2016-07-13 02:19
I discovered today that one of my own clients was blocking me for sending spam. Am I a spammer? Definitely not. Do I share an mail server with someone who is? Probably. This is the problem w… Read More
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Some Assembly Required Blog
john-sealander.blogspot.com
Take a day-by-day journey with writer/photographer John Sealander as he attempts to assemble something coherent out of the confusion around him.
2016-07-12 01:56
For the first time ever I thought that today's morning walk might be Dot's last. The day started normally enough. The dogs ate their breakfast and both of them seemed eager to go outside. Do… Read More
2016-07-11 04:13
I like big, round numbers like 2400. I'm only 100 days away from the halfway point of this journey. I wonder if I'll be able to continue this peculiar marathon for 5000 consecutive days? Wil… Read More
2016-07-10 03:40
I didn't pick a good day to clean the roof. This morning, the skies were clear and it looked like a typical July day. By mid afternoon, the skies had turned dark and ominous and we had anoth… Read More
2016-07-09 03:25
It's a sad day in Dallas. I learned about the shootings just before I went to bed last night and watched the unfolding carnage on TV for several hours before I drifted off to sleep. The next… Read More
2016-07-08 02:46
I thought the plumber would only be here about five minutes. I mean, how long could it take to tighten a few loose bolts? I was wrong again. After a lengthy investigation, the plumber determ… Read More
2016-07-07 02:27
I wonder why it is so hard to take a dog's blood pressure? Dot's physical therapy vet tried to get a good reading today and didn't have any more success than the oncologist did last Friday… Read More
2016-07-06 02:28
Independence Day ended as it began, with a horrendous thunderstorm that lasted for the rest of the night. I didn't get much sleep. Dot got so upset that I thought she was going to have a str… Read More
2016-07-05 02:23
My favorite Fourth of July memories took place in Alaska. I lived there when I was growing up and there was a magic about the place that could not be duplicated today. I remember that family… Read More
2016-07-04 02:56
. I forget things. I watered the Wax Myrtle tree in the front yard, but left the hose running for hours because I'd forgotten about it. Later, I did the same thing with the sprinkler in the… Read More
2016-07-03 03:50
Sign of the times. When I went to the bank this morning, I noticed that they had replaced some of the teller windows with ATM machines. There was only one teller working and everybody was li… Read More
2016-07-02 03:26
Vet appointments are taking longer and longer. A procedure that used to take thirty to forty-five minutes took us three hours today. Part of the problem was that it was a holiday weekend and… Read More
2016-07-01 02:00
If I told you that there was a blog that only talked about eating breakfast, dog poop, and the hidden dangers of globalism, would you read it? I didn't think so. Sometimes I feel like apolog… Read More
2016-06-30 02:50
Do you feel like you are inundated with an onslaught of spam and phishing scams? I do. Everyday my inbox is filled with e-mail spam and bogus offers. My land line is worthless. Nobody calls… Read More
2016-06-29 03:22
They say if you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait five minutes. I can see where that saying came from today. We got an early start on our morning walk and it was really quite pleasa… Read More
2016-06-28 02:49
When I picked up my tape recorder at the repair shop, it occurred to me that I hadn't picked the best time to restore and refurbish my old studio. This was an ambitious project and I should… Read More
2016-06-27 02:23
I got an REI gift card for my birthday, so I stopped by the store on my way to the gym today and got a jacket. Did I need a jacket in June? Not really, but I will when things get cold again… Read More
2016-06-26 02:51
Janet asked me whether I'd ever heard of GoPro cameras the other day and of course I answered "Oh sure, I've had one for years." When I said this, I realized that I hadn't actually used the… Read More
2016-06-25 04:11
I was surprisingly upbeat today. While the pundits on the morning TV shows were talking doom and gloom as a result of yesterday's Brexit vote, I just felt like a little sanity had returned t… Read More
2016-06-24 03:38
I wrote a letter to my Luddite sister today. There's something oddly satisfying about writing a letter on paper, putting a stamp on the envelope, and taking it to the post office. I used to… Read More
2016-06-23 02:42
It doesn't really take that much to turn a bad day into a good day. Basically, I was faced with the same old grind, but Dot had more energy today and I was able to solve a perplexing website… Read More
2016-06-22 02:16
I knew it wouldn't last. My Internet service has become erratic again. It was so nice to have a reliable, fast network for about a month, but now things are just as bad as they ever were. Sp… Read More
2016-06-21 03:41
It certainly seemed like the longest day of the year. Time usually passes quickly when there is lots to do. It drags on forever on days like this. Today was a typical Monday on steroids. It… Read More
2016-06-20 03:32
Every once in a while, my birthday coincides with Father's Day. I remember my Mom used to tell my Dad that I was his Father's Day present. I'm convinced that sometimes he would have preferre… Read More
2016-06-19 02:27
According to the news, we're having a heat wave. It kind of seems like a normal June to me, but I'll be the first to admit that it's pretty darn hot. I mowed the grass early this morning in… Read More
2016-06-18 03:55
I treated the yard for mosquitoes today. It's too early to tell whether the spray treatment works, but the entire yard now smells like a giant Citronella Candle. I tried to pick a time to sp… Read More
2016-06-17 02:19
