Day 2494

We started Dot on the Tramadol pills today. She didn't initially seem any stronger, but she was awake and active for longer periods of time. Does this mean that she is feeling better and has more energy, or does it mean that the pills are making her agitated and irritable? I really don't know. In practical terms it meant that Dot sat up in her bed and barked for me to come help her move a lot more often. We went outside quite a bit today, only to turn around and come right back inside again. It will take a few more days to see whether these pills are helping or not. I'd be happy if the Tramadol was making her feel better, but I'd hate to add one more level of frustration to her life. The whole point of the pills is to try and make her rear legs a little stronger. If all they do is make her bark more, I think we'll discontinue them.

Since work was slow today, I thought I'd try to tie up a few loose ends. I inquired about the estate of one of my relatives that has been in probate for well over a year. The attorneys didn't seem to know any more than I did. They promised that they'd check on the status for me, but I got the distinct impression that they'd totally forgotten about the estate. I actually have no idea how long it normally takes for an estate to wind its way through the probate process, but a year and a half seems like a long time.

I called the roofers again today and practically begged them to come out and finish their repair before the next big rain. They keep telling me that they'll be out as soon as they can and that actual leaks have to take priority over potential leaks. Fine. I'm going to have an actual leak pretty soon if I can't get these defective areas on the roof patched properly.

I've quit watching the news while I eat breakfast and have started watching old Star Trek and Dr. Who episodes instead. The upcoming election is really starting to get on my nerves. Why do we have to choose between a totally incompetent candidate and a totally corrupt candidate? It doesn't even matter who wins. The next four years are going to be pretty messy because half of the country hates the other half. We have become the Humpty Dumpty nation. The acrimony and division have become so great that I don't think all the kings horses and all the kings men could ever bring us all back together again. I don't see many yard signs this year. It's like a poker game where everyone is holding their cards close to the vest. People don't want to get in a fight with their neighbors or their family, but in the privacy of the voting booth they will express their frustration. It's almost like a bloodless civil war.

I can't decide whether to move this week's trash to the new can the city provided or just wait until next week to inaugurate things. It's a bit messy to move trash from one can to another, but it's not nearly as messy as cleaning up poop. At any rate, this will probably be my big decision of the day tomorrow. The little bird I photographed today doesn't look very happy. Maybe these two birds have been arguing about the election.

Kuuipo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2271

My breakfast restaurant seems different now. The food is still good, but something has changed. Maybe it's just that the coffee is served in paper cups now. The old baristas who jumped ship and moved across the street used real coffee cups. The music has changed too. The place used to play Austin indie rock. Now I hear 70's anthems by Journey and Foreigner. I'm a loyal person, but maybe I'll have to try out the new place across the street as well.

I might not be being fair to the restaurant though. For the past month or so, I just haven't been that interested in food. I initially thought this was because of the flu, but I'm better now and I'm still not very hungry. I typically go to the grocery store to pick up food for the weekend after breakfast and today I found myself just wandering aimlessly from aisle to aisle. Nothing seemed appealing.

Actually, the entire day was kind of aimless. I tried to glue a variety of broken things back together and then I took a watch to the watch repairman to get fixed. There was no real need to do this, since I still wear the Apple Watch all the time. Nevertheless, it seemed like a productive thing to do. I hadn't seen this watch repairman in almost two years and was a bit surprised to see that prices had doubled. Oh, well. I guess you've got to do what you've got to do to stay in business. The last time we talked, we both agreed that our respective businesses were going downhill. Today, when we were catching up on things, we both agreed that things had gotten even worse. Maybe fixing my watch will keep the guy in business a while longer.

Dot seemed stronger today. She slept well and was much more energetic and engaged on her walk this morning. I initially would have thought that she'd feel bad right after taking the Palladia pills. This doesn't seem to be the case. It almost seems like she's at her worst two days after she's taken the chemotherapy pills. I could just be imagining things though. I like to have an exact, very predictable reason for everything and sometimes there isn't one. I might just have to live with the reality that Dot has good days and bad days.

I saw my first wild iris of the season today. I've been taking pictures of plants and animals in the park for so long now, that seasonal changes have become very predictable. I could almost tell you to the day when certain flowers will bloom. I find this predictability comforting. I keep thinking that if I were just more observant, I could predict everything. That's not going to happen though. Real life is pretty random.

