Bloodbath
01/05/22 06:59
I had planned to lend a hand to Mrs G this coming week when she visits her doctor in Portsmouth. The best course of action would be to use a wheelchair to move her from point A to point B since she's not yet strong enough to get about on her own. She's certainly capable of using a walker but that may not do the trick considering the effort required to go back and forth during his particular visit. I'm not sure how my plans are going over at the rehab joint since they seem to be having second thoughts about what liability, if any, they might have in the event that things don't going according to plan.
They've not inquired as to my experience with such things but I'm guessing they might well be assuming the worst for arguments sake. I guess I would ask the question, how experienced do you need to be to push a wheelchair? Does Mrs G need to pay a king's ransom to have an aide of sorts to do something that I am perfectly capable of doing myself? What are they afraid of exactly? Where does their responsibility start and end when it comes to ensuring patient safety? Is the patient not entitled to make his or her own decisions when and where it comes to activities outside the facility?
I'm not fretful in the least about the task at hand. It seems like an easy enough thing to do and, while I admit to never having done it before, I have to ask the question, how difficult can it be? There isn't a medical facility built within the last 10 years that isn't now wheelchair accessible so that helps. My missus has no compunction whatsoever about my volunteering for the job and it's her mum so that has to count for something. You might be asking, how does Mrs G feel about it? I think she's in with both feet if I'm reading her correctly. In fact, the two of us are looking forward to the outing. Let's do this!
I half expected to hear from the Ev man by now. It's a bit after 7am and I've not seen a text or anything else from him. He and I were planing to do a little food shopping this morning. If he's changed his mind I suppose I'll know soon enough but since I've heard nothing I'll continue to assume that we're going to go to the store as planned. We'll go up and down the aisles and we'll put the things in the cart as we go. The Ev man has never been one to use lists like everyone else so it will be all about curb appeal. We'll avoid the things that he usually avoids and we'll check the ingredients here and there on foodstuffs that look good to him but may contain this or that ingredient which he needs to assiduously avoid.
We make something of an effort to go to the store during off-peak hours so as to get in and get out in good time. The fewer distractions the better is what I say. He's not ever voiced this particular requirement but I like to think that I know him well enough to know what works for him and what doesn't. He surprises me sometimes when I lose sight of him inside the store and he's off somewhere dilly dallying in an aisle looking at God only knows what. I worry sometimes that his choices are too this or too that and that going out on a limb on occasion wouldn't be the end of the world should he be so disposed. Buying a box of Raisin Bran when I know he avoids surgery foods like the plague is but one example that comes to mind. I don't think I've ever seen him buy a loaf of bread but I know he eats bread. We're not talking life in the fast lane here.
I don't like not hearing from the Ev man when he's promised me that he'd be getting in touch with me when we've planned to do something. My mind can go to a very dark place in a hurry when this sort of thing happens. Maybe he's sleeping in this morning. Maybe he's out and about looking for a place to buy a coffee for himself. Maybe he's lost track of time or maybe's he's forgotten about our plans. Is it possible that he's waiting for me to contact him? I never say "no" when he asks me to go shopping so it's unlikely he's read any reticence into my responses. Maybe he's gone shopping without me just to show me that he can. He's never shown any interest in impressing me one way or another so "showing me he can" may be a reach even for me. Like I said, dark places.
Never mind. Fast forward twenty-four hours and all is well with he Ev man. He surfaced as expected if not just a little later than expected. We went shopping and he did a great job of getting all the things he had in mind to buy and more. He seemed more invested as usual in going aisle to aisle and his cart was filling up faster and faster with things that he thought he might like or might just like to have on hand for that rainy day we all love to plan for. I threw out a suggestion or two along the way and I pushed the cart so he didn't have to. He didn't need me to tell him what to buy. He was kicking butt and taking names all by himself. I was just happy to be along for whatever support he thought I had to offer.
Were there things in his cart that were perhaps too sugary or too salty? The answer to that question is unequivocally "yes." I could only hope that he was consuming these things in a measured sort of way. You know, a few things at a time. Don't polish off the whole bag in one sitting for chrissakes. Take your time. Think about what you're putting into your body. He avoided other things that he knew only too well were not good for him and that was good. He read ingredient listings and hesitated every so slightly when looking at beverages with unnatural colorings. I said nothing but secretly cringed when he placed a six-pack of grape colored Zero's in his cart. Well, at least they were sugar free.
