Day 4915

When we walked Dawn this morning I could tell it was going to be a hot day. Our early morning walk was pleasant, but you could feel that the heat was coming. I should have just kept walking while the temperatures were still relatively cool, but I felt compelled to follow my regular routine. I came home, made the bed, ate my breakfast, washed the dishes, and then turned on the computer and checked my messages. By the time I was ready to walk again, it was already quite warm.

I tried wetting down my hat before I left the house, but that didn't help for long. The hat was dry again in thirty minutes. I wasn't very fast today, although my second mile was faster than my first. My last mile is always very slow. There are still a few ducks around Sunset Bay, but most have migrated north for the summer. I guess the city has finally realized that the bald eagles have gone because they took down the protective fencing that used to surround a long abandoned nest. While I'm walking I always wonder why I'm not at my air conditioned gym instead. Old habits die hard I guess.

I think I've figured out why AT&T was trying to get me to switch from U-Verse to a less expensive streaming plan. They've certainly never tried to save me money before. I did a little more research on streaming services today and discovered that their pricing structure is much like what I've experienced with my storage warehouse. They lure you in with a low initial price which usually goes away within three to six months. When you read the fine print you quickly realize that the regular price is much higher, and that pricing can change on a monthly basis. Eventually you will end up paying just as much for the streaming service as you do for traditional cable TV. Streaming services don't require a lot of service technicians and additional equipment either. I'm sure the phone company loves that. I've had U-Verse technicians out to the house many times to fix the system. All that goes away with a streaming service. As always, it comes down to money. The phone company makes more money selling you a streaming service. They can fire a lot of their service technicians and get rid of all the set-top boxes.

I tried the free trials for YouTube TV and Hulu to see if I might like streaming better than cable. Not so much. It's a lot easier to use the U-Verse TV remote than to navigate the convoluted on-screen menus of streaming TV. The bottom line is that U-Verse is definitely too expensive, but it's more convenient than the streaming services I tried. It's more convenient for me anyway. I guess I'll just forget about this for a while. I don't watch TV that much anyway. If Janet would rather have a streaming service, we can always switch later.

Dawn was predictably excited when Janet came home with the groceries this afternoon. She was disappointed that she didn't get an afternoon walk though. It was too hot. I don't think she would have enjoyed the walk. She didn't even want to stay outside very long when I took her out to pee. The sad thing is that Summer is just beginning. It's going to get a lot hotter pretty soon. There is good news though. I think the insulation we added with the new roof is already helping. It seems easier to keep the house cool than it did in previous years.

These weeks go by so quickly now. It's already time to make another grocery list. I need to get my shopping done early because there are thunderstorms in the forecast again. We'll see what happens tomorrow. The weather forecast is wrong at least half the time.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4914

I spent way too much time today trying to decide whether to abandon U-Verse and go to a streaming service instead. I don't know why I even care, since I don't watch TV much. It seems like something I need to do though. U-Verse is on the way out and AT&T doesn't want to support it anymore. I'm pretty sure our TV and home network will support streaming, but I'm always wary about doing anything new with electronics. There's always something they don't tell you about and you end up spending hours talking to a customer support person who doesn't really understand your problem. Streaming is a lot cheaper than U-Verse, but like everything else, the price is just an illusion. The price will keep going up year after year and then one day I will discover that it is actually more expensive than U-Verse.

My main reservation about streaming services is that they depend on my Internet connection which is never as fast as it claims to be. At least the U-Verse TV doesn't depend on WiFi or my network router. It just hooks up straight to the fiber optic cable. First world problems, I guess. I'm sure I'll end up getting some sort of streaming service and then end up hating it.

I had to pick up a prescription today and I still can't figure out how GoodRx works. The pills I picked up today had a list price of $113. On my Part-D prescription drug plan the Co-Pay was $18. On GoodRx the price was only $5.00. What is their business model? I don't see how they can offer prescription medicine so cheap, especially when the app is free to use. It does seem weird and more than a bit wrong that a prescription price could vary so much. $113 vs $5 is quite a big difference.

Not much happened today, but what else is new. We had a very pleasant early walk with Dawn and then I had a not so pleasant longer walk later in the day. The warmer weather still hasn't forced me to go to the gym, but I'm thinking about it more. Did I really walk in the park all last summer? I do remember some very hot days last year, but I don't remember fighting the heat every single day. I did used to go to the gym a lot more, although I can't remember why. One of these hot days will be a tipping point for me though. I'll go back to the gym and wonder why I didn't go sooner. The best thing about my gym is that it is always cold. When we start having triple digit days, it will be worth the drive just to stay cooler.

I'm still having trouble sleeping because of the pain in my shoulder. I'm pretty sure I just pulled a muscle mowing the grass, but Janet says I should see a doctor. I'll wait a while. If I went to the doctor for every ache and pain I had, I'd be going every day. If I went to an orthopedic guy about this, they would take an x-ray, tell me nothing is wrong, and then tell me to use Voltaren when I'm uncomfortable. Been there, done that.

This week has gone quickly. Tomorrow is grocery day for Dawn. It is her favorite day of the week. I'm not sure if I have a favorite day of the week. They all seem pretty much the same to me.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4913

I changed my phone plan today. I thought this would be easy, but nothing is easy these days. When I got home from the phone store my e-mailed receipt showed that my new rate was almost double my old rate. The whole point of the change of service was to save money, not to pay more. I called the store but they said I needed to call someone else. It turned out that a bunch of small mistakes were made and services I didn't want or need had been added. Everything is fixed now, or at least I think it is. We'll see when I get my new bill.