I can't decide whether the political events that are currently unfolding are random or completely predictable. It seems implausible that a 74 year old socialist is a serious candidate for president. It seems ironic that Bernie could actually win if he just realized that he was in a win or lose contest with a woman who wants to win at all costs. If Bernie was as passionate about pointing out Hillary's rather obvious flaws as he is about the evils of the big banks, Hillary wouldn't have a chance. It seems equally implausible that the Republicans are spending all their energy trying to destroy the own front runner. The ironic thing is that if the Republicans had super delegates like the Democrats do, they wouldn't even have to worry about Donald Trump. Oh, it's ironic too that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump share pretty much the same views on trade deals that destroy jobs and opportunistic foreign wars. No wonder that the establishment hates both of these guys. My only prediction is that whoever wins won't be able to fix anything.

I really need to go to the gym this weekend. No predictions on whether I actually will.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2079

We heard thunder off in the distance when we woke up this morning, but we went on our morning walk anyway since the weather radar showed the storm would pass to the East of us. Distant thunder doesn't bother Dot as much anymore since she is so hard of hearing. She's still scared of lightning though, but I had that covered. I upgraded my weather app recently to show real time lightning strikes and there was no lightning in the vicinity. Personal weather radar has made it so much easier to walk the dogs. I could live without a lot of things, but I'd have a hard time giving up my weather radar.

I hope my broker didn't decide that today would be a good day to pick up some bargains. The market was up over 300 points while I was eating breakfast and then went up and down like a yo-yo for the rest of the day. At the close it added another 200 point loss to an unrelenting week of big declines. I don't even look at my stocks these days. It's just too depressing. Even stop loss strategies can't really protect you in times like these. In a volatile market like this you can get stopped out of a good stock in a matter of seconds when an unpredictable wild move triggers a sale that you didn't really want. You can't chase trends either, because they change too quickly. You pretty much have to stick with your convictions and weather the storm. I agree with Dot and Dash on this one. Weathering a storm is not much fun.

Today was pretty slow. Slow is good though. I wish things were even slower. I stayed busy by finishing a writing assignment and making arrangements for an upcoming photo shoot. There were several vet appointments I had to schedule for Dot in September and Dash was low on phenobarbital, so I made a trip to the vet to get another month's supply. That was about it. I kind of wish I had one new writing assignment each day and one new website to design each week. This would give me an almost ideal workflow with minimal boredom or stress. It seldom works this way though. Writing assignments tend to come in clumps and most of my website work is just maintenance and updates now. Designing a brand new website is much more fun. I don't even solicit photography jobs anymore because I hate carrying the heavy equipment. I'm kind of dreading my photoshoot this weekend and hope my shoulder doesn't go out again.

Don't get me wrong. I still like taking photographs, I just don't like hauling a ton of strobes, power packs, soft boxes and backdrops to a location shoot. I was actually kind of pleased this afternoon to capture two ducks gazing into each others eyes. It sure looked like duck love to me. Photos of duck bills don't pay my bills though. Luckily, I'm still pretty good at lighting, even though the equipment seems to have grown a lot heavier in recent years. Maybe I've just gotten grumpier.

I'm really starting to fade. When I played in a band, I used to lug our entire PA system, my guitars, and a huge bass amp to every gig. I couldn't even lift those large speakers anymore. Some of the equipment has gotten lost over the years, but some of it is still sitting in the storage warehouse. It will probably stay there forever, because it has become too heavy to move.

Getting old sucks. Just ask Dot. I'm sure she'll agree with everything I say. At least I can still walk normally. I thought switching back to Benicar would stop my cough, but it hasn't helped much. The cough must be something else. Do I go back to the doctor and have him add yet another drug to the laundry list of prescriptions I take every month, or do I just forget about it and live with the cough? It probably doesn't even matter. I'm inclined to do nothing and just switch back to the old blood pressure medication. It was certainly a lot cheaper.

Listening to the current crop of political candidates is certainly more entertaining than watching the stock market crumble, but it is equally depressing. I'd like to say "Not my circus, not my monkeys," but they actually are my circus and monkeys. I've got to vote for one of these clowns. So far, I don't like any of them.

Pinky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1783

It was a busy day. Janet and I went to a fundraiser lunch for a group that works to improve the park behind our house. I love walking the dogs in the park, but never dreamed there were so many competing interests trying to shape its future. Some people love the new concrete bike path that the city is building. Others are outraged that the path cuts through an owl sanctuary and are trying to get the path rerouted. Some are happy that the city arborist is planting new trees to replace the ones that have been uprooted by wind storms. Others think the entire effort is misguided, saying that the young oak trees are being planted too closely together and will not thrive. Some are alarmed at the growing homeless population in the park. Others want to add more picnic areas to make the area more inviting. For every view there is an opposing view. Such is life in the city.

