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 2933

It's not a good sign when your vet keeps saying "I'm so sorry" as he explains your dog's test results. The blood clot inside Dash's heart has grown larger. This means the treatment he has been receiving is not working. We added a second medication today to help dissolve the clot, but I'm not optimistic. We've known from the beginning that blood thinners are only effective in helping the body reabsorb blood clots about 50% of the time. Dash's blood just seems to clot unusually easily.

It's kind of scary knowing that your best friend is a ticking time bomb. As long as the large clot stays together, Dash will be fine. If the clot breaks apart and travels to other parts of his body, he could die in a matter of minutes. Dash could have two weeks or two years. We just don't know. The sad thing is there is absolutely nothing we can do. Surgery isn't an option and we're already giving him the only medications that even has a chance of working. We have been told to avoid stressful situations and not to let Dash run off leash. The running isn't a problem, but everything is a stressful situation for Dash. He has never been a calm dog.

When we returned from the cancer center, Janet and I resumed our regular lives. What else can you do? I finished my breakfast and did some chores around the house. Later, I paid some more January bills and wrote a letter to my sister. On my way back from the post office, I though I'd take my old down booties to the neighborhood tailor and see if she could repair the worn waterproof cloth on the bottom. Although the booties were made of nylon and oilcloth and appeared to be easy to sew, the tailor said she didn't work on shoes and told me to see the shoe repairman next door. The shoe repairman told me that the booties weren't really a shoe and to take them back to the tailor. Nobody wanted to fix these things. Oh, well. I tried. I have a new pair anyway. I'm just a Gemini who likes to have a spare for everything.

Maybe I should have made a few New Year's resolutions. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do in the year ahead. My life has been centered around caring for sick dogs for so long now that it's hard for me to conceive of anything else. I really enjoyed going to Vandenberg Air Force Base several years ago and watching a satellite launch. Maybe someday I'll become a space groupie again. Following launches gets expensive though. I'd need a new source of money. Money is always the problem. Once you start to relax, the money starts to disappear fairly quickly.

For now I'm going to enjoy my remaining time with Dash. He can be stubborn and ornery at times, but he has an amazing personality and always makes me laugh. Dash has been my friend and companion for a long time now. He and Dot made it possible for me to work alone in a little office for all these years. They were really the heart and soul of my company and of this blog. It's very hard to be lonely when there is a Dalmatian nearby.

I'm glad that Dash didn't really understand what happened at the vet today. He's still a happy dog who takes things one day at a time. I'm going to try to do the same.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2930 - New Year's Day

Dash seemed a bit out of sorts this morning. I felt the same way. Maybe I just can't handle alcohol anymore. Against all odds we managed to stay awake until midnight and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the New Year. You wouldn't think a couple of glasses of bubbly would bother me, but who knows. I sure felt strange this morning. I shouldn't be too quick to blame the champagne. For all I know, it might have been the chili we had for dinner last night.

It was way too cold to walk this morning and Dash and I didn't feel like eating. This didn't seem the best way to start the year, but it sure beat last year. If I remember correctly, we began 2017 with Dot throwing up at sunrise and throwing us into a panic since all the vets were closed for the holiday.

Eventually, Dash ate his breakfast and my stomach began to settle down. I kept waiting for it to warm up, but it never did. The temperature remained in the teens for most of the day. Janet went to the gym and I went back to bed for a while. When I got organized enough to take a shower, I noticed that the shower pan was leaking again and got the wet/dry vacuum to suck the water out that had gotten under the tiles. It wasn't much of an effort, but it was all I could muster.

My mid-afternoon it had warmed up enough for Dash to take a walk. It was still cold, but at least the temperature was in the twenties instead of the teens. I bundled Dash up, put on two warm coats and off we went. Dash wasn't bothered by the cold at all. It was just me that had gotten soft.

Several people on my Facebook feed said their New Year's resolution was to stay alive for another year. Sounds like a plan to me. I seldom make New Year's resolutions. A New Year's resolution would be a radical step for someone who doesn't even make grocery lists. I don't need to lose weight. I eat fairly healthy already. I guess I could become a kinder, more caring person, but why bother. Just staying alive for another year is probably as good as it gets.