It was a slow day. I took the letter I wrote yesterday to the post office and called in a prescription renewal. That was about it. The rest of the day was just walking and eating. I did end up watching a live stream of the first static fire of the new Vulcan Centaur rocket. The excitement lasted about two seconds. I'd like to see this launch when it is scheduled later this year. I'm not sure how often I can afford to return to Kennedy Space Center though. 

Dawn's early morning walks are always enjoyable, but the temperature rises quickly. By the time I took my long walk later in the morning, it was already too hot. I keep saying that I'm going to start going back to the gym, but when the time comes it's always easier to just walk out the back door and go to the park. Sometimes I wonder why I keep doing this. The walks are boring and not really that strenuous. If I really wanted some serious exercise, I could do a lot more at the gym. I guess the walks are just an ideal way to kill time. I write articles for SpaceFlight from time to time and still update animal rescue websites, but I'm not that busy. I kind of miss the days when there was a deadline to meet every morning.

I've been hearing thunder all evening, but so far no rain. It's a big relief not to have to worry about roof leaks every time there is thunder and lightning. Now that the roof is no longer a problem, it has become even more evident that there are still many other problems with the house. Hopefully, it won't take me as long to fix the other things as it took to replace the roof. Problems are no longer a challenge. They are just a nuisance. I long for a world where nothing breaks or needs to be replaced.

When I went to the phone store today they tried to sell me on the idea of getting rid of U-Verse and getting a streaming service instead. They said they don't even sell U-Verse anymore. Streaming might be a good idea. I looked at the channel guide for U-Verse recently and half the channels are just ads or informercials now. Too bad I hate dealing with change. U-Verse is being discontinued. My computers are obsolete. My car is getting old. It's frustrating. I'd be happier if everything was just like it was in the 1980's. The 70's weren't so bad either. 

Janet said that Dawn did well at training class tonight. She doesn't listen to me, but she's a very smart dog. We'll see if anything interesting happens tomorrow. I still need to fix that screen door.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4699

It was chilly this morning. We got up a little later today, so we actually saw the sunrise on our sunrise walk with Dawn. Dawn likes the cooler weather, but I was ready to get back to the house where it was warmer. I never seem to be happy with the temperature. When it's hot, I wish it was cooler. When it's cold I wish it was warmer. I was happy with the skies though. It was a crystal clear morning with no pollen in the air.

After our weekend breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast, I did my weekly grocery shopping. Prices continue to rise. A case of bottled water was a dollar more than it was two weeks ago. My favorite beer has gone up in price as well. I wonder how long this will continue? These weekly price changes aren't dramatic, but they've been going on for months. Virtually everything costs considerably more than it did a year ago. Some prices have doubled.

I had been planning on going to the gym today, but changed my mind because the weather was so nice. By noon the temperature had warmed up enough so I could wear shorts again. My feet didn't bother me as much today, but I was pretty slow. I think I'm faster when I walk early. I didn't get on the road this afternoon until well after lunch. People are stopping me on my walk again to ask where the eagles are. I don't know why they think I would know, but I get asked about Nick and Nora, our two resident eagles, almost every day now. They are definitely in the area, but I've only seen them once so far.

I was paying some online bills this afternoon and discovered that my cable bill has disappeared. U-verse isn't even on the AT&T menu anymore. It looks like they are discontinuing the service and I am grandfathered in somehow. I finally found where my bill was hidden but it wasn't even labeled as U-verse. There was only a cryptic account number and an insanely high price. I could get AT&T's best streaming service for half the price of U-verse. I'll have to go to the store and ask about this next week. Websites just don't answer my questions anymore.

I tried to make a reservation for the Thanksgiving Brunch Janet and I like, but the hotel website didn't work and they never answered their phone. There was just a voicemail message saying that they'd return my call. Of course they never did. This seems to be a trend. Customer service is abysmal these days. You can never get anyone on the phone. Real people are rapidly being replaced by mobile apps. Hotels want you to use their app to make reservations. My doctors all use apps and patient portals these days. If you do manage to get someone on the phone, it's usually a call center in India. I hate all this. I have simple questions. I'd like to just pick up the phone and get a simple answer.

I'm beginning to sound like my Dad. He was always frustrated by the advent of computers and refused to learn how to use one. He said his old manual Royal typewriter was all he needed. He never got a cell phone and seemed happy playing vinyl records of his favorite symphonies on an old turntable. Maybe this is natural. I found change exciting when I was in my 20's. Now I wish things would stay the same, or preferably reverse direction so I could go back in time a bit. There was a time when everything seemed just right. That time has passed.

Daylight Saving Time ends tonight. We probably won't need lights on our morning walks for a while. I've always preferred Standard Time. I tend to get all my chores and activities done in the morning, so extra daylight at the end of the day has never mattered much. The days are still getting shorter, so we might need the lights again, but it will be nice walking in daylight for a while.

I'll probably go mall walking tomorrow. We'll definitely take Dawn on her Sunday outing and get ice cream cones. I like the continuity of a regular routine. There is far too much randomness and chaos in today's world.

Coach is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4684

Today was uneventful. I almost made us late for our sunrise walk when I fell back asleep after Janet's ten minute warning wake up call. Luckily I can get dressed quick and I was ready before she tied her shoes and Dawn had her harness on. We walked in the dark again. I need to find some better clip-on lights. The ones I wear now are too bright and mess with my night vision. I'm going to look for a red LED armband that I can wear for astrophotography as well.

