Day 758

I'm a Southerner. Anything below freezing is very uncomfortable to me. When I walked Dot and Dash this morning, I discovered that it was not only below freezing; it was freezing with a thirty mile per hour wind! It was almost too much. On days like these, I really wish I could train the dogs to use the toilet. We all wore our warmest coats, but I don't think it helped all that much.

Luckily, it warmed up a bit later in the day, because I still had plenty to do. I managed to get all my invoices posted and in the mail this afternoon. I also got my car safety inspected. On the way home from the garage, I noticed that the mechanic had put the safety inspection sticker on my windshield upside down. With my anal retentive tendencies, that little faux pas is going to bother me for the rest of the year. Every time I get in the car, I'm going to fixate on that stupid upside down sticker. Then, the next year, I'm going to tell another mechanic to be sure to put the 2014 sticker on right side up and he's going to think I'm an idiot.

With so many odds and ends to distract me, I didn't get much work done. One of the things I was asked to do today was remove an employee from a group photo on one of the websites I manage. I looked at the questionable photo in Photoshop and discovered that the no longer employed guy in the third row had a head that was only four pixels wide. This photo was so small that I couldn't tell who anyone was. I'm positive that nobody could recognize the faces in the tiny low resolution image. There must be a back story on this one. These folks apparently didn't even like the idea of this guy being in their photo anymore.

The HVAC guys are coming over tomorrow morning to take a look at my erratic furnace. It works some of the time and then refuses to light at other times. I'm almost certain that the furnace will decide to work perfectly tomorrow when the repair guys are here. I'm plagued with intermittent problems at home and in my car. Whenever I get someone to come look at the problem, it goes away and makes me look foolish. I hope the furnace gets fixed though. It's supposed to be really cold this weekend.

I got another call about being a guest presenter on Shop NBC this morning. They want me to sell watches on TV. I don't know what these guys are thinking. I'll admit that I do like watches, but I'm definitely no Joan Rivers. I'll keep you guys posted on what happens.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 757

I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish today, but I ended up getting very little done since I spent so long at the doctor. My doctor visits inevitably morph into client meetings and take twice as long as I think they will. Today we went back and forth between talking about my liver and talking about the doctor's marketing plans. Actually, I like things this way, since I never feel rushed. There's always plenty of time to ask all the questions I can think of. The long and short of things is that I do need an MRI, apparently since there is something new in the CAT scans that wasn't there two years ago. Hopefully the mystery object is benign.

I guess I'll get my car safety inspected tomorrow. It would have been convenient to do this today, since the safety inspection station is right near the doctor's office, but there just wasn't time. I didn't want to walk the dogs in the dark again.

It's supposed to get down below freezing tonight. That seemed fairly impossible earlier in the day, when I was walking the dogs in shirtsleeves, but Texas weather can fool you. During dog training class this evening, a cold front blew through and the temperature felt like it dropped twenty degrees in less than an hour. Class actually ended early, because everyone was so cold. Nobody had dressed for this sudden change of events. I think Dot and Dash were happy to come home early. Neither one of them like the cold.

I know that some of you who read this blog were also members of Adgitize like I was. I wonder if anyone else has noticed that their Entrecard rank has dropped now that Adgitize is gone. My Entrecard rank, which had been constant for months, dropped quite a bit right after Adgitize closed its doors. I still can't figure out the connection, but I bet there is one.

I've absolutely got to get my invoices out tomorrow or I won't have any money coming my way in February. I'm usually not this late. Sadly, I've been saying that a lot recently. I really need a nap.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 756

Another rainy day. At least I didn't have to drive Dash very far today. Our regular vet is very near the house. Rainy days are enormously unproductive. I'm constantly cleaning the dogs paws and drying them off so they won't track mud all over the house. I'm frequently up on the roof in my often futile and increasingly Quixotic quest to keep water from leaking into the house. Wet dogs also mean lots of towels that need to go in the laundry. I keep wondering if this is what it's like to have children around the house. Small children must be equally as messy as dogs.

I did manage to get some work done today, but I don't think I'm ever going to get caught up completely. With tax season approaching again, I'm going to have to spend a considerable amount of time unraveling the mess I've created with my shoddy bookkeeping habits. The information is all there. It's just not in the same place yet.

