Day 4842

Even on days where nothing happens, I still wonder about things. Why are the airwaves filled with commercials from pharmaceutical companies advertising pills with side effects so serious they can kill you? Why do small SUV's from every manufacturer look exactly the same? Why do people stop at McDonalds on the way home from the gym? Who are they kidding? Why are roads perpetually under construction? I could go on and on. The world just doesn't make sense anymore.

I think the secret to good health is as simple as eating fresh healthy food every day and getting lots of exercise, but people continue to spend billions on dubious supplements and weight loss plans. The secret to financial stability is as simple as never spending money you don't have. Credit cards are just an illusion. I don't know the secret to happiness, but I bet it has something to do with following your own internal compass instead of constantly comparing your situation to others around you. It shouldn't matter what others are doing.

This new desire to be part of a hive mind is a curse. I think social media is one of the worst inventions in the history of humanity. It's definitely not making us smarter. Every day I see people walking through the woods in the park with their face glued to their phones. They're not even aware of what is going on around them. The same thing happens when they are in the car. A majority of traffic accidents in the city are caused by people who are texting when they should be watching the road. When I used to hear people talking to themselves, I always though they were mentally ill. Now I know they're just carrying on a conversation using earbuds. Where does this desire to constantly talk to someone else come from? Is it really that bad to be alone with your thoughts?

It's not surprising that I'm not much of a talker. Dawn finds male voices threatening, so she doesn't like to hear from me. Janet thinks I'm too negative, so unless I have something positive to say, she agrees with Dawn. I can spend several days down at Kennedy Space Center without hardly talking to anyone. I still really enjoy the trip though. One of my favorite visits to McDonald Observatory was when I was the only one staying at the Astronomer's Lodge. When you are alone with your thoughts, you aren't really alone at all. Truthfully, I wish I could turn off my thoughts the same way I turn off the TV at night. It would be easier to get to sleep.

Our pleasant weather continues. Dawn loves her early morning walks now and spends even more time smelling things than she did before. Unfortunately, she also loves to eat the new grass that is coming up everywhere. All our Dalmatians have loved to eat grass in the Spring. I had vague thoughts of doing something productive today, but I didn't get very far. I charged up the battery to the lawn mower, but by the time I finished my long walk, I was too tired to mow. I'd better do this tomorrow though. Weeds are starting to grow in the front yard and more rain is on the way later in the week. My little electric mower is not motorized, so it's getting harder to push. Maybe I'm just getting weaker.

The park is looking green and lush now. Pretty soon I'll start seeing baby ducks. I see the Mallards looking for nesting sites now. I'm going to have to start looking out for snakes again. It's getting warm enough for snakes. All is good though. I'm trying to enjoy the Spring weather while it lasts. Aside from the rain, it is the nicest time of year in Texas. I still try to complete my six daily miles in the middle of August, but it's not very fun. Summers in Texas can be brutal.

Doc is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4681

Brr. Winter arrived a little early this year. The furnace was on when we woke up this morning and it was time for a change in walking attire. I wore long pants on our sunrise walk and added a sweater under my jacket. It wasn't that cold, but it's been a while since we've seen temperatures in the 50's. Dawn loved the cooler weather. She was full of energy this morning and we completed our one mile loop three minutes faster than usual.

It was another good day for a long walk in the park. There was no sense in going to the gym on a day like this. I ate my breakfast and waited a while for the sun to get higher before leaving the house. It never did warm up very much, but the sky was clear and the cold front seems to have cleared away my allergy problems for a while. It felt good not to have a runny nose today. I didn't make great time, but I did OK. I saw quite a few photographers with long telephoto lenses looking for the eagles, but the birds appeared to be in hiding. Watching this quest to see the eagles made me feel like I was walking back in time. It was exactly like this last October.

I've been thinking about deleting several of my social media accounts because I never use them anymore. I keep thinking that some of these accounts might be the source of all the spam I'm getting. I haven't used LinkedIn in years. I couldn't even remember my password. When I finally logged in with a new password, I was surprised to discover that only 11 people have visited in the past two years. There was a time when I thought that LinkedIn might bring me business but it never did. It hardly seemed worth the trouble to delete this abandoned account, so I just turned off everything I could on the settings page and left. I also thought about deleting my Instagram account but then I remembered that NASA likes people to use Instagram when they visit the space center. There was also a time when I regularly posted on Instagram, but it is no longer a showcase for photographers and I've lost interest. Once again it didn't feel like it was worth the trouble to actually delete the account. Who knows. I might start using this again someday.

I've become ambivalent about social media in general. I only continue blogging because I'm determined to reach my 5000 day goal. Blogging definitely isn't like is used to be. I don't think anyone reads the blog anymore. A few friends still read the JPEG images of the blog I post post every day on Facebook, but I don't know if anybody still reads the real blog. The last time I looked at the stats, it showed that I only had two readers per day. That can't be right. This used to be a really popular blog back in the day.

I'll probably wind up right back where I started, writing my daily journal with a ball point pen in a little leather book. Writing is still a useful skill. I have a terrible memory and if I want to know what I was doing back in 1985, it's all there somewhere. I saved all the journals, just like I've saved all the negatives from decades of photography before the digital world was invented. I used to spend hours and hours in the darkroom. I don't think I've developed a roll of film or printed anything in twenty-five years but I used to be pretty good at it.

I don't know why I'm feeling nostalgic today. I guess the world in the rear view mirror seems more appealing than the world looking forward. I haven't turned into a prepper yet, but the future does look bleak. I think I'd be happier if I could bring myself to turn off the computer for good and quit watching cable news. I'm pretty good at amusing myself doing simple things and definitely don't need a daily diet of bad news. 

