Day 4027

They had Clorox wipes at the grocery store this morning. I guess that's a good sign. The clouds cleared and there were blue skies this afternoon. That was an even better sign. We're still waiting until later in the day to walk Dawn. What's the hurry. Neither of us have a lot to do these days.

I actually got quite a bit done today. I made a few more tweaks to my new website, wrote a letter to my sister, went to the bank, and finished all my grocery shopping before noon. By the time we got ready to walk Dawn, it had warmed up quite a bit and we were feeling optimistic. Dawn actually did well today. She walked three miles, which was much better than yesterday. When she refused to walk further, we just turned around and let her lead the way home. There is no sense to push her too hard. Dawn is not a young dog and there are probably dozens of good reasons why she doesn't want to walk as far as she used to. She's been to the vet recently and there don't seem to be any serious medical issues. Hopefully, we'll eventually figure out what is going on.

I finally installed the sensor that is supposed to monitor our electric wiring. I've been reluctant to do this because our house is old and I was afraid that the sensor would find a problem immediately. So far, so good. The sensor has been running most of the day and it says everything is normal. We'll see what happens the next time one of the pumps on the roof shorts out.

Yesterday the replacement dehumidifier that the manufacturer sent me was making a loud rattling noise. It sounded like something was coming loose internally. I was convinced that the manufacturer had sent me a factory second, but today the sound disappeared. The machine has been running quietly all day. Did the part that was rattling fall off, or are these dehumidifiers just noisy when you are breaking them in? Who knows? I think I'll call these guys on Monday. I have a lot of questions.

I'm already losing interest in my website revisions. There really isn't much sense in having a company website anymore, since I am more or less retired. I wouldn't turn down a job, but I'm not actively looking for work either. I'd probably be irritated if I got a big website development project. Creating a website that works flawlessly across a wide variety of different platforms has become quite complex. I've got the new website working fine on my desktop computer, but it doesn't look right on my iPad. This means that it probably won't look right on most phones either. What a pain. Once I get this mess figured out, I probably won't look at this site again for several years. As I said, you don't really need a business website when you don't have a business.

I haven't taken the Christmas tree down yet. I guess it's time, but I don't see any need to hurry. The tree is pretty and I am lazy. I imagine that I'll take the tree down sometime next week. I've noticed when we are out walking that most of the neighbors trees are gone already. The Christmas tree is only a diversion. I really need to focus on clearing out the storage warehouse and my office next year. I'm sure this is a year long project. There is so much to do.

Why did I have a pizza tonight? Janet and both I love pizza, but pizza doesn't love me. I can already tell that I am going to have a bad case of heartburn this evening. 

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4026 - New Year's Day

It didn't really feel like a holiday. I've completely lost track of the days. All the familiar reference points seems to have disappeared. There was no Friday morning trash pickup today. The Rose Bowl is being played at Texas Stadium instead of in California. Were there other bowl games today? I'm not sure. Most of these games are named after corporate sponsors now. Janet's gym was open today, but Walmart and Costco are closed. Dawn doesn't even like to walk in the mornings anymore. It's all very disorientating.

I slept in late and had my usual smoothie for breakfast. I was surprised that I slept well. We stayed up late last night and drank Bellinis and nibbled on a cheese tray while we watched a surprisingly elaborate fireworks show on TV. Why did Dallas even have a fireworks show this year? It was cold and raining outside and crowds weren't allowed to attend anyway. 

At least it wasn't raining today. We were hoping that delaying our walk until about 1 PM would keep Dawn interested. She hates damp weather though and we were out of luck. We walked about a third of a mile and then Dawn froze and refused to walk further. I couldn't really blame her for wanting to go home. It was very cold and damp outside. As soon as we returned home, Dawn jumped on the bed and went to sleep. Janet and I should have done the same, but we have both become addicted to movement. We continued walking.

Yesterday I hardly walked at all because it was raining all day. Even though it was cold and dismal, we walked our usual five miles. It's too bad that Dawn wouldn't join us. We started doing all this walking for her. Maybe Dawn knew that the open meadows she enjoys were all muddy today. Some were covered with water and even had ducks swimming in them. We got a lot of rain yesterday.

When we returned home I was determined to figure out what had gone wrong with my website update yesterday. I basically screwed everything up and ruined my site. Why did everything work on the development site I use, but not on my own server. Eventually, I discovered that some of the server side code I used wasn't supported by my hosting company and didn't do anything at all. So much for all the fancy stuff. I could either abandon my update and upload my old site again, or figure out how to make the new site a little less complex. None of this was my idea of fun, but what else did I have to do today.

I made incremental small changes and uploaded them to see if they worked. I did this over and over again. It took a long time because I really didn't know what I was doing. The more fancy animation I discarded, the better the site seemed to work. After uploading a half a dozen different versions, I finally came up with something that wasn't totally embarrassing. I should accept my limitations. I still like old fashioned static sites and hate all the extra steps you have to take to make a modern website mobile and tablet friendly. I guess what I came up with today will have to do for a while. The website doesn't have many visitors. Very few people will even notice that anything has changed.

I don't know how we're going to get Dawn excited about life again. She seems depressed. I'm certainly no motivation expert. On most mornings I have a hard time getting out of bed myself. Maybe there is nothing wrong with Dawn at all. I tend to overthink things. We'll see how things go in the new year. Janet would like to take Dawn to the training class that Dot and Dash seemed to enjoy. Of course that class has been canceled because of Covid. Can we move beyond Covid this year? I certainly hope so.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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