After two visits to doggie doctors this week, I need to make a third visit to one of my own doctors tomorrow. Supposedly, I will learn whether I really need that MRI or not. I wish I'd learned this information last December when I'd already met my insurance deductible, but that's just the way it goes. I discovered a long time ago that the world doesn't exactly run on my timetable. I still can't decide whether to try to postpone the MRI until I've met my deductible for this year, or just let the imaging be the thing that meets the deductible for other stuff that I'm sure to need later in the year. There's always the chance that I won't even get a choice too. Sometimes doctors completely ignore what I'm thinking.

I need to decide whether to go to a meeting, or go to dog class tomorrow evening. Hmmm. That was easy. I'm going to dog class.

Murphy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 755

We took Dash to see the ophthalmologist today. It looks like the main problem with his eyes are allergies. I guess this shouldn't be surprising, since allergies are also the main problem with his skin. The clouding on the surface of one eye is not a cataract, as I had feared, but is a collection of lipid cells instead that is sometimes caused by cholesterol. All in all, he's in pretty good shape, even though the pinkish discoloration around his eyelids looks terrible at times.

Janet told me later that we were sitting right next to hockey great Mike Modano and one of his Golden Retrievers in the lobby while we were waiting for the doctor. I can never recognize anyone. If you follow hockey at all, I suppose you would recognize one of the NHL's all-time points leaders, but he just looked like one of the guys who works on my furnace to me. He certainly seemed like a nice guy and you could tell he loved his dogs. I didn't even know that Modano had retired until Janet told me that as well.

It rained most of the day today. Dash was pretty good in the car though. I was surprised. He was pretty good at the doctor's office as well. The doctor did one test where he had to put some saline solution in a tear duct until it came out his nose. Dash whimpered a little, but he was even pretty good for that gruesome procedure. He certainly behaved a lot better than I would have if a doctor tried to do that sort of thing to me.

Even though the visit to the ophthalmologist took most of the afternoon, I still managed to finish adding the new puppies to the adoption website and wrote another watch article. This is the day I usually try to get my invoices out, but that will have to wait until later in the week. Dash goes back to the vet for his biweekly antigen shot tomorrow and then on Wednesday, I go to the doctor myself. Sometimes I'm amazed that I get anything done. I still haven't gotten the nail taken out of my tire yet. That will have to wait until later as well.

Mack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 754

Dash had an exceptionally good day at the dog park. I don't think I've ever seen him play as long or as enthusiastically. He's still scared of larger dogs, after being bitten by one. He is friendly with puppies though, and today he was lucky enough to find a young, but very large puppy who was just the right size. You can tell when Dash is excited. If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice that all four of his paws are off the ground.

I got a new set of fitted sheets a couple of weeks ago, and when I made the bed this morning the brand new fitted bottom sheet ripped at the seam. I usually chalk this sort of thing up to bad luck, but Janet insisted we take the sheets back and get a refund. Luckily, she was willing to do this if I could find the receipt, because I hate to take things back to the store.

I've got a ton of shoddy or broken things that I never bothered to take back or exchange. I probably should take things back more often though. The store refunded the price of the sheets without raising an eyebrow. The whole process was quick and easy. I probably would have gotten out the sewing machine, tried to repair the rip, and made such a mess of things that nobody would have even considered taking them back.

I still haven't gotten caught up with adding all the new dogs to the animal rescue site. Most of the new additions are puppies. It sure would have been easier just to make one new page called "puppies" instead of creating individual pages for each pup in the litter. All the little lab-mix pups look identical, so each of the new pages I've made look the same as well. The pages won't last long either, since we'll need all new picture when the pups get a little older. Oh well, it's all for a good cause.

Our week of beautiful weather seems to be drawing to a close. The weather channel says there a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. Not exactly the news I was waiting to hear. Dash has to go up to the animal ophthalmologist in North Dallas tomorrow. He hates riding in the car and he hates rain. That ought to be an interesting trip.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 753

I took the Christmas tree down today. When I was putting Christmas stuff back in the carport closet, one of the large sliding doors fell off its track and got stuck. What a mess. These are heavy doors and the inside surface is fitted with a rack holding everything from antifreeze to roof repair cement. I had to empty this rack and move half the stuff crammed in the little storage room out to the driveway to make enough space for a ladder so I could fix the track for the door. The whole process took several hours and put me way behind on Saturday errands.

