Day 2424

I watered the lawn this morning and two hours later it was bone dry again. I guess I should be glad that we're having a dry spell, since it will ensure that the roof repairs will cure properly. The yard is definitely taking a beating though. We don't have an automatic sprinkler system, so my watering efforts depend on remembering to turn the sprinklers on early enough to avoid the water restriction rules. It's probably all a wasted effort anyway, since I'm starting to see Armadillos again. Every August the Armadillos return to tear up the neighborhood lawns. I think they're looking for grubs, but maybe they're vegetarians. At any rate, I've seen several large Armadillos roaming around the neighborhood on our morning walks. They haven't found our yard yet, but they will.

I got the bills for my car insurance and storage warehouse rental fee today. Both had gone up. In theory, what I pay for car insurance should go down, since my car keeps getting older. That's not the way it works though. The bill always goes up. The storage warehouse is the same way. I pay more for my storage space now than I did for my first apartment. Health insurance rates go up every year. My gas and electric bills are twice what they were when I first moved to the neighborhood. I can't think of a single recurring bill that has gone down over time. No wonder people are mad. When you combine rising costs with stagnating income, it's not a good situation.

I've seen this new store in the neighborhood that advertises "plant based meals to go," Curiosity finally got the better of me and I went inside today to see what was going on. The place features a variety of pre-prepared vegan meals that you just heat and serve when you get home. Maybe this is the missing link in my healthy lifestyle plan. I don't like to cook, but I'd definitely like to eat healthier. There were lots of interesting curries and Thai dishes to choose from, as well as salads, soups, and sandwiches. I think I'll give this place a try. I'm not a huge fan of steamed vegetables, but a spicy vegetarian curry can be delicious. The meals aren't too expensive either.

Facebook has started including "memories" posts in my timeline with entries from this day in a previous year. They always ask if I would like to share the memory, but I never do. What I did one year ago is so similar to what I'm doing today that it would be confusing. I prefer a linear timeline with one entry per day, always moving forward. I do read these old posts though. It's hard to believe that Dot has been incontinent and pooping in the house for over a year. It's been well over two years since she initially had her cancer surgery. What a long journey it's been. I've probably cleaned up my own weight in dog poop during the past year.

I have no idea what I'm going to do tomorrow. I've more or less stopped planning ahead. Maybe there will be websites to update. Maybe I'll discover a new flower to photograph. I'll watch TV news during breakfast and wonder how the world became so crazy. I'll try to make sure Dot poops outside, but I'll probably fail. Tomorrow will be a lot like today, which apparently was very similar to what happened one year ago today.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2068

I was ordering my breakfast this morning when I got a call from Janet saying that there were some strange men walking around on our roof. "That must be the roofers," I told her. Jeez, what were they doing out at the house so early? The cook was just starting to fix my meal, and I asked him if he'd wait a bit so I could go home and see what the roofers were doing. There was a good chance that they'd never find the bad spots on their own and end up patching something that was perfectly good. I'd already paid for my breakfast, but I told the guys that I'd be back soon. I showed the two roofers where the elastomer had worn off and was back at my table within ten minutes. When practically everything you do is within two miles of your house, it's pretty easy to have a change of plan like this. I'm pretty sure that the new patches will have plenty of time to dry properly before they are put to the test. There is still no rain on the horizon.

Today was pretty much like yesterday. I had a little work to do, but not too much. I got my assignments done in plenty of time to take my car up to the dealership at the appointed time for it's annual safety inspection. I told the service manager that they probably ought to go ahead and change the oil and filter while they were at it. "Why," he asked me? "You've only driven two thousand miles since the last time you had the oil changed." Never mind. I tend to forget how little I drive these days. If the dogs didn't need to go to the vet so often, I probably wouldn't drive at all.

I enjoy going to the dealership. I've been a customer for so long that I know everyone by now. One of the sales guys and I talked about our favorite Top Gear shows while they were working on my car. I still think that the BBC made a horrible mistake by canceling the show. So what if Jeremy Clarkson punched a producer. Most producers deserve to be punched. At any rate, I miss Top Gear. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were three of the most politically incorrect hosts on television. They were rude and funny and never sugar coated anything. They also liked Land Rovers a lot. 

The state no longer gives you a sticker for your windshield when you have your car safety inspected. Everything is electronic now. After the safety inspection data has been entered into the vehicle records database in Austin, you can purchase your annual vehicle registration sticker. Since they already know if you've had your car inspected, there is no need for a second windshield sticker. I was going to get the registration sticker on the way home, but they told me to wait at least 48 hours for the database to be updated. If everything is so automated, I wonder why they couldn't just combine the inspection and registration. It would be so much easier if I could just take care of everything at the same time.

