Day 4557

The dog days of summer are definitely here. It's hot. I feel lethargic. And there is a dearth of good news. When I turn on the TV during breakfast looking for something encouraging it's slim pickings these days. I lost interest in cable news quite a while ago. It doesn't matter which side of the political fence you're on, everyone is just pushing a narritive. I used to like watching the business channels, but that's turned very dismal lately. We're headed toward another recession. I can remember quite a few recessions in my past, but I'd been hoping to avoid another one at my age. It just takes too long to recover from these things. I don't have a long time to recover from another recession. Today I tried the weather channel. How can you go wrong with the weather channel? Never mind. This mornings coverage was all about the flooding in Yellowstone. One of my favorite areas is under water. Somehow it seems like everything in the world is under water these days.

I didn't feel like going to the gym today, so I tried another long walk right after breakfast. There was a nice breeze for a while, but it didn't last long enough. I can tell things are starting to dry out in the park. The meadows don't look as green and lush as they did a month ago. A lot of the wildflowers are starting to disappear as well.  It's a shame that we get all our rain at once in Texas. If the weather would spread things out and give us a little rain every month everything would look a lot greener in July and August. Our yard looks great now, but I'm going to have to start watering the lawn soon. That's a quick way to double the water bill. We don't have a sprinkler system, so even when I water I only use a small fraction of the water the sprinkler systems in the neighborhood use. When I see all the wet streets on our early walks with Dawn I quickly realize what an enormous amount of water these systems waste.

I managed to complete my six mile route today, but I was hot and tired by the time I returned home. I took a shower and then wanted to take a nap for a while. Dawn quickly left the room and sat outside the bedroom door, watching me and occasionally whining. I hate to see this, so I got up and took my nap on the couch in the living room. I keep telling Dawn that she's running out of time to be buddies with me. Janet will be going on vacation soon. Things will go a lot smoother if Dawn would realize that I mean no harm and would really like to be friends with her. The two guys that ran the puppy mill must have been terrible. A lot of the dogs that came from that place are suspicious of men.

Our air conditioner is having trouble keeping up with this heat. My HVAC guy told me once that air conditioning systems are basically designed to keep the air in your home up to twenty degrees colder than the outside air. This works pretty well when the temperatures are in the 80's and low 90's. Not so much when the temperature is over a 100 degrees every day. The best we are able to do on days like these is about 78 degrees. Coincidentally, this is the temperature the power company wants you to use to save energy. I don't know how much energy we're saving though, since the AC seems to be running all the time.

There are still a lot of things on my to-do list, but I'm not really in the mood to do any of them. Sometimes I fantasize about living in a nice new house in a safe little town. I'm sure there are people who thought the same thing when they moved to those little towns north of Yellowstone that are getting flooded now. There's really no escape anymore. Life is a roll of the dice these days, but I still think it helps to avoid all the drama. On that note, I've taken this weeks trash to the curb and am ready to start another uneventful week.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4556

Today was busier than usual for me. I actually got a few things done. After our sunrise walk with Dawn and my usual bowl of shredded wheat for breakfast, I decided to mow the grass instead of taking a long walk. I still need to replace the batteries in the electric mower because a charge only lasts long enough to mow half the yard. No problem though. I find that I need to recharge myself as well these days. I mowed the back yard and then checked my e-mail while the mower was charging before I went back outside and mowed the front. I don't know why I keep doing this. I've found someone who will do the mowing for me, but old habits die hard.

The new dishwasher is a success. Janet likes it anyway. I didn't have much faith in the unusual drying system when I started an overnight cycle before I went to bed last night, but all the dishes were clean and dry when we woke up this morning. The tub was dry as well. I think this machine takes longer to dry things than our old dishwasher, but it isn't a problem since I only run the machine once a day before I go to bed. This thing sure is quiet. I can't even tell it is on when it is running. 

Since I used up the cooler part of the day mowing the grass, I went to the gym this afternoon to get my steps. I stopped at the pharmacy on the way to pick up a prescription and discovered once again that GoodRx had a much better price than my Part-D prescription drug plan. The pharmacist said my Part-D rates would get better once I met my yearly deductible, but why bother. The GoodRx price is so much better.

I'm glad they opened up the basketball court again at my gym. Shooting baskets is one of the few things I actually enjoy while I'm there. They closed the court for a long time because I guess they thought people might catch Covid by touching basketballs. Sadly, now that things are finally returning to normal at the gym, they are crazier than ever everywhere else. Gas is expensive, food is expensive, the stock market is tanking, and everyone seems angry.

It was still pretty early when I finished my workout and returned home, so I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the star tracker again. I wish they'd decide that this thing was ready for production and stop the almost weekly upgrades. Some of the upgrades make things better and others make things worse. Every time I do an upgrade, I'm afraid my Polaris will stop working again. Actually I'm surprised that the Benro folks have done as well as they have. They're attempting to create a product that can be controlled by hundreds of different cameras that all work a little bit differently. Luckily, this upgrade went smoothly. Everything still works. I took a few test shots and put the contraption back in its box. I"m sure there will be at least ten more firmware upgrades before I get a chance to take this thing back to the observatory again.

It was one of those rare days when everything went right. I didn't kill myself mowing the grass. The new dishwasher works like a charm. And the star tracker still provides me with an odd amount of pleasure every time I can get it to work. Dawn was even a bit friendlier with me today. All in all, I'd call today a win.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4555

It was a very slow day. I mostly thought about things I needed to do, but didn't get around to doing many of them. The daily routine is pretty familiar by now. We get up and take Dawn on her sunrise walk. I make the bed while Janet and Dawn are eating breakfast and then I go eat my own breakfast. Out of habit I turn on the computer after breakfast and check my e-mail. I only get one or two important messages a month these days. Since the temperature is getting hotter, I'm making a real effort to start my long walk before 9 AM. The weather is still nice this early, but by the time I return at 11 AM it is already oppressively hot. 

