Well…with the major rail unions having a hell of a time getting the owners of the railroads to bargain in good faith even with profits in the billions of dollars, I don’t know how I feel about the Biden administration threatening to impose a no strike law to keep the trains moving. I know a general strike would cripple the economy and would cost the dems in the next election, but we on the left are supposed to support unions and the fact that they lift people out of poverty and give workers a say in their jobs…and unions built the middle class in this country…so why attack them now? I’m not sure if everything that can be done has been done…like getting mediators involved to make sure the owners are bargaining in good faith especially with their history of screwing over their employees and creating terrible working conditions…so what now? At the very least this law should mandate a short cooling off period and then suggest milestones that have to be met in the negotiations and then allow for a strike to happen if there is no progress since that progress is going to hinge on the cooperation of the owners of the railways….it always comes down to the owners trying to steal the contributions of their workers…and that needs to stop not only with the railways but across all industries…after all, the ceo’s make an average of almost 300 times what a worker makes…and that was only about 25 times in the 70’s…so we know where all of the profit goes….geez…
November 30th
Well…another 5:28 morning today but I feel like I got a good 6 hours and that I will take any day of the week…and I feel pretty good today with being good for a second day in a row and tonight will make it three and I may get to five this week…we’ll see…didn’t do a lot yesterday but get the rides in and do laundry and I did finish up the t-day food so now I need to figure out what I’m going to make since I don’t have any protein on the grocery list for this morning so it will be freezer diving or maybe pasta for a meal today…I did get a free box of texas toast last week with coupons that Meijers sent me and I have free milk and lots of other coupons for today…should save about 6 bucks from the coupons this week and every little bit helps…it will be nice to have something else than turkey for the main meal today….it looks like I’m done with yard work for the year since I don’t have many leaves left and the wind will take care of most of them…going to ride indoors today with the gale warning we are under for the next two days and the wind is already whipping around out there…survived riding outdoors yesterday with just a little tightness in my back and side and I can live with that…the only problem with getting up so early is that my chores for the day don’t fit the timeline starting so early….I may have to head over to Sternberg road this morning since that aldis opens a half hour earlier and I can hit Meijers there first…then be back here by a little after 9…I did get a care package from my daughter yesterday…when we talked over the weekend, I mentioned that my skin gets really bad over the winter and my heels crack from the dryness…so she sent me body lotion, hand lotion, and heel crack lotion so now I have enough to get through the winter without having to search all over for it….not much to do today…just need to get on the bike after another cup of coffee but it’s still only 6:15 so I have a little time…and then the grocery run and more world cup matches…and I promised myself I will clean some today since I’ve let the kitchen go too long without doing the floor….more later…
The US moves on…
Well…cripes, what a nail biter….the US scored one goal to move on into the round of 16 beating Iran 1-0…the goal was scored by Christian Pulisic who just crashed the goal to put in a headed cross by Dest but ran into the goaltender and had to go out of the match at the half due to an injury he got scoring…so now, we move on to the Netherlands at 10 Saturday morning and I’m not sure how I feel about that one…if we play like we played England, we have a good chance to do something…but if we play like we played Wales or Iran, it could get pretty ugly pretty early…but to get to the round of 16 is a pretty big deal and I will allow myself to be happy about that for a day or so…and then root for them again especially since we are such a young team…but I still think it’s weird that I know more of the players on the England team than I do on ours…might have to start watching MLS although at least 6 players on our team play in the Premier League….go USA!
A pleasant surprise..
Well…as you know, I’ve been fighting some pretty severe back pain from riding the bike outdoors in the high winds we get out here and using my heating pad on it three times a day to just be able to move at all…but did that stop me from going out into the wind today? Of course not…but the pleasant surprise from it is that, while I still have some pain, it’s nowhere near as bad as it has been and I haven’t even had to heat it yet…will probably do that later just to stay ahead of the pain…I did take an ibuprofen before I got on the bike this morning since I’ve been searching for a solution to this pain I’ve had for more than a month now and I’ll try anything to be able to get up off the couch without wincing…so I’ll take any little progress I can get…and hope the progress holds…go USA!
That was quick…
Well..you know that I talked about the need for the dems to get their butts in gear over the next month and accomplish whatever they can before the repubs take control of the house…and they got off to a quick start today with the Respect for Marriage act that will pass the senate today then go back to the House for amendments and passage, then on to Biden’s desk by the end of the week….and this bill will protect same sex and interracial marriage on a federal level and no state law can supersede it so all of the red states that have been salivating for attacking same sex marriage and trying to make the LGBTQ community second class citizens is shit out of luck…but now it needs to go further to protect trans men and women from the discrimination that repubs across this country have been codifying into law….now the most urgent thing the dems needs to do is get the federal voting rights act passed to keep the repubs from suppressing dem votes across this country like we just did here in Michigan where we put expanded voting rights into our constitution so the repubs couldn’t screw with voting here…but in red states there have been hundreds and hundreds of new restrictions passed that need to be nullified by a federal standard…until that happens, our democracy is not safe and this needs to happen now…get after it dems….geez….
