2024

 HAPPY NEW YEAR

There, that's out of the way.

For those interested, 2024 arrived in Central PA on the wings of rain showers.  Yep.  It's been drizzling on and off since midnight... or at least I think so, since I was in bed before the Ball Dropped.  Though, to be honest, it started a bit before, I know since I received a Happy New Year text at 11:53 PM and I could already hear the drip, drip, drip outside the window.

A new tradition has been started this year:  I'm throwing out my last year's calendar.  For what seems like forever, I've been saving them, for... I don't know, possibly posterity, and this morning I realized none of them had any memorable pictures that needed saving, so, they're going into the trash.  

When I stepped on my Withing's scale this morning, little black and white fireworks flashed across the screen before it let me know I'd gained .4 of a pound.  Now, isn't that a nice New Year's present?

I do get to work today.  There was a time when they would bring food in, however times have changed, we are not close to reaching our forecasted plan, so I'm taking my lunch.

And, I suppose I should post something a little festive since we're now in 2024.  How's this?

I know it's not fireworks, but everybody else is posting a picture of fireworks.  So, rather than be like everyone else, here's a inflatable Pikachu!

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.

Fallout

Can we have a hearty hello for Sunday?  The got down to a chilly 34 (F) last night.  Today's high is predicted to be in the low 60s (F), however, rain comes into the picture and the rest of the week the temps are suppose to be in the low to mid 70s (F).  It is that time of year when I begin to mow my leaves.

Well, I stepped on the scale this morning and had to almost physically stop myself from shrieking like a howler monkey.  I've evidently forgotten that I need to burn more calories than I ingest.  I'm blaming all the candy that's showing up at work.  Or, possibly, it's the chicken marsala; I've been cooking and eating a lot of that.

That being said, I'm going to be making pumpkin cheesecakes today.  This means I'll have to climb back into  the saddle and ride miles, and miles, and miles.  Tacx has started adding rides filmed in the US.  They have a really nice ride filmed up in Oregon.

3 more chapters to go until the first draft of The Body Under Ice is finished.  For those curious, I've already begun making notes on the next book, The Body in Motion (sounds intriguing, eh?).

As many of you know, I play video games.  While I really enjoy the Assassin's Creed series, most of you know my favorite game studio is Bethesda, based in, not surprisingly, Bethesda, Maryland.  Fallout, their most popular series is being made into a series for Amazon Prime.  I've already shared some pictures.  Well, Bethesda has dropped some more info.  Pictures and a video, to be precise.  The pic below is from Vault 33, located in California.  It was the clip, however, that got people excited.  

And finally, I saw that Liz Cheney's pac has started airing an ad attacking Kari Lake.  I like it.  Honestly, when I see Kari Lake, I see a woman so hungry for power she would have no problem sacrificing anything and everything to get it.  She is a rabid attack dog and nothing more.

 

Correction

 My scale is fixed.  Usually I get a little warning when the batteries are running out of charge, that was not the case this time.  Still, the cost of 4 AAA batteries is a lot less than the cost of a new scale.  Oh, and I stepped on it...  ... ...  Need I say anything more?  And, for the nest 2 days, because our store is in Success Sharing mode, there will be lots of food.  Today they'll be cooking out on a grill, the first time since Covid arrived on the scene.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, and tons of high calorie carbs.  Tomorrow:  lasagna.  Son of a bitch!

How about we switch to a chiller topic. We got some cold days ahead, if the forecasters are correct.  For the next 3 nights temps are supposed to be dropping down into the mid to low 20's (F).  How's that for chill?

Since this is the weekend and the blogging universe tends to slow down, I thought I might post one of my short YouTube videos.  My sincerest apologies to the French for Americanizing the name of their country. 

A group of Georgia voters are suing to have Marjorie Taylor dumb ass taken off the ballot because of her insurrectionist activities.   They're using the Insurrectionist Act voted into law after the Civil War.  Legal experts do not expect them to succeed.  While I wish they would, I tend to agree.  What they're really doing is giving her more bad press she doesn't need if she wants to get her bottled blonde ass re-elected.  She is desperately trying to keep Georgia from becoming a Blue state.  While the MAGA brains of her state my thrive on her antics, speaking at neo-Nazi gatherings for example, their numbers, like their potential senators, are limited.  This lawsuit is doing her more damage than good.

And finally, I do have to correct myself on one thing.  I had state that Clarence Thomas had no children.  That's wrong.  He does.  He fathered a son with his first wife, Kathy Ambush.  You may recognize Jamal Adeen Thomas from television.  He is quite the charmer, no?

For an actor, his private life is very... private.  What is known, besides his regularly appearing on TV is that he's 52 years of age.  He is single.  There are no reports of any relationship what so ever.  Oh, and he's 6' 2".  Oh, and he's not saying anything about his famous father.

