Day 4096

The washing machine is working again. The repair technician arrived right on time with a brown box containing the expensive new circuit board. The board must have been located in an inaccessible place because he had to practically disassemble the entire machine to install it. I wonder where appliance repairmen get their training? This guy seemed very familiar with my machine even though it was never a popular brand and hasn't been manufactured for quite some time. I was pleased when the technician put the washing machine back together and turned it on to test it. It worked. There was always a chance that the new motor controller board wouldn't solve the problem. The motor itself might have been faulty. All is good now until the next thing breaks on this machine. Replacing the aging machine piece by piece is still easier than trying to squeeze a new machine into our tiny utility room.

The washing machine wasn't the only thing that I got working again today. Part of my new company website has been non-functional ever since I redesigned it several months ago. It always looked nice on my desktop computer, but never really worked when I looked at it on my phone. I finally found a tech support person who could help me this afternoon and was able to repair the broken code. The solution was fairly obvious in retrospect. I felt a bit foolish for not being able to figure this out myself. Apparently, one of the many hazards of growing older is the inability to understand complex problems on your own. I used to be a lot better at website design when I did this stuff every day.

I got my reservations confirmed at the Prude Ranch for my trip out to McDonald Observatory, so it appears that I'm good to go. The astrophotography workshop isn't being held until mid-May, but it never hurts to plan ahead. Oddly, there is a big regional star party out at the ranch a few weeks before my arrival. If the two events had been closer together it might have been fun to attend both. Never mind. I just read the Covid rules for the WesTex Star Party. They are pretty restrictive. Since only ten people will be attending the astrophotography workshop, dealing with Covid restrictions at the observatory will be a lot easier. I'm already familiar with McDonald observatory rules anyway. I was out there last October.

I think I've figured out why my Apple Watch activity stats have been so dismal this month. It all has to do with how the watch measures things. Really the only things it is able to measure are the speed you are walking and your heart rate. Everything else is extrapolated using some sort of algorithm. Today, I was feeling pretty good so I thought I'd see what would happen if I just walked a little faster. Speed is apparently a lot more important to the algorithm than heart rate. I managed to cut four minutes per mile off my recent times and it made a huge difference. My activity scores look just like they used to. Oddly, my feet didn't hurt any more walking fast than walking slow. I was a lot more tired when I returned home though. I think I'll go back to walking slow tomorrow.

I wish Dawn didn't frighten so easily. Predictably, the repair technician scared her again, even though he was working in the other end of the house. The guy was only here about an hour, but it took Dawn the rest of the day to chill out again. She still enjoyed her walk, but ate more grass than usual. She always eats grass when she's nervous.

I keep reading that we might have hazardous weather this weekend. There are two storms headed our way. The first one is supposed to bring massive amounts of snow to Colorado. The second one might bring tornados to Texas. I hope the forecasts are wrong. We've already had enough bad weather for one year. I'm ready for a nice warm Spring.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day