Day 1939

My life is a lot like watching paint dry these days. Dot is definitely getting stronger, but progress is very slow. I've still got some new projects on the back burner, but it could take weeks or even months before any of them come to fruition. I'm still doing my physical therapy exercises, but any progress in regaining the use of my shoulder is still measured in inches. I've learned to take it all in stride. I don't even expect anything to happen fast anymore.

People who are in a hurry probably find me infuriating. I can spend hours eating breakfast. I never drive over the speed limit anymore. I finish everything on my to-do list, but it can take months for me to get around to the less desirable tasks. I still brag that I've never missed a deadline, but this is probably only because my clients are getting slower too. Even writing this blog is taking longer than it used to. I guess this makes sense. It's not easy to say the same thing over and over again without becoming redundant.

Today was particularly slow. I did have one website problem to solve, but that was about it. Since the dogs were unusually quiet today, I wanted to find a way to fill the day without waking them up unnecessarily. I ended up watching Interstellar at a very low volume all over again. It's a long movie, so it used up a lot of time. I don't mind reading a book or watching a movie twice. If it was good the first time, it is usually good the second time as well. When I watch a movie twice, I'm always surprised at how many things I missed at the first viewing.

I thought I was going to get lucky and make it through the afternoon without any frantic barking episodes, but a yard crew came to the neighbors house and started making a huge racket with their lawn mowers and leaf blowers. Not surprisingly, this sent both dogs into a barking frenzy. Dot and Dash have always barked at strange noises, but I guess I just ignored them because I wasn't actually participating. Now that I'm holding up Dot's rear legs, I sometimes feel like I need to start barking too. I took the dogs outside, fed them a rice cake, and eventually got them settled down again after the lawn crew finished their noisy work. I thought I was home free, but then the UPS delivery guy knocked on the front door and the barking started all over again.

Dot is probably more frustrated than I am. All she wants is her freedom back. I'm sure she's not wild about having me following her around holding her harness everywhere she goes, but it can't be helped. If Dot wants to wander around freely again, she going to have to become a bit more surefooted. She thinks she's hot stuff now, but I still catch her and keep her from falling at least ten times a day.

To continue today's slow motion theme, I got a call from my insurance company saying that the car accident in California had finally been resolved. Jeez, the accident happened in January and it's April now. I never thought the whole process would take this long. Everything takes a long time now. I'm working on a video for a client that probably won't be finished until June. Lord knows when I'll finally get my teeth fixed. After all Dot's expenses, dental surgery seems pretty pricy right now. By the time I can afford to have the dental work done, I'll have to overcome my fear of the dentist all over again.

Everything in good time, I guess. Somehow my taxes will get finished and filed on April 15. The dead limb on the big oak tree in the back yard will be pruned by Summer. I'll probably be wearing an Apple watch before Christmas. Somewhere in the grand mix of things, Dot will be walking on her own in the park again.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1937 - Easter

I had a feeling that lots of egg hunts and Sunrise Services were spoiled this morning when I woke to the sound of pounding rain on the roof. We actually needed the rain to help the new grass root properly, but it would have been nice if Easter Sunday was as beautiful as it was yesterday. There was no need to get up until the rain subsided, so we all got some extra sleep. Dot and Dash didn't even need to stick their nose out the door to know it was raining. They both just curled up on their blankets and waited for the rain to stop.

It's so nice that Dot doesn't have her incontinence problems anymore. During her cancer treatment I often had to take her outside in absolutely atrocious weather. It couldn't be helped. When you've got to go, you've got to go. Today, the dogs were content to wait until 10 AM to do their business. That's when the weather radar said the rain would stop, and that's exactly when it did. We all had a leisurely breakfast and then I took Dash for a walk while Janet took Dot for a much shorter walk up and down our street. The wet weather made things a little slippery for Dot, but she still did pretty well.

Since it was such a dismal, cold day I thought it would be a perfect time to watch the Interstellar DVD on my computer. I've heard both good and bad things about the movie, so I was curious to see if it lived up to my expectations. It did. I just didn't realize that the movie was so long. Dot will rest quietly for up to two hours at a time, but after that, there's going to be a lot of barking unless I'm there to cater to her needs. I never ignore her barking because when she gets excited, she poops. Believe me, it's much better to pause a movie than to clean up dog poop in the house.

As science fiction movies go, Interstellar was pretty good. I liked the way they described wormholes. It seemed to make more sense than Farscape, Sliders and many other films that have utilized wormholes in the plot. Of course since nobody knows if wormholes even exist, I'll be the first to admit that films like Interstellar are really just Harry Potter movies for people like me. I think wizards and zombies are rubbish, but am perfectly willing to to believe that wormholes could whisk someone from one galaxy to another in a matter of seconds. You almost have to believe in wormholes if you think the human race is going to reach the stars someday. The two voyager spacecraft have been traveling for decades and they've barely reached the edge of the solar system. We need wormholes. And maybe we need wizards too.

It's hard to believe that it's going to be 85 degrees tomorrow, since it's only 50 today. The air conditioner was on yesterday, but overnight the fancy new thermostat automatically switched things back to heat mode and we woke up toasty and warm. I got an e-mail recently saying that I was eligible for an upgrade to the WiFi thermostat that would coordinate our energy use with real-time weather patterns and automatically keep the house at the perfect temperate. This sounded intriguing, but I was a bit suspicious. The whole idea felt a bit too much like driverless cars to me. I want to be the guy setting the temperature, not a computer off in the cloud somewhere. I didn't click on the "lets get started" button, even though the ad said it would save me hundreds in electricity bills.

