Day 4754

Janet is back and Dawn is a happy camper again. She was actually very good with me while Janet was away, but it's nice to see the tail wagging again. I think that Dawn has been in kennel mode all week. She was very obedient and did everything she needed to do, but it was clear that she wasn't happy. Now Dawn is happy again and all is well. Janet had a nice trip, but I don't think that meant much to Dawn. Dogs don't hold grudges though. As soon as Janet opened the front door, Dawn was immediately back to her normal self.

Janet's plane didn't arrive until late this afternoon, so for most of the day Dawn and I went through our familiar routine. Dawn got her last breakfast in bed for a while. She will go back to eating in the kitchen with Janet now. We never did take a walk. I was actually lucky that she would go down to the park with me every morning, but as soon as she did her business, she wanted to go straight back to the house. She didn't want me to brush her teeth either. I couldn't get anywhere near her mouth unless I had a treat in my hand. Dawn was probably just playing me the entire time because she knew she could get away with it. She is a very smart dog.

I continue to take my long walk every day. These walks are frequently boring, but it's hard to argue with their benefits. Long walks are some of the best exercise a person my age can get. It's great low impact cardio that helps to build bone density. The effort must be working because I'm in great shape for my age. Even my doctor is impressed. I wish there was an easier way to stay in shape, but few things worth doing are ever easy. To be a good writer you need to keep writing. Ditto for being a good photographer.  I don't think I'm a good web developer anymore because I don't build many websites these days. Practice makes perfect, or so they say.

The refrigerator was getting pretty empty, so I went to the grocery store this afternoon so Janet would have some food when she got home. I was surprised at how crowded the stores were. Was everybody out shopping for New Year's Eve parties, or are stores always crowded on Friday afternoon? I am totally unaware of what goes on in this town unless it is on my regular schedule. I did pick up a bottle of champagne for New Years Eve. Our celebration mostly just consists of watching the Times Square ball drop on TV and then going to sleep. We love dogs but we are definitely not party animals.

This year has gone quickly. There were a few surprises, but the year was largely uneventful. At least I didn't wind up in the hospital like I did last year. I did get to see the Artemis-1 launch and several others as well. Titusville is getting to feel like a second home now. I'd attend more launches if I could, but it's just too expensive. I kind of envy my launch photographer friends who live in the area. I'm glad that Dawn remains healthy. She did have bladder stones removed this year, but there have been no serious medical emergencies. After all the problems that Dot and Dash had when they got older, I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Hopefully Janet and I will stay healthy in the year ahead. So far, so good, but I've learned not to take anything for granted. I'm looking forward to returning to Kennedy Space Center. I have no idea when my next trip will be though. It all depends on getting press credentials. Maybe I'll go back to McDonand Observatory next Spring. I still wonder about that long drive though. For now I'll just concentrate on taking a long walk every day.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4256

It was a busy day. When we took our sunrise walk this morning, Dawn wanted to do her one mile loop in reverse. This was surprising because she hasn't done this before. I thought she was just going to poop in the little meadow behind our house and come back home, but she found the trail and continued her regular walk backwards. I always think that Dawn is set in her ways, but she's probably more flexible than I am. She certainly does surprise us from time to time. I wonder what's going on in her head.

I went to the gym today because it was really humid outside and I needed to run some errands anyway. The place was fairly empty this morning. I did a perfunctory two mile walk on the treadmill and then came home again. On the way home I stopped at Sprinkles to get cupcakes for Janet's birthday celebration and then at Central Market to get some champagne. They have little bottles that are perfect if all you want is a single glass each. I discovered that 3 PM was the perfect time to go shopping. All the other shoppers were waiting in long lines wrapping around every school zone to pick up their kids. I was the only person in Sprinkles and Central Market was surprisingly empty. There were a ton of parking places today which is almost unheard of.