I waited about an hour after breakfast to take my long walk in the park. The temperature warms up quickly and I didn't want to wear a coat that I would have to take off and tie around my waist when I was halfway finished. The temperature feels just about perfect around 10 AM now, so that's when I'm trying to leave the house. I wish the city was quieter. Nothing spoils a perfect day faster than a cacophony of leaf blowers, chain saws, and police sirens. When I used to take my morning walk out at the observatory all I would hear was the wind and the occasional sound of a hawk flying overhead. I really miss the sound of silence.

There's not a lot going on in the park these days. The construction work on the trails is finished now and there are fewer joggers and cyclists when the weather is cooler. I watch the leaves turn yellow and fall from the trees. I count ducks and watch out for snakes. I saw a baby copperhead yesterday. You've really got to watch out for these things in the late Fall. The babies are even more poisonous than the adults. This is why we always try to stay on the trails with Dawn. I really don't want her to get bitten by a snake.

Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of nature. I just don't like people. I can walk my six miles in the park without having to talk with anybody. The only downside to these long walks is foot pain.  I wish there was a solution, but I'm not very optimistic. Articular cartilage cannot regrow or heal because it doesn’t have any blood vessels. This doesn't stop people from offering a wide variety of cures. Some say damaged cartilage can grow back. Really? Where do they get their information? I've taken Glucosamine for years and it doesn't seem to do anything. They say eating oranges, nuts, and brussel sprouts helps too. I like all these foods, but still have bone on bone contact when I walk. I'm not complaining though. I'm still doing pretty well for a guy who will turn 75 next summer.

I'm convinced that I'm paying way too much for cable TV. I looked up U-verse rates on the AT&T website today and their advertised rates are quite a bit less than what I'm actually paying. I tried to change my plan on the website this afternoon. You used to be able to do this, but now a page comes up that just asks you to call a representative instead. I didn't call. I'm sure if I got someone on the phone they'd just try to convince me that their exorbitant rate was actually a bargain. I think I know what is going on, but I'll have to go to a store and talk to someone in person. I'm an early adopter of almost everything. U-verse was more expensive when it was initially introduced quite a few years ago. I probably got grandfathered in at the old rate. Companies have no problem overcharging you if you don't complain.

Tomorrow is the annual Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament. I usually take team pictures of the golfers at these events. I'll ride around the course on a cart and stop and take pictures whenever I see a team playing.  I'll take a team picture and then try to get a few pictures of players teeing off or putting. This seemed easy when I was younger, but now it seems tiring. Depending on how many teams there are, it can be a long time to be out in the sun. I'm glad the tournament is in the morning tomorrow because the weather will be cooler.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3496

I think I've reached my limit. It basically takes me all day to take 20,000 steps. I'm certainly not walking all day, but I don't think I could go much further. I need to eat. I need to rest my feet. It doesn't hurt to take a nap between trips outside either. I see people at the gym and on my walks who are doing much more than I am, put most of them appear much younger. According to Mr. Fitbit 20,000 steps translates to over 9 miles. This isn't half bad for a 71 year old. I bet my Dad would have lived a few years longer if he'd done the same.

I was a lot better on the basketball court this morning. I still wonder about consistency, but I guess I am fairly consistent. Without a dog to wake me, I almost always get six and a half hours of sleep. I eat breakfast at 7:30 AM and dinner at 6:30 PM. I never eat lunch. I go out to eat on Friday mornings and to the gym on Sundays. If I could think of something unique to do on each day of the week, I probably would. It's nice to have a routine. The routine couldn't involve doing things with other people though. That would be way too complicated.

I went back to the grocery store on the way home from the gym. Even though I'd already stocked up for the week on Friday, there were still a few things I needed. The way Janet and I divide up shopping chores is that she always gets certain things and I get others. This never varies. I completely forget about Janet's groceries until they're gone. I imagine that I'll be going back to the store again.

When I was flipping through channels on the TV this morning, I noticed that CBS was gone. This is a big, basic channel to disappear, so I was wondering what was going on. It turns out that CBS is having a fight with AT&T about payment and decided to pull all their content off U-Verse until they get what they want. This seems kind of nasty but it makes you realize what a tangled web of conflicting interests the business world is. A lot of shows have disappeared from Netflix too because the owners of the shows decided to start their own streaming channels. It's a good thing I don't watch television very much or I would be mad.

When I was walking today, I noticed a Facebook friend sailing on the lake. I only recognized this guy because he is always posting pictures of his boat. An orange boat is easy to recognize. A lot of people take pictures in the park. I take pictures of flowers. Almost everybody else takes selfies. I still don't understand the whole concept of selfies. Why would you want to take a picture of yourself?

I'm going to miss all the space news now that the Apollo 11 celebrations are over. For a space geek like me it was kind of nice to have non-stop coverage of space related events. It was hard to go online or turn on the TV without discovering some new bit of trivia I didn't know before. I wish people would stay interested. I'm really hoping that someone will land on Mars while I'm still alive.

I'm going up to the Dalmatian kennels tomorrow to meet with some people who are thinking of adopting Jenga. Pongo got adopted today. I'm delighted that these dogs are finding homes so quickly but I'm going to miss them. There's already a new boy getting checked out at the vet. I don't even know what his name is yet, but I'm sure I'll be photographing him soon.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3249

It's been quite a challenge getting Dash's paws to heal while still continuing to walk him. The least little scrape causes them to bleed again. Even walking around the house is starting to cause problems. I found some extra soft socks and we are only using new boots now. Mostly the bleeding has stopped, but I still see little drops of blood on the floor from time to time. The cuts are minor and will definitely heal over time, but cuts like these are much more problematic when you are taking blood thinners.

