Day 1182

It looks like my car is going to be in the shop for a long time. How do I know? Well, the Land Rover dealer called this morning and offered to exchange my Toyota loaner car for a brand new Evoque. I took them up on their offer, of course. The Evoque is closer to a space age Jetsons car than anything I've ever driven. The entire roof is glass. It is a small car with a huge moon roof. There are no ignition or door keys whatsoever. You just put a small gizmo about the size of an iPod nano in your pocket and the car senses you. As you approach, the doors unlock and you just push a button on the dash and the car starts. Your seat automatically adjusts to the best driving position and off you go.

Hey, what could possibly go wrong?  I could just imagine going somewhere in this car and then being unable to get home again because the little gizmo in your pocket broke and you couldn't get the doors to open. I don't know how well this particular Land Rover would do off road either. It's pretty low to the ground. My simple, completely mechanical, all aluminum Defender is still basically the better car.

Dot rested well last night and was able to stand on all fours again this morning. She's still pretty shaky, but she appears much better than she did last night. When I went to make a vet appointment for her, I discovered that her regular vet is on vacation. I made an appointment with another vet for tomorrow and kept her resting most of the day. The only time she wasn't resting was when some landscaping people came over to give me an estimate on re-doing the back yard. Even though I kept Dot penned in my office, she got so upset at the strangers in her yard that she pooped all over the office floor. What a mess. I had tried to get her to go before the landscaping people arrived, but she was so stubborn about not getting her regular walk, that she refused to do anything.

There was very little writing going on today. I spent most of my time updating websites and getting the rest of my March invoices out. I had to attach past due notices to several of the invoices. That's never a good sign. I bet the mechanic working on my Defender and the landscaper looking at my yard today are both doing better than I am. It's hard to live without a car and it's irritating to live with a mud pit in your back yard. I'm probably not the only one who would pay whatever it takes to alleviate these sorts of problems. Unfortunately, the problems I solve in my own business aren't nearly as essential as having a car that runs. I'm learning that people can go a long time without changing their websites at all.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1181

The day started well, but ended with a mishap. Dot's rear legs gave out on her evening walk and she couldn't get up again. I've been afraid this was going to happen for a long time now. Dot is getting old. I knew she could never make it home, so I called Janet to come pick us up in the car. Dot is resting comfortably now at home, but she'll need to go to the vet tomorrow. Hopefully, she just overexerted herself today and maybe sprained something. There's a good chance she tore her anterior cruciate ligament though. ACL injuries are very common with older Dalmatians. Usually when an ACL injury happens, the dog isn't doing anything strenuous. Today, Dot was just walking slowly on level ground. That's the way it happens though. The ligament tears unexpectedly, just like an old rubber band breaking. I'm going to hope for the best and not even think about surgery at this point. We've done the TPLO surgery with other dogs, and it's pretty major. We'll know more tomorrow.

I never would have dreamed that this would end up being a traumatic day. The morning was uneventful, and so was the trip to the dog park a little later. Dot even seemed playful at the dog park. Maybe she was a bit too playful.

I started getting my tax records organized to take to my accountant this afternoon. It's always disappointing to see how much money just evaporates in a normal year with very little to show for it. The gas and electric bills looked pretty normal, but the cost of phone, cable, WiFi, and Internet services has grown exponentially. Health care is even worse. You don't even want to know what I have to pay for health insurance these days. Oh, I sold a house in 2012 too. Uncle Sam is already waiting for his share of that sale. When I look at the numbers, it's hard to feel like I'm doing well. It's hard to feel like the whole country is doing well. I think we are all just treading water.

I'm doing my best to keep the economy alive though. The Land Rover folks should be doing well after they get finished taking my engine apart. Whoever wins the bid to put on my new roof should be doing pretty well to. I certainly haven't gotten any low bids on the roof yet. I've got to hire a landscaper later this Spring as well. I could always do things myself again, but that would just be throwing good money after bad. Everything I've planted in the past three years has died.

