Day 2410

Go outside and take a look at the moon. 47 years ago today Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface with less than a minutes worth of fuel left. They navigated their way from the earth to the moon using a computer that was less powerful than the one you currently have in your phone. More than half a billion people watched live as Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” For one short moment in time, the world was united and the world was proud.

I was one of those proud people.  I was still in architecture school and had my entire life ahead of me. I never would have dreamed that almost half a century later we would leave the moon behind and never return. What happened? I think we were at our best when we were explorers and adventurers. We are at our worst right now. Nothing unites us the way Apollo 11 did. No politician is bold enough to commit the nation to accomplish the impossible in less than ten years. John Kennedy was my favorite president. Sadly, I don't think his own party would elect him today. He wasn't politically correct. He was an unabashed nationalist. I think John Kennedy would be appalled that we never returned to the moon.

The dogs got a little excitement today. The electric company arrived at the house around mid-afternoon and informed me that my electric meter had gone bad. I asked the guy at the front door how they knew the meter had gone bad and they told me that the meter sent them a fault warning. There aren't any meter readers anymore. The meter sits quietly behind my house, electronically informing the power company whenever I turn on the television, or cool down the house. The meter knows too much, so I hope nobody ever gets elected who decides I'm an energy waster and rations my power. It's already happening with water. I thanked the electric company guy for installing the new meter and apologized for the barking dogs. Somehow I think that this new meter isn't going to lower my electric bill at all.

I had some website updates to complete today, but I have a feeling that the slowdown in my business is permanent. As I watch Dot's slow decline, I am simultaneously witnessing my own decline. I hope I'm not witnessing the decline of my country as well. All I know is that July 20, 1969 was a much better time than July 20, 2016. I know you can't turn back time, but maybe you can change direction.

I canceled Dot's physical therapy session again today. We did increase the length of her walk a little though. So far, she's doing well. This is the kind of progress I understand. Tomorrow, we'll repeat the process and start all over again. In 1969 I was convinced that we'd have colonies on Mars by now. What I didn't know is that 47 years later, my life would be focused around Dalmatians and that the moon would just be a soft light shining through my window.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1351

Some days are a lost cause. I thought today would be a good time to finish a print job with a looming deadline. I don't do much print design anymore, since most of my clients have forgotten what it is. I fired up Quark Express and proceeded to re-learn all the things I'd forgotten since the last time I'd used this software. As it turned out, I'd forgotten quite a bit, but it all started coming back to me after a couple of hours of fumbling around. Eventually, I had a nice looking design and I started reading the printer's file upload instructions. Oops. This printer couldn't handle halftones. They wanted line art only, and unless I wanted to pay a huge setup charge for multiple spot colors, they wanted single color files only. I should have read all this before I got started. Oh, well. All I've got to do is throw away all the photos, find some line art vector files that look kind of like the photos I threw away and re-do the entire design using Adobe Illustrator instead of Quark Express. Piece of cake.

In the dumb and dumber department, ABC news sent out a tweet today saying that Neil Armstrong had just died. I felt sad reading the tweet, thinking that pretty soon none of the men that walked on the moon would be left. But wait a minute! Neil Armstrong was already dead. He died last year. Just goes to show that you can't believe everything you hear on the Internet, or on the evening news.

The weather was so nice this morning that I started looking for signs of an early Fall. I didn't find any, of course. By mid-afternoon the temperature was up over 100 again and it was clear that Summer wasn't quite finished with us yet. I always look forward to Fall. As the days shorten and grow cooler, I start to see beautiful sunsets that tempt me to carry a camera with me at all times. I get to quit mowing the grass for another year. And a blanket of leaves covers up the landscaping mistakes. If I'm lucky, the bugs disappear as well.

I got a letter from my historian sister who refuses to use the Internet. I learned that she'd gotten a post office box because a truck knocked over her mailbox and she didn't feel like fixing it. That she'd  fallen off a tall ladder and was walking with a cane. And that after having half a dozen books published, she'd lost interest in writing. Sounds like everything's normal.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1313

It's hard to believe that it's been 44 years since we landed on the moon. I still remember those grainy pictures of Neil Armstrong slowly exiting the Lunar Excursion Module like it was yesterday. I was in college at the time and watched the landing in the ballroom of the university student union because I didn't have a TV of my own in the rooming house where I lived while going to architecture school. Those were good times. The Summer of 69 was a magical period in history when anything was possible. A month after the moon landing was Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix and Neil Armstrong defined my world. A few years later I graduated, completely convinced that both the moon landings and the spirit of Woodstock would last indefinitely.

I was wrong of course, but I'm certain that the optimism I felt during the Summer of 69 contributed to my early success. It was easy to get a job back then. I was hired as a junior designer by a well known architect in Seattle. I was given an opportunity to make documentary films. Nothing really seemed like a struggle. I don't think I would have fared nearly as well in today's world.

I still can't really tell you how the kid who thought he was going to be the next Richard Avedon wound up taking pictures of Dalmatians instead. It's been quite a ride though and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Actually, taking pictures of Dalmatians is quite enjoyable. Janet and I photographed one of our new rescue dogs today. Sterling is a young guy who seems to be filled with the same exuberant optimism I felt in 1969. It was hard to get a good picture though, because Sterling wouldn't stay still. Hopefully, I captured the happy boy that he is. He should find a home quickly.

