Day 4662

Today was disappointing. The rent has gone up again on my storage unit and the washing machine broke. The storage warehouse increases rates every year. All storage warehouses do this. This is why I moved several years ago. Now my rent is even more than it was at the last storage warehouse when it became too expensive. I hate to move again because it is a giant pain. Janet says I ought to just throw everything in the storage unit away. That's not easy for me either.

The irritating thing about the washing machine is that I may have caused the problem myself. I decided to wash the hat I always wear when I walk in the park. The old hat was filthy. I was going to put the hat inside a lingerie bag but I couldn't find one, so I just threw it in with the rest of the laundry. I was kind of worried that the bill of the ball cap might get bent by throwing it in the washer, but I never thought the whole hat would fall apart. When the washer stopped in mid-cycle with an error code that indicated a clogged filter, I unloaded the soggy wash and discovered that parts of the hat had completely disappeared. Who knows how this happened but I bet those missing pieces are stuck in the machine's filter. I'd clean the filter myself if it were accessible. It's buried away inside the machine somewhere. I called the appliance repair shop but my favorite technician doesn't work there anymore. Hopefully whoever replaced him knows what they are doing. It's always something. I was dreading the annual maintenance costs for my car and now I've got an appliance repair bill on top of that.

The web worms in the park keep getting worse. Janet and I have to check each others clothing after our sunrise walk to make sure we aren't bringing any of the little green worms inside with us. Typically a few worms escape our scrutiny and I'll see them crawling on my shirt while I'm eating breakfast. They say the infestation should be over in two or three weeks. It won't come a minute too soon.

I don't know how the people in Florida can handle all the devastation they are currently facing. I think the worst that has ever happened at our house was a broken water pipe under our concrete slab that flooded the AC vents under the floor. A tree fell on our house once, but it didn't do any real damage. It's a good thing we've been lucky because I don't handle major problems well. I get the problems fixed, but they put me in a bad mood for weeks. Even something as minor as a broken washing machine can ruin my day.

At least the weather was nice today. It's easy to avoid the web worms when I'm taking my long walk in the park, but it's dark when we take Dawn on her sunrise walk and she often leads us right through them. Dawn is a creature of habit and it's easier to walk through the web worms than it is to get her to take a new route. I wasn't very fast on my walk this morning. My feet are slowing me down again. I think the recurring foot pain is going to be around forever. It's not bad enough to stop walking, but it sure is irritating. 

For some reason Southwest Airlines has only refunded half my airfare from the canceled Florida flights. I did change my reservation from September 27 to October 2, but I didn't think that would complicate a refund. I suspect that the rest of the money will turn up in a few days, but today the missing funds were just one more source of irritation.

I finally tested the remote shutter app for the Olympus camera. It works, but is not nearly as convenient as the remote shutter app for the Panasonic camera. Both of these apps connect to the camera using WiFi, but it's not easy to get the Olympus camera to connect. I guess I'll keep using the Panasonic camera for rocket launches.

I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and I've got an appointment for a haircut tomorrow. Getting a haircut usually puts me in a good mood for a while. I could have used a haircut today.

Sweet Pea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3822

It seems like you can't do anything these days without being asked to take a survey. You go to the doctor. The next day you get an e-mail asking you to take a survey. You take your car in for an oil change. You are asked to take a survey. You stay in a hotel or rent a car. Yep. More surveys. You can't even call someone on the phone without being asked to take a short survey at the end of the call. It seems like employees are being evaluated based on survey results. Sometime they will practically beg you to give them a ten because an upcoming raise or promotion depends on good results. When did this start happening? I've had plenty of performance reviews during my career, but my fate never depended on a survey. I used to fill out some of these surveys but I try to ignore them now. There are always lots of questions about how well you like the company's service. There never seems to be any questions about how irritating you found the survey.

So many things about modern life are irritating. The future didn't end up being like the Jetsons after all. I certainly didn't expect a double header of plagues and riots in 2020. I didn't expect a concerted effort to erase history either. There is something troubling about pulling down statues and condemning classic films like Gone with the Wind. It seems a little too much like Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution to me. You realize quickly that popular favorites like All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Married with Children, and even Sienfeld would never survive in a world where a children's cartoon like Paw Patrol is being castigated.

