Day 4918

It was a busy day. We had quite a storm last night and we woke up to find some fallen branches in our yard. It turned out that these branches were from the neighbor's tree. No limbs fell from our own trees. I decided to climb up on the roof to see if there might be more branches up there. The roof was clear of debris, but there was standing water. I was so disappointed. One of the main reasons I got the new roof was so that it would drain properly. The puddles of standing water were in the same places I usually found them on the old roof. I'll call the roofers, but I doubt that there is anything they can do at this point. The roof is finished. I'm sure they'll just tell me that everything Is OK and that I've got a good warranty on the roof. "Call us is you have a leak," they'll say. The roof definitely doesn't leak now, but I'm still disappointed. Standing water is never good on a roof.

I promised Janet that I'd vacuum today and ended up spending more time cleaning the clogged Dyson than I did vacuuming. I wish I had our old Hoover back. The Hoover never needed cleaning or repairs and all I ever needed to do was change the vacuum bag when it got full. Why did I get sucked into believing the Dyson was better? It does clean reasonably well, but it's been a total nuisance the entire time we've owned it. 

I noticed that the utility room floor was wet this morning. This hasn't happened in quite a while. Did the washing machine drain overflow while doing a load of wash? Was this water condensation coming from the air conditioner? Who knows. It could have been either, or both. Both the washer and the AC use the same floor drain. I usually stuff a rag down the drain to keep water from backing up while the washer is running. This works well unless it is a very humid day and there is a lot of condensation from the AC. At any rate, I cleaned up the water and hoped that this was just a fluke. The main problem is that the old house has 2" drain lines where modern washing machines do a lot better with 3" drains.

The weather was all over the board today. It was clear when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. I checked the weather forecast before I took my long walk and it was supposed to be cloudy for the rest of the day. As soon as I got a few miles from the house I got rained on. The weather apps on my phone are basically worthless. They are pretty accurate about what is going to happen thirty minutes from now. If you want to find out what is going to happen four hours from now, the apps just take a wild guess.

There were a ton of downed trees in the park. The storm last night didn't last long, but there must have been some really strong winds. I feel lucky that none of our own trees were damaged. It's going to be a while before the rainy season is over, so I expect more heavy rain this month. The problem is than when the rainy season is over, it is immediately replaced by hot, dry Texas summers. By July I'm usually wishing the rain would come back.

Janet wanted me out of the way when she was cleaning this afternoon, so I thought it would be a good time to install the latest software and firmware for the star tracker. As usual, the installation went smoothly, but the star tracker didn't work any more reliably than it did before. Getting it to connect to the camera is kind of like starting a car with a bad battery. The camera never connects immediately and often randomly disconnects during use. I keep turning the thing on and off again and switching cables around until I get the tracker to connect. I've had the thing for over a year and some functions still don't work. I still have problems taking a panorama shot. After several hour of monkeying around with the Polaris, I put the thing away again. I probably won't look at it again until the next software update.

I hope tomorrow is less problematic than today. My holy grail is always a day where nothing bad happens at all. I don't mind if nothing good happens either. I can always take a long nap. 

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4688

It's always something. We had a huge wind storm last night and a big branch from one of our Oak trees fell on the roof. The branch is way too big for me to deal with myself, so I called the last tree trimmer I used. He never called me back. I thought I might as well try to deal with a few other issues as well, so I called the last carpenter I used to come repair some rotted fascia on the house. Oops. No longer a working number. I contacted another carpenter who had good reviews on the Internet and he said he was completely booked for the next four months. He advised me to contact a different carpenter but didn't recommend any. Oh, well. I am getting our dryer fixed though. I guess in today's world, one out of three isn't bad.

It was really windy on our sunrise walk with Dawn. I thought she wouldn't want to walk on a day like this, but she was fine with the wind. Actually it seemed to invigorate her. Janet was fine too. I was the only one worried that a tree was going to fall on us. At least the air felt clear and clean. The wind must have blown away all the pollen that has been aggravating my allergies.

