Well….with the latest reports that this virus situation is going to get unmanageable with the incompetents in charge and it could lead to a complete lockdown, I admit my anxiety level has ratcheted up quite a bit from earlier in the week….I guess that’s one of the problems with having time on my hands and reading so much news every day…I sure don’t want to have to put the new bike downstairs on the trainer just when the weather is going to get warm and not being able to go out is going to bring the progress on the house to a halt if I can’t get the materials I need…and the rule looks like you have to stay in unless it’s an emergency…but, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let this yard go to hell again and I am going to grow tomatoes and peppers out back this summer….so I guess I need to get the seed for that stuff this week and get it started in the basement…my anxiety is also high that I’ll have enough food to make it through a couple of months so I am going to make another run out tomorrow to see what is available in the stores and buy what I can in small quantities so that other people have the chance to stock up, too…I may even have to practice meal skipping and go down to one a day if it gets to that point…I do have ham bones for ham soup and a turkey carcass for turkey soup that I just need to get veggies for and make…that will give me 4 days per container for 3 containers for both so I can get 24 days just out of the soup if it comes to that…hey, I may even lose some weight….I’m hoping that Meijers institutes what other stores are doing and set aside a couple of hours twice a week so we old people can get in a sanitized store to shop with less crowds….that would help…and I still have a few venison steaks to eat, too….but I’m still a little concerned…have never gone through this in my life and it is new…I guess I’ll adjust once the uncertainty is gone…that’s the hardest thing for me….
Monthly Archives: March 2020
Permanent absentee ballots…
Well…with the coronavirus situation looking worse by the day and the prospect of sheltering in place looming for months, there is one thing we can do here in Michigan to ensure that we can vote this fall and throw this incompetent asshole and his cronies out in November. Due to a citizens initiative here ( and no thanks to the vote suppressing repubs) everyone who wants one can now sign up to get a permanent absentee ballot sent to you for no reason at all…it is quick and easy to do at the SOS website and, and you can change it through the county clerk’s office as I did when I changed my address to GR…and the city of GR did it for me when I did that address change. I know that some of you like the process of going out to vote as I did…but I’ve seen the lines that come with repubs closing polling locations and moving them, so to stick a sharp stick in their eye, I signed up and got my first ballot for the dem primary and it was 5 minutes to fill out and send back….and it got here about 10 days before it had to be sent back so no pressure….so, let’s be proactive and get this done so the repubs can’t screw with our voting anymore…oh, and one more thing…if you got the census request in the mail, go to the website and fill it out…it is important for all kind of reasons especially the re drawing of districts here…and lots and lots of funding for our state depends on it…so take a few minute and fill it out…I’m doing mine tomorrow…
Dire predictions….
Well…as more and more assessments of the dire state of the country and the future depression come in, it is clear that the two months that the idiot trump and his cronies downplayed the effects of the virus to both individuals and the economy and diddled around because they don’t know anything is going to have worse effects than even the worst case scenarios. This incompetence and willful dereliction of duty are going to cost the lives of upwards to a million Americans and is going to put over 20% of workers out of work…and do permanent damage to the economy that will not be repaired in my lifetime….these assessments are calling 2020 a “lost year” where all we are going to be able to do is survive…and supply chains of food and other necessary supplies are going to crash unless the government gets involved and right the frick now…so everyone is going to be affected and it is not going to be pretty…and I am so damn mad that the repubs are still playing like it business as usual…with Rand Paul blocking the start of the recovery legislation because he want to know how were going to “pay” for it…we’re going to pay for his obstruction by putting hundreds of thousands more out of work and killing thousands more Americans…the time to act is yesterday..the depression is here and we have morons in charge…not sure if we’ll survive this….
