Day 3145

Dash was in good spirits this morning. He was eager to leave the house and quickly decided that we needed to explore some new places. He wanted to walk near the shoreline today. This is always a good sign, since he has trouble navigating the more uneven terrain unless he is feeling strong. We had a good walk. The weather was cool. There was a nice breeze. And Dash was feeling confident.

I got my new vehicle registration sticker today. As soon as I renew my car insurance later this month, I should be good to go for another year. Texas doesn't require a safety inspection sticker anymore. You still need to get your car inspected, but there is no need for a windshield sticker. The state just won't renew your registration until their computers show that you have a current inspection.

My grocery list wasn't large today. I'm still a bit confused since I bought a number of things out of sequence while Janet was away. It's kind of sad that I basically buy the same things week after week, but it does make life easier. Usually people feed their dog the same thing day after day while they enjoy a more varied menu. I'm the exact opposite. We're always feeding Dash something different to ensure that he keeps eating, while I keep eating my familiar favorites.

The trouble with hot weather is that it's impossible to get an early start on everything. Dash is always our first priority, so we take him on a walk as soon as we wake up. I also like to go shopping early on Saturday to avoid the crowds. I didn't do so well this morning, since I needed to pay some bills and get my vehicle registration sticker. It would have been nice to mow the grass early this morning as well, but like I said you can't do everything at once. The grass will have to wait. By the time I finished my Saturday errands, it was way too hot to even think about mowing.

I tried, and failed, to discover where the carpenter ants are coming from. I haven't actually seen any ants, but I have seen the little sawdust piles they create. When we bought the house, I was pleased that it was largely brick. "We'll never have termites," I thought. I forgot that there is still a lot of wood in a brick house. The entire roof is made of wood. I think that's where the ants get in. Carpenter ants aren't as destructive as termites, but they can still do a lot of damage. Luckily, they only seems to be a problem for a few weeks each year.

I wonder if Facebook is having a secret war with Apple? Ever since Tim Cook made some derogatory comments about Facebook, the platform quit working on Safari. Coincidence? I think not. Facebook works fine for me when I use Firefox or Chrome, but it freezes, crashes, and uses way too much memory whenever I view it using Safari. This wasn't happening before Tim Cook began publicly mocking Facebook's business model. The Internet was a more enjoyable place when the only people who used it were a few nerds like me. I think the desire to monetize everything has ruined everything.

There is rain in the forecast for next week. Almost everyone in town is hoping for rain, but I still have mixed feelings. Is there still a roof leak? Only time will tell.

Pebbles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2791

I got my car safety inspected today. I called to see if I needed an appointment and my service guy said to come on up because they weren't very busy. I shouldn't have believed him. Instead of taking a few minutes as promised, the inspection kept me at the dealership for over two hours. I used to enjoy wasting time at the dealership. I would look at all the new cars and try to imagine what I'd be driving next. Now, looking at cars is depressing. The ones I like are all ridiculously expensive.

The dealership always asks me if I'd like them to wash my car while it's there. I usually tell them to go ahead because it's free and it saves me the trouble. Typically, the maintenance on my car takes so long that I get impatient and ask them to cancel the car wash so I can get back home a little sooner. That's what happened today. I knew that Dash was waiting for his dinner, but it's a shame I didn't have more time. The car was pretty dirty.

I got a reply from the roofer today. He told me that he didn't have time to send a crew to patch the defective spots this time, but that he would drop off a can of the elastomer coating and I could make the repairs myself. This seemed kind of rude, but I wasn't completely surprised. The roofer has made many trips to my house already. I think he's probably trying to cut his losses. It's too bad that so few flat roofs come with the kind of warranty you typically get with a shingle roof. I'm kind of at the roofer's mercy.

After my recent dog bite, I have become very nervous about walking Dash. The park is so popular now that people come from all parts of town to walk their dogs. There is almost always somebody who wants to walk their dog without a leash. Some of these dogs are well behaved, but many aren't. I try my best to avoid loose dogs at all costs, but it's getting harder and harder. I don't even trust dog parks anymore. We saw another loose dog today. Luckily, Dash and I made it home in one piece.

