Day 4591

Today is the 53rd anniversary of the first moon landing. We need more events like this. It might have been the last time the entire world felt good about something. Nevermind the fact that the Apollo program was all about the Cold War and the moon landing probably never would have happened if we weren't in a race to beat the Russians. It was still a stupendous achievement. I remember those days well. I was in college then and wasn't nearly as cynical. I actually believed all those who said we would have cities on Mars by now. What happened? There are no cities on Mars and the cities on Earth are crowded and very unsafe.

Dawn didn't have training class this evening. It was too hot. The temperature slowly builds throughout the day and it is usually hottest right around sunset. The sun has already set and it is still 104 degrees at our house. Hey, it is only 80 degrees indoors though. By bedtime, the temperature will be down to 78 and tomorrow morning it will be 75 again. It is actually probably a bit cooler in most rooms. The thermostat is right next to the air return for the AC and this is the warmest place in the house. 

I've really started to appreciate our sunrise walks with Dawn because they are the only times when the weather seems tolerable. This morning there was a nice breeze and we had a very enjoyable walk. As soon as the sun peeks above the horizon you can instantly feel the difference. The sun feels hot even at sunrise. Dawn seems perfectly content to just get one walk a day now. She's basically a very lazy dog and spends most of her time sleeping on the bed anyway.

I try to stay busier, although sleeping on the bed during the day sounds pretty good to me as well. I went back to the gym again after eating breakfast and checking my messages on the computer. Until our heat wave is over, this will probably be my routine for the rest of the summer. I might even try mall walking this Sunday when my gym is closed. I just don't think it is healthy to be out in this heat for very long. My summer routine at the gym is pretty much the same every day. I walk several miles on the indoor track to get my Fitbit steps and then I shoot some baskets on the basketball court for fun before I head home again. I always hope that I can find a space in the parking garage, because the car heats up very quickly if left out in the sun. I don't want anything to melt.

There isn't a lot to do in the afternoon. This is when I often take a nap if I feel so inclined. Janet likes to watch movies on her devices, but I have trouble doing this. I have trouble picking up a book either. Occasionally I will look at Amazon or New York Times best seller lists but I don't see any literary masterpieces. Every celebrity has a book these days. I should have been a ghost writer. I know these guys didn't write their books themselves. Actually, I should just start methodically re-reading all the books on my office bookshelves. I can't remember what is in most of them, but I know that I used to have good taste in books and enjoyed them all. It's hard to believe that I really read all these books. There are hundreds of them.

There is all this squabbling right now about fossil fuel versus renewal energy. Absolutely nobody is talking about the real problem. There are way too many people on the planet chasing too few resources. Humans are like Kudzoo Vines. We chop down all the trees to make houses and eat all the fish out of the sea. We should be planting more trees. Everyone is worried about greenhouse gasses, but trees actually love CO2. They convert the stuff into oxygen. We just don't get it. Instead of planting forests, we create vast deserts and then build solar panel farms on them. Nature tries to help by sending us new diseases every year designed to reduce our population. We're like busy beavers though and always find a cure for these diseases. We never learn. We keep building bigger cities and can't seem to produce enough food. I still think at the rate things are going humans will be extinct in 300 years.

On that happy note I will continue watching a small line of storms to the North of us on the weather radar. I was hoping that we might get some of that rain later this evening, but the storms seem to be dissipating. Who would have thought that after all my complaining about roof leaks, I would actually be hoping for rain.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4579

Another hot day. It's really hard for me to get motivated in this weather. I kind of envy Dawn's ability to sleep for most of the day. There's a whole list of things I need to do, but I keep postponing things. I need to schedule my car for a recall service. I hate dealing with the dealership now, so I keep putting this off. 

I need to retrieve a few things I put on consignment at a guitar store several years ago. I haven't talked to the place since before Covid started and I know my stuff hasn't sold yet. The electronic gear will just go to my storage warehouse, but if I don't do anything, the store might go out of business and the stuff could just disappear. 

I really need to start calling people about repairs to the house, but living in a house while renovations are going on is one of the worst things I can think of. There are doctors appointment I need to make and I need a haircut again. I could go on, but you get the picture. It's easier to just do nothing.

I went back to the gym again after breakfast. If it gets any hotter, it's going to be too warm for our sunrise walk with Dawn. It's definitely too warm for doing yard work during the day. Going to the gym reminds me of the Groundhog Day movie. Everything is always the same. The same people are always there and are doing the same exercise routines. The place is nice and cool though. It must cost a fortune to keep the giant room as cold as they do. When I watch the same people do the same exercises on the same machines day after day, I realize that most people's lives are more or less like mine. Everyday life is not always exciting. Most things we do are repetitious and often boring.

I think spending nine days alone with Dawn has changed things a bit. We seem to get along better now. Dawn comes when I call now and seems to be content to share the bed with me. I took a long nap this afternoon and she was right there with me. Dawn is still more excited when Janet is in the house, but I am no longer someone to fear. I hope this continues. Life will be a lot easier if Dawn starts treating Janet and I the same way.

My sister reads a lot and I asked her for a few recommendations. Now she wants to send me boxes of books she's already read. I need to send her pictures of my office. Our house is already filled with bookshelves and there isn't room for anything more. There are books in the storage warehouse too. Sadly, I really don't read that much anymore. Three or four books would probably keep me busy for the rest of the year.

