Day 4790

Shopping is not a pleasure anymore. Traffic is unreal these days. Even at 10 AM Northwest Highway looked like the worst evening rush hour I've ever experienced. Where are all these people coming from? It feels like the population of Dallas has doubled overnight. Stores are crowded and shelves are empty. I routinely have to go to several stores to find things that I used to find in a single location. Prices keep rising and in an effort for keep prices lower, many stores are replacing familiar national brands with their own private labels. Most of these private label brands seem to be of lower quality. It's sad. As soon as we reset our expectations and learn to accept this new reality, I suspect things will get even worse.

What happened to our ice storm? It's like it never even happened. The weather was nice today. It was much warmer and the ground is almost dry again. We had a great walk with Dawn this morning. She really missed her walks during the storm. I think we're almost back to normal now. I cleaned and put most of the buckets away and did a huge load of wash. It seems like every towel and cleaning cloth we own was put to use when there were leaks everywhere. I thought all the leaks were gone, but after the temperature warmed up a very small leak reappeared in the office. This leak has finally stopped as well, but I'm still leaving a container under it just in case.

The roof estimator wanted to come over a little early, so I postponed my long walk until after he finished looking at things. He seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the problems I was having. The guy was young and I don't think he had dealt with many flat roofs before. He took a lot of pictures and said he was going to confer with someone at the company who had a lot of experience with my type of roof. Later in the day I got a call from someone who seemed to have a wealth of knowledge about anything related to roofing. She didn't even live in Dallas and said she worked with roofing companies all over the country. She seemed to know a lot about my particular roof and had the exact dimensions, even though the guy who came out never took any measurements. She said there is a company that uses satellite and drone imagery to provide this information for roofing companies. Welcome to a new world where practically everything is outsourced. The woman said that she would have a specialist in residential flat roofs contact me next week. So far, so good I guess. This wasn't what I was expecting, but I will say that this company has been very responsive. I'm going to stay optimistic even though there is more rain in the forecast for next week.

My long walk was slow today. I had a lot of foot pain. There's not a lot you can do about osteoarthritis. Bone on bone contact of any nature is going to be painful. They say that a change in diet can slow down the degeneration of cartilage, but it may be too late for that already. I don't know if I could do it anyway. You are supposed to give up alcohol, red meat, cheese and other dairy products, refined carbohydrates and sugar. Jeez. What's left?

I did get my steps today. I've been surprisingly active lately. At least working on the roof had a few benefits. I got 24,000 steps yesterday and 22,000 steps today. Walking is still enjoyable, but it's starting to take a toll on me. I feel quite tired after I finish my long walks these days. I guess that's the point, isn't it? You are supposed to feel tired after exercise. 

It looks like it is going to be nice tomorrow, so Dawn will get her Sunday outing again. I'll probably go mall walking as well. I don't get as many steps when I go walking at the mall, but I need a change of pace from my walks in the park at least once a week. Mall walking when the stores are closed is strangely peaceful.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day