Day 2484

Sunday is usually the busiest day of the week. It's the last chance to catch up on chores I should have done earlier in the week before it's time to start all over again. I debated on whether to clean the house or go to the gym first. If I go to the gym first, I'm usually too tired to clean. If I clean first, I'm too tired for a workout. The dirty house practically demanded to be made a priority. As I was vacuuming, I wondered if there was anything left that I actually enjoyed anymore. I stay busy. I keep my commitments. I try not to let life get me down. We're taught that life should be an adventure, but often it just feels like a long hike up a very steep hill.

I woke up three times last night thinking that Dot had pooped in her bed. Each time it was a false alarm. I was so tired that when she had her inevitable accident around 6 AM, I was fast asleep. I woke to the sound of her coughing after she tried to eat the mess. This was a frustrating way to start the day. Dot barks all the time. Why couldn't she just learn to bark after she poops at night. I'd have everything cleaned up in a jiffy, if she'd just bark and give me a head's up.

I've been noticing that I'm not as hungry as I used to be. I just can't eat as much anymore. Sunday breakfast is frequently bacon and eggs with a couple of biscuits on the side. Janet used to fix an entire package of bacon and cook three or four eggs to share between us. Today, I only felt like having a couple of pieces of bacon and was full after eating one egg. Breakfast was delicious, but I just wasn't hungry. This isn't like me. I'm even eating less when I go out on Friday morning.

Even though I was tired, I went to the gym anyway. There were people using the basketball court when I got there, so I had to change up the order of my workout, in hopes that they would eventually go away. Most of my workout is about as much fun as mowing the grass, but I do enjoy shooting baskets. The weird thing is whatever I do at the gym, it almost always takes exactly 63 minutes to complete the workout. I purposely never look at my watch until I'm finished and I'm amazed that even though I sometimes use different machines and never spend the same amount of time shooting free throws, my total elapsed time is always exactly the same. It's like I have some kind of internal clock telling me that after 63 minutes, I need to get out of that place.

Last year, the city paved one of the trails I use to walk the dogs and turned it into a bike path. Using this path has become hazardous on weekends because it is filled with cyclists who have little regard for dogs. Dash likes to zig-zag from one side of the path to the other, depending on which side smells better. I have to be real careful that we don't get run over. It's impossible to daydream on our walks anymore. The place has become a race track. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against bicycles.  It's just the aggressive Type-A people who ride them I hate.

I wonder if not buying a pumpkin for your front porch counts as an effort to simplify your life. For years I put pumpkins on the porch in October but they just rotted. They didn't even make the porch look better. I think we'll skip the pumpkins this year.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1771

When we were taking our morning walk, we encountered a work crew laying concrete for the new bicycle superhighway that is replacing our favorite path. The sun had just risen and there was just enough ground fog reflecting the sunlight to make it look like the crew was working with molten lava instead of concrete. I found the image strangely beautiful, but I'm not really looking forward to the completed bicycle path. Most of the cyclists the dogs and I encounter are very rude. They like to ride as fast as they can on the narrow trails and seldom slow down or even try to get out of the way of people walking their dogs. We've almost been run over by cyclists several times. These Type-A maniacs will love the new concrete bike path. The dogs and I will have to find an alternate route.

I'm sleeping better these days, but my dreams are becoming so mundane that they're starting to include people and situations from everyday life. This had got to stop. Life is boring enough as it is, without dreamland becoming a six hour extension of my daily routine. Where are those flying dreams I used to have? We need some of those.

I spent most of the day writing and will probably do the same tomorrow. My assignments are quite familiar by now, but my mind still goes blank occasionally. When I can't think of anything, I'll hop in the car and take a bill to the post office or a check to the bank. When that doesn't do the trick, I'll go pick up a prescription at the pharmacy or go grocery shopping. I never go very far, because the dogs don't like being left alone and I don't like negotiating Dallas traffic. I think I've come as close to being a hermit in a big city as you can get.

I got a notice from Shutterstock today asking me to send them a W-9 form so they could report my earnings. What? I think I've made a total of $14 from Shutterstock since I've joined. Since you have to meet a $100 threshold level before most of these stock photo sites will actually pay you anything, maybe I'll be sending in that W-9 form about five years from now.

The weather is beautiful right now. It's usually about 65 degrees when we wake up in the morning and then warms up to around 80 degrees by mid-afternoon. The dogs love to spend time in the back yard during the Fall. It is tempting to just leave the back door open so they can come and go as they please. Unfortunately, there are far too many critters in the yard. If I left the back door open even five minutes, the living room would be filled with wasps and there would probably be a squirrel in the kitchen. As soon as I shut the door to keep the wasps out, the dogs want to come in again. As soon as they're both inside, they want to go out again. Back and forth we go, but at least the weather is nice.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day