Day 4405

It was so cold today. I practically had the park to myself on my long walk. It was just me and a couple of idiots jogging in shorts. I certainly couldn't blame people for staying inside. It was thirty degrees with a forty mile an hour wind. I dressed warmly, but it still felt like I was on an expedition to the South Pole. I don't know why I felt compelled to walk today. A sane person would have just stayed home and watched a movie on Netflix.

Maybe nobody was down at the lake because they were all at the grocery store. The stores were packed when I did my shopping this morning. I think the threat of bad weather brings out an instinct to stock up on food. Prices are still going up, although that wasn't stopping people from filling up their buggies. The weekly price increases aren't dramatic, but they've been going on for a long time. I haven't seen anything come down in price.

I'm glad I got the new battery for my car a few months ago. It never would have started this morning without it. I vaguely remember living up north, but I don't think I could handle it anymore. I have memories of scraping ice off of windshields and navigating snow covered roads. No thank you. On days like today I'd like to live even further south.

Dawn likes colder weather but I think she draws the line at freezing weather. She was certainly eager to get back in the house on our sunrise walk this morning. She wore her new sweater this morning, but maybe we should have introduced her to the hat. We got a hat for Dash that actually fits a dog pretty well. It kept his ears a lot warmer on days like this.

Whenever the temperature dips below freezing I always think I am experiencing the coldest winter ever. It's easy to forget that it has been much colder in the past. One winter the entire lake froze over. I didn't even see any ice on the lake today. We've had thick snowfalls in the past as well. In recent years it's been rare to get snow at all. I saw a few flakes fall this afternoon, but there was no accumulation.

The furnace is working fine, but it's still cold in the office. Every winter this is always the coldest room in the house. I had to break out the little ceramic heater this afternoon. I'm pretty sure that this house was designed in the summer. It's a lot easier to cool than to heat. The main problem is that there is way too much single pane glass. Insulation doesn't do a lot of good when you have a lot of floor-to-ceiling glass.

I was going to play around with the star tracker this afternoon, but the cold weather put a damper on things. All I really felt like doing after my walk was getting warm again. I probably should have waited until today to watch the last episode of The Expanse. All I did instead was nibble on snacks.

It remains to be seen whether we'll take Dawn on a Sunday outing tomorrow. These little outings are supposed to be fun for her and walking in freezing, windy weather is the exact opposite of fun. I think Dawn's idea of fun would be to share a little bacon with us at our Sunday breakfast. We'll see what happens though. Maybe tomorrow will be warmer.

Betty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4379

It was raining when we woke up this morning, so we had to wait to walk Dawn. Janet went to the gym. I started the pumps on the roof, did a load of laundry and ate breakfast. Eventually the rain stopped and we resumed our regular schedule.

When I checked my Fedex account this morning I saw a note that the barcode on my package was unreadable and a new shipping label had been applied. Jeez. It took them a week and a half to discover this? Maybe they just wore the original barcode out by scanning the package so many times. Apparently Fedex only does one thing each day because there has still been no delivery scheduled. I didn't bother to call again. I have nothing left to say.

When the rain stopped we took Dawn on her morning walk. After she completed her one mile loop, Dawn and Janet returned to the house and I continued walking. This was a terrible day for foot pain. I still don't know what makes things so different from one day to the next. I probably should have cut today's walk short, but I finished my entire route. This might have been my slowest day ever. I keep walking because I don't know if the foot pain is ever going away and I'm not ready to be housebound yet.

Janet got some special Christmas cookies for Charlie and Oliver when we went to visit the kennel today. The dogs were glad to see us and we played until each dog got tired. Nobody wanted to go outside in the yard because it was still very cold. This will be the last time we get to see Charlie and Oliver until the holidays are over. Holiday travelers will start boarding their dogs soon and we would just be in the way. I thought we might meet the two new puppies that entered the rescue program recently but they are still at the vet.

Yesterday I had to figure out why U-verse wasn't connecting to the new TV. Today I had to figure out why my new Fitbit was draining my iPhone battery. As is typically the case with these type of problems, I found a lot of people online who were experiencing the same battery drain frustration. I was able to slow down the battery drain by turning off background app refresh on my phone but then I discovered that the Fitbit wouldn't sync anymore. This is still a work in progress. It's too bad that I am hooked on steps and tracking stats. Today the Fitbit was just a giant nuisance.

The dehumidifiers have prevented moisture forming on the windows in the Winter, but the house still gets cold. My office is always the coldest room in the house since it is the most distant from the furnace. I've had to break out the little ceramic heater again to keep warm while I'm at the computer. I still spend a lot of time at the computer because old habits are hard to break. I'm not sure what else I'd do around the house anyway. At least our current cold wave will be a short one. I think temperatures will be up in the 80's again by Christmas Eve.

