Day 4730

Today was busy. We got up early and gave Dawn her morning walk before I took Janet to the dentist for dental surgery. I took my own long walk right after breakfast so I would be home in time to pick Janet up again after she was finished with her procedure. I was pretty fast this morning. This was the first time I finished a mile in less than 20 minutes in quite a while. While I was out walking I passed an older gentleman who I frequently see on the trails. I told him that he was doing a better job of staying in shape than I was. The guy smiled and said "I'm 85 years old. I'm just trying to stay alive." I found this strangely encouraging. The guy was ten years older than me and still going strong.

I went to pick Janet up around noon. The traffic was much lighter than it was at 8:30 AM. I don't experience morning rush hour very often anymore. I don't know how people can stand to do this day after day. It would drive me nuts. I started my own company in 1990 and have worked out of my house ever since. It's definitely a different world than when I used to drive to work everyday. Life was a lot less hectic in the 1980's.

Janet and I have been inundated with e-mail spam lately. She changed all her passwords recently and I decided to do the same today. When I logged into my web hosting account it didn't look familiar. Now that I don't build websites for a living anymore, I don't have a need to visit this place very often. I wondered if the company had been sold. I eventually found the spam filter section of the site and much to my chagrin, all my filters were turned off by default. This would explain the surge in spam I've been receiving lately. The spam filter tool used by the hosting company was different than the one they used before. It would have been nice if my web host had told me about this. In fairness, maybe they did tell me and the message went to my own e-mail spam filter. At any rate, I configured the site-wide spam filter and turned it on. We'll see if it makes any difference.

Next, I changed a bunch of old passwords to modern more secure versions. I should have done this long ago, but spam and hacking attempts haven't been a problem for me until recently. In the process of changing passwords, I inadvertently locked myself out of my e-mail account. I called tech support and was connected to a call center in India. Does everybody outsource their tech support these days? It certainly appears that way. The guy I was talking to had trouble understanding my problem and I had trouble understanding his English. Calling tech support is an exercise in frustration these days. Eventually, I figured out what I was doing wrong on my own and reconnected to my e-mail account. I thanked the guy for his help, even though he hadn't helped me at all.

I took a shower and was grateful that I didn't have to used the wet-dry vac to suck the water out from under the shower tiles today. The vacuum is noisy and I didn't want to wake Janet up. If it's not one kind of water problem in this house it's another. There is rain in the forecast for the rest of the week and I'm worried that the roof leaks will start again. There aren't any leaks currently, but I know that the roof hasn't had enough time to completely dry out after our last heavy rains. I guess we'll see what happens. The rain is supposed to start later tonight.

I'm not sure what is on the schedule for tomorrow. The next thing on my calendar is an appointment with the eye doctor on Friday. I hope the weather allows us to give Dawn her walks. Dogs definitely need a daily walk. So do people.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3333

I've been wondering why the cable bill went up recently. Then I remembered that it's been exactly one year since we upgraded to a fiber optic network. There must have been a special introductory price that expired. Of course we're not going to take the fiber optic connection out now. We've become used to the speed. That's how they suck you in to just about everything these days. I've learned to ignore the "free for 90 days" offers, but you can't ignore everything. My storage warehouse rent went up so much that I had to move to a new less expensive storage space. The cost of web hosting is about to go up as well. I'll just pay the extra fees on this one. It's too much trouble to move all the websites. There aren't a lot of options with the cable company. I've moved back and forth between AT&T and Spectrum for years. Both companies are terrible.

The temperature was in the low twenties this morning. There was ice in the backyard bird bath, so that meant that there was probably ice up on the roof as well. I certainly wasn't going to go up and investigate. It was way too cold and slippery. Dash wasn't even interested in getting out of bed, but eventually he followed Janet out to the kitchen to take his morning pills. It was pretty clear that a morning walk was out of the question. Dash was shaky and having trouble walking and I'm not sure the more complicated Help 'Em Up Harness will fit over his Winter sweater anyway.

Since Dash just wanted to sleep this morning, I felt pretty safe in going out to breakfast. I went back to the hotel today. This place is almost the exact opposite of the trendy restaurant I've been visiting recently. There are only a few items on the menu and the place is never full. The waiters treat me like a regular now and already know what I'm going to order. I like the quiet formalness of the place. It's just too bad that they don't know how to make shrimp grits.

