Day 2259

Things take longer now. It takes me longer to shave. It takes longer to brush my teeth. It takes longer to make the bed. It's not just age that slows me down. I've become more particular about how I do almost everything. I wouldn't say I've that got OCD, but other people might. This odd combination of aching old bones and a mildly obsessive personality, can turn many days into a slow, plodding journey.

True to form, today didn't didn't start out like a spontaneous romp on the sun. The combination of a lingering cold and a long list of Sunday chores made the day seem like walking through quicksand. To be fair, it wasn't even sunny today, but I doubt if blue skies would have helped much. It took forever to make the bed. The dogs were slow on their morning walk. And I lingered over breakfast so long that it was almost lunchtime when I finished.

I spent the afternoon alternating between taking short naps and vacuuming the house. I've grown to hate vacuuming since we filled the house with inexpensive rugs to help keep Dot from falling over. These rugs are no match for the powerful Dyson vacuum cleaner and I'm constantly having to turn off the machine and pull a rug out of the brush after it got sucked in. The house was so much easier to clean before there were all these rugs. All you had to do was run a damp mop over the brick floors and you were done. The rugs seem to be giant dust magnets. Furniture and dog beds must be moved every time I clean, and even after a concerted effort to tame the dust, nothing looks any different. The only evidence that I've done anything at all is a full canister of dust and dog hair. I continue to be amazed at how much dirt and dog hair can accumulate in a single week. Well, OK. I admit it's been two weeks since I vacuumed. Maybe that explains it.

I feel a little better today, although Janet keeps telling me that I probably have pneumonia. I doubt that I have pneumonia since I got the pneumonia shot this year at the same time I got my flu shot. I don't have a fever. I just have a nagging cough. Chest colds like this must be quite common, or there wouldn't be all those irritating Mucinex commercials on TV. We had been planning to go to an open house in the neighborhood this afternoon, but Janet decided that she didn't want to go at the last minute. She was probably concerned that I would break into violent coughing spasms and scare the Realtor and any potential buyers. I'm still a little curious what the interior of this house looks like, since I've walked by it for years while walking the dogs. I must not have been that curious though, because I certainly don't regret missing the little home tour. Hey, maybe the change of plans proves that I'm spontaneous after all.

I've got to remember to take my car to the dealership tomorrow. I made the service appointment so long ago that I've almost forgotten what's wrong with the car. It's one of those intermittent electronic problems, so when it isn't actually driving you crazy, it is easy to forget. I hope they don't give me another Evoque loaner car. The engine in these cars automatically shuts off every time you pull up to a stop sign. This is supposed to be a feature, but it drives me nuts. After a lifetime of having cars that stall out at stoplights for no particular reason, having a car that does this on purpose just seems wrong.

Wow. I just noticed that it's pouring rain outside. I guess we need the rain, but I've grown fond of our long stretch of dry, low humidity days. I haven't had to go up on the roof and remove standing water for a long time. I've given up on having a nice lawn. I think if there was enough water to take showers and flush the toilet, I could go without rain for a long time.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2167

I never should have let my doctor convince me that I needed flu and pneumonia shots this year. I typically never get these shots, but they really push them as you get older. I reluctantly agreed to get the shots yesterday and asked the nurse to put the mildest one in my left arm because I'm left handed. This turned out to be a terrible plan, because I woke up this morning with a very sore left arm. The right arm is a bit sore as well. I think the nurse got things backwards. I should have had my pneumonia shot in the right arm.

Lots of laundry today. Dot woke up during the night and proceeded to poop in the bedroom before I could get out of bed and guide her toward the back door. I stepped in the poop because it was dark, making it even more difficult that usual to clean things up. By the time we had finished taking the dogs outside and cleaned up the mess, I was fully awake. I would have just gotten up and started breakfast if it wasn't still the middle of the night.

It wasn't until daylight finally arrived that I noticed how cold it was. Winter has arrived. I think it is supposed to dip below freezing tomorrow. It is encouraging that there is still no condensation on the windows, even though the temperature has been fluctuating wildly. It is becoming apparent that the big dehumidifiers removed a lot of moisture when we were drying the house last week during the pipe leak. I'm still looking for a portable dehumidifier, but I'm not having much luck. Today I thought I'd see what Fry's Electronics had. There was a nice looking brand I'd never heard of, so I looked it up on Google when I finished running my errands. It turned out that this particular brand had been involved in a big product recall after it had a tendency to catch on fire. Over 200 house fires resulting in over $2 million dollars of damage havell been caused by this machine. Nope. We won't be buying this one.

I hooked up a wet/dry vacuum with a special attachment to see if I could extract any water from a crack in the floor of the shower stall. After running the vacuum for about an hour I removed over a gallon of water. That's a lot of water under something I had previously thought was dry. I'll fill the crack with caulk now and see if this takes care of the problem. It probably won't. We need to re-tile the entire bathroom.

I haven't even bothered to watch Dr. Who for two weeks in a row. I don't seem to have time for the show anymore. I'm not all that wild about the direction the Steven Moffat had been taking the series anyway. I stayed with Peter Capaldi as long as I could, but the show seems like a waste of a valuable hour now. I need all the time I can get. The days continue to get shorter and by the time I've walked both dogs and eaten dinner, there's barely enough time to write the blog. Dot is taking longer an longer to do her business in the evening now. She seems to forget where she is. It's important to be patient and give her plenty of time to poop though. That's the only way to avoid unfortunate accidents like we had last night.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. There are still plenty of chores that need attention around the house. I should start going back to the gym as well. I guess it will all depend on how my arms feel tomorrow. Today, I couldn't have gone two minutes on the arm bicycle. I don't know why I let them talk me into those shots. I'm never around children these days, so I seldom get colds or flu. I'm not even sure how you get pneumonia.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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