Day 4274 - Labor Day

I'm making progress. I completed my full six mile walk in the park this morning. I was pretty slow, but who's counting. It helped that the weather was nice. For most of the walk it was overcast with a nice breeze. When I returned home, I felt no different than any other day. I'm still not supposed to lift anything heavy, but I think my recovery is progressing nicely. The big black and blue blotch on my belly is even starting to fade. When that disappears, I'll consider myself back to normal again.

The park was really busy today. I guess Labor Day is a real holiday after all. There were even a lot of people on the trails when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. When I took my long walk right after breakfast it felt like the Fourth of July. I wouldn't mind seeing a lot fewer people in the park, but it's still nice to have a huge wooded area right outside your back door. When we moved here many years ago I didn't realize that we'd accidentally picked the best part of the entire city.

When I left on my walk this morning. I had to put Dawn's cone on because Janet hadn't returned from the gym yet. Dawn was totally disgusted. Dawn hates the cone, but her paws are looking so good now that I'd hate to see all this progress go down the drain. Dawn could still do a lot of damage if she started licking and biting at herself again. Luckily, I'm never gone for long. I don't think Dawn has it too bad.

I need to find some new ways to occupy myself. For the past several years most of my activities have been centered around trips to McDonald Observatory and Kennedy Space Center. I've learned a lot about astrophotography and made some valuable contacts at the space center. I wrote quite a few articles and many of them got published. Somehow, that all seems to have disappeared. Many of my contacts have retired and Covid restrictions have changed everything. I kind of feel like I'm back to square one and I'm not all that excited about starting over.

It's way too easy to spend the day sleeping. You'd think that if I slept during the day I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. This doesn't seem to be a problem. I've been getting a lot of sleep lately. I've been able to convince myself that all this rest is helping my recovery, but I won't be able to get away with this excuse much longer. I'm either going to have to find a new project or just admit that I'm lazy.

Dawn and I should be soulmates. She likes to walk and she likes to sleep. This sounds pretty good to me as well. Dawn still seems a little miffed that she has to share the bed with me, but she's learning. The room is quiet and I never watch television. Dawn usually falls asleep before I do. It bothers her if I'm staring at her so I usually turn away. We coexist pretty well, although she still hops off the bed and races to the front door as soon as she hears Janet's car in the driveway.

I've got a pile of bills I need to pay tomorrow. I find no joy in paying utility bills. The gas bill is lower in the summer, but the water and electric bills are much higher. You've got to water the grass in the summer and the air conditioner is running non stop. At least the air conditioner is working. The house is nice and cool.

Tomorrow will be much like today. Probably the entire week will be much like today. You realize that it's been a slow summer when the only excitement is a trip to the hospital.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4273

I took my first long outdoor walk since I was hospitalized. I didn't walk as far as I usualy do, but it's a start. I have no real pain anymore. I'm just a lot more tired than I used to be. We had a nice sunrise walk with Dawn this morning and it was still cool enough to take her on her Sunday outing later in the day. I wasn't able to keep up with Dawn and Janet on the Sunday outing, but I didn't expect to. I walked about halfway and returned to the car. I think I had plenty of walks today.

When we went for ice cream cones on the way home, we discovered that the place was closed. There was a little sign on the window saying that due to a staff shortage, the place would be reducing the number of hours they were open. This seems to be a recurring theme. Small businesses just can't find or retain the staff they need anymore. We found a more expensive ice cream place that charged a ridiculous amount for a cone, but we got one anyway. Dawn waits all week for her ice cream cone. I still don't feel like eating ice cream for some reason. That saved a little money.

My unexpected bile duct blockage is making me a little nervous about returning to the observatory. If this had happened while I was out there, it could have been life threatening. Lack of decent medical facilities is one of the main things that observatory residents complain about. There is only one small hospital in the area and nobody seems to like it. Serious medical problems often involve a drive all the way to Odessa or El Paso and now those hospitals are full of Covid patients. It's a mess. A lot of my friends buy helicopter insurance so they can be airlifted out if something serious happens. 

I can't think of many reasons to like living in a big city but access to good medical care is still at the top of my list. I received excellent care during my hospital stay and didn't have to wait to see the people I needed to see. Janet had the same experience when she was being treated for cancer. I think it helps that our primary care physicians are associated with the hospital. It's doesn't look like we'll be moving to West Texas, but I knew that anyway. The older you get the more you depend on good doctors and having a major hospital nearby.

Since tomorrow is Labor Day, a lot of things will be closed. My gym is going to be closed, so if I want to walk I'll need to get out early before it starts getting hot. My walk in the park this morning wasn't that bad. Of course, I didn't really go very far. We won't be able to visit the Dalmatians tomorrow either since the kennel is closed for Labor Day. I'll still be able to take naps though. It seems like I've been doing a lot of that lately.

We might be able to retire Dawn's cone soon. She shows very little desire to lick her paws lately. Did her bladder stones cause enough discomfort to cause her to start all the licking? Sometimes licking is the way dogs react to discomfort. Maybe it's the new allergy pills she started taking. It's weird that we still don't know what was causing the problem. I'm glad she's getting better though. I'm glad I'm getting better too.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3910 - Labor Day

It didn't seem like a holiday today. The park wasn't crowded at all. There were a few families having picnics, but I saw a few yesterday as well. Maybe Labor Day seems irrelevant if you aren't working. They say that more people are returning to work in Dallas than in most cities, but you couldn't prove it by me. I still see a lot more people wandering around in the park than I did at this time last year.

