Day 4889 - Mother's Day

Today was mostly a dreary, very wet day. We got lucky and were able to walk Dawn this morning before the rain started. We were even able to give her a very short Sunday outing walk during a short break in the rain later in the day. For the most part, it rained all day though. As you know, I'm not a big fan of rainy days. So far the roof hasn't leaked, but the pumps on the roof have been running all day.

Very little can deter us from our regular schedule, so we had a big family breakfast after we took Dawn on her early walk and then I got ready to go mall walking. It was raining on my way to the mall, but that was a good thing. It washed all the dust and tree pollen off my car. I wouldn't think of mall walking as a Mother's Day event, but there were a surprising number of moms with kids at the mall this morning. There were also quite a few dads taking their kids to the mall alone, presumably to give mom the day off. Maybe I'm imagining things, but the families walking with their kids together all seemed happier than the dads minding the kids by themselves.

Nothing changed at the mall this week. No new stores opened and no existing stores closed. One or two window displays changed, but most of them were exactly the same as well. It seems curious to me that some stores change their window displays every single week, while others haven't changed since I started mall walking. There is nothing new in fashion anymore. Everything in the windows is something I've seen two, ten, or even twenty years ago. I could pick almost any moth eaten old item of clothing out of my closet and I'd be right in style. Maybe I'm being too harsh though. One thing has changed. Shoes. There are a lot of really ugly looking shoes in store windows these days.

When I was driving home there was a show on NPR radio about an explosion of fake scientific papers in the academic world. Up to 20% of scientific papers published these days appear to be fake. Apparently there is great pressure to publish in the academic world and jobs and promotions depend on your publishing history. The people who have nothing to say purchase fake papers. It makes you wonder how much bogus information is floating around out there.

We were planning to skip the Sunday outing walk today and just go for ice cream cones, but Dawn seemed eager to walk. We waited for a break in the rain and took her to a section of the park where there were sidewalks so we wouldn't get muddy. We got lucky with the weather because it didn't start raining again until we were finished walking and back in the car. Dawn seemed happy with her short walk and was even happier when we arrived at the ice cream store. Ice cream cones on Sunday is a nice little ritual that we all seem to like.

I was going to call the roofing company tomorrow morning to postpone next week's roof installation, but the last time I looked at the weather forecast everything has changed and it now looks like the weather will be good next week. I'll check again tomorrow morning and see how things look. I'm beginning to think that the weather forecasts I get on my phone are basically worthless. There are pretty good for telling you what is going to happen five minutes from now, but almost useless for telling you what will happen five days from now. Every time I look at one of these weather apps, the forecast seems to change.

It appears like Axiom is going to wait until the last minute to provide credentialing information for next Sunday's AX-2 launch. I still don't know if I'm going to go. This is frustrating, but almost expected by now. Nobody seems to care that I might have trouble making travel arrangements. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens. Maybe I'll go to next Sunday's launch. Maybe we'll get a new roof next week. At this point your guess is as good as mine.

Lady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4518 - Mother's Day

Well, Dawn is certainly a mother. I bet she was a good mom. Lord know how many litters of puppies she had when she was a breeding dog at the puppy mill. I don't think those were pleasant days because she is still very fearful. She loves her new life now, but I think she's always waiting for the other shoe to drop. We suspect that one of the reasons that she's fearful of riding in the car is that she's worried she might be going back to her old life in Marshall, Texas. Dawn enjoys her walks and likes her Sunday outing, but is always relieved to be back at home in her safe spot, sitting on our big bed.

She must have known that today was a special day. She was full of energy this morning and ended up walking twice her normal distance on our sunrise walk. We always led her lead the way and are curious to see where she'll go. Usually she just follows her familiar one mile loop, but occasionally she gets adventurous.

After our walk we had breakfast and then did some household chores while waiting to take Dawn on her Sunday outing. We always wait until the ice cream store is open because getting ice cream is a big part of this Sunday adventure. I thought Dawn might be tired because she already walked quite a bit. Nope. She enjoyed this second walk too. She loves smelling new things. We have to steer her away from the poison ivy though. Lots of poison ivy in this park.

