Well…yeah, it looks like this is not going to be a series after all…there just isn’t enough happening to support it…but I will come back and do more of them if there are any developments…but, let’s get to today…I did make a run out to Meijers to get some more groceries to support the menu that I want to do over the next couple of weeks…and it looks like they have a handle on the supply problems they had from the run on paper products and some perishables and the shelves are starting to fill again so it looks like everyone has filled up their storage and are starting to get the idea that there will be tp and food available….and they even had a person disinfecting the shopping carts and getting them ready for people to use…I did bring my own bleach soaked paper towel just in case and I used that to wipe off the buttons on the ATM that I used to get some cash out and to do my hands after I finished…I am going to be careful since I really don’t need to get sick…I think I’ll make sure to take that with me whenever I go out….made up a quart of bleach/water and put it in a spray bottle so I could do the door knobs and handles here after I was done with the groceries….but I don’t think I need to go out after tomorrow since I forgot a green pepper and pepperoni and I want to make a homemade pizza next week…even got some bread flour to try out the bread maker sometime in the future, too…I can now do at least a month here without going out for anything other than to ride the bike…I do hope they send a thousand bucks to everyone to try to stimulate the economy since I can use that to pay for my new bike, new tires for the car, a big new air compressor, and a weight machine and still have 50 bucks left over…and they may do it twice…that would be cool…
They knew weeks ago…
Well…the latest story that has just come out on the news wires is that a repub senator knew how bad the coronavirus was going to be and he warned a group of his donors about it over three weeks ago…so, the repubs knew that this outbreak was going to be bad long ago but didn’t do a damn thing about it…no testing, no ramping up of protective gear for doctors and nurses, and no crash “all hands on deck” moment…just lies and preening by trump and his cronies to try to make it all about him…and the “wonderful” job he is doing. So they deliberately didn’t do one damn thing that could have saved lives….while the idiot trump waited for the moron Jared to get a “plan” together to fight this virus…what the hell does jared know about it anyway? Not much since he has been googling what other countries are doing and talking to his family about what to do….geez I can’t wait for these entitled assholes to be gone…and Sen Richard Burr, who was the repub senator who told his donors about how bad this is going to be, should resign today since he did nothing, no call to the WH to get their asses moving, no press…no nothing…just let people die while he scoops up cash…just like the rest of the repubs. They all need to be gone in November…and we can make that happen…vote!
March 19th
Well….I’m exhausted this morning with another morning of getting up at 4:34…and that means only about 8 hours of sleep for the past two days and I’m going to pay for that later…and it was the third day of no ibuprofen or allergy meds along with no cocktails and that has left me sore and coughing with my allergies being so bad….and it is going to get worse as the pollen from the trees and everything else gets started…..and I’m already miserable….didn’t get much done yesterday but start putting the tools and materials away…kinda….I moved the bookcase into the utility room that I am going to use for storage but with no sleep yesterday, my motivation was pretty damn low…I did get a bike ride in and hope to get out in shorts before the rain comes in later today…we’re supposed to get almost an inch of rain over the next day or so and maybe even some thunderstorms tonight as the temps crash Friday back into the 30′s….I am going to try to get out to Meijers this morning to do a little more stocking up and I am going to try some obscure stuff that I think most people won’t be buying like bread flour and yeast to make bread and pizza crust…and I need to pick up soup materials for the two batches I’m going to make next week to put in the freezer….I have one container of ham soup left in there that I am going to thaw over the next few days so I can start fresh…the instant pot is going to get a workout over the next month or so…not much to do today…just the errands and a bike ride…need to get materials for the downstairs project and hit the dollar store for a big mixing bowl and some measuring cups that I don’t have…then, I think I’m in here for the next month…more later…
Social distance…day 3…
Well….with the latest reports that this virus situation is going to get unmanageable with the incompetents in charge and it could lead to a complete lockdown, I admit my anxiety level has ratcheted up quite a bit from earlier in the week….I guess that’s one of the problems with having time on my hands and reading so much news every day…I sure don’t want to have to put the new bike downstairs on the trainer just when the weather is going to get warm and not being able to go out is going to bring the progress on the house to a halt if I can’t get the materials I need…and the rule looks like you have to stay in unless it’s an emergency…but, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let this yard go to hell again and I am going to grow tomatoes and peppers out back this summer….so I guess I need to get the seed for that stuff this week and get it started in the basement…my anxiety is also high that I’ll have enough food to make it through a couple of months so I am going to make another run out tomorrow to see what is available in the stores and buy what I can in small quantities so that other people have the chance to stock up, too…I may even have to practice meal skipping and go down to one a day if it gets to that point…I do have ham bones for ham soup and a turkey carcass for turkey soup that I just need to get veggies for and make…that will give me 4 days per container for 3 containers for both so I can get 24 days just out of the soup if it comes to that…hey, I may even lose some weight….I’m hoping that Meijers institutes what other stores are doing and set aside a couple of hours twice a week so we old people can get in a sanitized store to shop with less crowds….that would help…and I still have a few venison steaks to eat, too….but I’m still a little concerned…have never gone through this in my life and it is new…I guess I’ll adjust once the uncertainty is gone…that’s the hardest thing for me….
