Day 244

Years ago when I lived in Colorado, I spent a lot of time hiking through the mountain passes between Aspen and Crested Butte. I remember that when we were headed uphill, the pack on my back seemed very heavy and all I thought about was putting one foot in front of the other. When we eventually arrived at the top of the pass, it all seemed worthwhile. You could see for miles and the trek back down the other side was exhilarating because you weren't fighting gravity anymore. Life these days seems a lot like those long uphill climbs. I'm still putting one foot in front of the other, but I can't see the summit at all. I'm beginning to wonder if there even is a summit.

Today's uphill climb consisted mostly of paying bills and trying to get an assortment of problems resolved over the phone. National Geographic called me in between my own calls with a detailed set of instructions for tomorrow's interviews. This call wasn't a problem at all. I was actually glad to hear from them. If all my clients were this detailed and exact about what they wanted from me, my life would be a whole lot easier. Most people don't give me any instructions at all. A lot of them don't even know what they want. I need to do something first to give them a target to criticize. Then I do everything all over again to arrive at a finished product. I shouldn't really complain about this awkward process though. If people were better at visualizing solutions, they wouldn't need me in the first place.

I need to come up with some better commands for the dogs. When I was out in the back yard with them after lunch, I realized that I was saying "No Bark" to Dot to get her to quit barking at the neighbor dog. At the same time, I was also saying "No Bark" to Dash to get him to quit eating tree bark that had fallen on the ground. No wonder the dogs don't listen to me. They are probably totally confused.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 243

I don't know where today went. It seems like I got up this morning and a few minutes later it's already 9 PM and I'm here falling asleep at the keyboard. Sundays have never been a day of rest at our house. From dawn till dusk the day is filled with non-stop household chores and dog activities. Things do vary a bit with the seasons, but the routine is usually the same. We get up, walk our dogs, eat breakfast, go to K-9 University and walk the Dalmatian Rescue dogs, come home, eat lunch, give our dogs a bath, take them to some sort of dog park to play, come home and mow the grass, do some laundry, walk our dogs again, eat dinner, find a watch to photograph for the blog, try to get ready for the week ahead and go to sleep. Today, my brain seems to think we've arrived at the "go to sleep" part of the day before I've finished everything else. I don't know why I'm so tired today. Maybe it's just the heat.

Dash seems to have achieved some sort of breakthrough about riding in cars. Ever since last Tuesday when he rode around in the Land Rover loaner car, he's been much better behaved. We took the dogs up to the Wagging Tail dog park again this afternoon and Dash acted completely normal. I didn't hear a peep out of him during the entire trip. As recently as a month ago, a trip like this would have been impossible with Dash. It's kind of amazing how much his behavior has improved. Maybe he finally had one of those "light bulb" moments where he realized when he went somewhere in a car, good things usually happened instead of all the bad things he was anticipating. I'll probably never know why Dash changed his mind about car travel, but I'm glad he did. We've always wanted to take the dogs down to the Gulf Coast so they could run along the beach. Now, something like this might actually be possible.

Next week looks busy already. Dot has her annual exam. I've got some interviews to film about the goat story for National Geographic. I need to go up to Lewisville to take some pictures at a fire station for the Dalmatian Rescue 2011 calendar. Oh, and Janet had a birthday coming up too.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 242

I got a call from my pharmacy today to tell me that my prescription for Peginterferon had been approved by insurance. I was initially pleased to hear this until I heard the pharmacist say "...and the portion of the cost that you will be responsible for is $1144.80." "I thought you said this had been approved by insurance," I said. "It has," said the pharmacist. "The $1144.80 is just the residual amount you pay after your insurance has paid their part." "Is this for the entire treatment," I asked.  "No," said the pharmacist. "This is just for one month of medication."

This definitely isn't good news. Especially considering that treatment could last as long as a year. I was almost scared to ask about the ribavirin pills, which are also part of the treatment. "Oh, that one is just a generic," said the pharmacist. "The ribavirin will only cost you $5 a month." Now why couldn't they combine the ribavirin with some other reasonably priced generic drug instead of the super expensive Peginterferon? I've heard from leukemia patients that their prescription drug costs often exceed $3000 a month, even when they do have insurance. Somehow, I thought I could escape all this. I need to talk to my doctor on Monday.

After this inauspicious start to the weekend, you would think that the rest of the day would have to get better.  Not really. I tried and failed for the third time to get my new financial planning software working properly. I've been promising Janet that I would install Photoshop on her laptop, but when I finally found a version on one of my machines that was new enough to run on her Intel Mac, it turned out to be an upgrade and wouldn't install properly. Adobe can be very irritating. Cannot find the version you upgraded from on your hard drive said a message in a dialog box. Well of course you can't find it. It isn't there! The version I upgraded from years ago on a completely different computer is so old that it won't even run on an Intel Mac. So now I've managed to install a huge bloated CS3 version of Photoshop that has already reverted to a useless 30 day demo which keeps asking me if I'd like to purchase a serial number every time I launch it.

