Day 3997

I took my paperwork for the dehumidifier warranty replacement to the post office today. I was going to pay extra for delivery notification, but there was a long line of grumpy old people waiting to mail Christmas stuff. It seemed a little early to mail Christmas stuff, but what do I know. Several of the people were complaining that other people were standing too close to them. I wasn't going to stand in that line, so I just dropped my letter in a letter box and headed home again. I hope the mail doesn't get lost because I had to peel a label off the back of the dehumidifier and send it in to start my warranty claim. I have no faith in the mail anymore and don't have any extra labels either.

I've been wondering why Sky & Telescope hasn't paid me yet, so curiosity finally got the better of me and I wrote their billing department. The magazine initially told me that they paid on acceptance and that was almost two months ago. I guess it was a good thing I contacted the magazine. My invoice had gotten lost somehow and they had no record of it. They asked me to resubmit the invoice and this time I asked them to acknowledge that they had received it. I sent the invoice to exactly the same place I did several months ago, but this time it worked. When I asked what could have happened to the first invoice, the woman in the billing department just said "Hey, it happens."

It seemed really cold this morning. I wore two coats, a wool hat, and heavy gloves on our walk with Dawn. Dawn wore her winter coat, but she let us know that she wasn't having anything to do with that hat again. I don't know how Northerners can stand this kind of weather. It wasn't even snowing or anything, but I couldn't wait to get back inside again. Janet and I occasionally think about moving, but we quickly come face to face with Winter. Texas has its faults, but our Winters are definitely much milder than what you'd find in Wyoming or Idaho. Maybe I'm just getting old and soft. I went to high school in Alaska and I don't remember feeling as cold as I did this morning.

I had to go looking for a lower dose of vitamin D this afternoon. For years I thought it was impossible to get too much vitamin D. I took 5000 units a day for quite a while. Then I backed off to 2000 units a day. My doctor now wants me to take 1000 units a day. These lower doses are actually harder to find. The most common bottles on the shelves seem to contain 5000 IU pills. We'll see if this change makes a difference when I take my next physical six months from now. 

It was cold last night so I put a fuzzy blanket on the bed that Dawn seems to like. Usually she sleeps at the foot of the bed, but this morning when I woke up she was curled up right next to me. Interesting. Dawn's love of fuzzy blankets is much stronger than her fear of me. Maybe we'll eventually bond over a shared blanket.

I almost forgot that it was time to take out the trash again. This entire week has gone really fast. Our Santa Paws photo shoot will be here before you know it. After that, I've got a few more doctor's appointments and the year is over. We're thinking of having a Crown Roast for Christmas Dinner. Hey, that's something to look forward too. I love a Crown Roast.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1747

Today we declared war on fleas. Both dogs have been seen with fleas lately and we suspect that they are probably inside the house. Fleas love to hide in carpet, bedding, dog blankets, and of course on the dogs themselves. Both dogs got a bath this morning, and then to make sure new fleas didn't just crawl back on each dog, I started systematically washing and cleaning everything. I'm still not finished. I think there are enough dog blankets in our house to sink a ship.

The house needed a good cleaning anyway, so hopefully this will help. You might think it would be a lot easier to just use a topical flea preventative like Frontline, but our dogs have sensitive skin and products like these leave their skin red and raw. Personally, I'd rather deal with the fleas than with a bad skin condition.

It took forever to get the dogs washed this morning. The place where we go only has four tubs and they are often filled when we arrive. Today a mother and daughter cut ahead of us in line, saying they had an important school event to attend and were running late. The daughter, who supposedly was in such a hurry, proceeded to text her friends on her phone while she was washing her dog. She was impossibly slow. An employee was grooming a dog in one of the other tanks while we were waiting. This girl left to go on a break, just leaving her wet dog sitting in the tank. She could have easily moved the dog to one of the kennels in the back and let some of the waiting customers bathe their dogs while she took her break. She also could have finished her job before she took her break. That's what I would have done. I'd leave these people a bad review on Yelp if it weren't for the fact that, despite all the problems, it's still the best dog washing place in the neighborhood. The manager is a nice guy and keeps the place very clean. It's his customers and employees who are the problem.

I noticed that Dot's dog bed was wet this afternoon, but I couldn't tell whether she had peed in the bed again or whether she was still a bit wet from her bath. The wet spot didn't really smell like pee, but my sense of smell isn't so good, so I took the cover off the bed and washed it anyway. Once I get in a washing kind of mood, it's hard to stop me. I recorded the new Dr. Who episode on the DVR again this evening because it doesn't look like I'll have time to watch it any time soon. By the time I get all the cleaning done and charge up the camera batteries for tomorrow's photoshoot, it will be time for bed.

I saw our yard possum again this morning. Luckily, the dogs didn't. I have a feeling that the possum lives somewhere in the back of the yard, because it certainly doesn't go far. I don't know why it likes our yard so much, because their are plenty of larger and much grander yards just down the street. Maybe it feels at home here. I'll have to admit now that the St. Augustine grass is dying and the ground cover beds are full of spider webs and weeds, the yard does look like a place a possum might enjoy.

