Day 799

Here's why I hate computers. I get this e-mail from Quark Express about a month ago telling me not to upgrade to OS 10.7.3 yet, because it was not compatible with Quark. I dutifully go to my control panel and deselect the automatic upgrade option. Several weeks go by and one morning when I start up my computer I get a dialog box asking if I'd like to upgrade to OS 10.7.3. By this time, I've completely forgotten about the earlier message from Quark, so I just click "yes" and the upgrade is installed. About an hour later a client says they need a reprint of a poster I did for them last year. I click on the Quark application so I can print the file, and you guessed it, the application doesn't work anymore, just like Quark warned me. Very frustrating, to say the least!

My Quark Express is toast. I finally figure out how to print the poster my client wants from an old PDF file and then halfway through the printing process, I run out of ink. I drive over to the printer store and buy $150 worth of ink, just so I can make a single courtesy print of an old poster I'd completely forgotten about.

Talking with tech support at Quark while trying in vain to revive my ailing application wasted several hours this morning. Talking with Network Solutions to help another client move one of their domains to a less expensive registrar ate up even more time. Evidently my name was listed as the technical contact for this domain, but it didn't show up in the list of domains I manage. I must have created an account for the domain years ago and then totally forgotten about it. The client forgot too, because no website was ever developed for this domain. Since I couldn't figure out how to log-in to the control panel of the mystery account I have created, I had to convince Network Solutions that I really was who I said I was and get them to make the changes for me. Maybe we should have just let the domain expire. It will probably still sit around unused for another five years.

For some reason Dot didn't want to go to class tonight. She refused to get out of the car and glued herself to the back seat, just like she does when we take her for a bath. She wouldn't budge. I finally had to get in the car and carry her out. Once she was out with the other dogs, she did just fine, but she clearly would have rather stayed home this evening. I can't figure out why she balked tonight. It was really one of the nicest evenings we've had all Winter. Even after dark, the temperature was still over 70 degrees.

A large printing company that used to send me lot of annual report writing work finally responded to my query. Apparently, all their customers are writing their annual report copy themselves this year. Why am I not surprised?

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 558

On Sundays I try to attack the big pile of unopened mail and useless paper that still clutters my office. Once again, I managed to fill one of those big black plastic trash bags without the room looking any tidier at all. I really need to look at my mail more often. When the mail arrives each day, I quickly scan for bills and checks and then leave the rest unopened for months at a time. The only thing I hate worse than getting mountains of junk mail each month is receiving important mail in envelopes that look exactly like there's junk inside. Every month or so, I need to look through all the junk, just to make sure there's not a past due bill tucked in between all the advertising messages.

I sort the paper into different piles. There's stuff I don't understand, but save anyway because maybe I will understand it sometime on the future. Most of this paper is from my financial advisor. There are bank and brokerage statements that I put in a big ring binder. There are lots of expired coupons that go straight in the trash. There are handwritten notes that I make when I am on the phone with clients. Most of these make no sense to me within a week after I write them, so they go in the trash too. I always find a few surprising things that I wish I'd noticed earlier. Today I found two new credit cards that I still needed to activate and a letter from a bank saying that an account had gone dormant because I hadn't used it in a year and a half. There was also a galley proof of my Who's Who in America bio that I should have approved months ago and a discount offer from Facebook offering me from $25 to $500 if I would try running a Facebook ad for my company.

When I gave up on the pile of useless paper, I tried printing some old poster files on my new printer. Last week I told one of my clients that I would reprint some of their old posters that I produced five years ago. I thought this would be easy, but of course it isn't easy at all. I found the old files in Quark Express easy enough, but when I clicked the print button, a dialog box appeared that said media assets were missing and that I needed to relink them. Damn. Since I switched from my old computer with four hard drives to this new computer with a single humongous drive, all my photo and font files are in a different location. After manually re-linking a few files, I realized that I didn't even have some of the old photos anymore. Maybe I won't be able to reprint these old posters after all.

After last weeks rains, the grass needed mowing again. When I was mowing the front yard, I noticed that the leak in the water main had been fixed. I had been meaning to call the city about this leak for months, but it wasn't a high priority, especially since the leak was on the city side of the meter. I was wondering how the city even knew about this leak, but then Janet told me that the meter reader had probably turned in a report after he opened the lid to the water main and noticed that the meter was buried under a foot of water. At any rate, the grass is easier to mow now without the big patch of wet grass on the downhill side of the water main.

We're going to the dog park earlier on Sunday's now to try and beat the heat. This morning, there was a light breeze and it was actually pleasant outside. The dogs seemed to enjoy the cooler weather too. They both wanted to stay a lot longer than they did last week.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 532

I walked Dot and Dash early this morning, so I could be first in line at the City of Garland animal shelter when it opened. Ten minutes after the shelter opened its doors I walked away with Scooby, a nice looking young male Dalmatian who was living on borrowed time. Scooby was an owner surrender, but that wouldn't protect him very long. This friendly dog would be put down just like any other stray if nobody claimed him. I still find it hard to believe that so many people routinely dump their dogs at the pound like this. According to the animal control officer, Scooby's owners said he was tearing up the yard. That was it. Hardly seems like an offense worth putting a dog down for, does it? I'll bet you anything that Scooby never got daily walks or exercise. From the poor condition of his coat, he probably never got to come inside either.

Any dog will eventually tear up the yard if they are dumped outside and totally ignored. I tell people all the time that Dalmatians are very active dogs and need a long walk every day. They also have very sensitive skin and don't do well if left outside. People don't listen though. They continue to get a Dalmatian because they are so pretty and then dump them when having a dog is no longer convenient for them.

When I got home from rescuing Scooby, I took Dash to the vet for his bi-weekly antigen shot. For quite a few months I've been thinking that these shots were a miracle cure, because his coat had started looking so much better. For a short time Dash was actually looking whiter than Dot. Now, all the bronzing and skin discoloration had returned and I have no idea why. Dash's diet is the same. His routine is the same. I can't think of a single good reason why he has brownish spots on his coat again. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. Similar things happen with my own health all the time. Six months ago, I was convinced that my doctors had finally cured my persistent coughing spells that were often accompanied with severe heartburn. The coughing spells have returned though, after being completely gone for at least six months. I don't know why the coughing has returned. I'm still taking my meds. My diet is actually much healthier than it was a year ago. I even gave up drinking. Sometimes taking better care of yourself just seems pointless.

It's beginning to seems like buying a new large format printer was pointless too. So far, the new printer seems to exhibit exactly the same flaws that eventually drove me crazy with the old printer. I've only had this printer a week and I've already had to unclog the lines. You'd think that I'd at least get a six month grace period or something. Instant clogging just isn't fair. It looks like I'm going to have to upgrade my expensive RIP software as well. I've already discovered that the old RIP won't work with the new printer.

Scooby is getting neutered today. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll go back to the vet and take him over to his temporary new home. Boarding kennels leave a lot to be desired, but I'm certain this dog will get a lot more attention at the kennel than he ever got at his first home. We'll make sure that when he does find his forever home, he'll finally get the second chance he deserves.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day