Day 1852

I'm glad my video shoot got postponed today. The weather was nasty. It got colder and colder as the day progressed and then it started to rain. We may even get some snow later this evening, but we'll have to wait and see. I'm glad the furnace is working well this Winter, because staying warm was my number one priority today. The dogs got their regular walks of course, but they didn't dawdle around smelling things this time. Even Dash has finally learned that the quicker he poops on cold, wet days, the quicker we can all return home where it's warm.

Janet spent the day helping to transport a newly rescued Dalmatian from South Texas to the Dalmatian Rescue  kennels here in Dallas. I probably should have helped too, but I thought I would be working today. It was just as well that I stayed here. Dot and Dash didn't have to spend the afternoon alone on a cold, wet day and Janet got to get away from my gloomy negativity for a while. Jack, the new guy, is a bit overweight, but he's going to be a very handsome fellow after he goes on a diet for a while.

I'm very close to finalizing my travel plans now. I can get very close to my final destination if I'm willing to make one leg of the trip on a small turboprop commuter plane. On the other hand, I can stay on big commercial jets and spend a longer time driving up a remote stretch of California's scenic Highway 1. This may seem like an easy decision for you, but I don't like to drive and I don't like to fly in propeller planes either. Decisions, decisions.

I woke up this morning feeling like I'd slept on the brick floor. I was sore all over. My right arm is sore from all the stretching exercises I've been doing as part of my physical therapy. My left arm is sore because it's taken over the task of holding the dog leashes on our walks. Dot and Dash always seem to walk on my right side, so it's no surprise that my right shoulder eventually became a problem. Now that I'm consciously trying to use my left hand more, I'll probably just end up with two bad shoulders. Now that I think about it, I wonder why both dogs prefer to walk on my right? We've been going to training class for years and years. Our instructor always told us that a dog should heal on your left side. We practiced this every Wednesday for years. Evidently Dot and Dash didn't pay any more attention at class than I did.

If it warms up a bit tomorrow, I'll go to the gym. If it stays as cold and nasty as it is now, I think I'll just stay under a blanket.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 869

People used to greet me by name at guitar stores, Italian furniture stores, and art galleries. Now they greet me by name at the pharmacy. I take so many pills that I've risen to the head of the class at my local pharmacy. All the pharmacists know who I am and what I take. It's depressing. I'd much rather have a friendly, personal welcome at the guitar store.

I suspect that those Halcyon Days might be over. The Carpal Tunnel in my wrist is so bad that is hurts to even pick up a guitar. I can still play, but not for very long. As much as I hate all the pills I take, the doctors say they are absolutely essential. I guess it is no surprise that my pharmacist is getting to know me better than anyone else. I'll take pills to keep me healthy, but I draw the line at taking pills to make me happy. I'm responsible for my own happiness.

They even make psychotropic drugs for dogs now. It just seems all wrong. The world around us may not induce euphoria anymore, but I hope that the dogs and I will always be able to cope with whatever comes our way without the need for a chemical filter. So far, so good. I manage to get through boring and even stressful days pretty well. I'll admit that there are still a few clients who could send me over the edge. If I manage to keep my sanity, I owe it all to Dot and Dash.

Training class was great tonight. The weather was warm enough that I didn't need to wear a jacket. My Spring allergies weren't acting up as much as they usually do. Dot and Dash even seemed to be in an unusually obedient mood. For the first time in quite a while, I wasn't looking at my watch continually to see when class would be over.

My new website is coming along well. With any luck, I might be able to get a functioning version up on my test server tomorrow. if that goes well, I might even get back to tackling the dreaded grass in the back yard again.

Bogart is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 848

Janet wanted me to take one of the dogs to training class tonight, because she had a late meeting to attend. The only problem was that neither dog wanted to be the one left behind. I had such a difficult time getting one dog ready while trying to pen the other one in the bedroom, that I decided we would all just stay home instead. It's just as well. My allergies were terrible today and I'd probably go through an entire box of Kleenex if I was out in the pollen laden air for another hour or two.

I finally got my April invoices out today and got caught up on my monthly accounting. Everything seems to be moving very slowly this month. Each morning I turn on the computer and start working, just like I always do, but even the simplest task seems to take forever. I'm so tired.

