Day 2900

One down, one to go. Today's photo shoot went well. The dogs were friendly. The owners were happy. And all the equipment worked. It's always a good day when nobody pees on the backdrop and Santa doesn't get bit. I can't even remember how many years we've been doing this, but some people keep coming back year after year. I've watched their dogs grow from puppies to senior citizens. We didn't have any exotic animals today, but we did photograph one cat. In recent years, people have started bringing their children to these events for Christmas pictures. Everyone says we are so much easier to deal with than the Santa at the mall. Some children were chatty and gave Santa a long list of what they wanted for Christmas. Others seemed terrified. I'm no psychologist, but the kids with dogs in their family seemed the most relaxed. Having a dog makes everything better.

I had the usual aches and pains from kneeling most of the day, but actually this year seemed easier than last year. Maybe I've reached some sort of a plateau where my body has stopped falling apart for a while. At least I didn't slow the others down today. We were booked solid for the entire day and it was important to keep things moving along. Thankfully, our host built a pause in today's schedule to give our team time to eat lunch. Sometimes this doesn't happen and it can make for a very long day.

I may have gotten a new web design job as a result of today's event. At least I've got a meeting scheduled next week to talk about things. Lately, I'm a little apprehensive about taking on new work. I definitely still need the money, but I'm growing tired of the deadlines and responsibility. I think this means that I'm finally coming to grips with retirement. The day is coming when I will just say "no thank you" to new assignments. I'm not there yet, but I am becoming more gracious about letting someone else get a new account. It's too bad the the stable world of my parents is gone forever. When my Dad retired, he was able to depend on a nice pension for the rest of his life. Defined pension plans have gone the way of the dinosaurs. All we've got now is a stock market that could crash at any moment.

Janet was able to leave the photo shoot a little early, so Dash still got his evening walk. It was pretty late when I got home, but I still went up on the roof anyway and patched the hole I made yesterday before it got dark. The weather forecast is changing and the last thing I wanted was for the roof to get wet before I finished what I started. My patch looks good, so I think I'm going to be OK. Once the roofers discover that I've started buying my own elastomer material, they'll probably never come back. I don't know what else to do though. I really need to get this done.

Tomorrow is going to seem like Saturday. Janet and I still have our weekend errands and grocery shopping to do. I probably won't make it to the gym, but that's OK. I had my workout today. There's probably no point in taking the photo equipment back to the storage warehouse. We've got another Santa Paws event next Saturday.

I'm hoping to sleep in late tomorrow morning. Dash may have other ideas though. It's always easier to do what Dash wants. Maybe this is why our photo shoots go so well. Santa and I have learned to do what the dogs want.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day