Day 3435

I was pleased to see the guys who arrived this morning to bury the new fiber optic cable that AT&T installed last week. I wasn't so pleased when one of the guys digging the trench broke the new cable and I was back to square one again. If there is a lesson to be learned from this, I guess it would be to never let anyone with a shovel get anywhere near a fiber optic cable. Murphy's Law always prevails. Needless to say, the crew with the shovels had no idea how to fix the cable. I had to make an appointment with a fiber optic technician to come out and install the cable all over again.

Amazingly, the technician actually did come out today. I was impressed. The guy told me that even though it was company policy to bury these cables so that they would remain undisturbed, quite a few got damaged anyway. If they would just dig the trench a little deeper I don't think they'd have this problem. Most of these cables that run from the distribution box to the house are only a few inches underground.

It took quite a while to get me back online again but hopefully there won't be any more problems for a while. My neighbor has finished messing around with her fence and I'm certainly not going to be doing any digging. I asked the technician when 5G was coming to Dallas and he told me that it was already here. The super high speed service hasn't arrived in our neighborhood yet, but I'm sure it will.  I'll be getting messages from Apple urging me to upgrade my phone and messages from AT&T urging me to upgrade my network. Personally, I don't think I need a faster connection. Who really needs to download a movie in two seconds anyway? What I need is a connection that doesn't go down every time we have a heavy rain.

I still haven't heard from NASA. I haven't heard from a roofer who still owes me a bid and one of the auction houses I've been dealing with either. Sometimes I worry that important messages are being quarantined or deleted by the industrial strength spam filter on my web server. You never know what winds up in the spam folder. I seldom look at these messages because they don't even come to my computer. I can log into the server and inspect the quarantine folder if I want, but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. There are thousands of spam messages. It's easier to pretend that these messages don't exist.

I'm tempted to stop people I see walking dogs so I can pet them. I haven't done this because I remember when people would stop me when I was walking Dot and Dash. I always tried to give the dogs long enjoyable walks even when I was busy working. Not surprisingly, they always had a way of making me late. It's hard to let your dog smell every tree when you're on a schedule and you definitely don't want to stop and chat when you've got a conference call in thirty minutes. I can tell that a lot of the younger people walking dogs are on a schedule. You can see it in their eyes. I'll sometimes talk to older retired people I know in the neighborhood. I leave the younger working people alone. They've got enough on their plate already.

Janet and I were talking about working the other day. We miss working in a lot of ways. We both enjoyed our jobs but don't want to deal with rush hour traffic anymore or trying to please a much younger boss who knows far less than we do. I'd love to find someone who will give me challenging things to do, pay me well, and then just leave me alone. No meetings and no big collaborative group efforts. Lots of luck with that. Hard to believe now that I actually had this type of arrangement for many, many years. I guess I was lucky.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3126

I'm slowly discovering that if you want results you have to use the right form of communication. If you send a voicemail to someone who prefers to text, nothing will happen. If you send an e-mail to someone who prefers to talk, nothing will happen. It's complicated. The electrician prefers to talk on the phone. The roofer and the landscaper would rather text. The art galleries and auction houses communicate almost exclusively via e-mail. So far, only the art conservator and the vintage guitar guy want to talk face-to-face. Maybe that's why I like those old Perry Mason shows. There was no voicemail or texting. The internet didn't even exist. People just called Perry on the phone and he picked it up and answered it.

I never used to think of myself as a nostalgic person, but I'm definitely nostalgic now. Forty nine years ago today, Apollo 11 left this earth on a journey to the moon. I remember that time well. A few days later we would hear that "the Eagle has landed" and the world would rejoice. I wish that same spirit prevailed today. It's not surprising that we've never been back. We don't have shared dreams anymore. Maybe you have a dream, and I have a dream, and the neighbor down the street has a dream, but they are definitely not shared dreams.

I'm going to have to start getting up earlier. It's so hot now that even our morning walks are uncomfortable. Dash still enjoys his walks, but I worry about him becoming overheated. Although I've tried to teach him to drink from a water bottle, he always waits till we come home to drink. Nothing is easy with this dog. Today one of his boots fell off and I had a hard time getting in on again. I've got to get better at this pretty quickly. When Janet visits her family, I'm going to have to get Dash dressed for walks by myself.