Food and gasoline aren't the only things that are getting more expensive. I paid some utility bills today and every one of them was higher than expected. I can't think of a single thing that is actually getting cheaper these days. If I was still working, I could raise my own rates, but that's not going to happen. I learned quite a few years ago that the kids working in ad agencies these days don't want to hire their grandfather. Too bad the stock market is also taking a hit. It's kind of like a perfect storm of bad news.

A lot of people on my Facebook feed are getting Covid. Why now? I thought the pandemic was supposed to be winding down. It makes me wonder if I'll eventually get Covid myself. I've probably escaped so far because I'm not around other people very much. Avoiding people still seems like a good plan to me, but my luck could run out at any point. It's probably not good to dwell on thoughts like this. It's a crazy world. My luck could run out driving to the gym or even walking in the park.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4438

Today was mostly just fighting the weather. It was cold when we woke up and kept getting colder as the day progressed. I thought we'd get some sun today but it stayed overcast all day. At least there was no more rain. I still wonder how Northerners deal with Winter so well. Every time I go outside I bundle up in multiple layers. When I come back inside all the layers come off again. I do this over and over again all day long. Where is this mythical place where it is 72 degrees all year long?

I had my first TeleVisit with a doctor today. Everything worked fine but this made me wonder why this type of thing is any better than a simple phone call. Basically a TeleVisit is just a phone call except that you can see the other person. Zoom calls are the same way. A Zoom call is just an old fashioned conference call except that you can see the other people. Is it actually important to see the other people? To me it's distracting. I've been on work related conference calls for decades and never had any desire to see who I was talking too. On a video call you always start thinking about how goofy you look and spend more time inspecting the other peoples surroundings than thinking about the subject at hand. Call me old fashioned, but I still think reading is the best way to consume information and talking to someone is a lot simpler than texting them. 

I find that I don't even like YouTube videos. If I'm searching for something on the Internet and I'm given a choice of a video or a print article, I'll always choose to read the article first. I'm a fast reader and I can immediately go to the information I need. A video puts you on the other person's schedule. There are way too many long winded instructional videos out there. It's kind of weird that I have this attitude since I spent a big chunk of my career making instructional videos.

I don't know why I bothered to take my long walk today. It was bitterly cold. The temperature wasn't that bad but the wind chill made it feel fifteen to twenty degrees colder. I always felt better when the wind was at my back. Unfortunately since I walk in a huge circle, the wind was directly in my face a lot of the time. I still completed my entire route, but I'm not sure what it proved. This was one of those days where I'm not sure what it proved to even get out of bed.

When I was walking this morning I saw one of the eagles circling around the tree where the pair's nest used to be. It was kind of sad. I wonder if the birds realized what happened and why. They basically picked the wrong tree and made their nest on a dead limb. There is speculation that these are young eagles and are inexperienced nest builders. Maybe this is how they learn.

After I spent a lot of time yesterday taking leaves and trash out to the curb, the trucks didn't even come today to pick it up. I wonder why I take these e-mail messages I get from the city seriously. Half the time they are wrong. Now when I took out the week's regular trash this evening I didn't have a place to put the can. My regular spot was occupied by many big black bags filled with leaves. 

I'm not looking forward to our early walk tomorrow morning. It's going to be very cold. The main reason we walk early is so that Dawn will poop. She doesn't like to go in the yard. I guess an early walk is a good way to wake up, but a cup of coffee in a warm house would probably work just as well. Lets face it. I'm just not a morning person.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4311

It's been raining off and on all day. It's actually raining right now. Not my favorite kind of day, but what are you going to do? I guess we need the rain. I just don't like it. The showers stopped and started often enough that I was still able to walk. I just had to take several short walks instead of one long one. Luckily, we were able to get Dawn walked before the bad weather started. She hates to get her paws wet and won't even leave the house when it's raining.

Like most rainy days, today was fairly uneventful. I did find out from SpaceFlight Magazine that they want me to cover the Artemis 1 launch. I still have to get press accreditation on my own though. I guess I have plenty of time. The launch isn't taking place until early 2022 now. There will be other interesting launches before then, but I don't think I can afford to go to Florida that often. It's been an expensive year.

It was kind of neat to see William Shatner go to space this morning on Blue Origin's rocket out in West Texas. The guy is 90 years old. I guess there's still hope for folks in their mid 70's. I'd never have the nerve to go into orbit like the Inspiration 4 crew did recently, but riding in Jeff Bezos little rocket seems pretty safe. That rocket is probably safer than riding a rickety old roller coaster at the state fair. I've ridden in a small helicopter without doors and once in an open cockpit biplane, but that was when I was much younger and didn't have any sense. These days driving to the grocery store is about all the danger I can handle.

My allergies were terrible today. It's weird how the symptoms come and go. Just two days ago I had no problems whatsoever. I guess it just depends on what is blowing around in the air. The combination of a dripping nose, watering eyes,  and extremely high humidity made today's walks less than idyllic. I kept walking though. I've convinced myself that's I've got to keep moving.

I keep getting distracted by the sounds of rain on the roof. About every ten minutes I go check for signs of roof leaks and then go out on the back porch to see if the pumps are still working. So far, so good. It would be nice to live in a fancy high rise where I wouldn't have to worry about things like this. I'd probably just worry about something else though. It's just my nature. Unlike some of our other dogs, Dawn doesn't worry about thunder and lightning at all. She's sound asleep on the bed right now.

The only thing on my calendar are doctor's appointments. I need to see the dermatologist, the urologist, the eye doctor, my primary care physician, and the guys who are going to do my colonoscopy. There's nothing wrong. It's just that all my annual exams seem to happen in the Fall. The eye doctor appointment is usually my easiest exam, but I'm not looking forward to this one. I'm almost sure the doctor is going to tell me it's time for cataract surgery.

