Day 39

I stopped by Aaron Brothers on the way to the grocery store to get some frames before their penny sale ends tomorrow. It probably says something about me that a frame shop is one of the few places in town where they greet me by name when I arrive. I love to frame things. When you put a frame around something, you look at it differently. You could pick up trash on the street, put it in a nice frame and suddenly it becomes art. Perhaps this blog is just a way to frame each day. Words in books. Images in frames. It's all the same, really. Just a way to get people to pay attention to the things around them.

Today, I just wish people would pay attention to their driving. It's another soggy, wet day in Dallas and traffic is terrible. Things slow down to a snail's pace whenever it rains. Lord help us if it snows. We know what to do if a tornado hits, but garden variety wet weather doesn't seem to bring out the best in us.

Just about every Saturday shares a common theme these days. I vaguely remember doing something spontaneous on weekends, but it's been a long time. Lately, it feels like my life has become an endless to-do list I will never finish. The house is cleaner this evening. The groceries are in the refrigerator. The laundry has been dried and folded. I'm sure there's still something that still needs to be done.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 38

Life would be a lot easier if the dogs could talk. Dash woke me up at 3 AM this morning. He was whining and pacing around in an agitated state. Was he just whining because Dot stole his place on the bed, or was something wrong? I let the dogs outside, but all they did was start barking and woke all the neighbors. We repeated this exercise three times at twenty minute intervals before Dash revealed the true nature of his problem. He had diarrhea.

In the morning he threw up and had more diarrhea. I took him to the vet, suspecting that his colitis might have returned. Sure enough, that was the diagnosis. I wonder if the missing pumpkin might have caused this? Increasing the amount of fiber in your pet's diet is a common way to manage colitis. It's only been a week or so since all the pumpkin disappeared from the grocery shelves in Dallas, but maybe that was enough to make a difference. On the other hand, maybe Dash just ate some nasty crap in the park while I wasn't looking. It seems easy enough to diagnose colitis, but pinpointing the exact cause is apparently very difficult. At any rate, I can now add Metronidazole and Famotidine to Dash's growing list of daily meds.

It took me a while to figure out how to use the Microsync strobe sync system that arrived yesterday. There was a big warning sign on the receiver that said never to use the unit with power packs that had high sync voltages. To be safe I plugged the receiver into a WEIN Safe-Sync adapter, and turned everything on. Nothing worked. I changed the transmitter to a different frequency, and still nothing worked. I was about to give up when I noticed a picture on the Microsync package that showed the unit plugged directly into a Norman power pack just like mine with no voltage reduction adapter at all. I got rid of the safe-sync adapter and set up the unit just like it looked on the box. Everything worked perfectly. None of this was mentioned in the instructions, of course.

Dash is sleeping peacefully now. Hopefully the worst is over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 37

I'll never get used to Texas weather. Less than a week ago, I was worrying about the pipes freezing and today it was 75° outside. Hard to believe it's T-Shirt weather in the middle of January, but that's Texas for you.

What a busy day! One of my clients wanted to add some new employees to their website, so I took over 400 images this afternoon to get twelve good portraits. It's amazing how much things have changed since film disappeared. If I were still shooting on film, I probably wouldn't have taken more than 75 images for the same job. Digital cameras make a lot of things easier, but it's still hard to make people look as glamorous as they'd like to be when they're dressed in hospital scrubs and wearing no makeup.

The Microsync wireless strobe sync system I ordered last week arrived today. Hopefully, I'll find some time to test it tomorrow. I never had a problem using a long sync cord when I was photographing people, but after having dozens of unruly dogs trip over my sync cord when I was helping Dalmatian Rescue with their Christmas pet picture events, I was determined to find a better solution for our upcoming Valentine's Day event. Odd. My clients are happy enough with my obsolete working habits. It's the dogs that are keeping me on the cutting edge these days.

