Retail

 Well it's Sunday morning, the temp is in the mid 50s (F), and the day is predicted to be nice.  I have a 7 hour shift today, so I'm really too concerned about the weather.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a repeat of today and I only work the late afternoon shift, so I plan to get out my weed wacker.  Tuesday?  My first day off?  Rain is in the forecast.

The store did gangbusters in sails this last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but then sales began slacking off.  I suspect we made plan yesterday because of garden.  This past Wednesday in flooring?  Wow!  Sales were through the roof.  Over $31,000, however only about $6000 was in installations.  A large majority of that was in walk-in sales.  Customers were walking in and buying pallets of vinyl plank flooring.  This was so massively unusual, we flooring specialists put our collective heads together and decided this was the result of the tariffs beginning to show up.  Prices are going to go up, and while they might come down a little once this tariff tax is over, they're never going to come back down to where they are now.

The neighbors were loud again last evening, but only from 10:30 until 11:00, then the music was turned off.  Their kid is home from college, and I guess that Dad goes to bed at 11:00, and there's no consideration for the neighbor. They don't seem to understand I can be just as loud as they are.  This is how it goes.

And my purply bush is blooming again.

Orangie's blow bro Vlad gave a speech last evening, made everybody wait and hour, and then was pretty sour.   I suspect old Vlad is bigly mad.  Europe is uniting in way he never considered.  They talking massive sanctions, which is not what Vlad wants.  He thought his blow bro Orangie would save the day except it turns out Orangie has fumble fingers in his brain.  He ain't got no respect.  Orangie's approval rating is in the toilet, not only in America, but around the world.  Our allies of old ignore his buffoonery.  Sadly, the main stream media, desperate for access to his mental decline, is soft pedaling his dementia.  They're actually lying for him.  Here's an example:  The Washington Post had a headline this morning saying that Orangie's brokered peace deal between India and Pakistan was falling apart.  The funny thing about that peace deal was that both India and Pakistan said the Orangie was not involved, that they had negotiated among themselves.  And now that their peace deal is falling apart, Orangie looks bad because he tried to take credit for it.  Boo Hoo.

Pig in Shit

 The weather today is supposed to be superb.  Our high should be in the mid 70s (F) with partially cloudy skies.  We have the same forecast for tomorrow.  I always have off Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Sadly, we have the same forecast for Thursday and unfortunately I have to work.  I'm thinking that maybe I should take some sort of Spring sabbatical or something so I don't have to go to work.

I did work yesterday.  Someone purchased a big ticket window install, otherwise we would not have made plan.  Unless I was exceedingly comfortable financially, there is no way I would make any large purchase right now.  I had a conversation with my supervisor in which I told her that sales are going to continue to slow down as prices go up, and more and more people become concerned.  Her response:  "well, that means you're just going to have to work harder."  Did you hear me laughing?  They have me scheduled to work at the Lead Generating table on Sunday.  Yippee.  Out of curiosity, I did go in to check to see if any of the leads they'd been generating with the table were actually selling.  Nope.

Howie has decided he's not going to eat his Beneful dog food.  That's a problem since I just had another large bag delivered by Chewy.  He eats everything else, treats, snacks, bananas, blueberries, but not his dog food.  I'm going to need to start monitoring him when he's outside to insure he isn't supplementing his diet with sticks, and grass, and plants.  I have a friend whose daughter's dogs like to chow down on fireplace kindling.

And you never know when a bolt of lightening might save your life.

I saw this morning that Thailand has put tariff negotiations with Orange Anus on hold until certain issues have been resolved.  Vietnam has already told the administration they want zero for zero tariffs, that means no tariffs at all, and I believe Switzerland has made the same decision.  Let's be honest here, the Orange Anus has managed to, trade wise at least, united the world against us.  Everyone knows he has put himself in the unenviable position of aggressor, and everyone knows how easily he will cave.  They're just holding out until he accepts the offers they're going to make.

After causing the Pope to have a stroke, I see that J.D. Vance has moved onto India.  His wife is Indian, so he might get a better reception there than he's been getting from the other countries he's visited.  Of course, he has converted to Catholicism, so they might tolerate his wife, and ignore him.  I don't think anyone sees him as a serious negotiator for... well, anything, except for chaise lounges and loveseats. Wait until he finds out the Indian mascara he uses comes from China.

And Orangie's approval rating has dropped to 42%.  Frankly, my dears, I don't think he gives a damn about his approval rating.  As long as he has his toadies and sycophants surrounding him, he's happy as a pig in shit... which is pretty much the truth.

Choosing to Fail Rather than Succeed

 Thursday.  It's not as windy today.  Temps will climb up into the mid 69s (F).  This would be a good day for getting a little lawn work done, unfortunately I have to work this afternoon and other things need doing before I clock in.  Tomorrow temps will be in the low 70s (F), and though the skies will be overcast, I have already begun a to do list.

Speaking of work, the new schedule is out and they cut me back to 16 hours a week.  I did a quick calculation and I can easily live on that.  While my paycheck from the large, orange retailer is not my only source of income, I prefer using those dollars to pay my day to day living expenses.  Sixteen and a half years ago, when I began my career with this retailer, part-time associates' would only be scheduled for 5 hours a week when things got slow, usually in the winter months.  I don't doubt that's what corporate is doing right now.  Back then I would ask full time associates if they wanted to leave early, using their personal or vacation time since that payroll expense had already been expensed and accrued.  Those days have already returned.