Isn't anyone familiar with history anymore? History repeats itself over and over again. The Weather Underground led directly to the Law and Order years of the Nixon administration. Do you want that again? The pendulum always swings one way and then the tide turns and it swings the other way. It's a shame that people in both political parties seem willing to let a city like Seattle self destruct because they think it will help them politically. Republicans are eager to use footage of the chaos on Capitol Hill in campaign ads to depict a world controlled by Democrats. Democrats are just as eager for Trump to bring in the tanks so they can do their own campaign ads depicting him as a ruthless dictator.

It's a shame that Americans seem to need an enemy. We were at our best during World War II. The country prospered and the middle class grew during the Cold War when most people seemed to agree that The Soviet Union must be defeated. Little wars in Vietnam and the Middle East never seemed to do the trick. Without an external enemy, we just fight with each other. I think the Chinese are laughing at us now. They probably look at what's going on over here and think "Game over. We've got this."

I just wish that things would stay peaceful for another twenty years. After I'm gone, you guys can do whatever you want. I kind of liked it when everything was locked down. The roads were quiet and people just concentrated on staying alive. I heard birds when I woke up instead of airplanes. Now that things are slowly rumbling back to life, you realize that we humans have learned nothing. We are just as determined to make a mess of things as we ever were.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2822

I'm getting so tired of telemarketers, Caller ID spoofing, Phishing attempts, and data breaches that it seems like it would be easier to be off the grid entirely. I just don't understand why some people go to such extraordinary lengths to make life difficult for others. It's only going to get worse. After the whole Equifax debacle, I think it's just a matter of time before 100% of the population has their personal information compromised.

The older I get, the more scammers I seems to attract. It's irritating. My Dad was the victim of a telephone scam. That was back in the day when people were trusting and just picked up the phone whenever it rang. Now, even with Nomorobo and assorted call blocking apps provided by the phone companies, the telemarketers still manage to break through. I'm beginning to understand why people prefer to send text messages. Answering your phone has become a liability. I don't even trust my Caller ID anymore. You never know who is on the other end of the line.

Today I had to block my own phone number. Apparently it is pretty easy for spoofers to makes calls seem like they are originating from your own phone. They can also make them appear to be coming from someone in your own neighborhood. I don't understand why the phone companies can't get a handle on these scams. Probably for the same reason that Facebook can't seem to get a handle on fake news. Perhaps humans are just too inherently evil to be trusted with technology. When I was a kid, people even trusted door-to-door salesmen. The Fuller Brush Man was a well respected member of the community. What have we become? My mailbox is filled with junk mail. I'm inundated with telemarketing calls, and I never open my front door to a stranger.

Almost lost in today's batch of junk mail was a letter from my sister telling me that she has stage three cancer. She seemed upbeat and pretty matter of fact about her prognosis, but I was stunned by the news. Way too many people I know are dealing with cancer. It hits pets pretty hard too. Dot and Dash were both diagnosed with cancer and so was Spot, our very first Dalmatian. I'm kind of nervous about going in for my own annual physical. I feel healthy, but lord knows what the doctors might discover this time.

I really shouldn't postpone my physical, but I've been postponing everything lately. My excuse for postponing my physical is that I'm thinking of switching doctors soon. Maybe that's a good excuse. I have no real excuse for postponing jury duty. I just don't want to serve on a jury. A lot of small home repairs have been postponed because I don't have the money to pay for them now. I'd postpone tomorrow if I could, but time just keeps marching on.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2454

How did I go from being curious about everything to being irritated at everything? It all happened pretty quickly. Today, I was particularly irritated at the garbage man. Ever since the city switched to these new robotic garbage trucks, my garbage can fails to be emptied about half the time. The robotic arm on the truck picks up the can and lifts it above the truck to dump the garbage in the hopper, but the process happens so fast that none of the bagged garbage actually falls out of the can. The truck thinks it has done its job and just drives away, leaving a full garbage can for me to live with for another week. This never used to happen when real people emptied the garbage and threw the trash into the back of the truck. The city loves these new robotic trucks because they are very efficient and only require a single person to operate. Unfortunately, the trucks just don't work very well.

