Day 671

Life is certainly a long and winding road. Every time I start to feel like I've arrived at a destination, somebody moves the finish line. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get caught up with work, or feel financially secure, or get all my health issues resolved.

My only solution is to just keep moving. I'm renewing my efforts to find some new clients. Today, when I went to physical therapy, I took along my iPad and made a quick presentation to the owners about how they could use outdoor advertising and short videos to help market their business. I think presenting to people who already have to see you anyway is a great strategy. Making a cold call presentation these days is almost impossible.

There seemed to be quite a bit of interest in adding video demonstrations and testimonials to the existing physical therapy website. Will I get the job? Who knows. I think I've got a fair shot at it, but then again, the owners both have children in college who are majoring in marketing. It's hard to compete when the client's kids do the same thing as you do.

I discovered today that I installed the wrong version of Avid Media Composer on my computer. I installed v5.5.2 and I was supposed to install v5.5.3. Damn. Now I've got uninstall everything and start over. I'm trying to get my desktop computer ready to upgrade to the Lion OS, but there are so many conflicts and problems like this that it hardly seems worth the effort. Maybe I'll just keep using Snow Leopard forever.

I stopped by a sporting goods store and got some light free weights for my shoulder exercises on the way home from today's physical therapy session. As soon as I got home, Dash fished the weights out of my shopping bag and started running around the house with them. He thought they were dog toys.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 670

The day started with a big breakfast and ended with cheeseburgers. That's all I need. It's amazing how my appetite is returning, now that I'm feeling better. I must have been in a lot worse shape than I thought I was when we went to Las Vegas a month ago.

Now that things are getting back to normal, I'm starting to tackle the yard again on weekends. I trimmed more dead limbs off bushes and trees this afternoon and added them to the pile at the curb for big trash pickup. I was a little worried when I dragged the old mattress out to the street the other day that I'd gotten the pickup day wrong again, but I noticed other neighbors taking their trash to the street this afternoon. I must have gotten the date right after all.

After mowing the grass, I upgraded my iPad to iOS5. This seemed to go more smoothly than it did when I upgraded the iPhone yesterday. Maybe I just knew what to expect this time. Unfortunately, my desktop computer still can't access the iCloud yet, so all the automatic syncing features are kind of pointless. I still have to upgrade to my desktop computer to Lion before it even realizes that there is a cloud out there waiting to suck up all my information. I don't know why these inevitable upgrades have to be so complicated. I still need to check about 50 applications to make sure they're compatible with Lion, and even though iOS5 claims to have added over 200 new features, I'll probably never use 195 of them. All I want is for my regular work related applications to work flawlessly both before and after any upgrade, but unfortunately it's never quite that simple.

Just in case you were wondering, the dogs did get to go to the dog park this morning. Unless there's a tornado headed our way, or some other sort of disaster, they always get to go to the dog park on Sundays. Dot and Dash both had fun today. The weather was perfect and there were lots of playful dogs at the park. I had a pretty good day myself. I got a ton of work done today and my neck still feels fine. Things are looking up!

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 669

I went to the estate sale of local architect John Barthel this morning. After walking the dogs and eating breakfast, I arrived pretty late. All the dealers fighting over the architect's vintage Knoll and Herman Miller furniture had bought what they wanted and left already. This was no great loss to me. I mostly just wanted to see the house itself, which had won an AIA award for contemporary residential architecture in 2002. I ended up buying Mr. Barthel's briefcase which was well worn and stained with the ink from hundreds of architectural drawings. I don't really use a briefcase anymore, but this small leather case had lots of character and appealed to me.

I find estate sales fascinating. People spend a lifetime acquiring the objects that define their values and shape their life. What happens? At the end, a bunch of complete strangers trod through your house and completely ignore all the memories you've accumulated. They can't even see them. The dealers who dominate estate sales are just looking for stuff with immediate resale value. It's all kind of cold and a bit sad.

I upgraded my iPhone to iOS5 today. Don't do this if you're in a hurry. The whole process seemed to take much longer than other iPhone upgrades I've done in the past. While the upgrade is underway, there are numerous dialog boxes that tell you your phone is being restored to factory settings. Yikes! I was convinced that all my photos and apps were being erased until the lengthy upgrade was finally finished and I found myself with a working phone that was connected to the iCloud.

In honor of the new mattress, we got a new comforter for the bed. To make sure the new comforter stayed looking new at least a few days, both dogs got a bath. Dot refuses to get out of the car now when we arrive at Vhea's LaundroMutt. Dash is a quick learner. When he saw that Dot was refusing to get out, he jumped back in the car as well. Eventually, we got the dogs inside and bathed, but it seems to be more of a struggle every time we go.

If I've got time tomorrow, I'm going to go look for some small hand weights. Free weight training seems to be helping tone up my shoulder and back muscles, but the one pair of weights I found around the house are way too heavy for the exercises I'm supposed to do. I've never even been inside a Dick's Sporting Goods store, but there's a first time for everything.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 668

Another beautiful day. It's hard not to like October in Texas. Unless the rainy season starts early and ruins the State Fair, it's typically the nicest month of the year. I'm enjoying our morning walks again. My aches and pains have subsided and the dogs seem to have taken a break from their usual tugging and pulling. They now seem to enjoy lingering to smell things along our path. I could walk a lot longer on days like this, but there is always plenty of work waiting back at the house.

