Day 2512

Sometimes on Sundays I stare at the screen for thirty minutes before I write a single word. I'm just too tired. I went to the gym right after breakfast this morning, because I knew that if I waited until I finished the household chores, I probably wouldn't go at all. Right after breakfast wasn't that early though. It was actually closer to lunch. By the time we cleaned up Dot's latest accident in the house and gave the dogs their morning walk, it was already pretty late.

There are no pretty faces at my gym. I can't believe that everyone is so old. They are a steely eyed, very determined bunch though. A lot of the men look like they were CEO's before they retired. One old guy always exercises in a button down dress shirt and street shoes. It's like he's still at the office. I probably look just as old to these geezers. Especially if I arrive after I've vacuumed the house.

It's really hard to keep the house clean when Dot keeps peeing and pooping all over the place. I try though. Every Sunday the Dyson picks up an unbelievable amount of dirt and dog hair. Maybe the house smells a little better, but it certainly doesn't look much better. I sure wish this vacuum cleaner was easier to clean. I mean how many people need to use a leaf blower to clean their vacuum cleaner? The leaf blower actually does a pretty good job, but it would have made a lot more sense for Dyson to use a bag to catch the dust like everybody else does.

I received input for several new website updates this afternoon, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to look at it. Enough is enough. Working on weekends must be becoming more commonplace. Everyone is doing it now. Even Janet is bringing home work on weekends. I can probably get everything done tomorrow, but I definitely don't want to deal with it tonight.

I wonder if Anthony Weiner used a Macintosh? Huma Abedin claims that she has no idea how 650,000 of her e-mails wound up on Weiner's computer. She probably does know, but giving her the benefit of the doubt, if she ever opened an account on her husband's computer, all the e-mails she was sending on other computers could have quietly been updating on this one as well. Cloud-based computing can be sneaky that way. I know that when I send or receive an e-mail on my computer, it winds up on my phone, iPad, and laptop as well. 650,000 e-mails sounds like the mother lode of everything the FBI has been looking for. This is probably even more information than Wikileaks has. With this much information, there is probably something pretty damning. I know she won't do it, but Hillary should withdraw from the race immediately for the good of the country. If she wins and gets indited after the election, all hell is going to break loose. She could always pardon herself, but I don't think that is going to go over very well. I don't think there is much of a precedent for running the country from prison either. Just let Tim Kane run. He'll do most of the things the democrats want anyway. Hillary is toxic at this point.

I'm a great believer in Karma. Bill Clinton only got a slap on the wrist for his own misdeeds. He not only was a friend of Anthony Weiner, he introduced him to Huma Abedin and actually married the couple. A few dick pics later and everything comes crumbling down. Hey buddy, what goes around comes around. I have no sympathy for these fools.

I can't wait for the time to change next week. I'm getting real tired of walking the dogs in the dark before breakfast. Of course, when the time actually does change,  I'll be complaining about walking in the dark in the evenings. That's just the way I roll.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2511

I'm not catching many breaks with this roof. When I went up on the roof to inspect what the repair crews did yesterday, I was simultaneously pleased and disappointed. It looked like the crew had applied the elastomer coating properly, but there was one big problem. It was a windy day yesterday and tons of small leaves had fallen from our Elm Tree and become embedded in the coating before it had time to dry properly. Now the leaves are probably going to be there forever. If I try too hard to rip them out, I could damage the coating. If I ignore the leaves and leave them where they are, they could react chemically with the coating and cause it to deteriorate prematurely. For over 30 years nature has been trying to tell me that nobody should have built a house on this property. The large trees are pretty but the root systems have penetrated our sewer lines, large tree branches have broken off in storms and landed on the roof, and squirrels have claimed the entire area as their own. I think I lost this battle years ago, but it is still discouraging to be reminded about how relentless the natural world can be about reclaiming what it rightfully owns. The forest will be here long after the house is gone.

Security concerns have forced me to have so many passwords that I can't even begin to remember them all. I felt foolish when I couldn't even remember how to add my existing e-mail account to my new iPad. The hosting company had forced me to start using a new more complex password recently and all I could remember was the original one. I ended up having to call tech support and asked them to guide me through the process. This was embarrassing, since I routinely help other people set up their e-mail accounts for a living. Almost every day something like this happens to remind me that I'm not getting any younger. At any rate, when I finally got the e-mail account working, I set it to remember my log-in information, so I won't have to go through this again.

I saw some Kestrels on my walk with Dash this afternoon. These little hawks appear to be thriving in our area. I see more of them every year. They usually sit on the top of trees looking intently for something to eat. I don't have the patience to be a serious birder, but I do enjoy learning a little more about the animals I see everyday. It's an eat or be eaten world out there. Perhaps if we humans weren't at the top of the food chain, we'd be a little more realistic about our place in the world. Hawks know what to do. All animals know instinctively how to keep things in balance, except for us. We seem to think we're exempt from the cycle of life and I'm convinced that this will lead to our extinction.

