Day 81

I'm a incorrigible packrat. It's hard for me to throw away clothing that I don't wear anymore. If I buy a leather coat, I'll keep it forever. It's almost impossible for me to throw away equipment that has become obsolete. I get fond of things. Especially stuff that I already know how to use. As a result, the house is starting to look like a it has been hit by a tornado. This year has been especially busy and there is camera equipment, dog beds, leftover stuff from animal rescue events and piles of paperwork everywhere.

I spent most of the morning trying to stuff tripods and light stands under the bed, putting winter coats back in the closet and trying to figure out whether the stacks of paper accumulating all over the office were junk mail or tax records. When I was younger, my house had an understated, zen like character. Now, it's just as messy and cluttered as my parent's house used to be. Try as I may, I just don't think I'm ever going to get the place looking like it belongs in Architectural Digest. There's always something more important to do.

Today's essential task was picking up the stray Dalmatian from Animal Control before his time was up. Some of these abandoned strays get put down in as little as three days after they arrive at the pound if a rescue group won't step forward and take them. This pup is going to get a second chance though. I did end up naming him "Smoky." He is a young, heavily spotted male who currently has heartworm and is very underweight. He'll be fine after we get him treated.  It's amazing what a difference proper medical care and a good diet can make in just a few months. After he gets a little healthier, you'll probably see Smoky here on the blog.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 80

Today, one of my customers wanted me to take a photo of all 50 of his employees standing in front of their building. I'm glad I took lots and lots of images, because in just about every photo, at least one person had their eyes closed, was looking down at the ground, or in a few cases, was facing in entirely the wrong direction. This photo shoot reminded me of last night when I was having trouble getting three dogs and a cat facing in the same direction. You'd think it would be easier with people, but not always.

I'm relieved that it's finally Friday. This week seemed like it would never end. I didn't even come close to getting caught up on everything and somehow ended up with more on my "to do" list at the end of the week than I started out with on Monday. It's good to be busy though. When I'm busy, I'm forced out of sheer necessity to think of ways to do things faster and better. When I'm not busy I tend to procrastinate and can make even the simplest task last all day.

Tomorrow morning I'm going down to the Westmoreland Animal Shelter to pick up a stray Dalmatian. I'm still trying to think of a name for the dog. It's kind of a tradition with Dalmatian Rescue that the person who picks up the dog from the pound gets to name it. Maybe Smoky would be a good name. This dog is a young male who has a lot more dark spots than most Dalmatians. I've named so many strays by now that it's getting harder and hard to think of a name I haven't already used.

The weather was beautiful today. It was almost 70 degrees later in the afternoon. Now that things are drying out again, I might finally get a chance to patch that troublesome leak on the roof.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 79

Finally! I got a letter from iStockphoto today telling me my latest batch of photos had met their technical and commercial standards and that I was welcome to join their stock photo agency. It was kind of embarrassing that it took me so long to get accepted. I kept sending them photos that I had "improved" in Photoshop. They kept sending them back, telling me that they only accepted original, unprocessed images. I should have realized several months ago that stock photos aren't the same as the photos I do for gallery shows. I think I've got the concept now, so maybe I can make a little extra income selling some of the thousands of images I have filed away.

I added a few hundred more images to this growing collection of photos today when I shot the advertising and promotional photos for this year's Wine on the Roof charity event. Everyone loved the poster I did for last years event, so of course they expect me to do something even better for 2010. This is still a work in progress, but it does involve dogs and cats wearing costumes and behaving well together. It would be a total disaster if I let my two dogs get anywhere near a cat, but the dogs we used for the photo shoot this evening were actually pretty friendly with their feline counterparts. I think I actually managed to get some pretty decent shots. Taking pictures of animals isn't easy. I think I have a short attention span, but I have the patience of Job compared to a dog in a costume.

I thought I was going to miss Project Runway tonight because it took me so long to get all the lights and equipment packed up after the photo shoot. Got everything put away in the nick of time however and watched the contestants try to make fashionable clothing out of stuff they found in a hardware store. The winning outfit was amazing. You'd never believe it was made out of trash bags.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 78

We've started watching Shear Genius after we get home from obedience class with the dogs. It's not as good as Project Runway, but it's the same general idea. You give people a short amount of time do do something creative and then see if they screw up. Some of tonight's haircuts were pretty bad and it reminded me that my own hair was starting to look pretty ratty as well. It's probably time for me make an appointment with Betty at Toni & Guy and get my hair cut.

