Day 4954

This heat wave is starting to feel a little apocalyptic. There is no end in sight. We got up even earlier this morning so Dawn could have at least one decent walk. The temperature already was in the high 80's an hour before sunrise. There was a nice breeze though, so I have no complaints. The complaints always come later in the day.

I quietly ate my shredded wheat and fruit for breakfast and then invented a number of small tasks so I wouldn't end up going to the gym too early. I like to go during the lunch hour because it is less crowded then. I watered the plants in the atrium, did a load of laundry, and took some things out to the curb for bulky trash day. I used to spend a lot of time on the computer, but this is becoming less and less rewarding. Now that the computer is no longer a tool for generating income, it is just a way to kill time. I spend too much time checking my Facebook timeline. Why? Half my feed is just ads now. I've learned that sponsored posts are just clickbait. If something in the picture intrigues you, you will never find the answer by clicking on the link. I used to love looking at pictures of people's dogs, but lately most of the dogs on my feed are desperate pleas for fosters or adoptions before the dog gets euthanized at a pound or animal shelter. There are tons of posts about lost dogs. Jeez. If you have a dog, you really need a fenced yard. You should always walk your dog on a leash as well.

Why is modern life so depressing? I hate to even listen to the news on TV these days. The endless political debates are mind numbingly pointless. Anyone who thinks that the Democratic or Republican party has the answer to our problems is a fool. We apparently haven't figured out that wars are pointless as well. There are people in this country just itching to get more involved with the war in Ukraine. Boeing and Raytheon would love to have a wider war. If we haven't learned anything from Vietnam and the pointless wars in the Middle East, we probably never will.  China probably has the right idea. I think they realized they don't need to have a shooting war. They can just poison our minds with TikTok and poison our bodies with strange new viruses.

One good thing about walking is you don't need to dwell on such things. When I'm walking outdoors I just observe the plants and animals. Ducks are surprisingly interesting. When I'm walking indoors at the gym, I do mental math in my head trying to guess exactly how far I've walked without looking at my watch or Fitbit. I don't have deep thoughts when I walk. Those thoughts are reserved for dreams. I'm glad I don't remember my dreams. When I occasionally wake up in the middle of a dream, it's clear that most of them are a little scary.

I need to get a little more creative with my workout. For over two weeks now I've done exactly the same things when I go to the gym. Today was no different. I walk three miles on the indoor track, trying to keep a pace of around 20 minutes per mile. I usually end up walking about an hour. Next I see how long it takes to complete ten free throws on the basketball court. Sometimes I'm quick. Other times I'm embarrassingly slow. My main goal at the gym is just to find a parking place inside the parking garage, so I don't have to park my car out in the sun.

I didn't do a lot this afternoon. Afternoons are for napping or if I get really bored, for monkeying around with the star tracker. I can't even remember what I did this afternoon, but the day went quickly. Tomorrow will be more of the same. Cooler Fall weather can't come soon enough. 

Beemer 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 4605

Modern life is weird. The phone seems to ring constantly now but I never answer it. All the landline calls are spam. The phone company even knows the calls are spam but still puts them through. Typically, there is a message on the caller ID that says "Suspected Spam" or "Telemarketer." Why are these spammers so relentless about attempting to contact you? I suspect that virtually nobody answers these calls. If someone really wants to contact you these days, they send you a text message. It probably all just comes down to money. Spammers are probably the phone company's best customers.

Nobody knocks on your door anymore. If they did, you definitely wouldn't answer it. If you go out for dinner, you have to be careful where you go. Some places are no longer safe after dark. If your car breaks down on a busy road, you lock the doors, call AAA on your phone and wait for the service vehicle to show up. You can't depend on a friendly stranger for help anymore. When did the world change? It definitely wasn't this way when I was a kid. My friends and I never worried about being kidnapped and half the time our parents never knew where we were. Even when I was in college the world seemed relatively safe. I hitchhiked all over the country during my college years without a care in the world.

I feel like movies like Mad Max and Bladerunner were just preparing us for a dystopian future. Sadly, that future is here. I hate to even turn on the TV anymore because there is nothing but bad news. At least there are dogs. I find solace in dogs and am convinced that they are nicer than most people. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. There are a lot more pictures of dogs on my Facebook feed than there are of people enjoying each others company.

