Day 4023

I tried my best to be productive today. I started by defrosting the little refrigerator. This doesn't sound like much, but it's kind of a pain. I need to wait until the big refrigerator is empty enough that I can transfer everything temporarily while I unplug the unit, open the door, and let all the ice melt. This little dorm room size refrigerator was never meant to be permanent, but somehow we need it now. It is very basic and doesn't even have automatic defrost. Every few months I take out the glass shelves, fill the interior with old towels and let the ice melt. All is good now. I probably won't have to do this again until March.

Since I needed to take out the trash today anyway, I thought I'd try to shred a bunch of old mail and useless documents in the office. I managed to fill a large black leaf bag with paper confetti and almost overheated the shredder. Shredding these documents took a long time because I needed to read everything to make sure I wasn't destroying anything important. I think it's pretty safe to say that nothing important was lost today. Some of the envelopes even had hand written notes on the outside saying "must be shredded." The contents were usually a credit card that had expired in 2016, or an insurance claim that had been settled decades ago. I even found all the paperwork for a JC Penny lifetime battery for a car I hadn't owned in ages. I think these lifetime batteries almost put JC Penny out of business because they were good for as long as you owned the car. I tend to keep cars for a very long time.

When I saw the full bag of shredded confetti, I thought I'd made some real progress. Why did the office not look any different? This is what is so discouraging about decluttering. It's really hard to make a dent in  a room full of stuff that took thirty years to accumulate. I could continue to do this day after day and month after month until I went stark raving mad.

Dawn continues to be a work in progress. She's more enthusiastic about walking when we wait until later in the day. She prefers open fields to trails. Maybe this is why we've started seeing ticks on her. I even found a tick on me this morning which is very rare. She's due for another Frontline pill very soon, so maybe the coverage is starting to wear out. At any rate, we had a good walk today, although I wish we had stayed on the trails. My new shoes aren't nearly as effective at preventing foot pain when walking on uneven ground. We might have walked Dawn a little too far today. She was really tired when we returned home. She'll have plenty of time to rest tomorrow. It's supposed to rain all day.

I started using the second dehumidifier in one of the bathrooms today. The house may actually be too dry now because I've been waking up with nosebleeds in the morning lately. It's still amazing to me that large buckets of water can be extracted from the air every single day. The house is much drier since we started using dehumidifiers. There is no dampness in the closets anymore and the air feels better. The machines are noisy though. You can't have everything I guess.

I still have a few errands I need to run before the end of the year. I should have done my errands today, because the forecast says there is a 100% chance of rain on Wednesday and Thursday. You know how I feel about driving in the rain. Forecasts are frequently wrong though. We'll try to get Dawn walked first and then see what happens.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day