We got a reminder that today actually was a holiday when we discovered that the Dalmatian kennel was closed. We weren't able to visit the dogs today, but maybe we'll go later in the week. I'd still like to see Hank and Luckie before they make the journey to their new home in Austin.

Without our regular visit to the kennel, today seemed even more uneventful than usual. We had a nice morning walk, but we should have started a little earlier. By the time we returned home we were all pretty hot. Dawn went back to bed and I felt like joining her. Doing nothing can be very tiring.

I watched SN6 travel down Highway 4 back to the Space X shipyard and then later in the day watched the 7.1 pressure vessel travel back down the same road to replace it on the launch pad. The 7.1 tank won't fly anywhere. It will just be pumped full of liquid nitrogen until it explodes. These pressure tests seem to be common in the space world. NASA tested an Artemis liquid oxygen tank to destruction at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama earlier this Summer. I'm still waiting until the real Starship makes it's debut. An early version may take off from Boca Chica before the end of the year. I only mention these live feed videos to illustrate how little is going on at the moment. Who would have thought that I could spend an hour watching what looked like a shiny grain silo travel slowly down a country road.

I've noticed that the people who go to the park in the morning are very different than the people who go in the afternoon. The morning people seem very industrious. They are jogging, cycling, and walking dogs. The afternoon people are mostly sitting in hammocks looking at their phones. I identify more with the morning people. Why would you want to sit in a hammock on a 100 degree afternoon anyway? It makes a lot more sense to take a nice walk on a 75 degree pre-dawn morning.

We saw a lost chicken in the park this morning. The bird seemed bewildered to be wandering around in a world full of ducks. A lot of people have backyard chickens in the neighborhood, so this one probably just escaped. We thought about taking the chicken to a nearby rescue that takes almost any type of animal, but how do you catch a chicken when you've got a dog with you? We'll probably never see the little rooster again. It will make a tasty meal for the coyotes who live nearby.

I wish I'd hear something definitive from Sky and Telescope. I always worry that there will be changes at the magazine and my story won't get published after all. I try to be patient with these magazines, but I really need some good news to get me motivated. It's a lot easier to start a new story when I see one of the older ones in print.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3909

I didn't sleep well last night. When I woke up at 4 AM, I went outside to look at the Moon and Mars. They were still close together, but would have been even closer if I hadn't gone to bed before moonrise. You don't realize that the moon is always moving until you have a point of reference. When we left on our morning walk a few hours later, I could tell that the Moon and Mars were slightly further apart than they were at 4 AM.

We walked a litle later this morning. There is still a lot of moisture on the ground from our recent rain, so we saw a lot of ground fog as the sun started to rise. Ground fog is pretty and I always try to get some pictures. The pictures never seem to do justice to these foggy mornings. Like a pretty sunrise, it's all over in a matter on minutes.

We saw a Hispanic couple looking at the fruit on the Mexican Plum trees today. We asked if they knew what these trees were and they said they were called Ciruelo. It made sense that the tree had a Spanish name. I doubt that people from Mexico would call these Mexican Plums. The couple said the fruit was edible and that many people liked the tart taste. We took a few ripe plums home with us, but we haven't tried them yet.

The weather was relatively mild today so it was a good day to go up on the roof. I removed the remaining standing water, checked both pumps, and looked for damaged areas in the silicon coating. I found two spots, each about one foot in diameter that could use some attention. Nothing is leaking yet, but I've learned to recognize when the silicon starts to deteriorate. These two areas won't make it through the Winter.

It doesn't really feel like a holiday weekend. Labor Day is usually the time when there are huge back to school sales. The fate of schools is still up in the air and a lot of stores haven't figured out how to deal with customers yet. It's all very confusing. Do you go in the store, arrange for curbside pickup, order online, or just do nothing? I'm increasingly opting for doing nothing. There's certainly no urgency to buy clothes anymore. Working from home has no dress code. When everyone starts dressing like me, I think retail is dead.

I think I'm becoming addicted to the Boca Chica live feed on YouTube. I check in almost every day to see what's going on. It looks like they're getting ready to take the SN6 rocket back to the shipyard and replace it with another test vehicle. It's weird that they just use a state highway to move the rockets. You'd think they'd build their own special track to move the rockets from the factory to the launch pad. This is clearly a work in progress. I'm sure I'll check back tomorrow to see if anything has changed.

I'm not sure if we'll be visiting the Dalmatian kennel tomorrow. We'll have to check and see if it's open on Labor Day. If we do visit, it will be the last time we see Hank and Luckie. They are both going to their forever home soon.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3539 - Labor Day

It didn't really seems like a holiday today. It did seem like a Monday though. After a week of eating restaurant meals, I returned to my familiar fruit smoothie. As I sipped my drink, I watched the news about the approaching hurricane. It certainly wasn't approaching very fast. At this rate the storm will still be approaching next week.

