Day 2362

There was no avoiding the rain today. I thought I could run a few errands between showers, but ended up being caught in a downpour. Later in the day, I thought I could do the same thing on my evening walk with Dash and got soaked again. The weather radar said we had some time, but I guess we were too slow. By the time we got home, Dash and I looked like we'd gone swimming. Basically, I spent the entire day getting wet and then throwing my clothes in the dryer so I could get them wet all over again a few hours later.

Dot didn't feel like going outside at all and consequently ended up pooping in her bed twice. I've gotten so used to her incontinence that I actually thought this was preferable to standing outside with her in the rain. Cleanup has gotten a lot easier now that I always try to position a disposable pad under her butt before she goes to sleep. If I'm lucky, I can slide out the soiled pad and replace it with a fresh one without even waking her up.

When I was walking Dash this afternoon, I noticed that another house in the neighborhood had been scraped. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this house. It doesn't seem to matter. Slowly but surely, solidly built, unpretentious homes are being replaced by McMansions. What would have been a dream house for our parents doesn't seem good enough anymore. I don't think the new homes with their granite countertops and media rooms will last nearly as long as the older houses that are being torn down, but that doesn't seem to matter. I have a feeling that my own home will be torn down when Janet and I eventually move. It's just too small for today's expansive tastes.

The new battery for my WiFi hotspot arrived today. Ironically, I haven't had to use this alternate Internet access point since AT&T sent me the new router and mistakenly decided I was already using it. I don't know what they've done to my account, but it's never worked better. I'm almost scared to call them now, because I'm afraid they'll run some tests and end up screwing everything up. I hope my curiosity doesn't get the better of me. I'd really like to know what they did.

The city never did pick up last week's trash, so this evening I hauled two weeks worth of trash out to the curb. I hope I have better luck with the garbage truck tomorrow morning. I don't know why taking out the trash has become so problematic. Now, one of the new neighbors has decided to park one of their cars where I usually place my can. This shouldn't bother me, but it does. I have to wheel my can up the street to another location where cars won't block the automated trash truck. Like so many things in life, this used to be so easy.

I don't have a clue where I'm going to have breakfast tomorrow. If this nasty weather continues, I might not go out at all. Actually, when I fixed myself French Toast and sausages last Friday, it was a better meal than I've had in months. Maybe I just go out to eat on Friday's because I'm bored.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2353

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Janet told me this morning, "but the sink is still leaking." I looked under the sink, and sure enough, she was right. The leak was small, but it shouldn't have been there at all. When two plumbers spend the entire day at your house, you'd think they'd check for leaks before they leave. I'm beginning to think it is totally impossible to get something done right the first time. I called the plumbing company and made another appointment. I tried to get some type of assurance that there would be no charge for this visit, since it was the brand new hardware the plumbers had installed just a few day ago that was leaking. "We can't promise anything," the dispatcher told me.

My service guy at the Land Rover dealership called this afternoon to tell me my car was ready. He seemed pleased that he and the service manager had been able to shave almost $800 off my bill. I thanked him for looking out for me and then asked what I still had to pay. "Oh, you'll only owe $2,100 now," he said. Jeez, give me a break. This car is still under warranty. I hate to think what's going to happen when the warranty runs out.

I'm still having problems with my Internet connection, so I called AT&T tech support again. I talked to somebody who was quite knowledgeable the other day, but I wasn't so lucky this time. Why do these big companies have to outsource their tech support to countries where English is a second language. I couldn't understand this guy at all. The conversation became so frustrating that I told the guy that I'd just call back and try again later with a different agent. He persisted in asking me a bunch of questions that had nothing to do with my problem, so eventually I just hung up on him. Two minutes later, the guy calls me back and continued to read from his script. I couldn't believe it. I had to hang up on the guy twice.

I canceled Dot's physical therapy appointment because I didn't think I was going to have a car tomorrow. Now that I have the car back, I debated whether to try to reschedule the appointment. I decide to leave things alone, because Dot has to go back to the cancer center for another ultrasound scan on Friday anyway. One car trip this week is probably enough. Dot seems to be enjoying her lighter schedule, but I don't want her to get any weaker than she already is. We'll go back to therapy next week and have her vet reevaluate her to see if she's still strong enough to continue the water therapy at all.

It wouldn't be a normal day if I didn't have battery problems. Since I've been having issues with my U-verse service, I've been using my little T-Mobile WiFi hotspot a lot. Last week the battery died and I have to use the unit plugged into an AC outlet. The hotspot is only about four years old, but the battery has already become almost impossible to find. I finally located a supplier who said they could special order me a replacement cell. I felt good that something had finally gone right today, but even this small success shouldn't have been so difficult.

