Well…just couldn’t bring myself to shovel the driveway again before I went out to get the paper so I’m going to have tracks in it again that will probably take the rest of the winter to get rid of…but, it’s only 7 degrees out there and that’s not something I want to face this early…I did sleep okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until after 6:30 but I did notice the mattress on my bed is offset by about 6 inches and that means I tossed and turned all night and it could be why I feel so worn out…again…didn’t get anything done yesterday but…nope, didn’t get anything done but shovel the snow and that looks like what I’ll do today….I did talk to K and J and they are in to help for the move so I’ll have 6 people for this one instead of the three I had last time so that should make it easier…I am so glad this is my last move….or if it isn’t, I’ll spend the cash and have a mover do it next time….now I’m just waiting for my close date so I can get the utilities switched over to my name….I can’t wait to get started on the new house but I think I am going to take a week off after I move in and just relax…there is plenty of time to get the painting and stripping done and I need to put a plan together for the colors I want to use….not much to do today…it’s not snowing right now so I can wait a while before I get out and do the snow…this is going to be the coldest week of the winter with Friday only getting to 2 degrees for a high so there will be lots of packing and hibernating going on….more later….
Looks like fox “news” is in trouble…
Well…after the orange idiot lost in November, fox “news” has been bleeding viewers and advertisers so fast that, after a 20 year run of being in 1st place in cable news, they are now a distant third to both CNN and MSNBC….it’s funny how trying to destroy our country and overthrow an election will do that to you. There appears to be the start of a purge of the morons who were the biggest trump supporters, too, with Lou Dobbs getting axed Thursday and now there are rumblings that tucker carlson could be next and I really love the right eating their own. But the biggest danger they face are the lawsuits that have been filed by Smartmatic, the voting machine company that everyone on fox news lied about for a month, for 2.7 billion dollars and that include dobbs, bartiromo, and pirro personally since they were the ones doing the non-stop lying after the election…I don’t know if the dobbs firing was related to it since his lies are all on tape and can still be submitted as evidence, or if they are trying to come a little back to reality to get sponsors to come back…after all, if the my pillow guys is your biggest advertiser (oh, and who has already been sued by dominion for over a billion dollars) you have a problem…and that tap is going to shut off pretty quickly. I wonder if you tell a lie in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, is it still a lie? Of course it is but the no one there to hear it part is making me grin…
It’s nice to have friends…
Well…as you know, I bought a house out in Muskegon and have my move scheduled for the 27th of this month and it looks like a good date with only needing the appraisal to come back to be able to close…and there should be no problem there since I am only borrowing around 50K and the house should be worth almost double that…and, instead of trying to do the whole move with just me and my son and his wife, for the first time I’ve asked some friends to help and every one of them have said they can…and K and J have said they can borrow a big covered trailer for the extra stuff that I am taking so I can get the smallest box truck again…and Tom is bringing his jeep that can hold some stuff so I won’t have to make so many runs out to the new house in the Miata and that will save some wear and tear…I still don’t have a lot of stuff but this means I won’t have to take the bikes out on the carrier or put the summer tires in the car to move them….damn, it’s nice to have friends and this will allow K to see both houses since she always wanted to see this one before I move….feeling a lot better about the move with how bad my back has been lately…..
February 6th
Well…made it all the way til 6 this morning and I wonder why I feel so worn out? Barely have enough energy to sit here and do this and just want to go back to bed…and no dreams to speak of so I must not have slept well…and I am really sore from all of the snow shoveling that I had to do…I think we got a total of 18 inches of snow the past couple of days and the snow piles are so tall that I can barely throw the snow on top of them….and there was another two inches last night that I am going to have do this morning…didn’t get much done yesterday but the snow but will be packing today and getting stuff staged so I can start moving when I close in a couple of weeks…I have some chicken thighs in the fridge that I need to cook today but I really have no appetite so I may just freeze them instead since I am only eating one meal a day now to try to keep the weight off…it’s not working but I have to keep trying….and, with all of the snow, I won’t be getting back on the bike before I move unless we get a heat wave and that is not going to happen…highs are going to be in the teens for the next week or so and I am really getting tired of this winter…so, I’m going to have more coffee and read some news as I contemplate what I’m going to do today….more later…
They passed it….