I did manage to fix a little folding grocery cart that broke when the groceries it was carrying last week got too heavy. That was about the limit of my abilities today.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 241

I used to be superstitious about Friday the 13th. I've learned however, that you can be unlucky any day of the week. I certainly didn't need to worry about avoiding big decisions today. There were no big decisions to make anyway. I did have a few pleasant surprises though. My meeting with the medical clinic went very well. They liked my initial website proposal and have already scheduled doing photography for the new site next week. The doctor who owns the clinic wanted to go ahead and put the new site up right away until the practice manager reminded him that nobody had written any of the content yet.

The doctor looked at a few blank pages and then pulled an iPhone out of his pocket and started talking into a voice recording app. In a matter of minutes he had dictated the text he wanted for about ten of the blank web pages. "This all sounds good," I told the doctor and then asked him what he thought would be the easiest way to turn his iPhone voice recordings into text. "Oh, there's an app for that too," he told me. I felt like I was getting a glimpse into the not so distant future.

On my way home I stopped at Central Market to pick up some things for dinner. While I was waiting at the deli counter, I couldn't help but notice an irate man standing next to me demanding to see a supervisor or a manager. Nobody could figure out what this guy's problem was. He wasn't buying anything and he wasn't returning anything. He was just mad. There are way too many angry people like this out there these days. I encounter them just about every time I venture away from the house. No wonder that Jet Blue flight attendant who quit his job in such a dramatic fashion has become a folk hero.

I'm glad I don't have to deal with the general public in my line of work. My customers are very demanding, but none of them are rude. I think my tolerance for rudeness is way lower than it used to be. Maybe a few of these vocal, rude people have a legitimate gripe, but it all just sounds just like Dot and Dash barking to me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 240

I wish someone had told me that the new season of Project Runway had started. I think I've already missed the first two episodes. In tonight's episode, the contestants had to make a dress entirely out of things they found at a party store. The show reminded me of my day today. I had to make a website entirely out of clip art. I usually haven't shot the photography yet when I show a client the initial design work. If they like the design, I go back and shoot the photography later. Clip art isn't a great solution though. I can never find exactly the images I'm looking for and I always worry that if I show too many cheesy placeholder photos in my layout, they might torpedo my entire design.

I tend to change a lot of things at the last minute, which also reminds me of Project Runway. Yesterday, I thought I was almost done with this design. Today was a different story. As I was making some last minute tweaks, I discovered several things I hated and ended up doing a big chunk of the design work all over again.  Basically, I spent the day knocking down the sand castle I had already built earlier in the week. I think this is why I like projects with tight deadlines. If I only have time to do it once, I don't second guess myself quite so much.

The rescue group with the goat had their monthly board meeting this evening. I'm always late for these meetings, but I try to go anyway. I think everybody will be glad when the goat and the two dogs find a home. The entire place is starting to smell like a goat. Goats evidently poop a lot too. At any rate, I'm glad I'm not on the cleanup detail. The animals are so friendly though that it's easy to forgive the mess they've made. The two dogs are about halfway through their heartworm treatment, and the trio should be ready to adopt by the end of the month.

I've still got to film several more pieces of the story for National Geographic before the animals go to their permanent home. I'm hoping I can do most of this indoors, because it's just too hot outside. So far this August, every single day has felt a little hotter than the previous one. I watered the grass for several hours this morning and within 45 minutes after I turned the sprinklers off, the ground was dry again. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for Winter.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 239

Not a bad day. I got my car back from the Land Rover dealer and it was nice to be able to go places again without worrying about the engine overheating. Even when I was stuck in traffic the oil temperature stayed right in the normal range. One of my first errands today was taking my new logo ideas up to show Kevin at his watch repair company. He approved my favorite logo design and now we've moved on to redesign his web site.

It's a nice change of pace to have a client who likes to talk about watches at meetings. Usually when I go to client meetings I have to listen to clients talk about odd concepts like Enterprise Resource Planning or Front End Engineering Design. My next meeting is on Friday when I present my initial designs for the Medical Clinic website. I'm slowly but surely turning everyone in my small little universe into a customer. Both my veterinarians are customers. My two best friends from my ad agency days are now customers. My watchmaker has become a customer. And now my personal physician is a customer.  Occasionally, even Janet is a customer. I've managed to get work and pleasure so hopelessly muddled together that I'm not even sure what constitutes "fun" anymore.

