Day 3030

I started to get ready for Summer today. I called the landscaper to get the backyard looking decent again. I called the tree trimmer to get some dead limbs removed from the Oak trees. I called the roofing supply company to see if I could buy the elastomer coating in a small enough size that I could lift the can up to the roof by myself. I found the battery for the lawn mower and installed it to see if it would still take a charge. Nothing was actually resolved today, but at least I made a start.

I was pleased that I managed to find an inexpensive used MIDI keyboard controller that does everything I need it to do. Since this keyboard cost me less than a single one gallon can of the elastomer roof coating, I thought I got quite a deal. Best of all, when I got home from the music store and plugged the keyboard into my computer, everything worked perfectly.

I wish everything worked perfectly with Dash today. He was moody again and refused to take his afternoon walk. It was a beautiful day and Dash wasn't having any vestibular issues, so I don't know what was wrong. I know that Dash was feeling OK, because when Janet came home just before sunset, he abruptly changed his mind and wanted her to walk him. He likes it when we all walk together. It's all too complicated for me. On Monday and Tuesday, Dash was eager to take his afternoon walk. I guess I'll never know why today was different.

I feel kind of sorry for Mark Zuckerberg. Every time I turned on the TV today, there he was, testifying in front of a bunch of old people who basically knew nothing about technology. Why is everyone so outraged about privacy? There is no privacy anymore. Every time you go to the grocery store, fill your car with gas, or pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, you are being tracked. Surveillance cameras are everywhere and you'd be horrified if you knew how much Apple and Google already know about you. Zuckerberg is just a geek who invented a cool app that everyone became addicted to. It's your fault that he became a billionaire. Jeez. Nobody is forcing you to use Facebook. If you really value your privacy, stay offline altogether. If Cambridge Analytica sold your information to Target or Walmart nobody would care. This is all about politics. A wide variety of companies have been selling your information for decades and congress never even noticed.

Even more puzzling to me than the Facebook debacle is the situation in Syria. The only thing the Democrats and Republicans seems to agree on is that they would both like to bomb somebody. Why? Couldn't we wait a while? Nobody has even verified that the gas attacks were real. Isis and Al-Qaeda have staged these type of events before. They guys might not have a powerful army, but they have learned that provocative fake news can be even more powerful than bombs. Lobbing hundreds of cruise missiles into Syria isn't going to help anything. Even if the gas attacks are real, adding a bunch of bombs to the mix is just going to make the situation worse. I wonder how long it's going to take for our government to realize that it's time to come home. We've accomplished absolutely nothing in the Middle East and probably never will.

The dismal state of the world is one of the reasons I focus my energies on dogs. Dogs don't care about global politics. They don't even understand why they need to wear a city registration tag. All a dog wants is regular meals and a warm, safe place to sleep every night. If we're lucky, they enjoy our companionship as well. If these were our own priorities, the world would be a much better place.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 895 - Memorial Day

My Mom was from a military family, Her Dad was a career army officer and both her brothers were air force fighter pilots. My own Dad fought in the Pacific during World War II and my Mom served in the WAVES as a parachute rigger. That was the end of the family's military service. I don't think any member of the Sealander clan has served in the military since. I have tremendous respect for our armed forces. They are the best of the best. I'm not so sure I have the same respect for the politicians who have sent these brave man and women into battle recently. So many have died and absolutely nothing has been accomplished. The Crusades didn't solve any problems in the Middle East and neither has any subsequent war. As soon as we leave Iraq and Afghanistan, these countries will revert to exactly the way they were before we arrived. I don't think you should get into a war unless you are willing to win it convincingly. Harry Truman was the last president who knew how to win a war convincingly.

The park was filled with holiday revelers today. I don't think many of these people were honoring our troops, since most of them appeared for be from foreign countries. They were just families who had a day off from work and wanted to enjoy the nice weather with a little barbecue. There were helicopters  hovering over the park all day today. At first I though this was some strange new police surveillance program, but I learned later that a carjacker had fled to the top of a nearby construction crane when cornered and is currently involved in a standoff with the police. I think this confrontation is still going on. The carjacker has a gun and is sitting a hundred and fifty feet up in the air, so the police are cordoning off entire neighborhoods. The helicopters I saw were actually news helicopters using long telephoto lenses to record the ongoing action. I don't think the police would let them get any closer than the area where they were hovering over the park.

All this drama didn't prevent me from having a fairly dull day. I got caught up on a few writing jobs. I took my caulking gun up on the roof and looked for cracks where water might get in. I refinished an old cedar chest that Dot had scratched up. I even cleaned the toilets. Tomorrow, it will be back to business as usual. Pretty soon it will be June. Hard to believe the year is half over already.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day