Morning Update: 08/28/24
The colonoscopy is done. Everything looked fantastic. No polyps needed to be removed. Everything looked good. In fact, apparently, they had a cancellation because I was back in the surgery room well before my scheduled time. We were out of there a little after 10:00 and looking for cheap food. I don’t have to go back for another one for five years. The only potential concern I saw was that my weight had dropped 18 pounds since last month. In theory, that could signal another uptick in my white blood cell count. My weight isn’t too low, though, so I’m not going to worry about it at this point.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for our air conditioning. We noticed that it had stopped cooling during the night but assumed that it had just frozen up and would be fine after being turned off for a while. Wrong. So, we called Grandpa Bob. Bob called the people who installed the AC. They said their after-hours technician would be by after he finished the job he was currently on. We waited. And waited. The temperature inside the house went up to 89. The sun went down. We were still waiting. The kids went to bed, G choosing to sleep on the floor where it was cooler. Still waiting. Finally, around 10:00, my phone made noise, but Verizon’s spam filter cut it off before I had a chance to answer. Cue a couple of rounds of phone tag as it turns out the AC company’s numbers are all on Verizon’s spam list. Around 10:30, the technician arrived.
A burned-out capacitor was the problem. Some four-hundred-plus dollars later, the AC kicked back on. There are plans in the work to physically move the location of the AC as its proximity to the house may have contributed to the capacitor’s demise. I went to bed a little after 11:00, significantly later than my normal bedtime of 8:30.
Through it all, my biggest concern was the dogs and our mane coon hybrid, Jack-Jack (the kids are adaptive, though they complained constantly). Jack’s heavy fur makes him susceptible to heat. He stretched out on the tile floor in the living room and seemed to be okay. The dogs were having a more difficult time. They refused to not be in the same room as me. The Recovery Room is carpeted, so there’s a limit to how cool the floor gets. They lay there, stretched out as much as they could, panting heavily, and frequently getting up to drink water. I knew the AC had cooled the house significantly when they both finally jumped back onto the bed. Everyone seems to be fine this morning.
After all that, you’d think I’d be anxious for a rest day. That’s not going to happen. While Bob was here yesterday, he noticed that both of the outside water spigots were constantly dripping. So, he called the plumber and they will be here sometime this morning to replace both spigots. That’s going to mean turning off the water for an undetermined amount of time. That’s also going to mean shutting the dogs in the Recovery Room. A few years ago, we ran off one plumber from the same company because he was afraid the dogs were going to jump the gate between the living room and the kitchen (they can’t, they’re too fat). My biggest fear is that they’ll look at the 80-year-old pipes and declare that the whole mess has to be replaced. We’re crossing our fingers that the solution doesn’t involve thousands of dollars in new plumbing.
At least I get to eat.
With everything going on here at home, I’m not overly worried about the mundane aspects of this morning’s news. A few things are sticking in my craw, though.
Home improvement chain Lowe’s is scaling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, joining the ranks of a few other companies who have altered their programs since the end of affirmative action in higher education and amid conservative backlash online. This kowtowing to right-wing nut jobs is infuriating. They’re letting the online trolls win. Mind you, the people who are making the most noise don’t know one end of a hammer from the other. They’re not actually shopping at any of the companies they target. Yet, they’re effectively killing jobs and making the US a more inhospitable and inequitable place to live.
Investigators are looking at whether UN World Food Program staff sought to hide the alleged role of Sudan’s army in obstructing aid. That anyone would block aid to starving people is unconscionable. That the people responsible for delivering that aid would cover up the crime is just as bad. Bad actors have no excuse and should be given no assistance in committing their crimes. People all across Sudan are dying because of the nonsense going on there. That the agencies we depend on and financially support are involved in the lies and deceit is inexcusable.
