Day 4076

Things got done today. We had a hearty breakfast and then I chopped the ice out of the driveway so we could get the cars out. I was expecting empty grocery stores from what I'd been hearing on the news, but it looked like most stores spent the night restocking things. The shelves were full and I found everything on my list. Even bottled water was abundant which might be because Dallas wasn't one of the cities with a "boil water" notice. For the most part, the roads were completely clear. I thought that my tire pressure would increase because it was warmer today, but that didn't appear to be the case. I'm still getting a warning light on the dash. The tires didn't look or feel low, so I'll deal with pumping them up later.

Amazingly, the pumps on the roof still worked and I was able to pump away a lot of very cold water. I won't attempt to climb up on the roof and remove the rest of the water until all the ice is gone. I'm not that stupid. We've had no problems with frozen pipes. Even the outdoor faucets seem OK. I think the outdoor faucets survived because they're so old that they all drip naturally. Most of them I can't turn completely off anymore.

We were worried that Dawn wouldn't want to go outside, but she seemed eager for a walk. She hopped and jumped through the remaining snow and had a great time smelling everything. She remembered her old route and was ready to return home after she completed her short one mile journey. Since it was a nice day, I continued walking and though I would attempt my old six mile route. This was a mistake without my good shoes. This was the slowest six miles I've ever walked and my feet started hurting almost immediately. I needed the heavy boots because there were still a lot of slushy areas, but I don't think my feet will ever forgive me.

The lake has already thawed quite a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if all the ice was gone tomorrow. Pretty soon this cold spell will just be a memory. In a few years I'll wonder whether this was worse than other big storms we've had in the past. We've certainly had more snow, but I don't ever remember it being so cold for this long. I'm so glad we didn't lose power. We lost power for five days during an ice storm a decade ago and it was miserable. You should never take electricity for granted. I have a feeling that there are a lot of people who are going to be looking into whole home generators after all this is over. Every time we've had a sustained power outage, I've thought about a whole home generator. We still don't have one because they can be quite expensive and to be practical, you'd need one that runs on natural gas and can be easily isolated from the grid for safety reasons.

The reason we don't have a whole home generator is probably the same reason the Texas power grid hasn't been winterized properly. It's expensive and complicated to do things right. It's much easier to just kick the can down the road and hope for the best. If we did things right, I should have cut down the aging large Oak trees in the back yard, moved our driveway and entrance to the back, and put a sloping roof on the house. Sadly, it would be easier to just move.

I wonder how long it will be before the next catastrophe makes us forget about the big freeze of 2021? Jeez. 2021 is already worse than 2020 and it's only February. I'd like to be optimistic, but I'm not. We live in an interdependent world where everything has become too big to fail. Someone eats the wrong bat in China and the entire world faces a deadly pandemic. Someone fails to anticipate a cold winter and the entire power grid almost goes down. You really wonder what is going to happen next. 

Odie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3457

Life is good. We finally got power restored early this afternoon. Most of the traffic lights are functioning again and people have stopped driving like maniacs. The gas company even fixed a gas leak in the neighborhood that nobody even knew existed. There's nothing like a four day power outage to make you appreciate the little things. Janet and I actually did pretty well without electricity, but there are so many things we take for granted.

Before the power was restored today, I took a walk through the neighborhood to see how everybody else fared. I was amazed at the devastation. We lost a tree, but it didn't wreck our house. Some people had serious roof damage. A few people still had trees on top of their cars. I was sad to see that Erykah Badu's Porsche had been demolished. It was one of the prettiest cars in the neighborhood. The sound of chain saws was everywhere. Almost everyone had a big pile of logs and tree limbs in their front yard. It's going to take months for the city to clear all the debris away. Who knows. Maybe the city won't need to clean up all that much. I've already started seeing people scavenging the log piles for Winter firewood. One guy I talked to today said he had a wood burning stove and he was specifically looking for pecan logs because he liked the smell when they burned. I think this guy might have hit the jackpot. The park is full of old growth pecan trees and these trees seemed particularly vulnerable to being uprooted by the high winds. Mesquite trees seemed to survive pretty well but a lot of pecan trees bit the dust. Our two large Oak trees survived the storm intact. It was our Elm tree that got toppled.

It took a while to reset the clocks, put all the food in the ice chests back in the refrigerator again, and reconnect everything on the network. During the outage I kept wishing I had a larger generator. As soon as the power returned the urge for a huge generator quickly faded. Big generators are heavy, noisy, expensive, and I've really got no place to keep one. My little generator actually did just fine. We just had to learn to do stuff one thing at a time. You could use the hair dryer and brew coffee. You just couldn't use two high wattage gizmos at the same time. I discovered that everything ran smoother if I plugged the big UPS backup battery I use for the computers into the generator and then plugged all the other things into the back up battery. This seemed to filter out the power spikes that gave the generator problems. Starting an electric motor takes a lot more power than keeping the same motor running. I could always tell when the compressor kicked in on the little refrigerator. That was the only thing that temporarily overloaded the generator.

