Day 3046

My friend from Kentucky will be arriving in town fairly soon, so it's time to start sorting through my collection of model trains. Not many people collect trains anymore, but this guy knows them all. I spent some time at the storage warehouse today, trying to decide which models will sell. I can't even remember how long it took me to accumulate this stuff. I guess at some point I thought that I would live in a giant loft someday with plenty of room to build a huge working layout. There was going to be another huge area set aside as a music room with a drum kit and guitar amplifiers already in place so I could play or write whenever the urge hit me. What was I thinking? Any rational person could have told me that this was never going to happen unless I won the lottery. I've never let reason get in the way, so here I am sitting in a storage warehouse, looking at a dusty pile of stuff I've never even used.

I'm not the only guy who does this. I've known plenty of guys over the years who have become obsessed with collecting vintage guitars, guns, old cars, microphones, mechanical watches, and even farm tractors. Guys are attracted to stuff the same way that a moth is attracted to a flame. A few collections are valuable, but most aren't. Collections aren't about money. They are about always needing just one more example of whatever you've got already. No matter how many guitars or model trains you have, the one you're really looking for is still out there taunting you.

The joy of collecting has finally turned into a burden for me. It's time to start lightening the load. If I can find a new home for the trains, maybe I can start thinking about the books, vinyl records, porcelain Dalmatians, old watches, analog mixing boards, and other oddities that are gathering dust.

On my way to the storage warehouse, I took some pants to the tailor to get hemmed. The tailor is a pleasant older Chinese woman who can fix anything. I've taken a ton of clothes to her over the years that I probably should have thrown away. I guess I probably collect clothes too. I wish there were more little shops like the tailor shop. There used to be a guy who fixed all my cameras. There was a guy who fixed sewing machines. Someone else fixed typewriters. There was even someone who specialized in repairing strobe lights for photo studios. That's all he did and he was very busy. Most of these specialized repair shops are gone. It's even getting harder to find a decent shoe repair shop these days. Sadly, we live in a disposable society.

I had Eggs Benedict for breakfast this morning. I wasn't hungry for eggs last night, but this morning I was. The restaurant was crowded and noisy, but the food was good. You don't hear conversations in a crowded restaurant. You just hear words. The experience feels like one of those word clouds you see on people's blogs. The words I heard a lot today were leadership potential, grandparents, stress, contractor, doctor, boss, and unfair. I didn't add to the conversations. I never do.

We got a new supplement called Movoflex for Dash today. Our vet recommended it and it is supposed to help him with mobility and joint pain. Movoflex appears to be an alternative to glucosamine and chondroitin which never really worked for Dash, but anything is worth a try.

Chance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2988

It's been such a gloomy week that it's hard to believe Spring is on the way. The signs are everywhere though. The Redbud and Dogwood trees are starting to bloom. I've started to see a few Grape Hyacinths. It won't be long before there are a multitude of wildflowers to photograph.

For now, all we have is more rain. Maybe that's why so many things are starting to bud and bloom. Plants probably love this weather. The winter hasn't been too cold, but it has been exceedingly wet. There seems to be a pattern to the rain. It usually rains during the night. Then the rain stops or slows to a mist during the early morning hours. Around 10 AM the rain often starts again and continues off and on for the rest of the day. At least this schedule allows me to give Dash a morning walk. If the rain continues through the afternoon, Dash and I both have cabin fever.

Even though I knew the car was going to get dirty, I drove to the tailor shop in the rain to pick up the jacket that was getting a new zipper. The well worn jacket is nice to wear around the house on a cold day. Hey, if I'm willing to drive somewhere in the rain, you know I'm pretty bored.

While I was listening to the rain and wondering what was happening on the roof, I put together my proposal for the website I've been asked to maintain. I tried to be honest about the many pitfalls this project faces, without being overly negative. I still can't decide whether I even want this job. It would be nice to have a monthly retainer for a while, but I'm not sure I can fix this site. It's a mess. I think it would be easier to start over and create a new one.

Janet wasn't very enthusiastic about the tall, skinny refrigerators I showed her. It's back to square one. I still have trouble believing that there is only one refrigerator in the entire world that will fit in our small alcove and still hold enough food to keep someone who cooks happy. I rarely cook, so anything that fits in the space and looks cool is fine with me. I know there is going to be an unpleasant surprise if I order something that I haven't seen in person, but that appears to be only choice we've got. The Maytag that is still the top contender is on back order until the end of March too. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to defrost a few more times.

I've been having problems sending e-mail because my mail client keeps saying that the server certificate in not valid. I hate all these new security issues. Mail servers didn't used to need a certificate. At any rate I called Bluehost and was lucky enough to get a nice tech support person this time. They said the problem was because I was using an Apple computer. Isn't that always the problem? I learned how to reconfigure my mail settings so the problem shouldn't happen again and now everything should be OK again.

