Rainy Day

IMG 1240Woke up to rain on the roof this morning. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

There’s nothing I need to do outside. I suppose I could park the car outside for a free wash.

Nope, too much effort to get dressed.

I will get out of bed eventually, but right now it’s nice just sitting here listening. 

Something about rain is soothing. As long as I don’t have to drive in it with all the other people on the road, many of whom don’t have the skill to be driving, or the sense God gave a goose.

I’ve often wondered if putting a 21 day wait time on the purchase of a car would impart to people that cars are at least as dangerous to use as a gun.

In what universe does it make sense to fly up behind and sit on someones bumper who’s already doing 80? It make less sense to do that when you can see that the traffic ahead is coming to a stop. All it takes is a little common sense to realize that the person whose bumper you’re rinding is likely to hit their brakes.

That’s the situation I found myself in on Sunday afternoon on the I-15. The moron behind me was totally shocked when I hit my brakes to stop. The idiot locked their wheels and darted into the emergency lane to avoid hitting me (there was at least that mercy). I’d been slowing and tapping my brakes to accommodate the traffic in front of me. The woman riding my bumper was heedless, and I suspect distracted by her damn phone.

I figured that my car would be in the shop again, but no worries I’m going to be out of town and with luck my car would be repaired by the time I got back.

Thank goodness it was a clear sunny day and the roads were dry, otherwise the silly person would’ve spun and taken me and a bunch of other people out with her foolishness.

Maybe today in the rain she’ll cause the destruction she so narrowly missed causing Sunday.

Today I won’t worry about it. I’m going to be home, snug and warm listening to the rain on my roof. I could look at the live traffic maps and enjoy the mayhem vicariously.

Nope! For the next foreseeable hour or two, I’m turning off the tech and going back to sleep. 

If you’re out in the rain, drive carefully and try to take a moment to enjoy the sound of rain on a roof.

UGH! I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.

Had a bit of a workout yesterday, couple that with the time change and lack of sleep and all I want to do today is nap.

This desire is being fueled to some extent by the overcast weather and the threat of rain. I love to sleep with the sound of rain on the roof. If it starts raining I can tell you that I’ll be napping in no time.

I have managed to clean a little and will clean some more during the day. Got dishes to do and clothes to wash. That being said, I’m feeling a lot lazy today.

Other than just the routine stuff, nothing much else to report.

While reading the various news today I see Coronavirus is still spreading. I also see the political parties are trying to spin it to their respective advantage. That’s cheap and sleazy, there are people that are truly afraid & others that are sick. If there was ever a time for political figures to put down their battle axes it would be now.

Part of your job is to reassure the public. So DO your freakin jobs!

Also saw that Trump declined to attend a St Patrick’s Day luncheon where speaker Pelosi was the host.The media is all up in this saying Trump is an ass for not attending. 

D’uh. On the other side of the coin, perhaps it’s best if we keep those two apart just to avoid further national embarrassment. I can’t say I really blame him for not wanting to attend. No matter what he said, he’s be giving Pelosi ammunition. 

Even if he walked in, said, “Thank you for the invitation. Happy St Patrick’s Day,” then sat down. Pelosi would probably find something to bitch about.

As you may have gathered, I’m totally over their drama and would love it if they’d both sit down and shut up.

Hmmm, I guess I’m a little cranky. 

Maybe it is time for that nap…

I hate DST!

clocks.jpgWho doesn’t?

I never sleep well the night it’s going to take effect. I’m always worrying about getting to work, being on time and it takes me a week to begin to get adjusted.

I worry about the one clock (there’s always one) in the house that I’ll forget to change, and invariably that forgotten clock will be the one that I’m looking at while planning to get out the door to go somewhere.

I feel like I’m late for everything for days after the time change even when I’m actually on time. 

It’s like a mandated jet lag for the whole damn country.

Thankfully my phone, computer, and most of the tech in my house figures it out for itself. Unfortunately that actually makes it more likely that I’ll miss a manual clock somewhere.

plane.jpgNext weekend, I’ll be taking a trip. The time change during the trip will make things more interesting and coming back home will force me to “Reset”. I just hope that I’m not going to be totally screwed up for the week after I get home.

Yes, I’m getting on a plane. God help me. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sleep most of the way to/from my destination. I’ll probably end up next to some chatty kathy who wants to tell me about their life. The whole time we’re airborne.

Thearing protection.jpghis is going to be a real test for my AirPod Pros. Can all annoyances be blocked out? or just the drone of the jet engines?  I had another type of noise cancelling headphones years ago when I traveled a lot. They were great at cutting out background noise, but allowed me to hear every word spoken by the passenger next to me.

Maybe I’ll fly with my shooting range ear protection. If they can kill the sound of a .45 perhaps they can kill the sound of annoying talking and baby screaming in a plane cabin.

