Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Day 532

I walked Dot and Dash early this morning, so I could be first in line at the City of Garland animal shelter when it opened. Ten minutes after the shelter opened its doors I walked away with Scooby, a nice looking young male Dalmatian who was living on borrowed time. Scooby was an owner surrender, but that wouldn't protect him very long. This friendly dog would be put down just like any other stray if nobody claimed him. I still find it hard to believe that so many people routinely dump their dogs at the pound like this. According to the animal control officer, Scooby's owners said he was tearing up the yard. That was it. Hardly seems like an offense worth putting a dog down for, does it? I'll bet you anything that Scooby never got daily walks or exercise. From the poor condition of his coat, he probably never got to come inside either.

Any dog will eventually tear up the yard if they are dumped outside and totally ignored. I tell people all the time that Dalmatians are very active dogs and need a long walk every day. They also have very sensitive skin and don't do well if left outside. People don't listen though. They continue to get a Dalmatian because they are so pretty and then dump them when having a dog is no longer convenient for them.

When I got home from rescuing Scooby, I took Dash to the vet for his bi-weekly antigen shot. For quite a few months I've been thinking that these shots were a miracle cure, because his coat had started looking so much better. For a short time Dash was actually looking whiter than Dot. Now, all the bronzing and skin discoloration had returned and I have no idea why. Dash's diet is the same. His routine is the same. I can't think of a single good reason why he has brownish spots on his coat again. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. Similar things happen with my own health all the time. Six months ago, I was convinced that my doctors had finally cured my persistent coughing spells that were often accompanied with severe heartburn. The coughing spells have returned though, after being completely gone for at least six months. I don't know why the coughing has returned. I'm still taking my meds. My diet is actually much healthier than it was a year ago. I even gave up drinking. Sometimes taking better care of yourself just seems pointless.

It's beginning to seems like buying a new large format printer was pointless too. So far, the new printer seems to exhibit exactly the same flaws that eventually drove me crazy with the old printer. I've only had this printer a week and I've already had to unclog the lines. You'd think that I'd at least get a six month grace period or something. Instant clogging just isn't fair. It looks like I'm going to have to upgrade my expensive RIP software as well. I've already discovered that the old RIP won't work with the new printer.

Scooby is getting neutered today. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll go back to the vet and take him over to his temporary new home. Boarding kennels leave a lot to be desired, but I'm certain this dog will get a lot more attention at the kennel than he ever got at his first home. We'll make sure that when he does find his forever home, he'll finally get the second chance he deserves.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Monday, May 30, 2011

Day 531 - Memorial Day

Holidays aren't a good time for dogs to go stray. We found out yesterday that there is a Dalmatian at the City of Garland animal shelter, but it was a bit complicated to figure out how to pick him up before his time expires. We always try to get these dogs as quickly as we can, because the shelters put them down quickly too. A lot of time you only have a 72 hour window of time to save the dog. At any rate, the shelter was closed today for the Memorial Day holiday. The vets where we take the rescue dogs were closed as well. Even if we could find a vet who would give the dog its shots, all the boarding kennels were full for the holidays as well.

Janet and Pat sent out lots of e-mails and finally managed to contact someone who could get directly in touch with the shelter. The dog was tagged for rescue and I will go to the shelter as soon as it opens tomorrow morning to pick him up. Hopefully this will be a healthy dog who doesn't have heartworms or Ehrlichia, but you never know until the vet looks him over.

I installed the printer drivers in my new printer today and tried to get it up and running. Easier said than done. These printers are meant to connect to your network using a Cat-5 Ethernet cable. I don't use a wired office network anymore though and the printer is located too far away from the computer to connect it using USB. I went to Fry's and bought a wireless print server. I couldn't get it to work though, because the installation CD was only for Windows computers. Never mind that it said right on the box that the thing was compatible with Macintosh. Who knows. Maybe the print server will work with my Mac. I don't think it is going to be easy though. When I went on the web and looked up a list of compatible printers for my little print server, the results came back in Japanese.

My back hasn't gotten any better. When I went to Fry's this afternoon, I shuffled around like an old man pushing a walker. I probably need to go to the doctor tomorrow. I don't know if that's going to prove anything however. The last time this happened, my doctor just gave me a list of exercises to do to build up my lower back muscles. I forget why he wouldn't give me meds, but I think the logic was that I needed to feel the pain so I wouldn't go do something else stupid and make the problem even worse.