There are still a lot of wildflowers in the park, but most of the animals are in hiding. It's just too hot. I haven't even seen many ducks lately. What I do see is a lot of construction activity. The new concrete trail that they are building is almost completed. The construction company must have a penalty clause in their contract because activity has increased a lot lately. I think the whole project is supposed to be completed by the end of June.

I still haven't run the new dishwasher yet, but I did read the instruction manual today. This thing is way too complicated. If you hold certain buttons for three seconds a sub-menu appears with even further choices. I think I liked the simple round dial on the old dishwasher better. There were just three settings: heavy wash, normal wash, and light wash. You turned the dial to the setting you wanted and that was it. I'll try this thing tonight and we'll see how it goes. It will be interesting to see if the dishes actually get dry. I wish they'd used an electric heating coil to dry the dishes instead of using this "dynamic drying" feature which is just marketing hype for no drying at all. It's easy to accidentally turn the dishwasher on by leaning against it as well. I guess I shouldn't complain. This was the only model that would fit under our kitchen counter.

I found a small hole in the screen wire side of the atrium and sealed it today. Hopefully I sealed the rat out instead of sealing it in. I think it is gone because I haven't seen it in over a week. When I removed the Havahart trap from the atrium I noticed that some of the cheese had been eaten. The clever rat had figured out how to eat the cheese without setting off the trap.

I installed the latest star tracker app on my phone, but didn't have the nerve to upgrade the firmware on the device and test it again. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Just like with my phone, watch, and computers, you eventually have to install the upgrades. It's frustrating how often upgrades actually make things worse though. If you ignore the upgrades, your machine basically isn't supported anymore. Since I run an older operating system on my main computer, my browser crashes a lot more than it should. I can't run the latest browsers though because they are linked to the latest operating systems.

Dawn is still leaving the room whenever I try to take a nap with her during the day. She just seems nervous whenever Janet isn't in the house. This is discouraging, but I don't think this behavior is going to change. I don't think she's going to be happy when Janet goes on vacation, but as long as I can keep her eating and taking her meds, we'll be OK. 

I'm already tired of summer and it's just getting started. We've got a long way to go. It's already too hot to mow the grass or do yard work. The air conditioner is struggling to keep the house as cold as we like. Unfortunately I've already used up my travel budget for the year, so I'm stuck here until things start to cool down again. Hopefully nothing else breaks this summer. I'd much rather buy a new camera than another major appliance.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4554

Yay. We have a new dishwasher. I don't know how to use it yet, but I'll worry about that later. I'm glad I had a good plumber install this thing. Nothing is as easy as it seems and there were some complications on the installation that the Home Depot delivery crew would have probably just given up on. I wish modern electronics weren't so complicated. Old major appliances were simple and lasted forever. Everything nowadays basically has a computer inside and tends to break quickly. Our old dishwasher had a single round dial on the front. This new one looks like the control panel on the space shuttle. 

The big difference on this new machine is that there is no heater coil at the bottom of the tub to dry the dishes. This new dishwasher uses super hot water on the final rinse and then somehow vents away the moisture inside. It sounds like the dishes just air dry to me, but what do I know. I need to get some of that rinse-aid liquid that prevents streaks on glasses tomorrow. The instructions say that you need to use this stuff to ensure effective drying. Why so complicated? I would have much rather had the old fashioned electric heating coil on the bottom of the tub. Oh, well. It is what is is. Maybe I made the wrong choice but I really didn't have many options. Most dishwashers are 24" wide. The space available in my cabinet was slightly smaller than this. The LG model I bought was 23.75" wide and barely fit. The reviews on this machine were very good, although some people were frustrated about the strange drying system. I may be one of those people.

It turned out to be a very busy day. While the plumbers were here I had them fix a few other things around the house as well. There was an outdoor faucet in the back yard that had been leaking for years and a rubber cap on a drain access line that leaked even worse. Too bad they couldn't fix my strange French toilet. Parts just aren't available for that thing anymore. The plumbers were on time and everything went relatively smoothly, so we were still able to visit the rescue Dalmatians this afternoon. This whole dishwasher episode ended up costing more than I expected, but what else is new. Everything costs more than you expect these days.

The Dalmatians are all doing well. We didn't play with Rocket today because he is still recovering from his heartworm treatment. Charlie, Willie, Oliver, and JoJo were all in fine form though. I don't know why JoJo still wanted to go outside on a day like this. It was way too hot, but JoJo insists on playing outside. The other dogs were smart enough to stay in the air conditioned indoor play area. 

By the time we returned from the kennel it was way too hot to even consider walking in the park. It even seemed too hot early this morning when we were taking Dawn on her sunrise walk. I went to the gym instead. I was surprised at how many people were at the gym this afternoon. It was probably the weather. Something was wrong with the air conditioning system on the main floor today, but it was still much cooler than it was outside. I didn't stay long today. I just shot some hoops on the basketball court, walked a mile or so on the indoor track, and used the rowing and the abdominal crunch machines. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow, but I hope it is cool enough in the morning so I can walk in the park instead.

They say it's going to be a very hot summer. It certainly looks like we are headed in that direction. I just hope we don't have blackouts or major power outages this summer. With everything else that is going wrong in the world, a lack of electricity might just be enough to push me over the edge. 

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4553

Our heat wave continues. It's hard to get very interested in doing anything when it's so hot outside. It never realy cooled down last night and was still warm when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. This was still the best part of the day. As the sun got higher in the sky the temperature just kept rising.

