Day 1502

Janet and I started the day with a cholesterol screening at our neighborhood health food store. This was the second blood test I've had in two days. I'll have another one on Monday. It's kind of ridiculous to have this many blood tests, but each one was ordered by a different doctor and doctors seldom talk to each other these days. Actually, today's test wasn't ordered by anybody. I've just become hooked on blood tests. I'd have one every day if I could. It's interesting to see how your body's chemistry changes hour-to-hour and day-to-day. If you only get a blood test once a year during your annual physical, you have to realize that it doesn't really mean much. If you took the same test six hours later, you would get different results. Over time, the tests show distinct patterns though. It's kind of like watching the stock market charts. I like to do that too.

Since we had to fast for the test, we went out to breakfast afterwards. "Where do you want to go," I asked Janet. "You're the breakfast restaurant expert," she said. So I introduced her to a place within easy walking distance of the health food store. There are breakfast restaurants all over the place in our neighborhood.

My ISP called today and told me that my account had been compromised. We changed some passwords and tried to figure out whether the breach was on my end or the server end. I'm still not sure, but did what I always do in these situations: I bought some new virus/malware checking software. After I installed the software and ran the scan, I read on the Internet that if I upgraded my operating system to Mountain Lion with this software installed, my computer would crash. Damn. Another case of the cure being worse than the disease.

I don't know what's going on with Dash these days. For a reason known only to him, he has completely revised his pooping schedule. He no longer does his business on our evening walk like he's been doing for years, preferring to wake us up at three in the morning instead. There is nothing wrong. He doesn't have a stomach virus or diarrhea or anything. He just seems to have shifted his internal clock by about six hours. Dot is still as regular as clockwork, but she is just as irritated by this new development as the rest of us. When Dash decides he needs to go outside in the middle of the night, he wakes everybody up.

The temperature got into the mid-sixties today. Quite a change from yesterday's freezing weather. It's strange to be whipsawed back and forth like this. I can't tell whether we are having a cold Winter or a warm Winter. It appears like we're having both at the same time. I try to enjoy the nice weather whenever it decides to appear. Hopefully, this warm trend will continue thru tomorrow. Today would have been a great day to go to the dog park.

Bones is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1279 - Father's Day

My Mom used to tell me that I was her Father's Day gift to my Dad, since my birthday periodically coincided with Father's Day. I don't think Dad was all that happy about this situation, since I was frequently a thorn in his side. Although we were never really close, I always thought my father was a good Dad. He was a loyal, honest man who never forgot his family. Although I've never been a Dad myself, I suspect that this is exactly how a Dad ought to be.

I got stung by another bee today. In the process, I discovered where the bees were coming from. A group of them had made a home in an old stepladder that I'd been using to fix some things on the house. No wonder I was getting stung. You'd think I would have noticed the bees before I started using the stepladder. Nope. Sometimes, I don't notice much of anything.

The bee sting didn't stop me from doing some much needed Sunday yard work. I mowed the grass, front and back, and then did some weeding in the yard. Now, the house looks just as good as all the other houses in the neighborhood. I removed the remaining water from the new roof, because I wasn't patient enough to wait for it to evaporate. The cheap broom I bought at Sam's Club yesterday worked a lot better than the much more expensive professional broom I had purchased earlier at a builder's supply store. Go figure.

Without our usual Sunday trip to the dog park, the day seemed a bit empty. I guess it wasn't really a big loss. It was so hot that Dot and Dash had little interest in going outside anyway. We watched a movie on Hulu instead. I think we've finally reached an agreement on how to share the bed. There was no barking or commotion during the movie anyway.

Tomorrow, it's back to work again. I need to remember to pay my quarterly estimated taxes as well. I'm going to try to get up early, so I can walk the dogs before it gets too hot outside. Early in the mornings, it's still quite nice. Later in the day is another story. The dog days of Summer are definitely here again.

