Day 3915

Hank and Luckie have left the building. Janet helped transport them to their new home in Austin today. We've already received pictures showing Luckie sitting on the sofa. It doesn't take long for these dogs to adapt to a better life. Charlie is the only Dalmatian at the kennel right now. He probably won't be alone for long. I've heard that two more dogs will be entering the rescue program soon.

After bragging endlessly about the shopping app that lets me bypass the checkout line, the app has failed me two weeks in a row. After entering all my items and heading for the door, the app fails to connect with my bank and I have to erase all the entries and go back and check out all over again with a cashier. This app used to work perfectly until the company decided to "upgrade" it so that the same app could be used for several different stores. It hasn't worked since.

I shouldn't complain. My shopping day is still very simple. I just buy the same things over and over again. Today I filled my cart with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and peaches. I bought some coffee pods for the Keurig and a case of bottled water. That was it. That's not all we eat, but Janet got the other stuff yesterday.

The weather is still pretty nice. We didn't need jackets on our walk this morning, but it still felt like Fall. It was even reasonably nice this afternoon. Maybe Fall has actually arrived. Fall always seems to be the shortest season here in Texas. Some years it only seems to last a few weeks. Hopefully, this year will be different. After a long hot Summer, I could use an equally long Fall.

The bridge that they've been working on in our neighborhood for over a year is finally done. It looks exactly like the old bridge it replaced. Maybe the new bridge is a little wider, but it's hard for me to tell. It sure looks the same to me. I wonder what led to this bridge being replaced? Was the old bridge structurally unsound? Is the city anticipating a lot of growth in this area. Who knows. Road construction in Dallas is a mystery to me. The roads are always torn up. Will there ever be a time when the construction is finished?

Today was really uneventful. There were a lot of things I should have done. I didn't do any of them. The older I get, the harder it is for me to get motivated. You start asking yourself "does this even really matter" and the answer is often no. This is how things start to decay. I don't think I'll ever become like the Beales of Grey Gardens, but I'm starting to see how this all happens.

Dawn refused to come out of the bedroom until Janet returned late this afternoon. She wouldn't even leave the room when I went to the kitchen to fix her dinner. She seemed comfortable enough when I was sitting on the bed with her, but she just wouldn't get off the bed. As soon as Janet came in the front door, Dawn went straight to her bowl and ate her dinner. Weird. Maybe we do need to see a behaviorist.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3901

Another hot summer day. It got up to 106 degrees this afternoon. This is one reason why we got a really early start this morning. I don't think Dawn likes the idea of walking so early, but we are doing it for her. These pre-dawn walks are the only way to beat the heat.

Even though the skies were clear for most of the day, we've under another thunderstorm watch now. It's hard to keep up with Texas weather. It looks like the storm is starting to dissipate, but I'm going to continue to watch the weather radar until the fast moving front passes over us. I hate the thought of losing power in the summer. It doesn't take long for the house to become impossibly hot and humid.

I managed to find most of the items on my grocery list this morning. Grocery shopping has become like a scavenger hunt. You never know what you are going to find on the shelves.  There seems to be plenty of bottled water and toilet paper now. It's common everyday items that seem to have disappeared. I managed to find peaches by going to a different store, but I still can't find my favorite cheese.

I forgot to update my credit card information on the shopping app I always use to avoid the checkout line and it wouldn't process my transaction. I couldn't seem to enter new information at the store, so I had to start over and go through the checkout line after all. I finally figured out how to empty my shopping cart in the app so I wouldn't be charged twice, but it took a while. Technology is always easy until it isn't. I think I'm better at figuring these things out when I'm at home.

The little red light we clip on Dawn's collar wouldn't work this morning. I thought the batteries might be dead, but the light seemed to work perfectly later this morning when the sun was up and we were back home. It's easy to find a bargain these days, but nothing seems well made anymore. We got some solar powered patio lights for the back yard a few months ago and some of the lights are already starting to fail. I suspect this is because we got the lights at the Dollar Store. What can you expect from a solar powered light that costs a dollar?