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Dasy 4494

I'm losing track of the days again. I thought it was Friday for a while this morning. Nope, it's only Thursday. It's an easy mistake to make when all days seem more or less the same. Now that the days are getting longer, our sunrise walks with Dawn don't seem quite so early anymore. The sun is usually well above the horizon before we leave the house. It's interesting to see where Dawn will lead us on these walks. Now that she is more confident, she takes a slightly different path each day. I don't really think she's being adventurous. She's a dog and is probably just following interesting smells.

After breakfast this morning I wrote an overdue letter to my sister and took it to the post office. In all the years we've lived here, I've never just left a letter in our mailbox for the postman to pick up. I have no faith in mail carriers and somehow think the mail will never be delivered this way. I still like to drop the letter in the slot myself at the posts office. 

On the way home I needed to stop at CVS and HomeDepot to pick up a few things. CVS is really strange these days. I think there is only one employee in the entire store. Usually there is nobody at the register. You have to search around the store to find the employee who is usually stocking shelves and tell them that you need to check out. It's kind of ironic that businesses say that they can't find employees when they don't really want them either. Just about everyone is trying to get you to use an app on your phone to make your purchases. I do use an app for grocery shopping, but it seems to get worse with each new update. Now you have to wade though a bunch of ads before you can get to the scanning function. 

I have to go to Home Depot to find light bulbs. I still have two lamps in the living room that use quartz halogen bulbs instead of LED bulbs. It's getting hard to find these kind of bulbs. Home Depot still has incandescent bulbs if you are really old school. I don't go that far. Most of the lights in our house have been converted to LED bulbs by now.

It was a nice day for a walk. It was 70 degrees with clear skies and very little wind. I'm back to walking my regular six mile route again, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to get back to my old pace. It used to take me 18 minutes to walk a mile. Now it takes me at least 21. It's hard to say if it's my feet or just general wear and tear that is slowing me down. All I know is that I sure feel older than I did last year.

I was finally able to order the custom camera part I wanted from the weird Chinese website. A nice lady from the company guided me through the arcane order process using Facebook Messenger. We'll see if I actually get this part now. Actually, I've ordered everything from photo backdrops to watches directly from Chinese companies and they've never let me down yet. Many of these companies seem more modern and efficient than their American counterparts. Ordering from Europe is the worst. I really try to avoid ordering anything from Europe.

I hope the Elon Muck is able to buy Twitter. It's a long shot because corporate America and the investment community hates Elon. He's a loose cannon to them and might ruin the privileged little world they've created for themselves. Something got to be done about social media though. It's gotten out of control. Even I have been censored and all I do is write about dogs. I still miss the old days when all we had was IRC and newsgroups. The Internet was nice when it was all about conversation. Now it's about influence and power. That's not good. I think we'd be better off if social media and today's connected world just disappeared. We don't need a hive mind. We need people to start thinking for themselves again.

Flash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4286

Life is back to normal. I feel good and have resumed all my regular activities. Life without a gallbladder is fine. The big black and blue patch on my stomach has finally faded away and it's OK to lift things again. My heart rate, blood pressure, and Fitpit stats have all returned to their normal ranges. It's kind of amazing to watch the body heal itself.

I did my grocery shopping this morning, but didn't go to the gym. Maybe I should have. By the time I got around to taking my long walk it had gotten pretty hot. Our early morning walk with Dawn was great though. Just as Janet and I both expected, Dawn resumed her normal walking schedule as soon as I returned from Florida.

I got a message from my editor this morning saying that he likes my Inspiration 4 article and that it will run in the November issue. He made a few more changes than I would have liked, but that's life. I'm happy that I can continue writing for SpaceFlight Magazine. Now that the crew has safely returned to earth, I suspect that the magazine will change the article's conclusion a bit. I thought everything would end well, but I couldn't say it, because it hadn't happened yet. Maybe I should have waited one more day to finish the article. This Space X mission continues to amaze me. I watched the live stream of the splash down this evening and everything went perfectly.

While I was shopping this morning I noticed that the stores were full of pumpkins and Halloween candy. I even saw artificial Christmas trees in one store. Covid might not be over yet, but it's pretty clear that business and most customers are ready to turn the page and move on. Maybe this is why people are still getting sick.

The water level in the lake is getting really low. This happens almost every year, but it is surprising since we had such a wet Spring and early Summer. Dry weather is fine by me. I don't have to worry about roof leaks or mow the grass as often. Somehow I think Dallas is in the sweet spot between the dangerous dry weather wildfires out west and the impossible humidity of Florida and the Gulf Coast. I've lived a lot of places, but Texas seems just about right. I think I'll stay.

I've noticed that most of my space photographer friends are quick to post all their pictures on Facebook and Instagram. I wonder why I have no desire to do this myself? I took a lot of nice pictures of the Inspiration 4 launch, but after sending a selection to the magazine, I don't even feel like looking at them again. I've felt this way on all the launches I've attended. It's pretty much the same for astrophotography out at the observatory as well. The last thing I want is for something to go viral. Maybe this is why I continue blogging. Nobody reads blogs anymore. I feel like I'm writing for about ten people. That's OK though. The blog was popular many years ago and I think I'm happier now that I'm more or less invisible.