We always have a big breakfast on weekends and as soon as we finished I started on my long walk. I soaked my hat in water before I left the house and hoped for the best. It's a shame that my gym isn't open on Sunday anymore. This always used to be my favorite day to go to the gym. Oh, well. The walk wasn't bad for the first two miles, but by by the time I reached the halfway point and started heading home again, it was getting pretty hot. I got my steps though. Somehow it still seems important to make an effort.

I was informed when I bought the dishwasher that I had a 48 hour window after delivery to inspect it for damage. After that, I'm stuck with the thing whether it works or not. I called customer service this morning to try to get an extension. I explained that I didn't want to take the dishwasher out of the box until someone knowledgable arrived to install it. I wouldn't even know what to look for if there was some kind of internal or mechanical damage. I guess my explanation made sense, because the service guy gave me an extension until Tuesday afternoon after talking to his supervisor. It seems like you have to talk to your supervisor before you can do anything these days. Hopefully I can get a plumber to install the dishwasher tomorrow. I really want to put this chapter in my life behind me.

Dawn did get her Sunday outing today, but it was a bit different. It was way too hot to take our regular walk in the park on the hill, so we just let her walk around in the grass and sniff things for a few minutes before heading for the ice cream store. This seemed fine to Dawn. She peed, smelled a few bushes, and headed back to the car. I thought the ice cream store would be crowded today since it was so hot, but there was only one car ahead of us. Not many people were out and about at all. The roads were pretty quiet. I guess most people just stayed inside today. I can't say that I blame them. The only time we saw many people today was when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. I guess we aren't the only folks who realized this is the is the only decent time to go outdoors during a heat wave.

Whenever I try to take a nap on the bed when Janet isn't home, Dawn gets up and leaves the room. She sits just outside the bedroom door and watches to see if I'm still there. If I don't leave in a timely fashion she eventually starts to cry. Not surprisingly, this makes me feel bad. Today I just took my nap on the sofa in the living room. Dawn stayed in the bedroom and seemed happy enough. I wish I knew what caused this behavior. I'm a normal member of the family when Janet is in the house. When Janet is gone, I'm someone to be feared. The behavior changes instantly as soon as Janet enters the front door. It's going to be interesting when Janet goes on vacation. Dawn eventually calmed down the last time Janet went on vacation, but it took several days.

I thought about taking the Havahart trap outside today since the rat is probably still around somewhere. I almost instantly realized that this was a terrible idea, since all the trap would catch is squirrels. There seem to be hundreds of squirrels in our yard since we have large trees. I think I have distant memories of trapping squirrels before when I was trying to catch mice. Squirrels are always eating and they seem to love whatever I bait the trap with.

I'm not sure if I'll be visiting the Dalmatian kennel tomorrow. It all depends. I have a feeling that I'll be sitting around waiting for the plumber most of the day. This is assuming that I can even get a plumber to come out tomorrow. We'll see. I'm trying to remain optimistic at this point.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4552

Nothing is easy these days. The appliance installers arrived this morning, carried a huge box containing the new dishwasher inside the house and then told me that they couldn't install it. What? Why not? This is an easy job. You pull the old dishwasher out, attach the supply and drain lines to the new dishwasher, push it back under the counter and you're done. 

No can do, they told me. "You have copper supply lines," one of the guys said, "and we're not allowed to touch copper." I couldn't believe it. "You'll have to get a plumber to install this," the other guy told me. The installers left and I now have a very large box sitting in my living room. I called the two plumbing companies I normally use and they both told me that they charged emergency or after hours rates on weekends. Since these exorbitant rates were double what they normally charge, I decided to just wait until Monday to deal with this. I kind of wish I'd just called an appliance repairman to fix the old dishwasher now.

When I called to get my installation fee refunded I was told that I would have to go back to the store because I used two different credit cards on the transaction. I did use an old gift card I had for part of the purchase, but never realized that it would cause complications later. When I went back to the store I ended up talking to the same salesperson who sold me the dishwasher. "I warned you about copper pipes," she said. Nope. I don't think so. This thing will eventually get installed, but it has become a major nuisance.

I think we set a new high temperature record today. The thermometer on the back porch reached 106 degrees. How did the weather go from wet and cool to impossibly hot so quickly? It wasn't that long ago that the furnace was coming on in the morning. It was good that we got Dawn walked very early this morning. We weren't really trying to avoid the heat at that point. We were just trying to get everything done before the dishwasher installers arrived. At least I managed to get my grocery shopping done before everything started to unravel.

By the time I finished dealing with all the installation problems it was way too hot to walk in the park. I decided to go to the gym after I got my installation refund from the appliance store. The gym was almost empty by the time I arrived because it was getting close to closing time. I still had time to shoot some hoops on the basketball court, use the rowing machine, and walk a mile on the indoor track. It wasn't my best workout, but it will have to do.

I'm so tired of dealing with broken things I could scream. The dishwasher problems will be resolved sooner or later, and then it will be on to the next thing. It would be tempting to just tell a contractor to fix everything all at once, but we still live here. There's nothing worse than trying to go about your life in the middle of a bunch of construction. I hate all the surprises that contractors and repair people throw at you too. Few people these days are really familiar with old houses and they either don't know how to do the job right or are in too much of a hurry to do the job right. Most of these people prefer to work on new construction when the homeowner isn't even around.

