Day 1458

To hell with going to the gym today. I got more than enough exercise by clearing a safe path through the downed trees behind the house, so Dot and Dash could get into the park again for their daily walks. When that was finished, I moved the huge pile of branches the power company tree trimmers threw over my fence back to the alley where they belong. If I get time tomorrow, I'll haul everything out to the curb, so the city trash removal trucks can pick them up. The power company guys said they'd be back to clean things up, but truthfully, I don't expect to ever see them again. They've already moved on.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up with work. Today was even busier than yesterday. A hosting company glitch knocked one of my clients off the Internet and everyone was in a panic. They couldn't remember the password for their account, and since it isn't my account, I didn't know either. I did remember one password for this account, but it didn't work. I'm sure the hosting company has required customers to change their passwords several times since the worry free days when everyone used something simple like "1234."

My retail customers are all in full holiday mode, which can be just as stressful as a lost password. I don't think Black Friday went as well as many people hoped and now they are scrambling to make up those missing sales. I have trouble getting excited about the holidays, The weather is always horrible and everyone is pulling out all the stops to get their customers to buy, buy, buy. Most of the work I've been doing this week is very time sensitive and "later" just isn't an acceptable answer. I certainly hope my efforts to get people to buy lots of useless stuff are successful, because I always like to see happy clients in January.

I did find a little time to make it to the grocery store and pick up something for dinner. Janet and I are both so busy that we rarely cook anymore. I just pick up ready-to-eat stuff from the deli or chef prepared sections. The food is very good, but it isn't the most economical way to eat. I don't know why people tend to eat more when it's cold. The grocery stores have been packed all week. The ice is all gone now, and the stores are still crowded. Maybe nobody plans ahead anymore and they're all just shopping for their next meal like I am.

I hope that things slow down a bit tomorrow. I'm really tired. There's still the ice and the neighbor's tree to get off the roof. There's still another Santa Paws pet photo event to complete before we're done for the year. My printer is clogged again, because it sat unused for too long during the power outage. Hey, I'm looking forward to a delicious breakfast at my favorite Friday restaurant though. I've got to think positive thoughts.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1457

As the sun rose over Dallas this morning, I found myself listening to an interesting presentation about the future of Dallas. The new Midtown project that was being proposed at my breakfast meeting sounded exciting and ambitious, but I doubt I'll be here to see the ribbon cutting ceremony. Even though I've made this city my home for many years, I can't wait to move to somewhere smaller and more tranquil. Janet and I haven't decided where that illusive "somewhere" might be. It just has to have great veterinarians and reliable WiFi.

Since I was out and about today, I began to hear other people's ice storm stories. I thought that we'd had a rough time, but our ordeal was nothing compared to some of the stories I heard. Dot's veterinarian almost had her house burn down when a nearby transformer exploded during the ice storm and knocked her power out. She and her family are still without power.

I thought I was insanely busy yesterday, but the hoops I had to jump through were nothing compared to the chaos that was unfolding at the main UPS customer service center where I went to retrieve my lost package this morning. There was a huge line of people trying to either send, pick-up, or complain about a package. None of these people seemed very happy. The service representative I talked to said the ice storm had put them five days behind schedule on deliveries. Many of the people in line were mad when they discovered that the package they had come to pick up was already on a truck headed to their house. It's a long drive to this service center, so few people wanted to make this trip twice.

At least I was prepared. I called ahead to make sure that my package was actually waiting for me at the depot before I even got in the car. I've been through this drill before. I still had to wait in line though. Even though I could see my package sitting behind the counter, it took me thirty minutes to get to the head of the line and claim it. I don't know how the agents managed to keep their sanity. The place was a madhouse.

I finally was able to climb up on the roof today and assess the situation. There's still lots of ice up there. I was able to remove some of the ice in an effort to lighten the structural load on the roof, but my utility pump has frozen solid, so I wasn't able to remove much of the ice melt. A lot of the ice was 2 to 3 inches thick and was quite heavy. A 2 inch slab of ice weighs about the same as a two inch thick rock. Maybe it will warm up enough tomorrow so I can remove this ice before the next cold spell. Oh, there's a downed tree on the roof too, Not a huge tree, but it's still a tree.

I'm hoping that tomorrow is uneventful. One can always hope.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1456

Today was chaotic. As the city came back to life after the ice storm, I found myself bombarded with rush assignments and impossible deadlines. It wasn't just the Dallas clients either. Some of the out of town folks seemed in a big hurry as well. It was almost enough for me to wish for the cold to return again, so everyone would just hunker down and do nothing like they did yesterday.

