Ride and Skin Cancer

Yesterday we finally got the bike rack on the car, the bikes on the rack, and ourselves up to Christopher Columbus park.  It was a glorious day.  We actually had a tail wind in both directions.  The wind often does a 180 degree switch in the early afternoon.  

We rode north to see how the sewer project was doing.  It's been going on for quite some time, closing parts of the trail, entrances to parks, and in general messing up biking in the north end.  It's done!  The trails and the park entrances are open now.  That was good.  The freeway project continues, but they haven't shut down any of the trail for that.

This is the sewer pipe that's been installed.

Here is the park, with the lake.

The out fall from the treatment plant.  The water is amazingly hot.  You can feel it on your face, looking at the water.  I guess it cools off quickly, because people fish not too far down stream from there.

Jim saw the Mohs surgeon today, he complimented Jim on his excellent wound care.  The Mohs doctor rubbed Jim's head and said he could feel the baby cancers below the skin, and that they needed to be dealt with.  In 2018 Jim did several courses of 5-Fluorouracil on his face, arms, and scalp.  It was brutal, 21 days of twice daily application, avoidance of the sun, and it was painful.  When he was doing his face, he sort of looked like a tomato.  All this for three weeks.  Things have changed!  For the better!  5-Fluorouracil is now mixed with calcipotriol, which is something like Vitamin D.  So, Jim will do the combined creams for 5 days on his face, and 10 days on his head.  So, if your dermatologist wants you to do this, ask about this treatment.    Here is an article on the subject. 

So, go forth and slay your skin cancers.

Hike and News of the Day

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  Today started out poorly, the water dispenser in the refrigerator door has died again, no parts available.  We got out the new and improved Brita water filter pitcher and discovered that its flow rate is abysmal.  I guess we'll be buying an old and not improved version and throwing this one away.  One would think that they might have done a comparison between old and new, but apparently not.  New consumes less plastic, which is good, but fails in its primary mission.  As you no doubt recall, tap water here is undrinkable.  At least the ice maker still works, if that goes, we'll have to replace the whole refrigerator.  Yes, I know, first world problems.

Anyway, we decided a hike would be just the thing to improve our outlook on things.  We did the circuit around Little Cat Mountain, which is about three miles.  It's a rocky little hike.  My feet were very happy to see the end of it.  We have photos.  

A lump of rock, surrounded by cactus.

Part of the trail.  Many of these "trails" are water courses.

That's regular Cat on the left.  The trail goes through the notch between Little and regular.

A few days ago, I was on the rowing machine, diligently rowing.  Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.  It was a squadron of javelina.  I didn't get a photo, but you can see them here.  The foot prints in the gravel that I have been assigning to deer are not that, they've from them.  They mosied through, sniffed a couple of plants, and kept on going.  So, that tells us that nothing that has flowers and soft leaves can be left outside, because they will eat them.

One of the four bougainvilleas is blooming.  Not sure what's wrong with the other three. 

Now I am going to discuss some news of the day, which was also causing my malaise this morning.  The coming administration is going to be disastrous. 

From a Meidas Touch article we learn the following, "Trump's mass deportation policy would eliminate entire sectors of the American workforce at a time when the nation is already seeing critical labor shortages. Migrants fill key jobs in food production, manufacturing, and construction, and spur economic growth."  This is from the Congressional Joint Economic Committee.  Further, deportations would:

• Reduce real gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 7.4% by 2028,
• Reduce the supply of workers for key industries, including by up to 225,000 workers in agriculture and 1.5 million workers in construction,
• Push prices up to 9.1% higher by 2028, and
• Cost 44,000 U.S.-born workers their jobs for every half a million immigrants who are removed from the labor force. 

It's estimated that there would be a recession that would last for four years.  

Dr. Oz has been nominated to run CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  He's on record as wanting to move all the seniors currently on traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage.  Any idea as to why? He has conflicts of interest, in that he owns stock in companies that support Medicare Advantage.  Traditional Medicare is more efficient, Medicare Advantage is a for profit enterprise, which drives much of their behavior.  This is more of the grift that the new administration will be doing.  You can read more on this here.  Or just google "Dr. Oz conflict of interest Medicare Advantage."