We might not be able to take Dawn on her regular Sunday outing tomorrow. If we wait until the ice cream store opens, it will be too hot. Dawn will get her sunrise walk, but maybe we'll skip the later walk at our Sunday park and just go directly to the ice cream store. I don't think Dawn will have any complaints. It was almost too hot for her last week and tomorrow will be much warmer. So far, it looks like it's going to be a long, hot summer.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4551

I always erase the cookies on my computer before I turn it off at night, so I think that Facebook is just grasping at straws when it is trying to get me to click on things. One day my feed will be filled with posts about boxing. The next day it will be filled with pictures of battle tanks and military equipment. Lately, I've been getting a lot of posts about obscure musical groups I've never heard of, along with random information about the early life of Elvis and Jimi Hendrix. A lot of these things are sponsored posts and clickbait, but some are just "suggested for you" nonsense generated by Facebook. I don't really understand any of this. Wasn't the whole idea of Facebook so you could keep up with your friends? Very little I see these on my feed actually comes from anyone I know.

I could tell it was going to be a hot day when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. These early morning walks are always nice, but as soon as the sun hits your face, you can tell that the pleasant weather isn't going to last long. I really should have gone to the gym today, but it was easier to convince myself that a long walk right after breakfast wouldn't be so bad. The first few miles weren't terrible because the sky was overcast. As soon as the skies cleared it almost instantly became too hot. I'm afraid it's going to be like this for the rest of the summer.

I got a message from the Benro folks that it should be OK for me to install the latest firmware in the star tracker. Then they added that if the upgrade didn't work that they would fix it later. Not terribly encouraging, but I have to remember that I'm a Beta tester. Maybe I'll give the upgrade a try tomorrow. A year ago at this time I was learning how to use a different type of star tracker. I've taken both of these devices out to McDonald Observatory, but have only taken a small handful of pictures. I haven't used them at all in Dallas. There are too many streetlights that light up our backyard and I'm certainly not venturing very far from home at night these days. Sadly, it's just not safe anymore. Basically I just turn on the local news during breakfast to see who got shot overnight. We're not as bad as some major cities, but that's not saying much.

The new dishwasher will be delivered tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be any problems. I've found the shutoff valves for the water and I'll move the furniture out of the way after breakfast. I wish the installers would tell me exactly when they'd be here so I don't waste half the day waiting for them. I guess that's impossible. The best you can get from service people these days is a four hour window. The old dishwasher matched the color of the blue metal mid-50's kitchen cabinets. At least the stainless steel door on the new one will match the stainless steel counter tops. I looked for something with a slide in color panel on the door, but apparently that is out of fashion these days. All the new appliances are stainless steel. When I was younger it was important to me that everything matched. Now it's more important that everything works.

Hopefully I can get my grocery shopping done tomorrow before the appliance installers arrive. I don't know when I'll find time to take my long walk though. Oh, well. One way or another I'll get my steps. Even retired people with nothing to do have their priorities.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4550

I had a memory lapse today and thought I had ordered the wrong dishwasher. For some reason I was convinced that I had ordered a unit with top mounted controls. This was going to be a problem because there is a slight overhand on the top of the kitchen counters that would cover up the controls when the door was closed. I don't know why it took me so long to look at the picture on my phone that I took in the store. What was I thinking? The controls were right on the front of the door like they should be. I guess it was an easy mistake to make. I looked at a lot of dishwashers and they all basically look the same.

I wish the temperature would stay the same as it has been lately when we take Dawn on her sunrise walk. It's pleasant to walk when the temperature is 72 degrees and there is a nice breeze. It's a lot different later in the day when it's 92 degrees under a hot sun. I'm really trying hard to walk earlier now before the temperature becomes unbearable. I started my long walk right after breakfast this morning. It started out well, but I'm slow and it takes me almost two hours to complete my route. By the time I returned home I was hot, sweaty, and wishing I'd gone to the gym instead.

The ants are back. Every June around this time a huge swarm of small ants appears on our front porch. I don't know if they are climbing down from the roof or up from the ground. There are thousands of ants crawling up and down the brick walls of the house. I spray the column with ant spray and the mist inevitably falls back on my head. Most of the ants are dead now, but I'll have to wait a few days to see if they come back. Sometimes it takes two treatments to get rid of them. It's weird that this had happened every June that I can remember. There are usually no ant problems for the rest of the year.

Since I haven't seen the rat in almost a week, I decided to take some leftover potting soil and fill in a hole where I thought it might be getting in the atrium. There used to be a large cactus growing in this area, but it died long ago. If this dirt is disturbed it means the rat is still around. I'm leaving the Havahart trap in place for a few days, but I have a feeling that the rat has moved on.

Since it was an exceptionally slow day I found myself experimenting with the star tracker again. I wanted to make sure that the new attachment I bought would allow me to quickly change the camera from a landscape to a portrait orientation. Everything worked fine, but I still don't have the nerve to install the newest firmware version. I've written the Benro folks in China several times to see if this new update was safe, but communication has always been difficult with these folks. I guess you get what you pay for. Early backers of this project like me received the product for basically half of its eventual retail price.

It was too hot to give Dawn an afternoon walk again. I don't think she cared. Dawn is basically a very lazy dog. Sometimes I envy her lifestyle. She takes a brisk walk early in the morning when it's still cool and then sleeps for the rest of the day. She never misses a meal though. Dawn has a good little internal clock and knows right down to the minute when she is supposed to be fed. As long as a strange noise doesn't upset her, Dawn is a happy camper.

This day is almost over and I've accomplished nothing. The week's trash has been taken to the curb and I'm already wondering what I'm going to do tomorrow. Part of me wants to resume my old breakfast restaurant Friday tradition, but I'm just not very hungry anymore. 

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4549

I don't know what it is about beeping noises. When I removed the old battery fron the uninterrupted power supply in the bedroom this morning so I could take it to the battery store, the unit made a single high pitched beep. That was enough to freak Dawn out and she left the room for her dog bed in the kitchen. It was at least two hours before she would come back to the bedroom again. Dawn doesn't like anything out of the ordinary. Hey, I don't either, but this is ridiculous.