After breakfast I attached the 2020 vehicle registration sticker I'd purchased weeks ago to my windshield. I never like to do this because I'm obsessive about getting things positioned correctly and if I put the sticker on crooked, I'm stuck with it all year. I carefully peeled off the old sticker with a razor blade, cleaned the sticky residue away with an alcohol soaked rag, and then attached the new sticker. Now I'm in compliance again. The sticker looks reasonably straight too.

Before I took my morning walk, I sent an e-mail to the roofer asking where the silicon coating he promised was. I don't really expect a reply, but I've got to make the effort. If I don't hear from him soon, I'll be forced to go buy a big drum of this stuff myself. I've done this once before and it was a huge hassle transferring the stuff to smaller buckets that I could lift to the roof. I'm really trying to avoid making a huge mess.

For the past several days I've been combining the morning and afternoon segments of my daily walks into one long walk. This way I don't have to take two showers and change clothes as often. I had hoped to walk early so I could write later in the day, but as usual I got a late start. I remember when I was in college I used to hike all day in the Rockies during the summer. I doubt that I could do that anymore. Five miles seems to be my limit.

Hank has gotten sick again. After seeming perfectly normal for about a month, his bloody stools have returned again. He's on fluids at the emergency vet now and is scheduled to have an ultrasound scan in the morning. Hank has already had extensive x-rays to look for foreign objects in his digestive tract and any obvious tumors or growths. So far we have found nothing abnormal. His blood work looks good too. We all thought a change in diet might solve Hanks problems, but clearly that hasn't worked. Hopefully we will learn something after the ultrasound scan. We've got to get this boy healthy again so he can find his forever home.

I started writing my Sky and Telescope article this afternoon. I didn't make a lot of progress. I am taking a completely different approach than I'd originally planned, so I made several false starts. This would have been a lot easier if the skies were clear last Tuesday. My challenge is to turn a rainy day at the observatory into something compelling. Luckily, this isn't a time sensitive article. I've got time for quite a few false starts.

I'm not sure how long Hank will need to stay at the emergency vet, but we may need to transport him back to the kennel tomorrow. We'll see. Other than that, tomorrow will be very similar to today. I'll take a long walk and probably go to the post office. It's a new month and there are bills to pay.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3538

I walked ten miles today. I walked on the treadmill at the gym for a while. I walked along the lake. And I walked up on the roof clearing away rain water. Needless to say, accumulating my 22,000 steps didn't leave a lot of time for anything else. Sundays have become a time for physical activity. I give my brain a rest.

Of course I give my brain a rest on other days as well. I don't know why I still like to think of myself as a thoughtful person, because I can go for hours without thinking of anything at all. Occasionally at the gym I wonder if the other members know something I don't. Almost everyone else follows a completely different exercise routine. Maybe I should copy them. I'm a creature of habit though and still follow a simple routine a physical therapist recommended years ago when I was being treated for a dislocated shoulder.

I was discouraged to find some new areas than need repair while I was up on the roof today. The roofer still hasn't brought over the silicon material he promised. I could always go buy some of the stuff myself, but I am reluctant to do so. The material is very expensive, only comes in large containers that are too heavy for me to lift to the roof, and it quite messy. I hate to carry this stuff in my car. If the drum tipped over and spilled, my car is ruined.

I took one long walk today instead of the two shorter ones I usually take. There are plusses and minuses to a five mile walk. On the plus side, when I am finished I don't have to go outside again. On the minus side, my feet start to swell after a while and my feet hurt. My shoes fit properly, but I have a really high arch and it's always been hard to find a shoe that will go the distance. I don't remember having these problems when I was younger, but then a lot of things were easier when I was younger.

I'm enjoying reading about West Texas history. The only thing I knew about Marfa was that Donald Judd lived there. There was an episode of Trackdown about Alpine once. I sometimes watch that show on Saturday mornings. I never knew much about Fort Davis. I wasn't even aware that the confederacy extended that far West. The observatory itself has quite a colorful history. Mount Locke, where the telescopes sits, was initially won in a poker game on a transcontinental train. The Davis Mountain have become one of my new favorite places. I'm definitely going back someday.

Tomorrow is a holiday which means it is exactly like any other day for me. We usually visit the Dalmatians on Monday's, but I think the kennel is closed for the holiday. I won't be going to the post office or the bank either. Even my gym is closed tomorrow. I guess I'll need to continue reading.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3175 - Labor Day

There wasn't a lot of labor taking place at our house today. It rained all day. Sometimes the best thing to do on a day like this is nothing at all. Dash did get his walks, thanks to the weather radar app on my phone. I don't know how I used to survive without weather radar. Even on wet, dreary days like this, there are usually opportunities to walk your dog. It's all a matter of timing.

Janet went to the gym, but I didn't feel like doing much of anything. I ended up watching a Strange Inheritance marathon for quite a while. It's fascinating how ordinary people often end up with extraordinary things. One of today's episodes was about a family who had a Rembrandt hanging on their dining room wall for decades and nobody knew what it was. When the parents died, the kids took a lot of their stuff to an auction house that specialized in estate auctions. Even the auctioneer didn't realize that he had an old master painting. Several weeks before the auction they put everything on their website where the painting attracted the attention of three European art dealers. The bidding started at $500 and quickly went to six figures. When the bidding was over, the lost Rembrandt sold for over a million dollars. It turned out to be genuine too. There were other episodes about a family who inherited a zoo and then there was the guy who inherited a huge collection of army tanks. There is nothing strange or valuable in my family tree. I'm pretty sure of that.

