Day 358

I discovered today that some of my recent pictures of Mow the goat and his dog friends are featured in a story by Diane Herbst on the popular Tonic.com website. The pictures looked good and they even gave me a photo credit. Diane also writes for People Magazine and Newsweek, so maybe the famous goat will wind up on the cover of Newsweek one of these days.

Too bad you can't tag animals on Facebook. I've noticed that the pet pictures I took at last Saturday's Santa Paws event are starting to pop up all over the place on people's profile pages. People love these pictures. I'd be more that happy to take pet portraits year round, but unfortunately there isn't much demand unless I'm donating my time at an animal rescue event. I guess it makes sense. At the rescue photo events I participate in, you can get a package of pictures for $30 that would cost $400 or more at my normal day rate.

I wish I could tell you about a new client or an exciting project I was working on. Nope. Not today. It wasn't that kind of day. I spent my time punching new holes in Santa's wide black leather belt because Santa lost a little weight this year. Tomorrow I need to wash the Christmas backdrop at one of those laundromats with the huge washing machines because some of the dogs peed on it last week. You definitely don't want the smell of dog pee on your photo backdrop, because then all the dogs will insist on peeing on the same spot. Such is the life of a pet photographer.

None of the dogs were very well behaved at training class tonight. It was too cold. Most of the dogs in our class looked like they'd much rather be sitting at home in front of the fireplace, instead of doing obedience excercises in a cold and windy field. I don't blame them. They'd better get used to it though. It's a long time until Spring.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 357

Brrr. Winter has definitely arrived. Even though I went to high school in Alaska and spent several Winters in Idaho, I just can't take the cold anymore. I guess I've lived in the South to long. On days like this when the temperature never climbs above the mid-thirties, I walk around freezing all day. I cranked up the heat and wore a sweater around the house while I was working, but I was still cold.

Our neighbors have started burning designer logs in their fireplaces again. When I go outside to walk the dogs, the neighborhood smells like Colorado is burning. The smell is almost overpowering. I lived in Aspen right after I graduated from college and I know the distinct fragrance of piñon pine. I never dreamed I'd see people paying several dollars for a small log of the stuff in the grocery store however. These expensive designer logs really seem to have caught on. You can buy mesquite firewood, as well as maple, pecan and the current favorite, piñon pine just about anywhere. We don't even have a fireplace, but on cold days like this it doesn't seem to matter. The smell of the neighbor's burning logs comes right through the walls.

Dash had to go to the vet for another antigen shot today. His skin condition has really improved since he started taking the injections. Now, we only have to have the shots once every two weeks. While I was over at the vet, I discovered that the story of Mow, the friendly goat and his dog pals is still alive. Evidently someone at People Magazine is doing a feature on the animals and they want me to send them some of the pictures I've been taking.

This month is just racing by. It's time to get my invoices out again. It's just about time to get Christmas cards in the mail too. I don't think I'll send cards out this year though. I don't remember many mailing addresses anyway. Sending e-mail has become so ubiquitous that actual physical addresses just gather dust and are eventually forgotten. Every time I change computers, I lose a ton of old addresses because I never bother to export all the contact information over to the new computer. It just doesn't seem to matter anymore. If you lose someone on your Rollodex, you'll eventually find them again on Facebook anyway.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 356

I started the day by driving Janet to her periodontist for dental surgery. Next week she'll return the favor by driving me to Medical City for my own minor surgery. Both of us used to to be able to go years without visiting the doctor, but those days appear to be over. Lately, if I don't have a doctor's appointment myself, I'm taking one of the the dogs to the vet. It's always something. My health hasn't really changed all that much, but I'm definitely trying to take a little better care of myself.

I'm also trying my best not to let the holidays put me behind the 8-ball at work. The Christmas season is traditionally a busy time for advertisers. I always seem to have a lot more website updates during December. Today I worked my way through a laundry list of small changes and there'll probably be more tomorrow. I've given up on getting caught up on everything this year. All I want now is not to get even further behind. I'm in awe of bloggers who manage to keep half a dozen different blogs current at the same time. Once I get my work done for the day, this one little blog is more than enough for me.

