Day 4371

Santa has left the building. Another year of Santa Paws events is in the books. It's hard to believe that we used to do five or six of these events a year. We're all getting older now and two events seems plenty. We had a good day today and photographed quite a few dogs along with two cats. Even Charlie and Oliver got a picture with Santa today. We had quite a few Dalmatians at today's event. Dalmatians are very photogenic but they are not always the best behaved. Santa had his hands full. It was lots of fun to see some of our Dalmatian Rescue alumni though. I've known a few of these dogs since they were puppies. We tried to figure out how long we've been doing Santa Paws pictures and our best guess is fourteen years. We might be off by a year or two either way though.

Janet and I walked Dawn even earlier than usual this morning so we would have time to set everything up before the event. This was the first morning this Winter where the temperature was below freezing. Dawn wore her new sweater for the first time and seemed to be comfortable wearing it. The cold doesn't bother Dawn much. Personally, I prefer warmer weather. I dressed very warmly and had to shed a few layers before I left for the event. It seems to take me longer to load the car and set everything up now, but even though I got a late start I was still ready for our first customer. I really need to buy some new stands for the backdrop before next year's events. These stands have seen better days. Everything still worked though. Since most of this equipment was build for daily use in a studio, it might last forever since I basically only use it once a year.

I'm still not sure where my FedEx package is. I know it has arrived in the Dallas area though. Since I wasn't sure if the customer service agent I talked to yesterday understood my request to hold the package at a nearby Fedex Print Center, I also put a vacation hold on the delivery. I was successful at preventing the package from sitting on my front porch all day, but I'm still not sure where it is. There was a cryptic message on the FedEx website this morning that just said "address corrected." I hope this means that the address was changed to the location where I hope to pick up the package tomorrow. It could mean something else though. We'll see. 

I really hate off-shore call centers. You used to be able to pick up the phone and talk directly to almost anymore. Not anymore. Everything is automated now. I'm so tired of sitting on the phone forever to listen to a series of automated prompts that never seem to refer to what I was calling about. Press 1 if you want blah, blah, blah, etc. By the time the robotic voice reaches Press 9, I usually get frustrated and just hang up. If I do eventually manage to reach a real person, it is usually someone in the Philippines or Malaysia that I can barely understand. I remember a time when the FedEx driver in our neighborhood would give me his personal cell number. If I was away when he came to make a delivery, I could just give him a call when I returned and he would swing back by. Those days are gone forever.

I was more organized than usual today. Instead of leaving all the photo gear lying around the house for a week, I took it directly back to the storage warehouse on the way home. Usually, I am too tired to do this, but it is nice to have all this stuff out of the way. Now all I have to do is wash the backdrop, recharge all the camera batteries, and I'm done.

I'm not sure if we'll go back to the kennel tomorrow. We were there all day today and got to see Charlie and Oliver anyway. We still might go, since it is a regular part of our Monday routine. When you are retire, you've got to have a routine or you completely forget what day is is. 

Savanah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day