I Became A Trash Panda At Work Tonight

I was working second shift Monday; got home just now.  I want to treat myself for this shift because there's no one around and I get to relax because I don't feel the pressure of deadlines and stuff.  Oftentimes I get a sandwich, and I did this time, going to Jersey Mike's.  And I brought a Vanilla Coke with me, which I bought earlier in the day after getting tested for COVID-19 and had drank some of with the White Castle I bought for my first lunch (notes: I had WC because T-Mobile gave me five bucks off, and the second lunch was at home and was a big plate of spaghetti).

I threw my food in the work refrigerator and I planned on having "dinner" more than halfway through my shift.  I come back out to get a swig of the Coke ... and I didn't see it there.  Then I remembered: Mondays the cleaning crew comes through and, around 5 p.m., they clean out all the contents of one of two fridges in each of the two break rooms in the building I work in.  There are signs on the door of the fridge that will be cleaned out that upcoming Monday.  And the fridge I threw my stuff in apparently was the one that was getting cleaned out this Monday.  Want to be pissed, but I can't blame anybody.  This was all my fault (although, and I'm just saying this, there was a bottle of store-bought cold brew that was still in the fridge that I remembered was there when I stopped by earlier to take a swig of my Vanilla Coke -- so why didn't the cleaning crew toss that bottle, but still, all my fault).

I could have let it go.  Nah!  Jersey Mike's is hella expensive.  I paid, like, six-and-a-half bucks for their small sub.  I want that back!  So I hunted down the cleaning crew, and after going back to the first person I encountered, she said that she threw all the food in the fridge into a bag, and then that bag into the trash receptacle next to the recycling bin.

OK, so it must be done.  I knew there might be people who could see me and thus judge me on what I was going to do, but I was going to do it, and if they see and judge, so be it.  I went into the break room, opened up the lid of that trash can (for the second time, actually; the first time I looked in but didn't have the heart to do more than that) and pulled out a bag.  It was my bag.  And after tossing aside a couple empty food containers, I saw my Jersey Mike's sub, still in the bag.  (I also saw my cup from the Hawaiian ice vendor from whom I bought a cup of ice at a parking lot at Maplewood Mall over the summer.  They said that if I kept the cup and brought it back for another ice, for example at the Minnesota State Fair, where they're a vendor, I could get some bucks knocked off.  That seems kind of silly, keeping around a plastic container until the Fair rolls around, and seeing it touched by actual trash convinced me to take both that cup and that bag home and throw them into our recycling bin.)

You goddamn right I fished it out of the bag.  And you goddamn right I ate it.  I made sure I washed my hands after I opened up the bag and then opened the wrapper in which the sub was rolled, though.  And I smelled the sub, too -- and I couldn't detect a whiff of trash smell.  Now, I'm no aficionado.  Maybe people slag on Jersey Mike's.  But I have always liked them, and frankly, eating that sandwich last night made me so glad that I looked for it and that I took it out of the trash to eat, because last night, Jersey Mike's tasted sooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooood.  No regrets ... assuming I don't get sick from going through trash.

---

Aside: I was lucky to have found my sub in the trash.  The four-person cleaning crew split up to cover the whole building.  One couple tosses the fridge's contents into the trash can; the second takes the trash from the can to the dumpster in the back of the building.  Usually it goes in that order.  Last night, for some reason, they did it the other way.  So, in a sense, I was lucky, because that sub should have gone to the dumpster.

And I will confess: If they had told me that my sub was in the dumpster, I would have asked them if I could go to the dumpster to see if I could get it out of there.  Fucking Christ, I spent six-and-a-half bucks for it!!!

---

Oh, speaking of the Vanilla Coke: I didn't see it in the bag.  So, naturally, I looked in the recycling bin right next to the trash receptacle.  And on top there were two empty bottles.  One of them was Vanilla Coke.  The other was Cherry Vanilla Coke, and I brought with me, in the plastic bag, a bottle of Cherry Vanilla Coke that I had finished while at WC (I had the Cherry Vanilla, I bought the Vanilla, I went to the Castle, I drank the rest of the Cherry Vanilla, and I started drinking some of the Vanilla).

I grabbed them out of the bin.  This was around the time where I noticed someone walking across the break room.  I wouldn't have minded anyway, like I said, but I don't think anyone saw me as I dove through the trash bin, and thank Buddha for that, because the recycling bin is a bit ... cleaner than the garbage can, right?

