Well…it’s 2:30 am and I tried to sleep until 4 or so since we need to be on the road to the Richmond airport by 4:45 to make my next to the last flight at 8am…I am looking forward to doing my last air travel in my life and it can’t come too soon…it was cold here yesterday and it rained all day and I had my jeans on for the first time all summer…and I’ll need them in the car since I want to put the top down on the way home and it’s only supposed to be in the 50’s when I get to GR…it is going to be nice to get home and take a day off from everything but mowing the front of the lawn and getting the house working again…going to be just worn out when I get home after getting 8 hours of sleep in the last 3 days and I am going to try to take a nap this afternoon to start trying to erase that deficit…but I do need to stop for groceries on the way through Muskegon since all I have in the house is in the freezer and there is spoiled milk in the fridge…damn, it’s going to be nice when the car starts and I put it in gear and get moving…I spent about a 1,000 bucks on my credit card and 400 euros but that’s not bad for 12 days in Italy…and now I can get back to conserving cash and getting on to my new goal of 50K in my checking account…not sure when I’ll accomplish that but probably around April or so…here we go…more later…
Ready to go home…
Well…I am really ready to go home to get back to my quiet little life that I do really miss…and be in control of everything again instead of having to adjust to what is going on…I am going to take the luxury of doing nothing after I get home other than making coffee…we did go out to Costco this morning and I think I may be getting myself a membership when I get back…they have some really good deals and one of them is Colombian coffee beans for 15 bucks for 2 1/2 pounds and even the Lavazza espresso ones for a kilo for 14 bucks…and this will help me stop buying stuff from Amazon and jeff bezos who I hate…and they had ground chuck for under 5 bucks a pound and all kinds of other stuff that is a better deal than amazon…and Costco pays it’s employees well and gives them full benefits and stock options so a family can live on one income…something that can’t be said for amazon…so I may be cancelling my prime membership…I do like the convenience of amazon but not at the expense of the workers…so I’ll try Costco for a bit and see if it can do the same things amazon can…oh, and they had a 65 inch tv for 400 bucks…and a small freezer for 150 bucks…but now I’m going to take a nap before we head to dinner…
Get private equity out of everything…
Well…there was some good news while I was gone about the tentacles of private equity/corporations that are into everything in this country…and the latest attempt to banish them is from the healthcare industry where they have been taking over hospitals and private MD practices just to raise prices and line their pockets on the back of Americans…just like they did by buying up the majority of the housing stock turning Americans into renters by outbidding them with cash offers on houses they want to buy…and again raising prices of even rent…I mean who the hell can afford to rent a house at 2k a month when they could have bought it and spent half that much? The problem in healthcare is now being addressed by a bill by Elizabeth Warren and other dem senators that would outlaw the practice of equity taking over medicine and outlawing these parasites from making themselves rich on the backs of people needing healthcare, return us to the days of doctors being in control of their practices to deliver the affordable healthcare we had before the equity thugs set their sights on it and gave decision making to corporations whose only reason for being is to suck as much cash out and deny claims, letting people die in the name of profit…geez…
October 3rd
Well…was up til 12:30 am and just got up at 6am and I’m okay with that… I think I’ve read that going east to west is easier than the other way around and it does feel like that…after being up for 25 hours yesterday, 5 hours of sleep or so seems like enough…for now…but I guess we’ll see later…have to get up at 4:30 or so tomorrow morning so that will be the test…it is nice to be back in the states and be able to use my phone again after having it in airplane mode for 2 weeks and having to do the math to figure out the time…it read edt the whole time I was gone even hooked up to wifi in every hotel but my tablet did have the right time so at least I had one thing that did…even my laptop had the time from here on it but I’m not going to worry about that now…had so much fun on the trip and saw so much that I’m going to have to think about it and keep all my photos to jog my memory as time goes on…we’ll have a nice day of doing nothing today but going out to dinner later and getting checked in for the flight tomorrow morning…and getting caught up on these as I edge back into my old routine…I tried to keep my end up of paying some of the cost for the trip by buying dinner every day and I think I burned around 500 bucks on them…but I did come back with over 100 euros left so I’ll probably have to take them to the bank to exchange…the only things I spent money on was a new Italian leather wallet and a coffee mug from Venice…and I’m going to try it out when I get home and make some whole bean coffee that I’m going to drink in the afternoon tomorrow when I get home…have lots of laundry to do…more later…
Back in Virginia