Why don't people have their hair on fire about this?  It's because many of them do not know what the new administration is planning.  Mainstream media is not covering it.  ABC just paid a $15M bribe to the orange one to avoid a defamation suit.  It was a suit they could have won easily, but they're already bending the knee.  I don't expect to see any reasonable coverage in the papers for the next four years.  The New Republic did a piece on this, which is available here.

Finally, even though there is more, I'm going to wind it up with this.  United Health Care, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to curtail coverage for therapy for kids with autism.  Some kids can be helped, but UHC is deciding that they don't want to pay for this.  If you get coverage through your job, and it's UHC, you are just out of luck getting care for your child on the spectrum.  I find this morally reprehensible in light of how much money insurance companies make.  There is an article here.  The new head of UHC had this to say.

They get to decide what's unnecessary.

That's it, that's all I've got.

Hike and New Chair

As you are all no doubt aware, one of the reasons I write this blog is to remember stuff.  I would now like to make a note of the fact that we should not go to the northern part of Tucson during December.  Yesterday we went to a southern Walmart for a bath mat and clothes to paint in.  Then we headed north to Home Depot because Jim is replacing switch plates.  The ones in the house were not cleaned often enough.  We stopped at Target for wash cloths.  Then, we made the fatal decision to head further north to check Home Goods for art (none to be had) and Trader Joe's for macaroni and cheese.  The traffic between Target and Trader Joe's was apocalyptic.  So, note to self, no north end near Christmas.  There are other Trader Joe's in less congested areas.

We hiked today. I had a terrible night of not sleeping well, and so we did not ride.  The hike was good.  When we headed up to a ridge line the wind was impressive.  This is a very enthusiastic bougainvillea we walked by on the way to the trail.

Taken from the high point of the hike.  That is our neighborhood down below.

Another view from the high point.

On the way back.

While we were gone, the chair arrived.   The FedEx driver actually carried the box around to the back patio.  Yesterday FedEx delivered a power cord for the new leaf blower and put that behind the house, as well.  So that was nice.

There were encouraging words on the box.

Here it is, waiting to receive clothing.  Tomorrow we're going to unload the dressers and scoot them to the right.  The chair needs more room.  The light in the photo is weird, it's sort of yellow, and the dressers are not actually that dark.  Assembly of the chair was not terrible, all the holes lined up properly, which does not always happen. 

So, that's about it for me.  I promise sometime soon I'll have more profound things to say.  Or not.

Hike, Rebar, and Syria

Greetings Earthlings.  This morning we were both in the slough of despond, given the recent nominations to the cabinet of the orange menace.  It was decided that a really unpleasant hike in the sunshine would be just the ticket to restore our spirits.  And so, we decided to walk here.

There is a trail up the the saddle between Golden Gate and Bren.  I think we're one and done on this, there are many loose rocks, pointy rocks and it's all up hill going there.  On the way up there is not much to look at.

There were many prickly pears along the way.  Some of them look close to death.  These are a little greener.  The desert in general is looking burned again.

This is the view from the top.  More mountains.

This is what we see, going back to the house.

It was a nice day, good temperature and light wind.

There is a piece of rebar stuck in the ground in the back yard.  We can't get it out.  Apparently this is an ongoing issue for people, generating many solutions for stake removal.  If money is no object, there is always the JackJaw.  It's a slick method of getting out rebar.  Here is a youtube.  Reddit offered up this less expensive technique, which I think we will be using.  One locks the vice grips onto the rebar, and then with a pry bar levers it out of the ground.  It's an iterative process.  We want it gone, because if someone were to fall on it, there would be damage.  Right now a pot is sitting on top of it.

So there you go.

In news of the unexpected, the Assad regime has fallen.  He has been granted asylum in Russia.  It's amazing how fast it happened.  Putin is over extended, as is Iran.  So the timing of the HTS insurgency was good.  They are an off shoot of Al-Qaeda, and have promised not to be as evil, but who knows.  Israel has been bombing the Syrian Golan heights and ISIS sites preemptively.  Understanding the Middle East is beyond me. 

That's it, that's all I have to say.

