Day 3465

It was so hot today that all I really wanted to do was drink cold beverages. I need to start taking water with me on my walks. You sweat so much in this hot, humid weather that I've started to think that dehydration might be a risk. I always made sure that the dogs had water when we walked in the Summer, but I was never that concerned about myself. Maybe you sweat more when you get older, or maybe this is just a particularly bad summer.

It looks like the Falcon Heavy launch is actually going to happen. The rocket had a successful static fire late last night and the weather in Florida seems to be improving. I think some of the other social media folks attending this event have already started their journey. The people NASA selects tend to come from all over the place. Several people are traveling from Seattle. At least one person is coming from San Diego. More people are making a very long drive than I expected. I'm still glad I decided to fly. I don't think I have the stamina for a long drive anymore. I'm just hoping that I don't throw my back out while I'm there.

The little baby monitor that we always used to keep an eye on Dot and Dash while we were away broke during the power outage. There are no dogs to watch now, but it still bothers me to have broken things around the house. I contacted the manufacturer and they told me that the unit will not function without a working backup battery. I know the lithium ion battery is bad, but replacing it won't be easy. After making a few calls I learned that the battery isn't being made anymore. They probably make much better and cheaper webcams these days, but I am determined to fix this thing. I'll add it to my list of broken things that need fixing.

I got an e-mail today that began with "I understand that you developed our website. We need to make some changes..." Wrong. I'm the guy you fired after the client decide to put one of his lazy kids in charge of the marketing department. The kids friends build a brand new website and then probably disappeared. The guy who wrote me sounded desperate, but I told him that the company's website wasn't mine and that I didn't even know how to access it. If there is a lesson in all this it is that you should never hire your kids to take over the marketing department. It seldom turns out well.

I need to decide what to take on my trip. Mostly this just involves finding some comfortable shoes. If you're on your feet all day, good shoes are critical. NASA has a dress code, but it shouldn't be a problem for a guy like me. I wouldn't be wearing shorts, open toed shoes, or tank tops anyway. Sometimes they encourage you to bring your own food. There aren't any restaurants out at the launch pad. I actually wish I had brought my own food while I was in Houston. I went all day without eating anything.

I don't want to go all day without eating anything tomorrow, but I don't really feel like going out for breakfast. Maybe I'll just stay home and finish what's left of the fresh fruit. A peach and a banana sounds fine when you're not that hungry.

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3464 - My Birthday

Another trip around the sun has been completed. Last year at this time I felt old. This year I feel like each additional year is a bonus. Janet and I are reasonably healthy. I don't have much of a bucket list or any grand plans, but there is nothing stopping me from pursuing anything that capture my fancy. I have no idea what the future holds for me, but at this age it's good to still be among the living.

Birthday's are pretty subdued when you're 71. I had my smoothie, took my morning walk and picked up a prescription at the pharmacy. It was very hot today, so one walk was plenty. Janet and I went out for a birthday dinner tonight. I love barbecue, so we tried out a new smokehouse in the neighborhood.  I had burnt ends, fried okra, and cilantro coleslaw. It was delicious.

We always have Sprinkles cupcakes on birthdays, but it was weird not having any special doggie cupcakes for the dogs. For years and years we always got doggie cupcakes for Dot and Dash. They were always more excited about our little birthday celebrations than we were. It was pretty quiet this year. Even the dog's bowls are gone; carefully stored away in my storage warehouse.

I'm still waiting to see it the static fire test of the Falcon Heavy rocket takes place tonight. This is a key step along the way to a successful launch. There were thunderstorms and lightning warnings at the space center earlier today. Hopefully things will clear up so the test can take place. I'm really glad I decided not to drive to Florida. We would have been leaving tomorrow with no idea whether the launch would actually take place. As things stand now, I don't have to make a decision about my travel plans until late Friday night. Lets hope the weather clears up.

I think it's raining everywhere. There are thunderstorms this evening at Kennedy Space Center. It's raining where my sister lives. And North Texas has severe weather warnings for the third night in a row. Thunder and lightning woke me up again last night. It was probably a good thing because while I was awake I remembered I had forgotten to take my evening meds. If you wonder what it's like to be 71, all I can say is that you'll probably become more forgetful. We got a lot of rain last night, but at least we didn't lose power again.

Hopefully, it will be quiet tonight. I'm getting behind on sleep again. There's something about severe weather that makes sleep difficult. I'm always worried about roof leaks and power outages. I'd much rather be having mildly pleasant dreams about being lost somewhere. Maybe the launch date will be finalized tomorrow. I'd like to cross this uncertainty off my perpetual worry list.

Inky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3463

We spent the afternoon with the rescue Dalmatians again. All the dogs love to have visitors. There were fewer dogs this week because Xander, Chloe, and Little Penny all found their forever homes recently. We're hoping that the remaining dogs will find homes soon as well. Each of them has their own unique personality, but they all would make a wonderful companion. We always spend some time trying to teach them basic commands like sit and stay, but mostly we just feed them treats, pet them, and throw the ball. These dogs love to chase a ball.

