Day 4499

It was a very busy day. Since our monthly bulky trash pickup is tomorrow, I thought I'd try to remove the remaining leaves from our side yard. There were a ton of leaves and I eventually bagged up most of them and took the bags out to the curb. I should have done this weeks ago, but at least I got it done. Hopefully it will be easier now to get the mower out to the front yard now when it's time to mow.

I got a message from FedEx this morning saying that my camera part from China had been delivered. I went outside to get the package, but there was nothing. I looked everywhere. The FedEx curse had struck again. This package was supposed to arrive by FedEx Express, so I thought they might be a little better than FedEx Ground. Nope. Same terrible service. 

I called the lady at the local Fedex Ground terminal who had helped me find my lost star tracker and asked if she knew anyone locally at FedEx Express who could help me find out what had happened. She didn't know anyone, but was able to look up a local number for me. When I called the number, someone was able to determine what truck my package was on and called the driver. An hour later I got a call back saying that the driver had left the package at my neighbor's house by mistake. Sure enough, that's where the package was, right by the front door. I was nervous to go inside the gate and get the package because this was the same house where the dog bit me years ago. I made sure that the dog was not outside and then quickly retrieved the small package. All is well now, but I still think FedEx could do better.

It's too late to change my mind about going to the observatory now. I'm starting to get work assignments. I need to forget the long drive and remember how much I've enjoyed my trips to the observatory in the past. I've made this trip four time before. Surely I can do it one more time. I kind of feel the same way about the trip to West Texas as I do about my daily walks. The walks are not always fun, but the alternative is even worse. I'm not ready to give up and do nothing. I'll continue trying to keep my mind and body active for as long as I can. There's nothing fancy about this. You've just got to keep moving.

I did pretty well at keeping moving today. In addition to all the exercise I got raking and bagging leaves, I also took an even longer walk than usual. I joined Dawn and Janet on their afternoon walk and then just kept walking. 25,000 steps today. I don't think that this is an all time record, but it's pretty close. My feet hurt, but not nearly as bad as I expected. 

On the way home I passed a guy who has been taking care of one of my neighbor's yards for years. He's a nice guy that I've known for a long time and I asked him if he'd be interested in adding another yard to his lawn care business. I was a bit surprised when he said that he'd be happy to take care of my yard. He said he could go up on the roof and remove the standing water from time to time as well. Maybe it's time to make this transition. When I mowed last week I could tell that my mowing days were numbered.

My new Hoka boots have arrived and I can pick them up at the store tomorrow on my way to get a haircut. Today was good. The weather was nice and it felt like I was making progress. There needs to be more days like this.

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4437

I had to scramble to get all the bagged leaves out to the curb for bulky trash day. For weeks I'd been thinking that big trash day was next week, but it turns out it is tomorrow. How is it already the third week in February? It seems like February just started. I guess I could have looked at a calendar. Depending on memory doesn't work so well these days. 

After I moved all the bags of leaves out to the street, I thought I'd start cleaning up the sticks and twigs left behind in the yard by the power company tree trimmers. These guys should have done a much better job of cleaning up. There were twigs and small branches everywhere. I picked up as much as I could before it started to rain and added the growing brush pile to the leaf bags piled on the curb. All this activity was harder than I thought it would be. Old bones aren't meant for bending over and picking up hundreds of twigs and branches. My back hurts now.

Maybe I was just tired because I took my long walk before attempting to clean up the yard. It wasn't as windy as yesterday, but there was still a strong breeze. There was a light mist as well. It didn't really feel like it was raining, but by the time I returned home my jacket was wet. Dawn has done better than I have on walks lately. The weather was fine on her sunrise walk this morning. If I remember, it was pretty good yesterday morning as well. Yesterday the temperature dropped as the day progressed. Today it got wetter as the day progressed. My feet weren't my friends today. Lots of foot pain, but by the time I finished hauling trash out to the curb, I still managed to get 20,000 steps.

We got more rain than I expected this afternoon. I really hope we don't have another roof leak. I have the pumps working and there appears to already be a lot of water on the roof. Hopefully, the pumps will remove enough so a leak doesn't develop. I probably should have waited to start making repairs, but the stains on the ceiling were driving me crazy. Winter just isn't a good time to deal with roof problems. As soon as you start making a little progress, it starts raining again. Needless to say, it's frustrating.