There isn't much to photograph on cold days like this, but I did see a Downy Woodpecker. The little bird was very industrious, looking for food among the branches. Animals spend all their time eating in the Winter. Raptor sit on top of trees looking for mice. Squirrels dig up the nuts they hid earlier in the year. Egrets and herons look for fish. I just need to make sure the coyotes aren't looking for Dash.

I guess the new year starts in earnest tomorrow. I need to finish my website project. I'm way behind on this design which isn't like me at all. It's hard to get motivated when you know the end result doesn't really matter. Janet, who has always been a workaholic, is thinking about retiring again. She says her heart isn't in it anymore. I know how she feels. As the workforce continues to get younger and younger, it no longer feels familiar. The big question for us is what to do next.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2927

What a weird day. Dash seemed normal when I woke up this morning. Janet and I got him ready for his walk like we always do before she leaves for work. Almost as soon as she was out of the driveway, Dash seemed to freeze in place in the living room. At first I just thought he was being stubborn, but it soon became apparent that he was having a vestibular incident. I carefully took his leg brace and harness off and got a blanket so he could lie down. It took a while before he could relax, but as soon as he did, he quickly went to sleep. I kept an eye on him while I was fixing my breakfast. His breathing was steady and the drooling had stopped. This was a good sign.

About two hours later he woke up and headed for the back door. He was ready for a walk. I thought we'd take a short walk, but Dash wanted to keep going. We ended up taking the longest walk of the year. I couldn't figure out why Dash was so eager to take a long walk after having a vestibular seizure,  but there are a lot of things I can't figure out with Dash. We stopped from time to time so I could check and see if everything was normal. It sure seemed to be. We were both tired when we returned to the house. Dash went to sleep again and I went to work.

I continued watching Dash for a while until I was confident he was back to normal and then I ran a few errands. I picked up some more Cerenia pills for him at the vet and picked up some pants that were ready for me at the tailor. The tailor was busy making alterations on a sweater a guy got for Christmas that apparently was too big. He wanted the tailor to make it smaller so the person who gave it to him wouldn't get insulted that he wasn't wearing it. Why didn't the guy just go to a store and exchange the sweater for a smaller size? Wouldn't that have been easier? The tailor kept trying to explain to the guy that since the sweater was knitted, it would be much harder to alter than a fabric garment. The weird thing was that the sweater looked just fine. As I left the store I told the guy that he might consider just wearing the sweater the way it was. Who am I to say though. I was just picking up a ratty old pair of jeans that I'd had the tailor sew knee patches on.

My Media Composer subscription runs out today, so against my better judgement I renewed it for another year.  I do this every year even though I rarely edit video anymore. Now I have current versions of both Pro Tools and Media Composer. I'm ready for that illusive job that will probably never come my way. Realistically, I should have invested a little money into a refresher course. I'm not sure I even remember how to use this software anymore.

New Year's Day is supposed to be one of the coldest New Years on record. This makes me nervous. I hate holidays where essential services are closed. What if the furnace goes out on New Year's Day? What if Dash gets sick? Our dogs have become ill on major holidays before and it has always been a nightmare. I have gotten so used to a 24/7 world where everything is always instantly available that the thought of going without an HVAC repairman, a plumber, or a vet for a few days is troubling.

I hope that the house stays warm and Dash stays healthy over the holidays. After that, I'll worry about 2018. I never make New Year's resolutions but this might be a good year to start. There are certainly some things that could use improvement.

Petey & Greta are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2576

I woke up about 5 AM to an impressive display of thunder and lightning. The wind was blowing fiercely and I was a little worried that a tree might fall on the roof. Luckily, both dogs were still asleep. I closed some doors and hung a few blankets to block Dot's view of the lightning flashes and then went back to bed. We almost survived the storm unscathed, but eventually a loud thunderclap woke Dash and he made sure that Dot was awake too. Sometimes Dot will calm down if I lie down next to her and cover her with a blanket. I wasn't looking forward to sleeping next to Dot, since this is the time of day she often poops in her bed. Comforting Dot seemed to work and in ten minutes we all went back to sleep. When I woke up again, I wasn't sitting in a pile of poop, the sun was out, the storm had passed and everybody was fine.