It's really starting to get hot outside. I may have to start walking on the indoor track at the gym soon. When I  took my regular morning and evening walks today, I was drenched in sweat by the time I returned home. I guess I could always start walking before sunrise like I used to do with the dogs, but I'm enjoying getting enough sleep. It's a new experience getting to sleep as long as I want. I don't think I'm going to get tired of this any time soon.

I'm glad I abandoned my plan to drive to Florida. Based on current forecasts, I would have been driving most of the way in heavy rain. There is so much rain in the long range forecast that I keep waiting for NASA to postpone the launch. We should find out more this week when they finish the static fire test of the rocket. If that goes OK, they only thing that can delay the launch is bad weather. I guess I'm ready when they are. All my travel plans are flexible now and can be changed with little notice.

I hope my sister isn't disappointed that I won't be visiting after all. I wrote her a 'change of plans' letter two days after the letter where I said I'd be passing through her town on my way home from the space center. I wish I was more decisive about these type of things. If I knew I wasn't going to drive, I could have saved some of the money I spent getting the car ready for the trip. I don't really think I needed new tires to go to the post office.

Janet asked where I wanted to go to dinner on my birthday and my immediate response was "Where do you want to go?" "It's your birthday," she said. Jeez. I have no favorite restaurant anymore. I looked up a few place I'd heard about recently and was totally confused by the reviews. People seem to either love a place or hate it these days. I kept seeing one star reviews followed by five star reviews. It was hard to believe that people were even talking about the same place.

The dog in the picture above is Jenga. He's deaf, but you'd never know it. This well adjusted, happy boy was a pleasure to visit with today. Actually, all the dogs were a pleasure to visit with. We'll be back soon.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3462

By my low standards it was a very busy day. I made my travel arrangements for the Florida trip. In the end, flying turned out to be the better alternative. I'd hate to be driving along the Gulf Coast and learn that the Falcon Heavy launch had been postponed until the middle of July. If I had to turn around and come home when I was halfway there, it would be a long trip for nothing. At least if fly Southwest I can reschedule things at the last minute if necessary. Looking at the weather forecast, there's a good chance I would be driving in the rain as well. Jeez. I don't even like to drive to the post office in the rain. Spending hours on freeways in heavy rain seems like a miserable idea.

After breakfast this morning I fixed the pumps and cleared all the water off the roof. Luckily, I saw the FedEx guy arrive when I was up on the roof. I had one of those 'signature required' deliveries today and I was sure I was going to miss it. FedEx and UPS used to seem so convenient but now getting a package is frustrating because almost everything seems to require a signature. I never seem to be home when FedEx arrives. I guess getting a signature makes sense since there seems to be an epidemic of people stealing packages off porches. It's a shame though. One more reason why people can't have nice things anymore.

I hope the roof stays dry for a while. This is one chore I've grown to hate. So far, I've been able to prevent the leak from reappearing, but keeping the roof clear of water is a lot of work. This loathsome chore had to substitute for my morning walk today. Pushing the big broom was definitely good exercise, but walking is a lot more relaxing.

I paid the stack of bills that has been accumulating on my desk and took them to the post office. Everyone seems to want me to set up my accounts to autopay every month, but that seems like a bad idea. I would quickly lose track of things. Paying bills on time and always balancing my checkbook is a discipline I learned long ago. Living on a fixed income is something I'm still learning. Retirement is somewhat of a paradox. When you've got the time, you don't always have the money. Working is just the opposite. When you've got the money, you seldom have the time.

Xander, Little Penny, and Chloe all got adopted recently. This is great news. Most of our dogs seems to get adopted quickly. I need to remember to update the rescue website. Maybe I'll have time to do this later tonight. Otherwise, it's on my list for tomorrow.

Now that I'm more or less caught up on things, I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow. I hope sleeping in late is part of the plan. Bad weather and power outages have really disrupted my sleep. I need to start looking for a carpenter to rebuild the greenhouse. I used to know several excellent carpenters, but they have all either retired or died. I guess there's no hurry. There is nothing growing in the greenhouse anyway.

Bali is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3461 - Father's Day

Good grief. Our power went out again last night. As I was calling in the outage report, I had visions of ice cream melting in the freezer and an immediate need for large quantities of ice. Jeez. We'd just finished returning the ice chests to the storage warehouse and replacing the spoiled food in the refrigerator. Enough is enough. Luckily, this appeared to be an isolated outage and power was restored early this morning.

Unfortunately, the bad weather wasn't over when the electricity was restored. We had sporadic severe weather warnings for the rest of the day. There was lots of rain accompanied by loud thunder. At one point we were even under a tornado warning. The worst is over now, but the forecast still shows we are in store for more thunderstorms tomorrow.

The weather doesn't look so good in Florida either. Launch day still look good on the long range forecast, but the entire week leading up to the launch shows rain. A weather cancelation is certainly a possibility. Flying to Florida is starting to look a lot more attractive than driving. The thought of being on a freeway all day with eighteen wheelers on either side of me throwing up rooster-tails of water on my windshield doesn't sound fun at all. There are already flooding problems in Mississippi. With more rain, it could get worse. If I fly, I'm going to book something that allows same day flight changes. I have a feeling that schedules are going to change several times between now and the Falcon Heavy launch.