We went to a nice Italian restaurant for a birthday dinner this evening. We've been going to this restaurant for many years and it is one of Janet's favorites. Even though they've moved to several different locations over time, the menu is still exactly the same. We were around 43 when we discovered this place. Now we are both 73. Time flies. When we were younger we used to go out a lot. Then we got Dalmatians. Life is different now, but I think it is much better. I can't imagine not having a dog anymore. We tried, but Dawn quickly reminded us that dogs rule.

We always have cupcakes and a glass of champagne on birthdays. I can't remember when we started this, but it seems like we've been celebrating like this forever. I'm surprised that I can even write the blog tonight. Wine with dinner and champagne with dessert is a little rich for me. We'll sleep in later tomorrow. Actually, we need to sleep in later because as soon as we wake up tomorrow, we've got to take Dawn straight to the vet with a full bladder. This will be interesting because the first thing Dawn does every morning is go outside and pee. Apparently, a full bladder makes it a lot easier to flush the bladder stones out. I hope this plan works. The back up plan for tomorrow is still surgery.

We got some rain today, but not as much as yesterday. It was purely accidental, but we planned our sunrise walk perfectly. Five minutes after we returned home, the skies opened up and we got our heaviest rain of the day. I'm glad the pumps on the roof are still working. I'm not looking forward to going up there at all. At some point I'll probably have to go clear away all the residual water. The pumps help, but there's still a ton of water on the roof after the pumps can't remove any more. I'm hoping that the standing water will just evaporate again. A few more hot days and it probably will.

Tomorrow I'll probably just worry about Dawn a lot. Whatever happens, she'll be at the vet for most of the day. Rain is out of the forecast for now and it is supposed to be hot tomorrow. I'll probably go to the gym unless something unexpected happens with Dawn. I'm hoping that it will just be another uneventful day.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4025

Today was a fitting end to 2020. The weather was absolutely miserable. There was a heavy all day rain and the temparature was in the mid thirties. It felt even colder with a wind chill in the twenties. Needless to say, Dawn didn't get a walk today. She wouldn't have wanted one anyway. It was hard enought to get her to go out in the back yard and pee. Yesterday and today have broken my Fitbit streak. The only steps I got today were walking back and forth between the office and the kitchen to get more snacks.

It's too bad I don't like watching television. Today was tailor-made for watching movies on Netflix or binge watching a new series on Amazon Prime. Without our long morning walk, the day seemed impossibly long. I looked at Facebook for a while, watched some astronomy videos on YouTube, and kept checking on the pumps to make sure that they weren't clogged. I can turn on the pumps from indoors now, but unfortunately I can't see if water is coming out the hoses. To do that I have to go out in the back yard and look around the side of the house. It still beats climbing up on the roof though.

Eventually I got bored enough to start building the new company website I've been postponing forever.  I deconstructed a few websites I like and examined their code to see how they accomplished all their fancy tricks. Once I figured out how these things worked, I started building something similar myself. I didn't really think I'd make much progress, but I had all day. By dinnertime, I had the outline of a pretty nice site. I'm pretty sure I can finish this over the weekend. I don't really expect the new site to bring me any business.  It's just a way to keep my hand in the game.

I'm not really sure who visits my existing website anymore. There was a time when it was considered somewhat innovative and I remember that it used to bring me business. That's ancient history now. It's literally been decades since one of my sites was nominated for Website of the Year and even longer since another site I designed was included in a Ryder Publications book called The World Wide Web Top 1000. I was a very early adopter and did pretty well designing very simple static sites. When Google decided that websites needed to be mobile friendly to be included in their search results, it was time for me to pack it in and pass the torch to a younger generation. To this day I have never looked at a website on my phone.

New Year's Eve is one more thing that never changed for us during the pandemic. Many years ago my band used to routinely play New Year's Eve parties, but it has been a long, long time since Janet and I have left the house to celebrate. We struggle to stay awake until midnight. We'll have a glass of champagne and eat some cheese and crackers as we watch the ball drop on TV. That's what we'll do tonight if we don't fall asleep watching Perry Mason. 

