Day 4710

What a way to start the day. The Artemis-1 launch was spectacular. The launch team must have learned a lot from their previous attempts because the entire countdown went very smoothly this time. There was some drama along the way, but it was clear that NASA was determined to launch Artemis today if at all possible. At one point everyone thought the launch might get scrubbed when a small hydrogen leak was discovered with only about twenty minutes left in the count. 

They didn't stop though. A special red team trained to work under hazardous conditions was sent to the launch pad to fix the leak. Evidently this is very dangerous because when a rocket like this is fully fueled, a spark near a hydrogen leak could cause the whole thing to explode. The red team fixed the leak like it was all in a days work. A little later a tracking radar down range wasn't sending data and stopped the count again because of a faulty ethernet switch. This was quickly fixed and the count resumed. There was still some caulking on the Orion capsule that came loose during Hurricane Nicole, but the launch team didn't seem to think this was a problem.

It's weird to think that the launch was almost stopped by a few loose bolts and a faulty ethernet switch. I guess low tech can trump high tech on just about any launch. The thousands of people who have worked on the Artemis program must have felt vindicated today. The rocket has received a lot of criticism lately, but almost everything worked perfectly this morning. The Orion capsule is on the way to the moon right now. 

This was the most spectacular launch I've ever witnessed. The huge rocket turned night into day during liftoff. The exhaust flame was so bright that it literally looked like the sun has risen. Artemis was also extremely loud. I'm sure this launch could be seen and heard for miles. I was hesitant about going to this launch because there was a good chance it wouldn't succeed. There were literally thousands of things that could go wrong. I'm glad I went though. It isn't everyday you get to see the most powerful rocket in the world heading toward the moon. The next Artemis will have people on board. Hopefully I'll be around to see that one too.

I didn't get back to the hotel after the launch until almost 4 AM. I immediately began to wonder why I was staying another day in Titusville and changed all my reservations again. I was lucky to get the last seat on an afternoon flight back to Dallas and I'm home again now. Brr. It's cold here. The weather was a lot nicer in Titusville. I saved some money by cutting a day off my stay, but unfortunately not enough to pay for the furnace repairs. Yikes. The special variable speed motor the furnace required was four times as expensive as an ordinary electric appliance motor. 

Tomorrow I'll unpack and write my article for SpaceFlight magazine. For now, it's time to get some sleep. I doubt if there will be any more launch trips this year. Hopefully there won't be any more broken appliances either. 

Alvin is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4709

I'm back at Kennedy Space Center for another Artemis launch attempt. The launch is technically tomorrow morning, but it's going to seem like late tonight to me. If all goes well, liftoff will be a little after 1 AM. Everything looks good so far. The countdown is proceeding and there doesn't seem to be any weather problems.

The day got off to a very early start. My flight departed at 6 AM, so I had to be at the airport a lot earlier for all the TSA stuff. I must be getting slower because I cut it pretty close this time, arriving at the gate just fifteen minutes before boarding. I've been to Kennedy Space Center so many time by now that this trip is getting to seem very routine. I don't even need a car with GPS anymore. Titusville is a small town and it's starting to feel very familiar. 

I had to pick up my credentials before noon today, so that left me with a lot of free time. I went out to the Press Site to see what was going on and was surprised that the place seemed relatively empty. There were definitely a lot fewer people than were at the first launch attempt. I'm sure there will be a more folks arriving later tonight, but so far this launch seems a little subdued. All the scrubbed launches probably just wore everyone out. 

I got my Fitbit steps walking around the Press Site parking lot and then went to the space center Sonny's BBQ for a smoked pork sandwich. Sonny's has some great bartbecue and I always enjoy eating there. Before I left the Press Site to check in at my hotel I heard that the Artemis launch team had completed their final pre-launch meeting and had given the go ahead to begin fueling the rocket. 

My hotel isn't as bad as I thought. It's not the place I would have picked, but it's clean and relatively convenient. There must be a lot of people who are planning to show up at the Press Site later tonight because all the hotels in town are completely booked. I was actually lucky to get a room here. 

I've been told that the journalists covering the launch should plan to arrive that the Press Site by 7 PM tonight. That leaves a lot of time to sit around doing nothing. I guess I could go later, but there's no point in staying at the hotel. There's not a lot of point in going our for dinner either. After my big lunch, I couldn't eat another thing. I didn't run into anyone I knew this afternoon, but I'll probably see a few familiar faces tonight. I hope my camera works. I've been having problems with this camera lately. Actually the problems are mostly with me. It's hard for me to adjust the camera and focus properly in the dark. I always forget something on these trips. This time it was a flashlight.

I hope the furnace is getting fixed back in Dallas. Janet said the repairman was coming back this afternoon with the new blower motor. There will still be problems when this is fixed, but at least I'll be warm. One one the problems reoccured last night while I was finishing packing. Another roof leak. I was surprised. We haven't had to deal with a leak in months. Oh, well. It's always something.

