Day 340

I'd hate to be a shopping mall Santa. Shooting Christmas pet pictures can make the most strenuous yard work seem like a walk in the park. I just take the pictures too. The real hard job is being Santa. Santa gets peed om, scratched and occasionally bitten. The Santa suit becomes unbearably hot after sitting on the set under quartz lights for hours on end. For me, it's just hard on my knees. One minute I'm down on the floor shooting a Chihuahua and the next minute I'm dealing with a pair of Great Danes you could ride like a pony. People are picky about their pet pictures too. The ears have to be a certain way, and nobody seems l to like their dog's tongue hanging out. All in all, I think we did pretty well today. We were busy from 9:30 AM until after 4 PM and I think Dalmatian Rescue made enough from the event to pay for knee surgery for one of our rescue dogs.

The event at Camp Bow Wow today was the first of three we have scheduled for the holidays. Sometime before Christmas we have another casino party too. I'm tired already and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. I kind of wish all the events were back-to-back, so I wouldn't have to take all the equipment back to the storage warehouse tomorrow. With the events spaced two weeks apart however, there's really no choice other than packing things up and then unpacking everything again two weeks later.

I'm trying to decide whether to send out Christmas cards this year. Since I'm a photographer, I used to do elaborate photo cards every year. Nobody seems to send printed cards through the mail anymore. Last year we got very few. People still send holiday greetings, but mostly it's those animated e-mail cards from Smilebox. I guess I still like the printed cards better, but doing another photo card would just be adding one more thing to an already long to-do list. We'll see how much energy I have left after Thanksgiving.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 339

It was already dark before I found the time to run to Central Market and pick up something for dinner. I was hungry too, because today was such a madhouse that I skipped breakfast and lunch. Even though I got off to an early start with a sunrise walk for Dot and Dash, I'm still not finished with everything I need to do. Tomorrow is the first of three Santa Paws photo shoots for Dalmatian Rescue and I've got to finish packing three large duffel bags filled with backdrops and lighting gear before I go to bed.

I did manage to get quite a bit of website work taken care of today. I had a meeting with my watchmaker client this morning and was also able to get one of Janet's watches fixed while I was there. The watchmaker's website will be the last of my new projects to launch this year and hopefully well be able to bring everything online within the next three weeks. Another client wanted me to change the look of their website Google map and I don't think I did a very good job of explaining that I have no control over what Google or Bing choose to display on these dynamic maps. Ironically, we may have to go back to an old fashioned static JPEG map to achieve what this client is wanting.

In between various website updates, I finally figured out how to publish the Facebook donation tool for Dalmatian Rescue. In theory, this shareable, viral donation application is a fabulous way to raise money for any charity. In practice, I don't think I have enough friends on Facebook to take anything viral in the near future. I'm going to give it a try though, because Palpal is giving away $500 to the first twenty charities who can figure out effective ways to use this new app before December 15. So, if any of you happen to have received the Facebook RundRazr on your wall, it's not spam. Hopefully, it will become one more way that people can help an abandoned Dalmatian find a loving permanent home.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 338

I saw a little lizard on the back porch when I was taking the trash out today. It's probably the last lizard I'll see this year. It's getting colder now. The lizards and snakes are going into hibernation and the coyotes are becoming more active. I enjoy the slow rhythm of seasonal changes. Now that I'm walking the dogs around sunset, I've noticed that the sun sets a little further to the south each day. There are a few days each year when the sun sets directly behind the city skyline on the horizon. I've always wanted to get a picture of this. Maybe this year I will.

I had another doctor's appointment today. It's weird having your doctor as a client. It's the first time I've ever had a customer of mine give me a prostate exam anyway. When I'm at the doctor, the conversation goes back and forth between the current state of my health and the doctor's marketing plans. I actually like having everyone I know as a client. Life is simpler this way. When everyone is a client, there is always a clear reason for getting together and of course it's nice getting paid for idle chit-chat. I've tried to get various repair people to become clients, but usually they just have their kids do their websites for them. I've tried to get the Land Rover dealer to become a client too, but Land Rover is too big and corporate. Veterinarians seem to be the sweet spot in the middle. All my veterinarians are clients now.

