Day 4766

Another unseasonably warm day. It got up to 80 degrees again and the air conditioner kicked in during the afternoon. This is very strange for January. It was a pleasant day though. The sky was clear and there was very little wind. Dawn definitely enjoyed her walk this morning.

I've finally managed to catch up with almost everybody I've been trying to reach. SpaceFlight is sending me author copies of the issues with my Falcon Heavy and Artemis articles. My editor has contacted me with article suggestions and I now have all the info I need from Space X for the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch. I still haven't heard back from the contractor I'm trying to reach about fixing the house, but that's an entirely separate matter.

I think the older I get the stupider I get. I had real problems today transferring information from my desktop computer to the laptop. I always do this before I travel. I recently updated all my passwords on the desktop computer to more secure versions, but I forgot that I hadn't updated the laptop. Initially, I couldn't check mail on the laptop or open several websites. I can never remember these new passwords because they are long and complex. Some passwords were easy to retrieve, but others were maddeningly frustrating. All I could see in the password field was a series of dots. Janet says I should write these things down, but I never do. I just depend on password managers. I eventually got everything on the laptop to work, but I ended up having to change a few passwords. I miss the old days when you could just use one simple password for everything.

When I was trying to print out all my travel information I discovered that both of our printers were out of ink. I hate it when the printer won't work just because your Cyan cartridge is low. Printers ought to have a black and white mode where you can just bypass the low colors. Now I've got to go out and buy more printer ink in the morning because I have to have all my contact and reservation information printed out so I can put it in a little manilla envelope that I carry with me everywhere. Just a quirk. I could probably find most of this information on my phone, but I prefer paper.

I was actually hot on my long walk this afternoon. I just wore shorts and a t-shirt and it felt like summer. We might have set another record today. I think it's colder in Titusville than it is in Dallas right now. I shouldn't complain though. 80 degrees is very pleasant even if it happens to be January. At least we aren't having torrential rain and flooding like they are in California now.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I need to pack, go get the printer ink I need, make sure all my photo equipment is working properly, wash the clothes I will be taking with me, and take my long walk. I'm sure I will forget something important on this trip. I always do. I don't think Dawn will miss me while I'm gone, but hopefully she will be glad to see me when I return.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4761

I think I'm becoming invisible. I've sent numerous messages to people who could potentially help me fix up the house and have received no replies. Nothing. I have a feeling that contractors just don't want to mess with this small house, but at least they could send me a polite letter saying that they're too busy or something. I guess it's easier to just ignore me. I found out that the falcon heavy launch is next week, but I still don't know if I'm going to be credentialed or not. I've heard nothing yet. This is cutting things pretty close for someone who has to make travel arrangements. The magazine I write for has dropped off the radar too. I don't even know if they want me to write an article about this launch. This is all frustrating for me, but it's probably a sign of the times. People just don't want to be bothered these days. Lord help you if you actually want to talk with someone on the phone. You have to send a text message now. Talking is apparently socially unacceptable.

This is a strange complaint from someone who rarely talks anyway, but I do wish it were easier to get things done. I've almost given up on calling customer service. You just get a call center in a foreign country and end up talking with someone you can barely understand. I have resolved exactly zero problems talking with customer service people. Lately, it's hard to even make a hotel or restaurant reservation with a phone call. Everyone just wants you to use their mobile app, which half the time doesn't even work. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man, but I don't think younger people even realize how much better life used to be. We're going backwards. Life in the 60's, 70's and even parts of the 80's was great.

It's kind of pointless to dwell on these things. The world has changed. All you have to do is turn on the television and it is apparent that we are living in some sort of dystopian alternate universe. I blame a lot of these problems on drugs. If we could just get rid of all the drug users, so many problems would just disappear. Crime would go down dramatically if there were no drugs to sell or traffic. Problems at the border would disappear. A lot of mental health issues would be alleviated. It would be an uphill battle though. Everyone seems to be high on something. People on the street are taking heroin, often at government sanctioned safe injection sites. People in offices and warehouses are smoking pot. Anyone with the least bit of anxiety is taking Xanax. It all seems so wrong. Would it really be so hard to do without this stuff? I don't know why anyone is taking Fentanyl? I can't imagine taking any pill that wasn't prescribed by my own doctor for a very specific reason.

I would suggest long walks as a solution, but I don't think I'd get many takers. A contemplative life appears to be a luxury. Life is far too hectic for most productive people and the stoners just don't care. It's probably no surprise that I see a lot of older people walking in the park. When you reach my age you're just happy to be alive and staying healthy takes on a whole new meaning. When I was in my 20's and 30's I never thought about my health. I didn't think I was invincible or anything. It just wasn't an issue. Getting high was never an issue either. I've never liked taking drugs or understood why others depend on them. 