Now that it's finally starting to get a little cooler, our Sunday outing with Dawn will be more enjoyable. I'm feeling like I can keep up with Dawn and Janet this week. Last Sunday I was packing for my trip to Florida and this Sunday the trip is just a memory. Time flies by at an alarming rate. What's the hurry. The closer I get to the finish line, the more I wish that time would slow down a bit.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4116

The furnace wasn't working when I woke up this morning. Damn. This always seems to happen during the very last days of winter when you don't think you are going to need the furnace anymore. I wasn't looking forward to taking the unit apart to clean the flame sensor again. The flame sensor is almost always the problem. Before I went to all that trouble I gave the tried and true method for fixing anything electrical a try. I unplugged the furnace, waited thirty seconds, and then plugged it in again. I also reset the thermostat for good measure. Amazingly, this worked. The furnace fired up and roared into life. The flame sensor probably is dirty, but with any luck I won't need to deal with it until next Fall.

I managed to find a nice little smoked ham today. I don't know why I thought there was going to be a run on Easter hams. When I went to the smokehouse, I was the only person in the store. There were even several small hams to choose from. I was surprised. Did Covid change something? In previous years I've had a terrible time finding a good smoked ham this close to Easter. 

I received a message from the Air Force, or I guess it is the Space Force now, saying that my press credentials have been reinstated for another year. Yay. I'm good to go for 2021. The message seemed to imply that the Air Force wasn't working as closely with NASA anymore. My credentials might only be. good for military launches. That's OK with me. I think the Space Force will be launching a Falcon Heavy later this year. A Falcon Heavy launch is always spectacular because both side boosters return to the Cape to land.

I wasn't expecting much on my walk today. When I woke up this morning I felt like a cripple. My left foot hurt. My right knee felt stiff. My hip felt sore and my shoulder still felt loose. Oddly, walking seemed to help loosen up these aching joints. I certainly didn't set any records today, but I completed five miles in a little more than an hour and a half. That's slow, but it will have to do for now.

I began to familiarize myself with the new star tracker this afternoon. The unit is sturdy and seems to be extremely well made. I don't think it is going to be easy to use unfortunately. A star tracker is basically a small German equatorial mount that holds a camera instead of a telescope. A motor slowly rotates the unit at 15 degrees per hour to counteract the rotation of the earth. You can take a lot longer exposures since the stars aren't moving from the camera's perspective. Like most telescope mounts, you have to assemble and balance the tracker in the field. There are several little adjustment screws that will fall off and get lost if you loosen them too much. You also have to align everything very exactly with Polaris. I know how to do all this in theory, but it's harder to do in the dark. Have I mentioned that I am very clumsy.

My Fitbit isn't tracking my sleep anymore. Maybe it's getting old and needs to be replaced. I always liked the sleep tracking capability. I have no idea whether it is accurate or even produces meaningful results, but I like to look at it in the morning and discover that I slept better than I thought I did. About half the time it does the opposite and shows me that I didn't sleep well at all. I probably don't need a Fitbit to tell me that I'm not sleeping well. My weird dreams tell me all I need to know.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from the Dallas arboretum asking me to review them on Facebook. A few minutes ago I got an e-mail from the smoked meat company where I got the ham, asking for a review on Facebook. The appliance repair company asked for a review after they fixed my washing machine a few weeks ago. Does everybody do this now? Couldn't we just go back to word of mouth? A world addicted to social media feedback is not a good thing.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4028

Dawn only walked a mile today. Janet walked all the way around the lake. I kind of split the difference and I walked about eight miles. I don't know why Dawn didn't want to walk further. It was a really nice day. There is still no rhyme or reason to when Dawn will freeze and refuse to continue walking. Today she was having fun walking along the shoreline, wagging her tail and smelling everything. All of the sudden she just stopped and let us know she was done for the day. As soon as we turned around, she started walking normally again. It would make sense if she was tired, but she sure doesn't appear to be tired when we start heading home.

Janet and I have been wondering for a long time if we could make it all the way around the lake. For some reason she had always thought the distance was 26 miles and I thought it was 16 miles. We've lived here for ages, but neither of us had ever looked up the actual distance. A few days ago I did a Google search and discovered that it was only slightly more than 9.5 miles around the lake. That was a surprise. Janet thought she could do that distance easy and she did. I could probably do it as well as long as my new shoes keep the foot pain at bay. Maybe I'll give it a try one of these days. The park was really crowded today. I guess it makes sense. The holidays are almost over and it was a really nice day. I continue to be surprised that so many people like to gather together in large groups. People like to walk together, jog together, have picnics together, and even string their hammocks together. I'm convinced that this is why the pandemic still persists. This thing would have disappeared months ago if people just kept to themselves like I do. Is it really that hard to be alone? I find it peaceful.

It bothers me that Dawn doesn't really like me. Dogs always seem to like me. Dawn lets me feed and walk her, but she treats me more like a kennel attendant than a friend. Janet is her best buddy though. She follows Janet around from the moment we wake up until we go to bed again. Janet really wants Dawn to bond with me so she can feel free to travel again. We don't know what it's going to take though. The only thing we can think of is that I somehow remind her of the old men who mistreated her. 
 

While Janet was walking around the lake, I continued to tweak my new website. I keep finding mistakes and fixing them, only to find a new mistake a few minutes later. I must have uploaded the site ten times this afternoon. I'll probably find some more mistakes and omissions tomorrow, but the site is getting better.   I'm not striving for perfection here. I just don't want to embarrass myself. It's probably a good thing that I've decided to reinvent myself as a space and astronomy journalist. Writing is easy for me. Coding websites is hard.

