Day 1472

Today I served as a pet taxi, taking Dot, and then Dash to two different vet appointments in different parts of town. Thursday isn't usually our day to go to the vet, but both of these appointments had been re-scheduled due to the holidays. Dot got to experience something new today. She's has had some stiffness in one of her legs ever since she slipped on the ice a few weeks ago, so the vet thought she might respond to cold laser therapy. I'd heard of using low level lasers to treat treat dogs with arthritis and soft tissue injuries, but this was the first time I'd actually seen one of these lasers in use. Dot seemed to respond well to the treatment and I could tell she was feeling a bit better on her evening walk.

Dash's visit to the vet later the same afternoon was a little more prosaic. Instead of a soothing laser or water treadmill session, he got his anal glands cleaned. With a clean butt and his bi-weekly antigen shot, he was good to go. Dash shouldn't complain though. He's basically still a young, strong, and very healthy dog.

Work was slow today, so the two vet visits were the main events of the day. I did get a couple of new assignments, so there will be plenty to do tomorrow. I guess I could have started on some of the website revisions today, but the client said there was no rush. Even the writing assignments aren't due until next week. The year is definitely winding down. Nobody is thinking of anything new quite yet, and that's fine with me. There will be plenty of time for ambitious new plans in the Spring.

I need to make some ambitious new plans myself. I haven't made a film or done any video projects for a while and it's time that I do a little marketing again. I always like to do two or three video projects every year to keep the bread and butter website revisions and writing assignments from getting too boring. My veterinary and medical clients all seem to like video, so maybe I'll propose something to one of them. I need to be careful not to bite off more than I can chew with video however. I like to work alone, and after a certain point, you always end up having to hire a crew to deliver what you promised. Little video projects without tight deadlines are perfect for me. I can shoot and edit these things myself for a very reasonable budget when someone isn't in a hurry.

I called the Land Rover dealer today and asked about adding a towing package to my car. No problem, said my service representative. The price was way more than I expected though. I guess some things never change.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1420

Today was dismal. The skies were sullen and grey, accompanied by a cold, all-day rain. I would have preferred to just have stayed under a blanket today, but I had to pick up some more phenobarbital for Dash at the vet and the dogs still needed their walks. Every time I went outside, there were muddy shoes that needed to be cleaned and wet dogs that needed to be dried off. I wish I could just train the dogs to use a catbox on days like this, but we all know that's not going to happen.

While we were walking in the rain, I noticed a film crew working in the park. There were four grip trucks, several tents, and a large motor home for the actors. Why would anyone want to film something on a day like this? Maybe they were in the park for the same reason I was. Some things just can't be postponed. On the other hand, maybe the movie had a scene that takes place in the rain. In that case, they picked the perfect day.

This would have been a perfect day for me to hunker down and write, but I seldom get writing assignments on Mondays. Usually the writing assignments start filtering in later in the week when I have plenty of other things to do. Without any pending deadlines to spur me on, I uploaded some more pictures to Shutterstock. So far, more people seem to be downloading my images on Shutterstock than on iStockphoto. Although this is encouraging, Shutterstock pays less, so I doubt that the increased activity will net me any more money in the long run.

When I saw my Hepatologist recently, he suggested that I probably ought to see a kidney specialist. Apparently, the radiologist had noticed that something had changed in my kidney on the MRI they took. I don't know why each organ in the body needs its own doctor, but that's apparently the way it works. You'd think that a liver doctor would work on kidneys too, since they both filter things. Nope! I needed to see a kidney doctor, so that's where I'm going tomorrow.

I wonder how long it will be before I see the sun again. I do much better when the sun is shining. The weather forecast isn't encouraging. It looks like there will be at least two more days of continuous rain.

Ginger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1250

Sometimes when I listen to all the workmen tramping around up on the roof, I start thinking of myself as a job creator. By putting on a new roof, I've provided a job for quite a few people. Creating jobs is good, right? I should stop right there. After I start thinking of myself as a job creator, the next thing I start thinking about is whether all these jobs are even necessary. It's almost inevitable to start thinking this way, because in almost any work environment, a lot of the people appear to be doing nothing.

This is one reason I hated being a film production company. I always had to hire a crew to shoot the television commercials I was hired to do, and yet I kept thinking that if only the client would give me a lot more time, I could just do the whole thing myself. People never pay much when you do everything yourself though. They expect a dog and pony show. I always had to hire people I didn't really need, just so the clients would think I was professional and that they were getting their money's worth. If writers worked like film crews, they could probably make a lot more money. One writer could just do the verbs, another could be responsible for the adverbs and prepositions, and so forth.

I'm probably being too critical about the workplace. Maybe all the roofers on my roof actually do have a purpose. I don't know. It would seem that you would only need about half as many workers though if they stayed all day. So far, they only seem to stay about half a day and then they all go home.

If I owned a big company, I would be replacing workers with non-complaining machines as fast as I could. I'd be putting robots on the assembly line. I'd be replacing bank tellers with ATM machines. I'd eliminate the store entirely and just sell everything online. Every time I hear someone on TV wondering when all the jobs are going to come back, I just shake my head and wonder. The jobs are never going to come back the way they used to be. Like it or not, a machine is probably going to replace you pretty soon.

What is coming back exactly the way it used to be is the Texas heat. When I was running errands this afternoon, I looked at a thermometer and it was already over 100 degrees. Poor Dot. She really has a hard time dealing with the heat as she gets older and her afternoon walks are getting shorter and shorter. I try not to push her too hard as the temperatures rise. When she's ready to go home again, we turn around, even if we've only gone a few hundred yards. Although walking the dogs is more fun, it looks like I'm going to have to get my Summer exercise by mowing the yard.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day