Well…yeah, running late again today with getting two rides in and going out to the beach to lie in the sun for an hour…and when I got back here, there was news that I wanted to talk about. Just this morning, it was announced the the SC has upheld the ACA for the umpteenth time in a 7-2 ruling that surprised most court watchers…and they rejected the suit from 20 repub state AG’s because they have no “standing” to even bring the suit that the trump judges in lower courts pushed up to the SC….what that means is that there was no harm to the parties filing the suits so they can’t bring the suits…and the big repub argument was that they were harmed by the elimination of the individual mandate that people had to get insurance….and since there was no longer any penalty, they couldn’t call it a tax anymore so the entire law had to be thrown out…yeah, sounds pretty convoluted to me, too, and the court felt the same to get to a 7-2 vote…even the unqualified judges whose seats that McConnell stole voted with the majority and I’ll bet that just pisses off moscow mitch. I do wonder how you get harmed by not having to pay a penalty? Without trump judges, this suit would have been thrown out the first time it was brought a couple of years back…and you can see that these idiots are not even judges…they are just partisans playing judges on tv…but it is going to take a while to get rid of them…geez…
Never saw this before…
Well…okay, I was going to do this one yesterday but didn’t get to it…a couple of days back while I was just getting to the boardwalk on the bike, something small scurried across right in front of me and I had to do a double take since I had never seen anything like it…at first, I thought it was a salamander but it was too big and fast for one of those…so when I got back here I started searching on the internet and found out that there are native lizards that live in Michigan and the one I saw was called a five-lined skink…and the weird thing is I’ve spent loads of time in the woods in my long lifetime and had never seen one before….so that was pretty cool and I learned something new…something I try to do all the time….
June 17th
Well…it does appear that my new wake up time is around 6:30 since it has been a couple of weeks since I woke up earlier than that and I still don’t know what changed from the 4-5 o’clock wake ups that I was having but I’ll take it…and I’m holding my breath but it appears like my elbow is getting better…the swelling is down some and I’m in much less pain and I’ll take that, too…and it looks like I won’t be getting out on the bike until after 9 this morning since it is only 48 out there right now and I don’t want to go out in a fleece….I do think I’m going to have to take a day off here soon just to get a repair day and let my body heal up and that may be tomorrow since it is supposed to rain overnight and into the morning…maybe I’ll just do one ride in the afternoon and count that as a rest day…..I am really surprised at how good my garden is looking with how sandy the soil is here….both the beans and tomatoes look really healthy and I’ve even had more than a half dozen pepper plants survive…I’m trying to figure out how to keep the tomatoes upright since they are already as tall as the cages and the cages fell over last year…so, I bought some 4 foot long stakes and some garden twine and I am going to build a lattice so see if that works better than the cages….and I tied all of the cages together to give them a little more stability and that will be something to watch over the summer….not much to do today…going to clean some and just take it easy a bit…I think my body needs me to stop abusing it so much and I could use a morning where I just sit a bit and have some coffee…so I think I will…more later…
Now it’s the FBI…
Well…if you’ve seen any of the news since the attack on the capital on January 6th, you’ve seen the right wing excuses change almost daily…first it was antifa, then it was just a “visit” like “tourists”, then it was just citizens expressing their first amendment rights…you get the picture…they will blame anyone but the terrorists who actually planned and attacked that day or the elected repubs like Josh Hawley and Paul Gosar who supported the attack and could possible even be involved with helping it. The latest right wing bullshit is that the FBI did it…all of the planning and leading the attacks so Biden could use the justice department to get rid of republican members of congress…and that is all based on the new part of the conspiracy theory that some people haven’t been charged so they must be FBI spies that was spouted on the idiot tucker’s show last night….the whole thing hinges on the idea that there were two people who rented a room in a nearby hotel and only one of them was charged…yep, that’s it, because the spouse of one of the attackers hasn’t been charged yet, that is “proof” that the FBI ran the whole show and the attackers were just victims of a conspiracy between them and the justice department….yeah, batshit insane but that is what the entire repub party is these days….any way to excuse thousands of right wing assholes attacking the country and it doesn’t matter that it is just made up bullshit….it is just as good as truth to them…better than truth, really, since they can make it be anything they want…what a bunch of crazy assed shit…geez…
June 16th
Well…it’s almost 7 and I got out of bed at 6:30 so why don’t I feel like I slept? Hmmm…I wonder if I can take a day off? Nope, have too much to do today….it is darn cold outside and I’m not sure if I can put the top down for the grocery run today…I mean 51 degrees? I don’t have to leave here for an hour and a half so it should be warm enough….I hope….I think I’m going to have to take a day off the bike soon since I’m feeling pretty worn out and my elbow is still howling in pain…I may even have to make a doctors appointment to have them look at it since it is pretty swollen and the swelling has moved through it….it even looked red yesterday and anytime anything is red it is not a good thing….I do have to stop at menards this morning to try to find some stakes and twine to hold some of my tomato plants up…I have some cages out there already but some of the plants are growing out of them already so I just want to try something new and see if there is a better way….I am surprised how well they are growing in the crappy soil there is here and I have flowers on most of them already so I’m going to have way too many tomatoes…I even have a cuke plant that came up in the sunflower garden at the back of the house that I didn’t plant so that is pretty weird….but, I’ll take it…not much to do today…I probably shouldn’t ever say that with how much I have to do around here….but I’m just not motivated to do much right now…..so we’ll see what happens after I get the grocery run done….more later….