It's getting harder and harder for me to post the blog every day. I have to convert each days post to a JPEG image for it to even show up on Facebook. Now Blogger has changed their interface again, making it much more difficult to insert pictures in a post. It took me forever to get today's three small pictures looking the way they usually do. Add this to the frustrations I'm having with updating my company website and I'm just about ready to chuck online media entirely. Give me a real magazine with a real flesh and blood editor any day. It's so much easier dealing with a real person and so much more satisfying to be able to hold the end result in your hand. I'm not quite as much of a Luddite as my sister, but I'm getting there.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3953

The weather was warmer today. You can almost tell what temperature it is by how fast Dawn walks in the morning. She seems very sensitive to temperature and walked a little slower this morning. I'm equally sensitive to changes in the pollen count. My allergies have returned with a vengeance. I'm blowing my nose constantly again. It's hard to know what to wear on our morning walks. Sometimes the temperature remains constant. Other times it is ten degrees warmer by the time we return. The only thing constant about Dallas weather is that it is constantly changing. Needless to say, I liked the cool, dry, and allergy free air in the Davis Mountains a lot better.

Today was uneventful. I unpacked my bags, put my stuff away, and set then up a few more accounts for online payments. I guess I'm done with writing checks and paying for things in person. I've even set up an online account for the storage warehouse. I used to pay for my storage space a year at a time. I'm paying month to month now in hopes of getting rid of enough stuff to move to a smaller, cheaper unit later this year. Janet loves to throw stuff away, so she said she'll help.

I got a bid for taking down the big Oak tree in the back year. The bid seemed horrendously high, so I guess I'm get another bid. I wish this tree was healthier, because one of my favorite things about the yard when I bought the house years ago was all the big mature trees. Sadly, these tree are nearing the end of their life. I see trees just like our own trees fall in the park for no reason at all there doesn't even need to be a storm. Every time I see one of these huge trees fall, I wonder if one of our trees is going to be next. I'd hate to have a tree fall into the house, or even worse into the lawyer's house next door.

I have all these cool pictures from my trip, but I decided years ago that I would always include a single square picture taken on the same day as my latest blog post. All I could find today was some pathetic leaves trying their best to show some Fall color. Most of the leaves just turn brown here, but occasionally we get a little color. I guess I could always add more pictures, but I won't do it for the same reason that I always drink a large fruit smoothie every morning. Consistency is everything to me. It drives some people nuts, but I find comfort in doing the same things over and over again. Maybe I'm really a dog. All our dogs have been nervous of changes in their schedule and wanted a very consistent life.

I'm glad I already voted. It looks like the lines are getting longer now. The trouble with social media is that there are no secret places anymore. If there is a polling place without much of a line, everyone takes selfies and brags about how quickly they voted. The next day the place with no line has a huge line. I think life would be so much better if social media didn't exist. We don't really need to know what everyone else is doing.

I wonder when NASA is going to reschedule the Space X Crew 1 launch? I was feeling pretty good about making the trip to Florida when Covid cases seemed to be declining. Now, cases are spiking again almost everywhere. I wonder if we're ever going to get a handle on this thing? I'm pretty good about wearing a mask and keeping my distance, but there's that pesky airline flight to Orlando. I learned recently that a Dallas woman actually died of Covid while she was on a plane returning from Arizona. That's a little unnerving.

Emily is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3839

I had good intentions today. I was definitely going to mow the yard. I got out the mower, charged the battery, and was just starting to mow when a surprise storm appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't even supposed to rain today. I put the mower away and waited for things to dry, which of course they never did. So much for good intentions.

When we walked Dawn earlier in the day, we weren't even thinking about rain. It actually seemed like it was going to be a nice day. I could see patches of blue through the clouds and yesterday's big dust cloud appeared to have dissipated. It's amazing how quickly the weather can change in Texas.

I went back to the grocery store right after breakfast to test out a theory that I was just getting to the store too late for find blueberries and Clorox Wipes. This was a totally wasted effort. I didn't notice any difference at all and still couldn't find the things I wanted. I did get gas though. Yesterday, I forgot to bring a doggie poop bag with me so I could avoid touching the pump handle.  This is what social media has done to me. I have been grabbing gas station pump handles for most of my life with no adverse effects and now I've become convinced that they are riddled with disease. Who knows if the virus even lives on surfaces. Opinion seems to be changing on this. You literally don't know what to believe anymore when everything has the potential to either be fake news or an outdated medical opinion.

I've got a bad case of pandemic boredom, but for some reason I am unable to binge watch anything on TV. Janet can do it. Most of my friends can do it, but I just can't. I've tried watching podcasts on things I'm interested in like astronomy and rockets, but I quickly lose interest in these as well. It seems like the only thing I can stay focused on for any length of time is creating something myself. Mostly I'm a self-absorbed documentarian.

When I was younger, I wrote a lot of songs about my experiences. I still record my experiences photographically, but not as obsessively as I used to. Although I am fascinated with astronomy and space travel, all I really want to write about is how I personally interact with these things. I've basically just become a geeky travel writer. The blog, of course, is just an endless personal journal.

Does any of this even matter? Probably not. It does make me frightened when I see groups of people trying to do something for the "common good." How do they know what is good for everyone? They certainly don't know what is good for me. The whole notion of good is very subjective and has changed radically throughout history. To me the hive mind that social media has created is extremely dangerous. It's considered old fashioned in today's connected world, but I still believe in the individual. I'm convinced that if everyone concentrated on maximizing their own potential, instead of sticking their noses in other people's business, the world would be a much better place.

When I see people walking in the woods while obsessively looking at their phone, I think the whole concept of the individual doesn't even exist anymore. Critical thinking is a lost art. Young people just want to instantly know what everyone else is doing so they can do the same thing. When flash mobs first began to appear, people thought they were so creative. All the sudden an orchestra would appear and start playing in a shopping mall or something. I was one of the few people who found these things alarming. I saw flash mobs as a precursor to what is happening in our cities right now.
It's not good to be instantly connected to everything. You need time to think about things.

