Day 734

All day I've been hearing that a major storm was headed our way. The storm had already caused blizzard conditions in New Mexico and West Texas, but here in Dallas it was just supposed to be a lot of heavy wind and rain. At any rate, when it was time to take the dogs on their evening walk, I thought I'd have plenty of time to get back before the rain started. The sky was dark, but there was almost no wind and the approaching front didn't appear to be moving fast. The dogs weren't acting like a storm was approaching either, so off we went. Oops. We all made a serious miscalculation. About a mile from home the wind picked up suddenly and within minutes it was raining cats and dogs. We headed for home immediately, but we all got soaked anyway. All my clothes were sopping wet. Even the iPhone in one of my pockets was wet. I was amazed that it still worked. It took several bath towels to get the dogs dry again and then it took several more to mop up the wet floor. At least we didn't get struck by lightning. We saw plenty of lightning on our exceedingly wet retreat back to the house.

I'm sure that Dot didn't have a great day. She had to endure two of her least favorite things today: rain and the furnace repairman. Prior to our evening walk, she barked herself into a frenzy when the HVAC guy came to the house to give our furnace its Winter service check. I'm amazed that repair people even bother to come to the house anymore. I try my best to keep Dot quiet, but it is of little avail. She has made it her mission to keep strangers at bay. I always pen the dogs in the office with me while repair folk are in the house, but that does little to alleviate the noise. If someone needs to tell me something, we generally have to go outside to talk.

Since it was a dismal day, I spent most of my time writing again. I finished a lengthy watch article and got started on my oil and gas project. If this bad weather continues, I may even get caught up with everything before the end of the year. If you happen to be suffering from writer's block, I can report with some authority that the more you write, the easier it gets. I've undertaken a lot more writing projects this year than I did the previous year, and I'm finding that the whole process of being a wordsmith is much more straightforward than it used to be. Writing has become a routine. It's just something I do everyday now, like making the bed every morning or brewing a pot of coffee.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day