Day 4680

Today was busy. We got started with a nice early morning walk. I hesitate to call these sunrise walks anymore because usually we have completed our walk and are home again well before sunrise. It was dark and a bit chilly this morning. We clipped lights to our jackets and Dawn wore her green LED collar. I wish everyone wore lights when they walked in the dark. It's still a little unsettling when a runner, or even worse a stealth bicycle, surprises you in the dark.

After my weekday breakfast of shredded wheat and fruit, I checked my messages and took my long walk in the park. This was the first time this season that I've worn a jacket on one of these walks. I still wore shorts though. It will have to get a little colder before I resort to long pants. That day is probably coming soon. The cold front that arrived with our recent rain promises even lower temperatures later in the week. 

I made good time today although I didn't set any records. My feet didn't bother me much, which always makes a difference. This weekend's rain washed away much of the sticky aphid honeydew on the roads. It was nice not to have to clean my shoes when I returned this morning. Hopefully these aphids will disappear soon, just like the ants and web worms that preceded them. We don't have a lot of Maple trees here in Dallas, but the ones I do see are showing some nice Fall color. Some of the Red Oaks actually do turn bright red in the Fall, but their leaves haven't started to turn yet. Some of the Pecan trees are turning yellow and I'm starting to see lots of Goldenrod near the shoreline at the lake. It's going to be a colorful Fall.

The park squirrels are all busy gathering nuts for the Winter. They love this season's abundant pecan crop. There seem to be more Double-Crested Cormorants every day and the female Muscovy Duck that has joined the two males is a permanent fixture now. Maybe there will be ducklings in a few months. No eagle sightings though. It will be easier to spot the eagles a few months from now when all the leaves are off the trees.

After I returned home I had a quick lunch before dealing with today's to-do list. I never used to eat lunch. Maybe that's why I've been gaining weight. You'd think I'd be losing weight with all the time I spend walking. I guess I need to walk faster.  I paid a bunch of bills this afternoon and did this month's Quickbooks accounting. This takes longer than you'd think because I am obsessively meticulous and have a Quickbooks category for just about everything. 

I finally made an appointment to see the eye doctor, even though I'm dreading the visit. I was glad that the first he could see me was sometime in December. I'm in no hurry. I actually am in a hurry to get my car serviced though, so I made an appointment to get this done as well. I'm tired of seeing that annoying "service required" light every time I start the car. Unfortunately, nobody offers loaner cars anymore. That convenience disappeared with Covid. I was able to schedule a time where I can just wait at the shop while they do the required service. I'd rather sit around at the shop for a few hours than deal with Uber again. I've never been a fan of Uber and Lyft.

Curiosity got the better of me and I upgraded the star tracker to the latest firmware this afternoon. I don't expect a lot more of these software updates. The product has finally reached production status and is available in stores now. My days as a beta tester are coming to a close. I did get a good deal on the tracker by becoming a Kickstarter backer. The retail version of the star tracker sells for a lot more than what I paid.

The last thing I did today was a load of laundry. You can't have a proper busy day without doing a little laundry. Maybe I should have saved some of this stuff for tomorrow. I have no plans for tomorrow at all.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4677

It's that time of year. The furnace came on this morning for the first time this season. This afternoon the air conditioner came on. This happens every year. We go back and forth like this for a while while the seasons sort themselves out. Even though it still gets warm later in the day, you can tell the days are getting cooler. It was chilly on our sunrise walk with Dawn today. I had a jacket on, but I wished I'd worn long pants.

I didn't even think about going to the gym today because it was quite nice outside. I got started on my long walk right after breakfast and ended up getting a surprise. I saw one of the eagles again. I'd heard the eagles were back in the area, but this was the first time I've seen one this year. I suspect that these are the same eagles that made a home in the park last year, but I'm just guessing. Now that I think about it, the eagles arrived about this same time last year and started making their nest a few months later. We'll see if they attempt to make another nest. They weren't very lucky last year when they built their nest in a dead tree and a limb broke off and destroyed it.

The Double-Crested Cormorants are back as well. All we need are a few more Canadian Geese and the lake's winter waterfowl will be in place. I'm looking forward to winter walks. You don't have to worry about snakes and the mosquitos subside as well. Winter walks are better unless it is snowing. I've got plenty of warm coats but there is only so much you can take off in the summer.

