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.

In an effort to end the carnage wrought by the previous post and stop all the dying (plus it’s been a while), I’m putting something new up here. I don’t actually have anything to say, so I apologize for the lack of substance (if only Donald Trump would do the same). Anyhow, in looking for something – anything – to write about, I noticed that it was 12 years ago today that Air America Radio launched (IIRC, it started up at noon, Eastern, with the Al Franken Show, which I think was initially called “The O’Franken Factor”). Oh, how I was looking forward to that (no radio up here in the provinces carried it, and I remember the stream being very unreliable in the beginning.) I think Al locked Ann “Bebe Neuwirth” Coulter in the closet or something. Ah, those were the days. Sure didn’t last long, did they?

Speaking of Jews, I also see that it was on this day in 1492 that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella kicked the Jews out of Spain. I guess 1492 was a busy year for those crazy kids. It’s always struck me as odd that you hear about those two together. Kind of unusual for monarchs, isn’t it? I mean, you hear of Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth or Richard the Fourth, but you typically don’t hear about their spouses (with the exception of Henry VIII, of course). I guess Ferd and Issy must have been quite the team.

Speaking of Henry VIII, if you get a chance you should watch Wolf Hall (based on the books by Hilary Mantel), which has just gotten four BAFTA nominations, including best actor for Mark Rylance, who plays Thomas Cromwell. The Catholics are all up in arms over it (how unusual) because it depicts Cromwell as an intelligent self-made man, and Thomas More as somewhat less than saintly. The miniseries ends with Anne Boleyn’s execution (I hope I’m not spoiling that for anybody), so hopefully they’ll do another one (poor Cromwell didn’t last even last as long as AAR after Anne lost her head).

I got to go to the Tower of London way back when, and the pain and suffering that went on there is truly palpable (though I didn’t know enough at the time to go over to Tower Hill and visit the site where everybody had their heads chopped off – it apparently took the executioner a few whacks to get Cromwell’s head off).

Today is also Al Gore’s birthday (not to mention Gabe Kaplan, Rhea Perlman, and Christopher Walken, among others). So Happy Birthday to them.

Oh well, I’ve squandered enough time and should probably get back to working on something. Let’s hope people stop dying for a while.

So, today is Earth Hour. The idea is that from 8:30 – 9:30 (whatever your local time is) tonight, everybody should turn out their lights (and as many other things as you can) as a way of “shining a light on climate action to show how much our planet matters to you.” I don’t know how much good that will actually do, but what the hell. That’s pretty much my bedtime anyway, and to be honest we mostly sit around in the dark anyway. When I say we, I mean me and the dogs, since the wife has been away this weekend (three nights of not being relegated to less than a third of the bed) doing some kind of union activity in Cooperstown (where, despite her professed complete disdain and lack of interest in baseball, she apparently went to the Hall of Fame because she sent me pictures). What she probably failed to note, of course, was that a lot of the bats on display from the olden days (like the one George “High Pockets” Kelly of the New York Giants used to hit three home runs in a single game) were made in Syracuse by the Kren Bat Company. Apparently a lot of the guys had to use Kren bats on the sly because they were under contract to Louisville Slugger.

Otherwise, not much is going on here. It’s a sunny, though somewhat chilly day, that started with the dogs deciding they really needed to go out at 3:00 AM. Of course, I never really got back to sleep after that (so lights out at 8:30 shouldn’t be a problem). I’m not feeling like I’ll be accomplishing much of anything today. Maybe I’ll get a jump on my laundry.

Yesterday was a good sports day, though. Both the SU mens and womens basketball teams advanced in the NCAAs. The women advanced by trouncing Army, which is pretty incredible when you stop to think about it. Not that they won, but that Army has a womens basketball team. Considering women weren’t even admitted to West Point when I was a kid, it’s pretty awesome that they not only have a womens team good enough to get into the NCAAs, but that it seems perfectly obvious that they should (which of course it is, but there are a lot of things that should be obvious – like that Donald Trump should never have a chance in hell of becoming President – that apparently aren’t).

Well, looks like the mail woman just pulled up to the mailbox. Now I need to decide if it’s worth the effort to make that 400 foot walk out there in the cold to get it.

At least it is if you forgot to set your clocks ahead an hour (and you don’t live someplace silly like Hawaii or Arizona or most of the rest of the world). I, for one, am happy to see this day come because I would much rather have an extra hour of daylight at the end of the afternoon, rather than in the morning. I just don’t understand why they have to do it on Sunday morning. Why not do it at 2:00 on Monday afternoon? Who would bitch about losing an hour of their Monday? And while you’re at it, make it a national holiday, too. But, once again, nobody listens to me.

