Day 4625

We got more rain overnight, but it was over by morning. Dawn was able to get her sunrise walk and the temperature was nice and cool. I was surprised that the water level in the lake looked normal even though we've had an enormous amount of rain in the past few days. We must have timed things right this morning because we encountered no bicycles and very few runners. We did see a lot of ducks though. I wish every morning was like this. It was a very pleasant walk.

Since the weather was so nice, I decided to take a walk in the park instead of going to the gym. I left the house right after breakfast because I knew how quickly the weather could change if the sun came out. It was heavily overcast and there was a light mist, but even that was nice. It seemed like a treat to be able to walk without immediately getting hot and sweaty. It was surprising how quickly the meadows have turned green again after a few days of rain. There was very little standing water though. The ground was so dry that it probably immediately just absorbed all the water.

I was determined to get something done today. After a light lunch I went to the T-Mobile store and tried to update my non-functional Internet hotspot. The little hotspot quit working about a month ago because it was very old and still used 3G for connectivity. The phone company warned me that the unit was obsolete and would quit working when they pulled the plug on their 3G network. I've been avoiding having yet another expense, but I hate to travel without an Internet hotspot. The hotspot has been great when there are power outages at the house as well. 

The new 5G hotspot is a little bigger than my old companion but it still fits in my pocket. It took a lot longer for the T-Mobile guys to get me hooked up than I though, but everything is working now. It took a long time for them to find my account because they look for a phone number to find your records. The old hotspot has a phone number but I had no idea what it was. I just turn it on and connect whatever device I want to use to the hotspot WiFi. Eventually they found my account by taking out the SIM card and using the SIM card ID to find my account. Oddly the new hotspot uses the same phone number as the old one. The guys told me to write this number down in case I need it in the future.

On the way home I stopped at Home Depot and got a new extension cord so I could get the second pump on the roof working again. I got a heavier gage cord this time because maybe the old cord was too light to handle the pump's amperage. The heavier the cord, the more expensive it is. It's probably directly related to the price of copper. There was a display of electrical wire next to the extension cords and I was amazed at how expensive copper wire has become. I don't know why I was surprised. Everything is a lot more expensive now.

Hopefully I won't need to climb up on the roof again for a while. Both pumps are working now. It's amazing that doing one or two things can use up an entire day. Tomorrow I'll try to check a few more things off my list. The Artemis rocket is waiting for me and I've still got a lot to do.

Mickey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3499

It's weird to go this long without talking to anyone. I don't spend a huge amount of time talking with Janet but I rarely talk to anyone else. Usually there isn't a need. After I finish the blog each evening there is nothing more to say. I guess I must have talked to the dogs in the past when Janet was traveling. The house is strangely silent now.

It is particularly quiet right now because U-Verse is down again. Usually this is our most expensive utility bill but the service is not particularly reliable. I'd switch to another provider, but Spectrum is even worse. The worst thing about U-Verse is that when you do have a problem you have to talk with an offshore customer service representative who can barely speak English. It's very frustrating to talk with someone on the other side of the world when you know there's probably just a problem with the line a few blocks away. I try to avoid calling these people because the problem sometimes fixes itself in a couple of hours. I always have an alternate way to get on the Internet. AT&T disappoints me frequently but my trusty little T-Mobile WiFi hotspot hasn't failed me yet.

The water level in the lake has been slowly dropping all month. It's been very dry. Today I noticed that one of the shallow bays had completely dried up. Like the age spot on my arm, this also seemed to happen overnight. I haven't seen the water level this low in many years. I guess we need some rain.  The odd thing was that it wasn't particularly hot today. On the news they even said we were having a cold wave. It's strange to think of 80 degree temperatures as a cold wave, but this is Texas.

I was happy to see the cooler temperatures. I knew they wouldn't last long so I made a point to mow the grass this afternoon. There is still a big dead spot where the huge pile of brush used to be but maybe it will fill in if we ever get some rain. This is the perfect time to make repairs to the roof, but I haven't received any of the silicon coating the roofer promised yet. Probably there will be a can of the stuff on my doorstep on the day it rains.

It's hard to find anything to photograph in the middle of July. The meadows in the park are becoming brown and dry. Most of the wildflowers are gone now except for the Firewheel plants and a few Morning Glories. I did find a Buttonbush that had seen better days. The spherical flowers would have been much more impressive if I'd found them a month ago.