I was wrong about shoddy road construction in the area. I've been reading about the aphid infestation and it turns out that the aphids love pecan trees. Sure enough, the sticky areas on the roads are all directly under pecan trees. It wasn't road tar coming to the surface I was seeing, it was aphid poop dripping from the pecan trees. They call the stuff honeydew but it's still aphid poop. There must be millions of the little critters in the area this year because the sticky stuff is everywhere. The aphid infestation might also explain why we've been having problems with ants this Fall. Ants apparently love to eat the honeydew and our neighbors have a large pecan tree right next to our house. I hate to even think what the roof looks like right now.

I watched the reentry and recovery of the Crew-4 capsule on NASA TV this afternoon. It still amazes me how accurate they can be with these rockets. The Dragon capsule landed exactly where it was supposed to and the recovery ship was right there waiting for them. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by this. Last week we managed to score a direct hit on a small asteroid and knocked it out of orbit. Orbital mechanics has always been a mystery to me. Isaac Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that make space navigation possible hundreds of years ago and I'm still sitting here counting my steps. I guess that's why I'm a writer. I was always terrible at math.

It's hard to believe it's the middle of the month already. Time flies as you grow older. I'm sure Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas will all just go by in a blur. Today was grocery day for Janet and tomorrow is grocery day for me. I wonder how expensive things will be this week? We are living in a dystopian world where absolutely nothing is getting easier or less expensive. I'm glad I grew up and spent my working years when times were a lot better.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4649

Today was frustrating. I decided it was time to make reservations for the Artemis launch attempt on September 27th and almost immediately ran into problems. The Airbnb I liked was already booked. So was the Holiday Inn where I've stayed frequently. I looked for other Airbnb rentals in Titusville and many were already booked as well. The available places I found either had a four day minimum stay, were ridiculously expensive, or looked pretty shady. I eventually found a decent hotel and made a reservation. I wondered why this hotel wasn't sold out like the others and later discovered that it was undergoing renovations and many guests thought the construction noise was irritating. Oh, well. When I was making airline reservations my computer crashed right while my transaction was being processed. That took a while to get sorted out.

The sad thing is that all the effort I put in today is probably for nothing. There's a very good chance that the launch will get postponed again and I'll have to change or even cancel these reservations. The launch attempt on the 27th is really just tentative at this point. The Artemis team won't know whether the repairs they made recently to the hydrogen fill line are effective until they try to fill the rocket with fuel on September 21st. I had to abandon several promising Airbnb's because the 20th was the last day you could cancel your reservation without a penalty. I have a gut feeling that this rocket isn't going to launch until Halloween, but what do I know. If I want to see this launch I have to play along at this point. NASA doesn't care how often you have to change your travel plans.

The park department finally mowed the meadow behind our house. It's much easier to get down to the lake now on our sunrise walks with Dawn. This morning's walk was very pleasant. The weather was crisp and cool and the park was fairly empty. Although my feet are starting to hurt again, I decided to take another long walk in the park after breakfast. Actually it was quite a while after breakfast because I had to make all my travel arrangement first. It's a good thing I took care of this early. By lunchtime the hotel where I made my reservation had sold out.

My pace today wasn't as fast as yesterday's. This was probably because the temperature was warmer. I probably should have gone to the gym, but I didn't feel like driving. More American White Pelicans arrived at the park this morning. The pod of pelicans will continue to grow throughout October and by the time Winter arrives there will be hundreds of them. There will be lots of Double-Crested Cormorants as well but they haven't arrived yet. I enjoy watching the seasons change and always look forward to Fall. It's the one time of year when it's actually pleasant to be outside in Texas.

This week has gone quickly. There are still a lot of things on my to-do list but I'm going to postpone most of them. I'll postpone taking my car in for service until I pay my travel bills. Maybe next month. I'll postpone getting the roof replaced until the stock market starts going up again. Maybe next year. I can't postpone mowing the grass much longer. It grows really fast when there's rain. The only thing I never postpone is doing the laundry. It's easy and strangely satisfying. I did a load of laundry this afternoon.

It's time to make a grocery list again. Prices have come down at the pump a bit, but the cost of food is still going up. One more thing to be frustrated about.

Phantom is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4493

We had more rain this morning, but it didn't last long. The rain surprised us. We took our normal sunrise walk with Dawn, but if we'd gotten started ten minutes later we would have got soaked. I guess I should always look at the weather radar before I go outside. Things can change quickly at this time of year.

