Day 4547

Well, we've got a new dishwasher. They won't be able to deliver and install it until Saturday, but that's OK. The old dishwasher still works and I just need to remember to mop up the small amount of water that leaks on the kitchen floor after I do the dishes. I hope everything goes smoothly. I've had problems with appliances fitting through doors before. I think appliances were smaller when our house was built in the mid 1950's. I wish the salesperson hadn't spent so much time explaining what my options were if the dishwasher arrived with scratches or dents. Now I'm worried that I'm going to get something with a dent in it.

As luck would have it, my dealer friend told me today that he had sold two more model trains from my collection. This was perfect timing. The sale will pretty much pay for the dishwasher. It's taken about three years to liquidate half of the collection. Model railroading isn't as popular as it used to be either. I may have to put this collection in my will. It's doubtful that the entire collection will ever be sold. It's a nice surprise when something does sell though. I was certainly surprised today.

We had a change in plans and didn't visit the rescue Dalmatians after all. I ended up going to the gym instead. It's nice to have this option as the days grow warmer. It was definitely too hot to go walking in the park this afternoon. It was too hot to give Dawn an afternoon walk as well. Our sunrise walk with Dawn was fine, but even then you could tell that the day wasn't going to be pleasant. I'm glad they've opened up the basketball court at the gym again. Shooting baskets is a lot more fun than lifting weights or walking around the oval indoor track. I should go to the gym more often, but with five dollar gas it could get expensive. 

I found the Havahart live trap, cleaned it up, and made sure it still worked. I baited it with Cheddar cheese and placed it in the atrium. Hopefully I will catch the rat, but I'm not very hopeful. This trap has failed to catch rats before. The neighbor's cats actually did a much better job of keeping the rats and mice at bay. I still can't figure out how an animal can get into this space. It is basically in the middle of the house, enclosed on three sides by brick and glass, with screen wire wall on the fourth side facing the back yard. I'm not worried about the rat getting into the house. With a broken sliding glass door, it takes a lot of effort for me to get into the atrium myself.

I was trying to find a carpenter I used to use when we first bought the house. He was very good. I couldn't find him on Facebook and the old phone number I had didn't work. I don't know why I was surprised. It's been thirty years since I used this guy. I think he was older than me too. He might not even be alive anymore. I used to have a really good list of suppliers that I could depend on for almost anything. They're all gone now. One or two people were successful enough to start companies that are still in business today,  but they don't come out to the house anymore. It's hard for me to relate to the younger generation that has replaced these people. For the most part, they don't understand old houses either.

I had something I really needed to do tomorrow but I've already forgotten what it is. It happens a lot. Maybe I'll remember. If not, I'll eat my shredded wheat for breakfast, take my long walk, and see how many things I can postpone until another day.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4543

We had another big thunderstorm last night. The thunder was so loud that it scared Dawn, who typically ignores these things. I woke up when Dawn kept hopping off the bed to go to her "safe" place in the corner of the room and then hopping back on the bed again a few minutes later. It took about fifteen minutes before she decided that it was safe enough to go back to sleep again. I kept getting text messages on my phone from Oncor saying that there was a power outage in our area, but we never lost power. The roof didn't leak either. Luckily, storms with straight line winds move quickly and everything was calm by morning. I'm tired of all this rain, but at least the lawn looks good. Late Spring is usually pretty wet here. By July, I'll be wishing these storms were back again.

It was way too wet to take a sunrise walk with Dawn this morning. She didn't even want to go out in the back yard and pee. We figured that we could walk her later in the day. I ate my breakfast and ran the pumps on the roof. Amazingly, they're still working. Now that Summer is approaching and most of last Fall's leaves are gone, I'm just going to let the residual standing water on the roof evaporate. There's no reason to tempt fate by climbing up there too often.

The accessory I ordered for the star tracker came in today's mail. This will make it easier to attach the camera to the tracker in both landscape and portrait orientations. I've got everything I need now. All that's missing are some dark skies and the will to go outside at night and get bitten by mosquitos and chiggers. I'll keep practicing with the tracker so I can reliably set it up and use it in the dark. One of these days it will go back to McDonald Observatory with me.

I took my long walk early today while the air was still cool from last night's storm. As long as it's not hot and muggy, I still prefer walking in the park to working out at the gym. I was surprised when after a few miles my route was blocked by a construction crew. They were putting in a new bridge over one of the creeks that feeds the lake. It looked like they built the entire bridge offsite and were just lifting it in place with a giant crane. I've been watching crews build the concrete piers for this bridge for weeks. I still didn't expect that this is the way they would finish things though. Since I couldn't walk any further, I turned around and walked the other way. I ended up getting the same amount of steps and saw a part of the lake I haven't visited in months.

Dawn was almost back to normal today, but she's still a little more nervous than usual. She freaked out for a few minutes when she heard the mailman at the front door this morning. Dawn doesn't like surprises. Anything out of the ordinary can startle or scare her. I'm beginning to think that she has PTSD. She seems to behave very similarly to the way many people do with PTSD. Clearly something traumatic happened in her past and she'll probably never forget it.

I saw a rat in the atrium today. We haven't seen rats in the yard for almost five years. There was a guy in the neighborhood who used to take care of a lot of feral cats. I think they kept the rat population down. He found homes for the cats before he moved and I haven't seen cats in the neighborhood for quite a while. Owls used to eat mice and rats in the meadow behind our house as well. I don't even hear the owls anymore. I wonder where they went? 

I'm pretty sure the dishwasher is leaking. Do we need a new dishwasher, or is there just a loose water line connection somewhere?  I'll have to call the appliance repairman to find out what is going on. He'll probably monkey around for half a day and then tell me that I need to call a plumber. Nothing is easy these days.

At least the week is almost over. I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and the weather looks like it's going to be nice tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will be uneventful. I'm kind of like Dawn in may ways. I'm good as long as there are no surprises.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day