Day 4533

We're getting to know the remaining rescue Dalmatians pretty well. Each of these dogs has their own distinctive personality. Charlie can go from calm to chaos in a fraction of a second. He's one of the smartest dogs we've known, but he definitely isn't a lap dog. He loves to show off and we've been able to teach him some amazing tricks. Oliver is a goofy clown who will fetch a toy or ball for hours. He's the only one who will bring the toy back to you so you can throw it again. Jo Jo is a gentle giant who prefers to be outdoors. He won't play in the indoor play area, but take him outside and it's a completely different story. He likes to hide his ball, even though it's always in plain sight. He's the only one who likes to climb up on a bench so you can pet him at eye level. Willie likes to play with a weird plastic ball that makes funny noises when it rolls along the floor. He prefers being petted to playing though. He's super affectionatee with people but doesn't seem to get along with other dogs. Rocket is a shy boy who is making amazing progress. He didn't even know how to play at first, but is definitely starting to enjoy playing with rope toys. They all love the treats we bring. It's a shame that these boys haven't been adopted yet. Each of their unique personalities would be perfect for some lucky person.

Today was unusually busy for a Monday. I paid some bills after breakfast and our early morning walk with Dawn. Then I shut off the computer and took the heavy uninterrupted power supply to the Interstate store to get the batteries replaced. I was hoping that the dead batteries would still be under warranty, but time flies and they were already two years old. No free batteries this time. I was amazed at how much prices had gone up since the last time I had to replace UPS batteries. The two batteries in the unit cost $95. That's more than double what the same batteries cost several years ago. Oh, well. One more sign that we are living in a crumbling, dystopian universe.

The weather was quite a bit cooler today and it would have been a good day to walk if my feet were cooperating. I joined Janet and Dawn on an afternoon walk after we returned from the kennel, but I felt like returning to the house with Dawn after she finished her short one mile loop. I did walk a little further, but not much. Even counting Dawn's two walks, I didn't even complete four miles today. Maybe I overdid things last week. Maybe my Hoka shoes are wearing out again. Who knows. My feet are definitely bothering me more than usual though.

Dawn is a funny monkey. When Janet is away she won't come out of the bedroom while I am fixing her dinner. I have to get everything ready and then return to the office before she will come out and eat. When Janet is home it's completely different story. She's a bossy little thing who is right out in the kitchen with me, barking at me constantly to hurry up and get her supper ready. I wish she was more comfortable being alone with me, but it is what it is. I'm sure Dawn has her reasons for all of this.

There has been rain in the forecast for several days, but I think it's finally going to start raining later tonight. I hope this current forecast is wrong because it shows an all day rain tomorrow which extends into Wednesday. It's a shame that we typically get all our rain for the year in one month. We've had plenty of rain lately and everything is green, but it will be bone dry again by July and August. An all day rain conjures up visions of roof leaks. I hope the pumps are still working.

There's already a new update for the star tracker. I'm afraid to install it though because it might break the fix the Benro folks sent me a few weeks ago. I'd hate to go back to square one again. I should leave well enough alone, but if I'm stuck inside on a rainy day, curiosity might get the better of me and I could end up installing the update anyway. Curiosity killed the cat, or so they say.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4522

Not a great day. I waited most of the day for the air conditioner repairman to arrive. I was hoping that the problem was minor and that all I would need was a new capacitor or something equally trivial. Nope. When the repairman finally arrived at the end of the day he said the capacitor was fine. I need a new compressor motor. As luck would have it, he didn't have the proper motor on the truck and will have to order it. Yikes. How could this motor cost over $600? I guess that's still a lot less than replacing the entire unit. The parts warehouse was already closed when the repairman discovered the problem, so he won't be able to order the part until tomorrow morning. Oh, well. It looks like another very hot night. He said it is a bad idea to try to run the AC without the motor running too. I tried that last night and eventually the fan started turning. "That's a good way to burn out the compressor and that's when things get a lot more expensive," he said. Did I mention that the temperature was almost 95 degrees this afternoon?

A broken air conditioner is bad enough, but now I think the refrigerator is broken again as well. Late this afternoon I noticed that the temperature inside the fridge was a lot higher. For the past week I've noticed that a metal strip around the edge of the door seemed unnaturally hot. The refrigerator was still cooling fine, but this didn't seem right. I probably should have called the appliance repairman two days ago. Now it appears that the refrigerator is broken. We shifted some critical food to the little refrigerator but it won't hold that much. Hopefully I can get this fixed tomorrow before food starts to go to waste.

The only good thing about today was that I was able to complete my six mile walk. I started after breakfast so it wouldn't be too hot. It was a lot cooler than it was later in the day, but it still seemed way too hot for me. I don't know why it seems so important for me to walk everyday. On some days it's a real struggle. I think it's about time for me to start wetting down my hat and t-shirt before I start these walks. Last summer this really seemed to help.

I got a message from the Benro folks that they had another firmware package for me to install. Instead of just attaching the file I needed to the e-mail message, they provided a link to one of their servers in China. Of course, this link didn't work. Both my Firefox and Safari browsers said they couldn't establish a secure connection to the server and refused to open the link. This has happened to me before with Chinese servers. I have a feeling that it's going to take me a long time to get this star tracker working.

The temperature has gone down eight degrees outside, but only one degree inside. What's that all about? I can't really open the windows to let a breeze in because I took off the window screens years ago for aesthetic reasons and if I open the windows at night, tons of bugs will fly in the house. Ordinarily I wouldn't even want to open the windows at night, but ordinarily we have an air conditioner that works.

I kind of worry about Dawn. She hates hot weather and is currently the only one wearing a fur coat inside the house. Hopefully, it will start cooling down soon. It's supposed to get down to 70 degrees by tomorrow morning, but that still a long way away. I sure hope that compressor motor comes in tomorrow.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day