I think I've finally got this social media stuff figured out. Facebook friends are people you've had lunch with once or twice. LinkedIn connections are people you've worked in the same building with. And Twitter followers are absolute total strangers.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 337

I got up early this morning so I could walk the dogs before Marty came over from Dunrite Services to fix the furnace. Marty has been over to the house half a dozen times before, but Dot still barks at him like a TSA employee who has just spotted someone on the no-fly list. Dash didn't even bother to get off the bed, but Dot acted like the sky was falling during the entire two hour service call. Luckily, most of the repair people I use like dogs, because if they didn't, they would probably never come back again.

After the furnace was working properly again, I drove over to Garland Animal Control to pick up another stray Dalmatian. This is the second one the Garland pound has found in less than two weeks. This little guy was timid and a bit small for an adult dog, but he was very sweet. We named him Alvin. After I spent a little time with him, he warmed up considerably. By the time I took him over to Dr. Campbell's offices for his medical evaluation, we were the best of friends.'

Rescuing Alvin and getting the furnace fixed ate up a big chunk of my day, so by the time I sat down at the computer to begin my work, I was way behind on everything. I did manage to get several minor website updates finished, but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also a good time to start getting all the equipment ready for this Saturday's Santa Paws photo shoot. This is going to be a busy one. It already looks like we're going to have a great crowd and I think that appointments are already booked at fifteen minute intervals for most of the day.

The cold front that arrived yesterday keeps getting colder. None of the dogs did well at obedience class tonight. Some of the dogs seemed excited by the colder weather, and others like Dot and Dash, just wanted to get back inside again. Dot, always the prima donna, was the only dog to wear a coat to class tonight. Pretty soon, even the German Shepard's will be wearing their dog coats though. Winter is definitely on the way.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 336

Paypal sent me some outtakes from the ad campaign photo shoot and said I could share them. I'm still not sure what the ads are actually going to look like or when they are going to start running, but the photos look pretty good. The Dalmatian looks a lot better than I do, but what can you expect. It's a young Dalmatian.

I got an e-mail from the National Geographic producers today saying they liked the footage I sent them yesterday and that they now had enough material to finish the show. Yay! I'm finally done. I'm not sure when the show is going to run, but keep an eye out for an episode of Unlikely Animal Friends featuring a story about a goat, a Great Dane and a three legged Golden Retriever.

What was I thinking when I told the furnace repairman that I wasn't in any hurry and it was OK if he didn't come out to the house until Wednesday? I was freezing today. A cold front blew through last night and this morning the temperature inside was just about the same as it was outside. I've lived down South long enough now that I don't deal well with the cold. I bundled up in sweaters most of the day, but I still didn't feel that I was getting much done. I'm going to get the furnace fixed tomorrow, but in Texas that doesn't prove much. There might still be a few days left this year where I need to turn the air conditioner on again.

I'm starting to get the hang of Facebook. It's really just like LinkedIn with lots of pictures. I joined Networked Blogs on Facebook this afternoon, because I've seen a lot of other bloggers do this. I'm not sure if the Networked Blogs widget will bring me more visitors or just slow down my load time even more. I guess we'll see soon enough.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 335

I got a call from the local newspaper in Ennis, Texas today saying they had just received a Google News Alert that I had blogged yesterday about Mow the goat coming to live in their town. They wanted to interview me and run a story about the animal friends in the paper. I'd never heard of a Google News Alert before, but evidently Google indexes every single word that is written on the Internet and newspapers and journalists can subscribe to a service that alerts them when certain word combinations appear. Believe it or now, the goat story is a big deal in Texas. Apparently, when the words Ennis and Mow the goat appeared in yesterday's blog post, Google sounded the alarm at the Ennis newspaper and got a reporter interested enough to give me a call.

It's kind of scary how much Google knows about you. Less than 24 hours after I write something, I've got reporters calling me. Google Earth is just as impressive in a George Orwell kind of way. Once I zoomed in on my house using the Google Street View application and could read the license plate on my car in the driveway. I also zoomed in on my house while I was using the iPad a while ago and noticed that GPS was accurate enough to know I was in the kitchen.