Dash got wet on one of today's walks, so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to give him a bath. Bathing a dog who can barely stand up is not an easy task. I think I got more water on me today than Dash did. Dash definitely needed a bath. He pees on his feet a lot these days. After we washed and dried him off, he definitely looked and smelled cleaner. Next on the list is to get his nails trimmed again. That's going to be a lot harder than a bath.

Today's heavy rains mean that the grass is going to start growing again. I was kind of hoping that I was done for the year. I should have known better. The weather is unpredictable here. It's not uncommon to still be mowing grass in December. I'm going to have to go up on the roof again too. I don't think I'll do this tomorrow. According to the forecast, it's supposed to keep raining.

If tomorrow is as wet as today, I'm going to have to come up with a plan. I'm not sure if I can tolerate doing absolutely nothing for two days in a row. It's a good thing that I have a high tolerance for lethargy, because I think this might be a very slow week.

We'll see what happens. I could wake up to sunshine tomorrow. I just hope that whenever I do wake up that I've been sleeping for a long time. Let's try for six hours. Waking up every two hours to take Dash outside is wearing me out.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3171

I sent in my application to join the InSight team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the spacecraft's November landing on Mars. A little while later, I received a conformation from NASA thanking me for my interest while telling me that I was application number 61005. Wow. The last time I did this in 2014, there were only several hundred applicants. Now there appear to be over sixty thousand. Times have definitely changed. I probably don't have a chance in hell of being selected. Only 30 people will be given social media credentials.

Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. At least I made an effort to venture out of my comfort zone and expand my horizons beyond picking up dog poop. We'll see what happens. If Dash's condition remains stable, everything should be fine. I had to decline an invitation to view an Orbital ATK Cygnus launch at Kennedy Space Center when Dot became very sick, but I'm going to remain positive for the moment. What have I got to lose? It would be pretty cool if I made the final cut.

Dash got me up several times last night, but he ate well today and seems to be in good spirits. So far, there has been no pooping in the house. Lets hope this continues. I wish Dash had more energy, but he's actually doing amazingly well, considering the severity of his heart condition. I wish there was a cure for Dash's heart problems and vestibular disease. There isn't. We do the best we can managing the symptoms, but it is stressful knowing that your faithful companion could die at any time.

One day at a time has become my motto. When you take things one day at a time, long-term goals become irrelevant. There are just good days and bad days. Today was a reasonably good day. Dash didn't fall down. He didn't poop in the house. And he seemed happy.

Dash's mood must have been contageous, because I felt pretty good as well. I got off my butt and applied for the NASA media credentials. I even had an appetite and went out and got some delicious barbecued ribs for dinner. This was probably my first mistake of the day. Damn. I've already got heartburn. I wish I had the discipline to eat like Janet does. Her post-cancer diet is about as healthy as you can get. I don't do so well. My health regimen is basically occasionally eating her leftovers.

This month has flown by. I can't believe it is almost Labor Day. Pretty soon I'll have to start watching out for School Zones again. I don't drive much, but wherever I go, there always seem to be lots of schools. It really slows things down when you get stuck in one of those lines of people waiting to pick up their kids. Traffic in the city seems to double when school is in session.

I set the bar pretty low, but I think I was adventurous today. I wonder if I can be as adventurous tomorrow and try eating breakfast at a brand new restaurant. We'll see.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2811 - Labor Day

I learned a lot about refrigerators today. I suspect that one of the reasons they don't last as long as they used to is that they've become way too complicated. We saw refrigerators with built-in web browsers. There was one that had a WiFi camera inside the refrigerator that you could access using your phone. If you were at the supermarket and couldn't remember if you needed milk, you could just check the fridge with your phone. Several manufacturers offered convertible models where you could temporarily turn the freezer into a second small refrigerator with the flick of a switch. Jeez. A refrigerator is just a machine to keep things cold. Why did they all have to turn into computers that keep things cold?

We eventually found a few refrigerators that were small enough to fit inside our kitchen alcove. None of them were as nice as the fridge we already have. Like most things in life the basic models have become even more rudimentary and the high-end models have become bloated with an insane array of features. There is no middle ground anymore. All the major stores basically offered the same choices at roughly the same price. Nobody was willing to deliver and install anything in less than fourteen days. We had hoped to find something we liked and get it installed tomorrow. That wasn't going to happen. We needed a plan B.

I was surprised to discover that you could buy one of those little dorm room refrigerators for less than the cost of a good ice chest. In fact, a large Yeti ice chest ended up costing twice as much as a small dorm room refrigerator. Since the freezer still works in our existing refrigerator, we bought one of these little refrigerators so our food wouldn't go bad and I'll call an appliance repairman in the morning. There's a good chance I could get our existing refrigerator fixed in less time than it would take to get a new one delivered. The big problem with appliance repairmen is that they are so slow. They come out and diagnose your problem and then they have to order parts. Usually at least one important part is on back order, so you are lucky if you see them again in two weeks. What ever happened to keeping a stock of parts on the truck?

