Day 1664

I thought I'd do some painting preparation today by starting to scrape the loose paint off the exterior windows and trim. I should have done this a year ago, so today's prep work probably means that I'll actually start painting about this time next year. Progress is progress though and I was feeling good about what I'd accomplished. I decided to do a little more and remembered that there was still a light fixture on the back porch that needed to be re-wired. Unfortunately, when I got the ladder out and climbed up to dismantle the broken can light, I disturbed a hidden hornet's nest. So much for that little project. I went inside to get a can of Raid and decided I was finished with home improvements for the day.

The onslaught of mosquitoes this year is definitely starting to bug me, so I went to Home Depot looking for a solution. All I came home with were a couple of citronella candles. I don't even think these candles work, but they were all I could find that wasn't full of insecticide. There was an intriguing looking portable fogger, but the box was full of safety warning labels, so I took a pass on this potentially lethal solution. I've already established in previous years that bug zappers don't work and neither do those strange propane powered devices that pump a cloud of carbon dioxide over your yard. I think the only thing that works is just staying inside. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are inside too. One flew out of the refrigerator yesterday.

I could have done some website maintenance work this afternoon, but I decided to go to the gym again instead. This makes two days in a row, which is almost unheard of for me. I used a different group of machines today, but I'll probably still be sore tomorrow. I've been trying to find some exercises that will strengthen my shoulder, but anything that significantly increases my range of motion just pulls the shoulder out of joint again. I've already decided that I don't want surgery, so I guess I'm just going to have to live with what I've got.

I noticed that Dash was trying to get Dot to play with him this afternoon. When the dogs were younger they used to play in the yard a lot. Dot has lost all interest in playing now that she's older though, and Dash gets frustrated. Maybe I need to start taking him to doggie day care a few times a week. Finding the right place will be difficult though. Dash is still terrified of larger dogs and doesn't like to play rough. The cancer center was perfect, because all the dogs in treatment there were very gentle. I think he misses the cancer center.

I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I've had to reschedule Dot's acupuncture and physical therapy session again. Later in the week I have my quarterly meeting with my financial adviser. Hopefully, he'll have some good news to offset the total loss of one of my now defunct oil and gas investments. Janet fixed a great dinner tonight. Maybe if I keep going to the gym every day, I could eat more without gaining any weight.

Cisco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 409

If I only wrote about important things, this would have been a good day to skip. Absolutely nothing of any consequence happened. I was busy all day, but by suppertime I was beginning to wonder if I had done anything at all. I went over to Culwell & Son, my favorite clothing store, to see if I could find something at their big end of season sale and left with nothing, feeling that I had a lot more clothes than I needed already. I went to get some groceries at Central Market out of habit, even though the refrigerator was still filled with stuff I got the last time I was at Central Market. I installed the new 100 foot roll of paper in my printer and unclogged the lines, even though I had absolutely nothing to print.

I did manage to get the trash out to the street on time. That was probably my big accomplishment for the day. On the way to the grocery store, I stopped by one of my clients for a short meeting. They've been wanting to install a camera system in their outdoor doggie daycare area, so customers could watch their dogs playing during the day on company website. The project never really got off the ground because of the expense involved in bringing streaming video outdoors. I suggested just giving an iPhone to the pet care attendants who keep an eye on the dogs during the day and let them upload pictures and movies to Facebook. The more I think about it, this is a great idea. It's cheap. It's live. And it's even better than a webcam, since you've got a real person selecting what's interesting during the day.

I need to do a practice run of my new wireless photo system this weekend. In theory this arrangement will be great for events like our upcoming Valentine's Day event at The Shops at Willow Bend. Instead of taking a memory card back to the printing team after every photo session, I'll be able to transmit pictures directly from the camera to the computer by WiFi, as I am shooting. We'll even be able to broadcast the pictures I'm taking to large flat panel screens in the store in real time. That's what the system is supposed to do anyway. We may find out that it doesn't even work. I'm curious whether the WiFi memory card is fast enough to transmit the large image files as I'm taking them without slowing down the entire process. If I'm taking 30 pictures a minute and the card can only transfer one picture a minute, it's just not going to work. Practice makes perfect though, so it's time to get started.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day