Day 4949

It's been a long day. Two plumbers have been here all day installing the new water heater. I never dreamed that putting a water heater in a confined space was such a complicated procedure. Due to new code requirements, the plumbers couldn't simply duplicate the old arrangement. New water heaters have to be installed on a raised base with an overflow pan that drains to the floor drain. Too many things use the floor drain in the utility room already. Now I've got one more. 

The plumbers told me that I could no longer use the copper pipes at the top on the water heater to support a shelf. I have no shelf in the utility room now and no place to store the things that were sitting on it. The new water heater is slightly larger than the old one and takes up more space, but the good news is that we have hot water again.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but the price of water heaters has more than doubled since the last time I replaced one. The plumbers were amazed at how old the leaking water heater was. "Your new one won't last that long," the lead plumber told me. I wonder what else can go wrong in this house? Probably more things than I can even imagine.

Dawn is still frightened of almost everything, but she is eating her meals and going outside to pee and poop. That's all I can ask for at this point. She was actually very good today with all the commotion going on in the house. She just stayed in the bedroom all day until the plumbers left. I was a little worried last night that Dawn wasn't coming back to the bedroom to go to sleep. We had a very brief power outage and when the lights and TV went out, it scared her and she ran to the kitchen. Basically everything seems to scare Dawn except plumbers. She seemed fine with the plumbers today.

Since I was home with the plumbers all day, I didn't get to go to the gym. It wasn't a good day to take a long walk since the temperature got up to 104 degrees. I'm hooked on getting my steps though. After dinner I took this week's trash out to the curb and then took a short walk. I walked just long enough to get 10,000 steps and returned home. No sense in being stupid. I thought it would be cooler if I waited until evening to walk. It was still 95 degrees though.

Somebody has spoofed my e-mail address and I'm seeing spam that appears to come from me in my spam folder almost every day. It's irritating. I did a little research and discovered that this type of spoofing is extremely common and very hard to stop. I'll call my hosting company again and ask them to put a stop to this. I did this once before and the spoofing stopped for about two weeks and then started all over again. I'm beginning to think that my Luddite sister who isn't on the Internet at all might have the right idea. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be uneventful. Having plumbers banging around all day in one room with a scared dog in another room was a bit stressful. I'll be glad when Janet returns home.

Watson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4905

The roof got its first big test today. We had a driving mid-afternoon thunderstorm and no leaks. I resisted the urge to climb up on the roof after the storm was over and see if there was standing water. I am curious though. The roof is also paid for now. A representative from the roofing company came over to pick up the final payment earlier this morning. Hopefully I won't spend much time thinking about the roof anymore. There are other things that need attention.

The rain was somewhat of a surprise. I wasn't expecting it. Dawn apparently wasn't expecting rain either. The thunder and lightning sent her into panic mode for a while. Dawn usually isn't scared of storms, so this was a surprise as well. Luckily, the storm was over in an hour or so and there is no more rain on the horizon.

The day started normally enough. We had a nice early morning walk with Dawn. She seemed to have a lot of energy this morning and wanted to take a longer route than usual. Last month's falling episodes seem like a distant memory now. Hopefully, whatever caused the weakness in her front legs won't return. A healthy dog is a happy dog.

After paying for the roof, I decided to pay all my other bills as well. I'm really going to have to curtail my trips to Florida. These launch trips are just getting too expensive. Airfares have gone up the most, but when I compare expenses with past trips, everything else has gone up as well. It's kind of sad. Maybe I can plan something for the Fall, but I'd better stay close to home for a while.

I'm glad I was able to complete my long walk today before the storm arrived. I've been surprised by weather before and wouldn't have wanted to be caught out in this storm. There was lots of lightning. I don't mind getting wet, but I definitely don't want to get struck by lightning. Even with a waterproof roof, I'm still not a big fan of rain. Rain makes for muddy dog walks and when the grass grows faster I have to mow more often.

When I passed Sunset Bay on my long walk today the Muscovy Ducks were fighting with the geese. One of the geese was trying to run away with a Muscovy Duck's bill firmly clamped to its tail feathers. Birds are not very friendly creatures. They are very territorial and always seem to be fighting with each other. The Mallards are always chasing each other. Sometimes the birds don't seem to like me either. I've had Mockingbirds dive bomb me several times on walks. You don't want to get too close to their nests.

It's hard to believe that it's almost June. Where has this year gone? It still seems like I just finished putting away the Christmas tree. I'll finish up my article tomorrow morning and send it to the magazine. There isn't much else on the agenda. I owe my sister another letter and I still need to fix the screen door, but I'll probably just take a walk tomorrow. 

Ollie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day