Striking the Match

 We have another cool morning here in Central PA.  Yesterday, the temps climb fairly high on the thermometer, upper 80s (F).  Even though our afternoon high is only supposed to be in the low 80s (F), I'm suspecting today will be a repeat.  We are under an air quality alert.  I suspect it's the wild fires in Canada.  Oddly enough, I don't remember all of these wildfires taking place when I was a kid, but then things are different today, we have satellites, and air monitors, and people who get paid to keep track of such things.  Back then the weather forecaster would look out the window and decide if the day was going to be cloudy or not.

I worked yesterday and so my routine is not even close to what I like to think of a normal.  I like to write starting in the mid to late afternoon, however when I work writing needs to be done before I leave.  Sometimes that works well for me, but frequently it doesn't.  Yesterday it worked well, but then the storyline is at point where action is happening and things are moving quickly.

Even though the store is making plan, foot traffic was very slow, mid-February kind of slow.  One of the hardware associates was complaining about hours being cut.  Evidently at one of the morning meetings last week an announcement was made that fewer hours are going to be scheduled.  Right now this only  concerns part-timers.  This also means that there are going to be gaps in the coverage when no one will be schedule to work in certain departments.  This is all related to the tariffs.  If the orange home improvement retailer I work for isn't going to raise prices, they're going to have to cut expenses and the easiest expense to cut is payroll.

And this was Howie's birthday present.  He loves the stuff, unfortunately it costs $4.59 for a little 12 ounce can.

And the Democrats from Texas have temporarily relocated to several other states to avoid pushing through Republican redistricting in order to give the Orange Anus 5 more seats in the House of Representatives.  The fact that Republicans are trying to increase their count to avoid the Orange Anus from being impeached tells you what's terribly wrong with the GOP.  The party that wants authoritarian rule in the United States has a big, big problem: they're a minority party who simply can not deal with the fact that a majority of Americans hate them.  The anger is growing and they don't know how to handle it, you see they convinced themselves a long time ago that all they had to do was get themselves in charge.  They truly believe that if they say, "shut up, we're in charge," everyone will simply bow their heads and meekly say, "okay."  That isn't happening.  America is watching as the Republican party proves they will accept any evil if it helps them stay in power.  This has always been the problem with Authoritarians, their ability to comprehend is at a minimum at best.  This is why they've always ended going down in flames.  They will torch themselves and burn themselves to the ground without ever understanding that were the ones who struck the match.

Mohawk

 Well, we had another cool wakeup this morning, with our outside temp a comfortable 60 (F).  If the long range forecast holds out, over the next 2 weeks only one day will have temps reaching the 90 (F) mark.  There's not a lot of precipitation in the forecast, which means daily waterings of the tomatoes, but that's fine with me.

Yesterday was uneventful mostly because I work the entire day.   We did have a senior customer who sat and talked for about twenty minutes.  She was very nice.  While she didn't tell us how old she was, I'd estimate she was easily in her mid 80s (F).  I showed her pictures of Howie, and she said she'd seen many colored Labradors before, but never one that was red.  We did have her laughing, which made me feel good.  I do think there are times when seniors go out just for the socialization, that's why I talk to all of them.  Some of them are quite interesting.

My local Giant supermarket had a deal on Spam last week and it turns out that Howie loves the stuff.  It's a little pricy at $4.59 for a 12 ounce can, so it's a treat he's only going to be getting on special days, like today.  What makes today special for Howie?  It's his birthday.  He's one year old today.  So instead of cake and ice cream, he's going to get Spam, and more than just 2 or 3 slices.

About 50% of all the carpets we sell in the store are manufactured by Mohawk.  The company has taken a stand on the tariffs.

Supposedly the great orange home improvement retailer I work for said that they weren't going to be raising prices because of the tariffs. However, first there was Procter & Gamble and now Mohawk, who knows what other prices are going up as well.  My feeling is that price increases will quietly be passed onto our shoppers.

For those cultists who are still lost in the haze of hate surrounding the Orange Anus, the Find Out stage is going to kick in quickly.  Halloween and Christmas depend on China cheap prices.  These cultists are not even preparing for higher prices.  I can give you an example of these price increases.  I bought a walking pad on 7/31, yesterday, while at work, I showed it to a friend and to my surprise the price had increased by $100.  These price increases are going to be everywhere.  Americans are going to be paying a lot more just so that billionaires can get a tax break and earn more money.