The wind died down as I was eating breakfast and it was calm outside by the time I was ready to take my long walk. I didn't feel like going to the gym today. It was a bit chilly when I started walking but it warmed up quickly. I maintained a pretty good pace today and my feet didn't hurt much. I thought I'd see a lot of downed trees in the park during my six mile walk, especially since one fell on our roof during the night. Surprisingly, most of the trees looked exactly the same as they did last week. I only saw a single downed tree and the park department guys were already removing it. I wish I could get these guys to help with my trees. They are very efficient. 

My experiences with finding service people today has made me realize that I'm not ready for what the world has become. Over the years I've built up a carefully curated list of repair people I knew I could depend on. I had the best plumbers, electricians, carpenters, glaizers, HVAC repairmen, and much more on this list. The entire list is useless now. Everyone has retired, died, or simply disappeared. So far, using the Internet to find suppliers has not been a satisfactory replacement for the recommendations I used to get from friends. I refuse to use Angie's list. 

I'm having second thoughts about even going to the next Artemis launch attempt. It's disappointing that this next attempt is at midnight, so there won't be good photo opportunities. I'm not wild about the hotel I was able to book and the entire trip seems expensive and somewhat pointless. Since SpaceFlight Magazine has already published my article about the launch that got scrubbed, I'm not even sure they'd be interested in another article about the same rocket. I'm not canceling anything yet though. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today.

Tomorrow I've got to clean out the utility room again and wait for the appliance repairman. They always give you a four hour window and then end up coming at the end of the day. The repair needs to be done though. A washer without a dryer isn't of much use. I wonder when I'm going to be able to get my steps tomorrow? I've always got to get my steps.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3542

Good grief. When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I noticed that a large tree had fallen in the back yard. How did this happen? The skies were clear last night and there was no wind. Even stranger was the fact that neither Janet or I heard the tree fall. The tree was well over a foot in diameter. It had to make a large crash when it fell. This wasn't the Elm tree that was damaged during our June storms either. It was an Oak that I thought was healthy. At least the tree didn't fall on my head while I was taking out the garbage last night.

We are nowhere near the hurricane and yet our yard looks like it was hit by a hurricane. The remains of our Elm tree still needs to be removed. Our demolished greenhouse still hasn't been repaired. And now one of our Oak trees has joined the mess. I tried to call the guy who trims our trees but he was on vacation in Arkansas. It looks like it is going to be difficult to get to the back gate for a while.

It's sad to lose these old growth trees. We now have only half the trees we started with. It is almost inevitable that we will lose the rest someday. Our trees are no different than similar old trees in the park. They are all nearing the end of their natural life. Insects attack the trees. Wind and weather takes its toll. Eventually the wood gets brittle and the tree falls.

I've been thinking I missed a doctor's appointment for several days, so I finally called the clinic to see if I was imagining things. Usually doctors offices send you a reminder. The receptionist looked up my records and told me I had an appointment several days from now. I wonder if they ever were going to remind me? I've got the appointment on my calendar now but I kind of wish I'd just forgotten about it. Now it don't have any excuse to skip the visit.

I got a text from the phone company today telling me that I'd used up my data plan for the month. What? I thought I had an unlimited data plan. I sat on hold with customer service for a while, only to discover that there never was unlimited data associated with my account. What was I thinking? Maybe I had unlimited data when I first got the account years ago and somewhere along the line, the phone company eliminated it. This happens a lot. I've had most of my accounts for so long that plans change and eventually the company gets tired of grandfathering my old plan in their new program.

