Howie has a New Toy

 And again we have temps that are rather moderate here in Central PA.  Right now the mercury (does anyone still know what that means?) is sitting at 44 (F).  Our afternoon high will again be in the mid 50s (F), and that's nice.  Next week our highs are predicted to be in the 40s (F), but we'll have to wait and see.  Long range forecasts are always hazier than a hot summer afternoon in LA.

Yesterday things got done.  Laundry: 3 loads.  Workout: affirmative, even with the new exercises.  Yeah, I got some new things to pick up and put down.  Something called a hip thrust, and for those of you whose minds just stepped off the curb into the gutter, clean up your minds.  You make a bridge: the top of your shoulders is on the edge of the weight bench and your knees are creating a right angle with your feet on the floor four feet away, and then you lift one of your feet as high as possible.  I also began doing lateral lunges with weights.  Wowza!  Believe me when I tell you I was a bit sore.

Since this is the season of mice my mouse traps have been put out.  Four of the little buggers are now out on the hill where they will become fertilizer.  So far, four has been the record, of course I have no idea how many of them have decided to take up refuge in my house.  Better they should move to my neighbor's house where I do suspect they would be so much safer.

Howie has a new toy.  He loves it.  This is the first one with handles at both ends and we can play tug-of-war.  This toy has now become his most favortitist in the world, and he walks around the house with it dangling from his mouth.  He is always raring to go for a good tug.

And I would have gotten more accomplished yesterday if it weren't for the Epstein Files.  Ahead of Adelita Grijalva's being sworn in, the Democrats released a tranche (I do like that word tranche) of new Epstein emails.  We now know that in 2017 Jeff celebrated Thanksgiving with the Orange Anus, that's a year after Orangie was elected president.  We also know that Bill Clinton never went to the Jeff's pedophile island.  Also, Orangie evidently knew about the little girls.  The Washington Post attempted to clean this up by adding there were no references to Orangie being involved with said little girls.  I'm thinking Bezos may be worried about his tax cut so his hired lacky writers are going to do as much damage control as possible.  I don't know if any of you saw Orangie signing the legislation to reopen the government, but if you did you know what I mean when I say his face was lava angry red.  He took no questions.  Remember, he doesn't get scared, he gets angry.  He gets furious.  He is so pissed about Epstein and his files!  You would have thought that after all of these years Orangie would have realized that in the real world he is an incompetent idiot.

Fiery Brandon

 I don't know about you, but I'm grew up thinking the week actually ended on Sunday.  You know?  Having to work for 6 days before reaching that 7th day of rest.  Think about that for a second.  We were never supposed to have 2 days off in a row.  Never.  Only 1.  And even then, Sunday was never supposed to be anything like Funday.  

Anyway, Lily had to go potty outside around 0100 because she doesn't go before climbing the stairs and jumping on the bed.  As she was outside doing her late-night business, I checked the traps.  Success.  One mouse down.

Yesterday, work was meh.  I had a young couple who'd had a measure done for laminate flooring.  The estimate came back much higher than they were expecting, mostly because they didn't have proper dimensions, so the estimate was off.  They will some of the last customers to get an estimate.  We are using a new procedure called SAM that no longer gives an estimate.  Believe me.  Estimates are almost always off.  Sometimes big time.  

One of the main reasons I'm on Facebook is the USS Constellation page.  Pictures get posted which help people understand what life was like on an aircraft carrier.  Here's a berthing compartment similar to the one for Division 90, CIC (Radar), the only difference being we had a green floor and green curtains.  This was taken when we were in port.  At sea, the overhead lighting was red.

And here's the hanger bay.  It was very large.  It's the 01 level.  CIC was on the 03 level.  To get there, you went up a staircase below the AIMD sign, turned right and down the hallway past Communications, and up another staircase to the 03 level.  We were located directly below the flight deck.  Click to embiggen.

With less than 3 months until the midterms, things are really starting to pop across the country.  Biden gave a speech yesterday in which he said pretty much heading into fascism.  Some want to call this version of him Dark Brandon, I, however like Fiery Brandon.  

I was quite pleased to see the White House starting to call out those Republicans shrieking about the student debt relief.  Mike Kelly from PA, almost a million $ in PPP written off.  Republicans weren't expecting this.  They thought there was no way the Democrats were going to kick them in the nuts.  Wow!  Guess who's regretting now wearing a cup?  Dumb asses.

And, of course, there is the Roe v Wade issue.  In their attempt to lock in the Cracker Jack Crazy Christian vote, legislators in the very red states passed extreme laws against abortion, and now their 'oh shit,' moment is happening.  Who do these stringent hurt the most?  The working classes.  Paraphrasing Ruth Bader Ginsberg, "any woman with means, will always find a way to get an abortion."  Now tell me, why would the very male Republican party think about women at all.

Potential

It's February!  Time to flip the page on my calendar.  The days are getting longer.  I'm good with that.  Love the sunshine.  Not wild about the night.  Older eyes aren't great when it comes to driving after the sun sets, especially on roads where there are no street lights.

My taxes are done.  The refund will pay for my new chair and the air-fryer, which I did use last evening.  Just a burger, I could have done chicken or pork, but I thought I'd see how well it does with beef.  The burger was quite tasty.

Today's garbage day so I put my old gaming chair out on the curb.  Sometime, as I and the dogs slept, someone stopped and took it.  That's fine.  Maybe it'll go to some short person who doesn't mind sitting low down and very close to the floor.