I have a dental appointment on Thursday and then I'm done with medical visits for the foreseeable future. I hope I'm not done with everything. The NASA folks have been strangely silent lately and I haven't heard from my friends at the observatory either. Janet keeps wondering when I'm going back to the space center but I just don't know. Until something develops, I'll keep walking every day and looking for my lost package.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3304

I've been cold all day. Sadly, this is just the beginning of Winter. There will be many more cold days to come. My office is the coldest room in the house. It is a long way from the furnace and by the time the warm air arrives through the floor vents it has already cooled quite a bit. I plugged in my trusty little ceramic heater today. This small four inch square cube does a pretty good job of keep in the office at the same temperature as the rest of the house. Ceramic heaters are much safer than other types of small space heaters, but I've still got to be careful not to let Dash get too close to it. He's curious about anything new and I don't want him to burn his nose.

Since it is still supposed to rain tomorrow I thought I'd try to bleach the stains in the ceiling where water has been leaking in. This won't prevent future leaks, but it will make them easier to see. I've thought about putting bleach in a spray bottle and just spraying the ceiling, but I'm afraid that the mist will get on furniture or pictures hanging on the walls. Instead I soak a rag with bleach and stand on a ladder while I scrub the damaged areas. This works, but it is terrible on my hands. Bleach is nasty stuff. The ceiling looks better now. If I start seeing rust colored stains again, I'll know that the roof repair didn't work. The stains appear first and then the water starts dripping about an hour later.

Tomorrow should provide a good test of the repair work. It's is supposed to rain all day again. Hopefully, Dash will be able to take his morning walk before the rain begins. He is much calmer after he's had a walk. We'll see what happens. If the rain is bad I won't want to leave the house. I've got to be ready to place buckets under any leaks that might appear. I'll feel much better if the house survives the rain tomorrow. On the other hand, if the roof starts leaking again I'll be very discouraged.

I left Dash's harness on for most of the day. He is still falling a lot and it is much more effective to lift him up using the handle on the Ruffwear harness than it is to get my hands under his belly while he is struggling on the floor. Dash would be fine if he stayed on the rugs, but he always seems to find a place where the floor is still slippery. Dot did a little better at adapting to her disability. Dash is so stubborn that he still thinks he can move around like a pup. I don't know when he is going to realize that he would be much more comfortable sleeping on the floor. That doesn't appear to be an option. He is determined to keep sleeping on the bed.

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so I tried to catch up today by taking a lot of short naps. There wasn't much else to do anyway. You know your day is uneventful when the high point is applying bleach to the ceiling. I guess this was actually the low point as well, but the ceiling does look better. I was going to get a haircut this afternoon, but there were no appointments available until next week. It's just as well I didn't go today anyway. I still haven't shaken that cold.

I was going to wear the new boots I bought on Dash's evening walk, but I couldn't bring myself to put them on. They looked so nice and new in the box. I wore my old worn out boots instead. I'm hopeless. I specifically bought these boots for wearing in the mud. It's hard for me to start using new things. I want everything to stay new looking forever.

I've taken the trash out to the curb, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to go out for breakfast tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

Murphy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2174

I think Dot is back to normal. Of course, normal is a very old dog who can barely walk and poops all over the place, but we can live with that. I'm grateful that we dodged a bullet one more time. We are all learning to live with age and infirmity, but adding something new to the mix might have been too much. I don't know how Dot got so sick or recovered so quickly, but I'd like to find out. I don't want this to happen again.

I need to be more careful with the little ceramic heater I use to keep warm on cold days. Yesterday I almost melted the vinyl slats on some mini-blinds covering the window next to my desk. I put the heater too close to the window hoping to evaporate the condensation that was starting to return. Ceramic heaters are generally pretty safe. There is no flame and the case doesn't even get hot to the touch. What I forgot was that the air itself coming out of the heater is very hot. I have seven partially melted slats in the blinds to remind me of that.

I seemed to remember that I had some more mini-blinds in the storage warehouse so I thought I'd replace the one I'd singed. I took the old mini-blinds down, found the new ones and then realized they weren't the same size. They almost fit, but not quite. It was a wasted effort. While I was looking at the aluminum window frames, I realized that there was mold in the track where the window slid open. I got some Clorox wipes from the kitchen and cleaned all the frames in the office. They were filthy. Now I have a burnt shade covering much cleaner windows. I guess that's progress.

I'm learning more about humidity. When it's really cold outside and the furnace runs all the time, the humidity goes down. When the indoor and outdoor temperatures are closer together and the furnace or air conditioner only runs sporadically, the humidity goes up. I think this must mean that the house isn't insulated very well. Hot air does dry things out, but moisture creeps back in quickly when the furnace is off. The air conditioner does a good job of lowering the humidity too, but it's Winter now. We won't be using the air conditioner again for a while. We certainly won't be using it this weekend. The temperature might go down to freezing tonight.

