Day 1451

I've done everything I can. The car has a full tank of gas. I bought a bunch of D-Cell batteries for the emergency lanterns. I got some food at the grocery store that we can eat either hot or cold if the power goes out. The roof has been swept clear of falling leaves. All the electronic devices have been charged up. I've got the outside faucets dripping a bit, so they won't freeze. The dog's warmest sweaters are clean and ready to go. I guess that's it.

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm as irrational as any other Texan about cold weather. We take our tornadoes in stride, but if there's even a hint of snow in the forecast, the shelves will quickly be emptied in every grocery store in town and portable generators and batteries will be on back order at Home Depot.

Dot and Dash love the cooler temperatures that Fall weather brings to Texas, but when the thermometer dips below freezing they don't like going outside any more than I do. Dot has problems with arthritis on cold days as well. I could tell she was really stiff today and had trouble getting up and down from her dog bed in the living room. To keep my own joints from getting too stiff, I made sure I got to the gym before the weather got really bad. When I left the house, the roads were still dry, but by the time I returned, there was already a light freezing drizzle that stuck to your windshield. I may skip my normal Friday morning restaurant outing and just fix something here at the house tomorrow instead. There just aren't many good reasons to drive on icy roads.

If the weather is as bad as they say it's going to be, I ought to get a lot done tomorrow. Maybe I'll get caught up on my writing. Hey, what else is there to do on an icy morning? If the power goes out, all bets are off. Falling tree limbs cause power outages in our neighborhood fairly frequently. Once we lost power for three days in the middle of Winter. I don't look forward to repeating that experience any time soon. When the power goes out, you're basically just camping indoors. There's a good chance that the city's worries about an impending ice storm are overblown. The weather reports are often wrong in these parts. We'll know how it all turns out by morning. If there is a lot of ice, I think the dogs and I will just stay under the covers.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1450

It was 80 degrees today. It is supposed to be 20 degrees tomorrow. That's Texas weather in a nutshell. All the TV weathermen in town are predicting a monster storm this weekend that will coat the roads with a sheet of ice and knock out power lines throughout the region. Hopefully, none of these alarmist reports are true. Weather reports in Dallas tend to be sensationalized because there are plenty of people like me who freak out at the thought of bad weather. Bad weather equals good ratings. Even the hint of a Winter bad storm will send people to Home Depot in droves to stock up on batteries, kitty litter, generators, rock salt, and snow shovels. Needless to say, most of the snow shovels never get used. Grocery stores are equally busy before a storm, although I don't know why. If the power goes out, a lot of food in the refrigerator isn't going to do you much good.

Although anything could happen tomorrow, I certainly can't complain about today's weather. It was nice all day. With blue skies and mild temperatures to cheer me on, I got quite a bit done. The breakfast networking group liked the website I'd developed for them. This is probably one of those sites that will never be finished, but at least there weren't any major snags when it was unveiled for the first time this morning.

Dot did great at her physical therapy session today. She walked over half a mile on the underwater treadmill and had no problems with the 60 second bursts of speed that are part of her interval training. I'm really proud of Dot. Not only is she visibly stronger than she was when we started this, she actually seems to enjoy the therapy as well. Hopefully, Dot has many good years ahead of her. One of my neighbors has an old dog and it's sad to see how quickly a dog can go downhill as they approach the end of their life. One day they're active and a few months later they can hardly walk.

All the dogs in training class seemed a bit on edge tonight. I think they could sense the cold front that is headed our way. As the wind picked up, Dot and Dash made sure to let us know that they were ready to go home. I couldn't blame them for wanting to get back inside again. By the time class was over, the temperature had dropped ten degrees.

I found out today that my mechanic is losing the lease on his garage and as a result, I'll probably have to take my old Citroën Maserati back again before it can be restored. This is definitely a big disappointment. There are very few people in the entire country who still work on these things. The car has sat for so long that I'm sure it will need some serious work before it runs properly again. Even if I can find another mechanic, I'm not sure I'll be able to find the parts I need. Certain parts have already become almost impossible to find. I'm not sure what to do with this car now. 