The US isn’t the only country with a far-right problem. Eastern Germany is finding that far-right factions there are both making hiring difficult for business and causing problems for renewable energy. The far-right is hoping to gain some ground in upcoming elections, so they’re flexing their muscle. Remember what happened the last time the far right came to power in Germany? The entire reason the country was divided between East and West after WWII was so that they couldn’t become a global threat again. The world hailed the reunification of the country as a sign of progress and peace, but now it would seem that the original concerns might have been more accurate than anyone cares to admit.
If you’re a Lego fan, as I know my older boys are, be prepared for a price jump on those building blocks. Lego has announced that they’re replacing the oil-based plastic with a biodegradable version. The problem with that is the price tag is considerably higher. The popular blocks we all played with as children, and many as collectors, have never been cheap, but no one is expecting Lego to eat the increased production costs, despite the fact that the company is outperforming the overall toy market in Europe and the US. No one is sure when that price jump will hit retail stores, but stocking up on those collectible kits might not be a bad idea.
The Mormon Church is going after transgender rights again. They’re now prohibiting anyone even considering transitioning from working with children and prohibiting those who have transitioned from being baptized. The percentage of Mormons who are trans isn’t necessarily high, and anyone who has looked critically at the faith largely considers them to be more cultish than a legitimate religion. Nonetheless, they are far too public an entity for this type of action to not have repercussions throughout the trans community. Feel free to shame them.
If you had any remaining concerns as to whether Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was a complete nut job, I think the case has just been sealed. According to his daughter, Kick Kennedy (seriously, that’s her name), the fool “chain-sawed the head off a dead whale on a beach in Hyannis Port, Mass., bungee-corded it to their vehicle’s roof, and drove it five hours to the family home in Mount Kisco, N.Y.” She first told the story in a 2012 interview in Town and Country magazine, but now the political arm of the Center for Biological Diversity, a progressive environmental organization, is screaming for an investigation.
Another youth football player has died from injuries sustained on the field. This season is getting off to an especially rocky start as the number of injuries overall appears to have increased. Of course, it’s too early for there to be any hard numbers behind that assumption, but there seems to be plenty of cause for concern. Not that I expect every parent to pay attention to those concerns. Why? Travis and Jason Kelce just signed a $100 million podcast deal with Amazon. That along with a litany of stories of NIT wealth at the college level, obsessed parents are pushing harder than ever to make sure their kids are the ones bringing home the bacon. As long as there’s money on the table, greedy parents are going to treat their kids dirty, health and safety be damned.
Speaking of sports, have you ever known a major-league player to play for both teams in a game? It happened Monday as catcher Danny Jantsen played for both the Red Sox and the Bluejays in the resumption of a rain-delayed game from two months ago. The issue is that Jantsen was playing for the Bluejays when the game was originally scheduled. During the interim, he was traded to the Red Sox. So, he appeared on both teams’ rosters. You know that has to make scoring the game a bit difficult.
On the upside, Dolly Parton is at it again, sending books to five-year-olds in 21 states and a growing international participation as well. In many states, her Imagination Library has the ability to reach every child with new books before they even start kindergarten. In a world full of greedy sons of bitches, the 78-year-old singer is a shining example of one using their privilege to help others.
That seems like a good place to stop this morning. We’re expecting heavy rain with a chance of severe weather across the Midwest this afternoon, but that’s not going to do anything to bring down the record-setting temps. That makes me all the more thankful that we have the AC back up and working.
I never have liked iced coffee, but if they hadn’t fixed the AC I’d be considering it.
Morning Update: 09/02/24
Cooler temps prevail this morning as a strong cold front from the North hints at the coming autumn. I don’t know of anyone who is complaining. Days like this are comfortable, with plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy the holiday. Both twins and Fat Guy, our eldest cat, are helping me write this morning. The dogs are still curled up, sleeping away, showing no signs of wanting to go out. Kat and the kids are still asleep even as the clock approaches the 8:00 hour. I think we’ll make the most of everyone having a day off.
