Day 3193

I was so tired this morning. Dash got me up three or four times last night. As soon as I got him outside, he seemed to forget why he was out there and just wandered around aimlessly. As soon as I brought him in again, he would remember he needed to do something and head for the back door again. We did this over and over. Eventually he pooped and we went back to bed. About thirty minutes later, we woke me up again. This time he needed to pee. He wouldn't pee right away though. We had to leave the house three more times before he got the urge. This has to be some form of dementia. Sometimes he goes outside and has no idea why he's out there. This is one of the reasons why he frequently poops in the house. When Dash's brain finally kicks into gear and gets the message that it's time to go, it's often too late.

By the time I got back to sleep again, it was already time for Dash's morning walk. Janet got me up and we got Dash ready. I thought it was early, but I obviously wasn't thinking clearly. By the time we returned home it was almost too late to go out for breakfast. I was hungry though, so I drove to the hotel anyway. I made it a few minutes before they closed the kitchen.

I've been thinking that I'd found my new favorite place, but service was slow this morning and the place was crowded. The food was still good though, so I'll give Knife the benefit of the doubt. It was British Month at Central Market so I stopped by on the way home from breakfast and picked up some Steak and Stout pies, Celeriac Slaw, and Cumberland Sauce for dinner. Maybe next time I'll try a Scotch Egg and some Tikka Masala. When life is dull, something interesting to eat always does the trick.

I found myself falling asleep during the day. I really didn't get much sleep last night. I guess it didn't really matter if I wasn't very productive today. It's hard to get behind when there's nothing to do. I eventually made the bed, did some laundry, and repaired a pair of Dash's protective boots. I switched on the TV several times, but quickly turned it off again. I'm sick of politics.

It's nice that the market is at an all time high again. I think the last time was back in January. Why is it that every time the market is at a high point, my own stocks are actually lower than they were at the last market top? This happens frequently. I'd complain to my broker if it weren't for the fact that I've agreed with every trade we've made this year. You just can't predict the future.

I wish Dash was stronger, but I think he's doing the best he can. Getting old is a bitch. His overall weakness is caused by his heart disease and the shaky stance and vertigo are caused by the Vestibular Disease. There is no cure for either. I try my best to keep Dash as comfortable as possible. I know this is my own fate someday. I often wonder who will take care of me.

Rowe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2703

It's even harder to tell what day it is now that I'm not going out to breakfast on Friday morning. I'll have to say that my pancakes were pretty good though. They were better than any restaurant pancakes. The only problem was that I had to reheat them in the microwave half a dozen times because every time I took a bite, Dot wanted to go outside.

Dot's new schedule is perplexing. She generally wakes up in a good mood. We take our early morning walk and sometimes she eats a little while Dash is eating his breakfast. By the time I give Dot her morning pills, Dash is usually taking a nap. After taking her pills, I try to feed Dot again, but usually she isn't hungry. She doesn't want to rest either. I might as well just skip breakfast because I'm constantly moving Dot around for the first hour or so after she takes her medication. She doesn't seems to be uncomfortable. She is just restless. We walk around a lot. I figure this is good exercise for her. Eventually she gets tired and goes into a deep sleep. She sleeps more soundly during this period of time than she does at night. By the time I wake her up for her afternoon pills her appetite has generally returned. She eats most of her food between 4 and 6 PM. Sometimes she'll eat more as the evening progresses. If I'm lucky, she'll take a nap when I'm writing the blog and then just when I'm getting ready for bed, she becomes active again.

This type of activity is not conducive to getting much done. It's not great for getting a lot of sleep either, because now there's an additional trip outside to pee every morning around 2 AM. We've learned to adapt to the incontinence, the mobility problems, and the eating difficulties. It makes you wonder what's going to happen next though.

After Dot went to sleep, I drove to Central Market and got some food for the weekend. They were having some kind of celebration of southern cooking, so there were all kinds of tasty new items in the Chef Prepared section. We seldom cook anymore, so something new in the deli section is always a treat. Tonight we had grilled shrimp and Andouille sausage over a bed of smoked grits and red onions. It would have taken hours to make something like this at home. Cooking is overrated.

Dot's changing moods throughout the day make me wonder how the pain pills actually work. I would think by giving her the medication every eight hours, that she would be pain free all the time. Maybe the pills don't really last eight hours though. Maybe it takes a long time for the medication to actually enter her bloodstream. I hope Dot's restless periods aren't just times where she is still in pain. This will be a question for the oncologist when we go back to the cancer center for a recheck next Tuesday. Cancer pain and neurological pain are very different. I'd like to learn more about what is actually happening when we give her these pills.

There are supposed to be thunderstorms tonight. I can see them on the radar West of Fort Worth. Let's hope the go to the North or South of us. I'm not in the mood for thunderstorms.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2647

The rain didn't begin when it was supposed to, but it was still a cold, rainy day. I stayed home and made French Toast this morning instead of going out to eat. I make French Toast better than most restaurants, but that still doesn't make me a good cook. The dogs seemed glad that I changed my plans, although I probably could have left the house anyway. This was a fairly quiet rain without the lightning and thunder that typically upsets Dot and Dash.