November 29th
Well…boy, that was a hard night and I think I got about 4 hours of sleep with being good last night…took about two hours to get to sleep and then up at 2:24 then struggled to get back to sleep for another couple of hours and tossed and turned until I got out of bed at 7…but, I feel okay this morning so I’ll take it….my back still hurts and I am going to hurt it again here in a little while with riding outdoors twice today…the wind is up to around 9 so it may be a chore but will be my last chance to ride outdoors this year so I want to take it…we have gale warnings out here for tonight through Thursday with the wind forecast to be 30-40 out of the west with the cold front coming in and then the temps crash down to the 30’s for highs and I just don’t want to get that cold…and it will be pretty windy and I won’t go out in that again since it keeps hurting my back doing that…didn’t get a lot done yesterday and today is going to be just riding the bike and then watching the US play Iran at 2 this afternoon…and the US needs to win or they are out of the world cup…not much to do today…don’t need to cook today with finishing up the leftovers and having the new soup I made which will keep me going for a couple of days….then I will be done with turkey for the year…sure hope they have ham on sale for the holidays…haven’t had one of those since early in the year and I could use one about now….more later….
Feel pretty crappy today…
Well…not sure what is going on but I feel pretty crappy and worn out today…and I only did an indoor ride today when I could be out there doing a second one right now…just don’t feel like it even with taking the day off the bike yesterday with the rain we got out here…okay, that’s what I used for my excuse but I hurt so badly that I needed to rest my abs and back to see if they would recover some overnight…and they have to some extent but I’m going to put heat on my back again here in a minute…and I even skipped running the errand I planned for today since it wasn’t really necessary…I wonder if I’m feeling crappy from not being able to use the flonase I had been using for my allergies? I know the allergies are much worse than they have been for years so I guess that could be it…oh, well….
They’ve got a month…
Well…with just over a month before the idiot repubs take over the house, the dems need to get their butts in gear and get things done before we have 2 years of endless “investigations” that have been promised by every damn repub out there. One of the things that should be at the top of that list is to take the debt ceiling hammer out of the repubs hands by passing a long term extension that will last at least the two years that the repubs will have control…but that’s not the only thing they should do….how about an assault rifle ban? Or adding dental, vision, and hearing to Medicare? Or passing enough Ukraine aid so that the assholes on the right can’t cut it off and help putin like they have been threatening? Or getting the January 6th report completed and all of the evidence released before the January 6th conspirators take over the house? It’s going to be a long, dark two years but at least we didn’t lose the senate so the crazies taking over the house won’t be able to do a lot of damage and let’s hope the damage they do is to themselves in the next election….and then we can take back all of the government in 24 and really get things done for the people of this country…geez…
Never had this problem…
Well…I know some of you long term readers have noticed a change in content here with less on the political side lately…and I have, too…have never had the problem of finding something to write about in the many years and almost 11,000 posts I’ve done here but for the past few weeks the ideas just haven’t come…and today is no different, just can’t find a topic even with going to every news site I normally use along with ones I only use occasionally…dredging through every political story I could find and still nothing…but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying…I just need to have everyone bear with me a bit until I can work through this writer’s block…it is so damn frustrating when this happens and and it’s been so long I really don’t know what to do about it…keep trying, I guess…I will be back for another one within an hour although it might not be a political topic…will keep working on that, too….more later….
November 28th
Well…running late this morning with not getting out of bed til almost 7 and then reading the news for a bit…slept okay last night…or as okay as I ever sleep and I can live with that….my back and abs are better today and I’m trying to figure out if I’m going to ride inside or out today since it is in the 20’s right now…so I guess it will be inside if I want to get the day moving…took the day off the bike yesterday with the rain we had but more that I needed a days rest after going into the wind and hurting myself Saturday….I do need to run an errand this morning but that is looking pretty daunting at this moment and I don’t want to think about that…I do need to get all my bills paid today and I can do that after I get everything else done and while soccer is on later….it looks like I’ll be eating out of the freezer for the next couple of weeks since it’s full and I need to empty it out some…will be finishing up the turkey the next day or so and will need to plan something but I’m not sure what that will be right now…I am a little glad I’m done with turkey but that normally means I buy a couple of hams but the prices are pretty ridiculous so that won’t happen this year…I mean 3 bucks a pound when I was able to get them last year at 99 cents? Not much to do today….just need to get started and that is harder than normal today….but I do need to get on the bike after one more cup of coffee and reading the news…and I will be back for a political one later if I have to keep looking for topics all day…more later…