Day 4451

It continues to be unseasonably warm. I wonder if the weird weather is affecting my allergies. My nose was running like a faucet today. My nose runs so much that I can't use regular Kleenex. I have to remember to always carry a couple of those heavy duty blue shop towels with me. Other than my perpetual seasonal allergies it was a great day. I hope we don't have a late freeze. With all this warm weather the trees are already starting to bud.

It was a pretty quiet day. I went to the bank and filled my car with gas. That was about it. I need to remember to always run errands like this when other people are at work. There were no lines at the gas pumps or the bank drive up window. 10:30 in the morning is great. Rush hour is over and people haven't started going to lunch yet. Now, I just need to break my habit of always doing my grocery shopping on Saturday. The first rule of retirement should always be to never do things when everyone else is doing things.

I was able to complete my full six mile walk today. My pace is considerably slower than it used to be unfortunately. I have to walk slowly and carefully now to minimize the foot pain. I stay on pavement or smooth trails more than I used to as well. I really don't want to twist an ankle. It's still good to be active though. I spend over two hours a day walking and that burns quite a few calories.

I avoid current events and politics like the plague, but Ukraine has captured my attention. I think this country has shown the world what real patriotism looks like. The Ukrainians make all the squabbles between the left and right in our own country look ridiculous. I wish there was a way we could help these guys a little more without starting World War III. I keep thinking if the Ukrainians had a few of our A-10 Warthogs they could take care of that forty mile convoy headed towards Kyiv fairly quickly.

There is a new update to the star tracker software. I hesitate to even use it because each new update seems to fix something while breaking something else. The Polaris tracker is still a work in progress and I am still basically a Beta tester. You'd think testing something like this would be interesting for me, but for the most part it is just irritating. I expect machines to work. Car problems, furnace problems, computer problems, and now star tracker problems are just an added nuisance in a world that is already too complicated.

My press credentials at Patrick Air Force Base have expired and nobody has contacted me yet about renewing them for another year. I hope this isn't a problem. I really want to go see the Artemis-1 launch later this year and I could usually count on the Air Force to get me on base even when NASA turned me down. I'm beginning to feel like I'm not in the loop anymore. There are a lot of launches at Kennedy Space Center now and I can only afford to go to a very few. It's too bad the magazine I write for doesn't pay for travel.

Janet said Dawn did really well at training class tonight. Dawn is starting to enjoy these weekly classes and has even made some dog friends. It's nice to see her overcome her fear and become a normal dog. She's still a little uncertain about me, but we're working on it.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4112

Today was busy. I helped Janet clear away more of the dead Asian Jasmine in the back yard. It's becoming more and more apparant that this stuff is not going to turn green again. My only hope is that the roots are still alive and that we might get some new growth next season. I ran the vacuum cleaner because I promised Janet I would start doing this every week again. I've always thought of dust as a protective coating, but apparently most people don't think this way. The hardest task today was giving the atrium a spring cleaning. It's is almost impossible to pry the broken sliding glass door open wide enough to get inside the atrium these days. If I'm lucky, I can just manage to squeeze through the narrow opening. I'm always afraid that I won't be able to get the door closed again, but with enough pushing and shoving, I"ve been successful so far. I've tried for several years to get the door fixed but parts are no longer available. Nobody makes a replacement for this oversize door either. I never realized how much trouble I was in when the last guy in town who worked on these things died.

The saga of old impossible to replace things continued when I discovered that the video component that I accidentally threw away is no longer manufactured. It's not available anywhere. I even looked on the eBay used market and couldn't find it. Come on guys! It hasn't been that long. It really is frustrating that everything becomes obsolete so quickly now. I've stopped upgrading the system on my computers so I can still run the last stand alone versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite. I'm old school and don't want to pay for subscription software or save my files in the cloud. As a result, I can't use a lot of new software. The industry standard for processing astrophotography files won't run on any of my computers. 

We thought we'd do something different with Dawn today, so we drove her to a different park for her daily walk. This actually worked out pretty well. Dawn is a strange traveler. She is terrified of riding in the car, but is always excited when she arrives at her destination. We had a nice walk. Dawn had lots of energy and wasn't interested in eating grass at all. Janet walked Dawn, because I can never keep up with her when she is excited. I walked along behind and Dawn and Janet were kind enough to wait in the car for me when they were finished. To make the ride home less traumatic, we stopped for an ice cream cone along the way. Dawn loves ice cream.

