Day 3463

We spent the afternoon with the rescue Dalmatians again. All the dogs love to have visitors. There were fewer dogs this week because Xander, Chloe, and Little Penny all found their forever homes recently. We're hoping that the remaining dogs will find homes soon as well. Each of them has their own unique personality, but they all would make a wonderful companion. We always spend some time trying to teach them basic commands like sit and stay, but mostly we just feed them treats, pet them, and throw the ball. These dogs love to chase a ball.

It's really starting to get hot outside. I may have to start walking on the indoor track at the gym soon. When I  took my regular morning and evening walks today, I was drenched in sweat by the time I returned home. I guess I could always start walking before sunrise like I used to do with the dogs, but I'm enjoying getting enough sleep. It's a new experience getting to sleep as long as I want. I don't think I'm going to get tired of this any time soon.

I'm glad I abandoned my plan to drive to Florida. Based on current forecasts, I would have been driving most of the way in heavy rain. There is so much rain in the long range forecast that I keep waiting for NASA to postpone the launch. We should find out more this week when they finish the static fire test of the rocket. If that goes OK, they only thing that can delay the launch is bad weather. I guess I'm ready when they are. All my travel plans are flexible now and can be changed with little notice.

I hope my sister isn't disappointed that I won't be visiting after all. I wrote her a 'change of plans' letter two days after the letter where I said I'd be passing through her town on my way home from the space center. I wish I was more decisive about these type of things. If I knew I wasn't going to drive, I could have saved some of the money I spent getting the car ready for the trip. I don't really think I needed new tires to go to the post office.

Janet asked where I wanted to go to dinner on my birthday and my immediate response was "Where do you want to go?" "It's your birthday," she said. Jeez. I have no favorite restaurant anymore. I looked up a few place I'd heard about recently and was totally confused by the reviews. People seem to either love a place or hate it these days. I kept seeing one star reviews followed by five star reviews. It was hard to believe that people were even talking about the same place.

The dog in the picture above is Jenga. He's deaf, but you'd never know it. This well adjusted, happy boy was a pleasure to visit with today. Actually, all the dogs were a pleasure to visit with. We'll be back soon.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3459

Travel is stressful. NASA finally confirmed a launch date for the Falcon Heavy, so I started looking for a hotel. Literally as I was looking online, I started seeing hotels disappear from the availability list. In less than four hours half of the hotels were already gone. I guess everybody else attending the launch was looking at the same time I was. I'm not good making quick decisions and hotel prices can be confusing. The price you see online is usually meaningless because most hotels change their prices everyday based on demand and availability. I picked a few places that looked nice and called the front desk, even though the website showed no availability. I ended up getting one of the last two rooms available at a nice hotel very near the space center. I felt like the clock was ticking the entire time I was making the reservations. The whole experience confirmed my opinion that it is always better to talk with a real person. You can make changes and compromises when you are talking to a real person. Websites aren't flexible at all.

I went back to the hotel with the good French Toast for breakfast this morning. Breakfast was delicious as always, but my appetite keeps shrinking. I could barely finish my meal. Even though I'm a creature of habit, I need to eat less. During the power outage Janet and I just has some fresh fruit for breakfast that didn't need to be refrigerated. A small bowl of peaches, strawberries, and blueberries was just about perfect. Maybe I need to make this my regular morning meal. Even my smoothie is starting to seem too complicated now.

I'm so glad the weather was cooler during our power outage. It's starting to warm up again and we would have been miserable without power with temperatures in the nineties. We were really lucky that temperatures were in the seventies while we had no electricity. Although life is getting back to normal in Dallas, I'm still hearing the sound of chain saws everywhere. The storm must be a bonanza for tree services and lawn care companies. I had no idea there were so many tree trimming services in Dallas. They're everywhere in our neighborhood. So far, the city's Park and Recreation Department seems to be doing the best job of tree removal. City workers were out in force in the park today, sawing up downed trees with chain saws and hauling away the debris in large trucks.

I wrote a letter to my sister asking if she'd like us to stop and visit when we return from Florida. It might be difficult to coordinate a visit with someone who only communicates through the U.S. mail, but we'll see what happens. I mentioned in my letter that a visit might be easier if she started using her phone.

