Day 3051

I'm trying to get organized. I spoke with the guy who is going to sell my model trains and made some final arrangements for him to pick up my collection. I finally contacted the right person and got a refund for the worthless broken activity tracker I ordered several weeks ago. I left another message for the landscaper. He's almost as hard to get hold of as the roofer. None of these things are all that important, but at least I felt like I was doing something.

Dash was really slow today. His energy level varies widely from day to day. It took well over an hour to complete our morning walk. When the dogs were healthy, we could complete this distance in less than thirty minutes. I let Dash take his time. He still enjoys smelling things and I don't have anything better to do with my time anyway. It's sad to see him slowly decline, but I think he's doing the best he can. Dash was a picky eater today as well. I don't think he was sick, but he was very lethargic.

I found a new app for my phone that lets me manually focus the camera. I've been looking for this feature since my very first iPhone. If a third party developer could figure out how to manually control the phone's camera, why hasn't Apple already done this? Probably a focus group told them that the selfie generation didn't care about manual focus and exposure control. Amazingly, the new app works like a charm. Maybe I'll finally be able to keep flowers without sharply defined edges in focus.

I've been waiting all day for the rain to start. It's still dry outside, but there are some ominous looking storms to the West of us. According to the forecast, it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow.
None of this would matter if the roof was in better shape. I've had roof problems for so long that it seems like the roof was always this way. Except for a brief period after the last new roof was installed, the roof probably always was a problem. Even a brand new flat roof can be a nightmare. My one piece of advice to new homeowners would be to never, ever buy a house with a flat roof.

There's a new episode of The Expanse on tonight. I'll probably just record it and watch it later. There is very little incentive to watch a show when it originally airs anymore. I wonder if anybody watches live TV these days? Even the news is easier to tolerate if you watch it later.

Another roof panel blew off the greenhouse this afternoon. Apparently, I'm not doing a very good job of reattaching these things. The slightest wind can knock something loose now. The greenhouse is so old that a lot of the nails holding things together have completely rusted away. I need to get a bid to repair things properly, but I already know that it will be more expensive that it's worth.

If it rains, Dash wont get a walk in the morning. I hope Dash is feeling better tomorrow. Rainy days are even worse when I spend them worrying about his heart.

Bogart is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2864

I went to an old school roadside diner for breakfast this morning. People were reading newspapers. Old men sitting at the counter were talking about guns and cars. I really wanted to like the food because everyone was so friendly. Alas, my search for the perfect breakfast continues. I just don't think my stomach can handle gut buster meals anymore.

I was prepared to stay home and eat oatmeal, but Dash was very cooperative this morning. As soon as I put his gear on, he was ready to walk. We still haven't pinned down what the problem was a few weeks ago, but Dash definitely seems to feel better now. His appetite has improved. He seems interested in walking again. He still sleeps a lot during the day, but he has more energy. At any rate, we took a nice morning walk, Dash enjoyed the cool Fall weather, and I still had plenty of time to go out for breakfast when we returned.

I've become addicted to my fitness tracker, so I started looking for a replacement for my defective UP band on the Internet. Everything seemed too big, too expensive, or didn't track things the way I liked. I was surprised at how frequently Fitbit discontinues things. One of the smaller Fitbit trackers I had my eye on has already been discontinued. Other models I'd seen in stores recently were gone too. As it turned out, I didn't need a new tracker after all. About 5 PM this afternoon my old UP band started working again.

Since it was a slow day, I repaired another set of Dash's rubber boots. Basically, I'm creating an entirely new pair of custom boots by adding new rubber in strategic areas. I think I could manufacture these things now, but I bet the market is very small. The augmented boots seem to be holding up well. They are very light and Dash walks normally while wearing them. These boots don't fall off like the original designs we tried. Most importantly, Dash's rear paws aren't scraped and damaged anymore. I'd like to think that the knee brace and the protective boots are one of the reasons that Dash is interested in walking again.

