4718 - Thanksgiving

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon. It was worth all the calls it took to get a reservation at our favorite restaurant. The elaborate buffet was delicious, the service was great, and it felt almost like pre-Covid times. We'll just have to remember to make our reservation a little earlier next year.

Thanksgiving dinner was definitely the high point of the day. The rest of the day was a mess. We had a tremendous amount of rain last night. It was a relentless pounding rain that lasted for hours. Not surprisingly, all this rain caused leaks. It's been two or three years since our roof leaks have been this bad. I woke up several times during the night to the unmistakable sound of dripping water. I placed buckets under the leaks and went back to bed. By morning even more leaks had appeared. There are leaks in three different rooms now. What a mess. Some carpeted areas got soaked and will take a while to dry out. 

Since one of the two pumps on wasn't working I was forced to go up on the roof in the rain and try to fix things. I got the pumps working again, swept away a mountain of pecan leaves from the neighbor's tree, and came back inside to warm up. I really need more pumps. One pump for the main roof and another for the carport and storage areas really isn't enough. Initially the pumps were throwing circuit breakers, but after I put each pump on a different circuit, everything started working smoothly. Over eight hours later water is still dripping from the ceiling, but the buckets are filling much slower now. Hopefully by morning the leaks will have stopped.

This roof leak debacle has forced me to think seriously about putting on a new roof again. I got out the bids from several roofing companies I've contacted and looked them over this afternoon. This reminded my of how much I dislike roofers. Each bid had at least one serious flaw and seemed to be designed to protect the roofing company rather than help me. I really want an iron clad warranty that the roof isn't going to leak for at least fifteen years. Nobody even comes close to that kind of promise. Most of the companies didn't even have a good plan for eliminating the low spots that cause ponding during heavy rain. I've got to do something though. It's time for a new roof.

Dawn didn't get a walk today. She didn't even want to go outside. We tried to take her on a morning walk during a break in the rain, but Dawn was smarter than we were. As soon as she did her business, she headed straight back to the house. Not a minute too soon either. As soon as we reached the back porch, it started pouring. 

I wasn't nearly as smart as Dawn. After we returned from our Thanksgiving dinner I still insisted on taking a walk. It was still raining but I've gone almost a full year without missing my daily goal and didn't see any reason to stop now. Somehow I managed to get 15,000 steps on a very rainy day. I think most of those steps were when I was up on the roof. Hey, at least my raincoat works. I got the raincoat for my trips to Kennedy Space Center, but I rarely use it. They don't launch rockets in the rain very often.

I've taken this weeks trash out to the curb and emptied the roof leak buckets several times by now. It wasn't the Thanksgiving I expected, but it was still a pleasant one. We had a wonderful dinner, our house is warm, and we've certainly experienced leaks before. Life goes on.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4319

No pain meds today. I was able to complete my regular six mile walk without much of a problem. I think I will always have some foot pain. I walk a lot and there isn't a lot of cartilage left between these old bones. The foot doctor told me that in severe cases they can fuse the bones of the foot together, but that seems like a terrible idea. It would seem like the foot needs to stay as flexible as possible when moving.

We like to eat out on Thanksgiving and I started looking for places today so we could make reservations. Some places we have enjoyed in the past just weren't there anymore and others weren't offering a Thanksgiving buffet this year. Many restaurants had scaled back service and a few major hotel restaurants were only open for breakfast now. The restaurant landscape has really changed since Covid. I finally found one place where we'd eaten before that still had a nice Thanksgiving brunch and made a reservation.  Hopefully, it will be an enjoyable meal that will remind us of a time when life was less complicated.

I've noticed a huge increase in spam calls, telemarketers, and even spam text messages in recent months. Did somebody get my number, or is this just part of modern daily life? The spammers are irritating, but I don't know how to stop them. I have two different call blocker services on the land line but spam still gets through. I block callers almost every day now on my iPhone. I wonder if there is a limit on how many calls I can block? This information must take up some memory in the phone. Why do people do this? Are there really than many gullible people out there who fall for these telephone scams? You really feel under siege at times. The post office delivers tons of junk mail every day but seems to lose the occasional legitimate mail I send out. The phone company knows they are bombarding me with spam calls. They even identify these calls as "suspected spam." Why do they even put the calls through? I suspect that the spammers might be their best customers.

A neighbor wanted to talk about dogs while I was out walking today. I slowed down as we reminisced about various dogs we'd owned, but I kept thinking that the conversation was messing up my Fitbit pace. I've become a slave to the Fitbit and the Apple Watch. I kind of measure my day by how well I'm able to walk. I must be a fixture around the neighborhood though, because people frequently ask why Dawn isn't with me. Sometimes they still ask about Dot and Dash. Few people ask about Petey anymore, but every once in a while someone will still mention Spot. 

Dawn still enjoys her sunrise walk, but she wouldn't dream of walking six miles with me anymore. She used to take long walks with us, but not lately. I don't know if she is getting old and tired or if she has finally become comfortable with her new life and is doing exactly what she wants. She certainly seems happy enough spending most of the day sleeping on the bed. I can't fault Dawn for being lazy. I'd spend my day sleeping too if I could get away with it. Unfortunately, if I sleep too much during the day, I'm awake all night.

