Day 4890

Today was busy. I talked with the roofers and made sure they still wanted to start tomorrow, even though there was rain in the forecast today. They assured me that the weather would be fine and so far the weather apps on my phone seem to agree. It did rain today, but the thunderstorm was very brief. Dawn and I both got our walks completed without getting wet.

After breakfast I wrote a letter to my sister and took it to the post office. I didn't have a lot to say, but I'm always good at answering mail. Somehow after all these years, a letter received in the mail still seems more real and important than e-mail. I'll often ignore the e-mail I receive, but I rarely ignore a letter.

I got my press credential notice from Axiom Space today, so I'll be attending the AX-2 launch on Sunday. I still have mixed feelings about going to this launch since prices for everything keep going up. There aren't many things that still capture my interest, so I think it's worth the effort to hang on to the few things I still enjoy. The magazine I write for seems very interested in this launch and wants me to try to get interviews while I'm down at the space center. I'll give it a try, but it's not that easy to secure interviews with astronauts. I did sign up for a media teleconference tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll ask a question, I also finished making all my reservations for the trip this afternoon and now I feel poor again. 

We had a brief but very intense storm this afternoon. I'm getting sick of all this rain. I was going to remove the pumps from the roof today, but I ended up needing them. Hopefully with the new roof in place, I will never have to use these pumps again. Since the roof hasn't leaked during the most recent storms, I'm beginning to question my decision to get a new roof. Replacing a flat roof is a lot more expensive than putting on new shingles. I guess I made the right decision. I've had problems with this roof for many years and they aren't magically going to disappear just because I don't want to spend the money.

The new printer we got recently won't stay connected to our WiFi network. It's getting irritating. Every time there is a power outage the printer loses it's settings and I have to reprogram it again. Somehow a whole house WiFi network is a lot more trouble than just plugging things into an Ethernet cable. My computer is starting to feel sluggish as well. I really don't feel like upgrading equipment at this stage of my life, but everything I use is starting to feel obsolete. Truthfully, I've grown tired of being online. Maybe when I complete my 5000 day blogging goal, I'll pull the plug on everything and just disappear. I think I could live without computers fairly easily.

The roofers are supposed to begin work early tomorrow morning. The last I heard they are supposed to arrive around 7 AM. I hope all the noise up on the roof doesn't freak Dawn out. She's scared of enough things as it is. We won't be able to let her outside in the yard without a leash for a few days. Construction crews are notorious about leaving gates open. I hope this goes well. I'd really like to get this house in shape again and then never have to think about it anymore for the rest of my life.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4878

Little by little I'm getting things done around the house. I think it helps to mention that I'm going to do something tomorrow on the blog because it forces me to actually do it. Today I wrote a letter to my sister and took it to the post office. I got some fire ant bait at Home Depot and treated all the mounds around the house. Fire ants are terrible this year. The park is infested with them and we have at least six mounds in our own yard. I think the fire ant bait works, but often you have to treat the mounds several times before the ants disappear. I also bought some river gravel and filled in the big pothole in the driveway. The gravel has to be the right size, but it turns out to be an effective way to stabilize an old driveway.

The weather continues to be near perfect. In retrospect this would have been a good week to install the new roof. The roofers have mentioned something about wanting to start next week, but the forecast looks like rain. With unpredictable Spring weather continuing, it's going to be hard to find a week with no chance of rain. I'm trying to enjoy the nice weather while I can. Dawn loves her early morning walks these days. Even though it is warmer later in the day, my long walks aren't so bad either. I hope this pleasant weather lasts for a while because Summer in Texas can be brutal.

My walk was pleasant today although there wasn't much to look at. The Muscovy Ducks have disappeared and only four of the resident geese remain. The White Pelicans and Double Crested Cormorants all headed North for the summer several weeks ago and there are far fewer Mallards as well. I think the Coots and the Great Egrets will stick around for the summer. 

I kept up a pretty good pace today, although I always slow down quite a bit after I finish the fourth mile. I actually have no idea whether I'm in good shape or not. I did get 20,000 steps today, but I really don't have a reference point. It's obvious that there are plenty of people my age in worse shape than me, but that isn't the point. Could I be doing better? I imagine that I could be doing a lot better if I tried. Especially if I went to the gym everyday like Janet does. For now, a relatively slow six mile walk will have to do. The long walk, doing a few chores around the house, and the blog pretty effectively fill up my day.

