Day 4390

I'm going to have trouble staying awake until midnight. The older I get, the less of a night owl I become. It's hard to believe that I once played in a band where New Year's Eve always meant loading the bass amp and the PA system back in the car at 2 AM after our gig was over at some hotel. It's hard to understand the desire to party anymore. Why do all those people stand out in the cold in Times Square every year just to watch a big glass ball drop? A glass of champagne while watching the fireworks on TV is festive enough for me.

I did my grocery shopping today because I thought a lot of the stores would be closed tomorrow. I think everyone else must have had the same idea. The stores were packed this morning and the shelves were kind of empty. I think the crowds were worse than just before Christmas. I didn't even bother to get gas because there were long lines at the pumps. Luckily, my shopping list was short, so I didn't have to fight the crowds for long.

It was overcast and foggy again this morning but still quite warm. I don't think the colder weather is going to arrive until Sunday. I need to remember to set the outdoor faucets to drip so they won't freeze. I was going to do this today, but I forgot. Usually after our first hard freeze the faucets continue dripping for the rest of the Winter. The water bill goes up a bit, but it's hard to remember to turn the faucets off again.

I was going to get my star tracker operating today, but I decided to wait. What's the hurry. The beta software for the iPhone app is still going through almost daily changes. Hopefully each version gets a little better. I still read the support group for the Kickstarter backers. Nobody has really gotten their Polaris to work yet. I think I'll let the brave ones monkey around with this thing and potentially break it. I'll wait. I'm confident that everything will be operating reliably by Spring. Maybe I'll take the sophisticated little tracker with me on my next trip to McDonald Observatory.

2021 has definitely been a weird year. I made one trip out to the observatory in May and another trip to Kennedy Space Center in September, but it still felt like I spent the entire year waiting for something to happen. Basically 2020 and 2021 just blur together in my mind. It just seems like we have been arguing about Covid and what it all means forever. I'm hoping that we can move beyond this in 2022, but then I was hoping exactly the same thing this time last year. We'll see what happens. All I know is that dystopian science fiction is getting closer to reality every day.

I stopped making New Year's resolutions years ago. I'm not even interested in becoming a better person. Good enough is fine. I eat healthy food. I exercise. I stay out of trouble. I try my best to stay curious. What more do you need? I have no big plans for the year ahead. It would be nice if Dawn learned to trust me. I'd like to go see the Artemis 1 launch this Spring. Maybe I'll volunteer at the Dark Sky Festival  next year. The world's not going to end if none of these things happen though. I'll continue writing articles but getting published isn't as much of a priority as it was several years ago. Hey, I can always take a long walk.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year. At my age, a Happy New Year just means not getting cancer or having your dog die. Maybe something exciting will happen next year. We can hope. I do have a project now. It's going to take me at least a month to figure out how to use this new star tracker.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3294

Another year bites the dust. I guess it was fitting that the year ended in such a typical fashion. It rained all night. Dash pooped in the bed. And the roof started leaking again. As usual, I noticed the leak when I stepped in a puddle of water while I was taking Dash outside to pee in the middle of the night. I had a towel in my hand to dry Dash off with, but ended up using it to mop up the water on the floor. After strategically placing buckets under the leaks and cleaning Dash so he wouldn't get mud on the bed, I went back to sleep.

This morning I was puzzled that no water was being pumped from the roof. I went up to investigate and discovered that the pump had tipped over during the night. No wonder there was over three inches of standing water directly over the leak. I spent two hours removing all the water from the roof, but the effort was probably all for nothing. There is snow in the forecast for Wednesday.

I took a small check from one of my few remaining clients to the bank and got a bunch of buckets at the Dollar Store on the way home. You can't have too many buckets when your roof is leaking. I never go to the Dollar Store, but Janet said that if I'd quit being such an elitist, I could get the buckets for only a dollar. She was right. I would have paid five dollars for a similar bucket at Home Depot.

Not much has changed this year. Last New Year's Eve Dash was already wearing his knee brace and was having major problems with vestibular disease. The elastomer coating on the roof was falling apart and my accountant was telling me it was time to shut down the business. I was starting to think about selling things, but hadn't actually started yet.