I didn't take my own longer walk until later in the afternoon. The park was even more crowded today than it was yesterday. On a nice Spring day, it feels like I'm the only one who doesn't believe that Covid is over yet. Luckily, the park is huge and it is quite easy for me to keep to myself. I just don't understand why people like to gather in large groups. I can see getting together with a friend for coffee, but the whole concept of parties has always seemed strange to me. I never had to give up parties for Covid. I never liked them in the first place.

I keep getting messages that time is running out for me to use my 20% off coupon at REI. Today I got an e-mail saying that my discount expires tomorrow. In the past, messages like this would send me directly to the store. Not anymore. I don't need anything from REI. I think it is an encouraging sign that I'm slowly learning to resist the urge to buy. I did get a camera earlier this year and I got that start tracker recently, but I know I'll use these things. The star tracker is practically a requirement for attending the advanced astrophotography workshop later this Spring.

It's going to be a busy week. We'll go visit the rescue Dalmatians tomorrow and then go to the arboretum later in the week. One of these days I'm going to have to go up on the roof. The catkins have started falling from the Oak trees and they can make a huge mess on the roof when it rains if I don't remove them. The catkins are also responsible for the thin layer of sticky yellow dust that covers everyone's cars at this time of year. I like watching all the wildflowers bloom, but a lot of other things associated with Spring are a nuisance. What's the biggest nuisance of all? It's time to mow the grass again.

Doc is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3245

What a day. Dash started us off by pooping in the bed. He strayed off his protective pad during the night and ended up pooping on the bedspread. Then when he tried to get up, he stepped in the mess. I took the bedding outside so I could hose it off before putting it in the wash and discovered that it was pouring rain. It was a very cold rain too. By the time I got the bedspread in the washing machine, I was freezing and fairly wet.

I didn't even notice until the next morning that the roof had started to leak in an entirely new location. This time the leak was in the hallway. Since the first leak appeared over a month ago, it has never been dry enough to inspect the roof for damage. With all the rain we've been having, there has been standing water one the roof for the entire time. The roof seems hopeless at this point. I don't want to put an entirely new roof on the house, but it may come to that.

Dash wouldn't walk this morning. Maybe it was too cold for him, but I suspect that it was because Janet wasn't with him. He follows her around like glue these days. I tried several times to get him out the back door, but all I succeeded in doing was get him to poop in the house again.

We walked later in the day when Janet returned. That's all he wanted. As soon as she was leading the way, he was eager to follow behind. It makes it a lot harder to walk Dash if we both have to be there, but that is apparently what Dash wants. It is almost impossible to get him to walk alone with me anymore.

I woke up this morning with an upset stomach, heartburn, and a bad back. These middle of the night cleanup routines are taking a toll on me. I'm a light sleeper anyway and now it seems like I'm getting no sleep at all. I take naps during the day, but it would be much more enjoyable to do my sleeping at night like a normal person. This new routine doesn't seem to bother Dash at all. He still seems to sleep eighteen hours a day.

This afternoon, I went to check out the location for the photo shoot this weekend. I was happy to discover that I'll be inside. I have a feeling that it will still be very cold this weekend. I still can't decide whether to get a flu shot before the event. The last time I got a flu shot I actually came down with a mild case of the flu. I still blame the flu shot and haven't got a shot since. My fear of crowds probably trumps my fear of flu shots though. Whenever I'm around a crowd of people, I'm convinced that I'll catch a cold.

Once again, I checked the mail for most of the day before I realized that it was a holiday and there was no mail delivery. I wish the stock market was closed today along with the post office and the banks. We had another major sell off. Basically nothing went smoothly today. Hey, there's always tomorrow.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2099

I listened to the local news coverage of the big Dallas Donald Trump rally while I was eating dinner this evening. I love a circus and would have enjoyed sitting in the crowd when I was younger. History, however strange, is always interesting. I used to make a point of visiting Dealey Plaza on November 22 just to hear all the conspiracy theories. Crowds never used to bother me. It didn't matter if it was a Fourth of July fireworks show or a Rolling Stones concert, I was there. Something has certainly changed. I'm a virtual hermit now. If I have a choice between seeing an event on TV or watching it in person, I'll almost always opt for the stay-at-home alternative. I've been to a lot of Rolling Stones concerts but when the Stones came to AT&T Stadium this Summer, I had no interest whatsoever in getting tickets. All I could think about was how bad the parking would be and what a pain it would be to drive all the way to Arlington in heavy traffic. I imagine that traffic is pretty bad at American Airlines Center this evening.