Hey, at least the gas crisis appears to be over. There were several stations in our own neighborhood that had gas today. I still can't find the leak in the shower, but I am making progress on the roof. I might have finished today if we hadn't spent so much time looking at refrigerators. I didn't do much patching today, but I did haul some materials up to the roof, including a leaf blower which I used to clear away a mountain of dead elm leaves that seemed to have fallen overnight. I actually got lucky. Apparently the leaves fell after the elastomer coating dried, so they were easy to clear away. I really need to get this job finished before the oak tress start shedding their leaves. That would really be a mess.

Janet is going back to work tomorrow. I thought she had another week at home, but apparently not. It doesn't seem like two weeks have already passed since her latest surgery. Of course it doesn't seem like summer is already over either.  Where has the time gone?

I hope nothing else breaks and everybody stays healthy. I'd really like to end this year on a positive note.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2810

Our refrigerator is not cooling properly. I hate the thought of looking for new appliances. The last time we replaced our refrigerator, it was almost impossible to find one that would fix in the small slot designed for it in the kitchen. We have the same problem with the washer and dryer in the utility room. Appliances seem to have grown over the years. What would have been normal for the mid-fifties house we live in just isn't made anymore. Maybe the refrigerator isn't really broken, since the freezer side still works well. I suggested unplugging it for a while and then plugging it in again like we do for everything else in the house, but Janet said the food might go bad. Actually turning the refrigerator off may actually work, since I suspect that the evaporator coils have become frozen. This happens from time to time with the air conditioner. You just let the ice melt and everything is fine. Refrigerators are problematic. If you spend too much time monkeying around with them, the food goes bad. It's always hard to fix something when you're using it.

I didn't fix much today, but I did keep busy. I mowed the grass in the front and the back and then treated the yard for mosquitoes. I hope the treatment works, since I'm getting eaten alive at night when I take Dash out to pee. We had a mild winter and chiggers, mosquitoes, and ticks are everywhere. I had planned on getting rid of some wasp nests too, but I couldn't find the wasp and hornet spray. Usually, after I do a lot of yard work I just feel like taking a nap, but today I decided to go to the gym.

I've come to the conclusion that if I don't work out more, my muscles are just going to continue to atrophy. The older you get, the harder it is to build muscle mass. For a long time I thought I was losing weight because I was eating healthier. I'm really just slowly losing muscle mass. One way or another, I've got to reverse this process. Going to the gym three times a week is probably a good place to start.

I probably should have continued my work on the roof this afternoon, but enough is enough. After my trip to the gym and an afternoon walk with Dash, I was finally getting tired. Janet found gas today, but I didn't bother to take my car to the same station. I may regret this decision later, but I have a feeling this self made gas crisis may soon be over.

It remains to be seen whether we will go looking at refrigerators tomorrow. I'm still hoping that the problem miraculously cures itself overnight. This is unlikely. Broken things rarely fix themselves. I'm not looking forward to going back on the roof, but I've got to make sure that everything is patched and has time to cure before the next rain. I'm pretty sure that I've got a few days left, but it's bound to rain eventually.

I guess tomorrow is a holiday. It probably won't seem any different to me. I still have a long list of chores to finish and a refrigerator full of food that keeps getting warmer.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2457 - Labor Day

When I was taking Dash on his morning walk, we encountered a lady leading two blind men down the trail. She told the men that they were approaching a Dalmatian and one them asked if he could pet Dash. Soon, both men were using their hands to get a sense of what a Dalmatian looked like. I was proud of Dash. He was gentle and let the blind men examine him from nose to tail. After a few minutes the men thanked me and we were on our way. It was a crisp, cool morning with a nice breeze. I closed my eyes for a moment, listened to the birds, and realized that the park was still a beautiful place even if you couldn't see.

Janet convinced me to get out of the house today, so we decided to explore the new neighborhood that had developed around the recently opened Santiago Calatrava bridge crossing the Trinity River. Actually, I think the bridge has been open for almost four years, but it still seems new to me. I remember this area as a run down industrial neighborhood filled with old construction equipment, rusting cars, and sleazy bail bond businesses. Gentrification  has changed the area into a place filled with trendy restaurants, art galleries, and even a highly regarded craft brewery. We were going to eat lunch at the brewery, but it was closed for some inexplicable reason. We ate at a nearby barbecue place that wasn't quite as good as some of the barbecue joints in our own neighborhood. We walked around a bit so we could get a better view of the bridge and then we went home. I'll have to admit that it was a good idea to get out of the house for a while.

I was convinced that we were going to have to spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning Dot up when we returned, but she was still asleep when we got back home and hadn't pooped in her bed at all. I was initially pleased at this unexpected development, but later became worried when she didn't want to get up at all. She seemed very tired today. Maybe it was just the weather. The cool early morning breeze quickly turned into a scorcher as the day progressed. Dot still seems weak and a bit shaky on her feet, but I hope the extra rest she got today will make her feel better tomorrow.

I rarely eat lunch anymore and purposely ate a very light breakfast so I wouldn't spoil my appetite. Nevertheless, the meal we had at the barbecue place still seemed enormous. I used to eat like this all the time, but it doesn't seem right anymore. When I got home, all I wanted to do was take a long nap. I think a good breakfast, no lunch at all, and a light supper is the way to go. All those lunches I had with friends years ago probably helped to build my business, but I doubt that they did much for my health.