Tomorrow will be busy. I keeping thinking that I have way too many aches and pains to do sports photography anymore. Then I remember that I'm just taking pictures of golfers. It isn't all that strenuous. I just follow the players around in a golf cart and take picture of them teeing off and putting. Occasionally, I get a good shot. I know the golfers are having more fun than I am, because they're drinking beer, while I'm still just drinking water.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1456

Today was chaotic. As the city came back to life after the ice storm, I found myself bombarded with rush assignments and impossible deadlines. It wasn't just the Dallas clients either. Some of the out of town folks seemed in a big hurry as well. It was almost enough for me to wish for the cold to return again, so everyone would just hunker down and do nothing like they did yesterday.

The house was warm today, but it was a total mess. I kept the washing machine going all day long with load after load of dirty clothes and dog blankets. We have enough dog blankets to keep us warm under the covers on even the coldest night, but that means a lot of laundry when the crisis is over. I don't know how the dogs manage to get the blankets dirty as quickly as they do, but they're experts at making things filthy.

Since the temperature briefly got up to 40 degrees around 3 PM this afternoon, I wanted to use the opportunity to clean things up on the roof. Bad idea. The ice was so thick that the small amount of melt today only made things more dangerous. The surface was so slippery that I quickly abandoned my efforts and planted both feet on firm ground before I injured myself. I guess this task can wait.  The ice load on the roof is pretty heavy now and I'd like to get the ice removed, but it's definitely not worth falling off the roof.

There's still a lot of unfinished business. I need to talk to the neighbor about removing his tree that fell on my roof. Neighbors are funny about this sort of thing. He probably thinks that I should remove it, since it's on my roof now. I think the repair crews that threw the branches they trimmed in the alley over my back yard fence should come back and remove them. I don't know why the tree trimmers couldn't have tossed these branches into the big shredder I saw sitting out in the street, but they told me they didn't have time. Maybe they were right. I did noticed that the power came back about two seconds after the last guy with a chain saw got out of the trees in the alley. I doubt that any of them wanted to be next to a live wire with a chain saw when the power was turned on. Who knows, maybe these guys will come back later this week and clean up their mess.

All I know is that I've got a big mess of my own to clean up. The new car has finally been baptized with a thick coat of road dirt. The roof needs attention. Worst of all, I think a lot of the expensive landscaping we had done last Spring has died. I'm trying to avoid a trip to the grocery store until the feeding frenzy has subsided. I think everyone in town was restocking their pantries this afternoon. Traffic was terrible and every parking lot in town was completely full.

I'm hoping that a semblance of normalcy returns tomorrow. I'm certainly going to do my part. I like normal things. Dot has her regular acupuncture appointment tomorrow. I'll be going to my Wednesday networking breakfast. I doubt that we'll have dog training class though. It's still way too cold.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1447

Our favorite dog park is slowly but surely becoming just like all the other dog parks in Dallas. Aggressive dogs used to be a rarity at this park, but now we encounter one almost every week. More and more people don't even bother to clean up after their dogs and the once pristine grass is now a mine field of poop. Even though the park is huge, the people with nice dogs tend to congregate in one corner, staying far away from the unruly dogs and their inattentive owners in the other corner. The problem isn't the dogs. It's the people. It's always the people.

It's hard to believe it's December already. This entire year has gone by in a blur of uneventful days. I haven't really accomplished much this year. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself though. In today's topsy-turvy world, just staying afloat is a major accomplishment.

We put up the Christmas decorations this weekend. These items are so old and familiar now that the dogs don't pay any attention to them. We no longer worry about a dog knocking over the Christmas tree or wiping the coffee table clean with a casual wag of the tail. Dot and Dash ignored everything this year, with the exception of of two bright red Christmas blankets we got for each of their dog beds. They immediately knew the blankets were for them, and they approved.

Although Sunday may be a bad day to go to the grocery store, it has turned out to be a great day to go to the gym. I love going to the gym on Sunday, because I practically have the cavernous hall to myself. There's no rush either. I can stay as long as I like, without any worries about being late for whatever is next on the agenda.

I guess I'm going to have to resign myself to printing something small every day. It seems wasteful to print a photo and just throw it away, but my Epson representative assures me that this will be far more economical than wasting tons of expensive ink every month trying to unclog the lines. When I asked the Epson folks what the secret was to keeping this temperamental printer running reliably in the future, they told me "Just use it. It was meant to be used." This makes perfect sense. It just doesn't suit my needs. I'd like a printer I can use to make a single huge, beautiful Giclée print once every three or four months. My printer wasn't designed to do this. It was meant to be used in a production environment every day.

Nest week looks busy already. There are three new articles that need to be completed before the end of the week and a brand new website that needs to go live before the end of the year. There are doctors appointments and vet appointments on the calendar as well. One thing I won't be doing this month is Christmas shopping at the mall. When I discovered a few years ago that you could take care of everything with a few clicks on Amazon, that was the end of the mall. The only thing I go to the shopping mall for anymore is a haircut. I haven't figured out how to get a haircut on Amazon yet.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1383

I knew we were inviting trouble when we took the dogs for a bath this morning. There was rain in the forecast. A few hours after we took the clean dogs home, the downpour started. The dogs got dirty. The new car got dirty. And there is probably 800 pounds of water sitting up on the roof again. At least the roof doesn't leak anymore. That certainly makes life easier.

