The House and That Man

At present we are awash in cardboard.  Fortunately recycle is picked up weekly, and the Titan Trash guys will pick up things left on the street.  Last week it was the box for the new TV and a huge box containing other large boxes.  This week the boxes aren't so large, but are more numerous.  The rate of acquisition is decreasing.

My new paradigm for posting that includes anything about the orange menace, is that I'll put it at the bottom of the post, with a warning, so that if you're sick of it, you can not look.

Here is some soothing house stuff.  We ordered batteries for the bike computers.  They came in their very own box, with paper to cushion them.

They also came with their very own warnings for bad things that could happen, and who to call if it did.  I did not know that these batteries posed such a threat.

This is a terrible picture, taken through glass and a screen.  That's a hawk in the tree.  Look at the size of him.  He's eating well, hopefully a diet of rodents.

This was taken two days ago, the light was nice, not too harsh.

Here is my new piece of art.  We got it on sale at Home Goods to cover up that TV mount that we can't get off the wall.  I have yet to get a good photo, because it's on a huge ill lighted wall with no context around it.

Ok - talking about the orange guy now.

Elon and Ramaswamy are still saying that the country "needs" two years of hardship while they dismantle the government.  How is this a popular idea among the people who voted for him?  The end of the Department of Education spells the end of special ed programs.  Those are funded federally.  No more special ed, no more working with kids on the spectrum, all that, gone.  The orange guy appears to be going along with that.

I do not understand on what planet this is a good idea, to destroy the world's strongest economy.  How does this benefit the 0.1% of the population, if we're all homeless and dying from preventable disease?

Brendan Carr, architect of the agenda for Project 2025 has been chosen to run the FCC.  His goal is the end of "censorship" that is going on in the internet.  Basically, he's opening the door to a flood of right wing lying with no fact checking.  Sort of like what we just had before the last election.

From the WAPO we learn the following.

Carr, 45, the senior Republican among the FCC’s five commissioners, has vowed in recent days to take on what he called a “censorship cartel” including Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Earlier this year, he laid out an aggressive agenda for the FCC in Project 2025, a conservative proposal for Trump’s second term developed by the Heritage Foundation. Carr has been a vocal supporter of billionaire Elon Musk and an advocate of tougher restrictions on China.

“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement Sunday evening. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”

Carr said Sunday night on X that he was “humbled and honored” to serve in the position, and that he would seek to “dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”

I read somewhere that orange will anoint Carr as chairman of the FCC for life.  The paywalled article can be found here.

It will surprise me greatly if we ever see another Covid vaccine in our lives.  RFK Jr is on the job, suspending work on new cancer treatments, vaccines and other preventative things in the name of making America healthy again.  Here is an article about taking a break from health care research.

The Hill has an article up about Steven Miller's desire to denaturalize and deport people who are naturalized citizens.  Based on my reading of the criteria for a person to lose citizenship, Elon Musk would be a prime target. 

Ok - that's it.

First World Issues

 It really is always something.  It's a first world problem for sure, but still a PITA.

This is the fresh water dispenser in the door of the freezer.  That's its last gasp before completely and totally dying.  I'm pretty sure the previous owner knew it was on its last legs, but neglected to mention it.  It's a big deal because water in Tucson is terrible.  Too many minerals, it just tastes awful.  So we're buying water until this is fixed.

This is something else (first world, again) I am really pissed about.  Previous owner graciously left the television.  It was an early flat screen, zero smarts, weighed a ton and was a pain to get off the wall mount.  Today we decided we would take the wall mount down and hang a piece of art to cover up the holes in the wall.

We got the really long lag bolts out of the wall, and the really long screws as well, and then expected to pull this horrible looking thing off the wall.  Nope, Jim hit it several times with a rubber mallet and it will not come loose.  I think they used industrial adhesive on it in addition to the hardware.  Other than cutting out the sheet rock, I have no idea how to get it gone.  So, the piece of art we bought is just slightly not wide enough to go over the ends of the mount, so more art must be acquired.  It's always something.  Fortunately, there is another wall that needs art to cover up the hole left by the sconce she removed to put her china cabinet close to the wall.  It will look nice over there.

We rode the bikes briefly today.  Jim had been feeling poorly, but half an hour on the bikes in the sun fixed him right up.  There is a lot of mental fatigue in the air, I have it, as well.  We haven't been off the bikes all that long, but fitness is noticeably decreased.

