Day 2425

I've been thinking about redesigning my website. Back in the mid 1990's, the site was considered innovative and ahead of its time. Now, it's more like a dilapidated house in a bad neighborhood. I added a mobile friendly landing page last year, but then I lost interest. Why bother? It's hard to justify reinventing this site. Replacing everything will be a lot of work and I'm not even sure that websites matter anymore. It's probably just a matter of pride. There are a lot of really cool websites out there, and mine is no longer one of them.

If I had a website that looked like I was living in the 21 Century, would my business start to grow again? I doubt it. Even though I'm a website designer, I never got much business from being online. Most of my business came from referrals and relationships I'd developed during my ad agency years. Sadly, most of those people are gone now. Some of them have retired to golf course homes and mountain retreats. Some of them must have entered the witness protection program, because they don't even seem to exist anymore. More than a few of my clients have died. I still probably need a new website though.

My big accomplishment today was mowing the grass.  It was actually a bigger accomplishment than you might think, because it was over 100 degrees outside. I don't know how I ever used to mow this lawn with an old fashioned push mower. I must have been a lot stronger thirty years ago. These days, mowing the grass takes all the energy I've got. I've finally learned not to take a shower until I've finished all my outdoor chores. I was drenched in sweat by the time I finished the yard today. Right now, hot dry weather is good. I think the new elastometric coating on the roof is going to cure nicely.

There are several new houses going up in the neighborhood. The McMansions being built by developers and custom builders seem to go up in a matter of weeks. The houses designed by architects often seem to take years to complete. I wonder why there's such a difference?  There's a construction site that Dash and I pass on our morning walk now. The framing crew took two days to erect the entire house. The next day the siding went up. The day after that the roofers came and put the shingles on. Then all the windows were installed. In less than a week, this huge house looked finished from the outside. A few blocks away, there's another house that's been under construction for two years. The first builder is a marvel of efficiency. His framing crew even wear uniforms. The second builder is a disorganized mess, but his house will be prettier when it is eventually finished. There is a life lesson in all this, but I'm not quite sure what it is.

When I took the trash out to the curb this evening, I noticed that the can was only half full. It wasn't full last week either. I wonder why we're generating less trash than we used to? Less trash is probably a good thing, but why is this happening? I don't think anything has changed. I'm not eating as much for dinner either. Life is full of mysteries.

Pebbles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 880 - Mother's Day

It's been a while since Mother's Day had any real significance for me. When my Mom was still alive, she would constantly exhort me to become a better person, to be kind to the less fortunate, and to rise above misfortune. Much of what she told me went in one ear and came right out the other. I wasn't the best of sons. Mom never gave up though. To her dying day, she continued to send me weekly letters full of wise and often cockeyed advice on how to improve my life. Sometimes I wonder if she'd approve of the final result of her efforts. I never became a priest like she once wanted. I never joined the Peace Corps either. I guess the one bright spot would be that I am kind to animals.

I finally finished moving everything out of the old storage room today. The room is completely  empty. Yay! Even though this tiring and somewhat meaningless activity wouldn't have carried much weight with Mom, who loved to have yard sales and give my Dad's stuff away, I'm glad it is finally finished. Now I've just got to get everything organized again. I went and bought some more industrial shelving this afternoon, but didn't have time to assemble it. Just getting everything moved was enough for one day.

It's been so rainy this week that the dog parks were closed, so I took the dogs on an extra long walk this morning. In addition to our regular journey through the park, we also walked through the neighborhood, checking out who had bought a new car or sold their house. The new houses in the neighborhood are much bigger and fancier than the older ones. Oddly, the size of the families living in these palatial homes are smaller than the families who used to live in the small frame homes they replaced. I grew up in a simple frame house. We all shared one bathroom. I don't think my Mom would have approved of these new McMansions.

The power went out this evening, which was odd, since there was only a gentle rain today. We've always had problems with power outages in our neighborhood though. When the power finally came back on, I noticed that the U-Verse TV's went through this complicated re-boot process that seemed to take about ten minutes. I also noticed that the backup battery for my computer's UPS power supply is dead. That gizmo didn't last very long. I only bought the uninterruptible power supply a few years ago after another power outage completely fried my office computer. Mom probably did know best. She had no interest in computers.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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