Day 253

It was at least twenty degrees cooler today and I think the milder weather put the entire city in a better mood. My employee photo shoot today went much better than normal. Everyone was on time and happy with their pictures. I wish I could take everyone's pictures when they were in a good mood. It makes a huge difference.

The dogs certainly noticed the change in the weather. I could have walked them twice as far if I'd had the time. They were both full of energy and pulling and tugging at their leashes like they normally do in cooler weather. All the dogs in obedience class tonight seemed to feel the same way. It certainly wasn't cold outside, but 75 degrees is a lot nicer than 105 degrees.

I still haven't called anyone on my new iPhone, but I did go to Fry's and get one of those silicon skins for it today. I probably ought to start taking the phone with me when I go places, since that's the whole point of having a cell phone. I find myself conflicted about cell phones. I love the technology. I just don't like talking. I certainly don't want to start talking on the phone while I'm walking the dogs. The walks are the most peaceful part of my day. I don't like to talk on the phone while I'm driving either, because it 's getting way too close to multi-tasking for my taste. You know how I feel about multi-tasking. I'll probably end up using the phone as a one way communications device, just like I did years ago when I had one of those brick like Oki-900 phones. I just left that phone turned off most of the time. I always liked the idea of being able to call someone in an emergency, but felt no need to be in constant contact with the world. I've probably lost some business over the years by not being available 24/7, but enough is enough. I still think that checking my messages once a day and returning the calls the next morning should be responsive enough for anyone.

Wouldn't it be nice if Fall came early this year? I love this cooler weather. If this early cool spell we're having continues a few more days, I might even get caught up on things again. I'm just like the dogs. Heat makes me lethargic.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 252

I've done enough photo shoots in office environments by now that they all start to blur together. There's always someone who absolutely refuses to be photographed. There are usually several who ask if I can stay long enough for them to go home and change clothes and put on more makeup. Occasionally, there are some who want to in the photos, even though they are not part of the story. The offices themselves are often drab and filled with the kind of art you'd find at a Holiday Inn. I photograph these spaces with an ultra wide angle 14mm lens to make them appear larger and more dramatic. I like to use available light and very long exposures. I tell people that this is the way Architectural Digest does things, but really the dreamy blurred people moving through these long exposures just mean fewer problems with photo releases later.

All in all, the photo shoot at the medical clinic went pretty well today. I'll have to come back later to catch the people who were too busy to be photographed or just didn't show up, but that's to be expected. I'm not even going to bother to unpack my bags, because I've got another photo shoot at a different office tomorrow.

When I tried to sync all my contact information on the new iPhone today, I discovered that the photos I loaded in the phone had simply disappeared. The phone said the photos were there, but you just couldn't see them. Odd to say the least. There is always a weird little glitch like this with new Apple products. When I Googled "can't sync photos to iPhone" it appeared that a ton of other people were experiencing the same sort of problem. There wasn't a solution on the Apple website though. There never is. I hate trying to solve technical problems using Google, because people aren't shy about giving their opinion even if they are dead wrong. I've broken more than a few things by following lame advice I've found on Google. After wasting a considerable amount of time on various forums, I saw something that made sense. "Try powering down the phone and then power it up again. Your photos should appear in the proper place." Sure enough, when I turned the phone completely off and then turned it on again, the photos appeared. Now why couldn't the guys in the blue shirts at the Genius Bar have told me that?

Even though the roof will probably leak again, we really need some rain. It's so hot and dry outside that everything is turning brown. I've been watering the plants and grass in the morning after I get back from walking the dogs, but I don't think it helps much.  Within a few hours, the ground is bone dry again.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 251

When I was out running errands today, I noticed that school is back in session. I'm going to have to change some of my regular driving routes. When school is in session, the roads near elementary schools become totally gridlocked as parents queue up in a long parade of SUV's to drop off and pick up their kids from school. I used to walk, or take the bus, or ride my bicycle to school, but I guess that isn't done anymore. I'm sure it's a safety issue, but it's kind of a shame too. Walking home from school used to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the day. I think I only lived a mile or so from my elementary school, but the walk home often took hours because I would always stop at various friends houses along the way.

The only good thing about the traffic jams surrounding the schools is that it's just about impossible to get a speeding ticket for going too fast in a school zone. I felt no urge to speed today though. I wasn't late to a meeting. I was just going to the post office to pay some bills and then to the Hoover store to buy some more vacuum cleaner bags. There was one more thing on my list too. I decided it was finally time to buy an iPhone.