I wonder if there is anything that would actually change people's minds in this election. Trump supporters aren't swayed by his frequent displays of incompetence. Hillary supporters are even worse. They could care less about the implications of compromising national security or selling favors to the highest bidder. Politics have become like sports. Everyone is just rooting for their favorite team. I don't think this is going to end well, no matter who wins.

I'm old, so I don't think my life is going to change all that much. If I were young, I'd be worried. How did we let ourselves get to the point where the Kardashians have become role models and two self-centered idiots are running for president. What's scary is that one of these two is going to win.  Idiocracy is just a movie now, but in ten years it's going to seem like a documentary.

Dakota is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2510

The roofers came today and my trash got emptied. I'd call that a success. I probably didn't even need to go up on the roof to show the repair crew where the damage was. It was pretty obvious. The roofers admitted that they'd been having some problems with the material they initially coated my roof with. you're not the only one with this problem," the foreman told me. This material had only one job" to keep out water. "We're discovering that the elastomer begins to dissolve if it's under water for any length of time," the guys told me. Oops. Hopefully, they used something tough and durable this time. I'd really like to get this problem solved.

I wonder if the sanitation department had a talk with the driver on our route. For the second week in a row, all the trash on our street seems to be getting collected. I have a new lucky spot to place my rolling cart on Thursday evening. I hope that nobody starts parking their car here. My special spot is one of the few places on the street without overhanging tree limbs that might confuse the robotic arm on the truck.

I didn't get to go out for breakfast this morning, but this was a small price to pay for getting the roof fixed. I found some Jimmy Dean sausage to go along with the toaster waffles in the freezer and had a lovely breakfast, punctuated by the sound of Dash barking at me. He seemed mad that there weren't any bananas this morning. I hate to miss my Friday breakfast outings. They are a little oasis of calm in a hectic week.

I downloaded Microsoft Word and Excel for my new iPad and then discovered that they are practically useless unless I also subscribe to to Office 365. I hate these subscription models that everyone is going to. I have to subscribe to my anti-virus software. My website development platform requires an annual subscription. Then there's Hulu and Netflix. It adds up. Software subscriptions are just like leasing a car or renting an apartment. I'd really prefer owning this stuff.

It looks like the big news of the day was that the FBI reopened their investigation of Hillary Clinton.  I find it hilarious that after using sex in an attempt to bring down Trump, the Clinton campaign may ultimately be derailed by Anthony Weiner of all people. Jeez, if Huma Abedin is such a powerful person, what on earth was she doing sharing a computer with her pedophile husband? Trump certainly doesn't have a monopoly on bad judgement in this election. There is plenty to go around. I still think we need a do-over. If this election were a movie, people would say it was too farfetched to be believable.

Dot seemed to be feeling better today. She certainly was vocal and active. Every time I tried to take a shower, she'd start barking for attention. This wasn't aimless random barking either. Most of the time when I got her up and took her outside, she promptly peed or pooped. I didn't get to take a shower until late in the afternoon, but I was glad to see Dot's mind working normally again.

Janet has to go into work tomorrow morning, so the dogs will just think it's another workday. That's probably for the best. Dot and Dash don't like surprises. I'm starting to feel the same way.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2490

Forget what I said about wishing I could remember my dreams. I actually remembered a dream pretty clearly when I woke up this morning and it was pathetic. Somehow when I went outside to check the mail, I discovered a man building an elaborate rock garden in my front yard. I asked the man what he was doing and he told me that the yard needed something extra and that he would send me a bill. I argued with him for a while and then went back inside to discover that I wasn't in my own home anymore, but was at a housewarming party at the home of Dot's veterinarian. Dot wasn't at the party, but I did remember seeing a large Persian rug under the dining room table with a woven Dalmatian pattern. I asked if I could have the rug and then I woke up. This was nothing like the dreams I used to have many years ago where I had the ability to fly.

I always make a grocery list when I go to the store, but when I got home today, I noticed that I failed to buy several items that were clearly marked on my list. It wasn't like these items were out of stock.  I just completely forgot about them, even though I looked at the list at the store. This isn't like me. I'm usually very methodical. Is this how Alzheimer's begins? If I got Alzheimer's, probably nobody would know the difference. I don't remember much anyway.

Dot seemed was a bit stronger today. I don't know causes her dramatic change in energy levels from one day to the next, but I'm always glad when she has a good day. Maybe it's as simple as a change in temperature. Fall is definitely here and Dot loves the cooler weather. I had to wear a jacket for the first time on our morning walk. I think the temperature was in the low fifties when I woke up. I bought several Winter jackets at dirt cheap prices when the sporting goods store was going out of business earlier this Summer. I wasn't sure if I'd actually wear these coats then, but it turned out to be a good purchase. The feather light insulated jacket was perfect for mornings like this.

