Day 3210 - Columbus Day

I must have checked the mail five times before I realized it was Columbus Day. This is an invisible holiday. I almost always forget this day unless I happen to go to the bank or post office and discover that they're closed. I think this holiday will eventually suffer the same fate as the statues of Columbus that are being toppled around the country. The man has definitely fallen out of favor. He already has to contend with a competing holiday that is celebrated by people who wish Columbus had never discovered anything.

Columbus Day isn't the only thing that's going away. Google+ is going away too. Why am I surprised. Popularity has waned in recent years and Google has decided it just isn't worth the trouble to maintain the site anymore. That's a shame. Google+ has always been my favorite social media site. It was a great place to discover new ideas and share photos with like-minded photographers. Instead of people I went to high school with, there were people who actually shared my interests. I had some good conversations. Google+ was the only social media site where I actually built a following. I guess it makes sense that the platform wasn't able to survive. Sooner or later, just about everything I really like goes belly up. The list of favored restaurants, products, magazines, cars, bands, websites, and furniture that have vanished from my life is quite long. Somehow, Walmart is still here though.

It finally happened. Dash pooped on the Persian rug in the living room. He almost always poops on the bricks, but he must have gotten lost on his way to the back door. Needless to say, cleanup was more difficult than usual. I wish that yesterday was a day when Dash's poop was firm, but I have no control over these things. You can't get mad at Dash though. He really does the best he can. I just hope that I don't become incontinent in my final years. There is nothing pleasant about incontinence.

I wonder if I've fallen out of favor with NASA. I used to get a lot better response when I applied to participate in their launches and special events. Now, it's crickets. The application I submitted last month was rejected and I still haven't received a response to my latest application. I'm sure the criteria for social media coverage has changed. When I filled out the latest application form, they weren't even interested in what I was doing on Google+. They were interested in Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit and a host of other things I never bother with.

The weather was weird today. There were severe weather and flash flood alerts on my TV and phone all day, but it didn't rain much at all in our part of town. I was even able to take Dash on morning and evening walks without getting wet. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow and then again later in the week. I definitely don't think we need to worry about a drought anymore.

Sometimes I feel like writing about more substantial things than the weather and dogs. I despise arguments though. Our entire society has become way too argumentative. I blame this on the rise of tribalism and a lack of shared values. Some of you probably don't agree. That's why I like dogs so much. Dogs can't talk.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2863

I think Jawbone has pulled the plug on my fitness tracker. It hasn't been saving steps or heart rate data for the past several days. I guess I should have expected this. The company is going bankrupt. They stopped manufacturing fitness trackers over a year ago and don't even answer their phone anymore. Customer service is non-existant. I guess it was only a matter of time before they decided to shut down the servers that sync your data.

It's a shame I'll have to quit using my latest UP band. It hasn't even broken yet. The product quality for these things has always been terrible, but I really like the little tracker. I've had numerous Jawbone trackers, mostly because they inevitably quit working after a year or so. Jawbone used to be really good about replacing defective trackers, but I think they became overwhelmed when their entire customer base started demanding replacement bands. The UP3 is still one of the smallest, least obtrusive activity trackers you can buy. It's easy for me to wear one on my right hand and still wear a watch on my left. I'm going to miss this worthless product.

I used to jokingly tell friends that I should become a product tester for manufacturers. If I really like something it is almost guaranteed to fail. It I hate it, there's a good chance it will become a runaway success. I'm the guy who used to own two Citroën automobiles. Back in the tape era, I used to favor Betamax. Every store I've bought furniture from has gone out of business. While other professional photographers use Nikon and Canon, I have stubbornly stuck with Olympus. It's uncanny how consistently I become fond of unpopular products.

Sadly, my taste for unpopular things even extends to restaurant menus. I stopped to pick up some Thai food for dinner on my way home from the post office this afternoon and discovered that my favorite go-to meal had been removed from the menu. This happens surprisingly often. One of the reasons I don't enjoy my Friday morning breakfast outings as much anymore is that I've never been able to find anything as good as the Migas the little neighborhood restaurant that went out of business made.