New Furniture, Crashes, and Health Care Costs

Well, the good news is that Anthem BCBS has reversed its decision to charge the patient for anesthesia if the surgeon took too long with the procedure, at least in Connecticut.  They put out some lame statement to the press that it was misinformation, and they only wanted to do what was best for patient care in accordance with standards.  To which I would have to reply, bull shit.

The weather continues to be eerily nice.  I just reread last December's posts, and it was not a great month for being outside.  This is better, although it's not good for the spring flowers.  Rainfall in December determines how good the spring bloom will be.  

We finally broke down and bought two chests of drawers at Bob's Discount Furniture, a nation wide chain of crappy furniture sold for what I consider to be too much money.  They're MDF and are currently off gassing.  If you've ever been in a new RV, you know that smell.  We're opening windows and running fans during the day.  It was an interesting buying experience.  First we were told that the least expensive piece on the floor was the only one left, no more available, and here, go look at the ones that cost more.  Then out of the blue, no! there are more, but they won't be available until December 21.  Ok, we'll take them.  They were delivered yesterday.  They hold up the clothing; they are by no means heirloom quality furniture, but that's ok.  I've ordered a faux cow hide covered slipper chair to go in the corner, so we can throw clothes on it.  Every bedroom needs a chair for clothes that aren't clean, but aren't dirty yet.

This was a weird accident, even by Tucson standards.  People here drive stupid, too fast, too close, too dangerous.  We make every effort to be off the roads by 3:30 which is when traffic picks up.  This happened on a stretch of road where there is a median, so it's not clear how they managed a head on collision. Traffic was detoured out into the desert onto a dirt strip.  The white car is totaled.  The black pick up truck had front end damage, and all air bags deployed.

Bad picture through the driver's window in to the sun.  Look at the front wheel, the front suspension has failed due to impact.  Both cars sustained front end damage, how did they do this when separated from on coming traffic.

This is a tree in our front yard which is dropping its miniscule leaves on the driveway.  I strongly suspect it will be the cause of us acquiring a leaf blower.

There was a hike the other day and we saw this.  The balance is pretty amazing.  I did not touch it so see if it's glued like that.

With the shooting of the CEO of United Health Care in the news, health care costs have once again come into the publics' consciousness.  UHC has a 32% rejection of claims rate.  Here is a chart.

Here is another chart.  OECD is an acronym for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.  It helps explain why healthcare in the US costs so much.

And then there is this.

This is something Congress could do something about, instead of allowing Musk and Ramaswamy to threaten VA benefits, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP programs.  They could also go after PBMs that are raising the drug prices for consumers.  But no, obeisance to the orange menace and the billionaire class is foremost in their minds.

Other than this, I have not too much to write about.

Today's Sign That the End is Near

 

This is true, according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

The Yard and the Pardon

Not much happening here.  Ride, work in the back yard, pick up rocks that are too heavy.  Stuff like that.  The previous owner had some hideous plants in pots, stacked on each other, with the plant in the lower pot being deader than a door nail.  So, we dragged one pot over to the other planting area and are in the process of breaking up the terracotta pots for disposal.  I think one pot per week will be going out until it's all gone.  There's also a pile of ugly pots behind the air conditioner that will have to be banished.  It looks much better out there.

This is the plant we dragged over to planting area one.  It's the best looking of the lot.  There are two plants in there, I don't know what either one of them are.

Maybe tomorrow I'll remember to take a picture of all of it.  That pot bottom left in the photo was one I wanted gone, but it's concrete and too heavy to get out to the curb.

This makes me sad.  The agave was planted too close to the Golden Barrels.  The barrels will get very large over time.  Some of them are just massive.  Agaves pup.  You can't see them all, but there are five pups under the smaller agave, which is a pup of the biggest one.  The entire side yard is full of pups.  Anyway, someone is going to have to go.  Either the barrels or the agaves that are adjacent because they will run into each other.  I'm deferring, maybe one of them will die voluntarily.

A bougainvillea.

This is in one of the neighborhood cul de sacs.  It took some doing to construct this.  Look at the house in the back ground.  An extension is being built to it.  My theory is that they need structure to which they can attach sun shades.  The backs of those houses face due west, and I believe they suffer a lot in the summer.