Send your prayers to Dot. She's going to need all the help she can get.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1180

Rain, rain, go away. Come again...well, never would be nice. On rainy days like today, I like to speculate about more hospitable climates where we could live. I love the dry, desert air around Las Vegas. I don't like the snakes and scorpions typically found in the desert, however. I went to high school in Alaska. There were no bugs whatsoever in the Winter. Somehow, they made up for lost time in the Summer though. The temperature was perfect in Seattle, but it rained even more there than it does here. Nothing seems right. I'd probably be a good candidate to colonize Mars. I could live in a hermetically sealed building for extended lengths of time and don't mind solitude. It wouldn't be solitude though. There would be other colonists. I guess Mars wouldn't work either. I don't do well in groups.

When I was sweeping the water off the roof this afternoon, I smelled what appeared to be burning insulation. I thought there was an electrical fire and I went back in the house to make sure nothing was burning. Everything was fine. Nothing seemed amiss and I couldn't smell anything at all. As soon as I went outside again, I caught another whiff or the burning insulation smell. Then, I saw smoke coming off my neighbor's front porch and thought their house was on fire. Just before I called the fire department, I saw my neighbors on the porch as well. They were barbecuing something on their grill. This was the worst smelling barbecue I've ever come across in my life. It smelled like they were burning old tires instead of charcoal in their grill. To each his own, I guess.

We photographed Sarge today at the Dalmatian Rescue kennels. Luckily, the kennel had a room we could use, since it was raining outside and I don't think a wet dog would make a very good portrait. Sarge was a very friendly boy and I had trouble getting him to stay still long enough to take his picture. He should find a new home quickly. The real question is why a great dog like this lost his home in the first place. I don't think Sarge was a stray. I think his previous owner surrendered him. I just don't understand how people can abandon their pets this way. There was probably a divorce involved. A lot of dogs come into the program as a result of a divorce. So many people trying to run away from everything. I bet some of them would drop their kids off at the pound too if they could get away with it.

Tomorrow doesn't look like a very auspicious day to go to the dog park. Even if it does stop raining, the dog park is likely to be muddy, and that means it will be closed. A muddy, wet day isn't much good for giving a dog a bath either. Maybe I'll finally have to get started on getting all my tax information organized. April 15 will be here before you know it.

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1179

Well, I discovered why my car had been leaking oil. Virtually all the engine seals have gone bad. Rubber is a great invention, but very old rubber is virtually worthless. My service representative at the Land Rover dealer called me today and told me that the head gaskets, the oil pan gasket, the transmission seals, and a couple of other things that leak on the Defender all needed to be replaced. The gaskets themselves aren't very expensive, but the engine and transmission have to be torn apart to get at everything. This definitely isn't very good news.

The one thing that old houses, old cars, and old people all have in common is that they all deteriorate with age. It's a bitch when all this deterioration starts happening at once. If there is a general theme to my life right now, it is that everything is falling apart.

It wasn't always this way. Janet and I lived in the house for over ten years before there were any problems with the roof at all. The Defender used to run flawlessly for years at a time when it was newer. Most telling of all, I used to be able to have a beer with lunch, two or three glasses of wine with dinner and eat bacon for breakfast every day. Those days are gone. Things are falling apart.

The one bright spot amid all this dry rot and deterioration is that I'm actually starting to feel better as a result of my new diet. I have more energy now and I've actually lost eight pounds in the last two months. I really shouldn't lose much more weight, since I wasn't fat to begin with, but it's nice to be getting back to the weight I maintained for the first forty years of my life.

I got a little adapter in the mail today that allows me to use the headphone jack with my new indestructible iPhone case. I'll add the adapter to the shoebox of weird adapters and plugs I've already bought to resolve awkward connection issues. I could take my phone to the South Pole now, although I doubt that it will ever leave the neighborhood. The phone used to look like a sleek BMW roadster. Now it looks like a H1 Hummer.