After an enjoyable lunch we returned home to let the dogs out to pee and then went to our  second event of the afternoon. This one was hosted by an animal rescue group we both like. In the past we have brought dogs from Dalmatian Rescue to this event to help them find their forever homes. There aren't as many abandoned dalmatians now and the group has gotten better at finding them homes. Instead of a lot of dogs waiting for homes in a kennel, we now have a waiting list. I wish all the rescue groups had a waiting list. There are still so many wonderful dogs who need homes.

There was also an AIA tour of homes today, but two events in one day was plenty. I wish I'd known though that you could visit individual homes without purchasing a ticket for the entire tour. There is one home near ours on the tour constructed using fourteen large metal shipping containers like the ones you see on container ships. I would have loved to see what this house looked like on the inside. 

The dogs don't seem to understand the time change. They wanted their breakfast an hour earlier than what the clock said and were ready for dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon. This happens every year. Eventually they adjust to the new schedule, but at least for now they are convinced that we are withholding their food. They'll both be happy to know that I will be feeding them a little earlier as the days grow shorter. I'd much rather feed them early than walk them in the dark and run into a coyote.

I watched the new "Dark Waters" episode of Dr. Who this afternoon and have to grudgingly admit that the writing was better this time. This episode was complex, full of nuances, and a bit scary. I will never think of cremation quite the same way again. My main problem is still Clara. How can she be a normal schoolteacher this season after she was "the impossible girl" who jumped into the doctor's timeline and then died over and over again throughout time to keep the doctor out of danger. It's almost like the writers just forgot about all the previous seasons. Continuity lapses in films drive me nuts. I notice the little incongruities and they ruin the story for me.

Won't you be glad when this election is over? I've had my fill of the constant campaigning and relentless negative advertising. Both sides are guilty. Most voters don't seem to care about the real issues anyway. They just pick a team like they are watching a football game and root for their team. It's all about winning. Politics and football have a lot in common.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1034

Today was such a beautiful day that my grumpy side didn't stand a chance. I was in an uncharacteristically good mood all day long. The dogs had a great time at the dog park. There was a nice breeze and temperatures were in the seventies. When Dot and Dash were finished with their off leash outing, I got busy on a few things I'd been putting off for months. I washed the car for the first time since my birthday and even used some rubbing compound to polish out a few scratches on the door. I cleaned the toilets, put a fresh bag in the vacuum cleaner, and got all the water from yesterday's rain off the roof. Since the roof has survived two major rain storms without leaking, I also started preparing the damaged areas on the ceiling to tape and bed and paint again. It was a day of making things look nice.

It wasn't all work today, however. I also watched Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic parachute jump from 128,000 feet over Roswell, New Mexico live on the Internet. If you ask me, this is the future of marketing. Why even bother with broadcasting something on television if you can get eight million live viewers on YouTube. There weren't any commercials, or maybe the whole thing was just one big commercial for Red Bull. At any rate, it was a whole new way to look at advertising. If Red Bull can underwrite a supersonic parachute jump, and Virgin America can build the world's first commercial spaceport, maybe Apple can take us back to the moon. Apple's probably got enough money to finance the entire journey themselves.

The presidential race is starting to look a lot like the Texas senate races. Everyone is apparently a big fat liar. Both sides make reasonably convincing cases that the other side is lying. Then the "fact checkers" come along a few days later and people accuse them of lying too. It's probably a good thing that everybody's made up their mind about this election anyway. You certainly couldn't learn much from all the dueling "liar, liar" claims. I'm disgusted by the whole circus. I don't want to throw my vote away, but apparently it doesn't matter anyway. According to all the pundits, the whole election will be decided by the swing voters of Ohio.

We haven't used the new furnace since it was installed. The air conditioner certainly seems to be working well though. I think this is what they call an Indian Summer. I'm enjoying these unseasonably warm Fall days. I do hope we have a hard freeze this Winter though. Another warm Winter like we had last year and the bugs will overrun us.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1018

I'm getting really tired of all the political rhetoric. I've never seen such a disingenuous bunch of people in my life. Everyone wants to save the middle class. I'm right in the middle of the middle class. Why do I keep feeling like nobody is talking to me? I think the Republicans like to use the words middle class so people won't think they are talking to the privileged elite. On the other hand, I think the Democrats like to use the words middle class so people won't think they're talking exclusively to Walmart lowlife. I don't trust politicians. I've spent too many years sitting in advertising focus groups to believe any of them. Politicians love focus groups. They like to find out what people emotionally respond to and then that's what they say. Whether what they say is true is irrelevant.