I hope that 2021 ushers in a return to normalcy, but I have my doubts. Realistically, things will probably get worse for a while. Many people are starting to say that Covid will become like the flu and never really go away. Society has already changed so dramatically that there isn't going to be a return to normal. Whatever was normal a few years ago is gone. Have you seen that Boston Dynamics video with the dancing robots? When robots can dance better than you can, you can probably kiss your jobs goodbye. Companies have already learned to operate with a lot fewer people during the Covid lockdowns. I'm convinced that this trend will continue. All things considered, this is a good time to be retired.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3659

Another decade is drawing to a close. This is my seventh decade on this planet and I'm still having trouble with these arbitrary measurements. We use these ten year blocks of time to neatly classify pop music and identify trends, but if we didn't use the decimal system, the whole concept of a decade would be meaningless. There isn't even a compelling reason to start the year on January 1st. Wouldn't it make more sense to start the year on the shortest or longest day of the year? Nope. We start the year on January 1st because in 46 B.C. Julius Caesar decided it was time to reform the Roman lunar calendar and go back to the way the Egyptians measured time. He chose to start his new Julian solar calendar on January 1st. to honor Janus, the god of new beginnings. The day stuck, despite the fact that the Chinese still start the year between January 21 and February 21 and the Hebrew calendar begins in the Fall. March 1, March 25 and Dec. 25 were all considered New Year’s Day at various points in history. Go figure.

I got waitlisted again for an upcoming launch at Kennedy Space Center. This is the second time I've been waitlisted in recent months. There is kind of a community of folks who obsess about these NASA invitations. It doesn't take long to learn who got accepted and who didn't make the cut. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the selection process. Sometimes you can get selected several times in a row. And then there are long dry spells where your application seems to be ignored. It is easy to be disappointed when your applications isn't selected. After you've been to one launch, you want to go to all of them.

There's still a chance that I may get press credentials to attend the Solar Orbiter launch, but that remains to be seen. I'm still a little unsure how the press accreditation process works and my contacts at the magazine that would be sponsoring me are out of the office on Christmas vacation. This will all be resolved in due time, but it's hard to be patient when nothing else is going on.

I added all the new dogs to the Dalmatian Rescue website today. Considering that none of the dogs would stay still, I think the pictures came out pretty good. This is the only website I maintain anymore. I don't even update my own site these days. I used to maintain dozens of different websites and was busy making additions and changes every single day. Those days are long gone. Most of my old clients retired even before I did.

Janet and I found a forgotten bottle of champagne in the back of a kitchen cabinet, so we will toast in the New Year if we can manage to stay awake for a few more hours. Other than a very sad day last April, 2019 wasn't a bad year. You can always hope the new year will be better though. Hope keeps you moving forward. Here's hoping that all of you find yourselves happy and fulfilled in the year ahead.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3295 - New Year's Day

I got a surprising amount of sleep last night, especially considering that I'd stayed up past midnight to greet the new year. Two glasses of champagne didn't seem to bother me either. There was no reason to get up early today. It was cold outside and we had no plans. We all slept in until well past 8 AM. At some point during the night I got up to let Dash outside, but I barely remember it. These nightly disruptions are routine now. Pooping in the bed a few hours later wasn't a big deal either. Dash has gotten pretty good about staying on his puppy training pad. I just slide out the soiled pad, roll it up and replace it with a fresh puppy pad. Dash never even wakes up.

Before I went to bed last night I watched the New Horizons flyby of Ultma Thule on NASA TV. There wasn't much to see. The probe was more than four billion miles away and it would take another six hours for the signal that the mission had succeeded to reach Earth. The fact that we will soon get a look at something located way beyond Pluto is amazing to me. We are so good at science like this and yet for some reason we still can't get along with each other.

I imagine that quite a few people will make a New Year's Resolution to be more agreeable this year, but few will succeed. There are just so many reasons to be irritated at our fellow man. If Dash was a human he would be in an assisted living home by now. He's a dog though, so I'm willing to do anything I can to make his last day's comfortable.