Lots of dog activities on tap for this weekend. Dot and Dash get a bath. There's a new dog to photograph at the Dalmatian Rescue kennels. And of course there's always Sunday's trip to the dog park.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1178

What a busy day! I started things off by taking my car to the Land Rover dealer for some much needed service. I should have done this several weeks ago when the problems began, but I was stubbornly holding out for a Land Rover loaner car. These nice loaners are always in short supply. Luckily, sanity finally prevailed and I decided to settle for a Toyota Corolla. I have no idea what is wrong with my car, but I told the service representative that four quarts of oil had leaked out before I topped it up again, that the engine periodically stalled at stoplights, that the car was hard to start on cold mornings, and that the engine didn't seem to have much power above 4000 rpm. I am confident that the Land Rover folks will find some sort of problem. They wouldn't be able to overcharge me for repairs otherwise.

The real reason I took the car in today, instead of waiting for a better loaner car, was that I didn't want to miss my doctor's appointment. My team of liver specialists is booked so far in advance that I knew it might take months to reschedule my appointment if I had to cancel due to car problems. The Toyota isn't flashy, but it certainly is reliable. Today's visit was very encouraging. The doctors were pleased with my efforts to modify my lifestyle and diet. Better yet, lab results showed that some of the things I've been doing were already starting to show some positive results.

One of the cool things about being treated at a world class research hospital is that you get to participate in clinical trials and research experiments. Today, I got to try out a brand new machine that has the ability to detect fibrosis and cirrhosis scarring in the liver with almost the same degree of accuracy as a biopsy. The machine isn't certified by the FDA yet, but the doctors seemed very impressed with it. A representative of the company that manufactured the machine did the test and told me that I had no evidence of fibrosis in my liver. I asked how long it would take to get this technology approved and the factory guy said it was hard to tell because the FDA was so slow. Then I asked how the technology had been developed. Apparently, it has been around for several years and is already in use in European hospitals. The sophisticated scanning machines were originally developed by the French to determine when cheese had fully matured during the ripening process. I guess somewhere along the line, somebody got tired of pointing the machine at cheese and decided to look at their liver instead.

Despite all the running around I did today, I still managed to get my writing assignments finished. I think a few more things will land on my desk tomorrow, but I have high hopes for finishing the week with absolutely nothing to do over the weekend. One final bit of good news! My European client only took two days to pay me for the waste-water treatment article I wrote recently. I wonder why it takes some of my American clients over two months to do the same thing?

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1177

When the estimator came over this morning to look at my roof, I was pleasantly surprised at how knowledgeable he was. He seemed familiar with all the options available and I am confident that he can give me an accurate price. I'm not so confident that he'll be able to give me a price I can afford, however. I don't have any numbers yet, but when we were talking about what was needed to prevent my roof problems from reoccurring in the future, it became apparent that the new roof was going to be expensive. I am going to get several estimates, but the chances of getting a bargain and a good roof at the same time are slim.

My car started acting up again today. I called the Land Rover dealer and asked if I could bring it in for service tomorrow morning. Nope. They're all booked up for the next several days. It's just my luck that I have a doctor's appointment that is very difficult to reschedule tomorrow. If the car won't start, I'm really out of luck. It would take me half a day to get to the hospital by bus, and I don't really trust taxis around here either. Hopefully, the Defender will decide to work properly tomorrow.

I stopped by the Unrefined Bakery today to get a loaf of Paleo Bread. I wanted to see what the wheat free bread tasted like, because I really like my eggs on toast. The bread, which is baked using almond flour and flax seeds, was actually quite tasty. The small, freshly baked loaf cost me $13 however. A bit pricy for morning toast, I think. We'll see if there's any more Paleo Bread in my future. Maybe I'll save enough by keeping my liver healthy and diabetes at bay that I can afford little extravagances like this.

I figured out how to hook up one of my cameras to a WiFi network today. Pretty cool. Now, I can control the camera and take pictures using my iPhone and send the pictures directly back to my computer, or even to the web. The installation was far from intuitive, but eventually I got everything working. Unfortunately, this geeky task put me behind on everything else. I wasn't able to finish all my writing assignments today, which is a rarity for me.