We have a new routine with Dash now. The morning walks seem to be a thing of the past. We don't know why he is so unsteady when he wakes up. You'd think he'd be rested, since he's sleeping well now. Mornings have become a struggle unfortunately. Typically, Dash will perk up a bit around 10:30 or 11 AM and eat his breakfast. By early afternoon, he has returned to his old self. We took another walk this afternoon and Dash did very well. He didn't stumble and even wanted to go on one of our longer routes. It's a mystery how the morning dog and the afternoon dog can be so different, but I'm happy that Dash still has his moments. He likes the cold too. I was freezing on our walk this afternoon, but Dash was enjoying himself, stopping every few minutes to smell something.

A couple of times every year I think about uploading more photos to the stock photo site. Some of my photos are selling. I've just never submitted very many. You'd think that with thousands of good photos in my files, I could scrape together a nice little passive income. I know a few people that make a decent income on Shutterstock. Why not me? I examined about twenty of my favorite images this afternoon and found at least one good reason why none of them could be submitted. Some were too grainy. On others, the focus was off just a bit. In many cases I had failed to obtain a model release. I ended up submitting nothing today. I'm sure I'll revisit all this six months from now, but in a lot of ways it seems pointless. The secret to success in the stock photo market is to have a huge catalog of images available. Adding twenty images to my meager collection would only increase my income by a few dollars a year.

We had chili for dinner tonight. A steaming bowl of chili is the perfect meal for a cold Winter night. Unfortunately chili always gives me heartburn. Story of my life. Everything pleasant has an unpleasant side effect.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3323

I forgot what day is was again. It's easy to do. Every day begins the same way. I wake up at some point to take Dash outside or clean up poop. If the cleanup is easy, I go back to bed for a while. If it is more extensive, I just stay up. Dash always gets a walk before breakfast. When we return, I pop a Community Coffee Dark Roast pod in the Keurig and start making my smoothie. Turning on the television seldom gives me a clue about what day it is. It's always just something about the ongoing Russia Probe. Enough already. Dash usually poops again just as I am getting ready to eat. Today he made a mess in the office. I wish he'd stay on the bricks, but the bricks are slippery. I can't really blame him for preferring the carpets.

Not that it mattered, but I eventually figured out it was Tuesday instead of Wednesday. I called in some prescriptions for Dash and when they were ready to pick up, I stopped by the hardware store on the way to the vet and got another tube of Shoe Goo. I think I'm keeping the Shoe Goo company in business. The stuff really does help to extend the life of Dash's protective boots.

I guess I'll go ahead and renew my web hosting account, even though it has become too expensive. Truthfully, I don't even know why I have a website anymore. If I shut everything down, I doubt that anyone would notice. There are a few animal rescue sites on the server that are important, but I could care less about my own site. I haven't updated anything in years.

I didn't always feel this way. There was a time when I had a really high Klout score and lots of Twitter followers. I was even listed as one of the top photographers on Google+ for a while. I'll miss Google+ when it disappears in a couple of months. This was the only social media network I actually liked. Too late now. Google+ is going the way of AOL and floppy discs. It's a shame. Back in the day, it was so much better than Facebook. Sadly Google+ never became popular which it probably exactly why it was so good.

The gas company repair crews are still in the neighborhood, but they've moved further away from the house. I'm curious about what they are doing, but not curious enough to go up and ask them. I'll wonder for a while until Spring growth in the park covers all the backhoe tracks in the dirt. Eventually, a neighbor will tell me what has happened long after I've forgotten the entire incident.

I've got to stop taking pictures of Pansies at the hardware store. I can do better. Unfortunately, these are the only flowers I've seen lately. It's Winter and wildflowers won't start appearing in the park again until late March or early April. How did I used to take interesting pictures every single day? It's a mystery now. Maybe I was just more interested in my surroundings.

Tomorrow actually is Wednesday. I'll keep that in mind as I follow a routine that is almost guaranteed to be remarkably similar to today's. Venus, the Moon, and Jupiter will be grouped together in the morning sky tomorrow. If Dash gets me up early, maybe I'll take a look.

