Day 3791

It was nice to get back to visiting the rescue Dalmatians. There was only a skeleton crew at the kennel and very few boarding dogs, but our dogs have been well cared for during the pandemic. We photographed Cinder, a new girl who entered the program recently, and played ball with Hank and Charlie. The dogs were glad to see us. It's been very quiet at the kennel lately.

We started our day with another long walk before breakfast. I wish this Spring weather would last a little longer. It's been absolutely beautiful lately. We didn't encounter many people this morning. Maybe it was just early, but I have a feeling that a lot of people were returning to work this morning. Something was happening, because traffic was certainly heavier.

Even though I made the switch to online banking recently, I still have to go to the post office occasionally. I mailed a letter to my luddite sister who refuses to use the Internet and then returned home. If all I do is get groceries on Saturday and make an occasional trip to the post office, I may never have to fill my tank again.

My task for the day was getting Microsoft Office running again on my laptop. I finally found a technical support department at Microsoft that specialized in Macintosh problems. I gave them a call this afternoon and explained what happened when I backed up my computer to a new hard drive using Time Machine. The guy I talked to sounded like he'd heard this problem many times before. He asked if I would consent to letting him operate my computer remotely. Sure. Why not. For the next fifteen minutes I watched as an unseen hand moved things around on my screen. When he was finished, Microsoft Office was activated again and everything worked perfectly. The tech support guy was very nice and didn't even ask me why I was using a ten year old product.

It was kind of amazing to me that all this could be done remotely. From the sound of the guy's voice, it didn't even seem like he was located in the United States. Back in the day, you would have had to have someone come out to your location to make these type of repairs. It actually took me longer to find the special phone number than it took the tech guy to get my software working again. I wish Apple did this sort of thing. Having someone take control of my computer and diagnose the problem remotely is so much easier than making an appointment to visit the Genius Bar at an Apple Store and lugging your computer down to a shopping mall. I've never been a huge fan of Microsoft, but my respect for them went up a few notches today.

Now that I have two super fast computers, I don't know what kind of project to tackle next. Even though it was stressful at times, I kind of enjoyed upgrading the computers. Too bad I don't feel the same way about the office where the computers reside. Truthfully, the office needs an upgrade much more than the computers did.

I got a notice from my gym and the place that cuts my hair that even though Texas is opening, they were going to wait a while longer before they opened for business themselves. Seems reasonable to me. I wouldn't want to be the first to open when nobody seems to understand how this virus works yet. I have a feeling that this is going to be a very long Summer, especially if you like to go to concerts and sporting events. Since all I really want to do is go back to a lonely mountain and look through large telescopes, I think I'll be fine.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3790 - Mother's Day

My Mom's been gone for so long that I can't even remember what we used to do on Mother's Day. I'd like to think we did something special, but maybe we didn't. I still have a few childhood Christmas memories along with a fuzzy recollection of Sunrise Services at Easter, but I'm drawing a blank on Mother's Day. No memories of Father's Day either.

I thought the park would be really crowded since it was a holiday, but there were fewer people than I thought. It was a nice cool day and we had another pleasant walk with Dawn before breakfast. Dawn seems to like this new routine. Of course she'd already eaten her own breakfast before we left the house. People can postpone their breakfast. Dogs want to eat as soon as they wake up.

The new battery for my laptop arrived this morning. I was surprised that FedEx delivers on Sunday now. I wasn't expecting the battery until tomorrow. I was glad to see the package at the door. It gave me something to do today. There are always surprises with computer upgrades. I ordered the correct battery but for some reason it wouldn't fix in the enclosure. It seemed to be exactly the same size as the dead battery I was replacing, but there must have been a tiny difference. I thought about sending the battery back, but decided to file off one of the edges instead. It looked like if I rounded one of the corners just a bit, the battery should fit. I found a special file in my old watch repair toolkit and carefully shaved away some of the plastic case. After I rounded one of the corners, the battery fit perfectly. I still can't figure out why the battery didn't fit right out of the box. It looks identical to the OEM battery.

After I reattached all the loose cables and put the computer back together, I nervously pressed the power button. The computer started and booted up normally. I wasn't done though. I had to calibrate the power management system. This involved charging the battery and then discharging it completely, waiting five hours, and then recharging the battery again. I'm still not done with that process.