I've been all the way from one end of the haircut spectrum to the other. My hair was as long as Shaun White's in college. When I was young, I used to wear a mustache to make me look older. When I got older, I shaved it off, realizing that it actually did make me look older. For quite a while I wore a mullet, completely oblivious to the fact that this was the official hairstyle of rednecks and trailer trash worldwide. These days, I usually wear my hair pretty short. My sense of fashion must have been influenced by Steve Jobs, because I wear black t-shirts a lot too.

I don't know why men's haircuts have gotten so expensive. I never know which is going to cost more: taking my car to the Land Rover dealer for an oil change or getting my hair cut at Toni & Guy. At any rate, I don't think a haircut or an oil change should end up costing me $90. Maybe it's time to start going to a barbershop instead. Nobody would probably ever know the difference.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 77

What a weird day. I woke up this morning, turned on the television and discovered that Terilli's had burned down early this morning. Jeanie Terilli is a neighbor and I know how many years she spent making sure the restaurant had one of the best reputations in Dallas. It's sad to see how quickly someone's dreams can literally go up in smoke.

I was getting ready for breakfast when I remembered that I couldn't eat breakfast today because of the blood tests I had scheduled in the afternoon. Damn. I hate to miss breakfast. It's my favorite meal and often the best part of my day. There are a lot of liabilities to being your own boss, but one of the perks is being able to eat a big, hearty breakfast while everyone else is fighting traffic on Central Expressway.

My regular doctor wanted to go over the results of the Endoscopy I had in late January. He wants me to give up drinking entirely. I certainly don't drink that much, but I do enjoy a glass of wine or two with dinner and the occasional Martini or Scotch. Giving up alcohol entirely is going to be even harder for me than the day I had to give up eating bacon. Life is stressful these days and a glass of wine can be very relaxing.

So, what's so terrible about a glass of good wine with dinner? Ordinarily, nothing at all. I have Hepatitis C however, and both my regular doctor and my hepatologist tell me that some people have no tolerance for alcohol whatsoever if they also have the virus. Just my luck. I was really hoping to avoid the peginterferon and ribavirin combo because of the bad side effects. My first hepatologist told me that my viral load was increasing so slowly that I would most likely outlive any damage to my liver from the disease. Now, I'm not so sure. Even though I drink in moderation, I apparently have the esophagus of an alcoholic. That's what all the blood tests were about today. They want to see which is worse: the disease or the cure.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 76

Another cold, wet day. I went down to take the new employee pictures I had scheduled for today, but nobody wanted their picture taken. I couldn't blame them. The weather was horrible. Lots of people had wet hair, soggy clothes, or both. I managed to get a few good "people at work" shots in the exam rooms, but I'll just have to come back on a nicer day for the rest.

I hope the weather clears up later in the week, because I have two more photo shoots scheduled. This is the worst Winter I can remember. There hasn't been much snow, but it's certainly been cold and the rain has been relentless. They say all the wet weather we've been having will make the wildflowers exceptionally nice when they start to bloom toward the end of the month. I'm sure this is true, but it's hard to believe that anything is going to bloom now.

Rainy days are always a good time to discover new things on the Internet, so I guess it's as good a time as any to admit I'm becoming hooked on Entrecard. I know the Technorati crowd thinks Entrecard is just for beginning bloggers and Mommy Blogs, but I think it's fun. I'm not much of a gamer and virtual worlds like Second Life were never that enjoyable to me. Entrecard does function a bit like a virtual world, but one that is more familiar to me: the world of business. Dropping on people's Entrecard widget is like the new business calls we all make. If you keep calling, eventually someone notices. Dropping is a bit mindless, but it reminds me of the persistence that it takes to make any business a success. If you want something more imaginative, you can always try the Entrecard Marketplace. I even signed up for the New Marketplace that is supposed to be modeled after Craigslist. We'll see how this goes. Virtual business ideas, just like the real variety, don't always work.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 75

A reader asked recently why I collected watches. It's pretty simple actually. Probably pretty simple-minded as well. I went through a period where I was depressed. I hated getting up in the morning. When I did get up, all I would think about was how long it was till I could go back to sleep again. I started looking at clocks and watches a lot to see how much time I had left. Then I started buying them. After I bought two or three watches, I realized that they were quite intricate and beautiful little objects. I've always liked pretty things and when I would see a watch that looked even nicer than the one I had on my wrist, I would buy it too.

