Day 3494

After breakfast this morning, I went and got groceries for the week. Usually Janet cooks on the weekends and I eat leftovers during the week. No leftovers this week. Janet is on vacation with her sister and the refrigerator is empty. I'm not much of a cook so I got some more of those Cadence Kitchen flash frozen meals. I was real excited when this concept was initially introduced, but I'd almost forgotten about the stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the company had added a bunch of new dishes to their repertoire. I will be eating Pesto Shrimp, Creamy Arbol Chicken, and Pulled Pork with Pineapple this week. Did I fix any of these things tonight? Nope. I just had a hot dog.

The backyard birdbath sculpture is back together. I took the pieces over to the Creative Arts Center where my friend is teaching a metal arts class. I thought it would take weeks to fix the sculpture, but she welded it back together on her lunch break. I was surprised that the Creative Arts Center has been around since 1966 and I'd never even heard of it. It wasn't that far away either. There was some really impressive work on display and a ton of interesting classes that were open to anyone. Maybe I should take a class. Or maybe not. I am very ambivalent these days. It's nice to know that a place like this exists. At any rate, if I ever feel the urge to carve stone, fuse glass, throw pots, or learn to weave I'll know where to go.

There is so much information online about the Apollo Fiftieth Anniversary that I have become overwhelmed with facts and figures. I read the articles and watch the YouTube videos wondering why it took fifty years for the world to become interested in this stuff. Probably as soon as the anniversary is over people will forget about the moon again. When I read some of the biographies of people who worked on the Apollo program, I'm amazed at how young many of them were at the time. Some of the engineers manning the consoles at mission control weren't much older than I was. I never realized when I was in architecture school that there were people my own age working on the space program. Of course there were many people my own age fighting in Vietnam as well. All these programs about the Apollo 11 Anniversary are making me realize that 1969 was a long time ago.

I took my morning walk an hour earlier than usual today. It didn't make any difference. It was still way too hot. If I was smart, I'd get up really early like I used to when I walked Dot and Dash. Unfortunately, I'm still enjoying getting a good night's sleep. You can't really walk and sleep at the same time. I'm trying to convince myself that sweating profusely is good for you. Who knows. Maybe it is. I do drink lots of water when I return home, and I always wear a hat now, so I'm probably OK.

I wonder how long I can avoid mowing the grass. It's starting to get long again. I'm ready to patch the tears in the roof coating but the roofer hasn't delivered the silicon yet. There's a new Dalmatian that needs to be photographed too. I guess I'll start by getting more fresh fruit tomorrow morning. I'll eat a peach and then decide what to do next.

Beemer is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2072

Dot got scared going to the vet for her annual exam and immediately pooped in the lobby. This was actually convenient, since we needed a stool sample for the exam anyway. Her vet told me that other than having cancer and severe neurological problems, Dot was looking pretty good. Dot sees so many vets for so many different reasons that these annual exams really are just a formality. She didn't need a rabies shot this year, but did get a leptospirosis vaccination.  This disease has become a real problem in our area. It is spread by the urine of rats, raccoons, and possums, which all seem to wind up in our yard, so it's better to be safe than sorry. Since Dot has three different vets, I always need to make sure that everyone is on the same page. I usually spend a good portion of every exam telling the vet what all the other vets think. Today, we didn't even need to do the regular annual exam blood work, because Dot's oncologist at the cancer center has already taken care of this just a few weeks ago.

A box of Keurig coffee pods arrived in the mail this morning. "Don't you already have plenty of coffee pods," Janet asked me? Well, I guess I do. I don't really feel guilty about buying an excessive amount of Keurig pods though. Janet does the same thing with soup. It's hard to resist a good bargain. I'll find a place to store the new pods until I need them. They definitely will get used. I drink a lot of coffee.

I'm trying to remember if August was always this slow. Traditionally, the end of the Summer has always been slow for me, but this year absolutely nothing is going on. The odd thing is that even though I have no business to speak of, I'm still busy every day. It's amazing how quickly taking care of the dogs, tending to the yard, paying bills, and running the occasional errand can fill up a day. I had to run to the mall and pick up something this morning, but this quick trip and Dot's vet appointment were my only excursions today. It seemed like they took up the entire day.