I am getting some help from you guys though. Today, I'm very pleased to feature our very first blogger Dalmatian of the Day. Today's dog is Emma, a sweet deaf Dalmatian who was rescued recently by Katherine at Shoot Me Now. Be sure to visit Katherine's blog and read more about Emma's adventures. Emma may be deaf, but her sense of smell is still intact. If there is a tennis ball anywhere in the room, Emma will find it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 355

When we tallied up the receipts from yesterday's photo shoot, we made over $1000 for the Dalmatians. This wasn't quite as good as we did a few weeks ago at Camp Bow Wow, but considering that none of yesterday's customers were big spenders, I think the day was a huge success. Our recent Facebook donation campaign has already pulled in over $500 as well. We are also selling poinsettia plants and doing gift wrapping at local shopping malls. Just about every dime we make goes to pay vet and kennel bills. Sometimes our kennel bill alone is over $200 a week. The work is hard and we are always running out of money, but at least you feel like you are doing something good when you find an animal a home. That's a lot more than I can say for the advertising work I do. If I still didn't have bills to pay, I'd probably spend all my time working with animal rescue groups. I love watching that show called Dog Town on the National Geographic Channel. It would be nice to feel like your job really mattered. You can tell that all the people on the show who work at the Dog Town animal sanctuary love their jobs. Most people I know hate their jobs.

It was a cool, brisk day and I thought our dogs would love this afternoon's outing to the Wagging Tail Dog Park. There were plenty of dogs to play with today, including Dash's favorite playmates: puppies and Beagles. Dot and Dash did absolutely nothing when they got to the park though. They just followed us around like they were glued to us and didn't play with anyone. I've come to accept the fact that dogs can be just as moody as people. I just never know what causes the mood swings. Next week they'll probably be racing around the park and getting muddy again.

Maybe the dogs are worrying about money. I know I am. Real estate taxes are due in a few weeks and my plan of paying all the property taxes with stock market gains isn't exactly working out as planned.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 354

Today was a pet picture marathon. I drove up to K-9 University to set up for the Santa Paws fundraiser around 8 AM this morning and didn't get home again until after 6 PM. We had a great turnout and Santa and I were busy all day. Since K-9 University is a boarding kennel that caters to customers with larger dogs, we had a lot of Rottweilers, German Shepards and Weimaraners. There were a lot of Dalmatians too. Basically, we had our hands full. The smaller dogs are easy, because Santa can just hold them in his lap. When people start bringing in Rottweilers and Great Danes however, you've got to expect things to get knocked over. Amazingly, the set survived the long day and everything made it back to the studio in one piece. The closest I came to disaster was when one of the customers sat on my iPhone.

These pet photo events have been great fundraisers for Dalmatian Rescue, but I'll be glad when we're finished for the year. Only one more event to go next weekend and we're done. Taking pictures of dogs is murder on your knees. I am constantly kneeling and standing, trying to catch that brief moment when the dog is pointed in the right direction and his tongue isn't hanging halfway to the floor. The dogs seldom stay in one place for very long. By the end of the day I feel like someone should wheel me out on a stretcher. Too bad I had to give up drinking. I could really use a Martini right now.

I didn't have time for the normal Saturday errands today, so tomorrow will be a catch-up day. I still have some grocery shopping to do and it's time to start getting all the leaves off the roof. I did manage to get the Christmas tree up though. You can probably guess what it's decorated with. Little Dalmatian ornaments of course.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 353

I should have learned by now never to let my bookkeeping slide. When I get busy, I tend to let bills and invoices accumulate in piles to deal with later. Well, later was today. What a mess! It took me most of the afternoon to get everything in balance again. My business isn't large enough to justify a full time accountant, so I do everything myself and then get a real accountant to sort things out whenever I get totally confused. Things used to be easier when bills and payments always arrived by mail. Now, in this enlightened age of electronic payments, someone might send you money using Paypal and then forget to tell you about it. Other people might want their invoices sent as PDF files, but not have the right viewer to read them. Everyone wants you to go "paperless" but few people have come up with a convenient way to keep track of everything.

