It's cold. I checked the temperature thermostat and it's 16 degrees in the house at present. Brrr🥶.
I just turned on the heat pump in the lounge. I'll run it for half an hour to take the chill off.
I should go for a walk but I've just had a large breakfast so might hold off for an hour or so. Today will probably be a 'chore day' with me doing dusting, vacuuming, bathroom cleaning etc. The Old Girl has left instructions for me to 'keep on top of things and to keep the house looking presentable'. OK, I'll do that.
Dinner this evening in case you are wondering will be meatloaf, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin and some green vegetables.
I guess that you've guessed that it's a bit of a slow day up north. Fair enough but I'm not alone. Down south Richard's lamenting the fact that schoolgirls will be hiding their legs, Robert is still ghosting him, video referees are ruining sport and that his atheism rules him out from going to mass and working in the church shop.
Sad.
Oh well, he might want to brush up on his bible skills if things get too slow down there.
Proverbs 31:27
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
I've got a visitor today - Lexy, my sister's golden retriever cross.
She's just a pup - a baby and Kathy asked me to babysit while they went to the rugby (Black Ferns vs Black Ferns IV and Maori All Blacks vs Scotland.
I didn't buy tickets for these matches as the weather forecast was for heavy rain so I bought a Sky Pass instead to watch these matches plus All Blacks vs France on TV today and this evening. As it turned out it's been a cracker day so the crowd (10,000 plus) will get their money-worth.
Lexy is a sweet natured little dog but, between naps is quite mischievous so I have to keep an eye on her. Lucky for me she seems to sleep a lot although Kathy said that she gets 'the zoomies' around 5PM. I'll take her for a walk before then, between the Black Ferns and the Maori All Black/Scotland game to tire her out I think.
How's your day going? I know that Richard is and will be watching the rugby but I guess that Robert sees it as idle-handed sinfulness. I imagine that he is especially incensed that women now play the game as well. They won't be going to his heaven.
Donald Trump's initiated 'Big Beautiful Bill' (Democrats call it the 'Big Ugly Bill) narrowly passed in both the Senate and Congress yesterday underscoring how low USA has fallen in decency, empathy and commonsense.
The supporters of the bill and the republicans who voted for it will, in time regret their decision and no doubt many will pretend that they didn't vote for it nor agree with its content. Time will tell - especially next year in the mid-term voting.
Congressmen and Congresswomen who have nothing to fear are the 212 Democrats (all of them) and the two Republicans who voted against it. The warm glow they might receive from doing so though will be cooled by the likely disastrous fallout of the bill's provisions:
the US will lift its debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
the country’s deficit will increase by $3.3 trillion
tens of billions will be poured into immigration enforcement making effectively turning USA into a police state similar to Germany in the 1930s
massive tax cuts will be given to the rich and the super rich
the middle class and the poor will be stripped of social benefits like Medicaid, food stamps and school meals to cover the increased costs and tax breaks
17 million people will lose health insurance cover
It is the greatest redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich that the country has ever seen.
Countries have had governments overthrown for less.
* Tomorrow morning really but I know that readers are starved of good reading material.
So, Richard is off on a sleepover. He's probably gone back to Wessex**. Inconsiderate of him really because he normally writes in the bog in the morning. Yes, I know, we'd be better off without his 'Nui (Wainuiomata) attempts at humour. Chloe did it much better and with nicer footwear.
He's ased me to write his morning post for him so here goes.
First up is a video of a song about making people laugh by a 70s rock band.
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Well, locally I am writing this blog to myself, now that Robert has disappeared again. Fortunately, I have many overseas readers.
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Well, that should meet my obligations. I don't want to show him up too much, poor old 3G guy! Most of us are now using 4 and even 5G and leaving him back in the dust.
Look, I'm an old man - I admit it. I can't deny it as I'm 72 years old but that doesn't mean that I can't think for myself and, as shown in my previous posts, think for others especially my many numerous pair of readers.
I've mentioned the excellent US news channel MSNBC before and one of their great presenters and essayists Lawrence O'Donnell and, hopefully, the more enlightened (and less Catholic) of you have read and listened to what he and the other intelligent essayists have said.
For years now I've been struggling with the questions why Donald Trump has such a great following and why US Republican senators, congressmen and people in power cow-tow to him and vote on bills according to what the orange idiot has requested. It just doesn't make sense.
Now, surprisingly as it may seen - given the massive popularity of this blog - my opinions have not resonated with nor impacted on American political thinking. Go figure! Fortunately (for you readers) the said Lawrence O'Donnell shares my views as you will know if you've followed the links I provided before.
Tonight O'Donnell presented a great essay titled 'The Banality of Cruelty' and it is really worth watching. See here:
O'Donnel sums up with the statement:
"He's not there!"
And neither should he be. He's a cunt and, probably all his miserable life has made other people around him suffer. In his current 'not giving a fuck' position, exacerbated by his power, he is making uncountable people suffer who would not have suffered if he'd never been there.
