Day 4683

I got up early to take my car in for service this morning. They told me that if I was the first customer, I could wait while they did the work and I wouldn't have to leave the car for the day. The service appointment didn't take long because one of their machines broke and they couldn't do everything they'd planned. I did get an oil and filter change though and they turned off the annoying "service required" light on the dash. I was back home again before 9 AM.

I got an unpleasant surprise this morning when my hotel in Titusville called and told me that they had to cancel my reservation. What? Apparently they had a severe plumbing problem and an entire floor of the hotel had flooded. This left me in a bad situation. I'd made my reservations early to make sure I had a room for the next Artemis launch attempt. Now it was several weeks later and I had to scramble to find anything that wasn't already completely booked. All the convenient Airbnb's in the area were gone. I eventually found a hotel in Cocoa Beach, but it was a lot further away than I would have liked. Even worse, I will have to leave Dallas on launch day just to get a room. This won't really be a problem since the launch is at midnight but it is cutting things a little close. I kept looking and finally found another hotel that was closer to the space center but it was kind of run down. I booked this one too. I'll think about it for a few days and cancel one of the reservations. Since I'm leaving a day later now, I had to change my airline and rental car reservations as well. All this kind of makes me wonder why I do this. Attending a popular launch is so much trouble to arrange and it's all over in just a few minutes. It's amazing how quickly these rockets disappear in the sky.

Janet took Dawn on her sunrise walk while I was getting my car serviced, but I did get to take a walk in the park later in the day. I didn't do well today at all. My feet hurt for the entire walk and I was pretty slow. At least the weather was nice. It was a lot warmer than yesterday, but it was still a very pleasant Fall day. The walk itself was fairly boring, but not as boring as going to the gym.

It took me so long to find another hotel and reschedule everything that I didn't have much time for anything else today. I liked my original plan a lot better, but I guess this will have to do. I've always hated surprises and this was a big one. I'll still get to see the launch though, assuming that it doesn't get canceled or postponed again. I still can't decide whether to try to attend the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch as well. I haven't heard anything about my credentials yet, but this launch is happening pretty soon. Why are they waiting until the last minute to approve credentials? Oh, well. It is what it is. Realistically, it's too expensive for me to go to two launches so close together anyway, but I'll wait to make a final decision until I hear whether I've been accepted. 

Since my service appointment wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be, I can probably go ahead and get the dryer fixed this month. The machine still dries clothes just fine, but it's started making an ominous noise. I can't realistically ignore this much longer because the belt that turns the drum is starting to fail. The last time the appliance repairman was at the house I asked him how long the belt would last. "Maybe you've got a week. Maybe you've got a year," he told me. That wasn't much help at all.

It seems like it should be Saturday tomorrow, but we've still got another day to go. I've taken this weeks trash out to the curb and am still fretting about my change in travel plans. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Emily is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3808

I got the oil changed in my car today. I basically just wanted to get the irritating "service required" light on the dash turned off, but the oil hasn't been changed in over a year so it was probably time. The dealership said that an oil change didn't count as "service" so they couldn't turn the light off. I told them that at the prices they were charging, it damn well better count as service. I got my way. I've been a customer of this dealership for long enough to know that service representatives come and go, but in the end the customer is always right.

While I was waiting for the service to be completed, I took a look at the new Defender that had just arrived at the dealership. I've been waiting to see these ever since I sold my Defender 90 quite a few years ago. This iconic model got delayed again and again and went through many design changes along the way. I was disappointed that the new Defender has lost the boxy, hand assembled look of my former car, but I had to admit that the updated version looked a lot better than the pictures I'd seen on the Internet.

Will I get another Land Rover after being overcharged for service for over twenty years? Who knows. The car I was looking at wasn't even for sale. It was just a dealership demo and there won't be any Defenders available for sale until later in the year. The short wheelbase model like my former Defender won't make it's debut until 2021. There's certainly no hurry to get another car. I can't think of many reasons to buy another Land Rover either. If I wanted a practical car for West Texas I should just buy a Ford. That's about all I saw when I was out at the observatory. If I want to be really practical, I don't need a new car at all. It seems to work pretty well to just rent cars when I travel.