Rain wasn't the only thing that slowed me down this morning. We tried a new plan to get Dot out of the house without peeing on the rugs and it didn't work very well. We removed all the rugs before waking Dot up, but as it turned out, cleaning pee off the bricks was just as much trouble as washing the rugs. Actually, some of the rugs got wet anyway when we mopped the floor. I think the only solution is to get a sleeping bag and sleep next to Dot near the back door. Even that might not work, since Dot likes to sleep with the entire family nearby. You might think the obvious solution would be to waterproof her bed well and just let her pee before we even attempt to move her. I've tried that and it doesn't work. Apparently it is motion that causes Dot to start peeing. If I just stand her up in her bed, she doesn't do anything.

Dot and I both ran out of pills today. I had a prescription for me to pick up in one part of town and a prescription for Dot in another. Dot's pills were cheaper than mine. Dogs and people share a lot of the same medications, but when they are prescribed by a human doctor they are almost always more expensive. This just shows how horribly broken our health care system is. I'm convinced that my dogs get better care than I do. Veterinary care is reasonably priced and the veterinarians are highly trained. The specialty vets Dot and Dash see at the cancer center are as good as any human doctor I've ever seen. Nobody expects veterinary care to be free and yet people still take good care of their dogs and cats. I've never really understood why human medicine couldn't be the same.

On my way home from running errands I stopped at Central Market to pick up something for dinner. I was intrigued by a new section of the store that encouraged customers to "build your own bowl." These bowls seemed to be a cross between the trendy Buddah Bowls favored by vegans and hipsters and the meaty Mongolian fare found at Genghis Grill. How did these bowls get to be so popular? Basically, both the meat and meat-free varieties are just a bunch of food served in a bowl. I didn't build a bowl today, but I'll probably try this later. One dish meals have always appealed to me.

I don't know why I'm worried about the coyotes. It's the loose dogs in the neighborhood that are really the problem. A loose dog came after Dot this afternoon while we walking down the street. Luckily, the dog was well behaved, because when I called for the owner and yelled at the dog to stay, it actually did stop and went into a sit/stay. I don't understand people. The owners of this dog have a nice big fenced back yard, but they let their dog out front where there is a busy street and no fence at all. Even if there weren't injured dogs walking nearby, the dog could have easily been run over by a car.

It's been a long week. I'd like to do something besides wash rugs and clean up dog poop this weekend, but that will depend on Dot. She's been keeping me pretty busy.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2248

I couldn't figure out why I've been getting more telemarketing calls lately and then I discovered that Facebook had added a "Call Now" button to my company page. They didn't ask me if I wanted this button. They just added it. This is typical of Facebook. They add, subtract, and change things routinely without any warning. Needless to say, I didn't want a "Call Now" button on my Facebook page. I get enough junk calls as it is. I deleted the button and hopefully things will go back to normal.

It's time to renew my car insurance again. Why do insurance rates always go up? They never seem to go down. I now pay more to insure one car than I used to pay when I insured two. Homeowners insurance, health insurance, liability insurance; it's all the same. Rates go up, but when you read the fine print, you discover that your coverage has actually decreased. There's not much you can do unfortunately. I paid my bill and resigned myself to another month of frugality and living within my means.

At least I had a few good years back when the world was sane. I'd hate to be young and entering the workforce right now. For the most part, young people are fucked. Salaries have declined. Job security is non-existent. And virtually everything has gotten more expensive. I think I only paid about $1,500 per semester for college and I got a very good education. I had no student loans and graduated with no debt. I had a part-time job in the college library that paid for most of my expenses. This would be impossible these days. No wonder college kids are overwhelmingly for Bernie Sanders. High taxes mean nothing if you've got no money to begin with. If I were young, I'd definitely be feeling the Bern.

When I was fixing dinner tonight, I noticed that the steamed vegetables I was going to warm up for dinner had a bad smell to them. I threw them away. I only bought these vegetables on Sunday, so they shouldn't have gone bad already. This happens frequently now. Janet and I don't cook much anymore, so I buy a lot of food at the chef prepared counter at Central Market. Everything tastes great if you eat it right away, but it doesn't last long. I'm beginning to think that Central Market uses this deli counter to get rid of food in the store that is nearing it's expiration date. Nothing in the chef prepared section seems to last longer than three days, and if you pick up something that was made using milk or dairy products, you'd better eat it right away. I still don't like to cook. I wish I could find fresh, tasty food that lasted all week and didn't require much preparation. My breakfast smoothies are perfect. Eggs easily last a week. Bananas and fresh fruit last quite a while, if you make sure they're not too ripe when you buy them. Ice cream lasts forever in the freezer. Ditto for oatmeal. Dump these ingredients in the Vitamix and thirty second later you've got a delicious meal. Dinners are more problematic. I like to eat something solid for dinner.