March 18th
Well…okay, that was one weird night last night but I did get back to bed at around 5 and stayed there until almost 7 but was only sleeping for about an hour…I wonder what that was all about? It was just another normal no cocktail night and there wasn’t anything unusual that happened yesterday so I’m not sure why my sleep would be so broken up….oh, well…just hope it doesn’t happen again tonight…had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get a lot done but some cleaning and today will probably be more of the same….will probably be shifted into low gear most of the day…or at least until the coffee starts to work….I stopped coughing for some reason and that is a welcome change…that may be why I was able to get at least a little sleep this morning…it is a pain having to ration my meds that help with that but one good thing may be that I’ll be able to see how bad my allergies are without medication…maybe I can tolerate them without taking anything but I won’t know that unless I stop…working on the third day of no meds at all and I wonder if all this is my body reacting to being clear of them for a change? I guess we’ll see later today….not much to do today….going to just ease into it and see how I feel….will probably just do the tools today and then get started on the linen closet doors tomorrow….I want to get at the mailbox on the front porch soon, too since it needs to be sanded and painted but that will probably wait til Sunday so I can get it painted and back up before the mailman comes Monday….more later…
This sucks…
Well…have been up since 2:30 and can’t get back to sleep so I thought I’d come here for one of these as I sit here frustrated as hell…with having to ration my allergy meds, I have been coughing all night and that isn’t helping at all…I did find out that “Cannon” is on a 3 am…not sure what that piece of information is going to do for me but now I know….haven’t seen Clarence Ponsler on antenna channel 64.2 yet…he’s normally on at station breaks with the weather…oh goody..”Barnaby Jones” is on now at 4….this is going to be a long, long day if this keeps up….have to remember to hit the delay button on the coffee maker just in case I do get back to sleep at some point….I am going to need coffee this morning…I wonder if it’s going to rain? Yes it is…so I may not be able to get on the bike until later if at all….but the forecast calls for just cloudy today even though I see the radar has rain coming in from the west….but tomorrow is rain all day and maybe some thunderstorms tomorrow night…then it’s getting cold again and I am getting tired of it…..okay…I need to try to get back to sleep for a while….3 1/2 hours is just not going to do it…more later….okay…that didn’t do it…went back to bed and just knew it wasn’t going to happen so I’m back up at 4:20 and it looks like the day is going to be weird from it….damn….boredom is bad enough when it is at the normal times but at 4:20? Oh, well…don’t have anywhere to be so I guess it’s no big deal….
Social distance…day 2…
Well…okay, this isn’t going to be a daily series after all…I don’t think I have enough to say and my life is not so different than normal to be interesting…but, I do have some observations that I want to share….when I was out to Meijers doing the end of days shopping, I had never seen anything like it…empty shelves everywhere and I still don’t get the whole “buy all the toilet paper there is” thing that is going on…I did buy 6 rolls but that is enough to get me 6 weeks with the mega rolls I was looking for….but, I was able to get almost everything that I needed but forgot a bunch of stuff…or didn’t think of getting the ingredients to make soup with the ham bones and the turkey carcass I have in the freezer…so, in a couple of weeks after things settle down some, I’ll make a run out to get the veggies I need…until that time I’ll just use what I have here…I can easily get through three weeks to a month with what is on hand…on thing that is concerning me some is what people are going to do that can’t afford to be off work? I know that when my kids were little there is no way we could have weathered this without help from the in-laws…at that time, there was just no emergency cash and there are so many people in this country in that boat now that someone has to do something…I wonder if we could try not giving huge tax cuts to the rich for a change so the government would have options? I feel fortunate that I am retired and my cash will keep coming in no matter what happens…I hope…but I also have my house down payment money I can use in an emergency that will get me through at least two years…I sure hope we can figure out something so the suffering is not centered on the people who need it the least…we can but will we?
A badge of honor…
Well…our governor Whitmer must be doing something right because she sure had gotten under the idiot in chief’s skin…after her appearance on MSNBC where she told the truth that the federal government…run by idiot boy…”didn’t take the threat of this virus seriously” and now the governors are having to step in and clean up the mess, trump blew up on twitter with his normal insults saying that he stands with the people of Michigan…yeah, no you don’t you moron…weeks and weeks ago you could have done anything to get more testing to determine the scope of the problem but you belittled the scientists and said your “gut feeling” was that there would only be a few cases and your response to the crisis was “perfect”…only in your diseased mind is anything you have ever done “perfect”…you have bungled every damn thing you have touched your entire life…and let’s talk about low the bar is to measure your performance….a bar that is so low they had to dig a six foot deep hole to find it…with the media heaping praise on you for not being the worst asshole in the world for 5 whole minutes yesterday…and the stories that you had changed were all over the media…and it’s the same old bullshit that we see when you manage to not drool all over yourself…he’s changed…but that’s just frickin not true….cripes, I’ll bet everyone would love to be judged at work with that same bar…if you show up and don’t crap on your desk you get a promotion! Let’s be blunt…Governor Whitmer, it is a badge of honor to be attacked by the dotard in chief…it means you are smart, decisive, and successful and he just can’t stand when his failings are pointed out to him…keep it up and keep protecting us here in Michigan.
