Day 3430

I'm starting to see Dragonflies again. This is always a good sign that Spring is ending and Summer is beginning. There will be many more Dragonflies as the weather grows warmer but they will never become easier to photograph. These little critters refuse to stay still. I also saw my first baby ducks of the season today. A Mallard Hen was swimming along the shoreline with ten small ducklings in tow. I'm always amazed that baby birds of any species survive. There are many predators in the park.

We got a nice card from the doctors and nurses at the cancer center in today's mail. As Dash's condition began to deteriorate these specialty vets got to know him very well. I think every nurse in the facility wrote a message on the card. I'm glad that Dash is remembered by so many. I'll certainly never forget what he meant to me.

This is the time of year when we usually call the landscaper to clean up the yard and plant new grass. For some reason we haven't made the call this year. On cool mornings I think that I can clean up the yard myself. Of course on hot days I just say never mind. I need to do something. There are still lots of leaves on the ground that will never get raked and the grass in the back yard is looking pretty shabby. Amazingly, some of the sod we planted last Spring is still alive, which hasn't happened in recent memory. It's harder to justify spending the money on landscaping without Dot and Dash. The dogs loved a nice yard to play in. It's not as much of a priority to us.

I'm having trouble making anything a priority. There is nothing to prove anymore. I pick up a guitar now and then, but I never write songs like I used to. I have no interest in making movies even though I still have all the tools. The documentaries I shot back in the early 1970's seem so distant that it's easy to imagine that someone else made them. I definitely don't want to go back to having clients again. The only thing I miss about working is having a steady income stream. Working did impose a structure on my life that was beneficial to a person like me, but I can't say that I really enjoyed the deadlines. You can become very good at jumping through hoops, but it's still just jumping through hoops.

I realized tonight that when I cook I always make the same thing. I make a meat sauce using sausage, green peppers, onions, and maybe a little corn and black beans. If it's breakfast, I throw in a couple of eggs and it's an omelet. If it's dinner I pour the sauce over noodles and it's pasta. Either way, it's pretty tasty. I don't need a recipe either.

When I took the trash out to the curb tonight I noticed that a raccoon had gotten into our can. What a mess. Pretty clever raccoon, since there is always a lid on the can. I don't know why this bothered me since it's just garbage. I always neatly bag and seal all the trash in black plastic bags. Of course there is method to this madness. There always is. If the trash truck fails to show up, it's easy for me to put the bags in the car and take them to a dumpster. When I think that a raccoon can easily destroy my orderly world, it all seems kind of hopeless. It's going to take a good breakfast tomorrow morning to make things right again.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day