Day 3226

Is this rain ever going to stop? I've had enough of this. Every time I think that things are finally starting to get better, another round of downpours begins. We were lucky that Janet had to get up early today, because if Dash and I left for our morning walk at the regular time we would have gotten wet. Rainy days always seem a lot longer. The house feels cold. Dash gets wet every time he goes outside to pee. And I'm always looking up at the ceiling, waiting for the leak to start again. Dash is definitely not getting an evening walk tonight.

Today's big event was a haircut. It's ironic that I've been postponing making an appointment because of all the bad weather and the one day I choose turns out to be just as rainy as the rest. My hair used to have to color to it, but now it is practically white. When I look at the clippings on the floor, they don't even look like my hair. It looks like some old man sat in the chair before me. Oh, well. At least I still have hair.

I look a little more presentable now, but it doesn't really matter. Nobody sees me anymore. I can't even remember the last business meeting I attended. On the way home, I did stop at the Apple Store, but I couldn't get all that excited about the new watch. They say the new version is bigger, but to my untrained eye, it looks exactly the same as the watch I already wear. The last thing I need is another watch. I wonder how I started collecting these things anyway. I don't even care what time it is.

Dash was pretty shaky today. Probably the cold, damp weather makes his old, stiff joints feel even worse. There's not a lot I can do on days like this. I turned the heat up a little in an attempt to keep us both warm and we took a lot of naps. I periodically turned on the TV, but quickly turned it off again. The news was just as bad as the weather today.

I still can't decide what to do about the storage warehouse. My lease runs out in a few days and if I'm going to move, I'd better start planning now. It took me years to fill the unit up, so moving everything in a few days won't be easy. I wonder how much it would cost to get someone to move everything for me? If the cost was reasonable, it would probably be worth it.

Damn. I just went out to the kitchen for a snack and I noticed that the roof has started leaking again. This totally sucks. I positioned buckets under the leak and will have to get used to the slow drip, drip, drip of falling water for the next few days. The bad thing about this type of leak is that there is no way to fix it until the rain totally stops and the roof dries out. Lord knows when I'll be able to get the roofers over here again. With all the rain we've been having lately, they're probably booked up for the next ten years.

It's early, but I'm ready to call it a day. I'm tired. Dash hates to go outside in the rain, so it's almost a certainty that he'll poop in the house tonight. As long as that's all that goes wrong, I'm OK. My expectations are pretty low these days.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3194 - Autumnal Equinox

I woke up to an ominous dripping sound this morning. The roof was leaking. I guess if I had to have a leak, now would be the time. We've had a tremendous amount of rain during the past 24 hours. I think we set some kind of all time record. I'm glad we live on a hill, because there was lots of flooding in town. When the rain subsided and we were able to take Dash for a walk, it was amazing to see how high the lake was. Most of the boat docks and piers were completely under water. Not only was the lake over its banks, the water completely covered a road that circles the lake.

It's so discouraging to realize that all the work the roofers did toward the end of the Summer basically proved nothing. The roof still leaks. I went up on the roof and made an obligatory inspection, but couldn't find an area where the water might be getting in. The house needs a completely new engineered roof with a slight pitch so water will drain off quickly. Redesigning the house is not in the cards unfortunately. It would cost a fortune and wouldn't really add any value. People want larger homes now. If we ever moved, our house would probably be scraped and replaced by another McMansion. It just doesn't make sense to put a lot of money into a tear down.

Truthfully, nothing makes a lot of sense right now. Someday, historians will look back and realize that this was the time when the second civil war started. Nobody knew what was happening at first. It wasn't a conventional war. The North wasn't fighting the South. There were guns of course, but the really dangerous weapons were words. It was neighbor against neighbor. Parents against children. Brothers against sisters. Worst of all there were no winners. Everybody lost.

Have our divisions become this great? Is this how the world ends? I hope not. When I watch the news I'm not encouraged. Polarization prevails and it seems like the war has already started. Maybe that's why I prefer cooking shows these days. I watched a show about making fish tacos this afternoon. Very tasty.

