Day 3912

I've been wondering why our local gaggle of geese always hangs out on the East side of the lake now. They used to be all over the place. Today I found my answer. There's a guy who's been feeding them. The two Muscovy ducks were waiting for him as he unloaded a large 40 pound bag of Duck Feed Pellets from the back of his truck. The geese saw him too and were rapidly walking single file down a hill to greet him. Maybe this is why we saw the chicken in this section of the park as well. These birds are eating well.

While we were walking this morning we encountered a very large moth that appeared to be injured. It looked normal, but it clearly couldn't fly. We moved the moth off the road where we had found it to a nearby patch of grass. Maybe the moth will recover, but I kind of doubt it. One thing you notice when you are observing nature is that it can be very cruel. Not all the animals make it. Some get killed by pesticides. Some are eaten by other animals. Some are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Butterflies and moths don't live a long time anyway. Their average lifespan is about a month.

We knew it was going to rain today, but we timed our morning walk well and didn't get wet. The heavy rains didn't arrive until later in the afternoon. Needless to say, I didn't take an afternoon walk. There really isn't much to do on a rainy day. I usually just fret about the roof leaking. So far everything seems fine. Both pumps are working correctly and there are no signs of a leak. There is no point in even thinking about removing the water from the roof. It's supposed to continue raining until tomorrow afternoon.

Texas is definitely a big state. I'm still wondering whether we are going to be dealing with any more 100 degree days here in Dallas, while it got down to 35 degrees at McDonald Observatory last night. I think today's rain is going to cool things down considerably, but we're still a long ways from 35 degrees. Occasionally when I am fantasizing about other places to live, it's always hard to think of a better place than Dallas. They are already having blizzards in Wyoming. The entire West Coast seems to be on fire. And it's going to take a long time for the people in Southern Louisiana to recover from Hurricane Laura. We have the occasional tornado warning, but the place seems pretty peaceful compared to other parts of the country.

I wonder if the telemarketing calls will decrease after the election? We're getting a huge number of junk calls now. I don't answer any of them but they are still irritating. How do you eliminate these things? I use Nomorobo and another AT&T service designed to eliminate spam and the calls still get through. Most of our mail is junk too. It just seems like someone is spending an enormous amount of effort to reach people who aren't interested anyway.

It's still raining. I need to remember to turn off the pumps before I go to bed tonight. If I forget, it usually quits raining while I'm asleep and the pumps overheat. I've already burned out quite a few pumps and I'm getting more forgetful by the day. The only advice I'd ever offer young people is to never buy a house with a flat roof. A flat roof is nothing by trouble.

Maybe it will be a nice day tomorrow. One can always hope.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3892

Every once in a while I get so frustrated with telemarketers that I'm tempted to discontinue my landline service entirely. Very few legitimate callers use the landline anymore, but telemarketers and scammers seem to love it. I must get twenty telemarketing calls a day. I never answer these calls, but they are still very irritating. I signed up for Nomorobo a long time ago and thought it would take care of the problem. You can always tell when a telemarketer has been detected by Nomorobo because the phone only rings once.

Telemarketers seem to be getting smarter though because more and more of them have discovered ways to bypass this blocking service. They spoof your local exchange, so calls appear to be coming from a neighbor. Some telemarketers just use their real names because they know you won't pick up the phone when it says "Invalid Number" on the Caller ID. The older you get, the more you feel like you are under siege by these people. There must still be people who answer their phone or there wouldn't be so many telemarketers. My Dad was a sitting duck for these people. He knew nothing about technology and always picked up his phone.

I have the option of designating up to twenty numbers as "safe" on my landline and blocking everything else. What numbers do you choose though. About the only people who still use the landline are doctors and suppliers who never bothered to update their old office database. Doctors and vets never call you using their main office number though. Sometimes they use their cell phone. Other times they use an extension in a lab or exam room. I still might give this a try though. Anyone who really needs to reach me just sends me a text anyway.