The weather was terrible today but at least I got to go to the gym before the severe weather warnings started appearing on my phone. There were no walks today and Janet and I had to curtail other activities because of the tornado warning. I really shouldn't complain. The roof isn't leaking and we've still got power. Only one of the pumps on the roof isn't working, but at least the other one is. We're on high ground, so there is little risk of flooding no matter what the weather decides to do. All that being said, I'm still sick of all this rain. We deserve some nice weather before the Summer heat returns to stay.

I still hear thunder off in the distance. I hope the bad weather keeps moving to the East. It was a loud thunderclap and bolt of lightning that woke me up last night. About ten seconds later the power went out. It was hard to get back to sleep. I kept thinking about what I would need to do the next morning if the power failed to return. I could feel my resting heart rate start to rise as I lay in bed listening to the rain pound in the roof. Maybe I require more calm than most people.

We'll see what tomorrow brings. No thoughts about Father's Day this year. I'm not a father myself and my own Dad has been gone so long that memories are starting to fade. When Father's Day arrives, my birthday is usually not far behind. Occasionally these two events happen on the same day. Mom always used to tell me that I was her Father's Day gift to Dad. I'm not sure Dad would agree.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3460

I've been going back and forth all day about whether to fly or drive to Florida. Surprisingly, the cost is about the same either way. My car gets atrociously poor gas mileage and I'm not much of a long distance driver anymore, so there would be more stops along the way than you might expect. Airfare isn't exactly a bargain either since I need to have the flexibility to change my schedule at the last minute. It's hard to decide. I don't like to drive, but I don't like to fly either.

If I do decide to drive, my car is ready. The dealership called me this morning and said the service department was slow today. If I wanted, they could put on my new tires and do the other maintenance I need now instead of waiting until next week. Why not. I drove up to the dealership and picked up a loaner for the day. They gave me a Jaguar SUV. New cars are so totally electronic that they are confusing to me. I had to get someone to come show me how to get the car out of park. It wasn't intuitive at all. I also had them show me where the little button was that keeps the motor from shutting off every time you stop at a traffic light. Having your car die every time you pull up to a traffic light is unnerving. What if it won't start again? Does this feature really save energy or just cause road rage when the gizmo fails in heavy traffic?

When I was taking my walk today, I saw some guys from a local work-working store loading hardwood logs from somebody's front yard into their trailer. This never even occurred to me before. Neighbors are selling their downed trees to woodworking shops. My Dad was a wood carver and would frequently pay what I though was a lot of money for choice blocks of Walnut or Cherry wood. Since our part of town is full of old hardwood trees, there's probably a lot of valuable wood. Some people will throw this wood away. Others will use if for firewood. A few have wood stoves or like to grill using wood. The city seems to prefer to grind the wood up and use it for mulch. All I really wanted was to get the wood out of my yard. I don't think Elm is a very desirable carving wood anyway. People use Mesquite and Hickory for their smokers, but I'm never heard of anyone using Elm to smoke their meat. I've heard of Elm being used for furniture, but my tree wouldn't make many chairs. The wind turned it into a bunch of jagged splinters.

I've been really tired lately. This isn't new, but I thought my energy would return when I started getting more sleep. It isn't happening. Everybody slows down as they grow older, but it's hard to find a reference point. I know people my age who have a lot more energy than me, but I know other people my age who are dead. I'm doing better than either of my parents were at this age, but I can't keep up with Janet. I guess this isn't a big deal. Very few people can keep up with Janet.

It's off to the gym again tomorrow. Going to the gym is good. The active people I know seem to live much longer than the sedentary ones. Maybe a good workout will make me more decisive. I'm going to have to make the fly or drive decision soon. The whole country seems to be on the move. It won't be long before the planes fill up the same way the hotels in Florida did.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3459

Travel is stressful. NASA finally confirmed a launch date for the Falcon Heavy, so I started looking for a hotel. Literally as I was looking online, I started seeing hotels disappear from the availability list. In less than four hours half of the hotels were already gone. I guess everybody else attending the launch was looking at the same time I was. I'm not good making quick decisions and hotel prices can be confusing. The price you see online is usually meaningless because most hotels change their prices everyday based on demand and availability. I picked a few places that looked nice and called the front desk, even though the website showed no availability. I ended up getting one of the last two rooms available at a nice hotel very near the space center. I felt like the clock was ticking the entire time I was making the reservations. The whole experience confirmed my opinion that it is always better to talk with a real person. You can make changes and compromises when you are talking to a real person. Websites aren't flexible at all.

I went back to the hotel with the good French Toast for breakfast this morning. Breakfast was delicious as always, but my appetite keeps shrinking. I could barely finish my meal. Even though I'm a creature of habit, I need to eat less. During the power outage Janet and I just has some fresh fruit for breakfast that didn't need to be refrigerated. A small bowl of peaches, strawberries, and blueberries was just about perfect. Maybe I need to make this my regular morning meal. Even my smoothie is starting to seem too complicated now.

I'm so glad the weather was cooler during our power outage. It's starting to warm up again and we would have been miserable without power with temperatures in the nineties. We were really lucky that temperatures were in the seventies while we had no electricity. Although life is getting back to normal in Dallas, I'm still hearing the sound of chain saws everywhere. The storm must be a bonanza for tree services and lawn care companies. I had no idea there were so many tree trimming services in Dallas. They're everywhere in our neighborhood. So far, the city's Park and Recreation Department seems to be doing the best job of tree removal. City workers were out in force in the park today, sawing up downed trees with chain saws and hauling away the debris in large trucks.