I have to laugh. I had my privileges on Twitter suspended for a 12-hour period the other day for comments I tweeted about the Queen of England. I think I said something to the effect that they ought to boot the old hag to the curb and free up some space at Buckingham Palace in order to provide a more substantial accommodation for the homeless. I figured that my comments would pass muster by the leftists moderating content at Twitter headquarters if only because I was nice enough to say something about a marginalized community across the pond in need of a roof over their heads. Had I not thrown something in about the homeless I might well have been terminated so maybe I should consider myself lucky.
And, since when is the Queen of England not fair game when it comes to leveling criticism? Someone at Twitter was clearly enamored of the old bag and was having none of my irreverant gibberish. It was probably some tranny at Twitter who fancied dressing up as the Queen for his closest friends after hours. The good news is that now that Elon Musk has purchased Twitter lock, stock, and barrel, I can say whatever I damn please about the Queen without worrying about reprisals. I sincerely hope that all of this free speech I now have at my disposal doesn't drag me further into the toilet bowl that Twitter can be on any given day. I will be a good boy I will be a good boy I will be a good boy.
One tweet I looked at this morning kind of put everything into context for me. The tweet was as follows: " Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina." I know it sounds crazy but the loons at Twitter responsible for moderating content would have previously labeled a comment like this as hate speech. This is the world we live in, folks. Now that someone has reposted the tweet I'm guessing they are testing the waters now that we have a new sheriff in town. Sheriff Musk. I like the sound of that. God damn, freedom of speech feels good. I almost forgot what it felt like. I'm still not sure I'm going to be happy until Trump comes back to Twitter. He says he's not going to but I'm not sure he'll be able to stay away knowing how many supporters he's now likely to have on the new and revised Twitter platform. It's party time at Twitter Central! Par-Tay!
Trump says that he will not be going back on Twitter after Musk's purchase. I guess he thinks that staying on his platform, Truth Social, is the hill that he prefers to die on. In other words, I'm thinking that he's all in on Truth Social and to go on Twitter at this point would be to abandon everyone on his platform who made the leap from Twitter to Truth Social just to be able to hear from him. I tried many times to join Truth Social but without success. That told me all I needed to know about the platform itself. It was just another Twitter knockoff and a shitstorm of an application. They can stick it where the sun don't shine Trump or no Trump.
The financial markets got roiled again yesterday. The NASDAQ was down some 3.5% and the S&P off by close to 3%. I think that the NASDAQ is now down 20% or so on a YTD basis. Man, tech is taking a beating. I think the S&P is now down 12.4% YTD. It qualifies as carnage and there are a lot of high flying stocks that have lost a ton of value over the last several months. More, incidentally, than the overall indices might suggest. Netflix, for example, was close to a $700 stock just six months ago. It closed at $198 yesterday. My financial guy on the radio said something about our being in a "bear" market yesterday. I think he's talking about lower lows and lower highs when it comes to price. Jumping into the market at this point would be akin to catching a falling knife so investors beware.
You know you're in a bear market when a company like Tesla whose stock got trashed after coming out with outstanding numbers (earnings and guidance) yesterday. I thought I heard someone say something about the market striking back at Elon Musk (owns Tesla) for having the audacity to buy Twitter. The deep state is going to spank that mother fucker (Musk) until the cows come home for taking THEIR application private and denying them a platform to otherwise continue to spew their propaganda. Who the hell does he think he is anyway? They are all of a sudden concerned about limitations on free speech when they were silent when Trump and other conservatives were being banned from the platform. Fuck them and the Trojan horse they rode in on. Long live Musk! No, really.
I finally got rid of all the wood in my rotting woodpile. I'd been looking at that wood pile for years and I just watched as it became more and more of an eyesore. I protected it in the winters by throwing a tarp over the pile just in case I might have to try and burn a log or two in case of an emergency. No one ever said anything to me about it but I have to believe they thought as I did that its usefulness was more on the wane with each passing season than not. The day would come when I would have to use a shovel to remove the debris that was once a nicely stacked quarter cord of wood and I wasn't about to wait for that day to arrive. I took my last trunk load to the local recycling center yesterday and, in the words of I'm not sure who, that's all she wrote.
