Day 1469

I think the recession is over in Dallas. People are certainly buying things this year. I decided to brave the crowds and do some Christmas shopping this afternoon and was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people at Northpark. My plan to avoid the crowds by shopping while everyone else was at work was a total failure. Evidently, very few people are at work this week. I'm not good with puzzles, but I could have solved Rubiks Cube in less time than it took me to find a parking place inside the giant shopping mall parking garage. They should ban people from taking their gigantic Ford F-250 Super Duty pickups into these parking garages. They don't even fit between the white lines. Every time I thought I'd found a place to park, there was a huge pickup truck in the adjacent space, leaving me no room to park my much smaller giant SUV.

I thought I was going to have a very light week, since tomorrow is Christmas Eve and many of my clients are on vacation anyway. I was just as wrong about this as I was about avoiding the Christmas crowds. When I turned on my computer this morning, there two new articles and a big website revision waiting for me. So much for taking it easy this week. I guess nobody really takes it easy during Christmas week. In my experience, this is always a very hectic time of year.

I feel sorry for that girl who had her life ruined by having a single snarky tweek to her less than 200 followers re-tweeted by Buzzfeed to the world. This is mob justice at its worst. The ironic thing is that she could have said exactly the same thing on her blog and nobody would have noticed. Nobody reads blogs anymore. A quick Google search will reveal that on any given day, there are literally  thousands of much more offensive tweets and Facebook status updates. Buzzfeed just chose to cast a spotlight on this one. This is why I prefer to write about dogs. The world has become a pack of sharks who flock to the smell of blood in the water. I don't like it. If I could borrow Dr. Who's Tardis for a few minutes, I would make a quick retreat to the much kinder world of Andy Griffith and Leave it to Beaver.

I haven't quite finished my Christmas shopping, but I'm definitely not going back to the mall again. I've had enough of that craziness for one year. I'm no sure what I'll do tomorrow. It's kind of a vacation day, but I've still got work to do. When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was the day. We opened our stockings on Christmas Eve morning, went to church in the evening, and then opened our presents under the tree much later the same evening. Christmas Day was almost an afterthought. I can't remember if I ever believed in Santa Claus.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1468

Not surprisingly, the dog park was closed today after yesterday's downpour. There was no more rain today, but the ground was soft and muddy everywhere. I was disappointed that Dot and Dash missed their workout, but saw no reason why I should miss mine as well. Since there wasn't much else to do anyway, I spent even longer at the gym than usual. I guess it shouldn't seem surprising that something I don't particularly enjoy has become such a regular part of my life. The exercise is good for me and I have a strong sense of discipline. If I only did things that I thought were fun, I'd either be dead or broke by now.

There were only three other people in the cavernous gym when I arrived around 2 PM. All the other people must have been Christmas shopping. The traffic around popular stores and shopping malls was unbelievable. Shopping seems to be the one thing that unites the people of Dallas. Everyone seems obsessed with accumulating stuff.

When I went to pick up a prescription this afternoon, I found the wrong pills waiting for me. The pharmacist seemed to take the mistake in stride. He said that sometimes prescriptions just auto-renew themselves in the computer. He gave me the pills I actually needed and told me to come back in fifteen days for the others. Everything related to healthcare has become ridiculously complicated. How did it get this way? When I was a kid, our family doctor actually made house-calls with his little black doctor's bag. The pills he prescribed were so inexpensive that you didn't even need insurance to pay for them.

I don't have much Christmas shopping to do, but I do have some. I'm going to try to outwit the crowds by doing my shopping tomorrow after people have gone to work, but before they take their lunch breaks. This would probably be around mid-morning. We'll see how that goes. There's a good chance that everyone is on vacation already and my careful people-avoiding timing won't even matter. I've got to believe that Monday morning will be better than Saturday afternoon though. One can only hope.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1467 - Winter Solstice

Although today was the shortest day of the year, it certainly seemed long enough to me. For most of the day there was a steady, cold rain that kept the dogs and I confined indoors. With the exception of several attempts to get the Dot and Dash to go out in the rain to poop, I didn't even leave the house.

A lot of people might use a rainy day as an excuse to curl up with a good book, bake a pie, or go to a movie. Not me. I almost inevitably end up cleaning something. I vacuumed. I dusted. I did laundry. I sorted through piles of junk mail. It was all pretty boring.