I have an appointment to get a haircut tomorrow. Usually I have some place to go right after I get a haircut. There are no travel plans in the works now though. I doubt that I will be going anywhere before the end of the year. I can't even think of any place I'd like to go other than the space center and the observatory. National parks are overcrowded, cities aren't safe, and a lot of foreign countries are still off limits. Dawn's going to have to get used to sharing the bed with me during the day.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3991

The new dehumidifier arrived today. Amazon Prime is still kind of amazing to me. Things really arrive fast. This new machine looks and feels basically just like the old one. It's the same size. There's an air intake vent, an exhaust vent, and a bucket that fills with water that the compressor extracts from the air. The controls on the top let you control the fan speed and set a target humidity level you'd like to reach. For some reason the instructions said to leave the machine in an upright position for two hours before turning it on. I'd never turn a dehumidifier on its side anyway, but I followed the instructions. The new dehumidifier was pretty noisy when I finally turned it on, but so was the old one. You get used to the noise. Hopefully this new dehumidifier will remove a lot more water from the house than the old machine. I'm hoping to get the old dehumidifier replaced under the warranty program as well. The house is big enough that two dehumidifiers would be useful.

Yesterday was cold. Today was much warmer. Texas weather makes no sense to me. It all seems so random. I always go out in the backyard after I wake up to see what type of jacket I need on our walk. There are days in November when I need two warm coats. There are other days when I can wear a t-shirt. Occasionally, our air conditioner still comes on in November. Some of the Spring flowers seem to re-bloom in the Fall when everything else is dying. That's a little confusing too. When we got the weather and the clothing sorted out, we had a nice walk. Dawn still has lots of energy and seems to feel a lot better than she did in the weeks before her seizure.

I didn't accomplish much today. I did get the new dehumidifier running, but that was about it. I tried to call my HVAC guy to see if he could do the diagnostic report that the manufacturer wanted before they would replace my old dehumidifier. No luck there. The place was closed for the holidays. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about how to set up the menus on my new camera. This camera offer a a lot of flexibility, but that means there are a lot of buttons and menu items to remember. I should probably watch some YouTube videos on my old cameras as well. I still haven't completely mastered any of them.

I'm wondering when I'll hear whether I've been accepted to attend that Artemis-1 static fire test at Stennis Space Center in late December. If I'm going to go I need to start planning. It seems kind of weird to want to go all the way to Mississippi to watch four rocket engines fire for eight minutes when the rocket isn't even going anywhere. This test is important though. The next stop for the rocket after the static fire is the moon. Hopefully Covid outbreaks won't continue to get worse. I think Southwest Airlines is going to start filling center seats again in December.

We had Thanksgiving dinner all over again tonight. Probably everybody else did too. There are always so many leftovers after a big meal like this. The meal was just as good the second time. I imagine there is enough left for a third time as well. I do love a really good smoked ham. I see lots of ham and cheese sandwiches in my future.

It looks like it is going to rain tomorrow. I'm hoping that we can get Dawn walked and I can take care of the grocery shopping before the rain begins. I'm never fond of rain. When it rains the roof may leak. A sudden storm may knock over one of the Oak trees in the back yard. Roads become slippery when it rains and Dallas drivers never slow down. Dawn refuses to go outside and pee when it rains as well. If it absolutely has to rain, I prefer that it happens at night when I can sleep through the whole thing. 

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3990 - Thanksgiving

I've got a lot to be thankful for. Janet and I are still together after all these years. We have a wonderful dog even though we both swore we wouldn't get another dog after Dot and Dash died. I'm still healthy. This grows more important with each passing year. Too many classmates have already passed away. I've found several things that I really enjoy doing during my retirement years. Since one of those things is writing about astronomy and space travel and I'm actually getting published, I've managed to convince myself that I'm really still working. It's important to feel like you are still necessary. I don't know how many years I've got left, but I'd be happy to continue living like this for a while longer. Life is good when your expectations are low.

Life was certainly good today. The weather continued to be nice and we had a great walk with Dawn this morning. There was very little traffic on the roads and the park was quiet. I like it this way. After breakfast, I started reading the instruction manual for my new camera and Janet began preparing our Thanksgiving meal. Later in the day I put up the Christmas tree.

Dinner was delicious. We had smoked ham, bacon wrapped asparagus, candied yams, Italian sausage dressing, and cranberry sauce. I seldom drink wine, but a nice glass of Cabernet Sauvignon seemed to go perfectly with this meal. This was Dawn's first Thanksgiving with us. She got some tasty treats, but we made sure not to feed her anything that wasn't safe for dogs. We use to watch the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, but lately that would spoil the day. The Cowboys are terrible this year.

I used to dread Thanksgiving when it involved going home to visit with family. Now that it's just Janet, myself and a dog, Thanksgiving has become one of my favorite holidays. What could be better than a lazy day, a delicious meal, and a chance to reflect on things. I really prefer Thanksgiving to Christmas now. Christmas has become far too commercialized. Birthdays should just be forgotten. I don't need to be reminded that I'm even older than I was last year.

Even though it was a holiday, it was still trash day. As I took the trash out to the curb this evening I looked up at the sky and wondered if there was any point in being interested in astronomy in Dallas. You can't see anything. It was a clear night but basically all I could see were Mars and the Moon. Light pollution is terrible here and I don't feel comfortable driving at night to a rural location where the sky is darker. I think my stargazing is going to be limited to periodic trips to the Davis Mountains.

I think our new dehumidifier might arrive tomorrow. I've still got to figure out what to do with the old one. In theory, I can get this unit replaced by the manufacturer if I can find an HVAC company who will write a diagnostic report that details what is wrong with the unit. Since the little dehumidifier is almost impossible to disassemble, this might be difficult. Oh, well. One more thing on my to-do list.

