Day 3237

It's easy to tell when I've been a little too ambitious. Every joint in my body aches. Today I thought I'd combine a workout at the gym with a workout at the storage warehouse. One of these activities would have been enough.

I certainly don't get much exercise on my morning walks with Dash these days. He's become incredibly slow. He still seems to enjoy his walks and I let him take all the time he needs. He stops about every ten feet to smell things. If the smell is particularly interesting, he sometimes forgets about his rear legs and falls over. I'm beginning to think his vision is failing and he's smelling his way along the path. Today he bumped into a clearly visible fence. He might have just had his head down smelling things, or maybe the glare of the rising sun obscured his vision. It's not like Dash to collide with a fence. I hope he's not going blind.

I did really well on the basketball count today. There is no rhyme or reason to this. I did use a different ball today because I couldn't find my favorite one. Maybe the new ball explains things. I bet I would have done terribly if I'd gone to the gym after the storage warehouse. Moving wore me out today.

My goal this afternoon was to disassemble some of the metal industrial shelving, move it to the new warehouse and then put it back together again. In theory, this should have been easy, but it wasn't. The shelves were heavy and once I took them apart, they were very difficult to assemble again. A couple of the metal parts had become bent and the holes for the bolts didn't line up anymore. Apparently these shelves weren't meant to be assembled more than once. I didn't have the right tools with me either. Instead of a hammer and a heavy pair of pliers, I settled for a rock I found in the parking lot. Eventually, I got the first shelf reassembled at the new warehouse. It's not very pretty, but it will work. I hope I never have to move these things a third time.

There are still five more of these large industrial shelves. I don't know if I have the energy to take them all apart. I think it's time to get another estimate from a mover. With a large truck and a couple of muscular guys you could move all of these shelves intact, without disassembling anything. When I finish this more it may be time to curtail strenuous activity like this. I'm too old for this shit. It's time to stop moving heavy boxes, climbing on the roof, and pushing a heavy lawn mower up a hill.

It was a strenuous day, but a shower, a nice dinner, and a slow evening walk with Dash helped me unwind. I'm happy with the morning part of today's time change, put not the evening part. It gets dark way too early. I walked Dash before dinner tonight while there was still daylight. This will be our new routine until Spring. There are still quite a few clocks to reset. Some of them probably aren't worth the trouble. In four months the time will be correct again.

Ginger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2287 - Vernal Equinox

It was nice that the first day of Spring turned out to be a Spring day. Since this is Texas, we could just as easily have had snow. It was a little cold in the morning, but by mid-afternoon there was definitely a hint of Spring in the air. I used the pleasant weather to catch up on yard work. I pruned some backyard bushes and hauled an abandoned agility course we used when the dogs were younger out to the curb for this week's big trash pickup. I thought about mowing the grass, but I forgot to charge the mower battery, so that will have to wait until another day.

On the way to the gym this afternoon, I stopped at the REI store to look for some flip flops. I like to wear socks around the house and when the dogs need to go outside in a hurry, it's always hard to put on my shoes quickly enough. I've had to go outside barefoot occasionally when Dot couldn't wait. At any rate I was looking for some slip on sandals without the band between the big toe and the other toes that you typically find on flip flops. I finally found a pair that I liked, but they were $130. WTF? How did flip flops get so expensive? There were nice hiking boots in the store for the same price as these flip flops. I left without buying anything, because the price seemed ridiculous. I'll probably come back later though, because the shoes were exactly what I was looking for. Why do I always have to like the expensive things?

While I was at the gym this afternoon, I got to thinking about the yard work I'd done this morning.  Yard work is strenuous. When I did more around the house, I had no need to go to the gym. I used to mow the grass with a push mower. I hauled in tons of round river stones in the back of the Defender to make decorative areas in the shady spots where grass wouldn't grow. I used to put in the St. Augustine turf myself instead of hiring landscapers. I did lots of things that kept me fit and made me tired. I quit using the push mower first. It was simply too exhausting. Gradually other things fell by the wayside as bones got brittle and joints got sore. Today, when I was pruning the Photinia bushes I couldn't even reach a lot of the branches because of my dislocated shoulder. Age has definitely taken its toll. As I finished my twenty minutes on the treadmill, I concluded that going to the gym was for people who work in offices. If you do any type of manual labor, you don't need to go to the gym.

Dash gets his teeth cleaned this week. I always worry about dental exams because a long time ago a friend of mine had a dog who died during a routine dental exam. Dash is what they call a "hard wake up" dog as well. He freaks out sometimes as he is coming out of anesthesia. Dash has a great vet and I know everything will be OK, but I still worry. I don't like going to the dentist myself, but it's something you can't ignore. Gum disease can be very serious in an older dog.

I actually got a good night's sleep last night. My activity tracker said that I reached 90% of my recommended sleep goal. That's as close as I've ever come. Usually I get about 40% of my sleep goal. I don't expect to sleep nearly as long tonight. It's a work day tomorrow and we all get up early.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 879

I took Janet to the airport today. I used to travel more than Janet. Now, she travels more than me. We always take Janet's car when I take her to the airport. My car has seen better days, and I don't want the old Defender to cause anyone to miss their flight. Janet's Land Rover is so much smoother and quieter than mine. Of course, hers is almost new and mine is almost an antique. I do have a backup car, but it's even in worse shape than the Defender. Actually I haven't even seen my backup car in more than five years, because it's being stored in an aircraft hanger somewhere West of Nevada, Texas. I see my mechanic almost every week at dog training class, but I'm in no hurry to get the car back. It's a money pit and completely unreliable. If I had somewhere I needed to go, I'd definitely trust a 1995 Land Rover more than a 1972 Maserati.

The dogs are always upset when Janet leaves. They don't like any sort of change in their schedule and when the person who feeds them their breakfast every day isn't there anymore, they get worried. After a day or two they realize that I'm just as reliable at preparing their meals as Janet and they settle down. After a few more days, they have completely adapted to my schedule and are sleeping in late every morning. By the time Janet returns, she is usually greeted by two lazy dogs who don't want to get out of bed at all.

It's been raining every night this week. When I was up on the roof this morning, I was wondering why I don't have tremendous upper body strength. Pushing hundreds of pounds of water off the roof with the big push broom is quite strenuous. You've think I'd have some muscles to show for all my efforts, but I just keep getting thinner. One of the medications I take has a side effect of causing muscle tissue to atrophy. It's not severe or anything, but it seems to take a lot more effort to maintain the same amount of muscle mass as I used to have. Actually, it's probably good that I'm expending a lot of energy up on the roof, but it doesn't make the job any more pleasant.

What would be pleasant would be to live on the seventeenth floor of a luxury high-rise that didn't have any water problems at all. Instead off sweeping water of the roof, I could be sipping lattes at a downstairs cafe or visiting nearby art galleries. Uh-oh, don't think the dogs approve of this plan. Dash just gave me a dirty look.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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