Day 3030

I started to get ready for Summer today. I called the landscaper to get the backyard looking decent again. I called the tree trimmer to get some dead limbs removed from the Oak trees. I called the roofing supply company to see if I could buy the elastomer coating in a small enough size that I could lift the can up to the roof by myself. I found the battery for the lawn mower and installed it to see if it would still take a charge. Nothing was actually resolved today, but at least I made a start.

I was pleased that I managed to find an inexpensive used MIDI keyboard controller that does everything I need it to do. Since this keyboard cost me less than a single one gallon can of the elastomer roof coating, I thought I got quite a deal. Best of all, when I got home from the music store and plugged the keyboard into my computer, everything worked perfectly.

I wish everything worked perfectly with Dash today. He was moody again and refused to take his afternoon walk. It was a beautiful day and Dash wasn't having any vestibular issues, so I don't know what was wrong. I know that Dash was feeling OK, because when Janet came home just before sunset, he abruptly changed his mind and wanted her to walk him. He likes it when we all walk together. It's all too complicated for me. On Monday and Tuesday, Dash was eager to take his afternoon walk. I guess I'll never know why today was different.

I feel kind of sorry for Mark Zuckerberg. Every time I turned on the TV today, there he was, testifying in front of a bunch of old people who basically knew nothing about technology. Why is everyone so outraged about privacy? There is no privacy anymore. Every time you go to the grocery store, fill your car with gas, or pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, you are being tracked. Surveillance cameras are everywhere and you'd be horrified if you knew how much Apple and Google already know about you. Zuckerberg is just a geek who invented a cool app that everyone became addicted to. It's your fault that he became a billionaire. Jeez. Nobody is forcing you to use Facebook. If you really value your privacy, stay offline altogether. If Cambridge Analytica sold your information to Target or Walmart nobody would care. This is all about politics. A wide variety of companies have been selling your information for decades and congress never even noticed.

Even more puzzling to me than the Facebook debacle is the situation in Syria. The only thing the Democrats and Republicans seems to agree on is that they would both like to bomb somebody. Why? Couldn't we wait a while? Nobody has even verified that the gas attacks were real. Isis and Al-Qaeda have staged these type of events before. They guys might not have a powerful army, but they have learned that provocative fake news can be even more powerful than bombs. Lobbing hundreds of cruise missiles into Syria isn't going to help anything. Even if the gas attacks are real, adding a bunch of bombs to the mix is just going to make the situation worse. I wonder how long it's going to take for our government to realize that it's time to come home. We've accomplished absolutely nothing in the Middle East and probably never will.

The dismal state of the world is one of the reasons I focus my energies on dogs. Dogs don't care about global politics. They don't even understand why they need to wear a city registration tag. All a dog wants is regular meals and a warm, safe place to sleep every night. If we're lucky, they enjoy our companionship as well. If these were our own priorities, the world would be a much better place.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2919 - Winter Solstice

It didn't seem like the shortest day of the year. It didn't seem like the first day of Winter either, since the temperature was over 70 degrees. Truthfully, it didn't even seem like Thursday. Instead of the sunset walks we used to take at this time of year, we take mid-afternoon walks now. I split Dash's dinner into two parts these days, since I've discovered that he's more likely to eat all his food that way. We walk between the 3 PM early dinner and the 4:30 PM late dinner. I eat much earlier now as well. By the time the sun sets at 5:30 PM, our day is already finished. I kind of miss the old sunset walks, but it is much easier to just let Dash do what he wants. With this new early-bird schedule, there are no worries about chance encounters with a pack of coyotes either.

Today was uneventful. I didn't bother to go up on the roof because it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I did buy a pair of pants though. Every Christmas I get a gift card from a local menswear store that says if I spend at least $100 they will take $50 off the price. This always seems like a bargain and I inevitably go buy something whether I need it or not. I didn't need another pair of pants. I didn't need shirts, socks, or shoes either. This just shows that I am as susceptible to marketing as the next guy. I bought an overpriced pair of pants I don't even need because I was convinced I was getting it for half price. I'm sure the store still made a decent profit on the transaction.

