Day 4522

Not a great day. I waited most of the day for the air conditioner repairman to arrive. I was hoping that the problem was minor and that all I would need was a new capacitor or something equally trivial. Nope. When the repairman finally arrived at the end of the day he said the capacitor was fine. I need a new compressor motor. As luck would have it, he didn't have the proper motor on the truck and will have to order it. Yikes. How could this motor cost over $600? I guess that's still a lot less than replacing the entire unit. The parts warehouse was already closed when the repairman discovered the problem, so he won't be able to order the part until tomorrow morning. Oh, well. It looks like another very hot night. He said it is a bad idea to try to run the AC without the motor running too. I tried that last night and eventually the fan started turning. "That's a good way to burn out the compressor and that's when things get a lot more expensive," he said. Did I mention that the temperature was almost 95 degrees this afternoon?

A broken air conditioner is bad enough, but now I think the refrigerator is broken again as well. Late this afternoon I noticed that the temperature inside the fridge was a lot higher. For the past week I've noticed that a metal strip around the edge of the door seemed unnaturally hot. The refrigerator was still cooling fine, but this didn't seem right. I probably should have called the appliance repairman two days ago. Now it appears that the refrigerator is broken. We shifted some critical food to the little refrigerator but it won't hold that much. Hopefully I can get this fixed tomorrow before food starts to go to waste.

The only good thing about today was that I was able to complete my six mile walk. I started after breakfast so it wouldn't be too hot. It was a lot cooler than it was later in the day, but it still seemed way too hot for me. I don't know why it seems so important for me to walk everyday. On some days it's a real struggle. I think it's about time for me to start wetting down my hat and t-shirt before I start these walks. Last summer this really seemed to help.

I got a message from the Benro folks that they had another firmware package for me to install. Instead of just attaching the file I needed to the e-mail message, they provided a link to one of their servers in China. Of course, this link didn't work. Both my Firefox and Safari browsers said they couldn't establish a secure connection to the server and refused to open the link. This has happened to me before with Chinese servers. I have a feeling that it's going to take me a long time to get this star tracker working.

The temperature has gone down eight degrees outside, but only one degree inside. What's that all about? I can't really open the windows to let a breeze in because I took off the window screens years ago for aesthetic reasons and if I open the windows at night, tons of bugs will fly in the house. Ordinarily I wouldn't even want to open the windows at night, but ordinarily we have an air conditioner that works.

I kind of worry about Dawn. She hates hot weather and is currently the only one wearing a fur coat inside the house. Hopefully, it will start cooling down soon. It's supposed to get down to 70 degrees by tomorrow morning, but that still a long way away. I sure hope that compressor motor comes in tomorrow.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2340

I knew today was going to be a problem. The HVAC guy wanted to come out at 8 AM to service the air conditioner. 8 AM is when the dogs normally eat their breakfast, so they are both active and energetic. Dot and Dash weren't in the mood to sleep through anything this morning. Dot didn't poop when we walked her around the block right after sunrise, so she was primed and ready to go. As soon as she started barking at the repair technician, there was poop everywhere. It is best if Dot is asleep when repair people are in the house, but this wasn't going to be one of those days. She got upset, stepped in the poop and tracked it all over the bedroom. Dash didn't help matters when he started barking too. He could care less about the repair technician, but he was mad that he had to wait for his breakfast banana. I always give the dogs half a banana when I make my morning smoothie, and they are not very patient about waiting. The technician eventually finished the system check and left. It took me the rest of the morning to clean up Dot's mess.

By the time I finished cleaning various rugs, carpets, blankets, and Dot's soiled harness, it was time for lunch. I have no idea what the HVAC technician actually did, because I was preoccupied washing Dot and cleaning up the huge mess that she had created. I hope the air conditioner doesn't give me any problems this Summer. It would be really frustrating to have gone through all today's carnage for nothing. One good thing about dogs is that they totally live in the moment. As soon as the repair guy was gone, life returned to normal. Dash got his banana. Dot went back to sleep. And I finally finished my breakfast, accompanied by the competing sounds of the washing machine, dishwasher, and dehumidifier.

When we were walking this morning we noticed that the city had painted a series of green, blue, and yellow guidelines on the streets in the neighborhood. I'm not positive, but these appeared to be location lines for underground utilities. It would be ironic that after literally waiting decades to get the streets fixed in our neighborhood, the city was just going to dig them up again. One of the streets with the utility location lines was repaved less than a month ago.

It was time to get the water off the roof again. I know it's probably going to rain again soon, but it's not wise to leave the standing water up there for too long. Whenever I'm up on the roof, I keep noticing that the areas that need to be patched are growing larger. I'll call the roofer again, but I'm not optimistic. My roofer has his own priorities, and evidently I'm not very high on his list.