Harshey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1194

I picked up the Defender at the Land Rover dealer this morning and paid another large repair bill. It's discouraging to own a car this old. You begin to realize that a motor vehicle consists of hundreds and hundreds of separate components, each with a very finite lifespan. Nothing on the car will last forever, and unless I've replaced a part already, there a good chance that it will break in the near future. I always want the repair folks to tell me that I'm good to go for another 10,000 miles, but they never will. They know as well as I do that no matter what they just fixed, something else could break before I even get the car home again. You can avoid all these problems of course, by trading your car in the minute the extended warranty runs out. I didn't do that and I'm beginning to regret it.

It was another gray, rainy day. I managed to get the dogs walked during a few brief dry spells, but for the most part, it was just wet and drizzly. After a mandatory trip up to the roof to sweep the water off, I drove up to the the Dalmatian Rescue kennels to photograph one of our new dogs for the website. This guy's name was Rascal and he was exceptionally affectionate and friendly. I couldn't imagine why someone would have dumped this happy boy. He seemed like the perfect family pet.

After I got the pictures I needed, I completed my grocery shopping and errands. The entire time I was on the road, I kept expecting the Defender to die again. I just don't have faith in the car anymore. The engine still seems to run a little rough, but maybe it's just my imagination. I talked to my mechanic while I was at the dealership and he said everything checked out perfectly. Oh, well. We'll see how long it stays on the road this time.

I wonder what happened to my roofing bids. I contacted two different roofing companies before I contacted the landscaper. Now, the landscaping is completely finished and the roofing companies still haven't even given me a bid. Typical! Things like this always seems to happen to me with roofers. These two guys came highly recommended too. I think roofers prefer to deal with insurance jobs where they can overcharge and get away with it. Probably nobody really wants to do a flat roof, because even the roofers know that flat roofs are worthless.

The odds of going to the dog park tomorrow are looking pretty slim. It rained a lot in our part of town, but our rain was nothing compared to the downpours that drenched Far North Dallas today. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire dog park was under water.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1179

Well, I discovered why my car had been leaking oil. Virtually all the engine seals have gone bad. Rubber is a great invention, but very old rubber is virtually worthless. My service representative at the Land Rover dealer called me today and told me that the head gaskets, the oil pan gasket, the transmission seals, and a couple of other things that leak on the Defender all needed to be replaced. The gaskets themselves aren't very expensive, but the engine and transmission have to be torn apart to get at everything. This definitely isn't very good news.

The one thing that old houses, old cars, and old people all have in common is that they all deteriorate with age. It's a bitch when all this deterioration starts happening at once. If there is a general theme to my life right now, it is that everything is falling apart.

It wasn't always this way. Janet and I lived in the house for over ten years before there were any problems with the roof at all. The Defender used to run flawlessly for years at a time when it was newer. Most telling of all, I used to be able to have a beer with lunch, two or three glasses of wine with dinner and eat bacon for breakfast every day. Those days are gone. Things are falling apart.

The one bright spot amid all this dry rot and deterioration is that I'm actually starting to feel better as a result of my new diet. I have more energy now and I've actually lost eight pounds in the last two months. I really shouldn't lose much more weight, since I wasn't fat to begin with, but it's nice to be getting back to the weight I maintained for the first forty years of my life.

I got a little adapter in the mail today that allows me to use the headphone jack with my new indestructible iPhone case. I'll add the adapter to the shoebox of weird adapters and plugs I've already bought to resolve awkward connection issues. I could take my phone to the South Pole now, although I doubt that it will ever leave the neighborhood. The phone used to look like a sleek BMW roadster. Now it looks like a H1 Hummer.

Lots of dog activities on tap for this weekend. Dot and Dash get a bath. There's a new dog to photograph at the Dalmatian Rescue kennels. And of course there's always Sunday's trip to the dog park.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1132

It was one of those prematurely early Spring days that brought everyone outside. The dog park was absolutely packed. Dash was intimidated by all the people and dogs at first, but he adjusted quickly. Everyone was in a good mood. I rarely see this many people in the park and quickly noticed that everyone looked kind of similar. Virtually the entire crown consisted of singles or young couples without children. All were Caucasian. You would never have seen a crown like this twenty years ago. Some of these people will have children later, but others never will. For a variety of reasons, they have decided that dogs are a much easier kind of family.

