Day 4772

I hate Bluehost. I practically spent all day trying to get my e-mail account to work and each time I called customer service their suggestions made the problem even worse. In the beginning only the laptop e-mail didn't work. All I wanted to do was enter the desktop settings in the laptop, but when I tried to sync the two computers, the bad laptop passwords got transferred into my desktop computer instead. Now both computers couldn't send or receive e-mail. Bluehost customer service wouldn't tell me what my good passwords were, so they advised me to delete my account and start over. When I tried this I had even more Bluehost passwords stored in my Apple Internet settings and none of them seemed to work. After a while nothing associated with Bluehost would work. I couldn't access sealander.com or even the Dalmatian Rescue website.

Customer service kept telling me that it wasn't their problem and to call AT&T instead. I knew this wasn't the issue, but I did call and AT&T ran some tests and said everything looked good on their end. Offshore customer service reps are frustrating to begin with. They are off in India or Malaysia and it is very hard to understand what they are saying. They must all be in a big room somewhere because you can hear lots of other service representatives talking in the background. The phone connection always seems very poor as well. I talked to three different Bluehost customer service reps today and none of them were able to help. They didn't even seem to want to help. These guys kept saying that I had configured my computer wrong. Nope. The computer was configured correctly. It could connect to everything else in the world, except the Bluehost servers.

I shut everything down, took my long walk, and ate dinner. This evening I tried to configure Apple Mail again using the same setting I'd been using all day and everything worked. I hadn't changed anything. Why couldn't Bluehost just admit to me that the problem was on their end? They kept trying to pass the buck and blame someone else. I'd switch my account but almost everyone is using offshore customer service these days. Most of these people are just reading from a script. I miss the days when you could call a real software engineer who actually understood your problems and could come up with a solution on the spot. Apple certainly isn't helping things either. There are settings stored in System Preferences, in your Browser Preferences, and in Apple Mail that all have to match. Sometime there are iCloud settings as well.

Needless to say, I didn't get my article about the Falcon Heavy launch to my editor today. I'll try again tomorrow, assuming that I don't lose all my setting again overnight. I can't believe how much time I wasted on this today. Dawn got a nice walk in the morning, but I took a much shorter walk about 3 PM because I was tired and more than a bit frustrated.

We're going to move the rescue Dalmatians to a new kennel tomorrow. They've been in  a temporary kennel for months now and Janet and I haven't been able to visit them. Now that the dogs have a permanent home again, we should be able to go play with them on a regular basis. We have some new dogs now and Janet and I should have a chance to meet them tomorrow. Visiting the dogs will be a nice change of pace from today's Internet woes. Today wasn't a total loss though. I did get everything from my trip unpacked and put away and did a load of laundry.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4766

Another unseasonably warm day. It got up to 80 degrees again and the air conditioner kicked in during the afternoon. This is very strange for January. It was a pleasant day though. The sky was clear and there was very little wind. Dawn definitely enjoyed her walk this morning.

I've finally managed to catch up with almost everybody I've been trying to reach. SpaceFlight is sending me author copies of the issues with my Falcon Heavy and Artemis articles. My editor has contacted me with article suggestions and I now have all the info I need from Space X for the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch. I still haven't heard back from the contractor I'm trying to reach about fixing the house, but that's an entirely separate matter.

I think the older I get the stupider I get. I had real problems today transferring information from my desktop computer to the laptop. I always do this before I travel. I recently updated all my passwords on the desktop computer to more secure versions, but I forgot that I hadn't updated the laptop. Initially, I couldn't check mail on the laptop or open several websites. I can never remember these new passwords because they are long and complex. Some passwords were easy to retrieve, but others were maddeningly frustrating. All I could see in the password field was a series of dots. Janet says I should write these things down, but I never do. I just depend on password managers. I eventually got everything on the laptop to work, but I ended up having to change a few passwords. I miss the old days when you could just use one simple password for everything.

When I was trying to print out all my travel information I discovered that both of our printers were out of ink. I hate it when the printer won't work just because your Cyan cartridge is low. Printers ought to have a black and white mode where you can just bypass the low colors. Now I've got to go out and buy more printer ink in the morning because I have to have all my contact and reservation information printed out so I can put it in a little manilla envelope that I carry with me everywhere. Just a quirk. I could probably find most of this information on my phone, but I prefer paper.

