Day 3560

I don't think I'm cut out to binge watch a series on Netflix. I'm enjoying the new Ken Burns documentary on PBS, but it's so long that it makes me fidgety. It's hard to turn away though. Every segment is interesting and some of the recent shows bring back memories. I don't like to sit in front of a TV for this long though. Especially in the evening. It disrupts my schedule. I've probably missed a lot of interesting shows writing the blog every night for so many years. On the other hand, I might have missed nothing. Writing seems more valuable to me than passively watching something. To me it's the mental equivalent of walking. You've got to keep your body and mind on the move.

I got my walking done early today so we could spend the afternoon with the Dalmatians. It's amazing how relaxed the new dogs seem now. They have adjusted well to life in the kennel. For dogs that were running stray or were abused, the kennel is kind of like a halfway house. It allows them to relax and start to feel safe again while they wait for their forever homes.

Rolly is gaining weight and is almost finished with his heartworm treatment. Sock's skin problems are  getting much better and he is turning into a very handsome dog. Hank is on a special diet now and it appears to be working. So far, there has been no more vomiting or bloody stools. Jasmine and Jelly Bean are playful now and eager to see us. It's hard to believe that they were so nervous just a few weeks ago. Charlie continues to amaze us with the progress he's made. He's a very smart boy.

Poor Treasure was the only one with problems today. We noticed a suspicious growth on her belly a few weeks ago and it turned out to be a mammary tumor. We think the tumor is benign, but it still needs to be removed. When we finished visiting with all the dogs we took her to the vet on our way home. She will have surgery in the morning. Treasure has already had another tumor removed when she first entered the rescue program. Hopefully, this will be the last. You'd never know she was headed for surgery tomorrow. She was full of energy this afternoon and as always, enjoyed rolling over for treats.

Tomorrow, the tree guy returns to remove what is left of the large Elm tree that fell earlier this Summer. The yard is going to look bare without this once impressive tree. I hope we won't end up losing all the trees. All of them have seen better days and most have lost a few limbs over the years. Hopefully the tree removal won't cause neighbor problems. One of our neighbors hates having the alley blocked even for short periods of time.

The security light in the back yard has quit working again. It must be the temperature that is causing the problem. The hotter the day, the shorter amount of time the light stays on at night. One of these days I'll break down and get the silly thing fixed.

Sage is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3559

It's not even October yet and Halloween is already in full swing. People are buying pumpkins. The stores are full of Halloween candy and pumpkin spice flavors. Costume ideas are being shared on Facebook. I wonder why this holiday has become so popular. I used to go trick or treating as a kid, but I never remember preparing for the day a month in advance. I guess what I remember most is that our parents let us wander around the neighborhood for hours at night with no supervision whatsoever. It's kind of ironic. The scariest day of the year used to be completely safe.

I got my 20,000 steps today. There really isn't time for much else on these high activity days. My heart rate was higher than usual at the gym. Why? I certainly wasn't exercising any harder. Even the smallest inconsistency in my life catches my attention these days. There was something different in the park as well. The first of the Winter White Pelicans have arrived. There are four birds at the lake now. Since the pelican that never migrated disappeared a week before these new birds arrived, I don't know whether he left to get the others or left because he knew they would be arriving soon. Is the pelican I watched all Summer one of the four birds I'm seeing now? I'll probably never know because all pelicans look the same to me.

I downloaded the latest system for my Apple watch today. Apple really wants to monitor your health. Now, in addition to monitoring for signs of Atrial fibrillation and sending out an alert if you take a hard fall, the watch will warn you if your are around a noise loud enough to cause hearing damage. They could probably add blood pressure measurement to the list with a watch band that would expand like a blood pressure cuff. I don't know how they'll be able to monitor blood sugar levels, but I hear they're working on it. The new health and safety features are cool, but I like the new California watch face. This face was popularized by Panerai and other watch makers back in the 1930's and I've always liked the look of it. I'd like to see Apple add more well known watch faces.

The Ken Burns documentary about Country Music resumed tonight and I guess I'm hooked for the entire series. As the show slowly crawls its way toward modern times, some of the history is starting to seem familiar. Back in my ad agency days I used to record jingles and commercials in Nashville. Some of the session musicians featured on tonight's show were used on these commercials. During this time, I remember seeing a young Dolly Parton singing with Porter Wagoner during a taping of their popular TV show. Much later I think several members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were session musicians on some other commercials I recorded in Nashville. Nashville always had an allure for anyone who fancied themselves as a songwriter. I never moved to Nashville but I did think about it briefly for a while.

Tomorrow it's back to drinking fruit smoothies again. Since it's Monday, we'll probably visit the Dalmatians as well. The tree guys are scheduled to return on Tuesday to remove the rest of the big Elm tree that fell in June. The yard is going to seem strange without this familiar tree. I wish the roofers would return with a big can of silicon coating. Of course it would seem really strange if they actually did.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3556

For the first time in months I got caught in the rain on my morning walk. It actually felt kind of nice. For a little while it felt like Fall had finally arrived. There was a cool breeze and I noticed that a few leaves were already blowing in the wind. I should have taken a good camera with me since I saw several large Great Blue Herons. Maybe some other time. Rainy days are good for photography, but not so good for cameras.

I heard from one of the editors at Sky and Telescope today. My submission had wound up in somebody's junk mail folder and wasn't discovered until today. The article still has to go through the review process, but I was encouraged that the magazine took the time to write me. They also seemed pleased that I had photos to accompany the article. We'll see what happens. At least for today I'm feeling optimistic.