I thought that by waiting this long, all the long lines at the Apple store would be ancient history. Wrong! The new iPhone's were in stock and available at the Northpark store, but there was still a line of people inside the store patiently waiting to buy one. The Apple folks have a way of making you feel like it's a privilege to hand over your money and walk away with one of their technology toys. In all the years I've been buying stuff at the Apple store, I've never ever seen anything on sale.

The iPhone may end up being a big waste of money, but I'm trying to be optimistic. I have a friend who says buying an iPhone changed his life. Most of the people I know who use an iPhone have more business than I do. Maybe my iPhone will be lucky for me as well. It certainly didn't hurt to get an iPad a few months ago. I initially thought that purchase was frivolous as well, but the iPad has already more than paid for itself by helping me land two new clients.

My photo shoot at the medical clinic has been rescheduled for tomorrow. They seemed happy when I told them that it wouldn't take me all that long to take the pictures they needed. I'm happy too. If it's speed they want, I won't have to lug all my big heavy strobe lights and backdrops up to the clinic.

I wonder how long it will take for someone to call me on the iPhone. I've had that Skype phone for months now and still nobody's used it for anything.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 250

Our Sunday dog walking program has grown so popular that we now have more people to walk dogs than we have dogs to walk. This is good for the dogs, because each of them gets a nice long walk. I didn't have a dog to walk today, so I tried to take some better pictures of Lance instead. Lance has been in the rescue program a long time now and I can't figure out why he hasn't been adopted yet. He's a friendly, good looking dog who seems to get along with everyone. Maybe he just needs a better picture.

Our own dogs just need some cooler weather. They still enjoy going to the Wagging Tail dog park on Sundays, but after a cursory run around the grounds, they're both ready to come home again. We spend more time driving to the park than we spend at the park. In a way, the long drive to the park is even more important than being there because it is getting Dash used to car travel. Now that he is starting to associate car travel with something pleasant at the end of the journey, he is much calmer and better behaved. You have to be patient with dogs. Maybe by next Summer he'll be ready for a trip down to the Gulf Coast.

The week ahead seems very similar to last week. There are several photo shoots and another birthday. This time it's Dot's turn to be the birthday girl. The dogs had so much fun going to Cafe Lago on Dash's birthday that we may go back again to celebrate Dot's birthday as well. On the other hand, I've heard that there's a new dog friendly restaurant on Lamar Street, so maybe we'll try that instead. I just hope the weather cools down a bit next week. The temperature hit a record high today in Dallas. And it's supposed to be even hotter tomorrow.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 249

I think I've lost a fundamental battle in the ongoing war between order and disarray. I just can't seem to keep my life neat and tidy anymore. I spent this morning sorting through a large stack of papers marked "save for later." Most of the papers contained scribbled phone numbers or notes about some work project I finished months ago. I had no idea why I had saved any of this. Half of the names I wrote down I didn't even recognize. I remember that whenever I used to make a new contact, I would immediately write down all the information on a Rolodex card or enter it in a day planner. Now I'll just scribble something cryptic on whatever is handy and move on. There just isn't time to be methodical and organized anymore.

Sometimes I wonder what is the point of having an office full of time saving equipment and software. Since everyone thinks this stuff makes my life easy, budgets have gotten tighter and deadlines have gotten much shorter. Everyone wants immediate gratification now. The net result is that I'm busier than I've ever been, but only making half as much money as I was in the days before the Internet. I used to wish that life would return to normal and then I realized that this is normal. Normal has changed. I can't turn back the clock, but I can throw away the big pile of "save for later" paper. No point in saving it any longer. I don't even know what it all means.

When I was watering plants while the dogs were sunning themselves after lunch, I noticed that all the plants we had put outside to "get some sun" were turning brown and dying. I guess this plan didn't work. It's just too hot. Later, when I got the vacuum cleaner out to clean the carpets, I discovered that vacuum cleaner bags were what I was trying to remember this morning when I made my list for the grocery store. I found lots of old shopping bags from the mall in the utility room, but no vacuum cleaner bags.  I don't know what has happened to me. For the first thirty years of my life I led a pristine, zen-like existence. Now, everything has turned to dust and clutter. I went ahead and watered the brown plants baking on the back porch and vacuumed the house with a dust filled bag. What else can you do?

