The Birthday

 So, I thought Mother Nature was going to be nice to me on the day after my birthday.  The temps were warm, in the mid 40s (F) here in Central PA.  And then I looked at the forecast.  The temps will stay warm, climbing into the mid 60s (F), until the rain arrives.  Yepper.  We are going to get doused.  And then the temps are going to drop all the way down into the low 30s (F).  After that our highs will only be hitting the mid 50s (F) until... the next heat wave?

Yesterday was a very good day.  I did... things.  No workout, but cake and ice cream.  Howie and I had several balls.  A few phone calls with friends, one talked for over an  hour.  I climbed on my bike and chose a Paris ride on my Tacx Neo trainer and rode down streets I'd walked down back when I was celebrating my birthday in Paris.  I posted a video on Instagram if anyone wants to see me riding towards the Eiffel Tower with Bon Jovi singing "It's My Life." Believe me when I tell you that happiness is in the small and easy things, not the loud celebrations.  Dinner was barbecue chicken, and then more cake and ice cream.  Howie loves ice cream.  I even wrote some words.  

I'm not going to weigh myself today.

And I do have to work today.  Where's Eli when I need to have someone say "shit."  It wouldn't be bad, the rain and football will keep many customers out of the store.  However, I'm scheduled to be at the stupid Lead Table from 3 PM - 4 PM, and I, like so many others, simply despise that waste of my time.

This morning I posted one of my favorite pictures of Paris on Facebook when I sent out my thank you to all the well wishers.  Here it is for you to see.  The skies were cloudy when I arrived at the Eiffel Tower but had cleared by the time I climbed all of those steps to the top.

And, of course, thanks to the Orange Anus and his need to shut down the government, this is not the time to be flying.  When they say the shutdown is effecting thousands, they're not talking about 4 or 5 thousand, they're talking about numbers in the 40s and 50 thousands all across the country.  The sad truth about this is that while some of the American stuck in those airports may blame the Democrats, many more blame the party in charge, and the party in charge refuses to understand the longer this goes on the more they are stabbing themselves in their back, in their head, in their heart.  They are not just losing ground, it is caving away beneath their feet and at this point nothing they can do will save them.

Finally, one bit of humor, even though there are literally millions of pictures flooding the internet of Orangie sleeping in a chair the White House is denying that this actually happened.  This administration is becoming more and more absurd.

Hello, Autumn!

 Sunday.  The temp outside is 67 (F) and the skies are overcast.  We had some serious thunderstorms last night.  I check the rain bucket on my back porch when I got down for my 2nd cup of coffee to see how much we received.  For the next week or so, it looks as though daily highs will hover in the mid 70s (F).  I'm fine with that.  I can get the wool blankets down and prepare to layer them on the bed.  Honestly, one of things I like about winter is being able to snuggle under a thick layer of warmth throughout the night.

This is the weekend for our bonus sharing party at work.  I like the added money to my bank account and usually the food is good, but yesterday?  But yesterday?  Ugh.  They served prime rib which must have been cheap since it was 30% meat and 70% fat, and disgusting as it sounds, the meat itself was a bit chewy.  I suffered through some of the meat, than filled up with cookies, and snack foods with a very high sodium content.  Crap.  Today we're getting more sweets.  I'm going to take moussaka for lunch.  

Even though it was slow, I did manage to get 2 measures for blind installations.  Hopefully someone else will design the blinds, since I'm attempting to put my blind designing days behind me.  I prefer the slow times because that gives me time to... are you ready for this?  Work on The Body in History.  And no, I don't work on the actual manuscript, there are firewalls keeping me from signing into Microsoft, but there's what I call a mini-Word app which lets me write notes.  So, when there are no customers, I sit at my desk writing sections of the book.  I print them off, and when I get home, all I have to do is rewrite them into the book.  If I wanted, I could email them to myself and save the paper, but sometimes I also scribble notes on the paper, too.  The first draft is half finished!

And, since I talked about rain earlier, and in previous entries about rain in Greece, I thought I'd expose you all to a rarity.  On our drive from Olympia to Delphi there was a lot of rain around us, and looking out the bus window I saw an amazing thing, my first Greek rainbow.  Now, how cool was that?

And, of course, there will not be another debate.  Harris accepted CNN's offer, but spineless Trump said no.  He said, "She's already wiped the floor with my dumb ass once and I'm not that deep in dementia to let her do it again I've already done 2 debates, that's enough.  It's too late."  Sadly, his cultists will nod and agree with him.  Everybody else can read what's underneath the strikethrough.

He had another rally yesterday and once again, people started leaving early.  Even the NYT had a video on their website of people walking away after just 28 minutes.  If you see it, you'll notice that those leaving are not cultists, no Trump gear or paraphernalia, so they must all be foolish people who don't realize just how bad his rallies are.  These are Republicans who most likely will not vote for Harris, but there's a good possibility they won't vote for him either.  They will join the crowd who will let this election cycle pass them by, which is one of the reasons while he's going to lose.

