Day 4841

Another day when I didn't really accomplish much. We woke to blue skies again, but surprisingly it was raining again by dinner time. Dawn got a nice walk while the weather was still nice and so did I. It was a bit disorienting to hear thunder late in the day. I wasn't expecting this.

After my usual weekday breakfast of shredded wheat and fruit I wrote a letter to my sister and took it to the post office. Even at odd times during the day the traffic is always heavy now. Even a short trip to the post office can end up being a hassle.

It was starting to get cloudy when I took my long walk, but I definitely wasn't expecting rain. There are still people out looking for the eagles, but I haven't seen them in a long time. I'm also wondering what has happened to our resident geese. Three or four years ago there was a large flock of the honkers. Then the birds moved to the other side of the lake and I only saw ten. I saw the ten geese every single day for a long time and then they began to disappear one by one. Now there are only four. Oddly there are more Muscovy ducks these days. For years there were only two large males. Now there are two females as well, I don't even try to count the Mallards. There must be hundreds of Mallards who call the lake home.

I called the owner of the music store again to see if he had located my equipment. He found a synthesizer and some rack mount gear, but hasn't been able to find a mixer I consigned. When he asked for details about the mixer I wasn't very helpful. I couldn't remember the brand name or even how many channels it had. I think it was British, which means it was probably a Soundcraft or Studiomaster, but I really can't remember. All I remember is that it was housed in a big square brown flight case. We used it briefly with the band I was in, but it was too much trouble to lug around. I'm not sure which is worse: losing the mixer or my memory.

I learned this morning that Miley, the Dalmatian who was in the Paypal ad with me, passed away today. Considering that I'd only really seen the dog once at a photoshoot in San Francisco for the ad, this made me very sad. I've been following Miley's adventures on Facebook for many years and he was a very special dog. RIP Miley. A lot of people will miss you.

Our own Dalmatian continues to get better every day. I hesitate to say that Dawn's troubles are over since a bulging disc in the spine is a serious thing, but she is acting normally again. We have reduced her medication and will discontinue it entirely in a few days. Hopefully Dawn will continue to do fine in the days ahead. Like many Dalmatians she loves to run and jump and this might be her undoing. We've got to convince her that staying calm is for her own good.

It would be nice if I'd hear something about the upcoming launches where I've applied for press credentials. All I know is that they're supposed to take place sometime in April. This is also when the roofers want to start replacing the roof. I definitely don't want to be in Florida when the roofers start tearing off the roof. I don't think I deal well with uncertainty anymore. I'd feel more comfortable if everything was mapped out for the rest of the year and I could just follow a schedule. Actually, working was a lot easier than retirement.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4829

It was a busy day. Dawn is getting her sunrise walks again and appears to be back to normal. Now that we're on Daylight Savings Time we're actually seeing the sunrise again. Dawn continues to seem steadier on her feet than I am. I think she's made a remarkable recovery. She finished her pain medication today, so hopefully she'll feel just as good tomorrow.

My e-mail is working again. Yay. The guy I talked to last night accomplished nothing, but I got lucky this morning and ended up talking with a different tech support person who actually knew what he was doing. This guy was a software engineer and not some call center flunky. He diagnosed my problem and had everything working again in less than five minutes. Sadly, I'll probably never talk to this guy again. One of the worst things about modern tech support is that you never end up talking to the same person twice. You are just randomly assigned to the next available agent. Some of these people know what they're doing, but the majority don't. I can't believe how many hours I spent talking to the first two tech support representatives yesterday and neither of them accomplished anything.

I made surprisingly good time on my long walk today. I managed to get over 21,000 steps and doubled my normal Apple watch move goal. It's a mystery how I had so much energy since I woke up tired. I'll have to admit that it was a nice day for walking. It felt brisk outside but it wasn't too cold. I just wore a light jacket and felt fine. I noticed that another of the resident geese was missing today. Where are these geese going? There were ten about three months ago and now there are only four. Is someone capturing these geese and taking them home to eat? Are they dying of natural causes? Or are visitors killing them by feeding them unhealthy food? The are signs all over the park explicitly telling people not to feed the ducks and geese bread. Nobody listens. Almost every day I see people feeding the ducks bread. Sometimes they are feeding them right next to a sign telling them not to. Bread is one of the worst things you can feed waterfowl. If you insist on feeding ducks and geese, feed them cracked corn or frozen peas. Ducks will eagerly eat the bread but it is very bad for them.

It's tax season again and Janet and I both have to print out a lot of forms. Janet uses an iPad for almost everything and our existing printers are all to old to print from phones and iPads. I went out this afternoon and bought her a modern printer that supports Apple Airprint. Printers are amazingly cheap these days. This printer was very nice and cost less than what I typically pay for printer ink. The printer was a lot harder to configure than I thought, but it's working now and has made both our lives easier. Janet can print anything she wants directly from her iPad and phone. I continue to print the old fashioned way, with an Ethernet cable attached to my printer.

I got a lot done today, but the one thing I didn't have time for was searching for the remaining leaking spots on the roof. That's a shame because it's supposed to start raining again tomorrow morning. I really can't catch a break with this roof. There's been so much rain this Spring that it's rare for the roof to get dry enough for me to apply the remaining Armor Flex coating. I'm almost certain that the roof will start leaking again, but I hope the area in the living room that I cleaned up the other day stays dry. Cleaning that area was a lot of work.

The friend who has my train collection sold a few more trains today. At this rate I may be able to liquidate the collection in another ten years. This buyer lives in India. Go figure. I'm surprised at how many buyers are outside the country. Some of my guitars went to a band in the UK. Several trains have gone to Europeans. The auction house never disclosed who bought my art, but I suspect that most of them were European too.

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. Dawn is really enjoying her walks now and I'm enjoying having a dry ceiling again. Oh, well. Eventually the rainy season will be over and we'll have a new roof. Until then, I've got the buckets ready.

Carmine is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day