Day 116

Busy day! The Dalmatian Rescue group is having a casino party fundraiser this evening at Brookhaven Country Club. We had to go up and set up all the tables earlier today, and we'll have to take them down again after the event is over and put them all back in the trailer. These casino parties remind me of the days when I used to play bass in The Fabulous Has-Beens. What I remember most about playing in a rock band was hauling a trailer full of really heavy speakers somewhere, playing for a little while and then hauling all the really heavy equipment back home again. Since I was the bass player and also owned the PA system for the band, I always had the heaviest stuff to carry. With these casino parties we do, the heaviest thing to move is the craps table. A grand piano is easier to move than a full sized craps table. Since craps is always the favorite game at these events, we definitely can't leave it behind.

Janet and I are roulette dealers for these fundraisers. Roulette is actually my game of choice when I'm in Vegas. It's kind of mindless and relaxing, compared to poker and blackjack. It's also pure luck. I see all these players with complex roulette strategies and they don't do any better than anyone else. The only people who do really well at roulette are those who come in, put a huge pile of chips on red or black and just walk away when they win. The longer you play at roulette, the more you lose. If you play long enough, the house always wins.

I'm certainly not winning in my own house today. The shower pan is leaking and I'm even having trouble with things as simple as putting a light bulb in a socket. I still like incandescent bulbs. They have a softer, much warmer glow. Now that everyone is moving over to these new low energy florescent bulbs, you can't find well-made incandescent bulbs any more. I think they make them all in Bangladesh these days. The bulbs aren't even the right size to fit in the sockets and I often break brand new bulbs just trying to screw them in. Once again, I am being defeated by technology.

Hmm. What shall I wear tonight? Casino dealers usually wear outlandish, over-the-top watches. They're usually cheap, but have lots of bling.  Luckily, I have a few of these myself. Maybe I'll wear a cheesy Ice Master watch tonight. Or, maybe I'll wear a silly one, shaped like a guitar.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 115

Dot is a good little watch dog, but I wish I could figure out a way to tell her that not everyone is dangerous. She got so upset barking at the air conditioner repairman this morning that she started peeing on the carpet. I'll look for a repeat performance next Tuesday when Marty returns to install the new thermostat he had to order. It's odd. Dot is real friendly with people when she meets them outside the house. She doesn't like people coming in the house though. Dash could care less. He slept through the entire hour long barking episode.

I went and paid the late fee for my storage space so they would take the padlock off the door. The manager said he was surprised I was late. "You're never late," he said. Wait till next year. I'll probably forget I even have a storage space. Later, when I was picking up my tax return from my accountant, he was telling me how one of his customers had forgotten to pay for their storage unit for several years in a row. "She has Alzheimer's," he told me. Jeez, maybe that's how it starts. First you forget about your storage unit, and then you forget the names of all your relatives.

When I left my accountant's office and was heading back to my car, this guy Steve I used to work with walks out of a nearby Thai restaurant and comes over to say hello. "What are you doing in there," I say, mostly because it wasn't anywhere near dinnertime. "I own the place," says Steve. Wow! That was a surprise. The last time I saw Steve, he was an art director. He's not from Thailand either. I think he was born and raised in Texas. Actually, I didn't even know Steve could cook, but if he was going to get out of advertising and open a restaurant, I would have guessed something in the barbecue family. Hey, maybe the place is fabulous. I love Thai food, so I told Steve I'd drop by for lunch sometime soon.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 114

I got my car back from the shop today. The repairs cost a little more than I had hoped, but at least I didn't wreck the loaner car. I've been nervous about driving loaner cars ever since I drove one of them straight into a pole before I could even get out of the dealership parking lot. A word to the wise about cars: if you're thinking of buying a new one, make sure you get the longest, most comprehensive extended warranty you can find. Hopefully, all the expensive stuff will break while your car is still under warranty. It was only after the warranty ran out that I began to realize just how expensive owning a Land Rover can be.

My air conditioner repair got postponed for another day. It turns out it was too cold to fix an air conditioner today. I guess it would make sense to wait, especially since I had the furnace on most of the day. Instead of waiting around for the air conditioner repairman this morning, I should have gone over to the storage warehouse and paid the rent on my storage room for another year. I forgot that my year was up at the end of March and now they've padlocked my space. Oh well. One more thing to add to my "to do" list for tomorrow.

One of my clients wants me to create a Powerpoint show that will run on one of those digital picture frames you see on everybody's desk these days. It probably isn't even worth trying to explain that digital picture frames were made to display a series of JPEG images from digital cameras. They weren't designed to play Powerpoint shows. Nobody ever believes me when I say something can't be done though. They just think I'm being lazy. Maybe I am. I've been down this road before. I know I'll spend several days trying to figure out how to make this silly idea work and then my client will think that all I did was press a few buttons and won't want to pay for it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 113

When I was eating breakfast this morning I saw the dogs from 101 Dalmatians The Musical again on some of the morning shows. I guess the show has finally arrived in New York City for its Broadway run. I hope it does well. When the show was in Dallas back in December, we got to meet the cast and even got to take Dot and Dash to meet some of the Dalmatians featured in the show. As you can see, Dash was kind of fond of Jada, one of the stars. This musical has never really gotten good reviews. I know it's not another Phantom of the Opera or Jersey Boys, but I wish the theater critics had been a bit kinder. I thought it was an uplifting, inspirational show that the whole family could enjoy. What's so bad about that?

