Day 4046

Another rainy day. Even Dawn got bored today. By the time the rain finally stopped around 4 PM, she was eager for a walk. Cabin fever didn't make her walk any longer, but she enjoyed all the new smells in the wet ground. When she reached her one mile limit and headed back toward the house with Janet, I continued walking. A long walk was about all I was going to accomplish today and I wanted to accomplish something. I was able to walk four miles before I noticed that it was getting dark. Even though the days are slowly getting longer, the sun still sets pretty early. By the time I returned home it was completely dark.

There wasn't much to do today. I decided to inventory a bunch of old camera gear and discovered a lot of things I'd completely forgotten about. Why did I buy this stuff? Did I ever use it? The answers to these questions are lost in the mists of time. On thing is certain. I've spent as long, long time photographing things.

I'm getting tired of watching static fire tests on the Boca Chica live feed. The SN9 Starship has had multiple static fires this week. The rocket sits there for hours doing nothing and then the actual test lasts about one second. Space X must be learning something because they keep doing these tests over and over again. Next week SN9 will do another high altitude hop. That will be worth watching.

I'm seeing more and more people posting pictures on Facebook when they get vaccinated. Is this the thing to do now? They even have stickers that say they got vaccinated, just like those stickers you get when you vote. Most of these people I see are younger than me and have nothing to do with the health care industry. I wonder how they got the vaccine? I thought this first round of shots was only for first responders and old people. I'm still in no hurry. I'm happy to let these eager beavers be the guinea pigs.

We had a short power outage today, but the new detector I installed that is supposed to monitor our household wiring and power lines didn't detect anything. Hmm. This gadget probably doesn't work any better than the noisy dehumidifier that keeps rattling in the bathroom. One of my watch winders quit working today as well. I guess that's not a big deal, since I don't wear mechanical watches anymore anyway. A lot of new stuff just isn't made very well. When I was cataloging camera gear this afternoon, I kept noticing that the older something was, the better it appeared to be made.

I decided to go paperless with a few more bills today. I'm getting tired of wondering whether something got lost in the mail. Pretty soon everything will be paperless. I never thought I'd get to this point, but our mail service isn't what it used to be. Most of the mail we get these days is junk anyway. Maybe my goal is to just be able to throw all the mail away without even looking at it.

The trash has been taken out to the curb and Dawn is waiting for her late night snack. This day is done. I don't expect anything exciting to happen tomorrow, but you never know.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3886

By my somewhat low standards, it was a busy day. The sky was pretty when we started our early morning walk, so we thought we'd try the "Dawn at dawn" picture we'd been thinking about. We found a location that provided a good view of the sunrise clouds and tried to get Dawn to pose. I had to lighten the foreground a bit and wished that Dawn would have closed her mouth, but all-in-all the concept worked. Maybe I can fine tune the idea a bit the next time we see a pretty runrise.

After breakfast I put the new registration sticker on my windshield. It seems easier to remove the old stickers now, but it is still difficult for me to position these things properly. When you get these stickers anywhere near the windshield, they stick to the glass and usually they are crooked. I had to carefully peel the sticker away several times before I could achieve anything resembling a ninety degree angle. I like to place the sticker as low as I can so it doesn't obstruct my vision, but it still has to be parallel to the bottom ow the glass. This is surprisingly difficult to achieve.

I've known for several weeks that it was time to defrost the little refrigerator again. Today seemed like a good day to get this messy chore over with. I moved everything to the big refrigerator, unplugged the little fridge, opened the door, and let the thawing begin. I usually fill the interior with a couple of towels to soak up the water and just wait until all the ice has melted. After I mop the interior with a dry towel, I'm usually good to go for another three or four months.

When I was looking for my keys this morning I accidentally knocked over a huge pile of old mail on top of a dresser. Maybe it was finally time to get rid of this mail. In many ways my whole life is like a big cardboard box filled with things I plan to deal with later. I postpone as much as I can, including reading and dealing with my mail. A lot of the envelopes already had little notes saying that the letter needed to be shredded or that it needed to go in the safe deposit box. These piles of mail can sit for years.

I went through the pile of letters one by one and saved a few and shredded the rest. I should have done this a long time ago. There are other piles scattered around the office, but at least I've made a start. I think I'm going to finally contact my bank and several utilities and agree to go paperless. There is no reason for me to hang on to all this paper. I think there is a free shredding event at a local church a few weeks from now. Maybe if I put my mind to it, I can finally clean out this office. If I succeed at this, there is a much bigger pile of outdated and useless documents waiting for me at the storage warehouse.

