Day 4760

These uneventful days are even becoming too uneventful for me. I'm very comfortable with boredom, but this is getting ridiculous. Every day is exactly the same. I really can't blame anyone but myself. I've got the time to do practically anything. I just don't have the desire. I'm reluctant to even get in the car and drive across town these days. A predictable routine close to home is much more desirable.

It's not a bad routine when you think about it. I get plenty of sleep when you count naps. I eat healthy meals that I actually enjoy. I certainly get plenty of exercise. Just so I don't get too comfortable in my little cocoon, I try to travel to Kennedy Space Center every couple of months and cover a launch. I'm not a real journalist, but my articles do get published.

I used to spend a lot of time having lunch with people. A lot of this was just maintaining business contacts, but I suppose it was fun as well. I do remember some lively discussions. I don't do this anymore. I keep up with people by scrolling through my Facebook feed every morning. Occasionally I'll hit the like button but that's about as engaged as I get. If you're not on Facebook, I've probably forgotten your name.

Is this healthy? Who's to say. I certainly feel more balanced and content than I did during the ad agency days when life was a cacophony of ambition and conflict. I'm no Henry David Thoreau, but there is a beauty in solitude. To be alone with your thoughts is fairly rewarding when you are actually thinking.

So there you have it. I get up every morning and take an early walk with Janet and Dawn. I eat my bowl of shredded wheat and do a few chores around the house. My long walk is almost always the same, but I'm never thinking the same things. I daydream a lot. These conversations with myself feel more rewarding than the lunchtime arguments I used to have with friends over a bowl of Pad Thai.

I do wish my feet didn't hurt. I vaguely remember four day hikes I used to take in the summer when I lived in Aspen. I couldn't do that anymore. Six miles a day on very familiar trails is plenty. I used to take more pictures, but I think I've photographed everything in the park by now. Sometimes I'll just use an old photo for the blog when I see something on my walk that I've already photographed. One year I decided that I was going to learn the names of every tree and flower in the park. I brought home leaves and photographed flowers and then looked them up in books. There were hundreds of different species. It was interesting for a while, but I've already forgotten the names of a lot of the plants I spent so long trying to identify. Now I just count ducks.

It's probably a blessing that Dawn doesn't want to walk with me. I used to walk our other Dalmatians twice a day and unpredictable things would happen. It was stressful. Over the years several dogs got stung by bees or cut by broken glass. Dot ripped out a nail when thunder scared her and she started running back home. Dash got out of his harness once and I was afraid he was going to run away. Later Dash was almost killed when he was attacked by a very aggressive dog in the neighborhood. A stranger drove Dash and I to the vet and it took him months to fully recover. This is still one of my very worst memories. I try my best to avoid conflict and danger but you never really know what's going to happen next. I really hope my life stays uneventful.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3412

If you measure days by your level of activity, today was pretty good. The weather was nice too, so I really can't complain. I'm finally getting enough sleep as well. It's nice to know that I have no trouble sleeping under normal circumstances. Rest and activity are good. The rest allows me to stay active and the activity should motivate me. Why do I not feel motivated?

People keep suggesting things for me to do. Take a class. Volunteer. Go back to work. These are really just things my friends like to do. I need to find my own path. I've always been a clever person and have tended to work for praise. Being told you are creative over and over again can be a strong motivator to actually do something creative. Once you figure out what is going on, this doesn't tend to work anymore. I'm not looking for feedback these days. I need to find something that I intrinsically enjoy even if no one else in the entire world knew I was doing it.

I think about things like these while I'm at the gym. It's a kind of daydreaming where conclusions are unnecessary. I wonder if it is possible to do something significant if you don't have a goal? Maybe. My only goal in writing the blog was to write something for 5000 days. This sounds simple enough. You can't write for this long without thinking though. You are forced to explore your thoughts just to continue having something to say. Do this long enough and maybe you never become senile. Taking 10,000 steps a day is kind of similar. It's a mindless, repetitive activity, but it does keep you active. When I look around I find that I am healthier than people I know who don't take 10,000 steps a day.

I am not competitive at all. Even if I start taking 20,000 steps a day I will never have any desire to run a 5K. I won't join a yoga class or go to boot camp either. Even if I manage to keep writing until the day I die, I'll probably never care if anyone else is reading. I've been keeping journals long before the Internet even existed. I don't do a lot of talking. This is just a convenient way to make sure my brain is still working.

I'm happy enough to take long mindless walks and write about walking dogs and drinking fruit smoothies forever. Mowing the grass and removing water from the roof aren't part of the equation though. Even though I added quite a few steps by mowing the lawn after I got home from the gym this afternoon, it was still an irritating activity. I hate mowing the grass. The only reason I mowed today was that there is rain in the forecast all next week. If I didn't mow now, the yard would be a jungle by May.

I hope the forecast is wrong. I don't look forward to spending the week worrying about whether the roof is going to leak. Eventually it will leak again. I need to call the roofers who haven't submitted their bid yet. You'd think they'd be more interested.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day