Tuesday

 When I checked the temp this morning it was a cool, 60 (F).  Not bad after sweating through the mid 90s (F) the heat dome dropped on us.  We had 7 days of super warm temps.  Notice, I said super warm.  They were 7 consecutive days warmer than it's been during the past 3 years.  I checked out the long range forecast earlier and the future's looking cooler.

There's no workie for me today... well, at least not the workie that adds $$$ to my paycheck.  My hours have actually been cut down to 25 this week.  Next week, with the 4th of July holiday pay I'll be getting, I'll have 30, and the following week a mere 22.  I am looking forward to the decrease in hours.  I want to lose some weight before Greece, and working so many hours over the past weeks cut down on my workout time.

And yesterday work was slow.  Because there were call-offs, I ended up selling 2 refrigerators.  That helped my sales. 

I should mow my lawn.  Not because the grass is high, but there are tall weed buds everywhere.

Look, a tan suit.

So the debate is 2 days away.  As usual, I won't be watching.  It is amusing how within the past 3 days conservatives have all started to loudly complain that Biden is going to be on drugs.  This was to be expected, especially when your candidate is a felon who has difficulty keeping a cohesive thought in his head for 2 minutes.  Wait, that's probably wrong.  I'm sure Trump has cohesive thoughts, his problem is that they continually stick to his lies about election loss. If the debate actually takes place, you can bet they're going to blame Biden's good showing on enhancers, rather than admit Trump's ramblings about sharks, and batteries, and who knows what make him look senile. What to expect if he does show up: he will be asked a question and then say what he wants, instead of responding.  And while I won't be watching, I'm hoping Biden calls him a convicted felon four or five times.

The Rug... another lie

 Saturday.  A work day.  Temps are supposed to be cool, hovering in the mid-50s (F)s.  Our afternoon skies are going to be overcast and there will be showers in the area, nothing that's going to amount to much.  We haven't had a soaker in a while and could use one.  This is spring.  Though for the past 2 years most of our spring showers came during the month of May.  Our last 2 winters have been warm, so I'm suspecting nothing is going to break the pattern.

Whether it's the extra hours or not, I find that I've been sleeping longer.  Last night I almost got a full 8 hours of sleep.  That's odd for me.  Usually, I'm getting by with 6 or 7.  

I do get to work this afternoon.  Can you read the excitement in my words.  There are three of us scheduled with only 2 computers to work at.  That means I'm probably going to be getting paid to wander around if the one or both of the other specialists gets a customer.  I can always find someone to talk to, so basically, I'm getting paid a generous wage to walk and talk.  

When I finish up here, I'll be booking the narrator for The Body on the Lawn.  I started booking yesterday and halfway through the process, decided I want to email him with some questions.  His rate was lower than we had discussed, and there was a licensing agreement which was for either days, weeks, or months.  It's an audiobook that's going to be available for years.  So I've got to do a little research on that.  Everything will be concluded this after I finish this entry.

Of course, I did take time yesterday to look through Threads, the Instagram version of what used to be called Twitter.  This pic is actually from Thursday.  What a hoot.  So, the Orange Anus where's a rug, or a toupee, if I were to choose to be polite, but I don't.  The gray stuff is the rug glue that was supposed to keep it attached to his bald head.  The video was so much funnier.

I saw where Jamie Raskin said that the Supreme Court should relocate to the RNC headquarters, of course he was being cynical, and sarcastic, and honest.  One of the things we, just as the majority of Americans, need to remember is that the conservative members of this court don't care what we think.  They are part of that group that is going to say "shut up, we're in charge," and they don't care what kind of damage they do to America, just as long as they get their way.  The fact that their decisions are effecting elections counter to what they so desperately want doesn't phase them.  These few Federalist judges don't understand that states constitutionalizing the right of choice in regards to abortion is a punch in the face.  All they want to do is dictate, and by doing so, they are doing America wrong.

Polls

 Rainy Tuesday has begun.  Temps are going to hover in the upper 40s (F) and low 50s (F) throughout the day, and we will have drizzle.  Yes, the soaking rains are upon us for the next 3 days.  The only bad thing is that all my bulbs are going to be growing like crazy, and I'm not going to doing any yardwork in the rain.

Work was, as expected, very slow yesterday.  How slow you might ask?  Well, I got in over 15,000 steps, which is a bit over 5 miles.  I was going to but some small things I still need to finish the kitchen completely, but I'll be honest, when quittin' time came, I definitely wanted to quit and go home.  

Cori gave me the cover art for The Body in History yesterday.  I can't wait to show it to you... but not today.  There is that long wait until the book is finally published, which will be, if things keep moving at their current pace, in mid April.  For those of you interested, the entire process from my writing down my first notes to  publication takes about a year.  There was a time when I felt they need to be on the market as soon as possible, those days are past.  Working with audiobooks is partly responsible.  Also research, I find I'm looking at so many different sources.  I'm growing more communicative with my editors, as well.  I find talking about how things are developing, and why things happen the way they did, a lot of fun.  