I finally made an appointment with Betty and got a haircut today. Yeah, I know I said that I was going to do this over a month ago, but other things kept getting in the way. At any rate, while I was at Northpark, I stopped by the Apple store to take a look at the new iPad. Wow! I'm impressed anyway. I think when the G3 model becomes available at the end of the month I'm going to get one of these things. I've had a laptop for ages, but all I ever use it for is to check e-mail, write stuff with a word processor and look up information on Google. The iPad can do all these things in such a classy, elegant way that's it's hard to resist. Who cares if it doesn't have a built-in camera and can't function as a phone. The thing looks cool and has no moving parts. It's a great way for a photographer to show a portfolio too. Images on the screen just look beautiful. A lot of people are saying that the iPad isn't really useful, but neither am I, so I guess we were made for each other.

The dogs were terrible at obedience class tonight. They'd missed two weeks in a row and both of them seemed to have forgotten everything they'd ever learned. Maybe they were just cold though. I certainly was. After having temperatures in the 80's yesterday, it caught me by surprise that it was so cold out this evening. It's supposed to get down to the low 40's later tonight. Weird weather! The air conditioner repairman is coming out tomorrow and I'll probably have to turn the furnace on tonight. That's Texas for you though. Never a dull moment.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 112

When I took my car in to be serviced this morning, the dealer gave me a new Land Rover as a loaner car. It would be nice to have a new car again. I like the smell of a new car. My car smells like a thousand dogs have ridden it. I like all the new high-tech gizmos that weren't even invented when I bought my car. Janet's car has one of those GPS map displays that you can program to take you straight to your destination. I'd love one of those. The one thing I wouldn't love is making car payments again. I'd rather just wait until I can afford to pay cash. That's why I still faithfully take my car in at regular service intervals. It's probably going to have to last me for a long time.

Spring is definitely here. I can tell because my allergies have returned with a vengeance. I'm allergic to grass pollen. Every Spring when the Bermuda grass starts to grow in my neighbor's lawns and the Johnson grass begins to grow in mine, my eyes start itching and my nose starts running like a faucet. Antihistamines help somewhat, but I hate the drowsy feeling you get from taking too many antihistamines. Also, if you take antihistamines during the entire allergy season, they just quit working. After a couple of months, your immune system builds up a tolerance for the drug and it starts to lose its effectiveness.

The dogs usually give me a bad case of poison ivy sometime during the Spring as well. Poison Ivy is probably the most common plant in the park behind our house and the dogs inevitably run through a big patch of the stuff when they are trying to catch squirrels. I usually don't even notice until the next morning after one of them has curled up with me for the night. Benadryl for the allergies and Prednisone for the poison ivy. It's all part of Spring's unique magic.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 111

I really thought I was making progress today. I got the new locks successfully installed in the rental property. I got my car scheduled for a service appointment at the Land Rover dealer tomorrow. I took the remaining missing tax forms over to my accountant. Then, since it was actually over 80 degrees today, I went home and turned on the air conditioner. Nothing. I checked the fuse box. I checked the thermostat. Everything seemed normal, but the air conditioner was still dead. This seems to happen every time the seasons change. The first day it gets cold I have to call Marty, my HVAC guy, to come out and fix the furnace. The first hot day I call him again to come out and fix the air conditioner.

If my life seems to be a litany of broken machinery, it's only because I foolishly still think things should be built to last. I'm not comfortable with the whole concept of planned obsolescence. I'd much rather buy something that's well made and keep repairing it forever than to buy shoddy inexpensive stuff, fully expecting to just throw it away the first time it breaks. The only problem is that it's getting harder and harder to find good repair people. If you call someone out to repair your refrigerator, 9 times out of 10 you'll get a salesman disguised as a repairman. These are the people who'll make a cursory inspection, then tell you your appliance is obsolete and quote you an attractive price on something brand new instead. Again and again I've had people tell me that my broken stuff is worthless and obsolete, only to discover later that all it took was a three dollar part to make things good as new again. Marty will fix the air conditioner though. He's one of the good guys: a repairman who actually fixes things instead of trying to sell you something new instead.

