Day 3032

I spend most of the day waiting for rain. Theoretically, we are under a tornado watch, but the bad weather must have gone to the North or South of us. So far, all I've seen are a few light showers. It doesn't hurt to be prepared though. I went up on the roof and moved the sump pump, so it would remove water from the area where we've been experiencing a leak. It may not work, but it's worth a try.

I got an early start today so I could walk Dash before the rain started. Even at Dash's excruciatingly slow pace, we managed to stay dry until we made it home again. I wasn't so lucky when I went to get groceries for the weekend. The rain wasn't heavy, but it was enough to get the car muddy. I picked up a new supply of phenobarbital for Dash on the way home and spent the rest of the day inside, watching the sky get darker and darker.

The vet that examined Dash yesterday thought some of the weakness in his rear legs was caused by arthritis and wanted us to see if gabapentin would help Dash walk without dragging his legs. We tried the drug today and it actually seems to make him worse. Sure enough, two of the most common side effects of gabapentin are sedation and wobbliness. We decided to discontinue the drug after only using it for one day. Dash is so wobbly already from the vestibular disease that he stumbles a lot. He can't afford to get much worse. I had to help Dash up several times this afternoon as he was waking up from a nap. He was struggling to get up on his own. This wasn't normal. It almost has to be the pills.

The tree trimmer canceled his appointment today because of the rain. He told me he was going fishing instead. I don't blame him for not wanting to trim trees in a thunderstorm, but I'm not so sure that fishing was a wise idea. Oh, well. The trees aren't a big priority anyway. The person I'd really like to see right now is the roofer.

I downloaded some of the piano lessons that come with GarageBand. The lessons are pretty basic, but nicely thought out. I could actually learn something. It's kind of cool to have a digital audio workstation that can teach you to play an instrument. Today I learned that the way I typically finger chords is wrong. I also learned how to play a simplified version of Ode to Joy. I think you have to buy the more advanced lessons on the App Store, but they're not very expensive. This will definitely give me something to do on rainy days.

We didn't even try to take an afternoon walk. Dash was smart enough to know that the noise we were hearing off in the distance was thunder. In lieu of a walk, I did some laundry and watched TV. I'm so tired of political news and stock market gyrations, that it might have been better to take a walk in the rain. I need to find a channel that just talks about artificial intelligence and upcoming space launches.

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Day 3031

Good news. When the doctors reviewed Dash's latest echocardiogram this morning, they were unable to detect any signs of the blood clot in his heart. There's always a chance that the clot just didn't show up during today's scan, but the folks at the cancer center are usually very thorough in their exams. We think that Dash's dangerous blood clot may have finally dissolved. Dash's doctor wants to give him one more scan in June before he gets a clean bill of health, but things are looking very good at this point.

I wish Dash were better behaved during these exams. The tests are non invasive and completely painless, but Dash freaks out whenever we take him to the vet these days. It's embarrassing to sit in the lobby and hear your dog bark and whine during the entire procedure. Everybody else's dog was sweet and well behaved today. Not ours. Maybe Dash would be happier if he realized that he only had to endure one more scan. We won't tell him that he's going to need his teeth cleaned when it's safe to sedate him again.

The day always gets off to a slow start whenever there's a vet appointment. We try to make the appointments as early as possible, so Janet won't miss too much work, but our normal routine still gets delayed quite a bit. By the time I finished my breakfast and got Dash ready to walk, it was well past noon. I don't know why I even try to keep a schedule. When I finally turned my computer on around 1 PM, there was still noting but junk mail in my inbox. I would be totally shocked if I found myself looking at a new assignment these days.

With Dash taken care of and nothing else on my plate, it was hard to avoid mowing the grass. I thought it might be better to care care of this task today, because it's expected to rain tomorrow. The good news is that the mower still works. The bad news is that it seems even harder to push this year. All my trips to the gym really haven't produced any dramatic results. What has happened to me?  Mowing the grass used to be easy.

I installed some music production software on my laptop this afternoon, so I could use the new keyboard outside the office. I probably never will, since the laptop is slow, but it's nice to have options. I was pleased to discover that Logic Pro and GarageBand have a new "teaching" mode where you can learn to play guitar and piano from within the software. Cool. I'll have to try this. I'm certainly pretty rusty playing the piano. I hope I can maintain my interest in music for a while. It would be nice to start writing songs again.

I'm still amazed that Dash's blood clot seems to have disappeared. There was always the possibility that it would, but I wasn't very hopeful. I can't even remember how many echocardiograms Dash has had now. We've been monitoring his condition for many months now and until the scan we had a month and a half ago, nothing ever changed. I'm glad we never lost faith and kept up with his treatment even when it didn't seem to be doing any good. The good news we heard today reminds me how important it is to be patient. Some things in life just take a lot of time.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 934

Today was a somewhat social day for a solitary soul like myself. I went back to the cool restaurant for breakfast this morning and ran into a photographer friend who lives in the neighborhood. He and I could easily have talked about the declining revenues of commercial photographers, or what to do with old film cameras, but we found something far more interesting to chat about: the behavior of our dogs.

I find these little neighborhood restaurants fascinating. They are all located with a few miles of my house. They all have a basically similar menu. But each restaurant seems to attract a completely different group of people. The cool restaurant seems to attract advertising people, which isn't surprising, since advertising people are drawn to trendy things like moths to a flame. The restaurant with the good bacon seems to attract school teachers. I never dreamed that school teachers had so much time on their hands until I started going to this place. Surprisingly, the restaurant with the best food doesn't attract anybody at all. The place does a good dinner business, but nobody seems to come for breakfast. In another surprise, the restaurant with the unhealthiest menu seems to attract the very people who need healthy food the most. I actually like all these places, but still think my own cooking is the best.

I was starting to look like Don Imus on a bad hair day, so I went and got a haircut this afternoon. Morning and afternoon conversation is kind of a rarity for me. My hair stylist likes to talk about vacations and family problems. I don't like to talk about either of these things, but do my best to keep up my end of the conversation. I often think I could save a fortune by just going to a regular barber, but a good haircut is one of those little luxuries you really hate to give up. Betty is expensive, but she never fails to make me look younger, so I guess it's worth it.

I wish they had iPads when I was first learning to play the guitar. I've installed GarageBand on my iPad and am using it to practice playing my new guitar. It's fabulous. The iPad is small and unobtrusive and yet the GarageBand software faithfully emulates half a dozen well known guitar amps. If I play through earphones, I don't bother Janet either. So far, I'm having a lot of fun relearning things I forgot twenty years ago. The best thing is that playing doesn't bother my hand as much as I though it would. I'm beginning to think the exercise might actually be good for my Carpal Tunnel.

So, for those of you who think I'm too negative, I've had a good day. I had breakfast with a friend, got a haircut that made me look younger, and took a trip down memory lane with my Stratocaster. Not bad for a Friday.

Cisco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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