I finished updating the firmware in all my cameras and lenses. It was surprising that so many things were out of date. I have lots of exciting new capabilities now, but since none of them are listed or described in the manual, I wonder if I'll ever use them. A month from now, I'll forget I even updated all this stuff.

There was a  car parked on the street where I usually put my garbage can on Thursday night. I had to put my can in a strange new place and now I wonder if the truck will pick it up. This is the kind of stuff I worry about. I can't decide where to eat breakfast tomorrow either. It's been that kind of day.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2326

You'd be proud of me. Instead of wasting time on Facebook and wondering why nobody was reading the blog anymore, I decide to be productive. I cleared all the water off the roof, along with a huge messy pile of wet catkins that was trapping the water and creating duck ponds that would never evaporate. After the roof was dry and clean, I called the roofer and got him to agree to come out and patch the areas where the elastomer coating was peeling away again. I'll probably have to wait until the rainy season is over before the roofers actually get here, but at least I got the process started.

Since I was semi-successful with the roofer, I  called my watchmaker and asked if the watches he was repairing for me would ever be finished. I hate to bother the guy, since I know he's busy, but he's had three watches of mine for over two years now. He told me that the watches would be repaired by Summer and I reminded him in a friendly way that he told me the same thing last Summer. This watchmaker is very good and I'm in no hurry, but I still think two years is long enough.

The watchmaker isn't the only one who's slow. I took a tape deck in for repairs last November and just got a call yesterday saying that it had finally been fixed. To be fair, these guys did have to custom make a rubber pinch wheel that no longer existed anymore. When I went to pick up the multi-track deck, I dropped off a mastering deck that had the same problems with disintegrating transport belts. Rubber doesn't last forever. The rubber hoses in your car's engine eventually become brittle and crack. The protective foam in camera cases eventually turns into an awful goo. I'm discovering now that the rubber transport belts in tape recorders don't last that long either. I'm sure my Beta SP video recorders are going to suffer the same fate soon. The only difference is that they'll be even more expensive to fix than the audio recorders. Why do I punish myself this way? All this stuff is obsolete.

I was feeling pretty good about getting things accomplished when I returned from running errands this afternoon, but the feeling was short lived. The house felt warm and Dot was panting. It didn't take me long to figure out that the air conditioner had broken. I immediately called my HVAC guy, but they had already closed for the day. I methodically tried to revive the air conditioner by throwing breaker switches, rebooting the fancy WiFi thermostat, and disconnecting the entire system for a while. Nothing worked. I finally decided to try a new air filter, just in case the new thermostat software had some sort of sensor that would shut down the system if the filter got too dirty. The filter actually seemed reasonably clean, but I didn't have much to lose. Surprisingly, replacing the filter worked and the air conditioner roared back to life. This was a disaster averted, since Dot can't handle the heat anymore. I was worried about her. Hopefully the compressor will keep running through the night, but I probably should have the HVAC guys come out anyway. Better safe than sorry.

I had some website updates to finish today and did a good job of biting my tongue when the client suggested a number of things that I thought were silly. I don't fight these things anymore. If you want something that looks a bit clunky or might confuse your customers, it's your call. At this stage of my career it just amuses me that everyone thinks they're a creative genius. Ten years ago silly suggestions would have driven me crazy.

I hope I get to go to breakfast tomorrow. The next wave of severe weather is supposed to arrive around midnight tonight. Maybe the storm will be out of the area by morning. It's hard to tell. The weather forecasts haven't been very accurate lately. Accurate or not, I should have looked at the forecast before I went up on the roof this morning. If it rains, that was a wasted effort.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1567

Dot may have slowed down quite a bit, but she hasn't lost her ability to bark at repairmen. She barked nonstop while the HVAC guys were here this morning. It's kind of embarrassing that I don't really have the ability to keep her quiet, but that's just the way it is. Dot is the matriarch of the family and she's protecting the house. That's the way she sees it anyway.

Luckily most of the work was outside today. They guys are used to her now anyway. I'm more worried that she'll work herself into a frenzy and have a stroke or something. I put a blanket over her dog gate, so she couldn't actually see the workmen. That helped a little, but she still knew they were there. 

Dash is one-third of the way through his radiation treatment now. His oncologist is very pleased with his progress. The Palladia chemo pills will continue quite a while after the radiation is finished, but so far Dash has had no problems with this part of the treatment either. Dot is the problem girl now. We've got to figure out if there is blood in her stools, and if so, why. I took a sample to the vet this morning, but the results were inconclusive. We'll do another test tomorrow when I take her for her acupuncture appointment.

