Day 876

I try to document each day with a nice picture. Lately the pictures have been of wildflowers the dogs and I see on our daily walks. I could just as easily show you pictures of the leak under the kitchen sink, or the dust balls gathering in the corners of my office, but I'd like to preserve the illusion that my days are pleasant and idyllic.

Actually, even the wildflowers aren't that idyllic. Usually, Dot is lunging at a squirrel or Dash is trying to catch a Duck while I'm trying to take the picture. Keeping the flowers in focus for more than a few seconds is a challenge.

Even with two rambunctious Dalmatians in tow, the morning walks are usually the most pleasant part of my day. After we returned home from today's outing, I spent the better part of the day refining the design of the new website I'll be presenting next week. Now that I've got a logo designed for the company and some real photographs in place, the site is starting to look pretty good. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I'm pretty confident now that I'll be able to meet my deadline.

I'm not so sure that I'll be able to meet the deadline of getting all my stuff out of the old storage warehouse. I did some more moving this afternoon and continue to be amazed at how much I was able to cram into the little room. I've finally managed to disassemble all the large shelves and reassemble them in the larger space. I'm going to have to buy some more industrial shelving though to clean up the mess I've made in the new larger space. I had the old space packed like a Rubik's cube. I'd really like the new space to be a little more functional.

Training class was great tonight. The weather was beautiful. The dogs were all in a good mood. Even Dash did most of the exercises perfectly. The only sour note to the entire evening was the sound of me continually blowing my nose because of my Spring allergies.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 875

My photo shoot went well today. Admittedly, I wasn't conjuring up the ghost of Richard Avedon or Helmut Newton. I was just shooting architectural interiors inside an industrial building. The pictures were necessary though to complete a job that I'm currently working on. Photography isn't always exciting. I still shoot a lot of things professionally, but the most interesting photos I take are the ones I capture with my iPhone while I'm walking the dogs.

It must have rained a lot last night. I heard rain pattering on the roof when Dot woke me up about 2 AM with one of the panic attacks she gets when she thinks a storm is on the way. The rain didn't sound bad though, so I went back to sleep. When I went up on the roof to check on things this morning, I was greeted by a sea of water. I'm surprised there weren't ducks swimming around on the roof. Since clearing the water off the flat roof always takes priority over other things, I didn't get started writing until almost noon.

I'm not sleeping well lately. The dogs wake me up several times a night. When the dogs are asleep, allergy related sinus problems wake me up. When I awake, I inevitably have a dry throat from breathing through my mouth and go out to the kitchen to get a drink of water. By then, I'm wide awake. When I finally get back to sleep again, I have bad dreams. I long for the days when I could sleep solidly for seven hours while having pleasant flying dreams. I never dream that I can fly anymore.

If I could get a good night's sleep, maybe I'd have more energy to finish moving everything to my new storage warehouse. I really need to get my butt in gear and finish this job, because my contract on the old storage space runs out soon. The warehouse folks have probably already rented my space to someone else who will want to move in the day my contract expires. I watch that show Storage Wars Texas occasionally, but I definitely don't want my own unit to be featured on the show. Maybe tomorrow, I'll go move some more stuff.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 874

I forget how many household chores I usually complete on weekends until we have an event filled weekend like we did Saturday and Sunday and nothing gets done. I played catch-up today, doing several loads of laundry, mowing the lawn, and vacuuming the house. The house doesn't really look that much better, but at least I've made an effort.

As I kind of expected, I'm starting to get calls from neighbors in the area, asking why I priced my rent property so low. These people aren't really planning to sell their nearby houses. They're just worried that if my property sells, it will drag the price of their house down with it. These folks don't understand how markets work. The true price of anything isn't what you think it is worth, it is what someone will pay you for it. Houses are no different than stocks and bonds. The value isn't intrinsic. It's variable.