We got another early start this morning. When we walk in the dark, I realize how bad light pollution is in Dallas. You can see bright stars like Sirius and Procyon, but the only constellation that is clearly visible in the morning sky is Orion. Orion is easily the brightest constellation in the sky, which is why it is the only one most people can identify. The sky looks so different in Fort Davis. There's nothing like a velvet black sky dotted with thousands of stars that have been bisected by the Milky Way. Dark skies are peaceful and incredibly beautiful. I can't say the same about city lights.

It was another slow day. I looked up the number of a company that can repair my large printer, but I didn't bother to call. Is the printer even worth fixing? I've already fixed a lot of electronic gear that I've never used when it came back from the repair shop. Maybe I'll get the urge to make large Giclée prints again, but I doubt it.

I'm discovering that it's easy to pay bills online, but much harder to keep track of things in Quickbooks Pro now. I have to manually recreate all the transactions I have already done online. That's what I did this afternoon. My accountant says Quickbooks is obsolete and that I should switch to a modern cloud-based accounting program. Maybe he's right.

The week's trash has been taken to the curb and I'm ready to start a new week. Maybe your week doesn't start on Friday, but it works for me.

Blackjack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3386

And just like that, Google+ was gone. I thought the last day was going to be today, but I guess it was actually yesterday. Everything I posted to Google+ over the years has simply disappeared. I was going to write a goodbye post like everybody else, encouraging people to follow me somewhere else. Too late now. I still think Google+ was the best social network. The whole idea of circles was so much better than friends or followers. I'm going to miss this place. It was definitely an idea worth keeping.

My teeth are still in good condition. The dental hygienist cleaned my teeth and I got new x-rays, but that was it. When I was younger I was lucky if I went to the dentist every ten years. Now I go every six months and do everything the dentist recommends. Eventually, you realize that you've only got one body and it's up to you to take care of it. Surprisingly, my dentist said it was just fine to continue wearing my broken Essix retainer. "It still fits perfectly," He told me as he inserted the left side and then the right side. I was worried that my teeth might have shifted, but the dentist said I was imagining things. "This retainer is a very tight fit," he told me. "If your teeth had shifted, you wouldn't be able to put it on." Works for me. I'm always happy when someone wants to save me a little money.

I got some bad news from the synthesizer repairman today. One of the Sequential Circuits synthesizers I've having restored can't be fixed. A critical custom voice chip is no longer available. Two of the three synthesizers are working perfectly now, but this one will only be good for parts. The technician has already spent a lot of time trying to repair this thing. I hate paying for something that will never work, but the technician has spent months working on these ancient analog synthesizers. He did the best he could. You win some. You lose some.

I wish Dash's appetite would return. He's gone through at least two episodes before where he was an extremely picky eater and it is always frustrating. In the past, his appetite has always returned after a few weeks. Hopefully, it will this time too. Usually by the end of the day we manage to get him to eat something. A lot of food gets wasted and he's still not eating enough. We're constantly changing things to find something he likes. It's hard to tell if this is a physical or a mental problem. We've got a vet appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning to examine his mouth. There's a good chance that his gum infection could be part of the problem.

When I was clearing out my spam folder on the mail server this afternoon, I became alarmed at the enormous amount of phishing attacks that were headed my way. I called tech support and asked if this was normal. "Sadly yes," the technician told me. "These people are relentless." I never could have predicted thirty years ago that most of the messages I receive would be attempts to scam me. My hosting company has an excellent spam filter and Nomorobo catches most of the telemarketing spam on my phone. It's still irritating though. You shouldn't have to feel like you're constantly under siege.

Hopefully we can get Dash's gingivitis under control when we visit the vet tomorrow. It would be so much easier if a dog's dental exam was as simple as the one I had today. When it became unsafe to anesthetize Dash for routine dental cleanings, his mouth began to go downhill. Maybe if we can find the right antibiotic we can still clear this problem up.

I'm still not getting enough sleep, but what else is new.

Miracle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3345

Dash wouldn't walk this morning. I thought he'd be eager to get outside since the weather was nicer than yesterday. I even saw the sun and a few patches of blue sky for a while. Evidently Dash wasn't impressed by the weather. Before we'd even made it to the end of our street, he turned around and came home. He must have been feeling bad this morning, because he immediately went to sleep as soon as we returned to the house.

