Day 3263

I think we're ready to go. I've finished testing the photo equipment and it all works. I located the battery I need. Everything is packed in bags and waiting to be loaded into the car. The only missing link is me. I'm still tired, but I guess I passed my test as well. I made it through the day.

Pooping in the bed has become a nightly occurrence. Dash has lost control of his bowels. Since he is pooping in his sleep more frequently now, there is hope that we'll be able to slide a puppy training pad under his butt at some point. If he would sleep soundly and stay in one place, cleanup would be easy.

I thought that I got up early this morning, but tomorrow I'll need to get up even earlier. The photo event starts at 9 AM and it takes me about an hour to set things up. Add in the drive to the location and I'll need to leave the house around 7 AM. I'm not sure how Dash is going to get his walk tomorrow. We need to wait until it is light to walk because of the coyotes. I'm nervous about the coyotes this year because there is an aggressive coyote in a town just North of here that has already bitten several people. No giant earthquakes down here, but we do have a mean coyote.

The earthquake in Alaska today seems pretty major. It reminded me of the big quake in 1964 when I was in high school in Fairbanks. We weren't even close to the epicenter but the pine trees in our yard were waving around like matchsticks and all the water sloshed out of the kitchen sink. Earthquakes are weird and kind of frightening. If you've ever experienced one, you won't forget it.

I was surprised at how difficult it was to find the lithium battery I needed today. I had to go to four different stores. The battery store, which usually stocks every type of battery known to man, was out of stock.  The store manager told me that a man came in last week and bought 600 of these things. Jeez. All I needed were two.

I'll probably regret having pizza for dinner. Pizza almost always gives me heartburn. It tastes good though and neither Janet or I felt like cooking this evening. I didn't feel like cooking this morning either. As soon as I finished walking Dash, I went out for breakfast and ordered the Brioche French Toast and bacon that has become my Friday morning favorite.

None of my model trains sold in November. Damn. I was hoping that November would be a good month. December is bound to be better. Surely somebody will want a train for Christmas. I'm hoping that interest will pick up for the online Prints and Multiples auction I'm currently participating in. My consignments are bargains. They'd make good Christmas presents too. It's weird that I've become so interested in selling things these days. I'm not interested in buying stuff at all. That's definitely a first for me.

I hope I survive tomorrow's photo shoot. Just kneeling to put on Dash's socks and boots in the morning makes my knees hurt. The thought of doing this all day makes me cringe. I'm going to look on the bright side. After this weekend it's all downhill. I have no plans whatsoever for the rest of the year.

Belle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1848

As if today wasn't strange enough already, we had an earthquake in Dallas this evening. There have been small quakes in the area for the past month or so, but this was the first one I've actually felt. I was taking a short nap with the dogs after dinner I heard the windows and doors of the house start to rattle and shake. At first I thought the noise had been caused by a loud truck going by or maybe one of those kids who install huge bass speakers in the trunk of their cars. Then I remembered that there was no traffic on the road before the house started to rattle. "I wonder if this was an earthquake," I thought? Sure enough it was. So much for the theory that dogs can sense earthquakes before they happen. Dot and Dash slept through the whole thing.

Earlier in the day, I put a load of clothes in the washer, added soap, and pressed the start button. Nothing happened! I tried again and again and kept getting an error message saying that the door of the front loader wasn't closed. Damn! The door looked like it was closed properly. This happened once before and it resulted in an entire week without a washing machine. I hate going to laundromats, so I immediately called the appliance repair folks who fixed the machine the first time it broke. Luckily, I was able to get a repairman out this afternoon, but just like the first time this happened, the repairman didn't have the part he needed on the truck. The part has to be special ordered and it looks like I will be without a washer for a week again. I don't think I will ever buy a front loader again. If the door goes bad on a top loader, it's no big deal. You kind of need the door to stay securely closed on a front loader though.

