Day 4196 - Summer Solstice

It's the first day of Summer, the longest day of the year, and also Father's Day. Occasionally my birthday falls on one of these days as well. I'm going to skip the Father's Day remembrances this year. A lot of what happened during the early years have been lost to the mists of time. I do remember the latter years when I had to take over my Dad's affairs after he could no longer handle things himself. Not a lot of good memories there. Truthfully, I've never had strong family ties and don't spend a lot of time thinking about family. I jokingly tell people that I was raised by wolves, but I suspect that my parents did a pretty good job raising me. I've always been able to cope and have succeeded at just about everything I've tried. I'm sure my Dad had a lot to do with that, whether I was aware of it or not.

I thought I'd try to outwit the weather and take my long walk right after breakfast this morning. I don't drink my morning smoothie during the weekend, so I was able to get an early start. Janet volunteered at a dog event again today, so Dawn had no interest in walking with me. If she could have overcome her fears, she would have enjoyed the walk. It was still pretty cool outside at 7:30 AM. Keep in mind that this is Texas in the Summer, so 'pretty cool' means 80 degrees.

I was easily able to complete six miles this morning. I should do this more often. The problem is that it takes so long to drink a half-gallon fruit smoothie that I don't know where I'd find the time. If I drink the smoothie first, it's already gotten too hot outside for a pleasant walk by the time I'm finished. If I walk first, I don't feel like eating or drinking anything when I return. Today was easy. I just had a quick bowl of cold cereal before leaving the house. I won't abandon the smoothie though. I've convinced myself that it is extremely healthy.

I was a little tired when I returned from my walk, but a short nap took care of that. I realized that it was now or never for removing the rest of the dead Photinia trees, so I got out my heavy reciprocating saw and went to work. I must have saved the hardest trees for last, because it required quite an effort to cut them down. The trouble with this type of saw is that the blades are relatively short, making it almost impossible to cut through a thick stump. It is also impossible to cut the trees down flush to the ground. At some point I'm going to have to hire someone to dig up the roots of these trees. The exposed stumps don't look all that great. All that being said, the yard does look a lot better now. I don't look better unfortunately. I always manage to cut myself when I am doing yard work. One of the hazards of taking blood thinners I guess. The slightest scratch results in a cut.

It's time to start watering the grass again, but I couldn't find a sprinkler that worked. All three were broken. I guess it's time for another trip to Home Depot. I'll need to buy a hose as well. The one hose long enough to reach all parts of the yard has a big leak in it. Whatever I buy probably won't last any longer than the worthless tools I threw away today. I think all this stuff is made in China out of recycled tin foil.

Dawn had no interest in staying outside with me while I worked in the yard today. Every time I took her out to pee, she immediately went to the back door and wanted to go inside as soon as she had done her business. The little diva spent her day sitting in the middle of our king sized bed while I was sweating outside. Whoever coined the phrase 'it's a dog's life' never met our dogs.

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4189

It was a very busy day. Right after breakfast I got out the reciprocating saw and attempted to cut down the remaining dead Photinia trees in the back yard. The new carbide tipped blade helped a lot, but there were still a few trees where the stumps were too thick for my saw. I was amazed at how heavy these trees were. I had trouble hauling some of them out to the alley. Later this week I will move the pile of wood out to the curb for the monthly bulky trash pick-up. By the time I was finished, I was drenched in sweat and changed my clothes for the first of many times today.

After a short nap to rest up, we took Dawn on her special outing to her Sunday park. She gets so excited about these Sunday outings now. I'm beginning to think that she's not really scared to ride in the car. All her weird behavior might be just the way she shows her excitement. We had a nice walk. It was starting to get hot, but the walk was short enough that Dawn was in no danger of getting overheated. Her self imposed one mile limit is actually pretty smart. We always conclude our outing with ice cream cones at Andy's. Dawn loves ice cream. After we returned home I changed my clothes for a second time. I wonder if people sweat more when they get older. I never remember sweating this much in the summer.

The temperature was in the 90's by the time we returned home. I was pretty tired already and wasn't really looking forward to a six mile walk. I took a short nap and finally managed to convince myself that I still needed the exercise. This was another slow day. My pace was two minutes per mile slower than it usually is on a cooler day. The park wasn't very full for a Sunday. Most sane people were staying inside. I'm always surprised at the number of people having family picnics on really hot days. Is this actually fun? There were very few joggers and runners today, but quite a few picnics.