I didn't do much of anything today. I answered a few e-mails, but that was about it. There was plenty of time for a long walk. Maybe I'm finally getting enough sleep, because I'm picking up the pace a bit. I'm still nowhere near where I was a year ago, but any improvement is good. I noticed today that all the American White Pelicans are gone. The Double Crested Cormorants are gone as well. These birds are probably better predictors of the seasons than the weatherman. They always seem to know exactly when it is time to migrate. Occasionally, a few White Pelicans will stay at the lake for the Summer. Not this year. They are all gone. The eagles are gone as well. I wonder when the city will reopen the area where they built their nest. There is no need to protect the area anymore.

I thought I was going to need to take Dawn and Janet to dog training class tonight, but her car repairs ended up being completed in time. I've got a recall on my own car as well. I got the recall notice over six months ago and the dealership still doesn't have the parts. I have my doubts that they will ever get the parts. They're having a lot of trouble even getting cars to sell.

Somebody sent me a copy of an old newspaper article about my house today. The article ran in the local paper in 1957. It was interesting to see what had changed and what had stayed the same in the pictures. The author apparently thought that this house was special and would probably be appalled if he could see it today.  Foundations have settled. Cracks have appeared. Roof leaks have stained areas of the ceiling. Several different owners repainted the house, so few of the original colors are the same. Hey, the place is over 60 years old. What would you expect. It's still a neat house. I wish doing a restoration wasn't so hard while you are still living in a house. Contractors really prefer working in a vacant house. 

I think I'm going to spend the next several weeks fretting about my trip to the observatory. I've thought about leaving really early to avoid the traffic. Unfortunately, it's hard to avoid the heavy trucks. They're on the road 24/7 and are always going too fast. It's kind of ironic that I'll be going to one of the nation's premier dark sky sites and I still want to get to bed early. While I'm driving I worry about my hands going numb from gripping the steering wheel for hours on end. When I get there I'll worry about twisting my ankle by tripping on a rock in the dark. I wonder why they even want volunteers like me? I do like astronomy though. Maybe that counts for something.

I wonder if Covid is really over. By all accounts it appears to be worse than ever in China. I'd hate to get out to the observatory and discover that a mask mandate had been reinstated. It could easily happen. I've gotten used to going without a mask, so I'd hate to go back to 2020. If I really have to go back in time, I'd rather go back to 1969 instead.

Valli is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4039

Whenever I tackle a project that I've been avoiding for a long time, I usually realize why I kept putting things off. Today I cleaned the deterrgent dispenser in the washing machine. This is a long sliding drawer with slots for detergent, bleach, and fabric softener. Over time it becomes caked with a nasty black scum. You'd think that if you kept pouring soap into this thing, it would stay clean. Nope. I don't know why it gets nasty like this, but it's a bear to remove from the washing machine and clean. Today, when I removed the dispenser I noticed a crack in one of the machine's exterior panels. The cracked panel had been hidden by the dispenser and was probably caused when an appliance repairman didn't reassemble the machine properly. I can't really blame the repairman. Modern equipment isn't built to be disassembled. I've taken apart enough things to realize that it is almost impossible to reassemble something to factory tolerances.

Eventually I got the part cleaned and reassembled, but I was smart enough not to start another project. I turned on the computer and paid some bills online. This was much easier. When I saw an option to go paperless on the bill payment websites I clicked on it. The only way I'm going to get rid of all these paper documents in the office is to stop getting new ones.

I had to go to the pharmacy and pick up a prescription as well. If I don't pick these up promptly, the pharmacy keeps calling me every day. I never run out of meds now. For some reason all my prescriptions get filled way ahead of time. I've told the doctors to just wait until I run out, but everything is on automatic pilot these days. It's easier to just save all the pills until I need then than it is to get anything changed.

Janet is making progress with Dawn. They walked a little further today and Dawn didn't balk or freeze at all. Janet said Dawn seemed to enjoy her walk, even though they didn't go nearly as far as we used to. It will be interesting to see how Dawn reacts when I rejoin them. We'll continue solo walks for a few more days and then see if we can all walk together again. It shouldn't make any difference, but we don't really know what Dawn is thinking.

In an effort to keep things interesting, I walked someplace new today. In this section of the park the Double-crested Cormorants roosted in trees and there were lots of small Bufflehead and Ruddy ducks. I wasn't that far from my usual path but the lake and the wildlife looked completely different. I ended up walking about six miles and that was plenty. I still don't think I'm getting as much exercise as I was when I went to the gym, but I'm not ready to return yet.

