Day 3853

I didn't need an alarm to wake up in time to see the comet. About the time I had planned to get up I awoke to the sound of a violent wind storm. Where did this come from? There was no rain, but the straight line winds were fierce. Lawn furniture was blowing around in the yard and the tree branches were swaying so much that I was afraid that one of our remaining large trees was going to fall. A few minutes after the wind woke me up, our power went out.

Losing power in July is something all Texans fear. We are lost without air conditioning. I immediately called in an outage report and then looked at the outage map on the Oncor web site to see if power outages in the city were extensive. Yikes. There were thousands of outages all over the city. Despite the widespread outages, we got an estimate of around four hours to restore power.

Four hours isn't bad at all, but sometimes these estimates are way off. We could feel the temperature slowly start to rise in the house, but there wasn't much we could do. The weather radar indicated that some heavy rain would be following the brief wind storm. Janet and I went back to bed and waited for the rain, thankful that Dawn wasn't afraid of storms like some of our other dogs.

Oddly, the storm never arrived. Somebody got a lot of rain, but the storm seemed to be moving to the east of us. When morning arrived, we thought we could take Dawn on a short walk before it started raining. One of my weather apps said we had about a thirty minute window. As we walked, the window kept increasing. When we reached the point where we were going to turn around, it looked like we had another hour before the rain would arrive. This was enough time to complete the entire five mile walk, so off we went. I love these weather apps on my phone. The make life so much easier and predictable. It never did rain.

As we were returning home, I got a message on my Apple watch that our power had been restored. This all worked out almost perfectly. The house was cool again when we returned home and I didn't have to hook up the generator at all. The heavy overcast skies made the walk a lot cooler as well. I didn't get to see the comet, but we did end up having a nice breakfast.

Later in the day the skies cleared and the temperature rose rapidly. It was over 100 degrees when I took my afternoon walk. I had to run a couple of errands during the day and was surprised at how crowded the stores were. Even though Dallas is currently experiencing a record number of new coronavirus cases, everyone is shopping normally again. Go figure.

I mowed the grass in the back yard this afternoon, but it was just too hot to mow the front. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. I really need to find someone to remove the large Oak tree in the back yard. I was really afraid that this tree was going to fall last night. Since the tree is very near power lines, I'm going to have to find a tree service that is certified to do work near electric power. I'll probably need a bucket truck too. This tree is very large and in an awkward place. Did I tell you how much I hate expensive repairs? It needs to be done though. I don't want Janet telling me "I told you so" after the tree falls.

Hard to believe that the year is half over and we've basically done nothing since March. Hey, Ford will be revealing the new Bronco tomorrow. That will be something to watch. We'll be going up to the Dalmatian kennels to photograph Lucky, our newest member of the rescue program as well. Our trees are still standing and the air conditioner is working fine. All is well.

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3366

Our power went out before dawn this morning. I knew a storm with straight line winds was headed our way, but I wasn't expecting a citywide power outage. I think over 100,000 customers were affected. Needless to say, it took a while to get the lights back on again. The Oncor outage reporting system was overwhelmed for a while. Initially, the system didn't even recognize me when I called in our location.  When Dash started pooping in the dark, I knew it was going to be a long day.

My initial worry was the heavy rain. With no electricity, the pumps weren't working. I knew that water would accumulate quickly on the roof, but there was very little I could do. I found a portable camping light, cleaned up Dash's poop, and convinced him to come back to bed for a while. There certainly wasn't much point to getting up early this morning. There wasn't going to be a morning walk.

I thought the high winds would blow the roof off the greenhouse again, but luckily it stayed in place. Power outages are not uncommon in our part of town. Sitting in the dark wondering if Dash is going to freak out and if my phone battery is going to die is a very familiar feeling. These outages make me realize how dependent we've become on electricity. You can't do much in our house without electricity.

