Concert tickets…

Well…ever since I moved out here, I had it in the back of my mind that I saw a concert at Heritage Landing…the park at the end of my street just down the hill and something just made me look for it to confirm…and yep, I saw Joe Walsh and Buddy Guy there in 2000 and that was pretty cool…see, my memory is not completely gone….and, while I was looking for that ticket, I found tons of others that I kept…from Peter Gabriel, the Who, Neil Young, lots of Steely Dans, and, get this, I have a ticket for the Eagles when I saw them in 1974 out at Grand Valley…spent a whole 5 bucks on that one….who would hang onto a ticket for 47 years? I guess weird people like me…I still have my ticket from seeing Led Zeppelin in Chicago in 1975 somewhere and that was only 7.50 while Joe in 2000 was 17 bucks…still worth it and would do it again in a minute…I wonder if I have the ticket for Joe and Bob Seeger when I saw them here in Muskegon, too…and that was at LC Walker arena that is also just down the street from here, too…man, I would like to see one more concert before I die…

Wildlife…

Well….when I got up this morning and looked out the kitchen window as I normally do, I really had to smile since there were three young deer just standing in the yard next door…and when they moved off, it was with no urgency at all…just strolling as they sniffed the ground looking for something to eat…and that is a little surprising since most of the yards are fenced in out here like mine is and access is pretty limited…but, I have seen deer of this age easily clear a 4 foot tall fence so I guess it wouldn’t be too hard for them to get around…not sure it the other sight I saw this afternoon is wildlife but those 5 kittens I saw following their mother the other day were all playing in a shrub next to the garage next door…climbing up and knocking each other out of it as they play fought…not wildlife but pretty fun to see…all long hair kittens when their mom is a short hair gray cat…genetics at work…

Traitors…

Well…why the hell are Kristin Sinema and Joe Manchin even called democrats? With the debate on federal protection for voting rights being debated in the senate today, both of these dems in name only are going along with ole mitch’s lies about it..agreeing that the bill would be a “power grab” by the federal government since elections are normally run by the states…how damn blind can these two be? Do they remember the voting rights act? Where any changes to election law in states who had constantly tried to keep minorities from voting had to be approved by the courts? Until the Roberts’ court and Roberts lied his ass off saying that racism in voting didn’t exist anymore and gutted the VRA, all of the states that now are passing hundreds of voting restrictions had to have the changes approved by the courts and never would have gotten one of their changes approved since they are just so obviously aimed at making sure that minority voters can’t vote that no court would approve them. And now we have Sinema and Manchin feigning concern that this really might be a federal takeover when this bill is just a response to all of the repub voter suppression that have happened in the states they control. If they are so damn dumb that they can’t see that McConnell is playing them, they sure don’t deserve to be in the senate and have anyone listen to them….it’s bullshit they think this way and I don’t get why they trust anything mcconnell says…no one should…geez…

May 11th

Well…damn, my forearms are sore from using my pole saw yesterday so it looks like I’m going to need to wait a couple of days to get back to working on the dead branches….and that’s okay since I do have to mow the lawn today after the grocery run and Man U plays at noon…and I have to do a little more conditioning of the garden soil to do and start planning when and where to start planting the tomatoes…I am a little concerned that I am having so much trouble getting the green peppers to come up downstairs and I may just have to bite the bullet and buy some plants…oh, I did get up around 5:30 this morning and, with no hope of getting back to sleep, I just got up and got started on the day and my annoyance of that is getting smaller as the days of being good go on….I did go out to what was supposed to be a car show at the distillery along shoreline road but there were only two cars there so that was a bust but I got to drive around a bit with the top down on the car and that was cool…I sure wish it would have been warm enough to ride the bike over there since it is only about 3 miles and you don’t need any space to park…not much to do today…just the grocery run and outdoor work but it looks like the bike ride will wait until after Man U plays at noon…I do need to start getting doubles in every day or I won’t get anywhere near to 3K miles that is the small goal for the year…I did turn over 700 miles a couple of days ago and that is not much but better than nothing….and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate next week so I can get a morning and an afternoon ride in…so, yay! More later…

Got some work done today….

Well…I really am happy I decided to keep the extending tree trimming saw instead of returning it to depot….spent 3 hours using it this morning getting at more of the dead branches on my trees and still have quite a bit to do…the big dead branch on the tree that hangs over my power line is next in my sights but I think it will take some planning to not get electrocuted  since I’ll have to go over the power line and take the branch down piece by piece since it would land on the wires and the roof if I cut it all down at once. Ended up with 5 more bundles of branches and a full bag of twigs and small branches to put out for pick up tomorrow…and, while I was bundling them and tying them up, I looked down and saw more glass buried in my yard but it wasn’t the pieces that I have been finding, it was a cream bottle from a dairy that was all in one piece so I washed it out and I think I’ll use it for a vase if I ever get any flowers to come up this summer…it must have been in there for years and years since the last time I saw one was when I was a kid…and that was a long time ago…back to work again tomorrow since I have to mow the lawn and work on the garden…almost have tomatoes that are big enough to transplant but there is a freeze warning for tonight so I’m glad I didn’t jump the gun and plant them today….

