Day 3202

My mind wanders at the gym. I think about things. What if disease and famine were meant to be part of our existence? Did we accidentally become smart enough so that we could ignore the rules that applied to everything else on the planet? Humanity has spread like a Kudzu vine, destroying everything in its path? When I go to the doctor, I sometimes wonder if I should just eat healthy food and take my chances. I take a lot of pills that didn't even exist 40 years ago. Was I meant to live that much longer than my grandparents. Modern medicine has dramatically extended our lives and increased our numbers, but was that really what nature intended?

We have risen to the top of the food chain and eaten all the other animals. The oceans are systematically being depleted of fish. The forests have been chopped down to build houses for us. So much oil has been pumped from the ground that it is causing earthquakes. I read statistics occasionally that say there are still plenty of animals left on the planet. When you read the fine print, you discover that only a tiny percentage of what remains are actually wild animals. The vast majority of animals that remain on the planet are cows and pigs that are being raised for food. 60 percent of the mammals are livestock, 36 percent are humans, and just four percent of the living mammals on the planet are wild. I wonder if we have become too smart for our own good. Maybe our cleverness just guarantees that we will be extinct soon. Would the Earth be safe if we quit trying to live forever?

I don't know the answer to these things, but it makes the time go faster on the treadmill. I was terrible on the basketball court today. I couldn't connect with anything. Maybe some residual emotion from yesterday was seeping out of the base of my brain and destroying my hand/eye coordination. Fitbit says my resting heart rate is higher this week as well. Not good. I need to take a deep breath and just turn off the television.

We tried some new protective coverings for the bed last night, but they didn't really work. Two or three times a night, Dash will wake up and circle around on the bed to find a new position. When he does this, the blankets and protective coverings just get crumpled and wind up in a ball. This is a work in progress. Luckily, Dash made it through the night and pooped outside early this morning. I actually got some sleep last night.

I'm thinking about applying to participate in another NASA event. This one takes place in Houston, so travel would be easy. The are so many flights to Houston from Dallas that I might even be able to return the same day. This is all good. The bad thing is that I think I've lost my mojo. NASA seems to be looking for social media stars. That's definitely not me.

The catalog for the second auction came out today. My remaining art looks pretty good. The first auction takes place later this week. This will all be over soon. When I look at these catalogs it still seems strange that these things used to hang on my wall.

There was a beautiful sunset tonight. We've got to start walking earlier though. By the time we got home, it was completely dark.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1810

I'm having trouble remembering what day it is. Did we wash the dogs today or yesterday? Both days certainly started out the same. We've been blessed with wonderful weather this holiday weekend. We take a long early walk with the dogs, followed by a hearty breakfast of ham and eggs. It's usually almost noon by the time we finish the breakfast dishes, so it seems appropriate to spend the rest of the day doing something useful.

Today, I thought I'd fix the broken storage drawer on the pedestal under the washing machine in the utility room. The front-loader washing machine sits on this raised pedestal to make it easier to load and unload. There is a handy drawer in this pedestal where you can store your detergent, plastic trash bags, or in our case, tons of Tupperware containers that we never use anymore. For some reason, this drawer won't close anymore and I always have to find something heavy to prop in front of it when I do laundry.

You'd think the drawer would just slide out, so I could see if there was anything jammed underneath. Nope! I had to spend twenty minutes on Google, looking for instructions on how to disassemble the thing. I empty all the crap out of the big metal drawer, find the right tools, take the drawer apart, and try to find the problem. Other than a thick layer of dust on the brick floor under the washer, everything looked fine.

I cleaned the drawer and its contents. I scrubbed the dirty floor underneath. Then I put everything back together again. After all this work, the drawer still slid forward. I had accomplished nothing. The problem was that the pedestal wasn't level anymore. Over the years, the vibrations from too many heavy towel loads had caused the leveling screws to shift and tilt the entire pedestal slightly downhill. The technicians who installed the washer and dryer had leveled the pedestal very precisely before they placed the very heavy front-loader on top of it. In order to level things again, I would have to remove the washing machine, which was impossible. This is why you should be very careful before you attempt to make a simple repair. Simple things can turn difficult very quickly.