I got an e-mail today about an upcoming tour of homes and noticed the name of a real estate agent who specializes in mid-century modern houses. I think I'll give the guy a call tomorrow. I really need to find someone who knows how to market my rent property. It's little and doesn't have the latest amenities, but it's still the kind of place that someone out there is going to think is cool. I need to find that someone.

There were still a lot of butterflies in the park this morning. I've discovered that there is something odd about photographing butterflies. It's almost impossible to use the auto-focus feature on the camera. For some reason, the auto-focus mechanism doesn't see the insects. Manual focus isn't a good alternative either on cameras without a viewfinder. I can never tell if something is in sharp focus on those little LCD screens. I'll have to do some experimenting. Luckily, there are plenty of butterflies to practice with.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up. There are still a lot of things on last week's to-do list that I haven't finished yet. I need to mow the grass. I need to get started moving things from the little storage room to the big one. I still need to call the plumber too. Maybe tomorrow. There's always tomorrow.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 820

I'm planning ahead. I went to the Storage Warehouse and reserved a new and much larger storage space that will become available on April 1. The plan is to move everything from my existing space and organize it neatly like it was inventory in a store. Maybe when I get things organized and have a better idea of what I actually have, some of the stuff eventually will become inventory to sell on eBay. Right now, I have no idea what I have over at the storage warehouse. I've spent years stacking boxes on top of other boxes until the room is completely full from floor to ceiling. I often think that I've stored away things that I really need, but it's so much trouble to dig though all the boxes and find what I'm looking for that I've stopped even trying.

I also bit the bullet and made the decision to switch all the household electronics from cable to U-verse. In theory, this will give us a lot more TV channels, the internet connection will be faster, and the land line phones won't sound scratchy anymore. In practice, probably none of these things will be true. Whenever anyone attempts to install anything at our house, there is always some sort of Catch-22 situation that results in higher costs and lower performance. U-verse is definitely worth a try though. It certainly couldn't be much worse than cable and I do seem to be saving money with the deal.

Have any of you had any experience with Angie's List? I'm real tempted to use Angie's List to find a good real estate agent to market my rental property. Maybe this would be more objective than just asking a friend. I've asked friends to recommend roofers, painters, doctors and even real estate agents in the past and the results have been uniformly terrible. I've kind of learned over the years that just because someone is a friend of a friend, doesn't necessarily mean they're any good. There has got to be a better way to find great service. I haven't discovered it yet though.

The sun was still up when we went to dog class tonight. Finally, a real use for daylight savings time. Last week we went to class in darkness, and this week there was light. I'm still not sure what monkeying around with the time actually proves, but it was nice to have a little light while we told our dogs to sit and heel.

Humphrey is our Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 813

I had another photo shoot today. Luckily, the client wanted me in and out in a hurry, so I didn't have to drag two hundred pounds of lights and backdrops along with me. This time, I just put a little on-camera flash in my bag and that was that. Inevitably, when I arrive for these employee photo shoots, everybody claims that they weren't given any notice and they didn't know I was coming. I knew about this two weeks ago, so surely somebody else must have known as well.

Today was one of those rainy days that result in dirty dogs and a lot of laundry. It didn't really rain hard. Just enough to get the car, the dogs, and everything else dirty. I didn't even bother to go up on the roof today, because I was too busy. I'm sure I'll have to deal with the standing water on the roof tomorrow though.

I found out today that there is a house right next to my rental property that will be going on the market at exactly the same time as my place. Damn! It's hard enough to rent this place anyway. The last thing I need is competition. Maybe there will be two people who want to live in the neighborhood. I'd really rather just sell the property, but then I'd be forced to deal with real estate agents, which I try to avoid at all costs.

We didn't go to dog class tonight. Janet had a business function she needed to attend and it rained anyway, so it was a good night to stay home. I got an earlier start on writing the blog and the two dog got an earlier start on their evening nap.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 792

It was a busy day. I methodically moved from one thing to the next and by the end of the day I had accomplished a lot more than I thought I would. I used to have at least one day a week where I would work in the yard or tackle some household repair project. These days, I can't seem to get away from the computer. Between the website updates, the writing assignments, and the seemingly futile efforts to get my Klout score above 50, there just isn't any extra time. I've settled into a routine that starts with the dogs and ends with the blogs. I guess I'm glad I've gotten playing in a band and having gallery shows out of my system, because I really don't know where I'd find the time for these activities anymore.