I planned on scanning the codes underneath the caps of both Cokes as soon as I got done drinking all of the Vanilla (I didn't have time to do the one underneath the Cherry Vanilla before I had to go to work).  But since both were empty, and I already had decided I was going to take the bag and the Hawaiian ice cup home to recycle, I figured I should take some stuff off my hands, scan the codes for both Cokes at work, and then, ironically, throw them back into the recycling bin.

I planned on doing those scans during my second break after I ate the sub.  I looked at both Cokes, both of which still had caps screwed on them.  The guy who cleaned out the fridge dumped the contents of the Vanilla Coke into the sink, most likely.  However, there was a miniscule, miniscule amount of Coke in both bottles.  Now, I was thinking the first part of my night at work at how fat I felt.  It probably was due to the White Castle and the spaghetti serving as my lunches.  But drinking Coke virtually daily isn't good for my health, either, and with every swig I took yesterday I could feel my waistline expanding.

And yet, I felt kind of screwed that the, oh, half-bottle of Vanilla Coke went down the drain.  That's, like, $1.15 that was wasted.  (Again, I'm not blaming the cleaning guy; this was my fault for not putting my stuff in the refrigerator that wasn't going to be cleaned last evening.)  Plus, you know the adage that you don't know what you got till it's gone?  My ballooning stomach due to the sugar in the Cokes was the farthest thing from my mind.  I.  Needed.  Coke.  So you goddamn right I went bottoms up on both Cokes in order to consume every last milliliter!  Who cares, the liquid didn't touch the recyclables!

Mole In The Resistance?

For the first time in a long time, the Resistance over the alumni clubs met.  It was convened by someone I would call a "shadow figure."  He says he cannot be a conspicuous figurehead for the group, but besides that he is an extremely active, and vocal, member of our group.  In fact, I have sometimes chafed over both his opinions and attitude -- at times -- knowing that he has not put his face and reputation on the line by actively engaging with the other side in our attempts to broach some sort of compromise.  He has his reasons; nonetheless, I think we need to assert our side a little more -- at times -- because we are the ones doing the dirty work.  (With that said, I need to point out that lately he has been more cognizant of his position in this group.  He still has questions and wants to contribute, but he did say that he asks those questions and volunteers his time and effort even though "he isn't there."  A little self-awareness is all I ask.)

And I am digressing.  The point of this blog post is that, after this Zoom meeting, I went over to what was once my alumni club's Facebook page.  It is still there, but now it is co-administered, and thus co-moderated, by members of the alumni association.  This was done before the decision over the summer to kill off all domestic alumni clubs.  When that happened, we were told that officials with that department would take a more visible role in social media platforms.  In, well, taking over our Facebook page, for example (even though I still was allowed to remain as an administrator and moderator), I was led to believe they would post more.  It might be articles touting the university, propaganda as such, but, well, I didn't think I had much of a choice.  (Even though I did -- I might get to blog posting about that some other time.)

That increased publishing hasn't happened.  I think some person I do not know posted two links to which members could sign up for some study of some sort.  But since this change began, no one from that association has posted anything.  I, however, have, and still have.  I could have, and maybe should have, taken this stupid decision as a reason to walk away from doing anything connected with my alma mater.  But I can't quit it.  So I am staying and fighting.  And I am occasionally publishing stuff on the football team and news about my alma mater and surrounding Los Angeles County.

So back to last night.  I posted on Facebook a death about a member of the football team (he was with them in the eighties) last night, just before the meeting.  I check back later ... and that post was liked or "reacted" (and if he did "react," he gave the sad emoji since the post concerned a death) by the head of my alma mater's alumni association.  It is the first time I have seen him lurking around our Facebook page.  Moreover, he liked my previous post about a five-star recruit committing to my alma mater.

Yes, this may just be coincidence.  Nonetheless, I'm freaking out.  The night we huddle together for a meeting, and then this guy, who all of us consider to be cutthroat and Machiavellian, just starts to come around my way and liking my posts?  I understand I might be looking a tad paranoid, but I'm not.  I'm really concerned.  I'm really concerned he choose to, well, pick on me because we're meeting again.  This is not some innocent gesture of solidarity.  He's probing for weaknesses.  He's playing mind games.  And ... no joke, I think someone from the meeting tipped him off that we were meeting.  This leader of the association was tipped off by this meeting by an apparent mole, and he decided, of all the people in The Resistance to fuck around with, he settled on me.  Don't know why.  And goddamn, I don't know what he wants.