Later in the day, the dogs and I see tons of families with children at the large city park where we take our daily walks. Virtually all of these people are Hispanic. The adults are fixing picnic dinners while the kids play soccer and other games. The demographics of the city and probably of the entire country are changing dramatically. One group is marrying young and having large families while the other postpones families and pursues careers until they eventually start to worry about down syndrome babies and cogitative disorders. The future is all in the demographics. Immigration reform is a big issue now, but eventually it won't even matter. In less than a hundred years, I am convinced that this country will simply become an extension of Mexico.

When I wasn't ruminating about the future, I spent my time doing an assortment of odd little tasks. Since my car was clean again, I got a bottle of Meguiar's Fine Cut Cleaner and polished out a couple of scratches in the paint. I also glued a wooden chopping block that had become de-laminated back together. Finally, I tried to clean up the little Japanese Garden in our atrium. When we first bought the house, Janet and I made a huge effort to make this little area pretty and green. We bought Japanese Maples, ferns and ivy plants. When the plants died, we bought replacements and continued our efforts to have a delightful little green spot in the center of the house. It was a futile effort. There wasn't enough light in the atrium and every two or three years there would be a big freeze that would kill everything anyway. At some point I made a rock garden because I figured nothing could hurt the rocks. The garden is a failure, but it still looks nicer when I clean it up.

I have an appointment with my financial adviser tomorrow. I'll ask him if Apple has dropped enough to consider buying some shares again. I'll ask him why my natural gas investments are doing so terribly if natural gas is still what is supposed to make us energy independent. We won't watch the inauguration, but I'll ask him how to make the next four years work in my favor. I doubt if he'll have a good answer.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 971

I keep hearing that the Post Office is going broke. I don't understand why. Judging from the ridiculous amount of junk they send me, I'd think these guys would be rolling in money. Today I tried to wade through the big stack of "don't need to open now" mail that's been growing on the kitchen table for the past month. I'd just as soon never open this mail, but occasionally I forget a bill or something important, so it does need to be checked. Today I just threw away a seemingly endless stack of letters urging me to join a cause, vote for somebody, switch to a different electric company, get a new credit card, lose weight, or sign up for a pre-paid funeral plan.

I don't know why most companies even bother printing this stuff. If it doesn't contain a coupon, it's just going to get tossed.  I save coupons from Bed Bath and Beyond, Guitar Center, Lowes, and several other places. I throw the invitations to join AARP away.

Another neighborhood restaurant has bit the dust. It was sad to see a For Sale sign on my favorite local barbecue joint today. If the refrigerator was empty before shopping day, I would always just run down to Raymonds BBQ and pick up one of their three meat dinners. It probably wasn't the best barbecue in the state of Texas, but it was simple, honest food and it was dirt cheap. I would always get way more food than I could eat and never spend more than ten dollars. One by one, all my favorite little local businesses are disappearing. Anyone who thinks the economy is improving just isn't looking in the right places. You just can't have a strong, vibrant economy without small business, and from my small little corner of the world, small business is still having a tough time.

When we went to the dog park today, I watched two Shelties run straight toward the biggest mud puddle in the park and lie down in it. Their owner just shrugged his shoulders and smiled, as if to say this sort of thing happened everyday. This would have been the day for Dot and Dash to get muddy, because they were headed straight to Vhea's LaundroMutt for a bath on the way home. I don't know why the dogs hate a bath so much. They look better. They smell better. For the first three or four days, they're actually pleasant to have on the bed at night.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 950

Dot and Dash got to go to a Dalmatian Rescue event today. To ensure that they would be good little ambassadors when we arrived at the Petco store, they both got a long walk and a trip to the dog park first. When we take the dogs to rescue events, people inevitably tell us that they've never seen Dalmatians that are so calm. It's not rocket science. Any dog that has walked for several miles and then raced around a dog park a few hours later is going to be pretty calm.

