Day 3319

I thought a place that could make delicious Shrimp Grits would be even better at making Eggs Benedict. Wrong. I was disappointed this morning. Damn. I should have had the Shrimp Grits again. This is the problem with being adventurous. Often things don't turn out as planned.

I'm not that interested in being adventurous, but I do realize that you can't spend your entire life doing the same thing over and over again. I'll admit that I come closer to monotony than most people, but everyone needs a little variety. I once found a restaurant that served absolutely perfect Migas. I ordered this dish for breakfast every Friday for three years. One day my breakfast tasted terrible and two months later the restaurant went out of business. I never really discovered what happened, but I've been looking for perfection ever since.

I do think I've found the perfect French Toast, but I don't always feel like something sweet. Oh, well. I guess the search for perfection continues. This odd quest does make Friday a little different than the other days of the week, so I guess all is good. I have a feeling that I'll go back to having French Toast at the hotel next week.

I need to remember that morning walks are for Dash and not for me. It takes a lot of patience to walk Dash these days. It's difficult to take photographs along the way like I used to because I'm spending all my time making sure that Dash stays upright. A small twig can make him stumble and fall. He can't seem to walk in a straight line anymore. We meander all over the place. Dash will often backtrack and return to smell something he forgot. Sometimes he refuses to leave a smell and starts sneezing when the odor becomes too strong. It's almost like he is getting high on the things he smells. I wonder how well he can see, because it seems like he is just traveling from one smell to the next without really looking where he is going. I have to be real careful when we come to gullies and ravines. Dash seems to have no depth perception anymore. If I wasn't holding tightly to his harness today, he would have fallen into a gully. All he cared about was a smell right on the edge.

The buyer for one of the items I auctioned in New York has missed their payment deadline. The payment is not just a few days late, it's almost a full month late. Unfortunately, I don't get paid until the auction house get paid so I'm starting to get frustrated. Auction houses never provide personal information about buyers. I'm starting to have fears that the buyer is a Russian oligarch who just had all his funds frozen. My contact at the auction house says not to worry. Easy for her to say.

The weather is still very cold, but the skies are clear and the humidity is low. Everything is starting to dry out again. I was going to get up early and look for Jupiter and Venus in the predawn sky. When the time arrived, I chose to sleep for another twenty minutes instead. Dash was restless last night and I didn't get much sleep. Janet thinks the new waterproof dropcloth I got recently is making the bed too slippery for him. Who knows. Maybe it is. I guess I'll be looking for another bed protection alternative this weekend.

We had pizza for dinner tonight. A good New York style thin crust pizza is hard to beat. I'm almost certain that this meal will give me heartburn, but somehow a little heartburn seems a fitting way to end a less than perfect day.

Bones is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2785

I didn't accomplish much today. At least Dash ate well. He finished both his breakfast and dinner with no hesitation at all. Will he throw up tonight? I've learned that anything can happen with Dash. Everything seems normal now, so that's a good sign. I did call his vet to ask if there is anything we might have overlooked, but haven't received an answer yet. Something is wrong, but I'm not sure if there is anything more we can check. Once every week or so, he just throws up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. On the days he throws up, there is usually no prior sign of an upset stomach. We watch him carefully now when he goes outside, so I don't think he's eating bugs either. It's frustrating.

I don't know why the grass is dying in the back yard either. There are no signs of grubs and the new grass has received plenty of water. I mowed today and now the grass looks even worse. There are lots of reason why we have to replace this grass frequently, but it should last at least a month or two. I'll call the landscaper, but somehow I feel that this problem will be as difficult to resolve as getting a refund on the fraudulent gift card.

When my client told me that he has put a check in the mail on Monday, I kind of expected to receive it on Tuesday. We're in the same zip code. I mean, how long could it take? Well, I didn't get the check today either. Maybe the guy was just thinking about putting the check in the mail. I'll wait until next Monday before I complain again. I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt, but there is no reason to be this late with a payment.

I'm trying to think of something that didn't frustrate me today, but I'm coming up blank. I still can't get old Windows video files to play on my computer. The software that used to convert them isn't being updated anymore and probably won't be in the future. Nobody cares about old Windows video anymore. I don't even think Microsoft supports these files now. The price of progress is having to  abandon old habits and old routines. Upgrading to Sierra allowed me to continue using the important software I use in my business, but I lost a lot in the process. This happens every time I do a major upgrade. Eventually, I'll just forget about the old, obsolete stuff.