It didn't take long before I had more watches than I knew what to do with. Some of the watches quit working and batteries went dead on others. I realized I couldn't even begin to afford to keep all these things running, so I began to buy books about repairing watches. I learned how to change batteries and make simple repairs. Then I started buying more complex watchmaking tools. Within two years, I knew a lot about watches. I started repairing watches for friends. I had totally forgotten the depression that caused me to buy my first watch, but the depression had been replaced by something even worse: an obsession with watches.

Tomorrow is March 1st. At the height of my obsession, I would spend hours moving the date on every single watch from 28 past 29, 30 and 31, so it was back at 1 again. It was ridiculous.  I don't even bother to wind or set the watches anymore. The only time I need to remember tomorrow is 2 PM. That's when I need to be at one of my client's offices to take new employee pictures for their website. Like most of the obsessions I've had in my life, my obsession with watches simply collapsed of its own weight.

I certainly didn't need a watch to tell me what I needed to do today. Sunday's are always the same. It's all dogs, all the time on Sundays. We walked the rescue dogs up at K-9 University and I took new pictures of Kobe and LeBron in their winter sweaters. Next, Dash got his medicated bath over at Vhea's Laundromutt. We took Dot and Dash down to Unleashed to play, and after dinner they got their usual evening walk in the park. This was the entire day. I wonder if this is what it's like to be a soccer mom?

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 74

Back when I was an ad agency copywriter, I always used to keep a daily journal. I don't think I ever recorded any profound insights in these journals, but I did make daily entries for many years. Personally, I liked carrying around the little leather-bound diaries a lot more more than I liked writing in them. It looked very businesslike. Some people thought I kept a daily schedule planner in the book. Others thought that I used it for taking notes in meetings. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The journal was just an excuse to postpone working for a while, just like this blog.

Recently, I thought it might be fun to go back to these old journals and scan a page from the same day as my blog entry, but maybe fifteen years earlier. I thought that if I put the scanned page side-by-side with my current blog entry, it would show how I had matured...how I had slowly and surely achieved my dreams. Then, I went and read some of the old journals again. Oops. The old journals seemed exactly the same as what I am writing now. The only difference was that they were written with a ball point pen in a little leather book. So much for maturity. It doesn't appear that I have grown or gained any insight at all after all these years.

I ordered a colorful new muslin backdrop for the Unleashed Easter pet picture event today. Janet found some great looking over-sized Easter eggs we can use as props too. With any luck, the Easter set is going to look even better than the set we put together for Valentine's Day. I think Dalmatian Rescue is right on the verge of turning pet photography in to a major fundraiser. The golf tournament and casino parties are still essential too, but it's nice to know that there is something I know how to do well that can actually help the dogs.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 73

The Internet continues to amuse me. This morning I was looking at one of those website analysis sites that seem to be proliferating recently. When I did a search on my own website, it told me that the content was written for a "graduate" level reader. When I did the same sort of search on this blog, it said I was writing for teenagers. Could I have regressed from producing erudite prose to writing twaddle in fifteen short years? Sadly, it's probably all true. Too bad it was my mind that has gone downhill. If only my body had regressed to being a teenager instead.

People are paying me now to write comments on their blogs. Oddly, this doesn't even seem strange to me. In a world where our president reads from a teleprompter and "reality shows" aren't even remotely like real life, why would blog comments be spontaneous and genuine? It's actually kind of fun to comment on things you wouldn't normally even think about. A bit like doing those Sudoku puzzles. It's good for the brain.

I've been thinking more about healthcare lately, but that hasn't been so good for the brain. It's depressing! You really can't escape thinking about healthcare these days. Turn on the television and nine times out of ten, you're going to be listening to someone talking about the healthcare crisis. Health insurance seems to be the largest single expense for people I know who own a small business like I do. Even in an industry like mine, where equipment costs are high, health insurance costs trump everything else. The sad thing is that even if the folks in Washington pass some sort of healthcare legislation, it won't help people like me who already have insurance but still struggle to pay for it. It will just help people who had nothing to start with. I'm sure when all is said and done, I'll end up paying even more than I am now. Like Kris Kristofferson  told us all a long time ago  - "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 72

I could have sworn there was an animal rescue meeting this evening at Tony's Pizza, but when I arrived at the appointed time, nobody was there. Actually, there were plenty of people eating at the restaurant, just not anyone I recognized. I really should should start reading my e-mail more carefully. I'll bet the message actually said that someone was bringing pizza from Tony's to a meeting at a different location. Oh well. At least I made an effort. I went home and ate another leftover pork chop instead.