I was balancing my checkbook this afternoon and I couldn't figure out why there was a $300 difference between me and the bank. I'm usually pretty accurate with bookkeeping. I finally figured out that my supplemental medical insurance had gone up in cost earlier in the year and nobody had bothered to tell me. I have health insurance payments directly debited from my account because I don't want to lose coverage just because I forgot to pay a bill. You've got to keep looking at your bank statements though. It's surprising how often rates go up.

I guess I could go get my new vehicle registration sticker tomorrow. I still can't remember how the new rules work, but I think you just need to wait 24 hours for the safety inspection information to be recorded in the state's database. I was thinking that Texas eliminated the safety inspection requirement earlier this year, but apparently not. The bill was passed by the Texas Senate but rejected by the House. I think the legislature is still trying to eliminate safety inspections. It seems like it would be better to keep the safety inspections, but eliminate the registration sticker.

It looks like there might be quite a few clouds across the United States next Monday. I guess it doesn't matter to me since I won't be traveling to view the eclipse anyway. It would be a shame if the weather won't cooperate. So far it looks like Idaho has the best chance of clear skies. I hope you have clear skies wherever you plan on viewing the eclipse. These things don't happen all that often.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2434

I used my new Scan and Go app when I went to the grocery store today. It worked like a charm. I was really pleased at what a time saver this was going to be until I finished my transactions and was leaving the store. Evidently, part of the process is having someone scan the receipt on your phone to verify the transaction. The lady who normally counts the number of items in your buggy seemed unfamiliar with the hand held device and couldn't get it to work. She called her supervisor for help. The supervisor said the machine was broken and called the manager. "Wasn't this supposed to make things faster," I asked the manager. "It's really fast when it works," he told me. Eventually, the manager found a backup machine and pointed it at my phone. As soon as I heard a beep, I was good to go. I could have checked out faster today the old fashioned way, but I still like this new technology. I bet it won't be long before they replace the person at the front door with a machine that just senses the phone in your pocket. People always seem to be the weak link in the chain.

I got my 2017 vehicle registration sticker today, so my car is legal again for another year. The hardest part of this whole process is removing the old sticker from your windshield so you can attach the new one. You can't just peel these stickers off. Parts of the sticker always remain attached to the windshield and you have to carefully scrape them off with a single edge razor blade. After I cleaned all the sticky residue off with window cleaner, I attached the new sticker, wondering why we don't still put the vehicle registration sticker on our license plate like we used to.

Dot's digestive system seems to have calmed down a bit. Compared to yesterday's disastrous series of accidents, today was a piece of cake. She pooped in her bed right after she woke up this morning, but that was my fault. We don't usually set the alarm clock on weekends, but Dot has her own alarm system. She expects us to be up by six AM and to be fed and ready to walk before seven. If I'd gotten up at six and immediately taken her outside, we wouldn't have had a problem.

We got a little rain today and I think we're supposed to get some more tomorrow. Since the roof has been patched and the patches appear to have cured well, I welcome the rain. The yard is really dry and our old fashioned sprinklers don't really do a good job of keeping things green. Since I don't think we'll be getting a fancy underground sprinkler system anytime soon, rain will have to do.

I'm having all sorts of minor computer problems. My phone keeps sending me messages saying that there is no SIM card attached. I can make the error message go away if I reboot my phone, but I shouldn't be getting it in the first place. There's a weird little process called mDNSResponder that is sucking up all my memory in my main computer. I can't just delete this process because it is used to connect me to the Internet. The battery has gone bad in my iPad, but they tell me that it is not replaceable in my older Series 1 model. I don't know about you, but I think Apple hardware and software was a lot more reliable when Steve Jobs was alive.

The weeks go by so fast these days. I'll try to make to most of my trip to the gym tomorrow.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2428

I knew it was going to happen eventually. I was checking on the dogs while I was at the gym, and I saw Dot pooping in her bed right on the camera. She was still lying down on her bed, but lifted her head and looked around, as is she was trying to decide whether to go back to sleep or eat the evidence. I was twenty minutes away, but when she put her head back down, I thought I might have time to go home and clean things up before she woke up again. I cut my workout short and hurried home, but I was too late. By the time I arrived, she was wide awake and had eaten everything. I hate when this happens, because it throws off her digestion for the next day or so. What can you do though? Dot is completely unpredictable and I can't spend my entire life watching her sleep and waiting for her to poop.