I did go to PetSmart yesterday to pick up Howie's Frontline flea and tick treatment since we are now heading into flea an tick season.  There was a time when I used Frontline year round.  That was before common sense set in and I realized that in Central PA fleas and ticks are, for the most part, inactive for 6 months of the year.  And, as some of you might expect, while I was at PetSmart I picked up a new toy for you know who, and it just happens to be another octopus.  I had barely gotten it out of the packaging before he snagged it off the kitchen counter.

Another thing that happened yesterday was Senator Chris Van Hollen, from Maryland, flew down to El Salvador to hopefully at least see, if not talk, to Kilmar Abrego Garcia and was not permitted to do so.  In fact, he was told by the El Salvadoran Vice President that Garcia would not be returned because Trump was paying them to keep him.  This should not surprise anyone.  Garcia's return would give both Democrats and the media a win, or, as the Orange Anus's administration calls it, a scalp and the last thing Orangie wants is to be scalped.  His small, and quite possibly drug damaged brain, fails to recognized that taking this hit would actually improve his approval ratings.  However, at this point in this tragedy, he has no one else to blame.  Yes, he would rather fail than succeed.  This is why he has 6 bankruptcies.  This is also why his tariffs will fail miserably.  He went in swinging with a baseball trying to prove his superiority and is only hitting air balls over the fence.

A bit of fluff:  It seems as though those women in designer blue coveralls who touched the edge of space are upset that the vast majority of people see this as nothing more than a rich man's stunt ride.  Can you hear me laughing at them?  It's rather sad that at this supposedly momentous moment Katy Perry chose to release a list of upcoming tour dates and expected people to celebrate.

The Bonding

 To my surprise, yesterday's temps climbed up into the mid 70s (F), and the day turned out to be wonderful.  What a shame I had to work.  Today, unfortunately, will not be a carbon copy repeat.  When I got up the outside temperature was 61 (f), and the only direction it's going to go is down.  According to the forecast, our thermometers should bottom out at 52 (F) for the day's high.

Yesterday much was accomplished, and by that I mean I rowed and I got in an upper body dumbbell workout completed.  Over 400 calories were burned.  I was very pleased. 

Then, because I'm always scheduled for Mondays, I went to work.  Boring.  Even though our garden department and flooring were going strong, when I left I knew we weren't going to be hitting our plan for the day.  We missed our budgeted goal last week by a substantial amount.  I suspect this might be the case from now on.

When I got home, a pair of glasses that I had ordered were in my mailbox.  Green.  Green is one of my favorite colors.  However, the minute I put them on a problem was obvious: the right eye was terribly blurry.  Merde.  So I pulled out my order and saw that I'd keyed in the prescription for the right lens incorrectly, instead of +125, I keyed in -125.  Big difference, and it was my fault.  Those glasses are now in the trash.  I didn't really need to order a new pair of glasses since my eyes haven't changed, so I'll wait a few months before ordering another pair.

Yesterday the Orange Anus had a Meet and Greet with some dictator named Buckle, the spelling might be a bit off, but I'm certain the pronunciation is correct.  We all know how much Orangie loves him his dictators, so no one should have been surprised at the way he fawned over a man who runs the worst prison system in the world.  Why, they even held hands.

Of course, we are now in a Constitutional Crisis because had no problem giving the wannabe dictator immunity for things he did while in office.  The Rolling Stone has a nice piece about how Orangie is laughing at and mocking the Supreme Court.  Paraphrasing their article, Orange and Buckle had a bonding experience.  Believe me when I tell you Orangie wants to be as ruthless as Kim Dumb Jung.  In his twisted mind that represents true power.  As someone said, the ball is now in the Supreme Court's hands.  Will they have him arrested?  Doubts are strong.  

And then this morning I read some frivolity on the NBC news website saying that one of their polls indicated that registered voters were gravitating to the MAGA movement.  Of course, they gave no information about the poll, just that it was one of theirs.  The humor was in their saying that 36% of registered voters now like the MAGA way.  That number hasn't actually changed... in years.  That 36% is the Republican party plus the same 6% of Independent voters who have always leaned Republican.  Nothing has changed even though they want Americans to believe it has.

We Are Smaller Than The World

 Good Morning world!  Our outside temp here in Central PA is 58 (F).  That's mild.  I've been outside wearing just my shorts and T-shirt, my way of transitioning to summer.  Storms did blow through the area last night, lots of loud thunder and lightening, and heavy rain.  The forecast for the next 3 days is pretty much the same, and then we're going to cool off.  Some of our lows next week are predicted to be in the high 20s (F), which downright cold.

I did work yesterday and it was slow.  We are not hitting our forecast plan so far this week... by a lot, and with the weather forecast calling for showers and colder temps, I'm not expecting sales to pick up.  I did get my monthly review yesterday, yes, that's right, we now get them monthly.  Once again my focus is supposed to be on signing people up for credit cards.  That discussion led to a conversation about interest rates and how the rate on our cards was so high.  Not surprising, my supervisor was fairly clueless on the subject, once again telling me it was not my responsibility.  That's one of the big problems in not only America, but the world.  No one wants to accept responsibility.  It's always someone else's fault.  

And in a comment, Treaders asked me if I didn't have a recycling place nearby.  No, not really.  There used to be a landfill about 5 miles down Wertzville Road, but that shut down years ago.  Hershey, Dauphin, and Cumberland county have drop-off spots for yard waste.  I did check, there is a scrap yard on the other side of Harrisburg, but their rates for dropping of scrap metal are what I consider exorbitant.  To make up for this, Waste Management has given us all supersized garbage containers, so bit, it usually takes me a month to fill both the garbage and the recycling bins.  I will have to go online and make an appointment for them to pick up the treadmill base.  This is a hassle.  We used to be able to just set one piece out, but now their garbage trucks have robotic arms that pick up your cans and dump them into the top of the truck.  No more garbagemen.  This is what our cans look like.  You can see the metal bar the robotic arms hook onto.