Spirit is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3322

There appears to be a gas leak in the neighborhood. You could have fooled me, since we walk by the area where all the digging is going on every morning and I've never smelled gas. I have smelled a skunk in the vicinity recently, but I don't think that's what everybody's looking for. Finding the leak must be a high priority since the crews have set up lights and look like they are ready to continue digging throughout the night. Hopefully, they'll find what they're looking for. The gas company has had some highly publicized problems with leaks in other parts of the city that have resulted in fires and explosions.

I called my web hosting company this morning to ask about the huge increase in my bill. The customer service representative I talked to explained that my last bill included a generous sign up bonus that would never be repeated. They set the trap and lured me in. Now, I've got to pay full price. This scenario was exactly what I was dealing with a few months ago when it came time to renew my storage warehouse lease. The customer service representative was sympathetic. She said the same thing happened to her recently with her phone bill. Her Verizon bill tripled as soon as the special promotional offer expired. I'm a small business owner and an unabashed capitalist but I do think a lot of companies are greedy bastards. Couldn't you guys just charge a fair price in the beginning and stop all the confusing bait and switch trickery?

The increase in web hosting fees wasn't the only dismal financial news today. Apparently I'm going to  need to wait until mid February for my next payment from a very tardy auction buyer. This buyer must be special. There was nothing in the contract that said it was OK to pay a month and a half late. Somehow, I don't think the auction house would be nearly as lenient with me if I was a month and a half late. It looks like I'm going to need the money because apparently even though I made virtually nothing last year, I still need to pay taxes. That's what my accountant tells me anyway.

Dash doesn't have money problems but he definitely has pooping problems. The bed escaped unscathed last night but I had to watch my step around the house. I don't think Dash even realizes he is pooping any more. He just walks around the house and poop falls out. Getting up after a nap is especially hazardous. The extra effort he has to make to stand up these days often causes him to poop.

The weather changes so frequently now that I never know what to wear. I always look at my phone or the thermostat before we go on a walk but I don't think the temperature readings are up to date. This afternoon the thermostat said the outside temperature was 65 degrees so I just wore a light jacket. I just about froze. A rapidly moving cold front had just blown through and the real temperature was much colder. The temperature is still continuing to get colder, so I really hope that those gas company repairmen don't shut off our gas during the night.

I had some left over pizza for dinner. I hope it doesn't give me heartburn. I could have eaten something bland, but I hate to let food go to waste. We'll see what happens. My chances of getting heartburn are about the same as the chances of Dash waking me up during the night.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3321

I got a bill from my web hosting company today. I've been a good customer. So why was my bill 30% higher than it was three years ago? This happens again and again. Companies continue to screw their best customers while simultaneously offering special deals to attract new customers. It doesn't make sense. The storage warehouse, the phone company, the cable company, and even my gym tend to raise prices annually for existing customers while at the same time offering special promotional prices to new customers. This is backwards. I've always thought the most loyal customers should get the best rates.

I play by the rules. I always pay my bills on time. I watch my weight. I monitor my blood pressure and cholesterol levels and do what it takes to stay within acceptable guidelines. I even make my bed every morning. Maybe this is why it seems normal to me that the Chinese government wants to surveil and classify every one of it's billions of citizens. Wouldn't you want to know who the good people are so you could reward them? Our country tends to do the opposite. We romanticize bad behavior, making heroes out of everyone from Bonnie and Clyde to Walter White. Hey, what could be more American than a high school chemistry teacher who turns himself into a drug kingpin.

When I go to the gym, I'm pretty sure that the other customers play by the rules, just like me. I see the same people over and over again. They are so dutiful, striding purposefully on their treadmills and stairmasters. I don't know who any of these people are, but we definitely need more of them. I'll take someone on a treadmill any day over someone riding around on a motorized shopping cart stocking up on Cheetos.

Dash got me up early enough this morning to see Venus and Jupiter close together in the predawn sky. Dash has been so good recently that I'd almost forgotten that every night is a potential disaster. He woke up as he was pooping in bed this morning and tried to get off the bed. This was a mistake. Since he wasn't fully awake, he stumbled and fell in the poop. Instead of an easily contained mess on a puppy pad, there was poop everywhere. I had to go outside and hose off the soiled bedding before it could go in the washing machine. While I was doing this, Janet was cleaning Dash. By the time we got everything cleaned up, it wasn't worth going back to bed again. So much for sleeping in late on Sunday morning.