There was a post card in the mail this morning saying that there was an attempt to deliver a package and that I was to call the number on the card immediately. This was an obvious scam. The card didn't come from UPS, Fedex, the Post Office, or Amazon. I hadn't ordered anything either. Who were these people trying to fool? I put the card in the shredder, but there will probably be more dubious mail tomorrow. I feel like I'm under siege lately. Most of the mail that arrives at the house is junk. The phone is even worse. They say that 50% of all phone calls are telemarketers now. At my house the figure would be more like 90%. I really feel like the phone company should be paying me to put up with this nonsense. The telemarketing calls start earlier and last longer now too. We occasionally get them after we've gone to bed. I have Nomorobo installed on my phone and still way too many of these junk calls get through.

If we're going to build a wall, we ought to build some sort of electronic wall to stop these irritating intrusions once and for all. Stopping telemarketers might be the one thing that Democrats and Republicans could actually agree on. I wonder why telemarketers even bother. Few people even answer their phone these days. If you don't send them a text, you'll never get an answer.

Don't even get me started about Spam. Luckily my hosting company has a very good Spam filter, so I don't see most of it. Occasionally, I empty the Spam folder on the mail server and I'm always shocked at how many messages there are. Usually there are thousands of them.

Early this afternoon Dash seemed to have recovered and we took a nice walk. It doesn't really matter when Dash feels like walking. I've always got the time. I think it's great that he still has the desire to do things. Sometimes he has more desire than I do. Dash tires very easily and sleeps a lot, but when he's ready to go, we go.

I'd like to think the sunshine I saw today was a hopeful sign. Unfortunately, there are thunderstorms in the forecast for Friday. At least our weather isn't quite as bad as last February. If I remember correctly, it rained all month. The rainy season will be over eventually. The wildflowers will return. They won't last long though. When Summer arrives I'll be thinking that all this February rain was just an illusion.

Odie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3112

I heard the neighbor calling his dog this morning. This was the dog that bit me. The voice wasn't coming from the neighbor's yard. It was coming from down the street. Damn. The dog had gotten loose again. Luckily, I had already finished walking Dash, but I didn't feel comfortable going outside for the rest of the day.

I called the electrician again to see when he was coming to fix the security light. He said he tried to call me last Thursday. I never got the call. Who knows what happened? Maybe the call got intercepted by Nomorobo and was never put through. Maybe the phone actually rang and I didn't answer because I thought it was a telemarketer. This happens a lot with service people. They use their personal cell phones now to call customers. If I don't see a company name on caller ID or I don't recognize the number, I don't answer. The guy could have left a message, but he probably don't want to come over anyway. He promised that they would still fix the light, but didn't say when.

My second call was to the guitar store to let them know I was on my way. Oops. I should have read the website more carefully. The place isn't open on Mondays. It isn't open in the mornings either. Actually the place isn't open much at all. The guys did say that a lot of their business was out-of-state. I guess having a retail storefront isn't all that important. I really shouldn't complain about any of this. My appointment was for tomorrow anyway. I just wanted to go today because I was bored.

Since I couldn't get my guitars appraised, I decided to fix the crack in the sheetrock instead. I would never make a good tape and bed guy. I can't seem to apply the drywall mud smoothly. I'll let the stuff dry and try to sand it smooth tomorrow. This will make a lot of dust, but I can't see any alternative. I've seem people apply mud so smoothly that you don't even need to sand. This type of finesse is out of my league. Oh, well. At least the joint compound is easier to clean up than glue.

I heard on the news that the raw sewage crisis has been averted. The city managed to divert the sewage spill to storm drains so the mess will never reach the lake. Who knows where the storm drains go. I think the lake is being reopened for recreational use tomorrow. I'm really glad that the lake won't be filled with dead fish and disease. This little oasis is one of the nicest things about this part of town.