Eventually the power returned and I began the time consuming process of resetting clocks and timers. The washer and dryer turn on automatically after a power outage. This shouldn't be happening, but it does. Everything has a clock in it these days. The land line phones, the WiFI thermostat,  the Keurig coffee maker, and the timers on the living room lights all need to be reset. The furnace wouldn't even work until I reset its internal calendar. It didn't know whether it was supposed to be on the day or nighttime settings. It's always a pain to get the WiFi network and U-Verse TV up and running again. The router for the network is supposed to reboot automatically after an outage, but it seldom does. If you turn things on and off again enough times, they usually start to work though. By the time Janet returned from the gym, I had everything working again.

The day turned out surprisingly nice despite its rocky beginnings. After the storm blew through and headed East, the skies cleared and by early afternoon the temperature was up to 75 degrees. Dash eventually got a nice walk. It was just a little late. I hope I got the water off the roof in time. That seems to be the key to preventing a leak. I turned the pumps on as soon as the power was restored and by the time I climbed up on the roof to finish the job, the water level was actually pretty low.

I was supposed to have a meeting with my financial adviser this afternoon but I didn't feel like driving to his office. We just talked on the phone instead. I'm glad I don't own any Boeing stock. Boeing is getting hammered because of worries about the 737. I flew home in a 737 on Monday and everything seemed fine. The company says pilots just aren't reading the instruction manual, but some pilots say otherwise. The problem is that modern planes are just a giant computer. You don't fly them manually anymore. It's usually not a problem if you need to reboot your computer at the office. If you need to reboot your plane's computer during takeoff, you've got a big problem. This is why I'm not very optimistic about self-driving cars. Can you imagine millions of cars with wonky computers on the road. It's not going to end well.

I seemed really busy today, but as usual I didn't get much accomplished. Dash got his walks and took all his meds. I fixed my morning smoothie, and all the electronic gizmos in the house are working again. As power outages go, this one wasn't too bad. I didn't need to go buy bags of ice to save the food in the refrigerator and I didn't have to call AT&T to come out and fix the U-Verse. The only challenge was cleaning up poop in the dark. Hopefully, tomorrow will go smoothly.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1979

Although we had heavy thunderstorms last night, our power stayed on. When the skies cleared and the sun came out later this morning, our power went out. Go figure. It's anybody's guess what caused the problem this time. It wasn't the weather, and it wasn't the trees. The power company had just finished trimming all the trees in the neighborhood a few weeks ago. Maybe a piece of equipment at one of the sub-stations was underwater. We've certainly had our share of flooding recently. I haven't seen the lake this high in years.

There's not a lot you can do when the power goes out. We walked the dogs and Dot did surprisingly well. Earlier in the morning, she threw up, but it was probably just storm phobia stress. The thunder was loud and relentless last night and Dot didn't like it a bit. I was afraid she would try to hop up in the bed and hurt herself, so I slept on the floor with her to keep her calm. No wonder the dogs like to sleep in the bed so much. The floor is pretty hard. Sleeping with Dot calmed her down though, so it was worth the sore back in the morning.

Since the computer, the television, and even the coffee maker were all dead, I decided to wash the outside windows. I've been avoiding this task, since the windows were not only dirty, they were filled with spiderwebs as well. I think most of our resident spiders are harmless, but I've never liked spiders and do my best to avoid them. I disturbed a couple of big ones today, but the windows are a lot cleaner.

Since clean windows didn't bring the power back, I had no choice but to go to the gym. I think it's been well over a month since I've visited the gym and the dogs aren't walking very far either. I'm out of shape again. I tried to do my regular workout routine and was amazed at how quickly I'd regressed. It seemed like I was starting all over again. My doctor says I need to get on the treadmill more, to counteract a gradual loss of bone density, My physical therapist says I need to do lots of stretching exercises to keep from getting a frozen shoulder. If I did everything I am supposed to do, I'd be at the gym all the time.

