Day 3159

Unfortunately, I didn't get a repeat of yesterday's restful sleep. Dash got me up in the middle of the night again. The diarrhea is back. We were outside quite a while last night. At least I was able to get back to sleep. I got to sleep in too. The weekend does have its fleeting benefits.

The toilet I thought I'd fixed for good a few months ago has started running again. My goal for the day was to fix the thing, but I failed. I don't know what went wrong. I repeated the procedure I used last time to the letter, but it didn't work this time. Go figure. Sometimes old houses can be infuriating. One thing is certain. I will never buy another French toilet. Finding parts for this Rube Goldberg contraption is almost impossible.

I can't keep up with Texas weather. This morning it looked like we were going to have clear skies for the next week. Around dinnertime, I started hearing thunder. When I looked at the weather radar, I saw a severe thunderstorm headed our way. I was glad that Dash got a nice morning walk, because he certainly wasn't going to get an evening one. It's still raining now, but luckily the thunder has quit. Oh, well. I guess I really didn't need to turn the sprinklers on this morning.

While we were eating dinner this evening, Dash got one of his frequent urges to go outside. We both raced for the back door, but we didn't make it in time. Dash slipped on the bricks as he was starting to poop and ended up falling in the poop. He was a smelly mess. I took him outside and hosed him down while Janet cleaned the brick floor. After Dash was clean and dry again, we resumed our dinner. Incidences like these don't even faze us anymore. Loose stools might be an unwanted consequence of finding a diet that Dash will actually eat. I don't have a clue at this point. There are way too many moving parts to this puzzle.

I'm glad I finished my Saturday errands before the rain started. I would have felt compelled to wash the car when there were way too many other things that needed to be done. I did my best to complete my weekend to-do list, but Dash had other idea. He was being very needy today and wanted me to nap with him. After a while, I was happy to oblige.

I noticed on Facebook that one of my favorite dogs is nearing the end of her journey. It made me sad. Janet and I fostered this dog for a while a long time ago. She has had a long and happy life with a nice family, but dogs never live long enough. Enjoy your remaining days sweet friend.

I don't like to dwell on sadness, but it seems to be everywhere. It's time for something uplifting to happen. I'm a very pessimistic person, but I still believe in good things. You just have to look a little harder for them.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2975

I had the best of intentions today. I was going to fix some things around the house, touch base with my remaining clients, and clean up all the dog poop in the yard. Since I got up later than usual, I didn't get off to a roaring start. By the time I finished taking Dash on a morning walk and made my morning smoothie, it was almost 11 AM. I don't think I was always this slow, but it's hard to remember.

The first task on the agenda was fixing a running toilet. This Porcher toilet was made in France about fifteen years ago and is almost impossible to find parts for. Unlike most toilets, you can't just go to Home Depot and buy a new float arm or fill valve. I feel like this thing was engineered by the same people who made Citroën automobiles. It is truly bizarre. The best I can do is carefully take apart the aging mechanism, clean everything as well as I can, and then put things back together. Today, I slowed the leak, but didn't stop it entirely. It was the best I could do.

I tried to find out whether the AT&T technician was going to come out today and hook up the permanent fiber optic cable, but just ended up wasting a lot of time on the phone. The help desk people in Indonesia don't really have a clue where the service guys in the trucks are. I don't really care when the guy comes out. I just wanted to make AT&T aware that there was a buried line in my yard that wasn't hooked up. The two guys that dug the hole yesterday said someone would come out today and finish the job. Not surprisingly, no one showed up.

I've been trying to talk to the guy who replaced the thermistor in my refrigerator a couple of months ago. This repairman seemed more knowledgable that the others the appliance repair shop sent out and I was hoping he could tell me whether it was worth one more try to fix my existing refrigerator. There are two more thermistors in the refrigerator. If all it took was replacing all three of them to get things running reliably again, it might be worth it. I still can't find a new refrigerator that is as good as the one I've got. I can't find the repairmen either. So far, he hasn't returned my call.

It is amazingly warm for February. I think the temperature was over 70 today. I can never get used to this rapidly changing weather. When I'm walking Dash, I always seem to be wearing too much or too little. Today was confusing. The grey overcast skies definitely looked like Winter, but the temperature felt like Spring. Dash seemed confused too. He kept sniffing the air on his morning walk and wouldn't take an afternoon walk at all.

Once again we are wondering how we can stop school shootings. I don't think it will be easy. We live in a world where Call of Duty is the most popular video game. Violent video games and movies have been a favorite of kids for almost thirty years. Mental illness is so common that it almost seems like a lifestyle choice. It is unbelievable how many people are taking anti-depressants and other psychotropic drugs these days. Social media has created a world where everyone demands instant gratification. Nobody has any patience anymore. Worst of all, when anyone talks about restricting guns, people rush out and buy even more guns. It's kind of a hopeless situation.