The truck with my art should have arrived in New York by now, but I still haven't heard anything. I'm trying to avoid making a worried call to the auction house. The stuff is insured, so I should just forget about it. It's hard to do though. It doesn't matter if it is the post office, UPS, or some fancy fine art shipper. I always think something disastrous is going to happen during shipping. I'm sure the auction people will give me a call later this week. I just hate to wait.

Tomorrow, I'll probably paint the wall I patched today if the surface looks smooth enough. If Dash is doing well, I'll go to the guitar store too. He was a little shaky today. This heat is tough on him. I think it's tough on everybody.

Bud is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2940

I thought the weatherman made a mistake this morning when he was predicting snow. The temperature was in the mid-50's and the skies were clearing. It looked like it was going to be a nice day. Just a few hours later, I realized the weatherman was right. Between Dash's morning walk and his evening walk, the temperature dropped thirty degrees and the skies became dark and ominous. This was Texas weather at it's finest. It still amazes me how quickly things can change.

It was a quiet day, but I got a lot done. I finished my second article and shipped it off to the client. The client acknowledged the article and even thanked me, so I'm taking this as a sign that things will go smoothly again. With my writing chores out of the way, I did some minor maintenance on the few websites I still manage. I wish there was more to do, but at least I was busy for a while.

I spent way too much time deciding what to get for dinner, but ended up just going to the neighborhood Pei Wei and ordering a rice bowl. I like Pei Wei, but am convinced that they just cook one thing and give it different names. I've ordered just about everything on the menu by now and it all tastes exactly the same. I'm not being critical. There is a dependable consistency to these meals. Maybe it's just me. I don't claim to have a very sophisticated palate. All Chili's hamburgers taste the same to me too.

Dash was in good spirits today. Sometimes it's easy to forget his many medical problems. On a good day he just seems like a normal dog. He's been eating well for quite a while now, but somehow his feeding schedule has changed. We eat dinner so early these days. I usually eat my own dinner right after I feed Dash and found myself warming up my rice bowl in the microwave at 4 PM. This is quite a change, considering that we used to eat at 7 PM.

I wonder why I get so many telemarketing calls? It seemed like the phone rang every ten minutes today. Everyone in the universe must have our number by now. I have Nomorobo installed, so the phone only rings once but it still gets irritating. I think every time you list your phone number on an application it ends up getting sold to a telemarketer. This intrusive new world would have driven my Dad crazy. He always answered the phone. I never do. The only reason I keep the landline is that I'm convinced the telemarketers would follow me to my cell phone if the land line wasn't there to absorb the continuous barrage of callers. They say Nomorobo is available for iPhones now too. I'll have to check into it.

It was so cold when I took the trash out this evening that I'm considering just fixing breakfast at home tomorrow. If the forecast is right, Dash might not even get a morning walk. It is supposed to be well below freezing at sunrise. All this is making pancakes at home sound pretty good.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2102

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to stay connected. 95% of all the phone calls I receive are telemarketers. Nomorobo takes care of a lot of the nuisance calls, but I continue to be amazed at how persistent some people are. Some telemarketers still continue to call several times a day. Do these people really think I'm an idiot? My e-mail is just as bad. There are industrial strength spam filters on both the server and my local e-mail client and still a lot of the spam manages to get through. I never even open these messages, but some of the headers are so preposterous that it makes you wonder what the spammers were thinking. Are there really that many people out there who are dumb as rocks and would fall for these schemes? Maybe there are. I don't think these guys would be so persistent if people weren't falling onto their traps.

I've noticed that the daily bombardment of e-mail spam and telemarketing messages has steadily increased as I grow older. I'm sure they're thinking that if they keep trying, eventually I'll become senile and pick up the phone. It happened to my Dad. He was a brilliant scientist, but when senility began to cloud his brain, he fell for one of those Nigerian scams where someone will tell you that they won the Canadian lottery, but can't claim the prize because they can't afford to pay the tax. They offer to share the lottery winnings with their unsuspecting victim, if he or she will help them pay the tax. I don't know how my Dad fell for such a preposterous scheme, but he was living alone and couldn't resist picking up the phone. He lost everything he made selling his house a few years earlier. If the FBI hadn't stepped in and warned his bank to block large withdrawals, he would have lost even more.

