Day 1079

Janet had more dental surgery today, so I got up early to take her to the dentist. By the time I returned home, walked the dogs and finished breakfast, I was more than an hour and a half ahead of schedule. Some days, having a leg up on things like this would have made a big difference. Today, I think I could have gotten up at noon and still finished everything in plenty of time.

The cooler weather continues. I've noticed frost in the shady areas for the past several mornings. Although Winter is definitely on the way, it's going to have to get a lot colder to finish off this Summer's bumper crop of bugs. There are still way too many wasps, roaches and ants hanging around our house. Petey, an earlier Dalmatian, would eat some of these household pests, but Dot and Dash will have nothing to do with them. I guess they are too refined.

I picked up Janet from her surgery after lunch and spent the rest of the day finishing my writing assignments. If my own little corner of the world is any indication, the economy is not getting better.  I was much busier this time last year. At least the market finished up today. If we could end the year back where we were last March, I'd be a happy camper.

The dogs got a reprieve from training class tonight, since Janet's anesthesia hasn't worn off yet. I could have always taken one of the dogs myself, but which one? The dog that's left behind always feels left out. I don't think Dot and Dash really wanted to go to class anyway. It's too cold.

Tomorrow, I've got to wait for the FedEx delivery guy again. I hope he comes early. Even though I'd just be sitting here anyway, I still hate to wait.

Scooter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 971

I keep hearing that the Post Office is going broke. I don't understand why. Judging from the ridiculous amount of junk they send me, I'd think these guys would be rolling in money. Today I tried to wade through the big stack of "don't need to open now" mail that's been growing on the kitchen table for the past month. I'd just as soon never open this mail, but occasionally I forget a bill or something important, so it does need to be checked. Today I just threw away a seemingly endless stack of letters urging me to join a cause, vote for somebody, switch to a different electric company, get a new credit card, lose weight, or sign up for a pre-paid funeral plan.

I don't know why most companies even bother printing this stuff. If it doesn't contain a coupon, it's just going to get tossed.  I save coupons from Bed Bath and Beyond, Guitar Center, Lowes, and several other places. I throw the invitations to join AARP away.

Another neighborhood restaurant has bit the dust. It was sad to see a For Sale sign on my favorite local barbecue joint today. If the refrigerator was empty before shopping day, I would always just run down to Raymonds BBQ and pick up one of their three meat dinners. It probably wasn't the best barbecue in the state of Texas, but it was simple, honest food and it was dirt cheap. I would always get way more food than I could eat and never spend more than ten dollars. One by one, all my favorite little local businesses are disappearing. Anyone who thinks the economy is improving just isn't looking in the right places. You just can't have a strong, vibrant economy without small business, and from my small little corner of the world, small business is still having a tough time.

When we went to the dog park today, I watched two Shelties run straight toward the biggest mud puddle in the park and lie down in it. Their owner just shrugged his shoulders and smiled, as if to say this sort of thing happened everyday. This would have been the day for Dot and Dash to get muddy, because they were headed straight to Vhea's LaundroMutt for a bath on the way home. I don't know why the dogs hate a bath so much. They look better. They smell better. For the first three or four days, they're actually pleasant to have on the bed at night.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 911

The additional information requested by Fannie Mae was finally located and shipped off for review. Everyone seems to think that the buyer's loan will be approved now, although it's pretty obvious that the closing will be delayed a few days. I learned long ago not to count my chickens before they hatch, so I'm not celebrating until I get a call from the title company to come sign the documents and hand over the keys. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly from this point forward.

I was getting the dogs ready to go to training class this evening when a sudden thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere and dumped tennis ball sized hail in the back yard. I had taken the dogs on their evening walk only thirty minutes earlier with blue sky overhead. People who haven't spent time here never understand Texas weather. Conditions can turn on a dime. One minute it's clear and calm and a few minutes later you're drenched. Today's sudden thunderstorm brought some of the largest hail I've seen in years along with it. For several minutes it sounded like people were dropping large rocks on the roof. At least I was home and inside. When Janet got home from work, she told me that the hail had broken her windshield. The storm didn't last long, but it certainly lasted long enough for Dot to panic. Even though the thunder and lightening stopped over an hour ago, she still isn't back to normal.

For the past several days, I've been hearing on the news that a new study shows the average family's net worth in the United States had dropped almost 40% since 2008. That's an enormous loss of wealth and security in a very short amount of time. At first I though that this study was preposterous, but then I got thinking about my own situation. The real estate I own has dropped dramatically in value. My stocks have cratered. Clients don't want to pay me as much anymore. Gas is expensive. It's all a giant mess. I don't know if I've lost 40%, but I've lost quite a bit. If the entire country has lost 40% of their wealth, we're all in big trouble.

One of those business networking clubs wants me to join them again. Those of you who have been reading for a while will remember that this happened once before. I'm kind of torn. On one hand I really need to reach out and meet some new potential clients. I dislike marketing so much that I almost never go out and market my business anymore. On the other hand, I'm not a morning person at all. The thought of getting up at six-thirty every Wednesday to go to a seven-thirty breakfast meeting makes my skin crawl. I do like eating breakfast though. If they serve bacon, it might almost be worth it. We'll see.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 856

Slip sliding away. That's the way I'm feeling these days. Every week, checks for $200 or $300 dribble in, along with bills for several thousand dollars. I wonder how long you can sustain this kind of impossible math.

