Day 2354

I wish Steve Jobs were still alive. I never used to have problems with operating system updates, but lately the new Apple OS and IOS updates are so buggy that they seem like Beta versions. I'm almost scared to update my phone anymore, because each new IOS update seems worse than the previous one. The combination of buggy system software, spotty U-verse service, and a brand new hosting company has created a perfect storm of bad news. Just about every morning when I boot up my computer, I'm greeted with a new problem. Was my phone causing the problem? Does the WiFi router need to be re-booted again? Have I configured my webserver wrong? It's hard to even know where to begin.

I was in tech support hell for hours this morning, trying to track down why my e-mail wasn't working and I couldn't even access my own website. I finally ended up talking to a very knowledgeable IP guy who told me to call my ISP and tell them to check the routing path and clear it if necessary. This sounded easy enough, so I called AT&T and made the request. "This is beyond the scope of my capabilities," said a voice that sounded like he was talking to me from Pakistan. "I can give you the number of our paid subscription support if you'd like." "You mean that after all I pay you guys every month for U-verse service, you want to charge me extra to unscramble my flaky internet connection?" "I'm sorry," said the hard to understand voice from Pakistan. "Would you like me to send you a brand new router at no charge?" This was crazy. "You mean you guys would rather send me a new router than reset my connection." I said. I hate dealing with tech support. I've still got the problem I started out with this morning. There a new router on it's way to me that I probably won't be able to install correctly. To add to my problems, I can't decide whether to upgrade my phone to IOS 9.3.2 because I read an article that said it could turn your phone into a brick.

Since it didn't appear that my connection problems were going to be resolved quickly, I went to the battery store and special ordered a new battery for my little WiFi hotspot. T-Mobile said these batteries weren't made anymore and tried to see me a new hotspot. They were just being lazy.  I knew this battery was available somewhere because I've been replacing weird batteries for years. The new battery will arrive next Wednesday. The little WiFi hotspot is slow, but it is very reliable. Without it, I would have missed quite a few blog posts over the years.

The weather has been horrible this week. It's so humid and muggy outside that it feels like you could cut the air with a knife. My dehumidifier is working overtime to keep the air comfortable inside. Dot doesn't like the heat and humidity. I've been having a hard time getting her outside anyway now that she's become weaker, and hot, humid weather just adds to the problem. She did poop outside today, which was a small blessing. I just got lucky. When I had her outside after lunch, a big truck drove down the alley behind our house and got her so excited that she immediately started to poop. I wish I could schedule someone to drive down the alley every time I had Dot outside.

The plumber is coming back tomorrow to fix the leaking sink. This should only take a few minutes since the problem is just a compression fitting that wasn't tightened enough. The plumber better not try to charge me for this additional service call. He should have checked his work the first time he was here. After unnecessary car repair charges and a ridiculous attempt to charge me for resetting my router this morning, I'm not in the mood for unwarranted extra charges.

Maybe tomorrow will go smoothly. I'm not counting on a trouble free day, but it would be nice.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1346

When I went to my doctor's appointment today, my blood pressure was low. I wonder what that's all about? My blood pressure has been on the high side for as long as I can remember. Low blood pressure would definitely be a new wrinkle. My test today was to determine how elastic my arteries were and whether they were filled with plaque. I think I did OK on this test. The images on the screen were mostly blue anyway. I've had these tests before. Blue is usually good and red is bad.

Dot thinks she is better now and wants to resume her regular life. When I got Dash ready to go on his morning walk, Dot stood right by the front door and started slapping her leash with her paw. She was determined not to be left behind again. Since it's always hard to reason with a Dalmatian, I took both dogs on a shorter, non-strenuous walk. The walk seemed to put the dogs in a better mood, and the rest of the day was quite peaceful.

My new nanny cam quit working today. Par for the course, I guess. The camera works fine when I'm actually in the room with it, but the signal drops out as soon as I leave the house. This severely limits the usefulness of the gizmo. There was a cryptic message on the company website that said they were experiencing server problems. I'm just guessing, but the server appears to be in Sweden. Maybe that's part of the problem.

Land Rover still hasn't finished repairing the Defender 90. When I took the car in, they told me they'd have it fixed in two days. When Land Rover says two days though, they really mean two weeks. I suspect the car will be ready at the end of next week. I'm actually in no hurry to get the Defender back. The air conditioning work great on the Evoque loaner car, even though nothing else seems very reliable.

I'm really glad that Dot's condition is improving. Life seems to be returning to normal. It looks like I'm up to date on website updates and all the pending articles in my queue have been written and submitted. I even remembered to take the garbage out to the curb for tomorrow's trash pickup. Now, I just need to decide what to have for breakfast tomorrow.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1340

It had to happen. My nutritionist and my physicians are at odds with each other. The doctors now want me to stop taking all the supplements the nutritionist recommended to improve my liver function. The doctor's say these supplements and herbal medications are the only unexplained variable that might be contributing to my elevated liver enzyme levels. Not surprisingly, my nutritionist doesn't agree with this assessment. He says the enzyme levels would be even higher without the supplements. Either party could be right, but I'm inclined to go with the doctors on this one. After a very extensive Google search, I could find nothing that convinced me the recommended supplements even worked at all.

It's obvious to me that the food we eat has a huge impact on how healthy we are. What's not so obvious is why the medical community and the nutritional experts can't seem to get together on this fundamental issue. It's frustrating. Would it be too much to ask for everybody to be on the same page when it comes to diet, exercise, supplements, and meds? It' probably never going to happen though. Nobody agrees on anything these days. Pick any subject at random and you will find diametrically opposed and deeply held views.

