Day 1999

For the second night in a row, Dash woke me up at 3 AM to go outside and poop. Something isn't normal. He doesn't have diarrhea, but he can't hold it till morning either. He also began taking doxycycline for Lyme Disease today. I don't think these two events are related. They are just part of a never ending saga of dog problems. I'm still not sure whether Dash actually has Lyme Disease, or whether the antibiotics are just a precaution. We'll probably never know. The test just said that he was exposed to the disease.

The replacement part I ordered for the refrigerator arrived this morning. After a quick repair, the ice maker works again. It's probably too early to celebrate though. I still don't know what actually caused the auger inside the ice maker to break. I read on the Internet that there is a special sensor in the freezer that periodically triggers the automatic defrost cycle. This is why you don't have to defrost modern freezers anymore. If this sensor goes haywire, the defrost cycle can stay on too long, causing ice in the ice maker tray to melt a bit and then freeze back together in a clump. This big clump of ice is usually too much for the plastic auger which moves the ice to the dispenser on the freezer door. Big clumps of ice probably caused the auger in our refrigerator to break. If the new auger I bought breaks too, I'll probably wish that I had just called the appliance repairman. For the moment, everything works perfectly.

Things dry up quick in Texas as soon as the rain stops. I noticed that the ground wasn't wet and mushy anymore, so I ran the sprinklers for the first time in over a month. It would be a shame to let the lawn wither and die after it got off to such a great start in May. I don't think I have to worry about yellowing, dried up grass quite yet though. Everything in the yard is still growing nicely. Things are growing so nicely in fact that is was already time to mow the grass again.

With the grass mowed and the yard looking better, I went and ran my regular Saturday errands, stopping to pick up Dash's doxycycline at the vet on the way home from the grocery store. Dot was feeling stronger today, but neither dog wanted to spend much time outside. Dalmatians don't like the heat, and it was over 90 degrees this afternoon. The dogs were smart to spend most of the day napping on their dog beds. Just mowing the grass in the unfamiliar heat wore me out.

I followed the dogs lead and spent the rest of the afternoon indoors, getting started on my fifth mobile friendly website. I'm becoming familiar with this new landscape now and am designing in a much more structured way. I have to be much more methodical about coding than I was before. All-in-all, it is much harder to put together a website using this new responsive design methodology. What Google wants, Google gets though. I just don't see many other alternatives. One surprising bonus from my new found consistency is that my designs actually look better than they used to. Consistency was never one of my strong points, so the forced discipline of structured HTML is actually very beneficial.

Lets hope that Dash sleeps through the night this evening. It would be nice if whatever is giving him the runs turns out to be something simple like eating horse poop. If it is related to Lyme Disease, it could be more serious. I saw on TV that the new dog park in our neighborhood is finally open. I bet Dash would like to try out this new park. He's been so good at walking very slowly with Dot in the mornings, that he deserves a chance to race around like a nut in the dog park.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day