Luckily, I had some very good years. I don't think those days will return however. The world has fundamentally changed. I listen to all the politicians promising jobs if you'll elect them and I wonder what on earth they are thinking. You can't promise jobs in a global economy. If someone in China or India can do the job for 1/3 of what I would charge, they're going to get the job. End of story. To survive in this brave new world, you have to lower your prices to stay competitive and hope that a larger audience for your products or services will make up the difference. This strategy might work well for Coca Cola and McDonald's, but it certainly doesn't help me much. I just end up working longer and harder for less money.

It doesn't help much to fret about such things though. Once the metaphorical Pandora's Box has been opened, it can never be closed again. In an increasingly interconnected world, great economies are trying their best to equalize. It's like those science experiments in high school chemistry class where liquid in two connected containers always stayed at the same level. My economy is getting worse. Yours may be getting better. Maybe in three or four generations, everything will be wonderful, but it's not a pretty sight now.

At least I still have things to do as I slowly get poorer. I worked on some websites today. I sent out invoices like notes in a bottle and continued writing articles. The dogs did their part to keep the leaky ship afloat. They chased squirrels in the backyard.

I asked the real estate agent today why he wanted to price my rent house so low, especially when there were similar properties for sale in the same neighborhood at considerably higher prices. "Look at how long those houses have been on the market," he told me. "When a house has been on the market for 400 days, the seller just hasn't come to grips with reality yet."

I'm sure the agent is right. It's no fun to come to grips with reality. Reality can be downright depressing. That's why I'm going to try the trendy restaurant my advertising friends like for breakfast tomorrow. Maybe they'll have a great breakfast that will perk up my entire day. Maybe if I continue going to this place, it will become "my" trendy restaurant. Stranger things have happened.

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 715

I feel like I'm competing in a very weird marathon. I've got work stacked up through the end of December that keeps me busy every single day. It's not like the old days where I had five or six high paying jobs every month and had the rest of the time to myself. The world has changed. Now, I have tons of tiny little jobs that pay virtually nothing individually. To make the same income I made ten or fifteen years ago, I have to keep churning this stuff out like a factory.

The continual stream of website updates, quickly written 400 word articles, and down-and-dirty video production is tiring. I no longer have the luxury of really thinking about what I'm doing. For the most part, I put my brain on autopilot, rush full speed ahead, and then correct the inevitable mistakes in the revision stages. Sometimes the final result is surprisingly good, but the effort is seldom fun. For most of my career my work really was fun. Where did that go? A few of my friends still tell me that their work is fun, but I don't believe them because they're all on Prozac.

Five or six years ago when I was still doing gallery shows, I had this vision of myself spending the rest of my life wandering around taking cool looking pictures and then displaying them in galleries and museums. After my first two gallery shows, it became obvious that this experiment was more of a hobby than an avocation. I got lots of complements at the gallery openings, but weeks later at the conclusion of each show, there were very few of the red dots that indicated a sale next to the pictures. At one memorable show, I actually spent more framing the pictures than I made from selling them.

If the market went up 400 points every day, I wouldn't feel so gloomy about the mechanics of earning a living. I could live quite nicely if every day were like today. Unfortunately, when I wake up tomorrow morning, I have a strong feeling that the world will still be broke and living beyond its means. If Angela Merkel sneezes, or Italian bond rates keep climbing, today's gains will evaporate in an instant. Hey, American Airlines went bankrupt today. I used to work on the American Airlines account when it was one of most successful and highly respected airlines in the world. How the mighty have fallen. Probably the only thing left in five years time will be the Apple stores, still selling iPads at full price in vacant shopping malls.

Belle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 708

There was a beautiful ground fog that covered the entire park when I took the dogs on their morning walk. I could tell the fog was lifting rapidly, so I tried to grab a few pictures with my iPhone. You might know this already, but Dalmatians aren't very good as photo assistants. Every time I would frame a shot, one of the dogs would tug on the leash and cause the camera to move. I managed to get one or two good shots, but by the time we got home again where I could grab my good camera and leave the dogs behind, the fog had lifted.

I got a letter from one of my annuities today saying that they were no longer accepting new customers because bad economic conditions, low interest rates and other dark clouds on the horizon were making it impossible to provide a future return on investment. The letter concluded by saying the company was still strong and would continue to meet all obligations to existing customers. This wasn't all that reassuring however. You can definitely see the writing on the wall. The entire world economy has become a house of cards, and I still don't think many people realize how serious the situation has become.

One thing I've started to notice is that the bad economy is making just about everyone a little grumpier. More people are honking their horn at other drivers. More companies are asking employees to accept new responsibilities without an increase in pay. Loyalties are being tested everywhere. I think just about everyone I know would throw me under the bus in a New York minute if it meant they could hang in there a little longer.

There's still plenty to be thankful for though. I need to remember this on days when the market drops hundreds of points, like it did today. Hey, I still get to take a walk through the woods with my dogs every morning instead of fighting rush hour traffic. I'm not making nearly as much money anymore, but at least my house and car are paid for. There are literally dozens of things that could have a serious impact on my health, but so far none of them actually has. Things aren't all that great, but I count my blessings that they aren't really that bad either.

Tomorrow is a holiday and we get to sleep in a bit longer. I hope somebody remembers to tell the dogs.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day