I'm having increasing difficulty maintaining my no sugar diet during the holidays. Everywhere you look, there are cookies and pies nearby. It is especially hard to ignore the cookies when there's nothing better to do anyway. Needless to say, I ate quite a few Christmas cookies today.

Eventually, the rain stopped. Dot and Dash got their long awaited morning walk about three in the afternoon. The stubborn dogs absolutely refused to go out and pee during the rain, so they were both about to explode when I finally got them down to the park. You'd think a long mid-afternoon walk would be enough, but apparently it wasn't. As soon as they'd eaten their dinner a little later in the afternoon, they insisted on their regular evening walk as well.

Since it was a warm day, I made sure I got all the standing water off the roof before sunset. Now that the temperatures have gotten colder, I don't want to be faced with a huge heavy block of ice over my head again. This was pretty much the extent of my day. I went from cabin fever with the dogs in the morning to exercise on the roof in the evening.

After Janet's horror stories about shopping at the mall today, I don't think I'll be doing any Christmas shopping tomorrow, no matter how nice the weather might be. I've probably missed my opportunity, but maybe the crowds will thin out a bit on Monday when people go back to work. I'm already looking forward to the new Dr. Who Christmas Special. Hey, that's the kind of guy I am.

Willow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1466

I think I could spend the rest of my life just getting my ducks in a row. Now that I know I'm losing the aircraft hanger where my Citroën SM has been safely ensconced for the past decade, I'm scrambling around trying to figure out what to do next. Can I find parts? Can I find a mechanic? Can I find a buyer? One way or another, I've got to get the car running reliably again. Nobody in their right mind would ever buy a non-running Citroën SM. When you open the hood on this thing, you quickly realize that only the French could come up with something so mind-numbingly complex. The transmission is in front of the engine. There are inboard disk brakes, and you have to take off the right front wheel just to change the battery. The steering, brakes and suspension system all operate from a central hydraulic system. If there is a leak, the car sinks to about an inch above the ground and you can't even turn the steering wheel. After sitting ten years in storage, I'm almost certain that the hydraulic system has a leak.

Breakfast was definitely the high point of this day. I love having two poached eggs, served over a bed of spicy pulled pork, peppers, and hash browned potatoes. I linger over three cups of coffee while I eat this delicious Friday morning treat and then I start my day. For one reason or another, everything moved at a snail's pace today. Articles took longer to write. The grocery store was crowded. And the dogs weren't very interested in walking. I blame this all on the weather. After two balmy days this week where the temperature reached 70 degrees, it is turning cold again. A cold front blew through town around mid-afternoon and I'm afraid Winter has returned. Bad weather slows me down enormously. I don't like inclement weather at all. If I could find somewhere where the skies were always blue and the temperature was always 70 degrees, I bet my productivity would double.

While the rest of the world has probably finished their Christmas shopping by now, I haven't even started mine. It just doesn't seem like Christmas is just a few days away. We've got the tree up and a pretty wreath in the hallway, but some days I just forget they are there. It could just as easily be August or February. Maybe I'll get in the spirit of things this weekend. I certainly hope so, since I'm definitely running out of time.

I hope it warms up enough to take the dogs to the dog park on Sunday as well. With the ice storm and a busy holiday work schedule, Dot and Dash haven't had a dog park outing in almost a month. I can tell that Dash really misses these opportunities to be off-leash and mingle with other dogs. Even though he got to spend the night in a fancy hotel and join us on one of our Santa Paws photo events last week, it's not the same as going to a dog park. To heck with a White Christmas, I just want a warm Sunday.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1465

The incompetence of government agencies continues to amaze me. I got a letter today saying that it was time for me to renew the vehicle registration on my Defender 90. What was all that paperwork I signed when I sold the car? Surely these guys must know by now that I no longer own the Defender. I get dozens of letters from Medicare and I have yet to understand any of them. I bet you could reduce the cost of healthcare significantly if you just fired all these useless letter writers. Even the dogs have their problems with government bureaucracies. Every year, Dash gets a letter from the city saying that his city registration has expired. This always takes place about one month after my vet issues Dash brand new registration tags. It's no real surprise that the ObamaCare website doesn't work. Nothing in government at any level works. I have no faith in government anymore.

