Well….watched the Ford vs. Ferrari movie last night and I just don’t get all of the hype that surrounded it’s release. I mean, I found it cheesy and grating with race scenes that looks like they were staged by someone who knows nothing about racing…look, I know they needed to add some action from the drivers when they were supposedly passing someone but to downshift to go faster on the Mulsanne straight at LeMans? This was a theme throughout the movie and so damn annoying….as was the repeated shots of a speedometer from inside the car…did they ever look inside a race car? You will never find a speedometer because it is information that is just not relevant to the driver as the engine’s rpm is…now, in some of the modern electronic displays in some race cars you can select MPH but not back in the 60’s when the film is set….the final bit of laziness on the part of the producers is the scene where Ken Miles is killed testing a supposedly new version of the GT-40 that looked exactly like the old version….Miles was killed in what was called the “J car” and it didn’t look anything like the normal Ford GT that won LeMans…and that again points to the ignorance of the details of the story from the producers of the film and their laziness in getting the details right…cripes, I remember the story of Miles’s death from when it really happened in the 60’s and I’m an old guy…couldn’t they have at least looked back at pictures and used CGI to re-create the look of the J car? One last thing where they got it wrong is the brake failures that was a sub theme through the movie…I mean, making them glow red as a sign of failure? Again, anyone who knows anything about racing knows that failure is not that dramatic and discs glowing red was not a thing with the iron discs of the 60’s…especially the red with flames coming out of the wheels…usually, the pedal just goes to the floor after the brake fluid boils or the pads are worn out…no flames unless the fluid leaks out on the hot discs. As with most racing movies done by non racing people, the details will really grate on a race fan…as it did to me….I got through the movie but I am disappointed in how they could take the story of the GT-40 at LeMans and make it boring…but maybe for the non-race fans it would be okay…but I don’t think so.
December 31st
Well…running about on time but I’m a little depressed with all of the snow out there this morning…I know it’s Michigan and it’s winter but that doesn’t make it easier to take…but, it looks like it’s almost over so I guess it could have been worse…and I got everything done I needed to yesterday so I don’t have to go out for the rest of the week if I don’t want to….slept okay last night but woke up to my internet tv still not working for the third day and it really does look like I won’t be able to see any of the bowl games that gives me something to do on the first…or any of the marathons that make time pass around here…okay…that’s my whining quotient for the day so I’ll stop now….my lungs are still bad from both the bug and inhalation of the bleach fumes yesterday so I am going to take it a little easy today after shoveling the snow…but that won’t happen til later, after I have coffee and get a few little things done around here….I need to do a full cleaning of the living room today and wax the wood floors again so that will take quite a bit of time…I do need to thaw some venison burger to make tacos again and then see what is in the freezer to eat next…I did get some chicken leg quarters at Aldi’s yesterday that I can cook so maybe I’ll have those with the tacos for a couple of days….we’ll see…more later…
Lots of damage today…
Well…you know, as I get older it seems to get easier to hurt myself just doing normal maintenance stuff around here and today was one of those days…I started out working on the furnace, trying to get the belt on the blower aligned better so it would make less noise and that means trying to wedge myself into the small access hatch to get to the pulley on the blower…and immediately, I bashed my head on the edge of the opening and took a chunk out of my scalp that I didn’t think about until the blood started running down my head…now it wasn’t a bad injury, just a scrape that will heal pretty quickly but damn, I’ve been in that thing multiple times and have never whacked my head before. After that little fiasco, I got tired of seeing the dirty grout in the bathroom tile so I decided to get the bleach cleaner and scrub brushes out and scrub that stuff clean…but that meant breathing bleach fumes for over an hour and my lungs are really screwed up that I know that will take a few days to heal….and the thing is, I know better…I’ve had it happen before but that didn’t outweigh getting the grout clean since that was one thing that was really annoying me…and guess what all the bending and scrubbing did? Yep, I hurt everywhere and the healing that was happening in my thumb is now gone and it is throbbing. Now, I don’t know if I’m just getting old or I’m working harder since I moved in here but damn, it’s getting annoying being in pain all the time….
The dems need to get in front…
Well…with the constant lies coming from the repubs and their tax cut exploding the budget deficit which is on track to hit a trillion…yep, with a t next year, the dems need to start hammering home the message of the repubs stealing every damn thing and giving it to the rich…and not caring about the deficit until they lose next year…then you will hear the typical yammering that nothing can be done about it but cut social programs that the 99% have paid for. And they need to do it now, not next year and they need to keep hammering it every damn time they get asked any question from any reporter…like: “you know what is going to happen when we win next year, the repubs are going to then get really concerned about the deficit and try to destroy SS and Medicare to pay for it…just remember, they are the ones who created the deficit with their tax cuts for the rich and now they whine that something needs to be done”….and the same goes with the “great” economy that is being propped up by the fed by them pouring trillions of dollars of no cost loans to the big banks so they can continue to buy stocks and support the unsustainable prices that we see now…and the dems need to point out that this economy is a house of cards that is going to come crashing down when this handout to the banks ends. Most of all, though, we need message discipline from our side where we all talk about the same facts about the economy, the environment, and every other subject that the public cares about…and the progressive ideas that will make life better for the 99% and not the 1% who have stolen most of this country with the repubs help….