The power company eventually restored our power and life returned to normal again. I cleared all the water off the roof from yesterday's storms. I fired up the computer and made a few minor website updates. Janet fixed a nice dinner. And I didn't need to worry about making today's blog bost using a laptop with a half dead battery.

My mouth has finally healed enough from the wisdom tooth extraction for me to go see a different dentist next week. I'm not looking forward to this, but it would be silly to postpone things. The whole reason I had the wisdom tooth removed in the first place was to save the tooth next to it. If I delay getting this tooth repaired, it might have to be pulled as well. This whole dental journey has been like opening Pandora's Box. I just hope it all ends reasonably soon.

I think we'll see a little sunshine tomorrow, but starting Tuesday the thunderstorms return. The long range weather forecast says to expect the storms to continue all the way through Memorial Day. Too bad we can't send some of this water to California. We've got way too much here.

Susie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1967

The two Live Oak trees in our back yard are destroyed. The power company tree trimmers arrived early this morning and began butchering the trees. By noon, they both looked like stumps. If the tree crews came every year, they could trim the trees just enough so that the power lines running down the alley would be completely safe without destroying the trees. These guys only want to come every five or six years though and they always cut the trees back way more than necessary, so they won't have to return the following year. I assume that this saves money, but it makes a mess of the trees. I think they require a clear area of at least twelve feet around the each power line. Three or four feet would easily keep branches from touching the wires even on the windiest day, but of course, I have no say in the matter.

I am so sick of trying to clean food particles out of my mouth after meals without touching the hole where my wisdom tooth used to be that I almost feel like quitting eating. Eating has always been one of my few real pleasures and now it is a total nuisance. Hard crunchy things are difficult to chew and soft things get stuck in my teeth. Nothing seems to work. My teeth have become so sensitive to cold beverages that I almost welcome the warm salt water rinse I have to swish around in my mouth three or four times a day. Apparently, going to the dentist is like opening a Pandora's Box. One of my other dentists called today and wanted to set up an appointment to fix tooth number 31. The oral surgeon has already told all the referring dentists that he'd done his part. Now I need to repair the tooth next to the wisdom tooth that was removed. After that, I probably need a new crown on tooth number 30 as well.

Dot must be almost deaf by now. She slept completely through all the noisy chain saws and loud voices of the crew in the back yard this morning. It's a bit sad to see her growing deaf, but it's a blessing in a way. She's a lot calmer when she doesn't hear all the odd noises that used to upset her. When she finally woke up for a late lunch, the tree crews had gone. When she went out in the yard to investigate, she knew something had happened, but she wasn't sure what. I hate seeing the Live Oak trees chopped up like this, but maybe the St. Augustine grass will finally start growing. There's certainly a lot more light in the yard now.

I paid a few bills today and tried to resolve a doctor bill that slipped through the cracks two years ago and never got paid by insurance. I think I got things cleared up, but you never know with this type of thing. The sign company called and said the banner I ordered yesterday was ready, so I picked that up on my way home from the post office. By the time I got home, it was time to feed the dogs again. Dash lost one of his protective socks yesterday, so we tried to find it on our walk this evening. It was a futile effort, since Dash never likes to go the same way twice. We almost lost another sock this afternoon, but luckily I noticed it was gone just a few feet after he kicked it off. That's it. It wasn't a very exciting day, but hey, that's how I roll.

Bunny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1874 - Superbowl Sunday

So, we're eating dinner and watching the big game and the power goes out. What? It was a clear, pretty day with no weather issues at all, so this was a big surprise. I'm pretty sure I know what happened. The power service to our neighborhood is so pitiful that it just wasn't up to the challenge of everybody cooking dinner and watching TV at the same time. I went out to the back to make sure that we hadn't just thrown a breaker switch somehow. All my neighbors were doing the same thing. Who would have thought the power would go out on Superbowl Sunday right in the middle of the game? I'll have to give the power company credit though. They restored power in less than an hour, which is record breaking time for them. I bet they got a lot of angry calls.