The ice cream store seemed short staffed this morning. Probably because it was Mother's Day. The staff seems too young to be moms, but thats just an old guy's perspective. Everybody seems young to me. Probably most of the staff are in their mid twenties. We all enjoyed our cones today. Dawn always seems calmer after having ice cream. She is always remarkably calm on the ride home.

I decided to mow the grass today. It was a little hot for my taste, but the traffic is much lighter on a Sunday. I don't enjoy mowing down by the street when everyone is in a hurry. I'm not close to the road very long, but even a few minutes seems too long when cars are racing by just inches away at fifty miles an hour. I'm not sure how much longer the electric mower is going to last. At the very least it needs new batteries. There used to be enough charge in the battery to mow the back yard after I finished the front. Now I have to let the mower recharge for a while before I can tackle the back yard. I could buy a new mower, but I really ought to just start paying the guy who is willing to mow my yard for me.

I felt industrious today, so I tried to fix the running toilet again. It's a shame that the parts I really need aren't available anymore. I've tried, but even the best plumbing supply store in Dallas can't find them for me. I do what I can and usually my repairs last about a week. My last attempt only lasted two days though. It's probably time to break down and get a Toto.

I didn't take a long walk today. After two walks with Dawn and mowing the grass I had all the steps I needed. It was hot this afternoon and I was tired. There is no need to punish myself just to keep my Fitbit happy. I"ll probably go back to taking a long walk tomorrow. Hey, what else is there to do?

I wish I'd get some feedback from the Benro people in China. I'm in no particular hurry to use the star tracker for astrophotography, but it's driving me crazy that I can't get it to work correctly. Since I had at least a partial success with the tracker out at McDonald Observatory, I can see it's potential. It's a pretty cool little piece of machinery. I'd like it a lot better if it worked though.

I like weekends because they inject a little variety into my life. Tomorrow it's back to shredded wheat for breakfast, long walks, and looking up random information on Google. 

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4154 - Mother's Day

I couldn't find a good picture of my Mom, but she would have liked this picture of Dot. Dalmatian Rescue used to do pet photo events for every holiday under the sun. Our Mother's Day events were surprisingly popular. You didn't have to have children to be a pet Mom and everyone wanted a picture with their dog. Dot was the poster child for many of our photo events. She wore her pearls well.

Dawn expects her Sunday car ride now. She got so excited when she saw we were getting ready. She still doesn't seem to like riding in the car, but she loves going somewhere new. Dawn walks a little faster on Sundays. She seems to know that we are doing something special just for her. As always, we finished this morning's outing with an ice cream cone. When we returned home, Dawn was content for the rest of the day.

I had more energy than usual today. It was an increasingly rare 20,000 step day. After a short nap on returning from our outing with Dawn, I decided to mow the grass. I tracked the activity on my Apple Watch and discovered that I burned twice as many calories mowing the grass as I did walking Dawn a little earlier. Mowing without a self propelled mower on a sloping lawn can be pretty strenuous for an old guy like me. I really need to ask one of the neighbor's lawn guys how much they'd charge to mow my lawn too while they were doing the neighbor's yards. My yard is so small that it would only take them a few extra minutes. If the cost was even remotely reasonable, it would be worth the money. Pushing this mower is wearing me out.

I needed a little longer nap after this much activity, but I still wanted to take my regular long walk today. It was very windy today, but the rain that was forecast never arrived. Actually the wind helped cool me down. It would have been hot and muggy outside without it. It was a nice day for a walk, but by the time I'd completed my normal five mile route, I'd had enough. 20,000 steps seems to be my limit these days. There were times when I completed as many as 24,000 steps a few years ago. I don't know how I did it.

I should have gotten a big bag of party ice today and used it to fill the ice maker bin. The ice maker is still broken, but I'm not going to have time to deal with an appliance repairman until after my trip. It would be easier to just replace the entire refrigerator, but nobody makes the correct size anymore. Kitchens have gotten larger over the years and today's refrigerators are huge. None of them will fit in the small slot where our current refrigerator goes. It looks like the only way to get a new refrigerator is to keep replacing components on our current one whenever something breaks. We are gradually getting a new refrigerator, part by expensive part.