  

Monster

So, I stepped on the scale this morning and found that I managed to knock off 1.9 pounds (.86 kg).  This drop in weight will be normal for the next 5 or 6 days as I work off my thanksgiving gains.  It's all the carbs I eat.  Carbs are not bad if you exercise, however I went 4 days without a bike ride; that's never good.  I went for an 11 mile ride last evening.  The only thing bad was my choice of music:  Tales from Topographic Oceans, by Yes.  This is one of my all time favorite albums - not so good for pace setting.  Two nights ago, when I rode 19 miles I listened to Smoke and Mirrors by Imagine Dragons.  That album includes this song from 2013.

If you're a Lady Gaga fan, you'll recognize Monster since she covered it on her Fame Monster album.
And, speaking Monsters, what about the Idiot Jerk's trip to the UK.  I understand he and BOJO met, sans pictures of course, not that they didn't take any snaps, they just can release them to the public since they might lose BOJO votes.  In fact, this trip to the NATO summit is much different than the past 2.  In the past, all the Idiot Jerk had to do was hold out his hand and say "Big Mac me" and lo and behold, a fast food burger was handed to him.  Every time he does that on this trip he finds out someone has handed him a shit sandwich instead.
I understand this whole impeachment thing is on the verge of skinning him alive.  He's never had a problem doing this to others, but now that the tables are turned... different story.  His base is clotting together to from a big scab around him.  They need to protect him from the truth, which proves him to be so much worse than a Monster.
Oh, and finally, what about Jared the Joke Boy?  Has anybody ever heard anything about that great Mid East Peace Plan he spent millions of taxpayer dollars working on?  They keeps saying they're going to release it when the time is right.  Evidently all he came up with was the same tired joke.  Rather than say he's an incompetent jokester, he's been moved to the Trade Table.  Isn't that frightening? 

I've seen the cookies and the damage done.

Well, it is that time of year, you know.  You do know what I'm talking about, don't you?  The day I climb up on the scale to see how much damage the holidays have done.  Since I tend to track a lot of my personal information, I can tell you the last time I weighed myself was on November 21, 2014, just before Thanksgiving.

I did cringe a bit before stepping onto my Ironman this morning.  You see, during the holidays I'm always on a "see food" diet:  I see food and I eat food.  Except for those terrible Christmas cookies I had at work, everything tasted scrumptious, and I'm including quite a lot here.  There was Boston creme pie, and red velvet cake, and coconut cake, and snicker doodles (love those), and sand tarts, and chocolate chip cookies, and... well the list goes on and on.  You'll notice I'm not including two turkey dinners and and a pork and sauerkraut feast.  Anyway, this morning it was time to see how much damage was done.

And the total cumulative gain I'd wrought was... 6.2 pounds.  To be perfectly honest, I was quite relieved.  I was expecting a much higher figure, since I really do love to eat.  I'm not too concerned since the weight should be gone in about 2 - 3 weeks.  In fact, the first thing I did after weighing myself was set up a cardio / weight training regime.  Believe me, I'll be fine, just as long as no one waves a croissant in front of my nose.

I'll be honest, I like reading about health, and exercise and weight loss.  The things people either write or publish can be either be enlightening, uninformed or simply ludicrous.  I enjoy the enlightened ones, scoff at the uniformed and shriek with derision at those so obviously ludicrous.  I read one of the latter ones on the MSNBC website under health.  Going back to find the link I was amazed to find that it seems to have disappeared.  The subject was on lifting weights and weight loss.  Now most people who are overweight want to lose a couple of pounds.  You know, with this economy it's less expensive to slip into last summer's duds then have to go out and buy knew ones, and the five or six pounds you put on thanks to Thanksgiving and Christmas and simply being too lazy is going to make them a snug fit.

Oops, some one's been dipping into the ice cream a little too much

The ludicrousness became apparent in the second sentence, after the authoress complained that Cardio was not helping her lose weight after having a baby.  Then she said, "and then I noticed people at the gym lifting weights."  It must never have occurred to her that a number of people go to gyms for strength training.  Maybe she thought body builders just do it in their basements, or garages.  Her reasoning to use weights to lose weight was because "after a work out your muscles burn calories for a long time."  This makes me wonder if maybe her Cardio was only cardio.  You know what I mean.  We've all seen those boneheads bouncing away on an elliptical because they're not using any resistance, or those who get off a stationary bike after windmilling their legs for a good thirty minutes without so much as a grimace.  Let me tell you, when I get off my bike my legs usually feel like rubber because I've worked those suckers.  Maybe she didn't lose weight because she didn't really watch her diet, you know those four bowls of pasta you eat after a workout help keep the thunder in your thighs.  I'm serious, because the emphasis was so overboard on weight training the article became nearly bizarre.  A smart work out incorporates both weight training and Cardio, don't rely on just one.  But as my friend Shaun said a long time ago, "your legs are the engines of your body."