No dog training class tonight. It's still pretty chilly outside and Janet had to work late anyway. Dot and Dash don't seem to mind that this is the third week in a row we've skipped class. They'd throw a fit if we ever skipped going to the dog park on Sunday, but missing training class is just fine.  I think I know exactly how they feel.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1176

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all time high today. Unfortunately, my own portfolio is still nowhere near its all time high. This seems irrational and even a bit irritating to me. You'd think that my investments would have recovered proportionally with the rest of the market. They probably would have if I had just left them alone. It's hard to leave well enough alone when the whole world is in a panic though. When the big market crash hit toward the end of 2008, I tried my best to stop the bloodbath, just like a lot of other investors. Five years later, the results are in and they aren't pretty. Instead of frantically buying and selling and putting money into gold, I should have just done nothing. During the big financial crash of 1987 that was exactly what I did. I didn't look at my brokerage statements for almost three years, and eventually I recovered virtually everything. It was a lot harder to do this in 2008. All the pundits were predicting Armageddon and nobody knew whether it would take five years or fifteen years for the market to fully recover. I'm a bit chagrined by today's market news. I guess it just proves that the more decisions you make in life, the greater your chances are of being wrong.

I had to sit around and wait for the FedEx guy today, so I actually got quite a bit done. I couldn't leave the house until I had signed for my package and I had no excuses. I redoubled my efforts to annihilate the bugs that have invaded the house. I wrote several articles. I updated several websites. I even got caught up on my invoices. If I had to wait on the FedEx guy every day, who knows what I might accomplish.

What I didn't do today was spend much time outside. There was a fierce wind all day that made it seem much colder than it actually was. The dogs ears were flapping in the wind during our walks today and I think Dot and Dash were both happy to return to the house where they could take a snooze on their warm new velour blankets.

Tomorrow, the first of the roofing companies I asked to bid on replacing the roof is coming over to give me an estimate. I kind of dread this whole process, because I've been through it before with contractors. Everybody talks a good game. You get all excited listening to the sales reps explain all the benefits you are going to get and then when the workers show up later with their hammers and saws it is usually a huge disappointment. Contractors typically plan on doing a job as quickly as they can, so they can keep prices reasonable. I'm always envisioning having a group of master craftsmen around for an extended length of time who will do everything according to my specifications. Not very likely! Contractors hate people like me who work out of their house. They'd much rather do their work when the homeowner is away at the office somewhere. At any rate, I'm still hoping I can find a good roofer.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1175

I got the indestructible TakTik Extreme iPhone case I ordered a while back in the mail today. It should come as no surprise that my Jawbone activity tracking wristlet won't fit in the earphone jack slot, so I can't sync it to the phone anymore. Why is this so common these days. Nobody even seems to care about compatibility. I've got a whole shoebox full of weird little adapters designed to hook incompatible devices together again after the manufacturers failed to standardize their connections. Now, I've got to find yet another adapter that will let me use this new case, or I'll have to send it back.

The inability of manufacturers to standardize electronic connections is just one tiny example of a world where virtually nothing is compatible anymore.  Congress and the president aren't compatible. Workers and their employers aren't compatible. There are literally hundreds of different sizes of watch batteries, when one would have done just fine if the manufacturers could have ever reached an agreement on battery sizes.

I finally got around to calling for bids on replacing my roof. I'm hoping that the two roofers I'm getting estimates from will at least agree on what type of roof I need. There are so many alternatives, and all of them have their supporters and detractors. Asphalt, coal tar, sprayed on foam, EPDM synthetic rubber membrane, PVC membrane, modified bitumen? I have no idea which is best, because there are so many conflicting opinions. Once again, it would be nice if people could agree on things.

The bugs are returning again. I thought I put out enough poison to take care of the problem for at lest a year, but apparently not. I applied more poison and bait in areas that are not accessible to the dogs, but I'm not sure that this will solve the problem. These bugs are smart. I think they'll just move to other parts of the house that are accessible to the dogs.