I was shocked that I actually have some website work to do tomorrow. One of my few remaining clients wants to update his site. I'm usually very responsive, but I told him he'd have to wait until the power returned. Tomorrow would have been a busy day even without the website work, but I'm always happy to have the work. There's still tons of laundry to do. I need to get new tires for the car before the trip to Kennedy Space Center. It's been a while since we've seen the rescue Dalmatians too. No problem. It will all get done now that we have electricity again.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3456

This is our third day without power. There is still no estimate for power restoration in our neighborhood, but we're starting to see power company trucks, so that's a good sign. I talked to a crew from Alabama this morning who were looking for downed lines behind our house. I've seen repair crews from Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma so far. This is a major effort. Lots of people in the Northern part of town already have power again, but our neighborhood is almost always the last to get electricity. We have the most trees and consequentially the most downed lines. The repair crews need to be really careful with all these downed lines. I heard that they missed one yesterday and started a house fire when they tried to turn the power back on.

One of the guys from Alabama told me that they may get our power restored later tonight. I hope so. We've almost run out of clean towels and I may need to go to the laundromat tomorrow. My little generator definitely won't run the washing machine. Actually, I've been very pleased with the little generator. Technically it's called an inverter and delivers much cleaner electricity than a traditional generator. When I bought it I just wanted something to run the computers. I'm discovering that it will power quite a few other things as well. The small refrigerator runs fine using the generator. Janet was able to use her hair dryer as well. I was even able to fire up the Keurig machine this morning and make myself some coffee. The generator will run all day on two gallons of gas. That's pretty good if you ask me.

I discovered that my solar powered generator doesn't do so well on cloudy days. There wasn't enough sunlight today to use the solar panels to recharge the batteries. Gasoline came to the rescue though. I used my gas powered generator to recharge the solar generator. A lot of people drive Teslas in Dallas. I wonder how those people feel now. They are dead in the water for the time being. Their car batteries have run down and most of the charging stations in Dallas are dead. I haven't seen a single Tesla on the road for the past three days.

The best thing that happened today was that my tree guy came over and removed all the dangerous dangling limbs from the elm tree that got damaged. I was one of the lucky ones who got tree service in two days. A lot of people are still waiting. We discovered that a more of our tree had fallen in our neighbor's yard than we initially thought. Luckily neither of us had much damage to our houses. I did lose the greenhouse though. The tree crew will have to come back later to remove what's left of the elm tree. They are only doing emergency service right now and had two more jobs today after they finished with my tree. For now, everyone in the city is just dragging their downed tree limbs to the curb. I have no idea how long it's going to take the city to clean this mess up. There are huge piles of ruined trees everywhere. It's a shame to see so many mature trees destroyed in the neighborhood. These old growth trees were one of the things that made this part of town special.

Apparently yard work is better exercise than going to the gym. I haven't taken a long walk since the storm roared through town, and I'm still burning more calories and taking more steps than I was before. When you spend most of the day hauling logs and big tree limbs out to the street, you end up doing a lot of walking. By the end of the day, I'm tired. I thought this would help me sleep, but so far it isn't working. It feels stuffy in the house without the air conditioner running. It's also too quiet. I'm used to the sound of the dehumidifier running constantly and usually we keep the fan running on the HVAC system so there is some air circulating in the house.

I'm still sitting in the dark, but I saw a large power company truck one street over from ours just before sunset. That's a good sign. Hopefully, when you hear from me tomorrow, we'll have electricity again.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3455

We still don't have power. Basically, we're camping now. The power company now says that we might not get electricity restored until late Thursday. It's a mess all over town. Traffic lights aren't working. There are still trees in the road. In our part of town businesses that don't have generator power are closed.

As I expected, the tree trimmer never made it over here today. He promised to come tomorrow. We'll see. There are still people ahead of me in line. I don't have a chain saw, but I was able to remove some of the downed tree using a reciprocal saw powered by a generator. Janet helps me haul the limbs out to the tree and by the end of the day we had a huge pile. Most of the neighbors had huge piles of their own.

We filled three large coolers with ice and were able to salvage most of the food in the refrigerator. The ice cream and a few perishable items went bad, but all in all we did pretty well. I discovered that I can run the small refrigerator off one of the generators, but the gas tank isn't very large and I don't think the generator will run continuously overnight. I ned to go buy some more gas tomorrow morning.

The solar powered generator can be completely recharged using solar panels in less than five hours. This works out pretty well since we only use this generator at night so we can run the network and get on the Internet. Some little LED camping lights provide all the lighting we need. I do miss the air conditioner though. It was pretty hot today. Neither of us slept well last night because it was too hot inside. I don't think we're going to start in a hotel though unless it gets really bad. I could buy a pretty capable generator for the price of three nights in a decent hotel. At least we've still got hot water. I definitely needed a shower after spending most of the day hauling logs out to the street.