The battery store is located in an industrial area and the roads are filled with large trucks. It was a traffic jam of eighteen wheelers and it was only 10AM. This explains your inflation problem right here. Everything moves by truck these days and diesel fuel is insanely expensive. I'm old enough to remember when areas like this were all served by trains. Just about every warehouse had it's own rail spur where boxcars could unload. This system worked well for many, many years. We took long road trip summer vacations when I was a kid and I never remember seeing large trucks on the highways. There weren't as many cars either. Sometimes we traveled by train. Even our small town was served by a daily passenger train. I miss train travel and empty roads. At least I got to experience these things. Younger people probably don't have a clue what I'm talking about.

I'm glad the new battery I bought worked. Hopefully, there won't be any more annoying beeping noises for quite a while. There is no need for Dawn to be on high alert all the time. Last night a small stick landed on the roof and woke Dawn up. It seemed like hours before she would go back to sleep again. I probably wouldn't have noticed except that I was having trouble sleeping as well. I fell asleep watching television after I finished my blog post last night and when I woke up again it was almost 2 AM. When I got up to brush my teeth and take my evening meds, I had trouble getting back to sleep again. 

I got gas on the way home from the battery store. I was only down a quarter of a tank, but I wanted to see how much I'd save by buying gas at Sam's Club. I saved five dollars, but the gas was still pretty expensive. Since my car gets terrible gas mileage in the city, gas is actually ridiculously expensive. I calculated that two trips to the gym, a short trip to pick up Chinese take out, and our visit to the Dalmatian kennel yesterday cost me $35 in gas. My conclusion: $5 gas when you are getting 14.5 miles per gallon isn't good.

Since there was a nice breeze when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk, I decided to walk in the park today instead of going to the gym. I probably didn't want to spend $6 on gas just to go to the gym either. It wasn't hot on my walk, but it was extremely humid. I didn't feel like walking my full six mile route, but I did get enough steps to satisfy my need for consistency. I've met my fitness goals for over 200 days now. I wonder how long I can go? Usually the only things that force me to start over are an extremely long road trip that leaves little time to walk or an illness. It doesn't really seem like it's been 200 days since I was hospitalized for gallbladder surgery, but I think that was the last time I was unable to get at least 10,000 steps in a day.

I'm glad the new dishwasher is coming soon. I think the water leak is getting worse. Still haven't caught the rat either. Janet said that Dawn did really well at training class tonight though. I'm glad Dawn enjoys her training class. Maybe it makes up for the annoying beeps she heard this morning.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4548

We went back and visited the rescue Dalmatians today. Rocket was at the vet beginning his heartworm treatment, but Charlie, Oliver, Willie, and JoJo were all glad to see us. Each of these boys has their own distinct personality and favorite toys. Charlie knows the most commands and always wants to have a toy in his mouth. He likes to race around with a rope octipus thrashing it from side to side. Oliver is the best at retrieving things and will always bring a ball or toy back to you so you can throw it again. There is a large ball that makes funny noises that Willie likes to play with, but he mostly likes to just sit next to you and be petted. JoJo doesn't like being inside and always takes his favorite red ball to the outside play yard. Even though it was hot today, he still prefered being outside. They all like the treats we bring and some can catch them from a considerable distance. We had a good time today. These visits are good for the dogs and good for us as well.

It looks like I'm going to have to buy another expensive battery. Now the battery in the UPS backup system for the television and fiber optic network has gone bad. Everything still works, but the network would go down immediately during a power outage. The batteries for these systems are basically lead/acid motorcycle batteries. They're cheaper than a car battery, but a lot more expensive than a flashlight battery. I wonder if people who own electric cars realize how much of a problem batteries are? Most of these cars are still pretty new. Wait until they are ten years old and all start needing new batteries.

Since I knew that we would be visiting the Dalmatians today, I didn't think there would be time to go to the gym. I took my long walk right after breakfast when the temperature was still cool. In theory this was a good plan since it was quite nice outside when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. It warms up quickly when the sun is out though, and I walk pretty slow. By the time I returned home from my two hour walk, I was thinking that I'd better start going to the gym every day. I don't handle the heat well, and it is definitely Summer now.

I didn't catch the rat last night. In fact, I haven't even seen it since I put the Havahart trap out in the atrium.  Maybe this rat doesn't like cheese. I'll leave the trap out for about a week and if I don't catch it by then I'll have to come up with a plan B.  If the atrium didn't seem like part of the house it would be a lot easier to just ignore it. There are a ton of rats in the park and I'm sure that this one isn't the only one in our yard. I'm convinced that there are lots of critters in our yard at night that we don't even know about. Luckily I don't see snakes very often. There are quite a few possums and raccoons though. There are coyotes nearby, but we've never seen one in the yard. Live and let live is the best policy for all of these animals, but I definitely don't want a rat in the house.

I'll be glad when the new dishwasher is installed. I'm getting tired of mopping up the leak every morning before I eat breakfast. It's not a bad leak. Just enough to remind me that there is a problem. I guess I could start washing dishes by hand for a while, but it is much easier to just mop up the water. One advantage of having brick floors is that it is really hard to damage them.

I don't really have any plans for tomorrow. Truthfully, I don't have any plans for the rest of the Summer. It's too bad that travel has gotten so expensive. There's a lot going on at Kennedy Space Center right now. I wouldn't mind going back to Titusville again.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4547

Well, we've got a new dishwasher. They won't be able to deliver and install it until Saturday, but that's OK. The old dishwasher still works and I just need to remember to mop up the small amount of water that leaks on the kitchen floor after I do the dishes. I hope everything goes smoothly. I've had problems with appliances fitting through doors before. I think appliances were smaller when our house was built in the mid 1950's. I wish the salesperson hadn't spent so much time explaining what my options were if the dishwasher arrived with scratches or dents. Now I'm worried that I'm going to get something with a dent in it.