Since I didn't feel like vacuuming, I went back to the gym and finished my workout as soon as Janet returned home. I spent a long time shooting baskets at the free throw line, wondering why almost nothing in life is completely predictable. You'd think I could sink every basket by now, but I still miss as often as I connect. The ball is the same. The distance to the hoop is the same. And the act of shooting the ball has been repeated so many times that you'd think that hitting the basket would be burned into my muscle memory by now. It's all kind of random though. Sometimes I'll hit three in a row and then spend the next five minutes watching the ball bounce off the rim. If something this simple isn't predictible, I wonder if anything is.

Two short workouts are actually more tiring than one long one. Maybe I should just quit looking at the pet cam while I'm at the gym. If something bad ever happened, I'm too far away to be of much help anyway. I guess I always just want to see the dogs sleeping peacefully. Seeing them sleep gives me some peace of mind and I don't feel so guilty about leaving them.

The atomic clocks are all back in sync again. I still don't know what was going on yesterday, but the problem seemed to resolve itself overnight. I suspect that one of the clocks failed to receive the radio signal from Fort Collins for a few days. I'll probably never know the answer to this mystery, but I will quit thinking about it fairly quickly. I'm sure that something new will go wrong tomorrow that will momentarily capture my attention.

When Janet and I was taking the dogs on their evening walk around the block, a loose dog appeared out of nowhere and came racing straight for Dash. I fell trying to protect Dash and cut my knees. Luckily, the dog's owners were nearby and they quickly retrieved their dog before any damage could be done. The owners apologized while we explained that Dash was terrified by this sort of situation because he'd been attacked by another dog when he was young. We didn't have to explain about Dot. It was obvious that she was very, very old and couldn't defend herself whatsoever. This particular dog was more friendly than aggressive, but I still don't understand why people let their dog off leash. It's just irresponsible to let your dog run loose in a city like Dallas. We were walking down one of the roads that lead into the park. The loose dog could easily have been run over by a car. If you're sitting out in your front yard drinking wine and watching the sunset, please keep your dog on a leash. Things can escalate quickly with dogs and it's almost impossible to keep from getting bitten if a dog really wants to bite you.

I was going to get my new vehicle registration sticker this afternoon, but I forgot that you have to have the safety inspection done first. For years these two events were independent of each other, but now they have to be done in the right order. Why is it that every time the government tries to make something simpler, they just end up making it more complicated? Making an appointment for a safety inspection is already on my to-do list.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2071

A busy day is not always a productive day. I was very busy today, but I don't feel like I accomplished anything. Dot seemed weak when she woke up this morning, but we still managed to finish our pre-dawn walk. I made my breakfast smoothie and listened to the dogs bark at me as soon as I began to peel the bananas. Eventually the loud barking stops but it's not an atmosphere where you'd want to linger over your last cup of coffee. I can tell that Janet is eager to get out of the house and off to work. Early mornings can be pretty chaotic.

After breakfast, I went and found a place where I could get my vehicle registration sticker. They didn't even ask to see my safety inspection results, or my proof of insurance card. All that information was already on their computer screens. You'd think since they've made the registration process simpler, that prices would come down. Nope. They actually went up quite a bit. I remember when the annual vehicle registration sticker was in the $30 range. Then it was $50 for a long time. Today I paid over $75 dollars for my sticker. Oh, well. At least I'm legal for another year.

The second of my Dad's two sisters died this morning. She was 99 years old. My parents both passed away quite a while ago, but now all the Aunts and Uncles are gone as well. We were not a very prolific family. To the best of my knowledge, I'm the last remaining male Sealander. For years I used to think that the family name would die out with me since I never had children. Now I'm not so sure. The rules for marriage and gender have changed so much in recent years that maybe one of the Sealander girls will decide to keep the name going.

