Day 4997

I wish I was ending the blog on a high note. It would be nice to go out describing some sort of grand adventure. Not very likely. It looks like this summer will continue to be an endless series of very hot days where my main activity is staying out of the sun.

The sunrise walks are still nice. The temperature was in the high 70's this morning and there was a nice breeze. The construction activity in the neighborhood seems to have ended. The water department made a mess of the streets, but I guess we have new pipes now. There are currently three empty lots on the street. The houses have been scraped and the buyers of the properties don't seem to be in any hurry to put up anything new. They're probably waiting for interest rates to go down again. There doesn't appear to be any desire to save these older houses. The main reason they get demolished so quickly is that property taxes are lower if there is no house on the lot.

I watched the news about the hurricane while I ate breakfast this morning. It was a strong hurricane, but it went through a rural part of Florida so damage wasn't as bad as people expected. Nobody that I know down there suffered any damage. I'm glad we don't have to worry about hurricanes in Dallas. We do have the occasional tornado, but there haven't been any problems this year. Before you can worry about tornados you need rain. We haven't had any rain for over a month.

I went to the gym again this morning. I didn't even complete my full routine today. All I did was walk three miles around the indoor track and come home again. I don't know why I didn't stay longer because I definitely had no plans for the afternoon. I wasn't particularly tired either. I just wasn't in a great mood. Oh, well. At least I got my steps.

I seem to have lost interest in the star tracker. I haven't even turned it on in quite a while. The lack of interest probably coincides with my lack of a plan to return to McDonald Observatory. I miss the place, but I have serious doubts about making the long drive again. I just don't have the energy that I used to have and it isn't worth being run over by an eighteen wheeler just to get a chance to see the Milky Way again. Hey. I did see the moon tonight though. The rare blue super moon was noticeably larger than usual.

Dawn won a ribbon in her training class tonight. We thought she might never win a ribbon again because she has to wear a harness at class now. All the other dogs are on a regular leash and collar and were easier to control. Dawn did well. She completed all the exercises without the need for a training collar or any pressure on her neck.

It's hard to believe tomorrow is the last day in August. This entire year has gone quickly. Maybe September will be cooler. I certainly hope so. I don't know if I can take another month like this.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3373 - Vernal Equinox

I'm always happy to see the first day of Spring. There may be a few more cold days ahead of us, but Winter is essentially over. If it weren't for the inevitable seasonal allergies, this would be the nicest time of the year. There is supposed to be Super Moon tonight which apparently makes the equinox special. I looked outside and the moon looks the same to me. When something is ten percent larger than usual, I don't think I can perceive the difference. If the moon was 50% bigger, I'd probably notice. As it is, it's just a bright full moon.

Dash wouldn't take his pills again this morning. Some of the pills aren't critical, but the phenobarbital is. We just don't want to risk another seizure. I was hoping I could get Dash to take his meds as soon as we returned from our morning walk, but he was too tired and immediately went to sleep. He wasn't interested in anything until he woke up again a few hours later. I guess all is well that ends well, but life would be easier if we could keep Dash on a regular schedule.

I spent most of the day trying to catch up on sleep. Dash got me up way too often last night. He made it outside each time and there was no mess to clean up, but once again life would be easier if Dash would just pee and poop before he went to bed at night. He used to do this every single evening, but those days are gone. I was glad there was no mess in the bed last night, but a little more sleep would be nice.

There were more bills to pay today. March turned out to be an expensive month. My web hosting plan auto-renewed for another three years, my doctor's concierge medicine retainer was due, and there were airfare and travel expenses from my recent trip to Houston. I think we're done for March though. I won't have to pay for those Sequential Circuits synthesizers until April or May.

Tomorrow, I need to figure out how to get Janet's iTunes account to show up on the flat screen TV. She rented some movies I'd like to watch, but I don't want to watch them on her iPad. I've added her account to the TV before, but I ended up erasing my own account in the process. I'm sure that Apple has a way to share multiple accounts on the same TV, but they could make the process of switching from one to another a little easier. Oh, well. I don't have much else to do tomorrow. Little things like this count as a challenge these days.

I wish that Dash would regain his strength. He still seems weaker and more lethargic than he did last month. His decline has been so slow that it's easy to convince myself that nothing has changed. There are still good days and bad days but at the end of the day we're definitely headed downhill. I don't think there's anything I can do to stop the process.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2901

Dash apparently didn't get the memo about sleeping in this morning. He woke me up every hour on the hour last night to go outside. I thought that he was sick and had a bad case of diarrhea, but when I went out to clean up his poop in the morning, everything was normal. What had caused this strange change in behavior? It had to be being left alone for most of the day. He still got two walks in the park and all his regular meals yesterday, but they weren't at the regular times he was expecting. Maybe this was enough to throw him completely off schedule. I'd hate to think that I have to do everything at precisely the same time every day just to get a good night's sleep, but maybe it's come to this. The older Dash gets, the less he likes surprises and change. I think I understand how he feels. I don't deal with surprises and change very well either. Not to worry. We'll be back to our regular routine tomorrow morning. It's boring, but it's reassuring to both of us.

Since I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, I kind of stumbled through the day. I didn't feel like cooking, so I ate a leftover breakfast burrito from yesterday's photo shoot. They were pretty good. I asked Janet where these things came from and she said McDonalds. What? I was eating food from McDonalds and liking it. Who would have thought. I can't recall ever being inside a McDonalds. Like Walmart, this is a place I studiously avoid. Maybe I've been wrong all along. Will I be eating Big Macs and McRib Sandwiches a month from now? Who  knows?

We somehow ran out of all the things we buy in bulk at the same time, so the car was pretty full when I returned from the grocery store. The only problem with buying things like paper towels and toilet paper at Costco or Sam's Club is where do you put the stuff when you get home? It took me forever to find a place to store the huge box of toilet paper I got today. I don't think we need to worry about running out for a while.

I've been watching the weather forecast and it looked like today might be my last opportunity to work on the roof before it rains again. I didn't attempt anything major because it might rain as early as tomorrow morning. So far, my patches are looking pretty good. There were a few Oak leaves embedded in the coating I applied yesterday, but I don't think they'll hurt anything. At this time of year, falling leaves are inevitable. We've got two mature Red Oak trees, an Elm tree, and two Live Oaks in out backyard. Most of the leaves from these trees winds up on the roof every Fall. It looks like I'm going to have to buy some more coating material again. I've got less than one gallon left. I've applied ten gallons of the stuff already and there are still large expanses that I haven't even touched. At $40 a gallon, I'd hate to even think how much it would cost to re-coat the entire roof.

I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon and Janet and I are going to a Christmas party in the evening. This leaves just enough time to walk Dash and drink my morning smoothie. Luckily, I'm actually ahead of schedule on my website project. I'd like to think I'm done, but you're never really done on these type of things. I'm going to try to get a good night's sleep tonight, but that all depends on Dash. When I took him out to pee a little while ago, I took a look at tonight's super moon. I guess it did look a little bit bigger, but I definitely wouldn't call it super. Anything within 10% of its normal size all looks the same to me.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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