The house was warm today, but it was a total mess. I kept the washing machine going all day long with load after load of dirty clothes and dog blankets. We have enough dog blankets to keep us warm under the covers on even the coldest night, but that means a lot of laundry when the crisis is over. I don't know how the dogs manage to get the blankets dirty as quickly as they do, but they're experts at making things filthy.

Since the temperature briefly got up to 40 degrees around 3 PM this afternoon, I wanted to use the opportunity to clean things up on the roof. Bad idea. The ice was so thick that the small amount of melt today only made things more dangerous. The surface was so slippery that I quickly abandoned my efforts and planted both feet on firm ground before I injured myself. I guess this task can wait.  The ice load on the roof is pretty heavy now and I'd like to get the ice removed, but it's definitely not worth falling off the roof.

There's still a lot of unfinished business. I need to talk to the neighbor about removing his tree that fell on my roof. Neighbors are funny about this sort of thing. He probably thinks that I should remove it, since it's on my roof now. I think the repair crews that threw the branches they trimmed in the alley over my back yard fence should come back and remove them. I don't know why the tree trimmers couldn't have tossed these branches into the big shredder I saw sitting out in the street, but they told me they didn't have time. Maybe they were right. I did noticed that the power came back about two seconds after the last guy with a chain saw got out of the trees in the alley. I doubt that any of them wanted to be next to a live wire with a chain saw when the power was turned on. Who knows, maybe these guys will come back later this week and clean up their mess.

All I know is that I've got a big mess of my own to clean up. The new car has finally been baptized with a thick coat of road dirt. The roof needs attention. Worst of all, I think a lot of the expensive landscaping we had done last Spring has died. I'm trying to avoid a trip to the grocery store until the feeding frenzy has subsided. I think everyone in town was restocking their pantries this afternoon. Traffic was terrible and every parking lot in town was completely full.

I'm hoping that a semblance of normalcy returns tomorrow. I'm certainly going to do my part. I like normal things. Dot has her regular acupuncture appointment tomorrow. I'll be going to my Wednesday networking breakfast. I doubt that we'll have dog training class though. It's still way too cold.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1455

We've got power again! It's definitely been a long four days. Last night the temperature got so cold in the house that we gave up and went to a hotel for the night. It's hard to find a place that will take two 65 pound dogs, but the people at the Palomar couldn't have been nicer. They treated Dot and Dash just like any other guest. Dash was scared of elevators, but other than that, both dogs seemed to enjoy their night away from home. The dogs enjoyed sleeping in the big, fluffy hotel bed so much that I think they were disappointed when they returned to our own house today. We almost had to spend two nights in the hotel, but the power finally returned about 6 PM this evening. The house is still cold, but the temperature is steadily increasing at about three degrees an hour. By morning, we should be back to normal.

Since the house was still ice cold this morning, Janet let me use an empty cubicle at her office to work and we took the dogs to board for the day with our vet. Dot and Dash were disappointed that we weren't taking them to another posh hotel, but they'll survive. They are always well taken care of at the vet. Dash even got his antigen shot today, so I won't have to take him back again tomorrow.

Here's the difference between doctors and ordinary people. The last time I went to see the doctor I had an appointment with today, I had to wait over an hour and a half in the lobby because he got tied up in surgery. Today I was the one who was late. I was fifteen minutes late because of bad traffic and when I arrived, the doctor had already left for the day. So, I guess it's acceptable for me to wait an hour and a half and he can't wait fifteen minutes. I don't get it. I'm always the one who is expected to wait.

When I was driving home from my aborted doctor visit, I got a call from a friend in the neighborhood saying the power was back on. About five minutes later I got another call to say "never mind." The power had flickered out again. It appears that getting the power back on line is a tricky business. When I arrived home, the power was still out, but there were power company trucks everywhere. It was a power company crew from Alabama who eventually turned the lights on again. I asked one of the guys what it took to get all these people to Dallas on such short notice. He said it was just professional courtesy. He said if they got in trouble, Dallas crews would come down to help them. It's nice to know that the concept of professional courtesy still survives. It disappeared from the advertising world years ago.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1454

What a day! Our power is still out. After three days without power and temperatures in the 20's, the entire neighborhood feels like we've been abandoned. I finally talked with someone from the power company this morning. When I saw a guy in the alley wearing a hard hat and looking up at the power lines, I rushed outside to ask when we'd be getting our power back. The guy was nice enough, but he wasn't very encouraging. "We're just the assessment team," he told me. "This is a three stage process," he said. "First we identify the dead lines, then tree cutters come out and remove the debris around the lines, and finally the linemen will come and replace the damaged lines." "How long will that take," I asked. The man gave me one of those looks like he'd been asked this question way too often already. "It's a complicated process," he finally said. "I wouldn't expect anything to be fixed before Wednesday."

