Day 1774

When I went to breakfast this morning I couldn't figure out why I was having so much trouble parking my car. Jeez, I come to this place every week. I should be able to park here blindfolded. When I got out of the car, I noticed that the restaurant had re-striped the parking lot and every single parking space was exactly one foot narrower than it was the week before. Sad. Maybe they can squeeze an extra Prius or two into the parking lot now, but what is the point if nobody else can even fit between the white lines? A couple of F-250 Super Duty pickups in the lot didn't even come close. They were so far over the line that only a motorcycle could park in the next slot. When I got my meal with a plastic fork, instead of the customary metal one, I knew the dreaded restaurant consultants had struck again. I don't know why people are so compelled to squeeze every last dime out of their business. It's often the little things, like a decent sized parking place, that customers like the most. When you take these things away people notice. I predict that metal silverware will be back next week. Nobody likes a plastic fork.

I had to drive down to Baylor Hospital for another periodic blood test at the liver center today. When I arrived, I noticed three huge fire department Hazmat trucks and four police cars parked in front of the main building with their lights flashing. There were also about a dozen uniformed officers and a camera crew in the general vicinity. When I checked in at the liver center, I was asked to sign a document saying that I hadn't visited Africa in the past 30 days. I told the receptionist I had never visited Africa in my life and in light of recent developments it was unlikely that I would ever visit the place. I also asked about all the Hazmat trucks parked out front and she just shrugged and said it could be anything. I guess this is the new normal now. When I got home there was absolutely nothing about this dramatic little incident on the local news. It was probably just another false alarm.

I've been trying to terminate my account with one of those companies that monitors security alarms for over two years now. They were overpriced and just didn't do a good job. I send them an official letter requesting that my account be terminated and was assured that I had done everything correctly. Thee only problem was that my account kept being auto-renewed year after year and I kept getting invoices. Whenever I called to complain, the company would apologize profusely and tell me they were aware of the problem and that it would be taken care of. After being assured six months ago by the head of the accounts receivable department that my account was indeed terminated and that I had a $0 balance, I get another call today, saying I owe them $300. I called the same lady who told me that everything was fine last time and explained the situation. She told me that everything was fine again and told me to ignore the phone call. Somehow I don't think this is over. This entire company is brain dead.

Sometimes I think the entire country is brain dead. There is mounting evidence that our government is brain dead. I heard recently that Asians were the fastest growing segment of our population. Large corporations are importing them in record numbers because they just can't find enough people who already live here to fill the highly technical positions these companies need. I have said for a long time that the Chinese will be the first to land on Mars. We're over here fighting about raising the minimum wage at McDonald's when thousands and thousands of really high paying jobs are going unfilled because people graduate from our schools with no real skills. We could learn something from the Chinese, but nobody's listening. I'm glad I was a war baby who had a trouble free childhood in the 1950's and an exciting time coming of age in the 1960's. Things have certainly gone downhill since then.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1476

Janet returned from her Christmas trip today. I only fly a couple of times a year these days, so every time I go to the airport, I'm amazed at all the changes. Anybody who expects job growth to return any time soon needs to take a good long look at DFW airport. People are being replaced by machines in droves. The attendants who used to hand you a parking ticket when you entered the airport have largely been replaced by machines. In many terminals, the ticketing agents have been replaced by machines as well. You print your own ticket and boarding pass without talking to anyone. In the international terminal, there is even a machine that will scan and verify your passport. Flying isn't very exclusive anymore either. To my untrained eye, it looked like the people waiting for their bags at the baggage carrousel had arrived directly from Walmart. I'm sure that all the machines keep costs down so these scruffy looking people can fly instead of taking the bus.

The year is finally winding down. By the end of the day, I looked around the office and realized there was nothing more to do. I'm caught up! Since tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I might actually be finished for the year. I'm not worried that this lull will continue. It never does. Traditionally, January is usually a busy month.

Although the year is ending tomorrow, there is still plenty of unfinished business from 2013. For starters, my neighbor's tree is still sitting on my roof. The owner of the aggressive dogs down the street hasn't fixed his fence either. I need to call my hepatologist and find out when he wants me to start my new Hepatitis C treatment. For several years my doctors have told me that January 2014 would be the date when the new treatment would be approved by the FDA. Now, 2014 is here. Oh, I guess I need to find out what this so called "donut hole" that has made the cost of my prescriptions skyrocket is all about as well.