I wonder if Google knew how busy I was today. I had to go downtown this morning to get a protection master made of the video tape I shot on Sunday before sending it off to National Geographic. I don't always do this, but the producers want the camera original tape and I'm always afraid the FedEx shipment will get lost and I'll have to start over again. Although it is expensive to work this way, making a broadcast quality protection master of everything is a lot cheaper than trying to round everybody up again and re-shoot an entire segment.

With the video tapes safely on their way to Washington DC, I returned to the office to deal with getting the furnace fixed as well as trying to resolve a major e-mail hassle. Apparently, none of the e-mail I've sent for the past week to people with a yahoo.com e-mail account has gone through. Yahoo seems to have blocked my mail server for some reason. With so many people using those free Yahoo mail accounts, this is turning into a big mess for me. I wasn't even aware that the mail wasn't going through until a client called wondering why I still hadn't sent the pictures he had been asking for.

I continue to be amazed at how popular Facebook seems to be. Jeez! I wish it were as easy to find real friends as it is to find Facebook friends. I've only got a small handful of friends in real life, but somehow in just two days I seem to have accumulated almost fifty Facebook friends. I don't think I've had fifty real friends in my entire life.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 334

Good news today! Mow the goat, Judy the Great Dane and Lucky the three legged dog finally found their forever home. They will live in on a ranch in Ennis, Texas with a Llama, two horses, a Great Pyrenees, four other goats, fourteen cats and some chickens. The couple who adopted the trio truly loves animals. They have been helping animals in need for many years and have been hoping to provide a home for the goat and his canine friends ever since they saw their story on a local newscast several months ago. The couple is very familiar with having a goat as a pet and told me that one of their previous goats ate the license plate off their car. When the couple met the animals for the first time at today's Pet Fair celebration, it seemed like they were being reunited with long lost friends. I think these animals are going to have a great home.

The conclusion of this story is good news for me as well. It means that I am finally finished with the National Geographic Channel show I have been working on for most of the Summer. There were many times when I thought that National Geographic would lose interest in the story before I could finish it. Now that the animals have a home, I'm optimistic that the show will actually get on the air. I'll FedEx the final batch of video tapes off to Washington DC tomorrow and then wait to see it on TV like everyone else.

I was so busy filming the final interviews for the show today that Dot and Dash got shortchanged and didn't get the attention they thought they deserved. They looked so forlorn when I was unpacking my equipment after the shoot that we decided to take them up to Wagging Tail Dog Park anyway, even though it was late in the day. Unfortunately, when we arrived we discovered that the park was closed because of standing water from a recent rain. We made it back home just in time for a walk in the park as the sun was setting.

Next weekend will be more of the same. Dalmatian Rescue will be having the first of our three Santa Paws Christmas Photo events on Saturday. At least the still cameras are a lot lighter that the Beta-SP equipment I wrestled with today. I felt like I'd been carrying a load of bricks after having the twenty-five pound camera on my shoulder for several hours. Sore shoulders notwithstanding, it was still a good day. I'm glad the goat found a nice home

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 333

There was cold air blowing out of the vents when I woke up this morning. This would have been great in July, but it's November now. There should have been hot air. Actually, I'm surprised this didn't happen the first time I turned on the furnace this year, because it is an annual Fall occurrence. Every time the season's change, I need to get Marty the HVAC guy to come work his magic. He usually comes out to the house, pokes around a little, charges me $90 and says nothing was wrong. After this little ritual, everything works perfectly.

I got news today that the goat and Judy the Great Dane are being adopted tomorrow. I need to get my camera gear packed up tonight and get ready to film the final segment of the Unlikely Animal Friends story for the National Geographic Channel. I'll be glad to get this project finished. The producers in Washington DC tell me that everything is finished and edited except for a short little section where the goat and his dog friends leave the pet orphanage and go off to their new home. Hopefully, I will be able to give the story a happy ending tomorrow.

Saturday's are always busy, but today seemed even busier than usual. I had to get the grocery shopping done and the dogs walked earlier than usual because Janet and I needed to go to a friend's house warming party this evening. Some of you may remember the picture of Roxie, the cute Dalmatian dressed up like a witch that I photographed on Halloween. Well, the house warming party was for a friend of Roxie's who has just bought a house in our neighborhood. It seems that there is a Dalmatian connection just about everywhere I go these days.