I was actually hot on my long walk this afternoon. I just wore shorts and a t-shirt and it felt like summer. We might have set another record today. I think it's colder in Titusville than it is in Dallas right now. I shouldn't complain though. 80 degrees is very pleasant even if it happens to be January. At least we aren't having torrential rain and flooding like they are in California now.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I need to pack, go get the printer ink I need, make sure all my photo equipment is working properly, wash the clothes I will be taking with me, and take my long walk. I'm sure I will forget something important on this trip. I always do. I don't think Dawn will miss me while I'm gone, but hopefully she will be glad to see me when I return.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2748

I can't get used to how long the days are. The sun is already high in the sky by the time I wake up and doesn't set until well after dinner. The sunrise and sunset walks I used to take with the dogs don't work out as well in the Summer. I still try to walk Dash as early as I can, but usually it's already too hot. I guess I'm ready for Fall even though Summer has barely begun.

I had a lot of errands to run today. Some were for me and others for Janet. I was surprised that the roads didn't seem that crowded for a holiday. I guess a lot of people have left town. It probably didn't take a long time to figure out that if you took Friday off and added the two day Fourth of July holiday the next week, you could have a nice five day holiday without taking any sick days.

We're definitely not going anywhere. Dash doesn't like to ride in the car and Janet is not very mobile until her doctors say it's OK to remove the drainage tubes. Luckily, the air conditioner is working good and there is plenty to watch on Netflix. I don't think I'd like to go to a lake or the beach on the Fourth of July anyway. It's way too crowed for me.

I"m still getting used to using Sierra on my computer. Like most upgrades I've made in recent years, the computer seems to run slower than it did before. New operating systems and old computers are not always a good match. I would have preferred to leave everything the way it was when I bought the computer in 2011, but that's not even an option anymore. Planned obsolescence is what keeps the tech industry so profitable.

I had to revisit the website I was in a panic about updating yesterday. It was so hard to update things without having access to Dreamweaver that I inevitably forgot some things. I went back and repaired my work today and was grateful that the new version of Dreamweaver I installed still worked. The only thing weird is that it doesn't save my login passwords anymore, forcing me to reenter them each time I upload something. I have a hard enough time remembering my own passwords. Remembering all my client's login information is almost impossible.

I guess sometime this week I'll go down to the county clerk's office and try to get my passport renewed. If I've got to stand in a line for a while, it's probably best that I do it while Janet is at home to look after Dash. I hate to leave Dash alone for a long time, since he has a history of seizures.

I've just about given up on going to see the eclipse. If I fly, there will be no rent cars available at my destination, and if I drive, the only way to avoid horrendous traffic jams would be to arrive two or three days ahead of time. I just don't have the time or money to spend a week on the road just to see a two minute event. The good news is that there will be another total eclipse that can be seen in Dallas in 2024. I certainly hope to live that long, but will I still be living in Dallas? We'll have to wait and see.

As usual, I don't have any plans for tomorrow. I need to try to contact the landscaper and find out why he hasn't put in our new grass yet. I'm getting tired of cleaning mud off Dash's paws every time he goes out to pee.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2511

I'm not catching many breaks with this roof. When I went up on the roof to inspect what the repair crews did yesterday, I was simultaneously pleased and disappointed. It looked like the crew had applied the elastomer coating properly, but there was one big problem. It was a windy day yesterday and tons of small leaves had fallen from our Elm Tree and become embedded in the coating before it had time to dry properly. Now the leaves are probably going to be there forever. If I try too hard to rip them out, I could damage the coating. If I ignore the leaves and leave them where they are, they could react chemically with the coating and cause it to deteriorate prematurely. For over 30 years nature has been trying to tell me that nobody should have built a house on this property. The large trees are pretty but the root systems have penetrated our sewer lines, large tree branches have broken off in storms and landed on the roof, and squirrels have claimed the entire area as their own. I think I lost this battle years ago, but it is still discouraging to be reminded about how relentless the natural world can be about reclaiming what it rightfully owns. The forest will be here long after the house is gone.

Security concerns have forced me to have so many passwords that I can't even begin to remember them all. I felt foolish when I couldn't even remember how to add my existing e-mail account to my new iPad. The hosting company had forced me to start using a new more complex password recently and all I could remember was the original one. I ended up having to call tech support and asked them to guide me through the process. This was embarrassing, since I routinely help other people set up their e-mail accounts for a living. Almost every day something like this happens to remind me that I'm not getting any younger. At any rate, when I finally got the e-mail account working, I set it to remember my log-in information, so I won't have to go through this again.