The trip to the dog park and the rescue event took up quite a bit of time, so it was a good thing we got a lot of our weekend errands done yesterday. It was way too hot to do outdoor chores anyway. With triple digit temperatures outside, even the thought of going back to work in the office didn't seem so bad. I finished the afternoon updating a website and then writing another watch article.

I think next week is when the city comes by to haul away brush and old furniture. This means I'd better get busy tomorrow and haul all the tree branches I trimmed a few weeks ago out to the street. If I miss the pick-up day, I'll have to wait an entire month before the truck returns again. Maybe I should look on Angie's List and find someone to do this sort of thing for me. I just signed up for Angie's List a few days ago when I saw a 60% Off sign-up special on the Paypal website. I haven't used the list yet and have my suspicions about all the reviews being genuine, but I bet I'll use it soon enough. I just can't find anyone reliable to recommend things like doctors and contractors anymore. When I worked in an office, there seemed to be an endless stream of recommendations from co-workers whenever I went to the break room to get a cup of coffee. Now, I work alone and the Dalmatians aren't talking. I just don't know who to trust anymore.

Things usually slow down in the Summer, but somehow I still find myself with a ton of website work to complete. I did manage to re-launch the big site I've been working on lately last Friday, but there's another that I haven't even started on yet. I think Monday would be a good time to start.

Pongo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 932 - Independence Day

It kind of felt like a work day this morning. Janet left the house early to serve as a judge in a neighborhood Fourth of July parade. I tried to get the dogs out on their morning walk before it got too hot outside. When we returned, I fixed myself French Toast for breakfast. After doing the breakfast dishes, I worked on my website chores, just like I usually do. When Janet returned from the parade around noon, we all decided it was a holiday after all.

The dogs got a treat and got to go to the dog park twice in a single week. We got a treat as well, since the weather was cooler and being outside was actually pleasant. I'm a little nervous about being outside though after seeing something on TV last night about a new case of West Nile Virus being discovered in our own zip code.

The city is supposed to be spraying for mosquitoes, but I haven't seen them spray in our neighborhood yet. There is still an abundance of mosquitoes outside. They're everywhere this year. People might have actually outnumbered mosquitoes in the park today however. As is usually the case on holidays like this, the place was packed. There was a 10K race through the park this morning. There were sailboat races down on the lake and there were impromptu picnics everywhere. I saw large swarms of dragonflies for the first time this Summer as well. I'd like to get some good photos of these interesting insects, but they never stay still. It's hard for me to even get the camera focused on them before they fly away.

We had barbecued ribs, potato salad and broccoli slaw for dinner tonight. It was good holiday fare. I even had a beer this evening. I remember similar holiday dinners when I was a kid. The only difference then was that while the parents were eating, the kids went around setting off all manner of fireworks. There were no regulations about fireworks that I can remember. My friends and I bought cherrybombs and M-80's by the dozens. We would put the M-80's inside rolls of toilet paper, throw them up in the air, and watch them explode. It was all a lot of fun, but it's a miracle that I still have all ten fingers.

Matao is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 929

When we woke up this morning, it was at least twenty degrees cooler than the day before. There was a nice breeze and it was actually pleasant outside. We decided to go to the dog park right after breakfast, just in case the weather decided to turn hot and muggy again later in the day. Apparently, other Dalmatians had the same idea. When we got to the park, there were already several other Dalmatians there. We had never met the other dogs owners before, but all the Dalmatians, including our own, got their start with Dalmatian Rescue. The nice weather was so unexpected for the 1st. of July that everyone in the park was having a great time. We even got a low altitude flyover by a rare World War bomber that was arriving in town for a Fourth of July airshow. The early dog park visit was a great start to a good day. It's amazing how a little nice weather can improve your mood.

After lunch, I added Dakota and Ollie, the dogs I photographed yesterday, to the Dalmatian Rescue website. These two are both so friendly that I imagine they'll both get homes very quickly. After I finished my website work, I decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and I mowed the grass as well. It certainly wasn't a very strenuous day, but it was a good day.