It's sad that the world has come to this. Instead of being open and inclusive, you are forced to put up barriers. I find it hard to trust anyone in today's world. When I'm driving I feel like everyone else on the road is driving without a license or insurance. In Dallas I have good reason to feel this way. I wasn't happy when the Ebola outbreak hit our city a few years ago, because it seemed like someone let down their guard. When I watch the current European refugee crisis on TV, I am convinced that there are ISIS members cleverly mixed in with the hordes of people who are just trying to escape some very horrible conditions. Sometimes I'm envious of friends who go out to Burning Man for a week and manage to convince themselves that the world is full of rainbows and unicorns. I'm pretty observant and I just don't see much to be encouraged about.

Dot certainly didn't provide a lot of encouragement today. She seemed tired. We had to slow down the treadmill a bit during her physical therapy session because she just didn't have the energy. She was only able to go fifteen minutes this week. It's hard to keep the balance of exercise and rest just right. Maybe it was just the weather. It was warmer today and Dot had gotten used to the cooler weather we were having earlier in the week. We'll rest tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll rest tonight as well.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Dash has a cancer re-check in the morning and I'm not anticipating any problems. He certainly seems healthy now. I've already taken this week's trash out to the curb and am hoping that the truck empties my entire can this time. Friday's are usually good. No matter what happens, I know I can depend on a good breakfast.
 

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1935

I never could decide what day it was today. Janet was off work, so it seemed like Saturday when I woke up. After I walked Dash, I went and had my regular Friday restaurant breakfast anyway and then it seemed like Friday for a while. A lot of people seemed to be having a holiday picnic in the park today, but the mail got delivered and the bank was open. My Jewish clients took the day off for Passover, but very few of my Christian clients took the day off for Good Friday. I wonder why the stock market was closed and the banks were open? For most of the morning I thought it was Saturday and then several of my clients started sending me website revisions and I thought it was Friday again. It was a very confusing day.

Dot seemed tired today. I hope we didn't work her too hard on the treadmill yesterday. Janet thinks I worry too much. The vet thinks I worry when I should. And I always think that I'm overlooking something terribly important that could cause a setback. I don't spend much time thinking about my own health, but I really want Dot's recovery to go as smoothly as possible.

I learned how to make those transparent frames that you often see on birthday card websites. These frames allow people to superimpose their own uploaded pictures inside a transparent area on a pre-existing template to create their own customized postcards to share on social media. I knew Photoshop could do this, but it took me a while to get all the layers in the right order. I finally figured everything out and uploaded the finished template to my client's iPhone app. Yes, clients aren't content with websites anymore. They want their own iPhone and Android apps. I guess this makes sense, since everyone except me finds most of their information using their phone these days. Call me old fashioned, but I still use the desktop computer for almost everything. Just about the only thing I use my phone for is to take pictures and to check how many steps my UP band has logged for the day.

Every once in a while Facebook is actually useful. A friend was complaining about telemarketers on her feed a few days ago and someone else left a comment said she ought to try Nomorobo to eliminate all the robo-calls. I was intrigued and looked up Nomorobo on Google. It was free and seemed to work with my U-verse phone system, so I installed it. Almost immediately, the number of telemarketing calls I receive dropped dramatically. I don't really know how this works or why it is offered for free, but I'm glad someone told me about it. Telemarketers are the bane of my existence. Sometimes I get fifteen calls a day. If this service can cut that number down to five calls a day, it is definitely worth it.

Since I thought it was Saturday for most of the day, I'll probably think it is Sunday tomorrow. It really doesn't make much different which day it is. Weekend errands are still just weekend errands on either day. There are still bills to pay, groceries to buy, and a new lawn that needs to be watered.

When I was a kid, my parents always use to wake us up really early on Easter morning and take us to an Easter Sunrise Service that was held in a drive-in theater for some reason. My Mom, if she were still alive, would be upset that I haven't maintained this tradition. If I see the sunrise at all, I will be walking Dash.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day