I'm still getting accustomed to Facebook. Having a Facebook page seems almost the opposite of having a blog. Blogging is all about authoring something. Facebook is more about participating in something. After a while, your wall isn't even yours anymore. It will be slowly taken over by the people you designate as friends. Maybe this is why I still like blogging the best. It is a solitary activity, much like long distance running. Team sports were never my cup of tea.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 332

Right after breakfast I got a call that there was a new Dalmatian to pick up at the Garland pound. I left to get the dog right away because you'd hate for anyone to put a dog down because you didn't get there in time. It's kind of a tradition in Dalmatian Rescue that whoever picks up a stray gets to name them. I tried to think of a good name while I was driving over to the animal control building. When I saw the dog, he looked lost and I decided to name him Ranger. I guess he reminded me of how lost our baseball team looked in the final game against San Francisco. Ranger has heartworms, so I took him straight to the vet. He's going to be a great companion for someone as soon as we get him healthy again.

Picking up Ranger put me behind for the rest of the day. I really doesn't take much to get me off schedule, since I usually get started so late. I'm not a morning person. By the time I've made the bed, taken a shower, walked the dogs and eaten my own breakfast, it's usually time for lunch. I spent the remainder of the day getting my November invoices out and updating one of my clients websites. I'd just about got caught up on my website work when I realized it was dark outside and I needed to take Dot and Dash on their evening walk. The time change hasn't been good for me. I waste the extra hour of daylight in the morning because I don't want to get up, and then when I'm finally running on all cylinders, it's dark again. No coyotes tonight, but I'm still not fond of walking the dogs in the dark.

My Facebook page is up. So far, it looks a lot more like the run-down apartment I lived in at college, than the grand mansion I was hoping for. Nevertheless, I think it's time to open the doors and let everyone in. Please stop by and say hello. I think a couple of you are already camped outside the front door, but I promise to unlock things and welcome you in as soon as I finish this post. Hopefully, I'll think of something to keep the page interesting for everyone, even though I have no interest in online games and seldom have time to chat.

It was seventy degrees when I woke up this morning and it's already down in the low fifties. Looks like a cold front is on the way. Personally, I'd love to see an early freeze. The dogs have been covered with ticks for the past several days. The park is full of them. When the weather gets cooler the ticks look for a warmer home for the winter and usually it's a passing dog. A good long freeze is the only thing that gets rid of these nasty ticks. Until then, there's always Frontline.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 331 - Veterans Day

I am really getting frustrated with my Epson 4000. I had to print the Santa Paws posters over again this afternoon because we added a third location at the last minute. It took me forever to get the color on the new poster to match the original. The magenta ink wasn't printing properly for some reason and that isn't a good thing when the main object in your photo is a guy in a red Santa suit. By the time I finally got the printer unclogged and working properly, I was out of ink. Oh well. Another trip to Imaging Spectrum. Another $300 down the drain.

On the way home, I stopped at Competitive Camera to look at the new Olympus E-5. I ended up getting an E-5 body, partially because it is a big improvement over the E-3 I currently use and partially because I was so mad at my aging, faulty printer that I just wanted something shiny and new for a change. I'm doing enough commercial photography that I can easily justify a camera upgrade. It's a lot harder to justify a new printer however. The only thing I use the large printer for these days is making fancy posters for Dalmatian Rescue. Janet says I don't need a huge, expensive printer at all and should just take my stuff to Kinkos like a normal person. I'm not a normal person unfortunately.

I signed up for a Facebook account today, but didn't have time to do anything with it. Right now, my wall is completely empty and I have zero friends. The only reason I created the Facebook account was so I'd be able to use the new fundraising tools that the Paypal folks gave me to help Dalmatian Rescue. The page will probably end up being more about Dalmatians than about me anyway. I do need to do do something though, primarily so I won't embarrass myself like I did with my empty Twitter account. Maybe I can just feed these blog posts to Facebook and I won't have to add anything to my wall at all. One thing's for sure. Life was a lot easier when the only things on the Internet were a few Usenet newsgroups.