I hope the rain clears out tonight. We've got an early appointment to take Dash to the cancer center for his monthly echocardiogram in the morning. I wish Dash would let the nurse clip his nails while we were there. I don't know what we are going to do about his nails. They are getting pretty long.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2980

The rain was horrendous today. At least it was just rain. A nearby town south of us got hit by a tornado and several towns north of us are being warned about freezing rain overnight. There was widespread flooding across town, but luckily the roads were clear and above water during my short excursion to the post office and pharmacy. I really didn't want to leave the house at all, but Dash was getting low on Plavix and I had bills to pay.

Since the rain didn't start until around 9 AM, I was able to give Dash his morning walk. Who knows when we will be able to walk again. The rain is still pounding down on the roof and according to the weather forecast, the wet weather will continue for the rest of the week. Needless to say, this is not my favorite time of year. During our rainy season, we typically get a year's worth of rain in just a few months and then when Summer rolls around, it is bone dry. It would be nice if our allotment of water was divided more evenly, but that's not the way it works in Texas.

As you might expect, Dash wasn't very happy today. He hates rain almost as much as I do. This wasn't your garden variety rainy day either. There were intermittent high winds and plenty of thunder and lightning. On days like this, Dash's safe place is under my desk in the office. I wish I had a safe place. I spent the day wondering whether a gust of wind would knock over one of our Oak trees, or if the roof would spring a leak again. Everything is fine so far, but that doesn't keep me from fretting.

After paying this month's bills, I couldn't bring myself to buy a refrigerator. I felt broke. I can't postpone this decision much longer unfortunately. Something is obviously wrong with the temperature controls. After I defrost the coil, the refrigerator section is too cold. It doesn't matter if I turn the thermostat to the warmest setting; the temperature is still too cold. Then, as the evaporator coil gradually becomes covered with ice, the refrigerator slowly becomes warmer. Eventually it quits working. This process takes several weeks, but it shouldn't be happening at all. As soon as the rain stops, I'll buy a new refrigerator. I don't feel like buying anything on a rainy day.

On the way to the post office, I stopped at the tailor shop to get a new zipper put in an old fleece jacket. "Are you sure you want to do this," the tailor asked, indicating that the repair might cost more than the jacket was worth. I like the worn old jacket, so I told her to go ahead. "This jacket is at least fifteen years old," she told me, "because they don't make this fabric anymore." As if to prove this to me, the tailor went to the back of the store and returned with an equally worn fleece jacket. "I have one just like yours," she said.

I spent a lot of time watching the weather radar today. I kept thinking there would be a break in the rain, so I could take Dash on an afternoon walk, but the rain was relentless. Every time it looked like the skies might be clearing, a new storm cell would develop, keeping the rain falling. The ten day forecast doesn't look promising. I wonder how they can predict these things ten days in advance anyway. Today looked pretty random to me.

Odie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2933

It's not a good sign when your vet keeps saying "I'm so sorry" as he explains your dog's test results. The blood clot inside Dash's heart has grown larger. This means the treatment he has been receiving is not working. We added a second medication today to help dissolve the clot, but I'm not optimistic. We've known from the beginning that blood thinners are only effective in helping the body reabsorb blood clots about 50% of the time. Dash's blood just seems to clot unusually easily.

It's kind of scary knowing that your best friend is a ticking time bomb. As long as the large clot stays together, Dash will be fine. If the clot breaks apart and travels to other parts of his body, he could die in a matter of minutes. Dash could have two weeks or two years. We just don't know. The sad thing is there is absolutely nothing we can do. Surgery isn't an option and we're already giving him the only medications that even has a chance of working. We have been told to avoid stressful situations and not to let Dash run off leash. The running isn't a problem, but everything is a stressful situation for Dash. He has never been a calm dog.

When we returned from the cancer center, Janet and I resumed our regular lives. What else can you do? I finished my breakfast and did some chores around the house. Later, I paid some more January bills and wrote a letter to my sister. On my way back from the post office, I though I'd take my old down booties to the neighborhood tailor and see if she could repair the worn waterproof cloth on the bottom. Although the booties were made of nylon and oilcloth and appeared to be easy to sew, the tailor said she didn't work on shoes and told me to see the shoe repairman next door. The shoe repairman told me that the booties weren't really a shoe and to take them back to the tailor. Nobody wanted to fix these things. Oh, well. I tried. I have a new pair anyway. I'm just a Gemini who likes to have a spare for everything.

Maybe I should have made a few New Year's resolutions. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do in the year ahead. My life has been centered around caring for sick dogs for so long now that it's hard for me to conceive of anything else. I really enjoyed going to Vandenberg Air Force Base several years ago and watching a satellite launch. Maybe someday I'll become a space groupie again. Following launches gets expensive though. I'd need a new source of money. Money is always the problem. Once you start to relax, the money starts to disappear fairly quickly.