I finally resolved a billing issue with my web hosting company before I took my afternoon walk. I really need to rethink these afternoon walks. It got up to 103 degrees today. My long walks still provide a peaceful opportunity to daydream and think, but Fall can't come soon enough. I seriously considered going back to the gym today and walking around their air conditioned track.

Tomorrow will probably be busy as well. It's time for the dreaded grocery run again. I wonder how long it is going to be before I can go to a store without a wearing mask and following a bunch of one way arrows and distancing stickers on the floor? Sadly, this aspect of the new normal is probably going to be around for a long time.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3683

Everybody seems to hate paper these days. When I went to breakfast this morning, I didn't get a bill like I normally do. The waitress brought a little portable terminal to the table and asked me to insert my card. When the total came up on the screen, the tip was already included. I think I tip fairly, but I'd like to have a choice. I guess this must be the future. When I got a haircut recently, they had the same type of arrangement. Call me old school, but were those old paper bills really all that bad? I didn't even get a receipt because I declined to leave my e-mail address. Been there, done that. If you leave your e-mail address when you are buying something, you will get spam messages from the company until the end of time.

I picked up some things for dinner tonight on my way home from breakfast and was surprised at how expensive my small purchase turned out to be. It was the crab cakes. They were double what they usually cost. I asked Janet whether the price of crab cakes had gone up and she immediately told me that these weren't what we usually buy. "These crab cakes are huge," she told me. "Of course they're going to cost more." OK. I'll admit that I'm not very observant when I shop. I usually get the right category of thing, but nuances like this often escape me.

This was the first completely cloudless day we've had in a while. It would have been a good day to do yard work, but it was too cold. I got some bleach and a ladder and cleaned away the ugly stains in the sheetrock caused by the recent roof leak instead. The ceiling looks much better now. This would also be a good day to get the telescope out. There's a new moon tonight and the sky is as dark as it's going to get. Maybe I'll still do this, but usually I'm tired and ready for bed as soon as I finish the blog. Like I mentioned earlier, it's cold outside as well. Will I be a wimp or will I start getting in shape for my trip to Mount Locke? I'm not sure yet. The night is young.

The Atlas V rocket passed it's dress rehearsal test today for the upcoming Solar Orbiter launch. So far, it's looks like the launch is still on schedule. That's a good thing since I've already made all my reservations. I'm always afraid that something will change at the last minute and I'll have to rebook everything. I still need to decide what equipment to take. I always like to travel light, but since I will be taking pictures for a magazine, I might need to abandon this strategy.

It was a nice day for a walk. I dressed warmly and enjoyed my time outside. A clear, sunny day always seems to make a big difference. It looks like I'm going to need some new walking shoes soon. The Nike Air shoes I've been wearing are pretty comfortable, but they sure don't last long. I don't know what to wear anymore. The sturdy hiking boots I used to wear seem too heavy now and running shoes are too flimsy. There's a store in town that specialized in walking shoes. Maybe it's time to pay them a visit.

I need to remember that tomorrow is Saturday and I've got a lot of errands to run. For a few hours this morning I thought today was Saturday.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3414

I voted today. As usual, I didn't really know that much about the candidates. It was a local election. I know more about what is happening in Venezuela than at city hall. Sure, we got the usual barrage of campaign flyers in the mail, but they all said the same thing: vote for me and build a better Dallas. They can't all be right. I think the most reliable way of choosing a candidate is just to look at the yard signs in the neighborhood. I see tons of these signs on my walks. If you like your neighbor, vote for their candidate. If your neighbor irritates you, well you know who not to vote for.

I was almost certain that I was going to get wet on my walk this morning, but as usual the weather forecast was wrong. They say a stable layer of warm air about 2,000 feet above ground can keep thunderstorms from forming. Evidently, one of these 'caps' is currently in place over North Texas. This is fine by me. I hope the cap stays in place. Light rain is fine. Thunderstorms, not so much.

My mind wanders on these morning walks. I keep seeing a lone White Pelican at the lake. Why didn't this bird migrate with all the other pelicans last month? Is the bird injured, or does it just like Dallas? It's hard to tell because it is always sitting on a log out in the middle of the lake. I keep seeing a lot of fishermen too. Especially on rainy days. Why would anyone fish in this lake? It is polluted. Every month or two you hear about a sewage spill into one of the tributaries that feed the lake. Most of these spills have been contained before they reach the lake, but that doesn't mean the water is clean. People aren't even allowed to swim in this lake. Veterinarians in the area warn you to always vaccinate your dog for for leptospirosis. It's unreal how much trash flows into the lake after a big storm. The park is probably the best thing about this city, but the water quality reminds you that you are still living in a big city. It's definitely not like the mountain lakes I remember as a child in Colorado. Clear lakes you could drink out of are just distant memories now.

