Better Days Ahead! A Few Unrelated Observations.

1.  He's gone! Imagine my joy, sitting there watching Marine One fading off into the distance, never to carry the likes of that fat load on board again.  What a four years this has been! But it's over.  Now on to better things.

2.  I rec'd my first COVID vaccine shot yesterday.  I'm scheduled for my second shot on February 11th.  After that I can breathe a little easier.  Now it's just a matter of getting Sandi vaccinated.

3.  Here we are with 10 days left in January and Old Man Winter has been pretty kind to us so far.  Hope I haven't jinxed us.  As anyone who lives in New England knows, February can be a brutal month so we'll see.

4.  Wear a mask-whether or not you've been vaccinated. You could still be a carrier.

Enough Is Enough!

 Recent events should leave no doubt whatever in anyone's mind.  Donald Trump is an unhinged, deranged lunatic unfit to govern.  He needs to be removed now-not in 8 days-but now.  Impeach him.  

What good will that do, you ask?  It will prevent him from ever running for office again.  That's the goal.  He may even end up in jail given his level of corruption but that's a long shot.  For now, I'll settle for his being barred from ever holding a political office. 

It's Over.

 

Thirteen Traitors Come Forward

Tomorrow is January 6th.  It is among other things a day when there is to occur a very routine procedure in the Congress of the United States.  The Senate formally counts and accepts the Electoral College's votes.  It's been this way since 1790 when the United States adopted the constitution.

Not this year.  This year 12 republican senators and the sitting Vice President plan to challenge the results of the Electoral College.  The challenge will only result in some confusion and a slight delay in the inevitable, i.e. Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris will be officially president and vice president elects to be sworn in in two weeks.

It is my considered opinion that the actions of those 12 senators and the Vice president are tantamount to treason.  It is a concerted effort to undermine the Constitution and as a result nullify a legal and legitimate election.  

All of this is being done out of self interest.  Those 12 senators have their eyes on 2024 and they're betting Donald Trump will still be a powerful influence in the republican party.  They don't care one wit about their country or the democratic process.

The hell of it is there are a significant number of ordinary Americans who not only don't care, they applaud their efforts.  

How low we've become as a nation.  God help Biden and Harris.  They have an enormous job ahead of them.  Let's help them pull it off.

The following post was taken from Facebook.  I couldn't have said it better myself so I'm posting it here. I don't know who authored it so unfortunately I can't credit the person.  

Happy New Year!

 January 2021.

Significant number of people are very happy to bid farewell to 2020 and with good reason.  I've pretty much covered my thoughts on that in the previous post so this is a welcome to January.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about January-and probably a lot you didn't much think about.  Anyway, here it is.

Hello, January

 

January Full Moon-Jan. 28^th Wolf Moon

 

Holidays

New Years Day

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Australia Day

National Book Month

National Thank You Month

National Eye Care Month

 National Volunteer Blood Donor Month

National Soup Month

Symbols of January:

Birthstone: Garnet

Flower: Carnation

 

History:

January was named after the Roman god Janus. Janus is also the Roman word for door. The god Janus had two faces which allowed him to look forwards into the coming year and backwards into the past year. The original Roman calendar only had 10 months. January and February were not included, but were added later.

Fun Facts about January

On average, it is the coldest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is the second month of winter.

In the Southern Hemisphere January is a summer month the equivalent of July.

Sometimes the Saxons called January the wolf month because hungry wolves would come into their towns searching for food this time of year.

Celebrities Born in January

If you were born in January, you share your birth month with quite a few celebrities. Some of the most prominent are listed below.

• Elvis Presley
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• J.D. Salinger
• Zora Hurston
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Morris Chestnut
• Mel Gibson
• Oprah Winfrey
• Bradley Cooper
• Jason Bateman

Things to Buy in January

If you need any of the items listed below, you may be able to save money by purchasing them in January. Shopping for things that are on sale during January is a great way to use any gift cards you might have received for the holidays.

1. Gym Memberships and Fitness Equipment

Retailers usually offer deals on gym memberships and fitness equipment in January because they know fitness is a popular new year's resolution. During January, there are typically five times as many exercise equipment deals than during other months. Gym memberships and fitness equipment like treadmills, elliptical machines, weights, and exercise mats may be heavily discounted during the first month of each year.

