Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Day 2227

I must have worked harder at the gym on Monday than I thought, because I woke up feeling sore this morning. I think this is the way you're supposed to feel after a good workout, but I'm not fond of the sensation. Both of my arms ache. Maybe the reason I'm not adding any muscle is that my workouts aren't strenuous enough. It was purely accidentally that I had a tough workout on Monday. The place was crowded and the equipment I usually use was busy, so I tried some other machines. As I was getting ready to leave, I noticed that my favorite machines were available again, so I did those routines too. I didn't really think about it, but I probably added about thirty minutes to the workout. Maybe this is what I should have been doing all along.

I took Dash to the vet today for some routine lab work. I'm glad that Dash doesn't need to go to the vet very often, because he's terrible in the car. I don't know whether he's excited or scared, but he sits directly behind me and barks the entire way. If I had to transport him everyday, I'd probably be deaf by now. When I got Dash back home again, I got back in the car and went to the pharmacy to get the prescription I should have picked up yesterday. I could have accomplished this in a single trip, but I think it's wrong to leave a dog in the car, even for a short time. The dogs travel to the dog park and the vet with me, but we don't run errands together.

I had a complex website revision to do today. The job would have been easy in the old days, but using Dreamweaver is just a distant memory now. These new responsive websites are much more difficult. If you see a website that looks nice on your phone, there was probably someone like me who spent hours making sure that the layout resized automatically and looked good on any type of device. Life was so much easier when everyone had a simple Motorola flip phone and a 17" CRT on their desktop.

Life was also easier when I didn't spend half the day dealing with dog poop. I knew that Dash must have done his business in the yard this morning, because he didn't poop on our walk. Usually, when we take the dogs outside to pee when we get up, I keep an eye on what Dash is doing. It's always easier to clean up the poop right away, rather than find it on the bottom of your shoe later. I must not have noticed what he was doing this morning. After breakfast I went looking for the illusive poop, because I hate stepping in it later while I'm following Dot around holding up her rear legs. I'll never figure out why it is so hard to find dog poop in the yard and so easy to accidentally step in it. Eventually, I found what I was looking for, but I could think of better things to do.

I wonder how much further the stock market is going to fall. We've wiped out all of 2015's gains already and it's just January. I'm not very optimistic about the future. Sure, the market will go back up again, but unless you are very disciplined or very lucky, you will never be in the right place at the right time.  I think my parents felt much more secure in their retirement with a nice defined pension plan that they could depend on. Now, everybody's got a 401K that goes up and down with the market. The market is not rational either. It is increasingly driven by current events, and we are all lousy at predicting the future. How do you insulate yourself from this madness? I wish I knew the answer.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day
Watch of the Day