Day 2731

I had some websites that needed to be updated this morning and when I opened the design application I normally use, I was greeted with a message saying that my browser was out of date and that I needed to upgrade to the latest version before I could save my files. WTF? Everything worked fine yesterday. I tried to upgrade the browser and I was greeted by another message saying that newer versions were not supported by my current operating system. This was getting really irritating. I tried to change the website without using the expensive cloud-based design application, but it was hard to get everything to format correctly. This is why I hate cloud-based applications. You aren't in control anymore.

I had to get the website fixed today, so I upgraded the operating system on a laptop that didn't have anything important on it and then downloaded the new browser that my web application wanted. I was eventually able to fix the client's website, but I couldn't upload the new files because the FTP program I use was on the other computer. What a mess. By the time I got the website updated, many hours had passed and I knew I wasn't going to get anything else done. When I contacted customer support and asked them why they were making my life so difficult, they just said that hardly anyone was using OS 10.8.5 anymore and they decided to stop supporting it. Thanks for nothing guys.

At least I had a nice breakfast this morning. I haven't had Lox and Bagels for quite a while and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy them. This used to be my go-to travel breakfast when I was on business trips. Needless to say, it's been a while. It was nice to have an enjoyable meal completely unaware that the rest of my day was going to be filled with computer problems. If I knew what I was in store for, I probably wouldn't have eaten at all.

I think Dash had a good excuse for not wanting to walk today. It was so hot that I didn't want to go outside either. In Dallas we go straight from praying the furnace won't break to praying the air conditioner won't break. There only seems to be a few weeks of nice mild weather, and even then the air is so filled with pollen that my eyes are constantly watering. When it gets hot in Dallas I fantasize about living in Colorado or Wyoming. When I was a kid, our family spent summers near Crested Butte long before it became a ski area. We lived in a little cabin up near the timberline and the air always seemed so clean and fresh. Of course, the air was probably clean and fresh everywhere fifty years ago.

I'm sure the weekend will be busy. There's another website I need to update using the convoluted and time consuming two computer method I improvised today. There are a bunch of household chores that I'd planned on starting today that now have to wait until tomorrow. Everything will get done, but personally I'd rather sleep in late and do nothing at all.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2588

Every time I run my Saturday errands, I'm reminded of how much I dislike living in a large city. I still have fantasies about living in the middle of nowhere with a deep artesian water well and an acre of solar panels, but living comfortably off the grid like this is never going to happen. The older people get, the more they need to be near doctors. I doubt that I'd be lonely living off the grid, but if I ever had a heart attack or a serious fall, I'd be dead before the EMT's arrived. I was talking to a friend of mine last week who has enjoyed living in a small town in Arkansas for over 40 years. He and his wife are thinking of moving to Little Rock, because that's where their doctors are. That's what happened to my sister too. She and her husband sold a beautiful forest home in rural Ohio and moved to Florida for better medical care. This the bleak reality of modern life. There are fewer and fewer rural doctors and absolutely no state of the art rural research hospitals.

I watched the Falcon 9 launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning on the Internet. I was glad to see that Space X had a big success today, after the devastating explosion they experienced last year. It's amazing that they have live video cameras inside these rockets now. The return of the first stage booster to the floating barge in the Pacific was all shown live in real time. If I was young, I'd love to work for a company like Space X. I think going to Mars would be a lot more inspiring mission in life than getting people to eat more burgers and drink more soda. That being said, I don't really regret spending most of my life in advertising. I'm a shallow person, so advertising is a perfect fit.

I'm glad the big ice storm in Oklahoma and Kansas is well north of us. Our weather wasn't great today, but at least nothing was freezing. Although it never actually rained, there was a mist in the air that left my jacket wet after I walked the dogs. I wonder how long our roller coaster weather is going to continue? I think constantly alternating between warm and cold days is making me sick. I feel like I'm coming down with a cold again. The humidity keeps changing too. It was over 90% this morning, but less than 20% a few days ago. We've certainly had colder winters, but I can't recall such sudden changes before.