I'm not going to change the world, but I'm going to try to enjoy the time I've got left. For me this means living a peaceful and largely uneventful life. When I finish my blogging goal I'll probably disappear from social media. Who needs it? Long walks are good. Maybe I'll spend more time looking at the stars. I'm lucky to have a friend like Janet. Even loners need someone to talk to.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3437

A guy stopped me on my walk this morning and wanted to show me some lizards. OK. I wasn't really looking for lizards but at least he wasn't trying to show me snakes. "Over there by that bush," the guy said. I must not have been looking in the right direction because the guy quickly added "No, not on the ground. they're walking on top of the leaves." Sure enough, there was a small, seemingly weightless lizard walking across some broad leaves. The guy told me the name of the lizard and I told him the name of the bush. It looked like the lizard was looking for small insects to eat while the bugs were just trying to eat the plants. That's how the food chain works. Everyone is trying to devour something.

The plumbers came out today and fixed my leaking shower and noisy toilet. I'm glad I didn't try to fix the shower by myself. The fixtures didn't use washers or o-rings. There were special ceramic cartridges installed in the shower faucets instead. I've seen these type of things in a kitchen faucet before, but never in a bathroom. The plumber knew what the cartridges were but didn't have any on his truck. He took the bad cartridges with him to a plumbing supply store and luckily was able to match them. The ceramic disks in the cartridges are supposed to be maintenance free, but the plumber said that grit in the supply lines can get between the disks and prevent them from closing completely. Apparently that's what happened. Our city water is notoriously full of grit and sediment. While the two plumbers were at the house I had them fix the noisy toilet too. I could have kept the plumbers at the house all day fixing small problems, but plumbers are expensive. I think I'm good for now.

I'm glad I got the plumbing problems taken care of, but I wasn't as successful with everything else. The roofer told me that he still hadn't had time to finish the estimate he started in February. My contact at the auction house must be on a trip around the world because I've been getting "out of office" auto-reply messages from him for a long time. I haven't heard from NASA yet either. I guess I've just got to be patient on that one.

It's already starting to get uncomfortably hot. I noticed that the air conditioner was running last night and the temperature has gotten over 90 degrees several times this week. It's hard to believe that it's still snowing in some parts of the country. I wish our Spring would last a little longer. It's the nicest part of the year in Texas. 90 degrees isn't so bad when you've got a little breeze. I'm not sure I'll still enjoy walking when it's 110 degrees in July. Even the dogs didn't like to go outside under those conditions.

It's been a busy day but I think I'm caught up on everything. The week's trash has been taken to the curb, I've done the laundry, and the dinner dishes have been washed. Now I need to decide where to go to breakfast tomorrow. I hope I manage to come up with something better than I did last week.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3122

I'm getting closer to getting the roof repaired. I talked to the job foreman today and discovered that the crews weren't always being paid when they came out to make repairs. That certainly explains why this job has been slow walked for several years. After more conversations with everyone involved I tried to make it clear that problems between the contractor and subcontractors weren't really my concern. I just want a roof that doesn't leak. Hopefully, this issue is finally resolved. All we need now is for the rain to stop. I got a verbal promise that the repairs will be made as soon as we get some dry weather.

Jeez. Why am I dealing with all this during the wettest July I can remember? It is usually bone dry in July. It seems like I'm always talking to the roofers during the middle of a thunderstorm. It certainly rained a lot today, even though is was sunny this morning. I even got soaking wet taking the trash out to the curb. Dash didn't get his evening walk either. I doubt that he minded. He was busy hiding under my desk.

I rescheduled my service appointment with Land Rover today. They kept trying to explain that no loaner cars were available because people weren't returning them. How was this even possible? You have to return the loaner car to get your own car back. Janet, who still works, explained what was going on. "People take the loaner car to the airport when they go on business trips," she said. "Their own car gets fixed before they return and the dealership thinks the loaner is missing." I guess this makes sense. I haven't taken a business trip in so long that this is a whole different universe to me. I always take the loaner car back as soon as the repair is finished.

I noticed today that I forgot to bill a client several months ago. This client used to keep me busy but there has been so little work in the past year that I almost forgot they were on the roster. I wrote them a letter asking if they wanted to terminate my services. It seemed like the right thing to do. Years ago I would have worked hard to restore the relationship, but the effort seems futile. These guys don't even use their website anymore. They might have forgotten they even have one.

