Too Good to be True

 So, Friday ended with a drizzle that continued through the night.  We were under a high wind warning that never blew in, there wasn't so much as a brisk breeze.  Temperatures are set to drop today, though their fall will be sort of a slomo decent into the colder temps more fitting for winter.  Over the next few days, nightly temps will bottom out in the low to mid teens (F), with daily highs climbing into the low to mid 30s (F).  We will have to wait and see if I keep my thermostat set at 69 (F), or if I turn up the heat.

Painting in the kitchen is complete.  Well, as always, there will be a few touch-ups, mostly on the cabinets and on a section of the baseboard where I went a little too light with the brush.  Next week the tiling will be finished, and possibly, if my knees are feeling up to it, the floor will be laid.  I was thinking of putting decorative teapots along the top of the cabinets, but decided not to, preferring a crisper look over something that might seem like colorful clutter.

My neighbors had a new water heater installed yesterday, right after they had moved in, she told me the old one was leaking.  They evidently didn't pay for a home inspection.  My nephew told me that the real estate is so hot in this area, most potential home buyers will skip it out of fear someone else will snap up the property.  Translation:  you're buying the house as is.  They bought that house because it was staged to look like it was worth a lot more than the asking price.  I did a search of the houses on the local market and they paid a fair price, they did get new appliances and their backsplash is top notch tiling.  Something I learned a long time ago: if it looks to good to be true, it usually is too good to be true.

For those of you who have been to an AMC theater lately, or who go as frequently as I do, you know about the Nicole Kidman ad for the theater group.  They play it relentlessly.  I hope she's getting paid residuals!  Anyway, her suit is going on the auction block at Sotheby's if you care to put in a bid. 

And since it's the weekend, nothing really important is happening in domestic politics other than the usual sniping from Republicans.  I don't know if you've noticed, but it always seems to be the Republicans who are complaining and pointing fingers and imaginary evils.  Their base lives for the mis-information. Their truth is never as good as they claim, in fact, over the past decade of so they've proven themselves time and time again to be nothing more than expert shysters.  Their political staginess, however, is growing stale.  They are becoming more and more extreme because they need to in order to hold on to their base, and while they do this many Americans are shaking their heads and saying, "what the hell is wrong with you people?"

Bits

 We did not get any rain yesterday.   The temperature peaked at 90 (F), and to hear people coming up to the paint desk, you'd think it was well over 100 (F).  I so much wanted to tell them that 90 (F) is warm, not hot, but I did the professional thing and simply nodded my head and said, "is it?"

Yesterday, he real estate agent handling the house next door had an open house.  I have no idea how busy many people stopped by to actually view the property.  So far 626 people have looked at the property on Zillow and 48 of them have saved it, which is probably a good sign.  However, seeing it up close and personal is a lot different than looking at rooms professionally staged.  The temps were in the high 80s (F) during the open house so they would have needed to have the ceiling fans going.  There is no ceiling fan in the attic, so temps up there would have been scorching.

I'll be going down to that Fish Place in Lancaster in about an hour.  I've got a 30% off coupon.  That's good.  I need to get more plants.  The one I put into the big tank is thriving, so it's time to add more, as well as the naked marble statues.

And even though the weekend is usually quiet on the political front, yesterday was not without it's bits of excitement.  CNN releasing a information that Fani in Atlanta had texts and emails showing that orders for breaching election machines had come straight down from the top (that means the Orange Anus probably gave the order).  However, we all need to keep in mind that Trump rarely DMs or texts, it's almost always done by an aide in order to put blame where he wants it to go.  This means he will surely say the directive did not come from him, and that everyone else was acting outside his wishes.  You know?  It was everyone else's fault and he's just an innocent lamb.

And Zuck texted that it was time to move on, that there was not going to be any kind of match between he and Musk.  This should have been expected.  What it does is paint Musk to be an even bigger buffoon people thought, and a lot of people seen him as nothing more than a bloated windbag.  I'd liked the bit where Zuck claimed Musk wanted to have a trial match in Zuck's backyard.  That was hooting hilarious.

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.

