Day 3686

It's easy to spend the entire afternoon with the Dalmatians. They enjoy the attention and we enjoy having the opportunity to get to know them better. Everyone has their own personality. Some like to race around and chase after red rubber Kongs. Others like to play with soft plush toys. Sock and Lord like to stay together, while Charlie and Hank seem to do better on their own. Dawn always gives us one of those big Dalmatian smiles when we arrive. She isn't very playful but is probably the most relaxed of the bunch. She was content to just sit quietly with us today.

Something bit me last night. I woke up with a big welt on my back and have no idea how it got there. It's not the season for mosquitos and chiggers, so maybe it was a spider. There are tons of spiders in our yard, but luckily most of them are outside. There definitely shouldn't be spiders in the bed, but you never know. I'd probably hate to know how many critters come out of the woodwork after the lights go out.

Tax documents are starting to arrive in the mail. Jeez. Is it already that time of the year again? Time passes so quickly now. I feel like I just finished with last year's taxes. It doesn't seem fair that Social Security is taxed. This doesn't really feel like income. It doesn't seem like those mandatory IRA distributions should be taxed as income either. Oh, well. Those are the rules. I just collect all the documents and give them to my accountant.

Since we're spending more time with the dogs now. I'm getting a really late start on my Monday walk. I started well before sunset, but arrived home in the dark again. As the sky grew darker I looked for familiar stars. All I really saw was Venus next to a thin crescent moon. I should have been able to see Mercury on the Western horizon about thirty minutes after sunset, but there were too many clouds. It's too bad I'm a little nervous about being in the park after dark. You get a lot better view of the sky away from all the city lights.

The toilet in the bathroom is running again so I spent some time cleaning the complex mechanical parts. Plumbers won't even fix this weird French toilet anymore. They just tell me to get a Toto. I was convinced that the toilet would work perfectly after I put everything back together. Cleaning the little hydraulic parts inside the tank usually works. This time it didn't. The toilet still runs. All of today's efforts were for nothing.

One of these days I'm going to have to try to clean the large format printer again. This probably won't work either. I have waited too long. I just got tired of spending hundreds of dollars on ink cartridges when I didn't really have anything to print. Epson is really just an ink company. The printer is just there to make you buy ink. I have no desire to make large Giclée prints anymore. A rational person would just throw this printer away. I never claimed to be a rational person though.

I hope this coronavirus scare doesn't get worse. I'm going to get nervous about airports soon if they don't stop flights to and from China. Right now there are still daily flights to and from major Chinese cities. I guess I could drive to Florida for the Solar Orbiter launch, but it would take a full scale plague to make me drive that far. Lets hope it doesn't come to that.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3616

We spent another enjoyable afternoon with the Dalmatians. All the dogs are doing well. Lord is finally gaining some confidence. We've discovered that he enjoys being with Sock and is more likely to try things when they are together. Sock isn't the world's best role model, but it's a start. Both these dogs seem to gain confidence by being together. It was a warm, sunny afternoon and Treasure just wanted to sit outside in the sun with us. She gets the gold star for chilling out today. I hope that whoever adopts Charlie will train him to be an agility dog. Charlie is extremely smart with an enormous amount of energy. We've made more progress training him than with any of the others so far. He definitely needs a task to do and tries to please. I think he would do great at agility. Hank's new diet seems to have solved his health issues. He's been stable for well over a month now with no vomiting or bloody stools. Hank is ready for a home. Ginny is ready too. She just needs to remain quiet for a few more weeks while she recovers from her heartworm treatment. We spent some extra time with Jasmine today. It might be the last time we see her before she goes to her forever home. Such a great group of dogs. They were much more enjoyable than spending the afternoon with a bunch of people.