I made a pathetic attempt to clean the office today. This really just amounted to sorting through a huge stack of unopened mail and throwing away most of it. I really ought to go paperless. I like the idea of paper, but it stacks up so quickly on my desk. Eventually it winds up in ring binders in the storage warehouse. After a few years, I have no idea what I'm looking at. Maybe I'll go paperless one of these days, but I'm pretty old school about these things. I'm still hanging on to a world that is gone.

I wish I could figure out what gives me heartburn. Some days I'm fine. Other days I'm not. It makes sense that pizza would give me heartburn, but crab cakes? Come on. Seafood should be fine. I had some delicious crab cakes tonight and almost immediately had to take a Pepcid AC. These over the counter antacids are pretty mild and have the approval of my doctor. At least I've been able to wean myself away from proton pump inhibitors like Protonix. PPI's dramatically reduce calcium absorption and can lead to bone loss in older people. I don't need that.

We're trying to decide whether to have the landscapers come back this year. It's time. Every Spring they clear away all the leaves and put in new St. Augustine sod in the back yard. Unfortunately, every year this becomes more expensive. The grass looks nice for a few months. Our water bill goes way up as we diligently water and fertilize as we're supposed to. Then the grass dies and we repeat the process the next year. I've been told that the reason the sod has a hard time getting established is that there are too many large Oak trees in the back yard. The extensive root system sucks up all the water. This is probably all true, but it would still be nice to have grass.

Tomorrow's forecast is just like today's. It's supposed to start raining before sunrise and continue raining for the rest of the day. Oddly, it wasn't thunderstorms that woke us up last night. It was a telemarketing call at 3 AM.

Bea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3361

It's hard to get used to Texas weather. It was eighty degrees this afternoon and I had the air conditioner running in both the house and the car. It was such a warm day that we were even able to give Dash a much needed bath. We used to regularly take the dogs to neighborhood dog washing facilities, but Dash has difficulty standing up in the tubs now. There's not enough room to bathe him at home in the shower, so we have to wait for a warm day and go outside. It takes two of us to clean him and everybody gets wet, but the effort is worth it when he starts to smell like pee.

Dash didn't enjoy his bath, but he sure smelled good afterwards. He did enjoy two leisurely walks on a beautiful, warm day. Maybe Spring isn't quite here yet, but it's definitely on the way. It felt like Spring today.

I went back to the hotel for breakfast, because I felt like relaxing. The dining room is always quiet and sedate and the waiters know me by name. Even the chef looked up and smiled when I arrived this morning. I'd eat at this place all the time if the menu wasn't so small. Everything is delicious, but you'd think they could come up with more than four items. The trendy restaurant seems to have hundreds of items on their breakfast menu.

I knew when we gave Dash a bath that there would be other cleaning as well. A clean dog doesn't last long in a dirty house. Both of us spent most of the afternoon vacuuming, dusting, and doing laundry. All this activity didn't stop Dash from peeing on the living room floor, but the house is reasonably clean now. I expect that this will last about two days.

I finally got the telephone bill. In an effort to pressure me to go paperless, they keep sending me my bill later and later. If I don't pay it on the same day it arrives, I'll get hit with a late fee. A week before this bill arrives, I get an e-mail saying that my paper bill will arrive in seven to ten days and asking me if I wouldn't prefer to just pay it electronically. So far, I have resisted. What's so bad about writing checks and taking bills to the post office? I like the leisurely pace of paper. The electronic world seems hectic and rude.

Even the airlines have done away with paper. I was wondering when I was going to get my boarding pass for my trip to Houston and then I got a message saying that I should download the airline's app and an electronic boarding pass would show up on my phone. It's a brave new world we live in. I find it ironic that everybody is worried about hacking, but still feel compelled to live their lives online. People didn't tend to steal your information when you put it in a letter.

