Day 4398

Success. I finally got the star tracker to work. The problem wasn't really buggy software or bad cables. The problem was me. After all these years I still haven't learned to use my iPhone. I was expecting buttons to control the software app. The developers chose to use gestures instead. Who uses gestures? Apparently everyone except me. I still haven't taken the Polaris outside at night to attempt star pictures, but I think it's going to work. This is an incredible little piece of machinery. That's more than I can say for my own brain at the moment.

We took a fecal sample to the vet this morning and were happy to learn that Dawn doesn't have giardia. The vet gave us some pills to control diarrhea and hopefully Dawn will be back to normal soon. Her poop is still very soft, but she's definitely getting better. Last night she slept through the night, so neither of us had to sleep with one eye open in case Dawn needed to make a quick trip outside at 3 AM. We're going to have to rake leaves soon. There was probably something nasty under the leaves that she ate. I don't think she ate anything on her walks. We watch her too carefully.

I doubt that we'll be raking leaves tomorrow or even the next day. It's still too wet. It rained again last night and was misty and foggy all day today. It was really kind of a dismal day. It never got warm and it never got dry. I still took my long walk though. It's got to be pretty bad before I stop walking.

I forgot to take the Christmas stuff back to the storage warehouse while I was out grocery shopping this morning. I seem to forget something almost every day now. Usually the memory lapses are minor, but occasionally they are major. I've started leaving notes around the house for myself now with messages like "remember to feed the dog."

Prices are still going up at the grocery store. The weekly changes are small, but they add up over time. If this continues I may have to start looking for bargains. Janet is a savvy shopper, but I just buy the same things over and over again. I typically don't even look at the price. It's really only recently that I've become aware that something has changed. Some items have gotten expensive a lot more quickly than others. It probably has something to do with transportation and the current lack of truckers. I'm glad I'm not looking for a car right now. Car prices are even worse than food prices. Even used car prices are out of sight.

It's hard to say whether Dawn is going to get a Sunday outing tomorrow. The weather still looks marginal and Dawn hates to get wet. We'll see what happens. I really don't trust the weather apps on my phone anymore. They've been wrong more than they've been right lately. I need to find a new project now that my month long Odyssey with the star tracker is coming to a close. Learning to use the Polaris was actually kind of interesting. Now it's on to more mundane things like fixing a running toilet.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4397

Another day, another problem. This Polaris star tracker is driving me nuts. I don't think I'm cut out to be a Beta tester. The Polaris unit itself seems very well made. It's the software app on my phone that controls the thing that's full of bugs. I think I may have defective connecting cables as well. Everything works well for a little while and then the app freezes and I have to restart everything and try again. I really got nowhere today. The app kept saying that I didn't have a memory card inserted in my camera. The card was there however and it actually was recording pictures for a while. 

It's very hard to communicate with the Chinese manufacturer and the other Kickstarter backers in the Facebook support group are just as lost as I am. A few seem to be able to track stars and are getting some amazing pictures. I suspect that they are all using the one camera that magically seems to work. I imagine that it is very hard, or almost impossible for the Polaris unit to support hundreds of different cameras.

Dawn seems better today. Her poop is still soft, but it is not a runny liquid anymore. Hopefully, this will clear up soon. Dawn definitely doesn't seem sick and her appetite is still good. She is mad at us now because we are feeding her less until her GI tract seems stable again. She had to go outside several times last night and it was very cold. Luckily, Janet is a light sleeper so she was able to let Dawn outside when she appeared restless. We think Dawn is getting better, but if the diarrhea persists we'll take a fecal sample to the vet to be tested. There's always a chance that she might have giardia.

I stubbornly continue to walk, although I'm beginning to question my own sanity. It just isn't very pleasant to walk on a cold windy day. The wind is worse than the temperature for me. A lot of my route is along the shoreline of the lake and on days like today, the lake effect wind can be pretty bad. It's really hard to dress properly. When the wind stops and the sun comes out, I am hot. When the sun goes behind a cloud and the wind start blowing, I'm freezing. The foot pain is always lurking in the background as well. The pain wasn't bad today. Maybe it was just so cold that my feet went numb.

Janet does her grocery shopping on Friday and she said the store shelves are starting to get empty again. I hope we're not headed back to the dark days of 2020. It seems that way sometimes. I'm tired of panic buying. I'm tired of mandates that create more problems than they solve. If the past two years have proved anything it is that the government is fairly inept at solving these type of problems and that everything in today's society gets so politicized that we lose focus of the real problem. Hey, at least we aren't Australia. Those poor Australians are fucked. What ever happened to Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max? I'm amazed that the Australians don't rebel against their repressive government. Maybe they've looked around at other countries and realize what will happen if they do. Sadly, we've living in an increasingly totalitarian world.