I was hoping to write my SpaceFlight article today, but I never got around to it. Since I've written two in-depth articles about the Falcon Heavy for the magazine already, I need to think of a new angle. The previous editor of the magazine liked my first person accounts of trips to Kennedy Space Center, but the current editor prefers more factual articles about the rocket and the mission. I kind of liked the idea of being a travel writer who mostly talked about rockets and astronomy, but I've been writing professionally for over 40 years and can write something in any style you like. Hopefully I will get the article written tomorrow before I start to forget things.

Janet said that Dawn did really well at training class tonight. She doesn't do the heeling exercises as well now that she wears a harness in class, but she does everything else perfectly. Dawn is a really smart dog. It's kind of amazing to see how well she has adapted to our daily routine. If I'm late about anything, Dawn will remind me. I hear her barking for her evening snack right now.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4824

Dawn is getting tired of wearing her harness all the time, but it's for her own good. We need a handle to grab if she starts to go down. No falls today, but she's still pretty fragile. Dawn is learning to walk up the step to the bed, but you've got to watch her like a hawk. Her instinct is still to jump on and off the bed like she used to. We have a nice dog bed on the floor, but she is reluctant to use it. Dawn is a very stubborn dog.

I hate to see Dawn so sedated, but if it's bed rest she needs the plan seems to be working. I watched her this morning while Janet was grocery shopping and she mostly just slept. There is no anxiety now and she seems relaxed. The real test will come when her meds run out. Strangely, the hematoma on her ear seems to be getting better because she can't shake her head anymore. I think the swelling in her neck is better today, but it's hard to tell.

Yesterday's hard rain just seems like a bad dream now. Today was beautiful and the ground was dry again. Did the sudden storm even happen? The sky was clear this morning and our roof leaks stopped fairly quickly. I guess I'll take what I can get. Historically it always rains a lot during this time of year. Increasingly, it does seem like we are having an early Spring. It's hard to imagine more snow and ice when the air conditioner is running in March.

I wrote a letter to my sister today and took it to the post office. Traffic on our street has gotten impossible, It took me ten minutes to get out of the driveway. It doesn't matter what time of day you are out and about. It always seems like rush hour these days. The traffic and crime in the city make me wish I lived in a small town. That's not going to happen though. We like our neighborhood by the lake, the house is paid for, and moving anywhere is way too much trouble. Moving is for younger people. I moved around a lot during my 20's and 30's. It didn't seem like a big deal back then, but I can't imagine doing that sort of thing now.

I wonder how long I'm going to be able to continue walking six miles a day? It seems harder now. My last mile was terrible today. I walked a lot faster when I was trying to avoid the rain yesterday. I'll continue walking because it's good exercise and so much easier than driving to the gym. I do wish that it wasn't such an effort to remain physically fit. Growing old isn't all that fun.

I think I'm going to need a new phone, a new computer, or maybe both. Increasingly, things I use a lot aren't supported anymore. I can't update the system on my phone, computers, or even my watch because they are all too old. Safari is worthless on my computer now so I've had to switch to Firefox. I can't even upgrade my watch anymore because the watch says I need a newer phone. On and on it goes. Apple basically does a terrible job of supporting old hardware. Like most companies they just want you to buy new stuff.

Tomorrow is my grocery day. I wonder how expensive everything is going to be this week? Inflation seems fairly relentless when you like to travel and are living on a fixed income.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4724

It's hard to get used to this weather. It was a beautiful day but was very cold. I guess I'd better get used to this. It's Winter now. We bundled up and took Dawn on another early walk in the dark. Mars was very bright in the early morning sky. The planet is nearing opposition now and won't be this bright again until 2033. Dawn wasn't very interest in the sky, but was very serious about smelling things this morning. I was just glad to return to a warm house.

After breakfast I wrote a letter to my sister because I knew I would be passing the post office later in the morning on the way to pick up a prescription. I don't like to drive anymore and try to combine errands whenever I can. After all these years I have never left letters in our mailbox for the postman to pick up. Somehow I have no faith that these letters would get delivered. I always have to drop the letter in a slot at the post office myself.

I don't understand drug prices at all. I still get a much better deal using GoodRx than using my Medicare Part D plan. Today's choice was $17 on GoodRx vs $65 on my supplemental insurance. Lord knows how much this prescription would cost if I was just paying retail. When I asked the pharmacist how this all works, she didn't know either. She said she'll always give me the lowest price available though.