We put on Dash's knee brace and protective boots before Janet left for work again. He doesn't seem to want to walk early in the morning anymore, but if I let him wander around the house for a while while I'm eating breakfast, he eventually gets in the mood. When I see him head toward the back door, I'm ready. My coat and Dash's leash are on a chair near the door. I already have my dog walking shoes on, so it only takes a few seconds to hook him up and go. Usually Dash feels like walking while I'm in the middle of breakfast, but that's OK. I just finish my meal when we get back.

I'm not sure if Dash's heart condition is improving, but he certainly is happier now. He gets a can of Castor and Pollux stew in the morning and a can of Hills ID in the evening. We usually walk about 10 AM and he gets a snack early in the afternoon. He still sleeps a lot and doesn't play much anymore, but that's OK too. He's getting old.

There was no work today, so I wrote a letter to my sister. If more people started writing letters and quit depending on their phone, many of the problems we have with hacking and identity fraud would simply go away. A connected world creates a lot of problems. I'm sure my little fitness tracker would still be working fine if it was self contained and didn't have to store all it's information in the cloud. I don't like to depend on a server in California or India. I wish the strawberries I like were raised locally. I wish my clothing was made in a local factory. I'm not a fan of globalism at all. With my track record, this means that globalism is exactly what we'll get.

Pearl is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1661

I noticed today that I have over 2 million page views on my Google+ page. That sure sounds like a lot to me, but it probably has no significance whatsoever. If anything, it just means that a lot of people like my photography when it's free. The number of people who are actually willing to pay for my photos is much, much smaller.

Janet wanted me to fix one of her watches today. At one point about six years ago I became fascinated with watch repair. I bought books on the subject, invested in tools and calibration instruments, met other watchmakers, and even managed to fix a few watches. I broke quite a few while I was learning, but it was all part of the process. My interest seems to have dissipated. When I got out my tools today, fixing a watch seemed about as exciting as cleaning the toilet. I managed to get Janet's watch working again without losing any of the tiny screws, and then put new batteries in a few of my own while I had the tools out. When I finished, I wondered how I ever became interested in this somewhat esoteric subject in the first place. Watches are a strange obsession for me. I seldom, if ever, even care what time it is.

Although my interest in watch repair, songwriting, film making, and electric trains may be on the wane, I do still care about some things. I care about the dogs, so I got up early so they could have a nice walk before it got too hot. I care about breakfast, so I went to my favorite restaurant today, knowing that tomorrow is a holiday. I care about the blog, so I keep writing in hopes that I'll have something interesting to tell you one of these days.

The sister I thought had disappeared from the face of the earth has reappeared. She still lives on the same farm, but has gone off the grid, ditching the Internet, her land line, and mail delivery to her house. I think she checks her mail once a month at a post office box in a neighboring town. I don't think she's missing all that much. My own land line seems to be exclusively for telemarketers and robo-calls these days. My mail box is filled with flyers, catalogs, and coupons for pizza, oil changes, and gym memberships. I haven't gotten a real letter in months. My e-mail in-box is more or less the same. I still get sporadic messages from clients, but the vast majority of my e-mail is spam. Life would probably be better without any of these things.

I hope we have a peaceful, quiet Independence Day. Dot used to hate the Fourth of July, because the loud fireworks upset her. Now that she's starting to go deaf, it probably isn't that big of a deal anymore. Janet is still a judge at a neighborhood Fourth of July parade. We still cook burgers on the grill for our holiday dinner. We don't sit on the grass by the lake and watch fireworks anymore though. The mosquitoes and fire ants would eat us alive.

Bob Hope is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1473

When I saw some aggressive dogs ahead on our morning walk, I quickly changed direction and picked an alternate route. This was fortunate for the dogs, but not so good for me. The new trail was filled with fresh horse poop, which Dash devoured at every opportunity, and lots of mud. I cleaned the mud off the dogs paws when I returned home, but I really wished I could have cleaned Dash inside and out. I don't know how Dash acquired his taste for horse poop, but it's fairly disgusting.

