Day 4469 - Vernal Equinox

Today is the first day of Spring. It actually felt like it too. It was a warm, beautiful day and there were signs of new growth everywhere. The park, and even our own yard are turning green again. It's hard to imagine at this point that we will have any more freezing weather. Dawn certainly enjoyed the change of seasons. She had fun smelling things on her early morning walk and then was ready to go again a little later in the day when we took her on her Sunday outing.

I wasn't quite as exuberant because I was still feeling under the weather. I don't know how I got this cold, but I'm having a hard time shaking it. It's definitely your common, ordinary head cold, even though I rarely get these things. My nose is continually dripping and I feel like I've taken a bunch of decongestants even though I haven't taken any at all. I don't think it's the flu anymore, but I do feel tired.

We followed our regular Sunday routine. We had a big breakfast with bacon, eggs, and toast after Dawn had her sunrise walk. Dawn always gets a little bacon, so she loves our Sunday breakfast. Janet had some things to do, but we were ready to take Dawn on her Sunday outing around noon. Dawn will never ride well in the car, but she definitely enjoys this change of pace from her regular walks. Maybe the smells are different at the little park on top of the hill.

I don't know why I even bothered taking my long walk later today. I'd already walked enough. I should have just gone back to bed. Instead, I set out on my regular route but didn't get very far. Even though it was a beautiful day I only walked two additional miles. I was tired. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow. I certainly hope so.

Dawn does seem to trust me a little more after spending a week alone with me. This of course makes Janet want to take another trip. I don't think Dawn is eager for Janet to go away again. She just doesn't think I'm someone to be afraid of anymore. This is all good. Maybe we'll finally have a family dog after all. This would be good for everybody. Especially Dawn.

I wonder when I'm going to hear about my application to attend the Axiom-1 launch? This launch happens pretty soon. I hate to make reservations before I get credentialed, because it's a pain to cancel things if the trip doesn't work out. These days, people would rather just leave you with a credit on your account than go to the trouble of giving you your money back. Flights and hotels fill up fast though now that the entire country is eager to travel again. Flights to Orlando are always full anyway because of Disneyland. I'm sure everything will get sorted out. I just tend to fret about everything.

I guess we'll go visit the kennel Dalmatians tomorrow. The weekend went by so fast that it doesn't seem like tomorrow is Monday. We have a lot of dogs to visit now, so I'd better get my long walk out of the way before we go. I waited to walk until after we got home last week and the sun was setting by the time I returned home. These are the kind of decisions I make these days. My life is so simple and yet it still seems complicated to me,

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4468

I can't seem to shake this cold I've got. There's no fever anymore and my cough isn't as bad, but I'm still not feeling myself. I kind of just trudged through the day in a fog. I'd sit down on the bed to rest for a few minutes and then I've wake up several hours later wondering where the day went.

Dawn was eager to take a walk this morning. This was the first family walk she'd had in a week. She certainly hasn't forgotten her old schedule and had a good time smelling things in the park. Dawn has resumed all her old habits and has started barking at me again if I don't fix her dinner fast enough. She was a little nervous when Janet left to go to the gym this morning but after she returned Dawn realized that all was well. This was just the way life had always been.

For the first time in ages I saw almost nobody wearing masks in the grocery stores when I was shopping this morning. The stores didn't even have signs on the doors anymore. It was as if the entire city decided they'd had enough at the same time. I think the few people that still wear masks everywhere will continue doing so for the rest of their lives. That's OK. There are lots of things of dubious medical value that give people comfort. Just look on the shelves at any health food store. 

I continue to think the best way to stay healthy is to avoid crowds, get outside a lot, eat healthy food, go easy on the sweets, and get lots of exercise. Seems simple enough. So why do so many people still go to McDonalds? I guess I don't even understand the concept of fast food and haven't been through a drive thru window in years. Even a good restaurant meal usually has way too much salt. So, if I'm so healthy, why do I have a cold now? I think Janet gave me this cold, but she says that is ridiculous. Her cough was just allergies, she says.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring. Somehow today felt like the first day of Summer. It was really hot this afternoon. I started to sweat on my long walk which reminded me that Winter isn't all bad. I didn't walk nearly as far today. I'm going to try this for a few days and see if it helps my feet any. I'm going to order some Hoka boots with an REI coupon I've got. They probably won't make any difference, but at least I won't have to wonder about this any longer.

It looks like it's going to be a good day for Dawn's Sunday outing tomorrow. Spring is always nice, although I tend to like Fall better. It's the temperature extremes of Summer and Winter that I try to avoid. I hope Dawn enjoys her walk tomorrow because it looks like we're going to get a lot of rain on Monday. Why? The roof is finally dry again. I'm so tired of rain, roof leaks, and the inability to find a roofer that I really trust. 