I waited for it to warm up before I took my long walk. Maybe it got a little warmer but it still felt very cold when I left the house. I tried a different coat when I walked today. I'd almost forgotten that I have several goose down jackets. This one was a little warmer but the hood didn't fit as snugly. I continue to be amazed when I see men running on the trails wearing shorts and no shirt in this kind of weather. I dress like I'm on an expedition to the South Pole.

I saw one of the eagles again today. This time it was in flight. The pair of eagles is definitely here for the Winter. The nest continues to get bigger. Maybe there will be eaglets in the nest next Spring. I need to start taking a camera with me. I have a little compact camera with a long telephoto lens. The lens retracts when it is not in use and the camera is pretty easy to carry while walking. Right now all I bring with me on my walks is my phone and the nest is too far away to get a good picture.

I tried to contact a contractor who was too busy for me last Fall. There are so many problems with the house that I really need to do something. I keep hoping to find someone like those people you see on that This Old House program on PBS. Craftsmen like this are hard to find though. It's easy to find someone to remodel your kitchen or bathroom. A lot harder to find someone to do quality restoration work on mid-fifties architecture.

Dawn didn't go to her dog training class this evening. It was just too cold. Dawn didn't seem to mind napping on the bed instead. She's a smart dog. I noticed today that there is new firmware available for the star tracker. That will give me something to do tomorrow. One of these days I might actually go outside at night and use the thing. Maybe I'll wait till Spring though. I really don't like this cold weather.

Belle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4674

We got the day started with another early walk this morning. I'm surprised at how many people are out this early. When we enter the park, we see lots of small lights in the distance. The brighter, fast moving lights are bicycles. The lights that move up and down are usually runners. Runners seems to like wearing little lights on their shoes. If a moving light is low to the ground is is a dog. The dogs often wear glowing LED collars. If someone wears an entire lighted vest, it's almost always an old person. A few people wear no lights at all. These are the ones you've got to watch out for. Especially the stealth bicycles. I don't think anyone would have any problems spotting us in the dark. Janet carries a flashlight and we both wear small lights on the back of our jackets. Dawn has a spiffy green LED collar.

After breakfast I wrote a letter to my sister and took it to the post office on my way to the gym. I always reply to my sister's letters even when I have little to say. We never talk on the phone and have always communicated through letters. I'm pretty sure I have been writing these letters for forty years now.

It was cool enough to take a walk in the park today, but I'm getting bored with these walks. It's nice to have a change of pace. I also enjoy shooting free throws on the basketball court and the indoor track is easier on my feet. If I go to the gym too frequently, I get bored with this as well. I guess I'll keep changing things up. They say variety is good for you. The important thing for me is to keep moving.

I tried a new machine at the gym this morning. It's called a vibration platform and it is designed to improve circulation and increase bone density. I think this machine can do many other things as well, but its ability to increase bone density with regular use was what caught my attention. Brittle bones and falls plague older people and the last thing I want is a broken hip. Improving bone density was one of the reasons I started walking in the first place. We'll see if using the vibration platform helps. I'm not sure how I'll measure any improvements though. My doctor is reluctant to give me any more bone density tests.

Since I went to the gym later today I didn't have to spend as much time doing nothing this afternoon. There are plenty of projects I could start around the house, but I'm doing my best to avoid them. Painting and sheetrock repairs are messy and I'm not terribly good at either of these activities. I'm not good at stopping roof leaks either, even though I've spent twenty years trying. I'm certainly as good as the roofers I've hired over the years. They haven't done a good job either. What can I say. I used to be a regular Mr. Fix-it around the house, but I've totally lost interest. Living in a little room at the Astronomer's Lodge sounds pretty good to me now.

Dawn still leaves the room every time I want to take a nap in the bedroom. She's fine about sharing the bed if Janet is in the room, but is still wary of me if we are alone in the house. I don't think this behavior is going to change, although Janet thinks the solution is for her to go on another cruise and leave me here with Dawn for two weeks. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks. I'm very reluctant to do anything new myself. Why should I expect Dawn to be any different. 

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4566

Dawn and I made it through the first day OK. She was reluctant to eat her breakfast this morning, but finally decided she was hungry when I added a little gravy to her bowl. She did much better with dinner tonight. She's taken her meds and we're still working on getting her outside to poop. Things that were easy when Janet was home are a bit more difficult now. I'd say all in all we're doing fine.