When I returned from my long walk I was totally beat. I took a shower and changed my clothes for a third time. At least our air conditioner is working well. If the air conditioner broke we would be miserable in less than an hour. Things don't look good for the week ahead. It looks like it is going to be sunny and hot for the rest of the week. Temperatures will be in the high 90's and may top 100 degrees on some days. This is only June too. July is usually much worse.

It's easy to get dehydrated on days like this. I find myself drinking twice as much water as I usually do. Even this probably doesn't replace the amount I sweat though. Our house is still cool, but the air conditioner never stops running. I have a feeling that our electric bill is going to be horrendous next month. The electric bill is always high in the summer, but the electric companies all raised their rates after last winter's big freeze knocked the power out throughout the state. I'm not looking forward to this. The air conditioner compressor and two dehumidifiers use a lot of electricity.

These weeks go quickly. It's already time to visit the rescue Dalmatians again. We heard that Riggs got adopted this week and that there's a new dog up at the kennel. I'm not sure what his name is, but he's young and quite handsome. I'll need to remember to take my camera so I can get some pictures up on the website. I don't expect a lot to happen next week, but I do wish it would cool off a little. How quick we forget. It's only been a week or so since all the rain ended and I'm already wishing it would come back.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4179

At least I made an effort today. I've been promising forever to cut down the dead Photinia trees in the back yard. I don't know what happened to them. They looked nice for over twenty years and then one Spring, two thirds of them abruptly died. The dead trees are an eyesore now, but they are large enough that they are difficult for me to remove.

Years ago I decided that I was never going to use a chain saw. Several friends of mine have gotten seriously injured using chain saws and they are not the best tool for a clumsy person. I use a reciprocating saw instead. I don't like battery powered tools, so I have a heavy duty 15 amp corded model. The saw weighs ten pounds and will cut through anything. It's not really meant to cut through trees though. These saws are mostly used in the construction industry for demolition work. A small chain saw would be ten times faster and probably weigh a lot less. It's what I got though, and I did promise to remove those trees.

I eventually removed four of the dead Photinia trees, plus as couple of small scrub trees that had grown up next to our back fence. This was all I could handle for one day. The saw was heavy and hard to hold parallel to the ground so I could saw the trees down at the base. The dry dead wood was like sawing through Oak. It took a long time. Sometimes the small blade would get stuck in the tree and it would take me forever to free it. No wonder I waited so long to do this. I've still got four more trees to remove, but I'll save them for another day. Maybe sometime next year.

I had to rest for a bit before I was ready to walk Dawn with Janet. Dawn was ready, but she'd been resting all morning. I felt like taking a shower and a long nap, but I knew I'd just get hot and sweaty all over again on my walk. I was kind of mad that my Fitbit didn't really register the effort it took to remove those trees.

This was another day where it was supposed to rain, but didn't. It was overcast, but there wasn't much of a breeze. I wish there was a little wind because it would have kept me cooler. Dawn is still surprisingly adventurous on her walks. She goes somewhere different almost every day now. Her walks are still short and sometimes the new path she takes is very close to the old path, but it's still good to see her becoming more curious and less afraid.

I continued walking after Dawn and Janet returned to the house. Might as well get it over with, I thought. I knew I was going to be slow today and I was. I did complete my six miles though. The park isn't as full on weekdays anymore. I think this is a sign that people are slowly returning to work. Two of our local gaggle of geese have gone missing. I haven't seen them for almost two weeks now. It's hard to know if birds have died or just flown away. Sometimes they just disappear and I never see them again. I did see the Muscovy ducks though. These large ducks cover a lot of ground on the Eastern side of the lake and I never know where they will turn up. Sometimes I won't see then for weeks at a time, but they are always around somewhere.

I watched the CRS-22 resupply mission launch on the Space X live stream while I was eating lunch. Every time I see one of these launches I'm torn between wanting to return to Florida and wanting to avoid the state entirely until everyone gets their post-covid vacations out of their systems. Flights between Orlando and Dallas are packed right now. Rental cars are hard to find in Florida and everything is expensive. I'm thinking that it's probably a bad time to even think about attending launches. Communication has been poor with the magazine I write for as well. I'm not even sure if they are interested in me anymore.

With no travel plans on the horizon, I just took the trash out to the curb and am anticipating another uneventful Friday. I'm going to try my best to avoid yard work tomorrow. I'm still feeling tired and a bit sore.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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