Day 913

The rent house was sold today. I signed all the papers this afternoon at the title company, turned over the keys to the new owners, and that was that. It's over. I was relieved that the whole process was finally finished, but I can't say that my mood was exactly celebratory. I guess my initial thought was "one down, one to go." I've got one more mid-century modern house, but hopefully, I'll continue living in the remaining house for a while. I was really happy with my real estate agent. He really understood the peculiarities of selling a 1960's house in 2012. My agent is young. I suspect he'll still be around when it's time to retire and sell the other house. I'd definitely use him again.

I tried to help Janet get her car into the body shop today for repairs. I guess I didn't realize how bad the hailstorm actually was.  All the rental cars in  town are already gone. The Land Rover body shop said the soonest they could start repairing Janet's car was July 14. There are literally thousands and thousands of cars in Dallas that were seriously damaged by yesterday's storms. The Land Rover dealership itself was right in the path of the storm and my service representative told me that over 200 of their cars were damaged, including all of their loaner cars. When they told me this, I started to worry, because my own car is still at the dealership for repairs. I had them check and they told me I was one of the lucky ones. My car was already inside the shop when the storm hit. Some people weren't so lucky. The body shop told me that several cars they had just finished repairing were damaged all over again before their owners had a chance to pick them up.

With all the water problems I've been having with my roof, I was kind of hoping that yesterday's hail storm might have have left enough dents in the roof that my homeowner's insurance might finally spring for a brand new roof. I climbed up on the roof this afternoon to look for signs of damage. Nothing! No signs of damage at all. The roof looked exactly the same as it did before the storm. It's just a leaky old roof.

I went to Cafe Lago for breakfast this morning. This is the place where we sometimes take the dogs for dinner. I don't know why I haven't thought of this place before. It's right in the neighborhood and I've always liked their dinner menu. I guess I just forgot that they served breakfast as well. I came at 10 AM, which is when I usually eat breakfast, and I was the only one in the place. The owner cooked my omelet. The food was great and I kind of liked being the only one in the restaurant. I'll be back.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 910

Today was a disaster. Things started out normally enough. I walked the dogs and ate breakfast. Then I made the mistake of turning on the computer and opening my e-mail. The first thing I saw was a letter from my real estate agent. He said that we had a problem. Bear in mind that I am supposed to close on the sale of my rent house in less than two days. Evidently, Fannie Mae told the lender that they needed some additional information before they would approve the loan. What? Why did they wait to the last possible second to drop this bombshell? I submitted all my information weeks and weeks ago. At any rate, the rest of the day was spent calling and e-mailing the lender, the buyers agent, the title company and my own agent trying to see if there was a way to quickly resolve this problem. So far, no luck.

The whole situation is very frustrating. First of all, Fannie Mae should have told the lender and the buyer exactly what they needed weeks and weeks ago, when this whole process started. This is no way to solve the housing crisis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA basically control the lending market these days. You can't get a loan without them. They have made it so difficult to qualify for a loan that I probably couldn't have qualified myself if the same rules were in place when I bought the place. The sad thing is that it is all out of my control. I just have to sit and wait and see if all the parties involved can get their ducks in a row.

While was waiting, I took Dash to the vet for his bi-weekly antigen shot. At least that went smoothly. The antigen shots actually seem to be working. Dash has a full, thick coat now and his skin condition has dramatically improved. With his newly cleaned teeth and a nicely spotted black and white coat, the little guy is looking pretty spiffy. If only the rest of my problems could be solved with a shot every two weeks.

Isn't the little wild rose I photographed this morning pretty? The flower looked so optimistic, but I guess that goes to show that you shouldn't trust a flower to forecast the kind of day you will have. Probably the only good news today was from the sewing machine repairman, who called to tell me that the old machine was fixed and ready to be picked up. I'm not even sure if this is good news, since Janet is still puzzled about why I even bothered to fix the old Singer right after she bought a much better brand new sewing machine. 

