Day 3183 - 9/11

Pretty soon September 11 will be like December 7. Babies born in 2001 are entering college now. It's just a matter of time before this day becomes a page in a history book instead of a shared memory for an entire nation. Pear Harbor was real for my Dad. He fought in World War II. 9/11 was real for me. I took this picture of the twin towers out of my hotel room window in the late 1970's when I used to fly from Seattle to New York to edit commercials. I enjoyed my periodic visits to lower Manhattan back then. Anyone could walk around the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and it was always exciting to take the express elevator to the roof of the South Tower and look out over the city. I always wanted to eat at Windows on the World but never got the chance. It was a little pricey for a young advertising copywriter.

Sometimes I think the terrorists won. The world is not a friendly place anymore. We have become hopelessly divided on just about everything. My Dad spent several years in the Pacific during World War II and there was a clear and decisive victory. We've spent decades fighting in the Middle East and accomplished nothing. I don't have a lot of hope for the future. If we can't collectively agree on anything, it's going to be very difficult to fix anything. It's interesting. People used to spend a lot of time envisioning utopias. Now, we've replaced these utopian futures with dystopian calamities. Science fiction used to be about how we were going to reach the stars. Now, it's mostly about how we're going to die.

We didn't get off to a good start this morning. Dash pooped in the bed again and when we took him to his vet appointment, he didn't want anyone to even get close to his feet. Our very patient vet was finally able to trim Dash's nails, but it wasn't easy. Hopefully, we won't need to do this again for another two months. It's kind of alarming how easily Dash bleeds now that he's on Plavix. We were super careful about avoiding the quick, but several nails still bled a bit. I wish we'd come away with a good solution for ending Dash's loose stools, but there are too many possible causes. Dash's age, the meds he's taking, and his multiple illnesses all contribute to the problem.

I was glad I was able to walk Dash before our appointment this morning. By the time we left the vet, it was already starting to rain. The rain continued off and on for the rest of the day. We had a short power outage, but the lights came back on again before I was able to file a report. I have no idea why the power went out. There was no wind and the rain was just a gentle shower. Even though the outage was short, I still had to reset all the clocks and automatic timers. Just about everything has a clock in it these days. Even the thermostat and the coffee maker needed to be reset.

Dash doesn't want to go outside because it is raining. This increases the odds that he will poop in the house tonight. I've thought about placing puppy training pads under him while he sleeps. This worked with Dot when she became incontinent but I'm not sure if we'd have any success with Dash. Dash is still mobile enough to move around at night while we're asleep. He can poop just about anywhere.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day