I've done a lot of critical thinking and somehow my plans all seem to involve turning off the Internet for a while. Don't you think that if Twitter, Facebook, and the ubiquitous 24/7 news cycle would just disappear, our world might actually start to heal? Talking to your neighbor over coffee is probably good. Getting mad at a Facebook post from someone you don't even know is probably bad. Just saying...

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3824

When I was leaving the grocery store this morning I noticed that the guy ahead of me had a package of Clorox Wipes in his buggy. How could I have missed these? I've been looking for them for months. I went back into the store and asked an employee where I could find the elusive Clorox Wipes display. "We're sold out," he told me. "You must have seen the guy who bought the last ones today." I asked when the store was getting more and was told that they were receiving a pallet of wipes several times a week. This was encouraging news. I've been convinced that when Clorox Wipes were on the shelves again the pandemic would be over.

I'm going to buy a ton of Clorox Wipes the next time I see them again. I'll buy a bunch of N-95 masks if I happen to see those too. It hard to believe now that these masks used to be a common item in the paint section at Home Depot. Even though I continue to see crowds in the park and traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels, I don't think anything is over. The virus will ebb and flow for the next year or so. People will forget about it for a while and then they will panic all over again. Civil unrest probably won't disappear until after November 3rd. Call me cynical, but I think both political parties have reasons to keep stirring the pot right up until election day.

I think the only way to restore a sense of normalcy quickly would be if there was a way to completely eliminate the media for 30 days. I"m talking about all the media, including Facebook and Twitter. The media loves a crisis. They always have. A crisis is good for ratings. Wars. Hurricanes. Civil unrest. It's their bread and butter. Have you ever noticed how quickly war correspondents rise through the ranks at news organizations? Cover a good war for a while and sooner or later you are hosting the evening news.

At any rate, without the media constantly stirring the pot to increase their ratings, we might actually be forced to talk to our neighbors to find out what is going on. Without looking at the world through the distorted lens of social media, we might actually go outside and notice that our immediate surroundings aren't so bad after all. I know a few people who are little terrors on social media that are actually fairly nice when you can sit down and have coffee with them. We need a lot more real conversations and a lot fewer emojis.

Our society has made has made it far too easy to act without thinking. The ignorance I'm seeing these days is breathtaking. When you form your opinions by looking at memes, you wind up vandalizing a statue of Matthias Baldwin without even realizing he was a leading abolitionist. When you keep saying you've got to "follow the science" without having a clue what scientists actually do, you wind up wearing a mask when you are driving alone in your own car. When you try to start the next revolution by turning a few city blocks in Seattle into a low rent copy of Burning Man, you probably just leave advocates for real social change shaking their heads in despair.

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again. Everything we have experienced in the last six months has been made worse by social media. We live in a world where everyone is glued to their phone and nobody talks to their neighbors. The traditional media isn't helping things either. They keep pouring gasoline on the flames in a mostly failing effort to stay relevant. Lord help us in the days ahead. We have become a nation of idiots.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3814

I used to like social media. Back in the dark ages when blogs were popular I was even considered an influencer. Sites like Klout gave me free stuff and I had a huge following on Google+. I never took it seriously though. The blog was just a lazy man's way of maintaining the daily journal I used to write by hand in little leather bound books that I would buy every January at a local stationary store. It never occurred to me that other people would want to read this stuff. It still baffles me why some of you are here.

For many years the Internet seemed harmless and innocent. There were no passwords or hackers. Nobody was trying to steal your identity. Occasionally you would strike up a conversation with someone who was even nerdier than you were. Then Facebook appeared.

Somehow everything has changed. From my perspective, social media has become a corrosive, destructive force. I'm not sure we should be connected. It has become far too easy to see what is trending and just drink the cool-aid. I remember people saying how wonderful it was that the Internet gave people a voice during the Arab Spring. Then look what happened. Country after country in the Middle East descended into chaos. Now the chickens have come home to roost. My own country is descending into chaos as well.

I'm not completely sure why all this is happening, but I have a feeling that it has something to do with the false sense of belonging that social media can give you. Social media and tribalism go hand in hand. It's easy to find like-minded individuals on the Internet. The platforms are set up that way. Why do you think Facebook invented the whole concept of 'friends" and "likes"? They make more money by aggregating you into groups with similar interests.

The whole friend thing has gotten out of hand though. I never wanted to know this much about you guys. I've worked with people for over twenty years and never knew much about their political beliefs or personal opinions. It was better that way. When you had to look someone you knew in the eye before you spoke, you learned to measure your words carefully. Friendships were built slowly over many years. The Internet made it far too easy to wear your heart on your sleeve with no consequences. People use their words like flamethrowers now.

I can't recall that I've ever unfriended anyone. I've usually been content to live and let live. So why do I suddenly feel the desire to unfriend people now? Probably because folks I've known for years appear to have lost their minds. How can you go from "stay inside or you'll kill grandma" to "join me on the streets or you're part of the problem" almost overnight? Some of the most strident social distance advocates are now arm-in-arm spreading the virus everywhere because something new has captured their attention. You can't really have it both ways. I wish everyone would just quit virtue signaling. It's not a good look. Nobody is as virtuous in real life as they like to appear on the Internet anyway.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3386

And just like that, Google+ was gone. I thought the last day was going to be today, but I guess it was actually yesterday. Everything I posted to Google+ over the years has simply disappeared. I was going to write a goodbye post like everybody else, encouraging people to follow me somewhere else. Too late now. I still think Google+ was the best social network. The whole idea of circles was so much better than friends or followers. I'm going to miss this place. It was definitely an idea worth keeping.

