Day 4738

I totally misjudged the weather today. I put away the buckets because the rain has stopped and then one of the leaks started again. What a mess. I need to start looking at the wind chill index instead of the temperature. I glanced at the temperature before we took Dawn on her early walk and thought it was pretty warm. There was a brisk wind though and I was freezing by the time we returned home. I didn't learn my lesson either. Later in the day when I took my long walk the temperature was even warmer so I only wore a light jacket. Wrong again. The same cold wind was blowing and I ended up freezing all over again. I did learn one thing. Being cold makes me walk faster. I completed my long walk in record time today.

I took the letter I wrote yesterday to the post office after breakfast, but came right home again. I have no interest in shopping or doing things around town these days. Everything is too expensive and I don't really need anything anyway. I hope this new sense of frugality continues. Property taxes are due and I need to start saving for my next trip to Kennedy Space Center.

I've been trying to avoid mowing the grass, but the front yard looks terrible to I decided to get it over with this afternoon. Unfortunately the lawn mower battery won't hold a full charge anymore and the mower died before I finished the job. The yard does look better, but it looks like I've got to mow at least one more time I can call it quits for the year. Now that the weather is cold I have to remove the heavy 24 volt battery pack from the mower and bring it inside when I'm finished. What a pain. No wonder all the other neighbors use a lawn care service.

The stains in the ceiling from the latest series of leaks are really looking bad. I'm not even sure I can bleach them out this time. I've contacted a contractor who came highly recommended to give me a bid on fixing everything in the house. Restoration work will be expensive but something needs to be done. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm very high on anybody's list these days. We've been trying to get together for over a month now and nothing has happened yet. I have a feeling that I'm not demanding enough. Thats not going to change though. I'm not a pushy person.

I wish I was down at Kennedy Space Center this Friday. Space X is launching two rockets on the same day. The launches are only a few hours apart. I can't recall that ever happening before. It ought to be interesting. I'm still a bit envious of the launch photographers who seem to never miss a launch. They all live in the area though. I don't know how they find the time because most of them have other jobs. It's probably good that I can only afford to go to Florida several times a year. If I was trying to cover every launch I'm sure I would have lost interest by now. I get bored quickly.

Dawn and Janet did well at training class tonight. I was surprised that they went to class because it was pretty cold outside. I was reluctant to even take out the garbage. I guess we'll have to deal with this cold weather for quite a while. Winter Solstice is almost here and it will be officially Winter soon. I don't know about you but I'm ready for Spring.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3597

Darn went to his forever home this morning. The couple who adopted him seemed very nice and they have had Dalmatians before. I think this is a good home. Darn might not realize it now, but his life is going to get a lot better. Hopefully, he will get a new name. Many of our new dogs came to us with very strange names. Sock and Jelly Bean seemed to know their names, but the others didn't. I wonder if Darn and Sock got named at the same time. Maybe somebody's sock had a hole in it. Darn is one of the shy dogs, but I think as soon as he starts to feel safe in his new home he's going to relax and start enjoying life.

It was very cold this morning. It was also very wet. After the cold front arrived yesterday, it continued raining for the rest of the night. It rained a lot. I left the pumps running overnight, but I don't think it helped much. Just before I got up this morning, I heard the sound of water dripping into a bucket. The water was coming from the same can light in the office ceiling as it was before. I guess my repairs didn't accomplish much.

It was disappointing that I wasn't able to stop the leak. I certainly tried my best. I have no idea how the water is getting in, but when you have four inches of standing water on a flat roof, water will find a way. The new roofer I called is going to come take a look at things tomorrow. I'm not very optimistic at this point, but I'm always open to suggestions.

I made an appointment to take my retainer back to the dentist. I tried to wear it again last night and it is clear that the thing doesn't fit. Soaking the retainer in hot water before trying to fit it didn't help at all. I should have had a proper fitting at the dentist before taking the retainer home, but the dentist and I were both in a hurry. They told me that these things almost always fit perfectly. I guess I am the exception to this rule.

I wore my winter clothes on this morning's walk. Maybe our hot summer wasn't so bad after all. The temperature was around forty degrees but there was a very strong wind. The wind chill effect made it feel like it was below freezing. I think it actually is going to dip below freezing later tonight. This is our first freeze warning of the fall. I finally remembered to bring the 24 volt battery for the electric lawnmower inside for the winter. It's anybody's guess whether the battery will still be good next spring, but at least I've made an effort to save it.

We can look forward to another very cold day tomorrow. At least the rain is over for a while. I went up on the roof this afternoon and swept all the water away. This stopped the leak for the moment. I'm sure it will return with the next heavy rainfall. All this is frustrating, but at least the tornado didn't blow down our house. We passed through some of the tornado damage on our way back from the kennel this morning and it looked even worse than the pictures I've been seeing. It's still hard to believe that all this destruction happened in just a few minutes.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3357

It was 23 degrees and very windy when we woke up this morning. That added up to a wind chill of 9 degrees. Brr. Dash thought he wanted a walk, but I don't think he realized what he was up against. We dressed him up as warmly as we could this morning, but he didn't even make to the back gate. When he felt how cold it really was, he wisely turned around and returned quickly to the house.

