Day 2873

Our dogs have never understood Daylight Saving Time and I'll have to admit that I don't understand it either. There must have been a reason for these arbitrary time changes. I always though it had something to do with farming or children walking to school. Whatever the reason, it probably doesn't apply anymore. We're back to standard time now. All that means to me is that I'm going to have to convince Dash to take his evening walk earlier or walk him in the dark. I used to walk our first Dalmatian in the dark, but the city seemed safer then. There weren't any urban coyotes either.

I'm not as obsessive as I used to be. There was a time when I felt compelled to reset every clock and watch in the house when the time changed. When I was collecting watches, this could take me hours. There was little point to this bi-annual ritual because many of the watches didn't keep good time anyway. I re-set a few wall clocks today, but that was about it. Only one watch got any attention at all. It was a radio controlled watch that didn't re-set itself automatically. This puzzled me, since this watch receives a signal every night from the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. I couldn't even remember how to set this watch manually, so I had to find a manual online. Eventually, I determined that the radio signal is weak in the office. Who knows. Maybe the high-tech stuff I'm putting on the roof blocks radio waves.

The gym was really empty today, so maybe there were other people who were confused about the time change. Dash seemed to remember when he was fed in the morning, even though Janet and I were still asleep. I wonder how long it will take him to adjust to the time change? Since I ended up going to the gym very early today, I still had time to do all my Sunday chores when I got home. This wasn't really the plan, but that's how it worked out.

It was warm and clear today, so it seemed like a good idea to continue patching the roof. I prepared a small area that I thought would be easy to fix. Unfortunately, when I removed the torn coating, I discovered more moisture hidden underneath. The damaged area was only six inches in diameter, but by the time I had ripped up enough elastomer to find dry asphalt at the edges, I has exposed a six foot circle that will have to be re-coated. I didn't end up applying any coating today. After the wet area dries, I'll try again.

Dash seemed very agitated tonight. I don't know what was bothering him. He'd had his walk. He'd eaten his dinner. We'd taken him outside to pee several times and fed him some treats. This wasn't enough apparently. He barked at Janet and I for almost half an hour before he finally settled down and went to sleep. I hate when he gets agitated like this because he's got a bad heart and a weak rear leg. Telling him to calm down because he's going to hurt himself doesn't seem to have much of an effect.

I was going to make a list of all my prescriptions so my new doctor could renew them tomorrow at my exam. It's a lengthy list and I'm tired now, so maybe I'll just throw the pills in a sack and take them with me. I do need to remember to call the appliance repair shop first thing in the morning. One way or another, these guys need to fix my refrigerator.

Coach is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2428

I knew it was going to happen eventually. I was checking on the dogs while I was at the gym, and I saw Dot pooping in her bed right on the camera. She was still lying down on her bed, but lifted her head and looked around, as is she was trying to decide whether to go back to sleep or eat the evidence. I was twenty minutes away, but when she put her head back down, I thought I might have time to go home and clean things up before she woke up again. I cut my workout short and hurried home, but I was too late. By the time I arrived, she was wide awake and had eaten everything. I hate when this happens, because it throws off her digestion for the next day or so. What can you do though? Dot is completely unpredictable and I can't spend my entire life watching her sleep and waiting for her to poop.

Since I didn't feel like vacuuming, I went back to the gym and finished my workout as soon as Janet returned home. I spent a long time shooting baskets at the free throw line, wondering why almost nothing in life is completely predictable. You'd think I could sink every basket by now, but I still miss as often as I connect. The ball is the same. The distance to the hoop is the same. And the act of shooting the ball has been repeated so many times that you'd think that hitting the basket would be burned into my muscle memory by now. It's all kind of random though. Sometimes I'll hit three in a row and then spend the next five minutes watching the ball bounce off the rim. If something this simple isn't predictible, I wonder if anything is.

Two short workouts are actually more tiring than one long one. Maybe I should just quit looking at the pet cam while I'm at the gym. If something bad ever happened, I'm too far away to be of much help anyway. I guess I always just want to see the dogs sleeping peacefully. Seeing them sleep gives me some peace of mind and I don't feel so guilty about leaving them.

