Day 2780

Today wasn't bad. Nothing exciting happened, but nothing bad happened either. I got a good night's sleep. Dash was eager to take his morning walk as soon as Janet left for work. The weather was warm, but not oppressive. By the time I got dressed to go out for breakfast, I was convinced that it was going to be a good day.

I've started going back to the very first restaurant I discovered when I began eating out on Friday mornings. The place has been through half a dozen management changes over the years, but the food is still pretty decent. Although the novelty of eating out has worn off, it still felt good to get out of the house for a while. I picked up some food for the weekend at the grocery store after breakfast and was back at the house before 10 AM.

I thought today might be a good day to get the lawnmower out. My legs are almost back to normal and the grass definitely needed mowing. Like my experience at the gym last Sunday, I quickly realized that I was still out of shape. It's disappointing that you have to work so hard to stay fit as you age. When I was in my 30's, the whole process seemed effortless. I guess it can be done. There is an old man I see almost every morning when I walk Dash. He runs back and forth on the streets surrounding the park for hours. He was in horrible shape when I first noticed him four years ago. Now, his muscles are well defined and he looks much better. I don't have that single minded resolve, but I do walk. My fitness tracker says I'm back to 10,000 steps a day again.

I watched the last episode of The Expanse today and now I've got to wait until sometime in 2018 to see season three on the Syfy Channel. I really enjoyed the first two seasons of this show. Too bad it only took me three days to watch them all. I looked on Netflix to find something else like this, but all I found were dystopian post apocalypse movies. Apparently it is much easier for filmmakers to stay right here on earth than to create realistic simulations of life in space. The CGI work in The Expanse is pretty amazing. I've seen a lot of science fiction and these are the most realistic computer generated images I've seen yet. Hey, I wasted three days, but I'm glad I saw this show. I was genuinely impressed by the effort it took to put this all together.

I saw something on the local news today about a group of cyclists getting attacked by dogs while training for a race. They showed pictures of some of the bite marks and they looked exactly like mine. The riders got bitten in a rural area north of Dallas where there are no leash laws, so the owners of the dogs won't even be punished. It's ironic and a little sad that I love dogs and yet I am somewhat fearful of them. I have good reason to be. I've been bitten five times in my lifetime. I was even nervous about taking Dash to training class. Most of the dogs in class were wonderful, but fights did break out occasionally. Once or twice a dog had to be banned from participating in class. I had hoped that dog class would be a relaxing experience, but it never was. I felt the same way that I do when riding DART trains. You have to remain alert and aware of your surroundings at all times.

Sadly, the world is not a very relaxing place anymore. I used to hitchhike all around the country when I was in college. That would be insane now. Our national parks are overcrowded. Road rage is a fact of life. Airline delays are normal. And entire cruise ships can get food poisoning. No wonder people buy 70" flat screen TVs and have HelloFresh meals delivered to their house. I'm probably not the only one who prefers to stay inside.

Pebbles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1979

Although we had heavy thunderstorms last night, our power stayed on. When the skies cleared and the sun came out later this morning, our power went out. Go figure. It's anybody's guess what caused the problem this time. It wasn't the weather, and it wasn't the trees. The power company had just finished trimming all the trees in the neighborhood a few weeks ago. Maybe a piece of equipment at one of the sub-stations was underwater. We've certainly had our share of flooding recently. I haven't seen the lake this high in years.

There's not a lot you can do when the power goes out. We walked the dogs and Dot did surprisingly well. Earlier in the morning, she threw up, but it was probably just storm phobia stress. The thunder was loud and relentless last night and Dot didn't like it a bit. I was afraid she would try to hop up in the bed and hurt herself, so I slept on the floor with her to keep her calm. No wonder the dogs like to sleep in the bed so much. The floor is pretty hard. Sleeping with Dot calmed her down though, so it was worth the sore back in the morning.

Since the computer, the television, and even the coffee maker were all dead, I decided to wash the outside windows. I've been avoiding this task, since the windows were not only dirty, they were filled with spiderwebs as well. I think most of our resident spiders are harmless, but I've never liked spiders and do my best to avoid them. I disturbed a couple of big ones today, but the windows are a lot cleaner.

Since clean windows didn't bring the power back, I had no choice but to go to the gym. I think it's been well over a month since I've visited the gym and the dogs aren't walking very far either. I'm out of shape again. I tried to do my regular workout routine and was amazed at how quickly I'd regressed. It seemed like I was starting all over again. My doctor says I need to get on the treadmill more, to counteract a gradual loss of bone density, My physical therapist says I need to do lots of stretching exercises to keep from getting a frozen shoulder. If I did everything I am supposed to do, I'd be at the gym all the time.

The power company eventually restored our power and life returned to normal again. I cleared all the water off the roof from yesterday's storms. I fired up the computer and made a few minor website updates. Janet fixed a nice dinner. And I didn't need to worry about making today's blog bost using a laptop with a half dead battery.

My mouth has finally healed enough from the wisdom tooth extraction for me to go see a different dentist next week. I'm not looking forward to this, but it would be silly to postpone things. The whole reason I had the wisdom tooth removed in the first place was to save the tooth next to it. If I delay getting this tooth repaired, it might have to be pulled as well. This whole dental journey has been like opening Pandora's Box. I just hope it all ends reasonably soon.

I think we'll see a little sunshine tomorrow, but starting Tuesday the thunderstorms return. The long range weather forecast says to expect the storms to continue all the way through Memorial Day. Too bad we can't send some of this water to California. We've got way too much here.

Susie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day