Day 3749

The park is still open to pedestrians and cyclists, but all entrances have been blocked and there are signs saying that the park is closed to motorized vehicles. This seems to be something that is going to be enforced. I saw lots of parking enforcement cars and an increased police presence in the neighborhood this morning. This is a good thing for all the locals who love to walk their dogs in the park. These new rules should drastically decrease traffic within the park without changing things for Dawn and the neighborhood dogs at all. I wouldn't mind seeing then traffic rule becoming permanent. The park has become way too crowded in recent years anyway.

I still feel like defending the vast majority of dog walkers, joggers, and cyclists I've seen during the past week. They have all been very polite and make sure to keep their distance. I still see a few kids who seem determined to hang out with their friends, but even these groups are small. I think the city still allows groups of fewer than ten people to gather. I've never seen more than five kids walking together. These young people should still not be hanging out with non-family members, but I don't think they are a danger to anyone else in the park. It's a very large park and there's plenty of room to keep your distance. I still worry a lot more about going to the grocery store.

Crowds certainly weren't a problem today. It was cold and it rained a lot. Luckily Janet and I were able to walk Dawn and get our steps in before the weather turned ugly. We did get a lot of rain though. I'm pleased that both pumps on the roof are still working and no new leaks have appeared. The forecast shows more rain ahead, so I'm not going to be able to remove the standing water for quite a while. Fingers crossed. I hope my repair work continues to hold up.

I've transfered all the files on my desktop computer to three smaller external drives, but still haven't gotten the nerve to erase the damaged disk and see if I might be able to reformat it. As long as I'm still able to access data on the drive I might as well postpone this effort anyway. Once I erase the disk, the data is gone forever and there still might be something I need.

This is not a good time to be a hypochondriac. The media keeps bombarding us with information about how to tell if you might have the virus. Since many of the early signs are exactly the same as the flu or other minor illnesses, it's easy to wonder. If you feel winded after a run or long walk you automatically start thinking about your lungs. Are the normal aches and pains of growing older a sign of something worse? Is the virus really airborne as some people speculate? I try not to obsess about these things and remind myself that I feel fine.

Seasonal allergies are a bitch too. I've had bad Spring allergies for as long as I can remember. This is the worst time of year, when everything is growing and there is pollen everywhere. I've done a good job at refraining from sneezing when another person is anywhere in the vicinity, but it doesn't seem natural. If you have allergies, you sneeze a lot.

We're living in a time that is going to be in the history books, just like World War II and the Great Depression. I have no idea how this will end, but I would have definitely preferred my retirement years to be a little more uneventful.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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