I may not go out at night anymore, but I still go to the gym during the day. There is nothing threatening about my gym. Most of the members are older like me. They seem quietly determined not to let themselves fall apart. It is somewhat inspirational to see a person even older than I am lap me on the indoor track. I doubt that there are many drug users in this group. I don't know these people but they seem like confident self starters. Even the people in physical therapy seems like they are really trying. Am I slowly becoming a gym rat? I doubt it, but there are definitely worse groups of people to hang out with. The Gym is OK.

Our heat wave seems never ending. It seems strange to read about floods in other parts of the country. We haven't had rain in so long that I've almost forgotten what it feels like. One of the smaller trees in our front yard is dying. I've been watering it, but it seems beyond hope. The asian jasmine ground cover that is out of reach of the sprinkler is dying as well. Almost all the grass in the park is dry and brown. This is not good. The drought will end eventually. Fall is usually our rainy season. Often is seems to rain continually during the State Fair. When the rain begins, there will be a sigh of relief, some temporary joy, and then we'll all start complaining about the rain.

I was surprised that Janet and Dawn went to training class tonight. It was still very hot around sunset. Janet said that Dawn was the only dog in her class and that she got a private lesson with the trainer's dog. The class was short and Dawn didn't get too hot. You can't be too careful in this weather. It will be nicer when we take our sunrise walk tomorrow morning. Sunrise walks are still the best part of the day.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3848

I've discovered some curious things about Facebook that reveal equally curious things about me. When I created the Some Assembly Required group, I just assumed that my daily posts would always appear in chronological order. Nope. If someone comments on an older post, Facebook automatically changes the order of the posts so the post with the most recent comments appears first. It messes up the timeline.

I can manually change the order back so that the most recent post appears first, but Facebook seems determined to prioritize activity rather than chronological order. I have to keep changing "New Activity" back to "Recent Posts" almost every day. It drives me nuts. There is also often a suggested list of other Facebook groups that might interest members. Why is this here? I'm always deleting these groups because I'm not interested in them at all, but Facebook just keeps suggesting something else.

At first I thought I was really clever by creating a version of the blog that was just a series of JPEG images. Facebook loves pictures and appears to hate links. I'm still mad that Facebook arbitrarily erased years and years of blog posts because their AI robots decided that the daily links back to my Blogger address were spam. I wish more people would just read the real blog on Blogger. The type is crisp and much easier to read. You can click on each day's main picture and enlarge it. And you can click on each Dog of the Day to go to a more detailed story about the dog on the Dalmatian Rescue website. The Facebook blog is just a daily JPEG image of the real blog. Apparently when you give people a choice between good and easy, they will always pick easy. At any rate, the blog really does exist independent of Facebook. I don't even like Facebook. Hey, if you ever feel like reading the real blog, just go to https://john-sealander.blogspot.com and bookmark the address. It's easy.

I guess Facebook has come to represent many of the things I dislike about modern life. If I click on a story about the new Ford Bronco, I instantly get an endless stream of updates on my timeline about four wheel drive vehicles. There must be a connection between Facebook and Google, because if you Google anything, you will automatically start receiving information about that subject on Facebook. I love all the dog pictures, but I hate seeing people I actually know trying to shame people who don't share their beliefs. I've grown tired of all the "If you blah, blah, blah, just delete me now" posts as well. Who cares.

I've spend a significant chunk of my life designing websites and writing for online clients. It seems totally natural for me to turn on the computer every morning and spend hours in front of the screen. This is how I made my living for many years. I'm finally starting to realize that there is no need to do this anymore. I'm retired. I think a worthy goal would be to find something satisfying to do for long periods of time that doesn't require a computer or even interactions with other people. My dad never used a computer and seemed happy making little wood carvings of animals after he retired. I do like technology though and am fairly lazy. It's a dilemma.

The weather was much cooler this morning and there was no threat of rain. We were able to walk five miles with Dawn with no problems at all. I wish these daily walks took longer so I wouldn't have to think of how to spend the rest of my day. It's a shame that my little niche of following rocket launches has been taken away by the coronavirus. That was working pretty well.