One of the reasons I enjoy the dogs so much is that they represent the complete antithesis of a world dominated by work and working. They are basically lazy animals. Dot and Dash could care less if I miss a deadline or arrive late to a meeting. They live to eat, to sleep, and to chase squirrels. Remember that Bobby McFerrin song called Don't Worry, Be Happy that was popular in the 1980's? That's Dot and Dash in a nutshell. When the Dow dropped 265 points today, Dot didn't even bother to bark about it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 238

The dogs never fail to surprise me. I was dreading taking Dash to the vet today because the crate I usually transport him in was still in my car, which of course was still at the dealership being repaired. As I've mentioned before, Dash doesn't ride well in a car. He seems terrified of car travel and when he starts his high pitched barking and whining, he looks like he could keel over and have a seizure at any moment. I wasn't looking forward to just putting him in the back seat of the loaner car and driving over to the vet. At least when he's in his crate, I don't have to worry about him jumping up into the front seat and landing in my lap.

Dash surprised me though. He was the perfect gentleman. He sat nicely on his blanket in the back seat and I didn't hear a peep out of him all the way to the vet. I was amazed! Dash never rides this well in the car. He was quiet and well behaved on the way home too. Who knows? Maybe he isn't terrified after all. Maybe he just wants me to buy a new car.

I don't think I'm ever going to get caught up this week. Some of my long dormant jobs now have deadlines attached to them. I have meetings just about every day this week to present ideas in various stages of completion. Deadlines seem to inspire my cranky equipment to become even crankier. I need to print out some logo ideas for a presentation tomorrow, but one of the ink cartridges is almost empty and the only thing the printer will do is tell me to buy more ink. I also wasted a lot of time trying to upload a new website this afternoon using the wrong password. It took me forever to figure out that there wasn't a problem with the web server. There was just a problem with me.

I often envy Dot and Dash on days like this. They like to lie out in the sun after lunch. When they get too hot, they come inside and lie on the bed. Back and forth they go, trying to decide where they can find the most comfortable place to take a nap. I could sure use a nap. I was sorting through all the pictures from the big goat gala last Sunday and I kept seeing this tired looking guy with big bags under his eyes in the pictures Janet took. Yup. It was me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 237

I took my car back to the dealer this morning to get the overheating problem fixed and was pleased to discover that my loaner car was a pretty new LR-2. It looked just like Janet's car except this one was white instead of charcoal. I could probably buy myself a car like this with all the money I've dumped into keeping mine repaired. It turns out my overheating problem was caused by a broken fan clutch. My service representative said this was an easy problem to fix. Basically all I do is hand over $550 and it's good as new.

With my car problems taken care of, I headed downtown to take a look at the video tape I shot yesterday. I'm superstitious about master tapes. I will never look at or edit them until I have a duplicate master in hand. I almost always get my dubs made at DG Fast Channel because they have up-to-date equipment and they'll make the dubs while I wait. The tape I shot actually looked pretty good considering the weird lighting I had to deal with. There was sunlight streaming in through the restaurant windows, mercury vapor lighting overhead, and a 3200K quartz light mounted on my camera. It was just about impossible to get the color temperature perfect. The tape looked good though and I'll send it off to National Geographic. Truthfully, I'm still surprised that there's anything on the tape at all when I finish shooting something. I should be more confident after years of filming everything under the sun, but I've learned the hard way that it's better to be safe than sorry. It's almost a rule that if a piece of equipment can fail, it will probably fail when I'm using it.

Don't worry. The dogs still got their morning walk. The Land Rover dealer opens at 7 AM, so I was able to get an early start to the day. Normally Monday's aren't this busy, but I managed to get everything done anyway. The dogs walked a little later than normal, my pancake breakfast turned into a pancake lunch, but by 2 PM I had Dreamweaver running on my computer and was updating websites just like I usually do.

There's still plenty to do. I've got to get this month's invoices out tomorrow. Dash also needs to go back to the vet around noon for a follow up visit to check on his dental work. Almost every day is filled with routine but necessary tasks. Unless something unexpected happens, photographing a goat will probably end up being the high point of my week.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 236

Today was the big fundraiser for Judy, Minnelli and Lucky at Cafe Lago. When I arrived to film the event for National Geographic, there were already camera crews from CBS and Fox getting their mobile broadcast trucks ready for the evening news. I can't remember when a goat and two dogs have received so much attention. Originally, the animals were going to be outside on the patio for this event, but Gabbi, who owns Cafe Lago, decided to bring everyone inside since it was so hot. The goat loved being invited inside a Tapas restaurant and immediately started eating everything in sight. The two dogs seemed equally quick to notice all the delicious food on the tables.