One year later, Dash has exceeded all his doctor's expectations. He poops all over the place, but his heart is actually stronger than it was last year. He still has vestibular disease, but the seizures seems to have subsided. Considering that he can barely stand up at times, the little guy is proving to be remarkably resilient.

The house hasn't been resilient at all. I guess this is to be expected since it was built in 1955. I'm going to need a new roof, new toilets and tile in the bathrooms, new sheetrock on the ceiling, fresh paint, and a new sliding glass door in the atrium. It's too bad that my services are no longer in demand because this is going to be expensive. I hate to spend a lot of money on this house, since it will probably be torn down if we ever move. On the other hand, I hate living like this. I've almost forgotten what living in a trouble free house is like.

I think we'll make it to midnight this year. We've been staying up later lately because Dash usually pees around midnight. It's easier to go to bed after this happens. There's some champagne cooling in the refrigerator. We'll lift a glass to the new year and hope that it is better than 2018.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2929

The last day of the year turned out to be the coldest day of the year. I almost felt like going to the storage warehouse and retrieving the old parka my Dad used while doing research in Alaska. The coat is over sixty years old, but it still beats anything made today. Maybe some other time. For now it was easier to dress in layers like I always do on cold days. Dash needed his winter coat this morning and we had a lot of difficulty figuring out how to add it to all the other gear he needs to wear these days. The last time it got this cold, Dash was younger and didn't need the special harness and knee brace. We didn't see many other people walking this morning. We are persistent though. It's hard to shut us down.

After breakfast I returned to the grocery store to get coffee and blueberries. How could I have forgotten these essentials? I was glad I didn't have many errands to run, because the fine mist was instantly freezing to my windshield. In northern parts of Dallas people had to deal with sleet and icy bridges, but all we got was a fine mist. That was enough for me. I returned home before the roads got worse and spent the rest of the day watching television and doing laundry.

While I was doing chores I accidentally started watching a show called Our Zoo on PBS. It was quite good, but I didn't realize until later that it was a true story. PBS was having some sort of a New Year's Eve marathon and I ended up watching the entire series minus the first two episodes which must have aired before I turned on the television. It was strangely reassuring that I actually enjoyed this show about George Mottershead and his family's difficulties in starting their own zoo in 1930's England. I was beginning to think I'd gone off the deep end and could only watch science fiction.

My gym is raising it's prices at the first of the year. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but this is disappointing. Everyone is always raising prices. When I got coffee this morning I noticed that the price had gone up as well. I guess I could go to a different gym, but I like my gym. That's what people count on. They want you to get hooked on their product and then they'll gradually keep raising the price until you're ready to explode. There must be a limit to this kind of extortion, but I don't know where it is. Nobody even blinked when Apple started charging $1000 for a phone.

Luckily, some things are still affordable. Janet and I had a big pot of chili for dinner and it was the perfect meal for a cold winter's day. I could tell that Dash wanted a bowl too, but it was much too spicy for a dog. There is a bottle of champagne cooling in the refrigerator, but it remains to be seen whether Janet and I will still be awake at midnight.

Lord knows what's in store for us next year, but I'm going to remain optimistic for the moment. Dash has a million things wrong with him, but on a day-to-day basis he is doing pretty well. I feel better about my own health since I switched doctors. Janet has the best news. She appears to be cancer free. I hope the stock market continues to stay strong. Like most small business owners, I don't have a pension or a 401K. I'm going to need all the market stability I can get in the years ahead. I'm sure that 2018 will be full of surprises. I'll continue dealing with the future one day at a time. This is Day 2929.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2928

This is the time of year when TV stations create short retrospective tributes featuring famous people that have died during the past twelve months. Jeez, these aren't old people anymore. They're my age. Quite a few are even younger than me. How did this happen? I've seen these memorial segments for most of my life and with the exception of musicians who always seem to die young, I always remember these people as being my parent's age. Growing old kind of creeps up on you. One day you're young, and in the blink of an eye you're older than the actors they're showing on the year end memorial clips. I wish everybody were remembered like actors and musicians. My parents deserve to be remembered. So do all my neighbors who have passed away since I moved here. I wonder if I'll be remembered? Probably not. Nobody remembers anything very long these days.

