Day 1102 - Winter Solstice

You can tell Christmas is just around the corner. When I went out for breakfast this morning, the restaurant was filled with people wearing reindeer sweaters and colorful vests with Christmas ornaments embroidered on them. At any other time of year, these outfits would seem ridiculous, but they all seemed pretty normal today.

After breakfast, I needed to do a little shopping and immediately discovered that everybody in Dallas was driving around doing the same thing. The traffic was horrible. When I got to the mall, things got worse. Half the parking spaces had been turned into valet parking lots. The valet parking was virtually empty, but the rest of the parking lot was a zoo. Whoever had the bright idea of  turning most of the mall into a giant valet parking lot should get a big lump of coal in their stocking. It's hard enough finding a parking place on a normal day. With a bunch of holiday entrepreneurs trying to charge you $10 for what was normally free, it was impossible.

Remember when I told you that I lost one of my web maintenance clients several weeks ago. Well, I had my exit interview today. It turns out that one of the reasons I lost the account was that the new guys offered something called "reputation management."  Evidently, if someone writes something bad about my client on Yelp, these guys can make it go away. Whatever happened to reality? Everyone wants to manage reality these days, by putting their own spin on things. It's getting harder and harder to know what's actually real. Somebody says something and then somebody else with an opposing point of view immediately sets up a counter-initiative to discredit what was said. It's all very confusing.

The dogs don't like it when I play my guitar. I can do a lot of other things and they'll stay sleeping on the bed, completely ignoring me. When I get out the guitar though, they immediately start to bother me until I put the thing away again. I don't know if it's my poor playing that bothers them or the fact that I'm having fun without them. I think Dalmatians invented "It's all about me."They want everything to involve them.

Today was the shortest day of the year. I'll look forward to the days gradually lengthening and growing warmer again. I hate to have to rush, just to get the dogs walked before the sun goes down. I know it's a long time until Spring, but I'm ready for it already.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1101

The world is supposed to end tomorrow. Of course, we all know that Friday will be just another uneventful day, but I couldn't help thinking that things would be easier if the world actually did end tomorrow. I wouldn't have to worry about my health deteriorating anymore. I wouldn't have to pay the big stack of December bills sitting on my desk. I wouldn't have to do any last minute Christmas shopping. I could even start drinking again during the final hours. I can't imagine that a few good martinis would even matter as the world wound to a close.

I'm quite certain that the world will still be here when I wake up tomorrow morning. There will be articles to write, dogs to walk, and maybe even a new breakfast restaurant to explore. I'll probably do some laundry. I'll go to the grocery store in the afternoon, because I always go to the grocery store on Friday. When Janet comes home from work, I'll tell her that it's been a long week and that I'm glad it's Friday.

Although it certainly wasn't the end of the world, we did have a bad storm last night. The rain didn't last long, but we had severe winds for most of the night. When the dogs and I took our morning walk, the park was littered with fallen trees. It's hard to think of trees as fragile, but I guess they are. Every time we have a wind storm, we lose a few trees. Since we had 60 MPH in-line winds at some points during the night, I thought we might lose the roof of our greenhouse. I saw a few roof panels flapping around in the wind just before I went to bed last night, but we got lucky and everything was still intact the next morning.

It just occurred to me that maybe my backup hard drive failed because I kept it running 24/7. I think I'll just turn the new backup drive on once a week to make backup copies. It should last forever then. If I could just turn myself on once a week, I might last forever too.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1100

The dogs and I pass by Erykah Badu's house almost every morning on our walks. For some reason when she initially built the house, Erykah wrote the words LOVE, FORGIVE, EVOLVE on her garage door with colored chalk. I've noticed recently that the word EVOLVE has faded away to near invisibility. Has the singer already evolved, or did she just give up on the matter?  In my limited experience, it is a lot easier to love and forgive than it is to evolve. Most people I know, including myself, are just the same as they've always been. It's easy to pay lip service to the idea of change, but it's incredibly hard to make fundamental changes. With all the talk about needing to change our violent society, I wonder if we have the collective will to do what's necessary. Any student of history will tell you that our country has been a pretty violent place almost since the day it was founded.

