Day 3026

Mother Nature apparently didn't get the memo that Winter is over. The temperature was in the thirties when I woke up this morning. It didn't get much warmer as the day progressed either. Jeez. The Bluebonnets are in bloom. We've already had our air conditioner running. This just isn't supposed to happen in Texas.

I wasn't happy about the weather, but I definitely was happy to see Dash feeling better. After a rough day yesterday, he was almost back to his old self. Even though it was very cold, he seemed eager to walk this morning. A stiff wind made it feel like the temperature was in the teens, but Dash didn't seem to mind. I can't say the same for myself.

I didn't spend much time outside today. After going to the grocery store and running my Saturday errands, I got the urge to hook up a MIDI keyboard to the computer. I hadn't done this in years, and not surprisingly the keyboard didn't work. After doing some research on Google, I discovered that the keyboard was no longer supported by Apple. I still didn't know whether the old equipment worked, so I restarted the computer using an external drive with an old system on it. I found a driver for the keyboard online and installed it. Suddenly I had gone back in time. Everything worked perfectly. I wish I'd never upgraded my system. My computer and my own brain seem to work better using Mountain Lion. Once Apple stopped naming their operating systems after cats, everything began to go downhill.

I played the little keyboard for a while and was surprised that I still remembered quite a few chord progressions. I had a bit of trouble getting my left hand and right hand working together, but with a little practice I could probably play piano again. Unfortunately, I had to put the keyboard away and restart the computer under Sierra again. Spending time in the past may be pleasant, but I can only make money in the present.

If I had a ton of space and nothing better to do, I'd keep a separate computer running for each decade I've been using one. I really liked my original Osborne 1. I hauled the heavy sewing machine shaped machine to user groups once a month where I would trade software on floppy disks with other geeks. Affordable hard drives hadn't even been invented yet. I got my first Macintosh in 1984 and have owned at least eight Macs since then. I edited video on machines that would be considered dinosaurs today. Everything worked though and I never missed a deadline. I miss those days.

Janet fixed chili tonight. A bowl of chili has always been our go-to meal on really cold days. As tasty as the chili was, I hope it is warmer tomorrow. I've had to plug in the little ceramic heater to keep the office warm and I'm wearing a sweater as I write. I'm not looking forward to going out in the middle of the night with Dash tonight. I wouldn't be surprised to see snow.

I was going to get a birthday card for my Luddite sister and I discovered that the Hallmark store in our neighborhood had gone out of business. I think the store has been gone for a while, but I don't buy cards very often. This isn't really a sign of the apocalypse, but it is discouraging that greeting cards are a thing of the past. I guess everybody just clicks the birthday button on Facebook now.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2535

When I first moved to Dallas, I used to like to go down to Dealey Plaza on November 22. Selling conspiracy theories has always been a cottage industry here, and in the early years there were still plenty of people alive who had witnessed the event themselves. Every year on this day they would gather in the Plaza, selling self published books and pamphlets detailing what really happened. It was a fascinating spectacle, but I don't think the crowds are as big anymore. People forget. I didn't even hear anything about John Kennedy on the news this year. The media's attention has turned to the 45th president. The 35th president is just a distant memory.

The weather seemed to change every ten minutes today. I witnessed a beautiful sunrise as I walked Dash this morning. A little later, the skies turned darker and it was raining by the time I finished breakfast. It was windy for a while and then it was calm. Throughout the day, patches of blue sky would alternate with dark storm clouds. It was all fine by me. I had nowhere to go and stayed home all day.

My project for the day was upgrading my laptop to Sierra. I don't use the laptop much anymore, so I figured that there wasn't much to lose. The laptop used to be my constant companion on business trips, but I haven't traveled anywhere on business in over three years. I'd be surprised if I ever take a business trip again. Installing the new operating system took forever, since software upgrades generally take place over WiFi these days. The process seemed so much faster when you just slapped a DVD in the optical drive and hit the install button. Eventually, the new software was installed, and surprisingly it appeared to work perfectly. A lot of the old applications didn't launch anymore, but I expected that. Gradually replacing these broken applications with modern alternatives will give me something to do this Winter. When I get everything working properly, I'll go ahead and update the desktop computer too. It's weird. As much as I hate change,  usually end up making necessary changes anyway. Like it or not, staying current in a digital world is necessary.

