Day 4424

We got ice and a little snow, but our heavily hyped winter storm wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. We never lost power, so the house stayed nice and warm. This was important because it was very cold today. I hope our good luck continues because it is supposed to be even colder tomorrow. It's probably good that last night's freezing rain turned to sleet fairly quickly because the trees never got coated with a lot of ice. I didn't see any downed trees in our neighborhood.

Janet and I had planned to just stay in the house all day. That was certainly Dawn's plan as well because it was hard to even get her to go out in the backyard and pee. Some dogs love snow. She isn't one of them. After several hours of doing absolutely nothing Janet and I got bored and decided to go on a walk. It probably wasn't the wisest thing to go walking on ice when the temperature was 20 degrees but we both had cabin fever. I knew I couldn't wear my Hoka shoes on a day like this so I dug out my Dad's old Pivetta hiking boots. These boots are almost 60 years old and they are still better than anything you can buy today. A pair of`Pivetta boots was the gold standard for serious hikers for many years. It's too bad this fine Italian company is no longer in business. Lord knows what a pair of hand made boots like this would cost in today's market. You just can't get things like this anymore.

The sleet and snow made the ground crunchy instead of slippery. Even going downhill felt fairly safe. We stayed away from roads wherever possible and stuck to dirt trails. For the most part there wasn't a wind. That helped a lot. When the wind did pick up near the lake, it was brutal. We didn't set any records today, but we did walk almost four miles. Even though we were both very cold when we returned to the house, the walk was much better than sitting around the house staring out the window. I think we have both become addicted to movement.

I don't know why it is going to be so cold tomorrow. The storm has already moved well beyond us. I'll be glad when it is above freezing again. There's a lot of ice on the roof right now and I hope the pumps still work when the ice starts melting. If memory serves, these type of conditions frequently cause roof leaks. Heat from the house melts the ice from the bottom while the layer on the top is still frozen. the water can't escape and it typically finds a way inside. The pumps froze up fairly quickly last night, so they won't be much help until things get a lot warmer.

We both started our cars this afternoon and kept them running until the engines reached operating temperature. This is a habit we got into during last winter's extended freezing spell. There's nothing worse than the sound of an engine that won't turn over on a really cold morning. I won't drive on ice unless it's absolutely necessary, but I do want a reliable car in the winter. I learned how to drive on ice when I was going to high school in Fairbanks, Alaska. On an empty road I'm generally OK. It's the other cars you have to worry about. Very few Dallas drivers have any idea how to drive on ice and snow.

I feel bad for my friends out at McDonald Observatory. It's five degrees and snowing out there. I think they are essentially trapped until conditions improve. Everyone is well prepared though. They stock up on food ahead of time and if things get really bad they can all move temporarily into the Astronomers Lodge which has a large emergency generator. It's only when gasoline for the generator starts to run low that things start to get dicy. I miss my time out at the observatory. Not in the winter though. Being trapped on a mountain in a snowstorm is not for me.

Dawn is such a lazy dog. She had a good time just lounging on the bed today. She had no interest in going outside whatsoever. Janet finally got her to go outside and poop, but she had to put Dawn on a lash to get her out the back door. Needless to say, Dawn did not join us on our walk today. 

Tomorrow will probably be more of the same. I hope a lot of the sleet and ice blows away or evaporates. I don't think it is going to melt. The temperature tomorrow morning will be nineteen degrees.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4391 - New Years Day

Happy New Year. So far, the year seems to be off to a good start. We got up late, took Dawn on a pleasant walk, had a nice breakfast, and got started on a brand new year. I got an automated call saying that a prescription was ready, but when I went to the pharmacy, it was closed. Since the roads were practically empty, I thought I'd finish some of the errands that seemed like too much trouble yesterday when everything was a madhouse. I got gas and then went back to Central Market to pick up something for a New Years dinner. What a difference a day makes. I should have just stayed home yesterday and done all my shopping today. The store had been completely restocked overnight and everything looked fresh. There weren't many shoppers either. I got some fresh Maryland Crabcakes, Garlic Shrimp, Bacon Wrapped Asparagus, and Potato Salad. I also found a new brand of spicy ginger ale that I thought I'd try.