A lot of people are saying that it's going to rain later this week. I'll believe it when I see it. There actually is rain in the forecast though. I'm glad that the roofers finally came out and made all the patches I requested. I'll have to take a look tomorrow and make sure they dried properly. There is nothing that could turn these highly anticipated showers into my old nemesis again like another roof leak. The roof is actually in pretty good shape, but roof leaks have been a part of my life for so long now that it's still hard to believe that I've managed to put these problems behind me.

Dot has her annual exam tomorrow. I still can't decide whether she's going to be fourteen or fifteen years old on her birthday. You never know for sure with a rescue dog. Today Dot seemed more like 25 years old, but that was probably just because I was feeling pretty tired myself. It's been a long, hard journey this year. I'm glad my family has good genes. It's going to take some hereditary magic if I ever make it to 99 years old.

Toby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2070

Sundays are simple. One glance at my fitness tracker will tell you everything you need to know about Sunday. I don't do a lot of thinking on Sundays, but I do keep moving. 19,000 steps so far today. The dogs got several walks. Dash went to the dog park. I went to the gym. The house got thoroughly vacuumed. And I still had time for a nap. I definitely needed the nap, because I only got about 4 and a half hours of sleep last night.

It takes forever to vacuum the house with all the little throw rugs we have to keep Dot from slipping. The Dyson is too powerful for these flimsy rugs and it keeps wanting to suck them up. I'm constantly having to turn off the vacuum cleaner and pull the edge of these rugs out of the rotating brush. In a way these small rugs are good though. If Dot inadvertently poops on a rug, we can just take it outside and hose it off. If things are particularly messy, we can just throw the rug away. Life would be a lot more difficult, and probably smellier, with wall-to-wall carpet.

You learn a lot of little things when you track yourself at the gym. I was somewhat surprised to discover that twenty minutes on the hand bicycle burn up far more energy than twenty minutes on the treadmill. I use the hand bicycle because it was part of my exercise routine when I went to physical therapy for my shoulder. I only did five minutes on the bike back then, but I figured that if five was good, twenty would be even better. Hardly anybody every uses this machine except feeble old heart patients. This is apparently not a cool machine for younger people to use. I like it though. Using your arms to peddle strenuously for twenty minutes or more is a pretty good upper body workout.

There's a section in the meat department at Central Market that features a huge assortment of marinated meats. There are all sorts of interesting regional flavors and you don't have to go to the time and trouble of marinating the meat yourself. I've grown fond of these pre-marinated cuts of meat, partially because I'm lazy and partially because I don't think I could ever do a better job of preparing the meat myself. Tonight, we had a marinated pork roast for dinner and it was delicious. I'm starting to feel guilty about eating pork though. There are lots of animal advocates on my Facebook feed who constantly post cute pictures of little piglets or upsetting messages about the cruel ways commercial pork producers treat their pigs. I love bacon but this is starting to upset me. I wonder if you can find free range pork, somewhat like free range chickens and beef?  I'll never be a vegan, but maybe I'd feel better about eating a pig that at least had an opportunity to live a life outside of a small cage.

I don't feel guilty about drinking my breakfast smoothies.  There are two raw eggs for protein, but mostly the ingredients consist of fresh fruit, with some rolled oats and ice cream thrown in for flavor. Janet bought the Vitamix to make fancy soups, but mostly it just gets used to make my breakfast now. I don't know what I'd do without the Vitamix and my Keurig brewer. They have both become my breakfast best friends.

Tomorrow, I'll need to see where I can get a new registration sticker for my car. I think you can still get these things at Kroger and Tom Thumb stores. I hope so anyway. Going to the grocery store for the sticker definitely beats standing in a long line at the courthouse. Dot has her annual exam this week and her birthday is next week. She goes to the vet so often that an annual exam almost seems redundant, but I guess it is still something you need to do. Inspections and exams are how I measure time these days. The car gets safety inspected and another year has passed. A trip to the urologist and another year has passed. A real estate tax notice arrives in the mail and another year has passed. Way too many years have passed this way. I wish there was a way to slow down time.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2068

I was ordering my breakfast this morning when I got a call from Janet saying that there were some strange men walking around on our roof. "That must be the roofers," I told her. Jeez, what were they doing out at the house so early? The cook was just starting to fix my meal, and I asked him if he'd wait a bit so I could go home and see what the roofers were doing. There was a good chance that they'd never find the bad spots on their own and end up patching something that was perfectly good. I'd already paid for my breakfast, but I told the guys that I'd be back soon. I showed the two roofers where the elastomer had worn off and was back at my table within ten minutes. When practically everything you do is within two miles of your house, it's pretty easy to have a change of plan like this. I'm pretty sure that the new patches will have plenty of time to dry properly before they are put to the test. There is still no rain on the horizon.