I think the eagles are gone for good. I haven't seen either of them in weeks. Nobody even talks about the birds anymore. It's almost like the whole eagle episode that captivated Dallas for a few weeks never even happened. I guess Andy Warhol's thirty minutes of fame principle applies to birds as well.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4103

Today I found out that the electrician I've used for many years has died. I'm getting older. Many of the best service people I've used over the years have passed away. Nobody seems to replace these people. Their skills and expertise just seems to disappear forever. It's kind of sad to see a generation of people who could fix everything be replaced by a new crop of folks who can only replace disposable components. Looks like I'm going to have to find a new electrician. I just hope that nothing breaks for a while.

I have so many unanswered questions that I'm beginning to feel like I'm invisible. I write people, fully expecting a prompt reply and then I never hear anything back. I still don't know whether my press credentials have been approved by the Air Force. I never received a confirmation about my stay in West Texas in May. I've been waiting for months for author copies of some of my articles. Questions about my new camera have gone unanswered and the dehumidifier company hated my continual questions so much that they wrote me a check for the machine instead of fixing it and told me to throw it away.

I got Dawn to go down to the park with me this morning while Janet was away. We didn't go very far, but it was a start. After she peed in a field immediately behind our house, she quickly turned and immediately headed for home. I didn't try to make her walk further. I want her to learn to trust me, so this will be a very slow process. Janet wants me to work with her every day, even if I don't make much progress. Right now, Dawn won't even eat when Janet is away. This makes it very hard for Janet to make any travel plans. It's all very weird. I'm used to being the one who takes care of the dogs during the day because I'm always here. If Dawn could just learn to trust me, she would have so much more fun.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring. It's certainly starting to look like Spring has arrived. Wildflower season is still a few weeks away, but I see a few new blooms every day. The trees are definitely looking greener. I've even started seeing turtles sunning themselves on logs at the lake. Pretty soon I'll start seeing baby ducks again. I enjoy seeing this seasonal rebirth. It's especially nice this year after the big freeze where everything appeared to have died. It's amazing how predictable this cycle of life is. I've seen wildflowers reappear in exactly the same spot year after year. There are winter animals and summer animals and they never seem to get the seasons mixed up. I guess there is that one Pelican that always refused to fly north with the others in the Spring. I wonder what the Pelican will do this year?

My foot still hurts when I walk, but there are plenty of reasons to keep walking. I don't want to wind up like my electrician. He was younger than I am when he died. I really should start going back to the gym. I'm fully vaccinated now, but I'm still a bit reluctant to spend time around a bunch of sweaty people. My gym reopened their pool recently, so they're clearly not worried about much anymore. I don't know why they're still closed on Sundays though. Janet has been going to her gym for weeks now. Maybe I'm just lazy.

It's time to make a grocery list again. It's amazing how quickly these weeks go by. It will be Summer soon and I will be wishing for cooler weather again. Hopefully 2021 will be a little more interesting than 2020. I applied with NASA to attend the Space X Crew-2 launch today. Who knows if I'll get approved, but eventually things will start clicking together.

Pringles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3373 - Vernal Equinox

I'm always happy to see the first day of Spring. There may be a few more cold days ahead of us, but Winter is essentially over. If it weren't for the inevitable seasonal allergies, this would be the nicest time of the year. There is supposed to be Super Moon tonight which apparently makes the equinox special. I looked outside and the moon looks the same to me. When something is ten percent larger than usual, I don't think I can perceive the difference. If the moon was 50% bigger, I'd probably notice. As it is, it's just a bright full moon.

Dash wouldn't take his pills again this morning. Some of the pills aren't critical, but the phenobarbital is. We just don't want to risk another seizure. I was hoping I could get Dash to take his meds as soon as we returned from our morning walk, but he was too tired and immediately went to sleep. He wasn't interested in anything until he woke up again a few hours later. I guess all is well that ends well, but life would be easier if we could keep Dash on a regular schedule.

I spent most of the day trying to catch up on sleep. Dash got me up way too often last night. He made it outside each time and there was no mess to clean up, but once again life would be easier if Dash would just pee and poop before he went to bed at night. He used to do this every single evening, but those days are gone. I was glad there was no mess in the bed last night, but a little more sleep would be nice.

There were more bills to pay today. March turned out to be an expensive month. My web hosting plan auto-renewed for another three years, my doctor's concierge medicine retainer was due, and there were airfare and travel expenses from my recent trip to Houston. I think we're done for March though. I won't have to pay for those Sequential Circuits synthesizers until April or May.