My doctor wouldn't let me drink yesterday after he stuck his camera down my throat. Luckily, that's all in the past now. In honor of Project Runway, we've moved Martini Night to Thursday.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 36

I had to walk the dogs extra early this morning, since I needed to be at Medical City for my EGD test by eight AM. I'm not fond of hospitals. It seems like every time I go, it takes longer and longer to fill out all the paperwork. When I met the doctor, he asked if I still had bleeding and was taking laxatives. "No." I told him, "You're doing an upper GI scope on me this morning." The doctor laughed. "Sorry, wrong end," he said. "I need to keep my ends straight this morning." I already had a colonoscopy last year. Maybe if you combined the video from that test with the one they are taking today, you would end up with a stem-to-stern tour through my entire body. Perhaps I should ask them for the tape and put it on YouTube.

No annoying valium drip today. I was out cold. They gave me Propofol which I like, because it has virtually no side effects. As soon as you are awake, you're good to go. The hospital still won't let you drive home after an EGD, but I'm sure that's just a liability issue. When I woke up after the procedure, the doctor said I had esophageal ulcers, reflux esophagitis, erosive gastropathy and erosive duodenopathy. Well, I guess that explains the heartburn anyway.

Looks like the market is giving back all the gains it made yesterday. I was hoping that yesterday's rally would continue for a day or two in celebration of Scott Brown's big win last night. No such luck. The doctor said to take it easy today, so I guess I'll just go and take a nap with the dogs.  They take it easy every day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 35

I stayed busy most of the day updating several of the websites I manage. I'm quite efficient at making these weekly updates and modifications, but sometimes I wonder how long I can continue hand-coding HTML when everyone is moving to the cloud. Maybe the web development industry is headed in the same direction as the auto industry was 100 years ago. In the early days of the automobile there used to be dozens of successful manufacturers here in the United States, all essentially making custom cars. Now the only automaker left that isn't a ward of the state is Ford.

When Force.com introduced the concept of Cloud Computing, things in my world changed just as fundamentally as the day Henry Ford introduced the assembly line. Already I'm starting to see fellow photographers, graphic designers and architects abandon their very beautiful handmade websites in favor of a sophisticated and easy to use liveBooks template. The writing is on the wall. I don't know who's going to be left standing ten years from now, but it probably won't be me.

Maybe if the market continues to go up like it did today, I won't always have to worry so much about the viability of my business model. I'm not holding my breath though. The chances of the stock market becoming a reliable and predictable source of income are about as good as the chances that Congress will finally get the message and start acting responsibly if Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts tonight.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 34

I don't own a cell phone. Until recently, I've never considered this to be a liability. I'm certainly not that hard to reach. I have an easy to remember e-mail address and my landline phone number hasn't changed in twenty years. Nevertheless, I'm starting to feel like I'm missing some sort of fundamental change in the way society works. Every single one of my clients and most of the vendors I work with carry an iPhone around with them constantly. They seem to be glued to the devices. In meetings, at lunch, even at home, they can't take their eyes off the tiny touch screen.

What could be so important? I've known many of these people for years. A lot of them aren't any busier than I am. Often, their phones don't even ring, but still, they keep staring at them. Maybe I'm missing the point though. While I was eating breakfast this morning, I watched part of a program called "Planet of the Apps" on CNBC. In less than five minutes I saw a neat little iPhone application I could actually use myself. It was an inexpensive program that turned your phone into a fully functional teleprompter. Cool! I spend hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of dollars on renting expensive teleprompters every time I produce a video. Now, a mobile phone can do the same thing.

I'm torn. I'm fascinated by technology, but I still don't find much of a need to talk to anyone. Would an iPhone change my life? I don't know. I have a feeling it would be like the pair of brown alligator shoes that caught my eye last Summer. They're still sitting in my closet unworn almost a year later.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 33

Where have all the pumpkins gone? Canned pumpkin is a great source of fiber, especially for dogs who have trouble expressing their anal glands. We're been adding pumpkin to our dogs meals for quite a while, but recently, I've started noticing that canned pumpkin is harder and harder to find. Albertson's has no pumpkin. Kroger or Tom Thumb don't have any either. Where have the pumpkins gone? I always thought that canned pumpkin was a staple ingredient in any kitchen. I mean everybody loves pumpkin pie, and pumpkin soup is fairly common too. You can still find parsnips, rutabaga and even stranger vegetables almost anywhere, but no pumpkin. I'm mystified.