Tomorrow is Monday. Monday's are usually pretty boring. I'll bet I'm going to wish I'd waited another day to watch that movie.

Angel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1936

I got up several hours before dawn to watch this morning's lunar eclipse. I left the house quietly, so I wouldn't wake Janet and the dogs and went out to the street where I cold get a good view. Apparently, watching eclipses wasn't a high priority in the neighborhood. All the houses were still dark and the roads were empty. It was quite peaceful.

As the dawn approached, I could hear birds begin to sing as the moon shrunk to a smaller and smaller crescent. This was supposed to be a Blood Moon, but I couldn't see the red glow at totality. Since the moon was near the horizon, it just gradually disappeared as it sunk into the low lying haze and ground fog. I went back to bed for a while after the moon disappeared and then started the day all over again when the dogs woke up and wanted their breakfast.

Janet takes Dot on a short walk now while I walk Dash. Dot made it all the way to the end of our street this morning. She was feeling good. The constant tremor in her rear legs is largely gone now. She is learning to stand normally and her paws seldom knuckle under anymore. We have reached the point now where she feels better than she did before the surgery. The main challenge now is to build back the muscle mass she lost both before and after the surgery. Her rear legs are very weak, but each week they become stronger. Surgery is always risky and sometimes you don't make the right decision. I think in this case, the surgery really helped.

Since Dot still sits down really hard if we aren't there to steady her and is prone to stumble at the least little obstacle, Janet and I still divide our time watching her. I ran my errands in the morning, so she could run hers in the afternoon. It would have been nice if the dogs felt like sleeping, because I picked up the Interstellar DVD while I was getting groceries. I thought I might get a chance to watch it this afternoon, but that turned out not to be the case. Dot didn't want to sleep. She wanted to bark and continually move from one dog bed to another. Every time I created a safe enclosure so she couldn't hurt herself, she wanted to go somewhere else. She didn't want to be penned at all and wasn't shy about letting me know. When Dot starts barking, Dash chimes in and starts barking too. It was a lot more peaceful when I was watching the eclipse by myself at 6 AM. The only way I was able to keep any semblance of sanity this afternoon was to divide the dog's dinners into small portions and feed it to them at two hour intervals.

I never was able to watch my movie, but I did manage to get some work done. It was a shame to stay inside on a beautiful day like today but I didn't seem to have much choice. I certainly can't blame Dot for being restless. I'm sure she would have rather chased squirrels in the back yard and barked at cars going up and down the alley. If Dot understood the cause and effect between exercise and being able to do the things she loves, maybe our sessions in the underwater treadmill would go smoother. We're getting there though and have really made an enormous amount of progress since February.

I should make an effort to go to the gym tomorrow. I need to spend as much time on my own physical therapy as I am on Dot's. It's kind of pitiful in a way. An old guy with a dislocated shoulder probably isn't the best choice to help an old dog with bad legs get back in shape. Maybe by Summer I'll be able to move my arm freely again and Dot can return to her walks in the park.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1794

We are still in the grip of an arctic cold front that has sent temperatures tumbling to the mid 30's. Surprisingly, the dogs seem to find this cold weather invigorating. They walk along briskly with their noses in the air and their tails straight behind them while I attempt to keep up, bundled in layers of warm clothing. Dot is too unsteady on her feet now to walk in snow anymore, but when she was younger, she would love our occasional snow days. I'm just the opposite. I do my best to avoid extremes and would prefer a year that has only two seasons: Spring and Fall. Seattle was kind of like this, but it rained all the time when I lived there. Occasionally, I have visited places that seem ideal, but unfortunately living in Santorini or Hawaii isn't entirely practical.

Every Summer I fantasize about living in Wyoming or Montana and then on the first day of Winter, I remember how cold those places can get. I spent a Winter in Idaho once and it was far too cold for me. Is there a place where the scenery is beautiful, the cost of living is low, and the temperature is always 70 degrees? Oh, there shouldn't be any bugs or snakes either. Maybe I'm being too picky.

It's hard to believe that we've been doing Dot's physical therapy for well over a year now. I've been a lot more faithful about getting Dot to her weekly water therapy and acupuncture sessions than I've been about going to the gym myself. There is no way of knowing how well she'd be doing without all this extra attention, but I remain convinced that the physical therapy is working. For a dog as old as she is, Dot is still remarkably active. Today was a good day. She did very well in the underwater treadmill this afternoon and still had plenty of energy during her evening walk.

Although the week got off to a slow start, I have plenty of work to do now. I wish the jobs had come in earlier in the week, since I've started thinking of Friday as a vacation day. I can't really complain though. Work keeps the mind agile and pays the vet bills. When I get caught up with the current batch of assignments, I might go see Interstellar at an IMAX theater. They say since Christopher Nolan shot the film using IMAX cameras, it looks spectacular when seen in one of these immersive theaters. Knowing me however, I might just wait until next March when the DVD comes out. It's a long movie and I still hate to leave the dogs this long.

The HVAC guys have rescheduled their appointment to install my new thermostat for tomorrow, but I think I'll still have time to go out for breakfast anyway. The trip to the grocery store may have to wait. The way things are shaping up now, tomorrow looks like a very busy day.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day