They must have aired all the good commercials while our power was out because I certainly didn't see any. The commercials this year were even worse than last year's lackluster showing and last year was pretty bad. Nobody seems to have a sense of humor anymore. The half time show seemed more like a Fourth of July fireworks show than a concert. I'm sure that Katy Perry got rave reviews from her fan base, but this Superbowl performance didn't hold a candle to Michael Jackson and Prince in my somewhat long-in-the-tooth opinion. The only thing I did like about this year's Superbowl was the game itself. It was a great game, although I still can't believe that the Seahawks didn't win. They had so many chances to put this thing away and they still managed to lose.

Earlier in the day, I went to the legendary Superbowl sale at my favorite clothing store. The last thing I need are more clothes, but I came home with a shirt and a nice pair of shoes anyway. The store was really crowded today. There's something about 75% off that seems to attract people. I can't say that I understand my attraction to nice clothes, since I seldom wear them. I walk the dogs in my oldest, most comfortable jeans and some well worn hiking boots. The jacket I wear on cold days is probably fifteen years old and I could run my business in my underwear, since I seldom leave the house. If there's ever an occasion to dress up though, I'm prepared.

Today was a good day to get the water off the roof, since it was clear and sunny. There was an enormous amount of standing water, but it's all gone now. I didn't make it to the gym this week at all, but my water removal gymnastics should count as a pretty good workout. I ought to make a workout video. Pushing hundreds of pounds of water off the roof with a push broom is really hard work.

After breakfast this morning, I reviewed the pictures I shot yesterday, made my picks, and burned everything to a DVD. I hope everyone likes the pictures, because it would be hard to recreate them now. I'm glad to have this job behind me, even though it was interesting and kind of fun. Now it's time to start editing the video I shot just before leaving for Vandenberg Air Force Base.

I miss the small, very talented, group of space geeks I met in California. I'm sure there are a few folks like this in Dallas, but I certainly haven't met them.

Myles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1864

It was one of those days. Shortly after we woke up this morning, the power went out. The power grid is so bad in our part of town that a feather can knock the power out. It rained last night, but there was no real reason for a power outage. Usually, it's an ice storm or severe winds that knock the power out, but this time it was just a very rainy night. Without power, there is no hot coffee in the morning, no fried eggs for breakfast, no television, no furnace, no lights, and no e-mail. Miraculously, we still have hot water though, since the water heater is fueled by natural gas.

As soon as the rain let up a bit, we took the dogs on a walk. Even though it was quite cold outside, walking was better than waiting for the power to come back on in a dark and drafty house. Janet and I didn't see lights in any of the other houses, so it looked like the power was out in the entire neighborhood. When a power outage is widespread, we're usually the last to get electricity back. They restore areas near schools and hospitals first, and eventually get around to the people who aren't near anything special, like us.

Since I can't function without coffee in the morning, I drove to a nearby restaurant to get take-out. Eventually, the power was restored, but a big chunk of the day was wasted. Every time something like this happens, I wonder why we don't pay more attention to improving our power grid. Politicians are always talking about creating jobs and about the growing threat of cyber-terrorism. They could create tens of thousands of well paying jobs by making a commitment to refurbishing the country's power distribution network. Put all the lines underground. There is just no reason for the power system to be so fragile, especially in a world where you are dead in the water without electricity.

It was hard to get Dot out of bed to go to her therapy session today. I understood completely. I didn't feel like doing my stretching exercises either. We both persevered though, driving to the vet in the cold rain for her weekly conditioning session. Dot did well in the underwater treadmill, as she usually does, but as soon as we got home again she curled up on a warm blanket and went to sleep. On days like this I wish we had a fireplace. Today would have been a perfect day for sitting in front of a warm fire.

I'm so forgetful lately. I left my phone at the vet this afternoon and had to turn around on our way home to go back to retrieve it. I probably never would have remembered the phone if a warning light hadn't come on in the car, telling me that the phone was no longer paired with the Bluetooth connection. It's sad when my car has a better memory than I do. I almost forgot to take the trash out to the curb this evening too, but Dot always remembers when it's trash day.