Does anyone want to buy a Citroën SM that has sat untouched in an aircraft hanger for ten years? The car ran great a decade ago, but I suspect that it will take quite an effort to get it running again. I'm sure the fuel lines and gas tank are gummed up and will need to be removed and cleaned. I've done this once before and it's not an easy job. All five suspension spheres will need to be replaced. The car will certainly need a new heavy duty battery and probably new tires as well. Hopefully, no corrosion has taken place in the engine itself. I loved this car when I bought it in 1972, but in recent years it has become an albatross around my neck. The mechanics who used to keep the car running smoothly have all retired or moved on. My favorite mechanic is now a DJ on a local jazz radio station. Parts are next to impossible to find these days. Even ten years ago I was scared to drive the SM around town because I knew that there were no more new body parts available worldwide. If I had unlimited resources, I would ship the car off to SM World in California and have it completely restored. Unfortunately, I haven't had unlimited resources in a long, long time. Even though the car is highly collectible and Jay Leno has one, it's time to sell the thing.

I've had a lot of cars over the years and the complexities of keeping old cars running are one of the main reasons I switched to collecting watches instead. Watches are little and you can keep them in a drawer. I enjoyed watches for a while until they began to fall apart just like my cars. A good watch needs a watchmaker just as much as a car needs a mechanic. Watch repair is expensive and time consuming. In the long run, I don't think I will be any better off with watches than I was with cars. They all break eventually. I think Janet will have the last laugh at my obsession with collecting stuff. She has no interest in collecting things and prefers travel instead. Travel is all about collecting memories and in my experience, memories tend to get better over time. Eventually, the memory is better than the actual experience was. She'll have great memories, while I preside over a kingdom of rust.

To keep my body from turning to rust, I went back to the gym again today. Another week of regular workouts and I'll be back to where I was before the ice storm. I don't enjoy exercising that much, but I do enjoy seeing progress. Hey, I finally got the large printer working again. That's progress. The city hauled away most of my downed tree limbs this morning. That's progress too. Surprisingly, something seems to happen almost each and every day. There's always some sort of progress. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll sell the Citroën SM too.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1464

Neither of the dogs seemed very excited about going to training class tonight. They gave us these looks that clearly said "What is the point of all this?" I certainly didn't have the answer. I couldn't tell you what the point is of much of what I do. We went to class anyway of course, because that is what we do on Wednesday evenings.

I've been noticing big piles of branches starting to appear along the curb on our street. Coincidentally,  I've noticed that nobody has returned to pick up the huge pile of branches the power crews left in the alley after the ice storm. Putting two and two together, I finally realized that the only way these branches were going to get picked up was if I dragged them all out to the street myself and piled them with the other branches for bulky trash day. So, when is bulky trash day? I've forgotten again. It must be soon though, since there is a lot of trash piled outside the neighbor's houses.

It took me more than an hour to drag most of the tree limbs out to the street. When I was finished, I noticed that one of my hip joints felt loose and wobbly, just like my shoulder typically feels. I hate growing old. After a while you began to feel like you are the caretaker of a rusty old machine that has seen better days.

I think Dot is doing better than I am about keeping in shape. She's doing great with her weekly water therapy sessions. It's interesting that she seems to like the underwater treadmill, but has become disinterested in the Wednesday evening training class. Probably the therapy session is just more enjoyable. The water is nice and warm and she gets tons of attention and positive reinforcement from the vet and nurses. Physical therapy is kind of like a spa day for Dot, while training class is more like military boot camp.

Somebody left a note on my windshield saying that they wished they'd known I was selling the Defender 90 because they wanted to buy it, and then going on to ask if I was planning to sell my house anytime soon. Maybe I should save the letter, since I will be selling the house when Janet and I retire. Then again, maybe I should just throw the letter away. Business propositions made to strangers that are written on a page torn from a children's Big Chief school tablet usually aren't very reliable.

Alvin is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1463

There were moments today when I felt like things were being accomplished. I think I might have resolved a health insurance billing error that has been nagging me for months. The owner of the house down the street with the aggressive dogs has finally agreed to fix her deteriorating fence, so the dogs can't escape and kill me. I think all my missing UPS packages are now accounted for. This would all have been very satisfying if I wasn't left wondering at the end of the day whether anything had really happened at all.

You see, I've dealt with all these issues before. I've even thought that I'd resolved them before. These problems and many others keep coming back like a bad penny. I've come to the conclusion that it's virtually impossible to genuinely fix anything these day. All you can do is kick the can down the road like the politicians do.