I need to pick up a few books to read. I've been meaning to read Andy Wier's new novel The Martian and this would probably be a pretty good time. What else have I got to do? Dot likes having me nearby during the day and sitting next to her reading a book probably makes a lot more sense than getting up and down every five minutes to check social media on my computer. I wonder why I lost the desire to read? I used to read books voraciously. Of course, I used to do everything with a lot more gusto than I do now. I still make sure to take a new photograph every day for the blog, but a camera is no longer my constant companion. I don't play guitar all that much either. Maybe this is just the natural order of things as my interests change over time. Or maybe I'm catatonically depressed. I really don't know.

Everyone says it is going to rain tomorrow. I am so ambivalent about rain.We really need the rain. The yard is dry and the air is hot and dusty. On the other hand, Dot and Dash are terribly frightened of storms and make life difficult every time it rains. I never really trust the roof either. What this means is that I'll be really happy when the rain first starts, but will become increasingly irritated if it doesn't stop within thirty minutes. If the power goes out, all bets are off.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2030

Dot is limping today. Her left rear leg has been a little weaker than the right leg for quite a while, but today she could barely put any weight on it. The limp seems worse when she first wakes up, so maybe she's sleeping on it wrong. When she circles around to change position during the night, she has trouble extending her legs after she lies down again. One leg often gets stuck under her body and I have to gently move it for her so she can relax and stretch out. I don't always wake up to do this when she wakes up though. Maybe the problem is neurological and has nothing to do with the way she sleeps. The doctors have always told us that some of her nerves may never grow back completely after the spinal injury. Maybe I'm exercising her too much. It's hard to tell. She walks better after she's been moving around for a while, but she's pretty frail. There's a fine line between getting enough exercise and overdoing things. Unfortunately, Dot doesn't know where that line is. Neither do I on many days. I'm doing the best I can, but this is not an easy rehabilitation.

When you get an Apple Watch, they give you two weeks to decide whether you really want it. At any time during the initial two weeks, you can return the watch and get your money back, or exchange it for a different model. Since my two weeks are just about up, I stopped by the Apple Store to see if I'd made the right decision. I have a small wrist, so I had selected the smaller 38 mm model. The watch fits perfectly and is about the same size as some of my favorite mechanical watches. Maybe I should have gotten the bigger watch though. Bigger frequently seems better to me. I'll always pick the biggest cheeseburger at a restaurant and I've never liked to drive a small car. You can tell that I probably didn't have much on my mind today. At any rate, Apple was out of stock of the larger 42 mm watch, so the decision was made for me. I should learn to stick with my initial instincts. They are usually right. Back when I was playing in a band, I would frequently trade guitars on a whim. Several of the initial guitars I bought turned out to be very collectible. The guitars I exchanged them for after I got bored turned out to be worthless. You should learn to trust your instincts and not be distracted by new shiny objects. I'm a Gemini though, so this is difficult.

I'm really curious to see what Pluto looks like. The NASA New Horizons mission is less than a week away from it's encounter with the ninth planet. This will be the last time that anyone alive today will get to see images from a brand new planet we've never seen before. We've already landed on or flown around all the other planets. We've even landed on a comet. It's amazing to me that Pluto is so far away that it take over four hours to send a signal to the spacecraft or receive a picture back from it. Even more amazing, in an odd way, is that the New Horizons spacecraft, along with all its sensors and cameras, is carrying a small container with the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930. I should have been an astronomer instead of an adman. I was never good at math though. I was always much better at convincing people to buy things they didn't need.

I don't know what I'm going to convince myself to do tomorrow. It's going to be a slow day. I'm just about caught up on converting the websites I manage to new, mobile friendly versions. My writing assignments have slowed to a snail's pace, although that could change at any time. My doctor's appointment got canceled tomorrow. Dash probably won't even want to take a long walk, because it's getting too hot. Maybe I'll fix myself an elaborate breakfast. Maybe I'll play the guitar. Maybe I'll just spend the day feeling ambivalent.

Delaney is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day