Day 3561

Jeez. It costs more to remove a tree than it does to take a nice little vacation to the Davis Mountains. This was the third time I've had to have the tree guys out this year. I bet they'll be back again. Janet wanted them to remove another tree as well, but the Elm tree was all they had time for today. I hate spending money to make the yard look even worse than it did before, but what are you going to do? Mother nature always wins these battles. These trees get blown down in windstorms or they fall from rot or old age. Mature trees the same age are falling in the park all the time. There's not much I can do to stop this.

At least the Elm tree is gone and I can check one more thing off my to-do list. The tree was located very close to the house, so we can't use a stump grinder to remove the stump. There is too much danger that the stump removal process would break the glass in the bedroom windows. The tree was close to our sewer line as well. One more reason not to get a stump grinder involved. People in the country often burn a tree stump out. Nope. That's not going to work. Sounds like a good way to burn down the house. I guess I'm going to have to get used to living with the unsightly stump.

Treasure's surgery went well. She had three growths removed, but none was cancerous. One growth was a benign fatty lipoma, another was a mammary tumor, and the third growth was scar tissue from an earlier surgery. Treasure should be on the road to recovery soon. What she needs now is a home.

There are a lot of Dalmatians that need a home right now. The rescue group has been asked to take in as many as twenty new dogs recently. This is way more than usual. We've already picked up six of these dogs, but it's a real challenge to find the funds to do something on this scale. Vet bills, food, and boarding expenses really add up quickly. Hopefully the group will find a way to bring all these dogs into the rescue program.

When I was taking my walk this morning, I could hear the tree guys chain saws from a long way away. Chain saws are really noisy. I wonder why people choose this line of work. There is a lot of skill involved to bring down a large tree without destroying everything in the vicinity. There is also a lot of danger. I've known several people who have experienced serious chain saw injuries. For that reason alone, I won't go anywhere near a chain saw. I'm glad there are people who will do this work. If you've got a tree on your roof, you've got a serious problem.

I just upgraded my phone to IOS 13 a few days ago and there is already another update. I guess it doesn't take long for bugs to be discovered. I downloaded the new update as well. I have no idea why it is needed, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

I skipped episode six of the Ken Burns documentary tonight. I'm sure I'll watch it later though. They rebroadcast these things over and over. I still can't decide whether to go see Ad Astra in a theater. Now that I've started taking long walks, there isn't a lot of time for a matinee movie. I eat breakfast, I walk, I do a few unavoidable chores, and I write the blog. Lately, I call that a pretty full day.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3026

Mother Nature apparently didn't get the memo that Winter is over. The temperature was in the thirties when I woke up this morning. It didn't get much warmer as the day progressed either. Jeez. The Bluebonnets are in bloom. We've already had our air conditioner running. This just isn't supposed to happen in Texas.

I wasn't happy about the weather, but I definitely was happy to see Dash feeling better. After a rough day yesterday, he was almost back to his old self. Even though it was very cold, he seemed eager to walk this morning. A stiff wind made it feel like the temperature was in the teens, but Dash didn't seem to mind. I can't say the same for myself.

I didn't spend much time outside today. After going to the grocery store and running my Saturday errands, I got the urge to hook up a MIDI keyboard to the computer. I hadn't done this in years, and not surprisingly the keyboard didn't work. After doing some research on Google, I discovered that the keyboard was no longer supported by Apple. I still didn't know whether the old equipment worked, so I restarted the computer using an external drive with an old system on it. I found a driver for the keyboard online and installed it. Suddenly I had gone back in time. Everything worked perfectly. I wish I'd never upgraded my system. My computer and my own brain seem to work better using Mountain Lion. Once Apple stopped naming their operating systems after cats, everything began to go downhill.

I played the little keyboard for a while and was surprised that I still remembered quite a few chord progressions. I had a bit of trouble getting my left hand and right hand working together, but with a little practice I could probably play piano again. Unfortunately, I had to put the keyboard away and restart the computer under Sierra again. Spending time in the past may be pleasant, but I can only make money in the present.

If I had a ton of space and nothing better to do, I'd keep a separate computer running for each decade I've been using one. I really liked my original Osborne 1. I hauled the heavy sewing machine shaped machine to user groups once a month where I would trade software on floppy disks with other geeks. Affordable hard drives hadn't even been invented yet. I got my first Macintosh in 1984 and have owned at least eight Macs since then. I edited video on machines that would be considered dinosaurs today. Everything worked though and I never missed a deadline. I miss those days.

Janet fixed chili tonight. A bowl of chili has always been our go-to meal on really cold days. As tasty as the chili was, I hope it is warmer tomorrow. I've had to plug in the little ceramic heater to keep the office warm and I'm wearing a sweater as I write. I'm not looking forward to going out in the middle of the night with Dash tonight. I wouldn't be surprised to see snow.

I was going to get a birthday card for my Luddite sister and I discovered that the Hallmark store in our neighborhood had gone out of business. I think the store has been gone for a while, but I don't buy cards very often. This isn't really a sign of the apocalypse, but it is discouraging that greeting cards are a thing of the past. I guess everybody just clicks the birthday button on Facebook now.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1896

The dreaded ice storm wasn't as bad as everyone expected. There was certainly a fair amount of ice and sleet on the ground when we woke up this morning, but we still had electric power and a few brave souls were even out on the roads. I had no desire to join these people. Driving on black ice is just asking for trouble. I started the car to make sure the battery still worked in the sub-freezing temperatures, but I never left the driveway.

There was plenty to do around the house anyway. Taking care of Dot is almost a full time job. She's starting to get cabin fever, so I try to walk her around a bit using the harness whenever she appears restless. Neither of the dogs wanted to be outside for long today. It was just too cold. Dash has become a model of efficiency about doing his business lately. He used to take forever to poop on his evening walks, but for the past two days he poops and pees almost immediately. We had completed our walk and were back in the house within five minutes this evening.

