Day 3441 - Memorial Day

It was a quiet day. I'm getting plenty of sleep now, but I still wake up feeling tired. I still have vivid dreams of being lost. Maybe these dreams are wearing me out. Sometimes I'm with friends and sometimes I'm alone, but I always seem to be in the wrong room or the wrong building. These aren't scary dreams, but a lot of walking is involved. I always wake up before I get where I'm going.

The weather is warmer than it should be for this time of year, but at least there's a breeze in the morning. I had my morning smoothie while watching a marathon presentation of Jay Leno's Garage. Anything is better than the news these days. Jan Leno's Garage isn't nearly as good as the old version of Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, but what are you going to do.  Political correctness has basically ruined television.

I'm still trying to find the perfect shoe and sock combination for my daily walks. It's odd that this never seemed to be a problem when I was walking with dogs. The dogs probably stopped so frequently to smell things that my feet never got hot or became swollen. I'd probably be more comfortable wearing light weight running shoes, but I like firm ankle support. Boots are better if you accidentally step on a snake too.

Since today was the last day for REI's big annual sale, I made one last trip to the store to look for a solution. There were great prices on everything, but I came home with nothing again. I looked at boots, wool socks, solar powered gadgets and everything else with a 25% off sign, but I seem to have totally lost my interest in buying things. This is a new experience for me. Buying things used to always put me in a good mood.

Driving to Florida is starting to seem like a better option than flying. The launch date for the Falcon Heavy is almost certain to change several times and changing airline reservations at the last minute is proving to be more of a hassle than it should be. The price for a flexible, refundable ticket is more than double what a plan-ahead discount fare would be. There are no nonstop flights where I'm going either. The downside to a long drive is that I would need to get new tires. My current tires are a little worn for a long trip. We'll see. I probably shouldn't overthink this until a get a better idea when the launch is actually going to take place.

I discovered that I can stream the PBS Breakthrough series for free on my computer. I watched the show about The Rocket this afternoon. This type of stuff is interesting to me. I've watched countless launches on TV, but I still didn't know how rockets actually work. I'll have to watch the episodes about The Car, and The Robot later. It's amazing how many things we take for granted today were developed during wartime. Even the telescope was initially developed as a tool for sailors to observe opposing ships at a distance. We definitely wouldn't have gotten to the moon without World War II and the Cold War with the Soviet Union that followed.

I saw a Dalmatian on my evening walk today. It's a surprising how rare they are in this part of town. I had a brief conversation with the owner which gave me a chance to give the dog a pat on the head. This beautiful five year old female appeared to have a very good home. As the guy and his dog continued on their way I kept thinking how strange it was to not be holding a leash in my hand.

Libby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3343

Winter is just a process of continually adding layer after layer of clothing so I won't be too cold when I go outside and then removing layer after layer of clothing as soon as I come back inside so I won't get too hot. I'm always trying to shortcut this lengthy process, so I'm usually too hot or too cold. Maybe some of you find all these seasonal changes invigorating, but I wish mother nature would make up her mind. 72 degrees all the time would be nice.

I thought that Dash might want a later walk this morning because he was still sound asleep when I woke up. This was just wishful thinking on my part. Dash was waiting at the door and ready to go before I finished getting dressed. I'm always amazed at how empty the park is on cold windy days. There are all these young, healthy dogs in the neighborhood and it's always the old dog who can barely move who is still out there. I admire Dash's tenacity, even though on days like today I'd rather just stay inside myself.

Dash's vision has been getting worse for some time. Occasionally, I think he navigates entirely by his sense of smell. To a casual observer he seems to meander all over the place, but maybe he is just smelling his way from one familiar landmark to the next. Every once in a while he will stop and smell the air for a long time and then turn around. It's frustrating when he does this when we're almost home. "Don't do this to me buddy," I think. "We're almost home and I'm getting cold." I've learned that if something doesn't smell right to Dash, it's better to just change our route and forget about it. Getting Dash to change his mind is not an easy task.