I was trying to tell a client that the the work I do for them is boring while simultaneously expressing gratitude for the dull assignments. I hope I threaded this needle properly. I certainly need the work. In truth, most of my work is boring. That's the nature of work. I guess I don't believe the people who tell me their jobs are fun. If working was fun, you'd think I'd have experienced the sensation by now.

When I was at the vet yesterday, Dash sneezed in the exam room. "Does Dash have a cold?" the vet asked me. It certainly was a valid question, since we were trying to determine why Dash was throwing up every night. "Haven't you ever seen this before?" I asked the vet. "All Dalmatians do this when they think they're being ignored or you aren't doing something fast enough." "This isn't a cold," I told the vet, "it's an indignant sneeze." I was right, of course, and every Dalmatian owner would recognize that sneeze as a sign that Dash was tired of being examined and was ready to go home. I only mention this because Dot and Dash both gave me simultaneous indignant sneezes tonight when I was late fixing their dinner.

The temperature is supposed to drop over 40 degrees overnight. A cold front is moving through town as I write this and the weather forecasters say it will be close to freezing in the morning. We saw the front approaching in the distance at dog training class this evening. I thought class would be called off the moment we saw lightning on the Northern horizon. Not a chance. Everyone except Janet and I seemed determined to ignore the approaching storm. I guess they don't have dogs who are terrified of thunder and cars that have been demolished by hailstones. Luckily, we made it home before the deluge started.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1099

I got up extra early this morning, but it really didn't seem to make much of a difference. I still didn't get a lot accomplished. The problem with today's to-do list was that everything was tedious and time consuming. I did manage to get a new backup system in place, so I no longer have to worry about losing all my data in a hard drive crash. Not surprisingly, the very latest external drives were both faster and less expensive than the slightly older ones that would still connect to my computer. I wish I could have hooked up one of those superfast new USB-3 or Thunderbolt drives. Without them, it took me a long time to copy several terabytes of data.

It also took me an exceedingly long time to re-install Pro Tools, which happened to be the next thing on my list. Avid has never made it easy to install their software. First you have to get all the registration codes and serial numbers. Then you have to load all the codes into an iLok dongle that slips into an available USB port. Only then can you actually download the software.

I took a break from the computer tedium around mid-afternoon to take Dash to the vet. He's been waking us up almost every night around 3 AM, frantically wanting to go outside. When he gets outside, he eats grass and then throws up yellow phlegm. After he does this, he's completely normal for the rest of the day. After waiting in the lobby for almost an hour, we finally got a verdict on the strange behavior. Dash has sinus drainage. I have sinus drainage myself from time-to-time, but I don't need to go out in the yard and throw up. Oh, well. We'll give Dash some antihistamines and see if that clears things up.

I took a camera with me on our early walk, hoping to get some sunrise pictures. Unfortunately, the sun was already up. Hey, I'm not a morning person. Needless to say, I don't have many good sunrise pictures. Typically, it is the sun that wakes the dogs and I up each morning when it comes streaming through the bedroom window. I did manage to get a few nice pictures of geese swimming around in the lake. They must have gotten up earlier than I did.

Alvin is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1098

I wasn't very happy with my doctor today. Instead of getting the upbeat and definitive answer I was hoping for, I got referred to the Baylor Liver Institute instead. This probably isn't a good sign. In my experience, doctors would rather refer you to another specialist than to make an ominous decision themselves. I shouldn't be hard on my doctor though, since he is very thorough and leaves no stone unturned. It's just that I've been trying to avoid a liver biopsy for years and it looks like my time might have run out. I don't mind non-invasive tests like sonograms, CAT scans, and MRI's. Sticking the equivalent of a large knitting needle all the way through your body is another matter entirely.

My doctor's appointment took so long that it was already dark by the time I got home to take the dogs on their evening walk. The lake looked quite beautiful under the moonlight. Moonlit walks would be a lot more enjoyable if I wasn't imagining a lunatic hiding behind every tree. Although the park is quite large and creates the illusion of being out in nature, it's really just another urban park full of crazy homeless people. The park is actually very safe, considering the city is serves, but there have been just enough murders over the years to warrant erring on the side of caution.