Dawn's new collar came today. We got her a hand beaded collar made by the Maasai tribe in Kenya, just like the ones Dot and Dash used to wear. When one of our dogs goes to the Rainbow Bridge, their collar is retired and placed in the cedar box with their ashes. Hey, everyone has traditions with their pets and this is one of ours. The Maasai collars are works of art and last a lifetime. Dawn seemed to know hers was special. She was excited and kept wagging her tail while we were fitting her tags to the new collar and seemed proud to wear it. Who knows what dogs really think though. She probably just liked all the attention.

I think my Spring allergies are finally coming to an end. I can take a walk without watering eyes or constant sneezing again. This was one of the longest allergy seasons on record. It's also one of the wettest Springs I can remember. Hopefully the seasonal allergies don't return until next year. They've really been a nuisance. This is definitely not a time when you want to be sneezing constantly.

I'm beginning to think that my application for media accreditation from the Air Force got lost, just like the manuscripts that I used to send to Sky and Telescope. I still haven't heard from them. For some reason mail coming from my hosting account occasionally gets classified as spam by other mail servers and never gets delivered. It's weird that a big company like Bluehost gets classified as a spammer, but it happens occasionally. I have to use an alternate e-mail account to communicate with the University of Texas and with Sky and Telescope. Maybe this has happened with the Air Force as well. I should have heard something from them by now.

Now that I've gotten my oil changed, the only thing left on my list is getting a haircut. The salons are open again so maybe I'll make an appointment. I can't live under a rock forever.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3452

I decided to get my car serviced today. This was a minor service, so I just stayed at the dealership while the work was being done. As I wandered around looking at cars, it became painfully obvious that I can't really afford to be a Land Rover customer anymore. Prices have really increased since I got my first Land Rover in the early 1990's. I've bought houses for less than the sticker price on some of these cars. Maintenance costs a lot more too. Truthfully, the cost of an oil change seems to double every time I visit the dealership. It's a shame because I've always liked Land Rovers. I still think the British build the best looking cars.

I had breakfast on the way to the dealership and was disappointed that my Shrimp and Grits weren't as good today. The grits were terrible and I think they just used Jimmy Dean sausage in the sauce instead of Andouille sausage. It seemed clear that there was a new chef today. I don't know why turnover is so high in the restaurant business. Nobody stays for very long anywhere. Even the restaurants themselves don't stay around very long. Three or four years is a good run for some. I need to find a family restaurant where the entire staff has been around for decades. You find those places in little towns, but they're few and far between in a big city.

I got a message from my dealer that some of my model trains had sold. He seemed excited by the sale. I was too until I noticed that one of the items had been mispriced. It's hard to complain though. A sale is a sale and at this point I'd just like to sell the entire collection while I'm still alive. I started consigning things over a year ago and there is still a ton of stuff that hasn't sold. My friend selling the trains told me that it could take three years to sell the entire collection. Lord knows how long it will take to sell the guitars. I guess I've just got to be patient.

It looks I'm going to have to be patient with the Falcon Heavy launch as well. I got a letter from NASA today. I thought this was going to be the letter with a firm itinerary for the launch and instructions for picking up my press credentials. Nope. It was a letter explaining the complexities of scheduling a launch with a promise of more information next week. There was a reminder again to be sure to make flexible travel arrangements. I've definitely been warned.