I got a notice that I'll have to sign for a FedEx package tomorrow. This will be another wasted day. It is totally impossible to predict when the FedEx guy will show up. I can sit waiting for nine hours and then leave for five minutes to run to the post office. That five minute interval will inevitably be when the guy shows up for the signature.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1174

The leaf blower made its first appearance today. It was a warm and windy day and it seemed like the thing to do. The leaves wanted to blow away anyway and I just gave them a little nudge in the right direction. It's amazing how many leaves the big oak and elm trees in our backyard can drop during the Winter. I wish I could think of something useful to do with all these leaves, but it's not going to be compost. We've tried to plant vegetable gardens at various points in the past, but the neighborhood squirrels, rabbits, possums, and rats relentlessly eat everything we plant. It's just not worth the aggravation anymore. Our yard is next to a large wooded area. Every season, I think the yard is trying to tell us that it wants to be part of the forest too. It just doesn't want to be domesticated.

As we were leaving the dog park this morning, we saw three police cars and an ambulance arrive. I looked around and couldn't see any problems. Nobody appeared to have been bitten by a dog. Nobody had a heart attack. No cars had been broken into. No purses had been stolen. I couldn't see a single reason for such a show of force. The police were definitely there though. Life in the city, I guess. There isn't always a reason for everything.

I can't figure out why our house is so dusty. We seldom open the windows and always use the best available furnace filters. Somehow, the dust continues to get in though. Lots of dust. I tried to dust and vacuum the office this afternoon and it seemed like an impossible task. Layers of dust covered everything. It hadn't even been that long since I'd cleaned the place either. Nature seems to have taken over, inside and out. When I'm fighting these losing battles, I often wish I lived on the the seventeenth floor of a brand new high-rise. Instead of cleaning on Sunday afternoons, I would just take the elevator down to the first floor and have a cappuccino with friends in a nearby coffee shop. This isn't going to happen though. The dogs definitely prefer things just the way they are.

The dogwood trees are in bloom all over town. They are quite pretty. In a few weeks, it will be the azaleas turn to shine. Sometimes I think Dallas has more azalea bushes per square mile than any other city in the world. The entire city turns pink. While the azaleas are blooming, there is often a brief  explosion of bluebells and other wildflowers alongside the major freeways. Then it will be time to mow the grass again. Spring never lasts long enough in Texas.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1173

When I was out shopping today, I stopped by a gluten free bakery to look for alternatives to wheat. I'm supposed to seriously cut back on my consumption of wheat. There's only one problem. I love bread. For most of my life my favorite meals have included French Toast, BLT sandwiches, and all forms of Panini. I don't even know what I was looking for at the new age bakery, but I definitely discovered something I'd never seen before. It was called Paleo bread. The stuff is gluten free, grain free, yeast free, dairy free, and soy free. The loaf looked like bread, but it definitely wasn't. There wasn't a single bread-like ingredient in it. I learned later that the odd bread took its name from the Paleolithic diet, which is basically eating like the cavemen did. None of this stuff is new. It's all been going on behind my back while I've been eating cheeseburgers.

I've noticed that my little activity tracker wristlet has started challenging me to walk further. What's that all about? How stupid do these app designers think I am? Do they think I'm just a Pavlov's dog who will walk longer because a silly iPhone app tells me to set a goal of 12,000 steps a day. Jeez, isn't 10,000 steps enough?  I did take a longer walk with Dot and Dash this evening though, so maybe I am just a Pavlov's dog. I'm secretly irritated that Janet somehow manages to take 20,000 steps a day. That's much more than me. I think she just takes smaller steps.

Wasn't all hell supposed to break loose today when sequestration went into effect? So far, I haven't noticed any changes at all. Personally, I don't think much is going to change whether the folks in Washington ever come to an agreement or not. I don't even know why this thing is even a big deal. Just about everyone in America has had to trim 2% off their family budget as a reason of this dismal economy. You just give up a few things and life goes on. If ordinary people can trim their household budgets, why can't the government do the same thing?