The armadillo in my back yard is driving me crazy. It is pulling up my monkey grass by the roots and taking the plants someplace. Maybe it's making a nest with them or something. I can't seem to keep the thing out of our yard. I blocked the area where it was getting in with bricks, but the armadillo just dug a new hole under the fence somewhere else. It's hard enough keeping the yard looking nice anyway, but when the neighborhood critters are actively trying to destroy it, the task becomes almost impossible. Even the birds are getting in on the action this summer. I've never seen so many woodpeckers. They are constantly tapping at the trees. Since woodpeckers mostly eat insects, maybe they are actually helping me though. I'll take woodpeckers over armadillos any day.

I'll be glad when August is over. August is always the most expensive month of the year. Car insurance is due in August. So is my annual storage warehouse rent. When you add dental bills and Dot's chemotherapy to the mix, you can see why I wish that my business would pick up a bit. Actually, I wish the entire summer was over. Business usually picks up in the Fall. The weather is cooler. Fall usually provides lots of interesting photographic opportunities too. The Summer heat has been especially hard on Dot. I'm looking forward to brisk 65 degree walks and colorful Fall leaves. I think we've got a while to wait though.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2051

Nothing went as planned today. I woke about 4 AM to the now familiar smell of poop. Dot had pooped in her bed again. I cleaned up the mess, took it outside in a plastic bag and found myself face-to-face with an armadillo on the back porch. The armadillo seems to return every August like clockwork to tear up the yard, and here he was, right on schedule. After I put Dot's soiled blankets in the washer, I went back to bed and tried to go to sleep again. Unfortunately, I was wide awake by now.

When everybody else woke up about an hour later, I was already tired. I kept thinking that Dot looked a little unsteady on our morning walk, but probably the only unsteady one in the group was me. I really need to start getting more sleep. When we returned from our walk, the dogs still had enough energy to bark at me as I ate my breakfast.  I can quiet them for a while by feeding them slices of banana, but barking has just become a part of their morning ritual. They think it's fun.

Work is still pretty slow, so I organized files for a while and did my bookkeeping. For some reason I decided to recharge a very old Sony Vaio laptop and see if it still worked. It didn't. I kept getting an error message saying "operating system not found." I did a little investigation and realized that the hard drive had gone bad. It wouldn't have been that difficult to replace the hard drive and install a new operating system, but I wondered it it was even worth the trouble. This was an old, very slow computer that was running Windows 98 the last time I looked. I guess I could install Linux on the thing and keep using it, but why bother. An old, slow computer that won't boot is basically just a paperweight.

Since I failed to resurrect the old computer, I thought I'd try to resurrect an equally old watch. There was nothing special about the watch, other than the fact that I had to remove eight very tiny screws to open the case and replace the battery. The tiny screws were why I had avoided the watch for so long in the first place. I carefully removed each small screw, replaced the battery and just about had the watch back together when I managed to strip the threads reinserting the very last screw. Clumsy me. Now I need an exceedingly small screw extractor so I can try to remove the broken screw from the watch. Again, is it even worth the trouble? It's a cheap watch that I'd only worn twice in five years. With this dismal track record, I didn't even try to fix anything else today.

I managed to fix my dinner without burning anything and got Dot situated in her safe place again, so I could go to an evening animal rescue meeting. We talked about the next fundraising event and it was decided that I'll be taking a promotional picture for the event featuring dogs, cats, a parrot, a miniature pig, and a snake. This ought to be interesting. Tomorrow, I'll look for a source for very tiny screws.

Queenie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1374

Why do doctor visits take so long? For every minute you actually spend with the doctor, you spend an additional ten minutes sitting in the waiting room. Sometimes, just to create the illusion that something is happening, you are moved from the outer waiting room to a second inner waiting room. It's still a waiting room though, complete with three year old magazines and posters on the wall detailing the symptoms of diseases you never want to catch.

I guess today's verdict was worth waiting for though. I'm still hanging in there. No biopsy required. Just some blood tests and the doctor telling me to keep on doing what I'm doing. The new treatment I've been waiting for won't be approved by the FDA until January 2014 at the earliest. I'm apparently good to go until then.

Since my doctor visit took twice as long as I thought it would, I got behind on everything else. Although I managed to get quite a few things started, nothing really got finished. I dropped some things off at the storage warehouse on the way to see my hepatoligist and got some prescriptions filled at the pharmacy on the way back. That was about it. I'll get caught up on my website work tomorrow. At least I hope I will.