I'm going to have to get serious about packing soon. I hate to pack and am a terrible travel planner, so I always wait until the last possible minute. I thought I'd be better prepared this time, but it looks like procrastination wins again. I just hope that it doesn't rain when I'm out at the observatory. It's a long, hard drive just to end up with cloudy skies or a thunderstorm when I get there. This will be my fourth trip out to the observatory. I've gotten rained out before, but I've also had clear skies and beautiful weather. You just never know.

I'm curious whether Cooper got adopted this week. I guess we'll find out when we visit the kennel tomorrow. Last week we thought that Cooper would be going to his forever home very soon, but things can always change. It's a pretty safe bet that Charlie will still be there though. Charlie is always there.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3790 - Mother's Day

My Mom's been gone for so long that I can't even remember what we used to do on Mother's Day. I'd like to think we did something special, but maybe we didn't. I still have a few childhood Christmas memories along with a fuzzy recollection of Sunrise Services at Easter, but I'm drawing a blank on Mother's Day. No memories of Father's Day either.

I thought the park would be really crowded since it was a holiday, but there were fewer people than I thought. It was a nice cool day and we had another pleasant walk with Dawn before breakfast. Dawn seems to like this new routine. Of course she'd already eaten her own breakfast before we left the house. People can postpone their breakfast. Dogs want to eat as soon as they wake up.

The new battery for my laptop arrived this morning. I was surprised that FedEx delivers on Sunday now. I wasn't expecting the battery until tomorrow. I was glad to see the package at the door. It gave me something to do today. There are always surprises with computer upgrades. I ordered the correct battery but for some reason it wouldn't fix in the enclosure. It seemed to be exactly the same size as the dead battery I was replacing, but there must have been a tiny difference. I thought about sending the battery back, but decided to file off one of the edges instead. It looked like if I rounded one of the corners just a bit, the battery should fit. I found a special file in my old watch repair toolkit and carefully shaved away some of the plastic case. After I rounded one of the corners, the battery fit perfectly. I still can't figure out why the battery didn't fit right out of the box. It looks identical to the OEM battery.

After I reattached all the loose cables and put the computer back together, I nervously pressed the power button. The computer started and booted up normally. I wasn't done though. I had to calibrate the power management system. This involved charging the battery and then discharging it completely, waiting five hours, and then recharging the battery again. I'm still not done with that process.

One of the downsides to this whole upgrade process is that my Microsoft Office 2011 no longer works. It is no longer supported by Microsoft either. Buried in the license agreement is a short paragraph that says you can't move the software to a different machine without voiding your license. Why? This makes no sense, since computers crash all the time. I'm sure I'm not the first person who installed a new hard drive in their computer. I guess a new hard drive counts as a new computer to Microsoft. They were no help at all when I called them this afternoon. They just want me to subscribe to Office 365.

I think we're going to start visiting the rescue dogs again. We haven't been to the kennel since the pandemic started. There is a new dog that needs to be photographed for the website and we miss seeing the Dalmatians. The place should be safe enough. It's mostly just dogs.

I have my annual physical exam later this week. Looks like my doctor is seeing regular patients again, since I got a reminder about the appointment today. I've got all sorts of questions for the doc. What do you think about hydroxychloroquine? How about vitamin D? What is an ideal pulse oximeter reading? He'll probably just ask me about my trip to the Davis Mountains. We both love West Texas.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3426 - Mother's Day

20,000 steps today. I'm doing a pretty good job of staying active although I'm not sure what it all means. I'm going to the gym earlier now, so I have plenty of time to walk. I need to take advantage of days like these because they won't last long. The air seemed free of pollen and the temperature was perfect. The wildflowers are at their peak right now as well. It was a good day to be outside. These long walks give me plenty of time to think, but my mind is usually blank. It's relaxing to turn your mind off and just observe. I count birds. I try to remember the names of flowers. When I hear footsteps behind me, I try to guess whether the person is male or female by the sound of their steps. I'm right about 80% of the time. The landscape changes rapidly in the Spring. Almost every day I see a new variety of flower. Some of the early bloomers are already gone.

