Day 555

Now, Dash has been immortalized in oil as well. I think Carolyn Finnell has done a fabulous job of capturing each dog's personality. I really like these paintings. When I was younger, I had original prints by Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly hanging on my walls. These days, I just have pictures of dogs. Its probably better this way.

Oddly, a few people here and there are starting to collect my own pictures of dogs. I think I'm developing a knack for photographing animals in costumes. Today I had a photo shoot where my models were a cat wearing a Carmen Miranda fruit hat and a Chihuahua wearing a flamingo dancer's costume, complete with a tasseled Cordoban hat. The secret to these types of photos is speed. Believe me, a cat will not wear a Carmen Miranda hat for very long. I got some good images, but I really haven't had time to go through them yet. Maybe I'll show you some tomorrow.

A friend of mine bought a warehouse recently and wanted me to go take a look at it this afternoon. When I hear the word warehouse these days, I automatically think of my own small storage space. This place was something else entirely. I had no idea how large 15,000 square feet really was until I went inside the building. The building was huge and it was filled to the ceiling with the remnants of old estate sales. Every once in a while I watch this show called American Pickers on the History Channel. These two guys go driving around the country in a van and search through old barns and stuff for hidden treasures. I told my friend that she should contact the show's producers immediately. This building would be a gold mine for Frank and Mike to explore on a future episode of the show.

Time to take the trash out to the street again. This week went by really quickly. Weird that taking the trash out has become my reference point for the passage of time. I guess you've got to have something to focus on.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 530

About a month ago, one of my Twitter followers, Louisiana painter Carolyn Finnell, wrote me and said she was interested in painting a Dalmatian because she had never painted one before. I sent her a picture of Dot that she could use for reference and then I kind of forgot about the whole thing. Today, Carolyn wrote again and showed me the finished picture. It was wonderful. She managed to capture Dot's personality perfectly. I look at this painting and it seems to convey more of Dot's spirit than any photo I've ever taken. Janet and I immediately bought the painting, before someone else could snap it up and then asked Carolyn if we could commission her to paint a portrait of Dash as well. These two dogs are really amazing and it would be nice to have a good painting of both of them.

It was a busy day today, especially considering it was a holiday. We went to the dog park earlier than usual, so the dogs wouldn't get too hot. When we got home, I immediately proceeded to get too hot myself by mowing both the front and back yard grass. I guess our short, pleasant Spring is already over. The temperatures are in the high 90's already and the humidity is typical for a Texas Summer: muggy and miserable. At least there was a breeze today. That made it seem a little bit cooler.

When I took the dogs on their afternoon walk, I noticed that a group of boy scouts were having an overnight camping outing in the park. The scouts were acting just like scouts have always acted, but the scout leaders were riding around in golf carts. I wonder what that's all about? When I was a scout, the troop leaders didn't ride around in golf carts. They hiked right along with us to ungodly locations where we got covered with chiggers and ticks and then came home with a case of poison ivy.

One other weird park encounter today. We passed a group of picnickers who were eating their holiday dinner about 20 feet from a very dead and smelly possum. The dogs and I could smell the dead possum from at least fifty yards away. It wasn't a very nice smell. It definitely wasn't a smell that you'd want around while you were grilling your Memorial Day brats and burgers. I don't understand people anymore. Maybe these were the same group of picnickers who had their meal right next to that tree that was on fire in the park a few months ago.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day