Day 3462

By my low standards it was a very busy day. I made my travel arrangements for the Florida trip. In the end, flying turned out to be the better alternative. I'd hate to be driving along the Gulf Coast and learn that the Falcon Heavy launch had been postponed until the middle of July. If I had to turn around and come home when I was halfway there, it would be a long trip for nothing. At least if fly Southwest I can reschedule things at the last minute if necessary. Looking at the weather forecast, there's a good chance I would be driving in the rain as well. Jeez. I don't even like to drive to the post office in the rain. Spending hours on freeways in heavy rain seems like a miserable idea.

After breakfast this morning I fixed the pumps and cleared all the water off the roof. Luckily, I saw the FedEx guy arrive when I was up on the roof. I had one of those 'signature required' deliveries today and I was sure I was going to miss it. FedEx and UPS used to seem so convenient but now getting a package is frustrating because almost everything seems to require a signature. I never seem to be home when FedEx arrives. I guess getting a signature makes sense since there seems to be an epidemic of people stealing packages off porches. It's a shame though. One more reason why people can't have nice things anymore.

I hope the roof stays dry for a while. This is one chore I've grown to hate. So far, I've been able to prevent the leak from reappearing, but keeping the roof clear of water is a lot of work. This loathsome chore had to substitute for my morning walk today. Pushing the big broom was definitely good exercise, but walking is a lot more relaxing.

I paid the stack of bills that has been accumulating on my desk and took them to the post office. Everyone seems to want me to set up my accounts to autopay every month, but that seems like a bad idea. I would quickly lose track of things. Paying bills on time and always balancing my checkbook is a discipline I learned long ago. Living on a fixed income is something I'm still learning. Retirement is somewhat of a paradox. When you've got the time, you don't always have the money. Working is just the opposite. When you've got the money, you seldom have the time.

Xander, Little Penny, and Chloe all got adopted recently. This is great news. Most of our dogs seems to get adopted quickly. I need to remember to update the rescue website. Maybe I'll have time to do this later tonight. Otherwise, it's on my list for tomorrow.

Now that I'm more or less caught up on things, I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow. I hope sleeping in late is part of the plan. Bad weather and power outages have really disrupted my sleep. I need to start looking for a carpenter to rebuild the greenhouse. I used to know several excellent carpenters, but they have all either retired or died. I guess there's no hurry. There is nothing growing in the greenhouse anyway.

Bali is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3360

Dash got a good report today. His blood pressure is normal. His liver enzyme levels have improved. Actually, his entire CBC blood panel looked pretty good. Best of all, there was still no sign of a blood clot in his heart. There isn't a lot we can do about the neurological damage that is causing the incontinence and weakness in his rear legs, but Dash is still doing better than anyone thought possible this time last year.

I got up early this morning to give Dash a walk before we went to the vet. I wanted to give him every opportunity to do his business before putting him in the car. It was a wasted effort. Dash still pooped in the car. Then he had a panic attack before we reached our destination and I had to stop the car and let him out for a while. I thought he might have needed to pee, but he just didn't want to be in the car. Needless to say, I'm pleased that the vet said he doesn't need another echocardiogram until May.

As soon as we got home, Dash peed in the house. The vet said that there were pills he could give him that might help with the incontinence, but he was reluctant to prescribe them because they would raise Dash's blood pressure. When you're taking blood thinners, you definitely don't want high blood pressure. The good news is that we're learning to deal with the incontinence. There wasn't even a big mess when Dash pooped in the car this morning because we were well prepared.

I was just starting a very late breakfast when the roofer knocked on the door. I went up on the roof with him to show him around. As I listened to the solution he proposed, I became disappointed. I have heard this story before. There are several ways to get the roof to drain properly, but apparently there is no way to bring the house back to the condition it was in when it was constructed in 1953. "Roofers can't do what you want," the guy told me today. "You're going to need carpenters, framers, and a whole lot of money," he said. After explaining that I essentially wanted to rebuild the house,  the roofer tried to sell me on the merits of an engineered roof. I've gotten bids on engineered roofs before. They are very expensive and when all is said and done they are still just a layer of tapered foam placed on top of the existing decking. There's got to be a better way to add a small slope to a flat roof. Couldn't roofers remove the plywood decking, place some shims underneath to create the necessary 1/4" per foot slope, and then replace the decking? It seems like tapered foam panels placed on top on an uneven roof would still be uneven. What do I know though. I'm no roofer. I'm just a guy who has lived under a flat roof for over forty years. Yes, my previous house also had a flat roof.

