Because I’m not a masochist, I watched none of the Republican National Convention – especially not last night’s official coronation of Herr Drumpf. Still, it’s impossible to ignore these things completely and there were at least a few moments of amusement. Wife #3 lifting part of her speech from Michelle Obama was kind of funny, for instance. Ted Cruz getting booed off the stage for not endorsing the guy that called Cruz’s wife ugly and said Cruz’s old man was palin’ around with Lee Harvey Oswald (I’m forced to admit a tiny nugget of respect for Cruz for that) was pretty funny. And, while it technically wasn’t about the convention, seeing Roger Ailes being forced to resign from Fux News was nice to see as well.

Apparently last night’s acceptance speech showed the world the angry, scary old man with a spray-tan so bad even Jon Boehner thinks it looks ridiculous that the Republicans have made their nominee for President (and for whom a disturbingly large percentage of Americans are apparently planning on voting for).

I saw one clip with a red-faced, spitting Trump yelling about something of other (he reminded me of my old boss Hermann – not to mention my father-in-law – when he got himself all worked up over something). I’ve never really cared for people yelling at me – I tend to just shut my ears off and wait for it to end. So that’s what I’m hoping to do for the balance of this election season – try to ignore it and wait for it all to be over. And hope like hell we don’t get Spokesmodel Trump and de facto President Pence.

One thing seems certain, though – Hillary Clinton is really really lucky to be running against Trump instead of a relatively sane human being (not that the GOP is capable of nominating a relatively sane human these days). Not that polls are particularly meaningful at this point, but the national polls the past few days seem to have Clinton anywhere from 4 points ahead to 1 point down – and neck in neck with Trump in Ohio and Virginia.

Not in NY, though, where Clinton has a pretty sizable lead. Which is a good thing, because as someone who isn’t a registered as a Democrat, I’m not allowed to vote for a Democrat in NY. At least, from what I recall of the primary here, I think that’s how the NY rules work. On the bright side, I like the candidate who I am allowed to vote for – Jill Stein. And I don’t normally care for doctors, so that’s saying something. Plus I’m pretty sure she isn’t considering a running mate that wants to deregulate the banks.

In other news, it’s a big day here in the old homestead. We’re getting a new refrigerator delivered. Not because the old one isn’t working, but because the old one is a side-by-side that I’ve gradually come to despise over the past five years. Basically, you can’t fit anything in it and what you can put in there basically has to be packed like a suitcase. Which, in the case of fresh food, means it typically gets forgotten about until it grows fur and tries to escape.

I liked the french door fridge with bottom freezer we had at the old house, and I’ve missed it ever since. So I finally pulled the plug and ordered one (plus it’s a good excuse to take a day off). And the new one is only supposed to cost about $6 a month to run – partly because it has an “inverter” compressor, meaning that it has a variable speed DC motor in it (hence the need for the inverter) and instead of turning on and off, it just goes faster or slower depending on the temperature and set point. It probably also means the sensor, inverter, and circuit board are all likely to crap out after the 1 year warranty (10 years on the compressor, though) and be very expensive to fix.

Having the fridge break is one reason I was reluctant to get a new one. I mean, I don’t ever recall replacing an old refrigerator because it stopped working in the olden days, but I’ve heard horror stories about problems with newer ones.

Well, too late to back out now. I guess I’d better go get all the crap out of the old one so they can haul it away.