Well, looks like Primary season is all but over now, and soon we’ll turn our attention to the General Election. Actually, for me, I’m going to do everything in my power to divert my attention from the General, because I’m really not looking forward to what it’s going to be like (it’s going to be downright icky, IMHO). I’m very conflicted on this whole thing. On the one hand, I can’t believe I live in a country that would make Donald Trump a serious candidate for President. One the other hand, it doesn’t surprise me one bit. Either way, it’s pretty shameful.

It’s also a sad fact that I know people – people that I consider to be reasonably intelligent and decent people – who think that Trump is “what we need” to “shake things up” and “turn things around.” I mean, you expect that sort of thing from the mouthbreathing idiot types, or from my ex-Nazi father-in-law (though he probably doesn’t know what day of the week it is at this point – not sure he even remembers that “that colored fella” is President) but when people you actually like and respect (or at least used to respect) come out with this shit….

Well, I’m just at a loss.

In other news, today is my mom’s birthday. She’d have been 92 today, though she’s been dead for coming up on 17 years now I guess it is. Though I miss my folks, there’s something to be said for going out while you more or less still have your shit together. My big fear is that I’ll somehow overcome my genetics and less-than-stellar food, beverage, and exercise routines and outlive everybody. I’m fairly certain, that won’t happen, but it’s still a scary thought – to be left alone to rot (first figuratively and eventually literally) in front of the teevee until somebody notices I haven’t paid the taxes in a while.

Or worse, get shoved into some roach-filled nursing home somewhere – left mumbling over in the corner in my wheelchair hoping for the red jello instead of the green.

On the bright side, I’ll probably croak about a week after I retire (or maybe the week before, which would be better for the wife, since if I croak while I’m still working she gets decent chunk of insurance money).

Then again, with President Trump and his gang in charge, retirement might just be off the table altogether.

Too bad, because I really feel like retiring right about now. My tractor’s got a flat tire, and the grass needs cutting.

Plus it’s been damn cold lately. When I got home yesterday, it was 58° in the house, and I actually have to turn the heat back on.

I have to go to the vet this morning. Well, it’s actually my dog that has to go, but he needs a ride. Fortunately, it isn’t because he’s sick or injured – mostly he just needs his rabies shot before his doggy license expires a week from today. And while we’re at it, he’ll be getting him Lyme vaccine booster. I’m ordinarily not one for all this vaccination stuff, but given the vast number of these goddamn ticks we have around here and the fact that all three of the varmints have tested positive (despite the money I shell out for Frontline Plus® and my diligent tick inspections), I decided to go for the Lyme vaccine last year. The first year’s a pain, too, because you have to get a booster a couple months after the initial vaccine.

Two of the dogs I can take by myself, but today it’s Bud’s turn, and there’s no way to trust Bud to stay put in the car and not climb all over (and into my lap – and it’s tough to drive with a 85 pound dog in your lap). So today my wife gets to go along for the ride (I’ll even let her stick her head out the window if she wants).

The first obstacle will of course be trying to separate him from the pack. No matter how much I tell the other two that they really don’t wanna go where Bud’s going (a month ago, I took Peggy and she cried the whole way there and the whole way back – and half the time we were there), they’re going to insist on coming along. So that’s always a struggle.

Then there’s the mysterious aversion to the scale when they try to weigh him. I really don’t understand the problem, but the one place in all universe they don’t wanna stand is on that damn scale. I don’t know if they think it’s a giant hole in the floor or what. I should probably try telling them, “look, you’re not allowed on that scale so don’t even think about it!” Invariably, I’ll have to pick him up and put him on there – and I’m starting to get a little to old for that.

After that, it’s usually smooth sailing. Last month, they didn’t even take Peggy’s temperature, which I was happy about (not as happy as she probably was). Siggy used to absolutely hate that – to the point where I advised the vet we went to at the time that “he really doesn’t like that.” Since Siggy was a pretty big boy with pretty big teeth, the vet said “OK, we won’t do that then.”

Wise decision.

I really used to hate taking the dogs to the vet, and I’m still not that crazy about it. But since I’ve gone to a doctor a couple of times now, I have a lot less sympathy. At least they don’t have to spend a sleepless night just thinking about it the way I do. Plus there are enough critters out here in the sticks (found Peggy playing with a nice juicy dead skunk not that long ago) that makes getting the rabies shot seem pretty worthwhile (not to mention the rabid raccoon story I heard on Snap Judgement a while back that scared the shit out of me).

After we get this whole vet thing over with, I’ll have to see if I’m up for brewing a batch of beer. I’d prefer to get an earlier start on it, so I might defer that until tomorrow – though that means I’d have to do the Costco thing today – and I really hate getting there much after opening time, because there’s just too goddamn many people out there.

And, statistically speaking, a lot of them are gonna be voting for Trump.