When I returned home, Janet and I took Dawn on another walk and then I continued walking. The temperature was in the mid seventies, so I just wore a t-shirt and shorts. This was a huge mistake. About halfway through my walk, the cold front everyone has been talking about finally blew through town and the temperature almost instantly dropped twenty degrees. I've never experienced such a sudden temperature change. The wind picked up as well. I was freezing for the remainder of my walk. It felt like a long three miles.

Luckily the most interesting part of the walk occurred before the cold front arrived. I saw the Bald Eagle again. I'm pretty sure you only see the male eagle during these rare sightings. The female eagle is still sitting on her nest, hidden away in the forest somewhere. I don't know if the eggs have hatched yet. I think this makes five times I've seen the eagle since the pair arrived in Dallas. I also saw both Muscovy Ducks. Today there were about a mile apart. I always thought this pair was inseparable, but they haven't been getting along lately. 

I usually have a cold drink when I return from my long walk. Not today. I was freezing. I asked Janet if we had any hot chocolate and it turns out we do. I fixed a big mug of hot chocolate and gradually warmed up. When I saw how cold it is going to get tonight I went outside and set all the faucets on drip. The greenhouse is in such dilapidated shape that when I went inside to adjust the greenhouse faucet, the door fell apart. I had to hammer the thing back together so I could close it again. Janet and I would both like to just tear the greenhouse down and put up a carport there. Our street has gotten so busy in recent years that it's almost impossible to get out of the driveway on a busy day. Moving the cars to the back would be a good idea.

I finally worked up my nerve to begin experimenting with the new star tracker. I read the instructions several times, inserted the Micro SD card in the proper slot, and charged the battery with my new USB-C charger. That's as far as I got. The next step would be to format the SD card and update the firmware. Since it was almost time for dinner at this point, I decided to wait until tomorrow to do anything further. A lot can go wrong when you try to update the firmware on a new device.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. It's supposed to be 22 degrees at sunrise. We've got plenty of warm coats, but I'm not sure Dawn will want to walk with these type of temperatures. Every winter I cross my fingers and hope that the furnace doesn't go out. It's happened before and it can be pretty miserable. A power outage during freezing weather isn't fun either. One Winter we had a four day power outage after an ice storm and it got so cold in the house that we had to go stay in a hotel. Sure hope that never happens again.

Anything could happen in 2022, but I'm going to try and remain optimistic. Everyone seems to be in a panic about the Omicron variant, but few people seem to be getting very sick. A lot of people didn't even know they were infected until they had to take a mandatory Covid test to travel. Maybe if everyone catches Omicron, we will finally reach the herd immunity everyone's been waiting for. I hope so. I'm not sure if we'll be taking Dawn on her Sunday outing tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4066

Today was all about the weather. I woke up cold and never really got warm. It looked and felt like it could snow at any time, but I think that comes later. One forecast I heard today said that we could get up to 11 inches later in the week. I dont think Dawn likes the cold any more than I do. On cold nights she makes a nest out of the blankets and they end up piled around her instead of on top of me. Maybe that's why I woke up cold.

I should learn to dress warmer in Winter like Northerners do, but I tend to turn up the furnace instead. This is probably why I am always so concerned about the furnace going out. A warm house is essential. One Winter our power was out for several days after an ice storm and it got so cold we had to go stay in a hotel for a while. Luckily, Janet still worked then and we would go down to her office during the day to stay warm. Dot and Dash thought that this was a big adventure, but I couldn't wait for the weather to get warmer. It's no surprise that old people retire to Florida. You never hear old people saying "let's move up to Minnesota when we retire."

Today was uneventful. My arm hurt a little at the injection site when I woke up this morning, but it wasn't bad at all. I think getting the shingles vaccine was much worse. We walked Dawn earlier today because Janet had things to do in the afternoon. It wasn't going to get warmer in the afternoon anyway. The temperature hovered around freezing for most of the day. I dressed warmly and was able to finish my longer walk after Dawn and Janet returned home, but it wasn't long before I began to question my sanity. There was nobody on the trails today. I only saw two other joggers during my entire walk.