I really hope that Artemis is successful this time. I'm sure the launch team learned some things from the first two attempts. It probably didn't hurt to have a chance to completely inspect the rocket while it was inside the VAB as well. So far, people seem optimistic. There's only a few hours left until launch time. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

Honey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3724

I managed to fix the furnace by myself and didn't need the HVAC guys after all. I did need an electrician though. I bought a new security light yesterday, but didn't have the nerve to install it myself. The light is on a pole where the electricity comes into the house. I'm clumsy enough that I don't want to get anywhere near a high voltage electric line. It's worth the money to have an electrician do the foolish, risky stuff. Luckily, the electrician was able to come out this morning and when he finished installing the new security light, I asked if he had time to do a little more electrical work. I had him rewire a few things so I can now turn on the roof pumps from inside the house. This will be a huge improvement. I've grown to hate going out in the rain just to turn the pumps on and off.

I got a haircut today and now feel ready for my trip to West Texas. I asked the folks at the observatory if they were considering canceling their Spring Break activities because of the coronavirus. Nope. The show will go on, but they did say they bought some extra hand sanitizer. It looks like I will be very busy, conducting tours during the day and helping with star parties at night. I hope I enjoy this unique experience. As a rule, I don't enjoy driving long distances. Jeez. I don't even enjoy working. The people at the observatory are extremely nice though and the dark night skies on Mount Locke are hard to beat. Hey, I may even learn a little about astronomy.

I finally assembled all my tax records and took them to the accountant. I always burn a copy of my Quickbooks Pro files to a CD and give this to the accountant as well. It turns out that they had just updated their office computers and none of the new workstations had a CD drive. It made me feel old.  Apparently nobody uses CD's and DVD's anymore. "Why don't you just e-mail us the files," the office manager told me. Duh. Why didn't I think of that?

It doesn't look like this blog is coming back to Facebook any time soon. They have never responded to my inquiries.  It remains a mystery why I have been banished from their platform. How can a blog about rescuing dogs and attending rocket launches be considered offensive by anyone? And why did it take them ten years to decide I was violating their community standards? What are these community standards anyway? I see absolute crap on Facebook every day. I'm kind of the Mr. Rogers of the blog world. Why pick on me? Not that is really matters. I survived the collapse of Klout, Google+, and MySpace. People are still reading the blog. Surprisingly, blog traffic hasn't diminished all that much. A year from now, I'll still be writing and probably won't be thinking about Facebook at all.

When I went up on the roof this afternoon to clear away the water, everything looked pretty good. My patches were solid and so far there have been no leaks, even though we got a lot of rain. It's too early to do a victory lap, but I'm feeling pretty good. Hopefully, the repairs I've made will prevent further leaks until the weather gets warmer and I can power wash the roof and apply the rest of the silicon coating.

The April issue of Spaceflight magazine is out and my article looks good. This is a good reminder that I don't really need Facebook. There are lots of places to share my story. The important thing is just to keep writing.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3723

Talk about irony. The last sentence of last night's blog post read "Life is full of surprises." Two minutes after I added that post to my Facebook timeline, all my Facebook posts disappeared. This was a huge surprise. Facebook had nuked my entire blog, telling me that it was violating their community standards. WTF? I was stunned. With all the crap on Facebook, they picked my simple little blog about rescuing dogs and repairing my roof to ban.

The blog still exists and I still make a new entry every single day. Facebook readers may have to try a little harder to find it though. Some readers have always had the blog sent to their e-mail account every evening. Others find it on Twitter. I'm going to try to get Facebook to reinstate the blog because banning me has got to be a mistake. There is nothing offensive about this blog. I miss the old days when tons of people used to follow the blog directly on Blogger. Blog hopping has fallen out of fashion though. Today you've got to have a podcast.

Losing my Facebook blog readers wasn't the only disaster I had to deal with today. The furnace broke too. The furnace repair guys were out at the house less than a month ago, so the furnace should be working fine. Obviously these guys missed something. I called them to come out again. Hopefully they can quickly find what's wrong with the furnace  quickly. We've still got some cold nights ahead. I didn't even try to fix things myself tonight. I'm tired.

The security light in the back yard has quit working too. I've decide to quit trying to repair this thing and just buy a new fixture. I wanted to buy a sodium vapor lamp like I used to have, but all the stores have quit selling them. Is it against the law to sell incandescent lights anymore? You don't see any in Lowes or Home Depot these days. I ended up up buying another LED light because that was all that was available. These LED fixtures aren't as bright as sodium vapor or metal halide bulbs, but what are you going to do? You can't buy if nobody is selling.

About the only good thing that happened today was that I finally figured out how to enable WiFi Calling on my phone. The reason the feature wasn't working was that the phone company still thought I had an iPhone 5. Older iPhones aren't cmpatible with WiFi calling. As soon as they reconfigured my service for an iPhone SE, everything worked as it should. I wonder why nobody at the AT&T retail stores knew about this? I've spent hours following false leads and blind alleys.