I hope that all of you had a nice Thanksgiving. Covid or not, there is still plenty to be thankful for.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3982

My American made 3M N-95 masks arrived today. These are definitely a step above what you can find at the grocery store. The masks arrived a little late for my trip to Kennedy Space Center, but I will use them when Dalmatian Rescue does Santa Paws Christmas Pictures. It's hard to believe it's that time of year again, but it is. We're only doing pictures at a single venue this year. This one is large enough where we can do everything safely. That's fine by me. One day of pet photography is enough. Every December I keep saying that I'm getting too old for this. The show must go on however. It's been a tough year for fundraising and the Dalmatians still need to eat. I hope we do well.

I'm beginning to think that I got bitten by fire ants instead of mosquitoes while I was watching the Crew-1 launch. These bites are starting to look and feel suspiciously like fire ant bites. I've been bitten by fire ants before and they make hard little welts that itch intensely. Also, fire ants are everywhere in Florida. Maybe this is why I got bitten even though I sprayed myself liberally with mosquito repellant. I forget how long it takes for these things to go away, but it can't be soon enough.

I finished my story for the magazine this afternoon and will start sorting through the pictures tomorrow. I will easily meet the new deadline and then will eagerly await publication. This will be the fifth article I've gotten published since I decided to reinvent myself as a space and astronomy journalist. The whole process has been very rewarding. It's nice to know that you can do something new at any age. I'm glad I didn't start out as a space journalist and then decide to get into advertising after I retired. That wouldn't have worked at all.

I wish I could get a mulligan on that one day I missed my Fitbit goal in Florida. It hardly seems fair. Now I have to start all over again and it's going to take a long time to beat my 422 day record. Oh, well. I was just too busy to take a long walk on launch day. This obsession I have with continuity is why I continue to write the blog even though very few people are reading anymore. After 3982 days, you can't just stop. 4000 days is easily within reach and I may live long enough to reach my 5000 day goal after all. Sometimes I get a little jealous when I see a picture of a puppy that has hundreds and hundreds of likes while I only have about ten readers, but I need to remind myself that I'm doing this for me, not you.

We had another very nice walk with Dawn this morning. I still don't understand Dawn's behavior. She's very friendly with me in the morning. She comes up to me wagging her tail and can't wait for me to put on her harness so we can walk. Early in the day I can't detect any difference in the way she reacts to me and the way she reacts to Janet. As evening approaches she typically becomes wary and will often run away if I make any type of sudden movement. She does come out to the kitchen with me when I fix her dinner now. I guess this is progress. She wouldn't leave the bedroom without Janet a month ago.

I guess peaches are gone until next season, but I did get some more strawberries for tomorrow morning's smoothie. I also looked for a smoked ham for Thanksgiving. I guess we're going to eat at home this year. There is a small batch custom smokehouse in the neighborhood that prepares amazingly delicious smoked meats. They had several large hams available, but nothing small enough for two people. They told me to come back Friday. I'll give this a try, but I'll still miss going out to the Melrose for a Thanksgiving buffet.

I'm already getting invited to future launches by Space X and ULA. Unfortunately, I can't afford to travel very far for a while. I'll have to skip a few launches in the months ahead. I'm counting on there being something interesting on the horizon when my bank account recovers.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3969

Don't you hate it when you're running errands and you realize that you forgot your mask right as you reach the first store on your list. Damn. I had to drive all the way home, get a mask, and start my errands all over again. I finally did what I should have done months ago though. I put a few spare masks in the glove compartment.

I wrote my NASA contact and asked whether they had an updated schedule yet. Nope. They did tell me that I probably guessed correctly on my choice of travel days though. I feel a little better now. I'd still like to see an official schedule however. Kennedy Space Center is fairly huge. If you arrive at the wrong gate for an event, you might miss it completely. I've already had a fifteen minute drive turn into an hour drive by getting confused on directions. Don't want that to happen again.

It was overcast today, but the temperature was still nice for our morning walk with Dawn. I thought it might rain for a little while, but it never did. By mid afternoon, the skies had partially cleared and I could see a little blue peaking through the clouds. I shouldn't have been disappointed today, but I've been spoiled by the near perfect weather we've been having lately. 

I finally worked up my nerve to look at the long range weather forecast for Titusville. There's a 30% chance of rain on launch day and thunderstorms are predicted on the day before the launch. This is fairly typical weather for the Space Coast at this time of year, but it sure would be nice to have clear skies down there as well. I'm not wild about driving in from Orlando in a rainstorm, but I don't have much influence over the weather. It is what it is.

I got the results for my recent doctor visit and all is good. I always prefer it when a doctor calls me with results. Everyone is switching to online patient portals now, and half the time the information gets entered incorrectly. Occasionally, the information is correct, but I completely misinterpret it. It's better if you can talk to someone and ask questions. If we have to do this electronically, it would be nice if all the doctors could just enter their information in a common database. It would seem that they would wont to share information, but that never seems to happen. I have so many separate patient portals now that I have a hard time remembering what they are for.

I discovered that my new carry-on bag includes a nifty built-in battery that can be used to recharge a phone or tablet up to five times. This is actually very handy. I wonder why nobody has thought of this before. It's easy to run your battery down at the airport if you have a long wait between flights. The charging stations at airports never seem to work either.

Janet and I still can't decide what to do for Thanksgiving this year. In recent years we've gone out to eat at a local hotel that has an amazing Thanksgiving buffet. It was always fun to try all sorts of things that we normally never eat. I think buffets are gone for the foreseeable future though. What a shame. I doubt that many people get Covid from serving themselves at a buffet. Probably a lot of people will get the virus from having Thanksgiving dinner with their family though. Experts still say that family gatherings are one of the most common ways the virus spreads.

I loaded the dishwasher last night and forgot to turn it on. I forgot to wear a mask to the pharmacy today. I wonder what I'll forget on my trip to Florida. I was real careful about taking everything I needed on my trip to McDonald Observatory, but I still ended up forgetting several things. I guess I'd better get used to this. Old people forget things. I did remember to take the trash out to the curb this evening though. That's something.

