Day 3505

I see some strange things when I'm walking in the park. Today I saw a guy riding a bicycle with his arm in a cast. You might not need both hands to steer, but don't you need both hands to operate the brakes? Hmm. I wonder how he broke that arm? The guy was riding like he was competing in the Tour de France too. It made no sense to me. The animals make no more sense than the humans. At this time of year birds like to congregate on electric wires. Sometimes you'll see hundreds of birds on a wire. At one of these locations I always see a big pile of dead birds directly under the wire. The birds are getting electrocuted. Don't they know what is happening? You'd think that at least one of these birds would be saying "Has anyone seen Bob lately," he was here just a minute ago." Getting zapped doesn't seem to deter the birds though. They come back to the same wire every day.

We had our first triple digit day of the Summer. It was well over a hundred degrees this afternoon. Coincidently, this was the day I paid the electric bill. The electric bills in July and August are always horrendous. It doesn't really matter where you set the thermostat, the air conditioner is always running. There's no point in wishing for cooler weather now. It's going to be pretty warm from now through the end of September.

I'm still trying to figure out the weather in West, Texas. I had a day all picked out to go to McDonald Observatory and just before I was going to make my reservation I checked the long range weather again. The day I wanted was clear yesterday and today there was a 40% chance of thunderstorms. The alternate day I was looking at had an even higher chance of thunderstorms. I looked at Yelp reviews of people who had visited the observatory and almost half of them said they had experienced cloudy skies. Almost all of them said it was much colder than they expected. I did a little research and discovered that July and August are considered the "monsoon" season in West Texas. Evidently during this time of year a stationary low pressure system typically sets up over Arizona and New Mexico drawing moisture into the area. It may not rain every day, but it is not the best time for astronomy. Despite all this, I think the area around the observatory is supposed to have clear skies for 2/3 of the year. People say there are better chances of clear skies in the Spring, but it can also get very cold in the mountains. Snow and ice are common. I wish the place wasn't so remote. It's a very long drive if you are just going to wind up with cloudy skies. On a clear night there is no place better for dark skies in the country though. Do I take a gamble or not?

These hot summer days are long and uneventful. No wonder Janet likes to travel. I'm not much of a traveler myself but almost everything I'm interested in doing seems to be outside of Dallas. That must mean something. If I was more of a free spirit, I'd probably be on the road right now. Since I'm not a free spirit at all, I'll be thinking about what to have for dinner tomorrow while I take my morning walk.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3100

Every time I think we've turned the corner with Dash, something happens to remind me that he's still a sick dog. He must have had another vestibular episode last night. When I took him outside to pee around 1 AM, he was drooling a lot and wanted to eat grass. I thought he was going to throw up, but he didn't. We went back to sleep, but he had no appetite the next morning. It was really hard to get him to take his morning meds. He wasn't interested in anything. Eventually we were able to wrap the pills in small pieces of a leftover quesadilla. He still seemed eager to walk, but when we got home he wanted to throw up again. It was way too soon to throw up because his phenobarbital hadn't gotten into his system yet. I wouldn't let him eat grass in the yard, gave him a Pepsid AC, and went back in the bedroom with him until he eventually fell asleep on the bed. This was a little risky, since I didn't want to clean vomit off the bedspread. The plan worked though. When Dash woke up three hours later, he seemed fine.

When we went out to dinner yesterday I put on a shirt that Janet said was fifteen years out of style. It probably was. I have trouble throwing stuff away, so I told her she could go through my closet and get rid of anything she'd be embarrassed to see me wear in public. Janet loves to get rid of clutter, so I wasn't surprised that she took me up on my offer. This afternoon, there were three large trash bags filled with an odd selection of old polo shirts that looked like they belonged to a guy thirty pounds heavier than me. Jeez. Did I ever wear those shirts? I guess I must have. There were also a ton of old t-shirts I must have picked up at trade shows. Janet seemed delighted to pare down my collection of ugly sweaters. I must have been fond of loud, colorful sweaters at some point. I could never throw away this stuff myself, but I won't miss anything. Truthfully, I'm glad the stuff is gone.

When I went to the bank this morning, I stood in line behind a man who'd brought a shopping cart into the lobby with him. He looked like a homeless guy, but he must have had a business of some sort. I watched as the teller handed him bag after bag of coins. When he had filled the grocery cart with coins, he left the bank and started pushing the cart down the sidewalk. I have no idea where he was going. It's a strange world we live in. You never would have seen this at a bank twenty years ago.

I made an appointment to get a haircut tomorrow, but I forgot to check the weather forecast first. It looks like there are supposed to be thunderstorms. I hope the forecast changes overnight. Weather forecasts change every few hours here in Texas, so it might be clear tomorrow. If there are storms, I'll have to cancel my appointment. Dash's storm phobia has gotten worse and I can't risk leaving him alone in a storm anymore.

Dash ate his dinner tonight, so hopefully he is feeling better. We still don't know what triggers these vestibular episodes. They seem to occur when you least expect them and they are always alarming. The vet says he will experience these periodic sensations of vertigo and nausea for the rest of his life. Luckily, they don't seem to happen too often. Lets hope he has a normal day tomorrow.

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day