I made an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow. At least this is one thing I won't be disappointed with. My hair is such a mess now that it couldn't possible look any worse. I probably should have made a vet appointment for Dash instead of getting a haircut, but it is much easier to get a haircut on short notice. I've already taken Dash to two different vets for this vomiting issue and nobody seems to have a solution. Give him a Pepsid. Change his food. Look for signs of a vestibular event. We've already tried all the obvious things.

I did get a response to the website proposal I sent out last week. The guy seems interested, but he wants a lot of complicated stuff that I know he doesn't have the budget for. I've either got to convince him to simplify his wish list or come up with more money. I'll put together a modified proposal tomorrow, but I'm not very confident that this project is ever going to happen.

I accidentally left out some ingredients in my smoothie this morning and it actually tasted better. Why did it take me three years to discover this?  I shouldn't have been surprised. I learn most things by accident.

Nautica is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2783

I tried to clean up some loose ends today. I called about a long overdue invoice and was told that a check was going in the mail today. Even though I was skeptical about this claim, I didn't feel like arguing. When someone tells you that they put a check in the mail, you have a good chance of getting paid eventually. It's when they claim that they don't even owe you the money that you've got a problem. Next, I called about a watch repair that was two years overdue. When I listened to the recorded message, I noticed that the name of the company had changed. This was not a good sign. I'll have to follow up on this one if the watch repair guy doesn't return my call. I was going to enquire about the estate of a relative that has been tied up in probate for even longer than the watch repair, but I've been told that this kind of delay is not that uncommon. Maybe I'll wait another six months and see what happens.

I've become accustomed to the fact that nothing goes smoothly anymore, but some delays seem ridiculous. Should any type of repair take three years?  Does the little notice on my invoices saying "30 Days Net? mean absolutely nothing? When I was told that it would take 90 days to get a refund on the fraudulent gift card recently, I kept thinking that this really meant six months and a lot of frustrating phone calls. You've got to keep trying though. That's the only way you get results these days.

Dash wouldn't eat his breakfast this morning. He has always been a finicky eater. We keep two brands of food on hand, knowing that if he won't eat one, he will usually eat the other. I knew that we had inadvertently picked the wrong brand this morning when I offered Dash a handful of the other brand and he gobbled it up. Unfortunately, the dry food in his bowl had already been mixed with wet, so I couldn't just put it back in the bag. I put the uneaten mixture in a different container and saved it for later. At lunch, I made a big show of preparing the food he refused to eat at breakfast and served it in a different bowl. This time, Dash gobbled it up. As difficult as Dash can be sometimes, he is still easier to deal with than a late paying client.

I've been wondering why I haven't received any updates for one of the websites I manage. I was going to ask where the updates were and then I noticed that I already had them. They arrived two weeks ago. The delay I'd been fretting about was actually my fault. How could this have happened? It appeared that I had updated my local version of the site, but that the changes had never been uploaded to the server. I still don't know whether the upload had failed or I simply forgot to finish what I started. At any rate, I apologized for the mistake and made sure the changes were actually on the server this time.

The website snafu and Dash's weird eating habits occupied most of my morning, but by mid-afternoon I was dead in the water again. I looked for a movie to watch on Netflix, but the one I chose wasn't nearly as good as The Expanse. That's what happens when you watch a really good series. I want to watch Season Three and Season Four, but they haven't even been filmed yet.

I don't have any big plans for tomorrow. I don't have any little plans either. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2132

Yay! I got a surprise check in the mail this morning from a client who is habitually late. Now I can pay my Visa bill. It's like this every month. I make just enough to get by, but there's never very much left at the end of the month. I suppose I could dip into savings when things get tight, but an odd stubborn pride compels me to leave the investment account alone unless it's absolutely necessary. The salad days are over, but I'd still like to think I can pay my bills using money I actually earn.

We'll see how long this little game lasts. It was frightening to see how quickly my parents savings became depleted when they both became sick. I'm healthy now, but I won't always be. I need to stay prepared. I don't want to become senile and fall prey to Nigerian scammers like my Dad. I don't want to be possessed by manic/depressive demons like my Mom. This makes me overly cautious.

I've grown comfortable with caution, but I think it makes others uncomfortable. People like a little spontaneity in their friends. I guess they'll have to wait. I've convinced myself that if I continue doing exactly what I'm doing, the dogs will live longer, I'll stay sane, and everything will turn out fine. I'm probably fooling myself. Every time I turn on the TV, I realize that I'm living inside a self-created quiet little bubble and the rest of the world is random and insane.