The neighbors who own the dog that bit me are doing some remodeling on their house. I watch the workmen come and go with trepidation, since they inevitably leave gates open and I worry that the dog will escape. I hate having to worry about aggressive or loose dogs. The neighborhood is full of them. There are two German Shepherds who haven't realized yet that they could easily jump over their low fence. There is a dog who was sweet as a puppy, but has become increasingly territorial as he's grown older. This wouldn't be a problem if the dog's owner didn't leave him out in their unfenced front yard in the mornings without a leash. There is one street that is so full of barking, nervous dogs that I won't even go down it anymore.

I wonder if the city realized what it was getting into when all these ride sharing bicycles arrived. There are literally hundreds of abandoned Limebikes in the park now. I think I counted almost thirty on our walk today. Downtown there are areas where sidewalks are completely blocked by these rental bicycles. I guess the concept is popular because I see people riding these bicycles all the time. I just don't understand why they are abandoned in such strange places. If you leave your Limebike under a tree in the park, where do you go from there? I don't like bicycles in general, but the Limebikes are the worst. This is just a new type of littering.

The forecast doesn't look good, but I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. If it's a rainy day, Dash won't get a morning walk and I probably won't be able to go out for breakfast. I"m already trying to decide whether to fix pancakes, make an omelette, or have a bowl of oatmeal and fruit. I'm becoming more and more like Dash. All I really think about is food.

Willow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2335

I dutifully took my pictures of the bathroom faucets up to the plumbing showroom this morning and showed them to the staff. They had hundreds of nice looking faucets on display, but they were all too big. A patient lady looked through catalogs with me as we tried to find something that would fit my 1950's sink. The problem is that everything has gotten bigger since the 1950's. Sofas are bigger. Refrigerators are bigger. Even bathroom fixtures are bigger.  After an extensive search we finally found a single modern looking European faucet set that looked like it might work. It cost $1000.  Jeez, I could buy an entirely new pedestal sink with faucets attached for much less than that. This is what is so discouraging about keeping old houses, old cars, and old cameras working properly. You just can't find the parts.

I temporarily gave up on the bathroom sink and returned to more pressing matters like getting groceries, changing the sheets, and making sure that Dot's bedding was clean. It's time to mow the grass again, but my allergies are so bad that I can't stand to be outside for that long. Actually, I think grass seed is one of the many things I'm allergic to.

I upgraded the firmware in my new camera this afternoon. I dread upgrading firmware, because the instructions are totally incomprehensible and there are always warnings that if you don't follow these instructions exactly, you will ruin your camera. I approached things slowly and methodically, but when the moment of truth arrived, the new firmware failed to load. I did a Google search for people who were having similar problems installing this version of firmware and of course I found dozens of horror stories of other failures. The firmware files are first downloaded to your computer and then transferred to an SD card which is inserted in the camera. After much fruitless searching, I eventually noticed a post from a man who said my camera would not recognize the firmware if it had been transferred to a fast high capacity SDHC card. He suggested formatting an older slow card instead. I followed his instructions and everything worked. This was kind of ironic, since the camera had been specifically designed to use the latest high speed memory cards.

Dot is off schedule again. Every time I left the house, I expected to come home to a huge mess. I'm still waiting. I have no idea what makes Dot poop, or in this case, not poop. It all seems totally random. Probably the long awaited moment will happen about an hour after I go to sleep this evening. It wasn't all bad news though. Dot had more energy today and did well on both her walks, even though it is starting to get warmer.

I could spend the entire day tomorrow vacuuming the house and mowing the grass. Hopefully, I'll find something more appealing to do with my time. Maybe I'll go to the gym. I need to quit stopping at the sporting goods store on the way to the gym.  I'm just about broke already this month and I definitely don't need any more discount Winter jackets. It's hard to resist a bargain though. The big going out of business sale will be over in a week or so anyway, so I won't have to worry about it anymore.

It's been a long day. The dogs are already resting peacefully, but we'll need to get them up one more time to give them their evening pills. Maybe we'll get to sleep in late tomorrow. It doesn't happen often, but it's always a worthy goal.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2313

Nothing went as planned today. I tried something new for breakfast and I didn't like it. This is why doing new things is problematic for me. When I go to a new restaurant, I'll methodically try everything on the menu to find my favorite items. After that, I'll order the same thing over and over again forever. The process can take months. Why did my old restaurant have to change? I got this time consuming process out of the way years ago, and now I have to start over again.