One of the downsides to this whole upgrade process is that my Microsoft Office 2011 no longer works. It is no longer supported by Microsoft either. Buried in the license agreement is a short paragraph that says you can't move the software to a different machine without voiding your license. Why? This makes no sense, since computers crash all the time. I'm sure I'm not the first person who installed a new hard drive in their computer. I guess a new hard drive counts as a new computer to Microsoft. They were no help at all when I called them this afternoon. They just want me to subscribe to Office 365.

I think we're going to start visiting the rescue dogs again. We haven't been to the kennel since the pandemic started. There is a new dog that needs to be photographed for the website and we miss seeing the Dalmatians. The place should be safe enough. It's mostly just dogs.

I have my annual physical exam later this week. Looks like my doctor is seeing regular patients again, since I got a reminder about the appointment today. I've got all sorts of questions for the doc. What do you think about hydroxychloroquine? How about vitamin D? What is an ideal pulse oximeter reading? He'll probably just ask me about my trip to the Davis Mountains. We both love West Texas.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3774

We walked Dawn before breakfast this morning. The weather was cool and the walk was enjoyable. As we begin to enter the Summer months, I think our walks are going to get earlier and earlier. It's the only way to beat the heat. The walks will probably get shorter too. You got to be careful with dogs during Texas summers. Dogs can't sweat and can easily succumb to heatstroke. Dawn does pretty well now, but she's not a young dog. We don't want to push her too hard.

My computer upgrade went perfectly. All the data transferred to the new drive overnight and my applications seem to work. I did have to register Microsoft Office again, but I've done that so many times that it wasn't a big deal. Everything works now and I don't have to subscribe to Office 365. It's weird that the computer is silent. I've gotten used to the noise over the years. There is no whirring noise from the hard drive anymore and since the computer runs cooler with the solid state drive, I rarely hear the fan. I was pleased that I was able to complete this complicated repair. I saved over $200 as well. Replacing a hard drive is no big deal, but taking the entire computer apart to get to the hard drive is. Since I was able to do all this without breaking anything, I might try putting a solid state drive in my laptop too. These SSD drives are really fast.

The city is running behind on picking up bulky trash in our neighborhood, so I thought I'd add a little more to our pile on the curb while I had the chance. I resumed cleaning out the tool shed this afternoon and managed to find quite a few things I didn't need. I seem to have a terrible habit of buying supplies for repairs I never end up making. I found a lot of tile grout and sheetrock mud today along with about a dozen tubes of various kinds of caulking. All this stuff had gone bad from sitting on a shelf in the damp tool shed for many years. I must have been much more ambitious about fixing things back in the day. I wouldn't even bother buying this stuff today.

I found a canister of helium for blowing up party balloons and wondered why I bought it. We never have parties. It must have been for some Dalmatian adoption event. I thought about keeping the helium because it is a rare commodity these days. In the spirit of practicality, I threw it away. I have no need for helium.

I still haven't gotten my stimulus money. It's not a big deal, but I wonder who decides when the payments get made. 80 million people got their money on the first day, but it's crickets for a lot of the rest of us. I've heard that some people who are eligible might have to wait months. With my luck, the country will be up and running again before my turn comes and they'll just cancel the program. I'm never very optimistic about getting anything from the government.

It's time to get supplies again. I basically use the car just once a week now. The grocery trips aren't long now. We've basically got plenty of everything. I go to the store mostly for fresh fruits and vegetables now. We've got enough paper towels, toilet paper, bottled water, and soap to last us until next winter. I don't think I'll need gas this week either. A tank of gas lasts a long time now.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3580

I needed to install a copy of Microsoft Office on a different laptop today. Luckily, I still had the install disk. The last version of this software I bought was in 2011. The install went smoothly enough, but it took me forever to activate. The install wizard kept saying I wasn't connected to the Internet when I knew I was connected. I tried AT&T and T-Mobile but neither worked. Then I noticed a button that said activate by phone. I pressed the button and called the number expecting to be talking to a customer service representative. Nope. I was talking to a robot. I was asked to read a long list of numbers I saw on my screen. The robot couldn't understand my voice, so I had to enter the numbers using the keypad on my phone instead. This took a while. When I had completed this task, the robot voice read me a huge fifty digit number that I was supposed to type into a box on the install wizard. The voice read the numbers too fast and I couldn't keep up with it. I had to ask the robotic voice to repeat the number fifteen times before I finally had it typed it correctly. Eventually the software was officially authorized and it now works correctly. Why does Microsoft even care about ancient versions of Office? Unfortunately, I have to remember to never upgrade the system on this computer. Old versions of Microsoft Office are not compatible with Catalina.

