Day 3657

A loud thunderclap woke me up this morning. I looked outside and it wasn't raining. Weird. Something had changed though. It had gotten very cold again. These rapid weather changes are driving me crazy. You never know what to wear. Maybe we always had a succession of cold fronts sweeping away the warm weather every winter. I don't remember it this way though. Something seems different this year.

Janet returned home today. We'll resume our regular schedule and go visit the Dalmatians tomorrow. I'm not sure whether the five new dogs are at the kennel yet. They always spend at least a week at the vet after we pick them up to make sure that they don't have any hidden health issues. I think this group is relatively healthy. None of them have heartworms. Some do have intestinal worms though. Luckily, these are easy to treat.

It wasn't easy to get my 20,000 steps today. I was already tired when I returned from the gym. The gym was as piece of cake compared to my long walk though. The wind was brutal. The wind chill made the temperature seem much colder than it actually was. Whenever the wind stopped blowing, I felt overdressed. When it started up again, I was cold. I couldn't believe that I saw a few runners this afternoon wearing shorts and t-shirts. What planet do these people live on? I was wearing two coats and I was still cold.

I received a reply from a magazine I sent a query to last month. The e-mail was dated 2:37AM, which seemed a bit strange in itself. Basically, it was just a form letter saying the magazine always welcomes new submissions but that it was difficult to get published. OK. They said the article I submitted was not appropriate for the magazine. Of course it wasn't. I never submitted anything. I just attached a writing sample to my query as the magazine requested. This magazine goes to the bottom of my list. I have a feeling that it is going to be next to impossible to connect with these people.

If it warms up a bit, I'll definitely have to go up on the roof tomorrow. It rained a lot yesterday and there is bound to be a lot of residual water on the roof. When the pumps quit pumping, it doesn't mean that the roof is dry. There are far too many low spots for the two pumps to remove everything. No wonder I spend so much time daydreaming about traveling to space launches. Keeping this house from crumbling around me is a never ending chore.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Dalmatians again. I didn't visit the kennel while Janet was away because it was filled to capacity with Christmas boarders. When the kennel is full, we're just in the way. Most of the holiday boarders should be gone when we go up tomorrow. Hopefully, the dogs will be as glad to see us as we will be to see them.

The year is rapidly drawing to a close. I wonder if 2020 will be any different? It was really sad losing Dash this year, but there were some good things as well. Every year is this way. You've got to learn to take the bad with the good.

Petey & Greta are today's Dalmatians of the Day

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