For now I'm going to enjoy my remaining time with Dash. He can be stubborn and ornery at times, but he has an amazing personality and always makes me laugh. Dash has been my friend and companion for a long time now. He and Dot made it possible for me to work alone in a little office for all these years. They were really the heart and soul of my company and of this blog. It's very hard to be lonely when there is a Dalmatian nearby.

I'm glad that Dash didn't really understand what happened at the vet today. He's still a happy dog who takes things one day at a time. I'm going to try to do the same.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2927

What a weird day. Dash seemed normal when I woke up this morning. Janet and I got him ready for his walk like we always do before she leaves for work. Almost as soon as she was out of the driveway, Dash seemed to freeze in place in the living room. At first I just thought he was being stubborn, but it soon became apparent that he was having a vestibular incident. I carefully took his leg brace and harness off and got a blanket so he could lie down. It took a while before he could relax, but as soon as he did, he quickly went to sleep. I kept an eye on him while I was fixing my breakfast. His breathing was steady and the drooling had stopped. This was a good sign.

About two hours later he woke up and headed for the back door. He was ready for a walk. I thought we'd take a short walk, but Dash wanted to keep going. We ended up taking the longest walk of the year. I couldn't figure out why Dash was so eager to take a long walk after having a vestibular seizure,  but there are a lot of things I can't figure out with Dash. We stopped from time to time so I could check and see if everything was normal. It sure seemed to be. We were both tired when we returned to the house. Dash went to sleep again and I went to work.

I continued watching Dash for a while until I was confident he was back to normal and then I ran a few errands. I picked up some more Cerenia pills for him at the vet and picked up some pants that were ready for me at the tailor. The tailor was busy making alterations on a sweater a guy got for Christmas that apparently was too big. He wanted the tailor to make it smaller so the person who gave it to him wouldn't get insulted that he wasn't wearing it. Why didn't the guy just go to a store and exchange the sweater for a smaller size? Wouldn't that have been easier? The tailor kept trying to explain to the guy that since the sweater was knitted, it would be much harder to alter than a fabric garment. The weird thing was that the sweater looked just fine. As I left the store I told the guy that he might consider just wearing the sweater the way it was. Who am I to say though. I was just picking up a ratty old pair of jeans that I'd had the tailor sew knee patches on.

My Media Composer subscription runs out today, so against my better judgement I renewed it for another year.  I do this every year even though I rarely edit video anymore. Now I have current versions of both Pro Tools and Media Composer. I'm ready for that illusive job that will probably never come my way. Realistically, I should have invested a little money into a refresher course. I'm not sure I even remember how to use this software anymore.

New Year's Day is supposed to be one of the coldest New Years on record. This makes me nervous. I hate holidays where essential services are closed. What if the furnace goes out on New Year's Day? What if Dash gets sick? Our dogs have become ill on major holidays before and it has always been a nightmare. I have gotten so used to a 24/7 world where everything is always instantly available that the thought of going without an HVAC repairman, a plumber, or a vet for a few days is troubling.

I hope that the house stays warm and Dash stays healthy over the holidays. After that, I'll worry about 2018. I never make New Year's resolutions but this might be a good year to start. There are certainly some things that could use improvement.

Petey & Greta are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2918

There always seems to be more bills to pay in December. Instead of spending my time with Dreamweaver and Photoshop today, I found myself staring at Quickbooks. It looks like I survived another year, but I still hate paying all these bills. Since I was thinking about financial matters anyway, I began wondering whether this new tax bill was going to be good or bad for me. Depending on who you're listening to, this bill is either the best thing since sliced bread or one of the seven signs of the apocalypse. There is no middle ground here. In our polarized society, you either love something like this. or you hate it. Actually understanding the bill doesn't even seem to matter.

At first I thought the bill was going to be terrible for companies like mine because I heard that a lot of common Schedule C deductions were going away. Then I heard that small businesses could take advantage of new pass through provisions that would tax business profits at a much lower rate. That would be good. Who knows. It's all speculation at this point. I won't really have a clear idea of how this affects my own business until I start doing my 2018 taxes in the Spring of 2019. I'll be over 70 then and probably won't even have any clients, so I doubt that it matters much.

I finally got some feedback on the website project I finished a few weeks ago. The client likes it. That's a relief. Without this project hanging over my head, it will be a lot easier to throw myself into my new website project. I'd like to do something bold and original, but I think the client would be better served by just picking a readily available website template tailored to their specific industry. There are very sophisticated templates available now that cater to the needs of just about every type of industry. You don't need me anymore. Jeez, what am I doing? It's become way too easy to talk myself out of work.

