Day 814

I took Janet's tax information over to the accountant's office today and the first thing they asked me was why I didn't have my own tax information as well. "Well, I haven't started working on mine yet," I said. They gave me this look that told me I'd better get started. Guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend?

On the way home, I stopped by my rental property to see if the place was even close to presentable. I wasn't even sure I could get in the door, since I'd lost my set of back-up keys. I make lots of key duplicates though, so I took everything I could find that looked like a front door key with me. I almost gave up and went home, but literally the last key I tried worked. It's a good thing I never throw anything away.

I was disappointed when I saw the place. My renter had told me that she'd hired a maid service clean the place out before she moved, but it still looked pretty messy to me. There were Velcro strips glued to the wall where apparently pictures had been hung. There was a sticky residue on the dining room floor that looked like someone had been using spray glue for art projects. My renter apparently had a TV in every room, because the cable company had stapled wires everywhere. I've seen a lot worse, but I've seen better too. At least the refrigerator was clean.

It rained again today. I was able to use the weather radar app on my iPad to map out a few dry periods where I could walk the dogs, but basically it rained all day. As the day progressed, it kept getting colder and colder. Jeez! Why keep tempting us with Spring, if the weather keeps reverting back to this miserable stuff? I had to get up on the roof again too. The standing water was getting pretty deep.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I think I'll have waffles for breakfast.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 813

I had another photo shoot today. Luckily, the client wanted me in and out in a hurry, so I didn't have to drag two hundred pounds of lights and backdrops along with me. This time, I just put a little on-camera flash in my bag and that was that. Inevitably, when I arrive for these employee photo shoots, everybody claims that they weren't given any notice and they didn't know I was coming. I knew about this two weeks ago, so surely somebody else must have known as well.

Today was one of those rainy days that result in dirty dogs and a lot of laundry. It didn't really rain hard. Just enough to get the car, the dogs, and everything else dirty. I didn't even bother to go up on the roof today, because I was too busy. I'm sure I'll have to deal with the standing water on the roof tomorrow though.

I found out today that there is a house right next to my rental property that will be going on the market at exactly the same time as my place. Damn! It's hard enough to rent this place anyway. The last thing I need is competition. Maybe there will be two people who want to live in the neighborhood. I'd really rather just sell the property, but then I'd be forced to deal with real estate agents, which I try to avoid at all costs.

We didn't go to dog class tonight. Janet had a business function she needed to attend and it rained anyway, so it was a good night to stay home. I got an earlier start on writing the blog and the two dog got an earlier start on their evening nap.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 812

Life is entirely too complicated. I'm finally being forced to deal with the reality of an empty rent property. All the little things I need to do to make the transition to a new tenant are driving me nuts. I got the electricity for the rent house transferred back to my name today. This used to be an easy process that took about five seconds over the phone. Now, you've got to spend five minutes just to get a real person on the other end of the line and then things get even more difficult. The power company records your call and forces you to answer a barrage of questions before they'll even consider transferring the electric bill. When they finally agree to transfer the billing, you have to agree to pay a higher rate for "short term" service. Apparently, the power company now wants you to sign a two year contract just like the phone companies do. It's a bit ridiculous.

When I got all the electricity issues ironed out, I realized that I had lost my spare set of keys to the rent house. I have no idea where they are. I guess this proves that I'm pretty much a "hands off" landlord. I haven't been down to the place to inspect anything in over two years. Now, I'm going to have to ask my renter for the original set of keys, just so I can get inside the place. Of course, my tenant is going to want her entire security deposit back. Now, where did that money disappear to? All the real estate agents I know are going to call too, wanting to be my "leasing agent." Apparently this is what real estate agents do these days, now that they don't sell as many houses.

Hopefully, I can put all the rent house issues behind me before I have to concentrate on tax preparation. Dealing with tax problems and real estate problems at the same time would simply be too much to bear. I increasingly find myself envying the dogs. Although Dash occasionally worries about being attacked by another dog in the park again and Dot worries about her dinner being late, these pups don't have a care in the world.