The Falcon Heavy launch got postponed a week. This is just as well. I'd like to get all the power outage problems resolved before we start planning a trip. This is the first multi-day power outage we've had for a long time. I remember the bad one well though. Living without electricity takes a lot on ingenuity. I wish I had a really large generator that could run off natural gas. Some whole house generators do this. They're pretty expensive though. That's the thing with power outages. If you go buy a big expensive generator, it's almost guaranteed that you won't have another outage for five years. I haven't even gotten much use out of my little gas generator.

I hope I sleep better tonight. It probably helps that I'm really tired this evening. Sawing and hauling heavy logs is a lot more strenuous than walks in the park. I missy morning smoothie. One more reason to go out and get five gallons of gas for the generator tomorrow morning. Janet needs the generator for her hair dryer too. I'm not sure the generator can handle the hair dryer, but we'll see.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3432

It doesn't seem to take much to knock out our power. Lately, every time a big storm passes through, the electricity goes out. We definitely got a lot of rain today. At least the tornadoes we were warned about never materialized. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get both the fiber optic network and the pumps on the roof running again using various backup power supplies. A small gasoline generator powered the pumps and a solar powered generator took care of the WiFi and computers. When the power eventually returned, nothing important was disrupted at all.

Even though we had quite a storm today, I was still able to take both my walks and do the Saturday grocery shopping without getting wet. Accuweather's Minute-by-Minute  weather forecasting service is pretty amazing. Type in your street and zip code and you know exactly when the rain is going to start and stop within a two hour window. I knew how long it takes to walk three miles and the forecast said I was OK, so off I went. The sky looked a little menacing and I heard thunder off in the distance but the rain didn't start until five minutes after I returned. I love when technology works.

The storm had already passed when it was time for my evening walk. There must have been some high winds. Several large trees were down in the park and smaller limbs were scattered everywhere. One of the creeks feeding the lake was a rushing torrent. Even though the rain had subsided, the water level was still rising. Several piers along the shoreline were under water and the dock for a local rowing club seemed to have floated away. None of this deterred the fishermen. After a big rain fishermen are always attracted to the lake. I saw ten this evening. Are fish more likely to bite after a rain? There must be a reason for this.

There seems to be a reason for everything. I've been noticing that the wildflowers always bloom in a very specific order. The grape hyacinths seem to bloom first followed by lots of showy and evening primrose flowers. Next I'll start to see the bluebonnets. Next a variety of different daisies arrive. I see lots of cowpen daisies, shasta daisies, engelmann daisies, and blackfoot daisies on my walks. The firewheels are blooming now and I'm starting to see milkweed, coneflowers and mexican hat. There are always lots of tiny flowers like crow poison and blue eyed grass. I like to learn to identify the plants and animals I see. Jimson weed is blooming now. I learned to identify this poisonous plant a long time ago because I didn't want the dogs eating it. I learned to identify poison ivy, oak, and sumac a long time ago too.

It's still raining, but it's just a gentle shower and both pumps are working. All is well. Janet fixed chili tonight which is the perfect antidote to a dismal day. I'm recharging all my backup batteries and looking at dog pictures on my Facebook feed. I think I am ready for tomorrow.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2732

It seems pretty clear that there are no more rats in the atrium, so I decided to tackle the job I've been avoiding for years. Cleaning the atrium is difficult because it is basically an outside space that can only be accessed from the inside. Each time I use the pressure washer, I grow a little wiser. I don't point the nozzle at old paint anymore, because it will peel the paint away. I definitely don't point the nozzle at myself. I learned that the hard way. Today I wore a large hat with a brim to protect my head from falling spiders. I lined the inside of the sliding glass door with rags to soak up the water that I knew would leak into the living room. When we first bought the house, I used to do this job once a year, but when our first pressure washer broke I lost interest and convinced myself that the dust and dirt looked just fine. Originally, the atrium seemed like it would be a nice place to have dinner in the Spring or Fall, but we really weren't prepared for how brutal Texas weather can be. It didn't take us long to realize that eating inside with the air conditioner cranked up was much nicer.

As the pressure hose slowly peeled away layer after layer of dirt and grime, the atrium gradually began to look like it used to be. I tend to forget that this house is sometimes considered architecturally significant. All the other Glen Galloway houses have been featured in magazines. Ours has been destroyed by dogs. Architecture was still important to me when we bought the house. I used to be an architect at some point in the distant past and having a cool house seemed essential. Now, I realize that a house is just a place with a roof over your head that you share with dogs.

Although cleaning the atrium was a dirty job that took most of the afternoon, I'll have to admit that I did feel pretty good when I looked at the final results. The flagstone floors and exposed brick look like new. All I have to do now is put a coat of paint on the wood walls and I'll be done.

I had to move the emergency generator while I was cleaning the atrium and it seemed like a good time to fill it with gas and see if it still worked. The generator started easily and the engine seemed to run just fine but it wasn't producing any electricity. This didn't make sense. The generator was practically brand new. It should work perfectly. Since so many computer problems are solved by turning them off and back on again, I use this technique for everything now. I shut the generator down and then restarted it. Amazingly, that's all it took. I have no idea what the problem was, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with spiders.