Tomorrow, I need to figure out how to get Janet's iTunes account to show up on the flat screen TV. She rented some movies I'd like to watch, but I don't want to watch them on her iPad. I've added her account to the TV before, but I ended up erasing my own account in the process. I'm sure that Apple has a way to share multiple accounts on the same TV, but they could make the process of switching from one to another a little easier. Oh, well. I don't have much else to do tomorrow. Little things like this count as a challenge these days.

I wish that Dash would regain his strength. He still seems weaker and more lethargic than he did last month. His decline has been so slow that it's easy to convince myself that nothing has changed. There are still good days and bad days but at the end of the day we're definitely headed downhill. I don't think there's anything I can do to stop the process.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2287 - Vernal Equinox

It was nice that the first day of Spring turned out to be a Spring day. Since this is Texas, we could just as easily have had snow. It was a little cold in the morning, but by mid-afternoon there was definitely a hint of Spring in the air. I used the pleasant weather to catch up on yard work. I pruned some backyard bushes and hauled an abandoned agility course we used when the dogs were younger out to the curb for this week's big trash pickup. I thought about mowing the grass, but I forgot to charge the mower battery, so that will have to wait until another day.

On the way to the gym this afternoon, I stopped at the REI store to look for some flip flops. I like to wear socks around the house and when the dogs need to go outside in a hurry, it's always hard to put on my shoes quickly enough. I've had to go outside barefoot occasionally when Dot couldn't wait. At any rate I was looking for some slip on sandals without the band between the big toe and the other toes that you typically find on flip flops. I finally found a pair that I liked, but they were $130. WTF? How did flip flops get so expensive? There were nice hiking boots in the store for the same price as these flip flops. I left without buying anything, because the price seemed ridiculous. I'll probably come back later though, because the shoes were exactly what I was looking for. Why do I always have to like the expensive things?

While I was at the gym this afternoon, I got to thinking about the yard work I'd done this morning.  Yard work is strenuous. When I did more around the house, I had no need to go to the gym. I used to mow the grass with a push mower. I hauled in tons of round river stones in the back of the Defender to make decorative areas in the shady spots where grass wouldn't grow. I used to put in the St. Augustine turf myself instead of hiring landscapers. I did lots of things that kept me fit and made me tired. I quit using the push mower first. It was simply too exhausting. Gradually other things fell by the wayside as bones got brittle and joints got sore. Today, when I was pruning the Photinia bushes I couldn't even reach a lot of the branches because of my dislocated shoulder. Age has definitely taken its toll. As I finished my twenty minutes on the treadmill, I concluded that going to the gym was for people who work in offices. If you do any type of manual labor, you don't need to go to the gym.

Dash gets his teeth cleaned this week. I always worry about dental exams because a long time ago a friend of mine had a dog who died during a routine dental exam. Dash is what they call a "hard wake up" dog as well. He freaks out sometimes as he is coming out of anesthesia. Dash has a great vet and I know everything will be OK, but I still worry. I don't like going to the dentist myself, but it's something you can't ignore. Gum disease can be very serious in an older dog.

I actually got a good night's sleep last night. My activity tracker said that I reached 90% of my recommended sleep goal. That's as close as I've ever come. Usually I get about 40% of my sleep goal. I don't expect to sleep nearly as long tonight. It's a work day tomorrow and we all get up early.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1921

I got up early and was able to walk Dash and go out for my Friday breakfast before Janet had to leave for work. I considered this a success. I managed to time things pretty well, because almost as soon as I returned home from the restaurant, it started to rain. The rain continued for the remainder of the day, but I tried not to let it get me down. Hey, it's the Spring Equinox today. This is traditionally the first day of Spring. It may still be cold and wet, but looks can be deceiving. Winter is officially over.

The dogs are always restless on rainy days. You take them outside and they immediately want to come in again. As soon as you finish cleaning their paws and drying them off, they want to go out again. Dot had little desire to go outside, but she was still restless. When I took her in the kitchen, she wanted to be in the bedroom. When I took her to the bedroom, she wanted to go to her octagonal pen in the living room. When I left her in the pen to get some work done, she started to whine. It was a long day.

Eventually, Dot and Dash decided where they wanted to spend the day napping and I turned on the computer and started to work. Sometimes my assignments are pretty silly, but it's not my job to criticize. Silly pays exactly the same as profound. Actually a silly assignment seemed the perfect compliment to a dismal, grey day. To continue the theme, I stepped in dog poop the first time I took Dot out to pee in the rain.

I thought I'd finish preparing my tax information today, but I never got around to it. The dogs are much more labor intensive on rainy days and my writing assignments took longer than I anticipated. Maybe I can wrap things up this weekend, but I doubt it. There is already a long list of errands I have postponed during the week while a was keeping an eye on Dot. Nothing is all that exciting, but there are still groceries to buy, prescriptions to fill, and bills to pay. If it ever quits raining, I'll go up on the roof to see whether my elastomer patches survived under all the standing water.