The rain keeps getting heavier. This would probably be a good time to curl up with a book. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get interested in reading anymore. The shelves in my office are filled with hundreds of books and I've read every one of them. Oddly I have no desire to add to this little library. I should just re-read the books I already have. I can't remember what half of them are about anyway.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3169

I've stopped going to the library, but I certainly haven't stopped reading. I think one reason my head is filled with useless information is that on slow days like this, I can spend hours reading odd little articles I find on Google. When I click on the Google Discover tab, I'm always amazed that there seems to be an endless supply of things I've never heard about before. I'll read almost anything about astronomy and space. I like reading articles about how the human race is doomed and headed toward extinction. Most articles about Elon Musk catch my attention. I always read articles about the best diet to feed your dog. Sometimes I'll read articles about the pills I'm taking or the stocks my broker recommends. I like articles about exotic cars and vintage guitars. I'm not interested in politics at all, so I skip over a lot of stuff. Apparently, a lot of people are only interested in politics.

Today I read articles about what might have existed in the universe before the big bang, learned about a new mass extinction theory that says the dinosaurs all died in a single day, read about a Ferrari prototype that uses a "virtual" windshield made out of air, and did some research on several stocks my broker wants me to buy.

My broker and I don't agree on much. I like to contemplate large scale trends like young people preferring pets to children and ordering meal kits from Hello Fresh rather than going to the grocery store. I'm bored by technical analysis and usually could care less when a stock dips below its two hundred day moving average. My broker thinks Gilead Sciences is a good buy right now. What? I hate that company. They're the ones who charged me $1000 a pill for Sovaldi. OK. It is a revolutionary drug that cured my Hepatitis C, but $1000 a pill still seems a bit steep. I wish I'd just kept the first three stocks I'd ever bought: Apple, Boeing, and Southwest Airlines. If I'd kept adding to those positions over the years, I'd have done a lot better than decades of hit and miss trading.

Forget about stocks. What I should be researching is what's causing Dash's loose stools. According to everything we've read, what we're feeding Dash now should be very easy to digest and contribute to firm stools. It's just not happening. It's hard to get a definitive answer from the vets either. The older your dog gets, the more "old age" seems to be the cause of everything. I doubt that I'm going to find a cure for Dash's incontinence, but it does get tiring having a world centered around poop.

I've stopped carrying a camera on our walks because I really need to concentrate on keeping Dash upright. It's kind of a shame. This morning I missed a spectacular shot of a Great Egret. Yesterday evening the setting sun reflecting off the downtown skyscrapers was equally spectacular. I still carry my phone in my pocket, but I would have needed a telephoto lens to capture these images. It probably doesn't even matter. Everything I see in the park, I've already photographed dozens of times before. Just to prove my point, I took another picture of Jimson Weed flowers with my phone this morning.

Dash had a good day, but he still hasn't pooped yet. I'm nervous. I still can't decide whether to apply to join the Jet Propulsion Lab team for the InSight landing either. I guess I'm nervous about that too.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3076

Maybe it's just the nice weather, but we are encountering an increasing number of aggressive dogs in the park. These dogs are on a leash, but just barely. I still don't understand why people insist on walking their dogs in a public place when they can't control them. The woman we encountered today kept apologizing for her dog's bad behavior but couldn't seem to stop it. We watched as several other dogs narrowly avoided disaster and kept far, far away.

It's hard to blame the dog for bad behavior. Usually the owner has made no effort to properly socialize and train their pet. A well socialized puppy seldom becomes a bad dog. I've learned to keep my distance when I see a dog on one of those long flexi-leashes that won't come when it's called. When another dog approaches, the owner struggles to retract the leash like they are reeling in a fish. Jeez. A sturdy leather leash and a little training goes a long way. We safely completed another walk, but it would be nice if we could relax and enjoy the outdoors without constantly looking ahead for danger.

I may need to find a new time to go to the gym. For the second week in a row, I haven't been able to use the basketball court because a game was in progress. These impromptu pick-up games come and go, but I'm never very good at predicting when the court will be in use. I'm always a little disappointed when I can't shoot baskets. It seems like a small reward for the twenty minutes I spend on the hand bicycle.

I needed to buy a new nozzle for the garden hose in the back yard today. I've bought a new nozzle every year for the past three years. Why don't these things last? I'd much rather spend $25 for a sturdy nozzle that would last a lifetime than pay $7 for a new nozzle every year. Sprinklers are even worse. Most oscillating sprinklers won't even make it through a single season.

Although I'm willing to pay more for garden equipment, I'd like to pay less for socks. Why are socks so expensive? Maybe I'm hard on socks, but I'm always needing to replace them. It doesn't take me long at all to get a hole in the heel. I went looking for socks on my way home from the gym today and a lot of them were over $20 a pair. That's ridiculous for something that won't last six months.

Dash had a good day. He's seemed a little more sure footed on his walks lately. I can tell by the sound his protective boots make on the pavement that he's not dragging his feet so much. This could all change tomorrow, but I'm always happy when Dash has a good day. I'm still confused about his changing eating habits. Dash prefers to eat later in the day now. There's no more barking for breakfast right after he wakes up. Lately, he's been sleeping through the night too. I need to stay flexible, which isn't always easy. I'm not a very flexible person.

I watched the last episode of Detectorists last night. Now what? There just aren't many shows that I like. Maybe I should start reading again. My standards are pretty high. I'm looking for books like The Milagro Beanfield War, A Confederacy of Dunces, Geek Love, Danial Martin, Sometimes a Great Notion, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Truthfully, I don't think they make authors like Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe, and John Fowles anymore.

