Day 4216

I wish it wasn't so hard for me to get up in the morning. Our sunrise walks really are the nicest part of the day. When the temperature is in the 70's and there is a nice breeze, it's hard to believe that just a few hours later it will be in the high 90's and genuinely miserable outside. If I were smart, I would just continue walking after Dawn completes her one mile loop, but I have my priorities. I like to eat breakfast and today is grocery shopping day.

It's still hard to believe how empty the roads were just a few days ago during the holiday weekend. I wish everyone had stayed wherever they went on their vacations. Now that the population has returned, the stores are crowded again and the traffic is terrible. 

I don't wear a mask when I go shopping anymore, but I'll have to admit that I do have a few misgivings about returning to a pre-pandemic lifestyle. There are all these people in the stores and some of them are probably sick. I went for an entire year without even having a runny nose. I think it was almost entirely because I had very little contact with other people. Stay away from other people and you won't get sick. It's that simple.

I think the pandemic amplified feelings and tendencies that all of us have always had. Introverts like me are even less trusting of people than we were before, while extroverts are already trying to make up for lost time. It seems so strange to me that large segments of the population are really eager to sit shoulder to shoulder with total strangers at concerts and sporting events again. That's the way it is though. I know several people who can't wait to go to a concert. 

I had to go to several stores to find blueberries today. I'm fairly inflexible about my smoothie ingredients. Blueberries are essential. I eventually found everything on my list and picked up some take-out for dinner as well. Not surprisingly, by the time I got home and put everything away, it was pretty hot outside. Of course I had to take my long walk anyway. I wish my gym was open on Saturday afternoon. They keep saying that they don't have enough staff to stay open during the weekend. This doesn't make sense though. The gym is open on Saturday morning. Why can't those people just stay for the rest of the day. Maybe working at the gym was never a good job to begin with. After having an entire year to contemplate how shitty their old jobs were, a lot of people have found something better. There are a lot of ways to work from home now. I've been working from home for almost thirty years. It's not a bad life. It certainly beats working for tips in a restaurant. I doubt that I would like working for minimum wage in a gym either.

Dawn really likes her new food. She's even started following me out to the kitchen when I fix her meals again. Finding something she likes to eat seems to have changed Dawn's whole personality. She genuinely seems like a happier dog now. How were we to know that she didn't like her food? She seemed to enjoy her meals for over a year and was always eager for breakfast and dinner. Something changed rather abruptly, but Janet and I still can't figure out what it was. It seems strange to go from liking something to refusing to eat it in a matter of weeks unless there is a medical problem. The vet assures us that Dawn is fine. She's eating fine again too. I guess we'll just consider the problem solved.

I think we'll just repeat what we did last week for Dawn's special outing. It worked pretty well to take her to the Sunday park right after breakfast. We'll still do the sunrise walk as well. Taking two walks in a row doesn't seem to bother Dawn at all. I won't have to walk as far later in the day as well. The only thing that might throw a wrench in the works is the weather forecast. The weather forecast is seldom correct, but it is supposed to rain again tomorrow.

Keller is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3744

Hey, I'm doing my part. My car hasn't left the driveway all week. With the exception of a short trip to the vet yesterday, Janet's car hasn't moved much either. I can't say that my behavior has changed. I've been living this way for years. Janet is the only person I talk to regularly and I frequently drive less than ten miles a week. Isolation isn't all that bad. For many, many years I made a good income writing and designing websites from a computer in our spare bedroom.

It seems strange and somewhat disorienting to see people turning to things I've been doing for decades. Videoconferencing, working from home, ordering supplies online, maintaining a home network, and learning to tolerate long periods of silence and isolation are all skills I mastered years ago. I wonder how many people are going to decide that this is actually a better way to live when the pandemic is over?

I think people are already discovering the benefits of being outdoors. I see more people in the park than I've seen in years. I see them doing yoga, practicing kickboxing, and lifting weights, as well as the usually walking and cycling. Parents are taking their kids on long walks. I suspect that most of them are trying to wear the kids out so they will take a long nap and let the parents get some work done when they get home. Seems like a good plan to me. We all keep our distance in the park and hope nobody tries to force us indoors. There aren't a lot of things you can do proactively to stay healthy. I'm convinced that exercise and getting some good outdoor air into your lungs is a good place to start.

Local grocery stores are starting to limit the number of people inside the stores. In theory this is a good idea, but all it really does is cause people to bunch together at the store entrance waiting to get in. I wonder when the panic buying will stop? Eventually everyone is bound to have enough rice, bread, beans, and toilet paper.

I'm already starting to see used gloves and masks littering parking lots. This is insanity, but I'm really not surprised. For years I've seen people in the park pick up their dog poop in poop bags and then just throw the bags in the woods. What does this prove? There are plenty of trash cans in the park. Leaving a sealed poop bag in the hot sun is worse than doing nothing at all. Dog poop is biodegradable. Poop sealed in a bag and not disposed of properly probably becomes radioactive or something.

I wonder where all these people throwing away used masks and gloves in grocery store parking lots are getting them? You certainly can't find these items in stores yet. We still have lots of purple surgical gloves left over from Dash's chemo treatments. No masks though. When I administered Dash's meds every day, I couldn't touch the Palladia pills. They were very toxic and I had a complicated cleanup procedure to follow. Even Dash's poop was toxic and had to be disposed of properly. Washing my hands frequently seems simple by comparison.

One of the most enjoyable things about Spring is that there are new wildflowers to enjoy every single week. The Prairie Verbena arrived this week. These little purple flowers have always been one of my favorites.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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