Day 5000

I actually did it. Remind me not to set any other goals that take fifteeen years to accomplish. I'm still a bit surprised that I managed to write something every single day for 5000 consecutive days. There were times when I found myself in remote locations with no WiFi and only one bar on my phone. There were times when I posted from a hospital bed a few hours after surgery. There were lots of computer crashes, but I still never missed a day. This might have been a silly goal, but it wasn't always an easy one.

I learned long ago that writing has consequences. An early story about our first Dalmatian caught the eye of a small magazine called The Dalmatian Quarterly and I ended up becoming a contributing editor. I had a regular column called Seeing Spots that I wrote for many years until the magazine eventually folded and disappeared. A watch company saw my Watch of the Day feature on the blog and it led to a multi-year writing gig. One of my earlier online efforts called The Road to Nowhere was nominated for Website of the Year and I ended up being a finalist. I went to San Fransisco for the awards ceremony but didn't win. Story of my life.

I can't really remember why I decided to start a blog. Blogs were really popular for a while and it seemed like the thing to do at the time. I didn't start with a 5000 post goal, but after the first year it seemed like something I might be able to accomplish. I never thought my life was particularly interesting but I had already been keeping a daily journal in little leather bound volumes that I bought once a year at the Montblanc store. My handwriting was slowly deteriorating and blogging just seemed like an easier way of journaling. I remember blog hopping in the early days and I would faithfully visit dozens of my favorite blogs every evening. I took almost as long to visit other blogs as it did to write my own. Sadly, most of those blogs no longer exist. One or two are still around though and I continue to read them.

Will I miss writing something every night? That remains to be seen. I'll probably eventually end up doing something else but I don't know if it will involve writing. Maybe I'll start reading again. I used to love reading and always had an unfinished book nearby. I doubt that I'll spend a lot of time watching television.  I watch old British comedies on weekends, but there is very little that interests me. I certainly can't say much for the advertising on TV these days. The ads I used to write were much better.

It's probably fitting that my last day of blogging was just a regular day. I did my grocery shopping in the morning and went to the gym in the afternoon. I had a scare later in the day when Dawn had another panic attack. She has had three or four of these since we adopted her. At first we though she might be having seizures but this is just raw fear. Janet and I still don't know what frightens her. It was completely quiet in the house when today's episode started. I heard a strange noise in the living room and discovered she had torn up her dog bed and was trying to hide behind a chair. I led her back to the bedroom on a leash and gated her in the back of the house to keep her safe. That didn't help. A few minutes later I found her behind the television. She had knocked over a large floor lamp and managed to unplug most of the electronics. I took her outside to change the scenery a bit and then sat with her on the bed until she calmed down. The fact that she let me sit next to her was a clear sign that she was really scared.

All is fine now. We had Maryland Crabcakes for dinner and Dawn is snoozing on the bed. Tomorrow evening I'll be doing something different. My thanks to all of you who became regular readers over the years. I really don't know what you saw in this blog, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4994

We almost got some rain this afternoon. Lots of people around us saw a little rain today, but sadly we didn't see one drop. It's still bone dry. I kept watching the weather radar and the closest the rain got to us was about five miles away. Oh, well. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. I don't  think we'll see another chance of rain for a while. This rain coincided with the arrival of the cold front that is supposed to bring temperatures down to the mid 90's tomorrow.

The rest of the day was fairly predictable. We got up a little later this morning, took our early walk with Dawn, had a big weekend breakfast again, and then I went mall walking. The mall was kind of strange this morning. There were lots more people than usual. Many of them were slightly overweight young men walking around staring at their phones. They all looked like they had spent the past ten years sitting at home playing video games. I had no idea what was going on until I started seeing t-shirts saying Pokémon GO Fest 2023. These guys, along with a few girls, were all looking for Pokémon at the mall. I still don't understand why.

The store windows are all filled with Fall clothes now. These styles would make a lot of sense in New England, but it never gets cold enough in the Fall to wear this stuff here. Yes, it occasionally snows here and we do get freezing temperatures but it is very rare. Heat waves like we are experiencing now are more common. Although we continue to set record high temperatures, I remember one summer where it got so hot that our lake almost dried up.

