Day 2991

This is the time of year when it's hard to tell whether you've got allergies or a cold. I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat, watering eyes, and a runny nose. Yesterday I thought I was dealing with seasonal allergies. Today it feels more like a cold. Either way, I'd like to put this behind me. When I'm feeling under the weather, I never get anything done.

Dash had more energy than I did this morning. He was feeling good. He insisted on walking along the shoreline, which wasn't a great idea since high water from our recent wet weather had left behind lots of debris. I was worried that Dash would cut himself, but from a dogs point of view, all this debris was just new stuff to smell. It was a good thing we had a nice long walk this morning, because this afternoon Dash didn't want to walk at all. I wish I was better at reading his moods. It's frustrating to spend a lot of time putting on his protective gear if he won't leave the yard.

I did a lot of laundry today. It's amazing how dirty the bed can get when your dog thinks the bedspread is a giant bath towel. I try my best to clean Dash's paws before he comes inside in wet weather, but when it keeps raining for weeks at a time, you reach a point where you just give up. We've already replaced the white comforter on the bed with a dark blue one. We couldn't keep the white comforter looking nice for five minutes.

I had a bunch of errands to run this afternoon. In addition to the regular grocery shopping, I got some orthotic inserts for my dog walking shoes at CVS and some printer ink at Fry's. There was nobody at the register when I was at CVS. I had to track down someone stocking shelves. At Fry's only three of the stores forty-four registers were occupied. This is what retail has become. Stores think they can operate with a skeleton crew these days. They say unemployment is near record lows. I wonder where everyone is working?

It's time to start working on taxes again. The accountant wants my material two weeks earlier this year, so I better get started. At some point I need to consider formally shutting the company down. It would certainly make life easier at tax time. The company doesn't make much money anymore. I don't buy much production equipment these days. I don't travel on business and I don't even drive very much. I might be better off just taking the standard deduction.

Do I go to the gym tomorrow, get started on my taxes, clear the water off the roof while the weather is still nice, or just stay in bed and nurse my cold? It's a tough decision.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1613

I picked up Janet at the airport today. DFW seems to be permanently under construction these days. Every time I go to the airport there seems to be a new temporary access road to get to the terminals. Since American Airlines just got out of bankruptcy recently, I wonder where they're getting the money to finance this huge expansion. Maybe it's not a problem though. They're probably making enough from what they charge for your bags these days that they could finance several new terminal buildings.

The dogs were certainly glad that the family is back together. They don't like surprises. I wonder how they'll feel when they discover they don't have as much space on the bed tonight. It's amazing how much room two Dalmatians can take up when they put their mind to it. They didn't want to let any empty space go to waste and quickly figured out how to occupy almost the entire bed while Janet was gone. On many days, I had trouble finding even a small space for myself.

I finally got my car in for its overdue service appointment this afternoon. It costs a bit more to work on this car than the old Defender, but hopefully it won't break as often. Maybe I'll get lucky and it won't break at all for a while. There was nothing wrong when I took the car in today. It was just one of those preventive maintenance service visits where they change the oil and all the fluids and charge you a lot of money for basically nothing. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure though. I always change my oil every 3000 miles, whether it needs it or not.

There still wasn't much work today, even though I did have a few website updates to complete before the weekend. It's just as well it was a light day. A trip to the airport, two dog walks, a service visit at the car dealership, some light grocery shopping, and a trip to the post office for stamps seemed to take up the entire day.

Our Spring weather continues to be exceptionally nice and I don't think it is supposed to rain all weekend. How did we get so lucky? It's still snowing in some parts of the country and California's wildfire season seems to have started early this year. Sure, we have the occasional tornado and it's beastly hot in July, but right now Texas seems like a great place to live.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day