I wrote a letter to my sister asking if she'd like us to stop and visit when we return from Florida. It might be difficult to coordinate a visit with someone who only communicates through the U.S. mail, but we'll see what happens. I mentioned in my letter that a visit might be easier if she started using her phone.

I guess the week starts on Monday, but it always seems to start on Friday for me. Friday's have seemed like Saturday to me for years. I guess that an empty trash can and breakfast at a nearby restaurant signals a new start. It certainly seemed like Saturday today. I almost started to run my regular weekend errands, but then I finally remembered. I hope my memory doesn't become even worse in the years ahead. I forgot to wear my hat again on my morning walk. I guess a sunburned head will eventually jog my memory.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3458

Janet and I temperament tested a dog this afternoon. I think I've already told you about Xander. He's got a good home if he gets along with other dogs. With the help of the kennel staff we introduced him to a variety of different dogs and he passed his test with flying colors. Some dogs tolerate other animals. Xander really seems to like them. He was curious, playful, and gentle with everyone we introduced him to. Now we just need to see if his potential companion is equally friendly. Xander is not dog aggressive. He doesn't appear to be food aggressive either. Somebody is going to get a wonderful companion and friend.

I went ahead and ordered tires today. The good news is that they will be here tomorrow. The bad news is that since they were a special order, I had to pay for them in advance. At least these tires weren't as expensive as the OEM tires that came with the car. I was glad to hear that they'd been discontinued and replaced with a more reasonably priced tire. Keep in mind that 'reasonably priced' is a relative term when it comes to Land Rover parts. In my experience absolutely nothing has been reasonably priced.

It was weird to be working again. I finished my client's website updates this morning and uploaded the changes to the server. Amazingly, I remembered the client's old passwords and remembered most of the HTML code I needed. It takes a little longer to do this stuff if you don't do it every day, but I guess I passed my temperament test as well. Could it be that coding is like riding a bicycle? I might remember some of what I know forever. At any rate, I think I did a good job. Hopefully, the client will agree.

I took the money I made selling the guitars to the bank. It won't stay there long. My homeowner's insurance is due, I just had a large tree removed, and then there are those pesky Land Rover tires. Everything is so expensive now. I still have prices in my head from the 1970's. Unfortunately those days are gone. I think my favorite year was 1969. It definitely isn't 2019.

I saw a Purple Passionflower today. I haven't seen one of these bloom in years because they grow in a section of the park that wasn't accessible to Dot and Dash after they became sick. As the dogs became older and less mobile, we had to limit our walks to safe, relatively flat areas where they wouldn't fall. Walking was more difficult for me as well, since I was holding up their rear legs using the Help 'Em Up Harness. I've started walking the old trails again. They bring back memories. We'll see how long this lasts. My feet are telling me that I'm going to need a Help 'Em Up Harness myself some day.

This week went amazingly fast, considering that we spent most of it without electricity. Janet and I stayed surprisingly busy during the power outage. Even though we both seem to have good survival skills, I'm glad the power is back. I'm certainly sleeping better now. Everything is more or less back on schedule. I just finished taking the week's trash out to the curb. I hope the trash truck can find everybody's cans. They look insignificant next to the huge piles of tree branches and logs stacked along the street.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3457

Life is good. We finally got power restored early this afternoon. Most of the traffic lights are functioning again and people have stopped driving like maniacs. The gas company even fixed a gas leak in the neighborhood that nobody even knew existed. There's nothing like a four day power outage to make you appreciate the little things. Janet and I actually did pretty well without electricity, but there are so many things we take for granted.

Before the power was restored today, I took a walk through the neighborhood to see how everybody else fared. I was amazed at the devastation. We lost a tree, but it didn't wreck our house. Some people had serious roof damage. A few people still had trees on top of their cars. I was sad to see that Erykah Badu's Porsche had been demolished. It was one of the prettiest cars in the neighborhood. The sound of chain saws was everywhere. Almost everyone had a big pile of logs and tree limbs in their front yard. It's going to take months for the city to clear all the debris away. Who knows. Maybe the city won't need to clean up all that much. I've already started seeing people scavenging the log piles for Winter firewood. One guy I talked to today said he had a wood burning stove and he was specifically looking for pecan logs because he liked the smell when they burned. I think this guy might have hit the jackpot. The park is full of old growth pecan trees and these trees seemed particularly vulnerable to being uprooted by the high winds. Mesquite trees seemed to survive pretty well but a lot of pecan trees bit the dust. Our two large Oak trees survived the storm intact. It was our Elm tree that got toppled.

It took a while to reset the clocks, put all the food in the ice chests back in the refrigerator again, and reconnect everything on the network. During the outage I kept wishing I had a larger generator. As soon as the power returned the urge for a huge generator quickly faded. Big generators are heavy, noisy, expensive, and I've really got no place to keep one. My little generator actually did just fine. We just had to learn to do stuff one thing at a time. You could use the hair dryer and brew coffee. You just couldn't use two high wattage gizmos at the same time. I discovered that everything ran smoother if I plugged the big UPS backup battery I use for the computers into the generator and then plugged all the other things into the back up battery. This seemed to filter out the power spikes that gave the generator problems. Starting an electric motor takes a lot more power than keeping the same motor running. I could always tell when the compressor kicked in on the little refrigerator. That was the only thing that temporarily overloaded the generator.

