Day 1044

When I was a kid, I used to watch The Twilight Zone every Friday evening. It was one of my favorite shows. At the time, the endings to those shows never failed to surprise me. Occasionally, they even scared me. I've started watching The Twilight Zone again on cable. What a difference a few decades makes. Now each episode seems like a simple morality play, where someone must come to terms with good and evil. These are surprisingly uplifting tales about angels, devils, fear and greed; all with a moral at the end. How could I have been scared by these little dramas? Many of the episodes could be used as Sunday School lessons. Times have certainly changed. Just think about what scares us today.

The other surprising thing about those old Twilight Zone episodes is how good the acting was. You'll see someone who looks a lot like a young Robert Redford, and when the credits roll at the end, it turns out that it actually was Robert Redford. Just last night, I watched an episode where the lead was played by a very young Carol Burnett. I've also seen William Shatner, Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Montgomery, and Burgess Meredith in Twilight Zone episodes. It says a lot about our society today that I've gotten hooked on The Twilight Zone again. It's not because the shows are bizarre or frighting, but because of the simple goodness they now represent.

Today was like watching paint dry. It didn't seem like anything happened all day. I did manage to complete one of my writing assignments, but I saved the others for later in the week. There's no sense in using up all my work in a single day. Things are so slow that I think I'll go to another video editing seminar tomorrow. In addition to chowing down on a plate of free brisket and coleslaw for lunch, I'll learn how to migrate my studio to a tapeless work flow. Actually, I haven't shot anything on video tape for several years, so I guess I'm really going to this event for the barbecue.

The dogs had a new exercise to learn at training class this evening. They had to run a gauntlet between two long rows of sitting dogs. Dot and Dash both did pretty well at this odd task, although I doubt that they'll have much use for this skill later in life. It's weird. Those old Twilight Zone shows seem completely normal to me now, but dog training class occasionally seems a bit like traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. Your next stop...The Twilight Zone.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1043

I hate it when your body starts to fall apart. I'm finally getting used to the carpal tunnel in my left hand, and then I wake up this morning with exactly the same pain in my right hand. How could that happen overnight? Maybe one of the dogs slept on my hands. Maybe the bad dreams I've been having are seeping into my muscles and bones. I don't know what caused this, but it's irritating. I guess that I'll have to start doing my stretching exercises on the other hand as well.

I spent most of the day writing. I've covered some subjects I write about so thoroughly now that new articles are starting to sound a lot like stuff I've already written. That's the danger of being considered an expert in a given subject. You just end up doing the same thing over and over again.

A friend told me today that he couldn't work on a certain piece of business for ethical reasons. Then he asked me if I'd like to work on it instead. Yeah, sure. Whatever. Everyone knows that I have no ethics to speak of.

Apple introduced a cute little iPad today and the stock went down 18 points. What was that all about?  I think people expect too much these days. Maybe folks thought this new iPad costs too much. Maybe they thought it was too much like a Kindle or a Nook. Hey, it was a cute little iPad. I wouldn't mind having one. The stock should have gone up.

I think people are expecting too much from the upcoming elections as well. If you believe all the people on Facebook, the world is going to end if one candidate or the other gets elected. I don't think so. I know who I'm going vote for, but if the other guy happens to win, life will continue more or less as usual. The country is so divided now that we're going to be locked in a gridlocked stalemate for a long, long time.

There's a new lens I'd like to get for the video camera. This lens has gotten fabulous reviews, but it happens to be the manual focusing variety. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be unfortunately. A lens I can't even focus properly isn't going to be very useful. I wonder who's going to win this little dilemma: practical John, or gadget boy? 

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1042

It was quiet when I woke up this morning. Janet had already left for work and both dogs had returned to the bed after they finished their breakfast. I must have been quite tired last night. I didn't hear any of the normal Monday morning activities. There wasn't much reason to get up early anyway. I've got a couple of projects on deck for tomorrow, but today was very slow.

Since there wasn't anything better to do, I decided to watch the Prometheus DVD I got this weekend. I'll have to say that I was a bit disappointed when the whole thing turned out to be sort of a prequel to the Alien series of films. I would think that there will be a sequel to this film as well. Everything is left pretty open ended with the one surviving character sailing off to continue her quest in a recovered alien spacecraft.