In retrospect, I should have started the restoration last year. It was always easier to just postpone things though, since my mechanic was usually busy with other repairs anyway. Now, it might be too late. I have the same sinking feeling I had when I failed to sell my Lucent Technology stock and watched it slide from $70 a share to $4 a share. There is a time and a place for everything. I just don't always know when that time has arrived.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1449

I got a phone call from a client today. This used to be a daily occurrence, but today's preference for text messages and e-mail have made the old fashioned phone call exceedingly rare. I've actually started to fear these calls, because nobody calls you on the phone anymore unless something has gone very, very wrong. I use caller ID to screen all my calls. 98% of them are from telemarketers. The other 2% make me nervous. As it turned out, this particular call was nothing to fear. It was just someone who likes to talk.

I wish I'd taken a real camera with me on our morning walk today. For about ten minutes we were engulfed in fog and my familiar surroundings turned into a wonderland of misty imagery. Most fog lifts and quickly dissipates as the sun burns it off. This was different. A thick low cloud just blew right over us. I took a few shots with my phone and then it was all over.

I had plenty of time to go to the gym today. Although I've been pretty good about maintaining my three-day-a-week workout routine, I've got to come up with some way to make the gym more interesting. Boredom is always my worst enemy. I'm already bored with my healthy diet, even though it is showing tangible results. I'm afraid that going to the gym is going to be next on my growing list of boring activities. I'll be the first to acknowledge that exercise is good for you. In just a few months, I can already tell that my muscle tone and core strength has improved and I don't get as tired anymore. I just wish these activities were fun. Luckily, I'm very familiar with boredom. Boredom doesn't slow me down a bit.

I'm scheduled to unveil a new website I've been developing for the Wednesday morning networking group at tomorrow's meeting. Truthfully, this site is a little boring, but I think it meets the needs of the group perfectly. I could probably make the site more exciting if I just focused on why I come to these early morning meetings. Maybe I should scrap all the business stuff and make the site about bacon.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1448

I wonder if any of you would even notice if I occasionally substituted a post from a previous year for my daily missive? Pride prevents me from doing this, but to tell the truth, I wouldn't know the difference myself. The days all run together. After 25 years of walking a succession of Dalmatians in the park while writing a steady stream of endlessly similar advertising messages, I not only forget what day it is, I forget what year it is.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't enjoy days like today. I just have trouble telling them apart. The falling leaves look the same as they always do in early December. The dogs still remind me that it's time for dinner precisely at 4:30 PM every day. The Version 14.1.4 of Microsoft Word that I opened to complete this morning's writing assignments seems remarkably similar to the very first version I bought for my Mac in 1989. Jeez, I've been sitting in the same Herman Miller Aeron Chair for so long that I've worn out three of the comfortable mesh chair backs.

Today certainly wasn't a day to break the mold. I came up with an interesting new landing page for a very old website that I initially designed in 1997. I wrote another article about luxury goods. Before the end of the year, I will have written over 500 of these articles. I fix my oatmeal and fruit. I make the bed. I count the hours and I wonder why.

For diversity, I had a Greek salad instead of my usual Kale. The dogs and I walked over a small hill instead of around it. Even though there was a pretty sunset, I took a picture of a leaf instead. This is really all the diversity I need. I'm going to the gym tomorrow. I'll make some oatmeal with strawberries again for breakfast. I'll watch the business channel and check my stocks while I'm eating. The dogs will sleep most of the day. David Byrne said it best way back in 1981. "Same as it ever was..."

Gretta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1447

Our favorite dog park is slowly but surely becoming just like all the other dog parks in Dallas. Aggressive dogs used to be a rarity at this park, but now we encounter one almost every week. More and more people don't even bother to clean up after their dogs and the once pristine grass is now a mine field of poop. Even though the park is huge, the people with nice dogs tend to congregate in one corner, staying far away from the unruly dogs and their inattentive owners in the other corner. The problem isn't the dogs. It's the people. It's always the people.

It's hard to believe it's December already. This entire year has gone by in a blur of uneventful days. I haven't really accomplished much this year. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself though. In today's topsy-turvy world, just staying afloat is a major accomplishment.

