Day 2882

I was locked out of a shopping website this morning because I had too many unsuccessful login attempts. I was confused. I was pretty sure that I remembered my password. I kept entering it again and again to no avail. Eventually, I called customer service and explained my problem. "Did you really mean to append your e-mail address with .con," the representative asked me. Oops. I'd made a typo when I filled out my application. I meant to say .com of course. This is what happens when you get old. Ten seconds of sloppy typing equates to forty-five minutes on the phone with customer service. Now I know why I haven't been receiving an avalanche of spammy e-mails from these folks. They've been sending everything to my .con address.

It took me much longer than expected to write my article today. For starters, I forgot about the assignment and began gluing rubber patches on another pair of Dash's protective boots. I used to be able to finish these assignments in a couple of hours, but this one took most of the afternoon. One problem now is that I have to spend more time proofreading. My Bluetooth keyboard is getting old and occasionally skips letters unless I remember to press the keys very firmly. I've got to figure out how to turn adaptive spelling off too. The computer is always trying to turn the words I intended into something else. Sometimes I have to read a piece three times to catch these mistakes. It's insidious. I never realized how spoiled I was during my early ad agency years. I would just hand a draft to a copy secretary and they would clean everything up for me. How times have changed.

A really large hawk swooped down and landed in the back yard this afternoon. I was outside at the time and the bird startled me. There are lots of raptors in the area, but this was the first time I've seen one in the yard. I wish I'd had my camera handy. The hawk only stayed a few seconds and then it flew away. I'm usually not quick enough to capture these chance wildlife encounters. The only thing I can reliably photograph are squirrels. Our trees are like high rise condominiums for squirrels. They're everywhere.

I called my new doctor about a mistake I saw on the prescriptions they'd renewed for me. A nurse told me that there was a glitch in their practice management software and that the pharmacist would just ignore the mistake when he refilled the prescription. This never would have happened with my old doctor. He still scrawled his prescriptions on a small pad of paper with the indecipherable handwriting that doctor's are famous for. I guess hand written prescriptions are a thing of the past too. My new ones came straight out of the computer. Even the doctor's signature was digitized.

The battery on my Apple Watch is starting to go bad. I'm not surprised. This is a Series 1 watch and Apple is already up to Series 3. Things last just long enough until a newer version becomes available. The problem is I don't want a new watch, I just want a new battery. Some things are easy to repair, but an Apple Watch isn't one of them. I looked up a repair guide on the IFIXIT site and I can assure you that I'll never attempt to change the battery myself. The procedure is very complex and seems certain to fail if you are even slightly clumsy. Maybe I'll just power the watch down and turn it on again. This seems to be the universal repair procedure for all electronic devices.

I wish there wasn't still rain in the forecast. I'm not busy this week and this would have been a good time to finish repairing the roof.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2858

It doesn't look like I'll have to take the refrigerator apart this weekend after all. The temperature is holding steady. I have no idea why the temperature is getting cooler again, but I'll take it. I think we're probably good until the repairmen shows up Monday afternoon.

Dash let us sleep in until about seven-thirty this morning. He ate a good breakfast and then took a surprisingly long walk. This improvement is as much of a mystery as the refrigerator, but I'm happy to see our guy in good spirits again. I know he isn't entirely happy about the protective gear he has to wear. It's helping though. He doesn't lift one of his rear legs very well when he walks and he had ground down several of his nails all the way to the quick. Two of them were even starting to bleed. The protective boots keep his paws safe and the nails are starting to grow back again. I hope the knee brace is equally effective. Dash walks a little stiffly wearing the brace, but I think this is what is supposed to happen. By restricting his range of motion a bit, his knee will have a chance to heal.

I guess fresh peaches are finally out of season. I've been enjoying them in my morning smoothie, but they're getting harder to find at the grocery store. Peaches are more expensive now and are starting to taste mushy. I guess peaches are harder to grow in a greenhouse. Strawberries and blueberries are available all year long. I know there is a season for those berries as well, but it doesn't seem to matter.  You can almost always find good strawberries.