Even though I tried, I couldn't kill the entire day doing nothing. I answered the weekend's e-mail messages, did some minor website revisions for one of my clients, and did a little research for tomorrow's projects. This week could actually turn out to be a busy one.

Now that I've been looking at the park with a critical eye for over a year with my camera, I've noticed that plants aren't the only things that follow seasonal cycles. Not only are the trees starting to turn color at exactly the same time as they did last year, the animals are starting to behave the same way as well. The squirrels have started gathering nuts for the winter again and are much easier to photograph. When these squirrels are focused on a nut, even the dogs don't distract them. Huge flocks of starlings are beginning to roost in trees again every evening around sunset. The only thing that has changed since last year, was that a year ago I thought these birds were crows. I'm not exactly James Audubon, but I do learn a few things here and there.

Like many of you, I will watch the final presidential debate this evening. I don't expect to learn anything new. One side will be saying bin Laden, bin Laden, bin Laden, while the other side will be saying bin Ghazi, bin Ghazi, bin Ghazi. Maybe they'll be some talk about China as well. China is really the elephant in the room when it comes to world affairs. Nobody seems happy that China makes all our stuff and owns most of our debt. I don't know what any politician can do about the situation though. Politicians don't understand the nature of a Pandora's Box. Once you open the box, you can't close it again.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1041

Sunday is cleaning day at our house. The floors get cleaned. The cars get cleaned. Even the dogs get cleaned. Although I could daydream in the shower until the hot water runs out, the dogs don't share my sentiments about getting clean. Dot and Dash both hate getting a bath. When we pull up in front of Vheas LaundroMutt, Dot glues herself to the back seat of the car and won't come out. It's quite an effort to get her out of the car, because she's gotten quite good at turning herself into an immovable object. Dash doesn't resist going into the bathing tubs, he just howls the entire time the water is running. Despite all the protesting, the dogs seem to enjoy being cleaner. They don't scratch as much and at least for a little while, their coats feel silky smooth.

I thought I had finished mowing the grass for the season, but our Indian Summer weather has caused the grass in the front yard to start growing again. The grass in the back yard would probably be growing too, if there was any grass. Maybe I ought to thank the armadillo for cutting my mowing chores in half. I can't imagine the warm weather staying around that much longer. Maybe this will finally be the last time I have to get the lawn mower out for the season.

I bought a DVD of that science fiction movie Prometheus when I was shopping this weekend. If you remember, this Ridley Scott film was finally going to get me back into a movie theater again. It didn't. Maybe nothing will ever get me back in a theater again. Movies look pretty darn good on a big flat screen in your house. I've gotten to the point where I just don't like dealing with crowds anymore.

It wasn't always this way. I used to love going to concerts. Crowd certainly didn't bother me when I saw The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, and the Stones. Of course, this was some time ago. Keith Moon was still playing drums when I saw The Who. Liv Tyler wasn't even born yet when I saw Aerosmith. Springsteen wasn't playing stadiums shows when I saw him. I think the theater in Seattle where I saw that concert only seated 3,000 people. I think the last live concert I saw was on August 20, 1983 when Simon & Garfunkel came to Dallas during their reunion tour. That was a good show.

Now, I just watch British comedies on PBS with the dogs. We like Reggie Perrin, Black Books, and Outnumbered. I think I've seen enough of Are You Being Served, however. I'm pretty sure that's what's on later tonight.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1040

You'd think that on Day 1040, I'd be working on my taxes or something. Nope. Just another day full of weekend errands. Every weekend, we stock up on groceries and supplies. Then, we methodically use everything up during the week, so we can repeat the whole process the next weekend. I'm always amazed at how much trash two people and two dogs can generate. We lead a simple life, but somehow there is always a huge amount of trash to take to the street every Friday. I think it is the packaging. Even the simplest thing comes shrink wrapped and boxed in layers and layers of packaging. Even though I hate all the boxes, I save a fair amount of them. I've been told so many times that if you save the packaging, you will get a lot more on eBay if you decide to sell it later. Maybe so. In the mean time, I've got tons of boxes I don't need.

I'm still a little puzzled at how best to go about getting more blog readers since the demise of Entrecard. Reading doesn't appear to be very popular anymore. My other social media efforts, which rely more on pictures, seem to be doing fine. My Google+ page is mostly pictures. I post a lot of pictures on Twitter too. I have a sneaking feeling that a lot of people come here for the pictures too. It would be interesting if Google Analytics had a way of tracking people who actually read the articles. I bet that number would be very small.

