Day 2512

Sometimes on Sundays I stare at the screen for thirty minutes before I write a single word. I'm just too tired. I went to the gym right after breakfast this morning, because I knew that if I waited until I finished the household chores, I probably wouldn't go at all. Right after breakfast wasn't that early though. It was actually closer to lunch. By the time we cleaned up Dot's latest accident in the house and gave the dogs their morning walk, it was already pretty late.

There are no pretty faces at my gym. I can't believe that everyone is so old. They are a steely eyed, very determined bunch though. A lot of the men look like they were CEO's before they retired. One old guy always exercises in a button down dress shirt and street shoes. It's like he's still at the office. I probably look just as old to these geezers. Especially if I arrive after I've vacuumed the house.

It's really hard to keep the house clean when Dot keeps peeing and pooping all over the place. I try though. Every Sunday the Dyson picks up an unbelievable amount of dirt and dog hair. Maybe the house smells a little better, but it certainly doesn't look much better. I sure wish this vacuum cleaner was easier to clean. I mean how many people need to use a leaf blower to clean their vacuum cleaner? The leaf blower actually does a pretty good job, but it would have made a lot more sense for Dyson to use a bag to catch the dust like everybody else does.

I received input for several new website updates this afternoon, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to look at it. Enough is enough. Working on weekends must be becoming more commonplace. Everyone is doing it now. Even Janet is bringing home work on weekends. I can probably get everything done tomorrow, but I definitely don't want to deal with it tonight.

I wonder if Anthony Weiner used a Macintosh? Huma Abedin claims that she has no idea how 650,000 of her e-mails wound up on Weiner's computer. She probably does know, but giving her the benefit of the doubt, if she ever opened an account on her husband's computer, all the e-mails she was sending on other computers could have quietly been updating on this one as well. Cloud-based computing can be sneaky that way. I know that when I send or receive an e-mail on my computer, it winds up on my phone, iPad, and laptop as well. 650,000 e-mails sounds like the mother lode of everything the FBI has been looking for. This is probably even more information than Wikileaks has. With this much information, there is probably something pretty damning. I know she won't do it, but Hillary should withdraw from the race immediately for the good of the country. If she wins and gets indited after the election, all hell is going to break loose. She could always pardon herself, but I don't think that is going to go over very well. I don't think there is much of a precedent for running the country from prison either. Just let Tim Kane run. He'll do most of the things the democrats want anyway. Hillary is toxic at this point.

I'm a great believer in Karma. Bill Clinton only got a slap on the wrist for his own misdeeds. He not only was a friend of Anthony Weiner, he introduced him to Huma Abedin and actually married the couple. A few dick pics later and everything comes crumbling down. Hey buddy, what goes around comes around. I have no sympathy for these fools.

I can't wait for the time to change next week. I'm getting real tired of walking the dogs in the dark before breakfast. Of course, when the time actually does change,  I'll be complaining about walking in the dark in the evenings. That's just the way I roll.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

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Day 2415

What happens to all the information I provide for my doctors? It seems like every time I have a doctor's appointment, I have to fill out pages and pages of personal information that I have already given them during an earlier visit. I've gotten so used to this that I always bring a pair of reading glasses and a pre-printed list of the meds I take to my appointment. They always try to cram way too much information on a single page, so you have to write really small. I can never fit the lengthy and often bizarre names of the pills I take into the small boxes provided. Almost every other industry has moved on to electronic records, but doctors seem to still like to put everything on paper. I don't get it. Today, I spent more time filling out the forms than I did talking with the doctor.

Today's visit was with a urologist. I'm old enough that I need to have a prostate exam at least once a year. The doctors at this clinic always seem to have a sad look on their face. I can see it in their eyes. You can tell that they wish they had become cardiologists instead. I guess I'd feel the same was if I spent my entire day giving prostate exams. I'd seen today's doctor before, but this was my first visit to his new clinic. Doctors seem to move around a lot. I didn't like this new clinic very much because they seemed to rush patients through in a hurry, and they wouldn't validate my parking. Would you choose a doctor based on free parking? It seems as good a reason as any.

I should have seen this coming. The roofers promised to fix my roof tomorrow, so of course it started to rain this afternoon. Storms are forecast for tomorrow as well. Now, I'll have to reschedule everything after the roof is dry again. It doesn't seem fair. I've been waiting for months to get this roof patched and it's been hot and dry for a long time. Now, when it's finally my turn for the repair crew, it has to rain. This will eventually get done, but it is testing my patience.

The rain made the dogs restless today. When Dot gets upset, she poops even more than usual, so I had quite a mess to clean up today. When I turned on the TV, it appeared that the Democrats has quite a mess to clean up as well. Wasn't it just last week that they were calling the Republican Convention a disorganized mess? I guess this is Karma in action. What goes around comes around. This was definitely a self-inflicted wound. The Democrats deserve the hot mess they created. It's still hard to believe that they so blatantly tried to rig an election.

I canceled Dot's physical therapy appointment again. I"m going to try to talk with Dot's vet tomorrow and see if there is any basis to continue. I think the therapy helps, but Dot seems happier without it. Janet keeps trying to tell me that I can't keep her alive forever and I should just let her rest for the remaining time she has with us. I hate to give up, but maybe she's right.

Puppies are today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2134

I found the stuff Janet wanted at the storage warehouse. It was a children's game we'd created a number of years ago where kids could add a spot to a large outline drawing of a Dalmatian. I can't remember what the point of this game was, but the children seemed to enjoy it. The life sized drawing of the Dalmatian with no spots had been printed on a piece of white corrugated plastic and there were black vinyl spots that could be applied to the dog. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the spots. Maybe they didn't even exist anymore. I did remember where I'd had the poster printed, so I drove over to the printer and asked them if they still had any of the peel apart black vinyl they'd given me to make the spots in the first place.