I'm a grumpy person, but sometimes I'm surprised at how little it takes to make me happy. I'm glad that Dash is feeling better. Even though my breakfast wasn't very good, I'm glad I ventured out and tried a new restaurant. I was pleased that I don't have to go looking for a new fitness tracker. I liked my old one anyway. Even though Dash's rubber boots initially seemed like a waste of money, I have managed to bring them back from the grave and they appear useful now. These are little things, but they were enough to make it a good day.

Tomorrow, we'll be getting up really early. Janet is participating in this year's Race For The Cure and will be wearing a pink Survivor shirt. It's been a tumultuous and at times difficult year, but this is really something to be happy about.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2550

These days are getting longer and longer. The dogs are typically pretty good in the morning. After breakfast and a long walk, they're usually content to sleep the rest of the morning. This brief quiet time is when I get most of my work done. Things begin to fall apart after lunch. Dot will usually sleep until 1 PM and occasionally as late as 2 PM. After that, she is determined to stay up for the rest of the day. This would be great if she could walk, but she can't. She has perfected a pitiful look and bark that summons me from my desk every time she needs something. All afternoon we walk from her bed to the water bowl in the kitchen and then out the back door. Sometimes she pees when we go outside, but usually she just pees in her bed. Every time she sits or lays down I have to make sure there's a puppy training pad strategically positioned under her.

Dash gets bored now because I don't have time anymore to take him on brisk five mile walks like I used to. When dogs get bored, all they want to do is eat. I've had to split their dinner into two smaller courses spaced an hour and a half apart so we can make it through the afternoon in one piece. It may seem silly, but it works. Usually, Dot and Dash will go back to sleep for a short while after the first half of their dinner. This is when I run errands and go to the post office. After they finish their two part dinner, they both get an evening walk. Dot only walks to the end of the street, but her short walk takes just as long as it takes to walk Dash several miles. Lord, that girl is slow.

Janet usually helps with the evening walks, but she's really busy during the holiday season and often gets home late. Now is as good a time as any to learn how to make this work by myself. When Janet leaves to visit her family for Christmas, there won't be any choice. Walking Dot alone has been slow going so far. She likes to follow Dash, but there is no way I can walk the two dogs together while holding up Dot's rear end with the harness. We're learning though. We did a little  better today than we did yesterday.

I finally figured out why my fitness tracker app was still tracking steps even after I lost it and the battery ran out. It turns out that the UP band app on my phone also receives information from my Apple watch. It wasn't ghost data after all. It was just information from my watch. Cloud computing has made everything so interconnected and complex that I have no idea what is going on anymore. My appointment calendar seems to be everywhere now. Text messages appear on my watch and I can answer my phone in the car by pressing a button on the steering wheel. Who knew that the watch was sending information all over the place too.

I tried to download some new Avid software before my upgrade subscription runs out in a few days. I forgot my password to the download site and had to request a new one. After I finally got the lengthy download started, our Internet went out. I had to start the download all over again after I rebooted the U-Verse router and re-established the connection. Was the latest version of Pro Tools worth all this trouble? Maybe. I didn't use Pro Tools at all this year, but next year I might start getting audio jobs again. You never know.

I'd love for tomorrow to be peaceful and productive, but I'm probably just going to be spending most of my time cleaning up poop. We have our tree up now, but I'm definitely not feeling the Christmas spirit yet.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2547

Today was pretty hectic. One of the larger dogs we photographed tore the muslin backdrop. One of the smaller dogs pooped on Santa's red suit. In between, we had a lot of dogs that didn't really understand the whole concept of pet pictures. I'm sure that most of them would have rather gone to a dog park today. Eventually, we managed to get good pictures of almost everybody though. You just have to be patient.

There were no cats today, but there were a lot of Dalmatians. Quite a few were alumni from our rescue program. It was almost like a Dalmatian Rescue reunion. We saw young dogs that we had rescued a few weeks ago and old dogs that we had rescued over a decade ago. It was nice to see that all of these dogs had fabulous homes with people who really loved them. I guess I'll do this again next year. It sure is tiring though. I didn't even bother to put away my equipment when I got home tonight.