The roofers didn't show up today, but I'm still confident that I'll be seeing them later in the week. There is no reason to delay these repairs any longer. Everybody has finally agreed that the repairs are necessary and the weather is perfect. There is no point in spoiling the moment by continuing to complain. This thing is going to get done. Anyway, there's plenty of time to complain next week if the guys don't show up.

I wonder what I used to do in July? I probably just worked. Without a deadline to keep me busy, it's hard to get motivated. When the steering wheel is to hot to touch, you certainly don't want to drive anywhere. There's no point buying anything while I'm still actively trying to get rid of things. There's no point in watching TV, because at soon as I turn the set on, I immediately want to turn it off again.

Maybe I'll think of something to do tomorrow. I didn't do that well today. I picked up a prescription, paid a few bills and the day was over. I probably should have done some cleaning, but I didn't. Dash doesn't seem to worry about being productive. After a walk and a meal, he is content to sleep. I think that dog has the right idea.

Laura is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2511

I'm not catching many breaks with this roof. When I went up on the roof to inspect what the repair crews did yesterday, I was simultaneously pleased and disappointed. It looked like the crew had applied the elastomer coating properly, but there was one big problem. It was a windy day yesterday and tons of small leaves had fallen from our Elm Tree and become embedded in the coating before it had time to dry properly. Now the leaves are probably going to be there forever. If I try too hard to rip them out, I could damage the coating. If I ignore the leaves and leave them where they are, they could react chemically with the coating and cause it to deteriorate prematurely. For over 30 years nature has been trying to tell me that nobody should have built a house on this property. The large trees are pretty but the root systems have penetrated our sewer lines, large tree branches have broken off in storms and landed on the roof, and squirrels have claimed the entire area as their own. I think I lost this battle years ago, but it is still discouraging to be reminded about how relentless the natural world can be about reclaiming what it rightfully owns. The forest will be here long after the house is gone.

Security concerns have forced me to have so many passwords that I can't even begin to remember them all. I felt foolish when I couldn't even remember how to add my existing e-mail account to my new iPad. The hosting company had forced me to start using a new more complex password recently and all I could remember was the original one. I ended up having to call tech support and asked them to guide me through the process. This was embarrassing, since I routinely help other people set up their e-mail accounts for a living. Almost every day something like this happens to remind me that I'm not getting any younger. At any rate, when I finally got the e-mail account working, I set it to remember my log-in information, so I won't have to go through this again.

I saw some Kestrels on my walk with Dash this afternoon. These little hawks appear to be thriving in our area. I see more of them every year. They usually sit on the top of trees looking intently for something to eat. I don't have the patience to be a serious birder, but I do enjoy learning a little more about the animals I see everyday. It's an eat or be eaten world out there. Perhaps if we humans weren't at the top of the food chain, we'd be a little more realistic about our place in the world. Hawks know what to do. All animals know instinctively how to keep things in balance, except for us. We seem to think we're exempt from the cycle of life and I'm convinced that this will lead to our extinction.

I wonder if there is anything that would actually change people's minds in this election. Trump supporters aren't swayed by his frequent displays of incompetence. Hillary supporters are even worse. They could care less about the implications of compromising national security or selling favors to the highest bidder. Politics have become like sports. Everyone is just rooting for their favorite team. I don't think this is going to end well, no matter who wins.

I'm old, so I don't think my life is going to change all that much. If I were young, I'd be worried. How did we let ourselves get to the point where the Kardashians have become role models and two self-centered idiots are running for president. What's scary is that one of these two is going to win.  Idiocracy is just a movie now, but in ten years it's going to seem like a documentary.

Dakota is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2402

I discovered today that one of my own clients was blocking me for sending spam. Am I a spammer? Definitely not. Do I share an mail server with someone who is? Probably. This is the problem with all shared mail and web servers. You don't know who your neighbors are. I called my hosting company and asked them to fix the problem. It's not that easy, they said. Thousands of customers could be using the same IP address and most blacklist e-mail filtering software will block the entire IP address instead of an individual user. Is there a solution to this irritatingly common problem? The hosting company said to just wait ten minutes and send my mail again. "If you send the mail again, it will probably be routed through a different mail server," said the tech support guy. OK. You would think that they could come up with a better solution than that. About half my mail went through today and the other half didn't. It would have been easier to just call my client on the phone.

