Day 1256

While I was having my Black Bean Benedict breakfast this morning, two people seated at the next table were trying to explain the concept of purgatory to each other. I can't remember when I've heard a more confusing and convoluted explanation of anything. I'm not much of a believer. Belief requires a certainty I just don't have. I am a good observer though and try my best not to pass judgement on what I observe.

It was difficult not to pass judgement on the roofers carpentry skills however. When I got home from breakfast, I noticed that the new fascia trim the roofers had just finished attaching to the edge of the carport didn't match the existing trim on the house. The lumber they used for the fascia was an inch wider than the existing trim. Didn't the guys notice the obvious mismatch at the joint where the new trim met the old trim at the corner of the house? Jeez! I wish they'd measured the lumber before they nailed it up on the house. When I pointed out out the disparity in the two sections of trim, the guys seemed angry with me. Did they actually think I wouldn't notice this?  One of the roofers finally told me that they would fix the problem, but didn't tell me how. They all left for the day immediately afterwards.

The assignment to provide photography and social media coverage for one of my clients at a big watch and jewelry trade show got approved today. The schedule has changed though. Now I'm leaving earlier and staying longer than I anticipated. I wish I'd known this new schedule several days ago. I recently ordered an airport friendly rolling carry-on camera case in anticipation of this assignment. The UPS website says the case is scheduled to arrive the day after I leave.

It's raining now. The main roof is more or less finished, so I imagine we'll stay dry inside. I wouldn't be surprised if the cars were wet tomorrow morning though. The carport is definitely still a work in progress. When I looked this afternoon, it certainly didn't appear very waterproof to me.

I hope the wet weather clears up soon. We've got a three day weekend ahead and it would be nice to have some beautiful, sunny weather to go along with the holiday. I know the dogs are going to expect a trip to the dog park. Personally, I don't know what to expect anymore.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1255

Today was disheartening at best. I went up and took a look at what was underneath the roof when the roofers pulled the old roof off the carport this morning. What I saw was a lot of old, warped, and rotting wood. The house is hopeless. To bring everything back to the way it was when it was new would require building the house all over again from scratch. I need to keep reminding myself that even though the house looks very contemporary, it is actually quite old. Most mid-century modern homes are over fifty years old by now. I reluctantly told the roofers to replace the rotted wood and just leave the warped wood alone. I simply can't afford to replace everything.

Work was equally disheartening. I spent the day going back and forth about travel arrangements with a client who couldn't seem to accept the fact that that last minute reservations can be quite expensive. If we had agreed on everything a month ago, these expenses would have been more reasonable. At any rate, things just cost what they cost. I like things simple. If you can afford it, I'll do a good job for you. Hell, I'll do a great job. If you can't afford it, it's no big deal. Don't waste a lot of time trying to renegotiate everything. I'm happy enough to just stay here and walk the dogs like I usually do.

The Land Rover still hasn't called me back about my car. I'm beginning to think they lost it. I'm torn between driving up to the dealership and demanding to know what's going on, and just forgetting about the whole thing and continuing to drive the new LR4 for the rest of the Summer. The dealership just doesn't seem to care how long I keep the loaner car.

When the roofers pulled the old roof off the carport today I asked them to be real careful about leaving nails in the driveway. The last roof I put on, I ended up getting two flat tires from hidden nails the roofers had left behind in the driveway. They assured me that there would be no stray nails when they let this evening, telling me that they had a special magnetic tool that could find all of them. After the crew left for the day, I went out in the driveway and quickly found at least ten roofing nails. Did I mention that this entire day has been disheartening.

The dogs seemed happy enough today. I should have taken my cue from them and just taken a long nap. I certainly wouldn't have been any further behind than I am right now. There was a lot of wheel spinning today, but not much forward motion. At least it's Friday tomorrow. There's even a three day weekend to look forward to. I think I'm going back to the restaurant that has my favorite Black Bean Benedict tomorrow morning. I've had about all the oatmeal I can handle this week.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1254

I called the Land Rover dealer about my car this morning and they seemed genuinely surprised that they'd had the Defender over a month now. When I asked what was wrong with the car, they didn't know. The guy I talked to said he'd check and get right back to me. I haven't heard from him since.

I had a hard time concentrating today. There was a noisy road crew re-paving the street in front of our house and of course the roofers were still banging around up on the roof. Dot has an odd reaction to the roofers. No matter how much noise the roofers make, she seems oblivious to them when she's in the house. Outside, it's a totally different story. If she actually happens to see someone up on the roof, she goes nuts barking. I've never seen a clearer case of "out of sight, out of mind." If I didn't know better, I'd think Dot might be going deaf. I know she can hear quite well though. All I have to do is whisper the word "cookie" and she comes running.

One of my clients called today and said they wanted to send me to Las Vegas to cover the upcoming Couture watch and jewelry show. It ought to be an interesting assignment, but I still can't figure out why they waited so long to make a decision. This has been an off again, on again project for almost a month now. If I knew about this earlier, I'm sure I could have gotten a much better deal on hotel and airfare. The closer you get to a departure date, the more expensive the plane ticket and hotel room are going to be.

