Day 665

Before breakfast this morning, I took my car up to the Land Rover dealer for it's 105,000 mile service. While I waited for them to get my loaner car ready, I watched all the glittery people drop off their $80,000 Range Rovers. My Defender 90 is almost always the oldest and most humble car at the dealership, but it's still cool. Everyone loves the Defender. This is the quintessential man's car. It is simple, practical and yet still manages to seem just a little exotic. People still stop me in the street and offer to buy the car for more than I paid for it new.

When I went home again to walk the dogs, they were confused by the LR2 loaner car in the driveway. They thought Janet was back home again because the cars looked the same. They were obviously good at recognizing shapes, but not so good at noticing that there was only one car in the driveway. After our walk, I tried to postpone the day a little longer with a big breakfast of eggs and sausages, but eventually I had to get to work.

With all the work on my desk these days, I should be making a ton of money. Unfortunately this is not the case. I need to raise my prices across the board, but many of my clients would leave if I charged more for anything. I wish they would ban all these commercials coming from Intuit and others that promise professional looking websites for only $9.95 a month. This devaluation of design is ruining my business. Truthfully, many of my clients have tried these template sites and then came to me after they discovered that their competitors often had exactly the same design. Unfortunately, even after they realize the value of custom work, they still don't want to pay very much. Writing still pays well if the final result is actually printed on paper. If it just winds up on the web however, all bets are off. Nobody wants to pay much for something that's on the web.

Dash had another antigen shot today. I need to get my invoices out tomorrow. I used to send invoices on the first of every month, but gradually invoicing had slipped a bit, just like everything else. I'll be lucky if I get the billing out by the middle of the month if everything continues to stay this busy. I'm even having trouble finding time to do the exercises that are part of my physical therapy. I'll be the first to admit that I don't work at a fast and furious pace, but there should still be a lot more left over time. Every second of my day seems to be allocated already.

Design Within Reach says the new mattress should arrive at the house tomorrow. They don't have a tracking number however, and don't seem to know where the mattress is now. I think it's a pretty safe bet that nothing is going to arrive tomorrow.

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 664

Sometimes I wish I spent my idle time wandering through art museums or nursing a cappuccino in a pleasant sidewalk cafe. Not very likely. I often spend my idle time sweeping thousands of pounds of water off the roof with a big push broom. It's actually kind of pleasant up on the roof. There are no telephones. There are no computers full of projects with looming deadlines. I've actually come up with a lot of good ideas up on the roof. Of course today, I completely forgotten most of my brainstorms two hours later.

Walking the dogs is also good for daydreaming, but I've got to stay a lot more alert than I used to. Sometimes, there are loose pitbulls in the park which may or may not be friendly. After being bitten by some unfriendly dogs, I'm a lot more cautious these days. There are also big piles of horse poop that I need to avoid before the dogs get close enough to start eating them. In the Summer there are snakes to avoid. In the Winter, there are Coyotes. I'm not complaining though. Even with all the distractions, walking the dogs is much more relaxing than anything else I do.

Surprisingly, physical therapy is actually kind of relaxing. I'm actually going to miss my therapy sessions when they conclude at the end of this week. Maybe I ought to start going to a gym. I've always hated the idea of going to a gym, but now I'm thinking it might not be so bad. My body could certainly use the exercise. I always thought I was in great shape, especially since I walk the dogs four or five miles a day, but as it turns out, my upper body is a mess. All these years, I've been compensating for an old shoulder injury and my right shoulder is only half as strong as the left shoulder.

I received some background material from Germany to read for an upcoming oil and gas article I'm going to be writing. The Microsoft Word document had comments and annotations in three different languages. Whoa. “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore“ I think this job is going to be a little harder than changing out employee pictures on websites.

Neo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 663

It rained most of the day. The dogs didn't get to go to the dog park this morning, but they did get their afternoon walk during a short break in the weather. Dot used the occasion to go nose-to-nose with a butterfly. Oddly, Dash seemed to have no interest in the the butterflies fluttering above a new patch of blue flowers in the park.

With the rain eliminating most outdoor activities, it seemed like a good time to get caught up on work. I didn't even come close to getting caught up, but I did manage to finish another watch article and edit a new medical video for my physician client. I also finally got around to installing Avid Media Composer on my computer. I wonder how long it will take me to actually start using Media Composer. I still opened up Final Cut Pro to edit my medical video this afternoon.