I hope tomorrow seems like Friday. I usually look forward to Fridays, but all the days have seemed exactly the same this week. It's disorienting. Maybe a tasty meal at my favorite restaurant will get the compass pointed in the right direction again.

Raider is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1752

As if an Ebola outbreak wasn't enough, our fair city is now shrouded in darkness. We are currently experiencing a massive power outage after a severe thunderstorm ripped through town about 4 PM this afternoon. I think that there are over 200,000 outage reports in the general area and one of them is ours. I've heard that the straight line winds were as high as 90 miles an hour at one point. This was certainly enough to uproot trees all over the city and blow a large section of our neighbor's roof off their house. The roof is currently sitting against our back fence. We were very lucky this time. There were no downed trees in our yard and so far, there have been no leaks through the roof. The wind was strong enough to blow water through the bottom of the back door, but that was about it. There is still a downed power line in the alley that was severed by the flying roof. I'm not sure if the wire is touching my metal fence at any point, but I'm definitely not going to touch the fence until the power company comes out and fixes the line. It goes without saying that I'm operating on battery power at this time.

Somehow the number of people in town who have been exposed to Ebola has gone from just a handful, to a dozen, to over 100 in less than 24 hours. This isn't good. I heard on the news today that one of the exposed, and presumably quarantined, kids went back to school yesterday. This in insane. Nobody even noticed the kid was gone until the school notified the CDC. So much for this "self-quarantine" they've been talking about. A judge had to get a court order to keep the people in their house. Now there are armed guards to make sure they don't disappear. The whole thing is a mess. The CDC hasn't even sent a HazMat team to decontaminate the apartment where the guy was staying yet. I've heard that the dirty sheets that the infected man slept on and even vomit are still untouched inside the house.

My vet is worried that nobody has even asked whether these people have a dog. Dogs are known hosts of the disease in Africa. If a dog was exposed and it is still running around around, Lord know what might happen. I'm still worried about poop. Did this guy use the bathroom on the plane? You know how airplane bathrooms work. They just open a little hatch and eject everything in the sky when they're at cruising altitude. There may be a little ticking time bomb in some farmer's field, or in your back yard.

Dot seemed tired and a little nervous during her physical therapy session. I bet she sensed that the storm was coming. Dot is unusually sensitive to weather changes and seems to be able to predict oncoming storms better than our local TV weathermen. Luckily, we made it home from the vet before the storm started. As severe as the winds were, I definitely wouldn't have wanted to be out on the roads during the worst of today's weather.

Who knows what will happen tomorrow in Dallas. The Cowboys are actually winning football games again. There's an Ebola patient who has exposed hundreds of people less than ten miles from my house. I'm sitting here in the dark, wondering if I can get this posted before my laptop battery or my little 4-G hotspot dies. Maybe this is the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. It's certainly been a weird week. I sure hope they've restored power to our neighborhood by morning. I'm going to need a good breakfast after all this and if my power's out, I bet my favorite restaurant is sitting in the dark too.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1637

The power went out as we were waking up this morning. Janet had to go to work with wet hair, since the power went out while she was in the shower. I had to stay home with storm phobic dogs, who seem to think a power outage is a sign that the end of the world is near. The storm was brief, but it packed a punch. When the cold front passed through and the rain stopped for a while, I was finally able to walk the dogs and immediately noticed large downed trees all over the park. We must have had some severe straight line winds during the storm. Despite all the damage in the park, none of the trees in our yard were damaged. We got lucky. The dogs got muddy, I ate a very late breakfast, and everything ended well. By 10 AM the power was back on again.

