The Rebuttal

 Friday is upon us!  And it going to be nice, warm, temps in the mid 60s (F), but definitely not a precursor to the weekend, which will be filled with overcast skies and drizzly, showery storms that are more of nuisance than anything else.  

The weather will have a dampening effect on the garden center at the large, brick and mortar, orange home improvement retailer where I spend time on the weekends.  One thing I have noticed is that usually around this time of year, when people begin getting their refund checks back from the government, business in the flooring department picks up.  This year there hasn't been much of a change.  Sure, we're a bit busier, but not like in previous years.  I'm betting that those big heads down at corporate failed to predict this and gave us a flooring plan that's unreachable.

I got a 10 mile bike ride in yesterday, in Japan, on an old railway line that's been converted to a cycling, walking trail.  The route was very flat, boringly so.  I did not make it one of my favorites and will probably never ride it again.  While it was nice to get in the distance, I would have rather spent the time climbing a few very small hills.  That was not the case.

While Biden was giving his State of the Union Speech last evening, I was at the movies watching Dune 2.  It is, as so many people are saying, very good, the kind of spectacle movie goers haven't seen in a long, long time.  That being said, I must also say that if you've read the books, you know liberties were taken in the writing of the screenplay.  That being said, the movie is still amazing.  

And, of course, last evening, Joe Biden gave his State of the Union speech.  By most accounts it was very good.  Conservatives hated it because they've spent so much time and effort into making their base believe he's feeble.  That was not the case.  Many, who are not conservatives, said it was a fiery stump speech.  I understand MTG heckled, and Biden heckled back, that's something Republicans are not used to dealing with; part of their shut up, we're in charge mentality.   Unfortunately, we are now in campaign season and I'm so glad I don't watch TV with commercials, no political ads for me.

The funniest part of the evening, at least from what I'm reading, was the Republican rebuttal by someone named Katie Britt who spoke in a soft, almost whispery voice from her kitchen.  That's right, her kitchen.  Did they really believe that the old housewife and mother image, speaking form her very well appointed kitchen (she's wealthy), was really going to impress the largest voting bloc in America?  I did watch some of it but found the saccharine phoniness to intense.  That being said, if anyone out there watched the entire rebuttal, can you tell me if the camera panned down to show she was standing there barefooted?  You know the old Republican saying, women should be barefoot and pregnant.