Day 1637

The power went out as we were waking up this morning. Janet had to go to work with wet hair, since the power went out while she was in the shower. I had to stay home with storm phobic dogs, who seem to think a power outage is a sign that the end of the world is near. The storm was brief, but it packed a punch. When the cold front passed through and the rain stopped for a while, I was finally able to walk the dogs and immediately noticed large downed trees all over the park. We must have had some severe straight line winds during the storm. Despite all the damage in the park, none of the trees in our yard were damaged. We got lucky. The dogs got muddy, I ate a very late breakfast, and everything ended well. By 10 AM the power was back on again.

These periodic power outages are so common that I know the drill by heart now. I immediately call the power company on the land line to report the outage before the battery backup for the IP phone system goes out. You have to report the outage on the automated system using a land line, so the power company knows your location. This might have made sense back in the days when everyone used an old fashioned analog phone where the phone line provided the power.  Now, most people's phones go out when the power goes out. Strangely, if you report an outage using a cell phone, your location isn't identified at all. Luckily, I have a four hour battery backup on the IP phone system. After I call in the outage, I look for the camping lanterns, so we can find our way around, disconnect the alarm system, so it won't trigger an alarm when the power is reconnected, and turn off the air conditioner, so a power surge won't cause the power to go out again when electricity is restored. Finally, it's time for the most important thing: keeping the dogs calm.

When life eventually returned to normal, I fired up the computer and began my Monday website updates. The updates didn't take that long, so I still had time to finish doing my June invoices and take them to the post office before the rain started again. It continued to rain off and on for the rest of the day. We got another break in the rain around dinner time, so the dogs were able to have their evening walk as well.

Dash's radiation treatments are finished, but Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are still chemotherapy days. After dinner, I put Dot in the bedroom, get out my purple rubber chemo gloves and place Dash's three chemo pills in a dog food meatball. After Dash takes his pills, I clean the gloves with alcohol and put them away until the next time. I can't imagine that the pills are really this dangerous, but I'm just following directions.

It looks like it's going to be sunny tomorrow. I hope so. Maybe I can clear the water off the roof and get caught up on work again. Even though I don't like rain, I'll have to admit that rainy days are good for flower pictures. The soft light is just about perfect.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day