Day 4107

Another beautiful Spring day. In theory, I should get a lot accomplished on days like this, but I seldom do. Things are moving along slowly though. My 2020 taxes have been submitted, so I don't have to deal with that for another year. The Kickstarter project I backed has funded, so it looks like the product will go into production. If all goes well, I should get my hands on one of the first available versions sometime this Fall. One of the tree trimmers I called finally returned my call, so it looks like I'll be getting a bid on removing the Oak tree in the back yard. Janet wants to remove the tree more than I do, but I would hate to have it fall on the neighbor's cars and have everybody tell me "I told you so." The tree will probably be gone before the Kickstarter project ships.

Dawn did well on her walk today. There was no hesitation or freezing at all. I still have no idea what influences her behavior. She did get excited by another dog and tugged on the leash hard enough to make my hip hurt when I walked. I have so many aching joints now that I have to walk slow and steady. Sometimes I feel like that slow walking Duane Toddleberry character created by Tim Conway on the old Carol Burnett show. It's hard to believe now that I was ever nimble and agile.

I haven't heard anything from the Air Force yet about getting my credentials reinstated for 2021. We were supposed to hear something by the middle of March, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that things are running late. Everything seems to be running late this year. It's just as well that I won't be tempted by launches in Florida for a while. My trip out to McDonald Observatory later this Spring is all I can afford anyway.

I need to get a new plastic mat to put under my office chair. I've worn a hole in my existing mat and the wheels of my chair get stuck in it all the time. It's irritating. I used to see these mats everywhere, but now I can't find them. I probably haven't looked very hard. That will be my task for tomorrow. I also need an accordion folder for my 2021 receipts. I usually get one of these every January, but it's March already. I'm slipping. Looks like a trip to Office Depot might be in order.

It must have rained a lot last night because the water level in the lake looked a lot higher today. If there's more water in the lake, there's probably more water on the roof as well. I really should get up there and sweep the standing water away, but it is supposed to rain again tomorrow night, so maybe I'll wait. The way my hip feels right now, I probably couldn't make it up on the roof anyway. It sucks getting old. All these things that used to be easy aren't all that easy anymore.

Something weird is happening with our mail. Instead of getting a single batch of mail once a day, we are getting several deliveries during the day. Today we got three deliveries, each with a few letters and flyers. Is the mail actually getting delivered more often, or is our mail just getting misplaced in neighbor's boxes. Maybe neighbors are just returning misplaced mail. I really don't trust mail deliveries anymore. We used to have the same mailman for decades. Now there seems to be a new delivery person every week. 

I've slept well for two nights in a row. What changed? Probably nothing. My nights are probably just as random as my days. I hope this trend continues though. It really makes a difference.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4078

Clyde got adopted this week, so only Cooper and Charlie remain at the kennel. We weren't able to visit the dogs last week because of the snow and ice, but they survived the cold pretty well. The kennel never lost power, but they were well prepared in case they did. One of the kennel managers stayed overnight with the dogs on the coldest days to make sure they were OK and plenty of water was set aside in case the kennel lost running water. There still seems to be no rhyme or reason to who had electricity during the storm and who didn't. There were people near us who lost power and there were people near the kennel who lost power. I guess the Dalmatians got lucky, just like we did.

The temperature got up to seventy degrees again today. If you didn't have a plumbing problem, there is very little evidence that the storm even existed. The snow and ice are completely gone and it feels like Spring is around the corner. I hope that last week was our Winter. Enough is enough. We really don't need any more cold weather this year.

I went up to the post office to see if I could pick up our accumulated mail this morning and the postmaster said that most of the mail for our area hadn't even arrived yet. Evidently, many post offices in the vicinity were without power during the storm, including the main Dallas sorting facility. Mail is still scattered all over the place and could take up to a week to arrive. We did get a little mail today at the house, but it was all junk.

I looked up what bills usually arrive around this time of the month and paid them online. I think we're good, although I do hope that my copies of SpaceFlight Magazine don't get lost. Trash service has resumed in our neighborhood and hopefully vaccine distribution will get back on schedule as well. We've got another week before we're due for our second shot, so everything should be back to normal by then.