It is my deeply held view that the technology gods were angry today. My fancy new Range Rover Evoque loaner car wouldn't go in reverse this morning. At first I didn't know what to do, since there is nothing mechanical on this car. Then I remembered what I always do with malfunctioning computers: I switch them off and then turn them back on again. I tried this a couple of times with the Evoque and it worked like a charm. As far as I'm concerned it's pretty pathetic when you have to re-boot your car to get it out of the driveway.

Later at breakfast when I tried to check on Dash using the nanny cam, there was a big red warning message on my phone that said "We are not able to establish a connection with your baby." I bet this message has made a lot of worried parents rush back to check on their baby in a big hurry. Instead of rushing home, I remembered how I'd gotten the car to go in reverse an hour earlier. I turned off the iPhone and then turned it back on again. The next time I checked the nanny cam, it worked perfectly. Dot and Dash were sleeping peacefully on the bed, just like they always do.

I still haven't gotten the standing water of the roof. It was a very busy day.  In addition to my doctor's appointment, there were photos to edit and color correct, websites to update, and two more articles to write. Somehow, I managed to squeeze in my Friday breakfast outing as well.  I don't know how peaceful the weekend will be, but there will definitely be fewer pills to take. I'm going to follow my doctor's recommendations and cut out the supplements for now.

Pogo it today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1152

I'm going to have to change my approach to problem solving. My caller ID disappeared earlier this week and my first thought was that there was something wrong with the phones themselves. The phones were fine. Next, I thought it was a problem with the line and called AT&T. The lines were fine too. Finally, a U-verse technical support guy in India asked me if I'd tried re-booting the modem. Apparently, re-booting the modem is the U-verse universal solution for everything. I re-booted the modem, just like I do when the TV goes out, and my caller ID service returned. I keep forgetting that my television, Internet, and phone service are all the same stream of broadband data.

Janet and I got our blood tested at the neighborhood health food store this morning. Traditionally, I treat myself to a huge gut-buster breakfast after fasting for these early morning cholesterol screenings. Not today! Janet and I did go out for breakfast, but I had a veggie omelet filled with red peppers, portabella mushrooms, fresh herbs and goat cheese instead of my usual sausages, bacon, pancakes and maple syrup. The veggie omelet was delicious. Who knew?

It was a gray, misty day. The dogs didn't want to go outside and neither did I. We took our regular walk anyway though, because that's what we always do. Something must have been going on at Erykah's house when we walked by. It looked like babysitters, hairdressers, public relations people, and the rest of the entourage had all gathered for something special. I have no idea what goes on in that house, but it all seems pretty exotic to me. Maybe it's because I used to be a musician myself and still occasionally fantasize about what it would be like to be a rock star. My own days as a bass player weren't glamorous at all. On those nights when I was loading the PA system back into the trailer at 2 AM and realized the entire band had only made $100 for playing a four hour set, advertising definitely seemed the more desirable career choice.

I took another jacket to the tailor this afternoon to get a new zipper sewn in. Zippers all seem to be total crap these days. I can remember when strong metal zippers were made by Talon in Meadville, Pennsylvania. These reliable zippers lasted longer than the jackets they were attached to. Now, it's all cheap plastic made-in-China zippers that don't even last a single season. Sign of the times, I guess.

I hope the weather gets a little warmer tomorrow. Dot and Dash are supposed to be in a Mardi Gras parade. Janet is putting the finishing touches on their costumes right now. If the weather gets any worse, they'll be wearing raincoats instead.

Jazz it today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 501

Focus. Focus. Focus. I've really got to focus on the important things. I went back and forth all day between chores like learning how to export Photoshop files with the correct type of alpha channel and figuring how to attach an external microphone to my iPhone to deciding what kind of shoes to wear on my trip. Probably the shoes are really the important thing. All my comfortable shoes look like shit because I walk dogs in them day after day. All my good looking shoes hurt my feet, since I hardly ever wear them. I can't really wear an old pair of hiking boots with a good suit. I still haven't decided what to do, since I'll be on my feet all day at the booth and I'll also probably have to dress up like the rest of my client's team.

After running around town again this morning, I finally have the Plan B that I need for the video shoot. I'm always nervous having just one camera. I've been looking for a way to use my iPhone as a backup video camera. The little phone takes some great looking HD video, but the sound has always been a problem. After visiting the Apple Store, Radio Shack and Fry's Electronics, I finally was able to assemble the right selection of cables and adapters that let me patch a good quality professional microphone straight into the iPhone headphone socket. Amazingly, the Rube Goldberg contraption works great. I made a quick little test video while I was eating lunch and was really pleased at the sound quality. The main Plan A camera has even better sound, so I'm feeling pretty good about the video part of my assignment now. Ironically, using a small unobtrusive camera requires a huge tangle of cables and adapters that almost defeats the whole purpose of taking the little camera in the first place. Too bad they aren't just hiring me to take pretty pictures. It's the audio side of things that's starting to weigh me down. I finally got everything to fit in the PortaBrace bag though, so it's on to other things now.

Janet and I still need to go and be roulette dealers later this evening at the Dalmatian Rescue casino party. I'm hoping to get my suitcase packed before we go. If I wait till after we get home to pack, I'm going to be so tired that I'll just start throwing things in the suitcase and wind up in Houston with two left shoes and no underwear.

It's starting to rain again too. This wasn't part of the plan. I hate leaving rainwater on the roof all week because there's sure to be a leak in the living room when I return. You can't stop the rain though. I'm just glad we aren't having tornadoes here in Dallas like they are in other parts of the country.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day