Day 2488

I had to move a client's website from one hosting company to another today. In theory, this should be an easy process, but it never is. There is always some weird configuration issue when I'm trying to access a new server with my FTP application. I spent hours on the phone with technical support trying to figure out how to upload the site. We finally figured out that the login information the client had provided me with was incorrect. This happens a lot. I finally got everything working correctly, uploaded all the files to the web server, and was getting ready to point the DNS to the new name servers when I got an e-mail from the client. He told me that he had just gotten a better deal from his old hosting company and he didn't want to move after all. What a wasted day.

Sometimes I think that my Internet clients are just trying to drive me crazy, but in reality, they are nice people who just aren't very technically savvy. That's all I've got left. My sophisticated clients left long ago, moving their complex and growing sites to big interactive agencies that provided all kinds of fancy services I wasn't able to offer. This consolidation within the industry has just about destroyed small shops like mine. When I hear politicians say they are going to bring back jobs, I wonder how they are going to do it. Big companies continue to swallow up smaller companies that don't have the same economy of scale. Customers aren't very loyal and continue to take their business to whoever can offer the most for the least. If service jobs like mine are disappearing, manufacturing jobs are never coming back. People are so eager to get a huge flat screen TV for $200 that they don't care how many jobs are destroyed in the process.

Maybe it's just as well that my business isn't what it used to be. Taking care of an incontinent, senile old dog who can't walk anymore is an enormous effort. I could never leave the house for half the day to go to meetings like I used to. Business travel is out of the question. As much as I hate to admit it, my little writing jobs and the few remaining website clients I have left are just about all I can handle.

Dot got a lot of rest today, but still had trouble standing and walking. She was very shaky on her morning walk around the block and stumbled several times. The accidents are getting more frequent too. When I ask the vets how to slow down this inevitable decline, they sometimes suggest pain pills, but seldom offer any real solutions. You just can't stop the aging process. I still wonder if the water therapy might help, but I hate to keep dragging her around town and making her miserable.

I wonder if my trash will get picked up tomorrow. I switched to a different garbage can and tried not to pack the big black trash bags so tightly. I have no idea if this will work, but I'm getting tired of taking my trash to a dumpster. Complaining to the city is worthless. They just ignore you. As far as they're concerned, the new robotic garbage trucks are great. It's a brave new world out there. I can't depend on the garbage man. My mail carrier doesn't bother to deliver the mail at least one day a week. Nobody seems to give a shit anymore.

Cassie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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