I guess today was a holiday. President's Day never seems like a real holiday to me. Today was just a day when I couldn't go to the post office or listen to the market news on the business channel. I don't buy or sell very often anymore, but I still like following the market. When I hear politicians talk it all just sounds like blah, blah, blah to me. Market moves are easier to understand. The market operates almost entirely on fear and greed. When investors are scared, the market goes down. When they are confident, the market goes up. If you follow these sentiments, you can get a pretty accurate picture of what is going on in the world. It's certainly a more accurate picture than listening to politicians.

Without any market news to follow, I watched Jay Leno's Garage instead. I'd love to have a huge collection of cars like Jay Leno or Jerry Seinfeld. I don't think either of these guys are trying to impress anyone. They are just rich and really like cars. I've had some interesting cars in my time, but I can't imagine being a collector. Cars take up a lot of space and they can be quite expensive to keep running. One at a time is plenty for me.

I tried going without antihistamines this morning. It didn't work. Within an hour or two I was blowing my nose again. I wonder if I'm going to need to take the antihistamines all Winter. I have seasonal allergies every year, but they've never lasted this long. Is something weird going on with the pollen count this year, or am I just becoming more sensitive? Of course there are always the conspiracy theories. Maybe the Chemtrails are starting to get to me.

I haven't used my laptop or iPad in so long that the batteries in both were completely dead. When business travel was a part of my life, I used to depend on the laptop. Not anymore. The only time I use it now is during power outages. Be prepared is my motto, so I charged the batteries and updated software on both devices. Hey, you never know. I may need an old laptop someday.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2944

Don't ever get a white comforter if you have an old dog who likes to sleep on the bed. It's amazing how quickly this thing gets soiled. The comforter is too big to fit in our washing machine, so we have to take it to a laundromat. Once you go to this much trouble, you might as well wash everything else as well. We managed to do a few other things, but it was definitely a day for doing laundry. I doubt if things will stay clean long, but right now the bed looks very nice.

The roof is finally dry as well. Since there is another cold wave and possibly snow on the way, it was time to clear away the leaves and standing water. In the summer I would never bother to sweep the water off the roof if it was going to rain the next day. Winter is different. I've discovered over the years that ice buildup is bad for the roof, so I always try to remove any standing water when freezing weather is in the forecast. They say that temperatures will dip into the teens tomorrow. I hope the forecast is wrong.

I had a small victory with the computer today. On Saturday I tried to rebuild my directory and the Diskwarrior software kept crashing. I was ready to buy an upgrade, but I needed the serial number from the old software to get a lower price. I launched the program again to get the number and this time it worked. Go figure. I have an optimized directory now and my hard drive is healthy again. I have no idea why the software wasn't working on Saturday, but luckily you only need to rebuild your directory every six months or so. Blind luck saved me some money today.

While I was cleaning the house this afternoon, I watched a Jay Leno's Garage marathon on TV. Car shows are relaxing. I watch them the same way Janet watches Hallmark Christmas movies. It's weird that Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld both have shows about cars now. It must be nice to be able to buy an unlimited number of cool cars. At one point Seinfeld owned 46 Porsches. Leno has an even larger collection of exotic automobiles. I think one of the reasons I started collecting model trains years ago was that I knew I'd never have the money to collect cars. Now that I think about it, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee might be the perfect way to introduce me to Netflix binge watching. I think all 56 shows are on Netflix now.

I can't decide whether to take Dash to the vet or get a haircut this week. Dash needs his nails trimmed. On the other hand, I need a haircut too. I wish I was better at trimming Dash's nails myself. He's terrible riding in the car now. I can't risk clipping a nail too short either because of the bleeding problem. I was thinking about making an appointment at the vet for tomorrow, but I don't know if it is going to snow. I'm definitely not driving Dash around on icy roads. Jeez. Simple things have become so complicated. It might be easier to just get a haircut.

Betty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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