I got a thank you letter from my sister today. She's old school and still sends hand written thank you notes. I probably shouldn't have gotten her a cookbook for Christmas since her chemo treatments give her nausea and she has little interest in eating. It's hard to break with tradition though. I've always given her cooking related things because she's loved cooking for most of her life. Maybe it was an optimistic gift. I can't really imagine her not cooking anymore.

I can't imagine Dash not walking anymore either. He still seems to enjoy his walks, but he's so slow now. The arctic cold front that has gripped most of the nation is headed our way and it kept getting colder by the hour. I was freezing on our afternoon walk, but Dash seemed fine. He actually took a longer walk than he normally does, pausing to sniff every bush along the way. I dressed warmly, but apparently not warmly enough. By the time we returned home I felt like I'd spent the afternoon in a deep freeze. I think I've lived in Texas too long. I don't know how northerners survive these temperatures.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is New Year's Eve. It just seems like yesterday when we were partying like it was 1999 and wondering if the Y2K bug was going to wipe out the world's computers.   Janet and I haven't gone out on New Year's Eve since I played in a band many years ago. Until recently, we always cracked open a bottle of champagne and toasted the New Year. These days we rarely even stay up until midnight. If I'm up at midnight tomorrow night, I'm probably just taking Dash outside to pee.

The Cerenia pills have stopped Dash from vomiting. They are not meant to be a long term solution, so we only give them to him for four days at a time. Some vets say it is OK for dogs to take Cerenia indefinitely, but I'd rather play it safe. Usually after a four day course of the anti-nausea pills, Dash won't throw up again for at least a month. He certainly seemed normal today and had a lot more energy on his walk than I did.

Janet's friends brought back the dog crate they borrowed this afternoon, so I returned it to the storage warehouse. This large crate used to always be in the back of my Defender. It won't fit in my current car though, so I fold it flat and keep it in storage. It didn't seem so heavy when I used to transport rescue dogs. Now, everything seems heavy.

I hope you guys have a Happy New Year. Almost everybody hopes that 2018 will be better than 2017. Maybe it will be.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2574

I can safely say that I've mowed the grass for the last time this year. The grass has been dormant for some time now, but I always mow it one last time so it looks nice for the winter. Since it was a pleasant warm day, I thought I'd tackle the leaves as well. The trees are bare now and all the leaves are on the ground. There are an enormous number of leaves on the ground in the back yard, making it difficult for Dot to walk. It would have taken me a week to bag them all up, so I just used the leaf blower instead. Leaf blowers are a silly invention. You don't really get rid of the leaves. You just move them around. Maybe there's a temporary sense of victory, but sooner or later a big wind will just blow them all back.

Hey, at least I tried. The house has been vacuumed, the grass has been mowed, and at least Dot has a fighting chance to make it to the back of the yard to pee. There is a certain futility to all this. It is almost impossible to keep Dot, or anything else, clean for very long. Literally two minutes after I got Dot's blankets out of the dryer this morning and placed them back on her bed, she pooped on them again. I always wanted to acquire more patience, but this is not the path I thought I'd be taking to get there. You just have to understand that Dot has no control over what happens anymore.

I keep hearing a lot of people says that 2016 was the worst year ever. Mostly this was just because their favorite singer died, or they didn't like the election results. Those kind of things seem so distant to me. Singers and celebrities die every year. I'm almost certain that a lot more will die next year. I measure each year by what happens much closer to home. I've known that Dot is dying for a long time. The fact that she is still here, barking and pooping, and sharing her life with us is definitely something to be happy about. I know that my working years are just about over too. This was the year I finally learned to accept it. It's OK. If somebody wants to hire me for something, I'll be happy to take the job, but I'm not looking for business anymore. I'm not seeing as many doctors as I was several years ago. My health seems to have stabilized. That's good. Sure, I liked David Bowie too, but my dog and my health are far more important.

Next year I have to renew my passport and my driver's license. Every time I renew my passport, it looks like I've aged 10 years. Of course, this is because I actually have aged ten years. I've had quite a few passports by now. I liked the old ones before the creation of the European Union best. Each country had it's own distinctive stamp and many of my passport pages were filled with stamps from countries I will probably never visit again. My current passport looks like I haven't been anywhere.  I'm a bit more apprehensive about my driver's license. My vision has deteriorated over the years and I'm afraid they might make me wear glasses. I don't particularly want to wear glasses. A slightly fuzzy world is fine by me.