I'm glad I finished most of my errands and chores over the weekend because there wasn't time for much today. All I did after we returned from the kennel was take my regular walk. It was a very nice day, but darkness comes way too quickly at this time of the year. The sun was already setting when I completed my first three miles. I thought if I kept going that I might be able to see Jupiter and Venus in the evening sky. At mile four both of these planets were shining brightly. A little later I was able to see Saturn as well. I'm still not wild about walking at night, but this was an enjoyable evening.

It was completely dark when I returned home but the sky still wasn't dark enough to see many stars. Light pollution is terrible in Dallas. Basically all you can see are the brighter planets and the moon. City skies really make me miss Fort Davis. I'd probably feel safer wandering around this quiet little town at night too. Dallas was a good place to work because the economy has always been good and there were lots of jobs. My little company did well in Dallas. I'm not so sure this city a great place to retire. Cities don't have a lot of appeal anymore. The best thing about living in a city is access to good medical care and fewer snakes. I wouldn't be bored in the country but I would worry about snakes.

The next time I hear leaf blowers next door I need to ask the neighbor's yard guy if he could fix my front yard. I definitely don't want to haul a big load of dirt in my car. The neighbor's yard has a big divot in it as well, so maybe he could fix both at the same time. Filling the hole that the off course car made isn't a huge priority but it does need to be done. Right now it looks like someone threw a grenade in the yard.

I've got the schedule for Santa Paws pictures now. I just need to find out what's happening with the NASA events. Whether I attend another launch or not, it looks like its going to be a busy December.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2875

I feel vindicated. They sent out a different appliance repairman today and after doing some checks, he told me that I needed to replace the evaporator thermistor. "I happen to have a brand new one right here," I told him. This was the part I had ordered myself several weeks ago and that two previous repairmen had told me was unnecessary. The first guy told me that these parts never fail and the second guy told me that it wasn't even part of the defrost circuit.

The repairmen couldn't find an electrical schematic that was supposed to be attached to the refrigerator somewhere, so I found the technical manual online and downloaded the pertinent sections. We worked as a team. Why didn't the first two guys even bother to consult this readily available manual? It clearly said to test the evaporator and freezer thermistors before replacing the mother board. It even showed exactly how to test them. It's still unclear whether this new guy solved my problem, but I'll give him an A for effort. Of the four different repairmen who have been out to the house in the past month, he is the only one who even bothered to get a multimeter out of the truck and run some electrical tests.

When I went out to check the mail today, I noticed that there was a container of silicon roof coating sitting on the front porch. It would have been nice if the roofers had dropped off this material before I'd gone and bought a bucket of the expensive stuff myself, but I guess it's better late than never. I'll definitely use the stuff. I was hoping that I could show the roofers what was happening on the roof, but they clearly wanted to just leave the coating material and go. Truthfully, I think I'm doing a better job of repairing things than they did, but it's a horrible, messy job and I wish I didn't have to do it.

I guess I should have voted today, but the only thing on the ballot were a bunch of bond issues I didn't understand. I hate the way they word these bond issues. It really seems at times like they are trying to be purposefully confusing. Several times I've discovered later that I've voted exactly the opposite way that I meant to vote because of the way the initiatives were worded on the ballot. I probably would have voted to improve city and county roads. This was the one issue that wasn't confusing.

When I was taking Dash on his evening walk, a cyclist stopped to warn me that there was a large coyote just around the bend up ahead. I tried to get Dash to turn around and go home, but he stubbornly wanted to continue heading toward the coyote. This is why I don't like walking at night. I finally managed to redirect Dash to the shoreline where the coyotes seldom venture, but I kept thinking that something was following me all the way home. I've really got to figure out how to get Dash walking earlier while it is still daylight.

The roof repairs I made yesterday seem solid. That's a good thing. There is a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. I cleared my tools off the roof and used a leaf blower to remove as many leaves as possible. I hope the elastomer will have had time to cure properly before the rain arrives. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure there will be more problems to fix later, but I've done what I can for now.

Chase id today's Dalmatian of the Day

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