Day 1023

When I go to the post office, I park at a nearby strip mall and walk the final 100 yards to mail my letters. I do this because there is a traffic light at the intersection leading to the neighborhood shops. There is no light at the post office and it is much easier to go home again when I can turn left. I've been parking at this strip mall for years now and continue to be amazed at how quickly the shops change hands. A theater where I once saw 101 Dalmatians is now a small grocery store. A pizza place is now an MRI imaging center. Most of the retail stores have been replaced by restaurants. The restaurants themselves get replaced by other restaurants with disturbing regularity. The video rental store on the corner is just empty. I guess nobody rents video tapes anymore. I can't help thinking that each of these stores was somebody's dream. So many broken dreams, and this is just one little neighborhood strip mall. I'd like to see a little more permanance in this world, but I'm not holding my breath anymore.

I finally managed to get Linux running on my computer this morning. I now have access to thousands of open source programs that I'll never ever use. The problem yesterday was all my fault. I just wasn't typing things correctly in the terminal command line. Now that I've solved this mystery and have Linux running side by side with my Mac OS, I'll probably just forget about it. That's what I did last time anyway. I'm sure I'll use Gimp from time to time, but since I know Photoshop so much better, it's hard to see the point. Basically, it was just a slow day yesterday and installing Linux gave me something to do.

We missed most of the presidential debates this evening because we were at dog training class with Dot and Dash. That's just as well. I have a hard time even listening to politicians anymore. Everybody is saying what that they think people want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. I'm getting tired of the whole charade. When the majority of the population is spending more than they earn, it's no surprise that the entire country is in trouble. A little restraint on everybody's part would do wonders. It doesn't matter is you are an individual, a family, a city, or a country. You just shouldn't spend what you don't have.

I hope I feel better tomorrow. I've been dragging around all day with no energy whatsoever. I almost feel like I've got the flu or something, but it's not even flu season. Maybe I just didn't get a good night's sleep last night. Dot and Dash are active dreamers and their paw slapping dog dreams woke me up at two hour intervals. I'm hoping things will be a little calmer tonight.

Hobbs is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1022

I felt like using some Linux applications on my computer today. Oops. I forgot that I didn't have X-11 or Developer Tools installed on my Mac anymore. No problem. Hey, I used to do this stuff all the time. "I'll just get out the Developer Tools install disk and get everything working again," I thought. When running Linux on a Mac first became an option after OS X appeared, I became fascinated with it and grew to love several Linux applications. I particularly liked Gimp, which was sort of a free open source version of Photoshop.

Well, getting Gimp to work again was going to be a problem. First of all, there wasn't a Developer Tools install disk anymore, because I had downloaded the Lion OS from the app store. Apple doesn't make things easy these days. To get access to the Developer Tools, I had to sign up to become an approved Apple Developer. I answered a whole bunch of questions on their website, which probably proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I know absolutely nothing about coding Apple applications. Apple approved my application anyway and sent me the software. I read all the instructions that I could find on Google about how to install all this stuff and then I tried to launch a Linux application. Nothing. Apparently, I'm not as much of a geek as I used to be. There was a time when I had lots of Linux apps running perfectly on a previous desktop computer. Either Apple has become more complicated, or I have become less intelligent.

Dash got to go to the vet again today. He loves to go to the vet. All I have to say is "It's time to go to the vet," and he's right at the front door, wagging his tail. I don't think he even feels the antigen shot he gets every two weeks. To him, a vet visit is just a time to socialize and get petted by the nurses.

I'm determined to open the windows before the weather turns cold again. I got rid of two big wasp nests today. There's still one very large nest left and a lot of smaller ones, but I'm making progress. My method so far has been to open a window near a nest, spray the nest with insecticide and then close the window very quickly before the agitated wasps fly inside. Since the remaining nests aren't near a window, I'll have to go outside under the nest, spray quickly, and then run.

You've probably figured out already that there weren't a lot of writing projects today. When I've got writing deadlines, there's never time for things like getting Linux running on my computer. Of course, when I'm spending my time on personal projects like this, I'm not making any money. Why does it always have to be one or the other?

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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