I noticed the dogs were walking a bit slower today. It wasn't even that hot outside, but Dalmatians hate the heat. When Summer really arrives it's hard to even get Dot and Dash out of the house. I'd better move fixing the air conditioner all the way to the top of my to-do list. With Dot, Dash and Janet all hating the heat, there will be no peace in this house until the cold air starts flowing again.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 110 - Easter

I remember when I was little, my parents would get us up real early and we would get in the car still in our pajamas and go to Easter sunrise service. We could get away with going to church in our pajamas because the sunrise service was actually held at a drive-in theater. The choir and preacher were up on the roof of a concessions building squarely in the middle of the drive-in. To hear the service you would roll down your window a bit and attach one of those speakers that were on poles next to every parking spot.

I wonder if drive-in theaters even exist anymore? I'm sure that Easter sunrise services still exist, but I haven't been to one in years. This morning I got up like I do every Sunday morning, walked Dot and Dash and then went up to K-9 University and walked the rescue Dalmatians. Instead of an easter egg hunt in the grass, I mowed the grass. This was the first time this year I had the lawn mower out and I was amazed that it even started. I've just about given up on having a decent looking lawn. I've put in a new St. Augustine turf four or five times, but it always gets overpowered by weeds. I don't like to use weed killers because Dot eats grass all the time and I don't want to poison her. When I mow the grass in the Summer I'm basically just mowing a bunch of weeds.  What the hell. The weeds are green, and it doesn't look bad from a distance.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the park was filled with thousands of people riding bicycles. Today it was filled with thousands of families playing soccer, having Easter egg hunts and flying kites. One of the family picnics was so large that someone actually brought a moving van just to transport all the assorted tables, folding chairs and barbecue cookers. It's nice to see the park become a popular destination, but I do wish people would pick up their trash then they leave. The kids never find all the Easter candy from their egg hunts, but the dogs always manage to find what they leave behind. Since chocolate is dangerous for dogs, I need to stay on the lookout for chocolate bunnies and Cadbury eggs tomorrow morning.

I needed to stay on the lookout for changing flight schedules today as well. I always check the American Airlines website just before I leave for the airport in case a gate has changed or a flight has been delayed. When I went to pick up Janet this evening the website said that her plane would be twenty minutes early. When I got to the airport, it was actually thirty minutes late. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. American Airlines is always late.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 109

There were literally thousands of bicycles in the park this morning when I took Dot and Dash on their early walk. There was a steady stream of cyclists passing us for over an hour. At first I thought it was a race, but the bicycles were moving a bit too slow for racing. It turns out that this endless parade of bicycles was something called Tour Dallas: a 30 mile fun run through the city streets. It certainly looked like everyone was having fun until someone fell off their bicycle right in front of us. Almost instantly a cry of "rider down" reverberated through the crowd of cyclists. Few people stopped to help however. I guess they didn't need to. In less than a minute, paramedics were at the scene and assisting the woman off the roadway. This was obviously a well orchestrated event. I think everyone who finished the event got a free pizza. This is typical Dallas. First you get your heart pumping with a brisk thirty mile ride and then you go clog your arteries with a pizza.

I had some time this afternoon, so I thought I'd go down to Oak Lawn and install the new locks on my rent property. I guess it's a law in Texas that you have to change the locks every time you get a new tenant. I had already picked up a Schlage lockset at Home Depot a few days ago. It looked identical to the locks that are currently on the doors. Piece of cake to install, I thought. I get the entry lock installed in less than five minutes and I start to install the deadbolt. Oops! It won't fit. Damn. Right on the box it says "Universal fit...works with any door." The lock doesn't fit my door though. Apparently the width of the hole the deadbolt slides into has gotten a bit wider since the last time I changed these locks. Since I didn't have a drill with me and it was too late to go exchange the lock for another, I gave up for the day and just re-installed the old locks.

Janet's coming home from her cruise tomorrow and I need to do some major housecleaning. I like for people to think I'm neat and tidy all the time, but when nobody's looking I'm actually pretty messy. We're making progress I think. I've run a few loads of laundry. Got all the dishes cleaned. I've vacuumed the floors. I still need to clean the comforter on the bed where the dogs got it muddy. There's probably other stuff that I've forgotten about, but I do think I got just as much exercise today as those cyclists we saw in the park this morning.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 108

My telephone problems are getting ridiculous. In hopes of having a reliable and inexpensive backup system just in case my static-prone phone lines go out entirely, I went out and got a Skype Wi-Fi phone yesterday. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I've used Skype for quite a while to save money talking to my European clients. I liked the idea that I could use a small cell phone sized device to make virtually free calls all over the world at the office, at Starbucks, at the Indoor dog park, or anywhere else there was a Wi-Fi hotspot.  There was only one small problem. I couldn't get the thing to work.

I tried everything I could to avoid the dreaded call to tech-support, but eventually I had to acknowledge that I didn't have a clue why the phone wasn't working. I made the call and ended up talking to somebody in India who I could barely understand. I spent 45 minutes on the phone as the technician walked me step by laborious step through the process of manually configuring the phone when hitting the connect button didn't work. When everything was re-configured, the guys says "now try to connect to the network." I hit the connect button again and nothing happens. "I don't know what to tell you," the guy says. "You have a good phone. Maybe your network has gone bad."

