Day 3718

Maybe we're going to have an early Spring. Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow this year. Just saying. There are other signs as well. The Dogwood trees are already starting to bloom. I'm starting to see small flowers like Crow Poison and Blue Eyed Grass as well. These are all good omens. I'm tired of winter, even though it had been quite mild this year.

It was quite warm this morning, so I thought it would be a good day to apply more silicon to the roof. I called the roofing supply store and they had two buckets of the coating in stock. I told them to save one for me and got in the car to go pick it up. The stuff is expensive and it was a long drive to get it, but I'm convinced that this leak isn't going to stop on its own.

While the roofing supply folks were processing my order, I asked if they knew any good roofers. Truthfully, I don't believe they exist, buy I always ask. "Why don't you talk to Ellis over here," the lady at the front desk told me. This roofer was buying supplies as well and he certainly talked a good game. I asked him to come over and give me a bid.

I applied about a gallon of the stuff this afternoon and hoped for the best. The roofer I talked with this morning told me he never uses silicon because it doesn't breathe and allow moisture and humidity from inside the house to escape. Could this be true? I thought the whole point of a roof was to keep moisture from outside the house from getting in.

When I finished working on the roof, I tried to take Dawn on a walk. Janet had a doctor's appointment, so she couldn't go with us today. The walk started fine, but after about 500 yards, Dawn had a panic attack and refused to move forward. She just sat in the grass and looked at me with pitiful eyes. "Do you want to go back home," I said? She immediately turned around and started walking briskly toward the house. This was the first time she had been outside the yard without Janet. Dawn obviously trusts Janet more than me. Toward the end of the day, we both walked her together again and she did just fine.

I went back to the hotel for breakfast this morning. There were a lot of travelers dining this morning. You couldn't hear what they were talking about, but every now and then I heard the word coronavirus rise about the background noise. Clearly people are thinking about this. I wonder why the unknown scares us much more than the known? Cancer kills far more than this virus probably will. Probably many things do. I'm not immune from irrational fears though. Please don't cough if I'm nearby.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3350

Is it just me, or have simple things become more difficult in recent years? My ambitions are modest and my expectations are low, but it is becoming harder and harder to get caught up on things. Life has become a game of Whack-a-mole, where new problems continue to arise faster than you can deal with the ones you already have.

Nothing went wrong today. This is just an observation. I used to feel on top of things and was almost always ahead of schedule. Now I'm not. I don't think I've slowed down all that much. I just think the world has changed.

When I woke up this morning, I noticed that one of Dash's nails was bleeding a bit at the base of the nail. Not good. Has the nail become loosened as a result of Dash continually dragging his feet when he walks? Who knows. Now I've got to figure out how to protect the nail so it doesn't become even looser and fall out. If Dash lost a nail again, it would be very difficult to stop the bleeding. I was half asleep when I had these thoughts. When I woke up fully, Dash already had his boots on and was ready to walk. Janet is a morning person and sometimes has Dash ready to go before I even get out of bed. You've got to seize the moment with Dash. There is a window of opportunity where he is eager to walk. If you miss it, he just sleeps for the rest of the day.

We had a nice walk this morning. The skies are still clear and although it was cold at sunrise, things warmed up quickly. On days like these, it's hard to believe that my roof was leaking a few days ago. So far, the roofer who made the repairs recently hasn't returned my call and another roofer who was going to give me an estimate for replacing the roof hasn't had time to put together a bid. I called an architect friend to get some suggestions. He said it was imperative that a flat roof have at least a 1/4" per foot slope to ensure that the water would drain after a rain. This might be easy to achieve with new construction. Not so much with a fifty year old house. I've had the usual settling you get with old houses. Without some elaborate structural modifications, I'm stuck with standing water.

The Redbud and Dogwood trees in the neighborhood are already starting to bloom. It seems a little early, but maybe not. In less than a week it will be March. I've started seeing a few grape hyacinths and crow poison flowers in the park. They say the wildflower season will be good this year. I hope so. Walking through wildflowers is a lot more pleasant than walking through mud.

I wrote a letter to my luddite sister and paid a few more bills this afternoon. I think I'm caught up on February bills now, but it won't be long before the March bills start arriving. It never ends. I didn't used to think about recurring bills when I was working and had a good income. Now these bills seem like a huge nuisance. How are you supposed to live on a fixed income if the prices of all the things you use everyday keep going up?

I need to remember that tomorrow is Tuesday. Tuesdays have been so uneventful lately that I tend to forget them and think it is already Wednesday. Truthfully, it doesn't matter what day it is. It's still just a game of Whack-a-mole.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2988

It's been such a gloomy week that it's hard to believe Spring is on the way. The signs are everywhere though. The Redbud and Dogwood trees are starting to bloom. I've started to see a few Grape Hyacinths. It won't be long before there are a multitude of wildflowers to photograph.

For now, all we have is more rain. Maybe that's why so many things are starting to bud and bloom. Plants probably love this weather. The winter hasn't been too cold, but it has been exceedingly wet. There seems to be a pattern to the rain. It usually rains during the night. Then the rain stops or slows to a mist during the early morning hours. Around 10 AM the rain often starts again and continues off and on for the rest of the day. At least this schedule allows me to give Dash a morning walk. If the rain continues through the afternoon, Dash and I both have cabin fever.

Even though I knew the car was going to get dirty, I drove to the tailor shop in the rain to pick up the jacket that was getting a new zipper. The well worn jacket is nice to wear around the house on a cold day. Hey, if I'm willing to drive somewhere in the rain, you know I'm pretty bored.

