Day 1462

Well, UPS will probably never deliver to our neighborhood now. While I was writing this morning, I heard a huge crash out on the street in front of the house. When I went to investigate, I discovered that a car had plowed into the back of the UPS truck while it was delivering a package to my next door neighbor. Then a van hit the truck again, trying to avoid the first wreck. The woman who initially hit the truck said she didn't see it. Jeez, how can you miss a huge brown UPS truck? I can spot these things from a mile away.

The embattled UPS driver didn't have any packages for me. I divert almost everything to the main depot now and drive down to pick it up. I did that again today and ran into another long  line of angry people waiting to send, receive, or complain about their package. My advice. Just send your stuff FedEx instead.

The weather was nice again today. I only had to wear a light jacket when I walked the dogs. This would have been a good opportunity to clean up the debris from the ice storm in the back yard, but I still have too many holiday related advertising assignments to complete. As some of you have already guessed, this is not my favorite time of year.

Only one day after I washed my car, the neighborhood redbirds are already pooping on it again. The only thing these tiresome birds enjoy more than pooping on the car is pecking on my office window in a vain attempt to get inside. I don't know why anyone would want a bird as a pet. Birds are filthy creatures. If Dot and Dash didn't like to chase cats so much, I would get a cat, just because they like to eat birds.

Did you know that the Chinese successfully landed a rover on the moon a few days ago? I'm amazed that there has been almost no news coverage of this event. Hey, it's a big deal. This is the first time anyone has landed something on the moon since the 1970's. So what are we talking about instead? Obama's selfies at the Mandela funeral. More school shootings. The healthcare mess. When somebody actually does something truly impressive, nobody seems to care. Nobody seems to read blogs anymore either, but that's another subject entirely.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 602

Today was a day of questions and answers. I tried to explain to a client why a 72 DPI image that was only 300x200 pixels in size wouldn't look very good when printed in their upcoming calendar. I tried to explain to another client why I couldn't keep making modification to their website indefinitely without charging them for the changes. I tried to get the folks at Epson to explain to me why my warranty had already "expired" on a printer that I just purchased last month. Nothing seems to be easy or obvious these days.

The biggest mystery of the day was why the stock market dropped 200 points right after the Fed report was released, only to bounce back almost 700 points just an hour or so later. It just doesn't make any sense. Nothing fundamentally had changed. The news from the Federal Reserve that people apparently hated right after lunch is still exactly the same as it was when the news was released. The only thing that I can think of is that the steep drop in prices triggered computerized buy programs designed to snap up bargains, and when the program trading kicked in, everyone else feared they were going to be left behind and started buying as well. The market just doesn't act rational anymore. To me, it's starting to act more like a flash mob.

Dot had her annual exam today. For a dog that's ten years old, she's really very healthy. The vet wanted to change her food, because she has too much protein in her diet for a senior dog. She's going to need her teeth cleaned as well, since she's starting to show some redness around her gum line. Older dogs are prone to gingivitis and we're going to have to work at keeping her teeth clean as she get older. Dash keeps his teeth cleaner looking because he likes to chew bones. Dot refuses to chew bones or chew toys however.

I've been watching all the mindless rioting in England on television and wondering if the same thing could happen here. Sadly, I think it could. I don't think this sort of thing would happen in Singapore though. It probably wouldn't happen in China either. Something has gone terribly wrong with Western values. These riots in England weren't the "Arab Spring" riots we witnessed earlier this year. There was no oppressive regime that needed to be removed. These rioters are just spoiled thugs. I have a friend who is a well known author of parenting books. He tells me that when you bring up several generations of children who think that the entire world revolves around them, society starts to crumble. I think he's right.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day