I used to wonder about the meaning of life. In a pinch, I could quote Schopenhauer and Ludwig Wittgenstein from memory. Now, I wonder where all the pumpkins have gone. I wonder if anyone else finds Haley Bennett's voice irritating when she says "The Human Network" on those new Cisco commercials. I'm starting to wonder why the "live" Aflac duck has been replace by a cheesy looking cartoon duck.

Maybe my brain has already turned to mush. We'll see what else has turned to mush on Wednesday. That's when I'm scheduled to go to Medical City for the EGD test I had to postpone over the Christmas holidays because I couldn't find anyone to drive me to the hospital. They say a flexible endoscope is a remarkable piece of equipment, but I'm still not looking forward to swallowing a video camera.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 32

No breakfast this morning. It's time for another cholesterol screening at Northlake Health Foods. There's usually a huge line of senior citizens ahead of us when we go to these screenings. It's not surprising actually, especially when you consider that you receive a complete blood panel from a reputable testing lab for only $20. When my regular doctor runs a similar panel of tests, it usually shows up as a $400 charge on my insurance statement. I'm convinced that this one little example is at the heart of why the entire health care situation is such a mess. The whole concept of insurance destroys competition. Whenever someone thinks you are paying with someone else's money, the price goes up. Always! Car insurance, health insurance, homeowner's insurance...it's all the same. Nobody gives you their best price, because they know you're not the one who's paying. In theory, going to see your doctor shouldn't cost much more that taking your dog to the vet. Veterinarians are very well trained. They typically have more up-to-date X-Ray and diagnostic equipment than their human medicine counterparts. They only charge a small fraction of what your regular doctor charges however, all while performing essentially the same services.  What's the difference? No insurance is usually involved. The vets know you are paying with your own money and charge accordingly.

Somehow Janet and I missed the usual long line at the cholesterol screening and were in and out in ten minutes. We celebrated our good fortune by going to Cracker Barrel and having a large plate of stuff that wasn't good for us. After pancakes and some nice thick bacon strips, I was ready to hit the stores and do the week's shopping. I'm having a harder and harder time finding incandescent light bulbs. Everyone is stocking these florescent and LED bulbs instead. I hate them. They're way too dim for me and if you drop and break one of the new spiral florescent bulbs, you turn your house into a hazmat site.

Hey, the blog is one month old today and Dr. Who is on BBC tonight. Things could be a lot worse.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 31

It felt like I spent my entire day paying bills. Quarterly taxes are due on January 15. So are the monthly homeowner's association dues for my still vacant rent property. Then, there is the Visa bill, the Mastercard bill, the water bill and on and on. Don't even get me started about health insurance. My monthly health insurance premiums are higher now than my entire salary was when I started working.

Not a very glamorous day. It's raining again. After I cleaned the mud off my own dogs and stopped by the post office to give the IRS everything I made last month, I headed down to the VCA-Loop 12 kennels to repair the Kuranda beds the rescue Dalmatians had destroyed. It's not one of my favorite tasks, since even though the kennel staff says they wash the beds every day, they still reek of dried urine. Kuranda makes the strongest, most durable dog bed out there, but they are no match for a kennel dog with too much time on its hands. Most of the dogs we kennel would be perfectly content to sleep on the sofa all day, like any self-respecting Dalmatian, if they had a real home. They're still waiting though, so they become amazingly creative at destroying their dog beds. It's just boredom. How would you like to stay in a kennel all day?

