Day 4458

Another slow day. Dawn still won't walk in the morning because it's too cold. We go down to the field behind our house and as soon as she poops she wants to come back home again. For a dog that's scared of everything, she's incredibly stubborn. When she's ready to go home, nothing can make her move forward. Until Spring really arrives, we're just going to walk her in the afternoon. The temperature warms up quickly. It went from 30 degrees to 60 degrees today.

After breakfast I filled out my application for 2022 press credentials with the Space Force. I've been credentialed for the past two years, so it shouldn't be a problem. You never know though. I don't take anything for granted anymore. I'm not even sure the magazine I write for likes me these days. Something has changed but I can't quite put my finger on it. At any rate, I hope everything goes smoothly. I still want to attend the Artemis 1 launch. I watched this spacecraft being assembled at Michoud Assembly Facility and have followed its journey for several years. Hopefully when the time comes I'll be able to afford airfare. I have a feeling that the cost of a plane ticket is going to be a lot higher in a few months from now.

I wasted a lot of time this morning trying to get my Dreamweaver software to work better. My plan was to boot the computer from an older system that I was using about the same time I bought my Adobe CS-5 software. Surprisingly this actually worked, but my WiFi was really slow because I was running an old operating system from an external hard drive. The website files I needed weren't on the drive either. By the time I finished transferring everything I realized that this was a pretty stupid plan. I guess I'll go back to using my semi-broken copy of Dreamweaver on my main computer.

I got my 20,000 steps again today but it wasn't easy. My feet felt terrible. Usually the last mile is the worst. At least I dressed appropriately this time. It was pretty warm by the time I took my long walk and I wore a light jacket that I could easily tie around my waist as I warmed up. I didn't see any ducks of geese this afternoon. I doubt that I'll ever see the eagles again. I wonder where the birds went. Parks and Recreation has been doing a lot of work in the park lately. Maybe all the noise is disrupting things. I haven't seen this much activity in many years. I may be wrong but it feels like the park department is trying to use up the remaining money in their fiscal year budget before it disappears.

I still think we should be doing more to help the Ukrainians. What good are NATO and the United Nations if all they can do is issue proclamations? I seem to remember no fly zones being established in almost every major conflict during the past thirty years. So now it's too dangerous to have a no fly zone? Basically the Ukrainians got screwed. When they broke away from the Soviet Union and became an independent country, they voluntarily relinquished their own nuclear weapons in exchange for protection from the West. It sure doesn't seem like we are doing much to protect them from Putin.

Janet said that Dawn did really well at training class tonight. We definitely won't be going to training class while she's away on vacation. The way things are going, we might not even leave the backyard.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4457

Today was busy. Well, it was busy for me anyway. I finished working on my taxes and took the files down to my accountant. For many years I've burned a CD of my Quickbooks files to support all the paper documents. Nobody's computers except for mine seem to have a CD drive anymore, so I took them a zip drive this year. I have no real idea what I owe these days. It's too complicated. Hopefully, the damage won't be too bad this year. There are already plenty of other bills I need to pay.

On the way home I stopped to get some printer ink. All I needed was the Cyan cartridge, but I had to buy a three pack with a Magenta and Yellow cartridge as well. Since the Magenta and Yellow cartridges currently in the printer are pretty full, I will probably lose this new ink long before I need it. It's weird that the colored ink gets used at all since all I print are black and white documents. Computer printers are probably going the way of CD drives pretty soon. There is very little use for them anymore. I could have probably sent all my tax files to the accountant's Dropbox as PDF files, but old habits die hard. Tax season to me still means a big manilla envelope full of paper documents. 

When I returned home I added the three new dogs to the Dalmatian Rescue website. The site is up to date now, even though my Dreamweaver software barely works anymore. It's a good thing I know HTML fairly well. I haven't upgraded any Adobe software since they went to a subscription model, so the copy of Dreamweaver I use is ancient. It probably wouldn't work at all if I had the latest OS running on my Mac. I stopped upgrading the computer quite a while ago too. I hate the relentless desire of companies to monetize everything and turn owners into renters. I still think you should be able to buy software in a pretty box with a CD inside and be able to use it forever. The box should include a decent instruction manual too. Why does everything have to be a cumbersome PDF file that takes forever to read on your computer?