Luckily, there was still time to go up to The Velvet Snout and photograph Misty, our newest addition to the Dalmatian Rescue program. Misty is ten years old. Her former owners decided she was too old to bother with and took her to an animal shelter. Jeez. this dog is younger than our Dot. She's healthy, well trained, and full of life. Misty was just dumped and abandoned like an old sofa. I don't know what is wrong with people sometimes. At any rate, I'm confident that Misty will find a better home next time. She's a wonderful dog and she's today's Dalmatian of the Day.

I wish I had a personal assistant. I know I have enough new photos to have another nice gallery show, but I don't have time to go around to galleries and try to get them interested. It would be nice to have someone to go around and show the work I've been doing in the energy industry to other oil and gas companies too. There's so much stuff I could be doing if I wasn't doing too much already. Maybe it's just a matter of priorities. Somehow, I still have time to walk the dogs four miles a day and fix myself French Toast and sausages in the morning. I guess the truth is that I really don't like marketing at all. I don't mind actually doing the work, but I can't seem to be bothered with the dog and pony show you have to go through to attract new clients, or new gallery owners, or new anything for that matter.

The weather has been great all week. It's a pretty safe bet that the dog park will be open tomorrow. I've been surprised at how many people we've seen from our training class at this particular dog park. These people don't live nearby, but they always take the time to search out the best dog park, even if it's thirty miles away. I guess it's not surprising that we see the same people and their dogs again and again. It's a big city, but the number of people who choose dogs over watching football on Sunday afternoon is apparently still pretty small.

Misty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 752

Today was a little different. I actually saw someone face-to-face. After I walked the dogs this morning, I went and had coffee with an advertising buddy I hadn't seen in years. You can't really catch up on fifteen years over a cup of coffee, but we both had an enjoyable time talking about watches, horrendously high property taxes, and how much the the industry has changed since we last got together. After finishing our coffee, we agreed that it was important to see each other at least every ten years and we both went back to work.

Walking back to my car, I realized that there was a shoe store right near the Starbucks and stopped in to buy a new pair of dog walking shoes. I have enough nice shoes to last a lifetime, but I'm continually burning through dog walking shoes. I guess it makes sense. Walking dogs is my life.

When I got back to the office, there was an e-mail that said thirteen new dogs needed to be added to an animal rescue site asap. There was also a new watch article to write and some correspondence that needed to be dealt with before everyone disappeared for the weekend. By the end of the day I had everything finished except for the new web pages I promised I'd make for the thirteen rescue dogs. I guess that means I didn't actually finish very much. Maybe I'll get these web pages done this weekend. There's always the weekend.

It's time to start gathering tax information again. Usually, I've got everything gathered into tabbed ring binders by now. This year, I'm beyond caring. I've got all the information in a big pile of paper, but I don't even want to look at it. Money comes in. Money goes out. Very little money sticks around very long.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 751

The days are noticeably longer now. Pretty soon, all the sunset photo opportunities that seem perfectly timed with the dog's evening walk will be gone for another season. I'm sure the golden evening skies will be replaced by something equally interesting as the days grow longer, but I'm going to miss these spectacular sunset walks.

One of my European clients has started paying me using Paypal. The fact that it's so easy and safe to make international transactions with Paypal is one more reason I'm starting to use it for almost everything. Getting money from another country used to be a nightmare when I had to use wire transfers. The German banks always wanted information that the American banks didn't even use. Paypal is so much easier.

I almost upgraded my main computer to Lion today, but chickened out at the last minute. Lion seems to work well on my laptop, but I have much more software installed on the main computer. Every single time I've installed a major system upgrade on my desktop, the results have been disastrous. There is always some very expensive application that I use everyday which refuses to work under the new system. Since it's hard to reverse a system upgrade, I usually have to go out and buy all new versions of the software I already have. Typically, I don't like the new versions as well as the old versions, but that's another story. I wish Apple had some sort of app that would search everything on my computer and tell me if I was ready for Lion or not. Snow Leopard is running perfectly now, but I remember that it was a nightmare too in the beginning. One thing is certain. I'm going to have to upgrade to Lion sooner or later. Avid Media Composer 6.0, which I would like to start using, only runs under Lion.