Someone wants to buy my Defender before I trade it in on a new car. Although I might make more money selling the car to an individual, the whole idea makes me uncomfortable. I guess I've heard too many Craigslist horror stories. The dealership knows the car well, since they've been the ones who've worked on it all these years. What they're offering me is realistic. I've afraid that an individual would have buyer's remorse as soon as they discovered the realities of living with a car that has 112,000 miles on the odometer. The truth is that I wouldn't even be considering getting a new car if driving
the Defender was as cool as some people think it is. It's a very old car.

Dash almost caught the armadillo in the yard this morning. I don't know what he'd do if he actually caught the thing, but I don't want to find out. So far, I haven't figured out an effective method of keeping the critter out of the yard. It can dig its way under the fence with ease. Maybe the rain will keep the armadillo away for a while. It's pouring outside now, and of course, Dot is under my desk, convinced that the sky is falling.

Rhett is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1370

There wasn't enough time to take the dogs to the dog park we like in North Dallas this morning, so we went to another one right in the neighborhood. This park wasn't as well manicured as its North Dallas cousin. The dogs were a bit scruffier too. Dot and Dash certainly didn't seem to care. As long as they got to run around and smell things off leash, they were happy campers. It would certainly be easier to take the dogs to this nearby park, but I've seen fights break out when people brought aggressive dogs to the park, and our vet told us that one of her patients caught Leptospirosis from stagnant water in the park. If we can keep the dogs safer by driving a bit further to a cleaner, more polite dog park, it is well worth the effort.

I mowed the grass for the last time this season. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm sure I'll be mowing the front yard for several more months. There is a slight leak in one of the front yard faucets and I startled a few frogs who had made the damp grass around the leak their Summer home. I wish frogs were all I had to worry about in the back yard. The armadillo has returned every night this week and is making a mess of things. I discovered a large hole that the critter had dug under the fence to get in and out and filled it up with dirt again. Maybe this will keep the armadillo out, but I doubt it. If an armadillo can dig one hole under the fence, it can probably dig another.

I thought I'd install a webserver on my laptop so I could show my client the new Wordpress site I've been building. Much to my chagrin, I had to read the installation tutorial all over again. In less than a week, I'd already forgotten how to do the installation. I had a general idea how to do the installation, but that wasn't good enough. Servers and databases just won't work unless you have all the passwords and permissions set correctly. I finally got everything working properly, but as I have mentioned many times before, I'm not really a detail person.

I keep vacillating back and forth about buying a new car. Some days I feel like keeping the Defender and finding someone who could retrofit a new engine. Other days, I feel like taking money out of savings and getting myself something plush and extravagant. Today, I felt like getting a car just like Janet's. Her car is quite nice, somewhat affordable, and it's certainly been more reliable than mine over the years. If I wasn't obsessed with having something totally unique, this whole process would be a lot easier.

I don't know why I went up on the roof today. It hasn't rained in weeks. What I saw surprised me. The entire roof was covered with a layer of broken pecan shells from the neighbor's pecan tree. I knew the squirrels liked pecans, but I didn't know they liked them this much. I must have swept ten pounds of cracked pecan shells off the roof. Doing this little chore now will save me a lot of trouble later. Pecan shells will turn a puddle of standing water the color of iced tea. There are a lot more pecans that are still hanging on the pecan tree though. It is almost inevitable that by by this time next year, my nice white new roof will be the color of iced tea as well.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1367

Is anyone else having trouble with passwords? For years everything was fine, but I've noticed lately that websites and applications have stepped up their game. My old familiar passwords aren't acceptable anymore. I am being admonished to create more complex passwords that contain upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols. For me, this is a recipe for disaster. I can never remember these types of passwords. To make matters worse, you are now only given three tries to get the password right before you are locked out. I joined a site that required a complex password a few days ago and forgot it less than 24 hours later. It's all very frustrating. Especially since many sites won't let you use your old password again after you've requested a password re-set.

Our perennial hole digging armadillo has returned. It seems like this critter returns every year about this time to destroy what is left of our back yard grass. There were big holes in the turf this morning and a rustling sound along the fence as the critter ran away from the approaching dogs.  I really don't know how to get rid of these things. They come in the night while we're asleep, and then disappear again the next morning after digging a bunch of ugly holes.

I was real tempted to start looking at new cars today, but work got in the way and I didn't have time. I'm sure I'll succumb to temptation sooner or later, but it's just as well that I kept my nose to the grindstone and didn't go car shopping today. The kind of cars I like are very expensive. I need to pick up a few more clients before I feel comfortable buying a car.

