Thursday This n That

Sawyer has been playing with his favorite jingly-ball for about an hour now.  He bats that thing around the house like Pele going down the field for a goal.  Yes, he woke me up, but it's hard to be mad at him when he's being good and playing.  I'd rather have him doing that than scratching the bedroom walls and meowling at 3am, as he is wont to do.

My freebie thing this week isn't going great.  On the other hand, people have been reading DE in KU, so I can't be too depressed.

Getting old blows.  I mean, it's better than the alternative, but come on.  The strange thing is I still feel young in my head.  My body is a whole 'nother story.  

I can't believe Ozzy Osbourne died.  I was never a huge fan of his, but he was a fixture of our culture for so many years.  Now, there's a case of Heaven won't take him and Hell's afraid he'll take over, if ever there was one.  (A joke... I hear he was a nice person, and his antics on stage in the '80s were staged or rumors or PR.)

Also, Malcolm Jamal Warner (Theo from The Cosby Show) died this week.  That was a real shocker.  He was younger than me.  The poor man drown.  =o(

Hang on a sec... I need a smoke and some more coffee... Thanks, I needed that.  Now where was I?

Why are the katydids so freakin' loud this year?  Holy crap, it's like an alien invasion out there.  Or Day of the Triffids.  OMG, Howard Keel was in that movie?  I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but I never would've thought Keel was the MC.  By the way, the Joshua Tree National Park looks like a scene out of DotT.  Creepy.

Wow, that was some free range thinking right there, eh?

No matter what you read about what's going on in Gaza, do your research.  A certain section of the populace are putting forward blatant lies.  Don't get suckered.  Actually, that pretty much goes for everything.  Do your due diligence and don't look like a moron.  K?

Finn and Sawyer are rasslin' now.  Finn sounds like he's being killed, but he's the aggressor.  One of these days, he'll really be in trouble, but because of his prior drama, I won't react to his caterwauling.  Cat who cried wolf and all that, doncha know.

Okay, since I've bookended this post with cats, I should probably let you go.  Have a great day wherever you are.  :hugs:

Screwed by the Liberals Again

In case you missed it, the liberal government passed some new health insurance laws again last year that went into effect this year.  (https://help.ihealthagents.com/hc/en-us/articles/20207003806871-New-Short-Term-Health-Insurance-Law-Rules-for-2025) 

Let me set you the stage for how this effects me (and possibly you)...

For the last several years, I've been using short term health insurance.  It bypasses the Obamacare mandate, which makes it way cheaper.  I can't afford health insurance any other way, so there I am.  It's not great, but it's better than nothing.  Every 6 months, I would have to sign up for a new policy.  When I got the email saying my insurance was expiring, it seemed like it was the wrong month to renew, but I shrugged and got on with signing up.  That's when I noticed that all the new policies were 3 month with a 1 month extension.  I guess when I signed up in March for my new policy, I missed that fact.  Okay, fine, whatever.

I went into the site, did my thing, found my policy, and went through the process of getting my new policy.  5 days went by while I waited for my acceptance.  Instead, I got an email saying my application for new insurance had been 'withdrawn'.  Unfortunately, I got the email right before I went to bed, so there wasn't anything I could do about it (which didn't stop me from obsessing over it all night).  And time was ticking because my current policy would run out on the 30th.  

The next day, I contacted the company that manages this crap - ehealth, I think it's called - via chat message on their site.  The gal told me she couldn't help me and I would have to call.  So, I called.  I got a really nice lady who calmly explained to me that the law had changed last September and, in addition to the policies only being for 4 months each, they cannot be from the same provider twice in the same year.  They withdrew my application from United Health because I can't have them again this year. 

The only other companies offering short term insurance in my state... because, ya know, Obama fixed it so we can only have certain companies offering insurance in our states... are unheard of to me.  And either of them only offer indemnity policies instead of regular policies (PPO or EPO).  

I picked one and submitted a new application, because what choice do I have?  Even if I could afford to get a regular policy, you can't sign up for one of those outside the month of November.  (Obama again... although in all fairness, it's not just him. It's him and his cronies.  And Biden and his handlers.)  

So, as long as my application got accepted, I would have insurance.  Until 10/31.  (It was accepted, btw. So yay, I guess.) Then I'll have to go with the other unknown indemnity company for 4 months before I can go back to UH.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  On the upside, the new policy is cheaper with better coverage... except for the indemnity thing where we'll have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed by the insurance afterward.  

While I was doing this, I accidentally ended up in the section for regular insurance quotes, and discovered that the cheapest of those was $750-ish a month.  Almost twice what I was paying UH and more than 3 times what I'll be paying the new company.  That's like half our monthly income.  

Yes, I know some of this is my own damn fault, right?  I could crawl to Obamacare and beg for alms, but my hypocrisy only goes so far.  Come November, I might have to debase myself and do that or choose to go insurance-less.  

I'm a healthy gal.  I can go without insurance, right?  (Don't worry, I'm not that stupid.  Bad things have a way of happening, especially when you temp fate by going without insurance.)