I'm still catching up with people I've re-discovered on LinkedIn. In the future, I should try to touch base with friends more than once every twenty years. People have died. Kids I remembered as toddlers are now married with kids of their own. Just about everyone has changed careers at least once. I guess I've changed a lot too. It just doesn't seem that way. I've had the same phone number for 25 years. I still have a car I bought in 1972. I'm still wondering what I'm going to do when I grow up.

My leasing agent called today and asked if I wanted to renew the listing on my rent property for another three months. I'd forgotten that they'd been showing the place that long. It's amazing to me that nobody wants to lease. You'd think that I owned a rundown slum property instead of a cool looking Bud Oglesby condo that won a big AIA award in 1965. Times change, I guess. When I bought the place, the Internet wasn't even invented yet. I guess cable TV wasn't invented either. There was an antenna on the roof that got about five local channels.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 71

Maybe I'm one of those people who react poorly to a lack of sunlight. I think they call the condition Seasonal Affective Disorder. I know a copywriter somewhere came up with this name, because the acronym is SAD. Too cute. At any rate, it was bright and sunny outside when I woke up this morning and I found myself in a better mood all day.

Had lunch with my friend Alan today. He was amazed that I still didn't have a cell phone and was showing me how he could manage his entire life just by waving a few fingers at his iPhone. I'll have to admit it was pretty impressive. Especially when he went to his Facebook page directly from the iPhone and showed me how people were posting things and commenting in real time, right while we were eating our barbecue sandwiches. Apparently Alan had asked his Facebook friends to send him pictures of where they worked this morning and 43 people had already responded before lunch.

The whole notion of living in a real-time, totally interconnected world still escapes me. I understand all this social Internet stuff in theory, but in reality I'm still pretty isolated. Case in point. Yesterday, I was looking for something on Google and accidentally discovered that George Toomer, someone who I used to work with frequently during my ad agency days, had died last Summer. I didn't even know. There was a time where I would have discovered something like this almost immediately over a beer at the Stoneleigh P. Times have changed though. People don't actually exchange news in person over a beer anymore. They Twitter and Tweet instead. Alan asked me at lunch when was the last time I'd actually shown my portfolio in person to someone at their office. I had to admit that it had been years since I'd done this. Maybe the entire world has moved online. The dogs don't care whether I'm online or not. As long as they get their walk, they're happy.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 70

I finished the navigation shell for one of the new websites I'm working on today. Amazingly, all the Javascript worked. Planning the navigation structure is always the hardest part of website design for me. Adding the pictures and content is easy by comparison. I definitely don't want to put the cart in front of the horse, however. My client hasn't even seen the design yet. We're still a long, long way from launching this thing.

This afternoon when I was running errands, I stopped by my regular doctor's office to make an appointment. Usually, it takes me two or three weeks to get in. Today, they said they could see me tomorrow. This is the second time this has happened recently. I wonder what it means. Are people going to the doctor less because of the economy?  Is insurance not covering as much as it used to?  Maybe it's just random chance though.

On the way home it seemed like every other house I passed had a "For Sale" sign in front of it. I've noticed a huge increase in houses for sale lately. With interest rates so low, you'd think people would be snapping them up, but they aren't. I have this uneasy feeling that something has fundamentally changed, but I can't quite put my finger on it. The economy in Dallas is actually a lot better than in many parts of the country, but people still act like the sky is about to fall. The dogs certainly aren't worried. They've had their dinner, taken their evening walk and are now sleeping on top of a pile of blankets on the bed.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 69

Today was one of those "bite the bullet" days where I was forced to acknowledge that even the most unpleasant tasks have to be dealt with eventually. I lowered the monthly rent on my rental property in hopes of finally getting it leased. I went to Home Depot and got lots of stuff for fixing leaking toilets, leaking sinks and leaking roofs. I even made some new business calls to people I know would be unpleasant to work with if they ever gave me a chance to bid on something.

The weather continues to be totally unpredictable. Two days ago the temperature was in the 70's. Today it's below freezing again. I think it's supposed to snow again later in the week. I always try to do unpleasant things on days like this because I'm not expecting very much anyway. I paid some bills. Tried to find some missing tax records. Probably about the most pleasant thing I did all day was eat a leftover pork chop for dinner.

