March 27th

Well…that was a little better…didn’t get up til 6:40 and that was with getting to bed at 11…but I think having cocktails had something to do with it and that is not sustainable…but I’ll take one night and feeling like crap in the morning…but I’m coughing and stuffed up again today and I hope that goes away soon…but, I’m not sore…cripes I’m getting old…I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday and was even out in shorts but I’m not sure I can do that today and the weather looks like it going to cool off into the 40’s for 2 weeks or so…and that puts us into April…where the hell is spring? Didn’t get a lot done yesterday but grocery shopping so I have a lot to do today…need to get the veggie seeds in the dirt to get them started and then need to think what I’m going to use to surround the garden….don’t think I have enough treated lumber to do it so I may have to use some of the patio blocks I removed so they could put the fence in…have piles of them behind the garage and really should figure out how to use them….so, it looks like I’ll have to get started on the outside before it gets warm enough for me….not much to do today…I do have some chicken that needs to be cooked so I’ll do that for lunch and that will leave me with leftovers for the weekend…I may have to freeze the soup I made the other day since I’m not sure when I’m going to get to it…but, I don’t want to since it came out so good…decisions, decisions….more later…

All of this is trump’s fault…

Well…here we go….the economy is in freefall with the reporting earlier today of 3.5 million people applying for unemployment and at least a million more gig workers or self employed  people unemployed who can’t apply for benefits….to put this in perspective, at the worst of the 2008 crash, the highest monthly unemployment application count was 675,000…and economists are predicting that there could be 40 million out of work by the end of this mess…and guess what? It’s all frickin trump’s fault…every damn bit of this could have been avoided if the asshole in chief had not listened to fox news, limbaugh, and the rest of the right who pushed the lie that this virus was a hoax just meant to hurt the idiot in chief…and if he had the capacity to take anything seriously…which he does only when it has something to do with him and his inflated ego….and today, we have his toadies out in the news saying that he doesn’t have to do his job or care about NY because someone there called him a racist and doesn’t kiss his ass….and have been criticizing him for his inept, incompetent response to the pandemic. Hey Dinesh, you felon…take you addled brain back to when Obama was elected and your god trump started right off with the whole fake birth certificate bullshit and the entire repub party made it their mission to belittle him and one of your asshole congressmen even yelled “you lie” at Obama at SOTU…what did Obama do? got to work trying to save this country from the melt down and never once asked his aides what governor of what state said bad things about him so he could ignore them and let people die….all of this is trump’s fault…with the assist going to the rest of the repub party who had the chance to remove this criminal in December but all of them voted to let this incompetent, stupid, asshole stay in office…and now a million or more Americans are going to die because of it….and many more are going to be ruined financially because the bumbler in chief is so damn dumb and self centered….you own this, repubs….

Not too painful….

Well…I learned something this morning…bleach solution of 2 tablespoons in a quart of water hurts much less than 91% rubbing alcohol on your hands…so, I’m going back to the bleach starting today…just got back from doing a grocery run and it was pretty much painless…not too busy and got everything on my list…spent about 80 bucks at two stores but I’m in and eating from my freezer for the next month…even got bird food so the birds will be okay, too….I guess it was far enough from the panic of Monday that things have settled down a bunch…still some limits on a few items and they didn’t have any flour of any kind but I can live with that…I did bleach everything coming in the house again and I think that may be the plan for a while….more later…

March 26th

Well….that was a little better…didn’t get up til 5:20 this morning and that was with getting to bed early so that was progress…and I don’t feel too bad this morning other than the normal aches and pains….I did get a few things done yesterday but that leaves me with not much to do today so I am going to make a swing out to see if I can get some groceries today….don’t have a lot of hope that the stores will be re stocked after the panic Monday and the debacle of the old folks hour but I’m good for a few weeks anyway so no big deal…I may even put gas in the car just to say I took advantage of the low prices….I may gt started on the outside of the house today but I need to sharpen up my hatchet first…I do need some hedge clippers to do what’s left of the shrubs out front and get started trying to shape them…don’t really want to do all the work of removing them and starting from scratch….but they have been left so long I don’t think I can salvage them…we’ll see…there is clean up to do, too so I might just ease into working on the outside…I do need to make a raised border for the garden in the back yard so I can get the dirt tilled and ready for the end of frost and planting…I did notice that the leaves that were a huge pile behind the garage have composted down to about half of what they were and I need to turn them so I can use them for the sunflowers and garden later in the year…and I need to plant the seeds in pots today so I can get ahead of my garden and be ready in a month or so…but I need to have coffee and lots of it right now….along with the news…more later….oh, as a note…my domain had expired this morning and my son had to renew it so this one is late….

A busy day….

Well…what started out as a pretty easy day has turned into a busy one even though I didn’t plan it that way…after getting up a little after 5…I vegged and read the news for a while and then got after the downstairs project by 6:30 and that took until around 9 to finish up and it isn’t really done yet…have to clean up but I’ll do that tomorrow after I get the veggie seeds planted…watched Perry Mason for a while and then dug the ham out of the freezer and got it thawing out under pressure in the instant pot and then worked on making soup for the next hour or so…okay, I know I say this every time I make ham soup but this batch is the best one yet…I’d pay 2 bucks a can for it since it came out so good….and I think part of it is that I used a Cook’s spiral sliced ham that I put the brown sugar glaze on when I cooked it and that just added some depth to the flavor…it has a sweetness on the front end and then the tomato and other vegs come out with the ham…and it has a brightness to it when you’d think with all that ham and potatoes it would be heavy….and I have 3 full 2 quart containers of it to enjoy over the next few weeks…if they ever lift this quarantine, I need to save one of these for Tom since it is the best one yet…after lunch, I got out for a bike ride and did 12 hard miles that I just got back from….so, working from 6:30 til 1:30 is enough for the day and I am taking the rest of the day off….maybe….