After breakfast, I stopped by the cancer center to pick up Dot's missing pills. I tried to convince them that I had already paid for the pills, but their record keeping was better than mine and they showed me that the reason I ran out early was that I had rescheduled Dot's Ultrasound exam for a week later than originally planned. I tend to forget how expensive the Palladia pills are until I buy just a few at a time. The unit cost is unreal. Every time Dot takes her chemotherapy pills, it costs $50.  She has a treatment every three days. It's hard for me to have any sympathy for pharmaceutical companies. They tend to charge by how life threatening the disease is. When I was taking Sovaldi while I was being treated for Hepatitis C, the cost was an astounding $1000 a pill. The difference was that I had health insurance and Dot doesn't. Dogs basically pay retail for their meds. Is any of this fair? Of course not. Very few things are fair anymore. This is why voters are so mad this year.

Since the cancer center is near the sporting goods store that is going out of business, I stopped on the way home to look for more bargains. I came home with a nice pair of waterproof boots for walking the dogs and light fleece jacket to wear around the house when Janet keeps the house too cold in the summer. I probably didn't need either of these things, but it seemed to balance thing out to pay too little for something after I had just paid too much for something else.

I got started on my big website overhaul this afternoon. Many of the changes the client requested didn't make a lot of sense, but this is what I do. If I only took jobs that made sense, I would make no money at all. Since the annual subscription for the design tool I used to create this site will run out while I am working on this project, I will need to renew for another year. The cost of the subscription is more than what I will make on the job. Oh, well. It's just the cost of doing business. When I started designing websites, I didn't need a lot of help. I could write simple HTML using a word processor.  Things are different now and today's new responsive websites have become quite complicated. I need all the help I can get.

I didn't have much luck with Dot today. I tried my best to get her to poop in the yard while I was home, but she always decided to go while I was away. The latest accident occurred while I was giving Dash his evening walk. I kind of knew it was going to happen, but I couldn't get Dash to turn around and come home in time. It was a nice day and he wanted a long walk. Long walks are fine, but Dash didn't have to clean up the poop when we got home. I'm still doing laundry. I'm hoping for a calm, uneventful weekend, but the weather report says to expect thunderstorms. We'll see. At least the garbage truck picked up my trash this morning.

Krissy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1993

Today was beautiful. It was 68 degrees when we walked the dogs this morning and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The recent rains have washed a lot of the allergens out of the air, so I was able to walk without sneezing or rubbing my eyes for a change. I think the dogs enjoyed this pleasant weather as much as we did. They certainly wanted to go outside more often today.

With a clear, allergy free day, I took the opportunity to mow the grass and do some much needed yard work. I even cleaned the windows on the East side of the house, which I should have done months ago. The narrow strip of land between our house and the neighbor's fence has become somewhat of a no-mans land. Luckily the architect had the forethought to put frosted glass in all the windows on this side of the house, because there certainly isn't much to see. Spiders and wasps love this area though, so occasionally I have to get a big broom, a can of bug spray and some Windex and clean the place up.

I found a "Buy One Get One Free" coupon that could be used for any item under $20 at a local hardware store. Since the coupon expired tomorrow, I thought I'd go see what I could find. I've always liked hardware stores. This little neighborhood store was the complete opposite of Home Depot, so it was fun to browse around. I came home with a pair of leather work gloves and my free item was a nice pair of grass clippers. This was a good promotion, because I'm sure I'll go back and get things from this store again even when I don't have a coupon.

I did manage to go to the gym today. I think they were surprised to see me, since it's definitely been a while. I've switched my workout around to include more cardio work and fewer weights. This is what the doctors seem to want, and for the moment, I'm happy to go along with their suggestion. The treadmill is a bit boring, but I'm not as sore as I was when I mostly did weights. Whenever I'm at the gym, I think I should go more often, but lately other things have been getting in the way. If I do end up going to the gym more often, it will mean that life has finally calmed down a bit.

Dash dug up something dead next to the neighbor's fence, but I was determined not to let the disgusting carcass spoil the beautiful day. I still don't know whether the animal was a large rat or a small squirrel. I'm glad we caught Dash before he tried to eat the thing or bring it in the house though. We had Sushi for dinner, which is a pretty good way to end a nice day and there is no rain in the long range weather forecast for the first time in over a month. I'm not going to complain about anything today.

Amy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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