Day 3208

It's time for the annual Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament again. Time flies. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. Rain is always a worry in October. Even the State Fair of Texas gets rained out a lot. The Golf Tournament is our biggest fundraiser of the year and the dogs always need food and medical care. For years and years I used to take photographs at these events. Now, it seems like I've been home with a sick dog for years and years. Jeez. Have I really been involved with Dalmatian Rescue for eighteen years? It doesn't seem possible. At any rate, I hope that everyone stays dry and has fun tomorrow. I'll be home with Dash.

Having just been through the auction process myself, I was amused to read today that a Banksy painting self destructed moments after being sold for over a million dollars at Sotheby's. Evidently a paper shredder had been cleverly hidden inside a special frame that had been programmed to shred the painting the moment the hammer fell. This sounds like something Banksy would do. The art world is very weird. Pieces of paper and canvas change hands for insanely high prices. At the end of the day, they are still just pieces of paper. It makes you wonder. I like watching that show Strange Inheritance. Antiques Roadshow is pretty interesting too. There are all these stories of ordinary things  in people's attics that end up being worth a fortune. What makes us value some things and toss other things aside? There is no rational reason why a Banksy stencil of a girl with a balloon should be worth a million dollars. There is no reason why an old baseball card should be worth thousands of dollars. I guess there is no reason why my collection of electric trains should be worth anything. I could never begin to afford a Banksy painting. I am a collector though. At least I used to be. I'm kind of glad that Banksy found a way to poke fun at the whole idea of collecting.

I think someone is poking fun at me at the gas pump. For at least the fourth time in the past several months, I put my credit card in the pump, had my transaction accepted, and ended up with no gas. When the display told me to start pumping, no gas came out of the hose. They tell me this happens when the station runs out of premium gas. You'd think they could put a sign on the pump. I know I'll get charged a dollar for this non existent transaction and I know I'll decide that it's too much trouble to dispute it. I wonder who gets to keep the dollar?

Dash had a good day. He slept through the night, which was a minor miracle. It is so rare to get a good night's sleep these days. There wasn't a lot of poop to clean up in the house either. You know your life has changed when you measure your days by the amount of poop you clean up. I hear some thunder in the distance, but I hope Dash sleeps well tonight as well. Fitbit says I have a sleep deficit for the week. Some extra shut eye tonight might help bring things back to normal.

We had some delicious takeout for dinner. It's hard to have a bad day when you have steak quesadillas and barbecued brisket enchiladas for dinner. No heartburn either. Hey, when your dog makes it through another day and you don't have heartburn, life is good.

Cassie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3117

I couldn't figure out why I was having trouble getting gas this morning. The pump would accept my credit card and tell me that it was ready to start pumping, but no gas would come out. I tried three different pumps and I couldn't get any gas out of any of them. The strange thing was that other people were filling their cars normally. I seemed to be the only one who was having a problem. I went over and talked to the manager, who didn't know anything but said he'd talk to another employee. The second employee said "Oh, we're out of Premium today." Jeez. Would it have been that hard to put a sign on the pump? It would seem like the pump itself would show some kind of indication that it was empty. Nope. The pump preferred to run up a zero dollar credit card transaction. Needless to say, I got gas somewhere else.

The lake is starting to look a little low. This is usually one of the first signs that we are having a drought. The city has also started to mow all the areas they have designated as "native prairie" in the park. I'm pretty sure this is to reduce the danger of brush fires. Actually, the area looks a lot nicer now. The native prairie grasses have been overrun by Johnson Grass in recent years. The fields and meadows that used to be pretty, now just look like acres and acres of weeds.

Even though things are becoming ominously dry, I still have mixed feelings about rain. The roof isn't fixed yet. The roofers keep saying they are coming over "soon," but soon might mean Christmas to them. I'm tempted to go buy some of the elastomer material and patch the damaged areas myself. The last time I tried this, it didn't work out so well. Some of my patches are already starting to delaminate. Something needs to be done, but I still think this mess is the roofers responsibility.

Now that I've fixed the crack in the wall, I'm tempted to fix the ceiling. There's been damaged sheetrock in the living room for years, but I hate to go to the trouble of fixing it if the roof is still going to leak. I've got all the materials now and I could probably fix the area in an afternoon, but this would almost guarantee that there would be a giant rainstorm and the roof would start leaking again. It's easier to just ignore things for a while longer and hope the roofers eventually do what they've promised.

Dash pooped on the bed last night. I don't think he even woke up. I was thinking that we were getting a handle on his digestive problems, but maybe not. There doesn't appear to be blood in his stools anymore, but I sure wish that the poop would stay outdoors. Incontinence is just a fact of life with old dogs. I don't think I'm going to stop cleaning up poop any time soon.

It's hard to get motivated when the temperature is so hot. All I really wanted to do today was take a nap. Dash makes this easy, since he sleeps most of the time anyway. I used to think that I wasn't getting nearly enough sleep. If I start counting naps though, I'm probably doing just fine.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. Will this be enough to prevent me from going to the gym? It won't take much. I'm not feeling very energetic this week.

Delaney is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day