Day 1496

We woke up this morning to a cold house. Yup, the furnace has gone out again. I know exactly what is wrong. The flame sensor has gotten dirty  and it no longer senses the gas flame. The pilot light ignites the burners, which shut down again two seconds later when the flame sensor doesn't detect anything. This used to happen seven or eight times a year with the old furnace. Surprisingly, it still happens at least once a season with our relatively new furnace. When the HVAC folks come out to fix things, they always tell me that the flame sensor shouldn't be getting dirty like this and blame the gas company for delivering bad gas. As you might expect, the gas company denies this and tells me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with their gas. The furnace always seems to go out on a weekend or holiday too. It never fails. Hopefully, I can get a repair crew out tomorrow.

I managed to get my two large poster projects printed. Unlike the furnace, the printer seemed to be working fine today. Most of the problems I had with these posters originated in the computer, not the printer itself. Back when I was doing a lot of print work for clients, I had a full suite of professional monitor and printer calibration tools. Unfortunately, none of this sophisticated hardware and software works with my current computer. Pre-press software is expense and I just don't do enough print work anymore to warrant upgrading to the latest versions of all this stuff. I wing it now, and it's harder to get a really good looking print. Today's prints aren't perfect, but the color looks pretty close to the original photo and I did finally figure out how to force the printer to make borderless prints again.

Dot and Dash loved their trip to the dog park today. We ran into a friend from our Wednesday training class, and Dash seemed delighted to see a familiar face. The dogs all played for a while while Janet and I walked around enjoying the sunny day. At least it was nice today. On a really cold day, it would have been a lot worse to have the furnace go out.

I finally made it back to the gym this afternoon. I was so busy last week that I only had time to go once during the week. The running track at the gym has a sign that says you are supposed to go one direction on even days and the opposite direction on odd days. Nobody knows why this rule is in place, but everybody follows directions. Today, one woman started walking around the track in the wrong direction and everyone else followed suit. I jogged in the even day direction too, even though it was clearly an odd numbered day. I think people were just embarrassed to tell the first woman to change directions, and admit they took the stupid rule seriously. By the time I left, there were dozens of people running in the wrong direction. Maybe this is how revolutions start.

You know all those list of things you see on your Facebook timeline? Yesterday I clicked on a list that said "17 things that a depressed person should never do."Yikes! I was doing all 17. Don't expect me to change my ways any time soon though. I've grown very comfortable with my grumpy behavior.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 728

I made a quick trip to Houston today. I'm still amazed that I can fly to Houston in less time than it takes me to drive from my house to some Dallas suburbs. The first thing on my Houston agenda was interviewing an oil and gas executive for a magazine article I'm currently writing. I used to take copious notes when conducting these types of interviews. Now I just make a video record of the entire interview. It's much easier this way. After completing my interview with the oil and gas guy, I met with the marketing director of another company who ended up interviewing me for some potential writing jobs. All in all, it was a very productive day. I got a lot done, made some new contacts and was back in Dallas in plenty of time to give Dot and Dash their evening walk.

Not surprisingly, when I got home, the phone machine was full of messages from clients who needed something immediately. It never fails. If I'm here and readily available, nobody ever calls. If I'm gone, everybody needs something. I was going to start writing the article about the guy I interviewed today, but it looks like I'll spend tomorrow catching up on today's website requests instead.

On the plane this morning, I noticed that when the flight attendant told everyone to turn off their electronic devices, several people near me completely ignored her and kept right on playing whatever game had captured their attention. I have a feeling there are lots of potential Alec Baldwins out there. If I was on American Airlines, this kind of insurrection would have caused a big commotion and the flight would have been delayed. On Southwest Airlines, nothing happened at all. The plane just continued down the runway and took off with a boatload of people still playing games on their iPhones back in the cabin. The plane arrived safely, just like you'd expect, giving me one more reason to like Southwest more than other airlines. I wish we could just put an end to all these silly rules. I don't think someone reading a book on their Kindle is going to hurt the plane. And don't even get me started about taking your shoes off every time you go to the airport. I was behind an old man in the security line today who had so much trouble getting his shoes back on again that he probably missed his plane.

Tomorrow I won't even need to wear any shoes. I'll just be sitting here, working at the computer with a warm dog under my desk.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day