Doing computer stuff today, and oh dear vacuuming.

Today Elwood went to Pet Smart for his quarterly top dog treatment. I went to the cosmetology department at MATC for a pedicure, manicure, eyebrow waxing and hair cut. This is a good plan. I will have the same person cut my hair next time which is good because we are trying to straighten everything out from some poor hair cuts previously. I get to listen in on what the instructors tell the student and who knows, maybe I can learn something to tell another operator. I’m hoping the instructors learn my hair. I was also able to get Elwood a new bone and his food on sale as well as get a regular customer discount. ...

High 2. Snow tonight 2-4 inches. 2 fell yesterday.

Hardly below zero. We’ll be in the deep freeze until Saturday. So we are staying in.

I brought my netbook to Sunday school today. I think it will be helpful to review notes and look up some things on my computer. It will get very cold here starting Tuesday. Tomorrow we run errands. Willie Street is being cleared of snow so people are advised to stay away. I hope to mark some landmarks and maybe send a few tweets from the phone as I go around town. ...

I just took Elwood out. He jumped onto my lap between me and the netbook. So I unplugged it and set it on his back. He jumped off. (I think was an early program to record and transform your voice to text. Lots of errors I’ve corrected on September, 27, 2025. This little post made me smile. I’m sure I tried to type while the computer was on Elwood’s back as a joke.)

I took a walk Thursday afternoon for exercise. With the Trekker Breeze I can record the route and then reuse it. The advantage of doing this is that the Breeze can then give me directions the next time and the time after that. I walk , turn west, walk north past my side entrance to the street where I can turn west again. Here’s the frustrating element of my unit and its route creation. It deleted going south and coming back north. It thought I was backtracking and that therefore it was unnecessary to do. The revised route has me starting out north to the T intersection along the top of the T and crossing to get to the stem of the T. I could do it that way. I don’t because there isn’t a light at the T intersection and the street I am crossing has the right of way. There is a stop sign as I have outlined the way I actually walked. I cannot continue west but have to “backtrack” because of construction. I could do the T intersection crossing today because the Dean Clinic is closed and there is not a lot of traffic. I would have to landmark the crossing to find it. ...

The earlier forecast I heard indicated it would be snowing this morning but it wasn’t when we went out. According to the weather report, it is snowing lightly now and the accumulation will be south of madison. We’ll see. In looking thru the forecast, it said it would be warmer Sunday–only a low overnight of 14. Tonight it could get down to 2. I have never thought of 14 as being especially warm.

Today is Elwood’s 4th birthday. He was sung to last night at church and greeted this morning from St. Luke’s Bible study. His birthday gift was unintentional. I changed clothes quickly last night before church and dropped them on the floor. Elwood found jeans and a sweatshirt when he came home and curled himself up on them. He was still there this morning. Such love. This was not his style when I first met him.

Not to be daunted, we went out again today and went to the Post Office. This is a very confusing place. It was a former A&P from what I understand. Lots of stations, people, and automatic doors. One difficulty is getting outside again. You have to go to the out for the door to open. Dogs expect to go out the door they came in. It was leaving the Post office that proved to be a challenge for Elwood–or more to the point, getting back on the sidewalk. He made a grand tour of the parking lot and we had a nice chat with a man from Australia from his accent back at the Post office. Eventually, we got back on track and went off to the library to return a book and pick up another book. We has some miscommunication about what a clear sidewalk is and about ice and not going into the street. I tend to be unreasonable if I think there is a possibility about going out into the street and Elwood maintains that icy sidewalks are not what he considers suitable for walking. I try to make up for my dis stress by congratulating him on all good work just as enthusiastically as I fussed about staying on the sidewalk. There is one area he likes to tramp through the snow coming back. I don’t know what he is avoiding. I of course sink down further in the snow than he does. ...