Day 3546

Today seemed busier than usual. The tree guy call me during breakfast and we tried to schedule some time for him to come remove the fallen tree in our yard. There are other trees that need to be dealt with as well, but first things first. No promises were made, but hopefully he will show up tomorrow. Before taking my morning walk, I took some September bills to the post office and picked up my mystery prescription from the pharmacy. It turns out that they switched all my prescriptions to auto-refill. Maybe I have reached the age where they just assumed I was becoming forgetful.

It was a little cooler this morning and there was a nice breeze, but at the end of my walk I was still hot and tired. I'm continuing to walk five miles in the morning now in case I don't have time for a second walk in the afternoon. Lately, I barely have time for the morning walk.

The reason I was trying to get thing finished up quickly this morning was that Janet and I were returning to the boarding kennel to spend some more time with the new Dalmatians. The kennel staff spends a lot of time with our dogs, but we thought that they could all use some additional time to become accustomed to being around people. A little socialization can work wonders. The dogs are already becoming familiar with their surroundings and were much more relaxed than when we visited them on Saturday.

Our rescue dogs tend to get adopted very quickly. While we were at the kennel today a woman arrived who had been looking for a companion for her female Dalmatian after her male passed away. One of the new dogs got along extremely well with her dog and since the lady was well known to Dalmatian Rescue, this lucky boy ended up finding his forever home as well. Two adoptions in three days is really pretty good.

We stayed to play with the remaining dogs who are still looking for a home. They are all getting to know us now and it is fun to watch them grow and develop. Most are already starting to learn some basic commands. Hank seems to be doing well. So far there has been no reoccurrence of his bloody stools. His lab reports haven't come back yet, so we are still waiting for a diagnosis.

By the time we returned home it was almost time for dinner. The day was basically done and it was too late to start any other projects. I never got around to submitting my article to Sky and Telescope, but I should have no problems doing this tomorrow. The only thing on my calendar is a routine checkup at the doctor's office. I imagine that the tree guy will want to come over during my appointment, but I'll worry about that later. It's hard to decide whether it's harder to reschedule tree removal or a doctor's appointment.

Traffic was terrible on the trip to and from the boarding kennel. I'm really missing the empty streets of Fort Davis. All the new dogs are on the website now if you're curious.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3544

We moved six dogs today. The new Dalmatians have all finished their initial evaluation at the vet and have been spayed or neutered. They were ready to join the others at the boarding kennel. One lucky boy didn't have to wait long to find his forever home. Less than an hour after he arrived at the kennel, a family from Houston arrived to look at dogs and adopted him.

I think the other five will be adopted soon as well. They are all good looking, healthy dogs with great dispositions. Two have a skin infection that we are treating and one has heartworms, but all in all they are in decent shape. None of them appeared to have had a lot of contact with people before. They were very shy at first and didn't know how to play with toys. Curiosity prevailed over fear though. After about an hour, they were following us around and enjoyed being petted.

Janet and I transported the young male that got adopted today. I wish I'd gotten to know him better because he was a wonderful dog. He was very shy and a bit scared, but it didn't take long for him to fall asleep in my lap on the ride to the kennel. He got a good home today with a family who has had Dalmatians before. I wish him well.

Transporting the dogs took quite a while, so there were no long walks today. It's just as well. It was very hot. I thought our heat wave was coming to an end this weekend, but apparently not. It was 102 degrees outside this afternoon. I still need to mow the grass, but I think I'm going to wait until it gets a little cooler. Walking is one thing. Pushing a lawn mower is another thing entirely.

I had a lot of things on my grocery list today. I'm disappointed that the app on my phone that lets me bypass the checkout line isn't working well anymore. Every time I scan an item, I have to reboot the app and start over before I can scan the next item. Everything worked perfectly for a long time. Then the company decided to improve the app, adding coupons and promotions for things on sale. Nothing has worked since. Why do people keep trying to improve things that are working fine? Restaurants I like change their menus too often. Cars I like seem to go downhill after the first model year. I don't even like Apple computers as much as I used to. I blame it all on focus groups. If you listen to too many people you can ruin anything.