When I was walking today, I noticed that the little circus has returned to the park. Almost one year ago to the day, this same little circus was underwater after an unusually heavy rainfall caused lake levels to rise near their tent. These guys must either be fools or incredibly optimistic. They were setting up their tent in exactly the same place where they got flooded out last year. Sure, it was a beautiful, clear day today, but if memory serves, it was a nice day when they were setting up last year as well. I guess they haven't learned that the weather can change quickly in Texas.

The weather was perfect today. Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to patch the roof. Most of the roof was dry, but the damaged areas were still damp. Water had seeped under the coating where the silicon had been damaged and it was still seeping back out again. I've been through this before. At least the roof isn't leaking. Last year when the little circus was underwater, I was having some serious roof leak problems as well.

Shooting baskets at the gym is humbling. You'd think that after all these years I would have perfected the process. Nope. Sometimes I can sink five or six free throws in a row, but all it takes is the slightest deviation and the ball won't go through the basket. I love consistency, but it is so elusive. I never get the same amount of sleep on successive nights. Some days I'm hungrier than others. For the most part I do the same things every day, but I always get different results.

I doubt if I'm going to get the roof patched tomorrow. It's supposed to start raining again in the  afternoon. I need at least 48 hours for the silicon to cure after the roof is completely dry. Lord knows when that is going to happen. We've entered the rainy season. I'm not making a lot of progress with the house, but at least we will see the Dalmatians again tomorrow. Visiting these dogs always brightens my day.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2755

I was disappointed this morning that I wasn't improving faster. I seem to be getting a little better every day, but my wrist still feels shaky when I'm not wearing the splint and my legs still hurt. I thought the swelling in my left leg had subsided, but on further inspection, I've realized that gravity has just caused the fluid to sink down around my ankles. Both ankles are swollen and black and blue now. You're supposed to keep your legs elevated above your heart, but how long can you spend lying down staring at the ceiling?

I need to remember similar injuries I've had in the past and how long they took to heal. I think I was better off before the Internet. Now, whenever you research injuries online, you are presented with dozens of horrendous first-person stories detailing things that might go wrong. Today, I found myself reading about hematomas that had become infected and required surgery. It was not very reassuring. I think everything is going fine, but to keep from fretting all the time, I made an appointment to see my primary care physician when he returns later this week. I also made an appointment to see the orthopedic specialist the emergency room referred me to. Hopefully, I will feel better when they, just like the emergency room doctors, tell me that this is just going to take time.

When I woke up this morning, I was surprised to see that Janet had already walked Dash. She said that she didn't want to wake me up and that Dash was very good and didn't pull or tug at all. I was a little worried that Janet was using her arms too soon, but later in the day when she went to see her doctor, they gave her arm exercises to do, so I guess she's ready.

I was surprised to receive some new writing jobs today. It's been a while. I was even more surprised when I tried to open Microsoft Word and was presented with a screen saying that I needed to enter my 25 digit activation code first. Jeez, this software has been registered for years. What could have gone wrong? I had installed the software in 2011 and had no idea where the activation code was. After a Google search and a call to Microsoft, I received the bad news. Microsoft software activation involves linking the software to the serial number of the physical hard drive or network card on your computer. When I cloned my hard drive, it was physically a different disc, so Microsoft Office didn't recognize me. Even worse, Microsoft keeps no records of these activation codes when you register your software. The only place you find them is printed on the install discs themselves. This was all very frustrating, since I'm dead in the water without Microsoft Word.

I never throw anything away, but that didn't make it any easier to find the illusive install disc. It took hours of searching, which only made my leg hurt worse. Eventually I found the stupid disc. It's a good thing I did, because my only other alternative would have been to purchase Microsoft Office all over again. Actually, I would have had to subscribe to Microsoft Office 365. The company doesn't even sell or support the stand-alone product anymore.

I guess everything is OK. My leg isn't red and doesn't look infected. It's just swollen more than I'd like. I'm back in business with Microsoft Word and can start my new writing jobs tomorrow. I've been so preoccupied with the dog bite that I didn't even tell you that the landscaper is scheduled to put in new grass early next week. I've even made an appointment to get my car serviced.

I"m going to sleep with my leg elevated tonight. Hopefully, it will look a little smaller in the morning.

Keller is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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