Day 1954

Slowly but surely, life is getting back to normal. Dash still has a limp, but he is walking better than he was yesterday. Dot is still a little unsteady, but she is getting stronger everyday. I let her walk around the house without her harness for a while today and she seemed to enjoy it. It's a bit of a problem walking the dogs now, since both have leg problems, but we're doing OK. The big breakthrough is that Dot is confident enough now that her separation anxiety has subsided. I can leave her alone for several hours at a time and she is content to just rest on her dog bed. This allows me to run small errands like going to the post office or bank without worrying so much. To be on the safe side, I always leave Dot in a gated section of the hallway and take her harness off, so she can't get tangled up in something. I put a comfortable bed in this safe area and Dot is fine. She slept a lot before her injury and she still sleeps a lot now.

My website revisions have slowed down this week, but I'm trying to use my time wisely.  I'm still working on getting up to speed about responsive design, so when clients eventually discover that they've dropped in the search rankings, I'll have a solution for them. I learned how to apply transitions and animations across several platforms today. All I have to show for my several hours of study is a single line of type on my company website that slowly fades in and grows to its final size as the site loads. Although this doesn't really prove anything, it's the principal of the thing. I can move objects around and the effect stays the same whether it is viewed on a large desktop monitor or a small phone. Cool. If I contine to learn one new thing a day, I should be pretty good at this responsive design stuff by Summer.

An insurance guy came out to take pictures of the house this morning. He said that needed pictures to substantiate that the construction was load bearing brick. Jeez. I told them that house was constructed using brick bearing walls almost twenty years ago. They must not have believed me. It's weird that it took them twenty years to come out and take a picture though.

I got some more K-cup coffee pods in the mail today. I had written Keurig a while back and asked them what to do if one of the cups split during brewing. One of the cups actually did split and I ended up getting coffee grounds in my cup, but I didn't expect to receive a whole box of K-cups for a single defective cup. I wasn't even mad when I wrote Keurig. I just wondered if I needed to clean the machine after the pod broke. I like this company. It's a nicely designed product that's made in America. The coffee tastes great. And the service is pretty good. What's not to like?

I've got to stop listening to weather predictions I see on my Facebook page. They're almost always wrong. According to my Facebook friends, we were supposed to get huge storms and maybe even tornadoes tonight. I walked the dogs extra early to avoid this ominous storm. I also ate early to avoid a potential power outage. I'm not complaining, but so far it is still dry outside. I think the entire storm system passed about fifty miles south of us. Of course, things could change by morning. This is Texas after all.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1925

I love my new Keurig coffee maker. I don't know why I didn't get one of these things earlier. It's quick. It's easy. The coffee tastes good. And there's no cleanup whatsoever. This machine, with it's touch screen menu and ability to brew almost anything is the iPhone of coffee makers. I'm not usually impressed by kitchen appliances, but this one is a keeper. One of the first things I noticed about this 2.0 version was that it will only accept it's own brand of K-cups. I didn't think this restriction would go over very well with people and a quick Google search confirmed my initial suspicions.

Even though this version of the coffee maker is fairly new, there were already 100's of hacks that would let you use old style K-cups and those reusable containers that allow you use your own ground beans with the system. Since the only reason I bought the machine in the first place was to avoid grinding beans and cleaning up the mess later, it baffles me why people would go to so much trouble to convert their machine into an old style drip coffee maker. I guess it is human nature when someone tell you you can't do something to try and do it anyway. I'm not going to try any of these hacks. I'm not going to jailbreak my iPhone either. Why bother. It seems a wasted effort to fix something that works already.

I forgot to give Janet the folder with my tax information to take to the accountant on her way to work this morning. As luck would have it, she forgot her phone and came home to retrieve it, so I was able to give her the tax folder anyway. It takes a lot of coordination to get things done when you can't leave the house. It doesn't help that we are both becoming more forgetful too. Lord help us ten or fifteen years from now. Dot is forgetful too. Half the time when I take her out to pee, she forgets why she's outside and just comes in again. As soon as I sit down to do something, she remembers that she needs to pee and we repeat the whole process.

Since work was slow today, I tried to get some other stuff done. I made arrangements with the roofer to come over and repair the roof. When I got off the phone, I noticed that the day the work was scheduled to be done, it was supposed to rain. Sounds about right. I also contacted the landscaper and made arrangements to replace the dead grass in the backyard. Keeping the back yard looking nice is an exercise in futility. We've put in new sod every single Spring for the last five years. It looks nice until about August and then it dies. I water the grass, treat the ground for grubs, and apply fertilizer, but there just isn't enough light. In the Summer, the tree canopy overhead blocks almost all the direct sunlight and the tree roots suck up all the water. The grass doesn't stand a chance.

Dot continues to get stronger. I provide very little assistance when I use the harness now. I'm trying to encourage her to support her own weight again. When her legs are placed correctly, she does great, but it is still easy to slip. Dot must be getting more feedback from the nerves in her legs now, because she can balance her weight much better. She'll automatically shift her legs and re-balance when she is starting to slip. I have a feeling that the ugly rugs are going to remain in the house for a long time, but we're definitely making progress.