I can't decide whether to get an Apple watch or not. The last thing I need is another watch, but I'm very loyal to Apple products. I try to convince myself that Apple Pay would be convenient, but none of the places where I shop seem to support it. Monitoring my sleep patterns would be useful, but you have to take the watch off every night to recharge it. There are all sorts of fancy ways to communicate with friends using this watch, but I don't talk to people all that much. I saw a friend this evening while I was walking Dash and complained about the rain. She said she loved rainy days and that pretty much ended that conversation. I was in a hurry anyway. The weather radar app on my phone said that I had a ten minute window before the rain would start again. We got home just in time.

I'd like to sleep in tomorrow morning. I hope the dogs have the same idea. This new schedule makes for a very long day. My day seemed too long even before Dot's surgery. Now it seems to go on forever. I try to tell Dot that on days like this, sleep is your friend. I don't know if she's listening.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1557

The FedEx delivery guy was late this morning. Dash finished his radiation treatment early. The landscaping guy said he was coming back at 9 AM this morning to pick up all the bagged up leaves from yesterday. He must have come at some other time. All I know is that the leaves are gone now. I don't know why scheduling has become so difficult lately. Nothing seems to happen at the appointed time anymore. Basically, it was one of those "hurry up and wait" kind of days. It's amazing that I got anything done at all.

Dash continues to do well with his radiation treatments. Other than seeming a little tired, he appears to be completely normal. I'm starting to notice a lot of the same people are sitting in the lobby whenever I go to pick Dash up. There are apparently a lot of people like me who take their dog in three times a week for radiation treatments. I wonder if the other people think the cancer treatments are as expensive as I do. Probably so. What are you going to do though? It's the only game in town.

I found a small metal clockwork toy that I bought in Germany years ago and placed it on my car's driver's side mirror in hopes that it would serve as a makeshift scarecrow and frighten the troublesome pooping bird away. The plan seemed to work, since the bird didn't poop on my car all day. You'd think that I'd have better things to do than worry about this bird, but it irritates me.

Of course this small bird isn't the only thing that irritates me. I've pretty much turned into a grumpy old man. Cyclists who insist on riding their bicycles on busy city streets irritate me. People who let their aggressive dogs run loose in the park behind our house irritate me. My large printer irritates me. I could go and on, but it's Friday. The weekend is finally here and weekends seldom irritate me at all.

Spring officially arrives this weekend. That's a good thing. I think it's already here in Dallas. It got up to 81 degrees today. I was too busy to go out for breakfast this morning, but maybe I'll get to go back to the gym this Sunday.  On the other hand, maybe I'll just take a nap.

Big Boy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1191 - Vernal Equinox

It was a good day. It's hard to go wrong when the first day of Spring actually feels like Spring. The landscaping crew made good progress today. I'm feeling much more confident now that the yard is going to look nice when it is finished. All the metal edging is in place. A dump truck came with lots of top soil today. Even some of the new turf has been installed. By this time tomorrow, the yard ought to be finished. I'm tempted to hire these guys to maintain the yard as well. Neither Janet or I are known for having a green thumb. It would be a shame to go to all this trouble to have a nice looking yard and then have everything die again in August.

Sometimes I'm surprised at how little it takes to put me in a good mood. I'm enjoying seeing the yard come together. It's nice to get on a scale and realize that I've lost eight pounds in less than a month. Dot's shaky rear legs seem to be getting stronger as well. Unless something terrible happens next week, I'm going to give March a thumbs up.

I tried out the new juicer today. It takes a lot of fruit and vegetables to make juice. I fed a whole pineapple into the juicer and only got about two pints of juice in return. The juice was quite tasty, but I thought there would be more. I decided to keep the pulp as well. I guess you're supposed to throw the pulp away, but it tasted a bit like pineapple pudding and it seemed a shame to waste the stuff.

So far, Hulu seems like a good deal. Many of my favorite shows are well represented. There were even quite a few British comedies, which surprised me. Since I generally prefer the old shows to today's endless lineup of reality TV, Hulu might be all I need. I ought to give one of those over-the-air HD antennas a try and see if I can pick up anything in our neighborhood. There are so many trees in our part of town that I doubt that an antenna would work well, but even if it just pulled in a few basic channels for the news, I might be able to dump cable and U-verse entirely.

Tomorrow ought to be interesting. I need to renew a few insurance policies and the agent said he'd be happy to come out to the house, so I wouldn't have to drive to his office in Far North Dallas. I told him that I have two loud barking dogs, but he said that wouldn't be a problem. Actually it will be a problem. Maybe we can meet on the front porch.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day