Day 4956

Another long, hot day. Getting up early didn't really help that much this morning. The temperature was already too hot long before the sun rose. I think others have discovered that this is the best time of the day because there are a surprising number of people out walking before sunrise these days. I'm glad Dawn enjoys these early walks. It's the only time she's active all day.

The replacement for the broken knife rack came today. There was a little note in the instructions that said "don't use with serrated knives." Why? This made no sense, but maybe this was why the old knife rack exploded. We have lots of serrated knives. 

When the mail came there were two letters from the gas company. One letter said my bill was late and the second letter said to ignore the first letter because it was wrong. Strange that both letter came on the same day. I checked and my bill wasn't late. I always pay my bills on time.

I keep meaning to go to Home Depot to get some paint to repaint the trim around the roof and some sheetrock mud to repair some of the minor cracks in the ceiling myself. These things have been on my 

"to do" list for several weeks but I keep avoiding picking up supplies because I don't want to do these tasks. I guess the easy solution with the ceiling is just not to look up anymore. I'd like the house to look nice, but I've grown to hate home repairs. It's still easier to do the work yourself though, because it's so hard to find competent people to do little jobs.

I'm still getting the spoofed e-mail spam that appears to come from my own e-mail address. Should I call my ISP again, or just learn to live with the nuisance?  I've already called twice and tech support said the fixed the problem both times. It appears they actually did nothing. A quick Google search revealed that this is a very common problem that is hard to eradicate. I'm beginning to understand why some of my older friends have just disappeared from the Internet. They're not sick or dead. I think they've just realized that being online is a total waste of time.

I went to the gym after breakfast. I wonder how long it will be before I can take my long walks in the park again? Is it really that important to get at least 10,000 steps everyday? I think that's the only reason I go to the gym. I think I'm in reasonably good shape but I could be fooling myself. My upper body strength is pretty abysmal. A trip to the gym is a good way to kill time though. These days are long enough as is is.

This week has gone quickly. Dawn will be happy tomorrow because it is Janet's grocery day again. I doubt that I'll do anything different. There's a new neighborhood restaurant I could try, but I'll probably just have my shredded wheat and fruit again. This is always a good way to start an uneventful day.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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