I didn't get much sleep last night because the rain was pounding on the roof so hard that I would wake up every hour or so, thinking that I heard dripping water from a roof leak. Amazingly the roof still isn't leaking, even though the rain never stopped long enough for me to get up on the roof and sweep the water off. Hopefully, things will clear up a bit tomorrow.

Dot and Dash seemed to enjoy having everyone puttering around the house today. They alternated between helping Janet put away Summer clothes for the season and helping me with my writing assignments. All this supervising must have made them tired, because even though I still hear rain pounding on the roof, our usually rain phobic Dot is just sleeping peacefully under my desk.

Maverick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 662

Our neighborhood health food store was having another of their periodic cholesterol screenings this morning, so Janet and I decided to go early this time and beat the long lines of old people who are usually there ahead of us. When we got to the store, there wasn't a line at all, which surprised me. I opened the door and went inside and all of the sudden all these car doors opened in unison and a bunch of old people got out of their cars and started walking slowly toward the store. We weren't even close to being the first people to arrive, we were just the first people to open the door. I still don't know what everybody else was waiting for. The store was supposed to be open when we arrived. The lights weren't on yet though. Maybe that stopped them. If there is a lesson in all this, I guess it would be that when you come to a door, you should always try opening it. We did end up being the first in line for the blood tests.

After eating a big breakfast as soon as we finished the cholesterol test, we went up to the Velvet Snout to photograph another new Dalmatian Rescue dog. This dog's name is Madison and she is cute as a button. I went ahead and made her today's Dalmatian of the Day, because some of you might be getting tired of seeing dogs that found their forever homes years ago. We don't get as many dogs in the rescue program as we used to. That's a good thing too! Back when the Disney movies were popular, there were more abandoned Dalmatians than we could handle.

I spent the rest of the day getting groceries and doing the usual Saturday errands. Added to today's to-do list was a trip to Competitive Camera to pick up some gear I had ordered a long time ago. I love spending time in camera stores. I'd like to scoop up everything and take it home with me, which is probably why I have more equipment than I actually need. I noticed that more and more display screens on the back of digital cameras are touch screens now. Some will focus and take an exposure when you touch a specific area of the screen. Hmm. Where have I seen that before? It's weird when high end DSLR cameras are starting to copy features off the iPhone.

Halloween is right around the corner. Every store I went to today was full of pumpkins and other Halloween paraphernalia. We'll have to start thinking of costumes again for the annual dog training class Halloween party. Last year Dash won a prize. We put a baseball cap on him and called him a Texas Ranger. The Rangers happened to be playing in a World Series playoff game that evening and when they won, Dash got swept along to victory as well. We may have to try a little harder this year.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 661

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up. For the first time in months, I've got a backlog of video, writing and web projects sitting on my desk. I worked on writing assignments and web emergencies today. Web emergencies are weird. They usually involve information that has been sitting in plain sight for six months or more. Eventually, the client looks at this information and realizes it is all wrong. I get a frantic call saying that I've got to change things immediately. Usually the incorrect information came directly from the client in the first place, but it's not my job to point that out.

When I went to physical therapy today, I mentioned to the therapist that his neck pulling machine reminded me a lot of a medieval rack. He started laughing and said it was exactly the same as a medieval rack, except that his machine was electronic. I'm discovering that my neck problem was caused by a dislocated shoulder that never really healed. I've gotten so used to the dogs pulling my shoulder out of joint that I guess I don't really think about it any more. At any rate, I now have a group of exercises designed to realign my shoulder to go along with my daily neck exercises. I'm not big on doing exercises of any sort, but I'm doing my best to keep up with these because I don't look forward to straining my neck again.

I couldn't figure out why the traffic was so heavy today and then I realized that it was Texas-OU weekend again. Tomorrow is a normal Saturday, filled with shopping and errands, but I'm going to make a special point of avoiding the Cotton Bowl or anywhere libations are served. I don't think the revelers will find any reason to flock to the park. One can only hope anyway.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 660

I shot some more videos for my physician client today. This time the subjects were sleep disorders and the effectiveness of digital X-Rays. My plan is to put a video on every single page of the website. The doc speaks very easily on camera, but it's hell to get him to write something on paper. I'll have a much better chance of completing everything this way.

