Day 2873

Our dogs have never understood Daylight Saving Time and I'll have to admit that I don't understand it either. There must have been a reason for these arbitrary time changes. I always though it had something to do with farming or children walking to school. Whatever the reason, it probably doesn't apply anymore. We're back to standard time now. All that means to me is that I'm going to have to convince Dash to take his evening walk earlier or walk him in the dark. I used to walk our first Dalmatian in the dark, but the city seemed safer then. There weren't any urban coyotes either.

I'm not as obsessive as I used to be. There was a time when I felt compelled to reset every clock and watch in the house when the time changed. When I was collecting watches, this could take me hours. There was little point to this bi-annual ritual because many of the watches didn't keep good time anyway. I re-set a few wall clocks today, but that was about it. Only one watch got any attention at all. It was a radio controlled watch that didn't re-set itself automatically. This puzzled me, since this watch receives a signal every night from the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. I couldn't even remember how to set this watch manually, so I had to find a manual online. Eventually, I determined that the radio signal is weak in the office. Who knows. Maybe the high-tech stuff I'm putting on the roof blocks radio waves.

The gym was really empty today, so maybe there were other people who were confused about the time change. Dash seemed to remember when he was fed in the morning, even though Janet and I were still asleep. I wonder how long it will take him to adjust to the time change? Since I ended up going to the gym very early today, I still had time to do all my Sunday chores when I got home. This wasn't really the plan, but that's how it worked out.

It was warm and clear today, so it seemed like a good idea to continue patching the roof. I prepared a small area that I thought would be easy to fix. Unfortunately, when I removed the torn coating, I discovered more moisture hidden underneath. The damaged area was only six inches in diameter, but by the time I had ripped up enough elastomer to find dry asphalt at the edges, I has exposed a six foot circle that will have to be re-coated. I didn't end up applying any coating today. After the wet area dries, I'll try again.

Dash seemed very agitated tonight. I don't know what was bothering him. He'd had his walk. He'd eaten his dinner. We'd taken him outside to pee several times and fed him some treats. This wasn't enough apparently. He barked at Janet and I for almost half an hour before he finally settled down and went to sleep. I hate when he gets agitated like this because he's got a bad heart and a weak rear leg. Telling him to calm down because he's going to hurt himself doesn't seem to have much of an effect.

I was going to make a list of all my prescriptions so my new doctor could renew them tomorrow at my exam. It's a lengthy list and I'm tired now, so maybe I'll just throw the pills in a sack and take them with me. I do need to remember to call the appliance repair shop first thing in the morning. One way or another, these guys need to fix my refrigerator.

Coach is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1868

I'm glad I don't live on the East Coast right now. Blizzard conditions have closed all the airports, making travel to Vandenberg Air Force Base impossible for a couple of people from New York and Boston who were planning on attending the SMAP launch this week. The weather is much better in Dallas, so my only problem will be getting up at 4 AM to go to the airport.

I'm a terrible travel planner, but I knew if I didn't get started today, I would run out of time. I always run into something unexpected when I'm packing. Today, I couldn't find a small tube of toothpaste that the TSA wouldn't confiscate. I couldn't get my laptop to boot up either. It turns out that I forgot to power the computer down several weeks ago and the battery ran out while the computer was still on. When I got this issue resolved, I had trouble setting the second time zone on a radio controlled watch I was planning to wear on the trip. The watch is supposed to set itself using a radio time signal, but somehow I screwed up and ended up with the dial showing the time in London. I probably should take a simpler watch with me. I packed some socks and then noticed that most of them had holes in them. I still can't figure out how to get the WiFi feature working on my new little point and shoot camera. If I can get the WiFi working, I'll be able to send pictures directly from the camera to Facebook and Twitter. Travel never used to involve so much technology. My boarding pass is on my phone. I sure hope this works, because sometimes it doesn't.

One way or another, everything will get done. It always does. I got all my meds packed away in one of those plastic pill containers that old people use. Oh wait, I am one of those old people. I super-glued my comfortable tennis shoes back together and packed a second nicer pair of shoes just in case I decide not to embarrass myself. I still don't know what kind of coat to take. I never get coats right and am always either too hot or too cold.