My teeth are still in good condition. The dental hygienist cleaned my teeth and I got new x-rays, but that was it. When I was younger I was lucky if I went to the dentist every ten years. Now I go every six months and do everything the dentist recommends. Eventually, you realize that you've only got one body and it's up to you to take care of it. Surprisingly, my dentist said it was just fine to continue wearing my broken Essix retainer. "It still fits perfectly," He told me as he inserted the left side and then the right side. I was worried that my teeth might have shifted, but the dentist said I was imagining things. "This retainer is a very tight fit," he told me. "If your teeth had shifted, you wouldn't be able to put it on." Works for me. I'm always happy when someone wants to save me a little money.

I got some bad news from the synthesizer repairman today. One of the Sequential Circuits synthesizers I've having restored can't be fixed. A critical custom voice chip is no longer available. Two of the three synthesizers are working perfectly now, but this one will only be good for parts. The technician has already spent a lot of time trying to repair this thing. I hate paying for something that will never work, but the technician has spent months working on these ancient analog synthesizers. He did the best he could. You win some. You lose some.

I wish Dash's appetite would return. He's gone through at least two episodes before where he was an extremely picky eater and it is always frustrating. In the past, his appetite has always returned after a few weeks. Hopefully, it will this time too. Usually by the end of the day we manage to get him to eat something. A lot of food gets wasted and he's still not eating enough. We're constantly changing things to find something he likes. It's hard to tell if this is a physical or a mental problem. We've got a vet appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning to examine his mouth. There's a good chance that his gum infection could be part of the problem.

When I was clearing out my spam folder on the mail server this afternoon, I became alarmed at the enormous amount of phishing attacks that were headed my way. I called tech support and asked if this was normal. "Sadly yes," the technician told me. "These people are relentless." I never could have predicted thirty years ago that most of the messages I receive would be attempts to scam me. My hosting company has an excellent spam filter and Nomorobo catches most of the telemarketing spam on my phone. It's still irritating though. You shouldn't have to feel like you're constantly under siege.

Hopefully we can get Dash's gingivitis under control when we visit the vet tomorrow. It would be so much easier if a dog's dental exam was as simple as the one I had today. When it became unsafe to anesthetize Dash for routine dental cleanings, his mouth began to go downhill. Maybe if we can find the right antibiotic we can still clear this problem up.

I'm still not getting enough sleep, but what else is new.

Miracle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3368

Breakfast almost turned into lunch today. Dash stumbled a lot on his morning walk. He peed in the house twice. He wouldn't eat his breakfast. And then he kept trying to get on the bed as I was trying to leave. We can't leave Dash unattended on the bed anymore. He has trouble getting up on his own and there's a risk that he will fall off and hurt himself. It made Dash mad to go to his safe place. I knew he was tired, so I stayed with him until he calmed down and went to sleep. I don't blame Dash for being frustrated. I'm sure he just wants to be a young dog again. Don't we all.

Needless to say, I was a little late in getting started today. Why was the restaurant full at this time of day? I was amazed that so many people were eating breakfast at 11 AM. This was a work day too. I'm amazed at a lot these days. So much has changed in the world and most of the changes make no sense to me. I was curious why all these people were eating so late. They couldn't all have a sick dog at home. As usual, I was probably the only one out of sync. As I was leaving, I noticed that I was the only person in the entire place that was eating alone.

There were more bills to pay today. It seems like there were always bills to pay. I guess I could set up auto-pay so I wouldn't have to keep making constant trips to the post office but I'm afraid that I could easily lose track of things. When I'm paying bills manually, at least I'm aware when companies raise their prices and start charging me more. Everybody follows the same formula. They offer an attractive introductory rate to get your business and hope you forget that the offer is temporary. As soon as the introductory period runs out, rates jump dramatically.

Although it was cold this morning, the day turned out nicely. By the time we took our afternoon walk, the weather was beautiful. I'm starting to see early wildflowers, but it's hard to photograph them while I'm walking Dash. He stumbled even more on his afternoon walk than he did this morning. I did a good job of keeping him from falling, but it can be difficult walking a dog with two leashes. I feel like a puppeteer sometimes. There is a leash at the neck and another at his tail. I keep each leash taunt while still allowing Dash to walk as naturally as he can. When I feel him start to stumble, I pull up on the appropriate leash to keep him upright. The special Help 'Em Up Harness make this all possible. Walking is a team effort now, but it's worth it. If you have a dog with mobility problems, it makes a huge difference if you can find a way to let them move around normally.

Google+ is going away very soon. I get daily messages urging me to back up my data before everything disappears. I wonder why I still post every day if everything is going away. It's kind of sad. Google+ was the only social network I actually liked. I never really understood Twitter. Hashtags and 140 character messages were never my cup of tea. My Facebook timeline is mostly just a bunch of dog pictures. There's nothing wrong with dog pictures, but I actually learned lots of new stuff reading Google+ in the early days. All I'm learning now is that Google is terrible at keeping promises.

One of my back up UPS boxes has a bad battery again. This is an older Uninterrupted Power Supply and I think I've already replaced the batteries before. I'll drop it off at the repair shop tomorrow when I go grocery shopping. I feel sorry for people who have bought an electric car. They haven't owned these cars long enough to realize how evil batteries can be. They always go bad and usually at the worst possible time. I think I'd much rather replace a fuel pump or a head gasket than to replace all the batteries in a Tesla. I really wish everything just worked perfectly forever, but that's not going to happen.

Carmine is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3323

I forgot what day is was again. It's easy to do. Every day begins the same way. I wake up at some point to take Dash outside or clean up poop. If the cleanup is easy, I go back to bed for a while. If it is more extensive, I just stay up. Dash always gets a walk before breakfast. When we return, I pop a Community Coffee Dark Roast pod in the Keurig and start making my smoothie. Turning on the television seldom gives me a clue about what day it is. It's always just something about the ongoing Russia Probe. Enough already. Dash usually poops again just as I am getting ready to eat. Today he made a mess in the office. I wish he'd stay on the bricks, but the bricks are slippery. I can't really blame him for preferring the carpets.