Needless to say, the "three amigos" got lots of treats. The small restaurant was packed with people and everyone wanted to pet the unlikely animal stars. Judy, the Great Dane, is one of the friendliest dogs I've ever seen. She seems like a natural ambassador for animal rescue and she worked the crowd like a pro. Minnelli, the goat, is charming. He thinks he's a dog and acts exactly like the other two dogs. All three animals were extremely well behaved. They certainly behaved better than our own dogs under similar circumstances. Dot and Dash would have been counter surfing on the buffet table within minutes.

I really need to get a lighter camera. After a couple of hours with the heavy Beta-SP camera on my shoulder, I was exhausted. I couldn't use a tripod though, because the animals were constantly moving around and the crowd was so large that you couldn't see anything unless you were right in the middle of things. I had originally planned to take still pictures too, but things were so hectic that I didn't have time to switch back and forth between stills and video. Luckily, Janet came to the fundraiser, so I gave her the camera and she got some fabulous shots.

Dot and Dash seemed a little miffed that they were left behind during all this activity, but this was an invitation only event and they weren't invited. It's actually a good thing Dot and Dash weren't there. I didn't hear any barking all afternoon. With two Dalmatians thrown into the mix, there would have been a whole lot of barking. All in all, the fundraiser was a huge success and I hope it raised lots of money for the "three amigos" treatment.  I still need to take my video tape to DG Fast Channel in the morning to get duplicated before I can look at it. Hopefully, my pictures will turn out as good as Janet's.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 235

On weekends I try to sort through the clutter that the previous week left behind and tidy things up the best I can. There's always a ton of mail to sort through. I seldom open the mail during the week, because it's mostly all junk mail anyway. I'll always find a few bills in the pile of throw away mail. Why can't they put bills in a bright red envelope that says "this must be paid?" Today's bills look exactly like all the other junk mail. Even after you open them up it's hard to find the actual bill because there are so many advertising messages inside. More than a few of my monthly bills have gotten thrown away in the trash simply because I didn't recognize them as bills.

Weekends are when the stacks of receipts lying around the office finally get put in the file folder that goes to my accountant. Shirts that were washed days ago finally get ironed, and some weekends the floors even get vacuumed. In the Summer I'll invent any sort of task to avoid going outside in the heat. Today I had to go outside and mow the grass though. I usually don't bother to mow my yard until the neighbors mow theirs and I am shamed into outdoor activity again. I used to spend time on weekends practicing fixing watches or printing pictures for future gallery shows. I don't seem to have time for those kind of things anymore. I have a huge list of things I'd like to do "when I get caught up." Unfortunately, I never seem to get caught up.

I noticed today that the blog now has 100 followers. Thanks guys! When I started this, I had my doubts that anyone would even bother to read it. It's still surprising that there are 100 people out there who find my somewhat dull life interesting enough to read about. It's a nice kind of surprising though. I've enjoyed reading all your comments and I've discovered that writing something every day has definitely helped cure my writer's block. Perhaps the best thing about blogging has been discovering other people's blogs. There's a world of writers out there that I never knew existed. Some of you are absolutely marvelous! I'll probably never bother to put up a Facebook page. I do have a Twitter account, but I've never even written a single Tweet. I do like blogging though. There's something old fashioned about it. It's part of a long writing tradition that goes all the way back to James Boswell's journals. Onward and upward, I guess. If I've made it this far, maybe one of these days I'll have 200 followers. Maybe some day in the far distant future, I'll even start making some money from AdSense.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 234

I finally got the OK from one of my clients to launch a new website that has been sitting on the back burner for months now. I haven't really added or changed anything in quite a while. Today was just the day when the stars were aligned and the site was destined to be born. I think I'll need to retake the employee group shot though. It's been so long since I did the initial design work that we counted at least seven people in the picture who no longer worked for the company. This particular project was taking so long to complete that I was starting to think the client either hated the design or didn't like working with me. Everything was fine though. The project just slipped from high priority to no priority. I've got to remember that what I do just isn't all that important to many people.

Believe it or not, Bexel completed the repair work on my video camera today. This is one day where I was actually wishing for rain, because I had to drive all the way to Irving again in the heat to pick it up. This time I turned the air conditioner off, opened all the windows and turned on the heater in an attempt to dissipate the engine heat and help the car run cooler. The car did run cooler, but I can't say the same for myself. It felt like I was in an oven during the trip home. By the time I arrived at Central Market to pick up something for dinner, I was dripping wet. I guess the trip was worth it. I've got a working camera now to film the big fundraiser for the goat this weekend. I keep forgetting that there are three animals now. Lately, they've been calling the trio "The Three Amigos."