Since several forecasts were predicting freezing weather, I didn't want to deal with ice on the roof. Ice on the roof is even worse than water on the roof. Even though it was nasty outside, I braved the elements and got all the water off the roof while I still had a chance. We've had thick ice on the roof before and I still think this is what caused some of the Sheetrock in the living room ceiling to crack.

I think some people will be confused by this week's Heaven Sent episode of Dr. Who. Was the whole thing a weird dream sequence, or did the Doctor really spend millions of years trying to break out of this strange Rubik's Cube castle? The entire episode was just a very convoluted set up for next week's season finale. I think I liked the series better when each show was a self-contained little adventure. This new series is a single very long show that is meant to be binge watched from beginning to end.

The rain is supposed to continue through Monday. The challenge for me will be to do something useful around the house without breaking anything. The brown melted spot on the mini blinds and the continuing leak in the shower stall are graphic reminders that I'm not exactly off to a good start. Maybe I should just go to the gym tomorrow and wait until Summer to deal with the house.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1812

I felt like I spent most of the day just trying to stay warm. The temperature was in the 20's this morning with 20 mile per hour winds. This made for a ferocious wind chill factor. We always walk, no matter what the weather, so I put on several layers of warm clothes, bundled the dogs in their warmest dog coats, and off we went. We didn't stay outside as long as we usually do, but it certainly felt like a long walk. It goes without saying that we were all glad to return to a pleasantly warm house.

After breakfast, I went to the storage warehouse and got the props and equipment we'll need for this weekend's Santa Paws photo shoot. The various light stands, poles, backdrops, and equipment seems to get heavier each year I do this. One of these days, I'm going to just start taking these pictures with my phone. I think I'm good for at least one more year however, so I'll continue to keep hauling the heavy equipment and lights from location to location.

I got a call from the physical therapist my doctor recommended asking me a few questions about my shoulder. It's looks like I'm approved for physical therapy, but I'll have to wait a few more days to find out for sure. If everything works out as expected, I'll be able to have supervised physical therapy at the same gym I go to every week. This will be convenient and I might even learn whether my current workout is doing more harm than good. I don't really expect my shoulder pain to magically go away, but it would be nice to see a little improvement. All I really want to do is avoid rotator cuff surgery.

Dash is getting low on his supply of chemotherapy pills again, so I made an appointment at the cancer center for his next follow-up exam. I'm almost certain that the oncologist will want to renew Dash's Palladia prescription for an additional two months, but we're finally getting near the end of this ordeal. After two more months, Dash will have had a full year of chemo treatment and that is the maximum amount of time the cancer center recommends. The hair on Dash's neck never grew back after his radiation treatments earlier this year, but other than that, he is completely back to normal. It will be good to put this all behind us.

I updated some websites today and will probably update a few more tomorrow. I kept busy to stay warm. My success with the Ikea furniture yesterday emboldened me to try and fix a broken drawer on my Dad's old workbench. I couldn't find the small screws and wooden dowels I really needed, but luckily there's always Superglue. I wish I'd remembered to bring home the ceramic heater when I was getting my photo equipment earlier today. If it's this cold again tomorrow, the little heater will keep my warm feet while I work.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1028

I spent most of the day carrying a small ceramic heater from room to room in a somewhat vain attempt to keep warm. Eventually, I decided to give up on the ineffectual little heater and just put on a sweater. My Northern readers would probably laugh at these antics. You guys seem to wear sweaters indoors all the time. I'm a Southerner though and prefer to pretend that Winter doesn't exist. I usually just turn the heat up and wear a t-shirt and shorts around the house all Winter.

Unfortunately, I can't turn the heat up yet, because the furnace is broken. The HVAC guys are coming out tomorrow to give me an estimate on replacing the furnace. This is probably going to hurt. A good furnace isn't cheap. There's really no alternative though. You can't live very comfortably without a furnace during the Winter. At least this is probably the last furnace I'll need to buy. The current furnace lasted twenty-five years. It will be a miracle if I last twenty-five more years.

I spent some time today getting my ducks in a row for a new technical article I need to write this week. I always learn something new when I research these articles.  Last week I learned that steam turbines powered railway locomotives during the 1930's. This week I learned that Germany has oil wells. Why did I think that Europe didn't have any oil of its own? Shows what I know.

I used to think that curators only worked in museums. Now, I think curation has a much broader appeal. The term has become an Internet buzz word with people curating pictures of cats on Pinterest and making lists of people who like chocolate on Twitter. I've never seen such an explosion of information gathering and list making in my life. I'm fascinated by people who love to make lists. Why?  I never make lists. Even though I sometimes talk about my "to-do" list, there is never an actual list. It is just a figure of speech. Jeez, I even go shopping without a grocery list. Although I don't understand this fascination with lists, I'm grateful that it exists. If it weren't for the list makers, probably nobody would read this blog. I got added to another list today. Almost immediately, 100 new people started looking at my photos on Google+. What a strange world we live in.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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