On my way back from the recycling center yesterday I stopped into a recently opened luncheon joint to buy a lobster roll for the missus for lunch. I thought it would be a nice surprise for her and I wasn't wrong. The only question I had was, just how much of a lobster roll would I get for $28. What would it look like? Would it be plumped up with celery and whatever else to give the impression that you were getting more for your money? Would the roll be fresh? I caught sight of a bag of rolls on the shelf in the store and thought that if those were the rolls they were intending to use for my order then I would be in high cotton. As it turned out, the rolls were indeed one in the same, the roll was actually buttered and toasted, and there were no fillers in the lobster salad. So far, so good.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the store was more than just a lobster shack. They offered a full menu of lunch items and many of the salads were on display and available for take-out. I bought some chowder as well that the missus enjoyed maybe even more than the lobster roll although it contained less seafood than some other chowder that we buy locally. We live on the seacoast, dammit. Put some damn seafood in that chowder for chrissakes. At $28 a lobster roll, we'll not be frequenting the place all that much but we did want to give it a try and we were not disappointed. I didn't order two rolls since paying $56 for a lunch for two seemed excessive but I told the missus that if there were any left over she might want to save a bite for me. Don't make me grovel.
I'm beginning to wonder if temperatures will ever get out of the fifties here on the coast. On the other hand, I'm not wanting to rush the hot weather since it makes for a more difficult bike ride when I'm out and about. I was riding the other day and the temperatures were in the fifties and there was an ever so slight mist in the air. It was just enough to have me wiping my sun glasses off here and there to make sure that I wasn't running into anything or anybody as I was going pell mell down Ocean Boulevard. Well, pell mell might be an exaggeration but you get my drift. Oddly enough, I couldn't have asked for better weather to ride in. Maybe it was the moisture in the air. I dunno.
Today is one of those days where I know what it is that I want to do but I don't know that I have what it takes to do it. I want to go out and rent a machine to turn over the soil hereabouts so we can have a proper garden this year with tomatoes and maybe a little something else. It's not a huge ask but it will require that I get off my ass and get out the door and down to Home Depot. I'm not sure what it is about this ask that seems so daunting but it all seems so uphill if you know what I mean. I feel like I have a window of opportunity that I don't want to let slip by and today is probably the best day to make that all happen. If I can envision what it looks like when all is said and done, that should help. Right?
The missus and I had some blueberry pie and ice cream last night. It was good but it has to stop. We can't be eating that shite. I made the mistake of ordering a spinach and cheese quiche from a local store the other day. I thought, what the heck, let's see how their pre-packaged quiche compares to what I make from time to time. Again, it was shite. It was simply inedible. I don't usually throw away food but this sucker went into the trash faster than you could say Jack Spratt. I can't recall but I think I spat out what little quiche went into my mouth. I won't make that mistake again. The cheddar cheese slices have been good but they're simply not the same without crackers and I avoid crackers since they're just too easy to eat. Now that I think it, apples might go along very nicely with a slice or two of cheddar cheese. If only apples were in season.
What is it with these fucking politicians and their need to memorialize everything under the sun. Madeline Albright passed away recently and the whole of our nation's capitol and her resident politicians were in attendance for her funeral. Maybe they called it a celebration of life, I'm not sure. She was a hack politician for chrissakes. When it the last time you saw them celebrating the lives of the constituents they serve? The answer is short and sweet. Fucking "never" is the right answer. Actually, I think she was a Secretary of State under a democrat president whose name escapes me. So, she wasn't actually elected but she served every American in her role as Secretary so I suppose I was partly right in referring to her a servant of the American public. Enough with the lionizing of elected officials. Put her in the ground and call it a day. Call it a fucking day if it makes you feel any better.
I keep hearing about food shortages but I'm seeing no evidence of it in my travels here on the coast. I keep hearing about supply chain issues and things like chip shortages but see no evidence of it. You would think I might see an absence of certain products popping up here and there since I do all the food shopping in our household. To make matters worse, I'm seeing stories in the news about food processing centers here in the United States blowing up or going out of business or some such. To make matters even worse, I read a story the other day about Bill Gates, the Microsoft guy, buying up farmland across our fruited plains like a man on a mission. What the bejesus is that all about? He who controls our food supply controls everything? If there's a plan afoot by the elites to turn our country into a banana republic, maybe it's as plain as the nose on our collective faces. We just need to open our eyes. Right?