This is a local mountain in the morning.

And another in the afternoon.

So, that's all I am going to say about things. 

Trolling the Past

Things are not so good right now.  The orange giblet has appointed Pete Hegseth, formerly a captain in the army, and a Fox News talking head who famously said on camera that he never washes his hands, to be Secretary of Defense.  Marco Rubio, Secretary of State.  Homeland Security will have Kristi Noem, dog and goat murderer at the helm.  Matt Gaetz (formerly under consideration for expulsion from congress for trafficking underage girls) is up for Attorney General.  Tulsi Gabbard, a Russian spy, is up for Director of Intelligence.    Giblet will be releasing an Executive Order saying he can fire generals at will if they won't kiss the ring.  Last time's clown show will be seen as mild compared to this one.

In times of turmoil, it's nice to look at photos from better days.  When Costco got out of the photo business, they gave all of our photos to Shutterfly.  The only way I can seem to get a photo back from them is to do a screen shot.  This pisses me off somewhat.  Anyway, I found a couple that were good.

This is from sometime from the mid-1990s.  Jim and I hiked the Chiraco trail a lot.  It was a brutally difficult hike, all up hill.  Notice that Jim has blue legs.  He's wearing long underwear under his shorts.  That was the winter uniform.

This is me, also wearing long underwear.  I was not a natural blonde, ever.

This is the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, back before Orban.  That was a fabulous trip, we really liked it there.  This was taken early in the morning.

Here we are with sun.

The thing about traveling in Europe is the history that surrounds you of long wars, famine, the rise and fall of empires and all that.  People do survive, but often at a terrible cost.  It was not on my bingo card to participate in the fall of the US in my golden years.  I'd really like to give this a pass.  If you search on Budapest, you can see the entire trip.

In the past I really liked Christmas.  Not the religious aspect of it, but the fact that a person could go over the top with shiny things and lights.  I liked to buy three foot tall fake Christmas trees, string lights on them and then wire on Christmas ornaments.  They were beautiful.  That's a Department 56 house on the left, and my Santa guy.  I still have the Santa.  The rest went the way of  "free, come get it."  I believe that's the West Seattle house, where we lived for 10 years.

Notice the gift wrapping bottom right of the collage.  Shutterfly did the collage, I can't undo it. 

Today was exhausting.  Much of it was spent in the car in the north end of Tucson, trying to acquire stuff like a 12 inch skillet with lid (HomeGoods has many skillets, no lids), Target for Clinique moisturizer, and couple of more cereal bowls, Trader Joe's for macaroni and cheese, and just stuff.  We also got blood work done for the appointments with the doctor next week. 

The best thing we bought today was a frozen pizza so we did not have to go to the grocery store.

That's it, I'm done.

Progress on the House

Good grief we're tired.  I knew moving in to an empty house would be difficult, but I underestimated just how hard it would be.  For one thing the floors are tile, I think my feet and calves are not yet enjoying that surface.  We had tile at the Ten Star house without issues, so I'm hoping my extremities will quit complaining.  

Here is some non-specific complaining about things.  We're all familiar with the small plastic baskets that we put in drawers to keep stuff organized.  Do you think the two dollars stores down the street would carry those?  Nope.  That's a dollar store staple, at least it used to be. 

Furniture.   As I previously mentioned, we need two dressers.  We went to Ashley Furniture to see what they had.  They had a line on the internet that was MDF, not great stuff, but it holds the clothes up.  They will not assemble it.  It's made in Viet Nam, shipped in flat packs, and they will not assemble, even if you pay them.  What that tells me is that the holes for the cam locks don't line up and it's more trouble that it's worth.  All this for the princely sum of $800.  Even in the more expensive lines, you have to pay them to assemble it.  When did this happen?

So, I am now contemplating Craig's list and sources like that.  Our biggest problem is that we're old, we're not strong people anymore, so getting massive pieces of wood into the house is a problem.

I took these yesterday.  It actually hit 80F(26C).  

Those are Red Barrel cactus, I love the way they glow in the sun.

I could go on about the 47th president, but I think I'll just give it a rest.  OK, if you want some depressing reading from The New Republic, go here.

OK!  Back on our heads.