Humpday Optimism

It's been a week and it's only Wednesday.  Nothing really to point at, but there it is.  :shrug:

I've been spending a lot of time reading the news and, for the first time in 5 years, I'm feeling optimistic about the present.  (I write dystopian, so it's hard for me to get optimistic about the future.  So many things can go wrong between here and there.)  

It seems like people have finally gotten a clue.  Maybe that's one thing the whole Kung Flu thing did for us - it taught people that not everything you hear or see from the supposed experts is right or true.  Especially those that point at things as being dire.  People are learning to laugh at it rather than take any of it seriously.  At least I hope that's what I'm seeing.  

Oh, I'm still seeing crap.  Yesterday, Turner Classic Movies did a whole run of Nazi movies.  I don't think January 21st was a day of note regarding WWII or the Holocaust, so I couldn't see a reason there until my conspiracy senses started tingling and I wondered if it was some kind of backhanded stab at our newly inaugurated president.  Or Elon.  (He wasn't giving a Nazi salute, by the way.  Watch the video.  He was throwing his heart to the people.)

Anyway, like I said, I'm feeling optimistic.  The big T is already doing awesome things with more to come.  If he can push a majority of the crap into the dump truck and hold the line for the next 4 years, AND JDV is the man I think he is, which will make him worthy of the 8 years after that, then we might avoid living the dystopian nightmares I have written about.  

Speaking of which, UNEQUAL is free until Friday.  I wish I could say I planned to make this book free because of the above, but it was just a happy coincidence.  I'm not that smart a planner.

Read that one.  Then read BLINK OF AN I.  Then let out a sigh of relief that we no longer appear to be headed in those directions.  Jus' sayin'.  

Thursday This n That

I'm starting to feel better about life in general, so that's a step in the right direction.  I saw where some person was saying they were terrified and that's kinda sad.  Personally, the thought of another 4 years of the march toward communism scared the shit out of me, so I'm not sure what's scaring them.  The thought of having to take responsibility for themselves and their own lives when the nanny state gets taken away?  :shrug:  

And I'm ready to stop talking about all this.  I want life to return to normal.  I'd like the opportunity go get groceries and not have to choose whether I want meat this time or toilet paper because I can't afford both.  I realize that this probably won't turn around on a dime, but it would be nice to have it sooner rather than later.

The deluge here finally ended.  We got around six and a half inches of rain so far this month.  The lake level jumped up about 5 feet in 24 hours.  The river near here was flowing at 75 cubic feet per second before the rain and jumped to 25000 cubic feet per second and then jumped again to 48000 cfps.  I haven't driven out or walked down to see it yet, and it's starting to come down, so I won't see it at its worst, but gah.  Hubs just showed me a photo someone had taken of the river.  It's full of crap.  This totally harshes my chances at fishing.  Blerg.

The cats let us sleep all night last night.  Progress.  Yay.

I'm reading a Zane Grey right now.  It's interesting.  So far, not my favorite of his, but it's okay.

The bucks are back.  Right now, they're chasing tail all over the woods.  Horny bastards.

I've really been a toad these past couple weeks.  I need to cut that shit out.  It doesn't do my body any good.  It doesn't do my brain any good either.  And let's not even talk about my attitude.  That's in the crapper.  I said I was going to edit every day this month and so far, I did it once.  Yeah, not the most banner of times.  I'd like to say that ends today, but I can't promise anything.

Okay, I think that's about it for me today.  How are things in your world?

Waiting for The Other Shoe

I have this affliction where I can't get excited for happy news.  It seems I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.  You know the shoe... the one that drops and makes all your happy go away and generally makes you look like a fool for ever being optimistic?  Yeah, that one.

Maybe it's a function of the era when I grew up.  Gen X'ers are not the most optimistic of people, as a general rule.  Or something.  Maybe it's yet another thing I can blame on my head injury.  It could also be due to some crushing disappointment somewhere along the way that I can't point to specifically.  :shrug:  

So, I'm reserving my glee until Big T actually gets sworn in.  Until then many things could actually derail it.  I don't expect the Dems to accept this defeat with grace.

We'll see.  

Election Day

Today is Election Day here in the states.  I don't think I'm overstating it when I say this is the most important election in America since Reagan beat Carter.  Maybe more important than that even.  This great country of ours has been on the slow slide to collectivism (socialism/communism/fascism) for decades now.  Today will either signal a stop to the slide or we'll see the slide reach its ultimate destination.

You know what to do.  And if you don't know what to do by this point, I can't help you.  

Hubs and I will be going to the polling location later in the morning.  Then we'll wait.  I guess the Hyena is cackling about how counting the votes will take days.  It shouldn't, but her handlers will make sure they drag it out.  

Tomorrow we should have some idea of which way the vote is going.  It'll either be a WOOHOO and hope will spring forth or it'll be a :sad trombone: and we will continue to muddle along.  

Keep your fingers crossed.

Thursday This n That

Happy Halloween.  We're not doing anything, but hey, this is a better holiday than Labor Day, even if you don't automatically get the day off.  I did buy a couple Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins and a couple Russell Stover Marshmallow Pumpkins, so life is good.  