2. Bedding and Bathroom Linens

The best sales for bedding usually come in January. Discounted prices on sheets, blankets, pillows, comforters, and other bedding items can be found at a number of major retailers both in-store and online. Prices may also be discounted on bathroom linens, so be sure to stock up on washcloths and towels as well.

3. Winter Clothes

January is one of the top months of the year to buy clothes, but it’s not the best time to buy all clothes. Most retailers want to clear out their winter stock to make room for spring styles. This means you can get steep discounts on winter coats, sweaters, suits, and other cold-weather apparel.

4. Spring Travel

To get deals on spring travel, schedule your trips in January. January is a slow month for the travel industry. Start looking in January if you want to take a vacation later in the year.

5. Holiday Decor

Many people know that the best time to get bargains on holiday decor is right after the December holidays. Before you take your Christmas trees and other decorations down, go shopping for new items for next year. Once the holidays are over, most retailers offer ridiculous discounts on any Christmas merchandise they have left over.

 

 

 

 

The Year in Review

 Well, here we are. Dec. 27th, 2020.  Just a few more days to the kind of year most people have no problem waving goodbye to. One word describes it all:  pandemic.  

For some people their lives were either turned on their heads or sadly ended.  Those who succumbed to COVID were mostly elderly or those with seriously compromised immune systems.  There were however many who fall into neither of those categories making the disease quite serious.

Along with the pandemic came economic hardships that are nearly impossible to measure.  Suffice it to say we continue to experience the worst economic times since the Great Depression.  Compounding this is a criminally ineffective federal government who can't put politics aside long enough to help those who have fallen on desperate times.  

That's the bad news.  The good news from my point of view is I along with my whole family managed to stay healthy.  Having said that there was a period of time last February when I, my son and my wife Sandi were quite ill from respiratory ailments of one kind or another.  My doctor said I could very well have had the Coronavirus but who knows and at this point it's academic.

Another bright spot this year is that our democratic system held up under the worst attack since its inception.  Democracy prevailed-in spite of unprecedented attempts to dismantle it by the likes of Donald Trump and his deranged supporters.  It didn't work.  In less than a month Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as president and vice president.  Hallelujah!!  Maybe 2021 will bring us some semblance of normality.  

Personally this has not been such a horrible year.  Sure, sacrifices were made.  Trips to our condo or anywhere else had to be postponed, we were housebound a great deal and enjoying a restaurant meal will have to wait a while longer but all in all we've managed to get through it all unscathed.  

The highlight of the year was definitely Christmas with family.  Here are some pictures:

It's great to be 5 again!

A couple of days ago we rec'd our first significant snow storm of winter 20-21.  We got 12 heavy inches. 

As I am frequently reminded by my family, I'm not getting any younger so rather than attempt to clear my entire, rather challenging,  driveway, I used the snow blower to clear the turn around area up top.  A snow plow did the main part but I went back over it with my blower and widened it out.  

Before that, however, Sandi and I got bundled up to go out to shovel.  She worked on the front walk way and I shoveled out the wood pile, around the generator and a path to the propane tank behind the shed.  

Non of those things took all that long and when we were done we observed we had returned to being 5 yrs old again because it seemed to take longer to get dressed to go out than we were actually out!  

Here are some pictures of us and our feathered friends that morning. 

 

A Day to Remember

Here we are with another unforgettable day.  I've posted comments like this before.  These kinds of posts deal with extraordinary events-usually tragic ones-aside from one's personal life.  The last post of this kind was on Sept. 11th.  

It's the kind of remembrance when you know when it occurred and what you were doing and where you were when it all happened.  There aren't more than half a dozen or so in a person's lifetime.

Today's remembranc-12/14/12- is the shooting at Sandy Hook School where 20 children and 5 adults were killed by a deranged lunatic who shot his way into the school with an assault rifle.

Needless to say it rocked the nation-but especially our small community.

So, where was I and what time was it?  It was at about 9 o'clock in the morning just after the school day had started.  I was in my kidney doctor's office when the nurse came in and asked me "didn't you teach at Sandy Hook School?" To which I replied indeed I did. 