One of my clients was in a panic this morning because their hosting account had been suspended and all their websites were down. They had set their account up to auto-pay and then forgotten that they had changed the credit card it was attached to. There is a lesson to be learned from this and since the same thing has happened to me, I need to learn the lesson myself. There are all kinds of reasons why your credit card number might change. The credit card company might just hand you a new card when they think their security has been compromised. You might be getting erroneous charges on your statement and change the number yourself. Maybe you just cancel your card and get a similar card from a different bank because they have a better deal. These things happen all the time, but it's hard to remember remember all the online accounts that you've set up to auto-renew or make automatic monthly payments. This is why I no longer use auto-pay for anything. I prefer to get a paper statement in the mail. It's much easier to remember a letter you get in the mail than a website you seldom visit.

I've got a photo shoot tomorrow. It seems like a while since I've had a full-fledged photo shoot, so I'm trying to remember where all the gear is stashed away and which batteries need to be recharged. I used to really want more photo jobs and fewer writing jobs. Photography seemed a lot more exciting to me. Now, I think I've come full circle. Increasingly, photography just seems like filling the car with heavy equipment and then unloading it again when the job is finished. These days, writing jobs seem much more relaxing. I get a cup of coffee, think of an idea, and words appear on the screen. You don't even have to type anymore if you don't want to. Modern dictation programs are remarkably accurate.  I'm just waiting for the day when you can put on a little WiFi hat that reads your brain waves and allows you to just "think" your assignment into Microsoft Word.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 873

Yay! We finished landscaping the backyard today. Well, we almost finished anyway. All the grass is in now, but we still need to get several flats of Asian Jasmine and plant the hardy ground cover in areas that are so shady that grass will never grow. The yard look much, much better after all our efforts. The view out the living room window almost makes all the manual labor worthwhile.

Since we got up early today to buy enough sod to complete the yard before the grass company ran out for the day, there was still plenty of time to take Dot and Dash to the dog park after we got finished. The dogs got a real treat, because we took them the the brand new NorthBark dog park in Far North Dallas. This place was palatial. There were 22 acres of nicely landscaped and fenced grounds, complete with a pond for dogs who liked the water.

I was impressed, and apparently so were Dot and Dash. This place was so clean and well landscaped it was unbelievable. If the city put something this nice in our part of town, street people would be living in it. A lady lost her car keys in the park today and the other people who were there with their dogs helped her find them. If someone lost a set of BMW keys in our local dog park, someone would have probably just stolen the car.

The annual British Car Show was being held in the park today. I usually love to go to this show. As I was driving over to the grass store to pick up the St. Augustine sod, I saw lots of old Austin Healeys, MG's, Morgans and Rolls Royce's driving toward the show. This is a fun show, because it is not fancy at all. People drive their own cars to the show and then drive them home again when it's over. No eighteen wheelers bringing high dollar collectibles to this show. No roped off exhibits or guards either. You're far more likely to run into a neighbor who just happened to still have an old MG. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to the British Car Show this afternoon. After this morning's landscaping marathon, a trip to a far away dog park, and the obligatory trip to buy groceries that I didn't have time to do yesterday, the day was over. It's nice to be somewhat caught up again though. And the dogs are going to love their green new yard.

Patches is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 872

Today was a dog rescue marathon. We started out with a crawfish boil benefit for Dalmatian Rescue. Crawfish is an acquired taste and I can't honestly say that I've acquired it. Luckily, the Dalmatians have lots of friends from Louisiana and the event was a huge success. You can only have a real crawfish boil at this time of year, because this is when the crawfish are in season. We boiled over 150 pounds of crawfish which were served with the traditional new potatoes and fresh corn on the cob. I saw some diners go back for at least five heaping platters of the critters. You eat crawfish by twisting off the tail and sucking out the meat. It doesn't really taste like shrimp. It doesn't taste like lobster either. I know people in Texas who treat fresh crawfish like caviar, but personally I'd prefer a cheeseburger. It was a great fundraiser though. We made a lot of money for the dogs and everyone was happy.

Lots of people brought their dogs to the crawfish boil. There were fifteen to twenty Dalmatians at the event and every one of them was extremely well behaved. A few people fed crawfish to their dogs, but since many of them had driven a long way to the event, I think they had visions of the dogs throwing up in the car on the way home. The dogs did get lots of dog biscuits though and had plenty of ice water in their bowls. Since the afternoon was warm and the event was outside, most of the dogs just looked for the coolest spot they could find and took a nap. Dash didn't really want a nap though. He wanted to eat everyone's nachos. He had no interest in the crawfish, but he seemed to love the smell of nachos.