On a more positive note, I got a call out of the blue this morning from a veterinarian who wondered if I would be interested in designing a website for a new animal hospital he was building. You bet I would!  By this time next month I'm going to have a whole new pile of bills to pay.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 30

I finally got the recalcitrant printers working again and started producing the promotional materials for the Dalmatian Rescue Valentines Day fundraiser. If you live in Dallas, be sure to stop by Unleashed on either February 6 or February 13 and let us take a heart warming portrait of your dog. I'm not surprised that people love these pet picture fundraisers we do. The quality of the photos are fabulous and, at least to me, the prices are unbelievably low. If I charged these kind of prices to my commercial clients, I'd be out of business in a month. It's all for the dogs though. The entire production team gives away their time for these events and although we are tired at the end of the day, we have a lot of fun too.

Thursdays are website update days for several of my clients. Luckily, the workload wasn't that heavy today, so I had time to finish the Valentines Day posters too. Dot is usually the model when I design posters and marketing materials for Dalmatian Rescue. Dash won't stay in one place long enough for me to take a picture.

Keeping the blog current is taking me a bit longer than I thought. I don't know why I'm surprised. Absolutely everything takes me a bit longer than I think it should. In theory, writing something everyday will impose a bit of discipline on my life and help keep my brain from turning to mush. It certainly beats doing Sudoku puzzles anyway. I wish I could continue to work in the slow meticulous way I always have, but still get things done faster. It's probably not going to happen. I don't believe in, or even understand, the whole concept of multi-tasking. Multi-tasking to me is just doing a lot of stuff at once in a non-focused, half-assed way.

So here I am, continuing to do one thing at a time and never getting finished. Finished or not, I'm certainly going to take a break and watch the premier of Project Runway Season 7 tonight. I've gotten totally hooked on that show.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 29

I had lunch with Harry Harrison today. Harry and I both began our careers as copywriters during advertising's Jurassic period . We worked together at Bozell & Jacobs and later at Stern Monroe. I don't think either of these agencies even exist anymore. Nothing from that era really exists anymore, unless you watch it on an episode of Mad Men.

Over the years, I did less and less writing and began branching out into photography and filmmaking. Harry kept writing though. Now, he is a best selling author. You can buy his books at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com. I was browsing around in a local bookstore recently and on the back cover of one of Harry's books it said "over one million sold."

I'd like to publish a book someday. I've had stories and short essays published, but I've never had the discipline to tackle a book. My sister, who is a very successful author, keeps telling me that I'll never get published unless I quit spending all my time writing about myself. "Nobody is interested in what you think," she tells me. It's probably true. There's certainly not a lot of people following this blog.

I ought to try and turn my dog stories in to a book. People love dog stories. If John Grogan could turn his dog Marley into a publishing home run, maybe I could do the same with Spot, or Petey or even Dot and Dash.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 28

I wish I had a bigger house. I'm continually taking things down to the storage warehouse because I can't find any place to put them. On the other hand, I'm continually bringing things back from the storage warehouse because I stored them away by mistake and I actually need them. Back and forth I go. I guess I have enough closet space, but it would be nice if the closet wasn't five miles away.

When I was looking for a watch to photograph for today's watch of the day, I discovered four more watches that need new batteries. The Epson 4000 printer is clogged again too. It would be nice if a lucrative new project would come through the door that would allow me to junk all my aging equipment and just start over. Of course, I wouldn't really throw it away. I would just take it all down to the storage warehouse where it could join the rest of my obsolete machinery. Maybe when I retire, I could start a museum of obsolete technology. We could start with the two Osborne 1 computers that are gathering dust in a corner and then move on to the very first Macintosh 512K. Remember Commodore?  Sequential Circuits? They're all there somewhere.

Although I'm just as comfortable booting the office computers from an old System 9 drive and working with fifteen year old software as I am using the latest version of Snow Leopard, there are still a few new things I lust after. I've started seeing leaked photos recently of the new Apple tablet that will be introduced later this year. I may have to get one of these. Finally, an iPhone with a big enough screen for me to actually use.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 27

I got new safety inspection and registration stickers for my Defender 90 today. I remember when you used to take your car in for a safety inspection, a mechanic would poke around under the hood for a while and make his own determination about whether the vehicle was roadworthy or not. Now the entire process in computerized. Sensors are placed in the engine and tailpipe and a computer in Austin, Texas decides whether you pass or fail. I was lucky today. Usually, when I take my car for a safety inspection I have to sit reading old magazines in the garage for an hour or so. Today, we were in and out in less than twenty minutes.

