Day 3416

I was wrong about the weather yesterday. We were in the path of a big storm after all. It just arrived a little later than I expected. I can't relax during storms anymore. I keep expecting a leak to appear in the living room, the power to go out, the greenhouse roof to blow away, or a large tree to fall on the house. All these things have happened in the past. I went outside and started the two sump pumps. I moved some of the furniture in the living room. And I tried to go to sleep. It was really all I could do.

The pumps ran all night and they were still pumping water off the roof early this morning. We got a lot of rain but we didn't lose power and the roof didn't leak. I wish I could say that the rain was over but I think we're going to get a repeat performance tonight. By the time I finished breakfast, the last of today's bad weather had moved to the East and I was able to take my morning walk. I saw the pelican flying low over the lake this morning. It was looking for a fish to eat. I'm glad the bird isn't injured, but I'm still puzzled why it didn't join the other pelicans on their annual Spring migration.

I got my phone bill today and was surprised to see that it had gone up. At first I though I had been charged extra for using the phone while I was in Houston, but there are no roaming charges anymore. My bill has been exactly the same for several years now. When I looked for an explanation for the increase I saw a small item in fine print that just said "service changes." I certainly haven't made any changes, so I called customer service to see what was going on. "Oh, AT&T raised your rates," the lady told me. "We grandfathered your plan for as long as we could, but we needed to bring you into line with current rates." I was irritated, but I wasn't really surprised. This was exactly what the storage warehouse people did to me. Why should the phone company be any different.

I'm not a big fan of the subscription economy. I think the whole idea is to get you hooked on something and then continuously raise your rates. Netflix does this. Microsoft does this. It looks like the phone company does it too. The world was much simpler when you could watch TV over the air for free and actually owned the software and entertainment you bought. I'm still using a fifteen year old version of Microsoft Word because I just don't feel like paying over and over again for Office 365.

You'd think I'd be getting a lot more done without a dog to take care of, but actually I'm doing less. I've lost my focus. I'm sure this will change. I'm just not clear what comes next. Walking is good. I've started fixing myself more interesting things for dinner. I'm going to continue photographing plants and animals in the park even though I've already documented everything ten times over. Janet wants to travel. Somehow I don't think going to the post office counts as travel.

Bogart 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 1239

Today was a succession of small errands. I went to the post office. I went to the pharmacy. I went to Janet's dentist several times to drop her off and pick her up again later. In between these errands, I added a bunch of new adoptable animals to a rescue website and turned a bunch of navel oranges into juice. There was something strange about these oranges because it was very difficult to get the skin off so I could put them in the juicer. Most oranges are easy to peel, but the rind on these seemed welded to the fruit inside. It took me forever to get them all peeled.

I was real disappointed about Adobe's announcement that in the future, all Creative Suite products will be available by subscription only. I use Photoshop, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver all the time. I'd hate to have to pay for these products by the month, just like I do for U-verse TV. I have always disliked renting things, but in a culture where people increasingly rent or lease their homes, their furniture, and their cars, I guess renting your software doesn't seem so strange. Renting isn't for me though. I'll keep using my old version of Photoshop for a long time before I'll start renting it for $49 a month.

I think I'm going to use the roofer my architect friend recommended. I probably won't know if this was the right decision until about five years from now, when I see whether the roof is still keeping the water out. We'll see how it goes. Most of the people I know hate to make recommendations. Can you blame them? I don't like to make recommendations either, because things go wrong so often. Nevertheless, I'm going with the guy the architect suggested. I still think I'd trust an architect more than Angie's List.

I'm supposed to write an article tomorrow as if I just returned from Switzerland. The cheapskate clients didn't actually want to send me to Switzerland, so they just sent me a few quotes from a guy who'd been there. Ah, the excitement of the writing life. You get to travel to anywhere Wikipedia will take you.

Tomorrow, Dot goes to see the acupuncturist again.Too bad I can't get the vet to stick a few needles in me while I'm there. I was skeptical about the treatments at first, but I've become a believer. The acupuncture therapy really seems to have done Dot some good.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day