I'm in the middle of another freebie thing.  I really should be posting marketing stuff right now, but I'm tired, so I'm blogging instead.

Speaking of tired, I didn't get out of bed this morning until almost 7, which meant I had like 10 minutes to get to semi-functional before I called Mom.  

The DirecTV bill went up again.  Bastards.

The temp when I got up was 59.  It's only supposed to get to 66 today.  Woot.

I'm not sure anyone is still seeing my posts on Facebook anymore.  Every rare once in a while, someone will react to one, but not like they used to.  Between my marketing posts and my political posts, I think FB has throttled my reach.  Bastards.

Old Pervy Bill was up in Michigan stumping for the Hyena and admitted that the economy was better under the Big T, but Bill said we should all still vote for Hyena because reasons.  Go away, ya perv.

My cats are obsessed with pens.  I thought I'd hidden the pen I keep on my desk well enough, but nope.  It was pilfered in the middle the night and found on the floor.  It already had little teethmarks on it, so no harm done.  I don't think they're interested in chewing it enough to get to the ink.  They just want to perforate it a bit.  On a lighter note, it's fitting that a writer's cats should be pen-obsessed.

Some days, I'm not sure if I should call myself a writer.  I'm not actually writing much.  Hell, I'm not even editing much.  I'm just lazy.  I think I'll do like an Edit Wri-Mo thing for November.  Give myself 30 days to get this book done and ready to publish.  It's doable. We'll see.

Okay, I'm off to wreak havoc elsewhere.  Have a great day.  Eat some candy.  Watch a scary movie or something.  

The Choice Ahead

Below is the link to an interesting post about politics and the upcoming election.  I'll just leave it here and you can read it or not.  If you're at all confused about what we're facing in the coming election, you probably should read it.  There's kind of a lot at stake.

https://accordingtohoyt.com/2024/08/30/lines-of-departure-2-2-the-choice-isnt-trump-or-harris-by-tom-kratman/

This week's local paper had a scathing letter to the editor ripping Trump, which is 1) weird because this is a mostly conservative county and 2) not really all that unexpected because the editor of our local paper is a leftist.  I expect the editor will get a ton of letters refuting this one, but I don't expect she'll allow any of them to actually go to print.  Or she'll post one that will come across as the ravings of a conservative lunatic rather than one of the many well-reasoned letters she'll receive.  That's her style.

:heavy sigh:  

Now, it's time to go grocery shopping.  It should be a breeze because the VP says the economy is doing great - while she's promising to fix it out the other side of her mouth.  (If it's great, why does it need to be fixed?)  I expect to get next to nothing for double the price.  If I'm lucky, maybe I'll find marked-down, almost-expired ground beef.  It'll be nice to have beef again.  It's been too expensive to buy at regular prices.  Wish me luck.

Property Rights

The other day I saw a video clip someone posted on FB and it's kind of concerning.  It was of Harris talking to some of her cronies about how they could just take someone's patent.  And to her it seemed like something funny and fun to do.  Like it was nothing.

A patent is a property right.  You come up with an invention, you patent it so everyone knows it's YOURS.  This thing you created came out of your head and you made it real.  You should profit from it.  I'd say in perpetuity, but those things don't last forever.  Still, for as long as they last, they're yours.  

Kind of like copyrights.  

If someone in power is willing to steal a patent, it's not that big a step for them to just go ahead and steal your copyright, too.  Basically, if they want something, it's theirs to take.  Sort of like a whole section of our populous these days.  (If you haven't been paying attention, there have been hoards of people taking things that don't belong to them.  It'll get worse, trust me.  Sort of a 'if she's doing it, why can't I' mindset.)

Sure, they'll probably start with the conservatives and other people who aren't on their side, but before long, they'll come for the liberals, too.  Or, if a liberal's property is desirable to them, they'll skip the line and go straight for the throat no matter who is it.

Jus' sayin'.

I mean, I've even seen it here on my little plot of land.  Some people who occasionally come up from a rather large city south of here decided it would be okay to wander the woods... woods that do not belong to them... and one day they just popped out of the woods into my yard.  They were going on 'an adventure', they said.  They didn't even bother to ask if it was okay to trespass on my property.  I would've told them no, but still.  (And maybe that's why they didn't ask.)  We have our reasons, but we don't really need one to stand up and say 'this piece of property belongs to us - stay off'.  Hell, we don't even need to say it.  Property doesn't have to be posted No Trespassing for it to apply.  (It's easier to prosecute when there's a sign, but you don't need it.)  Those people don't see us walking on their land - and they have waterfront, so it would be awesome to just walk across their lawn and fish off their backyard.  We don't do that because those people have rights.  We respect that.  

Our books are our property, too.  We sometimes share our property for free.  Get the word out there, maybe pick up some residual sales.  Sharing it once for free doesn't mean it's always free, so you can take it and share it, too.  It means for this space of time, we would like for you to read it and appreciate it without having to pay for it.  Pass your love of the book along, not the book itself.