Over half of the house still needs to be cleaned, but the pressure washer doesn't intimidate me anymore. Little by little, I'll get this job done. I'm going to wait a while to call the landscaper again because he likes to be paid in cash, but by the Fourth of July, the house and yard should be looking great.

I think I've done enough cleaning for one weekend. Tomorrow I'll either finish my website updates or go to the gym. I doubt if I'll do both. That seems too much like multi-tasking.

Bali is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2406

This morning, we took Dot all the way around the block again. She did well. This short journey is still only a small fraction of our normal walk, but we're trying not to overdo things. Dot has an amazing ability to bounce back, but she doesn't know her own limits. The goal is to gradually build up her strength and prevent muscle atrophy while avoiding any further injuries. It's a balancing act.

I mowed the grass this morning to avoid having the worst looking house on the block. I think I should get extra points for doing the chore myself. A few folks up the street push their own mowers, but just about everyone else uses a landscaping service. Mowing isn't fun, but it is good exercise. My activity tracker says I burn more calories mowing than I do at the gym.

When I put the mower away, I noticed that the portable generator was covered with dust and spiderwebs. I bought the thing a couple of years ago and we haven't had a major power outage since. If this unused generator has brought me luck, then it was a good purchase. Since I hadn't started the thing in over six months, I drug the heavy machine out in the back yard and fired it up. I'd test it more often if it had an electric starter. The generator starts with a manual pull cord and I have a bad shoulder, so that's why it gathers dust. With a little effort, I got it running for a few minutes and then put it away. We'll probably see each other again in another six months.

Dealing with the generator made me realize how many other things there were that I hadn't looked at in a long time. I recharged batteries in a two-track field recorder that hasn't seen use since I used to shoot videos at major trade shows and then moved on to my back up still cameras. If I kept all the gadgets in my office charged and ready to go, it would be a full time job.

I need to decide whether to take Dot back to therapy next week. She's been doing surprisingly well for the past two weeks without it. I think walking in the underwater treadmill helps her, but she's become so difficult to transport that frequently the long ride in the car cancels out any benefits she might receive from therapy. Also I wonder if there might be a placebo effect to taking her to the vet every week. I know that I feel better when I have a chance to talk with someone knowledgeable about Dot's condition, but maybe the whole experience helps me more than it helps Dot. This would all be a lot easier if Dot could talk. I'll have to think about this. Dot is doing pretty well without the therapy though.

I'll probably go to the gym tomorrow. Like Dot's therapy, I wonder if going to the gym once a week does any good at all. Logic tells me than I probably need to work out a lot more often. Maybe there's a placebo effect going on here as well. If I think I'm doing some good, maybe my body actually believes me. It's complicated. I do know that water therapy once a week and a good workout once a week is all I have time for. I guess I can live with that.

Laura is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2161

The other day, I was listening to an old radio interview with Allen Toussaint on NPR. It occurred to me that Allen's song Working in The Coal Mine, was the perfect sound track for my weekends. The tune was certainly appropriate today. I outdid myself with backbreaking activity. Yesterday, I noticed that my neighbors were piling up trash in front of their houses, so I was determined not to let another big trash day pass me by. I hauled a huge pile of nondescript rusty stuff that had been accumulating in the green house out to the curb and made my own pile as well.

Once I started my pile, it became obvious that this would be a good time to cut down the three dead Photinia Bushes near the back fence. I didn't have an extension cord that would reach that far, so I finally found a good use for my generator. The generator provided plenty of power for my trusty reciprocating saw and the unsightly trees I'd been meaning to cut down for at least two years were finally gone.

It was time to put the screen porch back together too. If I waited to find time to locate new extra wide screen wire and purchase new hardwood trim, there would have been a big gap in the screen until sometime next Spring. I carefully reused the old materials and although I can't say the porch is as good as new, at least it's as good as it was before. When the environmental cleanup people come to clean the vents and retrieve their big dehumidifier tomorrow, the house will finally be back to pre-leak condition.

When I was hauling trash to the curb, I noticed that there was a lot of nice fresh white gravel back by the garbage cans. I shoveled up a big pile of this gravel and traded it for the muddy gravel on the gravel walkway the tunneling crew had messed up. It was probably this activity that reminded me of  Working in The Coal Mine. I was tired at the end of the day, but felt like I'd accomplished quite a bit.

On my way to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions, I stopped by my storage warehouse to look for backdrops for our upcoming Santa Paws photo shoots. I found quite a few muslin backdrops, but couldn't tell which was which without unfolding them all. I dropped off the plastic fencing that had been keeping Dash out of the atrium while the tunneling crew was working and returned home for dinner. I'll save getting ready for the December photo shoots for another day.

The dogs were lucky to get both their walks today. It looked like it was on the verge of raining for the entire day, but the rain didn't actually start until after dinner. There is still lots to do. I need to find how water is still getting out of the shower stall after all the expert grouting work I did last week. I need to finish a website that should have been complete three days ago. All in good time. What I need to do most is post this and go to sleep.