Do any of you guys use Angie's List?  I joined the website several months ago, in hopes of finding a first rate roofer. So far, I've never used the list though. I've become suspicious of the whole thing after I started receiving booklets of Angie's List coupons in the mail every few weeks. How can Angie run ads on TV saying that no amount of money can buy a good review on the list, and then turn right around and sell ads to anyone who wants one in her magazine. I may be forced to use the list anyway though. I still can't find the roofer I'm looking for. I've had plenty of friends recommend friendly roofers, honest roofers, and reputable roofers. So far, nobody has actually recommended a good roofer though.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1172

I was writing an article about business reorganization today and it got me thinking about how difficult it is to actually transform a company. I've tried to transform my own company several times, but I always ended up with something that looked exactly the same as the original company I started over twenty years ago. Maybe it would be easier to change if I had no real convictions about what I did in the first place. The problem is that there are certain things I like to do and other things I don't. Don't get me wrong. I'm no prima donna. I do plenty of things I don't particularly like. I just don't go out of my way to find them. Why should I go out of my way to adapt to the needs of a changing market in a world where Duck Dynasty and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo are two of the most popular shows on television. I feel sorry for that guy who is trying desperately to transform J.C. Penny into another kind of Apple store. It just isn't going to work. People who shop at J.C. Penny watch Duck Dynasty and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

I've noticed that maple syrup, whipping cream, Mallo Cups, and other sweet treats are lasting a lot longer around the house. I've really cut down on my sugar consumption. I didn't always have a sweet tooth, but one of my doctors told me that when I quit drinking my body was determined to get the sugar that it used to quickly convert from alcohol any way it could. I'm sure that this battle isn't over yet, but for the time being, I think I'm winning.

My German client liked the wastewater treatment article I sent them the other day. Too bad they don't fly me to Germany to write these things anymore. I'm still trying to get them to take me to a big conference in Rio with them this Fall, but chances of that happening are pretty slim. I'm just an e-mail attachment to most people these days.

I got a new set of antique plates for the old Maserati in the mail today. These plates last for five years and this is the third set I've gotten since the car initially became eligible for antique plates. Doing a few rough calculations, I realized that the car has been sitting in the shop for almost ten years now.  Since my mechanic isn't getting any younger either, I have my doubts that I'll ever drive the thing again. I'm not even sure that I even want to drive the car again. If the repairs ever get finished, I'll have to pay for them. On the other hand, if the car never runs again, I'm going to have a hard time selling it. I can't believe that my 1995 Defender 90 is actually my new car. Both of these cars are newer than my Nikon film cameras though. I could start my own dinosaur museum.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1171

I kept myself busy writing for most of the day. Writing would be a very pleasant occupation if there were more money in it. Writing used to be a lot more lucrative for me. Truthfully, nobody ever paid all that much for the writing itself, but there was usually travel involved, plus lots of needless meetings that could be billed out as well. That all changed after the dot.com crash. Most of the self-important middle managers who scheduled all the needless meetings got fired and all that was left were the words on the page. That's the way it remains today. Microsoft Word files travel back and forth electronically and eventually a check arrives in the mail.

Although most of the glamor is gone, writing is still a very pleasant way to spend the day. It certainly beats dressing up in a suit and making Powerpoint presentations to an audience of vultures eager to steal anything that resembles an idea, so they can claim it as their own.

As I was eating breakfast this morning, I watched the pope fly away in a helicopter to begin a monastic life of quiet contemplation. I wouldn't mind living a life of quiet contemplation. Especially if I were living in a beautiful castle overlooking the sea, surrounded by carefully manicured formal gardens, and waited on by two full time secretaries and four domestic servants. Not a bad life at all.

The pope probably doesn't have Dalmatians though. Dalmatians have a certain beauty all their own.  I amused myself today watching Dot and Dash try to find the possum they saw in the yard last night. The possum was long gone the minute the dogs started barking at it, but that didn't deter them one bit. When they weren't possum hunting, they occupied themselves lounging on the new velour blankets Janet got them this week. They both love soft things. I guess it makes sense, since they have a pretty soft life.

One of my favorite breakfast restaurants closed its doors for the last time this week. It was sad to see the place go out of business. I knew the owner and she had poured her life into building a great little neighborhood eatery. The food was fantastic, but I guess there just weren't enough customers to make a go of things. The restaurant business is hard. It's probably even harder than writing for a living.