I wonder how we're going to get home next week. There a big sign a few blocks away saying that our road will be closed for three days while the highway department demolishes a bridge. I bet the people who cross the bridge every day are wondering how they're going to get home too. I wish there was less political news and more news about road construction. Roads are torn up all over town and I never know what is going on.

It's time to go to the gym again. Maybe it's finally time to start doing all my exercising indoors. Walking around the small indoor track is boring, but it probably beats being fried to a crisp under this hot sun. Fall can't come soon enough for me.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3503

The Internet is working again. I wasn't imagining things. There really was a problem. It turns out that the last time the fiber optic cable was attached to the box on my house, they did a sloppy job and the end of the glass fiber was a little dirty. There was also a splice in the cable that made the situation worse. Evidently, there are always small errors in the data coming through the fiber, but the second box on the wall inside the house is designed to compensate for the errors. If the end of the cable isn't perfectly clean, it can cause reflections in the light coming through the cable and confuse the box that is trying to correct the data errors. This is why my system had to be constantly reset. The technician told me that the cable was too short to cut the end off and make a better connection, so he installed a completely new cable out to the street.

This is the third time AT&T has had to do this. Like all the other installations, today's new above ground cable is only temporary. Another crew will come out next week and bury the cable. You'd think they'd just bury the cable the technician installed today, but typically they just throw this cable away and bury an all new cable instead which also needs a special technician to hook it up. "Is this why my bill is so high," I asked the technician? He just laughed. These fiber optic technicians are the first to admit that the crews who bury the cables underground usually screw up all their work. "Why don't the guys who bury the cable come out with you, so you can do everything at the same time," I asked. "That would make too much sense," the technician told me. AT&T hires third party contractors to bury the cables because they want to do this process as cheaply as they can. The people who dig the holes know nothing about fiber optics and how fragile the cables are. Most of the time they are putting in sprinkler systems. I don't think they are saving any money at all. This is the third time I've had to have the fiber optic line installed and they still can't get it right. Everything is working now though. Janet probably picked a good week to be away.

I still had time to go to the gym after the technician completed his work. I basically spent the rest of the day exercising and walking and might have set a new Fitbit record. 22,000 steps today. Needless to say, it was very hot outside. One of the many indicators on my new watch is a daily UV Index. Along with the air quality reading, this basically tells me whether I should just stay inside. The Ultraviolet Index is usually very high toward the middle of the day when the sky is clear. I guess I should be wearing sunblock even when I'm walking. No wonder my skin is starting to look like a lizard.

I got some pictures of Jenga and Pongo in their new homes this afternoon. They looked happy. It was amazing how relaxed they both seemed. You could tell that they had settled in to their new surroundings very quickly. Dogs know when they have found a home. I predict that they'll be sleeping on the bed in a matter of days.

The carpenter told me he needed to come back to the house and look at the greenhouse again before he could give me a firm estimate. The tree guy forgot where I live. The roofer told me that he would bring me some of the silicon product "soon." I don't know whether this means tomorrow or next month. The fact that I'm still communicating with these people is progress though. Eventually everything will get done.

I have no idea what will get done tomorrow. It's hard to get motivated in this heat.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3497

I think Jenga is going to get a very good home. I went up to the boarding kennel today and met the young couple who wants to adopt him. I liked them. They were both very nice and much more conscientious than I was at their age. For what it's worth, I gave them my blessing. I doubt that I will see Jenga again. He will be in his forever home later this week.

I thought it was hot today, but it was much worse last year at this time. 111 degrees makes today's high in the mid-nineties seem mild by comparison. The truth is that late July is always bad in Dallas. I don't know how we survived last summer with Dash being sick. We certainly took our walks much earlier in the day. I got to know the morning stars pretty well last summer. Walking this early is actually enjoyable if you don't mind the lack of sleep. I'm enjoying getting a good night's sleep these days, so I deal with the heat.