I was going to clean the house today, but it took too much time to clean and dry all the laundry. Vacuuming can wait. Hey, Dash got two walks and all the poop is gone. That should be enough for one day. I still can't tell if the new My Pillow I got is helping me sleep because Dash keeps waking me up all the time. I don't think those happy people in the My Pillow commercials spend all their time cleaning up dog poop.

The weekend went quickly. It always does. Now it's back to five more days of fruit smoothies. At least the park will be empty again. It was super crowded today because the weather was so nice. Lots of people ask about Dash's red boots when the park is busy. I usually just tell them that Dash is old. I've learned that very few people are interested in a long winded explanation involving neurological disorders, heart problems, Plavix, and bleeding risks.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2721

I'm sleeping longer now. I guess that's a good thing. I wish the extra sleep left me filled with energy and motivation, but that's not the case. I'm still kind of floundering around and searching for a direction. Fortunately, I'm so slow these days that it's not hard to fill up the day even with no plan whatsoever.

I've determined that the rat is still in the atrium. I haven't seen him since he escaped from the trap, but I know he's there. I placed several pieces of cheese outside the trap last night and they were gone in the morning. The rat avoided the larger piece of cheese inside the trap though. I think I'm dealing with a smart rat. I purchased some old fashioned rat traps that will kill the rat, but I am reluctant to use them. I'll give him one more chance. I added a big scoop of peanut butter to the bait in hopes of enticing him inside. I wish this rat knew that I had his best interests in mind. If he would just go inside the trap again, I'll take him down to the park in the morning.

Recently, I remember someone posting "Do you remember when Bluehost didn't suck" on Facebook. I laughed because I did remember. Bluehost used to be a great web hosting company. I recommended them to many of my clients. Unfortunately, things have changed. I don't know what happened. Maybe someone else bought the company. At any rate, calling technical support is a nightmare these days. You have to wait on hold forever and when someone finally picks up the phone, they don't know anything and always have to talk to their supervisor. I had a problem today and it drove me crazy trying to get a simple answer from the tech support people. I wanted to hang up on them several times but I knew that I'd be sitting on hold for another twenty minutes if I tried to start over. After spending an hour on the phone, I still didn't receive an answer to my question.

I wish I could get Dash to take long walks again. I think it would be good for both of us. He wants to stick close to home though. I've been having trouble getting him to walk all week. I noticed he was panting a bit this morning and it was still cool outside. This worried me a bit. We've known for a long time that Dash has an enlarged heart and a bit of a heart murmur. He's got to go to the vet to check his triglycerides again soon and I'll have the vet look at his heart. It's always hard to tell if Dash has a medical problem or is just being moody.

I'll try to cut Dash some slack because I'm feeling a bit moody myself. Hopefully, this will pass. I certainly didn't accomplish much today. I paid a few bills and took them to the post office. I picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol at CVS and bought a couple of pair of anklet socks. I used to hate the idea of anklet socks, but they do make sense in the summer.

The sun has finally returned and the yard is drying out. Maybe I'll figure out how to use the new pressure washer tomorrow. There is certainly a lot that needs to be cleaned. I hope there is a rat in my trap in the morning. I'm not looking forward to resorting to Plan B.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2297

I'm beginning to wish that I could move Dot's physical therapy appointment back to Thursday. Traffic is worse on Wednesday. The vet clinic seems busier too. As a result, Dot and I spend at least an hour and a half longer away from home. It's not like I have that much to do anyway, but I never realized that switching our appointment would make such a difference. I'll have to admit that there are some benefits to the new schedule. I don't have to struggle to get Dot ready anymore. We leave right after I feed the dogs their lunch now, and it's always easy to get Dot up when there is a meal involved.

Dot seemed stronger than she did last week. She did really well in the underwater treadmill today. I'm convinced there is a reason for everything, but I can never figure out why Dot has good days and bad days. She has had some very good days after resuming her chemotherapy, which is somewhat counter-intuitive. She has also had bad days when she is relaxed and well-rested. The only thing for certain is that every day is a new day. I never really know what to expect.

