Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Day 3268

Every time I see one of these big state funerals I wonder about all the people who will never be remembered at all. So many good people are quickly forgotten. Hey, we all deserve to be remembered, but in a mobile society that is becoming increasingly detached, I wonder if we will be. I'll probably be quickly forgotten. I remember seeing a cartoon with a casket in front of a nearly empty church with three people sitting in the pews and the caption said "they say he had over a thousand Facebook friends." Often, people don't even realize you're dead anymore. I still see those Facebook birthday greetings appearing on the pages of friends who died five years ago. I hope I don't make this mistake and wish a Happy Birthday to a long dead classmate, but it could happen. We live in a world where celebrities are remembered but nobody knows their neighbors.

I'm old enough to remember George H.W. Bush before he became president. I'd be the first to agree that he was a good man, but I seem to remember a lot of the media folks who were singing his praises today were ridiculing him when he actually was president. Jeez. Dana Carvey made a career out of making fun of Bush. What changed? Back in the day, the elder Bush was criticized almost as much as George W. Now that the Bush family seems to have replaced the Kennedy family as America's only remaining political dynasty, they are back in favor again. I hope today's praise is genuine, but I suspect there are some who just thought that making Bush look good would make Trump look bad.

I watched the Space X live feed of the Dragon resupply mission launch today and was surprised when   the coverage of the first stage landing abruptly stopped when the booster appeared to go wonky. The commentators never missed a beat and continued their upbeat narrative about the overall success of the mission. Traditional news media would have focused on the booster failure, but the in-house Space X broadcasters totally ignored it. I can't decide how I feel about this. The mission actually was a success and the Dragon capsule is continuing it's journey toward the space station. I know the news  media would have focused on the booster landing failure though because it was more exciting. This is probably what is wrong with the news these days. Negative events are always given priority because they are usually more dramatic.

My third auction concluded today and I was a bit disappointed with the results. My items actually did sell but they only got a single bid each. Neither reached the auction house price estimate. I could have set a higher reserve on my lots, but I didn't. I always hope for a bidding war, but I don't want this stuff back either. I guess I can't complain. This is how auctions work. Sometimes you get lucky and other times you don't.

There was blood in Dash's bowl when he was eating his breakfast this morning. Yikes. I was worried about an infection or a bad tooth, but when I inspected Dash's mouth it appeared that he had bitten his lip while eating. I do this myself occasionally. I cleaned his mouth with a dental rinse and everything seems fine now. I hope dash doesn't continue biting his lip. He is beginning to have problems eating and drinking. You can tell he is not as coordinated as he used to be. Eventually, we may need to hand feed him. We needed to do this with Dot when she became very old.

This week has gone quickly. I hope that sanity has returned when the market opens again tomorrow. Another seven hundred point drop wouldn't be good. I hope it's a little warmer too. Most of all, I hope that Dash lets me get a good night's sleep.

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