Day 4729

All the Santa Paws gear has been stored away for another year. I literally only use this stuff once a year, but I'm glad I never threw it away. This year's backdrop has been washed and folded. The poles and crossbar have seen better days, but will survive to be used again. The boxes of bandanas and bows for the dogs have been washed and cleaned. My Norman strobe lights still work and all my camera batteries have been recharged. Next year I will probably start complaining again that I'm too old to be doing this, while secretly being pleased that I still can. Back in my studio days I never thought of photography as a physical activity, but it definitely is.

I try not to visit my storage warehouse very often. It's depressing. There are too many things that have memories attached to them that I don't really need. Do I really think I'm going to use a wind sailer again? The fiberglass board and sail take up a lot of space. I have several shelves filled with old Macintosh computers that are worth absolutely nothing. Maybe I should save one as an emergency backup, but do I really need seven? I still have a lot of my Dad's fishing gear, including an almost new outboard motor. I don't even like to fish. For the time being, it's easier to just forget about this stuff.

It was much warmer today. I overdressed for our sunrise walk with Dawn, but that's better than being too cold. Janet had plans so we walked in the dark again. I'll be glad when the days start getting longer. I'm not a big fan of Winter. Since I wasn't able to do my grocery shopping this weekend, there was no fruit to go with this morning's shredded wheat. That won't be a problem tomorrow. I went and did this week's grocery shopping right after breakfast.

I buy the same things over and over again. Almost everything keeps getting more expensive. The weekly price increases aren't dramatic but they are relentless. Maybe they think I won't notice. Over time the increases are getting ridiculous though. Some things I buy regularly have literally doubled in price. Is all this really necessary? The stores definitely aren't spending as much on labor anymore. Self checkout is the norm these days. I don't even use self checkout since I have an app on my phone that lets me bypass the checkout line. Even with all these high-tech innovations, I still miss the way life was in the 70's and 80's. You'd have a hard time convincing me that anything has actually improved over the years.

I should have gone to the gym today, but took another long walk in the park instead. I need to do something different because these walks are getting boring. I used to walk on the other side of the lake when things started to seem monotonous, but I can't be bothered anymore. It's still the same lake. The best incentive I have to keep walking is my Facebook feed. I'm amazed at the number of people I know who have already died. I don't think of 75 as old, but it's definitely not young. Oh, well. I guess I'll keep walking.

Tomorrow I need to take Janet to the dentist for dental surgery. On Friday I go to the eye doctor, who will probably want to schedule me for cataract surgery. It seems like there is always something medical on our calendar these days. Dawn has a birthday coming up soon. At least Dawn is still healthy.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4364

Our first Santa Paws event went well. It didn't seem like we had quite as many dogs this year, but there were still enough to keep us all very busy. All the dogs were very well behaved. There was no growling. Nobody knocked over the set or peed on the backdrop. I was proud of these dogs this year. There were a few dogs that have been coming to these events since they were puppies. Some of the old timers have put on a few pounds, but everyone looked like they were living the good life.

All the equipment felt heavier when I was loading the car this morning but nothing broke. We made it through another event. I'm amazed that my strobe lights have lasted this long. I've basically been using the same equipment since 2004. I had some problems with my wireless flash trigger, but I got the unit working again while we were eating lunch. I hope this stuff keeps working. It's almost impossible to find someone who can repair this gear anymore and almost all of it is no longer available.

It was a lot harder for me to get up and down this year. I spent most of my time sitting in a chair. I felt like one of those old rock and rollers who perform sitting down now. I think Phil Collins sings sitting in a chair on his latest tour.  Hey, we all aren't Mick Jagger. I'm glad I can still move at all. I talked to some of the other volunteers about knee surgery and foot pain today. I'm definitely not the only one with aches and pains. I'm still very reluctant to have surgery, but will buy almost any supplement that claims to build back cartilage.

Dawn seemed to do fine on her own at the house today. She's probably used to spending a lot of time alone. Janet still had time to give her a walk when she got home from our event. I took a little longer to arrive home. I am so slow now. It seemed to take me forever to take the equipment down and put it in the car. I think I'll just leave everything parked in the hall until our next event. The backdrop does need to be washed though. A couple of the dogs were fairly dirty.

I'm really glad I didn't try to go to the STP-3 launch now. Not only would this have disrupted the Santa Paws schedule, I would be just sitting in Titusville. The launch got postponed yesterday and today I learned it has gotten postponed even further. If I'm smart I won't even apply to go back to Kennedy Space Center until sometime next Spring. There's too much going on here and real estate taxes are due again anyway. That will suck up any travel money I might have had.

I didn't have time to take my long walk today, but still managed to get 12,000 steps. Tomorrow will be back to normal. Hopefully, I will get a good night's sleep before I resume my regular routine in the morning. All in all, it was a good day. I hope everyone was happy with their photos.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3832 - Father's Day

Mom used to say that I was her Father's Day gift to Dad, since my birthday was so close to Father's Day. I think Dad would have preferred a Bass boat or even a new fishing rod. We weren't close for many years. It took a long while for each of us to realize how similar we were. I don't think children are destined to become like their parents, but it does help to understand where you came from. Although Dad and I followed very different paths in life, I grew to respect him. He was a good man. I hope Dad didn't feel like I let him down in the end. When I had to get a Power of Attorney and take over his affairs I know he was disappointed. I never was able to get him out of critical care. Getting old and sick is a bitch. I still think Dad's fate might become mine as well. That's why I try so hard to stay healthy.