Tomorrow, it's back to work. I will begin another new writing assignment in the morning and I've got a dentist appointment in the afternoon. Eating healthy and taking care of my teeth are two things I should have paid more attention to when I was younger. I guess it's better late than never. I take good care of my teeth now. I take good care of Dot. And I try to eat sensibly. Sensible never even used to be part of my vocabulary.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2454

How did I go from being curious about everything to being irritated at everything? It all happened pretty quickly. Today, I was particularly irritated at the garbage man. Ever since the city switched to these new robotic garbage trucks, my garbage can fails to be emptied about half the time. The robotic arm on the truck picks up the can and lifts it above the truck to dump the garbage in the hopper, but the process happens so fast that none of the bagged garbage actually falls out of the can. The truck thinks it has done its job and just drives away, leaving a full garbage can for me to live with for another week. This never used to happen when real people emptied the garbage and threw the trash into the back of the truck. The city loves these new robotic trucks because they are very efficient and only require a single person to operate. Unfortunately, the trucks just don't work very well.

It's bad enough that the city only picks up the trash once a week now. Playing Russian roulette with the garbage truck every week only makes the process worse. Today, I'd had enough. I loaded all the garbage in the back of my car and went looking for a dumpster. A lot of dumpsters are locked away now, because they don't want people like me using them. Hey, it's not my fault. If the garbage truck did it's job, I definitely wouldn't be driving around with trash in the back of my car.

Breakfast was crowded today. I would have gotten an earlier start if I wasn't looking for an empty dumpster. I probably should have gone someplace else, but I was in the mood for pancakes and the cinnamon pancakes at the overcrowded restaurant are particularly good. All the regular tables were taken, so I had to sit at a long communal table that everyone tends to avoid. The inconvenience was worth it though, because the pancakes and sausage were delicious.

Today was particularly busy. I finished a lengthy website update that involved adding and changing out a ton of new photos. When that task was finished, I started writing my new article. In the old days, this type of workload would have been considered completely normal. I probably would have finished everything before noon. Today, I felt a bit overwhelmed. I haven't had this much to do in weeks. I got everything done though and still had time to do a load of laundry and clean up Dot's poop.

The satellite radio worked this morning when I started the car. This was odd, because there was a failure message on the screen when I pulled into the driveway yesterday. How did the radio acquire the satellite when the car was off? I don't pretend to know how satellite radio works. I'd rather have a WiFi hotspot in the car instead, but this is a free trial, so what do I care.

We've got a long holiday weekend coming up. Will we do anything festive on Labor Day? What do people normally do on Labor Day? I don't have a clue. As always, I just hope that the dogs act normally and that I can catch up on sleep.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2449

Sunday is when we try to restore some sense of order the the shambles that has taken over our house. Janet took up all Dot's traction rugs and scrubbed the floors while I mowed the grass and later tried to remove all the spider webs and insect debris from the back windows. It's a never ending battle to get rid of the spiders and frankly I think they have the upper hand. I had to take an abrasive brush and a bucket of bleach to remove all their droppings from the window sills. The worst part of removing the spiders is that the spiders don't like it and they end up crawling all over you. I guess our efforts were worth it. The house does look and smell better now. It's a temporary victory though. Nature always wins in the long run.

Although I got plenty of exercise doing housework, I went to the gym anyway. Some things you have to do whether you like it or not. The first twenty minutes I'm at the gym, I'm always on the verge of quitting and going home early. When the initial aches and pains have subsided, I get into a rhythm and realize that it's not that big a deal to go ahead and complete my workout. The most enjoyable part of my routine is shooting baskets on the court. This activity probably doesn't burn up that many calories, but it breaks up the monotony. The last twenty minutes are always the easiest, but there is no sense of euphoria. I never decide to stay longer. An hour and fifteen minutes is long enough.

We felt a little guilty about not giving Dot a proper party yesterday, so I went out and got each dog a skinless, boneless chicken breast and some Pupcakes from Sprinkles. Dot's favorite activity is eating, so I think she enjoyed our little celebration. She eats so slowly now that for the first time ever she didn't devour her cupcake in a single bite. She actually seemed to savor the treat, taking several minutes to consume it.

I need to go renew the lease on my storage warehouse tomorrow. Maybe this will be the year when I finally start to do some serious downsizing. I could start a museum with the stuff in this warehouse. It wouldn't be a very good museum, but there are definitely things you don't see everyday. I also need to take Dot back to the vet to get her blood work done. This was supposed to be done last Friday at the cancer center, but since Dot's oncologist is gone until October, our schedule is completely messed up there now. I'll need to get the tests done at another vet. I think it's going to be a busy week, but it's hard to tell sometimes. The difference between staying busy and doing nothing at all is often arbitrary and a bit fuzzy.

Where did this Summer go? It's almost Labor Day already. It won't be long before I start wondering whether the furnace still works and spend hours clearing bushels of pecans off the roof. I"m looking forward to Fall. Too bad it only lasts about two weeks.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2092 - Labor Day

You could tell it was a holiday this morning. The park was filled with cyclists and joggers when we took the dogs on their early morning walk. Judging from the number of people we saw, Labor Day is pretty universally observed. Unlike President's Day and other seemingly optional holidays, everybody stayed home from work today.

