Day 3496

I think I've reached my limit. It basically takes me all day to take 20,000 steps. I'm certainly not walking all day, but I don't think I could go much further. I need to eat. I need to rest my feet. It doesn't hurt to take a nap between trips outside either. I see people at the gym and on my walks who are doing much more than I am, put most of them appear much younger. According to Mr. Fitbit 20,000 steps translates to over 9 miles. This isn't half bad for a 71 year old. I bet my Dad would have lived a few years longer if he'd done the same.

I was a lot better on the basketball court this morning. I still wonder about consistency, but I guess I am fairly consistent. Without a dog to wake me, I almost always get six and a half hours of sleep. I eat breakfast at 7:30 AM and dinner at 6:30 PM. I never eat lunch. I go out to eat on Friday mornings and to the gym on Sundays. If I could think of something unique to do on each day of the week, I probably would. It's nice to have a routine. The routine couldn't involve doing things with other people though. That would be way too complicated.

I went back to the grocery store on the way home from the gym. Even though I'd already stocked up for the week on Friday, there were still a few things I needed. The way Janet and I divide up shopping chores is that she always gets certain things and I get others. This never varies. I completely forget about Janet's groceries until they're gone. I imagine that I'll be going back to the store again.

When I was flipping through channels on the TV this morning, I noticed that CBS was gone. This is a big, basic channel to disappear, so I was wondering what was going on. It turns out that CBS is having a fight with AT&T about payment and decided to pull all their content off U-Verse until they get what they want. This seems kind of nasty but it makes you realize what a tangled web of conflicting interests the business world is. A lot of shows have disappeared from Netflix too because the owners of the shows decided to start their own streaming channels. It's a good thing I don't watch television very much or I would be mad.

When I was walking today, I noticed a Facebook friend sailing on the lake. I only recognized this guy because he is always posting pictures of his boat. An orange boat is easy to recognize. A lot of people take pictures in the park. I take pictures of flowers. Almost everybody else takes selfies. I still don't understand the whole concept of selfies. Why would you want to take a picture of yourself?

I'm going to miss all the space news now that the Apollo 11 celebrations are over. For a space geek like me it was kind of nice to have non-stop coverage of space related events. It was hard to go online or turn on the TV without discovering some new bit of trivia I didn't know before. I wish people would stay interested. I'm really hoping that someone will land on Mars while I'm still alive.

I'm going up to the Dalmatian kennels tomorrow to meet with some people who are thinking of adopting Jenga. Pongo got adopted today. I'm delighted that these dogs are finding homes so quickly but I'm going to miss them. There's already a new boy getting checked out at the vet. I don't even know what his name is yet, but I'm sure I'll be photographing him soon.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3250

I spent my day taking pictures of kids holding snakes. This was a big animal rescue event with all types of puppies, kittens, ferrets, and birds, but the kids seemed fascinated with the snakes. The smaller the children, the less fear they had of snakes. Often, their parents wouldn't go near the reptiles, but the kids loved them. I heard a lot of "Mommy, can I have a snake?" during the afternoon. I didn't hear one parent say yes.

A lot has changed in the last five years. There wasn't a lot of interest in my little photo booth, but everyone wanted to take selfies with the animals. People don't need a photographer anymore. They make their own movies and share their own pictures. Most of the children had their own phones. Even small children were walking around with iPhones. I predict that there will be a lot of pictures of people holding snakes on Instagram today.

I'm not a big fan of snakes myself. I hate seeing them in the park because I can never remember which ones are poisonous. I pretty much quit using my kayak when I saw a big water moccasin swimming along side me one day. I always worry that one of the dogs will be bitten by a snake. Often dogs don't have the sense to keep away from them.

I'm glad I don't do many photo events anymore. They are too tiring. I still do a few Santa Paws events during the Christmas season, but not nearly as many as I used to do. I think we only have two Christmas events scheduled this year. Today's event was meant to educate kids about animals. I'm not sure what the kids learned, but I learned a few things. The big snakes eat rabbits. The snake handler buys frozen rabbit meat which he cooks as needed. He feeds his large snakes a rabbit every two weeks. Some of these snakes weigh as much as 75 pounds.

I was lucky today. I didn't have to bring my lights and backdrops. All I had to do was show up with a camera. I think I got some cute pictures. I'm not sure what the organizers plan to do with these pictures but they seemed pleased with the results.

Dash pooped in the bed again last night. I guess this is the new normal. I with I could use puppy training pads with him like I did with Dot, but I'm not sure they'd do any good. Dash is still fairly mobile. Whenever I wake up, he's in a different place than he was when I went to sleep. Doggie diapers won't work at all. Dash's rear legs are so weak that diapers would essentially cripple him. This is still a work in progress. I'm sure we'll figure out something.

I didn't have time to get groceries today, so I guess I'll do that tomorrow. I'm not sure that I'll go to the gym. If it's as warm as it was today, it would be a good time to mow the grass one last time. It would also be a good time to take a long nap. We'll see how I feel in the morning

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day