Day 3186

Today had its ups and downs. Dash pooped in a neighbor's driveway this morning and then a little later he lost one of his shoes. I cleaned up the poop the best I could, but losing the shoe was a big deal. As soon as I noticed the missing boot, I tried to get Dash to turn around and go looking for it, but he he can be very stubborn and wanted to continue going forward. Even though it was in his best interest, Dash wouldn't turn around at all. Luckily, we weren't that far from home. His exposed rear paw was dirty and scuffed up a bit, but there was no bleeding.

When I made sure that Dash has finished his breakfast and was ready for his nap, I retraced my steps and went looking for the shoe. These boots are way too expensive to be disposable, so I need to make an effort to find them when they fall off. I wish he'd been wearing the green or red boots today. They would have been a lot easier to find. The missing black rubber boot blended in with the ground and was much more difficult to locate than I expected. Eventually I found both the boot and its companion sock. Strangely, the sock and boot weren't together. I don't know how he managed to lose the sock before the shoe, but that's the way it happened.

I went back to Knife for breakfast this morning. They stop serving at 10 AM, and I barely made it. Hey, it can take a long time to find a missing dog boot in the park. The Brioche French Toast I ordered this morning was delicious. Knife is really a high-end steak house, but they serve a limited breakfast menu since they are located in a hotel. I'm glad I discovered this place. It's exactly what I was looking for. It's odd. I've been looking for a nice place to eat in the neighborhood for years and what I really wanted was a chance to pretend that I wasn't in Dallas at all.

On the way home I discovered that my favorite Macintosh repair shop had gone out of business. Damn. Just about every one of my computers has been serviced at this store at one time of another. The place was close to home, the service was great, and the technicians could fix anything. The whole experience was a huge improvement over going to the Apple Store. I shouldn't have been surprised that the place went out of business. If I like a place, it is almost certain that it will go out of business. My favorite furniture stores, hobby shops, camera shops, art galleries, and restaurants have all gone out of business. It's so inevitable that businesses I like will fail that I've thought about hiring myself out as a consultant. If I like your concept, just forget about it. Why throw your money away. Just invest in something I hate instead.

It's still raining here, but I need to remind myself not to complain about the weather. There are no downed trees. There are no high winds. And there is no flooding. I'm sure there is water on the roof, but it is just rain. I feel sorry for all those people on the Carolina coast, but I still don't understand why they are living on the coast in the first place. Don't they know that when sea levels rise, all their property is going to be underwater anyway.

Janet and I will try again to take pictures of the rescue Dalmatian tomorrow. It's hard to tell at this point if we will be successful. So far, the weather looks almost identical to what we were dealing with last week.

Nicholas is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2863

I think Jawbone has pulled the plug on my fitness tracker. It hasn't been saving steps or heart rate data for the past several days. I guess I should have expected this. The company is going bankrupt. They stopped manufacturing fitness trackers over a year ago and don't even answer their phone anymore. Customer service is non-existant. I guess it was only a matter of time before they decided to shut down the servers that sync your data.

It's a shame I'll have to quit using my latest UP band. It hasn't even broken yet. The product quality for these things has always been terrible, but I really like the little tracker. I've had numerous Jawbone trackers, mostly because they inevitably quit working after a year or so. Jawbone used to be really good about replacing defective trackers, but I think they became overwhelmed when their entire customer base started demanding replacement bands. The UP3 is still one of the smallest, least obtrusive activity trackers you can buy. It's easy for me to wear one on my right hand and still wear a watch on my left. I'm going to miss this worthless product.

I used to jokingly tell friends that I should become a product tester for manufacturers. If I really like something it is almost guaranteed to fail. It I hate it, there's a good chance it will become a runaway success. I'm the guy who used to own two Citroën automobiles. Back in the tape era, I used to favor Betamax. Every store I've bought furniture from has gone out of business. While other professional photographers use Nikon and Canon, I have stubbornly stuck with Olympus. It's uncanny how consistently I become fond of unpopular products.

Sadly, my taste for unpopular things even extends to restaurant menus. I stopped to pick up some Thai food for dinner on my way home from the post office this afternoon and discovered that my favorite go-to meal had been removed from the menu. This happens surprisingly often. One of the reasons I don't enjoy my Friday morning breakfast outings as much anymore is that I've never been able to find anything as good as the Migas the little neighborhood restaurant that went out of business made.

We put on Dash's knee brace and protective boots before Janet left for work again. He doesn't seem to want to walk early in the morning anymore, but if I let him wander around the house for a while while I'm eating breakfast, he eventually gets in the mood. When I see him head toward the back door, I'm ready. My coat and Dash's leash are on a chair near the door. I already have my dog walking shoes on, so it only takes a few seconds to hook him up and go. Usually Dash feels like walking while I'm in the middle of breakfast, but that's OK. I just finish my meal when we get back.

I'm not sure if Dash's heart condition is improving, but he certainly is happier now. He gets a can of Castor and Pollux stew in the morning and a can of Hills ID in the evening. We usually walk about 10 AM and he gets a snack early in the afternoon. He still sleeps a lot and doesn't play much anymore, but that's OK too. He's getting old.

There was no work today, so I wrote a letter to my sister. If more people started writing letters and quit depending on their phone, many of the problems we have with hacking and identity fraud would simply go away. A connected world creates a lot of problems. I'm sure my little fitness tracker would still be working fine if it was self contained and didn't have to store all it's information in the cloud. I don't like to depend on a server in California or India. I wish the strawberries I like were raised locally. I wish my clothing was made in a local factory. I'm not a fan of globalism at all. With my track record, this means that globalism is exactly what we'll get.

Pearl is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day