I saw some Kestrels on my walk with Dash this afternoon. These little hawks appear to be thriving in our area. I see more of them every year. They usually sit on the top of trees looking intently for something to eat. I don't have the patience to be a serious birder, but I do enjoy learning a little more about the animals I see everyday. It's an eat or be eaten world out there. Perhaps if we humans weren't at the top of the food chain, we'd be a little more realistic about our place in the world. Hawks know what to do. All animals know instinctively how to keep things in balance, except for us. We seem to think we're exempt from the cycle of life and I'm convinced that this will lead to our extinction.

I wonder if there is anything that would actually change people's minds in this election. Trump supporters aren't swayed by his frequent displays of incompetence. Hillary supporters are even worse. They could care less about the implications of compromising national security or selling favors to the highest bidder. Politics have become like sports. Everyone is just rooting for their favorite team. I don't think this is going to end well, no matter who wins.

I'm old, so I don't think my life is going to change all that much. If I were young, I'd be worried. How did we let ourselves get to the point where the Kardashians have become role models and two self-centered idiots are running for president. What's scary is that one of these two is going to win.  Idiocracy is just a movie now, but in ten years it's going to seem like a documentary.

Dakota is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2275

As expected, we got lots of rain today. It was a good day to spend on the phone with tech support. For the second time in as many months, I found myself locked out of some of the websites I manage. In cases like this, the problem is usually the password. I didn't change the password. The client couldn't remember the password. And tech support wouldn't talk to me unless I had the password. I finally had to ask the client to ask for a password reset, so I could access the server. This didn't work either. After lots of back and forth, we finally discovered that the hosting company had changed the user ID for the site. Everything is fine now, but it won't be long before there is another password issue on another server. It's frustrating. I wish people would just quit trying to hack into things. Hacking forces hosting companies to continually keep changing their security protocols and it forces people like me to have to remember way too many complicated passwords.

The rain was pretty steady for most of the day. I had the pump on the roof running, the dehumidifier running, and the dryer all running at the same time. My clothes always get wet on rainy days, so I just throw them in the dryer as soon as I get back inside. With all three of these noisy machines running at the same time it felt like I was in the engine room of a ship. The rain eventually stopped, but it looks like tomorrow is going to be more of the same. People who like gardening love these Spring rains, but people with dogs usually don't. Dash is a magnet for mud on rainy days and Dot is difficult to dry off once she gets wet. Needless to say, even though work has slowed down, I still have plenty to do.

I'm enjoying the chaotic political primary season. The leadership of the Democratic party can't seem to put Bernie away and the Republican leadership is doing even worse with Donald Trump. I was pleased to see how well Bernie is doing in Michigan and equally pleased to see that the Republican leadership's efforts to destroy Donald Trump have seemingly backfired. I wonder if many people have noticed that these two very different outsiders have several important things in common. Both think that disastrous trade deals have decimated American manufacturing and destroyed millions of good jobs. Both also think it was a huge mistake to get involved in pointless wars in the middle east. As somewhat of an isolationist who has never been a big fan of globalization, I find it refreshing that so many people seem to agree with me. I think this is an important election. We will see once and for all just how much influence that the lobbyists and giant corporations have over our lives.

I think my efforts to eliminate wheat and sugar from my diet have failed. I did so well for almost three years eating Kale salads and avoiding bread. Now the kitchen is filled with all kinds of crackers again and I'm having ice cream for dessert. Why does unhealthy food taste so good? I still avoid fast food restaurants and try to always include a green vegetable with my dinner, but I'm slipping. I love cheeseburgers, pork ribs, and French toast. Broccoli and Kale, not so much.

Hopefully Dot's Wednesday therapy session will go better than it did last week. Last week she pooped in the car and got very tired in the underwater treadmill. Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2111

I had to make some changes to a website this morning and was quite surprised that the hosting company no longer accepted my password. Since I'm one of the only people who has the password, this could mean one of two things. Either the site had been hacked, or my client had fired me without bothering to tell me about it. Either way, it wasn't good. I couldn't get any help from tech support because they needed the password to verify my identity. I couldn't get any help from the client because you can never get hold of clients on weekends. Maybe some people can, but I've never have much luck.