She told me to go out in the waiting room and look at the TV.  It was all down hill from there. A sad day, indeed.

As an aside, I would note that as I stated, the nation was rocked-but not rocked enough to do much about it because since then thousands and thousands of people have died as a result of gun violence.

Has our republican led congress taken action to prevent guns from fallen into the wrong hands? A loud NO answers that.  That's another tragedy!

 

Two Observations

1. I was watching a "man on the street" type interview show the other day.  The people who were being interviewed were Trump supporters.  They were asked why they supported him. The various reasons were all over the place but one common theme seemed to emerge.  I heard a lot of people say they always voted republican because they hated socialism.  I've heard this many times from people I know also.  

It got me to wondering: Do these people actually know what socialism is?  What do they mean by socialism?  The answer to the first is no.  The fact is this country is no where near a socialist state.  Socialism is when the government owns and operates the means of production.  They own everything.  We are a very, very long way from that.  The answer to what do they mean by socialism is, to me, very simple.  They're against welfare.  The notion that the government is giving handouts to people who are unwilling to pull their own weight.  Most of these people in their view are members of minorities.  So now we're talking about something very different than socialism.  

We need a new name for this phenomena.   How about racism?

2. My second observation is on a totally unrelated note.  I grocery shop at Stop & Shop.  I go there for two reasons.  First I know where everything is and second I get gas points for the amount I spend.  I get ten cents per gallon off for every one hundred dollars I spend.  As you may know it's not hard to spend a hundred bucks.  

The problem with this is that the one and only gas station in town where this program applies is a Shell station.  What do they do?  They jack up the price of their gas by as much as $.40 a gallon.  So in order for it to be worth going there I have to accumulate at least 500 points or $.50 off per gallon. On top of that they limit you to 20 gallons.  

Well, my truck has a 26 gallon tank but of course I don't run it dry but if I have a 5 gallon gas can to fill for my yard equipment in which case I easily go over the limit.

Not worth it.  My incentive to go to Stop&Shop just went out the window. 

That's it for today. 

Hello, December

 Happy December.

Birthstone: Turquoise, zircon, or tanzanite

 

Flower: Narcissus or Holly

 

 

Holidays

Pearl Harbor Day

Hanukkah

Christmas

Boxing Day

Kwanzaa

Read a New Book Month

Human Rights Month

Fun Facts about December It is the first month of winter and the last month of the year. National Cookie Day is December 4th. Other snacks celebrated this month include pie, cotton candy, chocolate brownies (mmm!), cocoa, and cupcakes. December often marks the beginning of rain, snow, and cold weather. In the United States the month is associated with Christmas. There are Christmas decorations, sales, musicals, and parties. Many people spend their time Christmas shopping. A lot of people have days off around Christmas and before New Year's Eve. December in the Northern Hemisphere is similar to June in the Southern Hemisphere. The first day of Winter is on either December 21 or 22. This is the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It is called the Winter or Southern solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.

December’s night skies

Full moon- Dec. 29^th

 

This is the month of the Great Conjunction which unfolds every two decades.   The moon is near Jupiter and Saturn on the 16^th and 17^th. Then Jupiter passes closest to Saturn on the 20^th to the 22^nd.  They will be so close that they appear as a single star.  Look for them 45 minutes after sunset in the southwestern sky.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2020

 Happy Thanksgiving, one and all.

There's too much to be thankful for to list here but I'll start with the fact that I'm writing this under my own power and when this pandemic is over I will see all of my friends and family again. A small sacrifice today brings a better tomorrow!

I've seen and heard so many people say what amounts to "live for today".  Don't worry about  COVID.  You want to see your family?  Do it.   This is very bad advice.  It's selfish, dangerous and ignorant.  

Be safe today and tomorrow will be fine.  Let's use common sense, folks-although I can understand why some don't.  For the past four years we've been living in an insane world-but, cheer up,  the future looks brighter.

 

The Doldrums

 These past 10 days since my last post have been remarkably quiet.  This is partly because we've been pretty much home bound since COVID is ramping up again.