Bullhead City, AZ to Tucson, AZ

Hola!  We arrived yesterday.  The drive itself was not bad.  Roads were good, we made good time.  What totally and completely sucked was unloading the car and piling everything on the floor.  We have no dressers.  We have very few drawers in the kitchen.  I'm looking for a unicorn piece of furniture that will go adjacent to the kitchen that has drawers, and maybe a couple of shelves.  It was a long day.  I went to bed and basically passed out sitting up with my Kindle in my lap.

Today was also long.  The Xfinity guy showed up at 8:00 and got us connected.  It's weird, the previous owner had cable, but he was here quite a while pulling on cables and making the internet work.  One of the first times I called Xfinity about how this connecting would work, I was told to bring my modem, and just plug her in.  Nope, modems can not be moved across state lines, and our cabling was non-standard, to say the least.  Anyway, nice guy, speeds are better here than in Spokane.

So, Bullhead City to Tucson.  The first three days were cold.  The last day was slightly less cold but very windy.  Given this, I wore my Keens.  They were purchased for hiking, but the rocks around here are too much for their soles.  So, they've been in the closet for awhile.  They're not waterproof, but they're better than a Hoka with their mesh uppers.  So, here they are, the ugliest shoes I have ever owned.  But they don't hurt.

This was taken climbing out of Bullhead City on the way to Golden Valley.

I don't get motorcycle riding.  Why is it fun?  Yesterday was cold and very windy.  These people were certainly dressed for it, but what makes it fun?  I took this at the first gas station we hit in Wickenburg, and it was very crowded, and the motorcyclists were not helping congregating where they were.  However, gas in Wikiup was $2 a gallon more, so we didn't stop there.

This is a mural in Tucson, indicating that trees are the lungs of the world.  Too bad we're killing all of them so we can clear forests and grow more methane farting cows.

So, we're here.  We still need to get two dressers for the folded clothing, so I can get the space saver bags up off the floor, and we want a better looking table to go under the TV we bought today at Costco.  The jury is still out on whether or not we want to pay someone to put a mount on the wall, and hang the TV.  There is a hole in the wall from the previous convoluted TV/surround sound, but a large piece of art could make that go away.

This is from twitter.

According to twitter, the orange intestine is under the care of a doctor, and has not been seen or heard from for 24 hours.  I do wonder what would happen if he died tomorrow.  Would Vance slide in to the presidency?  How does that work?

I'm still considering how much I want to blog, complaining about the orange menace.  Maybe a couple of days off of recounting his latest outrage would be good.  I will say that on twitter, which is not always true, some of the MAGAts are realizing that their illegal parents will be deported, their naturalization may be undone, men are feeling more empowered than ever to assault women, and the ACA may be a gonner.  FAFO.

The Terrible Outcome

Like all of you, I am distraught.  We marinated in NPR on the road today, the hosts were analyzing what happened.  There were surprising shifts in voting patterns; Latinos, high school educated white guys, and some Black men shifted to the orange intestine.  Later analysis pointed out that orange had been on several bro dominated podcasts, courting young males.  He appeared on a stage with several imams, which encouraged Muslims to vote for him.  I can not fathom this at all, he's going to deport immigrants, he's already banned Muslims in his previous administration.  He's already said he won't accept Palestinian refugees and told Netanyahu to "finish the job."  How do people fall for this?  Women over 65 broke for Harris, we remember the before times.  

What is scaring me to death is if they actually cut Social Security and Medicare.  If they do, we're screwed.  Also what scares me is Elon Musk saying he's going to take three trillion dollars out of the budget, which will crash the economy, drive up prices for everyone (especially housing) and for two years things will be desperately bad.  RFKJr wants to get rid of vaccines, all of them.  Polio still exists in this world, finding an iron lung is virtually impossible, the manufacturers went out of business after the Salk vaccine.  Hey!  Bring back tetanus, whooping cough, all of it!  Good times.  It's still not known who will control the House, I really hope it's not the pubtards.  

If Elon manages to crash the economy in the first two years, I wonder if the mid-terms could do some correction on the House and Senate.  

This is what I wrote after Hilary lost.  It's still true.

 Well.  It feels like all of the air has been sucked out of the room.  I can not believe that man won.  I can't believe America hates women so much that they chose him over her.
Even if he's only a one term president, he's going to do some damage.  Ryan is already working on defunding the ACA.  The war on women is about to heat up again.  It will not surprise me if some forms of birth control are outlawed on his watch.
I am very, very angry at my fellow Americans who chose him.  It seemed like we were a better nation than this, but I was wrong. 

Stout heart, dear ones.