Day 4662

Today was disappointing. The rent has gone up again on my storage unit and the washing machine broke. The storage warehouse increases rates every year. All storage warehouses do this. This is why I moved several years ago. Now my rent is even more than it was at the last storage warehouse when it became too expensive. I hate to move again because it is a giant pain. Janet says I ought to just throw everything in the storage unit away. That's not easy for me either.

The irritating thing about the washing machine is that I may have caused the problem myself. I decided to wash the hat I always wear when I walk in the park. The old hat was filthy. I was going to put the hat inside a lingerie bag but I couldn't find one, so I just threw it in with the rest of the laundry. I was kind of worried that the bill of the ball cap might get bent by throwing it in the washer, but I never thought the whole hat would fall apart. When the washer stopped in mid-cycle with an error code that indicated a clogged filter, I unloaded the soggy wash and discovered that parts of the hat had completely disappeared. Who knows how this happened but I bet those missing pieces are stuck in the machine's filter. I'd clean the filter myself if it were accessible. It's buried away inside the machine somewhere. I called the appliance repair shop but my favorite technician doesn't work there anymore. Hopefully whoever replaced him knows what they are doing. It's always something. I was dreading the annual maintenance costs for my car and now I've got an appliance repair bill on top of that.

The web worms in the park keep getting worse. Janet and I have to check each others clothing after our sunrise walk to make sure we aren't bringing any of the little green worms inside with us. Typically a few worms escape our scrutiny and I'll see them crawling on my shirt while I'm eating breakfast. They say the infestation should be over in two or three weeks. It won't come a minute too soon.

I don't know how the people in Florida can handle all the devastation they are currently facing. I think the worst that has ever happened at our house was a broken water pipe under our concrete slab that flooded the AC vents under the floor. A tree fell on our house once, but it didn't do any real damage. It's a good thing we've been lucky because I don't handle major problems well. I get the problems fixed, but they put me in a bad mood for weeks. Even something as minor as a broken washing machine can ruin my day.

At least the weather was nice today. It's easy to avoid the web worms when I'm taking my long walk in the park, but it's dark when we take Dawn on her sunrise walk and she often leads us right through them. Dawn is a creature of habit and it's easier to walk through the web worms than it is to get her to take a new route. I wasn't very fast on my walk this morning. My feet are slowing me down again. I think the recurring foot pain is going to be around forever. It's not bad enough to stop walking, but it sure is irritating. 

For some reason Southwest Airlines has only refunded half my airfare from the canceled Florida flights. I did change my reservation from September 27 to October 2, but I didn't think that would complicate a refund. I suspect that the rest of the money will turn up in a few days, but today the missing funds were just one more source of irritation.

I finally tested the remote shutter app for the Olympus camera. It works, but is not nearly as convenient as the remote shutter app for the Panasonic camera. Both of these apps connect to the camera using WiFi, but it's not easy to get the Olympus camera to connect. I guess I'll keep using the Panasonic camera for rocket launches.

I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and I've got an appointment for a haircut tomorrow. Getting a haircut usually puts me in a good mood for a while. I could have used a haircut today.

Sweet Pea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day