This evening, we went to animal rescue event number two. This one was the annual Wine on the Roof fundraiser held by East Lake Pet Orphanage. Wine on the Roof was a lot fancier than a crawfish boil, so Janet and I had to dress up for the event. There was a silent auction, a live auction, a pet fashion show and all sorts of awards and presentations. Oh, there was also lots and lots of wine. Too bad I can't drink anymore. I had a couple of glasses anyway, just to get in the spirit of things. Alcohol gives me terrible heartburn these days though, so I'm careful not to overindulge. I think this is my body's way of telling me to stick with the program and lay off the booze.

It was a very busy day, but tomorrow will be even busier. Janet and I are determined to finish landscaping the back yard tomorrow. It is supposed to rain a lot next week, and it would be nice to have all the grass in place before the rain starts. Based on what we have done already, we should be able to finish in one more day. It's going to be a long day though, and I'm tired already.

Bunny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 871

I went back to my old breakfast restaurant today. What made me defect? It was the coffee. Coffee is a big part of my breakfast routine. I need lots of it and I like a place with a friendly waitress who stops by every few minutes and says "Can I top that up for you?" The cool restaurant down the street didn't have endless coffee service like a normal breakfast place. When you finished your cup, you had to walk over to the barista and pay him a dollar every time you wanted a refill. This was a fatal flaw to me. It was irritating and unnecessary. So, I'm back at the old place again, eating omelets that are a bit too fattening and listening to elevator music versions of old Eagles tunes. The place may not be on the cutting edge, but it's pleasant. The important thing is that if I happen to want to drink eight cups of coffee with my breakfast, it's fine with them. They'll keep pouring until I drop.

This has been a very busy week. The cumulative effect of all this work is that I am very tired. I may fall asleep before I finish tonight's post. I wish I could figure out a way to work at a more relaxed pace, but it's all about service these days. When most of my clients call with a request, it's really a thinly veiled demand. I have a feeling that if I worked at my own pace, I wouldn't have any clients at all.

At least the dogs have sensible ideas about working. While my butt went numb sitting through conference calls and my hands cramped up pushing the mouse around at lightening speeds, Dot and Dash just slept. That's what they usually do. It's probably a good idea that they don't have a strong work ethic, because their idea of working is digging holes in the back yard.

Janet wanted to give the dogs a bath tonight, since we were taking them to a big Dalmatian Rescue fundraiser tomorrow. We took them over to the neighborhood dog washing establishment around 6 PM, only to discover that the place was already closed. The sign on the door said they were open to 8 PM on Friday's, but when we knocked on the door the manager came out and told us that they had started their new Summer hours.  Hmm. It would have been nice if they had told someone. We drove to another dog washing place several miles away that was open to 7 PM. When we got there, this place was closed too, even though it wasn't 7 PM yet. I knocked on the door again and this time the manager told me that even though the sign on the door said "open till 7 PM" they really closed at 6:30 every day. I can only conclude that the dog washing industry is pretty casual about their business practices. The dogs lucked out though. They both get to go to tomorrow's event dirty.

Crosby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 870

I think I bit off more than I can chew today. I tried to plant grass as well as finish all my normal website updates and web articles. My ambitious plan might have worked if so many of my webmaster accounts hadn't called in their updates and revisions today instead of waiting until Friday like they usually do. I got several complex website updates finished and wrote a Mother's Day watch article. Unfortunately, there's still a lot more to finish tomorrow. Lots of sod got planted as well.  The right side of the yard is all finished now. Sadly, I sprained my ankle lugging the heavy sod around. I'm just not very good with manual labor tasks any more. Maybe if I just hired a bunch of Mexicans like the rest of the neighborhood seems to do, everything would be fine. I stubbornly continue to do everything myself though. It just seems right.