After that dismal assessment, I was happy to pack up my photo gear and head off to our third Santa Paws photo shoot for Dalmatian Rescue. Since the weather was still atrocious and it was sleeting again when I left the house, I didn't think anyone would show up for today's event. Surprisingly, we actually had a great crowd. Along with our usual assortment of Labs and small terriers, we photographed quite a few Dalmatians today, including one very cute puppy who seemed to really like Santa.

We took Dot and Dash with us to today's event, because we didn't want to leave them in the cold house. They were excited at first, and then were disgusted when they realized that they had to be kenneled while Janet and I worked. I think they were both happy to be warm again though, because after about fifteen minutes of barking in their kennel, they settled down on their dog beds and went to sleep.

I think the same people who designed the ObamaCare website designed the power company's emergency outage website. We've been looking at the website for three days now and nothing has changed. It looks like exactly the same number of houses are without power as there were when the storm started. I'm sure the power crews have done something, but you couldn't prove it by me. There are supposed to be over 3000 repairmen working on the problem, but I've only seen one. My guy seemed overwhelmed. He was from out of state, had a big bundle of engineering drawings in his hand, and was still looking for where the telephone poles were. This doesn't look good.

At the end of a very long day, Janet, the dogs and I are exhausted. We took the dogs to a dog friendly hotel and are relaxing over a nice dinner while we unwind and warm up. Lord knows what we'll have to deal with next week. I've got another lost UPS package to locate, five more articles to write, and a doctor's appointment. That's just Monday.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1453

Things are bad in Dallas. Our power has been out over 30 hours and we still don't have any reliable information about when it will be restored. Yesterday was miserable. As the temperature got colder and colder, we watched everything slowly shut down. After the power went out, the land line phones were the first to go. An hour after the phones died, the WiFi went out. Next, the back up battery for the security system went dead. The UPS power supply for the main office computers had enough juice to recharge the laptop and iPhones twice, and then it went dead as well.

By mid afternoon, all electrical devices in the house were completely dead and the house was silent. We put all the food in the refrigerator outside on the porch, because it was much colder there. When we let the dogs out in the back yard to poop, a large branch fell from one of the Oak trees and almost hit Dash. We were very lucky that the falling tree branch missed him by three feet. The limb was heavy enough that it might have killed him. The dogs only go out on a leash now, so we know exactly where they are at all times.

There wasn't much to do after dark. We didn't even know what was going on. The TV was out, and we couldn't even find much information on a battery radio. There is so much satellite programming now on radio that very few stations even provide their own local news any more. We piled all the dog blankets on the bed and turned in for the night right after a dinner of very cold ham and cheese sandwiches from our outdoor fridge. By morning, it was dangerously cold in the house. It was 20 degrees outside and probably around 34 degrees inside. 

Since Janet's downtown office still has power, we packed the dogs and the electronic gear into the car and and headed for someplace where we could all warm up again. We really should have stayed at a hotel last night, but I never dreamed that it would take over two days to get the power restored in sub-freezing weather. Usually I hear the chain saws from the repair crews clearing away fallen trees within hours of an outage. This time, there has been no activity whatsoever.

One of my neighbors went to Northern Tool in his 4-wheel drive truck yesterday and bought a $1000 generator to power a small TV and his wife's hairdryer. Another neighbor got out all his camping sleeping bags and the family slept in sleeping bags. Since we didn't have either sleeping bags or a generator, we were very cold last night.

All is well now though. Both of our cars started this morning and Janet's office is toasty warm. Dot and Dash are sleeping on blankets under Janet's desk. We counted three downed power lines on the way to Janet's office.  I have yet to see a repair truck in our neighborhood and all bets are off for full power restoration. You know things are bad when the city canceled tomorrow's Dallas Marathon. Runners seem to love adverse conditions and the marathon is a big deal to the city. I don't think it has ever been canceled before.

Hopefully power will be restored this weekend. When things get back to normal, I'll need to find someone to clear away the fallen trees on the roof and in our yard. I have a feeling that Dallas tree trimmers are already booked solid through next March.