Dash loves his walks so we all got bundled up and braved the cold this morning. It was a gloomy, grey day but at least it wasn't raining. Dash is so intent on smelling things these days that he forgets about his rear legs. I'm constantly having to steady him by holding the handle on his harness to keep him from falling over. While we were walking I kept thinking it was Sunday and was thinking about having pancakes for breakfast. I was actually kind of surprised when I remembered it was only Tuesday. The entire holiday season has been like this. It's hard to tell what day it is.

I didn't do much today. The days when we would watch the Rose Bowl parade followed by an entire day of football seem so long ago. Even the names of the bowl games have changed. They are all named after corporations now and some of them aren't even on New Year's Day. To avoid doing household chores, I caught up on some overdue correspondence. I wrote the roofer, begging him to hurry up with repairs. I wrote the friend who is selling my train collection. He wants to lower prices, since sales have been slow. I'm still hoping that someone like me will wander into his store and buy everything. I sent Christmas greetings to a few people even though Christmas is over. Why not?

I didn't finish breakfast until well after noon and by the time I took a shower Dash was already waiting for his evening walk. Where did the day go? Jeez. Where did the year go?  2018 seemed to slip by awfully fast. Dash ended the year a little bit healthier than he started it. Like Dot, he is very determined to make the most of the time he has. Auctioning my art this year was an interesting experience. It actually got me interest in art again. Unfortunately, I don't have any left.

Like many people, I hope that 2019 will be better than 2018. You've got your reasons and I've got mine. Whatever you're hoping for, I wish you luck. All I know is that anything could happen during our next trip around the sun.

Jasper 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 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 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 2575 - New Year's Day

I had no desire to get up this morning. My body reminded me that I don't drink anymore. Just the small amount of champagne I had last night to celebrate the New Year slowed me down considerably. Dot kept us on schedule though. She always does. When I saw her trying to get up, I instantly jumped out of bed and raced to open the back door. To celebrate our success at peeing outside, we all went back to bed for another hour.

Eventually, we all got up and started our morning routine, but the New Year definitely got off to a slow start. Dot peed on my house slippers yesterday, so I thought I'd throw them in the washing machine. This just revealed how poorly they were constructed. One of the shoes fell apart and appeared to be made of some sort of compressed paper. This was definitely a job for superglue. I didn't have enough superglue left, but found a bottle of Gorilla Glue in the utility room. The stuff doesn't dry very fast, so the jury is still out on this experiment.

I finally found the receipt for the candelabra base LED bulbs that wouldn't fit in my floor lamps and took them back to Home Depot to exchange for some more of the old fashioned halogen bulbs I was trying to avoid. The guy in the electrical department didn't realize that there were several sizes of candelabra screw threads either. Apparently, I was the first person who had purchased this style of LED bulb. Maybe someday I'll be able to abandon incandescent bulbs entirely, but it wasn't going to be today.

I had high hopes of seeing Neptune this evening, but it wasn't meant to be. The faint planets are almost impossible for someone like me to find in the sky, unless they happen to be located very close to something familiar. Tonight there was a conjunction of Neptune and Mars. I could definitely find Mars. Neptune is supposed to be easily visible through a pair of decent binoculars, but you can't see it through clouds. Like the candelabra base LED bulbs, I will have to wait until some other time.

I wish I had some sort of game plan for 2017. If I had a goal, I probably could accomplish quite a bit. I've had long term goals before. I worked really hard to build my business back in the early 1990's. I worked hard to get healthier when I discovered I had Hepatitis C. I need to remember that keeping Dot alive is not really a realistic goal. I can do my best to keep her happy while she's here, but I have little control over how long she's with us on this earth. Just getting from one day to the next is not a very ambitious goal. I know I can do that. What could I realistically achieve that would actually make me happier if I was successful? I'm stumped.

