Day 2052

I renewed my storage warehouse lease for another year. I always rent the storage unit for a year at a time, because I get thirteen months for the price of twelve this way. I've had the storage space for so long that I think I've received an entire year in free rent by now. When I first got the storage space, it was just a convenient place to store amplifiers and guitars between gigs and bulky lighting equipment between photo shoots. Now, it has become a repository of memories. The remains from just about everything I've ever enjoyed doing in my life is sitting on a shelf somewhere. There are wind surfing boards, electric trains, framed pictures from old gallery shows, obsolete computers, old guitar amps, and much more. I wish I didn't need a storage warehouse at all, but I get very attached to things. Even broken things are hard for me to throw away.

The latest thing I'm trying to resurrect is the old Sony laptop I told you about yesterday. I asked the guy in the repair shop at Fry's if he could install a new hard drive for this 1997 machine and he told that I could get a brand new laptop for less than the cost of repairs. When I explained that I didn't actually need the computer and that it was just something I wanted to fix, he gave me a blank look like he didn't understand. Maybe the guy had a point. Why would anyone want a computer that only ran Windows 98 and had a hard drive that with less capacity than the memory sticks I use with my cameras. I did a little research on Google and discovered that nobody even makes IDE hard drives any more. All the replacement hard drives are SATA. I found a website that showed how to disassemble the computer, but it looked a little tricky. The article with the hard drive upgrade instructions was dated 2008 and the author considered this particular computer to be ancient even back then. It might be harder than I thought to bring this thing back to life. Jeez, if it's this hard to bring a modern looking little Sony laptop back to life, I wonder how hard it would be to get my old Osborne-1 running again?

Dot had kind of a rough day today. She was a bit shaky on her morning walk and walked with a limp around the house. I still can't figure out what makes some days good and other days bad. I may be wrong, but I think it has a lot to do with how she sleeps at night. If she goes to sleep with her bad leg tucked under her, she always seems to have a limp the next day. I always try to make sure she is sleeping on her side with the bad leg on top, but it doesn't really help. She always wakes up two or three times a night to circle around and reposition herself. Usually when I wake up the next morning, she has managed to get the bad leg tucked up under her.

I managed to find a replacement the tiny watch part I destroyed yesterday. The little screw cost me $5.00 but I considered that a bargain. I'll try to be more careful when I try to reassemble the watch this time. I received another writing assignment toward the end of the day, so maybe doing this new article will keep me busy enough so I won't be tempted to fix anything else this week. I've broken enough things for one week.

Tink is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1587 - Easter

I hope everyone had a pleasant Passover, Easter, or just a nice day. I certainly did. I knew it was going to rain sometime today, so I thought I'd get up early and get a lot done while the sun was still shining. As luck would have it, the skies were clear and sunny for most of the day. I got the lawn mower running and got the front yard looking decent again. I think the cause of my battery problems is my battery charger. It no longer shuts itself off when it reaches a full charge. I'll have to remember to manually unplug the thing this Summer after it charges for about three hours. Otherwise, I'll burn up the new battery fairly quickly.

After I got the yard looking nice, I weeded a few flower beds. I encountered quite a few honeybees while I was working. Hopefully, they were just passing through gathering pollen. I certainly hope they aren't planning on building another huge hive in my house. Once you've been stung by a bunch of angry bees, you don't tend to forget.

I took some more stuff to the storage warehouse this afternoon. If I lived in a rural area and had a bigger yard, I'd buy one of those metal warehouse buildings that all farmers seem to have. I'd fill it with industrial metal shelving and alphabetize each aisle from A to Z. I'd take great pleasure in categorizing and archiving all my stuff, until the zombie apocalypse came and I realized that all my treasured tools were hopelessly rusty with completely dead batteries. Janet thinks I'm dangerously close to becoming a hoarder, but I think my pack-rat tendencies are no worse than her own tendencies to always buy in bulk to take advantage of sales. I may still have every Macintosh I've ever owned, but at least I'm not responsible for the year's supply of soup in the kitchen pantry.

Today is a huge day for family picnics in the park. Typically, one family member arrives early in the morning to stake out a picnic table and the rest of the family arrives later. Some people erect elaborate tents and put up volleyball nets. By ten-thirty AM, the air is thick with the smell of barbecue and smoked meats. I try to walk the dogs in secluded areas on days like this. Dash loves an audience when he poops and never fails to embarrass me by pooping right in front of a large table of people eating their holiday dinner. There's way too much candy littering the ground too, since the kids seems to only find 50% of what their parents hide for the egg hunt. Easter candy is the last thing the dogs should be eating. Chocolate is poisonous to dogs.

The rain did eventually arrive late in the day, but we were all safely back inside by then, eating our Easter dinner. A great dinner is always a nice way to end a good day. Tomorrow, Dash goes in for his fifteenth radiation treatment. I'm on the home stretch of my own Hepatitis-C treatments as well. I usually don't look forward to birthdays, but this year might be different. By June, most of this Spring's long medical journey should be in the past.

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 891

Yay! I think I sold a house today. I've signed so many documents this week that it's hard to believe the whole process has come to a conclusion. My real estate agent says that the amended contract I signed this afternoon was the final document though, and that the buyers have definitely committed to purchase the house. Hopefully, it will be smooth sailing from now till the closing in early June.

I don't know how real estate agents keep their sanity. The buyers, sellers, lenders, appraisers, and inspectors all have their own agenda and their own questions. "We know the air conditioner is on the roof" someone said to me today, "but where is the furnace?" "It's a heat pump." I said. "Everything is combined in one package." An hour later I got the same question. "Where is the furnace?"  They obviously didn't know what a heat pump was.

If the rent house sells as expected, it will be a major step toward my long term goal of simplification. Since I am a Gemini, I used to think I needed two of everything. I'll readily admit now that I took this principal to extremes. There had to be two cars, two guitars, two computers, and of course two houses. Sometimes things got totally out of control. Somehow my two watches turned into two hundred. There were other excesses as well. I'm trying to set things right though, and having just one house again has got to be looked at as progress.

You know that famous phrase from the Book of Common Prayer; "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." I got a dramatic demonstration of what the phrase means today. Years ago, I received some sort of square Peruvian rug as a Christmas present from relatives. I didn't have anywhere to put the rug at the time, so I folded it up and placed it on a shelf in the bedroom closet. Over the years, I forgot I ever had the thing. I forgot until today, that is. When I was packing up more stuff to move over to the new storage warehouse, I saw the rug, high up on a shelf. "This is good storeroom material," I thought. I picked up the rug and it literally disintegrated into dust in my hands. There was nothing left! I don't know what the rug was made of, but I don't think moths got at it or anything. There were no signs of insect damage. The material had just turned to dust.

Janet will throw something away if she hasn't used it for several years. I will hang on to something forever, just in case I might have a use for it sometime in the future. I think Janet has the right idea. It's all going to turn to dust anyway.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day