While I was at the pharmacy to get my meds, I picked up some fried chicken and a kale salad for dinner. You might not think these two things go together, but this is how I eat. I like smoked meats and fried chicken, but I do eat a lot of green vegetables. I don't walk fast, but I do keep moving. All in all, I think I'm doing a pretty decent job of staying healthy without punishing myself.

This week has gone quickly. I've taken the trash out to the curb, looked up at the grey, light polluted sky and wondered what I'm doing in Dallas. Next week I'll do the same thing.

Kasey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3334

I'm still looking for a better way to protect the bed at night, so I stopped at an army surplus store while I was out grocery shopping this morning. I thought they might have a small canvas tarp I could use. I was amazed at how crowded the place was. The store was packed with people wearing camo jackets buying all manner of knives, survival food, and cheap socks. You folks getting all excited about AOC's Green New Deal ought to visit an army surplus store first. Your revolution isn't happening. I have a feeling that there are going to be methane farting cows supplying McDonald's burgers for folks who love their F-250 Super Duty pickups long after your vegan, solar powered future is forgotten.

I found a tarp that was the right size, but I didn't buy it. For starters it was much more expensive than the much lighter tarps at REI. Then there was a big sign that said "For Outdoor Use Only." When I asked what that meant, I was told that the canvas tarp was waterproofed using a wax coating. OK. Was the wax toxic or something? The more I thought about a wax coated tarp on the bed, it didn't sound like such a good idea. I may come back for some of those cheap socks though.

I'm glad that Dash felt like walking earlier today. By the time we returned and finished eating breakfast, it was already raining. The cold rain continued throughout the day. The roof still isn't leaking, so I'm cautiously optimistic that the roofing crew found the problem. As much as I hate rain, I guess I still prefer it to snow. I can't believe all the snow they are getting in Seattle right now. I used to live in Seattle when I was younger and it never snowed.

Dash continues to amaze me. He's like the Energizer Bunny of old sick dogs. Even though he poops on the bed, has weird shaking and shivering spells, and can barely stand up at times, he still manages to save enough energy for his daily walk and is always nearby to beg for treats at dinnertime. Dash has adapted fairly well to using the Help 'Em Up Harness and lets us use it to help him on the bed at night and steady him while he is eating or drinking water. He needs a lot more rest now, but so do I. We're all getting older.

The Double-Crested Cormorants in the park seem to love terrible weather. We see them every Winter, but when nice weather returns, the birds are gone. I just wish the rain was gone. Unless things dry out a bit, I may not go to the gym tomorrow. I wish I enjoyed binge watching movies more, because Sunday looks like a good day for it. We'll see what tomorrow looks like. Sometimes cabin fever overcomes by distain for rain. I may be forced to go to the gym.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2981

The rain is relentless. I woke up several time last night thinking that I heard dripping water. I never sleep well when I'm worried about roof leaks. As it turned out, the dripping noises were all outside. So far, the house is still dry. I was hoping that Dash would go do his business when I was checking on things, but he had other ideas. I knew he needed to pee because he refused to go outside at bedtime. Dash is a stubborn dog though. He was determined to wait until it quit raining. When he finally gave up and decided he needed to go, Janet and I didn't wake up and he pooped in the house.

Today was almost an exact replica of yesterday. There were thunderstorms throughout the night, followed by a brief dry period around sunrise that allowed me to walk Dash. The rain resumed while I was fixing breakfast and continued for the rest of the day. While we were walking this morning, I noticed that the water level in the lake was really high. Most of the piers and boat docks were under water. If this weather continues the way the forecasters predict, we are going to have some serious flooding.

On days like this, the mail always arrives soggy. I almost wish that our mail carrier would just save the mail and deliver it on a dry day. Most of the mail is political flyers these days. I'll be glad when the March primaries are over. We get so many of these flyers that our kitchen trash basket fills up too fast. The candidates must be convinced that negative advertising works. A few of the ads are positive, but most of them just say that their opponent is a lying crook. Nobody has won me over so far.

I've noticed a small leak under the back porch. Since the porch is covered by the same roof that covers the rest of the house, this makes me nervous. Hopefully, this leak is localized and won't spread. There is no way to remove the standing water at this point. The rain is coming down much faster than my pump can remove it. I had a pump running on the carport all day long and it didn't begin to remove all the water. Mother Nature can make you feel powerless and ineffectual pretty quickly.