With the morning walk out of the way, I was off to my favorite restaurant for my perennial Friday favorite: two poached eggs served over a bed of pulled pork, peppers, and hash browned potatoes. Yes, it was another completely normal Friday.

After a leisurely breakfast, I picked up some groceries for the weekend, filled the car with gas, and settled down to another day of writing and website work. I often wonder why I stay so busy while doing stuff that really doesn't matter. I guess it must matter to somebody. I'm not exactly setting the world on fire here, but I am paying the bills. When I look at my Google+ stream, I'm humbled by all the people I see doing truly remarkable things. Of course, all I have to do is look at Facebook to realize that I'm actually still doing pretty well.

It's getting harder and harder to walk Dot and Dash together. Dot likes a sedate walk on level ground where she doesn't have to worry about falling or stumbling. Dash loves to race up hills, chase rabbits, and be as disruptive as he possible can. There's nothing wrong with either type of behavior. It's just hard for an old dog and a young dog to agree on things. It's my job to find a middle ground that will keep both of these dogs happy. I figure if I can do this, I can do almost anything.

With Janet away, I'm having a very difficult time telling one day from another. Her very predictable rituals always gave me a clue about what was going to happen next. The dogs don't care what day it is. To them, and increasingly to me, the weekdays and the weekends are all the same. I've got to be careful here, or I could easily end up working straight through the weekend and accidentally squander my two days of rest. My work is so amorphous that I sometime have difficulties telling the difference between work and leisure as well. Am I working all the time, or never working at all? I guess it all depends on your point of view.

I was thinking about going to see Gravity tomorrow in 3-D at a local iMax theater. The nearest iMax theater seems a bit too far away though, so I'll probably just wait until Gravity comes out on DVD in February. I'm not in much of a hurry about anything these days.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1334

When we took Dot and Dash to our favorite dog washing emporium this morning, we discovered much to our surprise that it was no longer there. The building was empty with a "For Lease" sign on the door. There wasn't an explanation for the abrupt departure. Not even a "We've Moved" message or phone number. Something must have gone terribly wrong. Established businesses don't typically disappear overnight.

We managed to find an alternate place to wash the dogs, but it was a shame to see another neighborhood business bite the dust. Businesses I like seem to have a habit of going bust. I could make a long list of beloved restaurants, furniture stores, camera stores, indoor dog parks, old fashioned hardware stores, and esoteric hobby shops that are no longer around to amuse me.

I've often thought I ought to hire myself out as a new business consultant. In an odd way, my judgement is almost infallible. If I love your business idea, it's going to fail. If I hate your idea, you'll probably make millions. Time after time, businesses that I thought were tailor made for people like me just couldn't make it in Dallas. Businesses I'm not so fond of, on the other hand, seem to thrive. As evidence, there are Wal-Marts, McDonalds, and Payday Loan stores on every corner in this town.

I thought it would be a good day to recharge batteries today and discovered that an old Macintosh laptop that I had spent a considerable amount of money repairing not so long ago, wouldn't boot up anymore. I think I've only started up the old laptop three times since I had it repaired and now it's broken again. If my luck holds true to form, my warranty on the repair probably ran out two weeks ago. That's usually what happens. I don't need this computer at all, but I hate to throw it away. I need to join some sort of twelve step program for people who can't throw things away. I continually fix and repair old things I don't need and seldom use, "just in case" I might need them someday.

Dot and Dash are going to be doggie ambassadors for Dalmatian Rescue tomorrow. That's one reason we gave them a bath today. The dogs are usually quite well behaved at these pet store events. I seem to remember that this particular store has a big glass case filled with rabbits and ferrets however. Show me a dog that isn't interested in rabbits and I can almost guarantee it isn't a Dalmatian

J-Lo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day