I cancelled my subscription to the New York Times this morning, mostly because of this:

For the past few days the New York Times has been reference a poll the commissioned to basically disparage Biden.  Luckily, more and more people are beginning to understand that polls are terribly inaccurate, not that there wasn't a time when they were much more dependable.  Now, however, there are some serious issues.  What the NYT needs to do is detail for the general public how the results they get are achieved.  Most people don't know that a certain percentage of their pollsters make are to landlines.  Who still has a landline?  Being a flooring specialist, I have to list the best form of communication for a customer and those with landlines that they use are all older and more conservative; this automatically skews the poll.  Pollsters need to hand dial, they can't use robocalls where they can pick up once a connection is made; the vast majority of people will not pick up an unknown caller.  That fact alone is enough to invalidate the poll.  Still, will see a poll and run around like their hair is on fire.

The Punch and Judy Show

 Well, it's Thursday and that means I have to go in to work this morning.  Can you see the excitement in my words?  Actually, it's not that bad since for the foreseeable future I'll be back on my regular shift with Tuesday through Friday off.  

Weather wise, our afternoon temps are going to be zooming up into the upper 60s (F) today and tomorrow, and for those keeping track, this would be our 2nd Indian Summer since our first frost.  While our summer was fairly wet, the rain seems to have trickled away with us not getting occasional showers.  That's not a good thing for this time of year, when a gazillion leaves have fallen from the forests of Central PA.  

I talked to Amazon about the delivery situation for my TV, the fact that it was just left on my porch, and their customer service seems to think I clicked the wrong box when placing my order.  I've revisited that screen several times to see if they're correct, and to be honest, it might have been my fault.  I had done most of my research at work (yes, I do that when it's slow), so, when I was click, click, clicking to make my purchase, I may have clicked the button above the one ordering the free deluxe delivery.  Still, they were nide about the whole thing, giving me a $50 credit.

An interesting aspect of this new TV is that I can now control my washer and drying from my living room, should I ever have the desire to do so.

So both the House and the Senate have approved a stopgap measure to keep paying the country's bills.  I find it fascinating that Speaker Johnson did the same thing that McCarthy did, put forth legislation that moderate Republicans and Democrats approved of without getting fired.  Could the Ultra-Right have learned that firing the Speaker of the House makes them look bad?  I doubt it.  That would mean they've learned a lesson, and we all know that's an impossibility for Conservatives.

And Chip Roy, a Texas Republican in the House, and member of the Far Right Freedom Caucus, went had a hizzy fit on the House floor yesterday when he shrieked about Republican Congressmen not doing anything he can take back to his constituents.  This is funny because being a member of Freedom Caucus he is against Social Security and Medicare.  Yep, his idea of taking something back to his constituents means telling them those two things away, or that they're pushing a law to ban all abortions after 6 weeks.  Both of those things would kill his candidacy, so maybe he should be grateful their only seeing the Republican version of the Punch and Judy Show.

Stating Facts

 There is the possibility we might have rain today.  The sky is overcast and the temps are supposed to climb all the way up to 80 (F).  Yesterday, our thermometers hit the upper 80s (F) and you would have thought we were in a screaming heat wave the way people were reacting.  Crimany!  You'd think they were going to start melting the second they hit the parking lot.  My Central Air did kick on a bit, but only for a few minutes.  

I did have an elderly woman with serious arthritis as a customer yesterday.  She was going to live with her son and was having new carpeting put into her bedroom.   She was paying for her room and he was paying for the rest of the house.  This is going to be a bit of a complicated installation since they both want their carpet installed on the same day.  I felt bad for her.  She was fine once she was sitting in the chair, but I had to lift her up into a standing position after she'd chosen her carpet.  That was a first for me, getting up close and personal with a stranger.

And, if any of you are wondering what I do when the days are slow and boring, besides wandering the store and getting thousands of steps in, I work on the next book.  I take notes.  Sometimes they're random points that I feel are going to need to fill in gaps, and sometimes it's who sections of chapters.  This is what I did yesterday.

I guess most of you have heard that a small, submersible (read minisub) has disappeared while taking wealthy tourists down to see the Titanic.  One of the was billionaire Hadish HamishHis stepson sent out his "Thoughts and Prayers," which surprised me, since I only thought Republicans did that when there was a school shooting.

And for those keeping score.  I was banned from Twitter for making a comment that went against their rules.  And what was it that I said that was so terrible.  Well, it was in regard to Marjorie Taylor Green.  A few day ago, after she spit one of her standard lies, I typed:  "Some day someone's going to punch her in the mouth."  That comment broke Twitter's rules and, of course, I chose not to retract it because in my mind I was merely stating a fact.  She has Tweeted far worse things than that, but than she's on Elon's friend list.