I was paying bills this afternoon and I couldn't figure out why my Quickbooks records looked so different from my bank statement. I had quite a bit less than I though I did. It finally occurred to me that I hadn't been recording a growing number of automatic recurring payments in my Quickbooks software. Everyone seems to want you to pay your bills electronically these days. I can see why companies like this. They get their money a lot faster when they directly debit your account. It's convenient too. Unfortunately, when you forget to record these automatic payments, things get confusing. Imagine how disappointed I was to discover I had forgotten about three months worth of automatic deductions from my checking account. I'm feeling poor now.

The weather continues to be delightful. This morning when we walked the dogs it was chilly enough that I needed a light jacket. It's hard to believe that jacket weather is here already. Of course, by mid-afternoon it was 90 degrees again, but for a few hours this morning, the weather was perfect. We'll have a few more hot days, but I bet it won't be long before I'll be wondering if the furnace is going to work this Winter.

I'm still reading the memoir written by the ad guy I used to work with in Seattle. Unlike The Martian, this is a very long book and will never be made into a major motion picture. I read a couple of chapters every day and maybe I'll be finished by Thanksgiving. What makes this book interesting is that I remember a lot of the people who are in it. The advertising world really was like Mad Men in those days. I had forgotten how much alcohol and general rudeness was involved. As far as work goes, I think I prefer the way things are now.

Life is peaceful these days. The only stress is worrying about Dot's health. I wrote an article this morning and sent it of to my client. I updated a few websites, and answered some correspondence. That was about it. Tomorrow should be very similar. I'll start with a cup of coffee and my trademark peach and banana smoothie. I'll end with an episode of Perry Mason. If I'm lucky, I won't have to clean up poop in the middle of the night.

Nicholas is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1572

Apparently, there's a lot going on in Dallas this weekend. The Final Four is in town and AT&T Stadium is being converted into the nation's largest basketball arena. Bruce Springsteen will be giving a free concert in Reunion Park tomorrow, and it's Duck Commander weekend at the local NASCAR track. All this means to me is more traffic to avoid. You couldn't pay me to attend any of these events. My Dad loved collage basketball, but I never understood the attraction. The closest I ever got to the college game was producing a series of TV commercials featuring Dick Vitale. I did see Springsteen in the mid-1970's at a small theater in Seattle before he became a superstar. He still sings some of the same songs today. I've never been to Texas Motor Speedway at all. It's too loud and too far away for me. I almost went to a Rolling Stones concert there once, but I'd already seen the Stones several times and like I said, the speedway is too loud and too far away.

I'll let everyone else fight the crowds this weekend. I'm perfectly content to give the dogs a long walk in the park if the weather's nice, and hole up inside with them if it rains again. It rained sporadically today, but there were frequent dry patches, so I was able to walk the dogs and get all my shopping done without getting wet. The weather forecast says there is a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. I'm not putting a lot of faith in the forecast though, since the weatherman has been wrong about 50% of the time this week.

There were lots of errands to run today. I picked up some fresh fruit at the grocery store. I renewed some prescriptions at the pharmacy. And I got some new furnace filters for the start of the air conditioning season. I always get the best filters I can find, but the house is still dusty all the time. A dust free house and Dalmatians are two things that don't naturally go together.

My hair is getting curly again. It was curly for most of my life and then it got straight and very fine for about four years. Now, it's getting curly again. I wonder what all this means? Maybe now that my liver is starting to function normally again, my hair is returning to normal as well. Or maybe I'm just using a different kind of shampoo. Like most guys, I have no idea what I'm really washing my hair with. I usually just pick up the first bottle I see at the store that says shampoo on the side of the bottle. I can't even get that right half the time. Once I washed my hair with conditioner for two weeks and didn't even know the difference. I'll spend some time thinking about what software to install on my computer, or what lens I need for my camera. Shampoo?  Not so much.

Angel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1499

I skipped the networking breakfast this morning. Maybe I'm growing tired of bacon, or maybe I just didn't have any interest in learning about how to retain good sales managers. That's the trouble with these networking breakfasts. The food is good, but the speakers very seldom deal with anything I'm remotely interested in. These aren't exactly Ted Talks here. Since I have to give one of these talks myself later this Spring, I shouldn't be too disparaging. I still don't know what I'm going to talk about, but I bet it will be a little different than what these folks are used to.

