Day 4646

I surprised myself today. I actually got a lot done. The day started normally enough with Dawn's sunrise walk and my go-to breakfast of shredded wheat and fruit. After breakfast I picked up the pace a bit. I completely rewrote my article for SpaceFlight Magazine, edited the accompanying pictures in Photoshop and submitted the package to my editor, all before a scheduled 10:45 appointment with the dermatologist.

The drive to the dermatologist's office took longer than my exam. I'm told that I need these periodic exams to make sure my actinic keratosis hasn't morphed into squamous cell carcinoma. All was good today, as it always had been in previous exams. The doctor zapped the small keratosis growths on my face and scalp with his trusty blue can of liquid nitrogen and sent me on my way. "See me again in six months," he said. "I thought it was once a year," I replied. I think I see doctors far too often for seemingly needless reasons, but what do I know. One of these days the dermatologist might actually find something important.

On the way home I mailed the letter I wrote to my sister yesterday and then stopped at a plumbing supply store to get some parts for my troublesome toilet. I doubt that the problem is fixable now, but it's worth a try. Every plumber that comes to the house says I ought to just replace the toilet, but I hate to give up on things. Right now I'm just turning off the supply line after every flush. I turn on the supply line and fill the tank again whenever I need to use the toilet. This actually seems to be a simple and effective way to keep the toilet from running. I wonder why I didn't think of this sooner?

Although it was a bit chilly on our sunrise walk with Dawn, it was quite warm by the time I finished running all my errands. It definitely felt too hot for a walk in the park. After a quick lunch I went to the gym again. There was someone on the basketball court when I arrived, so I did my two mile walk on the indoor track first. Surprisingly, I managed to match my outdoor walking pace today. Maybe I should always take my walk before shooting baskets. I doubt that this increase in speed really matters. I'm still painfully slow, indoors or out.

When I returned home there was a two word message from my editor. All it said was "great stuff." I'm glad he liked the hastily written article I sent, but still would have liked more time to write a proper article that included the launch. Maybe the editor, like myself, suspected that the Artemis launch might never happen and just wanted something for the November issue. At any rate, I've got one more article under my belt and can feel like a legitimate space journalist for a while longer. 

As usual, I have no plans for tomorrow. Writing my article under severe time constraints this morning made me realize that I can still be professional when I need to. My hasty article was actually pretty good. There isn't much need for my services these days, so I'll probably just take another walk in the park. I might as well take advantage of these nice cool mornings while I can. Good weather in Texas is a rare commodity.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4417

My teeth are in good shape. My dental hygienist always complements me on how well I take care of my teeth and gums. I try. The last thing I want at this stage of my life are implants or more crowns. I kind of wish that I'd had braces when I was younger, but that ship has sailed. My teeth are a little crooked but I have very few fillings. I still have three of my four wisdom teeth, with none of the dental problems that both of my parents endured. Hopefully I'm done with medical and dental appointments for a while. I think I've had more than my share this Winter.

When I returned from the dentist, I went to the good plumbing supply store and got the parts I needed to repair both toilets. I got high quality parts with brass fittings instead of the plastic stuff you find at Home Depot. I hate masquerading as a plumber so maybe this will help minimize future repairs. You never know though. Something else may break tomorrow. 

I'd never make a good plumber. The work is way too messy for me. I'm always very methodical and careful, but somehow I always end up making a mess. It's almost impossible to disconnect the supply lines to a toilet and remove all the internal parts without spilling a little water. At least I didn't try to remove the supply line without turning off the water to the house at the meter. I think I learned that lesson on a previous repair. The shut off valve on one of the toilets doesn't completely close and water sprays everywhere if you don't shut off water to the house first. The good news is that my first repair worked perfectly. The bad news is that I got tired of being a plumber and I still have to fix the other toilet. At least Janet's toilet is fixed. I'll deal with mine later.

I could tell on our sunrise walk with Dawn that this wasn't going to be a good day for my feet. I still can't figure out why some days are relatively pain free and other days are terrible. It doesn't seem to be the humidity because I've had good and bad days when the weather was exactly the same. It doesn't seem to be the result of too much exercise either. I've been able to go on long walks multiple days in a row without a problem. On a bad day I have trouble just walking around the house. I probably need to make another appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. I need to make sure that I'm not inadvertently damaging my feet. If walking doesn't really make things any worse, I can probably live with the pain.

The park has been virtually empty for the past several days. There hasn't been as much traffic on the roads either. Is something going on that I don't know about? I don't have a clue. Maybe it's just the weather. It has been cold and nasty lately. Maybe it's Covid. There are a ton of people who've gotten the virus recently. I can't says that I don't know anyone who's caught Covid anymore. I know quite a few people who've come down with it. It's kind of amazing that Janet and I haven't caught the virus. The test Janet had to take to see her doctor was negative and I've had several negative tests recently. So far, so good anyway.

There is new firmware available for the Polaris star tracker. I'm kind of nervous to install it though. It's always a mixed bag whenever there's an upgrade. Some people on the user forum report better results after an upgrade while others report that their tracker doesn't work anymore. I'm tempted not to bother with every upgrade and just keep watching the user forum until everyone seems happy. I think that day is still a long way away. I'm not sure I would have backed this project if I knew I was going to be a Beta tester. I just want things to work when I turn them on. Finding bugs and solving problems isn't exactly my cup of tea. Being a Beta tester isn't as messy as being a plumber, but it's almost as bad.