Libby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3015

All day rain. That's all you need to say about days like today. I didn't even attempt to walk Dash this morning. The rain hadn't started yet when I woke up, but as slow as Dash moves these days, I knew we would be drenched by the time we returned. It didn't take long for the storm to arrive. Dash was predictable. He needed to pee, but wouldn't even stick his head out the back door. I kept trying to tell him that this was going to go on for a long time. Unfortunately, he still thinks I can stop the rain.

It didn't take long for cabin fever to set in. Dash was restless and so was I. There's not much to do in a small house on a rainy day. Dash kept going to his food bowl and I kept turning the TV on and off again. I don't know why I kept expecting to find something interesting. There's never anything interesting on daytime TV.

I kept checking the weather radar, looking for a gap in the cloud cover, but the rain was pretty steady. Around 3 PM the rain stopped for a while and I decided to take Dash for an afternoon walk. We walked for about fifteen minutes and then the rain started again. I don't know why I thought we'd be able to make it home. Dash is really slow. We got wet, but at least there wasn't any thunder and lightning.

I dried Dash off, changed my clothes, and watched the stock market lose most of yesterday's gains. I can't recall any really bad news today. Everyone is just jittery. I should stop fretting about the market. I certainly can't change anything.

I'm surprised at the number of people who say they are going to leave Facebook. Why are these people surprised that Facebook is selling their information? Jeez. What else has Facebook got to sell?  Wait until they discover that Alexa and Siri are listening to everything they say. I doubt that many of these outraged people will actually leave Facebook. That would be like me telling someone I was going to give up ice cream or bacon. Social media is here to stay and privacy left the building a long time ago.

I wonder how long it's going to take the roofers to get to me now. Every day of rain probably delays them another three weeks. It's amazing how long this has gone on. Occasionally, I'll look at old blog posts and realize that I've been dealing with this roof problem for over five years. I've still got buckets handy, but luckily there are no active leaks at the moment. The roof is constructed in layers. I worry when the top layer breaks, but water has to penetrate three more layers before it can get inside. We've got another day of heavy rain tomorrow and then hopefully I can start to clean things up.

I'm tired of fixing things. I need to find a good book or a TV series to binge watch on Netflix. I used to be a voracious reader, but it's difficult for me to pick up a book anymore. I wonder why? Maybe I should write a book. There are several dystopian novels floating around in my head, but it just doesn't seem important to put the ideas on paper. I only think about these matters on rainy days. When the sun is shining, I just fix broken things.

According to the weather forecast, tomorrow is going to be just like today. That's a pleasant thought. If it's going to be wet, at least the stock market should have the decency to go up. I need some good news.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2432

Today was quiet. I spent most of the day finishing my remaining writing assignments. In theory, I could make a good living this way, but the assignments aren't consistent enough. I miss the days when reading was considered mandatory. Back in the day, I used to write lots of annual reports for large corporations. These jobs always paid well and weren't much harder than the lower paying online work I do today. Everything is visual these days. I was curious when I heard about Instagram Stories recently. Finally, an Instagram feature designed for people like me. Not really. I was very disappointed when I discovered that these "stories" were just meant to be collections of short videos. In a world where people increasingly communicate using emojis, I'm lucky to have any writing jobs at all.

Since Dot keeps me housebound most of the time, I watch way more TV than I should. I never actually watch entire shows, but the TV in the kitchen is always on and I'll glance at it as I'm doing my daily chores. Donald Trump is increasingly portrayed as an unbalanced Dr. Strangelove. Hillary Clinton is portrayed as an evil mafia boss who is above the law. Since there is a basis for both of these portrayals, why are we being asked to vote for either of these people? The main message of both campaigns is that the other guy is even worse than they are. It's pathetic. You'd think the third party candidates would get a little more traction in this toxic environment, but nobody even bothers to interview Gary Johnson. The media treats him like someone who was born with six toes. He's just a curiosity. I'm pretty burned out on political news, but it's still more interesting than cooking shows or The View. Why do the networks even bother with daytime programming? I think the only people watching are me and a bunch of people sitting in doctor's waiting rooms.

I'm still trying to figure out how to reconfigure my network router so I can use my pet cam again. I guess I could just go buy a different pet cam, but I am determined to get the existing one working. I've given up on AT&T and have started talking with the people who make the software that the camera uses. So far, they're just asking me a lot of questions, but the questions are very specific, so I think we might be getting somewhere.

Janet and I found a lost dog while we were walking Dot and Dash this evening. The little dog was friendly, but was hard to catch since we couldn't move very fast with Dot. Luckily, a neighbor driving down the street saw us and stopped to help. We found a phone number on the dog's collar and he said he would try to reunite the dog with its owner. Hopefully, they are back together now.

Tomorrow I have an appointment for my annual safety inspection. I've tried to schedule this excursion so that Dot will be asleep while I'm gone, but I have little control over what Dot actually does. Just because she's usually asleep at 10 AM, doesn't mean that she's going to be sleeping tomorrow. Whenever I go out these days, I tend to come home to find a dog who has pooped all over the place.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. This has been a long, very hot week. The trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm almost ready for bed. I'm hoping that the safety inspection doesn't take very long, so I still have time to go out for breakfast. I'd definitely like to end the week with a good breakfast.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2131

I got a letter from a friend today that got me thinking. I complain a lot, but I really shouldn't. My friend is facing huge medical bills while I am reasonably healthy. My house is paid for, while my friend's house has been on the market for six months and isn't selling. My dogs are old and frail, but my friend's dog has heartworms. Everything in life is relative. As bad as you think things are, there is always somebody else who can make your problems seem trivial by comparison. I've always thought of myself as a survivor, but I really need to be more appreciative of the simple fact that I've made it this far. There are so many things in life that can go horribly wrong.