I've noticed that the butterflies in the park are already starting to disappear. Maybe the popular wisdom about butterflies only living for a week or two is really true. I certainly don't see them that often. For a few weeks in late April and early May, they're everywhere. Then they're gone. While they are around, butterflies are certainly hungry little creatures. A lot of the flowers they feast on have already been decimated. I'll miss these little guys. They're quite pretty and very easy to photograph.

I like my new real estate agent. We seem to be on the same wavelength. Usually real estate agents drive me nuts, but this one is quite pleasant and really seems to understand mid-century architecture and the people who buy it. I think the property will be up on the MLS website tomorrow.  It's certainly priced right for today's miserable housing market. Hopefully it will find a buyer soon.

I wonder if the dogs will walk on the new grass I planted today, or head straight for the remaining mud like they've been doing all week. I'll probably have to finish the entire lawn before I can curtail the mandatory paw inspection I have to make every time they come back in the house. I usually remember this necessary step, but when I forget, the dogs  inevitably head straight for the bed and I have to throw the sheets in the laundry again. Somehow, I can't talk about this kind of stuff with all my self important corporate clients. I know you guys will understand though. You're probably dealing with something even worse.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 869

People used to greet me by name at guitar stores, Italian furniture stores, and art galleries. Now they greet me by name at the pharmacy. I take so many pills that I've risen to the head of the class at my local pharmacy. All the pharmacists know who I am and what I take. It's depressing. I'd much rather have a friendly, personal welcome at the guitar store.

I suspect that those Halcyon Days might be over. The Carpal Tunnel in my wrist is so bad that is hurts to even pick up a guitar. I can still play, but not for very long. As much as I hate all the pills I take, the doctors say they are absolutely essential. I guess it is no surprise that my pharmacist is getting to know me better than anyone else. I'll take pills to keep me healthy, but I draw the line at taking pills to make me happy. I'm responsible for my own happiness.

They even make psychotropic drugs for dogs now. It just seems all wrong. The world around us may not induce euphoria anymore, but I hope that the dogs and I will always be able to cope with whatever comes our way without the need for a chemical filter. So far, so good. I manage to get through boring and even stressful days pretty well. I'll admit that there are still a few clients who could send me over the edge. If I manage to keep my sanity, I owe it all to Dot and Dash.

Training class was great tonight. The weather was warm enough that I didn't need to wear a jacket. My Spring allergies weren't acting up as much as they usually do. Dot and Dash even seemed to be in an unusually obedient mood. For the first time in quite a while, I wasn't looking at my watch continually to see when class would be over.

My new website is coming along well. With any luck, I might be able to get a functioning version up on my test server tomorrow. if that goes well, I might even get back to tackling the dreaded grass in the back yard again.

Bogart is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 868

If you still don't think the government has entirely too many rules and regulations, just try selling a house. I finished filling out a mandatory seller's disclosure form this afternoon. I wasn't really surprised at the questions about whether lead paint had ever been used in the dwelling. What surprised me were all the questions about whether the property had ever been a habitat for an endangered species of animal or if it has been designated as a wetlands area. They were very keen about floods too. They seemed to want to know if there had ever been a flood in the area since the dawn of creation. I don't remember selling property being this difficult before. Actually, nothing used to be this difficult. We have entered a brave new world where everyone is trying to protect us from ourselves. I still prefer a much simpler world where smoking is fine and seatbelts in your car are optional.

Nevertheless, I filled out a ton of forms and gave them all to the real estate agent. When in Rome, and all that. I couldn't help feeling that the forms were just a bunch of "gotcha" questions. Maybe if your roof had ever leaked, or your dishwasher has ever overflowed unto the kitchen floor, you wouldn't be able to sell your house at all. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole process was a bit like getting your car safety inspected. If your house isn't up to snuff in certain areas, there are probably government mandated repairs you need to make. They're probably expensive too.

I'm starting to get close to a self imposed deadline to show my initial website designs to my new client. To make sure I get finished on time, I devoted the entire day to working on the look of their new site. There's still a lot to be done, but I made a lot of progress today. Two or three more days like this and I'll have something ready to show. This doesn't mean I'll be done of course. It just means I'll be entering phase two: the inevitable revisions.