Is anyone else concerned about Biden's newly formed Disinformation Governance Board within the Homeland Security Department? Maybe this should tell us just how much Biden and his leftists fear free speech and the turnover of their favorite propaganda machine, Twitter, to Elon Musk. Who decides exactly what free speech is? What does it look like? What does it sound like? Is it, by any chance, the opposite of what the leftists running our government want you to believe on any given day? How many bullets are they intending to use to set the record straight when a truth-teller strays too far from the "truth"? It's no secret that the Homeland Security Department within our government is the largest purchaser of bullets, firearms, etc. What is that all about?
I'd like to see every candidate running for public office this fall take a stand on doing away with this so-called Ministry of Truth. I'm not certain as to what kind of blocking and tackling we'll need to employ to dismantle this department but dragging the lot of them out of their ergonomically designed chairs and throwing them into the streets would be a good start. We have no gulags here in America so we can't put them into camps as much as we might like to. I want to be careful so as not to start sounding like one of them with all this blocking and tackling nonsense. Fact of the matter is, I think Congress needs to step up here and rip this department out of the Homeland Security organization root and branch. This is not Orwell's America as much as Biden's leftists might like you think it is. As long as we have the wherewithal to resist, resist we shall. We are Americans!
I think these democrat leftists in Congress need to be careful what they ask for. There's a rumor on the street that they'd like Elon Musk to come and testify as to what his plans are when it comes to his purchase of Twitter. I can hear them now. How much protection will Musk afford our marginalized communities in terms of protecting them from hateful rhetoric and potential threats? What will he do to stop the White Supremacists and Trump supporters from terrorizing members of the LGBTQ communities? Funny thing is, they never much cared about free speech in the Twitter-sphere when Twitter gladly banned and shadow banned conservatives and Trump supporters. They were quite happy to see the President of the United States (Trump) banned while allowing despots like the Mullahs in Iran free rein to spew their hatred when it comes to Jews and the destruction of the Jewish State.
Make Elon's testimony a Pay-for-View event and I'm in with both feet. I might even pay a premium to watch it live. The fact that Musk is not a free speech absolutist should give us a bit of a glimpse into what we might expect to hear from him in hearings on the subject. There is no doubt in my mind that that he would put the appropriate guard rails in place to make sure that things don't get too out of hand while ensuring that every voice is heard. I would imagine that the conservatives in Congress, now feeling better about the openness of the platform under Musk, would push back on any efforts by the democrats to place controls on Twitter. I think this is probably testimony that the democrats in Congress wouldn't want the public to hear so it's probably going behind closed doors if it happens at all. Maybe threats from the democrats to hold such hearings is but one of many threats we'll hear as Musk rolls out his new and improved version of Twitter. This is who they are.
Do you recall my aforementioned comments about the financial markets getting roiled? It was a mere handful of paragraphs ago in this week's blog posting. Well, they were roiled again yesterday and it was even worse this time around. The NASDAQ took a 4 plus percent hit and the S&P took a 3 plus percent hit with the NASDAQ ending the week at 12,334 and the S&P ending up at 4,131. Amazon (AMZN) was down some 400 points! Clearly, the individual stocks that have been holding up the indices are starting to come in. Word on the street is that we still have a ways to go. Housing prices are out of whack so they might get taken out as well. No asset classes will be exempt. It's a bloodbath! And now, the Fed is going to announce that they are going to raise interest rates 50 basis points while we're heading into a recession? Who does that?
I like the idea that this whole bear and bull thing in the markets is a process. The guy I like to listen to when it comes to the markets was telling everyone toward the end of last year that the indices were hitting an all time high while there were a massive number of new lows in individual stocks each and every day. There was a stereotypical topping process taking place right in front of our eyes yet all most people saw was a surging stock market day in and day out thanks to the big dogs like Apple and others who were holding up the indices. I was telling my brother from another mother that he should be thankful that his 401k, assuming he has one, is now buying up equities at bargain basement prices each and every week. They could get even cheaper if this thing really turns to shit.
That whole wheelchair thing that I was referring to earlier in this here blog ended up just fine. Mrs G managed just fine and the missus and I were there to assist as promised. The hardest part for me was the waiting while Mrs G was in with her physician. I couldn't understand why it took the better part of an hour but it did so that was that. The missus went in with her mom to see the doctor and when I asked her this morning if she was glad that she did that, she replied, "I suppose." Mrs G took to her walker instead of her wheelchair when she went in to see the doctor and I wondered if she wasn't trying to put on a good face. She was kinda saying, "I took their best punch and I'm still standing!" That's the kind of woman that she is. Nothing but grit and glory! You go, girl!