I was hoping for a good night's sleep last night, but Dash had other ideas. He pooped in the bed three times. Everything landed squarely on the puppy pads and it only took me a minute or two to roll the pad up, seal it in a plastic bag, and take it outside. I've even gotten better at quickly getting back to sleep after these episodes, but it's not the same as an uninterrupted night of sleep. Eight hours of continuous sleep is still the holy grail. Oh, well. Three blocks of two hour sleep, followed by a one hour nap are still better than nothing.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2903

If I made a chart that showed my productivity on the x-axis and the outside temperature on the y-axis, you could clearly see that the colder it gets, the less I accomplish. It was so cold today that I spent most of my time wondering if I should wear a warmer sweater. My office is on the opposite side of the house from the utility room, so the warm air from the furnace has already cooled down quite a bit by the time it makes its way through the the vent system. If I turn the furnace up enough to warm this room, the rest of the house is impossibly hot. Janet and Dash like the house cooler anyway, so I'm basically screwed.

The only good thing about the colder weather is that Dash enjoys his walks more in the Winter. Even though he was sick yesterday, he was eager to walk today. I have plenty of warm coats, so chilly walks are never a problem. I hate to sit at the computer wearing a down jacket and a wool hat though, so I'm always adding and subtracting sweaters. I never seem to be happy with the weather. It's always too hot, or too cold, or too wet, or too dry.

It was certainly too cold to go up on the roof today. It rained a lot last night, but the standing water will have to sit there for a while. It's hard enough working on the roof when it's warm. When it's cold, it seem downright dangerous. I hope I did a good job with the repairs I've been making for the past several weeks. This is the reason I continue to patch the roof.  The elastomer coating just needs to stay waterproof until the next warm, dry day.

It's easy for me to forget what day it is. I kept thinking it was Monday today. Probably just having a slightly different schedule yesterday was enough to throw me off. At any rate, I spent much of the day doing typical Monday errands. I went to the bank, paid some bills, and picked up some more Cerenia pills for Dash at the vet. It was a slow day, so I also wrote a letter to my sister.

I needed to order some more checks while I was at the bank and the lady I talked to tried to convince me to stop using paper checks. "We've got better ways to pay now," she told me. "Better for you," I kept thinking. What's wrong with paper? Everyone keeps trying to get me to go paperless. When the bank officer was telling me that using your phone to pay was more secure, I just rolled my eyes. Jeez. Virtually all security breeches are electronic in nature. Those Equifax hackers certainly didn't steal a huge pile of paper.

Dash seems fine today. Maybe it was the anti-nausea pills, or maybe his vestibular disease symptoms are over for a while. This is a frustrating disease because the symptoms come and go without warning. We're never really sure what makes him sick and what causes him to get better. I think the anti-nausea pills help, but since he can't keep taking them forever, we kind of just guess at when he really needs them.

It's supposed to be even colder tomorrow, so it may be time to find the little ceramic heater I keep under my desk in the Winter. In many ways it would be a lot easier to just use a laptop at the kitchen table in the Winter, but whenever I'm in the kitchen, Dash thinks it's time to eat. I could never get any work done in the kitchen. I actually hope that Dash is barking in the kitchen tomorrow. When he's acting this way, it usually means he's feeling pretty good.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2658

When I went to the storage warehouse today, I couldn't remember my access code. Good grief. This is pathetic. If there is any code I should remember by now, it would be this one. I tried every code I could think of, but the door wouldn't open. I thought the warehouse manager might be able to help me, but he didn't seem to be on the premises today. I was just about ready to give up and go home when I remembered a sequence of numbers I hadn't tried yet. It didn't really seem like the right number, but oddly it worked.

Later in the day I couldn't remember whether I had given Dot her afternoon pain pills. I think I did, but it was a hectic day and I wasn't really sure. The breakfast and evening meds are easier to remember because they are part of a long established feeding ritual. The meds that must be administered at odd times during the day are much more problematic. Lapses like these may not seem like a big deal, but they never used to happen. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come, but it probably is. Memory lapses are one more reason that getting old sucks.

Dot seemed agitated this morning. It took me forever to finish breakfast because she wanted to get up and go outside every five minutes. I couldn't figure out what was making her restless until she threw up after about thirty minutes of pacing around. Once again, I think she drank too much water, but I'm not entirely sure. After Dot threw up, she calmed down rapidly and slept for the rest of the morning. Eventually, the house was calm enough so I cold make a quick trip to the grocery store to look for blueberries. No luck today either.

On my way home I stopped at the REI store because the member appreciation coupon I received a while ago was burning a hole in my pocket. REI has a brilliant marketing campaign. They have lots of sales and incentives, but they don't last very long. If you don't go to the store quickly and use the coupons they mail you, they just expire. Maybe this trick doesn't work on everybody, but it certainly seems to work on me. I've been to the REI store quite a bit this year. Actually Chili's does exactly the same thing. Unfortunately, if I went to Chili's every time I got something tempting in the mail, I'd be fifty pounds heavier and have diabetes.