Money seems to have acquired a life of its own. It ebbs and flows all over the place without any human intervention. I don't even have to pull my wallet out when I buy something from the Apple store. I think they just read my brain or something. I never stop at toll booths anymore either. There's a little electronic thing on my windshield that automatically calculates which toll road I'm on and debits my bank account. It's a brave new world. Despite all these seemingly automatic ways to spend money, there unfortunately still isn't any automatic way to make money.

I definitely need to make some money for the Dalmatians tomorrow. We're having the second of our three planned holiday Santa Paws pet photo events up at K-9 University. We made almost $1500 for the dogs a few weeks ago, so I'm hoping that we can do as well this weekend. Dalmatian Rescue certainly needs the money. We've had several dogs that required complicated surgeries this year and the vet bills really add up quickly.

It would be nice if animal rescue was just about walking dogs and cleaning kennel runs. It's mostly about raising money though. The dogs need food and medicine. There are boarding bills to pay. Almost all the strays have health issues when we get them. I guess human charities must be the same way. That's probably why the March of Dimes robo-dialer relentlessly calls the house five times a day, always asking for money. This is the dilemma just about every charity faces. How do you raise the money you need to stay afloat without totally irritating your potential donors?

I don't think blogging is the anwser. Using the blog for fundraising is kind of like trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip. I've had the Paypal donation tool sitting over in the left column with all the other widgets for over a month now and nobody has given one dime. Curiously, I tried something very similar on Facebook recently and we raised over $435 in less than a week. I don't know if Facebook users are more generous or if they just have more money. It is odd that there's such a difference though. Hmm, maybe if I disguised my Dalmatian Rescue widget as an EC or Adgitize badge, someone might click on it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 352

I needed to get a haircut today, so despite my desire to completely avoid the Christmas mall traffic, I headed over to Northpark. I actually got lucky and found a parking place on my first pass through the parking lot. The mall was quite festive, with huge lighted Christmas trees every twenty feet or so and enough red poinsettia plants to sink a ship. I walked right by Santa on my way to see Betty at Toni & Guy. The Northpark Santa is legendary. He's one of those high-end Santas with a genuine long white beard. I think that Shawn, our Dalmatian Rescue Santa, is just as realistic looking though. The only difference is that Shawn has dogs sit on his lap, instead of the long line of little kids waiting for this guy.

Betty filled me in on all her Christmas plans as she cut my hair, which reminded me that I hadn't put our tree up yet. I actually haven't done anything related to Christmas yet, but there's still plenty of time. I'm Mr. last minute: one of those guys who is still doing his shopping on Christmas Eve. Luckily, Christmas isn't very complex these days. We don't mail out cards anymore and the dogs are certainly easy to shop for. Just wrap up a few tennis balls and dog treats and you're done.

I can't believe what a social media maven I've become. Now I've got the blog feeding to my Facebook account, Facebook feeding Twitter and Twitter referring people back to old websites I've almost forgotten. Everything is connected to everything else....and the leg bone connected to the knee bone, and the knee bone connected to the thigh bone...etc. I've already noticed that people are much more likely to leave a comment about a blog post on my Facebook wall than they are to just comment directly on the blog itself. What's that all about?

