Not Much Going On...

There really isn't much going on around here.  I mean, I do get up every morning, putz a bit here, then head upstairs, feed the dogs, get them outdoors to do their morning deposits, in the case of Cheyanne, and sniff and eat much other animal poo, in the case of Freyja (Cheyanne gets her share), then back in, feed me, then head up to work.  After a shorter day than it had been over the past year, I finish that stuff, head downstairs, get the dogs out, feed myself once again, try to stay awake until it's time to feed the dogs again (7:30 pm, like clockwork, mostly), then putz along until 9 pm, when I get them out, around the parking lot once or twice (give or take, depending on weather, behavior, and etc.), then back inside, me to bed, rinse, repeat.

I do keep an eye on the news and the world in general - mostly fearing the upcoming election, and then all the other gloom and doom noise.  There's very little point in me bloviating about the state of the ... well, that which my wife finds endlessly interesting.  If I had the kind of money I dream I'd love to have, I would definitely be exploring emigration to Canada or other places, pending the outcome of the election.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out" I hear...  right.  Locally, there's a hell of a point being made by the zealots in MCCL, which is creatively and questionably named Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life - the F obviously being ignored because there are a vast number of *uckheads engaging in a lot of *uckery here.  Their latest endeavor is an add which touts that Minnesota has the most extreme abortion law in the country, allowing abortion very late in a pregnancy.  

Mind you, I am generally opposed to abortion in that I would like to see every pregnancy occur in a loving, caring home, every infant be born healthy, normal, and loved, and those infants have the support and environment that gives them the ability to succeed.  All too often a small percentage of those pregnancies start by force or worse, medical complications arise, mothers-to-be are not given the support they, or their upcoming baby, require, the infants are born into a world that is less-and-less concerned about their futures, and, well, it becomes abundantly clear that the whack jobs are making headway in their whole "Never ever ever ever" campaign.

Instead of focusing on something like late term abortion - something that occurred once in 2021 - the wingnuts might have been better off by taking the millions of dollars they spent to get their pet idea in front of people and spend it on the care of future mothers who are about to give birth.  Some of these draconian laws are downright... well, evil.  Modern medical science is pretty impressive, but when healthcare is prescribed by law, rather than by doctors, well, there's evil.  Women who are carrying ... well, things that are not going to become people are being forced to carry that lump until they can force it out.  I recall a case recently in the news of a young mother, who already had two kids, wanted more, yet due to her living in a state which has a total abortion ban, she was forced to carry and deliver the dead flesh of what had been her hoped for third child - but because of medical decisions made by legislators, this woman is not now capable of having any other children.

I am not clinical in any stretch of the imagination, but I do work in health care.  And if these whack jobs put their money where their mouths are, we'd be looking at a planet that was having success in combating global warming, our schools and society would be safe, guns would still be in people's homes, stored in such a way that unauthorized personnel would not be able to get their hands on them, and they would not work in schools, in places of business that were not shooting ranges, places of government unless they were also shooting and training ranges, and, well, generally be much safer.

But yeah, I do find the people worried about birth calling themselves "Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life" are not much more than a joke.  Life isn't a conception-to-delivery thing, it's what happens later.  If you really want to show you're concerned for life, you'd stop your fear tactics and start supporting things that make lives better.

But I'm just a cranky old man, not much of ... well, much, really.  And with that note, it's time to begin this weekend day with the sun shining, time to head upstairs, feed the dogs, get them outdoors, then come back in, feed me, and see what my lovely bride has planned for what's up with our acquisition of things which keep the house moving forward - you know, groceries, toilet paper, pet treats, general ... well, you know.  Then await further instruction from her regarding this summer's likely major project, which will involve us moving our storage locker from one provider rather conveniently located to us to another provider some 20 minutes away, said other provider having the advantage of not having raised rates at 311% from our initial $90 rate to $280 a month this most recent month.  Yes, I know, inflation, but aside from snow removal, they do not seem to be doing much to keep our stuff safe and dry, given that there's a roof leak in the unit we're renting.  

Said move from our current triangular-sized unit to one that I am assured is ten by twenty feet, ten feet tall internally, will also require that I build some storage shelves, as the current unit has none, and our future unit is similarly outfitted.  I've designed 6 foot long by 2 foot wide by 7 foot tall shelves that are made from 2x3 and 2x4 construction (1/4" plywood over a 2x3 frame, 3 shelves attached to 4-7 foot long 2x4 legs) which will quite literally more than double the storage space of said storage locker, while also organizing it far better.  Doubling?  Well, that's easy.  10x20 is 200 square feet.  The addition of seven shelves with 36 square feet each (that's 2 feet wide times 6 feet long times three of them, since there's still going to be space UNDER the first shelf, means I add 36 square feet of organized storage), three down each 20-foot side of the locker, complemented by a seventh unit on the back wall (a ten-foot-wide space with two two-foot wide shelves leaves one six foot gap along the back wall for one more unit), adds 252 square feet to the 200 we're going to rent - should make it much easier to find things in the storage locker.  And we should be able to move the stuff from Iowa, mostly furniture, up here as well.  

So I'd best get to it.  Groceries won't buy themselves.