There were lots of family gatherings in the park today. I'm sure this was because it was Mother's Day. It's hard to believe that it's been almost thirty years since my Mom passed away. She was younger than I am now. My family memories are really starting to fade. Truthfully, they were never that good to begin with. I remember we had a Boxer named Pepper. We used to take trips to visit national parks in the Summer. I read a lot of books and wanted to be a physicist until I realized there was math involved. I always thought that I had a completely normal childhood until I learned later in life that Mom was manic depressive and had been going though some really rough times while we were growing up. Either my Mom was exceptionally good at hiding things or I was completely oblivious to what was going on around me. I suspect it's the latter. It's probably a good thing that I didn't have a clue back then. If you think you're normal when you are small, you probably wind up normal as an adult.

I experimented with shoes today. I wore one pair of shoes to the gym. Another pair on my first walk. And a third pair on my evening walk. The third pair was surprisingly comfortable. I'd never worn them before. I bought these boots two or three years ago and was planning to use them as dog walking shoes. Then I completely forgot about them. They've just been sitting in a box all this time. The shoes were a little snug, but I think I wore thinner socks back then. All I need to do is buy some thinner hiking socks and I'll be back in business.

I should have mowed the grass and cleared the remaining water off the roof this afternoon. I just didn't feel like it. I spend way too much time fighting a losing battle with this house. Sometimes it's more satisfying to just let your mind wander and count ducks. I'll still have to go up on the roof and mow the grass eventually. Like it or not, my Mom did teach me to be responsible.

This weekend has gone quickly. Janet and I may go visit the rescue dogs again tomorrow. We seem to be welcome at the kennel and the dogs definitely enjoy the attention. In lieu of long range plans, I guess we'll just stick with short range plans for the moment.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3062 - Mother's Day

My Mom was younger than I am when she died. I never thought she died young at the time, but I sure do now. I wonder what she'd think if she'd lived to see today's world. She'd probably be excited. Mom was always an optimist. I ended up more like my Dad, but I appreciate Mom's influence. Thanks to her, I can usually see both sides to an issue.

My parents have been gone so long that many memories are starting to fade. I can't remember any specific advice that Mom gave me while growing up. She was honest and kind though, and overcame many adversities. I can't really imagine a better role model.

I doubt that I'm a role model to anyone. I never had children and never wanted them. Instead of sharing my values with the next generation, I just wanted to avoid children at all costs. Maybe that's why I've always been more comfortable around dogs. If there was a holiday for pet parents, I wonder if Dash would remember. I've done a lot of things wrong in my life, but I think I've always been good to our dogs.

Dash got me up in the middle of the night again. I thought his schedule had become a little more regular in recent weeks, but he is full of surprises. The latest surprise is that he can't seem to keep his boots on anymore. He's lost a boot on his walks for the last three days in a row. I've had a lot of trouble putting the boots back on while we are walking. I have a feeling that Dash is dragging his feet more and this is pulling the boots off. I'm really going to have to come up with a solution, because his paws need protection. We found a tick on Dash yesterday too. There are just way too many things that could cause this dog to bleed.

The gym was empty again today. I wonder if I'm ever going to find time to go more than once a week? Sunday's work great because Janet can stay home with Dash. I really hate to leave him for any length of time. Who knows when he's going to have another seizure or fall and be unable to get up? The older and more frail Dash becomes, the more I worry.

Now, I'm fretting about the roof again. I thought next week was going to be perfect for repairs. As recently as yesterday there was nothing but clear skies in the forecast. Now, they say there's a thunderstorm that's going to be arriving on Tuesday. Jeez. Getting the roofers to come out at all is hard enough. Getting them coordinated with the weather is impossible.

One way or another everything will get done. The roof will eventually get fixed. The trees will get trimmed. Dash will take his pills and eat his dinner. Maybe I'll even get some sleep.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2698 - Mother's Day

Mom died twenty seven years ago. She was a remarkable woman who had a much greater influence on her family than she imagined. Whatever shred of kindness or hope I have left probably came from her. From time to time I still wonder whether she would have approved of the person I've become.

I never saved family photos or childhood memories. My long term memory is abysmal. That's why I write things down. I wrote a story about Mom shortly after her death. I knew I would want to remember someday. Perhaps it means something that I never wrote anything when my Dad died thirteen years later.

In many ways Dot has occupied the role of Mother in our house for many years. She is territorial. Very protective. And she definitely made Dash a better dog. Right now, my memories of our years with Dot are much more vivid than my memories of Mom. I know these memories will fade too. All my memories fade. Maybe that is why I started this blog. It's mostly about life with Dot and Dash. I want to remember these times.

