Day 2085

Sometimes I hate computers. I only had one job today. It was an easy one. I just needed to burn a few DVD's for a client. I hit the "burn to disc" button on my computer and almost immediately started getting error messages. Unfortunately, every time I got an error message, I wasted a blank disc. Some of the messages said it was impossible to calibrate the laser properly. Other messages said that the operation couldn't be completed because of some obscure error code number. I Googled the error code message and discovered that hundreds of people were having the same problem that I was. None of them seemed very happy with Apple. Many people said that their DVD burner worked just fine until they upgraded their system. A few suggested that Apple knew about the problem and that's why they no longer made computers with DVD burners. It didn't really matter what the reason was. My optical drive was broken.

I thought I'd burn the DVD's using my laptop, but there were problems there too. The hard drive on the laptop was almost full and I needed to transfer about 10 GB worth of photos before I could use the DVD burner. In addition to having very little free disc space, the laptop needs a new battery and I've got to run it using AC power. Hey, the optical drive still works though, and I was eventually able to burn the DVD's. These types of problems never used to occur when I got a new computer every three years. I can't afford that kind of extravagance anymore though, so everything is gradually falling apart.

Dot has become totally unpredictable. I took her out in the backyard after dinner when I thought she might need to poop. I walked her around with her harness for almost ten minutes and she did nothing. As soon as we went inside and I started unloading the dishwasher, she pooped on the largest and hardest to clean throw rug in the living room. Then she slipped and fell in the poop. I cleaned up Dot first, and then I tried the best I could to clean up the rug. Thank goodness for those new enzyme cleaners like Outright and Nature's Miracle. Without them, this rug would have been a lost cause. As it is, it will still take days for the rug to dry out enough for me to see if my efforts were successful.

Last year at this time, Dot was still having incontinence problems and I was mopping up pee almost every day. Now, I'm cleaning up poop. It wears you out after a while. Dash is acting weird too. For the second day in a row, he refused to eat his breakfast. There was no brisket on the kitchen counter today, so I couldn't use that as an excuse. I don't know what is wrong. He eats the very same food for diner without a problem. He still barks and begs for treats while I eat my own meals. It's just breakfast that he refuses to eat. Whenever Dash acts weird, I worry that the cancer has returned. If his appetite doesn't return soon, we're going to have to run some more tests. It's always something, isn't it?

I'd like to start reading my new book soon, but who knows what surprises tomorrow has in store for me. It's hard to believe it's September already. The dogs get their monthly heartworm pill in the morning. I haven't tired of my breakfast fruit smoothies yet, but it's going to be a tough choice tomorrow. I know that's there's bacon in the refrigerator. I'm wondering if it's even worth the trouble to get the optical drive in my computer repaired. I could get a brand new external disc burner for half the price of a repair. In the old days, today's problems would be a good excuse to go to the Apple store and buy one of those super fast black cylindrical towers. Times have changed though. Now the tech toy money gets used to pay vet bills. Oh, well. I don't need a super fast computer anymore and I probably couldn't afford one anyway.

Maybe nothing will break tomorrow and Dot won't poop inside again. One can only hope.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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