Day 3131

People are adjusting their schedules to beat the heat. We set an alarm this morning so we could walk Dash before the weather became unbearable. The sun wasn't even up yet and the park was already full of joggers, cyclists, and people walking their dogs. I can't recall seeing so many people out so early. I'm sure everyone had the same idea we did. If we'd waited even one more hour to walk, the temperature would have been ten degrees higher.

Once the sun came up, I had no desire to leave the house. There were the usual Saturday errands unfortunately, so I tried to get them finished as soon as I could. I thought I'd drop off an uninterruptible power supply at the battery store while I went grocery shopping. After disconnecting the heavy box and lugging it to the car, I discovered that the battery store is no longer open on Saturday. Bummer. I've gone to this place on Saturday morning many times before. Why do people keep changing things? Now I'll have to go back during the week to get the UPS repaired. We're prone to power spikes and surges in our neighborhood, so I definitely need this thing.

It's like Russian Roulette when I get gas at Sam's Club now. They never tell you when they run out of premium gas. You have to run your credit card and select the grade you want. If no gas comes out of the pump, you're out of luck. Even worse, you're still charged one dollar for every attempt you make. I have several of these one dollar charges on my latest statement. It's irritating, but not worth the trouble to protest. Luckily, there was plenty of premium this morning. I guess I could just get gas somewhere else, but I'm a creature of habit.

When I turn the sprinklers on in the morning, a wide variety of birds, squirrels, and even bugs come out of their hiding places to enjoy the water. There were tons of birds using the birdbath this morning. I feel sorry for the critters in the park. This weather must be tough on them. We don't see many animals when we take our morning walks now. I hope they survive. I have a feeling that even the ducks are getting hot.

Every once and a while I still wonder if there still are any uses for my old video equipment. I did a Google search this afternoon and discovered that nobody is even talking about BetaSP anymore. Crickets. Some of the last entries about how obsolete this stuff is were made in 2012. It's weird how $20,000 cameras can be worth absolutely nothing literally overnight when the technology changes. You can't even give this stuff to schools anymore. Nobody wants it. The only articles I could find at all were about the importance of transferring old archive material to a digital format before all the tape machines disappeared. I have a feeling that ship has already sailed. Jeez. I still have a couple of old 2" master tapes from my documentary series. I bet there aren't any working Quad machines left in the entire country.

After I became completely depressed about being surrounded by ancient, obsolete equipment, I got started on my weekly routine of recharging batteries. Batteries are such a pain. While the batteries were recharging, I watched cooking shows on PBS. Why am I fascinated by cooking shows when I don't like to cook? Probably for the same reason I'm fascinated by owning a Tesla while I hate batteries.

Dash seemed like a happy camper today. He's been doing surprisingly well this week, considering that it feels like a furnace outside.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2782

I was in no hurry to do anything today. We woke up late and took a leisurely walk with Dash. When we got home, I made pancakes while Janet cooked some bacon. Dash's appetite has returned and he is eating all his meals again. It was a relaxing, largely uneventful Sunday morning.

Instead of vacuuming or doing yard work, I went to the gym after breakfast. This week's workout seemed a little easier than last week's, so maybe my body is starting to repair itself. They are doing some remodeling at the gym and they removed the water cooler for some reason. I didn't realize how much water I drink. Every time I finished a routine, I really missed that water cooler. The progress I made today made me seriously think about going to the gym three times a week. I've certainly got the time. I've got the incentive as well. Too many of my friends have already died. The older I get, the more I realize that my top priority needs to be staying healthy. I've had my chance to make money. I think that ship has already sailed.

I noticed that the Apple Store has started selling RED cinema cameras. I don't know why this seemed significant to me, but it certainly says something about the ubiquitous nature of film in our society. When a store in the mall starts selling the same equipment that major Hollywood cinamatographers use, it means that everyone wants to make a movie. Most of my Facebook feed is videos now. To me, this is irritating because it slows my computer down, but I think this is what people want.  I wonder if I'll ever make a movie again? I made some good documentaries back in the 70's, but the desire just isn't there anymore.

This lack of desire puzzles me. I'm still curious about things and like to learn, but there is no desire pushing me forward. I guess I could just listen to TED Talks for the rest of my life, but I'd like to expand my horizons a little more than that. I certainly don't want to sit in a chair and watch college basketball for ten years like my Dad did. Piano lessons are an option. I'd consider joining an astronomy club, but you can't see the stars during the day and I hate driving at night. I've just started thinking about what to do next, so this is a work in progress. Just don't ask me what I'm passionate about. You'd be very disappointed in my answer.

It's supposed to rain all next week. This would be a good opportunity to clean out my office. I don't even know where to start. The Beta-SP editing bay is just a waste of space now. The stuff is too expensive to throw away and too obsolete to ever be used again. I've thought about buying flight cases for the equipment and putting it in the storage warehouse, but that would just be throwing good money after bad. I wonder how long it will take me to realize that the equipment is worthless? Ditto for the large production printer and all the film cameras. They are all worthless. I don't think people even collect this stuff.

To be honest, I probably won't do a lot of downsizing during the rain. Removing thirty years worth of stuff is pretty overwhelming. It's more likely that I'll just worry about the roof leaking while I'm watching Netflix movies.

Margo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 517

It's time to retire all my Beta-SP equipment. I got a call to shoot some video for a TV commercial tomorrow and realized that the inexpensive little HD camera I took to Houston with me a few weeks ago was better suited for the job that all my old "studio quality" analog equipment. The client is probably going to roll their eyes a bit when I show up tomorrow with a little pocket camera that isn't much bigger than an iPhone. "You're not going to shoot a TV commercial with that," they'll say. Hey, whatever works has always been my philosophy. I'm going with the little camera that records great looking HD video on an SD memory card.

The week is actually off to a pretty good start. My new HVAC client likes the initial design I showed him for his website. This is always a good sign. Sometimes you can still salvage things when they hate the initial design, but it's always an uphill battle. I have a feeling that this particular website is about 75% done. We still have to flesh out the staff bios, add some more pictures and get some of the database driven features to work properly, but we're definitely on the home stretch.

Now that I'm starting to get a lot of Twitter followers, I need to figure out an easy way to get rid of all the spammers. When I just had a few followers, I wasn't even aware that these folks existed, but there are tons of them. Typically these people are following from two to five hundred people, have absolutely no Tweets of their own, and are usually from Russia. I just need some sort of automated thingie that will automatically unfollow anyone who Tweets using a cyrillic keyboard and I'll get rid of 95% of these spammers.

I think the nail that Dot tore out last month during the thunderstorm is starting to grow back. I didn't really expect that it would grow back at all, but today I felt the tip of a nail starting to protrude through her paw pad. Maybe Dot will get lucky this time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day