The weather forecast says it's going to rain all next week. It's officially Fall now. It always seems to rain a lot in the Fall. Jeez. How am I going to stop this roof leak? How am I going to be able to even get the roofers to come back? I think they're done with me. The drip finally stopped right after lunch. I got some bleach and cleaned the stains off the living room ceiling. A few hours later another storm arrived and the roof started leaking all over again. It's hopeless. I'll leave a big bucket out tonight to catch the water. There isn't much else I can do at this point.

Tomorrow's another day. Maybe I'll get some sleep tonight. The water from the roof is still dripping into a bucket in the living room. I'm not hearing the drips as frequently though. That's good. Dash hasn't pooped since early this morning. That's not so good.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2173

It's official. 2015 is now the rainiest year in Dallas history. When I look out my window, it's easy to see why. Some parts of town have had over six inches of rain during the last 24 hours. It rained more than usual this Spring. It rained more than usual this Summer. And it is definitely raining more than usual now. The traffic was horrible today. I saw five accidents on my way to the grocery store this afternoon. Last night was a lot worse, when three people died after they were swept away by high water. I try to stay inside on days like this.

The weather may be getting worse, but Dot's condition is definitely getting better. She didn't throw up at all today and is still holding down her food. We are continuing to feed her the Hills I/D and are gradually increasing the amount she is allowed to eat. Getting back to her regular diet couldn't come quick enough for Dot. She is very focused on food. I still don't know what caused all the vomiting. With dogs it could be almost anything.

The cold, damp weather gave me an extra incentive to make a decision about a dehumidifier. After talking to a patient, very nice customer service representative at an air quality specialty company for about twenty minutes, I finally decided on the best model for our house and ordered it online. It was hard to find a dehumidifier that had everything I needed. Some units were too big and noisy. Others didn't have an internal water reservoir, so they constantly had to be hooked up to a drain hose. Many of the smaller, high capacity units were designed to be installed in a crawl space under the floor. These don't work very well if you don't have a crawlspace. The dehumidifier I initially wanted turned out to be too small for our house. I wondered who would buy this rather expensive, built like a tank unit if it wouldn't dehumidify our rather small house. The customer service representative told me that police departments loved the compact machines and used them to dehumidify their gun safes. In the end, I never could find a commercial dehumidifier that would work well in our house and ended up buying a much less expensive consumer model instead. Hopefully it will last at least a couple of years.

I kept thinking it was Saturday all day. I didn't go out for breakfast this morning because Janet was off work today. We slept in a little later as well. My initial reaction was to get Dot up as early as possible, since there had been no accidents by the time I woke up. She was sleeping so peacefully though, that I decided to let her sleep as long as possible. We all got an extra hour of shut-eye until Dash eventually started barking for his breakfast. We got lucky and found a forty-five minute break in the rain right after we ate, so the dogs got their morning walk as well.

Since the rain is supposed to continue all the way through Monday, I don't know what I'll do this weekend. I certainly have no intention to participate in the pre-holiday shopping frenzy. Why would you go to a store and stand in long lines to buy something you could get for the same price online anyway? There were tons of Black Friday deals in my inbox this morning. One looked way too good to pass up. There was a picture of a new model Mac Pro laptop with a price of $15. I immediately put this deal in my shopping cart and went to get Janet so I could show her this amazing price. By the time I returned, the price had gone up quite a bit. The Black Friday price was really $1500. The store sure fixed that typo in a hurry. I bet they had a flood of orders the minute the deal went online. I wonder if they'll have to honor the deal for the few people who were fast enough to check out before the error was corrected. I bet somebody's in trouble. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to get a $15 Mac. I'm rarely fast enough for anything anymore.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1992

The rain wasn't as bad today. Our stormy weather lasted from just before dawn until just after breakfast. The rest of the day was fine. Toward mid-afternoon, I even started to see a few patches of blue sky. We didn't lose power at all today. The dogs didn't have any major panic attacks either. I'd have to say that things are looking up.

