Day 3157

Today was disappointing. Yesterday I thought I'd already sold one of my guitars. Today I learned that the guy who put it on layaway changed his mind. That wasn't the only surprise. I also learned that the guitar store wants me to take care of repairing the broken synthesizers. Originally, they were going to handle this themselves, but I guess they got cold feet. I can understand. It's difficult to estimate the cost of repairing old things. It wouldn't be hard to invest more money in repairs than the synthesizers were worth. I'll go ahead and get the instruments repaired on my dime, but it sure would have made life easier to let the store handle this.

Maybe life just isn't meant to be easy. When I went up on the roof today, I discovered a small defective area that the roofers inexplicably failed to fix. The roofers may have missed this bad spot, but the rain found it easy enough. Now I've got to convince the roofers to come out again. That won't be a a pleasant task.

A client that I'd thought I'd lost about six months ago now wants me to do more work for him. Strangely, I have mixed feelings about this. I'm getting used to the idea of being fully retired. It's also good to have an income, so I'll definitely do the work. I just wasn't as happy to get this new job as I should have been. I guess I don't know what I want anymore. When I'm idle, I think that work and deadlines would add structure and a sense of purpose to my life. When I actually get a job, it just seems like a giant nuisance.

Dash has added a new wrinkle to his bag of tricks. He wakes me up at night, acting like he really needs to go outside and pee. As soon as he gets outside he just stands there looking confused. He'll wander around aimlessly for a long time and then come back inside without doing anything. We repeated this process three times last night before he actually peed. When I finally thought I might be able to get back to sleep, he got me out of bed again. This time he needed to poop. I was outside at least 45 minutes with Dash between 2 and 3 AM. Needless to say, by the time he had finally done his business I was wide awake. I don't know what makes Dash seem dazed and confused at night, but it seems to be getting worse.

This morning he was fine, even though I was exhausted. If Dash does his business quickly, I can usually get back to sleep very easily. When he keeps me up for hours at a time, it's hardly worth the trouble to go back to bed. Once I'm fully awake I might as well just stay up.

Hopefully things will be better tonight. I don't know how much more sleep deprivation I can take. I don't think Dash is really worried about losing sleep. He sleeps all day.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 787

Today was one of those "death by a thousand cuts" type of days. There were no major disappointments. Just a lot of little ones. The routine nature of my life wouldn't seem so onerous if the routine things I did over and over again were actually fun. For the most part, they aren't. I find myself continually fixing the same things around the house, only to find them break again a few weeks later. I keep working on an endless stream of projects for less than half of what I really think I should get paid. Even when I walk the dogs, I am continually pulling disgusting dead things out of their mouths whenever I drop my guard for a minute and start looking at the scenery.

I went out for breakfast again this morning and am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that my own breakfasts are much better. I just wish I wasn't so slow. I spend forever dicing bell peppers into precise little cubes and whisking my eggs just so, to ensure that there are no lumpy spots in my omelet. I can't even make coffee quickly, since I insist on grinding fresh beans every morning.

I've been noticing that when I go out to eat, I'm one of very few people who eat alone. Women never seem to eat breakfast alone. Most of the men don't either. When the occasional solo diner does appear, it is inevitably a disheveled looking man who looks like he lives under a bridge somewhere. I certainly hope I don't appear that way to other diners. Maybe I do though. I certainly don't get much objective feedback from the dogs.

Tomorrow, Janet and I are going to pick up another abandoned Dalmatian. This dog, like the previous one we picked up, is coming from an out of town animal shelter, so we'll be meeting another volunteer who will pick up the dog from the pound and take her to a halfway point where we will take her the rest of the way to the Dalmatian Rescue kennels in Dallas. We've been able to find homes for these dogs very quickly this year, so this girl probably won't be with us long. I'll take some pictures and show her to you tomorrow.

Landry is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day