We put up the Christmas decorations this weekend. These items are so old and familiar now that the dogs don't pay any attention to them. We no longer worry about a dog knocking over the Christmas tree or wiping the coffee table clean with a casual wag of the tail. Dot and Dash ignored everything this year, with the exception of of two bright red Christmas blankets we got for each of their dog beds. They immediately knew the blankets were for them, and they approved.

Although Sunday may be a bad day to go to the grocery store, it has turned out to be a great day to go to the gym. I love going to the gym on Sunday, because I practically have the cavernous hall to myself. There's no rush either. I can stay as long as I like, without any worries about being late for whatever is next on the agenda.

I guess I'm going to have to resign myself to printing something small every day. It seems wasteful to print a photo and just throw it away, but my Epson representative assures me that this will be far more economical than wasting tons of expensive ink every month trying to unclog the lines. When I asked the Epson folks what the secret was to keeping this temperamental printer running reliably in the future, they told me "Just use it. It was meant to be used." This makes perfect sense. It just doesn't suit my needs. I'd like a printer I can use to make a single huge, beautiful Giclée print once every three or four months. My printer wasn't designed to do this. It was meant to be used in a production environment every day.

Nest week looks busy already. There are three new articles that need to be completed before the end of the week and a brand new website that needs to go live before the end of the year. There are doctors appointments and vet appointments on the calendar as well. One thing I won't be doing this month is Christmas shopping at the mall. When I discovered a few years ago that you could take care of everything with a few clicks on Amazon, that was the end of the mall. The only thing I go to the shopping mall for anymore is a haircut. I haven't figured out how to get a haircut on Amazon yet.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1446

It's hard for me to remember what day it is on holiday weekends. Since I did most of my regular weekend chores yesterday, there was little for me to do today. With Thanksgiving out of the way, it was time to go looking for the Christmas decorations at the storage warehouse. I'm always amazed at how neat and tidy the warehouse looks in comparison to our house. I wish my office looked as nice as my storage warehouse. Maybe it would if everything in the office remained untouched for months at a time.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that doing things almost inevitably creates a mess. Doing things with dogs creates an even bigger mess.  I don't help matters by being such a pack rat either. Almost everything in my tidy storage warehouse came out of my messy office. It's hard to believe that I have removed so much stuff from the office and it still looks full.

The weather was so warm today that I decided to wash the car. I like washing the car. It is a simple task with tangible results. Getting my large format printer working again is a much more difficult task. I've been using the supplies that UPS finally delivered with mixed results. I think I'll eventually be able to clear the clogged lines, but it is almost certain that I will use up all my ink in the process. I'm beginning to wonder if there's a point to this madness. I feel the same way about the watches I've collected. At some point in the distant past they all worked. Now, the batteries in the watches with quartz movements are all dead and many of the mechanical watches need cleaning. I took three of these watches to my watchmaker over two years ago for service. They still aren't done. These watches are still making better progress than the repairs on my Citroën Maserati. That car has been in the shop for over nine years.

My possessions are literally screaming at me to simplify my life. I won't live long enough to replace all the dead batteries,  re-solder all the loose wires, and clean all the gunk out of various dirty fuel lines. Mechanical things make me happy, but why do they always break? Oddly, things seem to deteriorate whether you use them of not. Batteries corrode and leak inside of old tape recorders. Gas goes bad and won't even ignite after several seasons of sitting in the fuel tank of an unused rototiller. Radiator hoses crack and break even if the car they're connected to is sitting on blocks inside a garage.

What's a boy to do? I don't need to be reminded that it's all ashes to ashes and dust to dust in the end. My own body has been telling me that for years. All is not lost though. There's actually a smile on my face right now. As I was writing this somewhat gloomy missive, I received a message on the printer display panel that the lines are clear. The printer lives!

Belle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1445

We thought today might be a good day to go see the new presidential library here in Dallas. How wrong we were! When we arrived, there was already a long line of people snaking around the building. The line wasn't moving either. We decided to come back another day. I guess this library has replaced the city zoo and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza as the go-to place to take visiting relatives on the day after Thanksgiving.