They’re even lying to themselves now…

Well…I really don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to know how sucky the population in general thinks your leader is. With the trump cult still in full swing, now the repub house and senate election committees are withholding polling information from the other repubs as they meet to try to work out a strategy to take the house and senate next year…and the reason is that the numbers are just so bad for idiot boy trump that he is going to cost them winnable seats if he pops his ugly head out of Florida and tries out his schtick again…especially after most of the country thinks he is responsible for the attack on the capital. This brings up a question…why the hell is anyone scared of idiot boy if only a small fraction of the country even cares if they ever hear from him again? Or is the support because all of the damn repubs have the same racist views and they still like how he is so good at hating people and has liberated them from having to hide their hate? Whatever it is, there are people in the repub party (not many of them) who are becoming concerned that Biden’s great numbers on his handling of basically everything may cost them the chance to win either the house or senate…and their ever loonier candidates are appealing to an ever smaller base that works in primaries but won’t in the general election…gee, we can only hope…

May 10th

Well…that was crappy…didn’t sleep well at all and feel pretty lousy this morning so it will be an easy morning as I try to feel better with lots of water and coffee….and I even hurt almost everywhere with that dull ache that doesn’t need ibuprofen but it is going to slow me down all day…oh, well….and it is going to be cold for the next two days with a high of 53 each day that is a good 15 degrees under the average high for this time of year…and looking at the weather, there is no relief for the rest of May…I can’t remember a spring where it has been this cold for so long…by this time last year, I was out on the bike for doubles every day in shorts and a t-shirt but I’ve only been out that way 3 times this year so far….I did get an e-mail off to the community officer for this neighborhood since the idiots to the north of me had their damn music playing loud all day and I’m not going to take this crap anymore…I know I live in the city but, after living in GR without this problem, there has to be a solution that doesn’t involve me calling in noise complaints every damn day…but, I will if I have to…and maybe that will get the city off their asses to do something…not much to do today…I am going to run out to Harding’s just to see if the chicken they have on sale is a good deal since I have to wait for the temp to come up to get on the bike anyway…so that means I’ll get the dirt and stuff for the garden tomorrow when I do the grocery run since depot is right by Aldi’s….more later…

No politics today…

Well…just couldn’t work up enough outrage or motivation to get to reading about politics today so that means I don’t have a topic to write about…so I think I’ll just talk about the day I’ve had…I did find something out…I really like going into the wind on the first leg of the bike ride…and I really hate going into the wind on the way back…it was just so brutal today with a 15 mph wind coming from the NE that I’m sore still and I got back here before 2 and it’s almost 6 right now….I did get more seeds planted since I have had to change to brute force to get enough plants for my garden…still haven’t gotten one green pepper plant to come up and I planted over twenty of them….and I’m going to plant 8 more seeds tomorrow to go with the 8 more bean seeds I planted today….I do have to plan to go to Harding’s market tomorrow since they have boneless skinless chicken that if you buy 2 family sized packages, they give you three more for free…so I expect that the two I have to buy will be about 25 bucks but it still should be about 1.29 a pound after I get the three free ones…if it’s not that good of a deal, I’ll pass on it since I really don’t need 20+ pounds of chicken in my freezer…I did make room for it by taking out the half pork shoulder that I had in there and I’ll be cooking that Tues or Wed…but that much chicken would get me through the entire summer…would have to get really creative to not get tired of chicken by then….okay, that’s enough….going to get ready to veg for a while and stare at the tv…

May 9th

Well…I think this is about on time for a Sunday with getting up a little before 6 and running out to get the paper…and it’s still damn cold out there at 36 degrees and I have to remember not to think about that or I’ll get depressed again..but still, 36 degrees in the second week of May?  Oh, well….I did have a funny little surprise yesterday when one of the feral cat mommas that are all over the place out here strolled through my yard trailing 5 kittens behind her and seems to have taken up residence in the garage next door…pretty cute little things with colors that ranged from black to white and multicolored….and that made me smile a little….I did get out for a bike ride yesterday when I thought it was going to be a miss day as it was so damn cold all day…but, it got to 48 degrees around 4 pm so I decided to give it a try and it wasn’t too bad….and I am getting used to the wind as I talked about the other day and even going into a 15 mph headwind is tolerable now…so I will get out again this morning after the F1 race and ManU playing at 9….it was a pretty quiet day out here yesterday with just a little music that I could tolerate but I’m afraid that it was only because of the cold….but, we’ll see…I do have my fingers crossed….not much to do today….I do have to water the garden to try to keep the bean plants I planted alive and I need to go out and get some garden food and some potting soil tomorrow so I can start to transplant the tomatoes…need to put a big ball of potting soil in the holes in the garden when I do to give them a chance to survive…I did hang one of the led lights downstairs yesterday to get the plants growing more and I hope they will be ready to move by next week….but, right now I need much more coffee and to read some news to just ease into the day with soccer on in the background….more later….

There is no “labor shortage”

Well…damn, my stomach is feeling really queasy right now and I’m not sure why…yeah, I know I had a couple of cocktails last night, but it shouldn’t be this bad…but, that’s not what this is about…I’m sure you’ve heard the whining talking points by all the repub business owners that say that there is a “labor shortage” and that they can’t find workers since the workers can make more money with the extra UI benefits than they can working….god, don’t you just hate these people? With these assholes it’s always the workers fault for everything…I wonder if any of them have looked in the mirror to see themselves and the bullshit they’re spouting? Look, if a worker can make more money on UI than they can working for these cheapskates, isn’t it smart to not work for them? Raising the pay to lure workers to their businesses is never, ever considered since they think workers are overpaid if they make enough to pay their bills and feed their children…and that is one of the biggest markers of a “labor shortage”…that owners have to raise pay to get workers to take their jobs and they will after that happens…but, since employers would rather whine than pay their workers what they are worth, there is no labor shortage…and every economist who is not a repub hack agrees there is no shortage and workers are not just sitting on their couches eating bon bons…there are reasons that workers are not taking these crappy paying jobs just to be mistreated again…and you can see that mistreatment by how these repub employers are lying about a labor shortage…they just don’t want to pay what their workers are worth and that is their choice…as it is worker’s choice to not work for them…