I was shocked that I actually have some website work to do tomorrow. One of my few remaining clients wants to update his site. I'm usually very responsive, but I told him he'd have to wait until the power returned. Tomorrow would have been a busy day even without the website work, but I'm always happy to have the work. There's still tons of laundry to do. I need to get new tires for the car before the trip to Kennedy Space Center. It's been a while since we've seen the rescue Dalmatians too. No problem. It will all get done now that we have electricity again.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3456

This is our third day without power. There is still no estimate for power restoration in our neighborhood, but we're starting to see power company trucks, so that's a good sign. I talked to a crew from Alabama this morning who were looking for downed lines behind our house. I've seen repair crews from Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma so far. This is a major effort. Lots of people in the Northern part of town already have power again, but our neighborhood is almost always the last to get electricity. We have the most trees and consequentially the most downed lines. The repair crews need to be really careful with all these downed lines. I heard that they missed one yesterday and started a house fire when they tried to turn the power back on.

One of the guys from Alabama told me that they may get our power restored later tonight. I hope so. We've almost run out of clean towels and I may need to go to the laundromat tomorrow. My little generator definitely won't run the washing machine. Actually, I've been very pleased with the little generator. Technically it's called an inverter and delivers much cleaner electricity than a traditional generator. When I bought it I just wanted something to run the computers. I'm discovering that it will power quite a few other things as well. The small refrigerator runs fine using the generator. Janet was able to use her hair dryer as well. I was even able to fire up the Keurig machine this morning and make myself some coffee. The generator will run all day on two gallons of gas. That's pretty good if you ask me.

I discovered that my solar powered generator doesn't do so well on cloudy days. There wasn't enough sunlight today to use the solar panels to recharge the batteries. Gasoline came to the rescue though. I used my gas powered generator to recharge the solar generator. A lot of people drive Teslas in Dallas. I wonder how those people feel now. They are dead in the water for the time being. Their car batteries have run down and most of the charging stations in Dallas are dead. I haven't seen a single Tesla on the road for the past three days.

The best thing that happened today was that my tree guy came over and removed all the dangerous dangling limbs from the elm tree that got damaged. I was one of the lucky ones who got tree service in two days. A lot of people are still waiting. We discovered that a more of our tree had fallen in our neighbor's yard than we initially thought. Luckily neither of us had much damage to our houses. I did lose the greenhouse though. The tree crew will have to come back later to remove what's left of the elm tree. They are only doing emergency service right now and had two more jobs today after they finished with my tree. For now, everyone in the city is just dragging their downed tree limbs to the curb. I have no idea how long it's going to take the city to clean this mess up. There are huge piles of ruined trees everywhere. It's a shame to see so many mature trees destroyed in the neighborhood. These old growth trees were one of the things that made this part of town special.

Apparently yard work is better exercise than going to the gym. I haven't taken a long walk since the storm roared through town, and I'm still burning more calories and taking more steps than I was before. When you spend most of the day hauling logs and big tree limbs out to the street, you end up doing a lot of walking. By the end of the day, I'm tired. I thought this would help me sleep, but so far it isn't working. It feels stuffy in the house without the air conditioner running. It's also too quiet. I'm used to the sound of the dehumidifier running constantly and usually we keep the fan running on the HVAC system so there is some air circulating in the house.

I'm still sitting in the dark, but I saw a large power company truck one street over from ours just before sunset. That's a good sign. Hopefully, when you hear from me tomorrow, we'll have electricity again.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3455

We still don't have power. Basically, we're camping now. The power company now says that we might not get electricity restored until late Thursday. It's a mess all over town. Traffic lights aren't working. There are still trees in the road. In our part of town businesses that don't have generator power are closed.

As I expected, the tree trimmer never made it over here today. He promised to come tomorrow. We'll see. There are still people ahead of me in line. I don't have a chain saw, but I was able to remove some of the downed tree using a reciprocal saw powered by a generator. Janet helps me haul the limbs out to the tree and by the end of the day we had a huge pile. Most of the neighbors had huge piles of their own.

We filled three large coolers with ice and were able to salvage most of the food in the refrigerator. The ice cream and a few perishable items went bad, but all in all we did pretty well. I discovered that I can run the small refrigerator off one of the generators, but the gas tank isn't very large and I don't think the generator will run continuously overnight. I ned to go buy some more gas tomorrow morning.

The solar powered generator can be completely recharged using solar panels in less than five hours. This works out pretty well since we only use this generator at night so we can run the network and get on the Internet. Some little LED camping lights provide all the lighting we need. I do miss the air conditioner though. It was pretty hot today. Neither of us slept well last night because it was too hot inside. I don't think we're going to start in a hotel though unless it gets really bad. I could buy a pretty capable generator for the price of three nights in a decent hotel. At least we've still got hot water. I definitely needed a shower after spending most of the day hauling logs out to the street.