I'm still interested in seeing the library. I've never been to a presidential library before. I've driven past LBJ's library in Austin several times, but I've never gone inside. I should have seen Clinton's library by now, since I grew up in Arkansas, but I haven't been there either. I did visit Dwight Eisenhower's home near Gettysburg once and found it very interesting. Presidents lived pretty simple lives in the 1950's.

Since the library was so crowded and it was already too late to go to an afternoon movie, Janet and I both went to the gym instead. Her gym was crowded and mine was nearly empty. I don't understand why young people don't go to my gym. It is the easily best equipped facility in the city. There is a heated Olympic size pool, a regulation size basketball court, a huge, well equipped weight room, a boxing area, and every type of resistance machine and treadmill ever created. I suspect that the young people who keep all those trendy new LA Fitness Centers busy just don't want to be seen with the old geezers who frequent my gym. I see an older gentleman almost every time I'm working out wearing a t-shirt that says "I wish I was 88." He is actually 94.

My missing UPS package mysteriously appeared on my doorstep this afternoon. Nobody knocked on the door and there was no explanation. I still don't know whether the UPS driver found the missing package and re-delivered it, or whether the person who actually received the package last Tuesday  finally decided to drive it over to my house. I'll probably never know what really happened, but at least I now have what I need. Hopefully, these new supplies will revive my hopelessly clogged printer and get it working again.

Although we didn't do any of the fun things we had planned, Janet and I both got a lot done today. She braved the Black Friday crowds and got a new Winter coat, while I found a replacement for the blinking, non-functional overhead light in my office. I'm sure I could have found a cheaper light fixture at IKEA, but it was worth paying almost any amount just to be able to avoid going to IKEA.

When I went to my regular breakfast restaurant today, I noticed that the other customers looked like hell. Actually, they just looked very similar to what I look like every day. I figured that most of these  people must still be on vacation. I guess this proves that without a dress code to conform to, almost everyone will immediately sink to the lowest common denominator. Personally, I don't know why I bother to get dressed anymore. The dogs don't care what I look like and my Internet-based clients will never know the difference. Wearing a suit on Wednesday mornings is still a novelty, but I'm sure this will wear off soon enough. The day I show up at one of these networking meetings wearing a Nirvana t-shirt and sweat pants is probably the day they'll kick me out of their club.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1444 - Thanksgiving

All days should be like this. I got up late. I spent most of the day eating. I walked the dogs in a vain effort to to burn off my gargantuan meal. Then I watched TV for the rest of the day. We gave up entertaining on Thanksgiving years ago when the dogs embarrassed us by eating the guests dinner. We gave up on cooking a few years later when we realized it just wasn't worth the effort for two people.

Ever since, we've been going out to eat on Thanksgiving. We pick a nice restaurant and enjoy having someone else serve us dinner. Some years, we have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, sweet potatoes, green been casserole and pumpkin pie. Other years we are more adventurous. This year we went to The Mercury. They have a great Thanksgiving buffet. The food is fresh and varied. As always, I ate way too much.

Although it was chilly this morning, the day ended up being quite nice. Since there were no time constraints, the dogs got some bonus time on their walks. Janet walked them in the morning and I walked them in the evening. I was in such a good mood after my fabulous dinner that I though I'd take a decent camera along with me. That was a mistake. I used to take a DSLR with me frequently when I walked Dot and Dash, but I think they were better behaved then. Lately, I have trouble even getting the scene in focus before one of the dogs knocks me off balance chasing a squirrel or trying to eat something nasty they've spotted on the trail. Once the leashes get tangled around my camera strap, it's hopeless. I snapped a few sunset shots, but failed to capture anything spectacular. The shot you see above shows what happened after Dash flushed a covey of birds out of some bulrushes along the shoreline.

Although Thursday is one of my regular days to go to the gym, it seemed wise to postpone any sort of a workout until tomorrow. After the monster meal I ate this afternoon, I don't think my workout would have lasted long. Probably, the gym wasn't open today anyway. I never bothered to check.

Few things seem less appealing to me than fighting crowds of shoppers on Black Friday. That being said, I'll probably end up going to Home Depot tomorrow anyway. The blinking overhead light in my office is driving me nuts. I've got to find a new fixture soon. I hope I can find what I need at Home Depot. I would dread having to go to IKEA tomorrow.