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 248

While I was taking the trash out to the street this morning, the trash truck arrived. I thought I was going to miss the once weekly pickup again, but I needn't have worried. The driver was struggling to get the robotic arm on the truck to pick up the neighbor's trash. He never could get the arm to work, so he had to get out of the truck and empty the can by hand. The city bought these high-tech trucks several years ago on the premise that they would save money by allowing a driver to pick up all the trash himself without the need for a normal three man sanitation crew. The trucks never worked and most are gone by now, except for a few stragglers like this one. Now, to save money, the city has gone back to the old style trucks with a full crew and reduced trash pickup from twice a week to once a week. By the time I'd finished walking the dogs, the driver hadn't even made it to the end of the street yet. This is the problem with government at all levels. Everyone seems to have a plan to save money or improve efficiency. The fly in the ointment is that none of the plans actually work.

My photo shoot at the medical clinic got canceled today. I wasn't really surprised because whenever I've been to this clinic on a Friday, things are always hectic. I kind of wondered why we were trying to do the photos on a Friday in the first place, but I think that's the day when the most employees are there. Probably more employees are working on Friday because things are busier on Friday. I have a feeling that this photo shoot might end up being canceled again. They were nice to call me though. Often people never bother to tell me that we're going to have to reschedule until I show up on their doorstep with all my equipment.

Sadly, it's not a very courteous world anymore. When I was driving home from the grocery store this afternoon, I saw the driver of an 18-wheeler lean out his window and start cursing very loudly at a women in the car next to him. I don't know what provoked this rudeness, because there certainly wasn't an accident. Both vehicles were stopped at a light. The incident was a little unsettling. That's all we need now are big rig drivers going postal on us.

I'm always glad when Friday rolls around. I got a few things wrapped up this week. A few other things never got off the ground. Either way, I'm not going to worry about deadlines again until Monday. Weekends belong to the dogs. Dogs can be demanding too, but they are not nearly as irritating as people.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 247 - Janet's Birthday

I sent a FedEx package filled with video tape and talent release forms off to National Geographic today. With every batch of footage I send, this project gets one step closer to completion. I still wonder whether I'll ever see this story on television though. I've worked on broadcast projects before and they have a way of changing right up until the very end. I hope the National Geographic folks stay interested in the project. It's actually a good story. It also would be a nice change of pace to see something I've done on a television show, instead of just playing over and over again on a flat screen at some trade show booth.

I went shopping this afternoon for Janet's birthday. A big thank you to whoever invented gift cards. I used to spend hours trying to put together outfits myself and no matter how hard I tried, I would always get something the wrong size. Women's clothes are difficult to buy. A size four in one store is exactly the same as a size six in another store. There is no rhyme or reason to sizes whatsoever. Shoes are even harder to get the right size without actually trying them on. I have a hard enough time getting the size right with my own shoes. At any rate, I now mostly just give gift cards from her favorite stores. A big thank you to whoever invented Sprinkles Cupcakes too. They taste fabulous and they're just the right size. With cupcakes there is no stale leftover birthday cake taking up all the space in the refrigerator for the rest of the week. Janet got home from work so late that I thought we'd have to postpone the little party the dogs and I had planned for another day. Better late than never though. Hey, cupcakes taste good any time of day. I even had a drink. What the hell. I know I can't drink anymore, but I ought to be able to at least have a martini on birthdays and holidays.

I've got another photo shoot tomorrow. I haven't even put away all the video gear I used for the National Geographic interviews the other day and now I've got to load up a completely different set of equipment for a still shoot. Needless to say, the office is a mess. It's good to be busy though. It would be even nicer if all this activity was making me some money.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 246

I drove up to the Lewisville fire station this morning to take pictures of Beans, the fire chief's Dalmatian. Beans seemed to really enjoy her job as the official fire house dog. I guess she takes after the other firefighters. I've spent a lot of time taking pictures inside fire stations over the years and I am always amazed at how much firefighters love their jobs. Even though it has to be a stressful and often dangerous job, I've never ever heard a firefighter complain about what they do. In just about every other profession, people hate their jobs. Firefighters are different. They are proud of what they do, and almost universally enjoy what they do. Any time I spend time with firemen, I leave kind of wanting to be a fireman myself. I'd make a terrible fireman though. I'm too clumsy. I'd probably accidentally start more fires than I put out.  I'm still not sure why I was asked to come take pictures today. The fire chief is a pretty good photographer himself. When he was showing me some pictures he had taken of Beans, I thought his were better than mine.