This weather is driving me nuts. The temperature fluctuates wildly from day to day. I never know what to wear anymore. I was cold when we took Dawn on her morning walk, so I dressed warmly when I took my long walk later in the day. I didn't think it had warmed up much, but I was hot before I had gone two miles. I never should have worn two coats, because the outer coat was too bulky to tie around my waist. My feet hurt a lot today as well. Foot pain seems just as unpredictable as the weather. 

The weather is going to get a lot colder by Friday. We may even get snow. Why does this happen every year? We have an early Spring. Things start to turn green and then we get a late hard freeze that kills all the early growth. We've frequently had terrible weather in March, so I wouldn't be surprised if we did get some snow this weekend. At least April is always nice. April isn't that far away is it?

I've been trying to get Dawn used to having me do the things that Janet usually does in preparation for her upcoming trip. So far, it isn't going so well. Dawn is still very nervous around me when I am alone with her. She will come and eat her dinner after I fix it for her, but I have to go back in the office while she eats. She won't eat if I am in the kitchen. She finally comes to the backdoor when I call her to go outside and pee. There is a whole breakfast routine she still needs to learn though. Janet always feeds her breakfast and gets her to take her pills while I am making the bed. Often Janet will take her down in the park to poop as well. She won't even leave the backyard with me unless Janet is nearby. It's going to be an interesting week. Dawn is a very smart dog and Janet has been able to do amazing things with her at training class. Hopefully it won't take her long to realize that I mean no harm and am actually her friend. Dawn needs to understand that Janet needs vacations too. I've had the opportunity to go to Kennedy Space Center and McDonald Observatory last year, but Janet hasn't gone anywhere since Covid started. 

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2938

Today was surprisingly normal. As a result, I got quite a bit done. We got started with a walk through the fog. I love foggy mornings. The world seems very private and intimate in the fog. Dash didn't feel like going down by the water, so I didn't photograph sailboats obscured by the mist. There were plenty of other ghostly shapes however, and no loose dogs or bicycles. It was a very enjoyable walk.

After breakfast, I took a check to the bank, picked up some more enalapril for Dash at the vet, and returned home to get started on a new writing project. The word count on the e-mails concerning this project are already equal to the length of a normal finished article. I've done these type of things many times before, but I have a new contact now and we're off to a rocky start. I hope that things improve because I don't have a lot of patience for quibbling about prices. News flash. If you think I'm too expensive, you don't have to use me.

It was such a relief that Dash wasn't acting weird today. He ate normally, took nice long naps when I needed to work, and didn't have any stressful temper tantrums. Dash needs to be calm and relaxed because of his heart problems, but he seldom is. I'm always afraid when he's agitated and barking a lot that one of the blood clots in his heart will break apart and it will all be over. Dash is literally a ticking time bomb, but he doesn't know it. From his point of view, he's just acting like a normal high strung Dalmatian should.

I have several articles to write, but I though one was enough for today. I finished the day revising websites. I was working on an old school static site, so I used Dreamweaver for the first time in months. Much to my chagrin, I had already forgotten some of the menu shortcuts I used to use everyday and had to re-learn how to do simple things like change font sizes. I've always been a believer in the well known "use it or lose it" adage, but I'm just starting to realize that it's much easier to "lose it" as you grow older. It's becoming harder and harder to remember things that I don't do every day.

I have an appointment scheduled with my financial adviser tomorrow. For the first time in years, I don't have any complaints. A rising market lifts all boats and I've finally recovered most of the losses I sustained in the big crash of 2008. The goal now is just to avoid losing everything in the next big crash. I don't think I'll live long enough to recover from another market crash like we had in 2008. Realistically, I don't think the current rally could possibly last another ten years, but I sure wish it would. It would certainly make my life a little easier.

I should have taken a camera down to the lake and photographed sailboats before the fog lifted. Oh, well. You can't do everything. I also missed the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars on January 7 because of rain, but the two planets were still pretty close together when Dash needed to go out and poop around 3 AM this morning. It's almost worth getting up in the middle of the night for your dog when you can see something interesting in the sky.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2747

I had to go to Walmart today to pick up something for Janet. It was just as bad as I'd imagined. Sam Walton would roll over in his grave if he could see what his stores have become. To save time, I found the location of the item I was looking for on the Internet. I kept asking employees where aisle N30 was and none of them even knew that the huge store had aisle numbers. I then tried describing the item and was sent to opposite ends of the store by two different employees. Some of the employees didn't speak English. They didn't speak Spanish either. Maybe this store wasn't typical. I sure hope it wasn't.

