D.O.P.-T. (day before yesterday)

I caught the dog tearing bits off the toilet roll and eating them messily. Dogs are so weird.

D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

I had to come in an hour early because the coworker who is quitting had to be absent. The buses let me down: when I got to the stop there was one standing there out of service, then the express that eventually appeared crawled in the rush-hour traffic. So I didn't have time to get a cup of coffee, and rather let down "Bharat", who had stayed three hours late - and found him vainly trying to fix the computer that runs the booth time display and sets up previews. It had been throwing an error from time to time and I'd been fixing it and reporting it - now it's vomited out a crucial part of its programming and I lost several previews - including the guy who was standing there when I arrived - and would have had no way to cut off time if anyone had still been in the booths when I'm required to start closing the store. So that was fun. It's supposed to be fixed tomorrow.

However then customers started coming in saying it was raining outside, and thundering. I stuck my head outside and the parking lot was damp and the atmosphere like a wet washcloth, but sadly by the time I left, the Thunderer had rolled on elsewhere.

D.O.P.-T.

Following up on the tall plant pots all down El Camino, Santa Clara is apparently replacing the streetlights. Up to now they've been yellowish and on those swoop-necked concrete poles; outside the store they've now put up a sleek black one with a short neck and a lamp consisting of concentric rings of small white lights. (Presumably they consider the design of these will avoid increasing light pollution; the entire area is supposed to minimize it for the sake of the observatory on Mount Hamilton.) They're swanky, but offer less perching space for the gulls, pigeons, and crows, which may have factored into the choice.