The weather was much better today. It was foggy this morning, but there was no rain. Foggy days are great for photography, but I really didn't have the time. I had bills to pay, prescriptions to pick up at the pharmacy for Dash and myself, and a dog crate to find in the storage warehouse. Janet had loaned the crate to a friend of hers and they wanted it today. Since the large collapsible metal crate got relegated to the storage warehouse after Petey died many years ago, it was buried under tons of other stuff by now. I did manage to find the crate, but it would have been easier to buy Janet's friend a new one.

I took a raggedy pair of jeans to the tailor this afternoon to get some sturdy knee pads sewn on. These pants are so worn that I should have thrown them away a long time ago, but they are still my favorites for walking the dogs. When the pants are repaired, they will be a perfect match for the old rubber boots that I've repaired using shoe goo and tire patches. Never say die. Years ago, I had a client who was one of the best menswear retailers in the country. He would be embarrassed to see me now. I have gone from sartorial splendor to a haphazard hobo look. Ugly but serviceable. That's me these days.

I don't have any plans yet, but I'm sure tomorrow will be just as exciting as today. I really need to find a good book to read.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2649

 

My taxes are done. Well, they aren't really done, but they aren't my responsibility anymore. When I dropped the files off at the accountant's office, I made sure that they could open the CD with my Quickbook records before I left. I use such an old version of Quickbooks Pro that I'm always afraid that my accountant won't be able to import the files into their system. I hate to switch accounting programs. I was probably the last person in the world who still used MacMoney. When I finally switched to Quickbooks, I never bothered to upgrade. The first version was fine.

It was kind of chilly this morning. When I put on my favorite winter coat to walk the dogs, the zipper broke. The last time the zipper broke on this coat, I asked the tailor to replace it with a heavy duty indestructible zipper. Apparently indestructible zippers last two years. I took the coat back to a different tailor and asked them to put in a third zipper. I'm so tired of fixing things that are poorly made. Nothing lasts very long anymore. I still have a parka that my Dad wore when we lived in Alaska. The coat is over fifty years old and looks like it will last another fifty years. I doubt that I'd ever have to replace the zipper in this sturdy coat. So, why don't I just wear my Dad's coat and forget about all the shoddy imitations I've bought over the years? It's a nice coat, but something designed for Alaskan winters is a little warm for Texas.

I actually went to an animal rescue group meeting tonight. It's rare that I'm able to attend these meetings anymore, but Janet came home early, so I felt safe leaving Dot for a while. I didn't contribute very much to tonight's meeting, but at least I stayed the entire time. Several people had to leave early this evening, so the meeting was shorter than usual. It still seemed long to me though. I've spent the better part of my life sitting in long meetings, but I think my meeting days are over. I just don't have the patience for them anymore.

We saw another coyote on our walk this morning. Somehow the subject of coyotes came up at our meeting tonight and almost everyone had seen one recently. One guy even said that they were coming into his yard. I guess urban coyotes are a thing now. I sure wish that Dash was a little more wary of the critters. He is sometimes terrified of other dogs, but he seems oblivious to coyotes. He was literally walking right toward one this morning. I would think that he could have smelled the coyote, but Dash didn't seem to care. I didn't want to take chances, so we changed directions and took the long way home.

I almost forgot to take out the trash tonight. Somehow going to the meeting after dinner made me forget it was Thursday. When I finally hauled the trash can out to the curb, someone else had already taken my favorite spot. I'm superstitious about the trash truck missing my can, so I reluctantly placed the can somewhere else and hoped for the best. I don't know why I worry about stuff like this, but it's probably not going to change. Lost mail, broken zippers, and forgotten trash cans are all pretty normal these days.

Ruthie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2318

We had another eventful night filled with thunder, lightning, and restless, frightened dogs. Dot slept through the first part of the storm, but eventually a loud thunderclap woke everybody up. I didn't get much sleep at all. I need to figure out how to turn off the messages that my new fitness tracker keeps sending me. I keep getting these friendly suggestions to go to bed earlier or do yoga before I retire for the night. The messages are irritating because the little tracker doesn't know me at all. I'm actually doing pretty well, considering all I have to do each day. During the worst of the storm, I had to sleep on the floor with Dot to keep her calm. I was almost certain she was going to poop on me during the night, but when Janet got us all up for breakfast a few hours later, all was fine. I actually slept just about as well on the floor as on the bed. Either way, I usually wake up with a sore back.

I think I'm going to abandon my plan to move Dot's physical therapy appointment back to a morning slot. It is just too hard to get her ready in the morning. We'll just continue our current plan of making the journey downtown right after lunch. Eating energizes Dot and she is much easier to get in the car after a meal. Pooping in the car is still a risk, but I'll just have to take my chances. Dot did pretty well in the underwater treadmill. We met a new technician who was running the tank today. We have gone through at least four different technicians since we began water therapy. I guess running the treadmill is not a career path job. On the other hand, maybe young people just job hop a lot. I certainly did at that age.