Honey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1883

Today was an exercise in futility. I wanted to boot my computer from an external drive so I could use a defragmentation application to clean up the desktop computer. There was an external drive sitting on a nearby shelf, but I couldn't find the wall wart power supply so I could plug it in. I got a box out of the closet that contained about forty of these wall warts and started looking for one with an odd, non-standard four pin connection that matched connection on the external drive. I hate these wall warts. Why can't manufacturers include a decent internal power supply with their gadgets like they used to? Now, I've got all these various wall warts and I have no idea what they go to anymore. Each one has a different capacity and outputs a different voltage. I don't know how I acquired so many of these things. Old routers, synthesizers, battery chargers, hard drives, sequencers, and mixers all seem to use them.

Eventually, I found the correct power supply, plugged in the external drive enclosure and discovered that the drive itself had gone bad. All it made was a clicking sound and wouldn't even spin up. Luckily, I found another old Seagate drive in a drawer and took the enclosure apart so I could substitute drives. The second drive wouldn't spin up either. Evidently, if you leave a hard drive sitting around for five or ten years without using it, there is no guarantee that it will ever work again. I thought both of these hard drives were still good the last time I used them. I just can't remember when that was. If old hard drives just die of their own accord after they sit idle for years, I need to seriously rethink my storage warehouse strategy. There are a ton of old computers sitting in there that I might want to fire up someday. What if none of them work anymore?

Today's experience reaffirmed my belief that there are two fundamental operating principals in the universe. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and use it or lose it. Since I still needed an external drive I could boot up from, I drove to Fry's and bought one. This is probably how I have acquired so much electronic garbage over the years. I should have added the two broken hard drives to the pile of junk I was going to take out to the curb for big trash day, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. Maybe they weren't broken after all and I was just doing something wrong.

The weather was wonderful for a second day in a row. I continued my efforts to clean up the yard a bit while the dogs lounged in the sun. I felt like leaving the back door open, so the dogs could come an go as they pleased. I can't do this for too long though, because neighborhood feral cats and even racoons will wander inside.

My experience with the hard drives got me to thinking about the generator I got a few months ago. I took it outside and started it up, just to make sure it still worked. The instructions said I should start it at least once a week, but that was way too much trouble. I haven't started the thing since I bought it. I didn't even use the generator during our last power outage. I still think the best way to deal with a power outage is just go to a nice, pet friendly hotel and wait for the power company to fix things. Luckily the generator still works just fine. Maybe someday, I'll actually need it.

The Space X launch in Florida got scrubbed again. I'm glad I didn't fly down to watch the launch. I would have had to come back empty handed again. You have to have a lot of patience and a very flexible schedule to actually see one of these rockets get off the ground.

Today was kind of dead, but there are already two writing jobs cued up for tomorrow. Two writing jobs and two long dog walks ought to fill up the day rather nicely.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1769

I finally got the new generator running. It was easy to start, runs fairly quietly, and seems to produce electricity. I tested it using the only electrical appliance that I could find that was easy to unplug and take outside. Janet should be pleased. Her hairdryer runs just fine using the generator. The only problem I had was getting the gas out of the gas container and into the generator. I hate the complicated locking safety spouts they put on gas containers these days. I can never get them to work. They incorporate a spring that won't allow gas to flow unless you unlock it and press down on the end of the spout. When you finally press hard enough to get the gas flowing, it usually leaks all over the place. I finally gave up and got an old tin funnel out of the tool shed and poured the gas directly out of the can into the funnel.

With the generator running and ready for the next power outage, I moved on to more difficult tasks. I unclogged the large format printer for the fifth time this month and then began to disassemble the workstation where I used to keep the old ESQ-1 synthesizer that I'd banished to the storage warehouse a few weeks ago. One reason that I've been so slow in decluttering the office is that it is quite difficult. There are cables everywhere and when I initially put the studio together, I meticulously fastened each of them into neat bundles with cable ties. It's kind of sad to deconstruct things after all the work I put into putting everything together, but the time has come. The studio was state of the art in the 1980's, but it is a museum piece today. It took quite a while to remove all the wiring and take the big desk apart, but eventually I succeeded without breaking anything. The disassembled synthesizer desk, along with some surprisingly nice luggage from my world traveling days, went to the storage warehouse to join all the other relics from my youth.

Dot has her big cancer recheck tomorrow. Since she had a different type of cancer than Dash, she will get a different type of exam. Instead of a chest x-ray, she will get an ultrasound scan of her abdominal area. Dot has done so well during her recovery that I really hope her exam goes perfectly. It would be really nice to have nothing to worry about for a change.

On my way home from the storage warehouse I stopped at Home Depot and got some tile grout and silicon sealer. The shower is leaking because the grout where the walls meet the floor has all come loose and water is seeping under the tile and finding a way outside. Every time I take a shower I have to put a towel outside the shower stall to sop up the leaking water. When the leak was just a very small puddle it was easy to ignore. Even though I am very good at ignoring things, the growing leak has become a problem that I've just got to deal with. All that being said, the box of tile grout will probably still sit on a shelf for several weeks before I am forced to actually repair things.

