Day 2279

Daylight Savings Time begins tonight. Why do we even need Daylight Savings Time? It's always been a nuisance to me. Proponents say this annual time shift saves energy and reduces crime. Opponents say that it increases heart attacks and is economically disruptive. There is little hard evidence that it does much of anything, but I will have to re-set quite a few clocks tomorrow morning. So much for sleeping in on Sunday morning too. Whenever we wake up tomorrow, we will already be late.

There was a light mist when we walked the dogs this morning, but as the day progressed, the sky gradually got brighter. By the end of the day, I actually started to see patches of blue sky. I was glad to see things start to dry out, since I had lots of errands to run today. It was just a normal Saturday, but days like these are so much easier when you aren't wet. I filled the car with gas, got supplies at Home Depot, and picked up groceries for the week. Janet and I both typically go grocery shopping on Saturday. I get the things you can buy in bulk, and she gets the fresh and perishable things. We never shop together. That would be a disaster.

I wish I could figure out when Dot was going to poop. I keep trying to make her incontinence a rational, predictable process and it just isn't. I try to be alert and get her outside in time, but often she surprises me and there is a mess to clean up. I don't even think she realizes she has to go anymore. Her bowels work perfectly, but the nerves that communicate the process back and forth to her brain have short circuited. Dot still has cancer, but all her visible problems are neurological. It's sad to see her decline, but heartening to see how well she has adapted to her limited mobility. She is handling the whole situation so much better than I would under similar circumstances.

I spent a huge amount of time learning how to code and build responsive, mobile friendly websites and I'm already starting to forget what I've learned. Once again, I'm facing the "use it or lose it" dilemma. There just aren't enough new projects coming in to keep my skills honed. I've designed cool new websites for clients whenever I've had the opportunity, and updated all of the existing websites I manage. I updated a lot of sites for free just to show off my new skills. I thought everybody would be delighted with all the new capabilities they were getting, but a lot of people didn't even notice anything was different. Many of my clients forget they even have a website until a customer complains about it. Such is life.

I noticed on the news the other day that Barack Obama was speaking at SXSW this year. How did SXSW ever become such a big deal? Jeez, I spoke at SXSW in the mid 1990's. There were probably only 40 people who attended my talk, but I actually was a presenter. How times have changed. I miss being on the cutting edge. You can't look backwards though. I keep looking forwards into a very uncertain future.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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