Since I wasn't stuffing myself with bacon and sausages, I walked the dogs and had my usual bowl of oatmeal and fruit. It was really cold on our walk this morning. All the vegetation was covered with frost. I'm sure glad the furnace is working again. This ongoing tug of war between heat and cold will continue through April. Then it will just be hot all the time. Basically, Texas weather is hopeless.

Since Dot had an acupuncture treatment on Monday when we took her to the vet for her spinal X-Ray, she didn't go for her usual Wednesday therapy today. This made the entire day sort of topsy-turvy. When I finished my work for the day, I used Dot's time slot to go to the gym. I frequently go to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but have never gone on a Wednesday before. Much to my surprise the place was crowded. What would make a Wednesday afternoon different than a Tuesday afternoon? Both are workdays. At any rate, I think I'll go back to working out on Tuesdays. You should know my style by now. When I go out in public, I like my destination to be empty.

I had a lot of work to do today, and none of it was very interesting. I won't bore you with the details. Tomorrow should be interesting though. I have an appointment with my hepatologist to discuss, and perhaps even begin, my new Hepatitis-C treatment. I still don't have any idea what this new treatment involves, but I've heard that it is much more effective than the old interferon and ribavirin combo. I'm looking forward to finally putting all this behind me. If the new medicine works, I should be completely virus free in six months. I still find it ironic that I am being treated at the very same hospital that gave me the transfusion of bad blood that started this whole mess over 30 years ago.

I watched a fascinating documentary about J.D. Salinger last night on PBS. I never realized that Salinger kept writing prolifically right up until his death in 2010. He supposedly wrote dozens of unpublished novels and kept the manuscripts in a safe at his New Hampshire home, stipulating in his will that they weren't to be published until 50 years after his death. I don't think J.D. Salinger would have liked the Internet.

Raider is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1469

I think the recession is over in Dallas. People are certainly buying things this year. I decided to brave the crowds and do some Christmas shopping this afternoon and was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people at Northpark. My plan to avoid the crowds by shopping while everyone else was at work was a total failure. Evidently, very few people are at work this week. I'm not good with puzzles, but I could have solved Rubiks Cube in less time than it took me to find a parking place inside the giant shopping mall parking garage. They should ban people from taking their gigantic Ford F-250 Super Duty pickups into these parking garages. They don't even fit between the white lines. Every time I thought I'd found a place to park, there was a huge pickup truck in the adjacent space, leaving me no room to park my much smaller giant SUV.

I thought I was going to have a very light week, since tomorrow is Christmas Eve and many of my clients are on vacation anyway. I was just as wrong about this as I was about avoiding the Christmas crowds. When I turned on my computer this morning, there two new articles and a big website revision waiting for me. So much for taking it easy this week. I guess nobody really takes it easy during Christmas week. In my experience, this is always a very hectic time of year.

I feel sorry for that girl who had her life ruined by having a single snarky tweek to her less than 200 followers re-tweeted by Buzzfeed to the world. This is mob justice at its worst. The ironic thing is that she could have said exactly the same thing on her blog and nobody would have noticed. Nobody reads blogs anymore. A quick Google search will reveal that on any given day, there are literally  thousands of much more offensive tweets and Facebook status updates. Buzzfeed just chose to cast a spotlight on this one. This is why I prefer to write about dogs. The world has become a pack of sharks who flock to the smell of blood in the water. I don't like it. If I could borrow Dr. Who's Tardis for a few minutes, I would make a quick retreat to the much kinder world of Andy Griffith and Leave it to Beaver.

I haven't quite finished my Christmas shopping, but I'm definitely not going back to the mall again. I've had enough of that craziness for one year. I'm no sure what I'll do tomorrow. It's kind of a vacation day, but I've still got work to do. When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was the day. We opened our stockings on Christmas Eve morning, went to church in the evening, and then opened our presents under the tree much later the same evening. Christmas Day was almost an afterthought. I can't remember if I ever believed in Santa Claus.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1468

Not surprisingly, the dog park was closed today after yesterday's downpour. There was no more rain today, but the ground was soft and muddy everywhere. I was disappointed that Dot and Dash missed their workout, but saw no reason why I should miss mine as well. Since there wasn't much else to do anyway, I spent even longer at the gym than usual. I guess it shouldn't seem surprising that something I don't particularly enjoy has become such a regular part of my life. The exercise is good for me and I have a strong sense of discipline. If I only did things that I thought were fun, I'd either be dead or broke by now.