I have a feeling that next week isn't going to be very strenuous either. The Fourth of July holiday is right in the middle of the week. With a Wednesday holiday, it gives many people a good excuse to either take Monday and Tuesday off, or alternately Thursday and Friday off as well. I doubt that much will get done. I'll be working though. Next week is probably a good time to get some of the heavy lifting done on my new website project. I do a lot better in the initial stages of design when there aren't a lot of distractions.

Janet got a new iPad this weekend. With a faster processor, a camera on board, and the fantastic new retina display, it's making me wish I had a new one as well. No new iPad for me though. I got a big car repair bill instead this month.

Bentley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 922

The dreaded white grubs have returned to our yard. Later in the Summer they will become June Bugs. Right now they are still in the larval stage, feasting on the roots of our new St. Augustine grass. These little beasties are hard to get rid of without harsh chemicals. Janet found something on the Internet today that was supposed to be effective at controlling the grubs while being completely harmless to dogs and other animals. My mission this afternoon was to go to garden stores and get some of this stuff. It didn't take me long to discover that Milky Spore, the grub eradicating bacteria that Janet found, wasn't effective on our kind of grub. Milky Spore was meant for controlling the grubs that turn into Japanese beetles. Since we don't have many Japanese beetles in Texas, the garden stores didn't carry any of the stuff.

I did discover that beneficial nematodes were the safest, most effective way to control grubs in Texas. Unfortunately, you are supposed to introduce the nematodes to your environment in February. It's too late in the season for them to do any good now. As so often happens, I acquired the right knowledge at the wrong time.

I've been trying to acquire the right knowledge at the right time before I buy a guitar. I've been learning all sorts of fascinating things about Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters. When you go into a music store, you will see a huge variety of Stratocasters at prices ranging from under $300 to well over $3,000 dollars. All of these guitars look identical. At first this odd pricing structure mystified me, but apparently Fender is determined to make something for everybody. The $300 Stratocaster Squire may look pretty much the same as the $3,000 Custom Shop Stratocaster, but there are a myriad of subtle differences.

If Land Rover followed this kind of marketing strategy, you could buy a very inexpensive Range Rover that had vinyl covered seats, a Honda Civic engine, and no four wheel drive at all. For a little more you could get a car that looked the same, but had a better engine and leather seats. Pay yet a bit more and you could get the normal Range Rover you buy today. At the top of the scale would be a Range Rover that was hand assembled using titanium screws by technicians with a minimum of thirty years experience. I can't decide whether Fender's pricing strategy is brilliant or idiotic. It does allow a kid just learning to play to have a guitar that looks essentially the same as the customized rarity that some rich collector just paid $10,000 for.

It's getting hotter at the dog park. This means that there are a lot of clean, well groomed dogs that head straight for the nearest mud puddle to cool off. Labs and Goldens seem to be the first to occupy these mud puddles that appear near all the park water fountains. Luckily, Dot and Dash won't get anywhere near these muddy areas. They won't even drink out of the doggie water fountains. We have to take their own water bowl along with us and fill it up for them before they will drink anything. You may think the Dalmatians are spoiled, but I suspect they are just trying to avoid all the dog spit left behind in the common bowls by the messy Labs.

Rio is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 915 - Father's Day

Since I've never had children myself, Father's Day has always been pretty much of a non-event. Even when I was a kid, I can't remember Father's Day being a big deal like Mother's Day. We had a good Dad, so probably we should have paid more attention to him. Dad was a quiet man and it was easy to forget he was around. Of course there's always the possibility that he talked a lot to everyone else but me. I just don't remember. He certainly knew how to keep a secret. I'm convinced that he took a lot of secrets to the grave with him. He made a lot of trips to Nevada in the 1950's when the government was testing atomic weapons in the desert near Las Vegas.  We used to live in Oak Ridge, Tennessee when we were little kids too, but I never did learn what he was doing. Maybe there really were flying saucers in Roswell. Men like my Dad didn't talk.