G helped me get all the brush loaded onto Grandpa Bob’s trailer yesterday. The task didn’t take too long. We then took the time to spray pet-safe weed killers around the fence line. The spray we’re using is 20% vinegar, so for a while, the yard smelled like the inside of a pickle jar. I didn’t bother asking Tipper to join us. Trying to get her to do anything outdoors is frustrating. I assigned her to do the dishes instead, which is a chore she doesn’t mind doing. We got everything out of the way early so they could chill the rest of the day.
I did have a rather weird nightmare this morning. It involved me attending some kind of conference held on the campus of a Christian university somewhere in Southwest Texas. I’ve no idea what the conference was about, but there were several friends and acquaintances in attendance. The nightmare part involved going to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. The place was odd for several reasons, not the least of which was the massage room that sat between dining rooms. Without getting into details, matters did not go well and it was well after curfew before I made it back to the dorm in which we were staying. Oh, and I was wearing Tipper’s orange furry tail the entire time. It was just bizarre.
With it being Labor Day, there are a couple of strikes going on that are worth mentioning. One is a housekeeper’s strike at major hotels in eight large cities in the US. Workers in other cities and chains are scheduled to join the strike later this week. The problem is more than just wages, which are stupidly low. Since COVID, there has been a shortage of housekeepers. Hotel chains have attempted to make up for this by offering guests the option of not having daily cleaning. That has backfired, though, as uncleaned rooms often take considerably longer to clean once the guests leave. This has resulted in housekeepers being overworked, expected to complete an impossible cleaning schedule before the next round of guests arrives.
The second is a general strike in Israel as people there are furious with Prime Minister Netanyahu for not agreeing to a previous cease-fire that would have released hostages before they were killed. The general work stoppage across the country affects almost everything, including air travel in and out of the country. The group behind the strike is older than the country itself and carries a lot of influence within the government. It will be interesting to see if Netanyahu continues to dig in his heels as internal pressure grows.
DirectTV users might as well go outside and play today. They lost access to all Disney-owned channels as a contract dispute between the two companies struggled to find a reasonable agreement. The problem is that the majority of Americans are better served without the old cable providers. That’s been true for a number of years now. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of rural areas where satellite-based service is more cost-effective than high-speed Internet. Disney makes more money off their streaming services, so obviously they’d rather emphasize that revenue stream. Since the number of DirectTV users is a small fraction of total viewers, there’s not a lot of motivation for Disney to give in. Of course, as always, it’s the customers that lose.
The Associated Press is floating a story this morning that AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient. Having read the article a couple of times now, I think there’s some merit to the thesis, but to make a claim that workers don’t have to worry at all about being replaced by AI is short-sighted. There are some industries where workers will benefit, to be sure, but there are plenty of others where workers will be replaced. The employment market is too broad to be making such a global statement of this kind.
Germans are feeling a bit nervous this morning as the country’s far-right party won a state election yesterday. While there’s still some question as to whether the majority parties will allow the far-right to participate in actually governing, the mere fact that they won the election has some worried for the future and others fearful of repeating the past. The country has worked hard to put its fascist Nazi heritage behind them. There are even laws designed to prevent them from ever coming to power again. Still, the fear that there are people in Eastern Germany who voted for the party is disturbing.
There is an interesting guest essay in this morning’s Times. While the Felon has made the claim that Harris would “take away your hamburgers,” this writer makes the argument that the Felon’s immigration policies would be what removes hamburgers and other meats from the market. The meat packing industry relies heavily on immigrant labor, which the Felon wants to stop. If he wins and implements such plans, the price of meats would, at the very least, rise well beyond affordability for most families. If workers can’t be found, some meats could disappear from the market altogether. Given the amount of burgers being consumed by Americans on holidays such as this one, I’m not sure that losing meat is a risk anyone wants to take.
That’s enough reading for today. The weather is too beautiful for any of us to stay inside. Solaris just turned off my desk lamp (seriously, he did), so that seems like a pretty good indication that I should stop typing and get on about the fun stuff, like napping, since there’s still no one else awake.
Too bad there’s not a football game to watch.
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