This is why many doctors and hospitals still prefer to Fax medical records and apparently why the Defense Department still runs our nuclear missile system using a very old IBM computer and 8" floppy discs. Simple is often more reliable.  The more complex a system is, the more likely it is to break. My AT&T U-Verse service is spectacular when it works, but it really doesn't work all that well. Apparently the same can be said for my new e-mail account.

Dot still can't walk, but she is beginning to put weight on her left front leg again. This is a very good sign. I'm taking things very slow and giving her plenty of time to rest. She's a difficult patient, because she still wants to be active. You can tell she's frustrated when I hold her up using her harness and inch her around the house. That's all she can do at the moment though. If she keeps making progress at her current rate, we should be walking again in two to three weeks. It is very tiring dealing with a sixty pound dog that only has one good leg. I'd gotten used to supporting her back end, but it's much more complicated to provide effective support for her front and back legs at the same time. Today she peed on my foot when I took her outside, because I couldn't figure out how to get out of the way in time.

Dot is calm as long as Dash is calm, so I'm having to spend extra time with him to avoid the usual barking episodes that prevent Dot from getting the rest she needs. I've started giving Dash extra long walks in the morning, which seems to help. There are no easy solutions though. At this point in time, these are very high maintenance dogs.

I tried to get caught up on writing assignments today, but since most of them were going to the client who was blocking my e-mail, I have no idea whether they received the files or not. The client didn't even know they were blocking me. It was the anti-virus software they were using that is causing all the problems. The tech support guy I talk to this morning said that they monitor all outgoing mail using a special algorithm to detect spam messages and eventually the offending spammer will be identified and their account will be terminated. How long will this take? Who knows. I never realized how good I had it when my mail and web sites were hosted on a small secure private server. It's too bad that my friend who ran the company retired. Now that I've joined the modern world, I've had nothing but problems.

I guess the president was in town today but I never noticed. I was too busy cleaning up dog poop.

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2383

I wrote a letter to my Luddite sister today. There's something oddly satisfying about writing a letter on paper, putting a stamp on the envelope, and taking it to the post office. I used to regularly correspond with dozens of people by mail, but this recalcitrant sister is the only one left. I miss the days when writing a good letter was still a skill that mattered. There is something tactile about putting a message on paper that just isn't there with e-mail. Sometimes I wrote letters in longhand and other times I used my faithful IBM Selectric typewriter. The fact that you often waited weeks for a reply added to the allure. The immediacy of e-mail, digital photography, and Google searches leaves me cold. I put more thought into things when I edited audio tape with a razor blade, developed film in a darkroom, and wrote letters without the help of spellcheck. Sadly, those days are gone forever.

I really think that the slower pace of an analog world was better for everyone. Now, we measure progress by how big and fast we can make something. The inevitable result of this type of thinking is globalization. In a global economy, successful companies get bigger and bigger, gobbling up all their smaller competitors. A few people become enormously rich, and very gradually there are fewer and fewer choices for the rest of us. Instead of hundreds of small airlines and auto manufacturers, there are just a handful of giant global companies, pumping out standardized products and services for the entire world. I would love to see a reversal of this trend. Even though the odds are against it, I would like to see the UK leave the European Union. I would like to see the Euro disappear and see the return of the Deutsche Mark and the French Franc. I wouldn't even mind seeing the United States split into several smaller countries. Small is good. Small problems are self limiting and can't spread to consume the entire world. The world was more interesting when small self-sufficient countries developed their own unique style and culture. Sure there were still lots of wars and conflicts when city states like Venice and Florence flourished at the end of the Middle Ages, but these states were too small to do much permanent damage to the earth. The whole idea of the Internet is based on the idea of thousands of independent nodes that make it impossible to take down the entire system. We like the redundancy that the Internet provides, but can't seem to grasp that the rest of the world should operate the same way. Globalization and instant gratification have made it too easy to destroy everything. I think these things whenever I write a letter. I might have similar thoughts if I were driving around in a Packard or a Studebaker, but I can't do that anymore.