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 351

I am the world's worst at time management. For the second time in as many weeks, I scheduled two different things at exactly the same time. What's it going to be? A haircut with Betty or a trip to the podiatrist? Hmmm...continued foot pain , or a haircut? I rescheduled my appointment with Betty for tomorrow. The podiatrist was a friendly gentleman who basically told me that the answer to my foot pain was to start wearing some hideously unattractive shoes he showed me in a catalog. I didn't have a bone fracture as I suspected. I just needed better arch support. He also told me to stop walking around barefoot all day and sold me some high-tech carbon fiber shoe inserts that cost more that the shoes I'll be putting them in. After looking at the sign on the doctor's exam room wall, I didn't tell him any of my own foot pain theories, which tend to involve two tugging Dalmatians and lots of nearby squirrels. Walking the dogs five miles a day has definitely improved my bone density and has allowed me to get up to level 5 on a cardio stress test, but it has destroyed my joints in the process. The dogs are very strong and when they see something they want, like a rabbit or a pile of horse poop, it can be hard to hold on to them. I'm convinced that I'll be dealing with a permanently dislocated shoulder for the rest of my life.

Dot and Dash wore their sweaters to training class for the frst time this season. Several of the other dogs had coats on as well. Needless to say, it was chilly at class tonight. Another cold front blew through late this afternoon and it is supposed to send temperatures plunging into the low 30's this evening. This isn't that surprising for this time of year. The surprising thing was that it was almost 80 degrees yesterday. Like they say...if you don't like Texas weather, just wait a few days.

It's hard to believe that it's almost time for another Santa Paws photo event. I'm going over to the storage warehouse tomorrow and begin packing up my equipment again. This Saturday's event will be the second of three this year, and based on the number of reservations, it looks like we're going to have a good crowd. There's a Dalmatian Rescue Casino Party on Friday night too. I have a feeling that I'm going to be very tired on Sunday morning.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 350

Here's how I get behind on things. I typically start my day by returning calls and e-mails, mentally crossing each call off my "to do" list as I dial the number. Mission accomplished? Well, not really. I tend to forget that very few of these calls are actually answered by a real person. They are just messages dropped into the black hole of voice mail. I haven't really accomplished anything at all because I haven't reached anyone. Weeks later, the same person will call again with the same question. Usually they've forgotten all about their earlier call and so have I. It's kind of a miracle that anything ever gets resolved at all. I do get lucky sometimes though, and someone actually answers the phone.

Today was definitely a phone tag kind of day. I didn't get through to many people and the few who did pick up the phone must have eaten too much turkey for Thanksgiving because I didn't seem to make sense to any of them. Some days are like this. There's a fair chance that by this time tomorrow everything will make sense again.

Some of you may remember my big adventure with the CAT Scan machine yesterday. Well the verdict is in. I have bladder stones. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but it certainly could have been worse. I'll need to have minor surgery later this month so they can zap the stones with some kind of laser device. Don't even ask how they get the laser gizmo inside of me. I don't want to talk about it.

I'm overdue for a haircut again, so I made an appointment to see Betty tomorrow. I'm sure while I'm at Northpark an invisible force will suck me inside the Apple store and force me to buy even more stuff that I don't really need.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 349

I had to see a new doctor today. I hate to add additional doctors to the growing list of physicians I already see, because it means I have to sit in somebody's lobby for forty-five minutes filling out page-after-page of new patient paper work. It seems like most doctors still haven't entered the information age. They still keep floor-to-ceiling file folders full of paper. Wouldn't it be easier to just fill out this information once and store it in the cloud somewhere where all the doctors could use it? It makes sense to me anyway.

Part of today's exam involved getting a CAT Scan. CT Scans are much easier for me than getting an MRI done. Getting placed inside one of those MRI machines is somewhat like being placed in a coffin. They're incredibly loud too. With a CAT Scan, they just slide your body through a big ring. It's all very Sci-Fi with lots of lights and rotating gizmos. The whole experience leaves you feeling like you ought to be teleported to another planet or something when you go through the ring. I'm always kind of disappointed that I end up in the same little room where I started. These days I always ask the nurse to burn me a disc of the scans. You never know when an image of my brain or some other body part is exactly what I'm looking for to illustrate the blog.

