Day 4365

We've got a new TV. Well, we don't actually have a new TV in our house yet, but we do have a receipt saying that we purchased one. Stores are weird now. Very few stores keep a lot of inventory in stock anymore. There may be something on display, but if you actually want to buy it, it usually has to come from a warehouse somewhere. There are still advantages to buying from a store however. A very nice and knowledgable salesman answered all my extensive list of questions about both the old and new TV. Our old Sony had a lot more inputs than the new models on sale today. Manufacturers have realized that there is no longer a need for a lot of inputs, since everybody is just streaming content. Things that are plugged in to our current TV like a Roku stick and Chromecast are obsolete now. All that stuff is just build into the TV these days. I also learned that the problem with our current TV is probably that several of the several of the backlighting LEDs have gone bad. These LEDs can be replaced, but that might not even be the problem. I've dealt with electronic repairs before. Smaller new TVs are so cheap now that often they cost more to repair then than to replace.

At any rate, a new TV is headed to the store where we will pick it up later. There is no point in having it delivered because porch pirates have ruined home delivery. This new TV won't need a set top box to get cable. You also can use a single remote to control everything. That was the feature that sold Janet on this model. You can also watch things on your iPad and transfer the picture to the larger screen if you want. Somehow I don't think all the fancy features will be as easy to use as the salesman described, but we'll see. I never learned how to use all the features on the old TV that we got almost fifteen years ago.

The salesman said he wasn't on commission and that he'd really appreciate it if we'd fill out a survey the store would be sending us. I told him that I knew all about these surveys. All large companies seem to have them now. Apparently promotions and salary seem to be tied directly to survey results. Just like at the Land Rover dealer and even at the hospital, employees seem almost desperate to get good survey results. This doesn't seem fair to me. The old way of working on commission and having a supervisor right in the store evaluate your performance seemed to provide more opportunities for retail workers. I used to know several people who worked in retail on commission that made very good incomes. Basically, I'm just glad that I'm retired now. The work world isn't what it used to be. 

We didn't visit the Dalmatians at the kennel today. Evidently the place is still busy with holiday boarding and we would just be in the way. There has been a change in management and hopefully we will still be welcome in the future. Janet and I enjoy playing with the rescue dogs. I think the dogs enjoy seeing us as well.

It was much colder today. I think the temperature will be even colder tomorrow. I'm not fond of these drastic changes. It will be 75 degrees one day and then 35 degrees the next. It's hard to know what to wear.  Sometimes the temperature will change ten degrees just on my long walk. Dawn seems to enjoy the colder weather more than I do. She had a good time smelling things on her sunrise walk. I dressed warmly so I was fine, but it sure was windy today. I shouldn't complain about the weather when the sky is blue. There is much worse coming in the months ahead. Actually, according to what I've been reading, Texas has better weather than most of the rest of the country. We've had cooler summers and warmer winters than prior years. I hope the warmer winter prediction is true for this year as well.

We've got mosquitos inside the house now. I can't seem to catch them but they're doing a pretty good job of biting me. How can there be mosquitos in December? These things were supposed to go away when summer was over. Hopefully I will find something better to do than chasing bugs tomorrow. Whatever happens, I know a long walk will be involved.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4298

I got the car back. It runs fine, but it seemed to run fine before I took it in for the scheduled service. I assume that the mechanics did everything on the lengthy receipt I received, but when I leave the dealership it always feels like I just paid for the world's most expensive carwash. The car never seems any different than it did before. I won't be going back to the dealership any time soon. The prices they charge are ridiculous and they don't even try to be competitive.

As I was leaving, the young service advisor implored me to give him a good rating on the survey I knew would be coming. "My job depends on this," he told me. "I know," I told him. "All your predecessors have told me the same thing." I didn't tell him that none of his predecessors were still working at the dealership. I'll give the guy a good score, even though he basically knew nothing. It wasn't his fault that the dealership charged insanely high prices. It's too bad that the survey doesn't rank the dealership itself instead of a low level employee who had no control over anything.

When I returned home, there was a bill from the plumber in the mailbox. This bill was quite high as well but I didn't feel quite as bad about it. The two plumbers had spent the better part of a day trying to retrofit a 2021 restaurant faucet to a quirky 1950's mid-century modern GE kitchen unit. These two large bills pretty much insure that I won't be going anywhere in October. I'm tapped out and the month hasn't even started yet.

I took my long walk early today because I thought I was supposed to pick my car up at 10 AM. As it turned out, the car wasn't ready until very late in the day, but it was still nice to be walking while the weather was cool. While I was walking I saw park department mowers approaching the meadow behind our house. This was good news. The grass has grown very tall in the meadow and it's full of sticky pollen. Every time we return home from Dawn's sunrise walk we have to get wet rags and clean Dawn's legs and paws. They always let the grass grow longer in the Fall so that it has time to re-seed. I'm pretty sure that this native grass will be back next Spring.

I forgot to mark Cooper as adopted on the Dalmatian Rescue website when I was updating things yesterday. I took care of that this afternoon while I was waiting for the call to pick up my car. It still surprises me that my website development skills have seemingly evaporated. I used to be so good at this stuff. I guess the old adage "use it or lose it" still applies. When you do something every day you're going to be a lot better at it than when you do the same thing once a month.

My Fall allergies are back with a vengeance. I'm always blowing my nose and wiping my watering eyes while I walk. It seems like every year the space between when the Spring allergies end and the Fall allergies begin grows shorter and shorter. I'll be so glad when all the Covid fears are over. I'm always checking Google to make sure my allergy symptoms aren't a sign of Covid instead. I've had seasonal allergies for so long that I ought to know the difference. Unfortunately you don't hear much about seasonal allergies in the news and we are constantly bombarded with Covid news. 

It looks like we are finally going to get some rain tonight. All three weather apps on my phone show a band of rain headed towards us. The yard is dry and we really do need the rain, but all I can think of is roof leaks.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day