Personally, I think technology has advanced much more rapidly than our ability to comprehend it. Sure, we have self driving cars and everyone is connected to everyone else, but in the process we've managed to destroy a society that has worked pretty well for thousands of years. If we don't slow down, things are only going to get worse.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2308

I discovered today that one of my best friends from college was just diagnosed with lung cancer. The guy didn't even smoke. Life can be very unfair sometimes. I've reached the age where people post good news about their grandchildren and bad news about themselves. Sadly, almost everybody I know is falling apart. That's why I go to the gym on Sunday and feel vaguely guilty that I don't go everyday. Even in the best of circumstances, it is an uphill battle to stay healthy. Some things we have control over, but a lot of things we don't. If there was anybody I thought could have avoided cancer, it would have been my clean living college friend. It just wasn't in the cards.

My accountant called this afternoon to tell me that he'd finished my taxes. In the course of our conversation, he asked me if I was happy with my broker. I asked why and he said that the management fees on my account seemed pretty high when you looked at the rather dismal performance of my portfolio. He said I'd probably do better if I just put everything in a boring index fund that mirrored the S&P and forget about it. I've thought the same thing for quite a while, but have never been sure what to do next. I've asked friends if they liked their broker or financial advisor and most of them were just as disgusted as I am. Nobody seems to want to recommend anybody. Very few small investors are doing well these days. Increasingly, I think the whole system is rigged to benefit the rich and powerful. In the not too distant past, you used to be able to go to your bank and get a 5 year Certificate of Deposit that provided a nice monthly return with no risk at all. US Treasury Bonds also provided a very nice return with little to no risk. Now, anything with any promise of a decent return comes with quite a bit of risk. Investing has become synonymous with gambling. In this kind of environment I can see why Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have become popular. I don't think either of these men can reverse the tide of globalism and corporate greed that created this mess, but at least they have identified the problem.

I tried to fix the odd French made toilet in one of the bathrooms today with little success. They stopped selling these things quite some time ago when plumbers refused to repair them. Parts are impossible to find and plumbers just tell me to buy a new toilet. Instead of a simple fill valve and float that you could buy at Home Depot, this toilet uses a proprietary French fill mechanism that looks like it was designed by Rube Goldberg. I've been using super glue and epoxy to patch the thing back together for years, but it's leaking again. One more frustration in a very frustrating month.

I had another website to update this afternoon, so I barely had time to go to the gym. I did have a good workout, but vacuuming the house and cleaning the rugs will have to wait. While I was at the gym I noticed that I was the only one holding on to the handrails while I was using the treadmill. I must have a terrible sense of balance. Everyone else seemed to be walking just fine without using the rails. It's been a busy day and I'm glad it's over. It's weird to have most of your work on the weekend. I bet there will be nothing for me to do tomorrow. Monday's are like that. Don't get me wrong. There's always something to do if you count doing laundry and cleaning up poop. I just wish there was something exciting to do.

Apollo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1297 - Independence Day

The best Fourth of July I can remember was in 1976. This was the year we celebrated the country's Bicentennial. I was returning from Victoria, British Columbia to Seattle by boat and just as we entered the harbor, a massive fireworks display began directly overhead. The celebration was beautiful and serene as the boat glided slowly towards the shore. There were no ants or mosquitoes and the crowds of revelers were far away on shore. At the opposite end of the scale was a celebration in Dallas where I was right in the middle of thousands of drunk revelers, trying to sell glow-in-the-dark necklaces to raise money for animal rescue. Ever since that event, I have had no desire to be in a large crowd again.

There was certainly a respectable crowd of people in the park behind our house today. Early in the morning, there were hundreds of runners completing a 10K race while I walked the dogs. Later in the day, the park was filled with picnickers, cyclists, and boaters. The smell of barbecue permeated the air, but even the delicious smell of burgers and brisket cooking wasn't enough to make me want to have a picnic myself.

I kept to myself as I worked my way through a list of chores. I made another week's supply of juice with the juicer. I did several loads of laundry. I even tried to fix a leak in the problematic French Porcher toilet. It is impossible to find parts for the thing, but I do the best I can. When all my chores were done, I thought I'd go work out at the gym, but when I got there it was closed for the holiday. On the way home, I stopped at Central Market and got something that we already had in the refrigerator.  My memory is shot.

Dot has an amazing ability to sense changes in the weather. She was was acting like she usually does when it's about to rain this afternoon. I was initially confused, because there was no rain in the forecast and the sky was clear. As her behavior continued, I turned on the weather channel and learned that a cold front had just passed through town. It is easy to miss a cold front in the Summer. I think the temperature just went down from 95 to 85. Dot knew though. She knew way before I did.

I tried to do a little research in the Internet today and see if I could discover why my liver enzyme levels were continuing to fluctuate. There were so many potential reasons that I just gave up. Even trained hepatologists seem to have trouble coming to a consensus about liver enzyme levels. Oddly, exercise can actually cause liver enzyme levels to rise. I can't imagine that I've been doing enough exercise to move the needle though.

At least tomorrow is Friday. Friday is my favorite day. I like things to be finished, and they very seldom are. At least Friday creates the illusion that you've crossed some sort of imaginary finish line.

Matao is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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