As luck would have it, my dealer friend told me today that he had sold two more model trains from my collection. This was perfect timing. The sale will pretty much pay for the dishwasher. It's taken about three years to liquidate half of the collection. Model railroading isn't as popular as it used to be either. I may have to put this collection in my will. It's doubtful that the entire collection will ever be sold. It's a nice surprise when something does sell though. I was certainly surprised today.

We had a change in plans and didn't visit the rescue Dalmatians after all. I ended up going to the gym instead. It's nice to have this option as the days grow warmer. It was definitely too hot to go walking in the park this afternoon. It was too hot to give Dawn an afternoon walk as well. Our sunrise walk with Dawn was fine, but even then you could tell that the day wasn't going to be pleasant. I'm glad they've opened up the basketball court at the gym again. Shooting baskets is a lot more fun than lifting weights or walking around the oval indoor track. I should go to the gym more often, but with five dollar gas it could get expensive. 

I found the Havahart live trap, cleaned it up, and made sure it still worked. I baited it with Cheddar cheese and placed it in the atrium. Hopefully I will catch the rat, but I'm not very hopeful. This trap has failed to catch rats before. The neighbor's cats actually did a much better job of keeping the rats and mice at bay. I still can't figure out how an animal can get into this space. It is basically in the middle of the house, enclosed on three sides by brick and glass, with screen wire wall on the fourth side facing the back yard. I'm not worried about the rat getting into the house. With a broken sliding glass door, it takes a lot of effort for me to get into the atrium myself.

I was trying to find a carpenter I used to use when we first bought the house. He was very good. I couldn't find him on Facebook and the old phone number I had didn't work. I don't know why I was surprised. It's been thirty years since I used this guy. I think he was older than me too. He might not even be alive anymore. I used to have a really good list of suppliers that I could depend on for almost anything. They're all gone now. One or two people were successful enough to start companies that are still in business today,  but they don't come out to the house anymore. It's hard for me to relate to the younger generation that has replaced these people. For the most part, they don't understand old houses either.

I had something I really needed to do tomorrow but I've already forgotten what it is. It happens a lot. Maybe I'll remember. If not, I'll eat my shredded wheat for breakfast, take my long walk, and see how many things I can postpone until another day.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4546

Lots of walking today. It was another 20,000 step day. We took our sunrise walk with Dawn, ate breakfast, and then I immediately took my long walk in the park before the temperature got too hot. A local running club was having a 10K race and there were lots of runners sharing the trails with me. The fast runners had already finished, but the slow stragglers were still making their way toward the finish line. Some of the slowest weren't going much faster than me. I momentarily thought of crossing the finish line myself, but I walked around it. Runners are a proud lot. I'm sure someone would have called me out as a fraud. 

Big races often have live musicians placed along the course. I guess this is to provide encouragement. One hapless duo were playing the Eagles greatest hits very badly. They sang out of tune and kept playing long after all the runners were gone. One my way home I heard them say they were going to play one last song. After they were finished one of the guys thanked everyone for coming and said he hoped they enjoyed the show. There was absolutely nobody within three hundred yards of the band. I think they were playing for squirrels.

I rested about an hour after I returned home and then Janet and I took Dawn on her Sunday outing.  I was afraid that it might be too hot for her, but she had a good time and did fine. It probably helped that there was a nice breeze and it was partially overcast. When we went for ice cream today we got lucky and received nice sized cones. They even put some ice cream inside the cone instead of just plopping a single scoop on top. Dawn expects the ice cream now. I think she would be very disappointed if we skipped this part of the outing.

This afternoon I went and looked at dishwashers in two additional stores. This turned out to be a good idea because both Lowes and Home Depot still had Memorial Day sales going on and offered much better deals than Best Buy. I found an LG model that I liked and will probably go get it tomorrow. Appliance sales are deceptive. There's the price on the sticker and then there are all the hidden extras. Installation and delivery are extra. The hoses and fittings to hook up your appliance are extra. Most dealers charge you extra to haul away your old appliance as well. It is what is is though. Few people will want to install a dishwasher themselves. Hopefully I can schedule the installation fairly soon because the old dishwasher is still leaking water.

I still haven't figured out the best way to catch the rat in the atrium. I have a Havahart Animal Trap but it only seems to trap squirrels. Rats are too smart. They quickly learn how to eat the bait without setting off the trap. I'll see if I can find the trap tomorrow and see if it still works. It's probably been eight years since I've used it. It's worth a try anyway. I really don't want to kill the rat.

There's already new firmware for the star tracker, but I don't have the nerve to install it. Everything is working now. Why do I even need the new firmware? I guess I don't really have the temperament to be a Beta tester. Each new firmware version adds additional features, but many of them don't work in the beginning. It can be frustrating. No wonder the Kickstarter backers got a good deal on this product. We are the ones working out all the bugs before it goes on sale commercially.

It will be good to go back and see the rescue Dalmatians tomorrow. All eleven of Sammy's puppies, as well as Sammy herself, have found great homes. Charlie, Oliver, JoJo, and Rocket are still waiting for their chance at a forever home though. Maybe our attempts to socialize these boys will help.

Scooby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4545

I paid five dollars a gallon for gas for the first time I can remember. Sadly, I don't think it will be the last time either. Things are getting bad. I remember four dollar gas during the Jimmy Carter years, but this is even worse. I could have gotten gas a little cheaper at Sam's Club, but the lines were too long. All the cars were pointed in the wrong direction too. If I joined one of these lines, the gas pumps would have been on the wrong side of the car. I feel sorry for people who have a long commute. No wonder everyone still wants to work from home.