Goals are a lot like the sailboats I see out on the lake. From a distance they look so peaceful and serene. When I'm out on the water, it all looks different and I almost instantly wish I was back on dry land. I have a feeling that I don't understand sailing any better than I understand goals.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2073

Since it is Janet's birthday today, I did my usual last minute shopping and event planning. I can't say that either of us looks forward to birthdays anymore. We're old enough already. Birthdays are still special though. Each year is another milestone in a long and complicated journey. It's hard to buy gifts for each other anymore. We both have everything we need. Long ago we stopped having birthday cakes. A cake was too big and most of it ended up growing stale in the refrigerator. Now, we each just have a cupcake. Tonight we had a little champagne with our cupcake. I don't drink anymore, but I'm not completely rigid about it. Having a drink on birthdays and holidays is just fine.

It actually did rain today. It rained just enough to get the car dirty when I was out birthday shopping, but not enough to do the yard any good. The rain only lasted about fifteen minutes and by mid-afternoon the ground was bone dry again. There's a chance that we'll get a little more rain early tomorrow morning. That would be nice. A little rain before our morning walk might help cool things down a bit.

Dot seemed to have a burst of energy today. She seemed strong and confident on her morning walk and walked around the house unassisted much more than I expected. Her left rear leg is still extremely weak, but she seems to be learning to distribute her weight and balance herself better. I'm always happy when Dot has a good day, but have learned not to become overconfident. Tomorrow Dot could be stumbling around like a drunken sailor again. There is no real consistency in Dot's condition. She has good days and bad days. I'm just happy when she has a good day.

I got quite a bit done today. In addition to birthday shopping, I did some writing and website work. Of course I washed the car again as soon as the rain stopped. I can't stand a dirty car. I didn't even bother to go up on the roof after today's rain. It has been so hot lately that I'm sure the water has already evaporated anyway. Today was nice. We had a nice birthday celebration after dinner. I was busy all day, but not rushed. That's the way it should be. Dot had a good day too. We should do this more often.

I hope that Dot still feels good tomorrow when we go for our physical therapy session. I'm proud of Dot's amazing tenacity and like to brag about how well she's doing. It's always disappointing when she takes a turn for the worse. We have to temper the good with the bad unfortunately. That's what life is all about. Sometimes I think Dot understands this basic truth far better than I do.

Next week is Dot's birthday. We'll probably celebrate exactly the same way we did today.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 743

The year is definitely winding to a close. Nothing new has crossed my desk all week, but there are still plenty of ongoing jobs I need to finish. Just three more days and the year will be over. I can't say that I've really accomplished a lot this year. My business is a little better than it was last year, but my health is a little worse. Nobody I know seems immune to the bad economy you keep hearing about on TV. Most of my clients have a smaller staff than they did last year and I am definitely working with lower budgets than previous years. My rental property is harder to lease than it used to be and my investments aren't even worth talking about. In spite of all that, I'm still in business, I have no debt, and I'm still healthy enough to walk the dogs five miles a day. I probably ought to be counting my blessings.

The watch article marathon apparently isn't over yet. I thought everyone would want to call it quits after Christmas, but it seems that I still have nine articles to go to meet my quota. That's three a day for the next three days. Piece of cake!

Another photographer came up to me today while I was walking Dot and Dash and asked me what kind of camera I was using. The little Panasonic GF3 did look a bit odd with a big telephoto lens attached. The whole thing looks kind of like a lens with a package of cigarettes taped to the back. It works pretty good for dog walking though. I can quickly focus just by tapping on the LCD screen on the back and even with a zoom lens attached, it will still easily fit in a coat pocket. I'd never use this thing for a paying job, but it's certainly expanded my horizons while walking the dogs. I told the other photographer it was a dog walking camera and demonstrated its capabilities by taking a picture while both dogs were lunging at a nearby duck.

I noticed that Janet put some champagne in the refrigerator. Even though I'm not supposed to drink anymore, I'm going to be joining her in celebrating the end of a long and difficult year. Frankly, I'm glad this year is about over. Hopefully, next year will be better for all of us.

Dot & Petey are 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