I try to convince the guy that I've been sitting here answering e-mails as I've been talking to him and that nothing is wrong with the network. He's not buying it though, so I politely thank him and hang up. I'm just about ready to take the phone back for a refund when I notice that my fingers are actually quite a bit bigger than the tiny keys. I put on my reading glasses, get a ball point pen and very carefully press exactly the right keys to enter my password. Voilà. The phone connects to Skype and everything works perfectly. I've just wasted over two hours because my fat fingers weren't hitting the correct keys.

I don't know why I was in such a hurry to get my tax information to my accountant last week either. I've been getting additional 1099 and K-1 forms in the mail almost every day. Now I've got to go back and give him all this additional information as well. Oh well, at least it's Friday.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 107

I got two jobs approved and on their way to the printer today. This used to mean we were finished. Not anymore. Clients don't like to pay for professional proofreaders these days. They think they can do it themselves. That's fine by me. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work out very well. I'll get something officially approved and the very next day, I'll get a call with further changes. This can go on for weeks. I've had some jobs "approved" five or six times. After the job has been away at the printer for a week, some folks completely forget what they approved in the first place and look at the finished piece like it came from Mars. We'll see if these two pieces survive. I like them anyway. If we have to reprint because of a late change in plans, it wouldn't be the first time.

Henry was more difficult to transport that I expected. He howled and barked continuously during the entire 40 mile journey. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but Henry is still recovering from surgery and it was hard to tell whether his howls were caused by pain or by the general irritation he felt from having to ride in the car. He wouldn't lie down in his crate, so every time we went around a corner he would fall over. I would stop the car and go back and make sure he was OK and then we would continue our journey. I transport rescue dogs quite often because the Land Rover is ideal for this sort of thing. I wish I could tell the dogs who were unfamiliar with car travel to just chill out and take a nap. Some dogs love a car ride, but the nervous ones seem convinced that I'm driving them straight back to the pound. At any rate, Henry arrived safe and sound. With any luck, in a few weeks he'll be enjoying his new home.

I got a recorded call from AT&T today saying that they didn't repair my phone because they couldn't gain access to the premises. Hey guys, I was here all day patiently waiting for you on the day the repairs were scheduled. It's not my fault that you decided to come the next day instead, when I was away at a meeting. I can't decide whether to try to schedule the repairs a third time or just give up on the phone company entirely and go with Time Warner instead. I wish I could explain to people what Skype was. Skype works great and it's free. Unfortunately, none of the people I need to call on a regular basis have even heard of Skype.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 106

I got so frustrated with my unsuccessful efforts to get my phone line repaired that I went out yesterday and bought one of those magicJack adapters you see advertised on TV. I asked the guy at Radio Shack if he was sure it would work on a Mac. "Sure, no problem," he said. Did it work? Of course not. After fiddling around with the thing for twenty minutes, I noticed in very tiny type on the side of the box something that said Requires Intel Processor Macintosh. Such a deal. I get local and long distance phone calls for only $19.95 a year, but I have to go buy a new two thousand dollar G-5 Mac to actually use it. Needless to say, I'm back to square one and am still using my old phones with the loud buzz in the line.

I think my dogs have outsmarted me again. For the past week they've been refusing to poop in their regular spot and I've had to walk them all the way past Erykah Badu's house before they finally decide to do their business. I don't think the dogs are celebrity hounds, but if they were they couldn't help but notice that Erykah has been all over the local news lately for parading around buck naked in Dealey Plaza while filming a new music video. Personally, I don't think the naked video shoot is a big deal. There are a lot weirder things to talk about. For instance, what about the humongous bomb shelter buried under Erykah's front yard? It's big enough to serve as a NORAD command center. I watched the contractors install the thing while she was building her house. It arrived early one morning on an oversize 18-wheeler and took several large cranes and excavators to install. If the apocalypse comes early, Erykah would be a good person to know. I think she's going to survive.

I still miss Martini Night. It's been over a month since I've had anything to drink. Even though I'd love to go mix myself a stiff drink right now, I don't think I'll have any problems maintaining my sobriety. It's sad in a way. I've become so used to dutifully doing things I don't enjoy that giving up alcohol becomes just one more thing to add to the list. Maybe I'll thank myself later when I discover that I don't need a liver transplant after all.

It looks like Henry is finally going to get a home. This dog has already survived heartworms, pneumonia and major spinal surgery. I can't think of a dog that deserves a second chance more than this guy. Tomorrow, I'm going to transport him from the veterinary hospital where he has been treated for the past four months to the K-9 University kennels where he will begin his transition to a normal life. As cynical as I've become, I still love a story with a happy ending.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 105

I spent the better part of today waiting for a telephone repairman to come out and fix a bad line at the office. The guy never showed up. This is the second time this has happened in less than a month. Anticipating problems, I asked the AT&T dispatcher this morning if she could give me a time of day when the repairman was expected to arrive. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not even located in your city. I just turn in the repair order and the first available technician will be there sometime today." Probably the first available technician will arrive unannounced three or four days from now when I'm not even here. That's what happened last time. No wonder people are abandoning their land lines in droves and using wireless for everything. It's just about impossible to get an old fashioned, plain vanilla telephone fixed anymore.

