Well…I know that money is too important in politics and donations should be limited to real people not corporations…so with that out of the way I am shocked about how much money the Harris/Walz campaign has raised…in the month since Joe dropped out of the race, the dems have raised over 500 million dollars…and just during the 4 days of the convention, they raised 82 million bucks and the money is still rolling in mostly from small money donors…almost twice what idiot boy raised in the same time and Kamala is not funneling millions into her pocket like idiot boy is or spending it on his own legal bills…and the ratings are in for the DNC which show that the dems beat the ratings of the repubs by 22% and I think that shows that the enthusiasm is real…we now just need to sustain it for the next 70 days and kick trump to the scrap heap where he belongs…along with the weird JD Vance…geez…
August 25th
Well…I don’t know what it is about 3:37 but I’ve woken up at that time for the past four days in a row and that is a little weird…and out of bed at about the same time, too…and I’m not sure I want that routine…I did sleep okay but I think I’m running out of steam and just want to sit here on the couch for a bit…the F1 race comes on at nine and that means I have a half hour to get on the bike to get a ride in before then…so I need to pour the coffee down and get moving…it’s going to be hot the next three days with temps in the mid 80’s but then down into the 70’s for 10 days and I think that’s the end of the hot weather for the year…so I won’t be out swimming again and that is a little sad…I am sore from running the string trimmer yesterday and that will probably continue to get worse for another day…there will be voltaren in my future…not much to do today…don’t have to cook since I still have leftovers but I should clean some…not too motivated right now even to get on the bike…but I will suck it up and get going in 22 minutes….more later…
I want my routine back…
Well…I really like my routine..getting the rides in, getting work done, and cooking, then sitting down at 7pm to catch some entertainment from shows I watch every week…or find some weird Korean or Japanese show on netflix…but since the last week of July, my routines have been interrupted by the Olympics, the convention, and nascar putting races on at night like last night and tonight…now, I like racing and the one from Daytona last night was a good one and I expect that tonight’s race from there will be fun…but it won’t allow me to see Svengoolie or a show or movie for some mindless entertainment…races are supposed to be during the day so I get to watch it and then go into my routine…I really would like my routine back before summer ends…only did two rides today with doing some yard work…ran the string trimmer around the entire yard today and I will be sore tomorrow…heck, I’m sore right now…not eating enough caught up with me this afternoon and I was dizzy as heck but how the heck do I eat more…my stomach doesn’t have that capacity anymore…oh, well…going to order the new parts for the black bike tomorrow but I think I’m going to use them on the grey bike since I’ve got 16,000 miles on the set that’s on it and they normally only last about 12K and I can’t get the hitch out of the idlers and it annoys the hell out of me…I’ll be riding along perfectly fine and smooth and then I’ll get clicking and vibration through the pedals…so I guess I’ll replace the entire drive line again including the shifter that I’ve already got downstairs along with the chain and front crankset and rear cassette…I’ll put a new shift cable on it, too since the one on it is a little frayed at the end and I have a dozen new ones downstairs…but now it’s time to read…
Who woke Merrick Garland up?
Well…with the announcement that a rental software company and a bunch of huge rental companies are being sued for price fixing, my only question is: who woke Merrick Garland up? This companies software allowed these companies to collude to raise rental prices across the US and if the Justice Department is to the point of suing, you know that have the evidence sine they really hate to lose…now, Merrick, why don’t you break up the huge monopolies in food, Insurance, banking, and everything else that has allowed these companies to steal billions and billions of dollars from the American consumer…I mean 80% of the food production in this country is owned by 6 companies…and while we’re at it, why not go after the media monopolies like Sinclair who own almost all of the television stations in this country…and let’s bring competition back into every market and stop the consolidation in the food retail industry so the owners won’t be able to gouge us on food prices…this is how the repubs have rigged the markets here in the states…break them all up like they did to AT&T in the 70’s, injecting competition into the telephone industry…geez…
August 24th
Well…darn, the premier league starting up has complicated my life today…Man U plays at 7:30 this morning and then F1 qualifying starts at 9 so I won’t be able to get out on the bike til 10 or so and that may make it a two ride day…slept okay last night and I am really confused on why I can sleep on my back again after 40 years of snoring waking me up if I tried it…it has to be losing weight but it can’t be that simple can it? Woke up at 5:37 again but was able to stay in bed til 6:23 and now I need to coffee to work but I’m just going to be sitting here for a couple of hours so I don’t really need it…didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I do need to run the string trimmer so maybe two rides will be enough…it’s going to hurt like crazy as it always does and I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep it up? My neck and shoulders already hurt just sitting here so I think I slather some voltaren on before I get on the bike or work outside…don’t have to cook today since I have leftovers but I do need to plan something for tomorrow and I’m not sure what that will be….damn, this is hard just sitting here waiting for soccer to start…okay, more coffee and 10 minutes until the match…more later…
Now I understand..
