Day 3744

Hey, I'm doing my part. My car hasn't left the driveway all week. With the exception of a short trip to the vet yesterday, Janet's car hasn't moved much either. I can't say that my behavior has changed. I've been living this way for years. Janet is the only person I talk to regularly and I frequently drive less than ten miles a week. Isolation isn't all that bad. For many, many years I made a good income writing and designing websites from a computer in our spare bedroom.

It seems strange and somewhat disorienting to see people turning to things I've been doing for decades. Videoconferencing, working from home, ordering supplies online, maintaining a home network, and learning to tolerate long periods of silence and isolation are all skills I mastered years ago. I wonder how many people are going to decide that this is actually a better way to live when the pandemic is over?

I think people are already discovering the benefits of being outdoors. I see more people in the park than I've seen in years. I see them doing yoga, practicing kickboxing, and lifting weights, as well as the usually walking and cycling. Parents are taking their kids on long walks. I suspect that most of them are trying to wear the kids out so they will take a long nap and let the parents get some work done when they get home. Seems like a good plan to me. We all keep our distance in the park and hope nobody tries to force us indoors. There aren't a lot of things you can do proactively to stay healthy. I'm convinced that exercise and getting some good outdoor air into your lungs is a good place to start.

Local grocery stores are starting to limit the number of people inside the stores. In theory this is a good idea, but all it really does is cause people to bunch together at the store entrance waiting to get in. I wonder when the panic buying will stop? Eventually everyone is bound to have enough rice, bread, beans, and toilet paper.

I'm already starting to see used gloves and masks littering parking lots. This is insanity, but I'm really not surprised. For years I've seen people in the park pick up their dog poop in poop bags and then just throw the bags in the woods. What does this prove? There are plenty of trash cans in the park. Leaving a sealed poop bag in the hot sun is worse than doing nothing at all. Dog poop is biodegradable. Poop sealed in a bag and not disposed of properly probably becomes radioactive or something.

I wonder where all these people throwing away used masks and gloves in grocery store parking lots are getting them? You certainly can't find these items in stores yet. We still have lots of purple surgical gloves left over from Dash's chemo treatments. No masks though. When I administered Dash's meds every day, I couldn't touch the Palladia pills. They were very toxic and I had a complicated cleanup procedure to follow. Even Dash's poop was toxic and had to be disposed of properly. Washing my hands frequently seems simple by comparison.

One of the most enjoyable things about Spring is that there are new wildflowers to enjoy every single week. The Prairie Verbena arrived this week. These little purple flowers have always been one of my favorites.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3409

I overthink things. For almost a week I've been debating about whether to go to an afternoon movie. I've looked up theaters on Google. I've read reviews for the film I was planning to see. I've fretted about the traffic. The reviews were mostly bad and I'd just about convinced myself that going out wasn't worth the effort. Unfortunately, I had way too much time on my hands today, so at the last minute I decided to go see the movie anyway. I usually like science fiction, but I should have listened to the reviewer who said that this was basically just a prison movie in space. I wasn't fond of this movie at all.

Evidently 2 PM on a Thursday isn't when people go to the movies. When I entered the theater, I quickly understood why the guy at the ticket counter told me I could sit anywhere I wanted. I was the only one in the theater. It wasn't a huge theater, but it wasn't small either. It was weird to be the only person in the entire theater.

I'm finishing breakfast earlier now. I made my morning coffee, fixed my fruit smoothie, ate breakfast, and washed the breakfast dishes before 9 AM today. When I was tending to Dash, it was usually after 11 AM before I was finished with breakfast. I guess it's good that I'm getting an earlier start. As Summer approaches I'm going to want to take my morning walk before the day gets too hot.

It didn't get too hot today. The weather was beautiful and a three mile walk seemed like a much better alternative to staring at the computer. I've finally started seeing nesting ducks. Maybe they just got a late start this year. There were lots of recumbent bikes on the bike path today. I wonder why the riders of these bikes are always older men with short white beards? I very rarely see younger men riding recumbent bikes and I've never seen a woman on one of these things.

Prairie Verbena seems to be the wildflower of the week. These little purple flowers are everywhere now. Next week a new wildflower will take the stage. Most of the wildflowers in the park are perennials. They keep coming back in the same places year after year. I've photographed all these plants before but I still enjoy seeing them. They've become familiar friends. Unlike Texas weather, the flowers are reliable and consistent.

The week has gone quickly. I've already taken the trash out to the curb and am thinking about having shrimp grits for breakfast tomorrow. I hope this nice weather continues. I didn't even have allergy problems today. Sooner or later the rain will return and so will the 100 degree days. For now I'm going to enjoy the blue skies and mild temperatures.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2281

After months and months of watching the seasons slowly change, it seemed weird to be plunged back into darkness again. There was an artificial feeling to our morning walk. It was as if all the gains we had made since the Winter Solstice had been erased in a single day. I still don't know what this arbitrary time change means. What does it prove to pretend that it is an hour earlier? At any rate, we're going to have to start walking a little later in the morning until the days get longer. The darkness felt a bit uncomfortable this morning.

The recent time change wasn't the only uncomfortable aspect to the day. It was also unseasonably hot. The temperature climbed above 90 degrees this afternoon, which seemed just as strange as walking the dogs in the dark again after watching the days grow longer since mid-December. The air conditioner is running now, although I bet the furnace will be running again tomorrow morning. At least Texas weather gives me something to talk about on days where very little happens.