I got a surprise call from an old client this morning, asking me if I'd take them back on a temporary basis. Sure! Why not? What have I got to lose anyway? Evidently, my replacement hasn't worked out all that well. Maybe if I do well on my "temporary" assignments, I can bring these guys back into the fold again. It's certainly happened before. People fire me because they think I'm too expensive and then when they've been paying someone else for a year or two, they finally come to the realization that I was actually quite a bargain.

I'm slowly, but surely learning how Wordpress works. Today I figured out how to add a collaborative calendar to a Wordpress site. Tomorrow, I"m going to explore how to add transaction capabilities. The good thing about an open source application like Wordpress is that just about anything you could imagine adding to a website has already been done before. All you really have to do is look for the tutorials and YouTube videos that explain how to add the functionality you want. I'm still not a big fan of dynamic, server-side websites, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm learning some useful things that will be put to good use in the near future.

I made it to the gym late in the day, but that's probably it for the week. Tomorrow's another busy work day and the small amount of free time I do have will be spent having a delicious breakfast at my favorite restaurant.  In my world, Eggs Benedict trumps time on the treadmill any day of the week.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1038

Wow! Google stock dropped over 10% in a matter of minutes today, all because a bad quarterly report was released a little prematurely. The slide was so precipitous that trading was halted for several hours. I'm certainly glad that I didn't buy any Google shares yesterday. All this just confirms my feeling that it has become too dangerous for the small investor to day trade anymore. Events happen rapidly and the market responds almost instantly. By the time the average guy has time to react, it's too late. Google is still a good company though. If the overreaction to the poor earnings continues, it might be wise for me to buy some shares.

I found one of those little square discontinued iPod nanos I've been looking for, thanks to a regular blog reader. Now, if I could only convince you readers to find me jobs and clients as well. That would be great.

The dogs have been loving this beautiful Fall weather. They can't go lounge in the grass after lunch like they used to, thanks to our armadillo friend who tore the yard up. The lack of grass hasn't detered them in the least unfortunately. When I let the dogs outside, they immediately go roll in the dirt and get filthy. I try my best to clean them off before they come inside again, but the house is getting dirtier every day. I'll be glad when the leaves finally fall and cover up the dirt. There isn't any point in planting new grass this late in the season. We'll just repeat what we did last year and let the leaves cover everything up until Spring.

I just finished watching a live feed of the Al Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner. I've always been a fan of self depreciating humor, and these events featuring the presidential candidates doing stand-up comedy routines seldom disappoint. I wish the candidates would act like this all the time. I'd much rather see people making sarcastic jokes about each other than just resort to calling their advisory a liar. There's a lot to be said for using humor to deal with complex issues. I'd love to see a debate where both candidates checked political correctness at the door and the guy with the most biting humor won. Maybe Jon Stewart could be the moderator.

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1014

People must have spent the weekend thinking of things they wanted me to do. Usually Mondays are completely dead, but today there were a ton of little projects that needed to be dealt with. There were new things that needed to be written. Old things that needed to be revised. And of course, there were confusing things that made no sense at all. As I methodically worked my way through this lengthy to-do list, I kept wondering when the fun was going to start. It never did.

I learned a bit about steam turbines today as well. Steam turbines are pretty dull. Even though these complicated and very expensive pieces of machinery are essential for everything from making electricity to making paper, they are only slightly more exciting than a farmer's windmill. Actually, a farmer's windmill is a type of turbine.

Our backyard armadillo has been joined by a backyard raccoon. I saw the raccoon on the porch this morning when I woke up early and went out to the kitchen for a glass of water. I don't know if the raccoon has joined forces with the armadillo to tear up the yard, but it is stealing things off the porch. Raccoons will steal virtually anything. They are also carriers of rabies and will attack dogs and cats. I've got to get rid of this raccoon.

I missed last Saturday's episode of Dr. Who, so I thought I'd record it on the U-verse DVR so I could watch it later. I've never used the DVR, but it couldn't be that hard, could it? I set the DVR to record the show when it was replayed at 2AM this morning. I must have done something wrong though, because when I got ready to watch the episode this morning, I discovered that nothing had been recorded at all. Oh, well. My Instagram photos aren't being recorded to the Camera Roll on my new phone either. That's the trouble with technology. You've got to learn how to use it.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1010

I must be a glutton for punishment. Even after being stuck in customer service hell with an AT&T call center agent this afternoon, I still think I'm going to go get a new iPhone tomorrow. Yeah, I've heard all the arguments on Google+ that the Android is better, but the Samsung Galaxy phones are simply too big for me. It's like putting a small tablet in your pocket. Definitely not for me. I've used Apple products since the original 1984 512K Fat Mac and see little reason to switch horses this late in the game.