While I was listening to the rain and wondering what was happening on the roof, I put together my proposal for the website I've been asked to maintain. I tried to be honest about the many pitfalls this project faces, without being overly negative. I still can't decide whether I even want this job. It would be nice to have a monthly retainer for a while, but I'm not sure I can fix this site. It's a mess. I think it would be easier to start over and create a new one.

Janet wasn't very enthusiastic about the tall, skinny refrigerators I showed her. It's back to square one. I still have trouble believing that there is only one refrigerator in the entire world that will fit in our small alcove and still hold enough food to keep someone who cooks happy. I rarely cook, so anything that fits in the space and looks cool is fine with me. I know there is going to be an unpleasant surprise if I order something that I haven't seen in person, but that appears to be only choice we've got. The Maytag that is still the top contender is on back order until the end of March too. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to defrost a few more times.

I've been having problems sending e-mail because my mail client keeps saying that the server certificate in not valid. I hate all these new security issues. Mail servers didn't used to need a certificate. At any rate I called Bluehost and was lucky enough to get a nice tech support person this time. They said the problem was because I was using an Apple computer. Isn't that always the problem? I learned how to reconfigure my mail settings so the problem shouldn't happen again and now everything should be OK again.

I hope the rain clears out tonight. We've got an early appointment to take Dash to the cancer center for his monthly echocardiogram in the morning. I wish Dash would let the nurse clip his nails while we were there. I don't know what we are going to do about his nails. They are getting pretty long.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1531

Dot and Dash had a great day. Our mild Springlike weather continues, making it possible to give the dogs several long walks, in addition to the trip to the dog park they'd both been anticipating. It was beautiful today. The redbud and dogwood trees are already starting to bloom, and if you looked closely, you could see tiny green buds on most of the other trees as well. I hope all this early growth isn't cut short by a final hard freeze, but it usually is. That's just the nature of things in Texas.

When the dogs had finished smelling every tree at the dog park, we came home and I finished the writing assignment that threw me a curve yesterday. It all seemed to go smoothly this time and within an hour I was ready to go to the gym.

I think my shoulder might be as good as it's going to get. I was able to go back to my old workout routine this afternoon and everything seemed fine. The shoulder still hurt, but it hurt before the injury too. The important thing was that it was able to bear weight and wasn't falling out of the socket anymore. I'm more careful now and try not to do things that would pull my right arm away from my body. All in all, I think it is better to stay active. If I babied the shoulder too much and did nothing, it would probably be worse on my body in the long run than what I'm doing now.

Janet fixed cheeseburgers for dinner. I did eat a kale salad as a token gesture to good health, but that was about it. There are few things better than a good cheeseburger and fried onion rings. It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but you could do a lot worse. Good lean beef, artisan cheddar cheese, some fresh heirloom tomato slices, and a little arugula on a freshly  baked whole grain bun. That sounds healthy doesn't it?  There's got to be more to life than oatmeal and kale. If I can ever get my liver working properly again, I might even enjoy the ocassional glass of wine with dinner again. That would be nice.

Tomorrow is the big day. We can't feed Dash anything after 10 PM tonight, since he will probably have to be anesthetized for his CAT scan tomorrow. I'm trying to keep an open mind, since almost anything could happen. Depending on what the oncologist finds, he could come home with a bottle of pills to take for a week and be good to go, or he could be rushed into emergency surgery. I don't know how parents with small children handle these situations as well as the do. We've had a lifetime of different Dalmatians, and I always remember the medical emergencies the most vividly. Spot had a tumor inside his spinal cord and I thought he might be paralyzed for life. It was a long, tough surgery, but he bounced back to lead a normal life. Much later, he was back on the operating table again with intestinal cancer. A six inch section of his small intestine was removed and he survived that as well. Petey almost died after he got pancreatitis from eating a duck's foot he found in the park. Greta did die after liver surgery failed to completely eliminate the cancer that was growing there. I'm hoping for the best with Dash. He had a very tough life before we rescued and adopted him. We promised him that things would be better now, and we'll continue to do our best to keep that promise.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 803

The Dogwood and Redbud trees are already in full bloom. Kites are flying everywhere. Spring is definitely in the air. The only trouble with going to the dog park on a beautiful day like this is that it's hard to find a parking place. A lot of other people with dogs must have had the same idea today. After circling around the park a couple of times, we eventually found a spot and Dot and Dash joined the frey. There were so many dogs in the park today that you had to be real careful where you walked. Lots of dogs usually equals lots of poop.

I'm watching the Oscars with one eye as I write this. For the first time in several years there are actually several films I'd really like to see among this years nominees. I've always liked Meryl Streep and The Iron Lady seem like her best since The Devil Wears Prada. I'd definitely like to see War Horse. Hugo seems like a winner, but maybe I'm just intrigued because I like both clocks and train stations. I probably won't see any of these movies until they're available on cable though. Even though it used to be one of my favorite things, I rarely go to theaters anymore.

The pile of leaves in the back yard is getting large enough now to catch my attention. There are no more leaves left on the trees, so it's just a matter of time before I'll need to rake them into a huge pile and start bagging them up. After the leaves are all gone, it will be time to till the soil and plant new sod again. Sadly, planting new grass has become just as regular an occurrence as raking leaves. It's a miracle if the grass in our back yard lasts more than one season. The grass in the front yard is just fine, but the back yard grass always fall victim to a lack of sunlight, grubs, and four large Oak trees that suck up all the water. Hope springs eternal though. Probably sometime in late March, I'll go up to Miller Grass, fill my car with Saint Augustine sod and start all over again.

I don't know if I finished all my chores today, but I certainly got quite a few started. I did some laundry, cleaned up the office a bit, wrote a couple of articles and made a mess in the bathroom while learning how to use my new waterpic. Through all this activity, the dogs just slept. It must be nice to be a dog.

Bingo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day