Janet and I didn't have to wear jackets to dog training class for the first time this season. It was actually quite warm tonight. Dot and Dash seemed to enjoy the nice weather, but they were both pretty stubborn in class. Dot didn't want to lie down and Dash didn't want to stay still. I completed the motley crew by blowing my nose every few minutes. Yes, Spring allergies are back with a vengeance.

After listening to all the experts on TV talk about what to do in case a tornado is headed your way, I realize that our house has no safe room whatsoever. The architect may have though the design was cool, but he should have added a few interior rooms. Even the closets and bathrooms are on exterior walls. There is a ton of glass too. Probably the only thing that would keep the entire house from blowing away would be if one of our big oak trees fell on top  of it.

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1253

I had to cancel Dot's acupuncture appointment today because of the bad weather we're having. Actually, I had to cancel pretty much everything today because of the weather. There were no tornadoes in the area, but we did have some strong straight-line winds and hail. I definitely didn't want to be driving around in the brand new loaner car with a storm phobic Dot in the middle of a hailstorm. We made the smart decision and just stayed home.

It was almost inevitable that the new roof would get rained on before it was finished. I called the roofers and explained what had happened and they assured me that the integrity of the new roof had not been compromised. Well, that's not what they really said. They just told me that if something got screwed up, they would fix it. So far, there is no sign of a leak, so maybe we're OK.

Since I was more or less confined to the house today, I managed to get a lot of work done. I added a ton of cute adoptable cats and kittens to a rescue website. I wrote a press release as if I had attended a glamorous Versace party. Nope. Once again I didn't get to go to the party. Instead, I did a load of wash and made myself a big bowl of oatmeal and fresh fruit. I guess I checked the weather radar on the iPad quite a bit too. It was basically a pretty boring day.

Towards the end of the day, the rain stopped and I was able to take the dogs for their regular walk in the park. There were large downed trees everywhere. I knew it was windy during the storm, but I didn't realize it was that windy. Hopefully, things will dry out tomorrow and stay dry for the rest of the week. I'd really like to get this roof finished sometime in the foreseeable future.

I'm on an e-mail list now for a vintage guitar store in Chicago. I don't know how I got on this list, but it pains me to see the prices on some of the guitars they feature. Jeez, I used to own some of these rare guitars back in the day. If only my Mom hadn't given away all my high school stuff to the GoodWill when I graduated from college and moved to the West Coast, I'd have a small fortune in old guitars. Oh, well. Easy come, easy go, I guess.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1252

I've been watching the news coverage of the devastating tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma this afternoon. Unbelievable! This was the very same town that got hit by the worst tornado on record in 1999. Tornado's are commonplace here in Texas, but it's hard to even imagine destruction on this scale. My heart goes out to the people of Moore. It's going to be a long, long time before the city returns to normal.

Earlier in the day, I was wondering why the roofers seemed in such a hurry to get an exposed section of the roof covered. They must have known that bad weather was on the way. It hasn't rained in Dallas yet, but there are thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow. In retrospect, it might not have been very wise to put on a new roof during what is traditionally known as Tornado Season in Texas. There is no good time to do this sort of thing in Texas, unfortunately. No matter what time of year it happens to be, there is always some sort of bad weather lurking just around the corner.

After the roofing crew left for the day, I went up on the roof to look at what they'd been doing. I think buyer's remorse is already starting to set in. When they were describing to me what the finished roof would look like, I was imagining the top layer of epoxy would be so smooth and shiny that I could see my reflection in it. Admittedly, the roof is not finished yet, but the top layer has already been applied to one section. It doesn't look smooth and shiny at all. It looks a lot more like white cake frosting applied with a butter knife. If the roof repels water, I guess I shouldn't complain. I am a bit disappointed though. I was expecting pretty. Maybe the roofers still have some magic up their sleeves, but so far the new roof is a long way from being considered pretty.

I think people must have spent the weekend thinking up new things for me to do. I was really busy today. Monday's aren't usually like this. I divided my time between solving website problems and writing articles. By the end of the day, I'd managed to get quite a bit done. Hopefully, things will be a lot slower tomorrow because Dot has her regular weekly acupuncture appointment. With a 45 minute drive to the vet, an hour with the needles, and a forty five minute drive back home again, acupuncture eats up quite a bit of time.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that it doesn't rain tomorrow. The roofers assure me that the leaking sections of the roof have already been replaced. I'm not so sure. The roof definitely isn't finished yet. Couldn't the rain just wait a few weeks and let me do this right?

Harley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1251

Everything is back to normal now. We took Dot and Dash to the dog park, where they had a grand time wandering around off-leash and taking in all the new smells of Spring. Dot is much slower now and we have to protect her from the more exuberant dogs, but you can tell that she still enjoys these weekly outings.

When we got home, it was time to mow the grass again. I've never been fond of mowing the grass, but since Janet likes to walk the dogs during the weekend, it's become a way for me to keep my activity levels up to my normal weekday standards. Yes, I've become a slave to the little Jawbone UP wristlet. I hate it now when my step count drops below 10,000 steps a day.

