Day 3116

Little things have become way too complicated. When I got in the car this morning, there was a warning light on the dash that said my left rear tire was low. In the past I would have gotten the compressor out of the garage and added a little air. Can't do that anymore. These tires are filled with nitrogen which forces me to go to the dealer every time a tire is low. The service tech added some nitrogen to the low tire and said everything was fine. On the way back home, the warning light came on again, so I returned to the dealership a second time. I told them to check the tire again and this time they found a nail. Jeez. Why didn't they notice the nail the first time?

While I was waiting for the tire to be fixed, I looked at new cars. I don't think I'll be getting a Land Rover again. Not only have these cars become way too expensive, I don't like the current styling. None of the rear seats fold flat anymore. The seats in my current car fold completely flat, making it much easier to carry dogs. The nice boxy shape of my car is gone too. Everything on the showroom floor was curvy and sleek. I loved my old Defender, but the new Discovery and Range Rover models aren't even remotely like this amazing go anywhere, carry anything truck. Nobody makes anything like the Defender anymore. It had no airbags and hand cranked windows, but it did have a big V-8 engine and enough room in the back for an extra large dog crate. My current car is much fancier, but I always liked the Defender best.

I probably got the nail in my tire while I was eating breakfast. There was some construction going on nearby, and I should have just driven to another restaurant. I seem to get nails and screws in my tires every time I go near a construction site. My Eggs Benedict were fine, but this meal certainly wasn't worth spending half the day at a car dealership. I wasn't even that hungry. The day would have been much more productive if I'd just stayed home.

The wall I've been repairing is painted now, but the house smells terrible. I'd forgotten that oil base enamel has a much stronger smell to it than latex paint. I would have left the doors and windows open for a while, but the house would have instantly been filled with bugs and it was way too hot and humid anyway. Hopefully, as the paint dries the smell will go away.

It rained while I was at the Land Rover dealer. The rain didn't last long, but there was quite a downpour for about thirty minutes. When I returned home, there was some evidence that there had been a short power outage. The computer was off and several of the uninterrupted power supplies were beeping. Dash was waiting at the door too. He's usually asleep while I'm gone. I have no idea how bad things were, but I hope that Dash didn't freak out. The only saving grace was that this wasn't a thunderstorm. It was just a heavy rain.

It's too bad the roofers didn't come over while we were having two weeks of bone dry weather. It would have been an ideal time to finish their repairs. We're back to square one again. I've got to remove all the standing water from the roof, start checking for leaks again, and resume pestering the roofers to finish what they started.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3115

I'm going to have heartburn tonight. The refrigerator was kind of empty, so I picked up a frozen pizza on the way home from the post office. I was only going to eat two slices, but ended up eating the whole thing. Why do I do this? I wasn't even that hungry.

I still haven't painted the wall. Every time I get ready to start, I realize that I've got the wrong kind of paint brush. I made my third trip to Home Depot and this time I got a small four inch roller. The first time I got a regular bristle brush. The second time I got a handful of those cheap foam brushes. Maybe the third time is the charm. It probably won't make any difference, because I'm the one doing the painting. I want a smooth enamel finish with no streaks. I always seem to leave brush marks.

A few days ago, It looked like we were going to have clear weather for most of July. Now, the forecast shows thunderstorms all next week. I know what's going to happen. The next time I contact the roofers, they will tell me that were scheduled to fix my roof, but the rain made them change their plans. They've got this down to a science. It's never going to be clear long enough so they have no excuses.

Dash has me confused. He's not hungry in the morning anymore. His appetite doesn't seem to kick in until early evening, when he becomes ravenous. He still eats the same amount he always has, but this new schedule complicates things. It's hard to give him his morning pills, because most of them have to be taken with food. His late night meals also just about guarantee that he's going to wake me up at 3 AM to go outside and poop. Oh, well. At least he's still eating and seems pretty healthy.

I'm still wondering what happened to the Sequential Circuits synthesizers. How can something go bad just sitting in a box? It's probably just as well that this problem is out of my hands now. Maybe the guys at the guitar store can find a good repair technician. If the synthesizers were sitting here in the office, I'd spend the rest of the Summer fiddling with them and trying to diagnose the problem myself. I'd probably just make the situation worse. I have a modest amount of electronic knowledge, but it's usually just enough to get me in trouble.

It's almost Friday and I still don't know what to do for breakfast tomorrow. I've got to do better than the pitiful, stale breakfast taco I brought home from the grocery store last week. Maybe I should just go buy a box of Lucky Charms or Cap'n Crunch and a pint of milk. Lord knows, I've tried everything else. If Eggs Benedict and Belgian Waffles don't appeal to me anymore, I don't know what's wrong.

At any rate, I've grown to understand Dash's picky eating habits. I've become a picky eater myself.

Isabella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3112

I heard the neighbor calling his dog this morning. This was the dog that bit me. The voice wasn't coming from the neighbor's yard. It was coming from down the street. Damn. The dog had gotten loose again. Luckily, I had already finished walking Dash, but I didn't feel comfortable going outside for the rest of the day.