We haven't gone out for New Year's Eve in ages, but I probably will stay awake until midnight and have a glass of champagne with Janet. Years ago when I played in a band, New Year's Eve was always a work day. We made our best money playing big New Year's Eve parties. I loved the various bands I played in, but I don't miss those parties at all. There were too many drunks and too few people to help pack up the equipment when it was all over.

I hope you have big plans for the year ahead. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but there are a few things I'd like to do. Did you know that there is going to be a total eclipse of the sun next August that crosses the entire United States? It's going to be one of the best opportunities to see a total eclipse in this century. I almost saw a total eclipse when I was going to high school in Alaska but the sky clouded over at the last minute. Maybe I'll get another chance. The eclipse is a big deal, but if Dot is still around on her birthday next August, that would be an even bigger deal.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2207

It's been an odd year. Who would have thought that Dr. Huxtable would turn out to be a rapist, that Bruce Jenner would be named Woman of the Year, and that Donald Trump would be the most popular candidate for President of the United States. It makes you wonder what is going to happen next year. I wouldn't even hazard a guess these days. The world has simply become too strange.

I went out for breakfast this morning, just like I did last Thursday, because tomorrow is a holiday. The restaurant was empty, but the breakfast was good. When I got home I took a quick shower and got Dot ready for her weekly physical therapy session. We were late again, but so was everybody else. Last week Dot's vet told me she was coming down with the flu. It turned out she had pneumonia instead and had been extremely sick for most of the week. She said she thought she caught the bacterial pneumonia from treating a cat. I didn't even think that was possible.

Dot did very well in the underwater treadmill today. I was surprised, since she seemed slow on her morning walk. Maybe she was just slow because she had to wear her winter coat under her Help 'Em Up Harness. It was extremely cold this morning. For the past two days it has been clear outside when we start our walk, but completely cloudy by the time we return. Could sunrise and the heat of the sun cause clouds to form? I don't know enough about weather to know the answer, but it seems plausible. If it clears up in the next day or two, I'll be able to see Mercury in the evening sky right after sunset. Later in the week, Saturn will be right next to Venus in the morning sky. I enjoy watching the seasonal progression of the stars and planets. I don't particularly enjoy the seasons themselves. The weather is always too hot or too cold.

I decided to go ahead and upgrade my Avid Media Composer application like I did earlier with Pro Tools. I'd be very surprised if I got any big video production jobs next year, but if I do I'll be ready. Avid has the most convoluted upgrade process imaginable. It takes me forever to upgrade and activate their products. Today the process became even more difficult when my bank rejected the online software purchase because they said it didn't match my "buying pattern." I didn't even know I had a buying pattern. When I explained that software like this isn't something you buy everyday, they released the hold on my credit card and I began the download process all over again. I never did get around to installing the software because by the time I completed the complicated purchase, it was time for the dogs dinner. Since Dot hadn't pooped yet, I knew I was playing with fire if I altered their feeding schedule. Hopefully, I'll get around to installing Media Composer sometime this weekend. Lord knows when I'll ever get around to using it.

New Years Even is pretty quiet at our house. Years ago when I played bass guitar in a band, there would always be a big New Years Eve gig. We made some of our best money playing New Years Eve parties, but I don't remember the events as being very fun. By the time I packed up all the equipment and got home around 2 AM I was dead tired. Watching crowds of drunks from the stage while you're still sober didn't really make me want to join the festivities either. A quiet celebration with the dogs is much better. A quiet evening at home certainly seems better than watching a fireworks display while a gigantic 63 story high rise hotel goes up in flames nearby. This happened in Dubai today. People were literally standing in the streets cheering the fireworks while a skyscraper that looked like a scene from Towering Inferno burns. Unreal. Like I said, it's been an odd year.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2206

Dash went to the vet today for some routine maintenance. He needed his anal glands expressed and was due for a Bordetella shot. Dot has become such a high maintenance dog that it's easy to forget that Dash still has his own needs. Luckily, he is pretty healthy right now. His cancer is still in remission and his blood pressure is finally under control. One we got the dose of Phenobarbital right, Dash hasn't had a seizure in years. When we first got the dogs, Dash was the one with multiple problems, while Dot was always a picture of health. Now it's exactly the opposite.

