Day 2586

I discovered something today. I like rice noodles better than wheat noodles, but whenever I order something online from Pei Wei, there is only a single item on the menu made with rice noodles. Hey, I like Pad Thai, but it always seemed to me that some of the other dinners would taste good with rice noodles too. Today, instead of ordering online, I called the restaurant and asked if I could substitute rice noodles for wheat noodles. "Sure," the guy told me. "You can substitute anything you want." "But it's not an option on the website," I said. Well, yes," the guy told me, "but you can still do it. Do you want to order something right now?" Such a simple solution. Once again, the old fashioned telephone proved to be a better solution than the latest technology.

I think people have forgotten that conversation can solve a myriad of problems. When I have a tech support problem, I always call someone on the phone. Those chat windows that appear on your browser never seem to provide the solution I need. e-mail is frustrating too. You just spend a lot of time typing. Text messages are even worse. I hate it when someone sends me a two word text message and I have to spent ten minutes composing a multi-paragraph reply on a tiny phone keyboard. I don't understand why people don't like the telephone anymore. When the answer is anything other than yes or no, you still need to talk with someone.

I'm kind of a paradox. The telephone is still my preferred method of communication, but I rarely answer my phone. I used to always answer the phone until telemarketers spoiled everything. Now, there's a 98% chance you'll be talking to a telemarketer if you don't recognize the number on your caller ID. The phone is a one way device for me. I only use it for outbound calls. Even outbound calls can test my patience. I hate waiting while listening to a recorded message saying "please stay on the line for the next available agent."

Maybe when you reach the "get off my lawn" stage of life, everything becomes a frustration. I've certainly noticed that more things irritate me than they used to. I was such an easy going person for most of my life and now every day is a series of irritating events. Today, I was furious when I finally got Dash in the mood to walk this afternoon, only to run into a young couple with four large loose dogs as soon as we arrived at the park. It was obvious that the couple couldn't control the dogs, because they were yelling at them to come back while the dogs were racing all over the place. I quickly turned around and went the other way. A pack of dogs coming after Dash was not something I wanted to deal with. I'm seeing more and more loose dogs in the park, even though there are signs all over the place saying that this is illegal. The owners of these dogs are almost always young millennials who are having a picnic, sitting in a hammock, smoking a joint, or doing everything except watching their dogs. I loved the park when it was just empty, undeveloped land. Now that the city has spent a lot of money making the park a recreational destination, I'm always having to deal with my fellow citizens. Dealing with other people is almost always frustrating.

I got a writing assignment today that I'm almost certain that I already wrote in 2013. That's how long I've been working with some of my writing clients. Was this a case of everything old is new again, or did they just forget that I'd already written the article?  I showed the guys the article I was talking about, but haven't received an answer on how to proceed. Maybe after writing over 700 articles, you eventually just run out of new things to talk about.

Dot is definitely not leaking as much. If I take her outside at least once every three hours, she is more or less peeing normally again. I'm surprised that the Incurin is working, since it is primarily prescribed for hormone-responsive urinary incontinence in younger dogs. Dot's problem is severe nerve damage from a spinal injury. She can't even wag her tail anymore.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. I hope the rain isn't severe, because I'll have to cancel going out for breakfast. The dogs still freak out in a thunderstorm. Hey, there's a loaf of bread in the refrigerator. If it rains, I'll make French Toast. That's almost as good as going out.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1637

The power went out as we were waking up this morning. Janet had to go to work with wet hair, since the power went out while she was in the shower. I had to stay home with storm phobic dogs, who seem to think a power outage is a sign that the end of the world is near. The storm was brief, but it packed a punch. When the cold front passed through and the rain stopped for a while, I was finally able to walk the dogs and immediately noticed large downed trees all over the park. We must have had some severe straight line winds during the storm. Despite all the damage in the park, none of the trees in our yard were damaged. We got lucky. The dogs got muddy, I ate a very late breakfast, and everything ended well. By 10 AM the power was back on again.

These periodic power outages are so common that I know the drill by heart now. I immediately call the power company on the land line to report the outage before the battery backup for the IP phone system goes out. You have to report the outage on the automated system using a land line, so the power company knows your location. This might have made sense back in the days when everyone used an old fashioned analog phone where the phone line provided the power.  Now, most people's phones go out when the power goes out. Strangely, if you report an outage using a cell phone, your location isn't identified at all. Luckily, I have a four hour battery backup on the IP phone system. After I call in the outage, I look for the camping lanterns, so we can find our way around, disconnect the alarm system, so it won't trigger an alarm when the power is reconnected, and turn off the air conditioner, so a power surge won't cause the power to go out again when electricity is restored. Finally, it's time for the most important thing: keeping the dogs calm.

When life eventually returned to normal, I fired up the computer and began my Monday website updates. The updates didn't take that long, so I still had time to finish doing my June invoices and take them to the post office before the rain started again. It continued to rain off and on for the rest of the day. We got another break in the rain around dinner time, so the dogs were able to have their evening walk as well.

Dash's radiation treatments are finished, but Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are still chemotherapy days. After dinner, I put Dot in the bedroom, get out my purple rubber chemo gloves and place Dash's three chemo pills in a dog food meatball. After Dash takes his pills, I clean the gloves with alcohol and put them away until the next time. I can't imagine that the pills are really this dangerous, but I'm just following directions.

It looks like it's going to be sunny tomorrow. I hope so. Maybe I can clear the water off the roof and get caught up on work again. Even though I don't like rain, I'll have to admit that rainy days are good for flower pictures. The soft light is just about perfect.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 606

Janet had to make some airline reservations last night and when she printed out the receipt, she discovered that American Airlines had added a $50 surcharge for talking to a reservations agent on the phone. I couldn't believe it. I knew that airlines were pushing people to do everything online these days, but this seemed pretty extreme. These guys really didn't want you to call them on the phone. It's probably a sign of things to come. I find it harder and harder to get a real person on the phone for any situation. Automated phone systems are almost impenetrable. There is usually a secret word that will let you bypass the automated messages and talk to a real person, but nobody wants to tell you the secret. Once, when I was stuck in automated message hell for fifteen minutes with Paypal, I finally got someone to tell me that if you said the word agent very quickly three times in a row, you could bypass the robots and get a real agent. Virtual agents on websites are even worse. Why spend ten minutes typing back and forth when a short conversation would resolve everything. Somehow, we have taken a wonderful invention like the telephone and ruined it.

It finally rained today. Well, technically it rained last night, but it was still sprinkling a little early this morning. Even though I didn't get the roof patched in time, I was still happy to see the cooler weather. The temperature must have been twenty degrees lower today. It was actually quite pleasant. The only one who didn't like the rain was Dot. Dot hates rain and even this gentle shower stressed her out. She got so worked up, she threw up right after breakfast. Once the rain stopped, she was right back to normal though.

I have to design a new website this weekend. I don't have any information to put on the pages, but that's never stopped me before. I'll just insert some plausible placeholder information until the real information eventually materializes. I'm always amazed at how often the real information never appears and my placeholder text gradually becomes the real text by default.

When I was running errands today, I noticed that the left rear tire on the Defender was quite low. One good thing about off-road tires is that they'll run with almost no air in them. I continued my shopping and when I eventually got home with the groceries, I dug the air compressor out from under a pile of Dalmatian Rescue event paraphernalia and pumped all the tires up again. Seems like I did something like this three or four months ago. I must have a slow leak.

I made good progress on my website design this afternoon and with any luck at all, I'll finish things up tomorrow with plenty of time left over to vacuum the house and take the dogs to the dog park.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day