I upgraded the newer iPad to IOS 11. I kind of hope that I don't like the new operating system. If I do, I will be forced to get a new phone. My old phone can't be upgraded anymore and is stuck forever at IOS 10.3.3. My old original iPad is stuck way back at IOS 5.1.1. Apple used to be much better at making sure that their software worked with older products. Like most manufacturers, they've discovered that planned obsolescence is much more profitable. Computers are one of the few tools that become obsolete even when they are still working perfectly. I still have some hand tools that my Dad got from his father. A good hammer will last for a hundred years. A good computer probably won't last for five.

When I was recording some purchases in Quickbooks this afternoon, I noticed an entry from 12/10/17. That hasn't even happened yet. It took me quite a while to figure out where this entry actually belonged. We've all gotten so used to spellcheck that we become complacent and don't think we make mistakes anymore. I'm amazed at how many mistakes I make. I'm a typo factory these days. I wonder how many other undiscovered errors are hidden away in Quickbooks, Word, and Excel? I've even gotten the day count wrong on the blog and I don't have a clue where the error is.

A storm is headed our way. We really need the rain, but I'm always apprehensive about bad weather. I've been watching the storm approach on the weather radar and hope that nothing bad happens. I think the cold front and accompanying rain are supposed to arrive around 2 AM. Maybe we'll just sleep through it. That would certainly be better than having Dash freak out when he hears thunder. I don't want any more large branches falling on the roof either. Let's not even think about a power outage.

The good thing about the rain is that it's supposed to be clear and much cooler by morning. That would be nice. A clear Fall morning is exactly what I need.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2464

A client wanted some advice about where to host his website. He gave me a price for 32 years and asked me if it was a good deal. I've been doing this for a long time, but I'd never heard of anyone wanting to renew a hosting agreement for 32 years at a time. I did the math and converted the price to a more normal 3 or 5 year contract. OK. The price was in the ball park. Later in the day the client said he'd made a typo and the price was actually just for 3 years. Oops. That changes everything. The price suddenly seemed insanely high. You've got to watch those typos.

This error on the client's part must have been an omen, because my own day was filled with a host of little errors and few of them worked out in my favor. After cleaning a poop soiled rug that took an inordinately long time to dry, I put it down on the floor again and within five minutes Dot pooped on the same rug all over again.

I went up on the roof to mark the bad spots for the roofers and discovered a lot of brand new areas where the elastometric coating was peeling away. The roof had deteriorated further over the weekend. Some of the new damage was on patches that had been applied less than a month ago. This is not good. I really need an entirely new roof, but it is going to be very difficult to convince the roofer that the roof is fundamentally defective.

I finally got around to opening the package of printer ink I'd ordered recently and discovered that the company had sent me the wrong ink. Now, instead of just installing the cartridges in the printer, I will need to return the ink and have my supplier reship the correct cartridges. The supplier apologized and said they ship me replacement cartridges today, but this was one more instance where something that should have been easy turned into something difficult.

When I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, one of my refills was on back order, so I'll need to go back again tomorrow. This wasn't a big deal, but it made me tired. I don't like taking these pills in the first place. Somebody ought to make the whole process easier. It seems like I'm always asking doctors to renew prescriptions or returning to the pharmacy to pick up something that the automatic refill process said was ready. I just need to resign myself to the fact that nothing is going to work flawlessly ever again. The world is broken.

Dash woke me up coughing last night and Janet and I were both worried that he had kennel cough. Dot is so fragile now that the last thing we need is for her to get sick. I made a mental not to call the vet, but this morning everything seemed fine. Dash hasn't coughed all day. I don't know what was going on last night, but my theory is that he ate a frog when he went out to pee last night. Our yard has been full of frogs and toads lately and the dogs are very curious about them.

I have a lot of little chores on my to-do list for tomorrow. I hope at least a few of them go smoothly.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1338

I took the Defender in for service this morning and ended up driving home in a new Range Rover Evoque. I'm kind of glad the dealer gave me a loaner with hail damage because I'm always nervous of getting a ding in these loaner cars. This one was so full of dings that I've got nothing to worry about. The Evoque seems to get a lot of good press, but I'd never buy one. It's too small, too low to the ground, and has terrible viability. I don't know who they're marketing this car to. It's not an off-road vehicle. It's not a family SUV. And it's not really pretty enough to be a sports car. I sure hope they don't make the new Defender look anything like these things.

This was another day where I had to schedule everything around a series of brief but intense rainstorms. The dogs managed to get both their walks, but just barely. Both times, there was a downpour within minutes of returning to the house.  When the sun came out right after lunch, I used the opportunity to clear the water off the roof. That was pretty dumb, because two hours later, it was raining again.