I did manage to get back to the gym this afternoon. Now I know why you need to go to the gym on a regular basis. I've skipped my regular workouts for over a week and a half due to the ice storm and a host of work related deadlines. Today felt like I was starting over. How could I deteriorate so fast? Unfortunately, going to the gym is like everything else in life. You've got to be consistent and keep plugging away before you can reap the benefits.

When I don't write something every day, my writing deteriorates. If I don't clean every day, it doesn't take long before the house looks like shit. If I don't walk the dogs every day, I'm faced with some very angry dogs. Basically, just about everything in my life needs to be done every day. The only way you get good at something is to do it over, and over, and over again. I remember very early in my career when someone told me that the definition of a professional was the ability to do good work on a bad day. I never forgot those words of wisdom. They've gotten me through a lot of bad days.

I'm crossing my fingers in hope that this week's nice weather will continue through the end of the week. It was almost Springlike this afternoon. The dogs enjoyed sunning themselves on the back porch. I ran my errands without the need of a Winter coat. I think the roof is finally dry again. Against all odds, I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1462

Well, UPS will probably never deliver to our neighborhood now. While I was writing this morning, I heard a huge crash out on the street in front of the house. When I went to investigate, I discovered that a car had plowed into the back of the UPS truck while it was delivering a package to my next door neighbor. Then a van hit the truck again, trying to avoid the first wreck. The woman who initially hit the truck said she didn't see it. Jeez, how can you miss a huge brown UPS truck? I can spot these things from a mile away.

The embattled UPS driver didn't have any packages for me. I divert almost everything to the main depot now and drive down to pick it up. I did that again today and ran into another long  line of angry people waiting to send, receive, or complain about their package. My advice. Just send your stuff FedEx instead.

The weather was nice again today. I only had to wear a light jacket when I walked the dogs. This would have been a good opportunity to clean up the debris from the ice storm in the back yard, but I still have too many holiday related advertising assignments to complete. As some of you have already guessed, this is not my favorite time of year.

Only one day after I washed my car, the neighborhood redbirds are already pooping on it again. The only thing these tiresome birds enjoy more than pooping on the car is pecking on my office window in a vain attempt to get inside. I don't know why anyone would want a bird as a pet. Birds are filthy creatures. If Dot and Dash didn't like to chase cats so much, I would get a cat, just because they like to eat birds.

Did you know that the Chinese successfully landed a rover on the moon a few days ago? I'm amazed that there has been almost no news coverage of this event. Hey, it's a big deal. This is the first time anyone has landed something on the moon since the 1970's. So what are we talking about instead? Obama's selfies at the Mandela funeral. More school shootings. The healthcare mess. When somebody actually does something truly impressive, nobody seems to care. Nobody seems to read blogs anymore either, but that's another subject entirely.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1461 - Blogiversary

The sun returned today. The bright blue sky and warmer temperatures were a welcome relief from last week's icy weather. I was so happy to see the sun that I got an enormous amount accomplished today. The big pile of equipment from our Santa Paws photo shoots has been put back in its proper place. The car has been washed. I even cleaned all the leaves and ice off the roof. Yes, there was still ice up there after an entire week of gradually warmer temperatures. That was quite an ice storm we had! I finally got up my nerve to talk to my neighbor about the tree of theirs that was still resting on my roof. They were actually quite nice and said they'd already contacted a tree service to remove it.

Fortunately, there was more to the day than an endless progression of weekend chores. Janet and I also went to photograph a very old German Shepard, so the owners could have a nice portrait to remember the dog by when it went to The Rainbow Bridge. The old dog was weak and couldn't walk anymore, since her rear legs had become paralyzed from the canine equivalent of ALS. She definitely hadn't given up yet, however. There was a dignity in the dog's eyes that I often see in older dogs. I hope my photos captured this dog's spirit. Sometimes I think that dogs cope with their short time on Earth much better than we humans do with our much longer block of time. We could learn a lot from the dignity of dogs.

It was hard getting out of bed this morning. I've been tired all week and even though it is getting warmer, I still don't think my body has completely recovered from last week's ice storm. I spent quite a bit of time on my knees photographing the old German Shepard and I felt like joining her on her comfy fleece dog bed. My legs weren't working all that well either at that point. After a long day filled with indoor and outdoor chores, I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep.