After making a big deal about going paperless and wanting to be paid electronically, my accountant's office manager couldn't figure out how to get their Paypal account to work and told me to just mail them a check instead. So much for technology. It didn't matter to me. I had to go to the post office anyway because I'm trying to pay my bills on time now in an effort to avoid going paperless with AT&T. I never dreamed I'd become a Luddite like my sister, but I'm well on my way. What's wrong with paper checks anyway? Even my bank doesn't want to deal with paper. They keep trying to convince me to make deposits using my phone.

I hope Dot feels better tomorrow. Today was a rough day. I'd like to think it was just the heat that made Dot uncomfortable, but it's probably the cancer too. I still don't know whether I forgot her afternoon pain meds. I hope I didn't, but she's had her evening meds now, so we're back on schedule.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1911

It was still dismal and grey today, but thankfully, the rain appears to have moved elsewhere. Drier skies meant that it was much easier to take Dot outside and Dash got to enjoy his normal walks again. There were still muddy shoes and even muddier paws at the end of these walks, but a little mud is nothing when the alternative is getting soaking wet.

Since things are starting to dry out, it was a good day to get the water off the roof. When I removed this week's standing water, I was appalled to discover two spots that already looked like they needed to be patched. I shouldn't have to patch anything yet, since the current roof is relatively new. As soon as the roof is completely dry, I'll call the roofers to come take a look. They should just give me a big can of the epoxy material they use to coat the top layer. I really wouldn't mind patching things myself, since I'm up on the roof so much anyway. At least if I did the repairs myself, I'd know the job was done right.

Since I'm more or less caught up with website work for the moment, I used the day to write. I got a lot done, but what I really wanted to do was sleep. Although reducing Dot's prednisolone dose yesterday was  supposed to make her pee less frequently, I haven't noticed any immediate changes. I still had to get up twice last night to take Dot outside. The second time I took her out, she didn't want to go back in her crate, so I just pulled out a blanket and went to sleep on the floor next to her. It was almost morning by then anyway, but I sure could have used a couple of more hours of shut eye.

At some point during the morning, I noticed that the metal staples holding Dot's incision together felt hot. I was initially alarmed and then I realized that Dot had been sleeping next to a heater vent. One more thing to watch out for. Dot has always liked sleeping near the heater vents in the floor during the Winter, but that's not a good idea when she's got metal staples in her back. Luckily, the staples come out later this week. Having her sutures removed will be Dot's first post-surgery milestone. I doubt that getting her stitches out will make Dot walk any better, but it still seems like progress.

I called my broker today to ask why I hadn't received my tax reporting statement yet and he told me that the statement had been available online for several weeks now. Damn. One more company to deal with that wants to go paperless. I hate this movement to go paperless. It's much easier to organize a stack of papers in file folders than it is to download and print out PDF files. I've noticed lately that when I renew subscriptions to trade magazines, they ask whether I'd like to receive a printed or electronic copy. I always check the box to get the printed copy. A real magazine makes good bathroom reading. A PDF file is just a nuisance.

So far, the weather looks good for the rest of the week. I wish I could get a sleep forecast that looked good for the rest of the week. I've never had kids, but this must be what it's like to have a baby. A solid eight hours of sleep never looked so good.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1580

One of these days, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go paperless. Every couple of months, I try to wade through the mountain of accumulated paper and throw away as much superfluous mail as I can. I have a tendency to save things that I think might be important, and then forget what was so important about the letter later. On days like today, I find myself throwing away a ton of coupons that expired three years ago, invitations to attend seminars that have already taken place, and the ubiquitous unopened proxy statements. I don't know why I get the proxy statements in the first place. Please vote for the following slate of directors, they say. Like my 100 shares are  actually going to make a difference? Annual reports, proxy statements, unsolicited credit cards, surveys, almost anything from AARP is a total waste of postage.  Today I found five letters that really did need to be dealt with and threw away over 100 that were just junk.

What does it mean when 90% of your e-mail winds up unopened in your spam folder, 95% of your phone calls are from telemarketers, and virtually everything the mailman delivers is junk mail?  I must be the kind of customer marketers are trying to reach, because I am deluged with junk. I don't add my name to "do not call" lists because I'm convinced that this will actually increase the number of telemarketing calls. I never open anything in my spam folder because I think this might trigger a hidden malware application. Proxy statements go directly into the paper shredder. It wasn't always this way. As recently as ten years ago, I looked forward to a visit from the postman and clients routinely called me on the phone instead of sending cryptic e-mails that wind up in my spam folder anyway.