Coach is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3626 - Thanksgiving

It was a nice relaxing day. We stopped cooking on Thanksgiving years ago and just go out to a nice restaurant. It's a no dishes, no stress holiday for us. I think we finally found the best Thanksgiving buffet in Dallas and we've been returning to the same place for the past four years.

Eating out on Thanksgiving is more popular than you might think. We see young couples, families of all sizes, retired people, and today there was a large family gathering of at least thirty people. The food is delicious. I just had a bagel and a cup of coffee this morning so I'd have room to try everything that looked good. Janet and I eat healthy all year long. This is probably the one time where we overindulge. We start with a salad plate of interesting salads, move on to a seafood plate, and then have a big plate of traditional Thanksgiving fare. You've got to have sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top at Thanksgiving. I finally decided that you don't have to eat turkey though. In recent years I'll have prime rib instead. There's something old fashioned about prime rib. It reminds me of going to Lawry's when I was younger.

We checked on Ginny using the iCam app while we were out. She was fine. She actually did better than Dot or Dash tended to do when left alone. As soon as we left the house, Ginny immediately went to her Kuranda bed and went to sleep. She was glad to see us when we got home though. I think she smelled that we had a treat for her almost immediately. We gave her a little bit of turkey and prime rib and she loved it. Ginny is such a sweet dog. It will be sad to see her leave, but I know she is going to a great home.

It was a lot warmer last Thanksgiving. This year it was pretty cold and nasty. It rained a lot last night and I got the pumps on the roof running as soon as I got up. I should have just taken a nap when we returned from dinner, but I decided to walk it off instead. This was probably a mistake because the light mist was still enough to get me quite wet after the first three miles. There was nobody in the park except for a few dedicated runners. It was very cold so I was wearing two coats. After an hour the outer coat was soaking wet and felt twice as heavy. My shoes were wet as well. I decided to cut the walk short so I could come home and warm up again. I guess the walk did me a little good. I don't feel as lethargic as I usually do after a huge meal.

Our backdrop for the Santa Paws events is coming from Singapore. We'll see how long it takes to get here. I think it shipped today. I have a feeling that it will arrive before our first event. DHL is usually pretty fast. I used to have to ship things internationally and was often amazed at how quickly air freight arrived. Hey, if it doesn't get here on time, I've still got plenty of backdrops from prior years.

Tomorrow, I'll make my travel arrangements for the NASA event at Michoud Assembly Facility. It's going to be a busy December. I definitely won't be going out to breakfast tomorrow. I'm so full I may not eat breakfast at all.

Scooter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3625

As Ginny continues to become more relaxed, she is acting more and more like every Dalmatian I have ever known. She is a velcro dog who follows me everywhere. I have to be careful not to trip over her because she is always nearby. If she wants something, she will nudge me with her snout or if I'm at my desk will slap me with a paw. Usually what she wants is food. If I'm up, she always heads straight to the kitchen. She loves to take naps and already has a favorite blanket. As luck would have it, I'm fond of naps too. Ginny is always right beside me on the bed. If this girl didn't already have a good home after she finishes recovering from her heartworm treatment, it would be very hard to take her back to the kennel.

We wanted to make sure that Ginny was comfortable being alone in the house, so we set up a camera to watch her in a safe gated area while we walked around the block. She wasn't frantic at all. She sat in her Kuranda bed looking at the door for a few minutes and then curled up and went to sleep. We repeated this exercise twice and she was fine both times. When we returned, she got off her bed and began following me around again. I'm glad she used the Kuranda bed. When we're here, she doesn't go near it and prefers the comfort of our large king-sized bed. Like I said, she appears to be a very normal Dalmatian.

When we were doing our little test, I was disappointed to discover that our Baby Monitor doesn't work anymore. I don't know when it broke. We haven't used it since Dash died. Luckily, there was an alternate way to keep an eye on Ginny. I still have the iCam app on my phone. Even though this app is very old, it still works. You can use any computer or another phone to sent the pictures and then you receive them on your iPhone. I wrote the Withings company to see if they could fix the broken Baby Monitor but I doubt there is much they can do. Like many things in our house, this handy monitor is too old.

I wrote the editor of Spaceflight Magazine to see if they'd be interested in an article about the Artemis Program and then signed up for a rental car loyalty program. Now that I'm visiting observatories and getting invited to NASA events, I'm renting more cars than I ever thought I would a few years ago. Maybe if this continues, I'll get a free rental one of these days.

I probably spent more time napping with Ginny than anything else today. I did take my five mile walk though when Janet returned from her errands. Walking is when I think and plan things. I'm not sure how much good this does since my mind wanders and much of what I'm thinking about evaporates as soon as I return home. Even though I'm not a disciplined planner, I do think I'm making progress. I've been to Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and McDonald Observatory this year. Oh, and I managed to see the Big Boy steam engine in operation too. Hopefully, by this time next year I'll be able to add more interesting things to this list.

No fruit smoothie for me tomorrow morning. Thanksgiving dinner is almost an all day event and I need to save room for some holiday indulgence.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3591

I watched the sky turn from partly cloudy to gun metal grey as I took my walk this morning. It was clear that more rain was on the way. I tried to get everything I needed to do finished before the rain arrived. I was pleased that I was able to complete my five mile walk without getting wet. I went to the bank without getting wet as well. I thought about going to the grocery store, but I found some left overs in the refrigerator and decided not to push my luck.