I need to remember that Dot's physical therapy appointment is earlier than usual tomorrow. It's hard enough staying on schedule at her regular time. I'm going to have to get up early. Wait. I get up early every day. I'm going to have to do something else.

Landry is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2041

People give me Starbucks gift cards from time to time. I always used to use these cards for having coffee with friends. Today I used my gift card  to get more Keurig pods. I had no desire to chat with anyone over coffee. That pretty much says it all. I've gone from drinking alcohol alone to drinking coffee alone.

Dot still does OK on her early morning assisted walks. She's not getting any stronger though and it worries me. It's going to be a really tough choice if it comes down to continuing her chemotherapy and facing increasing lameness, or stopping it and watching the cancer become more aggressive. I have to remember that the Palladia may have nothing to do with Dot's recent difficulties, but my gut feeling is that there is a connection. She started having problems with her legs again about the same time she started chemotherapy.

It was a busy day. I took a small check to the bank and then paid the utility and cable company bills for July. A lot more money went out the door than came in. I picked up some more prescriptions on my way back from the post office. It's seems like I am always renewing prescriptions. All of the pharmacists know me by name. I filled the car up with gas, got Stevia at the health food store, and picked up trash bags and other staples at Sam's Club. Instead of mowing the grass, I watered it. Things are starting to look pretty dry.

There wasn't much point in doing yard work today. It was just too hot. After finishing my Saturday errands, I spent the rest of the afternoon inside. There are always websites to update, so I added some new dogs and cats to a rescue website I manage and then took a short nap with the dogs. I should have taken a much longer nap, because I've not been sleeping well lately. My Jawbone UP band says I'm only getting about five hours a night. Most of this isn't deep sleep either. If Dot starts breathing irregularly, I wake up. If her leg gets stuck, I get up and reposition her. If the temperature goes up two degrees, I wake up. Sometimes I wake up remembering that I forgot to wear my Essix retainer before I went to bed and I get up and put in in my mouth. I often wake up with a dry mouth and go to the kitchen for a drink of water. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to sleep at all.

We had Cowboy Burgers from Central Market again tonight. If you haven't tried these, they are the best hamburger patties ever. I don't know what kind of beef or spices they use, but to me, this is what a burger was meant to be. It doesn't matter whether you grill them or pan fry them on the stove, they always come out great. Having a big meal like this tonight almost guarantees that I will have to go to the gym tomorrow. With the complexities of my current life, I think once a week on Sunday afternoon is the only workout I'm going to be able to manage. It's hard to get Dash to the dog park too, but that's on the schedule for tomorrow as well. For now, it's about time go call it a day. Everyone else in the house has already gone to bed. I've still got to brush my teeth and take my evening meds, but I'll be joining them soon. Maybe watching some really old Dr. Who episodes on TV will help me get to sleep.

Beemer is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1823

I was very impressed with my physical therapist today. She was thorough, informative, and was able to map out a comprehensive two month treatment program that should lead me toward greater mobility. It turns out that there is a lot more wrong with me than I thought. My shoulder problems were obvious, but there were also still problems with my neck and left hand. The therapist said that I didn't exhibit any of the classic symptoms associated with carpal tunnel syndrome and suspected that I have damaged or injured some of the small bones in my hand instead. She said that my right shoulder wasn't dislocated, but that the shoulder muscles on that side of my body were extremely tight and were preventing the shoulder joint from operating properly. The remedy is lots of supervised stretching exercises.

Some of you may remember the horrible problems I had with my neck during a trip to Las Vegas a few years ago. The physical therapy I had after that painful incident worked amazingly well, but it wasn't pleasant. They gradually stretched my spine, so that the soft tissue that had become encapsulated or pinched between the vertebrae were freed and my neck could move again. At one point they put me on a machine that seemed very similar to a medieval rack and literally stretched my entire neck. Yikes! I hated those sessions, but they worked. I've never really had a problem with my neck again. I think I've got a lot of uncomfortable stretching in my immediate future.

My cold seems to get worse every day. I guess it isn't really getting worse. It just continues moving to the next phase. My initial fever seems to have ended. My sore throat isn't as bad either. Unfortunately, these symptoms have been replaced by a terrible runny nose and a persistent headache. When I get a bad cold, it almost always lasts at least a full week. I've still got several days to go before the worst is over. I was really hoping that I'd start feeling better before this weekend's back-to-back Santa Paws photo shoots, but that's not going to happen. I need to remember to throw a big roll of paper towels and a large sack of cough drops in my lighting bag tonight. At this rate, I could probably be part of the photos, as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

I haven't felt like cooking all week, so I picked up a barbequed pulled pork sandwich at Central Market's new little in-store restaurant on the way home from my physical therapy appointment. The sandwich and accompanying fresh sweet potato fries looked delicious, but I don't think I appreciated my dinner as much as I should have. A bad cold destroys your sense of taste. I could have been eating cardboard. What I should have done was skipped dinner entirely and just gone to bed early.