The Machine

 Well, the end of the work week has arrived for some, not for me, though since tomorrow I will be sitting behind the computer at the Flooring desk.  They're predicting showers.  Any rain would be helpful.  Right now I'm using my new hose and reel daily just to keep the flowers from drying out.  Temps are predicted to cool off as well.  Yesterday we topped off in the lower 90s (F) and we're supposed to repeat today.

With this heat, I'm still slowly digging out the remnants of my Burning Bush as well as several other assorted bushes that had taken root behind it.  The pile of dirt is growing.  Once I've removed the root structure to my satisfaction the dirt will fill the hole back up.

I was going to go for a ride yesterday afternoon and discovered the battery in my HRM had died.  Crap!  Rather than stop, I switched to my Garmin watch.  Crap!  My heart rate zoomed up to way over 150 for the first minute and then dropped down to 99, which was wrong.  This is one of my reasons why I don't track my performance with my watch.

And I went to the movies last night.  There were fire truck outside the theater when I got there, evidently one of their rooftop A/C units had blown.  As a result, we had a 20 minute delay before the film started.  On the plus side, we didn't  have to sit through the commercials, on the negative side, we didn't get to see any trailers.  On the big downside though was price of admission went up $2.00 for senior tickets.  This means I'm going to be skipping the beverage from now on.

As for the movie?  I went to see The Machine.  It was hysterical, definitely deserving it's R rating for both language and violence.  For those who need to see shirtless men, there were a lot of shirtless men.  It's also not for the squeamish, though the violence is more along the lines of John Wick, just bloodier.

As expected, the Debt Ceiling crisis has been abated.  Surprisingly, at least for me that is, both Manchin and Sinema voted for it.  Of course, after their overblown drama show, and their screams and rants, the Republicans lost bigly.  No one should be surprised.  They are now the losing team, and will be for some time to come.

And Ronnie D just can't seem to get away from his bad press.  This is to be expected from a short man with Napoleonic issues.  I know Maddie had been hoping for debates, but they ain't gonna happen.  Putting Ronnie D and Donnie T on a stage would only result in a word salad blood bath.  That might be entertaining, but I don't think the GOP is that stupid... at least I don't think they are.
 

No Self-Sacrifice

 Rain.  That's what we have outside.  That's what's in store for today and tomorrow.  Temps will climb about 20 degrees today, up to the mid 60s (F)  Then they're going to slide down to hover in the mid-50s for the next few days.  I don't look at the long range forecast because that's always bonkers.

The past 2 days, my weekend, have been eventful in that I've accomplished the goals I'd set: the laundry was hung and my kitchen ceiling had its first complete coat of paint.  The ceiling will need to have a 2nd touch-up coat because its a ceiling; you always miss a spot.

My little bonus check will be hitting my account tomorrow.  Everybody got the same thing this time around, both full-timers and part-timers.  Is this change going to be permanent?  There is that possibility.  They did just give everybody a large pay raise, so lower bonus checks would help to offset that quite a bit.

And I do get to go to work today.  6 full hours.  Of course I'm going to take a break.  I cooked a lunch yesterday afternoon - chicken lo-mien for that purpose.  I ate half last night, the other half will be eaten during the fifteen minutes off I get because I'm working more than 4 hours. 

And, of course, the historic event that was supposed to take place yesterday did not happen.  The Grand Jury was suddenly cancelled.  There were rumors that the Trump team had another witness.  Delaying tactic?  Possibly.  Even though the Orange Anus claims he wants to be photographed wearing handcuffs, there is some fairly solid documentation that he's been worried about being arrested since the early 1970s.  

The Grand Jury is set to reconvene today.  Why the cancellation yesterday?  If there was a sudden witness, I don't doubt for a second that it was, and is, nothing more than a delaying tactic.  While the OA might see the publicity in having a picture of him standing in handcuffs, the reality of him being fingerprinted and having a mug shot taken might be a little too much for his ego.  Be honest, this man has never been known for his self-sacrifice.

Hailey's Running

 Tuesday, my day off, and I'm going to enjoy it.

I'm scheduled to work over 25 hours this week.  (Bit of a heavy sigh).  I do enjoy the days that I don't go into work.  However, I also don't mind going in and sitting at the flooring desk for a couple of hours a week.  Full time is considered 30 hours a week or more and 25 + is too close to that, if you know what I mean.

I've talked before about how the big orange retailer I work for gives bonuses out to employees through what they call Success Sharing.  Those checks are dependent upon how closely each store's sales come to either hitting their forecast, or at least coming close.  As far as I know, they're still doing Success Sharing this year, though checks are going to be minimal.  This is because corporate built a forecast last year based on three years of pandemic sales.  Ouch.  Prior to Covid, we never hit $1 million a week in sales.  During Covid that changed.  Sales went though the roof.  Over the past year they have dropped off drastically, to pre-Covid figures.  In order to compensate the stockholder's greed, they raised prices.  That didn't help. Only 3 stores out of 27 came close to hitting their forecast.  For 2023 the forecast has been lowered to a more realistic figure, however that is not going to fix the sales for 2022, which means our Success Sharing checks are going to be as dismal as the sales they were based upon.