Of course, with starting a new book, I start my search for lyrics. It seems like Sirius XM has been playing this song almost constantly.  It's old... well, not that old.  And contrary to what some might think, it's about writing songs for a new album and how people hear what they want in the song's lyric.  Hhhmm, I've got potential, eh?

Can we talk about how screwed up Conservatives are?  Oh, my.  They have not only inserted their heads deeply into their rectums, their heads are spinning wildly.  Take Maus:  one of the reasons it was banned from a school library was 'female nudity,' yet there are no human females in the graphic novel, only animals.  That's right, the female nudity complaint is over a naked mouse.  If this isn't bad enough, you have Candace Owens, one of the Cracker Jack Crazies over on The Daily Wire complaining about Minnie Mouse wearing a pantsuit.  That's right, Candy's having a problem with a mouse that isn't naked.  Candy evidently likes her mice au naturel, as long as they're not in a graphic novel depicting Nazi atrocities, then she wants them clothed.  And these nut jobs want to run the country?  Yeah, straight to Hell.  

Out with the Old, In with the New

Holy Crap!  It's Monday.  This is my 5th day working.  I have one more before I get the day off and that's tomorrow.  Somehow I think I'm the only Specialist scheduled.  Makes sense.  Who in their right mind goes shopping for flooring on New Years Eve?  Oh, that's right, I forget, there are those morons who believe every holiday equates to a SALE.  Not this holiday.
I went downstairs this morning to find a little guest sitting in my kitchen sink.  You know, I had thought my buddy Mr. Snake had taken care of all the mousies around my house.  Well, he missed one.  This one was just teenie weenie.  Now, I don't mind if mousetraps do their job, but me?  I have a difficult time bonking the little suckers on the head.  Instead, I scooped him up in a pan set him free outside.  That right, I'm a sucker for fur.
There's an interesting article in Reuters about Religion in America... Or, maybe I should say Evangelicalism, which is a sect of Christianity.  Poll results show there are schisms forming mostly among generational lines.  The older, crazy Christians want to be much more politicized; the younger ones see them as failing.  The issues are those every Evangelical is supposed to hold dear to his heart:  immigration, no gun control, abortion, and LGBT rights.  That's right, the older ones are enamored of the late 1950's and 60's.  The younger ones see the religion as evolving and evidently less interested in Cherry Picking.  Not surprisingly, I've read that Billy Barr sees America on its way to hell... but then he's an old school Crazy White Christian.

And finally, in a little more than a day and a half we will be starting a new decade.  Some are going through a "what the hell" stage.  Not me.  I look forward to the future.  Whether you want to believe it or not, evolution happens.  Without it there is death.  Change is essential for continuity.  Life cannot exist for long in stasis.  And life here on earth will continue.  Those who dismay at change will die off.  This has been happening since the dawn of time, or the Big Bang... which ever came first.  The only thing we can do is sit back and enjoy the ride.  This year will be very interesting as more of the old school dies off and more of the new school continues to exert itself.  Out with the Old, in the the New.

Sunday Morning Notes

Well, here it is Sunday morning, a day when many sleep in.  Not me.  Big Seig and Lily were ready to go 'potty outside' at 0516 so I got up, let them out, and made a pot of coffee.
We found a drowned mouse floating in their water bowl.  He's now frozen solid on the back hill, and the bowl has been scrubbed clean and filled with fresh water.  Oh, yes, I do get mice.  Every year.  They're one of the things that come with a 112 year old house with 112 year old stone foundations.
I see the Philadelphia Eagles won the NFC East Championship - this means they might actually go to the Superbowl.  This also means that, since they're on Anne Marie's turf, and that happens, she might have to dust off her pompoms and do a little cheer for the hometown team.  Maybe a little box step, you know?  Something like: one, two, shake, shake, three, four, shake, shake.
And about that little, What the Fuck, Holy Shit moment they had in Hawaii yesterday?  My money says someone's ass is already a cinder on the grill.
Finally, I work with a rabidly loyal Republican who, for the most part, is a nice older man, and the recent events involving the Idiot Jerk in the White House have provided me with so many moments to... torture his soul.  I'm being serious... this is like... soooooo much fun.  Yesterday, in a moment of barely controlled anger he said, "they're just doing this to get him out of office!"

Food for Thought

So, I got a lot of exercise yesterday walking around my brother's new (old) farm:  the barn is... rustic, and the house has a wrap-a-around porch and large fireplace.  There are 2 tall walnut trees by the barn - walnuts are very healthy for you.  Oh, and I got to meet Wendy, the potbelly pig:

My nephew's dog Hudson took a liking to Wendy, not that she was flirting with him, but being a dog he didn't know that, and when he tried to get himself a little porcine pleasure she rebelled.  We all laughed as my nephew's wife separated the two... except for my sister-in-law, whose facial expression went from distraught... to despair... to horrified, which made the incident that much funnier.
My sister and brother-in-law brought my 84 year old Mom, Irene.  She has dementia and didn't remember many of the people around her; some found that a bit unsettling.  She doesn't care as long as people are catering to her and making her the belle of the ball.  I got a nice picture of 84 year old Irene holding 1 month old Irene, her great granddaughter.

Later, after I'd gotten home, I boiled up some bones for the dogs (their Thanksgiving Treat) and ordered their Christmas toys (they get quite a few).

The only disappointment?  I put out a mousetrap last night and this AM discovered that the damn mice had eaten the peanut butter bait without the trap working:  I was left with mouse droppings and an empty trap.  My money says they're Republican.  This afternoon, after the Black Friday rush has passed, I will drive down to K-Mart and buy some new traps.  And just like the damn Republicans, I want the damn things out of the House as soon as possible.