Well, that was a mighty quick weekend, wasn’t it. Around here, Saturday was a rainy day, not good for much of anything. I did a lot of reading, and watched “Gladiator,” which wasn’t a bad movie, I guess. I mean, I wouldn’t have paid to see it, but for free it was OK. Yesterday was hot and humid, and it’s supposed to be even more hot and humid today. And I stayed up way past my bedtime last night, in order to watch the season premiere of True Blood, so I’m pretty beat this morning. Fortunately, it’s an early day for me, so I can knock off early. Good thing, ‘cuz I need a nap.

I pulled into the garage last night, shut off the car, and thought to myself, “thank God it’s Friday.” About three seconds later, I realized it wasn’t actually Friday. Then I walked into the kitchen to find that the puppies had run rampant and chewed up all kinds of stuff, and managed to drag a lot of laundry all over the place. This put a bit of a damper on the evening. But it was a nice, sunny evening, and the wife wanted a fire, so we had a fire, which of course meant I stayed up way too late, and am paying for it this morning. I’m walking around like a zombie.

I forgot to mention that yesterday was D-Day. So, yesterday was D-Day. It doesn’t get a whole lot of mention these days, which is kind of a shame because I’ve always been amazed at what people did on that day. That whole landing on the beach thing did not look like fun, and I have real doubts that I’d have been up to the task. Though I suppose when they drive you up to the shore and pop the front open, you pretty much just have to go for it.

It was also a sad day for we Science Fiction fans, with the death of Ray Bradbury. I read a lot of Sci-Fi as a kid (still do), so I read a lot of Ray. I preferred Azimov, I must say, but that’s only because Azimov would tell you how the engines worked and all that. Still, Bradbury wrote a lot of great stories.

Other sad news was that Arnie Burdick died. You’ll have no idea who he was, of course, but he was another part of my youth.

And of course the news from Wisconsin was quite sad as well. The Democrats got a symbolic victory in retaking the WI Senate. Until November, anyway. And they most likely won’t even convene between now and then. Still, it’s something, I guess.

It was also my friend Rich’s birthday. Born 6-6-60. Yeah, he had the mark.

Romney and the Republicans (R&R) raised almost $17 million more than Obama and the Democrats (OD) last month or whatever it is they announce those things for. Much like WI, your next federal government will be brought to you thanks to the Koch brothers and their associates. I hope I still get to retire before I die.

Today is Thursday, which isn’t as good as Friday, but I’m gonna try and work with it. When I got out of my car as I arrived at work this morning, I said to myself, “this is gonna be the best day ever.” I figured it was worth a shot.

Sadly, this does not appear to be the best day ever. It’s not the worst one ever, either. So that’s good.

Oh well, soon I’ll be at the lunchtime milestone. Always the highlight of the day (except for quittin’ time, of course).

Well, I can see that the historic transit of Venus has left everyone speechless. It was mighty impressive, that’s for sure. I watched it for a bit through my welding mask, and then watched some more online. But, well, you can only watch a dot crawl slowly across the sun for so long, and then you gotta get on with life (in other words, “drink beer”). Besides, after a while it got cloudy.

If you work for a living (union or not) in Wisconsin, your world is about to get pretty shitty, as the anti-working people movement is about to get a whole lot bolder. Actually, if you’re anywhere in the Midwest, I think you’re pretty much fucked (I mean, more fucked than usual). Even here in godless NY, I’m feeling pretty uncomfortable as a public employee. Seems we’re the cause of all the troubles in the world.

Congratulations to Senate Republicans, who successfully filibustered the “Paycheck Fairness Act.” The act only passed 52-47, which of course means it failed. I think they should start paying female Senators less than the good old boys. At least the ones that voted against it.

Oh well, time to get back to work and get over the hump.

Yesterday was a pretty tough Monday, and I’m glad to be rid of it. Hopefully today will be better. And it’s a big day, too. Not only will Scott Walker steal the election in Wisconsin, but, as I’m sure everyone’s heard by now, today Venus will transit the sun for only the second (and final) time of our lifetime (assuming you were alive in 2004 and there aren’t any major medical breakthroughs on the horizon).

If you haven’t got your welder’s goggles handy, you can watch it live online (which is probably a much better view). And of course there’s an app for that, which is an attempt to recreate the 1761/1768 and 1874/882 experiments that attempted to determine the distance of the Earth from the sun (which is about 93 million miles).