I still can't find my UP fitness band. The odd thing is that it appears to still be counting steps, even though no one is wearing it. My first thought was that one of the dogs might have eaten the band, but Janet said this was ridiculous. It is pretty unlikely, since neither dog has any interest in eating things like this. My second thought was that somebody stole the band, but that is unlikely too, since the band connects to my phone using short range Bluetooth. If somebody else was wearing the band, it wouldn't pair with my phone anymore. My third thought was that the UP band never actually measured real steps in the first place. My phone can measure steps too. What if the UP app used the measuring sensors in my phone and the tracker itself was just a little rubber bracelet with flashing LED lights? I'd never know the difference. The battery on the tracker is dead now, so it stopped sending  information sometime this afternoon. I may never find an answer to this mystery.

It's going to take quite a while to put all the photo equipment away tomorrow. I had some minor electrical problems over the weekend and I really ought to test everything carefully to make sure it will work the next time we have a Dalmatian Rescue photo event. I have a feeling that we won't be doing another photo shoot anytime soon. All the volunteers agreed that we're getting older and these events aren't getting any easier. It's hard to believe that we used to have photo events for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, and sometimes even Halloween. We'll probably do Christmas pictures again next year, but it won't be a marathon like it used to be. Two events a year is plenty.

Janet and I are going to a Christmas party tomorrow. The event is kind of formal, so Janet told me to be sure to air out a suit before we go. Like that would make a difference. It wouldn't make any difference if I air out, press, or take a suit to the dry cleaners. I'm still going to look like an old guy wearing a suit I bought twenty years ago. I suspect that it doesn't really matter. Most of the people at this party will be even older than I am. One good thing about old people parties is that they don't last very long. I feel pretty safe leaving Dot for a while. We should be back home in less than two hours.

It's been a long day, but everybody survived and maybe a few people will have a better Christmas card this year as a result of our Santa Paws photo shoots. Tomorrow, it's back to drinking banana, strawberry smoothies for breakfast and cleaning up dog poop.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2546

I was surprised that our first photo shoot went as well as it did today. When I got up to load the car, it was cold and raining. I took a shower last night, because I knew there wouldn't be time this morning. By the time I got to our location, there was barely time to set up before our first customers arrived. Nevertheless, everything went well. For the most part the pets we photographed were well behaved and their owners were friendly. We photographed almost as many cats today as dogs today. When we started doing Christmas pictures for Dalmatian Rescue, it was almost unheard of to bring a cat to one of these events. Now, cats wearing costumes are everywhere. We even had a rat today. The owner said it was a gerbil, but it sure looked like a rat to me. Several families with small children used the occasion to take a family portrait and most agreed that crashing a pet picture event was a lot easier than waiting in line so their kids could see a shopping mall Santa.

I lost my fitness tracker today. Who know when the thing fell off my wrist, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I was pretty sure that I lost the UP band while I was loading the car this morning, but after carefully retracing my steps, I couldn't find anything. When I got home from the photo shoot, I noticed that the tracker still appeared to be paired to my phone. The app showed that it was still counting steps too and even measuring a heart beat. It was almost as if the thing was still on my wrist, but had become invisible. The whole thing is baffling. I wasted a huge amount of time this evening looking for the wayward fitness band, but I still can't find it. The app shows that the battery has just about run out. Where is this thing? When the battery goes dead, it will disappear on the app and become even harder to find. I did find my reading glasses while I was looking for the missing band, so I guess there is still hope.

Tomorrow's photo shoot location if much further away than today's, so I will need to get up even earlier. I wish I could just leave all the equipment in the car to save time, but I don't have that much faith in my fellow man. I don't ever leave anything unattended in the car anymore. Today was busy, but I think even more people have signed up for Santa photos tomorrow. I need to stay focused and quit worrying about the fitness band. It will either turn up or it won't. At this point there isn't much I can do about it.