I was a little nervous about taking Dot to her acupuncture session today. Now that Dash has decided he's scared of rain too, I kept wondering if a sudden thunderclap might trigger another seizure. All was fine though. Although the sky was dark and ominous looking, it didn't rain at all while Dot and I were away. When I checked in on Dash using the nanny cam, he was sleeping on the bed, just like he always does.

In case you think I do nothing buy cater to the needs of spoiled dogs, there was other work to do as well. I finished several new articles, answered some client questions about online forms, and paid a pile of new bills that arrived in the mail today. When I entered the payments in my accounting software, they didn't balance. This happens a lot these days. No matter how careful I am, I inevitably make an erroneous entry and end up having to check everything a second time. This seems to be an unfortunate by-product of growing older. Even the simplest things seem to take an excruciatingly long time. The same thing happens when I'm writing. There are typos galore.

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow, because I've got a photo shoot scheduled. It's just some industrial photography that will ultimately wind up on a website, but it's still a nice break from sitting in a small room and writing with two dogs under my desk that think the sky is falling. I need to charge all my camera batteries and make sure the equipment is in working order before I go to bed tonight. The photography side of my business is not immune to my forgetfulness.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 687

All day long I've been hearing that a big cold front was on its way. By tomorrow morning it's supposed to get down to thirty-five degrees. The front didn't really arrive until I took the dogs on their evening walk. Just when we reached the halfway point, the wind picked up and leaves started blowing off the trees. The temperature dropped ten degrees in just a few minutes. The dogs seemed alarmed by this rapid change of affairs and were eager to get home again. The temperature continued to drop as I ate dinner, but it wasn't enough to cancel dog training class. Nobody, except for me, seems to want to wimp out on dog class, so the training went on as usual.

Some dogs were excited by the wind and others were scared of it. Most of the people were just wishing they'd worn a warmer jacket.

I got an e-mail today saying that there was a typo in one of the websites I manage. Apparently, it's should have been its. I'll admit that I should have noticed this error. Other people should have noticed the error too. Guess how long the error has been online? Would you believe eight years! I guess this proves that people just look at the pictures.

I hope it doesn't take me eight years to open the Panasonic box sitting next to my desk. It's been sitting there almost a month now with a new camera inside. Every day, I think I'm going to have time to put this camera through its paces, but then something comes up and I postpone things for another day. If history is any guide, I probably won't open the box until I need the camera for a job. I'm the same way with shoes. I have shoes that I really like, but have never taken out of the box, because the right occasion never comes up. My dog walking shoes are worn out though. That's all I seem to need these days: a warm coat and a good pair of dog walking shoes.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 510

After a week out of the office, you might expect that today would be a mess. I thought the same thing, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. I started the day out by discovering why one of the YouTube videos I uploaded last week mysteriously disappeared about an hour after it started running. You guessed it. The problem was me. I had made a typo in the video's title that led people to believe they were watching next year's trade show. Nope. I'm not Dr. Who. I just typed 2012 instead of 2011 on one of the supers. I'm surprised that I didn't notice this at the time. I'm even more surprised that nobody in the elaborate approval chain noticed it either. Luckily the problem was easy to fix. I re-edited the video right after breakfast and uploaded it again. Now, all the YouTube videos are up and running smoothly.

My first watch article is up and running on Larry Brauner's Luxury Watches blog as well. When Larry contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in blogging about watches for his growing empire of watch blogs, I was excited. Hey, I'm a pro. I'll write about anything, but getting a chance to write about something I am actually interested in is much more fun. I plan to write a new watch article every day for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, some of Larry's considerable social media expertise will rub off on me while we're working together. I'm really looking forward to working on this watch blog project in the months ahead.

I got an assignment today to design a website for the company that installed the new heat pump at my rent property last month. Too bad I didn't get the job a little earlier or I might have been able to negotiate some sort of trade-out for the expensive roof top unit that unfortunately I've already paid for. I'm always happy to get a new job however, no matter when it arrives. This is a new industry for me too. That's good! I'm really trying to expand my horizons this year, so I won't be totally dependent on veterinarians in the future.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to get paid for my week in Houston, but I'm feeling a lot more confident that I actually will get paid someday. People on two continents are looking into the matter.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day