I lied about not watching last night's episode of the new Ken Burns documentary. As I was going to bed I noticed that PBS was rebroadcasting the fourth episode again and I ended up watching the entire thing. Is the show over yet? Nope. There are eight more hours to go.

I had to pick up another prescription this afternoon. For some reason all my prescriptions are getting renewed automatically now and they are being filled weeks before the old pills run out. I guess I could fix this problem, but it's easier to just ignore it. I'll use all the pills eventually.

Today went quickly, considering that nothing really happened. It's amazing that I managed to get so much done during my younger years. Now, a few simple things can take up the entire day. I guess all the important things have been taken care of. This week's trash has been taken to the curb. I'm up to date on my prescriptions. All my bills are paid. I guess I'm ready to go out for breakfast tomorrow morning.

It rained enough today that I'll probably have to go up on the roof tomorrow and remove the water. It never ends. I sure hope my Sky and Telescope article gets published. I need some little victories every now and then to keep me moving forward.

Rhett is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3552

I'll have to admit that I'm impressed. Our road is already open again. The highway department was supposed to take three days to demolish the bridge, but they finished what they needed to do in just a single day. Half of the bridge is still there so cars can keep crossing while they start building the new bridge. When the first half of the new bridge is finished, they'll tear down the remaining portion of the old bridge. I wasn't expecting this much coordination. Maybe this project won't be as bad as I thought.

Whenever I go to the gym early, I think I should do this all the time. There's more time for other things when I get my workout finished by mid-morning. My workout hasn't changed, but I've noticed that my heart rate is lower than it was a few years ago. My body seems to be getting used to the routine. This probably means that I should step things up a bit. I do seem to be getting stronger. The first day I extended my morning walk to five miles I thought I was going to die, but now this distance seems more or less normal.

Maybe I'll start wanting to exercise harder and walk longer. I hope not though. I like being healthy, but I'm not really cut out to be a gym rat. Believe it or not, I still need time to do other things. Today I needed to figure out why my phone could connect to the WiFi router, but my computer couldn't. The computer could still connect to the T-Mobile hotspot, but couldn't find the U-Verse WiFi. There was nothing wrong with U-Verse though, because everything else in the house was working fine. I spent way too much time trying to get to the bottom of this mystery. In the end, I solved the problem the same way I solve most electronic problems. I turned everything off and then on again.

I ended up watching the first segment of the new Ken Burns documentary about Country Music tonight. I always think I'm just going to watch a few minutes of a Ken Burns film, but I inevitably get sucked in and end up watching every minute of the entire lengthy series. I'm not sure how long this new documentary is, but I'm positive it will last for several days. They all do. His film about the Civil War was 11 hours long. His subsequent film about World War II was even longer. These documentaries are so well done though that you don't mind the length. After a while, you realize that it is essential to the complicated story he is trying to tell. I was never that interested in history while I was in school. These documentaries are fascinating though. I've learned a lot. I think we could all benefit from learning more about our past.

It's hard to believe that we're already halfway through September. It still seems like August to me. Pretty soon it will be time for the State Fair again. Even sooner than the fair will be the Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament. I haven't gone to this tournament for quite a while because I was always busy tending to sick dogs. Dot and Dash don't need me anymore, so I'll be back taking pictures of the golfers again this year.

Janet and I will be back up at the Dalmatian Rescue kennel tomorrow. Sock needs to go back to the vet for his skin condition and the rest of the dogs just need some play time.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1951

A few miles down the road, what is being billed as the world's largest award show concert is taking place right now. I would have enjoyed being in the audience at tonight's Academy of Country Music Awards if it weren't for the fact that I hate crowds, avoid freeway traffic at all costs, and am convinced that everything that takes place at Texas Stadium is hugely overpriced. The show looks pretty good on television though. Every time I see something like this, it reminds me that country has become the new mainstream rock and roll. There isn't a lot of difference between many of the groups that performed tonight and old school rockers like The Eagles, The Byrds, and Bon Jovi. That's OK by me. I always liked The Eagles, The Byrds, and Bon Jovi.

Instead of going to a live concert with 60,000 of my neighbors, I went up on the roof for the second day in a row and removed the water from last night's thunderstorm. Hopefully, today's efforts will last a bit longer than my futile effort yesterday. I hate doing this over and over, but I don't know of any alternative. Water is heavy and if I don't remove it quickly, the excessive weight will cause the roof to sag even more. Maybe I'll start going back to the gym when the rainy season is over. For now, this is all the exercise I need.

In case you're wondering, Dot and Dash were really quite good during yesterday's power outage and severe thunderstorms. They stayed quietly with me in the office during the entire event and didn't panic at all. It's a shame that they only listen to me when they're scared, but at least they listen sometimes. The power was only out for two hours, but when measured in dog years, it probably seemed longer.

I started creating a little test site this afternoon to see if I understand responsive web design. I didn't get very far. There's a lot of code involved to get a website to automatically resize and change its layout for tablets and smartphones. It would help if I understood Cascading Style Sheets better. I understand the basics and use CSS to set fonts, background colors and other simple tasks, but that's about it. This is much more complex. Even automation tools like Webflow and Macaw that are supposed to make the coding process easier are pretty complex. I feel like the last guy riding a horse when everybody else began driving automobiles.

I shouldn't complain though. I doubt that I'm going to be flooded with new web design jobs, even if I do learn to make them responsive. I'm doing this mostly for my own benefit. I'll practice a bit more with the fancy code tomorrow, but most of my day will be spent making updates to a very traditional website I created about ten years ago. Hey, it still works. That's more than I can say for myself these days.

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day