The other day I came across an article about who is the best science fiction character.  Oddly enough, it was Murder Bot.  Murder Bot is a series written by Martha Wells, and has a permanent place in my Kindle library.  There is a substack on the subject, which I enjoyed reading, and you might, too, even if you don't read science fiction.

Now I will discuss President Biden's pardon of Hunter.  I am glad he did it.  Kash Patel, who has been nominated to be director of the FBI has been on record as saying he wanted to investigate Hunter for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  Basically, the new administration planned to pick up the investigations of Hunter that Rep. Comer has carried out with zero results.  It's an interesting pardon.  WAPO had this to say about it.

Biden didn’t just pardon his son for his convictions on tax and gun charges, but for any “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.”

That’s a nearly 11-year period during which any federal crime Hunter Biden might have committed — and there are none we are aware of beyond what has already been adjudicated — can’t be prosecuted. It notably covers when he was appointed to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma in 2014 all the way through Sunday, well after the crimes for which he was prosecuted.

The republicans, of course, are all up in their hair about this.  Many democrats are, too, claiming this will embolden the orange menace to start pardoning people.  Hello?  What did he do on the way out of the White House, he was pardoning everybody.  So, yes, President Biden originally said he wouldn't, but with these nutbags coming into power, I'm very glad he did it.

It you would like to know more about Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defense play the Youtube.

Every single appointment he has announced is of an unqualified person.  I saw a number published that the net worth of the people named is around $9 billion (with a b).  These people are there to get richer, screw the public.

This is an interesting photo.  It compares where a cold travels to in a rat's body, vs Covid.  They are not the same.

Other than this, I have not too much to say.

A Productive Thanksgiving

It's been a day!  Actually, it's been three days.  

The day before Thanksgiving, we went to Walmart.  We went to the one way up north, where the wealthier demographic lives, hoping for better stuff.  The theory was correct, better stuff was available in the area with higher incomes. Fortunately, we were out of there by 1:30, just as the crowds were showing up.  On the way back, we stopped at Home Goods, but there was no interesting art to be had.  I bought a blue bowl and a non-stick baking sheet, which I will probably take back to Spokane in the spring.  We have two up there, but they have both started to stick.

The day of Thanksgiving we went for a bike ride, and did the hills.  Twenty days off the bike really lowered our fitness levels.  Then, and then, we cleaned the floors in the house.  It was exhausting.  The floors were really bad, I don't think they had been cleaned in a long time.  I vacuumed and used the Bona on the laminate floors, Jim ran the steamer on the tile.  We had been meaning to get to it, but hadn't until yesterday.  It was time.

It was a beautiful day outside.

Yesterday we changed out bike saddles.  It took forever.  My mountain bike saddle was really old, and hard.  The clamp on the seat post had dirt and sand in the threads of the screws that secure the rails of the saddle.  One of them never did unscrew due to grit and grime.  We persisted, and eventually got mine done.  Jim took his Trek saddle off and moved it to his mountain bike, and the Trek got a new saddle.  His went much easier than mine.  So, three out of four bikes got new saddles.

So, that was our three days of Thanksgiving.  It was productive, and we did not eat too much.  There was zero participation in Black Friday.

 

The Day of the Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving!  We are wishing you and yours a most excellent day.

Better Days and Game Trails

Things have improved.  Jim got the giant pressure bandage off Saturday, which improved his outlook immeasurably.  The black eye is fading, soon he'll look normal, but with a new scar.  The Mohs surgeon is pretty good with scars.  I can't actually find the one on top of Jim's head.  Face procedures hurt worse than top of head procedures.  Please make a note of that.

Yesterday we got a decent ride in with three trips up the hill to the quilt house (so called because she used to hang quilts off the front of the garage), and two trips up the desert trails, which are also uphill.  The tires we currently have on the mountain bikes are heavy.  We have ancient technology, 26 inch tires, and it's difficult to find knobby tires.  One takes what one can get, and we got heavy tires.  It's good for us, makes us work harder.  This house has some very enthusiastic plantings.

