Day 3260

It must have gotten below freezing last night because there was frost everywhere on our morning walk. It's hard enough to keep Dash upright on dry ground and the frost on the grass made things slippery in places. My rubber boots weren't getting much traction and neither were Dash's. We made it home in one piece but I'm already looking forward to Summer.

Dash's paw started to bleed again today. Luckily, this was a very minor cut. I wish he didn't have to take blood thinners. It's so easy for him to get scraped up. At least I know how to get the bleeding controlled now. Dash drags his feet and bumps into things a lot, so rehabilitation is a slow process. We're getting there though. His paws look a lot better than they did two weeks ago.

I wish I could say the same for my office. I tried to do some cleaning this afternoon, but I can't see much difference. I threw away a lot of old magazines and catalogs and went through a huge stack of unopened mail. I hate to deal with mail these days. The vast majority of it is junk. Medicare generates  a lot of junk mail. So do banks and brokerage houses. I should bite the bullet and go paperless because when I eventually do open these letters, I already know the contents. Everybody has a website and anything important is usually on it.

I could get more enthusiastic about cleaning if it made a difference. I threw away a big black trash bag full of paper today and nothing looks different at all. The office is still a mess. Jeez. I'd have to do this every day for a year to make any real progress. At least I've stopped buying things. When you don't have any business you definitely don't need additional business equipment.

I wish I could find some shoes that met my needs. I've been wearing these rubber slip on rain shoes when I walk Dash now but I've already worn out three pair. Sure, the shoes are cheap and made in China, but they should last longer than this. I need something that I can slip on instantly, lasts forever, has good arch support, and doesn't have those Vibram soles that instantly become caked in mud. I can see this shoe clearly in my mind, but nobody makes it. Story of my life. Nobody ever makes the things I'm looking for.

I hope Dash's exam goes well tomorrow. Mostly we need to get his dew claws trimmed before he rips them out again, but I'd really like to know what is causing all the shivering at night. The doctors at the cancer center don't seem to have an answer. Maybe his regular vet can tell us something. We'll be wearing protective boots to the vet this time. I won't make that mistake twice.

The Insight Mars Lander appears to be working perfectly this morning. Wouldn't it be nice if everything worked perfectly.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2865

There was frost on the ground this morning. That's close enough to Winter for me. I was cold when I woke up this morning, but was happy to hear the furnace running. Cold weather brings back memories of recurring furnace problems, ice storms, and power outages. My memories of snow are fading. It just doesn't snow down here anymore.

We got an early start this morning. Even though Janet got up extra early to go to this year's Race For The Cure, Dash still wanted her to feed him breakfast before she left. Since Dash was wide awake, I ate breakfast early as well. We were both ready to walk before the sun came up. Dash has a coat he usually wears in the Winter. So far, I can't figure out how to put it on over all his other gear. Luckily, it wasn't that cold this morning. I did wear a down ski jacket and wool hat though. I like to stay warm.

When I took an Instagram picture this morning, I noticed that something had changed. The format of the pictures was different. Why do people keep changing things? The old Instagram pictures were the perfect size for the blog. These new ones looked like they would have to be cropped and enlarged. After I thought about it a bit, I realized what Instagram had done. They'd changed their latest app update to optimize pictures for the newest iPhones. Since I have an older phone, I got left in the dust.

There were more app update surprises when I checked my blood pressure later in the day. The Withings app on my phone now had a Nokia brand. Didn't Nokia used to make phones? When I put the wireless blood pressure cuff on my arm, I got a message saying that I need to update my hardware before I could proceed. If I knew it was going to be this much trouble, I would have waited until next month to take my blood pressure.

At least nothing has changed with the refrigerator. It still appears to be keeping food cold. Based on the last tike I defrosted the evaporator coil, the temperature should be warming up again if there was still a problem. The temperature in the refrigerator is still 40 degrees and there is no visible ice on the back side of the freezer compartment, so maybe everything is working properly again. I hope so. There are plenty of other problems to solve.

We forgot that today was National Drug Take Back Day. There was a pile of expired meds that we wanted to get rid of and the collection location was near our house. It's too bad we forgot. Everybody probably has expired meds in their medicine cabinet. You usually end up taking all the antibiotics you were prescribed, because doctors make a point of telling you to take them all. Pain pills are different. They usually just say "take as needed" on the bottle. Dentists are notorious for prescribing too many pain pills. You don't tend to throw these pills away when you quit taking them. Instinctively, you keep them in the medicine cabinet, thinking "Well, what if I'm in pain again. I may need them." Usually you forget about them after a while and they go bad.

I looked on the DEA website to see if there was another collection location and it just said to throw the unused pills down the toilet. What? I thought the whole point of the take back program was to keep you from throwing pills down the toilet. I've always thought throwing pills down the toilet could pollute the water supply. Shows what I know. It turns out that the real pollution problem comes from people peeing. I guess this makes sense. Millions of people are taking millions of meds and their bodies aren't processing everything. Neither is the sewage system. One more reason there are to many people in the world.

On that happy note, I'll call it a day. I got one more pair of rubber dog boots repaired today and found everything on my grocery list. not bad. It was a little cold, but I'm not complaining. The furnace still works.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2533

There was frost on the ground when I woke up this morning. The leaves aren't very colorful this year, but they are definitely falling. I hope a big wind comes to blow them all off the roof, so I won't have to do it myself. The dogs love the cold weather, but I have mixed feelings. Pretty soon, the furnace will be running full time and the gas bill will go up dramatically. The office is in the coldest part of the house, so I often have to put a little ceramic heater under my desk during the day. As least we don't have to worry about snow very often. Some parts of the country are already under a blanket of snow.