And, of course, the stock market sell-off continues.  As soon as I saw that China announced retaliatory tariffs of 34%, I knew Wall Street was going to crash even farther.  With zero tariffs for Russia and high tariffs for every other country in the world, many think the Orange Anus is following orders from his blow bro Vlad.  You all know who Vlad is, the dictator who has already sacrificed almost a million Russians in a war that only supposed to last 3 days?  That man has totally over estimated Russia's strength by a very large margin.  In his mind, having the United States as a vassal state would give him Supreme Power.  He simply does not understand that we are smaller than the world.  The world is not going to cower before Trump and his blow bro Vlad.  Nope.  Trading alliances are circumventing us.  Orangie is going to crush the world's economy.  This is how the Republican party dies, and don't be surprised if it takes Evangelical Christianity with it.

Chaos is Coming

 It's Friday.  It's going to be overcast most of the day, and temps may climb up into the mid 50s (F).  We have started a warming trend that should see our daily temps in the mid to upper 60s (F) by Monday, though thunderstorms are also in the forecast.  I honestly don't mind Spring weather.

For the record, I also like Daylight Savings Time.  Even though I'm a morning person, there are not a lot of things other than reading through the news, paying bills, and writing this blog done in the morning, so there's no need for an early sunrise.  However, there are things that are done in either the afternoon or evening, like dog walks, or working outside, when evening sunshine is appreciated.  If I had my druthers, we would stay in permanent Daylight Savings Time.

I got a nice upper body workout in before heading into to work to discover retail was very slow yesterday.  The store was barely making plan, however when I left last evening at 7 were were still around $60 thousand under, so there was no way were going to hit that goal. I did talk to an older woman (60 ish) about having vinyl sheet installed in the family bathroom.  She told me this long story of how she and her husband had installed a new medicine cabinet that came with "terrible" installation instructions, and even though they followed them thoroughly, the cabinet fell out of the wall and damaged their flooring. (sigh)  She wasn't happy that there's a charge to replace an existing toilet with a new one, and complained that one of our competitors didn't charge.  I politely told her that was nice, but we charge.  Then!  a customer walked by with a golden retriever on a leash and she complained.  I nodded, and smiled, and pointed out that we have dog treats at our desk, as does every other department; PetSmart is at the end of our parking lot and a lot of people will bring their dogs into the store.  She frowned and said, "I can see this flooring job isn't going to work with your store," as she stood up.  I apologized to her back as she walked away.  She evidently doesn't understand that the customer isn't always right.

As I go through the edits of The Body in History, I'm trying to decide just what should go on the back cover.  I'm leaning a lot towards this one of me in Greece.

There is a lot of tension right now on whether the Democrats should help fund the government for another 6 months.  Anger is high among Democrats and this seems to be the perfect time to punch the Orange Anus squarely in the face.  Chuck Schumer is getting horrific flack because he wants to pass the funding measure, saying shutting it down would give Orangie the option of deciding which departments stayed open and which ones were closed.  First of all, I think people need to understand that we are not dealing with Orangie at all.  Any sane person who listens to him speak for more than 2 minutes realizes much of his brain is missing spatial connection.  So, who is in charge?  Elonia?  He bought the presidency, so that's a very good possibility.  Putin?  He definitely has a lot of leverage.  Both of them, probably.  All Orangie wants to do is play golf and stay out of jail... oh, and continue his reality TV show:  Live... From the White House."  To be honest, I don't think it matters if the government is shut down or not; both Elonia and Putin want to set the stage for calling Martial Law.  Whether it's shut down on not, serious protests are on the horizon.  Giving the Republicans the opportunity to shut down Medicare would work against them, and though the GOP believes it's prepared for protests, they are totally in over their heads and have no idea what an angry America is going to do to their party.  In spite of all the anger at Schumer, it doesn't really make a difference, chaos is coming.

Hacked

 Good morning, world.  Here in Central PA the temps are predicted to hit 72 (F).  If we do, we'll be breaking a record.  To have such warm temperatures this early in the year might not bode well for the coming summer months.  But... Fear Not.  Our very unesteemed administration has decided to proclaim that climate change is beneficial.  There.  Now doesn't that fix everything?  Anyway, temps will be falling back into the normal range overnight, with tomorrow's high rising into the mid 50s (F)

Even though I signed up a customer for a window treatment lead, yesterday was slow in the home improvement retail arena.  Looking at the clientele shopping our aisles yesterday, and stopping the flooring desk to set up a measure, I can say the fell into one of two categories:  Supporters who have their radios tuned to Newsmax, or Asians who aren't paying too much attention to what's happening on Wall Street.  The former made up the majority of our customers.  They will also be the loudest to complain.

And, as was reported by many media outlets yesterday, Zitter was down, but for the most part, only in America.  Elonia lied and blamed Ukraine, so I'm suspected Orangie's blow bro Vlad is not too happy right now.  Anyway, Elonia did go on TV and talk to Sean Hannity (I believe), a very sympathetic billionaire.  That's right, he threw himself a pity party and whined that they found IP addresses that were located in... you guessed it, Russian held areas of the Ukraine.  Firstly, anyone individual, group, or country capable of hacking into Zitter is smart enough to know you don't leave your IP addresses as evidence.  And then this mysteriously appeared.

