Day 2893

When I was younger I thought I would never live in a cluttered house filled with decades of forgotten and unnecessary things. That was something my parents did. How times have changed. Now, our house suspiciously resembles every older person's home I can remember. There is too much furniture. There are too many things hanging on the walls. And the closets are filled with too many failed attempts to declutter.

Tonight, Janet wanted to make holiday dog biscuits, but we couldn't find the bone shaped cookie cutters. We wouldn't have thrown these things away because we've used them too many times. Where were they though? We couldn't find them in the kitchen. They weren't in the utility room. I even got a step ladder and looked in the ceiling level cabinets above the clothes closets. These hard to reach cabinets have become a temporary purgatory for things we no longer need, but can't bring ourselves to throw away. It would have been far easier to go to a store and buy new cookie cutters, but that would be admitting that you've totally lost control of your house. I was unable to find the cookie cutters, but eventually Janet found three of them at the bottom of a drawer filled with cloth dinner napkins we never use.

After finishing the grocery shopping, I went up on the roof and was pleased to see that everything was dry. It looked like this would be a good day to continue my repairs. I hauled a bucket of the silicon elastomer up on the roof with a rope and immediately spilled some of the messy stuff on my shoe. I've learned to wear worn out clothes that I can dispose of if necessary, but I still try my best to get the coating material on the roof instead of spilling the stuff on me. It was nice that it was warm today, but it would have been even nicer if it weren't so windy. Applying a glue like substance with a paint roller on a windy day is just asking for trouble. I used about two gallons of the elastomer this afternoon and repaired a lot of bad spots. I also ruined a pair of pants and had to clean my hands with nail polish remover when I was done. I really wonder if I am ever going to finish this job.

Dash refused to walk again this afternoon. I don't know what motivates this dog. All week long he has been eager to take a walk around 3 PM. We followed the exact same routine as we do on weekdays, but was just wasn't interested. It is so difficult to get all his protective gear on that I thought I'd leave him suited up in case he got interested in walking later. This was a mistake. The knee brace is good for walks, but hampers his movement around the house. Instead of being sensible and taking a nap on a rug, Dash immediately tried to hop on the bed and fell over. I took everything off and made sure he was OK and then just gave up for the day. Dash didn't get an afternoon walk.

I saw lots of Christmas trees strapped to car roofs when I was out today. It still seems early to me, but I guess I'll need to start thinking about putting ours up soon. So much can change in a year. Last Christmas Dot was still with us, Janet hadn't been diagnosed with cancer yet, and I could still pretend I had a viable business. Somehow we survived. As the year draws to a close, there is a lot to be thankful for and a lot to be apprehensive about as well. This year has been a roller coaster. I'm hoping that next Christmas I can look back at a fairly uneventful year.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2741

I'm trying to get organized. I made an appointment to take my car in for service. I went up to my doctor and tried to schedule my annual physical. I paid the remaining June bills sitting on my desk and I did some laundry. I don't think it mattered that I postponed some of these things. The first appointment I could get at the Land Rover dealer was three weeks from now and there was an equally lengthy wait at my doctor's office. At least I've taken care of these things now. They're on my calendar and I don't have to think about them anymore.

It didn't seem like Monday. Janet has always been a workaholic and is typically out of the house before I'm even fully awake. We get started much later now. Janet needs to rest and Dash and I have never had any strong desire to get out of bed. We didn't finish our morning routine until almost noon today. I do most of the chores these days, but it's not like I have anything better to do. I'm probably a pretty good person to have around as a nurse. I've got all the time in the world.

I'm still debating whether to go and see the eclipse this August. Janet should be a lot better by then. I'd like to go to Wyoming where crowds are expected to be small. It's much less expensive to go someplace like Kansas City though, where crowds will probably be huge. I started to look at airfares and quickly realized that major airlines are already raising fares to popular destination cities on the days immediately before and after the eclipse. It's probably all computerized. When demand for flights goes up, fares probably immediately go up as well. I don't even want to think about driving. From what I'm reading, the traffic on eclipse day will be like twenty Woodstocks happening at once.

We really like the home nurse. It's comforting to have someone who knows what they're doing reassure us that everything is going OK. The hospital went to great lengths to instill a fear of infections and now just about everything seems like it could be the beginning of an infection. Most of the changes that occur each day are just the body's normal response to surgery. Even though nothing has gone wrong, it's still important to be careful.

I learned how to make banana bread tonight. Sometimes there are left over bananas at the end of the week from my morning smoothies and they get used for banana bread. The whole process seemed pretty straightforward and the bread came out great, but I don't think I'm going to become a baker anytime soon. As soon as Janet recovers, the kitchen is all hers. I have a real aversion to cooking. One of the reason I am thin is that if food is difficult to fix, I just don't eat. Lots of people I know love to cook. I'd probably rather eat something I dislike than cook something I love.

Janet got one of those adult coloring books as a get-well gift. She seems to enjoy it. I don't think I could ever do one of those things. I'd lose interest within five minutes. I don't need an adult coloring book anyway. This blog is my adult coloring book. I'm just filling in the days.

Derrick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1265

It was a beautiful day with clear skies and a light breeze. The dogs got to frolic in the sun at the dog park and I had plenty of time to catch up on some much needed yard work. I mowed the grass, watered the shrubs, and enjoyed one of those brief moments when everything looks nice for a change. I certainly wasn't the only one taking advantage of the nice weather. The park was filled with picnickers and the lake was dotted with small sailboats. I'm always in a better mood when I can see my own shadow, and sunny days where it's still cool enough to open the windows are the best. From the looks of things in the park this afternoon, there appear to be a lot of people who would agree with me.

I thought I'd re-arrange all the partitions in my camera case, based on how I used my equipment in Las Vegas. It would be nice if the things you used the most were right at the top for easy access. After spending an hour or so peeling away the Velcro partitions and re-attaching them somewhere else, I ended up with a configuration much worse than when I started. I guess this just proves that sometimes it's better to leave things well enough alone.

I sure wish I could have left my diet alone. It's much harder than I thought to avoid salt, sugar, and wheat entirely. While we were eating dinner tonight there was this baking competition show on TV and it made me really hungry. The show was basically like Top Chef, except that the contestants just baked pies and other pastries. I love pie. Unfortunately pie is the poster child for things I shouldn't eat. A good pie is chock full of salt, sugar, butter, and flour. I'll just have to learn to enjoy my Kale.

I discovered why there were so many tasty things that actually were on my diet when I was staying at the Wynn. It turns out that Steve Wynn is a vegan and he insists that all his restaurants have choices on the menu that he could eat. I guess that explains why there was such a variety of astoundingly good vegetable dishes. If you're a vegetarian with plenty of money, the Wynn is definitely where you want to go.

I don't want to go back to the regular work routine tomorrow, but there's basically no choice. It's going to be a very busy week with meetings on Monday and Tuesday, along with a big photo shoot on Thursday. Some of my friends tell me that they couldn't imagine not working. I can easily imagine this kind of life. All I have to do is look at the dogs sleeping peacefully on the bed in the next room and visions of the good life start to appear in my head.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day