I'm just the opposite. I'll blather on about anything. I love to gossip and have a rather tenuous grip on reality. I've learned to recognize this odd worried look that bosses and co-workers get whenever I open my mouth. Janet occasionally gets this look as well. I may be a slow learner, but I'm not stupid. When I see the worried look now, I just shut up and say nothing. It's probably for the best.

The dogs had a great time at the dog park today. I guess they always have a great time. It's too bad the place is so far away, or I'd take them everyday. Dot and Dash have learned the route by now. They bark to tell us which freeway exit to take and they bark some more if we aren't driving fast enough. I wish I were as easy to please as a dog. When we take the pair to the dog park and let them off their leashes for an hour, they're happy as clams for the rest of the day.

Even though I'm not a Dad, I did dad-like things today. I mowed the grass and ate barbecued ribs for dinner. It was a good day, even though Dot and Dash may beg to differ. They both got a bath today.

Bali is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 908

Dot and Dash had a big day today. In the morning, they got to romp around in the city's new 22 acre dog park and in the afternoon they had a party to attend. Our weekly training class has two parties every year. The Winter Christmas party is mostly for people, but the Summer party is all about the dogs. There are lots of games for the dogs and their owners. The games are the kind of things little kids do at summer camp, but they are still fun, since dogs are involved. We entered Dot and Dash in the egg carry contest where you have to balance an egg in a wooden spoon while you heel your dog around a figure eight course. Dash knocked my egg off the spoon five times by tugging on his leash, while Dot just tried to eat the egg. Dash did a little better in the bobbing for biscuits contest, where all he had to do was see how many dog biscuits he could retrieve in 60 seconds from a kiddie swimming pool filled with water. I think the dogs favorite activity of the day was getting to eat some of our fried chicken at the lunch we all enjoyed before the games.

With all this activity, I thought that Dot and Dash would just want to go to sleep after we returned home for the day. Not on your life. They still wanted their regular evening walk. At the end of the day, I think I was the only one who was actually tired. I'm always tired on Sunday though. It's usually the busiest day of the week. Truthfully, this Sunday was quite relaxing compared to a normal weekend filled with vacuuming, grocery shopping and mowing the grass.

If all goes well, the rent house sale will close next week. It will be weird not to own this house any more. I've owned the place since I moved to Dallas from Seattle in the Fall of 1977.  It wasn't always a rent house, since I used to live there myself. The Internet as we know it today didn't even exist when I bought the house. I didn't have a computer and I didn't even have any Dalmatians. I did all my writing on an IBM Selectric typewriter. I did keep a daily journal though. Although the journal was hand written in a little leather bound book, it wasn't all that different than the blog you are reading today. Even back then, I mostly wrote about nothing. If you want to know what I had for dinner on April 30, 1981, I'm sure I wrote it down somewhere.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 901

Well, we didn't get 101 Dalmatians at the dog park today. The six that actually did show up sure seemed to have a good time though. Even six Dalmatians managed to attract a lot of attention. Practically everyone in the park came over to look at the dogs. We're thinking of having Dalmatian Day at the Northbark Dog Park once a month now. Everyone who came today said they'd tell their friends, so we ought to get more dogs next time. The weird thing about Dalmatians is that they seem to recognize other Dalmatians. They like to hang out together and aren't all that interested in the other dogs in the park. If dogs ever discover how to be elitist, Dalmatians will be among the first to lord it over the others. I still think it would be fun to get 101 of these guys together for a play date. Maybe someday. For today it was just Dot, Dash, Willow, Jasper, Emmie, and Penny.

My car went kaputt today. I've had a small leak in the power steering lines for about a month now. I should have taken the car in for service immediately. Instead, I just went to the AutoZone store and bought a bottle of power steering fluid. Every time I heard a squealing noise, I would top up the power steering fluid tank. It worked for a while. I think the little leak became a big leak today though. The power steering is gone. It takes a massive effort to turn the wheel at all. The speedometer quit working too, and the engine dies when I'm at a stoplight. I don't know if all these things are related, but the car isn't very drivable. I'm going to have to get it towed to the Land Rover dealer tomorrow.