It seemed really cold when I took the trash out to the curb this evening. That means it will be even colder in the morning. If Dawn could overcome her fears and learn to walk with me without Janet nearby, we could do her morning walk a lot later. I have no schedule and actually like to sleep in. Dawn doesn't know what she's missing.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3014

Near the top of my to-do list today was a trip to the store to get more dog treats for Dash. You don't ever want to run out of dog treats in this house. Since Dash is a picky eater, there is a particular brand of treats he likes. Of course you can't find this brand at the neighborhood pet store. I drive further to find things for Dash than I do for myself.

While I was out, I returned to the plumbing supply store. Surprisingly, they actually did have some of the parts I was looking for. I bought some of the easy to replace parts, but the water control assembly, which was the main thing I was trying to replace didn't look quite the same. The parts guy said to bring the old fill valve in and it would be easy to tell whether the two parts were the same. My idea was just to buy the part now in case it was unavailable in the future. I didn't actually have the nerve to try to remove the old part yet. It has frozen in place and there's a good chance I could break something trying to remove it. The guy who was helping me couldn't figure out why I wanted to buy the part if I wasn't going to use it. "If this part doesn't fit, you're going to have to buy a new toilet anyway," he told me. The guy had a point. "Just leave the part here until you really think you need it," He said. "Nobody else is going to buy this thing."

I decided to leave well enough alone. It would be nice to have all new parts, but the toilet is actually working now. There's a good chance I could break it again if I keep monkeying around. I should have thanked the parts guy. He saved me $75.

It was a pleasant surprise to see the stock market go up almost 700 points today. We're still down for the month, but they say this was the third largest gain in history. These wild market swings make me nervous. There was no fundamental reason for last weeks huge loss and no reason for today's big gain. I'm going to have to learn to live with this volatility though. I think it's here to stay. Computerized trading platforms make it possible to buy and sell huge quantities of stock in a fraction of a second. Humans like me are just along for the ride.

It was kind of hot this afternoon, so I wasn't entirely surprised that Dash refused to take his afternoon walk. I dutifully suited him up anyway, just in case. I still think that Dash needs a little more exercise, but like they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Since we had a mild Winter, I'm already starting to see a lot of bugs. A lot of these bugs seem to find their way inside. When I'm out in the back yard it looks like an invading army is preparing to strike. There are cockroaches in the trees, ants crawling on the bricks, and crane flies hovering around the back door. The spiders haven't returned yet, but it won't be long. I hate the crane flies because every time I let Dash out, a few of them fly in the house. It's going to be an uphill battle to keep these critters outside this Summer.

I shouldn't complain about Spring, because Summer is so much worse. It was actually a beautiful day today. It's too bad that Dash thought it was too hot.

Bubba is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3012

I was determined to fix the toilet today. I printed out a parts list and drove to the only plumbing supply store in town that has just about everything. The store was closed. If I was thinking, I should have known the store would be closed. Just about the only people who go to this store are plumbers. Have you ever tried getting a plumber on a Saturday?

When I finished the rest of my Saturday errands, I took the flush valve apart and cleaned everything again. This time I must have done something right. When I reassembled the valve and turned the water back on, the water level in the tank was almost an inch lower and the flush valve leak had been reduced to a slow drip. I probably still need new parts, but at least I accomplished something. I'm convinced that Porcher and Citroën must have had some connection in the part. Both French companies feature very clever engineering and make products that are virtually impossible to fix. I have owned several Citroën automobiles. They are wonderful cars to drive but you never want to break down on a lonely stretch of highway. I reluctantly sold my last Citroën when the only Citroën mechanic in Texas retired.

Dash woke me up last night and went racing for the back door. I thought I got the door opened in time. I watched Dash go out in the yard and poop. What I didn't see until the next morning was that he really didn't make it to the yard after all. It was dark and I didn't notice that he'd pooped right on top of the door threshold. When I closed the door and locked up, I inadvertently squished the poop under the bottom of the door and made a huge mess. It was a very unpleasant job to clean the aluminum threshold and underside of the door. The entire door had become a poop sandwich. I thought I was going to get a break from cleaning up poop after Dot passed away, but Dash is already following in her footsteps.

Dash didn't want to take an afternoon walk today. I sure wish this dog could talk. I don't want to make him walk if he's feeling tired or uncomfortable, but it would be nice to know how he felt about things before I spent a lot of time getting him suited up in his protective gear. If he won't walk, I have to remove all the gear because he can't get up on the bed with his boots and leg brace on. We go through this ritual several times every afternoon and I never know what the outcome is going to be. Sometimes he walks and other times he doesn't.

At least the large printer is working again. I finally managed to get the thing unclogged. The printer is making nice prints, but it looks like I'm already going to have to order some more ink. I ended up using half of the expensive ink I received recently running five cleaning cycles. Why do I still have this printer? Probably for the same reason I still have several Beta-SP tape decks. It's a bitch when you've become obsolete.

The grass is already starting to grow in the front yard again. It's almost time to see whether the lawn mower battery survived the winter. I really don't like mowing the lawn, but it's probably no worse than getting the water off the roof or fixing the toilet.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day