Day 1211

I paid a visit to my watchmaker today. A lot of my clients are irritating, but I always enjoy talking with the watchmaker. He's a charter member of that dying breed of people who can actually fix things and understand how mechanical things work. When I was growing up, the United States was full of these clever, industrious men, but there are very few left. I tried to explain social media to the watchmaker while he repaired a beautiful old Angela Cummings watch of Janet's. The watchmaker and I both love cars, so we talked about exotic machines we've owned and would like to own. The watchmaker has a vintage Porsche and I have an old Maserati. At least his car runs. Mine doesn't. The watchmaker regaled me with stories about inept customers who destroyed their expensive Rolex by trying to fix it themselves. I told him about ad campaigns that failed miserably when the client refused to listen. It was a very pleasant afternoon.

I made an appointment to take Dot to see a neurologist next week. She's going to need a CAT scan to make sure she doesn't have a brain tumor. Apparently, the symptoms that she's been having could be caused by epilepsy, a tumor in the brain, or by something else entirely. A CAT scan, or possibly a MRI of her brain, will help pinpoint the cause of her recent seizures. It's too bad dogs have trouble staying still on their own. A CAT scan or MRI is a relatively simple procedure for humans. I've had many of these scans myself. Part of the procedure involves holding your breath for up to 20 seconds at a time while the image is being created. Not surprisingly, dogs have trouble holding their breath, so they have to be sedated under general anesthesia during the scan. Dot is not going to like all this, but it needs to be done.

My poison ivy is starting to get better. The steroid treatments really do work. There's a downside however. It's not a good idea to take steroids for this sort of thing more than once a year. It  looks like I'm going to have to be extra careful not to catch another case of poison ivy later this summer. This is going to be tough, because I'm seeing the stuff everywhere now. I see fresh, green little poison ivy plants on either side of the trail during our daily walks. I've told Dash to help me out on this, but I don't think he was listening.

There are supposed to be thunderstorms tomorrow, but I hope they don't materialize. I'm not sure if I was able to pinpoint the source of the latest roof leak during last week's round of storms. Not really looking forward to plastic buckets strategically placed all around the living room floor again. Dot is scared of storms too and I'm worried that thunder and lightning might trigger another seizure. Maybe the weather will surprise me and turn out to be nice. I think I deserve that.

Livy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day