Maybe I can get that new Siri personal assistant thing to be my friend. I really don't have many questions to ask, but if I could set the phone to just let me ramble on and have Siri interject with an occasional "I agree completely" or "You're a genius" it would make my day.

That's the problem with the dogs. Even though they're both as friendly as can be, neither of them think I'm any smarter than they are. I'm convinced that they think I'm just another dog. Although Dot and Dash may be right about my abilities, it would still be nice to have someone look up to you. If I get than new phone, I'll have to work on getting Siri to think I'm a genius.

I might as well throw my rototiller away. The armadillo that visits our yard every night is doing a much better job of tilling the soil than I ever did. I can't believe how destructive this little creature is. After less than a week of hunting for grubs, the armadillo has totally destroyed what was left of the backyard grass. I don't even know how the animal is getting in and out of the yard. The yard is completely fenced with no gaps large enough for an armadillo to crawl through. I don't think he's still in the yard during the day though, or the dogs would have found him by now.

Hey, at least it's Friday tomorrow. Maybe I'll get a brand new phone. Maybe I'll just get a big stack of pancakes with a side of bacon. Either way, the day will probably be more interesting than it was today.

Rosie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 996

I'm feeling a bit snarky today. It made no difference whatsoever having the U-verse technician come out yesterday. I continue to experience intermittent dropouts in the broadband signal, just like I have for months. I don't think the problem is something a technician can fix. The equipment is working fine. The problem is that the whole U-verse concept isn't ready for prime time yet. AT&T won't admit this though. They're making too much money signing up people who have become disgruntled with cable.

An armadillo tore up our yard last night. The same thing has happened every September for the past three years. The poor grass was struggling to survive anyway. Now, the back yard is pretty much decimated. I think the armadillo was looking for white grubs. It didn't find any, but that didn't stop him from trying.

I had to pick up a coffee filter and a Sodastream CO₂ canister at Bed Bath and Beyond today. When I got to the checkout counter, I finally remembered I had forgotten to bring one of those big blue Save 20% coupons that seem to arrive in the mail every other day. There is a stack of these coupons in the kitchen and I can never remember to bring them with me. Janet says I could save a lot of money if I would start using coupons, but they just don't seem important to me.

Printer ink does seem important, although I don't know why. I rarely print anything on my large format printer anymore. I still need to buy the ink though. Epson, in their evil wisdom, uses the expensive pigment ink to clean out the lines and keep the printer from clogging. Somehow, I've managed to empty all eight cartridges on the 4880 printer just running the cleaning cycle periodically. I don't think I've actually printed much of anything this year. Since I had to renew my monthly prescriptions today as well, I found it ironic that the printer ink cost me more than the pills that keep me alive.

Someone asked me the name of today's flower on Twitter this morning. It's called a Prairie Verbena. For years I've just been calling the thing a blue ring flower. I'll probably forget the real name as quickly as I forget those blue Bed Bath and Beyond coupons. I won't forget that Dot is almost back to her normal self though. We returned to our regular long walk this morning and she didn't cough a bit.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 440

I didn't sleep well last night. Dash woke me up twice with a cacophony of barking and growling that was very uncharacteristic of him. Dot is the self designated protector of the house and when she gets alarmed, she'll bark at the sound of a pin dropping. Dot was asleep though. It was Dash who was making all the noise. I got up and looked around, but nothing seemed amiss. There certainly weren't any strange noises. The second time Dash woke me up, I finally noticed what was causing all the commotion. There was a rather large armadillo walking around on our back porch. Armadillos aren't very noisy critters, so I wonder what caught Dash's attention. Maybe he smelled it. He did start barking before he even went to the window. I don't even know how the armadillo got in our yard. The yard is fenced and armadillos don't really seem like climbing creatures. Dot didn't even get out of bed during the whole episode. I guess as long as it's not a garbage truck or a furnace repairman, she doesn't care.

I got a call reminding me of Dash's vet appointment, so I put him in the car and headed over to the vet. When I was halfway there, it dawned on me that the call was reminding me about an appointment on Tuesday. Today was Monday. We drove straight past the vet and came home again. Hopefully I'll remember that tomorrow is Tuesday.

After the aborted vet appointment, I took all the boxes back to the storage warehouse that I had filled up yesterday. This is going to take a little longer than I initially thought. I've got one shelf finished now. Only twenty five left to go.

Maybe tomorrow will be more productive. All I've got to show for today efforts are 200 gallons of water that I swept off the roof and a bunch of boxes that got moved from one part of town to another.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day