I spent so much time doing little things around the house that I never got around to vacuuming. I cut up cardboard boxes so they would fit in the trash. I polished shoes. I changed the sheets on the bed and washed a bunch of dog blankets. I figured out what I did wrong with my Waterpik repair yesterday, but it hardly seemed worth the trouble to start over again. I have a new one now.

I stopped by the REI store and got a pair of pants on my way to the gym. Since I don't have business meetings anymore and rarely go out in public, these rugged outdoor clothes are just about the only things I wear. I still can't figure out where to put these new utilitarian duds. I haven't thrown away any of my old clothes and my closet is full. Neatness just isn't very high on the agenda anymore. Ever since Dot got sick, the house has been a disaster. I just put my new pants on top of the large format printer when I got home and that's probably where they'll stay.

The gym was nearly empty today. I thought it would be full, since it was so cold outside today, but apparently most people had more important things to do. I miss my favorite basketball. I still don't know why there are only three basketballs now, but since I seem to be the only person who uses the court, I guess three is plenty. I had a good workout, but I felt too tired to do the vacuuming when I got home. There was no point disrupting things anyway. The dogs were sleeping peacefully on some of the rugs I needed to clean and Janet was already fixing dinner. I'll finish cleaning the house tomorrow.

Dot had a good day. She had more energy than usual and I actually saw her wag her tail a bit during our evening walk.  I haven't seen Dot wag her tail in ages, since the muscles in her rear end don't work properly anymore. I wish I knew what caused some days to be better for Dot than others. If I knew, maybe I could help her have more good days. I don't think there is any rhyme or reason to Dot's health anymore. We've all been running on empty for a long, long time.

It's going to be a short week next week. I hope there are no dog emergencies on Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to having a nice dinner away from home for a change.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1799

Sometimes I have trouble telling the difference between a cold day and a slow day. On cold days like today there is often plenty of work to do, but it still feels like I'm doing nothing because I never leave the house. Even though I kept myself busy and finished several writing jobs, my mind still wandered. I wanted to hear more about the report I heard that the Rosetta lander had discovered organic molecules on the comet. This would be very big new for anyone with an interest in astronomy or planetary science. I was confused when I heard that the Keystone Pipeline bill failed to pass in congress after receiving 59 votes. I guess I've forgotten everything I learned in high school civics class. After looking the topic up on Google, I discovered that 60 votes were required to prevent a filibuster. And what exactly is a filibuster? I know it's a bunch of people talking endlessly to delay things, but why?

The temperature was in the low 20's when I woke up this morning. The only advantage to this frigid weather was that the dogs don't get muddy on our morning walk. The ground was frozen solid and my boots made a crunching sound when I walked over the frost covered grass. Frost covered plants are actually kind of pretty, but we didn't linger long to observe. It was cold and we all knew that the house was much warmer. The only reason we made it as far as we did this morning was that there was absolutely no wind. On a windy day we would have just stayed inside.

I thought making a fancy omelet this morning would make the day more interesting, but it really didn't. I've seen the early morning Dr. Who re-runs on the BBC channel so many times that I've practically memorized them. Out of boredom I've gone back to watching the news. I flip back and forth between the liberal and conservative channels and find them equally irritating. There just isn't that much to like about a completely polarized society. Occasionally CNN is OK, because they seem to focus more on plane crashes and volcanoes than politics. I hate politics. I wish there was a TV channel that just showed interesting Ted Talks, or maybe featured obscure news about black holes or CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

You may wonder why as a writer, I often talk about watching television and seldom mention anything about reading. I used to be an obsessive reader, but my eyes have gotten bad and reading just isn't that satisfying anymore. The last book that made any impact on me was A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn was pretty good too. I used to love everything that John Fowles wrote, even the non-fiction. I was such a fan that I even visited his home in Lyme Regis once. When Fowles died, so did a lot of my desire to read. I'm so far behind that The Shipping News still seems like a new novel to me. I bought a copy once, but have never gotten around to reading it.

There are more articles to write tomorrow and I'll probably go back to having oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. I hope the dogs aren't getting too cold on their walks. They both seem to like the brisk weather, which is more than I can say.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 689

We had our first frost last night. I'm still not sure what the difference is between a frost and a freeze, but it must have gotten below 32 degrees at some point. When I walked the dogs this morning, there were still ice crystals on a lot of the plants in shady areas the sun hadn't reached yet. As the weather gets colder, I start dressing warmer. When it gets real cold, the dogs have coats as well. For the most part, I like these Winter walks. We seldom have to compete with joggers and mountain bikes on the trails during the Winter. From now through Spring, we pretty much have the park to ourselves in the mornings.

Of course, we usually have the rest of the day to ourselves as well. Today was no exception. When we got back from making tracks in the frosty grass, I made a pot of coffee, fried some eggs and got started on another day. These days all kind of blend together. I can't even remember which websites I modified today. I wrote another watch article, which seemed very much like the one I wrote yesterday. I paid a few bills, and since it was Friday, I went to Central Market to pick up some things for dinner. Just another normal day.

We've added a few new locations to our Christmas pet photo schedule. I don't look forward to lugging the equipment to yet another venue, but I am glad that we've got an opportunity to make some additional money for the Dalmatians. The new muslin backdrop arrived this week, so the people who come to these events every year will finally get pictures that look a little different than the year before. Santa has lost some weight this year as well, so I need to remember to punch new holes in Santa's big leather belt. I think everything is ready, and there's still several weeks until our first event.

I think Winter is officially here. If the weather cooperates this weekend, I'll mow the grass for the last time this season. There won't be any rotting pumpkins on the front porch this Winter, because I never got around to buying one this year. I've noticed that the leaves are already starting to fall off the large Oak trees in the back yard. Hopefully the leaves will cover up some of the bare spots in the lawn.

Ginger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day