The Falcon Heavy launch got postponed a week. This is just as well. I'd like to get all the power outage problems resolved before we start planning a trip. This is the first multi-day power outage we've had for a long time. I remember the bad one well though. Living without electricity takes a lot on ingenuity. I wish I had a really large generator that could run off natural gas. Some whole house generators do this. They're pretty expensive though. That's the thing with power outages. If you go buy a big expensive generator, it's almost guaranteed that you won't have another outage for five years. I haven't even gotten much use out of my little gas generator.

I hope I sleep better tonight. It probably helps that I'm really tired this evening. Sawing and hauling heavy logs is a lot more strenuous than walks in the park. I missy morning smoothie. One more reason to go out and get five gallons of gas for the generator tomorrow morning. Janet needs the generator for her hair dryer too. I'm not sure the generator can handle the hair dryer, but we'll see.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3454

We had a terrible storm today. Our power is out. Our large elm tree got blown over and is sitting in our yard. The roof got blown off the greenhouse and I don't even know where some of it is. The worst thing is that the power company doesn't expect to have electricity restored before 8:30 PM tomorrow evening. We don't even have good cell phone service now because a lot of cell towers got knocked down during the storm.

This storm caught almost everybody by surprise. It certainly caught me by surprise. I had returned from the gym and was taking my three mile walk when the storm arrived. Luckily, I was near a shelter at the time, so I didn't get too wet. I'm so glad the shelter was nearby. The straight line winds were so strong that dozens of large trees were blown over. We kept hearing them come crashing down all around us. The wind was blowing sheets of rain horizontally through the gazebo. At one point there was a lot of nickel sized hail and I saw several power lines come down nearby. Even though I was wearing waterproof boots, my feet were soaked. The water was coming in through the top of my shoes.

A small group of cyclists, joggers, picnickers, and myself were trapped in the gazebo for over an hour as the storm passed through. We saw a large tree land on somebody's truck in a nearby parking lot. We kept hearing fire trucks and emergency vehicles off in the distance. This was a very bad storm. When the storm finally moved off to the East, I started heading for home. I knew the power would be out, but I was hoping that I wouldn't find a tree on our roof. I passed dozens of uprooted trees on the way home. They looked like they had just been ripped out of the ground by a giant hand.

The yard looked terrible when I arrived home, but when I went up on the roof I didn't see any serious damage. Luckily the tree appeared to have missed hitting the house when it fell. I tried to call my tree guy right away but the phones weren't working. I couldn't send or receive calls until Janet and I went out for dinner later this evening. Large sections of Dallas are still without power. We had to drive quite a way to find a restaurant that still had electricity. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I may need to fill a cooler full of ice to save the food that is in the refrigerator. We still have WiFi using backup battery power, but I don't know how long that will last.

I'm hoping that the power will come back on during the night, but I'm not very optimistic. The Oncor website says that over 300,000 people were affected by the outage. It's troubling to be so dependent on electricity. Everything grinds to a halt without it. Thank goodness the gas works. We can still take hot showers.

I was worried that I might not be able to upload tonight's post since cell service is so spotty. Luckily the fiber optic line doesn't seems to be dependent on electricity. All I need to do is use a backup battery to power the router and we're in business. If the power is still out tomorrow I might be in trouble. All the backup power is being depleted fast. We're both charging our phones now.

I'd almost forgotten how bad severe straight line winds can be in Texas. Today was a good reminder that the weather always has the upper hand.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3453

Things are looking up. Yesterday I found out that three more of my model trains had sold. Today I found out that I'd sold two of my guitars. Someone seems interested in buying one of the keyboards too. Slowly but surely, the collections are starting to unwind. It's weird that the money from one of my favorite guitars will just go to buy a new set of tires for my car, Hey, that's life. Right now I need tires more than I need guitars.

I discovered today that I can't use the app that lets me bypass the checkout line at the grocery store to buy beer and wine. The self checkout lane won't work either. You have to stand in line and checkout with a real person. Jeez. Why are stores still carding a guy who's going to be seventy one years old this month? The app has all my information anyway. Don't they already know I'm old enough to be the checkout clerk's grandfather? They could probably just add a couple of lines of code to the app that would allow me to take a picture of myself holding the beer. That would definitely prove that they're selling to an old man. At any rate I had to leave my buggy at the door while I took my six pack of beer to a young checkout clerk to verify my ID. It all seemed kind of silly.

Janet has no interest in skipping the checkout line. She likes a different app that lets her use digital coupons at the grocery store. She'll look at my groceries and say "You could have saved a dollar on this if you'd used my coupon app. "But you could have skipped the checkout line entirely if you'd used mine," I say. I guess technology has something for everybody.

It's definitely Summer. We haven't had a triple digit day yet, but temperatures are in the ninety's now. I have to remember to take my walks before I take a shower because it's so hot and humid that I'd just have to take another shower when I returned. I guess I could start walking before sunrise again. I used to do this with the dogs. Maybe I'll be forced to do this later this summer, but it's hard to get up early now. I'm finally getting enough sleep. A little app on my watch that tracks my sleep finally shows a sleep surplus after years and years of showing a deficit. I miss having a dog to walk but sleep is good. Sleep is very good.