I'm going to have to rethink how I price things. About six months ago I started doing what I called placeholder jobs at low prices to tide me over between the real jobs that paid the rent. The whole idea was that this would even out my month-to-month cash flow and eliminate the feast-to-famine existence I had been living. Well, the little jobs kept growing and growing and now I'm so busy that I don't have time to go looking for the big jobs I need. This is not a good situation, because I'm maxed out doing low budget website revisions, writing assignments and pro-bono animal rescue work. I need to either start charging more, or find out where those illusive big jobs are hiding.

When I was walking the dogs today, a neighbor told me that I looked real stiff and asked what was wrong. Jeez, I thought I was looking a lot better. If people still think I look stiff, I must have looked like a total zombie three weeks ago.

I finally got my service representative to return my call at Land Rover and I made an appointment to take my car in for service next week. It used to be real easy to get hold of my service guy, but there are two empty desks in the service department now. I don't know how people ever expect jobs to return when companies all over the country simply aren't replacing people anymore. The new normal is simply to have the remaining people work a little harder when someone leaves. If you have a job, you're probably overworked and if you don't have a job, you're probably not going to get one. That's just the way it is.

Cassie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 659

When I went to physical therapy today, they put me on a machine that looked suspiciously like a medieval rack. I felt like I was in a Monty Python movie. My head was in some kind of restraint that was attached to a chain which tugged on my neck at periodic intervals. Although the whole thing sounds horrible, the machine was actually pretty gentle and actually seemed to help with the neck pain. The physical therapy guy seemed worried that I might panic and gave me a kill button to push if I felt I needed to stop the machine. He said some people felt uncomfortable being left in a room with a machine tugging on their head. I told the physical therapist that I'd be fine and that there was a good chance I'd be asleep when he got back. I found the whole process kind of relaxing.

I actually wished I could have stayed at the physical therapy place longer, because work was anything but relaxing. Every project I worked on today seemed either totally meaningless, redundant and unnecessary, or just plain wacko. I'm sure that most of you have had these type of days yourselves. Usually, the higher up the food chain the request originates, the wackier it is. I much prefer working with people down in the trenches. At least they are realistic about what can be accomplished in a day.

We're back to having dog training class in the dark again. The sun had already set by the time we arrived this evening. It's going to be this way until Spring. There are some lights in the park, but it's pretty dim. Dash doesn't like the dark either. He always seems much more reasonable when we have daylight classes in the Summer.

Google+ was filled with tributes to Steve Jobs this evening. I never got to know the guy like a lot of the silicon valley types, but he changed my life in some very fundamentally ways. I bought one of the very first Macintosh computers in 1984. I've had at least one Mac on my desk ever since. Before the Macintosh, I used to write things on a yellow pad and have a secretary type them up. Life was relaxed and often fun. Now my phone has a more powerful processor inside than the Apollo rockets that went to the moon. The Mac on my desktop is more powerful than early defense department supercomputers. Instead of assistants, I've got software that will do anything. Computers have enabled almost all of us to accomplish things that would have been impossible even ten years ago. They haven't made life any easier though. My own life is busier and more stressful than it's ever been. On days like today, I feel like a serf in a science fiction version of the middle ages.

Lightning is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 658

I got a call from an antique dealer friend who said she had found some bone china Dalmatian figurines at an estate sale. Did I want them? Sure. Of course I do. Annette told me that she had already bought the figurines, since she knew I would like them, so I met her at a nearby Starbucks to pick them up. This is great! Now people know what I like so well that I don't even need to look for things myself. The ceramic Dalmatians are very pretty and soon will join all the other Dalmatians on the coffee table.

I spent the rest of the day dealing with living, breathing dogs and cats. I must have added at least twenty five new pages to the rescue website I'm trying to bring up to date, but there are still more animals to go. Probably by the time I get pages made for all the new animals the rescue group sent me, some of them will have been adopted and I'll have to take the pages right back down again. Hopefully, I can convince these folks to send me information about adoptable animals immediately after the animal is admitted, instead of waiting three months and sending me a huge pile of stuff all at once.

I actually found myself daydreaming again on our morning walk. This was the first day in a long time that didn't find myself focused on neck pain and worrying about slipping on a loose rock. The physical therapy is really making a difference. I'm sleeping better now as well. My physical therapist told me that drugs and steroid injections really don't work for my type of problem and that many people with neck pain are misdiagnosed. He said when tissue is physically caught and pinched by the vertebra, the only real solution is to physically work the tissue loose again. Maybe this is what chiropractors do as well. I've never been to a chiropractor, so I don't really know. I do like this approach a lot better than just throwing a lot of strong drugs at the problem. Pharmaceuticals aren't the answer for everything.