The dead leaves are really stacking up in the back yard now. I'm going to have to break out the leaf blower pretty soon and blow them into big piles so I can bag them up and get rid of them before Spring. There are so many leaves on the ground already, that even if I bag up leaves every weekend, it will still take me until Spring to get the yard cleaned up and ready for a fresh load of St. Augustine sod. It would be so much easier to live on the 17th. floor of a luxury high-rise.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 750

The last of my stop loss orders kicked in today and I'm finally rid of all the ridiculous volatility index funds and inverse shares that were supposed to protect me from a double dip in the stock market. Even though my broker loves this stuff, I've never made a dime on these complicated schemes to outwit the market. What has worked? Buying good solid companies like McDonalds and Apple has worked pretty well. If I didn't have a broker and a financial adviser, I'd probably have bought a lot more good solid companies like these.

Now that I've started taking pictures every day for Instagram, I'm starting to realize that I do the same things over and over again. At first I was proud of all the interesting little things I was able to observe, but now that I've seen each of these things twenty times, they don't seem quite so amazing anymore. I'm going to have to figure out how to insert some variety into my daily routine before my life turns into a real world version of Ground Hog Day. There are probably only so many over-easy eggs you can eat for breakfast and so many sunsets you can photograph before you go certifiably crazy.

Dash was amazingly good at training class tonight. I don't know what came over him. He would have won a ribbon if one of the trainers hadn't been a little too picky about the way he was sitting. Nevertheless, it was his best performance in months. The moody little dog made me proud. Dash is one of the smartest dogs I've ever seen, but if he's not in the mood, you're just wasting your time. This morning it was cold outside, so I put the dogs Winter coats on before their morning walk. Dash was having no part of this. He went right back to bed wearing his coat and did his best to burrow under a blanket. If I was a dog, I probably would have behaved exactly the same way.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 749

A lot of odds and ends today. I guess odds and ends count for something. I went up to Imaging Spectrum and bought enough ink to finish the half done cleaning cycle I'd started earlier. After I finished cleaning the printer, I made a couple of large prints, just to make sure it worked. These prints immediately went in a folio with a lot of other test prints. Since each of the 4880's eight ink cartridges costs $55 and half the ink gets used up unclogging the printer, these prints wind up being a bit pricey. A few years ago, I was able to justify the cost of maintaining this large printer, because several of my retail clients used me to create window displays for them. Now, just about every form of printing can be done online for far cheaper than it costs me to do the same thing. It's that old "economy of scale" thing.

These days I only use my large printer to make free posters for animal rescue groups. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. I just wish the whole process wasn't so expensive or time consuming. With my printer working again, I went over to my pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions and ended up standing in line forever behind some old people who seemed to have much more complicated needs than my own. I kept thinking that these people in the line might be me someday. I certainly hope not. I take way too many pills as it is.

My German client accepted my European style invoice. My watch client has started feeding me regular jobs again, now that the writing marathon appears to be over. I'm still removing employees from websites at a faster pace than adding them. I guess 2012 has started. I need to set aside some time to get my car safety inspected before the sticker on my windshield expires. Each year this process seems to get a little more difficult. Last year a young technician refused to believe that the Defender was a full time four wheel vehicle and attempted to put it on the dynamometer. That was a big mistake. Luckily I was able to get the kid to stop the test before he ruined my car.

The dogs still seem to think we're on holiday time. I had a devil of a time getting them out of bed this morning. You'd think they'd be eager to go on their morning walk, but lately snoozing under a blanket seems more appealing to them. Staying under the covers seems more appealing to me as well, but I'd never get anything done that way.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 748

Today was just like last Monday: a day that didn't know whether it was a holiday or not. We thought the Dalmatian Rescue boarding kennel would be open today, so we drove up there to photograph one of the new dogs. A sign on the door informed us that the kennel was indeed open, but only between 4:30 and 5:30 PM, so people could pick up dogs that had been boarding over the holidays. The printing and photography stores were all closed, so I couldn't buy ink and finish unclogging my large printer. I was left with few choices, so I continued to clean up my office. Today, I made enough progress that the place is actually starting to look presentable. Mostly all I've been doing for the past two days is throwing away useless piles of paper and putting everything else back in its proper drawer or shelf. Yes, I'll admit it: tidy is better.