Back in the comfort of my own home, I pondered the many ambiguities of medicine while eating a semi-healthy dinner. Part of me would just like to abandon all the doctors and try to repair myself with good nutrition. There are a lot of books out there that claim this can be done. The friendly nutritionist who owns the health food store down the street from me is a believer. He's told me several times that everything from diabetes to liver and kidney problems can be reversed through diet and nutrition. It all sounds pretty good, but I'm still a bit skeptical. I remember the nutritionist's own wife died at a very young age from some strange debilitating ailment. If the nutritionist's plans couldn't keep his own wife alive, I wonder what he could do for me.

My backup hard drive is starting to fail. It's started disappearing from the desktop every couple of hours. I've verified and repaired the volume, but it doesn't seem to help. The backup drive is definitely on its last legs. I guess I'll go to Fry's and buy another backup drive tomorrow. Although losing all your files isn't even remotely in the same league as losing your liver, it is a hassle nonetheless. I've lost all my files twice already as a result of major hard drive crashes. Never again. I'm getting a new drive first thing in the morning.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1097

I was watching PBS while eating breakfast this morning and happened to catch this program about how eating the right foods could prevent and even reverse the effects of everything from rheumatoid arthritis, to lupus, and even type 2 diabetes. I've heard this argument before, especially from the guy who owns the neighborhood health food store down the street from us. This presentation on TV was so clear and logical however, that I wanted to change my diet immediately. In short, eating the right amount of foods like beans, onions, mushrooms, raw nuts, kale, broccoli, and cabbage, while simultaneously limiting your intake of red meat, processed flour, and sugar can significantly boost your immune system and prevent disease. I wonder why more doctors don't tell you this? Probably because prescribing pharmaceuticals is a multi-billion dollar industry.

The only problem with eating lots of salads and fresh vegetables is that they don't stay fresh all week. With only two of us, it's hard to eat up lots of fresh produce before it goes bad. It's equally hard to find time to go to the grocery store more than once a week. It would certainly make more sense to go to the store once a day though and get a small amount of really fresh healthy food, than to continue to taking a mountain of pills for the rest of my life. I'm supposed to see my hepatoligist tomorrow. I'll ask him about rejuvenating my liver with a better diet. I bet he just prescribes another pill though.

Dot and Dash had a great time at the dog park today. The temperature was almost 70 degrees and all the dogs were friendly. We stayed about an hour and then returned home to finish our weekend errands. Janet went off in one direction, while I went off in the other. I wanted to find a high capacity USB-2 hub, so I wouldn't have to keep plugging and unplugging things from the main computer. I finally found a hub that would let me plug in seven different things. It wasn't enough, but it will have to do.

After a weekend of trying diligently to clear out my office, the room looks pretty much the same. There are lots of things in different places now, but the office looks just as cluttered as ever. I distinctly remember taking a big pile of stuff to the storage warehouse, but I still don't see any empty shelves or tabletops. How can this be? I was supposed to end up with a clean desk.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1096 - Blogiversary

Today I begin my fourth full year as a blogger. Maybe if I had all my ducks in row when I started this venture, I would have waited a few weeks and commenced my blogging adventure on January 1. It sure would have made keeping track of things a bit easier. One day is as good as the next, I guess. I suppose the middle of December just seemed like a good time to begin a blog. I wish I could tell you that I had discovered something profound about either myself or the world in general during the past three years. I haven't. I'm no closer to having all the answers today than I was then.

Regular readers may have discovered a few things about me, however. I'm persistent and tenacious. How else could you explain 1096 consecutive posts without missing a single day? I'm also completely self-absorbed. After all this time, I still have no desire to blog about politics, or music, or animal rescue, or even watches. I'm perfectly content to just continue telling you what I did today. I think writing on such a regular basis has actually helped me a bit with my work assignments. I don't worry so much about deadlines anymore. It's just words. Put a blank page in front of me and give me a topic. I'll fill that page fairly quickly.