Delaney is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3827

I always used to think I was an early adopter. My first computer was an Osborne 1. I was online way before browsers and the World Wide Web even existed. I had a home office long before it became a fad. What a surprise to discover that I'm actually pretty old school. In my own way, I'm probably just as bad as my Dad who steadfastly refused to use a computer at all. I'm still having a hard time adapting to online banking. I've made the switch, but it still seems easier to write a paper check and take it to the post office. I rarely made mistakes when writing checks, but I always have to check for typos now. It's easy to void a paper check, but a lot harder to undo an online mistake after you've hit send. At any rate, I did manage to get the bills paid today.

I'm becoming increasingly skeptical about modern life. What does all this technology really prove? I don't answer my phone anymore because I know I will be talking to a telemarketer. I seldom even make a call because it is so irritating to connect with an automated call center. I carefully delete cookies and the browser cache every evening before I shut off my computer. Almost nothing is trustworthy or reliable anymore. Maybe that's why I like those old Perry Mason shows. When somebody wanted to talk to Perry, they just called him up and he always picked up the phone. Nobody would ever send Perry a text message in the courtroom. I miss the days when I had a list of dependable suppliers and vendors and I could call each of them directly whenever I had a problem. All bets are off these days. Do you really trust Angie's List or Yelp. I don't.

Even writing the blog was easier when it was just a daily journal entry written by hand in a little leather bound book. Maybe I should go back to those simple journals. I was never writing for an audience. The blog and the yearly journals that preceded it were always just a way for me to keep track of my life when my memory begins to fail. My memory is still pretty sharp, but it is interesting to go back occasionally and see what I was doing five years ago. If I ever get Alzheimer's, having a detailed record like this might help.

I always wanted to keep this narrative going for 5000 consecutive days. Maybe 4000 is enough. I'm having second thoughts about all this. The world has changed a lot since I started the blog over ten years ago. People seem more argumentative now. I remember flame wars on those old Usenet News Groups but it never seemed personal. There is an angry vibe online these days and I've never been interested in arguing. I'm not even interested in having a dialog. Whenever I see one of those "If you blah, blah, blah, just unfriend me now" messages I feel like unfriending the person even if I happen agree with them. All the raw emotion and endless memes are becoming tedious. I think I was more comfortable with the Internet back when it was just a few nerdy electrical engineering majors struggling to send simple messages over a 300 baud modem.

Tomorrow I go back to the dermatologist. I've already gotten half a dozen text messages reminding me to wear a mask. I imagine that they'll do something, since my face hasn't completely cleared up. Will the doctor cut me or give me another liquid nitrogen treatment? Will I even have time to walk Dawn and finish my breakfast smoothie before my appointment? When you are used to doing nothing, even having one thing to do can seem complex.

Hershey 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 3178

I've noticed that some of the Spring flowers have started to come back in the Fall. This doesn't happen every year, but I've seen it before. I wonder about things like this. Apparently, even annuals and perennials aren't entirely predictable. You usually don't see Antelope Horn Milkweed in the Fall, but there it was this morning.

The wildflowers may not be predictable, but the congressional hearings certainly are. I think you could substitute footage of Neil Gorsuch for Brett Kavanaugh on TV and nobody would know the difference. The questions are the same and the two guys even look kind of the same. Why do we even do these things? Everybody decided how they were going to vote a long time ago. Just vote guys. The endless bickering isn't going to change anything.

Dash was confused this morning. Janet left the house before dawn to take a new class at her gym. When Dash woke up, he panicked when he discovered that his friend was no longer next to him on the bed. It took me forever to convince him that everything was OK. He kept looking for her in every room in the house. I tell Janet now to be sure to say goodby to Dash when she leaves. He's become very needy and doesn't like surprises.

I wish Dash knew that I don't like surprises either. Especially at night. Dash is never very predictable about when he needs to go out at night. Luckily, I almost always wake up when he jumps off the bed. I immediately get up and race to open the back door. For the past several nights he's made it through the open door and pooped on the porch. I'm always grateful when Dash makes it outside. The mess is much easier to clean up when you can use the garden hose.

I got this letter today saying that some company had been bought by another company. "This change will have no impact on your current policy or the quality of service you receive," said the letter. What the hell were they talking about? I didn't recognize the name of either company. Was this a scam, a mistake, or something I had forgotten about? It could be anything. It looks like one more useless thing I'll have to track down. This is what modern life has become. Everything is a potential scam and even if it's legitimate, you know it's going to be a nuisance.