Janet told me that one of her co-workers had to move out of his apartment temporarily because of a terrible smell in the building. When the building management was called to investigate the smell, they discovered that someone had hung themselves from a ceiling fan and committed suicide. Nobody discovered the body for over three days and they had to bring a Hazmat crew out to clean up the mess. You never hear about these things on the news, but I suspect they happen more often than we'd like to think. I've never understood suicide. Even when things are bleak, I always think that tomorrow might be better. This was a really cool building too. A couple of my friends live in this building and I've always been a little envious. It's hard to imagine anyone being unhappy living in a building like this.

The tailor did a good job repairing my old leather jacket. It always gives me a certain amount of pleasure to extend the useful life of old things. I have newer coats, but this old jacket has a lot of memories. I think it's definitely good for a few more years. On the way home from the tailor shop, I stopped by Dash's vet to pick up his new city tags. I've already started getting notices that his registration was about to expire and I would be subject to a potential code violation if I didn't renew it immediately. It has always seemed ironic to me that the little city department that supervises pet registrations is so ruthlessly efficient. If I'm even five days late, I get a notice. The city seems to always know when your pet registration has expired, but they have no idea where the potholes are in our roads.

I've had enough of this rain. This year's rainy season is turning out to be just as bad as last years. At least I don't live in Houston. Those poor people have had major flooding for two years in a row. I still don't understand why we have to get all our rain for the year at one time. When I lived in Seattle, we'd get a little bit of rain almost every day. Here we get a deluge once or twice a year. Hey, it's good for the new grass and the roof still isn't leaking. I really shouldn't complain, but I hope that tonight's rain won't be accompanied by thunder and lightning. I need a good night's sleep.

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2310

Yay. I fixed yesterday's website problem using a single line of code. I was pretty pleased with myself, even though I had a little help from an Apache Server user group. By modifying some code I saw on the forum, I was able to solve a problem that had my web hosting tech support folks stumped. The problem was so minor that most people would never have noticed, but it still felt gratifying to be able to put two and two together and come up with a solution. Don't count me out yet folks.

I replaced my defective activity tracker with a more advanced model that I found for half price at a sporting goods store that was going out of business. I had gone to the store to look for a cheap fleece jacket, but came away with the activity tracker instead. The best thing about this new model is that you don't have to manually put it into sleep mode every night. The thing just knows when you are sleeping automatically. I doubt that the new tracker will last any longer than any of the others that have fallen apart on my wrist, but I got it at half price. It's hard to resist half price.

I took my jacket back to the tailor today and was pleased to discover that she could fix the lining for a very reasonable price. I'm always impressed with people who can fix things. This tailor does beautiful work and has extended the life of many of my favorite things. The jacket is old and worn, but I still like it. Old leather coats have a lot of character. I'd keep fixing everything if I could, but people who take pride in fixing things are getting harder to find. Like it or not, we live in a throw away society.

Fixing a difficult website problem myself and getting a new lining for an old jacket made me feel good. I even anticipated that Dot needed to poop last night and we managed to get her up and outside at 3 AM just in the nick of time. There were no accidents in the house today. People sometimes think I'm a gloomy person, but it really doesn't take that much to cheer me up. A few things going right will usually do the trick.

I need to ask Dot's vet if I could change her physical therapy appointment back to mornings instead of afternoons. Dot is less likely to poop in the car in the morning and traffic is not nearly as bad. The clinic seems a lot busier in the afternoons too. What was meant to be convenient is actually taking me more time than before. I have a feeling that the vet likes this new time better though, so I may be stuck with it. You have to be careful what you wish for. It is not always what you expect.

I've noticed that since I've moved my e-mail account to the new server, I'm not getting any more spam. The spam must be going somewhere. I don't think anyone's invented a perfect spam filter yet. I need to figure out where the spam is going, because it's probably just sitting in a folder somewhere on the server eating up my hosting space. On the old server there were always important messages mixed in with the spam. I had to check my junk mail folder every day. So, there's my to-do list for tomorrow. Take Dot to the vet and find out where all my missing junk mail is accumulating. Who knows. Maybe hidden away in all the spam is a letter from someone who would like to hire me.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1631

I spent the day getting unsatisfactory answers to some very reasonable questions. How long has it been since you called someone and found a real person on the line who could actually answer your question? It's a pretty safe bet that the larger the organization, the longer you're going to wait. I will only call a government agency when I have plenty of time on my hands. I just put the phone on speaker and continue working on the computer until someone finally answers. Often the wait time is up to an hour. Today I only had to wait thirty five minutes. There were other calls as well. I was perplexed when I got another bill today for auto insurance that I'd already paid for less than a month ago. I sold a car recently, so I thought it was reasonable that I should be getting some money back. Nope! When I called my agent, he told me that I lost my multi-car discount when I sold the second car, so my rate had actually increased. Go figure. You really can't win these days.

