Day 2378

According to the news, we're having a heat wave. It kind of seems like a normal June to me, but I'll be the first to admit that it's pretty darn hot. I mowed the grass early this morning in attempt to avoid the worst of the heat, but I wasn't very successful. If I was looking for comfortable temperatures, I would have had to mow in the middle of the night. I don't know how long I can continue to mow my own grass. Pushing the lawnmower gets more exhausting with each passing year. Most of my neighbors have a yard service by now, but I stubbornly continue to do things the old fashioned way. When the temperatures start to approach 100 degrees, I begin to question my own sanity.

The dogs don't like the Summer heat any more than I do. Sometimes there's a breeze on our early morning walk. Today the air was still and it made the heat seem even more oppressive. We should have gotten an earlier start this morning, but it was Saturday and everyone was sleeping peacefully. I hated to wake Janet and the dogs up. There was telltale evidence that Dot had pooped during the night when I woke up this morning, but I don't remember getting up during the night. It turned out that Janet woke up and cleaned things up. Sometimes I wake up and sometimes she does. All this proves I guess is that we both sleep erratically.

Mowing the grass wore me out, so I wisely decided to curtail any further yard work. Since it was nice and cool inside, I thought I'd finish a few writing assignments. I completed a press release that had an impending deadline and sent it off to the client. I tried to get some clarification on a website issue I'm working on and eventually remembered that the client wasn't in the office on Saturday. Hopefully, I'll be able to remember my question until Monday.

When I went to the store, I was disappointed to see that they no longer carried the hot and spicy Cheetos I like. This is probably for the best, since there were so many artificial ingredients in the things that they were sure to give me cancer. I struck out buying healthier items too. The peaches were soft and looked like they'd go bad in a day or two. I didn't buy them. It floors me that stores continue to sell bad produce, but maybe everyone isn't as picky as me. I saw other people buying the peaches. Strawberries are the worst. They must train the produce guys to hide bad strawberries inside the clear plastic containers. The strawberries always look great on the top and bottom of the packaging, but there are always some bad ones hidden away in the middle where you can't see them. I can't really blame the stores for doing things this way. If they sold strawberries loose, customers would rummage around and pick only the very best ones, leaving all the rest behind.

I think the mosquito treatment is working. I still got bitten when I was cleaning my boots on the porch after our morning walk but the bites were definitely less frequent. The next test will be to see whether the treatment still works after I resume watering the grass. I'm surprised that the city hasn't started spraying yet. Usually they are spraying for mosquitoes at night by now. Maybe people are protesting the spraying program again. The city can't win on issues like this. Whatever they do, somebody is going to complain.

It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone. There won't be any big celebrations tomorrow, but I'm glad the journey has lasted as long as it has. With luck, there will be many more birthdays to celebrate, but I'm beginning to wonder whether my goal of posting for 5000 consecutive days was a bit too ambitious. I'm not even halfway there yet.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1995

Today was busy. As soon as we finished our morning walk, I took Dash to the vet and dropped him off. Then I came home so Dot and I could eat our breakfast. Then I went back to the vet, with a brief stop at the bank along the way, and met with the vet for Dash's 9:30 appointment. We won't get the lab work back for about a week, but everything looks good so far. Hopefully, this visit will take care of Dash for the rest of the year.

When we got back home again, Dash was eager to have his breakfast, which meant that Dot wanted her breakfast all over again. I put a little bit of kibble in her bowl while Dash was eating, so she wouldn't feel left out and then I had another cup of coffee and a somewhat stale doughnut I found in the refrigerator.

I was feeling confident enough about my latest mobile website experiment to give my client an opportunity to exchange his old static site for this new mobile friendly version I've been working on. How could he refuse. I was offering him the new site for free. When the client accepted my offer a few hours later, I began completing the site I had started a few days ago. By the end of the day I had something that looked pretty nice. I'll probably launch the new site on Thursday. I've eventually start charging for these things, but for right now this is a good way to learn.

I wonder when the city is going to start spraying for mosquitoes? Every Summer people get in a panic about West Nile Virus and the city starts a massive spraying program to eradicate the mosquitoes. Then a different group of people get upset about the spraying and make the city stop. I'm sure these two factions will be at each others throats again this year. Due to all the rain we've had recently, the mosquitoes are worse than I've ever seen. They're everywhere. By the time I've let the dogs out the back door to pee, ten mosquitoes have flown inside. There's one buzzing around my head right now. I hope the city starts spraying soon.