I don't know what I'm going to do about my foot. I used the Voltaren gel today, but my foot was still very painful after about four miles. I'm probably not using enough of the gel to be effective, but I've always been a little suspicious of NSAID anti-inflammatory medicine. This stuff is probably safer than Ibuprofen, but long term use of any NSAID is not recommended. I wonder why the shoes don't work anymore. They really helped a lot for the first three weeks.

I'm thinking about applying for press credentials to attend the Boeing Starliner launch in April. This launch takes place almost a month after my second Covid vaccination, so I should have as much immunity as I'm going to get. At some point we all need to pick up where we left off in life last March. Lockdowns weren't meant to become a way of life or a permanent condition. I"m not even sure I can get NASA accreditation again. Somehow, I got lucky with the Crew 1 launch, but I have a feeling that I have fallen to the back of the line again. It's really hard to get established when your magazine isn't widely known and you can only afford several trips a year.

Dawn took two walks again today, but she is still nervous around me when Janet is away from the house. I don't know if this is ever going to change. Dawn is nervous about many things. I'm just one of a long list of phobias she has. Hopefully, we can work this out in the next several months, because Janet is even more eager to travel than I am.

The weather has been so nice for the past two days that I almost failed to notice that there is an entire week of rain in the forecast starting this Thursday. Oh, well. Rain isn't great, but it's a lot better than ice. Maybe if it rains a lot, I will be forced to stay inside and my foot will finally heal.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2978

I need to find a better time to go to the gym. For the past two weeks there has been a full court game underway when I arrived, so I haven't been able to shoot baskets. This is disappointing, since my time on the basketball court is the only real fun I have at the gym. The rest of the time is just burning calories and trying to raise my heart rate.

Dash was listless today. He did take a walk, but wasn't very interested in eating. I had to try several different varieties of dog food before I could get him to eat anything. Usually, Dash's appetite returns after a walk, but not today. I don't know what was wrong. He didn't seem nauseous or  show the usual signs of a vestibular event. Dash just wasn't hungry. A Dalmatian who won't eat is always alarming. Typically, they are always hungry.

The rain continued today. There was only a light mist when we took our morning walk, but there were several downpours later in the day. Now that the rain has returned, the dehumidifier is struggling to keep the house dry. I have to empty the water reservoir twice as often as on a dry day. Rain seems to amplify all the other problems in the house. When I think about it, every single house issue is related to water.

There is standing water on the roof. There is a leak that allows water to accumulate under the shower tiles. One of the toilets runs and I can't find parts to fix it. Even the ailing refrigerator is basically a water problem. If the evaporator coil didn't freeze, everything would be fine. I wish the rain would quit so at least the air would feel dry. I'm losing my patience with water.

I could really tell that I had shoulder and knee problems while I was at the gym today. Maybe rain makes my arthritis worse. My shoulder still aches. I wonder how bad things need to get before I consider surgery? Lots of people I know have had knee replacements. Some recover completely and others don't. I've always been fearful of surgery. Most of the surgery the dogs have had was unavoidable, but they never made a full recovery. Surgery is very invasive. I had knee surgery back when I was in college and my knee continues to feel weird to this day. I had something called Slocum's Procedure, which has since fallen out of favor among orthopedic surgeons. It is amazing how many types of surgery have fallen out of favor over the years when doctors discovered that the proceedure basically didn't work.

Tomorrow is one of those holidays that doesn't really feel like a holiday. Janet gets a day off and we won't get any mail, but other than that, it's just a normal day. There aren't even any President's Day savings on the refrigerator I still need to buy. Washington's birthday is really on February 22, but in 1971 we decided that it was easier to give people the day off on a Monday, so a lot of minor holidays began being celebrated on Monday. It was also easier to just take away Lincoln's holiday and call combined birthday celebration President's Day. Not that is matters, but I remember when Washington and Lincoln each had their own holiday.

I have a ton of bills to pay tomorrow, but they will all have to wait until Tuesday. There is no mail delivery tomorrow. It would be nice if there was no rain as well.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2317

There was a pile of mail on our doorstep early this morning. It obviously didn't come from the post office, so I will have to assume that it was another batch of misdirected mail that our mail carrier left at a neighbor's house instead. This has happened before. Luckily, our neighbors are usually more reliable about returning the mail than the post office is in delivering it. We used to have a fabulous mail carrier, but things have gone downhill in recent years. I suspect that the post office has become mired in bureaucracy, just like the veterans administration and other government agencies. It's hard to fire bad mail carriers too. They probably have a job for life.

