Day 1069

Since yesterday was largely a photography day, I had a lot of errands to run today. When I was out and about, I noticed that the Christmas shopping season is already in full swing. Nobody even waited until Black Friday this year. The stores are filled to overflowing with Christmas merchandise and vacant lots all over town are being turned into tented Christmas tree emporiums.

Christmas always brings a lot of useless things I've never seen before to the stores. Today I saw a tiny GPS receiver that you could place on your dog's collar. It not only showed where your dog was at all times, it also told you how many calories the dog burned up during the day. I don't think I really need one of these things. If I'm not out walking the dogs myself, they're usually sleeping right under my desk. I also saw a bunch of potted household herbs like Rosemary and Thyme shaped just like tiny Christmas trees. Did the herbs grow this way naturally, or did someone carefully trim each of the plants to look like a Christmas tree? I don't know.

Now that the days are getting shorter, I've started seeing a ton of portrait and wedding photographers taking pictures of their clients in the park around sunset. While I was taking Dot and Dash on their evening walk this evening I counted seven of these groups. There were two wedding parties, two were couples having engagement pictures done, and three were families with children. I see groups like these almost every day during the Fall. You'd think that brides wouldn't want exactly the same wedding pictures as dozens of other people, but maybe that's exactly what people do want these days. I certainly haven't had many clients ask me to do something original and different lately. It's so much easier to do something that's already been done. I bet a lot of the people I see in the park noticed a friend's wedding pictures and decided to do exactly the same thing.

The dogs had a great time in the dog park today. Dash enjoyed racing full speed around the park, showing the other dogs how fast he was, while Dot seemed content to sniff trees and bushes at a much more leisurely pace. After a while, they were both ready to come home and that's exactly what we did. It's going to be a short week. The three day Thanksgiving holiday week probably won't be good for my business, but it will be nice to have a break.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day