Day 4815

This weather is driving me nuts. As soon as the leaks stop the rain starts again. Once water gets under the Armor Flex coating on the roof there is a time delay before it reaches the inside of the house. What this means is that it can be sunny outside while the roof is leaking inside. The leaks aren't nearly as bad after my attempt to patch the roof, but even a small leak is still annoying. It's not raining right now, but we have tornado warnings starting tomorrow evening. I'm wondering if this will ever end.

There was nothing important on the agenda today. I ate my breakfast and tried to time my long walk so I wouldn't get wet. We were lucky again on Dawn's sunrise walk, making it home a few minutes before a heavy shower began. My luck ran out later this morning. Everything looked good on the weather radar, so I headed out. The weather was fine for the first mile or so and then a sudden shower appeared out of nowhere. I got wet, but it was quite warm so it wasn't a big deal. The shower didn't last long and I was almost dry again by the time I returned home.

I am so hooked on getting my steps these days that very little stops me. It's been a long time since I failed to get at least 10,000 steps. When I make the drive to West Texas it's almost impossible to reach my goal since I'm spending all day in the car. I missed my goal when I had gall bladder surgery too. There's not much you can do when you are hooked up to IV tubes in the hospital.

My feet were in bad shape today. I could barely walk when I got out of bed this morning. The odd thing is that the pain is worse when I first wake up. After I put on shoes and start walking around it usually gets a lot better. Aches and pains are the story of my life these days. Between bad knees, a bad shoulder and the persistent foot pain, something always seems to hurt. Most of this can just be attributed to growing older. Like many people my age I probably have a moderate case of osteoarthritis.

It's hard to believe that it is already March. Where does the time go? I did make it down to Florida in January for a Falcon Heavy launch, but most of this year has just been dealing with rain and roof leaks. It would be a nice break from this frustration to make another trip out to the observatory in April for their annual Dark Sky Festival, but I'm not sure that I'm up for the long drive anymore. When I made the trip last year it was really tiring. I definitely don't want to fall asleep at the wheel and my left hand tends to go numb if I grip the steering wheel for too long. Unfortunately there is no way to fly to this destination. It's a long drive to West Texas or nothing.

We're on the edge of the tornado warned area, so hopefully we won't get any severe weather tomorrow. I actually worry more about high winds than tornados. High winds have already brought down several large trees in our yard and there are several more that are just waiting for the right storm to take them out. These old mature Oak trees really don't hold up that well to high winds. I wonder if there are still places where the weather is nice all the time. Florida has frequent hurricanes and my favorite place in West Texas is dealing with a huge range fire right now. I wouldn't even consider living up North. How do people deal with all that snow? Who knows? Maybe it will be nice tomorrow. Our weather forecast is often wrong.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4790

Shopping is not a pleasure anymore. Traffic is unreal these days. Even at 10 AM Northwest Highway looked like the worst evening rush hour I've ever experienced. Where are all these people coming from? It feels like the population of Dallas has doubled overnight. Stores are crowded and shelves are empty. I routinely have to go to several stores to find things that I used to find in a single location. Prices keep rising and in an effort for keep prices lower, many stores are replacing familiar national brands with their own private labels. Most of these private label brands seem to be of lower quality. It's sad. As soon as we reset our expectations and learn to accept this new reality, I suspect things will get even worse.

What happened to our ice storm? It's like it never even happened. The weather was nice today. It was much warmer and the ground is almost dry again. We had a great walk with Dawn this morning. She really missed her walks during the storm. I think we're almost back to normal now. I cleaned and put most of the buckets away and did a huge load of wash. It seems like every towel and cleaning cloth we own was put to use when there were leaks everywhere. I thought all the leaks were gone, but after the temperature warmed up a very small leak reappeared in the office. This leak has finally stopped as well, but I'm still leaving a container under it just in case.

The roof estimator wanted to come over a little early, so I postponed my long walk until after he finished looking at things. He seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the problems I was having. The guy was young and I don't think he had dealt with many flat roofs before. He took a lot of pictures and said he was going to confer with someone at the company who had a lot of experience with my type of roof. Later in the day I got a call from someone who seemed to have a wealth of knowledge about anything related to roofing. She didn't even live in Dallas and said she worked with roofing companies all over the country. She seemed to know a lot about my particular roof and had the exact dimensions, even though the guy who came out never took any measurements. She said there is a company that uses satellite and drone imagery to provide this information for roofing companies. Welcome to a new world where practically everything is outsourced. The woman said that she would have a specialist in residential flat roofs contact me next week. So far, so good I guess. This wasn't what I was expecting, but I will say that this company has been very responsive. I'm going to stay optimistic even though there is more rain in the forecast for next week.

My long walk was slow today. I had a lot of foot pain. There's not a lot you can do about osteoarthritis. Bone on bone contact of any nature is going to be painful. They say that a change in diet can slow down the degeneration of cartilage, but it may be too late for that already. I don't know if I could do it anyway. You are supposed to give up alcohol, red meat, cheese and other dairy products, refined carbohydrates and sugar. Jeez. What's left?

I did get my steps today. I've been surprisingly active lately. At least working on the roof had a few benefits. I got 24,000 steps yesterday and 22,000 steps today. Walking is still enjoyable, but it's starting to take a toll on me. I feel quite tired after I finish my long walks these days. I guess that's the point, isn't it? You are supposed to feel tired after exercise. 

It looks like it is going to be nice tomorrow, so Dawn will get her Sunday outing again. I'll probably go mall walking as well. I don't get as many steps when I go walking at the mall, but I need a change of pace from my walks in the park at least once a week. Mall walking when the stores are closed is strangely peaceful.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day