No wildflower pictures today. Just houseplants. I've always been fond of orchids.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1170

I paid a visit to a client that hasn't been very active lately. I don't think they remember me. When I arrived, the receptionist seemed to know who I was, but nobody else did. I did my best to light a fire and get these people thinking about doing something new on their website again. I'm not sure my visit had any effect however.

There are several stages of website development. The first stage is always the best. Everyone is excited and full of ideas. I'm usually very busy during this stage of development, adding pages and moving things around. Eventually, disillusionment sets in. The company discovers that all their competitors have good websites too and they no longer feel like they have an advantage.

Sometimes, there's a third stage when the clients go to a seminar and get re-invigorated about their website after listening to presentations about all sorts of new bells and whistles. They learn all sorts of stuff about, SEO, video, databases, and interactive forms. If I'm lucky, I get to add the new bells and whistles to their site. If I'm not, I lose the account to someone they met at the seminar.

It usually doesn't take long for disillusionment to set in again. Websites have become a commodity. If one site has bells and whistles, it isn't long before they all do. Once the client decides that the website is no longer a magic bullet, I am no longer as valuable as I was in the beginning. I'm not saying that websites aren't important. They are. They can definitely help a good company get even better. They can no longer separate a nondescript company from the pack however. Most website problems aren't with the website itself. They usually originate with the company behind it.

I turned in my new writing assignment today. Writing is much more reliable than website development. While everybody and their uncle has hung out their shingle as website developers and SEO experts, there are still relatively few good writers. The only thing that endangers my security as a writer is that fewer and fewer people bother to read anymore. We have gone from a per-literate society to a post-literate society. It's only a matter of time before we're communicating with hieroglyphics again.

It was a pleasant day, but it still gets cold very quickly after sundown. It got cold so quickly today that we decided to skip dog training class. Dot doesn't enjoy the cold damp ground on days like this. Dash doesn't enjoy the wind. We had both this evening, so we stayed home. A wise decision, I think.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1169

The Winter winds subsided as the day progressed and by mid-afternoon it was warm again. As the weather improved, so did my mood. I continued to make good progress on my new writing assignment. The roof is drying out again. I've even lost a couple of pounds as a result of my new diet.

The challenge will be to stay engaged in the months ahead. I get bored easily. Watches hold little interest anymore. My carefully collected watch repair tools are all gathering dust on the workbench. I know I should be practicing the guitar more. I do enjoy playing, but this always used to be a group activity with the band. Playing rock and roll in an empty house to an audience of dogs is kind of weird. Yes, I could always read a book. I used to read a new book each and every week. I love books. I wonder why I don't have the urge to read anymore.

Photography is still fun, but I need to expand my horizons. I've started to notice that I've already photographed almost every single interesting object along the path where I walk the dogs every day. My small world has been very well documented. This month, the White Pelicans are getting ready to head north for the Summer. In previous years, I would be setting up a tripod with a long lens to capture these magnificent birds before they left for the season. I already have so many pictures of Pelicans though that I don't really feel like photographing them anymore. That's the problem really. Been there, done that. Totally.

Enough complaining though. It really was a beautiful day. There are tell-tale signs of Spring everywhere you look. The dogs are much happier with the warmer weather and are enjoying spending time outside again. Maybe I ought to let them decide what we are going to do tomorrow.

Bingo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1168

I didn't leave the house all day. Well, technically I guess I did leave the house to walk the dogs, but that is such a predictable, rain or shine activity that it doesn't really count. I occupied myself with a new technical writing assignment that should take me two or three days to complete. Technical writing is a little different than the consumer oriented writing I usually do. Advertising writing is almost totally BS. Technical writing, on the other hand, is only about 50% BS.

While we were walking this morning, I noticed multiple small Zip-Lock bags with white pills inside strewn along our path through the woods. What was this all about? Did somebody finally get disgusted and throw away all their meds in favor of some vigorous exercise? Was this the remains of a drug deal gone bad? Was someone trying to poison the birds and squirrels? I don't know. I'll probably never know. I have seen stranger things in the park, however. This is one reason I always try to avoid walking the dogs after dark.