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 891

Yay! I think I sold a house today. I've signed so many documents this week that it's hard to believe the whole process has come to a conclusion. My real estate agent says that the amended contract I signed this afternoon was the final document though, and that the buyers have definitely committed to purchase the house. Hopefully, it will be smooth sailing from now till the closing in early June.

I don't know how real estate agents keep their sanity. The buyers, sellers, lenders, appraisers, and inspectors all have their own agenda and their own questions. "We know the air conditioner is on the roof" someone said to me today, "but where is the furnace?" "It's a heat pump." I said. "Everything is combined in one package." An hour later I got the same question. "Where is the furnace?"  They obviously didn't know what a heat pump was.

If the rent house sells as expected, it will be a major step toward my long term goal of simplification. Since I am a Gemini, I used to think I needed two of everything. I'll readily admit now that I took this principal to extremes. There had to be two cars, two guitars, two computers, and of course two houses. Sometimes things got totally out of control. Somehow my two watches turned into two hundred. There were other excesses as well. I'm trying to set things right though, and having just one house again has got to be looked at as progress.

You know that famous phrase from the Book of Common Prayer; "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." I got a dramatic demonstration of what the phrase means today. Years ago, I received some sort of square Peruvian rug as a Christmas present from relatives. I didn't have anywhere to put the rug at the time, so I folded it up and placed it on a shelf in the bedroom closet. Over the years, I forgot I ever had the thing. I forgot until today, that is. When I was packing up more stuff to move over to the new storage warehouse, I saw the rug, high up on a shelf. "This is good storeroom material," I thought. I picked up the rug and it literally disintegrated into dust in my hands. There was nothing left! I don't know what the rug was made of, but I don't think moths got at it or anything. There were no signs of insect damage. The material had just turned to dust.

Janet will throw something away if she hasn't used it for several years. I will hang on to something forever, just in case I might have a use for it sometime in the future. I think Janet has the right idea. It's all going to turn to dust anyway.

Ziggy 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 877

The plumber came today. Need I say more? The dogs hate it when repairmen come to the house and the result of these visits is usually total chaos. Dot barks so loud and so frantically that I'm surprised I'm not already on some sort of repair blacklist. Today she worked herself into such an agitated state that whenever she barked, little bits of poop shot out her back end like a rocket. I think I had a bigger mess to clean up than the plumber. While he was snaking out the lines and getting rid of some awful look black sludge, I was cleaning up after Dot the canine poop cannon.

Everything works fine now though. The dishwasher doesn't leak anymore. The sluggish drains run freely. Even the toilet seems to work better. Who know how long this watery bliss will last though. Plumbing problems seem to recur with regularity at our house.

My new website is almost finished. This phase of the design is always fun. I put pictures wherever I want. I choose colors with reckless abandon. Everything is placed precisely where I want it to go. When everything is perfect, I show the site to the client and then we start over again. I think most websites look their very best the day before you show them to your client for the first time.

My real estate agent called and told me he had already shown my rent property to two prospective buyers. He said both of them really liked the place. Of course, that doesn't mean that anyone will make me an offer. Even if they do make me an offer, it doesn't mean the banks will give them a loan. Buying and selling property isn't nearly as easy as it used to be.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I can't decide where I want to have breakfast this week, but I'll be sure to let you know.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 870

I think I bit off more than I can chew today. I tried to plant grass as well as finish all my normal website updates and web articles. My ambitious plan might have worked if so many of my webmaster accounts hadn't called in their updates and revisions today instead of waiting until Friday like they usually do. I got several complex website updates finished and wrote a Mother's Day watch article. Unfortunately, there's still a lot more to finish tomorrow. Lots of sod got planted as well.  The right side of the yard is all finished now. Sadly, I sprained my ankle lugging the heavy sod around. I'm just not very good with manual labor tasks any more. Maybe if I just hired a bunch of Mexicans like the rest of the neighborhood seems to do, everything would be fine. I stubbornly continue to do everything myself though. It just seems right.