Cyber Monday came and went without me buying anything at all. When did Cyber Monday get to be such a big deal anyway? I'm pretty sure that if I got this huge urge to buy a computer tomorrow, I could find exactly the same sort of deals that retailers were touting today. And before I forget... I knew this would happen. I haven't even been on Facebook a month yet and I've already been "unfriended." Oh well...easy come, easy go.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 348

I don't know where the holiday went. The past four days have zipped by so fast that I wish I could just rewind the entire week and play it again at a slower, more relaxed speed. I certainly didn't accomplish very much, with the possible exception of gaining some extra pounds I didn't need. The dogs had fun though. All four days were like Sunday for them. There were a lot of walks and trips to the dog park. Dash even met some new friends today.

When we went up to K-9 University this morning we met the couple who recently adopted Chase. They had driven here from Arizona to pick him up. I think the dogs know when they are going to their forever home. They always act more excited than usual and never fail to jump right into their new owner's car as if this was something they did everyday. Chase's new family was equally excited about him. They brought him a new leash and collar and plenty of dog treats. They even baked a cake for the Dalmatian Rescue volunteers. It's been a good month for rescue. Yesterday, the goat went to his new home. Today it was Chase's turn. Who knows. Maybe by Christmas, we'll get them all adopted.

I feel like buying something on Cyber Monday. Too bad Apple doesn't believe in sales. I could probably get a Dell for half price tomorrow, but I don't think I've ever gotten a discount on anything that Apple makes. I always pay full price and usually have to stand in line or put my name on a waiting list just to be able to buy anything at all. Sale or no sale, it probably is time for a new computer though. When you can download files faster on your phone than you can on your main work computer, then it might be time to consider something new.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 347

Since I didn't need to print any posters for clients this week, I decided to just make one up today and print a few to keep the printer from clogging. This is Roxy, one of my favorite Dalmatians. Her owners have taken her to just about every holiday photo shoot I've done so far and I always enjoy photographing her.

After I made sure the printer was working properly, I went over to East Lake Pet Orphanage to say good-bye to the goat. Officially, the goat and his friends left the building last week, but unofficially the famous animal trio actually went to their new home today. The media just can't get enough of this story. I thought the goat's departure today would be a quiet event since it had already been announced at a big celebration earlier this month. I was wrong. When I arrived at the building, there were two television news crews covering every bleat the goat made.

I was wrong about Facebook too. After years of telling people that I had no interest in Facebook, I am a little chagrined to admit that I've already become quite fond of it. I think I understand now why Facebook is so popular. You get this nice, fuzzy feeling of being connected to other people without ever having to do anything with them. Instead of going through the agony of rescheduling lunch week-after-week, just so you can say hello to someone you used to work with, you can just go to their Facebook page and click on a few Like buttons instead. Facebook is definitely friendship for lazy people. I'm discovering there are several kinds of Facebook users as well. There is the kind who agonizes over whether they know you well enough to let you into their circle of friends. And then there is the other kind, who routinely becomes friends with everything from traffic signs to dead cats. I probably fall into the latter category. Hey, if I can remember your name, you're a friend of mine.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 346

Days like this confuse me. Was it a holiday or not? I'm still not sure. We slept in late, so the day started out like a holiday. On the other hand, Janet was away most of the day shopping the sales, so it seemed like a normal day with me and the dogs. We went up to visit the rescue dogs again which is something we normally only do on Sundays, but I still had website updates to finish, so that made it a pretty typical working Friday. The weather was equally confusing. It was quite nice outside around lunchtime, but late in the day another cold front blew through and the temperature dropped twenty degrees in just a few hours.