It's bad enough that the city only picks up the trash once a week now. Playing Russian roulette with the garbage truck every week only makes the process worse. Today, I'd had enough. I loaded all the garbage in the back of my car and went looking for a dumpster. A lot of dumpsters are locked away now, because they don't want people like me using them. Hey, it's not my fault. If the garbage truck did it's job, I definitely wouldn't be driving around with trash in the back of my car.

Breakfast was crowded today. I would have gotten an earlier start if I wasn't looking for an empty dumpster. I probably should have gone someplace else, but I was in the mood for pancakes and the cinnamon pancakes at the overcrowded restaurant are particularly good. All the regular tables were taken, so I had to sit at a long communal table that everyone tends to avoid. The inconvenience was worth it though, because the pancakes and sausage were delicious.

Today was particularly busy. I finished a lengthy website update that involved adding and changing out a ton of new photos. When that task was finished, I started writing my new article. In the old days, this type of workload would have been considered completely normal. I probably would have finished everything before noon. Today, I felt a bit overwhelmed. I haven't had this much to do in weeks. I got everything done though and still had time to do a load of laundry and clean up Dot's poop.

The satellite radio worked this morning when I started the car. This was odd, because there was a failure message on the screen when I pulled into the driveway yesterday. How did the radio acquire the satellite when the car was off? I don't pretend to know how satellite radio works. I'd rather have a WiFi hotspot in the car instead, but this is a free trial, so what do I care.

We've got a long holiday weekend coming up. Will we do anything festive on Labor Day? What do people normally do on Labor Day? I don't have a clue. As always, I just hope that the dogs act normally and that I can catch up on sleep.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2269

Well, lifting Dot in and out of the car definitely isn't good for a bad back. Yikes! Maybe this is how I messed up my back in the first place. I was literally begging Dot to work with me today, but she was just dead weight. I don't think she wanted to go to her physical therapy session in the first place. I'm not so sure about our new schedule. It is certainly easier to get Dot ready in the afternoon, but the traffic is much worse. As a result, my overall level of irritation is exactly the same. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. No matter what I do these days, my overall level of irritation is exactly the same.

Dot pooped in the car on the way to the vet, but at least she was feeling better today. I described Dot's symptoms to the vet the best I could, but didn't get must closer to figuring out what was going on. Something that only happens once a month is hard to pin down. Although Dot is still holding down her food and seems more or less back to normal, she still seemed a little tired today. There was no sense in pushing her too hard, so we shortened her time in the underwater treadmill and spent a little extra time with her acupuncture.

I wrote my new article this morning before we went to the vet. This gave me one more reason why Dot's old therapy schedule might have been better. It's always best to start writing when there is nothing on the back end of your day. I never know how long writing these articles will take and it's easier if I'm not interrupted. I guess I wasn't fast enough today, because I had to pick up where I left off when we returned. The article did get finished and the change of schedule wasn't really a big deal. It just illustrates how reluctant I have become to changing anything in my life.

It's time to start working on my tax returns again. I don't do my taxes myself anymore, but I still have to gather all the information together and take it over to my accountant. It's depressing that it costs just as much to do my taxes in a bad year as it does in a good year. I have a feeling that 2015 was a very bad year. The only saving grace was that I sold most of my oil and gas stocks at the end of the year. I thought I was just taking a tax loss at the time, but as it turned out, I was actually saving money. All these stocks continued to drop further in January and February. It was a good thing I got rid of them when I did. The market is just a crap shoot these days, but every once in a while you still get lucky.

I've got to figure out a better way to sleep. I usually sleep on my side, but my spine doesn't seem to like this. Ditto for sleeping on my stomach. The only position that seems comfortable is on my back and that keeps me awake longer. I was tempted to sleep on the floor with Dot last night, but that would just be an invitation to get pooped on. I've also noticed that the stretching exercises I do for my shoulder seem to aggravate my back pain as well. At least I'm over the flu. One of these mornings, I'll wake up, my spine will be back in place, and everything will be fine. I hope that morning is tomorrow.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1903

Dot is home again. The hospital released her late this afternoon along with a lengthy list of post-operative instructions and a big bag of meds. Dot was eager to return home, as you might expect. She was a little too eager in my opinion. Dot still can't walk on her own, but apparently she thinks she can. She's going to be a handful in the weeks ahead. Considering the complexity of her surgery and the fact that she's still on a lot of meds, I was absolutely amazed at how much more mobile she appears today. After just a few days of recovery, she is already moving her feet much more confidently than she did before the operation.