Maybe I've set the bar too low, but I felt like I accomplished something today. There a new battery in an old iPhone that had just been sitting in a junk drawer for several years. The Inters… Read More
2016-06-16 02:10
Another long day. Since Dot's vet has gotten busier, it often takes me over three hours to take her back and forth to her therapy session. Waiting isn't always bad though. It gives Dot a cha… Read More
2016-06-15 02:15
Is it even possible to find a simple answer to a simple question anymore? I wanted to find out whether a nearby Apple Store could put a new battery in an iPhone while I waited. I found the n… Read More
2016-06-14 03:24
Automatic payments are a mixed blessing. They save on postage and you don't have to worry about forgetting to pay a bill. On the other hand, if you don't check your balance frequently, you c… Read More
2016-06-06 02:45
Today was exhausting. I got up early to give the dogs their morning pills and make sure they were fed and ready to go when the dog walker arrived. I'd already been up twice during the night… Read More
2016-06-05 02:51
I took Janet to the airport this morning. The road to DFW has been perpetually under construction since the day I moved to Dallas. I don't think they'll ever finish it. They keep making the… Read More
2016-06-04 03:15
I had breakfast in a different part of town this morning. Instead of beards and flip flops, I was surrounded by Mark Cuban wannabes wearing carefully curated Robert Talbot and Ike Behar shir… Read More
2016-06-03 03:19
There was no avoiding the rain today. I thought I could run a few errands between showers, but ended up being caught in a downpour. Later in the day, I thought I could do the same thing on m… Read More
2016-06-02 04:00
Everyone was glad to see Dot back on the treadmill today. We resumed her water therapy and acupuncture sessions and I was pleased at how well she did. Her vet did an evaluation and thinks it… Read More
2016-06-01 02:51
It's been raining almost every day for several weeks now. At least we aren't getting flooded like our neighbors in South Texas, but enough is enough. It's too bad we can't share some of this… Read More
2016-05-31 03:38
Memorial Day makes me think of my parents. They both served in the Navy during World War II. Neither of them was career military, but their service mattered to them in a way I never fully un… Read More
2016-05-30 03:01
Some days you shouldn't get out of bed. Today was one small blunder after another. I decided to wash a bunch of small rugs that are hard to vacuum and the rubber backing came off in the drye… Read More
2016-05-29 03:02
I'm convinced that calling tech support is a modern form of torture. I called AT&T today to ask then how to return the new router they sent me. I don't think I need it now, because every… Read More
2016-05-28 02:54
It was raining so hard this morning that I quickly abandoned my plans to go out for breakfast. It just wasn't worth it. The dogs are always restless when it rains and even more restless when… Read More
2016-05-27 02:35
Sometimes on a completely normal day I'll suddenly find myself feeling incredibly sad. I don't know why, but I suspect this is because a number of important things in my life are reaching th… Read More
2016-05-26 02:49
I wish Steve Jobs were still alive. I never used to have problems with operating system updates, but lately the new Apple OS and IOS updates are so buggy that they seem like Beta versions. I… Read More
2016-05-25 03:26
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Janet told me this morning, "but the sink is still leaking." I looked under the sink, and sure enough, she was right. The leak was small, but it should… Read More
2016-05-24 03:27
There have been better days. The suspension problems on my car that I was almost certain would be a warranty repair are not a covered item. "I'm not believing this," I said. "You fixed the s… Read More
2016-05-23 02:44
If you ever want to take the pulse of today's millennials, just go to an REI sale. I stopped by the store's self named "biggest sale of the year" on my way to the gym this afternoon and was… Read More
2016-05-22 03:36
The mosquitoes are terrible this year. I must have been bitten a dozen times while we were walking the dogs this morning. Mosquitoes always seems to carry something nasty. Last Summer everyo… Read More
2016-05-21 03:42
Sometimes I hate the Internet. For several days I've been having trouble connecting to some of my clients websites. My Internet Service Provider says the problem is being caused by the hosti… Read More
2016-05-20 03:25
You can never ignore Murphy's Law when you hire a plumber. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Somehow plumbing problems always end up being more difficult than they first appear. I w… Read More
2016-05-19 02:30
It has been unseasonably cold this month. When I wake up on a damp, grey day like today, it's easy to imagine that I'm still living in Seattle. I'm not a fan of dreary, wet weather, but the… Read More
2016-05-18 03:09
I'm convinced that waiting for service technicians must be one of the circles of hell in Dante's Inferno. No matter when you schedule things, the repair people are never on time, and when th… Read More
2016-05-17 04:04
I find dealing with money very frustrating these days. People want to pay me less than they did ten or fifteen years ago, while the cost of everything I use in my daily life is going through… Read More
2016-05-16 03:19
I was listening to the TED Radio Hour on the way to the gym this afternoon and the topic was Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs. The theory is that there is a hierarchy of human needs… Read More
2016-05-15 04:29
Wouldn't it be nice if there was someone you could call who always had the answers you were looking for? I'm continually faced with situations where something should work, but just doesn't f… Read More
2016-05-14 03:45
I returned like a prodigal son to my original Friday restaurant and was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd added several new items to the menu, hired a new waiter, and seemed to be surv… Read More
