Day 3437

A guy stopped me on my walk this morning and wanted to show me some lizards. OK. I wasn't really looking for lizards but at least he wasn't trying to show me snakes. "Over there by that bush," the guy said. I must not have been looking in the right direction because the guy quickly added "No, not on the ground. they're walking on top of the leaves." Sure enough, there was a small, seemingly weightless lizard walking across some broad leaves. The guy told me the name of the lizard and I told him the name of the bush. It looked like the lizard was looking for small insects to eat while the bugs were just trying to eat the plants. That's how the food chain works. Everyone is trying to devour something.

The plumbers came out today and fixed my leaking shower and noisy toilet. I'm glad I didn't try to fix the shower by myself. The fixtures didn't use washers or o-rings. There were special ceramic cartridges installed in the shower faucets instead. I've seen these type of things in a kitchen faucet before, but never in a bathroom. The plumber knew what the cartridges were but didn't have any on his truck. He took the bad cartridges with him to a plumbing supply store and luckily was able to match them. The ceramic disks in the cartridges are supposed to be maintenance free, but the plumber said that grit in the supply lines can get between the disks and prevent them from closing completely. Apparently that's what happened. Our city water is notoriously full of grit and sediment. While the two plumbers were at the house I had them fix the noisy toilet too. I could have kept the plumbers at the house all day fixing small problems, but plumbers are expensive. I think I'm good for now.

I'm glad I got the plumbing problems taken care of, but I wasn't as successful with everything else. The roofer told me that he still hadn't had time to finish the estimate he started in February. My contact at the auction house must be on a trip around the world because I've been getting "out of office" auto-reply messages from him for a long time. I haven't heard from NASA yet either. I guess I've just got to be patient on that one.

It's already starting to get uncomfortably hot. I noticed that the air conditioner was running last night and the temperature has gotten over 90 degrees several times this week. It's hard to believe that it's still snowing in some parts of the country. I wish our Spring would last a little longer. It's the nicest part of the year in Texas. 90 degrees isn't so bad when you've got a little breeze. I'm not sure I'll still enjoy walking when it's 110 degrees in July. Even the dogs didn't like to go outside under those conditions.

It's been a busy day but I think I'm caught up on everything. The week's trash has been taken to the curb, I've done the laundry, and the dinner dishes have been washed. Now I need to decide where to go to breakfast tomorrow. I hope I manage to come up with something better than I did last week.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2511

I'm not catching many breaks with this roof. When I went up on the roof to inspect what the repair crews did yesterday, I was simultaneously pleased and disappointed. It looked like the crew had applied the elastomer coating properly, but there was one big problem. It was a windy day yesterday and tons of small leaves had fallen from our Elm Tree and become embedded in the coating before it had time to dry properly. Now the leaves are probably going to be there forever. If I try too hard to rip them out, I could damage the coating. If I ignore the leaves and leave them where they are, they could react chemically with the coating and cause it to deteriorate prematurely. For over 30 years nature has been trying to tell me that nobody should have built a house on this property. The large trees are pretty but the root systems have penetrated our sewer lines, large tree branches have broken off in storms and landed on the roof, and squirrels have claimed the entire area as their own. I think I lost this battle years ago, but it is still discouraging to be reminded about how relentless the natural world can be about reclaiming what it rightfully owns. The forest will be here long after the house is gone.

Security concerns have forced me to have so many passwords that I can't even begin to remember them all. I felt foolish when I couldn't even remember how to add my existing e-mail account to my new iPad. The hosting company had forced me to start using a new more complex password recently and all I could remember was the original one. I ended up having to call tech support and asked them to guide me through the process. This was embarrassing, since I routinely help other people set up their e-mail accounts for a living. Almost every day something like this happens to remind me that I'm not getting any younger. At any rate, when I finally got the e-mail account working, I set it to remember my log-in information, so I won't have to go through this again.

I saw some Kestrels on my walk with Dash this afternoon. These little hawks appear to be thriving in our area. I see more of them every year. They usually sit on the top of trees looking intently for something to eat. I don't have the patience to be a serious birder, but I do enjoy learning a little more about the animals I see everyday. It's an eat or be eaten world out there. Perhaps if we humans weren't at the top of the food chain, we'd be a little more realistic about our place in the world. Hawks know what to do. All animals know instinctively how to keep things in balance, except for us. We seem to think we're exempt from the cycle of life and I'm convinced that this will lead to our extinction.

I wonder if there is anything that would actually change people's minds in this election. Trump supporters aren't swayed by his frequent displays of incompetence. Hillary supporters are even worse. They could care less about the implications of compromising national security or selling favors to the highest bidder. Politics have become like sports. Everyone is just rooting for their favorite team. I don't think this is going to end well, no matter who wins.

I'm old, so I don't think my life is going to change all that much. If I were young, I'd be worried. How did we let ourselves get to the point where the Kardashians have become role models and two self-centered idiots are running for president. What's scary is that one of these two is going to win.  Idiocracy is just a movie now, but in ten years it's going to seem like a documentary.

Dakota is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2407

The most interesting thing I read on the Internet today was something called The Neurotic Eater's Grocery List. I urge you to read it. The provocative little article confirmed something that I have thought for a long time. Practically everything we put in our mouth these days is bad for us. I haven't eaten Tilapia since I learned how the fish are farmed, but apparently Tilapia are actually safer than many other fish. I'm increasingly wary of shrimp. We have become accustomed to eating oranges and strawberries all year long, even though we know that these are seasonal crops. Most of our food is imported now and we don't generally know where it came from or how many pesticides it contains. Humans are so ravenously hungry that we are literally depleting the ocean of fish. We convert prairies into farmland. We suck vast amounts of water out of the ground to irrigate these farms. We use pesticides to increase crop yields. We cut down forests for firewood. This is simply not sustainable. Even the most ardent environmentalists seem reluctant to deal with the real problem. There are simply too many people on this planet.

I have read that some leading scientists think that humans will be extinct in 30,000 years. They are probably right. We are the one species on the planet at the very top of the food chain. Every other animal has to worry about someone else eating them for dinner. This food chain kept everything in balance for millions of years until we came along and claimed everything for ourselves. Without any natural predictors except for other humans, we multiplied too fast, became too greedy, thought too highly of ourselves, and now look where we are. Everything from social unrest to global warming can be traced straight back to too many people trying to share a finite number of resources.

I hate to be gloomy, but I don't see anyone trying to get a grip on the situation. The world is spiraling out of control and the only solution seems to involve searching for Pokémon or looking at cute cat pictures. Whenever there is a police shooting or a terrorist attack, there is a moment of silence and some heartfelt prayers. Nothing changes though. Why is it so easy to say there are too many guns and so hard to say there are too many people?  Why do people who are convinced that every dog or cat on the planet should be spayed or neutered still think it is OK to have ten kids? I just don't get it.

Although the world is certifiably insane, it still has it's pleasures. I enjoyed my walk with Dash this morning. It amused me to see pumpkins growing in the park. I've seen watermelons growing in the park too. The flowers on pumpkin vines are actually quite beautiful. I'll have to watch this patch and see if any pumpkins start growing. I doubt that these are native pumpkins and watermelons I'm seeing. The watermelons are the result of someone's picnic long ago and the pumpkins are the result of my neighbors throwing their rotting pumpkins into the weeds after Halloween to feed the squirrels and rabbits.

I went to the gym and vacuumed the house after I returned, but you knew that already. Dot is still doing well. We walked her around the block again this morning and she didn't stumble at all. As long as I kept the television turned off and refrained from reading my Facebook friends political opinions, this was actually a pretty nice weekend.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day