Tomorrow it's back to work. It's not like I actually stopped working or anything. It's just a figure of speech.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Day 530

About a month ago, one of my Twitter followers, Louisiana painter Carolyn Finnell, wrote me and said she was interested in painting a Dalmatian because she had never painted one before. I sent her a picture of Dot that she could use for reference and then I kind of forgot about the whole thing. Today, Carolyn wrote again and showed me the finished picture. It was wonderful. She managed to capture Dot's personality perfectly. I look at this painting and it seems to convey more of Dot's spirit than any photo I've ever taken. Janet and I immediately bought the painting, before someone else could snap it up and then asked Carolyn if we could commission her to paint a portrait of Dash as well. These two dogs are really amazing and it would be nice to have a good painting of both of them.

It was a busy day today, especially considering it was a holiday. We went to the dog park earlier than usual, so the dogs wouldn't get too hot. When we got home, I immediately proceeded to get too hot myself by mowing both the front and back yard grass. I guess our short, pleasant Spring is already over. The temperatures are in the high 90's already and the humidity is typical for a Texas Summer: muggy and miserable. At least there was a breeze today. That made it seem a little bit cooler.

When I took the dogs on their afternoon walk, I noticed that a group of boy scouts were having an overnight camping outing in the park. The scouts were acting just like scouts have always acted, but the scout leaders were riding around in golf carts. I wonder what that's all about? When I was a scout, the troop leaders didn't ride around in golf carts. They hiked right along with us to ungodly locations where we got covered with chiggers and ticks and then came home with a case of poison ivy.

One other weird park encounter today. We passed a group of picnickers who were eating their holiday dinner about 20 feet from a very dead and smelly possum. The dogs and I could smell the dead possum from at least fifty yards away. It wasn't a very nice smell. It definitely wasn't a smell that you'd want around while you were grilling your Memorial Day brats and burgers. I don't understand people anymore. Maybe these were the same group of picnickers who had their meal right next to that tree that was on fire in the park a few months ago.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Day 529

The charity that I gave my old large-format printer to came by with their van and picked it up today. I threw in another unused printer for good measure, and now finally I've got a little room in the office again. I wonder if these guys will ever actually use the printer? It still can make great looking prints and posters, but it is a royal pain to use. I think they like the idea of being able to print their own marketing materials, but I bet they'll probably keep taking things to Kinkos. That's what I'd do anyway. It's much easier to have someone else do the printing.

If any of you have lower back pain, you have my sympathies. I don't usually have back problems, unless I happen to do something really stupid like finding myself locked in a small fenced in area when I've got a swarm of bees coming after me. I'm pretty sure I threw my back out when I was trying to get away from the bees I was trying to kill last week. I've been hobbling around and feeling like I was 100 years old ever since. Usually when I do this, my back is back to normal in three or four days. If I felt this way all the time, I would be miserable. Again, if you have back pain, I hope you have a good chiropractor or at least some good meds.

My plan of cleaning up the house while I watched the Dr. Who marathon didn't work out all that well. I can't even multi-task well enough to watch TV and clean at the same time. I found myself lying down on the bed with the dogs and watching long segments of the show and then realizing that I wasn't getting anything done and turning the TV off entirely. Luckily, I had seem most of these shows before, so it didn't really matter. My office still isn't very clean though. It was kind of a wasted day.

We'll probably take Dot and Dash to the dog park tomorrow. The weather is already too hot for Dot, but the dogs still like to be off leash and walk around the park smelling things. If today was any indication, it looks like it's going to be a long hot Summer.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Friday, May 27, 2011

Day 528

The new printer arrived early today. I was hoping that it wouldn't be delivered until sometime next week, because I haven't managed to get rid of the old printer yet. Now, my office is awash in large, bulky wide-format printers. I hardly have a place to sit down. I think this is probably the last large printer I will ever buy. Everything is moving to the web. It's so easy to have a service bureau print high quality large posters from a PDF file these days that there is little incentive to print things yourself. Maybe I'll have another gallery show someday and need to make museum quality prints, but probably not. It's simply gotten too expensive to have a large show framed.

The dentist that I shot the Lumineers video for recently decided to edit it himself. He e-mailed me today with a link to his first rough-cut and it was actually pretty good. This is happening to me more and more. People are deciding that they like to do the things I do for a living, just for fun. They do their own photography. They design their own websites. Now it seems that they're even editing their own videos. When folks do ask me to do something, they inevitably want it really cheap, since they think I'm just having fun like they are. I don't know where this is all going to end, but it doesn't look good. Luckily people still don't seem to do a lot of their own writing. Writing still seems to be a bit of a lost art.

There are some mighty tough bees on the side of my house. Despite the massive amount of Demon WP that I sprayed on the hive the other day, there is still a determined group of bees buzzing around trying to rebuild it. Maybe the queen is still alive in the center of things. I still can't get close enough to find out.