March 17th
Well….it is a little funny that the same pattern repeats itself with my sleep on nights when I am being good with no cocktails…and that means up at 2:45, then trying to get back to sleep for an hour and then getting two more hours of fitful tossing and turning…and this time there was a little added stress of this whole coronavirus thing and what’s going to happen with the economy and it’s effects on my family and friends…but, I’ll deal with that later today….have been coughing again, too which I know is allergies but I couldn’t get any more allergy stuff yesterday so I have to ration the 27 doses I have and make them last for 6 weeks or so…and I do have other stuff that I don’t like that I can use in a pinch…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and it looks like I have the shifter adjusted right so that made it fun…and I am going to get out this morning after I take it easy a little and have some coffee…didn’t get a lot done yesterday but a little clean up and I think I’ll continue that today…need to find places to put my tools and materials downstairs since I don’t want to have to go out to the garage for everything…I do have a book case that would serve so I think I’ll start there…and there is trash that needs to be put out…have empty plaster containers and lots of old sandpaper that needs to be discarded and containers of screws, etc. that need to go back outside…and when that’s done, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning…..but that will be later…I need to have more coffee and make some more in the French press…more later….
Social distance diary…day 1…
Well…I have been thinking about doing a daily diary on the “social distancing” that we all have been asked to do by limiting our trips outside the house to essentials to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus…and with the shut down of basically everything but grocery stores and pharmacies here in Michigan, that request seems to be a little more than that…which I am okay with. After all, I am in the cohort that is at the most risk from getting infected since I am over 60…but I don’t have any underlying health problems so I guess that’s something…I do have something funny to relate as this whole thing starts…texting with one of my younger friends last week, she asked the question “how am I going to deal with having to be isolated for weeks?” If I could have laughed through the phone, I would have…and my reply was “that is my normal life”…I very seldom see anyone or go out to dinner or to have drinks anymore…or to movies or concerts…that stuff just has lost it’s appeal to me…I know I have thought about re-engaging some, but I guess it was a pretty good idea that I put it off to save money and and get more work done around here…so, after spending about 90 bucks at the grocery store today…I have enough here to hunker down for at least a month if necessary…I’ll run out of cocktails before then but I do have enough for the next couple of weeks and we should know something about how bad it’s going to be by then…I even got toilet paper this morning! I am going to still ride the bike every day even with my allergies trashing me…until they do a complete lockdown and tell everyone to stay in their homes…
Yow! Dow down 3,000 points today…
Well…with the incompetent “stable genius” in the WH and his flailing on every damn thing, financial traders and investors have voted their vote of no confidence in the idiot trump and his minions by a bloodbath in the stock market today…never seen in history, the Dow lost 3,000 points today…a 13% drop in just one day…to put this in perspective, I’ll use the example I’ve used before…if you had 100K in your 401K this morning, you now only have 87 thousand…and since Feb 12 if you started with that same 100K, you have about 65 thousand of it left and tomorrow could be even worse…how do you feel now, trump voters? What the hell could make you not support this country destroying murderer? Losing everything? Oh, I get it…it’s Obama’s fault for letting the stock market get so high on his watch and tricking you into thinking you were doing well…and this was a long term plan, just like his fake birth certificate….who would ever think that electing a stupid game show host would cause any problems? As with what he said about the coronavirus just today to the governors of this country..”you are on your own”… he takes no responsibility for anything and never has in his entire life….so I guess we ARE on our own…hey idiot boy, why not make it official and just resign already…every damn time you open your mouth you do more and more damage….and you’ve only got 8 months left anyway…