Day 2339

The electricians came today. So, how many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? In the past, it has taken as many as three. Today, there was only one guy, but perhaps there should have been more. Things didn't go all that smoothly. The sodium vapor bulb has burned out, so we decided to just replace the bulb instead of the entire unit. Amazingly, Home Depot had these strange bulbs in stock, but the model the electrician selected turned out to be bad and he had to take it back. To avoid trying out bulbs all day, he suggested that I replace the sodium vapor lamp with a modern LED fixture. This sounded fine by me. Unfortunately, the only fixture the electrician could find was bright enough to light a tennis court at night. Then the guy's boss called and told him he was spending too much time looking for light bulbs and he needed to move on to the next job. The electrician left, but told me that he'd be back before dark with a light that worked. I didn't expect to see him again, but he was true to his word and eventually returned with a smaller LED fixture that worked. Hopefully, we won't need to do this again for a while.

Dot and I skipped our physical therapy session for the first time in over a year. I think the added rest is helping. She hasn't gotten much stronger, but she does seem a lot more comfortable.  Hey, it's only been two days now. I'm encouraged, even though the progress has been small. We only walk Dot around the block now. If she gets stronger, we'll gradually start increasing the distance, but I don't think she'll ever walk up and down the hills of her old route again. Since incontinence is becoming a bigger problem, I went to a pet store and got a giant box of puppy training pads. We put one of these disposable pads under her at night, so if she pees, it won't soak through the blankets.

My project for the day was turning an old iPhone without a SIM card into a pet cam. This phone was abandoned long ago when the battery went bad, but it still works when you plug it into a charger and it will connect to WiFi. Our regular pet cam won't reach the small area where Dot stays now, so I thought it was worth a try. I downloaded an app that turns your phone into a security camera and amazingly, it worked. Now, I have a camera that is small enough that I can put it right next to Dot's bed when I have to leave.

The other day when I was updating firmware on a camera body, I discovered that a lot of modern lenses have firmware too. I found several lenses that were out of date, along with detailed instructions on how to update them. After installing the new firmware in each lens, I'll have to admit that I can't see any differences at all. I suppose that the auto focus is smoother now or something. I didn't need to do any of this, since I tend to use the manual settings on my cameras, but this is what geeks do on a slow day.

I sent out my May invoices today. This was the smallest batch of invoices I've mailed in a long time. Sad. I miss the days when I was busy and headhunters were calling me every month to offer me a better job. I think there's a better chance of Dot jumping over a tall fence than of a headhunter calling with a cool job offer again. Dot is aging with so much grace and dignity. I can already tell that it's going to be more difficult for me. I need to ask Dot what her secret is.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2335

I dutifully took my pictures of the bathroom faucets up to the plumbing showroom this morning and showed them to the staff. They had hundreds of nice looking faucets on display, but they were all too big. A patient lady looked through catalogs with me as we tried to find something that would fit my 1950's sink. The problem is that everything has gotten bigger since the 1950's. Sofas are bigger. Refrigerators are bigger. Even bathroom fixtures are bigger.  After an extensive search we finally found a single modern looking European faucet set that looked like it might work. It cost $1000.  Jeez, I could buy an entirely new pedestal sink with faucets attached for much less than that. This is what is so discouraging about keeping old houses, old cars, and old cameras working properly. You just can't find the parts.

I temporarily gave up on the bathroom sink and returned to more pressing matters like getting groceries, changing the sheets, and making sure that Dot's bedding was clean. It's time to mow the grass again, but my allergies are so bad that I can't stand to be outside for that long. Actually, I think grass seed is one of the many things I'm allergic to.

I upgraded the firmware in my new camera this afternoon. I dread upgrading firmware, because the instructions are totally incomprehensible and there are always warnings that if you don't follow these instructions exactly, you will ruin your camera. I approached things slowly and methodically, but when the moment of truth arrived, the new firmware failed to load. I did a Google search for people who were having similar problems installing this version of firmware and of course I found dozens of horror stories of other failures. The firmware files are first downloaded to your computer and then transferred to an SD card which is inserted in the camera. After much fruitless searching, I eventually noticed a post from a man who said my camera would not recognize the firmware if it had been transferred to a fast high capacity SDHC card. He suggested formatting an older slow card instead. I followed his instructions and everything worked. This was kind of ironic, since the camera had been specifically designed to use the latest high speed memory cards.

Dot is off schedule again. Every time I left the house, I expected to come home to a huge mess. I'm still waiting. I have no idea what makes Dot poop, or in this case, not poop. It all seems totally random. Probably the long awaited moment will happen about an hour after I go to sleep this evening. It wasn't all bad news though. Dot had more energy today and did well on both her walks, even though it is starting to get warmer.