The vet called today and said the Dash has an elevated white cell count. This usually means that the body is fighting off some sort of infection. The vet said that she saw redness in his gums and that he might have the beginnings of Periodontal disease. I worry that he might have Ehrlichia or Lyme Disease, since I have seen ticks on him recently. I know just enough about medicine to be a perpetual hypochondriac. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to do anything useful.

Betsy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 867

My inability to multitask is getting frustrating. I have so many unfinished projects right now, and what I'd really like to do is methodically finish each of them one at a time. I can't do that though. Most of my clients wouldn't react very favorably if I left a message on my answering machine that said, "I'm landscaping the back yard. Please call me back in a week and a half." That's what I'd like to do though. I'd finish the yard first, because with one patch of grass that needs to be watered everyday and an adjacent patch of tilled dirt that turns to mud every time I turn the sprinklers on, it's getting harder and harder to keep the dogs clean. Dot races through the mud every time I let her outside, and then I've got to clean her paws before I let her in again. This sequence of events happens many times each day and it's already getting a little old.

I'd finish moving the storage warehouse stuff next. This is important because I can't put anything new in the storage space until I get things organized and on shelves again. The whole point of the new storage space was to have enough room so that I could start clearing necessary, but infrequently used stuff out of the office. So far, things are still piling up in the office.

Only after these two important tasks were complete would I start working on client projects. Unfortunately, the way things work in the real world, I find myself doing exactly the opposite. I spend most of my day writing and coding websites, just like I always do. The moving and landscaping tasks get relegated to leftover time. I'm sure the back yard makeover will eventually be finished. I'm equally sure that the rental property will eventually be sold as well. These things won't happen fast enough for me however. I just want to get tiring these tasks behind me.

My real estate agent called today and said he'd like to photograph the rent house on Wednesday for the MLS listing. I wasn't expecting things to move so quickly, since the place is still empty and hasn't even been staged yet. Tomorrow will probably be a very busy day. I can only hope that the actual sale goes quickly as well. I still hear tales of people who had their properties on the market for two or three years with little to no interest. I don't want this to happen to me. One good thing about investing in stocks and bonds as long as I have is that I no longer have unrealistic expectations. Prices for everything go up and down. At any given time, there is always a market price for whatever you have to sell. If you want to find a buyer, you have to learn to accept this price.

Bea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 866

I'm increasingly feeling like the captain of a sinking ship. Everything is broken. Lately, when I embark on a repair project around the house, I find myself having to repair my tools before I begin. When I retrieved the handy aluminum garden cart from the greenhouse this morning to begin installing the St. Augustine sod, I discovered that both tires were flat. No problem, I thought. I got the air compressor out of the utility shed and began pumping them up. Neither tire would hold air. The rubber was so dry and brittle that the tires wouldn't make an airtight seal around the rim. Oh, well. I tried. While I had the air compressor out, I decided to check the tires on the Defender. One rear tire was inflated to 40 PSI, while the other was only inflated to 17 PSI. I could understand the low, leaky tire, but how did the other tire get more air in it? A mystery for sure. I never inflate tires to more than 32 PSI.

After two trips to the grass store and many more trips transferring the grass sod from my car to the back yard using my broken garden cart, I was ready to begin. Janet bought some top soil in big bags yesterday. We spread the top soil on the tilled soil to smooth it out and then put the squares of St. Augustine sod on top. The grass looks good, but after we installed all the sod I bought today, only 1/3 of the yard was actually covered. Either the yard had gotten bigger, or the squares of sod had gotten smaller. By my rough calculations, this means at least four more trips to the grass store and 100 more squares of sod before the job is complete.

Our regular Sunday trip to the dog park was the most relaxing thing we did all day. The city could stand to plant some new grass too, because the park is starting to look just as bare as our back yard. The dogs didn't seem to mind the lack of grass. There seems to be an unwritten rule among dogs that the dirtier you are, the more status you have. All the dogs in the park today seemed perfectly content digging holes and rolling around in the dust.

It's hard to believe that it's almost May already. April just zipped by. With tax season out of the way and a real estate agent trying to sell my rent property, there is nowhere to go but up. Hey, I may even try to make some new business calls next week.  That would be a first for a year that is now almost half over.