I think I've become more candid than I was when I started blogging. You guys probably know me as well as anybody by now. Candor doesn't always equal adventure though. There are very few wild rides and even fewer epiphanies here. Basically, nothing happens. I'm amazed that so many of you have continued reading. I certainly hope you stick around. If I can keep this thing going for three years, I can probably keep it going for ten. I appreciate that the blog is very gradually growing more popular, but I don't expect anything dramatic to happen for quite a while. Maybe when Day 5000 rolls around, morbid curiosity will kick in and people will start speculating about how long I can continue. They might even be taking bets in Vegas about what day is going to be the very last post.

If today wasn't such a momentous anniversary, I might have told you about last night's sudden rainstorm and all the water that accumulated on the roof. I might have told you about taking another batch of aging computers to the storage warehouse, so I could find room to plug in Janet's printer and keep it running until the next Dalmatian Rescue event. I might have told you about walking the dogs and enjoying a leisurely breakfast. Hmm. I've already told you about those things though. Many, many times. Hey, if you guys can stand all the excitement, I'll see you again tomorrow.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1095

I think life is a lot like raking leaves. You rake the leaves, and then the next day, a whole new pile of leaves has taken their place.You repeat the process over and over again, but it seems to take forever before the leaves actually disappear. When the leaves are finally gone, you wonder if all the raking was actually worth the effort. Usually, it was always an exceptionally windy day, not your raking efforts, that cleared the last of the leaves away. Maybe it's just me, but I think many of us spend way too much time doing the same mind numbing things over and over again. What constitutes work for most of us is just a long series of repetitive chores. Then we come home and do laundry, make the bed, and vacuum over and over again. It's all a lot like raking leaves.

Breakfast was delicious this morning. I think the bed of pulled pork under my eggs might have been a bit off a bit though.  I've had a stomach ache for most of the day. I sure hope I haven't gotten food poisoning like Janet did last week. Food poisoning is no fun. On the plus side, it's the fastest way of losing weight I know of. The last time I got food poisoning, I lost ten pounds in less than a week.

There are too many printers in the house now. Now that Janet's printer is fixed, I'm having a hard time finding a place to put it. This printer was purchased primarily for use at Dalmatian Rescue events. Unfortunately, that's why it got hopelessly clogged in the first place. The printer just wasn't used enough. Now, I've got to add it to the queue of ink jet printers I'm already trying to keep unclogged. The ironic thing is none of my clients even want me to print anything anymore. A PDF file is just fine with them.

The school shooting today in Connecticut was incredibly sad. How can we keep these type of things from happening? There's going to be a lot of talk about gun control in the days ahead. I would be the first to agree that there are a ton of people who should never be allowed anywhere near a gun. How do you identify these people though? Again and again, when these mass shootings occur, I see interviews on TV where neighbors and close friends say the shooter seemed completely normal to them. Maybe we could start by banning gun ownership for anyone under 40. There aren't a lot of old serial killers and mass murderers. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think something has fundamentally changed in society. It's a colder, more depersonalized world. There were plenty of guns when I was growing up, but these type of events were completely unheard of. All I know is that when I was a teenager, I wasn't playing Assassin's Creed, Halo, or Call of Duty eight hours a day. I was reading a new library book once a week. My parents always knew what I was doing too. Maybe it's as simple as that.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1094

Did any of you see that 12/12/12 benefit concert on TV last night? What an amazing group of musicians on the same stage. The concert certainly brought back memories. I hadn't seen Pink Floyd perform in years and they reminded me of a time long ago when dimly lit rooms filled with marihuana smoke were the order of the day. The Who's extended set reminded me of a time in the mid 70's when I saw the group perform live in Seattle. Times were good. Both the Who and I were at the top of our game in those days. The Rolling Stones looked a little worse for wear, but so do I. Ever since I heard "Satisfaction" playing on a local radio station when I was in high school, the Stones have been the sound track to my life. I joined a band and bought a tear drop shaped Vox Mark VI guitar just like the one Brian Jones played. Later, I remember producing an advertising jingle for a sea food restaurant in the same recording studio where Mick Jagger had re-recorded some vocals a few days earlier. Light years separated us, but I still thought it was cool that we used the same studio. Eric Clapton provided the impetus for me to learn to play a musical instrument decently when he was in the Yardbirds. Eric was so good and I was so bad. I simply had to get a little better.