I still can't decide whether to get an Apple Watch. There are few things that I need less than an Apple Watch, but I still find shiny things like this mighty tempting. It's probably a good thing that I can't afford a watch right now. When I get finished paying for dental bills, next year's homeowners insurance, and Dot's next round of scans, there might already be a second generation watch with better battery life and more robust software. Too many times I've been an early adopter of Apple products, only to get left in the dust when they inevitably improve the product and lower the price. I've already got what some might call a first generation Apple Watch anyway. It's a square iPod Mini in an aluminum LunaTik case. I wore this watch for about a month before I got bored with it.

I think the coyotes that used to live in our section of the park have moved on. I'm seeing tons of bunnies this Spring. For a while there were very few rabbits to be found because the coyotes ate them all. It's nice to see that the bunnies are back. There are a lot more baby ducks this season as well. The city was always trying to encourage people to co-exist with the coyotes, but few people in the neighborhood liked them. Personally, I'm glad they've moved elsewhere.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 976

I don't visit my safe deposit box very often. Perhaps I should go a little more frequently. I had to retrieve something today and discovered a household inventory list that hadn't had any new entries since 1990. I also discovered a very out-of-date will where all the beneficiaries were already dead. These worthless documents will go straight to the shredder, but I wonder how many other totally worthless documents still remain. There's probably plenty of worthless documents over at the storage warehouse. Once, my accountant told me that I needed to save all my financial records for at least three years. At another point in time, the same accountant told me that I should keep things seven years. I think I've been keeping records for ten years just to be safe. What is the point though?  Most of these records could have been generated by aliens from another planet and I wouldn't know the difference anymore. I just look at this stuff and wonder what it has to do with me.

I will admit to saving a few totally worthless documents from the shredder today. They were both publishing contracts from record companies that had gone out of business over a decade ago. I saved them because they reminded me of a day when I actually thought I had a future in the music business.

As you might expect, the city didn't get finished with their aerial spraying program last night. I don't know if they ran out of insecticide, or the planes were too slow, or what, but they only got half the city sprayed. That means the spray planes will be back tonight. They're starting earlier this time as well. The dogs will have to get all their peeing done by 8:30 PM this evening. Why do I think this isn't going to work? The dogs always want to go out around midnight. On a positive note, I didn't see any mosquitoes today, so maybe the spray is working.

I got a great little condenser microphone today that connects directly to an iPhone or iPad. The sound quality was amazing. It sounded very similar to some Neumann microphones I've used. It makes as much sense to use the phone for interviews now as anything else I've got. I predict that in a couple of years, I'll be using the phone for everything I do.

Unfortunately, the iPhone still can't cook breakfast. I had Eggs Benedict this morning on my weekly breakfast outing. I thought they would be a real treat, but Janet's Eggs Benedict are a lot better.

Toby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 975

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the outbreak of West Nile Virus in Dallas. The mayor has declared a state of emergency and the city is beginning aerial spraying of the entire city this evening. I got two phone messages from the city telling me to stay inside after dark tonight. There is a lot of controversy about the spraying program, but personally, I have no problem with it. When you compare the downsides of the Pyrethenoid insecticides they'll be using with the downsides of having the disease, I think I'll go with the insecticides.

I'm not sure it matters anyway. I've been bitten by mosquitoes several hundred times this summer and nothing has happened. Either I've gotten lucky or I've got an immunity to the virus. Truthfully, I'm more worried about the dogs. They get bitten by mosquitoes a lot more than I do. Mosquitoes are just a fact of life down South. No matter how much mosquito repellant you spray on yourself, you're still going to get mosquito bites.

I think people forget how common spraying for mosquitoes used to be. I grew up in Arkansas and during the Summer the spray trucks would come down our street at least once a month. A lot of times people didn't even bother to go inside when the trucks came by. They would just continue barbecuing, or sitting on the porch, or whatever they were doing as the cloud rolled past and dissipated in the evening air. It's kind of amazing to realize how many people survived and continued living perfectly normal lives after breathing in insecticides every Summer and driving around without seatbelts smoking cigarettes.

I wish I'd start getting some money in the mail. I've been billing things out at a fairly normal rate, but the checks are arriving slower and slower these days. It wasn't that long ago that just about everyone paid within 30 days. Now the average is somewhere between 45 and 60 days. Sign of the times, I guess. I still have to pay my own bills on time though. That's what I did this afternoon. I paid the electric bill, the water bill, various phone bills, and my car insurance. The depressing thing is that most of these bills will arrive again next month, whether any money arrives in the mail or not.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I've still got enough money to buy myself a little bacon for breakfast. I've still got about 20 minutes left today to let the dogs outside to pee before the mosquito spraying planes begin their flyby. I'm hoping that the spray kills some roaches and spiders too. We have entirely too many bugs this Summer.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day