When we came back from riding, Jim cut the dead fronds off the palm tree.  We only have the one tree, the previous house had 15 and I am extremely happy that there is only one.  Disposal is a pain, the barbed sections will not, under any circumstances, go in a yard waste bag.  We cut them off with the pruning saw, put them in the garbage can, and the frond pieces go in a yard waste bag.  The ground is so hard here that pulling weeds is not actually doable.  We're cutting them off at the ground and hoping they die. 

While up on the bank, cutting things down, we discovered our yard is a game trail.  In addition to coyotes pooping on the wall, which they did again last night, there are deer trails, and deer poop.  There is nothing to be done for it, other than to watch foot placement.  They make oblong pellets, a lot of them.

We have yet another art up.  This one was not nearly as difficult to get on the wall.  One nail, one nail only.  I like it.  Apparently I like non-representational art, which is something I did not know until shopping at Home Goods.

Here is our favorite burger place, which we rarely go to because we're not worthy of the calories.  However, admire the palm trees.  I love how they cross each other.



So, I have not too much to say about things.  The list of unsuitable cabinet nominations continues to grow, one waits for the republicans to grow a spine and at least block the child molesters, rapists and foreign agents.  Or maybe not.

Wrapping up the Week That Was Reviewed

Hola.  How are things?  Yesterday was a difficult day.  We spent a couple of hours trying to download a photograph of a document from a patient portal, and then upload it to another patient portal.  We had a paper copy of the document, which we photographed, and downloaded, and we could see it on the hard drive, but when we went to attach it in an email on the other portal, it was not visible.  I even dragged it out to Jim's desktop where it was clearly visible, and the portal still refused to see it.  It was the most frustrating, demoralizing thing; we knew it should work, but it wouldn't.  This morning, I took the screen shot, copied it on to a thumb drive, and the wretched second portal would acknowledge its presence on the drive.  It just should not be that difficult. 

The refrigerator guy called early on Friday to tell us that the part to fix the water dispenser in the door of the freezer was no longer available.  He has no data on the ice chute yet.  We are to call him for status.  Why doesn't he just call us when it arrives?  He has an office staff, they could call.  Anyway, off to Target to buy a Brita filter.  We had one in the park model, but left it there thinking we were done with it.  Anyway, got it home, and the water dispenser started working again.  I guess we'll show the dispenser the Brita periodically, and perhaps it will keep working.

The trip to the hand surgeon was a mixed bag.  The good is that they immediately identified Jim's finger issue as "trigger finger."  Go here for the Mayo explanation of the situation.  Sometimes, cortisone injections will fix it.  Jim got one, they'll do it two more times, and then if there is no improvement, they cut the tendon.  It's not a big deal, recovery time is about two weeks.  Then things went off the rails.  I brought a copy of a journal article on Suture Suspension Arthroplasty.  He glanced at the title and proceeded to tell me another term for the procedure is "tightrope surgery."  It isn't, he's wrong.  Tight rope requires two incisions, leaves two metal buttons in your hand, with a cable tied to both of them to support the thumb.  Suture suspension requires one incision, and zero hardware is left in the hand.  He only likes to do the procedure that's been around since 1972, and has a six month recovery.  So, he's off the table for the thumbs.  In addition to telling us stuff that was wrong, he talked over both of us, and I really hate that.  Jim reports that since the injection, the finger has not locked up, so that's good.

We got an art hung yesterday.  It was a giant pain in the butt.  They put the things that the wire attaches to too high on the sides so we had to keep the wire taut while tying it on.  That took three tries.  They also used massive staples to hold the corner protectors on which had to be pried off with screw drivers.  It took two tries to get it positioned on the wall to cover the wretched TV mount which they glued on as well as using lag bolts when it was installed.  Said mount is 29.5 inches wide, so the art had to be large. The frame is deep enough that it is flat against the wall with the mount under it.  Eventually we will get a less tall TV table and it will be better there.

The entry way rug arrived.  I really like it.  I wanted a 5 x 9, but couldn't find one, so we settled for a 5 x 8.  It will give us a landing place to shed the outdoor shoes and put on the indoor shoes.