On the way home from the fire station, I stopped by DG Fast Channel to get protection masters made of the video tape I shot yesterday. The video looked good. Just looking at the footage, it would be hard to convince anyone that the interviews were a chaotic mess. On tape, the goat and the two dogs looked quiet and well behaved. It just goes to show you that you can't believe everything you see.

I'm starting to see similarities between Dash and the goat.  Dash is certainly as stubborn as a goat. Tonight at obedience class, he didn't feel like sitting. As soon as I'd turn my back, he'd immediately lie down. I had to put him back in a sitting position five or six times during the long sit exercise. In Dash's defense, it was awfully hot and muggy today though. I felt like taking a nap myself.

We finally got a little rain today while I was out running arrands. I was initially glad to see the rain, since our yard could really use the water. I changed my mind quickly though when I came home and saw a big puddle of water on the living room floor. The roof leak is back again.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 245

This is about as close as I've come to not having a blog entry at all. I'm way behind today. I thought I could get all the interviews I was doing for National Geographic finished in a couple of hours, but I didn't get home until almost 10 PM.  Basically, doing an interview with a goat in the shot takes a lot longer than doing the same interview without a goat.

We certainly didn't get off to a good start. While I was setting up, the goat ate my microphone.  I couldn't believe it. This was an expensive Countrymen EMV lavalier too!  I've always liked this mike because it sounds great and doesn't have much rubbing noise when you pin it to someone's clothing. I had to use something else today though. The Countryman is evidently a tasty treat for a goat.  Judy the dog had to get in on the destruction too.  She peed all over an electrical junction box and shorted out some wiring. 

This whole project has been a train wreck as far as my equipment is concerned. I've already had to have my car repaired and a new tape transport assembly installed in my Beta-SP camera. Now, I've got to go buy a new lavalier mike as well. Even with all this carnage, I've still doing better than some folks over at the orphanage. One volunteer was injured when a heavy gate fell on top of her while the goat was being loaded into a truck. Another wrecked her car and had to go to the hospital during all the goat frenzy. I think it's time to find these guys a home before I go broke or anyone else gets hurt.

It will probably be several days before I even find time to pack all the video equipment away again. Tomorrow, I've got to drive up to Lewisville and take pictures at a fire station for the Dalmatian Rescue calendar. Then, I need to take all the pictures for the virtual tour I'm making for the new medical clinic website. I can't forget about Janet's birthday either. It's going to be a busy week.

In case you're wondering, Dot sailed through her annual exam this morning with flying colors. She hasn't gained a single pound this year. I wish I could say the same.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 244

Years ago when I lived in Colorado, I spent a lot of time hiking through the mountain passes between Aspen and Crested Butte. I remember that when we were headed uphill, the pack on my back seemed very heavy and all I thought about was putting one foot in front of the other. When we eventually arrived at the top of the pass, it all seemed worthwhile. You could see for miles and the trek back down the other side was exhilarating because you weren't fighting gravity anymore. Life these days seems a lot like those long uphill climbs. I'm still putting one foot in front of the other, but I can't see the summit at all. I'm beginning to wonder if there even is a summit.

Today's uphill climb consisted mostly of paying bills and trying to get an assortment of problems resolved over the phone. National Geographic called me in between my own calls with a detailed set of instructions for tomorrow's interviews. This call wasn't a problem at all. I was actually glad to hear from them. If all my clients were this detailed and exact about what they wanted from me, my life would be a whole lot easier. Most people don't give me any instructions at all. A lot of them don't even know what they want. I need to do something first to give them a target to criticize. Then I do everything all over again to arrive at a finished product. I shouldn't really complain about this awkward process though. If people were better at visualizing solutions, they wouldn't need me in the first place.

