Day 2563

I'm exhausted. My cold should be over by now, but it still persists. By Texas standards, the cold weather should be over by now too, but temperatures were still in the teens when we woke up this morning. I feel like I'm in some weird kind of boot camp. I get up early and go to bed late. In between, I clean up pee and poop, do laundry, and tend to the needs of a crippled dog who seems to have more energy than I do. It's very tiring.

I thought I'd try to write my remaining article right after breakfast, when Dot and Dash typically sleep. This was a good idea, but I guess I didn't write fast enough. Dot woke up before I finished and the last paragraph took longer to write than all of the preceding paragraphs combined. I didn't have a lot of luck with Dot today. She pooped while I was getting her food ready and was so excited to get to her bowl that she stepped in the poop and tracked it all over the kitchen. After I got this mess cleaned up, I thought she'd be safe for a while, but when I returned from walking Dash, I discovered that she'd pooped again.

I got a letter from Social Security informing me of my 2017 cost of living adjustment. I'm going to get an additional ten dollars a month. $10? What kind of cost of living adjustment is that? I don't know why they even bother. I'm almost certain that it cost the government more than $10 just to inform me of the news. I wish that Social Security didn't even matter, but it does. It matters to most people my age. As I grow older, I'm sure it will matter even more in the future.

I eventually did manage to finish my article and send it off to the client. I paid a few bills that were stacking up on my desk and that was it. The day was gone. I think I'm caught up now, so maybe tomorrow will be a little easier. I always think that tomorrow is going to be a little easier, but usually I'm wrong. I try my best to relax, but I'm not very good at relaxing. Today I thought I'd try some controlled breathing exercises while I was helping Dot wander around in the back yard. One channel of my brain was calm and serene, but there was still a back channel that was silently screaming "For the love of god, can you hurry up and pee. I'm freezing out here."

Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. I guess that's why I've been taking so many sunset pictures lately. It's dark when we start on our morning walk and it's dark by the time I finish taking Dash on his evening walk. There was a pretty sunset tonight, but I liked the early morning picture of Dash in his Winter duds better. I suspect that I'll be taking more sunset pictures tomorrow evening. There really isn't enough light to photograph anything else.

I can't believe that Christmas is this weekend. I'm dreading Christmas this year. Janet leaves to visit her family soon and I'm still trying to figure out how to manage the dogs morning and evening routines myself. Janet has made me a labeled packet of the dog's pills for each day she is gone. That will help. I've been practicing walking Dot by myself. She's even slower without Dash to follow, but she is willing to walk by herself. That's good too. I'm already an expert at cleaning up poop. I guess we'll be fine.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day