The atomic clocks are all back in sync again. I still don't know what was going on yesterday, but the problem seemed to resolve itself overnight. I suspect that one of the clocks failed to receive the radio signal from Fort Collins for a few days. I'll probably never know the answer to this mystery, but I will quit thinking about it fairly quickly. I'm sure that something new will go wrong tomorrow that will momentarily capture my attention.

When Janet and I was taking the dogs on their evening walk around the block, a loose dog appeared out of nowhere and came racing straight for Dash. I fell trying to protect Dash and cut my knees. Luckily, the dog's owners were nearby and they quickly retrieved their dog before any damage could be done. The owners apologized while we explained that Dash was terrified by this sort of situation because he'd been attacked by another dog when he was young. We didn't have to explain about Dot. It was obvious that she was very, very old and couldn't defend herself whatsoever. This particular dog was more friendly than aggressive, but I still don't understand why people let their dog off leash. It's just irresponsible to let your dog run loose in a city like Dallas. We were walking down one of the roads that lead into the park. The loose dog could easily have been run over by a car. If you're sitting out in your front yard drinking wine and watching the sunset, please keep your dog on a leash. Things can escalate quickly with dogs and it's almost impossible to keep from getting bitten if a dog really wants to bite you.

I was going to get my new vehicle registration sticker this afternoon, but I forgot that you have to have the safety inspection done first. For years these two events were independent of each other, but now they have to be done in the right order. Why is it that every time the government tries to make something simpler, they just end up making it more complicated? Making an appointment for a safety inspection is already on my to-do list.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2427

Sometimes I get distracted by the smallest things. Today when I turned on the computer, I noticed that there was a fifteen second difference between the time on the computer and the time on my watch. Since both the computer and the watch receive a signal from the same NIST atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado, either the computer or the watch was wrong. The two displays should have been identical. It puzzled me that I didn't know which one was right. I rebooted the computer and replaced the battery in the watch, but the fifteen second difference remained. It was odd that this bothered me, since I could care less what time it actually was. This was an anomaly and it shouldn't have been happening. I get curious about things like this.

Last week at this time I was curious about a new app that lets me use my phone to purchase groceries and bypass the checkout line. I downloaded the app and was going to try it this week, but I completely forgot about it and ended up using the regular checkout line, just like I always do. I wonder how many weeks it's going to take before I remember that I have this handy tool in my pocket. We'll try again next week. Eventually, this thing will become second nature. I'm a creature of habit though. There's always a chance that I'll never use my phone to purchase groceries. I downloaded an app that lets me deposit checks to my bank using my phone two years ago and I still haven't used it.

It was so hot today that neither of the dogs wanted to walk very far. They did their business in a perfunctory way and returned to the house where it was air conditioned. When I was out with Dash, I saw a Great Blue Heron. Even the bird seemed hot. I made sure to water the lawn before the 10 AM water restriction deadline and started wishing for Winter to return. August is probably as bad as it gets. It's still hot in September, but the days are noticeably shorter. Hopefully, the air conditioner will keep working until October, when the weather gets nice again.

I started thinking about what I wanted my new website to look like and came to the inescapable conclusion that I didn't even need a website. Maybe I should just sell my domain to that company in Germany that makes the Sealander amphibious travel trailer. It figures that someone would use my name for a trailer that is also a boat. Who would want something like this? It's pretty expensive, not very big, and the literature says "for calm waters only." I bet more than a few of these things have sank. The unlikely vehicle must be getting more popular though, because I get e-mail messages almost every week asking for information about how to buy one.

It's time to go to the gym again. I should just quit taking Statins instead of going to the gym. One of the worst side effects from taking Statin drugs is that they cause muscle atrophy in some people. Even though I am active and get a lot of exercise, I have real trouble building muscle tissue. I know it's the Simvastatin. I keep asking my doctor if I can quit taking the pills, but he is obsessed with heart attacks and keeps reminding me that my Dad had a quadruple bypass at about my age. I guess I'll have to keep taking the Statins and just exercise a little harder tomorrow.

Margo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day