After wasting hours messing around with the washing machine, I barely had time to go to the grocery store and pharmacy before it was time to walk the dogs again. We did have a very nice walk as the sun set behind us and then returned home to enjoy a nice dinner. I suppose that I could have made better use of this beautiful day, but at least I won't wonder why that drawer isn't working anymore. Janet bought something at Ikea today, so I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1430

I wonder what my day would look like if I just did what the dogs wanted? We wouldn't get up until 10 AM. Our walks would slow down to a snail's pace, so there would be plenty of time to examine and smell every single bush along the way. When we eventually arrived home, we would spend the rest of the day eating. Truthfully, this simple canine hedonism sounds much better than the way I actually spend my day. Although my own temperament is very much like a lazy Dalmatian, I spend my days like one of those caged Hamsters continually on the run inside one of those spinning exercise wheels.

Yes, it was another busy day. I had writing assignments to finish. I had to go back to the storage warehouse to get the photo equipment I forgot the other day. There were bills to pay, groceries to buy, and a DVD full of pictures and videos to burn for a client's Facebook page. I managed to make it to the gym again as well.

At least I'm not in the insurance business. Those guys must be tearing their hair out tonight. After the government forced them to spend three years radically changing their entire business model, the president gets on TV today and essentially says "Never mind, Just kidding. You can all go back to the way it was before if you want." Something tells me that it isn't going to be easy to go back to the way it was before. The horse is already out of the barn on this one.

We saw a fantastic sunset on our evening walk tonight. A couple of years ago I could have taken along a high resolution SLR and gotten some equally fantastic images. Not anymore. Taking a large camera with me is close to impossible these days. Dot has gotten frail and Dash has completely forgotten how to heal at my side. Keeping Dash from knocking Dot over as he roots around trying to find fresh horse poop along the trail is a two hand job. Having two dog that would dutifully heal at my side is just a distant memory now. The dogs enjoy their walks as much as the ever did. It just seems a lot harder to keep them moving in a straight line.

If I had the time and the money, I'd probably go out to breakfast every morning. I'm surprised at how much I look forward to my Friday morning breakfast outings. I don't understand all the people who bring their laptops along with them when they go out to eat. I see these folks all the time. To me, the whole point of my Friday breakfast is to get away from the computer for a while. That's exactly what I'll be doing tomorrow morning.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1422

The speaker at today's breakfast meeting was a financial planner who talked about how an increasingly global economy will affect your investments in the years ahead. I happen to agree with his somewhat gloomy assessment that printing money only postpones problems and that in the long run, our current economic situation is unsustainable. We have opened a Pandora's Box that can't be closed and there are many economic bubbles out there that will eventually burst. I just hope that that it will take at least forty years for the world to start looking like a scene from Mad Max at Thunderdome. I'll be gone by then. Ten years, or even twenty years, is a little too soon to return to the Middle Ages for me. I'd just as soon continue to live in denial and pretend that everything's fine.

Dot was certainly in fine form today. She was strong and steady on her morning and evening walks and did exceptionally well at her physical therapy sessions. Just about every Dalmatian I've gotten to know seems to prefer cooler weather and Dot and Dash are no exception. Temperatures in the mid-50's, like we had today, invigorate them. Personally, I'd prefer the temperature to be about 20 degrees higher, but I'm not going to be picky about these things. I'll be the first to admit that it was a beautiful day.

I got several new assignments today. This should keep me busy through the end of the week. If there's time left over, I'll sweep the standing water off the roof and wash the car. I won't wash the car with water from the roof though. It is already stained a tobacco brown from all the pecan shells. I'm going to try to get back to the gym tomorrow. I got the results from one of my recent blood tests in today's mail and for the first time in about six months, they are looking good again. That's really all the encouragement I need to continue with my diet and exercise regime. I just like to know that something is working.

