Day 3094

I turned on the TV twice today. Once to watch latest episode of The Expanse and later to listen to the results of the IG Report. The Expanse was much more enjoyable. Predictably, everybody used the IG Report to vindicate what they already believed. The supposedly "objective" report seemed to prove nothing. One side said it proved that the FBI was out to get their man, while the other side said it proved that the FBI cost their candidate the election. Nothing will change. I think that we are so hopelessly divided that we'll never see a consensus again. It's like we are right in the middle of a weird, bloodless civil war.

Of course everyone is fighting in The Expanse as well. This is supposed to be 250 years in the future, so maybe humans will never learn to get along. At least there are space ships in The Expanse. Spaceships make everything better. So many science fiction shows like The Expanse explore what happens when humans make contact with extraterrestrials. I wonder if we ever will? I kind of like the theory that nobody has contacted us yet because when civilizations reach a certain level of sophistication, they blow themselves up, destroy their planets, and become extinct. When you look at what's happening with our world, it certainly makes sense.

I got a call from someone who was trying to move their domain registration from Network Solutions to somewhere else. They couldn't remember their Network Solutions password, so they couldn't access their dashboard to initiate the move. I said I'd help, but much to my chagrin, I couldn't remember my own Network Solutions password either. I wish everyone still used the passwords they had in 1995. Everything was so much easier then. Nobody can remember all their passwords anymore. They'll write them down on a sticky note and forget everything a few months later. I had a special application that saved all my passwords in an encrypted form, but after a system upgrade rendered the application inoperable, I lost everything. I routinely ask for a password reset every time I visit certain sites.

Dash pooped in the house again this morning. He was trying to go outside, but he was so quiet about heading for the door that I didn't hear him even though I was nearby. I smelled what was going on before I saw it. I don't know why Dash is on the verge of incontinence, because in many ways he seems to be getting better. He's eating well now and seems to enjoy walking again. The most alarming thing now is that he often wakes up coughing during the night. The cough goes away after he's been awake for a while, but this shouldn't be happening. The cough probably has something to do with his ongoing heart problems, mostly because everything seems to be connected to his heart problems.

I found some Shoe Goo today but I ran out of time and never got around to fixing Dash's boots. Maybe Tomorrow. I was going to make an appointment for a haircut tomorrow, but I never got around to that either. Jeez. What did I actually do today? Maybe those two TV shows were it.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2371

After spending a week following a schedule with almost military precision, it seemed weird to have a day with almost nothing to do. I got up late, because there weren't multiple alarm clocks telling me to get up at 6 AM. After giving the dogs a morning walk, Janet and I went out to breakfast, which is something we rarely have time for. After a leisurely breakfast, there was still nothing to do, so I remembered an e-mail I'd gotten about a big sale at the REI store and went to check it out.

The sale was too weird for me. They were selling returned merchandise that looked visibly used to me. All this stuff was displayed in a roped off area outside the store and they were handing out tickets to get in. There were tons of people standing in a long line, waiting to have an opportunity to buy used shoes and scratched up kayaks. I wasn't about to get a ticket and wait in line for two hours to buy a pair of used shoes, so I left. About an hour after I left, it started to rain really hard. I wouldn't have wanted to be one of those people who had waited in line for hours.

The dogs were edgy and nervous all afternoon because there were thunderstorms in the area. The storms were small and localized, but they were enough to trigger some serious storm phobia. I stayed home to make sure that Dot's barking didn't turn into a panic attack. Eventually the rain moved Eastward and normalcy returned. When it quit raining, we all took a nap. It seemed like the appropriate things to do on a day like this.

I was going to treat the yard for mosquitoes this morning, but I'm glad I waited. It would have been a wasted effort, because the rain would have washed all the repellent away. The yard needs to stay dry for about twelve hours after I apply the mosquito repellent using a garden hose attachment. I guess I could have done this last week, but I thought the yard seemed too dry last week and decided to water it. The mosquito repellent is organic and won't hurt the dogs, but it's hard to find the right time to apply the stuff. Eventually I'm going to have to spray the yard though, because I'm getting sick of getting bitten.

I got an e-mail telling me that the domain transfer process was complete and my domains had been successfully moved to a new registrar. Why this process took four days, I'll never know. I set the domains up to auto renew when they expire, so hopefully I won't have to think about them again for a long time.

I always see new flowers right after a rain. This evening I saw something that looks kind of like a Thistle and kind of like a Blazing Star. I'm not sure what they are, but I see a small patch of these purple flowers every year in exactly the same spot about the second week in June. I wish everything were this predictable.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1590

I woke up exhausted this morning. Dash got up in the middle of the night and seemed convinced that it was morning. He wanted his breakfast. He wanted a walk. He wanted everybody else to be completely miserable until he got what he wanted. He was acting so weird that I started wondering if the cancer center folks might have accidentally pointed the radiation machine at his brain instead of his surgery scar on Monday. Usually, in situations like these, I can bribe the dogs with a treat, but Dash was already fasting for today's radiation treatment, so he couldn't eat anything. Janet took him outside twice. I took him outside twice. We traded places in the bed, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, he wore himself out and went back to bed. Dot was the only one who got a good night's sleep. Her hearing is so bad now, that she slept through the entire commotion.

I got an e-mail from Network Solutions today asking me to confirm all my personal information. The letter said that if I didn't comply, my domains would be deactivated. This letter seemed like a textbook example of a phishing scam, so I didn't reply to the e-mail. I called Network Solutions technical support instead and after waiting on hold for fifteen minutes, talked to a friendly technician who informed me "Yes, the letter I received was genuine." "I bet you've received a lot of calls like mine this morning," I told the lady. "Yes, we  have." she said. "Why on earth would you format a letter to your customers so it would appear exactly like a phishing scam," I asked? The tech support lady didn't have an answer to this obvious questions, and blamed everything on ICANN instead. I made a mental note to move the rest of my domains to GoDaddy.

I think I solved the second of my three vexing website problems today. Only one more to go. I don't feel much joy as I continue to wade through this labyrinth of broken code and unrealistic expectations though. Times have changed and all I'm really doing is bailing water out of a leaky boat. Some people spend so much of their lives online these days that they start to think of their website as a member of the family. To me, a website today is not that different from what a Yellow Pages ad was to people in the 1950's. The difference is that back then, people wouldn't compulsively stare at the phone book all day.

It's getting harder and harder for me to eat oatmeal for breakfast every day. I made myself a sausage omelet this morning instead. The Kale salads in the evening aren't as tasty as they used to be either. The dilemma I'm facing is that I now know exactly what to do keep diabetes at bay, avoid a heart attack, and ensure that my liver stays healthy. There is no question that a good diet is the unequivocal secret to staying healthy. Just about anybody could lose weight, lower their blood sugar, and clear their clogged arteries just by eliminating all packaged and processed foods from their diet. No sugar, no salt, and no alcohol is a perfect recipe for no fun though. I have a lot of willpower, so I imagine I'll stick with this healthy way of eating, even though I'd rather subsist on cheeseburgers, pizza, and beer. Where's the fun going to come from though? In my younger years, most of my fun came from indulgent, self-destructive behavior. I'm not sure I've been passionate about anything healthy in my life.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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