Volume 18 - Day 214/151, 2026 - Sunday

Today was a most excellent day, even though I did very little of anything productive or anything that will be remembered five or six days from now. James and Oliver walked with me and Paul this morning, and that was nice. After the walk, I fed the girls and washed my face and hair and went off to brunch with Alisha and Reuben. Very nice, fun, great to see them, and our brunching on Sundays has seemingly gone by the wayside. Sad. After brunch, I went to two more places to try and find a back-up battery for the garage door opener. No luck. I studied the situation and found a way to make the batteries I had work, and I will share more of that in my post tomorrow. Here is something interesting or unsettling, depending on your personal ideas. For me, it is a really happy note. I took a nap this afternoon, and the nap lasted less than an hour. In the dream, one of the dogs I had when I was a kid, ran away, and I was searching for Brandy. Brandy never came back, but I found another dog with really big ears, and named him (or her) Bullwinkle. Jody was also in the dream, and he and I both welcomed Bullwinkle into the family. It has been a while since I dreamed about Jody, and this was a good dream. It is not really that often that I remember dreams as clearly as this, but I thought I would share it with you. After I rousted myself up from the nap, I took off to Domino's Pizza, since today was the last day of their 50% off sale. When I got in the car, Dvorak's New World Symphony was playing, and I cranked it up pretty loudly. I have always liked this symphony, and I can remember very clearly playing this symphony when I was in High School Band. My High School did not have an orchestra (no strings) but we did have a band, and I played trombone. The trombones were an important part of this symphony, and I can remember very clearly where I sat in the band room, and really enjoying playing that music. OMG, I think this was a most excellent day, I hope I don't mess it up, there are still several hours to go.

Volume 18 - Day 213/152, 2026 - Saturday

The two estate sales this morning were not that exciting, but I got one thing for me (a framed print) and three Starbucks Cups (the older ones) for Paulina. After the sales, I went to Costco and HEB and so I have checked those things off my list. I am almost finished with the book for this month, The Other Bennett Sister, and on Audible that listen was 18 hours. I liked the book, but I think it could have been abbreviated. I have about an hour-and-a-half left, so I will finish that off tomorrow and be ready for book club on Tuesday. The saga of the garage door back-up battery is on-going. Tomorrow I will go to Home Depot to see if I can find the correct battery. According to everything Google and Interweb, I have bought the correct batteries THREE times, but they will not fit where the old battery came out of. It is really frustrating. We all went to dinner tonight at Dahlia's, in the photo accompanying this entry, clockwise from bottom left it is Val, Oliver, Paulina, Mandy, Clark, Clark's daughter (sorry about the name) and me. Most excellent, as always, and most of us brought dessert home. Yummy! 

Volume 18 - Day 212/153, 2026 - Friday

I think it is interesting how I can NOT do things that I had intended to do, with very little encouragement. I had intended to go to HEB today, but on my way back to the Curious House from Austin, I decided I did not feel like going to HEB. I could put it off for another couple days, but now my intention is to do some grocery shopping tomorrow. I picked up prescriptions this morning at the pharmacy, and stopped at a battery store after that. One of the back-up batteries for one of the garage doors needed to be replaced, so I got the proper battery, and I decided I did not feel like putting it in the opener, and that MIGHT be another thing I will do tomorrow. I have two other sets of batteries that I purchased that ended up being the WRONG batteries, so I need to return those. Maybe tomorrow. I have ONE lemon on my tree (bush), and I think I had three last year. I think one lemon is a perfectly acceptable harvest from this tree (bush), and I will not complain. I am hoping for some peaches and plums next year, time will tell.