The launch I'd been wanting to attend all summer got aborted right when the count reached zero early this morning. Just as the rocket started to fire, everything shut down. Now the launch is delayed at least another week while ULA tried to determine what the problem was. If I had traveled to Florida, I would have incurred three extra days of hotel bills and then had to return to Dallas anyway without seeing anything. I think someone is trying to tell me to just lay low for a while. Travel is complicated and filled with uncertainties. Walking your dog every morning is pretty simple.

I hear thunder but it still hasn't rained yet. As much as I hate the idea of rain, maybe it would cool things down a bit. The temperature is still hovering around 100 degrees.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3544

We moved six dogs today. The new Dalmatians have all finished their initial evaluation at the vet and have been spayed or neutered. They were ready to join the others at the boarding kennel. One lucky boy didn't have to wait long to find his forever home. Less than an hour after he arrived at the kennel, a family from Houston arrived to look at dogs and adopted him.

I think the other five will be adopted soon as well. They are all good looking, healthy dogs with great dispositions. Two have a skin infection that we are treating and one has heartworms, but all in all they are in decent shape. None of them appeared to have had a lot of contact with people before. They were very shy at first and didn't know how to play with toys. Curiosity prevailed over fear though. After about an hour, they were following us around and enjoyed being petted.

Janet and I transported the young male that got adopted today. I wish I'd gotten to know him better because he was a wonderful dog. He was very shy and a bit scared, but it didn't take long for him to fall asleep in my lap on the ride to the kennel. He got a good home today with a family who has had Dalmatians before. I wish him well.

Transporting the dogs took quite a while, so there were no long walks today. It's just as well. It was very hot. I thought our heat wave was coming to an end this weekend, but apparently not. It was 102 degrees outside this afternoon. I still need to mow the grass, but I think I'm going to wait until it gets a little cooler. Walking is one thing. Pushing a lawn mower is another thing entirely.

I had a lot of things on my grocery list today. I'm disappointed that the app on my phone that lets me bypass the checkout line isn't working well anymore. Every time I scan an item, I have to reboot the app and start over before I can scan the next item. Everything worked perfectly for a long time. Then the company decided to improve the app, adding coupons and promotions for things on sale. Nothing has worked since. Why do people keep trying to improve things that are working fine? Restaurants I like change their menus too often. Cars I like seem to go downhill after the first model year. I don't even like Apple computers as much as I used to. I blame it all on focus groups. If you listen to too many people you can ruin anything.

I wonder how we're going to get home next week. There a big sign a few blocks away saying that our road will be closed for three days while the highway department demolishes a bridge. I bet the people who cross the bridge every day are wondering how they're going to get home too. I wish there was less political news and more news about road construction. Roads are torn up all over town and I never know what is going on.

It's time to go to the gym again. Maybe it's finally time to start doing all my exercising indoors. Walking around the small indoor track is boring, but it probably beats being fried to a crisp under this hot sun. Fall can't come soon enough for me.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3523

All the grocery stores seem to be replacing cashiers with self-checkout stations. When I was shopping this morning there were only two cashiers and a long row of brand new automated stations. I've read that people don't like these things, but why not? Self-checkout is faster and you don't have to interact with anyone. I've already gone one step beyond self-checkout. Whenever I can, I buy things using an app on my phone. I scan the items as I find them and when I'm finished I just walk out of the store and leave. Like it or not, this is the future. Cashiers, bank tellers, and even waiters at restaurants are going away. Probably a lot of manufacturing jobs I don't see are going away too. Many already have. The simple truth is that companies prefer robots. Robots don't complain. They don't need health insurance. And they never go on strike. The little kids who are growing up now playing games on their iPads instead of going to a playground with their friends will probably prefer robots as well. Why not. They grew up with them.

I'm glad I grew up before all this happened. I did well in an old fashioned analog world. I'm not sure how well I'd thrive in a world where the best jobs went to the people who design and program the robots. Maybe I could repair them though. There will always be a need for people who can fix machines.