It's raining again in Dallas. That means wet dogs to clean, muddy floors to scrub and a big pile of damp towels to wash. Hopefully, the weather will be nice this weekend for Pet Fair. I think the goat and Great Dane friends are finally going to go to their new home this weekend too.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 330

I finally met my renter. It certainly took me long enough. I think I leased the place back in March. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had rented my house to a nice person instead of the crazy loons that sometimes lease the place. No ridiculous demands or ultimatums either. All this tenant really wanted was a new toilet.

Oddly, my rent house has always seemed to have exactly the same problems as the house I'm living in. I guess that shouldn't be surprising, since both houses are almost the same age. Maybe I ought to get new toilets for both houses, since the symptoms my tenant was describing seemed very similar to what Janet keeps telling me to fix.

I have a feeling that there's a Facebook page in my immediate future. I've been reluctant to set up a Facebook account, since I don't even have the time to keep up with my blog and websites. Maybe the time to finally embrace Facebook has arrived however. Client are starting to ask me more questions about their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts than about their websites. They aren't very pleased that I don't immediately have the answers they need either. Even Paypal wants me to start a Facebook page....preferably before they start running the new ad campaign. I guess they think I can't be a proper spokesperson without a wall and Facebook friends. Even Dalmatian Rescue is getting involved with Facebook to raise money for the dogs.

Oh well. This certainly won't be the first thing I've done that I've had misgivings about. Facebook here I come.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 329

I had to go see my Hepatologist today. I'm convinced that if I could get my regular doctor, my pharmacist, the nutritionist who owns the health food store down the street, and this liver specialist together in one room, they would never agree on a single thing. The nutritionist tells me that Milk Thistle is an effective way to manage Hepatitis C while the Hepatologist says this is a totally worthless remedy. My family physician wants me to take Spiriva to control a nagging cough while a Gastroenterologist I'm seeing tells that this would be unwise and will cause my heartburn to return. The pharmacist wonders why all the doctors prescribe expensive medications when very similar generic drugs are readily available. The doctors all say that the pharmacist should quit giving medical advice. It's really getting on my nerves. Can't these guys agree on anything?

I find it much easier to deal with veterinarians. When I took Dash to the vet today for his weekly antigen shot, everyone agreed that his skin is looking fabulous. He's actually starting to look like a proper black and white Dalmatian now instead of a black and brownish one. I wish my own medical problems could be resolved in such a simple, straightforward manner. It will never happen though. Once you get your health insurance provider involved, you can throw simple and straightforward out the window.

One of my Luddite clients called today asking how they could get Facebook and Twitter to show up on their website. I explained that they had to have a Facebook and Twitter account first. Then and only then can I start linking everything together. Why these guys even want a Facebook page is a mystery to me. One thing is for certain. When my clients start asking for Facebook pages, social media has definitely gone mainstream. If this sorry state of affairs continues, I may be forced to start my own Facebook page.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 328

There are few things more forlorn looking than the roadside vendors around town who are still trying to sell Texas Rangers hats and t-shirts. There were quite a few of these vendors with big 50% Off signs on their tents the day after the Rangers lost the World Series. There's one guy in my neighborhood however, who still hasn't given up. His roadside tent remained open today with a sign that said Up to 90% Off. It didn't look like he had many customers.

I was excited this morning to get an order from one of my customers for some large framed prints. My good fortune was short-lived however when I realized that I hadn't even taken the photos she was ordering. At least it's good to know that my clients are just as absent minded and forgetful as I am.

I'm still getting a few telemarketing calls telling me what candidate to vote for. What's that all about? Doesn't anyone know that the election is over? Telemarketers have totally taken over the office phone. I probably get twenty robo-calls and marketing messages for every legitimate call that comes in. I'm tempted to tell people to start using my mobile number number instead, but then I'd probably start getting junk calls on the iPhone too. I think I prefer using the iPhone as an outgoing device only and not use it for incoming calls at all.

