Well…as we were wandering around this morning just taking in the sights, we found ourselves at a castle on the Tiber river that runs through Rome…it was huge and pretty cool and had these thousand year old bridges that still carry car traffic over the river…when we walked up to the front of the castle and looked left…we could see the Vatican in the distance and couldn’t believe it was that close…so we walked over to it and stood around in St. Peter’s square where the pope holds his audiences and some place this kid from Ada never thought he’d ever be…and we are going back there this afternoon to take a semi private guided tour that takes about 3 hours to see everything…and I can’t wait to see the Sistine chapel and the DaVinci paintings of the ceilings and wall that holds the “Last Supper” that I have only seen in photos up to now…I understand you can’t even talk in there and I have to wear long pants or they won’t let me in…but that will be the last time I’ll not have shorts on until we get on the plane to go back to the states Friday…lunch time…
Another lie about jobs…
Well…as the idiot trump is out there lying again about creating jobs to buy votes, let’s take a look at the other bribes that the repubs never did follow through on…remember the aluminum plant that was supposed to create 3,000 jobs in Missouri? Yeah, you don’t because after the election it was supposed to affect it was revealed that it was all a scam to let a Russian oligarch pour money into the elections there and give the repubs who touted it a bribe to help launder money…and how about idiot boy’s 5,000 dollar check that would go out only if the repubs win this fall…and the Foxconn plant in Wisconsin that was supposed to add 15,000 jobs to the state…yeah, that only added less than a thousand…and now we have a 15 billion dollar steel plant the just miraculously happens to be going in in Iowa where the repubs are in real trouble of losing the state…people should be looking at the trail of lies the repubs have left every time there is an election and remember that this is just a distraction from the highest inflation in decades and gas and diesel prices at their highest level in history…how is this new steel plant going to help people put food on the table and afford to fill up the car? Of course it’s not and is part of the repubs “bread and circuses” charade to buy votes…geez…
September 29th
Well…up and moving at 5am today and that is getting to be normal on this trip and I am fine with that…gives me time to have 2 cups of coffee before I jump in the shower to get ready for the day…hag a nice day yesterday and walked around seeing all kind of stuff…Rome is interesting visually everywhere you look and we saw cool buildings and ruins as we walked just to figure out what Rome is like…man, this is one busy city and there are cars everywhere…even on the tiny streets where everyone walks so you really have to keep your eyes and ears open…after we got back here we took it easy for a while and then out to another great dinner and I had spinach fettuccini with a veal ragout and just a int of tomato sauce…and I can say I’ve never eaten like this in my life…so today we are starting off with a walk to the Trevi fountain before breakfast and then we take the subway over to the Vatican for a semi private tour that will last a few hours and will get to see the Cistine chapel and everything else there and then we’ll just wander around…when we were walking I looked up and just a little ways away there was the Colosseum and that was so cool…okay, need to get going and have coffee to be ready to head out…more later…
Inflation is running away…
Well…of course, the idiot trump lies about inflation and prices for everything that are soaring…and it is not just gas and diesel prices but all prices across the board…the inflation rate year over year that was just released shows that inflation is at 4.2%…twice as high as it ever was under Biden and double the feds target…and that is one reason why they raised interest rates last week…to try to slow the economy down but I think the economy is not heating up but it is just a result of the idiot trump’s stupid war in Iran…when fuel prices have doubled just because of the idiot, that has nothing to do with the general economy which I think is actually in a recession right now due to high prices on everything that is a direct result of tariffs and stupidity…and now the spectre of food shortages is starting to rear it’s head as thousands of farmers are declaring bankruptcy due to the high cost of inputs like fuel and fertilizer and have stopped planting…when is the last time you heard of food shortages when the dems were in charge? Never is the correct answer since they adhere to actual economic principles and not a 4 year olds understanding of the economy…as I’ve said before the economy is heading for a terrible reckoning due to the stupidity of the idiot trump and we are all going to pay the price for the maga assholes electing him…geez…
Last move to the last hotel…
Well…I think I’m a pretty crappy traveler and pretty sure I don’t want to do another marathon trip like this one…god am I an old fart or what? I am looking forward to seeing Rome over the next 4 days that I have only seen in movies and tv shows…and I want to hear and smell it, too so I can take those memories into my older age like hearing the church bells ringing here while we had dinner last night…going to be hot in Rome at about 85 degrees F but the locals we’ve spoken to have said this is nothing to what they suffered in the heat wave all summer…I was really expecting some fall temps but I guess I’ll have to wait til I get home for that…I have relaxed about the trip and the depression that was trying to grab me has pretty much dissipated after talking to my daughter last night…I have to remember that she is normally pretty reserved and that doesn’t mean she is unhappy…something I forgot for a couple of days…so, I need to continue packing to be downstairs for the walk to the train station around 10…off we go…
Do they really want to lose?