And also -- WHO'S THE MOLE?

I Hate Grapefruit Juice!

I need to state that here because I have, on occasion, bought it, even though the bitter/rancid taste is seared indelibly in my mind.  I now buy juice on the regular in case I am thirsty at night.  I bounce around flavors and brands, but about a week ago I wanted to drink healthy.  Have you noticed that all fruit juices have a high amount of sugar?  It's incredible!  And I have not been able to find one that doesn't have tons of it in the carton or bottle.

So, if I recall how my thinking went, I took a crack on searching "healthiest fruit juices" on Google.  I don't remember clearly the list on the link I selected, but I think, when I was staring at the refrigerated shelves at Target, I thought that grapefruit juice was one of the top choices.  (Here is the list: Grapefruit juice comes in at #9.)  So I bought it, totally forgetting why I hate it.

So I made a point of drinking as much of it as fast as possible.  That is difficult, given how terrible it tastes.  But I drank it all up yesterday, and in anticipation of doing so, I stopped by Target on my way home to buy something I would enjoy drinking -- well, at least I think: Pineapple, orange and banana.  That's a Frankenstein fruit concoction, but I like eating those fruits separately, so maybe they won't be so bad together.  Drinking that hopefully removes the taste of bleepin' grapefruit from my mouth.  My goodness, I will never drink grapefruit juice again, no matter how healthy it is.

No, No, Yay, No With The Mechanic Around The Corner

So I figured I should nip that thing with the bent valve stem core whatever sooner rather than later.  I had all of Friday off, and I had dreams of going to the Mall Of America and maybe buying some Doc Martens as an heir apparent to my diseased ones, but after thinking about when I could go out, it made too much sense to get this tire thing checked out Friday.  Any repair, however long, could get done that day, and however much of the rest of the day I would have, I would have that, and all the days after, free from the stress of wondering what's going on with that valve stem core thingy.

Thursday afternoon I made an appointment.  I went in.  And the first thing I noticed, while the service tech was dealing with an old guy who was borrowing the loaner of The Mechanic Around The Corner, is that no one was wearing a mask.  Not the service tech, not this old guy, not the cashier.  No one.  Fuck.  (This is the first "No" in the title of the blog post.)  I did not want to be confronted with ... such an issue.  I thought about backing out, but that would not have done me any good.  Nevertheless, the anxiety of being trapped with no one giving two shits about contracting the coronavirus "encouraged" me to wait outside.  Thank goodness the sun was shining, otherwise ten degrees would have felt exactly like ten degrees.  (Oh, I also thought about picking up Kentucky Fried Chicken, for which I had a coupon that expired that day, before going to the repair shop, but I thought I shouldn't be late.  Turns out that was the smart thing; I was going to eat it inside, but I sure as hell wasn't going to do that if a bunch of fucking anti-maskers.)

What was worse was that it took about an hour from the time I got to the shop before I could leave (second "No").  That wouldn't be a bad thing, except that this issue -- unless they, like, tore the entire valve off of the tire and I needed to get a new one -- should have taken only a half-hour.  I think the service tech said that they didn't have a bay open for a while because, I guess, they got backed up or something.

The good news was that as soon as a bay did get open and they drove my car in to look at the valve stem core thingamabobber, I think it took ten minutes for them to see that it was bent, to take out the valve stem core, and replace it with one that the tech said was bigger but would seal to ensure that the tire sensor would not be set off.  The tech threw it in the trash, but he fished it out for me to see that the notch indeed was bent, probably from the air hose I clamped on it on Monday.  Moreover, it was $15.  He said that if I went somewhere else, I'd be charged $100 for a brand new sensor.  I believe them.  They're anti-maskers, but I believe them.  (The "Yay.")

So I pay.  And I give the cashier a coupon I got, knocking off ten bucks for any repair.  But then she's all, "Nope!" and I go, what do you mean, and she (third "No") ... well, I don't know what she fuckin' said.  I think she just continued to say no.  And I had no idea what to do because she kind of had me over a barrel.  I mean, I couldn't just walk out without paying.  And so what if it's only fifteen bucks?  These fucking people send me coupons all the time, and now that I want to use one, I can't use it?  Then don't fucking send me your junk mail anymore!  And I checked the coupon Friday night in case there was a reason I couldn't use it, but there wasn't.  Should've paid only five bucks for that, goddammit. ...