Parker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 865

Getting the rototiller going this afternoon wore me out. For starters, gas engines that haven't been used in four years don't like to start. I must have pulled the starter cord a hundred times before I got any type of combustion. Once I got the tiller to start, it refused to stay running. Finally, after the engine had warmed up and the lines had been cleared, I got the raucous two-cycle noise I was looking for. Once I actually started tilling the soil, I wondered why I even bothered. It was like tilling an asphalt parking lot. The ground was so hard that the tiller would bounce a foot in the air when it hit a particularly hard spot. The machine was vibrating so badly that my right hand kept bumping into the kill switch and stopping the engine. I thought about duct taping the kill switch open, but I was getting tired and I knew that if the tiller got away from me, there could be some serious damage.

Somehow, I remember that tilling the soil used to seem a lot easier. Today I had trouble even getting gas into the tiller. It used to be that filling your gas powered yard tools was as simple as putting a spout on your gas can and pouring until the tank was full.  Now, with all the child proof safety features on modern gas containers, you practically have to read an instruction manual to figure out how to get the gas to flow. I sprained my thumb trying to get one of the child proof latches to open and I don't even have children. After all my efforts, I will admit that the back yard no longer looks like an asphalt parking lot. It looks like a field of boulders instead. Dash certainly likes the new look. As soon as I let the dogs out to inspect things, Dash immediately started digging holes in the newly loosened earth.

The only easy thing I did today was finish writing my April writer's group assignment. I wish that real life was as easy as doing things on the computer. Sure computers crash from time to time, but they seldom make you sweat or cause you to sprain an ankle. I wish that cleaning the house was as easy as defragmenting my hard drive. Just hit the start button and wait till it's finished. That would be nice.

The worst thing about getting ready to plant grass is that I've still got to go buy the grass and actually plant it. St. Augustine sod is heavy, because each square consists of a tiny surface of light grass attached to a base of heavy clay. The grass people say that this clay will dissolve and disappear as soon as the roots get established. The clay actually never disappears. It turns into a rock hard layer that practically has to be dynamited if you ever want to plant grass again.

We'll try to go to the dog park early tomorrow. If we waited until we finished planting the grass, I'd be too tired to go to the dog park. I'm sure Dot and Dash will enjoy having a green yard again. For a while they'll be able to sun themselves without turning into little dust balls. Then, the inevitable will happen. They'll race around and tear the grass up again and we'll be right back where we started.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 864

Jeez, I lost two blog followers today. Is my life really that unexciting? Hang in there guys. Something interesting will happen sooner or later. I don't think today is the day, however. Virtually nothing happened today. Even my diversionary restaurant breakfast seemed dull this morning.

At least I'm making progress with the storage warehouse. There is a lot more stuff in the new space now than remains in the old space. One or two more visits and I'll have everything moved. Once everything is organized, I should have a lot of extra room available and I can start clearing out some of the clutter in my office. I really need new carpets in the office, but there has always been so much gear and clutter on the floors that it would take forever to get ready for the carpet installers. Maybe I'll have new carpets by the end of the year.

I got an e-mail to take something off one of my websites this morning. As soon as I took it off, I got another e-mail telling me put the removed item back again. The confusion was all over the word may. When I got a message saying the picture may come down, I took it down. I was thinking that may meant the same thing as can. What the client really meant was that it may come down at some point in the future. She was thinking that may meant the same thing as might. Language can be confusing.

I've been hoping that I'd get asked to provide blogging coverage again at the big oil and gas conference in Houston next week. I did this last year and it was one of the better jobs I had all year. It doesn't look very auspicious this year however. The conference starts in three days and I still haven't received any response from my client. I think it's a pretty safe bet that the answer is no this year.

It's still up in the air whether the new grass gets installed this weekend. I went out and bought a gasoline container and the two cycle oil for the tiller, but I haven't tried to start it yet. If the tiller starts tomorrow morning, I'll prepare the soil and go buy some St. Augustine sod so we can get started. I wish the sod wasn't so heavy. That's all I remember from last year. The squares of sod were a lot heavier than I though. It was a lot of work carrying a full carload of sod from the driveway to the back yard. Oh, the tires on my garden cart are flat too. Time to find the air compressor again.

