Day 2638

My mood kind of matched the sky today. What a dismal, grey, wet day. It must have rained a lot last night, because the yard was soggy. Even if it doesn't rain any more, this will probably delay both the roofers and the tree trimming crew. Both these folks told me in advance that they need dry conditions to work.

The dogs weren't very concerned with dry conditions. As soon as I took them outside to pee this morning, they both tracked mud into the house. It's ironic that I get most of my housecleaning done when there is bad weather. It's pointless. As soon as I finish vacuuming, the house is immediately filled with dirt and wet leaves again.

The weather didn't stop me from cleaning. I'm a creature of habit and usually can't think of anything better to do on a nasty day. It's too bad that I'm burned out on movies. Most people would just watch a movie on a grey, nasty day. I did quiet chores first, since the dogs were sleeping peacefully. I hate to wake them up with the vacuum cleaner. I cleaned windows, I cleaned toilets, I cleaned the mud off my boots. Eventually, the dogs woke up and I fed them lunch. Then I vacuumed.

I kept hoping that the rain would stop before I went to the gym. I'm compulsive enough that I knew that if I drive to the gym in the rain, I would need to wash the car when I got home. The rain continued. The car got dirty. But I did have a good workout. I consider Sunday an exercise day, so all the cleaning is just another form of exercise.

I wore some new shoes to the gym, which was a big mistake. I'll probably have blisters on my feet tomorrow. I must have gotten these shoes on sale. Either that, or I tried the shoes on with very thin socks. They felt too tight, especially when I was on the treadmill. Oh, well. There are shoe sales all the time. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

I"m becoming fascinated by WiFi enabled medical devices. I guess it all started when I began wearing activity trackers. Then I got a scale that measure my body mass index, bone density, blood pulse wave velocity, and a dozen other things. Now I'm thinking about getting a WiFi enabled blood pressure monitor and a WiFi thermometer. There's even a WiFi smart hairbrush that measures and monitors the condition of your hair as you brush it. I don't have enough hair for one of those things. I'm waiting for a toothbrush that will tell you if you've got a cavity.

The ironic thing is that the more of these gizmos I get, the less likely it will be that I'll go to the doctor. My Dad had the same problem as he got older. He thought he could self diagnose and when he began having trouble swallowing, he started just drinking Ensure instead of eating. It didn't take long for him to become severely malnourished. Hopefully, I'll never get to that point. I have a feeling that these smart monitors will continue to get smarter and eventually they'll just send all the information to my doctor anyway.

It looks like the weather is going to be just as bad tomorrow. I might not get a chance to go stargazing for quite a while.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2540

Every couple of months, I open a stack of mail that I have no interest in. This stack is pretty large, because the only mail that I actually do open are bills, checks from clients, and the occasional letter from my sister. I never read bank statements anymore. If I'm interested, I can always go online to check my balance. Letters from Medicare and my supplemental health insurance company are mostly just irritating. Why does the government generate so much useless paperwork? They could probably cut the cost of healthcare significantly if they just eliminated all these letters. Letters from SiriusXM go directly in the trash. If you ever accepted a free trial from SiriusXM, you'll get so many letters afterwards asking you to subscribe that they could have given you a free subscription with the money they spend on postage. Why do banks keep asking me to sign up for a credit card when I already have their credit card too? Most of the mail I receive is worthless. Of course, I could say the same thing for most of the e-mail I receive. Some of the mail I opened today went in a folder, in case I might need it for taxes. The rest went in the shredder or the trash. Hopefully, I won't need to do this again for another couple of months.

It was so dark and overcast today that I spent the entire day thinking it was about to rain. The air smelled like rain. There was lots of wind, kind of like a front was moving through the area, but there was no rain. I think it is still supposed to rain after midnight tonight, but hopefully there will be no thunder and lightning. With storm phobic dogs, thunder and lightning virtually guarantees that you won't be getting much sleep.