Janet still remembers all kinds of details about our first Dalmatian. I don't. I wrote an entire book about Spot because I wanted to remember those times too. These words are my memories. If I don't write it down, it probably means that I'd just as soon forget.

Dot is still eating very late at night. This is much better than not eating at all, but it gives her indigestion. There is usually a point about an hour after we all go to bed that Janet and I are both convinced that Dot is going to throw up. I take her outside and walk her around for a while. This seems to help and sometimes she pees again too. Eventually, she goes to sleep. I got up several times last night to take Dot outside. I didn't sleep well, but Dot didn't throw up. This new routine is OK on weekends because we can all sleep in late. It doesn't work so well on workdays though.

When both dogs eat their food and nobody throws up, I consider the day a success. Today was one of those days. Dot still won't eat in the morning, but I am becoming increasingly confident that she will eat at some point during the day. With Dash back to normal and Dot learning to eat again, I'm starting to feel that life doesn't have to be a perpetual crisis. I'm not going to get over confident though. Things can change rapidly when your dog is 120 in human years.

I had a good workout at the gym, but that's about as far as my motivation would take me. I really didn't accomplish much today. There are clean sheets on the bed. Dot got all her pills. And I managed to take a shower. That's about it. Maybe I'll be more productive tomorrow. It sure would help if both dogs decide to sleep all the way through the night. Fingers crossed.

Lady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2336 - Mother's Day

My Mom has been gone so long now that many memories are starting to fade. When she was alive, the medical community wasn't very familiar with bipolar disorder. She suffered from the highs and lows associated with manic depression for most of her adult life, but was never effectively treated. In her case, I think the cure was worse than the disease. Despite her violent mood swings, she led a rich and productive life, always encouraging me to be the best that I could be. She was very interested in the early civil rights movement and was proud of the letters she exchanged with Rosa Parks for many years. Mom tried to teach me tolerance, but she might not be pleased with what I have become. I'm not nearly as tolerant as she was. Memories fade, but every Mother's Day I'm left with a feeling that her life was cut short way too soon. The mood swings were frightening, but what the doctors did was even worse. From the time I was a teenager, I was determined not to suffer the same fate. In an odd way, that explains everything.

I've never had kids, so Mother's Day and Father's Day are not a big deal. Today, like almost every other Sunday, was a day for household chores and strenuous exercise. Amazingly, both dogs were content to sleep in this morning. I think they didn't realize it was morning, since it was so dark and overcast outside. Without the usually early morning barking, my fitness monitor informed me that I received 85% of a normal night's sleep. This is almost a personal best for me. We took a shorter morning walk than usual today, because Dot seemed tired and it looked like it was going to rain. I'm disappointed that discontinuing Dot's chemotherapy hasn't done anything to improve her strength. She does the best she can, but we may have to permanently shorten her walks a bit. She just doesn't have the strength anymore.

I'm not sure if I have the strength anymore either. I think the only reason I feel like I'm doing a good job at the gym is that all the other members are heart patients and can barely move. Janet doesn't like it that the men always leave the machines sweaty at her gym. I always tell her to come to mine instead. Most of my fellow members couldn't work up a sweat if they tried. For the most part, the machines look showroom new. I love this odd octogenarian gym. It's a great place to shoot baskets, because I'm almost always the only one using the basketball court.

I had a good workout this morning and then came home and vacuumed the house. I didn't bother to mow the grass or wash the car because it's just going to continue raining tomorrow. You might think it was a boring day, but I didn't. Today was fine. Dot was alert and in good spirits, even though I could tell she was feeling weak. Janet fixed bacon for breakfast and bacon is always good. It's a once a week treat that I'm hoping won't destroy my plans to keep my cholesterol low. I like to make an egg sandwich by putting an over easy egg inside a big breakfast biscuit and then adding a couple of slices of bacon. It's back to my banana and strawberry smoothies tomorrow, but these bacon and egg sandwiches sure are good.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. We are in the path of thunderstorms, so it will depend on how hard it rains. I'm starting to see lots of little Porcupine Mimosa's in the meadows now. After a rain, the number of wildflowers seems to double almost overnight.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1608 - Mother's Day

I opted to clean the roof today instead of going to the gym. I really had no choice. When I took a peek at what was up there, it was a soggy mess. Last Thursday's wind and rain had deposited a thick blanket of of catkins, small branches, and leaves that the water had shaped into beaver ponds. This Spring tree debris had trapped all the water and none of it was draining off the roof. By the time I got the roof cleaned up again, I might as well have gone to the gym. The exercise was just as strenuous. I'm always worried that I'll get in a car wreck and the dogs will be left alone in the house for an uncertain amount of time. Probably I should be a bit more worried about falling off the roof.