I made my reservations to go to the Johnson Space Center and then I looked at the long range weather forecast. There are supposed to be thunderstorms on my departure date. It's always something, isn't it.    I don't like driving in thunderstorms but flying in thunderstorms is even worse. Been there, done that. There is a ray of hope though. Long range forecasts in Texas are next to worthless. Who knows what the weather will be really like. It could just as easily be clear and sunny.

I'm not sure if I'll go out for breakfast tomorrow. Right now I'm feeling really tired. Sleeping till noon sounds a lot better than French Toast or Shrimp Grits. Sleeping late is probably just wishful thinking though. If the weather is even halfway nice, Dash is going to want his morning walk.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1871

Today was another big adventure. I left the hotel around 4 AM this morning to look for the illusive viewing site where we were all going to watch the launch. I had the longitude and latitude of the site, which I was able to enter into the map app on my phone, but that was all. The GPS in the car was useless, because the back roads that led to a weather station on top of a small mountain near the air base weren't even listed. Most of these roads were just used for fire safety. Did I mention it was pitch black. As I was driving up the mountain, I eventually saw a few people wandering around in the dark with flashlights, so I stopped the car and joined them. We came to a clearing in the trees and off in the distance to the West was the rocket, bathed in the light from some incredibly bright spotlights. We were about three miles away from the tower, which was as close as anyone was allowed to go. There was a guy with a Mohawk haircut just ahead of our small group who seemed to know where he was going. One of us asked him where the viewing location was and he didn't know either. I knew who he was though. This guy was Bobak Ferdowsi, NASA's famous Mohawk guy from the Mars Curiosity landing. You never know who you're going to run into in the dark. We could all see the rocket quite well from where we were standing, but everyone wanted to find the "official" viewing site, because NASA had promised an audio feed of the countdown that everyone could listen to on speakers.

Looking at the longitude and latitude mark on my iPhone map and comparing it with my own position, it seemed that the site was further up the mountain. We walked uphill for about half a mile and there it was. There were some small concrete bleachers and a growing crowd of people. Even the mayor of one of the nearby towns was there. For some reason the entire Grand Jury for the city of Santa Barbara was there as well. By the time the launch was about thirty minutes away, there were close to two hundred people on the mountain with us.

Everything looked perfect. The sky was clear and full of stars. I've never seen this many stars in Dallas. The city glare is just too bright. As the countdown progressed, we heard one person after another give mission control a go on their area of responsibility. Mission Control said that there was over a 90% chance that the launch would take place at 6:20 AM. The only problem were reports of high winds in the upper atmosphere. The winds would come and go, so they sent up a final weather balloon to get a reading with about five minutes left on the count.  The telemetry came back indicating that there were 70 mph winds in the upper atmosphere. This was considered dangerous and the launch was scrubbed at T-minus 4 minutes and counting.

There was only a three minute window to achieve the proper polar orbit, so the launch was rescheduled for Friday. Everyone was so disappointed. Some were able to change their schedules and stay another day. Others, like myself, had their chances of seeing the launch scrubbed as well. There are only two flights a day in very small prop planes to the town I flew to on Tuesday. I didn't want to fly standby and there were connecting flights in Los Angeles to deal with as well. It proved too difficult and way too expensive to change plans on such short notice, so I am back in Dallas now. There are no guarantees that the launch will take place tomorrow either. It might get scrubbed over and over again until the conditions are perfect. It took an entire year to get the spacecraft ready, so I don't think they're in any hurry to launch it when something isn't right.

I'm sorry I missed the launch, but I'm definitely not sorry I went to Vandenberg. This is the most fun I've had in quite a while. You guys keep on watching the NFL and the MBA. I want to watch the Space-X Dragon launch when it is certified for manned flight a few years from now.  I think I'm officially a space geek now.

Spirit is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1868

I'm glad I don't live on the East Coast right now. Blizzard conditions have closed all the airports, making travel to Vandenberg Air Force Base impossible for a couple of people from New York and Boston who were planning on attending the SMAP launch this week. The weather is much better in Dallas, so my only problem will be getting up at 4 AM to go to the airport.