One of today's legitimate calls was a request to add Google Analytics code to a client's website so they could track its performance. Just about everyone is doing this these days. It wasn't that long ago that monthly web server stats were enough information for any sane person. Now folks want daily numbers to crunch. I'm getting so tired of hearing about social media, Facebook friends and Twitter Tweets that I could scream. Does any of this even matter? OK, you're right. I guess it should matter to someone in my line of work, but I'm still getting tired of hearing about it all the time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 327

Nobody believes that I've got a dog that makes sounds like a bird, so I thought I'd show you a short video clip of our journey to the Wagging Tail dog park this afternoon. This is actually a fairly mild example of Dash's unique ability to turn a simple trip across town into something that rivals Dante's decent into hell. Once we get where we're going, he's fine. Getting there is no picnic though.



We got to meet Chase for the first time when we went to walk the rescue dogs this morning. Like several others in the rescue program this year, Chase was an owner surrender. I still find it hard to understand how someone can abandon a wonderful dog like this, but it happens all the time. People move to another city and leave their dog behind. Couples get divorced and neither of them wants the dog. These dogs have done nothing wrong, but they always seem to get the short end of the stick. Luckily, Chase is going to get a second chance. He's such a calm, well-adjusted dog that he ought to find a home very quickly. He's certainly off to a good start. A lady came and looked at him today on his very first day at the kennel.

I'm not wild about the time change today. Even though the temperature is still in the 70's, the early evening darkness makes it feel like Winter has arrived. I have to start walking Dot and Dash earlier in the evenings now. I don't like to walk them after dark, because there are so many Coyotes living in the park. When the Coyotes first made the park their home, they were quite timid, but they appear to be getting bolder with each passing year. They routinely attack cats and small animals now and I'm afraid it's just a matter ot time before a pack goes after something larger.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 326

I was blog hopping this morning and was surprised to hear several people say that it was snowing outside. It certainly wasn't snowing in Dallas. Our own weather was in the mid-70's. Did I take advantage of our beautiful Indian summer and clean up the back yard? Nope. Did I do anything useful at all? Not really. Lately, the work week has been so tiring that I enjoy doing as little as possible on weekends. I slept in late, made French toast with a leftover loaf of bread in the refrigerator, and did a few loads of laundry. That was about it. Janet likes to walk the dogs on weekends, so I didn't even take my usual morning walk.

Tomorrow, there's a new Dalmatian up at K-9 University, so I'm going to take pictures for the website. I'm eager to photograph the new Dalmatians now, because I'm starting to run out of dogs for my "dog of the day" feature. We don't get nearly as many dogs in the rescue program these days because Dalmatians aren't a popular breed with families anymore. This is actually a good thing, since it means that far fewer Dalmatians are being abandoned in shelters. Back when the Disney 101 Dalmatian movies were popular, we often had over 25 dogs at a time in our rescue program. Now, it's the small breeds like Pugs and Chihuahuas that have the biggest problem finding homes. I guess there's a downside to popularity in the dog world as well.

I'm still trying to figure out whether Twitter is worth the effort. It is a total mystery to me why so many people want to follow 20,000 people. I only follow a few and there already seems way too much to read whenever I open the application. Twitter followers seem a lot different than blog followers too. They come and go on an almost daily basis. There must be a lot of people who follow you just to see if you'll follow them back. I usually don't even have time to wonder who these strangers are before they disappear again. I already know two people who have their kids Tweet for them. What's that all about? Maybe Twitter would be cool if you had exciting things to do all time. I'm almost embarrased at how little I have to Tweet about.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 325

I finished the Santa Paws poster today. I thought I had more time to work on this until I looked at the calendar and realized that the first of these Christmas photo events was November 20. Our Christmas pet picture events ought to be a lot more successful than the recent Halloween photos. At least we'll be returning to locations where we've had good crowds before. We probably won't have to worry about an approaching tornado either.

It was pretty much an all photo day today. After I finished designing the new pet picture poster, I went over to my medical clinic client and took more pictures for their website. Whenever I spend any amount of time in an office environment, I'm amazed at how chaotic the workplace has become. Everyone always seems to be moving in ten directions at once. My little world seems serene and simple by comparison. Sometimes I wonder if I could ever be tempted to return to being an employee again. I kind of doubt it. I've been my own boss for too long now. I would want to schedule all my meetings for 2 PM and would come in late to avoid the morning traffic. I probably wouldn't last two weeks.