I wish I was a little more like Dr. Who. I think the show is so popular because everyone wishes they were a little more like Dr. Who. In tonight's episode, Peter Capaldi brings Maisie Williams back to life, breaking all his own rules about changing the future and fixed moments in time. I wouldn't need a super power nearly this extravagant, but it would be nice to be able to keep dogs from dying. It would be nice to be able to understand what they are thinking too, just like Dr. Who was able to understand what the babies in the Viking village were thinking by hearing them cry. I wish I knew if Dash was really feeling better. He seems better today, but what do I know. Dogs are often very good at hiding pain.

Janet likes to text a lot more than I do. When we were texting back and forth this afternoon about what to buy at the grocery store, it occurred to me that it would have been a lot easier if we were just talking on the phone. We got it sorted out though. She got the peaches. I got the pumpkin bread and blueberries. I just got another text from her saying that she'll be later than she thought coming home tonight. I probably ought to text back and confirm which bedtime meds to give Dash. I hate texting long words like phenobarbital on my phone though, so I'll just go look at the pill bottles and sort it out myself.

So far, there have been no accidents in the house today. This is a little bonus, just like getting the surprise check this morning. We've still got an hour to go before bedtime though, so anything could happen.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 975

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the outbreak of West Nile Virus in Dallas. The mayor has declared a state of emergency and the city is beginning aerial spraying of the entire city this evening. I got two phone messages from the city telling me to stay inside after dark tonight. There is a lot of controversy about the spraying program, but personally, I have no problem with it. When you compare the downsides of the Pyrethenoid insecticides they'll be using with the downsides of having the disease, I think I'll go with the insecticides.

I'm not sure it matters anyway. I've been bitten by mosquitoes several hundred times this summer and nothing has happened. Either I've gotten lucky or I've got an immunity to the virus. Truthfully, I'm more worried about the dogs. They get bitten by mosquitoes a lot more than I do. Mosquitoes are just a fact of life down South. No matter how much mosquito repellant you spray on yourself, you're still going to get mosquito bites.

I think people forget how common spraying for mosquitoes used to be. I grew up in Arkansas and during the Summer the spray trucks would come down our street at least once a month. A lot of times people didn't even bother to go inside when the trucks came by. They would just continue barbecuing, or sitting on the porch, or whatever they were doing as the cloud rolled past and dissipated in the evening air. It's kind of amazing to realize how many people survived and continued living perfectly normal lives after breathing in insecticides every Summer and driving around without seatbelts smoking cigarettes.

I wish I'd start getting some money in the mail. I've been billing things out at a fairly normal rate, but the checks are arriving slower and slower these days. It wasn't that long ago that just about everyone paid within 30 days. Now the average is somewhere between 45 and 60 days. Sign of the times, I guess. I still have to pay my own bills on time though. That's what I did this afternoon. I paid the electric bill, the water bill, various phone bills, and my car insurance. The depressing thing is that most of these bills will arrive again next month, whether any money arrives in the mail or not.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I've still got enough money to buy myself a little bacon for breakfast. I've still got about 20 minutes left today to let the dogs outside to pee before the mosquito spraying planes begin their flyby. I'm hoping that the spray kills some roaches and spiders too. We have entirely too many bugs this Summer.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 972

So far this month I've had four different clients tell me that I'll get paid a bit late this month because the boss left for vacation with a bunch of unsigned checks on his desk. This happens every August. Sometimes, I go on vacation myself, because everyone else is already gone. August is always the month with the highest electric and water bills and the least amount of money coming in. At least there's September. September's usually pretty good.

I finally reached the payout threshold on Google Adwords again. It took a while. Hey, if I could live on $100 a year, I'd be all set. Maybe you guys are getting rich, but so far, I haven't discovered the secret to making money online. I saw an article the other day that said "most people don't like to buy things on the Internet, they like to join things instead." So true. Almost every day I get one of those "join my cause" messages on Facebook. I never dreamed there were so many causes out there. Nobody is buying my Instagram pictures yet, but they sure are re-pinning them on Pinterest. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I'm the same way. Things are much more interesting when they're free.

I got a request this morning to put a picture of an award that one of my clients had won on their website. Of course, the client failed to attach the picture of the award to their e-mail. A few years ago I would have wasted half the day sending e-mails back and forth trying to get them to send me the right picture. Today, I just spent ten minutes making something that looked like the award in Photoshop and stuck it on the site. I'm tired of making mountains out of molehills. Hey, I specialize in molehills. I can make a nice looking molehill with no input whatsoever.

Dash's bath didn't last long. I caught him out in the backyard this afternoon digging a big hole which he subsequently took a nap in. Our new grass was supposed to prevent all this, but it's August and the grass is already dying.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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