I was pleased that I'd finished a major computer upgrade without any problems and then Dreamweaver crashed this morning. I knew it was all too good to be true. Since I use Dreamweaver all the time, this wasn't good news. The program would launch and then immediately crash as soon as the welcome screen appeared. Everything was fine three days ago, but I have been upgrading a lot of software lately. Somehow Dreamweaver had gotten corrupted. I tried to reinstall the program but it kept asking for a serial number I lost years ago. I tried to get Adobe to send me the serial number, but they just directed me to password protected user website. Did I have the password to login? Of course not.

Eventually I managed to get the website I was working on updated by dragging files from one computer to another. The new photos were on one computer, the HTML files were on another, and my only working FTP program was on a third. Remind me to never upgrade software again. For me it's always like open up a Pandora's Box of problems. It took me hours to retrieve lost passwords and serial numbers, delete the corrupted software and start over again. I finally got a copy of Dreamweaver working, but in the process, I'd lost most of the passwords to the sites I manage. If one program had to crash, this was definitely the worst one.

Dash didn't want to walk this morning and didn't want to eat his breakfast either. It was hard to tell whether he was sick or just being moody. Eventually, he decided he needed to pee. I quickly put a leash on him and out the back gate we went. We took a normal, uneventful walk and when we got home he ate his breakfast. It's all about timing with Dash. If he won't do something, I just try again an hour later. I thought he'd want to walk real early when it was nice and cool outside, but apparently he had other ideas.

When I finished mowing the grass and running errands for Janet, I didn't feel like going to the gym. I felt I'd had enough exercise for one day. After spilling laundry detergent on the utility room floor this morning and dealing with a major software crash, I didn't even feel like mowing the grass. There was little point in postponing the chore. I knew I wouldn't feel like mowing the grass tomorrow either.

Today was tiring. I think software disasters are much harder to deal with than physical chores like mowing the grass. It took all the ingenuity I had left to get today's websites updated without using Dreamweaver. Only time will tell whether I repaired everything correctly. I hope none of today's problems re-appear tomorrow. If I wake up and Dash eats his breakfast, we're off to a good start.

Bud is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1987

I'm running out of ways to describe a rainy day. Rain has become the new normal. Once again it was raining when we woke up and the dogs had to wait for their morning walk. We ate breakfast while waiting for the skies to clear and kept checking the weather radar until we found our opportunity. The ground is so saturated with water that everything is soft and spongy. Dot and Dash normally like to smell things in the grass, but even they prefer walking on the roads lately. It's amazing how green and lush the park looks this Spring. All the neighbors lawns look great and Spring flowers are blooming everywhere. I imagine that water bills all over the city will be lower this month.I haven't seen anyone using their sprinkler system all month. I was amused listening to an interview with a local car wash owner on TV this morning. He said that business was way down and that only ten people had washed their car today. I kept wondering how even ten people could think it would be a good idea to take their car to a carwash on a day like this.

I'm easily amused on a rainy day, so I spent the afternoon trying out all the attachments on the new Dyson vacuum cleaner. I had already vacuumed the office yesterday and was astounded to pick up just as much dust as I did yesterday in the supposedly clean office when I vacuumed the shelves and hard to reach corners with the special attachments. The shelves above eye level were exceptionally dusty, but luckily the clever Dyson people made a special tool to clean areas about your head that you can't see. The best thing about the Dyson is that it is relatively quiet and it doesn't scare the dogs. Our old Hoover always sent them into a panic, but they both just ignored me while I was cleaning today.

I keep thinking of ways to improve the mobile sites I'm building, so I went back and fixed some mistakes I'd made earlier in the week. I'm definitely a late bloomer when it comes to responsive design, but I'm starting to get enthusiastic about the possibilities it presents. As I continue to become more familiar with CSS and structured HTML, I doubt that I'll ever build a static site in Dreamweaver again.

I've started wearing a plastic Essix retainer at night that one of my dentists created for me just before I had my wisdom tooth removed. Since some of my upper teeth are unopposed by lower teeth anymore, this retainer is supposed to keep the upper teeth from continuing to grow downward. I thought only rodents had teeth that continued to grow, but apparently ours do as well if they are not held in check by another tooth directly above or below. I thought I'd hate the retainer, but it is strangely comforting. It fits perfectly and is not unpleasant to wear at all. Putting it on, taking it off, and cleaning it, will add one more element to an already lengthy  set of morning rituals.