Document This

 So, is Tuesday going to be drier than Monday?  I ask this because we had a whopper of a storm, almost 1.5 inches of rain at my house.  Not a lot of thunder and booming, but basically a torrential downpour that lasted for at least an hour.  My lawn will soon be a jungle.  

I have a survey scheduled for 1100 related to the CT scan I just had done on my lungs.  From what I was told when they called to set up the appointment, this might actually be the last thing I have to do since my lungs are clear.  Supposedly it's only going to take 15 minutes.  I will see if I can wrap it up in 5.

The owner of the house next door stopped by the flooring desk yesterday.  He was bragging that he paid $75K for the house next door and was going to sell it for $170.  I'm betting he gets a bit less than that.  Since he bought just about everything from the great Orange Retailer I work at, I pretty much know how much $$$ he put into the rehab.  How much?  He went cheap, cut corners.  They put down very inexpensive vinyl planks over flooring that's old enough to have been made with asbestos.  If hew gets that much, I'm going to feel bad for the new owners.

And I saw this on Twitter yesterday and had to laugh.

How appropriate.

I saw where the bimbo judge in charge of the Mar a Lago document case is doing her best to create havoc in her attempt to save Trump's orange ass.  She doesn't see why they need 84 witnesses, and she thinks their names should be released to the press, and... well, she is doing what Trump wants her to do.  The DOJ went over her head before and you can be sure they'll do it again.  One thing that stands out about Jack Smith, he is not naïve.   The DOJ knew full well she was probably going to be getting this case when they chose to indict the Orange Anus in Florida.  You can be they took into consideration how both dumb and loyal Aileen Cannon is to her benefactor.  Anyone who doesn't understand how prepared Smith is has got to be either stupid, or a Republican, or, more than likely, both.

Screwed

 Let the rain begin!  Actually, Lily woke me up around 0300 to go potty outside and the drizzling had already started.  Showers and soaking rains are supposed to continue through Tuesday.  The daily high temp is supposed to crest in the low 70s (F).  Autumn is arriving.

My neighbor was back yesterday with her daughter, and her brothers-in-law.  There was some hammer banging (not much), so I suppose they were fixing the attic stairs so a potential buyer can actually go up to the attic.  I had talked to her on the phone, and she said there was water damage, they thought the leak might be around the dormer. She and her husband bought the place in 1985 and have not replaced the roof, so there are probably several leaks the new owner will need to contend with.  The house is still filled with furniture.  Her daughter told me that in about 2 weeks they were going to have a walk through 'yard sale' hoping to clear some of it out.  They are so naive. 

Sometimes I rail against our customers.  Usually, when I do so, there is just cause.  By the same token, we have associates who, for some unknown reason, enable these asshole customers.  Take yesterday.  I went up to the Service Desk to get our returns and found someone had returned 2 white shelf brackets.  However, these brackets were no longer white, they had yellowed with both age and possible cigarette smoke.  That irritated me.  They were evidently past the return date.  But what truly pissed me of was the screw.  Can you see it?  That's how it was returned, with the screw still in it.  What the hell is wrong with people?  This customer definitely wanted to screw us over.  And the clerk who took this return had no problem being screwed.

Everybody is waiting for Trump to be indicted.  What I've heard is that it will happen after the election, at least as far as the DOJ's investigation is concerned.  Georgia is another story.  For that case Trump did manage to hire a highfalutin' attorney by the name of Drew Finding.  Expensive.  I hope Drew understands he's never going to be paid for his services.  Mr. Finding also usually defends rappers, though I'm wondering if his style will help him keep Trump from taking the wrap for election interference.  I'm suspecting Trump pretty much screwed himself when he made that call to Ken Rathensburger.  In fact, Georgia may be responsible for several indictments, including one nicely wrapped for Lindsey Graham.  No matter how desperately Lindsey tries to get an NDA from the Georgia Attorney General, it ain't going to happen.  He's going to end up being screwed, too, by Donald Trump.  Of course, maybe that's what he's always dreamed of.

