Day 1757

I kept thinking it was Wednesday today. With so little to differentiate the days anymore, it is an easy mistake to make. Friday's stick in my mind because I go out for a great breakfast. Thursdays I generally remember because I take Dot downtown for her physical therapy session. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday just run together.

I had lots of work to do today, but work doesn't leave the same kind of memories as a good meal. For sanity's sake, I prefer to forget most of the things I work on and depend on my computer to resurrect these projects when it becomes necessary. This is why I take backups and archiving seriously. I have dual backup hard drives and alternate them every other day, just in case. Without these meticulous backups, any garden variety computer crash could ruin me. A lot of people talk about living in the moment, but I really do. The only thing I know about yesterday is that it was very likely exactly the same as today.

Ever since the power outage I've been looking at generators. Most people evaluate generators by their power output, price, and gas tank size. I just look at how heavy they are. With a bad shoulder and carpal tunnel in my wrists, I need something I can lift. I think 60 pounds would be about my limit. This is pitiful, considering the heavy speakers and amplifiers I used to routinely lift when I played in the band, but that's just the way it is. Since your typical generator can weigh several hundred pounds, I am looking at Inverters. This type of design is much lighter and still provides enough power to meet my basic needs. As an added bonus, some types of Inverters can be hooked together in parallel to double the power. Maybe I'll get one tomorrow.

My sister told me recently that she and her husband were going to sell their rural home because of health problems and move to a place where there was better health care. I find this sad, because I know they loved living off the grid and spent years and years building a wonderful retreat in the middle of nowhere. When my parents sold their home and moved to an assisted living facility they really had no choice. Medical issues made the choice for them as well. I think about this from time to time. I'd love to live in the middle of nowhere, but I'd never want to be far away from a good veterinarian. Several of my dogs would have died if a large, full service veterinary hospital wasn't just a few minutes away. It would be nice to have a top quality research hospital nearby for Janet and I as well. I've already seen how much of a difference a good medical team can make. Basically, getting old sucks and there is very little you can do about it.

I must be moving up in the world on Klout. I got a notice today that they were sending me a Honeywell programmable WiFi thermostat for the house. This is certainly fancier than the bag of dog food they sent me last time.

Cupcake is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1473

When I saw some aggressive dogs ahead on our morning walk, I quickly changed direction and picked an alternate route. This was fortunate for the dogs, but not so good for me. The new trail was filled with fresh horse poop, which Dash devoured at every opportunity, and lots of mud. I cleaned the mud off the dogs paws when I returned home, but I really wished I could have cleaned Dash inside and out. I don't know how Dash acquired his taste for horse poop, but it's fairly disgusting.

With the morning walk out of the way, I was off to my favorite restaurant for my perennial Friday favorite: two poached eggs served over a bed of pulled pork, peppers, and hash browned potatoes. Yes, it was another completely normal Friday.

After a leisurely breakfast, I picked up some groceries for the weekend, filled the car with gas, and settled down to another day of writing and website work. I often wonder why I stay so busy while doing stuff that really doesn't matter. I guess it must matter to somebody. I'm not exactly setting the world on fire here, but I am paying the bills. When I look at my Google+ stream, I'm humbled by all the people I see doing truly remarkable things. Of course, all I have to do is look at Facebook to realize that I'm actually still doing pretty well.

It's getting harder and harder to walk Dot and Dash together. Dot likes a sedate walk on level ground where she doesn't have to worry about falling or stumbling. Dash loves to race up hills, chase rabbits, and be as disruptive as he possible can. There's nothing wrong with either type of behavior. It's just hard for an old dog and a young dog to agree on things. It's my job to find a middle ground that will keep both of these dogs happy. I figure if I can do this, I can do almost anything.

With Janet away, I'm having a very difficult time telling one day from another. Her very predictable rituals always gave me a clue about what was going to happen next. The dogs don't care what day it is. To them, and increasingly to me, the weekdays and the weekends are all the same. I've got to be careful here, or I could easily end up working straight through the weekend and accidentally squander my two days of rest. My work is so amorphous that I sometime have difficulties telling the difference between work and leisure as well. Am I working all the time, or never working at all? I guess it all depends on your point of view.

I was thinking about going to see Gravity tomorrow in 3-D at a local iMax theater. The nearest iMax theater seems a bit too far away though, so I'll probably just wait until Gravity comes out on DVD in February. I'm not in much of a hurry about anything these days.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day