The rain finally stopped around 6:30 PM. There was just enough time to give Dot and Dash their evening walks and take a quick photo of a surprisingly beautiful sunset. There will be more rain tomorrow, but we're getting used to it.

Ranger s today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1982

I've been telling people that I've got a huge hole in my jaw where my wisdom tooth used to be. No one believes me. They think I'm a whiner. Well, the dentist believed me. "That's a mighty deep socket you've got there," he said. He was surprised that it had been a month since I had the tooth extracted and said said the socket usually starts filling in by now. I asked him how long it would be before my extraction site would fully heal and he said it could be as long as six to nine months. Great. I'm going to have to keep doing salt water and antiseptic rinses after every meal for the rest of the year.

The dentist can't even begin to repair the adjacent tooth for another six weeks. He said that filling this particular tooth would be very difficult because of the location of the cavity, and he wanted the empty wisdom tooth socket to heal some more before he even attempted to fill the tooth next to it. He also said I need a new crown on the tooth next to the one that needs to be filled. Basically, the last three teeth on the lower right side of my jaw are toast.

I just got finished paying for the oral surgery and now it looks like fixing the next two teeth is going to cost even more. Yikes. I don't know why crowns are so expensive. The last time I had a crown it cost me $500. Now it costs two or three times as much for a dentist to create these pricy little porcelain caps. Growing older sucks. It was much more fun to spend my money on cameras and guitars than on medical bills and prescription drugs.

I'm taking what I've learned playing around with my responsive test site and using this somewhat fuzzy knowledge to built my first mobile site for a client. CSS classes and structured HTML are finally starting to make a little sense. It's kind of sad that I'm probably not be able to use Dreamweaver and Fireworks in the future. Adobe has basically abandoned these stand-alone products anyway. The Dreamweaver software I use isn't even updated anymore. If you want the latest and greatest Adobe innovations you have to get a subscription to their Creative Cloud products. The software I'm using to build responsive websites is all cloud based as well.

Dot seems a bit stronger today. I don't know shy she has good days and bad days, because life is very consistent around here. I don't know why I have good days and bad days either. I hope Dot does well at her physical therapy session tomorrow. I've got lots of questions for the vet. I don't know how hard I should push her. She really needs the exercise to build muscle, but she's very old too. Since Dot is extremely food motivated, she's starting to gain weight again as well. Extra weight makes it even harder for her to stand under her own power. Without treats, it's hard to get dogs with limited mobility to do anything though.

Tonight is the very last David Letterman show. I saw the show live once when I was in New York, but I wouldn't be surprised if I slept through tonight's finale.

Harley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1732

Such a busy day. I got my blood tested at the liver center. I finished the first of two new writing assignments. I brought five dead websites back online. I comforted the dogs during a thunderstorm. I got groceries for the weekend. And I still found time to have a nice breakfast at my favorite restaurant. The most problematic task was moving the websites to their new hosting company. First, I had to get a new password from Network Solutions before I could begin pointing the domains to the new server. I can never remember all my passwords. It seems pointless to write them all down on a yellow Post-it note and stick it on my computer screen, but it's just about come to that. After I received a new password and moved the DNS for each site, I tried to figure out the new server's control panel and reconfigured a few things in Dreamweaver so each site would upload correctly. I think everything works now, but it took a while.

For the first time since last Spring, it is actually colder outside than it is inside the house. A cold front must have accompanied this morning's rainfall, since it is much colder than it was yesterday. The temperature was in the mid-90's on Thursday. Today it got as low as 65 degrees. The dogs both seemed to enjoy the cooler weather and wanted to take longer walks. They didn't want to walk any faster, just longer. Needless to say, our walks took a long time today. I didn't mind. A nice walk is always more enjoyable than staring at my computer screen. I was actually delighted that Dot is strong enough now to take these longer walks. Our girl has come a long way.

I'm charging camera batteries now for tomorrow morning's photo shoot. I wonder what will happen if it rains? Hopefully, the weather will be nice, because we don't really have a contingency plan. If I wake up tomorrow morning to the sound of rain pounding on the roof, I guess our Plan-B will be to just reschedule the entire photo shoot for a sunny day. I hope that nobody suggests moving the shoot indoors, because I don't have enough strobes to light the large group I'm supposed to photograph. My client is a very positive person, so I assume that she'll make everything turn out OK. I haven't even mentioned the possibility of rain, since everyone thinks I'm too negative already.