I'm a terrible travel planner, but I knew if I didn't get started today, I would run out of time. I always run into something unexpected when I'm packing. Today, I couldn't find a small tube of toothpaste that the TSA wouldn't confiscate. I couldn't get my laptop to boot up either. It turns out that I forgot to power the computer down several weeks ago and the battery ran out while the computer was still on. When I got this issue resolved, I had trouble setting the second time zone on a radio controlled watch I was planning to wear on the trip. The watch is supposed to set itself using a radio time signal, but somehow I screwed up and ended up with the dial showing the time in London. I probably should take a simpler watch with me. I packed some socks and then noticed that most of them had holes in them. I still can't figure out how to get the WiFi feature working on my new little point and shoot camera. If I can get the WiFi working, I'll be able to send pictures directly from the camera to Facebook and Twitter. Travel never used to involve so much technology. My boarding pass is on my phone. I sure hope this works, because sometimes it doesn't.

One way or another, everything will get done. It always does. I got all my meds packed away in one of those plastic pill containers that old people use. Oh wait, I am one of those old people. I super-glued my comfortable tennis shoes back together and packed a second nicer pair of shoes just in case I decide not to embarrass myself. I still don't know what kind of coat to take. I never get coats right and am always either too hot or too cold.

I did manage to get the camera equipment from yesterday's video shoot put away, but I haven't finished all of my website updates yet. I've got one more to go, which I should be able to finish before bedtime. I thought I'd be able to get caught up on things with time to spare, but I never dreamed that I'd waste an entire hour trying to set a weird Japanese watch and another hour simply trying to turn on my laptop. You might be wondering why I didn't finish my work first. I guess it was a matter of priorities. I'm always confident about meeting my work deadlines. Not so much with technology. Inexplicable software glitches, poorly written instructions, and the occasional catastrophic failure all drive me nuts. I depend on my high-tech tools, but I often hate them as well.

The dogs loved today's unseasonably warm weather. We took a long walk before breakfast and another toward the end of the day. In between, Dot and Dash sunned themselves in the back yard while I struggled to get organized. I wish I didn't wait until the last minute with everything I do, but it's in my blood. I've always been this way. Perhaps it's for the best. If I knew what I was doing ahead of time, I'd probably just worry more.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1853

My travel arrangements for the SMAP launch are finally complete. Who would have thought it could be so difficult just to go to California. I've been to California many times before and it was always easy. This odd journey involves jets, propeller planes, automobiles and a lot of waiting around for connecting flights. Vandenberg Air Force Base really is kind of in the middle of nowhere. It would have been so much easier if they launched this thing from Cape Canaveral. A quick trip to Orlando with a short drive to the Cape would have been a piece of cake. At any rate, I'm done. Let's hope everything goes as scheduled. If the launch is delayed or canceled, I'm probably screwed. I'm scheduled for dental surgery right after I return.

I wonder when this cold, rainy weather is finally going to move out of the area. It's been nasty all week. It rained most of the night, with intermittent showers throughout the day. It's still just a few degrees above freezing. I feel like I'm changing clothes all day. I add layers whenever I go outside and remove layers when I come inside again. The dogs get cold. Shoes get muddy. Moisture condenses on the inside of all the windows, where it rolls down the glass to rot the wooden sills below. Each morning, there are lots of blankets to fold and put away before I make the bed. Basically, Winter is a mess.

I didn't make it to the gym today, because I needed to fill out another set of new patient forms for the next dentist I see tomorrow. Dentists seem to share X-rays, but they don't seem to share their new patient information. The dental surgeon I see tomorrow will be the third specialty dentist I've seen in the past month. Each one has their own set of forms to fill out. The only thing they seem to have in common is that they all demand full payment after each visit.

There's actually lots of interesting things to photograph on rainy days, but I'm usually reluctant to take my phone out of my pocket. I have to take my gloves off first, so the tactile touch screen will work. Then I have to find the phone under the layers of coats and sweaters. By the time I'm ready to take the picture, the moment has usually passed. Raindrops on leaves are usually patient though. The raindrops remain long after the ducks have flown away.

I don't know what's in the cards for tomorrow. I've got the initial evaluation by the dental surgeon in the afternoon, but everything else seems to be a moving target. There have been a lot of schedule changes on work projects this month. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. I really don't want the SMAP launch to change after all the work I put into making travel arrangements today.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1851

Yay! The washing machine works again. I asked the technician why the machine breaks so often and he told me the wax motor that engages the locking mechanism on the front door was poorly designed. Wax motor? What the hell is a wax motor? It turns out that this expensive little component actually is full of wax. When the wax is heated by an electric current it melts and expands, pushing a pin outward and locking the front loader door. This seems insanely complicated, when all you really need is a simple mechanical latch on the outside of the machine to lock the door. Commercial laundromat machines have these sturdy and simple locking devices. Why can't consumer machines have the same thing? Apparently to prevent people from starting the machine without properly securing a mechanical lock, the manufacturer created a "fool-proof" electronic lock that breaks all the time.