Oh -- while I was waiting, I bought MegaMillions tickets for my sister, and I used the winnings from a previous MegaMillions drawing I bought for her to defray the cost of this one.  And I swear to fucking God, I can't find it.  I don't know where the hell it is.  And now I figure that this cashier is a bitch who secretly thinks she's better than me because I was wearing a mask and she wasn't.  And so I think I left the tickets I bought on the counter, and she didn't bother even telling me that I forgot.  That's how much she loathes me.  Isn't it obvious?

I thought about going on Yelp to complain about all I encountered and saw at The Mechanic Around The Corner.  I might wait to make sure they don't know it's me.  But I'm still thinking about it.  And in the meantime I'll need to get tested once again.  And I'll need to find this goddamn lottery ticket.

Things Fall Apart, A Three-Part Series -- Part III: My Left Shoe Looks Like It's Infected

I get my Doc Martens polished once a month in downtown Minneapolis.  The person who shines them is really nice, and I plan on visiting her monthly until The End Times.

I have had these Docs for several years now.  I remember ordering them through an e-mail sent by American Express for, I think, one of its partners or affiliates.  I had thought about ordering them for a long time, and once I did, I kept them in the box for ... I want to say, no joke, up to two years.  I wanted them, but I didn't need to use them right away, not when I had other shoes that I hadn't used up yet.  But it was nice to know my shoes-in-waiting were already ready for me to break them out when the time came.

There was a noticeable breaking-in period, its manifestation coming in the form of the right shoe rubbing up against my right pinky toe so bad that the only way I could prevent that toe from being permanently bruised was to let its toenail grow and grow to the point where it's now a ... well, the only way I can describe it is a "growth."  Maybe that wasn't necessary, and that I just needed to wear my boots enough times to where it would form around my feet.  But that pinky toenail is so big and gangly now that I might need either professional help or a sander to properly cut my toe to its proper length -- and width.

Beyond that, I felt like a man wearing them.  The steel toes made me feel protected, like I could kick ass and defend myself if I needed to (even though I read in a couple chatrooms a couple nights ago that the best footwear to wear for self-defense is sneakers, so you'll be faster when you run away).  My Father kept insisting that these shoes were too heavy to be comfortable, and he had been buying for me a bunch of other shoes to wear instead.  I wear them -- sometimes.  But I always go back to my Doc's.

However, I might have to retire and part with them soon.  Another thing I locked about those shoes were their durability.  I have worn them for -- shoot, if I recollect correctly about how long I stored them, it's only been 4 1/2 years, which actually doesn't seem to be a long time.  Anyway, I noticed that there was a crack that went all the way through the bottom, or the outsole, of the left foot.  I also noticed that, especially during the winter, there would sometimes be some white frost that would collect on a part of my left shoe.  My shoeshiner said was salt from the chemicals treated the snow, and she would use rosewater and/or vinegar to get it out, and it would be gone, at least for a while.

That did not happen last month, the last time I got my Doc Marten steel-toed boots shined.  My shiner did an excellent job.  But at night, well after I got home, I went downstairs and on my way down I looked at my boots and saw that this white frost, isolated to one part of my left shoe in the past, had now spread to pretty much my whole shoe.  This, well, metastasizing cancer wowed me in time as well as in scope; before it took at least a day before the salt began to re-infect that shoe, and now it was mere hours.

I took a closer look at the bottom of that shoe.  That crack stretched all the way from one side of the foot to the other, so it looks like that shoe was being cut like a cake.  One day at work I took off that shoe my insole to combat flat feet.  The top of the insole was wet, but even though I suspected it, the crack I saw on the bottom did not cleave through into the top.  Still, the wetness is an indication that something is getting in there; I have noticed that my left sock is more damp than my right one.  I don't immediately feel moisture when, for example, I walk on snow.  But air and moisture are getting up in there, and that makes me believe that that infiltration is spreading salt, first to one part and then the entirety of the shoe.  Well, either it's that or the crack from the outsole has ripped apart the insides of the whole shoe, and that white frost is an indication that the outside of the shoe is so disconnected from the rest of the shoe that it just gets cold with no warmth from my foot reaching it.

