Day 1981

My loaner car has a new feature called intelligent start/stop. I hate it. When your car comes to a stop at an intersection, the engine shuts off completely. When you take your foot off the brake and press the accelerator again, the engine starts and off you go. Who thinks of these things? I've spent almost my entire driving life trying to avoid having my engine stall out at a busy intersection with a bunch of angry drivers behind me. Now this behavior is called a feature? It's crazy.

My service adviser  told me that intelligent start/stop systems will be mandatory on new cars starting in 2017. Maybe these things will work for a little while, but what happens when the car gets older and your battery starts to get weak? Dead batteries are another thing I try to avoid. I noticed that all the electronics on the car, even the air conditioner, continue to run while the car is sitting at a stop light with it's engine off. That probably puts a strain on the best of batteries. Call me old fashioned, but I think a car's engine should always be running when you're behind the wheel. I don't know how long it will take to repair my damaged wheel, but while I'm driving this loaner, I'm going to disable the fancy Eco-Start system.

Dot seemed really tired today. I hope she hasn't strained a muscle or injured anything. Progress is much slower now than it was during the initial weeks following her surgery. I need to remember how far she's come. Considering that she was completely paralyzed a few months ago, it's remarkable that she's walking at all. I still hope her legs continue to get stronger and that she will eventually be able to walk without the Help 'Em Up Harness. Maybe that's expecting too much though. Dot is a very old dog. I let her set the pace these days. On a good day, we'll have a nice slow walk in the park. When she's tired, we don't even make it around the block.

I've noticed that Dot is never too tired for breakfast. Janet feed the dogs their regular breakfast when she gets up, and later they get to share a banana with me. Dot and Dash used to get excited when I cooked sausages, because they always got a taste. I think they like bananas even more than sausage though. They're going to be really disappointed if I ever lose interest in having banana smoothies.

I spent a long time today learning how to make responsive objects that you can click with a mouse on your computer and swipe with your finger on your phone. I see these things on mobile websites all the time. Swiping to the left or right with your finger is the primary way you navigate when viewing a mobile site. Mouse-over behaviors don't work at all, since you don't use a mouse on your phone or tablet. It's still seems pretty complicated to me, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Each time I update my test site, it gets a little better.

I have an appointment with the dentist tomorrow. This is the dentist that fills teeth and makes crowns. My other two dentists specialize in oral surgery and dental implants. I hope the dentist I'm seeing tomorrow can successfully repair tooth #30 and send me on my way. If he can't, I may have to go back and see the other two dentists. Like I said earlier, I've opened a Pandora's Box of dental misery.
        

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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