Day 4576

I know this is not the hottest summer on record. It's seems that way though. How did I survive all those other hot summers? As the temperature rises, my desire to do anything diminishes. A trip to somewhere nice and cool would be welcome at this point.

Our sunrise walk with Dawn is still the nicest part of the day. We start before the sun comes up, but it is usually above the horizon on our way home. As soon as we see the sun, you can instantly feel the temperature rise. I still wonder how people lived here before there was air conditioning.

Since it was way too hot for a walk in the park, I went to the gym this morning. I went pretty early because I couldn't think of anything else to do. I was surprised that the place has reinstated their mask rule. I thought we were over that. It's kind of a silly rule. You have to wear a mask when you enter the building and are signing in, but you don't have to wear a mask when you are actually exercising. A very small percentage of the members keep their masks on all the time. Probably one of them complained and the rule was reinstated. 

I didn't stay at the gym long today. I just walked enough on the indoor track to get my steps. I didn't even feel like shooting baskets today. When I got home I continued the window cleaning job I started yesterday.  There were more hornets following me around today, but I didn't get stung. I did find a big nest and destroyed it. Hopefully hornets and wasps aren't valuable like bees. I really hate the hornets. There are still more windows to clean, but after about an hour I'd had enough of the insects and the heat and came back inside.

Dawn seems to know that Janet is back for good. She's much more relaxed now, even when Janet is out of the house. I don't know why this dog doesn't like me. We both like to do the same things. Napping and snacking aren't a bad way to spend the day.

Now that I'm up to date on the latest star tracker firmware and have watched the two movies that seemed vaguely interesting on Amazon Prime, I don't know what to do with myself. I could go to a camera store and buy something I don't need, but inflation has made me feel poor. I'd like to attend the Artemis-1 launch, but NASA has been slow with credentialing. I still don't know if I'll get press credential yet. It's not worth the trip without credentials because you can't get close enough to get good pictures. I guess I could start taking pictures in Dallas again. I used to do this a lot, but the city has become way too crowded. I don't enjoy getting out of my own neighborhood anymore. I'd rather drive halfway across the state to the Davis Mountains than visit another part of town.

I'll probably go back to the gym tomorrow. If I was smart, I would just keep walking after we finish our sunrise walk with Dawn. It's still pretty nice very early in the day. I like having breakfast before I start my day though, and by the time I finish breakfast it is already too hot. Oh, well. I'm sure I'll think of something to do. There are still more windows to clean.

Isabella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3651

I got my shingles shot today. Well, I got the first of two shots anyway. I really wasn't planning to do this now, but my pharmacy had the vaccine available and I knew I'd feel foolish if I went back next month and they were out of the stuff again. It's a mystery to me why the vaccine has been in short supply for over a year. It's somewhat of a mystery why I even need these shots. When I got the older Zostavax shingles vaccine a few years ago, that was supposed to be effective too. I'm pretty good about following doctor's orders though. I think it's one reason why I'm still reasonably healthy today.

On the way home from the pharmacy I picked up some more LED bulbs to replace the ones that are burning out. I think the reason these bulbs are failing is that I was a very early adopter of this technology. Today's bulbs are less expensive and last longer than the first generation bulbs I bought. Most of them even have a ten year guarantee now. This is the curse of the early adopter. I'm ofter the first to buy a new type of computer or camera. It's been irritating to realize that if I just had the patience to wait a few years, I could have gotten something that was much better, often for a lot less. I'm glad I wasn't the first to buy a flat screen TV. The early models used to cost over $5000. Now you can get something much better for a few hundred bucks.

I finally got my tree guy to commit to removing one of the remaining Oak trees in the back yard. I like the trees, but they are all getting very old and part of this tree has already fallen. I definitely don't want to have the rest of this large tree falling on my house or the neighbor's cars. I'm also thinking of relocating my driveway to the back yard. The traffic on the street in front of our house keeps getting worse and worse. During rush hour it is almost impossible to get out of the driveway. As luck would have it, the big Oak tree is right where a potential driveway might go. This is kind of an ambitious project, so it may never happen. A lot of my ambitious projects don't.

I'm continuing to watch Series Four of The Expanse. I still don't think the new series is as good as the shows first three years, but it's good enough to get me hooked. It's a good thing to watch during this holiday week. There isn't much else to do anyway.

I've noticed that some of the White Pelicans wintering at our lake are wearing little leg bands. You can see a band on the leg of the bird in today's picture. Who put these on and why? A little research revealed that ornithologists have been banding pelicans and other migratory birds for a long time to study their migration patterns. A lot of White Pelicans were initially banded at Marsh Lake, Minnesota between 1972 and 1998. Evidently Dallas is right on the migration route between Minnesota and Mexico. One question remains. How do you catch a pelican? These are large, powerful birds. They don't even want you to get close to them.