They've not inquired as to my experience with such things but I'm guessing they might well be assuming the worst for arguments sake. I guess I would ask the question, how experienced do you need to be to push a wheelchair? Does Mrs G need to pay a king's ransom to have an aide of sorts to do something that I am perfectly capable of doing myself? What are they afraid of exactly? Where does their responsibility start and end when it comes to ensuring patient safety? Is the patient not entitled to make his or her own decisions when and where it comes to activities outside the facility?
I'm not fretful in the least about the task at hand. It seems like an easy enough thing to do and, while I admit to never having done it before, I have to ask the question, how difficult can it be? There isn't a medical facility built within the last 10 years that isn't now wheelchair accessible so that helps. My missus has no compunction whatsoever about my volunteering for the job and it's her mum so that has to count for something. You might be asking, how does Mrs G feel about it? I think she's in with both feet if I'm reading her correctly. In fact, the two of us are looking forward to the outing. Let's do this!
I half expected to hear from the Ev man by now. It's a bit after 7am and I've not seen a text or anything else from him. He and I were planing to do a little food shopping this morning. If he's changed his mind I suppose I'll know soon enough but since I've heard nothing I'll continue to assume that we're going to go to the store as planned. We'll go up and down the aisles and we'll put the things in the cart as we go. The Ev man has never been one to use lists like everyone else so it will be all about curb appeal. We'll avoid the things that he usually avoids and we'll check the ingredients here and there on foodstuffs that look good to him but may contain this or that ingredient which he needs to assiduously avoid.
We make something of an effort to go to the store during off-peak hours so as to get in and get out in good time. The fewer distractions the better is what I say. He's not ever voiced this particular requirement but I like to think that I know him well enough to know what works for him and what doesn't. He surprises me sometimes when I lose sight of him inside the store and he's off somewhere dilly dallying in an aisle looking at God only knows what. I worry sometimes that his choices are too this or too that and that going out on a limb on occasion wouldn't be the end of the world should he be so disposed. Buying a box of Raisin Bran when I know he avoids surgery foods like the plague is but one example that comes to mind. I don't think I've ever seen him buy a loaf of bread but I know he eats bread. We're not talking life in the fast lane here.
I don't like not hearing from the Ev man when he's promised me that he'd be getting in touch with me when we've planned to do something. My mind can go to a very dark place in a hurry when this sort of thing happens. Maybe he's sleeping in this morning. Maybe he's out and about looking for a place to buy a coffee for himself. Maybe he's lost track of time or maybe's he's forgotten about our plans. Is it possible that he's waiting for me to contact him? I never say "no" when he asks me to go shopping so it's unlikely he's read any reticence into my responses. Maybe he's gone shopping without me just to show me that he can. He's never shown any interest in impressing me one way or another so "showing me he can" may be a reach even for me. Like I said, dark places.
Never mind. Fast forward twenty-four hours and all is well with he Ev man. He surfaced as expected if not just a little later than expected. We went shopping and he did a great job of getting all the things he had in mind to buy and more. He seemed more invested as usual in going aisle to aisle and his cart was filling up faster and faster with things that he thought he might like or might just like to have on hand for that rainy day we all love to plan for. I threw out a suggestion or two along the way and I pushed the cart so he didn't have to. He didn't need me to tell him what to buy. He was kicking butt and taking names all by himself. I was just happy to be along for whatever support he thought I had to offer.
Were there things in his cart that were perhaps too sugary or too salty? The answer to that question is unequivocally "yes." I could only hope that he was consuming these things in a measured sort of way. You know, a few things at a time. Don't polish off the whole bag in one sitting for chrissakes. Take your time. Think about what you're putting into your body. He avoided other things that he knew only too well were not good for him and that was good. He read ingredient listings and hesitated every so slightly when looking at beverages with unnatural colorings. I said nothing but secretly cringed when he placed a six-pack of grape colored Zero's in his cart. Well, at least they were sugar free.
