It’s not supposed to totally suck this weekend, so I really need to get a couple of things done. First off is to cut the grass one last time and maybe put the cab on (but maybe not – we’ll have to see). I also need to finish up some fencing. There’s plenty more to do, too, but if I just get those things done, I’ll be satisfied.

Yesterday I took the car in for its 10,000 mile checkup, which was relatively painless. They have a good system at the dealer and their waiting room is comfortable and has WiFi (though I guess pretty much everybody does these days). They of course also have a teevee and it unfortunately was tuned to CNN (I suppose it could have been worse), and other than a couple minutes of Hurricane Patricia talk, it was all about Hillary at the Benghazi committee.

How anybody could try and spin that charade as anything but Hillary looking intelligent and competent (I mean, seriously – if I was conspiracy minded, I’d suggest that the whole thing was designed by Republicans to make Hillary look good, presumably because the thought of President Trump or Carson scares them almost as much as President Sanders) and the Republicans looking like idiots, I don’t know.

But that conservative twit I’ve seen on Bill Maher (a prime example of why I just can’t stomach watching Bill anymore) – “C” Cupps or whatever her name is – sure did try. I’ve never seen her out in the wild before (not being a CNN kinda guy), but goddamn she’s just as irritating on CNN as she is on HBO. And of course the rest of the gang did their best to be “fair and balanced”

“Democrats on the committee said is was bullshit. But Republicans said ‘nu-uh.”

Thank goodness I was in and out in about an hour – any longer, and I’d have screamed.

As much as the whole Trumpmentum thing confounds me, I find the rise of Ben Carson (whose slogan should be “Ben Carson – He’s One of the Good Ones”) even more astounding. I mean, at least Trump has name recognition). But I guess Republicans just like what Carson has to say.

According to the survey of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers, 81 percent approved of Carson’s comment that Obamacare is the “worst thing that’s happened in this nation since slavery;” 77 percent said they liked his statement that Hitler’s rise could have been stopped if German citizens had had guns; and 73 percent liked his concerns about a Muslim becoming president.

Among the respondents, 96 percent said they find Carson’s “common sense” attractive, and 89 percent said they like that he is guided by his faith, according to the poll. Only 32 percent of those surveyed believe Trump is a committed Christian.

Maybe I’m biased, but when I think of Ben Carson, “common sense” is about the last thing that comes to mind.

Speaking of Hitler, I bet a lot of “moderate” Germans never thought somebody like him could possibly come to power. Here’s hoping we don’t wake up on November 9th 2016 thinking, “damn – never saw that one coming.”

Every year, some buffoon trots out the idea of doing away with today’s holiday (which is probably only a holiday for state and federal workers, but, hey, since I’m one of those I aint gonna complain). I have no real affection for Columbus (other than I kind of get a kick out of celebrating somebody who thought he was in India and gets credited for discovering a place where people were already living and where the Vikings were already playing football some 500 years before him), but we need more holidays around here, not fewer. So if you want to rename it “Native American Day” or something (think of the irony in that one – not to mention the holiday sales event on cigarettes and a free spin at the slots) that’s fine – just don’t take my day off away.

Personally, I like to think of this as the kickoff to the end of year non-productivity season, which really doesn’t start to ramp up until we approach Thanksgiving (yet another day of irony for those of native descent). Usually about a week out from T-Day, people (especially those with kids) start taking days off making it blessedly impossible to schedule meetings. After Thanksgiving, there are seemingly daily holiday parties, more vacation time, and of course people trying to hawk their kids’ boy scout popcorn or pawning off raffle tickets for some do-gooder event or other.

Basically, the only thing that really goes on between Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl is that people sit around and think of things the DBA and Server guys need to do. URGENTLY (and at the last minute)! Typically things they’ve twiddled their thumbs over for months and then it’s “oh, by the way, we a serve set up and a database installed on it by tomorrow.”

This is what you get when you have non-IT people running IT projects. They seem to think that it’s better to hire people with clinical experience for IT jobs (because you can teach any moron how to do IT type things) than to get people who have at least some technical background. You know, the people whose résumés typically include “proficient in Microsoft Office” (and even that is usually a lie).

Oh well, today is “close the pool” day (always a sad moment). I usually do this a bit earlier in the year (like, mid to late September), but this year I wanted to let the water get nice and cold (under 60) first, so hopefully we’ll have less to do when we open it back up again. Guess I better get another cup of coffee and then get busy.