Day 3992

Did I need toilet paper today? Not really. Did I grab a package when I saw the small supply at my grocery store dissapearing in front of my eyes? Absolutely. This is how hoarding starts. Nobody wants to be that person who just found out what everybody else was doing yesterday. Everything else on my grocery list we actually needed. I definitely don't want to wind up with a huge pile of food and supplies blocking the front hallway again.

Today was another day when the rain arrived much later than expected. It was supposed to start raining this morning, so we made sure to take our walk with Dawn earlier than usual. I went to the grocery store earlier than usual and took my afternoon walk at noon for the same reason. Since it is just starting to rain now, I guess all this activity was unnecessary. I don't know why rain bothers me so much. It probably has a lot to do with all the problems I've had with the roof. The roof isn't leaking now though and rain still bothers me. Maybe I just don't like surprises.

I found everything on my grocery list and scored a huge package of toilet paper as a bonus, but I didn't accomplish much after I returned home. It took forever to break down the large box the dehumidifier came in so it would fit in our trash can. It took even longer to clean all the scum out of the collection bucket on the old dehumidifier. After I got the machine looking sparkling new again, it occurred to me that maybe I should have left the oily scum inside the bucket alone. Oil was leaking somewhere and it might have helped the HVAC guy diagnose the problem. 

I was thinking about taking a few pictures with the new camera today, but the thought of rain put a damper on things. There is no urgency anyway. I often leave new things untouched for weeks before I actually begin to use them. One day I will feel a genuine need for this thing and will learn everything I need to know in a matter of hours. Since I bought the camera mainly for launch photography, it might be a while before I need it.

Dawn follows Janet around like glue when she's home. Whenever Janet leaves, Dawn retreats to the bedroom and seldom gets off the bed until Janet returns. Sometimes Dawn will come out to the kitchen when I am fixing her dinner, but even that is not consistent. I keep hoping that Dawn will bond with me, but I think she decided that men weren't to be trusted long ago. She's friendly with me when Janet is around, but when we're alone together Dawn is definitely wary. We'll never know what happened in Dawn's past, but it definitely wasn't good. It's a shame that she doesn't trust me. She's missing out on an afternoon walk that she could have every day.

I wanted to see if the automatic shut-off worked on the new dehumidifier so I let the bucket fill with water all the way to the top. I was apprehensive as the bucket filled, thinking that the living room would soon be filled with water. Everything worked properly though, so I can now leave the machine running all night without worries. This bucket must hold a little more water than the old dehumidifier because it was quite heavy when I eventually emptied it. I see a spill waiting to happen.

If the weather forecast holds, it will be raining when we wake up tomorrow. This means no early morning walk with Dawn. It also means another day of fretting about whether my roof patches will hold up. Did I mention that I don't like rain?

Scooter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3985

Good grief. People have started hoarding toilet paper and water again. Last week there were mountains of toilet paper at the grocery store and this week the shelves were completely empty. The water was almost gone as well. Customers were leaving the store with buggies filled with bottled water. Has anything changed? Nope. Stores and restaurants are still full. Roads are still crowded with cars. Apparently mass panic has returned however. People in Dallas may ignore the virus, but they will not be left without toilet paper.

Before starting on my weekly grocery run, we had a nice walk with Dawn and a leisurely breakfast. Neither of us work anymore, but we still sleep in on Saturday like we did during our working years. It was nice to get an extra hour of sleep. There was a light mist when we left the house and I thought it might rain for a while. My jacket felt a little damp when we returned home, but it was just the humidity. I don't think the rain will arrive until tomorrow.

I just noticed that when I get gas now, I get charged an extra dollar on my credit card. When did this start? The mysterious charge isn't added to the gas transaction, it is totally separate. Janet says she gets charged the extra dollar when she gets gas at a grocery store too. I wonder if this has anything to do with using an app to pay for gas? I'll probably never figure out what is going on, but I suspect the charge is here to stay. Somebody in government has decided that they need more money.