I made reservations for Thanksgiving Dinner when I completed my errands. We go to the same place every year and I've finally learned that you can't make these reservations too early. Apparently a lot of other people have decided that they're just as tired of cooking on Thanksgiving as we are. Thanksgiving is exceptionally late this year. It is always the fourth Thursday in November, but this year the holiday seems way too close to Christmas.

I'm not very energetic on a normal day, but on a rainy day I find it hard to even move. Everything seems like it can wait until the rain stops. I spend my time checking the weather forecast, checking the roof pumps to make sure water is flowing, and looking suspiciously at the ceiling for signs of a leak. When Dot and Dash were with us, we were like peas in a pod. All three of us hated rain. I've spent lots of time curled up with the dogs on rainy days.

I almost forgot to take the trash to the curb this evening. My instinct for avoiding getting wet overpowered my instinct to always have the week's trash ready for Friday morning pickup. Luckily, Janet reminded me that it was trash day. When I hauled the wet trash can to the curb, I noticed that everyone's bulky trash was still sitting on the curb as well. A quick Google search conformed what I suspected. Bulky trash pickup for October has been suspended because all trucks are needed for the tornado cleanup effort.

I need to remember that early voting starts tomorrow in Texas. Ballot propositions often seem like a lot of mumbo-jumbo to me, but this year there's one that I definitely feel should pass. Proposition 10 is a constitutional amendment that would allow municipalities to transfer retiring police dogs and horses without charge to their handlers on the animals retirement. Currently retiring police dogs are considered surplus property and they can be disposed of like any other surplus property. It is completely legal for a city to just have their retiring dogs put down. This is clearly wrong. Service dogs develop a strong bond with their handlers and they should be able to continue to spend their remaining days with them on retirement. I'll never tell you how to vote for president, but I think that old dogs deserve respect. If you live in Texas, I hope you vote yes on Proposition 10.

It looks like it is going to rain all night. Do I leave the pumps running all night? If it keeps raining, this is probably a good idea. If the rain stops, it is a bad idea. I've burned out pumps before. Either way, I'll probably just stay home for breakfast tomorrow. I've still got enough fresh fruit for one more smoothie.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3255 - Thanksgiving

Even when the world is sliding toward the abyss there is always plenty to be thankful for. Dash is still with us and still appears to be enjoying life despite his many problems. Janet and I have both successfully navigated the world of work and arrived at retirement in one piece. Knock on wood, but my doctors still think I'm relatively healthy. Janet has survived cancer. We're not rich, but we're not going to starve. Basically, life is pretty good.

I hope I can remember this in the years ahead. It's not always easy for a grumpy curmudgeon to be thankful. Complaining is easy. Realizing that you are surrounded by good things takes a little practice. Sometimes it takes a relaxing day like today to put things in perspective.

The weather was beautiful today and Dash was in good spirits. His paws are finally starting to heal. The combination of special slip-in bandages and some medication recommended by a Facebook friend is helping us turn the corner. I'm sure there will be more bleeding as long as Dash is taking Plavix, but we know what we need to do now.

We went out for Thanksgiving Dinner again. We found a place that has a wonderful Thanksgiving  Brunch several years ago and have been going back ever since. As usual, I ate way too much. I think it's just fine to drink champagne and eat too much food ocassionally. I'll get back to normal tomorrow. Over indulging is always part of the fun on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving doesn't typically fall on November 22, but when it does I always remember where I was when Kennedy was shot. It seems such a long time ago now. I was in high school in Alaska at the time. There was no live network television in Alaska in 1963, so we didn't see the tapes of Kennedy's funeral until several weeks later. I never thought I'd end up living in Dallas back then, but here I am. I've visited Dealey Plaza several times on November 22 but I didn't go today. There used to be large crowds, but the day is slowly being forgotten. I didn't hear a single thing about Kennedy on the news today. Someday 9/11 will be the same way. You only remember history if you've lived it.

I don't think I'll go out for breakfast tomorrow. I'm way too full. Right now, a piece of toast and a cup of coffee seems like all I'll need. I will need a walk in the morning. So will Dash. I can't imagine living in a place where you can't walk along the shoreline of a pretty lake every day. This is one more thing to be thankful for.

I hope I get some sleep tonight, but if I don't I can always take naps. Dash sleeps right next to me and when he moves I wake up. It's OK. I'm glad the little guy is still with us even if he does poop in the bed. I'm hoping that he'll still be here with us next Thanksgiving, although I know that's a long way away. We can't make long range plans anymore, but each additional day is something to be thankful for.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2891 - Thanksgiving

I feel like I've spent the entire day eating. Thanksgiving is the one time of year that Janet and I throw caution to the winds and fill our plates with way more than we need. We quit cooking at home years ago and prefer to go to a nice restaurant instead. For many years our favorite place was the revolving restaurant on the top of Reunion Tower. It was relaxing and the slowly rotating restaurant gave us an opportunity to see what had changed in Dallas during the previous year. Eventually the place got sold and became part of Wolfgang Puck's restaurant empire. Puck had no interest in continuing the lavish Thanksgiving brunch we had come to enjoy. We floundered around for several years and eventually found the Melrose Hotel. So far, so good. The waiters never rush you. The food is interesting and always includes several things you would never expect to eat at Thanksgiving. The salads are amazing. If they kept these salads on the menu during the rest of the year, we would go back more often.

We used to go up to the Dalmatian Rescue kennel after our dinner and give each of the rescue dogs a boiled chicken breast as a Thanksgiving treat. I forget why we quit doing this. Maybe one of our own dogs got sick, or we no longer had the time after the rescue dogs were relocated to a different kennel in Lewisville. It was a nice tradition for a while though. Now we just make sure that Dash has had a nice day.

