Day 1171

I kept myself busy writing for most of the day. Writing would be a very pleasant occupation if there were more money in it. Writing used to be a lot more lucrative for me. Truthfully, nobody ever paid all that much for the writing itself, but there was usually travel involved, plus lots of needless meetings that could be billed out as well. That all changed after the dot.com crash. Most of the self-important middle managers who scheduled all the needless meetings got fired and all that was left were the words on the page. That's the way it remains today. Microsoft Word files travel back and forth electronically and eventually a check arrives in the mail.

Although most of the glamor is gone, writing is still a very pleasant way to spend the day. It certainly beats dressing up in a suit and making Powerpoint presentations to an audience of vultures eager to steal anything that resembles an idea, so they can claim it as their own.

As I was eating breakfast this morning, I watched the pope fly away in a helicopter to begin a monastic life of quiet contemplation. I wouldn't mind living a life of quiet contemplation. Especially if I were living in a beautiful castle overlooking the sea, surrounded by carefully manicured formal gardens, and waited on by two full time secretaries and four domestic servants. Not a bad life at all.

The pope probably doesn't have Dalmatians though. Dalmatians have a certain beauty all their own.  I amused myself today watching Dot and Dash try to find the possum they saw in the yard last night. The possum was long gone the minute the dogs started barking at it, but that didn't deter them one bit. When they weren't possum hunting, they occupied themselves lounging on the new velour blankets Janet got them this week. They both love soft things. I guess it makes sense, since they have a pretty soft life.

One of my favorite breakfast restaurants closed its doors for the last time this week. It was sad to see the place go out of business. I knew the owner and she had poured her life into building a great little neighborhood eatery. The food was fantastic, but I guess there just weren't enough customers to make a go of things. The restaurant business is hard. It's probably even harder than writing for a living.

No wildflower pictures today. Just houseplants. I've always been fond of orchids.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 913

The rent house was sold today. I signed all the papers this afternoon at the title company, turned over the keys to the new owners, and that was that. It's over. I was relieved that the whole process was finally finished, but I can't say that my mood was exactly celebratory. I guess my initial thought was "one down, one to go." I've got one more mid-century modern house, but hopefully, I'll continue living in the remaining house for a while. I was really happy with my real estate agent. He really understood the peculiarities of selling a 1960's house in 2012. My agent is young. I suspect he'll still be around when it's time to retire and sell the other house. I'd definitely use him again.

I tried to help Janet get her car into the body shop today for repairs. I guess I didn't realize how bad the hailstorm actually was.  All the rental cars in  town are already gone. The Land Rover body shop said the soonest they could start repairing Janet's car was July 14. There are literally thousands and thousands of cars in Dallas that were seriously damaged by yesterday's storms. The Land Rover dealership itself was right in the path of the storm and my service representative told me that over 200 of their cars were damaged, including all of their loaner cars. When they told me this, I started to worry, because my own car is still at the dealership for repairs. I had them check and they told me I was one of the lucky ones. My car was already inside the shop when the storm hit. Some people weren't so lucky. The body shop told me that several cars they had just finished repairing were damaged all over again before their owners had a chance to pick them up.

With all the water problems I've been having with my roof, I was kind of hoping that yesterday's hail storm might have have left enough dents in the roof that my homeowner's insurance might finally spring for a brand new roof. I climbed up on the roof this afternoon to look for signs of damage. Nothing! No signs of damage at all. The roof looked exactly the same as it did before the storm. It's just a leaky old roof.

I went to Cafe Lago for breakfast this morning. This is the place where we sometimes take the dogs for dinner. I don't know why I haven't thought of this place before. It's right in the neighborhood and I've always liked their dinner menu. I guess I just forgot that they served breakfast as well. I came at 10 AM, which is when I usually eat breakfast, and I was the only one in the place. The owner cooked my omelet. The food was great and I kind of liked being the only one in the restaurant. I'll be back.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 892

Dash finally got his birthday dinner today. It was a little late, but it was a good excuse to go to Cafe Lago again. I think they have the best Cuban sandwich in town. I'm continually amazed at how well behaved our dogs can be when we take them to restaurants. They both bark like crazy on the drive over to the restaurant, but once we're sitting at our table, they look like contenders for the canine good citizen award. Other diners frequently come over to our table to pet the dogs and praise their good behavior. Nobody can believe that Dalmatians can be this good in public. Dot and Dash are both quite social. They both like an outing, especially when food is involved. Some of their good manners stem from the fact that they get fed when they're good. I also think that they just like to go out to eat. Who wouldn't? Going out to eat is always more fun than eating at home.

I've finally moved enough stuff to the new storage space that my office is actually starting to look shipshape again. All the bags of camera equipment are finally off the floor and neatly arranged on shelves where they should be. My big accomplishment today was clearing a mountain of paperwork off the top of an old ESQ-1 keyboard I have set up in the corner of the office. For the first time in several years, I can actually play the keyboard if I want. Amazing!

While I was sorting through the paperwork to determine what goes in the shredder, what goes in the trash, and what stays behind, I found an old unopened letter that looked suspiciously like a lot of the letters I'm getting from politicians lately. When I opened the letter, I was really surprised. It was an invitation to be part of a trade delegation to China.  Hmm. That would have been fun if I had opened the letter three years earlier. I still can't figure out how I got on a list to be part of a trade delegation.  The letter said I was selected because of my reputation and experience in the industry. It didn't say which industry though. The whole thing could have been some sort of scam. It definitely looked legitimate though. Jeez, I really need to start reading my mail.