The Prairie Verbena is starting to bloom alongside the trails in the park.  These perfect little circles of tiny purple flowers are usually a reliable sign that Spring has arrived. Maybe there will be one more cold front before we can finally say goodbye to Winter, but I doubt it. The trees are getting green. The ducks are starting to nest again. It won't be long before I have to get out the lawn mower and begin the weekly ritual of making the front yard look as nice at the neighbors yards.

I think the neighbors are already ahead of me. We have a new neighbor who seems to love lawn equipment. Almost every day my peace and quiet is interrupted by the sound of lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and chain saws. They apparently haven't learned that the effort is futile. If you live near the park, the prevailing winds will ensure that your yard is soon filled with weeds. It's not like my minuscule writing schedule needs that much quiet time anymore, but the noise is still irritating. I'm probably the quietest person on the block. My lawn mower is electric and hardly makes any noise at all.

There were a ton of things I needed to do today, but the only things I actually accomplished were making an appointment to get a haircut later in the week and picking up two prescriptions at the pharmacy.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to stay motivated and engaged. I used to jokingly tell people that I worked for praise. Now that I live in a world with very little feedback and direct encouragement, I realize that this statement wasn't a joke. A lot of things seem utterly pointless when nobody notices.

I still take new pictures every day, although I've lost interest in exhibiting in galleries. I still write everyday, although I no longer try to get published. Maybe this is enough. I do know that Dot appreciates me, although it would be difficult to explain my new found poop cleaning expertise on a resume. You're reading this, which gives me all the reason I need to continue writing.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1571

Friday's are a bit different now. First Dash goes to the cancer center. Next Dot eats breakfast and gets a walk by herself. After that, I go out for breakfast and get groceries. When I come home, I take a shower, and then I usually get a phone call saying that Dash is finished with his treatment and ready to come home again. You pay by the week at the cancer center, and every Friday they hand you a bill when you arrive. Time passes quickly. We have already finished nine radiation treatments.

I didn't feel like my usual poached eggs and pulled pork this morning, so I went to a different restaurant. This place has had some management changes and although the menu hadn't changed, everything featured on the menu is cooked differently now. I ordered a familiar omelet dish and what I received looked very unfamiliar. Maybe the reason I like my favorite restaurant so much is that the chefs are actually the owners and nothing ever changes.

Considering that the today's beautiful Spring weather was tailor made for gardening and mowing the lawn, I actually got quite a bit of writing done. I managed to complete three articles today and still had time to update at least one website. My website woes are far from over. I'm discovering that as web hosts continue to move and upgrade their servers, many of my favorite scripts no longer work anymore. One of my sites lost all its online forms recently when the hosting company changed how customers are able to access the CGI/BIN directory. I suppose the hosting company still supports CGI, but I will have to re-write some code to get the forms to work again. If they eliminated the directory entirely, I'm going to be really mad. I've always been a firm adherent to the time honored "if it's not broke, don't fix it" idiom. Apparently very few people approach life this way. I am continually having people change things on me that were working perfectly fine.

I've started noticing poison ivy growing in the park again. First snakes, and now poison ivy. It's enough to make me start longing for winter again. Every year, the patches of poison ivy seem to grow larger and more pervasive. Pretty soon the remnants of Texas Native Prairie that everyone is so proud of will be nothing but a big patch of poison ivy and Johnson Grass.

Luckily, these invasive pest plants haven't ruined the park yet. Today I noticed that one of my perennial favorites, the diminutive Prairie Verbena was in bloom again. Almost overnight, the meadows have become filled with these ringlike circles of small flowers.

It looks like it's going to be a nice weekend. An absence of pending chores and a mercifully short "to do" list might make the next two days even nicer. Dash gets a rest this weekend, and hopefully, so do we.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 996

I'm feeling a bit snarky today. It made no difference whatsoever having the U-verse technician come out yesterday. I continue to experience intermittent dropouts in the broadband signal, just like I have for months. I don't think the problem is something a technician can fix. The equipment is working fine. The problem is that the whole U-verse concept isn't ready for prime time yet. AT&T won't admit this though. They're making too much money signing up people who have become disgruntled with cable.

An armadillo tore up our yard last night. The same thing has happened every September for the past three years. The poor grass was struggling to survive anyway. Now, the back yard is pretty much decimated. I think the armadillo was looking for white grubs. It didn't find any, but that didn't stop him from trying.

I had to pick up a coffee filter and a Sodastream CO₂ canister at Bed Bath and Beyond today. When I got to the checkout counter, I finally remembered I had forgotten to bring one of those big blue Save 20% coupons that seem to arrive in the mail every other day. There is a stack of these coupons in the kitchen and I can never remember to bring them with me. Janet says I could save a lot of money if I would start using coupons, but they just don't seem important to me.

Printer ink does seem important, although I don't know why. I rarely print anything on my large format printer anymore. I still need to buy the ink though. Epson, in their evil wisdom, uses the expensive pigment ink to clean out the lines and keep the printer from clogging. Somehow, I've managed to empty all eight cartridges on the 4880 printer just running the cleaning cycle periodically. I don't think I've actually printed much of anything this year. Since I had to renew my monthly prescriptions today as well, I found it ironic that the printer ink cost me more than the pills that keep me alive.

Someone asked me the name of today's flower on Twitter this morning. It's called a Prairie Verbena. For years I've just been calling the thing a blue ring flower. I'll probably forget the real name as quickly as I forget those blue Bed Bath and Beyond coupons. I won't forget that Dot is almost back to her normal self though. We returned to our regular long walk this morning and she didn't cough a bit.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day