There's a Dr. Who marathon on the BBC channel tomorrow. Maybe I'll watch old Dr. Who episodes while I clean up my office. I had to clear out a pathway through the clutter today anyway, just so I could move the new printer into place. Since I've already started this loathsome task anyway, I might as well just keep cleaning tomorrow.

When I went to Central Market tonight to pick up dinner, I noticed that you got 20% off your bill if your final total was more than $20. Spending $20 at Central Market is a piece of cake, so I was sure I'd get the discount. My final bill: $19.98.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Day 527

I had to go down to the Department of Motor Vehicles today to renew my drivers license. I try to do this over the Internet whenever possible, but this time they wanted a new picture. As you might expect, the picture they took was horrendous. I think the DMV has perfected the art of taking a bad picture. One problem is that they never actually take the picture when you expect they will. You smile, and wait for the flash to go off, and then you continue to wait and wait and wait. When you think they have totally forgotten about you and get that weird "what's wrong with this camera" look on your face, well that's when they always take the picture.

When I stand in a long line at a concert or sporting event, I usually feel like I am among friends. When I stand in a long line at the Department of Motor Vehicles, it's another story entirely. It's just as depressing to stand in the DMV line as it is to sit in the jury pool room. I don't think anyone in line with me today possessed any useful skills whatsoever. If this was a representative sample of what America has to offer, we're hosed. All of these people wanted to drive a car, but half of them came to the building with no documentation whatsoever and quite a few couldn't even speak English. At any rate, after a considerable wait, I got my new license and hopefully I won't need to return to this building again for a long time.

There are a lot fewer bees on the side of the house today than there were yesterday. I'm still not certain who won the first battle, however. When I woke up this morning, I noticed that I had quite a few more bee stings than I initially thought I had. Why do bee stings hurt more on the second or third day than they do when you get stung? I hate these bees. Eventually they'll be gone, but they sure are tenacious little critters.

You'd think with all the writing I've been doing lately that I'd be faster, or better, or make fewer spelling errors. Nothing has changed though. I still make the same dumb mistakes. I'm just a little more tired when I make them.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Day 526

I spent the day going back and forth between writing about expensive watches inside and killing bees outside. Dealing with the growing bee problem kind of keeps things in perspective. I decided to get serious about the bees today. I went out and bought some water soluable pesticide that was supposed to be effective with bee infestations. I then filled up a pressure sprayer, and went after the hive. The pressure sprayer could spray the insecticide about twenty feet, so I didn't have to get too close to the bees. I got stung anyway, of course. Once I started hitting the target, it looked like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Thousands and thousands of bees came pouring out of the hole in the wood where the hive was. I kept spraying, but the bees didn't seem to be dying. I just seemed to be making them angry. As the swarm of angry bees grew larger, I retreated inside the house and made a phone call to the pest control company. "What do I do now," I asked. They told me that the insecticide didn't work instantly, but after it dried on the surfaces I sprayed, the bees would eventually die after coming in contact with it. We'll see.

Luckily the bee infestation is in a narrow, no man's land on the side of the yard that is fenced off from the dogs. I don't want either of them to get anywhere near the insecticide, but I do want the bees to go away. I sprayed two gallons of the stuff today. Hopefully, that will take care of the problem.

I bought a new large-format printer for the office today as well, but I can't have it delivered until I can figure out how to get rid of the old printer. These large printers are basically like a bank safe. They're so heavy that once you put them in place, you just don't move them anymore. I'm going to have to find some friends to help me move the printer, because I definitely can't lift it myself.

I was shocked when I turned on the TV this morning and discovered that Mark Haynes was dead. Mark had been a part of my breakfast routine for many years. I would watch Squawk on the Street every morning on CNBC as I ate my pancakes or eggs to see what was happening with the market that day. Jeez, I saw Mark on TV just yesterday and everything seemed just fine. His co-host Erin Burnett left the show a few weeks earlier as well. My mornings won't be the same anymore. When I think about this unexpected death, along with the equally unexpected tornado that completely destroyed Joplin, Missouri the other day, it is abundantly clear that we shouldn't take anything in life for granted. I guess all we can really do is live our lives one day at a time and try our best to make the most out each and every day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Day 525

I'm somewhat of a hermit these days, so having lunch with someone two days in a row is probably my equivalent of being a social butterfly. Today, I had lunch with my watchmaker. Ostensibly, the lunch was to resolve a few website issues, but we mostly just ended up talking about the trials and tribulations of owning a small business. Somehow I keep thinking that someone who fixes high-end Rolex and Omega watches might be in a bit more of a secure position than someone who designs websites, but you never know. Globalization, consolidation and declining profit margins are making things difficult for every small business. My watchmaker is faced with a growing number of manufacturers who are starting to do their own repair and service work at the factory, while I'm faced with companies like GoDaddy offering website services for so cheap that nobody has any use for people like me anymore. My watchmaker and I are both still in business though. We are good at what we do. It's just not as easy to make a living as it used to be.