Here's another fun fact:  Poland, which holds the contract for Starlink used in the Ukraine, is going to tax tech companies.  America's ambassador to Poland, some dude named Tommy Rose, told the Poles that Orangie was going to retaliate.  The Poles told him to drop his pearls.  It also looks like they're planning on dropping their contract with Starlink and shift to a different platform.  Another ouchy for Elonia.

And the stock market did tank yesterday.  Most likely there will be some sort of recovery today, but don't count on it gaining back the entire 890 points it lost.  Another interesting point is that while the Dow dropped, the European markets, while also falling, had a much better day.  It's almost as if investors are thinking they may move their money elsewhere.

 

The Naked Tennis Ball

 Monday, Our temps are predicted to climb into the mid 60s (F), and it suddenly feels like Spring.  If the forecasters are correct, we'll be hitting 70 (F) tomorrow and many will believe that summer is in the air, and it will be for one day.  On Wednesday, temps are expected to slide down into what is considered seasonably normal territory.  

I arrived at work a little late yesterday because for some odd reason my mind decided that my start time, 0930, was the time I should leave the house.  Of course, half way there I realized my faux pas and decided the best thing to do was shrug it off.  I have no problem doing that.  Foot traffic was on and off, customers wandering through, asking questions, and the wandering off to some other department.  We did our sales plan, but only because a big installation was sold in millwork, probably an entire house of windows and doors.  While that dollar amount was enough to get us over the profit line yesterday, it wasn't near enough to save the week.  

One thing that was nice yesterday, was getting home while the sun was still shining.  I left Howie out, got his dinner ready, and went to the back door to let him in.  Usually, being the hungry puppy that he is, he's waiting.  Last evening, he wasn't, so I went out to check on him and found him standing out front staring down at a dead female cardinal.  It was a bit sad.  I have lots of cardinals in the trees around the house and this was the first time I've ever found a dead one.  In fact, this is probably only the 3rd or 4th time since I've lived here that I've found a dead bird.

Howie did chew the yellow fur off a tennis ball yesterday.  Now you know that a naked tennis ball looks a lot like a plum.

I understand that Twitter was down, or at least certain parts of it.  Elonia looks like he's proving that not only can't he successfully fire a rocket into a low altitude orbit, he's also finding it difficult to maintain a right wing social media platform.

Because I did work yesterday, I didn't pay too much attention to what lies were falling out of Orangie's mouth, though without a doubt, I felt certain they were dropping faster than lead turds.

I think he posted some sort of attack on Poland... possibly?  I'm seeing stuff about that.  If so, it's because his blow bro Vlad is pissed off that the country is aligning itself deeper with the European Union.  I did say where his toy country Hungary is no long allowed to vote with EU, mainly because it's his toy country and they don't no "stinkin' Russian toadies" vote against their own better good.

Also, from what I'm seeing, Orangie's need to drop lead turds from his mouth is exacerbating the chaos in his administration.  Everyone's talking about the cat fight between Elonia and Little Marco.  That must have been one loud hissy spat.  Don't worry, it will get much worse.

Ain't No Yellow Brick Road

 It's cold outside with the temp sitting in the upper 20s (F).  If the forecasters are correct, however, when I leave work the temp should be in the low 50s (F).  Tomorrow, the daily high is supposed to hover in the low 60s (F), and by Tuesday we should be cracking the 70 (F) degree mark.  Of course, and isn't there always an "of course," temps are predicting fall back into their normal range.

Yesterday was not bad, I did get an upper body workout in before work; burned 158 calories in the process, though my back felt a little sore last evening.  Work was slow.  I mean really slow.  This is the time of year when people usually begin picking up their "curb appeal" mulch, and grass seed.  So far, that's not happening.  I have no measures and no sales in the foreseeable future.  I'm also working 8 hours today.  If this were a normal day there wouldn't be much of a problem, but this isn't a normal day.  We shifted to Daylight Saving Time, so I'm running, for all intents and purposes, and hour behind.  I am feeling a bit rushed.  And, even though the weather today is supposed to be nice, I don't expect us to be very busy.  People gussy up their lawns and patios on the weekends, not during the week, so our big sales days are always on Saturdays.  

Looky, looky, George Bush has grown a spine.

I find it interesting how Republicans are stepping up to the plate, putting the heat on the Orange Anus' administration, whereas too many Democrats seem to treating Orangie's wannabe dictatorship like the year is 1950.  Too many of them are suffering from "Susan Collins Concerned Syndrome."  Too many of them are still grabbing their pearls as though the media is going to treat this as any sort of attempt at a serious opposition.  The problem is Democrats do not know how to mount and sort of offense.  They are too used to taking the high road.  Let me paraphrase myself here:  Y"ou can take the high road, or you can take the road, just keep in mind their ain't no yellow brick road."

The Damage Done

 Well, it's a chilly willy 16 (F) outside and the temps are only expected to climb up into the mid 20s (F).  We have the same forecast tomorrow.  However, after this mini polar vortex slides east towards Europe, our temps are supposed to bounce back into the mid to upper 40s (F).  That will be nice. 

Much more was accomplished yesterday than I had been expecting.  2 long loads of laundry, you'll notice I'm back to long loads is an effort to cut down on my water bill.  The big tank was vacuumed.  Oh, and I worked, selling an $8000 flooring installation to a very nice, but very odd woman.  She's involved in local theater.  A long time ago I was involved in local theater, and so we had several old acquaintances in common.  It would have been nice to have conversation with her, but other customers showed up.

