Day 3522

I see a lot of families at the new neighborhood restaurant. I'm amazed that even little babies seem to know how to use iPhones and tablets. It appears that they become familiar with these devices even before they can talk. When a kid starts to act up in public, Mom just pulls a phone out of her purse and the kid become mesmerized. It's going to be a different world when these children grow up. I forget the first thing I learned when I was small, but it certainly wasn't to swipe right.

I made a point to get an early start this morning because I wanted to mow the grass before the heat became unbearable. I was back from the restaurant before 9 AM, but there was no avoiding the heat today. This was going to be another triple digit day. By the time I finished the front yard, I was drenched in sweat. I had thought that the dead patch caused by the June brush pile was filling in nicely, but on closer examination, the new green areas were just weeds. Oh, well. The weeds are nicely trimmed now.

I'm impressed at how much more water the new dehumidifier is collecting. The bucket was almost full when I woke up this morning. I have to empty the bucket several time a day now. It makes me wonder what it is that makes performance gradually deteriorate on these things. Probably the condenser coils that aren't readily accessible get really dirty. It could be something else though. I doubt that it's worth the trouble to find out. You can buy a new dehumidifier for less than it would cost to repair one.

I rested for a while and changed my clothes after I finished mowing the grass and then I got started on my first walk of the day. The long walks are starting to become boring, but I still think the effort is worth it. The changes to my body have been gradual, but I can tell that I am in better shape than when I started these forced marches. I'm surprised that so many people run because walking provides most of the same benefits with a lot less wear and tear on the knees.

I'm still not sleeping as well as I was last month. There must be a reason. Is the temperature too warm? Has our mattress become too soft? Maybe I need the glow from the security light coming through the bedroom window? I wonder a lot about any inconsistency in life. Why is the stock market so volatile? Why aren't cars more reliable? Why does the Internet go down for no reason at all?

Actually the Internet was down when I woke up to drink some water last night. I only noticed because I saw a message on the thermostat on my way to the refrigerator. I reset the router and brought everything back online before I returned to bed. This is probably why I had trouble getting back to sleep. I knew that if I ignored the problem until morning I would just lie in bed thinking about it. It's better for me to take care of these things immediately.

Maybe I'll sleep well tonight. I've had lots of activity today. I can't say that I accomplished much, but I'm certainly tired.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3250

I spent my day taking pictures of kids holding snakes. This was a big animal rescue event with all types of puppies, kittens, ferrets, and birds, but the kids seemed fascinated with the snakes. The smaller the children, the less fear they had of snakes. Often, their parents wouldn't go near the reptiles, but the kids loved them. I heard a lot of "Mommy, can I have a snake?" during the afternoon. I didn't hear one parent say yes.

A lot has changed in the last five years. There wasn't a lot of interest in my little photo booth, but everyone wanted to take selfies with the animals. People don't need a photographer anymore. They make their own movies and share their own pictures. Most of the children had their own phones. Even small children were walking around with iPhones. I predict that there will be a lot of pictures of people holding snakes on Instagram today.

I'm not a big fan of snakes myself. I hate seeing them in the park because I can never remember which ones are poisonous. I pretty much quit using my kayak when I saw a big water moccasin swimming along side me one day. I always worry that one of the dogs will be bitten by a snake. Often dogs don't have the sense to keep away from them.

I'm glad I don't do many photo events anymore. They are too tiring. I still do a few Santa Paws events during the Christmas season, but not nearly as many as I used to do. I think we only have two Christmas events scheduled this year. Today's event was meant to educate kids about animals. I'm not sure what the kids learned, but I learned a few things. The big snakes eat rabbits. The snake handler buys frozen rabbit meat which he cooks as needed. He feeds his large snakes a rabbit every two weeks. Some of these snakes weigh as much as 75 pounds.

I was lucky today. I didn't have to bring my lights and backdrops. All I had to do was show up with a camera. I think I got some cute pictures. I'm not sure what the organizers plan to do with these pictures but they seemed pleased with the results.

Dash pooped in the bed again last night. I guess this is the new normal. I with I could use puppy training pads with him like I did with Dot, but I'm not sure they'd do any good. Dash is still fairly mobile. Whenever I wake up, he's in a different place than he was when I went to sleep. Doggie diapers won't work at all. Dash's rear legs are so weak that diapers would essentially cripple him. This is still a work in progress. I'm sure we'll figure out something.