I saw on the Internet today that NASA is going to provide full press credentials to a select group of bloggers, so they can write about an upcoming satellite launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base. I think I'm going to apply for this press pass. If NASA accepts your application, you will get to interview space scientists, take a special tour of the Vandenberg launch facilities, and watch the launch itself from an up close VIP location. I've always been a huge fan of the space program and all NASA wants is a chance to expand their social media presence in new and different ways.  Hey, I'd be more than happy to write about a satellite launch on the blog. This isn't a contest or a prize. It is just chance to get official NASA press credentials. The only downside is you have to pay for the trip to California for the launch yourself. This is a media event, so I guess that Some Assembly Required would have to pick up the tab. It would certainly be exciting to be accepted though. I hope I do better on this than I did on the Amtrack Writers in Residence grant. That didn't go too well. Too bad I didn't get accepted for that one. Then I could have taken the train to California.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1792 - Veteran's Day

I thought I'd try to put the greenhouse back together today. As you might expect, the job was a little more difficult than I would have hoped. This greenhouse began life in the 1950's as a cleverly designed prefabricated kit. The Fort Worth company that made the greenhouse hasn't existed for decades and the thought of finding spare parts is laughable. I've always been impressed with how precisely everything fits together, but you just can't go to to Home Depot when something breaks. I decided to salvage the damaged roof segment instead of replace it. There wasn't anything comparable to replace it with anyway. The main problem I had was that since I couldn't actually crawl up on the translucent fiberglass roof, I could only reach four of the sixteen anchor points. I tried to see if I could attach the segment from the inside, but it became obvious that this was not how the roof was designed. I did the best I could and eventually secured the segment in place, but I suspect that another big wind will just blow it down again. What is even worse, I discovered on closer inspection that many of the anchors that hold the other roof segments to the frame had broken as well. Probably the big wind storm that knocked out our power last month and landed a piece of our neighbor's roof in our yard, damaged this greenhouse as well.

The strenuous work of repairing the greenhouse roof left me hungry, so when I finished my repair work, I went to the grocery store to look for something tasty to eat. With Thanksgiving approaching, Central Market is filled with an abundance of tempting treats. I filled my buggy with enough stuff to last me until the weekend and then went home again to see how the dogs were doing.

Dot and Dash had the good sense to stay inside today. They had absolutely no interest in joining me outdoors while I repaired the greenhouse and preferred to huddle together on a pile of blankets in the bedroom instead. The cold front that arrived during the night served as a reminder that the house is always harder to heat in the Winter than it is to cool in the Summer. The furnace does a good job, but with all the single pane glass in the house, the heat dissipates quickly. Moisture is already starting to condense on the inside of the glass and I need to wear a sweater to stay comfortable. I'd keep the temperature at 80 degrees if I could, but 70 is about all the furnace can manage. This suits Janet and the dogs just fine, but I'm already missing our mild Indian Summer Fall weather. The three weeks of nice weather in the Fall is the only time of the year in Texas I really like.

Tomorrow, we get the new WiFi thermostat installed. This means that Dot will be barking non-stop while the HVAC guys are here. Dot's a good little watchdog, but she makes no exceptions for repair people and service technicians. It will be an interesting day. The temperature is supposed to dip below freezing tonight. I need to start remembering to set the outside water faucets on drip so they won't freeze. I guess it's time to bring the heavy lawnmower battery in for the Winter as well.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1746

There were no pretty wildflowers to photograph this morning. I didn't feel like waiting around for a sunset picture either, so this photo of my breakfast will have to suffice. You've heard about my Friday breakfasts for quite a while. This is why I like them so much. It's hard not to like a plate filled with fresh local eggs, chorizo, tortilla strips, tomatoes, onions, skillet browned potatoes and lots of savory spices. Oh, did I mention that the coffee is roasted on the premises too.

After a breakfast like this and a quick trip to Central Market to pick up something equally tasty for dinner, I'm usually ready for anything.  Fridays are typically busy, but since one of my clients has closed up shop for Rosh Hashanah, all I had to do today were several routine website revisions.

With a slow day, I had time to finish my September writer's group assignment a little early again. This month's prompt was "sleep," so I wrote about my dreams. I probably did this because I wrote something about dreams yesterday on the blog. Today's essay was a little longer, but it was essentially the same thing. When you write as frequently as I do, it's easy to feel like the well is running dry. This wasn't the first time I've borrowed from the blog to do something else, and it won't be the last.

My e-mail account has adopted a new way of identifying spam. Instead of dumping all the suspicious mail in a junk mail folder on my local computer, they keep it on the server and send me a summary once a day. I have to look through all the listings and choose whether to whitelist, delete, or block the detained mail. I know this is for my benefit, but it takes a lot more time than my old method of dealing with spam. I would routinely ignore everything in the junk folder, knowing that it would be automatically be erased when I closed my mail client. I'm sure I've lost a number of legitimate letters this way, but it sure was easy. I dread having to actually look at all the junk I get each day. On an average day there are over a hundred spam messages.

