Day 1254

I called the Land Rover dealer about my car this morning and they seemed genuinely surprised that they'd had the Defender over a month now. When I asked what was wrong with the car, they didn't know. The guy I talked to said he'd check and get right back to me. I haven't heard from him since.

I had a hard time concentrating today. There was a noisy road crew re-paving the street in front of our house and of course the roofers were still banging around up on the roof. Dot has an odd reaction to the roofers. No matter how much noise the roofers make, she seems oblivious to them when she's in the house. Outside, it's a totally different story. If she actually happens to see someone up on the roof, she goes nuts barking. I've never seen a clearer case of "out of sight, out of mind." If I didn't know better, I'd think Dot might be going deaf. I know she can hear quite well though. All I have to do is whisper the word "cookie" and she comes running.

One of my clients called today and said they wanted to send me to Las Vegas to cover the upcoming Couture watch and jewelry show. It ought to be an interesting assignment, but I still can't figure out why they waited so long to make a decision. This has been an off again, on again project for almost a month now. If I knew about this earlier, I'm sure I could have gotten a much better deal on hotel and airfare. The closer you get to a departure date, the more expensive the plane ticket and hotel room are going to be.

Janet and I didn't have to wear jackets to dog training class for the first time this season. It was actually quite warm tonight. Dot and Dash seemed to enjoy the nice weather, but they were both pretty stubborn in class. Dot didn't want to lie down and Dash didn't want to stay still. I completed the motley crew by blowing my nose every few minutes. Yes, Spring allergies are back with a vengeance.

After listening to all the experts on TV talk about what to do in case a tornado is headed your way, I realize that our house has no safe room whatsoever. The architect may have though the design was cool, but he should have added a few interior rooms. Even the closets and bathrooms are on exterior walls. There is a ton of glass too. Probably the only thing that would keep the entire house from blowing away would be if one of our big oak trees fell on top  of it.

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1249

It was a busy day. The roofers woke us up with a lot of banging and pounding over our head. It's clear that roofers get off to an earlier start than I do. The dogs have kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude about all the activity. As long as they can't actually see the roofers, they don't bark all that much. I guess they're pretty used to noise on the roof. Quite a few tree limbs have fallen on the roof over the years and of course, I'm up there myself quite a bit getting the water off.

I had lunch with my ad agency friend today. I'll have to admit I was a bit envious of my friend. He drove up in a brand new Lexus IS convertible and proceed to tell me about the fantastic vacation in Rome he just returned from. My friend has never looked healthier or happier. He's on permanent disability. Nice work if you can get it is all I've got to say.

After an unusually healthy lunch, considering the way we both used to eat, I went grocery shopping at Central Market and then returned home to finish my work for the week. I was glad to see the roofers leaving for the day when I arrived. I had put up with all the noise I could handle this morning.

I went to the airport this evening to pick up Janet. I checked the American Airlines website just before I left, to make sure that the arrival time or the gate hadn't changed. They're always changing gate assignments at the last minute. The gate was the same, but the website said that the flight was going to be early. While I was driving to the airport, they must have changed their mind. When I arrived at the designated baggage claim area, I discovered that the flight in question was actually going to be late. This happens all the time. No wonder this company went bankrupt.

Dot and Dash were delighted to see Janet again. Dash got so excited that he started jumping straight up in the air. When he makes these vertical leaps, he can get three feet off the ground. All this activity would have been fine, except he was doing his wild leaping around in the living roof. I'm always scared he'll land right on top of the glass coffee table and cut himself. Once we let the dogs outside to blow off steam, they both quieted down and were calm again. They must have known what was coming next: some tasty dog treats from one of the suitcases in the hall.

I think the roofers said they were coming back tomorrow. Oh, well. We certainly won't need an alarm clock in the morning.

Susie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 933

Life is unpredictable to say the least. I think of myself as a rock 'n roll, art gallery kind of guy. Imagine my surprise when I learned that a nature magazine wanted to interview me for an article. That's what happened though. You can read the resulting interview in today's edition of Nature Center Magazine. I guess it all makes sense in an odd sort of way. I don't go to concerts anymore and I rarely visit art galleries. How do I spend my days? I walk my dogs through the woods.

Maybe my daily walks with the Dalmatians make me more of a nature buff than I might have thought. I've certainly learned a bit about plants and animals during our walks. I'll be the first to tell you that photographing squirrels isn't quite as exciting as photographing fashion models, but the same principles apply. I try my best to make the squirrels look pretty. I also try to avoid snakes and poison ivy. I just like the pretty parts of nature.

I thought I might be able to escape work entirely this week, but no such luck. My clients seem to be slowly but surely returning to their offices. I got several new assignments today and actually managed to finish one of them. I'm still slaving away on my big website makeover project as well. Remind me never to do a site with over 400 pages again. It's simply too big. Even though I created the original site that I am now in the process of updating, I can't even remember half the stuff I added over the years. As I struggle to simplify things, I wonder if any of these obscure pages were ever really important.

While I was feeding the dogs lunch today, I heard a loud crash up on the roof. It sounded like a big, dead tree limb had fallen right over the bedroom. I climbed up to take a look and what did I see? Nothing! There were no fallen tree limbs, no debris, nothing at all. I even looked over the edge of the roof to see if the limb had bounced off the roof and landed on the ground below.  Nothing on the ground either. Now, I'm wondering if I was just imaging things. I know I heard a loud noise though. I'll probably wonder about this for weeks.

Isabella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day