It’s tax day here in ‘murica, where 99% of us a happy to pay our fair share to keep America great, and the other 1% laugh at us behind our backs (some right to our faces) as they send their money off to hidden offshore accounts. I actually filed mine way back at the beginning of February, so all I’m really trying to do today is make it through this week. On my way into the building this morning, I walked by a banana peel in the parking lot. All I could think of was this could be my ticket to permanent disability (and maybe a lawsuit for failure to provide a safe working environment). And it would have been such a classic injury. “How’d you get hurt?” “Slipped on a banana peel.” Hah! 
But the weather has taken a rather dramatic turn for the better around here (sunny and in the 60s – maybe even 70 on Sunday) through the weekend (I actually go to sit out in the sun for a while after I got home last night – I was tempted to have a fire, but thought better of it. It was a school night, and there’s something about sitting around a fire that induces me to drink way too much beer and stay up way too late). So I don’t wanna be stuck in a full-body cast in a hospital bed. Hopefully that banana peel will still be there on Monday (and that much more slippery after a few days of baking in the sun).
Plus, I’m already somewhat crippled. In my effort to stave off death at least until I after I retire, I’ve been trying to get into some semblance of “shape” (at least, a shape other than “sphere”). Mostly, I’m hoping to not have a heart attack, so I’ve been trying to do some cardio-type stuff. I can’t use my bike, because I started to develop something along the line of Achilles tendinitis. So I bought a rowing machine, and have been very diligent in getting up at 4:00 or so and doing 30+ minutes a day on it for the past month. And I’ve been feeling pretty good, other than a bit of stiffness in my right Achilles tendon. Until the middle of the night last night when it started to ache like crazy and hurt like hell to touch (which made my 5 or so trips to the bathroom rather unbearable).
By this morning, I could barely walk on it. So, no rowing for me today. Instead I put ice on it and took some Ibuprofen. I really hope it goes away, ‘cuz it’s pretty fucking discouraging to actually try to do the right thing, only to suffer for it. Plus, what the hell am I gonna do with a rowing machine that I can row with.
Otherwise, there’s not much going on. We’re basking in the unexpected attention of the candidates for President. Not only are they spending money on teevee ads, but they’ve actually been stopping by to visit in person. We’re really not used to this – typically good folks in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina have already chosen the nominees, so we’re usually spared all this stuff. Herr Drumpf himself will be here on Saturday (I think my wife should bring her dad out to see him – not that he can really see anymore, but I think Donnie’s his kinda guy), and we’re all agog. Well, some of us are, anyway.
Much as I’d love to go hear how Trump plans on making America great again, I’ve got too much to do (god knows when we’ll . My first plan is to get the mower on the tractor (not that the lawn needs mowing just yet, but if the weather stays decent, it’ll be knee-high before you know it). This will probably guarantee a mid-April blizzard, but I can still plow the driveway with the mower on if need be. I also need to get one batch of beer out of the fermenter and into a keg and hopefully brew another one. But I need to whomp up a recipe first.
And of course I have to find a way to get to Costco and do my laundry and all that other “day off” stuff. Plus I have a ton of teevee backed up to watch.
Two days just aren’t enough.
I have a bad knee that was injured about 20 years ago. And, as with all other great stuff that comes with aging, the knee has gotten more painful. On a rainy day, especially when a few of them come together, it is so painful each step is horrible. Ibuprofen and ice certainly help. Not using it helps more.
What you need to do, PJ, is trip on that banana at work. That way you get workers comp and a pension.
We’re expecting some significant rain this weekend. It’s a good thing as we have not had much rain this spring. Some areas to the west could get up to 10 inches. You may get that big precipitation, pj, so beware!
I did take the pops to hear Herr Drumpf when he was courting the nut-jobs in this state. The old guy loved it. I didn’t stay with him, but just dropped him off; I can only take so much. Gawd I’m sick of this entire election season. At least the ads stopped here.
Ordered some raised cedar beds from Costco and have veggies planted. It seems to be working out, but I’ll have to see what kind of crop I get from the beds. At least I don’t have to worry about the four dorks trampling and peeing on the plants and my back is saved from leaning over.
You should grow hops!
In Europe, I remember seeing them growing up and over enormous trellises….me thinks -> shade!!!
Yeah, all you need to do is give them some twine to grow around. They like sun and well-drained soil. I’m not going to get to it this year, but maybe next. They are poisonous to dogs, though, so that’s something you have to think about.
I watched most of the rally in S’cuse today. I watched most of the rally in S’cuse today. Believe me! Believe me! There were protestors and I was looking for familiar faces but the lying media didn’t show them from the press pen. The lying media didn’t show them!
Now Gubner Snotball is on MSNBC. I’ve got to get back to the garden (or the Warriors game). Believe me! Believe me!
Better you than me. I guess they had about 300 people protesting him for four hours. A few people that snuck in and got kicked out. Nothing too radical. I keep hoping he’ll grab a baby to shield him from a sniper, ala Martin Sheen in The Dead Zone. Especially when his hands turn out to be the same size as the baby’s.
The wife is on her way to DC this morning for something or other. Guess I’ll just have to brew beer.
If they weren’t there, he’d pay somebody to do it. I admire a lot of protestors but I am afraid some of them don’t help or are self-defeating. There might be better and more effective ways to act.
Let me be very clear, I do not mean the RGs.
I understand what you mean, and I don’t disagree. Somebody like Trump feeds off any attention he gets. And his “followers” love to have somebody to hate. I mean, hate’s pretty much all they’ve got.
Purity is ever so important:
Medieval beer purity law has Germany’s craft brewers over a barrel
hen is a beer not a beer? When German authorities say it violates a 500-year-old decree, but some brewers are fighting back
They used to chop your hand off if you violated the Reinheitsgebot (at least, that’s what my German teacher told me). If they want to force carbonate the beer, they have to collect the CO2 from fermenting beer and use that – can’t hook it up to gas bottle.
Kinda lools like Diane Rehm.
I thought Ironside was dead.
Another take on Burr-Feinstein.
Sad news here in Orange land.
Palemale and Octavia’s eggs have hatched according to the hawk watchers who say they have observed them feeding the chicks, though the chicks are too small to be seen above the nest. So, in spite of all the craziness of this campaign season, life goes on.
And, Dean Skelos’ seat was won by a Democrat against whom some charter school group ran ads accusing him of being a liberal like DeBlassio. What I’d like to know is how this group has moiney to spend on a political campaign especially as charter schools were not the issue.