Be careful what you ask for folks. I've been trying for months to get some new project assignments from my European clients. Got an e-mail today from my German friends asking if I'd be interested in writing about one of their Brazilian subsidiaries. Fantastic! Only one small problem. All the input material for the project is in Portuguese.

My rental property is officially leased. I signed all the paperwork this afternoon. Hopefully, this will be a good tenant. They all start out good. Something always happens though. They lose their job. A boyfriend moves in with them. They join a cult. They have loud parties and drive the neighbors crazy. We'll see how this turns out. I've discovered over the years that the best tenants are traveling salesman. People who spend a lot of time on the road and just need a home base usually turn out to be perfect tenants. They're not around enough to trash the place. Once I rented to the activities director on a cruise ship. This guy was hardly ever there at all. He was the best renter I ever had. I guess the holy grail would be to find a renter who never even moved in at all.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 104

If you looked through some of my old journal entries from the ad agency days, it would appear that I did nothing but decide where to have lunch and who to meet for happy hour. Now, I spend my time writing about what I'm working on and telling people how tired I feel. Jeez, what has happened to me. Truthfully, I don't think I've changed all that much. I think the world has changed.

Before globalization and the Internet, even supposedly stress filled industries like advertising moved at a much more leisurely pace. I can recall that a busy day for me used to be scribbling an idea for a 30 second television commercial on a yellow pad and handing it to a typing secretary. That was it. By the time the finished copy came back from proofreading and legal, it was usually a week later. Everyone had an assistant back then. Even the assistants had their own assistants.

I'm amused when I listen to all the pundits on TV talking about the employment crisis and wondering why more people don't have jobs. I can tell you why not enough people have jobs these days. It's a no-brainer. The people who are still working are doing the work of five people. Companies stay competitive by figuring out how to use fewer people to do more stuff. That's the "productivity" we keep hearing about. If we went back to the days when everyone had an assistant, we could be at full employment in no time. Of course, whatever we were making or selling would be so expensive that nobody would buy it.

The combination of a global economy where there is always somebody out there who thinks two dollars a day is a living wage, and the Internet, where all desires are gratified instantly, has killed the goose that laid the golden egg. The only way I even have a prayer of staying competitive is to continually look for new ways to do things faster and cheaper. It's not fun. Like it or not, we're in a downward spiral that won't end until wages have equalized around the world. I don't think my parent's generation realized just how good they had it. Sure, they didn't have computers and iPhones, but they didn't need them either.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 103

I don't always enjoy everything I do, but I do get a sense of satisfaction from a job well done. This weekend went well. We completed the two day pet picture marathon with lots of happy customers, an invitation to return on Mother's Day and no broken equipment. I'm not even going to bother to unpack my gear, because I've got another photo shoot scheduled with one of my clients for tomorrow afternoon anyway. As long as I remember to recharge all the batteries, I'm good to go.

You wouldn't believe all the trash in the park this afternoon. Two sunny days in a row and everyone in town decides to have a picnic. When the party is over, they leave all their used paper plates, empty bottles, smelly baby diapers and lord knows what else on the ground and just drive away. The park was virtually empty when I first moved here. When I used to walk Spot, it was just me and a few bikers who used to hang out here. Then the city spent millions on improvements designed to make the place attractive to everyone. Now, a nice day will bring out thousands of people who leave behind thousands of pounds of trash. Personally, I liked the bikers better.

It's hard to believe that it's almost April. It seems like I just took the Christmas tree down yesterday. I don't know whether time is moving faster or I'm just moving slower. Increasingly, I'm noticing that I'll put something on my to-do list and all of the sudden three months have passed before I get anything done. Work never gets postponed and that's probably why everything else slips behind. There seems to be a desire for instant gratification in the workplace that never used to exist. Nobody is patient anymore. This lack of patience causes even small projects to quickly consume all your available time. Every once in a while someone will ask me what I want to do when I retire. My answer is always the same: absolutely nothing.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 102

I'm exhausted. I started the day by taking Janet to the airport at 4:30 AM. Came home, ate breakfast, took Dot and Dash on their morning walk and then put all the equipment in the car and left for Unleashed around 9 AM to set up for the first day of our Easter photo shoot. It takes about an hour to put the set together and then we're ready for a day of non-stop dogs. We didn't have quite as big a turnout today as we did for Valentine's Day photos last month, but the crowd was steady and we stayed busy all day. A lot of people said they would bring their dogs tomorrow, so I have a feeling that we'll do just as well as we did before. The dogs were actually better behaved today, but that was probably because the park wasn't as crowded. On beautiful Spring weekends, a lot of people would rather be outside than than take their dogs to an indoor dog park. The park will be crowded soon enough though. Mild Spring weather never lasts long in Texas. Before long, everyone's air conditioner will go into overdrive, electric bills will double and it will be another long, hot Texas Summer.