I need to figure out how to get more of these text ads like I did last week. Some ad agency paid me $50 to add two linked words to a story I wrote ten years ago. What were the words? Pressure washers. That's all I had to do was add these two words. The money arrived in my Paypal account this morning and I still don't even know what country the agency is in. I think it is probably Turkey, but it might be Mexico. Who knows. Hey, I've got thousands of unused words left. I'd be happy to link them all to something or other if it provided a viable alternative to working.

I think the time changes sometime this weekend. I used to hate the day the time changed because it meant I needed to change all my watches. I finally dawned on me that I was being way too anal about things. I don't bother to set the time on any of them now unless it's actually on my wrist. I'm surprised I even bother to set that one, because it certainly doesn't keep me from being late.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 324

While I was walking the dogs this morning we saw a jogger approaching with two unleashed dogs. A guy ahead of me on the trail saw the same dogs approaching and we both pulled our dogs off to the side and put them in a sit stay. When the runner passed, he started screaming at both of us. "What's the matter with you people," he yelled. "Do you think we're going to hurt you?" "My dogs are trained." I felt like telling him that he was the one in the wrong here. There are city ordinance signs all over the park saying that all dogs must be on a leash at all times. I felt like telling him that three years ago, one of my dogs was attacked and almost killed by a loose dog in this same park. I was badly bitten too. To this day, I carry a solid steel billy club with me on our walks in case this ever happens again. I felt like telling this guy he was an asshole, but I didn't because this is Texas.

In a state where even little old ladies on their way to church are carrying pistols, you usually think twice before engaging angry idiots in conversation. There's a good chance you'll get shot. If I ever see this guy screaming at people with his loose dogs again, I'm going to turn him into the city though. The bureaucracy loves to make life miserable for arrogant idiots like this.

I decided to get my blood work done today before I ate anything, since I didn't feel like cooking breakfast. I'm supposed to be taking employee pictures up at the clinic tomorrow anyway and it would be easier if they weren't drawing my blood at the same time. After the nurse got all the blood she needed, I drove over to the Broken Egg Cafe and had a big breakfast of bacon, biscuits and gravy and Belgian waffles. I like to treat myself to forbidden food after a visit to the doctor. I don't go to the doctor all that often, so I figure it couldn't hurt much.

The Paypal folks continue to shower me with nifty tools to help Dalmatian Rescue raise money on the Internet. Nobody has used the donation tool I put on the blog yet, but maybe they will someday. Today, Paypal introduced me to MicroPlace. I'll have to admit that although I've occasionally read a few things about Kiva, I really didn't know that much about the whole concept of microfinance. When I visited the MicroPlace website, I was really impressed. The whole thing is designed to allow any individual to make small loans to people in third world countries where a loan of as little as $200 can make the difference between success and failure for many people. Sure, there is no guarantee that your loan will be paid back, but in a world where CitiBank has been taken over by the government and General Motors can go bankrupt, these humble little investments seem as safe a bet as any. I'm going to explore the investment opportunities on the MicroPlace site further when I get the time and invest in a few things myself. I really like the whole idea of MicroPlace.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 323

Rainy days test my patience. The dogs had stomach aches today and were frantically scratching at the front door to get out every few hours. Both of them refuse to poop in the backyard for some reason, so we would go out on a leash in the rain until they did their business and then come inside and dry everybody off and clean all the mud off their paws until they did the same thing again a few hours later. I don't know what they got into, but if I let them out of my sight for a minute, they will inevitable eat something rotten.

At some point during the day I got an e-mail from the tenant at my rental property saying that the toilet had broken again. Seems like I paid a plumber to fix everything down there less than a month ago. Looks like I'll be fixing things again though. You've really got no choice when you're the landlord. I don't enjoy being a landlord and am actually happier when the place is vacant. The real estate taxes are so high though that I can't afford to leave the house vacant for very long. As soon as the market improves, I'm going to sell the place. I should have sold it ten years ago. Old houses are just too much of a hassle.

As the day wore on, I was starting to hope that the rain would continue, just so obedience class for the dogs would be called off. The rain quit about mid-afternoon though, so we had the class as scheduled. The sky was clear, but the ground was really muddy. I think we've finally gotten Dot and Dash cleaned up again, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see mud on the bedspread in the morning. Keeping dogs clean in bad weather seems to defy the laws of nature. No matter how often you clean them up, there is still plenty of dirt left.