That irascible Howie chewed off the back of my left slipper.  This is the first time he's actually damaged something, so he got a  swat that he ignored.  Now I have a good right slipper, and the left one is more of a slipper flop, if you know what I mean.

Not surprising, about 25% of Americans have stopped shopping at their favorite store because of politics.  Can you hear me laughing?  This is because many retailers wanted to support the Orange Anus because... well, he's going to give them a whopping big tax cut, and so they dumped their DEI policies.  You would have thought that at least one executive in these retailers would have pointed out that this might hurt sales.  Or maybe they thought that the tax break would compensate for their loss in revenue.  However, when such a large number of your customers stop buying from you, you're going to have problems.  I'm sure many of these retailers are now focusing on Damage Control, and how this bad decision is going to hurt their stockholders.

Yesterday was a day of protests against Orangie and Elonia.  Hundreds of thousands of people, all over the country, gathered and quietly held up signs.  So far, these protests are peaceful.  However, I agree with James Carville in that as more and more people are screwed over by this administration, these protests are going to get louder and angrier.  As he said, they are "going to turn into an out of control freight train," and the damage they do to this administration will be great.  

There's a saying that if you want to be successful, you need to read the room.  This has always been a problem for conservatives, they want to be authoritarian without understanding they need to have a majority of the people behind them.  Orangie doesn't.  His approval rating continues to slide.  And Elonia?  The hatred for him is growing hour by hour.

 

Retail Crush

 Can you believe the weekend has arrived?  Forecasters are calling for snow here, followed by possible freezing rain, though in may end up just being rain.  Forecasters have us getting about one half inch of snow.  The freezing rain will total out at possibly .03 of an inch, which, if we were sitting on a donut, would be considered a very light glaze, probably so light you'd be embarrassed to call us a glazed donut.

I left my barley cook dry while I was making my breakfast.  Blame Howie.  I was busy throwing his new pink octopus and wasn't paying attention.  I ate one bowl and then fed the rest of it to the birds.   My house now smells like over toasted barley, or well maybe that's not right, possibly light burned might be a better description.

My sporting laptop shut down in twenty-two minutes into a ride yesterday.  I was not happy.  This has happened before, and every single time it seems to have been triggered by an update.  Yesterday 2 (one from Garmin and one from Microsoft) downloaded simultaneously.  When it shuts down like that, everything is lost.  Boo.  Hiss. 

And now for something light.  I'm playing through Skyrim again, and there are 20+ characters you can team up with, let's call them followers.  Each follower will add a bonus to your skills.  Many of them will only add that bonus up to level 30.  After lever 30 the benefits no longer have any value and so they just tag along making silly comments.  Except for one.  Roggi Knot-Beard.  His benefits are good up until level 60.  So, I'd like you to meet my new follower.

I am scheduled to work today.  I don't know how busy it's going to be, since we are supposed to get a dusting of snow, though I can tell you we have been slow.  Because our customer footsteps are down, I was not surprised to see this graphic in Bloomberg.  This past January, retail sales dropped.

Is it Trump's fault?  Off the cuff, I'd say that a damn good possibility.  Unless you have a lot of bouncing buckos in the bank, I would not purchase any big ticket items for the foreseeable future.  This is terrible news for all of those retail giants who toasted Orangie's win, believing they were going to get both a big tax cut and golden sales.  Ouch.

And, in case any of you missed it, Orangie's team fired over 300 people who maintain our nuclear arsenal... and then quickly hired them back once they realized what their zombie brains had done.  I'd put money on the fact that this stupid team is anything but Woke.

30,000 Tons of Food

 So, even though the roads are clear, I decided to not go into work today.  Temps are above freezing, that's nice, so the ice and sleet we got last evening are beginning to melt.  Temps are supposed to warm up and and then cool off for the remainder of the week.  Tuesday, forecasters are predicting a dash of snow.  I don't work, so that's fine.

Yesterday they had sliders for us to eat because we have gone 180 days without a reportable accident.  Well, they actually weren't sliders, they had pulled pork and pulled chicken and slider rolls.  They had a limit as to how many you could eat.  I ate more.  This was not because was dealing with an aggressively grazing rage, but rather because they had so much extra and I couldn't see why it should go to waste.  

I also had a disagreement with my supervisor, who wants us to spend more time in the aisles and less time at the flooring desk.  She is trying to enforce one of the orange home improvement retailers policies.  The problem is that when you are working in the aisles, you're not at the flooring desk, near the carpet and vinyl plank flooring displays and are, therefore, unable to talk to the customers who might be interested in having an installation.  A vast majority of the revenue my department generates comes from installations, not selling wire shelving, still they want us talking to the customer buying moving boxes, or totes trying to ensure these customers fill their carts to the brim.  And, just so you know, this disagreement has gone for years, with many different supervisors, and it will probably continue until I stop working.

And, in case you didn't know, this is happening.

According to Elonia and and Orangie, this is how you save taxpayer dollars; shut down  USAID and let 30 tons of food rot on the piers in Houston.  Authoritarians don't care if it doesn't make sense, they just need to be in charge.  People will starve to death, but they don't care.  The only thing that bothers them is when their food stops, then they get angry.

Last evening I was having a conversation with a friend and I brought up the religious angle, how this administration is beginning to target certain religions, like the Lutherans and the Catholics.  Then this morning I saw almost the same headline in the Washington Post, their take on Orangie and religion.  I canceled my subscription a while back, so I don't know what their opinion was, possibly just reinforcing Catholic hate among Evangelicals.  My, isn't this what we need, a wrinkly religious war taking out Catholics and Cracker Jack Crazy Christians.