While I'm on the subject of Google, I saw the Google Street View car drive by my house today. I wonder how often they update those Street View pictures?  This is the third time I've seen the Google photo car in my neighborhood. One of these days I'm going to be quick enough to wave at the car as it drives by. Maybe then, I will actually be in the Street View picture.

I stopped by an animal rescue resale shop in my neighborhood while I was running errands this afternoon. There was a young couple trying to give their puppy away to the store manager. It was sad to watch. Why do people get pets they aren't willing to keep and take care of? The manager was trying to direct the couple to no-kill shelters in the area. The couple was acting like it was the most normal thing in the world to get rid of their dog. I just don't understand people.

Emily is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1039

The week ended well. I finally got paid on an invoice that was long overdue. A watch that I'd been waiting for arrived in the mail. A picture that I uploaded to Google got 49 +1's. I tried to avoid looking at the stock market today, because I knew it would spoil my good mood.

It's amazing how quickly the year has gone by. It will be Halloween soon. The stores are full of pumpkins and candy. They are also full of Christmas decorations. It appears that the Christmas season starts a little earlier every year. The dogs have a Halloween party every year at their training class. Maybe Dot will go as a diva and wear her Justin Mcmillon dog coat.

You guys probably haven't hear about Justin Mcmillon. He makes a decent living creating custom coats and collars for Dalmatians. Only Dalmatians! Can you imagine a business more specialized than this? Dalmatian owners around the world rave about Justin though. I know people that own four of his coats and claim he is the Karl Lagerfeld of doggie duds. Is this a great country or what! You can do absolutely anything you want, and if you meet a need, you will make money. You go, Justin!

Our beautiful Fall weather continues unabated. I'm enjoying walking the dogs these days. We're right in between the sweaty clothes season and the coats and sweaters season. I can leave the house in a t-shirt and jeans and come home an hour later still feeling comfortable. The dogs love this weather. It would be nice if it would last through November, but it probably won't.

There's absolutely nothing on the agenda for this weekend. I wonder what I'm going to write about tomorrow. I'm sure I'll think of something.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1038

Wow! Google stock dropped over 10% in a matter of minutes today, all because a bad quarterly report was released a little prematurely. The slide was so precipitous that trading was halted for several hours. I'm certainly glad that I didn't buy any Google shares yesterday. All this just confirms my feeling that it has become too dangerous for the small investor to day trade anymore. Events happen rapidly and the market responds almost instantly. By the time the average guy has time to react, it's too late. Google is still a good company though. If the overreaction to the poor earnings continues, it might be wise for me to buy some shares.

I found one of those little square discontinued iPod nanos I've been looking for, thanks to a regular blog reader. Now, if I could only convince you readers to find me jobs and clients as well. That would be great.

The dogs have been loving this beautiful Fall weather. They can't go lounge in the grass after lunch like they used to, thanks to our armadillo friend who tore the yard up. The lack of grass hasn't detered them in the least unfortunately. When I let the dogs outside, they immediately go roll in the dirt and get filthy. I try my best to clean them off before they come inside again, but the house is getting dirtier every day. I'll be glad when the leaves finally fall and cover up the dirt. There isn't any point in planting new grass this late in the season. We'll just repeat what we did last year and let the leaves cover everything up until Spring.

I just finished watching a live feed of the Al Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner. I've always been a fan of self depreciating humor, and these events featuring the presidential candidates doing stand-up comedy routines seldom disappoint. I wish the candidates would act like this all the time. I'd much rather see people making sarcastic jokes about each other than just resort to calling their advisory a liar. There's a lot to be said for using humor to deal with complex issues. I'd love to see a debate where both candidates checked political correctness at the door and the guy with the most biting humor won. Maybe Jon Stewart could be the moderator.

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1037

I was somewhat reassured after visiting with my financial advisor this afternoon. When I backed off and took a longer view of things, I realized that I wasn't in that bad shape after all. What the hell. I don't have any debts and I still make enough to pay the bills. I really shouldn't complain. The hard thing for me to deal with is that I've always been a saver and it used to be so much easier to tuck a little away for a rainy day. I miss the 1980's when 10-year Treasury yields were over 12% and the conventional wisdom was that the value of your house would go up forever.