Since I can't figure out how to stop the dishwater leak, I went shopping for new dishwashers after I finished my grocery shopping this morning. I didn't buy anything. Sticker shock. The average price for dishwashers at Best Buy was around a thousand dollars. I was expecting the price to be around five hundred dollars. There were a few machines for that price, but not many. I asked the sales guy about Bosch dishwashers which I kind of liked and he told me that they'd been out of stock for almost a year. "Supply chain issues," he said. What kind of dystopian world are we living in? Everything seems to be much more expensive and in short supply. Maybe I should just get the old dishwasher repaired.

It was nice outside on our sunrise walk with Dawn, but I could tell even then that it was going to be a hot day. This seemed to be a good day to go back to the gym. For some reason I seem to walk slower around the indoor track than I do outdoors. I think I'm walking fast, but Fitbit says otherwise. I got the steps I needed and worked with weights a bit to try to regain some upper body strength. I should have stayed longer, but it was kind of a bare minimums day. All I really wanted to do today was take a long nap.

Dawn has been reluctant to eat her dinner when Janet isn't home. She's going to have to eat while Janet is on vacation, so I thought I'd try something new this evening. I opened a can of Hill's Savory Stew with Beef and Vegetables which I knew she liked and let her smell it in the bedroom. "There's more of that in the kitchen for you," I said. That did the trick. She raced out to her bowl in the kitchen where I had placed a little bit of the wet food on top of the kibble that she normally eats. I'm not sure how long this will work, but it's a start. She likes her food, but just doesn't like to leave the bedroom when Janet isn't home.

I saw the rat in the atrium again today. I wish it would just go away. There's nothing to eat in the atrium and I don't know why it stays. The last time I tried to catch a rat in the atrium was a disaster. It refused to go in the safe live trap for weeks. I tried different baits, but nothing worked. I finally resorted to an old fashioned kill trap which caught the rat almost immediately. Unfortunately it didn't kill it. The rat woke me up in the middle of the night with a strange scream. It was dragging the trap around the atrium while making a terrible noise. I had to catch it in a big bucket and take it down to the park in the middle of the night. I don't want to ever do that again.

On a more pleasant note, I think it will be a nice day for Dawn's Sunday outing tomorrow. I'm tired of all the rain we've been having and am looking forward to better weather next week. Maybe I'll go look at dishwashers again after we have our ice cream with Dawn tomorrow. Hopefully I can find something better than what I saw today.

Faith is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4544

Do people still work on Friday? The park was so full of people when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk that I thought it was Saturday for a moment. Maybe everyone was just trying to get their jogging and cycling in before the rain started again. It's been pretty wet lately.

This was definitely a slow day. I didn't do much of anything. After breakfast I tried to find out where the leak in the kitchen was coming from without much success. It's not a bad leak. I removed some drawers from cabinets next to the dishwasher so I could see underneath and the area looked pretty dry. My best guess now is that the seal on the dishwasher door is starting to go bad. The rubber feels pretty dry and a leak on the right side of the door would correspond to where water is appearing on the floor. I'm no expert though. The water might actually be coming from the ice maker in the refrigerator. Who knows? I'm such a procrastinator that I actually thought about washing the dishes by hand to avoid using the dishwasher. That wouldn't work very long though.

When I took my long walk today the road over the little creek feeding the lake was open again. It apparently only took one day to install the new bridge. The bridge is for the fancy bike trail the city is building and is right next to a larger bridge for cars. The construction company building the trail must have a penalty clause in their contract because there is a ton of activity these days. It looks like the trail will actually be finished in early July as they promised.

I was able to complete my full six mile route today, but I probably should have just gone to the gym. I thought it would be a nice walk because it was quite cool outside on our early walk with Dawn. I guess I miscalculated because I was hot and sweaty by the time I returned home. It was overcast all day, but the temperature still climbed quickly. I'm probably going to be walking in the park a lot less during the summer. I just can't handle the heat anymore.

I'm trying to find out if I'm credentialed to attend the Artemis-1 launch this Fall. I applied so long ago that I've completely lost track of my status. The last time I was down at the space center I got the name and e-mail address of the person who handles all NASA credentialing issues. I sent a message this morning but it came back return to sender. I guess the person who wrote down the address for me misspelled something. Back to square one. There is still a lot of time and it's likely that the launch will get delayed again, but I'd sure like to find out something. I've already promised the magazine an article about this launch. It would be a shame if I don't get press credentials.

It's raining again and I've got the pumps on the roof working. I hate all these water problems. There's the toilet that runs in the bathroom, the mysterious leak in the kitchen, and the perpetual threat of roof leaks every time it rains. Plumbers won't work on the strange French toilet, the appliance repairmen is good at fixing things but bad at diagnosing problems, and the roof is just very expensive to add a slight pitch so it will drain properly. I'd rather deal with little problems like the star tracker. Old houses have so many problems that it can be overwhelming at times.

Time to make a grocery list again. This week has gone very quickly. Janet says the price of gas has gone up. I think it goes up every day now. We'll see how bad things are when I fill my tank along with a few grocery bags tomorrow. Life seem normal when I'm just sitting here at home. It's kind of a rude awakening when I have to venture out into the world these days.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4543

We had another big thunderstorm last night. The thunder was so loud that it scared Dawn, who typically ignores these things. I woke up when Dawn kept hopping off the bed to go to her "safe" place in the corner of the room and then hopping back on the bed again a few minutes later. It took about fifteen minutes before she decided that it was safe enough to go back to sleep again. I kept getting text messages on my phone from Oncor saying that there was a power outage in our area, but we never lost power. The roof didn't leak either. Luckily, storms with straight line winds move quickly and everything was calm by morning. I'm tired of all this rain, but at least the lawn looks good. Late Spring is usually pretty wet here. By July, I'll be wishing these storms were back again.