This weekend will be busy. The dogs get a bath tomorrow and Sunday is the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament. I won't be able to go to the gym on Sunday, but shooting photos of the players on all eighteen holes of the golf course will be a workout in itself.

Suki is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1662 - Independence Day

In recent years, I've seen twice as many people celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the park as I do on the Fourth of July. Sign of the times, I guess. There are still plenty of flags on front lawns and backyard barbecues, but something has changed. There just isn't the sense of unity and common purpose I felt on this day as a child. Granted, as a kid, I was much more interested in fireworks  than patriotism, but it was still a special day where neighbors gathered together and everyone smiled a lot.

I'm surprised that I didn't blow myself up on the Fourth of July when I was young. Everything was legal back then. In the weeks leading up to Independence Day we would buy huge stashes of cherry bombs and M-80s from roadside fireworks stands. Makeshift cannons were fashioned from lengths of cast iron drain pipe and contests were held to see who could shoot Coca Cola cans filled with sand the longest distance. This was incredibly foolish in retrospect, but not any dumber than the game my young friends and I made of shooting arrows straight up in the air and seeing how close we could get them to land to us. We didn't wear seat belts either when our parents drove us around in the family car. It's amazing that so many of us survived.

These days, the Fourth of July is much more subdued. I took the dogs on a nice long walk while Janet went to a neighborhood parade that her company helped sponsor. After breakfast, I thought I'd get a couple of more watches running again before I lost interest in this tedious activity entirely. I've already forgotten a lot. I had to look up some information on Google before I could even get the case opened on one obscure mid-70's relic. I did manage to get three more watches running this morning though. That's three down, three hundred to go.

When Janet and I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for this evening's cookout, it appeared that the entire city had the same idea. Central Market was jammed with people buying holiday food. I guess we're not the only ones to wait till the last minute. Dinner was delicious. It doesn't get much better than burgers on the grill, fresh potato salad, and coleslaw. The only thing missing was the beer. I still can't bring myself to drink alcohol after all the effort I've made to get my liver back in shape.

It seemed like Saturday today. I'm sure it will seem like Saturday tomorrow as well. That's OK. Two Saturday's in a row is much better than two Monday's in a row.

Matao is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1651

We got off to a slow start this morning, due to a passing thunderstorm. As usual, the dogs expected me to make the rain stop, so they could stay on their regular schedule. There's an order to things that must not be violated. Janet feeds them breakfast, goes to work, and then it's time for me to take them on their morning walk. Only after they have returned and gone to sleep on the bed is it OK for me to do something else. I let them outside several times this morning to show them it was raining pretty hard. This apparently wasn't good enough. My plan was to eat my own breakfast first, in hopes that the rain would stop by the time I was finished. Dot and Dash seemed to think I was just doing this to irritate them and barked at me the entire time I was eating. Eventually the rain did stop around 10 AM and the dogs got their walk. After that, everything was normal again.

It's time to renew the storage warehouse for another year. This is another big expense I don't really need. I wish I was motivated enough to start selling the contents of the warehouse one-by-one on eBay. I don't like the whole process of selling things though. The worst part about selling something is that you have to connect with a buyer. I don't like pricing things, boxing things up, or dealing with returns. As a result, I tend to miss the magic moment when something is hot. A lot of things in the warehouse have been collectable at one point or another, but they don't always stay that way. Every time I visit that dusty room, I'm reminded of that well know line from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer; "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Ultimately, this stuff just doesn't matter, but I guess I'll still renew the warehouse for another year.

It was time to pay some more bills today. I'm getting tired of getting small checks in the mail and turning right around and writing big checks to pay bills. This can't last forever. I've tried cutting back, but it doesn't seem to work. Being frugal with food, gasoline and luxuries can save a little money, but the big ticket items are much harder to control. Homeowners insurance, property taxes, utility bills, and medical expenses always seem to go up whatever you do. At least I don't have a mortgage or car payments anymore. I don't buy many technology toys these days either. Gadgets just don't give me as much pleasure as they used to. Unfortunately, I don't think I've saved much by hanging on to my computers and cameras for a few more years. When one door shuts, another door inevitably opens. Now, I'm wasting a lot of money on food. When you like to eat, but don't like to cook, you end up spending a lot of time at the chef prepared counter at Central Market.

Dot has her acupuncture and water therapy appointment tomorrow. It was easier when we always did her physical therapy on Wednesday, but she does have more energy at training class, now that I'm moving her session to a different day. I guess we'll continue juggling the schedule for a while. Hopefully, the weather will be nicer tomorrow than it was today. 

Boo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1615

The gym is always empty on nice sunny days. I guess most active people prefer to be outside on days like this. Inside is fine by me. The temperature is a constant 72 degrees, the air is filtered, and the lighting is subdued. I don't have any problems with Spring allergies when I go to the gym. Outdoors it's a completely different story.