All in all, things went pretty well today. One of the flash triggers broke, but the other one worked just fine. Everyone loved the new backdrop we got this year. No dogs have peed on it yet either. So far, so good. Dot and Dash did well today, although I don't think Janet enjoyed staying home all day to keep an eye on them. She enjoys these special pet picture events more than I do. It's too bad we couldn't have just switched roles today.

I think my obsession with the missing fitness band reveals a disturbing character flaw. A weird mystery will capture my attention far easier than the ongoing needs of daily life. Maybe that's why I spend more time trying to figure out when Dot is going to poop next than I do trying to solicit new business. I keep trying to predict things that just can't be predicted. And when is the FedEx guy going to deliver that package anyway? That at least should be completely predictable. In the end, I want everything in life to run like clockwork and it just doesn't work that way. Even my watches don't run like clockwork.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2426

My Friday morning breakfasts are kind of a reality check. I don't spend much time around people anymore, so it's kind of interesting to see what's on their mind. I sit in my corner and mind my own business at the restaurant, but people are loud. I hear everything they say. If you listen to TV a lot, you'd probably think that everyone spends their day talking about politics. I never hear people talking about politics. They talk about real estate a lot. I think everyone in Dallas is either buying a house, selling a house, or remodeling a house. People in this city are obsessed with real estate. The conversations float around me like bird songs. People are planning weddings. The are thinking about upcoming vacations. The are looking for assisted living facilities for their parents. Some are interviewing for a new job. I've learned that most people cannot say five words in a row without using the word "like."

If restaurant conversations are any guide, I think that most people are basically good hearted and that few of them spend much time dwelling on the events of the day. I never hear people talking about terrorism or immigration. I did hear two young guys talking about quantitative easing once, but I don't think they were moguls. After a few minutes their conversation shifted to whether it was better to shop at Kroger or Albertsons. I tend to think that the things I hear at the restaurant are real and the things I see on Facebook aren't. I could be wrong though.

I paid a few bills today and did a little bookkeeping. The bills never end. I always pay my bills on time, but I hate being practical and frugal. It doesn't come naturally. I wonder if I would have done things differently if I'd known thirty years ago that my skill set would eventually become worthless and that the stock market would become volatile and unreliable. I genuinely thought that I wouldn't have a care in the world by now, but life is full of surprises. At least I'm still reasonably healthy. Maybe taking another path wold have been more financially lucrative, but I can't really complain. Until very recently, the company did very well. I just didn't anticipate getting old.

I took my hiking boots to the shoe repair shop today. For some reason I really wear down the heals of my shoes quickly. Why don't they make shoe soles out of the same type of rubber they use to make car tires? The tires on my car will last a minimum of 40,000 miles, but the soles of my shoes are lucky to last six months. When I was younger I had a pair of Italian Vibram soled boots that easily lasted ten years. I don't think they use the same type of rubber anymore. Those boots were indestructible.

My fitness tracker says I was asleep from noon to 2 PM yesterday. Excuse me? I have no memory of this. I thought I was mowing the grass. The troubling thing is that I'm really not sure. Maybe I was taking a nap and completely forgot about it.

Morgan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2380 - Summer Solstice

It certainly seemed like the longest day of the year. Time usually passes quickly when there is lots to do. It drags on forever on days like this. Today was a typical Monday on steroids. It seemed like all I did today was clean up after the dogs. Today started and ended with the smell of poop. It was so hot that it was difficult to get Dot to go outside. Dash, on the other hand, went outside a lot. He ate something bad yesterday and had diarrhea. Between the two dogs it seemed like I spent the entire day on cleanup duty.

Technically, today is the first day of Summer. I guess our rainy season is over. It was oppressively hot and the air was filled with the constant drone of cicadas mixed with the sound of lawn mowers and leaf blowers. It felt muggy, even thought the sky was clear. I'm not really surprised that Dot made no effort to go outside. I didn't feel like going outside either. It's kind of discouraging that it's going to be this way until late October.