I need to come up with some better commands for the dogs. When I was out in the back yard with them after lunch, I realized that I was saying "No Bark" to Dot to get her to quit barking at the neighbor dog. At the same time, I was also saying "No Bark" to Dash to get him to quit eating tree bark that had fallen on the ground. No wonder the dogs don't listen to me. They are probably totally confused.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 243

I don't know where today went. It seems like I got up this morning and a few minutes later it's already 9 PM and I'm here falling asleep at the keyboard. Sundays have never been a day of rest at our house. From dawn till dusk the day is filled with non-stop household chores and dog activities. Things do vary a bit with the seasons, but the routine is usually the same. We get up, walk our dogs, eat breakfast, go to K-9 University and walk the Dalmatian Rescue dogs, come home, eat lunch, give our dogs a bath, take them to some sort of dog park to play, come home and mow the grass, do some laundry, walk our dogs again, eat dinner, find a watch to photograph for the blog, try to get ready for the week ahead and go to sleep. Today, my brain seems to think we've arrived at the "go to sleep" part of the day before I've finished everything else. I don't know why I'm so tired today. Maybe it's just the heat.

Dash seems to have achieved some sort of breakthrough about riding in cars. Ever since last Tuesday when he rode around in the Land Rover loaner car, he's been much better behaved. We took the dogs up to the Wagging Tail dog park again this afternoon and Dash acted completely normal. I didn't hear a peep out of him during the entire trip. As recently as a month ago, a trip like this would have been impossible with Dash. It's kind of amazing how much his behavior has improved. Maybe he finally had one of those "light bulb" moments where he realized when he went somewhere in a car, good things usually happened instead of all the bad things he was anticipating. I'll probably never know why Dash changed his mind about car travel, but I'm glad he did. We've always wanted to take the dogs down to the Gulf Coast so they could run along the beach. Now, something like this might actually be possible.

Next week looks busy already. Dot has her annual exam. I've got some interviews to film about the goat story for National Geographic. I need to go up to Lewisville to take some pictures at a fire station for the Dalmatian Rescue 2011 calendar. Oh, and Janet had a birthday coming up too.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 242

I got a call from my pharmacy today to tell me that my prescription for Peginterferon had been approved by insurance. I was initially pleased to hear this until I heard the pharmacist say "...and the portion of the cost that you will be responsible for is $1144.80." "I thought you said this had been approved by insurance," I said. "It has," said the pharmacist. "The $1144.80 is just the residual amount you pay after your insurance has paid their part." "Is this for the entire treatment," I asked.  "No," said the pharmacist. "This is just for one month of medication."

This definitely isn't good news. Especially considering that treatment could last as long as a year. I was almost scared to ask about the ribavirin pills, which are also part of the treatment. "Oh, that one is just a generic," said the pharmacist. "The ribavirin will only cost you $5 a month." Now why couldn't they combine the ribavirin with some other reasonably priced generic drug instead of the super expensive Peginterferon? I've heard from leukemia patients that their prescription drug costs often exceed $3000 a month, even when they do have insurance. Somehow, I thought I could escape all this. I need to talk to my doctor on Monday.

After this inauspicious start to the weekend, you would think that the rest of the day would have to get better.  Not really. I tried and failed for the third time to get my new financial planning software working properly. I've been promising Janet that I would install Photoshop on her laptop, but when I finally found a version on one of my machines that was new enough to run on her Intel Mac, it turned out to be an upgrade and wouldn't install properly. Adobe can be very irritating. Cannot find the version you upgraded from on your hard drive said a message in a dialog box. Well of course you can't find it. It isn't there! The version I upgraded from years ago on a completely different computer is so old that it won't even run on an Intel Mac. So now I've managed to install a huge bloated CS3 version of Photoshop that has already reverted to a useless 30 day demo which keeps asking me if I'd like to purchase a serial number every time I launch it.

I did manage to fix a little folding grocery cart that broke when the groceries it was carrying last week got too heavy. That was about the limit of my abilities today.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 241

I used to be superstitious about Friday the 13th. I've learned however, that you can be unlucky any day of the week. I certainly didn't need to worry about avoiding big decisions today. There were no big decisions to make anyway. I did have a few pleasant surprises though. My meeting with the medical clinic went very well. They liked my initial website proposal and have already scheduled doing photography for the new site next week. The doctor who owns the clinic wanted to go ahead and put the new site up right away until the practice manager reminded him that nobody had written any of the content yet.

The doctor looked at a few blank pages and then pulled an iPhone out of his pocket and started talking into a voice recording app. In a matter of minutes he had dictated the text he wanted for about ten of the blank web pages. "This all sounds good," I told the doctor and then asked him what he thought would be the easiest way to turn his iPhone voice recordings into text. "Oh, there's an app for that too," he told me. I felt like I was getting a glimpse into the not so distant future.