I hate how clumsy I've become. I cut my finger with a kitchen knife while I was slicing a watermelon this afternoon. I rarely even eat watermelon but I had to go slicing one today. I guess I learned my lesson. This wasn't a bad cut but it feels like a paper cut right on the tip of my index finger. Irritating. I'm feeling this thing every time I type.

Every year I get this small gift card from the electric company. It's some kind of rebate for being a good customer. I wish they would just lower my bill a little instead. I almost always buy stuff online now, so I never know what to do with this card. To make matters worse, the card always expires a few months after the electric company sends it out. It's about to expire now so I need to go out and buy something I don't need before it becomes useless like it did last year. Maybe I'll do this tomorrow. Hey, I already mowed the grass. I need something to do.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2349

Sometimes I hate the Internet. For several days I've been having trouble connecting to some of my clients websites. My Internet Service Provider says the problem is being caused by the hosting company and the hosting company says the problem is being caused by my ISP. Neither side will admit that they are the reason I can't connect to at least a dozen websites, including my own. I suspect that my ISP is blocking several servers, but they won't admit blocking anyone, despite the fact that it appears to be common knowledge on Google.

I get tired of messing with the problem and switch to my alternate Internet Service Provider. Now, all the missing websites reappear, but within minutes I get an e-mail saying that an unauthorized person is trying to access my Google account. I change my password twice, but can't seem to shake the mystery person trying to login from Denver. I start to think I've got a virus and run all kinds of searches for Malware on my computer. I turn up an odd invisible cache file in my Firefox browser and delete it. The problem seems to go away and then I am mysteriously able to reconnect to everything using my primary ISP. I finally track down the IP address of the unauthorized computer in Denver and begin to suspect that it is my own account. Now, I'm really confused. It appears that AT&T blocks my web server occasionally and T-Mobile connects me to the Internet in Denver instead of Dallas for some unexplained reason. I'll never remember my new passwords. My best guess now is that I wasted hours and hours trying to track down an intruder who was actually me.

I'm starting to get some of my most complicated website update assignments on Friday afternoon. It's been this way for the past month or two. This means that I have to work during the weekends, even though I often have nothing to do during the week. I got started on one of these updates this afternoon, but didn't even come close to getting it finished. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow. Hey, the client is always right, but it sure would have been nice if I could have done these updates last Tuesday.

I went back to the hipster restaurant this morning. I'm really just floundering around now. My well oiled Friday breakfast ritual appears to have crashed and burned. I have lots of place to eat, but I no longer have a special place that knows me so well that they start cooking my meal the moment I walk in the door. That's what I liked best before everything changed. I could just walk in, sit at my favorite table and didn't even have to talk. The staff just knew what I wanted.

My car was supposed to be ready this afternoon, but the dealership called and told me that it wouldn't be ready until sometime next week. I shouldn't have been surprised, since delays like this used to be commonplace. I had one speedy repair a few months ago and thought that everything had changed. Silly me. Nothing really changes. My broker wants to talk. I suspect this means that he didn't like the letter I sent. I'm kind of dreading this talk because I know he'll still try to convince me that the stocks he likes are a good investment. Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. I'm just getting sick of the stock market in general.

I can't really tell if Dot is getting stronger or not.  She appears to have more energy now, but we're only walking her half as much as we were a few weeks ago. Change can be deceiving if it happens slowly enough. Do I set the bar lower with Dot, or do I gradually try to increase her activity again? Do I change brokers or try harder to understand his strategy? Did I get hacked today, or am I just brain dead? Sometimes it's hard to know these things.

Harley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2044

Dash's blood pressure medication isn't working. When we tested him today, his blood pressure was just as high as it has always been. The vet asked me if I'd like to borrow the blood pressure cuff and take another reading at home when Dash was calm. "He is calm," I said. "This is the way he always is." We're going to have to try a different blood pressure medication. It will probably take just as long to find something effective for Dash as it did for me. I've tried three different blood pressure medications, and none of them is perfect. The reason I took Dash to the vet in the first place was to see if his treatment for Lyme Disease worked. It turns out that that there is no reliable way to test whether the antibiotics worked. We'll just have to have a urinalysis done frequent to make sure there is no kidney damage. I suspect the treatment worked though. Dash shows no symptoms of Lyme Disease whatsoever.

