Day 2359 - Memorial Day

Memorial Day makes me think of my parents. They both served in the Navy during World War II. Neither of them was career military, but their service mattered to them in a way I never fully understood. Tom Brokaw was right when he described people like my Mom and Dad as the Greatest Generation. They had a determination and sense of purpose that has not been seen since. When I reached the age where men serve in the military, I had very ambiguous feelings about Vietnam. I've had ambiguous feelings about war ever since. People like my parents didn't feel this ambiguity. They knew with absolute certainty that the Germans and the Japanese must be defeated and that's what they did. The world is different now, but it isn't necessarily better. We've lost that sense of purpose that made my parents generation so unique. On days like today, I remember how special they were and wonder if we will ever see anything like them again.

It was a beautiful day today, but it didn't really seem like a holiday. Janet went in to work after we gave the dogs their morning walk and I ended up spending most of the day working on a new writing assignment. I could have waited, but the client said this was a time sensitive job and I still like to be responsive. The park was full of picnickers this afternoon, but I had no desire to join them outside. Sitting in an air conditioned house and writing seemed to make a lot more sense that working in the yard and getting bit by hundreds of mosquitoes.

May is gone. Only one more day left. I'm a Gemini with a birthday in June, but I'm not really looking forward to it. Birthdays just remind me how old I am. I wish time would slow down a bit. I still feel like I've got places to go and things to do, but I could easily spend the rest of my time doing laundry if I'm not careful. Maybe tomorrow I'll be filled with a sense of purpose. I could use a sense of purpose. It wouldn't have to be the same sense of purpose my parents had, but anything would be beneficial at this point. I need to aim for something more realistic than making Dot young again but more ambitious than cleaning the car.

We're going to try to resume Dot's water therapy this week. That's a little ambitious, but not too much. Dot has been getting stronger and we've got to try sometime. We'll also be meeting with the dog walker who is going to be helping with Dot while Janet is on vacation. I could use a vacation too, but now is not the time. Until that time comes, I'll amuse myself with discovering more efficient ways to clean up dog poop and experimenting with different ingredients in my morning smoothie. I've got fresh peaches this week.

Ollie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1427

It was one of those days. I was late to a meeting, but when I arrived full of excuses for my tardiness, I discovered that my client had completely forgotten about the meeting and I had to reschedule anyway. This was the start of a day jam-packed with miscommunication.

The service that put my account on auto-renewal without my knowledge is now saying that I have to formally request a discontinuation of service in writing before I can leave them. When I asked why, they said the necessity of making a cancellation request in writing was listed right on the back of their invoice. I looked on the back of the invoice I had just received and this unusual requirement was nowhere to be found. I can already tell that severing ties with this bunch is going to be a problem.

 I took a bunch of stuff from this weekend's rescue event back to the storage warehouse today. Janet told me later that I had taken back the wrong stuff, so I'll have to go back and bring it all back home again. I guess we're going to use some of the stuff at the Santa Paws photo events that begin later this month. There are a bunch of these fundraising photo events this year. Since my knees are even worse than they were last year, it makes me tired just thinking about photographing dogs all day.

There was one silver lining in the largely dark cloud that was today. I got some lab results back that said my lipids and cholesterol levels were all back within the normal range again. My glucose and blood sugar levels have come back to acceptable levels as well. Now, all I've got to do is get my liver working as well as my other organs.

I clicked on one of those "would you like to upgrade" buttons that frequently appear when you launch certain types of software. When the upgrade finished installing itself, I discovered that it would no longer work. After spending almost an hour trying to track down the problem, I discovered that the new upgrade will only work with the new Mavericks operating system. Jeez, it would have been nice if the company had told me this before I clicked the upgrade button. I don't want or even need Mavericks yet. I was eventually able to re-install an older version of the software, but I wasn't able to regain the time I lost messing around trying to fix this irritating problem.

Maybe everything will click smoothly into place tomorrow. One can always hope. Dash has a vet appointment and there's a writing assignment with a tight deadline as well. As long as the sun is shining, I should be able to get everything done without a problem.

Today is Veteran's Day. I noticed that a lot of people were changing their profile picture to World War II era photos of their Dad in uniform. This is a nice tribute, but it made me wonder if this tradition will continue when today's children grow up. They didn't call our parents The Greatest Generation for nothing. Today, we all express gratitude to those who serve, but fewer and fewer of us have actually worn a uniform ourselves. It's a much different world than our parents lived in. I'm not sure it's a better world though. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day