Day 4599

I took care of a lot of little odds and ends today. Nothing important was accomplished but it was good to cross a few things off my list. The remote for the kitchen TV has been broken for a while. A few weeks ago I found a new unused remote in a box in my office but I couldn't get it to work. Today I remembered that you have to program the thing. This took a while since the cable remote and the kitchen television were old and there were no instruction manuals. I finally got the remote to turn on and off, but then I screwed up the TV and it wasn't picking up the signal from the cable box. It seemed like this whole process was easy when I initially installed everything years ago. I tried looking up information on the Internet but the results were inconclusive. Eventually I got everything working again through trial and error. Hopefully this remote control will last for another ten years. I'm tired of messing with this thing.

I did some laundry, cleaned some stains on the bricks in the kitchen, looked up how to change a few setting on my star tracker camera, and changed the head on my electric toothbrush. I was going to practice with the star tracker again, but decided to wait when I received an e-mail saying that another update would be available this Saturday. I wonder if they are ever going to stop upgrading this thing. I've lost track of how many firmware updates I've already installed.

The day itself was pretty much like yesterday. The sky was clear. The temperature was hot. And I followed the same routine I've been following all summer. We got started a little later on our sunrise walk this morning and you could immediately feel the difference in temperature. We should have started thirty minutes earlier because Dawn wasn't quite as eager to walk. We carry dog treats in our pockets now to get her moving again when she gets stubborn and refuses to move. 

After breakfast I went back to the gym. There weren't many people on the floor today, but the parking garage was still full. I had a good day on the basketball court. I think my hand eye coordination is getting better. I was slower on the indoor track though. Go figure. I am always surprised by exercise inconsistency. My routines are almost always the same, but the results are frequently very different. I didn't feel more tired this morning, but I guess I was. I'll have to check my Fitbit and see how I slept last night.

One of my contacts at Kennedy Space Center said that they expect over 10,000 people to descend on the area for the Artemis launch. The space center will need to charter over 70 busses to move people around. No wonder all the hotels were full. Why am I even going to this launch? I've never liked crowds or complicated logistics. Getting through the checkpoints on launch day is going to be a nightmare. I hope I get a schedule from NASA soon. At this point I don't even know if I made airline reservations for the right days. I always try to minimize my stay to save money, but it would be easier if you had an unlimited budget and arrived early and just stayed until the launch finally took place. I can't do that, so I just cross my fingers and hope that I've picked the right days for my stay.

I keep hoping for rain but the forecast doesn't look promising. It still looks like an endless string of hundred degree days as far as the eye can see. The sad thing is that August is usually even hotter than July here in Dallas. Oh, well. It's not going to be a fun summer. I just hope the air conditioner keeps working. This week has gone quickly. I've watered the back yard and taken this weeks trash to the curb. Tomorrow will probably be a repeat of today.

Queenie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 770

I spent the day straightening up loose ends. There were a lot more loose ends than I thought. I canceled the credit card, because after a day and a half of thinking about what I could have possible bought from Luxembourg, I came up with nothing. I even checked all of the domains I own to make sure that none of them had accidentally auto renewed. Auto renewal is an increasing problem with online purchases, because it seems to be the default setting for any recurring purchase made with a credit card. It doesn't matter if it's the cable company or Network Solutions, once they've got your credit card number, they want to keep charging you forever.

Later, I called the furnace people to have them come out again, even though it means another morning of non-stop barking. I kept hoping that the furnace would just fix itself, but it's become apparent that this isn't going to happen. This time I asked the HVAC folks to send Marty out to look at the problem. He got promoted to commercial installations, but since he's been the only person who's been able to fix the problem in the past, it makes sense that he would be my best bet to fix it again.

When I was checking on my computer to see if the iCloud synchronization worked, I discovered that I'd written down a doctors appointment on a different day on my phone than I had on the computer. After calling the clinic to see which day was correct, I looked at the calendar again and sure enough I had double booked myself. You'd think conflicting schedules wouldn't be a problem, since I leave the house so seldom, but I double book myself again and again. It's probably because I only like to do things out of the office between 2 and 3 PM.