I got a call from my new Medical Clinic client about five minutes to one this afternoon asking if they could postpone our one o'clock meeting because they were running late. They seemed relieved when I told them the meeting wasn't until next Friday at one o'clock. I thought I was the only one who did this sort of thing. I'm always writing down appointments on the wrong day. Sometimes I even write them down on the wrong month. Everyone seems so busy and tired these days that I'm somewhat surprised anything actually happens on the right day. At least it's Friday. I didn't run into anyone today who wasn't glad the week was over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 233

I went to see my hepatologist today and got the final OK to begin my Hepatitis C treatment. I took the prescriptions for peginterferon and ribavirin to my pharmacist and he told me not to expect to start taking the medication any time soon. Evidently the drugs are quite expensive and there is a lengthly approval process to get insurance to pay for them. I probably will actually begin the treatments in about a month. My doctor said to pick a day when nothing important was going on to take the weekly injections. Just about any day would meet the "nothing important" qualification, but I picked Mondays because I can never get hold of my clients on Mondays anyway. If there's a day where I've got to feel like shit, Monday would be it. I certainly don't want to feel bad on the weekend when there's so much dog stuff that needs to be done.

You'd think I'd be good at math, since I was trained as an architect and currently spend a lot of my time coding websites. I'm terrible at math though. Today I installed some new portfolio tracking software on my computer to try to get a handle on why I've been doing so poorly with my investments. The software was supposed to automatically import all the transactions from my brokerage account and provide me with a much improved way of keeping tabs on everything. Not surprisingly, the "easy button" didn't work and I ended up having to enter a year's worth of transactions by hand. When I finished entering all the information, I fired up the analysis application and it told me that I'd made two million dollars this year. I wish! This ludicrous figure was so far off the mark that I was ready to throw the software in the trash. I actually lost money this year, but I couldn't figure out why the software wasn't telling me this. Finally, I went back and checked all the figures I'd entered. Whoops!  I seem to have misplaced a decimal place here and there. The big mistake was entering a sale at $45.67 a share as a sale at $4567.00 a share instead. I guess that would make a difference!

National Geographic wants me to film a fundraiser that's taking place this weekend to benefit the dog and goat friends. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, but my camera is still out at Bexel being repaired. At least I've got tomorrow to secure another camera. There's always a chance that the repairs will be finished tomorrow. Admittedly, there's not much of a chance this will actually happen. Nobody ever fixes my stuff on time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 232

I took my car over to the Land Rover dealer today to complain about the engine overheating, and wouldn't you know, it didn't overheat at all. It was just as hot today as it was yesterday, but for some reason, everything seemed fine. This always happens to me. I'll hear a weird noise, or a door won't lock, or the air conditioner will quit working and when I take the car in to show my service guy the problem, it simply disappears. The Land Rover folks made a service appointment for me anyway. They wouldn't miss an opportunity to take my money.

Just about everyone I talked to today wanted to reschedule something. It seemed like I spent most of the day just moving appointments from one day to another in my iCal program. That's OK. At least the meetings aren't being canceled. One way or another, it looks like I'm going to be busy this month. It's unlikely that I'll make any money though. A lot of these meetings are for pro bono projects I've foolishly agreed to do and the rest seem to be about future projects that might not even happen. I still believe in leaving no stone unturned. You never know. One of these seemingly pointless meetings might actually lead to something good.

I think the dogs are just as disgusted with the heat as I am. They only want to walk about half as far as they normally go in milder weather and neither one of them seemed to have any interest in training class tonight. I can't blame them. It's just too hot to do anything outside for very long. And before I forget, did any of you take the time to vote for Kobe? I noticed today that he's still sitting in 8th. place on the Purina website.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 231

Dash had his dental appointment this morning, so I had to walk the dogs much earlier in order to get him to the vet by 8 AM. I'm always amazed at how many people are out and about early in the morning. By the time we normally take our morning walk, the dogs and I virtually have the park to ourselves. It's a lot different at 6:30 AM. There were cyclists and joggers everywhere. One hour later, when I drove Dash over to the vet, the roads were equally crowded. I don't know how people tolerate rush hour traffic. It would drive me nuts if I had to do this everyday. Traffic is not usually a problem for me. I try not to go anywhere before 10 AM or after 4 PM.

The house was unusually quiet today. Dot doesn't bark when Dash isn't around. I don't know if she barks to show off, or to keep Dash in line, but there is definitely a lot more barking going on when both dogs are together. I thought Dash would be coming home right after lunch, but the vet discovered a tooth that had become abscessed and he had to have it pulled. By the time he was released around 6 PM, he was really ready to get home again.