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1452

A loud crash woke me up about 4:30 this morning. An ice laden tree had fallen on the roof. About two hour later, our power went out. It's about noon now and the power is still out throughout much of the city. Yes, Dallas is in the grip of another monster ice storm. We don't get snow like most places do in the Winter. We get freezing rain instead. Usually it starts at night, and by morning the roads are like ice rinks. Luckily, there is no need to leave the house today. Not much is open anyway.

Since I can't function without coffee, I walked over to a nearby gas station to get a cup. I was hoping to get a breakfast taco too, but the power to the Green Spot kitchen was out. I filled a to-go mug with coffee, bought a muffin to go along with it and walked back home again to eat my meager breakfast in the rapidly cooling house. Since our house is mostly floor to ceiling single pane glass, there isn't much insulation. Within two or three hours after a power outage, the inside of the house starts to feel a lot like the outside.

It's always difficult to deal with the dogs when things get icy. Neither of them have the good sense to poop in the yard, and on days like today, taking them in the park can be treacherous. I took Dash on a short walk when I got up this morning, but Dot had to stay home. She is too frail and unstable to navigate the icy conditions. Luckily, Dot will eventually poop in the yard when she really needs to. Dash thinks he needs to go on the park no matter what's going on with the weather. We didn't walk far this morning, but I saw dozens of trees uprooted. The heavy, wet ice clinging to the branches just knocked them over.

I have lots of work to do today, but I'm no sure how I'm going to get it done. The power is out. Our primary WiFi is out and I don't know how long the secondary WiFi connection will last. The laptop batteries are getting low as well, so I may be out of business pretty soon.  I haven't missed a day yet as a blogger, so I'll manage to get this posted one way or another.

I really hope the power company gets to our neighborhood soon. I'm bundled up in sweaters and the dogs are huddled under blankets on their dog beds in the living room. Janet is still trying to decide whether to go in to the office or not. I envy those people in the neighborhood who have fireplaces. I see smoke rising from chimneys up and down the street. No smoke rising from our place though. We don't have a fireplace. Since it's a lot colder outside than inside, Janet is moving the perishable food from the non-functioning refrigerator to a cooler on the back porch. I hear lots of sirens from fire engines and emergency vehicles going up and down the street. I don't hear any power company trucks unfortunately. It's going to be one of those days.

Chance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1451

I've done everything I can. The car has a full tank of gas. I bought a bunch of D-Cell batteries for the emergency lanterns. I got some food at the grocery store that we can eat either hot or cold if the power goes out. The roof has been swept clear of falling leaves. All the electronic devices have been charged up. I've got the outside faucets dripping a bit, so they won't freeze. The dog's warmest sweaters are clean and ready to go. I guess that's it.

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm as irrational as any other Texan about cold weather. We take our tornadoes in stride, but if there's even a hint of snow in the forecast, the shelves will quickly be emptied in every grocery store in town and portable generators and batteries will be on back order at Home Depot.

Dot and Dash love the cooler temperatures that Fall weather brings to Texas, but when the thermometer dips below freezing they don't like going outside any more than I do. Dot has problems with arthritis on cold days as well. I could tell she was really stiff today and had trouble getting up and down from her dog bed in the living room. To keep my own joints from getting too stiff, I made sure I got to the gym before the weather got really bad. When I left the house, the roads were still dry, but by the time I returned, there was already a light freezing drizzle that stuck to your windshield. I may skip my normal Friday morning restaurant outing and just fix something here at the house tomorrow instead. There just aren't many good reasons to drive on icy roads.

If the weather is as bad as they say it's going to be, I ought to get a lot done tomorrow. Maybe I'll get caught up on my writing. Hey, what else is there to do on an icy morning? If the power goes out, all bets are off. Falling tree limbs cause power outages in our neighborhood fairly frequently. Once we lost power for three days in the middle of Winter. I don't look forward to repeating that experience any time soon. When the power goes out, you're basically just camping indoors. There's a good chance that the city's worries about an impending ice storm are overblown. The weather reports are often wrong in these parts. We'll know how it all turns out by morning. If there is a lot of ice, I think the dogs and I will just stay under the covers.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1450

It was 80 degrees today. It is supposed to be 20 degrees tomorrow. That's Texas weather in a nutshell. All the TV weathermen in town are predicting a monster storm this weekend that will coat the roads with a sheet of ice and knock out power lines throughout the region. Hopefully, none of these alarmist reports are true. Weather reports in Dallas tend to be sensationalized because there are plenty of people like me who freak out at the thought of bad weather. Bad weather equals good ratings. Even the hint of a Winter bad storm will send people to Home Depot in droves to stock up on batteries, kitty litter, generators, rock salt, and snow shovels. Needless to say, most of the snow shovels never get used. Grocery stores are equally busy before a storm, although I don't know why. If the power goes out, a lot of food in the refrigerator isn't going to do you much good.