We spent the rest of the day indoors. Dash ventured outside to pee occasionally and I made one brief trip to the post office to pay some bills, but that was it. Today's goal was to stay warm. Even Dash understood that it wasn't a day for walking.

I'm glad I got the water off the roof yesterday. Ice on the roof causes some peculiar problems. When the ice starts to melt, the heat from the house causes it to melt from the bottom up. This creates a layer of water covered by a layer of ice, making it impossible to remove the standing water under under the ice. These conditions are a recipe for leaks because if the weather is cold enough, the ice on top can last for weeks.

I canceled today's plumbing appointment because it seemed like a terrible day to dig a big hole in the ground. The ground looked frozen anyway and I had trouble seeing where the leak was. I have a feeling that the cold, hard ground partially sealed the leak. I certainly wasn't seeing any evidence of it anyway. I hope the plumber appreciated what I did. I definitely wouldn't want to be a plumber working outside today.

I sold a few trains in February. I'm glad the collection is getting some interest again. I thought there would be a lot of sales over the Christmas holidays, but I was wrong. Nobody bought any trains for Christmas. Zero holiday sales. Did somebody get a model train for Valentine's Day? Who knows. Stranger things have happened.

I updated the Dalmatian Rescue website today. It seemed like a good thing to do on a cold, housebound day. I do so little website design these days that I'm slowly losing my skills. I occasionally have to look up things that I used to know by heart. It's only going to get worse. Use it or lose it, they always say. I guess I could revamp my own websites to keep my chops up, but I just don't have the interest anymore. Hard to believe that I used to have dozens of active clients that required hours of work every single day. How did I ever find the time? Of course the dogs were young and healthy then. So was I.

I hope that tomorrow is warmer. Two days like this and Dash and I will both have some serious cabin fever. There's nothing all that exciting about a walk in the park, but it's good to get outside. These walks are physical therapy for Dash and mental therapy for me. I hope all the early wildflowers don't die. I'm starting to see Grape Hyacinth all over the place. Based on today's weather, I think these flowers may have jumped the gun.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3356

20,000 steps today. That's what you get when you walk the dog twice, go to the gym, and remove all the water from the roof. I was surprised that Dash even wanted a walk this morning. It was bitterly cold. There was a brisk wind for most of the day and the wind chill made the temperature feel like 20 degrees. I definitely didn't feel like going up on the roof in this kind of weather, but I knew that if I didn't remove the standing water immediately, it would be ice by morning. So far, the roof leak hasn't reappeared, so maybe all my efforts have been worthwhile. Just being outside today was quite a workout. My trip to the gym seemed easy by comparison.

I wasn't surprised that Dash seemed tired today. Walking in freezing weather takes a lot out of you. We probably should have stayed inside but it's hard to convince a dog who loves to smell things in the park that it is too cold. As soon as Dash gets back inside on these cold days, he starts shivering. He never shivers while he is actually walking though. I still haven't figured this out. At any rate, after a short nap under his favorite blanket, Dash was fine. The cold weather certainly didn't hurt his appetite. Dash ate anything within reach today.

I watched the Crew Dragon capsule dock with the International Space Station on NASA TV this morning. The capsule looked so clean and neat inside. It looked a lot more like the interior of a Tesla Model 3 than your typical space capsule. The Russian Soyuz capsule looks like a flying garbage can by comparison. I'm amazed at the progress that Elon Musk has made in the last ten years. It's pretty impressive. I hope he can reach his goal of landing on Mars while I'm still alive.

I didn't have the energy to do any house cleaning after I finished with the roof this afternoon. I didn't finish updating the Dalmatian Rescue website either. I guess I can do those things tomorrow. Today just seemed like a long, continuous workout. Maybe I lost a few a few pounds. It isn't every day that I rack up 20,000 steps on the Fitbit.

I wonder why I've become so fascinated with tracking things. The Fitbit tracks me while I'm walking around and up until yesterday an IOS app called Fabric tracked me when I was driving around. the Fabric company went out of business recently and the app has gone dead. The same thing happened to Moves, another tracking app I used to use. I guess this shows that there isn't much of a market for apps that track your every more. Most people apparently don't want to be tracked.

I wonder whether I should cancel tomorrow's appointment with the plumber? Another arctic cold front is on the way and temperatures are supposed be get down in the teens. I would imagine that if the ground is frozen, it's going to be a lot harder to find that leak in the sewer line. I can't imagine that the plumbers would enjoy working out in the cold either. I'll call in the morning and see what the plumbing company wants to do. This seems like something that could wait until things warm up a bit.