I didn't go anywhere near a shopping mall today. When you have to spend more time looking for a parking place than you'll actually spend in the stores, it's just not worth it. I think I'm going to do most of my shopping online this year anyway. It's so easy to just click on a few things in a browser window and wait for the FedEx truck to show up a few days later. I'm beginning to wonder why anyone even bothers to go to a brick and morter store anymore. I used to just by books at Amazon.com, but now I feel comfortable buying just about anything online. I'll admit I still have more success buying shoes in person, but I bet even that will change soon enough. Pretty soon I'm sure there'll be an app for the iPad where you just put your foot on the screen and it will automatically find you a perfect fitting shoe.

This has been a good month for the animal rescue groups I work with. Not only have Mow, the goat and his two dog friends found a home, but several dogs in the Dalmatian Rescue program found their forever homes this month as well. There are people interested in looking at our remaining dogs too. There's an outside change that all the dogs we currently have might be able to find a home by Christmas. That would be a nice Christmas present for everyone.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 345 - Thanksgiving

It was an enjoyable day. I ate too much. I spent a lot of time playing with the dogs. I'll probably go to bed early. The whole day was lazy and relaxed. Isn't that the way Thanksgiving should be? We went out for a special holiday brunch at The Mercury Grill. We'd been wanting to try this restaurant for a while now, so this was a good time. The menu was traditional Thanksgiving fare with some clever surprises. I thought the cheesy jalapeño grits were delicious. I've never been a huge fan of turkey, so I had the prime rib instead. The entire meal was delicious and the waiters didn't hurry us along at all, which is often the case when eating out on holidays. Some people think it is a sacrilege not to have a home cooked meal with the family on Thanksgiving, but we've enjoyed eating out on holidays for years now. It's much more relaxed.

Alvin, Duke, Ranger and Chase did get a home cooked meal however. We took each of them a boiled chicken breast for dinner this afternoon and then spent some extra time playing ball with them. The kennel is closed on holidays, so the rescue dogs don't get much attention if we don't go and visit them. They love the attention and walking dogs who have been cooped up in their kennels all day is good way to walk off the effects of eating too much. Feeding the rescue dogs their Thanksgiving dinner has become a well established tradition with us. I can't imagine this day without the Dalmatians anymore.

I'm certainly not the most appreciative person in the world, but I've got a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful that Janet and I are still together after all these years. I don't know how she puts up with me, but I'm glad she does. I'm thankful that dogs have become such a big part of my life. Before I got a dog, I was your typical elitist art gallery snob. My living room furniture was arranged perfectly but my priorities were all out of whack. Dog have a way of putting your life back in perspective. The house is a mess now, but I smile more. I'm thankful that I'm still busy and working too. I'm no longer a young trendsetter living on the cutting edge of everything, but I still command a small amount of respect from the customers I serve. Ocassionally, I surprise myself by spitting out the kind of innovative and original ideas a twenty something would be proud of. I'll probably never be as appreciative as I should be, but on days like today, I'll be the first to admit that life is good.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 344

Not many people showed up for our dog training class this evening. It looked like half the class was already on the way to grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. Nights like these give Dash his best opportunity to win a ribbon. It wasn't our night however. Even with relatively few dogs to compete against, Dash still got eliminated early. It was certainly an enjoyable evening though. The weather was so nice that it's hard to believe that temperatures are supposed to dip below freezing tomorrow. That's Texas for you. It can be 80 degrees one day and 30 the next.

My client seemed very pleased with the elaborate retouching job I did yesterday. I've got to find some software to at least semi-automate this process though. The way I do things now is to blow the image up really huge in Photoshop and then change things a few pixels at a time using the cloning tool. I've gotten to where I can create very realistic scene substitutions, but it takes me forever.

