Day 1546

Today was frustrating. My clients were unhappy. I was unhappy. My phone and cable bills have gone up again. And the dogs don't seem to like Daylight Saving Time. I'm beginning to envy the friends of mine who have already retired. Nobody seems happy with work anymore. The young seem unhappy because they have huge student loans and old people like me are still hanging on to most of the jobs they really want. Older people are unhappy because bean counters and efficiency experts have managed to destroy most of the quirky little things that used to make work fun. I'm not a big fan of relentless efficiency. Wages haven't gone up in ages, but the cost of everything else has. I never used to see this much stress in the workplace when I was younger. Most of my first twenty years as a working person were remarkably stress free. It's a different world now, and I'm not sure how much longer I want to continue playing the game.

The warmer weather is bringing more and more people to the park who insist on walking their dogs without a leash. I hate this. Time after time, loose dogs rush up to us. I don't know whether they are going to attack Dash, knock Dot over, or just do a little friendly smelling. With one dog that is frail and old and another that is recovering from serious surgery, I can't afford to deal with this shit. Dash was attacked and almost killed by a loose dog once. I don't want that to ever happen again. There are city signs about every one hundred feet saying that it is against the law to let your dog off leash in a public park. Why do so many people have the arrogance to simply ignore all these signs?  Hey, show a little courtesy guys. You don't have to be an asshole all the time.

I finally received the last of the Schedule-K forms I've been waiting for, so I don't have any more excuses to postpone doing my taxes. I guess I'll get started tomorrow. I would have gotten started today, except that I had to get my March invoices in the mail. On the way back from the post office, I stopped by the AT&T store and changed my mobile plan. I really don't need huge amounts of data anymore. Maybe I did need these expensive data plans back when I was uploading live video from trade shows, but I don't do that anymore. About the only thing that gets sent back and forth these days are Microsoft Word files and they are very small. I don't even use Instagram as much as I used to. What is the point of having an unlimited data plan? I did manage to get a cheaper plan, but my phone and cable bills are still way too high.

My liver doctor called this morning to schedule another blood test. I asked why they needed so many blood tests and they told me that if my hemoglobin levels dropped too low during my Hepatitis C treatment, I might have a heart attack. Hmm. I didn't really need to know that. Here I was thinking that there wasn't any risk to the treatment at all. I do need to know what is happening with Dash. I'm kind of surprised that I still haven't heard about his pathology report yet. One more thing to add to my "to do" list for tomorrow.

I have to write three virtually identical articles tomorrow. My instructions are to make each of them seem different. We'll see how that goes. Several of my clients are unhappy with Yelp. I'm happy to write them a good review, but I doubt if it will accomplish much. Yelp doesn't seem to like the reviews I write. I don't think any of them have even been published. I don't have a clue how Yelp really works, but I do think it is a bit unfair. I hope I get that Amtrak grant. A long train trip would hit the spot right now.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day