When I returned home Dawn was already waiting for her Sunday outing. She even gave me one of those Dalmatian smiles when I entered the house. It was too hot for a real walk, but we took Dawn to the Sunday park anyway and let her smell things for a few minutes. She's no fool. After she found the right smell to pee over, she headed straight back to the air conditioned car. The ice cream cones were nice and cold today, but they didn't give us very much. The server just plopped a scoop of ice cream on top of an empty cone. For the prices they charge, they could definitely do better.

My 5000 Day blogging goal is less than a week away. If you count up the number of days on the calendar since I started posting, I actually reached this goal yesterday. Somewhere many years ago I must have made a typo in the blog header that threw the count off. I've never been able to find the error even though I've tried several times. Looking through 5000 blog posts trying to find a typo will drive you insane. Let's just stick with calling this Day 4994. It certainly wouldn't be the first time I've made a mistake.

Tomorrow's sunrise walk should feel a lot cooler. I think temperatures will only be in the 70's tomorrow morning. Of course it will get a lot hotter later during the day. It will probably just feel like a normal August day instead of the end of the world.  Eventually the heat dome will dissipate and normal weather will resume. I can't wait until we start to see some real Fall weather even if it means raking leaves again. I don't think our Fall will be cold enough to wear those wool clothes I saw in the store windows today, but it will be a lot nicer than it is now.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4200

I like big even numbers. I'm only 800 days away from my goal. That's less than three years. I can do this. I don't know what I could do for an encore after posting something for 5000 consecutive days. Probably nothing. Truthfully, this was a silly idea to begin with.

It looks like I've got two or three days to find the crack in the roof before it rains again. I thought about beginning the search today, but it was already too hot by the time I finished breakfast. It will probably be too hot tomorrow as well. I'm hoping for a cloudy day. I'm not even sure that the silicon patch material will stick to the roof unless I can get the surface really clean. I'm not sure I can get the power washer up on the roof either. Actually, I'm not even sure if the power washer still works. I haven't used it in a year and a half.

Dawn had a nice early morning walk, but even before sunrise I could tell it was going to be too hot to walk six miles in the park. I didn't really feel like going to the gym either. It's too bad I feel compelled to get a minimum of 10,000 steps daily and fill all three activity rings on the Apple watch. When you don't have big goals, little goals will have to do.

I wrote a letter to my sister and took it to the post office on my way to the gym. She lives on the beach in Florida, but luckily not in an old sixteen story building. Seeing the stories about that building collapse makes you realize that nothing is certain in life. You wouldn't think going to sleep in a big concrete high rise would be dangerous, but a lot of people in that building went to bed last night and never woke up.

There are so many things to worry about in today's world that you just have to pick something and forget about the rest. I worry about snakes and large trees falling on my roof. I probably really ought to worry about crazy road rage drivers on my way to the grocery store. I do think the world would be a happier place if we weren't constantly bombarded with bad news. Did I really need to know about that building in Florida or the shootings that occur almost every night in Dallas? One of the nicest things about staying out at the observatory is that there are no radios or televisions at the Astronomer's Lodge. I am usually blissfully unaware of what is going on in the world for the length of my stay.

I'm getting back to where I was a year ago at the gym. It doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment though. I wasn't much of an athlete then and I'm still not much of an athlete. I keep moving though. You've got to keep moving. I saw a guy on the basketball court today. I guess you can use the court if you bring your own basketball. I have a basketball somewhere. I'll have to look for it. Maybe it's in the storage warehouse. Dick Vitale gave it to me when I was making a commercial with him years ago.

I went to bed an hour earlier yesterday in hopes of getting more sleep. What happens? I wake up an hour earlier as well. Maybe I'm only meant to get five hours of sleep. It's hard to tell if I'm tired, bored, or just too hot. I have a feeling that it's going to be a very long Summer. It's not even July yet and I'm already ready for Winter. 

Rio is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day