Day 1380

Even though I'm never going to like getting up early in the morning, I'm starting to enjoy the Wednesday business breakfast group. The food is great and I always learn something new. Today I listened to a presentation by the CEO of the city's largest public hospital. What an eye opener. Now I know where all my tax money is going. This hospital is huge. There are 57 operating rooms and over 900 people are admitted to the ER every day. I think the hospital has a larger budget than the rest of Dallas county combined. The really amazing thing is that only 8% of the hospital's patients are covered by normal employer health insurance plans. Almost 50% are indigent and never pay at all.

I sincerely hope I never wind up at this hospital. It all seems pretty grim to me. I'd much rather stick with private hospitals like Baylor and Methodist. Actually, I think my dogs receive better health care than most of the people I know. Dot and Dash have fabulous, extremely knowledgeable vets who always seem to have the latest techniques and equipment. My vets converted to electronic records way before my human doctors. They were the first to get advanced digital x-ray and diagnostic equipment. Now, they are already offering sophisticated stem cell therapy, while my human doctors continue to promise similar services sometime in the distant future.

Dot did quite well during her physical therapy session today. The combination of acupuncture and water therapy seems to be working. She has more energy now and for the past several days, she has actually seemed stronger than Dash. I wonder how Dash would do using the water treadmill? He might freak out when the treadmill started moving. On the other hand, he might think that the whole thing was a game and have a lot of fun. Maybe I'll bring the boy to the clinic someday just to see how he does.

I got quite a few of my writing assignments completed today. If I could convince even a few of those guys at the breakfast meetings that what I do could be valuable to them, I would have more business than I'd know how to handle. I've started calling what I do "content creation" instead of "copywriting." Nothing has really changed, but it sounds better to a world obsessed with social media and the cloud.

Wednesday has definitely turned into my busiest day of the week. Now that we have returned from our evening dog training class and the day is winding down, all I really want to do is get a good night's sleep.

Zorro is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1373

I don't seem to be cut from the same cloth as other business people. I don't know what to talk about at these new Wednesday morning networking meetings. The younger folks are talking about their bicycles and upcoming 10K races while the older folks are talking about vacation homes in Hawaii. Everyone is focused like a laser about making new contacts. Jeez, I forgot to even bring any business cards with me this week. I did join a conversation with several guys who wanted to drive a Tesla. Hey, I'd kind of like to drive a Tesla too. Today's presentation was about leveraging the power of your LinkedIn contacts. Hmm! I don't even like LinkedIn and seldom spend any time on the site. The LinkedIn fans didn't understand why I preferred Twitter and Google+. We could probably learn something from each other. I have way more social media contacts than these guys, but they seem to actually be making money from theirs. Money is usually just the accidental result of doing something else for me. I've never been focused on making money.

Like I said earlier, I could learn a lot from these early morning meetings. When it comes my turn to make the morning presentation, I'll have to resist the urge to present topics like "How to make just enough to get by while dressed in your underwear," or "brainstorming while walking Dalmatians." I dread the day I have to bring a guest. I don't know anyone who would get up this early. Well, that's not entirely true. Janet gets up this early every day, but she would never go to these type of meetings.

Dot had a much lighter workout today, since she stumbled and fell on her walk yesterday. Her physical therapy session started with acupuncture to relax some tenseness in her back and then progressed to a slow, almost relaxed, workout in the water therapy tank to stretch her leg muscles. So far, I think Dot has spent more time at the gym this week than I have.

My chronic indecision might not be good for buying a car, but it sometimes works to my advantage in the stock market. My broker recommended that I sell several stocks yesterday and I told him I'd think about it. Today, the market had a great day and the stocks that the broker recommended selling went up like a rocket. Three more days like today could pay for my new car. It will never happen though. Probably the market will reverse direction tomorrow and all of today's gains will evaporate.

I have an appointment with my hepotologist tomorrow. I hope my liver is still functioning as it should. I'm eating all the right foods now. I'm exercising regularly. I'm keeping my weight and blood pressure under control. I don't know what else I can do. I wonder if the new treatment they've been promising me has finally been approved by the FDA?  This new treatment has been delayed even longer than Land Rover's new Defender 90 introduction.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1314

I helped Janet get her laptop ready for making a presentation on a big flat panel TV and was a bit surprised that I'd never tried to hook up a laptop to our TV before. I guess that just shows you how important presentations are to me these days. I don't think I've made a formal presentation or even shown my portfolio to anyone in almost ten years. Hey, if you don't already know what I do, it's probably a little late to show you now.

Hooking up the Macbook Pro to the TV was much easier than I thought it would be. I went to Fry's and got a Mini DisplayPort adapter and some HDMI cables. I hooked the computer up to the TV, set the computer screen to mirror mode and all of the sudden I had a huge image of the computer screen on the TV.

It's to bad that it wasn't this easy to figure out why the garbage disposal isn't working. I'm going to have to leave that task to an appliance repairman who will hopefully come out and fix things very soon. A garbage disposal doesn't seem like a very essential appliance until you've got a non-working one still hooked up to your plumbing. I'm discovering that the sink clogs up very quickly when the garbage disposal isn't doing its job.

Dot and Dash really enjoyed their trip to the dog park today. Dash saw a dog that he recognized and liked and proceeded to race around the park showing his friend how fast he was. Dot took advantage of the mild weather to sniff every tree in the park. She seemed to have more energy today than she usually does.

I wish I had more energy than I usually do. Mowing the grass today was tiring. I think I've reached some sort of plateau with my new diet and exercise regime. I saw dramatic incremental improvements for a while, but now not so much. I think from now on out, it's going to take a lot more effort to continue losing weight while I'm building my strength and adding muscle mass. I probably don't actually need to lose any more weight, but I do need to keep working on building my strength.

