Well…with the announcement that a rental software company and a bunch of huge rental companies are being sued for price fixing, my only question is: who woke Merrick Garland up? This companies software allowed these companies to collude to raise rental prices across the US and if the Justice Department is to the point of suing, you know that have the evidence sine they really hate to lose…now, Merrick, why don’t you break up the huge monopolies in food, Insurance, banking, and everything else that has allowed these companies to steal billions and billions of dollars from the American consumer…I mean 80% of the food production in this country is owned by 6 companies…and while we’re at it, why not go after the media monopolies like Sinclair who own almost all of the television stations in this country…and let’s bring competition back into every market and stop the consolidation in the food retail industry so the owners won’t be able to gouge us on food prices…this is how the repubs have rigged the markets here in the states…break them all up like they did to AT&T in the 70′s, injecting competition into the telephone industry…geez…
Monthly Archives: August 2024
August 24th
Well…darn, the premier league starting up has complicated my life today…Man U plays at 7:30 this morning and then F1 qualifying starts at 9 so I won’t be able to get out on the bike til 10 or so and that may make it a two ride day…slept okay last night and I am really confused on why I can sleep on my back again after 40 years of snoring waking me up if I tried it…it has to be losing weight but it can’t be that simple can it? Woke up at 5:37 again but was able to stay in bed til 6:23 and now I need to coffee to work but I’m just going to be sitting here for a couple of hours so I don’t really need it…didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I do need to run the string trimmer so maybe two rides will be enough…it’s going to hurt like crazy as it always does and I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep it up? My neck and shoulders already hurt just sitting here so I think I slather some voltaren on before I get on the bike or work outside…don’t have to cook today since I have leftovers but I do need to plan something for tomorrow and I’m not sure what that will be….damn, this is hard just sitting here waiting for soccer to start…okay, more coffee and 10 minutes until the match…more later…
Now I understand..
Well…the other day as I was riding off the boardwalk and onto the trail that runs right along Lake Michigan, the temp dropped by 15-20 degrees with the wind blowing in off the lake…and after learning that the lake temp had dropped 30 degrees into the 40′s, I finally put that together on the bike this morning…and the air is still really cold in that stretch of the trail today…so it looks like my swimming could be over for the year…oh, well…it’s almost 2 pm and I am done for the day other than my weight work that I’m going to start here in a minute…got the new batch of pasta salad made and in the fridge and I made another huge batch since I liked the last one so much…it’s just easier to have a ready made side when I don’t want to cook…had a squeak in the swing arm on the bike that I couldn’t get rid of and then I remembered what I did on my first mountain bike that had the same problem with that bushing…just a little dish soap and water…and I already had some made up in the cabinet downstairs and I soaked everything and it went right away…I even squirted the idlers on the shifter and it helped there, too…and I have enough room in the bike bag to carry it with me so that’s cool…okay, time to get to work…
Stunning fact on jobs…
Well…I almost forgot this neat little tidbit from Bill Clinton’s speech at the DNC earlier in the week…since the end of the cold war, democrats have created 50 million of the 51 million jobs created in that time frame…yep, you heard it right…the party who shouts they are best on the economy and the “socialist” dems just ruin it when they are in charge, created one million jobs in 50 years…I knew this to be the case in general but didn’t have real numbers to back it up…now I do and it is just so stunning that the repubs have been allowed to get away with the lies that they know what they are doing…it’s another well known fact that progressive policies always create a better economy and the latest study on tax cuts for the rich and the bullshit “trickle down” economics only enrich the already rich…none of that money ever goes down to the workers…it goes to dividends and stock buy backs that enrich people already at the top and that’s how the repubs want it…even those who have been lied to and duped into voting for repubs never get any benefit from tax cuts…all they get are crappier streets and schools and shredding of the safety net…I just wish the dems would message better on these points…not that it would make any difference to the maga crowd…geez…
August 23rd
Well…up at 5:37 this morning and that is way too early but I knew there was no point in trying to stay in bed…been up for over an hour and have just started my first cup of coffee and I really hope it works soon…it got cold again last night and I saw that the temp of Lake Michigan dropped by 30 degrees and is back down in the 40′s so I won’t be going out there to swim any time soon…maybe next week when the temp is supposed to be in the mid 80′s…didn’t get much done yesterday but the errands and bike rides and don’t have any plans for today other than making some more pasta salad and getting three rides in…going to get back to entertainment tonight after the week of the convention but I still don’t have a lot to watch…it’s a dry time for new shows so I guess I’ll go out to netflix to look for something….it looks like I won’t be able to get outdoors until around 8 as I sit here and let the temp come up so I don’t need a fleece…it’s going to warm up starting today and lows will be around 70 by Monday…this August sure has not been a normal one with all the cold weather but we are going to get over 85 by mid week next week and then will finish off the summer close to normal…more later…
