Day 3831

We had a lot of rain and high winds last night. I didn't sleep well because I was nervous about trees falling in the back yard and roof leaks. Luckily, the storm passed without doing any damage. I probably just got lucky. I noticed that there were a lot of downed trees in the park this morning. I also noticed that it was a lot colder. The storm did bring one good thing. Cooler weather.

Dawn loved her walk this morning. It was brisk and cool with a nice breeze. I spotted a new type of heron that I'd never seen before and we saw the green parrots again. On the way home we saw what looked like a fine mist rising from a grove of trees silhouetted in the rising sun. Very strange. I wish I had my camera with me. There seemed to be an enormous amount of frogs. You could hear them everywhere. Everything felt fresh and new. It felt like nature had pushed the reset button.

Somebody needs to press the reset button for grocery shopping. Many items are still in short supply. I had a long grocery list today, but I still couldn't find Clorox Wipes. Maybe that brief sighting last week was just an illusion. I couldn't find blueberries either, but I did find peaches. Peaches are back in season and you can find nice looking ones everywhere. It seems like that's all I think about these days. What am I going to eat for breakfast and dinner?

The Mars rover is almost ready to fly and I still haven't heard anything from NASA or the Air Force. I miss my little community of space friends. When we would gather for launch events it was always an interesting mix of people. There were active military folks and college professors. Some people came from small towns and others from big cities. Lots of space fans were young, but there were plenty of old people like me as well. Often we would get together for dinner or drinks while we were waiting for the main event. You'd think that in today's environment there would be lots of arguments in such an eclectic and diverse group. Nope. Everybody got along. There was an unwritten rule that we never talked about politics. I've been to many launches and this always seems to be the case. It works. Improbable and lasting friendships can be made when you don't talk about politics or religion.

I wonder how many people realize that things are going to get worse no matter who wins the election.   Today's problems have simply become too complex to fix. Nobody even wants to listen when you try to explain how complex and interconnected the world has become. If you try to fix one thing, you inevitably wreck something else. I've never been a big fan of politicians. Their job is to supply solutions, so they tend to oversimplify and make promises that are never kept. The globalists think they are clever enough to manage all this complexity. The isolationists just want to pretend it doesn't exist. There is a conspiracy theory going around now that Bill Gates and his Davos buddies engineered the entire pandemic and subsequent social unrest in an effort to significantly reduce the world's population, stop climate change, and install a world government. Lots of luck with that. It's far more likely that humans will simply become extinct in three hundred years. Bill Gates is right that there are too many of us, but I don't think you can stop this train.

Taking the long view on things gives you a curious perspective on current events. Pulling down statues means nothing. Look up at the stars. Our country's two hundred year history, or even humanity's 300 thousand year history isn't even measurable on a cosmic scale. We are temporary. I sometimes wonder what ants think. We are just ants in the grand scheme of things.

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2761

It's weird to feel bored and tired at the same time. I want to get out and do something, and yet I don't feel like doing anything at all. Resting with my feet elevated is completely mindless, but it sure beats walking around for any length of time.  My legs still hurt. The swelling in my right leg is almost gone and the swelling in my left leg continues to subside. Even though the inactivity is driving me nuts, I'd better not tempt fate at this point. Judging by the way things are progressing, I have a feeling that I'll be good to go after one more week of rest and limited activity.

The neighbors mowed my grass this morning. This was a nice gesture and I really appreciate it. I'm glad they were able to quarantine their dog at a veterinarian's office instead of being forced to take it to the city pound. Although it was painful being bitten, I'm not mad about the whole incident. It was just one of those things. If the neighbors were home at the time instead of an inexperienced house sitter, I doubt that anything would have happened. If you have a dog, you need to remember that any dog can bite, given the right circumstances. This is why I'm nervous whenever I see loose dogs in the park. You never know what might happen. Years ago, I was responsible for a foster dog who bit somebody. I had the dog well controlled on a short leash while I was talking to a friend about fifteen feet away. For some unknown reason, the dog suddenly ripped the leash out of my hand, lunged and bit my friend. It was all over in less than a second. To this day, I am super cautious around dogs. I wish everybody was.

I really hope I can get my car back tomorrow. Dash has an appointment at the cancer center on Tuesday and the dealership frowns on having dogs in their loaner cars. If I'm forced to take a dog to the vet while I've got a loaner car, it takes forever to carefully remove all the dog hairs so you can say there was never a dog inside. Dash rides better in my car anyway. Truthfully, Dash doesn't ride well in any car, but he is familiar with my car and we've learned to make things work.