Dash was restless last night and I didn't get a lot of sleep. Hope things improve this evening. I've done enough moving for one day. I need to be still for a while.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2920

I spent the day trying to stay warm. Last night's forecast was right. It did end up raining for most of the day. It was a cold rain too. The temperature was in the high 30's, but the wind chill made it feel below freezing. I stayed home and fixed pancakes and sausages this morning. I kept hearing rolling thunder off in the distance. Thunder often triggers Dash's panic attacks and it was pointless to leave the house for a breakfast that I probably wouldn't like anyway. Actually my pancakes were quite good. I should stay home on Friday mornings more often.

Around noon it looked like there was going to be a break in the rain, so I took Dash for a walk. For a dogs that is terrified of rain, he certainly doesn't seem to mind walking in wet grass. We should have had plenty of time before the next storm cell arrived, but Dash was even slower than usual. He wasn't having trouble walking. He just likes to smell things. We ran out of time on the last half mile of our walk and got soaked. I kept telling Dash to hurry up, but he seems to have no idea that rain is approaching until he actually gets wet.

It was bad enough getting caught in the rain once, but the same thing happened again on our evening walk. This time I was almost certain that the rain was over, but another rain cell popped up out of nowhere as we were approaching the house and we got soaked again. Note to self: a down jacket is great in cold weather. Not so good in wet weather.

After I dried Dash off a second time and changed my clothes again, I didn't feel like leaving the house anymore. I needed to go to the grocery store, but luckily Janet said she'd pick something up for dinner on her way home from work. I don't feel like I accomplished much today. Even with weather radar on my phone, I managed to get caught in the rain twice.

Janet and I decided not to exchange gifts this Christmas. There is nothing we need and it seems silly to keep getting things that don't end up being used. Our house is way too full of clutter as it is. We'll get something fun for Dash. He loves food gifts. We probably should have done this a long time ago. Adults can spend a lot of money but it's almost impossible to recreate the sensation of being a kid at Christmas. Christmas is for kids and dogs. I guess it's not surprising that my favorite Christmas memories are childhood memories. I know Christmas is an important religious holiday, but I haven't been inside a church since my Dad's funeral. To me, it mostly seems like a time when people are slightly nicer to each other.

I'm having problems with my new website project. It's not the layout that has me stumped. I can think of plenty of cool designs. I just can't think of a solution that would genuinely improve my client's business. Unless you're in the business of selling things online, a website isn't really a game changer. Sure, you've got to have one, but it will never matter as much as what your customers say to their friends about you. Word of mouth is still the best advertising. I'm going to give this a lot of thought. My client certainly deserves a website that makes a difference. If I had the answer, I'd probably build one for myself too.

I can't wait until it gets warmer again. I know people who love snow and bundling up in sweaters. I'm not one of them

Two sisters are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1812

I felt like I spent most of the day just trying to stay warm. The temperature was in the 20's this morning with 20 mile per hour winds. This made for a ferocious wind chill factor. We always walk, no matter what the weather, so I put on several layers of warm clothes, bundled the dogs in their warmest dog coats, and off we went. We didn't stay outside as long as we usually do, but it certainly felt like a long walk. It goes without saying that we were all glad to return to a pleasantly warm house.

After breakfast, I went to the storage warehouse and got the props and equipment we'll need for this weekend's Santa Paws photo shoot. The various light stands, poles, backdrops, and equipment seems to get heavier each year I do this. One of these days, I'm going to just start taking these pictures with my phone. I think I'm good for at least one more year however, so I'll continue to keep hauling the heavy equipment and lights from location to location.

I got a call from the physical therapist my doctor recommended asking me a few questions about my shoulder. It's looks like I'm approved for physical therapy, but I'll have to wait a few more days to find out for sure. If everything works out as expected, I'll be able to have supervised physical therapy at the same gym I go to every week. This will be convenient and I might even learn whether my current workout is doing more harm than good. I don't really expect my shoulder pain to magically go away, but it would be nice to see a little improvement. All I really want to do is avoid rotator cuff surgery.

Dash is getting low on his supply of chemotherapy pills again, so I made an appointment at the cancer center for his next follow-up exam. I'm almost certain that the oncologist will want to renew Dash's Palladia prescription for an additional two months, but we're finally getting near the end of this ordeal. After two more months, Dash will have had a full year of chemo treatment and that is the maximum amount of time the cancer center recommends. The hair on Dash's neck never grew back after his radiation treatments earlier this year, but other than that, he is completely back to normal. It will be good to put this all behind us.

I updated some websites today and will probably update a few more tomorrow. I kept busy to stay warm. My success with the Ikea furniture yesterday emboldened me to try and fix a broken drawer on my Dad's old workbench. I couldn't find the small screws and wooden dowels I really needed, but luckily there's always Superglue. I wish I'd remembered to bring home the ceramic heater when I was getting my photo equipment earlier today. If it's this cold again tomorrow, the little heater will keep my warm feet while I work.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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