I took Dash to the vet for his bi-weekly antigen shot today. It was the first time I've left the house in several days. There was an Avid Media Composer seminar downtown this afternoon that I kind of wanted to go to. I didn't want to deal with finding a parking place downtown though, so I skipped the event. That's kind of how things have become.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 811

My Spring allergies left my nose running like a leaky faucet this morning. Dash had diarrhea, which made my nasal problems seem insignificant. Like the song says, "It's just another manic Monday...I wish it was Sunday..." Dash's problems started last night, when he woke us up in the middle of the night to go outside. At least he tries to go outside now, and there aren't as many accidents on the carpet anymore. The little guy certainly made it impossible to get a good night's sleep though. He was up and down all night.

The Purple Martins returned to the park today. I've been watching them fight with the Sparrows for control of the Martin houses scattered through the park. Somehow, the Purple Martins always win this battle, but the sparrows aren't giving up easy. From what I've observed, the animal kingdom isn't any more peaceful than the human kingdom. At least the animals don't have guns.

I've been receiving a lot of requests lately from people who want to place "in-text" ads on my websites and blogs. The pitch is always the same. "Let us add a couple of carefully crafted linked sentences to your original content and we'll send you $50 via Paypal." I don't like these type of ads. They make it appear like you are actually endorsing their product instead of just running an ad for it. Hey, I'm an advertising person myself and realize that everything has its price. If I'm going to sell out though, it's going to take a lot more than $50. I wonder why these "in text" people don't want to run regular banner ads like you see on Google Adsense? My guess is that they've probably discovered being sneaky and deceptive works better for them.

I'm still trying to decide whether to sell my rental property or lease it out again after my current tenant moves out. I really don't enjoy being a landlord. On the other hand, the real estate market hasn't even started to bounce back yet. Decisions. Decisions.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 810

It was interesting watching the dogs at the dog park today. One reason I like dogs so much is that they never hide their personalities. Active, energetic dogs are unabashedly wild. Shy dogs aren't a bit shy about letting you know exactly how they feel. All the dogs seem to instinctively seek out other dogs with similar personalities. Dot is not playful, but nobody pushes her on the issue. Dash is a bit shy, but puppies seem to seek him out. The dogs who like to chase each other at breakneck speeds from one end of the park to the other, always seem to leave the more sedentary dogs alone. The humans seldom have to intervene, because the dogs already know what kind of animal they are.

Even though there were dramatically different canine personalities in the park today, all the humans seemed pretty much the same. I'm sure the dogs owner's were just as diverse as their dogs, but we humans are so much better at masking our feelings. The people just talked politely with each other, while the dogs lived out their K-9 fantasies in public. I think the dogs have the right idea.

The weather was so nice today that I decided to tackle the leaves in the back yard after we got back from the dog park. Every Spring, it seems like there are more leaves than the year before, but I think it is a lot more likely that I just have less energy than the year before. There were certainly a lot of leaves today. In some spots the dead leaves had become compacted into a solid mass almost two feet thick. It was almost as if the entire yard had turned into a giant compost heap. One thing that you quickly discover when you rake leaves in the Spring is that you missed a lot of dog poop during the Winter. After several hours of using a rake and the leaf blower, I finally managed to get most of the leaves corralled into a huge pile in the middle of the yard.

Now, the leaves need to go into big plastic trash bags where they will wait for the illusive day when the city comes to pick them up. I need to check and see whether there is some special bag the leaves need to go into. I seem to remember a very angry neighbor last Spring who was furious, because after bagging all his leaves, the city refused to pick them up because they were in the wrong kind of bag. This seems like something the city would do, so I think I'll check first before I go to the trouble of bagging everything.

I may need to rethink my plan of buying a guitar and becoming a rock god again. I need to be able to spend an afternoon with a leaf blower first without being defeated by wrist pain. My left wrist just about killed me after two hours of swinging the leaf blower around with my left hand. I don't remember things being this bad last year. Carpal tunnel syndrome basically sucks.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 809

I forgot that one of the things that comes along with an early Spring is an early onset of Spring allergies. For the past several days I've been wheezing and sneezing like crazy. This happens to me every year when the grass pollen starts to blow in the wind. Usually my grass pollen allergies start a few months later, however. Even with all the sneezing, it was still a very nice day.

We went up this morning to visit Patches, our newest Dalmatian Rescue dog. While we were there, we said goodby to Molly, who was on her way to her new home this afternoon. Patches, who is today's Dalmatian of the Day, was delightful. She was as friendly as could be and should find a home very quickly. She was hard to take pictures of though, since she never quit moving. Patches doesn't like to stand still.