I had been planning on watching the latest episode of The Expanse this afternoon, but when I opened Amazon Prime on my computer I discovered that Season Five of the show was already over. What? The episode I watched last week didn't feel like a season finale at all. There were hundreds of other shows I could have watched, but I closed my browser and took a nap with Dawn instead. Dawn didn't look entirely happy sharing the bed with me, but she didn't leave this time. I'll call that progress.

I should have gone to Home Depot today and gotten some of those foam tubes that you wrap water pipes with. I put the foam around the exposed outdoor water faucet pipes every year, but it doesn't seem to last long. I think that rats eat the stuff. I remember seeing an exposed copper pipe coming out of the ground recently, so it's time to do this again. Actually, it's past time. I hope nothing freezes tonight. I'll set the faucets on drip and hope for the best.

I haven't heard anything further from the dehumidifier company. They've probably gotten sick of me, just like the roofer did. I really wished that I'd saved the broken dehumidifiers now because I know that I could have salvaged parts from them. I have discovered how to stop the rattling noise. If I lift the dehumidifier 1/2 inch off the ground and then drop it, the rattling stops for several days. I doubt that this is a factory approved solution, but it works. I'm sick of fixing things.

Tomorrow looks like a repeat of today with even colder temperatures. I need to come up with a better plan for dealing with Winter. It's going to be a long time until Spring.

Landry is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3995

It was below freezing when we woke up this morning, so we revised our schedule a bit. I ate breakfast while Janet went to the gym and then we walked Dawn later in the morning after it had warmed up a bit. The temperature went from 30 degrees to 50 degrees fairly quickly, but that's where it stayed. There was a brisk wind today and it felt chilly all day.

I went to the storage warehouse and retrieved the rest of my photo gear this afternoon. I need to remember to avoid the storage facility on the first of the month. It was crowded with apartment people today either moving their stuff in or out of storage. Every time I go to my storage space I realize that there's not much of value there anymore. I really need to clean the place out. It's just so much trouble though. It's almost worth the rental fee just to be able to temporarily forget about this stuff.

I made an appointment with my HVAC guy to have them come out and give me a diagnostic report on my old dehumidifier. It will be interesting to see what they do tomorrow. The little portable unit is almost impossible to disassemble and they'd have to sit and watch the unit all day to see the problems I've observed. The filters are clean. The dehumidifier doesn't operate in a cold environment. I'm hoping that the HVAC guys will decide that a low refrigerant level is the only logical explanation for the defrost cycle coming on all the time. If there's something wrong with the compressor I get a new dehumidifier. If it's something else, I'm stuck with the repair bill. 

I renewed the domain registration for sealander.tv today. Back when my company was doing corporate videos and commercials I thought that this would be a good domain name for me. I've never ever used the domain, but I keep paying for it every year. I've registered several other domains that I'll probably never use as well. I not only have physical clutter piling up in the storage warehouse, I have virtual clutter piling up off in the cloud somewhere. It's hard to turn loose of this stuff. I was a very early adopter of the Internet. Why didn't I register names like cars.com or hotels.com back when nobody was interested in these things? Oh, well. It's a little late now.

Dawn seemed to enjoy walking later in the day. It took us forever to walk four miles because she wanted to stop and smell everything. We always let Dawn take all the time she needs to smell and investigate things. Hey, it's her walk. If she's feeling adventurous, she can even choose the route we take. I'm not that adventurous myself. When I take my afternoon walk, I always follow exactly the same trail. I often try to remember specific details on certain rocks and trees to keep my memory sharp. Somehow, although I do the same thing day after day, it always seems different. The clouds are different every day. I see different birds and animals each day. Today, there was a fierce wind. That was certainly different.

It's supposed to start raining again tonight. This means that I'll have to deal with water on the roof again and Dawn probably won't get her morning walk. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do about the weather. The probability of rain is quite high tomorrow, but things look pretty good after that. I definitely don't want a White Christmas. I'd rather have a gentle breeze, temperatures in the 70's, and clear sunny skies.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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