I finally got my German client's invoice figured out in Euros and sent it off this afternoon. I probably got it wrong again. I almost always do. Seems like it would be easier to just pay me in dollars, but I guess these currency conversion jobs are worth the trouble, since I always end up getting a little more than I thought I would. Too bad I didn't do this job last January. The Euro was worth a lot more back then.

I guess it's back to work tomorrow. The holidays didn't seem nearly long enough this year, probably since both Christmas and New Year's came on a Sunday. January means it's time to get another safety inspection sticker for my car. That's something that's always easy to forget. I'd better not forget that quarterly estimated taxes are due in January too, especially since I completely forgot about them in September. Will my tenant stay in the rent house another year? Will I get any more new clients? Will I be forced to get my wisdom teeth removed? Will the stock market finally go up enough for me to get back to where I was before the big crash? Stay tuned, and we'll all find out together.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 747 - New Year's Day

The dogs had fun today. There were lots of walks, a trip to the dog park, and several tasty holiday plates to lick. I'm sure they'd prefer to live like this everyday, but on most days Janet and I work while the dogs spend their time sleeping. Nobody did much sleeping today. After staying up way too late last night watching a Top Gear marathon on TV, we all got up surprisingly early.

The smell of cooking permeated the air for most of the day. While Janet cooked, I attacked a large pile of papers that has been accumulating in one corner of the office since late May. Most of these papers were old insurance and financial statements that I kept because I didn't really understand them when they first arrived. If I get a bill in the mail, I'll pay it right away. If I get a spreadsheet or financial chart in the mail however, I'll usually just throw it in a big box to deal with later. I guess later came today.

Most of the paper ended up going straight into the paper shredder, but a few documents ended up being transferred to another brown box because they still seemed important enough to deal with later. I didn't really deal with any of the paper today. What would be the point, since most of it was mailed to me last Summer. I really should check the "I'd like to go paperless" box on some of these things. Maybe this year I"ll stop saving the paper entirely. I used to be so meticulous about saving everything for my accountant, until he revealed to me last year that he didn't even read it. "If I actually looked at all those ring binders you send me," he said. "I'd have to charge you a lot more." OK. I think I'm getting the picture now. All my accountant wants is a disc with my Quickbooks files. My stockbroker doesn't like to send me paper because when I actually do look at it, it usually makes me mad. And what about all those things from the health insurance company that say "this is not a bill" even though they look like a bill. What's that all about. Maybe I will go paperless this year.

I tried to unclog my big printer today and ran out of ink before the cleaning process could be completed. I probably shouldn't have even bought a new large format printer. Making huge prints used to seem real important to me when I was interested in doing gallery shows. I don't think gallery shows are worth the trouble anymore. It usually costs more to frame a large show than you make in sales. The more shows you have, the more money you lose. After a while you end up with a storage warehouse full of unsold pictures. I've loaned pictures to clients and friends all over town, and I still have a storage warehouse full of unsold photos.

I wonder what surprises 2012 has in store for me? Even though I think I know it all, there is always something major that totally catches me by surprise. I hope my health holds out for a few more years. It was kind of touch and go this year. I guess I ought to count my blessings though. I'm actually more active than I was ten years ago. I can still fit into the same size jeans I wore in college. Even though my liver is a bit dodgy and I'm a bit too close to becoming a diabetic for my comfort zone, everything still basically works. We'll just take things a year at a time.