My angelfish laid eggs again.  This is the third time and they did what they did the previous two times.  Ate them.  They are not known to be good parents.  Here's a blurry picture I took of them last evening, before the feasting started.

And, Nikki Hailey announced her candidacy for President this morning. This is how the Republican blood bath begins.  This is going to get nasty.  His MAGA base is going to bluntly tell America what they really think about women, that they need to leave politics to the men.  I'm wondering how long it will be before Trump calls her a two-bit whore, or something similar.  I wonder how she's going to deal with the fact that many MAGA brains will say she slept her way into that position.

Word has also come out that those UFO's we've been shooting down are far less sophisticated than the Chinese balloon which started this mess.  Oh, and they were smaller.  Normally, the Republicans would make hay out of this, however, with Nikki's announcement they'll be focusing on their civil war instead.

Negative

 Well lets say a happy hello to the new work week.  Of course, I perhaps should leave out the 'work' since not everyone is working today, or has a full work week.  I do work today.  4.5 hours.  I have an odd shift: 0930 - 1400.

One of our flooring associates climbed up onto the shelving, a serious violation of safety protocol, to push a rolled up area rug into place and fell, hitting his head on the concrete floor, and knocking himself unconscious.  Big gash on his forehead.  He was out for 10 minutes (concussion), and didn't start to come around the EMTs had him on the gurney and were wheeling him out.  This man was very nice.  I enjoyed talking to him.  The odds of him coming back to work are slim to none.  Major safety violation.  We have rolling staircases we call ladders.  Instead of using one he chose to climb up onto a piece of shelving that was over 3 feet above the concrete floor, using another shelf for support.  OSHA came into investigate.  They looked at the CCTV feeds and watched him fall.  The Orange Home Improvement retailer I work for will use this clip in future safety videos to illustrate what not to do.  The last I had heard, this associate could not remember being at work the day he fell.  As I said, he will not be coming back.

On a brighter note, I had my first cup of coffee since the arrival of the stomach bug.  Interestingly enough, I had no nausea or diarrhea.  My symptoms were:  pain in my upper abdomen and headache.  For a while, I had thought it might be the onset of an ulcer, but ulcers don't give you headaches.  So, I Googled my symptoms and for some individuals, those are symptoms of Covid, so I did one of these:

And it came back negative.  

Now, if you will all excuse me, I have to leave for work.

Kiss My Ass

 Mid-week, long weekend.  I started a 4 day stretch yesterday afternoon when I left work.  This is nice.  I have the same schedule next week.  A regular schedule is nice.  Being a morning person, I accomplish more before going to work than I do at the end of the work day, so the mid-week, long weekend will be nice.

One of my associates had one of "those" customers yesterday; a gentleman who had a quote and then left it expire.  As a result, the charge for disassembling a bed went from $75 per bed to $100 per bed.  He came in and began complaining that this increase had not been pointed out to him when he paid for the installation.  We had no problem adjusting that charge back, but what he really wanted was for us to adjust the charge off completely.  His arguments were small and insignificant and were never going to get him what he wanted, so he played his trump card.  He said "so, let's just cancel the 2nd floor installation completely, that way I won't have to worry about the charges."  So, we played our trump card, "sure you can cancel, but because your flooring has already shipped, there will be a $1000 restocking fee."  The customer was unhappy.  I have no problem with that.  We deal with people like him on a daily basis.

I have settled on which washer and dryer I'm going to purchase.  Whirlpool makes the best appliances, however their stackable washer and drying are too wide and too tall.  That left their competitors.  Samsung has the longest lifespan, but I can tell you from past experience if there's a warranty issue you will lose.  It looks like LG is going to get my business. 

And, of course, there was a debate in Ohio last evening, JD Vance vs Tim Ryan.  I didn't watch, but kept seeing little blurbs come through on my news feeds.  In a smart move by Ryan, he brought up Trump's appearance in Ohio, zeroing in on Trumps comment that Vance "likes to kiss my ass."  Kiss my ass was brought up a number of times.  To be honest, back when Trump said that at Vance's rally, I was stunned.  He likes to kiss my ass.  Think about it.  The truth is Vance was truly kissing Trump's ass just to get him on that stage. Now, we know that all MAGAs want to kiss Trump's ass, but Independent voters?  Not so much.  Independent voters out number MAGAs/  I'm suspecting they don't really want an ass kisser representing Ohio in the Senate.

