Day 2595

I found my missing fitness tracker today. This thing disappeared almost two months ago, so I'd totally given up hope of ever seeing it again. It was always a mystery where the tracker was, since just before the battery died, I noticed that it was still paired with my phone. Logically, the wristband had to be nearby, but I never could find it.

Today, I was cleaning the car after getting the interior dirty bringing stuff back from the storage warehouse and while I was brushing a crevice under the rear seat, I dislodged the illusive bracelet and swept it, along with a lot of dirt, to the driveway. Weird. The car was the first place I looked, but it never occurred to me to look under this seat. The tracker must have fallen off my wrist while I was loading photo equipment and found its way under the seat while I was driving. I'm glad the mystery is finally solved. Now, I can finally quit wondering whether one of the dogs ate it, or if I inadvertently vacuumed it up while cleaning rugs.

I never would have found the fitness tracker if I hadn't decided to bring home the garment rack from the storage warehouse and bring some order to my growing collection of coats. Don't ask me how the garment rack got muddy. I don't recall that it had ever been outside. At any rate, I disassembled the thing at the warehouse so it would fit in the car, and then cleaned and reassembled it when I got home. I had to take a bookshelf apart too, so the bulky rack would fit where I needed it to go. I always forget how heavy books are until I need to move them. These books and magazines hadn't been moved in decades. There were old Communication Arts magazines from the 1970's. There were German language textbooks from the 1990's when I was doing a lot of work in Germany. I threw away about thirty pounds of old B&H catalogs from the days before the Internet when they used to mail out massive two inch thick books every six months or so. If I had more time, this cleanup job might have been a little nostalgic, but I was trying to get everything finished while the dogs were still sleeping.

Eventually, I rearranged all the books and gathered up the loose coats around the house so I could place them neatly on the garment rack. The job was a success, but it took longer than I'd thought. By the time I fed the dogs their dinner and got them ready for their evening walks, it was starting to look like rain. Dot's walk went fine, but when it was Dash's turn, the sky was pretty dark. When we were about a mile away from the house, I started to see lightning. I urged Dash to hurry up and amazingly, he listened. We arrived home again two minutes before a real downpour started. I guess today was a lucky day. We didn't get struck by lightning and I found a fitness tracker that I never thought I'd see again. The office is still a mess, but the coats look much better on the garment rack.

I'm pleased that the new wonder scale tells me I'm in pretty good shape. My body mass index, bone mass, body fat percentage, standing heart rate, and pulse wave velocity are all excellent for someone my age. I'd never even heard of pulse wave velocity before. You take the time it takes for blood to travel from your heart to the blood vessels in your feet and then compare this value with your height to determine your pulse wave velocity. Lower numbers are good because they indicate that your veins and arteries are elastic. Higher numbers indicate hardening of the arteries which could put you at risk of a heart attack. I guess I already knew that my arteries were somewhat elastic, but I didn't know what it all meant. Cool machines that actually teach you something are the best. I like my scale.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2086

I started reading The Martian today. I could have easily finished it if I didn't have the dogs to tend to and this blog to write. There certainly wasn't anything else going on today. I'd forgotten what a good way to kill time that reading is. As an added bonus, I could do my reading sitting next to Dot, who always likes having me nearby. Dot likes to lounge in the sun on nice days, so after lunch I took her out in the back yard and sat next to her reading my book for about 45 minutes. This worked out well for everyone. Dot had a companion and the bright sunlight narrowed my pupils, giving my eyes better depth of field, so I didn't need my reading glasses.

I could relate to the character of Mark Watney in the book. I'm not stranded on Mars, but I am alone a lot and spend a good deal of my time fixing things that break. Like Watney, I also spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about poop. I'm not in a desperate race to save my life, but I do feel like I'm trying to save my sanity at times. This book should be an inspiration to any aspiring writer. Andy Weir couldn't find a publisher, so he put the book on his website for free, one chapter at a time. Fans encouraged him to create a Kindle edition and sell it on Amazon. The e-book quickly rose to the top of Amazon's science fiction charts where it eventually caught the eye of traditional publishers. Five years after Andy started writing the book, it made its debut on the New York Times Best Seller List.

So, maybe there's hope for my dog stories yet. Not very likely. They'll probably be available free on my website forever. That's OK though. I never made any effort to get published. I kind of prefer doing things this way. There's a lot to read on my website if you're so inclined, but if you're not, that's OK too. At least you're reading the blog.

One of my clients asked me today if I'd be interested in taking over the SEO duties from another company they are currently using. Maybe. I asked the client what the current SEO experts were doing for them. He didn't know. "What do you mean you don't know," I said? "What are you actually paying for?" He really didn't know. "Have sales picked up since you hired this company," I asked? Nope. I'd say this was a pretty good sign that my client is wasting his money. I guess the question now is whether I could do any better. I'm not sure. A lot of SEO campaigns are totally worthless.

