Day 2954

I hate to admit it, but I get most of my news from Facebook. Even though I consider myself articulate and well read, it's just too easy to scroll down my news feed while I am drinking my morning coffee and see what's going on. There's a guy who always re-posts interesting stories from the local newspaper so I don't have to read it myself. Several friends I met at Vandenburg Air Force Base let me know whenever there is an upcoming rocket launch I can watch online. A woman I went to high school with always posts obituaries of classmates who have died. There are puppy pictures to amuse me and plenty of expensive watches to drool over that I could never afford. I don't even mind the political posts and the ads. They are a public service to a lazy person like me. I may not agree with your politics, but your opinion can tell me who to vote against in the next election. The ads are great because somehow Facebook already knows what I like. I click on everything I see about guitars, Land Rovers, and video equipment.

It kind of bothers me that Facebook is planning to change this familiar news feed. They are planning to show less news and ads and more family and friends. This doesn't really work for me. There is only one family member I still communicate with and she isn't even on the Internet. I'm not even sure I have any friends. Like I said, I'm here for the news and the ads.

When I see something on TV these days, I've usually already heard about it on Facebook. I wonder if reporters even go looking for stories anymore. It would seem that they spend most of their time looking for material on YouTube. If you ever see a story on TV about a panda or a dog that can do arithmetic, I can almost guarantee that it was on Facebook first.

Even though it was boring inside today, it was a beautiful day outside. Dash and I had a nice long walk this morning. It is encouraging that he still seems to have a lot of energy and continues to love his walks. I wish he was more interested in walking down by the shoreline, because there are more interesting animals to photograph. Dash gets to choose though. We walk wherever he feels like going.   Sometimes we just walk in circles. There were no exotic birds or pretty sunsets today, but luckily there are always a few pesky squirrels.

I keep hearing that fewer and fewer people are writing checks and using the mail. I will probably be one of the last to keep these quaint traditions alive. I like going to the post office. I paid the water bill today and wrote another letter to my Luddite sister this afternoon. Most people just put their outgoing mail in their mailbox, but I don't trust our mail carrier. I always take my mail to the post office myself.

What am I going to do tomorrow morning? I've tried everything on the menu at half a dozen neighborhood restaurants and still can't find something I like. Jeez. Why did my favorite place have to go out of business? I ate the same thing for almost three years and loved it. I guess I could drive a little further to find my Friday morning meal, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose. I like to stay close to home.

Bones is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1778

I got the long awaited message from the liver center today, telling me that they considered me officially "cured" of Hepatitis C. My final viral load test showed that after six months, there was still no trace of the virus in my body. There will be no more tests. I'm done.

I'm relieved and happy to put all this behind me. It's ironic in a way that it took a deadly disease to get me healthy. Before Sovaldi came along, there really wasn't an effective cure for the disease. The previous interferon and ribavirin treatment only had a 50% success rate and many people experienced terrible side effects. I decided to wait until Sovaldi was approved and changed my entire diet and lifestyle to decrease the load on my liver. I quit drinking. I lost weight. And I exchanged my steady diet of cheeseburgers and beer for broccoli, kale salads, and other healthy fare. Healthy living kept my liver going while I was waiting and I ended up being one of the first people in the country to receive the new drug. It has been a long journey, but it definitely ended well.

I thought I'd watch a few YouTube videos and see if it were possible for me to install a new battery in my MacBook Pro laptop without going to the Apple Store. The process seemed simple enough. You just unscrew the bottom of the computer, unscrew a few more things inside, and them remove and replace the battery. Piece of cake. By doing this myself, I could cut the cost of a battery replacement in half. I gave the matter some serious thought and then decided I ought to make an appointment at the Genius Bar instead. I've had experience dealing with tiny little screws that have been tightened by machines before. It's incredibly easy to strip the threads, making it impossible to put everything back together again. I've ruined enough watches with tiny little screws that I proceed very cautiously when I see these things now. Just because you've got a small Philips screwdriver doesn't necessarily mean you can get the screws out. The Apple Store technicians are just as likely to destroy the computer as I am, but if they break it, they'll give me a new one. That's what happened when I had to get a new battery for my iPhone. The Apple folks ended up destroying the phone, but they were real nice about giving me a brand new one.

I watched a rocket explode carrying supplies to the space station when I was eating dinner tonight. I bet the astronauts on board the station are a little nervous right now. The 5,000 pounds of supplies included most of their food for the next six months. It's not exactly easy to get up to the space station anymore, with all our space shuttles sitting in museums. I did a little channel surfing to see if I could learn more about the story and was surprised to see how selective news coverage has become. All MSNBC was talking about were the upcoming mid-term elections, and Fox was still talking about Ebola. Apparently the only folks that initially thought this story was news was CNN.

Dot and Dash have their costumes ready for the Halloween party tomorrow. Once or twice we've won the costume contest, but typically the class don't even know what our costumes are. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day