Day 2218

Are there song lyrics that seem to stick in your head forever? The words "Ground Control to Major Tom. Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong." have been rattling around in my head for decades. Now, David Bowie is dead. I was surprised to hear the news, but I shouldn't have been. A steady stream of my contemporaries are now departing this earth. It used to be when they played the annual "People We Lost" tribute during the Oscars, it was usually people much older than me that were remembered. Now the dearly departed are my age. It's sobering to realize how little time we have on this planet. I'll miss David Bowie. He was a tremendously talented person. After all these years, The Man Who Fell To Earth is still one of my favorite movies. Space Oddity has always been among my favorite songs. If you haven't already watched the video of Lazarus, Bowie's final song, I would encourage you to do so. It's hard to believe that this song was released just two days before his death. Now there's another song that will be rattling around in my head for decades. Well, maybe at least one decade. I'm optimistic.

Not much happened today. I talked to my financial adviser about the stock market meltdown. I'm glad I sold a bunch of stuff before the end of last year, because it would have just gone down further if I'd held on to it. This definitely isn't the time to be buying stocks. So, how do you make money when the sky is falling? I guess you'd have to win the lottery.

Dot has gone several days without any accidents, but my luck came to an end today. She pooped in the house twice. The second time was while she was eating her dinner. Food was going in one end and coming out the other at the same time. Luckily the area around the dogs food bowls is well protected now, so the cleanup was relatively easy. This has all just become part of daily life. I continually walk around with poop bags in all my pockets now, because you never know when or where she's going to go next.

I'm trying to get the watch winder company to replace my remaining defective watch winders. They're not as responsive as they were the first time. I think when they discovered how many watch winders I had, they got cold feet about sending me a replacement for each of them. I'm going to be persistent though. If they replaced one winder because of a defective Chinese motor, they should replace them all. We'll see what happens. Watch winders are simple little machines. They should really last as long as the watch they're keeping wound.

On slow days like this I amuse myself by looking through the B&H catalog and fantasizing about photo equipment I think I need. I really don't need anything, but it's fun to imagine how new gear would change everything. Today I discovered the Metabones Speed Booster. This clever adapter lets you pair full frame lenses with a micro 4/3 camera and gain a full stop of speed while reducing the crop factor. If this all sounds like Mumbo-Jumbo to you, you'll have to trust me that it's a big deal. If I got one of these gadgets, I could use some of my old Nikon-F lenses on my current digital cameras and they'd be faster than they were originally.

Janet was watching the Alabama vs Clemson game this evening on TV, so I started watching too. Pretty exciting game. Why can't the Dallas Cowboys play this way?

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day