Since I stayed up way too late watching the concert last night, I had a bit of trouble getting up this morning. The dogs made sure I didn't dawdle to long however. Dot and Dash like everything on schedule. After returning from our morning walk, I got a call from the printer repair store, saying that Janet's printer was ready. The repair was quite reasonable. It actually cost less to fix the printer than to fill it with ink. I'm convinced that Epson is really just an ink company that makes various types of gizmos that force you to buy their expensive ink.

I lost another website maintenance client today. Once again, it was a large, industry specific web developer who lured the client away with a sophisticated and very inexpensive template site. People don't seem to care about having something unique these days. They just want all the bells and whistles at the lowest possible price. Increasingly, I feel like the large template shops are Walmart and I'm the little store on the town square that they're forcing out of business.

I wonder what's next for me. I've always been able to roll with the punches and re-invent myself when necessary. This chameleon-like quality has served me well over the years. Things are different now, I suppose. I used to be excited by the future. Now, I find myself repelled by it. Kind of puts me between a rock and a hard place, don't you think?

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1093

There must be a lot of people with dyslexia on the Internet. Although 12/12/12 is significant in its own right, I couldn't believe how many people got today mixed up with 12/21/12 and posted something about the impending end of the world. I like these days where all the numbers line up. At noon today, there were even four twelves that lined up for a brief moment. That's the end of it though. There won't be another day like this in my lifetime, or yours. For such a momentous time, it was all pretty ordinary at our house. The dogs got walked. Some articles got written. One website got updated. That's about it.

Maybe 12/21/12 will be different. That's next week, when the Mayan calendar runs out and the world is supposed to end. Somehow, I suspect that will be a pretty ordinary day as well.

I finally got my invoices in the mail today, along with a single Christmas card to a relative so old that she probably doesn't even know the Internet exists. Remember when Christmas cards were a big deal? When I was a kid, everyone had dozens, even hundreds of them sitting on coffee tables and pinned to the curtains during the holiday season. I continued this tradition for many years, but gradually found myself sending fewer and fewer cards each year. When people started sending those animated e-cards, I gave up on printed cards entirely. It's hard to tell anymore whether I have no friends, or just no desire to send cards.

I do have a desire for warmer weather. It's been unseasonably cold all week. The dogs are getting rebellious about wearing their sweaters on their morning walk. I think they feel constricted, but it's either that or feeling cold when the walk is about halfway finished. There really isn't a good solution to this one. Dot and Dash hate the cold, but they don't appear to like their sweaters either.

My appeal for exciting assignments appears to have fallen on deaf ears. I still have plenty to do, but the work is lackluster and often boring. I see the dogs sleeping on a pile of blankets as I type away and often feel like joining them. That's a slippery slope though. Once you start sleeping with the dogs during the day, you might as well just be a dog.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1092

For a while today, I thought it was Monday. That's the kind of day it was. I guess that yesterday was so uneventful it has already slipped from my memory.

It's was still unusually cold this morning. At least I remembered to turn the outside faucets on just a smidgen, so the lines wouldn't freeze. I'm always forgetting that the greenhouse has running water, since I never use the building anymore. There are probably other types of cold weather maintenance I've forgotten about as well, but it probably isn't worth worrying about. Sub-freezing weather seldom lasts long in Texas.

I got my December invoices posted today, but I didn't have time to take them to the post office. I did remember to make appointments with the hepatologist and the urologist. Most importantly, I remembered to take Dash to the vet. That's when I realized it was actually Tuesday. We're going to have to change his antigen dosage. After almost a year of no symptoms, his skin allergies are returning again.