One thing that has been bringing a mild degree of entertainment however is watching Trump's legal efforts fail over and over again.  Face it, jerk.  You're history.  Now grow up and do the right thing.  Allow Biden's transition team access to important information.

Will he do it? HA, what do you think?

Another mildly entertaining feature of all of this is watching the biggest jerk (besides DT that is) in the country trip over himself, contradict himself, make a fool of himself in court and generally confirm the certain knowledge that he's a despicable slob.  I refer to the (un)distinguished Rudy Giuliani.  What an idiot!

A few observations about the election

 First and foremost Thank God! We're not going to be subjected to four more years of having to endure the presence of the most disgusting, harmful slob in the country!

That was the good news.  The bad news is that as of this writing it is not quite over.  There are court challenges and recounts to go through
but I'm confident that it will eventually work out. 

What puzzles me most about the election results is how it could be so close.  I just can't understand how so many people still support Trump.  After everything he has said and done on top of one lie after another, his base actually grew.  I'll leave it to sociologists and historians to sort that out.  I'm sure I won't live long enough to find out the answer!

Finally, you know all those maps the news people are always posting to show how the country shapes up in terms of red vs. blue?  I posted two of them below.  They both tell a very different story.  For example if you look at the first one you'd think nearly the entire nation was red-meaning for Trump.  But that's very misleading because that's a geography map.  There are relatively few people in that section of the country that is solid red.  Buffalo and prairie dogs don't vote.

Now look at the second one.  That shows how the voting shaped up in terms of population.  Now you see much more blue.  

Well, anyway, the next few weeks are going to be interesting. Trump is not going to go quietly. OK, who cares? Just go!!

Still waiting!

While we wait for millions of  mailed votes to be counted, this seems to pretty much sum it up:

 

Happy November

Happy November.  November promises to be a busy month starting with election day.  Here's some more trivia about November.

The Month of November

November is the 11th month of the year and has 30 days.
Holidays

Veterans Day
World Diabetes Day
Thanksgiving
American Indian Heritage Month
Good Nutrition Month
Aviation Month
American Diabetes Awareness Month
National Stamp Collecting Month
National Peanut Butter Lover's Month

Symbols of November

• Birthstone: Topaz and citrine
• Flower: Chrysanthemum

November Calendar

• November 1 at 2 A.M. is the end of Daylight Saving Time. Set your clocks back one hour on Saturday night at bedtime! See more about DST.
• November 1 is also All Saints’ Day.
• November 3 is Election Day (U.S.). Don’t forget to vote in state and federal elections! Every vote counts. Make an Election Day Cake to celebrate.
• November 3 is also Sadie Hawkins Day.
• November 4 is Will Rogers Day.
• November 11 is Veterans Day (U.S.) and Remembrance Day (Canada).
• If you’re fortunate, you may experience an “Indian Summer” in November; but according to the traditional definition, it can only occur between November 11 and 20! What is an Indian Summer?
• November 14 is Diwali, which is an annual festival of lights celebrating the triumph of good over evil.
• November 19 is Discovery of Puerto Rico Day.
• November 26 is Thanksgiving Day (U.S.). Understand the history and origins of Thanksgiving.
• November 29 is the First Sunday of Advent.

 More about November

• Nov. 1: National Cook for Your Pets Day
• Nov. 3: Zero-Tasking Day
• Nov. 9: National Scrapple Day
• Nov. 16: National Button Day
• Nov. 21: World Hello Day
• Nov. 23: Fibonacci Day

 

November Full Moon-11/30/20 Beaver Moon

 

 

Happy Halloween! and a few more odds and ends

 Halloween won't be quite the same this year since we're in the middle of a pandemic but there will still be lots of kids out there so be careful.  At least they'll be able to trick or treat in the light of a blue moon. 

I personally will be looking for the Great Pumpkin like the Peanuts gang.

Yesterday we were treated to the first snow of the season.  There was no accumulation but it was snow nevertheless and of course cold!  It's a little early but I guess winter is here. Therefore the great exchange in my yard took place.  The lawn tractor goes to sleep and the snow blower wakes up. Boo hoo!