When I grew tired of being frustrated with washing machine reliability, I became frustrated with airline fares. All those websites that promise tantalizing low fares are basically bait and switch machines. The low fares always come with a catch. You either have to change planes in four different cities, wait in an airport for nine hours to catch your connecting flight, or pay a month in advance for a non-refundable ticket. If you want a simple, flexible flight where you don't have to change planes or spend hours waiting in airports, it's best to just go straight to the airline websites. A flight without ridiculous restrictions costs about the same anywhere. Hotels and rental car companies operate basically the same way. The upshot of all this is that I'm going to have to pay more for for my trip to California than I thought I would. I don't know why I was surprised at this disappointing revelation. If you want something extra, you're always going to have to pay extra.

At least my breakfast was good. This simple Friday morning meal at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant has become the high point of my week. I almost always order the same thing. My go-to meal is the Amigas with chorizo. It's just scrambled eggs, fresh chorizo sausage, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, thin tortilla strips and spices, but it's so good. The coffee isn't bad either. They even roast the beans themselves onsite.

The video project I was supposed to begin tomorrow got postponed another week. I don't know whether I'm happy or disappointed about this. On one hand, I'm glad to have my Saturday back to do all the usual weekend errands. On the other hand, I'd like to have this project behind me. It's not that I don't like to shoot video anymore, it's just that I'd like all my projects behind me. I don't seem to look forward to many things anymore. I'm just glad when they're over.

Yeah, I know I should be more positive. You don't need to remind me that the glass is half full. Hey, I love my dogs. I'm sure I'll enjoy the satellite launch when I actually get out there. I even like some of my clients. Life is good. Sometimes.

Mack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1848

As if today wasn't strange enough already, we had an earthquake in Dallas this evening. There have been small quakes in the area for the past month or so, but this was the first one I've actually felt. I was taking a short nap with the dogs after dinner I heard the windows and doors of the house start to rattle and shake. At first I thought the noise had been caused by a loud truck going by or maybe one of those kids who install huge bass speakers in the trunk of their cars. Then I remembered that there was no traffic on the road before the house started to rattle. "I wonder if this was an earthquake," I thought? Sure enough it was. So much for the theory that dogs can sense earthquakes before they happen. Dot and Dash slept through the whole thing.

Earlier in the day, I put a load of clothes in the washer, added soap, and pressed the start button. Nothing happened! I tried again and again and kept getting an error message saying that the door of the front loader wasn't closed. Damn! The door looked like it was closed properly. This happened once before and it resulted in an entire week without a washing machine. I hate going to laundromats, so I immediately called the appliance repair folks who fixed the machine the first time it broke. Luckily, I was able to get a repairman out this afternoon, but just like the first time this happened, the repairman didn't have the part he needed on the truck. The part has to be special ordered and it looks like I will be without a washer for a week again. I don't think I will ever buy a front loader again. If the door goes bad on a top loader, it's no big deal. You kind of need the door to stay securely closed on a front loader though.

I was hoping that Dash's exam at the vet this afternoon would be totally routine, but it turns out that he has a few issues that need to be addressed. I've known that Dash's blood pressure is a little high, but apparently it's getting worse. Some of this is caused because he becomes stressed when he goes to the vet. I'll need to find a way to take his blood pressure at home to see if this is serious. There were no crystals in his urine, which is a good thing. His pH levels were too high though, which is a bad thing. Alkaline urine can be caused by a urinary tract infection, a diet that is high in carbs or sugar, or half a dozen other causes. Both these tests were inconclusive and more testing will be required. All in all, Dash was still pretty healthy though. Janet and I checked Dash carefully for ticks before he went to the vet. The vet still found a tick on him. He seems to be a magnet for ticks. I have to check him every day.

I started to make travel arrangements for my trip to Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning and discovered that there is no easy way to get there from here. There are no direct flights to Santa Barbara from Dallas, and all the connecting flights seem to involve plane changes with long layovers at connecting airports. It might be easier to just fly to Los Angeles and drive to the base. Some of the connecting flights from Dallas went all the way to Portland, Oregon before connecting with a flight to Santa Barbara. This seemed ridiculous to me, so I'll try to find something better tomorrow. I thought making airline reservations would be as easy as doing a load of laundry. It was! Absolutely nothing was easy today.