Even though Dash doesn't stay still at night, I'm going to try placing a puppy training pad under his butt before I go to sleep. It couldn't hurt to try. It's really getting old cleaning blankets and bedding every day. Dash didn't even wake up when he pooped in the bed last night. This is actually a good thing. If he starts staying asleep when he poops, I can put a puppy pad under him and cleanup will be easy.

It was a little warmer this morning, which made our morning walk chilly but pleasant. I'm enjoying this weather. For the second day in a row there wasn't a cloud in the sky. After checking to make sure Dash's paws were OK after our walk, I left for breakfast. Even though I almost always order the same thing, I'm still enjoying going to the hotel. It's pleasant there. The staff knows me by name now. Since most customers are travelers, I'm one of the few regulars.

A trip to the bank was on my to-do list today. I had to clear up a snafu that I probably caused myself by not listening carefully when I opened a new account several months ago. I thought I had one kind of account, but I actually had another. I could have sworn that I opened an account that had no fees associated with it. Nope. I've started noticing fees and charges I wasn't expecting. Eventually I managed to get the fees removed but they shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Getting my bank account straightened out was easy compared to getting a new TV remote from AT&T. I don't know why you can't get a TV remote at an AT&T store. That would be too easy. I had to talk with an offshore customer service representative who couldn't speak English very well. At first he tried to change my U-verse plan. Then he tried to sell me a TV remote. It took forever to explain the my remote was broken and he needed to send me a replacement for free. Who knows if I will get a new remote in the mail. I'm not counting on it. I could barely understand this guy.

I wrote a letter to my sister this afternoon and watched another episode of Mars. I was hoping that this series would be like The Martian. The script isn't nearly as good as Andy Weir's novel. This is definitely not something i could binge watch. After a single episode, I was ready to start repairing dog boots again.

I'm still tired a lot, but I'm sleeping better now. I don't know what has changed. Dash continues to wake me up every night. I'm just getting back to sleep a lot quicker.

Alvin is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3218

I was determined to give Dash a walk this morning. I kept watching the weather radar and eventually I saw what looked like a temporary break in the weather. I got Dash suited up in his protective gear as quickly as I could and off we went. We got lucky this time. Even though it rained most of the day, we managed to find 45 minutes when it was relatively dry.

Members of the little circus were trying to reposition their tent when we passed them this morning. They seemed determined as well. Despite the rain, it looked like they were trying to get ready for a show tonight. Lots of luck with that. It think it's time to build an ark. The bad weather going to continue for the rest of the week.

Just before I went to bed last night, our Internet and TV service was restored. Oddly at about exactly the same time the TV started working again, the security light in the back yard went out. The light has been working well for several months now, so I'd almost forgotten that it used to be a big problem. Hopefully the photo cell in the security light and our U-verse service will not be a problem tonight. I need the light so I can see where Dash poops at night and I need the TV so I can watch Perry Mason as I go to sleep.

The leak in the living roof stopped dripping around noon. The fact that this is a small leak will probably make it even harder to find. I keep trying to look at the bright side. I guess a small leak is better than a large leak. It's had to find a bright side to incontinence. Even though Dash got a nice walk today, it didn't prevent him from pooping in the house. Once this morning, he walked toward the open back door, sniffed the air for a while, and then turned around and immediately pooped in the kitchen.

I meant to pay bills today, but yesterday's soggy letters still weren't dry yet. You'd think soggy mail would give me the final push I need to start paying bills online, but for some reason I still prefer going to the post office. Since I couldn't pay bills, I wrote my Luddite sister and told her that I'd become a Luddite too.

I hope my auction goes well tomorrow. There's another auction in December and a final one next Spring. I had hoped that auctioning most of the art would make it easier for me to get rid of other things, but decluttering still seems like a monumental job. We'll see how much progress I've made this time next year.

It was nice to see the market rebound today. I'm glad I didn't panic and sell everything last week. I'm probably just going to have to learn to live with uncertainty. The world isn't going to return to normal any time soon. Sadly, the only thing that seems normal anymore are those old TV shows from the 50's and 60's I watch while I'm going to sleep. It's weird that those old Twilight Zone shows that used to scare me as a kid, seem naively simple now. Rod Serling's little morality plays almost seem like Sunday School stories. Call me crazy, but I still prefer the Twilight Zone to Black Mirror. The Eisenhower years are looking better and better.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2968

The WiFi went out today. I hate calling AT&T so much that I have a second WiFi hotspot with T-Mobile. Since outages are usually intermittent, it is often easier to use this alternate service than call technical support. I guess I could have done that again today, but I was so irritated that my U-Verse bill has gone up again I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get what I was paying for.

I hate calling technical support. It takes five minutes of talking to a robot before you can connect with a real person. Usually the technician you are speaking to is not a native speaker and the conversation is mostly "could you repeat that, I couldn't understand you." The tech support people are nice enough. They just don't speak English well. Before you can explain your problem, the technicians always wants to run some tests. It doesn't matter that I've already run the tests before I placed the call. They run the tests again anyway. Usually the tests are inconclusive and they want to send another technician out to the house.

That's what happened again today. I've been through this process too many times before. Usually the service guy just replaces the router and then you have to reconnect your entire WiFi network. I tried to explain to the technician that it might not be worth the trouble to send someone out, since I was thinking of dropping U-Verse anyway. He said he already had a ticket open and that was the only way to resolve my issue. "Could this guy you send out hook me up to your fiber optic network if he can't fix my router," I asked. "No, that's an entirely different department," said the technician. I wasted a lot of time today, and I'll waste even more tomorrow when the other technician arrives.

