Day 1112

I plugged in the guitar and played a little blues today. There certainly wasn't much else to do. It was a very slow day. The good news was that I hadn't entirely lost my chops. The bad news was that playing guitar for any extended length of time with Carpal tunnel hurts like hell. Who knows though. Maybe playing with a wrecked left hand will give my riffs a note of authenticity.

I wonder how many years of sitting in a little room and writing inconsequential advertising it takes before you go stark raving mad? When you factor in that my primary diversions are sweeping standing water off the roof and killing cockroaches that wander into the house, maybe I've passed that threshold already. At least it was a bit warmer today. The dogs didn't even have to wear their Winter coats.

I was amused today when I noticed that the stock market had a substantial rally when the President came on television early in the afternoon to say that everyone was close to striking a deal on the fiscal cliff. Of course five minutes after the market closed, some senators came on TV and essentially said "just kidding." There is no deal tonight because nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. I have a feeling that this impasse could go on for weeks or months.

If we can stay awake until midnight, Janet and I will bring in the New Year with some champagne and a selection of cheese. I can't imagine standing out in the cold for hours to watch a mirrored ball drop, but seeing the event on TV in a warm house with a flute of champagne in your hand is actually kind of nice. 2012 certainly wasn't that memorable, but maybe 2013 will be better. Remember 1999 when Y2K was supposed to bring the world grinding to a halt on New Year's Eve? Nothing happened. People still say "party like it's 1999" though. What's that all about?  I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot like 1999 when we all sail over the cliff a little later this evening.

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope your first New Year's resolution is to continue reading this blog for another year.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1007

I went to the pest control store and got some more roach bait to replace the tube of gel that had gone bad. Hopefully, I won't wait seven years to use the stuff this time. I find bug guys oddly comforting. There are very few ambiguities about professional exterminators. They don't salt and pepper their conversations with words like sustainability or multiculturalism. Ask these guys about getting rid of pests though and they'll pragmatically tell you the best way to kill virtually anything. I've always thought if we were in a war we really needed to win, it wouldn't hurt to put a few bug guys in charge of things. They'd get the job done.

When I'm working up on the roof, I can see over the neighbor's fence. Today, I noticed a very brown and very dead Christmas tree tossed right outside the neighbor's back door. It was obvious that when they took the tree down after Christmas, this was as far as they got. I guess I find this comforting as well. It's nice to know that as disorganized as I've become, the neighbors are even in worse shape than I am. Since it's September, I don't know why I never noticed the dead Christmas tree before. I'm sure it's been out in their back yard for a long time. Probably the tree escaped my attention in exactly the same way as that tube of roach bait that expired in 2003.

The FedEx guy delivered some business cards I'd designed this morning. It continues to amaze me how easy and inexpensive printing has become. There really isn't much need for people like me anymore. When online printing first arrived on the scene, I would carefully prepare Quark Express files to upload, just like I would for a traditional printer. This time, I was in a hurry and used the handy online design wizard on the printing company website instead. I had everything completed in a matter of minutes and the results were just as good as if I had done everything by hand.

It's starting to get cool in the mornings now. It isn't exactly jacket weather yet, but it won't be long. This leaves me wondering what to do about the furnace. As some of you may remember, my furnace is kaput. I either need a brand new furnace or some very expensive repairs. Last Spring when the furnace broke, I decided to postpone making any sort of decision until it got cold again. Pretty soon, I'm going to wake up shivering and realize that once again, my chickens have come home to roost.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1006

There was a time when I would have spent a day like today curled up with a book. It was a grey drizzly day and I couldn't think of a single good reason to go outside. Janet and Dash went to a Dalmatian event, but Dot and I stayed behind. What has happened to me? Instead of reading, I cleaned the house. After vacuuming, cleaning the electrostatic furnace filters, and doing some laundry, I thought it might be a good time to apply the insect bait that was suppose to eliminate the roaches that come inside on damp days like this. I'd had the roach bait for a long time, but had always postponed using it because it involved taking off the base-plates to all the electric outlets and applying the bait inside the walls.

When I found the tube of gel, I could tell there was liquid inside. This didn't seem right. I had used this stuff once before and it was a thick white gel. I squirted some of the stuff out of the tube and it was now a thin brown liquid. Clearly, I had waited too long and the bait had gone bad. When I got out a magnifying glass and looked at the fine print on the tube, I saw a use by date of October 2003. Oops! I guess I did wait a little too long.

It's a good thing I stayed home though and didn't go with Janet to the event. While I was trying to figure out what had happened to the roach bait, I  heard what initially sounded like someone peeing on the living room floor. It was a bad roof leak. I immediately got out the plastic buckets and started cleaning up the mess. This leak surprised me, because the rain outside was fairly gentle. It had been raining a long time though. As you might expect, there was a change of plan and I spent the rest of the afternoon getting the water off the roof.

When Janet got home later later in the day, I asked if she and Dash had fun at their event. Nope. They had a bad day too. They both got trapped in an elevator at a downtown parking garage and never even made it to their event. Luckily, the elevator finally opened and the water finally quit splashing on the living room floor.

It's just a normal Sunday evening now. A normal Sunday evening means the weekend is almost over and neither of us is looking forward to Monday.

Phantom is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day