I'm hoping that today's mild weather continues through next week. Even though I got a lot accomplished today, there's still a long list of chores on my to-do list. There are still Christmas gifts to buy, bills to pay, and an illusive UPS package to locate. Oh, I almost forgot. Today I begin my fifth full year as a blogger. It's my Blogiversary again. Can you believe it? Five years without missing a single day. I don't think I've been this consistent with anything before. It's been a lot of work, but it's been good for me to collect my thoughts like this at the end of each day. I see a rhythm and poetry to life that I never noticed before. Although I'm still a grumpy old man, I think this forced reflection has made me a better person in many subtle ways. Who knows how long this personal journey will continue, but as long as it does, I hope that each of you will continue to join me for a few minutes at the end of each day. I'll see you again tomorrow.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1460

I think we're finished with pet photos for another year. The four Santa Paws events were a resounding success, and hopefully our efforts will help Dalmatian Rescue find homes for some deserving dogs in the year ahead. We've been doing these fundraising events for so long now that we've watched some dogs grow from their first photos as wild little puppies, to become mature adult dogs, and finally to return again as sedate senior dogs with grey muzzles. All these dogs are incredibly important to their owners and yet they don't live nearly as long as they should. I've always wished that dogs lived as long as we do. Seven to fourteen years isn't enough time.

I found out today that one of my doctors is still billing everything to my old insurance company. As if things aren't screwed up enough already. I've updated my records three times with the correct information, but nothing seems to change. Lord help these guys when they get hit with all the new ObamaCare regulations. My situation is simple. If they can't manage to keep my information current in the computer, a lot of their patients are totally screwed.

I thought the weather would be nice today, but the temperature is still hovering around freezing. I need at least one nice day to get all the leaves and water off the roof before the next round of bad weather hits. Maybe tomorrow. "Maybe tomorrow" seems to be my response to just about everything these days. The closer is gets to Christmas, the more errands there are to run. I don't think I'm ever going to get caught up at this point. If I remember to pay the property taxes, I forget to go to the dentist. If I remember to pick up the dry cleaning, I forget to take my evening meds. On and on it goes. About the only thing I remember consistently are the dogs vet appointments.

I'm taking some pictures for a friend of Janet's tomorrow. This shouldn't take long, so maybe I'll find time to make it back to the gym again. I haven't been all week and it's starting to show. I'm sure that all my storm related activities must have burned of a few calories, but it's not the same. Hey, a good workout, a clean car, and the missing UPS package back on my doorstep and I'll be back in business again.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1459

Today, the ice and snow turned to rain. I guess that's a good thing. It sure would be nice to see the sun again however. There were a few breaks in the rain when I was able to walk the dogs, but for the most part, I just stayed inside and tried to get caught up on work.

It's hard to even remember what day it is anymore. A week ago at this time the city was without power. Although the electricity has returned, the residual effects of the ice storm still linger. For the most part, my clients are still trying to make up for lost time. So am I. It's amazing how just four or five days of ice related chaos can screw up your schedule.

Things are getting better though. My client with the Internet problems is back online again. I'm getting caught up on my writing assignments. I even managed to get my December invoices in the mail this afternoon. I'm glad I didn't waste any time trying to get the water and ice off the roof. It's still raining right now, and any effort to clear the roof would have been futile.

UPS seems to have lost another of my shipments. I'm not going to get upset this time though. Losing things seems to be the new normal for UPS. Both of my previous shipments turned up eventually, and I'm sure that this one will too. Hey, the trash truck finally came and picked up our garbage today. Could the UPS truck be far behind? 

Maybe I'm just going to have to learn to live with a certain level of incompetence. Nothing runs very smoothly anymore. I get put on hold more frequently when I call people. Check out lines in stores are longer. I think part of the problem is that nobody really has any useful skills anymore. When everybody just wants to write press releases and have their own reality show, society will slowly grind to a halt. I don't have many useful skills myself, but no society needs very many people like me. Trust me on this. Tell your children to become chemists, plumbers, and astronomers. The world doesn't need any more advertising people.

Tomorrow is our last Santa Paws pet photo event for 2013. I'll be glad when I can finally pack some of this gear up and take it to the storage warehouse again, so I won't have to trip over it every time I get up to go to the bathroom at night. I've photographed a lot of dogs this year, and I don't think I've complained as much as I did last year. Hey, that's something to be thankful for. If the weather finally clears up tomorrow like everybody is expecting, I'll be a happy camper.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1458

To hell with going to the gym today. I got more than enough exercise by clearing a safe path through the downed trees behind the house, so Dot and Dash could get into the park again for their daily walks. When that was finished, I moved the huge pile of branches the power company tree trimmers threw over my fence back to the alley where they belong. If I get time tomorrow, I'll haul everything out to the curb, so the city trash removal trucks can pick them up. The power company guys said they'd be back to clean things up, but truthfully, I don't expect to ever see them again. They've already moved on.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up with work. Today was even busier than yesterday. A hosting company glitch knocked one of my clients off the Internet and everyone was in a panic. They couldn't remember the password for their account, and since it isn't my account, I didn't know either. I did remember one password for this account, but it didn't work. I'm sure the hosting company has required customers to change their passwords several times since the worry free days when everyone used something simple like "1234."