Cleaning up dog poop isn't very stimulating, so in an effort to alleviate my boredom I drove over to a client's office to answer a question that could have easily have been answered in e-mail. Sending an e-mail doesn't do much good if nobody reads it, so I've discovered that it's much easier to visit certain clients in person. It only took a few minutes to get the problem resolved. It would have taken me a lot longer to type up my answer and hit send.

The wildflower season is slowly drawing to a close. The early Spring flowers are already looking dry and withered and I'm seeing fewer and fewer new ones each week. There are still a few surprises though. I couldn't identify the odd little purple bloom I saw today. It kind of looks like Bee Balm, but it is much too small and there was only the single blossom, buried under blades of grass. I'll eventually figure out what this small oddity is. It gives me something to do on days like this.

I'm beginning to wonder if my activity tracker just randomly makes up sleep data. There is no discernible pattern to my sleep. Some days there is no deep sleep at all. Other days there is no REM or dream sleep. It's a mystery. You'd think that I'd get the most deep sleep when I was really tired, but this is not the case. Every night is different, even though I almost always go to bed at exactly the same time. I definitely don't have insomnia. Although Dot wakes me up during the night, I seem to go back to sleep almost instantly. I don't know where I'm going to get the extra two hours of sleep I need though. If you go to bed at midnight and get up at six, there is no way you are going to get eight hours of sleep.

Tomorrow is Tuesday. Tonight I keep hearing the lyrics to Once in a Lifetime playing endless in my head. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was...

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2316

Today wasn't as bad as I expected. It rained from time to time, but mostly it was just overcast. The absence of thunder and lightning made life much easier. The dogs got their normal walks. The power stayed on. And I didn't have to worry about Dot when I had to leave the house for a photo assignment. I'm sure there's water on the roof, but I didn't bother to remove it. With several more days of inclement weather in the forecast, it would be pointless to clean things up now.

It took longer to drive to the client's offices than it took to take today's photos. Some companies make a big deal out of employee pictures. I've spent all day doing these things before. This place just wanted me to be as quick as possible.  I can be pretty fast if that's what you want. I was finished in less than fifteen minutes. When I returned home, the dogs were ready for lunch and then I had the rest of the day to add the new pictures to the website.

My new activity tracker can measure REM sleep, along with light and deep sleep. I think REM sleep is where you do most of your dreaming. Some days I have lots of REM sleep and other days I have none at all. I had always though I had dreams every night, but maybe not. I evidently didn't do any dreaming last night. You couldn't prove it by me, since I never remember my dreams anyway. So far, I see no discernible patterns to my sleep. The only thing that's clear is that I don't get nearly enough of it. I go to bed too late. Janet gets up too early. And the slightest noise during the night wakes me up. No wonder I'm always tired.

I forgot to put all the ingredients in my morning smoothie and it actually tasted better. Apparently, less is more. This surprising turn of events got me wondering where I got the original recipe from. Did I invent this concoction, or did I get the recipe out of a book? I really don't remember. I ought to experiment more. There are probably other happy accidents out there just waiting to be discovered.

Now that Dot's vet has agree to switch her therapy appointment back to the morning, I'm wondering if this was such a good idea. I tried to get her up this morning at about the time we would have to leave for a morning appointment and she wouldn't budge. It looks like in the morning I'll get a sleepy, grumpy dog and in the afternoon I'll get a dog that poops in the car. I'm beginning to think that the appointment time makes no difference at all. Dot is a high maintenance dog and there's always going to be some sort of a problem.

I've got some websites to update tomorrow morning, but it looks like it's going to be a slow day. I hate that I'm going to have to wait until 2017 for the next new Dr. Who episode. I've seen the old episodes too many times to enjoy seeing them again on a slow, rainy day, but a new episode now and then would have been nice.

Mattie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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