Work has become so slow that I'm beginning to wonder whether my clients are reading the blog and have collectively decided that they want a happier person to work on their accounts. Truthfully, I'm too tired to care. All I want right now is a good night's sleep and a poop free day tomorrow. I'll probably get neither.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2044

Dash's blood pressure medication isn't working. When we tested him today, his blood pressure was just as high as it has always been. The vet asked me if I'd like to borrow the blood pressure cuff and take another reading at home when Dash was calm. "He is calm," I said. "This is the way he always is." We're going to have to try a different blood pressure medication. It will probably take just as long to find something effective for Dash as it did for me. I've tried three different blood pressure medications, and none of them is perfect. The reason I took Dash to the vet in the first place was to see if his treatment for Lyme Disease worked. It turns out that that there is no reliable way to test whether the antibiotics worked. We'll just have to have a urinalysis done frequent to make sure there is no kidney damage. I suspect the treatment worked though. Dash shows no symptoms of Lyme Disease whatsoever.

My new website project is finished. I was told today that the design was approved and to go ahead and bill the project. This is good news, but now I'm going to have to find something else to do. Web projects are nice because they keep me occupied longer than writing. I can usually finish my writing assignments in a single day, but it usually takes me at least a week to design a new website from scratch. It's hard to find the right balance of work. I like to be busy enough so I'm not bored, but I don't want to be so busy that I'm stressed out all the time. There's enough stress just dealing with the dogs. I don't need work related stress in my life anymore. Been there, done that.

I guess whatever the U-verse technician did yesterday worked. I've had no problems with my connection all day. Actually, my download speed seem faster, which is almost unheard of with U-verse. They rarely make anything faster. I wish the service was reliable enough that I could just drop my backup T-Mobile broadband account. Every time I think I don't need the T-Mobile hotspot though, our power goes out, or the U-verse Internet gets flaky. I've posted by blog entry quite a few times using the little T-Mobile  4-G hotspot. When it works, U-verse is fabulous. I just don't think it's ready for prime time yet.

I was editing pictures today and came across some old photos I'd taken of Dot and Dash when they were young and active. It was startling to see the differences between then and now. Both dogs were racing around in an open field at full speed. I had forgotten how fast and graceful Dot used to be. She absolutely loved to run. It was sad to see these pictures of her flying through the air and realize that she will never run again. We will be lucky if she can even continue walking using the Help 'Em Up Harness. Dash is still as healthy as a cancer survivor can be, but he's slowed down quite a bit too. I suppose from the right vantage point, Janet and I have slowed down as well. I prefer not to think about that though. The dogs are lucky in a way. When my own legs begin to get wobbly, I'm not sure who's going to be there to keep me moving.

That's all in the future though. I'll still be moving tomorrow. There are dogs to take care of and assignments to finish. It's going to be another hot July day. I wish it was Friday tomorrow, but I can always pretend it's Friday. All these days are more or less the same.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1984

Today didn't exactly go as planned. I didn't get my car back from the shop because, after the wheel was repaired, the paint shop didn't match the color of the other three wheels. It has to go back to the paint shop for a new, and hopefully more accurate, powder coating. The U-verse service technician didn't arrive as promised either. I waited and waited and finally the guy showed up around 4:30 PM. He was supposed to arrive at 1 PM. Since Dot is hard of hearing, she didn't notice when the technician knocked on the door. Several minutes later she saw him in the living room and barked so hard that she pooped on the carpet. This is why you don't want to get an old dog too excited. Barking and pooping often happen simultaneously.

It turns out that the U-verse problem wasn't the router, the TV receiver, the WiFi hub, or anything else in the house. The entire line that runs down the alley has gone bad and needs to be replaced. My technician said that they needed a different type of technician to fix the wire, so I've got a new service appointment for tomorrow. U-verse service is still down. Oddly, even though U-verse is down, Roku, Hulu, Chromecast, and the pet cam, which all connect to the same IP network still work. In many ways losing U-verse is no great loss. Telemarketers are the only people who call on the land line. Roku and Hulu a pretty good alternative to U-verse TV. And my little T-Mobile 4G hotspot is even faster than U-verse Internet service. I wonder why I even bother with U-verse.

Since I was stuck in the house for most of the day waiting for the U-verse technician to arrive, I had lots of time to work on various Internet projects. I added some online forms to one client's site and had enough time left over to finish my first real mobile site. The site looked pretty good, so I went ahead and launched it. Hopefully the client will like what I've done. If they don't, I built in a back-door that will let me revert to the old site very quickly if needed. Working this way is so much faster than trying to schedule a meeting to present something. I don't mind changing things if I've gotten something wrong. It's easy to get feedback from clients if a site is live and almost impossible if they're just speculating about something that doesn't even exist yet.

It looks like the rain is going to continue through the weekend. According to the long-range forecast on my phone, the rain will continue forever. The app looks ahead two weeks and there is a little thunderstorm icon on every single day. It's rained so relentlessly that I'm actually starting to adapt to it. I've rigged up a pump on the roof that will remove about 80% of the water with me needing to be up there. This won't keep the roof dry, but it will significantly reduce the weight of the standing water and make it easier for me to sweep off the remaining water when the rain quits. I'm becoming adapt at finding dry intervals to walk the dogs too. Even the rainiest days have little gaps between the storms.