Permanent absentee ballots…
Well…with the coronavirus situation looking worse by the day and the prospect of sheltering in place looming for months, there is one thing we can do here in Michigan to ensure that we can vote this fall and throw this incompetent asshole and his cronies out in November. Due to a citizens initiative here ( and no thanks to the vote suppressing repubs) everyone who wants one can now sign up to get a permanent absentee ballot sent to you for no reason at all…it is quick and easy to do at the SOS website and, and you can change it through the county clerk’s office as I did when I changed my address to GR…and the city of GR did it for me when I did that address change. I know that some of you like the process of going out to vote as I did…but I’ve seen the lines that come with repubs closing polling locations and moving them, so to stick a sharp stick in their eye, I signed up and got my first ballot for the dem primary and it was 5 minutes to fill out and send back….and it got here about 10 days before it had to be sent back so no pressure….so, let’s be proactive and get this done so the repubs can’t screw with our voting anymore…oh, and one more thing…if you got the census request in the mail, go to the website and fill it out…it is important for all kind of reasons especially the re drawing of districts here…and lots and lots of funding for our state depends on it…so take a few minute and fill it out…I’m doing mine tomorrow…
Dire predictions….
Well…as more and more assessments of the dire state of the country and the future depression come in, it is clear that the two months that the idiot trump and his cronies downplayed the effects of the virus to both individuals and the economy and diddled around because they don’t know anything is going to have worse effects than even the worst case scenarios. This incompetence and willful dereliction of duty are going to cost the lives of upwards to a million Americans and is going to put over 20% of workers out of work…and do permanent damage to the economy that will not be repaired in my lifetime….these assessments are calling 2020 a “lost year” where all we are going to be able to do is survive…and supply chains of food and other necessary supplies are going to crash unless the government gets involved and right the frick now…so everyone is going to be affected and it is not going to be pretty…and I am so damn mad that the repubs are still playing like it business as usual…with Rand Paul blocking the start of the recovery legislation because he want to know how were going to “pay” for it…we’re going to pay for his obstruction by putting hundreds of thousands more out of work and killing thousands more Americans…the time to act is yesterday..the depression is here and we have morons in charge…not sure if we’ll survive this….