I was going to try and fix the old dehumidifier today, but I never got around to it. By the time I finished my Saturday shopping and took my long walks the day was almost over. There are YouTube videos that show you how to fix almost anything, but I can't find one about my particular brand of dehumidifier. I won't let this deter me though. Eventually I'll figure out how to take the thing apart, clean it, and put it back together again. There's no hurry though. We've got a new dehumidifier now that seems to work perfectly.

We've also got a new toaster oven. Janet bought one while she was doing her shopping today. She said she was tired of using the big oven just to make cinnamon toast. Works for me. The little oven is probably great for cooking a pizza too. We ran out of space for new appliances long ago, so we just set the toaster oven on top of the little emergency refrigerator. It's not actually in the kitchen, but it's close.

When I was walking this afternoon, I saw a guy with a guitar and a microphone on a stand singing to no one at all. He had a little battery powered amplifier and his voice was quite nice. Nobody was listening though. Not even the ducks were listening. I wondered what this was all about. Was he trying to attract an audience, or did he prefer putting on a little concert for himself? It was very hot outside too. There are certainly better places to practice on an August afternoon. I'll probably never know what the guy was doing. I see a lot of strange things in the park.

I slept better last night. I have no idea why. All the variables are always the same. I go to bed at the same time. The temperature in the house is the same. There is very little stress in my life. My sleep should be very consistent, but it's not. One of life's mysteries I guess. I go to sleep quickly, but I wake up too soon. Maybe this means that I'm actually getting all the sleep I need. Old people always seem to wake up early.

Toby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3453

Things are looking up. Yesterday I found out that three more of my model trains had sold. Today I found out that I'd sold two of my guitars. Someone seems interested in buying one of the keyboards too. Slowly but surely, the collections are starting to unwind. It's weird that the money from one of my favorite guitars will just go to buy a new set of tires for my car, Hey, that's life. Right now I need tires more than I need guitars.

I discovered today that I can't use the app that lets me bypass the checkout line at the grocery store to buy beer and wine. The self checkout lane won't work either. You have to stand in line and checkout with a real person. Jeez. Why are stores still carding a guy who's going to be seventy one years old this month? The app has all my information anyway. Don't they already know I'm old enough to be the checkout clerk's grandfather? They could probably just add a couple of lines of code to the app that would allow me to take a picture of myself holding the beer. That would definitely prove that they're selling to an old man. At any rate I had to leave my buggy at the door while I took my six pack of beer to a young checkout clerk to verify my ID. It all seemed kind of silly.

Janet has no interest in skipping the checkout line. She likes a different app that lets her use digital coupons at the grocery store. She'll look at my groceries and say "You could have saved a dollar on this if you'd used my coupon app. "But you could have skipped the checkout line entirely if you'd used mine," I say. I guess technology has something for everybody.

It's definitely Summer. We haven't had a triple digit day yet, but temperatures are in the ninety's now. I have to remember to take my walks before I take a shower because it's so hot and humid that I'd just have to take another shower when I returned. I guess I could start walking before sunrise again. I used to do this with the dogs. Maybe I'll be forced to do this later this summer, but it's hard to get up early now. I'm finally getting enough sleep. A little app on my watch that tracks my sleep finally shows a sleep surplus after years and years of showing a deficit. I miss having a dog to walk but sleep is good. Sleep is very good.

I keep trying different shoes, hoping to find a pair that will let me walk indefinitely without foot pain. Some shoes make my toes hurt. Others make the ball of my foot hurt. Still others don't support my ankles well. All of these shoes fit pretty well and were comfortable before I started taking long walks. Most of them already have a good orthotic inside. I think my feet must swell when I walk. The shoes are generally fine at distances under three miles. If I walk much longer I feel like I've made a big mistake.

I haven't been up on the roof in quite a while. I think the water is just evaporating now. It's just as well. There are plenty of things on the ground that need attention. Janet and I are going to try to clean up the yard ourselves. This is probably a mistake, but things like this happen when you've got too much time on your hands.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day