I guess the week starts on Monday, but it always seems to start on Friday for me. Friday's have seemed like Saturday to me for years. I guess that an empty trash can and breakfast at a nearby restaurant signals a new start. It certainly seemed like Saturday today. I almost started to run my regular weekend errands, but then I finally remembered. I hope my memory doesn't become even worse in the years ahead. I forgot to wear my hat again on my morning walk. I guess a sunburned head will eventually jog my memory.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3442

We went and visited the rescue kennel again today. One of the many good things about being retired is that it's easy to do things like this. Neither of us has a schedule anymore. The dogs seem to enjoy the extra attention and the kennel staff is always glad to see us. We're gradually getting to know each dog's personality. All the dogs are very friendly and some could definitely use a little training. Young Dalmatians are full of energy. We let them race around and blow off steam for a while and sooner or later they calm down and want to sit in your lap. We met a new girl in the program today. She was a little timid at first but warmed up quickly when she saw we had a red rubber ball to throw. We'll probably go back to the kennel next week. It's a good way to spend the afternoon.

Not surprisingly, I spent my morning the same way I always do. I made the bed and slowly drank my huge fruit smoothie while I watched TV. Sadly, there are no old Westerns or episodes of Jay Leno's Garage to watch on weekdays. I'm stuck with watching the news.

When I started taking long walks, I initially noticed improvements almost every week. I had more stamina and began walking longer distances. Unfortunately, I've reached some sort of a plateau. When I hit three miles my feet start to hurt and I can feel each step in my hip joints and knees. Maybe it's my shoes, but I suspect that my joints aren't what they used to be. Glucosamine can't fix everything. I'll have to ask for an x-ray the next time I go to the doctor. I'd hate to ruin my knees. I'm not very eager to get a knee replacement.

I'll be glad when my Florida trip has a more definite schedule. It's hard to plan when you have no idea when you're going. I keep waiting for an e-mail with my itinerary, but I don't really expect a launch schedule to be finalized for a while. It is quite common for Space X launches to get delayed. Hurricane season begins on June 1. I certainly hope that doesn't throw a wrench in the works. At least the peak of the hurricane season isn't until August. With a little luck, everything should be fine.

I still haven't called the landscaper. Having a nice yard used to seem so important when the dogs were with us, but now it hardly seems to matter. The yard looks OK. A lot of things are this way. I need to fix the sliding glass door, but I rarely have a need to open it. This can probably wait as well. The plumbing got fixed quickly because we actually need the plumbing. I have a feeling that the next thing I actually need will be new tires. If I drive to Florida, I will definitely need new tires.

I didn't see many animals while I was walking today but I did learn the name of a new flower. For a long time I thought that Zexmenia was just another yellow daisy, but I guess it isn't. Maybe I'll learn something new tomorrow.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2815

Sometimes little things make all the difference. Nothing really happened today, but there were some little things that made it feel like a good day. The weather was beautiful. This is the one time of year when the weather is actually nice in Dallas. After a brisk morning walk with Dash, I had an enjoyable and surprisingly quiet breakfast at a place that is often crowded and noisy.

When I got home, I was amazed that I'd gotten a reply to the plea for help I'd sent the roofer a few days ago. Hopefully, he can figure out how to fix some of the mistakes his crew made earlier. My repairs actually look pretty good. When I went up on the roof today to clear away my equipment, it seemed like all my patches were solid. I'm sure there's still some water trapped under the elastomer, but the roof looks better than it did a few weeks ago.

Dash is still moody, but he's eating better now. We're back to eating two regular meals a day now, instead of dividing his food into a bunch of little meals. He hasn't thrown up in several weeks, so that's good too. Now if I could just get him to take normal walks again. For some reason he doesn't want to leave the house. Once we're down in the park, he's fine, but getting him to leave the house is often next to impossible.

You'd think Dash would be eager to leave the house. The place is pretty quiet these days. Dot is gone. Janet is back at work again. My office is no longer a beehive of activity. As a result, we both spend too much time thinking about food. I spend forever fiddling around with breakfast and since Dash never learned to eat slowly and savor his food, he's constantly begging for treats. I usually save some of the banana I put in my morning smoothie for him, but he eats the banana so quickly that I wonder if he even tastes it.

I did get a few things done today, but there was nothing that couldn't have waited until tomorrow. Actually tomorrow will be fairly busy. We need to take Dash downtown to get his picture taken. I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the upcoming Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament. I could have taken Dash's picture myself since I'm a photographer, but that wasn't apparently the plan. I just hope that Dash is good in the car. I definitely don't want to be cleaning up poop again.

I'm mesmerized by reports of the slowly approaching hurricane. I hope everybody stays safe. I have a sister who lives in Florida and I never could figure out why she moved there. In addition to alligators, snakes, and huge cockroaches, they have to deal with hurricanes over and over again. I still think Wyoming is a better place to live.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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