After I upgraded Pro Tools last week, I started thinking that maybe I ought to upgrade Media Composer as well. I don't use either of these applications very often anymore, but since they remain the gold standard for professional audio and video editing, I still like to stay in the loop. Avid Media Composer, like Pro Tools, has it's own special end-of-the-year upgrade offer. Upgrading isn't easy though. Before you download the software, you need to determine if your computer hardware will still run the newer program. You don't want to discover that you need a new operating system to use the upgrade either. Then you need to make sure your license will still be good after the upgrade. The last thing I want to do is accidentally switch my perpetual license to an annual subscription model. I think I'm OK, but I still need to make a call to customer service to make sure. Do I even need software that could be used to edit a feature film? Probably not. I'm not sure I need anything at this point in my life.

Since today was even slower than yesterday, I thought it would be a good day to repair a large rug in the living room that had gotten torn last month. Dot's rugs help give her traction and keep her from falling, but they will never get our house in Architectural Digest. Most of the rugs are pretty ugly. The torn rug was the ugliest of all, so I got a large upholstery needle from the sewing basket and hand stitched the tear back together. My stitch-work wasn't very precise or beautiful, but it did the job. The ugly rug looks much better now.

After using the dehumidifier for several weeks, the house feels much drier. The air even smells different. I wish I had bought the little machine twenty years ago. It would have made a big difference. When I started using the dehumidifier, the average humidity level in our house was over 55%. Today, the humidity inside was only 35%. This is almost Arizona desert humidity levels. I like it. The only downside to low humidity is that occasionally I wake up with nosebleeds.

I was pleased that I remembered the sanitation department was still on holiday schedule. I took the trash out last night and sure enough, a big garbage truck came lumbering down the street when we were returning from our morning walk. Now I need to remember that we go back to our regular Friday morning trash pickup next week.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, but I'll be lucky if I'm still awake at midnight. If I am awake, I'll have a glass of champagne and a slice of pumpkin pie or maybe a piece of cheese while I watch the celebration in Times Square on TV. I have no resolutions. Just the hope that Dot will stay with us one more year.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1842 - New Year's Eve

Ordinarily I'm in bed by midnight, but I guess I'll stay up late tonight to welcome the new year. The bloom is definitely off the rose when it comes to New Year's Eve celebrations. I think I lost interest over twenty years ago when the band I played in was always booked for big New Year's Eve parties. When you're up on stage looking down at a sea of drunk faces, the appeal of getting wasted is less than zero. I hated these New Year's Eve parties. The weather was usually terrible. It seemed like we had to play longer than normal. And it was a bitch to pack up all the equipment at 2 AM. Somehow, it's a lot nicer to watch the ball drop on TV, enjoy a glass of champagne in the kitchen, and go to bed a few minutes after midnight.

I thought I'd come up with a clever plan to lower my prescription cost. I got my doctor to renew everything for another year and I was going to get all the prescriptions filled today before the cost of my drug plan went up again. Every year the cost continues to go up. My plan didn't work very well, because the pharmacist said most of the prescriptions couldn't be filled until I ran out of my current supply. He filled two out of the eight scripts and said I could pick up the rest when needed. "When I pick up these other prescriptions in January, will I have to pay next year's higher rates," I asked. Of course I will.

It was only a few degrees above freezing when we took our morning walk. The dogs still didn't want to wear sweaters under their harnesses, but they did decide they'd had enough when we'd covered about half our normal route. I wish I could convince Dot and Dash that the sweaters are a good thing, but it's hardly worth the effort to get them to wear them anymore. They both run away whenever I get the sweaters out. It's hard to get Dot's sweater on too, since her legs have gotten so shaky. I guess we'll just have to take shorter walks until the weather gets a bit warmer.

The weather forecast is predicting sleet or freezing rain later tonight. I hope this forecast isn't accurate, since freezing rain is always a big mess in Dallas. This is when the highways turn into a roller derby and large trees fall over under the weight of the ice. Many of the power outages we've experienced over the years have occurred during ice storms.