Basically, everything is frustrating these days. I don't get angry, but I'm in a continual state of mild irritation. Do I really need dozens of robocalls and spam messages every single day? Why am I paying AT&T to irritate me using my own phone? Why do all publications have paywalls on the Internet now? I'm never going to subscribe to your online whatever. I know if I wait a few days I'll be able to find the same information for free somewhere else. A pox on your paywalls. Why is every ad on television for some kind of prescription medicine with announcer copy describing side effects that will probably kill you. Can't we just go back to ads about tv-dinners and refrigerators. Social media is insanely irritating. I'm convinced that you can trace back most of today's problems to social media. Society doesn't function well when every problem is instantly broadcast to the entire world. Someone lights a match and all the sudden it's a forest fire. We don't need to know what everyone else is doing in real time. It's not good. We would all be better off if we all just minded our own business.

I need to remember that I have a teleconference with my gastro-intestinal specialist tomorrow. I've never done one of these virtual visits before, but it sure beats driving down to Baylor hospital. When I was given the option of an office visit or a virtual call, it didn't take me long to decide. One of the biggest changes that Covid has made is that you basically don't have to leave your house anymore. There is a virtual option for just about everything.

Dawn didn't get to go to training class tonight. It's raining outside now. I keep hearing about severe weather warnings, but it's hard to tell what's headed our way. It's pretty calm right now. There are some severe storms out in West Texas this evening that are headed to the Northeast. Hopefully they will pass to the North of us by the time they arrive here tomorrow morning.

Joshua is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4097

I think Dallas has decided that the pandemic is over. Every week the roads and stores become more and more crowded. People are definitely eating out and restaurants seem to be operating at full capacity. Most businesses still require masks, but you see a lot more people without them now. It's hard to tell what's going on. You hear one thing on the news and see another thing in the streets.

There seems to be two parallel worlds now. I still see a lot of people wearing masks when they are walking alone outdoors in the park. Some folks still wear them when they are driving alone in their cars as well. On the other hand, I'm seeing a lot more large groups socializing together without masks now. People are planning weddings again. There are several event venues for rent in the park and I frequently see the party planning trucks out front, hauling in tables and chairs for another reception. I guess this is all to be expected. It is weird that everyone seems to have their own reality though. I wonder if this will ever change. I suspect that I will always be a bit more cautious around other people now. Why not. I was fairly cautious around other people before all this happened. Strangers have always been an unknown quantity. I've always worried about drunk drivers and crazy people wandering around on the streets. Now there is the added worry that someone might kill you by sneezing. 

I finished my shopping quickly today. I didn't need to get gas because I didn't go anywhere this week. This left plenty of time for a long walk. I was hoping to repeat yesterday's success, but it wasn't meant to be. I tried to walk faster, but my pace was considerably slower today. Did my feet hurt because I overdid things yesterday? I don't think so, but who knows. I was able to complete five miles, but I think I enjoyed the very slow walk that Janet and I took with Dawn a lot more. 

We've moved all our bags of leaves out to the curb now. All the other neighbors appear to have done the same thing. I think the city is going to have to add some extra trucks for this month's bulky trash day. There are a lot of Live Oak trees in our neighborhood, and the fact that the freeze caused all the Live Oaks to lose their leaves increased the number of bagged leaves considerably. Our yard is looking a lot better now. All we need is some new grass for Dawn.

The Kickstarter project I backed appears to have reached it's funding goal. Now we wait. Will this product deliver everything it promised? Will it even be produced? When will I receive it? You never know about these things. There appears to be a growing amount of skepticism about the ambitious product, but I'm still hopeful. I hope I haven't wasted my money, but I can recall wasting money on products that were actually sitting on store shelves. You wouldn't think a somewhat cynical ad guy could be fooled so easily, but we all can be fooled if we want to believe.

Dawn is still eating a lot of grass on her walks. Does this mean anything? She's still got a good appetite and her poop looks normal. Maybe I worry too much. The grass does look green and fresh. Maybe she just likes the taste. I wish dogs could talk so they could tell you if they were having problems. A talking dog would probably just gripe a lot and quickly become just as irritating as I am though. I guess barking is better.

I picked up some Chinese take-out for dinner and I've already got heartburn. I guess I'll never learn.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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