I tried to fill out the accountant's tax questionnaire so I could get my materials to him. I ended up with more questions than answers. I couldn't even figure out my return from last year. I guess I'll do what I always do: dump everything in a big manilla envelope and hand it to the accountant.

I hope my Facebook readers are able to find this post. If you do wind up reading this somehow, leave a comment on the blog and let me know you're still here. The blog isn't going away. I hope you aren't either.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3018

The house was cold this morning when I woke up. The thermostat said the heat was on, but no air was blowing through the vents. Yep. On probably the last cool day of the year, the furnace broke. I was actually surprised that we made it through the winter with no problems. I looked at the furnace and the fault alert LED was blinking seven times. Hmm. I think I've seen this before. I unplugged the furnace and laid out my tools on the kitchen counter. When I returned from breakfast, I would have one more thing to fix.

Breakfast was actually pretty decent this morning. I gambled on Eggs Benedict and for once it was prepared correctly. I was surprised at how crowded the restaurant was today. I guess a lot of people had the day off. I picked up groceries after breakfast and the store was even more crowded than the restaurant. The deli section featured braised brisket, matzo-ball soup, kugel, and other Passover favorites. I still wanted an Easter ham, but I wasn't going to get it here. There is a great little store in our neighborhood that smokes their own meat.

When I returned home I disassembled the furnace to gain access to the flame sensor. I suspected that this was the problem. I've spent a fortune on furnace repairs over the years before a friendly technician took pity on me and showed me how to clean the flame sensor myself. If the flame sensor is not very clean, it will not send the signal to turn the main burners on after the pilot light ignites. Occasionally components break or wear out, but most furnace problems have something to do with the flame sensor. Sure enough, when I cleaned the sensor with fine grit sandpaper and reassembled everything, the furnace worked perfectly. Let's hope the air conditioner works as well, because we're going to be using it very soon.

Dash's new boots arrived today. Janet and I had been looking at this well known Dalmatian on Facebook wearing these fancy Ultra-Paws boots all winter and finally decided to try a pair ourselves. The boots were a little pricy, but they do seem to work. I can get them on myself and Dash doesn't seem to mind them at all. He's been test driving them all evening.

I think I've found a new use for Shoe Goo. After Superglue failed several times, I used the Shoe Goo to repair the silicon strap on my fitness tracker. I let the repair dry for 24 hours and so far it's been holding up pretty well. Ordinarily, I would have just bought a new fitness tracker, but the Jawbone company has gone out of business. I think my choices are Shoe Goo or nothing.

Dash got me up twice last night to go outside and poop. I try my best to get Dash to do his business before we all go to bed, but Dash just thinks I'm crazy. He's just not going to go before he's ready. Things were easier when Dash ate dry food and didn't take so many pills. I'm not sure what to do at this point, but naps during the day are certainly an option. I'm definitely not very busy anymore.

The roof is drying out, but there's an ugly rust colored stain in the sheetrock. I've left several messages for the roofer, but I'm sure he's got his hands full with bigger leaks than mine. I hope I don't have to go buy more of the messy elastomer material myself, but it may come to that. I'm always fixing something.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2631

When I got up at 5 AM this morning I thought about waking Dot up and taking her outside to pee. Everybody was sleeping so peacefully that I decided not to disrupt things and went back to bed myself. It was a mistake. Three hours later Dot woke up in a puddle of pee. Dot's bladder can no longer cope with a weekend schedule. I got her up and took her outside while she leaked all the way to the back door. I think we set a new record for number of rugs washed in a single day.

I didn't sleep well last night at all. Just before I went to bed around midnight, I discovered that the furnace wasn't working. I knew it was going to be a cold night, so I was determined to fix the thing before I went to sleep. Easier said than done. Several years ago my HVAC guy taught me how to fix several common furnace problems myself. I think he took pity on me since I was calling them so often. The repair didn't get off to a great start. I couldn't find the special tool I use to get the cover off the furnace. I couldn't find any fine grit sandpaper either.

The flame sensor on our furnace gets dirty a lot. This is always the first thing I look for. When the sensor is dirty it can't detect the pilot light flame and shuts the gas off. It's basically a safety device. There is an enormous amount of dust in the utility room, since we are constantly doing laundry. A normal flame sensor will stay clean for years at a time. Ours goes bad every six months. The fix is easy enough. You carefully remove the flame sensor and clean it with an emery board or a piece of fine grit sandpaper. Too bad the sensor is located in such an awkward place or this repair would be a piece of cake. Eventually, I got the balky cover off the furnace and removed the flame sensor. I didn't have any sandpaper last night, but figured that one of those abrasive kitchen sponges would do. I cut a small piece off the sponge and carefully scraped the dirty coating off the sensor. An hour later, I turned the furnace back on and fired it up. It worked.