I stayed home too, but that didn't keep me from working. As soon as we finished breakfast, I went up on the roof and removed the water from Saturday's brief, but surprisingly heavy rainfall. Just like our last rainfall, I wished that I'd remembered to sweep away all the pecan shells first. If you've ever gathered these nuts, you've probably realized what an effective and permanent brown dye they make. Nothing seems to remove the stains left by pecan and walnut hulls. I"m really tempted to ask the roofers if they could paint the roof to match the color of these persistent stains, because they are not going away. You may wonder why I chose a white roof in the first place. I was under the impression that the special coating would get me a nice tax credit the year it was applied, but my accountant said the roof didn't meet the government's energy efficiency guidelines for some odd technical reason. Oh, well. Screwed by the government once again.

Since I was already outside, I decided to wash the car when I finished with the roof. The car seems to get dirty whether I drive it or not. Birds shit on it. Sticky tree sap sticks to the windows. And the wheels are perpetually coated with a mix of road grease and brake pad dust. It's almost impossible to clean the house theses days, but the car is a smaller challenge. It makes me feel good to see a clean car. I may not be able to keep everything spotless, but at least this tiny little chunk of the universe is still under my control.

I thought I'd finished my website work yesterday, but apparently not. I got input for some additional pages that needed to be created in this morning's e-mail and then I noticed on Facebook that two dogs needed to be removed from an animal rescue website because they had been adopted. Increasingly, animal rescue websites are just an afterthought. The real news goes out on Facebook now.

I think we've solved Dash's eating disorder. He was just bored. Janet got two different brands of food to try yesterday and we filled Dash's bowl with one of the new choices this morning. He gobbled it down like he was eating a steak dinner. It's a shame that Dash doesn't like his regular food anymore, because it was perfect for him. It made life easier to feed Dot and Dash the same thing too. Maybe if he eats this new food for a while, we can re-introduce the original food and he'll think it's new again. You can't fool a dog all the time, but sometimes you can. It's worth a try anyway.

Janet goes back to work tomorrow. I go back to having my fruit smoothies for breakfast. Hopefully, Dot doesn't go back to pooping on the floor. We've had a nice accident free holiday.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2091

We made a serious effort to clean the rugs today. Some rugs went to the laundromat. Others got cleaned in the back yard. The rest just received a vigorous vacuuming. The house is cleaner now, although it still looks just as messy. It's hard to complain about the rugs though. They do their job. Dot is able to walk around the house without slipping and falling, which would be virtually impossible if she still had to deal with our slippery brick floors.

Whenever we do some serious cleaning, Janet tries to get me to clean out my office. There are probably a hundred good reasons to get rid of things, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I am surrounded by the remnants of decades of hard work and interesting experiences. If I got rid of these things, what would I replace them with? The ironic thing is that if I were really busy, it wouldn't bother me to work in a bare office. Now that I'm not so busy, I treasure the cluttered memories. My Dad's office was like this as he neared retirement. The University let him keep his cluttered office for a few years after he officially retired, but eventually he was forced to vacate what was probably the original man cave. He went downhill quickly after that.

I'm going to the gym earlier on Sunday's now. It probably doesn't make much difference, but I find that I have more time for other things if I do my workouts in the morning. The gym seems pretty empty on Sunday mornings. That's a plus too. I had a good workout today and still think the Apple Watch is keeping me from being lazy. I need to make an effort to get to the gym at least once more during the week. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm holding my own now, but with two good workouts a week, I might actually start getting stronger.

When I was trying to figure out how to fix my computer's optical drive yesterday, I read that some people were wrapping a baby wipe around a credit car and sticking this crude cleaning instrument into the drive slot in an attempt to dislodge dust from the burner lens. This didn't really seem like it would work, but what did I have to lose? Eight people said this method cured their problem and one said it ruined his drive. This seemed like pretty good odds. I carefully inserted the baby wipe wrapped credit card into the slot several times and then tried to burn a DVD. It worked. I don't know if this is a short term or long term fix, but it sure beats buying a new computer.

Last week when I was taking a shower, I discovered there was a cockroach in the shower with me. Today, when I was washing my hair, I discovered a lizard in the shower. I don't know how these critters get in the house, but they don't appear to have much difficulty. At least we don't have a doggie door. People with pet doors in our neighborhood frequently find raccoons and possums crawling through them. When I was younger, I probably would have thrown the lizard down the toilet. Since I've mellowed quite a bit over the years, I carefully captured the small reptile and took is outdoors where I released it. You've got to be real careful with little lizards because it's easy to break their tails if they are handled roughly. This little guy did fine though and I was glad to see him wander off to join all the other critters in our yard.

Tomorrow is Labor Day. If my Facebook feed is any indications, a lot of people seem to get this holiday mixed up with Memorial Day. It's just another Monday to me.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2090

The holiday weekend is getting off to a good start. Miraculously, the dogs let us sleep in a little this morning. Even though we got up later, Dot didn't poop in her bed. That's always a good sign. We set off on our morning walk around 7:30 AM, which is much later than normal. Dot continues to get stronger and I've noticed recently that she is actually starting to walk a little faster. Dash, on the other hand, is still acting strange. He is still finicky about eating in the morning, but seems completely normal the rest of the day. I don't know what's wrong. Maybe nothing is wrong at all. We're thinking about switching the brand of food he eats, just to see if that makes a difference. I'll ask the oncologist if we need to bring in Dash for another round of tests when I take Dot for her next Ultrasound scan this coming Friday.

