Day 4023

I tried my best to be productive today. I started by defrosting the little refrigerator. This doesn't sound like much, but it's kind of a pain. I need to wait until the big refrigerator is empty enough that I can transfer everything temporarily while I unplug the unit, open the door, and let all the ice melt. This little dorm room size refrigerator was never meant to be permanent, but somehow we need it now. It is very basic and doesn't even have automatic defrost. Every few months I take out the glass shelves, fill the interior with old towels and let the ice melt. All is good now. I probably won't have to do this again until March.

Since I needed to take out the trash today anyway, I thought I'd try to shred a bunch of old mail and useless documents in the office. I managed to fill a large black leaf bag with paper confetti and almost overheated the shredder. Shredding these documents took a long time because I needed to read everything to make sure I wasn't destroying anything important. I think it's pretty safe to say that nothing important was lost today. Some of the envelopes even had hand written notes on the outside saying "must be shredded." The contents were usually a credit card that had expired in 2016, or an insurance claim that had been settled decades ago. I even found all the paperwork for a JC Penny lifetime battery for a car I hadn't owned in ages. I think these lifetime batteries almost put JC Penny out of business because they were good for as long as you owned the car. I tend to keep cars for a very long time.

When I saw the full bag of shredded confetti, I thought I'd made some real progress. Why did the office not look any different? This is what is so discouraging about decluttering. It's really hard to make a dent in  a room full of stuff that took thirty years to accumulate. I could continue to do this day after day and month after month until I went stark raving mad.

Dawn continues to be a work in progress. She's more enthusiastic about walking when we wait until later in the day. She prefers open fields to trails. Maybe this is why we've started seeing ticks on her. I even found a tick on me this morning which is very rare. She's due for another Frontline pill very soon, so maybe the coverage is starting to wear out. At any rate, we had a good walk today, although I wish we had stayed on the trails. My new shoes aren't nearly as effective at preventing foot pain when walking on uneven ground. We might have walked Dawn a little too far today. She was really tired when we returned home. She'll have plenty of time to rest tomorrow. It's supposed to rain all day.

I started using the second dehumidifier in one of the bathrooms today. The house may actually be too dry now because I've been waking up with nosebleeds in the morning lately. It's still amazing to me that large buckets of water can be extracted from the air every single day. The house is much drier since we started using dehumidifiers. There is no dampness in the closets anymore and the air feels better. The machines are noisy though. You can't have everything I guess.

I still have a few errands I need to run before the end of the year. I should have done my errands today, because the forecast says there is a 100% chance of rain on Wednesday and Thursday. You know how I feel about driving in the rain. Forecasts are frequently wrong though. We'll try to get Dawn walked first and then see what happens.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3886

By my somewhat low standards, it was a busy day. The sky was pretty when we started our early morning walk, so we thought we'd try the "Dawn at dawn" picture we'd been thinking about. We found a location that provided a good view of the sunrise clouds and tried to get Dawn to pose. I had to lighten the foreground a bit and wished that Dawn would have closed her mouth, but all-in-all the concept worked. Maybe I can fine tune the idea a bit the next time we see a pretty runrise.

After breakfast I put the new registration sticker on my windshield. It seems easier to remove the old stickers now, but it is still difficult for me to position these things properly. When you get these stickers anywhere near the windshield, they stick to the glass and usually they are crooked. I had to carefully peel the sticker away several times before I could achieve anything resembling a ninety degree angle. I like to place the sticker as low as I can so it doesn't obstruct my vision, but it still has to be parallel to the bottom ow the glass. This is surprisingly difficult to achieve.

I've known for several weeks that it was time to defrost the little refrigerator again. Today seemed like a good day to get this messy chore over with. I moved everything to the big refrigerator, unplugged the little fridge, opened the door, and let the thawing begin. I usually fill the interior with a couple of towels to soak up the water and just wait until all the ice has melted. After I mop the interior with a dry towel, I'm usually good to go for another three or four months.

When I was looking for my keys this morning I accidentally knocked over a huge pile of old mail on top of a dresser. Maybe it was finally time to get rid of this mail. In many ways my whole life is like a big cardboard box filled with things I plan to deal with later. I postpone as much as I can, including reading and dealing with my mail. A lot of the envelopes already had little notes saying that the letter needed to be shredded or that it needed to go in the safe deposit box. These piles of mail can sit for years.

I went through the pile of letters one by one and saved a few and shredded the rest. I should have done this a long time ago. There are other piles scattered around the office, but at least I've made a start. I think I'm going to finally contact my bank and several utilities and agree to go paperless. There is no reason for me to hang on to all this paper. I think there is a free shredding event at a local church a few weeks from now. Maybe if I put my mind to it, I can finally clean out this office. If I succeed at this, there is a much bigger pile of outdated and useless documents waiting for me at the storage warehouse.

I finally resolved a billing issue with my web hosting company before I took my afternoon walk. I really need to rethink these afternoon walks. It got up to 103 degrees today. My long walks still provide a peaceful opportunity to daydream and think, but Fall can't come soon enough. I seriously considered going back to the gym today and walking around their air conditioned track.

Tomorrow will probably be busy as well. It's time for the dreaded grocery run again. I wonder how long it is going to be before I can go to a store without a wearing mask and following a bunch of one way arrows and distancing stickers on the floor? Sadly, this aspect of the new normal is probably going to be around for a long time.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day