Day 2500 - Halfway There

When I started this blog, I wondered whether it was humanly possible to post something for 5000 consecutive days. I'm halfway there. I still wonder if I can complete this quixotic journey. It's not been easy to get this far. There have been numerous power outages to overcome. Computers have crashed. Sometimes I've been impossibly busy and other times there's been nothing to talk about. Internet service has been spotty at times, as has my own health. I can remember posting from airports on numerous occasions and one time I posted the same day I came out of surgery. So far, I have not missed a single day.

Doing something on this grand a scale changes your life. I'm not sure it changes things for the better however. I can recall business trips where everyone else had gone out to dinner while I was sitting alone in my hotel room trying to compose the day's journal entry. Any activity after dinner still reminds me of the Cinderella story where the coach turns back into a pumpkin at midnight. I've always got a deadline to meet. I'm not sure if any readers have stayed with me throughout this improbably journey. There were thousands of readers when blogging was popular, but that number has probably dwindled to a few dozen. Blogging isn't very popular now. One of these days I'll probably just be writing for myself.

It's an interesting exercise to track how how your opinions and priorities change over time. On any given day, it seems like each post is exactly like the one that preceded it. The changes that occur over time are subtle, but they are real. Occasionally, I'll read something I wrote five years ago, and I am surprised that quite a bit has changed already. It would be nice if this was always a story about growth and affirmation. I've certainly learned things along the way, but I've also lost things. That's the way life is.

If you're a new reader, you might think I'm in a downward spiral. Beloved pets are dying. A business is becoming irrelevant. A common theme is how tired I am. I hope you don't find this discouraging. Life always has its peaks and valleys and occasionally the valleys can last for years at a time. I learned a lot when I was a globe trotting advertising writer. I'm learning even more while I sit at home caring for a sick dog.

Today didn't provide many insights, but it did add to the ongoing narrative. I cleaned toilets today and removed hundreds of spiderwebs from the exterior windows and sides of the house. Removing the spiderwebs is an odious task that needs to be done several times a year. I take a broom and sweep the webs away, usually ruining the broom in the process. These webs are thick and sticky and are filled with dead insects and live spiders. I almost always end up with spiders in my hair when I am destroying the webs. I guess the spiders are better than snakes. I have friends who live in the country that have continual problems with snakes. We just have spiders and angry squirrels.

If you're interested, I'll be here tomorrow. I think that writing keeps the mind agile and I'm definitely curious to see where this journey leads. 5000 days is a long chunk of time. I worry at times that the Blogger platform may disappear before my journey is done. Google has a history of abandoning things. I may not make it either. At the end of 5000 days, I'm going to be pretty old. Maybe this blog will eventually become a curious resource for scholars. Maybe it is just a wasted effort. Only time will tell.

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2000

2000 days might not mean much to most of you, but it's kind of special to me. When I started blogging five and a half years ago, I never dreamed that it would lead to sharing the major and minor events in my life for 2000 consecutive days. I haven't missed a single day yet. Power outages, scheduling conflicts, dog emergencies, fatigue, travel, and a lack of anything interesting to say, haven't put a dent in this blog. Somehow, I've always managed to keep on going. I've probably mentioned this before, but I've never been this consistent about anything in my life. Hey, I'm a Gemini. I typically start things with a lot of enthusiasm and then just quietly abandon them when no one's looking. This is different. I actually think the blog means something. I'm just not sure what it is.

There have probably been many days just like this before. I've already written about some of them. The days are similar, but writing this endless journal has taught me that no day is exactly the same. Each day is kind of like the moon. It sits there in the sky unchanged for millions of years, and yet when I look at it tomorrow, it will look a little different. It's the perception of things that changes. I may be doing exactly the same things I was five years ago, but they look different through older, and hopefully wiser, eyes. Maybe that's the value of a journal like this. It allows you to begin to see what happens as we age. You have to look closely, but there are small but noticeable differences already in my perspective on life. I wonder what you'll be reading if I can manage to reach Day 5000.

I'm still amazed at how quickly our cool, wet Spring is turning into a typical hot, dry Texas Summer. The temperature has risen by more than thirty degrees in just a few days. The vegetation is still lush and green as a result of the unprecedented amount of rain we got in May, but the ground is already drying up. There is no more mud in the park. The only evidence of the rain is an ugly outline of Styrofoam cups and trash around the shoreline of the lake, serving as a reminder of how high the water was just a few weeks ago. The temperatures got into the mid-90's this afternoon. It was way too hot for Dot and Dash. Several dogs succumbed to heatstroke at a big rescue event in town today. I'm glad we didn't go. As the days get warmer, I will continue to get up even earlier in hopes of getting the dogs walked before it become too hot for them. I'm not a morning person, but there's not much of an alternative.

To beat the heat, I continued working on my new website project this afternoon. I'm making good progress, but it's hard for me to work for more than three hours at a time. The work is tedious and if I keeps staring at the screen for too long, I start to make mistakes. When I arrived at a good stopping point on the website, I went to the gym. It's going to be a while before I can figure out how to make it to the gym three times a week like I should be doing, but at least I'm going on Sunday's now. You've got to start somewhere.

I'm still surprised at how I got such a clear handheld picture of the moon this morning while I was walking Dash. I had the camera in one hand and Dash's leash in the other. Sometimes you get lucky.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day