I keep trying different shoes, hoping to find a pair that will let me walk indefinitely without foot pain. Some shoes make my toes hurt. Others make the ball of my foot hurt. Still others don't support my ankles well. All of these shoes fit pretty well and were comfortable before I started taking long walks. Most of them already have a good orthotic inside. I think my feet must swell when I walk. The shoes are generally fine at distances under three miles. If I walk much longer I feel like I've made a big mistake.

I haven't been up on the roof in quite a while. I think the water is just evaporating now. It's just as well. There are plenty of things on the ground that need attention. Janet and I are going to try to clean up the yard ourselves. This is probably a mistake, but things like this happen when you've got too much time on your hands.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3452

I decided to get my car serviced today. This was a minor service, so I just stayed at the dealership while the work was being done. As I wandered around looking at cars, it became painfully obvious that I can't really afford to be a Land Rover customer anymore. Prices have really increased since I got my first Land Rover in the early 1990's. I've bought houses for less than the sticker price on some of these cars. Maintenance costs a lot more too. Truthfully, the cost of an oil change seems to double every time I visit the dealership. It's a shame because I've always liked Land Rovers. I still think the British build the best looking cars.

I had breakfast on the way to the dealership and was disappointed that my Shrimp and Grits weren't as good today. The grits were terrible and I think they just used Jimmy Dean sausage in the sauce instead of Andouille sausage. It seemed clear that there was a new chef today. I don't know why turnover is so high in the restaurant business. Nobody stays for very long anywhere. Even the restaurants themselves don't stay around very long. Three or four years is a good run for some. I need to find a family restaurant where the entire staff has been around for decades. You find those places in little towns, but they're few and far between in a big city.

I got a message from my dealer that some of my model trains had sold. He seemed excited by the sale. I was too until I noticed that one of the items had been mispriced. It's hard to complain though. A sale is a sale and at this point I'd just like to sell the entire collection while I'm still alive. I started consigning things over a year ago and there is still a ton of stuff that hasn't sold. My friend selling the trains told me that it could take three years to sell the entire collection. Lord knows how long it will take to sell the guitars. I guess I've just got to be patient.

It looks I'm going to have to be patient with the Falcon Heavy launch as well. I got a letter from NASA today. I thought this was going to be the letter with a firm itinerary for the launch and instructions for picking up my press credentials. Nope. It was a letter explaining the complexities of scheduling a launch with a promise of more information next week. There was a reminder again to be sure to make flexible travel arrangements. I've definitely been warned.

Hey, I'll be ready to go when they are. I feel more confident about my car now. I still need new tires but I probably won't buy them from the dealership. There are too many tire dealers where you can get get exactly the same tires for considerably less. The dealership doesn't even try to be competitive. Most of their customers are rich and don't even care what things cost.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day. The weather was mild. It didn't rain. Even the stock market continued to rally. My feet still hurt after my longer walks, but you can't have everything.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3451

I saw a woman pulling up Queen Anne's Lace in one of the meadows this morning. I'd seen small groups of people doing this before, so I asked what she was doing. She said she was trying to remove the invasive species from the native prairie. Lots of luck with that. The lady had about a dozen Queen Anne's Lace plants in her hand. She and I were literally surrounded by millions more of these plants as far as the eye could see. I had to admire the effort, but this was the best example of a quixotic quest that I had ever seen. I think the invasive plants are winning this battle. As I was leaving to continue my walk I asked what she planned to do about the Johnson Grass. The lady had no answer. Johnson Grass is almost impossible to eradicate.

I wonder what motivates people to do impossible things? I see people trying to do the impossible almost every day. The last remains of the Blackland Prairie were definitely a lot prettier when Janet and I first moved here, but I don't know if pulling up Queen Anne's Lace one plant at a time can save it. Buffalo and antelope used to graze here. Early settlers replaced most of the prairie grasses with crops and trees. They began to extinguish the naturally occurring prairie fires that allowed the prairie to flourish. As a result most of the 12 million acre prairie is gone. Ironically, the only reason the 250 acres of native prairie in the park survived is that the place used to be a dairy farm before it was a park. The cattle loved the prairie grasses just as much as the buffalo did. Grazing cattle saved the prairie. The cows are long gone now and the city won't mow the area, so invasive species are taking over. Every year I see fewer flowers and more Johnson Grass. It's a shame.

My solution to situations like this is always fewer people. Humans are the worst invasive species of all. We are much worse than Queen Anne's Lace or Johnson Grass. We are rapidly eating all the fish in the sea, sawing down the rainforests to make houses, and continuing to reproduce at an exponential rate. This is simply not sustainable. Solar panels and windmills aren't going to fix this. Somebody needs to convince the human race to quit having babies for a while.

I kept thinking about impossible things as I continued my walk but I didn't have any answers. I don't even know how to save the city's exploding population of stray dogs. The dogs aren't the problem. It's the irresponsible people who own them. Every time there is a big rain and the tributaries overflow their banks, an avalanche of plastic bottles, Startbucks cups, and other trash float into the lake carried by the rising water. This is all people's trash from Northern suburbs. More irresponsible people. In the ensuing weeks an army of Park and Recreation workers clean up the trash that has accumulated on the shoreline and haul it away. Then it rains again and the whole process starts all over again. It's hopeless.