I've noticed that the butterflies in the park are already starting to disappear. Maybe the popular wisdom about butterflies only living for a week or two is really true. I certainly don't see them that often. For a few weeks in late April and early May, they're everywhere. Then they're gone. While they are around, butterflies are certainly hungry little creatures. A lot of the flowers they feast on have already been decimated. I'll miss these little guys. They're quite pretty and very easy to photograph.

I like my new real estate agent. We seem to be on the same wavelength. Usually real estate agents drive me nuts, but this one is quite pleasant and really seems to understand mid-century architecture and the people who buy it. I think the property will be up on the MLS website tomorrow.  It's certainly priced right for today's miserable housing market. Hopefully it will find a buyer soon.

I wonder if the dogs will walk on the new grass I planted today, or head straight for the remaining mud like they've been doing all week. I'll probably have to finish the entire lawn before I can curtail the mandatory paw inspection I have to make every time they come back in the house. I usually remember this necessary step, but when I forget, the dogs  inevitably head straight for the bed and I have to throw the sheets in the laundry again. Somehow, I can't talk about this kind of stuff with all my self important corporate clients. I know you guys will understand though. You're probably dealing with something even worse.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 867

My inability to multitask is getting frustrating. I have so many unfinished projects right now, and what I'd really like to do is methodically finish each of them one at a time. I can't do that though. Most of my clients wouldn't react very favorably if I left a message on my answering machine that said, "I'm landscaping the back yard. Please call me back in a week and a half." That's what I'd like to do though. I'd finish the yard first, because with one patch of grass that needs to be watered everyday and an adjacent patch of tilled dirt that turns to mud every time I turn the sprinklers on, it's getting harder and harder to keep the dogs clean. Dot races through the mud every time I let her outside, and then I've got to clean her paws before I let her in again. This sequence of events happens many times each day and it's already getting a little old.

I'd finish moving the storage warehouse stuff next. This is important because I can't put anything new in the storage space until I get things organized and on shelves again. The whole point of the new storage space was to have enough room so that I could start clearing necessary, but infrequently used stuff out of the office. So far, things are still piling up in the office.

Only after these two important tasks were complete would I start working on client projects. Unfortunately, the way things work in the real world, I find myself doing exactly the opposite. I spend most of my day writing and coding websites, just like I always do. The moving and landscaping tasks get relegated to leftover time. I'm sure the back yard makeover will eventually be finished. I'm equally sure that the rental property will eventually be sold as well. These things won't happen fast enough for me however. I just want to get tiring these tasks behind me.

My real estate agent called today and said he'd like to photograph the rent house on Wednesday for the MLS listing. I wasn't expecting things to move so quickly, since the place is still empty and hasn't even been staged yet. Tomorrow will probably be a very busy day. I can only hope that the actual sale goes quickly as well. I still hear tales of people who had their properties on the market for two or three years with little to no interest. I don't want this to happen to me. One good thing about investing in stocks and bonds as long as I have is that I no longer have unrealistic expectations. Prices for everything go up and down. At any given time, there is always a market price for whatever you have to sell. If you want to find a buyer, you have to learn to accept this price.

Bea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 860

I resumed moving things over to the new storage warehouse today. I finally managed to completely clear off one of the large shelves in the smaller storage unit and was preparing to move the shelf itself when I realized that it wouldn't fit through the door. How could I have forgotten that I had assembled each of these shelves in place to take maximum advantage of the space available? Damn! To get the shelves over to the new location, I will need to completely disassemble each of them and then put them all back together again in the new space. This is turning into a lot more work than I had anticipated. So far, I have only emptied out half the contents of the old space. The new larger space already seems full, since nothing is stacked on tall shelves yet. As I'm starting to rediscover what I've been storing all these years, I'm having second thoughts about the whole endevour. A lot of this stuff is worthless.