The Center for Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Care is an amazing place, but I sure wish it were closer to Dallas. I wouldn't recommend trying to transport a sick dog back and forth to this place during rush hour traffic. All is well though. We arrived home safely and Dot is now resting comfortably on one of many dog beds strewn around the house. Since Dot can still injure herself by trying to walk on her own, we're going to have to crate her whenever we leave the house. Dot never enjoyed going into a crate even when she was healthy, so this ought to be interesting. As soon as we got home, Janet went to a nearby pet store and bought a new crate that had two doors, one on the back, and an additional door on the side. Hopefully this additional door will make it easier to get Dot in and out of the crate when necessary. At least Dot likes to sleep a lot. When she's sleeping, life can continue like it normally does.

When I had the accident in California, the rental car company assured me that the minor incident was absolutely routine and that their insurance would take care of everything. Apparently this was wishful thinking. Over a month later, the other driver's insurance company still doesn't seem to know that the rental car company is handling the claim. I have received repeated calls from a subrogation specialist asking me to pay damages. The accident wasn't my fault either. Now it appears that I'll have to track down the information about the claim myself and put the two parties together. I'm convinced that absolutely nothing is easy anymore. Sooner or later, just about everything in life turns into a complicated mess.

At least the weather is improving. It was still a grey, rainy day, but there was no ice. It was actually quite a bit warmer today. It will be even warmer tomorrow, but unfortunately there are thunderstorms in the forecast. Then later in the week, another cold wave arrives and the temperatures dip below freezing again. The plants and trees are already totally confused. I saw some early blooming daffodils in the park the other day and when I saw them again today, they were wilted and frozen. By early April, nature will have sorted everything out, but March is usualy pretty crazy in Texas.

Last night, a European friend left a blog comment making fun of all the attention I was paying to Dot. She was "just a pet" he said, implying that I should be spending my energies saving the whales or helping Palestinians or something. I was genuinely offended and deleted the commend even though I rarely delete anything. For the rest of the evening I felt irritated that there are people out there who still don't realize that a good dog makes a far better companion than most people. "Just a dog," my ass. I think I've got my priorities straight. It's people who suck.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1557

The FedEx delivery guy was late this morning. Dash finished his radiation treatment early. The landscaping guy said he was coming back at 9 AM this morning to pick up all the bagged up leaves from yesterday. He must have come at some other time. All I know is that the leaves are gone now. I don't know why scheduling has become so difficult lately. Nothing seems to happen at the appointed time anymore. Basically, it was one of those "hurry up and wait" kind of days. It's amazing that I got anything done at all.

Dash continues to do well with his radiation treatments. Other than seeming a little tired, he appears to be completely normal. I'm starting to notice a lot of the same people are sitting in the lobby whenever I go to pick Dash up. There are apparently a lot of people like me who take their dog in three times a week for radiation treatments. I wonder if the other people think the cancer treatments are as expensive as I do. Probably so. What are you going to do though? It's the only game in town.

I found a small metal clockwork toy that I bought in Germany years ago and placed it on my car's driver's side mirror in hopes that it would serve as a makeshift scarecrow and frighten the troublesome pooping bird away. The plan seemed to work, since the bird didn't poop on my car all day. You'd think that I'd have better things to do than worry about this bird, but it irritates me.

Of course this small bird isn't the only thing that irritates me. I've pretty much turned into a grumpy old man. Cyclists who insist on riding their bicycles on busy city streets irritate me. People who let their aggressive dogs run loose in the park behind our house irritate me. My large printer irritates me. I could go and on, but it's Friday. The weekend is finally here and weekends seldom irritate me at all.

Spring officially arrives this weekend. That's a good thing. I think it's already here in Dallas. It got up to 81 degrees today. I was too busy to go out for breakfast this morning, but maybe I'll get to go back to the gym this Sunday.  On the other hand, maybe I'll just take a nap.