I was supposed to have my blood work done today to complete my yearly physical exam, but unfortunately I forgot to fast. I'm so used to eating a big breakfast that I need to put a huge sign on the refrigerator saying "don't eat anything this morning" or something to that effect. I guess I'll have the blood work done on Friday. Most of the food will be gone by then anyway.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 322 - Election Day

When I looked at my calendar this morning, I noticed that I'd scheduled a vet appointment for Dash at exactly the same time as my annual physical exam. Luckily, my vet is a bit more flexible than my doctor and I was able to reschedule Dash for a couple of hours earlier.

There was certainly enough to do today. There were a couple of web site revisions I needed to make right away because of employee changes. Nobody seems to want to leave an old employee up on their website very long. There were a couple of other changes I needed to make right away, because I forgot to make them on Friday like I said I would. When I went in for my physical later in the afternoon, I began to have second thoughts about the wisdom of having my personal physician as a client. I would ask him a question about blood in my urine and he would ask me a question in return about his website. I'm still not sure if I'm healthy or not. I do know I need to make some changes on the website though.

On the way home from the doctor I stopped by my polling place to vote. As I was walking in from the car, a woman stopped me and asked me if this was the last day you could vote. Uh, lady...it's election day. They're announcing the winners tonight. "Yes," I told her, "This is the last day you can vote." "Damn," she said and got into her car and drove away. People never fail to amaze me.

I'm glad the elections are over. The telemarketers were relentless this year. In recent days, I've been getting ten to fifteen political telemarketing calls a day. It wouldn't be so bad if Dot hadn't appointed herself the office receptionist and started barking like crazy every time the phone rings. If I don't pick up the phone right away she barks some more and races back to the office and sits by the phone. Sadly, I think she picked up this odd behavior from me. About a year ago there was something wrong with the kitchen phone and the office phone was the only phone in the house with a working caller ID. I hate to pick up telemarketing calls, so if I wasn't in the office, I would race back to see who was on the line before picking up the call. Dot, of course, would race right along with me and now she thinks this is the normal way you answer a phone. I try to explain to her that all the caller ID's work now, but I don't think she gets it.

It rained all day. I don't know what that did to voter turnout, but it didn't stop me from voting.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 321

I wasted an inordinate amount of time this morning watching back-to-back Top Gear episodes during breakfast. I became so mesmerized at the sight of Jeremy Clarkson and James May driving huge lorries through obstacles in the road like mobile homes and brick walls that I probably ate twice my normal ration of pancakes. I love this show. If there are still women who find themselves wondering what men are really like, just watch this show for a while. You'll quickly lose any illusions you might be harboring about male refinement. Nope. We haven't evolved one bit. I've met very few men who wouldn't agree that Jeremy Clarkson has one of the best jobs in the world. Hey, what could be better than getting paid big bucks for driving fast cars, playing silly pranks on your buddies and having an opportunity to smash things every week?

On slow days like this I like to go to the Interstate battery store and buy a bunch of batteries. Nobody in their right mind buys batteries like I do. The guys at the battery store think I'm a watch repairman and give me a special discount. We talk shop a bit about Lithium Ion vs. Silver Oxide and then I go home again. So before you start whining about how dull your day was, just remember that at least you aren't impersonating a watch repairman yet.

I don't want you guys to think I did nothing today. I actually finished revising quite a few web pages. I got the revision request this weekend in the mail. My client had printed out all their web pages and then used a yellow hi-liter pen to indicate what they wanted changed on each page. I love clients like this! When someone uses the US mail to make changes to their web site, you know they're not to be asking for any cutting edge, dynamic, server-side, social network, real-time gizmo that I haven't even learned how to code yet. Hurray for the folks that still think a simple static site is just fine.

I'm looking forward to election day tomorrow. Finally, there will be an end to the relentless robo-calls from candidates that have been plaguing me for weeks. Don't these people know that nobody likes getting these calls? The closer the election gets, the later they call. We've gotten calls as late as 10 PM recently. I've got news for these politicians. If you call me at 10 PM, I'm definitely not going to vote for you.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day