After breakfast this morning, I took the old mattress out to the street to be picked up by the bulky and brushy trash trucks that should be arriving next week. Moving a king sized mattress without assistance is not the easiest thing in the world. For starters, the mattress is fairly heavy, but the real problem is the size. I couldn't really get a grip on the thing without it flopping over and making me start over. I finally got the unwieldy mattress over the back fence, down the alley and moved to it's designated spot near the curb. After taking care of the old mattress, I added the dead tree limbs I trimmed last week to the pile.

I figured that all this activity should count as exercise, so I didn't do my physical therapy exercises today. I did go to my session though, and discovered that this wasn't my last day after all. Insurance is going to cover me for another week , so I will have sessions next week as well. I have become a believer in physical therapy and in physical activity in general during the past two weeks. I didn't used to think I needed an exercise program at all. Hey, I walk the dogs, mow my own grass, vacuum the house periodically and climb up on the roof every time it rains. That should be enough, shouldn't it? As it turns out that, even with all this activity, I wasn't exercising the correct muscle groups and still have poor upper body strength. We'll try to fix all that this Fall.

I balanced my checkbook today and discovered once again that more money was going out than was coming in. My problem is that frugality never really appealed to me. I lead a simple life in many ways, but instead of champagne living on a beer budget, I would much prefer beer living on a champagne budget. The only real solution to this dilemma is more clients. Surprisingly, I might have actually found one this afternoon.

It turns out that the guy who had been doing my physical therapy is actually the owner of the place. He started talking about advertising today while he was pulling on my neck and I mentioned that I was pretty good at solving advertising problems. We're going to have a meeting next week and there's a chance that I'll get his advertising business. I'll see if I can put together some sort of a presentation this weekend that I can show him on my iPad. I'm optimistic at this point. A surprisingly large percentage of people I run into actually end up being clients. I just don't see many people these days.

It's going to be a busy weekend. The house is dirty. I still have two videos to finish for my doctor client. And of course, the dogs need Halloween costumes.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 667

It was a nice day. I got up early to meet the Design Within Reach truck. For some reason, they decided to deliver our new mattress at 8 AM this morning. The mattress arrived compressed in a huge tube. The delivery guys said I was supposed to unseal the tube and the mattress would uncoil and spring back to its original shape. I wasn't sure if this expansion process was gradual or an explosion, so I decided not to open the package until later.

The dogs and I ate breakfast, had a nice walk in the cool Fall weather and then returned to face the large box in the living room with a rolled up king sized mattress inside. I took the tube out of the cardboard box and placed it on top of the existing mattress. This way, if things didn't go as planned when the compressed foam expanded, there wouldn't be other things in the way that could get broken. Sure enough, when I broke the seal on the heavy vinyl tube, the rolled up mattress slowly began to uncoil and return to its original shape. The delivery guys told me that the mattress could take up to 8 hours to fully expand, but it looked pretty normal after just twenty minutes.

I didn't get a single call from clients today, which gave me the time I needed to finally finish updating the animal rescue site I've been working on all week. I added 42 new pages to the site, uploaded everything to the server and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond to look for a mattress pad for the new mattress. Why do mattress pads cost over $100 these days? Probably for the same reasons fry pans and chef knives cost over $100. Whenever I buy something cheap at Bed Bath and Beyond, there are tons of those blue 20% off coupons around the house. Today, when I needed a coupon, I couldn't find any. Oh, well.

Tomorrow is my last physical therapy session. My neck is still a little sore, but the therapy has made a huge difference. I'm really glad I took this route, rather than just trying to mask things with pain pills. If I have the discipline to continue all the exercises they have designed for me, I should be in a lot better shape six months from now.

Puppies are today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 666

The rain slowed us down today. A passing morning storm postponed our morning walk and by the time the dogs and I finally returned from the park and had our breakfasts, I was already behind on everything.

I did manage to get the October invoices out and in the mail today. I also finished a writing assignment that I had promised would be done by this evening. That was about it though. After those two things, it was time to head up North for my Wednesday physical therapy session.

Although the physical therapy is really helping my neck, it is also contributing to my inability to get things done as efficiently as I used to. Every time I go to a session, they seem to add another exercise they want me to do at home. Today, they added some free weight exercises to the isometric and resistance exercises I am already doing. I don't have time for all these exercises. I didn't even get the water off the roof today.

I had almost forgotten about the inauspicious nature of today's post being number 666 when I got a call from Janet on my way home from physical therapy. She said she had been having some trouble breathing today and was going to stop by Baylor on the way home from work. Stopping by Baylor instead of our regular doctor meant she was going to the emergency room. I was superstitiously worried for a while and then a few hours later I heard her car in the driveway. After a steroid shot, chest X-rays and some other tests, it appears everything is going to be fine.

Kuuipo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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