit on their hands and not vote.  And, as several pundits have already noted, one guilty voted will send that number through the roof.

Separation of Church and State

 Well, we've started one of those weekends that everybody is working for...  Of course, that doesn't include everybody that I know, many of whom are retired, or else they work from home and pretty much set their own hours.  Also, I do need to point out that being retired does not mean that you're going to sit back and wait for death to come calling.  I have a very few friends that are waiting for this.  I don't understand what's going through their heads when they tell me "they've worked their entire lives, and they're not going to work anymore."  It just might be a form of laziness.

The weather's going to be fine today.  Temps in the low 40s (F), chilling out overnight.  Tomorrow starts a warming trend, not that we haven't been warm so far this winter, that will take us up into the 60s (F).  By the end of the week we'll be in March.  Spring is in the air, I can smell it.

Another third of the kitchen floor was finished yesterday.  I'm working on it again today.  It's not time consuming, except when it comes to cutting the tiles.  Supposedly, you should be able to cut it by scoring it a few times with a box cutter, and then snapping it.  That, however, doesn't always give you a smooth break, so I'm down in the basement with a hand saw every time I need to cut a tile.

My daffodils are pushing their way up through last years leaves.

And CPAC is happening.  There was a time when this gathering of conservative crazies actually represented something other than... well... a gathering of Christian crazies.  The Orange Anus spoke zombie-speak.  One thing the media picked up on was his racist characterization of black people, the one where he said that black people like him because of his mugshot.  

If I'm remembering correctly, it was a CPAC that they rolled out the golden Trump idol.  That's when Christians should have kicked their concern into high gear.  They didn't.  They were too unabashedly delighted that the evil one was going to give them what they wanted.  So happy were they, they told themselves he had to have been sent by God.  Stupid people.  They shriek and moan about all types of sins without understanding how evil actually works.  It gave them what they were praying for, and they helped to spread the evil in return.  Ouch!  This is the reason our founding fathers decreed there was going to be a separation of Church and State.

Upstairs Dog

 Another short post because I work today.

Forecasters are predicting rain today.  On and off showers are supposed to dampen the entire region, both today and tomorrow, and then temps will drop, if they're right.  But then we're going to have another prelude to Spring with a warming trend.  We've had so many preludes, I'm thinking maybe we should call them an overture.

Lily had decided that she wants to spend the rest of her days upstairs, lounging on the bed.  She has a better view from the upstairs window, downstairs all she can see are the squirrels, upstairs, the FedEx  and UPS trucks are visible almost half a block away.  She goes up and down the staircase as little as possible.  She's a senior dog.  Biggie stopped, too, but he chose to stay downstairs.

I spent a big chunk of time yesterday cutting out one difficult piece of vinyl plank for the kitchen floor.  Lots of cuts, in under the front of the dishwasher, then out for 1.5 inches for the dishwasher cabinet, then a horizontal cut for front of that cabinet edge, and then an 8 inch vertical for the outside of the cabinet.  I was really concerned that I'd break the plank during the final cut because it's very narrow.  That was the most difficult piece I had to cut.

Here's a pic I took of Lily eyeing the staircase yesterday.  She waited until I was playing a game before getting drink of water and heading up to bed.  Sneaky, she is.

And, of course, it's quite amusing how the Republicans are stammering terribly about their Russkie witness, the one who, at least in the eyes of the Kremlin, was going to give them the goods they needed to impeach Biden.  And, who all knew he was a fake?  Comer and Jordan for two.  And now we have Republican Ken Buck saying everything is a lie.  Ouch!

Of a Certain Age

 Well, hello sunny Saturday!  If you're in central PA, you want to enjoy it while you can since the clouds are already rolling in.  Temps are going to climb into the low 60s (F).  Drizzle will dampen us this afternoon, and temps will begin a slow, but consistent drop, like the rain that will be falling later in the day.  Right now, however, the sun is blasting brightness in through the workout room window.

I do get to go work this afternoon.  So, I'll be sitting at the flooring desk when our spring-like weather declines.  Will I be busy?  Hhhmm, probably not.  We're in the middle of the February doldrums, when cold weather and the idea of having your doors open for an extended period of time, dissuades many from paying for any sort of installation or renovation.  Not every body.  There are those who might still consider have blinds hung.

We're also beginning to sell custom-made area rugs again.  Can you hear the excitement in my voice?

And I started installing my kitchen floor yesterday.  Rather than spending time on my knees, my biggest issue (and not problem) is making all the cuts to the tiles.  Supposedly, you can use an exacta-knife, or some other sharp blade to make the cuts on the tiles and then break them.  That don't work for me.  My straight edge keeps sliding so the cut is never... straight.  Instead, I'm using a miter saw to cut them.  I find it amusing that after the instructions spend several sentences telling you how to cut tiles for the installation, there's this throwaway tag line letting you know that if the knife doesn't work, you should use a jig saw or a miter saw.  Duh. If they know the blade isn't going to cut deep enough, why talk about it?  Here's what about 36 square feet looks like.  I will do the rest next week.

And, of course, Democrats are still flipping out over Hur's (the special counsel looking at Biden's document issue) comments about his mental acuity.  No matter how much they want to point their fingers and shout he was appointed by Trump, and is a loyalist to Trump, they should have been expecting this.  Biden's age is the Democratic elephant in the room.  They should have been prepared for something like this, and they weren't.  Now there are Republicans claiming he should be removed using the 25th amendment because of this.  Democrats should have known this was a card the Republicans were going to play, and while both parties can play dirty politics, Republicans are masters at that game.

My personal opinion:  Biden should have seen himself as a caretaker president and laid the groundwork for someone younger, say a Newsome, instead of convincing himself that his age was not going to be a problem.

The Kitchen Floor

 For some of you this Monday and the beginning of the work week, for me it's Monday in name only for in all actuality today is my Friday.  This doesn't mean that the next four days are going to be a vacation, I'm going to be ripping up the rest of my kitchen floor.  Most of the vinyl planks are gone, and now I'm faced with making a decision.  My kitchen floor is actually hardwood that I covered with plywood and Masonite before I put in the planking.  Should I revisit the hardwood?  I'm thinking that's going to be a yes.  So, I guess tomorrow morning I'll begin ripping that stuff up.  I can still cover it back up should I choose to.  

Weather wise?  it rained all day yesterday, very heavy at times, and then a steady drizzle for most of the night.  This means I'm probably going to have to mow the lawn one of the days this week.  If the forecasters are correct, the temps should be nice, however, and again if they are right, we're going to be getting more rain next weekend.  Rainy Saturdays and Sundays are not good always good for retail.  

For those interested in seeing what I what I see when I'm sitting at my writing desk, it's usually Lily sitting on the sofa looking out the window.  Now, isn't this relaxing?

After the Lauren Boebert groping incident, the weekend was rather quiet, except for the Republicans in the House of Representatives who continue to demonstrate their complete inability to lead.  Why is it that the most incompetent feel they are the only ones who can be in charge?  And when they do manage to get themselves into a position of power they reveal themselves to be the unscrupulous face of Chaos.  

One bit of interesting news which caused Republicans to spew ire was Schumer's decision to relax the dress code.  This is a formality which should have been eliminated at the same time when coats and ties were packed away to make room for casual dress in the work place.  I'm old enough to remember those days.  I was one of the lucky ones, I had two coats, however many of the men I worked alongside only had one, and let me tell you that one coat they owned always ended up looking extremely ratty looking.