Unleashed invited us to have an Easter pet picture event down at the dog park. I'm sure we'll take them up on their offer. Dalmatian Rescue had a lot of sick dogs last year and there are still plenty of vet bills to pay.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 68

I've never missed a deadline on a work project. The downside of this conscientious behavior is that I am hopelessly behind on everything else. Sundays are just an endless to-do list these days. In addition to the nagging roof leak and running toilet in the rent house, there is a dripping faucet that needs to be fixed in the kitchen, a shower pan that needs to be replaced in one of the bathrooms, carpet that needs to be replaced in one of the bedrooms and something is wrong with the furnace. The perpetually clogged Epson printer is acting up again and I need to order new print heads for the HP printer. Taxes are looming on the horizon too. I haven't even started collecting tax information for my accountant yet. I sure hope he can figure out what happened this year, because I don't have a clue. I switched stock brokers twice this year, mostly because I was so was so disgusted at how poorly my investments were doing. As a result there seems to be even more paperwork than usual.

I really envy the dogs sometimes. They both got a bath today, which they didn't particurally enjoy. On the plus side however, they got two long walks, a delicious dinner and a trip down to the Unleashed indoor dog park to play. They also got all their dog beds and blankets cleaned, but that was mostly for us. The house was starting to smell pretty doggy.

The weather forecast says there is a good chance of snow again next week. Where is global warming when we need it?  I'm ready for Spring. I think this has been the wettest Winter I can ever remember in Dallas. There's got to be more to life than leaking roofs and muddy dogs.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 67

Today, I drove down to Oak Lawn and spent some time cleaning up my rent property. It shouldn't get dirty since it is still empty, but dust seems to accumulate anyway. I really need to talk to my leasing agent. The place has been vacant way too long. I'm still competing against developers with brand new half empty high-rise condos in the same neighborhood. It's amazing how much has changed in just a few years. People used to wait in line for a chance to lease this building and now it has fallen out of fashion.

Mid-century modern buildings are deceptive. They look crisp and contemporary, but they are really antiques that would make good candidates for renovation on "This Old House." I always find something that needs attention when I go down to the rent house. Today, I noticed that a toilet was running. Not a big deal, but I do need to call a plumber.

Saturday errands seem to take longer and longer to complete. It was almost dark before I finished the grocery shopping and headed home to take the dogs on their evening walk. At least the days are getting longer. Pretty soon we'll be able to go out for a walk at 7PM and the sun will still be up.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 66

I saw part of Tiger Woods "apology" on TV this morning when I was finishing breakfast. It was stiff and almost robotic. Tiger's premise seemed to be that he had worked hard getting where he was in life and that, as a result, he thought he deserved to be able to do whatever he wanted. Big mistake! If you want to mesh with the rest of society, you can never, ever do whatever you want. Compromise is essential if you want to have friends, work with clients and maintain a relationship. The end result of doing whatever you want is Joseph Stack. You end up flying your airplane into a building just to prove a point.

I'm not even sure what I want anymore. At several points in my life I thought I had found what I was looking for in life, only to discover that it wasn't even close to what I wanted after all.  Now, I just methodically put one foot in front of the other, like a mountain climber ascending a tall summit. I pay bills, I try to figure out what clients want, I walk dogs twice a day, and once or twice a week I enjoy a great meal. Life is easier this way.

This has been a busy week and I'm glad it's Friday. I have two major web site projects in early stages of development that are taking up a lot of my time. It's also time to start putting together promotional materials for Wine on the Roof. This is a major fundraiser for East Lake Pet Orphanage and every year I do a poster and other advertising materials for the event. Everyone loved last year's poster, so it's going to be a challenge to come up with something even better this year. I'm sure that whatever I come up with, there will be a dog in the picture somewhere.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 65

I had to go see my gastroenterologist today. The good news was that none of the tissue he biopsied last month during my Endoscopy was pre-cancerous. The bad news was that my esophagus was still an inflamed mess and I need to continue taking my meds for another three months. I looked up the word gastroenterologist on Google a few minutes ago to make sure I spelled it correctly and discovered that the average salary for a gastroenterologist is $315,000 a year. Jeez, I sure got into the wrong line of work. I have an architecture degree, tons of awards and a lifetime of experience, but still my clients complain if I try to make the same money as an Assistant Manager at McDonalds.

Not surprisingly, although my doctror's appointment was at 3:30 this afternoon, I didn't actually get in to see the doctor until 4:15. Schedules are meaningless these days. Sometimes I'm the one behind schedule. Sometimes other people are behind. I can't really complain about the doctor being late for his appointment today, because only two hours later, I was almost an hour late for an animal rescue group meeting where I'm a board member. I had every intention of being on time for this 6 PM meeting, but just when I was getting ready to take the dogs on their 5 PM evening walk, I got a reply to an important phone call I'd made at 10:30 AM this morning. It must be a new rule in some recent time-management book that people should wait until the end of the day to return their phone calls, because inevitably I get most of my business calls between 5 and 6 PM. Life was so much easier when you could just call someone and they would pick up their own phone right when you called.

