Day 3791

It was nice to get back to visiting the rescue Dalmatians. There was only a skeleton crew at the kennel and very few boarding dogs, but our dogs have been well cared for during the pandemic. We photographed Cinder, a new girl who entered the program recently, and played ball with Hank and Charlie. The dogs were glad to see us. It's been very quiet at the kennel lately.

We started our day with another long walk before breakfast. I wish this Spring weather would last a little longer. It's been absolutely beautiful lately. We didn't encounter many people this morning. Maybe it was just early, but I have a feeling that a lot of people were returning to work this morning. Something was happening, because traffic was certainly heavier.

Even though I made the switch to online banking recently, I still have to go to the post office occasionally. I mailed a letter to my luddite sister who refuses to use the Internet and then returned home. If all I do is get groceries on Saturday and make an occasional trip to the post office, I may never have to fill my tank again.

My task for the day was getting Microsoft Office running again on my laptop. I finally found a technical support department at Microsoft that specialized in Macintosh problems. I gave them a call this afternoon and explained what happened when I backed up my computer to a new hard drive using Time Machine. The guy I talked to sounded like he'd heard this problem many times before. He asked if I would consent to letting him operate my computer remotely. Sure. Why not. For the next fifteen minutes I watched as an unseen hand moved things around on my screen. When he was finished, Microsoft Office was activated again and everything worked perfectly. The tech support guy was very nice and didn't even ask me why I was using a ten year old product.

It was kind of amazing to me that all this could be done remotely. From the sound of the guy's voice, it didn't even seem like he was located in the United States. Back in the day, you would have had to have someone come out to your location to make these type of repairs. It actually took me longer to find the special phone number than it took the tech guy to get my software working again. I wish Apple did this sort of thing. Having someone take control of my computer and diagnose the problem remotely is so much easier than making an appointment to visit the Genius Bar at an Apple Store and lugging your computer down to a shopping mall. I've never been a huge fan of Microsoft, but my respect for them went up a few notches today.

Now that I have two super fast computers, I don't know what kind of project to tackle next. Even though it was stressful at times, I kind of enjoyed upgrading the computers. Too bad I don't feel the same way about the office where the computers reside. Truthfully, the office needs an upgrade much more than the computers did.

I got a notice from my gym and the place that cuts my hair that even though Texas is opening, they were going to wait a while longer before they opened for business themselves. Seems reasonable to me. I wouldn't want to be the first to open when nobody seems to understand how this virus works yet. I have a feeling that this is going to be a very long Summer, especially if you like to go to concerts and sporting events. Since all I really want to do is go back to a lonely mountain and look through large telescopes, I think I'll be fine.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day