Day 2975

I had the best of intentions today. I was going to fix some things around the house, touch base with my remaining clients, and clean up all the dog poop in the yard. Since I got up later than usual, I didn't get off to a roaring start. By the time I finished taking Dash on a morning walk and made my morning smoothie, it was almost 11 AM. I don't think I was always this slow, but it's hard to remember.

The first task on the agenda was fixing a running toilet. This Porcher toilet was made in France about fifteen years ago and is almost impossible to find parts for. Unlike most toilets, you can't just go to Home Depot and buy a new float arm or fill valve. I feel like this thing was engineered by the same people who made Citroën automobiles. It is truly bizarre. The best I can do is carefully take apart the aging mechanism, clean everything as well as I can, and then put things back together. Today, I slowed the leak, but didn't stop it entirely. It was the best I could do.

I tried to find out whether the AT&T technician was going to come out today and hook up the permanent fiber optic cable, but just ended up wasting a lot of time on the phone. The help desk people in Indonesia don't really have a clue where the service guys in the trucks are. I don't really care when the guy comes out. I just wanted to make AT&T aware that there was a buried line in my yard that wasn't hooked up. The two guys that dug the hole yesterday said someone would come out today and finish the job. Not surprisingly, no one showed up.

I've been trying to talk to the guy who replaced the thermistor in my refrigerator a couple of months ago. This repairman seemed more knowledgable that the others the appliance repair shop sent out and I was hoping he could tell me whether it was worth one more try to fix my existing refrigerator. There are two more thermistors in the refrigerator. If all it took was replacing all three of them to get things running reliably again, it might be worth it. I still can't find a new refrigerator that is as good as the one I've got. I can't find the repairmen either. So far, he hasn't returned my call.

It is amazingly warm for February. I think the temperature was over 70 today. I can never get used to this rapidly changing weather. When I'm walking Dash, I always seem to be wearing too much or too little. Today was confusing. The grey overcast skies definitely looked like Winter, but the temperature felt like Spring. Dash seemed confused too. He kept sniffing the air on his morning walk and wouldn't take an afternoon walk at all.

Once again we are wondering how we can stop school shootings. I don't think it will be easy. We live in a world where Call of Duty is the most popular video game. Violent video games and movies have been a favorite of kids for almost thirty years. Mental illness is so common that it almost seems like a lifestyle choice. It is unbelievable how many people are taking anti-depressants and other psychotropic drugs these days. Social media has created a world where everyone demands instant gratification. Nobody has any patience anymore. Worst of all, when anyone talks about restricting guns, people rush out and buy even more guns. It's kind of a hopeless situation.

Personally, I think technology has advanced much more rapidly than our ability to comprehend it. Sure, we have self driving cars and everyone is connected to everyone else, but in the process we've managed to destroy a society that has worked pretty well for thousands of years. If we don't slow down, things are only going to get worse.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2403

Pokémon GO must really be a thing. I've started seeing a huge increase in the number of kids wandering aimlessly around the park while staring at their phones. I don't understand this phenomenon at all, but then I haven't played video games since Pong first arrived on the scene in 1972. The wireless carriers must love this new game. I have a feeling that a lot of these very rare Pokémon's are located well out of WiFi range.

Dot is improving. With a little assistance, she can walk slowly around the back yard now. I still have to guide her and provide some support, but I can tell that her coordination is starting to improve and she can take steps without trying to hop on one leg. It's a long, slow process to provide the rest she needs without causing her muscles to atrophy further. Like almost everything we do these days, we're taking baby steps.

I spent most of the day writing. I continue to send the completed articles to the same address that has been blocking me. I think the block has been lifted, because my mail is no longer bouncing back to me. Unfortunately, my client still can't find my messages. I think they are getting through, but are probably being quarantined in a spam folder somewhere. I send duplicate files for the time being, using both my regular account and an alternate Gmail account. I kind of wish I still had my old fax machine. It would be quicker to just fax the completed articles.

Dot's injured leg has actually provided some good news for Dash. Since Dot can't walk now, I'm taking Dash on much longer morning walks after Dot goes back to sleep after breakfast. We don't spend any more time away from home, but we walk twice as fast and cover a lot of ground. Dot's decline has taken place over such an extended length of time that I didn't really realize how much shorter our walks have become. Dash enjoys the exercise, but I'm arriving home a bit more winded than I expected. We really walked a long way when the dogs were young. I have no idea how many steps we used to take however. This was long before fitness trackers were invented.

My life is calm and steady, but every time I turn on the TV it appears like the world is in chaos. I would love to return to the days of looking forward to watching The Twilight Zone on a black and white TV with rabbit ears. I grew up in an era when nobody locked their doors at night, never wore seat belts, and thought that TV Dinners were just fine to serve company for dinner. Everybody smoked and we were only vaguely aware of cancer and the dangers of high cholesterol. We build nuclear weapons with reckless abandon and even thought we could build nuclear powered airplanes and cars. I miss those days. In an attempt to make the world a better, more rational place, we only managed to make things worse. That's the way it is with Pandora's box. You can open it, but you can never close it again.

Maybe my e-mail problems will be resolved tomorrow. If Dot continues to improve, we might try taking her on a very short walk down the alley behind our house. Baby steps.

Watson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1095

I think life is a lot like raking leaves. You rake the leaves, and then the next day, a whole new pile of leaves has taken their place.You repeat the process over and over again, but it seems to take forever before the leaves actually disappear. When the leaves are finally gone, you wonder if all the raking was actually worth the effort. Usually, it was always an exceptionally windy day, not your raking efforts, that cleared the last of the leaves away. Maybe it's just me, but I think many of us spend way too much time doing the same mind numbing things over and over again. What constitutes work for most of us is just a long series of repetitive chores. Then we come home and do laundry, make the bed, and vacuum over and over again. It's all a lot like raking leaves.

Breakfast was delicious this morning. I think the bed of pulled pork under my eggs might have been a bit off a bit though.  I've had a stomach ache for most of the day. I sure hope I haven't gotten food poisoning like Janet did last week. Food poisoning is no fun. On the plus side, it's the fastest way of losing weight I know of. The last time I got food poisoning, I lost ten pounds in less than a week.

There are too many printers in the house now. Now that Janet's printer is fixed, I'm having a hard time finding a place to put it. This printer was purchased primarily for use at Dalmatian Rescue events. Unfortunately, that's why it got hopelessly clogged in the first place. The printer just wasn't used enough. Now, I've got to add it to the queue of ink jet printers I'm already trying to keep unclogged. The ironic thing is none of my clients even want me to print anything anymore. A PDF file is just fine with them.

The school shooting today in Connecticut was incredibly sad. How can we keep these type of things from happening? There's going to be a lot of talk about gun control in the days ahead. I would be the first to agree that there are a ton of people who should never be allowed anywhere near a gun. How do you identify these people though? Again and again, when these mass shootings occur, I see interviews on TV where neighbors and close friends say the shooter seemed completely normal to them. Maybe we could start by banning gun ownership for anyone under 40. There aren't a lot of old serial killers and mass murderers. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think something has fundamentally changed in society. It's a colder, more depersonalized world. There were plenty of guns when I was growing up, but these type of events were completely unheard of. All I know is that when I was a teenager, I wasn't playing Assassin's Creed, Halo, or Call of Duty eight hours a day. I was reading a new library book once a week. My parents always knew what I was doing too. Maybe it's as simple as that.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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