Long, Cold Weekend…Future Forecast? Not Looking Good

It was a successful 5-day weekend. Lots of relaxation, lots of record spinning, and some good time spent in the basement working on new music. My wife is better, but still dealing with post-Covid stuff. Mainly an annoying cough she can’t give the slip. I didn’t end up going to the Y, but I did do strength training here at home with free weights and resistance bands. So I feel pretty good about that.

Thursday morning I spent a couple hours putting together that stereo cabinet. It wasn’t that it was hard to do, but it was kind of awkward holding the frame up while trying to screw in the wood shelves into it. Despite its best efforts it didn’t defeat me, and by 1pm it was complete. I still spent a good portion of the afternoon putting the components on, cutting new speaker wire, and just generally giving it the old OCD once, twice, three times over.

Man, I’m too old to be sitting on the floor for two hours. Indian style, on my knees, kneeling,…it didn’t matter. By Friday morning I felt like I’d been beaten with a bat. Legs, knees, glutes were sore as hell. Despite that I still woke up at 5:50am Friday. I made some coffee and went downstairs to set up the stereo down there. I had the refurbished Pioneer receiver, as well as my old Denon DVD player that would make for a solid CD player. Of course the classic Audio Technica TT was ready to be put back into commission, and some practically brand new Bose 301 speakers that probably don’t even have an hour of play time on them. I listened to Scott Ian’s audiobook version of his autobiography I’m The Man and got the basement set up perfectly. It’s a prime spot for both writing/recording music, blog writing, and for chilling and listening to tunes.

Despite being in pain I still went to the gym and got 4 miles on the treadmill. That afternoon I chilled with some IPAs and watched the 2022 Hellraiser. I started it two years ago when it first came out, but I fell asleep(damn you, IPAs!) So I finished it this time and enjoyed it. That 5:50am wake up came back to haunt me and I went to bed relatively early.

My dad came over Saturday morning and we had coffee. It’d been a couple weeks since he’d come over, with my wife sick and everything. It was nice having a cup of joe with my dad. And we only talked politics once!(maybe twice.)

My wife and I went out for lunch Saturday. We went to Oak & Alley, a local burger joint, and we got sandwiches and a side of PB&J sweet potato fries. Those things are the BOMB. Even if you don’t like sweet potatoes or peanut butter and jelly, these things are unlike any fries you’ve had before. So good. And the chicken sandwich I had was out of this world.

Sunday I did some reading in the Geddy Lee autobiography. Loving that book, btw. Any Rush fan will love it. Still stunned about chapter 3 and him telling about his family’s experience in the concentration camps. I ended up picking up a 4pk of truly amazing and strong IPAs via Three Floyd’s Brewing. Enjoyed those while watching Alien: Romulus. Enjoyed some homemade chicken quesadillas then crashed in the chair watching The Office.

Our daughter and her pooch Celeste spent the night Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It’s been great having them over. Celeste is a gentle giant and it’s sort of nice having a full house again. It’s also a little safer to have them over here due to the extreme cold we’re currently experiencing. At home our daughter would have to walk Celeste in order for her to go to the bathroom, whereas here we can just let her run out into the backyard, do her duty, and then run back in. Last thing I want is my daughter out walking the dog in subzero temps.

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While this was a pretty great 5-day weekend, unfortunately we had to end it on Inauguration Day. Yes, we got to bring back one of the worst presidents in any lifetime. For a second term. I’ve been avoiding news since November. Unless it’s weather, local, or some story about a monkey befriending a kitten I’m just completely unplugged from it. I did hear and see snippets of the shit show that was going on in Washington yesterday, and it seemed as awful as I thought it would be. The Autocracy/Oligarchy is in full effect. If day one is any indication of what the next four years are going to be, there’s a whole lot of people with targets on their backs. Ooh, and Elon Musk throwing out the Nazi salute for good measure. And the clip I saw of Trump? Man, he does not look good. So if he dies in office we get evil Haley Joel Osment stepping in.

Hey, I’m sorry world. I don’t know what the endgame here is, except maybe just the ultra rich calling the shots. We’re getting that much closer to there being just two classes in this country, the ultra rich and then cogs that do all the manual labor. We’re selling our country and the working class to CEOs that want to work blue collar men and women to the bone, then toss them to the side when they can send their jobs to other countries for much cheaper labor. Trump’ M.O. is that sort of thing. Not sure what sort of future my kids will face in another 10-20 years. It’s like Krypton self-destroying itself, and not nearly enough pods or planets to escape to. I’m sure we’ll be embroidering in “You’re either with us, or against us” on all our American flags. And who’s doing the embroidery? Some sweat shop in China, I’m sure.

The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.