March 18th
Well…okay, that was one weird night last night but I did get back to bed at around 5 and stayed there until almost 7 but was only sleeping for about an hour…I wonder what that was all about? It was just another normal no cocktail night and there wasn’t anything unusual that happened yesterday so I’m not sure why my sleep would be so broken up….oh, well…just hope it doesn’t happen again tonight…had an okay day yesterday but didn’t get a lot done but some cleaning and today will probably be more of the same….will probably be shifted into low gear most of the day…or at least until the coffee starts to work….I stopped coughing for some reason and that is a welcome change…that may be why I was able to get at least a little sleep this morning…it is a pain having to ration my meds that help with that but one good thing may be that I’ll be able to see how bad my allergies are without medication…maybe I can tolerate them without taking anything but I won’t know that unless I stop…working on the third day of no meds at all and I wonder if all this is my body reacting to being clear of them for a change? I guess we’ll see later today….not much to do today….going to just ease into it and see how I feel….will probably just do the tools today and then get started on the linen closet doors tomorrow….I want to get at the mailbox on the front porch soon, too since it needs to be sanded and painted but that will probably wait til Sunday so I can get it painted and back up before the mailman comes Monday….more later…
This sucks…
Well…have been up since 2:30 and can’t get back to sleep so I thought I’d come here for one of these as I sit here frustrated as hell…with having to ration my allergy meds, I have been coughing all night and that isn’t helping at all…I did find out that “Cannon” is on a 3 am…not sure what that piece of information is going to do for me but now I know….haven’t seen Clarence Ponsler on antenna channel 64.2 yet…he’s normally on at station breaks with the weather…oh goody..”Barnaby Jones” is on now at 4….this is going to be a long, long day if this keeps up….have to remember to hit the delay button on the coffee maker just in case I do get back to sleep at some point….I am going to need coffee this morning…I wonder if it’s going to rain? Yes it is…so I may not be able to get on the bike until later if at all….but the forecast calls for just cloudy today even though I see the radar has rain coming in from the west….but tomorrow is rain all day and maybe some thunderstorms tomorrow night…then it’s getting cold again and I am getting tired of it…..okay…I need to try to get back to sleep for a while….3 1/2 hours is just not going to do it…more later….okay…that didn’t do it…went back to bed and just knew it wasn’t going to happen so I’m back up at 4:20 and it looks like the day is going to be weird from it….damn….boredom is bad enough when it is at the normal times but at 4:20? Oh, well…don’t have anywhere to be so I guess it’s no big deal….
Social distance…day 2…
Well…okay, this isn’t going to be a daily series after all…I don’t think I have enough to say and my life is not so different than normal to be interesting…but, I do have some observations that I want to share….when I was out to Meijers doing the end of days shopping, I had never seen anything like it…empty shelves everywhere and I still don’t get the whole “buy all the toilet paper there is” thing that is going on…I did buy 6 rolls but that is enough to get me 6 weeks with the mega rolls I was looking for….but, I was able to get almost everything that I needed but forgot a bunch of stuff…or didn’t think of getting the ingredients to make soup with the ham bones and the turkey carcass I have in the freezer…so, in a couple of weeks after things settle down some, I’ll make a run out to get the veggies I need…until that time I’ll just use what I have here…I can easily get through three weeks to a month with what is on hand…on thing that is concerning me some is what people are going to do that can’t afford to be off work? I know that when my kids were little there is no way we could have weathered this without help from the in-laws…at that time, there was just no emergency cash and there are so many people in this country in that boat now that someone has to do something…I wonder if we could try not giving huge tax cuts to the rich for a change so the government would have options? I feel fortunate that I am retired and my cash will keep coming in no matter what happens…I hope…but I also have my house down payment money I can use in an emergency that will get me through at least two years…I sure hope we can figure out something so the suffering is not centered on the people who need it the least…we can but will we?
A badge of honor…
Well…our governor Whitmer must be doing something right because she sure had gotten under the idiot in chief’s skin…after her appearance on MSNBC where she told the truth that the federal government…run by idiot boy…”didn’t take the threat of this virus seriously” and now the governors are having to step in and clean up the mess, trump blew up on twitter with his normal insults saying that he stands with the people of Michigan…yeah, no you don’t you moron…weeks and weeks ago you could have done anything to get more testing to determine the scope of the problem but you belittled the scientists and said your “gut feeling” was that there would only be a few cases and your response to the crisis was “perfect”…only in your diseased mind is anything you have ever done “perfect”…you have bungled every damn thing you have touched your entire life…and let’s talk about low the bar is to measure your performance….a bar that is so low they had to dig a six foot deep hole to find it…with the media heaping praise on you for not being the worst asshole in the world for 5 whole minutes yesterday…and the stories that you had changed were all over the media…and it’s the same old bullshit that we see when you manage to not drool all over yourself…he’s changed…but that’s just frickin not true….cripes, I’ll bet everyone would love to be judged at work with that same bar…if you show up and don’t crap on your desk you get a promotion! Let’s be blunt…Governor Whitmer, it is a badge of honor to be attacked by the dotard in chief…it means you are smart, decisive, and successful and he just can’t stand when his failings are pointed out to him…keep it up and keep protecting us here in Michigan.