Day 3890

I think watching the sunrise on our early morning walks is the favorite part of my day. You could still see quite a few stars when we left the house this morning. Orion was rising in the East and below it near the horizon was the constellation of Sirius. Historically, the phrase "Dog Days of Summer" refers to the time of year that Canis Major begins to appear again in the morning sky. The Greeks thought that when the dog star appeared, it signaled heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. Sounds about right.

It was another slow day today. It's usually a bad sign when the only thing I can think of to do is get the water off the roof. This is a terrible chore in the summer. It's very hot on the roof and you have to be careful what you touch. Before I could sweep the water away, I had to remove a few low hanging limbs from a nearby Pecan tree. One branch was drooping so low that it was touching the roof. There was still quite a bit of water on the roof from our recent thunderstorm, but luckily I'm still not seeing any signs of leaks. Hopefully, it won't rain again until the weather gets cooler. Clearing today's water away was tiring. Something is wrong with one of the pumps too. I'll have to deal with that later.

The highway department has been building a new bridge near us for a long time. The bridge was supposed to be finished in March. Now that we are halfway through August, the bridge is finally nearing completion. I think it will be finished before the end of the month. Oddly, nobody in the neighborhood was very surprised by the delays. Things always take longer than expected. I have a feeling that the same sort of thing is going to happen with the virus vaccine. Everyone is talking about having a vaccine ready before the end of the year. Somehow, next August seems a little more realistic.

I wrote a letter to my sister today and took it to the post office. I bought a new roll of stamps a few weeks ago and I bet this roll of first class stamps will last me the rest of my life. These periodic letters to my sister are the only reason I have to go to the post office anymore. Now that I've gone paperless and made the transition to paying all my bills online, there aren't many reasons to mail anything. I find the current controversy about the post office kind of strange. The post office has actually been removing those blue mail boxes and decommissioning sorting machines for years. There was a good reason. Nobody sends letters anymore. Even the greeting card stores are going out of business. The next time you go to the post office look at what people are doing. They are all mailing packages. eBay and Etsy sellers depend on those low cost flat rate boxes. Actually, I think the post office has improved their package handling capabilities in recent years.

I've been hearing rumors that the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament is going to be canceled this year. I thought that golf was going to be one of the few survivors of the pandemic, but this doesn't really surprise me. Absolutely everything is being canceled this year. I don't have much hope of returning to Kennedy Space Center or McDonald Observatory in the foreseeable future. If I'm going to go anywhere, I'm going to have to come up with a plan on my own. Jeez. Where do you go when so many things are closed and people are becoming increasingly suspicious of strangers? It's a strange new world. Who would have thought that you'd wake up one morning and discover that everyday life and Black Mirror had merged.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2783

I tried to clean up some loose ends today. I called about a long overdue invoice and was told that a check was going in the mail today. Even though I was skeptical about this claim, I didn't feel like arguing. When someone tells you that they put a check in the mail, you have a good chance of getting paid eventually. It's when they claim that they don't even owe you the money that you've got a problem. Next, I called about a watch repair that was two years overdue. When I listened to the recorded message, I noticed that the name of the company had changed. This was not a good sign. I'll have to follow up on this one if the watch repair guy doesn't return my call. I was going to enquire about the estate of a relative that has been tied up in probate for even longer than the watch repair, but I've been told that this kind of delay is not that uncommon. Maybe I'll wait another six months and see what happens.

I've become accustomed to the fact that nothing goes smoothly anymore, but some delays seem ridiculous. Should any type of repair take three years?  Does the little notice on my invoices saying "30 Days Net? mean absolutely nothing? When I was told that it would take 90 days to get a refund on the fraudulent gift card recently, I kept thinking that this really meant six months and a lot of frustrating phone calls. You've got to keep trying though. That's the only way you get results these days.

Dash wouldn't eat his breakfast this morning. He has always been a finicky eater. We keep two brands of food on hand, knowing that if he won't eat one, he will usually eat the other. I knew that we had inadvertently picked the wrong brand this morning when I offered Dash a handful of the other brand and he gobbled it up. Unfortunately, the dry food in his bowl had already been mixed with wet, so I couldn't just put it back in the bag. I put the uneaten mixture in a different container and saved it for later. At lunch, I made a big show of preparing the food he refused to eat at breakfast and served it in a different bowl. This time, Dash gobbled it up. As difficult as Dash can be sometimes, he is still easier to deal with than a late paying client.