I'm happy to report that nothing went wrong today at all. It was a nice Fall day. We got off to an early start and I think it was a good omen that I saw all four morning planets. Mercury is growing brighter and is higher in the sky now, so I can see it without binoculars. Dash continues to improve. He seemed to enjoy his walk this morning and I didn't see him limp at all. My breakfast restaurant raised prices a bit, but the small increase didn't bother me. I'm surprised they've been able to keep their prices so low for this long.

There were no accidents in the house today. This was probably just blind luck, but I'll take whatever I can get. I got my article assignments written while the dogs were sleeping and made a small alteration on a website that I had forgotten about yesterday. By the time the dogs started barking for their dinner, I had managed to get caught up on everything.

I think it is a good sign that novels have replaced Sweetwater and B&H catalogs as my preferred bathroom reading. I really don't need any more gear if I can't even keep the stuff I've already got running properly. So far, I'm reading about a book a week. I realize that this pace isn't exactly setting the world on fire, but it's still light years ahead of where I was this time last year. My current read is Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy. I recommend it highly.

I keep promising Janet that I'm going to clean out the office, but I don't even know where to begin. It's really time to unload some of the audio gear, but I don't trust eBay anymore. There are too many scammers and disreputable buyers. I rarely wear my vintage watches these days since I've gotten hooked on the Apple Watch, but I'm still fond of all of them. My closets are full of practically new, unworn clothes, since six days out of seven I still continue to wear jeans and a black t-shirt. Basically, I stopped dressing up when I stopped going to client meetings. It's hard to turn around an ocean liner. So far, any downsizing I've done has gone largely unnoticed.

I hope today's mild weather continues through the weekend. The dogs are much happier when the temperature is in the mid-70's. I keep telling Dot that the worst is over. It ought to be smooth sailing ahead at least until the rainy season starts.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2088

I know some of you think that when work is slow I do absolutely nothing. Au contraire. I'm usually quite busy tilting windmills. Lately, I've been doing a lot of research on Google, trying to see if it is possible to adapt some of my old equipment so I could still use it in today's digital world. It would be nice if I could speed up my old computers so they could run today's complex software. It would be even nicer if I could use some of my old analog camera lenses on the latest digital bodies.

So far my efforts have been fruitless. I have some really nice Canon ENG broadcast lenses that I'd love to use on my current digital video cameras. So far, it seems impossible. These lenses were made to work with the 2/3 sensors found in Beta SP cameras. The image these lenses produce isn't large enough to cover the much larger 4/3 sensor found in my cinema camera. When I gave up on the Canon broadcast lenses, I thought my Bronica lenses might work. These medium format film lenses would certainly completely cover the 4/3 sensor, but nobody makes an adapter to attach the lens to the video camera. There are plenty of adapters for old Nikon and Canon lenses, but Bronica went out of business a long time ago and nobody cares about it anymore. There isn't a large enough market for anybody to make a profit manufacturing Bronica adapters. I even have some old Sinar view camera lenses that would cover any size sensor, but apparently nobody has even thought about adapting view camera lenses to modern video cameras. I found absolutely nothing on Google about using these lenses with video cameras.

It's frustrating to have fully functioning professional equipment that was good enough to shoot network TV commercials in the 1980's, but is now shunned even by beginning wedding photographers. I haven't adapted well. I love the old Macintosh towers I used to use in the early 1990's. My old Nikon F-2 still seems like the most useful and versatile camera I've ever owned. I even like reel-to-reel tape. Maybe this is why I enjoy watching old Perry Mason and Alfred Hitchcock shows on late night TV.

Dot had a good day. Now, she seems strong enough again to enjoy her early morning exercise walk and still have enough energy to do her afternoon physical therapy session. Today, she did a full seventeen minutes in the underwater treadmill. She's gained weight though. I don't know what that's all about. Nothing has changed since last week. I asked Dot's vet about Dash's strange new eating habits and she seemed baffled. She said she'd never heard of a dog who refused to eat from his bowl, yet ate everything normally when the food was transferred to a dinner plate. He doesn't seem sick. He just seems weird. We'll give him a Pepsid AC tonight before he goes to bed, just to see if he might have heartburn or a reflux problem.

I started a new book today. This one's been sitting on a shelf in the office for months. It is a memoir written by a co-worker of mine when I was starting out in the ad business in Seattle. I've been reluctant to read the book, since this guy ended up being hugely successful, building an award winning multi-million dollar ad agency while I was sitting in a small room writing with two dogs under my desk. I shouldn't be envious though. The first few chapters of this book were hilariously funny and remarkably accurate about what it's like to work in the ad biz.

It's hard to believe that this week is almost over. I've already taken this week's trash to the curb and gotten Dot's bed prepared for the night. I've still got to brush my teeth and run my daily test print on the large format printer. Then it's time for Perry Mason and sweet dreams about tomorrow's breakfast.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2087

It didn't take me long to finish my book. Hmm. Now, what am I going to do? Without any pressing deadlines, it looked like it was going to be a long day. I could have used up some time making biscuits and gravy this morning, but I didn't feel like eating anything that heavy. I had my fruit smoothie again. For the third time this week, Dash didn't want to eat his breakfast. I switched bowls and put his food on a dinner plate and then he finally finished his meal. Eating shouldn't be so difficult though. Something is wrong.