It was difficult to focus on anything today. I had some websites to update, but there wasn't enough work to keep me occupied for long. I kind of drifted aimlessly through the day. I paid some bills, took a small check to the bank, picked up a prescription, and bought a big bag of Cheetos. I really try to eat healthy, but I've become addicted to Flaming Hot Crunchy Cheetos. I hope the red dye in these things doesn't give you cancer, because it sure stains your hands when you eat them. I don't know what happened to the guy who studiously avoided wheat products and dined on Kale and Quinoa for over two years. I hate to admit it, but I've become a culinary backslider, trading fish and fresh veggies for bacon cheeseburgers whenever I can.

My big production printer is out of ink again. Do I buy eight more expensive cartridges, or do I just give up on the thing? The printer is a relic from another era. I used to make beautiful very large Giclée prints. I sold the prints and had several gallery shows. After a while I lost interest. Now, I just make a small test print every evening to keep the printer from clogging. I've run through two complete sets of ink cartridges making the same test print over and over again. The printer is ready if I need it, but I doubt that I will ever need it again. I haven't made a large exhibition quality print in three years.

I don't take as many photos as I used to either, although I keep checking the B&H website every few days to see if the camera I want is still on sale. The camera has been discounted quite a bit, so I suspect that it is being discontinued. That doesn't matter to me. Practically everything I own has been discontinued. Truthfully, I don't need a new camera any more than I need a huge commercial ink jet printer. It's frustrating. I'm just as addicted to gear as I am to Flaming Hot Crunchy Cheetos, but the cameras and computers are much more expensive. There was a time when these things were just normal business expenses, but that ship has sailed. I'm going to have to come up with a less expensive way to spend my remaining years.

I've got lots to remember tomorrow. It's time for Dot to take her next batch of Palladia pills. Our physical therapy session is also tomorrow, even though I still keep thinking it's on Thursday. My leather jacket is ready to pick up at the tailor shop. I'm sure there are other things as well. I'll try not to take the trash out a day early like I did last week. It's hard to remember what day it is when you keep track by how many bananas are left in the kitchen. If it's four bananas, it must be Wednesday.

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2138

Today basically sucked. I woke up with a sore back because I spent a good portion of the night sleeping on the floor with Dot. There were severe thunderstorms during the night and it was the only way I could keep her calm. For some reason, the dogs like to sit in the shower during storms and I didn't want her slipping on the tile floors in the bathroom or pooping all over the house. I must have been tired, because I promptly fell asleep on the floor and has a dream that Dot and I were watching wild animals through the bedroom window. Sleeping next to her did keep Dot calm though, so I guess it was all worth it.

We found a short dry spell to walk the dogs in the morning, but basically it rained all day. I thought about staying home for breakfast, but we were out of peaches and bananas, so I drove to my breakfast restaurant in the rain. The storm knocked most of the traffic lights out, so the short trip took much longer than usual. I certainly didn't prove much by getting all the acorns off the roof yesterday. Last night's wind and rain knocked thousands more off the trees, so the mess I was trying to avoid is up there anyway. It is supposed to rain for the next five days, so I'm not even going to bother going up on the roof. It's futile to remove the water now.

Water on the roof isn't my only water problem. I keep hearing water running in the pipes even when all the faucets are turned off. There are no obvious leaks anywhere that I can find, so the only thing I can think of is that there is a small leak under the slab. If this is what's happening, it's not good news. Any kind of plumbing problem under the foundation usually ends up being a giant expensive mess. I'll check next month's water bill to see if water usage has gone up. This month's water bill was actually smaller than the previous month, so if there's a leak, it's probably a small one.

I discovered that the reason I haven't heard from the watch winder company is that the guy I shipped the defective winder to is on vacation. It would have been nice if he'd told me he was going on vacation before I sent the package. Now, my claim won't even be processed until the guy returns. Ironically, right after I hung up the phone with the watch winder people, I discovered that the motor in another watch winder had burned out. Since I bought these things all about the same time, maybe all of them are getting ready to die on me. Does it really even matter? Probably not.

Apparently the Postal Service creed doesn't mean much anymore. You know how the saying goes: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." The postman used to deliver our mail in all types of weather, but our new mail carrier is definitely a fair weather friend. I've noticed for quite a while now that whenever we have a big storm, we don't get any mail that day. I don't know if the post office sanctions this or whether our mail carrier just throws the mail in the trunk of her car and waits for a sunny day. It's not like it used to be though.