I must be a glutton for punishment, because this morning I decided to remove all the accumulated soap scum from the shower stall. For some reason soap scum becomes hard as a rock on the glass shower doors. It's almost impossible to remove. Janet bought some sort of motorized scrub brush that she saw on TV recently and I thought I'd give it a try. Even though the commercial said that this thing could clean dirty tiles in seconds, it wasn't up to the task. I had to use the same abrasive sponge I used to clean the flame sensor and a lot of elbow grease. The shower stall still isn't sparkling clean, but it looks a lot better.

By the time I finished my housecleaning chores I was too tired to go to the gym. I went anyway because it was Sunday. I always go to the gym on Sunday. The hour I spent cleaning the soap scum off the shower doors was much more strenuous than the hour I spent at the gym, but I'm sure my workout did me some good anyway. I've become a believer in going to the gym on Sunday. Hey, it's not like I have anything important to do on Sunday anyway and it's always relaxing to shoot the basketball.

I hope we don't have another hard freeze before Winter is officially over. Everything is growing so nicely now that it would be a shame if freezing weather caused all the wildflowers to die. The redbud and dogwood trees are in full bloom and I've already seen several wildflowers that don't usually appear until late March. So far, this is the earliest Spring I can remember. 

I didn't even watch the Oscars tonight. Janet usually likes to watch these awards shows, but she didn't watch either. I used to love the world of movies and movie making. Janet and I would go see a new film almost every weekend. I don't know if movies have changed or if we have changed. I do know I'll never see La La Land. No interest whatsoever. I still enjoy science and science fiction, so I'd probably enjoy Arrival and Hidden Figures. I'll never see these films in a theater. Someday when things are exceptionally slow, I'll probably rent them on iTunes and watch them on my computer. The big screen has lost its magic.

Bingo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2558 - Blogiversary

Today didn't go well. It was cold when I woke up this morning and I quickly discovered that the furnace had gone out. Perfect timing, since the temperature is supposed to be in the low teens this weekend. It's really hard to get my HVAC guy to make a rush service call at this time of year, so I decided to try to fix the furnace myself. I always watch what the repair guys are doing when they come out to the house. I'm certainly no furnace expert, but I have learned a few things over the years. One of the most common reasons that a furnace goes out is a dirty flame sensor. I got out my tools and of course I couldn't find the right ones anymore. The utility room seemed a lot smaller than it did the last time I attempted a furnace repair. I felt too old to do this sort of thing anymore.

Eventually I got the cover off the furnace, but I didn't have the right tool to remove the sensor. The prospect of spending the day in a very cold house with two demanding dogs wasn't very appealing, so I tried to come up with a creative solution. After some experimentation I discovered that I was able to reach my left hand behind the panel where the flame sensor was attached and feel the sensor itself. I got a small piece of sandpaper and used it to polish the sensor probe. Although I couldn't see what I was doing, it felt right. After struggling in the small room for about forty minutes, I put the furnace back together and turned on the heat. The furnace lit like a charm and I saved $100. I wish I knew more about furnaces. There are hundreds of things that can go wrong, but I am only capable of fixing two of them.

UPS lost the package that I was supposed to pick up today. This is the third time this has happened this year. I redirect the packages to a convenient customer service center about four miles away so I won't have to wait for the UPS man all day. According to the UPS website, this process is foolproof, but the website lies. I'll get an e-mail saying my package is ready to pick up and then when I arrive at the will-call desk, the package isn't there. This drives me nuts, because the people at the service center are never in a hurry to find the package. I've never lost a shipment entirely, but sometimes it takes them days to track down the missing package. I've never received a good explanation for why this happens so often.

Janet had to leave for work really early this morning, so had to walk the dogs myself in the morning and then again in the afternoon. This takes a really long time, since Dot's walk is so slow. I could easily spend all day walking these dogs. Even though I took Dot outside again and again, she still managed to make a mess in the house. At least we still had running water so I could do laundry. There was a big water leak at the other end of our street and some of my neighbors have had their water turned off all day.

My cold is getting worse. I've added nasal congestion and laryngitis to the sore throat I had yesterday. Basically, when you add a bad cold to all the other problems I deal with on a daily basis, it makes for a pretty bad day. I had three articles to write today, but I only managed to finish one of them because the dogs were constantly interrupting me. There wasn't even the usual sleepy period this morning. They kept me busy all day long.

Tomorrow is probably going to be even busier than today. I still have two more articles to finish and I know I'm going to continue fretting about the lost package until I get an acceptable answer from UPS. Dot has a big exam at the cancer center too. We'll be doing an ultrasound scan, x-rays, and some additional blood work. I"m almost certain that Dot will poop in the car.