We took the Christmas tree down today. I'll take some of the decorations back to the storage warehouse tomorrow and that will be the end of the holiday season. I kind of liked looking at the Christmas tree in the evenings. The lights were pretty and strangely optimistic. I'm not really a very festive person, but holidays are certainly better than nothing. It's fun to watch dogs open their Christmas gifts too.

I'm making my grocery list for tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't run into the same empty shelves that Janet encountered today. I'm almost certain that prices will be higher. Inflation is not only real, it can be quite dramatic. Janet and I have different items on our respective grocery lists, but the things I buy have gone up in price every single week for several months now. The price of gas keeps getting higher as well. You really have to wonder where this is all going to end?

Misty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2261

Every time we have a day like this, it's easy for me to forget that we've actually had a very mild Winter. I'm trying to be charitable here, but I can't think of many nice things to say about today. It was nasty outside. The combination of high winds and heavy rain made it miserable to walk the dogs. Luckily, there was a short break in the rain when we took Dot on her early walk, but later when I walked Dash, we got soaked. It's been raining continuously for almost 24 hours and shows no sign of stopping yet.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Dot was tired today. It could have been the rain and cold weather. It could have been the cumulative effects of the Palladia pills. It could have been further evidence of her losing battle with the aging process. I feel bad for her on days like this. She still needs to go outside and pee and do a minimal amount of walking around to keep her legs from getting stiff, but she tires easily. We took a shorter walk than normal this morning, and when we returned she was exhausted.

Dot slept for the rest of the day while I picked up my car at the dealership and took Dash to his vet appointment. I was surprised that they fixed my car so quickly. It's a shame that the weather was so bad today. The dealer always cleans and washes my car after a service appointment, but by the time I finished driving home and taking Dash to his vet appointment, all this effort was wasted. The car was already dirty inside and out.

Dash wasn't sick, but with all Dot's problems he's been a bit neglected. I wanted to check and see if he needed his teeth cleaned. He does! He's been having digestive issues lately, so I wanted to make sure he didn't have Giardia or some other nasty parasite that could be causing his diarrhea. He has a small growth on his tail that I wanted to make sure was still benign. The vet checked him thoroughly and expressed his anal glands for good measure. Dash is OK and I feel much better now.

The awful weather and Dot's general state of exhaustion were probably one of the reasons why she pooped in the house twice today. It can take her a long time to poop on a normal day and today wasn't normal. Every time I took her outside, I could tell she didn't want to be out in the cold. To her, it probably made a lot more sense to just poop in her sleep. One of her favorite blankets appears to be indestructible. I've washed it so many times that it should have begun to fray and come apart at the seams long ago. It still looks as good as new, even though I washed the blanket twice today.

Despite all the errands I needed to run, I still managed to get quite a bit done. I finished updating a website and completed the first of three articles that are due this week. I think that's plenty for one day. I've still got a cough, but my cold is definitely getting better.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 802

The vacuum cleaner isn't working as well as it should, so I think the vacuum cleaner bag is full and it's time for a new bag. Then I start looking at the vacuum cleaner and realize its time for an entirely new vacuum cleaner. Then I look down at the carpet and wonder why I'm even bothering to vacuum. It's time for a new carpet. Then I start thinking, what's the point of even installing a new carpet if the day after its installed the roof starts to leak and makes a big stain. You can see where I'm going with this. To me, this is entropy. It's not stars and galaxies dying. It's just every every single element in the house slowly coming apart. With so much broken and decaying, where do you even start to reverse the process.

We went and walked the rescue dogs this morning. Lady is becoming less timid and walking much better on a leash. Odie has Giardia, which is a surprisingly common parasite in dogs. Dogs often show no symptoms of being infected, so it can be difficult to diagnose. I'm not sure if Odie is being treated with Metronidazole or Fenbendazole, but he should be fine again pretty quickly. We had to remember to wash our hands before we went home though, since Giardia can be easily transmitted from one pet to another.

When I went to the vacuum cleaner store to get some more bags for my Hoover, I overheard a salesman trying to convince a woman to buy a Kirby instead of a state of the art Dyson. I'd heard about these Kirby sales pitches, but I'd never actually seen one in person. Keep in mind that a Kirby vacuum cleaner probably hasn't changed in fifty years and is still the most expensive vacuum on the planet. It does have one thing going for it though: the most elaborate sales pitch known to man. It didn't take me long to get my bags, but as I was leaving, I could see the woman was already wavering. I wouldn't be surprised if she actually bought the antiquated $1200 vacuum.

I think there are going to be a lot of disappointed people in Dallas if the weather turns cold again. Spring is definitely in the air. I saw kites flying in the park today and quite a few picnickers. I even saw some early blooming Spring flowers this afternoon. I'm not getting my hopes up though. It is still February.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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