Day 3751

Well this sucks. Our washing machine broke. I called my favorite repair shop and they're gone out of business. Damn. Their phone has been disconnected and their website has vanished. This was sudden and unexpected. The repairman I liked gave me his name once, but he doesn't seem to exist either. The only person I could find with that name lives in London. Obviously the world is facing much larger problems, but this isn't the best time to be dealing with a broken washing machine full of dirty clothes.

Dirty laundry wasn't today's only problem. The city closed our park. Why? Police with bullhorns were driving around telling people to go home this morning. I wonder what caused this? I doubt that it was a safety issue. The park was virtually empty on Monday and Tuesday. Just blocking the entrances to motorized vehicles on Sunday evening seemed to accomplish everything the city had been wanting. I can only guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were people who complained that anyone in our neighborhood could still walk to the park while they couldn't drive there. It's all or nothing for some people these days. Even on the busiest days a walk in the park is still ten times safer that going to the pharmacy or grocery store. People always stayed six feet apart when they passed on trails and if you were going the same direction you were usually several hundred yards apart. I don't know what this closure proves. The joggers and cyclists aren't going to stay inside all day. They will just start using city streets which is actually much less safe. A police officer told me that they didn't want to close the park, but had to because of a few knuckleheads. I didn't ask who he was referring to. I know it wasn't me.

Even Dawn had a bad day. We got the results of her urinalysis and she has urate crystals. The vet suspects that she may have a few small bladder stones as well. We're going to start by putting her on Allopurinol for a month and then do another urinalysis. Dalmatians are prone to having urate crystals and Allopurinol often helps cure the problem. Dash took the drug for years and it really helped. We may have to switch Dawn to a low purine diet as well. The food she eats now is fairly low in purines, but there are options with an even lower purine content. Unfortunately, most of them don't taste as good. We'll see what happens. We've definitely been through this before.

My temporary computer solution is far from perfect. If I were busy with work it would be driving me crazy. Apparently, some of the files that were lost when my hard drove crashed were those secret hidden files that record a successful software installation. I've had to reinstall several things today, including Microsoft Office. My version of Office is so old that you can't register it over the Internet. You have to call a special telephone number. You can imagine how long that took.

I eventually found an appliance repair company that is still making service calls. I was a little surprised that they agreed to come out tomorrow, but I'm glad things aren't shut down completely. Will the repairman arrive wearing a hazmat suit, or will he be oblivious to the pandemic and sneezing all over the place? Either way, I'll stay out of his way. I've learned that repairs go much faster when I leave the repairman alone.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day