Don't forget clocks back tonight.  Good news: you get an hour extra of sleep.  Bad news: it gets dark about 5 o'clock.  By the way, does anyone actually sleep that extra hour?  Not me.  When I'm awake, I'm awake. 

I'm posting a copy of an awesome letter someone wrote to a newspaper somewhere.  It should be required reading.  Wear Your Mask!

Come back tomorrow for information about the new month.  Bye for now. 

 

Odds and Ends

 Time for another edition of odds & ends. 

 1. I got a text message from the local Verizon store offering me a deal on an iPhone and cell coverage.  The annoying thing about it was it misspelled the name of the town we are both in.  Instead of Newtown it said Newton.  It's a common mistake for out-of-towners but shouldn't a local company be more accurate?  Annoying.

 2. It looks almost certain we will have a new member of the Supreme Court-Amy Coney Barrett.  She is very conservative, having made up her mind already on a number of important issues before she's heard a word of testimony.  Combine that with Mitch McConnell's insistence four years ago that the people should have the decision and than changing his mind makes the whole process even more of a travesty.  

This republican senate is a pack of gutless cowards and hypocrites.  They must go! 

3.  Last night's debate was certainly more orderly than the last one.  Do you think it changed anyone's mind.  I doubt it but just in case you're still on the fence here are four simple things to take into consideration:

a.  Donald Trump ran away from serving his country.  He is a coward.
b. Trump has openly bragged about sexually assaulting women.
c. Trump's immigration policy condones the separation of families.  That, in my view, is a crime against humanity.
d. Herr Trump can not bring himself to clearly denounce white supremacy.  He is a racist.

If you're OK with those things, then by all means vote for him.  If, on the other hand, any one or all of them disgusts you, it's got to be Biden.

That's it for today.

Reminder

I don't believe I've posted a reminder about my newly configured web site lately.  I no longer prepare my web site from scratch as I used to.  The software I was using was no longer supported and newer versions of it were very expensive so I've switched to designing my web pages within templates provided by a web host. 

None of that is particularly important to you except my web page has a newer, streamlined look.  It remains mostly pictures and video but there is also a link to this blog spot.

Visit it and let me know what you think.

 http://georgeswebpage.com

 

Fall Foliage

 This is the time of year when I take a walk or drive around the area to get pictures of the leaves but it seems to me this year's offering is not as spectacular as it has been in previous years.

The dry weather is making leaves fall sooner than usual and for some reason the colors don't look as vivid.  Don't get me wrong. It's still very pretty.  

The oak and beech trees are always the last to turn.  That's still the case in my area.  In a couple of weeks I'll post a few pictures of them.  

In the meantime here's a nice picture I took last Saturday.  These leaves will probably
peak this weekend. 

A bit of poetic justice and a lot of negligence.

 Well, well, well. A hoax you say.  Don't worry about it.  Like a miracle it will go away.  Well, I guess that didn't work out too well, did it?  Now DT and several others got it.  As of now he's still in the hospital but the doctors attending to his needs are very confusing indeed.  It seems Trump knew he was infected before he went on a fund raising spree in New Jersey.  The number of people he exposed to COVID is staggering.  

On top of that he then decides to do a driveby from the hospital  to wave to people on the street.  No harm will come to them but how about the secret service and all those health care personnel who made contact with him-all for political purposes.

So we've  made a giant leap from being just an ignorant fool to now becoming an irresponsible, negligent criminal.  

His behavior is inexcusable and I regard the conduct of the doctors who lied for him to be inexcusable as well. 

He needs to be voted out of office and then he needs to be tried for tax evasion and depraved indifference.  The combination of the two should put him away for a good long time.  

Thus endth my rant for the day.

Happy October

Happy October.  There are a number of reasons to be happy about October.  Generally the weather is beautiful.  Warm days, cool nights and the beautiful colors of autumn.  Added to that is the fact we're drawing ever closer to election day at which time with any luck at all this madness will be over.  

With that, I present to you a few tidbits about October. 

Enjoy.