My retail customers are all in full holiday mode, which can be just as stressful as a lost password. I don't think Black Friday went as well as many people hoped and now they are scrambling to make up those missing sales. I have trouble getting excited about the holidays, The weather is always horrible and everyone is pulling out all the stops to get their customers to buy, buy, buy. Most of the work I've been doing this week is very time sensitive and "later" just isn't an acceptable answer. I certainly hope my efforts to get people to buy lots of useless stuff are successful, because I always like to see happy clients in January.

I did find a little time to make it to the grocery store and pick up something for dinner. Janet and I are both so busy that we rarely cook anymore. I just pick up ready-to-eat stuff from the deli or chef prepared sections. The food is very good, but it isn't the most economical way to eat. I don't know why people tend to eat more when it's cold. The grocery stores have been packed all week. The ice is all gone now, and the stores are still crowded. Maybe nobody plans ahead anymore and they're all just shopping for their next meal like I am.

I hope that things slow down a bit tomorrow. I'm really tired. There's still the ice and the neighbor's tree to get off the roof. There's still another Santa Paws pet photo event to complete before we're done for the year. My printer is clogged again, because it sat unused for too long during the power outage. Hey, I'm looking forward to a delicious breakfast at my favorite Friday restaurant though. I've got to think positive thoughts.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1457

As the sun rose over Dallas this morning, I found myself listening to an interesting presentation about the future of Dallas. The new Midtown project that was being proposed at my breakfast meeting sounded exciting and ambitious, but I doubt I'll be here to see the ribbon cutting ceremony. Even though I've made this city my home for many years, I can't wait to move to somewhere smaller and more tranquil. Janet and I haven't decided where that illusive "somewhere" might be. It just has to have great veterinarians and reliable WiFi.

Since I was out and about today, I began to hear other people's ice storm stories. I thought that we'd had a rough time, but our ordeal was nothing compared to some of the stories I heard. Dot's veterinarian almost had her house burn down when a nearby transformer exploded during the ice storm and knocked her power out. She and her family are still without power.

I thought I was insanely busy yesterday, but the hoops I had to jump through were nothing compared to the chaos that was unfolding at the main UPS customer service center where I went to retrieve my lost package this morning. There was a huge line of people trying to either send, pick-up, or complain about a package. None of these people seemed very happy. The service representative I talked to said the ice storm had put them five days behind schedule on deliveries. Many of the people in line were mad when they discovered that the package they had come to pick up was already on a truck headed to their house. It's a long drive to this service center, so few people wanted to make this trip twice.

At least I was prepared. I called ahead to make sure that my package was actually waiting for me at the depot before I even got in the car. I've been through this drill before. I still had to wait in line though. Even though I could see my package sitting behind the counter, it took me thirty minutes to get to the head of the line and claim it. I don't know how the agents managed to keep their sanity. The place was a madhouse.

I finally was able to climb up on the roof today and assess the situation. There's still lots of ice up there. I was able to remove some of the ice in an effort to lighten the structural load on the roof, but my utility pump has frozen solid, so I wasn't able to remove much of the ice melt. A lot of the ice was 2 to 3 inches thick and was quite heavy. A 2 inch slab of ice weighs about the same as a two inch thick rock. Maybe it will warm up enough tomorrow so I can remove this ice before the next cold spell. Oh, there's a downed tree on the roof too, Not a huge tree, but it's still a tree.

I'm hoping that tomorrow is uneventful. One can always hope.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1456

Today was chaotic. As the city came back to life after the ice storm, I found myself bombarded with rush assignments and impossible deadlines. It wasn't just the Dallas clients either. Some of the out of town folks seemed in a big hurry as well. It was almost enough for me to wish for the cold to return again, so everyone would just hunker down and do nothing like they did yesterday.