I had a terrible dream last night. I frequently have dreams about being lost as I futilely try to find my way back to the dream's starting point. In last night's dream, not only was I lost, I also seemed to have lost my luggage and all my money. When I was young, I found myself lost in caves a lot during these types of dreams. Now I'm usually lost in labyrinth-like hotels. I guess that's an improvement of sorts.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 884

Today was a good day. My new client loved the website I designed for them. The presentation this morning went very well and there were virtually no changes. We are ready to launch. I now have three competing offers on my rent property and the best offer is above my initial listing price. To round things out, I also regained an old client that I lost several years ago when they decided to take their operation in-house. Not bad for a Thursday.

I never realized that there was so much paperwork involved in selling a house. My real estate agent has already given me a ton of documents to sign and the sale hasn't even taken place yet. I'm not even sure what stage of the process we're in right now. I don't think they've done the inspection yet. I do know the buyers want to close on the deal in early June, so I guess they're serious.

I've been so busy this month that I'm having trouble keeping up with everything. The transition I've made from doing a few high paying jobs each month to doing a whole lot of low paying jobs each month has been brutal. I have to be fast and fairly organized to make any money at all. The real trouble with the low paying jobs is that the low paying clients still think they're important. I find myself spending just as much time talking with clients and answering e-mails as I used to. Sometimes I spend more time answering the e-mails than I do actually doing the job. I guess it's good to have a backlog of work though. I always know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow.

The back yard is starting to look really nice. I think last week's rains helped. The dogs certainly approve. Dot and Dash go outside every day after lunch now to lounge in the sun. All I have left to do is plant some Asian Jasmine ground cover in the really shady areas and then we'll be done for another season. I definitely don't have a green thumb, but it is nice to see that I've done something right, even if the results are only temporary.

I don't know where to have breakfast tomorrow. Neither of the places I've been going recently sound appealing to me. I can't believe that my Friday breakfast outing idea has run aground so quickly. After all, I've only been doing this a few month's now. Maybe I can find someplace new. I'd hate to have to resort to my own cooking again.

Susie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 883

I've already gotten two offers on my rent property. What this seems to prove is that there is always a price where something will sell. The real estate market isn't dead. Current prices are just lower than most sellers, including myself, would like. The difference between actually selling your house and having it sit on the market forever is just a matter of setting a realistic price based on current values. That being said, my house hasn't actually been sold yet. I've just gotten offers. Selling real estate seems to be a complex game of offers and counter offers, inspections and financing. A deal can fall apart at any point along the way. I am encouraged though. Especially since several friends told me to expect to have the house on the market a long, long time. There are two houses in the same neighborhood that have been on the market over 300 days.

The corollary to this sad tale of falling real estate prices is that you can always find work if you are willing to work for less than you might like. A lot of the unemployed expect to eventually get their old jobs back. It just isn't going to happen. Globalization and new technologies have destroyed those old jobs just as effectively as the financial meltdown of 2008 destroyed the selling price of my rent house. There is work though. There is always work if you are willing to do it. The ironic thing is that I'm busier than I've been at almost any point in my career, but I'm effectively making less per hour than I was 25 years ago. To me, this all sucks big time, but since I'm not Dr. Who and I don't have a Tardis handy, there is no way I can recapture the glory days.

What the hell. Things change. You've got to keep moving. It's better to keep reinventing yourself and adapt to changing times that to pretend is is still 1985. I present a new website design tomorrow. I got another new client today. Neither of these opportunities represent a financial windfall for me, but they do allow me to continue. I know I'm going to be disappointed with the final selling price of my rent house. I'm continually disappointed by the performance of my stock portfolio. This is the world we live in though. On the bright side, if I ever buy another house, it probably won't be that expensive.

We didn't go to training class tonight. Maybe if I had two very obedient dogs, I could take both of them myself. That isn't the case however. Dash is still a handful for me. I hate to leave Dot behind, so we all just stay home on nights when Janet isn't around. The dogs seem happy enough. They are both asleep on the bed. I'm happy enough as well. There are no mosquitoes biting me and I'm inside, away from my allergy problems. We'll wait until next week to return to class.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 671

Life is certainly a long and winding road. Every time I start to feel like I've arrived at a destination, somebody moves the finish line. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get caught up with work, or feel financially secure, or get all my health issues resolved.

My only solution is to just keep moving. I'm renewing my efforts to find some new clients. Today, when I went to physical therapy, I took along my iPad and made a quick presentation to the owners about how they could use outdoor advertising and short videos to help market their business. I think presenting to people who already have to see you anyway is a great strategy. Making a cold call presentation these days is almost impossible.

There seemed to be quite a bit of interest in adding video demonstrations and testimonials to the existing physical therapy website. Will I get the job? Who knows. I think I've got a fair shot at it, but then again, the owners both have children in college who are majoring in marketing. It's hard to compete when the client's kids do the same thing as you do.

I discovered today that I installed the wrong version of Avid Media Composer on my computer. I installed v5.5.2 and I was supposed to install v5.5.3. Damn. Now I've got uninstall everything and start over. I'm trying to get my desktop computer ready to upgrade to the Lion OS, but there are so many conflicts and problems like this that it hardly seems worth the effort. Maybe I'll just keep using Snow Leopard forever.

I stopped by a sporting goods store and got some light free weights for my shoulder exercises on the way home from today's physical therapy session. As soon as I got home, Dash fished the weights out of my shopping bag and started running around the house with them. He thought they were dog toys.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day