Hey, I'll be ready to go when they are. I feel more confident about my car now. I still need new tires but I probably won't buy them from the dealership. There are too many tire dealers where you can get get exactly the same tires for considerably less. The dealership doesn't even try to be competitive. Most of their customers are rich and don't even care what things cost.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day. The weather was mild. It didn't rain. Even the stock market continued to rally. My feet still hurt after my longer walks, but you can't have everything.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3450

I didn't plan well today. I knew that there was rain in the forecast, but thought I'd go from gazebo to gazebo on my morning walk like I had done on earlier rainy days. It didn't work. When I arrived at the shelters it wasn't raining. I impatiently thought I could make it to the next shelter before the rain started again, but I almost always got wet. Strangely, it didn't even seem to matter. It was a gentle rain and being wet seemed better than being hot and sweaty.

I tried to make an appointment to take my car in for service when I got home, but my service adviser said I'd driven the car so little since my last service that it was unnecessary. I should have been glad to hear this, but it left me a little uneasy. I basically wanted the guy to bless the car and promise that nothing expensive would fall off or break during a trip to Florida. No Land Rover dealer in their right mind would ever promise anything like that. Stuff always breaks on these cars. "Don't I even need an oil change," I asked? The guy basically said that I could bring the car in if it made me feel better. I still can't get used to the longer oil change intervals with modern synthetic engine oil. I'm still used to getting the oil changed every 3,000 miles. I always did this with the Defender. Apparently nobody does this with modern cars.

I finally got in touch with my contact at the auction house and made arrangements to re-offer my last piece of unsold art at a lower price. At this point I just want all the things I've consigned to sell. If this stuff comes back to me, I'll have to get a bigger storage warehouse. That would defeat the whole purpose of moving to a smaller storage warehouse. I guess I'm in no hurry, but it would be nice to put this chapter behind me. The guitars still haven't sold and I haven't sold anything from the model train collection in several months. Maybe things will pick up this summer.

I noticed a new flower this morning. I've seen this one before, but I don't see it every year. I'm having trouble identifying this one. It kind of looks like a Blazing Star, but I'm not sure. Ironweed looks a bit like this as well. The weird looking plant seems like a cross between a Dahlia and a Texas Thistle. I'll figure out what it is eventually.

Space X still hasn't finalized a launch date for the Falcon Heavy rocket. I knew this would happen, but I still wish I could start making travel plans. Basically at this point, the launch could be any time this summer. I guess I've just got to be patient. Alternately, I could get so involved with something else that I forget about the launch. That's not going to happen. I'll just be patient.

It looks like there is no rain in the forecast for the rest of the week. I may be forced to mow the grass after all. As the weather grows warmer, I prefer little tasks I can do indoors. I took some satisfaction that the repairs I made to my boots worked. I wore them this morning and the soles are still firmly attached. Maybe I can find something equally insignificant to do tomorrow.

Scooby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3068

Janet enjoys watching royal weddings the same way I enjoy watching NASA launches. I think we've seen most of them. It doesn't seem that long ago that Charles and Dianna got married. It's easy to forget that William and Harry weren't even born then. Now, they're both married themselves. It's things like this that make you feel old.

I remember watching earlier royal weddings on a big, heavy Sony Trinitron with a CRT tube. The Internet and flat screen TV's didn't exist yet, but the queen looked the same and the cathedrals looked the same. Even the queen's royal Rolls Royce and the palace guards looked the same. I wish we had some traditions that stayed the same for thirty years. It doesn't take thirty minutes for something to change in this country.

I should be used to change after spending all these years taking care of Dot and Dash. Every day is a new day with Dash. I never know what he's going to eat, or when he's going to have enough energy to walk. Dash didn't eat much today, but at least he didn't throw up. We decided to try to finish his antibiotics, even though they might make him nauseous. If we stop the antibiotics now, they won't do any good. We've only got a few more days to go anyway. I though that it might be easier to feed Dash now that Janet is home, but she's having just as much trouble as I did. He's become an incredibly picky eater.

I went up to the Land Rover dealer this afternoon to get my oil changed, but the service manager said it would be better if I just waited until July when my next major service is due. "But the little sticker on my windshield says it time to change the oil now," I said. Apparently, the sticker means nothing. "Your oil is good for a year," the guy said. "Just come back in July. It's just as well that I did nothing today. The price for an oil change has doubled since the last time I had this done.

