Day 2515

Today was so disorganized that it was almost time for lunch by the time I finally finished breakfast. I wasn't able to get Dot outside in time this morning, so we started the day with lots of rugs to wash. I can't decide whether cleaning up pee or poop is worse. When Dot looses bladder control on the way out the door, the mess certainly covers a wider swath of territory. Dash decided to take a fairly long walk this morning, but that only put me further behind. Dot was sleeping peacefully when I started breakfast, but Dash decided that he wasn't getting enough bananas and began barking loudly enough to wake her up. Since Dot is almost deaf, it takes a pretty loud bark to get her riled up. Basically, this morning was a three ring circus.

My watch keeps telling me to stop and take a deep breath. This is so irritating that I almost feel like learning how to use Siri, just so I can tell the watch to shut up. I'm tired of the continual barrage of software upgrades from Apple. Most are designed for newer hardware and tend to make older equipment like mine run worse. This fact doesn't keep Apple from annoying me with upgrade notices though. I'm still running Mountain Lion on my office computers. I think this was the last good system they made. I wish I'd stopped upgrading my phone. It hasn't been stable and reliable since IOS 7.

When I did finally get around to turning on my computer today, I was greeted with a complicated website update request. I dread updating this particular website, because I didn't design it and still can't really figure out how it works. The client should have kept the original designer, because every time I look at this site, it gives me a headache. I think I made most of the changes correctly, but one or two things still have be puzzled.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. I always worry about the first rain after a roof repair. Will the repair survive?  Will it perform well?  You never know. I really hope that everything holds up as promised, because Lord knows when I'll be able to get these roofers to come out again.

I can't figure out whether Dot is feeling better or worse. She's more active than she was a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure what this means. She wants to move around more often, but she isn't any stronger. Sometimes when I take her outside, she just stares off into space and doesn't seem to know where she is. There are other times when her brain appears to be working just fine. It's pretty obvious that she's beginning to show some signs of senility. I try to be kind and patient with Dot and hope that someone will return the favor when I become senile. Losing your mind is a terrible thing.

I wonder why my appetite keeps decreasing?  I'm just not as hungry as I used to be. It's easy to eat less for dinner, but I'm having a hard time with my breakfast smoothie. After months of experimenting, I finally got the taste just right. Now I have to figure out how to adjust the ingredients without changing the taste. It's harder than it seems. If I stop using a whole banana, what do I do with the leftover part? The easy answer would be to just eat it, but that would defeat the whole purpose. I'm trying to eat less.

Leftover bananas and dog poop are what I worry about these days. You guys can worry about who's going to start World War III. 

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1385

I finally upgraded to IOS 7 today. Janet kind of shamed me into the upgrade, since she already upgraded her own phone a few days ago and experienced no problems. I used to be the first to adopt any new technology, but lately I've been dragging my feet. When I get familiar with something now, I'd just as soon keep it forever. Now that IOS 7 is up and running however, I'm wondering what all the fuss was about. I don't particularly like the new flat page layout, or the way apps open and close, but other than that, everything seems to work just as before. They say that Siri works a lot better with the new operating system. I wouldn't know. I never talk to my phone.

Monday seems to be the one day I can always make it to the gym. I can tell that I'm getting stronger, since I can do more repetitions on the resistance machines now. There are still no signs of increased muscle mass however. If anything, I seem even thinner than before. Several people at the golf tournament yesterday said I looked way too thin. Who knows? For the most part, my doctors have applauded my weight loss, because it reduces the risk of diabetes, but maybe I've gone too far.

I continue to experiment with a variety of cloud based widgets and apps to improve the websites I manage. Today, I replaced several manually created calendars with Google calendars. I don't know why I never tried this before. Now I've got self updating calenders that I don't have to mess with. For years, one of the first things I did every month was go and create new HTML code for the sites that had calendars. These Google calendars are so much easier. I can even designate someone else to update them and add upcoming events.

It's hard to believe that it's October already. Where has this year gone? Now, there's just Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in quick succession and the year will be over. Time goes by so quickly now. There have been a lot of superficial changes this year, but it doesn't feel like anything has changed. I still get up every morning and do exactly the same things as I did last year. Hey, the dogs are still healthy. That's the important thing.

Friends are telling me that I've become way too negative. It's weird that my own perception is so different. I just like to think that I have an perversely ironic sense of humor.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1010

I must be a glutton for punishment. Even after being stuck in customer service hell with an AT&T call center agent this afternoon, I still think I'm going to go get a new iPhone tomorrow. Yeah, I've heard all the arguments on Google+ that the Android is better, but the Samsung Galaxy phones are simply too big for me. It's like putting a small tablet in your pocket. Definitely not for me. I've used Apple products since the original 1984 512K Fat Mac and see little reason to switch horses this late in the game.

Maybe I can get that new Siri personal assistant thing to be my friend. I really don't have many questions to ask, but if I could set the phone to just let me ramble on and have Siri interject with an occasional "I agree completely" or "You're a genius" it would make my day.

That's the problem with the dogs. Even though they're both as friendly as can be, neither of them think I'm any smarter than they are. I'm convinced that they think I'm just another dog. Although Dot and Dash may be right about my abilities, it would still be nice to have someone look up to you. If I get than new phone, I'll have to work on getting Siri to think I'm a genius.

I might as well throw my rototiller away. The armadillo that visits our yard every night is doing a much better job of tilling the soil than I ever did. I can't believe how destructive this little creature is. After less than a week of hunting for grubs, the armadillo has totally destroyed what was left of the backyard grass. I don't even know how the animal is getting in and out of the yard. The yard is completely fenced with no gaps large enough for an armadillo to crawl through. I don't think he's still in the yard during the day though, or the dogs would have found him by now.

Hey, at least it's Friday tomorrow. Maybe I'll get a brand new phone. Maybe I'll just get a big stack of pancakes with a side of bacon. Either way, the day will probably be more interesting than it was today.

Rosie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1002

I had a photo shoot today. Not only does my equipment seem to be getting heavier, it is getting older as well. I had problems getting the strobes to sync with the camera. I'm still not sure what the problem was, but I'm sure it has something do to with how long ago I purchased the Norman strobes. Luckily, I had a Plan-B and was able to complete the assignment. One of the reasons the equipment is so heavy is that I always bring way more than I need. You never know when something is going to break and apparently today was one of those days.

The dead tree is gone from my roof. While the tree guys were here,  I had the rest of the trees in the yard trimmed as well. The yard looks pretty good now. There's a good chance we'll make it through the Winter without another big limb falling.

I don't know why I'm still so naive about repair services. I actually thought the guy who came over to give me an estimate on the trees would be the same guy who trimmed them. When I heard chain saws and went out in the yard to say hello to the tree guy, I was greeted by a Mexican who spoke very little English. I guess that's just the way it is with landscapers, roofers, and arborists. Plumbers still seem to do their own work. There's a good chance that if you call a plumber for an estimate, the same guy will show up to work on your toilet. Don't even get me started about remodeling contractors. When you hire a remodeling contractor, you never know who is going to show up on the job.

I wasn't exactly overwhelmed with the new iPhone 5. It seems pretty similar to the iPhone I already have. Sure, it would be nice to have a better camera, but I doubt that I'd even use many of the other features. I'd certainly never use that talking Siri thing. I don't even talk to people all that much. Why would I start talking to my phone?

When I talked to Dash tonight at training class, he actually seemed to listen. Both dogs did very well in class. The sky was clear and the temperature was near perfect. The only thing that marred the evening was the sound of me continually blowing my nose into a blue shop towel. Yes, my allergies have returned.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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