Scooter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1443

Dot had a really good physical therapy session today. The water therapy and acupuncture has already resulted in an improvement in her balance and muscle tone. It's kind of amazing. Although she will never be a young dog again, she seems much stronger on her daily walks and doesn't stumble nearly as often now.

I wish my own day had gone as well as Dot's. UPS still hasn't found my misplaced package. The overhead light in the office is still blinking on and off and driving me nuts. The temperature turned cold again and it's supposed to get down to 26 degrees tonight. The weather changes so quickly here that it's hard to adjust. Yesterday, I was convinced the cold wave had moved on to the East and now it's back again.

The roads were unbelievable crowded today. I think everybody in town left work early and was out buying a turkey at the same time. I went to a nearby Albertsons this evening to pick up a prescription and was amused to see a long line of people at the checkout stand with big frozen turkeys in their buggy. Jeez, Thanksgiving is tomorrow! They'll never even get those turkeys thawed out by then. There was no frozen turkey in my buggy. We're going out to eat.

Even though this was a short week, there was still plenty of work to do today. I guess I should be thankful for the work, but I'm even more thankful that I'm looking forward to a few days where I might not even turn the computer on. Don't worry, faithful readers. There will still be a blog post tomorrow, but that's about it.  Janet gets two days off this week, so we might even do something fun.

This year has gone by so fast. It will be Christmas before you know it. I'm already writing Christmas ads and articles. When I was taking Dot to her physical therapy session today, I saw three cars with Christmas trees strapped to the roof. Maybe some people put their tree up the day after Thanksgiving. The Christmas tree definitely won't be going up that early in our house. With two Dalmatians, the later the tree goes up, the better.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1442

UPS lost another package today. In the misplaced delivery derby, UPS is definitely ahead of FedEx. This isn't the first time that UPS has claimed they delivered something that I never received. At least with FedEx, you have the ability to contact the driver directly and find out exactly what happened. When something goes wrong with your UPS order, they initiate this convoluted investigative process that takes weeks. I have a feeling that I'm never going to get this package. Too bad I already paid for this stuff.

With the exception of my lost order, it wasn't really a bad day. The sun came out around lunchtime and seeing our shadows again did wonders for me and the dogs. If I was the analytical type, I'm convinced that I could track my moods pretty accurately using a light meter. The greater the number of Footcandles the meter showed, the happier I'd be.

When I took Dash to the vet for his antigen shot this afternoon, they said he had no appointment scheduled for today. He probably didn't. Even though Dash will be going to the vet for this routine shot every two weeks for the rest of his life, there doesn't seem to be a way to enter these ongoing appointments into the vet's computer. I often forget to remind them to renew the appointments for another month when I tear off a new calendar page. All's well that ends well though. The clinic was nice enough to work Dash in and he got his shot anyway.

It's difficult to make it to the gym on these vet appointment Tuesdays. I did manage to make it today, but I had to cut my workout short in order to get home again in time to walk the dogs before sunset. With such a simple life, you'd think I'd have plenty of time for everything. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. I never seem to have enough time. I did manage to get most of the things on my list finished today, but that was only because of the sun. Without a patch of bright sunlight to spur me onward, I probably would have been hopelessly behind.

Tomorrow will probably be a day in customer service hell. I need to find out where my UPS package went and why I received an erroneous "final bill" for a service I discontinued long ago. There will be more articles to write and Dot needs to go to her acupuncture appointment as well. I'm glad it's a short week.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1441

Dash ate crap in the park again this morning and came home with a belly ache. Every time I sat down at the computer to work, he started pacing and whining. I would open the back door to let him outside and he'd either refuse to go out the door because it was cold, or race around the yard and return a few minutes later without doing anything. After about three hours of this, he went outside, threw up, and then was fine for the rest of the day. It would be nice if dogs would learn that history tends to repeat itself and that it's not a good idea to eat stinky things in the park. I guess that's too much to ask though. Most people I know haven't learned that history tends to repeat itself either.

Last night, I thought I'd come up with a brilliant plan to unclog my large format printer. When I called my Epson dealer this morning to order the necessary supplies, I was told that if I followed this plan, I'd void my warranty.