On my way home I stopped at Central Market to pick up some things for dinner. While I was waiting at the deli counter, I couldn't help but notice an irate man standing next to me demanding to see a supervisor or a manager. Nobody could figure out what this guy's problem was. He wasn't buying anything and he wasn't returning anything. He was just mad. There are way too many angry people like this out there these days. I encounter them just about every time I venture away from the house. No wonder that Jet Blue flight attendant who quit his job in such a dramatic fashion has become a folk hero.

I'm glad I don't have to deal with the general public in my line of work. My customers are very demanding, but none of them are rude. I think my tolerance for rudeness is way lower than it used to be. Maybe a few of these vocal, rude people have a legitimate gripe, but it all just sounds just like Dot and Dash barking to me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 240

I wish someone had told me that the new season of Project Runway had started. I think I've already missed the first two episodes. In tonight's episode, the contestants had to make a dress entirely out of things they found at a party store. The show reminded me of my day today. I had to make a website entirely out of clip art. I usually haven't shot the photography yet when I show a client the initial design work. If they like the design, I go back and shoot the photography later. Clip art isn't a great solution though. I can never find exactly the images I'm looking for and I always worry that if I show too many cheesy placeholder photos in my layout, they might torpedo my entire design.

I tend to change a lot of things at the last minute, which also reminds me of Project Runway. Yesterday, I thought I was almost done with this design. Today was a different story. As I was making some last minute tweaks, I discovered several things I hated and ended up doing a big chunk of the design work all over again.  Basically, I spent the day knocking down the sand castle I had already built earlier in the week. I think this is why I like projects with tight deadlines. If I only have time to do it once, I don't second guess myself quite so much.

The rescue group with the goat had their monthly board meeting this evening. I'm always late for these meetings, but I try to go anyway. I think everybody will be glad when the goat and the two dogs find a home. The entire place is starting to smell like a goat. Goats evidently poop a lot too. At any rate, I'm glad I'm not on the cleanup detail. The animals are so friendly though that it's easy to forgive the mess they've made. The two dogs are about halfway through their heartworm treatment, and the trio should be ready to adopt by the end of the month.

I've still got to film several more pieces of the story for National Geographic before the animals go to their permanent home. I'm hoping I can do most of this indoors, because it's just too hot outside. So far this August, every single day has felt a little hotter than the previous one. I watered the grass for several hours this morning and within 45 minutes after I turned the sprinklers off, the ground was dry again. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for Winter.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 239

Not a bad day. I got my car back from the Land Rover dealer and it was nice to be able to go places again without worrying about the engine overheating. Even when I was stuck in traffic the oil temperature stayed right in the normal range. One of my first errands today was taking my new logo ideas up to show Kevin at his watch repair company. He approved my favorite logo design and now we've moved on to redesign his web site.

It's a nice change of pace to have a client who likes to talk about watches at meetings. Usually when I go to client meetings I have to listen to clients talk about odd concepts like Enterprise Resource Planning or Front End Engineering Design. My next meeting is on Friday when I present my initial designs for the Medical Clinic website. I'm slowly but surely turning everyone in my small little universe into a customer. Both my veterinarians are customers. My two best friends from my ad agency days are now customers. My watchmaker has become a customer. And now my personal physician is a customer.  Occasionally, even Janet is a customer. I've managed to get work and pleasure so hopelessly muddled together that I'm not even sure what constitutes "fun" anymore.

One of the reasons I enjoy the dogs so much is that they represent the complete antithesis of a world dominated by work and working. They are basically lazy animals. Dot and Dash could care less if I miss a deadline or arrive late to a meeting. They live to eat, to sleep, and to chase squirrels. Remember that Bobby McFerrin song called Don't Worry, Be Happy that was popular in the 1980's? That's Dot and Dash in a nutshell. When the Dow dropped 265 points today, Dot didn't even bother to bark about it.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 238

The dogs never fail to surprise me. I was dreading taking Dash to the vet today because the crate I usually transport him in was still in my car, which of course was still at the dealership being repaired. As I've mentioned before, Dash doesn't ride well in a car. He seems terrified of car travel and when he starts his high pitched barking and whining, he looks like he could keel over and have a seizure at any moment. I wasn't looking forward to just putting him in the back seat of the loaner car and driving over to the vet. At least when he's in his crate, I don't have to worry about him jumping up into the front seat and landing in my lap.