Supposedly my car will be finished tomorrow and U-verse service will be restored. I kind of doubt that either of those things will happen. The only thing I'm sure of is that the dogs will get two walks and we'll all enjoy a good breakfast

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1875

Dash took his last Palladia pill today. He is officially finished with his chemotherapy treatment. Dash is scheduled for another three-month re-check with his oncologist on Wednesday, but I think we are finally done. We've been doing this chemo routine for so long now that it will seem weird not to don the purple rubber hazardous material gloves every few days to put his medication in a little dogfood meatball for him to eat right after his dinner. Dash seems very healthy now, and I hope he stays that way.

With cancer treatment behind us and last week's satellite launch fading to a fond memory, life has definitely returned to normal. I have re-entered the world of slow drains, toilets that run, impossible deadlines, and birds that poop on my car. To add insult to injury, the weather has returned to normal as well. Instead of yesterday's almost balmy 65 degree temperatures, we woke up to a very chilly 23 degree hard freeze. I don't know how it got so cold in just a few hours, but I didn't dwell on it. We all bundled up and got the day started with a brisk morning walk.

There was lots to do today. I started logging the video footage I shot last week so I can begin editing  soon. There were several website edits I need to make for clients, along with the inevitable pile of bills to pay. I tried to see if I could teach Quickbooks to automate some of these recurring payments, but my version of the software is out of date and doesn't seem to support EFT. It was easier to just write a check and take it to the post office than to figure out something new.

When I went to pick up prescriptions this afternoon, I stopped by the T-Mobile store to see if they knew why my little 4G hotspot didn't work while I was in California. They didn't. This handy gizmo used to be a lifesaver on business trips, but increasingly I find that the mobile hotspot is being blocked by many hotel WiFi systems. I probably don't even need the hotspot anymore, since so many phones offer tethered Internet access these days. I could probably save a lot of money if I could just systematically eliminate things like this that I no longer need. But what do you give up when you think you need everything? I could have actually used that mobile hotspot in California if it had worked.

I'll probably spend half a day editing tomorrow and the other half of the day trying to figure out why Final Cut Pro isn't working properly. I guess I could use Avid Media Composer instead, but I find that it's easier to relearn things I've forgotten when using Final Cut Pro. I used to be so fast using these software tools. Use it or lose it, they say. I've almost lost it. I guess the only thing I do every single day now is write this blog. If I ever forget how to do this, I'm doomed.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 493

Well, I'm ready now for my new role as a roving Internet journalist. I found the 4G hotspot I wanted. It wasn't at the AT&T store. It was at the T-Mobile store across the street. Those guys shouldn't have put the hard sell on me yesterday. I probably wouldn't have even discovered the T-Mobile store if the AT&T guys hadn't been so pushy. All's well that ends well though. I ended up getting a 4G hotspot that five devices can hook up to, along with unlimited file transfer and no contract for less than AT&T was charging for a 5 GB file transfer limit with a two year contract.

The little hotspot fits in my pocket and works like a charm. Best of all, I can even use it with my iPad and iPhone. Now that I know I'll be able to upload something at the conference, it's time to figure out exactly what I'm going to be uploading. There are a lot of nifty little HD cameras that record to memory cards and save files in the native YouTube format. Sound is going to be the big hurdle. Since I will be doing mostly on the spot interviews, I will need to have good quality sound. I'm looking for a little inexpensive camera that has an external line or mic input, so I can use a better quality microphone. I still don't know if they'll let me in the building yet, but I definitely think I'm making progress on everything else.

Dot got her bandage off this afternoon, but she still can't do anything strenuous for the next three or four days or the wound might reopen. She seems completely back to normal and doesn't appear to be in any pain. It's going to be hard to keep her quiet for another three days. It's hard to get used to the appearance of her paw too. One toenail is completely gone, so the whole paw looks out of balance. Hopefully the nail will grow back in a couple of months.

It's hard to believe that Easter is this Sunday. The entire year has gone by in a blur. It's time for Dash to have his annual exam again next week. It's time for me to renew my drivers license. I hope I can do that online, since I hate to stand in those long lines at the DMV. I guess it's time to buy another lawnmower too. The grass in the front yard is starting to look pretty shabby and I still haven't been able to get the old mower to start. It's always something, isn't it. Maybe I'll make a little test video of the Dalmatians this weekend to see how long it take to upload things to YouTube. My grand plan of uploading straight from the conference exhibit hall isn't going to work very well if the video files take an hour to upload. I'm still not really sure how fast 4G is. The sales guys say it is five times faster than 3G. It would be nice if this were actually true.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day