Day 4583

When it rains is pours. I was hoping that something very minor was wrong with my car, but I didn't get luckly. I took the car to the shop first thing this morning and got the bad news a few hours later. One of my catalytic converters has gone bad and needs to be replaced. I can't ignore this because the car won't pass the safety inspection that is due next month without functioning catalytic converters. Third party converters aren't available for this model either, so I will need the expensive Range Rover catelytic converters. These things were never cheap, but now the price has gone up dramatically because of the rare earth materials that are used to scrub the vehicle's exhaust. I think a lot of the platinum and palladium used in catalytic converters comes from China or Russia. Also, the larger the engine, the more expensive the converter. None of this is good news for me. I could have replaced all my kitchen appliances for less than this is going to cost me.

It looks like I'll be walking in the park this week as well, since I don't think I'll get the car back until Friday. Each day I take these walks it seems to get hotter. Granted, I didn't get an early start today, but after the Uber driver took me home, I was still on my way before 9:30 AM. That wasn't early enough. There is no way to stay cool in triple digit weather. The long range weather shows these 100 degree days lasting for the next several weeks. No rain in sight either. My rational mind wants to just abandon the thought of getting my steps every day. My stubborn mind wants to keep going though. We'll see. I definitely need to get an earlier start tomorrow. Today's walk was miserable.

It's hard to get used to temperatures in the mid-80's on our sunrise walks with dawn. It never gets cool anymore and the air conditioner always seems to be running. I really hope that nothing goes wrong with the AC system this summer. Maybe since I recently replaced the motor in the outdoor unit, I won't have to do anything else for a while. It is a bit disconcerting to hear the AC running constantly. All I know is that mechanical things break a lot more frequently than you'd like.

The new pictures that were released today from the James Web Space Telescope are pretty amazing. It's hard to wrap your mind around the sheer number of galaxies in our little corner of the universe. There's got to be other life out there. It's pretty humbling to realize that earth isn't very special at all. There are probably millions of planets like earth.

I added Spot, our new Dalmatian, to the rescue website this afternoon. Every time I do any type of website maintenance it's kind of alarming how much I have forgotten over the years. Even simple things take me longer now, because I make stupid mistakes. Jeez. I used to be really good at this. Any skill is a use it or lose it proposition. It's easy to stay on top of your game when you are doing something every day. Doing the same thing once a month is a lot different.

I've got no big plans for tomorrow. No little plans either. Sometimes I wish I could just sleep until summer was over. I may need to look for another movie to watch. I'll try to take my walk early, but it's definitely not a great time to be outside.

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day