Day 4025

Today was a fitting end to 2020. The weather was absolutely miserable. There was a heavy all day rain and the temparature was in the mid thirties. It felt even colder with a wind chill in the twenties. Needless to say, Dawn didn't get a walk today. She wouldn't have wanted one anyway. It was hard enought to get her to go out in the back yard and pee. Yesterday and today have broken my Fitbit streak. The only steps I got today were walking back and forth between the office and the kitchen to get more snacks.

It's too bad I don't like watching television. Today was tailor-made for watching movies on Netflix or binge watching a new series on Amazon Prime. Without our long morning walk, the day seemed impossibly long. I looked at Facebook for a while, watched some astronomy videos on YouTube, and kept checking on the pumps to make sure that they weren't clogged. I can turn on the pumps from indoors now, but unfortunately I can't see if water is coming out the hoses. To do that I have to go out in the back yard and look around the side of the house. It still beats climbing up on the roof though.

Eventually I got bored enough to start building the new company website I've been postponing forever.  I deconstructed a few websites I like and examined their code to see how they accomplished all their fancy tricks. Once I figured out how these things worked, I started building something similar myself. I didn't really think I'd make much progress, but I had all day. By dinnertime, I had the outline of a pretty nice site. I'm pretty sure I can finish this over the weekend. I don't really expect the new site to bring me any business.  It's just a way to keep my hand in the game.

I'm not really sure who visits my existing website anymore. There was a time when it was considered somewhat innovative and I remember that it used to bring me business. That's ancient history now. It's literally been decades since one of my sites was nominated for Website of the Year and even longer since another site I designed was included in a Ryder Publications book called The World Wide Web Top 1000. I was a very early adopter and did pretty well designing very simple static sites. When Google decided that websites needed to be mobile friendly to be included in their search results, it was time for me to pack it in and pass the torch to a younger generation. To this day I have never looked at a website on my phone.

New Year's Eve is one more thing that never changed for us during the pandemic. Many years ago my band used to routinely play New Year's Eve parties, but it has been a long, long time since Janet and I have left the house to celebrate. We struggle to stay awake until midnight. We'll have a glass of champagne and eat some cheese and crackers as we watch the ball drop on TV. That's what we'll do tonight if we don't fall asleep watching Perry Mason. 

I hope that 2021 ushers in a return to normalcy, but I have my doubts. Realistically, things will probably get worse for a while. Many people are starting to say that Covid will become like the flu and never really go away. Society has already changed so dramatically that there isn't going to be a return to normal. Whatever was normal a few years ago is gone. Have you seen that Boston Dynamics video with the dancing robots? When robots can dance better than you can, you can probably kiss your jobs goodbye. Companies have already learned to operate with a lot fewer people during the Covid lockdowns. I'm convinced that this trend will continue. All things considered, this is a good time to be retired.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3523

All the grocery stores seem to be replacing cashiers with self-checkout stations. When I was shopping this morning there were only two cashiers and a long row of brand new automated stations. I've read that people don't like these things, but why not? Self-checkout is faster and you don't have to interact with anyone. I've already gone one step beyond self-checkout. Whenever I can, I buy things using an app on my phone. I scan the items as I find them and when I'm finished I just walk out of the store and leave. Like it or not, this is the future. Cashiers, bank tellers, and even waiters at restaurants are going away. Probably a lot of manufacturing jobs I don't see are going away too. Many already have. The simple truth is that companies prefer robots. Robots don't complain. They don't need health insurance. And they never go on strike. The little kids who are growing up now playing games on their iPads instead of going to a playground with their friends will probably prefer robots as well. Why not. They grew up with them.

I'm glad I grew up before all this happened. I did well in an old fashioned analog world. I'm not sure how well I'd thrive in a world where the best jobs went to the people who design and program the robots. Maybe I could repair them though. There will always be a need for people who can fix machines.

I was going to try and fix the old dehumidifier today, but I never got around to it. By the time I finished my Saturday shopping and took my long walks the day was almost over. There are YouTube videos that show you how to fix almost anything, but I can't find one about my particular brand of dehumidifier. I won't let this deter me though. Eventually I'll figure out how to take the thing apart, clean it, and put it back together again. There's no hurry though. We've got a new dehumidifier now that seems to work perfectly.

We've also got a new toaster oven. Janet bought one while she was doing her shopping today. She said she was tired of using the big oven just to make cinnamon toast. Works for me. The little oven is probably great for cooking a pizza too. We ran out of space for new appliances long ago, so we just set the toaster oven on top of the little emergency refrigerator. It's not actually in the kitchen, but it's close.

When I was walking this afternoon, I saw a guy with a guitar and a microphone on a stand singing to no one at all. He had a little battery powered amplifier and his voice was quite nice. Nobody was listening though. Not even the ducks were listening. I wondered what this was all about. Was he trying to attract an audience, or did he prefer putting on a little concert for himself? It was very hot outside too. There are certainly better places to practice on an August afternoon. I'll probably never know what the guy was doing. I see a lot of strange things in the park.