I watched the launch of the Sentinel-6 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base on NASA TV this morning. I remember going to Vandenberg several years ago for the SMAP launch. It seems so long ago now, but that launch was what got me interested in following launches and becoming a space journalist. Like Sentinel-6, SMAP was also a meteorological satellite designed to learn more about the climate. Vandenberg Air Force is located right near the Pacific Ocean and I recognized a lot of the scenery near the base as I watched this morning's broadcast. Good times, even though I had an accident in my rent car on that trip.

I got Chinese take-out for dinner tonight and when I went to pick up my order I was surprised to see that it was completely dark. It is usually still light outside when I pick up take-out from this restaurant. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I realized that this was the first time we'd had Chinese since the time changed. I can't say that I like the shorter days that come with Winter. It should still be daylight at 6 PM.

Florida mosquitoes seem a lot nastier than Texas mosquitoes. It's been almost a week and my bites still itch like crazy. I've been to night launches in Florida before and never gotten bitten this bad. Maybe it was the weather. I was wearing a t-shirt on Sunday night and was always wearing a jacket on previous trips. That's one nice thing about staying out at night in the Davis Mountains. No bugs.

I wish my gym would reopen on weekends. Sunday is still the best day for me to go to the gym. I shouldn't be choosy though. If Covid cases continue to spike, gyms might close down completely again. It is almost inevitable that millions of Thanksgiving dinners are going to cause another surge. No problems here. It's just going to be the two of us, plus one dog eagerly looking for table scraps.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2505

My Dad was an accomplished scientist. He wrote books and was well regarded by his peers. None of this prevented him from being sucked into financially disastrous telemarketing scams or becoming a hopeless hoarder as he grew older. Many of my friends are dealing with aging parents who have similar problems. Falling victim to financial scams and living in impossibly cluttered homes seem to be common themes. When I do my Sunday chores, I often hope that I don't go down the same rabbit hole. The warning signs are already there. How did the house ever get this messy? I spent the first half of my life living with a Zen like clarity, and now look at me. There is so much clutter in my office now that even the dogs have trouble navigating this no-man's land.

I try to straighten and clean on Sunday, but it hardly seems worth the effort. Fall is just beginning and already the backyard is filled with leaves. Spiders are industriously rebuilding elaborate webs in the windows I cleaned just a week or two ago, and dog hair is everywhere. The house was much easier to clean before it became filled with throw rugs to keep Dot from slipping on the brick floors. By the time I clean all these rugs and wash dozens of dirty dog blankets, I've usually had enough. I make the bed every day, but I'm lucky if I clean the office once a year. I used to move excess clutter from the office to the storage warehouse regularly, but now both spaces are full. Winter coats don't fit in the closet anymore. Bookshelves are overflowing with dusty books and obsolete software boxes. Broken watches litter my desk. I'm having a hard time even keeping up with reading my mail. All of this is discouraging, because when I'm being objective about things, I realize that I'm only three or four years away from becoming my Dad.

I made an honest effort today. I didn't just vacuum the floors. I even used the attachments to remove the dust from windowsills and floorboards. It's discouraging to clean up Dot's space and spread fresh blankets on the floor, only to have her poop on them ten minutes later. That's life with an incontinent dog though. You just have to be patient and keep cleaning things over and over again.

If I did this everyday, I'd be in great shape. I typically take between 16,000 and 20,000 steps on Sunday. Dash usually takes a much longer walk on Sunday.  I almost always go to the gym as well. Throw in mowing the grass and pushing the heavy Dyson Animal around the house and you've got a very busy day. Would my time have been better spent lying in bed and watching a movie on Netflix? Who knows?

The shower stall seemed dry today, so I thought I'd try to reseal the corners with silicon again. The repairs didn't work the first time I tried this, but there's always hope. This means I won't be able to take a shower until the silicon dries. I'm too tired to care. Despite all the physical activity, it was a good day. The weather was fabulous. Dot seemed a little stronger than usual. Dash got a bath and smells good for a change. Janet fixed some delicious Chicken Parmesan for dinner, and it looks like the bananas for tomorrow's breakfast are ripening nicely.

Early voting starts tomorrow in Texas. I'm still trying to decide when the lines will be the smallest.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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