Day 2473

The trouble with credit cards is that a month or so after you buy something, you actually have to pay for it. I feel poor today, because in addition to the usual charges for gasoline, groceries, prescription medicine, and miscellaneous junk I thought I needed at Home Depot, there was the humongous yearly rent for my storage warehouse on the latest credit card bill. So why didn't I write a check for the rent when it was due? Well, it was just easier to postpone the pain until next month. It can be confusing paying for things that you've already forgotten about buying using money that you've already forgotten about earning. I delay paying my bills as long as I can and my clients delay paying me as long as they can. The net result is that there is no cause and effect anymore. It just feels like I'm broke all the time.

I watched a crew pouring concrete in the park while I was walking Dash this morning. I've been watching this sidewalk being constructed for three months now. The crew would grade a path with a bulldozer and then put wooden forms and re-bar in place so the concrete could be poured. They did this three separate times this Summer until they were apparently satisfied with their work this morning. I asked one of the guys whey they kept tearing up their work and starting over? They said their previous efforts weren't up to code because the grade was too steep. This was a bike path, mind you. The city could have saved a ton of money if they just let the cyclists pedal a little harder. The city probably had some rule that said that no bike path could have more than a ten percent grade. If someone created a path with a twelve percent grade, they had to start over. It all seems silly to me.

I finished writing my latest article and once again had difficulty sending it to my client. It appears that their IT department wasn't able to Whitelist me after all. I keep getting identified as a spammer, even though I've never sent spam in my life. These difficulties make me wish I had my old private ISP back. I never used to have these problems until I moved to a large ISP with thousands of servers. My little local ISP stayed under the radar until the owner retired and shut down the company, forcing me to go somewhere else. Once again, the old days were better.

My bananas were still green this morning, so I went to the store and got some ripe ones. I never realized that bananas were so cheap, since Janet usually picks them up. I got a pound of bananas for fifty cents. On the way home I stopped to pick up some Chinese take-out for dinner and they said they were out of the Thai noodle dish I had ordered online. I'm easy. I just asked what they had that was real spicy and substituted something else. Anything to avoid cooking is fine by me.

Dot seemed to enjoy not having to go to physical therapy. Her limp is a little better, but she is still pretty shaky. For the second day in a row, she made a mess and pooped all over her special harness. We have a spare harness now for these occasions. I felt like taking her outside and cleaning her with the garden hose, but she hates this, so I cleaned her up with warm wet towels instead. Dot is as sweet as she can be, but she wears me out.

Tomorrow is the first day of Fall. It certainly doesn't feel like Fall yet. It has been unseasonably hot all week. I can tell the seasons are changing though, because the days are getting shorter. I saw Orion in the pre-dawn sky as we walked Dot and Dash around the block this morning. Pretty soon it will be even darker. I won't miss the hot weather as Winter approaches, but I will miss the sunlight. I do better with lots of sunlight.

Rowe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1638

When I was getting the water off the roof today, a code compliance car stopped in front of the house and an officer got out and asked what I was doing. "I'm getting the standing water off the roof from yesterday's rain," I said. "You can't flood a city street with water like that," the man told me. I tried to explain that water flows downhill and that the street was lower than any place in the yard. "The same thing happens when it rains," I told the man. "There is nowhere else for the water to go." I showed the man what I was doing and said that the water would all evaporate in about twenty minutes anyway. The code compliance guy seemed comfortable with my answer and wasn't going to write me a citation. As he prepared to drive off, he told me to hurry up because he didn't want anyone to complain. Sometimes I wish I lived way out in the country, about forty miles from anybody. City life has become way too complicated.

The entire day was like this. It was just a series of random events that didn't add up to much. I wrote a letter to my Luddite historian sister who still refuses to use the Internet. I meant to send her a birthday card in April, but somehow never got around to it. The letter was probably a futile effort anyway. When my sister does reply, it is with a incomprehensible hand written note that is almost impossible to decipher. I can't convince her to use a typewriter. Physicians writing prescriptions have better handwriting than this. She thinks that hand written notes are more personal though, even if nobody can read them.

The doctor who does write most of my prescriptions told me recently that I needed new lab work before he could renew my prescriptions again.  Really?  I stopped by his office on my way to the post office today just to make sure. I explained that I'd had a boatload of blood tests this Spring during my Hepatitis C treatment. This didn't appear to be good enough. They wanted their own tests. "Fine", I said. "Can we do them now?" Nope. They wanted me to fast. I need to go back again later this week  before I eat breakfast.

Every time I go up on the roof, I notice worn spots and I decided today that I'd better call the roofer to come out and inspect the roof. I feel the same way about dealing with roofers as I do about going to the dentist. I'd just as soon avoid this, but I know that if I wait until the roof actually leaks, the roofer will just tell me that I should have called him sooner, before things became a problem. When I made the call, the roofer was surprisingly responsive and friendly. No excuses whatsoever. He said he'd come out later in the week and take care of anything that might be a problem. Maybe I overthink things. I probably should have called the guy last month.

I'm trying to decide whether to change Dot's Thursday acupuncture appointment to tomorrow. I probably drive my vet crazy trying to avoid taking Dot out in the rain, but that's just the way it is. Dot used to be the only one with storm phobia. Now, Dash shares her fear of storms. I fear the disease may be spreading. Now, I think I may have acquired Dot's storm phobia as well. Of course, Janet thinks Dot got her fear of storms from me in the first place. It's one of those chicken and egg things.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 893

Lots of errands today. There were the usual things, like grocery shopping and doing the laundry. Then, there were the unusual things, like looking for a sewing machine repair shop. Granted, there are still more places that repair sewing machines than repair typewriters, but these places are getting kind of rare. I finally found a shop that got good reviews off in an obscure industrial area of North Dallas and took the old Singer in for service. Yeah, I know that Janet just got a fancy new Viking machine, but I knew that if I didn't get this one fixed soon, she would just throw it away. I still haven't conquered my Gemini obsession with having two of everything. It's easy for me to rationalize fixing just about anything too. Hey, it's always good to have a spare sewing machine, isn't it?

On the way home from the sewing machine repair place, I stopped by my rent property to pick up some tools and touch up paint that I'd left there. A couple of neighbors saw me and congratulated me on selling the place.  How did they know already?  I doubt that these people are blog readers and the real estate sign out front didn't have an "under contract" banner on it yet. I certainly didn't tell them. I guess it all comes down to gossip. Neighbors everywhere gossip about everything. In my own neighborhood, I'm the last to know anything, because I don't keep up with the neighborhood gossip.

I do keep up with when the dogs have had their rabies shots and get their city registration renewed. Apparently, the city doesn't keep up with things quite as well. Every year about this time I get a letter from Code Compliance telling me that Dash's city registration has expired and that they are going to fine me form non-compliance. I always call them back and tell them that I renewed Dash's registration at least a month ago and then read them his new tag number. They apologize, update his records, and then I don't hear from them again for another year. This has happened now for four years in a row. You'd think the city would get it right by now, but they haven't even come close.

I thought I'd play a few tunes on the old ESQ-1 synthesizer I uncovered yesterday. When I hit the first chord, I heard nothing. "Damn," I thought. "I've gone to all this effort to uncover this thing and it doesn't even work." I eventually discovered that the keyboard was just fine, but that the powered speakers it was connected to were broken. One more thing to fix, I guess. I don't know why I even bother. I'm certainly not that good at playing the piano. Of course, I'm not that good at sewing either. I just like to be surrounded by working tools.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day