I could spend the entire day tomorrow vacuuming the house and mowing the grass. Hopefully, I'll find something more appealing to do with my time. Maybe I'll go to the gym. I need to quit stopping at the sporting goods store on the way to the gym.  I'm just about broke already this month and I definitely don't need any more discount Winter jackets. It's hard to resist a bargain though. The big going out of business sale will be over in a week or so anyway, so I won't have to worry about it anymore.

It's been a long day. The dogs are already resting peacefully, but we'll need to get them up one more time to give them their evening pills. Maybe we'll get to sleep in late tomorrow. It doesn't happen often, but it's always a worthy goal.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2122

I had an actual deadline today, so things were a little busier than usual. I met the deadline and even had time for a revision. We'll see if the deadline was real when I find out whether there are further revisions tomorrow. I've learned from experience that a lot of deadlines are imaginary. I'm not complaining though. It was actually a good thing that I had something to keep me busy while I waited for the guy from Dent Zone to come out to the house and fix the dent on my car.

The technician from Dent Zone arrived right on time and in less than ten minutes the dent was gone. I'm always amazed at how this process works. I used to think that they used some sort of vacuum process to suck the dent out from the outside of the car. They actually push the dent out from the inside. There's definitely an art to removing dents this way. The guy had some special tools that he inserted through the rear door window and gently pushed the metal back in place. I asked him how long it took him to learn this odd skill and he told me it took him three years. The guy was good though. There is absolutely no sign that a loose shopping cart ever hit my car.

Dash is still having problems with his leg. The limp is very sporadic and there's no telling when it is going to occur. Today he walked absolutely normally for about fifteen minutes, hopped on one foot for about five steps, and then resumed walking normally the rest of the way home. The more I watch Dash walk, the more I'm convinced that the vet was right. I think he did strain a ligament and the knee is loose right now. I know from experience how easy it is for a knee or shoulder to go out of joint. I injured my knee in college, and even after surgery, it still occasionally goes out of joint today. I've learned to anticipate many of the things that cause my knee to go out of joint, and for the most part, it doesn't cause me a lot of problems. This is probably harder for a dog. I'm sure Dash doesn't know what is going on when his knee pops out of joint and just starts hopping as a reflex. The vet says the ligament is not torn and should heal by itself. I hope she's right.

I got an e-mail from Jawbone today telling me that there was a new firmware update for my fitness band that would double the battery life. I wonder how they managed that? The UP band still has the same battery and I would assume that the capacity is the same as well. It's quite a trick to extend the battery life from seven days to fourteen days with a software patch. I downloaded the update because I appreciate longer battery life as much as the next guy. I still wonder what they did though. Maybe they just turn the band off periodically and use an algorithm to estimate what I'm doing while it's off. I'm not sure how accurate these things are anyway. The UP band and my Apple Watch never agree about the number of steps I take during the day.

I wish I could go back to afternoons for Dot's Thursday physical therapy appointment. Believe it or not, I'm having trouble getting out of the house in time to make an 11 AM appointment. My simple routines apparently take an enormous amount of time. I'll have to make sure to keep things moving along tomorrow. I can always save some time by not dawdling over breakfast. We bought too many bananas this week, so this morning I put an extra one in my smoothie. I won't do that again. Two bananas is definitely one too many. I'm going back to my original recipe tomorrow.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 948

Today was full of odd little surprises. When I went out to the street this morning to retrieve the garbage cans after the trash truck arrived, I came back to find a small bushel of fresh tomatoes on my doorstep. I was only gone for a minute or two, but I didn't see any sign of who had left the tomatoes. They just appeared, and I still don't know who to thank.

Later, when I went to the empty restaurant for breakfast, it wasn't empty. There was already another couple eating breakfast. I was kind of disappointed, because when the place is empty, I get to choose the music. The food was still good though. I can't for the life of me think of a single good reason why this isn't the most popular restaurant in the neighborhood.

There were scattered storms in the afternoon and the dogs didn't want to go outside.  I finally found a little break in the weather on the iPad radar and took the dogs outside. Things were going well until Dot heard thunder off in the distance. I told Dash that if he would poop right where we were, we could all go home immediately. Amazingly he did. It was the first time he's ever pooped on command. I was very proud.

I took my video camera to the dealer this afternoon to get the firmware upgraded. I'd been dreading doing this myself for months, because the instructions from Panasonic were so incomprehensible that I was certain I was going to screw things up and turn the camera into an expensive doorstop. When I was at the Panasonic seminar yesterday, I ran into my sales rep and he told me that they'd do the firmware upgrade for me. What a relief. The camera still works fine and has even more capabilities than it did yesterday.

It looks like it's going to be a dog filled weekend.  We've got new Dalmatians to photograph at the Velvet Snout tomorrow and I think we're going to take Dot and Dash to a Dalmatian Rescue meet and greet at a pet store on Sunday. It sounds good to me. Spending time with the dogs definitely beats mowing the grass.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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