I hope I still have time to go out for breakfast tomorrow morning. I need a little time to myself and another Big Boy breakfast sandwich like I had last week sounds really good.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1994

Yay. I fixed the furnace all by myself this morning. Don't even ask why we needed the furnace running on the first of June. Texas weather is weird. The last time the HVAC technician came out to the house, he showed me how to fix one of our most persistent problems. In a typical year, I usually have to schedule several service calls because the furnace won't stay lit. The gas comes on and then shuts right off again. It's usually a faulty heat sensor that is causing the problem. At first, technicians would replace this sensor. Then one day, a helpful technician told me that the sensor wasn't broken, it was just dirty. He took the thing apart and sanded the heat sensing element with a piece of fine sandpaper. Good as new.

Eventually I got tired of paying $90 for someone to sand this little metal thermocouple and asked if I could do it myself. It was easy enough to remove the dirt and scale from the metal. Getting the sensor out of the furnace was the problem. When the technician came out to install my fancy WiFi thermostat earlier this year, he was nice enough to take me step-by-step through the process. Amazingly, I remembered his instructions this morning and I fixed the furnace myself. I could have just waited for things to warm up though. By afternoon, I had the air conditioner running.

Dash's blood test tomorrow is complicated. Not only does he have to fast, he has to take his thyroid medication exactly four hours before the test is done. Since his appointment is at 9:30 AM tomorrow, we have to get up at 5:30 AM to give him his pills. Since Dot and Dash would never wait until after 9:30 to have their breakfast, I need to drop Dash off at the vet immediately after we finish our morning walk and then return home to feed Dot. I'll then eat my own breakfast and return to the vet to pick up Dash again. Luckily, this particular test only has to be done once a year.

I worked on another mobile friendly website today. My strategy so far has been to make sure I know how to convert a client's website before I even mention the subject to them. Every website is different and some have proved quite difficult to convert. I don't want to promise something that I can't deliver. When I've got a site that functions properly offline, I'll ask the client if they'd like to convert their website to a mobile friendly version. Some folks are really happy that I'm looking out for them and others don't even know what a mobile friendly site is. I'm certainly not making much money doing all this work, but it is a necessary learning experience. In the near future, all websites will be done this way, so I only have a limited amount of time to get up to speed.

It's hard to believe that it's June already. The year is almost half over and the only things I can remember are Dot's spinal injury, my wisdom teeth, and lots and lots of rain. Hopefully the second half of the year will be far less stressful than the first. I did enjoy getting invited by NASA to view that satellite launch in California, but even that trip was marred by an unfortunate car accident. I've got a birthday later this month, but that just makes me even older than I am now. In just a few more days I will have posted something on this blog for 2000 consecutive days without missing a single day. That's probably a bigger deal to me than my birthday right now. If Dot continues to get better, I'll be a happy camper. The rest of the year can just slide by.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1497

The furnace is working again. Marty, my favorite technician, came over to the house to work on the furnace. The problem actually did turn out to be a dirty flame sensor, just as I expected. Marty was initially puzzled why this was happening so frequently. After a lengthy call to the manufacturer, it was determined that the problem wasn't with the furnace itself, but with where it was located. Since the furnace is installed in a fairly small laundry room, instead of in the attic or basement where most furnaces are located, it is subjected to much more dust and lint than normal. Every time the pilot light ignites, a small fans turns on, sucking the dirty laundry room air into the combustion chamber. Over time, some of this dust is deposited on the flame sensor and fused to it by the flame. Although this is a clear and rational explanation of the problem, I don't know what the solution is. The furnace certainly won't fit in any other room of the house.

Dot had her spinal X-Rays today. We're still trying to determine the true cause of the ongoing weakness in her legs that is slowly causing her muscles to atrophy. The radiology report was very positive. There are no slipped or ruptured disks. That's good! I'm no expert, but her X-Rays looked fabulous to me. I've seen worse on much younger dogs. It could be that when all is said and done, we find out that Dot is just a very old dog in excellent health for her age. One difficulty with rescue dogs is that you never really know how old they are. A rescue dog's birthday is usually the day you adopted them. Dot could be a mildly arthritic 12 year old, or the world's healthiest 15 year old Dalmatian. I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

The posters I did yesterday were well received. If I created and printed more of these large posters, I probably wouldn't have any of my ongoing problems with clogged ink lines. Of course, the reason I don't have time to piddle around making fine art posters is that I'm way too busy earning a living. If the stock market was as predictable as it was when I initially started investing, I could probably make a decent living from my investments alone. Then I could  go back to making arty posters again. That's not likely to happen though. The world is insane. Market forces are just part of the equation now. Geopolitical issues, monetary policy, and those age old demons fear and greed all get in the way these days. Investing today is not much different that betting on football teams.