Dash surprised me though. He was the perfect gentleman. He sat nicely on his blanket in the back seat and I didn't hear a peep out of him all the way to the vet. I was amazed! Dash never rides this well in the car. He was quiet and well behaved on the way home too. Who knows? Maybe he isn't terrified after all. Maybe he just wants me to buy a new car.

I don't think I'm ever going to get caught up this week. Some of my long dormant jobs now have deadlines attached to them. I have meetings just about every day this week to present ideas in various stages of completion. Deadlines seem to inspire my cranky equipment to become even crankier. I need to print out some logo ideas for a presentation tomorrow, but one of the ink cartridges is almost empty and the only thing the printer will do is tell me to buy more ink. I also wasted a lot of time trying to upload a new website this afternoon using the wrong password. It took me forever to figure out that there wasn't a problem with the web server. There was just a problem with me.

I often envy Dot and Dash on days like this. They like to lie out in the sun after lunch. When they get too hot, they come inside and lie on the bed. Back and forth they go, trying to decide where they can find the most comfortable place to take a nap. I could sure use a nap. I was sorting through all the pictures from the big goat gala last Sunday and I kept seeing this tired looking guy with big bags under his eyes in the pictures Janet took. Yup. It was me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 237

I took my car back to the dealer this morning to get the overheating problem fixed and was pleased to discover that my loaner car was a pretty new LR-2. It looked just like Janet's car except this one was white instead of charcoal. I could probably buy myself a car like this with all the money I've dumped into keeping mine repaired. It turns out my overheating problem was caused by a broken fan clutch. My service representative said this was an easy problem to fix. Basically all I do is hand over $550 and it's good as new.

With my car problems taken care of, I headed downtown to take a look at the video tape I shot yesterday. I'm superstitious about master tapes. I will never look at or edit them until I have a duplicate master in hand. I almost always get my dubs made at DG Fast Channel because they have up-to-date equipment and they'll make the dubs while I wait. The tape I shot actually looked pretty good considering the weird lighting I had to deal with. There was sunlight streaming in through the restaurant windows, mercury vapor lighting overhead, and a 3200K quartz light mounted on my camera. It was just about impossible to get the color temperature perfect. The tape looked good though and I'll send it off to National Geographic. Truthfully, I'm still surprised that there's anything on the tape at all when I finish shooting something. I should be more confident after years of filming everything under the sun, but I've learned the hard way that it's better to be safe than sorry. It's almost a rule that if a piece of equipment can fail, it will probably fail when I'm using it.

Don't worry. The dogs still got their morning walk. The Land Rover dealer opens at 7 AM, so I was able to get an early start to the day. Normally Monday's aren't this busy, but I managed to get everything done anyway. The dogs walked a little later than normal, my pancake breakfast turned into a pancake lunch, but by 2 PM I had Dreamweaver running on my computer and was updating websites just like I usually do.

There's still plenty to do. I've got to get this month's invoices out tomorrow. Dash also needs to go back to the vet around noon for a follow up visit to check on his dental work. Almost every day is filled with routine but necessary tasks. Unless something unexpected happens, photographing a goat will probably end up being the high point of my week.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 236

Today was the big fundraiser for Judy, Minnelli and Lucky at Cafe Lago. When I arrived to film the event for National Geographic, there were already camera crews from CBS and Fox getting their mobile broadcast trucks ready for the evening news. I can't remember when a goat and two dogs have received so much attention. Originally, the animals were going to be outside on the patio for this event, but Gabbi, who owns Cafe Lago, decided to bring everyone inside since it was so hot. The goat loved being invited inside a Tapas restaurant and immediately started eating everything in sight. The two dogs seemed equally quick to notice all the delicious food on the tables.

Needless to say, the "three amigos" got lots of treats. The small restaurant was packed with people and everyone wanted to pet the unlikely animal stars. Judy, the Great Dane, is one of the friendliest dogs I've ever seen. She seems like a natural ambassador for animal rescue and she worked the crowd like a pro. Minnelli, the goat, is charming. He thinks he's a dog and acts exactly like the other two dogs. All three animals were extremely well behaved. They certainly behaved better than our own dogs under similar circumstances. Dot and Dash would have been counter surfing on the buffet table within minutes.

I really need to get a lighter camera. After a couple of hours with the heavy Beta-SP camera on my shoulder, I was exhausted. I couldn't use a tripod though, because the animals were constantly moving around and the crowd was so large that you couldn't see anything unless you were right in the middle of things. I had originally planned to take still pictures too, but things were so hectic that I didn't have time to switch back and forth between stills and video. Luckily, Janet came to the fundraiser, so I gave her the camera and she got some fabulous shots.