I didn't have much luck with Dot today. While I was working at my desk updating a website, I noticed that Dot had just pooped in her bed. I quickly extricated myself from the Aeron Chair and hurried over to clean up the mess. Before I could make it to Dot's bed, she quickly turned around and ate the poop. Why do dogs do this? It's disgusting. I went ahead and cleaned her up, but wiping her butt made her pee for some reason, so now I had a rug to clean as well as Dot's bedding. Sadly, this was just a normal day. Dot's incontinence is not going away. I suspect that things will even get worse in the days ahead.

I need to start to get ready to take Santa Paws pictures for Dalmatian Rescue. Our first event is only a few weeks away. I can't even remember how many years I've been shooting pet pictures with Santa, but it's been a long time. We have a reduced schedule this year, partially because I just don't have the stamina to do as many of these events as I used to. The rest of the pet picture team is getting older too. I wonder how many years we can continue doing this. It's a good fund raiser for the rescue group, but it is very tiring.

I'll do some experimenting with the laptop tomorrow to see whether today's upgrade was worth all the trouble. I imagine that I'll have plenty of time to experiment. It is rare to get any new assignments on the day before Thanksgiving. We changed Dot's food today, but it's too early to tell whether it will make a difference. Hopefully, the new diet won't make Dot's poop taste better. I've got enough problems as it is.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2302

The landscapers were here all day. Dot barked a lot, but it really wasn't as bad as I expected. We go through this ritual every year. The landscapers don't add anything new. They just replace the stuff that died during the Winter. This year we lost quite a few Liriope plants and of course all of our St. Augustine grass. I've become resigned to the fact that the grass is going to die, no matter what we do to take care of it. One year I thought seriously about putting in artificial turf, but I've see a few installations and they all look cheesy. Artificial turf also starts to smell after dogs pee on it for several years.

So here we are again. I feel like I'm paying way too much to have a small yard look nice for eight months out of the year. What's the alternative though? Years ago, I filled up my car with heavy squares of St. Augustine turf every Spring and installed the grass myself. It's just not worth the trouble anymore. I really didn't save that much money anyway. The landscaper gets a much better wholesale price on grass and plants than I could and this savings pays for a big chunk of his labor. I guess it's worth it.

Since I had to stay home all day, I actually got quite a bit of work done. I finished two new articles today and shipped them off to the client. There was even time left over to complete some minor website updates. The dogs were surprisingly good today. I was expecting total chaos, but Dash largely ignored the landscapers and Dot couldn't even hear them. It's sad that Dot is growing deaf, but it can be a blessing on days like this. She would bark whenever she saw the guys working out the living room window, but when I turned her around so she was facing the kitchen, she would immediately forget what she was barking about and start thinking about food again.

Since I upgraded the operating on my phone yesterday, I thought I'd upgrade the operating system on my watch today. The procedure took over an hour and the only difference I've noticed so far is that my maps app doesn't work anymore. This is par for the course with Apple upgrades. They add a bunch of features I'll never ever use, while quietly wrecking essential things I use everyday. You should never upgrade a computer operating system just because you're bored. It never ends well.

Now that there's new grass in the yard, I'll have to remember to water it everyday. For the next month or so the yard will be damp and soggy and the dogs will have muddy paws every time they go out to pee. Maybe that artificial grass wasn't such a bad idea after all. Even though it will involve some extra work on my part, I think today was a success. The yard looks great now. The lush green grass, trimmed hedges, and healthy ground cover probably won't last long, but at least we made an effort.

I took my evening meds this morning again. Now I need to remember to take my morning meds this evening before I go to bed. One of these days I'm going to end up taking the dogs pills by mistake and then I'll really be in trouble.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1843 - New Year's Day

It was so cold today. The temperature hovered around the freezing mark for most of the day, while a steady rain soaked the ground. The forecast warned of sleet and slush, but it never materialized. Nothing froze except for me. I thought I'd managed to find little windows of opportunity to walk the dogs on the weather radar, but Dot and Dash weren't quick enough and we got soaked both times. It seemed like I spent a good part of the day cleaning muddy shoes and drying the dogs with bath towels.