When I was a high flying young ad man, I thought I'd be lying on a beach with a drink in my hand by now. That's not likely to happen either.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1496

We woke up this morning to a cold house. Yup, the furnace has gone out again. I know exactly what is wrong. The flame sensor has gotten dirty  and it no longer senses the gas flame. The pilot light ignites the burners, which shut down again two seconds later when the flame sensor doesn't detect anything. This used to happen seven or eight times a year with the old furnace. Surprisingly, it still happens at least once a season with our relatively new furnace. When the HVAC folks come out to fix things, they always tell me that the flame sensor shouldn't be getting dirty like this and blame the gas company for delivering bad gas. As you might expect, the gas company denies this and tells me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with their gas. The furnace always seems to go out on a weekend or holiday too. It never fails. Hopefully, I can get a repair crew out tomorrow.

I managed to get my two large poster projects printed. Unlike the furnace, the printer seemed to be working fine today. Most of the problems I had with these posters originated in the computer, not the printer itself. Back when I was doing a lot of print work for clients, I had a full suite of professional monitor and printer calibration tools. Unfortunately, none of this sophisticated hardware and software works with my current computer. Pre-press software is expense and I just don't do enough print work anymore to warrant upgrading to the latest versions of all this stuff. I wing it now, and it's harder to get a really good looking print. Today's prints aren't perfect, but the color looks pretty close to the original photo and I did finally figure out how to force the printer to make borderless prints again.

Dot and Dash loved their trip to the dog park today. We ran into a friend from our Wednesday training class, and Dash seemed delighted to see a familiar face. The dogs all played for a while while Janet and I walked around enjoying the sunny day. At least it was nice today. On a really cold day, it would have been a lot worse to have the furnace go out.

I finally made it back to the gym this afternoon. I was so busy last week that I only had time to go once during the week. The running track at the gym has a sign that says you are supposed to go one direction on even days and the opposite direction on odd days. Nobody knows why this rule is in place, but everybody follows directions. Today, one woman started walking around the track in the wrong direction and everyone else followed suit. I jogged in the even day direction too, even though it was clearly an odd numbered day. I think people were just embarrassed to tell the first woman to change directions, and admit they took the stupid rule seriously. By the time I left, there were dozens of people running in the wrong direction. Maybe this is how revolutions start.

You know all those list of things you see on your Facebook timeline? Yesterday I clicked on a list that said "17 things that a depressed person should never do."Yikes! I was doing all 17. Don't expect me to change my ways any time soon though. I've grown very comfortable with my grumpy behavior.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1392

This is the only time of the year when we don't need either the furnace or the air conditioner. For a few weeks, a rare condition exists where you can actually open the windows. I've learned to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts, because it certainly doesn't last long. Sometime later this month, I'll wake up freezing cold, turn on the furnace again, and discover that it is broken. Fixing the furnace is a Fall ritual at our house. It's hard to imagine the arrival of Winter without the furnace repairman arriving first.

I finally made it to the gym today. I'd like to go  more often and haven't yet figured out how others manage to go everyday. I was surprised at how full the place was today. With today's near perfect weather, I would have thought everyone would have been outside.

Since work was slow today, I used the opportunity to run some errands. I took some letters to the post office, picked up a prescription at the pharmacy, and got some new shoelaces for my dog walking boots. On the way back home, I stopped by Fry's to pick up more ink for Janet's printer. I've never seen the place so empty before. Many of the shelves were virtually bare and only four of the store's over fifty check-out registers were actually open. The place looked like a ghost town. I bet on-line retailers are killing this place. I used to buy a ton of electronic gear at Fry's myself, but it's easier and cheaper to buy online these days. Shipping is usually free, there is no sales tax, and everything is delivered right to your door.

I may have to get another nanny cam. When I set up the camera to monitor Dash while I'm away, I can't see Dot. If I point the camera at Dot, I can't see Dash. Apparently the dogs don't want to have anything to do with each other while I'm gone. Dash seems to favor the bedroom and Dot usually stays in the office. This is curious to me, since the dogs usually sleep right together while I'm in the house with them. Have I ever told you that Dalmatians are moody? They act just like people sometimes.

All my work assignments came in toward the end of the day. I may not have had much to do today, but it looks like tomorrow will be very busy. Almost everyone wants some sort of change to their website and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a new article to write as well. Wednesday is always a lost cause, so it looks like I won't be able to get back to the gym until Thursday.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1163

It was not an auspicious day. The furnace went out during the night and I woke up cold. Yes, it was the brand new furnace. When I fixed my breakfast, I noticed that the milk had gone sour in the fridge. We just picked up the carton this weekend. It definitely shouldn't have gone bad this soon. Then there was the weather. A cold front came through last night and the temperature was somewhere between thirty and forty. This wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't raining.

When I got the dogs cleaned up after a damp morning walk, I prepared myself for a day of barking and called the furnace repairman. Marty was as perplexed by the malfunctioning new furnace as I was. At least he was able to replicate the problem. After fiddling around for a while, he got the furnace working again and told me he thought the natural gas coming in from the gas main was dirty. Evidently the flame sensor was covered with dirty gunk, which usually doesn't begin to occur until a furnace has been running for several years. I guess it wouldn't really surprise me to learn that our gas was dirty. We've already discovered that our tap water isn't always clean.