Although anything could happen tomorrow, I certainly can't complain about today's weather. It was nice all day. With blue skies and mild temperatures to cheer me on, I got quite a bit done. The breakfast networking group liked the website I'd developed for them. This is probably one of those sites that will never be finished, but at least there weren't any major snags when it was unveiled for the first time this morning.

Dot did great at her physical therapy session today. She walked over half a mile on the underwater treadmill and had no problems with the 60 second bursts of speed that are part of her interval training. I'm really proud of Dot. Not only is she visibly stronger than she was when we started this, she actually seems to enjoy the therapy as well. Hopefully, Dot has many good years ahead of her. One of my neighbors has an old dog and it's sad to see how quickly a dog can go downhill as they approach the end of their life. One day they're active and a few months later they can hardly walk.

All the dogs in training class seemed a bit on edge tonight. I think they could sense the cold front that is headed our way. As the wind picked up, Dot and Dash made sure to let us know that they were ready to go home. I couldn't blame them for wanting to get back inside again. By the time class was over, the temperature had dropped ten degrees.

I found out today that my mechanic is losing the lease on his garage and as a result, I'll probably have to take my old Citroën Maserati back again before it can be restored. This is definitely a big disappointment. There are very few people in the entire country who still work on these things. The car has sat for so long that I'm sure it will need some serious work before it runs properly again. Even if I can find another mechanic, I'm not sure I'll be able to find the parts I need. Certain parts have already become almost impossible to find. I'm not sure what to do with this car now. 

In retrospect, I should have started the restoration last year. It was always easier to just postpone things though, since my mechanic was usually busy with other repairs anyway. Now, it might be too late. I have the same sinking feeling I had when I failed to sell my Lucent Technology stock and watched it slide from $70 a share to $4 a share. There is a time and a place for everything. I just don't always know when that time has arrived.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1449

I got a phone call from a client today. This used to be a daily occurrence, but today's preference for text messages and e-mail have made the old fashioned phone call exceedingly rare. I've actually started to fear these calls, because nobody calls you on the phone anymore unless something has gone very, very wrong. I use caller ID to screen all my calls. 98% of them are from telemarketers. The other 2% make me nervous. As it turned out, this particular call was nothing to fear. It was just someone who likes to talk.

I wish I'd taken a real camera with me on our morning walk today. For about ten minutes we were engulfed in fog and my familiar surroundings turned into a wonderland of misty imagery. Most fog lifts and quickly dissipates as the sun burns it off. This was different. A thick low cloud just blew right over us. I took a few shots with my phone and then it was all over.

I had plenty of time to go to the gym today. Although I've been pretty good about maintaining my three-day-a-week workout routine, I've got to come up with some way to make the gym more interesting. Boredom is always my worst enemy. I'm already bored with my healthy diet, even though it is showing tangible results. I'm afraid that going to the gym is going to be next on my growing list of boring activities. I'll be the first to acknowledge that exercise is good for you. In just a few months, I can already tell that my muscle tone and core strength has improved and I don't get as tired anymore. I just wish these activities were fun. Luckily, I'm very familiar with boredom. Boredom doesn't slow me down a bit.

I'm scheduled to unveil a new website I've been developing for the Wednesday morning networking group at tomorrow's meeting. Truthfully, this site is a little boring, but I think it meets the needs of the group perfectly. I could probably make the site more exciting if I just focused on why I come to these early morning meetings. Maybe I should scrap all the business stuff and make the site about bacon.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1448

I wonder if any of you would even notice if I occasionally substituted a post from a previous year for my daily missive? Pride prevents me from doing this, but to tell the truth, I wouldn't know the difference myself. The days all run together. After 25 years of walking a succession of Dalmatians in the park while writing a steady stream of endlessly similar advertising messages, I not only forget what day it is, I forget what year it is.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't enjoy days like today. I just have trouble telling them apart. The falling leaves look the same as they always do in early December. The dogs still remind me that it's time for dinner precisely at 4:30 PM every day. The Version 14.1.4 of Microsoft Word that I opened to complete this morning's writing assignments seems remarkably similar to the very first version I bought for my Mac in 1989. Jeez, I've been sitting in the same Herman Miller Aeron Chair for so long that I've worn out three of the comfortable mesh chair backs.