Everything eventually worked itself out though. The rescue group's meetings are so long that being late seldom matters. The dogs got their walk. I even got to watch Project Runway when I got home.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 64

I'm continually amazed at how bad Dallas traffic has gotten in recent years. I really don't drive much anymore, since most of my business takes place over the Internet. When I do venture out beyond the tranquil confines of my own neighborhood, it feels like I'm back in L.A. I'm just about always late these days, because as a creature of habit, I usually allot the same amount of time it used to take me to drive from one part of town to another, instead of the amount of time it actually takes now. I tend to forget about new school zones, multi-car accidents that instantly turn six lane freeways into a one lane road, and the ever-present construction crews that turn up where you'd least expect them. As a result, no matter how hard I try, I'm always about ten minutes late to wherever I'm going.

I was actually on time to my meeting this afternoon, but it was somewhat of an accident. I just happened to hit a long string of green lights on Northwest Highway and there were no accidents to slow me down along the way. The car trip was certainly worthwhile. I had a great initial meeting with another new client who wants a website for his veterinary hospital. I enjoy working with veterinarians. It sure would be nice if projects for veterinary hospitals had the same kind of budgets as the oil and gas industry projects I used to do a few years ago. That's not going to happen though. I'm just happy that the company is staying busy this year.

Dash had a big night at obedience class this evening. He finally graduated to the advanced class tonight. There were times when I thought this would never happen. He'd been stuck in the intermediate class for over three years, mostly because he would lose interest about halfway through class and refuse to do anything right. A lot of this was my fault, because many times I would lose interest about halfway through class as well. We've been working hard in recent months thought, and tonight was Dash's night.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 63

Forget about waterboarding. If you really want to torture someone, just give them some esoteric web hosting problem and then put them on the phone with tech support. Calling tech support is almost always an exercise in futility. Today, I wasted hours trying to find someone who could tell me why some of my client's files were apparently disappearing on the server. When I couldn't find an answer to that question, I wasted even more time trying to find our why the same client's .htaccess files were always getting corrupted.

When I grew tired of dealing with these problems, I tried to figure out why the purchase order numbers on the invoices I was sending out in the mail today didn't match up with the same invoices in my accounting program. Not surprisingly, it was my mistake, but it took me forever to figure out what I'd done wrong. I get tired of dealing with continual computer problems. Computers are very unforgiving. I used to envy Marty, my HVAC repairman, until one day he showed me why my furnace wasn't working properly. It was a small computer hidden away inside the furnace that was causing the problem!

Dogs don't have to worry about computers, but apparently they have their own demons. Tuesday is trash pickup day in our neighborhood and Dot fretted all morning, waiting by the living room window for the garbage truck to drive down the alley behind our house. All you have to say is "Dot, it's trash day" and she starts barking. Dash doesn't barks all that much. He prefers to eat bark he finds in the back yard. That's the kind of day it was: Dot barking at garbage trucks, Dash eating bark, and me barking up the wrong tree with tech support.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 62

I had lunch with Tim Werner today. Tim is one of a growing list of old friends and former co-workers that I have re-discovered with the help of LinkedIn. Years ago, when I was an ad agency producer, Tim was my editor of choice. We worked together almost every week putting together TV commercials for over three straight years. Times changed however. I stopped doing commercials. Tim moved on to editing long format video and we eventually lost touch with each other.

Although we hadn't seen each other in many years, we found that we still had experienced some of the same joys and frustrations. I find that whenever I get together with people I used to work with when I was younger, our stories typically share a common theme. We all discovered that in order to stay employable on any level, it was essential to continually reinvent yourself. We found that although we are actually working much harder than we were ten years ago, we aren't making as much money. We all moved on to greener pastures, but somewhere along the way, the grass died. Budgets are tight these days. Memories are short. And nobody is very impressed with all the awards you won in 1978.

It's definitely encouraging to see that so many of my old friends are still hanging in there and actively competing for work with people who are thirty years younger. That's certainly what I'm doing. It's a bit discouraging however, that even when you do win the bid, the work itself isn't nearly as fun as it used to be. I guess some things just can't be duplicated. We were the real life Mad Men of advertising and those days are long gone.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day