All this water is going to make it even harder for me to get the roofers to come back. There are plenty of people in Dallas with far worse problems than mine. I see their demolished houses every time I turn on the TV. I have a feeling that my maintenance won't be scheduled until Summer. The roofers are probably already looking at two months of emergency roof repairs before they can get to jobs like mine.

I had a few errands to run today and tried to wait for a break in the rain. I shouldn't have bothered. It was dry when I started the car, but another downpour started before I was out of the driveway. One benefit of a heavy rain is that your car doesn't get muddy. When I returned home today, my car looked like it had just been through a car wash.

If you wonder why I take so many pictures of Cormorants, it's because there isn't much else. The park can be pretty bleak in the Winter. I can always count on the Cormorants. Rain or shine, they always sit on the same rotting log. I wonder if they get bored?

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2021

Sunday's are often the busiest days of the week. The dogs get longer walks because there are fewer work constraints. The lawn gets mowed, because what better is there to do after breakfast than mow the lawn. Sometimes the house gets cleaned, but not today. I was pleased the Dot had more energy today. She always walks better when Dash is with her. Since Dash was so good about walking slow for Dot's benefit, we took him to a nearby dog park as a special treat later in the morning. You can tell that Dash is getting older too. He used to race around the dog park with wild abandon. Now, he just walks slowly from tree to tree, smelling things and looking for new places to pee. He still enjoys being off leash though. I'd take him to the dog park more often if people were more responsible. There's always someone who brings an aggressive dog. Today we saw one dog get in a fight with several others. The dogs that got attacked didn't appear to be injured, but the whole episode was totally unnecessary.

Mowing the grass with a non-self propelled mower definitely burns up a lot of calories. I think I'm just about the only person in the neighborhood who still mows their own grass anymore. Most of the other neighbors have a lawn care service. I still do a lot of things that other people have given up on. I'm kind of a throwback to an earlier era, except when it comes to technology. I may still mow my own grass, vacuum my own floors, and fix my own refrigerator, but I'm not shy about adopting the latest technology if it will do the job better. This year I have become a huge fan of Keurig coffee makers, Dyson vacuum cleaners, and even though I collect vintage mechanical watches, I'm going to add the Apple Watch to my list of really useful technical innovations.

I watched the Space X Dragon 9 launch on NASA TV right after breakfast and was shocked to see the rocket explode two minutes into its flight. Space X has had a remarkable success record, so this was very unexpected. This is a major setback, since this same rocket is scheduled to start carrying people to the space station in a little over a year. The astronauts on the station must be getting nervous. This is the second supply rocket failure in a row and the third in less than a year. In a way, I'm glad I didn't go to this launch. I'd much rather cheer on a success than witness a failure.

There are some pilings in the lake that Double-crested Cormorants and Gulls like to roost on in the Winter. I've probably photographed these pilings hundreds of times. They look completely different in the morning than they do in the afternoon. On foggy days they look spectacular. Sometimes each pole has a bird sitting on top, and other days, like today. they are all empty. I find these pilings strangely beautiful, but the city wants to demolish them. Some neighbors love these things and others think they're an eyesore. There's no accounting for taste I guess.

I listened to a Ted Talk on the way to the gym where the speaker was talking about how technology is fundamentally changing what it means to be human. The guy's point was that people are slowly becoming more comfortable interacting with their phones and robots than they are with other people. I guess this is true, but from my perspective it's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll always use the automated checkout kiosk in a store instead of going to a cashier. It's quicker, easier, and you don't have to talk with anyone. I would probably never use a personal trainer at the gym, but I felt strangely motivated today when my watch told me that I only had a few minutes to go before I'd burned 300 calories.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1393

I barely left the house today. Don't worry, the dogs still got their morning and evening walks, but that was about it. The rest of the day I spent staring at the computer. It's no surprise that carpel tunnel has taken its toll on my wrists. My main exercise today was pushing the mouse around on my desk.

Not that it matters, but I did get quite a bit done. Three more websites are up to date again, an article is on its way to be published, and a new print ad is looking pretty good in Quark Express. Sometimes I think I ought to teach my clients to update their own websites, but that would be shooting myself in the foot. I'm fully aware that my client's don't hire me for my wisdom. They hire me because I'm willing to do tiresome, mindless things that they don't feel like doing.