I finished a couple of writing assignments today, but so far, it still looks like December is going to be slow. Actually, December is always slow for me. Things pick up quite a bit from January through March however. I sure wish someone would give me something exotic and exciting to work on. I'm tired of sitting behind this computer. There used to be travel assignments to break up the monotony, but those are rare these days. Sometimes when I'm doing press releases these days, clients just ask me to pretend I'm at the events I'm supposedly covering.

I wonder if the music store liked the repairs I made on the broken guitar amp? I noticed on the FedEx website that they received the package I returned today. I actually think I did a great job of putting the broken cabinet back together again. My woodworking skills are pretty good. From a distance of more than six inches, you'd never know the amp had been damaged at all. Although I'm delighted to have a brand new amp now with no damage whatsoever, I wonder if the music store ever realized how easy it would have been to convince me to keep the broken amp. All they would have had to do was sell me the broken amp at a special "damaged goods" price and they wouldn't have needed to send a replacement at all.

What a world we live in. I turned on the TV while I was eating diner tonight and within a span of three minutes I learned that there had just been a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Portland, the North Koreans had just launched a missile that could reach the United States, and huge crowds were still rioting in Egypt. I'm tired of all this chaos. When I retire, I'd think I'd like to live in a very small town, far away from anything exciting or dangerous. I'd still need to have broadband access, of course.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1091

Brr! It's was very, very cold this morning. With the temperature hovering near freezing, the dogs wore their Winter sweaters and I went looking for my down ski jacket before we departed on our morning walk. I always wonder how you Northerners cope with this kind of weather for months at a time. Just a few days of sub-freezing weather are enough to do me in. One problem is that our house just wasn't designed for cold weather. There is a lot of single-pane floor-to-ceiling glass in the house that lets the heat out almost as effectively as leaving a window open. The other problem is that my office is on the opposite end of the house from the furnace. By the time the hot air makes it down to my end of the house, it's already cool again. If I turn the thermostat up enough to warm up the office, the kitchen is way too hot. The house was designed for Summer. Somehow, the air conditioning cools the house a lot more effectively than the furnace heats it.

I had another ambiguous doctor visit today. Somehow, I never find out anything definitive during these visits. Apparently, I am hovering right near the red line for several serious ailments. So far, I've  always been on the safe side of the red line. The doctor tends to congratulate me on holding my ground, but never really explains why I'm so close to the line in the first place. I've always suspected that the medications I take may be causing more harm than good, but this is often hard to prove and even harder to get a physician to admit. One thing about ambiguous lab results. It usually means that you need a second opinion from a specialist. I'll be making appointments with my hepatologist and urologist tomorrow.

I packed up some books in book boxes and took them to the storage warehouse this afternoon. I like the little corrugated book boxes because they aren't too heavy to carry when full. They don't hold a lot of books however.  At this rate, it will take me about five years to clear off my shelves.

I sure hope it is warmer tomorrow. Dot and Dash hate the cold, but it still takes them just as long to poop on a cold day as on a hot day. This extended walk in the cold usually results in two disgruntled dogs and one very cold dog walker.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1090

My Dad would have been 95 years old today if he'd been healthier. The last birthday I remember celebrating with him was his 80th. After that, he began to go downhill quickly. Although my Dad and I were never terribly close, I find that I am becoming more and more like him as I grow older myself. I've never seem to acquire Dad's good habits; just the bad ones. Dad could never throw away anything. When I was settling his estate, I discovered a large dresser filled entirely with socks. There were stacks of old National Geographic magazines five feet tall. Shoes never became worn enough to actually throw away, and even paper grocery sacks were carefully folded and placed near the refrigerator for some ambiguous future use.

I don't think I've gotten this bad, but Janet says I'm headed down the same cluttered path. I can certainly appreciate the benefits of keeping only what you need. I'm just having trouble actually getting rid of anything. In an attempt to declutter, I thought I'd throw a few things away this afternoon while I was packing up photo gear to take back to the storage warehouse.  I threw away all the phone-books in the house. There were quite a few. I haven't looked up anything in a printed phone book for years. Google seems just fine for finding just about everything. I threw away a lot of catalogs for the same reason. You can always find a wider selection of whatever you're looking for online these days. Some three hole paper punches got dumped. If you're trying to git rid of paper, what's the point of a three hole punch?