Today was pretty much like yesterday. I had a little work to do, but not too much. I got my assignments done in plenty of time to take my car up to the dealership at the appointed time for it's annual safety inspection. I told the service manager that they probably ought to go ahead and change the oil and filter while they were at it. "Why," he asked me? "You've only driven two thousand miles since the last time you had the oil changed." Never mind. I tend to forget how little I drive these days. If the dogs didn't need to go to the vet so often, I probably wouldn't drive at all.

I enjoy going to the dealership. I've been a customer for so long that I know everyone by now. One of the sales guys and I talked about our favorite Top Gear shows while they were working on my car. I still think that the BBC made a horrible mistake by canceling the show. So what if Jeremy Clarkson punched a producer. Most producers deserve to be punched. At any rate, I miss Top Gear. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were three of the most politically incorrect hosts on television. They were rude and funny and never sugar coated anything. They also liked Land Rovers a lot. 

The state no longer gives you a sticker for your windshield when you have your car safety inspected. Everything is electronic now. After the safety inspection data has been entered into the vehicle records database in Austin, you can purchase your annual vehicle registration sticker. Since they already know if you've had your car inspected, there is no need for a second windshield sticker. I was going to get the registration sticker on the way home, but they told me to wait at least 48 hours for the database to be updated. If everything is so automated, I wonder why they couldn't just combine the inspection and registration. It would be so much easier if I could just take care of everything at the same time.

The armadillo in my back yard is driving me crazy. It is pulling up my monkey grass by the roots and taking the plants someplace. Maybe it's making a nest with them or something. I can't seem to keep the thing out of our yard. I blocked the area where it was getting in with bricks, but the armadillo just dug a new hole under the fence somewhere else. It's hard enough keeping the yard looking nice anyway, but when the neighborhood critters are actively trying to destroy it, the task becomes almost impossible. Even the birds are getting in on the action this summer. I've never seen so many woodpeckers. They are constantly tapping at the trees. Since woodpeckers mostly eat insects, maybe they are actually helping me though. I'll take woodpeckers over armadillos any day.

I'll be glad when August is over. August is always the most expensive month of the year. Car insurance is due in August. So is my annual storage warehouse rent. When you add dental bills and Dot's chemotherapy to the mix, you can see why I wish that my business would pick up a bit. Actually, I wish the entire summer was over. Business usually picks up in the Fall. The weather is cooler. Fall usually provides lots of interesting photographic opportunities too. The Summer heat has been especially hard on Dot. I'm looking forward to brisk 65 degree walks and colorful Fall leaves. I think we've got a while to wait though.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2065

It almost rained today. I could see rain clouds off in the distance. I even heard a little thunder at one point. It didn't rain though. Not a drop. Some parts of town got lucky. There were small storm cells all over the place late in the afternoon. I could see them on the radar, but they weren't headed our way. The rain only lasted a few minutes in the parts of town that did get wet, but that was enough to get people buzzing on Facebook. It has been a very dry Summer and any rain at all would be a major news story.

Dash's new meds are working. When I took him for his exam this morning, his blood pressure was almost back to normal. This was a big improvement from two weeks ago. I was kind of surprised to see the normal reading, since Dash barked and seemed agitated the entire way to the vet. He doesn't like to ride in the car. Maybe during those rare times when Dash is actually calm, his blood pressure will be even lower. Since Dash has always had a mild heart murmur, our vet wants us to start keeping track of his breathing rate when he is resting or asleep. If he takes twenty to thirty five breaths a minute, everything is fine. If we notice him consistantly breathing faster over time, we will need to bring him in for an echocardiogram and further testing.