I wish my Monday work load was more consistent. Some Monday's I'm swamped, and other days like today, there isn't much going on at all. There were no writing assignments today, but I did have one extensive website update to complete. With no competing deadlines, I completed this update with time to spare.

I walked Dot and Dash separately this evening and both Dogs seemed happier. Dot walks extremely slowly now, but she still enjoys being outside. Without the irritation of Dash continually tugging to go in the opposite direction, she actually took a longer walk this evening. Dash took a much longer walk, without the necessity of turning back as soon as Dot gets tired. I'd do this back-to-back walk everyday, except that it takes a lot more time.

We'll see what April brings our way. I like the warmer weather and I'm getting used to all the dog transportation issues. A little variety might be nice. Only the good kind of variety though. I don't need any more health issues or home repair problems. Small things will suffice. A different flavor of ice cream for dessert, or the occasional new magazine in the mail is all the variety I need.

Smiley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1563

Dash got himself in a snit today when he discovered that it was Dot who was going to the vet instead of him. He's been getting all the attention lately, so I think he just assumed that all car rides are automatically reserved for him now. Dot needs attention too, so we resumed our acupuncture and water therapy sessions for the first time in several weeks. Dot did very well in the tank today and seemed quite relaxed during her acupuncture session as well. I think she enjoyed having a day out by herself.

My accountant called today and said that the good news was that I was getting a tax refund this year, but the bad news was that I wouldn't be getting much. Taxes used to upset me and I would fret about them endlessly. I don't even care anymore. I trust my accountant and I don't really want to think about taxes anymore. If I need to write a check, I write a check. If I get money back, it is quickly gone anyway. Either way, it's not going to change my life much.

I wish I hadn't told the HVAC guy to come over tomorrow, because now I won't be able to go out for my regular Friday breakfast. I guess I forgot it was Friday tomorrow. Dash will be away getting another radiation treatment in the morning, but this will probably make Dot bark at the HVAC guy even more. She gets real serious about protecting the house when she knows she's on her own. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep the peace and convince Dot to settle down. She's way too old to work herself into a frenzy over a repairman in the house.

I finally convinced one of my writing clients to let me choose my own subject matter. I wrote my first self-generated article today and hope they like it. I realize that I won't always be able to choose what I write about, but it will be nice when I can. I really prefer working this way.

The bird decoys on the cars are working. I haven't cleaned bird poop off either car for over three days now. Of course there's always a chance that the warm weather has just caused the troublesome bird to move elsewhere. I'd prefer to think it was my brilliant idea that stopped the bird from making a big mess on the car every morning.

This week went very quickly, but the time can't go quickly enough for me these days. I'll be so glad when Dash's cancer treatments and my own Hepatitis C treatments are a thing of the past.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 461

For once, the first day of Spring actually felt like a Spring day. It was beautiful outside. There was a nice breeze and the temperature was in the low seventies. You really couldn't ask for more. This is definitely the time of year for making improvements to your yard. If you wait till June, it's already gotten so hot that it hardly seems worth the trouble. Right now, a new St. Augustine turf in the back yard seems well worth the effort though, so we'll probably plant grass this weekend.

The nice weather got me wondering whether the electric lawn mower might have repaired itself overnight. Amazingly, when I switched it on, it came right back to life again. There was only one small problem. I couldn't turn the mower off. The on/off switch wouldn't turn it off. Even the emergency disconnect lever didn't turn the mower off. I did the only thing I could think of. I pushed the running mower into the greenhouse where the dogs couldn't get near it, closed the door and waited for the battery to run down. An hour or so later, all was quiet in the greenhouse. I still don't know what went wrong.

I don't know what went wrong at the gas station either. When I went to get gas this afternoon, there were firetrucks everywhere and firemen were using large amounts of what looked like kitty litter to soak up a ton of spilled gasoline. The pumps didn't look damaged, so I don't think a car actually hit them or anything. The only thing that I can think of is that someone stuck the nozzle in their tank, set it on automatic and forgot about it. Maybe the pump failed to cut off when the tank was full. I guess this is why they tell you to shut your car off when pumping gas. There was enough spilled gas to cause a pretty large fire, but luckily no damage was done.

There might me some damage down at the rent property however. Right on cue with the warmer weather, my tenant called and said that she couldn't get the air conditioner to turn on. I scheduled a repair visit for tomorrow and will hope for the best. If worse comes to worse and I have to install a new heat pump on the roof, I'll be losing money on the property for the rest of the year. There's really got to be a better way of making money than being a landlord.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day