Sure, I've discovered some useful stuff. I've discovered some valuable stuff. I've even discovered some very rare stuff. The trouble is that the time for all this stuff has passed. What do you do with a 5 GB hard drive that's the size of a shoe box these days?  What do you do with an electric typewriter, or even worse, a manual one? If I hired somebody to inventory all this stuff and then systematically sell it on eBay it would cost me more than the stuff is worth. On the other hand, if I try to sort through everything myself, I probably won't live long enough to make sense of it all. I'm in over my head here.

When I wasn't lugging stuff from one storage unit to another, I was updating various animal rescue websites.The Dalmatian Rescue updates went quickly, but the other rescue group was another story entirely. I used to get new animals to list from these guys once a week. Now I get one big list once a month. There are so many animals that I typically can't get all the new pages coded before some of the animals get adopted and immediately have to come down again. It's a quixotic task. Nevertheless, I thought today would be a good day to get started, mostly because the rest of my clients are mired in status meetings on Monday's . Tomorrow, I probably won't have time to work on the rescue sites.

I told the real estate agent that I was ready to list the rent property, but evidently there's still a lot that needs to be done before the sign goes out front. When I bought the place, I just looked at it empty and decided I liked it. Today, properties need to be staged. This means that furniture and artwork is brought in to make the place looked lived in, even though it is empty. I can imagine what an empty place would look like with furniture, but apparently a lot of people can't. When the staging furniture is in place, a photographer comes out and takes pictures for the MLS website and the game begins. I told the agent that I was a professional photographer and was once an architect. He still preferred to use his own photographer. Whatever! I'm just going to go with the flow on this one.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 859

The Casino Party went well last night. Sometimes we get a crowd that seems very reticent about gambling. They'll bet one chip at a time and seem to forget that they're gambling with play money. Last night's crowd wasn't like this. They bet with wild abandon, filling the entire board with huge piles of chips. Everybody seemed to be having fun. We didn't get home until well after midnight, but the time goes quickly with a good crowd like this.

I can't say that today was all that fun. The weather was beautiful, but I spent most of the day working. After taking Dot and Dash to the dog park this morning, I went down to the rent property and spent the afternoon trying to get the place cleaned up enough to put it on the market. The inside was clean already, but the windows needed washing and the patio area was full of leaves from last Winter.

The place looks pretty nice now. To get things looking even better, I would have to start spending some serious money for things that might not mean much to a potential buyer anyway. With any luck, I'll sign a contract with the real estate agent and have the place on the market next week.  I guess I am what you would call a motivated seller. I really don't want to be a landlord anymore.

Big sections of the park where I walk the dogs are native prairie. In the Spring these grasslands are filled with wildflowers. In the Winter, I'm the only photographer in the park, but this time of year I share the space with hundreds of other shutterbugs. We saw a ton of people with cameras today wading through the tall grass to take macro shots of flowers. I felt like telling these people that they were walking through areas filled with snakes and poison ivy, but I guess they'll figure things out for themselves soon enough.

I saw lots of people lounging around today. Several people hung hammocks between trees in the park. When I went downtown to clean the rent house, I saw tons of people having cocktails at sidewalk cafes. I wish my clients would do a little more lounging. They tend to send me work on Sundays. The last thing I wanted today was more work. I'm tired. I'd like to do a little lounging myself.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 855

I had lunch today with Alan and Dick, two old friends from my ad agency days. The phrase "old friends" used to just be a figure of speech with me. Now, it quite literally means old friends. My friends and I used to talk about who had the fastest car, or the most exciting job. Now, we talk about who has had the most complicated medical procedure. Alan wanted to go to a trendy new restaurant in the neighborhood. I seldom go to trendy new restaurants because it's hard to find a parking place and I don't feel comfortable dressing shabbily. I'd hate to run into someone I know looking as ratty as I usually do.

Every once in a while, its worth looking presentable and fighting for a parking place though. Today, I caught up on several year's worth of gossip, and as a bonus, got to bitch and moan with two like minded friends about how the ad business has basically gone to hell in a hand basket. I don't think the young pierced and tattooed ad folks sitting at nearby tables even realize how much more fun their jobs would be if they had been born twenty years earlier. Every time I see that show "Mad Men," I realize I was right there in the middle of it all.

