Well…yeah…have been writing about the idiot Trump and his brood a bit too much lately so I think I’ll do a little lighter stuff for this afternoon….I forgot that I saw a Ferrari 458 Sat sitting at the strip mall in front of my place…there were two Porsche 911’s and a Porsche Panamera, too so I’m not sure what the heck that was about….I do have a photo to prove it if anyone wants to see it….I did see a really cool video of some SpcaeX launches and landings…and I didn’t know that the landings were done with only one of the 9 rocket engines firing…they were all in slow mo and it was pretty cool…found out about them from Phil Plait’s column over at Slate, again, and if you haven’t checked out “Bad Astronomy” over there yet, you should, pretty cool stuff. The big GR Metro Cruise is going on this weekend with a car show at Rogers Plaza that is always some fun…there are plenty of cool old cars and lots of weird people to watch….there was even a beater Miata there last year that made me laugh….okay…that was good for me to cleanse the politics out of my head and do something different for a change…might even come back for another one today but I’m not sure about that yet….
August 23rd
Well….the moving pain has struck again and is now in my right big toe…if it didn’t hurt so much, it would be funny…getting up every morning and wondering where the pain is going to be this day….might have done it to myself with clenching my toes during the night….had to go nuclear on the bike yesterday and use the red loctite since the blue didn’t even make it through an entire ride…..if this stuff doesn’t work, I’m not sure what more I can do….and the bike has been riding so well the past few days that I just want to get out on it….I am a little steamed this morning with trying to get the papers…the damn family fare had no one on and, of course, there were 6 people trying to take huge orders through the self check outs that are clearly marked for 12 items or less….was just about ready to walk out and take them without paying….okay, I’m calm now…finding it easier and easier to return to the peaceful state I find myself in most of the time…but, that took a lot of work over the past few years….I do need to get out to get some wood chips to smoke some fish and venison thurs….Tom gave me the idea for the venison and I can’t wait to try it…need to get a marinade made up for both of them…more later
Stupid doesn’t fall far from the tree….
Well…when you listen to any of the Trump kids, you can see that the stupid from dad doesn’t fall far from the tree. Just today, Donnie junior was opining on why wages have been stagnant for workers and made the assertion that it was Syrian refugees coming here that were the problem. Donnie, Donnie, Donnie….wages have been stagnant here since the 70’s not since the Syrian crises began in 2011…and we have only taken in a few thousand..compared to the 145 million workers in the US, the number of refugees is a not noticeable tiny little blip that can’t possibly have the effect that Donnie the stupid younger thinks. But that is the thing with the modern repubs, they are the party that has no relationship with the facts…and facts are facts, not the opinions they think are facts…oh, and it is people like little Donnie’s father who trash unions, stiff small businesses, and offshore jobs who have depressed wages here…not some small handful of refugees….sad….
August 22nd
Well…it was a Sunday yesterday and it was nice to have it a little cooler than it has been…and I got out to have a couple with K who I haven’t seen in a month or so….didn’t get anything done but the bike ride yesterday and I need to do better today…but, there is another cancelled race on at noon so it may be another lost day….I have been having pain in my left big toe that is starting to get annoying but other than that, no pain to speak of….so, I won’t….I am a little happy that the Olympics are over since they took over my life for the past two weeks…I know, I could have just not watched them but they may have been my last ones so I felt a little compelled….will probably get back to the political stuff later today since I won’t have anything else to do…maybe…who knows? more later….
August 21st
Well…didn’t know my phone would go crazy with a tornado warning…with the storms yesterday, the damn thing went off like there was a nuclear war coming…I probably wouldn’t have known there was anything going on without it, though, since I never watch any local tv anymore….but, they missed me, again, so that was cool…not even much of a storm here….feel pretty crappy today since I only did one meal yesterday and I can feel that I am going to be flat on the bike this morning so I think I’ll just take it easy and really do a leisure ride for once….might have to go to the red loctite to keep the bolt in my pedal arm on the bike…used the blue and didn’t even get it through a whole ride…we’ll see this morning….not going to do much today…the race from Bristol was rained out last night so I’ll have that to nap to this aft…more later….
I was going to write about Trump….