I did manage to get the camera equipment from yesterday's video shoot put away, but I haven't finished all of my website updates yet. I've got one more to go, which I should be able to finish before bedtime. I thought I'd be able to get caught up on things with time to spare, but I never dreamed that I'd waste an entire hour trying to set a weird Japanese watch and another hour simply trying to turn on my laptop. You might be wondering why I didn't finish my work first. I guess it was a matter of priorities. I'm always confident about meeting my work deadlines. Not so much with technology. Inexplicable software glitches, poorly written instructions, and the occasional catastrophic failure all drive me nuts. I depend on my high-tech tools, but I often hate them as well.

The dogs loved today's unseasonably warm weather. We took a long walk before breakfast and another toward the end of the day. In between, Dot and Dash sunned themselves in the back yard while I struggled to get organized. I wish I didn't wait until the last minute with everything I do, but it's in my blood. I've always been this way. Perhaps it's for the best. If I knew what I was doing ahead of time, I'd probably just worry more.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1544

I've been thinking that my Mom died sometime in March, but I couldn't remember when. I've got no long-term memory whatsoever. My mind is a sieve. I can't remember exactly when my Dad died either, and he died a lot more recently than my Mom. This is why I write things down. You may think writing 1544 consecutive blog posts is quite a feat, but I've been recording my daily thoughts a lot longer than this. I really started doing a daily blog post before the Internet was even invented. When something is nagging me, I go to a box of dusty old leather covered journals and find out what happened. Those dusty daily journals, which go back as far as the early 1980's are my memory. When I looked through the cardboard box full of journals recently, I discovered that my Mom had died 24 years ago today, on March 8, 1990.

My Mom meant a lot to me. She ended up having more of an influence on my life than she would have ever imagined. If I hadn't taken the time to write something down shortly after she died, it would all be lost in a fog by now. Maybe it's a good thing that I can't remember things. I don't wallow in the past. What does it matter if you can't even remember it?  I certainly couldn't have had a successful career in advertising if I actually remembered all the crap I've done over the years. I do have a loose sense of history, but basically, every day is a new day. If it wasn't for Facebook, I would never remember your birthday.

My mind is sharp, but it is kind of like one of those flight recorders they have on airplanes. You know what I mean. The black box continuously records the most recent thirty minutes of activity and then just records over it, erasing what was there earlier. From my perspective, doing Sudoku puzzles to keep your mind sharp is silly. I literally reinvent the wheel every single day. I think one of the reasons I've become so good at doing ads and websites is that even though I essentially solve exactly the same problem over and over again, I don't remember many of my earlier efforts. When I look at my portfolio of ads from my ad agency days, it often seems like someone else wrote them. I'll think, "Jeez, I wish I could have written something like that," and then realize that I actually did.

My first Dalmatian meant the world to me, so I wrote a book about him before he died. Ironically, today is also Spot's birthday. He would have been 27 years old today. I think that I started this blog basically to preserve the memories of Dot and Dash. They mean just as much to me, but in a different way. These 1544 days are important whether I remember them or not, so I hope that Google doesn't decide to nuke Blogger at some point in the future. I can always sort through old journals and tell you what I had for dinner in 1977, but it would be very hard to recreate the blog if it just disappeared.

I write for myself. When I re-read old stories and journal entries, some make me laugh and others make me cry. I've had quite a life. I"m not sure how important today will seem in the future, but it is part of a long tapestry. It turned cold again today. It wasn't bad when Janet and I took the dogs on their morning walk, but it got colder throughout the day. Now it feels like Winter again. I did see my first Yellow Primrose of the season this morning. This is always a sign that Spring is on the way. Within a month, the park behind our house will be a symphony of wildflowers. The time changes tonight as well. Daylight saving time is usually another sign that Spring is on the way. I used to spend hours resetting all the watches in my collection when the time changed. Now, I don't even care. Most of the watches don't work anymore anyway.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day