The rain returned today. There were severe thunderstorms and even tornado warnings in the area, but luckily all we saw in our own neighborhood was a gentle, steady rain. Today's storms didn't last all day, so the dogs still got their normal walks. I'm sure there is water on the roof though. I'll deal with the standing water and a very dirty car when the skies clear again.

I think my transition to the new web server is just about complete. I've finished troubleshooting the online forms and all the e-mail accounts are working now. The only difference I've noticed in performance so far is that the new server occasionally gets overwhelmed by heavy traffic. It's just like U-verse in a lot of ways. The site will go down for a few minutes, but by the time I get through to customer service, everything is running fine again. Maybe big hosting companies are like the airlines and try to keep things as close to capacity as they can. At any rate, it's going to take a while to get used to this, since my old server hardly ever went down at all.

Tech support people are probably going to hate me as I grow older. I can already see that I'm turning into one of those irritating people who continually call with some esoteric, weird problem just to have someone to talk to. During my transition to the new web server, I've already called tech support half a dozen times. I'm a curious person and generally just wanted to know why things were configured a certain way. I used to have lots of geeky friends to ponder these issues with, but now tech support will have to do. Maybe somebody knows why the favicon has disappeared from this blog. The little icon is loaded on the server and the code I added in the blog header is correct, but the favicon doesn't show up anymore. One more of life's little mysteries.

A bigger mystery is where all the writing jobs have gone. Last year at this time, I was swamped with writing assignments. This year my work load has slowed to a trickle. I write about watches and the oil and gas industry a lot. Both of these industries have suffered setbacks in recent years. Hopefully, when the dust settles, the writing assignments will return. Life is easier when there's always something to do. It's also nice to have extra money at the end of the month.

I have no idea what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'm pretty well caught up on almost everything.
 

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2290

I lost my web hosting and e-mail today. Damn. I knew this was going to happen but I didn't think I would have to deal with moving everything so soon. I've been with the same hosting company since the dawn of the Internet, so migrating all my websites and e-mail accounts is not a trivial matter. Even though I spent most of the day in tech support hell, I'm still not done. Every time you move a large website, a lot of things don't work anymore. It's going to take weeks before everything is back to normal again.

It would have been tempting to just abandon my personal websites, but there were some animal rescue websites on the server that people still depend on, so I decided to move everything. My company website has become a relic. I haven't kept up with the times. The sites I design for clients are much nicer than my own these days. My sealander.com site has become an anachronism. Lets face it, I just don't care about the Internet as much as I did ten years ago.

I do care about Dot, so I broke away from configuring the new mail server to take her to her physical therapy appointment. When I returned, I had to start all over again, because my session timed out and nothing got saved. Dot actually did better than I did today.  She had a good morning walk and kept up a brisk pace on the treadmill during her therapy session. Dot didn't poop in the car this week either. In sharp contrast, my own day was a mess. I still haven't gotten my new e-mail account working properly and there are big chunks of my company website that don't work at all. Hey, it's a start. I'll have everything up and running by this weekend.

Trying to find a new online home consumed most of my day, so I made no progress on preparing my taxes whatsoever and didn't get around to calling the landscaping guys or the roofers either. At least Dash was more or less back to normal today. These dogs are wearing me out. I'm going to try to finish migrating my websites to the new server tomorrow. I've got a little time before they pull the plug on my old server, but at the glacial slow pace I move these days, there isn't much time to waste. Dot's vet was telling me about the difficulties of running her business while moving to a new home today. This reminded me that Janet and I have one more move left if we are ever going to leave Dallas. I'm not looking forward to moving. I'm not looking foreword to growing old in a big city either, so I guess I've got no choice. I have a feeling that moving to a whole new city is going to be a lot more trouble than moving my website.

There's still plenty of time to think about moving. The big move may never even happen, since Janet is in no hurry to retire. In the mean time, I've got poop to clean up, bacon filled breakfasts to fantasize about, and a yard full of grass to mow. I wonder why I selected the fancy unlimited package on the new web server? I can add as many websites, domains, and e-mail accounts as I want. This would have been really useful ten years ago when my business was thriving. Now, most of this capacity will go unused. It will be a miracle if I can manage to add five rather simple websites to the server. So far, I'm having a lot of trouble configuring the first one.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day