Well…the other day as I was riding off the boardwalk and onto the trail that runs right along Lake Michigan, the temp dropped by 15-20 degrees with the wind blowing in off the lake…and after learning that the lake temp had dropped 30 degrees into the 40’s, I finally put that together on the bike this morning…and the air is still really cold in that stretch of the trail today…so it looks like my swimming could be over for the year…oh, well…it’s almost 2 pm and I am done for the day other than my weight work that I’m going to start here in a minute…got the new batch of pasta salad made and in the fridge and I made another huge batch since I liked the last one so much…it’s just easier to have a ready made side when I don’t want to cook…had a squeak in the swing arm on the bike that I couldn’t get rid of and then I remembered what I did on my first mountain bike that had the same problem with that bushing…just a little dish soap and water…and I already had some made up in the cabinet downstairs and I soaked everything and it went right away…I even squirted the idlers on the shifter and it helped there, too…and I have enough room in the bike bag to carry it with me so that’s cool…okay, time to get to work…
Stunning fact on jobs…
Well…I almost forgot this neat little tidbit from Bill Clinton’s speech at the DNC earlier in the week…since the end of the cold war, democrats have created 50 million of the 51 million jobs created in that time frame…yep, you heard it right…the party who shouts they are best on the economy and the “socialist” dems just ruin it when they are in charge, created one million jobs in 50 years…I knew this to be the case in general but didn’t have real numbers to back it up…now I do and it is just so stunning that the repubs have been allowed to get away with the lies that they know what they are doing…it’s another well known fact that progressive policies always create a better economy and the latest study on tax cuts for the rich and the bullshit “trickle down” economics only enrich the already rich…none of that money ever goes down to the workers…it goes to dividends and stock buy backs that enrich people already at the top and that’s how the repubs want it…even those who have been lied to and duped into voting for repubs never get any benefit from tax cuts…all they get are crappier streets and schools and shredding of the safety net…I just wish the dems would message better on these points…not that it would make any difference to the maga crowd…geez…
August 23rd
Well…up at 5:37 this morning and that is way too early but I knew there was no point in trying to stay in bed…been up for over an hour and have just started my first cup of coffee and I really hope it works soon…it got cold again last night and I saw that the temp of Lake Michigan dropped by 30 degrees and is back down in the 40’s so I won’t be going out there to swim any time soon…maybe next week when the temp is supposed to be in the mid 80’s…didn’t get much done yesterday but the errands and bike rides and don’t have any plans for today other than making some more pasta salad and getting three rides in…going to get back to entertainment tonight after the week of the convention but I still don’t have a lot to watch…it’s a dry time for new shows so I guess I’ll go out to netflix to look for something….it looks like I won’t be able to get outdoors until around 8 as I sit here and let the temp come up so I don’t need a fleece…it’s going to warm up starting today and lows will be around 70 by Monday…this August sure has not been a normal one with all the cold weather but we are going to get over 85 by mid week next week and then will finish off the summer close to normal…more later…
That didn’t work…
Well…that didn’t work…got a new switch for the back landing light but it slipped my mind that it is part of an interconnected circuit that you can turn on from the top and bottom of the stairs so the switch I got won’t work…only paid 85 cents for it so I’ll keep it for a spare…the one that’s in there appears to be original to the house since it’s this huge ceramic thing that fills the box…so that would make it 84 years old…while I had it apart, I gave it a squirt of wd-40 and now it works like a champ again so it has dropped down on my list of things I have to repair…I did get the errands done this morning but that got me such a late start on the bike that I didn’t get the second ride done until 12:30…I have 3 new books to read and some more glue traps just in case I get mice in here again…and I got 4 more tins of tuna so I can make more pasta salad tomorrow…will probably make another huge batch of it since it did keep until I used it all…damn, forgot the weight work again…need to do that now…
Another night at the convention…
Well…I’ll admit it…I watched another night of the convention last night and will probably watch the final night tonight…it is nice to see a party that is showing us that happiness and joy can be part of politics again and be fun…and I just love the digs that the speakers are getting in against the idiot trump and I imagine he’s not too happy with that…trump is finally getting called out for his bullshit and ever day he shrinks a bit more from it.;..you know, it’s the whole bully thing that when you ridicule them, they stop being scary…and I discovered that C-span is covering the convention with no talking heads interrupting to “explain” what is happening…I can figure that out on my own and I don’t need the “bothsiderism” of the media…this country has been terribly damaged by this bullshit and I just don’t want to hear it anymore…so, I’ll be back there for another dose of hope tonight…after our AG spoke last night and tore into the 2025 project, I think our governor is on the speaker’s list for tonight and that will be cool…