And finally, even though Orangie signed and Executive Order welcoming disgruntled, white South Africans, few of them seem to have any interest in coming to the United States.  This must really disappoint Elonia.

Howie on the Bed

 Holy Schmoly, our high today is predicted to be in the low 80s (F).  That's very warm weather for October.  Tomorrow will be just a sunny and warm.  I'm off today!  Work tomorrow.  My next day off after today will be Thursday, and weathermen are forecasting the temps to drop dramatically, with the high being in the low 60s (F)

I did work yesterday.  It was so boring.  I talked to 2 customers about getting their rooms measured for carpet installations, but they were just beginning their flooring adventure.  I cut some blinds for customers.  Just as I was about to leave, a woman showed up at the flooring desk and wanted to change the carpet for her install.  She picked a carpet that was very inexpensive and I did all the changes, but she decided to hold off on the purchase.  My policy has always been to not push.  Spending money is always a personal decision.  What can I say?  My sales are very good even though I don't hit all the requisite sales buttons my bosses would like me to hit.

Resolution has been reached on the Squarespace mystery charge.  I bought the domain name Ridingon.bike some years ago from Google.  Sometime during the summer, they began selling ownership of the domains to Squarespace.  They did notify me and I mentally filed it in the unimportant category.  Three weeks ago, without notification, Squarespace charged me a renewal fee.  Google always let me know about the renewal, giving me the option to opt out and migrate my blog back to Blogger.  Squarespace didn't.  So, I migrated the blog myself.  Had they notified me in advance, I'd have paid the charge, now they've lost my business.

Since it's Tuesday, I thought I post a picture of Howie on the bed.

With 2 weeks until election day, I need to warn everybody that the Cultists are going to be doing their most deceitful work.  On Zitter and Threads, their bots are going to be posting fake poll numbers.  Jake Silver over on 534 is going to be pushing bongo bongo bullshit.  Stay steadfast.  Don't let your mind falter or worry.  We have this.  Boy do we have this.  Main Street Media wants a horse race.  This isn't it.  But you do need to prepare yourselves because the Republican party is going to throw so much shit into the fan it will be difficult to avoid being splattered.  Just remember, that's all they have... shit.

The Holiday is Over

 We have sunshine!  How wonderful.  Temps are predicted to be moderate this afternoon, hovering around in the mid 70s (F).  I can deal with that.  Humidity might be a little high, but I can deal with a little sticky, sweatiness.  We have a higher chance for thunderstorms tomorrow, but I can deal with that, too.  What we really need is the sunshine to dry things out.

And I did work yesterday.  We had customers in the morning and none in the afternoon, no doubt because of picnics and cookouts.  It was Monday and seemed like Sunday, and was mostly boring.  I do get holiday pay (4 hours since I'm part-time) which is nice.  I did explain to a few associates what Memorial Day was, and why it was a National Holiday, but only one person at work thanked me for my service.  Food, of sorts, was provided: burgers, chicken tenders, and hot dogs on the grill, but that's it, none of the fixin's.  No deserts or beverages were provided, I was told this was because they didn't have enough money.  The orange retailer is punishing us.  They used to provide Fun Funds for holidays, and they still do, only now those $$$ are limited.  You can increase those funds by winning credit card contests: the top store in the district to sign up new credit cards, or the top store to get leads or measures.  To do either of those you need customers.

It seems as though no one went to the movies this holiday weekend, usually one of the biggest of the year.  Perhaps that's because 2 niche films were released.  The fact that someone, somewhere thought Garfield was going to be a hit tells you a lot about the lack of rational thinking in Hollywood.  Going to the movies has become super expensive because of Corporate Greed.  People need a reason to plunk down all those buckos.  Mad Max and Garfield provide no reason what so ever.

Here's a view of the writing room from the staircase.  The updating of the floor should be finished by tomorrow.

With the Holiday over, politically things should get back to their chaotic normal.  For those who missed it, Trump was photographed walking around a parking lot at some Naas car race waving, and gesturing, and saluting no one in particular.  While he looked zany, his team was filming bits to edit into crowd reactions to make it seem like he is extremely popular, something he needs to do after so many media outlets reported on his getting booed badly.  Remember, everything he does is staged.  Everything he says is a lie.

Toot Your Own Horn

 When I climbed out of bed this morning the sun was shining.  Much has changed.  The clouds have come rolling in, and later this afternoon, or at least so I've read, showers are going to move into the area.  Temps will be in the low 70s (F) and that won't be bad, but these constant showers are making it difficult to mow my lawn.

Looking at my chore list for today, it looks like it's chock full of things that need to be done, however, the time involved for each chore isn't heavy on the minutes.  The longest is mowing the lawn, if the clouds don't decide to bless me with drizzles, and even that's only about 20 minutes.  I mow fast, though the height of the grass may slow me down, so maybe that should be 25.  None of the tanks need to be cleaned, but I need to run to the post office, and then to my local Giant supermarket.  That errand will consume the most time.

The area rug I bought for the living room arrives today.  I'd like to get that laid, but there are other things I need to do to prep for it.  I'm going to need assistance in moving the desk, unless I take all of the drawers out, then I think ;I can move it, but that's going to be a chore in itself, so I'm planning on getting that done next week.

Yesterday, retail was oh, so slow.  Believe me, it was a long 8 hours.  I did manage to get a small sale, and that's fine.  How good are my sales?  The other part-time associate has racked up $46,000 in the last 6 months, while I just topped $180.000, and I'm only $26,000 behind the full time specialists.  Believe me, I do let management know that, too.  Many years ago, I had an Human Resources manager tell me that you need to "toot your own horn," because no one else will.