The hotter it gets, the less I feel like walking. I did my five miles today but it felt like a chore. I keep moving because I know it is good for me, but I'd really rather just sleep. There are so many little problems that need attention and I'm just not in the mood. Old house. Old trees. Old roof. Old body. It adds up after a while. It won't take much for Janet to convert me into a traveler. When you are away from home, you don't have to think about these things.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3457

Life is good. We finally got power restored early this afternoon. Most of the traffic lights are functioning again and people have stopped driving like maniacs. The gas company even fixed a gas leak in the neighborhood that nobody even knew existed. There's nothing like a four day power outage to make you appreciate the little things. Janet and I actually did pretty well without electricity, but there are so many things we take for granted.

Before the power was restored today, I took a walk through the neighborhood to see how everybody else fared. I was amazed at the devastation. We lost a tree, but it didn't wreck our house. Some people had serious roof damage. A few people still had trees on top of their cars. I was sad to see that Erykah Badu's Porsche had been demolished. It was one of the prettiest cars in the neighborhood. The sound of chain saws was everywhere. Almost everyone had a big pile of logs and tree limbs in their front yard. It's going to take months for the city to clear all the debris away. Who knows. Maybe the city won't need to clean up all that much. I've already started seeing people scavenging the log piles for Winter firewood. One guy I talked to today said he had a wood burning stove and he was specifically looking for pecan logs because he liked the smell when they burned. I think this guy might have hit the jackpot. The park is full of old growth pecan trees and these trees seemed particularly vulnerable to being uprooted by the high winds. Mesquite trees seemed to survive pretty well but a lot of pecan trees bit the dust. Our two large Oak trees survived the storm intact. It was our Elm tree that got toppled.

It took a while to reset the clocks, put all the food in the ice chests back in the refrigerator again, and reconnect everything on the network. During the outage I kept wishing I had a larger generator. As soon as the power returned the urge for a huge generator quickly faded. Big generators are heavy, noisy, expensive, and I've really got no place to keep one. My little generator actually did just fine. We just had to learn to do stuff one thing at a time. You could use the hair dryer and brew coffee. You just couldn't use two high wattage gizmos at the same time. I discovered that everything ran smoother if I plugged the big UPS backup battery I use for the computers into the generator and then plugged all the other things into the back up battery. This seemed to filter out the power spikes that gave the generator problems. Starting an electric motor takes a lot more power than keeping the same motor running. I could always tell when the compressor kicked in on the little refrigerator. That was the only thing that temporarily overloaded the generator.

I was shocked that I actually have some website work to do tomorrow. One of my few remaining clients wants to update his site. I'm usually very responsive, but I told him he'd have to wait until the power returned. Tomorrow would have been a busy day even without the website work, but I'm always happy to have the work. There's still tons of laundry to do. I need to get new tires for the car before the trip to Kennedy Space Center. It's been a while since we've seen the rescue Dalmatians too. No problem. It will all get done now that we have electricity again.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2886

It was so windy today that I kept expecting one of our trees to topple over. It has happened before. I see old growth trees fall in the park all the time, but luckily nothing happened to ours today. The wind did signal a change in the weather. A cold front moved through town this afternoon and it's currently about twenty degrees colder than it was this morning. Dash seems to like this chilly weather. I can't say that I agree.

The only thing I accomplished today was to catch the cockroach that eluded me yesterday. This time I had my flyswatter ready. The bug didn't have a chance. I hate to think how many of these things might be lurking around the house. There are certainly plenty of places for them to hide in the office. The office was full even before I brought all the paraphernalia home from the storage warehouse for Santa Paws pictures. Now, it's a total mess.

Dash seemed to want a walk around 3 PM this afternoon, but when I looked outside I noticed a mobile grooming truck parked in our neighbor's driveway. We would have to walk right by this truck to get to the park. It would be just my luck that the groomers would open the door just as Dash and I were walking by and out would come the dog who bit me. I wasn't going to risk it. I'm still very apprehensive about that dog.

I waited about an hour until the truck drove away and then we took our walk. We encountered another loose neighborhood dog along the way, but luckily this one was friendly. These people let their dog out in the front yard without a leash all the time. Over and over again, it races out in the street to greet me and Dash. One of these days it is going to get run over. I really don't understand how people can pay so little attention to their dog's safety. Is it that hard to keep your dog on a leash? The streets are busy. There are coyotes in the area. There are snakes. There are just too many unpredictable things that could happen.