After I reduced my mountain of unopened mail to a more manageable size, I got some bleach soaked rags and tried to clean up my bathroom. Somehow when dust, moisture, and soap interact, it leaves a thin layer of scum that is almost impossible to remove. The electric toothbrush, water pic, soap dishes, and toilet are all sparkling clean now. In about a month, they will all be covered with the same scum again. I'll have to deal with the tile grout another day. That's getting pretty disgusting too.

The only reason I even attempted to deal with these tiresome chores today was that it was pouring rain outside for most of the day. I won't need to water the new grass in the back yard for a few days, but I will need to go up on the roof again and remove all the standing water. I'll need to go to the battery store and get a new 24V lawn mower battery too. If I let the front lawn go too long, it will be a tangled mess of tall weeds within a matter of weeks. The lawn mower battery will be expensive, but it's still a lot easier than putting my gas mower in the car and taking it to one of the city's few remaining lawn mower repair shops. These little shops used to be everywhere, but not anymore. Today, people apparently just drag their non-functioning mowers out to the curb for the trash truck to take away and buy another cheap mower at Home Depot. Actually, they just get a yard guy to mow their grass. I'm one of the only people in my neighborhood who still mows his own grass.

As the day progressed, the skies gradually cleared and by late afternoon there were patches of blue sky punctuated with billowing cumulus clouds. The day started dismally, but it ended up being quite pretty. The dogs were as eager to get out of the house as I was, so we took advantage of the nice weather and went on a long afternoon walk. On the way, I thought I saw a squirrel staring at me from a knot hole in a nearby tree. "This would make a cool picture," I thought, and inched closer to the tree to take a picture. When I got about a yard from the tree, I noticed that it was a rubber squirrel that someone had placed in the knot hole. Sure fooled me. Who would bother to put rubber squirrels in random trees in a public park? You'd have to be crazy. Oh wait. That would describe half the people who visit this park. I guess random rubber squirrels are just another aspect of life in the city.

Valli is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1391

It was a beautiful day to do things that I didn't really want to do. Although the skies were clear and blue this morning, the dog park apparently still hadn't dried out from yesterday's rain and was closed for maintenance. Dot and Dash were disappointed and so was I. Without an outing to the far away dog park to divert me, I had no real excuse to avoid mowing the grass, cleaning the roof, and cleaning up the clutter in my office.

Every time I mow the grass in October, I keep hoping I'm done for the year. I've mowed as late as December, unfortunately. You never know what Mother Nature has in store for you here in Texas. When I was up on the roof today, I noticed that the section under the Elm tree was relatively clean. There was some staining under the two Oak trees, but the the real damage was being caused by the Pecan tree. It wasn't even my tree either. It was the neighbor's Pecan tree that was causing all the problems. One of my fantasies has always been to have no neighbors whatsoever. This will probably never happen though. I like having a vet that's only a mile away and restaurants I can walk to. Actually, the only thing I don't like about urban living is all the people.

It is getting harder and harder to walk Dot and Dash together. Dash is a bundle of energy, while Dot is growing increasing frail. If I walk slow enough for Dot, Dash grows impatient and if I walk fast enough for Dash, then Dot can't keep up. Today, I gave Dash a brisk, long walk near the shoreline he loves to smell and then returned to the house to give Dot a much shorter, slow walk behind the house. I wish I had time to do this during the week, but often it's hard to find time to walk the dogs at all on weekdays. I guess we'll just do the best we can.

I'm increasingly tempted to click on the "go paperless" option that banks, merchants, and health care providers continue to send me. I've actually needed paper back up for record-keeping in the past, but I feel I'm being overwhelmed by paper these days. I get so much junk mail that I hate to even open it and end up throwing most of the mail into a big box and save it for days like today when I reluctantly sort through the mess. Most of this mail is totally unnecessary, but at least with printed information, you don't need to remember a dozen different passwords. Passwords and computer crashes are the main reason that paper isn't dead yet.

I finally got a good night's sleep last night. Both dogs slept soundly and nobody threw up. Sleep is good! Hopefully, tonight will bring more of the same. Dot did have a bit of a limp when the got out of bed this morning, but I think it was just her arthritis. She frequently wakes up with some stiffness in her legs these days. So do I, actually. None of us are getting any younger.

Cassie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day