The Surprise

 So, the five hours I spent at work yesterday were more of an inconvenience than anything else.  11 AM to 4 PM really takes the wrong chunk out of my day.  I don't mind being scheduled in the mornings or afternoons but losing the middle of the day really bothered me.  I had no desire to either start or continue a project before I left for work, and the same was true when I got home.  The fact that the five hours I spent at the flooring desk turned out to be uneventful marriage of boring and blasé didn't help.  This happens sometimes.

Temperature wise, we did get up into the mid 90s (F).  Even though forecasters were calling for rain, we had none.  That meant watering my little garden, which has so far produced only 1 tomato and 1 green pepper.  Some of the branches on my peach tree are dying.  Son of a bitch.  

There was, however, one nice surprise.  Two months ago, I had planted an elephant ear believing it would grow large, cutting down the amount of lawn I'd have to mow.  Well, nothing happened.  For two months.  I thought the plant had just died.  And then yesterday morning as I was taking out the garbage, I found this, and while it's only about 5 inches long, it's nice to know it didn't die.

As for politics, we are heading into the summer doldrums.  Congress will be going onto vacation shortly.  Will any legislation get passed?  That's difficult to pass.  I know many are hoping that the Marriage Equality Act gets a vote.  A lot of Evangelical leaders are pushing against it, and they represent a voting bloc the Republicans have courted for years.  However, that little decision the Supreme Court made regarding Roe v Wade didn't sit well with a large majority of Americans.  Roughly 2/3 are pissed.  That same figure wants to change the rules for the court:  mandatory retirement at a certain age, and term limits.  Americans want to get rid of justices having a job for life.  I'm up for that.  

And will Ginni Thomas ever talk to the Jan 6 committee.  I doubt it.  She has a fat mouth and says a lot, but only follows through if she can spread her hatred.  Married to Thomas for 37 years, her womb is evidently barren, or they made a conscious decision that birth control was essential in order for her to avoid giving birth to black children.  I do think that's the main reason.  Clarence Thomas truly does hate his DNA.  

Good Tidings

 Monday has arrived.  Work is scheduled... maybe.  Plants I ordered for the tanks are supposed to arrive today... that's if the tracking is correct.  They're coming from Aquarium Co-op, a company I've used several times before, however this is the first time I've ordered plants during February.  There is a heat pack included, but I have no idea how long that will keep the temps in the shipping package warm enough to keep the cold from killing everything.  The last thing I want is for them to sit on the porch for 3 - 4 hours when the outside temp is 40 (F).  Believe me, I don't mind take a personal day to save the verge.

And even though The Body in Repose has just begun to be proofread, the first sentences for The Body Under Ice have been put to paper.  Blame it on the part-time hours.  I mean, it's not like I can shut down my brain.  Even while I'm sleeping - sometimes, I will roll over and wake-up, or at least it seems like I wake up, and realize I need to either add something or change something.  Lucky for me, I don't forget things when I fall back to sleep.  Of course, maybe the whole thing is a dream and I'm just remembering it.

And, since there are no cars permitted on Mackinac Island, my protagonists, Eli and Max, will have to get around using either skis or snowmobiles.  Oh, and there is the horse drawn taxi that will take them from the airport to the B&B where they are staying.

I received a text yesterday from a friend, Jack, telling me that a mutual acquaintance had died.  I think he was expecting me to be upset.  Unfortunately, all I could muster was a 'that's a shame' reply, since I've not talked to this person in over 3 decades  What makes this even more odd is that I have not spoken to Jack in almost 8 years.  I've called and left him messages, he never responds.  Time is not always friendly to friendships.  Perhaps he just needed to be the bearing of bad tidings.

And here's a bit of humorous bad tidings.  After a closed door meeting, the RNC of Pennsylvania has chosen to not endorse a Republican candidate for Senator.  Indications are they're concerned about endorsing someone Loser Trump doesn't like.  Of course, the one person the Orange Anus had endorsed, Sean Parnell, had to pull out of the race because he was an abusive husband and parent.  Anyway, this is really bad tidings for the large field of candidates who will soon be going for each other's throats.  It is, however, good tidings for the state.

The House Gods

 Another slow Sunday.  Outside, the temps are 18 (F) but they're predicted to warm up to 36 (F).  Looking at the long range forecast, a warming trend is on the horizon.  We are, after all, halfway through winter, give or take a day.  In fact, if we do give or take a day, we've got about six weeks left.  Damn!  That rodent was right!  Maybe.

I do get to work this afternoon.  7.5 hours, so they've given me a lunch break, which I may or may not take.  Two fifteen minute breaks spread throughout the day may do the trick.  This is because around 2 PM things are going to begin slowing down and I don't really see the point in taking a lunch when you're sitting around doing nothing.

The house gods must be happy.  Some time ago I replaced a ceiling light in my kitchen and... well, I must not have connected the wires correctly since it refused to turn on.  My friend Justin said I'd attached them backwards, and fixed them.  No light.  Two nights ago, a little after midnight, Biggie had to go out and... voila, the light was on.

