Day 4016

Dawn is still very unpredictable on her walks. She seemed very eager to leave the house this morning. After she pooped, she froze and refused to move for a while. I thought she was done, but suddenly she became playful and started running and jumping around. We continued walking for almost two miles while Dawn smelled trees and bushes and was seemingly in a good mood. Then she abruptly froze again and refused to move forward. We tried to change directions and encourage her with a new path, but she just wanted to go home. She obviously wasn't feeling any discomfort, because she kept up a brisk pace all the way home. Something is wrong, but it all seems to be in her head. We are beginning to wonder if Dawn had a traumatic brain injury at some point in her past.

When we got Dawn home again, Janet went to the gym and I just continued walking. It's a shame that Dawn didn't feel like walking today. It was such a nice day. I didn't set any records, but I got quite a few steps today. It wasn't too hot. It wasn't too cold. It was just enjoyable being outdoors.

I'm really making an effort to declutter. It's such a monumental job that I think it's going to take years. Bulky trash day is tomorrow, so I was determined to add a few things to the pile at the curb. I filled several large black trash bags with useless stuff from the office. I finally took the new dehumidifier out of it's shipping container and threw away the box. I threw away a lot of other empty boxes too. It's hard for me to throw away a good box. Shoeboxes always seem useful to me. You can stack them because they're all about the same size. They are well made compared to other boxes and I always seems to have lots of little stuff to fill them with. All the empty boxes got broken down and went to the curb. There were some broken watch winders I threw away. These things were impossible to repair, but they looked nice, so it has always been hard for me to throw them away. I only threw away no-brainer stuff today, but it was surprising how many trash bags I was able to fill. 

The yard got some attention today as well. I threw away some leaky garden hoses and broken hand tools. It was too big of a job to rake all the leaves, but I did manage to sweep them off the front and back porches. I used the leaf blower to blow away a huge pile of leaves that had been blocking the door to the green house and discovered some more broken glass in the process. I guess the last wind storm had knocked out another pane. The greenhouse is a mess. It will be a big job to repair it and an equally big job to tear it down. 

Evidently the whole world watched the conjunction last night. There were a lot of pictures on Facebook. Some were better than mine and others were worse. I felt a little better about my efforts yesterday when I had something to compare my pictures with. Actually, I did quite well considering that I wasn't using a telescope. Almost all the photos that showed more detail than the ones I took were taken with high quality telescopes. Since there won't be another conjunction like this for hundreds of years, I guess it's time to go back to improving my Milky Way pictures.

The Boca Chica livestream was interesting today. Space X was moving the next Starship out to the launch pad. This sixteen story rocket was just traveling down a public highway on a very large truck. The rocket was upright too. It was an amazing sight. I guess Elon doesn't want to spend a lot of money building a special rail line or dedicated road to transport rockets from the factory to the launch pad. A state highway seems to work just fine.

I hope we can get Dawn walking normally again. She's not a playful dog and her walks are about the only exercise she gets. You don't want to let a Dalmatian get fat. It will almost guarantee that the dog will have problems with their rear legs later in life. In dog years Dawn is about the same age as Janet and I. We've all got to work on staying healthy.

Two sisters are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3227

Things are starting to improve. The roof has quit leaking, although for a while last night it gave me a scare. While it was raining hard, I noticed that a stream of water was flowing down one of the brick walls. This was new. The wet wall could either be a brand new leak, or water flowing sideways through the ceiling from the original leak. This water was a lot harder to contain, since I couldn't simply put a bucket under it. The leak was slow, so I just put some bath towels on the floor. By the time I got up in the middle of the night to take Dash out to poop, both leaks had stopped.

It was damp and overcast when we took our morning walk, but the sky kept getting lighter as the day progressed. By dinner time, I was seeing blue sky. I really hope the rainy season is over soon. The roof is only one of my problems. The humidity is very high and the dehumidifier is working overtime to keep the house dry. The back yard is muddy and it takes forever to clean Dash up every time he goes outside to pee. I've given up on keeping the car clean.

I still haven't decided what to do about the storage warehouse, but I thought I'd try to get a head start on cleaning the place out before my rent comes due. I filled the car with empty boxes and miscellaneous junk and was a bit dismayed that the storage unit didn't look any different when I was finished. This is going to take a while. I don't know why I saved so many empty boxes. I guess my original plan was to repack everything in its original box when we moved to an idyllic retirement home in the mountains. It's pretty obvious now that this isn't going to happen. The last thing you want to do when you get older is start over with a brand new set of doctors. Janet and I aren't wild about living in a large city, but we both like our doctors.

I'll be glad when Daylight Savings Time ends next month. It's completely dark when I typically walk Dash in the morning and lately I've been delaying getting started for about an hour. This ends up pushing the entire day back by about an hour. I used to walk our first Dalmatian in the dark during the Winter, but times have changed. There weren't packs of coyotes living in the park back then and the city felt much safer. I feel better waiting until the sun comes up these days.

I'll probably go back to the storage warehouse tomorrow. It would be tempting to just throw away a lot of these boxes, but I can't remember what is in them anymore. It would have been helpful if I'd labeled everything years ago. I'm going to have to open up every box just in case there's something important inside. I don't look forward to any of this, but it's got to be done.

Where am I going to have breakfast tomorrow? Last week's choice was a disaster. It looks like the weather is going to be nice, so maybe I'll explore a little further from home this week. I need to find some way to end this week on a high note.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day