Hopefully, we're going to get a break from this rain sometime this weekend. It's going to be a long two days otherwise. I'm accustomed to the rainy season by now. So far, it appears to be right on schedule. This will be our first Fall and Winter where we're dealing with Dot's limited mobility though. It makes things a bit harder.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1674

Someone has been sprinkling ground up bits of broken glass along several of the paths in the park. I don't know if this is to cause passing bicycles to have flats, or an effort to hurt animal paws, but it is definitely malicious. One more thing to look out for every morning. This city is wearing me down. Daydreaming is one of my favorite things, but it's just not as easy to absentmindedly daydream during our walks anymore. There's always something to look out for.

Dot worried me today. She was very slow and a bit stiff on our walk this morning. You could tell she wanted to walk, but just didn't have the energy. She went to sleep as soon as we returned home, but even her sleep wasn't restful. She kept changing position and groaning occasionally as if something was bothering her. There were no visible injuries. She was breathing completely normally. And she didn't appear under any stress. She just seemed tired. I'll ask the vet to check for any hidden warning signs, but I think she's just getting old. I know how she feels. It doesn't take much to wear me out either.

We don't get much mail anymore. I used to always look forward to getting the mail everyday, but the steady stream of magazines, circulars, and catalogs has almost come to a standstill. I think the battle for shoppers hearts and minds is over and that Amazon has won. Practically the only thing I get in the mail these days are bills to pay. Even the bills come with admonitions and enticements to get me to switch to online payments. Switch to online payments and we'll give you a $25 Starbucks card they say. No thanks for now. I still like printed statements. I prefer reading a book to looking at the same thing on a Kindle. I'd still rather read a magazine than visit a website. My days are numbered though. I've become a dinosaur.

A few more observations about my day at the courthouse yesterday. I think you can divide people into two categories. There are the ones who check their e-mail and texts obsessively. And there are the others who play Candy Crush Saga obsessively. I hate waiting and paced up and down the courthouse halls all day while the lawyers were deciding what to do with us. I was virtually the only person walking around though. Most people were just sitting on a bench and staring at their phones. They couldn't leave them alone for five minutes. It's kind of sad. I suspect the smart phone has already had an even larger impact on society than the automobile. For the Millennials, the phone has actually replaced the automobile as the iconic object of their generation.

Even though Dot was tired today, we still took both dogs to training class tonight. Dot spent most of the evening sitting in the grass with Janet, while Dash and I went through the exercises. Dot was happy. She doesn't like to be left out and there is no reason to leave her out of anything. We'll all just slow down a bit and let her enjoy her remaining days

Laura is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 416

No mail again today. I don't think I can remember when we've gone an entire week without mail delivery. It's weird. I can get to the post office, but they can't seem to get to me. Whenever I go to the post office to pick up the mail, they say my mail is out on the truck and I'll have to come back later. Somehow I think I'll never see this week's mail again.

The dogs don't worry about where the mail is. They had a great time frolicking in the snow. There were new smells to investigate and lots of trails in the snow to follow. Dash seems to like the snow better than Dot. She was concerned about keeping her balance like I was, while Dash jumped around and generally tried to knock us all over.

Going out in the park with the dogs was fun. Going out on the roads with all the crazy Texas drivers was another matter entirely.

I think Dallas could win some kind of award for having the worst Winter drivers anywhere. The roads were still real icy today and there were cars in the ditch just about everywhere. Most of the roads were passable if you took your time and didn't put on your brakes too fast. When I went out today, I wasn't worried about the ice ahead of me. I was a lot more worried about the big pick up trucks behind me going 40 miles an hour as I was approaching a stop light. If everybody would have just kept moving slowly, I don't think there would have been many problems at all. Unfortunately, there was always someone who would try to get out of a slippery situation by pressing the accelerator to the floor, spinning sideways and blocking all the other traffic on the road. When this happened, everybody got stuck. When you are forced to stop on an icy hill, it can be pretty hard to get started again.

