Day 3790 - Mother's Day

My Mom's been gone for so long that I can't even remember what we used to do on Mother's Day. I'd like to think we did something special, but maybe we didn't. I still have a few childhood Christmas memories along with a fuzzy recollection of Sunrise Services at Easter, but I'm drawing a blank on Mother's Day. No memories of Father's Day either.

I thought the park would be really crowded since it was a holiday, but there were fewer people than I thought. It was a nice cool day and we had another pleasant walk with Dawn before breakfast. Dawn seems to like this new routine. Of course she'd already eaten her own breakfast before we left the house. People can postpone their breakfast. Dogs want to eat as soon as they wake up.

The new battery for my laptop arrived this morning. I was surprised that FedEx delivers on Sunday now. I wasn't expecting the battery until tomorrow. I was glad to see the package at the door. It gave me something to do today. There are always surprises with computer upgrades. I ordered the correct battery but for some reason it wouldn't fix in the enclosure. It seemed to be exactly the same size as the dead battery I was replacing, but there must have been a tiny difference. I thought about sending the battery back, but decided to file off one of the edges instead. It looked like if I rounded one of the corners just a bit, the battery should fit. I found a special file in my old watch repair toolkit and carefully shaved away some of the plastic case. After I rounded one of the corners, the battery fit perfectly. I still can't figure out why the battery didn't fit right out of the box. It looks identical to the OEM battery.

After I reattached all the loose cables and put the computer back together, I nervously pressed the power button. The computer started and booted up normally. I wasn't done though. I had to calibrate the power management system. This involved charging the battery and then discharging it completely, waiting five hours, and then recharging the battery again. I'm still not done with that process.

One of the downsides to this whole upgrade process is that my Microsoft Office 2011 no longer works. It is no longer supported by Microsoft either. Buried in the license agreement is a short paragraph that says you can't move the software to a different machine without voiding your license. Why? This makes no sense, since computers crash all the time. I'm sure I'm not the first person who installed a new hard drive in their computer. I guess a new hard drive counts as a new computer to Microsoft. They were no help at all when I called them this afternoon. They just want me to subscribe to Office 365.

I think we're going to start visiting the rescue dogs again. We haven't been to the kennel since the pandemic started. There is a new dog that needs to be photographed for the website and we miss seeing the Dalmatians. The place should be safe enough. It's mostly just dogs.

I have my annual physical exam later this week. Looks like my doctor is seeing regular patients again, since I got a reminder about the appointment today. I've got all sorts of questions for the doc. What do you think about hydroxychloroquine? How about vitamin D? What is an ideal pulse oximeter reading? He'll probably just ask me about my trip to the Davis Mountains. We both love West Texas.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day