So, what was Epson's alternative? They said I should buy a complete new set of eight ink cartridges at $77 each and run a power clean cycle. This, of course, would use up almost all of the ink I had just purchased. If this didn't work, I was to buy even more ink and run the power clean cycle again. I hate this printer. It's just a complicated machine designed to sell expensive pigment ink while it's simultaneously driving me crazy.

With the exception of two damp and chilly dog walks, I didn't leave the house today. There wasn't much point in going anywhere. I had plenty of work to do and I didn't really feel like driving in the rain anyway. While I tended to Dash's belly ache, I also completed a major update to one of the websites I manage and wrote a couple of new articles. Most of this work is boring, but it pays the bills. If someone gave me something truly interesting to work on, I'd probably do it for free. There's not much likelihood that this is going to happen though. People keep the interesting things for themselves. Occasionally, someone unfamiliar with advertising will ask me what I do for a living. "My job is just like a prostitute," I tell them. "The only difference is that people rent my mind instead of my body."

It wasn't all bad today. The temperature was much warmer than yesterday. When I went up on the roof, there was no ice. There was a lot of water, but I'm used to water.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1440

One of the overhead lights in my office keeps blinking on and off. It's one of those new LED bulbs that are supposed to last forever and it's driving me nuts. I get out the ladder and climb up and tighten the bulb in it's socket, thinking I've solved the problem. About twenty minutes later, the light starts blinking again. It is a bad bulb? A bad fixture? Or bad wiring? It could be all three, but I hate to call an electrician just to have him tell me to screw the bulb in tighter.

At least this problem is indoors where it's warm. Earlier in the day I was up on the roof trying to remove the standing water before it all turned into ice. I was a little late, since a lot of the water had already frozen. I can tell you from experience that it's a lot harder to remove ice from the roof than water. When the water and the falling leaves freeze together, you've got a real mess on your hands.

It's hard to stay a fan of mother nature when the elements are relentlessly trying their best to destroy your house. Hopefully, the new roof is genuinely waterproof, since ice brings out the worst in a leak. Heat from the house melts the bottom of the ice and the cold keeps the surface frozen. As a result, it is nearly impossible to remove the water from the roof until the weather gets above freezing again. Indoors, water condenses on the inside of large expanses of single pane glass. This water drips to the sill below where it soaks through tiny cracks in the paint and rots the wood. Water pipes freeze. Rats and squirrels aggressively invade the greenhouse, looking for someplace warm. All in all, life is much easier in the Summer.

I  watched the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Awards ceremony on TV this evening where they honored Carol Burnett. Maybe I'm showing my age, but those old sketch comedy segments are still funnier today that almost anything I've seen on SNL lately. Granted, Saturday Night Live was fabulous in it's day too, but those days are long gone. I occasionally see a funny episode of Modern Family, but it's nothing like vintage Sienfeld or All in the Family. I think we've collectively lost our sense of humor and just like to make fun of people instead. Don't even get me started on music or reality shows. The world has changed. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone like John Kennedy again who could actually keep a promise to send men to the moon, invent the Peace Corps, and still be tough enough to put Khrushchev in his place. We have iPhones now, but we are a pale shadow of our former selves.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1439

Two down. Three to go. We've been to today's Santa Paws location before. This venue always has the smallest amount of space to set up our backdrop, but always seems to attract the largest dogs. Our first dog today was a giant Great Dane. When the dog arrived on the set with Santa, there wasn't room for me, so I had to back off and take the photos through the doorway. Next was a woman who wanted all five of her dogs to sit on Santa's lap. That's the kind of day it was. I'd like to think I learn some kind of life lesson from these odd photo shoots, but I don't. People seem to like their pictures though and I guess that's all that matters.

The sleet and freezing rain that everyone was anticipating didn't materialize. The weather was still nasty, but at least there wasn't the worry of driving on icy roads. There are few things worse than driving on icy roads in Texas. Only about one driver in fifty has ever had any experience in driving on ice and when the roads get slick, the highways instantly turn into a demolition derby. I learned how to drive when I was going to high school in Alaska, and I can still remember the basics of driving on ice. Unfortunately, I've discovered that it doesn't really matter if I can keep my car going in a straight line if everyone else can't.