Well…as you can see in the title, I was going to write about Trump but thought better of it…so, what to do? I feel like I’m living “the ashes the rain and I” by Joe Walsh right now…just the part where you sit and stare at the rain….it is kind of hypnotic….had a new person move in next to me and so far so good….no loud music or parties….but, it is only one day so I guess I should reserve judgement…okay, I can’t resist a little Trump…I mean what the hell is it that he goes to white communities and makes speeches demeaning black people and calls it “minority outreach”? No wonder he polls at 1% support from black people…but my question is when you take Ben Carson out of the poll, does that mean no black support? Hmmmm…okay, I’m not feeling this right now so I guess I’ll go watch soccer some more….
August 20th
Well….it was nice to wake up to soccer again with the BPL getting it’s season going….oh, have to put this in…I won at pool…and I had a pretty nice day yesterday…it rained on the way out but the drive back was nice with the top down and the music too loud…the bike basically fell apart when I got back here yesterday and I just had to laugh at it…it could have done it on the trail but it waited until I was carrying it down the stairs to my front door…I wondered why it felt weird on the ride yesterday…but, I think I have most of that fixed and I am looking forward to getting out today…there are storms forecast for today but I’ll believe it when I see it since they have been falling apart coming across the lake for the past few days…at least there is a window for me to get out now and get the entire ride in….I really don’t have a lot to do today….just going to wing it and let the day do it’s thing….more later…
August 19th
Well…okay…have the Olympics on this morning as in the past two weeks, and this morning they have “race walking” on…and the announcers are taking it just so seriously…but who else can? Oh, well….it looks like it is going to rain in a couple of hours so I need to get out on the bike soon but I am just not motivated this morning…it was nice last night to get away from the Olympics and just watch a couple of shows….the 4th season premiere of “Ripper Street” was a good one and at two hours, it took me out to the end of the night…you know you had a strange night of sleep when you get up and the sheets are curled up in a ball and the pillows are across the room…and there were no dreams to speak of…darn….have a huge pain in my left hamstring this morning and I’m not sure why….it hurt like crazy all day yesterday on the bike along with the cramps in my toes….I need to remember to relax them when I am on the bike…speaking of the bike, riding through the flood a couple of days back was not a good idea…the squeaks were really bad yesterday and I gritted my teeth through the entire ride….okay, again….need to finish the coffee and get moving…more later…
Finally, some sense…
Well…I think you may be as disgusted and tired of Trump as I am so none of that today…instead, I want to comment on the announcement yesterday that the federal government will no long support the private, for profit prison system that has grown to gigantic proportions in the past 15 years or so. Now, most of these prisons are operated on the state level under the misguided premise that privatizing this responsibility of the state will save money…a mantra of repubs across this country that has been shown to be wrong everywhere it has been tried…but that is not the worst part of it…when the contracts are signed with these private prison corporations, there is a minimum amount of prisoners that are written into the contracts and if the city, county, or state don’t supply them, they have to pay a penalty…now, I may be a little dense at times, but it is pretty obvious that these types of contracts practically guarantee that every little infraction will be criminalized to ensure the quota is met….and the profit motive leads to substandard food, and just warehousing the prisoners since the private corporations have no interest in rehabilitation. Then there is the cost angle…it has never been shown that private prisons save any money to the public at all…but just enrich those who run them…an who invariably donate to repubs to get the laws passed that allow them. The same cost cutting was tried by the army in Iraq, buying private soldiers at 150K per when a real soldier was only about 50K with benefits. Again, the real goal was to line the pockets of the big donors, not to save any money…the saving just being a smokescreen to have private corporations bleed our tax dollars into their pockets. It is a small step, but it is at least a step…now, the same thing needs to happen at the state level and get rid of these bloodsuckers once and for all…geez…
August 18th
Well….I wonder how many people have problems with their phones like I did yesterday? Spent most of the day fooling around with it to try to get the damn “low memory” fault to stop and I finally found the reason…Yahoo mail was using almost half of the memory in the phone just for e-mail….so I uninstalled it and went with a much smaller program that does everything that Yahoo did but instead of 700 meg, it only takes about 30, so that left me room to get some of the apps that I have deleted over time back on the phone…see, we old people still can hack it…didn’t need any help from anyone…I was really curious last night if the car dreams were going to continue but they didn’t…I did have one with Jerry Seinfeld in it and snow, and sharks….as I said before, it’s really weird in here….just got back from the grocery store ans spent 50 bucks on nothing…again….no meat or anything big and still…50 bucks? Oh, well….it looks pretty nice out there so I am going to finish my coffee and then get on the bike…need to get more tomatoes on the bike ride…more later….
Oh, one last thing, Tom…Loctite!