The stock market dropped another thousand points today. This is so irritating. I finally recovered from   the disastrous 2008 crash and was looking forward to smooth sailing in 2018. The market may have gone up too fast, but there is no good reason why it should be going down. Most companies are enjoying record profits. Consumer confidence is up. Manufacturers are hiring again. This is not like 2008 at all. Some people say this crash was caused by hedge funds shorting the volatility index and then having to sell stocks to cover their shorts when the trade went bad. Maybe. I just wish there were more people like Warren Buffet and fewer people trying to get rich quick by gaming the system.

Dash had a good day, but he definitely didn't have a good night. He woke me up several times last night and seemed agitated. He finally pooped, but it took him several tries. When he returned to bed, he started shivering violently. Covering him in a blanket didn't help at all. At one point he seemed to have trouble breathing and I became very alarmed. We've been through this before and knew there was little point in taking him to the vet. We just had to keep Dash calm and wait for the tremors to subside. It took about an hour, but eventually the shivering stopped and Dash started sleeping normally again. He woke up this morning as if nothing had happened.

I think the shivering and tremors are another aspect of Dash's vestibular disease. They also could be caused by the blood clots in Dash's heart. I wish there was something we could do, but Dash's doctors have no answers. Sometimes I wonder why they don't try a different blood thinner like Warfarin or Heparin, but maybe these medicines don't work in dogs.

If Dash is feeling well, I might go out for breakfast tomorrow. I'm not that hungry. I just need to get out of the house for a while.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2545

Everything seemed so busy today. The restaurant was crowded when I went out for breakfast this morning. There was a long line at the pharmacy when I went to pick up a prescription. Even the AT&T store was crowded when I went to exchange a broken TV remote control. I asked the pharmacist why she thought there was such a long line today and she said today was the day when all the Christmas parties started and people were running their errands early so they could go to a party tonight. Could be. I wouldn't know. I haven't been to a Christmas party in years.

Here's how life has changed. I've exchanged TV remote controls before. These things seem to break frequently. It used to be that the store had a big box of remotes back in the stock room. They'd give you a new remote out of the box and throw the bad one away. Now, a guy fills out a lengthy requisition form on an iPad and they ship you the new remote from somewhere in California. When the new remote arrives, you are supposed to return the defective remote in the same box and ship it back to California. Wouldn't it be easier to just keep a box on remote controls in the back of the store?

While I was filling out my application for a new remote control, the sales guy casually mentioned that my U-verse service was going to be discontinued next year. Did I want to sign up for the new replacement service? Jeez. It's taken me years to get U-verse to run reliably. Now that everything is finally pretty dependable, they're discontinuing it. "I'm sure you'll like our new fiber optic service even better," the sales guy told me. That wouldn't be hard, since I never liked U-verse at all. I would have discontinued U-verse several years ago if it weren't for the fact that Time Warner is even worse.  Who knows. Maybe the new fiber optic service is great. I bet I'm going to have problems getting my office network working again though. It's almost inevitable that some of my old equipment won't want to play nice with AT&T's new equipment.

I've been trying to get ready for tomorrow's photo shoot. The first problem is always finding everything. Equipment I don't use very often has a tendency to disappear. It's important to have enough fully charged batteries to make it through the day as well. It's fairly easy to remember the camera batteries. It's the little things like the batteries for the flash triggers that I tend to forget. I always buy a new backdrop before these Christmas photo shoots, mostly so repeat customers won't have the same pictures year after year. When Janet and I unfolded the new muslin tonight, it didn't look like it was the right size.  We measured everything and it was the exactly same size as last year's backdrop. Maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me.

I was working on a new article today when I realized that the subject seems very familiar. I looked through my files and it appears that I wrote exactly the same article last Spring. Did the client forget that we'd already covered this subject, or am I the one who's missing something? I sent the client an e-mail saying that we'd probably done this already, but I haven't heard anything back yet. Hope I didn't talk myself out of a job. This article would have been very easy to write.

I'll be real glad when these holiday photo shoots are over with. Each year, the equipment seems heavier and my aches and pains get worse. I thought last year might be my last, but here I am again. Janet is staying home this year, so I wont have to worry about Dot. All I have to worry about is whether I make it through the day.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2396

I wonder why it is so hard to take a dog's blood pressure? Dot's physical therapy vet tried to get a good reading today and didn't have any more success than the oncologist did last Friday. Dot always becomes alarmed when the technicians place the blood pressure cuff around one of her legs and starts to struggle. You need to be relaxed to get a good reading, so her blood pressure is always elevated. It's hard to tell whether the abnormally high reading is caused by hypertension or stress. We were hoping to get a more accurate relaxed reading by taking her blood pressure while she was having acupuncture today. That didn't work.

Vets seem to like the doppler ultrasound technique for taking an animal's blood pressure. A small crystal is placed over an artery which converts the blood flow into audible sound. When the cuff is inflated to a pressure greater than that of the blood pressure, the audible sound goes away. The pressure in the cuff is then slowly released and when the audible flow signal returns, this is considered the animal's systolic pressure. There is definitely an art to doing this well. I have watched vets use the doppler technique many times and it only seems to work about half the time. Modern multi-function surgical monitors tend to provide more reliable results than the older Parks Doppler machines, but these very expensive Oscillometers are usually only found in surgery suites and are used to monitor animals under anesthesia. I don't know if we are ever going to get an accurate reading with Dot. She definitely doesn't like people messing with her.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to get her to therapy again without having to deal with poop in the car either. She's had an accident for the past three weeks in a row. Again, this is probably caused by stress. I took her out in the back yard for fifteen minutes before we left for our therapy session and she did nothing. Within three blocks after backing the car out of the driveway, she pooped. It's hopeless.