I also need to deal with the people who were going to help me with the house. The tree guy still hasn't returned to remove what is left of the big Elm tree that fell on June 10. My roofer hasn't brought over the silicon material he promised me. I haven't got a bid to fix the greenhouse yet either. Come to think of it, there is still one roofer who hasn't sent me the bid for replacing the roof he promised me back in February. Most repair people seem to operate on the squeaky wheel principle. If you aren't hounding them constantly, they just forget about you.

It took me a little longer to make my smoothie this morning. I've been spoiled for a long time. Janet likes fresh fruit in the morning too, so she always fixed mine while she was cleaning hers just before she went to bed. Every morning there was just the right amount of fruit in a big aluminum bowl waiting for me in the refrigerator. I don't think I got the proportions quite right this morning. I'll add a few more strawberries to the mix tomorrow morning.

All I seem to think about these days is walking and eating. It's amazing that I can stretch these simple activities out to fill an entire day. It was a nice change of pace to go see Jenga this afternoon. The only thing I didn't enjoy was driving on the freeway. I hate being sandwiched between speeding eighteen wheelers so much that it's just a matter of time before I start taking back roads to local appointments. I don't know if the traffic is really worse or if I just have a lower tolerance for bad drivers. It's probably a little bit of both.

Instead of watching Perry Mason last night I watched part of Alien: Covenant on the FX channel. Jeez. How many of these Alien movies are there? I've lost count. It didn't really matter that I tuned in in the middle of the movie. Just like Mad Max and Terminator sequels it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on. There seems to be a formula for these type of scripts. Of course there is a formula for Perry Mason scripts too. A very rigid formula. Probably being a Hollywood script writer isn't that different from being an advertising writer except that more money and even bigger egos are involved.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. There are bills to be paid, so I guess I'll start with that.

Pongo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1558

We went up and photographed dogs at the Dalmatian Rescue kennel today. One of the dogs was actually being adopted while we were there and it was nice to see him go to his new home. There aren't as many abandoned Dalmatians anymore. I think the irresponsible people have moved on to other breeds. That's a good thing. Most of the Dalmatians who get adopted now go to homes that have had a Dalmatian before. These people love and understand the breed and the dogs find good homes. I'm sure there are still people who see a popular movie and end up wanting a dog for all the wrong reasons. At least that dog isn't a Dalmatian now. Hopefully, Disney won't make any more 101 Dalmatian movies. That movie was largely responsible for the surge in abandoned Dalmatians in 1996.

The weather got cooler again today. This is the time of year when Janet keeps turning on the air conditioner and I keep turning on the heater. Back and forth we go. During these in-between times, I'm always cold and she's always hot. In a month or so, there will be no more ambiguity. By the time June arrives, everybody will be in agreement again. Texas summers are hot.

Our water bill is going to be high next month. One of the things about new grass is that you have to water it constantly. It's ironic. We got the grass to keep the dogs from getting muddy, but now that the entire yard is a soggy mess, the dogs get muddy anyway. Hopefully, the grass will last a little longer than it did last year. The landscape guys treated for grubs again, but grubs are a perennial problem in Texas. No matter what we do, we always seem to have grubs.

I thought Janet would laugh at my idea of putting a little scarecrow on my car mirrors to ward off the pooping redbird. She apparently liked the idea though, because when she was shopping today, she got a bunch of little rubber birds at the Dollar Store and now her car has little bird scarecrows on the mirrors as well. The mailman will probably think we are crazy.

I need to go to the gym tomorrow. I need to figure out how to resume going during the week as well. Now that it appears my liver is improving, the real challenge will be avoid slipping back to my old unhealthy ways. I've always been able to rise to the occasion during difficult times. I'm a big advocate of that old "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" adage. When the danger is over, I'm a terrible backslider though. I definitely don't exercise and eat Kale for the sheer joy of it. At heart, I'm more of a bacon and beer kind of guy.

Brooke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day