Day 4955

I paid for the water heater today. I hope nothing else breaks this summer. I've had enough. The roofing company people called me this morning and tried to convince me to add solar panels to the house. "Are you kidding," I told them. "I just finished paying for your roof." I guess old houses and unexpected expenses go together, but I'm getting tired of this.

I'm also getting tired of triple digit temperatures. Maybe we've had hotter summers before, but I don't remember any. This heat is relentless and there is no rain in sight. The temperature when we get up in the morning is what the high for the day would be in a normal summer. By the time I finish breakfast it's already too hot to do much outside. I put out water for the squirrels now. I don't know how the animals in the park are surviving.

I'm surviving by staying indoors. I go to the gym instead of walking in the park and if there are outdoor chores I do them very early in the morning. Luckily it's still tolerable just before sunrise so Dawn still gets her morning walks. She didn't go to training class tonight though. It was just too hot.

It's probably good that this blog is slowly winding to a close. I'm really running out of things to say. You know the routine by now. I get up. We walk Dawn. I make the bed. I eat some breakfast and check my messages. I go to the gym, walk three miles and shoot some baskets. Then I return home, eat some lunch and take Dawn outside to pee. In the afternoon I think about things I should be doing and then take a long nap. No wonder I get excited about going to Florida for rocket launches.

Maybe I'll think of something interesting to do tomorrow. I doubt it though. There's a new breakfast restaurant in the neighborhood, but I don't go out for breakfast anymore. The clothing store that I used to write for is having their big annual sale, but I've still got clothes from five years ago that I've never worn. Tomorrow will be very much like today except there's an Amazon delivery scheduled and it's trash day. Even when nothing's happening, you still need to take the week's trash out to the curb.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2507

I voted. My vote will probably cancel your vote, but no hard feelings. That's just the way our system works. If my local precinct is any indication, this is going to be a high turnout election. I've never seen such a long line to vote. Usually I go to the polls when everybody else is at work, but my plan didn't work today. Even at 2:30 in the afternoon it took about thirty minutes to work my way through the line. I didn't ask anyone who they were voting for, but it was pretty easy to tell. There seemed to be an almost equal number of old men with canes voting for Trump and young Moms with children voting for Clinton. I don't think anyone will have to worry about voter fraud at my precinct. I had to show two forms of ID and sign my name before they would give me a ballot.

I was determined to repair the watch that the watch repairman messed up yesterday. I could have just taken the watch back and complained, but it seemed easier to fix it myself. I spread my tools out on the kitchen table, found my box of parts, and got to work. I removed the ruined part and figured out a way to put everything back together without it. An hour later, the watch looked perfect. I should have done this in the first place. I'm good at fixing things, but I just don't have the desire anymore. I would much rather pay someone competent to do the fixing for me. Unfortunately, competance is in very short supply these days.

For some reason, the only time Dot seems inclined to poop lately is when I'm eating. For the past three days in a row, my breakfast or dinner has been interrupted by the now familiar smell. You can't postpone attending to these accidents. I've got to quickly move Dot out of the way and clean her up before she stumbles and falls in the mess. I always take Dot outside and walk her around before starting a meal, but it doesn't seem to matter. These things just happen when they happen.

I've been wanting to get one of the larger iPad Pro tablets for quite a while. Every time I get ready to go to the Apple Store, there is an unexpected expense and I have to postpone things for a while. I'm beginning to think that the unexpected expenses have become a permanent part of my life, but maybe next month I'll get lucky. I wonder if an iPad Pro would be as useful as I think it might be? It would make a great teleprompter, but I don't do many videos anymore. It could probably replace my laptop, but I don't even use my laptop much anymore. If I was a sensible person, I would just forget about the iPad Pro and get a tree guy to come out and trim all the trees in the backyard instead.

I miss taking Dot to physical therapy on Wednesdays. It was nice having a vet evaluate her every week and I really thought the underwater treadmill sessions helped. Unfortunately, she came home absolutely exhausted toward the end. I don't think Dot has gotten strong enough to resume the therapy and maybe she never will. It's just hard to accept that aging is a relentless one way process. I have a hard time accepting my own diminished capabilities as well. We'll take our walk around the block in the morning and I'm sure both Dot and I will wish we could do more.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day