With any luck, the landscapers should arrive tomorrow morning. Dash will have to stay inside, because even though I tell the landscapers a million times to keep the gates closed, they always tend to leave them open. We'll just put Dash on a leash and take him down to the park when he needs to pee. We should be able to handle this, even though we are becoming forgetful. The landscapers are very noisy and hard to ignore, and since Janet and I are both home, we can remind each other not to let Dash outside unsupervised.

I worry too much. Worrying isn't very productive, but it is hard to avoid. I don't worry about nuclear war and global warming much because I think the human race is doomed anyway. The planet will survive. We won't. On a good day I think we've got maybe 30,000 years before we become extinct. On a bad day, I think 300 years is optimistic. We have become an invasive species, just like Kudzu Vines. In just a few years, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Think about that for a minute. Unless we can all agree to quit having babies for a couple of generations, I think the planet is doomed. If I can't get you to change your mind about something so basic, I think I'll limit my worries to things much closer to home. Will Janet and Dash stay cancer free? Will I stay healthy? Did I save enough money to survive whatever lies ahead? Why knows? Life is such a mystery, but I do feel blessed to have the opportunity to think about what it all means while I'm drinking my fruit smoothie tomorrow morning.

Laura is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2511

I'm not catching many breaks with this roof. When I went up on the roof to inspect what the repair crews did yesterday, I was simultaneously pleased and disappointed. It looked like the crew had applied the elastomer coating properly, but there was one big problem. It was a windy day yesterday and tons of small leaves had fallen from our Elm Tree and become embedded in the coating before it had time to dry properly. Now the leaves are probably going to be there forever. If I try too hard to rip them out, I could damage the coating. If I ignore the leaves and leave them where they are, they could react chemically with the coating and cause it to deteriorate prematurely. For over 30 years nature has been trying to tell me that nobody should have built a house on this property. The large trees are pretty but the root systems have penetrated our sewer lines, large tree branches have broken off in storms and landed on the roof, and squirrels have claimed the entire area as their own. I think I lost this battle years ago, but it is still discouraging to be reminded about how relentless the natural world can be about reclaiming what it rightfully owns. The forest will be here long after the house is gone.

Security concerns have forced me to have so many passwords that I can't even begin to remember them all. I felt foolish when I couldn't even remember how to add my existing e-mail account to my new iPad. The hosting company had forced me to start using a new more complex password recently and all I could remember was the original one. I ended up having to call tech support and asked them to guide me through the process. This was embarrassing, since I routinely help other people set up their e-mail accounts for a living. Almost every day something like this happens to remind me that I'm not getting any younger. At any rate, when I finally got the e-mail account working, I set it to remember my log-in information, so I won't have to go through this again.

I saw some Kestrels on my walk with Dash this afternoon. These little hawks appear to be thriving in our area. I see more of them every year. They usually sit on the top of trees looking intently for something to eat. I don't have the patience to be a serious birder, but I do enjoy learning a little more about the animals I see everyday. It's an eat or be eaten world out there. Perhaps if we humans weren't at the top of the food chain, we'd be a little more realistic about our place in the world. Hawks know what to do. All animals know instinctively how to keep things in balance, except for us. We seem to think we're exempt from the cycle of life and I'm convinced that this will lead to our extinction.

I wonder if there is anything that would actually change people's minds in this election. Trump supporters aren't swayed by his frequent displays of incompetence. Hillary supporters are even worse. They could care less about the implications of compromising national security or selling favors to the highest bidder. Politics have become like sports. Everyone is just rooting for their favorite team. I don't think this is going to end well, no matter who wins.

I'm old, so I don't think my life is going to change all that much. If I were young, I'd be worried. How did we let ourselves get to the point where the Kardashians have become role models and two self-centered idiots are running for president. What's scary is that one of these two is going to win.  Idiocracy is just a movie now, but in ten years it's going to seem like a documentary.