Which leads me to this clip of the excellent Zombies song 'She's Not There':
OK, OK, it's a stretch but I love this song. Anyway, the lyrics do suggest some connection to the orange fool and his idiocy with only some minor tweaks:
Well, no one told me about her (HIM), the way she lied Well, no one told me about her (HIM), how many people cried But it's too late to say you're sorry How would I know, why should I care? Please don't bother tryin' to find her (HIM) She's (HE's) not there Well, let me tell you 'bout the way she (HE) looked The way she'd (HE'd) act and the colour of her (HIS) hair Her (HIS) voice was soft and cool Her (HIS) eyes were clear and bright - (doubtful) But she's (He's) not there Well, no one told me about her (HIM), what could I do? Well, no one told me about her (HIM), though they all knew But it's too late to say you're sorry How would I know, why should I care? Please don't bother tryin' to find her (HIM) She's (HE's) not there Well, let me tell you 'bout the way she (HE) looked The way she'd (HE'd) act and the colour of her (HIS) hair Her (HIS) voice was soft and cool Her (HIS) eyes were clear and bright (doubtful) But she's (HE's) not there But it's too late to say you're sorry How would I know, why should I care? Please don't bother tryin' to find her (HIM) She's (HE's) not there Well, let me tell you 'bout the way she (HE) looked The way she'd (HE'd) act and the colour of her (HIS) hair Her (HIS) voice was soft and cool Her (HIS) eyes were clear and bright (doubtful) But she's (HE's) not there
My fashionista Riccardo Testacoli advised that I should ask for a discount when having a haircut.
I did have a haircut this morning but before I could ask the question the hairdresser said that she would reduce the fee from $30 to $20 as I was a good customer.
I'm not sure what makes being a good customer - certainly not frequency as I last went to her in January. Maybe it's because there's not a lot of hair to cut and sweep up. Anyway, I'm happy and The Old Girl should be as well as the cut isn't as severe as The January one was.
First of all I want to acknowledge that Richard wrote a new post this morning.
OK, now that we've got that out of the way let's move on to more serious issues.
Milk.
I went to have my usual breakfast this morning - Weetbix with my All Bran/apple sauce/prune juice mixture and fresh milk. Imagine my consternation when I noticed that the best-before date on the milk is 2 July. That's today! While The Old Girl is not averse to using rotten old milk I don't like it. I'll have to go to the shops this morning for fresh supplies.
Robert's blog
It comes and goes like the tide or, to use a more accurate metaphor, the scum, flotsam, jetsam and other detritus that floats in with the tide. Fortunately all that disappears quickly. What's that about? Why bother?
Primitivo
I ordered a case (6-pack) of wine for the old girl yesterday (Masso Antico Primitivo 2023) because she likes primitivo and zinfandel only to be informed by her that she had ordered a six-pack of American zinfandel to be delivered! We will be awash in Italian and Italianesque wines for a while.
Haircut
Richard, in a blog comment, rather rudely suggested that I need a haircut so I'll get that done this morning on my 'milk run' :
Overweight
With The Old Girl being away and me being unsupervised I've been sneaking things into the supermarket trolley like potato chips, chocolate and cheesecake-type desserts. As a result I've gained a bit of weight. I've now started to use the stepping machine to see if I can cut this back before she gets back here. I normally use the rowing machine and the exercycle (because they are easier) and have left the stepping machine alone (because it's harder) but a couple of days ago I got into it. 10 minutes at the moment (before rowing) which I hope to build up to 15 or 20 minutes a day should do the trick.
Note to self
Get rid of the potato chips, chocolate, desserts and any other 'forbidden' things in the freezer before she gets home.
Weather
After a cracker day yesterday, today is a bit grey and dreary. After the 'milk run' I think I'll stay indoors, lounge about and try to avoid that junk food.
The old codgers were at it again at the tennis club this morning.
Half of them just can't see the bloody lines and invariable called "out" for serves that were clearly in.
Maybe it's just because I've recently had my eyes refurbished and now have clear vision. After remonstrating with a couple of old dames, I very clearly watched each serve in a game and 4 times out of 6 one of them called "fault" or "out" to balls that were either on the line or just in at the corners. Sheesh!
I think that I'll propose that we have a chalk box like weightlifters use at the server end so that the server can cover the ball with chalk before serving.
Regular readers - well, regular reader now that Robert's blog has gone again - will have noticed that over the years comments on blog posts have become bizarre and othen disconnected from the topic of the post.
I won't get into cognitive decline here as that will be the topic of a future post. What I'll do is select one comment and try to find out what the hell it meant.
On the comment section of Richard's most recent post he wrote this:
IT HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE BLOG POST THEME OR TITLE WHICH IS THIS:
It had no connection to the comments thread either which followed the usual pattern of abuse, slander and insult.
What does it mean? Are my underpants broken? Do I need to get something to fix them?
I have a good selection of quality underpants in different colours (all tartan pattern) see: A BRIEF POST
... and, at last count have about 16 pairs - more than enough for daily changing and they are all in good condition which is a far cry from the state of a pair of my favourite skants from years gone by:
If it was these he's referring to then yes, some repairs would be necessary but The Old Girl tossed them into the rubbish bin a long time ago.
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