Day 4511

I woke up early this morning and against my better judgement I got dressed and went outside one last time for a look at the pre-dawn sky. Who knows when I'll have a chance to see the milky way again. A couple of other Astronomers Lodge guests were wandering around in the dark doing the same thing. I showed them how to find some of my favorite objects in the pre-dawn May sky. Hey, I'm making progress. A couple of years ago, Astronomy Lodge guests would be showing me how to find things.

When the sky started to lighten, I went inside and fixed myself breakfast. I was still hoping to get an early start on the long journey back to Dallas. A couple of guys invited me to join them at their table. One of the men had been a writer for Texas Monthly for over twenty years. He was freelancing now but was still writing for a wide range of very familiar magazines. I was impressed. The writer's friend was a pilot who had a goal of landing at every small airport in Texas. They had flown to Marfa in the pilot's plane while I was inching along toward the observatory on I-20. We had an enjoyable time trading stories about writing, flying, and living in Texas. So much for my plan to leave early.

Eventually, I hit the road and began my long journey back to Dallas. When I'm driving toward McDonald Observatory, the traffic gradually gets lighter as I head West. When I return to Dallas the opposite happens. The journey starts out as a pleasant drive through the Davis Mountains with surprise views of deer, javelinas, and occasionally even elk around every corner. When you hit the freeway, the wildlife are replaced by eighteen wheelers, and then once you get within a hundred miles of Dallas/Fort Worth the roads become clogged with city traffic. I thought that things would be better on Sunday, but there were still way too many cars for my taste. In the mountains I could drive for ten minutes without seeing a single car. In city traffic I am passed by ten cars in a single minute.

I thought I could avoid the construction in Arlington and the perpetual traffic jam near Fair Park by taking a different route from Fort Worth to Dallas. I didn't save any time and ended up getting lost instead. By the time I discovered that the road wasn't the one I was thinking of, I was well on my way to Shreveport. Oops. I turned around and headed back West again. Jeez. I've lived here for over thirty years and still can't find my way around town.

It took a little longer to get back to the house than I thought it would, but I'm finally home. Dawn not only remembered me, she seemed happy to see me. I haven't bothered to unpack yet. I used the remaining daylight to take a short walk so I could satisfy my Fitbit's desire for a minimum of 10,000 steps.  The walk was such a contrast to my daily walks on Mount Locke. The silence was gone, replaced by police and fire sirens, airplanes on final approach to Love Field, and the perpetual background noises of city life. 

I'm already missing the quiet of Mount Locke. Was the trip worth it? You bet. Would I make the long drive again? The jury is still out on that one. I think I'll go sleep on the idea. It's been a long day and I'm very tired.

Betsy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3497

I think Jenga is going to get a very good home. I went up to the boarding kennel today and met the young couple who wants to adopt him. I liked them. They were both very nice and much more conscientious than I was at their age. For what it's worth, I gave them my blessing. I doubt that I will see Jenga again. He will be in his forever home later this week.

I thought it was hot today, but it was much worse last year at this time. 111 degrees makes today's high in the mid-nineties seem mild by comparison. The truth is that late July is always bad in Dallas. I don't know how we survived last summer with Dash being sick. We certainly took our walks much earlier in the day. I got to know the morning stars pretty well last summer. Walking this early is actually enjoyable if you don't mind the lack of sleep. I'm enjoying getting a good night's sleep these days, so I deal with the heat.

I also need to deal with the people who were going to help me with the house. The tree guy still hasn't returned to remove what is left of the big Elm tree that fell on June 10. My roofer hasn't brought over the silicon material he promised me. I haven't got a bid to fix the greenhouse yet either. Come to think of it, there is still one roofer who hasn't sent me the bid for replacing the roof he promised me back in February. Most repair people seem to operate on the squeaky wheel principle. If you aren't hounding them constantly, they just forget about you.

It took me a little longer to make my smoothie this morning. I've been spoiled for a long time. Janet likes fresh fruit in the morning too, so she always fixed mine while she was cleaning hers just before she went to bed. Every morning there was just the right amount of fruit in a big aluminum bowl waiting for me in the refrigerator. I don't think I got the proportions quite right this morning. I'll add a few more strawberries to the mix tomorrow morning.

All I seem to think about these days is walking and eating. It's amazing that I can stretch these simple activities out to fill an entire day. It was a nice change of pace to go see Jenga this afternoon. The only thing I didn't enjoy was driving on the freeway. I hate being sandwiched between speeding eighteen wheelers so much that it's just a matter of time before I start taking back roads to local appointments. I don't know if the traffic is really worse or if I just have a lower tolerance for bad drivers. It's probably a little bit of both.

Instead of watching Perry Mason last night I watched part of Alien: Covenant on the FX channel. Jeez. How many of these Alien movies are there? I've lost count. It didn't really matter that I tuned in in the middle of the movie. Just like Mad Max and Terminator sequels it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on. There seems to be a formula for these type of scripts. Of course there is a formula for Perry Mason scripts too. A very rigid formula. Probably being a Hollywood script writer isn't that different from being an advertising writer except that more money and even bigger egos are involved.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. There are bills to be paid, so I guess I'll start with that.