One of those red "check engine" lights came on in my car today. Damn! Now I can't postpone my next service visit much longer. I think this light just has something to do with the catalytic converter and isn't very serious, but you never know. I guess I'll make an appointment with the Land Rover dealer tomorrow.

Jersey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 657

I went for my second physical therapy session today. They think I'm a good candidate for traction therapy since I relax easily and don't tense up when they start pulling on my neck. Truthfully, I could could easily fall asleep during physical therapy if they didn't ask me to do things occasionally. It's relaxing to be in situations where I don't have to think. Walking the dogs is relaxing. Clients and working usually isn't.

I was hoping for a little financial therapy today as well, but after meeting with my financial adviser this afternoon, we both agreed that the next several months didn't look very promising. Greece is almost certain to default on its debt. Many think the double dip recession we've been worried about all Summer is already here. I can't imagine that the 12 member debt super committee is going to accomplish much either. I've picked up some inverse positions to cushion the blow, but it's still going to be a dismal year. Oh, and did I mention that the Dow hit a new low for the year today.

Fall is definitely here. I had to wear a light jacket when I took the dogs on their morning walk. I saw a huge Red Tail Hawk sitting on top of a pine tree today. This was the first hawk I've seen this season. Pretty soon the Cormorants will be returning to the lake. After the Cormorants come the Pelicans and by then our impossibly hot Summer will have become a distant memory.

I didn't make much progress on my backlog of website updates today. There's always tomorrow for that.

Hobbs is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 656

The dogs had a great day at the dog park today. It was 70 degrees and there were plenty of other dogs to play with. No panting and sitting under a tree this time. Dot and Dash were full of energy and we ended up staying at the park twice as long as we usually do.

When we got home, I took advantage of the nice weather to get some yard work done. I did just fine with the lawn mower, since mowing is slow and methodical. I probably should have left the reciprocal saw alone though and saved pruning the trees for later. As the saw tugged and jerked it's way through dead branches, it rattled my neck a bit. The yard does look nicer though. Anyway, if I cut out everything that might possible bother my neck, I probably wouldn't be doing anything.

I saw Andy Rooney's last broadcast on 60 Minutes tonight. I always thought Andy had a great job. For the past twenty years he got paid a lot of money for just complaining for five minutes once a week about something that irritated him. Hey, I could do that. And why limit the complaints to once a week? The world is so full of irritating things these days that I think could easily complain once a day for five minutes almost indefinitely.

I don't want people to forget about me, but I hope I don't get many new jobs next week. I've still got about three days of unfinished work left over from last week. Since I don't do well multitasking, I'm going to feel compelled to finish that old work before I start on anything new.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 655

We went to the Lake Highlands Octoberfest this afternoon. This event is put on by the Lake Highlands Exchange Club to raise money for the scholarships it provides to the local high school. This year's event took place at the never completed Lake Highlands Town Center. The Town Center is a beautiful development that was supposed to revitalize the entire neighborhood. Unfortunately, the project ran into financial problems during the big financial meltdown of 2008 and was never completed. There is a beautifully landscaped urban park, nice streets and plenty of parking, but no buildings whatsoever. It's a good place to have a neighborhood fundraiser though. I had a grilled bratwurst and a Weizen beer and enjoyed the Sunny Fall afternoon.

We also ordered our new mattress at the Design Within Reach store. Janet liked the same firm mattress I did, so hopefully we'll be getting a little more restful sleep in a few weeks. We didn't ask the dogs which mattress they'd like best. They'll sleep anywhere. Usually right on top of us.

I'm still trying to get caught up on one of the animal rescue websites I manage. After months with no updates whatsoever, these guys decide to send me a ton of new animals they want on their site all at once. There must be twenty-five or thirty new animals and each one needs a page of it's own. It's going to take me four or five days to get everything updated.

I think the physical therapy is actually working. Even after one session I found it was easier to get out of bed this morning and the pain in my neck didn't seem as bad when I walked the dogs this afternoon either. I'll cross my fingers and hope that after a few weeks of these sessions, I'll be able to get back to a normal schedule again.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 654

It hard to believe that it's been a full year since my Paypal photo shoot in San Francisco. That's what I was doing a year ago today. Being a spokesperson for Paypal certainly hasn't changed my life much. Very few people I know have even seen the ads. A lot of the people who actually have seen the ads still think that the Dalmatians in the photos are Dot and Dash. I have to explain that they only flew me to San Francisco for the photo shoot, not Dot and Dash. The dogs in the photos are California show dogs who are used to being in photos. They are very nice, but they are not mine.