I find really quite concerning and more than a little depressing that the second in charge of our great nation has so little regard for property rights..  The only thing I can do is write posts like this and hope that come November enough people realize the truth and vote accordingly.

:shrug:

Sunday Update 7/14/24

 Welp, it's Sunday again.  If you don't know what happened in the news yesterday, some asshole tried to assassinate Trump.  He'll be fine and at least two other people fared much worse.  If you want to know more, there are a million articles about it out there now.

Onward to my world...

I wrote every day but one this week.  I took Tuesday off.  Still, I ended the week with 5058 new words added, and the book is at 14098 total.  I'm trying to remember to make a little note about Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo at the end of every blog post here, but I'm also adding it the widget over there on the right.  In addition to actually putting words on the page, I have notes of things that may or may not happen farther done the storyline, which is always a good thing to have.  It's kind of money in my writing bank.

The PROJECT HERMES freebie thing ended with me moving a total of 82 books.  No sales or page reads off this yet.  (And if it hasn't happened by now, it most likely won't.)  Derp.  

In reading news, I finished two books this week and I'm currently working on an Agatha Christie I've never read before.  Yay.

I didn't do too much in the activity column.  Two days walking, one day cleaning and rearranging my closet.  (I cleaned and rearranged my closet because Hubs found a brown recluse spider in our bed, so I made it a less welcome environment.)  I also cleaned other areas of the house that day.  Also, I went grocery shopping, which sorta counts as an activity because it involves a lot of walking and pushing the cart, etc.  

On the baking front, I didn't.  It's too hot to bake.  I did make a batch of no-bake cookies, though.  Also, yay.

The fawns are getting bigger and we're seeing them more frequently.

I really need to clean the house today.  Regular cleaning as opposed to 'OMG there's a nasty spider in our bed better clean where I don't usually clean' cleaning.  I also need to figure out my next move in the book marketing scheme of things.  I'll probably go with the genie books.  We'll see.  Right now, though, I should probably get dressed and go for a walk before it gets ungodly hot again.  

What happened in your world last week?  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 13
Starting Word Count: 13285
Ending Word Count: 14098
New Words: 813

Thursday This n That

Since we got the boys, I can no longer keep pens laying around.  They LOVE pens and would very much like to nom on them.  The pen caddie that used to sit on my desk is now on the top of a bookshelf and the one pen I use is in my desk drawer.  But hey, they're a writer's cats, so the fact that they love pens should come as no surprise.

I'm trying not to think about the fact that this book I'm writing has no clear direction and I have no clue where I'm going.  (And I'm pretty sure that it's awful.)  Thank goodness for edits, eh?

I woke up late again today.  Of course, late for me is 6am.  Derp.  I can't remember the last time I slept until 8.  I slept until 7 once last year.  It was a weekend, so yay.  When I was a teen, I could sleep until 10 in the summer and that was awesome.  Oh, well.  Getting older sure does have its quirks, eh?

I saw a fox in the neighbor's yard on Monday.  

Gah, the heat.  I mean, it's been a lot cooler these last couple of days because of the storms, but it's jacking back up again.  :shrug:  It is July, after all, and this is generally a hotter region than either Michigan or Colorado, so I guess it's not unexpected.  Still, we do like to gripe about the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter.  It's a national pastime.  ;o)

Why does pastime only have one S?  Since it's used to pass the time, shouldn't it have two Ss?  

Don't get me started on the upcoming election or we'll be here all day.  Okay, just one thing... if a person is not mentally sharp enough to be held responsible for their actions, then how can they possibly be sharp enough to hold the fate of a nation in their hands?  Jus' sayin'.

Sawyer is an attention whore.  And he generally prefers negative attention.  I try to give loads of attention when he's being good, but he enjoys getting into trouble.  He actually purrs harder when he gets caught being naughty.  Silly boy.  Finn on the other hand is such a lover muffin.  Yesterday morning, all he wanted was pets.  And when I stopped, he'd head-bonk me until I started up again.  And when I tried to go do something else, he followed me - head-bonking and rubbing against my legs all the way.  Also, Silly boy.

Today's post has been a kitty sandwich, I guess.  Start with cats, end with cats, with layers of other stuff in the middle.  Hope you enjoyed it.  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 10:
Starting word count: 11063
Ending word count: 11797
New words: 734

Thursday This n That

Yeah, I realize this isn't Thursday.  Unfortunately, I didn't think yesterday was Thursday, so you're getting this today.  

Yesterday, I was listening to music on my lunch break and this one video started out with an attack ad against both the Republican and the Libertarian candidates for Senate.  Everything 'bad' they were saying about the R turned out to be lies.  Everything 'bad' they said about the L made me want to vote for him.  I wish I could find the ad and share it, but alas, I cannot.  I'm still voting for the R on Tuesday, though, because if the conservatives here split their votes between R & L, we'll get the damn D again.  Maybe that was the point of the commercial.  She knows she can't win if the conservative voters don't split their vote, so she's making the L look more attractive than the R.  

Sometimes it's hard to not talk about things going on at work.  