These periodic power outages are so common that I know the drill by heart now. I immediately call the power company on the land line to report the outage before the battery backup for the IP phone system goes out. You have to report the outage on the automated system using a land line, so the power company knows your location. This might have made sense back in the days when everyone used an old fashioned analog phone where the phone line provided the power.  Now, most people's phones go out when the power goes out. Strangely, if you report an outage using a cell phone, your location isn't identified at all. Luckily, I have a four hour battery backup on the IP phone system. After I call in the outage, I look for the camping lanterns, so we can find our way around, disconnect the alarm system, so it won't trigger an alarm when the power is reconnected, and turn off the air conditioner, so a power surge won't cause the power to go out again when electricity is restored. Finally, it's time for the most important thing: keeping the dogs calm.

When life eventually returned to normal, I fired up the computer and began my Monday website updates. The updates didn't take that long, so I still had time to finish doing my June invoices and take them to the post office before the rain started again. It continued to rain off and on for the rest of the day. We got another break in the rain around dinner time, so the dogs were able to have their evening walk as well.

Dash's radiation treatments are finished, but Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are still chemotherapy days. After dinner, I put Dot in the bedroom, get out my purple rubber chemo gloves and place Dash's three chemo pills in a dog food meatball. After Dash takes his pills, I clean the gloves with alcohol and put them away until the next time. I can't imagine that the pills are really this dangerous, but I'm just following directions.

It looks like it's going to be sunny tomorrow. I hope so. Maybe I can clear the water off the roof and get caught up on work again. Even though I don't like rain, I'll have to admit that rainy days are good for flower pictures. The soft light is just about perfect.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1453

Things are bad in Dallas. Our power has been out over 30 hours and we still don't have any reliable information about when it will be restored. Yesterday was miserable. As the temperature got colder and colder, we watched everything slowly shut down. After the power went out, the land line phones were the first to go. An hour after the phones died, the WiFi went out. Next, the back up battery for the security system went dead. The UPS power supply for the main office computers had enough juice to recharge the laptop and iPhones twice, and then it went dead as well.

By mid afternoon, all electrical devices in the house were completely dead and the house was silent. We put all the food in the refrigerator outside on the porch, because it was much colder there. When we let the dogs out in the back yard to poop, a large branch fell from one of the Oak trees and almost hit Dash. We were very lucky that the falling tree branch missed him by three feet. The limb was heavy enough that it might have killed him. The dogs only go out on a leash now, so we know exactly where they are at all times.

There wasn't much to do after dark. We didn't even know what was going on. The TV was out, and we couldn't even find much information on a battery radio. There is so much satellite programming now on radio that very few stations even provide their own local news any more. We piled all the dog blankets on the bed and turned in for the night right after a dinner of very cold ham and cheese sandwiches from our outdoor fridge. By morning, it was dangerously cold in the house. It was 20 degrees outside and probably around 34 degrees inside. 

Since Janet's downtown office still has power, we packed the dogs and the electronic gear into the car and and headed for someplace where we could all warm up again. We really should have stayed at a hotel last night, but I never dreamed that it would take over two days to get the power restored in sub-freezing weather. Usually I hear the chain saws from the repair crews clearing away fallen trees within hours of an outage. This time, there has been no activity whatsoever.

One of my neighbors went to Northern Tool in his 4-wheel drive truck yesterday and bought a $1000 generator to power a small TV and his wife's hairdryer. Another neighbor got out all his camping sleeping bags and the family slept in sleeping bags. Since we didn't have either sleeping bags or a generator, we were very cold last night.

All is well now though. Both of our cars started this morning and Janet's office is toasty warm. Dot and Dash are sleeping on blankets under Janet's desk. We counted three downed power lines on the way to Janet's office.  I have yet to see a repair truck in our neighborhood and all bets are off for full power restoration. You know things are bad when the city canceled tomorrow's Dallas Marathon. Runners seem to love adverse conditions and the marathon is a big deal to the city. I don't think it has ever been canceled before.

Hopefully power will be restored this weekend. When things get back to normal, I'll need to find someone to clear away the fallen trees on the roof and in our yard. I have a feeling that Dallas tree trimmers are already booked solid through next March.

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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