Volume 18 - Day 211/154, 2026 - Thursday

After walking this morning (I didn't want to walk but I did), I did a few things around the Curious House, and then I headed in to Austin to spend a good bit of the morning just hanging out and appreciating this view. I could have done worse! After that, I went to the Police Department in Georgetown to present my Citizens Police Academy Application. This could be fun! The lady at the reception window seemed to think I would be a shoe-in, so apparently she is not that good of a screener. After that, I went to visit a pain management office to see if they could provide the 'viscosupplementation' that I am looking for. Basically, that is just the technical term for shooting my knee full of a gel that takes the place of the cartilage that is missing, causing me to be a gimp. I hate gimping. And, no, the office I was at does not offer that service. Still on the lookout! Then, I had a cheeseburger and a small coke, and made it to the chiropractor with five minutes to spare. The girls thought I had abandoned them, and they were A). Happy to see me, or B). Hungry. Maybe a little bit of both. Tomorrow will basically be spent in the Curious House, finishing up some volunteer stuff that I have been putting off, and doing a little bit of this-and-that paperwork. 

Volume 18 - Day 210/155, 2026 - Wednesday

Today was a really good day for eating! I had lunch with my friend John at Bartlett's in Austin, and it was a truly delicious Club Salad. I kept thinking I should bring some of it home, but I ended up eating the whole thing. I cannot describe how good it was. Then for dinner tonight, I went with Linda and Jimmie to El Mariachi in Liberty Hill and had chicken enchiladas. I think. It was chicken something. Very good. Also today, I took a two hour virtual CE class, and did laundry. Washed, dried, folded (not really) and put away. Or maybe just wadded up and put in drawers. Whatever. It is truly hot, and you cannot stay outside more than 15 minutes before you become dehydrated. Or covered in sweat. Or begin to glisten, which is what I prefer. I have a few things on my list for tomorrow, a shake and howdy with a potential new client, an appointment at the chiropractor, and a virtual meeting later in the afternoon. Friday is an open day, and I expect there will be a few estate sales on Saturday. Estate sales are always fun, and there are a few places in the Curious House that are void of interesting items. I must fix that! 

Volume 18 - Day 209/156, 2026 - Tuesday

I had a choice of photos that could have been included with this journal entry; it came down to the spider mites that have attached my impatiens at the front door, or the weather forecast for the next several days, showing 100 degree temperatures for the next several days. I will be spraying the impatiens tonight and cutting them back to try and rid them of the mites. Fingers crossed. Rick and Bob and I had a nice ROMEO breakfast this morning, and after that, I had an appointment with the surgeon about my knee. The bottom line is, nothing is going to happen in the near term. He had the x-ray from last year, agreed that the knee is a mess, but since I have learned how to compensate for the pain, he does not recommend a knee replacement. That's okay with me, but it sounds like I need to be experiencing chronic intolerable pain before anything will be done. I guess pro-activity is not on the table. We shall see. The Buzz is back home and in the garage. It is weird because, they apparently disconnected the battery for some reason, and all my settings are gone. I am (sort of) having to re-learn how to drive it, but I am sure it will be fine this weekend when we hit estate sales. I contemplated doing laundry today, but I decided to put it off until tomorrow. I am taking a virtual class beginning at 10AM, and I cannot think of a better time to do laundry than that!

Volume 18 - Day 208/157, 2026 - Monday

Well, the third orange was much easier to peel, but it was dry, so I think I am done with oranges for this year. I am very sad about that. I sat around the Curious House all day today with the phone attached to my hip, waiting on the body shop to tell me the Buzz was ready. At 4:45 this afternoon, they called and said I could pick it up tomorrow morning. It will be tomorrow afternoon, but I will have the Buzz back in the garage tomorrow. I expect tomorrow will be a busy day; walk, ROMEO breakfast, doctors appointment, Buzz pickup, phone call meeting. That will pretty much take care of the day. We are expecting six days, beginning on Wednesday, of temperatures at 100 degrees or higher. Feels like temperatures around 112. Although it is damn hot, it is also damn typical for this time of year in central Texas. That's why air conditioning was invented. The photo accompanying this journal entry needs no more comment, but I can think of no news items more attention getting that that. UGH!