Here in my neck of the woods, we won’t get to see the whole thing, but we’ll get to see the beginning at 6:10 PM. You folks out west get to see it all.

And so, another weekend is in the books. This one was kind of crappy. Cloudy, cool and windy on Saturday, but at least I was able to get the grass cut and do a lot of weed whacking. Sunday was mostly cold and rainy. The sun came out from time to time, but every time I went outside, it started raining again. So mostly I did laundry (and watched a bunch of episodes of “Through the Wormhole”). Now I have a horrible five-day week staring me in the face. This sucks.

Supposedly Obama offered the World Bank job to Mayor Mikey Bloomberg. Would have probably been a good thing for NYC, but Mayor Mike turned him down. I guess the War on Super-Size Soda was more important.

I saw a headline somewhere that said Queen Elizabeth has spent 60 years on the throne. Guess she didn’t heed the advice about not drinking the water.

Big day tomorrow, as cheese heads go to the polls in Wisconsin to see what happens with Governor Dummy. Supposedly Walker is in the lead, but it’s close. And when it’s close, it all comes down to turnout cheating. Therefore, I predict Walker will win, and get to stay in office. Then he’ll be able to turn WI into a right-to-work state, and further cripple the unions. I’m pretty disappointed in Wisconsin. First they throw Russ Feingold out, and then they elect an idiot as Governor. Oh well, no more trips to the Dells or the House on the Rock, I guess.

Oh, and f*ck the Packers, too.

Finally, it’s Friday once again. And it’s almost over now, since I get to leave at 3:30 today. Unfortunately, the weather has turned to shit. It’s chilly and rainy, which is kind of a bummer, because it’s “Olde Home Days” in my little town. That means a parade (not exactly sure where they do their parading, but I assume it’s the entire four blocks of Main Street, but maybe they go from South to North street, and across Main), concerts all weekend, fireworks, ride, chicken barbeques, all kinds of shit for sale, and, of course the big Duck Race on Sunday. I have not bought a duck.

The old-timers at the VFW will be out there selling flags, too. Me? I try to avoid the whole thing. Way too many people milling about in the village for my tastes. I read they expect 5,000 people to show up, which is about 2.75 times as many people as live in the whole village, and only about 1,200 less than live in the entire town. So that means all kinds of congestion at the traffic light.

I didn’t move out to the sticks so I could get stuck in traffic jams, fer chrissakes.

Oh well, a half hour more to kill, and then I’m outta here.

Well, we finally got the rain they’d been promising yesterday afternoon. After getting up to 93 degrees or so, a line of pretty impressive thunderstorms came through yesterday afternoon. Since God hasn’t lifted his veil of protection from us (unlike the Midwest, South, and Southwest), we didn’t have any tornadoes or anything like that. Just some power outages here and there. Now it’s quite a bit cooler out.

Sad news that Doc Watson passed away. Aside from his phenomenal guitar playing, he was a veritable encyclopedia of Traditional American Music. And he was a pretty darn good carpenter, from what I’ve read. This is pretty amazing, considering he was blind since he about a year old (though if you saw some of my carpentry work, you’d probably guess that I was blind, too). We’ll miss you, Doc. Say hello to Merle.

As expected, it was very difficult to get out of the house and go to work today. I’m mentally ready to retire. Financially, however, I’m not even close. So off to work it is. It might be just as well. I got a lot of sun over the weekend, and I think I need a break from it. Plus it’s supposed to be 90 again today, and that’s just too darn hot. Unless you’re hanging out in a swimming pool; then it’s not so bad. Tough on the dogs, though, who seem unwilling to jump in the pool. Oh, a stinky frog pond is no problem (and I did take Fritz to go play with his cousins, so he got to go for a swim in the pond), but I guess clean water is just too icky. Probably just as well. I don’t need any holes poked in the pool liner. Oh well, another seven hours to go to get this crappy day over with.

Happy Memorial Day. I hope everyone’s having a nice weekend, and is going around remembering all the people (and critters) that you’ve known and lost. Despite them saying there’s a chance of rain, it’s been dry and very sunny (and warm) around here (though it’s a little cloudy at the moment). And today it’s supposed to get into the 90s. I haven’t been accomplishing much, but I have gotten a lot of pool time in. The thought of going to work tomorrow is pretty depressing, so I won’t think about it. Enjoy what’s left of the day.