Whatever the machination, I think these boots are on their last legs.  I don't think my left shoe is going to immediately fall apart while I'm walking.  But it's high time I buy another pair of Docs -- I thought about getting Red Wings, but I still have black shoelaces and black shoe polish that are both meant for Doc Martens -- and stash it in case that left shoe becomes impossible to keep wearing.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Positive Numbers: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5).  This is a rare week where I need to get away from just looking at records for each team for the Week.  The University of Minnesota wrestlers went 2-0 while the U. men's basketball team went 1-0.  Moreover, they were supposed to play the Cornhuskers in Lincoln Wednesday, but that was postponed because Nebraska has suffered at least one positive COVID-19 test among either its roster, coaching ranks or important staff.  While I have hit a Minnesota club for postponements if they were the ones with the positives, if I were honest with myself, I used the postponement in general as a reason to mark them down, especially if I need to break a tie.

However, that squad's only Game, and win, was no ordinary Game and win.  They beat Michigan at Williams Saturday afternoon.  This is no run-of-the-mill Wolverine club; the Golden Gophers gave them their first loss of their season, and they were ranked seventh in the country.  And they didn't just beat the Wolverines; Minnesota crushed Michigan, 75-57.  It was the Wolverines' smallest point total of their Year, and Minnesota induced 20 Michigan Turnovers.  As Marcus Carr has been a stalwart, Drake transfer Liam Robbins has been a revelation.  He has been great throughout the Year and was able to make up for a bad first performance versus Michigan (a 25-Point Gopher loss on the 6th) with 22 Points and eight Rebounds.

Yes, this was at home, and the Gophers have been perfect at home and winless on the road.  Like I have said before, I think that's a sign of how good the Big Ten is as a conference, even without crowds.  I think good teams in this league will play great at home and will probably be blown out on the road.  I am now convinced that Richard Pitino has assembled a good, even a very good, team.

So the U. finally have finished its gauntlet to begin its conference slate -- according to the Minnesota athletic department, the most consecutive lineup of opponents in the Associated Press Top 25, seven, since St. John's had to face eight in a row in 2011.  And they finished it 4-3, winning all their Games at home and losing (actually getting drubbed) all the ones away from Dinkytown.  I thought they were going to go 0-7.  Now, they're ensconced as a 6-seed according to Joe Lunardi.  That is one hell of an accomplishment, and that is why I rank the University of Minnesota men's basketball squad first this Week.

Now is the part of the schedule where the Gophers can begin winning on the road against lesser foes in the B1G, an important part to building a comprehensive resume for tournament play.  But first, well, is a home Game (fingers crossed it goes off without a hitch) vs. Maryland Saturday afternoon.

#0: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -6).  Wrestling is doing its part to stem the spread of the coronavirus by hosting more neutral-site Duals and Doubleheaders.  For example, on Saturday, the Golden Gophers went to East Lansing to play both Michigan St. and Maryland.  And the grapplers had a triumphant day, blanking the Terrapins, 48-0, and then crushed the Spartans, 28-6.  I don't think it matters in the long run -- this club faces certain slaughter tonight/Friday night against Iowa, and the Hawkeyes are coming here.  But a dominant double-dip should be honored, and so for this week's WMNSS, I made a compromise and pushed up this team to above negative numbers.  (And again, referring back to the U. men's b-ballers, I thus put them in Positive Numbers despite losing a Game due to COVID, even if that postponement is not their fault.)

#-1: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -7).  Similarly to the U. wrestlers, I want to give some extra recognition to the women b-ballers, who beat Nebraska in Lincoln Tuesday afternoon, 76-71, managing to end a three-Game losing streak.  This club is 3-7 and there remain growing problems with the program, which probably makes such good screening Weeks rare.  So, in an act of charity, I wanted to push these women up as much as possible (although not past the wrestlers because, hey, this team won only once and they won twice, and on the same day!) knowing that they visit Penn St. Monday evening and host Purdue Thursday afternoon and it is highly unlikely they'll get out of next week with a three-Game winning streak.

#-2: Wild (Last Week: -1).  Sandwiching their first loss of the Year, a 1-0 decision in Anaheim Monday, between a 4-3 Overtime win over Los Angeles Saturday and a 3-2 victory at the Ducks Wednesday.  That victory over the Kings was the very definition of a great escape.  Down 3-1, Matt Dumba tied the Game with about two Seconds left in the Third Period to send the Game to OT.  Then, Marcus Johannson completed the comeback by scoring for the first time this season with 10.6 Seconds left in the extra frame to escape L. A. with both Points.  Meanwhile, Joel Eriksson Ek's Goal about two Minutes into the Third Period was the Game-winner vs. the Ducks despite blowing a 2-0 lead.