The original batch of people being quarantined for Ebola exposure will be released at midnight tonight. Their 21 days are up and they will be free to go about their business. A lot of people in town will be relieved when this happens. Others will become even more alarmed, convinced that 21 days isn't long enough. That's just the way it is these days. I don't think as a country, we will ever come together and fully agree on anything again.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1764

I drove past the Ebola hospital on my way to pick up Dash from his follow-up exam at the cancer center and was a bit surprised to see that everything seemed absolutely normal. By the non-stop coverage this event is getting on TV, I was expecting to see dozens of satellite trucks and reporters camped out all over the place. I didn't see anything. If I didn't know better, I never would have guessed that this was ground zero.

The hospital may have seemed normal, but a few blocks further down the road I saw something that didn't seem normal at all. There was a car ahead of me that appeared to have stalled out at a busy intersection. I got in another lane so I could get around the car and then I saw a woman next to me get out of her car, run over to the motionless car in front of me, and bang loudly on the window. All of the sudden I see a guy sit up in the driver's seat, shake his head from side to side for a few seconds, and then drive away. The guy had fallen asleep in his car, right in the middle of busy traffic.

Dash got a great report from his oncologist today. His chest x-ray looked clear, his physical exam went well, and all his blood values were normal. The doctor still wanted dash to continue his chemotherapy though. He said that he would understand if we wanted to quit, but that if it were his dog, he would continue the treatment for a full year. He said that even though it appeared that Dash was cancer free, thyroid cancer was very aggressive and that he though it would be better to be safe than sorry. I reluctantly agreed. We've come this far. We might as well go all the way. Dash tolerates the Palladia pills very well and so far the only negative side effects appear to be financial. The pills are quite expensive.

I had some extensive website updates to make today, but there was still a little time to fiddle around with the new generator. I got the cover off, filled the unit with the proper amount of engine oil and mixed the special ethanol destroying enzyme in the gasoline. That's as far as I got before I ran out of time. After spending more than an hour getting things ready, I didn't even start the generator.

I got another writing assignment toward the end of the day, so it looks like I'll be writing again tomorrow. There's a growing pile of bills to pay as well. Maybe I'll finally start the new generator, but it's not very high on my priorities list.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1763

The rainy season must have started. We had another overnight downpour that ended around daybreak. With the rain came much cooler temperatures. I don't think it got much above sixty degrees all day. I thought the dogs would like the cooler weather, but they didn't like the wind that came with it. The wind blew relentlessly from the West all day. The lights flickered a bit during strong gusts and the Internet connection went dead for a short amount of time, but we never lost power.

Seeing the trees swaying in the back yard provided the incentive I needed to finally read the instruction manual that came with the generator. There were so many things I needed to do before I could actually fire the generator up that I decided to postpone the inaugural run until the weather got warmer. I knew I had to add oil, but I didn't realize that I needed to unscrew and remove the entire left side of the unit to get access to the oil filler tube. I knew I needed to add a special enzyme to the gas to remove the ethanol, but I didn't realize that it was also important for the generator to be grounded before using it. Now I'll have to go back to Home Depot and buy a copper rod and some electrical wire so I can properly ground the unit. In many ways this all seems like more trouble than it's worth, since the small generator will only power a few things at a time anyway. In many ways I'd just as soon get inside a warm sleeping bag with the dogs and just wait till the power came back on.

Since it kept getting colder and colder throughout the day, I finally broke down and turned the furnace on. Amazingly, it started on the first try and the house was warm again in less than an hour. I'm always a little apprehensive the first time I start the furnace for the Winter. Half the time it refuses to start and I have to make a call to the HVAC guys to come out an make a service call. Hopefully, the success I had today is a good omen for the Winter. I'm tired of fixing things and it would be nice to have a warm and trouble free house this year.

Today would have been a good day to get caught up on work, but since I was already caught up, I watched one of the Dr. Who episodes I had recorded on the DVR instead. Kill the Moon was a strange show, based on the idea that the moon was actually a giant egg that was about to hatch. This premise wasn't even remotely believable and I continue to be disappointed in the new season. The production values are fantastic, but the scripts are terrible and Clara and the doctor don't seem like very good companions. Maybe I should give up on this show and start watching The Walking Dead like everyone else.

Dash goes back to the cancer center tomorrow for a chest x-ray and follow-up exam. He has one of these follow-up exams about every three months now and I keep hoping that at some point, his oncologist will declare him officially cured. I bet they'll want to continue the chemotherapy a while longer though. That's just the way doctors are.

Firedogs are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1762

As most of you probably know by now, there is a second Ebola victim in Dallas. This time is was an experienced nurse, wearing full protective gear that got infected. And the CDC still says that there is nothing to worry about? Who are they kidding? I'm familiar enough with public relations damage control to recognize today's press conference for what it really is. The CDC doesn't have a clue how to stop this disease from spreading. At this point, they are just trying to say calming things to prevent a general panic.