There were storms all around us this evening, but we managed to give Dash his evening walk without getting wet. The trash has already been taken to the curb as well. Basically, I'm done for the week. I'm thinking of going to a hotel for breakfast tomorrow. I haven't done that for a while. Sometime eating at a hotel gives me the illusion of traveling without having to go anywhere. We'll see how I feel in the morning. If it's raining when I wake up, I won't be going anywhere.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2403

Pokémon GO must really be a thing. I've started seeing a huge increase in the number of kids wandering aimlessly around the park while staring at their phones. I don't understand this phenomenon at all, but then I haven't played video games since Pong first arrived on the scene in 1972. The wireless carriers must love this new game. I have a feeling that a lot of these very rare Pokémon's are located well out of WiFi range.

Dot is improving. With a little assistance, she can walk slowly around the back yard now. I still have to guide her and provide some support, but I can tell that her coordination is starting to improve and she can take steps without trying to hop on one leg. It's a long, slow process to provide the rest she needs without causing her muscles to atrophy further. Like almost everything we do these days, we're taking baby steps.

I spent most of the day writing. I continue to send the completed articles to the same address that has been blocking me. I think the block has been lifted, because my mail is no longer bouncing back to me. Unfortunately, my client still can't find my messages. I think they are getting through, but are probably being quarantined in a spam folder somewhere. I send duplicate files for the time being, using both my regular account and an alternate Gmail account. I kind of wish I still had my old fax machine. It would be quicker to just fax the completed articles.

Dot's injured leg has actually provided some good news for Dash. Since Dot can't walk now, I'm taking Dash on much longer morning walks after Dot goes back to sleep after breakfast. We don't spend any more time away from home, but we walk twice as fast and cover a lot of ground. Dot's decline has taken place over such an extended length of time that I didn't really realize how much shorter our walks have become. Dash enjoys the exercise, but I'm arriving home a bit more winded than I expected. We really walked a long way when the dogs were young. I have no idea how many steps we used to take however. This was long before fitness trackers were invented.

My life is calm and steady, but every time I turn on the TV it appears like the world is in chaos. I would love to return to the days of looking forward to watching The Twilight Zone on a black and white TV with rabbit ears. I grew up in an era when nobody locked their doors at night, never wore seat belts, and thought that TV Dinners were just fine to serve company for dinner. Everybody smoked and we were only vaguely aware of cancer and the dangers of high cholesterol. We build nuclear weapons with reckless abandon and even thought we could build nuclear powered airplanes and cars. I miss those days. In an attempt to make the world a better, more rational place, we only managed to make things worse. That's the way it is with Pandora's box. You can open it, but you can never close it again.

Maybe my e-mail problems will be resolved tomorrow. If Dot continues to improve, we might try taking her on a very short walk down the alley behind our house. Baby steps.

Watson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1435

I haven't picked up the guitar in quite a while. It's been even longer since I've taken the telescope outside on a clear evening to look at Jupiter's moons. I can't even remember the last time I spent an entire evening reading a good book. I enjoy these things. So why am I spending so much of my time doing things I don't enjoy? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

I'm not trying to make excuses here, but life has fundamentally changed. The changes aren't big, in and among themselves, but they add up. It takes longer to fix healthy meals than to pick up a burger at a drive-thru. It takes longer to maintain an exercise regime than to watch TV on the couch. It definitely takes longer to earn a decent living. Where are all the assistants and copy typists I used to have? Where is the world I used to love?

Personally, I think that globalization and technology have combined forces to destroy a delightfully inefficient world where jobs were abundant and expectations were low. It isn't really surprising to me that health care isn't working anymore and entire countries are going bankrupt. The complexity of modern life is simply staggering. It is still a world of amazing opportunities, but it's all getting a lot harder to understand and many of us are simply running in place.

I don't have a grand plan anymore. I just get up every morning and methodically move from one task to the next. I always start with the simple things, but sometimes that's as far as I get. I got about halfway done today. The dogs got a good walk. I made it to the gym. I got several articles finished and shipped off to the client. I got stuck on my website project though. I'm confused. I'll need to do a bit more research to figure this one out.

If I wasn't so busy, I might enjoy the beautiful Fall weather we're having a bit more. We're really getting some fabulous Fall color this year. Texas will never be New England, but I see a lot of brilliant reds and yellows as I walk through the park with the dogs. I wonder why the leaves turn bright colors one year and are dull brown the next? I have a feeling that I might be happier if questions like these were the only things I had to worry about.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day