Day 3210 - Columbus Day

I must have checked the mail five times before I realized it was Columbus Day. This is an invisible holiday. I almost always forget this day unless I happen to go to the bank or post office and discover that they're closed. I think this holiday will eventually suffer the same fate as the statues of Columbus that are being toppled around the country. The man has definitely fallen out of favor. He already has to contend with a competing holiday that is celebrated by people who wish Columbus had never discovered anything.

Columbus Day isn't the only thing that's going away. Google+ is going away too. Why am I surprised. Popularity has waned in recent years and Google has decided it just isn't worth the trouble to maintain the site anymore. That's a shame. Google+ has always been my favorite social media site. It was a great place to discover new ideas and share photos with like-minded photographers. Instead of people I went to high school with, there were people who actually shared my interests. I had some good conversations. Google+ was the only social media site where I actually built a following. I guess it makes sense that the platform wasn't able to survive. Sooner or later, just about everything I really like goes belly up. The list of favored restaurants, products, magazines, cars, bands, websites, and furniture that have vanished from my life is quite long. Somehow, Walmart is still here though.

It finally happened. Dash pooped on the Persian rug in the living room. He almost always poops on the bricks, but he must have gotten lost on his way to the back door. Needless to say, cleanup was more difficult than usual. I wish that yesterday was a day when Dash's poop was firm, but I have no control over these things. You can't get mad at Dash though. He really does the best he can. I just hope that I don't become incontinent in my final years. There is nothing pleasant about incontinence.

I wonder if I've fallen out of favor with NASA. I used to get a lot better response when I applied to participate in their launches and special events. Now, it's crickets. The application I submitted last month was rejected and I still haven't received a response to my latest application. I'm sure the criteria for social media coverage has changed. When I filled out the latest application form, they weren't even interested in what I was doing on Google+. They were interested in Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit and a host of other things I never bother with.

The weather was weird today. There were severe weather and flash flood alerts on my TV and phone all day, but it didn't rain much at all in our part of town. I was even able to take Dash on morning and evening walks without getting wet. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow and then again later in the week. I definitely don't think we need to worry about a drought anymore.

Sometimes I feel like writing about more substantial things than the weather and dogs. I despise arguments though. Our entire society has become way too argumentative. I blame this on the rise of tribalism and a lack of shared values. Some of you probably don't agree. That's why I like dogs so much. Dogs can't talk.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2170

It is tempting to join the political debate on Facebook. With a presidential election looming and WWIII on the horizon, my timeline is filled with wildly contradictory opinions every single day. How did I get so many friends who can't seem to agree on anything? My desire to clarify things by telling my Facebook friends the "truth" is tempered by the realization that my own opinions are probably just as misguided as theirs. Why join the fray? It's pointless. If Facebook is a proxy for how the world actually works, we are truly fucked.

Without getting into details, I tend to take the long view on things. When Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter were popular memes, only one image spoke to me. It was an icy cold photo of the Andromeda Galaxy with the caption No Lives Matter. Whenever people talk about climate change, I keep thinking that it is pretty arrogant to assume that humans can actually destroy the planet. The planet has been here for billions of years. We've only been here a few thousand. We can certainly destroy ourselves. We're getting closer and closer to doing this every day. The planet will survive however. Earth will clean up the toxic gasses and the radiation on its own time schedule and maybe a wiser, less argumentative species will evolve the next time around. People don't like taking the long view however. They're more concerned about what is going to happen tomorrow. That's why I tend to keep my mouth shut.

Today was a good day for saying nothing. It's a short week and most of my clients are on holiday time already. Even the ubiquitous telemarketers seem to have disappeared this week. I went about my business, making sure the dogs had a nice morning walk and taking an inordinate amount of time to make the perfect fruit smoothie. I've almost sealed the leak in the shower stall, although a small amount of water still seems to end up on the bathroom floor. I've narrowed down the search for the ideal portable dehumidifier to two models, but can't decide which one is best. Neither of these machines is available in Dallas and all I've got to go on are people's comments on the Internet. I'd say my chances of believing the wrong person are about 50/50.

Since today was even slower than yesterday, I took the opportunity to catch up on Dr. Who. This time I watched the show while the dogs were napping and managed to see the entire episode without interruptions. I don't know what to think about Face the Raven. Personally I think Clara deserved a better send off. She might not have been the best companion ever, but she was a good and loyal one. She should have been sent to a parallel universe like Rose or just had her memory wiped like Donna Noble. Although I'm not a fan of the direction that Steven Moffat is taking the show, I'll have to admit that Peter Capaldi is a good actor. There is an intensity about him that Matt Smith never had.

I'm so habitual that's it's going to be harder than you might think to remember that Dot's physical therapy day is tomorrow instead of Thursday. Her appointment is early in the morning too. I'll have to start getting her ready right after breakfast. It's supposed to rain on Thanksgiving but I hope the forecast is wrong. I'd like to enjoy a nice relaxing dinner at our third choice restaurant without worrying about whether the dogs were having a panic attack during a thunderstorm.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day