Last evening I ordered a Stryd, a pod that attaches to your sneaker used for tracking your stride, and your pace.  Right now I'm relying on the Fenix 6 Pro which has proven to be rather unreliable because it depends upon an accelometer (their word) which uses arm movement to calculate stride.  Sometimes there is accuracy, mostly there is not.  Before I bought my treadmill, before I used the treadmill so extensively to help with my back, this information was not that important.  Perhaps the old accountant in me is raising his head, since I now want to record my almost daily jogs.

One of the problems I have with certain organized religions is that their theology was determined a long time ago, by men, who not only believed that the earth was flat, but that it was also the center of the universe.   The fact that these theologies fail to note these mistakes lead one to question their claim that they are divinely inspired.  Some night, when the stars are bright, go out and look up and understand you are not only looking at individual stars, but galaxies, too, and ask yourself how a deity who could create something so immense, could forget to impart that essential information to those theologians of long ago.

The Thanksgiving Fight Club

Well, a happy Monday to each and everyone of you.  I get to work today.  Wow!  Now isn't that exciting? For a full six hours.  Those hours don't get me a lunch break, so around 1500 I'll take my standard break.  That's right.  I get breaks.  15 minutes at a shot.  In a 6 hour shift, I get 2 breaks.  Usually, I only take one twenty minute break. That's enough time to eat something and check through my emails.

I went down to York yesterday to have lunch with a friend.  Lots of fun.  We stopped by the Petco so I could look at what they had in stock for live plants.  disappointment reigned.  I'll probably end up driving down to That Fish Place, which is also now called That Pet Place.

Shortly after I post this, I'm going to see if I can fix my chair.  How nice if it works!  There's nothing like saving yourself a couple hundred dollar expense.

It's never too early to start thinking of the lyrics I'll be using for my next book.  Right now it's looking a lot like it'll be called The Body Under Ice, however, that's always subject to change.  Almost immediately this song popped into my head, you know, the land of the ice and snow.  Of course, it all depends upon what strikes my fancy when I start writing.  The Body on the Beach, about fossil hunters in Montana, made a big geographical shift to Colorado and became The Body in the Well.  This means upstate Michigan in the winter may end up shifting to Amsterdam in the winter, and I might end up calling the book Hans Brinker and his Murderous Silver Skates.

So, did everybody get a jolly laugh from Loser #45's whine that the January 6 committee is going after children?  I'm sure 40 year old Ivanka Danka's old man taught her quite well how to wield the knife in order to stab as deeply into the back as possible.  Children?  That's a laugh.  He has spawn.  Oh, and than there was the bit about Michael Cohen revealing Trump's dictum, 'if any of my kids go to jail, make sure it's Donny Jr, not Ivanka.'  Nice, eh?  I'm betting Thanksgivings for this family are a lot like Fight Club.

 

Dumbells

Well, here it is, Saturday... again.  I do have to go in to work today, for 6 hours.  Hopefully they will be fine.  This is the time of year when business does a dive... at least on most years.  Last year business was... busy.  Same as the year before.  I don't know where people are getting the money, but they don't seem to mind spending it.  Perhaps most of them are just content to go deeper and deeper into debt.  That is not such a good plan.  Believe me, the sooner you are debt free, the better life will be.

Rather than 3 miles a day, I've been walking 2 on the treadmill, well, to be more accurate, I usually walk for 45 minutes.  I was under the belief that my Garmin Fenix Pro 6 tracking distance through footsteps, so steps were wracking up every time my feet hit the moving belt.  Nope.  That's not the case.  Evidently the swinging of your arm as you walk is what is used for that calculation.  This means gripping the HRM on the front bar to check your heart rate causes you to lose steps.  Not swinging your arms forcefully enough, will cause you to lose steps.  Son of a bitch!

And, for those cold winter days when the temperatures are below freezing and you don't want to bundle up to go to the gym, might I recommend The Fit Gent.  He does all of his workouts with just bands and dumbbells, and by dumbbells I mean the ones you hold in your hand, not the ones you work with.

One of the things I find truly amazing about Republicans is that they really don't think.  They jump to conclusions as though they were concrete facts, rather than a proven conclusion.  Take the 74 million voters who checked Trump rather than Biden on their ballot.  In their feeble minds, those 74 million are locked in and guaranteed to vote Republican.  That terrible miscalculation is one dumbbells can not stop themselves from making, to think otherwise would mean they might be wrong.  Conservatives are never wrong, and they will lie through their teeth to convince you of that fact.  This is why they need to be relegated to some obscure political position where they will have absolutely no access to change what normal people expect in their daily lives.  And, since they will never learn, our only choice is to vote them into the history books as a greasy foot note.  Vote Blue.   Vote Blue.   Vote Blue.

