Now and Then

 Another late entry, not because I slept in, rather I rose and shone at the same hour, it's just that this morning I drove down to the Lebanon VA to get vaccinated, both Flu and Covid.  Some people have reactions, occasionally my arm has gotten sore, but normally my white cells do their job quietly.  That doesn't mean I'm not going to take a nap this afternoon.  

During my ride down I discovered that Lebanon is colder than Harrisburg by a few degrees.  When I left the temp outside was 31 (F), however, as I was driving down 934 between the cornfields waiting to be harvested in Lebanon Country, the temp was 29 (F).  There was actual frost on the fields, not just some glaze on my windshield.  That means that the frost is finally on the pumpkin.

What's on the chore menu for today?  Well, as if you needed to ask, painting the cabinet frames.  I also want to clean and paint the cabinet doors.  New, white hinges are arriving today to go with the white cabinets.  Once the doors are cleaned and primed I can rehang them on the freshly painted cabinets.

I'm also going to sign up for my dental insurance so I can get my teeth cleaned.  I don't really need any dental work done other than a good cleaning, but my dentist is picky about the insurance he takes.  And in case you were wondering, dental is the one thing that I know of that the VA doesn't cover.  Because of this, I've decided to alternate: one year I'll get insurance and have my teeth professionally cleaned, and then I'll skip a year.  

And for those of you who didn't get a chance to listen to the new Beatles song, here it is.  I warned my sister to grab her hanky.

And that daffy Mikey Johnson sent a budget to the Senate that was dead on arrival.  Either he's not a quick learner, or he and his hardline conservative buddies in the House will force a government shutdown in an attempt to force their agenda.  They don't seem to understand that at the polling booth that is going to hurt them more than it helps them, but then no one ever said Conservatives were smart.  Selfish?  Yes.  Smart?  No.  

There's also some sort of odd stuff flying around that he doesn't claim any income and that he doesn't appear to have a bank account.  Ouch.  If that's true, there's something seriously wrong since as a congressman, he needs to have an account in order to get paid.  No paper checks for Mikey.

 

Lily on the Bed

 Good morning!  A little later than usual, but I had breakfast with my brother and we both arrived a little late.  I, because he sent me a text telling me he was going to be late and I wasn't expecting the traffic, he, because he was busy feeding his farm animals and... there was frost on his windshield.  That's right, the temps dropped down to 31 (F).  We finally had our first (late) frost of the year.  For those of you whose hands have been sweaty with anticipation, we can no have Indian Summer.

And, of course, I had to listen to the new Beatles song Now and Then.  Having lived through Beatlemania, I found it quite touching.  I'm sure many who lived through the Beatles will be reaching for a tissue.

Yesterday afternoon I went over to my new neighbors to ask her to turn down her music, when I can hear the vocals through the wall it's too loud, and instead of apologizing, the first thing she asked was "do you like the song?"  Dear me.  We're on very friendly terms, so the conversation was nice, however she told me she misses her mom, that they used to get together every day and now her mom lives an hour away.  Her husband works for US Postal Service down in Lancaster and he doesn't want to transfer up to Harrisburg, so he commutes an hour every day; that will get old fast.  This is actually the first home they've ever purchased, mostly, I suspect, because it was painted gray and had new appliances.  Other than that, I don't think they put a lot of thought into it.  I wouldn't be surprised if it's not back on the market in a few years.

When I went up to bed last evening, as is now the case, she was already there.

So, what's going to happen with the Republican held congress?  Not much.  At least not for the next year and a half.  They are going to stamp their feet and shriek "no, no, no," until they're red in the face, notice I didn't say blue in the face, that's something that will never happen to a hardline cult member.  And when the more reasonable Democrats take back control of the House of Representatives, the Republican cultists will dig themselves in even deeper, unless, of course they get primaried out or simply voted out.  When that happens you can rest assured they'll cry Voter Fraud since that lie is now part of their DNA.

Interesting bit from Arizona:  Kristen Sinema is polling behind both the Democrat and Republican candidates because she, too, is stupid.  She thought she'd splinter people off from both parties and win as an Independent.  She doesn't understand that her constituents, most Democrats, see her as a failure.

And, joy of joys, more polls are coming out showing that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is siphoning voters away from Trump, not Biden, as the cultists thought.  This is because Republicans are stupid.  

Tonight

 Well, yesterday turned out to be a do nothing sort of day.  I did do laundry and some yardwork, but not much.  This is what usually happens when I stay up late watching movies.  These old bones aren't used to my burning the midnight oil.  On the plus side, the dogs and I took a nice, long nap yesterday afternoon.  

So, what other films did I watch on Tuesday night.  Well, of course one of the was X - the Unknown, and the other was a remastered Blu-ray of Help, a very old Beatles movie.  Help was an extremely popular movie, one of very few films I saw twice in a movie theater, but from my understanding was not a lot of fun for the Beatles.  Life was becoming very complicated for the most popular band in the world and neither the world, nor the Beatles were ready for it.  Here's the only full length trailer I could find.

I ordered a new printer.  The 13-year-old HP laser printer downstairs doesn't handle Windows 11, even though I updated the drivers.  My laptop, still Windows 10, had serious issues printing to it last fall that were so bad I worked with Microsoft to try and fix them, it would only print 'current page.'  Back when I purchased it, I remember the salesclerk telling me that printers had gotten so inexpensive, when they went bad, people simply upgraded.

