Day 1368

I wish that UPS could get their Customer Centers on the same page as their website. For the third time this year, I drove over to Mesquite to pick something up at the UPS Will Call desk when the website told me it was ready, only to discover that the package hadn't even arrived yet. The woman at the Will Call desk told me that the website was never right and that I should wait at least four hours after the website said the package was ready before driving over to pick it up. Oh, well. So much for the wonders of modern technology.

Breakfast was quite tasty this morning. My resolve to maintain my strict diet is slipping a bit. I've noticed that meat and cheese are creeping back into my omelets. It's not that the veggie omelets were all that bad. A little sausage just make a meal more satisfying. I know I should be resolute, but I tend to rationalize things. I tell myself that I've earned this sausage, since I'm working out now at the gym. This is probably a poor excuse for my backsliding behavior, since I'm not working out that much.

Even though it was Friday the 13th, nothing bad happened today. I eventually got my package, even though I had to make two trips to the UPS Customer Center. I got caught up on the week's website and writing assignments. I even had time to drive up to the Land Rover dealer later in the afternoon and do a little window shopping for new cars.

There is no rational reason why I'm so loyal to Land Rovers. These cars are in the shop more often than they're on the road. I probably like them for the same reasons I like Olympus cameras and Dalmatians. Some things just feel right. If I do get a new car, I don't think I'll have a problem finding something I like. The difficulty will be finding a decent Land Rover that I can actually afford. At least I will get a good trade-in on the Defender. These cars are still so desirable that somebody came up to me in the Land Rover parking lot today and tried to buy my Defender while I was walking in to talk to a sales guy.

In my younger years, I would have just kept the Defender and gone ahead and bought an additional new car. I've learned the hard way however, that having a bunch of cars is a giant nuisance. At one point, I owned three cars. I could never find a place to park them all at night and the insurance payments were ridiculous. I've finally gotten over my Gemini penchant for having multiple copies of everything. One car is plenty. Astute readers will probably remember that I still actually have two cars, if you count the non-running Citroën Maserati, but I haven't seen the SM in nine years. It ceased being a viable second car years ago and now is just a pleasant memory.

It's finally starting to get a little cooler. The dogs are starting to enjoy their morning walks again. It's still going to be a while before jacket weather arrives, but I think the worst of our Texas summer is about over.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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