I'm going to have even more questions when I return in July. Why do I need a 90 thousand mile service when I've only got 47 thousand miles on the car? Apparently, the dealership wants to charge me a lot of money at least once a year whether I drive the car or not. I've only driven 3 thousand miles since my last major service. That isn't very much in a year. They need to have a special plan for low mileage drivers like me. I'll be dead before I put 90 thousand miles on this car.

I'm really getting sick of having heartburn. I found an old bottle of Protonix and took a pill this evening. I'll ask my doctor if it's OK to start using the Proton-Pump inhibitor again for a while. I took the drug for over ten years and it worked great, but new research indicates that long term use can cause bone density problems in older people. It's always something. I can't even remember what I started eating to make the heartburn go away. It was probably something I hated.

They say we're having the warmest May on record. I can believe it. It was really hot this afternoon. It's a shame that the weather isn't being cooperative. We have a hard enough time walking Dash in cold weather.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2117

The furnace came on this morning. I wore a light jacket and jeans on our morning walk, instead of a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The Elm tree in the back yard has started losing its leaves. The grocery stores are full of pumpkins. And the State Fair of Texas has taken over Fair Park. Could it be that Fall is officially here? I hope so. The dogs and I like the cooler weather. I just wish we'd go back to Standard Time. The days keep still getting shorter and even when we sleep in a bit, it's still dark when we get up. Sometimes it's fun to look at the stars, but walking in the dark every day gets a little old.

Today was busy. After I had my usual Friday breakfast and made a trip to the grocery store to get the ingredients for a cheeseburger dinner, I started to work on my new website projects. Much to my chagrin, I'm already having to re-learn some of the coding tricks I mastered just a few months ago when I decided to build mobile friendly websites for all my clients. When I'm faced with a choice between use it or lose it, I usually lose it. To really become familiar with something, you have to use your skills every day. I'm just not involved with enough new web projects to remember all this complicated responsive design stuff. I floundered around for a couple of hours, but eventually it all came back to me. This would be a good time to send a new project my way. I'm sure I'll remember the coding tricks I brushed up on today at least until Thanksgiving.

The Land Rover dealer surprised me by calling mid-afternoon to tell me that my car was finished. When I took the Defender in for service, it would often stay in the shop for weeks. This time, they had everything finished in two days. I don't think service has really improved. It's just a different car. There is only one guy who works on the older Defenders, while all the mechanics work on the newer cars. I wish I hadn't told them to change the oil. I'm so used to changing my oil every 3,000 miles, that I continue these frequent oil changes even though my service representative keeps telling me that the synthetic oil I use now is safe for much longer intervals. I'm learning the hard way that synthetic oil changes can get pretty expensive because my engine seems to hold an enormous amount of oil.

Dot had an accident in the house this morning, but it was really our fault. Janet and I were both very tired last night and we all went to bed early. When Dot woke up in the morning, she overslept with the rest of us and was already an hour overdue for a trip outside. She just couldn't hold it any longer. It takes split second timing and a careful eye on the clock to keep a poop free house these days. Some days, I'm just not up to the challenge.

The UPS man delivered some new ink for my large printer this afternoon. Epson pigment ink is the only thing more expensive than synthetic engine oil. I'm determined to keep the old printer running, even though I've spent a lot more on ink than I initially paid for the printer. I try to keep my machines operational, my watches wound, and my dogs happy. What else is there?

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1613

I picked up Janet at the airport today. DFW seems to be permanently under construction these days. Every time I go to the airport there seems to be a new temporary access road to get to the terminals. Since American Airlines just got out of bankruptcy recently, I wonder where they're getting the money to finance this huge expansion. Maybe it's not a problem though. They're probably making enough from what they charge for your bags these days that they could finance several new terminal buildings.