Alan and Dick both do yoga. When they asked how I stay in shape, I told them that I walked dogs. I was in just as good shape as the two of them, so there's a lot to be said for walking dogs. Personally, I think walking two strong Dalmatians who have their hearts set on chasing squirrels is more challenging than anything you could dream up at a gym.

I think I'm going to go ahead and have the real estate agent I talked to yesterday list my rent property. After thinking about it overnight, I realized that I have no interest in having another renter whatsoever. The market isn't very good, but if I wait to sell until the market improves, there's a good chance that the building would disintegrate first.

The weather was beautiful for dog class this evening. Unfortunately, there was a lot of pollen in the air, so I spent the entire class wiping my eyes and blowing my nose into a shop towel. Allergy season seems even worse than usual this year, but at least I haven't caught poison ivy yet.

Mattie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 854

When I met with the real estate agent this afternoon, I got a dose of reality that I wasn't expecting. I've known for some time that real estate prices are falling in Dallas, but I had no idea how far they had actually dropped. When the agent showed me a comp list of what similar properties in the area were selling for these days, I was shocked. I had actually been inside a few of the houses on the comp list and never dreamed that they would ever be priced so low. Let's just say that if I sold my house just before the market peaked, I could have made 40% more than I would probably make today. I've owned the rent property so long that I'll probably still make a small profit if I decide to sell. I understand now why there is so much talk these days about people being underwater on their mortgages. If you bought in 2005 you'd be selling at a loss today.

Hindsight is always 20/20. I would have been much better off selling the rent property years ago, rather than convincing myself that I could always sell the place later, after a succession of renters provided me with an income for a while. Like many others, I used to think that real estate would never actually fall in value. I never planned on modern houses coming back in fashion either. My place use to be a very desirable rarity for people who liked such things. Now modern houses are so commonplace in Dallas that the rent property is just another modern house without all the amenities of the newer ones.

I liked the agent though and will probably use him to list the place. I wasn't even insulted by how little he thought my place was worth. Hey, how can you not like a guy who loves Citroen automobiles and wears a vintage Hamilton Ventura watch? The guy had an encyclopedic knowledge of Dallas architects too, and said he had enough mid-century modern furniture stored away that he could stage the place without charging me anything extra.

If I haven't learned the perils of hanging on to things too long by now, I probably never will. The house isn't the only thing I should have sold a long time ago. I had a beautiful vintage Vox Mark VI guitar in the storage warehouse that got totally ruined when water leaked into the room one Summer. Some of my favorite Bulova Accutron tuning fork watches are no longer repairable because I waited too long to restore them. Now most of the Accutron repairmen are dead and the supply of spare parts is gone. Nothing lasts forever. Apparently nothing is valuable forever either. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, or so the saying goes.

Bella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 853

What is it about Monday's? I never get much done on a Monday. I actually got up earlier than usual, but by the time I got the dogs walked, ate breakfast, washed the dishes, and answered this weekend's accumulated e-mail, it was time for lunch.

I did get a couple of new assignments today, but there wasn't time to complete them, so I mowed the grass instead. I wish I'd mowed last week, or the week before. The grass was so tall and thick that it kept stalling the mower. It took me forever to mow the tiny little patch of grass that is our front yard. It's still a mystery to me why the grass in the front yard grows much faster than normal and the grass in the back yard hardly grows at all. I wish it was the other way around. The front yard faces a busy road and hardly ever gets used.

Some of you may remember that a breakfast networking group wanted me to join them last Summer. I think it was last Summer anyway. It's been a long time. At any rate, the group never actually asked me to join and I forgot about them. Now, almost a year later, they're asking me again if I'd be interested in joining them. These guys should have made me a member last year. I remember being kind of intrigued at the time. Now, the thought of getting up early once a week and putting on nice clothes for a breakfast meeting makes me want to throw up. There are only a few good reasons to get up in the morning anyway, and I don't think going to a meeting is one of them.

