Day 3617

I didn't really expect that it would be 75 degrees today. Just a few weeks ago I could have sworn that winter had arrived. I doubt that this unseasonably warm weather will last very long, but I was happy for the reprieve. I'll take a beautiful Indian Summer day any time I can get one.

The nice weather certainly didn't inspire me to do anything useful. I fixed my morning smoothie, checked my e-mail, made a few minor updates to an animal rescue website, and took my walk. That was about it for the day.

It wasn't surprising that there were a lot of people out in the park. There were no jackets and wool hats today. Everybody was wearing shorts. I wish days like this were more common in Dallas. I finished my entire walk without freezing or sweating. This is the way is should be. Unfortunately, there is rain in the forecast for later in the week.

The spare bulbs for my Norman strobes arrived this morning. We still can't decide whether to buy a new backdrop for this years Santa Paws photos. I have a ton of Christmas themed muslin backdrops from previous years, but since we get a lot of the same customers year after year, it's always nice to have something new. There used to be an abundance of hand painted muslin photo backdrops available, but that's not the case anymore. More and more photographers just use a green screen and insert a backdrop electronically using compositing software. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer a real hand painted backdrop. I guess it's time to go to the storage warehouse and see what I have. We've been doing the Santa Paws pictures for a long time and there are a lot of old backdrops to choose from. Janet and I only found one interesting new pattern this year and after looking at it for a while, realized that we already had it. Like I said, nobody makes these things anymore.

I keep hoping to hear something from NASA, Sky and Telescope, or McDonald Observatory. I have lots of travel plans floating around in my head, but so far everything is still in limbo. I guess it's OK that things are moving slowly. It gives me something to think about on my walks. I still don't know where I'd live if I get approved to stay at the observatory this Spring. I'm not sure what I'd write about if I attend the Starliner launch either. Is there a story here? I guess I can't call myself a space journalist unless I can prove that there is.

I still can't figure out where the ants are coming from. These little sweet ants are so small you can barely see them, but there are everywhere. I've been bitten at night while I sleep and I found one inside my sock today. It really doesn't do much good to use bug spray if you don't know where they are coming from. You can't kill ants one at a time.

I hope that the weather stays nice tomorrow. One more dry day and I'll feel a lot more confident that my roof patches have fully cured. A dry day won't make me confident about anything else, but you've got to take what you can get.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1790

I wish I had a decent camera with me this morning. While I was walking the dogs, at least thirty bright green parrots flew directly over my head. These weren't small pet parakeets that escaped from a birdcage. They were large, full grown parrots that looked like they belonged in a Central American jungle. What were they doing in Texas? Especially when a major cold front is headed our way. I vaguely recall seeing a few birds like these last year, but never in large numbers like this. Being the kind of guy I am, I did a search for the birds on Google and discovered that they're called Monk Parakeets by some, and Quaker Parrots by others. A large colony of these birds, which are common in South America, have been living in our city at least since 2009. The parrot colony makes their home in an electrical substation just a few miles from my house. Now I'm wondering why I haven't seen them before.

The parrots weren't the only animals enjoying this unseasonably warm Fall morning. Dot and Dash had a great time on their morning walk, pausing to smell every tree and bush along the way. We saw plenty of ducks, squirrels, rabbits, and of course lots of other dogs and their owners taking advantage of the mild Indian Summer day.

The stars must have been aligned today. Nothing irritated me at all. I listened to an interesting Ted Talk on the radio on the way to the gym. I had a good solid workout with only minimal shoulder pain, and when I went to get groceries on the way home, the store wasn't even crowded. Janet and I found a nice place to have Thanksgiving dinner and made our reservations. I even put a fresh hypoallergenic filter in the furnace, so the air in the house should be a little cleaner for at least a couple of weeks. I was originally supposed to shoot a video for a client today, but the job got postponed. These days, I'm never disappointed when work gets postponed. Lazy days with surprise parrots are much better.