This housebound existence is a weird way to live, but hopefully in another month or so Dot will be able to move around on her own. Dot just needs to get better before I go crazy.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1924

I got quite a bit done today. My taxes are finally ready to go to the accountant. I finished writing two more articles and sent them off to the client. I made an appointment to resume Dot's physical therapy later this week. And I contacted the roofer and told him about the problems I've been having with the peeling elastomer. Considering that today is Monday, this was pretty good.

A small piece broke off the grinder component of my new single serve machine when I was making coffee this morning. This was actually a good thing, because it gave me an opportunity to take this worthless thing back to the store and exchange it for something else. I boxed up the coffee maker and as soon as Janet came home to watch Dot, I took it back to the store and got a Keurig instead. All I want is a nice cup of coffee in the morning without having to spend half an hour cleaning the machine. Who knows if the K-cup pods will be as tasty as the beans I'm currently grinding, but the whole process will certainly be easier. I don't think you have to clean these K-cup coffee makers at all.

Dot continues to get stronger with each passing day.  Today I attached an extension to her Help 'Em Up Harness that lets her support her own weight and just serves as a fail-safe device to keep her from falling if she starts to slip. I was pleased to see that Dot can walk without me holding up her rear legs. On the other hand, I was a bit alarmed to see how awkwardly she walked when I wasn't supporting her. Dot is definitely not ready to walk completely unassisted yet. I'm in no hurry. We'll just continue taking things one step at a time. The stronger she gets, the better she'll be able to walk.

It would be nice if the roofers could come out tomorrow. I'm not going to hold my breath though. They probably won't show up until it starts to rain again. Since there is currently no rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, this would be an excellent time to get things repaired. The roof may be dry now, but it's going to take a lot longer before the park dries out. Dash's favorite routes seem to always traverse the soggiest and muddiest areas. I let hm walk wherever he wants though. He's been really good about dealing with all the extra attention I've been giving Dot, and I don't want to rock the boat. Peaceful, happy dogs make life a lot easier.

It's proving to be quite difficult to keep the house clean with a muddy yard and throw rugs all over the place. The vacuum cleaner doesn't deal with the little rugs very well and keeps trying to suck them up. It may be time for a new vacuum cleaner. For now, the house it just getting dirtier by the day. Dot has always been scared of the vacuum cleaner anyway and I don't have the heart to use it while she's trapped in her pen and unable to move. There are so many elements to this rehabilitation effort that catch me by surprise. I'm getting better at finding the dog poop but there's always something new to deal with. Since it's getting warmer, the wasps have returned and I can no longer just leave the back door open while I take Dot in and out to pee with the harness. The wasps are already starting to build nests under the eaves and if I leave the door open very long, they are sure to fly inside. The only good thing about Winter is that the bugs disappear for a while. Now, they're back again.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1923

None of my roof patches worked. They dried completely and looked like they should have worked, but for some unknown reason the patch didn't adhere to the roof itself. When I went to clean the rainwater off the roof this morning, I discovered that some of my patches were actually floating on top of the water. The rain had loosened them like they were a decal and I could lift each patch by a corner and peel it away, completely intact. I didn't have a patch at all. Just a perfect little one foot square of flexible vinyl. I hung a couple of these detached patches out to dry on a nearby tree limb so I could show the roofer later, and threw the rest away. All my efforts were worthless.

Later, I installed the special dog hammock Janet bought in my car and initially though it was worthless as well. On closer inspection, I realized I had installed the hammock upside down, so I started over again. When I was finished, we all got in the car and made a test run to the post office and back. Dot appeared comfortable and secure. It appears that this is going to work. The special sling that hangs between the front and rear seats is kind of ugly, but now the car matches the rest of the house. Hey, it's all for a good cause. I contacted Dot's vet and told her about this new development and she agreed that Dot is ready to resume her physical therapy again. Hopefully, by this time next week, Dot will be walking in the underwater treadmill again.

I'm really disappointed with my new coffeemaker. I did my research on Google and still managed to come up with something worthless. I think I'm going to scrap the whole thing and try something else. When I was getting groceries this afternoon, I looked at some of those K-cup single serve coffeemakers. I hadn't initially considered them before, because I thought that the cost of coffee pods would be prohibitive, especially since I drink so much coffee. I had forgotten that the beans I use now are pretty expensive as well. When I did the math, I realized that the monthly cost would be about the same. Maybe I'll go get one of those Keurig machines next week sometime. I'm really tired of cleaning up coffee grounds and grinding new beans every time I want a cup of coffee. I should have thought this through a little better.

I've almost got my tax materials ready to go to the accountant. The big stack of papers means almost nothing to me. I have no idea anymore whether I owe money at the end of the year or will be getting money back. It's always a surprise. I wouldn't mind paying taxes so much if I had any faith that the government was using the money wisely. I'm firmly convinced that 90 cents of every dollar I send the government is wasted. They certainly aren't using the money to fill potholes. The streets around our house are absolutely atrocious this year after all the rain we've gotten.

I hope next week will be peaceful and quiet. I've already got some new articles to write. There should be more website revisions by Tuesday as well. I'll call the roofers in the morning and see if I can get them to come out before the next round of rain. I don't think this new roof is even three years old yet. I shouldn't be having any problems at this stage of the game.

Brooke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day