After a brisk morning walk where I watched the tail end of the storm system move swiftly toward the horizon, I took the Christmas tree down. With no Christmas tree in the living room, it seemed pretty obvious that 2017 was officially here. While I was packing things away, I noticed that there was a small crack in the corner of a large seven foot square picture window. The crack could have occurred yesterday or six months ago. That's how observant I am. Sooner or later I'm going to have to replace this window and it's going to be expensive. I've replaced some of the glass windows before and I've found that glaziers typically insist on replacing large plate glass windows with tempered glass. Tempered glass is great stuff, but it's more than twice as expensive as regular glass. I guess 2017 will be a series of endless bills, just like 2016.

At least Dot and Dash aren't inclined to jump through glass windows. We had a Dalmatian named Petey who jumped through one of our living room windows trying to catch a squirrel on the back porch, He almost bled to death before I could rush him to the vet. That's why I already have quite a few tempered glass windows in the house. The window with the crack probably would have been replaced years ago if it weren't part of a large sliding glass door. I'm hoping I don't have to replace the entire door to fix this window.

I get another chance to find Neptune tonight. The sky is mostly clear and the moon will pass directly in front of the planet around 11 PM. I already looked through binoculars and couldn't find the illusive planet. It's pretty dim. I'll give it another try later this evening. Maybe I can find a place to observe with no streetlights nearby. Finding celestial objects inside the city limits is next to hopeless. The light pollution is pretty severe.

I made an appointment to take Dot to the vet tomorrow. We used to check Dot's vital signs every time we went for our physical therapy session, but Dot is difficult to transport now and we haven't gone downtown for physical therapy for quite a while. Tomorrow's appointment is with Dash's vet, which is much closer to home. In addition to checking her heart and blood pressure, we need to clip her nails. It's amazing how quickly a dog's nails grow if they don't walk very much.

I still haven't made any New Years resolutions. I probably never will. I did wake up firmly resolved to make it through the day. I wasn't going to let a thunderstorm or a little dog poop get in my way. If I can do this every single day, I'll probably make it through 2017 just fine.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2573

When I was eating breakfast this morning I ended up sitting next to the kitchen and overhead three of the cooks talking about guitars and amps. It seemed apparent that all of them had either been in a band or were still in a band. My ears always perk up when I hear someone talking about guitars. I love guitars. I kind of wanted to join the conversation, but the guys looked very busy and I was a little too far away to be heard anyway. Musicians don't talk about music the same way fans do. They usually talk about gear.

One of the guys was talking about a certain brand of strings meant to be tuned an octave above the standard tuning. Another mentioned that he once had an all-white Marshall Super Lead amp like Randy Rhodes used to use. He then mentioned that his amp was a cheap copy, which made sense since the limited edition Marshall tribute amp was hugely expensive. All three of the guys seemed to like Randy Rhodes, which reminded me that I once did a fashion photo shoot at the home of Ozzy Osbourne's drummer. Maybe this was after Randy Rhodes died, but I'm not really sure. The drummer's girlfriend was a model and they lived in a huge home with almost no furniture and some pet rabbits hopping all over the place. The drummer seemed to spend most of his time playing with radio controlled model cars when he wasn't on tour. This is why I enjoy my Friday breakfasts. I just listen to other people's conversations and lose myself in memories. Now that I know that the cooks are musicians, it kind of explains why the restaurant makes its own mix tapes instead of subscribing to a plastic sounding SiriusXM channel like other places.

I thought today would be a good day to vacuum the house, since basically the floors were covered with dog hair and leaves. It was getting to the point where I couldn't avoid this task any longer. I've become convinced that all the people who think a Dyson vacuum cleaner is wonderful have a maid that does the cleaning. This machine is difficult to maneuver, even more difficult to clean, and has a long heavy cord that is always getting tangled up in the furniture. The dogs were asleep when I started vacuuming, but that didn't last long. For some reason both dogs like to follow me around when I'm vacuuming. I had to stop the vacuum every few minutes and gently move Dot out of the way. Moving around was actually good exercise for her, but it made my job harder. She was always getting stuck in precarious positions and as the house became cleaner, I began to worry that she was going to poop on my freshly cleaned rugs. Eventually, I finished the task I'd been postponing for so long. The Dyson canister was completely full of dirt and the house looked exactly the same as it did before.