Got an odd letter in the mail today. It was from a law office somewhere in Missouri saying that my Dad was a party to a class action lawsuit against A.G. Edwards. My Dad has been dead for ten years! Actually A.G. Edwards isn't around any more either, since it was taken over by Wells Fargo several years ago. This confirms what I have always thought about lawyers and class action suits. They are a total scam designed to make the lawyers rich. Somewhere near the end of the letter, there was an obscure paragraph explaining that the law firm sending the letter was to receive one third of the total judgement against A.G. Edwards. The lawyers share: 33 million dollars. My Dad's share, may he rest in peace: 12 dollars and fifty cents.

It looks like I've only got another week or two before I have to drag the lawn mower out of the greenhouse in the back yard and start mowing the grass again. This is one or the rites of Spring that I'm not that fond of. The odds are close to 100% that the lawn mower won't start and I'll have to lug it down to the lawn mower repair shop and pay them $130 to fix it. This happens every Spring like clockwork.  Eventually the lawn mower gets fixed, the grass starts growing and then the dogs race around and tear it up.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 101

After 101 days, it's probably time to tell you a little more about the Dalmatians. We got our first Dalmatian on Easter Sunday in 1987. Spot was an amazing dog. He transformed me from an elitist, art collecting architectural snob into someone who didn't even flinch when sharp little puppy teeth chewed up an expensive Paolo Uccello "Tomasa" chair in the dining room. Spot lived for over 14 years and filled our lives with love and adventure. As he grew older, I wrote a book about him and subsequently an obscure publication called The Dalmatian Quarterly asked if I would be interested in writing a regular column for their magazine.

I wrote stories about Spot for over seven years, right up until the day he died. After Spot passed away, I didn't know what to write about any more, so I went to a local Dalmatian Rescue meeting, thinking that this might give me a story for the magazine. Not only did rescuing stray and abandoned dogs give me something to write about, it gave me a purpose I had never found in advertising. Janet and I have been rescuing Dalmatians ever since. I hadn't really thought about how many dogs have touched our lives until I started putting a Dalmatian that we had helped rescue on the blog every day. There were hundreds of them! I haven't even come close to showing you all the rescued Dalmatians I've been lucky enough to get to know over the years.

Dot and Dash were both rescued from animal shelters and you couldn't ask for a better pair of ambassadors for animal rescue. Dash loves people and is always a hit at public events. Dot is the commensurate diva, and has been the photo model for countless public relations efforts. Right now she is trying her best to raise money for the rescue group in a photo contest on the web. If you've got a second, go vote for her right now. If she wins this pet fashion contest on the BaxterBoo website, Dalmatian Rescue will get $250 to help the dogs.

I've got the cameras, lights and backdrops all packed and ready to go for the Dalmatian Rescue Easter pet photo event tomorrow at Unleashed. Since Saturday also happens to be the first anniversary of the indoor dog park, we ought to get a good crowd. I have a feeling that somebody's dog will eat the rabbit ears we got for them to wear and I'm almost certain that one of the larger dogs will think the pastel eggs are balls to play with instead of photo props. As long as nobody poops or pees on the backdrop, I'll be a happy camper.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 100

If I could still enjoy alcohol, I'd crack open a bottle of champagne this evening. There's something to celebrate. The blog has survived for 100 days! Granted, some days were dull as dishwater, but there were a few interesting events along the way. I gained three new clients. I lost the ability to drink my beloved Martinis. The dogs and I were featured twice in the local media. I even discovered a small handful of people were actually reading these posts every day.

Even though I've been a web developer for many years, I knew virtually nothing about blogging when I started writing back in December. I still don't know much, but I have discovered that reading other people's blogs is just as interesting as writing your own. I wouldn't have discovered nearly as many interesting blogs if it weren't for Entrecard. I don't like to start working in earnest until I've finished my morning coffee. Somehow clicking on Entrecard widgets and drinking my morning Joe seems to go well together. It takes so long for the Entrecard widget to change from "drop" to "thanks" that I can usually read the entire first page of a blog while I'm waiting. I've actually discovered about a dozen blogs that I currently follow this way.

When you look at a lot of blogs in a short amount of time you start to notice things. Most people don't update their blog often enough. If you visit a blog once a day, you'd like to see something new at least once a week. A blog that never changes isn't a blog; it's a website. A lot of people have way too many Javascript tracking thingies and weird awards on their blog too. Take some of these things off folks. If your blog takes twenty minutes to load and crashes your browser in the process, you're not going to come back to visit very often. I find most political blogs boring. Ditto for religious blogs that are too preachy. I do enjoy humor blogs though. Especially those who find humor and irony in their own daily lives.