I like repairing things, so I was delighted to pick up my favorite winter jacket from the tailor this afternoon and discover that it was good as new again. Earlier this Winter, the neighbor's dog had ripped the arm of the jacket when it tried to bite me. This is a very weird dog. It likes Janet, but always tries to bite me when I am unlucky enough to encounter it without a leash in the back alley. It should never be off a leash, but occasionally it gets loose. The dog is well trained and if I am quick enough to say "sit" or "stay" before it bites me, it always obeys. Sometimes I'm not quick enough though. To their credit, the neighbors offered to pay for the jacket, but I told them to forget about it and just try to keep the dog inside their fence when I walk Dot and Dash down the alley.

I paid a bunch of bills today and it got me wondering about what I was going to cut back on when I finally did retire. A social security check isn't even going to begin to pay these bills. I'm not sure what I could live without either. On some days, I could toss it all. Other days, I feel like hanging on to everything. I used to think that my IRA account would take care of me pretty well, but that was before the big financial meltdown of 2008. One more big crash like this and all bets are off. I'm pretty frugal, but I'm terrible at predicting the future. Even though I'm a very pessimistic person, I always think the future is going to be better than it actually turns out to be.

If the weather is nice tomorrow, we'll go back to dog training class again. I've moved Dot's acupuncture and water therapy session from Wednesday to Thursday, so the underwater treadmill workout won't make her too tired for class. She was pretty slow when we took her back to class a few weeks ago, but I think she still enjoys going. Dot and Dash are still active and energetic on their early morning walks, but go to sleep again as soon as they return home. I worry that I may have overworked them until I get out their dinner bowls. As soon as they hear food related noises, they both instantly spring to life again.

Maybe I'll go to the gym tomorrow. If today was any indication, there certainly isn't much reason to sit at this computer all day.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1429

It's that time of year again. I brought home a big pile of photo and lighting equipment from the storage warehouse in preparation for the first of our Santa Paws photo events this weekend. If it seems a little early for a picture of your dog sitting on Santa's lap, just look around you. The Christmas season is already in full swing. There are Christmas tree lots on every other corner. Stores are filled with lights, cards, and decorations. Some people are even starting to decorate their yards.

Every year the equipment seems heavier and it seems to take me a little longer to set up for these events. These Santa photos are all for a good cause though. I guess lugging this heavy gear around is what I've been doing all the workouts for.

I picked up my suit from the tailor today and the moth holes are gone. Reweaving is kind of amazing. Even when I look at the repair with a magnifying glass, I can't see any evidence that a moth hole was ever there. Now that I've taken care of the moth problem, I need to take care of the ticks. Dash seems to attract ticks like a magnet. Oddly, even though they walk together, I rarely see a tick on Dot. I check Dash for ticks every evening, but sometimes I miss a few. This morning I found one crawling on me. Yuck. It's all part of having dogs though. If you have a dog, you're eventually going to find a tick.

Dot did really well at her water therapy session today. She seems to enjoy these sessions. The water is nice and warm. The place is quiet. And the vet techs all like her and feed her treats. Dog class is another story entirely. Sometimes the dogs like their training class too, but not tonight. The only thing Dot and Dash wanted to do at class this evening was go home again. I can't really blame them. It was really cold this evening. I thing the temperature is supposed to get down in the mid-twenties later tonight. I finally remembered to set the outdoor faucets dripping, so they won't freeze. Since there are no valuable plants to bring inside, I guess we're all set for the first hard freeze of the season.

It looks like my breakfast recipe is actually going to be published in the SXSW Cookbook. I had to sign a release form today verifying the my recipe was original and not copied out of another cookbook. I'm glad I didn't have to sign anything guaranteeing that nobody would get sick from eating my recipe. I'm not really a very good cook. If somebody told me a few years ago that I would end up being featured in a film festival cookbook, I would have just laughed at them.

I wish tomorrow was Friday. This week is kind of dragging along. I've got lots of writing and website assignments to finish tomorrow. It's time to go to the gym again as well. One of these days I'll surprise you with something new and original. It won't be tomorrow though.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1418

When I went to mow the lawn this morning, the mower wouldn't start. I was baffled. Everything worked perfectly the last time I mowed the grass. I went through all the normal troubleshooting procedures, and then out of frustration, I hit the mower with a hammer and it sprang back to life. It's sad that it's come to this. I just don't have the patience to carefully and methodically take things apart and put them back together anymore. I used to be able to fix anything, and now I just feel like hitting my recalcitrant machines with a hammer.