Bowser is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 863

It's a shame that allergy season coincides with the nicest weather we have all year in Texas. The temperature is perfect, but I can't go outside for more than ten minutes before my eyes are burning and my nose is dripping like a faucet. I have to carry a pack of Kleenex wherever I go and my nose is starting to look like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. The seasonal grass seed allergies that bother me the most usually subside by late June, but by then Summer has arrived and it's too hot to spend much time outside anyway. I used to live in Seattle where it rained continually. I think I prefer the rain to this hodgepodge of dust storms, tornadoes, droughts, and wind blown pollen that we have here. Of course I didn't own a house with a flat roof that leaks all the time when I lived in Seattle. I probably wouldn't think so fondly of the place with memories of a leaky roof.

I got the second of three large shelves disassembled and moved over to the larger storage space today. I'm glad now that I kept both storage rooms rented for the entire month. I never could have moved everything in a single day. I've been down to the storage warehouse at least five times now and I've still only gotten about 2/3 of the stuff moved. This little project is turning out to be hard work. I should just throw away stuff I don't need as I go, but I don't have time to think about which things are keepers or not, so everything gets moved. I'll have plenty of time later to throw away all the old computers, scanners, and printers from the 1980's later.

Janet wants to plant the new grass this weekend. That means I'll need to till the soil tomorrow. I'm fairly sure the little tiller I keep in the greenhouse won't start using the two year old container of gas I keep for the lawnmower I no longer use. That gas wouldn't work anyway, since the tiller uses a gas and oil mixture like you use for a chain saw. I'll need to go to Home Depot and buy a little gas can and some of that two stroke oil you mix in with it. Finding all this stuff will take longer than actually tilling the soil. Hopefully, the tiller will start after I've found the proper fuel for it, or I've really wasted a lot of time.

I never have enough time anymore. I had to go to a planning meeting for one of the animal rescue groups I work with this evening and didn't have time to eat dinner until I got home. Hmm. Do I fix myself a nice dinner, or do I write this blog? I heated up a pizza that was in the freezer because the box said it would cook in 11 minutes.

Brady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 862

I finally got all the new orphans added to the rescue site I've been working on for the past several days. I wanted to get things finished before the backlog of animals became an issue at the board meeting we're having tomorrow. I have a sneaking feeling that when I go to the meeting, I'll discover that there are dozens of other animals that still need to go on the website.

I found enough time this afternoon to disassemble one of the big shelves and move it over to my larger storage space. With the shelf in place, I can now start clearing away some of the clutter that has accumulated on the floor of the new room and hopefully begin to realize some of the benefits of the additional real estate I now have. I need to ask my accountant how long I need to keep financial records and receipts. I didn't realize I had so many records. If I can get rid of some of this obsessive record keeping, I'll have more room for obsolete electronic equipment.

I'm going to have to come up with a new route for our daily dog walks. The poison ivy is everywhere this Spring. There are entire fields of the stuff. Luckily, Dot and Dash haven't walked through a big patch of poison ivy yet, but it will happen sooner or later. As soon as the oil from the plants gets on the dog's fur, I break out in a rash. I don't think there's been a single Summer in the last ten years when I didn't catch a case of poison ivy. You'd think I'd build up an immunity to the stuff after all this time, but I think the opposite has happened. It seems like I've actually become more sensitive to poison ivy lately.

It's finally become warm enough that I don't need to wear a coat to our Wednesday evening dog training class anymore. At first glance this is a good thing, but I no longer have a convenient pocket for the treats I take to reward Dash when he does something good. If I just put the treats in a pants pocket, Dash smells them and spends the entire evening trying to stick his nose in my pocket. I guess I could put the treats in a fanny pack, but I wouldn't be caught dead wearing a fanny pack. I'm certainly not at my sartorial best during dog class, but I do draw the line at fanny packs.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 861

Dash had his annual exam today. This exam is pretty much the same as my own annual physical, except that I don't get a rabies shot. Dash actually seems to be getting healthier as he gets older. His heart murmur has almost disappeared. His eye infection has cleared up. His coat is thick and healthy looking, which is amazing considering how bad his skin allergies were just several years ago. I was really pleased today that I got the vet to agree to trying to wean him off the phenobarbital he's been taking for almost four years now. He has never had another seizure, so I'd really like to see how he does without the barbiturates. Phenobarbital is very effective at controlling seizures, but it can have its own bad side effects if taken for a lifetime. I wish I could get my own doctor to reduce the amount of drugs I'm taking as well, but that's going to be a much tougher sell. Pharmaceuticals rule these days.

