Day 1603

My website prototype was a success. There will be some tweaking in the weeks ahead, but I won't have to start over. In the realm of website design, a little tweaking is always OK. A website is such a fluid medium, that most websites are never finished anyway. It took me a while, but I eventually discovered that you could make more by maintaining websites than by designing them. I always try to get maintenance agreements now, because I've finally learned that whatever I do now will never be considered finished.

Dot had her day of beauty today. In addition to her regular acupuncture and water therapy sessions, she got a much better bath than I've ever given her. She looks and smells wonderful now. The fact that Dot is finally sparkling clean again just makes Dash look even dirtier.

I had trouble getting a prescription renewed today. The doctor said I needed new blood work and would only renew the prescription for three months. I tried to explain that I'd been having blood work done every two weeks by another doctor for the past six months, but apparently that wasn't good enough for them. They wanted to do their own blood work. Whatever. It's not like having my blood drawn is a big deal anymore. Doctors have drawn so much blood from me during the past five years that I'm amazed that I have any left.

Work was quite busy today. It was the usual mix of writing assignments and website revisions, but there just seemed to be a little more on my plate today. I did manage to get everything completed, but with Dot's extended spa day at the vet, there wasn't much time left over. It also took forever to get my somewhat essential prescription renewed. You'd think that doctors, pharmacies, and hospitals could come up with a better way to share information. Everyone else has elaborate cloud-based databases and digital record-keeping systems, but the medical community still prefers to write things down on paper, and share information using very antiquated fax machines. I haven't used a fax machine in years, but all of my doctors continue to use them everyday.

It's going to be harder to remember Dash's chemotherapy pills now. It was easy to remember when a big chunk of my day was devoted to getting him back and forth from the cancer center. Now that we're back to a normal schedule at home, I'll need to come up with a foolproof way to never forget these very important Monday, Wednesday, and Friday pills. As some of you already know, I am a very forgetful person. Janet normally gives the dogs their meds, and when she travels, she carefully places each dog's daily dose in a plastic Zip-lock bag with the day, date and dog's name written in laundry marker on the side. The chemotherapy pills can't be mixed with other pills for safety reasons, and aren't even given at the same times, to avoid mix-ups. The oncologist has even told me to pen Dot in another part of the house while I am giving Dash the Palladia pills, just to ensure that she doesn't accidentally get one by mistake. Probably the fear of doing something wrong will be enough to keep me on schedule. Those purple rubber gloves that I always have to wear when administering the drugs will be a good reminder too.

Rain is headed our way. I have mixed emotions about the upcoming storms. It's been a very dry month and the yard could really use the water, but I still hate rain. Maybe we'll just get a quick downpour to keep the grass green and then it will all be over. Better yet, maybe the storm will move somewhere else, and we'll get nothing at all.

Patches is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day