I had my first physical therapy session today. I learned that I don't have a pinched nerve, or my neck pain would be even worse. What I have is a condition called encapsulated soft tissue. What this means is that some tissue has been caught between the vertebra in my neck and is being pinched. Evidently traction therapy can pull the vertebra apart just enough to release the tissue. I'm a bit sore after the first session, but it all makes sense to me.

When I arrived at the physical therapy offices I was surprised to see that my own doctor was there getting physical therapy himself. I heard him tell a nurse that he was just going to ride the stationary bicycles till the therapist was done with me. My therapist heard this and told someone to go watch him, because he "didn't know when to stop." The therapist turned to me and told me that the doctor was in a lot worse shape than I was. I guess this is good news, but I certainly like a healthy doctor too. At any rate, it looks like several weeks of therapy sessions ought to get me back to normal. I certainly hope so.

Janet's is helping with a big neighborhood Octoberfest tomorrow, so I guess that's where we're eating lunch. Hopefully we'll be getting our new mattress ordered tomorrow as well. It looks like a very busy weekend, since I've still got work that I didn't manage to get completed today. Tomorrow is a brand new month. We need to remember the dogs heartworm pills in the morning.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 653

I delivered my picture of Edgar the cat today. On the way home, I stopped by a nearby Design Within Reach store and looked at mattresses. I found one that was just about perfect. I didn't buy it though, because rule number one about mattresses is to never buy one unless both people like it. Now, Janet has got to find time to go to the store and try the mattress too. If she likes it, we'll buy it and then wait and wait and wait as it travels by slow boat from wherever it comes from. That's the thing about buying furniture from a furniture showroom. You can't actually buy what's in the store. I can recall waiting six months for certain pieces of furniture I got at Palazzetti to arrive. The mattress shouldn't take nearly that long. I hope not anyway. A young designer told me that orders usually only take two or three weeks to deliver.

I wrote a watch article today about a watch that one of the popular watch blogs recently said was one of the ugliest watches that had ever been manufactured. Of course I took a much different slant on things in my article. For a brief moment I wondered if I would ruin my reputation by saying great things about a watch that everyone else hated. Then I remembered that I was in advertising. Advertising people can't ruin their reputation. We never had one in the first place.

The physical therapy place called me for the third time to remind me about my appointment tomorrow. Jeez. How am I going to forget to go to this place when my neck hurts? Believe me, I'll be there tomorrow. I hope they come up with a good plan for me, because I'm getting real tired of walking around like I was made of eggshells and plaster. Things are getting a little better though. At least I can turn my head enough now to see the oncoming traffic when I back out of the driveway.

I still haven't gotten around to installing the Avid Media Composer software I got earlier in the week. I still haven't gotten any new video jobs either, so I guess there is no big hurry.

Sweet Pea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 652

Today, I went back and forth between writing an article about the new Versace Collection at Milan Fashion Week, as if I was actually there, and looking for a good picture to memorialize Edgar the dead cat. What a twisted path my career has become. I used to write nice normal television commercials about fast food and soft drinks. Today I sling words together in ways I never would have dreamed possible during my ad agency days. It's a living, I guess. At least I can sleep in till 9 and I don't have to face rush hour traffic.

Occasionally, I wonder if there are even any nice, normal television commercials to write anymore. All I see on TV these days are commercials for pharmaceutical companies with a message that is basically a long legal disclaimer that says there's a good chance this drug will probably kill you, but hey, why don't you try it anyway, just in case it might work on you. The only other thing on TV are all the ads for lawyers that say if you were foolish enough to take one of these pills that are advertised on TV, call 1-800-BAD-DRUG immediately and you may be eligible for a financial settlement. It's definitely a weird world we live in.

The aggressive dog didn't come back to training class tonight, so everything was a lot more relaxed. Dash would have done really well if he didn't have a guy with a bad neck on the other end of his leash. Dot had one of her best night's ever. The only bad thing about class tonight is that it's starting to get dark again. By the time class was over, it was completely dark and we were all standing under little pools of artificial light, wondering where the Summer had gone.