Pongo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3154

I spent some time talking with auction houses today. I've got to finish consigning things before I totally lose interest in this downsizing venture. I wish I'd methodically inventoried everything when I was younger. It would make life a little easier if I actually knew what I had. It's probably just as well that my younger self wasn't this obsessive. I'm obsessive enough as it is. Maybe I will regain my enthusiasm if the first batch of auctions go well. Right now, downsizing seems very tiring.

The weather hasn't gotten much better. The sound of raindrops on the roof woke me up again last night. The showers were sporadic today, but it's still pretty dark and dismal outside. I'm amazed that I've still been able to give Dash a walk every day. I don't know how I survived before I had weather radar on my phone. We go outside when it's dry and stay inside when it's wet. Usually it works out pretty well.

I had to pick up some meds for Dash at the vet this morning, but that was the extent of my travels. I really don't put many miles on the car anymore. According to my Fitbit, I walk about as much in any given week as I drive. I drive so little now that I wonder if I'd save on car insurance if I put one of those little tracking devices the insurance companies are pushing in my car. I hate the idea of being tracked by an insurance company, but anyone who uses less than a quarter of a tank of gas a week is bound to get a discount.

I wish someone could explain to me what is is going on in Dash's head. It's easy to say he's becoming senile, but I'd like to know exactly what is going on. I'm not sure there's much we could do at this point, but it's sad to see him so disoriented. He'll stand at the back door forever before making a decision to go outside and pee. Sometimes he'll aimlessly walk in circles while we're at the park, and occasionally he seems to get lost in the house. There are still plenty of times when Dash seems completely lucid, but the moments when he appears totally out of it can be pretty scary.

I have a meeting scheduled with my financial advisor tomorrow. I used to be very interested in the stock market and we would have some lively discussions. Not anymore. I've done the best I can to prepare for the future, but the future seems to be growing more uncertain every day. It would be a miracle if I have thirty years left. Sometimes I think it would be even more of a miracle if civilization has thirty years left. There are way too many potential disasters on the horizon.

The one good thing about aging is that the older you get, the less impending doom matters. Hey, I'm already a survivor. I could be wrong too. Maybe the glass is actually half full. I could be more optimistic, but it would be even better to be more like Dash. I doubt that he spends a lot of time thinking about the future. For a dog, the future is always tomorrow morning.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1985

Things are looking up. The U-verse technician was already out in the alley working on the line when we took the dogs on their morning walk. By the time we returned, our Internet was working again. I'm still not sure how U-verse actually works but I'm glad it's up and running. U-verse is supposed to be a super fast fiber optic connection, but a copper wire actually comes into the house. This copper wire is necessary, because very few televisions, computers, and phones will connect directly to a fiber optic cable. I'm sure the copper slows things down though. U-verse isn't really much faster than anything else. To the technicians credit, our Internet is faster than it was last week though. I guess the technician accomplished something.

I got my car back today as well. It's nice driving a decent sized car again. I've never felt comfortable in small cars. Before I had dogs, I used to drive Citroëns. The Citroën is the Tardis of automobiles. These eccentric French cars don't look that big on the outside but the interiors seem huge. Having Dalmatians made me a believer in driving something even bigger than a Citroën, and I've had various SUV's ever since. The gas mileage is horrible, but the trips to the vet are a lot easier.

Luckily, we didn't have to go to the vet today, because the rain continued unabated. I don't know what I used to do before I had weather radar on my phone. I totally depend on the radar app now, checking it multiple times a day to find the perfect time to run errands and walk the dogs. I used to live in Seattle, and it never used to rain like this. Who would have thought that Texas would be wetter than Seattle someday. The rain has become a nuisance, but things are sure looking green. I think when July arrives, we're going to appreciate our exceptionally wet Spring.

I worked on websites again this afternoon. I don't typically work on weekends, but there's a lot of stuff I need to get finished and what else are you going to do on a rainy day anyway? If you've got a kid who can't find a job, tell them to learn how to build mobile websites. I noticed that the mobile traffic on my own website went up dramatically since I converted it to a mobile friendly design last week. This either means that Google really favors mobile now, or that I was getting no mobile traffic at all before I made the switch. Creating mobile websites is going to be a boom industry for a while. I suspect that every single website on the planet will eventually find it necessary to scrap their static sites in an effort to attract mobile traffic as well.

Janet and I are getting forgetful. Dash had a birthday a few days ago and we completely forgot about it. We tried to make amends by having a little party for the boy this evening. We used to make special cakes for the dogs and everything. I even went to a cake decorating class once, just to learn how to make the ultimate dog cake. Today the dogs got a doggie cupcake from Sprinkles, and more importantly they got to share some of the burgers we were having for dinner. It's hard to believe that Dash is ten now. I still go around telling people he is seven. How time flies.