I can't believe that the CDC is actually trying to blame the nurse for this by saying there was a "breach of protocol." I imagine that the nurse was following the CDC protocols faithfully, right up to the moment she realized she was infected. I think it is outrageous that this poor woman has caught this deadly disease while compassionately treating a man whose family is now suing the same hospital that went to extraordinary lengths in an effort to save his life. The people who are trying to fan the flames and turn this whole mess into a racial issue should be ashamed of themselves.

The guy who brought Ebola to America should never have been allowed to travel here in the first place. He lied to get on a plane out of Liberia and he lied again to the hospital by not revealing that he had prior contact with an Ebola victim. Sure, the guy did say he was from Africa, but according to everything I've read, he did not reveal that he helped carry someone who was already infected with Ebola to a hospital in Liberia. I'm amazed that we haven't already stopped all air travel in and out of West Africa. This is a no brainer. Doesn't anyone remember the Kevin Bacon game and Six Degrees of Separation? If we don't prevent people from traveling to and from infected countries immediately, it is not implausible to imagine that the entire world will be at risk in a very short amount of time.

If you can forget about all the alarming news on local TV stations, today was fairly normal. I washed the car and replaced the backup battery hidden inside the audio recorder. I was going to fill the new generator with gas and give it a trial run, but I ran out of time. I need to start going to the gym again, but I think I'll wait a while. My gym is owned by Presbyterian Hospital and they probably give their staff free membership. I can't think of a better place to catch a deadly disease transmitted by bodily fluids than a gym where people routinely sweat on the equipment.

There is another severe weather warning for early tomorrow morning. Please don't let the power go out again. I'm not even sure that the generator works yet.

Kuuipo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1761

It started raining just before we went to bed last night and continued until just after sunrise. Ordinarily, a night of heavy rain would upset Dot so much that none of us would get any sleep. Dot slept soundly though. She's starting to lose her hearing and didn't even notice the rain. When we woke up this morning, it was surprisingly cold. I had to look for a heavier coat before we took our morning walk, because my light Fall jacket just wasn't warm enough.

The temperature dropped so much that the plastic gas container I got for the generator fuel looked like it has imploded. I had filled the container with gas yesterday afternoon when it was quite warm and then sealed it. The change in air pressure literally caved in the  sides of the container. I think the same thing happens to your tires in the Winter. Supposedly, I don't need to worry about increasing my tire pressure in cold weather anymore, because the tires are filled with nitrogen now.

I kept busy today, but nothing of any consequence happened. I had to look for an odd sized nickel-metal hydride backup battery I needed for one of my audio recorders. I could have ordered the battery online, but I didn't have anything better to do today anyway. Eventually, I found the illusive battery, filled the car up with gas at a nearby station, and returned home to clear the water off the roof.

The park has gotten so muddy from all the recent rain that I've started walking the dogs through the neighborhood. I've avoided walking through the neighborhood ever since Dash got attacked by a viscous dog at the end of the street. It's been a long time since the attack and the aggressive dog finally got old and died. Two other aggressive dogs I've been worried about have moved out of the neighborhood, so maybe it's safe again. I like walking in the park better, but it's interesting to see how much the neighborhood has changed over the years. As older couples die or move, they are replaced by young couples with children who think the simple frame houses aren't big or fancy enough. On street after street, perfectly good homes are being scraped and replaced by McMansions. The original homeowners, who build here right after World War II, wouldn't even recognize the place anymore.

I'm still taping the new Dr. Who episodes every Saturday night, but haven't had much desire to actually watch the shows. For the most part, the scripts this season have been terrible. For a show where you are regularly expected to suspend disbelief, a lot of the new scenarios are just ridiculous. Clara and the new doctor don't seem to mesh very well either. I still like the 2005 series with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper the best.

It's almost time to turn the furnace on. I'm wearing a light jacket around the house because I'm cold, but Janet thinks the temperature is perfect. I never win these thermostat battles, especially when the dogs like the temperature cooler in the house as well. Eventually, everyone will agree that we need the furnace. Until then, I guess I'll have to bundle up.

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1760

I think I'm up to speed again. A severe weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow provided the excuse I needed to finally go out and buy the generator I've been talking about. It's not the world's greatest generator, but it met my criteria. It was light enough that I could get the box in and out of the car by myself. The box was filled with warning labels. I never realized that there were so many ways a generator could kill you. I promise not to try to run the thing indoors, attempt to hook it up to the house wiring, or  start the engine without first adding engine oil.

Both dogs now have their follow-up appointments confirmed at the cancer center. I kept waiting to be reminded about these appointments, but apparently I was the one who needed to remind them. I've noticed the same thing with my own Hepatitis C treatment. The healthier you get, the less visible you are on the hospital's radar. No complaints though. It's good to be healthy. I keep hoping that the dogs will be declared officially cured at one of their follow-up exams, but that's probably never going to happen. Cancer just doesn't work that way.