Having bacon for breakfast made it seem like a holiday, but when I turned on the computer and checked my e-mail, I knew it was going to be another work day. There was a long list of website revisions to make. I guess I could have postponed the updates until Tuesday, but it made much more sense to go ahead and do them now. It's not like I was going to do anything special today anyway. Today's changes involved altering a Wordpress site. I've grown to hate Wordpress because clients often pick a template and then immediately set about trying to change it. It is almost always easier for me to create a custom site than it is to modify someone else's Wordpress template. Oh, well. Like I said, I didn't have much to do today.

We're trying to figure out how to clean the rugs we use to keep Dot from falling in the house. The little ones will fit in the washing machine, but most of them are too big even for commercial laundromat machines. The rugs in the kitchen are the worst, because that's where the dogs like to hang out. The Dyson is pretty amazing, but even this super vacuum is no match for two Dalmatians eating breakfast for several months. I'm torn between buying a power washer and renting one of those Bissell carpet cleaners. A power washer might actually work pretty well, since the rugs are all made of synthetic material that dries quickly. I need to clean all the spider webs off the windows anyway, so why not take the rugs outside and clean them both with a power washer at the same time. The only downside to this plan is that we'd have to buy even more rugs, so Dot would have something to walk on while the other rugs dried. If I spent my time trying to solve real problems instead of fretting about dirty rugs and broken optical drives, Lord knows what I might accomplish.

Yes, I did make one more attempt to revive the DVD burner in my desktop Mac. I failed again. The thing is probably just dirty, but there is no easy way to clean these drives anymore. My older Mac towers had flat CD trays that slid out to insert a disc. You could buy special cleaning discs that had a little brush glued to the surface of the disc. You would put some solvent on the brush, insert the cleaning disc in the players and run it for a few minutes. The brush cleaned off the laser head and almost always cured sluggish or faulty optical drives. If worse came to worse, you could just unscrew the entire broken drive from the chassis and replace it with a new one. New Macintosh computers are completely different. Almost nothing is meant to be serviced yourself. Some components are epoxied directly to the motherboard, so they can't be removed at all. I have no idea how I'd remove the optical drive from my current Mac. You can't even open the case. I'm sure Apple would prefer that I just buy a new one.

It looks like I'm going to have time to go to the gym tomorrow. I skipped my workout last Sunday since I was doing the photoshoot with the two children and their menagerie of animals. Nothing exciting like that this weekend, so it looks like I'll have to burn off some calories on the treadmill.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2089

Do you ever feel that your life is starting to look like a reenactment of Groundhog Day? I'm sure you remember the movie where Bill Murray was forced to repeat the same day over and over again until he finally got it right. Sometimes I feel this way. Every day I eat the same things. Almost every day I clean up poop and wash the soiled dog blankets. Every time I do a load of laundry, I plug the floor drain in the utility room with a rag so water from the rinse cycle won't come back up through the drain and flood the room. After I take a shower I always put rags around the edge of the shower stall to soak up water that has seeped through cracks in the tile between shower walls and floor. Every evening I print the same JPEG file to keep the ink lines in my large printer from clogging. There are literally dozens of little rituals like this. The dogs get the same two walks every day and I patch up and repair the same websites over and over again. I know that I've got to break out of this monotonous cycle, but it's a comfortable rut and I feel no urgency. Hopefully, I won't be stuck in the time loop as long as Phil Connors was in Groundhog Day.

I've been wondering why traffic seemed so bad this week, and then I realized that school was back in session. There literally seems to be twice as many cars on the road. I pass a private school on my way to breakfast every Friday and I see cars lined up for ten blocks as parents queue in the right hand lane to drop their kids off for class. Luckily, I am going in the other direction. The same cars return every afternoon to pick the kids up. When you add the additional trips for band practice, soccer practice, and other school activities, the roads are always busy. It certainly is a different world from the one where I walked or rode my bicycle to school. I wonder how parents find any time to themselves these days.

The stock market had another miserable day. When is this going to end? I feel like my retirement income is an ice cube sitting out in the hot sun. It is just melting away day-after-day and there is very little I can do about it. I think people are going to regret the day when politicians sold them this idea that a 401K Plan that they managed themselves could provide a much more secure retirement income than the old fashioned defined benefit plans their parents generation relied on. It hasn't worked out all that great so far. I'd trade my 401K for my Dad's pension any day. He and my Mom lived comfortably on that pension for many years. I can't say that I'm going to do nearly as well. I might not be able to retire at all.

Work was busy for a change. I added a new section to one of my client's websites and changed out photos in another. There have been no writing jobs all week though. It's always feast or famine. I can never manage to keep a nice, steady workload for very long. At least I can still pay the bills. There's not much left over anymore unfortunately, and that's a bit worrisome. 

We've got a three day weekend coming up. I don't know what we'll do with the extra day, but maybe we'll think of something. I know we won't be sleeping in late. That's just not in the cards anymore. If we don't get Dot outside early, it's a virtual certainly that she'll poop in the house. Of course if she poops in the house in the middle of the night, I can always sleep in a bit longer after I've cleaned things up. That's what I did last night. Oh, well. Here's hoping for a relaxing weekend, starting with no barking dogs at breakfast tomorrow morning.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day