I spent quite a while outdoors this morning, sneezing and wiping my watering eyes the entire time. I got a long pole saw and decided to remove the remaining dead limbs on the two Live Oak trees in the back yard myself. I thought the tree guys would have taken care of this when they came over a couple of months ago, but apparently these smaller dead limbs weren't in their bid. The landscape guys could have taken care of this too, but it wasn't in their bid either. Heaven forbid that anyone might decide to be proactive and do something extra. I guess that just isn't done these days.

It took quite a while to remove all the small dead limbs the power company guys left up in the trees when they were restoring power after last Winter's ice storm. They made sure that the trees weren't touching the power lines, but they couldn't be bothered to remove the branches they cut. At any rate, the work I did today was probably worth the effort. I bet if I called the tree guys to come back and do this job, they would have charged me $300.

I stopped by Central Market on the way home from the gym. I never used to go to the store this often. Everything changed when I stopped eating out of cans and started eating something fresh every evening. Things don't stay fresh all that long, so I go to the store frequently. I still think that improving my diet has done more to improve my health than anything else I've done. It's definitely been worth the effort.

Dash's health seems to be improving even more dramatically than mine. The skin on his neck is a healthy pink color now and you can barely see the incision scar from the initial surgery. He goes back to the cancer center tomorrow for a post-radiation follow up visit. I hope his doctors think he's doing as well as I think he's doing. After all he's been through this Spring, Dash is making an amazingly recovery.

Next week looks like it's going to be busy. Dash goes to the cancer center on Monday. Dot gets her acupuncture and water therapy on Tuesday. I've got a location photo shoot planned, and there are sure to be the usual writing assignments and website revisions as well. Pretty soon it will be June. Since I'm a Gemini, June is a birthday month. I'd like to say I'm getting wiser, but I'm afraid I'm just getting older.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1529

It was an absolutely normal Friday. Normal is good. There was no dog crisis. There was no impossible deadline crisis. There was no crisis at all. The dogs are enjoying the Springlike weather. We had a great walk this morning and my shoulder has finally gotten strong enough to try walking both dogs together again. Maybe I just got lucky today when I walked Dot and Dash together for the first time in weeks, but my shoulder gave me no problems. Knock on wood.

I had time for an enjoyable breakfast at my favorite restaurant and picked up some tasty food for the weekend at Central Market afterwards. Since I got started early this morning, there was still plenty of time to finish all my assignments.

I was finally able to get my tree trimmer to commit to a date for cleaning up the broken tree limbs from  last December's ice storm. I don't know why this has taken so long, but everything seems to take a long time these days. There is quite a bit of damage and I'm sure the tree guy will try to convince me to saw down the entire tree. I don't want to do that. The large old Oak has been around for over 100 years and I think it's got a few years left.

My liver doctor called this morning and told me that the initial test results looked good and that I should continue taking the pills. Jeez, I wouldn't think stopping was even an option. When I first received the medication, I read right on the bottle of the expensive pills that if you didn't complete the entire twelve week treatment regime, the virus would just become more resistant. We definitely don't want that.

Dash acted so normal today that it's hard to imagine that he still might be very, very sick. I'm dreading the appointment with the oncologist on Monday morning. His assessment of the situation could snap me back to reality very quickly. For now, we'll concentrate on having a nice weekend. The weather still looks good, so he'll get a trip to his favorite dog park. Unfortunately, he'll also get a bath. If Dash has to have surgery, he might not be able to have a bath for a long time. Janet says we might as well make sure he's clean now.

I learned something new about LED light bulbs today. Unbeknownst to me, most of the electrical energy supplied to an LED bulb is converted to heat rather than light. I guess this explains why most of these bulbs have large metal heat sink fins around the circumference of the bulb. At any rate, even though these high-tech bulbs use far less energy than a normal incandescent bulb, they must dissipate lot more heat than an equivalent incandescent. So, where does all this heat go? Well, it often goes straight to the thermal protection switch inside the fixture and ruins it. This is basically why the can light in my bathroom has started blinking on and off and why a similar fixture in my office burned out a few months ago. So the "last forever" LED lights don't last forever after all. And they burn up your fixtures in the process. Is all this advanced technology even necessary? I was perfectly happy with my land line phone, cassette tapes, and an IBM Selectric typewriter.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1324

I'm always relieved when Dot and I return from her weekly therapy appointments. Driving an old, frail dog around in 102 degree heat in a less than reliable car is never something I look forward to. There are so many things that could go wrong. The car could overheat. The air conditioning could go out. The vibration damper I have on order from England could get worse and throw the fan belt off. Even a flat tire would be disastrous, since Dot's crate would quickly become too hot inside a stationary car. There isn't even a safe way to get Dot out of the car if the Defender broke down on a busy freeway.

At times like these, I wish I lived in a tiny little village that still offered big city services. Do places like this even exist? I'm kind of hooked on taking the dogs to big, full service veterinary hospitals. I like Central Market and Whole Foods for groceries. I enjoy having lots of interesting restaurants nearby and it's always handy to have a Guitar Center in the neighborhood. Everything else, I could live without.