The dogs were certainly glad that the family is back together. They don't like surprises. I wonder how they'll feel when they discover they don't have as much space on the bed tonight. It's amazing how much room two Dalmatians can take up when they put their mind to it. They didn't want to let any empty space go to waste and quickly figured out how to occupy almost the entire bed while Janet was gone. On many days, I had trouble finding even a small space for myself.

I finally got my car in for its overdue service appointment this afternoon. It costs a bit more to work on this car than the old Defender, but hopefully it won't break as often. Maybe I'll get lucky and it won't break at all for a while. There was nothing wrong when I took the car in today. It was just one of those preventive maintenance service visits where they change the oil and all the fluids and charge you a lot of money for basically nothing. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure though. I always change my oil every 3000 miles, whether it needs it or not.

There still wasn't much work today, even though I did have a few website updates to complete before the weekend. It's just as well it was a light day. A trip to the airport, two dog walks, a service visit at the car dealership, some light grocery shopping, and a trip to the post office for stamps seemed to take up the entire day.

Our Spring weather continues to be exceptionally nice and I don't think it is supposed to rain all weekend. How did we get so lucky? It's still snowing in some parts of the country and California's wildfire season seems to have started early this year. Sure, we have the occasional tornado and it's beastly hot in July, but right now Texas seems like a great place to live.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1302

Times have certainly changed. I can remember when an oil change meant thumbing through dog-eared car magazines in the the threadbare lobby of an old garage, waiting while a grease stained mechanic did his best to leave your car smelling like motor oil for the rest of the day. Not anymore. The Land Rover dealer serves you snacks and beverages in air conditioned comfort while they work, and then they wash and detail your car before they return it to you. Of course the oil change itself costs four times more than it should.

I used to scoff at the notion that the middle class in America was being systematically eliminated, but I'm beginning to believe that this is actually the case. As a member of the vanishing middle class, I find this discouraging. I don't need tasty snacks and a car wash when I get my oil changed, but I don't want to change it myself in the parking lot of an Autozone store like the Walmart people either. The gap between the rich and the poor is definitely widening and the territory in the middle is nothing but quicksand.

Another sign that times are changing is that my website clients increasingly ask me to do things that they think are trivial no-brainers, not realizing that these things are actually quite difficult for me. People see things that they like on Facebook or Pinterest and then they ask me to put the same sort of thing on their own websites. I've given up trying to explain that sites like Amazon and Facebook have huge development teams to do all the fancy stuff. I've already learned the hard way that if I protest too much, the client will just take their business to GoDaddy or some other template site and get what they want for free. So guess what I did today? I did some difficult stuff and pretended like it was easy.

I also pretended that it didn't really matter when Dash didn't get his regular nurse at the vet today. I'm equally frustrated when I go to my own doctors and don't get the lab tech or nurse I want. It is often difficult to tell whether a doctor is any good, but at the lower levels of medicine, it is quite easy. Some technicians can draw blood painlessly and others can't. Once I even had an absent minded tech inject me with the wrong shot. Dash had to have his anal glands expressed today and memories of my own colonoscopies made me wish he had the best nurse in the building. Of course like the song says, you can't always get what you want.

I've got to get my July invoices out tomorrow so I'll have some money coming my way in August. Among other things, there's a ritzy oil change that needs to be paid for. Just so you know, today's Dalmatian is a special one. She was one of ours. Greta went to the Rainbow Bridge nine years ago tomorrow.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1301

I've already learned a few things by going to the gym. Most importantly, I've learned that I'm not in nearly as good shape as I thought I was. For years, I've been telling myself that I got all the exercise I needed by taking the dogs on long walks. Maybe this was true at some point, but the dogs are getting older now and don't walk as far or as fast as they used to. I still spend quite a bit of time walking the dogs, but a lot of this activity consists of Dot and Dash looking for new places to pee while I look for flowers to photograph. We may be on the trail for an hour, but when we return, we usually aren't even breathing hard.

