Day 3158

Buying things is easy. Selling things is much harder. This may not be true for everyone, but it certainly has been my experience. Selling almost always involves negotiation and compromise. Deals are made and broken. People change their minds. I can't say that I enjoy this process. I've never been a haggler. I pay the asking price or I walk away. Maybe this is why the storage warehouse is so full of stuff that is way past its expiration date. I buy things but I never sell.

I don't want a bunch of strangers fighting over my stuff in an episode of Storage Wars, so I guess selling is almost inevitable. Today I agreed on a lower price for some of my model trains. I reviewed a rather disappointing proposal from an auction house. What ate up most of my time was moving vintage synthesizers around. I picked up a restored synthesizer from the audio shop. I took this instrument to the vintage guitar store to consign and retrieved two more broken synthesizers and a vintage drum machine to take back to the keyboard technician. These repairs are expensive, so I'm not sure I'll make much money when the equipment finally sells. I don't have much of a choice though. I either fix the stuff or throw in in a dumpster.

This whole process of unwinding is much more difficult than I imagined. It's making me question the whole concept of ownership. I'm beginning to think that none of us really owns anything. We just rent it for a period of time. Everything passes through our hands eventually. Thirty years ago, the model train guy told me "Someday, I'll have all these trains back in my store." I didn't believe him at the time, but he was right.

While I was at the guitar store, the owner and I talked about the difficulty of calculating the future value of anything. He told me how he had spent an entire Summer's earnings while he was in college on one of the very first flat screen televisions. Then he pointed to a huge TV on the wall at the store. "I got this thing for less than $200," he told me. I could relate. I spent a small fortune once on an early model Osborne 1 computer that looked like a Singer sewing machine and had a screen smaller than my phone.

Dash let us sleep all night last night. It was wonderful. He didn't leave the bed or do anything weird at all. Around 7 AM, Dash woke up, went to the back door and peed and pooped outside, just like a normal dog. He ate well today too. When you've got a dog as old and sick as Dash, you really learn to appreciate the good days.

I wasn't very hungry this morning. A single small waffle filled me up. Janet doesn't think I'm eating enough, but I'm gaining weight. Go figure. I think I never realized how much exercise I was getting when Dot and Dash were young and healthy. Those two dogs could walk forever.

I'm hoping for another restful night. Sleeping well can make all the difference. Maybe sleep deprivation has already affected my memory. I saw something on Facebook today in memory of the lead guitar player in one of my old bands. "Did you know Woody had died," I asked Janet? "Yes", she said. "You told me two years ago."  So it begins.

Toby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3088

I kind of miss paper. I had to sign some documents today and it took forever. The sender had to scan the documents and turn them into a PDF file. I had to download the file and print it out so I could sign everything. Then I had to scan the signed documents so I could turn them back into a PDF file again. It kind of makes me miss the days when the FedEx man used to deliver these type of things.

My Friday morning breakfast tradition is hanging by a thread. I'm not that hungry anymore and am running out of interesting places to eat. The only reason I went out this morning is that I'd run out of the fresh fruit I use to make my morning smoothie. I need to alter the recipe for my smoothie too. My original recipe makes way too much. Like I said, I'm not that hungry anymore.

Dash and I got an early start on our morning walk so we could beat the heat. This usually works pretty well as long as we leave around sunrise. It's amazing how quickly things warm up once the sun clears the top of the trees. The temperature can go from 80 to 90 in less than an hour. Dash still likes his walks, but we're going to have to curtail things soon. Summer heat and a dog with a weak heart aren't a good combination. Dash and I will both be looking forward to those rare cooler days.

I've been trying to get hold of the landscaper to tell him about the dead grass. Not surprisingly, I haven't had much luck. It's going to be an uphill battle to get the roofer and the landscaper out here again. I've noticed that when you want something from somebody, they tend to disappear. When they want something from you, it's an entirely different story. The galleries and auction houses have been super cooperative with me this week because they want something from me. I think the roofer and the landscaper just want me to go away.

After I watched the latest episode of The Expanse, I got curious about what happens next and learned that there is enough material in the James S. A. Corey books that the series was adapted from to extend the series for ten seasons. The books go on and on. Maybe I should read the books. Whenever I see a movie that has been adapted from a book, I almost always like the book better.

I'm getting closer to parting with the art I've been considering selling. I've been wondering what to hang on the empty walls and then I remembered that I have lots of pictures of dogs. I'll fill the house with dog pictures. Dogs have more meaning to me anyway.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2969

We're upgrading to a fiber optic network. When the technician came out today, he convinced me that fiber was the way to go. It's three to four times faster than the copper connection I have now for the same price. I'm sure that AT&T will raise the price later, but they keep raising the price on my slower connection anyway. I never did find out why my WiFi has been crashing lately. The technician said I'm getting a good signal and the router seems OK. I suspect that I just have to many things hooked up to my WiFi network. The new fiber optic connection is supposed to fix all this. We'll see. Every time I've upgraded my network before, there have been a host of unforeseen problems. I guess four times the speed for the same price is worth the gamble. Don't be surprised if you hear me complaining later though. It's really hard to get a network running smoothly.