I went and got groceries for the week this morning. I'm really a terrible shopper. I never make a grocery list and typically just buy what I'm hungry for right now. I tried to be a bit more methodical today, but I still probably bought fruit that will go bad before I get around to eating it and vegetables that I won't eat at all. I carefully try to follow the 80/20 rule where 80% of my diet comes from plant material and 20% from meat protein. I'm eating a lot more vegetables now, but life was so much simpler in my younger years when a similar trip to the store would have resulted in five frozen pizzas, a tub of Blue Bell ice cream, and a case of beer.

Mother's Day is one of those holidays that I probably wouldn't remember if it weren't for Facebook and the thousands of people who use a picture of their mom as their profile picture for the day. I have thousands of pictures of my dogs, but very few of family. Both of my parents passed away quite a few years ago and the memories are rapidly fading. I do still remember that my mother was a remarkable woman. Because I have no long-term memory, I wrote a story about her right after she died. I'm glad I did. Whenever I read this story, I feel lucky to have had a Mom like this, and sad for the way her life ended.

Dash's neck continues to improve. The radiation burn has gone from red, to pink, to a light salmon color. A scab has formed over the worst area and the surrounding skin looks almost normal again. I stopped the Tramadol yesterday evening and he seems just fine without it. Both dogs had lots of energy on their walks today and are in good spirits. There is still a complicated schedule of pills to administer, but so far, so good, on that as well.

I keep hearing on the news that we'll be getting more severe weather tomorrow. No tornadoes are forecast, but there is supposed to be lots of wind and rain. With this kind of forecast, you might think it was ludicrous for me to spend hours clearing the water off the roof this afternoon. Actually, tomorrow's forecast is exactly why I cleared the roof. When there's a heavy rainstorm, you want as much water draining off the edge of the roof as possible. The last thing you want is a beaver pond that just lets the water get deeper and deeper. Hopefully the forecast will get revised as the cold front moves closer. I vote for no rain at all. We've already had enough rain for one month.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1244 - Mother's Day

I should have paid more attention to my Mom when I had the chance. It's way too late now. Both my parents have been dead for many years. Mom died way too soon. She would have loved the Internet and all the new opportunities it brought. Mom was a champion of lost causes and would have been delighted to discover that there were other folks who thought the same way as she did. The Internet is good for that sort of thing. As it was, she fought her battles more or less alone. Towards the end of her life, she took me aside and told me, "You're the writer in the family. You're going to have to tell my story, because nobody else will." I wonder why it slipped her mind that there was another, more celebrated writer in the family. I don't know whether Mom would have liked what I wrote. I was never good at reading her mind. She certainly had me pegged pretty well though. And she did make a difference. Thank you Mom.

Dot occupies the role of Mom in our house. She knows she's in charge and does an amazingly good job of keeping Janet and I punctual, while doing everything in the proper order. Dash never listens to me, but he does listen to Dot. All it takes is a stern look or a low growl to put an end to his bad behavior. Dash isn't scared of Dot, but he does respect her. The girl has an air of authority about her that every dog in the dog park understands. If Dot was a person, she'd have made a great Mom.

The dogs and I had a quiet day. I took them on an extra long walk this morning to compensate for missing their outing to the dog park. While they both took a snooze after we returned, I watched a movie on Hulu. I wonder if there's any way to turn off those irritating commercials on Hulu. One of the reasons I signed up for Hulu in the first place was to get away from commercials. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Whenever someone comes up with a good idea, the first thing they want to do is monetize it.