Times sure have changed. Treasury yields are at a 112 year low and I don't even want to talk about the housing market. You can't give up though. My advisor and I put stop loss orders on several positions that have done well this year to lock in gains. We talked about what to do if Obama won. And what to do if Romney won. In either case, there would definitely be things to take advantage of and other things to avoid. I like to be prepared. What I don't like is living in a world of diminished expectations for the foreseeable future. I would love to see a return to the overwhelming feeling of optimism that prevailed when John F. Kennedy was president. We need grand dreams like we had back then. It doesn't need to be going to the moon, but it needs to be something equally grand. I think those kind of dreams died when Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza and never returned again.

I used to have grand dreams. My grandest dreams actually took place while I was asleep. I could fly and travel through time long before I even heard of Dr. Who. Now my dreams are pathetic. I'm usually just lost in a hotel somewhere, looking for my luggage. I wouldn't call my waking hours pathetic, but there are definitely on the dull side. I take pictures of flowers. I walk dogs. I make a little money to pay the bills. There are no more plans to win an Oscar for best documentary anymore. There are no plans to make any films at all. When conversations veer off into one of those "what are you passionate about" discussions, I don't even feel like talking.

Maybe if I were passionate about dog training like some folks in our Wednesday evening class, Dash might be winning ribbons again. I'm not very competitive, or very passionate. I just go to these classes because it's good for Dot and Dash to be around other dogs. Socializing with other dogs helps keep ours happy and well adjusted. The training exercises themselves are silly though. A lot of things in life are just silly.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1036

I'm trying to think of some intelligent questions to ask my financial advisor tomorrow when we have our quarterly meeting. I'm sure he's sick of me asking him why I'm still not back to even after the 2008 crash. I'm sure he's sick of me asking why stocks tend to go down after we buy them, rather than before. In fairness, my advisor keeps reminding me that my portfolio would look a little more solid if I wasn't continually taking money out to buy stuff. He thinks we are still doing pretty good, considering how the economy is doing both here and elsewhere. Maybe. I just remember a time when I was doing much, much better. It is simply irritating that a strategy that has worked for me for much of my adult life doesn't appear to work anymore. We'll see how tomorrow's meeting goes. Personally, I think investing has become almost indistinguishable from gambling.

I got my wish for another slow day. OK guys, that's enough. I was just kidding. You can start sending me work again. Why is it that freelancing or running a small business is always feast or famine? I am continually either too busy or not busy enough. I wish I knew how to strike a balance, but so far having just the right amount of work has eluded me. Even using the slow times to market myself has its perils. Usually there is such a time lag between marketing and actually seeing new assignments that the marketing efforts just create sharper peaks and valleys down the road somewhere.

I like stability and predictability. I know, for example, that today is the day for Dash's antigen shot. We do this every other Tuesday at 2 PM, year in and year out. Dash enjoys his trip to the vet and I"m never in a panic to get him there, because I know exactly what to expect. I wouldn't mind a bit if everything were this predictable. Maybe I would work on oil and gas projects on Mondays, design some websites on Tuesdays, do a little photography on Wednesdays, and so on. Life isn't like this though. In the real world, work is just moments of boredom, punctuated by moments of stress and panic.

I guess I'll watch the presidential debates this evening. All the pundits tend to describe these debates as if they were a wrestling match. You almost expect Michael Buffer to come out right before the debate begins and deliver his famous catchphrase Let's get ready to rumble. I expect that both sides will say that their man won right after the debate is over. That's the way these things work.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1035

Have you tried to buy a discontinued product lately? It used to be that you could often buy discontinued products for years after they'd been replaced. When stores kept their own inventories, they would often tempt you with fantastic closeout prices, just to get the items of their shelves. Everything has changed now. Most merchants have adopted "just in time" inventory policies and keep a bare minimum of products on their shelves. They depend on computers to tell them which products are popular and on the FedEx delivery man to deliver fresh supplies each morning. This makes it very easy for manufacturers to make products vanish almost instantly when they've been discontinued.

I only mention this because I've be trying to find some of those little square iPod nanos. They weren't discontinued all that long ago, but they've totally vanished from store shelves. I'm not surprised that you can't find these things at the Apple store anymore, but you'd think Fry's, B&H, Best Buy, or Radio Shack would have a few left. Nope! It's like the little square nano never even existed. I guess I could still find something on eBay, but I've grown weary of the bidding process. I prefer a transaction I can complete in twenty seconds.