Today certainly wasn't a day to break the mold. I came up with an interesting new landing page for a very old website that I initially designed in 1997. I wrote another article about luxury goods. Before the end of the year, I will have written over 500 of these articles. I fix my oatmeal and fruit. I make the bed. I count the hours and I wonder why.

For diversity, I had a Greek salad instead of my usual Kale. The dogs and I walked over a small hill instead of around it. Even though there was a pretty sunset, I took a picture of a leaf instead. This is really all the diversity I need. I'm going to the gym tomorrow. I'll make some oatmeal with strawberries again for breakfast. I'll watch the business channel and check my stocks while I'm eating. The dogs will sleep most of the day. David Byrne said it best way back in 1981. "Same as it ever was..."

Gretta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1447

Our favorite dog park is slowly but surely becoming just like all the other dog parks in Dallas. Aggressive dogs used to be a rarity at this park, but now we encounter one almost every week. More and more people don't even bother to clean up after their dogs and the once pristine grass is now a mine field of poop. Even though the park is huge, the people with nice dogs tend to congregate in one corner, staying far away from the unruly dogs and their inattentive owners in the other corner. The problem isn't the dogs. It's the people. It's always the people.

It's hard to believe it's December already. This entire year has gone by in a blur of uneventful days. I haven't really accomplished much this year. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself though. In today's topsy-turvy world, just staying afloat is a major accomplishment.

We put up the Christmas decorations this weekend. These items are so old and familiar now that the dogs don't pay any attention to them. We no longer worry about a dog knocking over the Christmas tree or wiping the coffee table clean with a casual wag of the tail. Dot and Dash ignored everything this year, with the exception of of two bright red Christmas blankets we got for each of their dog beds. They immediately knew the blankets were for them, and they approved.

Although Sunday may be a bad day to go to the grocery store, it has turned out to be a great day to go to the gym. I love going to the gym on Sunday, because I practically have the cavernous hall to myself. There's no rush either. I can stay as long as I like, without any worries about being late for whatever is next on the agenda.

I guess I'm going to have to resign myself to printing something small every day. It seems wasteful to print a photo and just throw it away, but my Epson representative assures me that this will be far more economical than wasting tons of expensive ink every month trying to unclog the lines. When I asked the Epson folks what the secret was to keeping this temperamental printer running reliably in the future, they told me "Just use it. It was meant to be used." This makes perfect sense. It just doesn't suit my needs. I'd like a printer I can use to make a single huge, beautiful Giclée print once every three or four months. My printer wasn't designed to do this. It was meant to be used in a production environment every day.

Nest week looks busy already. There are three new articles that need to be completed before the end of the week and a brand new website that needs to go live before the end of the year. There are doctors appointments and vet appointments on the calendar as well. One thing I won't be doing this month is Christmas shopping at the mall. When I discovered a few years ago that you could take care of everything with a few clicks on Amazon, that was the end of the mall. The only thing I go to the shopping mall for anymore is a haircut. I haven't figured out how to get a haircut on Amazon yet.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1446

It's hard for me to remember what day it is on holiday weekends. Since I did most of my regular weekend chores yesterday, there was little for me to do today. With Thanksgiving out of the way, it was time to go looking for the Christmas decorations at the storage warehouse. I'm always amazed at how neat and tidy the warehouse looks in comparison to our house. I wish my office looked as nice as my storage warehouse. Maybe it would if everything in the office remained untouched for months at a time.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that doing things almost inevitably creates a mess. Doing things with dogs creates an even bigger mess.  I don't help matters by being such a pack rat either. Almost everything in my tidy storage warehouse came out of my messy office. It's hard to believe that I have removed so much stuff from the office and it still looks full.

The weather was so warm today that I decided to wash the car. I like washing the car. It is a simple task with tangible results. Getting my large format printer working again is a much more difficult task. I've been using the supplies that UPS finally delivered with mixed results. I think I'll eventually be able to clear the clogged lines, but it is almost certain that I will use up all my ink in the process. I'm beginning to wonder if there's a point to this madness. I feel the same way about the watches I've collected. At some point in the distant past they all worked. Now, the batteries in the watches with quartz movements are all dead and many of the mechanical watches need cleaning. I took three of these watches to my watchmaker over two years ago for service. They still aren't done. These watches are still making better progress than the repairs on my Citroën Maserati. That car has been in the shop for over nine years.

