Day 2974 - Valentines Day

I don't understand AT&T at all. A couple of guys came out to bury the fiber optic line today. After they'd been working for a while I went outside to see what they were doing. Much to my surprise, they were laying an entirely new cable. "Why aren't you burying the cable that is already hooked up," I asked? "That's just the temporary cable," one of the guys said. They didn't hear me when I mentioned that both cables were exactly the same. "Aren't you going to hook the new cable up," I asked when they were finished. "We don't know how," one guy told me. The other guy said that someone else would come back later in the week to connect the new cable they just buried. Jeez. That's three trips for one cable. I don't get it.

I ended up getting cupcakes after all. I'm superstitious and I hate to mess with tradition on symbolic holidays. As usual, there was a long line at Sprinkles. Every single woman in line was texting someone or checking their Facebook page. None of the men were. This probably means something, but I'm not going to hazard a guess.

I went to pick up a prescription on the way home from the cupcake store. "Medicare won't let us fill this prescription until Saturday," the pharmacist said. "But I'm out of pills," I told her. "You shouldn't be,"  the pharmacist told me. I couldn't convince her that I only had two pills left. I think they miscounted the number of pills they gave me 90 days ago, but there is no way of proving it. Whatever. I guess I'll just skip a few days.

I did get Dash's prescription filled. It's always easier to deal with veterinarians than with my own doctors. I often wonder why veterinary medicine is so much more straightforward and affordable than human medicine. Probably it's because insurance isn't involved. Once insurance companies enter the picture, prices tend to skyrocket.

I was going to pick up something for dinner at Central Market, but I couldn't find a parking place anywhere. Not only were all the spaces filled, there were dozens of car circling around waiting for people to leave. One long line was enough for today, so I gave up and went home. There wasn't much in the refrigerator, but I made some pasta with a leftover meatball, some olive oil, and a piece of cheese. My creation was surprisingly good. It's too bad I don't like to cook because my own meals are almost always better than the take out dinners I live on during the week.

I've started watching the Olympics because it's getting hard to avoid it on TV. Curling is surprisingly interesting. It took me a while to figure out what the brooms and all the sweeping was about. Did the sweeping make the rock go faster or slower?  Apparently, sweeping the ice decreases friction and makes the rock go faster and straighter. The game is kind of like shuffleboard, but involves a lot of finesse and strategy. Admittedly, curling is not as exciting as watching Shaun White do back-to-back 1440s, but it's an intriguingly pleasant game I can watch while I'm eating dinner.

I wonder when the fiber optic technician is going to return. I never dreamed this installation would be so complicated. A fiber optic connection is very fast, but I'm not even sure I need fast anymore. I rarely upload or download huge files anymore. I'd rather have rock solid reliability than speed. I was actually happy enough with the 2800 baud modem I used back in the 1990's.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2905

It's supposed to freeze tonight. This isn't supposed to happen in Dallas, but here we are again. The Farmer's Almanac predicts a cold, snowy winter this year. I hope they aren't right. Cold weather is infrequent, so I'm usually not well prepared. I remembered to take the battery out of the electric lawn mower and bring it inside. One year I forgot and the battery was destroyed. I remembered to set the faucet on drip in the greenhouse for the same reason. One year I forgot and the pipes broke.

I really didn't want to go up on the roof today because it was so cold. I remembered what can happen when ice builds up on the roof though, and reluctantly cleared away all the standing water. It was a miserable job, but the good news is that the patches I've made recently appear to be solid. I wish I'd used up all the elastomer material now. The small amount that is still in the container probably won't be usable after a freeze. There used to be potted plants I would bring inside for the winter, but they are all dead now. I guess I'm as ready for cold weather as I'll ever be. I just hope that we don't have a power outage this winter. Some of my worst memories are of sitting inside a freezing house for four days, waiting for the power to be restored after an ice storm.

Dash woke us up last night to go outside, but luckily he wasn't sick. He just needed to poop. Even though he slept well, he still seemed a bit shaky this morning. He took a shorter walk than normal and didn't eat all his breakfast. Often it takes quite a while to fully recover from a vestibular event. When Dash is agitated of frightened, he doesn't like to be alone. I usually curl up with him on the bed until he relaxes and goes to sleep. Then I sneak off to the office and try to get some work done before he wakes up again.

I did some more work on my website project today. I suppose it's time to show something to the client, but I know as soon as I take that step, the fun is over. No matter how beautiful or functional I think things are, clients always want to change something. I didn't spend a huge amount of time selecting images for this project because I know that they are probably just placeholders. Pictures are so easy to change that they are never sacred. The best thing about this project is that the client wants to manage things themselves. When I hand over the keys, I'm probably done.

I finished all the left overs yesterday, so I made some pasta with whatever I could find in the refrigerator. I'm always surprised how tasty my desperation dinners are. Whole wheat noodles, Italian sausage, carrots, cucumbers, and tamarind sauce actually go together quite well. I'm too lazy to be much of a cook, but when I make an effort, the results are usually delicious.

I've got a rare client meeting tomorrow morning. I wish Dash had fully recovered by now, but as of this evening he seems a lot better. We'll see how he is in the morning. If he's shaky, I can always cancel the meeting. There just aren't any projects that matter that much anymore. Dash comes first. I hope Dash is feeling good tomorrow. It would be nice to make a little extra money.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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