Our beautiful Indian Summer continues. The days are noticeably shorter now and the leaves are starting to turn. I've started noticing more bird activity as well. Since I've already managed to get good pictures of all the critters that aren't scared of the dogs, it might be time to invest in a longer telephoto lens. There are lots of animals I routinely see in the distance, but can never approach because of Dot and Dash.

It was a typical Monday. There were very few requests all day. I used the extra time to finish up the few remaing projects from last week. As far as I can tell, I'm all caught up now. I wouldn't mind if tomorrow is a slow day as well. Of course, if the inactivity continues throughout the week, I'll start to get nervous. Being on your own is always a delicate balance. You want to make sure that there is always enough work to pay the bills, while still trying to avoid the overloads that drive you crazy.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1034

Today was such a beautiful day that my grumpy side didn't stand a chance. I was in an uncharacteristically good mood all day long. The dogs had a great time at the dog park. There was a nice breeze and temperatures were in the seventies. When Dot and Dash were finished with their off leash outing, I got busy on a few things I'd been putting off for months. I washed the car for the first time since my birthday and even used some rubbing compound to polish out a few scratches on the door. I cleaned the toilets, put a fresh bag in the vacuum cleaner, and got all the water from yesterday's rain off the roof. Since the roof has survived two major rain storms without leaking, I also started preparing the damaged areas on the ceiling to tape and bed and paint again. It was a day of making things look nice.

It wasn't all work today, however. I also watched Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic parachute jump from 128,000 feet over Roswell, New Mexico live on the Internet. If you ask me, this is the future of marketing. Why even bother with broadcasting something on television if you can get eight million live viewers on YouTube. There weren't any commercials, or maybe the whole thing was just one big commercial for Red Bull. At any rate, it was a whole new way to look at advertising. If Red Bull can underwrite a supersonic parachute jump, and Virgin America can build the world's first commercial spaceport, maybe Apple can take us back to the moon. Apple's probably got enough money to finance the entire journey themselves.

The presidential race is starting to look a lot like the Texas senate races. Everyone is apparently a big fat liar. Both sides make reasonably convincing cases that the other side is lying. Then the "fact checkers" come along a few days later and people accuse them of lying too. It's probably a good thing that everybody's made up their mind about this election anyway. You certainly couldn't learn much from all the dueling "liar, liar" claims. I'm disgusted by the whole circus. I don't want to throw my vote away, but apparently it doesn't matter anyway. According to all the pundits, the whole election will be decided by the swing voters of Ohio.

We haven't used the new furnace since it was installed. The air conditioner certainly seems to be working well though. I think this is what they call an Indian Summer. I'm enjoying these unseasonably warm Fall days. I do hope we have a hard freeze this Winter though. Another warm Winter like we had last year and the bugs will overrun us.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1033

I didn't notice until I finished running my errands this afternoon that a speaker cover on my car door had fallen off and gotten lost. Since this was an aftermarket item from 1995, I knew it would be hard to replace. I carefully retraced my steps and eventually found the speaker cover in a Home Depot parking lot. A truck had run over it.

I noticed recently that Apple has discontinued the little square iPod nano that I like so much. This confirms my view that products I'm fond of just don't stay on the market long. I've often thought that I ought to hire myself out as a product analyst. If I love it, it's probably going to fail. If I think it's stupid, it's probably going to be a runaway success.

I've always like square things. Hasselblad cameras. Instagram. Andy Warhol portraits of Marilyn. Brionvega radios. Even the coffee table in my living room. Square objects appeal to my inner sense of symmetry. With this rather pronounced bias, it's no surprise that I was one of the first to pair a square iPod nano with a LunaTik case and wear it as a watch. It just seemed like the perfect 21st century way to tell time. I'm tempted to buy up some of the remaining square nanos and put them in the storage warehouse for a while. There will be a time when wearing a square iPod watch will be just as retro cool as driving around in a DeLorean

They are forecasting severe weather in our area later this evening. Although it's not raining now, the dogs seem to confirm this forecast. They both have a nervous look on their face and have been going out on the pack porch to sniff the air. I don't exactly know what they are sensing, but they are pretty good little weather forecasters. Maybe they can smell ozone in the air, or sense a change in barometric pressure. I certainly can't sense anything. It just seems like a warm, windy evening to me.