Janet was packing up things for her storage warehouse as well. Yes, we both have our own storage warehouses. If she ever got into my space, she would just throw everything away. I leave her space alone as well. I know I would be continually retrieving things she no longer had a use for. It works better to have two storage spaces. At any rate, we filled up both cars with stuff that didn't need to be in the house any longer and the place looks a lot tidier now.

The dogs had a great time at the dog park today. You could tell that Dash had been missing his off leash time. There was a nip in the air and both dogs raced around making up for lost time. Dash even played with other dogs, which is something he only does when he is an exceptionally good mood. Dot never plays with the other dogs, but enjoys the opportunity to stroll around at her own pace, smelling everything in the 22 acre park.

There's a doctor's appointment on my calendar for tomorrow. I can't even remember what I'm seeing the doctor for this time. I guess I'll find out when I get there.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1089

We're done! After photographing hundreds of dogs and snapping thousands of images, the Santa Paws pet picture events are over for another year. This is a good series of fundraisers for Dalmatian Rescue. Every picture we take helps to save another abandoned Dalmatian. Even though it is a good cause, I'm still glad the photo marathon is finally over. It's tiring taking pictures of dogs all day. Dogs aren't very impressed by photography. They've got better things to do. Some dogs like to chew on Santa's beard. Other dogs like to pee on the muslin backdrop. Very few dogs listen to the photographer at all. Despite all this, we still manage to get good pictures. Everyone seemed happy with their photos this year, and most said they'll be back to see us again next year.

With the holiday pet photos finished, it's time to clean the house and pack away some of the photo gear. I'll be taking a lot of stuff back to the storage warehouse tomorrow. Although I take pictures for clients all year long, I rarely use big sets. Maybe with all the Santa Paws gear back in its place again, we can finally get the house looking nice. It will definitely be an uphill battle. If you ever saw my office, you'd probably think the whole effort was hopeless. I'm convinced that somewhere underneath all this clutter is a thing of beauty. We've just got to find it.

With all the Santa Paws photo events during the past three weeks, Dot and Dash have been getting shortchanged on their weekend outings at the dog park. We'll try to make amends tomorrow. The weather looks nice and I can't think of one good reason not to head up North for a little play time. It's probably good to avoid our own park tomorrow anyway. There's a big marathon race on Sunday and the place will be packed with people.

Our dog training class had a Christmas party tonight, but Janet and I were both too tired to attend. By the time I got all the photography stuff unloaded out of the car and took the dogs on their evening walk, all I really felt like doing was taking a long nap. Janet hasn't completely recovered from the food poisoning episode either. Maybe by this time next week, everything will be back to normal.

Willow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1088

I found a brand new breakfast restaurant today. The place has only been open for a couple of days. With its trendy industrial chic decor, inexpensive prices, and fast service, I have a feeling that this place will be a success. I'm not a good judge of success in the business world however. Most places I like go out of business quickly. Maybe it was just because the place was new, but I couldn't really tell who this restaurant would appeal to. The people sitting at nearby tables looked like a convention of the dispossessed. Although I have lived in the neighborhood for years, I didn't recognize anyone.

An overheard customer/cashier conversation: "I like your logo. What is it?" "Umm, it's the devil." "Oh, dear. Well, it certainly is a cute little devil." Although the food was pretty good, I think this place is actually a bar that just happens to open early and serve food. If you ever feel like having your bacon and eggs with Tequila, this would be the place.

Since tomorrow is another Santa Paws photo day, I tried to get some of my weekend errands done after breakfast. While driving around in the car, I listened to a fascinating interview with Dave Brubeck that was initially recorded in 1999. I guess the station was replaying the interview today because Dave died recently. I never realized that Brubeck grew up on a ranch, studied veterinary medicine in college, and initially wanted to be a cowboy like his Dad. The older I get, the more it becomes obvious that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I knew.