I got groceries much earlier than usual this morning. I should do this more often. The stores weren't crowded at all. My list wasn't long this week, but there were still a few things I needed. I don't know why I  always worry that I'm going to have car problems when I'm on my own. Probably because occasionally I do have car problems when I least expect it. All went well though, and I was back home again before we're usually finished with breakfast on the weekends.

I thought about going on a long walk this morning, but it was way too hot. Dawn didn't get a sunrise walk because she didn't want one. When Janet is gone, she does her business as quickly as possible and heads straight back to the house. That's OK with me. The last thing I want is to have her freeze in place or start acting weird when we are far from home.

Since it was already near 100 degrees when I finished my grocery shopping I wisely decided not to attempt a long walk today. I went to the gym instead. Hey, the car worked well for grocery shopping so I figured it would work well again. My gym is never crowded on Saturday. This seems a bit counterintuitive to me, but I always like an empty gym. I shot baskets for a while and then walked long enough on the indoor track to keep my Fitbit happy. I think I exercise more to keep consistent stats than to actually improve anything. There are a lot more serious people at the gym than me, but I'm still probably getting some benefit from this. It's always good to keep moving.

I wrote a letter to my sister today and took it to the post office. I wouldn't need these letters if she read the blog. That's a lost cause though. I may pretend to be a Luddite but she's the real deal. No complaints about writing letters though. Writing letters is good. It's better for the soul than adding three or four emojis to the end of a text message. I used to keep up a running correspondence with at least half a dozen people. Now it's down to this one letter a month.

Dawn isn't going to get an ice cream cone tomorrow. She seldom rides in my car and would be terrified if I tried to take her somewhere without Janet. She seemed terrified just going down to the meadow behind our house to pee this evening. Hopefully she will start to relax soon, but it will probably take a couple of more days.

I don't have any big plans for tomorrow. No little plans either. I'm going to have to start my long walk really early to avoid the heat. Going to the gym isn't an option because it is closed on Sunday. This would actually be a good time to binge watch movies on Netflix, but I'm not that kind of guy. I'd rather lie on the couch and stare at the ceiling than watch movies on TV. Maybe I'll fiddle with the star tracker again. That's definitely still unfinished business.

Shiner is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4542

Today was busy. Well, it was busy for me anyway. After breakfast and a sunrise walk with Dawn I mowed the grass in the front yard. I did this early before it warmed up too much. Last month I thought I couldn't handle mowing the grass anymore, but I still seem to be doing OK. I guess I'll keep on going. The batteries in the electric mower aren't holding a charge as well as they used to, but still seem to be sufficient to mow one half of the lawn at a time. After I finished my outdoor chores, I wrote a letter to my sister and dropped it off at the post office on my way to the bank.

Mowing the lawn convinced me that it was too hot and humid to take a walk in the park. After a quick lunch I went back to the gym where it is nice and cool. I did a different set of exercises than I did yesterday in hopes that it would minimize the inevitable aches and pains. It's probably a good idea to vary my routine anyway. After all the years I've been going to this gym there are still quite a few machines I have never even tried. I'm able to elevate my heart rate a lot easier at the gym, but I actually burn more calories on my long walks. Go figure. I actually have no idea whether any of this activity is doing me any good. I assume it is, but how do you measure such things? I hope I've added a few months or even years to my lifespan, but we'll have to see how that works out.

Janet had somewhere to go this afternoon, so Dawn was her usual nervous nellie self when I returned from the gym. I'm used to this, but I wasn't expecting what happened next. Just before dinner time our power went out and Dawn completely freaked out. Such a strange dog. Thunder and lightning don't bother her at all, but power outages drive her crazy. I think it's the suddenness of it all. When there is an outage everything shuts off and the house is immediately quiet except for the irritating beeping noise from several uninterrupted power supplies. I know these bother her, so I shut them off as soon as I can.

Dawn's reaction was much worse than usual today because Janet wasn't home. I knew something was wrong when she raced to the back door and scratched to get out. She usually never wants to go outside when the ground is wet. It had been raining recently and that probably had something to do with the power outage. When she got outside, she wouldn't come in again. Something had convinced her that the house was now a dangerous place. 