I had my reasons to be disdainful of e-mail today. One of my clients kept saying that they never received anything from me even after I sent them what they requested three different times. The message wasn't even that important, but it ended up wasting a huge amount of time. I was pretty sure that the problem was on their end, but I ended up having to extensively test my own e-mail account just to make sure that I wasn't the source of the problem. Electronic problems are tricky this way. I should have just sent them a letter, but I know they never would have had the patience to wait for it. Patience has become just as much of a lost art as writing letters.

I've been watching the Brexit referendum returns on TV as I write this and it looks like I may get my wish. It's still too early to call, but there are a lot more votes to leave the EU than most people anticipated. The downside to all this is that my stocks will probably take a big tumble tomorrow morning. Oh, well. If it wasn't this, it would probably be something else. If the trend continues, people who shorted stocks will make money, but like me, most traders will wake up very surprised. I still think dissolving the EU and a return to sovereignty is a good thing in the long run, but I never would have predicted that it could actually happen.

Boo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2310

Yay. I fixed yesterday's website problem using a single line of code. I was pretty pleased with myself, even though I had a little help from an Apache Server user group. By modifying some code I saw on the forum, I was able to solve a problem that had my web hosting tech support folks stumped. The problem was so minor that most people would never have noticed, but it still felt gratifying to be able to put two and two together and come up with a solution. Don't count me out yet folks.

I replaced my defective activity tracker with a more advanced model that I found for half price at a sporting goods store that was going out of business. I had gone to the store to look for a cheap fleece jacket, but came away with the activity tracker instead. The best thing about this new model is that you don't have to manually put it into sleep mode every night. The thing just knows when you are sleeping automatically. I doubt that the new tracker will last any longer than any of the others that have fallen apart on my wrist, but I got it at half price. It's hard to resist half price.

I took my jacket back to the tailor today and was pleased to discover that she could fix the lining for a very reasonable price. I'm always impressed with people who can fix things. This tailor does beautiful work and has extended the life of many of my favorite things. The jacket is old and worn, but I still like it. Old leather coats have a lot of character. I'd keep fixing everything if I could, but people who take pride in fixing things are getting harder to find. Like it or not, we live in a throw away society.

Fixing a difficult website problem myself and getting a new lining for an old jacket made me feel good. I even anticipated that Dot needed to poop last night and we managed to get her up and outside at 3 AM just in the nick of time. There were no accidents in the house today. People sometimes think I'm a gloomy person, but it really doesn't take that much to cheer me up. A few things going right will usually do the trick.

I need to ask Dot's vet if I could change her physical therapy appointment back to mornings instead of afternoons. Dot is less likely to poop in the car in the morning and traffic is not nearly as bad. The clinic seems a lot busier in the afternoons too. What was meant to be convenient is actually taking me more time than before. I have a feeling that the vet likes this new time better though, so I may be stuck with it. You have to be careful what you wish for. It is not always what you expect.

I've noticed that since I've moved my e-mail account to the new server, I'm not getting any more spam. The spam must be going somewhere. I don't think anyone's invented a perfect spam filter yet. I need to figure out where the spam is going, because it's probably just sitting in a folder somewhere on the server eating up my hosting space. On the old server there were always important messages mixed in with the spam. I had to check my junk mail folder every day. So, there's my to-do list for tomorrow. Take Dot to the vet and find out where all my missing junk mail is accumulating. Who knows. Maybe hidden away in all the spam is a letter from someone who would like to hire me.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2102

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to stay connected. 95% of all the phone calls I receive are telemarketers. Nomorobo takes care of a lot of the nuisance calls, but I continue to be amazed at how persistent some people are. Some telemarketers still continue to call several times a day. Do these people really think I'm an idiot? My e-mail is just as bad. There are industrial strength spam filters on both the server and my local e-mail client and still a lot of the spam manages to get through. I never even open these messages, but some of the headers are so preposterous that it makes you wonder what the spammers were thinking. Are there really that many people out there who are dumb as rocks and would fall for these schemes? Maybe there are. I don't think these guys would be so persistent if people weren't falling onto their traps.