I started washing the windows on the house this afternoon. I'd like to show Janet that I made at least a minimal effort to straighten things up while she was gone. It's hard to do more though. The house has a lot more problems than I have energy.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1993

Today was beautiful. It was 68 degrees when we walked the dogs this morning and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The recent rains have washed a lot of the allergens out of the air, so I was able to walk without sneezing or rubbing my eyes for a change. I think the dogs enjoyed this pleasant weather as much as we did. They certainly wanted to go outside more often today.

With a clear, allergy free day, I took the opportunity to mow the grass and do some much needed yard work. I even cleaned the windows on the East side of the house, which I should have done months ago. The narrow strip of land between our house and the neighbor's fence has become somewhat of a no-mans land. Luckily the architect had the forethought to put frosted glass in all the windows on this side of the house, because there certainly isn't much to see. Spiders and wasps love this area though, so occasionally I have to get a big broom, a can of bug spray and some Windex and clean the place up.

I found a "Buy One Get One Free" coupon that could be used for any item under $20 at a local hardware store. Since the coupon expired tomorrow, I thought I'd go see what I could find. I've always liked hardware stores. This little neighborhood store was the complete opposite of Home Depot, so it was fun to browse around. I came home with a pair of leather work gloves and my free item was a nice pair of grass clippers. This was a good promotion, because I'm sure I'll go back and get things from this store again even when I don't have a coupon.

I did manage to go to the gym today. I think they were surprised to see me, since it's definitely been a while. I've switched my workout around to include more cardio work and fewer weights. This is what the doctors seem to want, and for the moment, I'm happy to go along with their suggestion. The treadmill is a bit boring, but I'm not as sore as I was when I mostly did weights. Whenever I'm at the gym, I think I should go more often, but lately other things have been getting in the way. If I do end up going to the gym more often, it will mean that life has finally calmed down a bit.

Dash dug up something dead next to the neighbor's fence, but I was determined not to let the disgusting carcass spoil the beautiful day. I still don't know whether the animal was a large rat or a small squirrel. I'm glad we caught Dash before he tried to eat the thing or bring it in the house though. We had Sushi for dinner, which is a pretty good way to end a nice day and there is no rain in the long range weather forecast for the first time in over a month. I'm not going to complain about anything today.

Amy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1756

I awoke this morning to the unmistakable sound of rain pounding on the roof. A few minutes later, a loud thunderclap woke Dot and Dash. The storm phobic dogs didn't want to get out of bed, and frankly, neither did I. On a rainy Monday with lots to do, I'd almost always rather go back to sleep. It was raining so hard at one point that I was afraid we were going to lose our power all over again. Luckily, the downpour was short lived. I postponed walking the dogs while I ate breakfast, in hopes that the skies would clear. By the time I'd finished washing the breakfast dishes, the brief thunderstorm was over and we were on our way.

There are sections of the park we have to avoid these days. The area where the city has torn up our favorite trail to build a concrete bicycle path has become a huge mud pit after the recent rains. Last Thursday's violent windstorm uprooted an enormous number of trees, leaving some areas completely blocked. You have to be careful where you walk. Often trees that were left standing have huge limbs that were broken off and left dangling up in the tree. These branches can come crashing down at any time, so I'm always looking up before walking under a large mature tree. If your tree trimming business isn't doing so well, you might consider moving to Dallas. There is enough tree damage in this city to keep you busy for a very long time.

There was plenty of work to do today. I don't have local versions of some of the websites I manage on my laptop, so I had to wait until power returned before I could deal with the update requests. When I used to travel more, I would keep all my client's sites on the laptop as well, but they changed so frequently that it was a pain to keep the laptop and desktop computers in sync. I probably should start duplicating everything I do on the laptop again. I'm certain that this isn't the last power outage we'll ever experience.

I was pretty well caught on website changes by the end of the day and am working on writing assignments now. There is probably still a good day's work before I'm completely caught up, however. When I get finished, I'll climb up on the roof and see how much water this morning's thunderstorms left behind. Maybe I'll never get caught up. Today, I had to go out and pick up some more thyroid medicine for Dash. Tomorrow, I'll need to go to the grocery store and pick up some food for the rest of the week. Eating fresh produce has certainly increased the amount of time I spend at the grocery store, but I think it's worth it. Fresh is much better than frozen.