2016-05-13 02:22
I knew today was going to be a problem. The HVAC guy wanted to come out at 8 AM to service the air conditioner. 8 AM is when the dogs normally eat their breakfast, so they are both active an… Read More
2016-05-12 04:13
The electricians came today. So, how many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? In the past, it has taken as many as three. Today, there was only one guy, but perhaps there shoul… Read More
2016-05-11 03:07
Today was Dash's day. Dot spends so much time at the vet that it's easy to forget that Dash has his own issues. We try to address each of those issues at his annual exam. For years, Dash was… Read More
2016-05-10 03:11
I hate feeling helpless. Dot continues to grow weaker and there is very little I can do at this point. I've tried everything I possibly can to keep her happy, motivated, and free from pain… Read More
2016-05-09 02:37
My Mom has been gone so long now that many memories are starting to fade. When she was alive, the medical community wasn't very familiar with bipolar disorder. She suffered from the highs an… Read More
2016-05-08 02:49
I dutifully took my pictures of the bathroom faucets up to the plumbing showroom this morning and showed them to the staff. They had hundreds of nice looking faucets on display, but they wer… Read More
2016-05-07 02:55
It drives me crazy when stuff breaks all the time. I called the electrician today to fix a broken sodium vapor light in the back yard. These lights typically last up to ten years, but this o… Read More
2016-05-06 03:52
It's kind of two steps forward, three steps back with Dot. She has an amazing ability to rebound, but at the end of the day, we're still losing ground. We skipped the walks today and let Dot… Read More
2016-05-05 04:02
Dot had another setback today. When we were returning from our physical therapy session, she started yelping like she was in pain. I pulled over to the side of the road and checked to see if… Read More
2016-05-04 03:48
We woke up to sunshine this morning. The weather has become just as unpredictable as Dot's pooping schedule. I was delighted that thunder and lightning weren't going to be a problem today, b… Read More
2016-05-03 03:03
What was I thinking? Yesterday, I was convinced that the weather would be nice this week, so imagine my surprise when I woke up and discovered that it was just another wet, stormy day. Like… Read More
2016-05-02 02:47
We slept in late this morning. By the time we took the dogs on their morning walk, the sun was already high in a bright blue sky. It was a beautiful day. I'm sure I suffer from seasonal affe… Read More
2016-05-01 03:39
There was an educational event in the park today to build awareness about the remaining segments of the Blackland Prairie in the area. Only about 1% of the original prairie still exists, but… Read More
2016-04-30 03:12
I enjoyed breakfast this morning. I returned to the hipster cafe and for a moment it felt like I was back in Seattle. It was a dark rainy morning and the place was filled with young people i… Read More
2016-04-29 03:37
You'd be proud of me. Instead of wasting time on Facebook and wondering why nobody was reading the blog anymore, I decide to be productive. I cleared all the water off the roof, along with a… Read More
2016-04-28 02:52
Things seemed kind of chaotic when I took Dot to her therapy session today. It turned out that there was a termite infestation in the building and termites were falling out of the ceiling. I… Read More
2016-04-27 02:23
I think we ought to just eliminate Monday from the calendar. I almost never accomplish anything of any consequence on Monday. It would be fine by me if we just went straight to Tuesday. Cert… Read More
2016-04-27 02:16
The severe storms that everybody's been talking about are supposed to arrive between now and midnight. On the news they say there's a strong possibility of tornadoes, 80 MPH straight line wi… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
As soon as I heard we would be having severe weather tomorrow, I began to reschedule my Thursday appointments so I wouldn't have to leave the house. I've spent so many years around storm pho… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
April looks like it's off to a good start. Dot's vet called today and told me that Dot does not have any internal bleeding. That's good news! Lord know what is making her poop so dark, but a… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Dot may have slowed down quite a bit, but she hasn't lost her ability to bark at repairmen. She barked nonstop while the HVAC guys were here this morning. It's kind of embarrassing that I do… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Today was a catch up day. I went up on the roof and swept away the remains of last week's thunderstorm. I charged camera batteries and updated software. I did some cleaning. I even made it b… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
It was an enjoyable day. For the first time in a long time we didn't use our holiday time to clean the house or do chores. Instead, we went to a nice restaurant for lunch and spent the after… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
It was nice to see the sun again. It seemed like I got a lot more done today. Truthfully, I didn't accomplish much of anything, but clear skies and sunlight streaming through the windows can… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
It's a lot harder to get up in the morning when the temperature is cold and the sky is dark and overcast. When I first heard about seasonal affective disorder and the theory that light depri… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
I woke up around 5 AM to the sound of Dot trying to throw up. Why does this always happen on a holiday? I remember we had a similar problem on Thanksgiving. We took her outside and she immed… Read More
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