Janet went to the gym today, but I didn't feel like driving in this weather and stayed home all day. I'm getting frustrated that I'm still using Lion as the operating system on my desktop computer, so I thought I'd investigate how I could upgrade my system without having to upgrade all my important applications as well. Applications like Media Composer and Pro Tools are very picky about which operating system you use. They are also very expensive. If I was still doing a lot of video work, I'd just bite the bullet and upgrade everything to the latest versions. That seems a bit excessive though when I only do a few video jobs a year. Everything works fine now, as long as I keep using Lion as my operating system. After checking around on the user groups it looks like there is a free maintenance upgrade to my current version of Media Composer that would allow me to move up to Mountain Lion.  Of course Apple has already discontinued Mountain Lion and moved on to Mavericks and Yosemite. Apple has become very frustrating now that they have largely abandoned creative types and want to make all their computers work just like an iPhone.  Not my cup of tea. I don't think I ever want to install Yosemite.

When I'm house bound on a cold day, I do laundry and fix things. I should have stuck with fixing a light switch or something simple. Trying to resolve all my computer problems was very unsatisfying. I downloaded a few things, but didn't have the nerve to install them. I need to do some more research before I start replacing things, or I could easily make matters worse. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed using Apple products a lot more back in the days when everything was running on OS 9. Lots and lots of little companies catered to the needs of creative folks back then. Now that Apple has discovered the real money is in selling phones, they've largely abandoned folks like me. I don't care about the Cloud or talking to friends on Facetime. I don't even care about laptops. I just want a big desktop computer with a huge monitor that will run the stuff I need for work without ever crashing.

The only thing I don't like about compression pants is that you have to keep taking them on and off all the time. They're great for walking the dogs in the cold, but too hot to wear around the house all day. I'm really glad that men never started wearing panty hose. It's a giant pain to get these skin tight things on and off. It would be nice if someone made them with a fly in front too.

It was hard to remember to take the trash out to the curb this evening. It didn't seem like a Thursday at all. It didn't seem like New Year's Day either. When I was younger, New Year's day was mostly spent recovering from New Year's Eve. Now, it seems like a non-event. There used to be four bowl games that you watched back-to-back whether you liked football or not. You started with the Rose Bowl in California and ended late in the evening with the Orange Bowl in Florida. Now, there are well over thirty different bowl games starting in mid-December and going all the way through January 12. The Orange Bowl is called the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl now and the Cotton Bowl isn't even played in the Cotton Bowl stadium.

I'd love to see the sun tomorrow, but I don't think it's going to happen. It looks like we're going to have another very cold, rainy day. Janet thinks we ought to go to a movie. Jeez, I haven't been to a movie in a theater in almost three years. It might be fun. It certainly would be more fun than doing laundry and fixing computers.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1407

Another wayward website client came back to the fold today. It's nice to have the business again, although I'm not sure how long this is going to last. I guess I really shouldn't waste too much time fretting about the permanence of clients. I'm not very sure how long any of them are going to last.

The Apple product announcement today was interesting. The new operating system is free again, which is a nice change from the recent past. The Mac operating system always used to be free in the old days. There a danger in free though. If I don't have to pay for an upgrade, I'm much more likely to install it before I'm ready and screw up everything. I seldom install a new operating system because I really need the new features. It's a lot more likely that I'll install it on a day when I'm really bored. That's always when I get into trouble.

I'd like to get one of the powerful new Mac Pro desktops that are coming out in December. Do I need something this awesome? Probably not. If I still did a lot of video editing, I could pretend that I really needed this thing. Since I just use Microsoft Word most of the time, it's a bit of overkill. If I got this futuristic computer that looks like a shiny black trash can, I'd need a new monitor too. The new ultra high resolution 4K monitors this thing supports probably cost more than the computer. Oh, well. It's something to think about. Maybe I'll get a big video job between now and December.

Since I've been having trouble syndicating the blog to Facebook and Twitter lately, I decided to  install HootSuite. This was probably a mistake, since every time I've installed something to reduce the time I spend on social media, it has always seemed to increase it instead. Maybe HootSuite will simplify things though. I spend about an hour a day keeping up with a laundry list of social media accounts and that's way too much.

The dogs would much rather have me spend my time with them. Now that the weather has gotten cooler. we've started taking long, meandering walks along the shoreline. Both dogs like to smell things near the water's edge and I know Dash is going to fall in the lake one day. Dot is a bit more sedate, but she definitely has more energy than she did during the Summer heat. For the time being, we're all enjoying ourselves.

Much to my surprise, I managed to make it back to the gym today. Maybe Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday is doable after all. If I could find the time to workout three time a week, I might actually start to see some progress.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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