I am winded when I leave the gym, and I guess that's as it should be. So far, my exercise strategy is to watch the people who come with their own personal trainers and just do the same things they do. I don't even attempt to copy the true fitness fanatics though. I saw someone today going full speed on a stair climbing machine for 45 minutes without stopping. My legs would have turned to jelly within fifteen minutes. I do think I'll be able to incorporate a trip to the gym into my regular routine though. I'm going to try to go a minimum of two days a week, and hopefully I'll find time for three.

One nice thing about the gym is that I never have to make an appointment. I can just go whenever I feel like it. Everything else in life seems to require elaborate planning, with appointments made weeks in advance. Haircuts require appointments. Doctors require appointments. I even had to make an appointment to get my oil changed. I used to just show up at the dealership with the Defender and enjoy a cup of coffee while they serviced my car. Evidently those days are long gone. I was able to make an appointment for tomorrow however. The oil change is two hours earlier than Dash's vet appointment. It's going to be a busy day.

Every time I get interested in one of the many new services AT&T offers, one of my existing services crashes or breaks and I'm thrown back into the land of reality. Today I kept getting notices on my computer that I had new voicemail messages waiting, but whenever I tried to access them, I was locked out. I tried to listen to the messages using both the phone and the computer, but neither of them would accept my password. By the time I finished dinner, the system was back to normal. As usual, all the messages were from telemarketers.

I didn't get around to working on the Sheetrock today. I had the time, but it never occurred to me because I didn't look up at the ceiling much today. I did find some more bees however. Just as I thought I was winning the battle with the critters outside, I spotted another hornet's nest on the back porch. Although I managed to get rid of the nest without getting stung, I'm sure this wasn't the last of the bees and hornets I'll be seeing this Summer.

I need to get to bed earlier. I'm a habitual night-owl, but this doesn't lend itself to early dog walks. I have no desire to rise with the sun, but it's becoming increasingly necessary to give the dogs a chance to enjoy themselves before the weather becomes unbearable. We got started at 8 AM this morning and it was already too late. Maybe 6:30 AM would be better. Janet says the weather is quite nice at that time of day. I wouldn't know anything about that.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1298

If there's a fancy looking egg on my plate, it must be Friday. I'm simple minded this way. I'd like some clearly defined event to differentiate each day of the week. Friday is the day I can stray from my diet a bit. Sunday is the day we go to the dog park. Now what am I going to do with all those other days?

Today, my plan was to get a haircut and an oil change for the Defender. The haircut went smoothly enough, but it looks like I'm going to have to come back another day for the oil change. Oddly, the price for both of these services is exactly the same.

While I was at the mall, I stopped by the new, much larger Apple store. The place was huge. There were no new products in the new store. Just more tables filled with the same iPhones, iPads, laptops, and desktops. I guess there is only one reason to have a huge store to sell four things. They probably couldn't fit all the customers in their old store.

I don't even have to open my eyes to know what time of year it is. You can hear it is July. In the morning, the dominant sound is the lawn mowers and leaf blowers of the landscapers and yard crews. As the day progresses, the raucous sounds of lawn care diminish and are replaced by the song of the Cicadas. How these small bugs can make such a loud noise is a mystery to me. The hotter it gets, the louder the Cicadas seem to sing. It is kind of the quintessential sound of Summer here in Texas.

I'm going to have to go look for something to get rid of Chigger bites tomorrow. There used to be a product called Chigarid that worked great, but I don't think they make it anymore. Maybe the reason they don't make Chigarid anymore is that it was basically just clear nail polish in a different bottle. Probably the only people who bought the stuff were people like me who didn't like to buy their insect repellants in the cosmetics department. Clear nail polish works though, so maybe I'll have to get some.

I hope it cools down a bit this weekend. We'll go to the dog park whatever the weather, but it would be so much more enjoyable if it wasn't like a furnace outside.

