Day 853

What is it about Monday's? I never get much done on a Monday. I actually got up earlier than usual, but by the time I got the dogs walked, ate breakfast, washed the dishes, and answered this weekend's accumulated e-mail, it was time for lunch.

I did get a couple of new assignments today, but there wasn't time to complete them, so I mowed the grass instead. I wish I'd mowed last week, or the week before. The grass was so tall and thick that it kept stalling the mower. It took me forever to mow the tiny little patch of grass that is our front yard. It's still a mystery to me why the grass in the front yard grows much faster than normal and the grass in the back yard hardly grows at all. I wish it was the other way around. The front yard faces a busy road and hardly ever gets used.

Some of you may remember that a breakfast networking group wanted me to join them last Summer. I think it was last Summer anyway. It's been a long time. At any rate, the group never actually asked me to join and I forgot about them. Now, almost a year later, they're asking me again if I'd be interested in joining them. These guys should have made me a member last year. I remember being kind of intrigued at the time. Now, the thought of getting up early once a week and putting on nice clothes for a breakfast meeting makes me want to throw up. There are only a few good reasons to get up in the morning anyway, and I don't think going to a meeting is one of them.

I lost the lens cap on my camera again when I was taking the dogs on their evening walk. When I discovered the missing cap, I wanted to retrace my steps, but the dogs didn't approve of this idea. They stood their ground and eventually we continued on home. Neither dog seems to like the idea of going backward. Once they've covered some ground, they just want to keep moving forward. After I got home with the dogs, I took the car and went back to the spot where I thought I might have dropped the cap. I'm a methodical person, so after fifteen minutes of searching, I spotted the missing lens cap and returned home again. The weird thing is that both dogs have such a great sense of smell that they could probably smell lost photo gear almost immediately if I could just train them to do it. Finding things that I dropped on our walks would probably be a lot easier than learning to be a bomb sniffing dog. I don't seem to be able to train the dogs to do anything though. After four years of training class, Dash still won't even come when he's called.

Tomorrow, I meet the real estate agent and find out how marketable my rent property is going to be. I'm going to try to keep an open mind and not let my own thoughts on the matter get in the way. I have a tendency to think everything I own is worth a lot more than it really is. Janet keeps reminding me that if I really want to sell the place, I need to forget about what I think it's worth. It's what other people think the place is worth that matters.

Becker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 785

I got a note from my tenant today saying that she was moving out in March. Oh, well. This one stayed over two years, which is a lot longer than some of my tenants. The young ones never stay very long. They fall in love. They find a new job. They evolve into something new, and then they're gone. The older tenants stay a lot longer, but they eventually get so grumpy that you wish they would leave.

I don't really like being a landlord. The renters never take care of the place very well and I'm always horrified to discover that they've taken the lovely white interior and painted the rooms some atrocious color. I think it says you can't paint right in the lease, but nobody seems to listen. Renters start to think it's their house until something breaks, and then they call me immediately to fix it. I really should just sell the place, but the younger crowd who likes the mid-century architecture can't seem to qualify for a mortgage anymore. Nobody seems to be able to come up with a down payment unless their parents give it to them. If I'd sold the rent house ten or twelve years ago, before the bubble burst, it would have been a good investment. I don't know if anything is a good investment anymore.

I lost the lens cap on my camera this morning while I was walking the dogs and discovered that Dot and Dash hate to retrace their steps. I was determined to find the lens cap, since little things like this are almost impossible to buy separately. Eventually, I found the elusive cap, but Dot and Dash certainly weren't any help. They were continually pulling on the leash to go in the opposite direction.

Somebody brought a really aggressive dog to training class tonight. Luckily, the dog was in the beginner's class instead of ours. Nobody in any of the classes wanted to go anywhere near this dog. I felt sorry for the owner. I'm sure she adopted the dog from a shelter, thinking she would give it a better life. You can never rest easy with an aggressive dog though. Even with the best training and care, you can never, ever let down your guard. If you adopt a dog like this, you are always going to wonder if today is the day your dog is going to snap. There are far too many nice, gentle dog who need good homes. I would avoid the mean ones.

It's going to get real cold again tonight. I'm pretty sure that this is what the rest of our Winter will be like. One day it will be 70 degrees and the next day it will be below freezing. That's just the way it is in Texas. We'll have a few really nice days in April and then it will suddenly be too hot again.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day