With an unusually quiet house and only one dog to keep me company, I got a lot of work done today. I developed some additional logo ideas for the watch repair company and got started designing the new medical clinic website. I also picked up the large banner I designed for Dalmatian Rescue and was pleased at how nicely it turned out. It wasn't that long ago that it would have been both expensive and complex to print a single full color ten foot long weatherproof banner. All I did was take a PDF file to FastSigns on a disk and two days later, the banner was done. All at a very reasonable price. It's getting harder and harder for me to be the wizard of oz for my clients when things like this have become so easy.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 230

Help me out here guys. Kobe has dropped to eighth place in this year's Purina Rally-to-Rescue Doing More For Pets competition. This dog had been hit by a car and his injuries were still untreated when we found him. He couldn't even walk. Dalmatian Rescue helped provide the necessary surgeries and extensive physical therapy he needed and Kobe now walks completely normally again. It's a great rehabilitation story and Kobe really deserves to win the competition. If each of you could take a few seconds to click here and vote for Kobe, he might be able to regain first place again. If you've got a Facebook page, put the link on your wall too. You can only vote once, but every vote counts.

I had to take my aging Beta-SP camera to the Bexel repair center in Irving today using my equally aging Defender 90. Ordinarily, this journey wouldn't be worth mentioning, but the temperature was 106 this afternoon and my car overheats badly on days like this. When I stopped at a stop light or got stuck in traffic, I watched the oil temperature gauge climb dangerously close to the red line. Every few miles I would see cars stranded by the side of the road with their hoods open and frustrated drivers calling for help on their cell phones. I kept thinking that my car would soon be joining these victims of the heat, but somehow we successfully completed the thirty five mile trip and made it home again. Needless to say, I'm ready for Winter. Maybe we could skip the rainy season, but cooler weather would be great.

Dash gets his teeth cleaned tomorrow. We got the results of his ultrasound exam today and it looks like his new higher protein diet is already helping his heart muscles grow stronger. At any rate the vet gave him a thumbs up for the dental exam and we'll get all the plaque cleaned off his teeth, so we won't have to worry about gum disease. I probably need to go to the dentist myself. I'm pretty faithful about keeping the dogs teeth cleaned, but I'll use any excuse to postpone a trip to my own dentist.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 229

It was unbelievably hot today. The thermometer in the backyard said it was 108 degrees and when I took the dogs on their walk this afternoon it certainly felt like it was actually this hot. We have to make sure we have plenty of water with us when we take the Dalmatian Rescue dogs on their Sunday walk these days. We don't walk very far either, but the dogs still look forward to getting out of their kennel for a while. Dot and Dash still look forward to going to a dog park on Sunday too, so we drove them up to the Wagging Tail dog park again. Dash seems to be getting better at riding in the car now that he knows where he's going. It's definitely a long drive just for a few minutes of running around in the sun, but it's still the most enjoyable part of the day. After the dogs are taken care of, it's back to doing chores and housework.

I went over to the storage warehouse this afternoon and got the leftover pictures from one of my old gallery shows to hang in Janet's new offices. I sell a few pictures when I have a show, but there are always a lot of leftovers. I'm not nearly as excited about having a gallery show as I used to be. It takes a long time to print all the images and framing a show can be quite expensive. I've gotten some good reviews over the years, but I've ended up losing money on every show I've had. Maybe I could save money on framing if I didn't print such large images. What's the fun of that though? I like large images.

It's hard to believe it's August already. When I started this blog, I had my doubts about whether I'd be able to keep writing something new day after day. Writing has gradually become part of my daily routine though. If I've kept things going this long, I'll probably be able to keep writing indefinitely. The blog does take a bit longer than I thought it would, mostly because I have to photograph a new watch every day and look for a Dalmatian that hasn't already been dog of the day. For a while I wondered what I was giving up to make time for my blogging activities. A quick look around the office tells me the answer to this question. I appear to have given up cleaning entirely. My once tidy office is now a total trainwreck.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 228

They say the secret to happiness is staying busy. I heard it on TV this morning while I was eating breakfast. Apparently, doing something mindless keeps you happy just as effectively as doing something important too. I've certainly got the "doing something mindless" part of the equation down pretty well. I just don't enjoy staying busy all the time. Some of my most enjoyable moments are when I'm doing absolutely nothing. Janet ought to be happy. She is constantly busy. If I'm busy, it's only because I am disciplined enough to finish everything I start. In a perfect world, I would prefer to just sleep eighteen hours a day like the dogs do. To me, Dot and Dash are actually pretty good role models.