Spanky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 651

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and discovered that over 3000 people had me in their Google+ circles. I'm certain that the number was way less than this yesterday. The floodgates have opened. All of the sudden Google+ has gone from being a cool, semi-quiet place where you could actually talk with Silicon Valley luminaries to being a crowded, noisy place that is not that different from Twitter. Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted.

I think all my clients woke up with a bad case of I want it now this morning. I had a hard time getting anything done today because every time I got started on something, someone else called with an emergency that they said they needed even quicker. Surely some of this stuff could wait until tomorrow.

Dash got his bi-weekly antigen shot today. I had the nurse look at his teeth while we were at the vet. I think a tooth is bothering him, since he keeps rubbing his snout on the carpet in the evenings. It seems like the whole family is falling apart. Dash has a toothache. Janet has come down with a bad cold, and I've still got my neck problems.

When I was walking the dogs this morning, I remembered that I had forgotten to pay an important bill that was due weeks ago. Why can't I remember these things? Reluctantly, I added the hefty late fee and put the check in the mail. I have a feeling that on the day the bill was actually due, it must have been another of those I want it now days where everybody was bugging me about stuff they wanted immediately. Life has become far too complicated for my taste.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 650

Just an ordinary Monday. I paid some bills. I called some clients. I went and bought some frames for a photo commission I got recently. Since I've been getting e-mails almost every day saying the special Avid Media Composer cross promotion for Final Cut Pro users was almost over, I went over to Videotex and picked up a copy of Media Composer. While I was there I got some other video stuff as well, in hopes that my video production business will improve. Probably most importantly, I also made an appointment for physical therapy on my neck. Yesterday at the golf tournament, I talked to several people who had neck and back problems. This wasn't too encouraging, since it appears that all neck injuries take a long time to recover from.

I think it's time to start looking for a new mattress. Like most things in my life, this seemingly easy task is going to be a giant pain. We have one of those low platform beds that you can't use a regular mattress and box spring set with. There are a few companies who make good quality king size mattresses for this type of bed, but they are never stocked by your typical Mattress Universe store. Usually you have to go to a store like Design Within Reach and special order something from Italy or something. All I know is that it will cost way more than any sensible person would want to pay for a mattress and won't arrive until months after my neck has finally healed.

Someone asked me today if I'd be interested in writing reviews of childern's books. Wow. That would be a stretch. I've never had children. I don't really understand children. And can't remember ever reading a children's book. Now, if you asked me to write reviews about German watches, fast cars or DSLR cameras...that I could do.

Suki is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 649

This is our tenth annual Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament. It's hard to believe we've been doing this for ten years now. I remember our very first tournament. We didn't really know what we were doing and we were all delighted not to have lost money on the event. Each year we learned a little more and eventually became quite professional. Now, our tournaments are as good as any charity golf tournaments anywhere.

This year has definitely been a challenge. The golf club we had been planning on using changed ownership less than a month ago and abruptly canceled all their upcoming tournaments. We managed to find a new location at the last minute and notified all the golfers that we would be playing at Indian Creek instead of Bridlewood. The economy has certainly taken it's toll as well. There are fewer sponsors than there were two years ago and fewer players as well. Luckily, we still have a lot of loyal supporters and everyone had a great time today. Danny, a pilot who adopted several dogs from us, brought an entire team from California to play for the third year in a row. Matt and Pat, with their dog Willow in the picture to the left, have come almost every year. More people are bringing their dogs to the event now and everyone seems to enjoy seeing each others Dalmatians. Our own dogs were surprisingly well behaved. I'll have to admit that large amounts of treats have helped Dash become a model citizen today.

I don't really think my photography was quite as good this year. I'm still very slow and stiff and I missed a few tee-off shots I should have captured because I wasn't quick enough. I'm a trouper though. I keep plugging away no matter what. If I ever miss a blog post, or miss anything for that matter, I'm probably dead. Travis and I were hoping to rig up something where all the players could upload smartphone pictures to a common location while they were playing and then we could compile everything very quickly for a slide show of everybody's pictures at the post tournament dinner. There were ways to do this, but nothing simple enough to explain to all the golfers. The last thing most players want to do on a sunny afternoon is jump through complicated IT hoops.

It's been a long day and I think everything went very well. I feel like sleeping in late tomorrow morning. I don't think the dogs will complain. After a long day on the links, I think they have the same thing in mind.

Rosie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day