I was a bit surprised that I was so captivated by a novel where the hero spends much of his time staying alive by solving complex math and chemistry problems. Unlike Interstellar and Farscape, there were no wormholes to make travel to other planets easy. Unlike Firefly, this wasn't a spaghetti Western with spaceships. The ship wasn't alive like Lexx. And nobody fired a gun. From what I learned during my visit with the NASA folks in January, The Martian is pretty realistic. It will be interesting to see how Ridley Scott adapts the story to film, especially since the main character spends most of his time completely alone without the ability to communicate. There certainly won't be much dialog. The story works great as a book, since the narrative is in the form of a logbook, much like the real log kept by Samantha Cristoforetti while she was a crew member on the International Space Station.

I guess this blog is kind of a logbook too, although my own ship is going nowhere and if I'm trying to escape from anything, it is only in my own mind. Like Mark Watney, I try to stay busy. I sewed a button on some pants today. I cleaned up poop in the living room after Dot couldn't quite make it to the back door after dinner. I keep the TV on a lot, but usually mute the sound. Typically, I just watch the moving stock ticker at the bottom of the business channel. It's not like knowing what is going on with the stock market makes any difference. I just like to know.

I thought about getting a new battery for my laptop today, but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of making a reservation at the Apple Store Genius Bar, only to discover that I'd have to come back again later. It's frustrating that you can't really call an Apple Store by phone and ask a simple question like whether they could replace a laptop battery while I waited. I've tried calling these stores before. Each store actually does have a local phone number, but when you call, it is really just a call center in another state. Getting a simple answer about anything isn't so simple anymore.

I paid a few bills and took them to the post office this afternoon. I mostly just did this to get out of the house for a little while. I would rather have taken a check to the bank, but there were no checks for me in the morning mail. It's always a good day when there's money in the mail, but mostly it's just bills. The mailbox is where the rubber meets the road. It is here that I watch my expenses continue to increase while my income slowly decreases.

Maybe I'll have the energy to make a decent breakfast tomorrow. I hope that Dot has the energy to have a good workout in the underwater treadmill. It seems like I just took her for a therapy session yesterday, but time goes by quickly these days. Dot actually does seem stronger since we stopped the chemotherapy. She's walking about the house again unaided. I'm often surprised to find her next to me while I'm working and wondering how she managed to get up without her harness. Moments like these make even the slowest day worthwhile.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2086

I started reading The Martian today. I could have easily finished it if I didn't have the dogs to tend to and this blog to write. There certainly wasn't anything else going on today. I'd forgotten what a good way to kill time that reading is. As an added bonus, I could do my reading sitting next to Dot, who always likes having me nearby. Dot likes to lounge in the sun on nice days, so after lunch I took her out in the back yard and sat next to her reading my book for about 45 minutes. This worked out well for everyone. Dot had a companion and the bright sunlight narrowed my pupils, giving my eyes better depth of field, so I didn't need my reading glasses.

I could relate to the character of Mark Watney in the book. I'm not stranded on Mars, but I am alone a lot and spend a good deal of my time fixing things that break. Like Watney, I also spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about poop. I'm not in a desperate race to save my life, but I do feel like I'm trying to save my sanity at times. This book should be an inspiration to any aspiring writer. Andy Weir couldn't find a publisher, so he put the book on his website for free, one chapter at a time. Fans encouraged him to create a Kindle edition and sell it on Amazon. The e-book quickly rose to the top of Amazon's science fiction charts where it eventually caught the eye of traditional publishers. Five years after Andy started writing the book, it made its debut on the New York Times Best Seller List.

So, maybe there's hope for my dog stories yet. Not very likely. They'll probably be available free on my website forever. That's OK though. I never made any effort to get published. I kind of prefer doing things this way. There's a lot to read on my website if you're so inclined, but if you're not, that's OK too. At least you're reading the blog.

One of my clients asked me today if I'd be interested in taking over the SEO duties from another company they are currently using. Maybe. I asked the client what the current SEO experts were doing for them. He didn't know. "What do you mean you don't know," I said? "What are you actually paying for?" He really didn't know. "Have sales picked up since you hired this company," I asked? Nope. I'd say this was a pretty good sign that my client is wasting his money. I guess the question now is whether I could do any better. I'm not sure. A lot of SEO campaigns are totally worthless.

I'll probably finish reading my book tomorrow morning. I could have read the entire book in one sitting if I wasn't interrupted so often. I'm slow at a lot of things, but I'm a fast reader. I'll have to pick up some more books this weekend. They are a remarkably good way to kill time. I'm not even sure what interests me at this point in time, but I'm sure there's more to life than the trade journals and B&H photography catalogs that are my current reading matter.

I tried and failed to take pictures of dragonflies today. At this time of year, there are hundreds of them hovering over the meadows in the park in the afternoons. I've seem cool looking pictures of dragonflies in flight before, but the little critters are devilishly fast, fly in erratic patterns, and are almost impossible to keep in focus when you're using a zoom lens. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2082

Not my circus. Not my monkeys. This has become my universal response to just about everything I see these days. The world has become such a strange and chaotic place that I am having difficulty relating to things that are apparently normal now. Almost every time I turn on the TV I am reminded of this old Polish idiom. I feel the same way on those rare occasions when I visit a client's office or go to a public event. "What planet am I on," I sometimes think. Coincidentally, I drove by an actual circus when I was running errands this afternoon. I didn't see my monkeys there either. Even this little parking lot circus seemed strangely out of place to me.