Dot and Dash wore themselves out barking at the furnace repairman and napped all afternoon to recuperate. I wrote a couple of articles while the dogs slept. I didn't even bother to go up on the roof today, because the rain never really stopped.

There's a video production seminar I'd like to go to tomorrow, but I'm still a little leery about driving very far in the car. The gas may be flowing normally in the house again, but I'm not so sure about the gas in the car. I still haven't figured out what caused that vapor lock that made me stall out the other day. Maybe the gas in my car is dirty too. I usually buy gas at Sam's Club and lord knows where they get it from. It's probably not as good as everybody else's gas, but it sure is cheaper.

No dog training class tonight. It's much too cold and wet outside to tramp around in a field doing obedience exercises. I think Dot and Dash are happy for the reprieve. With the house nice and toasty  again, they are both sacked out on the bed. The only command I'm going to give them tonight is to ask them to move over a bit when I join them a little later.

Odie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1030

Today was another writing day. I got quite a bit accomplished, considering how little I knew about my subject matter yesterday. My writing jobs certainly have changed over the years. I used to have four or five input meetings where the clients and I would sit around a big conference table and talk about the job and what it was supposed to accomplish before I ever started writing. I liked those meetings, because it gave me a chance to get up to speed before being thrown head first into the task of putting words on a page. More importantly, attending all the meetings allowed me to charge a decent rate for business writing jobs.

Everything is different now. Most clients think all knowledge in the known universe is readily available on Wikipedia. I'm given a few days and a few dollars ant that's it. I can't complain too loudly though. The work is steady and it's certainly better than working in retail or being a residential architect waiting for the housing market to return. The sad truth is that the whole economy sucks, including my little corner of it.

The new furnace gets installed on Friday. Luckily the weather has warmed up and it's pretty comfortable without a functioning furnace. It's 70 degrees both inside and outside the house right now, so the temperature is just about perfect. Just watch us have a warm Winter after I've spent all this money on a fancy new furnace. There's always something that comes along to make just about every decision I make look stupid. Oh, well. Sooner or later it's going to be freezing cold and when that day comes I'm going to be glad that I planned ahead.

Dot and Dash didn't have much interest in dog training class tonight. Dot wouldn't sit and Dash wouldn't stay. I don't know what the problem was. The weather was nice and there were no unruly dogs to upset them. I guess they just didn't feel like being obedient this evening. I feel that way myself sometimes.

Neo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1029

It's been almost a year since I started taking a camera with me when I walk the dogs. During my first three or four months as a dog walking photographer, I would see something new and interesting almost every day. Now, I've started to notice that nature repeats itself with remarkable regularity. Flowers appear and disappear with clockwork precision. Birds return to exactly the same logs and pilings where I photographed them last year. Squirrels seem to be perpetually digging up the same nut. I feel like I've documented every square inch of my tiny little world. There must still be new things happening all around me, but I'm just not seeing them. I guess I'll have to look a little harder.

An estimator came out this morning to measure the utility room and recommend a new furnace. The room is so small and cramped that I have no idea how everything got in there in the first place. The furnace, the washer, the dryer and the water heater all seem too large to even fit through the door. The estimator assured me that installing a new furnace would be no problem. This was reassuring, but I think he was being overconfident. Everything about this house ends up being a problem. Problems or not, we should have a new furnace installed by the end of the week.

I'm glad the Jewish Holidays are finally over for a while. I've had some camera equipment on order from B&H in New York City since before Rosh Hashanah and it still hasn't been delivered. I completely forgot how many holy days there are during September and October. I had thought about ordering from Adorama instead, but it wouldn't have done much good. They follow exactly the same holiday schedule. Basically, it's just not a good idea to buy a camera in October.

Since I wasn't having much luck with the camera, I went and bought an iPhone case instead. Why doesn't anyone make the kind of case I like anymore? I loved the soft Griffin perforated silicon case I had for my old phone, but nobody makes these things anymore. Now, big clunky cases like OtterBox are popular. Boo. I finally bought a trim looking white Speck case, but it wasn't what I really wanted. Maybe I'll get one of those fancy LunaTik cases when they start selling them later this Fall. It would be just like me to get a case that costs more than the phone.

Maverick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1028

I spent most of the day carrying a small ceramic heater from room to room in a somewhat vain attempt to keep warm. Eventually, I decided to give up on the ineffectual little heater and just put on a sweater. My Northern readers would probably laugh at these antics. You guys seem to wear sweaters indoors all the time. I'm a Southerner though and prefer to pretend that Winter doesn't exist. I usually just turn the heat up and wear a t-shirt and shorts around the house all Winter.

