Day 3615

A loud crash woke me up last night. Even though I was half asleep, I knew I'd heard this noise before. Either a tree had fallen in the back yard or a drunk driver had driven through our front yard. I looked out the window and all the remaining trees were still standing. As I returned to bed I heard a fire truck approach and stop a few hundred yards past our house. Yep. It was a drunk driver again. This morning I confirmed what I already knew. A car had left the road at high speed, traveled through our neighbor's yard, sailed over our driveway, knocked a big divot out of our yard, bounced into our other neighbor's yard, and the returned to the street where it probably landed on its roof. Believe it or not, this has happened at least six times since we've lived here.

The city has three large strategically placed signs indicating that the road turns to the left but it doesn't seem to make any difference. An hour after the bars close, some people just keep driving straight. These accidents always happen between 2:30 and 3 AM. Luckily our house has escaped damage but the neighbors haven't been so lucky. Once, one of these cars took out the neighbor's fence. Another car knocked over a large Crepe Myrtle tree in the other neighbor's yard. Years ago, a car actually hit this neighbor's house. I wish there was a way to just eliminate drunks and substance abusers. The world would be a better place.

Amazingly, I managed to get everything done today. I returned some of the items we used at the adoption event yesterday to the storage warehouse, filled the car with gas, and did all my grocery shopping with time to spare. There was still plenty of time to go to the gym. After my workout, I decided that it was warm enough to go up on the roof and make a few more repairs.

The big bucket of liquid silicon is finally light enough that I could lift the entire the entire thing to the roof. This made the job a little easier and a lot less messy. There is no need to transfer the silicon to a smaller bucket anymore. I swept a thick blanket of pecan leaves off the roof before I started my repairs and then applied about a gallon of the material. We'll see if this helps. I can't see any bad spots, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any.

The sun was already low in the sky before I started my walk. I wondered if I'd be able to make it home before sunset. I wish we hadn't bothered with the time change. I don't really care when the sun comes up in the morning but I do enjoy a little daylight in the afternoon. I had to cut my walk a little short today because I didn't feel like walking in the dark.

I hate the thought of fixing the front yard again. I can fill the big hole with dirt and put in some new St. Augustine sod, but it will just get destroyed again. It might be next month or it might be five years from now, but this won't be the last time that someone driving home after the bars close fails to notice  that the road is no longer straight.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2839

For the sixth time since we moved here, a car ploughed through our front yard at a high rate of speed, knocked over several small trees in our neighbor's yard, and eventually came to rest about 100 yards away in an adjacent side street after knocking over a stop sign. It's amazing that these accidents happen again and again. They either occur around 2 AM, right after the bars close, or early in the morning when tired shift workers are headed home from their job.

I heard the crash this morning when I was cleaning Dash's paws in the back yard after we returned from our morning walk. By the time I went out front to see what had happened, I could already hear the sirens of first responders arriving. There must have been injuries, because an ambulance and fire truck were on the scene in minutes. The busy street we live on makes a slight turn just before our house. If you're not paying attention, I would imagine that it would be easy to just keep going straight and end up on our front yard. Maybe that's not what's going on, but it's all I can think of. At any rate, the errant car tore up the yard again and I will have to go buy some sod to replace the grass that is no longer there.

Dash was walking so slowly this morning that our walk took over an hour and a half. Dash would walk about twenty feet and then stop and smell things for the longest time. I couldn't figure out if he was enjoying himself, or having trouble walking with his new knee brace. He seemed to be enjoying himself, so we just kept walking.

Like everyone else, I was shocked to hear about the shooting in Las Vegas. I was kind of shocked to hear about Tom Petty too. I used to spend a lot of time in Las Vegas and always considered the city very safe. One by one, all my favorite places are becoming war zones. Barcelona is in turmoil and wants to succeed from Spain. Paris has been plagued by terrorist attacks. I wouldn't dare visit Turkey again. And now Las Vegas has joined the fray. I guess it's not surprising that I mostly just stay home these days.

Dash still seems to be eating after we discontinued the Cerenia yesterday. Just to be safe, I went and picked up some more Cerenia tablets at the vet. I'd rather not have him taking the anti-nausea medication, but it is essential that he keeps eating. After I picked up Dash's pills, I renewed one of my own prescriptions at my doctor's office. There were so many sick people in the lobby that I wished they had a drive through window. The crowded lobby made me seriously consider switching doctors again. The fact that my doctor fired me as his web designer doesn't help matters either. Maybe it's time for a change.

Every night I go to bed hoping that the next day will be calm and peaceful. It certainly wasn't a calm day today, but maybe tomorrow will be better. I can't keep the world from disintegrating, but I'm hoping that I can help Dash get well again. So much is out of my control now, but I can still help a sick dog.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1870

Today was amazing! I got to go inside the ultra high security mission control building at Vandenberg. We visited the tower where the SMAP satellite will be launched early tomorrow morning. We saw the world's last remaining ICBM from the early days of the cold war. There were rockets everywhere. We were even on a live broadcast on the NASA TV channel. Oh, and I capped the day off by wrecking my rent car.