Reading books used to seem normal to me, so I bought a book today. I've been meaning to read Andy Weir's The Martian for quite a while, but somehow never got around to it. I've known about the book for ages since it is a favorite of the space geeks I follow on social media. I've actually read big chunks of the book online, but have never read the whole thing. Maybe now would be a good time. I always like to read a book before they make a movie out of it. 9 times out of 10, the book is better than the movie.

I went to the storage warehouse today and picked up the equipment I'll need for this weekend's photo shoot. The equipment seems to get heavier every time I load it in the car. It would be nice if there was a place in the house to store this stuff, but that option disappeared years ago. Now that Dot has trouble moving around, the house has become more crowded than ever. There are dog beds everywhere, so she'll have a comfortable place to rest wherever she is. Dot has limited mobility, but she is much happier when she still has free reign of the house. She has a comfortable bed in every room now and I don't have to confine her in a small pen to keep her safe. When we go to sleep, I move several of these beds together to create a large area that she won't slide off of when she tries to re-position herself during the night. One of the beds goes in the car whenever we go to her physical therapy sessions. I feel like I'm always moving dog beds around.

I tried to rig up an alternate pet cam this afternoon. The baby monitor that I use to monitor the dogs when I'm away has been crashing a lot lately. It makes me nervous when I open the app on my phone to see what's going on and all I get is an "unable to connect" message. I usually fix the baby monitor the same way I fix every other electronic device in the house. I turn the thing off and then turn it back on again. It's amazing how simply rebooting something just about always solves the problem. At any rate it would be good to have an independent back up camera in case the baby monitor goes wonky again.

It doesn't take a lot to make me happy. I saw Mars on the Eastern horizon as we walked the dogs this morning. I got one of the three good parking places when I went out for breakfast. Dot didn't poop in the house at all today. And I'm all caught up on the week's work. Quite a few things make me unhappy as well, but maybe it I don't turn on the TV, don't pick up the phone, and avoid rush hour traffic I won't notice them so much.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2072

Dot got scared going to the vet for her annual exam and immediately pooped in the lobby. This was actually convenient, since we needed a stool sample for the exam anyway. Her vet told me that other than having cancer and severe neurological problems, Dot was looking pretty good. Dot sees so many vets for so many different reasons that these annual exams really are just a formality. She didn't need a rabies shot this year, but did get a leptospirosis vaccination.  This disease has become a real problem in our area. It is spread by the urine of rats, raccoons, and possums, which all seem to wind up in our yard, so it's better to be safe than sorry. Since Dot has three different vets, I always need to make sure that everyone is on the same page. I usually spend a good portion of every exam telling the vet what all the other vets think. Today, we didn't even need to do the regular annual exam blood work, because Dot's oncologist at the cancer center has already taken care of this just a few weeks ago.

A box of Keurig coffee pods arrived in the mail this morning. "Don't you already have plenty of coffee pods," Janet asked me? Well, I guess I do. I don't really feel guilty about buying an excessive amount of Keurig pods though. Janet does the same thing with soup. It's hard to resist a good bargain. I'll find a place to store the new pods until I need them. They definitely will get used. I drink a lot of coffee.

I'm trying to remember if August was always this slow. Traditionally, the end of the Summer has always been slow for me, but this year absolutely nothing is going on. The odd thing is that even though I have no business to speak of, I'm still busy every day. It's amazing how quickly taking care of the dogs, tending to the yard, paying bills, and running the occasional errand can fill up a day. I had to run to the mall and pick up something this morning, but this quick trip and Dot's vet appointment were my only excursions today. It seemed like they took up the entire day.

I need to pick up a few books to read. I've been meaning to read Andy Wier's new novel The Martian and this would probably be a pretty good time. What else have I got to do? Dot likes having me nearby during the day and sitting next to her reading a book probably makes a lot more sense than getting up and down every five minutes to check social media on my computer. I wonder why I lost the desire to read? I used to read books voraciously. Of course, I used to do everything with a lot more gusto than I do now. I still make sure to take a new photograph every day for the blog, but a camera is no longer my constant companion. I don't play guitar all that much either. Maybe this is just the natural order of things as my interests change over time. Or maybe I'm catatonically depressed. I really don't know.

Everyone says it is going to rain tomorrow. I am so ambivalent about rain.We really need the rain. The yard is dry and the air is hot and dusty. On the other hand, Dot and Dash are terribly frightened of storms and make life difficult every time it rains. I never really trust the roof either. What this means is that I'll be really happy when the rain first starts, but will become increasingly irritated if it doesn't stop within thirty minutes. If the power goes out, all bets are off.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2058

I thought I'd go to the gym today. I didn't stay long. Before I started my workout, I checked the dogs on the baby monitor like I always do. It wasn't working. This was odd, because the Withings monitor is usually very reliable. I rebooted my phone in case that was the problem, but I still couldn't connect. Being the alarmist that I am, my first thought was that Dash had another seizure and knocked over the furniture again. His epileptic seizures are very infrequent, but when they do happen they can be alarmingly violent. Of course, my second thought was that the dogs were just fine and that the network was down. The network goes down a lot more frequently than Dash has seizures. I didn't want to spend the next hour and a half fretting about Dash, so I turned around and immediately went back home again to check on things. The dogs were fine. It was the WiFi network that had crashed.