Wall outlets are always at a premium in the office, since I've got so many things plugged in. I went to Home Depot and got another plug strip and I could plug in a few more things. When I got behind the desk to look for an outlet to plug in the new power strip, I found half a dozen black wall warts that weren't connected to anything, even though they were still plugged into a wall socket. These were all remnants of earlier computer systems. I guess when various printers, scanners and external hard drives became obsolete, I just unplugged the other end of the cable and left the wall warts intact. This was certainly easier than moving the desk like I did today. To make a long story short, just by unplugging all the unused extension cords and wall warts, I instantly had all the outlets I needed for my new gear. There are still a lot of cables behind the desk that don't appear to go to anything, however. I really need to totally start over in this office, but it's such a lot of work.

Dot and Dash seem to love all the new Spring smells in the park. I wish they wouldn't be quite so exuberant though. Dash is so strong and so eager to chase after things that I think I'm going to have a permanently dislocated shoulder.

Patches is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 808

I'm really getting the urge to play the guitar again. There were several points in my life where guitars were real important to me. I played in several different bands throughout high school and college, put the instrument down for well over ten years and then joined yet another band. Now, I find myself languishing in another one of those periods where I haven't played a note for over ten years. Nevertheless, I find myself strangely attracted to guitars again. Too bad I never kept all the guitars I've had over the years. Some of them would have been collectable rarities by now. I didn't collect things back then though. Collecting came much later.

If I do start playing again, it won't be be to meet girls or become famous. I have this feeling that moving my left hand up and down a guitar neck again might be just the exercise I need to hold the carpal tunnel in my left wrist at bay. My physical therapist gave me a whole set of exercises to do that are designed to stretch the nerves in my wrist. I hate lifting weights though, or doing resistance training with a bungee cord. I really don't like exercise period. I like activities that kill two birds with one stone. Walking the dogs four miles a day is great exercise for me, but it also gets the dogs walked. Ditto for things like vacuuming and getting the water off the roof. I don't necessarily enjoy these things, but they provide exercise while getting something else accomplished as well. The way I look at it, practicing the guitar again would flex exactly the same muscles and help stretch the same nerves as I'm doing now using small weights. It would be a lot more fun though, and if I worked at it, I might get to the point where I could play decently again.

Do you ever notice how chatty some waiters are when you go out to a restaurant? When I went out for breakfast this morning, my waiter would answer everything I said by saying "Awesome." "Would you like some more coffee?" "Sure," I would say. "Awesome." says the waiter. "How are those eggs." "Very good," I say. "Awesome." says the waiter. The guy must have said "Awesome" twenty times during the course of breakfast. I much prefer those waiters in fancy steakhouses who invisibly hover in the background, filling your water glass and bringing you more dinner rolls without saying a word.

The Dalmatians seem to be finding new homes very quickly this year. I think I saw on Facebook that Lady found a home today. For every dog that finds its forever home however, there is always a new dog ready to take its place at the kennel. Another new girl arrived late this week. Janet and I will have to go up and meet her this weekend.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 807

I forget how long some of my clients have been around until they start asking for really old files. I've usually totally forgotten about these old jobs, but apparently clients never forget. Periodically, I'm asked to bring one of these old projects back to life. I'm sure my clients think that these resurrections are a trivial matter, but usually they are a nightmare. It's a miracle if you can even find one of these ten or fifteen year old files. Once you've found it, getting it to open is another matter entirely. Today, I was asked to revise a flyer that was created on an OS 8.0 computer, using completely different software than I use now, and then print the thing for them again using a different printer than I had back then. Needless to say, this was hard to do, and even harder to explain exactly why it was to hard to do.

That's what people pay me for though. To solve problems. Eventually, I just recreated the file from scratch, but it took so long that it put me behind on everything else. At least it's Friday tomorrow. February was a very busy month and it looks like March is going to be the same.

Everything is blooming already. Almost every day I see a new variety of wildflower in full bloom in the park. If I knew this weather was going to continue, I'd go ahead and start planting the new St. Augustine sod in the back yard. The sooner the sod gets established, the sooner we'll have grass again. I think I'd better wait a little while though. I'm not very good at predicting the weather. I have a feeling that if I put the sod in now, it would almost definitely snow or freeze a few days later. Anyway, what's the hurry? Installing a new turf is fairly labor intensive and I always like to put off manual labor as long as I can.