I was hoping that Dash's exam at the vet this afternoon would be totally routine, but it turns out that he has a few issues that need to be addressed. I've known that Dash's blood pressure is a little high, but apparently it's getting worse. Some of this is caused because he becomes stressed when he goes to the vet. I'll need to find a way to take his blood pressure at home to see if this is serious. There were no crystals in his urine, which is a good thing. His pH levels were too high though, which is a bad thing. Alkaline urine can be caused by a urinary tract infection, a diet that is high in carbs or sugar, or half a dozen other causes. Both these tests were inconclusive and more testing will be required. All in all, Dash was still pretty healthy though. Janet and I checked Dash carefully for ticks before he went to the vet. The vet still found a tick on him. He seems to be a magnet for ticks. I have to check him every day.

I started to make travel arrangements for my trip to Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning and discovered that there is no easy way to get there from here. There are no direct flights to Santa Barbara from Dallas, and all the connecting flights seem to involve plane changes with long layovers at connecting airports. It might be easier to just fly to Los Angeles and drive to the base. Some of the connecting flights from Dallas went all the way to Portland, Oregon before connecting with a flight to Santa Barbara. This seemed ridiculous to me, so I'll try to find something better tomorrow. I thought making airline reservations would be as easy as doing a load of laundry. It was! Absolutely nothing was easy today.

Alle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 616

We always see interesting things on our morning walks. Today, I noticed a slice from a giant tree trunk in a neighbor's driveway with a colorful butterfly painted on it. The tree trunk was obviously too heavy to lift, so it was still sitting on the pallet where the delivery truck left it. I don't know if this large chunk of wood is destined to become a coffee table or if it is artwork that will hang on a very sturdy wall. It is pretty though. I'm glad the dogs didn't pee on it as we walked by.

I heard about this morning's earthquake on Google+ about two seconds after it happened. Maybe the way the world gets its news really is changing. They say that Twitter is bustling with news of current events around the world. Maybe so, but most of the Tweets I get are either about somebody's dog or about the latest new YA vampire novel. It is interesting about the earthquake though, because evidently the news traveled faster via social media than the actual seismic wave and people in some parts of the East Coast learned about the quake on Google+ before they actually felt the shock themselves.

I took Dot to the vet this afternoon for more blood work. They think she might have a thyroid problem and wanted to do some additional tests. Dash thinks a trip to the vet is a social outing, but Dot is still terrified of the whole experience. I was amazed to see Dot sitting right next to a rabbit in the lobby. She was so concerned about what was going to happen next that she didn't even notice the bunny. Ordinarily, her hunting instincts kick into high gear whenever she's within thirty feet of a rabbit.

I've been doing an awful lot of writing lately. For the sake of variety, would be nice to mix things up with some more photography jobs. Photography jobs than had a decent budget and involved travel to exotic locations would be especially nice. I'm not knocking writing though. Writing is still more interesting than updating employees on company websites.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 451

When I went to bed last night, I never dreamed I'd wake up watching a disaster of biblical proportions in Japan. Events like this make you realize that we don't have nearly as much control over our lives as we think we do. I know we are supposed to live each day as if it is our last, but I still tend to live each day as if I have an unlimited number of days ahead of me to correct today's mistakes. I really need to pay more attention to making each day count.

While I was watching the news from Japan on TV, I got a surprise call from Germany. Would I be interested in coordinating social media coverage for a huge multi-national company while they were attending a week long international trade fair in Houston later this Spring? You bet I would! I've got about a week to put together a team and submit a bid for the project. If I get the job, I will be blogging about the company during the trade show and directing a series of short daily video segments that will be uploaded to YouTube and Facebook during the event.

Just so I don't get a big head about this huge opportunity, I need to remember that tomorrow afternoon, I'm taking the mobile studio out to take a photo of someone's puppy. What an odd little company I have. Do you need an elaborate multi-national advertising campaign. Hey, I can do that. Or maybe you just need a picture of your cat. I can do that too.

We've just got a new Dalmatian in the rescue program. His name is Pringles and he came from the Collin County pound. It's going to be a busy weekend, but I need to get up and take some pictures of the new boy as soon as possible, so we can get him up on the Dalmatian Rescue website. This guy is cute! I wouldn't be surprised if he gets adopted before I get the pictures taken.

Dalmatian of the Day

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