I'll make a few phone calls tomorrow and see what it's going to take to get the new WiFi thermostat installed. I'm actually kind of intrigued to have a thermostat I can talk to. I never talk to Siri on my phone, because asking a phone to do things for me still seems a bit ridiculous for someone with my lifestyle. A talking thermostat I could use though. I'm always concerned about the temperature.

Maybe I'll make myself a nice omelet tomorrow morning. Janet tells me I think about food too much, but it certainly beats thinking about Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or where my next job is coming from.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1035

Have you tried to buy a discontinued product lately? It used to be that you could often buy discontinued products for years after they'd been replaced. When stores kept their own inventories, they would often tempt you with fantastic closeout prices, just to get the items of their shelves. Everything has changed now. Most merchants have adopted "just in time" inventory policies and keep a bare minimum of products on their shelves. They depend on computers to tell them which products are popular and on the FedEx delivery man to deliver fresh supplies each morning. This makes it very easy for manufacturers to make products vanish almost instantly when they've been discontinued.

I only mention this because I've be trying to find some of those little square iPod nanos. They weren't discontinued all that long ago, but they've totally vanished from store shelves. I'm not surprised that you can't find these things at the Apple store anymore, but you'd think Fry's, B&H, Best Buy, or Radio Shack would have a few left. Nope! It's like the little square nano never even existed. I guess I could still find something on eBay, but I've grown weary of the bidding process. I prefer a transaction I can complete in twenty seconds.

Our beautiful Indian Summer continues. The days are noticeably shorter now and the leaves are starting to turn. I've started noticing more bird activity as well. Since I've already managed to get good pictures of all the critters that aren't scared of the dogs, it might be time to invest in a longer telephoto lens. There are lots of animals I routinely see in the distance, but can never approach because of Dot and Dash.

It was a typical Monday. There were very few requests all day. I used the extra time to finish up the few remaing projects from last week. As far as I can tell, I'm all caught up now. I wouldn't mind if tomorrow is a slow day as well. Of course, if the inactivity continues throughout the week, I'll start to get nervous. Being on your own is always a delicate balance. You want to make sure that there is always enough work to pay the bills, while still trying to avoid the overloads that drive you crazy.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1034

Today was such a beautiful day that my grumpy side didn't stand a chance. I was in an uncharacteristically good mood all day long. The dogs had a great time at the dog park. There was a nice breeze and temperatures were in the seventies. When Dot and Dash were finished with their off leash outing, I got busy on a few things I'd been putting off for months. I washed the car for the first time since my birthday and even used some rubbing compound to polish out a few scratches on the door. I cleaned the toilets, put a fresh bag in the vacuum cleaner, and got all the water from yesterday's rain off the roof. Since the roof has survived two major rain storms without leaking, I also started preparing the damaged areas on the ceiling to tape and bed and paint again. It was a day of making things look nice.

It wasn't all work today, however. I also watched Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic parachute jump from 128,000 feet over Roswell, New Mexico live on the Internet. If you ask me, this is the future of marketing. Why even bother with broadcasting something on television if you can get eight million live viewers on YouTube. There weren't any commercials, or maybe the whole thing was just one big commercial for Red Bull. At any rate, it was a whole new way to look at advertising. If Red Bull can underwrite a supersonic parachute jump, and Virgin America can build the world's first commercial spaceport, maybe Apple can take us back to the moon. Apple's probably got enough money to finance the entire journey themselves.

The presidential race is starting to look a lot like the Texas senate races. Everyone is apparently a big fat liar. Both sides make reasonably convincing cases that the other side is lying. Then the "fact checkers" come along a few days later and people accuse them of lying too. It's probably a good thing that everybody's made up their mind about this election anyway. You certainly couldn't learn much from all the dueling "liar, liar" claims. I'm disgusted by the whole circus. I don't want to throw my vote away, but apparently it doesn't matter anyway. According to all the pundits, the whole election will be decided by the swing voters of Ohio.

We haven't used the new furnace since it was installed. The air conditioner certainly seems to be working well though. I think this is what they call an Indian Summer. I'm enjoying these unseasonably warm Fall days. I do hope we have a hard freeze this Winter though. Another warm Winter like we had last year and the bugs will overrun us.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day