Day 109

There were literally thousands of bicycles in the park this morning when I took Dot and Dash on their early walk. There was a steady stream of cyclists passing us for over an hour. At first I thought it was a race, but the bicycles were moving a bit too slow for racing. It turns out that this endless parade of bicycles was something called Tour Dallas: a 30 mile fun run through the city streets. It certainly looked like everyone was having fun until someone fell off their bicycle right in front of us. Almost instantly a cry of "rider down" reverberated through the crowd of cyclists. Few people stopped to help however. I guess they didn't need to. In less than a minute, paramedics were at the scene and assisting the woman off the roadway. This was obviously a well orchestrated event. I think everyone who finished the event got a free pizza. This is typical Dallas. First you get your heart pumping with a brisk thirty mile ride and then you go clog your arteries with a pizza.

I had some time this afternoon, so I thought I'd go down to Oak Lawn and install the new locks on my rent property. I guess it's a law in Texas that you have to change the locks every time you get a new tenant. I had already picked up a Schlage lockset at Home Depot a few days ago. It looked identical to the locks that are currently on the doors. Piece of cake to install, I thought. I get the entry lock installed in less than five minutes and I start to install the deadbolt. Oops! It won't fit. Damn. Right on the box it says "Universal fit...works with any door." The lock doesn't fit my door though. Apparently the width of the hole the deadbolt slides into has gotten a bit wider since the last time I changed these locks. Since I didn't have a drill with me and it was too late to go exchange the lock for another, I gave up for the day and just re-installed the old locks.

Janet's coming home from her cruise tomorrow and I need to do some major housecleaning. I like for people to think I'm neat and tidy all the time, but when nobody's looking I'm actually pretty messy. We're making progress I think. I've run a few loads of laundry. Got all the dishes cleaned. I've vacuumed the floors. I still need to clean the comforter on the bed where the dogs got it muddy. There's probably other stuff that I've forgotten about, but I do think I got just as much exercise today as those cyclists we saw in the park this morning.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day