While I voted for eight other Democrats and only one other Republican, I did decide to start off my ticket with a vote for Trump. Not because I like Trump but I do not like the cult-like culture around Kamela and Democratic Party, or how so many people were saying that Trump’s election will mean the end of democracy. I want to prove them wrong. Truth is, if I had the easy option to vote third party for somebody like a Jill Stein or Chase Oliver, I probably would have voted for that candidate. I didn’t vote for him as Republican, as I couldn’t bring myself to vote for a Republican, but I did check his name on Conservative line. Just as a protest to system that is doing everything to push me towards voting for Kamela.

I know the candidates positions on the issues and I agree Kamela shares many of my beliefs. She would be a better president. That’s a fact. And I am not stupid, I know probably better then most how the game of politics is played. After all, I am a political director, a seasoned political operative with two decades of experience. I have run all aspects of campaign, coordinating and supervising campaigns, bringing together the resources that make a winning campaign possible. Now that I’ve moved to data side of things, I am less in the midst of all the mud slinging, but I do still get my hands dirty from time to time. Politics is in my blood. And I know damn well with the electoral college and how all votes in a deep-blue state like New York will ultimately go to Kamela Harris, voting against her does no harm.

I just don’t like being told who to vote for. And I like the dysfunctional nature of Trump. If anything, Trump is not a dictator, he’s a buffoon. Trump isn’t going to take over the nation, and if anything he will struggle even more in a second term in the White House then the first without his good friend and helper veteran Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Without McConnell’s leadership, Trump would have never gotten his tax cut package through, nor would he have gotten the conservative super-majority on the Supreme Court. Trump doesn’t really get power, but he sure does get played by anybody who can roll enough flattery on him.

It’s dangerous we are told to have a buffoon as the head of the nation, we are told. That’s if you believe the President is an actually important person, and not just another bureaucrat – one of millions in the government. Indeed the President is a leading cause of indigestion for millions of Americans – who eat their TV dinners in front of their color TV – believing the mystique that those high resolution pictures of people in distant lands. But I have my doubts, it’s not like there is a lot of federal agents patrolling the local highways for speeders and drunks. I really like the idea of having Trump in the White House, so we can run Democratic candidates against him on state and federal level over the next two cycles. See, we’re not as bad as the buffoon in chief! Pay attention to rodeo clown, he’s the real menace to society.

But won’t Kamela do all these great things for electric cars and renewable energy by attending children’s science fairs and giving wonderful speeches that make the organic mash potatoes and avocados on smashed toast go down so well while watching the evening news? Or how her proposals, like bound a stillborn death in Congress sound so good, if you believe the government will solve all your personal problems, rather then yourself. Universal Healthcare! Free College! Better Roads! More Renewable Energy! I don’t expect the federal fire department to come and put out the fires of nation burning to the ground from climate change. It’s a crisis only solved by protecting ourselves as society won’t. Nor do I expect big checks or even modest tax cuts to come under Kamela. I sure would like to spend less money on taxes, so I can invest more and eventually own that off-grid cabin out in mountains.

I concede by looking at my own net worth and investments, we are living in mighty heady times under Biden. I mean inflation sucks, but so much money is rolling in with high fed rates and booming stock and bond markets. Kamela probably would be better for our country on so many levels, and maybe I hope she ultimately wins in swing states and leads our nation for next four to eight years. We could use somebody besides the geriatrics running our nation for a change. At least she would appoint confident people to run the government, though not everybody that Trump appointed was a smoldering garbage fire. I mean, Jerome Powell is a remarkably mature and well thought out Federal Reserve chair. I think Trump wants to fire him, and that’s terribly foolish.

That said, I kind of really like J.D. Vance. Not his politics so much, though I know plenty of hillbillies who share his politics. He wrote a good book, he has similar roots to me, growing up in the country. I understand his M.O., even if it is wrong on many levels. But he understands the small towns and what they face. And I do think Trump will be good on the second amendment. Or at least better, but probably still too far to the left, as witnessed by the bump stock ban. At least he’ll appoint conservative, more pro-second amendment judges. I think he’ll be less prone to locking up more and more of the federal lands as wilderness, though if anything he just will be mostly ineffective, as only third-rate people with little governing experience will likely be attracted to his administration. If anything, I think his second term will be more mediocre then his first. Nothing really will get done, just four years wasted. Probably with another economic crisis or other disaster, made worse with zero leadership from the top of government.

But so be it, I hope grass becomes federally legal. Kamela would be better on that front, though plenty of hillbillies also like getting stoned — pot is a popular crop in hills and hollars. And I probably let me love of J.D. Vance and his small town roots get the best of me. I voted for the buffoon in chief, who except for guns, I don’t agree much with. But go figure, my vote in a blue state doesn’t count for much.