And Michael Cohen was tooting his horn yesterday.

Evidently there was some concern that he was going to come across as a jerk, since most people view fixers as the underbelly of the beast.  Let's face it, working for the Orange Anus, Cohen has truly slithered his way through mountains shit.  Evidently, nobody likes him, except possibly his family.  He is not the loving Father Knows Best kind of guy.  But, to the prosecution's relief he was pleasant and well prepared.  he brought the receipts.  Cohen knows where the bodies are buried, and he dug up a few yesterday.  

I'm also seeing a lot of consternation from people who are looking at the polls and seeing Biden behind in many.  I find it fascinating that in many of these reports the cite how Trump over performed the polls in 2016, and how Democrats over performed in 2018, 2020, and really over performed in 2022.  Remember 2022?  When Republicans were predicted to smash whatever strength the Democrats had because, traditionally, the party that loses the presidency gains seats in both the congress and the senate in the next election.  Ooops.  Tradition was upended, so were the polls.  The truth is that polls will never recover the accuracy they once had, but news sources are desperate to create drama in order to generate the number of clicks advertisers want to see.  I hate to say this, but they are generating fake news, but it's not just Main Stream media, it's everybody.  This is what happens when you abandon truth for advertising dollars.  

Mr. Grumpy goes to Court

 Forecasters are saying we're going to have a bright and sunny day here in Central PA, and I will openly admit that I'm up for it.  Tis the season of yardwork.  Now that I'm in a short hiatus between beasties (dogs), I'm going to reseed the area of lawn inside the fence.  So, today I'm going to take my weed wacker out and decimate a large section.  Our temps are predicted to climb into the mid 70s (F), which is just fine and dandy with me.  

I did work yesterday.  It was sooooo slow.  Last week's sales figures are equal to what they were prior to the Covid lockdown.  Of course, Wall Street is demanding that we force 5% growth, so corporate is trying to squeeze water from a stone.  To my surprise, yesterday was the first time I heard one of the most conservative associates in my department complain about pricing. OSB (particle board) is selling for over $33 a sheet.  He knows it's terribly overpriced, and complained that with such high prices we're never going to hit our planned sales.  This is something Wall Street is eventually going to have to come to grips with, 5% growth year after year is unsustainable.

Anyway, I'm thinking of g3etting rid of the dog sofa in the writing room.  It's old, been used by 3 dogs, and no matter how much you clean it, the stains are never going to come completely out.  If I call Waste Management, they will pick it up with the garbage, I've just got to get some strong arms to help me get it out of the house.  Maybe I'll replace it with a small dining room set.

And then yesterday Mr. Grumpy went to court.

I was working, so I had to rely on social media for most of my trial updates, and even those were amusing.  Some people began calling him Don Snoreleone because he fell asleep, though there's no evidence that he actually started snoring.  He will try to turn the next coming days into a constant campaign stop the same way he did his daily Covid briefings.  And the speeches he's going to make?  A broken record of complaints, skipping back over and over again in an endless whine of repeat, repeat, and repeat.  I had to laugh when I heard he wanted to stand next to the judge while potential jurors were being questioned.  He so desperately needs to be seen as a person of authority.  And it was also reported that he had some terse moments with his attorney.  He wants to play armchair attorney, which will help to incriminate him even faster.  And I also had a big hoot when I saw the list of witness.  Giuliani.  Steve Bannon.  This is more like a league of liars than anything else.  I'm not that familiar with what they can and can't do in a Federal trial, but if they can claim the 5th, they will.  Of course, that never sits well with the jury. 

Sound

Dull and drab.  Those are two good words that come to mind when I look out the window.  A steady drizzle is falling through a whist of mist, soaking everything, and this is our forecast for the next 3 days.  I work tomorrow, which was originally supposed to be sunny, however that's changed.  

One of the most interesting articles I've read regarding Christmas sales is that they picked up this year.  Both the New York Times and the Washington Post had articles detailing how Americans spent more this year then had been expected.  I guess the economy ain't that bad.  Of course, those sales pertain to Christmas presents, not flooring installations, or new doors, or windows.  Our paint department has been hopping, but that that's a cheap redo, and even paint is becoming expensive.  You see Corporate is going to grab their Market Share anyway they can. by charging more for a gallon of paint, or a quart of premixed grout.

My neighbor stopped over last evening around 8 PM and asked me to turn down the volume of my TV, her daughter was going to bed.  I was playing a video game, and there were times when it was loud, and I know that there is zippo sound proofing in the walls.  My solution, I'll use my headphones when I'm playing a game.  She told me, as she has several times already, that she knows her family is loud, so there will be a catch, they, too, will have to tone down the volume.  She's going to need to keep her music down when she's jig-jigging around cleaning her house.

So, what are my plans for today?  Clean the small aquarium, work with words, and make a Shepherd's Pie with the left over London Broil.  Believe me, you can only eat so many roast beef sandwiches.  Hopefully, this is what it will look like.  I will let you know.

And, finally, one of the most amusing things I've seen, and one that says a lot, is that our ex moral degenerate president's popularity on his Truth Social Network is falling.  This rating is measured by the number of likes that his comments get, and that number is dropping.  This is important because it's indicates that the size of his cult is beginning to shrink.  They are no longer glorifying every ALL CAPS word he spits out.  It's also important because he's obsessed with being number one, an any indicator that proves this not to be the case is bad.  His ego requires a cult of millions.  This might be a better indicator of his popularity than any poll getting published these days.