The secondary Assist on Ek's tally, by the way, was given to Kirill Kaprizov, who now has four Points on the young season.  That's great output.  But is one concerned that neither Zach Parise nor Kevin Fiala have even registered an Assist yet?

After starting out in Southern California to start their season, Minnesota now comes back home to begin a lengthy homestand.  They will play four Games this Week, every other Day -- San Jose for two, then the Kings for two.

#-3: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -3).  It is unusual for the two U. hockey teams to have worse Weeks than the two U. basketball teams, but this is one of those Weeks.  The men's icers could not sustain success and their #1 ranking in both men's college hockey polls after getting swept, at home, by Notre Dame, which wasn't ranked last week.  The Gophers, now fourth in both polls, took their humiliation out on Arizona St. last/Thursday night at Mariucci by immolating the shit out of the Sun Devils, 10-0.

They close out their series against ASU this/Friday afternoon.  And looking ahead at the rest of the schedule, it looks like this series vs. the Sun Devils will be the last one that is played on days besides the traditional Friday-Saturday.  Finally, a return to normalcy!

#-4: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2).  Alas, the schedule does not provide succor for the female icers as it does for the men.  A 6-3 defeat in Madison meant this squad was swept by Wisconsin last weekend, and so they swapped back #1 and #2 rankings in the USCHO.com poll.  They visit Ohio St. for two this/Friday evening and tomorrow/Saturday afternoon.

#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4).  I think I have said this before, but the Woofie Dogs' latest loss Wednesday may be a new low for the franchise.

I get the following scorelines at their points of time from Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.  The Wolves led Orlando by 20 early in the Third Quarter and by 16 with 2:44 to play in that same Quarter.  They led by 13 with 6:33 left in the Fourth Quarter.  They led by eight with 2:22 left in regulation.  And they led by two with 4.6 Seconds left.  Jarred Vanderbilt was on the line at the time, shooting two after being fouled.  He's shit when it comes to Free Throws.

He missed the first.  And I think you can guess what happened next.

#NBA: #RaisedByWolves 96 (3-10) - #MagicTogether 97 (7-8).

!BUZZER-BEATER DE COLE ANTHONY!. 🔥

DATO | PRIMER novato en TODA la historia de #MagicTogether en lograr un Buzzer-Beater.pic.twitter.com/seoqtV9HyD

— All Sports Py (@AllSportsPy) January 21, 2021

They lost in Atlanta for the Hawks' annual MLKJD Game, and Friday's home date with Memphis was postponed because of coronavirus issues -- and by the way, this postponement was the Wolves' fault.  But in a long list of team emasculations, this is ... only the latest.  It doesn't matter that Karl-Anthony Towns is still out with the virus, and it doesn't matter that this squad is the youngest in the NBA.  These dumb motherfuckers should have won this Game.  And that they lost this one is a deserved indictment of all involved.

I will forever be indebted to Glen Taylor.  Say what you will about his competence in running the franchise.  But he kept the Timberwolves in Minnesota, and he's doing his damnedest to sell this team to someone who will vow to keep it in Minnesota.  That being said, right now, I don't mind if this goddamn team moves to Seattle.

Oh, and this is a shit ton of evidence that Ryan Saunders is in over his head as Head Coach.

This Week: Back-to-back home contests vs. Atlanta and New Orleans, then a pair of tilts at Golden State.

Things Fall Apart, A Three-Part Series -- Part II: Can A Remote Control Just Conk Out?

Yeah, it happened a couple weeks ago, I think?  I wanted to turn on my TV, which is between five and ten years old but doesn't seem to have any problems with it, and I couldn't do it with my remote.  I thought the batteries finally ran out, but I switched them and it still didn't work.  Which made me believe that, after years of no trouble, my remote control just crapped out, utterly and immediately.

In an example of how Amazon has warped all our perceptions when it comes to shopping, going online to buy a replacement remote was my first instinct ... not remembering that Target or Wal-Mart might have them, I don't have to wait for it to be delivered, and it might be cheaper.  But the one I saw at Wal-Mart ... well, it might be a pipe dream, but they are not the exact same remote control I have.  I don't think the ones available have all the buttons in all the places my original equipment remote have them in.  And, this is cosmetic, but my original has "SAMSUNG" written on the bottom, and the one I saw.  (I also went to Target but they didn't have a remote in my brand ... and come to think of it, I have not gone to Best Buy, although maybe I should have.)  So I bought a remote which has a picture of an exact replica of my OEM remote, and I bought that, knowing full well it might just be the same close-but-not-quite remote I saw at Wal-Mart.  I'll take that chance.  And so I ordered it, like, more than a week ago.