Today was another rainy day. By carefully watching our weather radar apps, Janet and I were able to give Dawn her morning walk, but we were housebound for much of the day. I'm glad I didn't try to remove the standing water from the roof yesterday. It would have been a wasted effort. I'm pleased that after two heavy rains, there are still no roof leaks. I think I did a good job of patching things earlier in the year. There is still work to do, but nothing is critical now. I think it is safe to turn my attention to other things that are falling apart.

Since McDonald Observatory is still closed, some of the resident astronomers have started live streaming their evenings at the observatory's telescopes. I've subscribed to one of these podcasts and it makes me really miss my time on the mountain. I have a small telescope but there are too many lights in our neighborhood and I don't feel safe taking the telescope into the park at night. The splendid isolation of Mount Locke is the exact opposite of life in the city. You have to be cautious about mountain lions, javelinas and bears, but there are few worries about other people. When you live in a city you quickly realize that people are the most dangerous animals of all.

I tested a lot of old cameras and electronic gear this afternoon. Everything still seemed to work, but there were a lot of batteries that needed to be replaced or recharged. I used to be a lot better at keeping my gear operational and ready to go. It's hard to be all that diligent when you realize that you will never use a lot of this stuff again. Much of my equipment is obsolete. It got a lot of use in the 1990's when my business was flourishing but times have changed and I tend to hold on to things too long. It was easier to get rid of my art and collections because I knew that the stuff had resale value. Old studio gear is different. I'm either going to have to toss this stuff or add it to the growing pile in the storage warehouse.

My gym is open again, but I didn't go today. I'll probably eventually return, but for now my long walks seem like all the exercise I need. There are so many new rules at the gym that it hardly seems worth the trouble. One of my favorite things was shooting baskets and I think they've closed the basketball court. They don't want anyone touching the basketballs. I guess I could bring my own, but it is a collector's item given to me by Dick Vitale. I'll wait.

I hope I can find something useful to do next week. I still need to get a haircut and I'm hoping to hear from NASA about the Mars 2020 launch. I have my doubts that I'll be able to attend this launch, but one can always hope. Eventually, something has to return to normal.

Barley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2892

On television, Black Friday looked like a madhouse, but from my vantage point it just seemed like another normal day. Janet and I went out for breakfast this morning and there wasn't even much traffic on the road. I don't know what made us think we even needed breakfast. We were still full from yesterday. We should have just ordered one item and split it. Neither of us could finish our meal and ended up taking the rest home for tomorrow.

On the way home, Janet wanted to stop at Old Navy and get a coat she'd seen on sale. No mob of Black Friday shoppers here. Everything is already so cheap at Old Navy that I wondered why they even bother with giant sales. The clothes aren't made in China here. The labels come from places like Haiti, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Who would have thought you'd have to go to stores like Bloomingdales or Nordstrom to find clothes from China? Made in China is reserved for upscale retail now. So where do you go to find clothes that are actually made in the United States? You'd probably need a time machine.

I think a lot of people must have gone out of town for Thanksgiving. The roads weren't really crowded. The park was virtually empty yesterday and wasn't very crowded today either. That's fine by me. Any day that I can walk Dash without worries about being attacked by a loose dog is a good day. I am going to have to worry about coyotes this winter. When we were walking Dash this afternoon, a firetruck went by and the siren caused our local pack of coyote pups to all begin howling at once. From the sound of things, this is a large litter. I haven't seen these coyotes yet, but it's pretty easy to tell where they live. We had a bad problem with coyotes several years ago until they ate all the small animals and moved on. I have a feeling that it is going to be a bad year for bunnies this Winter.

I took advantage of the warmer weather today to continue my work on the roof. This is one of the more discouraging projects I've undertaken yet. There was a small tear in an area I had patched last month and when I began peeling away the damaged elastomer coating, I discovered that water had seeped under a much wider area than it looked like on the surface. The roof really needs to be fixed in July when it is hot and dry. Unfortunately, it always becomes damaged during the Fall and Winter months when the weather is cold and damp. I didn't re-coat anything today. All I managed to do was remove about a square yard of elastomer in hopes that the asphalt underneath will completely dry out before it rains again.

Dash must have known it was a holiday today. He didn't want me to walk him alone like I normally do on Friday and insisted that Janet and I both go with him. This wasn't a problem in the morning, but he could have made life easier if he'd taken his normal walk this afternoon. By the time Janet returned from running errands, it was almost dark. It's hard to explain these things to a stubborn dog though. Dash knew that Janet hadn't gone to work because she wasn't wearing work clothes when she left the house.

It seemed like Saturday today, so it will probably seem like Sunday tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow, but I won't be able to ignore everything. I got a new writing assignment today. There is a big website project to work on. And sometime very soon I am going to have to test all my ancient equipment prior to next week's first Santa Paws photo shoot. I sure hope everything works. One of these years it won't.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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