It is unbelievable how bad the weather has been recently. When I was eating dinner this evening, I watched the news on TV about multiple tornadoes hitting the Oklahoma City area. We are actually under a tornado warning right now and I think they have spotted funnel clouds forming near Forth Worth. We have never had a tornado in our neighborhood, but the warnings are frequent this time of year. I always worry that if a tornado does hit, there is no place to hide. We basically have a house with no protected interior walls. There's just a lot of glass that would offer no protection at all. I can't really imagine getting both dogs in the bathtub and putting a mattress over our heads. I can't even get the dogs to go near the bathtub on a clear, sunny day.

Maybe the storms will clear away the bees. I finally discovered exactly where the swarms of bees I've been seeing on the roof are coming from. They are making a large hive on the East wall of our house up under the eaves. I don't know much about bees though. Maybe the rain will make even more bees start calling our place home. It's just one more thing I need to deal with this week.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Monday, May 23, 2011

Day 524

I had lunch today with Jeff, a classmate of mine from architecture school. We hadn't seen each other for almost thirty years, and it was fun comparing notes on how our lives had converged and diverged since we left school. We both loved Paris and had spent considerable time there. We both wondered how long we were going to keep working, yet had no real plans to retire. We both loved Macintosh computers and had a humongous number of apps on our iPhones. There were differences too. Jeff was a senior partner in a large architectural firm in Minneapolis and had thirty people working for him. I worked alone with two dogs.

When I try to explain what I've been doing for thirty years between bites of a bacon cheeseburger, I realize that I've actually done quite a lot. I've traveled and worked in Europe, learned to fly an airplane, had several successful gallery shows, produced TV commercials with everyone from Richard Petty to Tom Landry, made two documentary films, and written four unpublished books. At the end of the day though, the little room where I currently work is not all that different from the little room where I studied all those years ago across the hall from my friend Jeff. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

When I got back from lunch and was getting ready to go back to work, I ended up stepping in a big pile of dog vomit under my desk. One of the dogs had thrown up their breakfast. Maybe the morning storms had upset Dot. It was more likely that the culprit was Dash though. He's the one with the sensitive stomach. I think the dogs birthday dinners the other day might have been too rich for them. At any rate, one or both of the dogs really made a mess of things. When I went in the bedroom, there was poop on the carpet along with more dog vomit. The dogs were evidently sick on both ends. I used up the rest of my bottle of Nature's Miracle trying to get the stains cleaned up. I just don't get it with these dogs. Most of our house has virtually indestructible brick floors. When the dogs get sick though, they inevitably make a mess on the carpets. They won't go anywhere near the bricks when they are sick.

When I went up on the roof today to sweep away the standing water from this morning's storms, I think I spotted where all the bees are coming from. I can't get near it though. Too many bees. Maybe Jeff has his own version of bees and dog vomit. We didn't talk about this though. It was much more fun to talk about Paris.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Day 523

The Wagging Tail dog park was practically empty today. There must have been a Mavericks game going on or something. Sporting events are the only thing that will keep people in Dallas inside on a nice day like this. The dogs certainly didn't care if the park was empty. They actually seem to have more fun on days like this than when the park is full of other dogs. They certainly had a good time today. Dash even rode well in the car on the way home today. He's such a mature dog now that he's six.

When we got home from the dog park, I walked down to the lake behind our house to take a look at the annual British/Italian car show. I'm always amazed at the variety of weird and wonderful cars that show up at this quirky, little show. Today there was a beautiful old Rolls Royce from the early 1900's, a Ferrari so rare that there are probably only 50 of them in the entire world, and a 1967 British NATO armored personnel carrier with a six cylinder Rolls Royce engine. Where do people get these things? This isn't a big, huge event either. It's just a little neighborhood car show.

I don't know why I even bothered to take a shower today. It was so hot and muggy outside that after back-to-back visits to the dog park and the car show, my clothes were dripping wet. It felt like I'd spent a month in the jungle. It's not even June yet either. Dot and Dash don't enjoy our hot Texas Summers and I can certainly understand why. What we need now is for another indoor dog park to come along. It's really a shame that Unleashed went out of business.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Day 522 - Dash's Birthday

Today is Dash's birthday. We think he's about six, mostly because when we adopted him on this day five years ago, we were convinced that he was just under a year old. It was just a guess though. It's kind of a tradition with animal rescue dogs that their adoption day becomes their birthday as well. You never really know the true age of a stray. It's only when they become really old that you see how good your initial guess was.

