Day 3604

Today seemed productive. I didn't really do that much, but nothing went wrong. After breakfast I went to the storage warehouse to see if I might still have a copy of the banner I was thinking of reprinting. Nope. It wasn't there. I sent the file I found yesterday to the printer and told them to reprint the banner.

Next, I went to get a haircut. I was amazed to see that all the stores are already in full Christmas mode. There were Christmas trees and decorations everywhere. A crew was already putting together the little hut where kids come to see Santa. It still seems a little early to me, but what do I know. Maybe it was always this way.

My haircut took a while, but I wasn't in a hurry. When I left the mall I could have sworn there there were even more Christmas trees standing than when I arrived. I didn't stop at the Apple Store today. I have very little interest in computers anymore. I didn't stop at the Tesla Store either. When you're thinking about taking long car trips, an electric car doesn't sound that appealing. I guess it's good that I don't feel like buying things these days. I don't have the money anyway.

I found out this afternoon that the last of my vintage guitars has finally sold. The whole process took over a year but I'm happy with the results. I kept one guitar just in case I feel like playing again. I rarely take it out of its case. Maybe I'll sell that guitar one day as well. I'm a bit surprised that I don't miss anything that I've sold. I spent so long collecting some of this stuff and now that it's gone, it's quickly forgotten. I don't regret the years I spent accumulating things, but it's time to move on.

One of the reasons that I'm in a good mood is that even though it rained a lot recently, there have been no further leaks. I haven't been up on the roof yet either. I'm sure there is still standing water. Maybe my last repair attempts actually worked. Of course, a leak could still appear at any minute. That's the way it works with water. It's always waiting to surprise you. I'll leave the buckets out for another day, just to be safe.

Tomorrow, I go back to the dentist to see if they can fix my retainer. I hope they don't try to tell me that it is just fine the way it is. I'll quit wearing the contraption if that happens. The dentist seems confident that he can adjust the retainer. How? The thing is made of hard plastic and it either fits or it doesn't. I hate to make the long drive for a third time, but I'm kind of curious to see what they're going to do.

I took my walk toward the end of the day because of my hair appointment. The time change really makes a difference. I left the house around 3 PM and by the time I returned home the sun was already starting to set. All in all, I think I liked Daylight Savings Time better. I can always sleep a little later until the sun comes up, but when the day ends early you're stuck. I'd better get used to this. Early sunsets are going to be around for quite a while.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1447

Our favorite dog park is slowly but surely becoming just like all the other dog parks in Dallas. Aggressive dogs used to be a rarity at this park, but now we encounter one almost every week. More and more people don't even bother to clean up after their dogs and the once pristine grass is now a mine field of poop. Even though the park is huge, the people with nice dogs tend to congregate in one corner, staying far away from the unruly dogs and their inattentive owners in the other corner. The problem isn't the dogs. It's the people. It's always the people.

It's hard to believe it's December already. This entire year has gone by in a blur of uneventful days. I haven't really accomplished much this year. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself though. In today's topsy-turvy world, just staying afloat is a major accomplishment.

We put up the Christmas decorations this weekend. These items are so old and familiar now that the dogs don't pay any attention to them. We no longer worry about a dog knocking over the Christmas tree or wiping the coffee table clean with a casual wag of the tail. Dot and Dash ignored everything this year, with the exception of of two bright red Christmas blankets we got for each of their dog beds. They immediately knew the blankets were for them, and they approved.

Although Sunday may be a bad day to go to the grocery store, it has turned out to be a great day to go to the gym. I love going to the gym on Sunday, because I practically have the cavernous hall to myself. There's no rush either. I can stay as long as I like, without any worries about being late for whatever is next on the agenda.

I guess I'm going to have to resign myself to printing something small every day. It seems wasteful to print a photo and just throw it away, but my Epson representative assures me that this will be far more economical than wasting tons of expensive ink every month trying to unclog the lines. When I asked the Epson folks what the secret was to keeping this temperamental printer running reliably in the future, they told me "Just use it. It was meant to be used." This makes perfect sense. It just doesn't suit my needs. I'd like a printer I can use to make a single huge, beautiful Giclée print once every three or four months. My printer wasn't designed to do this. It was meant to be used in a production environment every day.

Nest week looks busy already. There are three new articles that need to be completed before the end of the week and a brand new website that needs to go live before the end of the year. There are doctors appointments and vet appointments on the calendar as well. One thing I won't be doing this month is Christmas shopping at the mall. When I discovered a few years ago that you could take care of everything with a few clicks on Amazon, that was the end of the mall. The only thing I go to the shopping mall for anymore is a haircut. I haven't figured out how to get a haircut on Amazon yet.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1116

I put away the Christmas decorations for another year. If this year zips along as quickly as the previous one, I'll be getting them out again before you know it. I don't know why time seems to pass so quickly now. I get much less done than I used to, but all the available hours remain filled while the time races along at an alarming rate.

The usual Austin indie bands didn't accompany my breakfast at the cool restaurant this morning. Instead, I listened to the same Beatles tunes I heard in the elevator when I went to the doctor on Wednesday. Overheard conversations were a bit different too. Two girls with purple streaked hair at the next table were talking about how to get into the best sororities at SMU. Although the attire was different, I could have heard this same conversation thirty years ago. Sometimes I wonder if anything changes at all.

I accidentally discovered that there were channels on the U-verse TV above 1000 last night. Most of these new channels were in high definition too. I don't know why I never discovered all these additional channels before. I guess I never went channel surfing above 300. The ironic thing is that for over a year, I've been thinking I was watching HD TV and I actually wasn't. Shows what I know.  Maybe I'll eventually get the hang of the television, telephones, and Internet all coming through the same IP pipe. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to our caller ID. It was there two weeks ago and now it's gone. I have a feeling that the dogs turned it off somehow. Their waging tails hit the set-top box every morning when they are trying to get us out of bed. They could have easily changed one of the settings.

I might have finally figured out why Dash is throwing up. In today's pile of junk mail was a inconspicuous little post card with tiny type on one side. The card was from the water department and the tiny type said that the city's water treatment plant had failed to meet quality standards during the month of December. Jeez! You'd think something like this would have made the evening news. Nope. This tiny little post card was the first I'd heard that our tap water might be polluted. You'd think with all the tax money we give the city, they could at least give us clean water in return. Oh, well. Janet and I have been drinking bottled water for years. Maybe we'll have to start pouring the Ozarka bottle into the dogs bowls as well.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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