I listened to some of the Peter Strzok testimony today. Sad. This country has become so divided that we are never coming together again. This is a Humpty Dumpty scenario. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put the country together again. I think we should face facts and just split the country in two. Give everyone a moving allowance so they could move to the country of their choice and then build a wall between the red country and the blue country. Everyone would probably get behind that wall.

I tried to tie up some loose ends this week, but I'm not sure what I accomplished. The roof still isn't fixed. My car repair has been pushed back to August. The security light in the back yard has been "fixed" but I'm not sure if it was ever broken. Probably the most important thing that happened this week was that Dash's dewclaws got trimmed.

Winston 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 2229

If you're old enough, you probably remember car trips where your parents told you to count the cows you saw out the window. This used to keep me occupied for hours. Attention spans are shorter now, so I imagine a new kind of game is needed. Maybe you could have the kids count the number of times the people at the next table in a restaurant use the word "like" in a conversation. You know what I'm talking about. When I was having breakfast this morning, two girls at the next table must have used the word 100 times within five minutes. "I was like you've got to be kidding, and then she was like no way, and then like you wouldn't believe what happened next..." This went on and on and on. Every single sentence used the word "like" on one way or another. When did this start? I even hear people talking this way on TV now. We don't read. We can't write. We've forgotten how to speak coherently. I don't hold out a lot of hope for the future.

I did like my breakfast in the old fashioned sense of the word. It was delicious. On my way home, I stopped by the grocery store and picked up the ingredients to make burgers for dinner. I thought I'd try some heirloom tomatoes, since I've always wondered what they tasted like. I thought they'd be better than ordinary hothouse tomatoes, since they're more expensive. Nope. They weren't very tasty at all.  I'm still wondering what's so special about heirloom tomatoes.

Today was mostly spent wrapping up a bunch of loose ends, so I wouldn't have anything hanging over my head this weekend. I finished my remaining website projects, wrote a letter to my sister, paid a few bills, picked up another prescription at the pharmacy, and went to the Dollar Store to look for rubber snakes. It was a fairly productive day. The dogs got walked. I'm caught up on work. Dot pooped outside. And I finally received a reply from the watch winder company. I still haven't found the rubber snakes though.

I was disappointed to hear that the watch winder company won't repair the two defective units I inquired about. They said they are too old to fix and that parts are no longer available. This may be true, but I was still hoping that they would replace the winders like they did with the first one I sent them. I guess one replacement watch winder is all you get. It's hard for me to get very upset about this however, because I'm not all that interested in watches anymore. Like most things in my life, it appears like collecting watches was just a phase I went through.

It's supposed to be clear tomorrow, so maybe I'll get up early and look for Mercury in the Eastern sky. I don't know why it's a big deal for me to see Mercury because it's just a faint little speck of light.  I like following the planets though. If I didn't live in a city and the skies were darker, I'd probably be out with a telescope looking for Uranus and Neptune.

I forgot to order printer ink today, so the large printer is sure to be clogged on Monday. I'm sure there's still water on the roof as well. If it warms up this weekend, I'll take care of that. I need to think of something fun to do as well. I think The Martian is out on DVD now. Maybe I'll go look for a copy when I'm running errands tomorrow.

Raider is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1801

It's nice to feel caught up on things. I've finished this week's writing assignments. My websites are up to date. The vet bills at the cancer center have been paid. Even the trash has already been taken to the curb for tomorrow's pickup. I'm sure there are still a lot of loose ends, but everything seems reasonably tidy. I like a tidy life.

I continue to be pleased with Dot's progress at her physical therapy sessions. Our vet cautioned us not to expect miracles, but now that we've been doing this for over a year, I can really see a difference. Even after her battle with cancer, she is still stronger than she was a year ago. I would highly recommend physical therapy for anyone with a senior dog. I'm sure physical therapy is equally beneficial for people, so I ought to consider finding a good therapist myself. With the proper care and exercises, my shoulder might actually begin to heal.

The temperature has warmed up considerably, but I'm still dressing as if it were below freezing. Consequently, I felt hot for most of the day. I definitely overdressed for this morning's walk. I always have this problem, because I don't respond quickly to change. I'm inclined to wear my Winter clothes all Winter long, but you can't do that in Texas. You always have to be ready to put on a pair of shorts one day and a parka the next.

Once again, I had a choice between going to the grocery store and picking up some take-out at a nearby restaurant. I should have gone to the store, but I took the easy way out and brought home a burger for dinner instead. It was just one burger and an order of fries, but I feel so full. When did restaurant portions get to be so huge? I never eat like this at home. I have a feeling that diabetes, heart disease, and a half a dozen other ailments could be cut in half if we just quit going out to eat so often. A special breakfast once a week is fine, but I think this is where I should draw the line. If I ate out more frequently, I'd gain ten pounds before you could say do you want fries with that.

