Day 665

Before breakfast this morning, I took my car up to the Land Rover dealer for it's 105,000 mile service. While I waited for them to get my loaner car ready, I watched all the glittery people drop off their $80,000 Range Rovers. My Defender 90 is almost always the oldest and most humble car at the dealership, but it's still cool. Everyone loves the Defender. This is the quintessential man's car. It is simple, practical and yet still manages to seem just a little exotic. People still stop me in the street and offer to buy the car for more than I paid for it new.

When I went home again to walk the dogs, they were confused by the LR2 loaner car in the driveway. They thought Janet was back home again because the cars looked the same. They were obviously good at recognizing shapes, but not so good at noticing that there was only one car in the driveway. After our walk, I tried to postpone the day a little longer with a big breakfast of eggs and sausages, but eventually I had to get to work.

With all the work on my desk these days, I should be making a ton of money. Unfortunately this is not the case. I need to raise my prices across the board, but many of my clients would leave if I charged more for anything. I wish they would ban all these commercials coming from Intuit and others that promise professional looking websites for only $9.95 a month. This devaluation of design is ruining my business. Truthfully, many of my clients have tried these template sites and then came to me after they discovered that their competitors often had exactly the same design. Unfortunately, even after they realize the value of custom work, they still don't want to pay very much. Writing still pays well if the final result is actually printed on paper. If it just winds up on the web however, all bets are off. Nobody wants to pay much for something that's on the web.

Dash had another antigen shot today. I need to get my invoices out tomorrow. I used to send invoices on the first of every month, but gradually invoicing had slipped a bit, just like everything else. I'll be lucky if I get the billing out by the middle of the month if everything continues to stay this busy. I'm even having trouble finding time to do the exercises that are part of my physical therapy. I'll be the first to admit that I don't work at a fast and furious pace, but there should still be a lot more left over time. Every second of my day seems to be allocated already.

Design Within Reach says the new mattress should arrive at the house tomorrow. They don't have a tracking number however, and don't seem to know where the mattress is now. I think it's a pretty safe bet that nothing is going to arrive tomorrow.

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day