I'm finally starting to remember to take the trash out to the street every Thursday evening after dinner. I hope this doesn't become the Thursday diversion I've been asking for. I need something more interesting than this.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 806 - Leap Day

Leap Year is a weird concept for me to wrap my head around. This extra day inserted right in the middle of things pushes everything else out of whack. I'm not very hard to confuse. The watches I have with perpetual calendars usually aren't smart enough to compensate for leap year either, so tomorrow they'll need to be reset. I used to actually reset all the errant watches, but that's become too anal even for me. These days I just don't worry about what time the watch says until I actually wear the thing again.

It turned out to be really convenient to have Fedex hold my package for me. They sent me an e-mail when the package was ready to be picked up and then I just drove over and got it. This was much more convenient for me than waiting for the truck to arrive. I discovered at the Fedex office that you can only request a package be held if it was shipped by air. If it was shipped Fedex Ground, you're stuck with waiting for the truck. If you wonder why this is a big deal, you probably don't live in a large city. There are people who follow the trucks around and routinely steal unattended packages left outside.

I'm beginning to think we may have avoided Winter entirely. So far, there have only been a couple of days where the temperature even got close to freezing. Today it was over eighty degrees again. I'm delighted by the mild weather. The only downside to the unseasonably warm temperatures is that it never got cold enough this year to kill the bugs. The dogs are picking up more fleas and ticks than usual. Wasps and Mud Daubers are beginning to build their nests again. Worst of all, some nasty looking roaches have made their way inside. A few days of below freezing weather usually puts an end to this invasion of pests, but I don't think it's going to happen this year.

The weather this evening was perfect for training class. The lack of wind and nice temperatures didn't seem to impress Dash though. He barked continually and disrupted the rest of the class. I have no idea what he was barking about, but I did hear some of my classmates complain. Eventually, Dash did settle down and we did pretty well with the remaining exercises.

Tomorrow is March 1st and that means it's time to start looking for a new tenant for my rental property. I hate interviewing renters. I just don't seem to be able to pick a good one.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 805

I just found out that if you call FedEx in advance, they'll hold your package at the nearest Fedex facility instead of putting it on the truck. I wish I'd known about this earlier. I've wasted entire days waiting for the FedEx guy to come, just so I could sign the little electronic "signature required" form. I started requesting "signature required" after FedEx started leaving packages with a neighbor who never bothered to tell me that he was holding them for me. At any rate, spending five minutes driving up to the Fedex facility vs waiting an entire day for the truck to arrive is a no-brainer. I may never have them put anything on the truck again.

I've been hearing so much about Pinterest lately that I've been thinking about setting up an account and then using it to drive more traffic to my site. Well, maybe that's not such a good idea. I just read the Terms of Service and discovered that if you pin your own original material on Pinterest, you are essentially giving them unlimited rights to do whatever they want with it. According to the Terms of Service agreement, Pinterest can re-purpose, edit and even sell your content. No thank you. I don't think I'll be putting any stories or photos on Pinterest.

I got a cool little USB Flash drive in the shape of a wristband from Klout today. It's probably the last perk I'll ever get though. My score has been dropping like a stone. That's the trouble with social media. It demands continuous attention. To avoid actually talking to anyone, I've linked virtually every story, photo, and song I've ever created to my Twitter account. I'm running out of new stuff to Tweet though. The original content is drying up and I'm discovering that nobody will re-Tweet something they've seen five times already. Maybe I could just start chit-chatting like everyone else to keep my numbers up. That's not me though. I'd much rather put notes in bottles and throw them out to sea than actually participate in a conversation with someone.

I don't have that much time to talk anyway. Just writing a few articles and running a couple of necessary errands used all my time today. At least I can cross a few things off my list. The big poster that I've been afraid the dogs would wrinkle or damage has been safely delivered to my veterinarian client. A new employee photo shoot has been scheduled with my doctor client. Another round of prescriptions have been picked up from the pharmacy and the dogs have had their dinner. I'll start tomorrow by going to the FedEx office.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 804

So, I get this letter in the mail today from the Missouri Department of Revenue. It says I haven't paid my taxes for 2007 and 2008. What the Hell? I've never lived in the state of Missouri in my life. I always pay my taxes. I don't have any clients in Missouri either. I have no connection with Missouri whatsoever. Eventually, this will all get sorted out, but I don't look forward to the process. Every time I've had to deal with the government on any level, it has turned into a giant hassle. There is just no easy way to deal with a bureaucracy. My accountant will probably be happy enough if I can't get this mess sorted out at all. I'm confident that he can get to the bottom of things, but it will cost me. Jeez, I hate dealing with government officials. It doesn't matter whether you're trying to get your drivers license renewed or your property taxes reviewed, it's a big hassle.