I was so full when we returned home that I felt like calling it a day at 4 PM and going to bed. Dash has other ideas though. He wanted his own dinner and a long walk. A long, slow walk after Thanksgiving dinner is another tradition we have kept as long as we've had dogs. It was certainly a beautiful day for a walk. The sky was clear and the air was crisp and cool. The walk felt good. I was still full when we returned, but I no longer felt sluggish and catatonic.

We watched the Cowboys game for a little while, but the Cowboys really suck this year. There have been some memorable Thanksgiving day games, but this wasn't one of them. I still remember a game where it snowed in Dallas on Thanksgiving. It seems to snow less and less with each passing year. I don't think we got any snow last year. I can't say that I miss the snow, but it is strange how dramatically the weather has changed in just a few decades. Climate change? Probably. When we had our first Dalmatian, there was a year when our lake completely froze over. It hasn't happened since.

When I took Dash out to pee late last night, I saw Orion rising in the eastern sky. It's nice to see the Winter constellations return. There is so much light pollution in Dallas that's it's hard to see the stars in the Summer. The Winter stars are much brighter and bring back childhood memories. I was going to be an astronomer until I realized that there was a lot of math involved in this profession. I still like looking at the stars though. Maybe someday I'll live in a place where it is dark enough to see the Milky Way again.

It's been a lazy but pleasantly fuzzy day. I drank Mimosas. I consumed more calories than I normally do in a week. I didn't even attempt to do anything useful. Next week I'll start thinking about getting healthy again. Tomorrow, I'll probably just wish I hadn't eaten so much today.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2887

I'm afraid I'm going to have to retrieve Dot's rugs from the storage room soon. Dash is starting to slip and slide on the bricks. If he would slow down and start acting like the mature dog he is, I'm sure he could navigate the bricks for another couple of years. That's not Dash though. He still likes to counter surf. He'll still race to the kitchen when he hears food being prepared. Since he already has a partially torn cruciate ligament, I'm afraid he's going to ruin his knee joint every time he slips. I've thought about just leaving his rubber boots on all the time, but there's a downside to that as well. I just wish Dash would realize he's getting older and start taking care of himself a little better.

I'm trying to take care of myself better. That's why I switched doctors and continue going to the gym every Sunday. It's no fun growing old, but what are the alternatives? While I was driving to the gym today I listened to a TED talk about recent advances in gene editing. Precise gene editing could bring back the Wooly Mammoth from extinction, eliminate mosquitos in malaria prone areas, and allow parent to choose the hair color, intelligence, and resistance to disease of their babies. What could possibly go wrong? This all sounds like science fiction, but apparently scientists around the world are already using something called CRISPR-Cas9 technology to modify plants and animals at the DNA level. There's a lot of debate about the ethics of messing around with human DNA, but I'm sure there was debate about the ethics of atom bombs before we exploded the first one too. Humans tend to use the things they invent. We just can't resist.

Maybe in the future, people like me won't have to worry about diabetes and arthritic joints. We'll use gene editing to create a race of disease free, almost super human people. Of course, there's an even greater chance that we'll inadvertently create thousands of 100 foot long fire breathing dragons who will eat us while we sleep.

I had a good workout today, but that apparently wasn't enough. Against my better judgement, I actually moved the furniture while I vacuumed this afternoon. I don't do this very often because it is too depressing. It's unbelievable how much dust can accumulate under a chair that hasn't been moved for a year. We also took the heavy comforter off the bed and took it to a laundromat for cleaning. If you let your dog sleep on the bed with you, you quickly realize that white isn't the best color for a bed spread. I liked out old brown comforter better. It might not have been the prettiest thing in the world, but it hid all the damage the dogs caused admirably.

I didn't do my homework on Wordpress this weekend. Oh, well. There's still time. It's hard to get excited about Wordpress. I guess it's convenient if you like to work in teams, but it doesn't do much for me. I can think of so many more elegant ways to design a website. When you're used to sitting down and writing your own code, it just seems cumbersome to use someone else's template.

I see my neighbors beginning to pile up bags of leaves, old kitchen chairs, and discarded children's toys on the curb. This much mean it's time for bulky trash pickup again. I'll need to look tomorrow and see if there's anything I need to throw away. I'm supposed to receive a package next week. I think the package is lost since no tracking number was provided by the shipper. The shipper says everything is fine. We'll see who's right by the end of the week. We're going out to eat for Thanksgiving again this year. This should be a relaxing occasion, so I'm going to try my best not to worry about Dash. There's no need to worry. He's just going to be sleeping on the bed like he always does in the afternoon. I wish I wasn't always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2868 - Halloween

When did Halloween become an adult holiday? I remember trick-or-treating as a kid, but cosplay, elaborate costumes, and role playing must have come much later. It was all about the candy for me. My little friends and I would wander around our neighborhood in the dark for hours, unaccompanied by adults, filling our bags with as many treats as we could. It was a different world then. Nobody worried about being abducted and a Halloween terrorist attack was beyond comprehension. I miss those days.

You'd never know it was Halloween at our house. A few people in the neighborhood have decorated their yards, but there aren't many children anymore. We haven't had trick-or-treaters in years. When the dogs went to obedience class we would make costumes for them. There was an annual Halloween costume party and once Dash won first place. That was quite a while ago. Now we don't even put a pumpkin on the porch.

The only thing that was scary today was the threat of rain. I was determined to get the roof fixed before it rained, so I drove 30 miles to a roofing supply store and bought a bucket of the special elastometric coating. I would have preferred that the roofers had taken care of this, but they never showed up. I drove very slowly on the way home, because I didn't want the top-heavy bucket of silicon liquid to tip over and spill. The messy stuff would have ruined my car.