The weekend definitely wasn't getting off to a good start. Earlier, both dogs woke me up around 4 AM when I heard them wandering around the bedroom. We immediately took Dot outside to pee. I looked around to see if there were any accidents and then discovered there was poop in the bed. It wasn't in Dot's bed, it was in ours. This totally baffled me. It is physically impossible for Dot to get in the bed anymore and Dash has never, ever pooped in the house. What was going on? Is there a racoon living in Janet's closet? Did something scare Dash enough to poop? The dogs weren't talking. The only thing that I can think of is that Dot actually did poop in her bed like she often does when she gets up to shift positions. Maybe Dash saw the little turd in the dark, thought it was a dog treat, and then immediately spit it out when he discovered what it really was.

The bedspread immediately went in the washing machine and then a little later a rug went in the next load of wash when Dot pooped again while she was eating her breakfast. After that, life got back to normal. Well. it wasn't completely back to normal, because I was still wondering if I had gotten fired from one of my busier website accounts. I wasn't getting many answers today.

After breakfast, I started charging batteries for tomorrow's photo shoot at the golf tournament. I still can't decide whether to take my favorite DSLR with the optical viewfinder, or the newer and more reliable mirrorless camera with the electronic viewfinder. I really like the older camera but sometimes the auto focus motor gets stuck and I have to focus manually. Digital cameras with optical viewfinders are on the way out, so when this one finally gives up the ghost, it may be my last. I'm not looking forward to this photo shoot at all. It is too tiring for me.

The suspension didn't squeak at all today when I went grocery shopping. Intermittent problems drive me nuts. I've already made an appointment to take the car in for service and if the mechanic can't replicate the squeak, they'll say nothing is wrong. I know something is wrong. Yesterday, the suspension made a lot of noise.

Late in the day, the website client returned my call and told me that he had changed the password because he had forgotten the old one and needed to change something on his e-mail account. The e-mail he needed to change wasn't on the webserver though; it was on the GoDaddy server. Nothing got changed on the web server except the password. Oh, well. I wrote down the new password and spent the rest of the day doing what I had hoped to finish early in the morning.

I wish I'd never upgraded my phone to OS 9. The battery definitely isn't lasting  as long as it used to. I hope my batteries last tomorrow at the golf tournament. I always seem to be at the mercy of batteries.

Suki is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1828

It was another wet, cold day. As soon as the dogs finished their breakfast, they hopped right back in bed again. They didn't want anything to do with this day. Since they wouldn't budge, I just crawled back in bed myself. Eventually we pulled ourselves together and took our morning walk. I always have trouble getting the dogs outside on damp days, but once we're on our way they show no desire to return home again. I think the smells must be more intense in damp weather, because they both love to smell things.

I think my shoulder must be worse than I thought. Today was my first physical therapy session and some of the initial stretching exercises brought tears to my eyes. You'd think it would be easy to lie on a table and bring my hands behind my head, but it just wasn't happening. I could see my therapist wince every time she heard popping sounds coming from my shoulder as she manipulated the joint. We did a series of simple exercises to loosen the muscles around the joint and after about fifteen minutes I was able to rotate my arm about 15 degrees further behind my head. This is going to be a long, slow process. For the past several years, I've been compensating for the loose shoulder by tensing the muscles on the right side of my back in an attempt to keep the joint in place while I walk the dogs.  Now these muscles are very tight and are restricting a full range of motion. I think things are worse than they used to be, because I remember I could do some of the stretching exercises we tried today as recently as three years ago when I had physical therapy before. At any rate, I promised to do my exercises the best I could and I will see the therapist again next week. I still don't want to consider surgery at this point.

I wanted to check on a package on the UPS website today and discovered I couldn't log in because I'd forgotten my password again. I hate sites that keeping asking you for a ridiculous combination of upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols before they'll approve your password. I can never remember these complex passwords. What's even worse is that many sites don't allow you to re-use a password that you have used before. It doesn't take long to completely run out of easy to remember password ideas. I'll be glad when you can just use a fingerprint or retinal scan to identify yourself. Apple is getting there with its new fingerprint recognition technology, but so far you can only use your fingerprint to unlock the phone. You should be able to use it for everything.