I tried to sweep the leaves off the front porch today. It was impossible. Prevailing winds tend to blow leaves onto the porch where they pile up against the front door. When you open the door on a windy day, the leaves blow inside. This is one of many things that make me wish I lived in Arizona with a big cactus and a swimming pool in the yard. At any rate, I swept the leaves away three times today and the wind blew them back again every time. It's futile to battle against nature. Nature always wins.

I wonder how Black Friday got to be such a big deal. We are being inundated with Black Friday flyers in the mail and Black Friday e-mail messages. I don't think I've ever bought anything on Black Friday. I guess it's a good deal if you want to stand in line for a cheap big screen TV, but how many televisions do you need? I think everybody already has a big screen TV by now. I guess I'm not the target market. I'm so out of the loop that I thought Black Friday was yesterday.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1753

Today was all about damage control. Yesterday's storm was a lot worse than most people thought. Over 250,000 people are still without power in the Dallas area. I'm one of them. The power came back very briefly about 2 AM this morning and then about two minutes later it went out again with a bang as a transformer in the alley exploded. As I was walking the dogs this morning, I heard at least six other transformers exploding in the distance. Evidently, the power company is having trouble because there are many more downed trees and telephone poles than they expected. If they attempt to restore the power before they find all the downed lines, the circuit shorts out and a transformer explodes. Actually, I think we're losing ground. When I went to breakfast this morning, most of the traffic lights were working. When I went out again later this afternoon to recharge my UPS backup battery at Janet's office, all the lights were out again. I have yet to see any power company trucks in our neighborhood. To tell you the truth, I haven't seen any power company trucks, period. I don't know where they all are.

With limited computer resources and a very dark house, I spent as much time as I could outside. Ironically, the weather was beautiful today. You'll never believe what happened just 24 hours ago. I cleaned up broken branches in the yard and then I went up on the roof where there were many more tree limbs. It was raining so hard yesterday that I didn't even hear most of these branches fall. All I heard was the wind. I was surprised at how many good sized tree limbs were up on the roof. I don't think any damage was done, but it sure was a mess to clean up. Without the help of my trusty electric sump pump to clear the water away, it took hours to remove all the standing water and debris.

You really can't get much done without electricity these days. It seemed like the whole city was just milling around waiting for something to happen. I've never seen my breakfast restaurant so crowded before. It was hard to find a parking place and even harder to find a table. Since the power was out in our entire neighborhood, I think everybody just decided to get out of their house and have a good breakfast.

My backup battery will recharge the laptop once and the phone two times before it goes dead. This give me time to write the blog and answer a few e-mails, but that's about it. The biggest problem with the backup battery is that it takes almost eight hours to fully recharge. My laptop doesn't seem to hold a charge very well any more and neither does the little 4-G hotspot I use for WiFi. Did I ever mention to you how much I hate batteries?

I heard on the news today that the CDC has narrowed yesterday's list of 100 people down to 50 that were thought to have "shared bodily fluids" with the Ebola victim. This amazes me. This guy managed to touch more people in two days than I do in a year. The HazMat team finally came today to sanitize the guys house. Better late than never, I guess.

It's probably better late than never when it comes to getting our power restored as well. Regular readers might remember that it took over four days to get our power turned back on the last time this happened. We ended up having to stay in a hotel for a few days. At least it's not freezing cold this time. Last Winter's big ice storm still seems worse than this, even though I think more trees and telephone poles were uprooted this time.

I'll have to learn to write faster, because my laptop battery is already getting low again. Given what I've seen today, it will be a miracle if our power comes back on tonight. There's a good chance we'll be sitting in the dark until next Monday.