I wonder if there will be anything humorous on Project Runway tonight? As soon as I publish this post, I'm going to go turn on the TV and find out. See you tomorrow folks for Day 101.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 99

Have I mentioned that Dot is scared of rain. Both dogs are huddled under my desk right now like it was some sort of doggie tornado shelter. It's actually a gentle rain with occasional distant thunder, but try convincing Dot of that. She thinks the sky is falling. Dash isn't worried, but he always follows Dot's lead and does whatever she is doing. We've spent a big chunk of this rainy Winter with Dot huddled under the desk as I try to work. Needless to say, I'm really getting tired of all this bad weather.

My leasing agent called today and said that my rent house finally has a tenant. I need to go sign the lease and change the locks on the doors later this week, but basically I can finally take this lingering item off my list. After paying real estate taxes, homeowner's association dues and fixing the inevitable things that break, I still won't make any money on the place, but at least I won't be losing as much as I was when it was vacant. Maybe if the real estate market improves in a year or two I can finally just sell the house and be done with it. That would be nice. I asked my friend Harry recently why he was still working every day when he was already a best selling author. "Oh, I've got to keep working," Harry told me, "because I always make terrible investments." I can certainly relate to that.

No time to cry over spilt milk though. I've got to get ready for the Easter pet picture event this weekend at Unleashed. I wish there was an easier way to pack up an entire studio and move it somewhere else, but I haven't figured it out. Luckily, there aren't any other photo shoots this week, so I'll start packing everything up tomorrow. You can never really predict which cards life is going to deal you. Twenty years ago I was convinced I was going to be the next Richard Avedon. As is turned out, I ended up being a pet photographer.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 98

The tall stack of papers that has been sitting on the edge of my desk is finally gone. Today I performed the annual ritual of handing over all my tax records to my accountant in hopes that he can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse and get me a refund. Some years when I do this, I feel pretty good. The past two years have been abysmal though. I still haven't recovered from the 2008 financial meltdown. Apparently, many of my clients haven't either, because production budgets seem to get smaller every year. Many of my designer and photographer friends share the same story. Our new motto has become "Work harder. Earn less."

When I was at my accountant's office this afternoon, I noticed a whole new row of books on his bookshelf with titles like "Search Engine Marketing" and "Profiting from Twitter." Passive income has become the holy grail for just about everyone. Many of my clients ask me about "monetizing" their websites. I've even tried to do it myself. It's definitely not as easy as it looks. First of all, you have to have a really popular website. If you get 100,000 visitors a month you can potentially make real money from online advertising. If you get 1.500 to 2000 visitors a month, like many small business sites, you'd better just use your site to tell people what you do for a living. Don't believe me? Go get yourself a Google AdSense account and see how much you make the first year. I haven't given up though. Maybe when I retire, instead of supplementing my income by picking up aluminum cans by the side of the road, I'll supplement my income with online advertising instead.

Until that day comes, I'll just keep working. I've got a direct mail campaign just about ready to go to the printer and I'm only about five days away from bringing the first of my three new websites online. Too bad life isn't as easy as Entrecard. I've noticed my Entrecard account is looking pretty healthy these days. I have to remind myself that it's only Monopoly money. Jeez, if I could make real money by mindless clicking on things while I'm drinking my morning coffee, I'd be rich.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 97

Every day is a series of small triumphs and setbacks that allow me to keep score in the Monopoly game that is my life. On an average day, the triumphs and setbacks pretty evenly cancel each other out and I am left standing in exactly the same place as I was the day before. Little things like getting a picture accepted by the stock photo agency or discovering that I have a new blog follower allow me to advance one square. Things like a major computer crash or seeing the dreaded "Service Required 0001001B" message when I turn the printer on will make me lose a turn. If I get a new client, I might advance four or five squares at a time. Every once in a while I will draw the "Go to Jail" card, but I haven't suffered a serious setback like this in several years.

I wish I had a better sense of where I was going. I've never really had a long term goal and still tell people that I haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. I think I've learned the most during periods of my life when absolutely nothing was going on. Idle curiosity has always been the catalyst that kicks my brain into high gear. If it weren't for the fact that "idle" and "poor" seem to go hand in hand, I'd stay idle a lot more.

I've been busy for a long time. Being busy makes me efficient and productive, but I don't learn anything new. Learning something new isn't as much fun when you're busy. It just becomes one more task to complete. I have so many tasks to complete that I don't really see the big picture anymore. That's why I focus on the tiny triumphs and setbacks. I fixed the sump pump up on the roof today, so I get to move ahead one square. My leasing agent hasn't brought me a lease to sign yet from my supposedly "sure thing" new tenant, so I lose a turn. And on and on it goes. I probably am making forward progress, but it's definitely taking place at a snail's pace. Am I ahead or behind in the game?  Who knows. I do wonder ocassionally if there's even any point to "bringing home the bacon" anymore if I'm not even allowed to eat it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 96

There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground when we went up to walk the Dalmatians at K-9 University this morning. I don't think Kobe, LeBron and Lance had ever seen snow before. They certainly seemed to enjoy it. All three dogs raced around and kicked up snow like it was some new kind of toy. It was kind of amazing to get this much snow so late in the year, even though much of it had melted by mid-afternoon. The one place the snow didn't melt of course, was up on my roof. Once again, I had to get up on the leak-prone flat roof and sweep it all off.