I wish I could teach Dash to read the weather radar. I thought I'd found a nice little window between rain showers to take the dogs out to do their business this afternoon. Dot, as always, peed and pooped quickly and efficiently. Dash was oblivious to the approaching rain and dawdled around until the rain caught up with us. He eventually pooped, but we were all drenched by then. By the time I finally got the dogs back in the house, cleaned their paws, and dried them off with a bath towel, the only sensible thing to do was take another nap. We ended up right where we started, in a big dog-pile on the bed.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1725

I seem to be spending more and more time doing less and less. The dogs have slowed down, and so have I. Our morning walks take twice as long now. Dot isn't a sprinter anymore. We walk slowly and enjoy the surroundings. Now that the dogs aren't tugging at their leashes and racing ahead, they seem to enjoy smelling things more. They smell their way from bush to bush and eventually we find our way home again.

I work faster when there are tight deadlines to meet. Without deadlines, just about any job expands to fill the available time. It is ironic that I actually feel busier when there is less work to do, but that's just the way it is. I know I wouldn't have spent so much time on today's web project if I had something more important to do.

I lose things and spill things more often than I used to. I must spend several hours a week looking for my reading glasses. I take them on and off so frequently that I never know where they're going to wind up. Ditto for the remote control on the television. Dot may pee on things, but I spill things. I seem to have a perpetual cup of coffee in my hand and when the cup is full, it tends to spill. Sometimes I spill water in the kitchen when I'm doing dishes and then I'll look down later and think that Dot peed on the floor. Nope, it was just clumsy me.

Janet and I decided it was time to start giving Dot the Incurin pills. Her incontinence has actually gotten worse this week. It's been long enough since her surgery that we should have seen some sustained improvement by now. Several people I know have given their dog these estrogen replacement pills and all of them were happy with the results. My vet says that she has treated over a dozen dogs for incontinence using Incurin and said there were significant improvements in every single case. I had considered using phenylpropanolamine instead, but several people told me that dogs build up a resistance to the drug over time and that you have to keep increasing the dosage. You do the opposite with Incurin, gradually decreasing the dosage after an initial two week loading dose. It would be better if Dot could resolve this problem herself, but it doesn't look like this is going to happen. We have actually waited quite a bit longer than the six weeks the specialists at the cancer center recommended and I think it's finally time to do something. We should know within two weeks if this is going to work.

Just about every time I picked up my new phone today, it kept asking me for passwords. I had to reset most of them, because I just couldn't remember the old password. Some passwords were easy to re-set and others were so difficult they required a call to tech support. I have over 80 apps on my phone and probably use less than ten of them. It will probably be easier to delete the applications I no longer use than it is to reauthorize all of them. At any rate, the important apps are all working now. I'll probably never get around to the rest of them.

Breakfast was good this morning. It's probably only a matter of time before I start going out for breakfast every morning.

Alie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1573

The weather forecast was right. It rained all day today. There were a couple of short windows of opportunity were I was able to take the dogs outside to do their business, but basically we didn't leave the house today. A cold front must have passed through last night, because it was about 20 degrees colder than it was yesterday. It would have been a good day to light a fire in the fireplace, if we had a fireplace. It might have been a good day to watch a movie on TV as well, if there was anything I felt like watching. We get hundreds of cable channels, but there are only three or four of them that I actually watch. Half the channels in Dallas are in Spanish anyway. On the movie channels, the same Disney movies, Lifetime chickflix, Apocalyptic action movies, and the perennial You've Got Mail and Forest Gump seem to play over and over again.

This was especially irritating today when I paid my latest cable bill and noticed that it had gone up by 30%. What a waste of money. I should probably drop cable entirely and just stick with Netflix and Hulu. I wish you could buy cable channels à la carte. I watch three or four channels and Janet watches three or four more. A plan that included only ten channels would probably be quite reasonable. 

The cable companies still seem quite reasonable compared to the government however. As I've grown older, I'd had to sign up for several government websites. I tried to visit several of these websites today. Each site has their own peculiar password protocols, so you can't use a common, easy-to-remember password to access all of them. What's worse, each site forces you to change your password every six months. It's ridiculous. Once you do manage to login successfully, you usually discover that all your information is wrong anyway. As I slowly learn to navigate the byzantine complexities of the Medicare system, I realize that this is probably what Obamacare will be like for everybody in the near future. I don't think my parents ever really realized that they lived in the best of times. I think I grew up at the tail end of those days of limitless opportunities. The dream may not be over, but it certainly has tarnished a bit.