Later in the day, I went back to Central Market and got some more tasty food from the deli counter. I like to eat, but I really don't like to cook. I think I've got enough now to last until Janet gets back. Never mind that there's tons of food in the freezer. I never open the freezer. That's Janet's side of the fridge.

We slept in longer than usual this morning. The dogs aren't very good alarm clocks. They'll get up when the sun starts streaming through the bedroom window, or when they hear Janet making their breakfast. Whichever comes first.  We'll probably get up late tomorrow as well. I'm certainly not getting up before the sun starts streaming through the bedroom window.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 880 - Mother's Day

It's been a while since Mother's Day had any real significance for me. When my Mom was still alive, she would constantly exhort me to become a better person, to be kind to the less fortunate, and to rise above misfortune. Much of what she told me went in one ear and came right out the other. I wasn't the best of sons. Mom never gave up though. To her dying day, she continued to send me weekly letters full of wise and often cockeyed advice on how to improve my life. Sometimes I wonder if she'd approve of the final result of her efforts. I never became a priest like she once wanted. I never joined the Peace Corps either. I guess the one bright spot would be that I am kind to animals.

I finally finished moving everything out of the old storage room today. The room is completely  empty. Yay! Even though this tiring and somewhat meaningless activity wouldn't have carried much weight with Mom, who loved to have yard sales and give my Dad's stuff away, I'm glad it is finally finished. Now I've just got to get everything organized again. I went and bought some more industrial shelving this afternoon, but didn't have time to assemble it. Just getting everything moved was enough for one day.

It's been so rainy this week that the dog parks were closed, so I took the dogs on an extra long walk this morning. In addition to our regular journey through the park, we also walked through the neighborhood, checking out who had bought a new car or sold their house. The new houses in the neighborhood are much bigger and fancier than the older ones. Oddly, the size of the families living in these palatial homes are smaller than the families who used to live in the small frame homes they replaced. I grew up in a simple frame house. We all shared one bathroom. I don't think my Mom would have approved of these new McMansions.

The power went out this evening, which was odd, since there was only a gentle rain today. We've always had problems with power outages in our neighborhood though. When the power finally came back on, I noticed that the U-Verse TV's went through this complicated re-boot process that seemed to take about ten minutes. I also noticed that the backup battery for my computer's UPS power supply is dead. That gizmo didn't last very long. I only bought the uninterruptible power supply a few years ago after another power outage completely fried my office computer. Mom probably did know best. She had no interest in computers.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 870

I think I bit off more than I can chew today. I tried to plant grass as well as finish all my normal website updates and web articles. My ambitious plan might have worked if so many of my webmaster accounts hadn't called in their updates and revisions today instead of waiting until Friday like they usually do. I got several complex website updates finished and wrote a Mother's Day watch article. Unfortunately, there's still a lot more to finish tomorrow. Lots of sod got planted as well.  The right side of the yard is all finished now. Sadly, I sprained my ankle lugging the heavy sod around. I'm just not very good with manual labor tasks any more. Maybe if I just hired a bunch of Mexicans like the rest of the neighborhood seems to do, everything would be fine. I stubbornly continue to do everything myself though. It just seems right.

I've noticed that the butterflies in the park are already starting to disappear. Maybe the popular wisdom about butterflies only living for a week or two is really true. I certainly don't see them that often. For a few weeks in late April and early May, they're everywhere. Then they're gone. While they are around, butterflies are certainly hungry little creatures. A lot of the flowers they feast on have already been decimated. I'll miss these little guys. They're quite pretty and very easy to photograph.

I like my new real estate agent. We seem to be on the same wavelength. Usually real estate agents drive me nuts, but this one is quite pleasant and really seems to understand mid-century architecture and the people who buy it. I think the property will be up on the MLS website tomorrow.  It's certainly priced right for today's miserable housing market. Hopefully it will find a buyer soon.

I wonder if the dogs will walk on the new grass I planted today, or head straight for the remaining mud like they've been doing all week. I'll probably have to finish the entire lawn before I can curtail the mandatory paw inspection I have to make every time they come back in the house. I usually remember this necessary step, but when I forget, the dogs  inevitably head straight for the bed and I have to throw the sheets in the laundry again. Somehow, I can't talk about this kind of stuff with all my self important corporate clients. I know you guys will understand though. You're probably dealing with something even worse.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day