Hopefully, any rain we might get this evening won't spoil our dog park plans for tomorrow. Dot and Dash have grown to love these weekly visits to the dog park and know exactly when it's time to go. If the trip doesn't materialize for some reason, they definitely let us know about it.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1032

What a long day. The furnace installers were at the house from 9 AM until almost 4 PM. Since current furnaces aren't the same size and shape of those twenty years ago, most of the installers time was spent fabricating custom sheet metal work so that the new machinery would line up properly with the old vent system. When I first bought the house, it came with an ancient furnace that was quite large and very noisy. I quickly replaced this antique with a much more efficient model that ended up lasting over twenty years. The new furnace that was installed today was the smallest and most efficient of the three. Everything in life appears to be getting smaller. Cars, phones, computers, and now even furnaces are getting smaller. Hopefully, this is the last furnace I will need. I don't want to go through this ordeal again.

When the installers first removed the dryer and then the old furnace, I was appalled at all the dust that had accumulated in the utility room. There must have been an inch of dust under the clothes dryer. The dryer vent was full of dust too. The intake sheet metal ahead of the filters was coated with a thick layer of dust. I tried to vacuum and get rid of all this dust before the HVAC guys could put all the new equipment back in place again. Most repair people and installers could care less about dust. I knew they would just hook up the new furnace to the old dusty vents if I didn't clean them when I had a chance. I cleaned everything up while the installers were fabricating sheet metal out on the carport, but the room was so dirty that I completely clogged the vacuum cleaner. I had to take the whole thing apart to get it working again.

It's a good thing I boarded the dogs today. It would have been a nightmare with seven hours of non-stop barking on top of all the construction noise. The installers were in and out of the house all day long. I would have worried that the dogs would have gotten loose and disappeared out the front door. They were safe at the vet, but I don't think either of them enjoyed their little vacation. They were frantic when I picked them up at the end of the day and Dot pooped in the car.  One more mess to clean up.

Ironically, after an entire day was spent installing the furnace, the air conditioner is on now. A late Fall heat wave swept through town yesterday and the temperatures are in the high eighties again. It will be cold soon enough though. I'm glad everything is working now, before Winter arrives.

Since I was trapped in the house all day, I got a lot of writing done. There wasn't much else to do and I had some looming deadlines anyway. It all worked out pretty well. I'm going to take it easy this weekend though. Wouldn't you?

Kuuipo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1031

I finished two articles today and shipped them off to their destinations. I ordered a new muslin backdrop for the upcoming Christmas photo season. I made a few minor website revisions and that was about it. It was a busy day, but it wasn't very interesting. A lot of days are like that. Hey, I did see a rainbow though. That's always a good sign.

The furnace installers arrive tomorrow morning and I still haven't cleaned all the stuff out of the utility room so the HVAC guys will have a place to work. The utility room is kind of like Dr. Who's Tardis. It seems bigger on the inside. I'm always amazed at how much stuff has been crammed into the little room every time I have to clean it out. I may have to take off the door as well. It seems like I had to take off the door a few years ago when the front loader washer arrived.

I'll probably board the dogs tomorrow. The HVAC guys said that the dogs wouldn't bother them at all, but the barking will definitely bother me. I know from experience that Dot will bark continuously throughout the entire four hour installation procedure. The last time repair people were in the house, she barked so long and hard that she made herself sick. She actually got a sore throat and came down with a bad cough. Everybody thought she had kennel cough, but I knew better. She had repairman cough.

Since I won't be able to leave the house tomorrow morning, I went out and had my weekly restaurant breakfast this morning instead. The waitress got my order mixed up, and to make amends, she brought me some free bacon. I don't know about you, but to me, free bacon is even a better omen than seeing a rainbow.

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1030

Today was another writing day. I got quite a bit accomplished, considering how little I knew about my subject matter yesterday. My writing jobs certainly have changed over the years. I used to have four or five input meetings where the clients and I would sit around a big conference table and talk about the job and what it was supposed to accomplish before I ever started writing. I liked those meetings, because it gave me a chance to get up to speed before being thrown head first into the task of putting words on a page. More importantly, attending all the meetings allowed me to charge a decent rate for business writing jobs.

Everything is different now. Most clients think all knowledge in the known universe is readily available on Wikipedia. I'm given a few days and a few dollars ant that's it. I can't complain too loudly though. The work is steady and it's certainly better than working in retail or being a residential architect waiting for the housing market to return. The sad truth is that the whole economy sucks, including my little corner of it.

