Day 3361

It's hard to get used to Texas weather. It was eighty degrees this afternoon and I had the air conditioner running in both the house and the car. It was such a warm day that we were even able to give Dash a much needed bath. We used to regularly take the dogs to neighborhood dog washing facilities, but Dash has difficulty standing up in the tubs now. There's not enough room to bathe him at home in the shower, so we have to wait for a warm day and go outside. It takes two of us to clean him and everybody gets wet, but the effort is worth it when he starts to smell like pee.

Dash didn't enjoy his bath, but he sure smelled good afterwards. He did enjoy two leisurely walks on a beautiful, warm day. Maybe Spring isn't quite here yet, but it's definitely on the way. It felt like Spring today.

I went back to the hotel for breakfast, because I felt like relaxing. The dining room is always quiet and sedate and the waiters know me by name. Even the chef looked up and smiled when I arrived this morning. I'd eat at this place all the time if the menu wasn't so small. Everything is delicious, but you'd think they could come up with more than four items. The trendy restaurant seems to have hundreds of items on their breakfast menu.

I knew when we gave Dash a bath that there would be other cleaning as well. A clean dog doesn't last long in a dirty house. Both of us spent most of the afternoon vacuuming, dusting, and doing laundry. All this activity didn't stop Dash from peeing on the living room floor, but the house is reasonably clean now. I expect that this will last about two days.

I finally got the telephone bill. In an effort to pressure me to go paperless, they keep sending me my bill later and later. If I don't pay it on the same day it arrives, I'll get hit with a late fee. A week before this bill arrives, I get an e-mail saying that my paper bill will arrive in seven to ten days and asking me if I wouldn't prefer to just pay it electronically. So far, I have resisted. What's so bad about writing checks and taking bills to the post office? I like the leisurely pace of paper. The electronic world seems hectic and rude.

Even the airlines have done away with paper. I was wondering when I was going to get my boarding pass for my trip to Houston and then I got a message saying that I should download the airline's app and an electronic boarding pass would show up on my phone. It's a brave new world we live in. I find it ironic that everybody is worried about hacking, but still feel compelled to live their lives online. People didn't tend to steal your information when you put it in a letter.

I was hoping for a good night's sleep last night, but Dash had other ideas. He pooped in the bed three times. Everything landed squarely on the puppy pads and it only took me a minute or two to roll the pad up, seal it in a plastic bag, and take it outside. I've even gotten better at quickly getting back to sleep after these episodes, but it's not the same as an uninterrupted night of sleep. Eight hours of continuous sleep is still the holy grail. Oh, well. Three blocks of two hour sleep, followed by a one hour nap are still better than nothing.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2946

Today was so similar to yesterday that I briefly wondered if anyone would notice if I just copied a few paragraphs from my previous post. Believe it or not, it's much harder to write about days where nothing happens. The arctic weather continues and Dash and I have had enough of it. It's still too cold to take Dash on a morning walk and this change in our routine makes us both a little restless. Without a walk, Dash slaps at the back door every five minutes and then wants to come right back in again as soon as I let him out. I don't know what to do with the extra time either. Long walks give us both something to do.

I did finally make an appointment to get a haircut tomorrow and to take Dash to the vet next week. Dash is so difficult to transport in the car now that we have to schedule vet visits when Janet can get away from work for a while. I wish I knew what was going on in Dash's mind. It used to be so easy to take him to the vet myself. I hate to wait until next week, but luckily there is nothing seriously wrong. We just need to take care of some routine things that the specialists at the cancer center don't normally do.

I should have waited to pay bills yesterday, because I got some more in the mail today. I used to let the bills stack up and pay them all once a month. Then I started getting late charges. Companies have shortened the due date. They all want you to pay online now and if you pay by mail, you have to be quick. I don't know why I am so resistant to paying online. Sending and receiving mail is just a part of normal daily life that I don't want to give up yet.