There were only three other people in the cavernous gym when I arrived around 2 PM. All the other people must have been Christmas shopping. The traffic around popular stores and shopping malls was unbelievable. Shopping seems to be the one thing that unites the people of Dallas. Everyone seems obsessed with accumulating stuff.

When I went to pick up a prescription this afternoon, I found the wrong pills waiting for me. The pharmacist seemed to take the mistake in stride. He said that sometimes prescriptions just auto-renew themselves in the computer. He gave me the pills I actually needed and told me to come back in fifteen days for the others. Everything related to healthcare has become ridiculously complicated. How did it get this way? When I was a kid, our family doctor actually made house-calls with his little black doctor's bag. The pills he prescribed were so inexpensive that you didn't even need insurance to pay for them.

I don't have much Christmas shopping to do, but I do have some. I'm going to try to outwit the crowds by doing my shopping tomorrow after people have gone to work, but before they take their lunch breaks. This would probably be around mid-morning. We'll see how that goes. There's a good chance that everyone is on vacation already and my careful people-avoiding timing won't even matter. I've got to believe that Monday morning will be better than Saturday afternoon though. One can only hope.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1467 - Winter Solstice

Although today was the shortest day of the year, it certainly seemed long enough to me. For most of the day there was a steady, cold rain that kept the dogs and I confined indoors. With the exception of several attempts to get the Dot and Dash to go out in the rain to poop, I didn't even leave the house.

A lot of people might use a rainy day as an excuse to curl up with a good book, bake a pie, or go to a movie. Not me. I almost inevitably end up cleaning something. I vacuumed. I dusted. I did laundry. I sorted through piles of junk mail. It was all pretty boring.

I'm having increasing difficulty maintaining my no sugar diet during the holidays. Everywhere you look, there are cookies and pies nearby. It is especially hard to ignore the cookies when there's nothing better to do anyway. Needless to say, I ate quite a few Christmas cookies today.

Eventually, the rain stopped. Dot and Dash got their long awaited morning walk about three in the afternoon. The stubborn dogs absolutely refused to go out and pee during the rain, so they were both about to explode when I finally got them down to the park. You'd think a long mid-afternoon walk would be enough, but apparently it wasn't. As soon as they'd eaten their dinner a little later in the afternoon, they insisted on their regular evening walk as well.

Since it was a warm day, I made sure I got all the standing water off the roof before sunset. Now that the temperatures have gotten colder, I don't want to be faced with a huge heavy block of ice over my head again. This was pretty much the extent of my day. I went from cabin fever with the dogs in the morning to exercise on the roof in the evening.

After Janet's horror stories about shopping at the mall today, I don't think I'll be doing any Christmas shopping tomorrow, no matter how nice the weather might be. I've probably missed my opportunity, but maybe the crowds will thin out a bit on Monday when people go back to work. I'm already looking forward to the new Dr. Who Christmas Special. Hey, that's the kind of guy I am.

Willow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1444 - Thanksgiving

All days should be like this. I got up late. I spent most of the day eating. I walked the dogs in a vain effort to to burn off my gargantuan meal. Then I watched TV for the rest of the day. We gave up entertaining on Thanksgiving years ago when the dogs embarrassed us by eating the guests dinner. We gave up on cooking a few years later when we realized it just wasn't worth the effort for two people.

Ever since, we've been going out to eat on Thanksgiving. We pick a nice restaurant and enjoy having someone else serve us dinner. Some years, we have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, sweet potatoes, green been casserole and pumpkin pie. Other years we are more adventurous. This year we went to The Mercury. They have a great Thanksgiving buffet. The food is fresh and varied. As always, I ate way too much.

Although it was chilly this morning, the day ended up being quite nice. Since there were no time constraints, the dogs got some bonus time on their walks. Janet walked them in the morning and I walked them in the evening. I was in such a good mood after my fabulous dinner that I though I'd take a decent camera along with me. That was a mistake. I used to take a DSLR with me frequently when I walked Dot and Dash, but I think they were better behaved then. Lately, I have trouble even getting the scene in focus before one of the dogs knocks me off balance chasing a squirrel or trying to eat something nasty they've spotted on the trail. Once the leashes get tangled around my camera strap, it's hopeless. I snapped a few sunset shots, but failed to capture anything spectacular. The shot you see above shows what happened after Dash flushed a covey of birds out of some bulrushes along the shoreline.