I really thought I had enough time to make a quick repair of the damaged area, but the weather forecast was wrong. Shortly after I finished re-coating the hole in the elastomer, it started to rain. The coating didn't have time to dry and my repair quickly washed away in the rain. Now, I'll have to wait until the roof completely dries out again and start over. It's frustrating. I'm still hoping that the roofers will eventually show up and take care of this for me.

I made a reservation for Thanksgiving dinner at the same restaurant that double charged us last year. Janet says the billing error was just an accident, but it did take forever to resolve. I guess a double charge on your credit card is better than food poisoning, but I hope there won't be any problems this year. It's hard to find a good place for Thanksgiving dinner. I wonder why we ever bothered to cook a big turkey? Eating out is so much easier.

I made an appointment with my new doctor for my annual physical. I feel healthy, but you never know. Like everyone else, they want me to fast before I have my lab work. Since I can't go very long without eating, I always schedule blood work for early in the morning and then find a restaurant for breakfast on the way home. I'll get the blood tests done later this week and go see the doctor next week to go over the results. I'm curious whether this new guy will want me to continue all my meds. I'd love to cut back on the pills I take. A second opinion is always good. I've been taking some of these pills for so long, I can't even remember why I take them.

The refrigerator is empty, so I'm going to have to go grocery shopping tomorrow. At least the refrigerator is cold. I think the latest repair actually worked.

Roxy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2537 - Thanksgiving

"Be careful who you hate, it could be someone you love." I don't have any idea who originally said this, but I've always liked the thought. It certainly seems appropriate for the first Thanksgiving after a particularly rancorous election. Janet and I went out for Thanksgiving brunch at one of our favorite hotels today. There were people dining with us from all walks of life. I saw large families with children, senior citizens eating alone, young couples, mothers and daughters, groups of friends who didn't appear to be related, and then there was Janet and I. It's a safe bet that everyone in the dining room didn't vote for the same candidate on November 8, but they all seemed like very nice people.

I wonder how many of these people spent the past year posting dire warnings or hateful memes about the other side on their Facebook pages? To me, it's time to move on. I have friends on both sides of the political fence that don't seem to understand that not much is really going to change. Things didn't change much after eight years of George Bush and things didn't change much after eight years of Barack Obama. All presidents mean well, but when they push too hard, the pendulum swings back the other way the next time there is an election. Bush pushed too hard when he got the country tangled up in meaningless wars in the middle east and got Obama elected. Obama pushed too hard when he tried to disguise a massive income redistribution program as health insurance and got Trump elected. All politicians need to remember that the pendulum swings both ways. Voters are generally more pragmatic than politicians. They don't really care about ideology. A good job and a safe place to live will keep most people happy.

There was a gay couple taking their Moms out to dinner at the table to the left of us. A large Hispanic family was seated at a big round table directly in front of us. Two senior citizens were seated to our right. Somehow, I think all of these people are going to do just fine in the years ahead.

Dinner was fabulous. I don't think Janet and I will ever cook a big holiday dinner again. It's fun and a lot less stressful to enjoy a well prepared meal at a nice restaurant. Families who dine out probably also discover that there is a lot less fighting at the dinner table when you are eating in public. I was basically full after the salad course, but I went ahead and had a second course that included Eggs Benedict and a third course with Prime Rib. There was dessert too. It was a week's worth of calories in a single meal, but what the hell. We only do this once a year.

We weren't gone all that long, but as expected, Dot pooped in her bed and ate all the evidence by the time we got home. I purposely didn't check the pet cam on my phone while we were at the restaurant, because I knew it would spoil our dinner. There is nothing we could have done anyway. Even if we were only five minutes away, there would have still have been plenty of time for Dot to eat her poop. After we changed clothes, we took Dot outside and cleaned her up. The bedding went in the washing machine and all was good.

Tomorrow is Black Friday. I guess that's a holiday too. I love gadgets and gear, so it will be hard for me to ignore all the online Black Friday sales. I really don't need anything, so I should restrain myself. A better idea would be to take an extra long walk tomorrow morning and work off some of today's monster meal.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2536

I wanted to catch up on things today and I partially succeeded. I cleaned up the brushy area in the back yard where I fell several nights ago. I can't really see where I'm going when I have to take Dot outside in the middle of the night, so eliminating potential hazards is probably a good idea. I ordered some spare parts to fix the first Waterpik properly, even though I have a second one now. If this doesn't illustrate that fixing things is a compulsion with me, nothing will. Hey, the parts were cheap, the repair looks easy, and doesn't everybody need two Waterpiks?

I never got around to vacuuming the house over the weekend, so today seemed as good a time as any to get this chore out of the way. The dogs didn't seem to agree. Usually Dot and Dash ignore me while I'm doing chores on weekends, but today either Dash was in the way or Dot needed attention. Every ten minutes or so Dot started barking in her bed and struggling to get up. I would stop what I was doing, take her outside, and then resume vacuuming when she decided she didn't need to go outside after all. Five minutes after I finally got everything tidy and clean, Dot pooped on one of the living room rugs. I wasn't the best person in my younger years, so I just figure that this is karma.

I'm kind of irritated that my heartburn has returned after I quit taking the Protonix pills. Most of the medications I take don't make me feel any different at all. The pills I take to lower cholesterol and reduce blood sugar levels don't make me feel any different. I don't even notice a difference when my blood pressure is controlled. Now, the one pill that actually made me feel better turns out to be unsafe. For ten years I had no problems with acid reflux at all. Protonix worked. I am skeptical of a lot of things my doctor tells me, so I did a little research and it turns out he was right. Protonix seems to lower bone density and can increase the risk of a fracture in the hip, wrist, or spine in people over fifty. Damn. Now it's back to eliminating all the things that cause heartburn from my diet. Unfortunately, most things that are really tasty do cause heartburn. Pizza is the worst.