I'm just glad the furnace is still working and the house is warm. No real damage from the bump on the head yesterday either. I feel sorry for all the restaurants and small businesses around town who have been counting on the Superbowl to make up for what they've been losing in this bad economy. I heard that 300 flights were canceled at DFW airport today. Fans aren't just curtailing their Superbowl shopping and partying, some of them aren't even able to get here at all. They say it's going to be warmer tomorrow. Here's hoping the weatherman is right.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 415

The first thing I did this morning was fall on the ice and hit my head on the concrete driveway. I've had a headache for the rest of the day. This weather is absolutely treacherous. It's not just ice on the roads now. It's ice everywhere. All the remaining snow has turned into thick sheets of ice. It's hard to go ten feet without falling on your butt. I wish I could just train the dogs to use the toilet, but they insist on going on their regular walks. I really need a pair of golf shoes or football cleats. Even my good hiking boots don't have any traction on this ice. I have to look for grassy areas and kick through the ice sheet with every step to avoid falling over. I don't know how the dogs manage to stay upright. They do slip and slide a bit, but they certainly seem to get around a lot better than I do. Their claws must give them the extra traction I'm looking for.

Still no mail delivery today. I drove down to the post office to see what was going on and discovered that the postmaster didn't know much more than I did. He did tell me that Cindy, our regular mail carrier, was sick and that they were using a substitute this week. He also told me that the mail carriers were authorized to come in early without finishing their deliveries if conditions looked bad. I guess conditions looked bad to the new guy all week, since I still haven't received any mail. It'll be a miracle if I ever get all of this week's mail. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it got thrown under the mail truck's tires to get out of a ditch.

Everybody seems to be blaming the city's weather related misfortunes on the Superbowl. The street would be clear, they say, if all the sand trucks hadn't been diverted to clear the streets around the Superbowl. Yesterday's power outages would never have happened if the Superbowl hadn't sucked up all the power. On and on it goes. I've never heard so many things blamed on the Superbowl in my life. I think the real reason for all the slowdowns is that we just don't know how to cope with Winter down here. Hey, if we wanted snow and ice, most of us wouldn't have moved to Texas in the first place.

Nobody seems to know if the garbage trucks are going to pick up the trash on our street tomorrow morning. Somehow, I doubt it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 414

We woke up this morning to rolling power outages and a temperature of only thirteen degrees. This wasn't a good combination. Our house isn't well insulated and you could feel the temperature drop minute-by-minute. It would have been nice if TXU had warned people that they were going to be shutting the power off periodically throughout the day. I've already had several computers ruined by the surges associated with power outages. Luckily, the first outage occurred before the computers turned themselves on for the day, so I was able to unplug everything that might be damaged. It got pretty cold for a while this morning, but everything seemed to stabilize around noon. At least in the Winter, you don't have to worry about food going bad in the fridge when the power goes out. All's well that ends well though. We're warm as toast now. The furnace repairman even stopped by today to check out my intermittent furnace problems and give the old furnace a clean bill of health.

I took advantage of the lack of electricity this morning to switch out the computers in the office. I am now officially using the new computer for everything. It must have been weeks ago when I told you guys that I got the new computer, but this is the very first blog post I've published using it. One reason I waited so long was Dreamweaver. I use Dreamweaver every day and I knew that once I started using the new version, I'd have to spend a lot of time downloading a whole new batch of Dreamweaver Extensions and getting used to the "improvements" in the application. Sure enough, when I got to work after the power returned, I discovered that some of my favorite Dreamweaver MX extensions don't even work on CS-5. I found what I needed on Adobe Exchange though and I'm off and rolling again.

I haven't seen the park so empty in a long time. When I took the dogs on their evening walk I noticed that my boot prints in the snow from yesterday were still the only footprints around. Absolutely no joggers today. In fact, I didn't see anybody at all. We must have been the only ones foolish enough to go outside. I think Dot ate a little mouse while we were walking today. There was a rustling in the tall grass and she pounced on something and started chewing. Whatever it was, it was gone before I could open her mouth and look inside. It must have been a mouse. All the horse poop in the park is frozen now.

So much for that old "Neither snow nor rain nor dark of night" adage about the postal service. Nobody has delivered our mail for three days now. I've seen postmen delivering mail in other parts of town, but they can't seem to make it to our house. This is probably just like our garbage pickup and this morning's rolling power outages. Somebody probably decided that everybody needed to come down to the post office and pick up their own mail during the bad weather, but forgot to tell the people who were actually receiving the mail. Oh well, tomorrow's another day. I guess I'll go down to the post office and find out for myself what's going on.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day