Day 3343

Winter is just a process of continually adding layer after layer of clothing so I won't be too cold when I go outside and then removing layer after layer of clothing as soon as I come back inside so I won't get too hot. I'm always trying to shortcut this lengthy process, so I'm usually too hot or too cold. Maybe some of you find all these seasonal changes invigorating, but I wish mother nature would make up her mind. 72 degrees all the time would be nice.

I thought that Dash might want a later walk this morning because he was still sound asleep when I woke up. This was just wishful thinking on my part. Dash was waiting at the door and ready to go before I finished getting dressed. I'm always amazed at how empty the park is on cold windy days. There are all these young, healthy dogs in the neighborhood and it's always the old dog who can barely move who is still out there. I admire Dash's tenacity, even though on days like today I'd rather just stay inside myself.

Dash's vision has been getting worse for some time. Occasionally, I think he navigates entirely by his sense of smell. To a casual observer he seems to meander all over the place, but maybe he is just smelling his way from one familiar landmark to the next. Every once in a while he will stop and smell the air for a long time and then turn around. It's frustrating when he does this when we're almost home. "Don't do this to me buddy," I think. "We're almost home and I'm getting cold." I've learned that if something doesn't smell right to Dash, it's better to just change our route and forget about it. Getting Dash to change his mind is not an easy task.

I guess today was a holiday. President's Day never seems like a real holiday to me. Today was just a day when I couldn't go to the post office or listen to the market news on the business channel. I don't buy or sell very often anymore, but I still like following the market. When I hear politicians talk it all just sounds like blah, blah, blah to me. Market moves are easier to understand. The market operates almost entirely on fear and greed. When investors are scared, the market goes down. When they are confident, the market goes up. If you follow these sentiments, you can get a pretty accurate picture of what is going on in the world. It's certainly a more accurate picture than listening to politicians.

Without any market news to follow, I watched Jay Leno's Garage instead. I'd love to have a huge collection of cars like Jay Leno or Jerry Seinfeld. I don't think either of these guys are trying to impress anyone. They are just rich and really like cars. I've had some interesting cars in my time, but I can't imagine being a collector. Cars take up a lot of space and they can be quite expensive to keep running. One at a time is plenty for me.

I tried going without antihistamines this morning. It didn't work. Within an hour or two I was blowing my nose again. I wonder if I'm going to need to take the antihistamines all Winter. I have seasonal allergies every year, but they've never lasted this long. Is something weird going on with the pollen count this year, or am I just becoming more sensitive? Of course there are always the conspiracy theories. Maybe the Chemtrails are starting to get to me.

I haven't used my laptop or iPad in so long that the batteries in both were completely dead. When business travel was a part of my life, I used to depend on the laptop. Not anymore. The only time I use it now is during power outages. Be prepared is my motto, so I charged the batteries and updated software on both devices. Hey, you never know. I may need an old laptop someday.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2369

Today felt a bit strange. I actually had some work to do for a change. I stayed busy most of the day updating websites and writing a new article. For the first time this week there were no accidents in the house. I successfully got Dot up and outside before she peed on the floor. It was also fortunate that the phone company was laying fiber optic cable in the alley behind our house. When I took Dot outside, she would start barking excitedly at the workmen and it would cause her to poop. I don't get lucky every day, but today everything fell into place.

I've been wondering why my morning fruit smoothies tasted a little funny this week. Today I discovered why. The milk I'd been using had gone bad. I do better when Janet screens my food. Sometimes I never notice that something has spoiled or gone past it's expiration date until it's too late. My sense of smell leaves something to be desired. This can be a good thing when I'll sleeping next to Dash, but I've eaten more than my share of spoiled food because I couldn't smell that it had gone bad.

I'm curious why the phone company is laying fiber optic cable all over the neighborhood. I've talked to a few people, but nobody seems to know anything. Most of my neighbors are just mad that the cable installation crews have torn up their front yards. You'd think that if service was going to improve, AT&T would have sent out a flyer telling people what was coming their way. I talk to AT&T tech support frequently because my U-verse service is so bad, but they know nothing. Even the guys actually  laying the cable know nothing. "You'll have to talk to my boss," they tell me. 

I've been getting up earlier than usual to feed the dogs and give them their morning meds before the dog walker arrives. I was hoping that this might turn me into a morning person, but I don't think it's going to happen. I'm certain I'll revert to my old ways the minute Janet returns. The dogs schedule actually hasn't changed much. Janet always gets up early and the dogs follow her out to the kitchen, expecting to be fed. I sleep in a little longer until it's time for our morning walk. I justify this extra shut-eye because I'm usually the one up in the middle of the night cleaning up dog poop. Truthfully, nobody gets enough sleep at our house.

While I was walking Dash this afternoon, I watched a squirrel carry a huge Horse Apple up a tree and proceed to eat the whole thing. This fruit from the bodark tree is considered inedible and is often used to repel cockroaches and other insects. Inexplicably, squirrels love the taste of these things, which explains why once a Horse Aple falls to the ground, it doesn't seem to stay there very long.

I had to turn on the sprinklers today. It's amazing that after several weeks of continuous rain, all it took was a few days of hot, sunny weather to dry things out. I'm not looking forward to July. This month's water bill was surprisingly low, but I'm not going to want to even open next month's bill. I think Summer has finally arrived.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 962

The U-verse repairman came out to the house today. We've been having problems with losing the broadband signal lately. The phones, the TV, and the Internet would go dead at random times during the day and then return after about five minutes when the modem went through an automatic re-boot cycle. This wouldn't have been a big deal if it happened once a month, but it was happening up to ten times a day. At any rate, this was like any other repair day. The dogs barked like crazy while the repair technician tried to isolate the problem. The dogs were so loud that I eventually asked the repairman if he minded if I let them out of the office, so they could see who was in the house. The guy said he had big dogs himself and didn't mind.  Dot calmed down as soon as she had a chance to smell the repair technician, but Dash though I'd brought him a  playmate. Dash was totally friendly, but I eventually had to pen him up again, because he wouldn't leave the repairman alone.

Eventually, the technician completed his inspection and said that I needed a different type of 2Wire gateway, because the house was too far from the AT&T switch for the original modem to function reliably. When I asked why the previous technician installed a faulty modem in the first place, I didn't really get a good answer. I got the impression though that the original modem was probably the only thing that the previous technician had in the truck at the time.  When today's technician left, he said that my network was running 40% faster than it was when he arrived. Maybe so. It certainly doesn't seem all that fast right now however. Hopefully, this repair will last longer than the last one, which failed in less than a month.

I felt like I had stomach flu all day. Janet said it was probably because I ate rotten food in the refrigerator again. How was I to know?  I guess crab meat spread on top of a portobello mushroom cap won't stay fresh for a week in the frig.  The leftovers certainly didn't smell bad, but I'll be the first to admit that my sense of smell isn't so good. My lack of a good olfactory system does come in handy at times. Especially when the dogs fart in bed at night.

I'm glad the weekend is here. I live for the weekends these days. It's not that anything all that exciting happens on weekends, but it is nice to get a brief reprieve from the world of arbitrary deadlines and dumb questions. I got the weekend started with some tasty pancakes and a three rashers of bacon this morning. Unfortunately, stomach was less than impressed. I think it was still trying to deal with the bad crab I fed it yesterday.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

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