The new car finally got a door ding when I went to the grocery store this morning. It was inevitable. You can't drive a car in the city without getting door dings. It's not really a new car anymore anyway, since I've had it more than a year now. It just seems new compared to the Defender 90, which I drove for decades. You never noticed door dings on the Defender. The thing was put together so crudely with sheets of aluminum and rivet guns that I'm sure it came straight from the factory with door dings.

I tried again without success to get some pictures of the Monarch butterflies before they continue their migration South and disappear for another year. I think I got my best animal pictures in 2011 when the dogs were at that perfect age between being wild puppies and grumpy seniors. Back then, I could tell them to sit and stay while I took a picture and they would actually do what I said. Those were the days. The occasional great picture is just a happy accident these days.

I hope the weather forecast is wrong for this weekend. I'd much rather wash the car and do normal weekend chores than console storm phobic dogs and worry about the power going out.  I picked up some Texas style sausage kolaches while I was at the store this morning and there's still some bacon in the refrigerator. Rain or shine, at least the day will start well.

Neo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1759

We encountered a turtle on our morning walk today. Dot growled at it. Dash wanted to play with it. And I thought it was a good metaphor for the way the day was going. I didn't really have that much to do today, but everything I started seemed to move at a turtle's pace.

I'll sure be glad when allergy season is over. Every time I walk the dogs or work in the yard, it seems to take hours for my nose to return to normal. I spend the day with my eyes watering and my nose dripping. I guess I could take antihistamines, but they seem to leave me feeling even worse than the allergies they are meant to cure. I've been blowing my nose so much lately that I'm beginning to look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

I got a surprise when I went up on the roof today. All the pecan shells and leaves were gone. I guess last week's windstorm blew them away. There was still some standing water from all the rain, but it didn't really take me long at all to clean things up.

Our house must be on the migration path for the Monarch butterflies this year. I've never seen so many in our yard before. They're everywhere. I've tried several times to photograph the butterflies, but they don't stay in one place for very long. The only times I've gotten good photos of butterflies is when I catch them feasting on the nectar from flowers. We don't have many flowers in our yard, but the Monarch's do seem to like to flutter through our Oak trees.

Today's work consisted mostly of answering client's questions and asking a few of my own. Very little got accomplished. I'm glad I bought that slab of bacon yesterday. It sure tasted good with breakfast this morning and seemed to keep me in a good mood despite all the frustrations.

Dot seemed a bit slower than usual in the underwater treadmill at our physical therapy session today. On the other hand, she responded very well to acupuncture, so the visit was still a success. On the way home, I noticed that there was a bad traffic jam on the freeway, so I decided to take the back roads. This wasn't a good idea, because I must have passed at least ten 20 MPH school zones. The crowded freeway probably still would have been faster.

I still haven't gone to Northern Tools to look at generators, but maybe I'll go tomorrow after my breakfast outing. I'm convinced that if I actually do buy a generator, there won't be any more power outages. Janet says that if that is the case, the unused generator would actually be a good investment.

Maverick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1757

I kept thinking it was Wednesday today. With so little to differentiate the days anymore, it is an easy mistake to make. Friday's stick in my mind because I go out for a great breakfast. Thursdays I generally remember because I take Dot downtown for her physical therapy session. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday just run together.

I had lots of work to do today, but work doesn't leave the same kind of memories as a good meal. For sanity's sake, I prefer to forget most of the things I work on and depend on my computer to resurrect these projects when it becomes necessary. This is why I take backups and archiving seriously. I have dual backup hard drives and alternate them every other day, just in case. Without these meticulous backups, any garden variety computer crash could ruin me. A lot of people talk about living in the moment, but I really do. The only thing I know about yesterday is that it was very likely exactly the same as today.

Ever since the power outage I've been looking at generators. Most people evaluate generators by their power output, price, and gas tank size. I just look at how heavy they are. With a bad shoulder and carpal tunnel in my wrists, I need something I can lift. I think 60 pounds would be about my limit. This is pitiful, considering the heavy speakers and amplifiers I used to routinely lift when I played in the band, but that's just the way it is. Since your typical generator can weigh several hundred pounds, I am looking at Inverters. This type of design is much lighter and still provides enough power to meet my basic needs. As an added bonus, some types of Inverters can be hooked together in parallel to double the power. Maybe I'll get one tomorrow.

My sister told me recently that she and her husband were going to sell their rural home because of health problems and move to a place where there was better health care. I find this sad, because I know they loved living off the grid and spent years and years building a wonderful retreat in the middle of nowhere. When my parents sold their home and moved to an assisted living facility they really had no choice. Medical issues made the choice for them as well. I think about this from time to time. I'd love to live in the middle of nowhere, but I'd never want to be far away from a good veterinarian. Several of my dogs would have died if a large, full service veterinary hospital wasn't just a few minutes away. It would be nice to have a top quality research hospital nearby for Janet and I as well. I've already seen how much of a difference a good medical team can make. Basically, getting old sucks and there is very little you can do about it.

I must be moving up in the world on Klout. I got a notice today that they were sending me a Honeywell programmable WiFi thermostat for the house. This is certainly fancier than the bag of dog food they sent me last time.

Cupcake is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day