I called the electrician again to see when he was coming to fix the security light. He said he tried to call me last Thursday. I never got the call. Who knows what happened? Maybe the call got intercepted by Nomorobo and was never put through. Maybe the phone actually rang and I didn't answer because I thought it was a telemarketer. This happens a lot with service people. They use their personal cell phones now to call customers. If I don't see a company name on caller ID or I don't recognize the number, I don't answer. The guy could have left a message, but he probably don't want to come over anyway. He promised that they would still fix the light, but didn't say when.

My second call was to the guitar store to let them know I was on my way. Oops. I should have read the website more carefully. The place isn't open on Mondays. It isn't open in the mornings either. Actually the place isn't open much at all. The guys did say that a lot of their business was out-of-state. I guess having a retail storefront isn't all that important. I really shouldn't complain about any of this. My appointment was for tomorrow anyway. I just wanted to go today because I was bored.

Since I couldn't get my guitars appraised, I decided to fix the crack in the sheetrock instead. I would never make a good tape and bed guy. I can't seem to apply the drywall mud smoothly. I'll let the stuff dry and try to sand it smooth tomorrow. This will make a lot of dust, but I can't see any alternative. I've seem people apply mud so smoothly that you don't even need to sand. This type of finesse is out of my league. Oh, well. At least the joint compound is easier to clean up than glue.

I heard on the news that the raw sewage crisis has been averted. The city managed to divert the sewage spill to storm drains so the mess will never reach the lake. Who knows where the storm drains go. I think the lake is being reopened for recreational use tomorrow. I'm really glad that the lake won't be filled with dead fish and disease. This little oasis is one of the nicest things about this part of town.

The truck with my art should have arrived in New York by now, but I still haven't heard anything. I'm trying to avoid making a worried call to the auction house. The stuff is insured, so I should just forget about it. It's hard to do though. It doesn't matter if it is the post office, UPS, or some fancy fine art shipper. I always think something disastrous is going to happen during shipping. I'm sure the auction people will give me a call later this week. I just hate to wait.

Tomorrow, I'll probably paint the wall I patched today if the surface looks smooth enough. If Dash is doing well, I'll go to the guitar store too. He was a little shaky today. This heat is tough on him. I think it's tough on everybody.

Bud is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2733 - Father's Day

Every Father's Day I see all these pictures on Facebook of people with their Dad. I can't recall any pictures of me and my Dad together. Even when I spent a lot of time with him toward the end of his life, we never took a picture together. To be fair, I can't recall any pictures of me and my Mom together either. I don't know what this means, but our family certainly didn't spend a lot of time recording family events.

Maybe this odd tradition continues. Janet and I have taken an enormous number of pictures of our dogs in every conceivable situation, but we have very few pictures of each other. I wouldn't read too much into this. Animals are just more fun to photograph.

I moved the pressure washer to another part of the house this afternoon and continued my quest to clean the exterior. There seems to be a fine line between removing spider webs and removing paint. The exterior paint is old and if I try too hard to remove a stubborn web, I can easily strip the paint away too. I'm going to have to go to a hardware store and see if there is some kind of spray I can apply to keep the spiders from returning. It would be a shame to have invested this much time cleaning the place, only to have all the spiders return in a few weeks.

I wish good house painters weren't so expensive. I've gotten bids several times and have always been appalled at the cost of professionally repainting the house. I repainted the interior myself about eight years ago and I think this might have been the origin of my shoulder problems. Painting the ceilings with a roller was a bitch. About halfway through the job, I discovered a power roller that made the job quicker, but holding a paint filled roller at the end of a long pole was still tiring. Maybe painting the exterior will be easier since there are no ceilings. The exterior walls are mostly brick, so a few wooden walls shouldn't be a huge problem. Oops. I forgot that the long back porch has a ceiling. That's were all the spiders congregate. This area needs some kind of special spider proof paint.

Janet took me out for a birthday dinner tonight, since she'll have to work late tomorrow. Sometimes my birthday falls on Father's Day and even when it doesn't, the two days are always close together. Mom used to say that I was her Father's Day gift to Dad. I think Dad would have preferred a new fishing rod or some wood carving tools. It was enjoyable to go out to dinner for a change. We haven't been out together since Dot got sick and couldn't be left alone. We didn't forget Dash though. We ate early, so there would still be time for an evening walk before it got dark.

The older I get, the less I look forward to birthdays. I'll be 69 tomorrow. Despite what some people say, 69 is not the new 49. The aches and pains are real. I feel old. I look old. I am old. My Mom didn't even live this long, so I really should look at each additional year as a gift. It would be beneficial to develop a positive attitude. Youth is very forgiving to negative people, but it's silly to be negative when you're old. You just don't have that many years left. I don't want to waste the time I've been allotted. There might not be a bucket list, but there is still a lot of stuff I'd like to do.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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