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. Sometimes this happens for no apparent reason. When you can't sleep, the night can seem pretty long. Listening to the two snoring and farting dogs on either side of me didn't make the time go any faster, but eventually it was morning again.

When I went for my blood test at the health food store, there was already a line of old people waiting ahead of me. I usually try to go early and avoid the lines, but I couldn't seem to get organized today. The line moved surprisingly quickly and since I has to fast for the test, I went to breakfast at a nearby restaurant afterwards.

I took the suit with moth holes to the tailor and listened to a little Chinese lady explain the process of re-weaving to me. Somehow, I don't think the results will be nearly as invisible as promised, but what are you going to do? I can't let the moths win this one.

By the time I made a few remedial website updates, did the laundry, and made the bed, it was time to feed the dogs again and take them on their evening walk. This might be the last full daylight evening walk for a while. The sun will be setting an hour earlier now, so we'll be taking a lot of sunset walks during the month of November.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1417

It was a busy day. After walking the dogs and eating breakfast at my favorite restaurant, I went to help a friend get a website set up. We accomplished everything we needed to do over a cup of coffee at Starbucks while using public WiFi. Before I finished my coffee, we were done. It was that easy. In a nutshell, this is why there is no money in website design anymore. Well, there's no money in designing private websites anyway. As we've all learned recently, there's apparently still plenty of money available to design websites for the government. Maybe I should have bid on designing HealthCare.gov myself. My site might have crashed too, but the cost would have been way lower than the reported $112 million that the government has already paid the main contractor.

I found a moth hole in the suit I wore to last Wednesday's networking breakfast. I went to a tailor in the neighborhood to see if they could fix the suit. They said that they probably could, but that the cost for reweaving would be $70 per moth hole. Jeez, it's tiny little moth hole. I hope I don't have a lot of moth holes. I'd better check the rest of my suits to make sure that they aren't riddled with $70 holes. It's been ten years since I've worn some of these suits, so the moths have had a long time to do their dirty work. The odd thing about these old suits is that they are back in style again. Lapels, pleats, and fabrics have changed quite a bit over the years, but now they are right back where they started from. I kind of lucked out, since my weight is right back where it started from as well.

As an experiment, I've been submitting some of the same photos to both Shutterstock and iStockphoto. As you might expect, some get accepted and some get rejected, but there is no consistency between these two stock photo sites. Since both sites are incredibly picky about the images they accept, you'd think they'd reject the same images. Nope! An image that has too much grain for Shutterstock might be just fine for iStockphoto. An image that iStockphoto considers out of focus might be perfect for Shutterstock. There is no rhyme or reason to the process. I've had pictures taken with an iPhone accepted and pictures taken with a Hasselblad rejected. Go figure!

I'm not really looking forward to the change back to Standard Time this weekend. I can always get up a little later to walk the dogs in the morning, but there's no escaping sunset anymore when I walk the dogs in the evening. I try my best to avoid walking the dogs after dark. The coyotes start coming out around dusk and I'd hate to be attacked by a pack of them. I know that some people say coyotes aren't a threat to anybody, but it is well documented that urban coyotes are losing their fear of humans. I just don't trust them.

It looks like we're going to have another beautiful weekend. Since the grass is still growing in the front yard, I might have to drag out the lawn mower one last time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1114

Every time I have a doctor's appointment in a hospital environment, I am amazed at the sheer size of what we have come to call our healthcare system. I grew up in a small town and the only reason people went to the hospital was to have a baby or to get their tonsils out. What a different world we live in now. Hospitals have become small cities with thousands of employees and hundreds of ways to die.

I don't like to go anywhere near a hospital. You're more likely to get sick in a hospital than in almost any other place in the world. I got Hepatitis C when I received tainted blood products in a hospital during the 1970's. Back then hospitals routinely bought blood from winos and the medical community wouldn't even discover what Hepatitis C was for another twenty years or so.

I think things are even worse today. You hear stories almost every day about people going to the hospital with a very minor ailment and leaving with a nasty antibiotic resistant MRSA infection. I guess it makes sense that bad things happen in hospitals. That's where all the sick people are. Luckily, I didn't have to stay long today. It was just a quick trip for a second opinion. It took me longer to get in and out of the multi-level parking garage than it did to see the doctor. As you might expect, the doctor I saw today disagreed with the previous doctor. This happens a lot. It wasn't so bad though. I liked this doctor's conclusion a lot better than the first one, so I think I'll just go with it.