I went down to the rent house for what may be the last time this weekend. I wanted to make sure the place looked clean and tidy when the new owners take possession. I really like this house. If any of you are familiar with the architecture of Bud Oglesby, you'll know what I mean. I should have sold the place years ago though. If I had been perceptive enough to sell at the top of the Dallas real estate market some years ago, I could have made almost double what I'm likely to make now. Live and learn. That's what life's all about, isn't it?. If I had made all the right decisions, I'd be a multimillionaire now. On the other hand, if I'd done everything wrong, I'd be dead.

I'm starting to get telemarketing messages on my iPhone now. I even get junk text messages. It was so nice for a while to have one phone that was immune to these annoyances. I knew it couldn't last. Now, this phone is just about as bad as the land line. How do all these people get my number? I wouldn't be surprised if Apple actually wants telemarketers to get your number. I remember telling my postman once that he didn't have to deliver the junk mail to my house. I though this might make his job a little easier, since I could see his bag was absolutely full of junk mail. "No, no," he told me, "We have to deliver this mail. This is how the post office makes money." Maybe so. Personally, I'd rather pay the post office and AT&T a little more not to have to deal with this stuff.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 726

Where did this weekend go? At the end of the day, I still hadn't gone to the grocery store, vacuumed the house, or done half a dozen other things that I usually do on weekends. I did get all the photo equipment put away from yesterday's Santa Paws event. I did some laundry and printed out this month's invoices to mail tomorrow, but that was about it. From that point, the day literally went to the dogs.

Dot and Dash got their usual Sunday trip to the Wagging Tail Dog Park, but what really ate up our time was deciding to get Santa photos of our own dogs. We took the dogs to another rescue group's Santa photo event, and waited and waited and waited. This group wasn't nearly as well organized as our Dalmatian Rescue team. These guys scheduled the dogs way too close together. They put the printing and order taking folks in the same room with the photographer, so the space was extremely cramped. Their backdrop was all wrong and Santa had the cheesiest looking beard I've ever seen. Of course, our own dogs didn't help matters either. Dot didn't want to have anything to do with Santa and Dash almost knocked over the entire set. I kept wanting to tell these folks how to do Santa pictures the right way, but I think Janet wanted me to keep my mouth shut.

With the Santa picture ordeal out of the way, I tried to get a little of my own work done and then took Dot and Dash on their evening walk. I sure wish this was a three day weekend. I could certainly use an extra day. I still need to go to the grocery store. I also need to do some research on the guy I'm supposed to interview in Houston. I don't want to look like a complete idiot when I arrive at his offices. I need to write some more watch articles too. I'm surprised at how many I've already written, but I'm still not even close to completing my client's year end goal.

Things are so busy that I may even need to eat cereal for breakfast next week. I love my leisurely and often extravagant breakfasts, but I'm not going to miss a deadline just so I can eat French Toast.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 684

Weekends go by far too quickly. There were a whole lot of things I wanted to accomplish this weekend, and most of them still aren't done. I didn't spend the weekend curled up with a book or watching a sci-fi marathon on TV. I actually did work. I always work on weekends. I think one reason I like walking the dogs so much is that it seems to be the one respite I get from a life of keeping my nose to the grindstone.

I often wonder how I used to find time to play in a rock & roll band or spend entire weekends exploring new places to photograph. Now, instead of going to band practice or doing test shots for my photo portfolio, I tend my little Internet universe. Social media is very time consuming. I write blog posts. I answer questions about Dalmatians from my Twitter followers. Lately, I've been trying to add a new photograph every day to my Google+ account, and even that small endeavor is taking a lot more time than I had expected. I initially thought that since I'd been taking pictures for so long, I'd have enough to last forever. Now, I'm beginning to think that I've only taken 100 really good photos in my entire life. I'm running out of good pictures and it's forcing me to go out and take some more. Maybe this is a good thing though. The picture that Thomas Hawk liked recently was one that I had just taken a week earlier. To me, this is a lot better than if a famous photographer had liked something I photographed twenty years ago.