Sometimes I think my clients have no idea what they're paying me for. I get calls all the time from clients asking me why their internet is slow, or what their e-mail password is. I don't know these things. I don't even want to know these things. Today, I spent quite a while on the phone trying to explain why I didn't have administrative access to a Facebook page I never created in the first place. Somehow these folks thought that because I was their webmaster, I also knew everything about their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Nope! The ironic thing is that the people who called me probably created the Facebook page themselves and just forgot their own user ID and password.

Where is the big job I've been waiting for? Every year there is usually one big job that pays for the whole year. In good years, there are two or three of these lucrative assignments. So far this year? Nada. Zip. Nothing. I'm certainly busy enough, but I feel like I'm being nibbled to death by ants.

I need to find something interesting to do on Mondays. On Tuesdays, I almost always take a dog to the vet. On Wednesdays there's dog training class. Not much on Thursdays, but Fridays have become more interesting just by the simple act of going out for breakfast. I need an equally simple diversion for Monday and Thursday. You may wonder why Saturday and Sunday aren't on my list. That's simple. Any day where I don't have to work is automatically interesting.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 803

The Dogwood and Redbud trees are already in full bloom. Kites are flying everywhere. Spring is definitely in the air. The only trouble with going to the dog park on a beautiful day like this is that it's hard to find a parking place. A lot of other people with dogs must have had the same idea today. After circling around the park a couple of times, we eventually found a spot and Dot and Dash joined the frey. There were so many dogs in the park today that you had to be real careful where you walked. Lots of dogs usually equals lots of poop.

I'm watching the Oscars with one eye as I write this. For the first time in several years there are actually several films I'd really like to see among this years nominees. I've always liked Meryl Streep and The Iron Lady seem like her best since The Devil Wears Prada. I'd definitely like to see War Horse. Hugo seems like a winner, but maybe I'm just intrigued because I like both clocks and train stations. I probably won't see any of these movies until they're available on cable though. Even though it used to be one of my favorite things, I rarely go to theaters anymore.

The pile of leaves in the back yard is getting large enough now to catch my attention. There are no more leaves left on the trees, so it's just a matter of time before I'll need to rake them into a huge pile and start bagging them up. After the leaves are all gone, it will be time to till the soil and plant new sod again. Sadly, planting new grass has become just as regular an occurrence as raking leaves. It's a miracle if the grass in our back yard lasts more than one season. The grass in the front yard is just fine, but the back yard grass always fall victim to a lack of sunlight, grubs, and four large Oak trees that suck up all the water. Hope springs eternal though. Probably sometime in late March, I'll go up to Miller Grass, fill my car with Saint Augustine sod and start all over again.

I don't know if I finished all my chores today, but I certainly got quite a few started. I did some laundry, cleaned up the office a bit, wrote a couple of articles and made a mess in the bathroom while learning how to use my new waterpic. Through all this activity, the dogs just slept. It must be nice to be a dog.

Bingo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 802

The vacuum cleaner isn't working as well as it should, so I think the vacuum cleaner bag is full and it's time for a new bag. Then I start looking at the vacuum cleaner and realize its time for an entirely new vacuum cleaner. Then I look down at the carpet and wonder why I'm even bothering to vacuum. It's time for a new carpet. Then I start thinking, what's the point of even installing a new carpet if the day after its installed the roof starts to leak and makes a big stain. You can see where I'm going with this. To me, this is entropy. It's not stars and galaxies dying. It's just every every single element in the house slowly coming apart. With so much broken and decaying, where do you even start to reverse the process.

We went and walked the rescue dogs this morning. Lady is becoming less timid and walking much better on a leash. Odie has Giardia, which is a surprisingly common parasite in dogs. Dogs often show no symptoms of being infected, so it can be difficult to diagnose. I'm not sure if Odie is being treated with Metronidazole or Fenbendazole, but he should be fine again pretty quickly. We had to remember to wash our hands before we went home though, since Giardia can be easily transmitted from one pet to another.