The house was warm today, but it was a total mess. I kept the washing machine going all day long with load after load of dirty clothes and dog blankets. We have enough dog blankets to keep us warm under the covers on even the coldest night, but that means a lot of laundry when the crisis is over. I don't know how the dogs manage to get the blankets dirty as quickly as they do, but they're experts at making things filthy.

Since the temperature briefly got up to 40 degrees around 3 PM this afternoon, I wanted to use the opportunity to clean things up on the roof. Bad idea. The ice was so thick that the small amount of melt today only made things more dangerous. The surface was so slippery that I quickly abandoned my efforts and planted both feet on firm ground before I injured myself. I guess this task can wait.  The ice load on the roof is pretty heavy now and I'd like to get the ice removed, but it's definitely not worth falling off the roof.

There's still a lot of unfinished business. I need to talk to the neighbor about removing his tree that fell on my roof. Neighbors are funny about this sort of thing. He probably thinks that I should remove it, since it's on my roof now. I think the repair crews that threw the branches they trimmed in the alley over my back yard fence should come back and remove them. I don't know why the tree trimmers couldn't have tossed these branches into the big shredder I saw sitting out in the street, but they told me they didn't have time. Maybe they were right. I did noticed that the power came back about two seconds after the last guy with a chain saw got out of the trees in the alley. I doubt that any of them wanted to be next to a live wire with a chain saw when the power was turned on. Who knows, maybe these guys will come back later this week and clean up their mess.

All I know is that I've got a big mess of my own to clean up. The new car has finally been baptized with a thick coat of road dirt. The roof needs attention. Worst of all, I think a lot of the expensive landscaping we had done last Spring has died. I'm trying to avoid a trip to the grocery store until the feeding frenzy has subsided. I think everyone in town was restocking their pantries this afternoon. Traffic was terrible and every parking lot in town was completely full.

I'm hoping that a semblance of normalcy returns tomorrow. I'm certainly going to do my part. I like normal things. Dot has her regular acupuncture appointment tomorrow. I'll be going to my Wednesday networking breakfast. I doubt that we'll have dog training class though. It's still way too cold.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1455

We've got power again! It's definitely been a long four days. Last night the temperature got so cold in the house that we gave up and went to a hotel for the night. It's hard to find a place that will take two 65 pound dogs, but the people at the Palomar couldn't have been nicer. They treated Dot and Dash just like any other guest. Dash was scared of elevators, but other than that, both dogs seemed to enjoy their night away from home. The dogs enjoyed sleeping in the big, fluffy hotel bed so much that I think they were disappointed when they returned to our own house today. We almost had to spend two nights in the hotel, but the power finally returned about 6 PM this evening. The house is still cold, but the temperature is steadily increasing at about three degrees an hour. By morning, we should be back to normal.

Since the house was still ice cold this morning, Janet let me use an empty cubicle at her office to work and we took the dogs to board for the day with our vet. Dot and Dash were disappointed that we weren't taking them to another posh hotel, but they'll survive. They are always well taken care of at the vet. Dash even got his antigen shot today, so I won't have to take him back again tomorrow.

Here's the difference between doctors and ordinary people. The last time I went to see the doctor I had an appointment with today, I had to wait over an hour and a half in the lobby because he got tied up in surgery. Today I was the one who was late. I was fifteen minutes late because of bad traffic and when I arrived, the doctor had already left for the day. So, I guess it's acceptable for me to wait an hour and a half and he can't wait fifteen minutes. I don't get it. I'm always the one who is expected to wait.

When I was driving home from my aborted doctor visit, I got a call from a friend in the neighborhood saying the power was back on. About five minutes later I got another call to say "never mind." The power had flickered out again. It appears that getting the power back on line is a tricky business. When I arrived home, the power was still out, but there were power company trucks everywhere. It was a power company crew from Alabama who eventually turned the lights on again. I asked one of the guys what it took to get all these people to Dallas on such short notice. He said it was just professional courtesy. He said if they got in trouble, Dallas crews would come down to help them. It's nice to know that the concept of professional courtesy still survives. It disappeared from the advertising world years ago.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1454

What a day! Our power is still out. After three days without power and temperatures in the 20's, the entire neighborhood feels like we've been abandoned. I finally talked with someone from the power company this morning. When I saw a guy in the alley wearing a hard hat and looking up at the power lines, I rushed outside to ask when we'd be getting our power back. The guy was nice enough, but he wasn't very encouraging. "We're just the assessment team," he told me. "This is a three stage process," he said. "First we identify the dead lines, then tree cutters come out and remove the debris around the lines, and finally the linemen will come and replace the damaged lines." "How long will that take," I asked. The man gave me one of those looks like he'd been asked this question way too often already. "It's a complicated process," he finally said. "I wouldn't expect anything to be fixed before Wednesday."

