Day 1035

Have you tried to buy a discontinued product lately? It used to be that you could often buy discontinued products for years after they'd been replaced. When stores kept their own inventories, they would often tempt you with fantastic closeout prices, just to get the items of their shelves. Everything has changed now. Most merchants have adopted "just in time" inventory policies and keep a bare minimum of products on their shelves. They depend on computers to tell them which products are popular and on the FedEx delivery man to deliver fresh supplies each morning. This makes it very easy for manufacturers to make products vanish almost instantly when they've been discontinued.

I only mention this because I've be trying to find some of those little square iPod nanos. They weren't discontinued all that long ago, but they've totally vanished from store shelves. I'm not surprised that you can't find these things at the Apple store anymore, but you'd think Fry's, B&H, Best Buy, or Radio Shack would have a few left. Nope! It's like the little square nano never even existed. I guess I could still find something on eBay, but I've grown weary of the bidding process. I prefer a transaction I can complete in twenty seconds.

Our beautiful Indian Summer continues. The days are noticeably shorter now and the leaves are starting to turn. I've started noticing more bird activity as well. Since I've already managed to get good pictures of all the critters that aren't scared of the dogs, it might be time to invest in a longer telephoto lens. There are lots of animals I routinely see in the distance, but can never approach because of Dot and Dash.

It was a typical Monday. There were very few requests all day. I used the extra time to finish up the few remaing projects from last week. As far as I can tell, I'm all caught up now. I wouldn't mind if tomorrow is a slow day as well. Of course, if the inactivity continues throughout the week, I'll start to get nervous. Being on your own is always a delicate balance. You want to make sure that there is always enough work to pay the bills, while still trying to avoid the overloads that drive you crazy.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day