I've noticed that the daily bombardment of e-mail spam and telemarketing messages has steadily increased as I grow older. I'm sure they're thinking that if they keep trying, eventually I'll become senile and pick up the phone. It happened to my Dad. He was a brilliant scientist, but when senility began to cloud his brain, he fell for one of those Nigerian scams where someone will tell you that they won the Canadian lottery, but can't claim the prize because they can't afford to pay the tax. They offer to share the lottery winnings with their unsuspecting victim, if he or she will help them pay the tax. I don't know how my Dad fell for such a preposterous scheme, but he was living alone and couldn't resist picking up the phone. He lost everything he made selling his house a few years earlier. If the FBI hadn't stepped in and warned his bank to block large withdrawals, he would have lost even more.

It's sad that the world has come to this. Instead of being open and inclusive, you are forced to put up barriers. I find it hard to trust anyone in today's world. When I'm driving I feel like everyone else on the road is driving without a license or insurance. In Dallas I have good reason to feel this way. I wasn't happy when the Ebola outbreak hit our city a few years ago, because it seemed like someone let down their guard. When I watch the current European refugee crisis on TV, I am convinced that there are ISIS members cleverly mixed in with the hordes of people who are just trying to escape some very horrible conditions. Sometimes I'm envious of friends who go out to Burning Man for a week and manage to convince themselves that the world is full of rainbows and unicorns. I'm pretty observant and I just don't see much to be encouraged about.

Dot certainly didn't provide a lot of encouragement today. She seemed tired. We had to slow down the treadmill a bit during her physical therapy session because she just didn't have the energy. She was only able to go fifteen minutes this week. It's hard to keep the balance of exercise and rest just right. Maybe it was just the weather. It was warmer today and Dot had gotten used to the cooler weather we were having earlier in the week. We'll rest tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll rest tonight as well.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Dash has a cancer re-check in the morning and I'm not anticipating any problems. He certainly seems healthy now. I've already taken this week's trash out to the curb and am hoping that the truck empties my entire can this time. Friday's are usually good. No matter what happens, I know I can depend on a good breakfast.
 

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1580

One of these days, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go paperless. Every couple of months, I try to wade through the mountain of accumulated paper and throw away as much superfluous mail as I can. I have a tendency to save things that I think might be important, and then forget what was so important about the letter later. On days like today, I find myself throwing away a ton of coupons that expired three years ago, invitations to attend seminars that have already taken place, and the ubiquitous unopened proxy statements. I don't know why I get the proxy statements in the first place. Please vote for the following slate of directors, they say. Like my 100 shares are  actually going to make a difference? Annual reports, proxy statements, unsolicited credit cards, surveys, almost anything from AARP is a total waste of postage.  Today I found five letters that really did need to be dealt with and threw away over 100 that were just junk.

What does it mean when 90% of your e-mail winds up unopened in your spam folder, 95% of your phone calls are from telemarketers, and virtually everything the mailman delivers is junk mail?  I must be the kind of customer marketers are trying to reach, because I am deluged with junk. I don't add my name to "do not call" lists because I'm convinced that this will actually increase the number of telemarketing calls. I never open anything in my spam folder because I think this might trigger a hidden malware application. Proxy statements go directly into the paper shredder. It wasn't always this way. As recently as ten years ago, I looked forward to a visit from the postman and clients routinely called me on the phone instead of sending cryptic e-mails that wind up in my spam folder anyway.

After I reduced my mountain of unopened mail to a more manageable size, I got some bleach soaked rags and tried to clean up my bathroom. Somehow when dust, moisture, and soap interact, it leaves a thin layer of scum that is almost impossible to remove. The electric toothbrush, water pic, soap dishes, and toilet are all sparkling clean now. In about a month, they will all be covered with the same scum again. I'll have to deal with the tile grout another day. That's getting pretty disgusting too.

The only reason I even attempted to deal with these tiresome chores today was that it was pouring rain outside for most of the day. I won't need to water the new grass in the back yard for a few days, but I will need to go up on the roof again and remove all the standing water. I'll need to go to the battery store and get a new 24V lawn mower battery too. If I let the front lawn go too long, it will be a tangled mess of tall weeds within a matter of weeks. The lawn mower battery will be expensive, but it's still a lot easier than putting my gas mower in the car and taking it to one of the city's few remaining lawn mower repair shops. These little shops used to be everywhere, but not anymore. Today, people apparently just drag their non-functioning mowers out to the curb for the trash truck to take away and buy another cheap mower at Home Depot. Actually, they just get a yard guy to mow their grass. I'm one of the only people in my neighborhood who still mows his own grass.