Amazon says the remote won't come until early February at the earliest.  Really?  You can't find a Samsung Original Equipment Manufacturer remote control in any of your warehouses in the States?  You have to get it from South Korea ... or have it made in South Korea, and then get it sent by, apparently, cargo ship and then Pony Express?

I don't know if this is a concurrent development or if it's just coincidence, but for the past couple weeks I cannot get Channel 4, the local CBS affiliate.  I tried scanning (this was just before my remote conked out), and it still didn't come in.  Weird.  So I have had to go out to the dining room TV whenever I wanted to watch Colbert or AFC NFL Games.  I can't wait for this remote control to arrive, and then I need to figure out how to get all my channels on my television set.

We All Knew. The Correct-Minded People Of This Country Knew.

Blog posting this on the eve of kicking out Donald Trump.

I remember a little over four years ago, after Trump cheated to take the presidency.  There were a couple of people I know -- they were from high school and I reconnected with them through Facebook -- who didn't see that big of a deal over how much some of us believed he would be a fucking disaster.  It basically boiled down to a warning that may forever trigger me: "Why don't we just give him a chance?"

This is an incontrovertible fact: Donald Trump is a failure.  Corrupt, cruel, incompetent, selfish, mean, violent, and traitorous.  Being The Worst President In American History is something probably best left to historians, but I think so, and he definitely is the worst in my lifetime.  And jail is too good for him.  Good fucking riddance once 11 o'clock rolls around, and if there is a God, justice upon Donald Trump will come -- soon after, swiftly, and utterly.

This is also an incontrovertible fact: People knew he was a fuck-up.  We knew we should not give him a chance to see if he would be a good president.  Because ever since he flapped his gums about Barack Obama being born in Kenya, I and we knew he was a dirty asshole.  Every rude comment and utterance that if it were coming from a parent would make you think he or she had early onset dementia -- people didn't see that?!  People didn't see that he didn't give two shits about helping the country, and that he was the talisman for a growing and dangerous group of Our Fellow Americans who want to take their sacred right to vote and toss it in the trash so they could anoint a dictator for life just because he's White?

There are people who, on his way out, are shocked, shocked I tell you, that Donald Trump wasn't what they hoped he would be.  These people are not as bad as those who would willingly fellate him if they saw him on the street (and there are many -- some of them are Facebook friends!), but it's close.  We are not in a period of time where we can suffer fools lightly.  We are in the middle of a pandemic.  The economy is in the shitter.  And there are white supremacists who want to start a race war to get Trump back in the White House.  These people who wanted to give Trump a chance remain too Pollyanna-ish to be of any use in our current reality.

We all knew.  The correct-minded people of this country knew that Trump would leave the United States worse than when he stole it.  Saying this isn't flexing.  What we knew doesn't make us smart, not in the least.  We were just paying attention.  And these oblivious folks had better fucking start doing this same.

Things Fall Apart, A Three-Part Suite -- Part I: More Tire Problems

I have been kind of dutiful when it comes to checking the air on my tires.  They say it should be done weekly.  I can do it weekly -- in the parking lot at work after my day has ended.  I do this on Mondays because there are way fewer people at my company on Mondays, which means I can park closer to the designated entrance (due to the pandemic, we are required to check in through self-check-in temperature-taking kiosks which, as of right now, are only at one door), which just so happens to have flat land.  Usually I need to park in the back, and the lot back there is not level.  And, they say that I should measure the air in my tires after leaving my car sitting for a while on flat land.  Hence, it's best for me to do it on Mondays.  There is one proviso: I would not be so dutiful, or obsessed, with checking the air on my tires were it not for one of them bursting flat that one night.  I should be oblivious when it comes to this, but instead, fear has forced me to become diligent when it comes to this chore.

I've been lucky in that the past couple of weeks or times (I haven't been doing them every week, just most weeks) I have not needed to put air in because all four tires have had air pressure at or above the recommended numbers.  That luck ran out yesterday, even though it had to happen at some point.

I was also lucky in that at the gas station closest to me, there was no car and no driver using the free air hose.  There usually is someone there, and instead of waiting I would go to another gas station a little farther away.  Anyway, I pull up and start putting the balance of the air into the tires -- which, for the record (and I won't say which amount goes to which tire because that's anal even for me) was .5, 1.0. 1.5 and 2.0.