Yesterday was a rather delightful day here – sunny and after a chilly start, it got up into the 60s. My wife asked me if I thought it would be safe for her to take the shovel out of her trunk. Ha! Even though it’s been a rather mild winter around here this year (about four-and-a-half feet below normal), having seen Blizzards in April and shovelable snow as late as Mother’s Day, I never take the shovel (let alone the gloves, backup gloves and snow brush) out of the car. That’s just begging for a blizzard.

Despite it not being St. Patrick’s Day yesterday, Syracuse had its annual parade, and they certainly had nice weather for it, and I expect there was a good turnout. Not that I went to it, of course. I do not, personally, love a parade (and, let’s face it, it’s not exactly NYC – or Boston, Chicago, St. Louis…). But I’m sure a good time was had by all.

I dunno about you, but I’m getting more and more terrified at the likelihood that we’re going to see a President Trump in the White House by this time next year. I know it’s normally just hyperbole when you call people a bunch of Nazis, but the physical violence and rhetoric we’ve been seeing at the Trump events sure reminds me of scenes from the Reichsparteitag der Ehre in 1930s Germany.

On the bright side, Trump said he won’t change Social Security. And he’s not one to go back on his word.

It’s only Wednesday, yet it’s been a traumatic week for me (somewhat tempered by the fact that it’s been nicely warm – we’re supposed to get to the 70s today, for the first time since last September). First there was the dreaded afternoon training session for me on Monday. Not the worst thing I’ve ever been through, but still a bit of a mind-numb waste of four-and-a-half hours. If I’m going to spend half a day not doing work, I’d prefer to do it at home.

Yesterday started off well, inasmuch as I took the day. Sadly, it was in preparation for a visit to the doctor where I was talked into (among other things) a tetanus shot (my arm is still kinda sore today, but I’ve had worse). Other than my BP being ridiculously high (and it’s been fine at home, where I take it twice a day – I made sure to bring in a copy of the spreadsheet I keep track of it in), I am apparently in reasonably good health for an old fat guy who drinks too much beer. So that was fairly good news – but the whole process is still pretty traumatic for me. And she keeps insisting that I get a colonoscopy, which I’m really not up for (plus I’ll have to find somebody willing to take me).

Then this morning as I’m trying to get my shot together to leave the house, I opened up the fridge and entire container of cherry tomatoes (and half of a diced onion) came flying out at me. OK, that’s more of a pain in the ass than trauma, but it was still annoying. Plus I have to work today, always sucks but somehow seems worse when the weather’s nice.

And Trump seems to have won, like, everything yesterday. I’m still trying to decide if that’s bad news, or terrible news. I mean, much as I can’t stand the guy, Cruz is worse. But they’d both be horrible not just for the country and the world, but for me, personally (which is really what it’s all about).

What horrors can possibly arise tomorrow?

This has been a rather long week for me, and truth be told, it’s not actually over since I’m on-call and on the hook 24/7 until next Monday morning (not the one coming up, but the one after that). As if that wasn’t bad enough, they’ve gotten it into their heads that we should do some team building/customer service nonsense thing on Monday afternoon (gee, never been to one of those that wasn’t an incredibly worthwhile use of my time ) and then on Tuesday I have a doctor’s appointment for a “physical.” This is not something I’m looking forward to, since I know it’s going to involve an offer to stick a finger where I’d just as soon not have one, and some other demeaning coughing and groping. This will be on my mind all weekend, and I guarantee you I won’t be getting much sleep (not that I ever do these days).

To take my mind of off things, I’ve been looking at Canadian Real Estate and getting information on how to go about immigrating. It appears my best bet is to apply for “Express Entry,” which requires taking a language test (in English and/or French). I’m pretty confident of passing the English test (a four-part deal – speaking, listening, reading, and writing, all of which I’ve been doing in English for quite some time now), but they don’t give it online so I’d have to go to Canada (the closest place to me apears to be Kitchener, ON, which is quite a hike) to take it. Plus it costs $265 (though that’s only about $198 US). Worth it, I guess, if it can get me out of here before President Trump is sworn in.

I’m really not liking Clinton’s chances of getting elected (the media seems to have nominated her already, so I guess that’s that). Perhaps I’m just a nervous Nellie, but I can’t help but feel they’ve got 20 years of shit saved up to throw at her – and I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t toss out some bullshit indictment to hang over her throughout the general election campaign cycle. I also don’t think you’ll see a lot of enthusiasm from people (especially the younger folks) for a Clinton presidency, so I fear a low turnout. And low turnouts are great for getting crazy people elected.

What’s worse is, I’m not even sure that Trump would be the worst Republican to get elected. I mean, Cruz? Rubio? Or Saint Romney swooping in at the last minute to “save” the Party?

God, what a revoltin’ idea.

So, I hope I’m wrong. Either way, I intend to avoid all the campaign ads as much as possible for the next eight months or so. I mean, things are pretty gruesome in a normal election year – can you imagine what the Trump ads will be like? I’m guessing he’ll take negative campaigning to a new (decidedly lower) level.

It aint gonna be pretty.