Dash kept us awake most of the night last night. For some odd reason this dog refuses to poop in the yard under any circumstances. He kept waking us up by barking and slapping his paw at the back door. I'd go let him out and he would just stand around and do nothing. This happened over and over again. He wanted to go down into the park on a walk to do his business. No thank you! I'm not going down into the park at 3 AM. This is Dallas. Somehow Dash made it till morning without pooping in the house, but he didn't do us any favors in the sleep department.

It's pouring rain again. When I went to the bank this afternoon, the people standing in line with me were all commenting about how much we needed rain. Maybe they need the rain, but I sure don't. I can tell by how hard the rain is beating on the roof that there's a 50/50 chance I'll have a leak in the ceiling by morning.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 749

A lot of odds and ends today. I guess odds and ends count for something. I went up to Imaging Spectrum and bought enough ink to finish the half done cleaning cycle I'd started earlier. After I finished cleaning the printer, I made a couple of large prints, just to make sure it worked. These prints immediately went in a folio with a lot of other test prints. Since each of the 4880's eight ink cartridges costs $55 and half the ink gets used up unclogging the printer, these prints wind up being a bit pricey. A few years ago, I was able to justify the cost of maintaining this large printer, because several of my retail clients used me to create window displays for them. Now, just about every form of printing can be done online for far cheaper than it costs me to do the same thing. It's that old "economy of scale" thing.

These days I only use my large printer to make free posters for animal rescue groups. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. I just wish the whole process wasn't so expensive or time consuming. With my printer working again, I went over to my pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions and ended up standing in line forever behind some old people who seemed to have much more complicated needs than my own. I kept thinking that these people in the line might be me someday. I certainly hope not. I take way too many pills as it is.

My German client accepted my European style invoice. My watch client has started feeding me regular jobs again, now that the writing marathon appears to be over. I'm still removing employees from websites at a faster pace than adding them. I guess 2012 has started. I need to set aside some time to get my car safety inspected before the sticker on my windshield expires. Each year this process seems to get a little more difficult. Last year a young technician refused to believe that the Defender was a full time four wheel vehicle and attempted to put it on the dynamometer. That was a big mistake. Luckily I was able to get the kid to stop the test before he ruined my car.

The dogs still seem to think we're on holiday time. I had a devil of a time getting them out of bed this morning. You'd think they'd be eager to go on their morning walk, but lately snoozing under a blanket seems more appealing to them. Staying under the covers seems more appealing to me as well, but I'd never get anything done that way.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 470

Odds and ends. That's all some days ever amount to. I made some phone calls to ask questions. I received some phone calls and answered questions. I fired up the old computer again to do some design work, because I still can't afford to replace all my software with the Snow Leopard upgrades I need now. I'm trying to gradually replace everything, but it's going to take a while. When I went to the bank to deposit a check, I noticed that I was the only person in the building speaking English. I don't know what that means at all.

What did I learn today? I learned that the new heat pump for my rent property will be installed next Monday. I learned the Quark and Adobe have special pricing available for non-profit organizations. Jeez, I wish someone had told me this several years ago. I learned that I mistakenly put a piece of equipment in my bid for the Houston trade show job that doesn't do what I thought it did. That means I'll have to revise the bid again. I didn't learn anything at all about the oil and gas annual report that I'm still waiting to get the go ahead on. Actually, it was a busy day, but for some reason it still feels like nothing happened.

The BRAINZ Group that I joined recently came out with their March issue today, which happened to include my initial essay. The topic for this month was Change, and it was interesting to read what the other writers had to say. I can't tell yet whether I will look forward to doing these monthly essays, or whether they will just become one more task on a lengthy "to do" list. At this point I'm looking forward to the challenge. I know a few of the other writers in the group and this seems like an interesting way to have a conversation.

The dogs were totally distracted at training class tonight. It wasn't just Dot and Dash either. All the dogs seemed to have other things on their mind. Maybe it was the weird weather. Visually, it looks like Spring. It probably smells like Spring to a dog as well. The temperature certainly didn't feel like Spring though. It was cold tonight. Very cold for the end of March. I'm sure that Dash would have rather stayed home under a blanket.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day