I wonder why I keep thinking about the new iPhone 6? I certainly don't need a new phone. I barely use the one I've got. Nevertheless, there's a good chance that I'll end up getting one of these sleek looking tech toys with its fingerprint recognition system and pretty rounded corners. I'm hopeless. I wonder if there's a twelve step program for people who are addicted to pretty things?

Dot and Dash are both getting so much better that it's time to turn our attention to dental care again. It's amazing how quickly a dog's teeth get dirty. It's only been a few months since Dot had her teeth cleaned at the vet and they are already beginning to show signs of plaque buildup. Our vet showed us a new enzyme product that requires no brushing. You just add a few drops to their water bowl each day. We'll see how that goes.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1382

I fired up Quark Express today to put together a print ad. It's hard to believe that I used to use this application almost every single day. Now, I can go months without using Quark or InDesign. Print may not be completely dead, but it certainly appears that way. Client meetings revolve around social media now and I can't even remember the last time someone I know actually ran an ad in a newspaper. Although it was kind of enjoyable to have total control over fonts and image placement again, I don't think I'll upgrade to Quark 10. What would be the point? I doubt that I'll be asked to design many print ads in the foreseeable future.

I don't know what the dogs were thinking today. They started barking for their dinner around 2:30 this afternoon, and kept bothering me until I finally relented and fed them early a few hours later. I would have appreciated a little quiet this afternoon, because I was still trying to figure out the mysteries of Wordpress. So far, I'm not a huge fan of this popular blogging platform. It's super easy to throw something together using the hundreds of readily available themes. When you try to modify those themes in Dreamweaver though, you're dealing with an entirely different animal. I haven't even tried to create my own themes yet. The frustrating thing for me is that most Wordpress files reside on the server. It's hard to show a client a local, in-progress version of a site without actually putting it online.

Whenever I try to make thing easier on myself, I usually end up making things worse. Now, I've got to go up on the roof before it rains and get rid of all the accumulated pecan shells so they won't stain the puddles of standing water that still accumulate when the roof gets wet. I've already lost the battle to keep the new roof sparkling white. Just about any form of tannin stains the white coating an ugly brown. Since dead leaves, pecan shells, and tree bark usually litter the roof, there's quite a bit of ugly brown already.

Janet wants to give the dogs a bath tomorrow, so they'll be clean for the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament. They probably won't stay clean for long, since it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I hope the rain moves on and the skies are clear again on Sunday. We've managed to avoid rain on tournament day for over a decade. Last year, it was raining when we left the house, but by the time we actually arrived at the golf course. the skies had cleared and it ended up being a beautiful day. We need this kind of luck again this year.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1239

Today was a succession of small errands. I went to the post office. I went to the pharmacy. I went to Janet's dentist several times to drop her off and pick her up again later. In between these errands, I added a bunch of new adoptable animals to a rescue website and turned a bunch of navel oranges into juice. There was something strange about these oranges because it was very difficult to get the skin off so I could put them in the juicer. Most oranges are easy to peel, but the rind on these seemed welded to the fruit inside. It took me forever to get them all peeled.

I was real disappointed about Adobe's announcement that in the future, all Creative Suite products will be available by subscription only. I use Photoshop, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver all the time. I'd hate to have to pay for these products by the month, just like I do for U-verse TV. I have always disliked renting things, but in a culture where people increasingly rent or lease their homes, their furniture, and their cars, I guess renting your software doesn't seem so strange. Renting isn't for me though. I'll keep using my old version of Photoshop for a long time before I'll start renting it for $49 a month.

I think I'm going to use the roofer my architect friend recommended. I probably won't know if this was the right decision until about five years from now, when I see whether the roof is still keeping the water out. We'll see how it goes. Most of the people I know hate to make recommendations. Can you blame them? I don't like to make recommendations either, because things go wrong so often. Nevertheless, I'm going with the guy the architect suggested. I still think I'd trust an architect more than Angie's List.

I'm supposed to write an article tomorrow as if I just returned from Switzerland. The cheapskate clients didn't actually want to send me to Switzerland, so they just sent me a few quotes from a guy who'd been there. Ah, the excitement of the writing life. You get to travel to anywhere Wikipedia will take you.