On one of our short walks between the recurring thunderstorms we passed a small pale blue egg. It must have fallen out of a nearby tree during a burst of wind. The little bird inside isn't going to make it. It was very cold and wet outside today and incubating eggs need to stay warm to hatch. This unlucky egg was already stone cold. This brief encounter reminded me that nature isn't always kind. Nature still probably has a better batting average in this regard than humans do however.

Dash gets his tenth radiation treatment tomorrow. We will pass the halfway mark this week. Dash has been an inspiration through all this. Even though this has been a very rough couple of months for  him with major surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, he still greets each day full of energy and enthusiasm. In many ways he actually seems happier now than when we started this journey. He gets lots of attention and maybe that's all a dog really wants. Dot is equally amazing. She can barely walk on some days, but she still soldiers on as if she's indestrudtible. If I had Dot's determination and Dash's optimism I would be unstoppable.

Paxton is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1560

Do you guys hate passwords as much as I do? When is someone going to figure out how to use the little cameras built into our computers to do a retinal scan and be done with passwords? I can never remember my passwords any more. There are so many of them these days. You can't use the time honored practice of using the same password for everything anymore either. Everyone had their own conventions and standards. Some want a minimum of six characters. Others demand ten characters. More and more sites are demanding a combination of upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols. This wouldn't be so bad if everyone could agree on what a special symbol was. If I decide to use an underscore, the next person will demand an ampersand instead. It's driving me crazy.

I mention this only because one of my clients was asked to change the IP address where all their domains were pointed. We had to log into the Network Solutions control panel to move the DNS and neither of us could remember our passwords or User ID. We couldn't even remember who's account we were using. The client requested a password reset on his account and somehow Network Solutions ended up resetting my account instead. Every time I deal with Network Solutions, I vow to move the rest of my domains to GoDaddy. Making any kind of a change that involves Network Solutions usually takes up half my day.

Dash is so good about going to the cancer center for his radiation treatments. They love him up at the center and always tell me what a sweet dog he is. Dash is a social dog. I think he likes going for radiation treatments because he gets to play with other dogs while he waits for his turn with the radiation machine. That says something about how bored he must be spending the day with me. If getting treated for cancer is preferable to sitting under a writer's desk, that tells me that the writer's life might be way too boring. In fairness, Dash used to play with Dot a lot. Now Dot is getting too old and doesn't like to play much. No wonder Dash likes to go to the dog park so much.

The weather is getting a lot warmer, but it still seems pretty weird to me. When I take the dogs out early in the morning, there is still frost on the plants. By the time I take them out in the evening again it is 80 degrees. Where else but Texas would you use your furnace in the morning and your air conditioner in the afternoon?

Mondays provide a continual reminder that I'm working mostly to pay the bills these days. Very little of what I do is fun anymore. It used to be fun, but times have changed radically. Creative work has become so commoditized and marginalized that very few folks like me get to pretend they're the Wizard of Oz anymore. Instead, I feel a lot like Sisyphus, endlessly pushing that giant boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down again. Every time I take Dash to the cancer center, I remember why I keep pushing that rock up the hill. Work may be mindless, but it's not pointless. It pays the bills.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1458

To hell with going to the gym today. I got more than enough exercise by clearing a safe path through the downed trees behind the house, so Dot and Dash could get into the park again for their daily walks. When that was finished, I moved the huge pile of branches the power company tree trimmers threw over my fence back to the alley where they belong. If I get time tomorrow, I'll haul everything out to the curb, so the city trash removal trucks can pick them up. The power company guys said they'd be back to clean things up, but truthfully, I don't expect to ever see them again. They've already moved on.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up with work. Today was even busier than yesterday. A hosting company glitch knocked one of my clients off the Internet and everyone was in a panic. They couldn't remember the password for their account, and since it isn't my account, I didn't know either. I did remember one password for this account, but it didn't work. I'm sure the hosting company has required customers to change their passwords several times since the worry free days when everyone used something simple like "1234."

My retail customers are all in full holiday mode, which can be just as stressful as a lost password. I don't think Black Friday went as well as many people hoped and now they are scrambling to make up those missing sales. I have trouble getting excited about the holidays, The weather is always horrible and everyone is pulling out all the stops to get their customers to buy, buy, buy. Most of the work I've been doing this week is very time sensitive and "later" just isn't an acceptable answer. I certainly hope my efforts to get people to buy lots of useless stuff are successful, because I always like to see happy clients in January.