The power outage didn't really last very long, but having the lights and air conditioner back on again didn't convince Dawn that the danger was over. I had a hard time getting her back inside and she didn't want to go back to the bedroom again. I left her alone for a while and the next time I went out to the kitchen, I discovered that she was sitting in a chair next to the back door. She wanted to go outside again. I thought she would come to her senses, but this time it was almost impossible to get her to return to the house. I eventually has to go get a leash and lead her back in. I fixed her a nice dinner, but she refused to eat and hid in a corner until Janet returned. 

All is well now, but Dawn's reaction today was troubling to me. She showed all the signs of a dog in a panic who would run away if given the chance. It rained a lot this afternoon but at least the pumps on the roof worked today. I was congratulating myself for getting the grass mowed and all my errands done before the rain started. I never was expecting to be blindsided by a power outage and a crazy dog.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4292

It was kind of a slow day. The big event today was giving Dawn a bath. Dawn hates a bath but she survived. She was excited to get in the car, but she probably thought we were going for ice cream. We had to find a new self bath place since the one we usually use went out of business. Everything ended well and Dawn looks and feels clean again. A dog bath never lasts long though. One roll in the dirt and it's all over.

I wrote a letter to my sister and took it to the post office. She still refuses to get on the Internet, so I basically just repeat things I've already mentioned on the blog. I used to write lots of letters, but this is the last remnant of a bygone era. Everyone else I know uses e-mail. 

We are seeing coyotes again behind our house. There are lots of them in the park, but I don't see them very often. Coyotes still make me a little nervous when walking dogs, but usually they mind their own business. I've had a few close encounters with them over the years and so far they haven't paid much attention to our dogs. Dawn totally ignored the young coyote we saw. I still don't want to run into a pack though.

When  I was walking in the park this morning I heard a strange bird call I've never heard before. The sound was so loud that I thought the bird might be in distress. I couldn't investigate though because the sound was coming from a thick wooded area on the other side of the water. Was this a crane, a pelican, or a new kind of duck? I'll probably never know. It is strange to hear a brand new sound in the park though. I've walked this area for so long that I thought I've heard everything.

I guess I need to make a new appointment to see the dentist. I need to remember that I still have a cavity, even though the tooth looks and feels fine. The appointment got sidetracked by my hospital stay, but apparently the dentist's computer system thinks I've already been. I got an e-mail asking me to take a survey and rate my recent visit. 

This year has really gone fast. It's already time for the State Fair again. I think Janet wants to go, but I'm still uncertain about being around so many people. I guess it couldn't be any worse than being on a full airline flight to Orlando. I'll definitely be glad when we can put Covid behind us. The pandemic has really made a mess of everything.

It's time to make a grocery list again. Should I go to the gym on the way to the grocery store, or take another long walk and go shopping later? These are the kind of decisions I make these days. This morning I had to decide whether to wear a jacket on our sunrise walk with Dawn. The temperature was in the 50's and the furnace came on for the first time this season. Fall is here and the light jacket I wore was actually a good idea.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3865

I wrote some letters today and took them to the post office. I still like the slower pace of letter writing. Too bad other people don't feel the same way. Very few people I know will actually reply to a letter with another letter. I keep thinking that the world would be a better place if we all just slowed down a bit. Writing letters is a good way to slow down. I initially thought that the pandemic might be the reset button we all needed and life would resume at slower pace. Nope. I was wrong about that. The minute that businesses started to reopen, everyone rushed to get back to their old ways. Traffic is back to normal here in Dallas and shopping center parking lots are full. This is one reason why we are seeing a spike in new coronavirus cases now. I don't get it, but then I don't get a lot of things about modern life.

We got started on our walk so early this morning that I was able to see several planets in the morning sky. In addition to Venus to the East, Mars was directly overhead. I should have been able to see Jupiter and Saturn as well, but they were hidden my clouds along the Western horizon. There always seem to be clouds along the Western horizon these days. I wish they would go away. They've certainly spoiled my chances for getting a good view of the rapidly fading comet.

Wildflower season is over for the year, but there are still a few surprises. After Halloween there are people in the neighborhood who dump their old pumpkins in the park for animals to eat. Many of these discarded pumpkins have taken root and started to grow. About this time of year, the vines start to flower. I spotted my first pumpkin vine this morning. It wasn't that exciting, but it was something new.