I doubt that the rain wouldn't even matter anymore if the dogs didn't panic at the sound of thunder. The storm got so bad this afternoon after I returned from grocery shopping that I was forced to get under a blanket with the two dogs and wait the weather out. This seems to be the only thing that works during stormy weather. Under the blanket, Dot and Dash almost immediately stop shaking and shivering. I actually welcomed a nap with the dogs today, since the only other things on my agenda involved work.

The rain eventually quit. Dot and Dash got their evening walk. I got some writing finished that I'd been meaning to do earlier. After cleaning the dogs up again, putting clean sheets on the bed, putting the groceries away, and hosing the road mud off the car, it was time for dinner.

The golf tournament is still on for tomorrow. Hopefully we will wake up to clear skies and cool breezes in the morning. You can't tell what will be happening from listening to the weather reports. Some stations say the rain will linger, while others predict cleaning skies and nice weather. We're certainly hoping for the latter.

It looks like I'm going to be paying more for gas and car insurance in the future. I got an amended bill from my insurance agent today and it seemed to take a lot more gas to fill my tank when I was running errands this afternoon. None of this came as a surprise. It was expecting the damage to be worse. Actually, there was nothing surprising about the entire day. It was just a regular rainy day with two dogs.

Spanky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1171

I kept myself busy writing for most of the day. Writing would be a very pleasant occupation if there were more money in it. Writing used to be a lot more lucrative for me. Truthfully, nobody ever paid all that much for the writing itself, but there was usually travel involved, plus lots of needless meetings that could be billed out as well. That all changed after the dot.com crash. Most of the self-important middle managers who scheduled all the needless meetings got fired and all that was left were the words on the page. That's the way it remains today. Microsoft Word files travel back and forth electronically and eventually a check arrives in the mail.

Although most of the glamor is gone, writing is still a very pleasant way to spend the day. It certainly beats dressing up in a suit and making Powerpoint presentations to an audience of vultures eager to steal anything that resembles an idea, so they can claim it as their own.

As I was eating breakfast this morning, I watched the pope fly away in a helicopter to begin a monastic life of quiet contemplation. I wouldn't mind living a life of quiet contemplation. Especially if I were living in a beautiful castle overlooking the sea, surrounded by carefully manicured formal gardens, and waited on by two full time secretaries and four domestic servants. Not a bad life at all.

The pope probably doesn't have Dalmatians though. Dalmatians have a certain beauty all their own.  I amused myself today watching Dot and Dash try to find the possum they saw in the yard last night. The possum was long gone the minute the dogs started barking at it, but that didn't deter them one bit. When they weren't possum hunting, they occupied themselves lounging on the new velour blankets Janet got them this week. They both love soft things. I guess it makes sense, since they have a pretty soft life.

One of my favorite breakfast restaurants closed its doors for the last time this week. It was sad to see the place go out of business. I knew the owner and she had poured her life into building a great little neighborhood eatery. The food was fantastic, but I guess there just weren't enough customers to make a go of things. The restaurant business is hard. It's probably even harder than writing for a living.

No wildflower pictures today. Just houseplants. I've always been fond of orchids.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 794

I went out for breakfast again this morning. On one side of me were two old ladies who kept taking the cash out of their purses and counting it over and over again for the duration of their meal. I don't know whether they were trying to calculate their tip or were worried that they didn't have enough to pay for their eggs. On the other side of me was a young couple wearing Doc Martins and festooned with tattoos. The shabby way these two were dressed, you could have sworn they lived in a trailer park. I knew better though. They were probably just advertising creative people. She was carrying a $1500 Coach purse and he had a pair of Porsche Design sunglasses perched on the top of his head.

I was trying to explain Klout to Janet recently. "It's this new website that sends you free stuff, based on how popular they think you are on the Internet," I told her. "If you're really popular, you might get free airline tickets or even a cruise. If you're like me, you'll get this grey dog blanket that came in the mail today." Hey, I'm not complaining though. Dot and Dash can always use a new dog blanket to go with the 27 others they already have.

Along with the grey Klout dog blanket, I also received a shock mount in the mail for a microphone I bought over 25 years ago. Why did I wait twenty five years to get a shock mount for this particular microphone? Lord only knows. Twenty five years ago, I was a serious songwriter. I wrote a new song every couple of days and was even considering moving to Nashville. I wonder what happened? Today, I'm just a guy who likes to get stuff in the mail.

I spent most of the day writing watch articles. My watch client has started a new marketing push that will keep me busy until the middle of March. I really need to check the Guinness Book of Records and see if this category has been covered. I can't imagine anybody writing more watch articles in a single year than I have.

Janet is finishing up costumes for the dogs to wear at the big Mardi Gras parade on Sunday. I think Dot is going as Miss America and Dash as a baseball player. Why? You'll have to ask the dogs about that.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day