Gertie

 Well, the rain is gone, so are the winds, and yes, it did get windy.  Temps are beginning to drop, and we should soon be experiencing actual winter temps here in Central PA.  They're predicted to be a bit warmer than what would be considered normal, but they'll be cold.  Today is going to be blustery. There are snow flurries whirling around outside my window, not that they're going to amount to anything.

Yesterday, I did a little more than nothing, but it wasn't a day I would label productive.  Not once did I sit down at my writing desk, and there are things that need to be done.  I need to begin prep work on The Body on the Lawn, the first in the Eli and Max series.  Come March (?) it and the second book, The Body in the Tower will be turned into audio books.  One of the requirements for that transition is the removal of the song lyrics.  Having a narrator read them is considered a performance and that would mean royalty payments, and that can be pricy.  The Word editor does an excellent job at cleaning up things up, too.  

Either today or tomorrow I'm going to be baking coconut macaroons, one of my favorite cookies, and they will be dipped in chocolate.  White chocolate.  I thought I'd change things up.

And in a few short days the sun will finally begin to set later in the afternoon.  I don't know about you, but dusk falling at 4:30 in the afternoon is not a good thing.  I like it when daylight last for more than 10 hours.

Boy, I'm so glad I wasn't planning on buying an Apple watch, and even gladder that I own a Garmin.  When I searched through my pics to see if there was one of my watch, this popped up.  It's very old.  This is Gertie, my first boxer, looking out the front door, about 11 years ago.  My, things have changed in the living room, haven't they?

And, as expected, Frankie Graham is pissing barbed wire over the Pope's little decision on the blessing of same sex couples.  Frankie needs to revisit Matthew 12, which says that God will forgive every sin, except for the sin of blasphemy.  Ouch.

There was an interesting article in the Post about Biden, and how he doesn't realize how old he looks.  For those who don't know, there are very few people who realize how old they look.  This is because in they're still in the their mid 30s, and when they look in the mirror they're seeing the same face they've looked at for... say... 81 years.  The human appearance changes slowly.  When you see a picture of yourself in your 20s, you're surprised at how young you look.  Most people will never comprehend how old others actually see them.

Zooming in on the Wall

 Can we all say hello to a brisk Tuesday morning?  Temps outside my window are a cool 31 (F), which is borderline cold.  We had snow flurries earlier.  They surprised me by blowing in my face as I opened the back door to let Lily out.  She did her did her morning pee and was back in the house in a snap.  This is what happens when the temperatures drop this low.  Our high today will be in the mid 30s, though tomorrow we're supposed to start a warming trend.

Yesterday was slow in the flooring department, in fact there were only 3 busy departments: Hardware, always a seasonal favorite since every dad wants a Tool; Appliances, this is the best time of the  year to buy that new refrigerator you want; and, of course, Garden.  Artificial trees have been more popular than real trees for some time, and that's true again this year.  I've always like the natural look, but let's be honest, unless you're setting the tree up on a tile or hardwood floor, needle cleanup, when you take it down, is a real bitch, and those decorative skirts you put around the base don't seem to do the job well.

Also, in case you didn't hear me, I climbed onto the scale yesterday morning to see how much damage I could blame on Thanksgiving... Holy Crap!  The time has come to start burning off calories, at least until Christmas, which is a few short weeks away.

Don't know if I told anyone or not, but I signed up for TikTok and amazingly everyday some new sex worker lovely, young woman starts following me, even though I haven't posted anything.  As a result, I've decided to post short videos of my books.  You never know, maybe one or two of those sex workers lovely, young women might have a hidden urge to read.  Maybe, for the first one, I'll zoom in for a closeup of the wall.

Quite a few people will be attending a memorial service for Rosalynn Carter today, including Melanoma Trump.  I was truly surprised to see her name on the list of living first ladies who will be there.  Because of who she is, I suspect there's some sort of grift involved, possibly BOGO pics of her standing next to Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

I saw where that antisemite Elon Musk flew to Israel in the hopes of doing some damage control after spouting off in favor of a racist, antisemite conspiracy theory that was debunked decades ago.  True, he'll garner a headline, but nothing else.  It's too late for him to repackage his identity, especially after his debacle with Twitter (notice, I'm not us the X name).  I haven't deleted the app from my phone yet, but I suspect that will happen soon, mostly because I get emails from them saying "this is interesting," and it's all hate mongering.  Twitter used to be entertaining, now it's a shit show overrun by conspiracy theorists, and hate mongers.