It was way too wet to take a sunrise walk with Dawn this morning. She didn't even want to go out in the back yard and pee. We figured that we could walk her later in the day. I ate my breakfast and ran the pumps on the roof. Amazingly, they're still working. Now that Summer is approaching and most of last Fall's leaves are gone, I'm just going to let the residual standing water on the roof evaporate. There's no reason to tempt fate by climbing up there too often.

The accessory I ordered for the star tracker came in today's mail. This will make it easier to attach the camera to the tracker in both landscape and portrait orientations. I've got everything I need now. All that's missing are some dark skies and the will to go outside at night and get bitten by mosquitos and chiggers. I'll keep practicing with the tracker so I can reliably set it up and use it in the dark. One of these days it will go back to McDonald Observatory with me.

I took my long walk early today while the air was still cool from last night's storm. As long as it's not hot and muggy, I still prefer walking in the park to working out at the gym. I was surprised when after a few miles my route was blocked by a construction crew. They were putting in a new bridge over one of the creeks that feeds the lake. It looked like they built the entire bridge offsite and were just lifting it in place with a giant crane. I've been watching crews build the concrete piers for this bridge for weeks. I still didn't expect that this is the way they would finish things though. Since I couldn't walk any further, I turned around and walked the other way. I ended up getting the same amount of steps and saw a part of the lake I haven't visited in months.

Dawn was almost back to normal today, but she's still a little more nervous than usual. She freaked out for a few minutes when she heard the mailman at the front door this morning. Dawn doesn't like surprises. Anything out of the ordinary can startle or scare her. I'm beginning to think that she has PTSD. She seems to behave very similarly to the way many people do with PTSD. Clearly something traumatic happened in her past and she'll probably never forget it.

I saw a rat in the atrium today. We haven't seen rats in the yard for almost five years. There was a guy in the neighborhood who used to take care of a lot of feral cats. I think they kept the rat population down. He found homes for the cats before he moved and I haven't seen cats in the neighborhood for quite a while. Owls used to eat mice and rats in the meadow behind our house as well. I don't even hear the owls anymore. I wonder where they went? 

I'm pretty sure the dishwasher is leaking. Do we need a new dishwasher, or is there just a loose water line connection somewhere?  I'll have to call the appliance repairman to find out what is going on. He'll probably monkey around for half a day and then tell me that I need to call a plumber. Nothing is easy these days.

At least the week is almost over. I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and the weather looks like it's going to be nice tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will be uneventful. I'm kind of like Dawn in may ways. I'm good as long as there are no surprises.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4542

Today was busy. Well, it was busy for me anyway. After breakfast and a sunrise walk with Dawn I mowed the grass in the front yard. I did this early before it warmed up too much. Last month I thought I couldn't handle mowing the grass anymore, but I still seem to be doing OK. I guess I'll keep on going. The batteries in the electric mower aren't holding a charge as well as they used to, but still seem to be sufficient to mow one half of the lawn at a time. After I finished my outdoor chores, I wrote a letter to my sister and dropped it off at the post office on my way to the bank.

Mowing the lawn convinced me that it was too hot and humid to take a walk in the park. After a quick lunch I went back to the gym where it is nice and cool. I did a different set of exercises than I did yesterday in hopes that it would minimize the inevitable aches and pains. It's probably a good idea to vary my routine anyway. After all the years I've been going to this gym there are still quite a few machines I have never even tried. I'm able to elevate my heart rate a lot easier at the gym, but I actually burn more calories on my long walks. Go figure. I actually have no idea whether any of this activity is doing me any good. I assume it is, but how do you measure such things? I hope I've added a few months or even years to my lifespan, but we'll have to see how that works out.

Janet had somewhere to go this afternoon, so Dawn was her usual nervous nellie self when I returned from the gym. I'm used to this, but I wasn't expecting what happened next. Just before dinner time our power went out and Dawn completely freaked out. Such a strange dog. Thunder and lightning don't bother her at all, but power outages drive her crazy. I think it's the suddenness of it all. When there is an outage everything shuts off and the house is immediately quiet except for the irritating beeping noise from several uninterrupted power supplies. I know these bother her, so I shut them off as soon as I can.

Dawn's reaction was much worse than usual today because Janet wasn't home. I knew something was wrong when she raced to the back door and scratched to get out. She usually never wants to go outside when the ground is wet. It had been raining recently and that probably had something to do with the power outage. When she got outside, she wouldn't come in again. Something had convinced her that the house was now a dangerous place. 

The power outage didn't really last very long, but having the lights and air conditioner back on again didn't convince Dawn that the danger was over. I had a hard time getting her back inside and she didn't want to go back to the bedroom again. I left her alone for a while and the next time I went out to the kitchen, I discovered that she was sitting in a chair next to the back door. She wanted to go outside again. I thought she would come to her senses, but this time it was almost impossible to get her to return to the house. I eventually has to go get a leash and lead her back in. I fixed her a nice dinner, but she refused to eat and hid in a corner until Janet returned. 

All is well now, but Dawn's reaction today was troubling to me. She showed all the signs of a dog in a panic who would run away if given the chance. It rained a lot this afternoon but at least the pumps on the roof worked today. I was congratulating myself for getting the grass mowed and all my errands done before the rain started. I never was expecting to be blindsided by a power outage and a crazy dog.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day