The top photo is more accurate on the color.  It's not as orange as the bottom photo shows.  It's from Wayfair, polyester.

Does a coyote poop in the desert?  No, he comes in to my back yard, jumps up on the wall and does it there.  It's always interesting trying to figure out what they have been eating.  This sort of looks like corn.

I'd decided not to speak of the orange devil, but really, Seb Gorka for head of counter-terrorism?  He's a life member of the Nazi party in Hungary.  Please.

Sorry for the long boring post, but I'm preserving the ebb and flow of life in a new to us empty house, so that if we ever do this again, we'll remember what it was like and to have reasonable expectations of the experience. Perhaps piling a bunch of medical appointments in November was not the best choice.  When we're in Spokane, we basically do not have medical care, so there's a backlog upon arrival.

That's it, I have nothing else to say.

The Week in Review

This has been the week of the doctor's visit.  Monday Jim went to see his local dermatologist.  He's the best so far in keeping the bad things at bay.  He also confirmed that yes, Jim really does need to get that Mohs procedure done.  

Tuesday the refrigerator guy came and "realigned" the switch for the water dispenser, which failed five minutes after he left.  I guess we'll be getting a new part.  It's not really clear to me what the next steps are.  We're also getting the missing ice shield replaced so that the ice maker stops shooting my bare feet with ice, which is painful. He's coming back Friday, perhaps things will be better.

We did solve the mystery of why the stove grates do not sit level.  They are missing some rubber feet.  No they don't sell the feet.  No they don't sell replacement grates.  The stove is too old.  It's a stupid stove, it has a side oven into which NOTHING will fit,  not even a 10.5 in plate.  It's a wide stove, because of the side oven, which meant two banks of drawers had to be removed.  I fail to see the advantage here.  If we weren't worried about becoming paupers due to the orange menace, I would have the stove replaced with a normal one, restore the two banks of drawers and replace the counter top.  But who knows what will happen, and so we'll just live with it. But I digress.

Wednesday we saw the GP.  I love this woman.  She has seen us through some rough patches.  She, the dentist, and the cardiologist are reason enough to move here.  Health care in Spokane is surprisingly awful.  My lipids continue to be good.  Exercise and genetics to the rescue.  Jim is holding up well, his numbers are also good.  Tuesday, Jim called for an appointment with the Mohs guy; they'd had a cancellation, and so we were scheduled for the next day after the GP appointments.  It was a long day.  In a Mohs, they go to the biopsy site and make it bigger.  Then slides are prepared to see if the margins are clear.  The slide prep takes an hour, so it's not a quick visit.  They got clear margins after the first scoop, to that was good.

This, my friends, is the mother of all pressure bandages.  It has to stay on until Saturday.  Jim will need a bigger hat.

Today we are off to see a hand surgeon.  We want to know if anything can be done about Jim's finger which is curving and  the joint is locking, and also if he performs the Suture Suspension Arthroplasty for Thumb Carpometacarpal Arthritis.  It's better than the old way of doing reconstruction which involved two incisions, tendon harvesting and a longer recovery.  Jim's first hand guy was older, and he did the older procedure and would not discuss the new one.  

There has been some riding this week, in between seeing the medical fleet.

A large cactus in the front yard.

Here we go - to the dark side, with the orange menace.

Dr. Oz has been appointed to run Medicare and Medicaid.  RFK Jr, the anti-vaxer, proponent of raw milk consumption, and eater of road kill, was given the NIH, which oversees all things medical.  The two of them are having bro-spasms of joy talking about how they're going to suspend much of cancer treatment, preventative treatment and boost supplements.  What could go wrong?

Linda McMahon, of the WWE, who has a BA in French, and zero experience in the education field, despite once lying about having a degree in education, will be running the Department of Education, should it still exist.  

The House Republicans still refuse to release the records of Matt Gaetz having sex for money with underage girls.  There are videos of him doing it, they're on his phone.  However this does not seem to be disqualifying for the post of Attorney General.  The republicans are truly spineless shameful worms.

Late breaking news!  Gaetz withdrew!  And he gave up his seat in Congress previously. 

They are going to break the country.  I wonder if the people who voted for him will mind.  I mind greatly.

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.