Day 4791

It was over seventy degrees today. It's hard to believe that we were freezing last week. We had a nice early walk with Dawn this morning and then came home to an equally nice weekend breakfast. Even though it was a beautiful day outside, I went mall walking. I just wanted a change of pace.

There were a lot fewer people walking at the mall this morning. Maybe they were walking outside today. I made my five circuits of the mall and came home. There was nothing new today. There were no store openings or closings and none of the window displays had changed. Even the restaurants looked empty today. This appears to be one of the few places in Dallas where people still wear masks. I see more people wearing masks at Northpark than anywhere else. I still don't understand today's styles. Younger women all wear their hair long these days. You don't see any of the shorter cuts that used to be popular. Maybe nobody wants to be mistaken for a Karen. A surprising number of men wear beards now. A thick beard combined with a shaved head seems to be popular. When did having a beard become so fashionable? I guess beards are better than fades and man buns though. I show my age. Even tattoos seem weird to me.

When I returned from the mall, Dawn was ready for her Sunday outing. It was a perfect day for a walk and Dawn enjoyed her outing. We often see people riding horses in this park but Dawn totally ignores them. Dalmatians are supposed to have an affinity for horses and many of our previous Dalmatians seemed to like them. Horses mean nothing to Dawn. She gets much more interested when she sees a possum.

I didn't get quite as many steps today but it sure felt like I walked a lot. I still can't figure out why I walk slower at the mall. It's feels like I'm actually walking faster. Since I use a different app to track indoor walks, it occurred to me that maybe the app measures my steps differently. The next time I go mall walking, I'll track my steps as an outdoor walk and see if it makes a difference. Consistency seems to matter to me. At least the ice cream cones we get are consistent. They are overpriced, but they are pretty much the same every week. Dawn certainly likes them.

This afternoon I did a number of small chores around the house. I tried to wash a down jacket and it didn't go as planned. I followed the washing instructions exactly, but the coat was so light that the final spin cycle in the machine wasn't working properly. The coat was sitting in a puddle of water when the load was finished. I had to run the spin cycle again with several towels thrown in the load to get the spin cycle to run properly. The instruction said to throw two clean tennis balls in the dryer with the jacket to get the down filling to fluff up properly. This actually worked pretty well. I also cleaned out the atrium today. I don't know how all the leaves get in there, but they do. I've been waiting for a warm day to attempt to open the broken sliding glass door, since I was afraid I might have trouble closing it again. Everything worked well though. The atrium looks nice now and the door was actually easier to open and close than I expected.

It was largely an uneventful day, but it was a peaceful one. I got some exercise and I got a few things done. That's enough for me. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice as well. I'm dreading the return of rain on Tuesday though. The house is finally dry and the cleanup is complete. I'm not looking forward to going through the whole water leak drill all over again.

Zorro is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4238

I think August is off to a good start. I really got a lot done today. We left the house late on our sunrise walk and we should have noticed that Dawn didn't want to go very far. The sun was already up and you could tell it was going to be a hot day. Later, when we took her on her Sunday outing, she was tired and we needed to rest from time to time under shade trees. I was a little worried that she would get overheated, but we made it back to the car just fine. If it's this hot next Sunday, we'll skip the walk and just have ice cream instead. You always have to worry about heat stroke with dogs. We know the signs to look for and weren't in any danger today, but it is always a worry on a hot day. 

This morning's hot weather should have been a warning to me, but I was determined to get the grass mowed today. I knew there was rain in the forecast for later in the day, so I got the mower out right after breakfast. I mowed the front and back yards and removed all the spider webs from the Asian Jasmine ground cover as well. I guess I thought that Dawn would be fine on her Sunday outing because I wasn't any worse for wear after all this activity. The yard looks much better now and the late afternoon rain will help keep everything green. Usually I dread the rain, but we really needed it. Everything in the yard was starting to look really dry.

I cleaned up the atrium area today. It's almost impossible to get into the atrium these days because the sliding glass door is broken. I think one of the metal rollers has snapped and the broken piece causes the door to jam in the track when you attempt to move it. Usually I can only open the door about a foot and squeeze through the narrow opening. Today the door opened almost five feet which really surprised me. Maybe the summer heat had changed something. Unfortunately, this was just a fluke. The second time I tried to open the door, it jammed after moving only four inches. I never close the door when I am in the atrium because I'm afraid I won't be able to get back in the house. I wish I could find someone to fix this thing. The oversize door is huge and nobody seems to know how to fix it. The only guy who worked on these doors died a few years ago and was probably the last of his kind. Sign of the times I guess. I'm having trouble even finding a decent plumber.

When the rain finally arrived it was quite heavy. We really needed the rain, but whenever I hear rain pounding on the roof I start to worry about roof leaks. No leaks so far, which is a little surprising. The pumps are working well today and maybe that helped. The roof still might leak later tonight. Sometimes it takes a while for water to work it's way inside. I still can't figure out where the current leak is coming from. Since the leak only seem to happen when there is an unusually heavy downpour, my current theory is that the water is getting in through a ventilation duct on another part of the roof and then traveling sideways on a beam or electrical conduit to the crack in the sheetrock where it gets into the house. Let's hope the rain wasn't strong enough this afternoon to cause this to happen. So far, so good. I'll put a bucket out tonight though. I don't have much faith in this roof.

I did a lot of other little chores around the house that aren't even worth explaining. Unless you lived here you wouldn't understand the need to use a wet/dry vac to remove water that collects underneath the tiles in the shower stall. The buckets that collect water in the dehumidifiers need to be cleaned and disinfected periodically as well, because a biofilm tends to develop on the walls of the buckets. 

Hopefully, I can get the plumber to come out tomorrow and fix the line to the refrigerator so the ice maker will work again. It's weird. Almost all of my current problems have something to do with water. Water is not my friend.

Snoopy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day