Well…just sitting here under a blanket trying to warm up after working on the snow for over an hour and thought I’d talk about the damn miracle that happened this morning in the senate…Joe’s 1.9 trillion dollar covid relief package passed with, of course, no repub support with Kamala casting the vote that broke the tie…it is now over in the house and should be approved later today for a signature by the first of the week. Unlike the 2008 stimulus that was way too small according to every economist who is not a right wing hack…Biden learned that lesson and just ignored the bleating of the repubs who are crying about the deficit…and they only do that when there is a dem president…you heard not one peep from them about the deficit when they passed their tax giveaway to the rich and corporations that added at least 1.9 trillion to the debt….and that wasn’t needed in an economy that was still good after Obama did all of the heavy lifting after the 2008 crash. Now, this relief package is necessary again to lift the economy and give people at least some money to pay their rent and continue to eat….and to my mind, this should just be the start of other targeted economic boosts that should continue until the pandemic is under control…people are hurting out there and we can afford to help them….and me, I hope…
February 5th
Well…running a little late today with not getting out of bed until after 7 but I don’t feel like I slept well at all but that might be that I have just gotten started on the coffee and I normally have a couple of cups in me by now….didn’t have any dreams last night and that is pretty normal but I miss them when I don’t have them….it looks like we got a bunch of snow last night and it is going to take a while to shovel it this morning even after shoveling last night…at least I got the heavy stuff off the driveway last night so this stuff should be lighter…glad I don’t have anywhere to go today so I can get at it at my leisure this morning…for the first time since I’ve been here, there are drifts on the walks and driveway and it looks like more snow over the next few days as the lake effect crap is going to start later…oh, well…I did get an e-mail from my rep’s aide that the IRS is going to call me about not getting my 600 dollar check and I am really surprised about that….maybe I’m going to get it after all…we’ll see….not much to do today…just packing and cleaning and snow removal but that is about it…more later…
Plow trucks with frickin lasers….
Well…was just outside shoveling the first of the snow and when I got to the end of the driveway, a city plow truck came by with a frickin green laser shooting out from the front of it showing the driver just where the edge of the plow was going to be…and I couldn’t help but grin at the sight…frickin lasers on snow plows…pretty cool…
I got a response…
Well…if you come here often, you know about the ongoing saga of me trying to find out why I didn’t get the 600 dollar relief check that everyone else got…after exhausting every avenue on the internet, I took the step of writing to my new rep Peter Meijer’s office and to Senator Debbie Stabenow’s office to tell them about the fact that there are many people like me who have fallen through the cracks since we don’t pay income taxes on our SS benefits so to the IRS, we don’t exist. To my surprise, I got a response from rep Meijer’s office yesterday but the news is a mixed bag at best…the deadline for getting the checks is tomorrow and if it’s not in my mailbox by then, I’m not going to get it…and that means I won’t get the 1400 dollar check either that is included in the next round of relief payments unless the IRS constructs a way for us to enter our information…which I have no hope for. So, at least they responded to my e-mail and asked for additional information to use to talk to the IRS but I’m just one person that doesn’t have a million dollars to donate to them so my cynicism says that I’m shit out of luck…I really could have used that cash…
Blue states do better….
Well…read an article the other day that may be a surprise to some people but I think I may have talked about this before….the article took a look at the economies of red states vs. blue states and found that, while population is almost even between the states, blue states account for 72% of GDP while red states and their economic policies only account for 28% of GDP…and this means that people in blue states make more money than in red states, are more highly productive, are healthier, and they have better schools than the tax cutting obsessed red states. I will admit that the total tax burden is higher in blue states but the higher incomes and more progressive policies make them better places to live on any measure of quality of life….and I think that’s important along with the idea that in most blue states there is more of “we’re all in this together” attitude instead of the “every man for himself” that pervades red states….as it does under every dem administration at the national level, the economy always does better under dem policies than repub ones….and that is true of the states, too, as the huge disparity in GDP shows….but people in this country continue to vote against their own self interest and elect repubs…and that is something I’ll never understand….
February 4th
Well…damn, I think I’m in a rut…up at 5:20 again today but was able to go back to sleep until almost 6:30 so I guess it was an okay night…still pretty worn out, though, and feel like I could go back to sleep for another few hours…had some repeating weird dreams about the rich guy that let me stay in his house and mounted these strange adventures with strange people…haven’t had that one in a while….this one included cross country racing in those little three wheeled vehicles that meter maids used to use…and I think there were helicopters in there, too, but I can’t be sure of that….it looks like today will be the last day of riding for a while with the 5-8 inches of snow that is forecast for tonight and tomorrow so it looks like I’ll be hibernating for a couple of days and just shoveling snow and packing….probably should wash the bike today and get it ready to be re-lubed since I have been riding it in the salt the past few days and that is not good for it….and I need it to last for at least another year as I settle into the new house….not much to do today….just going to take it easy since I did the grocery run yesterday and don’t really need anything else…I do need to do laundry but that can wait until after I have coffee and read the news…more later…