Day 4911

Little by little, things get done. My new driver's license arrived in the mail today. For the first time in my life I have a license with restrictions. "Corrective lenses required," it says. I keep a pair of glasses in the car now, but honestly I can't tell any difference when I'm wearing them. Things look clear with the glasses, but they look clear without them too. Oh, well. I've got my license now and it's good for eight years. I looked goofy in my last driver's license picture. Now I just look old. Strangely, the new picture is in black & white. I wonder why.

I also picked up the pair of glasses with progressive lenses at Lenscrafters this afternoon. Progressive lenses are strange and take some getting used to. In theory I should be wearing them all the time and would no longer need readers when I'm working at the computer. It's a lot easier to just put on a pair of readers when I'm looking at a screen though. 

My progressive lenses are basically trifocals with distant, middle, and near ranges. They do work, but to avoid distortion you have to look directly at something. Side glances don't work very well. I've had 20/20 vision for so long that it's a big nuisance now that my vision had deteriorated a bit. I still think I can see things clearly, but apparently not clearly enough to pass a DPS eye test. I will always think I got cheated on the test. When I had an eye exam while I was getting my glasses, the ophthalmologist said I should have been able to pass the DPS test without glasses.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. We had a nice sunrise walk with Dawn. We're seeing lots of bunnies in the mornings now. The coyotes that used to live in the area must have moved on. In previous years the baby bunnies wouldn't have lasted very long. The ground was very wet this morning, but neither Janet or I remember hearing any rain last night. At least the weather is still cool. There have been years when the weather was already pretty hot by early June. I hope this means that we'll have a mild Summer. I've lost my tolerance for Texas heat.

I took my long walk before I went to pick up my progressive lenses. It was nice to be able to complete the walk without getting hot and sweaty. I'd better enjoy these days while I can. I suspect that the temperatures are going to get a lot warmer pretty soon. Something has changed on my Fitbit. I feel like I'm walking faster, but Fitbit says I'm walking slower. This has happened once before. The algorithm that measures time and distance probably changed a bit during a software upgrade. The Fitbit and Apple Watch have never agreed on walking stats anyway. They can be off by several thousand steps at the end of the day. I still don't know which device is right. Probably neither of them is correct. Oh, well. That's what I get for becoming addicted to meaningless statistics. It's almost impossible for me to walk without measuring something.

I've been having problems with my hosting company lately. I'll notice that my domains won't load even though everything else on the Internet is fine. I'll call customer service at the hosting company, sit on hold for a long time and usually by the time I'm finally talking to a customer service agent, the problem has fixed itself. They tell me that nothing is wrong and to call back if I'm having a problem. Very frustrating. This happens several times a day. I know that something is wrong with the server, but nobody can tell me anything. Maybe I need to change hosting companies.

I feel like I've finally caught up on a lot of things but I'm probably just fooling myself. There is still a long list of things I've been ignoring. I'll continue ignoring them for as long as I can.

Scooby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4900

There are only 100 days left before I reach my goal. I've thought about continuing the blog after I reach my 5000 day goal, but I probably won't. Writing something even halfway coherent for 5000 consecutive days is a long time and I'm running out of things to say. It's probably time to put this thing to bed. I have surprisingly few readers after all this time, but a large audience was never my goal. I just wanted to see if I could do this and it looks like I can.

I was finally able to renew my driver's license today. It took two pairs of rather expensive glasses and a new eye exam, but I'm good for another five years. I ordered new glasses yesterday, but the prescription I had on hand was for progressive lenses and the Lencrafter store couldn't fill it in-house. This pair of glasses won't be ready for ten days. I got a second pair of simple distance-only glasses today and took them with me to the DMV. 

Before I could take a new eye test I needed a doctor to fill out a one page DMV form. Seems easy enough, but I couldn't get an appointment with my regular doctor for over a month. My license would have expired by then. I found another eye doctor at the mall and was able to get a same day appointment as a walk in patient. I actually liked this doctor better than my regular doctor. She said my eyes weren't really that bad and that I should have been able to pass a DMV eye test without glasses. I already knew this, but a lot of good that does me now. 

I guess I needed glasses anyway, but truthfully I can't tell any difference wearing them. Maybe things look a little sharper, but I could be imagining things. I kept looking at signs, taking the glasses on and off and the signs all looked the same. I passed the eye test easily when I returned to the DMV. Oddly, the line of letters they had me read today was larger than the ones on the test I failed yesterday. When I asked about this the examiner said that they always have people without glasses read a smaller line. Made absolutely no sense to me. Oh, well. I'm done now and ready for my next encounter with government bureaucracy. As long as my new license doesn't get lost in the mail, I'm good to go.

All in all, it was a very busy day. I finished mowing the grass in the front yard after breakfast this morning. The new mower batteries make a big difference. My fear was that the new batteries wouldn't last any longer than the old ones and I'd have to buy a new mower anyway. I guess I'm good to go on the mower for a while as well.

I still found time for a long walk today. I kind of wish I had a 5000 day goal on long walks as well. I'm getting tired of walking six miles a day. The walks make a difference though. I'm in a lot better shape than many people my age and long walks are conducive to daydreaming. Walking is exercise for lazy people. I still prefer long walks to going to the gym, even though it would do me a lot of good to start lifting weights again. Maybe one of these days I'll be motivated enough to do both.

Tomorrow I need to write my article about the AX-2 launch. If I wait much longer I'll forget everything.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day