I had the best of intentions to return to the storage warehouse and continue moving things today, but I never managed to complete all my work assignments. I'm still trying to get all the animals updated on the rescue site I'm behind on. Now that Facebook and Twitter are so popular, people seem to think that the website modifications I make are just as easy as posting a status update on Facebook. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Designing nice looking rollover buttons and writing Javascript code takes me just as much time as it did ten years ago. I'll get caught up eventually though. I always do.

I signed up for an Adobe seminar a few weeks ago that sounded interesting. Unfortunately, when the time arrived for me to drive downtown to the appointed location this afternoon, I just couldn't bring myself to get in the car. This was one of those seminars disguised as a cocktail party and it began about the same time as rush hour traffic usually starts in Dallas. I guess this thing was designed for downtown ad agency people to attend on their way home from work. It wasn't for me though. Maybe I would have learned something new about Photoshop, but the knowledge wasn't worth fighting the drive time traffic. I much prefer seminars that start at 2 PM. Learning something when people are off the roads is much more enjoyable.

It got up to over 80 degrees this afternoon. It's almost time to start wearing shorts and sandals again. I don't really like the way I look in shorts, but once the temperature reaches a certain level, it's hard to care about appearances anymore. Dallas Summers are about comfort, any way you can achieve it.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 860

I resumed moving things over to the new storage warehouse today. I finally managed to completely clear off one of the large shelves in the smaller storage unit and was preparing to move the shelf itself when I realized that it wouldn't fit through the door. How could I have forgotten that I had assembled each of these shelves in place to take maximum advantage of the space available? Damn! To get the shelves over to the new location, I will need to completely disassemble each of them and then put them all back together again in the new space. This is turning into a lot more work than I had anticipated. So far, I have only emptied out half the contents of the old space. The new larger space already seems full, since nothing is stacked on tall shelves yet. As I'm starting to rediscover what I've been storing all these years, I'm having second thoughts about the whole endevour. A lot of this stuff is worthless.

Sure, I've discovered some useful stuff. I've discovered some valuable stuff. I've even discovered some very rare stuff. The trouble is that the time for all this stuff has passed. What do you do with a 5 GB hard drive that's the size of a shoe box these days?  What do you do with an electric typewriter, or even worse, a manual one? If I hired somebody to inventory all this stuff and then systematically sell it on eBay it would cost me more than the stuff is worth. On the other hand, if I try to sort through everything myself, I probably won't live long enough to make sense of it all. I'm in over my head here.

When I wasn't lugging stuff from one storage unit to another, I was updating various animal rescue websites.The Dalmatian Rescue updates went quickly, but the other rescue group was another story entirely. I used to get new animals to list from these guys once a week. Now I get one big list once a month. There are so many animals that I typically can't get all the new pages coded before some of the animals get adopted and immediately have to come down again. It's a quixotic task. Nevertheless, I thought today would be a good day to get started, mostly because the rest of my clients are mired in status meetings on Monday's . Tomorrow, I probably won't have time to work on the rescue sites.

I told the real estate agent that I was ready to list the rent property, but evidently there's still a lot that needs to be done before the sign goes out front. When I bought the place, I just looked at it empty and decided I liked it. Today, properties need to be staged. This means that furniture and artwork is brought in to make the place looked lived in, even though it is empty. I can imagine what an empty place would look like with furniture, but apparently a lot of people can't. When the staging furniture is in place, a photographer comes out and takes pictures for the MLS website and the game begins. I told the agent that I was a professional photographer and was once an architect. He still preferred to use his own photographer. Whatever! I'm just going to go with the flow on this one.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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