My new website project is finished. I was told today that the design was approved and to go ahead and bill the project. This is good news, but now I'm going to have to find something else to do. Web projects are nice because they keep me occupied longer than writing. I can usually finish my writing assignments in a single day, but it usually takes me at least a week to design a new website from scratch. It's hard to find the right balance of work. I like to be busy enough so I'm not bored, but I don't want to be so busy that I'm stressed out all the time. There's enough stress just dealing with the dogs. I don't need work related stress in my life anymore. Been there, done that.

I guess whatever the U-verse technician did yesterday worked. I've had no problems with my connection all day. Actually, my download speed seem faster, which is almost unheard of with U-verse. They rarely make anything faster. I wish the service was reliable enough that I could just drop my backup T-Mobile broadband account. Every time I think I don't need the T-Mobile hotspot though, our power goes out, or the U-verse Internet gets flaky. I've posted by blog entry quite a few times using the little T-Mobile  4-G hotspot. When it works, U-verse is fabulous. I just don't think it's ready for prime time yet.

I was editing pictures today and came across some old photos I'd taken of Dot and Dash when they were young and active. It was startling to see the differences between then and now. Both dogs were racing around in an open field at full speed. I had forgotten how fast and graceful Dot used to be. She absolutely loved to run. It was sad to see these pictures of her flying through the air and realize that she will never run again. We will be lucky if she can even continue walking using the Help 'Em Up Harness. Dash is still as healthy as a cancer survivor can be, but he's slowed down quite a bit too. I suppose from the right vantage point, Janet and I have slowed down as well. I prefer not to think about that though. The dogs are lucky in a way. When my own legs begin to get wobbly, I'm not sure who's going to be there to keep me moving.

That's all in the future though. I'll still be moving tomorrow. There are dogs to take care of and assignments to finish. It's going to be another hot July day. I wish it was Friday tomorrow, but I can always pretend it's Friday. All these days are more or less the same.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1984

Today didn't exactly go as planned. I didn't get my car back from the shop because, after the wheel was repaired, the paint shop didn't match the color of the other three wheels. It has to go back to the paint shop for a new, and hopefully more accurate, powder coating. The U-verse service technician didn't arrive as promised either. I waited and waited and finally the guy showed up around 4:30 PM. He was supposed to arrive at 1 PM. Since Dot is hard of hearing, she didn't notice when the technician knocked on the door. Several minutes later she saw him in the living room and barked so hard that she pooped on the carpet. This is why you don't want to get an old dog too excited. Barking and pooping often happen simultaneously.

It turns out that the U-verse problem wasn't the router, the TV receiver, the WiFi hub, or anything else in the house. The entire line that runs down the alley has gone bad and needs to be replaced. My technician said that they needed a different type of technician to fix the wire, so I've got a new service appointment for tomorrow. U-verse service is still down. Oddly, even though U-verse is down, Roku, Hulu, Chromecast, and the pet cam, which all connect to the same IP network still work. In many ways losing U-verse is no great loss. Telemarketers are the only people who call on the land line. Roku and Hulu a pretty good alternative to U-verse TV. And my little T-Mobile 4G hotspot is even faster than U-verse Internet service. I wonder why I even bother with U-verse.

Since I was stuck in the house for most of the day waiting for the U-verse technician to arrive, I had lots of time to work on various Internet projects. I added some online forms to one client's site and had enough time left over to finish my first real mobile site. The site looked pretty good, so I went ahead and launched it. Hopefully the client will like what I've done. If they don't, I built in a back-door that will let me revert to the old site very quickly if needed. Working this way is so much faster than trying to schedule a meeting to present something. I don't mind changing things if I've gotten something wrong. It's easy to get feedback from clients if a site is live and almost impossible if they're just speculating about something that doesn't even exist yet.

It looks like the rain is going to continue through the weekend. According to the long-range forecast on my phone, the rain will continue forever. The app looks ahead two weeks and there is a little thunderstorm icon on every single day. It's rained so relentlessly that I'm actually starting to adapt to it. I've rigged up a pump on the roof that will remove about 80% of the water with me needing to be up there. This won't keep the roof dry, but it will significantly reduce the weight of the standing water and make it easier for me to sweep off the remaining water when the rain quits. I'm becoming adapt at finding dry intervals to walk the dogs too. Even the rainiest days have little gaps between the storms.