I'll probably finish reading my book tomorrow morning. I could have read the entire book in one sitting if I wasn't interrupted so often. I'm slow at a lot of things, but I'm a fast reader. I'll have to pick up some more books this weekend. They are a remarkably good way to kill time. I'm not even sure what interests me at this point in time, but I'm sure there's more to life than the trade journals and B&H photography catalogs that are my current reading matter.

I tried and failed to take pictures of dragonflies today. At this time of year, there are hundreds of them hovering over the meadows in the park in the afternoons. I've seem cool looking pictures of dragonflies in flight before, but the little critters are devilishly fast, fly in erratic patterns, and are almost impossible to keep in focus when you're using a zoom lens. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1691

Today was pleasantly quiet and uneventful. Dot had moments when she was shaky on her feet, but then there were other moments when she seemed almost normal. She still seems to be improving a little bit with each passing day. Both dogs got excited when a neighbor's cat unexpectedly appeared in the yard. I didn't want Dot to injure herself by chasing after the cat, but when I took her out on a leash to investigate, she was surprisingly nice. The cat eventually got tired of the barking Dalmatians and left. Janet would like to have a cat, but whenever Dot and Dash get near one, they prove they aren't up to the challenge yet. Both of them have a strong prey drive and think cats are just a larger member of the squirrel family.

I hope our unseasonably cooler temperatures continue. It was in the low 70's this morning when we took the dogs for an early walk. Even later in the day when the sun came out, the temperature only rose to the mid-80's. I can remember several Summers when the temperature was above one hundred degrees for the entire month of August. This is much better. It almost feels like early Fall.

Our list of weekend errands has grown back to it's normal size. After breakfast, I went to the vet to pick up some more phenobarbital for Dash. Then I want to the pharmacy to get my own meds, filled the car with gas, and got groceries. When I returned home, Janet left to do her errands. We still don't feel comfortable leaving Dot alone. Mostly the dogs just sleep when we're gone, but there's always a chance that Dot might fall and be unable to get up again. After Dot ate the carpet earlier this year, I'm not sure I'll ever be completely comfortable leaving her alone again. Thinking back, I'm beginning to think that frantically eating a hole in the carpet might have been an early sign of distress caused by the tumor growing inside Dot's intestines. How were we to know though? Dogs eat things they aren't supposed to all the time.

I discovered today that one of my former co-workers has written a book about his career in advertising. This guy became somewhat of a superstar after we worked together in the early seventies, so I imagine it is an interesting book. I bought a copy to see if I remembered any of the stories. If I wrote a book about my own career in advertising it would just be an extended version of that old Johnny Paycheck song "Take This Job and Shove It." I was a creative fellow, but I wasn't a very good employee. I worked at seventeen different agencies before I finally realized that the only boss I was ever going to take seriously was myself.

Maybe I'll finally get a decent night's sleep this evening. We set an alarm and remembered to get Dot up at 2 AM to pee last night. The bed was dry, but I had a hard time getting back to sleep after we all came back inside. Since Dot was having trouble getting back in the bed, I just got a blanket and went to sleep on the floor with her. I'm pretty sure she slept better than I did.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1169

The Winter winds subsided as the day progressed and by mid-afternoon it was warm again. As the weather improved, so did my mood. I continued to make good progress on my new writing assignment. The roof is drying out again. I've even lost a couple of pounds as a result of my new diet.

The challenge will be to stay engaged in the months ahead. I get bored easily. Watches hold little interest anymore. My carefully collected watch repair tools are all gathering dust on the workbench. I know I should be practicing the guitar more. I do enjoy playing, but this always used to be a group activity with the band. Playing rock and roll in an empty house to an audience of dogs is kind of weird. Yes, I could always read a book. I used to read a new book each and every week. I love books. I wonder why I don't have the urge to read anymore.

Photography is still fun, but I need to expand my horizons. I've started to notice that I've already photographed almost every single interesting object along the path where I walk the dogs every day. My small world has been very well documented. This month, the White Pelicans are getting ready to head north for the Summer. In previous years, I would be setting up a tripod with a long lens to capture these magnificent birds before they left for the season. I already have so many pictures of Pelicans though that I don't really feel like photographing them anymore. That's the problem really. Been there, done that. Totally.

Enough complaining though. It really was a beautiful day. There are tell-tale signs of Spring everywhere you look. The dogs are much happier with the warmer weather and are enjoying spending time outside again. Maybe I ought to let them decide what we are going to do tomorrow.

Bingo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day