The nasty bird that always shits on my car has returned for the Winter. I don't know how long birds typically live, but I'm convinced this is the same bird. At least the spiders in the back yard are starting to disappear. I'm methodically starting to clean up the spiderwebs littering the back windows now. Maybe we'll have sparkling clean windows again by Thanksgiving. There was one good thing about last Thursday's wind storm. The wind blew away all the remaining dead branches that were stuck in our Live Oak trees after the power company left them behind when they trimmed the trees during last Winter's ice storm power outage. Another problem solved. I always like it when doing nothing turns out to be the right thing to do.

Cassie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1293

I washed the windows today. This wouldn't be a big deal if the house wasn't made almost entirely of glass. There are large windows everywhere. I remember when we first moved here I would wash all the windows every few weeks. I also washed the car a lot and frequently cleaned the brick patio with a pressure washer. It didn't take me long to realize that no matter how often I did these things, the dirt, spiderwebs, and mud dauber nests would quickly return. I initially thought I was in charge, but really it was mother nature who was in charge. With each passing year, I cleaned the windows less frequently. I could never ignore them completely though. There would always be days like today when I would look outside and realize the spiderwebs were so thick that it looked like I lived in a haunted house. Yes, I can still be shamed into honest work.

The windows sparkle now. The grass has been mowed front and back. I even took the leaf blower and blew all the leaves and dirt off the porch. This is what happens when you get up too early on a Sunday. You can end up with more time for chores than you really want.

One of the reasons we got up early was so we could take the dogs to the dog park before it got hot. This worked out well. The temperature was in the low 80's and there was a nice breeze. I think Dot might have had too much activity today though. She seemed fine at the dog park, but later in the day, she was walking with a slight limp. I think the limp started right after lunch when she was chasing some squirrels in the back yard. Dot just doesn't know how to pace herself. I walked Dash separately this evening in hopes that Dot would rest. She has had a limp before, but problems with her legs are becoming more frequent now. It's sad to see an active dog grow old.

The grass seed I planted last week still hasn't sprouted yet. I definitely don't have a green thumb. I've been watering every day, but I think all that has accomplished it to guarantee that I'll have a big water bill next month. The grass may not be growing, but my hair is. It's time for a haircut again. Maybe I'll make an appointment with Betty next week and check out the new, larger Apple store while I'm at the mall. Apple and Ann Taylor have traded places at the mall. Apple now has a huge new store, while Ann Taylor has a tiny little space. You think that a clothing store would need more space than a company that basically only has thirteen things to sell. What do I know though? The Apple store is certainly more crowded than the Ann Taylor store.

I don't think next week will be very busy. With the Fourth of July falling on a Thursday, the temptation is going to be high for a lot of folks to take Friday off as well and make it a long weekend. Whatever happens, I'm sure there will still be articles to write and websites to fix. There always is.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1071

I thought I'd seen everything. Apparently not. While walking the dogs this week, I encountered a man and his daughter walking two small donkeys on leashes like dogs. From a distance, I just assumed this pair were walking their Great Danes, but on closer inspection, the animals were definitely donkeys. They both had collars and leashes and were actually better behaved than my rambunctious Dalmatians. If only I could get Dot and Dash to heal as nicely as those two little donkeys.

I may have won the battle with the wasps on the side of my house, but I don't think I've won the war. When I went out to finish cleaning the cobwebs off the windows this morning, I noticed a lot of angry wasps buzzing around. Apparently when I knocked down the nests yesterday, some of the wasps were away doing other things. Now they have returned and don't seem to be happy that they can't find their home.

I knew it was going to be slow this week, but I didn't think it would be this dead. I added holiday hours to one website and deleted a departed employee from another. That was about it. I got a call that the webcams were down on one of the sites I manage, but it wasn't a problem I could fix. Personally, I think a rat chewed through one of the wires going to the router, but since the wires are buried away in the ceiling, there is no easy way to check. This is a job for someone a lot younger and more agile than me.

To avoid drifting around aimlessly like I did today, I made an appointment with Betty to get my hair cut tomorrow. The haircut itself only takes about 45 minutes, but the whole process of finding a parking place in the crowded mall and then taking a look at what's new in the Apple store when I'm done can eat up several hours. I've promised myself that I'm not going to buy one of those new little iPads. I don't even use the one I've got very much.

I'd certainly rather go to the mall tomorrow than on Friday. I don't really understand the fascination with Black Friday. Are the deals that good? Even my bank teller asked me yesterday if I was going to do any Black Friday shopping. Lots of people I know routinely go shopping on Black Friday, but I don't think they save all that much. Maybe it's just the thrill of the chase. I think I'll wait until the frenzy is over to do my holiday shopping. Shopping is much more enjoyable when you're the only person in the store.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day