When I went to the vacuum cleaner store to get some more bags for my Hoover, I overheard a salesman trying to convince a woman to buy a Kirby instead of a state of the art Dyson. I'd heard about these Kirby sales pitches, but I'd never actually seen one in person. Keep in mind that a Kirby vacuum cleaner probably hasn't changed in fifty years and is still the most expensive vacuum on the planet. It does have one thing going for it though: the most elaborate sales pitch known to man. It didn't take me long to get my bags, but as I was leaving, I could see the woman was already wavering. I wouldn't be surprised if she actually bought the antiquated $1200 vacuum.

I think there are going to be a lot of disappointed people in Dallas if the weather turns cold again. Spring is definitely in the air. I saw kites flying in the park today and quite a few picnickers. I even saw some early blooming Spring flowers this afternoon. I'm not getting my hopes up though. It is still February.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 801

I was surprised to receive a plate of French Toast this morning when I went out for breakfast. I thought I had ordered a waffle, but then I remembered thinking waffle while actually saying the words French Toast. Oops. I do stuff like this more often than I care to admit. Later in the morning when I was paying a stack of bills, I realized I had paid Janet's cell phone bill instead of mine. Oops again. Hey, it's an easy mistake to make. Our bills are as similar as french toast and waffles. We both have iPhones and our names both start with a J. Occasionally, my lack of attention works in my benefit though. I was surprised to get a check almost immediately from my newest client and then realized I had forgotten to include the words "30 Days Net" on my invoices like I usually do. They must have assumed my terms were pay on receipt.

Texas weather continues to confuse me. The temperature must have dropped 30 degrees last night. Instead of yesterday's Springlike conditions, I was forced to dig my down jacket out of the closet again. Back and forth it goes like this. Tomorrow it could be 80 degrees again. At least the furnace is still working. It would be embarrasing to have to call the furnace guys out for a fourth time this Winter.

We're going to go up to the boarding kennel tomorrow and walk Odie and the other Dalmatians. I don't think we'll be bringing Odie over to the house again this time. Dot made it pretty clear last week that two Dalmatians were enough. We'd like to see Odie again before he finds his forever home though. He's already getting some interest and I have a feeling he's going to find a home quickly.

I turned in this month's assignment for my writer's group this afternoon. The topic this time was "Patience." I've got lots of patience. I just don't know what I'm waiting for.

Nora is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 800

We had a scary incident in the park this morning. A large white dog that looked almost identical to the one that attacked Dash when he was younger came after us again. If it was the same dog, it was considerably older now, and maybe that's what saved us this time. I screamed at the dog to stay while keeping my body between it and Dot and Dash. Amazingly, the dog did stay, while we made our retreat. Dash was terrified. I don't think he will ever forget the attack that almost killed him. I was bitten during the attack as well and will never forget the incident either. To this day, I am extremely nervous around loose dogs in our neighborhood. People need to keep their gates and fences secure and always keep their dogs on a leash in public areas. I just don't understand why so many people let their dogs run loose in a busy city like Dallas.

I think the groundhog might have been wrong this year. It was over eighty degrees today. I can't remember a February this warm. Usually, this time of year is pretty nasty. If there is going to be snow or ice in Dallas, it almost always happens in February. Hey, maybe we'll catch a break this year. It was so warm today that I seriously considered turning on the air conditioner. The only reason I hesitated is that I remembered doing unseasonal things like this with the HVAC system usually causes it to break. I left the AC alone and opened the windows instead. It's such a novelty to actually open your windows in Texas. It's almost always either too cold or to hot to do this. Today was the exception though, and we enjoyed a nice breeze through the open windows and hopefully cleared out some of the stuffy air inside the house.

Did any of you guys actually think I would be able to go 800 days without missing a single post? I certainly didn't. This is day 800 though. I made it, despite neck problems, power outages and the occasional weird travel schedule. Now, 1000 days really seems within reach.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 799

Here's why I hate computers. I get this e-mail from Quark Express about a month ago telling me not to upgrade to OS 10.7.3 yet, because it was not compatible with Quark. I dutifully go to my control panel and deselect the automatic upgrade option. Several weeks go by and one morning when I start up my computer I get a dialog box asking if I'd like to upgrade to OS 10.7.3. By this time, I've completely forgotten about the earlier message from Quark, so I just click "yes" and the upgrade is installed. About an hour later a client says they need a reprint of a poster I did for them last year. I click on the Quark application so I can print the file, and you guessed it, the application doesn't work anymore, just like Quark warned me. Very frustrating, to say the least!