Breakfast was pleasant today. I discovered a restaurant where I could order a child size portion of anything on the menu. The smaller plate was just right and I left happy. I don't know why I never thought of this before. Restaurants almost always give me too much food and since I was trained to eat everything on my plate as a child, I inevitably eat too much. Child size meals are less expensive too. It's a win/win for me.

I was startled  when someone called out my name when I was parking my car at the grocery store this morning. It turned out to be an old friend and former co-worker I hadn't seen in a while. Since we are the same age, I was expecting tales of boredom and retirement. Nope. The guy was driving a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet and said he was busier than ever. WTF. I kept wondering what I've been doing wrong.

Hey, I'm happy my friend is doing well. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins anyway. Nevertheless, the encounter made me wonder. Why have I essentially given up on business while other people my age still seem to enjoy the challenge? I don't really have any answers. I've enjoyed quite a few years of success, but I know I'll never make a cold call again. I don't really want new business anymore. I just want to be left alone.

With this kind of attitude, I need a stable, non-volatile stock market. I definitely don't need the turmoil we've seen this week. Some people are blaming the crash on Trump and they may have a point. The theory is that Trump's continual bragging about how successful the market was caused more small retail investors to start buying stock. Since market tops are historically defined by a surge in retail buying, the computers that control all the high speed algorithmic trading interpreted the increased activity as a market top and started selling. Once things started to snowball, it was impossible to stop. If you know how algorithmic trading works, this theory seems entirely plausible. One can only guess what new kind of hell our robot overlords have planned for us next.

Much to my surprise, the roofers returned today. I haven't seen these guys for over three months, so I'd almost forgotten about them. I took them up on the roof and showed them what was happening. They acknowledged that the original product they applied never performed as expected and I used this opportunity to try to get the company to put on a whole new roof. As I explained, there is simply no way to permanently fix this roof a few feet at a time. The guys who came out today said they'd talk to the company owner and try to come back in the Spring when it was dry. Who knows how this will end, but I'm going to try to remain optimistic.

AT&T is supposed to install the fiber optic cable and router tomorrow. Home Depot is supposed to give me a President's Day price and a delivery date for a new refrigerator. Also, an arctic cold front is on the way and temperatures are supposed to drop by 40 degrees. It should be a busy day.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2582

Today seemed surprisingly normal. There was no need to get up early. The temperature is back above freezing. And Dot woke up on a dry pad for the first time in a long time. It's too early to celebrate, but starting over with the Incurin medication appears to be working. It still felt like Winter on our morning walk, but the sky was clear and the brisk air felt good. I had a feeling that it was going to be a good day.

I've noticed that I'm not eating as much as I used to. I don't think there's anything wrong, but my appetite has certainly diminished. There was a time when I routinely ate three eggs for breakfast. For many years, two eggs seemed plenty. Lately, I've noticed that one egg fills me up. Of course, when I have eggs for breakfast, I usually have toast and sausage or bacon as well, but I eat less of these too. Maybe this is just a natural part of aging. Eating less probably helps keep my weight stable. I have a feeling that I don't burn nearly as many calories as I was when I was walking Dot and Dash six miles a day.

When the dogs grew too old for our marathon walks, it became apparent that I wasn't going to stay fit by watching TV. That's when I started going to the gym. I didn't have high expectations when I went to the gym today. I'd eaten too much over the holidays and skipped my workouts for two weeks. Much to my surprise, I did pretty well. The normally empty gym was almost full today. I guess people haven't given up on their New Year's resolutions yet.

I stopped by the REI store on the way home. I don't need anything, but it's always fun to look around. Camping food certainly has gone upscale. I was amazed to see that you could get freeze dried versions of Chana Masala, Vietnamese Pho, Chicken Piccata with Tagliatelle Pasta, and Chicken Vindaloo. The prices weren't bad. I'm so lazy about cooking now that I was intrigued about getting some of these meals for my regular evening dinners. Cooking freeze dried camping meals is easy. You just throw the stuff in a pot of boiling water, wait twenty minutes and you're done. I'm also fascinated with Goal Zero solar powered generators. These are basically just very expensive storage batteries with a built-in power inverter. It takes forever to recharge them using solar panels, but everyone who has fantasies about living off the grid needs one.

I can vaguely hear the Golden Globe Awards playing on a TV in another room. I don't think anyone is watching, since Janet is asleep. It's hard to believe I used to really be interested in movies. I watched something new almost every week and even took movie reviews seriously. Just not interested anymore. I don't even know who a lot of the younger actors are.

How can a person's interests change from movies and award shows to freeze dried food? It's all part of life, I guess.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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