The stock market had a banner day today. Equities went up. Gold went up. Even my managed futures accounts went up. This financial trifecta almost never happens. It's kind of ironic to me that Wall Street is celebrating some last minute compromise legislation that isn't going to solve anything at all. Even though there wasn't a lot of logic in today's huge gains, I'll take what I can get. I learned long ago that the stock market is nothing more than a barometer that measures the world's collective fear and greed. Today, the fear subsided just a little, and the greed took over.

I got my warm coat back from the tailor today. The last time they put in a zipper for me it cost $16. This time it cost $40. As far as I can tell, the zippers on both coats look exactly the same. Go figure. I have a feeling that I was charged more for the zipper on today's coat because it was a more expensive coat. I didn't complain though. Maybe there's a zipper shortage.

At least I was warm then I took Dash to dog training class this evening. I don't think Dash was very warm though. He didn't seem to want to be at class at all. I put his sweater on before we left the house, but he still didn't want to sit on the cold ground. I don't blame him. If it was up to me, I'd just skip training class until spring.

Lilly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1109

It must have rained last night. I slept through the shower, but there was ample evidence that a storm had passed through. The paths through the park were all muddy and the plants were covered with dew. There wasn't much evidence remaining that it had ever snowed however. That's the way the weather is in Texas. Easy come. Easy go. I was disappointed to see this new rain because it meant all my efforts to clear the ice off the roof yesterday were wasted. Of course, I didn't even have to look to know that the roof was now covered with two inches of standing water all over again. I really think I know how Sisyphus felt, pushing his immense boulder up that hill for eternity.

I got off to such a slow start this morning that I might as well just have ordered lunch when I finally arrived at my designated breakfast restaurant. Since I'm a stickler for ritual, I went ahead and ordered a big breakfast anyway. After I finished eating, I took my warm goose down jacket to a little neighborhood tailor to get a new zipper sewn in. The tailor said he could put a new elastic drawstring at the bottom of the coat as well. I'm glad there are still a few people like this around. I'd hate to throw away a perfectly good coat, just because the zipper was broken.

On cold, damp days like this I tend to get a lot of writing done. What else is there to do anyway? I wasn't under any deadline pressure, but I pretty much got caught up on things for the year today. I probably should have saved a few of these assignments for a rainy day, but hey, it was a rainy day.

I'm tempted to go buy a couple of bales of hay to spread around the back yard. It's going to be impossible to grow new grass until Spring anyway and the mud in the yard is getting worse and worse. I'm not really sure where you buy bales of hay in the city though. Some garden stores carry hay bales around Halloween to set your pumpkins on top of, but that's about it.

When I went to the grocery store today I noticed that my tires looked low again. It makes sense, I guess. Hot air expands and cold air contracts. I suppose I'll have to drag out the air compressor tomorrow and pump the tires up again. I can tell by looking that they only have about 20 pounds of pressure in them now.

I was looking forward to watching a new Dr. Who episode tomorrow, since I enjoyed seeing "The Snowmen" episode last week so much. Wouldn't you know. There isn't going to be another new episode until April. Didn't Series 7 begin last September? Jeez, I've never seen a show take so long to air 14 episodes.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 676

I took a favorite old dog walking coat over to the neighborhood tailor today and asked them to put in a new zipper. They told me a new zipper would probably cost more than I paid for the coat. I thought for a minute and told them to put the zipper in anyway. I like the coat and there was nothing wrong with it except for the broken zipper. I used to repair and refurbish virtually everything I had, but it's getting harder to find good repair people these days. I think people are getting used to just throwing things away every three or four years. This premature obsolescence probably keeps the factories humming and is good for the economy, but I think it's kind of sad. Things acquire character over time and, given a choice, I'd much rather have something with a story behind it, than something that was made yesterday in China. At any rate, I'll have an old coat with a new zipper sometime next week.

After dropping the coat off at the tailor's, I picked up some prescriptions at the pharmacy, filled my tank up with gas and went to the grocery store. One of these Saturday's I'm going to do something different, but this week apparently wasn't the time. I did all my exercises today, but I have a feeling that this new routine isn't going to be easy to maintain. When I got up this morning, I felt like I had just traded my neck pain for aching shoulders. The exercises the physical therapist wants me to do aren't that strenuous, but I can certainly feel the burn. All these years, I thought I was in great shape from walking the dogs, but I really didn't have much upper body strength at all.

They're having a big regatta at the lake this weekend. A saw dozens of sailboats on the water when I was walking the dogs Friday and thought this would be a good opportunity to get some nice sailing pictures. The only things I've been photographing recently are Fall wildflowers. Apparently, the regatta folks haven't scheduled any races during the "golden hour" around sunset when the light is nice though. So far, I've only seen the boats around mid-morning when the light is hard and unflattering. You'd thing they could have planned a sunset race just for me. I guess I'll check again tomorrow.

I got the blog finished a little early tonight. This would be the perfect opportunity to do some more chores, but I think I'll just go to bed early.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day