Even with too much on my plate already, I still keep adding more things to my daily routine. I'm actually glad I added daily photographs to my list, even though it makes the walks with Dot and Dash a bit longer and more difficult. I've taken more photographs in the past month than I typically take in a year. I'm developing a whole new style of shooting as well. If you don't think it's difficult to take nature photographs while holding two very strong and rambunctious Dalmatians on a leash, just try it sometime. I've learned to quickly wrap the leashes around my foot when I see something interesting, so I can steady the camera better. I've also learned to start shooting as I approach something, because if I wait for the perfect vantage point, the dogs will invariably scare the critters away. Thinking quickly and shooting fast isn't usually the way I approach photography, but this run and gun style has actually improved my eye. I'm starting to see things I never noticed before.

I wish I could figure a way to do my writing assignments as fast as I do my photography now. I don't think it's going to happen though. Writing has always been a slow, methodical process for me. I write a sentence, take a sip of coffee, change a word or two in the previous sentence and then move on to the next sentence. I have to concentrate more when I write as well. When I'm working in Photoshop, it's fine to listen to music, but I never listen to music when I write. It destroys my concentration.

I don't think music affects the dogs one way or the other. What destroys their concentration are other dogs. At training class tonight, there was a young pit bull in the beginners class that would snap and growl at any dog that came anywhere near it. Even though we were in a completely different class, this behavior put all the dogs in our class on edge. They knew exactly what was going on.

Even though it was sunny most of the day, it must have rained again last night. There's water up on the roof again. I didn't have time to get up there today, but it's first on my list for tomorrow. Water leaks are kind of like death and taxes. You can ignore them, but you can't make them go away.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 687

All day long I've been hearing that a big cold front was on its way. By tomorrow morning it's supposed to get down to thirty-five degrees. The front didn't really arrive until I took the dogs on their evening walk. Just when we reached the halfway point, the wind picked up and leaves started blowing off the trees. The temperature dropped ten degrees in just a few minutes. The dogs seemed alarmed by this rapid change of affairs and were eager to get home again. The temperature continued to drop as I ate dinner, but it wasn't enough to cancel dog training class. Nobody, except for me, seems to want to wimp out on dog class, so the training went on as usual.

Some dogs were excited by the wind and others were scared of it. Most of the people were just wishing they'd worn a warmer jacket.

I got an e-mail today saying that there was a typo in one of the websites I manage. Apparently, it's should have been its. I'll admit that I should have noticed this error. Other people should have noticed the error too. Guess how long the error has been online? Would you believe eight years! I guess this proves that people just look at the pictures.

I hope it doesn't take me eight years to open the Panasonic box sitting next to my desk. It's been sitting there almost a month now with a new camera inside. Every day, I think I'm going to have time to put this camera through its paces, but then something comes up and I postpone things for another day. If history is any guide, I probably won't open the box until I need the camera for a job. I'm the same way with shoes. I have shoes that I really like, but have never taken out of the box, because the right occasion never comes up. My dog walking shoes are worn out though. That's all I seem to need these days: a warm coat and a good pair of dog walking shoes.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 638

I have a compressed disc in my neck. This isn't quite as serious as a slipped disc, but it goes a long way toward explaining my recent neck problems. My doctor showed me a variety of exercises I could do to relieve tension and rebuild strength in my neck muscles, but it's going to be a long, slow process, whatever I do.

I didn't have much luck getting my meds reduced. Apparently, one set of pills is helping to keep plaque from building up in my arteries and another set is keeping me from developing diabetes. Since I wouldn't welcome either a heart attack or diabetes, I will be a good boy and continue to take all my meds. Since statin drugs do have a tendency to cause muscle loss over time, my only alternative might be to join a gym and work on building those muscles back again.

I couldn't wait to get finished with dog class tonight. Dash was just fine, but I wasn't quite ready for the evening's exercises. My neck is still pretty stiff and any exercise that involved running was still a bit painful. I should have just stayed home, but it's hard to take one dog to class when the other doesn't get to go. It's easier to deal with a little neck pain than it is to deal with Dash if he was the one who got left behind.

It looks like I've got quite a few writing jobs for the rest of the week. My doc says I need to work on my posture while I'm at the computer and take longer breaks away from the monitor as I work. This is easier said than done, but I'll give it a try. I spend so much time staring at a computer screen for my work that I can easily imagine that stress and bad posture were part of the problem. Here's to a relaxed, stress free working environment. Now, if I can just keep from falling asleep on the job.