I could certainly continue working from a small town. I never see my clients anymore. Even the folks that are right here in town find it easier to just send me an e-mail. My e-mail assignments kept me pretty busy today. Once Dot's vet appointment was out of the way, the day was virtually identical to yesterday. There was another website to update and three more articles to write. I didn't pay any bills today though.

I'm surprised that the dogs did as well as they did at training class this evening. It was really hot. Dash did a good job with the exercises that didn't involve moving, but I could tell that he would much rather have been at home, sitting near an air conditioning vent. I was so hot that I was very tempted to drink the dog's water. Luckily, the class only lasted an hour.

We start another new month tomorrow. It's hard to believe it's August already. The days are already starting to get shorter. We watched the sun set during training class this evening. Pretty soon the leaves will start to turn and before you know it, we'll be having class in the dark again. These cycles come and go so quickly now. I wish I could slow the clock down a bit. I find I still have time to make plans, but seldom have the time to act on them.

Shelby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1308

It's been raining for two solid days and I haven't gone up on the roof once. There's still a lot of water up there, but I'm not nearly as worried about it because there are no longer any leaks. Any regular reader will quickly realize that two days of standing water on the roof with no attempt to remove it is nothing short of astonishing. Even without troublesome roof leaks, rain can still be problematic though. It's hard to walk the dogs. Today was a waiting game. The rain was fairly steady throughout the day, but I discovered if I kept an eye on the iPad weather radar, I could still manage to find little pockets of relative dryness when the rain would slow to a trickle and the dogs became brave enough to venture outside. It was one of those days where I used up a lot of towels. We would get wet. Then I would dry everyone off. And then we would repeat the process again.

I was invited today to send a recipe to be included in the 2014 SXSW Interactive Cookbook. It was quite an honor, since my recipe will apparently be included with other recipes from luminaries like Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, and BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti. This invitation just shows how far I have fallen in recent years. Yes, I not only used to attend SXSW on a regular basis, I used to be a speaker there as well in the early years. There's only one problem with submitting a recipe of mine to this cookbook. I don't have any. I can only think of two original recipes I have created in the past twenty-five years and I can no longer eat either of them.

These days I hardly cook at all. I've succumbed to stopping by Central Market several times a week and picking up some tasty, semi-healthy items from the Chef Prepared section. It's kind of like eating out, except that I can eat at home with the dogs and there are no waiters to tip.  Today, I picked up a container of Kale, Chard, and Orange salad and another container with Walnut, Grape and Blue Cheese salad on the way home from the gym.

The gym is already starting to feel like a familiar place. I'm starting to establish a routine that suits me. I stay about an hour or so and work mostly on exercises designed to build up my upper body and core strength. A lot of people at the gym seem to be doing cardio workouts using treadmills and elliptical machines. I don't think I need this type of workout quite as much, since I spend so much time walking the dogs. Maybe I do though. I'm just making this up as I go along.

Even though it was a slow day, I still managed to get a few writing assignments finished. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be busier.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1305

Timing is everything. The best time to eat breakfast at my favorite restaurant is 9 AM. All the work slaves have left for the office and the people with nothing better to do haven't even gotten up yet. I practically have the place to myself.  The best time to walk the dogs is 6:30 AM. This is not the best time for me, mind you. It is the best time for the dogs, and you should know by now that dogs rule. The best time to go grocery shopping is 10:30 AM. This is when I see the produce managers putting out fresh produce and most importantly, when the Chef Prepared section is being filled with fresh tasty dinner items. By the end of the day, everything is picked over, but not at 10:30 AM. The best time to go to the gym is at 2 PM. None of the Type-A fitness fanatics are here then. They all arrive either at the crack of dawn, before they go to work, or later in the evening on their way home. At 2 PM, it's just me and the cardiac rehab patients. You're probably seeing a pattern here.

Maybe I've grown too comfortable working in my quiet little room with a dog under my desk. Occasionally, I think I'd like something more exciting, but when I try to think of something specific, nothing comes to mind. I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Apple computers, but I don't think I'd last long working at the Genius Bar. The Apple stores are just too busy and chaotic. I don't think I'd make a good film producer anymore, even though I spent the early part of my career doing precisely this. I just don't have the patience to hire and manage a film crew these days. I don't even think I could work at an ad agency. Agency life used to be fun, but whenever I visit an ad agency these days, you can smell the stress in the air. It's a dying industry and everyone is treading water, just trying to hold on to what they've got. I suspect than in ten years, the ad agencies I remember will all be gone.

I do like blogging. I keep hoping that if I keep stirring this pot, it will eventually start to boil. Who knows. Maybe people will eventually want to pay me for writing about nothing. Hey, it worked for Dave Barry and Seinfeld. In the long run, it doesn't really matter, but I learned long ago not to rule anything out. The world is a strange place and almost anything can happen.