Isn’t it nice?
Well…if you have been following the media coverage of Joe Biden’s first overseas trip as I have, I’m sure you’ve had this same thought…isn’t it nice to have a normal, competent president instead of an ignorant blowhard? No controversies, no pushing other world leaders out of the way so he could get to the front of the picture, no threats, and other world leaders actually wanting to meet Joe…and listening to him, and smiling…and accomplishing real progress on trade by solving the Airbus/Boeing problems that will level the playing field in the EU for Boeing. I don’t remember once where the idiot boy made anyone smile other than when they were mocking him for being a boorish fool…and not one person ever said they looked forward to working with the moron after they met him once…and really, no one could stand him and how much he lied….could you imagine Joe ever not visiting a military cemetery because it was raining? Or calling the soldiers buried there “losers” and not understanding why they sacrificed for their country? I am just relieved that we don’t have to cringe anymore when the president travels and the polls show that the world is relieved that Joe Biden is president and the friends that were pushed aside for the autocrats that trump loved are the most relieved….I am, too…
Got the roof fixed…
Well…got the roof fixed this morning and I feel pretty good about that…it only cost 150 bucks and they replaced the shingles, nailed down a bunch more that were loose, fixed some flashing, and inspected the rest of the roof….and now I don’t have to try to do it with my brother tomorrow…I really don’t think that is too bad for that much work and now I don’t have to worry about it…the roofer said he checked all over the roof and the rest of the shingles are sealed up tight and he is sure this is a really new roof that will outlast me….and they must have removed the old shingles when they put these on since he said there is only one layer on it…another good thing if I ever have to have a new roof put on….so, I can enjoy the rest of my day…
June 15th
Well…stayed in bed until 7 again after waking up at 5 and I’m not sure if that is sustainable or what has changed to make that the new normal…man, I need other things to think about…how about my elbow? I thought it was healing but it got worse yesterday and it now hurts all of the time and the pain has even changed to be deeper and from a different place and runs down my forearm…crap…and I think that’s all from mowing the lawn of the house next door that is empty….just got tired of looking at the two foot high weeds and got the mower out and did it….oh, and I had two shingles fall of the highest point of the roof yesterday and I’ve never seen that before…have a guy coming to look at it this afternoon and getting them replaced is not going to be cheap…but, I don’t want to even try to get that high up…just getting too damn old for that crap and with the steep pitch of the roof here, I can see just falling off the damn thing and killing myself….but, if it’s too much, my brother has offered to bring over his tall ladder and climb up there and fix it….but the last thing we need is a couple of old farts going up that high….not much to do today….just going to ease into the day and get a ride in here in a few minutes and then clean a bit and wait for the roof guy….more later…
The best reason to expand the court…
Well….hey, all of you dems in the senate who oppose expanding the supreme court, listen to what moscow mitch had to say about blocking all of Biden’s supreme court picks if the repubs retake the senate…just this morning he promised that none of his picks would even get a vote…so that would mean that the court would permanently have a right wing majority built on corruption of the approval process and would slide even further into illegitimacy…and the only way to counter that is to expand the court right now and have all of the picks for the new seats be real judges who would follow the law and not legislate from the bench like the right wingers do now…so dems, do you think keeping the filibuster is more important than fixing the court? If you do, you should just resign right now and let someone into your seat that will fight for this country against moscow mitch and the rest of his traitors…geez…
June 14th
Well…yeah, running rally late today with not even getting out of bed until 7 or so and then working on wetting down the grass seed that I put in yesterday…think I may have slept okay but don’t feel like it…just depressed again and that makes me so damn tired…oh, well…I did get two rides in again yesterday and I’m not really sore so I think I’m finally getting used to it after 1400 miles…and after changing out the rear wheel, I haven’t had a flat in a week so I guess now I need to try to figure out what the heck is wrong with the other one that was causing all the flats….but I’m not too motivated right now so maybe that will be later today…or tomorrow….I need to get out to depot to buy a new hose today since I am tired of repairing the expandable one that I’ve had a for a year or so…they are just not durable so no more of them….I am still pretty geeked at how good the garage turned out after I washed it…and I think I’ll start on the house soon since I now know that dish soap and a scrub brush works pretty well…and I need to unclog the downspout on the front of the house and figure out where the leaks are….but, right now, I just want to have coffee and read some news…one of these days I’m going to take an entire day off of everything and just do nothing….I think I’m getting to the point I need one….more later…