I hope that 2015 is pleasant and uneventful. We overcame many adversities this year, but it would be nice if we could avoid them altogether in the year ahead. I hope the dogs stay healthy. I'd like just enough work to keep me busy, but not enough to make me crazy. I'm still debating whether to have any champagne tonight. It's a nice tradition and my liver is back to normal again. My doctors have told me that the occasional drink will cause no problems at all. On the other hand, I'm kind of proud of my sobriety. Maybe I'll just have some eggnog.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1841

I wish I'd discovered compression pants earlier. These things are great for cold weather. I don't know why it took me so long to discover that compression pants were a better alternative to old fashioned cotton long johns, but I'm wearing mine all the time now while I walk the dogs. Unlike the cyclists and joggers I see, I continue to wear these leggings under a pair of jeans. The Batman and Robin look isn't really my style.

Dot continues to seem invigorated by the cold. For the past several days she's been leading the walk like she used to in the old days. I don't know whether to attribute her new found energy to the Rimadyl she started taking last week, or to the cold weather which she clearly enjoys. Either way, it's good to see her start enjoying these walks again.

It looks like I'm going to continue to stay busy through the end of the year.  I had more writing assignments today and am starting to plan for an upcoming video shoot early in January. I have mixed feelings about January. The month could be great or terrible. The glass looks half empty when I contemplate the dental surgery I'm about to have. On the other hand, the glass is definitely half full when I remember I'll be traveling to Vandenberg Air Force Base to attend the launch of the SMAP satellite. I even have mixed feelings about the upcoming video shoot. I've been complaining for months that I didn't have enough video clients. Now that this seems to be changing, I'm remembering how much work video production is. To tell you the truth, writing is a lot easier.

I finished my writing jobs just in time to get Dot to her physical therapy appointment. She was really impressive today. We went back to doing interval training, since she was strong enough to speed up the treadmill a bit. The combination of the underwater treadmill, acupuncture, and cold laser therapy really seems to be showing some positive results. I asked my vet if the laser might help my shoulder too, and she said it probably would. It's funny that my physical therapist never mentioned cold laser therapy. As always, my dogs continue to receive far more advanced treatment than I do.

I'm not having much luck getting Jawbone to replace my broken UP band. Maybe they've finally gotten sick of me. I've already had three defective UP bands replaced, but I still think these things should last at least a year. At the price these fitness trackers cost, they're not really a disposable item.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you continue to follow my somewhat subdued adventures in the year ahead.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1477

Here's how badly I've lost track of what day it is. I went to my Friday breakfast restaurant on a Tuesday, because it felt like a Friday. I guess the end of the year and the end of the week all seem pretty much the same. The surprising thing was that the restaurant was actually busier on Tuesday than it normally is on Fridays. Who would have thought?  I did remember that it was Tuesday when I went to the gym later in the day. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was New Year's Eve, and the gym was already closed when I got there. All was not lost however. I stopped by an office supply store on the way home and got a new accordion folder for my 2014 receipts. The 2013 folder will be on its way to my accountant soon, so I guess it's time to start over again.

It's hard to get very excited about New Year's Eve when you can't drink anymore. I'll stay up till midnight and welcome in the new year, but the celebration will be pretty sedate. Maybe I'll have some apple cider and a piece of pie. Years ago when I used to play bass in a rock band New Year's Eve was always a big deal. We always played our biggest parties of the year on New Year's Eve. I didn't drink much then either. It wasn't from lack of desire. I owned the PA system and was responsible for packing it up and taking all the heavy speakers home again after the gig. Hauling the PA system around was hard enough when you were sober and impossible to do when you were drunk.

It was interesting to see how many people I know on Facebook who posted something today about how terrible they thought 2013 was. Most of them thought that 2014 couldn't possibly be worse. I think it probably will be worse, but I'm not going to let that stop me. If I was waiting for a good year, I think I would have given up a long time ago.

I still had writing assignments to complete today, but it still felt more like a holiday. The dogs got extra long walks and I found myself turning on the TV a lot, hoping to be entertained. There wasn't anything interesting on TV, so it was actually good that I did have some writing work to do. I should make a New Year's resolution to clean my office next year. Oh wait, wasn't that last year's New Year's resolution? Maybe it was the year before last. It's been a long, long time since my office was really clean.

There will be another big meal tomorrow and maybe a little football on TV. Since the weather still looks nice, the dogs will get the gift they've been waiting for all December: a trip to the dog park. With rain and ice storms and holiday travel, it hasn't been easy to get to the dog park this month. Hopefully tomorrow we will make amends.