That didn’t work…
Well…that didn’t work…got a new switch for the back landing light but it slipped my mind that it is part of an interconnected circuit that you can turn on from the top and bottom of the stairs so the switch I got won’t work…only paid 85 cents for it so I’ll keep it for a spare…the one that’s in there appears to be original to the house since it’s this huge ceramic thing that fills the box…so that would make it 84 years old…while I had it apart, I gave it a squirt of wd-40 and now it works like a champ again so it has dropped down on my list of things I have to repair…I did get the errands done this morning but that got me such a late start on the bike that I didn’t get the second ride done until 12:30…I have 3 new books to read and some more glue traps just in case I get mice in here again…and I got 4 more tins of tuna so I can make more pasta salad tomorrow…will probably make another huge batch of it since it did keep until I used it all…damn, forgot the weight work again…need to do that now…
Another night at the convention…
Well…I’ll admit it…I watched another night of the convention last night and will probably watch the final night tonight…it is nice to see a party that is showing us that happiness and joy can be part of politics again and be fun…and I just love the digs that the speakers are getting in against the idiot trump and I imagine he’s not too happy with that…trump is finally getting called out for his bullshit and ever day he shrinks a bit more from it.;..you know, it’s the whole bully thing that when you ridicule them, they stop being scary…and I discovered that C-span is covering the convention with no talking heads interrupting to “explain” what is happening…I can figure that out on my own and I don’t need the “bothsiderism” of the media…this country has been terribly damaged by this bullshit and I just don’t want to hear it anymore…so, I’ll be back there for another dose of hope tonight…after our AG spoke last night and tore into the 2025 project, I think our governor is on the speaker’s list for tonight and that will be cool…
August 22nd
Well…damn, woke up cold and worn out again today and I’m getting pretty tired of it…have some errands to run this morning after I get a ride in downstairs but I just poured the first cup of coffee so that is going to wait for a while…need to go to the library after the errand to get some more books but I’m running out of books from the authors I like so I have to find others to read…I should go through the books I bought at the library sale last year to see if there is something there that I can read…it’s still only 51 degrees out there and that’s cold for August…but it’s going to warm up over the next week so I’ll be back outdoors for every ride…but no rain in the forecast…it’s a little weird that we haven’t had any storms out here at all this summer…they’ve gone to the north and south of here other than the one that took down all of the trees…going to make another batch of pasta salad but I’m not sure what I’m going to cook to go with it…I did make burgers, chicken thighs and pork loin on the grill so I do have a couple of days to think about it…not much to do today…need to get on the bike in 5 minutes or so to get the day started and then out for errands…and that is going to take a lot of effort….more later…
Too many tasks again today…
Well…you know I’ve complained about the proliferation of tasks that you are responsible for when you live alone and today was filled with them…and when I’m on the bike for 3 1/2 hours, that takes a lot of time that I could be using to get more done…like right now, I have to write the check for the property taxes I’m going to pay tomorrow…and anytime I want food, I have to go out and get it like today…DD had black forest ham on sale for 1.99 a pound and I couldn’t pass that up so that means getting in the car and doing it myself…and anytime I want a meal, I have to make it…okay that’s not so different as it was before I was alone…okay, need to go get the laundry out of the dryer…see what I mean? Okay, I’ll stop whining now…I did get to 6,600 miles today and that means I only have 500 more miles to go to hit the goal…it looks my estimate of the third week of September is a good one…I do need to hit depot tomorrow to get a new light switch for the back landing light since the one in there is flashing the light and it takes a couple of tries to get it to stay lit…so I guess I’d better get going since I have to do the check and still need to do my weight work…geez…
The convention has been fun…
Well…yeah, I know I haven’t really been too into politics lately since it was all doom and gloom all of the time coming out of the repubs and infighting on our side where they couldn’t agree on anything…and Joe read it and knew what he had to do…and he did it by dropping out of the race and passing the torch to Kamala and look what happened…look at the convention and the pure joy that is on display even in the roll call which is normally pretty boring…but not last night…every delegation tried their best to make it fun and there were smiles on every face while they did…and the speeches…yow…Michelle and Barack Obama brought the house down with their calls to action and they just felt so normal…not a screed or attack in them…well…a little, but they were good natured and truthful and I really did miss them not being around….so, I’ll be back to watch more tonight…I just wish they would put the speeches on earlier…this old guy can’t start a speech after 11…fun and hope is back…