I’m a day late on this (must’ve been that whole 4/20 thing ), but the 2016 NY State Primaries are over, with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton emerging victorious. I (much like the Trump spawn) was unable to participate in the primary election because I’m not registered to a political party that makes much of a difference. I was once a registered Democrat, but long ago decided I didn’t like the “party” all that much so I registered with the Working Families Party. But then they endorsed Governor Snotball over Zephyr Teachout a couple years back, which really pissed me off. So I decided to switch to the Green Party. Frankly, registering as a Democrat where I live is kind of a joke. None of the local races are ever contested (hell, we’re often lucky to have more than one candidate running in the general election, let alone the primary), and by the time the national races get to NY, everything’s usually already been decided (at least, according to the media) by the white folks in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. The last time I voted in a primary was way back in 2008 when I quite reluctantly voted for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama (my first choice was John Edwards, which shows how smart I am).

Now, in NY, you’d think it would be fairly simple to change your voter registration. And I suppose it is, but it takes forever. After printing out and failing to mail in a paper form, I eventually filled out the form (you can’t just fill out a “change” request either – you have to fill out the full voter registration form as if you’re a new voter) at the DMV website. And I waited. And waited. And I checked my registration on my county BOE website, and it never changed. And eventually I kind of forgot about it until I decided maybe I should register as a Democrat so I could vote for Bernie.

Now, I don’t know exactly when Bernie made his intentions known, but I think it was around last May. So I should have done it then (though to that point there was no indication that my previous change had gone through, so I didn’t know if it was gonna work anyway), but I didn’t and much to my surprise, by the time Bernie officially launched his first campaign ad in November, it was already too late. If you want to change your party affiliation for the purpose of voting in the primary here in NY, you have to do it six months ahead of time.

So, my bad. I think this is pretty stupid, personally, but there are a vast number of stupid voting rules here in NY (that include things like the color of the ink used in the nominating petitions, and the fact that if the election district changes mid-street – as they do – and there’s a single signature from the wrong district on the petition, all the signatures get thrown out) designed to keep the little people without a vast organization and tons of money (and lawyers) from running for any office higher than Highway Superintendent.

I’ve heard people say that if you’re not a member of a party then you don’t have any right to choose the party’s candidate, which sounds good. Except just registering with a party affiliation doesn’t make you a member of the party either. So by that logic, you should have to be a card-carrying, dues-paying member of “the party” in order to vote.

But in the shitty system we have here, you only get two actual choices (usually between Kang and Kodos), so it seems kind of unfair to me that if there’s somebody running in either party that you’d like to see become president, you ought to be able to vote for that person to become the candidate. And there are of course states with open primaries – I just don’t happen to live in one of them.

I also don’t live in Canada, where it looks like they’re about to legalize pot. So maybe I need to change that.

Oh, there’s always the argument that people are going to scurry out to the polls to vote for somebody they think will make for a weak candidate on the “other” side. Frankly, I think most people are too lazy to bother with that. At least, I don’t think you’d get enough people to make much of a difference in a national election (though I know there’s been isolated incidents of Republicans digging up homeless people or whatever to run as the Democrat in some local races – but I don’t think that’s quite the same thing).

I at least think I ought to be able to go online and change my registration instantly. If you want to lock that function out a week or a month or whatever ahead of an election, then OK.

But, whatever. The rules are the rules, and they aren’t gonna change.

Anyhow, I found this NY Times map of how the candidates did in New York pretty interesting. Surprising, even. Not the Republican one (NY Republicans love them some Trump), but the Democrats.

Green is Bernie, and blue is Hillary, and you can see that Bernie won in all the rural areas – areas which are typically considered very conservative. Not exactly what you’d consider a bastion of Commie Pinko sympathizers. Even in the counties that Clinton won Upstate, her margin was a lot lower than she got downstate (and Sanders had huge YUGE margins in some of the more rural areas).

The other thing I thought was interesting was this table:

Now, granted this is only the committed delegates and doesn’t include the card-carrying, dues-paying, party elite types (who will eventually vote whichever way the political winds blow), but still. Clinton appears to have a less than a 250 delegate lead over Sanders at this point. Which seems odd, because I keep hearing that he should quit. That seems like telling a team that’s down by 10 points in the third quarter that they should just give up and go home.

I mean, need I remind you that Syracuse was down by 15 points with 9:33 to go in the game against Virginia and came back to win and earn a trip to the Final Four? No, I didn’t think so.

So hopefully Bernie will at least be able to get some some of his ideas into the Democratic platform (not that that means much), and hopefully Clinton can actually beat Trump (who the GOP establishment is suddenly warming up to) in November. ‘Cuz I hate moving, and I’m not sure Canada wants an old fart like me moving in anyway.

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.

Happy Beer Day! It was on this date in 1933 that the Cullen–Harrison Act went into effect, legalizing (after what much have been a dreadful 13 years) the sale of beer for the first time since 1920 (it was only 4% beer, but, hey, beggars can’t be choosers). On that day, 1.5 million barrels of beer were consumed nationwide. Is that a lot? I don’t know. According to this page, in 2011 Americans consumed 6.3 billion gallons of beer. So, let’s see…. That would be about 17,260,274 gallons of beer per day. There are 31 gallons in a beer barrel, so that would be about 556,783 barrels a day. Roughly a third of what they drank back in 1933. Pretty impressive, especially when you consider that the US population was only about 125.6 million in 1933 and 311.7 million in 2011. If April 7^th is Beer Day, then April 8^th has got to be Hangover Day. But then, I generally celebrate both most every day.