I slept better last night. I have no idea why. All the variables are always the same. I go to bed at the same time. The temperature in the house is the same. There is very little stress in my life. My sleep should be very consistent, but it's not. One of life's mysteries I guess. I go to sleep quickly, but I wake up too soon. Maybe this means that I'm actually getting all the sleep I need. Old people always seem to wake up early.

Toby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2420

I've seen the future. When I was at the grocery store today, I noticed that they were promoting a new app that allows you to scan, purchase, and pay for items using your phone. You purchase as you shop and bypass the checkout line entirely. As soon as you scan the last item on your list, you are done. This is what I've been waiting for. I downloaded the app immediately. I used to like the automated checkout aisles, but now that people have overcome their fear of them, they are just as bad as the regular aisles.

I'm always standing in line behind some idiot who keeps inserting expired credit cards into the machine, hoping that one of them will work. This new app will allow me to bypass all these delays. If one store is doing this, pretty soon all stores will have apps that let you scan and go. Restaurants won't be far behind. You'll just sit down at a table, order from your phone, and the food will appear at your table.This is what I don't understand about politicians who promise to bring back jobs. The jobs aren't coming back ever. If there's a robot available that can take the place of an employee, the robot wins.

I got the roof prepared for the roofers today. It's dry now and as clean as I can get it. The standing water was so hot that I was surprised that it hadn't boiled away yet. If someone would invent a way to turn standing water into energy, I'd have free power for life. This roof is such a nuisance. I wonder if Janet and I will ever live in a house with a normal roof again? There was a time when I thought we would have moved to some idyllic location in the mountains by now, but life got in the way. The older we get, the more daunting another move seems. I may be stuck with this stupid roof forever.

Dot had a good day. Some days she seems lucid and other days she seems totally out of it. Today she seemed happy and had enough energy to get up by herself a few times. Aging is definitely not a linear process. It meanders around, trying to catch you by surprise. I saw this with my Dad as well. One day he'd be making plans for the future, and the next day he'd just be staring off into space. I hope I never succumb to dementia. They say a network of friends is vital to older people. I'm not looking good in that department. On the other hand they say that writing keeps the mind agile. I write constantly. Maybe it's a wash.

I accidentally erased my backup drive today. This is why I have two backup drives. I thought I could just reformat the drive and back everything up again. For some reason, the information wouldn't fit. WTF? Everything fit on the drive yesterday. Why won't it fit today? I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this, but I can't figure it out. Maybe dementia is already devouring my brain. I'm trying to convince myself that one backup drive is plenty.

I actually got a decent amount of sleep last night. That was a surprise. Would it be too much to ask for a few extra hours tonight as well?  I guess it's all up to Dot.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2392

Sign of the times. When I went to the bank this morning, I noticed that they had replaced some of the teller windows with ATM machines. There was only one teller working and everybody was lined up to see her. Nobody was using the automated machines, even though there was a video running in the lobby explaining how cool they were. A woman ahead of me in line told the other customers that she never used ATM machines because she was afraid of getting mugged. You could almost see the one overworked teller roll his eyes. I know he wanted to say "Lady, why do you think we moved these machines inside the bank." I knew the real reason had nothing to do with safety. Companies will do virtually anything to avoid hiring people these days. They'd replace everyone with a robot if they could get away with it.

Companies are training us to make our transactions without human intervention. I almost never talk to a receptionist when I make a business call. The phone system is automated. Heaven help you if you actually need to talk with a real person. My grocery store uses an automated checkout system. You scan the items yourself, put your credit card into the machine, and you're on your way. There is even a local restaurant that is experimenting with replacing waiters with touch screen terminals at each table. This is the future. When I hear politicians talks about creating jobs, I want to laugh. Where are these jobs going to come from? Factory floors are automated and use robots to assemble things. Customer service is becoming automated. Cars are learning to drive themselves. If this is happening today, just think what the world is going to be like forty years from now. You may have a job now, but it's going away.

One of the things I dislike the most about an automated world is the concept of auto-renewal. If you ever subscribe to anything on the Internet, you will keep getting charged for it forever unless you make a Herculean effort to remove yourself from the company's database. Netflix, Hulu, Angie's List, domain name registries, software subscriptions, tolltags for your car, and other services too numerous to name will keep renewing you automatically, once they've gotten your credit card number. There's usually something buried away in the fine print about how to cancel your subscription, but who reads the fine print. I thought I had canceled my subscription to Angie's List two years ago, but I keep getting auto-renewal notices. It's frustrating. I'll have to call an automated phone system on Tuesday and express my displeasure.