Republican Death Knell

According to the weather map, a slight drizzle is falling in Central Pa.  Slight might be too intense of a word.  I just let the dogs back in and the paving stones of the veranda are still dry, though when I paused to listen, I could hear the occasional drop hitting the leaves of the maple tree.

The young guy across the street has an interest in buying Mike and Karen's house.  His mom is a realtor, of sorts, and yesterday Mike's brother took them on a tour.  I had mentioned the idea of purchasing it to my brother, but on 2nd thought decided that was a bad idea.  The expense of fixing it up is definitely going to be much more costly than the purchase price.  I am at mine constantly, and Mike and Karen did nothing.  They are selling it 'as is,' which means there doesn't need to be a Home Inspection, so it'll go cheap.

I've been watching Pro-Walk Tours while I'm on the treadmill.  Some of them are very nice.  Yesterday I was in Greece, walking around the Acropolis.  There are subtitles providing information.  The walk on Santorini was not that good, as the guide was constantly moving between tourists because he filmed it in the afternoon to avoid shadows.

It's quite possible, a line or two, or three, or more, from this song will make it into The Body Under Ice.  Play it loudly.

Yesterday armed Trump supporters were demonstrating outside the FBI Headquarters in Phoenix (?), Arizona.  While I'm sure their actions tickled the erogenous zones of many of the members of the MAGA cult, the rest of America watched their stupidity.  We've all known how the party has been splintering, shooting itself in the foot, and in the face, ever since the Electoral College said Trump was the winner in 2016, but the search of Mar a Lago has ripped a big chunk of that scabby tissue off.  The NYT called the fissures, that may be an understatement.  In Pennsylvania you have Republicans telling other Republicans they need to vote for Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for governor.  Yesterday, Asa Hutchinson, Governor of Arkansas, was on TV telling Republicans they need to tone their rhetoric down at the same time Trump was posting inflammatory messages to his Truth Social network.  Someone asked, how long it will be before the GOP realizes that the Moral Degenerate is ringing the death knell for the party?  Well, he's already rang that sucker, now it's just a matter of time until the party dies.

 

On Top of Old Baldy

Well, here it is... Thursday, and I get to go to work.  I was off yesterday and the weather was shitty: 3 inches of snow before it turned, first to sleet, and then to freezing rain.  I shoveled the sidewalks and the driveway - my car?  Except for the windshield it's relatively snow free - I'll take care of that this AM.  This is the 2nd day off I've had that the weather was shitty.  This is beginning to turn into a really bad pattern.
And I'm hoping I don't need to deal with any cheapskates today - I had 2 different customers on Tuesday who had serious problems with principles... and ethics.  Both are selling their homes and they're real estate agents advised them both to replace their carpets.  The first was an older woman; she and her husband are moving into a retirement community in the fall.  She's has to put new carpet in the family room leading to the "pool deck" and she wants to go with the cheapest indoor / outdoor carpet we have.  Why?  The new owners "are going to replace it anyway, so I don't see why I should spend more money than I have to."  I wanted to say "Hey, you old bitch, if you didn't put in cheap, shitty carpet they wouldn't have to replace it right away," but I didn't.
They 2nd couple?  They're pond scum.  They, too, are selling their house and they want to replace the carpet, but not the pad because "padding is an added expense."  I always tell people we don't do that, however the idiot associate besides me piped up, saying "on some occasions we do, but we need manager approval."  The customer's husband says "I'll pulled up some of the carpet and the padding's in good shape, so we don't want to replace it."  And, I ask "how old is it."  That's when the customer's wife showed how pathetically stupid they were, "it's about 18 years old," she said, with a smile."  I, and the idiot associate sitting beside me, just looked at them.  Think about it... they've walked around on that carpet and padding for 18 years.  Don't you find that rather reprehensible?  I do.
Anyway, unless you're Internet was down, thanks to a windy day, the whole world got to see how bald the Idiot Jerk in the White House is, and I couldn't help but wonder if Faux News showed that clip.  Probably not.  And now the whole world is laughing at this fool.  What else would expect from a phony?  After seeing it, I started wondering if perhaps he had Stormy Daniels sing "On Top of Old Baldy," now wouldn't that have been a hoot.