I'm looking forward to having a four day weekend. It's been so busy this Fall that there has been very little time to relax. I'm sure we'll eat too much tomorrow. I'm equally sure we'll spend a lot of time with the rescue dogs at K-9 University. That's what we do every Thanksgiving.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 343

Today was one of those days when I found it difficult to break away from the breakfast pancakes and Dr. Who reruns to get down to the business of earning a little money. The work wasn't all that difficult today; it was just tedious. I had to strip the background out of several photos and then composite them with a new and hopefully better background. This kind of thing is easy if you're smart enough to shoot your subject on green screen in the first place. No such luck this time. I had to take out a very busy background without ruining the hair and other details in my subjects. I'm no expert at compositing, but I'm not one to turn down work either, so I gave it my best shot. This is how you learn things anyway. I"ve learned most of what I know from doing things I didn't particularly enjoy.

It dawned on me today that I haven't written a letter to anyone in a very long time. I used to write letters to friends all the time, but since I started the blog I'm finding that I don't have very much to say that I haven't already told the entire world. It seems pointless to write a letter when all I'm doing is repeating yesterday's blog post. I wonder if any other regular bloggers feel this way? I'm beginning to wish that some of my distant friends had blogs too. It's such a nice and tidy way to keep up with what someone is doing. When I did write lots of letters to friends, I would get in trouble from time-to-time for cutting and pasting pieces of one person's letter and then inserting it in another letter to save time. People seem to hate this. Especially when you forget to change the names. With a daily blog, I can write one very nice letter and then just forget about it. I wish everyone who wanted to keep in touch would just follow the blog and then I wouldn't have to feel guilty about never writing letters anymore. Who knows? Maybe nobody writes letters these days anyway. All I get in the mail are bills and catalogs.

If it gets any warmer outside, I'm going to have to turn on the air conditioner again. I can't believe that it's almost Thanksgiving and it was eighty degrees outside today. It's a mini heat wave. I'm ready for the cold, but I haven't turned on the furnace since Marty fixed it a week or so ago. I remember we had snow on Thanksgiving a few years ago. Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen this year.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 342 - November 22

I always try stop by and visit Dealey Plaza on November 22. Aside from paying my respects to perhaps the last president who was ever able to unite the country on anything, it is always fascinating to see who will show up. When I first moved to Dallas, there were still quite a few eyewitnesses who would stop by and tell their side of the story. Most of the eyewitnesses have died unfortunately. In recent years, you are just as likely to talk to people who think they were abducted by aliens. Dealey Plaza has become a Mecca for every type of conspiracy theorist you can imagine.

I certainly wasn't disappointed today. I met a guy who told me he was going to faithfully recreate the famous Zapruder film using one of the last remaining Bell and Howell Zoomatic cameras in existence and a roll of the same type of 16mm Kodachrome film that Abraham Zapruder used himself. He said he had to finish his project this year because the last lab in the world that would process Kodachrome film was shutting down. His goal was to see if modern film processing techniques would reveal details that were invisible in 1963. The filmmaker seemed to have thought out his project in meticulous detail. There was only one little fly in the ointment. Kennedy wasn't there today.

I've written about Dealey Plaza before and I'm sure I'll visit the place again in years to come. This annual town hall meeting of lunatics is as close to pure Americana as I've ever been able to find. This year there was even a huge yellow banner on the Grassy Knoll, announcing to the world that the small hill behind the Texas Book Depository was indeed the infamous Grassy Knoll. As if everyone didn't know already.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I took some pictures at a client's office. I returned phone calls and made a few doctor's appointments. I even learned something new about Facebook. While I was at Dealey Plaza, I tried out Facebook's "location" tab for the first time. I never really knew what this feature was for. When my iPhone identified Dealey Plaza as my location and I clicked "OK to Share" something surprising happened. Ten or twelve Facebook profile pictures immediately appeared on my screen. These were other people who happened to be in Dealey Plaza using Facebook on their laptop or smart phone at the same time I was. This just blew me away. It wasn't surprising that everyone had a camera with them. It was a bit surprising that dozens of people standing right next to me were beaming pictures to their own Facebook pages at the same time I was. I guess I could chat with these people by clicking on their picture. Why would I do that though? I was standing right next to them.

Dalmatian of the Day

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