I have to laugh. I had my privileges on Twitter suspended for a 12-hour period the other day for comments I tweeted about the Queen of England. I think I said something to the effect that they ought to boot the old hag to the curb and free up some space at Buckingham Palace in order to provide a more substantial accommodation for the homeless. I figured that my comments would pass muster by the leftists moderating content at Twitter headquarters if only because I was nice enough to say something about a marginalized community across the pond in need of a roof over their heads. Had I not thrown something in about the homeless I might well have been terminated so maybe I should consider myself lucky.
And, since when is the Queen of England not fair game when it comes to leveling criticism? Someone at Twitter was clearly enamored of the old bag and was having none of my irreverant gibberish. It was probably some tranny at Twitter who fancied dressing up as the Queen for his closest friends after hours. The good news is that now that Elon Musk has purchased Twitter lock, stock, and barrel, I can say whatever I damn please about the Queen without worrying about reprisals. I sincerely hope that all of this free speech I now have at my disposal doesn't drag me further into the toilet bowl that Twitter can be on any given day. I will be a good boy I will be a good boy I will be a good boy.
One tweet I looked at this morning kind of put everything into context for me. The tweet was as follows: " Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina." I know it sounds crazy but the loons at Twitter responsible for moderating content would have previously labeled a comment like this as hate speech. This is the world we live in, folks. Now that someone has reposted the tweet I'm guessing they are testing the waters now that we have a new sheriff in town. Sheriff Musk. I like the sound of that. God damn, freedom of speech feels good. I almost forgot what it felt like. I'm still not sure I'm going to be happy until Trump comes back to Twitter. He says he's not going to but I'm not sure he'll be able to stay away knowing how many supporters he's now likely to have on the new and revised Twitter platform. It's party time at Twitter Central! Par-Tay!
Trump says that he will not be going back on Twitter after Musk's purchase. I guess he thinks that staying on his platform, Truth Social, is the hill that he prefers to die on. In other words, I'm thinking that he's all in on Truth Social and to go on Twitter at this point would be to abandon everyone on his platform who made the leap from Twitter to Truth Social just to be able to hear from him. I tried many times to join Truth Social but without success. That told me all I needed to know about the platform itself. It was just another Twitter knockoff and a shitstorm of an application. They can stick it where the sun don't shine Trump or no Trump.
The financial markets got roiled again yesterday. The NASDAQ was down some 3.5% and the S&P off by close to 3%. I think that the NASDAQ is now down 20% or so on a YTD basis. Man, tech is taking a beating. I think the S&P is now down 12.4% YTD. It qualifies as carnage and there are a lot of high flying stocks that have lost a ton of value over the last several months. More, incidentally, than the overall indices might suggest. Netflix, for example, was close to a $700 stock just six months ago. It closed at $198 yesterday. My financial guy on the radio said something about our being in a "bear" market yesterday. I think he's talking about lower lows and lower highs when it comes to price. Jumping into the market at this point would be akin to catching a falling knife so investors beware.
You know you're in a bear market when a company like Tesla whose stock got trashed after coming out with outstanding numbers (earnings and guidance) yesterday. I thought I heard someone say something about the market striking back at Elon Musk (owns Tesla) for having the audacity to buy Twitter. The deep state is going to spank that mother fucker (Musk) until the cows come home for taking THEIR application private and denying them a platform to otherwise continue to spew their propaganda. Who the hell does he think he is anyway? They are all of a sudden concerned about limitations on free speech when they were silent when Trump and other conservatives were being banned from the platform. Fuck them and the Trojan horse they rode in on. Long live Musk! No, really.
I finally got rid of all the wood in my rotting woodpile. I'd been looking at that wood pile for years and I just watched as it became more and more of an eyesore. I protected it in the winters by throwing a tarp over the pile just in case I might have to try and burn a log or two in case of an emergency. No one ever said anything to me about it but I have to believe they thought as I did that its usefulness was more on the wane with each passing season than not. The day would come when I would have to use a shovel to remove the debris that was once a nicely stacked quarter cord of wood and I wasn't about to wait for that day to arrive. I took my last trunk load to the local recycling center yesterday and, in the words of I'm not sure who, that's all she wrote.