Not that it mattered, but I eventually figured out it was Tuesday instead of Wednesday. I called in some prescriptions for Dash and when they were ready to pick up, I stopped by the hardware store on the way to the vet and got another tube of Shoe Goo. I think I'm keeping the Shoe Goo company in business. The stuff really does help to extend the life of Dash's protective boots.

I guess I'll go ahead and renew my web hosting account, even though it has become too expensive. Truthfully, I don't even know why I have a website anymore. If I shut everything down, I doubt that anyone would notice. There are a few animal rescue sites on the server that are important, but I could care less about my own site. I haven't updated anything in years.

I didn't always feel this way. There was a time when I had a really high Klout score and lots of Twitter followers. I was even listed as one of the top photographers on Google+ for a while. I'll miss Google+ when it disappears in a couple of months. This was the only social media network I actually liked. Too late now. Google+ is going the way of AOL and floppy discs. It's a shame. Back in the day, it was so much better than Facebook. Sadly Google+ never became popular which it probably exactly why it was so good.

The gas company repair crews are still in the neighborhood, but they've moved further away from the house. I'm curious about what they are doing, but not curious enough to go up and ask them. I'll wonder for a while until Spring growth in the park covers all the backhoe tracks in the dirt. Eventually, a neighbor will tell me what has happened long after I've forgotten the entire incident.

I've got to stop taking pictures of Pansies at the hardware store. I can do better. Unfortunately, these are the only flowers I've seen lately. It's Winter and wildflowers won't start appearing in the park again until late March or early April. How did I used to take interesting pictures every single day? It's a mystery now. Maybe I was just more interested in my surroundings.

Tomorrow actually is Wednesday. I'll keep that in mind as I follow a routine that is almost guaranteed to be remarkably similar to today's. Venus, the Moon, and Jupiter will be grouped together in the morning sky tomorrow. If Dash gets me up early, maybe I'll take a look.

Spirit is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3214

Jeez. I'm getting so tired of politics. I feel like yelling "You guys are doing it all wrong" to both political parties. I'm sure nobody will listen but I'm convinced that Democrats would do a lot better if they abandoned their confrontational, in-your-face tactics and the Republicans would do better if they completely rethought their stance on immigration.

The other day I heard a Democratic friend say that they thought it was important to get out the vote, but they were afraid they might actually be encouraging someone to vote Republican. Bingo. Every time an angry mob screams obscenities from a Senate Gallery or chases a Senator out of a restaurant, you risk encouraging a non voter to get off the couch and vote against you. I don't think the politics of rage actually works. A lot of people have enough problems in their lives already. The last thing they want is a political circus. These undecided people may not march or put up yard signs, but when you make them feel like it is unsafe to go out to dinner or even enjoy a movie they will vote against you. If you block traffic with a protest on their way to work, they will definitely vote against you.

If the Democrats need to become less confrontational, the Republicans need to quit antagonizing Hispanics. What is wrong with you guys? Hispanics are practically begging to become Republicans. These guys are entrepreneurial. They work hard and tend to form businesses at a much higher rate than the general population. They still believe in the nuclear family and their kids tend to grow up with both a Mom and a Dad. They're even more religious than the general population. Isn't this the demographic you've been looking for? Republicans should be working to reform immigration laws and make it easier for Hispanics to become citizens. Quit being stupid. Welcome these guys into the fold and you could stay in power forever.

I can't quite put my finger on what has made our political system so crazy, but I think social media has a lot to do with it. Remember the Arab Spring? Everyone thought that sharing things in real time on Facebook and Twitter was going to bring democracy to the middle east. It brought total chaos instead. Libya, Egypt, and Syria crumbled. Maybe we're next. I think we need to bring back the smoke filled room where politicians can create practical, workable compromises without the scrutiny of social media pressure and a 24-hour news cycle. Winston Churchill, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and many others would never have survived in a world dominated by silly memes and Instagram pictures.

I'm discouraged by politics, but I was encouraged that the market rallied today. Maybe this week's free fall was just a normal market correction or perhaps the selloff was an investor temper tantrum about interest rates. All I know is that I'm too old to weather another major crash.

I'm probably too old to deal with my perpetual roof problems as well. I'm almost certain the roof will leak again tonight. We had a horrendous, heavy rainfall this afternoon. That's usually all it takes. I've called the roofers several times but I'm sure that there are leaks all over town. I wouldn't be surprised if the roofers were planning to move to Florida for six months. I hear that there's lots of roof work in the Panhandle.

Dash seemed like a normal dog today. I don't know how the little guy does it. He's like the Energizer Bunny of Dalmatians.

Kuuipo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3199

Wow. What an ugly day. The hearings were hard to avoid. They were on every channel for the entire day. Dr. Ford was credible and her supporters will believe her completely. Judge Kavanaugh was credible and his supporters will continue to stand by him. I don't think a single opinion was changed today. I do think the country was harmed. Weaponizing sex for political purposes will have repercussions for decades. Turning our justice system upside down and deciding that a person is guilty until proven innocent is breathtaking and almost Stalinist in nature. Both of these tactics were terrible ideas. You may be passionate about who sits on the Supreme Court and think that the end justifies the means. If you feel this way, you may be forgetting about the law of unintended consequences. In the long run, what happened today will not be good for women. It will not be good for men. And it will not be good for the country.