As the day progressed, the skies gradually cleared and by late afternoon there were patches of blue sky punctuated with billowing cumulus clouds. The day started dismally, but it ended up being quite pretty. The dogs were as eager to get out of the house as I was, so we took advantage of the nice weather and went on a long afternoon walk. On the way, I thought I saw a squirrel staring at me from a knot hole in a nearby tree. "This would make a cool picture," I thought, and inched closer to the tree to take a picture. When I got about a yard from the tree, I noticed that it was a rubber squirrel that someone had placed in the knot hole. Sure fooled me. Who would bother to put rubber squirrels in random trees in a public park? You'd have to be crazy. Oh wait. That would describe half the people who visit this park. I guess random rubber squirrels are just another aspect of life in the city.

Valli is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1408

I've been pleased to discover that most of my old dress suits still fit perfectly. I haven't worn some of these suits for decades. When I put my phone in the pocket of a grey Armani suit this morning, I realized that the last time I wore this suit, the iPhone hadn't even been invented yet. I guess the suit hadn't gone out of style though, since one of the sharp dressed lawyers at this morning's breakfast meeting shook my hand to say hello and said "nice suit."

I had to answer several complicated questions via e-mail after I returned from the meeting and began to long for the day's when  my clients preferred to talk on the telephone. A wide variety of things that you could explain in five minutes over the phone seem to inevitably take thirty minutes of typing to get the same point across.

Dot seemed slow and stiff on her morning walk. I don't think she has arthritis, since the stiffness comes and goes. She doesn't limp or have an ACL tear either. Some days she has lots of energy and still seems like a young dog. On other days, she can barely walk from one end of the house to the other. By noon, Dot was completely back to normal, so we went ahead with her scheduled water therapy session. The short movie we made today shows how well she extends her legs underwater. Since the water makes her buoyant and takes a lot of the weight off her legs, it gives her a much wider range of motion than she would normally have. The video is in slow motion so we could study her gait.



Dot and I both had a very a busy day. Dot not only did well at her therapy session, she did equally well at dog training class this evening. For my part, I managed to answer all the questions I was asked in several lengthy e-mails, as well as make some website updates that were long overdue. Tomorrow is another day. I've got a several writing assignments tomorrow and a pile of bills to pay, but at least I won't have to get up early.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1324

I'm always relieved when Dot and I return from her weekly therapy appointments. Driving an old, frail dog around in 102 degree heat in a less than reliable car is never something I look forward to. There are so many things that could go wrong. The car could overheat. The air conditioning could go out. The vibration damper I have on order from England could get worse and throw the fan belt off. Even a flat tire would be disastrous, since Dot's crate would quickly become too hot inside a stationary car. There isn't even a safe way to get Dot out of the car if the Defender broke down on a busy freeway.

At times like these, I wish I lived in a tiny little village that still offered big city services. Do places like this even exist? I'm kind of hooked on taking the dogs to big, full service veterinary hospitals. I like Central Market and Whole Foods for groceries. I enjoy having lots of interesting restaurants nearby and it's always handy to have a Guitar Center in the neighborhood. Everything else, I could live without.

I could certainly continue working from a small town. I never see my clients anymore. Even the folks that are right here in town find it easier to just send me an e-mail. My e-mail assignments kept me pretty busy today. Once Dot's vet appointment was out of the way, the day was virtually identical to yesterday. There was another website to update and three more articles to write. I didn't pay any bills today though.

I'm surprised that the dogs did as well as they did at training class this evening. It was really hot. Dash did a good job with the exercises that didn't involve moving, but I could tell that he would much rather have been at home, sitting near an air conditioning vent. I was so hot that I was very tempted to drink the dog's water. Luckily, the class only lasted an hour.