Nicholas is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 624

We ended the month exactly the same way we started. The dogs got an extended walk through the park. I got a nice breakfast. Then, the clients got their work done. In all these years, I've never missed a deadline. I don't think some clients would actually mind if I missed a deadline, but I don't like to let these jobs linger. They're all like a hot potato that I want to toss back to the sender as soon as I can.

I got done with enough time left over today to go up on the roof with a caulking gun and look for cracks to patch. Even though it's hot and dry now, the rainy season isn't that far away. I'd really like to have the roof sealed again before the Fall rains begin. I don't know how water gets through this roof. I looked and I looked today, but couldn't find any weak spots. I squirted the Henry 209 compound on anything that looked suspicious, but I'm not sure it will do any good. If history is any guide, there will be a drip in the living room again soon after the first heavy downpour.

The dogs were pretty good in class tonight. The weather was a few degrees cooler this evening and it was just enough of a difference to catch their attention. Dash did pretty well with all the exercises for a change, but I don't know what it's going to take for him to win a ribbon again. He used to win ribbons almost every week, but he hasn't finished in the top four for over six months now. Maybe he's adopted the same attitude I now have about advertising awards. I have boxes full of these things in the storage warehouse, but I don't even bother to enter the competitions anymore. What's the point.

It will be September tomorrow. Time for the dog's heartworm pills again. Maybe I'll have French Toast for breakfast instead of my usual biscuits and gravy. That ought to make the day exciting.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 603

The heat is really starting to get to people. The talk at dog training class tonight centered around broken air conditioners, shifting foundations, and hot water coming out of the cold water tap. We're close to setting an all time record for longest number of days above 100 degrees. I'm amazed our own air conditioner hasn't had any problems. It's been running 24x7 for weeks now. I just hope it will just hang in there for another month. By mid-September, things should start cooling down again.

I think my broker is getting sick of all my questions. He is encouraging me to use the company's real time site, so I can see what is happening as it happens, instead of calling him all the time. I need to explain that this would probably only make things worse. If I could always see what was happening to my portfolio in real time, I'd probably have twice as many questions. Something must be working though. All the major indexes dropped between 4 and 5 percent today and I held my losses to less than one percent.

I had to take a stool sample to the vet today to complete Dot's yearly exam. I took a plastic bag with me on our walk this morning so I could gather a sample. Unfortunately after I put the bag in my back pocket, I forgot it was there and ended up sitting down on it as soon as I got back in the house. Yuk. At least the bag didn't break.

I bought Adobe Lightroom yesterday when I discovered there was a special one day only sale on the Adobe website offering the software for 50% off. I was real pleased with myself until I downloaded the software and discovered it was almost exactly the same as Apple's Aperture 3.0 which I already had. With all these powerful ways to organize my pictures, I'm going to go out and start taking some new pictures. I've taken very few personal pictures this summer. My favorite time to go shoot is on cloudy bright days with no shadows. Right after a rain is perfect. We haven't had many of these days recently.

I fixed a couple of Janet's watches this afternoon. Somehow, this slow delicate work seems peaceful compared to my usual fare of racing to complete a 1200 word article to meet an end of day deadline. It's amazing how much faster my writing has become, now that budgets are lower.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 547

Not a bad day! My meeting went well with my new website client. There were a few changes and additions, but we're on the home stretch. With any luck, the site will probably go live early next week. I also finally got the new version of Quark Express installed on my computer, so I'm back in business doing print graphics as well. One thing I really like about Quark 9.0 is that you can easily export projects that are already formatted properly for Kindle and iPad. Maybe I'll try to turn my dog stories into an e-book. Other people are certainly doing this. Who knows. Maybe people will end up reading my stories while they're sitting by the pool, like in those Kindle TV ads.

Dash has got to be the most stubborn dog in creation. For the past week or so I've been thinking he was getting too hot on his walks, mostly because after walking about 300 yards, he would dig his heals in and refuse to go any further. Often, we had to cut our walk short and come home, even though Dot wanted to go further. Today, acting on a hunch, I let Dash set the direction and Dot and I just followed him. He was full of energy and walked as far as he normally does in cooler weather. Where did he want to go? You guessed it. He wanted to go back where the coyote pups have their den. This is exactly where I didn't want the dogs to go.