I can't figure the dogs out. They absolutely hate to take a walk in this hot weather we're having lately, but they seem to love to lie out in the back yard under the same hot sun. Often, they lie on their backs with their paws in the air. I guess it's not that surprising that a Dalmatian would rather sunbathe than exercise. I've got to keep an eye on them though. They sunburn easily.

A new spare tire cover for the Defender 90 came in the mail today. After ten years, the old tire cover had pretty much succumbed to the elements. It was tattered and torn and tended to fall off every time I went through a car wash. As I was putting on the new tire cover, I realized that it was the high point of my day. It was just that kind of a day.

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1297 - Independence Day

The best Fourth of July I can remember was in 1976. This was the year we celebrated the country's Bicentennial. I was returning from Victoria, British Columbia to Seattle by boat and just as we entered the harbor, a massive fireworks display began directly overhead. The celebration was beautiful and serene as the boat glided slowly towards the shore. There were no ants or mosquitoes and the crowds of revelers were far away on shore. At the opposite end of the scale was a celebration in Dallas where I was right in the middle of thousands of drunk revelers, trying to sell glow-in-the-dark necklaces to raise money for animal rescue. Ever since that event, I have had no desire to be in a large crowd again.

There was certainly a respectable crowd of people in the park behind our house today. Early in the morning, there were hundreds of runners completing a 10K race while I walked the dogs. Later in the day, the park was filled with picnickers, cyclists, and boaters. The smell of barbecue permeated the air, but even the delicious smell of burgers and brisket cooking wasn't enough to make me want to have a picnic myself.

I kept to myself as I worked my way through a list of chores. I made another week's supply of juice with the juicer. I did several loads of laundry. I even tried to fix a leak in the problematic French Porcher toilet. It is impossible to find parts for the thing, but I do the best I can. When all my chores were done, I thought I'd go work out at the gym, but when I got there it was closed for the holiday. On the way home, I stopped at Central Market and got something that we already had in the refrigerator.  My memory is shot.

Dot has an amazing ability to sense changes in the weather. She was was acting like she usually does when it's about to rain this afternoon. I was initially confused, because there was no rain in the forecast and the sky was clear. As her behavior continued, I turned on the weather channel and learned that a cold front had just passed through town. It is easy to miss a cold front in the Summer. I think the temperature just went down from 95 to 85. Dot knew though. She knew way before I did.

I tried to do a little research in the Internet today and see if I could discover why my liver enzyme levels were continuing to fluctuate. There were so many potential reasons that I just gave up. Even trained hepatologists seem to have trouble coming to a consensus about liver enzyme levels. Oddly, exercise can actually cause liver enzyme levels to rise. I can't imagine that I've been doing enough exercise to move the needle though.

At least tomorrow is Friday. Friday is my favorite day. I like things to be finished, and they very seldom are. At least Friday creates the illusion that you've crossed some sort of imaginary finish line.

Matao is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1287

I went to the tire store today to get a nail removed from my left rear tire and returned a few hours later with five brand new tires. Yes, I even had to get a new spare tire. This definitely wasn't what I expected, since my tires still have plenty of tread on them. I have a warranty on my tires that gives me free lifetime repairs and I have used it many times to get flats fixed and nails removed. This time I was told that the life of a normal tire was about six years and that I had outlived my lifetime warranty. The tire guy showed me several places where the rubber on my twelve year old tires was starting to crack and told me that the tires could explode at any moment. Since the tire guys refused to work on my old tires, and I didn't really want them to explode at any moment, what choice did I have?  I got new tires.

Tires are a lot more expensive than they were the last time I bought some. Of course that was in 2002. Everything was less expensive in 2002. All in all, my tires have served me well. I have traveled well over 100,000 miles in the Defender on only two sets of tires. With any luck, this new set should last me as long as I still have the vehicle.

It's taking me too long to make fresh juice. If I had anything better to do, I would have stopped this time consuming practice already. Juicing does save money though. Especially when the alternative is freshly squeezed juice at the Central Market juice bar. I just wish Navel Oranges were quicker to peel and that the juicing machine was easier to clean. Apples and pineapples are much quicker to juice, but I've always liked the taste of orange juice. At any rate, I made enough juice today for the rest of the week, so I won't need to complain about juicing for a while.

I think I may have bought the wrong kind of grass seed to fill in the patchy areas in the back yard. I was initially pleased to find seed that was encapsulated in a mix of mulch and fertilizer. This stuff is pretty fool proof to grow. I forgot that the dogs like to lie in the grass though, and the fertilizer component of the mix may be irritating Dash's skin. He sure is itching a lot today anyway. On the other hand, he is always itchy after a bath, so maybe it's that.

I thought I got a call from a client a few minutes ago. Much to my surprise, when I picked up the phone, there was a telemarketer on the line. I looked at the Caller-ID again and realized that I'd transposed the letters of the first and last name in my mind. The call was clearly from someone else entirely. I've always suspected that I have dyslexia and I guess things like this more or less prove it.

Rio is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day