Although I've never liked the randomness of Texas weather, I find the changing of the seasons comforting. As Fall continues its approach, I see familiar signs that I know I've seen before. The leaves on certain trees are starting to turn yellow and orange. The Coots have returned to the lake and the Cormorants aren't far behind. As the days grow shorter, the dogs and I cast long shadows on our morning and evening walks. I'm certainly no Henry David Thoreau, but I've documented these seasonal transformations so thoroughly over the years, that I can tell you exactly what is going to happen next, just by looking at the photos I took in previous years. Maybe the ice is melting and the oceans are rising in other parts of the world, but nothing is changing here. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter are as regular as clockwork.

I am baffled by all the bickering in Congress. Sometimes I don't think anyone understands the healthcare industry at all. First of all, there is nothing new about Obamacare. Most states have had high risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions for decades. I should know, because I have some serious pre-existing conditions myself. It's not that people with pre-existing conditions can't get insurance, they just don't want to pay for it. Anyone with a pre-existing condition could always get health insurance the same way I did. For over a decade my company has leased my own services through an employee leasing company, just so I could get on the employee leasing company's group health insurance plan. This was always an expensive solution, but the insurance was quite good.

I have a feeling that I made the transition to the world of Medicare at precisely the right time. I noticed recently that the employee leasing company I was affiliated with has quietly dropped the gold plan I was using and is now advising customers to use one of the new private health care exchanges instead. The irony of this whole healthcare mess is that the people who hate the Affordable Care Act the most will probably benefit from it by being able to drop their company insurance programs entirely. On the other hand, the people who love the Affordable Care Act now, will probably hate it several years from now when they discover how much they will actually have to pay.

Noting is as it seems. I discovered that a long time ago.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1025

The Cormorants and Coots have returned to the lake again. I find these seasonal migrations reassuring. At least something in this world stays the same from year to year. Truthfully, not very much in nature stays the same. I've noticed this year that Johnsongrass is slowly but surely erasing the beautiful native prairie near our house. Sparrows have occupied all the Martin Houses in the area as well. I wouldn't call these two things a sign of the apocalypse, but it's not exactly good news either.

I got lucky when I stopped by the cool restaurant for breakfast this morning. The place was virtually empty. I got to enjoy a delicious meal without overhearing a bunch of trendy people salt and pepper their conversations with words like sustainability and codependency.

Since some of my clients pay me in Euros, I never know quite what I'm going to make until I exchange the money for dollars again. I think I picked a good day today, since the Euro was down. Things were much better though before the Federal Reserve started printing money again and caused the dollar to weaken. It's way too complicated for me. Life was so much easier when I just went to work at an ad agency and collected a paycheck every two weeks.

One of Janet's charities is having an Octoberfest fundraiser this weekend. Janet will be working the event, but for me it will be a good excuse to have a rare special occasion beer with a bratwurst. I think my liver will forgive me for the occasional special beer. Honestly, I haven't had a drink since the last special occasion. Regular readers will know that these things don't happen all that often.

Lightning is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 727

Another gray, Winter day. I've noticed the Double-Crested Cormorants have returned to the lake, right on schedule. If there's a piling, or a pole, or even a dead branch in the water, you'll usually find a Cormorant sitting on top of it in the morning. The ducks usually fly away as we approach, but these Cormorants don't budge. Somehow, they know that nothing can touch them when they're sitting on a pole in the water.

I upgraded my laptop to Lion today. I really should have waited. I didn't realized how slow it was going to be to download an Apple operating system. Every time I've done a system upgrade before, I've done the installation using a CD or DVD. Trust me, installing using a disk is much faster than a WiFi download. Unfortunately, I think Lion is only available from the app store as a download. If everything continues to work fine on the laptop, I'll download the Lion software to my desktop computer in a couple of weeks. I'm always suspicious of major system upgrades, because inevitably, some essential piece of software no longer works.

Even eating cold cereal for breakfast this morning didn't give me enough extra time to catch up on things. I have a feeling that no matter how hard I work, or how many meals I forgo, I'm still not going to catch up before the end of the year. Today I did some necessary accounting and wrote my daily quota of watch articles. The website updates were minor and I think they can wait until another day. I did need to run some errands though, and by the time the shopping and a trip to the bank were finished, the day was over.

I need to find out when the cutoff date is for Christmas delivery on Amazon.com. I have a feeling that it might be pretty soon.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day