My possessions are literally screaming at me to simplify my life. I won't live long enough to replace all the dead batteries,  re-solder all the loose wires, and clean all the gunk out of various dirty fuel lines. Mechanical things make me happy, but why do they always break? Oddly, things seem to deteriorate whether you use them of not. Batteries corrode and leak inside of old tape recorders. Gas goes bad and won't even ignite after several seasons of sitting in the fuel tank of an unused rototiller. Radiator hoses crack and break even if the car they're connected to is sitting on blocks inside a garage.

What's a boy to do? I don't need to be reminded that it's all ashes to ashes and dust to dust in the end. My own body has been telling me that for years. All is not lost though. There's actually a smile on my face right now. As I was writing this somewhat gloomy missive, I received a message on the printer display panel that the lines are clear. The printer lives!

Belle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1445

We thought today might be a good day to go see the new presidential library here in Dallas. How wrong we were! When we arrived, there was already a long line of people snaking around the building. The line wasn't moving either. We decided to come back another day. I guess this library has replaced the city zoo and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza as the go-to place to take visiting relatives on the day after Thanksgiving.

I'm still interested in seeing the library. I've never been to a presidential library before. I've driven past LBJ's library in Austin several times, but I've never gone inside. I should have seen Clinton's library by now, since I grew up in Arkansas, but I haven't been there either. I did visit Dwight Eisenhower's home near Gettysburg once and found it very interesting. Presidents lived pretty simple lives in the 1950's.

Since the library was so crowded and it was already too late to go to an afternoon movie, Janet and I both went to the gym instead. Her gym was crowded and mine was nearly empty. I don't understand why young people don't go to my gym. It is the easily best equipped facility in the city. There is a heated Olympic size pool, a regulation size basketball court, a huge, well equipped weight room, a boxing area, and every type of resistance machine and treadmill ever created. I suspect that the young people who keep all those trendy new LA Fitness Centers busy just don't want to be seen with the old geezers who frequent my gym. I see an older gentleman almost every time I'm working out wearing a t-shirt that says "I wish I was 88." He is actually 94.

My missing UPS package mysteriously appeared on my doorstep this afternoon. Nobody knocked on the door and there was no explanation. I still don't know whether the UPS driver found the missing package and re-delivered it, or whether the person who actually received the package last Tuesday  finally decided to drive it over to my house. I'll probably never know what really happened, but at least I now have what I need. Hopefully, these new supplies will revive my hopelessly clogged printer and get it working again.

Although we didn't do any of the fun things we had planned, Janet and I both got a lot done today. She braved the Black Friday crowds and got a new Winter coat, while I found a replacement for the blinking, non-functional overhead light in my office. I'm sure I could have found a cheaper light fixture at IKEA, but it was worth paying almost any amount just to be able to avoid going to IKEA.

When I went to my regular breakfast restaurant today, I noticed that the other customers looked like hell. Actually, they just looked very similar to what I look like every day. I figured that most of these  people must still be on vacation. I guess this proves that without a dress code to conform to, almost everyone will immediately sink to the lowest common denominator. Personally, I don't know why I bother to get dressed anymore. The dogs don't care what I look like and my Internet-based clients will never know the difference. Wearing a suit on Wednesday mornings is still a novelty, but I'm sure this will wear off soon enough. The day I show up at one of these networking meetings wearing a Nirvana t-shirt and sweat pants is probably the day they'll kick me out of their club.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1444 - Thanksgiving

All days should be like this. I got up late. I spent most of the day eating. I walked the dogs in a vain effort to to burn off my gargantuan meal. Then I watched TV for the rest of the day. We gave up entertaining on Thanksgiving years ago when the dogs embarrassed us by eating the guests dinner. We gave up on cooking a few years later when we realized it just wasn't worth the effort for two people.

Ever since, we've been going out to eat on Thanksgiving. We pick a nice restaurant and enjoy having someone else serve us dinner. Some years, we have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, sweet potatoes, green been casserole and pumpkin pie. Other years we are more adventurous. This year we went to The Mercury. They have a great Thanksgiving buffet. The food is fresh and varied. As always, I ate way too much.