Couldn't we just have a do-over on this presidential election? Both candidates keep getting worse and worse. Even the two independent candidates are embarrassingly bad. I bet if there was a way to vote on just canceling the election and starting over, the measure would pass overwhelmingly. I don't buy the argument that you've got to vote for one of these candidates because the other one is worse. I think we need to admit that we have failed miserably as a country and just start over.

I got my first payment from Shutterstock today. Hey, it only took me a year. I guess this isn't so bad, considering that I only uploaded about ten photos to the stock library. I wish I could get motivated to upload hundreds, or even thousands of pictures. If I had more pictures available, this might end up being a decent form of passive income. Unfortunately, I lost interest in Shutterstock about two weeks after I joined. I got tired of having to extensively tag each photo with a long list of keywords before it was even approved. It was also pretty irritating when many of my favorite images got rejected for poor focus or excessive grain. I love shallow depth of field where only a small part of the image is in sharp focus and grainy images never bothered me at all. What do I know though? It is nice getting a check, so maybe I'll upload some more pictures.

Today wasn't a bad day at all. The weather was perfect. Even though Dot pooped in the house, she managed to avoid making a mess. For my part, I managed to get caught up on all my web assignments. Janet even fixed some delicious trout for dinner. I will have to go back to the grocery store tomorrow to pick up the items that mysteriously vanished from my memory today, but this is no big deal. A few more days like this would be just fine.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2469

I find all this talk about the candidate's health amusing. These guys are my age. They may be healthy compared to other people approaching seventy, but they aren't thirty-five anymore. It's amazing how quickly the body starts to deteriorate when you approach seventy. My Dad was like John Wayne in his younger years, but between seventy and eighty, his decline was swift and debilitating. I'm starting to experience the ravages of time myself. I just don't understand why we nominated two people who are so old and so disliked. Didn't we learn anything from Ronald Regan? Many doctors and even his own son now say that he suffered from Alzheimers Disease while he was still in the White House. You'd think in a country of over 300 million people, we could find at least one decent, healthy person in their early 40's to run for president.

I certainly didn't see many healthy people this morning. When I took Dash on his morning walk, we  somehow found ourselves in the middle of one of those charity running events. We must have been at the tail end of the race, because there weren't many people actually running. There were a few Moms pushing strollers, but mostly we shared the trail with some very overweight folks who definitely shouldn't have been wearing yoga pants. I guess some of the bystanders thought Dash and I were in the race, because when we passed, I could hear them saying "Keep it up. You can do it." It was kind of embarrassing, since some of the fat people were beating us. They weren't stopping to pee on every tree though.

I had quite a bit of website work to do today. I guess working on weekends is considered normal now. I got everything finished, but it didn't leave me with a lot of time to do anything else. At least I got to sleep in late this morning. When there's no alarm clock, both dogs seem content to sleep until at least 7:30 AM. The only problem with sleeping longer it that I end up cutting things pretty close with getting Dot outside to pee in the morning. If she's still sleeping when I wake up, I get everything prepared for the race to the door. First I unlock and open the back door, put my shoes on, and then I wait. As soon as Dot starts to stir, I lift her up and guide her by her harness straight out the open door so that she'll hopefully pee outside. There is no margin for error. If I forget to unlock the door, she will pee in the living room while I'm fiddling with the lock. If I forget my shoes, I just have to go outside barefoot. Today, I was successful. Some days, I'm not.

I've grown to love the iPhone app that lets me do my grocery shopping without standing in the check out line. This app not only saves me time, it also save me a lot of needless aggravation. Now, I wish there were other apps that let me avoid people in my daily life. I wish there was an app that would tell me exactly when to leave the house in order to avoid traffic jams and irritating drivers. I wish there was an app that would tell me when the strawberries were fresh. I hate buying a package of strawberries and discovering a rotten, moldy strawberry hidden in with the others when I get home. An app that allowed me to buy clothes that fit without having to try them on first would be nice as well.

Dot is walking better today. The extra rest she's been getting seems to be helping. The only downside to extra rest is that it virtually guarantees that Dot will poop in her bed. When I anticipate that this is going to happen, I put a pad under her and take off her harness so it won't get soiled. Sometimes this works like a charm. Other times, Dot decides that she wants to get up again and go outside as soon as I get her harness off. Such is life.

I sorted through several months worth of unread bank and brokerage statements, medicare notifications, and reminders about upcoming events this afternoon. Why do people keep sending me these things? I have no interest in reading them anymore.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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