There were no writing jobs today, so I took care of my usual website updates and began editing another video. I can edit using either the laptop or desktop computers, but I've got to choose one or the other. Dot must have thought I picked the wrong one, because almost as soon as I began the tedious editing process in the office, she wanted me out in the living room with her. Even though Dot mostly just sleeps, you can't really let her out of your sight. You never know when she'll try to get up on her own, and since she's still taking prednisolone, you have to be able to get her outside to pee in a hurry.

I'm so glad that our power didn't go out today. Ice and snow days seem to last forever anyway, but enduring frigid weather while trapped inside a freezing house is even worse. Dealing with all these things with a sick and very immobile dog would have probably driven me over the edge. Dot did surprisingly well navigating our icy back yard when I took her out to pee. She had lots of help of course, but it was still encouraging to see her front legs move so confidently on the slick ground.

There is already another NASA event on the horizon and it appears that two people in the group that joined me at Vandenberg Air Force Base are planning to attend. I'm a bit envious. I wonder how these people have the time and money to do this so frequently. This event will be the first test firing of the rocket that will eventually take astronauts to Mars. This is a static test, so the rocket will never leave the ground, but it will still be very impressive. The test site is located near Promontory, Utah, which is even more remote than Vandenberg Air Force Base. Lord know how expensive it would be to fly there from Dallas. Oh, well. Maybe in a year or so, when Dot gets healthy again, I can start thinking about attending these events again.

It's going to be another very cold day tomorrow, but at least the danger of ice is receding. I'm mainly worried about the weather on Thursday, when we have to transport Dot to the specialty center in Lewisville where she will have her spinal surgery. It would be nice if you could deal with all stressful things on clear, warm Spring days, but nature doesn't work that way. As long as we continue to have electric power this week, I guess I'll be OK.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1440

One of the overhead lights in my office keeps blinking on and off. It's one of those new LED bulbs that are supposed to last forever and it's driving me nuts. I get out the ladder and climb up and tighten the bulb in it's socket, thinking I've solved the problem. About twenty minutes later, the light starts blinking again. It is a bad bulb? A bad fixture? Or bad wiring? It could be all three, but I hate to call an electrician just to have him tell me to screw the bulb in tighter.

At least this problem is indoors where it's warm. Earlier in the day I was up on the roof trying to remove the standing water before it all turned into ice. I was a little late, since a lot of the water had already frozen. I can tell you from experience that it's a lot harder to remove ice from the roof than water. When the water and the falling leaves freeze together, you've got a real mess on your hands.

It's hard to stay a fan of mother nature when the elements are relentlessly trying their best to destroy your house. Hopefully, the new roof is genuinely waterproof, since ice brings out the worst in a leak. Heat from the house melts the bottom of the ice and the cold keeps the surface frozen. As a result, it is nearly impossible to remove the water from the roof until the weather gets above freezing again. Indoors, water condenses on the inside of large expanses of single pane glass. This water drips to the sill below where it soaks through tiny cracks in the paint and rots the wood. Water pipes freeze. Rats and squirrels aggressively invade the greenhouse, looking for someplace warm. All in all, life is much easier in the Summer.

I  watched the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Awards ceremony on TV this evening where they honored Carol Burnett. Maybe I'm showing my age, but those old sketch comedy segments are still funnier today that almost anything I've seen on SNL lately. Granted, Saturday Night Live was fabulous in it's day too, but those days are long gone. I occasionally see a funny episode of Modern Family, but it's nothing like vintage Sienfeld or All in the Family. I think we've collectively lost our sense of humor and just like to make fun of people instead. Don't even get me started on music or reality shows. The world has changed. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone like John Kennedy again who could actually keep a promise to send men to the moon, invent the Peace Corps, and still be tough enough to put Khrushchev in his place. We have iPhones now, but we are a pale shadow of our former selves.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1167

On days like this I realize that I'm no match for Mother Nature. Since it is supposed to be cold and possibly wet later in the week, I took advantage of today's nice weather to get an early start on Spring cleanup activities. It only took a cursory inspection of the house to reveal galvanized gutters that had rusted through, rubber window seals that had dried and cracked, and a lot of peeling paint. The sun, the wind, and the rain had taken their toll, like they always do. I find it harder and harder to stay ahead of the game. Inexorably, the house and the yard it sits in are being reclaimed by the forces of nature.

I remember seeing a short animated film a few years ago that illustrated how cities like New York and Paris would revert to nature if all the people that inhabited them disappeared. In only a few hundred years, the cities were crumbling. In less than a thousand years, all traces of them were gone. We may think we have tamed the earth, but in the end nature always wins.

I'm not comfortable with decay. I wish our bodies didn't deteriorate. I wish my aging but beloved Defender 90 wasn't falling apart. I am continually irritated to see the sun, wind, and rain do their best to convert my house back to the elements from which it came. Wood rots quickly. Metal rusts faster than you think. Constant painting and upkeep just slows the process down. Like Dr. Who said in the Waters of Mars episode. "Water is patient. Water always wins."

There are some good things to this constant cycle of birth and decay. Last week's rain and this week's warm weather have already produced a bumper crop of early Spring flowers. When we took the dogs to the dog park today, I noticed that all the trees had already started to bud. In a few weeks the redbud and dogwood trees will be in full bloom. I will continue to try my best to stay on top of things. We'll plant some new grass next month and hope for the best. I'll put on a new roof which will immediately come under attack from the sun, wind, and rain. Life will go on. For a while anyway...

Nora is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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