When I walk Dash in the morning, I've noticed that a lot of people in the neighborhood have already put their Christmas tree up. When did putting your Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving get to be a thing? I must not have much Christmas spirit. Putting the tree up Christmas Eve would be fine by me. The season has arrived though. Christmas tree lots are popping up all over town. Stores are busier than usual. And Janet has started watching those Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel again.

It looks like we are going to have nice weather for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Last year, there were thunderstorms in the area and Dot was vomiting, so we had to cancel our dinner reservation at the last minute while I looked for an emergency vet. Hopefully, there will be no dog emergencies this year.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2533

There was frost on the ground when I woke up this morning. The leaves aren't very colorful this year, but they are definitely falling. I hope a big wind comes to blow them all off the roof, so I won't have to do it myself. The dogs love the cold weather, but I have mixed feelings. Pretty soon, the furnace will be running full time and the gas bill will go up dramatically. The office is in the coldest part of the house, so I often have to put a little ceramic heater under my desk during the day. As least we don't have to worry about snow very often. Some parts of the country are already under a blanket of snow.

I spent so much time doing little things around the house that I never got around to vacuuming. I cut up cardboard boxes so they would fit in the trash. I polished shoes. I changed the sheets on the bed and washed a bunch of dog blankets. I figured out what I did wrong with my Waterpik repair yesterday, but it hardly seemed worth the trouble to start over again. I have a new one now.

I stopped by the REI store and got a pair of pants on my way to the gym. Since I don't have business meetings anymore and rarely go out in public, these rugged outdoor clothes are just about the only things I wear. I still can't figure out where to put these new utilitarian duds. I haven't thrown away any of my old clothes and my closet is full. Neatness just isn't very high on the agenda anymore. Ever since Dot got sick, the house has been a disaster. I just put my new pants on top of the large format printer when I got home and that's probably where they'll stay.

The gym was nearly empty today. I thought it would be full, since it was so cold outside today, but apparently most people had more important things to do. I miss my favorite basketball. I still don't know why there are only three basketballs now, but since I seem to be the only person who uses the court, I guess three is plenty. I had a good workout, but I felt too tired to do the vacuuming when I got home. There was no point disrupting things anyway. The dogs were sleeping peacefully on some of the rugs I needed to clean and Janet was already fixing dinner. I'll finish cleaning the house tomorrow.

Dot had a good day. She had more energy than usual and I actually saw her wag her tail a bit during our evening walk.  I haven't seen Dot wag her tail in ages, since the muscles in her rear end don't work properly anymore. I wish I knew what caused some days to be better for Dot than others. If I knew, maybe I could help her have more good days. I don't think there is any rhyme or reason to Dot's health anymore. We've all been running on empty for a long, long time.

It's going to be a short week next week. I hope there are no dog emergencies on Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to having a nice dinner away from home for a change.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2514

When I was writing one of my periodic old fashioned letters to my sister today, it occurred to me that I was becoming a Luddite too. Letters written on paper are starting to seem more satisfying than e-mail. Technology has been good to me over the years, but I'm not so sure that it has been good for me. I'm not sure that technology has been good for anybody.  When I was younger, I understood everything I used. Grooves on a vinyl record made a lot more sense than bits and bytes on an MP3 file. Adjusting the fuel mixture on a carburetor was something you could do intuitively. It would take an electrical engineering degree to understand the black box that controls my car's electronic ignition system. Editing film or tape by physically splicing pieces of it together always made sense to me. I still can't fully understand Avid Media Composer. I could go on and on. When you take things for granted that you don't fully understand, it all becomes like magic.

Maybe we're advancing too fast for our own good. We figured out how to use robots to make almost everything we use, but we never considered what would happen when nobody had jobs. We used medicine to dramatically increase our lifespan, but never considered what would happen when there were too many healthy people and we couldn't feed them all. There is a lot more stress in the world than there was when I was growing up. We are running as fast as we can just to keep up with the technology we created.

Every time I install a software upgrade, I feel like a kid who is being forced to swallow a spoonful of cod liver oil. Maybe it's good for you, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. I installed the latest upgrade to my Apple watch today. A few hours later the watch started beeping at me at random times. When I touched the screen, there was a message that simply said breathe. WTF? What kind of new age nonsense is this. I definitely don't need my watch to tell me to slow down and take a deep breath. Apple always tricks you this way. When you look for a description of the software upgrade, it usually just says something innocuous like performance and security enhancements. Seems harmless enough, but when you actually install the software, everything you liked has disappeared and been replaced by things that are irritating and unnecessary. Yup. I think I'm starting to sound like a Luddite.

It's hard to believe that it's November already. At least the election will be over soon. I think people will be a lot happier when they can return to thinking about what they are going to fix for Thanksgiving Dinner than about who is going to start World War III. OK. I'll admit that Thanksgiving Dinner can be stressful too, but not for me. Large family dinners are in the distant past for Janet and I. We just go out to eat at a nice restaurant and there are never any dishes to clean up when we get home.

Dot and Dash were in good spirits today. Dash took a nice long walk this morning and Dot seemed happy to walk around the house with me holding up her rear end. She did poop while I was eating breakfast, but I'm getting used to this. It's not a big deal.  I wish she was strong enough to resume her physical therapy tomorrow, but I don't think we're there yet.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow, but I have a feeling that it will be a lot like what I did today.

Jeda is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day