Day 746

Another year sails off into the sunset. I've still got things on my to-do list from last July that I haven't finished yet. I guess it doesn't really matter. There's always next year. I saw something on the Internet the other day that showed a copy of an old New Year's resolution list made by singer Woody Guthrie. The list contained items like "Remember to brush your teeth" and "wear clean clothes every day." The list was all pretty basic, with the exception of one item that said "Write a new song every day," I think Woody had it right. A lot of grandiose plans never materialize. When you concentrate on the little things, however, and keep plugging away day after day, the result can be grander than you ever imagined. Life is just a collection of a million little details. I don't think anything life changing can happen until you take of the little things first.

I did a lot of little things today. In that regard it was just like any other day. Although I've made a lifestyle out of doing the laundry, photographing inconsequential things within a mile of my house and writing stories about my dogs, I will admit that there are times when my obsession with minutia goes too far. Today, I found myself obsessing about why the trash guys only took half my trash on Friday. They literally emptied exactly half of my trash container and left the rest of the trash untouched. Why? Is there some weird union rule about the number of black bags they can put in the truck? Were they being lazy? Or maybe they got distracted by my neighbor's trash. Of course there's always the possibility that they took all the trash and some some late rising neighbor dumped their trash into my container after the truck had already left. I'll never know.

Before I stop obsessing about little things that don't matter, have you ever noticed that when you start reading the instruction manual for that new electronic gizmo you just got, the first thing you are instructed to do is "Set the Clock?" Everything seems to have a clock in it nowadays. When I got a new TV, the first thing I was instructed to do was set the clock. The same thing happened with every new camera I've bought in the last five years. My phone has a clock. My computer has a clock. Today I was testing a new audio mixer, and sure enough, the first thing the instructions told me to do was set the clock. What on earth does an audio mixer need a clock for? Pretty soon I'll be setting the clock on my electric toothbrush.

I hope all you guys have a very Happy New Year. I'll probably watch a little football and I'm sure a trip to the dog park is in the cards as well.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day