I’m going to be traveling light. Just enough clothing to be comfortable and if I need something else I’ll buy it when I get there. I’ll have my computer with me, I think that the battery will last me the whole flight and if I can’t sleep I’ll write. I doubt that I’ll need the aircraft WiFi but I think that’s an option.

Don't fuck with time!What still is to be determined is if I’ll need to extend my stay. From what I understand I have relatives that may not be with us much longer and that means that perhaps I’ll have to make the rounds to several states.

Well, I can look for a job from my destination as easily as I can from home. The corona virus will give me a great excuse to do Video interviews.

Clean cars are so nice

IMG_1159.jpegJust got back from the car wash.

There’s something satisfying about washing your car. I like washing my vehicle myself and It’s a quiet time with simple rules. 

You wash the car, you dry the car, you notice little dings and fix them. You spend time waxing and polishing and when you’re done, your car is pretty and you can be proud of your  accomplishment. 

I’ve always liked black cars. They look great for about 10 minutes after a wash.

Yeah, they can be a pain to keep clean, but when they’re clean, they’re stunning. 

My favorite color black is BMW’s Astro Black Metallic. I like pretty much any metallic paint color. My current car has a fine gold colored dust embedded throughout the surface. I’ve always liked the shimmery look.

3 out of my past 4 cars have been this color.  I’m predictably boring, so sue me! 

Washing, clears my head.

Now what to do with the rest of the day.

Back to the job search. Sigh!

I hope you’re having a good day.

On The President

First thing:

Every other western country has very specific rules about immigration. For example, I’m too old to immigrate to Australia. Yes, they’re agist about it. In their defense they wouldn’t let me immigrate because I can’t work long enough in their system to pay enough taxes to fund my pension and healthcare post retirement. They are logically limiting the number of people in their country that could be dependent on their form of welfare.

I can’t immigrate to Canada because my skills aren’t in high enough demand versus their own population and therefore it’s likely that I’d be a burden on their society.

Germany would require that I learn the language, German history, and be employable. Unless I was a refugee.

England, has rules very much like the Canadians. I couldn’t immigrate unless I brought skills that were in short supply.

So why then is America “The evil bastard” in the room?

Isn’t it more reasonable for America to institute similar rules to be more in line with other Western countries?

Even Mexico has immigration guidelines.

So why the hypocrisy?

More curious, is why aren’t our media outlets pointing this out? Oh yeah, hatred of Trump.

I was in Palm Springs yesterday.

While waiting at a counter to purchase something, A gentleman volunteered that he’d just moved to Palm Springs from Los Angeles. He said that the traffic in LA had driven him out of the city, but that his out of state friends couldn’t grasp how bad the traffic actually was. The clerk said, “Yes, that’s why I moved out here,” 

The clerk acknowledged me, “Is that all for you?”

I said, “Yes thank you.” Then offhandedly mentioned if you want to give out of town friends a real taste of LA Traffic invite them to LA when the President visits. The clerk laughed, the other man got a sour face and said, “I wouldn’t go anywhere near the President.”

I realized he was thinking only about Trump, so I explained that I meant any President. And that I personally had been stuck in traffic for seven hours due to President Obama’s visit.

The clerk immediately said, “Wasn’t that a cluster fuck?” I agreed and told him eventually I’d weathered the nightmare traffic in a bar.

The newcomer to Palm Springs simply said, “Oh”

It was at that moment that I realized Trump has been living “Rent Free” in a lot of people’s heads. Apparently a significant percentage of these folks somehow think that Trump controls everything.

This dude is only a President. He’s not in direct control of much of anything. He’s bound by rules, regulations, Congress, and the Judicial branch of our government.

Don’t take this to mean that I think Trump is a good president. He’s a bombastic, hyperbolic, rhetoric spouting messenger.

Yes, he can champion initiatives. He can veto bills, He does have some control over the direction the country is heading, (although apparently no control over his tweets,) but if you think of him as generally a messenger, a face of the government, then you might start to see that the real power in Washington is in Congress.

The next logical question to ask is, “What have those assholes done for us lately?” Aside from each party battling the other to complete impotence in virtually every state and the hallowed halls of congress. Really, what have they accomplished?

Following that train of thought, since both the House or the Senate are distracted, It’s only logical that a President might be able to grab more of the reins of power and pursue his or her personal agendas. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Which points right back at the problem. Congress! Were they actually doing their jobs instead of fighting like children, President Trump would just be a “meh” President.

Presidents come and go, some are leaders, others are ventriloquist’s dolls. Others still are rogue operators. History determines what a President was.

President Trump may have correctly identified the problem when he described Washington as a swamp. Hey, give credit where credit is due… However he clearly overestimated his ability to change it.