Day 1325

Land Rover called me with a "just kidding" message about the special part they ordered for me last week. Even though repairs were scheduled and the parts manager told me that the part was definitely available when I left the dealership, apparently the elusive part doesn't exist after all. Things like this are very frustrating for me because they happen so often. We live in a throwaway society and nobody seems to care about maintaining old stuff anymore. Somewhere along the line, companies discovered that they could make a lot more money if things were simply replaced instead of being repaired. This has all happened fairly recently. Twenty years ago, virtually everything I owned could have been kept running forever by replacing a few inexpensive parts. Those days are gone forever. I have spent weeks looking for spare parts to repair toilets, faucets, furnaces, cameras and cars. All the things I was trying to repair were well made and could have lasted indefinitely with proper maintenance. Well-made and repairable aren't terms you hear much anymore, unfortunately. Instead, we get bombarded with new features that tempt us to abandon the old and get something new instead. It's such a waste. I still prefer well made things that can be maintained forever, but this kind of thinking is a bit like preferring unicorns to horses.

I would definitely prefer some cooler weather, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get that either. It was another triple digit day and the dogs hated it. We took an early walk this morning, but it was already too hot before we even left the house. By the time we returned, we were exhausted. Dot and Dash slept the rest of the day and I went to the gym. One thing I like about my gym is that it is well air conditioned. It's one thing to work up a sweat. It's another thing entirely to be drenched in sweat before you even get started. I'll take an indoor workout any day of the week. I don't understand what all the cyclists and runners I see out in the August heat get out of their self induced punishment.

On the way home from the gym I went to look for some soup bowls. Janet and I are both so clumsy that we routinely break bowls and glasses. Having brick floors in the kitchen and dining areas probably doesn't help the longevity of these items either. I was looking for those oven proof bowls you make French onion soup in, but I couldn't find any as nice at the set we'd broken. I finally found something acceptable at Bed Bath and Beyond. You always have to have a coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond. When I took my blue discount coupon up to the cashier, she said my set of four bowls was really just four individual bowls and I could only use the 20% off coupon for one of my bowls. WTF?  I still think it was a set of four.

I have to get my blood work done tomorrow morning, To help skew the numbers a bit in my favor, I had a big helping of kale salad and didn't eat any dessert. I'm sure it won't make much of a difference anyway. It's always been hard to see a discernible trend in my test results.

Snoopy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 996

I'm feeling a bit snarky today. It made no difference whatsoever having the U-verse technician come out yesterday. I continue to experience intermittent dropouts in the broadband signal, just like I have for months. I don't think the problem is something a technician can fix. The equipment is working fine. The problem is that the whole U-verse concept isn't ready for prime time yet. AT&T won't admit this though. They're making too much money signing up people who have become disgruntled with cable.

An armadillo tore up our yard last night. The same thing has happened every September for the past three years. The poor grass was struggling to survive anyway. Now, the back yard is pretty much decimated. I think the armadillo was looking for white grubs. It didn't find any, but that didn't stop him from trying.

I had to pick up a coffee filter and a Sodastream CO₂ canister at Bed Bath and Beyond today. When I got to the checkout counter, I finally remembered I had forgotten to bring one of those big blue Save 20% coupons that seem to arrive in the mail every other day. There is a stack of these coupons in the kitchen and I can never remember to bring them with me. Janet says I could save a lot of money if I would start using coupons, but they just don't seem important to me.

Printer ink does seem important, although I don't know why. I rarely print anything on my large format printer anymore. I still need to buy the ink though. Epson, in their evil wisdom, uses the expensive pigment ink to clean out the lines and keep the printer from clogging. Somehow, I've managed to empty all eight cartridges on the 4880 printer just running the cleaning cycle periodically. I don't think I've actually printed much of anything this year. Since I had to renew my monthly prescriptions today as well, I found it ironic that the printer ink cost me more than the pills that keep me alive.

Someone asked me the name of today's flower on Twitter this morning. It's called a Prairie Verbena. For years I've just been calling the thing a blue ring flower. I'll probably forget the real name as quickly as I forget those blue Bed Bath and Beyond coupons. I won't forget that Dot is almost back to her normal self though. We returned to our regular long walk this morning and she didn't cough a bit.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day