Unfortunately, I can't turn the heat up yet, because the furnace is broken. The HVAC guys are coming out tomorrow to give me an estimate on replacing the furnace. This is probably going to hurt. A good furnace isn't cheap. There's really no alternative though. You can't live very comfortably without a furnace during the Winter. At least this is probably the last furnace I'll need to buy. The current furnace lasted twenty-five years. It will be a miracle if I last twenty-five more years.

I spent some time today getting my ducks in a row for a new technical article I need to write this week. I always learn something new when I research these articles.  Last week I learned that steam turbines powered railway locomotives during the 1930's. This week I learned that Germany has oil wells. Why did I think that Europe didn't have any oil of its own? Shows what I know.

I used to think that curators only worked in museums. Now, I think curation has a much broader appeal. The term has become an Internet buzz word with people curating pictures of cats on Pinterest and making lists of people who like chocolate on Twitter. I've never seen such an explosion of information gathering and list making in my life. I'm fascinated by people who love to make lists. Why?  I never make lists. Even though I sometimes talk about my "to-do" list, there is never an actual list. It is just a figure of speech. Jeez, I even go shopping without a grocery list. Although I don't understand this fascination with lists, I'm grateful that it exists. If it weren't for the list makers, probably nobody would read this blog. I got added to another list today. Almost immediately, 100 new people started looking at my photos on Google+. What a strange world we live in.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1027

Brrr. It was cold this morning. Since there is still no heat, the inside and outside temperatures at the house have gradually equalized. It's about 64 degrees everywhere now. As much as I hate to deal with the whole situation, I'm going to call the HVAC folks tomorrow and see about getting a brand new furnace. I thought briefly about trying to patch the old furnace up for one more year, but it's hopeless. I know the old furnace needs a new gas valve and they don't even make the part anymore. I've patched up the furnace so many times that I think the repairs themselves have become part of the problem. The whole thing is just a bunch of replacement components installed at very different times, all trying without much success to communicate with each other.

The dogs don't seem to mind the cold nearly as much as I do. I guess that makes sense, because they've got fur. They certainly enjoyed the cooler weather when they went to the dog park this afternoon. Dash wanted to say hello to everyone in the park and even Dot was playful. I'm sure the dogs will appreciate the new furnace as the weather grows colder, but I'm going to have to board them on the day it is installed. I've already learned that the dogs and repair people aren't a good mix.

I watched that Rumble2012 debate between Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly after dinner. It was actually quite good. Both men tackled difficult subjects, were well informed, and still managed to be funny. I actually learned more from this debate than from the real debate last week. I guess real politicians could never be this candid. Real politicians from both parties have a ton of sacred cows they can't even go near for fear of upsetting their constituents. It was refreshing to hear two different points of view without all the pandering.

This whole weekend zipped by. Between yesterday's Oktoberfest and today's dog park outing, there was barely time to mow the grass and get the groceries. It's going to be a busy week. I've got October invoices to get out. There are technical articles to write. Hopefully, there will be a new furnace before it gets any colder.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1026

It's jacket weather again. For the first time since last Spring, I needed to put on a coat when I went to run my weekend errands. I like jacket weather myself, mostly because jackets and coats are the only form of clothing that I actually enjoy buying. I've got more jackets than I know what to do with, but if I pass by the right sort of store on a chilly day, I'll probably get another one.

Unfortunately, I'll be wearing my jackets indoors soon if I don't get the furnace replaced. I tried to turn on the heat today, but I couldn't get the pilot to light. This doesn't really surprise me, since the furnace wouldn't work late last Winter either. I just didn't want to deal with it then. It was almost time to start using the air conditioner and I didn't want to spend the money. I guess the time has arrived. It's going to be chilly this evening.

I stopped by the neighborhood Oktoberfest this afternoon and had a beer and a bratwurst. The Weizenbier I tried was quite good. I initially thought it was imported until I looked on the label and realized it was a product of a little microbrewery in Plano, Texas, only a few miles down the road. When I used to work in Germany a lot, I remember that every town had its own local brewery. With the increased popularity of craft beers and microbreweries, it's getting to be that way here as well. Too bad I can't enjoy these tasty brews as much as I like anymore. I can survive without beer, but I'm not going to make it very long without a liver.

The dogs were wild on their walk this evening. I don't know whether they were enjoying the cool weather, or were cold and wanted their sweaters on. They certainly had more energy than they did yesterday. I guess it makes sense that the dogs would act diferent today. The temperature dropped at least 35 degrees overnight.

I got another assignment to write about the oil and gas industry today. I used to do a ton of these jobs and then they all disappeared for a while. Now, they're coming back again. The opposite is happening with my watch industry assignments. I'm not writing as many watch articles these days. This is the way it's always been. When one thing picks up, another thing slows down. I feel like I'm treading water instead of making any real forward progress. Hey, I'm still in business though and paying my bills. I know a lot of people who can't say that anymore.

Cassie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day