Big Boy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1506

It wasn't a particularly good day. I was waylaid at an early morning meeting and arrived home about an hour late to discover that Dash had pooped all over the office carpet. It was past time for his morning walk and he just couldn't hold it any longer. Since I was still dressed in my best Armani suit, I had to quickly change, quarantine the dogs in another room so they wouldn't make the smelly mess worse, and then clean everything up before we began a walk that had been delayed even further. The dogs weren't happy, and neither was I. Something told me that this might happen as I watched this morning's meeting drag on. My life has become so regimented with the dogs that I want to scream at people if they cause delays or get me off my schedule by even ten minutes. Hey, guys. Any additional business you might bring me just isn't worth the thought of spending hours cleaning dog poop off the carpet.

My arm hurts more today than it did yesterday. The right shoulder has become so painful that I can hardly move it. I even had trouble turning the steering wheel on the way home this morning. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I've dislocated my shoulder before and x-rays usually show nothing. I suspect that I have a soft tissue injury or torn muscle and that the recipe for recovery is lots of rest. I don't think lots of rest is in the cards just yet.The dogs are going to need their walks no matter what is wrong with my arm.

Once Dot and Dash were settled in for the rest of the day, I brewed a pot of coffee and started my work assignments. On days like today where I lose thousands in a stock market sell-off, the paltry hundreds I earn back by writing seem insignificant. My writing clients want things too quickly, my website clients want more complicated things than they are willing to pay for, and I'm growing tired of the whole charade. Most of the people at the Wednesday networking group tell me they love their jobs, but I don't believe them. They've all described to me what they actually do and I don't see much to love. Work sucks these days. It's kind of like that State of the Union address last night. If Obama was really honest he would have said that the Union was in the crapper. No president does that though. They all say that the State of the Union is strong.

If my arm doesn't feel any better tomorrow, I'm going to go get an x-ray and a referral to see a good physical therapist. That's about the only thing I can think of. If Dash poops on the carpet again tomorrow, I don't know what I'm going to do. Doesn't he realize that most of the floors in our house are brick? If he has to go, why can't he poop on the bricks?

Oh, well. Tomorrow is a new day. Unfortunately it is only Thursday. I'm ready for seventy degree temperatures again, and I'm definitely ready for Friday.

Spirit is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1328

It's a shame to drive thirty minutes to a nice dog park, only to find an overly aggressive dog getting in fights with the other dogs when you get there. This doesn't happen every week, but it certainly happens more often than I'd like. Usually, the owners of these aggressive dogs aren't even apologetic about their dog's deplorable behavior. They'll typically pull the fighting dogs apart, then let the instigator go right back to mingling with the other dogs like it was the most normal thing in the world. Meanwhile, Dot and Dash are huddled in one corner of the park until the mean dogs leave. As far as I'm concerned, there are no bad dog breeds, but there are plenty of bad dog owners.

Yes, I'll admit I'm geeky enough that I turned on the TV this afternoon to catch a live special where the BBC announced the identity of the next Dr. Who. Will Peter Capaldi make a good Dr. Who? He's certainly a lot older than recent era doctors, but I've enjoyed watching him in The Thick of It. He'll probably make a very good Twelfth Doctor. I'm pretty accepting of these changes anyway. After each regeneration, I usually completely forget about the previous doctor in a matter of weeks.

I got a little lesson in how automated our lives have become this afternoon. I had to go to Home Depot to pick up some odds and ends. The furnace filters and grass seed didn't present a problem, but there was only one of the little stainless steel sink strainers I needed left in the plumbing department and it didn't have a UPC code. I told the checkout clerk what the price was, but he couldn't ring the item up without a bar code to scan. After several unsuccessful attempts to enter the price manually, he just gave me the strainer. Apparently, it just wasn't worth the effort to sell something without a bar code.

I'm not sleeping well. I can't blame it on the dogs anymore either. Dot and Dash have been sleeping quietly all week, even leaving me plenty of room in the bed for a change. I'm still waking up with bad dreams in my head. I've never gone through such a sustained period of bad dreams. When I was young, I had fabulous dreams where I could fly. Then I went through an odd period where I dreamed I was walking from one city to another and could remember every step of the journey. Now, the dreams are just a jumbled mess. Nothing works. I'm lost in giant hotels. My dogs run away. I'm playing with my old band, but we can never get our instruments tuned. I'm looking for a restroom, but they are all occupied. There are never any monsters. Just a lot of small irritations that keep piling up until they eventually wake me. Sometime it's hard to tell when the dream ends and real life begins.

Pebbles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day