Day 3535

We're home. Texas has a little bit of everything. We traveled from some of the most congested areas of the country to some of the most remote. While we were in Fort Davis I kept wondering why people keep retiring there. The entire population seems to be retirees. As we navigated lunch hour traffic in Austin and a little later the evening rush hour on our return to Dallas, I had my answer. West Texas offers the antithesis of city life. People willingly deal with wells that occasionally run dry, problematic septic tanks, bears, forest fires, 40 mile drives to the supermarket, and a dearth of entertainment just to get some peace and quiet. The Davis Mountains were one of the most peaceful places I've been in my life. I'm sure the people who live there have plenty of problems, but they aren't city problems.

Fredericksburg is charming, but it definitely is not remote. The place is almost a suburb of Austin. We couldn't figure out whether the place was growing or shrinking. A lot of businesses were boarded up and we saw plenty of vacant buildings, but there was also a lot of new construction going on. The place reminded me of Gatlinburg without the Smokey Mountains. The main reason to return would be the museum. If you are a history buff, The National Museum of the Pacific War is like going to The Louvre. Before leaving town this morning, we returned to see some of the areas we failed to see yesterday. Someday we might return to see the rest.

I doubt that we'll return to Luckenbach any time soon. You almost have to go there though. If you live here you've heard the song a million times. It's one of those earworm songs. Willie, Waylon, and Kenny Chesney all sang it. I think Alvin and the Chipmunks did too. We wandered around the general store looking at tourist junk, thought about having a beer, but didn't, and then headed for home. We also stopped in West, Texas to pick up some Kolaches at one of the town's many Czech bakeries. That's also something you do if you live in Texas.

While we were in West, I used my phone to turn on the air conditioning at our house. We usually leave it off while we are away. By the time we got home, the place was nice and cool again. Even though I'm an old school analog kind of guy, I'll be the first to admit that today's technology is kind of amazing. I'm hooked. I would never travel without GPS anymore. I can write the blog from anywhere in the world. Having a watch that can take an electrocardiogram is pretty cool. So is being able to control your appliances from your phone.

Life is complex. Everything involves some sort of a trade off. I'd like to have all my advanced gadgets, but still live in an isolated place like Fort Davis that is so remote that some of these gadgets won't even work. One thing about a long road trip through Texas is that you realize you have a lot of options. Texas is huge and if there is something you like, I suspect you can find it here. I've found my place walking around a little lake in Dallas. I might start spending a little more time seeing other places though. Why not?

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2434

I used my new Scan and Go app when I went to the grocery store today. It worked like a charm. I was really pleased at what a time saver this was going to be until I finished my transactions and was leaving the store. Evidently, part of the process is having someone scan the receipt on your phone to verify the transaction. The lady who normally counts the number of items in your buggy seemed unfamiliar with the hand held device and couldn't get it to work. She called her supervisor for help. The supervisor said the machine was broken and called the manager. "Wasn't this supposed to make things faster," I asked the manager. "It's really fast when it works," he told me. Eventually, the manager found a backup machine and pointed it at my phone. As soon as I heard a beep, I was good to go. I could have checked out faster today the old fashioned way, but I still like this new technology. I bet it won't be long before they replace the person at the front door with a machine that just senses the phone in your pocket. People always seem to be the weak link in the chain.

I got my 2017 vehicle registration sticker today, so my car is legal again for another year. The hardest part of this whole process is removing the old sticker from your windshield so you can attach the new one. You can't just peel these stickers off. Parts of the sticker always remain attached to the windshield and you have to carefully scrape them off with a single edge razor blade. After I cleaned all the sticky residue off with window cleaner, I attached the new sticker, wondering why we don't still put the vehicle registration sticker on our license plate like we used to.

Dot's digestive system seems to have calmed down a bit. Compared to yesterday's disastrous series of accidents, today was a piece of cake. She pooped in her bed right after she woke up this morning, but that was my fault. We don't usually set the alarm clock on weekends, but Dot has her own alarm system. She expects us to be up by six AM and to be fed and ready to walk before seven. If I'd gotten up at six and immediately taken her outside, we wouldn't have had a problem.

We got a little rain today and I think we're supposed to get some more tomorrow. Since the roof has been patched and the patches appear to have cured well, I welcome the rain. The yard is really dry and our old fashioned sprinklers don't really do a good job of keeping things green. Since I don't think we'll be getting a fancy underground sprinkler system anytime soon, rain will have to do.

I'm having all sorts of minor computer problems. My phone keeps sending me messages saying that there is no SIM card attached. I can make the error message go away if I reboot my phone, but I shouldn't be getting it in the first place. There's a weird little process called mDNSResponder that is sucking up all my memory in my main computer. I can't just delete this process because it is used to connect me to the Internet. The battery has gone bad in my iPad, but they tell me that it is not replaceable in my older Series 1 model. I don't know about you, but I think Apple hardware and software was a lot more reliable when Steve Jobs was alive.

The weeks go by so fast these days. I'll try to make to most of my trip to the gym tomorrow.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day