I didn't have time to get groceries today, so I guess I'll do that tomorrow. I'm not sure that I'll go to the gym. If it's as warm as it was today, it would be a good time to mow the grass one last time. It would also be a good time to take a long nap. We'll see how I feel in the morning

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3244 - Veteran's Day

It was a slow day at the gym. Moving the storage warehouse has taken its toll. Every bone in my body protested as I went through my routine today. Maybe it was worth it though. I did feel better when I was finished than I did getting out of bed this morning. I hope the aches and pains subside. I don't like feeling this way, but I don't like being too old to do things either. Maybe I'm just out of shape. I'm certainly not as active as I was when the dogs were younger.

Today was even colder than yesterday. Janet and I both wore our Winter coats when we walked Dash this morning. The weather was way too cold for me, but Dash seemed to enjoy it. He was more active than usual and wanted to walk down by the shoreline. It's always good to see Dash with a little energy because these days are becoming rare. After an hour out in the cold, we were all ready for breakfast.

If I didn't turn on the television this morning, I'd never have known it was Veteran's Day. Both my parents, who served in the Navy, are long gone. I had an art director partner who was a Marine and had two friends who used to be fighter pilots, but I've lost touch with all these people. When I listen to the tributes and Veteran's Day memorials on TV, all I can think of are the many pointless wars that have taken place in my lifetime. Vietnam and all the wars in the Middle East that followed didn't really liberate anyone or advance the cause of freedom. A lot of good people died needlessly. I guess I'm an isolationist at heart. My parents couldn't have ignored Hitler and the attack on Pearl Harbor, but a lot of the regional conflicts that my generation found themselves involved with were different. We didn't change anything for the better in Vietnam. The Middle East has been a mess for thousands of years. We should have stayed home and let some of these countries sort things out for themselves.

The shoes that seem to be doing a good job of protecting Dash's feet are wearing out fast. I don't think these new boots will last another week. I can envision the type of boot Dash needs, but nobody seems to make it. Since his rear paws turn under when he walks, he needs protective rubber on both the top and bottom of the boot. The rubber needs to be durable while remaining very flexible. It is impossible to get a thick rigid boot on. The shape of Dash's paws makes him very hard to fit. It's too bad I couldn't make an impression of his rear leg and have someone fabricate a custom fitted boot. For now, I guess I'm just have to keep buying these off the shelf dog boots fairly frequently.

I guess advertising does work. Lately, I've been real tempted to buy one of those "My Pillows" you always see advertised on TV. They probably aren't any better than any other pillow, but when you aren't sleeping well, it's always easy to blame it on your pillow. Maybe I should blame the mattress as well. It used to be really firm, but years of dogs playing and sleeping on the bed have worn it out. Dalmatians can be rough on furniture when they're young and active. I think my back would feel better if I slept on the floor. I'm not going to try that though. The floor is cold and full of dog hair.

I think I'd better get a flu shot next week. I rarely get the flu and often skip the shot. Maybe my luck has run out. I volunteered to take pictures at a children's event this month. The flu doesn't bother me, but children do. I always manage to catch a cold when I'm around children. I wish I'd remembered this before I volunteered.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1733

This morning's photoshoot was interesting. There were fifteen children of various ages and each of them was holding a puppy or kitten. What could possibly go wrong? The children were cold. The puppies were restless. The big challenge was to get everyone looking in the same direction before it started to rain. Actually, everything went pretty well. Children are much more flexible than adults, and since everyone wanted to hold a puppy, they were willing to stand out in the cold for much longer than I expected. When I looked through the images this afternoon, it was fascinating to look at the different expressions on each of the children's faces. The young ones were so open and honest. You could almost tell, just by their faces, what each of them was going to be when they grew up.

The temperature was in the mid-fifties when we woke up this morning. The seasons change quickly here in Texas. One day you are worried about your car overheating in the Summer heat and the next day the leaves are all turning red and gold and you are looking for your winter coat. If this weekend's cold front lingers, we will soon be turning on the furnace again. I'm always nervous the first day I try to use the furnace. I'm fairly confident that the furnace will roar into life again, since it is still fairly new. I have many memories of cold mornings and dead furnaces though. Hopefully, this new furnace will be more reliable than the old one.

I did some catch-up work on the websites that were down earlier this week. Now that they are all back online, some of them are already out of date and need to be updated. Keeping these sites updated is a never ending process. That's OK though. Most never ending processes are good for business. If you were actually able to finish something, you'd never see some of your clients again.

So what did we learn from tonight's new episode of Dr. Who. Apparently the Doctor is afraid of the dark and Clara herself is the monster under the bed that frightens most children. Since Steven Moffat wrote this episode, it got mostly glowing reviews. I'll admit that Steven is the undisputed master of convoluted plots, but they often leave me a bit confused. My favorite episode is still the one where the Doctor and Rose go to visit Vincent van Gogh. That's the kind of story I like.