Later in the afternoon when I took Dot and Dash on their afternoon walk they both heard a loud thunderclap off in the distance. The noise triggered their storm phobia and I could barely hold on to them as they tried to make a hasty retreat back to the house. I tried my best to get the dogs to slow down, since this was exactly how Dot lost a nail last year. It never did rain very much, but the thunder alone was enough to convince Dot and Dash that the sky was falling. I got under a blanket with them and watched a cooking show on PBS until they calmed down.

I made another attempt to figure out what was wrong with the garbage disposal today. I took the faceplate off the control panel for the oven and other kitchen gadgets and tried to trace the wiring for the disposal. No loose or burned wire found. Everything seems completely normal. The disposal still doesn't work though. I added making an appointment with an appliance repairman to next week's to-do list.

It's hard to say whether the dogs will get their Sunday trip to the dog park tomorrow. The mornings start out clear and sunny and then by mid-afternoon little thunderstorms start springing up all over town. We'll see what happens. So far, it's been a nice weekend.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1003

A good haircut is kind of like a car that has been freshly washed and waxed, or clean sheets on the bed. These things make you feel like life is a little more neat and orderly than it actually is. I like that feeling. Betty did a good job today and I walked away feeling I was ready for anything. When I was leaving the Northpark Mall, I stopped by the Apple store. The UPS man said they were already delivering the new iPhones to the store and I thought they might have one on display. No such luck. Apple is far too orchestrated to display anything early. I'll have to wait until next Friday like everyone else.

I spent most of the day building web pages for the new employees I had photographed yesterday. I also photographed some existing employees. When I was editing the images in Photoshop, I noticed that I had photographed a few people at this company four or five times already. When I put these photos side-by-side, I noticed something interesting. The first photos in the series showed bright and eager faces that were full of enthusiasm. With each succeeding year, you could see the stress of the job start to take it's toll. By year five, everyone just looked tired. It wasn't age I was seeing. It was something else. I'm glad I don't have a boss or office politics to deal with. I'd look terrible by year five. My advice if your company requires you to display your picture publicly is to stick with the first picture you ever take. It's not going to get any better.

It rained today, so I had to plan my schedule around Dot's panic attacks. She's getting so old that I'm scared of leaving her alone in a thunderstorm. I'd feel terrible if she had a stroke or something while I was gone. Luckily, I have my trusty weather radar app on the iPad. I've gotten remarkably good at scheduling things between rainstorms. Everything worked out fine. When I went to get my haircut, my car didn't even get wet. For those two hours it was completely dry.

I watched a bit of Neil Armstrong's memorial service while I was eating breakfast this morning. Several people said that the country needed more men like Neil Armstrong. That was probably an understatement. Neil led a relatively quiet life after his trip to the moon. He never tried to capitalize on his fame. There were no multi-million dollar book deals. He refused to give autographs and never got tangled up in politics. He even sued his barber once when the barber tried to sell his hair to a collector. To me, this all added up to integrity: something that is currently in very short supply.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 984

Life is full of little surprises. I went up to inspect the roof this afternoon and discovered that a huge branch had broken off one of the large Oak trees in our back yard and landed squarely on the roof. The branch extended from one end of the roof to the other and was ten inches in diameter where it broke off from the tree. I'm kind of glad we were gone when the branch fell. The sound must have been horrendous and I'm sure it would have had me fretting about structural damage to the house. Fortunately, I don't think anything is wrong. The tree missed the natural gas line angling across the roof and didn't appear to tear up any electrical cables either. I'd like to blame this mishap on the multitude of squirrels that live in our trees, but judging from the size of the trunk, I think the tree is just getting old.

Now, I've just got to decide what to do with the thing. The branch looks way too big for me to cut up using my trusty reciprocal saw. I think this is a job for professionals who are still foolish enough to walk around with big chain saws. I won't use a chain saw myself. I had a friend who slipped while using a his chain saw and seriously injured himself when the blade hit him in the face. Ten years later, he still has a huge scar. I don't even think plastic surgery can fix the damage that saw did.

I just heard on the news that Neil Armstrong has died. I'll always remember where I was on that eventful day in 1969 when he said "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," All the Apollo astronauts are getting older now. It won't be long before there won't be anyone left on the entire planet who has set foot on the moon. I think that's extremely sad. We had such potential as cosmic adventurers. I wish our country was still spending money trying to expand the boundaries of what is possible instead of wasting money trying to make failure impossible. When are we going to learn that building safety nets is ultimately futile. We should be working a lot harder to give people the confidence and skills they need to work without a net.

Performers always work without a net. We're going to see one of Janet's friends sing tonight. She's quite good. Few people realize the hours and hours of practice that take place between each concert she gives. I admire people who have the patience and tenacity to keep practicing something until it's perfect. We need a lot more people like this. It has always been difficult to do great things, but isn't that the whole point? We need more great artists. More brilliant scientists. And definitely more folks like Neil Armstrong. RIP Neil.

Pinky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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