On my way back from the recycling center yesterday I stopped into a recently opened luncheon joint to buy a lobster roll for the missus for lunch. I thought it would be a nice surprise for her and I wasn't wrong. The only question I had was, just how much of a lobster roll would I get for $28. What would it look like? Would it be plumped up with celery and whatever else to give the impression that you were getting more for your money? Would the roll be fresh? I caught sight of a bag of rolls on the shelf in the store and thought that if those were the rolls they were intending to use for my order then I would be in high cotton. As it turned out, the rolls were indeed one in the same, the roll was actually buttered and toasted, and there were no fillers in the lobster salad. So far, so good.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the store was more than just a lobster shack. They offered a full menu of lunch items and many of the salads were on display and available for take-out. I bought some chowder as well that the missus enjoyed maybe even more than the lobster roll although it contained less seafood than some other chowder that we buy locally. We live on the seacoast, dammit. Put some damn seafood in that chowder for chrissakes. At $28 a lobster roll, we'll not be frequenting the place all that much but we did want to give it a try and we were not disappointed. I didn't order two rolls since paying $56 for a lunch for two seemed excessive but I told the missus that if there were any left over she might want to save a bite for me. Don't make me grovel.
I'm beginning to wonder if temperatures will ever get out of the fifties here on the coast. On the other hand, I'm not wanting to rush the hot weather since it makes for a more difficult bike ride when I'm out and about. I was riding the other day and the temperatures were in the fifties and there was an ever so slight mist in the air. It was just enough to have me wiping my sun glasses off here and there to make sure that I wasn't running into anything or anybody as I was going pell mell down Ocean Boulevard. Well, pell mell might be an exaggeration but you get my drift. Oddly enough, I couldn't have asked for better weather to ride in. Maybe it was the moisture in the air. I dunno.
Today is one of those days where I know what it is that I want to do but I don't know that I have what it takes to do it. I want to go out and rent a machine to turn over the soil hereabouts so we can have a proper garden this year with tomatoes and maybe a little something else. It's not a huge ask but it will require that I get off my ass and get out the door and down to Home Depot. I'm not sure what it is about this ask that seems so daunting but it all seems so uphill if you know what I mean. I feel like I have a window of opportunity that I don't want to let slip by and today is probably the best day to make that all happen. If I can envision what it looks like when all is said and done, that should help. Right?
The missus and I had some blueberry pie and ice cream last night. It was good but it has to stop. We can't be eating that shite. I made the mistake of ordering a spinach and cheese quiche from a local store the other day. I thought, what the heck, let's see how their pre-packaged quiche compares to what I make from time to time. Again, it was shite. It was simply inedible. I don't usually throw away food but this sucker went into the trash faster than you could say Jack Spratt. I can't recall but I think I spat out what little quiche went into my mouth. I won't make that mistake again. The cheddar cheese slices have been good but they're simply not the same without crackers and I avoid crackers since they're just too easy to eat. Now that I think it, apples might go along very nicely with a slice or two of cheddar cheese. If only apples were in season.
What is it with these fucking politicians and their need to memorialize everything under the sun. Madeline Albright passed away recently and the whole of our nation's capitol and her resident politicians were in attendance for her funeral. Maybe they called it a celebration of life, I'm not sure. She was a hack politician for chrissakes. When it the last time you saw them celebrating the lives of the constituents they serve? The answer is short and sweet. Fucking "never" is the right answer. Actually, I think she was a Secretary of State under a democrat president whose name escapes me. So, she wasn't actually elected but she served every American in her role as Secretary so I suppose I was partly right in referring to her a servant of the American public. Enough with the lionizing of elected officials. Put her in the ground and call it a day. Call it a fucking day if it makes you feel any better.
I keep hearing about food shortages but I'm seeing no evidence of it in my travels here on the coast. I keep hearing about supply chain issues and things like chip shortages but see no evidence of it. You would think I might see an absence of certain products popping up here and there since I do all the food shopping in our household. To make matters worse, I'm seeing stories in the news about food processing centers here in the United States blowing up or going out of business or some such. To make matters even worse, I read a story the other day about Bill Gates, the Microsoft guy, buying up farmland across our fruited plains like a man on a mission. What the bejesus is that all about? He who controls our food supply controls everything? If there's a plan afoot by the elites to turn our country into a banana republic, maybe it's as plain as the nose on our collective faces. We just need to open our eyes. Right?
Is anyone else concerned about Biden's newly formed Disinformation Governance Board within the Homeland Security Department? Maybe this should tell us just how much Biden and his leftists fear free speech and the turnover of their favorite propaganda machine, Twitter, to Elon Musk. Who decides exactly what free speech is? What does it look like? What does it sound like? Is it, by any chance, the opposite of what the leftists running our government want you to believe on any given day? How many bullets are they intending to use to set the record straight when a truth-teller strays too far from the "truth"? It's no secret that the Homeland Security Department within our government is the largest purchaser of bullets, firearms, etc. What is that all about?