I'm not even going to wish for any more work this year. I've got all the work I can handle. I do wish all my clients the best though. Maybe if their business improves in 2012, they can afford to pay me a bit more.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 746

Another year sails off into the sunset. I've still got things on my to-do list from last July that I haven't finished yet. I guess it doesn't really matter. There's always next year. I saw something on the Internet the other day that showed a copy of an old New Year's resolution list made by singer Woody Guthrie. The list contained items like "Remember to brush your teeth" and "wear clean clothes every day." The list was all pretty basic, with the exception of one item that said "Write a new song every day," I think Woody had it right. A lot of grandiose plans never materialize. When you concentrate on the little things, however, and keep plugging away day after day, the result can be grander than you ever imagined. Life is just a collection of a million little details. I don't think anything life changing can happen until you take of the little things first.

I did a lot of little things today. In that regard it was just like any other day. Although I've made a lifestyle out of doing the laundry, photographing inconsequential things within a mile of my house and writing stories about my dogs, I will admit that there are times when my obsession with minutia goes too far. Today, I found myself obsessing about why the trash guys only took half my trash on Friday. They literally emptied exactly half of my trash container and left the rest of the trash untouched. Why? Is there some weird union rule about the number of black bags they can put in the truck? Were they being lazy? Or maybe they got distracted by my neighbor's trash. Of course there's always the possibility that they took all the trash and some some late rising neighbor dumped their trash into my container after the truck had already left. I'll never know.

Before I stop obsessing about little things that don't matter, have you ever noticed that when you start reading the instruction manual for that new electronic gizmo you just got, the first thing you are instructed to do is "Set the Clock?" Everything seems to have a clock in it nowadays. When I got a new TV, the first thing I was instructed to do was set the clock. The same thing happened with every new camera I've bought in the last five years. My phone has a clock. My computer has a clock. Today I was testing a new audio mixer, and sure enough, the first thing the instructions told me to do was set the clock. What on earth does an audio mixer need a clock for? Pretty soon I'll be setting the clock on my electric toothbrush.

I hope all you guys have a very Happy New Year. I'll probably watch a little football and I'm sure a trip to the dog park is in the cards as well.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 745

I think I'm ready to start 2012 with a clean slate. I've got the new orphans added to the animal rescue sites I manage. I've completed my watch articles. I've sent all the content for my oil and gas project off to Germany. I've even finished most of my bookkeeping and accounting for the year.

Now it's on to projects of a more personal nature. I discovered that nobody's referring me for a MRI because my doctor is on a skiing vacation. Still have to resolve that one. I need to get the furnace folks out to the house again too. The furnace is actually behaving worse after its Winter service than before. I have a feeling that I'm going to have a major problem unclogging my large format printer soon, because I haven't turned it on in over three weeks. I've just been too busy.

Janet wants to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the DMA while it's still in town, so we may do that this weekend. We'll certainly go to a dog park. Since it's a holiday, we may even go twice. New Year's Eve itself will probably be pretty quiet. After years of playing noisy New Year's Eve parties in a rock band, I much prefer to just stay at home and watch old Dr. Who movies these days. I'm certainly looking forward to having some good champagne tomorrow evening. Although I can't drink anymore, I grant myself an exception on holidays.

I noticed that all the Adgitize widgets have disappeared on my blog today. I guess that means that Adgitize is gone for good. I'm still a bit sad to see this venture fail. I've seen so many good ideas fail over the years and so many bad ideas succeed. There's just no justice in the world sometimes.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 744

I think I achieved a weird personal best today. I managed to write six watch articles in a single day. Admittedly, most of these articles are just cannon fodder for an insatiable RSS feed, but they're still not that easy to write. Usually my input is just a photograph of the watch and I have to ferret out the rest of the information by searching the Internet. It usually takes me longer to find the information I need than it does to write the article.

I also finished the last component of my oil and gas project and sent it off to Germany. I got an "out of office" message in return, which indicates that my client is on vacation. Maybe I didn't need to be in such a hurry on this project. At any rate, I'm slowly but surely getting caught up. Maybe I'll be able to start 2012 with a clean slate.

I should have waited a little longer to do that little video about opening the B&H box. I got a better box in the mail today. I'm slowly and methodically making an investment that will allow me to do better and more elaborate live streaming videos like I did last May for Siemens. This was probably my best job of the year and I'd like to do more of these things in the future. Back when the stock market was more rational, investing in myself might have seemed risky to me. Now, with the market a schizophrenic mess, investing in my own company seems like the safest bet around.