We took the dogs to Cafe Lago this evening for Dash's birthday. A lot of places in Dallas allow dogs on their outdoor patios now, but Cafe Lago is the only place I know of in town that has a special chef-prepared menu just for dogs. I've been tempted to order off the dog menu myself ocassionally, because everything looks so good. The dogs each had an order of meatloaf and eggs, while Janet and I had hot sandwiches.

I finally got those wildflower pictures I've been talking about taking finished. Today was one of those perfect cloudy bright days with no shadows that photographers love. I figured it was now or never, especially since the wildflowers will be gone in a few weeks anyway. When I got home and looked at the pictures on the computer, I realized that I had more or less wasted my time. The pictures looked exactly like all the other wildflower pictures I've taken on previous years.

I ventured up on the roof again for the first time since I was stung by the swarm of bees a few weeks ago. Thankfully, there were no bees this time. Only the usual standing water from yesterday's rain. I sure wish the roof drained properly. Whenever it rains, the water collects in the center of the roof, where it stays for weeks, until I either sweep it away or it evaporates. It's not hot enough yet for the water to evaporate, so I'm still doing a lot of sweeping.

Hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow. It's one of those rare Sundays without a lot of chores or errands. I'm really looking forward to doing nothing at all.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Friday, May 20, 2011

Day 521

Now that all the bills have arrived from my Houston trip, I did a little postmortem accounting and discovered that I really didn't make much money at all on the job. Oh, well. On the plus side of things, I did acquire some new equipment that allowed me to actually do what I had promised, but that was about it. This happens to me all the time. I'll invest a lot of money to buy equipment for a particular type of job, thinking that I'll be all set for future jobs of this nature, and then I'll never see another job quite like it again. Let's be positive though. I need to keep looking at my glass as half full. Hey, if the trade show guys want to hire me to go to Rio de Janeiro with them in October, I'm all set.

It looks like its going to be a rainy weekend. I managed to get the dogs walked this afternoon before the deluge started, but I ended up cutting things pretty close. I could tell Dot was nervous and wanted to get back inside again, but Dash refused to poop until he got to his regular spot. From the look Dot was giving him, I knew she was thinking "hurry up you silly dog, you're going to get us all killed."

I'm always glad when Friday rolls around, even if there's nothing exciting happening on Saturday. My weeks seem longer now. Maybe it's the same as it always was. Maybe I'm just more tired these days. I find that I'm really busy every day, but at the end of the week I can never think of anything significant that happened. It's all running in place. The marathon race that life has become just goes on and on. It's Friday though. I know I'll sleep well tonight. I always do. It's waking up again the next morning that is the problem.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Day 520

I couldn't find anything to eat in the fridge today, so I went down to my neighborhood barbecue place and picked up some takeout brisket and ribs. Never mind that there was plenty of food in the freezer. Never mind that the shelves were stocked with tons of canned items too. There just wasn't anything I could throw in the microwave and eat two minutes later. I live on leftovers. I'm always excited when Janet cooks something over the weekend that I know will keep a long time, because this eliminates any chance that I might actually have to resort to cooking for myself. I do cook breakfast, but that's different. Breakfast is a sacred ritual that I use to postpone starting my work chores as long as possible.

I think I've finally discovered the secret to getting a lot of Twitter followers. You just follow people who do exactly the same thing you do. Once I started following other writers, my Twitter account started becoming a very busy place. For the past month or so, I think most of my new blog followers have come directly from Twitter. As busy as my Twitter account has become, I'll have to admit that I don't really understand it. It still seems like robots talking to robots. Sometimes my automated replies will trigger further automated replies on the other end. A whole little automated conversation ensues. It's weird, but you can't ignore it. All my clients want to be on Twitter now. I guess social media is here to stay. I noticed that LinkedIn almost doubled in price in its first day as a publicly traded stock. Makes me wish I could get in on the Facebook IPO, if that ever happens.

I think Dash might have eaten a dead bird. There were certainly a suspicious amount of feathers strewn around the yard this morning. I'm hoping is was a neighbor's cat that actually ate the bird and that Dash is just interested in the remaining feathers. If he did eat the bird, he'll probably throw up tonight like he always does when he eats crap. The fact that he has a sensitive stomach doesn't seem to slow him down in the least when there is something rotten in the vicinity.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Day 519

Weird day. I learned that the rural airport where I store a vintage car that I own was struck by a tornado last week and several hangers were destroyed. Evidently, half a dozen airplanes were demolished, but the hanger where my car is stored wasn't touched at all. I got lucky. The guy who happens to own the hanger wasn't so lucky. His dog attacked the teacher's dog in training class tonight. It's never a good move when your dog attacks the teacher's dog.