I was supposed to get a haircut today, but my appointment got canceled. Scheduling things in the coronavirus era is complicated. No great loss. I've gotten used to looking scruffy. I'm sure I'll get a haircut eventually, but it's probably best to wait a little while anyway. Dallas needs to get its act together again. We were doing so well and now we've become a hotspot.

I was missing a few ingredients for my smoothie this morning, but it still tasted the same. Sometimes I think it doesn't even matter what I dump in the blender. These smoothies always taste pretty much the same. The news on the TV while I'm eating breakfast is always the same as well. Life really is starting to feel like that Ground Hog Day movie.

Hard to believe it's already time to venture out for groceries again. Time flies when you are doing nothing. I'll be glad when the supply chain completely returns to normal. Every time I go to the store there are always one or two very common items that have completely disappeared. I hope my favorite coffee is there tomorrow. I'm set in my ways. I don't know if I can handle a new type of coffee.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3093

The dog days of Summer are here. It's hot. It's humid. It's hard to concentrate on anything. I drifted through the day, trying to focus on little things. I got some blueberries at the grocery store. I took some shoes to the shoe repair guy to see if they could be repaired. I looked for some more Shoe Goo so I could keep fixing Dash's protective boots, but the hardware store was out of stock. I did remember to set the DVR to record The Expanse this evening, but I probably won't watch it until tomorrow. Even though it was very hot, Dash still wanted his walks. Our morning walk was fine, but we waited until after sunset to venture outside again. We took it slow and Dash did fine. There was a light breeze and the 95 degree temperature didn't feel that bad.

I wrote another letter to my sister today, but I'm not expecting anything in return. The last time she wrote, she told me that her condition was getting worse and she didn't feel up to talking anymore. I was hoping that the clinical trial she was in would help, but it doesn't appear to be working. Cancer definitely sucks.

The more I talk to these auction people, the more it seems like the auction business might be an interesting line of work. There are all these energetic young people who have a wealth of knowledge about stuff. Some are experts in photography. Others are experts in rare book, coins, and even comic books. I learned today that people even collect manual typewriters. I know a lot about stuff too, but I've never put my knowledge to good use. The fun thing about collecting is sharing esoteric knowledge with like minded people. I always enjoyed it when watch aficionado friends could instantly recognize a weird watch, just from seeing it on my wrist. When I lost contact with the watch collectors, train buffs, and art mavens, my interest in stuff seemed to vanish overnight.

This would have been the perfect week to fix the roof. It's been hot and dry for quite a while now. Unfortunately, rain is on the way. The long range forecast says we might be looking at a full week of rain starting sometime next week. If only I could get the roofer and the landscaper to come out to the house tomorrow. If the dead grass was replaced now, the rain might help it grow. If the roof was fixed now, I wouldn't have to worry about a new water leak next week. This is all just a fantasy though. I obviously have very little influence on repair people. They come and go as they please.

Tonight was supposed to be a good night to see Mercury on the Western horizon. I noticed that there were clouds on the horizon when we took Dash on his sunset walk, so I didn't even bother to go down to the lake and look for the planet. I can't even see the horizon from the house. There are way too many trees. If I had a bucket list, living in a place with clear, dark night skies would definitely be on it. You can't even see the Milky Way in Dallas. I have seen Mercury though. Occasionally, I get lucky.

I just got new socks last week and I've already lost a pair. Why are socks so easy to lose in the wash? It's one of life's great mysteries.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2485

I wrote another letter to my Luddite sister today. I do this about once a month. Anything more often would seem excessive. I've grown to like these old fashioned hand written letters. They make me realize that there is really no need for instant answers. Speed and quality are two different things entirely. Wandering through a library looking at dust jackets on potentially interesting books seems more satisfying than reading reviews on Amazon. Waiting for a letter seems much more satisfying than being forced to instantly reply to an e-mail. I don't like how the Internet has sped everything up and destroyed our power of concentration in the process. Maybe I'm a Luddite as well. If the Internet ceased to exist, it wouldn't bother me one bit.

I discontinued Dot's physical therapy today. Maybe this is temporary and maybe it's permanent. I just don't know. What I do know is that the trip downtown take more out of her now than she gets back from the therapy. Lately, every visit has resulted in a perceived loss instead of a gain. I think it's time for a rest.

