Day 2786

Little things can make a big difference. I always feel better when I get a haircut. It's a little symbolic gesture that lets me believe I am regaining control of my life. I've been going to the same stylist for decades. I don't have as much hair now and we are both getting older, but I still get a good haircut.

I used to always pay a visit to the Apple Store when I got a haircut. Now, I don't even bother. I think I have one of everything Apple makes. The stores used to have a huge array of interesting software. Now, there is almost nothing on the shelves. You're supposed to buy software at the App Store now.

When I got home I picked up the mail and discovered the check I've been waiting for hidden in a pile of junk mail. One more thing I can check off my list. I won't be getting any more checks from these folks because they fired me recently, but at least we ended things cleanly. Now, I need to find another client to replace them.

The haircut and the missing check would have been enough for one day, but I also figured out a way to get my old obsolete software to work again. The solution was so simple that I don't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner. I still had an external hard drive in the storage warehouse that had an old operating system on it. I hooked up this drive to my computer and made it the boot drive. When I restarted the computer, all the old software worked perfectly. Once I was satisfied with my solution, I put the drive away again. I won't need to use it very often, but it's good to know it's there. Now, I just need to remember to never erase the thing.

Dash is eating and sleeping well again. I wish I could figure out what his problem is. Intermittent problems are always hard to resolve. It's like when you take your car to a mechanic with a funny noise and the noise goes away as soon as it's in the shop. Whenever I take Dash to the vet he seems completely normal. I carefully explain the problem, but there is nothing to observe. The whole situation makes me nervous. I know he is going to throw up and quit eating again. I just don't know when.

I sent a revised proposal to the guy who wants a new website. He's going to start a paintball park. It's a mystery to me why people enjoy shooting each other with paint guns, but it will probably be an olympic sport soon. You can already have a paintball birthday parties for your kids and I've heard that there are corporate paintball team building exercises for business as well. If I get this job it won't be the oddest website I've built, but it would definitely be in the top ten.

This week has gone quickly. I've already hauled this week's trash out to the curb and I'm trying to decide what to have for breakfast tomorrow. I've been disappointed in my choice of restaurants for the past several weeks. I need to pick a winner tomorrow.

J-Lo 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 2093

I was happy to see a long overdue check arrive in today's mail. Now I can finish paying my August bills. Of course it is September already, so the whole process will begin all over again soon. Vet appointments. Trips to the pharmacy. Writing checks and taking them to the post office. Sometimes entire months go by this way. It wasn't always like this. For many years the only things that mattered were having a cool job and a cool car. I didn't even bother to balance my checkbook. Karma took care of that. I'm mature and responsible now, but there are times when I think maturity is overrated.

I called the Apple Store and tried to find out what the procedure was for getting the battery replaced in my laptop. Apple service sucks. After spending forever talking to an automated computer that insisted it understood complete sentences, I finally ended up talking to a real person who knew nothing. She told me that I would have to come to the store and talk to a technician. "That's why I'm calling you now, " I told her. "I was hoping to talk to a technician on the phone, so I won't have to make two trips to the store." When I asked her if the store even had the battery I needed in stock, she told me she wasn't allowed to discuss the store's inventory over the phone. I finally gave up in disgust and called a third-party repair service that I always use when I'm frustrated with Apple. They told me to bring the laptop in tomorrow morning and they'd have me ready to go in thirty minutes. The price for this speedy service was exactly the same as the Apple Store price.

Dot pooped in the house again. I thought she was asleep and was surprised to see her standing by my desk. Thinking she might need to go outside, I got up and we went to the back door. It didn't take long to notice the little trail of poop leading to the door. She did need to go outside. About five minutes before she walked into my office. I wish Dot had a way of warning me. If she would just bark or scratch the floor when she needed to go, I'd come running.