When it’s been years since you’ve had a wicked cold, it’s easy to forget how much a cold can throw one for a loop. But today, unlike the other sick days I took from work, I’ve been really laying back, trying to get as much sleep and recovery as possible, as I want to be as close to my peak come Sunday into Monday.

I really would like to be over the cold 🤒 before Sunday so come Monday I’m in good shape to get back and be pounding the pavement hard with my data work. I actually want to be healthy enough to go to the library on Sunday to run some lists, 📜 get caught up on the things I didn’t get done when I was sick as a dog 🐕‍🦺 on Thursday and Friday. I did end up doing work those days, but everything was slower as I was in a bit of brain fog, hacking up mucus left and right. And it really is the busiest part of the campaign season, and I’m running lists and writing code left and right.

I am feeling like I am 80% back by this afternoon, and really almost want to get out for a bike ride this afternoon or at least get some fresh air. It’s such a beautiful day, and while the nose running 👃 and congestion 😤 have let up a lot, but I feel like if I overexhert myself today I am going to just end up collapsing. You know, I feel like I have so much energy ✊ but I really don’t as I recover form the cold. Maybe I will go down to the park for a bit later on the bike. I was trying to find the chain lube, ⛓️ but I’m not having much luck on that. Tomorrow, I plan to go to Walmart as many pantry is getting bare, and whole wheat pancakes, fried onions, brussel sprouts, eggs, and mixed vegetables gets tiresome after a while. I finished off the last of bananas I had yesterday, 🍌and you know what I’m really craving — grape fruit. 🍊 At the same time I kind of don’t want to rush out to public places, lest I spread this nasty cold around.

It is what is is. 🌞 I don’t have a fever, my temperature this morning was only 97.1 F. 🌡️ I came back on the COVID test. I do need to schedule my COVID and flu booster. A completely beautiful autumn day and I’ve spent half the day in bed, just playing with my phone, 📳 trying to get back over this cold so I can move forward again with life come tomorrow. Going rain and cold tomorrow, but if I’m feeling fine, I’ll head to the library 📚️ and I’ll work down there, after going to the Walmart to get bike grease and all that other stuff I need. I was originally planning to go shopping on Thursday evening before heading out to Madison County early on Friday, but as it seems with the weather and the sickness, that was not to be. 🐮

Took apart my laptop this morning, and got the fan unstuck 💻️ and checked out replacing the power port. Doesn’t look as easy as I thought, but I would have been good I think if I had gotten a big enough power supply to replace the one that broke. I think I have to pull the motherboard to get access to it, and I don’t want to do that. I bought the 45-watt power block, which will charge things when the laptop is off — abit slowly — but nothing when it’s running it’s not enough power. I goofed but it was only a $10 mistake, and I should be getting the new one delivered from Amazon tomorrow morning, so I should be back in business. 🔌 I’ll keep the slow charge one for at home, as a backup, as it works to charge the laptop but only slowly when it’s off.

I’m glad the fan was just stuck and I was able to free it up but I doesn’t look like that is particularly diffiicult to replace. ☢️ With the fan running again, the laptop is running much cooler — around 30 to 35 C compared to 60 to 80 C. I should have opened it up and fixed it sooner as the high temperatures are really bad for solder joints and capacitors, though the laptop is 8 years old now, and I’ve been talking about replacing it for some time now — though it’s more then sufficent for my needs with a 1 GB SSD plus a 1 GB HD and 12 GB of RAM. I don’t care about processor speed as most of my GIS and data stuff is more disk IO and memory intensive then processor intensive. And hopefully it won’t feel so hot on my lap. 💻️

Yesterday I worked the bulk of the day at Five Rivers. 🦅🐞 Beautiful day for sure for working out there, and I went for a lunch time walk, but boy did I feel sick. I was blowing my runny nose non-stop. 👃Kept it together and worked until around quarter of six, came home and collapsed. I was just so tired, though sleep hasn’t come easy when I’m constantly coughing my brains out. 🧟 It’s just been no fun. But at least once I get the proper power charger 🔌 with the fan working on my laptop, hopefully things should be good for some time into the future at this point. And next weekend I can get out camping and riding, or so I hope. 🥾 🏕️ I just got to take it easy one more day, do some reading and looking out the window 🪟 at the blue skies all will be good when my charger comes tomorrow and I stock up on groceries. 🛒 I probably will skip the whole-wheat homemade pancakes and all the onions for a while. 🧅 Although, what to eat?