Day 3324

Sometimes I turn on the news and I feel like I'm living inside a dystopian science fiction novel. It was colder in Chicago today than it was in Antarctica. Is that even possible? Chicago shouldn't be that cold. When I was young I once thought about taking an ad agency job in Chicago. I visited the place in January and all it took was a brief walk down Michigan Avenue to convince me that Chicago was far too cold for me. I wasn't dealing with a polar vortex. I just wasn't wearing a warm enough jacket. I decided then and there that I was meant to live down South.

As far as I'm concerned, Dallas winters are bad enough. I wear my warmest clothes when we take our morning walks. Even though it is running fine, I always worry that the furnace is going to break on a cold winter evening. I worry about frozen pipes too. It seldom gets cold enough for the pipes to freeze, but it has happened. The lake behind our house completely froze over once as well. The fact that there is no ice on the lake at all this Winter just shows that I am getting older and the planet is getting warmer. I doubt that the lake will ever freeze again. It hardly even snows anymore.

It's gotten to the point where I need to make sure exactly where Dash is and what he is doing before I let him out of my sight. He falls so easily now that it's easy for him to get in trouble. I make sure he is gated in a safe place before I take a shower and try not to leave the house unless he is sleeping. Dash's naps last for hours at a time, so it is usually safe to run errands while he is asleep.

I don't even worry about poop anymore. As those old bumper stickers used to say: shit happens. I do wish that Dash would work on his timing. He inevitably poops in the house right when I'm starting to relax with my first cup of coffee. I always jump up immediately and clean things up. I've learned from experience that if I don't act fast, Dash will step in the poop and track the mess all over the house. Also, I enjoy the smell of coffee in the morning. I can't say the same for the smell of poop.

I wrote a letter to a sick friend today and realized that I have no natural empathy at all. I kept having to rewrite portions of the letter when I noticed that I was just making sarcastic comments about the unfairness of life instead of being warm and sympathetic. By the time I sealed the envelope I think I got things right, but it didn't come naturally.

Aging doesn't seem to come naturally either. They say you're officially old when you start having trouble putting on your socks or clipping your toenails. I think the moment has arrived. I feel like a rusty old machine this Winter. Maybe when the weather warms up, I'll feel younger.

Malcolm is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2562

I feel like we're embarking on a journey to the South Pole each time we get ready for our morning walk. There are so many layers now to ward off the cold. Dash wears a snug black sweater under his red service dog harness. Dot wears a modified puffy coat over her Help ‘Em Up harness. Both dogs have fleece lined hats that actually fit properly on their heads, so they don't immediately shake them off. It's always easier to dress the dogs first. I wear a lightweight technical climbing jacket under a heaver goose down coat. I'm not sure what Janet wears, but she looks warm. I have to remember to pee before I pull on the compression pants that go under my regular pants. I hate that compression pants don't have a fly. My hiking boots go on last, so I won't track mud through the rest of the house. This all might seem a bit excessive, since the temperatures aren't below zero or anything, but you have to remember that we're Southerners.

I"ll be glad when warmer weather and a sense of sanity returns. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this polar vortex. Everything seems to take longer when it's cold. There are so many leaves on the ground now that I have to drop brightly colored plastic markers when the dogs poop at night, so I can find the stuff the next morning. The outdoor faucets are frozen, so it's gotten a little harder to clean Dot up after she's made a mess. On a more positive note, there's hardly any condensation on the windows this year. The dehumidifier is really doing its job. The furnace is running constantly, so I think I made a good repair. Even though the thermostat says the temperature is normal inside the house, I still feel cold most of the day. I'm just not a Winter person.

I had a couple of articles to write today, but I only managed to finish one of them. Before Dot got sick, I could easily finish four articles in a single day when it was necessary. Those days are gone. When Dot wakes up from her morning nap, she tries to stay on her feet the rest of the day. Sometimes she barks when she needs help and other times I just find her stuck in a corner somewhere. I have to remember to gate her out of bathrooms with tile floors, because she'll immediately fall on the slick surface. For the most part, I try to walk behind her and hold her up while she meanders around the house. She likes her independence though, so when she's feeling strong, I still let her try to walk on her own. If I ignore her for even ten minutes, she's almost certain to poop or pee on something. It makes for a busy and somewhat stressful day.

After a multi-million dollar ad campaign featuring Hollywood celebrities, protests in major cities, and even death threats, only two electors failed to vote for Donald Trump. Meanwhile, seven electors tried to defect from Hillary Clinton. Jill Stein's expensive recount effort actually ended up netting Trump hundreds of additional votes in Wisconsin. I really don't understand why it is so hard for some people to be pragmatic and accept reality. You lost. Contrary to what some might think, the Electoral College wasn't created to prevent Donald trump from becoming president. It was created to prevent a few people in large population centers from imposing their will on the entire country. The Electoral College is a good thing. Without it, many states wouldn't have a voice at all. I'm happy that the people of Vermont, North Dakota, and Wyoming have a voice. We need this balance. Lord help us if the people of San Francisco ever started making the rules for everyone.