I got some bleach and tried to get rid of the stains in the living room ceiling where the water has been coming through. Now that water leaks are hopefully a thing of the past, I've got to decide whether to have a tape and bed guy replace the damaged Sheetrock professionally, or try to do the repairs myself. I know how to do the work, but it's messy and not a lot of fun. It seems like I was doing something like this when I screwed up my neck a few years ago too. Maybe I should leave this to the pros. Dot won't like having workmen inside the house though. Like most things, this will probably just come down to money. I'll get a couple of bids and we'll see how it goes.

I was surprised to discover last night that John Hurt is going to be the next Dr. Who. The guy is 73 years old. That's got to be the oldest Dr. Who ever. I wonder how that's going to work with all those pretty, young companions? It ought to be interesting though. Hurt is a really good actor. I remember him in Midnight Express and The Elephant Man. He was also the guy that had the creature explode out of his stomach during the original Alien movie.

Dot had a brief panic attack this evening. She seemed so certain that it was going to rain that Janet and I turned on the TV and checked the weather radars, just to make sure. I certainly didn't want it to rain tonight, because rain would have made a mess out of the in-progress roof repairs. I think Dot must have had a false alarm. There was no rain in the vicinity on the weather radar. All the bad weather is up in Oklahoma today.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1250

Sometimes when I listen to all the workmen tramping around up on the roof, I start thinking of myself as a job creator. By putting on a new roof, I've provided a job for quite a few people. Creating jobs is good, right? I should stop right there. After I start thinking of myself as a job creator, the next thing I start thinking about is whether all these jobs are even necessary. It's almost inevitable to start thinking this way, because in almost any work environment, a lot of the people appear to be doing nothing.

This is one reason I hated being a film production company. I always had to hire a crew to shoot the television commercials I was hired to do, and yet I kept thinking that if only the client would give me a lot more time, I could just do the whole thing myself. People never pay much when you do everything yourself though. They expect a dog and pony show. I always had to hire people I didn't really need, just so the clients would think I was professional and that they were getting their money's worth. If writers worked like film crews, they could probably make a lot more money. One writer could just do the verbs, another could be responsible for the adverbs and prepositions, and so forth.

I'm probably being too critical about the workplace. Maybe all the roofers on my roof actually do have a purpose. I don't know. It would seem that you would only need about half as many workers though if they stayed all day. So far, they only seem to stay about half a day and then they all go home.

If I owned a big company, I would be replacing workers with non-complaining machines as fast as I could. I'd be putting robots on the assembly line. I'd be replacing bank tellers with ATM machines. I'd eliminate the store entirely and just sell everything online. Every time I hear someone on TV wondering when all the jobs are going to come back, I just shake my head and wonder. The jobs are never going to come back the way they used to be. Like it or not, a machine is probably going to replace you pretty soon.

What is coming back exactly the way it used to be is the Texas heat. When I was running errands this afternoon, I looked at a thermometer and it was already over 100 degrees. Poor Dot. She really has a hard time dealing with the heat as she gets older and her afternoon walks are getting shorter and shorter. I try not to push her too hard as the temperatures rise. When she's ready to go home again, we turn around, even if we've only gone a few hundred yards. Although walking the dogs is more fun, it looks like I'm going to have to get my Summer exercise by mowing the yard.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1249

It was a busy day. The roofers woke us up with a lot of banging and pounding over our head. It's clear that roofers get off to an earlier start than I do. The dogs have kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude about all the activity. As long as they can't actually see the roofers, they don't bark all that much. I guess they're pretty used to noise on the roof. Quite a few tree limbs have fallen on the roof over the years and of course, I'm up there myself quite a bit getting the water off.

I had lunch with my ad agency friend today. I'll have to admit I was a bit envious of my friend. He drove up in a brand new Lexus IS convertible and proceed to tell me about the fantastic vacation in Rome he just returned from. My friend has never looked healthier or happier. He's on permanent disability. Nice work if you can get it is all I've got to say.

After an unusually healthy lunch, considering the way we both used to eat, I went grocery shopping at Central Market and then returned home to finish my work for the week. I was glad to see the roofers leaving for the day when I arrived. I had put up with all the noise I could handle this morning.

I went to the airport this evening to pick up Janet. I checked the American Airlines website just before I left, to make sure that the arrival time or the gate hadn't changed. They're always changing gate assignments at the last minute. The gate was the same, but the website said that the flight was going to be early. While I was driving to the airport, they must have changed their mind. When I arrived at the designated baggage claim area, I discovered that the flight in question was actually going to be late. This happens all the time. No wonder this company went bankrupt.

Dot and Dash were delighted to see Janet again. Dash got so excited that he started jumping straight up in the air. When he makes these vertical leaps, he can get three feet off the ground. All this activity would have been fine, except he was doing his wild leaping around in the living roof. I'm always scared he'll land right on top of the glass coffee table and cut himself. Once we let the dogs outside to blow off steam, they both quieted down and were calm again. They must have known what was coming next: some tasty dog treats from one of the suitcases in the hall.

I think the roofers said they were coming back tomorrow. Oh, well. We certainly won't need an alarm clock in the morning.

Susie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day