I've been screwing around taking these 'list challenge' things I see on FB.  One of them was 'so you think you're well read'.  It had like 1460 titles on it.  I've read like 175 or so and I shared it on FB.  Someone commented pointing to Sturgeon's Law on Wikipedia.  Back in the '50s, science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon postulated that 90% of everything is crap.  Yep, that seems about right.

Speaking of crap, I saw another challenge on there of 'woke' books.  It said something about the average # of those books that participants have read.  It was 3.  LOL

One thing I hate about book challenges on there is that they list a whole series of which I read only one or two, so I can't claim it.  Harshes my groove, man.

I've already bought a 2023 date book for work.  I haven't written in it yet, but I need to plan some stuff out for next year already, so I should probably get crackin' on that.  I am not one for planning that far ahead.

I think we're having leftovers for dinner tonight.  Or burgers.  We need to eat the leftovers, but I'll probably want a burger by the time I get home.  :wanders into the kitchen to take burger out to defrost:

Yesterday morning, I was on my way to work and not far from the house when a chipmunk darted across the road in front of me.  Lucky for Chester, I was paying attention and hit the brakes.  I would've had a sad if I'd squashed the little dude.  Probably not as sad as he would've been, though.

Okay, I've probably bored you enough for now.  Have a great day and an awesome weekend. :hugs:

Sunday Update - Week WTF

Okay, so it was Week 8, but I think you'll agree there was a bunch of WTF in it, eh?

For me part, I spent a lot of this past week editing again.  I got 125 pages done.  And as of last night, I am 38 pages from being done with this edit round.  Right now the book is 377 pages and just under 110K words.  I've been thinking about the next book and, yeah, the amount of work this one has been is scaring the crap out of me.  But let's take this one day at a time, yeah?

I still haven't done any marketing or reading of other people's books.  I've got tunnel vision for this book.

I did do some more baking/cooking, though.  This week, I made a vat of chicken soup and biscuits to go along with it.  I did French bread pizza.  And :drumroll: I made my own homemade hamburger buns.  Those totally rock, so the recipe is pasted at the end of this post.

On the activity front, I only got 3 days with something active.  One day, I did some woods work.  Another day, I vacuumed.  And finally, Hubs and I worked together to cover the car ahead of the approaching ice storm.  (Which we didn't get, by the way.)  Other than that, I've been a lump and I'm paying for it.  In case you're wondering what I mean by that, I hurt when I don't move.  So I am hurting this morning from my lack of activity.  Anyway, despite the inactivity, I lost a pound.  Weight: 181.2

A little while back, I talked about cutting the budget.  Well, this week, I went ahead and cut Anthem.  I went with a United Health policy that cuts my expenses by over $400 a month.  And it still covers everything I need, with a lower out-of-pocket.  Nothing irritates me more than paying for something I don't need, so yay.  Don't get me started there, okay?  Unfortunately, we also got the bill for our homeowner's insurance this week.  Yep, they jacked it up again.  If I can find comparable insurance there for less, I'm telling State Farm to kiss my wide, white hiney, too.

In weather news, we got sleet.  Enough sleet that it looks like a winter wonderland out there.  But the second you go to step on it, you know damn well it ain't snow.  It's inches worth of tiny ice balls that have now melted sufficiently to meld into a big block of ice.  It's hard to walk on, a bitch to drive on, slow to melt, and generally a pain in my ass.  But the temps are supposed to slowly rise from 50 today to 70 later in the week.  

As for the elephant in the room, or the WTF I alluded to above, I'm sure you've all heard about the Russia/Ukraine thing.  Thanks, Sleepy Joe.  Appreciate ya.  (Note sarcasm.)  After spending my formative years as a Cold War kid, and seeing Reagan set things on the course to right, this all depresses the holy hell out of me.  And I just have one thing to say in response to it all... WOLVERINES!

And on that note, back to regular life, such as it is.  I have a book to finish.  The plan is to have this edit round done today or tomorrow, do another quick read-through for typos, and call it good.  I'll be looking for beta readers shortly, so if you're interested and have some spare time in March, let me know.  I'd like to be able to get this sucker up for sale by April Fool's Day.  Maybe on April Fool's Day, since it's an important date in my life anyway.

How was your week?

You Really Have to Laugh

I did an experiment yesterday.  A friend got warned by FB for saying something they considered 'hate speech', so I posted the exact same verbiage on my page.  (For the record, saying 'boys are idiots' is not hate speech.  Come on.)  She got warned.  I got nothing.  I'm beginning to feel slighted.  I suspect this is because she is someone with a lot of followers and a reach.  I'm no one in the scheme of things, so they don't give a rat's ass if I post stuff.  Hell, I actually swear and junk... without the asterisks.  Most of the George Carlin words and then some.

I did get warned once for sharing something they'd already considered 'bad'  They told me it was bad and that if I shared it I might be considered bad, too, so I should probably think before I dismissed their warning and shared it on my page.  I shared it anyway.  Nothing happened.

FB has become such a joke.

Basically, I'm at the point where every time FB 'fact checks' something, I assume it's true.  My reasoning?  If it wasn't true, they wouldn't be afraid of it and feel the need to tell everyone how untrue it was.  If I want to check whether something is actually true or false, I go over to Duck Duck Go and look for valid sources.  Multiple valid sources, usually.  I don't rely on FB to tell me the truth.