 

Ghostbusters, Afterlife

 Well, if it isn't Thursday morning, and, as usual, we're heading into a forecast of showery, drizzly, and a not so very dry day.  Oh, and I have to work for 5 hours.  That shouldn't be too bad because of the weather.  If temps were a little cooler we'd have snow showers on and off.  They don't seem to be occurring in the the next few weeks.

The dogs are still sleeping.  Blame the weather.

I went to see Ghostbusters, Afterlife last evening.  It was very enjoyable.  There are some important cameos, in case you didn't know.  If you don't, I'm not going to spoil anything.  Paul Rudd, the handsomest man alive is funny in the beginning, but then... well, not so funny, and not in a not so funny good way.  That's the problem with most of the cast, but then the writing loses sharpness, at times blunting through the minutes.  I do have to mention the 2 standout performances, though: McKenna Grace as Phoebe, and Logan Kim as Podcast.  These 2 young actors steal every scene they are in.  They are funny and they are smart.  I get the impression the story was written about them and everything else was added as filler.

Interesting discussion yesterday.  Keep in mind that while some of you are activists, I am not one, except when it comes to politics.  As such, I do not follow activists on social media since there are times when they tell you what you desperately want to hear.  While being terribly opinionated, those opinions are mostly centrist, except for politics, and as such may rub some of you the wrong way.  That's fine.  Discussion is good.  Eliminating discussion leads to blindness.

On the shooter in Michigan:  so much information is coming out, and it's bad.  While no one in the media is saying it, the kid appears to have been radicalized by his parents... in a bad way.  They had been called to the school earlier in the day to discuss behavioral issues and his mother complained about 'immigrant children' in the classrooms.  I suspect most of us can surmise their political leanings.

Bring 'Em On

Well, I'm supposed to work today... maybe.  I ordered a new Samsung tablet that's supposed to arrive?  You guessed it, today.  The last thing I want is to have it waiting for me on my front porch while I sit quietly behind the flooring desk.  Oh, and today will be  quiet sit, mostly because rain is in the forecast.  We're supposed to hit a high in the lower 70's (F), but then the temps are supposed to drop.  This is part of that big thing which moved in from the Northwest a few days ago.  So, I'll call and tell them I'll be in after the tablet gets delivered.  If the delivery time is late, I'll just take the day off.

I went to see Eternals last evening.  I liked it... a lot.  I'm serious.  This movie has been getting some terrible reviews, complaints about the action scenes not skewing right with the personal storylines, one reviewer going so far as to say it's like watching 2 different movies spliced together poorly.  What you do get is a very diverse cast of characters with intimate storylines that make you think.  Thinking is a problem for some fans of superhero movies.  So is diversity.  Up until now, the Marvel Comics Universe has been populated by white Americans.  This movie not only changes that, it turns it upside down.  The truth is most of those giving bad reviews are simply not ready for the changes. Me?  I say bring 'em on.

I understand Loser #45 released some sort of hate filled, rambling statement yesterday regarding Biden's infrastructure win, damning it to Hell and back.  He claims it's a communist agenda.  He's such a dumb shit.  Communism died a long time ago.  Neither China nor Russia have a communist government, they're authoritarian.  MAGA's do not know that.  They never will.  What they dream about, however, is having a similar authoritarian government in America.  One in which they can say "shut up, we're in charge."  They also have no idea what kind of repercussions an authoritarian government would unleash in this country.  Americans have never been know to acquiesce quietly.  They do not understand the unified force they would be up against. 

Biggie and the Spanish Guitar

 Well, a happy Saturday morning to you all, unless, of course, you're in Australia, then it's a happy Sunday morning.

I get to go to work today.  As usual, I always brown bag it (take my own lunch).  Just call me frugal.  A number of those I work with order out using one of the delivery services, one my fellow associates loves Door Dash (someone has much more disposable income then I do).  Or, because there are a number of fast food restaurants within a 5 minute ride, they eat fat rich, sodium extravagant fast food.  My lunches are always home made and healthy, and always include fresh fruit.  Today desert is going to be blueberries and bananas.

For quite a long time, I would sit down and write in total silence.  That's been changing.  Music is now almost always in the background.  Sometimes classical, sometimes folk music.  Last night French folk music was playing, though most of the songs were about New France i.e. Canada and Quebec.  Lily could care less what's playing.  Biggie, on the other hand, seems to enjoy music.  The night before last Spanish guitar music was playing and this is what he did.  I almost didn't post this because the light reflections seem a bit garish. 

Interestingly enough, that one specific school board in Texas which made headlines about needing apposing view of the holocaust has suddenly done a back flip.  These racists, and bigots, and white supremacists don't like to be scrutinized.

Another group of Cracker jack Crazy Conservatives that's soon to be list as a hate group is the Moms for Liberty.  This group of hate mongering women is trying to infiltrate school boards to upend curriculum they don't feel is Conservative enough.  That's right, it's another damn minority group trying to force their socially conservative beliefs onto the majority.  These women are ugly and hateful.  Keep them out of politics before they have a chance to spread their cancer.