Dot and Dash had a really nice day at the dog park this afternoon. The weather was perfect and there were lots of friendly dogs to play with. I wonder how many dogs only get walks on nice sunny days? I walk and attend to Dot and Dash exactly the same, rain or shine. We never see many other dogs on cold, dreary days though. I'm convinced that if you want to get anywhere in life, you've got to treat the dreary days exactly the same as any other day. Keep on truckin' I guess. What else can you do?

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 670

The day started with a big breakfast and ended with cheeseburgers. That's all I need. It's amazing how my appetite is returning, now that I'm feeling better. I must have been in a lot worse shape than I thought I was when we went to Las Vegas a month ago.

Now that things are getting back to normal, I'm starting to tackle the yard again on weekends. I trimmed more dead limbs off bushes and trees this afternoon and added them to the pile at the curb for big trash pickup. I was a little worried when I dragged the old mattress out to the street the other day that I'd gotten the pickup day wrong again, but I noticed other neighbors taking their trash to the street this afternoon. I must have gotten the date right after all.

After mowing the grass, I upgraded my iPad to iOS5. This seemed to go more smoothly than it did when I upgraded the iPhone yesterday. Maybe I just knew what to expect this time. Unfortunately, my desktop computer still can't access the iCloud yet, so all the automatic syncing features are kind of pointless. I still have to upgrade to my desktop computer to Lion before it even realizes that there is a cloud out there waiting to suck up all my information. I don't know why these inevitable upgrades have to be so complicated. I still need to check about 50 applications to make sure they're compatible with Lion, and even though iOS5 claims to have added over 200 new features, I'll probably never use 195 of them. All I want is for my regular work related applications to work flawlessly both before and after any upgrade, but unfortunately it's never quite that simple.

Just in case you were wondering, the dogs did get to go to the dog park this morning. Unless there's a tornado headed our way, or some other sort of disaster, they always get to go to the dog park on Sundays. Dot and Dash both had fun today. The weather was perfect and there were lots of playful dogs at the park. I had a pretty good day myself. I got a ton of work done today and my neck still feels fine. Things are looking up!

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 592

I was doing some video editing today and discovered, much to my chagrin, that my little laptop is much better suited for this task than my large, and very well equipped desktop machine. I kind of suspected as much when I was editing YouTube videos on the fly in Houston last May, but I never had anything convenient to compare. The desktop is only a few years older than the notebook, but the difference in processor speed apparently makes a huge difference. It's things like this that force me to buy new equipment a lot more often than I'd like. Once you've experienced faster, it's real hard to go back to slower again.

The dogs got their trip to the dog park today, instead of on Sunday as they usually do. Tomorrow, I need to take Janet to the airport and it's just going to be too busy. I don't think the dogs care what day they go to the dog park. They just like the attention. Dash was much better behaved today. We placed a spray bottle filled with water in one of the cup holders in the console between the front seats. We didn't even need to squirt Dash with the water. He just looked at the bottle and kept his mouth shut. I may be wrong, but I think this would tend to indicate that Dash doesn't have any underlying fear of cars. He's just being a bad dog.

I couldn't turn on the television today without landing on a channel that was showing live coverage of the debt ceiling debate in congress. I wonder if these guys have any idea how irritating their actions are to their constituents? The house wastes a lot of time passing a bill that they know in advance will never get though the senate. Then the senate turn around and does exactly the same thing in reverse. Two or three week ago I asked my broker if he had a contingency plan if the country defaulted. He brushed the whole thing off and said nobody would ever be stupid enough to let this happen. I wonder what he's thinking now? I think the odds are about 50/50 now that the country actually will default.

Two weeks ago I had three pair of those little Apple ear buds sitting on my desk. Now, I can't find any of them. I've looked everywhere and they've just disappeared. I think somewhere in my office there's a tiny black hole that just sucks things into it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day