This is too funny….

Well…it appears that the senate is going to vote on a stimulus package by the end of the day tomorrow that includes 2+ trillion dollars to be injected into the economy and to support our healthcare system in this time of extreme crisis….after that, it will need to go over to the House where I’m sure Nancy will tweak it some to make it even more fair and that all that money will help people and not just corporations as moscow mitch wanted it to do…one thing that came up that is written into the bill made me laugh out loud even as trump and his grifter family were drooling at the prospect of scamming millions of dollars for US taxpayers…it is specifically written into it that no one that is in government or related to them or in-laws or any other way related is eligible for a dime of the money…no bailouts for trump’s properties at all…now, that should not have had to be written in since the existing ethics rules should have prevented it…if trump and his family had any ethics or the repub party would enforce those rules…but they are just as bad as him so Schumer had to write it into the bill to make sure that they can’t grift…you know, I can see the smoke rolling out of idiot boys ears right now and we can expect a tweetstorm about how he won’t sign the bill because something, something…and will make up fake reasons why…that tantrum will be something to behold and should be coming at any minute…other than that, it appears that Schumer also got oversight of any money going out to corporations so the repubs don’t get their 500 billion secret slush fund, either…sound like Chuck did a good job and I think some cridit goes to Steve Mnuchin, too…we’ll see…

Good job, Michiganders…

Well…with the second day of stay at home here in Michigan, there is a company who is using location data and other things to track how effectively the tactic is working…and the report they put out this morning says that, so far, Michiganders are taking this order very seriously and are doing the best job of isolating in the country…so, I say good job, Michganders! Now if we can just work on the whole hoarding thing and realize that you don’t need to go to the grocery store every day and you don’t need 10 gallons of milk or 200 rolls of toilet paper…as an old guy, I thank you all for not exposing me to this damn virus and I say keep it up…we can beat this if we just pay attention and keep doing what our health experts are asking us to…

March 25th

Well…that was a little bit weird of a night last night…just sitting here vegging and watching some tv and noticed that I wasn’t coughing at all and my head was clear…and that hasn’t happened since last year and it has me a little confused since even when I take my allergy meds, it’s never that good…so, I decided to wing it last night and not take any allergy stuff or ibuprofen since I am trying to make the allergy stuff last without being able to get more right now…and I’m not too bad right now so I have hope that it will continue all day…and I got almost 5 hours of sleep last night which is an improvement over the past few days…okay, I’m coughing now and my head is plugged up again…damn…I did get a nice ride in yesterday but there are too damn many people out on the trails who have no damn idea that there are other people out there, too…I can’t count how many times I had to slow down and wait as they had their dogs and leashes spread across the trail…aargh…I have been watching a new nest that is being built along the trail and it is pretty huge….must be some kind of raptor like a hawk or kestrel and I can’t wait to keep watching it to see if their are hatchlings over the next couple of weeks….didn’t get a lot done yesterday without much energy but I do have lots to do on the downstairs project today that will keep me busy all morning…need to make room for planting my veggies to get them started and ready for the final frost so I can plant them outside…I think I’ll do two of everything in pots and then add more as I can plant outside so I’ll have veggies right through the summer…bought some sunflower seeds that are supposed to give me plants that are 15 feet tall and I can’t wait to see that…and, reading the packages, both types I have yield edible seed so that will be cool when they finish….more later…

The real “death panels”

Well….I wonder if everyone has as short a memory as the repubs think we do…I sure remember the lies when the ACA was being worked on with the repubs shouting every damn day that there were things called “death panels” that would condemn the old folks in this country to death after they reached a certain age or started to need more care…all of it a blatant lie to scare people into hating the bill…but that didn’t happen and the ACA is more popular than ever, especially in these pandemic days. But just yesterday, and I think I mentioned this a little, the new repub trial balloon that is being floated is that we are going to have to sacrifice older people to the virus to get the economy going again by removing the measures that are in place across the country to keep people isolated and prevent the virus spread…the idiot  trump started it the other day when he said that he will “open” the economy in 15 days if the damage that closures are doing too much for the economy…and one of trump’s parrots, Lt gov Dan Patrick of Texas (of course) said that killing hundreds of thousands of seniors could be “worth it” if it got the economy going again…asking what kind of country would be left for his grandkids if we wait until the virus is controlled…yep, the “pro-life” party is just perfectly fine killing lots of seniors if his rich buddies need to steal even more money from the rest of us and they can’t do it when the economy is shut down. We know one of the reasons the idiot boy trump wants the economy going again no matter the cost is that it is costing him money with his hotels shut down….and nothing else matters except him and the world’s effect on him….the one thing that idiot boy doesn’t understand that he didn’t do anything to “close down” the states that are trying to stop the spread of the virus by isolation so there isn’t a damn thing he can do to “open” them…do you think Cuomo or Whitmer are going to listen to anything that the big orange moron says? They are going to do what the science says, what the experts say to protect the people and not corporations….so bloviate as much as you want moron, we in Michigan are going to do what’s right for us and you can just go right to hell….

They made it worse…

Well…just got back from Meijers with no groceries after trying the senior hour shopping…and it they think that this is a good idea, they are nuts…there was a line of over an hour long outside the store since they were only letting a few people in the store at a time…but, in the line outside, people were standing next to each other with no semblance of the 6 foot distancing that is necessary to prevent spread of the virus…so, I said the hell with that nonsense and just got back in the car and came home…I have enough supplies to last a month or so here but the birds are going to be out of luck next week…this segregated hour sounded like a good idea at the time but with the execution, they made it worse for everyone involved….oh, well…

What you never want to be….