It was only a fender bender, but since it happened near a big Air Force base, three Air Force fire trucks and two MP's came to the scene. The Air Force guys quickly left when they discovered that nobody was hurt,  but I still had to wait on the side of the road for over half and hour for the California Highway patrol to show up. I knew I was going to miss the roll out of the rocket from the tower, but I didn't want to be charged for leaving the scene of an accident. In Texas, people just trade insurance information on minor accidents and go about their business. The other driver wanted to wait for the police though. When the highway patrol finally did show up, the first thing they asked was why we didn't just trade insurance information and leave. You could tell that they thought the whole thing was a waste of their time. Later I learned that the roll out had been delayed and that the other people attending the launch didn't get to see anything either.

The press conference for the launch was broadcast live on NASA TV. Janet said she saw me ask my one question on TV and that I didn't look like a dork. That's always good to know. I usually look like a dork. I learned a lot today. I never knew that there was a launch facility for the space shuttle at Vandenberg. At one point they were planing to launch the shuttle into polar orbit. The huge facility was finished about the same time the space shuttle program was canceled. It was never used. I never knew that at the beginning of the cold war, the USA only had three nuclear missiles and that they was all based at Vandenberg.

The rocket is scheduled to launch very early tomorrow morning. There is only a three minute launch window on Thursday, since it will be launched into a polar orbit. This means that if the launch is delayed at all, it can't be rescheduled until the next day. Hopefully, everything will go like clockwork. If the launch gets postponed, I'll have to return home without seeing it.

I met a lot of people today that worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Goddard Space Flight Center, or directly with NASA. I even met someone who had been accepted into the Mars One program. Every one of them seemed to really love their job. If you gathered a similar group of advertising people together, I doubt that you'd find anyone who genuinely loved their job.  I think I'll never look at "rocket science" the same way again. These people were amazing! We need a lot more of them.

At one point during the day, we had to leave all our phones, cameras, and computers on the bus while we visited a secret location. "Don't worry, your stuff is safe here," said an Air Force Sargent. I imagine it was. The is the most secure facility I've ever been to in my life. It was quite an experience to be allowed to see behind the curtain.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1462

Well, UPS will probably never deliver to our neighborhood now. While I was writing this morning, I heard a huge crash out on the street in front of the house. When I went to investigate, I discovered that a car had plowed into the back of the UPS truck while it was delivering a package to my next door neighbor. Then a van hit the truck again, trying to avoid the first wreck. The woman who initially hit the truck said she didn't see it. Jeez, how can you miss a huge brown UPS truck? I can spot these things from a mile away.

The embattled UPS driver didn't have any packages for me. I divert almost everything to the main depot now and drive down to pick it up. I did that again today and ran into another long  line of angry people waiting to send, receive, or complain about their package. My advice. Just send your stuff FedEx instead.

The weather was nice again today. I only had to wear a light jacket when I walked the dogs. This would have been a good opportunity to clean up the debris from the ice storm in the back yard, but I still have too many holiday related advertising assignments to complete. As some of you have already guessed, this is not my favorite time of year.

Only one day after I washed my car, the neighborhood redbirds are already pooping on it again. The only thing these tiresome birds enjoy more than pooping on the car is pecking on my office window in a vain attempt to get inside. I don't know why anyone would want a bird as a pet. Birds are filthy creatures. If Dot and Dash didn't like to chase cats so much, I would get a cat, just because they like to eat birds.

Did you know that the Chinese successfully landed a rover on the moon a few days ago? I'm amazed that there has been almost no news coverage of this event. Hey, it's a big deal. This is the first time anyone has landed something on the moon since the 1970's. So what are we talking about instead? Obama's selfies at the Mandela funeral. More school shootings. The healthcare mess. When somebody actually does something truly impressive, nobody seems to care. Nobody seems to read blogs anymore either, but that's another subject entirely.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1371

It was an unlucky day for a lot of people. Before I even heard about the mass shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington DC, I saw a man fall off his bicycle after an apparent heart attack while I was walking the dogs in the park this morning. The good news was that it only took paramedics about four minutes to get to the scene with an ambulance. The bad news was that the fellow cyclists who tried to administer aid on the scene probably made the man's condition worse.

Later in the day, I saw a cement truck run into a Mini Cooper. You can guess who won that confrontation. The cement truck driver seemed very distraught. I don't know if he was worried about the other driver, or that the cement in his truck was going to harden, because he had to stay at the scene until the police finished their accident investigation.

In between these calamities, I managed to get a lot of work done. I'm still making steady progress on the new website I'm currently developing for a client. I ordered more ink for the large format printer. I paid my third quarter estimated taxes and got a check in the mail to the IRS. Since there weren't any writing assignments due today, I even found time to go to the gym. For the first time, I managed to score three baskets in a row while I was waiting for one of the weight machines to become free.

I still don't know whether there's a new car in my immediate future. I think I've narrowed things down to two choices, but there is nothing decisive to swing my decision one way or the other. If it weren't for the fact that the Defender could fall apart at any minute, I might not make any decision at all. I know the time is right through. I have a feeling that sometime within the next several weeks, I'll be driving by the dealership and buy something on impulse.

Tomorrow looks like another busy day. I've already got several requests for website revisions and Dash needs to go to the vet again. One of my doctors has been sending bills to the wrong insurance company too. I've got to get that straightened out as well. At least the weather is improving. I saw the first hints that leaves are starting to change color today. Could Fall be right around the corner? Maybe it's time to buy some pumpkins and put them on the front porch.

Phantom is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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