Day 2676

I was unlocking the back door and getting ready to take Dot outside this morning when much to my surprise I see her walking toward me. She had gotten up all by herself and was headed toward the door on her own. I was amazed. She hasn't done this for months. It was as if she was telling us "don't count me out yet." Her surprising show of strength continued for most of the day. Dot ate all her food today and had two good walks.

Dash was in good spirits as well. I think the dogs liked the cooler weather. The weather was a surprise as well. A cold front rolled in overnight and the temperature was in the low 50's when we woke up. The severe weather the bank teller was warning me about yesterday finally arrived late last night, but all we got was a lot of rain. Luckily, the hail storms and tornado warnings were to the North of us.

I spent most of the day doing mindless chores, but I did find time to take a camera down to the lake without the dogs. Cool overcast days are perfect photography weather. I was hoping to capture a Great Blue Heron or some Great Egrets, but they were nowhere to be found today. I did see a mother Wood Duck with three little ducklings, so my excursion wasn't entirely in vain. There are an abundance of animals in the park, but I don't see as many when I walk Dash these days. He's not as adventurous as he used to be, so we seldom venture off one well worn path. I've given up trying to get Dash to do something new. He is very stubborn.

I noticed today that the camera I am using now was only saving images at 180 DPI. I did a Google search to learn how to change the setting to 300 DPI like I was used to and discovered that dots per inch was no longer considered a meaningful number. For the most part, camera manufacturers had just abandoned it, just like depth of field scales and aperture rings on the lens. None of this makes sense to me. What if you wanted to print a picture straight from your camera without processing it in Photoshop? Wouldn't it would be handy to have a 300 DPI image then? Nope. I was wrong about that as well. Evidently modern printers automatically scale the image to the paper size you have selected and all of the processing I've learned to do over the years is no longer necessary. It's weird to feel so out of date. It's even weirder to still like the old way of doing things better.

We've had a lot of rain lately and I hope that the new patches on the roof are doing well. I haven't even been up to check on them yet. I haven't done a lot of things that I used to do routinely because I seem to be perpetually tired. Janet seems to feel the same way. When the chores are finished and the dogs have been taken care of, we fall asleep instantly.

It's too wet to mow the grass and too muddy to spend much effort cleaning the house. I guess I'll just go to the gym tomorrow. Maybe I need a personal trainer or at least a class or two. I walk constantly and am very active when I go to the gym, but I'm still losing muscle mass. I've gone from feeling pleased that I could still wear the same sizes I wore in college to being slightly alarmed. I definitely don't want to wind up like Dot. It's harder to build muscle as you age, but it is not impossible. I used to blame muscle atrophy on the statin drugs I was taking, but it's entirely possible that I'm just not working out hard enough.

I hope Dot has another good day tomorrow. There is really no explanation for the burst of energy she had today. A good day is a gift. I can't think of anything we did differently today, but it sure would be nice if our luck continues tomorrow.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day