Day 2932

I took down the Christmas tree today. For a moment I thought about just leaving it up for the rest of the year. I wasn't feeling nostalgic about the holiday. I just didn't feel like putting everything away. On further reflection I realized that taking the tree down was much easier than removing the water from the roof or working on my website project, so the tree is gone.

I think this morning was our coldest morning yet. Our outdoor thermometer registered 17 degrees when I woke up. On our morning walk I noticed that the lake was starting to freeze over. Wow. It's been at least ten years since I've seen any ice on the lake. The ice certainly didn't last long. By mid-afternoon the temperature had risen to a balmy 47 degrees. As they say in Texas, if you don't like the weather, wait a few hours. I hope our cold spell is over for a while. It is certainly easier to walk Dash when the weather is reasonable.

I took some of the Christmas stuff back to the storage warehouse and put the rest in a closet. Dash sleeps so soundly now that he never even noticed that I was gone. I should have taken care of a few more errands while I was out, but I didn't feel like it. I'm definitely getting off to a slow start this year.

I thought that balancing my checkbook would be a good way to start the year, but Quickbooks and my bank statements just didn't agree. Usually I can find errors pretty quickly, but it gets harder if you don't reconcile very often. After much searching, I finally found an automatic payment that I forgot to enter in Quickbooks back in October of last year. Automatic payments always trip me up. I'm sure there's a way to get Quickbooks to automatically enter these charges for me, but I never learned how. After all these years, my knowledge of Quickbooks is still pretty rudimentary.

I wonder if the entire year is going to be this way? My minimal routine does a pretty good job of filling the day, but I'll be the first to admit that very little actually happens. It's kind of amazing that I can fill an entire day with three or four simple activities. Walking Dash probably takes at least two hours. On cold days you can add another thirty minutes just to get his gear on. I easily spend two hours fixing and eating breakfast. Dinner doesn't take long, because I just warm up leftovers in the microwave. Lord knows how long I spend taking Dash out to pee. I always have to go out with him to make sure he doesn't eat cat poop. I must spend an hour a day looking at Facebook, but hey, everybody does that. Add an hour or so for taking mail to the post office and picking up prescription and there isn't that much time left. I really wonder how I used to get so much done.

Tomorrow is a big day for Dash. He's scheduled for another echocardiogram to monitor the blood clots in his heart. There will probably be new blood work and other tests as well. He actually seems to have more energy than the last time we ran these tests several months ago, so I'm hoping for good results. The specialists at the cancer center have become Dash's regular vets now. There's not a whole lot we can do at this point, but at least Dash is getting the best care he can get.

I can't really avoid the roof much longer. Maybe I'll remove the standing water tomorrow.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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