Much to my surprise, people are actually buying my pictures on Shutterstock. Unfortunately, I only uploaded ten images to my account before I lost interest. If I can make a little money with ten pictures, just think of what I could do with a hundred, or a thousand. I need to get serious about uploading more pictures. I've certainly got plenty. Who knows. Maybe even some of my blog pictures might get accepted.

There was another package from Klout in the mailbox today. This time it was a big box of dog biscuits for Dot and Dash. They could smell them before I even opened the box. My influence seems to be limited to dogs and thermostats, but I can't complain. Free stuff is fun. Hey, with a cheeseburger in my belly and an empty to-do list for tomorrow, I'll have to admit that life is pretty good.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1224

I tried, with very limited success, to tie up some loose ends today. Everyone I called seemed to have a good excuse for why they were either late or had forgotten what I was asking about. The roofer was swamped with repair requests after a series of recent rains. The Land Rover dealer said they had left me a message. The insurance agent said my check was made out wrong. The accountant said the disk copy of my tax return wasn't ready yet. It was always something.

Of course, I'm not much better myself. I apologized to my vet for completely forgetting Dot's acupuncture appointment last Monday and then she regaled me with a long list of things she had forgotten during the same week.  I think life is too busy and too stressful for just about everyone. We are all being asked to do too much and given too little time to do it in.

I was just about ready to call the plumber this morning to come out and fix the toilet when I noticed that it wasn't the only thing that wasn't working. The water was turned off for the entire house. This seemed kind of odd, so I looked up the number for the water department and was preparing to give them a call when the water came back on again. I never found out what was going on until I took Dot to the vet later in the day and noticed a big pile of dirt in the front yard where the city had dug up and replaced the water meter. What was that all about? To the best of my knowledge, there was nothing wrong with the water meter. At least the city could have given me a call and told me what was going on. If I knew they were digging in the front yard this morning, I never would have wasted so much time trying to figure out what the problem was.

After we went to all this trouble to put in nice green grass in the back yard, Dot has decided that she would rather take her afternoon nap in the ground cover. I guess there's no accounting for taste. She can lie down wherever she wants, but I wish she liked the grass more. She's squashing the young Liriope plants the landscapers planted.

Dash has his annual physical exam tomorrow. I'm supposed to bring a stool sample to the exam with me. Hopefully I won't forget what's in the zip lock bag in my pocket like I did last year. There nothing like going to the grocery store and realizing that you've got a bag of poop in your pocket.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 916

It was a slow day. I did what I normally do on slow days. I tried to tidy up loose ends. In retrospect, I should have just left well enough alone. Today's loose ends were a bunch of marginal, small jobs that had somehow slipped through the cracks. I wasn't particularly interested in any of these jobs. They didn't pay much and some were just favors that didn't pay anything. After I finished contacting clients, I realized that all I succeeded in doing was reviving a few jobs that the clients weren't interested in either. If I had just kept my mouth shut, these jobs probably would have just gone away on their own accord. Now, I've got to do them.

I'm beginning to see the wisdom of the cloud. I needed to reprint a large banner I'd done for Dalmatian Rescue about three years ago. I couldn't find the file anywhere on my computer. This wasn't that surprising, since I am working on a different computer now. When I called the printer however, they instantly knew what I was talking about. They had archived the file when I initially uploaded it long ago. It is already prepared and ready for printing. I like it when other people already have my files. Maybe someday, I won't need to save anything.

I've noticed that people have been leaving birthday greetings on my Facebook page and it isn't even my birthday yet. Some of these people have known me long enough to know perfectly well when the real day is, but they tend to believe Facebook anyway. Even when it's wrong. What is this all about?  Information is so easy to obtain on the Internet that we all want to believe it. It's much easier this way. I'll admit that I'm guilty myself. Whenever I casually look something up on Wikipedia, I am inclined to believe it is true. It's just so much easier to believe everything I see on Wikipedia than to do careful research and find out the real story.

I've noticed that squirrels are eating the new grass we just planted. The nerve of those cheeky squirrels! I thought that squirrels liked nuts anyway. They apparently like fresh grass too. I see them nibbling away every day. They grab a single blade of grass in their paws and nibble it down from the tip to the root. You'd think that a blade of grass wouldn't even matter, but we've got lots and lots of squirrels. I'm beginning to think that this is one of the reasons why our grass didn't last long last Summer.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day