Sunsets are back again. The dogs and I had a pleasant sunset walk along the shoreline this evening. I enjoy this time of day, but it's a moving target. I'll need to remember to walk the dogs a little earlier each day as the days grow shorter. You've got to time these excursions right, because the difference between dusk and complete darkness is only about thirty minutes.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1131

I took my car to the car wash today. Janet likes clean dogs, but it's a clean car that does it for me. The old Defender looks almost new when it is sparkling clean. The only problem I had was setting the side mirrors again. The side mirrors on the Defender are so tiny that unless they are positioned perfectly, you can't see anything at all. I need the side mirrors because a big metal dog crate obscures my vision from the rear view mirror on the windshield. There are no electric buttons to move these mirrors. You have to get out of the car, monkey around with the mirror, then get get back in the car and see if you'd adjusted things properly. After three of four tries, I could see the road behind me again and I was on my way. A clean car didn't make the grocery shopping go any faster, but I did feel better.

I got another gift card in the mail from Klout this morning. This time it was from McDonalds. I own some McDonalds stock, but I can't say that I eat at the place very often. A Big Mac isn't exactly my idea of a healthy meal. Hey, I'll eat anywhere if it's free though. Maybe I'll go have an Egg McMuffin for breakfast some day.

I watched a few old Top Gear episodes on TV while I was cleaning the house this afternoon. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are my heroes. They've managed to make a great living bumbling about, playing tricks on each other, and driving fast cars. Given a choice between being an accountant, a civil servant, or driving around in the latest Ferrari, I think most guys would choose to be James May. I probably shouldn't make such a sweeping statement though. Guys who drive a Prius probably don't like Top Gear at all. Most of them would probably rather be Al Gore than Richard Hammond.

The days are already starting to get longer. Since we tend to walk around sunset at this time of year, I can see small differences almost every day. Less than a month ago the sun was starting to set when the dogs and I started our evening walk. Now, the sun doesn't reach the horizon until we are almost home again. Lots of people were out in the park today. I heard a woman scream when I was watching the sunset today. It wasn't what I thought though. Somebody's radio controlled model aircraft had run out of gas and almost hit the woman when it unexpectedly fell out of the sky. You never know what to expect in the city. I'm glad the model plane didn't hit the dogs.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1061

One down, four to go. These Santa Paws pet picture events are pretty familiar by now, but there are still some surprises. Today I photographed the largest Great Dane I've ever seen in my life. I've seen plenty of Great Danes, but this one was humongous. He was at least 30% bigger than your average Dane and was still only two years old. This gentle giant was a model of good behavior, something that couldn't be said for many of the smaller breeds that sat on Santa's lap today. Like I've said many times, I have the easy job at these events. It was Santa who had his hands full.

I continue to be amazed at how popular pet photography has become in recent years. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more dogs sitting on Santa's lap this year than children.  Although I mostly take pet pictures to help out my favorite charities, I know of almost a dozen photographers here in Dallas who make taking pictures of people's pets their full time job. Photographing dogs does have its advantages. Unless they're trying to bite you or pee on the set, they are generally very agreeable subjects.

Dot and Dash stayed home today while Janet and I worked the Santa Paws event. Needless to say, they were both very happy to see me when I returned. We took an extra long walk this evening and got to see an exceptionally beautiful sunset. The wind picked up during our walk and you could tell that changes were on the way. The weather forecast says that we might get severe thunderstorms and damaging hail tomorrow. I hope not. We've got another pet related event to attend.

I don't even know if it's worth putting the large pile of photo gear I dragged in from the car a few hours ago away. We've got other pet photography events on deck from now until Christmas. Probably I'll get tired of stumbling over things soon enough and put everything back in its place in a day or two. I'm not going to worry about the clutter tonight though. Tonight, I'm going to go to bed early and rest my aching bones.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day