I had to call the plumber again today. The new faucets they installed in the bathroom sink are already leaking. I think they just didn't tighten things properly, but who knows. Maybe the faucets themselves are defective. Since this is Janet's sink, I can't just ignore the problem like I could if it were my sink. I'm anticipating another fun day that probably involves a lot of barking and poop all over the place. The dogs really don't like plumbers very well.

One day after I returned the defective router to AT&T, I receive a bill from them with a late charge of $150 for not returning the equipment soon enough. Give me a break. They should have known that I would be forced to upgrade the router eventually. This definitely isn't the first time that U-verse equipment has broken. I had my reasons for not installing the new router immediately and I still think they were good reasons. I'm sure I'll eventually be reimbursed for the late charges, but it was just one more small irritation in what has already been a very irritating month.

It didn't rain today. I guess that's a good thing, but the rain did cool things down a bit. I'm going to just have to live with the fact that I'm stuck in Texas and it's going to be very hot for the rest of the Summer.

Cisco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2395

Independence Day ended as it began, with a horrendous thunderstorm that lasted for the rest of the night. I didn't get much sleep. Dot got so upset that I thought she was going to have a stroke. Dash was pretty upset too. This was some of the most intense thunder and lightening I've ever seen. The storm went on for hours and this morning I heard that some parts of town had gotten up to four inches of rain.

The U-Verse TV didn't work when we woke up this morning. Rebooting the receiver didn't fix things. Rebooting the router didn't help either. Nothing worked. Oddly, the U-Verse land line phone and the WiFi network were just fine. I called technical support and they said they needed to do some tests. After they tried to reboot the router remotely, everything went dead. Somehow they fried the entire gateway. The tech support guy claimed that last night's storm had damaged the router, but I think they ruined it themselves. Luckily, I had a spare router that AT&T sent me last month. I had been reluctant to install it because I knew I would have to re-pair every single wireless device on the network.

Since the router I'd been using was toast, I really had no choice. I spent the rest of the day configuring the gateway and then painstakingly reattaching all the devices on the network. Some devices were easy to reattach, but others were insanely difficult. A wireless office is convenient when it's working, but it can drive you crazy when something goes wrong. If I had it all to do over again, I'd just hook everything up with Ethernet cables.

After I finally got everything working again, I heard something on the weather report saying that there were more thunderstorms in the forecast for tonight. That's all I need. After spending all day getting my network running again, I certainly don't want to fry my new router tonight. I don't want to deal with two storm phobic dogs either. If the storm is bad enough, I really worry about Dot and Dash. When they go into panic mode, it feels like I'm only inches away from a medical emergency. Hopefully, things will be a bit calmer tonight. I really need some sleep.

I did manage to update some websites today, but I don't remember much about the assignments. All I remember is struggling to get the wireless thermostat working again and cleaning up dog poop. When I watched the Juno orbit insertion maneuver last night on NASA TV, I couldn't help feeling a bit envious of the folks I was watching at the Jet Propulsion Lab. I felt the same way when I watched the New Horizons spacecraft rendezvous with Pluto and as I held my breath watching Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity make successful landings on Mars. Ad people often think they are doing something important, but it's all just smoke and mirrors. These scientists at JPL actually are doing something important.

I don't expect to get a lot done tomorrow. It's Dot's physical therapy day and each week these sessions seem to take longer and longer. There are things I'd rather do, but the therapy is important. Maybe the weather will be nice tomorrow. Maybe Dot's won't poop in my car. A little good news tomorrow could go a long way.

Isabella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2369

Today felt a bit strange. I actually had some work to do for a change. I stayed busy most of the day updating websites and writing a new article. For the first time this week there were no accidents in the house. I successfully got Dot up and outside before she peed on the floor. It was also fortunate that the phone company was laying fiber optic cable in the alley behind our house. When I took Dot outside, she would start barking excitedly at the workmen and it would cause her to poop. I don't get lucky every day, but today everything fell into place.

I've been wondering why my morning fruit smoothies tasted a little funny this week. Today I discovered why. The milk I'd been using had gone bad. I do better when Janet screens my food. Sometimes I never notice that something has spoiled or gone past it's expiration date until it's too late. My sense of smell leaves something to be desired. This can be a good thing when I'll sleeping next to Dash, but I've eaten more than my share of spoiled food because I couldn't smell that it had gone bad.

I'm curious why the phone company is laying fiber optic cable all over the neighborhood. I've talked to a few people, but nobody seems to know anything. Most of my neighbors are just mad that the cable installation crews have torn up their front yards. You'd think that if service was going to improve, AT&T would have sent out a flyer telling people what was coming their way. I talk to AT&T tech support frequently because my U-verse service is so bad, but they know nothing. Even the guys actually  laying the cable know nothing. "You'll have to talk to my boss," they tell me. 

I've been getting up earlier than usual to feed the dogs and give them their morning meds before the dog walker arrives. I was hoping that this might turn me into a morning person, but I don't think it's going to happen. I'm certain I'll revert to my old ways the minute Janet returns. The dogs schedule actually hasn't changed much. Janet always gets up early and the dogs follow her out to the kitchen, expecting to be fed. I sleep in a little longer until it's time for our morning walk. I justify this extra shut-eye because I'm usually the one up in the middle of the night cleaning up dog poop. Truthfully, nobody gets enough sleep at our house.

While I was walking Dash this afternoon, I watched a squirrel carry a huge Horse Apple up a tree and proceed to eat the whole thing. This fruit from the bodark tree is considered inedible and is often used to repel cockroaches and other insects. Inexplicably, squirrels love the taste of these things, which explains why once a Horse Aple falls to the ground, it doesn't seem to stay there very long.

