Day 2117

The furnace came on this morning. I wore a light jacket and jeans on our morning walk, instead of a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The Elm tree in the back yard has started losing its leaves. The grocery stores are full of pumpkins. And the State Fair of Texas has taken over Fair Park. Could it be that Fall is officially here? I hope so. The dogs and I like the cooler weather. I just wish we'd go back to Standard Time. The days keep still getting shorter and even when we sleep in a bit, it's still dark when we get up. Sometimes it's fun to look at the stars, but walking in the dark every day gets a little old.

Today was busy. After I had my usual Friday breakfast and made a trip to the grocery store to get the ingredients for a cheeseburger dinner, I started to work on my new website projects. Much to my chagrin, I'm already having to re-learn some of the coding tricks I mastered just a few months ago when I decided to build mobile friendly websites for all my clients. When I'm faced with a choice between use it or lose it, I usually lose it. To really become familiar with something, you have to use your skills every day. I'm just not involved with enough new web projects to remember all this complicated responsive design stuff. I floundered around for a couple of hours, but eventually it all came back to me. This would be a good time to send a new project my way. I'm sure I'll remember the coding tricks I brushed up on today at least until Thanksgiving.

The Land Rover dealer surprised me by calling mid-afternoon to tell me that my car was finished. When I took the Defender in for service, it would often stay in the shop for weeks. This time, they had everything finished in two days. I don't think service has really improved. It's just a different car. There is only one guy who works on the older Defenders, while all the mechanics work on the newer cars. I wish I hadn't told them to change the oil. I'm so used to changing my oil every 3,000 miles, that I continue these frequent oil changes even though my service representative keeps telling me that the synthetic oil I use now is safe for much longer intervals. I'm learning the hard way that synthetic oil changes can get pretty expensive because my engine seems to hold an enormous amount of oil.

Dot had an accident in the house this morning, but it was really our fault. Janet and I were both very tired last night and we all went to bed early. When Dot woke up in the morning, she overslept with the rest of us and was already an hour overdue for a trip outside. She just couldn't hold it any longer. It takes split second timing and a careful eye on the clock to keep a poop free house these days. Some days, I'm just not up to the challenge.

The UPS man delivered some new ink for my large printer this afternoon. Epson pigment ink is the only thing more expensive than synthetic engine oil. I'm determined to keep the old printer running, even though I've spent a lot more on ink than I initially paid for the printer. I try to keep my machines operational, my watches wound, and my dogs happy. What else is there?

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day