Speaking of which, a page I follow posted a meme this morning.  The meme showed a see of exactly the same face looking up into the sky and chanting FB's COVID-19 verbiage, which had then been tagged with the same verbiage and then tagged with the same verbiage again.  The meme was tagged with the same verbiage.  Which was hilarious.  

A while back, someone posted something that talked about being unable to understand how a senile pedophile and a high-priced call-girl could've received so many votes.  FB fact-checked it with 'he's not a pedophile!'  I found it incredibly funny that they didn't fact-check his senility or her being a hooker.  Apparently, you can say he's an addled minded old fart and she's a ho, but for godsakes, don't call him a pedophile.

You really have to laugh at this shit.  It's comedy gold, people.

I'm so sad Carlin died.  He'd be calling all of this out, dragging it into the light and showing how astronomically stupid all of it is.

Seriously, though, the only appropriate response to this shit is to laugh at it.  Gretchen Halfwit now says children aged 2-4 have to wear masks.  You can't get kids that age to keep their clothes on and you want to mask them up?  That's going to go over well.  A comedian back in the '80s... I want to say either Robin Williams or Howie Mandel*... has a bit about their kid taking off all their clothes and running around screaming 'LOOK AT ME!  I'M NAKED!'  Keep a mask on that, you silly twatwaffle.  

Sure, it's serious.  Our country is swirling the drain and headed right for the septic tank.  People are dying.  Others are going broke and still others are killing themselves.  Maybe if everyone had laughed at this shit from the very beginning, it wouldn't be as bad as it is.  I don't know.  All I know is if I don't laugh at it now, I'll go nuts.  

*Yes, that Howie Mandel.  He was a comedian before he was a gameshow host.  I still repeat some of his stuff.  It was that memorable.  He was also an actor on one of the most highly-rated medical dramas of the time - St. Elsewhere.  Look it up.

Thursday This n That

There's an old quote I've been thinking about lately that goes 'It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.'  Unfortunately, the quote is attributed to a communist (which I didn't know until I researched it just now... gah).  Not sure what BS she was peddling when she said it, because communism makes more people live on their knees than just about any other political system, but the words themselves are meaningful.

I saw something posted this morning that detailed where exactly we're at right now, so we can look back this time next year.  The only data point I remember is gas price.  It said $1.95 a gallon.  Yesterday, gas here was $2.08 where I usually get gas and $2.22 at the place where I buy feed.  (They're always more expensive because it's all straight gas - no ethanol.)  My friend at the feed store said 'It's starting.'  Remember where we're at right now.  This is as good as it's going to get.  

How soon the masses forget $4 a gallon gas under the current ruling party.  We'll see it again shortly.

By the way, gas with ethanol is only cheaper because of government subsidies.  You're still paying for it - just with your taxes instead of your cash.

Someone said something rather poignant when I was standing around talking with friends about things and we got around to the political climate.  "I don't really pay attention to all that stuff."  I'm sure she's not alone.  And that's why we are where we are today.  People don't pay attention until they're in line to load up the cattle cars.

The other day, Mom was telling me a story about the squirrels and the hawks in her apartment complex.  One day, several squirrels were running around the green space outside her apartment when a hawk landed nearby.  Initially they scattered, but soon they came right back to where they were.  Oblivious.  With the hawk still standing there.  We figure the hawk was either too young to know what to do or it wasn't very hungry.  Everything's fine until the hawk that's watching you decides to flex its claws.

This is just me, talking.  Will I still be allowed to talk four years from now?  We'll see.  

The Chaos Diaries Revisited

Things have gotten weird enough again that I figured maybe it was time to revisit The Chaos Diaries.  This time the chaos isn't just about the virus.

I finally got the paycheck my payjob mailed to me on 12/31 yesterday.  While I was at the bank, my BIPF (best in-person friend) told me they're getting inundated with phone calls from people missing the bank statements that were mailed last month.  In happier news, my nephew-in-law who's deployed in the Navy finally got his Christmas box last week.

Recently, I got an email from my credit card company saying that bills might be late this month due to the mail.  Nothing about whether card holders will be exempt from late fees due to not receiving their bills.  Derp.  I have no excuses.  I get my bill in the mail AND in my email.  And I pay it online.  For those people without that luxury, I hope they don't get screwed.

From what I hear, some country in Europe - Denmark, maybe - is moving ahead with 'virus passports'.  As in if you don't have a paper saying you were vaccinated, you won't be allowed to move around, go to stores, etc.  That's crazypants.  

I saw something on The Babylon Bee about Gavin Newsom promising to stop the lockdowns as soon as they find a cure for death.  If you're not familiar with The Bee, it's satire.  Unfortunately, sometimes the satire hits too close to the truth.

What isn't satire... An executive at PBS is on video saying all conservatives should be rounded up and their children put in re-education camps.  PBS shouldn't worry about the kids.  Most children have spent a large portion of their lives in re-education camps called public school.  And the ones that got missed by public school are now in colleges getting a more intense re-education.