I'd like to see every candidate running for public office this fall take a stand on doing away with this so-called Ministry of Truth. I'm not certain as to what kind of blocking and tackling we'll need to employ to dismantle this department but dragging the lot of them out of their ergonomically designed chairs and throwing them into the streets would be a good start. We have no gulags here in America so we can't put them into camps as much as we might like to. I want to be careful so as not to start sounding like one of them with all this blocking and tackling nonsense. Fact of the matter is, I think Congress needs to step up here and rip this department out of the Homeland Security organization root and branch. This is not Orwell's America as much as Biden's leftists might like you think it is. As long as we have the wherewithal to resist, resist we shall. We are Americans!
I think these democrat leftists in Congress need to be careful what they ask for. There's a rumor on the street that they'd like Elon Musk to come and testify as to what his plans are when it comes to his purchase of Twitter. I can hear them now. How much protection will Musk afford our marginalized communities in terms of protecting them from hateful rhetoric and potential threats? What will he do to stop the White Supremacists and Trump supporters from terrorizing members of the LGBTQ communities? Funny thing is, they never much cared about free speech in the Twitter-sphere when Twitter gladly banned and shadow banned conservatives and Trump supporters. They were quite happy to see the President of the United States (Trump) banned while allowing despots like the Mullahs in Iran free rein to spew their hatred when it comes to Jews and the destruction of the Jewish State.
Make Elon's testimony a Pay-for-View event and I'm in with both feet. I might even pay a premium to watch it live. The fact that Musk is not a free speech absolutist should give us a bit of a glimpse into what we might expect to hear from him in hearings on the subject. There is no doubt in my mind that that he would put the appropriate guard rails in place to make sure that things don't get too out of hand while ensuring that every voice is heard. I would imagine that the conservatives in Congress, now feeling better about the openness of the platform under Musk, would push back on any efforts by the democrats to place controls on Twitter. I think this is probably testimony that the democrats in Congress wouldn't want the public to hear so it's probably going behind closed doors if it happens at all. Maybe threats from the democrats to hold such hearings is but one of many threats we'll hear as Musk rolls out his new and improved version of Twitter. This is who they are.
Do you recall my aforementioned comments about the financial markets getting roiled? It was a mere handful of paragraphs ago in this week's blog posting. Well, they were roiled again yesterday and it was even worse this time around. The NASDAQ took a 4 plus percent hit and the S&P took a 3 plus percent hit with the NASDAQ ending the week at 12,334 and the S&P ending up at 4,131. Amazon (AMZN) was down some 400 points! Clearly, the individual stocks that have been holding up the indices are starting to come in. Word on the street is that we still have a ways to go. Housing prices are out of whack so they might get taken out as well. No asset classes will be exempt. It's a bloodbath! And now, the Fed is going to announce that they are going to raise interest rates 50 basis points while we're heading into a recession? Who does that?
I like the idea that this whole bear and bull thing in the markets is a process. The guy I like to listen to when it comes to the markets was telling everyone toward the end of last year that the indices were hitting an all time high while there were a massive number of new lows in individual stocks each and every day. There was a stereotypical topping process taking place right in front of our eyes yet all most people saw was a surging stock market day in and day out thanks to the big dogs like Apple and others who were holding up the indices. I was telling my brother from another mother that he should be thankful that his 401k, assuming he has one, is now buying up equities at bargain basement prices each and every week. They could get even cheaper if this thing really turns to shit.
That whole wheelchair thing that I was referring to earlier in this here blog ended up just fine. Mrs G managed just fine and the missus and I were there to assist as promised. The hardest part for me was the waiting while Mrs G was in with her physician. I couldn't understand why it took the better part of an hour but it did so that was that. The missus went in with her mom to see the doctor and when I asked her this morning if she was glad that she did that, she replied, "I suppose." Mrs G took to her walker instead of her wheelchair when she went in to see the doctor and I wondered if she wasn't trying to put on a good face. She was kinda saying, "I took their best punch and I'm still standing!" That's the kind of woman that she is. Nothing but grit and glory! You go, girl!