December 30th
Well…another morning of no tv and I think I may have to actually figure out what internet options give me the sports and channels I want and actually sign up for one….and that is just one more expense that I don’t want to take on right now….oh, well…I did sleep okay but feel quite slow this morning and I am going to just take it easy for a while as the coffee does it’s magic…I did get out for the last bike ride in shorts yesterday and that was a bonus to the early ride in half thermasuit so I got 24 miles in yesterday but it looks like I am going to miss my 4,600 mile goal by about 16 miles since I won’t be able to get out today or tomorrow…but still, 4584 miles is not too shabby for an old guy….and I am going to wait to put the bike up on the trainer for a couple of weeks just to see what the weather is going to look like…it’s supposed to be warmer than normal for the rest of the winter but we’ll see….last year, I had over 600 miles on the bike before I even got out on the trails…and that is a lot of time on the trainer every day….didn’t get much done yesterday but equipment changes but I think I’ll clean a bunch today if I can get motivated….but that looks like no better than fifty fifty at this point….more later….
Kind of a sucky day…
Well…so far, that title describes today and everything that has happened…okay, maybe that’s a little harsh but I would like just a regular day for a change…of course as I said this morning, my internet tv is down and it looks like an outage at the cloud storage that my son rents for both systems that we use…both Plex and Emby are out today with that outage and that leaves me with only the antenna to watch and I lost most of those channels I watch when I moved in here…and that sucks if they can’t get it back up soon since I’ll miss all of the good bowl games…crap….and I had to restart some old equipment in the basement since the new stuff just isn’t working as promised…so I spent the morning taking care of that stuff and resigned myself to the increased cost that comes with the old equipment…oh, well…I did get a bike ride in but it looks like the last one for quite a while with the forecast of 3-5 inches of snow tomorrow….so it looks like some hibernation for me for this week and I guess I’ll have to work around here…so, I’m depressed today…
December 29th
Well…woke up to pouring rain this morning along with my online tv not working and that is just so damn annoying…oh, well…slept okay and my lungs feel a little better so I guess that’s something….but, I tossed and turned all night and feel a little worn out today so I guess I’ll take it easy…but that will be a little hard without tv…I guess I could clean today and just play some music but I don’t want to…and it even looks like I won’t be able to get on the bike since the radar shows rain all the way back to southern Illinois…..I did have an okay day yesterday but didn’t get much done so maybe I should start to get the last room cleaned up and ready to paint…the wood floors could use some cleaning and another wax, too so I do have things to do today…I do need to cook, too since I am running out of ham and have some thighs thawing in the downstairs fridge…and need to use some of the food in the freezer so I can buy some chicken this week to change up my diet some and get the salt out of it….okay, I’m still coughing and starting to feel like crap again so I’ll end here….more later…
Every damn economist knew…except for right wing hacks…
Well…damn, I can’t find the article where I read this earlier today so I’ll just have to wing it…as the title says, every respected mainstream economist predicted that “trade wars are easy to win” was one of the most boneheaded statements in the litany of boneheaded statements by the idiot in chief….the latest government assessment shows that idiot boy’s tariffs have resulted in just what good economists said it would…job losses in manufacturing and higher costs for basically everything for the American consumer…and this is compounded by the generational loss of agricultural markets across the world that have been destroyed by retaliation by the Chinese and their switch to south American markets for soybeans, corn, and other products. And now we have the moron in chief today opening his stupid hole to threaten even more tariffs that will do even more damage to the economy…but do we hear a peep from the repubs? Nope…and this truly shows the only people they give a damn about are the people who can write them million dollar checks for bribes…oh, I mean campaign contributions. I would say that I can’t believe how stupid these folks are on the economy but I have been watching the repubs do this stupid shit for decades now and they are never held to account…why would now be any different?
December 28th
Well…running a little late today with staying in bed until 6:30 and sleeping most of that time…I do have a bug that hit pretty hard last night with sneezing and coughing all night and my lungs are still congested this morning…and I’m sitting here sweating this morning even though I’m normally freezing with keeping it 65 in here…but, it can’t be the flu since I don’t feel bad enough for that and I got a flu shot back in the fall….so, I may take the day off of everything today and just rest and watch soccer and football….I did get out to have a couple with K yesterday and it was good to get out for a while and drive the car…and the traffic was not too bad coming home so that was a bonus….I did get a cold bike ride in yesterday back in full thermasuit and that will be the plan for today if I go out….didn’t get much done yesterday but I do have laundry to do today and I need to clean the kitchen…I think I need to start to schedule my cleaning around here to make sure I keep up with it since this place is bigger than my apt was and it is pretty dusty…might have to buy one of those swiffer dusters for once overs to maintain between cleanings…probably should bring my cleaning work into more modern methods than rags and paper towels….more later…
Downtime…
Well…as you know if you’ve checked in this afternoon, the site was down again and my son has been busting his butt trying to figure out what has changed to cause the two outages this week but it’s working now so that is cool….but, I forgot what the topic was that I was going to write about so this is going to be a short one…I did just get back from having a couple with K and that was fun and nice to drive the car to get all of the lube warm and burn off the crap from the exhaust…the parking brake was hung up again so I think I need to oil it again Sunday when it is warmer….it’s supposed to rain but I have a garage so it doesn’t matter…and that is just damn cool…okay…I need to watch some tv and have a cocktail so I’ll end here….