Dash still likes his new food. Now, we need to find out whether this diet is a short or long term solution. Dash has a sensitive stomach and is prone to get crystals in his urine, so it took us a long time to find a brand that was nutritious, made in America, and didn't cause him to gain weight or form crystals. He seemed to love his food for several years, but maybe he's like me. I can eat the same thing for months at a time and then one morning I'll wake up and never want to see it again. I hope I don't sour on my fruit smoothies anytime soon. They are delicious and very easy to make. One day I'll wake up and they'll seem disgusting though. It always happens eventually.

I"ll probably go ahead and get the laptop battery replaced tomorrow. It would be nice to have a computer that didn't instantly die on me the next time the power goes out. I need to get a haircut soon, but that will probably have to wait. Thursday is reserved for Dot's physical therapy and Friday she has another Ultrasound scan at the cancer center. It's going to be a busy week.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 539

Today was the day I was supposed to take Dash to the vet. Unfortunately, I canceled the appointment yesterday. I thought Dash was well again, since he has seemed absolutely normal for over two weeks now. So what happens this morning? His diarrhea returns, he poops on the carpet and throws up his breakfast on his morning walk. These were exactly the same symptoms that caused me to make the appointment in the first place. I called the vet again and tried to get my appointment back, but of course someone else had already taken it. Now I've got to wait until next week to get Dash in for a check-up again. This time I'm going to keep the appointment, whether he seems sick or not.

I drove up to Carrollton after breakfast to pick up the missing check that turned up yesterday. I guess I could have waited a few more days and the check would have come in the mail, but I'm a superstitious person and I didn't want anything else to go wrong. Airplane crashes aren't the only things that happen in groups of three. I think a lot of things go wrong in threes. Hey, why take chances.

Cleaning up runny dog poop on the office carpet and driving across town to pick up the check definitely put me behind this morning. I had made plans to go to an Avid Technology editing seminar later in the day, but I never managed to get caught up in time to make a second trip across town. By the time the dogs had finished smelling every tree on their evening walk, the seminar was half over. I guess it was no great loss that I missed the presentation. I had been thinking of getting Avid Media Composer for an upcoming video editing project, but the project went away when the client decided to edit it themselves.

I guess I made progress today. I went to the pet store and got a new bottle of Natures Miracle to get rid of the smell in my office. I got another watch article written. I put a little money in the bank. Tonight we'll see if Dash can hold his dinner down. I hope he feels better. My guess is that he's been eating too many June bugs in the back yard, but with a dog like Dash, it could be anything.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 538

I had my interview with the FBI today for my friend's background check. I thought the agent would ask me a lot of tricky or probing questions, but the whole experience was more like going through an airport line with the TSA folks. The questions were very general and largely unnecessary. "Is your friend a member of a subversive group that is trying to overthrow the United States government?" That sort of stuff. Jeez, guys...what kind of friends do you think I have? I will say one thing though. Our government pays our federal agents well. As I was finishing up my Starbucks coffee after the interview, I noticed the agent driving away in a big black Mercedes.

For several weeks I've been wondering what happened to a missing check from one of my clients. They said they cut the check back in May, but I never received it. Today the mystery was solved. Somehow the check got stuck to the back of another check and both checks were mailed to someone else. Does the other vendor return the check addressed to me? Nope. They cash it. This doesn't give me a whole lot of faith in the banking system. You wouldn't think this vendor's bank would deposit a check that was written to a completely different company, but they did. At any rate, I'm going to get my money. I don't think I'm going to trust the post office this time though. I'll just drive up tomorrow and pick it up.

I noticed that Apple introduced iCloud today. So far, I haven't been a big fan of cloud-based computing. For the most part, having your documents in the cloud is slower and a bit buggier than just having them all on a big hard drive on your desk. I imagine I'll end up using iCloud whether I want to or not, however. Knowing Apple, this thing will be so completely integrated into the operating system that I won't even know I'm using it. It will just start syncing things whenever I charge the battery or something.

I called a bee removal company today and left a message, but they never returned my call. I guess they were just too busy buzzing around town.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day