Tomorrow is the last working day of the year. I've got three more watch articles to write and a couple of websites to update. That's about it. Hopefully I'll get finished in time to go harangue my doctors, who seem to be ignoring the fact that I need a MRI done by the end of the year. I think my chances of getting in for a MRI tomorrow are about the same as they are for the market going up 300 points. Not very likely!

Petey & Greta are Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 743

The year is definitely winding to a close. Nothing new has crossed my desk all week, but there are still plenty of ongoing jobs I need to finish. Just three more days and the year will be over. I can't say that I've really accomplished a lot this year. My business is a little better than it was last year, but my health is a little worse. Nobody I know seems immune to the bad economy you keep hearing about on TV. Most of my clients have a smaller staff than they did last year and I am definitely working with lower budgets than previous years. My rental property is harder to lease than it used to be and my investments aren't even worth talking about. In spite of all that, I'm still in business, I have no debt, and I'm still healthy enough to walk the dogs five miles a day. I probably ought to be counting my blessings.

The watch article marathon apparently isn't over yet. I thought everyone would want to call it quits after Christmas, but it seems that I still have nine articles to go to meet my quota. That's three a day for the next three days. Piece of cake!

Another photographer came up to me today while I was walking Dot and Dash and asked me what kind of camera I was using. The little Panasonic GF3 did look a bit odd with a big telephoto lens attached. The whole thing looks kind of like a lens with a package of cigarettes taped to the back. It works pretty good for dog walking though. I can quickly focus just by tapping on the LCD screen on the back and even with a zoom lens attached, it will still easily fit in a coat pocket. I'd never use this thing for a paying job, but it's certainly expanded my horizons while walking the dogs. I told the other photographer it was a dog walking camera and demonstrated its capabilities by taking a picture while both dogs were lunging at a nearby duck.

I noticed that Janet put some champagne in the refrigerator. Even though I'm not supposed to drink anymore, I'm going to be joining her in celebrating the end of a long and difficult year. Frankly, I'm glad this year is about over. Hopefully, next year will be better for all of us.

Dot & Petey are Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 742

I guess it's back to the old grind again. I spent the day trying to resolve an assortment of small problems that never should have become problematic in the first place. I tried to get an erroneous charge erased from my credit card statement. I tried to figure out which of three different doctors is responsible for referring me for the MRI that I supposedly need. I tried to figure out how to bill a European client in Euros, even though my accounting software only recognizes dollars. I tried to make an eye doctor appointment for Dash, even though the animal ophthalmologist kept thinking he was Petey, who has already died. Absolutely nothing seemed easy today, which I guess was to be expected on the first day after a major holiday. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get some real work done.

At least the weather was nice today. I'm still trying to take a camera with me when I walk Dot and Dash, but getting decent pictures has proved to be quite a learning experience. The dogs aren't very good as photo assistants. I can't let loose of the leash, or they'll run off chasing ducks and other critters. When I hold on to the leash with one hand though, it's hard to keep the camera steady and take the shot with the other. Today I got better results than usual. I managed to get half a dozen sharp hand-held shots of today's sunset with a long telephoto lens. It's hard enough to get sharp telephoto shots without putting the camera on a tripod. When you're trying to hold onto two Dalmatians who have their hearts set on chasing nearby ducks, it's just about impossible. My technique is gradually getting better though. Maybe someday I'll write a book about how to take good pictures while taking Dalmatians on a walk.

I hope I can get this whole MRI issue resolved tomorrow. I've already met my deductible on my health insurance this year, and if they can't schedule me for the scan until next year, I know I'll end up paying a lot more. With my luck, I'll probably end up being scheduled on the same day I've got to take Dash to the eye specialist.

I know that some of you who read this blog also participate in Adgitize like I do. I was sad to receive an e-mail from Ken Brown this morning informing me that Adgitize was shutting down, because the blog advertising service wasn't making any money. I always liked Adgitize and certainly respected the way Ken Brown ran his company. This isn't the first blog advertising site to go bust and it probably won't be the last. Blogging just doesn't seem quite a popular as it was a few years ago. I'll certainly continue blogging though, even if all the widgets on my blog disappear. I enjoy blogging and I appreciate each and every one of you who have decided to make the journey with me.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day