It was kind of a sad day at dog class tonight. One of our class members got kicked out of class because his dog attacked another dog for the second time in three weeks. In the six years I've been going to this class, I've never seen anybody get kicked out before. This was serious though. I think the teachers made the right decision. Even though everyone really likes the dog's owner, you just can't have a dangerous, aggressive dog in a training class. If people can't feel safe about bringing their own dogs to class, they'll just quit coming and the whole class will fall apart.

I think it's time to get out the caulking gun and seal up all the little cracks around the edge of the roof. From the look of things, all the honey has been removed from the hive by now. Even the neighborhood scavenger bees are gone. Now, all I have to worry about are the June Bugs in the back yard. Spot, our first Dalmatian, used to love June Bugs and ate hundreds of them. Dash doesn't appear to have the stomach for the critters though. He likes the taste, but our vet told us that eating the bugs may be partially responsible for the stomach problems he's been having lately.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 543

OK. This required a certain leap of faith. I took down the magic strip on the side of the house that caused all the bees to leave. Tonight, more bees are supposed to return. According to the beekeeper, these won't be the same bees though. They will be scavenger bees that just want the remaining honey that's still in the hive. When all the honey is gone, the thieving neighborhood bees will leave too. I asked the beekeeper what the bees do with the honey they steal. "Oh, they just add it to the honey in their own hives," he said. So, bees aren't all that different from people. They just want to see who can accumulate the most stuff.

The dogs had a busy day today. We took them both up to an adoption event at a PetCo store in Plano. Dot and Dash were both well behaved, but we didn't accomplish much for Dalmatian Rescue. The store was virtually empty. The whole time we were there, only two people came by our table.

Later in the day, we went to the annual Summer party for our Wednesday training class. The party took place in the park behind our house, so we just walked to the event. The dogs were much more interested in the fried chicken the people were eating than in the competitive events for the dogs. We entered Dot in one of the races, but she wasn't very interested. After winning her initial heat, she and a cute little Vizsla named Laine refused to leave the starting line in the semi-final race. Dot really doesn't like the heat. We took her inside the pavilion building where lunch was being served and she lay down right next to an air conditioning vent.

Everything is back to normal now. Dot and Dash are sleeping on their blankets. I just finished watching a surprising Dr. Who episode where River Song turned out to be Amy Pond and Rory's daughter. It's hard to keep track of this show after the universe has been destroyed and recreated several times and most of the main characters have died and been brought back to life, often to end up living in a parallel universe somewhere. This isn't like MI-5 where the characters routinely get killed and just leave the show. Everyone seems to come back in Dr. Who. I fully expect to see Rose Tyler and Donna Noble return again at some point.

I wonder if scavenger bees are feasting on honey right now. I'll probably never know. Since the beehive is actually inside my inaccessible flat roof, I'll never actually see it. I believe it is there though. There is certainly a lot of circumstantial evidence that it is there. Maybe the inside of my roof is like the Tardis: bigger on the inside than on the outside. There certainly were an enormous number of bees exiting the roof the other day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 519

Weird day. I learned that the rural airport where I store a vintage car that I own was struck by a tornado last week and several hangers were destroyed. Evidently, half a dozen airplanes were demolished, but the hanger where my car is stored wasn't touched at all. I got lucky. The guy who happens to own the hanger wasn't so lucky. His dog attacked the teacher's dog in training class tonight. It's never a good move when your dog attacks the teacher's dog.

People keep wanting me to do stuff for lower and lower budgets. I just wonder where all this is going to end. If I had any advice to give a young person wanting to start their own ad agency, it would be this: always try to work for very large companies that have a purchasing department. When you work for a small company where the owner pays you out of their own wallet, nothing you do will ever be cheap enough. You can cut your prices to the bone and it will still seem too expensive to folks who are paying you with their own money. One thing I have learned over the years is that people are much more generous when they are paying you with other people's money.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon paying bills and trying to do some office bookkeeping. I sure wish that when you got your credit card bills, they would tell you what you actually bought. The statements do tell you the name of the store where you made the purchase, but it's up to you to remember what you purchased. I've made a number of electronics purchases during the past several months at Fry's and Sweetwater. I look at the credit card statement and then I look around the office to see if I notice anything new, and I still can't remember what I bought.

This is one of those days where I envy the dogs. They never have any bills to pay. They just spend half their day sleeping and then divide the rest of their time between barking, eating and pooping. Sounds like a good life to me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day