It's too bad that the roof wasn't quite dry enough for me to make my repairs yesterday while the weather was nice. It rained again overnight and now I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope for an extended dry spell, so everything can dry out again. I have already learned the hard way that patching a crack on the roof while there is still trapped moisture underneath doesn't accomplish anything.

Would you believe that it might snow tonight? If it does, it will be Winter's last hurrah. There's always one really cold day in late February or early March just to freeze all the early blooming flowers and plants. That's the way it works here in Texas.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1167

On days like this I realize that I'm no match for Mother Nature. Since it is supposed to be cold and possibly wet later in the week, I took advantage of today's nice weather to get an early start on Spring cleanup activities. It only took a cursory inspection of the house to reveal galvanized gutters that had rusted through, rubber window seals that had dried and cracked, and a lot of peeling paint. The sun, the wind, and the rain had taken their toll, like they always do. I find it harder and harder to stay ahead of the game. Inexorably, the house and the yard it sits in are being reclaimed by the forces of nature.

I remember seeing a short animated film a few years ago that illustrated how cities like New York and Paris would revert to nature if all the people that inhabited them disappeared. In only a few hundred years, the cities were crumbling. In less than a thousand years, all traces of them were gone. We may think we have tamed the earth, but in the end nature always wins.

I'm not comfortable with decay. I wish our bodies didn't deteriorate. I wish my aging but beloved Defender 90 wasn't falling apart. I am continually irritated to see the sun, wind, and rain do their best to convert my house back to the elements from which it came. Wood rots quickly. Metal rusts faster than you think. Constant painting and upkeep just slows the process down. Like Dr. Who said in the Waters of Mars episode. "Water is patient. Water always wins."

There are some good things to this constant cycle of birth and decay. Last week's rain and this week's warm weather have already produced a bumper crop of early Spring flowers. When we took the dogs to the dog park today, I noticed that all the trees had already started to bud. In a few weeks the redbud and dogwood trees will be in full bloom. I will continue to try my best to stay on top of things. We'll plant some new grass next month and hope for the best. I'll put on a new roof which will immediately come under attack from the sun, wind, and rain. Life will go on. For a while anyway...

Nora is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1166

It was another day that started out cold and ended up surprisingly warm. That's fine by me. All's well that ends well, as far as I'm concerned. There were quite a few picnickers out in the park today. It's probably a good time to have a picnic. The ants aren't out in force yet.

While I was at the grocery store today, I wandered aimlessly through aisle after aisle, looking for something that was completely healthy, could be kept in the freezer, and was microwavable. The illusive, easy-to-fix, healthy meal didn't exist. Oh, there were tons of things that met this description, if you just ignored the word healthy. Everything that looked the least bit tempting was chock full of salt, sugar, and trans fats. Even a bag of Chinese stir fry vegetables, which reminded me of my ill fated attempts to fix simple Thai food in a wok, contained an alarming amount of salt. Too bad I don't like to cook. Cooking meals with fresh ingredients seems to be the only real solution.

With Spring on the horizon, I'm starting to lust after photo gear again. This happens every Spring. I'll see something pretty to photograph and realize that the picture would be much better if only I had a different kind of lens. Sometimes I will actually buy the lens, take the photo I'm imagining, and then never use the lens again. When I'm thinking rationally, I just do nothing and wait for the gear lust to subside.

I'm certainly not thinking rationally when it comes to my car. My fear of another random breakdown overcame me today and I filled my tank with premium gas instead of regular. Maybe I thought I was doing the car a favor and it would respond in kind. Who knows? Rationally, filling my tank with premium will make no difference whatsoever. The Defender engine was designed to run on regular.

A friend of mine who also has a flat roof told me recently that the foam roof solution I've been thinking about won't work unless the roof is completely dry, with no residual moisture beneath the foam. That's discouraging. I don't don't think the plywood decking under my roof has ever been completely dry.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day