When the temperature climbed to the low 30's, I took Dash on an afternoon walk. The sun was out and Dash was enjoying smelling things. I thought we were going to have a nice long walk, but a loose dog spooked Dash and made him want to come home early. I've seen this guy and his dog before. The man thinks he's trained his dog so well that he doesn't need a leash. I was amused when the dog wandered off pursuing a scent and didn't follow his owner home. I don't know why Dash was upset, because this dog was no threat to anyone while she was off chasing rabbits. I had to show the guy where his dog had gone. Why don't people understand that a leash makes everything so much easier? A leash is safer too. The small dog was chasing rabbits but it could have found coyotes instead.

I balanced my checkbook a few weeks ago. Today it was time to balance the credit card purchases. I added everything up and was one dollar off. Why are these mistakes so hard to find? I must have looked at the figures three or four times before I found the missing dollar. Online banking would eliminate these chores, but I just can't bring myself to give up paper. Things just don't seem entirely real unless I can see them on paper.

I was pleased to see the DOW sail through 26,000 today. It has definitely been a good year for stocks. I watch the market the same way some might watch a NASCAR race. I've got my favorites and I check their positions with every lap. Unfortunately there is no finish line. I wish there was a finish line with investments when you could just relax with the knowledge that you had won. You can always get out of the market if you're feeling nervous, but you hate to get out too soon. I think the economy is good and the upward trend will continue for a while. I could be wrong.

I could be wrong about everything. It's kind up humbling to realize what a guessing game life actually is. Maybe it's good that we don't know what's in our future. I think it's uncertainty that allows us to hope.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2881

The only thing I've been making any progress on lately is in getting Dash to walk. We're taking nice long walks again. Dash doesn't appear to be in any discomfort. He is walking normally and seems to be enjoying himself. We walk very slowly now. I think his doctors would approve. It takes well over an hour now to complete our morning rounds. The knee brace and boots don't seem to slow him down. He just likes to smell everything. When I was busy, this would have driven me crazy, but there isn't much on my schedule these days. A long walk certainly beats watching morning TV.

I took my November invoices to the post office today and paid some bills. All my bills come with an admonition to pay online instead. One of the envelopes I addressed today even had a little message where the stamp goes. "Can't find a stamp? Pay online instead," it said. I wonder why everyone hates checks? My bank doesn't even like to take deposits. They would prefer that I scan a check with their smartphone app and deposit it electronically. I think I'm becoming even more of a Luddite than my sister. I still like paper.

I got a new writing job today. In the old days I used to send a FedEx package with my completed copy to the client. Sending a PDF file via e-mail certainly saves money, but I kind of liked having the FedEx man come to pick up packages every day or so. I had the same delivery guy for many years and he got to know me by name. Sending and receiving packages this way made me feel like I had a real business a lot more than pressing the send key on my computer.

I see so many signs that the world has permanently changed. Our neighborhood used to be filled with nice, but very modest houses. Now, whenever somebody dies, the house is scraped and replaced with a larger, much more opulent dwelling. I don't think you could call this gentrification. The neighborhood was always nice. It doesn't appear to be nice enough for today's affluent buyers though. Perfectly good homes that my parents would have been proud to live in are being torn down to make room for mansions. This doesn't seem like a good thing, but then very little I see these days seems like a good thing.

I certainly don't understand the whole bike-share phenomenon. The rental bicycles from LimeBike, Spin, VBikes and others are popping up all over town. A huge number of them seem to be abandoned in the park. I counted twelve abandoned bicycles on our morning walk. People do ride these things, but they are a real eyesore and seem like littering to me. Maybe I'm too old and set in my ways for the sharing economy. LimeBike, Uber, and Air B&B all seem a little weird to me.

I hope I can finish my roof repairs before the coating product goes bad. I noticed a little message on one of the containers saying that the product should be used within 72 hours of opening the seal on the bucket. That's not going to happen. I guess the stuff starts to cure inside the container if you don't use it fast enough. Oh, well. I have no control over the weather. I'll finish things as quickly as I can.

There's no point in going up on the roof this week. There is more rain in the forecast. I'll write my article tomorrow and do what I can to make the day enjoyable for Dash. Sounds like a plan to me.

Ivy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day