I cooked French Toast for Janet this morning. My cooking repertoire is very limited, but I do make good French Toast. Bread is kind of the forbidden fruit in my current diet. I try to avoid bread and seldom eat pizza anymore because the starches in bread break down quickly and enter the bloodstream as glucose. Bread spikes blood sugar levels faster than many candy bars. It's too bad the stuff is so delicious. I could live on bread if it didn't put me on a fast track toward becoming a diabetic.

The dogs kept me busy today, but there were no messy accidents. Knock on wood, I guess. The day isn't over yet. I've discovered that Dot can easily sleep an extra hour on weekends without needing to get up to pee. As long as everyone else is asleep too, she's fine. The day officially starts at our house whenever Janet gets up. Hopefully, we'll all sleep in late tomorrow as well. I always enjoy an extra hour of sleep. I'll go to the gym unless it's raining and then I'll end the day by watching British comedies on PBS that I've already seen a hundred times. It's not all that exciting, but you wouldn't be reading this if you were looking for excitement.

Kasey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2243

I daydream a lot eating breakfast. The music and the overheard conversations cause my mind to wander. If I overlook the hipsters at the next tables, it's easy to imagine that I'm sitting in a small roadside diner somewhere in Wyoming. This is an appealing thought. I used to love slow, pointless road trips along the back roads of Western America. There's nothing better than a great breakfast at an obscure roadside diner. I wonder if it would be the same today? I used to feel comfortable pulling over to the side of the road and sleeping in my car. Now, I'd be looking for the nearest Embassy Suites. I used to feel confident that if my car broke down, there would always be a friendly garage and a competent mechanic nearby. Now, I'd be calling AAA from my cell phone and hoping I could find a tow truck to take me back to the nearest big city. A lot of these little towns don't even have a gas station anymore. Who am I kidding? A lot of these little towns don't even exist. The interstates killed them off long ago. For the most part, the picturesque two lane highways I remember have been replaced by impersonal eight lane freeways filled with a frightening parade of eighteen wheelers.

If my fantasy still existed, it would be fun to wander from one obscure diner to another, sharing brief conversations with fellow travelers, eating tons of home made pie and pancakes, and stopping along the way to photograph amazing things I stumbled across. I'd never be in a hurry and I'd never really have a destination in mind. Since this is just a fantasy, I'd pay for my travels with a credit card that didn't need to be repaid and there would always be a comfortable, clean bed nearby when I felt tired. I would take tons of cool pictures and upload them to Google, so they wouldn't disappear, but I wouldn't try to sell them. There are never clients or money in my daydreams.

Since my mental road trips are about as real as a ride down Route 66, I am content to spend an hour a week daydreaming in a little restaurant near my house. I eat, I daydream, I always get a final cup of coffee to go, and I pick up groceries for Friday dinner on the way home. I'm usually back before the dogs have finished their morning nap.

There were more websites to update this morning, but no writing jobs. Writing jobs have been scarce this year. With extra time on my hands, I've been trying to stay busy. Today, I cleaned the utility room. This small room has become the repository for everything that won't fit in the rest of the house. The top of the washer and dryer are filled with empty Tupperware containers, half filled bottles of bleach, seldom used cookware, oven cleaner and Windex, and old dog toys. There is a heavy orbital floor polisher in a corner that we used to use years ago to wax the brick floors. I don't think the bricks have been waxed in ten years. The utility room is hard to clean and when you finish, it looks just as bad as it did before. I know that there's a lot of stuff in this room that could be thrown away, but I'll leave that to Janet. I'm terrible about throwing things away.

It's Superbowl weekend. I'll watch the game, but I can't say I'm excited about either team. I do like the Heinz commercial with the stampede of weiner dogs. What could be better than dogs in costumes running through an open, grassy field into the arms of a family of giant Heinz condiment bottles? I'll probably go to the Superbowl sale at my favorite clothing store. Everything is 75% off for a few hours just before the game. 75% off is the only time I can afford these clothes anymore. I can't believe it's Superbowl 50. I was already a college freshman when they played the first Superbowl. I think I listened to the game on the radio. Jeez, I'm getting old.

Zorro is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day