Day 3524

I saw three fire trucks, an ambulance, and the fire department rescue boat converge on the lake as I was walking today. Someone must have drowned again. This never used to happen, but now it's almost a weekly occurrence. There are too many people out on the water who can't swim. The weird thing was that without all the emergency vehicles, you never would have known anything was wrong. The sailing club was having a regatta and no boats were attempting a rescue. All the people in kayaks and stand up paddle boards were acting normally. Nobody even seemed aware that something was wrong. I watched as the rescue boat sped off in the distance and disappeared. I still don't know what was going on. Whatever happened didn't make the evening news. Just another Sunday in the park.

I'm glad they fixed the air conditioning at the gym. It was nice and cool inside this week. Maybe this is why I was more accurate on the basketball court today. Probably it was just random luck. I couldn't think of a reason why my shots were connecting. Some days I'm good and other days I'm terrible. I'll have to accept the fact that there isn't always a logical explanation for everything. I'm a model of consistency, yet I never know how long I'm going to sleep. My appetite varies from day to day. Some days I wake up tired and other days I'm ready to go. There has to be a reason, but the only answer I can think of is that life is complicated.

On my way home from the gym I stopped at a neighborhood hardware store to get an extension cord and some plug adapters so we could use Janet's new toaster oven. I appeared to be the only person in the store who wasn't buying something for a chicken. I guess backyard chickens are still a thing in Dallas. I see them in people's yards occasionally while I walk and when Dash was alive I used to see people bring roosters to the vet. I like cage-free eggs from pasture raised chickens as much as the next guy, but it is so much easier to just buy them at the grocery store. I probably wouldn't make a very good farmer.

Now that peaches are in season, Janet has been making peach cobbler a lot. I love peach cobbler for dessert. This week she tried cutting the amount of sugar in the recipe in half. The cobbler tastes even better. Who knew. I suspect that almost all recipes contain way too much salt and sugar. Chefs seem to love salt and sugar. It should be easier to avoid sugar, but the stuff is everywhere. If you eat processed food at all, you're probably consuming a lot more sugar than you should.

I was going to try to disassemble the old dehumidifier today, but not surprisingly making sure that I got my requisite 20,000 steps seemed more important. I'll eventually tackle this project, but there's no need to hurry. The new dehumidifier is working great. It is extracting three time as much water from the air as the old machine. Performance on the old machine probably deteriorated so slowly that I never even noticed. The two machines are absolutely identical with the exception of six small horizontal slots on the back of the new dehumidifier. There must be a reason for those additional slots. They aren't mentioned in the instruction manual at all.

Tomorrow we visit the rescue Dalmatians again. It is also Janet's birthday. Birthday's are pretty low key these days. They only remind us of how old we've become.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3447

Weird. I didn't realize it at the time, but at exactly the same time I was walking around one end of the lake yesterday evening, police were fishing a body out of the other end. Sadly, this is not an uncommon occurrence. Most of the deaths are by drowning. People go boating without wearing a life jacket. They even go boating when they are unable to swim. Accidents happen.

I haven't been boating in the lake in a long time. It used to be fairly easy to take my kayak down a little hill from the backyard to the lake. I attached a pair of wheels to one end and pulled the boat behind me. Unfortunately, the path I used to take has become overgrown with brush and it is virtually impassible now. The small sandy beach where I used to launch the kayak has eroded, making it difficult to get the boat in and out of the water. I'm so close, but I'd need to put the kayak in the car now and drive to a public boat dock. I'm not even sure that the kayak would fit in the car. I no longer own the Defender with its convenient roof rack. I doubt that any of this even matters. The last time I went kayaking I saw a huge water moccasin swimming along beside me. Kayaking has never seemed the same since then.

Kayaking provides a great upper body workout, but I get my exercise by walking now. I had another 20,000 step day today. I hope all this additional activity makes a difference. I don't feel that much stronger but I am able to go the distance. I've started wearing a hat now and hopefully sunburn will no longer be a problem as the days grow warmer. I don't know what to do about the chiggers though. There seem to be a lot of them this year. People say to dust your clothes with sulfur or spray them with distilled vinegar. Others believe that eating a glove of garlic a day will do the trick. None of these methods seems very appealing to me.

I've started going to the gym earlier on Sundays. This leaves more of the day for other things. Today, I went back to the store and got strawberries for my smoothie. There were none yesterday and a huge supply today. I guess I need to find out when the produce truck arrives. I need to mow the grass again but it's still too damp. Grass is much easier to mow when it's dry. Actually, I didn't feel like mowing anyway. I'm not even sure how much time I have left for household chores. Several walks a day takes a long time.

If I drive to Florida for the Space X launch, I noticed that the route I was planning to take passes right through several flooded areas. There is some major flooding along the Mississippi River right now. I wonder if any of the roads are under water. I probably should check this out. I imagine that the water will recede before it's time for me to go, but you never know. Weather is so weird now. Maybe when all the flood water from the Arkansas River joins the Mississippi, the flooding will actually get worse.

I doubt that there will be many surprises tomorrow. If the weather is nice, Janet and I may go up and visit the Dalmatians again. Visiting the rescue dogs is always enjoyable.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day