I've been wondering why I haven't received any updates for one of the websites I manage. I was going to ask where the updates were and then I noticed that I already had them. They arrived two weeks ago. The delay I'd been fretting about was actually my fault. How could this have happened? It appeared that I had updated my local version of the site, but that the changes had never been uploaded to the server. I still don't know whether the upload had failed or I simply forgot to finish what I started. At any rate, I apologized for the mistake and made sure the changes were actually on the server this time.

The website snafu and Dash's weird eating habits occupied most of my morning, but by mid-afternoon I was dead in the water again. I looked for a movie to watch on Netflix, but the one I chose wasn't nearly as good as The Expanse. That's what happens when you watch a really good series. I want to watch Season Three and Season Four, but they haven't even been filmed yet.

I don't have any big plans for tomorrow. I don't have any little plans either. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2237

A year ago at this time I was a guest of NASA at Vandenberg Air Force Base. I had been invited to witness the launch of the SMAP satellite and still remember the experience fondly. I haven't been anywhere since. Shortly after I returned, Dot injured her spine and life changed radically. I had an opportunity to go to Kennedy Space Center and view another launch later in the year, but it wasn't very practical. Taking care of Dot requires all hands on deck. Now, I have an opportunity to take a much shorter trip to Houston to get a progress report on the Orion program and a tour of mission control. I think I could make the trip in a single day, but it's hard to decide whether this NASA event is feasible either. Even if Janet came home for lunch that day to check on the dogs, they would still be alone for a long time. Dot can get in trouble so easily now that I hesitate to leave her at all. I need to think about this. I can't stay home forever, but I can't leave Dot and feel comfortable either.

We slept in too long this morning. Dot is used to our weekday schedule where everybody is up at the crack of dawn. I think she tried her best not to make a mess, but we weren't there when she needed us. I heard her wake up around six AM, but before I could grab her harness and get her suited up, she had already headed toward the back door, leaving a trail of poop along the way. Ironically, I couldn't sleep well last night, and had gotten up briefly around 4:30 AM to go outside and look at the stars. Everyone was sleeping so peacefully that I was very quiet and did my best not to disturb Janet and the sleeping dogs. I should have taken Dot outside then. Luckily, the two soiled rugs were small enough to stuff in the washing machine and clean.

It's weird how bothered I get when a UPS or FedEx shipment is late. I was supposed to get a piece of camera equipment I ordered this morning, but found out later in the day that the shipment had been delayed. It won't arrive until sometime next week. This was just a small little adapter. Not a big deal at all. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to see whether this gizmo was going to solve my connection problem as I anticipated. I'm not very flexible anymore. I don't like surprises and expect everything to stay on schedule. Of course this never happens, so I am always frustrated.

I renewed my computer's anti-virus software today. I don't even know if this application actually works, but it's kind of like car insurance. You'd hate to be without it if you actually needed it. Increasingly, you don't buy software anymore. You just subscribe to it for a year at a time. I don't like software subscriptions any more than I like late FedEx shipments, but what can you do? Uber cabs, Air B&B, and software subscriptions are the future, whether I like it or not.

I should have gotten a head start on my weekend chores today, but it was hard to stay focused. I dawdled over breakfast, spend too long just staring aimlessly at things in the grocery store, and took a nap with the dogs instead of vacuuming the house. Luckily, there's always tomorrow for that sort of thing.

Malcolm is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1506

It wasn't a particularly good day. I was waylaid at an early morning meeting and arrived home about an hour late to discover that Dash had pooped all over the office carpet. It was past time for his morning walk and he just couldn't hold it any longer. Since I was still dressed in my best Armani suit, I had to quickly change, quarantine the dogs in another room so they wouldn't make the smelly mess worse, and then clean everything up before we began a walk that had been delayed even further. The dogs weren't happy, and neither was I. Something told me that this might happen as I watched this morning's meeting drag on. My life has become so regimented with the dogs that I want to scream at people if they cause delays or get me off my schedule by even ten minutes. Hey, guys. Any additional business you might bring me just isn't worth the thought of spending hours cleaning dog poop off the carpet.

My arm hurts more today than it did yesterday. The right shoulder has become so painful that I can hardly move it. I even had trouble turning the steering wheel on the way home this morning. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I've dislocated my shoulder before and x-rays usually show nothing. I suspect that I have a soft tissue injury or torn muscle and that the recipe for recovery is lots of rest. I don't think lots of rest is in the cards just yet.The dogs are going to need their walks no matter what is wrong with my arm.