Since dark, gloomy days destroy my motivation, just about the only thing I accomplished other than sorting through a pile of unwanted mail was go to the gym. At least the gym is brightly lit. I keep thinking that I should be getting stronger or have more stamina after all the time I've spent at the gym, but I feel the same as I always have. My wrists hurt. My shoulders hurt. And I'm always ready to go home as soon as my workout is finished. I try to be optimistic though. I'm not gaining much but maybe the whole point is to keep from deteriorating even further.

I've got to find a solution for my acid reflux problem. I thought I was cured, but really it was just the pills that made me feel better. As soon as I discontinued the Protonix, the heartburn returned. I don't want brittle, weak bones, but I don't want the heartburn either. In theory, you can cure this problem with a change in diet. You've got to give up coffee, spicy foods, tomatoes, pizza, potato chips, and just about everything else I enjoy. Like that's going to happen. I don't think I could survive without coffee and spicy foods. I'm going to go get a bone density test next week. If my bone density is still good, maybe I can start taking the Protonix again. Maybe it's not good for you in the long run, but the stuff really works.

I got an e-mail from a high-end watch winder company telling me that everything on their website was half price for one day. That's quite a savings. The rational part of my brain kept telling me that I don't even wear my watches anymore. I don't need another watch winder. The irrational part of my brain kept saying, but it's half price! Half price! I'm happy to report that the rational part of my brain prevailed.

I can't believe that the same people who spent the past year calling Trump a fascist and a tyrant are now praising Castro as a great leader. Do these people have any idea of the horrible things Castro actually did? All I've got to say is it's a strange world we live in now.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2209

It's a lot harder to get up in the morning when the temperature is cold and the sky is dark and overcast. When I first heard about seasonal affective disorder and the theory that light deprivation can cause depression, it made perfect sense. Gloomy days and lack of sunlight really do influence your mood. The only benefit to days like these is that the dogs often feel the same way and don't want to get up either. Dot and Dash had no interest in getting up this morning, so Janet and I were about to get an extra hour of sleep. I had mixed feelings about letting Dot sleep in. Her incontinence makes her a ticking time bomb. The longer we wait to go outside after she wakes up, the more likely it is that she'll poop in the house. I decided to take a chance this morning and it worked. Everybody just wanted to sleep.

The woman who colors Janet's hair is on the news as a missing person. She went to work on Tuesday and never showed up. Her car was later found abandoned in an apartment complex near a wooded area. Hopefully, she will be found unharmed, but it doesn't look good. It's alarming how often things like this happen in Dallas. It's a lot more dangerous place than it was when I moved here over 30 years ago. Of course, you could probably say the same thing for any large American city, but that doesn't make it any less unsettling. What happened to a world where people didn't even bother to lock their doors at night? I would easily trade the Internet, smartphones, and the powerful computer on my desk for a world where people felt safe. I grew up in an age where our neighbors had a fallout shelter in their back yard and we all practiced "duck and cover" exercises in school in case there was a nuclear attack. It still seemed like a safer place though. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

There were a lot of things on my grocery list today. It's amazing how quickly you can spent $100 in a grocery store without even filling up your cart. You always hear on the news about how we've got inflation under control, but I don't believe a word of it. With the possible exception of gasoline, prices for ordinary things have gone up enormously. When wages remain stagnant and prices continue to go up, it just doesn't seem like it is going to end well.

I've been feeling like I'm on the verge of coming down with a cold all week. It's probably just hypochondria, but this is the time of year when I tend to get sick. There's really not much you can do when people are wheezing and sneezing all around you. I'll either get a cold or I won't. I wonder if the dogs get minor colds? Whenever I take them to the vet, there is usually something serious going on, but they must get minor ailments too. It's hard to tell with a dog. Sometimes when Dot throws up in the morning, there's nothing wrong at all.

I need to make time to go to the gym tomorrow. My pants are starting to feel tight from all the holiday meals. If I went to the gym three times a week, I'd be in great shape. I don't think it's going to happen though. Even in my quasi-retirement, I just can't find the time. Doing simple things properly can take an enormous amount of time. There's no point in cutting corners though. Why would I even consider cutting corners at my age? There appears to be a Doc Martin marathon on PBS tonight. Everyone talks about their Walking Dead marathons, but Doc Martin is more my style.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1856

I think we're setting some kind of Texas record for unrelenting grey days. It's been colder before, and I can remember a January or two with more snow. This is the gloomiest January I can remember though. The combination of dark, grey skies and cold, damp temperatures just saps your energy. All I really want to do these days is crawl under a very warm blanket.