The election is over and I'm ready to move on. I'm also ready for this nagging cold to be over. When I was running errands today, a checkout clerk asked me if I wanted a printed or e-mail receipt and when I started to answer it triggered a horrible coughing fit instead. It was embarrassing to say the least. Since I couldn't speak, I just grabbed my bag and ran coughing from the store. Here's hoping that the weather will be warmer tomorrow and my sore throat, cough, and chest congestion will miraculously disappear.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2560

The weather couldn't have been weirder today. The temperature was warm and humid this morning. I even turned on the air conditioner for a while, because it was almost 80 degrees. Everything changed around 1 PM. After that point the temperature started to drop swiftly. I think it's been dropping at last five degrees an hour all afternoon. Add the wind chill effect from a really stiff wind and you've got some nasty conditions. It is supposed to get colder for the rest of the night, with single digit temperatures around sunrise.

Not surprisingly, the dogs don't like this weather at all. They enjoy cooler temperatures, but dealing with a polar vortex is another matter entirely. Dot dutifully walked to the end of our street, seemingly perplexed by the sudden change that had taken place. Dash wouldn't go outside at all. I don't blame the dogs for their reluctance, but it sure would have been nice if they'd both pooped. Now we've got to deal with taking them out in the back yard over and over again as the temperature drops even further.

I washed the car this morning while it was still warm. I don't know why a clean car is such a big deal to me. Maybe it's because it's one of the few things that is still under my control. A clean house is hopeless these days, but a clean car is still possible. I did change the sheets today and washed three rugs that Dot peed on this morning, but the house is far from clean. We're in the process of changing our rug configuration. In the future, all rugs will be small enough to fit in the washing machine. The really large area rugs are simply too hard to clean. In the Summer you could take these large rugs outside and hose them off. They would be dry again the same day. It's a different story now. If I tried to clean a rug outside now, it would remain damp for the rest of the Winter.

I wish I knew who was selling my cell phone number to telemarketers. My land line has been inundated with telemarketers for years, but until recently my cell phone has remained relatively immune from this nuisance. The older I get, the more telemarketing calls I get. I'm sure people think that once you reach a certain age, you will become senile enough to fall for their ridiculous sales pitch. I'm still sharp enough to realize that these people aren't my friends. I rarely answer my phone at all.

My cold is getting worse.Today I had a sore throat, chest congestion, coughing, and a runny nose. As colds go, this is pretty much the whole nine yards. Janet thinks I should start taking antihistamines like she is, but I don't think they help much. At best, antihistamines mask some of the symptoms, but they don't make the cold go away any quicker. Time is the only thing that cures a cold. I'm trying to be patient, but time seems to be moving pretty slowly. I'm ready to start feeling normal again.

Every time the weather gets bad, I start to worry that something is going to break. It would be a disaster if the washing machine broke and I needed to go to to the laundromat to clean Dot's bedding and a house full of rugs. I'm hoping that I did my furnace repair properly. I'd hate to wake up to a cold house tomorrow morning. I don't want the pipes to freeze either. I can't believe that I used to live up North. I don't think I could do it anymore.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1789

It occurred to me today that I'm not going to be able to keep going up on the roof indefinitely. I never use a ladder and make the climb using indentations in the 50's modern brick facade as toeholds to get to the top. It's kind of like rock climbing and works pretty well, except when I pull a muscle like I did today. It certainly wasn't a serious mishap, but now my good shoulder is sore. It's irritating watching my body slowly deteriorate. I used to be able to run five miles without getting seriously winded. When we first moved into the house, I used to mow the grass by hand with an old fashioned push mower. I couldn't begin to do that anymore. I wonder how much longer I'll be able to climb up on the roof?

It looks like we are going to escape the Polar Vortex that is going to send temperatures tumbling in the northern part of the country next week. It's still going to get a lot colder though. The onset of Winter is making me really appreciate the mild Indian Summer days we've been having this week. It was absolutely beautiful today and the dogs enjoyed the mild weather as much as I did. It's still t-shirt weather this weekend, so it's hard to believe that the temperature is going to be in the 30's next week.

I got a package in the mail this morning containing the fancy WiFi thermostat that the folks at Klout sent me. After a quick look inside the box, I immediately realized that this wasn't really a free gift after all. The thermostat looked way too complicated for me to install, so I'm going to have to call the HVAC guys and have them come out and make a service call. Oh, well. I need to have the furnace cleaned anyway. Honeywell wants me to write about my experience with the thermostat on Twitter and the blog. That's certainly not a big deal, since I'll write about just about anything. I'm wondering if the whole thing was a mistake though. Janet and I never agree about how hot or cool it should be in the house. With a thermostat you can control with your phone and even your voice, we'll be constantly changing the temperature. We'll probably wear the thing out.

Even though the show seemed to receive rave reviews on the Internet, I found the season finale of Dr. Who a bit confusing. I guess I was expecting something a bit more definitive than Clara and the Doctor just going their separate ways after each tells the other a lie near the end of the show. For a while I thought that Clara really was the previous doctor as she claimed, but that turned out to be a lie as well. And why does the Master always keep returning? I thought he died several seasons ago. Maybe with my simple mind, I ought to stick to watching those old Perry Mason reruns. Somebody always gets murdered during the first five minutes and then Perry always wins his case in court. The formula never varies.

I should probably go the gym tomorrow, but there are a lot of other things I should probably do as well. I guess I'll just see how my shoulder feels in the morning.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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