Hobbs is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1501

I'm having trouble telling whether things are even headed in the right direction anymore. Yesterday I thought I was almost finished with my ongoing battle with Hepatitis-C. Today a get a somewhat alarmed call from a nurse saying that my potassium levels were really high and I needed to get them under control before I could even begin my treatment. WTF? I've had hundreds of blood tests and my potassium levels were never in the danger zone before.

The nurse wanted to start me on some sort of medication immediately to remove the excess potassium. I wondered how the potassium got into my system in the first place and she asked me if I ate bananas, potatoes, or yoghurt, and drank a lot of orange juice. Well yes, actually. I do all those things frequently. The nurse told me to stop consuming potassium rich food and drive downtown to the hospital right away and pick up the medicine that would cause my body to get rid of the stuff. I still don't know why this was such a big deal, especially since other doctors have told me that potassium was a good thing. 

I've finally learned to follow my doctor's directions, so I picked up the medicine. I thought that I would be taking a pill, but it turned out I was supposed to drink a large bottle of horrible tasting stuff instead. The nurse said to chug the bottle in one sitting and then chase it with a soft drink to kill the taste. I don't drink soft drinks anymore and actually thought the Diet Coke I drank tasted worse than the medicine. I guess I won't be having a big bowl of bananas, blueberries, and yoghurt for breakfast tomorrow morning.

The tree is finally gone from my roof. The tree removal crew arrived while I was away having my Friday morning breakfast outing. When I checked on the dogs using the iPhone nanny cam, I noticed that Dash appeared very agitated and was pacing around the room. Dot was fast asleep on the bed, even though I clearly heard chain saws in the background on the phone. I know that old dogs sleep soundly, but this was pretty amazing. I think Dash was agitated because he knew that it was his turn to step up to the plate and protect the house from the offending noise, even though his older sister usually took care of this chore for him. The dogs were both fine when I got home, but since they are both prone to seizures, I stayed with them until the tree guys had finished their work. 

They sure finished a lot sooner than I thought they would. I had asked one of the tree guys if they could also clean up the dead branches the ice storm had knocked loose on one of the large oak trees in the back of the yard. Since the crew was already here, I didn't think it would be a big deal. The guy said sure, indicating that it wouldn't  be a problem to trim one more tree. A short time later the entire crew inexplicably drove off and left without an explanation. They didn't go anywhere near the oak tree. Why they left in such a hurry without bothering to trim the additional tree is as much of a mystery to me as my suddenly elevated potassium levels.

To complete the strange day, the stock market dropped over 300 points. I lost more in one day than I typically make in an entire month of writing.  I still believe that the market is my only real hope of permanently staying ahead of the game. Like I said earlier however, I'm having trouble telling whether things are even headed in the right direction anymore.  It's a very confusing world.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1500

My visit with the hepatologist today was very encouraging. The new treatment for Hepatitis-C is far superior to the old interferon and ribavirin treatment. The new treatment only takes 12 weeks. It is almost always successful. And there are no horrible side effects. The old treatment could take up to a year, involved injecting yourself with very expensive interferon every week, and it almost always made you feel like you had a bad case of the flu. You also had to worry that the medicine would destroy your white blood cells.

Sovaldi, the major component of the new treatment, appears to be an amazing new drug. I'm glad someone finally invented it. The only downside is that I have to get approved before the pharmaceutical company will start sending it to me. The first part of the approval process involved getting new baseline blood work done. That part was a piece of cake. The next part involves getting insurance approval.  Lets see. A brand new advanced drug and an antiquated approval system that doesn't even understand some of the regular medication I take. What could possibly go wrong?

The best part of this new treatment is that my reluctance to inject myself with interferon has actually worked in my favor. Apparently Sovaldi works best if you have never had the interferon and ribavirin combo before.  We'll see what happens. My medical team wants to see me again in March. They say that I should be halfway through my treatment by then.