The new furnace gets installed on Friday. Luckily the weather has warmed up and it's pretty comfortable without a functioning furnace. It's 70 degrees both inside and outside the house right now, so the temperature is just about perfect. Just watch us have a warm Winter after I've spent all this money on a fancy new furnace. There's always something that comes along to make just about every decision I make look stupid. Oh, well. Sooner or later it's going to be freezing cold and when that day comes I'm going to be glad that I planned ahead.

Dot and Dash didn't have much interest in dog training class tonight. Dot wouldn't sit and Dash wouldn't stay. I don't know what the problem was. The weather was nice and there were no unruly dogs to upset them. I guess they just didn't feel like being obedient this evening. I feel that way myself sometimes.

Neo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1029

It's been almost a year since I started taking a camera with me when I walk the dogs. During my first three or four months as a dog walking photographer, I would see something new and interesting almost every day. Now, I've started to notice that nature repeats itself with remarkable regularity. Flowers appear and disappear with clockwork precision. Birds return to exactly the same logs and pilings where I photographed them last year. Squirrels seem to be perpetually digging up the same nut. I feel like I've documented every square inch of my tiny little world. There must still be new things happening all around me, but I'm just not seeing them. I guess I'll have to look a little harder.

An estimator came out this morning to measure the utility room and recommend a new furnace. The room is so small and cramped that I have no idea how everything got in there in the first place. The furnace, the washer, the dryer and the water heater all seem too large to even fit through the door. The estimator assured me that installing a new furnace would be no problem. This was reassuring, but I think he was being overconfident. Everything about this house ends up being a problem. Problems or not, we should have a new furnace installed by the end of the week.

I'm glad the Jewish Holidays are finally over for a while. I've had some camera equipment on order from B&H in New York City since before Rosh Hashanah and it still hasn't been delivered. I completely forgot how many holy days there are during September and October. I had thought about ordering from Adorama instead, but it wouldn't have done much good. They follow exactly the same holiday schedule. Basically, it's just not a good idea to buy a camera in October.

Since I wasn't having much luck with the camera, I went and bought an iPhone case instead. Why doesn't anyone make the kind of case I like anymore? I loved the soft Griffin perforated silicon case I had for my old phone, but nobody makes these things anymore. Now, big clunky cases like OtterBox are popular. Boo. I finally bought a trim looking white Speck case, but it wasn't what I really wanted. Maybe I'll get one of those fancy LunaTik cases when they start selling them later this Fall. It would be just like me to get a case that costs more than the phone.

Maverick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1028

I spent most of the day carrying a small ceramic heater from room to room in a somewhat vain attempt to keep warm. Eventually, I decided to give up on the ineffectual little heater and just put on a sweater. My Northern readers would probably laugh at these antics. You guys seem to wear sweaters indoors all the time. I'm a Southerner though and prefer to pretend that Winter doesn't exist. I usually just turn the heat up and wear a t-shirt and shorts around the house all Winter.

Unfortunately, I can't turn the heat up yet, because the furnace is broken. The HVAC guys are coming out tomorrow to give me an estimate on replacing the furnace. This is probably going to hurt. A good furnace isn't cheap. There's really no alternative though. You can't live very comfortably without a furnace during the Winter. At least this is probably the last furnace I'll need to buy. The current furnace lasted twenty-five years. It will be a miracle if I last twenty-five more years.

I spent some time today getting my ducks in a row for a new technical article I need to write this week. I always learn something new when I research these articles.  Last week I learned that steam turbines powered railway locomotives during the 1930's. This week I learned that Germany has oil wells. Why did I think that Europe didn't have any oil of its own? Shows what I know.

I used to think that curators only worked in museums. Now, I think curation has a much broader appeal. The term has become an Internet buzz word with people curating pictures of cats on Pinterest and making lists of people who like chocolate on Twitter. I've never seen such an explosion of information gathering and list making in my life. I'm fascinated by people who love to make lists. Why?  I never make lists. Even though I sometimes talk about my "to-do" list, there is never an actual list. It is just a figure of speech. Jeez, I even go shopping without a grocery list. Although I don't understand this fascination with lists, I'm grateful that it exists. If it weren't for the list makers, probably nobody would read this blog. I got added to another list today. Almost immediately, 100 new people started looking at my photos on Google+. What a strange world we live in.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day