I hope that all of you have a fulfilling and prosperous year in 2014. If you can't think of a New Year's resolution, you could always resolve to introduce a friend to this blog. If each of you brought one new reader, my audience for this ongoing story would double. Hey, it never hurts to think big.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1476

Janet returned from her Christmas trip today. I only fly a couple of times a year these days, so every time I go to the airport, I'm amazed at all the changes. Anybody who expects job growth to return any time soon needs to take a good long look at DFW airport. People are being replaced by machines in droves. The attendants who used to hand you a parking ticket when you entered the airport have largely been replaced by machines. In many terminals, the ticketing agents have been replaced by machines as well. You print your own ticket and boarding pass without talking to anyone. In the international terminal, there is even a machine that will scan and verify your passport. Flying isn't very exclusive anymore either. To my untrained eye, it looked like the people waiting for their bags at the baggage carrousel had arrived directly from Walmart. I'm sure that all the machines keep costs down so these scruffy looking people can fly instead of taking the bus.

The year is finally winding down. By the end of the day, I looked around the office and realized there was nothing more to do. I'm caught up! Since tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I might actually be finished for the year. I'm not worried that this lull will continue. It never does. Traditionally, January is usually a busy month.

Although the year is ending tomorrow, there is still plenty of unfinished business from 2013. For starters, my neighbor's tree is still sitting on my roof. The owner of the aggressive dogs down the street hasn't fixed his fence either. I need to call my hepatologist and find out when he wants me to start my new Hepatitis C treatment. For several years my doctors have told me that January 2014 would be the date when the new treatment would be approved by the FDA. Now, 2014 is here. Oh, I guess I need to find out what this so called "donut hole" that has made the cost of my prescriptions skyrocket is all about as well.

I'm not making any New Year's resolutions this year. I've given up most of the guilty pleasures already, so there's not much more to abstain from. I'm not trying to better myself either. Maybe I could be a kinder, more sensitive, or harder working person if I really tried, but what would be the point? Life is difficult enough as it is. Maybe I'll just resolve to get up every morning and make the bed.  That should take care of things for another year.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1112

I plugged in the guitar and played a little blues today. There certainly wasn't much else to do. It was a very slow day. The good news was that I hadn't entirely lost my chops. The bad news was that playing guitar for any extended length of time with Carpal tunnel hurts like hell. Who knows though. Maybe playing with a wrecked left hand will give my riffs a note of authenticity.

I wonder how many years of sitting in a little room and writing inconsequential advertising it takes before you go stark raving mad? When you factor in that my primary diversions are sweeping standing water off the roof and killing cockroaches that wander into the house, maybe I've passed that threshold already. At least it was a bit warmer today. The dogs didn't even have to wear their Winter coats.

I was amused today when I noticed that the stock market had a substantial rally when the President came on television early in the afternoon to say that everyone was close to striking a deal on the fiscal cliff. Of course five minutes after the market closed, some senators came on TV and essentially said "just kidding." There is no deal tonight because nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. I have a feeling that this impasse could go on for weeks or months.

If we can stay awake until midnight, Janet and I will bring in the New Year with some champagne and a selection of cheese. I can't imagine standing out in the cold for hours to watch a mirrored ball drop, but seeing the event on TV in a warm house with a flute of champagne in your hand is actually kind of nice. 2012 certainly wasn't that memorable, but maybe 2013 will be better. Remember 1999 when Y2K was supposed to bring the world grinding to a halt on New Year's Eve? Nothing happened. People still say "party like it's 1999" though. What's that all about?  I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot like 1999 when we all sail over the cliff a little later this evening.

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope your first New Year's resolution is to continue reading this blog for another year.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 746

Another year sails off into the sunset. I've still got things on my to-do list from last July that I haven't finished yet. I guess it doesn't really matter. There's always next year. I saw something on the Internet the other day that showed a copy of an old New Year's resolution list made by singer Woody Guthrie. The list contained items like "Remember to brush your teeth" and "wear clean clothes every day." The list was all pretty basic, with the exception of one item that said "Write a new song every day," I think Woody had it right. A lot of grandiose plans never materialize. When you concentrate on the little things, however, and keep plugging away day after day, the result can be grander than you ever imagined. Life is just a collection of a million little details. I don't think anything life changing can happen until you take of the little things first.