It was so cold today that the dogs and I were both reluctant to go outside. Nature calls though, so we had to bundle up and make the best of it. I found some new dog coats that are much easier to get on and off and the dogs seem to tolerate them pretty well. Getting them to wear their old sweaters was often an exercise in futility. Luckily, we didn't have to stay outside as long as we used to. Dash has finally learned to poop in the yard on cold days. Thank god! I don't know why it took him five years to learn this simple trick, but I'm glad he's finally acting sensible.

The tree service is supposed to come out and remove the tree from my roof tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the tree trimmers never show up. The tree has been sitting up there on the roof since well before Christmas, despite several promises of a speedy removal.  When the tree is finally gone, I'll move on to my next big project: doing my taxes.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1487

One of my regular readers suggested that I should quit complaining about the weather and just read a book on rainy days. That's easy for her to say. She's retired. When I retire, I'll probably do a lot of reading. Since I'm still working, I deal with problems like losing clients instead. Another website client went bye-bye today. I've gained a few website clients this year as well, so I'm basically even for the year, but this slow erosion of my online business is still troubling. I lose a lot of these jobs when my client's kids graduate with their worthless marketing degrees and want to do the website themselves. Yes, parents don't just let the kids continue to live at home until they are 27, they give them jobs when they graduate as well.

For those of you who are wondering, I chose to ignore the rain and go out for a decent Friday morning breakfast anyway. The dogs pretty much made the decision for me. They were so dirty at the end of their morning walk, that I decided a little more dirt wouldn't make one bit of difference. I cleaned the mud off the dogs and then proceeded to get mud all over the freshly washed car. The eggs were sure good though.

I finally managed to talk to my neighbors about the tree on my roof. They are nice people and appear to still be making an effort to get the tree people to come out and remove the tree. I can't really complain. I've been having my own problems with one of the oak trees in the back yard. My own tree guy promised me that he'd come out before Christmas and clean up the mess made by the power company guys during they ice storm. It seems like it's been quite a while since Christmas now, and he's still not here.

Although it wasn't a terribly productive day, I still managed to make it to the grocery store and get my January invoices in the mail. I'll have to remember to take the newly departed client off my monthly invoice list. It would be embarrassing to keep billing them after they fired me. Hey, at least it's Friday. I have no idea what the weekend has in store for me. It probably depends entirely on the weather.

Murphy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1485

I wish I had the nerve to tell people that I didn't work when it rains. Better yet, I'd love to be able to say that I don't do anything when it rains. Yes, it rained all day today. The dogs got wet and needed to be cleaned up several times. Everything got muddy. And of course, the Dallas traffic was terrible. As you might expect, I can't get away with refusing to work on a rainy day, because it rains far too often.

I went about my day as if everything was normal.  I ate breakfast with the business networking group. I drove downtown with Dot for her water therapy session. I did a lot of laundry. And I updated a few websites. Through it all, the rain never stopped.

I'm not certain, but I'm getting this feeling that the business networking group is on the opposite side of the political fence than me. We don't talk about politics and the group is supposedly apolitical, but you can kind of tell which way the wind is blowing. This new insight is disappointing to me. I don't want to know anything about your politics. Political rants from people I know in real life has just about ruined Facebook for me. Go ahead and vote for whoever you want. I just don't want to hear about it.

One of my clients wants to start sending me more work. This a mixed blessing at best. More work means more money, but it also means more time spent working. I think I already spend far too much time working. In the best of possible worlds, I will learn to become faster and more efficient and still have a little time for myself at the end of the day. On the other hand, I could just as easily go stark raving mad.

Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow. I still need to get the tree off my roof that fell during last month's ice storm. The neighbor who owns the tree seems to have been out of town ever since the tree fell. She told me that she had already contacted a tree service to remove the tree, but three weeks later they have never arrived. I suspect that they won't come out unless she is home to pay them. If things go as they usually do, I will eventually get frustrated and hire my own tree people to remove the tree. Then the neighbor will never repay me. That's just the way neighbors are these days.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1464

Neither of the dogs seemed very excited about going to training class tonight. They gave us these looks that clearly said "What is the point of all this?" I certainly didn't have the answer. I couldn't tell you what the point is of much of what I do. We went to class anyway of course, because that is what we do on Wednesday evenings.