Well…we just got back to Virginia after being stuck in an accident traffic jam for 40 minutes and I am beat…it’s 12:15 am and this one is going to be short since I am tired and need to get some sleep after being up for 26 hours…will still be up and moving around 6 I’m guessing since that is my normal pattern…it was a grueling trip from Italy to here today and it started at 3:30 am edt when we got a cab to the airport and then all the crap with customs and everything else and the plane was late taking off by 40 minutes…but now only one more leg to the trip that starts at about 5am Sunday morning when my daughter takes me to the airport to get on the plane at 8am with a stop in Midway in Chicago and the to GR by 12:03…so it’s a rest day tomorrow with the only thing on the agenda is going out to have Indian food for dinner and then early to bed to get up by 4:30…man, I can’t wait to get home and relax in my own house…it’s going to take me a week to recover from this trip and get back to normal…
October 2nd
Well…it’s heading home day today and I am a little excited about getting back to the states…it’s going to be a long traveling day today with leaving here to head to the airport at 9:30 am for a day that is not going to end until we get into Dulles at 7pm edt…10 hours on an aircraft is not my idea of fun and I will be relieved when they close the door to the plane after we board…international travel always stresses me out and I will be glad when it’s over…I’m going to need a few days to recover from the trip and try to sleep my way back to normal and it is going to feel good to walk into my house Sunday afternoon…then the work starts to get the house working again…the water and water heater need to be turned back on along with getting the router and modem working after I shut them off for the trip…and I will need to mow the lawn…at least the front Sunday and then the rest of it Monday some time…I am going to have cocktails when I get back and the first thing I’m going to do is grind some beans and make coffee even though it will be in the afternoon…my body is going to be so screwed up it probably won’t notice I’m drinking coffee in the afternoon…and I’ll use my new coffee cup from Venice to celebrate being home….more later…
Let’s add more lies…
Well…the desperation is oozing off the WH as they finally realize that almost everyone in this country hates them and what they’ve done to hurt the people of the US including starting a stupid war in Iran that is dangerously closet to starting runaway inflation here…so the response is to try to lie the the Iranians are rooting for the dems to win this fall…they sent a 26 page letter to the moron in chief decrying him starting this stupid war and asked the American people to vote these corrupt politicians out…now, if you were to poll most of the countries in the world, they would say the same damn thing since trump and his cronies have damaged almost every country with their stupidity….but of course the repubs lie and try to conflate that to mean they are actively supporting the dems in the election but this time the lie is not going to work…as none of the multiple other lies they have been spewing all year have worked…people are just frickin tired of nothing but attacks by the repubs…have you heard on proposal where the repubs are trying to help the people of this country? Of course you haven’t since they don’t give a damn about you and me and think things are just fine as we all pay for their stupidity…geez…
Last day in Rome..
Well…it’s the last day in Rome for us and we are done at about 11am…I think both of us are pretty worn out and are looking forward to heading home tomorrow…we’ve been spending some time apart I think that’s healthy…I can get on a person’s nerves after a while and I think she needs time off from me…I’m not used to being around so many people or any people for that matter…it was funny when we met for breakfast this morning and since we were looking for something to do I mentioned that maybe we could see the Pantheon and she told me that she went last night after I mentioned that I had seen enough churches…but it was the last big thing to see here in Rome so she walked me over to it and I stood in line to see it as she sat on a marble fountain that is in the square in front of it…the we walked around a bit before calling it good for the day…only have dinner left to do and then I’ll pack for the trip home tomorrow…I am really looking forward to getting in my car Sunday and driving home to get my house opened up and working again…think I’ll wait to ride the bike til Monday so I can decompress after the stress of traveling…man, I feel old today…10 hours in the plane tomorrow…ick…
Another ICE shooting investigation stopped…
Well…damn another ICE shooting of an unarmed man sitting in his car is being covered up by DHS and the election can’t come soon enough to hold these thugs accountable…at least this time the victim survived but to add insult to injury, this victim was charged with assault for sitting in his car and taking a bullet…assault on the bullet? We need to haul every one of these thugs in to congress to ask them why it is alright to shoot unarmed people sitting in their cars and presenting no danger to the agents…the first thing that needs to happen when the idiot trump is gone is to dismantle ICE completely and make these thugs go away…and then prosecute every damn one of them who have shot, beaten, or intimidated anyone in the US…I don’t care if they are undocumented…less than 1% of the people ICE has attacked have criminal records at all and are just trying to make a better life for themselves and families…Ice can just go right to hell after what they’ve done to these human beings…geez…
I think we’ll do this…
Well…I was ready to dismiss seeing the Pantheon, the 2,000 year old intact church that is just a few blocks away from here since we’ve been in a lot of them on this trip but every travel writer that I’ve read overnight said they never miss it so I’ll see what my daughter has to say when I meet her in a half hour for breakfast…I have hung my long pants up to get the wrinkles out of them just in case but I’m not sure if you need advance tickets or not…I really do have to think of what she wants…and seeing the first unsupported concrete done in the world would be cool…it should take a couple of hours to stand in line and tour it but we have all day to fill so that would be a start…more later…