People keep wanting me to do stuff for lower and lower budgets. I just wonder where all this is going to end. If I had any advice to give a young person wanting to start their own ad agency, it would be this: always try to work for very large companies that have a purchasing department. When you work for a small company where the owner pays you out of their own wallet, nothing you do will ever be cheap enough. You can cut your prices to the bone and it will still seem too expensive to folks who are paying you with their own money. One thing I have learned over the years is that people are much more generous when they are paying you with other people's money.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon paying bills and trying to do some office bookkeeping. I sure wish that when you got your credit card bills, they would tell you what you actually bought. The statements do tell you the name of the store where you made the purchase, but it's up to you to remember what you purchased. I've made a number of electronics purchases during the past several months at Fry's and Sweetwater. I look at the credit card statement and then I look around the office to see if I notice anything new, and I still can't remember what I bought.

This is one of those days where I envy the dogs. They never have any bills to pay. They just spend half their day sleeping and then divide the rest of their time between barking, eating and pooping. Sounds like a good life to me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Day 518

I shot some footage at a dentist's office today for a television commercial I'm putting together about Lumineers. It was pretty amazing to watch how the dentist was able to totally transform a guy who had severely damaged his front teeth in a sports injury into someone with a picture perfect smile in less than an hour. I still don't like going to the dentist, but I'll have to admit I was quite impressed.

I was also quite impressed with my little HD video camera. Making the video was almost effortless, compared to dragging 100 pounds of heavy Beta-SP equipment around with me like I used to do. One of the cool things about this little camera is that I can make complicated camera moves that look just like the camera is attached to a boom arm or jib, just by holding it in my hand and raising my arm. The camera is so small and light that it is very easy to keep the shot steady.

When I finished doing the video shoot, I took Dash to the vet for his bi-weekly antigen shot. As I waited in the lobby, I couldn't help thinking that after a very complicated dental procedure, the dentist I had just visited was right on time for his next appointment. Veterinarians are never right on time for their next appointment. It doesn't matter which vet you go to either. You're always going to sit in the lobby for about thirty minutes.

As busy as my day was today , I actually welcomed my thirty minutes of doing absolutely nothing. It was really the only rest I got all day. When Dash and I got back home, it was right back to website design and writing about watches. Even though I'm still a bit tired, I'm happy that business had picked up this year. I'm slowly but surely getting more efficient about handling the increasing work load. If things continue at this frantic pace. Dot won't be able to manage the office anymore. She might need an assistant.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Monday, May 16, 2011

Day 517

It's time to retire all my Beta-SP equipment. I got a call to shoot some video for a TV commercial tomorrow and realized that the inexpensive little HD camera I took to Houston with me a few weeks ago was better suited for the job that all my old "studio quality" analog equipment. The client is probably going to roll their eyes a bit when I show up tomorrow with a little pocket camera that isn't much bigger than an iPhone. "You're not going to shoot a TV commercial with that," they'll say. Hey, whatever works has always been my philosophy. I'm going with the little camera that records great looking HD video on an SD memory card.

The week is actually off to a pretty good start. My new HVAC client likes the initial design I showed him for his website. This is always a good sign. Sometimes you can still salvage things when they hate the initial design, but it's always an uphill battle. I have a feeling that this particular website is about 75% done. We still have to flesh out the staff bios, add some more pictures and get some of the database driven features to work properly, but we're definitely on the home stretch.

Now that I'm starting to get a lot of Twitter followers, I need to figure out an easy way to get rid of all the spammers. When I just had a few followers, I wasn't even aware that these folks existed, but there are tons of them. Typically these people are following from two to five hundred people, have absolutely no Tweets of their own, and are usually from Russia. I just need some sort of automated thingie that will automatically unfollow anyone who Tweets using a cyrillic keyboard and I'll get rid of 95% of these spammers.

I think the nail that Dot tore out last month during the thunderstorm is starting to grow back. I didn't really expect that it would grow back at all, but today I felt the tip of a nail starting to protrude through her paw pad. Maybe Dot will get lucky this time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Day 516

We spent most of the day at the La Buena Vida Vineyards, enjoying the nice weather, visiting with other Dalmatians, and trying to get the word out about Dalmatian Rescue. The winery hosts its annual Canines, Felines & Texas Wine event every May and this is the third year that Dalmatian Rescue has attended. This was actually the first year I've been to the event myself, but Janet goes every year. I enjoyed myself. So did Dot and Dash. We took both dogs with us today and they enjoyed getting to meet all the other dogs at the winery. I think they enjoyed the abundance of dog treats even more. This was an upscale crowd. I saw people buying expensive cheese trays and then feeding the cheese to the dogs. Lots of champagne and Prada purses too. Dot and Dash got to see their friend Willow again. I didn't get to drink any wine though. I just had bottled water. Sadly, my blood work seems to confirm that my liver just doesn't appreciate wine anymore. Hamburgers aren't prohibited yet, so I did have a tasty burger.