Well…with the video of idiot boy’s chief of staff riding on a hotel cart spraying champagne around with 2 women and the younger idiot trump pushing it (yeah, I know, AI generated but by Scavino) the central idea is “let them eat cake” (the famous line attributed to Marie Antoinette when told that the peasants had no bread) we see that they are the most tone deaf bunch of pricks who have ever infested this country…the “I’ve got mine” crowd who don’t care that gas is over 5 bucks a gallon and diesel is over 7 bucks for the rest of us and many families are struggling to put food on the table…that is all you need to remember when you go to vote in a month…these assholes don’t care that they’ve spent 50 billion dollars on a war that no one but them wanted as they cut medicaid and bleat we can’t afford to help people who need it…50 billion dollars would have paid for medicare for all for years and gotten rid of student loan debt but these assholes don’t care…and the cost of the billion dollar ballroom that idiot boy lied and said would be paid for by private donations would have restored SNAP assistance for millions of people…so remember their actions are the “let them eat cake” of our time and vote these assholes out this fall…geez…
September 28th
Well…up and barely moving this morning and have the water heating for coffee that will be ready in a minute and I can use that…today is a travel day and we’ll be heading to the train station for the ride to Rome this morning for our last stop on the trip…had my tall compression socks on to try to get the swelling down in my feet and it seems to have worked some…still going to take some ibuprofen to get primed for the day since I hurt everywhere but that to be expected as I push the old body to do things it’s not used to…I can see how all the walking has changed my legs and I think it’s funny how this old body looks after walking almost 100 miles so far…can’t wait to see Rome and our hotel there is right in the middle of the city…again…so we will be right in the middle of the action…again…we have a tour somewhere this afternoon but I’m not sure where but I know it will be fun…getting used to carrying my 40 pound suitcase around but if I ever travel again, I’ll pack lighter since my carry on weighs almost 20 pounds and that is straining my shoulders…more later…
Okay…things are better…
Well…I thought it was something that I was or wasn’t doing that my daughter was reacting to, but of course, I was wrong…she has been having a painful shingles attack and forgot her medicine for it…and I feel so bad for her…she’s not old enough to get the vaccine until next year so she just has to deal with it and it hurts every time she walks…man, I couldn’t have been more stupid…we had a nice meal at an outdoor restaurant tonight and I had wide fettuccini with wild boar sauce that was made with red wine and it was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted…and she had a cheese pizza that had the best sauce on it…very yummy and the setting was so cool…just sitting outdoors on a street in Florence with the breeze blowing and church bells ringing…and the light and soft air just said Italy to me…very cool…
Crap…I’m getting depressed…
Well…crap…starting to feel depression coming on and it’s the last thing I need right now…I wonder if it’s from the stress of the trip? And then you say “how the hell can you be depressed when you are in Italy?” I did get a nice new leather wallet yesterday that is really cool and makes my bag smell good so maybe I can think about that? And all the fun we’ve had and are going to have in Rome? And I tried to pay my daughter for my end of the trip but she said to buy air conditioning for my house instead…could that be part of it? Cripes, I’ve paid my way my whole life and now she gives me this trip and the UK one and I don’t know how to act…but that’s on me and I just need to get over it…it is nice to spend time with her and I wonder if this probably being the last time is part of it? Whatever it is it’s my job to not let this bleed over into the rest of the trip and ruin it…yow! This is like a therapy session…how the hell can I be 73 years old and still feel unsure…man, it really is a bitch getting old…
Still feel like it’s my fault…
Well…after the museum this morning, we found that there really isn’t anything else we want to do here in Florence so we took the afternoon off to just relax and recover…and I still feel like it’s my fault that I didn’t do the homework to keep us busy for our time here…I can’t expect my daughter to do everything and keep me amused but I guess I look at it like we are resting up for Rome and will be back at full speed tomorrow…I think she feels stressed out about having to plan it all when I like having time to do nothing after walking 25 miles here…so as of tonight, I am going to make sure I make decisions to match her…no anything you want or that bullshit that I do trying to make sure she does things she wants to do and not just me…but that hasn’t worked so far and I really don’t know how to fix it…maybe I’m reading into it something that isn’t there? Yeah, probably…but that’s been me my entire life so how can I change now? She just doesn’t look happy and I hate that…crap…