I wasn't so quite lucky when I went up the street to the neighborhood Tom Thumb to get my new vehicle registration sticker. The clerk told me that I needed to go downtown and get new license plates this year because the plates on my car were seven years old. Damn! Another long line to stand in. When I finally got the new plates several hours later, they looked pretty flimsy. Evidently prisoners don't make license plates anymore. These looked like they were printed on tin foil at a local Kinkos store. I wish I could have just kept the old plates. It took me four years just to remember the number.

After wasting quite a few hours making my car legal again, I stopped by Aaron Brothers to pick up a framing order. The picture looks wonderful, but I have no idea where I am going to put it. All available wall space was used up years ago.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 26

Another busy Sunday. We're trying to organize a Valentine's Day fundraiser for Dalmatian Rescue. Since the group did so well taking Santa Paws pictures over the Christmas holidays, we thought we might be able to expand the pet picture idea to other holidays as well. Unleashed invited us to take Valentines Day pictures down at their facility on February 6 and 7. Back in December, this seemed like a good weekend to schedule the photo session. Now that we're thinking more clearly and have realized that this is Superbowl weekend, we're wondering if anyone will show up. After the Dallas Cowboys beat the Eagles last night, some of our Dalmatian Rescue volunteers are convinced that Dallas is actually going to be playing in the Superbowl as well. It won't be easy to find volunteers on February 7.

Janet and I went down to the dog park this afternoon to see if we could reschedule the fundraiser for another day, but we couldn't find anyone who could give us a definite answer. Hopefully, we can find an alternate date to take the Valentines pictures, since I've already purchased a 10x20 pink muslin backdrop for the shoot. Volunteer work is every bit as complicated the as the work I do for my regular clients. The only difference is that I'm working for free. Sometimes it seems like I'm working for free for my regular clients as well, but that's another story.

I just noticed that the safety inspection sticker on my car is due again. One more thing I've got to find time to do next week. I wonder what percentage of my life is spent just paying bills, running routine errands and answering calls from telemarketers?  Whatever the percentage, it's way too high. At least the days are starting to get longer again. During December, the dogs usually got their evening walk in the dark. Now, we're beginning to see the sun again. We noticed another sunset bridal shoot along the lake on this evening's walk. Sunset photos must be popular with brides. I see them often.

Dot and Dash must be popular as well. I was surprised as how many people mentioned to us today that they'd seen the dog's picture in yesterday's paper. In a world where RSS newsfeeds update your computer every few minutes, it's easy to forget that people still read the newspaper.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 25

Breaking news! When I looked through this morning's paper, there were Dot and Dash, featured as promised, in a Metro Section article about the chilly weather in Dallas. I really didn't think the dogs pictures would get published, since Dot was barking so much when we were being interviewed yesterday. The story looked great, however. Thanks, Dallas Morning News!


Later today, Janet and I drove to Flower Mound to take Spot's wheelchair to a women who wanted to borrow it to see if, Kendall, her aging Dalmatian could use it. The wheelchair didn't fit Kendall, who was larger than Spot, but we showed the woman how she could use a Walkabout Harness instead to help her dog regain a little mobility. I can't say enough good things about the people who make the Walkabout Harness. When our dog Spot got old and began to lose the use of his rear legs, the Walkabout Harness gave him an extra year and a half of freedom and mobility. Kendall reminded me so much of Spot. It's sad to see a dog who still has a strong desire to live slowly fade away. They just don't understand what is happening to them. Probably people don't understand either. Near the end, my Dad seemed just as perplexed about what was happening to him as Spot did. I'm not looking forward to getting old.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 24

