Day 1048

I need a new car. The old Defender is getting a little long in the tooth and it would be nice to be driving something reliable again. Unfortunately the only car I'd really like is another Defender. For reasons that remain a mystery to me, Land Rover will not be bringing the Defender back to America until at least 2015. I wonder if my car will last that long?

Today, Janet wanted me to take the Defender up to the dog park and I had to run through a NASA style checklist just to make sure the car was roadworthy. After 100,000 miles, things start to fall off these Defenders. I still drive the car almost everyday, but not with other people inside. My schedule is so amorphous that it is no big deal for me to wait two hours for the AAA tow truck.  Other people have places to go.

At any rate, I pumped up the tires, checked for leaking hoses and off we went. I have to double clutch now, since the synchronizers are gone, but I'm getting pretty good at it. The trip was uneventful and the dogs loved the park today. The weather was absolutely perfect. All the bad weather in the Northeast is bringing good weather to the Southwest. Dash was full of himself today. He repeatedly raced from one end of the park to the other and was faster than any of the other dogs. If you've never seen a Dalmatian run, it's a beautiful sight. They are really quite graceful.

When we returned to the house, I had work to do. I wonder when people stopped respecting weekends as a time of rest and relaxation? I get as many requests on the weekends now as on any other day of the week. I would just as soon do nothing on the weekends, but I usually try to get the weekend assignments completed, so that they don't bog me down when Monday arrives. I got two major website updates completed this afternoon. I would have rather watched a movie, but I'll have to admit that last minute website updates still beat mowing the grass.

I saw my first Kestrel of the season while I was taking the dogs on their evening walk. These small falcons are all over the place during the Winter, but I've never seen one during the Summer months. One by one, all the Winter birds and animals are returning. Redbirds have taken up residence in our yard again and one bold Cardinal apparently wants to build a nest in my office. He pecks on my office window every morning and when I won't let him in, he goes and poops on my car. What is it with these destructive animals? I think this bird has been talking to a certain armadillo.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day