Although Thursday is one of my regular days to go to the gym, it seemed wise to postpone any sort of a workout until tomorrow. After the monster meal I ate this afternoon, I don't think my workout would have lasted long. Probably, the gym wasn't open today anyway. I never bothered to check.

Few things seem less appealing to me than fighting crowds of shoppers on Black Friday. That being said, I'll probably end up going to Home Depot tomorrow anyway. The blinking overhead light in my office is driving me nuts. I've got to find a new fixture soon. I hope I can find what I need at Home Depot. I would dread having to go to IKEA tomorrow.

Scooter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1437

I'm sure that a lot of you have already seen the new Bob Dylan video. I'm usually not that impressed by music videos, but this one totally blew me away. The song was Dylan's classic Like a Rolling Stone and the format was an interactive TV set where you could change the channels and see people from real shows like The Price is Right, Pawn Stars, and The Property Brothers, lip syncing the lyrics to the song in perfect sync. There were dozens of channels to choose from and as you changed the channels, you essentially created your own private version of the video. I played the song three times and never saw the same sequences twice. I've been producing videos for decades and have made a few music videos myself, but it never occurred to me that you could do something like this. It was inspirational and somewhat humbling to see something this imaginative and fresh. It makes me realize that most of what I do is pure crap.

I prepared for bad weather today, but the rain never arrived. You'd think since I got all my out-of-the-office chores done early, well before the rain was supposed to arrive, that I could have used the afternoon to get caught up the rest of my work. It didn't work out that way. I ended up getting less done today than on a normal day. I did make it to the gym though. Since I went in the morning this time, I was surprised to see many of the same people I typically see later in the afternoon. I'm convinced that some of these people must live at the place. They're always there.

Janet showed me a new app on her phone that lets you quickly and easily animate a still picture of your pet and make it talk. The results are surprisingly realistic and totally cute. I predict that in a week or so, there will be talking dogs and cats all over Facebook.

I'm having second thoughts about going down to Dealey Plaza tomorrow. I had wanted to see the fiftieth anniversary observances, but from what I hear on the local news the place is going be a media circus. All the major networks are going to be doing live broadcasts from Dealey Plaza tomorrow. The city is already blocking off streets around the Book Depository and parking is going to be impossible. Somebody told me that you're going to need tickets to get in. What's that all about? You've never needed tickets before. Maybe I'll just wait until the fifty-first anniversary when things settle down to normal again.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1398

Who would have thought that Sunday would be a good day to go to the gym? I've been avoided going anywhere near the place on weekends because I though it would be a zoo. Everything else in Dallas is crowded on weekends, so I just assumed that the gym would be as well. Against my better judgement, I decided to give the place a try this afternoon. It was a rainy day, and there wasn't anything better to do anyway.

I was surprised to discover that the gym was virtually empty. I need to remember this, because I like places that are virtually empty. I wish every place I went was virtually empty. I guess people don't' like to exercise on Sunday. The nearby Cheesecake Factory was full. The shopping malls were full. The gym was empty though.

Since it looked like it was going to be a rainy day, we thought we'd try to take the dogs to the dog park again before the rain started. We must have mistimed things, because there was already a light mist before we  even got out of the driveway. Since we might have been in the middle of a downpour before we could make it up to our favorite North Dallas dog park, we decided to go to the nearby neighborhood park instead. The light mist was actually pleasant. It reminded me of the days when I used to live in Seattle. Since there was no thunder and lightning to frighten them, the dogs didn't mind the light rain either. The weather was cool, there were plenty of new things to smell, and the other dogs in the park were all friendly. I think everybody had a good time.

I called my old framer and asked if they could do me a favor and quickly frame the print I was donating to Janet's charity event. Nobody remembered who I was. It's been so long since I've had a gallery show that I can't blame them. These guys used to treat me very well, back when I was framing dozens of very large prints at a time. I hope I don't get shuffled to the back of the line now. I still need this picture framed in two days.

I finally started reading the owners manual for my new car. I discovered a host of nifty things that I didn't even know existed and probably don't even need. It's nice to know these things are there though. Why do I have this feeling that some of these high tech gizmos will break before I even figure out how to use them? I sincerely hope I never have to change a flat tire. It took three pages in the book just to explain how to remove the spare from under the car.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day