Global warming? I don't think so. It's 16 degrees outside today in Dallas. Add in the wind chill factor and it feels like it's below zero. The dogs still want their walk, of course. They actually looked quite stylish this morning when I bundled them in two layers of dog coats. Dot wore a bright red coat over her black sweater and  Dash wore his matching blue coat. During our walk, the colorful pair caught the attention of a Dallas Morning News reporter who was out looking for human interest stories. She was writing a feature about what people in Dallas do in freezing weather. She got our names and took a lot of pictures as we walked along the bike path near White Rock Lake. I don't know if we'll make the Saturday morning papers though. Dot barked at the reporter during the entire interview. Maybe there'll be one good picture though. I noticed the reporter was using a top-of-the-line Canon ESO camera and shooting in burst mode. Shooting at a rate of 5 frames per second, you can literally take hundreds of pictures in just a few minutes. Maybe she managed to capture a few good frames between all the barking.

I think the reporter would have had a lot more interesting story for the paper if she'd asked why all my pockets were filled with self-winding watches. (pockets are a lot cheaper than a watch winder and work just as well) If she was interested, I could have told her about the pack of Coyotes who live in a thicket of trees about fifty yards behind where she was interviewing us. I might have even given her my recipe for the delicious sausage scramble I was going to make for breakfast as soon as I got home. Of course, in today's online world, interviews are always a two way street. I could have had a lot more interesting blog entry today if the reporter had told me why she was sitting out in the freezing cold waiting for a story in a completely empty city park, just in case some idiot like me happened to walk by.

I'll have to go out and buy a paper tonight and see if we made the news.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 23

I had a meeting with my new financial advisor this afternoon. Hopefully this will work out better than it did with my last financial advisor, who convinced me to sell all my Apple shares at 166 on his firm conviction that the dreaded "double dip" pullback I kept hearing about was just around the corner. Apple shares closed at 210 today.

I don't think I'd enjoy being a financial advisor. Your job is to make rational decisions about people's financial future in a world that has become increasingly irrational. It's all just a guess, but still you're held accountable whenever you guess wrong. I've just about given up on trying to predict the markets myself. Stock prices certainly aren't behaving very rationally. Prices continue to go up at the same time that volume continues to decline. It's all very discouraging. Two years ago I felt quite comfortable about being able to retire whenever I felt like it. I managed to convince myself that I was just working for fun. They keep saying the financial meltdown is behind us, but I still have this sinking feeling that I'm going to have to keep working forever.  Like BB King says, "The Thrill is Gone."

To improve my spirits, I stopped by Culwell & Son on the way home from my meeting to do a little shopping. What a fabulous store. You can actually buy clothes that aren't made in China here. I'd probably enjoy wearing nice clothes even more if I had any reason whatsoever to dress up. The dogs certainly don't care what I look like. Now that everything has migrated to the Internet, I don't even go to business meetings any more. These days I just answer e-mail.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 22

Every Wednesday evening we take Dot and Dash to the ABOTC Obedience Class on Flagpole Hill. Dash has actually won four ribbons over the years - all on nights with terrible weather when the better behaved dogs stayed home. Maybe he'll win another ribbon tonight. It's cold and gloomy outside and attendance is sure to be low. Dash is a lot like me. He knows all the commands, but just can't be bothered half the time. Dot, on the other hand, is quite the performer. She graduated to the advanced class several years ago and would be an obedience superstar if she could just learn to sit without raising one paw in the air.

It's surprising who you run into at dog class. We usually see Scott Hadden and his dog Tanner. I've known Scott for years, since we are both in the video production business here in Dallas. Until we started going to dog class however, I never realized he had one of the best trained dogs in town. Robert Rogers and his wife Cindy take their two German Shepherds to class every Wednesday as well. Robert is a fantastic mechanic and takes good care of my aging Citroën Maserati. The car has been sitting in his garage in Nevada, Texas for several years now. I hope it stays there for several more years, since it is a lot safer there than if I was driving it in Dallas traffic.