Isabella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1134

I eliminated one of the two rattles I've been hearing in my car by stopping by an Autozone store and adding a couple of quarts of oil to the engine. Now, I've just got to figure out where the missing oil went. There were no drips or oily puddles under the car. I don't think it was leaking. There was no blue smoke coming out of the tail pipe either. I have no idea where the missing oil went, but I had to add a lot more than I thought I would to get the dipstick back in the safe zone. Although the mystery of the disappearing oil wasn't solved, the mystery of my expensive oil changes was. I had no idea that fully synthetic oil cost as much as it does. I used to think Land Rover was ripping me off when I went in for an oil change. Now that I know how much the oil itself costs, their price for the service is actually pretty reasonable.

I had a lot of website work today. Since there wasn't much else to do, I managed to get all of it done. Most of my remaining clients seem to like the time consuming custom work I do. I have a feeling that it's just a matter of time before they succumb to the lure of lower cost mass produced alternatives though. I wish I could get excited about cranking out template sites myself. I can't though. I'd rather create five totally unique sites than five hundred copies.

I took Dash to the vet today. Sometimes I think he doesn't even realize he's going there to get a shot. He's a social dog and just likes all the attention he gets during these bi-weekly visits. Dash's skin condition continues to improve, so we cut him back to a half dose of his medication this week. It's amazing how directly a dog's health correlates to a good diet. Once we got Dash on the right diet, his health improved dramatically. I'm sure the same thing is true with humans. If I ate a carefully formulated bowl of dry kibble every day, I'd probably be healthier too.

The monthly big trash truck comes tomorrow. I looked around the yard for fallen limbs and other debris to drag out to the street. I couldn't find much this month. I think most of the loose limbs have fallen off our trees already. I'd bag up some of this season's leaves and haul them out to the street too, if they weren't currently being used as a mud barrier to keep the dogs paws clean.

Raider is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 436

Slowly but surely, I'm working my way through this month's to-do list. Yesterday, I got my hair cut. Today, I got the oil changed in my car. I've always kind of enjoyed going to the Land Rover dealership. I've had the car for so long that everybody knows me by now. The service is great. You don't really expect someone to offer you a beverage and a copy of Architectural Digest to read while you've having your oil changed, but it's a pleasant experience. Maybe this is a guy's equivalent of having a pedicure. They washed my car too, which was great because this was the next thing on my to-do list. Sure, I know. I could have gotten my oil changed for quite a bit less at Jiffy Lube, but who wants to go to Jiffy Lube? I may not be able to afford one of those $100,000 Turbocharged Range Rovers they have sitting in the showroom, but I can definitely afford the same Castrol oil they use.

My LunaTik watch arrived in the mail today. I continue to be impressed by this company. Somehow, they managed to go from an idea in Scott Wilson's head to shipping finished products in less than three months. The LunaTik is a simple product, but it is revolutionary. The company was entirely funded through the Internet. There probably aren't many employees at all. Everything is outsourced. The product quality is very high and the order tracking system is amazing. I watched on the web as my watch moved all the way from the factory in China to my house in only three days. If I ever have an idea for something people would actually buy, I could probably do the same thing as Scott Wilson. So could you. The combination of Internet funding and global outsource partners make it possible for literally anyone to start their own manufacturing company.

I was sad to hear that the last flight of the Discovery space shuttle launched today. There will be two more space shuttle missions before the shuttle program is officially over, but the Discovery itself will fly no more. Launch Pad 39b, which was home to dozens of Apollo and shuttle flights, is already being demolished. They say they are going to recycle the steel to make sewer pipes. That pretty much says it all. In thirty years we've managed to go from landing on the moon to making sewer pipes.

Spring seems to be the fundraising season for all types of charities. Both of the charities I work with have their hearts set on finding a celebrity to help with their seasonal fundraising efforts. Why is everyone so obsessed with celebrity these days? Call me old fashioned, but I'm still more interested in what the dogs are doing on my own carpet than in what someone else is doing on the red carpet.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day