I lost the lens cap on my camera again when I was taking the dogs on their evening walk. When I discovered the missing cap, I wanted to retrace my steps, but the dogs didn't approve of this idea. They stood their ground and eventually we continued on home. Neither dog seems to like the idea of going backward. Once they've covered some ground, they just want to keep moving forward. After I got home with the dogs, I took the car and went back to the spot where I thought I might have dropped the cap. I'm a methodical person, so after fifteen minutes of searching, I spotted the missing lens cap and returned home again. The weird thing is that both dogs have such a great sense of smell that they could probably smell lost photo gear almost immediately if I could just train them to do it. Finding things that I dropped on our walks would probably be a lot easier than learning to be a bomb sniffing dog. I don't seem to be able to train the dogs to do anything though. After four years of training class, Dash still won't even come when he's called.

Tomorrow, I meet the real estate agent and find out how marketable my rent property is going to be. I'm going to try to keep an open mind and not let my own thoughts on the matter get in the way. I have a tendency to think everything I own is worth a lot more than it really is. Janet keeps reminding me that if I really want to sell the place, I need to forget about what I think it's worth. It's what other people think the place is worth that matters.

Becker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 849

I'm making progress. I called a plumber today. I made an appointment to meet with a real estate agent next week. I even made a few new business calls. I think I've come up with a cunning plan to solve my plumbing problems. I'm going to fix the plumbing problems at the rent house first and while the plumber is working, I'm going to see if I can get some free advice about what is happening at my house. I don't really know whether I've got a plumbing problem or an appliance problem. If I call an appliance repairman, it will turn out to be a plumbing problem. If I call a plumber, it will turn out that the dishwasher needs to be repaired. That's always the way it works. Maybe if I describe my situation to the plumber while he's at the rent house, he'll help me make the right decision. One can only hope.

I'm really hoping I can sell the rent house soon. The real estate agent I talked to today specializes in mid-century modern architecture and was quite familiar with the architect who designed the house. He sounded very interested in getting the listing for the rent house. Janet says that none of this stuff matters when you're selling property, but I still like to think it does. Unless someone really likes the architecture, nobody is going to buy this house. I need to find another fool, just like me. I've heard that there are people who collect architecture, just like collecting cars or watches. Maybe I can find one of those guys.

I got a lot done today, but all I really remember is the French Toast I fixed for breakfast. Thursday is becoming French Toast day. I have a leisurely breakfast while watching old Top Gear episodes on TV. Today they ran the episode where Jeremy, Richard and James tried to turn a Reliant Robin into a space shuttle. I love this show and would probably watch it all day if I didn't have so much work to do.

I noticed that Google+ has changed its layout so that it looks more like Facebook now. Why did they have to go do that? The old layout was just fine. I don't know why Facebook changed to their new timeline either. I hate the timeline. I have to deal with change every day. My whole business is about change. Coping with change keeps your mind active and it's probably better than doing those Sudoku puzzles, but I still wish that everything would stay the same for a while.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 848

Janet wanted me to take one of the dogs to training class tonight, because she had a late meeting to attend. The only problem was that neither dog wanted to be the one left behind. I had such a difficult time getting one dog ready while trying to pen the other one in the bedroom, that I decided we would all just stay home instead. It's just as well. My allergies were terrible today and I'd probably go through an entire box of Kleenex if I was out in the pollen laden air for another hour or two.

I finally got my April invoices out today and got caught up on my monthly accounting. Everything seems to be moving very slowly this month. Each morning I turn on the computer and start working, just like I always do, but even the simplest task seems to take forever. I'm so tired.

I got an e-mail today about an upcoming tour of homes and noticed the name of a real estate agent who specializes in mid-century modern houses. I think I'll give the guy a call tomorrow. I really need to find someone who knows how to market my rent property. It's little and doesn't have the latest amenities, but it's still the kind of place that someone out there is going to think is cool. I need to find that someone.