I need to get my car safety inspected this week. People in Texas have always had two stickers on their windshield. One of the stickers was your vehicle registration and the other was the safety inspection. Now Texas has decreed that there will only be one sticker. But which one is it? Do I get a sticker for the inspection, or for the car registration? You still have to register your car and have it inspected, but you only get one sticker. This is one more case where the government has made something more complicated in order to simplify it. After making a few phone calls, I determined that the procedure is to get your car safety inspected first and then you present the piece of paper saying your car has passed inspection to the folks who register your car and they give you the sticker. Personally, I liked the old way better.

Dot didn't seem noticeably stronger today, but she was more active. She got up on her own and wobbled around the house unassisted half a dozen times today. I'm sure that some of what I saw today was just wishful thinking, but I'd like to believe that she is beginning to get stronger. We'll see if this continues. It's really hard to tell if Dot is getting stronger during this heat wave we're having because the heat really makes the dogs tired. The only time they go outside now is early in the morning and later in the evening. If it continues to get hotter, we're going to have to shorten Dot's morning walk. We got started well before sunrise this morning and it was still uncomfortably warm. We're doing the best we can, but for Dot's sake, we need some relief from this incessant heat.

Work has been so slow this Summer that life has been reduced to a single event per day. Tomorrow I go back to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. Thursday Dot has her physical therapy day. And Friday I get my car inspected. In between, I'll decide what to have for breakfast. French toast and sausages sounds good tomorrow.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1465

The incompetence of government agencies continues to amaze me. I got a letter today saying that it was time for me to renew the vehicle registration on my Defender 90. What was all that paperwork I signed when I sold the car? Surely these guys must know by now that I no longer own the Defender. I get dozens of letters from Medicare and I have yet to understand any of them. I bet you could reduce the cost of healthcare significantly if you just fired all these useless letter writers. Even the dogs have their problems with government bureaucracies. Every year, Dash gets a letter from the city saying that his city registration has expired. This always takes place about one month after my vet issues Dash brand new registration tags. It's no real surprise that the ObamaCare website doesn't work. Nothing in government at any level works. I have no faith in government anymore.

Does anyone want to buy a Citroën SM that has sat untouched in an aircraft hanger for ten years? The car ran great a decade ago, but I suspect that it will take quite an effort to get it running again. I'm sure the fuel lines and gas tank are gummed up and will need to be removed and cleaned. I've done this once before and it's not an easy job. All five suspension spheres will need to be replaced. The car will certainly need a new heavy duty battery and probably new tires as well. Hopefully, no corrosion has taken place in the engine itself. I loved this car when I bought it in 1972, but in recent years it has become an albatross around my neck. The mechanics who used to keep the car running smoothly have all retired or moved on. My favorite mechanic is now a DJ on a local jazz radio station. Parts are next to impossible to find these days. Even ten years ago I was scared to drive the SM around town because I knew that there were no more new body parts available worldwide. If I had unlimited resources, I would ship the car off to SM World in California and have it completely restored. Unfortunately, I haven't had unlimited resources in a long, long time. Even though the car is highly collectible and Jay Leno has one, it's time to sell the thing.

I've had a lot of cars over the years and the complexities of keeping old cars running are one of the main reasons I switched to collecting watches instead. Watches are little and you can keep them in a drawer. I enjoyed watches for a while until they began to fall apart just like my cars. A good watch needs a watchmaker just as much as a car needs a mechanic. Watch repair is expensive and time consuming. In the long run, I don't think I will be any better off with watches than I was with cars. They all break eventually. I think Janet will have the last laugh at my obsession with collecting stuff. She has no interest in collecting things and prefers travel instead. Travel is all about collecting memories and in my experience, memories tend to get better over time. Eventually, the memory is better than the actual experience was. She'll have great memories, while I preside over a kingdom of rust.

To keep my body from turning to rust, I went back to the gym again today. Another week of regular workouts and I'll be back to where I was before the ice storm. I don't enjoy exercising that much, but I do enjoy seeing progress. Hey, I finally got the large printer working again. That's progress. The city hauled away most of my downed tree limbs this morning. That's progress too. Surprisingly, something seems to happen almost each and every day. There's always some sort of progress. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll sell the Citroën SM too.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day