I had to turn on the sprinklers today. It's amazing that after several weeks of continuous rain, all it took was a few days of hot, sunny weather to dry things out. I'm not looking forward to July. This month's water bill was surprisingly low, but I'm not going to want to even open next month's bill. I think Summer has finally arrived.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2354

I wish Steve Jobs were still alive. I never used to have problems with operating system updates, but lately the new Apple OS and IOS updates are so buggy that they seem like Beta versions. I'm almost scared to update my phone anymore, because each new IOS update seems worse than the previous one. The combination of buggy system software, spotty U-verse service, and a brand new hosting company has created a perfect storm of bad news. Just about every morning when I boot up my computer, I'm greeted with a new problem. Was my phone causing the problem? Does the WiFi router need to be re-booted again? Have I configured my webserver wrong? It's hard to even know where to begin.

I was in tech support hell for hours this morning, trying to track down why my e-mail wasn't working and I couldn't even access my own website. I finally ended up talking to a very knowledgeable IP guy who told me to call my ISP and tell them to check the routing path and clear it if necessary. This sounded easy enough, so I called AT&T and made the request. "This is beyond the scope of my capabilities," said a voice that sounded like he was talking to me from Pakistan. "I can give you the number of our paid subscription support if you'd like." "You mean that after all I pay you guys every month for U-verse service, you want to charge me extra to unscramble my flaky internet connection?" "I'm sorry," said the hard to understand voice from Pakistan. "Would you like me to send you a brand new router at no charge?" This was crazy. "You mean you guys would rather send me a new router than reset my connection." I said. I hate dealing with tech support. I've still got the problem I started out with this morning. There a new router on it's way to me that I probably won't be able to install correctly. To add to my problems, I can't decide whether to upgrade my phone to IOS 9.3.2 because I read an article that said it could turn your phone into a brick.

Since it didn't appear that my connection problems were going to be resolved quickly, I went to the battery store and special ordered a new battery for my little WiFi hotspot. T-Mobile said these batteries weren't made anymore and tried to see me a new hotspot. They were just being lazy.  I knew this battery was available somewhere because I've been replacing weird batteries for years. The new battery will arrive next Wednesday. The little WiFi hotspot is slow, but it is very reliable. Without it, I would have missed quite a few blog posts over the years.

The weather has been horrible this week. It's so humid and muggy outside that it feels like you could cut the air with a knife. My dehumidifier is working overtime to keep the air comfortable inside. Dot doesn't like the heat and humidity. I've been having a hard time getting her outside anyway now that she's become weaker, and hot, humid weather just adds to the problem. She did poop outside today, which was a small blessing. I just got lucky. When I had her outside after lunch, a big truck drove down the alley behind our house and got her so excited that she immediately started to poop. I wish I could schedule someone to drive down the alley every time I had Dot outside.

The plumber is coming back tomorrow to fix the leaking sink. This should only take a few minutes since the problem is just a compression fitting that wasn't tightened enough. The plumber better not try to charge me for this additional service call. He should have checked his work the first time he was here. After unnecessary car repair charges and a ridiculous attempt to charge me for resetting my router this morning, I'm not in the mood for unwarranted extra charges.

Maybe tomorrow will go smoothly. I'm not counting on a trouble free day, but it would be nice.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2353

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Janet told me this morning, "but the sink is still leaking." I looked under the sink, and sure enough, she was right. The leak was small, but it shouldn't have been there at all. When two plumbers spend the entire day at your house, you'd think they'd check for leaks before they leave. I'm beginning to think it is totally impossible to get something done right the first time. I called the plumbing company and made another appointment. I tried to get some type of assurance that there would be no charge for this visit, since it was the brand new hardware the plumbers had installed just a few day ago that was leaking. "We can't promise anything," the dispatcher told me.

My service guy at the Land Rover dealership called this afternoon to tell me my car was ready. He seemed pleased that he and the service manager had been able to shave almost $800 off my bill. I thanked him for looking out for me and then asked what I still had to pay. "Oh, you'll only owe $2,100 now," he said. Jeez, give me a break. This car is still under warranty. I hate to think what's going to happen when the warranty runs out.

I'm still having problems with my Internet connection, so I called AT&T tech support again. I talked to somebody who was quite knowledgeable the other day, but I wasn't so lucky this time. Why do these big companies have to outsource their tech support to countries where English is a second language. I couldn't understand this guy at all. The conversation became so frustrating that I told the guy that I'd just call back and try again later with a different agent. He persisted in asking me a bunch of questions that had nothing to do with my problem, so eventually I just hung up on him. Two minutes later, the guy calls me back and continued to read from his script. I couldn't believe it. I had to hang up on the guy twice.

I canceled Dot's physical therapy appointment because I didn't think I was going to have a car tomorrow. Now that I have the car back, I debated whether to try to reschedule the appointment. I decide to leave things alone, because Dot has to go back to the cancer center for another ultrasound scan on Friday anyway. One car trip this week is probably enough. Dot seems to be enjoying her lighter schedule, but I don't want her to get any weaker than she already is. We'll go back to therapy next week and have her vet reevaluate her to see if she's still strong enough to continue the water therapy at all.

It wouldn't be a normal day if I didn't have battery problems. Since I've been having issues with my U-verse service, I've been using my little T-Mobile WiFi hotspot a lot. Last week the battery died and I have to use the unit plugged into an AC outlet. The hotspot is only about four years old, but the battery has already become almost impossible to find. I finally located a supplier who said they could special order me a replacement cell. I felt good that something had finally gone right today, but even this small success shouldn't have been so difficult.

