Day 4468

I can't seem to shake this cold I've got. There's no fever anymore and my cough isn't as bad, but I'm still not feeling myself. I kind of just trudged through the day in a fog. I'd sit down on the bed to rest for a few minutes and then I've wake up several hours later wondering where the day went.

Dawn was eager to take a walk this morning. This was the first family walk she'd had in a week. She certainly hasn't forgotten her old schedule and had a good time smelling things in the park. Dawn has resumed all her old habits and has started barking at me again if I don't fix her dinner fast enough. She was a little nervous when Janet left to go to the gym this morning but after she returned Dawn realized that all was well. This was just the way life had always been.

For the first time in ages I saw almost nobody wearing masks in the grocery stores when I was shopping this morning. The stores didn't even have signs on the doors anymore. It was as if the entire city decided they'd had enough at the same time. I think the few people that still wear masks everywhere will continue doing so for the rest of their lives. That's OK. There are lots of things of dubious medical value that give people comfort. Just look on the shelves at any health food store. 

I continue to think the best way to stay healthy is to avoid crowds, get outside a lot, eat healthy food, go easy on the sweets, and get lots of exercise. Seems simple enough. So why do so many people still go to McDonalds? I guess I don't even understand the concept of fast food and haven't been through a drive thru window in years. Even a good restaurant meal usually has way too much salt. So, if I'm so healthy, why do I have a cold now? I think Janet gave me this cold, but she says that is ridiculous. Her cough was just allergies, she says.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring. Somehow today felt like the first day of Summer. It was really hot this afternoon. I started to sweat on my long walk which reminded me that Winter isn't all bad. I didn't walk nearly as far today. I'm going to try this for a few days and see if it helps my feet any. I'm going to order some Hoka boots with an REI coupon I've got. They probably won't make any difference, but at least I won't have to wonder about this any longer.

It looks like it's going to be a good day for Dawn's Sunday outing tomorrow. Spring is always nice, although I tend to like Fall better. It's the temperature extremes of Summer and Winter that I try to avoid. I hope Dawn enjoys her walk tomorrow because it looks like we're going to get a lot of rain on Monday. Why? The roof is finally dry again. I'm so tired of rain, roof leaks, and the inability to find a roofer that I really trust. 

I think the eagles are gone for good. I haven't seen either of them in weeks. Nobody even talks about the birds anymore. It's almost like the whole eagle episode that captivated Dallas for a few weeks never even happened. I guess Andy Warhol's thirty minutes of fame principle applies to birds as well.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4205

Every once in a while I do something unpleasant just because it needs to be done. Today I bought a bunch of St. Augustine sod and covered all the bare areas in the back yard. Today seemed like a good day to put in new sod because the ground was still very wet and made it easier to prepare the soil for the new grass. I haven't put in sod for a while and had forgotten that this is a tiring, messy job. I used to put in a new turf almost every year. Then we started using a landscape company for a while. Lately we have done nothing and I just mow the weeds. Wet, muddy sod is messy stuff to carry around in a car. The old Land Rover Defender was certainly easier to clean up afterwards. It was probably good that the sod was wet though bacause it won't dry out as fast when we are trying to get it established. Wet sod is very heavy. Each square seemed to weigh twice as much as I remember.

I think I did a good job. The yard looks presentable now and Dawn will be a lot less likely to roll around in the dirt. Like other outdoor chores I've attempted recently, installing the sod reminded me that I'm well past my prime. My hands still hurt from carrying each piece or the heavy, slippery sod from the car to the back yard. I thought it would be easy to carry a square of sod in each hand while I was moving the stuff to the back yard. I must have been dreaming. I had to carry one square at a time. I definitely have some arthritis in my fingers now. The old joints don't move like they used to. I got the job done though and now there is one fewer item on my to do list.

By the time I was finished with the yard work it was way too hot to take my long walk in the park. I did a load of laundry, took a short nap, and then went to the gym. I got a notice the other day that my gym no longer has a mask requirement. Nobody was wearing masks today. This was quite a change from a few days ago and seemed to prove that everybody had just been following the rules without any strong feelings about whether masks actually worked. One old fool was wearing a loose fitting cloth bandana while he was running around the track but that was about it. Now that the mask mandate is history, I hope that the gym brings back the basketballs soon. I really used to enjoy shooting baskets on the court. They said I could bring my own basketball, but it would be a lot easier to just use one of theirs.

Dawn had a day of beauty at the vet while I was putting in the new sod this morning. Janet discovered that the price included a nail trim and getting Dawn's anal glands expressed, so the deluxe bath was actually less expensive than taking Dawn to one of those self-bathe places and then having a vet do the nails and anal glands as separate items. We still need to figure out why Dawn is obsessively licking her feet, but that's going to be a lot more complicated than getting a bath.

I watched the Space X Transporter 2 launch this afternoon on the streaming channel. The launch got scrubbed with ten seconds on the clock. There was a range violation and apparently there was a boat or an airplane in the restricted zone. Every time a launch is scrubbed it reminds me that a trip to Florida is never a sure thing. When a launch gets delayed, suddenly your trip becomes much more expensive. This has happened to me several times already and I haven't even been to that many launches. I guess nothing is a sure thing. There's been a lot of rain out at McDonald Observatory recently, so this wouldn't have been a good time for a visit out there either. The Davis Mountains really needed the rain though. It has been very dry this year.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm definitely not going to do any more yard work. Hopefully I won't be dealing with roof leaks either. A day with absolutely nothing on the agenda is perfectly fine with me.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day