After that dismal assessment, I was happy to pack up my photo gear and head off to our third Santa Paws photo shoot for Dalmatian Rescue. Since the weather was still atrocious and it was sleeting again when I left the house, I didn't think anyone would show up for today's event. Surprisingly, we actually had a great crowd. Along with our usual assortment of Labs and small terriers, we photographed quite a few Dalmatians today, including one very cute puppy who seemed to really like Santa.

We took Dot and Dash with us to today's event, because we didn't want to leave them in the cold house. They were excited at first, and then were disgusted when they realized that they had to be kenneled while Janet and I worked. I think they were both happy to be warm again though, because after about fifteen minutes of barking in their kennel, they settled down on their dog beds and went to sleep.

I think the same people who designed the ObamaCare website designed the power company's emergency outage website. We've been looking at the website for three days now and nothing has changed. It looks like exactly the same number of houses are without power as there were when the storm started. I'm sure the power crews have done something, but you couldn't prove it by me. There are supposed to be over 3000 repairmen working on the problem, but I've only seen one. My guy seemed overwhelmed. He was from out of state, had a big bundle of engineering drawings in his hand, and was still looking for where the telephone poles were. This doesn't look good.

At the end of a very long day, Janet, the dogs and I are exhausted. We took the dogs to a dog friendly hotel and are relaxing over a nice dinner while we unwind and warm up. Lord knows what we'll have to deal with next week. I've got another lost UPS package to locate, five more articles to write, and a doctor's appointment. That's just Monday.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1453

Things are bad in Dallas. Our power has been out over 30 hours and we still don't have any reliable information about when it will be restored. Yesterday was miserable. As the temperature got colder and colder, we watched everything slowly shut down. After the power went out, the land line phones were the first to go. An hour after the phones died, the WiFi went out. Next, the back up battery for the security system went dead. The UPS power supply for the main office computers had enough juice to recharge the laptop and iPhones twice, and then it went dead as well.

By mid afternoon, all electrical devices in the house were completely dead and the house was silent. We put all the food in the refrigerator outside on the porch, because it was much colder there. When we let the dogs out in the back yard to poop, a large branch fell from one of the Oak trees and almost hit Dash. We were very lucky that the falling tree branch missed him by three feet. The limb was heavy enough that it might have killed him. The dogs only go out on a leash now, so we know exactly where they are at all times.

There wasn't much to do after dark. We didn't even know what was going on. The TV was out, and we couldn't even find much information on a battery radio. There is so much satellite programming now on radio that very few stations even provide their own local news any more. We piled all the dog blankets on the bed and turned in for the night right after a dinner of very cold ham and cheese sandwiches from our outdoor fridge. By morning, it was dangerously cold in the house. It was 20 degrees outside and probably around 34 degrees inside. 

Since Janet's downtown office still has power, we packed the dogs and the electronic gear into the car and and headed for someplace where we could all warm up again. We really should have stayed at a hotel last night, but I never dreamed that it would take over two days to get the power restored in sub-freezing weather. Usually I hear the chain saws from the repair crews clearing away fallen trees within hours of an outage. This time, there has been no activity whatsoever.

One of my neighbors went to Northern Tool in his 4-wheel drive truck yesterday and bought a $1000 generator to power a small TV and his wife's hairdryer. Another neighbor got out all his camping sleeping bags and the family slept in sleeping bags. Since we didn't have either sleeping bags or a generator, we were very cold last night.

All is well now though. Both of our cars started this morning and Janet's office is toasty warm. Dot and Dash are sleeping on blankets under Janet's desk. We counted three downed power lines on the way to Janet's office.  I have yet to see a repair truck in our neighborhood and all bets are off for full power restoration. You know things are bad when the city canceled tomorrow's Dallas Marathon. Runners seem to love adverse conditions and the marathon is a big deal to the city. I don't think it has ever been canceled before.

Hopefully power will be restored this weekend. When things get back to normal, I'll need to find someone to clear away the fallen trees on the roof and in our yard. I have a feeling that Dallas tree trimmers are already booked solid through next March.

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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