The naps will have to wait however. Not only is my plate full of writing assignments, I think I may have acquired a new client as well. New clients are a rarity these days, since I'm no longer looking for them. This doesn't stop things from falling in my lap occasionally. If this new deal works out, it will involve more writing about luxury goods. I actually enjoy writing about luxury goods, mostly because it is infinitely superior to writing about Walmart or Dollar General.

I've decided I need a little point-and-shoot camera. I've virtually stopped using my big professional cameras for personal photos, because they are just too much trouble to lug around. It's almost embarrassing how often I use my phone instead of a "real" camera these days. The camera on my iPhone is about as good as professional digital cameras were fifteen years ago, but on the plus side, it's always in my pocket. The frustrating thing about the iPhone camera is that there is no optical zoom, and it is almost impossible to focus on certain subjects. I still don't understand why the wizards at Apple aren't able to come up with a phone camera that offers manual focus and exposure control. Maybe nobody else wants these things. At any rate, I think if I had a small cigarette case sized camera with a 30x zoom in my pocket, I could capture a lot more interesting images.

Just when I was about to tell my physical therapist that I had too many exercises to remember, she gave me three new ones. Each of these stretching exercises serves to remind me just how weak my right shoulder has become. It all happened so gradually that I wasn't really aware that I was losing both mobility and muscle tone. The shoulder doesn't hurt when I'm not trying to lift things, so inch-by-inch I just quit using it and began relying on my left arm instead. I never should have done this, but hind-site is always 20-20. I think the main reason I'm putting myself through all the discomfort of rehabilitation is that I never want to become one of those people who walks into a supermarket under their own power and then insists on using one of the store's electric scooters to drive around and shop sitting down just because it is easier. That's not me. I'll continue to walk five miles a day with the dogs and climb up on the roof to get the water off until I drop.

Hopefully my creaky body won't give out tomorrow, because I've got lots to do. Dot has her physical therapy day tomorrow and I continue to think that she's making more progress than I am. Dot probably still has energy because she sleeps sixteen hours a day. As someone who rarely gets more than six hours of sleep, sixteen hours sounds pretty good. I'd probably have insomnia though.

Kasey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1424

There's got to be some correlation between how much sunlight I receive and how much work I get done. It didn't rain today, but the sky was so dark and overcast that the streetlights stayed on all day. I didn't get much done at all. If the sun was shining, lord knows what I might have accomplished.

I got a utility bill in the mail for a service I canceled six months ago. This has happened before. More and more companies sign you up for automatic renewal by default and it's becoming next to impossible to actually cancel your service. Services you signed up for on the Internet are the worst. They all seems to have some sort of automatic renewal enabled. Service is so terrible these days that I seldom want to renew anything. It's frustrating.

I did have a nice breakfast, but you probably know that already. It's Friday, isn't it? I almost posted a picture of my eggs, until I remembered that this is what I did last Friday. Hey, if I can't inject some variety in my life, at least I need to create the illusion of variety. That's why you get an out-of-focus picture of my grey, gloomy day instead.

I actually had time to go to the gym this afternoon, but I was still sore from yesterday's workout. I did a load of laundry and tried to unclog my printer instead. The printer was quite clogged this time, so I did a Google search to see what other people were doing. The best advice I could find was to unlock the 4880 print head and squirt some distilled water on the capping station. We'll give that a try. I wonder what people did before there was a YouTube answer for every question in the universe. Where do people find the time to make all these YouTube instructional videos? I haven't had a question in a long time where I couldn't immediately find the answer on YouTube or Wikipedia. The answer might not have been correct, but does it even matter these days?

We get to try out our "put the spots on the Dalmatian" game at a rescue event this weekend. Janet and I haven't actually cut out the spots for the children to apply yet, but I guess that's what we will do tomorrow evening. There isn't much to watch on TV anyway.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day