Day 2780

Today wasn't bad. Nothing exciting happened, but nothing bad happened either. I got a good night's sleep. Dash was eager to take his morning walk as soon as Janet left for work. The weather was warm, but not oppressive. By the time I got dressed to go out for breakfast, I was convinced that it was going to be a good day.

I've started going back to the very first restaurant I discovered when I began eating out on Friday mornings. The place has been through half a dozen management changes over the years, but the food is still pretty decent. Although the novelty of eating out has worn off, it still felt good to get out of the house for a while. I picked up some food for the weekend at the grocery store after breakfast and was back at the house before 10 AM.

I thought today might be a good day to get the lawnmower out. My legs are almost back to normal and the grass definitely needed mowing. Like my experience at the gym last Sunday, I quickly realized that I was still out of shape. It's disappointing that you have to work so hard to stay fit as you age. When I was in my 30's, the whole process seemed effortless. I guess it can be done. There is an old man I see almost every morning when I walk Dash. He runs back and forth on the streets surrounding the park for hours. He was in horrible shape when I first noticed him four years ago. Now, his muscles are well defined and he looks much better. I don't have that single minded resolve, but I do walk. My fitness tracker says I'm back to 10,000 steps a day again.

I watched the last episode of The Expanse today and now I've got to wait until sometime in 2018 to see season three on the Syfy Channel. I really enjoyed the first two seasons of this show. Too bad it only took me three days to watch them all. I looked on Netflix to find something else like this, but all I found were dystopian post apocalypse movies. Apparently it is much easier for filmmakers to stay right here on earth than to create realistic simulations of life in space. The CGI work in The Expanse is pretty amazing. I've seen a lot of science fiction and these are the most realistic computer generated images I've seen yet. Hey, I wasted three days, but I'm glad I saw this show. I was genuinely impressed by the effort it took to put this all together.

I saw something on the local news today about a group of cyclists getting attacked by dogs while training for a race. They showed pictures of some of the bite marks and they looked exactly like mine. The riders got bitten in a rural area north of Dallas where there are no leash laws, so the owners of the dogs won't even be punished. It's ironic and a little sad that I love dogs and yet I am somewhat fearful of them. I have good reason to be. I've been bitten five times in my lifetime. I was even nervous about taking Dash to training class. Most of the dogs in class were wonderful, but fights did break out occasionally. Once or twice a dog had to be banned from participating in class. I had hoped that dog class would be a relaxing experience, but it never was. I felt the same way that I do when riding DART trains. You have to remain alert and aware of your surroundings at all times.

Sadly, the world is not a very relaxing place anymore. I used to hitchhike all around the country when I was in college. That would be insane now. Our national parks are overcrowded. Road rage is a fact of life. Airline delays are normal. And entire cruise ships can get food poisoning. No wonder people buy 70" flat screen TVs and have HelloFresh meals delivered to their house. I'm probably not the only one who prefers to stay inside.

Pebbles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2463 - 9/11

It's hard to believe that it's been fifteen years since the twin towers fell. It seems like yesterday. It's even harder to believe that after all these years, we still aren't any safer than we were then. Two wars and thousands of lost lives haven't made much of a difference. World War II was much shorter from beginning to end than this weird war we're fighting now. Part of the problem is that this has never been a war between nations. It is a clash of civilizations.

You've got part of the world living in the Twenty First Century and another part of the world living in the Fourteenth Century. The Western world should have never allowed itself to become dependent on oil from the Middle East. Middle Eastern countries have been fighting among themselves for thousands of years, but if we didn't need their oil, we would never have needed to get involved. To me, this whole notion that we are one world with a common purpose has been disastrous. I've never been a big fan of globalization. A lot of little countries, each independently moving along at their own pace and living according to their own agenda would be better for everybody.

I met my sleep goal for the first time since I started wearing fitness trackers. I was amazed that I got over eight hours of sleep last night. I woke up once during the night, because Dot had to go outside and pee, but after that, she was relaxed and slept until well after 8 AM. It will probably be a long time before this happens again. Tomorrow, Janet gets up at 5 AM to get ready for work and the dogs wake up shortly after because they know she fixes their breakfast. We've usually completed our first morning walk before 6:30 AM. Getting up early would be fine if it weren't for the fact that I always go to bed late.

Maybe the extra sleep helped my coordination. I shot baskets at the gym better than I have for a long time. I'm not very good, so getting five free throws in a row is a big deal. This success made the rest of my workout seem bearable and I briefly contemplated going to the gym more than once a week. There are often a lot of nice cars in the parking lot when I go to the gym on Sunday. Today I parked between a Bentley and a Porsche Panamera. I tried to guess who the rich guys were while I was walking on the treadmill, but nobody looked particularly successful. There were just a bunch of tired, out of shape old men doing the same things I was.

The world has certainly changed in fifteen years. I didn't think I needed to go to the gym fifteen years ago. I wasn't as healthy as I thought though. I had Hepatitis C and didn't even know it yet. The world wasn't as healthy as I thought either. My business was still pretty successful in 2001 and I remember flying to Germany for a business meeting about a week after 9/11. The airport was filled with soldiers and everybody on the plane seemed nervous. I knew that the world had changed, but I had no idea that the repercussions of that day would continue year after year, seemingly forever. If you had told me than that in 2016 the European Union would be on the verge of collapse, that tribalism had replaced nationalism, that it was next to impossible to find a good job, and that the United States would have two candidates running for president that the voters generally hated, I wouldn't have believed you. Lord knows what will happen next year.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day