Alle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 956

If you work in customer service, I apologize in advance. Probably the next time I talk with you, I'm going to be angry. Why? Because customer service can't seem to solve customer problems anymore. It doesn't matter if I'm talking to tech support about a website problem, or to my bank about an erroneous charge on my statement. Whatever the problem happens to be, it doesn't get solved. Today, I got a bill for $672 that was paid in full several months ago. I have the canceled checks from my bank that prove I paid the bill. The canceled checks don't seem to resolve anything though. I just keep getting billed again and again. Customer service agents probably don't even listen anymore. If I got screamed at eight hours a day for ineptness and broken promises, I probably wouldn't listen  either. What a horrible job being a customer service representative must be. You don't really have the authority to do anything, or fix anything, but you've still got to be friendly and keep saying "I understand" over and over again.

Janet had a similar problem last night making airline reservations. She got a brochure in the mail promising a special discount, but when she entered the promotion code on the airline website, it refused to take it. A friendly customer service representative said that the discount was real and that the promotion code should work.  Unfortunately, it didn't. I suggested just calling the airline and making reservations the old fashioned way. You know what was wrong with that plan?  The airline charges more for tickets if you talk to a real person. Catch-22. The extra charges for talking with a real live person would just about negate the discount anyway.

I'm increasingly convinced that the world is just broken. There is an election in Texas next Tuesday and as voting day approaches, there has been a relentless barrage of TV ads and robo-calls from all the candidates. The message is simple. All the candidates are essentially just saying "my opponent is a liar."  Enough already!  Maybe you're all liars, but after listening to all these negative commercials, I don't think I want to vote for any of you.

At least the dogs continue to bring pleasure.  Dot's visions isn't so good, and for the past several weeks she's been thinking that an old burned fireplace log in the neighbor's driveway is actually the neighbor's cat.  The log and the cat are about the same size and both are black, but that is the only resemblance. She has been so frantic to chase the log that I let her get up close to it today. She was so embarrassed to discover that the cat she wanted to chase was just a piece of wood that now she won't go anywhere near it.

We go to the dog park tomorrow. The sight of happy dogs playing brings a smile to my face as well.

Queenie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 606

Janet had to make some airline reservations last night and when she printed out the receipt, she discovered that American Airlines had added a $50 surcharge for talking to a reservations agent on the phone. I couldn't believe it. I knew that airlines were pushing people to do everything online these days, but this seemed pretty extreme. These guys really didn't want you to call them on the phone. It's probably a sign of things to come. I find it harder and harder to get a real person on the phone for any situation. Automated phone systems are almost impenetrable. There is usually a secret word that will let you bypass the automated messages and talk to a real person, but nobody wants to tell you the secret. Once, when I was stuck in automated message hell for fifteen minutes with Paypal, I finally got someone to tell me that if you said the word agent very quickly three times in a row, you could bypass the robots and get a real agent. Virtual agents on websites are even worse. Why spend ten minutes typing back and forth when a short conversation would resolve everything. Somehow, we have taken a wonderful invention like the telephone and ruined it.

It finally rained today. Well, technically it rained last night, but it was still sprinkling a little early this morning. Even though I didn't get the roof patched in time, I was still happy to see the cooler weather. The temperature must have been twenty degrees lower today. It was actually quite pleasant. The only one who didn't like the rain was Dot. Dot hates rain and even this gentle shower stressed her out. She got so worked up, she threw up right after breakfast. Once the rain stopped, she was right back to normal though.

I have to design a new website this weekend. I don't have any information to put on the pages, but that's never stopped me before. I'll just insert some plausible placeholder information until the real information eventually materializes. I'm always amazed at how often the real information never appears and my placeholder text gradually becomes the real text by default.

When I was running errands today, I noticed that the left rear tire on the Defender was quite low. One good thing about off-road tires is that they'll run with almost no air in them. I continued my shopping and when I eventually got home with the groceries, I dug the air compressor out from under a pile of Dalmatian Rescue event paraphernalia and pumped all the tires up again. Seems like I did something like this three or four months ago. I must have a slow leak.

I made good progress on my website design this afternoon and with any luck at all, I'll finish things up tomorrow with plenty of time left over to vacuum the house and take the dogs to the dog park.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day