It has gotten cold again. This weather is driving me nuts. One day it's freezing outside and the next day it is balmy and warm. I've literally been alternating between using the air conditioner and the furnace. It would be nice to have a little consistency in my life. The weather isn't consistent. My work isn't consistent. And Dot's pooping schedule doesn't even come close to being consistent. I hope my Friday restaurant stays consistent. After my first breakfast restaurant lost it's magic, it took me quite a while to find this new place. I don't want to do that again.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I probably should. My problem is that I'm not very big on self-improvement. I'm happy with my weight. I certainly don't want to become a kinder, friendlier version of myself. I'd like more money, but that's probably more of a wish than a resolution. I'd like Dot to get healthier, but that's a wish too. Maybe I'll just make a New Year's wish...

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2202

We've spent the evening listening to tornado sirens and weather alert messages beeping on our phones. So far, there have been three tornado alerts with the storm track passing fairly close to us. I hate it when the TV weatherman tells people to "go to your safe room now." We don't have a safe room. We don't even have a safe closet. Every room in the entire house has an exterior wall. There is lots of glass too. Basically, if a tornado hit our house, we're toast.

Luckily, today's storms passed slightly to the East of us. There was lots of lightning and a few moments with very high winds, but that was about it. Our power is still on too. When we were all huddled together in the little hallway that is a pitiful excuse for a safe room, I was sure Dot was going to poop. She kept her composure though and we rode the storm out. We've been lucky over the years. There have been several close calls, but no direct hits. A tree blew over on our roof once, but in Texas that was nothing. You've got to take the weather seriously in Texas.

I was able to get the grocery shopping done and the dogs walked before the bad weather arrived. The grocery store wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected. I guess people don't return groceries after Christmas. I don't go anywhere near shopping malls on the day after Christmas, but Janet said those places were a zoo. A lot of people must have gotten drones as gifts. There were certainly quite a few folks making their maiden flights in the park today. I'm not sure I understand the current fascination with drones. They're basically just model airplanes that can carry a Go Pro camera. Judging from the piloting skills I witnessed today, a lot of these things are going to be broken before New Years Eve.

I was going to watch the Dr. Who Christmas Special this evening, but ended up watching the weather on the local news instead. I'm really glad that we didn't lose power during the storm. The fast moving storm caught me by surprise and virtually nothing was charged up. With dead batteries on the laptop and phone, I might have had a hard time posting the blog this evening. I'll be better prepared tomorrow. A cold front is headed our way, but I don't know what that means. As long as it doesn't snow or do anything weird, I'm fine.

As the year draws to a close, I don't have any resolutions for the New Year whatsoever. It would be nice if next year wasn't quite as grueling as this one, but we'll just have to see what happens. You really can't predict the future. Expect nothing, but be prepared for anything might be a good motto. In less than a year, I'll be halfway to my goal of blogging for 5000 consecutive days. There's still room for a lot of surprises.

Dash 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 1106 - Christmas Day

Christmas quite literally started out with a bang this year. Shortly after midnight, a fierce wave of thunderstorms started rolling through town, waking up both the dogs and ourselves. As Dot and Dash sat huddled under a blanket in the center of the bed, lightning bolts lit up the house while booming thunderclaps rattled the dishes. This was a long, very loud thunderstorm, and the dogs weren't happy about it at all. By morning, the thunder and lightning had moved off to the East, but the cold rain remained for the rest of the morning.

With the help of the weather radar app on my iPad, we found a little break in the storm so we could take the dogs outside to do their business. Shortly after we returned, the rain turned to snow and we had our first White Christmas in quite a few years.

The cold snowy weather was perfect for a day of Christmas cooking, and pretty soon the smell of Christmas ham and sweet potato casserole filled the house. I tried to get a head start on some of my writing assignments while our Christmas dinner was in the oven and Janet watched Christmas movies on the Lifetime channel. When we opened our gifts after dinner, the dogs had great fun tearing the paper off of colorfully wrapped up packages of dog biscuits. As a special Christmas treat, Dot and Dash got to share a boiled chicken breast for dinner. Even though the weather was cold and damp, it would be hard to imagine a better Christmas.

Tomorrow, all the wrapping paper in the living room will be bagged up and placed in the trash. Our Christmas dinner leftovers will be divided up and placed in Tupperware containers that will be my dinner for the rest of the week. Janet and I will both return to work, wondering when the next holiday will arrive. The dogs will just wonder where all the chicken went.

I've still got a week to come up with some decent New Year's resolutions. I'm not very good with resolutions of any kind. I'll probably just resolve to slog through another year, so I can enjoy Christmas again in 2013.

Emma 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