I'm getting so forgetful. I've had a 4 PM meeting on my appointment calendar for several weeks now. Wouldn't you know, I forgot the meeting entirely this afternoon and went to Unleashed with the dogs just like I usually do. I probably still wouldn't have given this meeting a thought if I hadn't happened to look at the calendar after dinner to see when I have to have my tax information ready to take to my accountant. Oops.

Next week is a minefield of things I could potentially forget. Several projects are due next week. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday, instead of Tuesday like I usually do. I think an animal rescue meeting has been moved to Thursday, although this isn't on my calendar at all. I have to leave myself little notes all over the place to have even a ghost of a chance of remembering all that I need to do in an average week. It's not that I'm disorganized. It's just that I am terrible at multi-tasking. I tend to get involved in one thing and forget about everything else until I get that one thing is finished. I enjoy working. I just don't like scheduling. Luxury for me would be to have an appointment secretary who would keep everyone at bay and continually re-schedule things until I finished what I was working on and then, when one task was completely finished, would hand me something new to do. That's not very likely though, so I'd better start posting little notes around the house for next week.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 95

I couldn't believe it. I was walking the dogs this evening and it started snowing. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was talking about the beautiful Spring weather we were having? This is a typical March day in Texas. One day it will be 75 degrees and everything will start to bloom. The next day there will be a late freeze and kill everything.

It seemed like the only thing on television today was the non-stop coverage of tomorrow's health care vote in Washington. I've got mixed feelings about the health care bill. It's way too expensive and it's going to make life more difficult for small business owners like myself. On the other hand, I'll probably benefit from the changes myself. I'm one of those people they always talk about who has preexisting conditions. The only way I can get health insurance at all is to lease myself from an employee leasing company and then get insurance coverage from the employee leasing company's group plan. Anyone can do this, but it is quite expensive. Health insurance is my biggest single business expense. I spent more on health insurance premiums than I do for equipment purchases. My monthly premium is more than all my utility bills and other insurance payments combined.

If the health care bill passes I won't have to lease my own services from myself anymore, just to get health insurance. I can go out and buy a policy like a normal person. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that this new policy won't end up being even more expensive than what I am currently paying. I don't have a lot of faith that things are going to be any better than they are now when the dust finally settles.

What I don't understand is why so many people who could easily afford health insurance don't have any at all. Artists and freelancers are notorious for not bothering with health insurance. I don't think they have any idea how expensive things can get if they do get sick. Toward the end of my dad's life, when he was suffering from Parkinson's Disease, I needed to take over his affairs. It was only then that I began to realize how truly expensive health care can become. Without good health insurance, a single extended stay in a hospital can wipe out your entire life savings in a matter of months. It's not worth the risk. I'll keep paying through the nose for insurance until someone can figure out how to get my doctor to charge me the same as my veterinarian. Personally, I'd rather be treated by my veterinarian. Many vets are better trained than physicians. Their equipment and techniques are more up-to-date. Did you know that vets are already doing advanced stem cell therapy on dogs that probably won't be available for humans for another ten years? Most importantly, vets are just a lot nicer than doctors and not nearly as arrogant.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 94

Now that the weather is getting nicer, I've started seeing more joggers and cyclists in the park. A lot of these people seem to enjoy running or riding their bicycles in large groups. The runners are nice enough, but the cyclists can get pretty aggressive. One of these days the dogs and I are going to get mowed down by a pack of these type-a maniacs. I don't think these groups are pushing themselves to the limit however, because I often hear them talking to each other as they pass us on the trail. Groups of women talk about their children, their marriage or their divorce. The men just talk about their bicycles.

I don't talk much at all anymore. I used to be on the phone with clients all the time, but now everyone seems to prefer e-mail. Talking still seems so much easier than typing to me, but I dutifully answer my e-mail messages anyway. I still don't understand the fascination with e-mail and text messages. I never understood people's fascination with jogging and bicycles either, so maybe I'm missing something.

To me it makes more sense to get your exercise by doing necessary evils like mowing the grass and vacuuming. And I definitely prefer chatting over a cup of coffee to texting and e-mail. Why do people hire a maid to clean their house and then go join a gym to get the exercise they need? Walking two Dalmatians four to five miles every day provides plenty of exercise, but I've never thought of it as fun. It's more of a necessity. It's been my experience that if you don't give an active dog a long walk every day, they'll find some other outlet for their energy...like chewing up your furniture.

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