I think the restaurant with good bacon knows I'm taking pictures of their food. Today, the chef brought my bacon to me carefully arranged in an artful star shape on a special plate. That's never happened before. Nobody said anything about this interesting bacon star, but I did think the whole thing was a bit strange.

I think I made it through a very challenging work week with no major damage. A few things came back for revisions today, but the re-writes were minor and quite reasonable. Most of my website revisions are still up as well. I always look at this as a good sign, since sometimes the revisions go up and then come right back down again. Usually, I always worry where next week's work is coming from. Truthfully, I wouldn't mind if people forgot about me for a week. I need a little time to recharge.

I've had my new phone for a week now. I still haven't made a call. I don't think I've received any calls either. This is par for the course. I think I had my first iPhone almost a month before I actually called anyone. I have received four text messages though. They were all from AT&T, asking me to take a survey.

Spanky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 959

Mercifully, the robo-calls and insanely negative TV ads have stopped. I don't know which of the many candidates calling the other guy a liar won today's election, but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough. Maybe we'll get a brief respite before the onslaught of political advertising begins all over again. By the time November arrives, I'll probably be wishing we had a monarchy.

I finally got the company who told me that I owed them $672 a few days ago to admit they'd made a mistake. They had the audacity to tell me that they'd only received my check a few days ago. I might have bought this lame argument if there wasn't a canceled check showing that they received and cashed my payment over a month ago. These guys ought to run for public office. They've certainly got the lying part down.

Apparently, the document that I hand delivered yesterday isn't finished yet. Even though I used the exact pictures the client specified, they told me that they didn't think the photos would look this way in the finished brochure. We've got to try some new pictures now. Why is it so hard to look at the components that go into something and visualize the finished result? I can do this. A lot of people can't though. Sometimes, I think I spend half my time doing layouts that will never see the light of day, just so people will have something tangible to circle and draw lines through with their felt tip markers. It always seems to be much easier to edit something than to fill a blank page.

Did I tell you I got the job to cover the big Women's Wear Daily fashion event in Las Vegas next month? This ought to be a fun project. I'm already starting to make arrangement for interviews and location photography. Since most of my work is done staring at the same computer I use to write the blog, it's nice to get out occasionally. Who knows. Maybe the Singapore job will come through as well.

The dogs and I certainly aren't getting out quite as much as we did earlier this Spring. It is relentlessly hot outside now. Dot and Dash can't take the heat and neither can I. Our walks are shorter now, but we still make an effort. I'm ready for Fall. Believe it or not, I'm even ready for rain.

Shelby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 890

Politicians, are you listening? Please stop making those robo-calls to my house every five minutes.You guys are relentless this year. I must get ten calls a day. Day in and day out the calls continue. I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. Your incessant badgering is irritating and the more I hear your message on my phone, the less likely it is that I will ever vote for you. Personally, I think if they played these robo-calls over and over again at Gitmo, they would be more effective than waterboarding.

One problem with managing dozens of websites is that occasionally everyone wants something at the same time. Today was one of those days. As soon as I finished making a change on one client's website, I got a request to change another. The website change requests today were almost as frequent as the political robo-calls.

At least the weather was nice today. I had a great walk with the dogs this morning. The temperature was mild. There was a nice breeze. Best of all, there was no pollen in the air and my allergies didn't bother me. I wish every day was like this, but I'm lucky if I get to enjoy three or four days a month without allergy related sneezing and wheezing. I'll take what I can get though. Today was perfect.

When I finished my webmaster and writing assignments for the day, I went over to the storage warehouse and started assembling another section of poorly made Chinese industrial shelving. I can't believe how flimsy these things are. The brand on the box says Gorilla or Rhinoceros or something. The blurb on the side of the box brags that the shelves are rated for commercial use and that each individual deck can hold over 200 pounds. That would mean that the six tier section I put together today should hold up to 1,200 pounds. Not very likely. The thing would crumple like tin foil if I loaded it with 1,200 pounds of stuff.

I don't know why poor quality bothers me so much, but it does.  Power tools are made of plastic these days. The bodywork on your car is half as thick as it used to be, and to add insult to injury, you are charged more for the flimsy material. Energy efficiency, they call it. All cameras should be made like Leicas and Hasselblads. All cars should be as durable as the old Saabs they used to make from Swedish steel. Who needs Wal-Mart at all? My problem is that I think my toaster should be just as good as my iPhone.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day