The Month of October

 

Oct. 1-Full Harvest Moon

Oct. 31-Full Blue Moon

 

Yom Kippur
Columbus Day
Child Health Day
Halloween
National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15 through Oct 15)
Italian American Heritage Month
Polish American Heritage Month
National Breast Cancer Month
National Pizza Month
National Dessert Month
Country Music Month
National Book Fair Month

Symbols of October

• Birthstone: Opal and pink tourmaline
• Flower: Calendula or marigold
• Zodiac signs: Libra and Scorpio

History:

October was originally the eighth month of the Roman calendar. It comes from the Latin word "octo" meaning eight. Later, it became the 10th month when January and February were added to the Calendar.

The Saxons called the month Wintirfyllith because it had the first full moon of the winter season.

 

Fun Facts about October

• It is the second Autumn month.
• National Fire Prevention Week falls during the week of October 9 each year. It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
• October in the Northern Hemisphere is similar to April in the Southern Hemisphere.
• The leaves of trees often begin to change their colors during this month.
• The World Series for Major League Baseball generally takes place during October.
• The NBA, National Basketball League, and the NHL, National Hockey League, both begin their seasons in October.
• There are many health observances that have October as their national month. These include Healthy Lungs, Breast Cancer, Lupus, Spina Bifida, Blindness, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
• The United Kingdom celebrates the 21st as Apple Day.

 

Another rant: political signs

 Here they come. Popping up all over the place like mushrooms after 2 weeks of rain.  Political signs.

Local pols along with Biden-Harris vs Trump-Pence.  

Some observations:

1.  Some people aren't content with one sign per candidate on their lawn.  They have to have numerous signs saying the same name from one end of their lawn to the other.

2. The most people who tend to do number 1 are supporting republicans.  Are they afraid of what they think is going to happen  so they think it's necessary to drive the point home?

3. In my community there are a lot more republicans putting up signs supporting people for local and state government but very few put up Trump-Pence signs. They're probably afraid of their neighbors plus they're resigning themselves to the fact that Trump's a goner.

4. I don't know of one single person who was ever influenced by a lawn sign.  In fact it tends to do the opposite.  Strengthen their resolve to vote the jerk out. 

5.  Why does it have to take so long to get rid of them up after the election?  

Generally, if you haven't already figured it out, I find them to be ugly and useless.  No one cares who you're voting for-especially if it's Trump!

Odds & Ends

 Some random thoughts in no particular order.

1.   First on the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg- This is a great loss to our country.  RBG was a huge advocate for women's and civil rights.  Compounding this is Mitch McConnell's promise to push through a Trump appointee-in spite of his remarks regarding Obama's pick in 2016.  This points out the hypocrisy and utter corruption of this republican congress.  Get out there this November and vote these guys out!

2. The weather over the last few days has been uncharacteristically chilly reminding me that I still have quite a bit of wood to split.  Most of it is done  but now I need to stack it. I'm hoping I have enough on hand for the next 2 seasons at least.  By then I'll be 80 and not sure if I'm going to be wanting to spend a lot of time working up a supply of wood.  Maybe we'll switch our stove to a gas insert.  We'll see how it goes.  I've been burning wood for 43 years. 

3.  My lovely wife and I recently celebrated our 53rd anniversary.  Like all married couples we each have our pet peeves.  One of mine is grocery shopping with her.  I usually do it myself on Sunday mornings when I can get in and out quickly.  I make a list, get what's on the list and that's that.  If it ain't on the list, it don't get got to put it somewhat crudely.  Anyway, my wife does not subscribe to the same approach.  She enters the store and proceeds to go up and down EVERY SINGLE AISLE whether or not we need anything there.  Not one shelf gets skipped over.  Nothing is missed.  As a consequence of this it takes us 3 times longer to shop and we spend at least twice as much.  Often more.  I know, there are worse things and I agree.  I guess I'm getting cranky in my old age.

4. Finally, a word about fashion.  Teen fashion, that is.  We went to dinner a couple of nights ago with my daughter and her family which includes two teenage daughters-our grand daughters ages 14 & 16.  I displayed a picture below of their outfit.  When I saw them I told them I felt so bad that their parents wouldn't dress them properly.  Of course that resulted in the age-old eye roll which we all laughed at.  I offered them my old jeans when they wore out which are still in better shape than theirs but they politely declined-well, not so politely actually.  They're great girls and right on top of the fashion world!

That's it for today.