Here And There

I know I have been missing from around here for a few days but it has been very busy. The Flea Fling was Saturday and appears to have been a big success and I spent all day cooking dogs and sausages. I had full shifts Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and Sunday was especially bad since it also included the annual "Cashier Olympics" on Sunday night after we closed. I've finally gotten a day off and I am still exhausted...I even slept until 7am this morning and I am most always up and around by 5. My intent to go to the gym first thing has been thwarted by a bit of lower GI disturbance which is probably due to just being so bloody tired and I don't feel safe going to far from home right now. Maybe later.

Just a heads up on how the shutdown may affect you. As you may or may not know the CDC here in Atlanta is crippled by the shutdown and the function of tracing food borne illness is not operating. AS luck or whatever would have it there is at outbreak of food poisoning from chicken out there due to Salmonella Heidelberg and possibly produced by the firm Foster Farms but we won't be able to determine the extent or source of the problem until or if the shutdown goes away. My best advice, since we don't know the extent or source of the problem, is to avoid all chicken until we have all of our safeguards in place again. If you just have to have chicken then double up on safety and cook the hell out of it. That means rubber gloves, double sanitizing work areas and food segregation. Remember that even rinsing raw chicken and poultry causes splashes and water mist(probably contaminated) in a large area of your kitchen. Be insanely cautious. While you may safely live through the actual bacterial infection the ancillary damage to kidneys and other systems my be with you a lifetime.

Speaking of shut downs you really must support the President in this. While the shut down and credit default are monstrous, the actual real danger in all this is the future of the office of POTUS. If the GOP is successful in getting away with their hostage taking then they will forever change the way our government works and effectively neuter the office of President. If they can override the election and the settled law of the land and the power of the executive veto then we are going to be in a world o' shit. The President knows this and he definitely does not want his legacy to be the President that destroyed the office.

If the GOP forces the government into default we are going to see a full blown recession that will make the last few years look like a walk in the park. Start thinking about how you can weather such a storm.