Maybe things like this are why my feet are getting more activity than my brain these days. I've got no answers. Everything I see people doing to fix things seems wrong. Probably my solutions are wrong too. I'm as human as the next guy.

For the moment, I'll just keep walking and try to stay active. Since today was a nice day and I had little to do, it was almost impossible to avoid mowing the grass. I mowed both the front and back yards. Mr. Fitbit will be happy today. I got in a lot of steps for a weekday.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3450

I didn't plan well today. I knew that there was rain in the forecast, but thought I'd go from gazebo to gazebo on my morning walk like I had done on earlier rainy days. It didn't work. When I arrived at the shelters it wasn't raining. I impatiently thought I could make it to the next shelter before the rain started again, but I almost always got wet. Strangely, it didn't even seem to matter. It was a gentle rain and being wet seemed better than being hot and sweaty.

I tried to make an appointment to take my car in for service when I got home, but my service adviser said I'd driven the car so little since my last service that it was unnecessary. I should have been glad to hear this, but it left me a little uneasy. I basically wanted the guy to bless the car and promise that nothing expensive would fall off or break during a trip to Florida. No Land Rover dealer in their right mind would ever promise anything like that. Stuff always breaks on these cars. "Don't I even need an oil change," I asked? The guy basically said that I could bring the car in if it made me feel better. I still can't get used to the longer oil change intervals with modern synthetic engine oil. I'm still used to getting the oil changed every 3,000 miles. I always did this with the Defender. Apparently nobody does this with modern cars.

I finally got in touch with my contact at the auction house and made arrangements to re-offer my last piece of unsold art at a lower price. At this point I just want all the things I've consigned to sell. If this stuff comes back to me, I'll have to get a bigger storage warehouse. That would defeat the whole purpose of moving to a smaller storage warehouse. I guess I'm in no hurry, but it would be nice to put this chapter behind me. The guitars still haven't sold and I haven't sold anything from the model train collection in several months. Maybe things will pick up this summer.

I noticed a new flower this morning. I've seen this one before, but I don't see it every year. I'm having trouble identifying this one. It kind of looks like a Blazing Star, but I'm not sure. Ironweed looks a bit like this as well. The weird looking plant seems like a cross between a Dahlia and a Texas Thistle. I'll figure out what it is eventually.

Space X still hasn't finalized a launch date for the Falcon Heavy rocket. I knew this would happen, but I still wish I could start making travel plans. Basically at this point, the launch could be any time this summer. I guess I've just got to be patient. Alternately, I could get so involved with something else that I forget about the launch. That's not going to happen. I'll just be patient.

It looks like there is no rain in the forecast for the rest of the week. I may be forced to mow the grass after all. As the weather grows warmer, I prefer little tasks I can do indoors. I took some satisfaction that the repairs I made to my boots worked. I wore them this morning and the soles are still firmly attached. Maybe I can find something equally insignificant to do tomorrow.

Scooby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3449

I noticed that the sole was coming off one of my most comfortable boots this morning. This eventually happens to all boots where the sole is just cemented on instead of stitched. I got the tube of Shoe Goo that I'd been using to repair Dash's protective boots and attempted to reattach the sole but I doubt if the repair will last very long. I wish all work boots had a proper stitched Goodyear Welt, but I guess it's more expensive to make shoes this way. Everything is just glued together these days.

When I talk about repairing things with Shoe Goo, you know it's been an uneventful day. Everything I did today I've done many times before. My morning walk has become so familiar that I'm able to preview the entire route in my mind down to the last detail. I know where the pelican lives, where to look for raptors, egrets, and ducks, and when most of the flowers will bloom. Often I will test my memory to see if I've remembered details I've seen previously. Was there a turtle on that log yesterday? Is that a scissor-tailed flycatcher? I know when I pass a a certain tree, I'm halfway home. Observing little details helps to pass the time. I rarely have deep thoughts when I walk.

When I was going to the bank this morning, I noticed that someone had put one of those big political signs in my front yard. I hate those giant political signs but my neighbors seem to love them. I have a feeling that whoever delivered the sign meant to place it in my neighbor's yard but just got it on the wrong side of the lot line. When I got home I tried to remove the sign, but the poles were too deep in the ground. Oh, well. This election is over soon. It's no big deal. I voted for this guy anyway.

I wonder what it's going to take to start fixing things around the house. I'm just not motivated anymore. Taking long walks is a very effective way to kill time. After fixing my meals, taking several walks, and running an errand or two, the day is gone. I really wonder how I was ever able to accomplish so much when I was younger? When Dot and Dash were young, I took them on long walks almost every day. I also drove all over town going to meetings, took business trips, and spent a lot of time writing and building websites. It's a different world now. It doesn't really feel like I've slowed down, but I guess I have.

I need to mow the grass pretty soon. At least I've got an excuse now. I definitely can't mow with that awful sign in my front yard. There is no excuse for not making a service appointment for my car today. If I don't do this soon, I might not be able to get an appointment before I need to go to Florida. I bet there's still water on the roof too. I haven't even checked this week. We'll see if I can be more productive tomorrow. The odds aren't good

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day