My Quark Express is toast. I finally figure out how to print the poster my client wants from an old PDF file and then halfway through the printing process, I run out of ink. I drive over to the printer store and buy $150 worth of ink, just so I can make a single courtesy print of an old poster I'd completely forgotten about.

Talking with tech support at Quark while trying in vain to revive my ailing application wasted several hours this morning. Talking with Network Solutions to help another client move one of their domains to a less expensive registrar ate up even more time. Evidently my name was listed as the technical contact for this domain, but it didn't show up in the list of domains I manage. I must have created an account for the domain years ago and then totally forgotten about it. The client forgot too, because no website was ever developed for this domain. Since I couldn't figure out how to log-in to the control panel of the mystery account I have created, I had to convince Network Solutions that I really was who I said I was and get them to make the changes for me. Maybe we should have just let the domain expire. It will probably still sit around unused for another five years.

For some reason Dot didn't want to go to class tonight. She refused to get out of the car and glued herself to the back seat, just like she does when we take her for a bath. She wouldn't budge. I finally had to get in the car and carry her out. Once she was out with the other dogs, she did just fine, but she clearly would have rather stayed home this evening. I can't figure out why she balked tonight. It was really one of the nicest evenings we've had all Winter. Even after dark, the temperature was still over 70 degrees.

A large printing company that used to send me lot of annual report writing work finally responded to my query. Apparently, all their customers are writing their annual report copy themselves this year. Why am I not surprised?

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 798

It was an absolutely beautiful day. It's hard to believe this is still February and we could still have snow. Somehow, snow doesn't even seem a remote possibility when it's 75 degrees outside and you can see green buds on the trees everywhere you look. I'll have to admit though that maybe the trees are getting a little ahead of themselves. We've had terrible weather during the second half of February before. I can even remember snow in March, although it's been a long time.

If I had more time, today would have been a good day for birdwatching. I must have seen at least twenty different species of birds on my morning walk with Dot and Dash. Unfortunately, just because I can see the birds doesn't mean I can photograph them. Many birds have a habit of flying into thick brush just as I approach. My bird photography has no technique whatsoever. I never wait patiently in a hidden blind for birds to approach. Instead, I announce my approach with two barking Dalmatians who like to chase birds. Amazingly, I still get a good shot now and then.

I can tell tax season is approaching by the increasing number of envelopes that come in the mail with "Important Tax Information" printed on the outside. I seldom understand what this information means, but I put all the messages in a big manilla envelope for my accountant anyway. Since it was a holiday yesterday, quite a few things came in the mail today, including another package from Klout. This time it was a poster autographed by the cast of a TV show I had never even heard of and definitely never watched. I could understand getting the dog blanket. I write about dogs all the time. This poster was a mystery though. Why they thought I should have this, I'll never know.

Either I'm getting more work than I had last year, or I'm just getting slower at completing assignments. I can never seem to get caught up anymore. Just when I think I'm getting close to catching up, more things for me to do arrive in my in-box. I guess it's good to be busy, but I really don't have time to do anything new anymore. I get up in the morning, walk the dogs, fix breakfast, take a shower, write and update websites, walk and feed the dogs again, eat dinner, write the blog and go to sleep. This routine almost never changes.

Maybe if I was smarter with my investments, I wouldn't have to work so hard. The Dow briefly hit 13,000 today. It's been a long time since the market was this high. Sadly, I have less money than the last time the Dow hit 13,000. This is counter-intuitive, but I bet a lot of other folks are in exactly the same situation. I would have been better off if I had quit looking at my brokerage statements for the past three years, and instead of trying to course correct, did absolutely nothing instead. During the big financial crash of 1978, I did absolutely nothing. I just quit looking at my statements and ignored the market. Eventually, the market rebounded and I did just fine. It's hard to ignore the market when everyone around you is saying the sky is falling however. This time, I listened to my friends and my broker and tried to outwit the market. Bad move! I would have been much better off today if I had just ignored the big crash three years ago. Markets eventually rebound. It just takes a while.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day