Well, I will say that the passenger-side rear tire needed 2.0 ... whatever units of air.  And I put in the hose, then I pull it out because, you know, you need to check with your tire gauge if you put in enough or too much.  I think I put it in this tire and after a second or too, I didn't hear anything.  The sound of air going into the tire stopped, and there was no sound of air going out of it.  It was just ... stuck.

So I pull it out.  I put it in again, and I hear nothing.  And then I look at the valve stem of the tire.  If you take a close look at the valve, there is a skinny notch that is suspended right in the middle of the stem.  That protuberance is the part that sticks out of what is called, I think, the valve core, and I believe that that is the thing that keeps the air in the tire.  You push that thing in, and you let the air out.  And if you look at the air hose, there is a similar notch surrounded by space and a ring; you push that opening up against the stem, the hose's notch pushes down on the valve core's notch, and I assume that air from the hose pushes into the tire, filling it up.

Well, this notch is bent on this tire.  I don't know how it got bent, but I swear I would have noticed it before yesterday if it were.  So it looks like the hose, possibly with help from the cold weather possibly making any surface with any moisture frozen and thus sticky, yanked that core notch out of alignment when I pulled it out, and I think that's the reason the hose could not force any more air inside the tire.

I went out to take a look again at night, well past dinner, to make sure that I wasn't seeing things and that this protuberance really wasn't equidistant from any point of the outside of the stem.  I tried to yank it back into the middle with tweezers from my Swiss army knife, but that didn't work.  Fortunately, I didn't hear any air signaling a slow leak coming from the tire -- yet.  And it looks as though, according to my tire gauge, I managed to fill it up to within .5 whatever units before the valve core got all kinked.  So I have to prepare (maybe, if the reason I can't fill up my tire is because of the relatively cold weather) to go into a shop and get a new valve stem for this tire.  I just hope I am able to get it fixed before that tire loses all air pressure -- assuming I can't put air in it ever again.

This leads me to believe that the brand of tire I got for my car, which besides the one I had to replace are not even two years old, isn't that good.  One tire burst out of nowhere even though I'm sure it wasn't so severely underinflated to the point where such an explosion could happen, and now this, which is a different tire.  Not impressed.

Finally, one thing I've just realized.  I know that the passenger-side rear tire is .5 whatever air units short of where it should be because I used the tire gauge after I saw the air hose couldn't pump more air into it.  My tire gauge has a similar mouth to the air hose, where there's a notch in the middle of a ring.  That notch is also supposed to push in the notch in the valve stem in order to measure air pressure.  My gauge did that, a couple times.  So ... the air hose couldn't push that notch in properly, but my tire gauge could?  Maybe this isn't as big of a problem as I'm afraid it is -- hopefully?

This Is An Inside Job

Those traitors that trashed the U. S. Capitol in the hopes of capturing and executing members of Congress?  Well, there is now word that Trump is going to spurt out one final flurry of pardons, clemencies and commutations tomorrow.  It looks like it's going to be comprehensive, blanket pardons for his inner circle, i.e. his family and his most loyal ass-kissers, which is bullshit.  But I am going to go out on a limb and believe that he'll do the same for the people who, in his name, stormed the Capitol and committed sedition.

It serves those idiot cocksuckers right, believing their god-king actually gives two flying fucks about them.  As always, Donald Trump does anything only for his wallet, his ego, or his penis.  But he isn't the only person openly flouting democracy.  Republicans sided up to him and tolerate the crazy fucking people he controls like the Wicked Witch of the West does those flying monkeys because he gave them the power to pull off tax cuts and to seed the judiciary with Republicans that are a slightly different type of crazy.  But, those Republican judges are still "united" with these Trump-humpers, and my fear is they will get these insurrectionists off with light sentences once they appear in their courts.  That's the real reason I'm scared these people won't be brought to justice, or at least to the fullest extent of the law.

The scaffolding of dictatorship and violence has already been erected.  Anybody committing treason will be pardoned or excused by those in power who support them.  And those traitors themselves are a part of this autocratic architecture: More than several people who vandalized the Capitol and murdered a security officer were cops themselves.  And now comes word that members of the National Guard are being vetted before Wednesday's inauguration for fear that some of them are traitors themselves.  Great.  And that's on top of ample evidence that members of Congress themselves were trying to help those seditionists find Pence and Pelosi from the inside.  My fucking God, they're with them.

They're all with them.

Judases in our midst.  Hiding in plain sight.

My God.