Day 3569

I used to go for years without seeing the dentist. Now, I never miss an appointment. Every six months a dental hygienist cleans my teeth and once a year I get new x-rays and the dentist gives me an exam. I've always had good teeth, but it's not worth tempting fate anymore. Life is full of problems as it is. I don't need to add dental work to the list.

There were no problems today. The dentist thinks I'm doing a good job of taking care of my teeth. I use a Sonicare toothbrush and a Waterpik everyday and do my best to avoid sugar. The only thing that needed attention today was the retainer I wear at night. I broke it in half about a year ago and have just been wearing each half at night. The dentist said this was fine, but I think my teeth are shifting a bit. Getting a new retainer was more reasonable than I thought, so I'm going to go ahead and have them make me a new one.

There was no time for a morning walk today. As soon as I finished breakfast it was time to go to the dentist. This didn't mean I skipped the walk. It just meant I was outside during the hottest part of the day. Jeez. When are we going to get some Fall weather? It was really hot this afternoon. Temperature really does make a difference. These walks are much easier when it's cooler.

I can't figure out what is going on with the security light in the back yard. This weekend the light stayed on all night. Yesterday it didn't work at all. Now it's back on again. I've had this problem before and every time the light eventually seemed to fix itself. I'm hoping that it will start to work normally again. The light itself is inexpensive, but I always have to call an electrician when there is a problem. In theory I could easily install a new light myself, but it is located very near our power line and I'm clumsy at times. I don't want to get myself electrocuted. I'm trying to convince myself that it's easier to look at the stars at night when the yard is dark, but I like a little light coming in through the windows at night. Somehow it is easier to sleep when the security light is working.

I'm still eating leftover sandwiches from the golf tournament for dinner. If I'd thought to take a few more, I wouldn't have to go to the store at all this week. I ate the last sandwich tonight, but I doubt that I'll be very hungry tomorrow anyway. We're planning on going to the fair on Thursday. There's so much junk food at the fair that you seldom want to eat when you get home. You can get virtually anything deep fried on on a stick at the fair. I know it's not good for you but that's why the fair is only once a year. Whatever I eat tomorrow, there's a virtual certainty that it will give me heartburn.

I recharged my laptop batteries and applied a security patch this afternoon. With all the power outages we have around here, you never know when I'm going to need this thing. I used to ignore the security updates but you can't really do that anymore. Apple is no longer immune from hackers and malware. My laptop seems very slow, but that's probably just because it's old. I hate to retire this thing. It's the last laptop Apple made that came with a CD/DVD drive and full size USB ports. There's a slot for camera cards too. New laptops don't have any of this stuff.

Last year at this time, Dash was having seizures and I was getting nervous about an upcoming art auction in New York. That all seems so long time ago now. The only thing that hasn't changed are the telemarketing calls. We're still getting a ton of telemarketing calls.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3429

I always think I am slow when I walk because from time to time other people pass me on the trails going much faster than I am. This morning I realized that this is probably just an illusion. I'm sure there are people walking slower than I am as well but I never see these people because they gradually fall further and further behind. Maybe I'm really faster than I think. Life is like this. When we only look straight ahead we only see a small slice of what is going on.

I'm surprised at how many people take long walks during the day. I've started to recognize some of the people and many of them appear to walk longer distances than I do. I wonder what motivates these walkers? Maybe they're walking for their health. Maybe it's more complicated. I couldn't give you a simple reason why I do this. It's similar to walking dogs, but it's definitely not the same. The dogs really needed their walks. I'm just killing time.

I read that there's a security flaw in Intel processors and that all Apple users should apply the patch that fixes this problem immediately. I dutifully upgraded my computers without really understanding what the problem was. This happens so frequently now. Apple seldom warns you about these things but there's almost always a security update waiting for you when you go to the App Store. I used to go for years without even thinking about malware or computer viruses. It just wasn't a problem. When I first opened my business it was rare for a computer to even have a password.

We didn't have problems with telemarketers back in the day either. At least the FCC is finally starting to look at the problem. I've heard that they are now going to allow telephone carriers to block telemarketing calls by default so they won't even reach your phone. It would be nice if this were true. Telemarketers have become a major irritation. I suspect that phone companies secretly like telemarketers. If all the telemarketers suddenly disappeared the phone companies wouldn't have nearly as many customers.

I spend a lot of time walking these days, but apparently not enough. There are still huge swaths of time with nothing to do. I vacuumed the house today because I couldn't think of anything else to occupy my time. There's no point in taking naps now because I'm finally getting plenty of sleep. I still turn on the computer every morning out of habit, but there are no deadlines anymore. I don't really need a computer. I do need a purpose though. One of these days I'll find one.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day