Day 3284 - Winter Solstice

Now we're talking. For the first time in over a week, I felt like I was actually making progress. The dryer is fixed. I'm glad I didn't try to do the job myself. I would have ordered the wrong parts and I don't think I would have had the strength to remove the dryer drum. I wish everyone who came to the house was as good as the appliance repairmen. So far, he's fixed the refrigerator, the washing machine, and now the dryer. The only thing left is the dishwasher.

The guy who's going to give me a bid on replacing the roof came over to measure things and take a look at the situation this morning. He seemed knowledgable and thought he could put a pitch on the roof without destroying the appearance of the house. We'll see how the bid comes in. I have a feeling that adding a pitch to the oddly shaped roof will be quite expensive. I'm thinking about a metal roof too. If the current leak can be successfully repaired, I may be able to postpone replacing the roof for a while. I have my doubts though. Nothing has worked so far.

The crew that is repairing the leak got approval from their boss to complete the work today and they will be coming back tomorrow morning. I hope they are successful, because there are thunderstorms in the forecast for Christmas Day. I don't think anyone expects these repairs to be permanent, but if they work, they will give me time to develop an effective plan to re-roof the house later in the Spring.

For the first time ever, Dash pooped on a puppy training pad last night. He not only hit the target one, he did the same thing again on a fresh pad three hours later. I don't know whether this was a random accident or a training breakthrough, but it sure made me happy. Clean up was so much easier this morning. I've still got an entire case of puppy training pads in the storage warehouse that Dot never used. I'll go get them tomorrow and hope for the best. If we could get Dash used to using these things, life would be a lot easier.

It didn't seem like the first day of Winter today. We've already had some very cold weather, but today was rather nice. It was warm enough that we tried to give Dash a bath outside this afternoon. He didn't like the idea, but he certainly needed a cleanup. After your dog has sat in poop a few times, it takes a real effort to totally eliminate the smell. I think we succeeded. We've got a clean dog, a dryer that doesn't squeal anymore, and a promise to fix the roof leak tomorrow.

I wonder how much further the stock market is going to drop? This sell off has become a little alarming. I depend on my investments for a retirement income and I don't really think I have time to recover from another big crash like we had in 2007. Markets can go down very quickly, but usually they take a long time to recover. I hope we're near a market bottom, because I've still got to fix a lot of things around the house and the money's got to come from somewhere.

Willow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2855

I think I've messed up my day count. This is Day 2855, but according to Blogger I've actually written something for 2865 consecutive days. Where did the missing ten days go? I don't have a clue. I'm sure what happened was that one day I made a typo in the title and then the next day I just added one to that number and kept going. I really don't have the time or the inclination to search through a year's worth of blog posts to find the gap, but this odd mistake will be added to the long list of things that irritate me. I'm so meticulous and always spell check everything. How could I make a mistake like this?

Dash didn't walk at all today. He wouldn't leave the yard this morning and since Janet had to go to a funeral after work, he wouldn't take an evening walk either. I tried everything to get him to take an evening walk. At one point I left all his gear on for an hour or so, hoping that he could get used to it. The knee brace wasn't the problem. He walked around the yard with his knee brace and boots just fine, but as soon as I put a leash on him, he started heading for the house. The days are getting shorter, so this is only going to get harder in the months ahead. I don't know what this reluctance to walk is all about. The knee brace isn't bothering him and he can walk normally while wearing it. He doesn't mind the rubber boots either. He wears these around the house at times and seems to forget he has them on. For some reason that only Dash knows, he just doesn't want to leave the yard anymore.

I finished my article today, but it took longer than I expected. When Dash doesn't get enough exercise, he is constantly pestering me to let him outside. As soon as he's out, he just wanders around for a minute or two and then wants to come in again. In and out we go, all day long. I can't just leave the back door open. An open door is an invitation to all the squirrels, raccoons, and feral cats that wander through our yard. There are plenty of bugs that would fly through the open door as well.

After I shipped my article off to the client, I got caught up on my website revisions. I wish now that I'd never bothered to convert everyone's site to a mobile friendly format. None of my clients even seem to care that their site automatically resizes for tablets and phones. The mobile sites are more complex and harder to change. The worst thing is that I can't use Dreamweaver anymore and need to make my changes using a cloud based design program. Modifications that used to take a few minutes can now take up to an hour. The sad thing is that I've got plenty of time to do all this because there aren't that many clients left.

Today's picture is pretty pitiful, since Dash wouldn't walk anywhere with me. It's just a crow in the back yard. I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. I might have to take a picture of my morning smoothie. I hope I can figure out how to get Dash walking again. He used to love long walks and certainly needs the exercise. He shouldn't do anything strenuous with the blood clots in his heart, but his doctor said that slow walks would actually be good for him.

The parts I ordered for the refrigerator arrived this morning, but I've still heard nothing about the important mother board that the appliance repair folks ordered. All I ordered were some rubber gaskets and a temperature sensor that the repairman said never goes bad. I could have ordered the motherboard myself as well, but I was afraid I might have to pay for two boards if the repair shop wouldn't send theirs back. Lord knows when this thing will get fixed. I'm still convinced that I could have watched a few YouTube instructional videos and fixed the refrigerator myself weeks ago.

It looks like I might have to take some money from the retirement account to pay the Mastercard bill. That's what happens when business dries up. I guess this is what the retirement account if for, but I'd hoped to leave it untouched for a few more years. Sometimes I wonder if planning ahead even matters. You could have everything all worked out and then there's a nuclear war with North Korea or that super volcano under Yellowstone National Park explodes. Then what? I don't even think the preppers have an answer for that.

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day