 

Rejection

 Is everybody sleeping in on the cloudy Sunday?  Looking at the weather maps, I'd say cloudiness is hanging over most of the eastern seaboard, from Florida up to New York.  For those in the northeastern states?  Don't worry, it's coming your way and it's bringing with it a lollapalooza amount of rain.  We here in Central PA are under a "flood watch," with up to 3 inches of rain expected (in certain areas, since those rain bands can not be counted on to dump equal amounts everywhere).

And, as expected, yesterday was slow in the retail world...  Well, our hardware and garden departments were busy.  We did have a lot of Lookie Lous, though.  You know who I'm talking about, those individuals who wander through, looking at our products, and asking questions, knowing full well they have absolutely no interest in an installation.  We did sell $800 of artificial grass to someone who's son had just bought a home and there was no yard, evidently dog urine had killed off all the grass.  We have a number of people who do that, put in the fake stuff.  

I saw this neato picture of Delphi this morning and thought that I should probably print it off as a reference for my next project, The Body in History.  This is the Tholos at Delphi, what it probably looked back then, and what it looks like today.

And for those who haven't heard, Moms for Liberty has run into a host of problems these fascist women never thought would happen; that often happens when you embrace your hatred of things you can't control.  And it's not only Bridgit Ziegler's three ways causing the problems.  This past election cycle they got their butts whipped by American voters.  Their candidates lost something like 78% of their races.  Rejection is a terrible thing to have to deal with, I'm enjoying the rejection handed to the Moms for Liberty.

And I some a headline that Trump quoted Putin in a speech.  No surprise there.  And no Republicans called him on it.  Again, no surprise.  These people do not care about what happens to America as long as they can be in power.

Update on the weather, it's begun to rain.

The Spawn

 Well, we are halfway through the Labor Day Weekend.  The temps are supposed to be quite warm, meaning in the mid 90s (F) and that means my Central Air might actually have to work.  That's fine.  I don't mind if we have a few warm days.  

Business was fairly slow yesterday, and it will be even slower today.  Tomorrow? it's anybody's guess simply because there is this mindset out there that holidays equate to big sales for everything.  For appliances?  Yes.  For flooring? No.  Now that doesn't mean online products might be reduced, corporate does that sometimes, they just don't drop them in the stores.  As you might expect, with the kitchen redo coming up, tomorrow I'm going to be purchase my sink and dishwasher, though I'll have to check.  Sometimes you can't get your military discount if there's a big sale going on, corporate sees that as double dipping.

For dinner last evening I had a 3 bean salad with Romano cheese.  Tasty!

And there was a bit of a rumble yesterday as Donald, the Orange Anus, Trump threw his son Eric, the dumb, under the bus.  I do believe the infighting in the Trump family is going to be horrendous.  Anyway, during deposition for his New York trial, the OA said that Eric was the one who  had "ultimate decision-making authority" with the Trump Organization's business decisions because the OA was far too busy doing other things. This makes Eric the front man and the one totally responsible for all of the lies and deceit.  So, will Eric fight back?  There is a possibility since he is the spawn of the spawn of Satan.

Evangelical Greed

Tuesday.  Rain.  There's a loaf of Italian bread rising down on the kitchen counter and the smell of warm yeast is rising up through the house.  Showers are supposed to be sporadic through out the day.

Of course, Biggie has to go for bloodwork at 2 PM, so that will be fun.  They like it best when he fasts so they can get an accurate sugar read; if they want that they'll need to schedule appointments early.  Since they don't open until 9 AM, that's going to happen rarely.  The dogs are used to getting their first meal around 6 AM.  I'm not going to starve them until late in the afternoon.

I've got a yen for stewed tomatoes, so I may be busy at the stove when we return.

Work was boring.  We're not making plan.  Prior to Covid, our weekly plan was between 800 and 900 hundred thousand.  Now they want us to do about 1.2 million a week, some weeks a little more, some a little less.  This is what greed looks like.  The stockholders might decide to sell if we don't make plan.  Right now our stock is about $220 (give or take a dollar) per share.  We are way overpriced.

I saw this trailer last evening.  I want to see this.  I will probably have to find some channel that streams it since the theaters in Harrisburg will never play it. 

Of course, it's election day down in Georgia.  Is everybody sitting on pins and needles?  Some media outlets are saying the contest is too close to call.  I suspect this is more a ploy on their part to drive up ratings.  They want people across the country to watch, it's good for ad buys.  This is a problem, not, as the MAGAs say, they create fake news, rather they tend to create fake drama.  Every pundit needs to put in his 2 cents to feed his or her ego.  The words spilling from their lips are not necessarily what they actually believe, and they do use their platform to, if at all possible, drive up ratings.  Ratings = ad buys.  The more money advertisers are will to spend, the bigger the smiles in the corporate offices.

Me?  I'm thinking Warnock has this in the bag.  He's been through this before, remember, and last time his competition was not as stupid as Walker.

The NYT has an interesting take on Evangelicals and Trump.  Leaders of the far right Christian group are seeming to have second thoughts about The Former Guy.  Some are implying Trump may have used them the same way he used Stormy Daniels (my allusion).  Well, no surprise there.  However, these leaders have a problem.  They've spent years festering the belief that God sent Trump to give them what they've been praying for: a socially conservative country.  They have groomed their followers to say things like Trump  doesn't lie, he's just being brash.  Now, these leaders are concerned.  "We don't want a Republican civil war," they whine.  Someone should have told these dumbshits that every thing has a price, and Trump is going to extract every single penny he believes they owe him.