Those discount coupons and gift cards you get from merchants during the holidays can be dangerous. I got a $50 gift card from my favorite clothing store the other day. The only catch was that you had to buy something worth more than $100 to be able to use it. The card was burning a hole in my pocket, so I ended up going over to the store and buying something I didn't even need, just so the card wouldn't go to waste.

I hope my back-up Norman power pack holds up tomorrow. I was so busy this week that I never found the time to take the overheating power pack in for service. If I can make it through tomorrow's photo shoot though, I'll be fine. I probably won't be doing another marathon like this for another year.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1087

What a weird world we live in. Our phones can do all manner of miraculous things with the wave of a finger, yet when getting something done depends on another living, breathing human, everything grinds to a halt. Sometimes I think 50% of the population is completely incompetent. If we limit our survey to the people I actually deal with on a day-to-day basis, that percentage is probably even higher.

Today I tried to find out why I've been receiving two identical phone bills for the same account for the past six months.  No luck there. Then I tried to find out why all my prescriptions ran out today, when a nurse specifically told me just last week that they had been renewed for another year. Nope. Didn't solve that one either. Simple, routine things don't seem simple anymore. Day after day, I attempt to rectify blunders and track down the source of inevitable human errors. It's futile. Most people won't admit to making a mistake in the first place. And if you do get them to admit that something is wrong, they will almost always blame the mistake on someone else.

I guess I would put paying bills in the same circle of hell as dealing with incompetence. I hate paying bills. Today I paid the big property tax bill I've been avoiding for the past month or so. Why does Dallas County need so much of my money? I don't use their roads very much. I've never been in one of their hospitals. I've never had children in one of their schools. It just doesn't seem fair to me. At least I don't have two property taxes to pay anymore. I don't regret selling the rent property one bit. That thing was an expensive albatross around my neck for way too many years.

The neighbors hired someone to repaint their house earlier this week. For the past three days I've been listening to a loud and ever-present air compressor right outside my office window. Couldn't they have painted the house with rollers or brushes instead of spray guns?  The noise is driving me nuts. Maybe when they finish painting, my posts will be more coherent. With all this racket, I'm extra glad it's Friday tomorrow. I think I'm going to spent a long time at the breakfast restaurant.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1086

I got a call this morning from a guy I used to work with during my ad agency days. He asked me if I would be interested in designing and maintaining a website for an oil and gas company that a friend of his owned. "Sure," I said. "That sounds great." "There's just one complication," the guy says. "This is a staff position and you'd have to move to Argyle, Texas." Oops! The opportunity didn't sound so great anymore. I can't think of one good reason why anyone would want to live in Argyle.

I passed on the oil and gas job and went back to work on my own website projects. It's been a very busy week. Of course, not all the activity has been work related. A lot of it centered around the two big guitar amplifiers sitting in the living room. Today, I took everything apart, traded out the electronics in the two amps, and then put the amps back together again. It took quite a while to do everything properly, but at least now I've got one amp that's a keeper. I boxed up the broken cabinet, which ironically now contained the brand new amp head from the replacement amp and took the package back to FedEx to be returned to the music store. Hopefully, this little episode is over now.

This time last year I was writing several watch articles a day. At the time, I thought the work load was insane and wished the articles and the endless deadlines would just go away. One year later, it appears my wish has come true. I'm lucky if I write several articles a week these days. It just goes to show that you should never take anything for granted. It's amazing how much the company has to keep changing, just to keep the doors open. One year I'm producing network TV commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew and a few years later, I'm taking pet pictures. Granted, there have been some big comebacks as well, but it's certainly been a bumpy ride.

Dog class has been a bumpy ride as well. Some days Dash is a star performer and other days he won't do anything. Dash is a very smart dog and I suspect he thinks the whole thing is silly. Hey, why would you want to leave a warm house just so you could go to a cold, windy field where an instructor tells you to sit, stay and heel? I could tell that Dot and Dash were cold tonight. When the instructor told them to lie down, they would immediately pop back up again into a sitting position as soon as their bellies touched the grass. The German Shepherds, Border Collies, and Labs seemed happy enough to lie down in the cold, damp grass. The Dalmatians would have nothing to do with it. I think that is a testament to their intelligence.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day