Neither of the dogs understands that holiday weekends are for sleeping in. They got us up early this morning and I suspect that they will do the same tomorrow. It's OK though. I'm glad both dogs are still energetic and eager to start the day after all they've been through the past year. I'll be checking the weather radar again tomorrow to see if I can find them a little dry time.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1277

Fridays are somewhat ritualized. After I walk the dogs, I go out for breakfast and order something more interesting than oatmeal. This is usually a high cholesterol meal with several eggs, but I figure that one day out of seven with too much cholesterol is a lot better than the seven days out of seven that used to be the norm for me. After breakfast, I go to the grocery store and buy groceries for the weekend. Then I come home and try to finish the week's work so I can start my weekend free and clear of obligations.

I woke up this morning with a throbbing pain in my right leg. I momentarily thought I might have deep vein thrombosis or something equally foreboding. Then I remembered that I was stung by bees yesterday. I seem to be a lot more sensitive to bee stings than I used to be. This was one heck of a sting. Maybe the dreaded killer bees have finally arrived in Dallas.

It keeps getting hotter. The temperature was over 100 degrees at some point this afternoon. Maybe I'll finally get a tan this Summer. I've lost to much weight recently that I finally don't feel bad about walking the dogs without a shirt in the Summer. I certainly don't look like a young lifeguard, but it's better than it used to be.

I never like driving in Dallas in the Summer. The old Defender has a tendency to overheat and when I'm stuck in rush hour traffic I can literally see the temperature gauge on the dash inch upwards as I sit stranded at a traffic light. I've had to pull over to let the engine cool before, and it will probably happen again. It certainly takes the fun out of driving when every drive is a race against the clock to get home again before the engine overheats. Today, I needed to get some more ink for my large format printer. I did the smart thing. I just had my ink vendor drop ship the ink to me via UPS. I never though I'd use UPS to send things across town, but sometimes it makes sense.

I took Janet to the airport again this afternoon in 99 degree weather. It definitely made sense to take her car. No matter which Land Rover I drive, the airport is about as far as I ever go these days.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 969

Yay! My InstaCanvas Gallery is open now. Please go and take a look when you've got a minute. Practically every Instagram picture I've ever taken is up on the site. I don't know if I'll ever make a dime from this venture, but I certainly like the idea. Instead of selling high resolution JPEG files to other professional graphic designers, this place is selling reasonably priced mounted canvas prints that anyone could use to brighten up a kitchen or bedroom wall. If it's pretty and bright, it just might sell! It was brilliant of these guys to print the Instagram photos on canvas too, because canvas isn't a very high resolution medium anyway. It's perfect for low quality Instagram prints that originate from a cell phone. I really like the fact that you can sell any image you want. There's no nitpicking evaluation team over in Sweden or Canada continually rejecting your images because they are out of focus or contain too many artifacts. Hey, I may order some of these canvas prints myself, which is probably exactly what the Instacanvas people want me to do.

I thought I might have found a new breakfast restaurant this morning, but as I was walking toward the front door, I saw a little hand written sign that said No credit cards accepted. Cash or personal check only. Oops. I turned around and got back in my car. I haven't carried any cash with me for years. I have a feeling that I won't even carry credit cards soon enough. I'll probably be among the first people to start using those new apps where you just wave your phone at the cash register to pay for something. I just don't understand people who carry big wads of cash around in their wallet. It's inconvenient. It attracts the wrong kind of attention. And if you're like me, you eventually wind up losing it. Credit cards are much tidier. I have a complete record of everything I spend and there is only one bill to pay every month. My theory is that a lot of those people with wads of cash in their wallets don't like paying taxes. At tax time they just say "What cash?" and claim that it never even existed.

At any rate, I ended up going back to one of my regular neighborhood restaurants. Sitting several tables away from me was an older gentleman wearing a crisp white dress shirt, starched blue jeans with precisely ironed creases and a highly polished pair of cowboy boots. He looked quite distinguished in his own way. If the customers in that restaurant wanted to tell me something, I'd certainly listen to this gentleman first. Most of the other men were wearing ball caps, running shoes, and rumpled looking golf shirts. I certainly wasn't exhibiting any sartorial splendor myself, but maybe I ought to try a little harder. I still don't venture far beyond my Steve Jobs look, wearing a black t-shirt and jeans everywhere except weddings and funerals.

As I was driving home from breakfast, I noticed on the odometer that I'd only driven 15 miles this week. Jeez, I walked the dogs more than 15 miles this week. It wasn't that long ago that I was driving up to 500 miles a week. There just isn't a need anymore. I remember reading an article recently that said auto sales to young adults were down almost 20% this year because young people increasingly prefer their iPhones, 4G connections, and other high-tech gadgets to cars. Maybe something similar is starting to happen with the rest of the population as well. There just isn't much need to actually go anywhere these days. FedEx and UPS deliver what I need to the frond door. All my business is conducted over the Internet. It's a lot more convenient to talk with people I know on Facebook than to actually drive somewhere to meet them. You wonder where all this is going to lead. I certainly never thought I'd lead an active, busy life while only driving 15 miles a week.

J-Lo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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