Although it was chilly this morning, the day ended up being quite nice. Since there were no time constraints, the dogs got some bonus time on their walks. Janet walked them in the morning and I walked them in the evening. I was in such a good mood after my fabulous dinner that I though I'd take a decent camera along with me. That was a mistake. I used to take a DSLR with me frequently when I walked Dot and Dash, but I think they were better behaved then. Lately, I have trouble even getting the scene in focus before one of the dogs knocks me off balance chasing a squirrel or trying to eat something nasty they've spotted on the trail. Once the leashes get tangled around my camera strap, it's hopeless. I snapped a few sunset shots, but failed to capture anything spectacular. The shot you see above shows what happened after Dash flushed a covey of birds out of some bulrushes along the shoreline.

Although Thursday is one of my regular days to go to the gym, it seemed wise to postpone any sort of a workout until tomorrow. After the monster meal I ate this afternoon, I don't think my workout would have lasted long. Probably, the gym wasn't open today anyway. I never bothered to check.

Few things seem less appealing to me than fighting crowds of shoppers on Black Friday. That being said, I'll probably end up going to Home Depot tomorrow anyway. The blinking overhead light in my office is driving me nuts. I've got to find a new fixture soon. I hope I can find what I need at Home Depot. I would dread having to go to IKEA tomorrow.

Scooter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1443

Dot had a really good physical therapy session today. The water therapy and acupuncture has already resulted in an improvement in her balance and muscle tone. It's kind of amazing. Although she will never be a young dog again, she seems much stronger on her daily walks and doesn't stumble nearly as often now.

I wish my own day had gone as well as Dot's. UPS still hasn't found my misplaced package. The overhead light in the office is still blinking on and off and driving me nuts. The temperature turned cold again and it's supposed to get down to 26 degrees tonight. The weather changes so quickly here that it's hard to adjust. Yesterday, I was convinced the cold wave had moved on to the East and now it's back again.

The roads were unbelievable crowded today. I think everybody in town left work early and was out buying a turkey at the same time. I went to a nearby Albertsons this evening to pick up a prescription and was amused to see a long line of people at the checkout stand with big frozen turkeys in their buggy. Jeez, Thanksgiving is tomorrow! They'll never even get those turkeys thawed out by then. There was no frozen turkey in my buggy. We're going out to eat.

Even though this was a short week, there was still plenty of work to do today. I guess I should be thankful for the work, but I'm even more thankful that I'm looking forward to a few days where I might not even turn the computer on. Don't worry, faithful readers. There will still be a blog post tomorrow, but that's about it.  Janet gets two days off this week, so we might even do something fun.

This year has gone by so fast. It will be Christmas before you know it. I'm already writing Christmas ads and articles. When I was taking Dot to her physical therapy session today, I saw three cars with Christmas trees strapped to the roof. Maybe some people put their tree up the day after Thanksgiving. The Christmas tree definitely won't be going up that early in our house. With two Dalmatians, the later the tree goes up, the better.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1442

UPS lost another package today. In the misplaced delivery derby, UPS is definitely ahead of FedEx. This isn't the first time that UPS has claimed they delivered something that I never received. At least with FedEx, you have the ability to contact the driver directly and find out exactly what happened. When something goes wrong with your UPS order, they initiate this convoluted investigative process that takes weeks. I have a feeling that I'm never going to get this package. Too bad I already paid for this stuff.

With the exception of my lost order, it wasn't really a bad day. The sun came out around lunchtime and seeing our shadows again did wonders for me and the dogs. If I was the analytical type, I'm convinced that I could track my moods pretty accurately using a light meter. The greater the number of Footcandles the meter showed, the happier I'd be.

When I took Dash to the vet for his antigen shot this afternoon, they said he had no appointment scheduled for today. He probably didn't. Even though Dash will be going to the vet for this routine shot every two weeks for the rest of his life, there doesn't seem to be a way to enter these ongoing appointments into the vet's computer. I often forget to remind them to renew the appointments for another month when I tear off a new calendar page. All's well that ends well though. The clinic was nice enough to work Dash in and he got his shot anyway.

It's difficult to make it to the gym on these vet appointment Tuesdays. I did manage to make it today, but I had to cut my workout short in order to get home again in time to walk the dogs before sunset. With such a simple life, you'd think I'd have plenty of time for everything. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. I never seem to have enough time. I did manage to get most of the things on my list finished today, but that was only because of the sun. Without a patch of bright sunlight to spur me onward, I probably would have been hopelessly behind.

Tomorrow will probably be a day in customer service hell. I need to find out where my UPS package went and why I received an erroneous "final bill" for a service I discontinued long ago. There will be more articles to write and Dot needs to go to her acupuncture appointment as well. I'm glad it's a short week.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day