The afternoon might have been a bit too relaxing. I found myself falling asleep in my chair from time-to-time. I'm continually tired these days. I need to start getting seven or eight hours of sleep again. Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen though. Blogging, demanding clients and a habit of watching television after I've gone to bed aren't very conducive to sleep.

The dogs certainly didn't have any trouble sleeping today. They both had a big day. Despite all the phobias Dash has about riding in the car, the dogs slept peacefully all the way home.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Day 515

What a beautiful day. You can't beat clear blue skies and 65 to 70 degree temperatures. No pollen either. My allergies didn't bother me all day. This was a good day to do yard work, so that's what I did. I mowed the grass, trimmed bushes and watered. After I put the lawn mower away, the dogs supervised the rest. They liked the nice day too. I hope this weather lasts a while, but it can't last long. It's often 100 degrees outside by early June.

I can't stop writing watch articles. I even wrote one this morning. Writing about watches is making me want to start buying them again. I really shouldn't. It's kind of an addiction. Watch collecting will suck money out of your wallet faster than having a problem with alcohol or drugs. I couldn't afford some of the watches I've been writing about anyway. The ones I like the best cost between $15,000 and $20,000 each.

Oh, well. I'll just stick with what I've got. I've got so many watches already that a battery seems to goes dead on one just about every day. I put a battery in one of Janet's after breakfast this morning. I'll probably put another battery in something else tomorrow.

I've got enough done today that I might even be able to catch one of the new episodes of Dr. Who this evening. I haven't seen any of the new 2011 episodes yet and I'm curious whether the show holds together now that it's being shot here in the United States. I'll let you know. So far, I still think that the first series with Billie Piper playing the doctor's companion Rose Tyler is the best.

Dot and Dash get to go on an outing tomorrow. A local winery has invited Dalmatian Rescue to an animal friendly event at their vineyard. Maybe if we give Dash a little wine at the event, he'll be quiet in the car on the way home.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Friday, May 13, 2011

Day 514

Well, Blogger is finally back. That was something I wasn't expecting. I've had the web server where I host my company site go down once or twice, but it was always back up again in a matter of hours. I think Blogger was down over 30 hours. This must have been something really serious. I wonder if we'll ever know what really happened. I don't think we'll find out much from the Blogger team. They've kind of circled the wagons and are very keeping tight lipped about this one.

One thing I learned yesterday was how important it is to back everything up locally. Even though my Wednesday and Thursday posts just disappeared on Blogger, I had a pretty easy time reconstructing things. I retrieved the text for the lost posts from my XML backup and the photos from a file I keep locally on my hard drive. I think everything is the same now, except for a few comments I lost.

I'm really glad it's Friday, even if it does happen to be Friday the 13. This has been a very hard week. I still don't think I've caught up completely from my week away from the office. I'm getting back into a nice regular rhythm now though. I do my watch blog articles for Larry Brauner right after walking the dogs and eating breakfast. Then I answer my e-mail and deal with the current crisis of the moment. Afternoons are usually reserved for website design, unless I am paying bills like I was today.

I like being busy. Not too busy though. That's the hard part...keeping everything in balance. I definitely need to mow the grass and work on the yard a bit this weekend. We've had so much rain lately that everything is growing like crazy. The yard is green, but very unruly. I need to get up on the roof again and get rid of the standing water as well. I'm kind of scared to go up on the roof these days, since I was stung repeatedly by a swarm of bees the last time I ventured up there. Luckily, the weekend isn't all work and no play. Dalmatian Rescue is having an adoption event at a local winery this weekend and we're taking Dot and Dash. Since we're taking Dash, the trip to the winery might end up being work after all. He's getting a lot better about traveling in the car though. One can only hope.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Day 513

I spent most of the day writing html code. Now that I've spent the past several months doing a variety of different things back-to-back, I realize that I don't really like writing html code. I'd really prefer to spend my time video editing and writing. Writing and video editing generally seem to pay better than designing web sites too. All this makes me wonder why I'm still spending so much of my time designing and maintaining web sites. Probably because people are still asking me to build them. Today's coding isn't going to make me rich, but I did make good progress finishing what I've started. If I keep on working this evening, I may even have something to present tomorrow.