It kind of bothers me that I have become a prisoner of fear. I worry about everything these days, especially when it concerns Dot and Dash. I feel like my one job is to keep the dogs healthy and protect them from harm. As both dogs age, it's getting harder and harder to do this. Dot is so fragile now that just getting her through a normal day is stressful. Dash is fine now, but he is a cancer survivor who has had horrible seizures in the past. If there was an emergency with both dogs at the same time, I don't know what I'd do. At any rate, I had no choice today. Once the seeds of doubt had been sown in my mind, I had to return home immediately.

Instead of a workout at the gym, I washed the car. I don't know why I like keeping the car so clean, because I seldom feel like going anywhere. If work doesn't pick up soon, I'm just a few steps away from binge watching an entire season of something on Netflix. I'd probably already have done this if I hadn't already seen everything that even remotely interests me. I've seen every single episode of Dr. Who, including the old black and white shows from the early 60's. I've seen every episode of Babylon 5, Lexx, Farscape, and Firefly. I've seen Gravity, Interstellar, and I'm patiently waiting for Ridley Scott to finish filming The Martian. Keep in mind that this is the same guy who used to favor authors like John Fowles, John Kennedy Toole,  Katherine Dunn, John Nichols, and Tom Wolfe. I was a voracious reader back in the day. Things change. The guy who used to enjoy reading Dostoyevsky in college now watches science fiction and reads instruction manuals.

We got a late start on our evening walk, but that was actually a good thing. The temperature had cooled down a bit and there was a beautiful sunset. Sunrise and sunset are the best parts of my day. It's that long interval in between that's the problem. Maybe I'll try to go to the gym again tomorrow. I'm not going to think that far ahead though. We'll just see what happens.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1799

Sometimes I have trouble telling the difference between a cold day and a slow day. On cold days like today there is often plenty of work to do, but it still feels like I'm doing nothing because I never leave the house. Even though I kept myself busy and finished several writing jobs, my mind still wandered. I wanted to hear more about the report I heard that the Rosetta lander had discovered organic molecules on the comet. This would be very big new for anyone with an interest in astronomy or planetary science. I was confused when I heard that the Keystone Pipeline bill failed to pass in congress after receiving 59 votes. I guess I've forgotten everything I learned in high school civics class. After looking the topic up on Google, I discovered that 60 votes were required to prevent a filibuster. And what exactly is a filibuster? I know it's a bunch of people talking endlessly to delay things, but why?

The temperature was in the low 20's when I woke up this morning. The only advantage to this frigid weather was that the dogs don't get muddy on our morning walk. The ground was frozen solid and my boots made a crunching sound when I walked over the frost covered grass. Frost covered plants are actually kind of pretty, but we didn't linger long to observe. It was cold and we all knew that the house was much warmer. The only reason we made it as far as we did this morning was that there was absolutely no wind. On a windy day we would have just stayed inside.

I thought making a fancy omelet this morning would make the day more interesting, but it really didn't. I've seen the early morning Dr. Who re-runs on the BBC channel so many times that I've practically memorized them. Out of boredom I've gone back to watching the news. I flip back and forth between the liberal and conservative channels and find them equally irritating. There just isn't that much to like about a completely polarized society. Occasionally CNN is OK, because they seem to focus more on plane crashes and volcanoes than politics. I hate politics. I wish there was a TV channel that just showed interesting Ted Talks, or maybe featured obscure news about black holes or CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

You may wonder why as a writer, I often talk about watching television and seldom mention anything about reading. I used to be an obsessive reader, but my eyes have gotten bad and reading just isn't that satisfying anymore. The last book that made any impact on me was A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn was pretty good too. I used to love everything that John Fowles wrote, even the non-fiction. I was such a fan that I even visited his home in Lyme Regis once. When Fowles died, so did a lot of my desire to read. I'm so far behind that The Shipping News still seems like a new novel to me. I bought a copy once, but have never gotten around to reading it.

There are more articles to write tomorrow and I'll probably go back to having oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. I hope the dogs aren't getting too cold on their walks. They both seem to like the brisk weather, which is more than I can say.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1487

One of my regular readers suggested that I should quit complaining about the weather and just read a book on rainy days. That's easy for her to say. She's retired. When I retire, I'll probably do a lot of reading. Since I'm still working, I deal with problems like losing clients instead. Another website client went bye-bye today. I've gained a few website clients this year as well, so I'm basically even for the year, but this slow erosion of my online business is still troubling. I lose a lot of these jobs when my client's kids graduate with their worthless marketing degrees and want to do the website themselves. Yes, parents don't just let the kids continue to live at home until they are 27, they give them jobs when they graduate as well.

For those of you who are wondering, I chose to ignore the rain and go out for a decent Friday morning breakfast anyway. The dogs pretty much made the decision for me. They were so dirty at the end of their morning walk, that I decided a little more dirt wouldn't make one bit of difference. I cleaned the mud off the dogs and then proceeded to get mud all over the freshly washed car. The eggs were sure good though.

I finally managed to talk to my neighbors about the tree on my roof. They are nice people and appear to still be making an effort to get the tree people to come out and remove the tree. I can't really complain. I've been having my own problems with one of the oak trees in the back yard. My own tree guy promised me that he'd come out before Christmas and clean up the mess made by the power company guys during they ice storm. It seems like it's been quite a while since Christmas now, and he's still not here.

Although it wasn't a terribly productive day, I still managed to make it to the grocery store and get my January invoices in the mail. I'll have to remember to take the newly departed client off my monthly invoice list. It would be embarrassing to keep billing them after they fired me. Hey, at least it's Friday. I have no idea what the weekend has in store for me. It probably depends entirely on the weather.

Murphy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day