And, of course, tonight is the night the January 6 committee goes prime time, sans Fox, and Fox is scared.  Laura Ingraham spit out some sort of nonsense saying the network 'caters to their audience.'  Doesn't she admit that's an admission of guilt?  Republicans are scared.  Rubio spit out the broken record comment "no one is going to watch," thought I don't doubt for a second what he's saying is true those who supported the insurrection.  They are terrified because this hearing is going to be everywhere... except Fox, which is not good for that entertainment network.

And Tonight is just going to be the beginning.  True, there will be MAGAs that will call these hearings lies.  There are Evangelicals who will deny everything, since the truth will mean that... well, they will never admit that God didn't choose Donald Trump to give them what they want, that would be a denial of their faith.  Tonight will not go well for either of these groups.  In fact, for some it might be the beginning of the end. 

 

For the Record

Well, I did get pretty much accomplished yesterday:  bread baked, a bit of lawn work, laundry, worked on fixing the treadmill, which is going to take longer then I thought.  Horizon has yet to respond to my emails.  Looking through the assembly manual that was provided, I'm not fairly certain any and repairs are going to have to be provided by me.  Now, ain't that just wonderful?

Both the new turntable and the speakers arrived yesterday.  All my vinyl (remember we used to call them records?) has been moved downstairs.  Even though, over the years, I've given many albums away, I held on to around 150 (+) records...  shit, I said records, I mean vinyl.  Let me tell you, some of these babies are classics.  Those records... (damn!) vinyl people are buying now, I already own.  And, after decades of waiting to be played, I knew I had to chose one special album to be the first played after all of those years.  It didn't really take me long to make my choice.  Sorry if the video cuts out rather abruptly, I'm not known for my videography techniques.

Speaking of records, yesterday when I warned you about the Witch Hunt (pt 2), well not more than 2 hours later I understand Loser #45 uttered those very words.  You can bet that's shivering the timbers of the GOP.  And, of course, the House passed a bill to create a commission to investigate January 6.  I believe 35 Republicans voted with the Democrats.  It now moves to the Senate, where there's concern a Republican filibuster might kill it.  We'll have to wait and see if we can get enough Republican senators to break ranks.  Just for the record, I wouldn't be surprised if it squeaked through the Senate.  Not all Republicans are in lock step with Loser #45.

 

Grammy's fail

True to form, I did not watch the Grammy Awards this past Sunday.  From what I've read, I don't believe I missed much, except for Daft Punk.  Space suits and helmets - yeah!  Evidently Beyoncé wore lace - who cares?  Not me.  I don't own a single Beyoncé tune.  So I didn't miss that.  The "Same Love" performance probably seemed like a good idea to a few people yet I think it was probably a mistake.  Just because a small number of states (what is it?  12) have legalized same sex marriage doesn't mean the vast majority of the viewing audience really wanted to see 33 couples getting married on live TV.  It makes no difference if some of the couples were straight and some were gay, this is not something the American audience may not be ready to see in Prime Time, so don't shove it down their throats.  then, for some bizarre reason, they included that media whore Madonna.  If I remember correctly, this woman recently exploited her son on Instagram to keep her name in the spotlight - sounded a bit desperate to me.

Going above and beyond

Then there was the faux Beatle reunion.  I had heard rumors this was going to take place and, for a moment, thought of turning on the broadcast just to watch this historic moment.  But then reason took over.  Would I really get a chance to see the two surviving Beatles do a quick medley of three or four of their songs?  Logic dictated otherwise.  Yoko Ono stupidly sold the Beatle catalog for about 400 million.  The stupid woman did not realize the Beatles were not just another boy band so somebody else (maybe Sony?) owns the rights.  This grates Paul to no end.  Besides, Paul is dealing with his own ego, he is Sir Paul McCartney you know, and he is still writing and recording music very few people buy.  So, I suspect when the suggestion was first broached to him about a possible reunion with Ringo, the first thought that went through his pinhead was "hey, I can play one of my new songs."  The idea that the two of them doing a medley of Beatle songs would make history and, most likely, shatter the Twitter universe probably never occurred to him.  Missing Paul McCartney, with his puffy face and puffy hair, and Ringo Starr (looking pretty good for his age) playing McCartney's latest non-hit meant I missed nothing.  This is why I don't waste 3 hours of my life watching the Garmmy's.

Topping the Chinese

Will I watch the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympics in London, yes.  Will I watch the entire ceremony... no.  It's way too long.  Here's my recommendation to all future opening ceremonies, march the Olympians in first and get that out of the way, and then entertain the world.  Everybody with access to either a TV or the Internet will be watching and everybody will turn it off when the athletes begin parading into the stadium.  People walk slowly around that track.  If we were called America our athletes would be one of the first to enter, but we're the United States and "u" is pretty damn near the end of the alphabet.  Sure, some of the teams entering before us will be small in comparison to the American contingent, they will still walk slowly around that track.

Why will I be watching?  To see if the British attempt to top the Chinese opening ceremonies.  That's a pretty daunting task.  My suspicion is they are going to take another tact to celebrate the United Kingdom, like a Shakespeare production number, maybe Macbeth chasing spots away from the track, or possibly a reunion of the two surviving Beatles singing "Love me do."  One thing you can be sure of, there will be fireworks and special effects galore.  You won't see 2000 Chinese drummers pounding  away but you might see the girls from Absolutely Fabulous staggering around.  The Brits seem to like exporting the idea that they are a staid people, perhaps they might let their hair down.  Wouldn't that be entertaining.