No rest for the weary tonight. Dalmatian Rescue is hosting another of our Casino Night fundraisers. I'll be spinning the roulette wheel again. We haven't had a Casino Night for quite a while, so I'm a bit rusty on the odds for all the different bets you can place. It's a simple game though. It all comes back quickly once we get started. Roulette isn't all that different than investing. You hand over your money. You spin the wheel. You lose your money. There are ways to beat the dealer at blackjack, but with roulette the house always wins. Although the basic odds of red or black turning up are 50/50, the two zeros on the wheel guarantee that the house eventually wins.

I ought to be real happy now because I stayed busy the entire day doing mindless things. I spent a couple of hours this morning trying to get the big production printer unclogged again. When I finally got the printer working, I couldn't think of anything I needed to print. Typical for me. I did need to do the laundry though, so I did that instead. Add in the usual Saturday grocery shopping and that's about it for the day. At least I don't need to fret about missing Dr. Who while I'm doing my stint as a roulette dealer this evening. I think the series is over for the year.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 227

I'm really pretty easy to please. It doesn't take much for me to change a bad day into a good day. I took the large Dalmatian Rescue banner over to FastSigns to be printed this morning and the technician told me that I had prepared the files for printing better than 95% of his customers. Yeah! Admittedly, this is not a big deal, but it made me feel good. Did I wonder what the other 5% of the people had done to make their files even better than mine? Nope. It is probably this kind of "good enough" attitude that has kept me at the helm of an obscure little company that nobody knows about instead of becoming the next Donald Trump.

With the Dalmatian banner crossed off my "to do" list, I drove over and showed Kevin my three logo concepts for his watch repair business. He liked them all and picked one to develop further. I was pleased, because with a little finesse, the idea he picked could make a very nice looking logo. I left Kevin with the logo comps and went home with two watches he'd finished repairing.

I stopped and got gas on the way back and noticed that the price had come down a bit this week. I overheard someone at the next pump talking on his cell phone and asking how large the tank on the car was so he'd know how much gas to put in. This confirmed my opinion that people can't do anything without their cell phones anymore. Jeez, is it that hard to fill up your tank? I've also heard long cell phone discussions in the grocery store about whether to get medium eggs or large eggs. I just pick up some eggs and put them in my buggy. It's easy.

I guess I just don't understand the need for constantly staying in touch. I will admit that telephones still have their uses though. After I returned from all my errands, I got a phone call myself. It was from the National Geographic people. They want to give me the job to complete the story about the dog and goat. I probably won't make any money doing this, because they still want me to rent HD equipment for the segment. It will be fun though. I'll finally be able to tell people that I've shot something for National Geographic. Hey, maybe someone will think I've been to the South Pole or something. I don't need to tell them I just took pictures of a goat.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 226

I don't think my financial adviser likes me. I have a passive/aggressive approach to investing. I generally follow my adviser's recommendations, but I'm quick to hold his feet to the fire when things turn sour. We had one of our periodic review meetings today. The conversation went like this. I would say something like "Look at this stock over here. It went up like a rocket the day after you told me to sell it." He would counter with something like "Well, look at this one over here. It's still going down after I got you out of it last month." Back and forth we'd go. With the possible exception of Apple and Kinder Morgan, there weren't many success stories. This has been a terrible year for investing. The market shows no clear direction. It just keeps zigzagging sideways on declining volume. I hate to give up though. I finally agreed to try a couple of new suggestions, probably just so I'd have something to yell at my adviser about the next time we get together.

I think I've come up with several nice looking logo ideas for my watchmaker. I set up a meeting to show him the preliminary concepts tomorrow. I hope he likes one of these ideas. You never know with logos though. They are totally subjective. The client either likes them or they don't. If a website design isn't approved, you can usually salvage the navigation or the basic architecture. If a logo isn't approved, you just start over.

I'm about ready to start over with the grass in the backyard. I had things looking pretty good last year, but this year is another story. What the dogs haven't killed this Summer, has died on its own as a result of the hot weather. I need to belong to some sort of "sod of the month club" where new St. Augustine sod would just be delivered to my backyard every month. Grass just doesn't last very long at our house.

All my usual Thursday website updates got delayed this week. They're all supposed to arrive tomorrow. If they do, it's going to be a very busy day. Even a hectic Friday is still a Friday though. I'm happy to see this week finally wind to a close.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 225

More employee pictures today. Every company has a different approach to these pictures. Some make a big deal out of the whole thing, sending out memos weeks in advance with instructions on what to wear and when to show up. Other companies are so casual that they've totally forgotten that they even called me by the time I show up with my cameras. I'll spend half a day shooting pictures at one company and ten minutes doing exactly the same thing at another company. It all depends on what they want.