Supposedly my car will be finished tomorrow and U-verse service will be restored. I kind of doubt that either of those things will happen. The only thing I'm sure of is that the dogs will get two walks and we'll all enjoy a good breakfast

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1875

Dash took his last Palladia pill today. He is officially finished with his chemotherapy treatment. Dash is scheduled for another three-month re-check with his oncologist on Wednesday, but I think we are finally done. We've been doing this chemo routine for so long now that it will seem weird not to don the purple rubber hazardous material gloves every few days to put his medication in a little dogfood meatball for him to eat right after his dinner. Dash seems very healthy now, and I hope he stays that way.

With cancer treatment behind us and last week's satellite launch fading to a fond memory, life has definitely returned to normal. I have re-entered the world of slow drains, toilets that run, impossible deadlines, and birds that poop on my car. To add insult to injury, the weather has returned to normal as well. Instead of yesterday's almost balmy 65 degree temperatures, we woke up to a very chilly 23 degree hard freeze. I don't know how it got so cold in just a few hours, but I didn't dwell on it. We all bundled up and got the day started with a brisk morning walk.

There was lots to do today. I started logging the video footage I shot last week so I can begin editing  soon. There were several website edits I need to make for clients, along with the inevitable pile of bills to pay. I tried to see if I could teach Quickbooks to automate some of these recurring payments, but my version of the software is out of date and doesn't seem to support EFT. It was easier to just write a check and take it to the post office than to figure out something new.

When I went to pick up prescriptions this afternoon, I stopped by the T-Mobile store to see if they knew why my little 4G hotspot didn't work while I was in California. They didn't. This handy gizmo used to be a lifesaver on business trips, but increasingly I find that the mobile hotspot is being blocked by many hotel WiFi systems. I probably don't even need the hotspot anymore, since so many phones offer tethered Internet access these days. I could probably save a lot of money if I could just systematically eliminate things like this that I no longer need. But what do you give up when you think you need everything? I could have actually used that mobile hotspot in California if it had worked.

I'll probably spend half a day editing tomorrow and the other half of the day trying to figure out why Final Cut Pro isn't working properly. I guess I could use Avid Media Composer instead, but I find that it's easier to relearn things I've forgotten when using Final Cut Pro. I used to be so fast using these software tools. Use it or lose it, they say. I've almost lost it. I guess the only thing I do every single day now is write this blog. If I ever forget how to do this, I'm doomed.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 493

Well, I'm ready now for my new role as a roving Internet journalist. I found the 4G hotspot I wanted. It wasn't at the AT&T store. It was at the T-Mobile store across the street. Those guys shouldn't have put the hard sell on me yesterday. I probably wouldn't have even discovered the T-Mobile store if the AT&T guys hadn't been so pushy. All's well that ends well though. I ended up getting a 4G hotspot that five devices can hook up to, along with unlimited file transfer and no contract for less than AT&T was charging for a 5 GB file transfer limit with a two year contract.

The little hotspot fits in my pocket and works like a charm. Best of all, I can even use it with my iPad and iPhone. Now that I know I'll be able to upload something at the conference, it's time to figure out exactly what I'm going to be uploading. There are a lot of nifty little HD cameras that record to memory cards and save files in the native YouTube format. Sound is going to be the big hurdle. Since I will be doing mostly on the spot interviews, I will need to have good quality sound. I'm looking for a little inexpensive camera that has an external line or mic input, so I can use a better quality microphone. I still don't know if they'll let me in the building yet, but I definitely think I'm making progress on everything else.

Dot got her bandage off this afternoon, but she still can't do anything strenuous for the next three or four days or the wound might reopen. She seems completely back to normal and doesn't appear to be in any pain. It's going to be hard to keep her quiet for another three days. It's hard to get used to the appearance of her paw too. One toenail is completely gone, so the whole paw looks out of balance. Hopefully the nail will grow back in a couple of months.

It's hard to believe that Easter is this Sunday. The entire year has gone by in a blur. It's time for Dash to have his annual exam again next week. It's time for me to renew my drivers license. I hope I can do that online, since I hate to stand in those long lines at the DMV. I guess it's time to buy another lawnmower too. The grass in the front yard is starting to look pretty shabby and I still haven't been able to get the old mower to start. It's always something, isn't it. Maybe I'll make a little test video of the Dalmatians this weekend to see how long it take to upload things to YouTube. My grand plan of uploading straight from the conference exhibit hall isn't going to work very well if the video files take an hour to upload. I'm still not really sure how fast 4G is. The sales guys say it is five times faster than 3G. It would be nice if this were actually true.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day