I'm looking forward to watching the new Fiftieth Anniversary episode of Dr. Who later this evening. The premiere was at an odd time during the afternoon, since the BBC simulcast the show in the US at the same time they aired it in the UK. I've got the show recorded however, if the DVR worked. I think I've finally figured out how to work the DVR on the cable box. Even if I didn't record the show properly, I'm sure the BBC will air it again and again for the next six months.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. There's standing water on the roof, but it's very cold and I'd rather stay inside. I still have unfinished articles to write, but I hate to work on weekends. The dogs need a trip to the dog park, but I suspect that the place is a mud pit and will probably be closed. I probably need to go back to the grocery store and get the things I forgot today. I should never go shopping without a list. Who knows what will happen. The entire day is completely up in the air right now. It might even snow.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1438

What a miserable grey day. A cold, penetrating rain kept threatening to turn into sleet, while a brisk wind made the Wintery mix even more uncomfortable. With this kind of weather, it's easy to see why so many people decide to retire to Florida or Arizona. Tired old bones and damp, frigid days just aren't a good mix.

The conditions have to be pretty bad before the dogs prefer to stay inside, and they definitely didn't feel like going out today. Even though I warmed up their Winter coats in the dryer before I put them on, they made sure to let me know they were ready to go home again as soon as they has done their business.

As you might expect, I didn't attend the Dealey Plaza ceremonies today. I didn't have a ticket anyway, but I'm not sure if I would have attended even if the weather was warm and attendance was open to everybody. I've gone down to Dealey Plaza quite a few times on November 22, just to see the interesting crowd that gathers there. All these people were banned this year. The city fathers wanted a dignified ceremony for the 50th Anniversary. The aging eye-witnesses to the event, the protesters, and the conspiracy theory nuts hawking their self published books weren't invited to today's event. I'm sure they'll be back next year though. I"ll probably go back next year myself.

I went to the Land Rover dealer today instead. There was nothing wrong with my car. I just missed seeing everybody. There were so many things wrong with the Defender 90 in its later years that a trip to the dealership was just about as common as a trip to the grocery store. I knew everybody at that place. Repairs to the Defender grew quite expensive once the warranty ran out, but the service folks were always as nice as they could be. They were still nice today and gave my car a quick check to make sure it was ready for tomorrow's freezing weather.

The thought of doing pet photography during a sleet storm isn't the most appealing thing in the world, but what are you doing to do? You can't take Santa pictures in the Summer. We always get some bad weather during the Santa Paws photo season. I just hope that tomorrow turns out to be a little better than the weather forecasters are predicting.

Since I didn't want to go outside any more than the dogs did, I managed to get quite a bit of work done. The stock market went up today, which helped to compensate for the miserable weather. The house was toasty warm and the furnace appears to be working flawlessly this season. We had a delicious dinner this evening as well. I guess it wasn't such a bad day after all.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1437

I'm sure that a lot of you have already seen the new Bob Dylan video. I'm usually not that impressed by music videos, but this one totally blew me away. The song was Dylan's classic Like a Rolling Stone and the format was an interactive TV set where you could change the channels and see people from real shows like The Price is Right, Pawn Stars, and The Property Brothers, lip syncing the lyrics to the song in perfect sync. There were dozens of channels to choose from and as you changed the channels, you essentially created your own private version of the video. I played the song three times and never saw the same sequences twice. I've been producing videos for decades and have made a few music videos myself, but it never occurred to me that you could do something like this. It was inspirational and somewhat humbling to see something this imaginative and fresh. It makes me realize that most of what I do is pure crap.

I prepared for bad weather today, but the rain never arrived. You'd think since I got all my out-of-the-office chores done early, well before the rain was supposed to arrive, that I could have used the afternoon to get caught up the rest of my work. It didn't work out that way. I ended up getting less done today than on a normal day. I did make it to the gym though. Since I went in the morning this time, I was surprised to see many of the same people I typically see later in the afternoon. I'm convinced that some of these people must live at the place. They're always there.