The primary objective of today's photo session was to get things done quickly. The pictures turned out nice, as they usually do in situations like this. Being in a hurry is fine. I start to worry though when the employees want to change outfits or start asking me if I can make them look different in Photoshop. Some people worry entirely too much about getting their picture taken. So, what makes a good portrait anyway? Surprisingly, it has little to do with what you actually look like. If you're comfortable with how you look, you're going to take a good picture. If you're uncomfortable with how you look, your picture will probably be terrible. Happy people take much better pictures than unhappy people. If you're having a bad day, try and see if you can just skip the employee pictures. I'll come back later. Some people ask me why their pictures are never any good. I feel like telling them that it's probably because they don't like their job.

Dash wouldn't stop barking at obedience class tonight. Our teacher asked me what command I used to get him to quit barking and whining. Hmm. I guess I don't know the "stop barking" command. It usually works better if I just ignore him for a while. This wasn't good enough tonight though. Tom tried to get Dash to be quiet himself, but he didn't have any better luck than I did. Personally, I just think Dash was having a bad day. He probably wouldn't have taken a good picture today either. We'll come back later, and chances are he'll be fine.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 224

Do you ever feel like a car that's stuck in first gear? Things do move along, but ever so slowly. Today was like that. I had to take Dash to the vet for another ultrasound exam. Our appointment was at 2 PM, but we sat waiting in the lobby until almost 3 PM. Waiting for doctors almost seems to be one of those inviolable laws of nature. It doesn't matter when they tell you to come; you're always going to wait. Considering how bad Dash can be for something as simple as a bath, he was actually extremely well behaved for the ultrasound exam. He's got a weak heart valve that leaks a little bit when it closes. We're still trying to determine if this is serious or not. I have a feeling he'll be just fine. If you've ever had a stress test or echocardiogram done yourself, you quickly realize that nobody's heart is perfect.

When we got home from the vet, I decided to finish the Dalmatian Rescue banner I've been working on. This moved along ever so slowly as well. Ordinarily, I could design something like this in less than an hour. Unfortunately, the banner's 10 foot by 3 foot size made it impossible to create the monster PDF file I needed using my ancient copy of Quark Express. Rats! I had to use Adobe InDesign instead. I don't use InDesign very often and of course I have never bothered to read the manual. I prefer to use the trial and error method. In this case, it was mostly errors I encountered. I eventually figured out how to get the huge PDF file to print correctly though, so this is one item I can finally cross off my "to do" list.

More rain today. We were doing fine on our evening walk until a bolt of lightning landed right across from us on the other side of the lake. Both dogs immediately turned around and headed for home as fast as they could. It was a good thing the dogs were in a hurry to get home. As soon as we reached the front door, the rain started coming down in buckets. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow morning: sweeping water off the roof again with my big push broom.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 223

I talked to my bank today and they told me that the number they gave me the other day was correct and that the Germans were wrong. Unfortunately, the Germans are the ones who still have my money. I wish my client and the bank could just agree on a number. This shouldn't be this difficult. Unfortunately, even the most mundane task can end up being difficult these days. I've stood in line forever while a cashier tried again and again to get a bar code to read on their scanner. I've even occasionally had trouble buying stamps at the post office. I'd like to get myself one of those "easy buttons" you see on the Staples TV commercials. I think someone forgot to give me my easy button.

I had coffee at Starbucks with my friend Alan this afternoon. Alan never fails to introduce me to something new and interesting. Over the years, I've come to depend on him to provide me with a preview of what I'll be doing this time next year. Today, Alan was telling me how he had just finished publishing his own book on a website called Blurb.com. He showed me the book and it looked beautiful. I had never heard of blurb.com before, but I immediately began thinking of books that I'd like to publish myself. Apparently, the business model for book publishing has changed radically in recent years. Publishers don't need to find the next Steven King and sell millions of copies at Barnes & Noble to make money anymore. Nowadays, they just need to convince everybody on the planet to create their own book and give copies to their five best friends for Christmas. Alan's book looked so pretty that I'm going to have to do one of these things myself.  I'll probably be the only one that buys it though. That's usually the way it works with me.

I wish I could figure out a way to get Dot to overcome her fear of bad weather. What started as a fear of thunder and lightening has now morphed into a general fear of rain. It rained today, but I could barely hear the thunder. It was way off in the distance somewhere. The distant thunder was enough to set Dot off though. She went through her usual routine of barking and hiding under my desk. We bought an Anxiety Wrap for her a couple of years ago and it actually works, but usually by the time I can remember where I put the darn thing, the rain is over.

Dalmatian of the Day

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