Day 3577

The roofers finally delivered the silicon coating they've been promising. Literally five minutes after the large container appeared on my front porch, it started to rain. I guess I should have expected this. Nothing is ever easy. I've been waiting all summer for this stuff. It's been a hot, dry summer and conditions have been almost perfect for repairs. Now that severe thunderstorms and another major cold front is on the way, I'm good to go. I guess there is a silver lining to this mess. The roofer left me a lot more of the silicon material than I anticipated. This was probably just because he doesn't want to hear from me again, but I'm always glad to have more of the material on hand. If history is any guide, there will be more leaks in the future.

I filled out all the paperwork I got yesterday and returned it to the observatory. Unfortunately, I left one of the form fields blank by mistake, so I had to do everything all over again. The forms are done now. I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Some of the forms I submitted today were requests for medical information. It was a bit sobering to provide this much detail. I know there have been accidents on the mountain. Astronomers have fallen off viewing platforms. Cars have driven over cliffs. There is concern about bears and mountain lions in the area as well. I am very risk adverse, but I don't want to be house bound either. I guess the bottom line is that I'd like to do this, so I'd better be careful.

I lost my last client today. Once again the business went to some much younger folks who claim to be on the cutting edge of Internet technology. The client claims his site is no longer mobile friendly. What? I completely revamped the site several years ago specifically to make it mobile friendly. The site worked and everyone was happy. Maybe the client is right though. When we concluded our phone call I looked at his website on my phone and there definitely were problems. I hadn't changed anything, but maybe the way modern phones interpret HTML code has changed. I'm sure that I could fix the problems after doing a little research. Do I even want to make the effort? Probably not. I told the client that I've enjoyed working with him all these years, but that he probably did need someone younger to manage his website. I'm really tired of keeping up with constant change and nothing changes faster than the Internet. It's time to pass the torch. There is no pretending anymore. I guess I'm stone cold retired now.

This weather is driving me nuts. We has our first cold front a few days ago. Then it got hot again. Now, another cold front is on the way and temperatures are supposed to be in the forties tomorrow. That's quite a change, since it was over ninety degrees this afternoon. I hope we have a little more warm weather before winter arrives. I really do need to get the roof patched.

For me, the week always ends on Thursday evening. The week's trash has been taken to the curb and I'm already thinking about where to go for breakfast tomorrow. If it's raining when I wake up, I'll probably just stay home and have a bowl of cereal. I've used up all the fresh fruit, so having another smoothie isn't an option. Driving in a thunderstorm isn't much of an option either. Breakfast just isn't that important.

Neo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3575

I got a request to make a minor change on a website this morning. Not a problem. I made the changes and got ready to upload them to the server. I couldn't connect. Was the server down? Had the client changed their password again? Was my version of Dreamweaver so old that it had finally stopped working? I did some checking and discovered that some other accounts on the same server still worked fine. Somebody had changed the password. I called the client and got transferred to voicemail. Eventually I got a text with a new password and ID. I tried the new login information and still couldn't connect. Finally, after a long call with customer service we determined that the information the client sent me was only partially correct. The magic combination that let me connect was a mix of old and new information. My ten minute fix took me three hours. Is it any wonder that I have little interest in doing websites anymore. Very few people want me to design anything these days but there are still a lot of lost passwords.

Today was a catch up day. I made an appointment to see the eye doctor. I called the people who fix sliding glass doors again. I wrote another letter to the roofer asking when I was going to get my container of silicon elastomer. The weather is very nice so thought about calling the carpenter about greenhouse repairs. I chickened out at the last minute. I'm still not ready to spend the money.

The most significant thing I did today was call McDonald Observatory to ask some questions about their on-site volunteer program. I had a nice conversation with the director of the visitor center and I'm definitely still interested in living at the observatory for several weeks. I told them to go ahead and begin the background check process. If I am approved, I may return to the observatory to help with Star Parties and other events this Spring. They still prefer people who own an RV or travel trailer, but I could stay at the astronomer's lodge if space was available. The director seemed interested that I now have connections with Sky and Telescope and had been working on an article. I'm going to see if I can interest him in doing some communications projects for the observatory as well. Working out the logistics for an adventure like this is going to take some time, but it will give me something to do over the Winter.

The furnace came on for the first time last night. I guess Fall is officially here. I'm glad that the furnace seems to work perfectly. There were no problems lighting the burners at all. Now that the heat is back, on my gas bill is going to be higher. The electric bill is going to be a lot less though. Air conditioning is the bulk of the electric bill during the Summer.

Not only are things changing at the house, they are changing at the park as well. As soon as the temperatures became cooler, the Pelicans returned. There are at least a dozen of them now. I think a group of Pelicans are called a pod. The birds always return to the same spot, which is now called Pelican Bay. Turtles seems to like the cooler weather as well. When I was walking today I saw water turtles basking on almost every submerged log. I even saw a Hawk swoop down and pick up an unlucky mouse today. You don't see many raptors in the Summer but they are abundant at the lake during the Winter.

Life goes on. The security light stayed on all night yesterday. That hasn't happened in a while. The problem with the light sensor must be temperature related.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day