Dot and Dash seemed a little miffed that they were left behind during all this activity, but this was an invitation only event and they weren't invited. It's actually a good thing Dot and Dash weren't there. I didn't hear any barking all afternoon. With two Dalmatians thrown into the mix, there would have been a whole lot of barking. All in all, the fundraiser was a huge success and I hope it raised lots of money for the "three amigos" treatment.  I still need to take my video tape to DG Fast Channel in the morning to get duplicated before I can look at it. Hopefully, my pictures will turn out as good as Janet's.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 235

On weekends I try to sort through the clutter that the previous week left behind and tidy things up the best I can. There's always a ton of mail to sort through. I seldom open the mail during the week, because it's mostly all junk mail anyway. I'll always find a few bills in the pile of throw away mail. Why can't they put bills in a bright red envelope that says "this must be paid?" Today's bills look exactly like all the other junk mail. Even after you open them up it's hard to find the actual bill because there are so many advertising messages inside. More than a few of my monthly bills have gotten thrown away in the trash simply because I didn't recognize them as bills.

Weekends are when the stacks of receipts lying around the office finally get put in the file folder that goes to my accountant. Shirts that were washed days ago finally get ironed, and some weekends the floors even get vacuumed. In the Summer I'll invent any sort of task to avoid going outside in the heat. Today I had to go outside and mow the grass though. I usually don't bother to mow my yard until the neighbors mow theirs and I am shamed into outdoor activity again. I used to spend time on weekends practicing fixing watches or printing pictures for future gallery shows. I don't seem to have time for those kind of things anymore. I have a huge list of things I'd like to do "when I get caught up." Unfortunately, I never seem to get caught up.

I noticed today that the blog now has 100 followers. Thanks guys! When I started this, I had my doubts that anyone would even bother to read it. It's still surprising that there are 100 people out there who find my somewhat dull life interesting enough to read about. It's a nice kind of surprising though. I've enjoyed reading all your comments and I've discovered that writing something every day has definitely helped cure my writer's block. Perhaps the best thing about blogging has been discovering other people's blogs. There's a world of writers out there that I never knew existed. Some of you are absolutely marvelous! I'll probably never bother to put up a Facebook page. I do have a Twitter account, but I've never even written a single Tweet. I do like blogging though. There's something old fashioned about it. It's part of a long writing tradition that goes all the way back to James Boswell's journals. Onward and upward, I guess. If I've made it this far, maybe one of these days I'll have 200 followers. Maybe some day in the far distant future, I'll even start making some money from AdSense.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 234

I finally got the OK from one of my clients to launch a new website that has been sitting on the back burner for months now. I haven't really added or changed anything in quite a while. Today was just the day when the stars were aligned and the site was destined to be born. I think I'll need to retake the employee group shot though. It's been so long since I did the initial design work that we counted at least seven people in the picture who no longer worked for the company. This particular project was taking so long to complete that I was starting to think the client either hated the design or didn't like working with me. Everything was fine though. The project just slipped from high priority to no priority. I've got to remember that what I do just isn't all that important to many people.

Believe it or not, Bexel completed the repair work on my video camera today. This is one day where I was actually wishing for rain, because I had to drive all the way to Irving again in the heat to pick it up. This time I turned the air conditioner off, opened all the windows and turned on the heater in an attempt to dissipate the engine heat and help the car run cooler. The car did run cooler, but I can't say the same for myself. It felt like I was in an oven during the trip home. By the time I arrived at Central Market to pick up something for dinner, I was dripping wet. I guess the trip was worth it. I've got a working camera now to film the big fundraiser for the goat this weekend. I keep forgetting that there are three animals now. Lately, they've been calling the trio "The Three Amigos."

I got a call from my new Medical Clinic client about five minutes to one this afternoon asking if they could postpone our one o'clock meeting because they were running late. They seemed relieved when I told them the meeting wasn't until next Friday at one o'clock. I thought I was the only one who did this sort of thing. I'm always writing down appointments on the wrong day. Sometimes I even write them down on the wrong month. Everyone seems so busy and tired these days that I'm somewhat surprised anything actually happens on the right day. At least it's Friday. I didn't run into anyone today who wasn't glad the week was over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day