Janet showed me a new app on her phone that lets you quickly and easily animate a still picture of your pet and make it talk. The results are surprisingly realistic and totally cute. I predict that in a week or so, there will be talking dogs and cats all over Facebook.

I'm having second thoughts about going down to Dealey Plaza tomorrow. I had wanted to see the fiftieth anniversary observances, but from what I hear on the local news the place is going be a media circus. All the major networks are going to be doing live broadcasts from Dealey Plaza tomorrow. The city is already blocking off streets around the Book Depository and parking is going to be impossible. Somebody told me that you're going to need tickets to get in. What's that all about? You've never needed tickets before. Maybe I'll just wait until the fifty-first anniversary when things settle down to normal again.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1436

I woke up late and barely made it to my breakfast meeting. Wednesdays aren't my favorite day anymore. There's just too much going on. I usually change three times on Wednesdays. I wear a suit to the networking breakfast. I change into raggedy dog walking clothes and work boots when I return. Then later in the day, I put on some respectable casual clothes to take Dot for her weekly physical therapy session. I try to complete at least one writing assignment between the dog's morning walk and Dot's vet appointment. Then when I'm back to the office for good, I tackle the day's website revisions.

I'm sure that many of you have much more hectic days than this, but I don't do hectic anymore. If I did, I'd still be sitting in a status meeting at a big ad agency somewhere, instead of working in a quite room with a dog under my desk.

I'm still having problems with my large printer. I guess I waited too long between cleaning cycles. Since I no longer have a need for large museum quality prints, maintaining this complicated printer has become a giant nuisance. The printer is so heavy that I can't even move it by myself, so taking it to a repair center is problematic at best. I had to have a friend help me install the thing years ago and it's sat in the same dusty office corner ever since. Remind me to never buy anything that uses ink ever again.

One of my doctors wants me to take a pill that he says will improve my cognitive abilities. I scoffed at the idea at first and was actually a bit insulted. Hey, my business is thinking up solutions for people and I feel at times that my life is like doing a complex Sudoku puzzle that never ends. Maybe the Doc is right though. Janet changed the dog's food recently and now I can't seem to remember which dog eats which bag of kibble. I have a feeling that I've been feeding Dot's food to Dash for several weeks now.

There are thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow. I hope the forecast is wrong. Rain slows me down tremendously. I think I'm only half as productive on a stormy day. The dogs are terrified of thunder and lightning. I don't like to drive in the rain. And even though I put an entirely new roof on the house this year, I still worry about leaks.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1435

I haven't picked up the guitar in quite a while. It's been even longer since I've taken the telescope outside on a clear evening to look at Jupiter's moons. I can't even remember the last time I spent an entire evening reading a good book. I enjoy these things. So why am I spending so much of my time doing things I don't enjoy? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

I'm not trying to make excuses here, but life has fundamentally changed. The changes aren't big, in and among themselves, but they add up. It takes longer to fix healthy meals than to pick up a burger at a drive-thru. It takes longer to maintain an exercise regime than to watch TV on the couch. It definitely takes longer to earn a decent living. Where are all the assistants and copy typists I used to have? Where is the world I used to love?

Personally, I think that globalization and technology have combined forces to destroy a delightfully inefficient world where jobs were abundant and expectations were low. It isn't really surprising to me that health care isn't working anymore and entire countries are going bankrupt. The complexity of modern life is simply staggering. It is still a world of amazing opportunities, but it's all getting a lot harder to understand and many of us are simply running in place.

I don't have a grand plan anymore. I just get up every morning and methodically move from one task to the next. I always start with the simple things, but sometimes that's as far as I get. I got about halfway done today. The dogs got a good walk. I made it to the gym. I got several articles finished and shipped off to the client. I got stuck on my website project though. I'm confused. I'll need to do a bit more research to figure this one out.

If I wasn't so busy, I might enjoy the beautiful Fall weather we're having a bit more. We're really getting some fabulous Fall color this year. Texas will never be New England, but I see a lot of brilliant reds and yellows as I walk through the park with the dogs. I wonder why the leaves turn bright colors one year and are dull brown the next? I have a feeling that I might be happier if questions like these were the only things I had to worry about.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day