As for rounding up us adults, bring it, asshole.  I know enough about the Holocaust to know I will never let myself be 'rounded up' for anything.

My go-to convenience store has gone masked-only.  I didn't notice the signs until I was on my way out of the store the other day.  Yesterday, as a gesture of cooperation (and because I didn't want to take any shit about it), I wore a mask inside.  As soon as I got out the door, I whipped that sucker off.  A man in a red pickup said something to me.  I didn't hear what he said but I waved and told him to have a nice day.  My next stop was the feed store.  As I was walking up to the doors, I heard someone say 'are you following me?'  It was the dude from the red pickup. He was smiling and joking, so it was all good.  He wasn't wearing a mask and neither was I.  (Because the feed store doesn't require one.)  Later, I was chatting with my second BIPF at the register and he stepped up to thank me for not going all mask-nazi on him.  :shrug:  It's a strange world we live in.

On reflection, he may have been flirting with me.  Again, strange world.

In an effort to stop patronizing companies that hate me, I moved my browser over to Brave.  I can't complain.  The only mildly irritating thing is it keeps trying to spellcheck my email and URLs when I plug them into boxes.  The squiggly red line is driving me nuts.  Unfortunately, I can't move out of Facebook entirely, because that's where I sell books and also where a lot of people I know are, but I am spending more time at MeWe.  As people shift over, it should become a better place to be.  I also can't ditch Google entirely because that's where this blog is located and my emails are through them.  But I'm using DuckDuckGo now as a search engine.  We do what we can.  Vote with your dollars and if it's free, vote with your patronage.  

I heard there are writers out there celebrating the censorship of conservatives.  (I don't know this from personal experience as I have squeegeed off those types from my social sphere.)  Writers should be the last people to celebrate any kind of censorship.  They come for me and you celebrate, but they'll be coming for you next.  Unless you're the kind of person who only writes what they tell you to write.  Then you're not a writer, you're a puppet.  

How are you doing in the chaos this time around?  

The Next Day

Well, it's the morning after.  Everything here in MO went according to the way I voted except one amendment which was amending something back to the way it was before and a couple of local seats that were more of a 'this guy or this guy could win and I won't care' - like county coroner.  I voted for the independent there because I thought he had more experience overall.  The guy who won was already in as coroner after the last coroner died.  :shrug:  And I voted for the incumbent commissioner for our area because why fix what ain't broke.  The other voters didn't agree.  :also shrug:  It's not like the post is critical really.

Of course, the Presidency is still up in the air.  With each side saying 'our guy won'.  And the press getting things all farged up.  This is all unsurprising.  

We went to bed at 9.  Hubs was up in the middle of the night.  I'm up now and he's sleeping.  Nothing's changed as far as the election goes.  It'll probably be days.  Might be weeks.  They stopped counting votes in PA.  There was some kind of water main break or something in Atlanta, so Georgia's ballots will have to wait.  Not sure what's up with Arizona.  

Personally, I've always thought the media called the races way too early, but that's me.  "With 1% of the votes counted, we declare X has won"... Umm, ri-i-ght. 

I spent a bit of time yesterday blocking people on FB again.  Nobody I knew, but just people with lunatic comments in other people's posts.  People actually defending socialism like it's a good thing.  That sort of stuff.  Umm, don't know you, don't want to... block.

Anyway, here's hoping that when the dust settles, we'll still have a nation of laws and freedom.  I don't want to think about the alternative.

Okay, off you go into the world.  I've got to figure out what I'm going to do today when I don't actually feel like doing anything. 

Election Day

Well, folks, it's election day here in the states. It's probably the most important election day in our lifetimes.  So, go vote.  From what I understand, it's supposed to be beautiful day in pretty much the whole country, so no excuses, eh?

If you don't know who you're voting for by now, I can't help you.  Hell, if you didn't know who you were voting for months ago, then you weren't paying attention.  Nothing I say right here, right now, is going to change anything.  Unless it lights a fire under your butt to go vote.

Hubs and I will be trotting down to the community center to cast our votes in a few hours - once the sun comes up enough so it's not in my eyes as I drive.  Safety first, doncha know.  I hate driving with the sun in my eyes.  I'll do it if I have to, but I don't have to today.  We've got all day.  We just like getting it done in the morning.

Here's hoping there are no problems like I've heard about in other places with the early ballots.  I swear, if I get there and there's even one circle already blacked in, I'm going to go apeshit.  

It should be pretty smooth here.  Not a lot of people in this area, so I don't expect huge lines.  Once, we got to the polling place and there were like three people in front of us.  Also, our polling place shares a building with the tiny local library.  They're almost never open, but they have books for sale outside in the hall, so I might come home with a few.  (Depends on if I have to wait for Hubs or if he gets done first.)

Of course, I woke up feeling gross.  Not 'rona gross.  More like something I ate isn't agreeing with me.  And I didn't sleep well.  Again.  But I'll go vote if I have to crawl across the parking lot and up the steps to vote.  (I'm not quite that gross-feeling.  And I'll be back to fine by the time we go probably. Thank goodness for coffee.)