We're debating whether to scale back our efforts to waterproof the bed each night. Dot has had quite a few accident-free days this week and it would sure be easier on everyone if we could go back to sleeping like normal. Dogs are notoriously unpredictable though. Just when you least expect it, they'll throw up their dinner, or poop on the living room floor. I think we'll compromise and put a few waterproof pads on the bed tonight, but quit trying to turn the bed into a multilayer impregnable fortress. If it gets really cold tonight, I may wish that all the layers were still there. Four layers of waterproof pee pads on top of the covers make the bed pretty warm.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1202 - Easter Sunday

Two days of rain shut down the dog park this weekend, but the wet weather did have a few benefits. The soil was finally wet enough for me to go pull up all the little oak and elm trees that were growing in the Asian jasmine beds. Every year, acorns and seed pods fall by the thousands from the large trees in our backyard and sprout into small trees during the Spring. These tiny trees have surprisingly deep roots and you can only pull them up when the soil is really wet. If you don't take this opportunity to rid your gardens of these diminutive trees, the root systems will continue to grow and they will be impossible to uproot the next season. In just a few seasons, your entire yard will become an ugly thicket of brush and weeds. Today seemed like the perfect opportunity to do some weeding, so I did.

Even though all the dog parks in Dallas were closed today, the human parks were having their busiest day of the year. As soon as the sun came up, I saw families putting up tents and staking out their territory for huge family picnics in the park behind our house. By the time I walked the dogs in the afternoon, the entire area was like a three ring circus. The air was thick with smoke from hundreds of barbecue grills, and every hundred yards or so, there was an impromptu soccer game going on. At least four times, our walk was interrupted by crowds of little kids running toward the dogs while shouting "Do they bite" in Spanish.

Dot and Dash were very good, allowing all the children to pet them. I could tell Dot was getting tired though. This Easter outing was way too noisy and stressful for her. As soon as we got home again, both dogs went straight to their dog beds and fell asleep.

I was really hungry today. In addition to weeding the garden and walking the dogs, there was also a lot of water from last night's rain to get off the roof. Lucky for me, Janet fixed a fabulous Easter dinner with ham, whipped sweet potatoes, and braised cabbage. I ate lots of vegetables and left just enough room for a pear tart for dessert. It's been a good day. I think I'll be joining the dogs for a snooze on the bed very soon.

Smiley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 698

I spent most of the day at Pet Fair. The volunteers did a fabulous job of organizing the event this year. There was a little bit of everything. There were tons of games for the kids, including a large bounce house, teddy bear surgery, and something that involved throwing water balloons. One of the most popular areas was the reptile exhibit, where kids who dared, got to touch and even hold large pythons and other snakes. I never dreamed that there would be so many kids who wanted to walk around with a large snake around their neck, but there were lines waiting to get near the reptiles. The girls were just as interested in holding a snake as the boys, and one little girl was so fond of her snake that she sat with the snake in her lap for most of the afternoon. The reptile exhibit was well supervised by two herpetologists, and although I wouldn't want a snake as a pet myself, I'll have to admit that they are interesting animals. While I was filming the reptiles, I noticed that parents were much more skittish around snakes than their children. For the most part, the children were fearless. I guess fear of snakes must be learned behavior.

There was a great neighborhood Doo-Wop band, playing hits from the fifties and sixties. Unlike some garage bands, their harmonies were on key and their musicianship was quite good. Sometimes I think that half the men over forty play in one of these garage bands. They're everywhere, and no charity event would be complete without one. As the afternoon was drawing to a close, a young man in his late twenties came to complain about the noise and said he'd call the cops if the band didn't stop playing immediately. Actually, the cops had been at the event all afternoon, and none of them seemed to have any problems with the band. The ironic thing was that the old men in the band were the rockers and the young guy complaining was the old fuddy-duddy. Nobody seems to want to accept their role in life these days. It gets confusing sometimes.

The new Panasonic camera is fabulous. One of the first things I noticed about shooting with a memory chip camera is that you can actually use the on-board mics. Since there are no moving parts in the camera, it operates completely silently. The next thing I noticed was how light the camera was. After years of carrying a Beta-SP camera around on my shoulder, this thing seemed almost weightless. The picture quality was amazing, especially considering that I didn't bring any lights and there were hard shadows everywhere. I think I'm going to like shooting with this camera!

Dot and Dash were a bit miffed that they didn't get their usual trip to the dog park today. Hey, you can't do everything. To make up for this faux-pas, I did take them on a longer than usual evening walk. By the time they finished dinner, I think they'd forgotten all about the dog park. Tomorrow, it's back to our usual schedule.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day