Tomorrow, Dot goes to see the acupuncturist again.Too bad I can't get the vet to stick a few needles in me while I'm there. I was skeptical about the treatments at first, but I've become a believer. The acupuncture therapy really seems to have done Dot some good.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1207

I got an enormous amount done today. Once again, I had to spend the day waiting for the FedEx man, and he was very, very late. I have one supplier who insists on marking all shipments direct signature required, while at the same time denying me the opportunity to re-direct the package to a nearby FedEx office for a more convenient delivery. I find this very annoying, but there is a hidden benefit. While I am waiting endlessly for an envelope that needs my signature, I tend to get lots, and lots accomplished around the office.

Today I re-configured an entire website and launched the new version. Ordinarily, this would have taken me three or four days, but what else did I have to do today? I was trapped.

Today's little exercise provides a good illustration of why I've never been fond of SEO types. My client had hired an SEO wizard to boost his Google rank and get his phone to ring more often. The SEO wizard didn't like the site I had designed. He said it had way too many pictures and not enough searchable text that could be indexed. There was plenty of text on the site, but unfortunately, it was all embedded inside pretty JPEG images. To fix the problem and get the SEO guy off my back, I needed to learn something new. To keep the layout intact, I belatedly learned how to create layers in Dreamweaver. I placed Google-friendly text in these new layers and then positioned the layers directly over the pictures I wanted to keep. Amazingly everything worked. After a day of coding confusing CSS scripts, I had a site that looked remarkably similar to the old site, while containing all the new information that the SEO guy said was missing. We'll see if this makes a difference. Probably not.

The temperature was back in the 70's by mid-afternoon. It's still not dry enough for me to determine where the water is getting in on the roof, but it was certainly warm enough for the dogs to enjoy a little sunbathing time in the back yard. I'm a little leery of doing any more gardening in the back yard, unfortunately. I'll probably never know if I got my Poison Ivy from inadvertently pulling up Poison Ivy plants hidden in the ground cover, or from Dash curling up with me at night after a day of running through a field of the stuff. Hopefully, the steroid shots will work their magic soon.

I used a Klout gift card to go out to dinner with Janet this evening. I like these Klout perks, although I have no idea why I keep getting them. So far, I've gotten dog blankets, gift cards, magazine subscriptions, and books. Maybe if I write a nice review about the restaurant, they'll send me more stuff. I wouldn't even have to lie. The food was actually very good.

Angel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 414

We woke up this morning to rolling power outages and a temperature of only thirteen degrees. This wasn't a good combination. Our house isn't well insulated and you could feel the temperature drop minute-by-minute. It would have been nice if TXU had warned people that they were going to be shutting the power off periodically throughout the day. I've already had several computers ruined by the surges associated with power outages. Luckily, the first outage occurred before the computers turned themselves on for the day, so I was able to unplug everything that might be damaged. It got pretty cold for a while this morning, but everything seemed to stabilize around noon. At least in the Winter, you don't have to worry about food going bad in the fridge when the power goes out. All's well that ends well though. We're warm as toast now. The furnace repairman even stopped by today to check out my intermittent furnace problems and give the old furnace a clean bill of health.

I took advantage of the lack of electricity this morning to switch out the computers in the office. I am now officially using the new computer for everything. It must have been weeks ago when I told you guys that I got the new computer, but this is the very first blog post I've published using it. One reason I waited so long was Dreamweaver. I use Dreamweaver every day and I knew that once I started using the new version, I'd have to spend a lot of time downloading a whole new batch of Dreamweaver Extensions and getting used to the "improvements" in the application. Sure enough, when I got to work after the power returned, I discovered that some of my favorite Dreamweaver MX extensions don't even work on CS-5. I found what I needed on Adobe Exchange though and I'm off and rolling again.

I haven't seen the park so empty in a long time. When I took the dogs on their evening walk I noticed that my boot prints in the snow from yesterday were still the only footprints around. Absolutely no joggers today. In fact, I didn't see anybody at all. We must have been the only ones foolish enough to go outside. I think Dot ate a little mouse while we were walking today. There was a rustling in the tall grass and she pounced on something and started chewing. Whatever it was, it was gone before I could open her mouth and look inside. It must have been a mouse. All the horse poop in the park is frozen now.

So much for that old "Neither snow nor rain nor dark of night" adage about the postal service. Nobody has delivered our mail for three days now. I've seen postmen delivering mail in other parts of town, but they can't seem to make it to our house. This is probably just like our garbage pickup and this morning's rolling power outages. Somebody probably decided that everybody needed to come down to the post office and pick up their own mail during the bad weather, but forgot to tell the people who were actually receiving the mail. Oh well, tomorrow's another day. I guess I'll go down to the post office and find out for myself what's going on.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day