Dakota is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2372

Like most of you, I woke up to the news of the horrific mass shooting in Orlando. I think in the weeks and months ahead, a lot of people are going to be asking why someone who was already on a terror watch-list and had been interviewed several times by the FBI was allowed to have a job as a security guard and purchase weapons in the first place. Omar Mateen's coworkers warned us about this guy, but nobody listened. The same thing happened when the Russians warned us about Tamerlan Tsarnaev before the Boston bombings. This has got to stop and it probably will. Safety and security has always had a higher priority than abstract concepts of personal freedom. I think we are headed toward a world like the one depicted in that movie Minority Report. It won't really be that hard to arrest people before they commit a crime. We won't need Pre-Cogs like in the movie, because Google knows everything about you already. In a world with no secrets, you will give yourself away. If you don't think this is going to happen, just wait. The technology is here already. All it will take is a few more incidents like Orlando and people will be more than willing to use it.

When I was younger I never dreamed that the world would wind up like this. I was convinced that we'd all be driving flying cars by now and would have already established a thriving colony on Mars. It's sad that we haven't lived up to our potential. Personally, I'm not all that worried about climate change. Humans will be extinct in 30,000 years, mostly as a result of our own stupidity. The earth will survive like it has for four billion years and maybe the next species to evolve will do a better job of things.

Current events frequently leave me feeling that dogs make better companions than humans. It makes perfect sense to lead a quiet, somewhat solitary life devoted to keeping two aging Dalmatians healthy and happy. That's pretty much all I did today. I cleaned Dot up after several accidents in the house. We took both dogs on a slow, but pleasant walk. Later, I comforted them when the thunderstorms arrived. It's a simple existence, but it makes as much sense as anything in today's increasingly chaotic world.

I did make it to the gym before the afternoon storms started to frighten the dogs. Like always, today's workout reminded me that I need to go to the gym more often. Aging is such a losing battle. I still do a pretty strenuous workout, but it seems much harder than it did three years ago. I wish I enjoyed all this activity. I know it's necessary, but personally I'd rather just eat cake.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1776

When I arrived at the gym this afternoon, there was a big sign at the reception desk that said "Pool Closed Until Further Notice." My paranoid mind immediately made the assumption that this must have something to do with Ebola. In all likelihood, the pool had just developed a leak. It doesn't matter anyway, since I never use the pool. Swimming might actually be better for my shoulder than what I'm doing now, but it's too much trouble to get a locker and change. The place was pretty empty this afternoon, but that didn't mean anything at all. The gym is always empty on Sunday afternoons.

On my way home I listened to a Ted Talk on the radio where a geneticist talked about human evolution. It was fascinating. I was surprised to learn that although Homo sapiens have been around for several hundred thousand years, modern day humans are only about 60,000 years old. That's pretty young, considering how long crocodiles have been around. According to this geneticist, the human race almost went extinct when the ice age coincided with the eruption of a huge supervolcano in Indonesia about 70,000 years ago. The explosion dimmed the sun for six years, disrupted seasonal rains and almost killed off the human race. With fewer than 2000 people left on the planet, evolution kicked into high gear, forcing humans to either adapt or die. The remaining humans left their home in Africa, searching for a more hospitable climate. They invented language as we know it today. They developed agriculture and other ways to improve their survival odds, and spread across the world in less than 10,000 years. All this information was just the prelude to the main event, however. The guys main point was that he thinks that evolution has kicked into high gear again and in less than 500 years we will change into a completely different species. We are being asked to process more information in a single day now than we used to process in a year. Our current brains can't handle the load and they are trying to adapt, just like the first humans were forced to adapt to a cataclysmic change in climate. Some of the science in this Ted Talk went over my head, but it caught my attention when the explosion of autism in children and many other modern day disorders were explained as explorations on a DNA level as the evolutionary process tries to arrive at whatever comes next. Of course none of this may be true, but it is still fascinating. Your great, great grandchildren might not even be human. I've always thought that people who worry about the glaciers melting are thinking way too small. The earth is 4 billion years old. If we're really only 60,000 years old, I'm sure the earth has a way to deal with us. Maybe we won't destroy the planet after all. Maybe the planet will change us.

I think I'll go vote tomorrow. I'm not sure where the early voting place is, but it should be easy to find. I've become a fan of early voting in recent years. It's so much more convenient that waiting in line on election day. The early voting locations all seem to have the latest touch screen voting machines too. When I vote at my local precinct on election day, I get a paper ballot where I have to mark a lot of little circles with a #2 pencil. The type on the ballot is very small and when I forget my reading glasses, I don't know what is going on.

We've finally come up with costumes for the Halloween party at our dog training class this Wednesday. Janet is sewing them together now. No, the costumes aren't for us. They are for the dogs.

Pearl is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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