I'm glad that I mowed the grass yesterday. It was even hotter today. Almost every Summer I wonder why I ever moved here from Seattle. Temperatures were so mild in Seattle that I could easily forgive the continual rain. Hey, that was over thirty years ago though. I can't remember why I did anything thirty years ago. Since we can't magically transport ourselves to Colorado or Seattle, we do the best we can to deal with the heat. We walk the dogs very early now. It's interesting to watch how plants and animals react to dawn. Birds start singing well before sunrise. Some flowers close their petals when the sun hits them, and others open. There is a patch of Bindweed on our way home that is almost as accurate as a light meter. If we're early and it's still dark, the petals are closed. If we're late and the sun is getting hot, the petals close again. Today, we walked by at exactly the right time.

Bud is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1668

We were out of oatmeal this morning, so instead of going to the store and getting a new box, I just went out for breakfast instead. I hadn't been to this place for a while, so I was curious if it was still the same. The menu looked the same, but when I ordered my familiar omelet, something looked different. Yup. There was less of everything. Another restaurant had discovered portion control. Everyone seems to be doing this these days. They'll put a little less in the box, or a little less on the plate and hope you won't notice. Retailers and manufacturers seem to know that their customers hate price increases, but will readily accept getting a little less for the same amount of money. Personally, I'd rather pay a little more and get a decent sized portion, but that's just me. As I continue to grow poorer, maybe my attitude will change.

I spent most of the day working on my new website project and getting my July invoices out. There were short trips to the post office and pharmacy to pay bills and pick up prescriptions, but that was about it. It's hard to get very excited about doing websites these days. It seems like every new project I get is less profitable than the previous one. I know I need to stay competitive to stay busy, but pretty soon these things won't even pay the electric bill.

It's not just traditional website design that's in decline. I saw an article the other day that said the average annual income for published authors showed the sharpest decline ever recorded during the past five years. There are well respected authors all over the world who are making less than the receptionist at an average law office. I think it's pathetic. Indie music, self-publishing, ready-made Wordpress themes, high resolution phone cameras, and a host of other innovations have created a tidal wave that is washing away folks like me. I think my financial adviser is tired of hearing me complaining about money. "Why don't you just switch to designing apps for the iPhone," he asked me the other day. It was hard to explain that creating apps was a completely different business model than being a graphic designer. Even if I was able to master the coding issues, I think my head would explode if my role in life was to come up with the next Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga. 

I remember one year while I was going to college, I has a Summer job working on an auto assembly line. The pay was pretty darn good. I think now that the era Henry Ford ushered in with the birth of the assembly line might have been the best of times. There was a genuine need for lots and lots of people to put things together for people to buy. People bought tons of the newly affordable refrigerators, cars and light bulbs that were flooding the market, creating more jobs and more assembly lines. Wages gradually went up, since there were no robots to replace the people. The people and the jobs were actually necessary. This is what created the middle class.

Now everything is different. I've been inside huge factories where I hardly saw a person at all. Robots did everything. Automation systems are replacing people at every level. Your job is next. Sometimes I think the only thing people actually make these days are more people. We're still having babies, but what are they going to do when they grow up? They can't all be artists selling handmade jewelry on Etsy.

I'm not sure what my answer to living in an automated world will be. It's easier to think about tomorrow. I'll definitely be going back to my favorite restaurant, where I'm fairly sure that the quality and portion sizes haven't declined. I'll pick up some tasty food for the weekend at Central Market. I might even do some work.

Today's Dalmatian of the Day was one of ours. She went to the Rainbow Bridge on this day in 2004. Rest in peace Greta. You were one of a kind.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 898

Some days I think a robot could do my job. Other days I think I am the robot. How may days can you do the same thing over and over again before going quietly insane? I wonder about these things.

Today certainly wasn't the day to break free. I took some checks to the bank. I took some bills to the post office. I took some dogs on a walk. There was water on the roof. Dishes in the sink. And a load of dirty clothes in the washing machine. It was just an ordinary day.

My work assignment for today was doing a little Father's Day marketing for one of my clients. They want Mom and the kids to buy something expensive for Dad. Not very likely. Dads never get anything good on Father's Day. Since my birthday always fell fairly close to Father's Day, my Mom never got Dad anything at all. She claimed that I was his Father's Day gift. I think this always made my Dad mad. He would much rather have received tickets to a good basketball game, or at least a nice fishing rod.

The Spring allergy season seems to be waning. It's great not to go through an entire package of Kleenex every time I walk the dogs. The only problem is that the allergy season is always followed by the muggy season. Each day, within an hour after the rain quits, it becomes a steam-bath outdoors. During the muggy season I have to put on a new shirt every time I walk the dogs, because the shirt I was wearing is soaked. There are tons of mosquitoes during the muggy season as well. I really shouldn't complain about the weather we're having though. The muggy season is always followed by the impossibly hot season. During July and August in Texas, it feels like you are living on the surface of Mercury. I don't look forward to this heat. I don't think Dot can handle the heat anymore either. Her tongue is hanging out right now after our walks, and Summer hasn't even arrived yet.

Friday has arrived though. Almost anyway. I've taken this week's trash out to the curb for tomorrow morning's pickup and I'm already wondering what I'm going to have for breakfast on my weekly restaurant excursion. TGIF.

Amy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day