I'm not making any New Year's resolutions this year. I've given up most of the guilty pleasures already, so there's not much more to abstain from. I'm not trying to better myself either. Maybe I could be a kinder, more sensitive, or harder working person if I really tried, but what would be the point? Life is difficult enough as it is. Maybe I'll just resolve to get up every morning and make the bed.  That should take care of things for another year.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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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

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Day 899

The stock market is an unmitigated disaster. The Dow was down another 274 points today. I don't think I've seen things in this big of a mess since I started investing. Nobody seems to know what to do anymore. The slightest whiff of bad news can send stocks tumbling. You wonder why a bad jobs report would cause this much turmoil? Doesn't everybody already know that there aren't any jobs?  Doesn't everybody already know that jobs aren't coming back soon? When manufacturers discovered that they could make things dirt cheap in China and Malaysia, they're not going to come back here and make things the expensive way anymore. That ship has already sailed. We can't just give everybody government jobs like they did in Greece either. Then we'll just end up like Greece. Personally, I think we're a lot closer to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome than we care to admit.

Breakfast was pleasant today. Instead of having a trendy fusion cuisine creation or an omelet packed with every kind of smoked meat imaginable, I just had pancakes. I haven't had pancakes in quite a while and the simple meal was quite satisfying. I used to make pancakes myself fairly often, but they seem to taste better if someone else makes them. I wish I could afford to eat out every day. I'm starting to realize that I really prefer eating in restaurants.

I had to pick up some prescriptions this afternoon. Whenever I go to the pharmacy, I end up in line behind a bunch of old people who take forever to get their prescriptions filled. I feel like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol when he is visited by the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Will I ever be this slow or have this many pills to take? I certainly hope not! Lord help me if I creep up to the counter with a cane and take 30 minutes to get all my pills sorted out. It's not a pretty sight.

This weekend was when we were hoping to get 101 Dalmatians out to the new dog park. Things aren't going so well. Maybe we were a little ambitious. The invitations have gone out, but based on the responses we've been getting so far, we're going to be lucky if we get 10 Dalmatians out to the park. Oh, well. I still think it was a fun idea.

June is here. I think I'm going to sell my rent house this month. I know I'm going to get a year older this month. I have no idea whatsoever what the stock market is going to do.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 560

Dash always gets his antigen shot on Tuesday. Today, the vet and I spent so much time talking about all of Dash's other ailments that we forgot to give him the shot. Dash and I were walking out to the car to go home when I finally remembered what we were here for. Back inside we went, and yes, we did finally get the shot. Dash has to fast tonight, because tomorrow morning, he goes back to the vet again for blood work. The vet thinks there may be a problem with his pancreas and he needs a special blood test to determine if this is the cause of his recurring vomiting and diarrhea.

The boys in the family seem to have all the medical problems. Between us, Dash and I definitely spend a lot of time at the doctor. Janet and Dot never seem to get sick. The girls just have dental problems. True to form, Dot needs to have her teeth looked at again in July.

Some friends of ours are taking a car trip with their two dogs to see the American West. We get periodic pictures showing the dogs visiting Indian cliff dwellings in Colorado, the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, and dipping their paws in the Puget Sound near Seattle. I used to live out West and these pictures bring back good memories. So far, I've been to every place I've seen in the e-mail pictures. It makes me wonder why I ever moved to Dallas. If you asked me where a nice place to live might be, my answer would far more likely be a place like Flathead Lake, Montana than Dallas, Texas. Texas was were the jobs were though. That's why I moved here. Evidently, Texas is still where the jobs are. I saw a statistic on television the other day that said that over 30% of all the new jobs created in the United States last year were created in Texas. That's pretty amazing. There are 50 states and Texas has one third of all the new jobs? What are the other states doing wrong?

I hope Dash sleeps better tonight. Last night he kept waking me up in the middle of the night frantically scratching at the back door to go out. At least he didn't poop on the bed or carpet though. I'm still trying to get the smell of yesterday's mishaps out of the house.

Dalmatian of the Day

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