Dot had a lot of accidents today, so I did a lot of laundry. At one point I even had to take Dot outside and clean her off with a garden hose after a particularly nasty mess. I keep thinking that I should be able to anticipate and even master these incontinence issues, but nothing has been very predictable. I try to make sure she sleeps on a disposable pad and even put one under her while she's eating her meals. She never gives much warning when she needs to go unfortunately and I often get caught by surprise.

I picked up a new LED bulb for a kitchen fixture today because the existing bulb has been flickering for weeks. I thought that LED bulbs were supposed to be completely trouble free, but apparently not. I've had quite a few fail on me and have subsequently learned not to buy the cheap Chinese brands. I got a Philips bulb this time, but failed to notice the color temperature of the bulb on the packaging. I like the daylight balanced bulbs better, but the warmer tungsten balanced bulbs seems to be getting more popular. Oh, well. It's not worth taking the bulb back. I guess I can live with one yellow bulb mixed in with a bunch of white ones.

I wonder why Apple made so many changes with IOS 10? A lot of the changes seem purely cosmetic. There's a different kind of clicking sound when you turn the phone off. You no longer swipe from left to right to unlock the phone, but are asked to press the home button instead. Why?  I hate to see things change like this after I've gotten used to using the old system. I could understand if the changes made things better, but I think the designers just got bored and wanted to do something different.

I get bored frequently, but seldom see a need to arbitrarily change things. People used to kid me for continuing to use a very old version of Photoshop. I knew this version backwards and forwards though and could make it do things that friends with the latest updates still hadn't mastered. I see little point in racing into the future until we have learned from the past and mastered the present. I think this is what my sister is trying to tell me. She writes a good longhand letter.

Hobbs is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1638

When I was getting the water off the roof today, a code compliance car stopped in front of the house and an officer got out and asked what I was doing. "I'm getting the standing water off the roof from yesterday's rain," I said. "You can't flood a city street with water like that," the man told me. I tried to explain that water flows downhill and that the street was lower than any place in the yard. "The same thing happens when it rains," I told the man. "There is nowhere else for the water to go." I showed the man what I was doing and said that the water would all evaporate in about twenty minutes anyway. The code compliance guy seemed comfortable with my answer and wasn't going to write me a citation. As he prepared to drive off, he told me to hurry up because he didn't want anyone to complain. Sometimes I wish I lived way out in the country, about forty miles from anybody. City life has become way too complicated.

The entire day was like this. It was just a series of random events that didn't add up to much. I wrote a letter to my Luddite historian sister who still refuses to use the Internet. I meant to send her a birthday card in April, but somehow never got around to it. The letter was probably a futile effort anyway. When my sister does reply, it is with a incomprehensible hand written note that is almost impossible to decipher. I can't convince her to use a typewriter. Physicians writing prescriptions have better handwriting than this. She thinks that hand written notes are more personal though, even if nobody can read them.

The doctor who does write most of my prescriptions told me recently that I needed new lab work before he could renew my prescriptions again.  Really?  I stopped by his office on my way to the post office today just to make sure. I explained that I'd had a boatload of blood tests this Spring during my Hepatitis C treatment. This didn't appear to be good enough. They wanted their own tests. "Fine", I said. "Can we do them now?" Nope. They wanted me to fast. I need to go back again later this week  before I eat breakfast.

Every time I go up on the roof, I notice worn spots and I decided today that I'd better call the roofer to come out and inspect the roof. I feel the same way about dealing with roofers as I do about going to the dentist. I'd just as soon avoid this, but I know that if I wait until the roof actually leaks, the roofer will just tell me that I should have called him sooner, before things became a problem. When I made the call, the roofer was surprisingly responsive and friendly. No excuses whatsoever. He said he'd come out later in the week and take care of anything that might be a problem. Maybe I overthink things. I probably should have called the guy last month.

I'm trying to decide whether to change Dot's Thursday acupuncture appointment to tomorrow. I probably drive my vet crazy trying to avoid taking Dot out in the rain, but that's just the way it is. Dot used to be the only one with storm phobia. Now, Dash shares her fear of storms. I fear the disease may be spreading. Now, I think I may have acquired Dot's storm phobia as well. Of course, Janet thinks Dot got her fear of storms from me in the first place. It's one of those chicken and egg things.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1351

Some days are a lost cause. I thought today would be a good time to finish a print job with a looming deadline. I don't do much print design anymore, since most of my clients have forgotten what it is. I fired up Quark Express and proceeded to re-learn all the things I'd forgotten since the last time I'd used this software. As it turned out, I'd forgotten quite a bit, but it all started coming back to me after a couple of hours of fumbling around. Eventually, I had a nice looking design and I started reading the printer's file upload instructions. Oops. This printer couldn't handle halftones. They wanted line art only, and unless I wanted to pay a huge setup charge for multiple spot colors, they wanted single color files only. I should have read all this before I got started. Oh, well. All I've got to do is throw away all the photos, find some line art vector files that look kind of like the photos I threw away and re-do the entire design using Adobe Illustrator instead of Quark Express. Piece of cake.