It will be nice to have a three day weekend. This week has been so busy that I would be content to do absolutely nothing for the next three days. There are places to go and things to do however. Dot and Dash have a play date on Sunday. They're meeting two other Dalmatians. One of their spotted friends is a talented show-off who does agility. I think Dot and Dash can hold their own however. After all, how many Dalmatians are cosmopolitan foodies who go to restaurants for dinner?

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 885

I went to a new breakfast restaurant this morning. I'd driven by the place many times but had never eaten there before. As soon as I went inside, I knew I had entered the Twilight Zone. I was the youngest person in the entire restaurant. Lots of people were reading the newspaper. No, they weren't looking USA Today on their iPads, they were looking at real paper newspapers. Nobody was using an iPhone or Android. The few people who were talking on cell phones had ancient brick-like models that I hadn't seen in years. The food was good though. Most importantly, the all important coffee refills just kept on coming.

After breakfast, I paid a visit to my safe deposit box to look for some documents that my real estate agent needed. I couldn't find the documents, but I did notice that there was nothing of real value or importance in my box. I found two old music publishing contracts with record labels that had gone out of business years ago. I found a detailed inventory of office equipment that I no longer owned. I found an expired passport. I found an old will that I should have thrown away because the beneficiaries are already dead. I don't know why I even keep this safe deposit box. Everything in it is worthless.

I had to fight rush hour traffic to go to the airport this afternoon. Ordinarily, I don't even leave the house at this time of day, but rush hour just happened to be when Janet's plane arrived from Las Vegas. I keep thinking we're in a depression, because that's all I hear on TV. When I'm out and about though, people look like they're doing pretty well. If you judged things by the volume of rush hour traffic, you'd have to call Dallas a boom town.

Neither Janet or I felt like cooking when we finally made it home again, so we took the dogs out for dinner at Cafe Lago instead. It's amazing how well behaved Dot and Dash are when we take them to a restaurant. They're been to this dog friendly restaurant enough now that they both understand how things work. If they're well behaved, they're going to get food. They just sit at our feet quietly like model canine citizens. People come over to pet them at our table on the patio and would never believe how badly behaved this pair can be at home.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 682

I woke up sleepy after watching all eleven innings of the Rangers game last night. It's hard to believe that the Rangers came within one strike of winning the World Series twice in that game and still managed to lose. I guess I do understand though. It seems like I've been one strike away from success quite a few times in my life.

I'm glad it's Friday. It's been a tiring week, and today was no exception. After finishing the required October article for the writer's group I participate in, completing another watch article, dealing with a few web problems and walking the dogs, all I had time to do was sweep the standing water from last night's rains off the roof. Where did all the fun go. Lately, I just feel like one of those Hamsters spinning on a wheel in their cage.

I'll have to admit that this evening was fun though. We took the dogs for their long promised dinner at Cafe Lago. The dogs absolutely love this place and we think the food is pretty good ourselves. The unique thing about Cafe Lago is that the head chef for the restaurant cooks the dog's menu as well. The doggie items on the menu are absolutely delicious and completely safe for dogs to eat. Dot had the meatloaf tonight and Dash had the roasted chicken. I couldn't resist ordering my favorite Cuban Pulled Pork Sandwich again. I've never been to Cuba, but I can't imagine that this sandwich would taste any better in Havana.

I noticed today that Thomas Hawk had given a +1 to one of the photographs I posted on my Google page. That almost made up for the dismal decline in my Klout score the other day. I try not to take the daily ebb and flow of the social media world too seriously, but it can be hard to ignore if your job is basically staring at a computer all day. I'd kind of like to believe that all the time I spend online actually means something, but it probably doesn't.

I took a quick peek at the game on the TV in the other room. The Rangers are behind 3 to 2 in the fifth inning. If the game is anything like last night's, the night is still young.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 522 - Dash's Birthday

Today is Dash's birthday. We think he's about six, mostly because when we adopted him on this day five years ago, we were convinced that he was just under a year old. It was just a guess though. It's kind of a tradition with animal rescue dogs that their adoption day becomes their birthday as well. You never really know the true age of a stray. It's only when they become really old that you see how good your initial guess was.

We took the dogs to Cafe Lago this evening for Dash's birthday. A lot of places in Dallas allow dogs on their outdoor patios now, but Cafe Lago is the only place I know of in town that has a special chef-prepared menu just for dogs. I've been tempted to order off the dog menu myself ocassionally, because everything looks so good. The dogs each had an order of meatloaf and eggs, while Janet and I had hot sandwiches.

I finally got those wildflower pictures I've been talking about taking finished. Today was one of those perfect cloudy bright days with no shadows that photographers love. I figured it was now or never, especially since the wildflowers will be gone in a few weeks anyway. When I got home and looked at the pictures on the computer, I realized that I had more or less wasted my time. The pictures looked exactly like all the other wildflower pictures I've taken on previous years.

I ventured up on the roof again for the first time since I was stung by the swarm of bees a few weeks ago. Thankfully, there were no bees this time. Only the usual standing water from yesterday's rain. I sure wish the roof drained properly. Whenever it rains, the water collects in the center of the roof, where it stays for weeks, until I either sweep it away or it evaporates. It's not hot enough yet for the water to evaporate, so I'm still doing a lot of sweeping.

Hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow. It's one of those rare Sundays without a lot of chores or errands. I'm really looking forward to doing nothing at all.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day