We start another new month tomorrow. It's hard to believe it's August already. The days are already starting to get shorter. We watched the sun set during training class this evening. Pretty soon the leaves will start to turn and before you know it, we'll be having class in the dark again. These cycles come and go so quickly now. I wish I could slow the clock down a bit. I find I still have time to make plans, but seldom have the time to act on them.

Shelby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1183

Dot received a much more encouraging prognosis at the vet than I was expecting. She doesn't have an ACL tear, which is very good news. She doesn't have severe Spondylosis either, which is equally encouraging. Even the muscle atrophy in her rear legs seems commensurate with her age. There is still something wrong of course. Today's visit was more to rule out life threatening immediate dangers than to get to the bottom of things. That will take time. While Dot and I were at the clinic, my vet showed me her first book, which had just been published. It is a sweet, beautifully illustrated children's book about a girl and an injured Dalmatian. The book gets its title from the fact that Dalmatians can smile. Dot and Dash frequently give me a big smile whenever I return home. I was really impressed with the book, and it isn't just because I love Dalmatians. The book is a heartwarming story that would make a great gift for any child who likes animals. I'm sure Dr. Barton would be extremely happy if a few of you would go to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble and buy a copy of Smile for a friend, or for yourself.

I was surprised to get the Defender 90 back from the shop today. Based on previous experience, I was convinced that it would take months to get the repairs done. Probably the dealer was in a hurry to get the cool little Evoque they loaned me back before I put a dent in it. This car was brand new and had less than 200 miles on it. I definitely wouldn't have minded driving the futuristic little Evoque for a few more days. I've never driven a car that didn't need an ignition key before. It was also cool to have a video view of what was behind you appear on the dash every time you put the car in reverse. Electronically, the Evoque seems as sophisticated as the space shuttle. I wonder how long it will last though. Probably not nearly as long as my Defender. The Defender may not have many bells and whistles, but it's built like a tank.

The day was full of surprises. In addition to the good news about Dot and the surprising early return of my car, there was also the reappearance of my missing client. Some of you may remember me telling you about a client that I was convinced had forgotten about me. It turns out that they hadn't forgotten me at all. They had just forgotten to check and see if their e-mail account was working. For over a month, these guys had been sending e-mails out and never questioning the fact that they never, ever got a reply to their messages. Eventually, they figured out that their e-mail account wasn't working and started calling people on the phone. I don't know about you, but I don't think it would take me a month to figure out that my e-mail account wasn't working. I bet within five minutes, someone would be calling me to complain that they hadn't received their files yet.

Some of you probably think I already spend too much time walking the dogs. I think it's going to take me even longer in the weeks to come. I have to walk Dot and Dash separately for a while to keep Dot from overexerting herself trying to keep up with Dash. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I don't think switching to Daylight Saving Time saved anything at all.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 955

I saw a woman make the sign of the cross before diving into a humongous platter of food this morning. I don't know whether she was blessing the food, or asking for God's assistance in finishing her plate. Yes, you guessed it. I went back to the restaurant with good bacon today. I often overhear people talking about losing weight in this restaurant, but I seldom see thin people. I guess we all have good intentions. I didn't notice whether the woman invoking God finished her plate, but I certainly finished mine. Bacon tastes even better when you haven't had any for several weeks.

Do you ever have days when you feel you are literally drowning in e-mail? Today was one of those days. Every time I tried to answer a question, it seemed to generate two more questions. I never did manage to get all the questions answered. Lots of the mail I received had pictures attached. The pictures were supposed to go on various websites, but as you might expect, none of them were the right size or format. I used to work myself into a panic and ruin my weekends in an effort to get these Friday afternoon assignments off my desk. Now, I just save most of the work until Monday. I can usually work in peace on Mondays, while everyone else is having staff meetings.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for Summer to be over. It's too hot to walk the dogs unless I get them out really early in the mornings. The grass is drying up because of the city's watering restrictions. The air conditioner runs constantly now. I don't even want to see what this month's electric bill is going to be. I think people are generally in a better mood in the Winter as well. The phrase "hot and bothered" isn't just an expression, it's the literal truth.

At least it's Friday. Despite the heat, that's good enough for me. Hey, the stock market was up today. My clients all seem happy. Janet and I had a delicious dinner tonight. As far as I'm concerned, all is well with the world.

Deuce is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day