I did a lot of little things today. In that regard it was just like any other day. Although I've made a lifestyle out of doing the laundry, photographing inconsequential things within a mile of my house and writing stories about my dogs, I will admit that there are times when my obsession with minutia goes too far. Today, I found myself obsessing about why the trash guys only took half my trash on Friday. They literally emptied exactly half of my trash container and left the rest of the trash untouched. Why? Is there some weird union rule about the number of black bags they can put in the truck? Were they being lazy? Or maybe they got distracted by my neighbor's trash. Of course there's always the possibility that they took all the trash and some some late rising neighbor dumped their trash into my container after the truck had already left. I'll never know.

Before I stop obsessing about little things that don't matter, have you ever noticed that when you start reading the instruction manual for that new electronic gizmo you just got, the first thing you are instructed to do is "Set the Clock?" Everything seems to have a clock in it nowadays. When I got a new TV, the first thing I was instructed to do was set the clock. The same thing happened with every new camera I've bought in the last five years. My phone has a clock. My computer has a clock. Today I was testing a new audio mixer, and sure enough, the first thing the instructions told me to do was set the clock. What on earth does an audio mixer need a clock for? Pretty soon I'll be setting the clock on my electric toothbrush.

I hope all you guys have a very Happy New Year. I'll probably watch a little football and I'm sure a trip to the dog park is in the cards as well.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 745

I think I'm ready to start 2012 with a clean slate. I've got the new orphans added to the animal rescue sites I manage. I've completed my watch articles. I've sent all the content for my oil and gas project off to Germany. I've even finished most of my bookkeeping and accounting for the year.

Now it's on to projects of a more personal nature. I discovered that nobody's referring me for a MRI because my doctor is on a skiing vacation. Still have to resolve that one. I need to get the furnace folks out to the house again too. The furnace is actually behaving worse after its Winter service than before. I have a feeling that I'm going to have a major problem unclogging my large format printer soon, because I haven't turned it on in over three weeks. I've just been too busy.

Janet wants to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the DMA while it's still in town, so we may do that this weekend. We'll certainly go to a dog park. Since it's a holiday, we may even go twice. New Year's Eve itself will probably be pretty quiet. After years of playing noisy New Year's Eve parties in a rock band, I much prefer to just stay at home and watch old Dr. Who movies these days. I'm certainly looking forward to having some good champagne tomorrow evening. Although I can't drink anymore, I grant myself an exception on holidays.

I noticed that all the Adgitize widgets have disappeared on my blog today. I guess that means that Adgitize is gone for good. I'm still a bit sad to see this venture fail. I've seen so many good ideas fail over the years and so many bad ideas succeed. There's just no justice in the world sometimes.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 381

I don't know about you, but I'm actually looking forward to 2011. Blogging has re-energized me in an odd sort of way. The glass doesn't look half empty anymore. Maybe I'm just looking at it from a funny angle, but it's actually starting to look half full again. For the first time in quite a few years I feel like anything could happen in the year ahead.

This year was certainly full of surprises. I never thought I get an opportrunity to do cinematography for National Geographic. I never thought I'd be featured in a major ad campaign either. I lost my biggest client this year, but the business didn't go under. I got three brand new clients instead and life goes on. I saw a lot of doctors this year, but I don't have diabetes and I don't have cancer. I'm actually healthier than I thought I was. Dalmatian Rescue did such a good job of finding our dogs homes this year that we hardly have any Dalmatians left. That's a good thing.

At this point in time, I don't see any reason why next year can't be even better. We don't need another huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and we don't need another financial meltdown. We don't need anything big to happen at all. I'd just like a year where the dogs who need a home actually find one. I'd like a year where my roof didn't leak. I'd like to learn something new without forgetting something old. There aren't going to be any formal resolutions this year. Life throws you too many curves for resolutions. I'll definitely give 2011 my best shot though. I'll try not to be overly lazy and I'll do my best to keep the dogs safe and healthy. What more can you ask?

There's a bottle of champagne chilling in the refrigerator right now and I'm going to share a glass or two with Janet later this the evening. Tomorrow, I'll go right back to drinking bottled water, but I survived 2010 and that's definitely worth celebrating. I wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year. See you next year.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day