I felt sad watching today's hearings. I kept hoping that sanity would prevail, but it never did. Lines have been drawn in the sand and I don't think anyone is giving an inch. We didn't use to be this kind of a country. I really think we are headed toward a second civil war. It's so sad. When we believed that we were a great melting pot and shared a common set of values, the United States was the greatest country in the world. All that is gone now. I think the future belongs to China. The Chinese don't have to deal with the chaos and discord we witnessed today. Democracy is messy. Perhaps it is too messy to succeed in a world where politicians see no problem in unleashing flash mobs to harass their opponents in restaurants.

No wonder that so many people on Facebook say they prefer dogs to people. People are horrible. The world would be a better place if people spent more time taking their dogs on long walks and less time letting something they saw on their phone work them into a frenzy. It's not going to happen though. Social media is a Pandora's Box that can't be closed.

I spent too much time watching TV today, but there was still poop to clean up and pills to administer. Dash fell again today and I had to put his harness on while he was struggling on the floor so I could lift him up. Dash panics when he can't get up and it's difficult to help him. I think it's time for him to wear his special harness full time. He's still eating well though and enjoys his slow walks. I wish I could make him younger. I wish I could make myself younger as well. Truthfully, I wouldn't want to be young in today's world. I'd rather take a time machine back to 1950 instead.

I just finished taking this week's trash out to the curb. I can't decide whether to go back to the hotel for breakfast. The food and atmosphere are great, but the menu is very limited. I think I've already tried everything. This week went quickly, but apparently not quickly enough. What a mess. I'd love to see sanity return next week, but I'm not counting on it.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1751

It was interesting to see how the Ebola news developed today. First you would hear local chatter on Twitter. There are so many people who either work or have friends in health care that news travels quickly. Shortly after rumors start flying on Twitter, local talk radio shows are filled with callers talking about the same thing. A few hours later, the same stories start to appear on prominent local, and even national, media blogs. TV news crews seem to pick up the story very late in the game, and finally, at the end of the entire process, a public official eventually issues a statement. There were Tweets about where the Ebola victim lived, what airline he flew to Dallas on, and where the children he exposed went to school several hours before the same news appeared on the local television stations.

With all the talk about how Ebola is transmitted, there's been a lot of local interest in the safety of the sewage system. Surely the guy pooped after he arrived in town. Where is that poop now? They say the virus can live a long time under moist conditions. At any rate,  I wouldn't want to be a worker at the local sewage treatment plant. I don't think I'd want to be a plumber either. One of the most persistent questions I hear is "If there is nothing to worry about, why are all you guys wearing HazMat suits?" I wonder about this myself.

Other than the occasional worry that Dallas will be where the zombie apocalypse begins, it was a fairly normal day. I spent the day doing the usual mix of website revisions and writing assignments. Some of the website work I did today involved redoing what did yesterday. That's pretty normal too. If I didn't redo a lot of things, I would have very little to do.

When we went to dog training class tonight, the sodium vapor lights that illuminate the field at night unexpectedly went out. Without these lights, it is really dark. I'm surprised that the dogs did as well as they did under these conditions. I could still see Dash pretty well, since he is basically white with a few black spots. The owners of the Labs weren't so lucky. Their dogs just seemed to disappear in the darkness.

I thought my fire ant bites would be gone by now, but they seem to have gotten worse. After doing a little reading, I discovered that this was normal. When the hard red welts caused by the bites start to blister, they can itch intensely. I'm in the itchy stage right now. They say that this can last for up to a week. It helps to keep things in perspective though. An ant bite is no big deal when there's an Ebola outbreak a few miles down the road.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1652

Another rainy day. I don't think I would mind the rain so much if the dogs were better sports about it. They not only hate the rain, they are fearful of it. It's not a good combination. I tried to time their morning walk between showers and was mostly successful. Dot is very practical on these rainy day walks. She does her business quickly and is immediately ready to turn around and go home. Dash, on the other hand, is oblivious to an approaching storm until he actually gets wet. Then he freaks out and wants to run all the way home, which of course Dot can't do anymore. I'm always happy when I get the two of them back home in one piece without getting drenched.

I got another jury summons today. I wish they'd just leave me alone. It's a huge waste of time to spend the day sitting in the jury pool. I never get picked to sit on a jury panel anyway. I've been doing this for years and years and lawyers for both sides don't seem to think I would be beneficial to their case. Almost inevitably, I am dismissed about 3 PM to go home without serving on a jury at all. Maybe I can postpone this summons one more time, but I have a feeling that I may have used up my allotted excuses.

There were more animal rescue websites to update this morning. I still think these websites are important, but I'm beginning to wonder if anyone reads them. Increasingly, adoptions and rescue communications are being handled through Facebook. Facebook just works better, because that's where the people are. Facebook has proved more effective for fundraising, for showcasing adoptable animals, and for raising awareness about important issues. I'm pretty sure that the only time people visit the rescue websites is when there's a link to them on Facebook.

Sadly, I could say exactly the same thing about this blog. I think there are only three people left in the entire world who actually leave comments on the blog itself. The rest see my posts only when they are syndicated to Facebook. In retrospect, I think blogging was most popular before social media existed. I remember lively discussions on all sorts of blogs that are largely silent now. Back in the day, even my business website got lots of comments and feedback. That would be unheard of now. Most businesses can't even get their customers to leave a short review on Yelp. Clicking on the "Like" button is all you're going to get these days. I'm as bad as the rest of you. All I do is click on the "Like" button, although I do wish sometimes there was a "Dislike" button as well.

I just looked at the weather report and it is supposed to rain for the rest of the week. Maybe this would be a good time to get to know those "hundreds of channels" I supposedly now have access to on my Roku streaming stick.

Rio is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day