There were still a lot of butterflies in the park this morning. I've discovered that there is something odd about photographing butterflies. It's almost impossible to use the auto-focus feature on the camera. For some reason, the auto-focus mechanism doesn't see the insects. Manual focus isn't a good alternative either on cameras without a viewfinder. I can never tell if something is in sharp focus on those little LCD screens. I'll have to do some experimenting. Luckily, there are plenty of butterflies to practice with.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up. There are still a lot of things on last week's to-do list that I haven't finished yet. I need to mow the grass. I need to get started moving things from the little storage room to the big one. I still need to call the plumber too. Maybe tomorrow. There's always tomorrow.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 834

I must have been tired last night. When I woke up this morning, the house was quiet. Janet had already left for work and the dogs were back asleep on either side of me. I got myself in gear and started working, but spent most of the day thinking it was Tuesday. Tuesday or Wednesday? It doesn't really make much difference. I do practically the same things each day anyway. I didn't realize it was Wednesday until I was paying bills this afternoon and noticed that the computerized check on my screen was dated Wednesday, March 28.

Although I got off to a late start, it was a pretty normal day. I paid some bills, wrote some articles and updated a few websites. For some reason nobody is paying me this month. It's the 28th of the month and only one check in the mail so far.

I made the final arrangements for moving to my larger storage space this Saturday. I also had a talk with the people who did my MRI last January. When I went in for the MRI, the girl at the front desk told me that the amount I paid up front would be the only payment I'd have to make. Sure enough, three months later I get another bill from these people. This type of thing happens frequently and is one of the reasons I think healthcare is hopelessly complex. Doctors and hospitals initially charge way more than they ever expect to receive and then spend the next three months fighting it out with the insurance companies. In this case, a $5,500 initial bill was eventually settled for $798. This still seems a lot for what is basically a fancy scan. Sure, they're scanning something that's alive, instead of a photo or a piece of paper, but an MRI is still a fancy scan in my book. You ought to be able to walk into an MRI store and get one of these things for $25.

Neither of the real estate agents I contacted about my rental property has bothered to follow up with me. When I wasn't interested in selling, real estate agents were relentless about getting a listing. I'd tell them no and they'd just keep calling. Ironically, now that I am interested in selling, these same agents don't even give me the time of day. Maybe they know something I don't. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of for sale signs in the neighborhood already. Maybe they're worried that adding one more house to the mix will depress prices even further.

The dogs did well at class tonight. The weather is getting warmer and more importantly, there is still daylight when the class begins. In another month, there will probably be daylight when the class ends.

Doc is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 829

I spent the day wrapping up loose ends. I took the set top boxes and remotes back to the cable company. Hopefully, we'll never need these things again. I went to the muffler store and got a price on a new catalytic converter for my car. I went to Home Depot and got a bunch of cleaning products so can get my rent house looking presentable this weekend. I also called a real estate agent who's been bugging me for years to give him the listing on the place. Probably, now that I actually want to sell the house, he won't be interested any more. The guy specializes in what he calls architecturally significant homes, but usually they're much larger and more expensive than mine. We'll see. Somewhere out there is a person who has always wanted a mid-century home like this. I've just got to find them.

The weather has been beautiful for the past two days. If I wasn't so tired, I'd put in the new St. Augustine turf in the back yard. I think it was just about this time last year when we planted grass in the back yard. It's almost an annual ritual to plant new grass each Spring. Most of the grass never makes it through our hot Texas summers, but the yard looks real nice through about mid July.

So far, I like U-verse a lot better than cable. Internet download speeds seem quite a bit faster. The TV picture seems sharper too. The hum I always heard in the old analog phones is gone. I just wish the U-verse set top box showed which channel you were watching. Although we have 300 channels, the channel that shows old episodes of Fraiser every night is gone. I've seen all these shows five times already, but it's comforting to watch something you've already seen as you're going to sleep. I guess I'll have to find something new.

I have a feeling that it's going to be a busy weekend. Nice weather during the weekend usually means lots of chores.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day