I've been noticing big piles of branches starting to appear along the curb on our street. Coincidentally,  I've noticed that nobody has returned to pick up the huge pile of branches the power crews left in the alley after the ice storm. Putting two and two together, I finally realized that the only way these branches were going to get picked up was if I dragged them all out to the street myself and piled them with the other branches for bulky trash day. So, when is bulky trash day? I've forgotten again. It must be soon though, since there is a lot of trash piled outside the neighbor's houses.

It took me more than an hour to drag most of the tree limbs out to the street. When I was finished, I noticed that one of my hip joints felt loose and wobbly, just like my shoulder typically feels. I hate growing old. After a while you began to feel like you are the caretaker of a rusty old machine that has seen better days.

I think Dot is doing better than I am about keeping in shape. She's doing great with her weekly water therapy sessions. It's interesting that she seems to like the underwater treadmill, but has become disinterested in the Wednesday evening training class. Probably the therapy session is just more enjoyable. The water is nice and warm and she gets tons of attention and positive reinforcement from the vet and nurses. Physical therapy is kind of like a spa day for Dot, while training class is more like military boot camp.

Somebody left a note on my windshield saying that they wished they'd known I was selling the Defender 90 because they wanted to buy it, and then going on to ask if I was planning to sell my house anytime soon. Maybe I should save the letter, since I will be selling the house when Janet and I retire. Then again, maybe I should just throw the letter away. Business propositions made to strangers that are written on a page torn from a children's Big Chief school tablet usually aren't very reliable.

Alvin is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1457

As the sun rose over Dallas this morning, I found myself listening to an interesting presentation about the future of Dallas. The new Midtown project that was being proposed at my breakfast meeting sounded exciting and ambitious, but I doubt I'll be here to see the ribbon cutting ceremony. Even though I've made this city my home for many years, I can't wait to move to somewhere smaller and more tranquil. Janet and I haven't decided where that illusive "somewhere" might be. It just has to have great veterinarians and reliable WiFi.

Since I was out and about today, I began to hear other people's ice storm stories. I thought that we'd had a rough time, but our ordeal was nothing compared to some of the stories I heard. Dot's veterinarian almost had her house burn down when a nearby transformer exploded during the ice storm and knocked her power out. She and her family are still without power.

I thought I was insanely busy yesterday, but the hoops I had to jump through were nothing compared to the chaos that was unfolding at the main UPS customer service center where I went to retrieve my lost package this morning. There was a huge line of people trying to either send, pick-up, or complain about a package. None of these people seemed very happy. The service representative I talked to said the ice storm had put them five days behind schedule on deliveries. Many of the people in line were mad when they discovered that the package they had come to pick up was already on a truck headed to their house. It's a long drive to this service center, so few people wanted to make this trip twice.

At least I was prepared. I called ahead to make sure that my package was actually waiting for me at the depot before I even got in the car. I've been through this drill before. I still had to wait in line though. Even though I could see my package sitting behind the counter, it took me thirty minutes to get to the head of the line and claim it. I don't know how the agents managed to keep their sanity. The place was a madhouse.

I finally was able to climb up on the roof today and assess the situation. There's still lots of ice up there. I was able to remove some of the ice in an effort to lighten the structural load on the roof, but my utility pump has frozen solid, so I wasn't able to remove much of the ice melt. A lot of the ice was 2 to 3 inches thick and was quite heavy. A 2 inch slab of ice weighs about the same as a two inch thick rock. Maybe it will warm up enough tomorrow so I can remove this ice before the next cold spell. Oh, there's a downed tree on the roof too, Not a huge tree, but it's still a tree.

I'm hoping that tomorrow is uneventful. One can always hope.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day