Day 4623

You can learn a lot about society by walking around a shopping mall before the stores open. Cooking hasn't changed much. I see exactly the same Cuisinart food processers, Vitamix blenders, and Le Creuset cast iron pots in store windows as I did fifteen years ago. On the other hand, what people put on their feet has changed a lot. Everyone wears sneakers now. Even the mannequins in high-end men's stores show men wearing sneakers with suits. Every clothing store has some sort of sneaker in the window. That's all you see on the feet of people walking around too. Not a leather shoe in sight. 

The expensive boutiques still display clothes for impossibly skinny people, but middle of the road stores now proudly display larger sizes in their windows. There are even fat mannequins now. There must be a large market for purses. I counted at least a dozen stores that sold nothing but very expensive purses. Jewelry stores don't put jewelry in the windows anymore. There are just posters with pictures of jewelry. The Apple store has a policeman inside the store even when it is closed. Times have definitely changed. Truthfully, there is very little you actually need in most shopping malls. You get that stuff at Walmart.

We got more rain today. I knew the rain was coming so I went up on the roof and fixed the pumps. A low hanging limb from the neighbor's pecan tree had knocked over one of the pumps and it had become unplugged. The other pump had a bad extension cord that started to smoke every time I plugged the pump in. That pump will stay unplugged until I can buy a new extension cord. Oh, well. At least I got one of the pumps working again. I swept the remaining water and a ton of pecan shells off the roof before I called it a day. I really hate going up on the roof these days. My balance isn't as good as it used to be.

At least the rain has cooled things down a bit. It was quite pleasant outside on our sunrise walk with Dawn  and we were even able to take a short walk later in the day on Dawn's Sunday outing. It's still quite humid though. A succession of rainy days makes things uncomfortably humid outside. The humidity didn't stop us from getting ice cream though. You can eat your ice cream cones in the car with the air conditioner running.

I vacuumed the can light sockets in the bathroom ceiling this afternoon in an attempt to get rid of the ants. This was a wasted effort. Even though the dead ants are falling directly below the can lights, there were no ants to be found when I removed the bulbs from the light sockets. Ants and debris are still falling from the ceiling. My success with the pumps was short lived as well. It just started raining again and my one remaining pump is no longer working. It's probably that same pecan tree again. When the limbs get wet they droop down and some even touch the roof. The moving limbs probably knocked over the pump again. This house can be very discouraging at times. I think I just heard the ominous drip of a roof leak.

I charged the laptop and installed security updates this afternoon. I think I'm ready for the trip now. Working with computers is much easier than dealing with household problems. The computers are old but not nearly as old as the house. 

We need to take Dawn to the vet tomorrow morning for pre-dental lab work. It's time to have her teeth cleaned again and they want to make sure she is OK for anesthesia. Getting her teeth cleaned is probably a big reason why Dawn doesn't like the vet. Healthy teeth are important though. For people and animals. 

Sure wish the pumps were working this evening. We're getting a lot of rain.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4534

It's a little late, but the rain has finally arrived. I spent most of the day trying to avoid getting wet but I guess you can't avoid it forever. I did manage to get my long walk finished before the storms started and Dawn got her walk as well. Now we wait for the roof to start leaking. We've got quite a downpour right now and the pumps on the roof aren't working. It's not a good combination.

Other than waiting for the rain to start, it was a pretty slow day. I discovered that the shower drain was clogged when I was taking a shower today. I wish I'd discovered this before I was actually in the shower and already wet. I had to get dressed so I could go outside and get my tools to snake out the drain before I could continue. Water is not my friend. Between running toilets, slow drains, and leaking roofs, I've had just about all the water problems I can handle.

Dawn must have know that the weather was about to change because she refused to take a sunrise walk. It wasn't raining, but the ground was wet. That's all it takes with her. Luckily, Janet was able to give her a walk in the afternoon before the next round of storms hit. I think Dawn is much better at forecasting the weather than the apps on my phone. Yesterday they said the rain would start last night and continue all day today. The forecast was only off by 12 hours.

I wasn't feeling lucky today, so I postponed updating the star tracker app on my phone. It was tempting because there wasn't much else to do today, but I kept remembering that the last time I updated this app was when all my camera connection problems started. One of these days I'm going to have to deal with this. My phone keeps wanting to update apps automatically when they become available. I've had to disable this function and update apps manually, being careful to avoid the Benro app.

I wish I could get the pumps to work without going up on the roof. Sometimes when the extension cords to the pumps are under water for too long they short out and throw a circuit breaker. Other times, leaves and dirt clog the pumps and need to be cleaned out. Unfortunately, you never know that something is wrong until after it starts raining. Oh, well. It is what is is. I'd better go get the buckets ready. It will be a miracle if we don't get a leak tonight.

My problems always seem so minor whenever I turn on the news. I guess that's why I don't like listening to the news anymore. I often feel like I am witnessing the total collapse of society. If you are even a casual student of history you realize that all civilizations come to an end at some point. We've had a good run, but we may be nearing the end of ours. I wonder what the next Middle Ages will be like? Probably a bit like BladeRunner. I may be wrong but I keep thinking that globalization is behind many of the problems we are seeing today. Just because something is too big to fail doesn't prevent failure. It almost guarantees it. The world would be a better place if there were lots of tiny little powerless civilizations, all completely independent of each other. If one fails or goes haywire, the rest just continue on. Of course this wouldn't work in a world filled with jet planes and satellite phones. It wouldn't work if two tiny civilizations decided to join forces and take over a third tiny civilization either. Hey, I've got no answers. Maybe we just need a lot fewer people.

I hope this rain stops soon. I know that rain is a lot better than drought and wildfires, but water still makes me nervous.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day