Wednesday is also Martini Night. I think the tradition started when Janet and I got hooked on watching Project Runway after dog class. We've continued drinking long after the show moved from its original Wednesday night slot on Bravo to an entirely different day on Lifetime. Why not? There are many days when I feel like every night should be Martini Night.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 21

At this time of the year I often see photographers down by the lake when I take the dogs on their morning walk. They're bundled up in parkas with their cameras on tripods, waiting for just the right moment. Sometimes I feel like walking over and congratulating them for discovering exactly the same spot I discovered with a camera years ago. It's a bit humbling to realize that none of your visual ideas and insights are all that unique. It's also kind of neat to think that there are all these other people out there, completely independently following a very similar path. I've spent years photographing the lake behind my house. It can be quite spectacular on cold Winter morning like this. The Pelicans have returned. There is often a thick mist rolling over the surface of the water before the sun burns it off. Almost every morning there is something unique and interesting to see.

I've missed thousands of Kodak moments walking the dogs in the morning. You can't carry much camera gear when you're walking two very strong and rambunctious Dalmatians who are always on the lookout for squirrels. The dogs have a different agenda than I do. When we see a duck, they would much rather eat it than photograph it. I still keep my eye out for interesting things however, Because I can always go back with a camera later.

I remember what I see and then on those occasional cloudy bright days when the light is perfect, I go back to the lake without the dogs and get the shot. It's an odd way to work. I never really "capture" the moment. I slowly and meticulously recreate it from memory.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 20

Well, Christmas is officially over. I took down the tree this morning and packed up the ornaments for another year. The living room looks a little bare without the festive stockings filled with dog treats and the tree covered with Dalmatian shaped ornaments collected over the years. I wish the holiday season lasted a bit longer. Clients are more forgiving during the holidays. Overeating isn't a vice during the holidays and sleeping in late is almost expected.

Now it's January. There's nothing festive about January. This is the month for pulling together last year's tax information for your accountant. It is the month when you realize your contact list is completely out of date and it's time to start prospecting for new business again. It is the month when you finally have to admit that most of last year's goals were not actually met.

Nevertheless, if you can't be optimistic in January, when can you be optimistic? Maybe the stock market will continue to improve this year and I can finally get back to even. Maybe Technorati will start tracking this blog and I'll get tons of new followers. Maybe iStockphoto will quit telling me that I over-process my photos and start accepting the images I've been sending them. Maybe the Germans who used to give me tons of work will re-discover me on XING and my company will become fashionable in Europe again. Stranger things have happened. January is cold and a bit dismal, but it is not a month for giving up. Reality doesn't usually set in until at least April 15.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 19

Sundays never change. Small variations keep the day interesting however. When Janet and I went up to walk the Dalmatians at K-9 University, Travis was there to help us. Travis is cool. He's still in his twenties and has already started his own media integration company. He was excited today, telling me that Paper City had just run a feature story about one of his new company's recent home theater installations. He then whipped out his iPod to show me photos of a home built ring light he'd made to take pictures of aspiring models. Dalmatian Rescue needs more volunteers like Travis. Most of us are so old, we need to hold the leash with both hands when we walk some of the strong dogs like Kobe and LeBron.

Later, when I took Dash for his weekly bath, it appeared that his reputation had already preceded him. I heard one employee telling another that Dash sings like a bird as soon as he gets wet. Sure enough, Dash didn't disappoint. As soon as I began to bathe him, he started his strange warbling howl which sounds remarkably like a bird singing. It's not a pretty, or even a happy sound, but it is unique. Nobody believes me, but Dash is much better than he used to be. It wasn't that long ago when he made the odd warbling sound every time he rode in the car or when I turned on the vacuum cleaner. Now he saves his odd music for his bath.