In the dumb and dumber department, ABC news sent out a tweet today saying that Neil Armstrong had just died. I felt sad reading the tweet, thinking that pretty soon none of the men that walked on the moon would be left. But wait a minute! Neil Armstrong was already dead. He died last year. Just goes to show that you can't believe everything you hear on the Internet, or on the evening news.

The weather was so nice this morning that I started looking for signs of an early Fall. I didn't find any, of course. By mid-afternoon the temperature was up over 100 again and it was clear that Summer wasn't quite finished with us yet. I always look forward to Fall. As the days shorten and grow cooler, I start to see beautiful sunsets that tempt me to carry a camera with me at all times. I get to quit mowing the grass for another year. And a blanket of leaves covers up the landscaping mistakes. If I'm lucky, the bugs disappear as well.

I got a letter from my historian sister who refuses to use the Internet. I learned that she'd gotten a post office box because a truck knocked over her mailbox and she didn't feel like fixing it. That she'd  fallen off a tall ladder and was walking with a cane. And that after having half a dozen books published, she'd lost interest in writing. Sounds like everything's normal.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1337

What a difference a few hours make. This morning was so slow and uneventful that I wrote a letter to my Luddite, historian sister who still refuses to use the Internet. Writing letters on paper that actually travel through the mail is becoming a lost art. I'll have to admit I'm losing the knack myself. My problem is that I can never think of anything to say that I haven't already said on the blog. I keep thinking that if I could just convince my sister to read the blog, I wouldn't have to write these redundant letters.

After I mailed my letter, I began to look for a way to attach a quick release plate to my heavy-duty Miller tripod. What a dummy I am. While I was measuring things so I could order the right sized plate, I discovered that my tripod already had a built-in release plate. I've been using this tripod for over ten years and had never noticed the little button that releases the attached metal plate from the top of the fluid head. Until today, I though the plate was permanently attached. If I'd noticed this handy feature back when I was shooting a lot of corporate videos, it would have saved me a lot of time.

I was convinced that the entire day was going to be slow and uneventful until my calm was disrupted by the screech of an extreme weather alert on the television. The dogs know what these weather alerts mean now, so their storm phobia behavior immediately escalated to DEFCON-1. After I confirmed on the iPad weather radar that a bad thunderstorm was indeed headed our way, I did what I could to calm Dot and Dash. Storms didn't used to bother Dash at all, but he has learned his fear of bad weather from watching Dot. Ironically, Dot wasn't scared of storms when she was a young dog either. She acquired her storm phobia from watching Petey, an older Dalmatian we had before Dash joined the family. Petey's storm phobia was so severe that I can understand why it left a strong impression on Dot. One day during a storm he completely destroyed the carpet in the bedroom, trying his best to dig a hole straight to China. He didn't make it to China, but he did manage to scratch his way all the way through the plywood sub-floor under the carpet.

When the storm arrived, I got under a big blanket with the dogs and huddled with them for at least thirty minutes until the booming thunderclaps began to subside. I don't know why this works, but it usually does. Maybe since dogs are pack animals, they feel more comfortable huddled together with their pack in a cave. It took me a while to discover this simple solution to storm phobia, but I go straight for the blanket now whenever I hear a storm approaching. Now that I don't have to worry about a leaking roof anymore, a thunderstorm is just an excuse to go take a nap with the dogs.

I take my car in for service tomorrow to get the harmonic balancer I order a few weeks ago attached. Hopefully, this will finally cure my engine vibration problem. If this new part doesn't work, I don't know what I'm going to do. I need to keep the Defender running another two years until the new Land Rover Defenders hit the market. I'm going to be real disappointed if Land Rover decides not to re-introduce the Defender 90 to the United States after all. I've been looking and I still can't find anything else I'd be satisfied driving.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day