Work has become so slow that I'm beginning to wonder whether my clients are reading the blog and have collectively decided that they want a happier person to work on their accounts. Truthfully, I'm too tired to care. All I want right now is a good night's sleep and a poop free day tomorrow. I'll probably get neither.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2223

Dot had a bit of a setback today. She was perfectly normal on her morning walk, but later in the day we noticed that something was wrong with her left front leg. She was having a lot of trouble standing and walking. Keep in mind that her left rear leg is already very weak. Having both left legs lame made it very difficult for her to keep her balance. I figured out a way to rig her harness so I could support her both in the front and in the back, but I still don't know what is wrong. It could be anything. Her neurological problems could be spreading. She could have injured the front leg somehow. It's even possible that she was having a mild vestibular stroke. What I'm hoping is that she just slept on the leg wrong and it felt numb when she woke up. This happens to me occasionally. If you fall asleep on top of your arm, it often feels numb or prickly for a while when you first wake up. Dot is resting now. Hopefully her condition improves after she's had some rest.

It was a cold, grey day. It still might snow this evening, but I kind of doubt it. I think the worst of the weather is North of us. French Toast and sausages always seems like a good idea on a nasty day, but our delicious breakfast did little to improve the weather. I updated a website while waiting for the weather to improve a bit, but eventually I gave up and went grocery shopping in the rain. While I was out today I picked up one of those digital TV antennas that let you watch over the air broadcast stations without a cable subscription. I haven't installed the antenna yet, but it would be weird if it worked. When I was growing up, we had a TV antenna that let us watch a total of thirteen channels. That's exactly what the digital antenna promises. It's kind of a back to the future kind of thing. If the antenna works, I'd be real temped to drop the U-Verse TV. It's expensive and goes out all the time. Local over the air stations and Netflix is probably all you need anyway.

I was going to cut the tree limb that fell yesterday into manageable pieces that I could take to the curb for big trash day, but it was too cold. I'll take care of this task on a warmer day. I had my hands full taking care of Dot anyway. Why do bad things with the dogs always happen on weekends and holidays? I'm not sure a vet could tell me all that much anyway. This kind of lameness has happened before. It just seems to take longer to recover each time it happens.

I was thinking of going to bed early tonight, but it's already late. Hopefully, we'll all sleep soundly tonight. I need some catch-up sleep. I need a lot of things. I need to go to the gym tomorrow. I need to clean the house too. It's been two weeks since I vacuumed all Dot's rugs and they're getting filthy. At least it's a three day weekend. At my current speed it will probably take two days to get my Sunday chores done. What happens tomorrow will depend largely on how Dot feels in the morning. I hope she's walking again.

Shelby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2201 - Christmas Day

We had a pleasant day. It was unusually warm for Christmas Day, but that's Texas for you. The warm weather was fine by me, because it made it much easier to walk the dogs. As far as Christmas activities go, that's about all we did. Dot and Dash got two nice walks and then slept for the rest of the day while Janet cooked a Christmas dinner and I cleaned up around the house. With eggs and bacon for breakfast and a big traditional Christmas dinner, I feel like I've had a week's worth of food in a single day.

Dot and Dash have always enjoyed unwrapping presents. They are convinced that every package is for them and seem genuinely disappointed if it doesn't contain something they can eat. We give them a taste of each of their food gifts and then put them away. If they had their way, they would eat everything at once and make themselves sick. It's fun to watch them get so excited over a simple bag of dog treats or a piece of cheese. Dash got a little too excited. Once he started barking, it took him about thirty minutes to calm down.

I was surprised at how many people were out in the park today. Maybe taking a walk after your Christmas meal is a thing to do now. At any rate, there were entire families walking on the trails and plenty of other dogs. One dog got loose and came running over to Dash. Luckily, it was a friendly dog and no harm was done. I do wish people would keep better control of their pets, however. This happens far too often.

I couldn't figure out why I wasn't able to get on the Internet to write the blog tonight. Nothing was wrong as far as I could tell, but everything was impossible slow. It finally dawned on me that the fancy U-verse connection just didn't have enough bandwidth. Janet was talking to her niece on the phone. I was taping the Dr. Who Christmas Special on one TV while a Hallmark movie was playing on another TV in the kitchen. There just wasn't enough bandwidth left over for me.  I wasn't going to let this stop me however. I fired up the little T-Mobile WiFi hotspot and kept on writing.

Our holidays have become very quiet and stress free. It's surprising how enjoyable doing nothing can be. We didn't go to a Christmas movie. We didn't visit family. We didn't do much of anything. Janet cooked and went to the gym. I cleaned and fiddled around with the dehumidifier. I thought the thing was broken for a while, but apparently cooking a big meal raises the humidity a lot. Now, everything is back to normal again. My favorite Christmas gift was a pair of soft grey fleece running pants with Dalmatians printed on the fabric. These pants will make your average ugly Christmas sweater look tame by comparison. To each his own. Hey, the pants are very comfortable and will probably become my new around the house uniform.

We slept in until after 7 AM this morning. Janet, Dash and I could have slept longer, but Dot couldn't. We all had to get up when she pooped in her bed. She had another accident in the kitchen while Janet was cooking Christmas dinner. We didn't let this slow us down a bit. I took the big rug outside and hosed it down. The little rug went in the washing machine. This is life with a very old dog. We are just happy that she is still here to share this special day with us. Getting to spend another Christmas with both dogs was the best Christmas gift of all.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day