I'd like to think that after today, this will all be over and we can go back to our lives.  But they're making it pretty clear this isn't going to be over today.  Have to make sure they count all the mail-in ballots, doncha know - which could take days... or weeks.  Umm...  If you didn't get your mail-in ballot in the mail in plenty of time to get to where it was going by now, shame on you.  And if they didn't get their asses in gear to count all the mail-in ballots by midnight tonight, shame on them.  We all want our lives back, thank you very much.

So, yeah, if you haven't already voted, go vote.  If you didn't vote and aren't going to, I don't want to know.  I also don't want to know who you voted for.  Keep everything nice and civil today - here if nowhere else.

And otherwise, have a great day.  Tomorrow will sort itself out one way or another.

Thursday This n That

They have nicotine patches, which begs the question...  Why aren't there caffeine patches?  Man, I could really use one of those this morning.  Okay, several of those.  Don't judge.

Which reminds me of a funny I saw on FB yesterday... 'The idea of a domestic housewife implies that there are feral housewives.'  :gigglesnort:

The zucchini bread is almost gone for another year.  :sadface:  

Last night, Hubs and I watched Trump's rally in Gastonia, NC.  Wow.  The positive energy was palpable.  And it kind of restored my own positive energy - especially when there's so much negativity around these days.  If you haven't seen one, I'd totally recommend it.  Here, Newsmax was covering it. Not sure if anyone else was.

Years ago, a comedian (not sure which one... Carlin?  Williams?  Wright?) pointed out that the word politics comes from POLI - meaning many - and TICKS - meaning blood sucking organisms.  :gigglesnort:

Speaking of comedians, I've been watching reruns of Deal or No Deal.  I'm not sure what it is about that show that's so enthralling.  Part of it is the host, I'm, sure.  I love Howie Mandel, always have.  He was a hilarious stand-up comic.  He was a good actor on St. Elsewhere.  He's pretty good at the game show host thing, too.  Otherwise, it's just people picking cases and making decisions about whether to take the 'deal' or keep on picking cases in order to find out if the million is in their case.  Not much too it, really.  But yeah, enthralling.

I've also been watching Match Game a lot.  And of course, Perry Mason.  Last night's Perry Mason had a gal I see on Match Game a lot.  Too funny.  Oh, and Perry Mason has had Leonard Nimoy on it and DeForest Kelley.  (For people not in the Star Trek know, that's Spock and Bones.)  I wonder if Shatner ever did Perry Mason.  I know he did Match Game.  And I saw Scotty on Hazel the other day.  ROFL.

Okay, I've yattered enough this morning.  Got anything to yatter about?

The Chaos Diaries - 4/17/20

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be doing these posts.  I guess as long as the chaos remains, there'll be something to talk about. 

Have you heard about the video Pelosi put out where she's talking about us being in this together eating ice cream (or some such nonsense) while she stands in front of her $20,000 SubZero fridge filled with gourmet ice cream?  Sorry, lady, the Dollar General here is out of ice cream and my Kenmore floor model fridge's freezer is full of meat, cheese, and bread I had to buy to stay out of the stores due to the chaos. 

Down to my last half-bowl of cheap-ass Great Value super-tub vanilla, btw.  The last of the GV orange sherbet went to the Owl yesterday.  No ice cream for us po' folks for a while, I guess.  I did manage to buy a box of those freezer ice thingies.  Oh, yum*.  I went all fancy and bought the Italian Ice kind, which should keep the Owl happy.  They were a dollar.

I had a real hankering for a chocolate chip cookie yesterday and went to get one.  But they were gone.  I muttered to myself  'someone ate the last cookie and didn't bother to tell me' at which point an abashed Hubs poked his head into the kitchen and admitted he was the culprit.  I don't care if he ate the last cookie.  I like making cookies for him to eat.  It was the not telling me part because if they tell me, I can make more.  I almost made more cookies last night, the need was so great, but they wouldn't have cooled in time for me to put them away before I went to bed, so nope.  I'll get to that later today.  Along with a batch of oatmeal cookies, because those are gone, too. 

Three people on a menu typically meant for two isn't an easy thing.  Everything goes quicker.  Usually, I eat leftovers for lunch.  No leftovers.  Good thing I like soup.

Yesterday morning, I went fishing by myself.  Just me and the lake.  It was necessary.  I didn't catch anything, but I did get some time in reacquainting myself with the baitcaster reel, so when I take Owl out again, I can teach her the spincaster I usually use.  Oh, and I also had 4 ospreys keeping me company.  I even got to see one dive for its prey.  (It missed, but still cool.)  I'm such a bird nerd.  =o)

The parking lot at the lake wasn't quite as full this time.  Still, more than on a typical Thursday morning.  I guess there are worse ways to spend your 'forced not to work' days.  As long as they all get in their boats and stay away from me, it's fine.

Well, I suppose I ought to get my butt in gear and start making cookies.

What are you up to in these chaotic times?


* Note sarcasm.  I want ICE CREAM, not frozen, flavored water.