There were a ton of little errands to run today. I filled the car with gas. I went to the bank. I got halogen bulbs for the living room floor lamps at Home Depot. I picked up a new set of ink cartridges for the general office printer at Fry's. There was a trip to Sam's Club for laundry detergent and paper towels and then it was back home again to get the standing water from the latest storm off the roof. I've been up on the roof for three days in a row, but I am getting much more efficient about water removal. If I bought two more sump pumps and 100 feet of extension cord, I might be able to automate the entire process.

When I was walking Dash this afternoon, I noticed that the Passion Vines were in bloom. Passion Flowers seem to be the rarest of the many native Texas wildflowers I see in the park. I only see these exotic looking plants bloom once or twice a year and it's usually right after a big rain. Maybe that's way I saw half a dozen blooms today, instead of the one or two I see in a typical year. I took a photo and Dash and I were on our way. These blooms don't last long. They might already be gone when we pass this way again tomorrow.

Dot is doing amazingly well around the house now. She doesn't even need to wear the Help 'Em Up Harness when she's inside anymore. She can back up when she's in a tight corner without falling over and can sit down with a lot more grace and finesse that she could even a few weeks ago. The only room that's off limits now is one of the bathrooms that has some pretty slick tile floors. We still use the harness whenever Dot goes outside or on a walk, but it doesn't seem to keep her from enjoying things. I'm so glad we made the right decision and had the surgery.

It's almost time for a new set of ink cartridges for the large format printer. I can't believe I've used an entire set of these expensive cartridges just making small test prints to keep the printer from clogging. I haven't made any large exhibition prints for almost two years. This thing would have gone to the storage warehouse a long time ago if I didn't have to keep using it regularly just to keep the lines from clogging. It seems like things you don't use frequently should just sit there, patiently waiting for you. This is not the case with printers. Whoever came up with that phrase "use it or lose it" probably had a printer like mine.

I wonder what excuse I'll come up with to keep from going to the gym tomorrow? I finished most of my errands and chores today, so maybe there isn't any excuse. We'll see. Believe it or not, it's not supposed to rain at all tomorrow. That would be nice.

Ollie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1991

We got a horrendous amount of rain last night. You probably saw it on the morning news. Eight inches of rain in just a few hours is definitely newsworthy. There was severe flooding in many parts of town, including some areas not far from where we live. We are nearing all time record rainfall levels now. This is uncharted territory. The rain seems to be the main topic of conversation with everyone I see. Every time we have a storm like we did last night, I'm really glad that we live on top of a hill. It's a modest, very gentle hill, but it does put us at least 50 feet above the nearest water. Last night's storms knocked out our power again, but the outage didn't last long. By the time I calmed the dogs down and called in the outage report on my cell phone, the power had already been restored.

Nobody got much sleep last night. The thunder was loud enough to wake Dot, and the lightning was bright enough to send both dogs into a storm induced panic. I got a blanket and slept on the floor with Dot for a while in an effort too calm her down. When my bad shoulder started to hurt, Janet traded places with me. By the time her back started to hurt, the worst of the storm was over. When we all woke up this morning, the storm had turned into a gentle shower. The dogs got their morning walk right on schedule and then I went out for breakfast like I usually do on Friday mornings.

It's a good thing I was headed South towards the restaurant, because Northbound traffic was gridlocked in front of our house. I suspect that a major intersections a few miles down the road was still underwater. Most of the small creeks that feed the lake behind our house are outside their banks and low lying areas are flooded. Since I wasn't headed downtown to go to work, I didn't have a problem. I left the roads with bridges and underpasses to other people had a nice breakfast in the neighborhood instead. By the time I finished my meal, a lot of the high water seemed to have subsided. With things returning to normal, I went to Central Market to get groceries for the weekend, and then headed home to finish this week's work.

Today was busy. I cleared the water off the roof again, updated a few more websites, and finished writing another article. That was more than enough for one day. I'm getting used to all the new rituals imposed by wet, stormy weather and aging dogs, but it is a bit tiring. Everything is peaceful now, although another wave of thunderstorms is scheduled to arrive sometime after midnight. Lets hope that tonight's rain isn't accompanied by thunder and lightning like it was last night. We all could use some sleep.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day