Once Dot and Dash were settled in for the rest of the day, I brewed a pot of coffee and started my work assignments. On days like today where I lose thousands in a stock market sell-off, the paltry hundreds I earn back by writing seem insignificant. My writing clients want things too quickly, my website clients want more complicated things than they are willing to pay for, and I'm growing tired of the whole charade. Most of the people at the Wednesday networking group tell me they love their jobs, but I don't believe them. They've all described to me what they actually do and I don't see much to love. Work sucks these days. It's kind of like that State of the Union address last night. If Obama was really honest he would have said that the Union was in the crapper. No president does that though. They all say that the State of the Union is strong.

If my arm doesn't feel any better tomorrow, I'm going to go get an x-ray and a referral to see a good physical therapist. That's about the only thing I can think of. If Dash poops on the carpet again tomorrow, I don't know what I'm going to do. Doesn't he realize that most of the floors in our house are brick? If he has to go, why can't he poop on the bricks?

Oh, well. Tomorrow is a new day. Unfortunately it is only Thursday. I'm ready for seventy degree temperatures again, and I'm definitely ready for Friday.

Spirit is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1261

UPS said that my package would be ready at the customer service center at 7 AM this morning. When was is really ready? Noon! When I arrived at the Will-Call counter to pick up the package, I noticed a big poster on the wall that said We're all about speed. Although I wasted a huge amount of time, I still believe that all's well that ends well. I now have what I need.

Unlike UPS, the road crew made no performance promises whatsoever. They were back in full-force this morning, blocking my driveway, stirring up dust and making lots of noise. The roofers were back too. I'm not sure why they were here, because there were tornado warnings on the Weather Channel this morning. I would have waited to start the roof until all this bad weather was gone for the year, but that's just me.

Despite the approaching bad weather, the dogs still got their morning and afternoon walks. The rest of the day was spent getting things ready for my upcoming road trip. I never pack well. Since I don't like to carry a lot of luggage, I always try to cram too much in my suitcase. It seldom fits. Rather than just get a larger suitcase, I start tossing things out, thinking that I won't really need them. This seldom ends well either, and I often arrive without toothpaste, an electric shaver, or socks.

Life is always full of surprises. Now, the day looks like is will end exactly the way it started. I am facing some very long delays. I managed to stay on schedule all day. I got to the airport in plenty of time for my flight. Even though they took my tube of toothpaste away at the security checkpoint, I still made it to my gate with time to spare. I was pulling out my boarding pass and getting ready to board the plane when I saw my departure time change on a big flat screen display overhead. My flight is being delayed for two hours because of severe thunderstorms in the area. So here I sit, wondering what is going to happen next.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 464

I submitted my first article to the BRAINZ group today. BRAINZ is a group of writers who all contribute an original essay about the same topic each month and then post the results on a website. I got invited to become a member of this group because one of the contributing writers liked my blog. I probably joined the group because it was flattering to be asked to join something called BRAINZ. If the writers group had been called The Doofus Club, I doubt that I would have joined. It will be interesting to see what the other writers have to say about this month's topic. I still might end up looking like a doofus.

At least I didn't end up looking like a doofus at tonight's animal rescue meeting. I presented the Gone with the Wind poster I've been working on and everybody loved it. I've still got to add the final verbiage and do some technical tweaking so everything will print properly, but the poster is basically done. I'm glad everybody liked what I've come up with because we're running out of time and I really didn't have a Plan B anyway. I'm still kind of amazed that this idea actually worked. The dog's smile almost exactly mimics the little mustache he's wearing and strangely, the cat actually does look madly in love with the dog.

The weather continues to be exceptionally nice. I hope the clear skies and 70 degree temperatures continue for a few days because there have already been a few setbacks in getting the new heat pump installed at my rent property. Most of the problems involve renting the proper crane to lift the heat pump to the roof. I hope you guys never have to rent a construction crane. They are very large and very expensive. I would have much rather purchased a new HD video camera for myself than a new air conditioner for my renter. Sometimes we don't get to choose these things, however. It's right in the lease that providing a habitable building is one of the things the landlord is responsible for.

I heard on the news this morning that some government agency was paying a staffer $110,000 a year to update Facebook pages. What were the rest of us thinking? We've all been doing this sort of thing for free.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day