I did find a little time to make it to the grocery store and pick up something for dinner. Janet and I are both so busy that we rarely cook anymore. I just pick up ready-to-eat stuff from the deli or chef prepared sections. The food is very good, but it isn't the most economical way to eat. I don't know why people tend to eat more when it's cold. The grocery stores have been packed all week. The ice is all gone now, and the stores are still crowded. Maybe nobody plans ahead anymore and they're all just shopping for their next meal like I am.

I hope that things slow down a bit tomorrow. I'm really tired. There's still the ice and the neighbor's tree to get off the roof. There's still another Santa Paws pet photo event to complete before we're done for the year. My printer is clogged again, because it sat unused for too long during the power outage. Hey, I'm looking forward to a delicious breakfast at my favorite Friday restaurant though. I've got to think positive thoughts.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1367

Is anyone else having trouble with passwords? For years everything was fine, but I've noticed lately that websites and applications have stepped up their game. My old familiar passwords aren't acceptable anymore. I am being admonished to create more complex passwords that contain upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols. For me, this is a recipe for disaster. I can never remember these types of passwords. To make matters worse, you are now only given three tries to get the password right before you are locked out. I joined a site that required a complex password a few days ago and forgot it less than 24 hours later. It's all very frustrating. Especially since many sites won't let you use your old password again after you've requested a password re-set.

Our perennial hole digging armadillo has returned. It seems like this critter returns every year about this time to destroy what is left of our back yard grass. There were big holes in the turf this morning and a rustling sound along the fence as the critter ran away from the approaching dogs.  I really don't know how to get rid of these things. They come in the night while we're asleep, and then disappear again the next morning after digging a bunch of ugly holes.

I was real tempted to start looking at new cars today, but work got in the way and I didn't have time. I'm sure I'll succumb to temptation sooner or later, but it's just as well that I kept my nose to the grindstone and didn't go car shopping today. The kind of cars I like are very expensive. I need to pick up a few more clients before I feel comfortable buying a car.

I got a surprise call from an old client this morning, asking me if I'd take them back on a temporary basis. Sure! Why not? What have I got to lose anyway? Evidently, my replacement hasn't worked out all that well. Maybe if I do well on my "temporary" assignments, I can bring these guys back into the fold again. It's certainly happened before. People fire me because they think I'm too expensive and then when they've been paying someone else for a year or two, they finally come to the realization that I was actually quite a bargain.

I'm slowly, but surely learning how Wordpress works. Today I figured out how to add a collaborative calendar to a Wordpress site. Tomorrow, I"m going to explore how to add transaction capabilities. The good thing about an open source application like Wordpress is that just about anything you could imagine adding to a website has already been done before. All you really have to do is look for the tutorials and YouTube videos that explain how to add the functionality you want. I'm still not a big fan of dynamic, server-side websites, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm learning some useful things that will be put to good use in the near future.

I made it to the gym late in the day, but that's probably it for the week. Tomorrow's another busy work day and the small amount of free time I do have will be spent having a delicious breakfast at my favorite restaurant.  In my world, Eggs Benedict trumps time on the treadmill any day of the week.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 714

While the days outside continue to get shorter, my day inside seem to be getting longer and longer. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why it takes me so long to complete my work these days, but I've got my suspicions. I'm convinced that clients are more demanding than they used to be. Many have had to deal with staff cutbacks and don't have assistants like they used to. I become the assistant instead. Social media eats up a lot of time too. Clients continue to ask me how they can use Facebook and Twitter to build their business. I tell them it's easy. Just spent several hours each and every day posting new and interesting information that their customers would like to read. This usually shuts them up fairly quickly.

It's easy to post a picture of your cat, but it can be quite difficult to engage people day after day forever. I could do a lot better job of managing my own social media world, but I don't have the time either. I don't even have a receptionist to dump the social media duties on like most of my clients do. Personally, I was much happier when none of these things existed and you just took people to lunch instead.

How irritating. My iPhone decided to ask me for a new password today. What's was wrong with my old password? I had a nice password that was easy to type and remember on a little screen and now Apple is asking for a complicated combination of characters and numbers using both upper and lower case letters, just like the banks, web hosting companies and brokerage houses do. These passwords are almost impossible to remember. Some places are even demanding that you change your password every few months and don't allow you to reuse an old one for over a year. Enough is enough. When will this madness end.

At least walking the dogs is still simple. We went out a little earlier this evening to avoid the coyotes. The dogs had fun. I had fun. No password required.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day