When we took the dogs down to Unleashed to have a little play time, we saw Alan Lidji and his daughter with their dog. We also saw Beth Borman, one of our teachers at the ABOTC dog training class we take Dot and Dash to on Wednesdays. Montana, one of Beth's dogs, has learned how to open the gate to the dog park, and one day recently he let all the other dogs out. Maybe someday our dogs will learn to play as enthusiastically as Beth's dogs. For now, there are still a bit overwhelmed by all the activity.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 18

I went up on the roof to see if I could pinpoint the source of the leak that appeared on the living room ceiling last week. What I found was a foot thick pile of water soaked leaves covering the entire roof. The leaves were way too heavy to blow away with the electric leaf blower, so I tried to push them off the edge of the roof with a push broom. After getting the leaves more or less removed from the carport area of the roof, the push broom broke in half and I was done for the day. Now, I have to add a new push broom the the list of stuff I need to pick up at the hardware store this weekend. Sometimes, I think I could spend the rest of my life just fixing the growing pile of broken stuff that surrounds me. Broken cameras, clogged drains, sputtering lawn mowers, sticking doors and literally dozens of little gizmos with dead batteries. This is the legacy of someone who became a bit too fascinated with architecture and technology.

My sister Judy doesn't like technology. She doesn't even use e-mail anymore and prefers to write almost illegible letters to me in longhand. You'd think she'd have plenty of time on her hands, since she isn't spending her entire day fixing broken stuff like me. Nope, not a chance. She started planting a vegetable garden a few years ago and now that the garden has grown to almost an acre in size, it consumes just as much time as my leaking roofs and dead batteries. I guess everyone chooses their own poison.

It's no surprise that I often prefer to tidy up my virtual life and postpone the problems of the physical world for another day. After all, it's a lot easier to de-fragment a hard drive than it is to de-fragment a life.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 17 - New Year's Day

I'm not real big on New Year's resolutions. I know that change is good for the soul, but for the most part I enjoy things the way they are. I certainly don't need to lose weight. After all these years, I can still wear the same 32"x32" Levis I wore in college. I'd hate to give up drinking either, because I definitely enjoy a well-made Martini or a fine Scotch. Now that I finally have my blood pressure and cholesterol under control, I don't feel I need to do anything drastic like giving up bacon again. I still miss bacon, but don't get me started about missing things. I miss being able to buy leaded gas for 35 cents a gallon. I miss being able to buy Polaroid film for my beloved SX-70 camera. I miss the days when the Internet was a small private club for a few geeks that knew Unix.

Those days are gone though. What I really need to do this year is resolve to quit looking in the rear view mirror and start looking forward again. I may not need to worry about getting fat, but I do need to worry about becoming irrelevant.

The K-9 University Kennels are closed for the holidays, so we're on our way up to walk the rescue Dalmatians again. It's a clear sunny day and I've already finished the laundry. The year is off to a good start.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 16

It really didn't seem that long ago that we were awaiting the arrival of a new millenium. Ten years ago tonight, I was optimistically awaiting the year 2000. In 1999, even the Tech Bubble hadn't crashed yet. The Internet was the new frontier and there was money to be made everywhere. In 1999, we toasted in the new year with Dom Pérignon. In 2009, we bought a bottle of Cristalino at Sam's Club. I never dreamed the entire decade would be such a downhill slide. My health deteriorated. My wealth deteriorated. Almost everything I thought was a sure thing in 1999 has been turned upside down.

Greta died in 2004. Petey died a few years later in 2006. Animal companions weren't the only losses however. I also ended the decade with far fewer human friends than I started out with.

There's not much point in looking back though. I'm not Dr. Who. Even though I ocassionally wish I could go back in time, I can't. You've got to keep looking forward. There's really no other choice. Who knows. Maybe I'll learn to text next year. Then again, maybe I won't. The way I see things, I'm texting right now. What would be the point of writing shorter, more garbled prose from a mobile phone?

I know it is going to be a better year in 2010 for three Dalmatians. We went down to VCA Loop 12 and took pictures today of Humphrey, Spot and Nick so we could add these new orphans to the Dalmatian Rescue website and find them a home. Maybe finding homes for dogs is as good as it's going to get. Not a bad life really. And on that note, a wish a very Happy New Year to anyone who might be reading this.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day