I just noticed that blogger.com, where this blog is hosted, has been down most of the day. What's up with that? I've seen service disruptions of an hour or so from time-to-time, but never anything this long. Blogger has been down over 24 hours. I've never missed a daily post in the entire history of this blog, but this may be out of my control. I guess the only thing I can do is write today's post in a word processor and then hope that blogger comes online again before midnight. I don't know why all this bothers me, but it does. Surely a big company like Google must have a backup plan. At least they could do things like the power companies do when they have a rolling power outage. Instead of shutting the entire domain down and taking hundreds of thousands of blogs down with them, couldn't they just take a couple of hundred down at a time while they isolate the problem? I bet there are a lot of frustrated people right now.

There's plenty of other stuff for me to do however. Maybe blogger will be back up again after I take the trash out to the street. Maybe it will be up again after I vacuum the carpets. Maybe it will be up after I balance my checkbook. I'm not going to lose any sleep over this though. It's out of my control. I learned a long time ago not to worry about things that were out of my control. Oh well, if Blogger is still down at midnight, I'll just backdate today's post when it eventually comes back online.

The park looks exceptionally green and beautiful right now. It's the perfect time to take Spring wildflower pictures. Maybe I'll do this tomorrow if I get my new website finished in time. Last year the wildflowers looked kind of spotty, but we've had lots of rain lately and they look fabulous this year. All I need is a cloudy bright day without much wind. Wait a minute….today was a cloudy bright day without much wind. Why didn't I do all this stuff today?

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Day 512

Another rainy day. I'm sure my regular readers know all about rainy days by now. The dogs are huddled under my desk, shivering and barking at every thunderclap. Standing water is accumulating on the roof. I try to remember to save my files often during heavy rains, because you never know when the power is going to go out. The area is so wooded where we live that tree limbs often fall on power lines during bad weather and knock the electricity out. At least I got the dogs walked early this morning, before the rains started. This evening was hopeless. There is still thunder and lightening all around us. Like it or not, the dogs are just going to have to poop in the yard tonight.

I've been so busy lately that I didn't even know what day it was today. When Janet came home, she mentioned that there would be no dog class tonight. Dog class is on Wednesday. I've been walking around all day thinking is was Tuesday. I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm going to be doing exactly the same things every day this week. I'm spending a lot of time on the new website I'm designing, since I promised my client that I'd have it ready to show by Friday. I'm still writing a new watch article every day as well. I could probably write two or three articles a day, but this is a long-term, ongoing project and I need to leave time for my other work. So far, writing about watches has been fun. I know a lot about watches and the writing comes easily. I'd probably make a good brand manager for a watch company. Actually, I probably wouldn't make a good brand manager. After over twenty years on my own, I don't think I could drive to work every morning and report to a boss ever again. The only boss I've had for many years is the exceptionally bossy Dot, who never fails to let me know if I'm even five minutes late with her dinner and her walks.

I got my May invoices out today. It's weird how some clients are so consistent that they pay on exactly the same day every month, while others just let the bills sit there for two or three months. Maybe it's just me, but I think if a company is consistently two or three months late in paying their invoices, there's got to be other things wrong with them as well. The trade show folks certainly aren't among these laggards. They've worked out all the international payment complexities and promised to have a check to me by the end of the week. Yay! That's the way it ought to be.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Day 511

I woke up this morning feeling sick, and I'm finishing the day feeling even sicker. I think I'm just totally run down. It's been ages since I've had a chance to relax and do nothing. Lately, my life has become an endless "to do" list that extends out far beyond the horizon. On the other hand, maybe I'm not run down at all. It could be that I just have a bad case of the flu. I certainly have that aching feeling in my bones that comes along with every case of the flu that I can remember. I spend so much time alone that I have no resistance to other people's colds and ailments either. Probably spending a week with thousands of people in Houston, followed by Wine on the Roof with hundreds more just did me in.

It was a busy day nevertheless. I worked on the new HVAC website, wrote some more watch articles and played phone tag with the people in Houston who are still trying to figure out how to pay me with a credit card. This is essentially what I did yesterday and it's probably what I'll be doing tomorrow as well. I just hope a feel a little better tomorrow. Today, my head feels like it's going to explode.

When I was walking the dogs this morning, several joggers asked me if I'd seen the coyotes. I'm glad I hadn't because sometimes Dot and Dash don't ignore the coyotes like they should and start barking wildly instead. I certainly don't want to provoke a pack of coyotes. I've got enough problems as it is.

Somehow I've completely missed the new season of Dr. Who. I wonder if I missed anything good. I know that they were supposed to shoot this year's new episodes in the United States. Usually when a British or Canadian television series starts doing episodes in the United States, the whole thing starts to go down hill. This is certainly what happened with Lexx. The first three seasons were good, but the last and final season, shot here in the United States, was absolutely terrible. Hey guys, it's not all about the Grand Canyon and cowboy hats over here.

Maybe they'll figure out how to pay me tomorrow. Money is nice. I always like receiving money whether I'm sick or not.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day