"Who is your account representative," said a girl I'd never seen before. "I don't know," I replied. "I've had quite a few over the years." She looked up my account and seemed surprised to discover dozens and dozens of job orders for various posters and signs. I used to come to this place frequently back when I had a lot of retail clients. I was probably doing posters before this girl was born. Once it was established that I was an ancient, but quite legitimate customer, the girl was very helpful and found me exactly what I needed. She gave me the tail end of a roll of black vinyl peel apart material, saying that they didn't use the stuff anymore. I bet I was the one who started using this roll, many years ago.

I took a small check to the bank and then drove over to the post office and paid some large bills. I wish I was taking large checks to the bank and paying small bills, but that not the way it works anymore. If I was following the script I was given, I would have retired gracefully to a gated community or a beautiful cabin in Taos. I've never followed the script however. It sucks to realize that you are slowly becoming irreverent, but at least I haven't had a heart attack, a nervous breakdown, or been denied coverage for an essential surgery. All these things have happened to friends of mine, so I really shouldn't complain that my business is going down the toilet. "You need to find a hobby," I hear people tell me. It's hard to explain to these people that for all these years my business actually has been my hobby. I made an entire career out of doing stuff I thought was fun.

Dot is off schedule again. She can go about six hours without pooping in the house, but if she happens to go at an odd time, it almost guarantees that there will be an accident later. Today, she didn't go on her morning walk, because we'd stayed up late the night before and she pooped in the back yard just before we all went to bed. I spent the rest of the morning waiting for the inevitable mess, and sure enough, Dot pooped in her bed about 10:30 AM. At least Dot's stools are nice and firm. If Dash ever starts this kind of behavior when he gets older it's going to be a disaster.

If I was writing this blog thirty years ago, it would be full of pretentious talk about first class airline tickets and fancy restaurants. Now I spend my time writing about dog poop. Maybe this is what Karma is all about. I was kind of an asshole in my younger years. It makes sense in an odd sort of way that the karmic debt would be paid by cleaning up dog poop. It's been a learning experience, but what I've learned has been good. I just hope I'm half as graceful about aging as Dot has been. Nobody lives in the moment better than dogs. Dot can't run and jump anymore. She can barely walk. Even with her diminished abilities, I can tell that every morning is a new day. She wakes up happy to be alive and goes about her business doing whatever she can. An old dog would be a good role model for all of us.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2093

I was happy to see a long overdue check arrive in today's mail. Now I can finish paying my August bills. Of course it is September already, so the whole process will begin all over again soon. Vet appointments. Trips to the pharmacy. Writing checks and taking them to the post office. Sometimes entire months go by this way. It wasn't always like this. For many years the only things that mattered were having a cool job and a cool car. I didn't even bother to balance my checkbook. Karma took care of that. I'm mature and responsible now, but there are times when I think maturity is overrated.

I called the Apple Store and tried to find out what the procedure was for getting the battery replaced in my laptop. Apple service sucks. After spending forever talking to an automated computer that insisted it understood complete sentences, I finally ended up talking to a real person who knew nothing. She told me that I would have to come to the store and talk to a technician. "That's why I'm calling you now, " I told her. "I was hoping to talk to a technician on the phone, so I won't have to make two trips to the store." When I asked her if the store even had the battery I needed in stock, she told me she wasn't allowed to discuss the store's inventory over the phone. I finally gave up in disgust and called a third-party repair service that I always use when I'm frustrated with Apple. They told me to bring the laptop in tomorrow morning and they'd have me ready to go in thirty minutes. The price for this speedy service was exactly the same as the Apple Store price.

Dot pooped in the house again. I thought she was asleep and was surprised to see her standing by my desk. Thinking she might need to go outside, I got up and we went to the back door. It didn't take long to notice the little trail of poop leading to the door. She did need to go outside. About five minutes before she walked into my office. I wish Dot had a way of warning me. If she would just bark or scratch the floor when she needed to go, I'd come running.

Dash still likes his new food. Now, we need to find out whether this diet is a short or long term solution. Dash has a sensitive stomach and is prone to get crystals in his urine, so it took us a long time to find a brand that was nutritious, made in America, and didn't cause him to gain weight or form crystals. He seemed to love his food for several years, but maybe he's like me. I can eat the same thing for months at a time and then one morning I'll wake up and never want to see it again. I hope I don't sour on my fruit smoothies anytime soon. They are delicious and very easy to make. One day I'll wake up and they'll seem disgusting though. It always happens eventually.

I"ll probably go ahead and get the laptop battery replaced tomorrow. It would be nice to have a computer that didn't instantly die on me the next time the power goes out. I need to get a haircut soon, but that will probably have to wait. Thursday is reserved for Dot's physical therapy and Friday she has another Ultrasound scan at the cancer center. It's going to be a busy week.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1513

I started my Hepatitis-C treatment this morning. While I was reading all the warning labels and instructions, I saw something that said "do not drive until you see how your body reacts to this drug." That was all the excuse I needed to skip my Wednesday morning networking breakfast. I didn't really want to go anyway. Ever since the guy who made the great omelets left, breakfast hasn't seemed nearly as exciting. I'm probably the only one who goes to these meetings for the food. Everyone else actually seems to like making connections. I'm very reluctant to sell my services too aggressively. I've learned the hard way that if I get the job, I have to do it myself. Most of these other guys and gals in this networking group are in sales. If they get the job, they just pass it off to someone else to complete.

It was so cold this morning that both dogs were finally willing to curtail their morning walks, so we could all go back to the house and warm up. Since I'm walking each dog separately now, the shorter walks allowed me to get back on schedule again. It was still a very busy day. I've doubled my writing workload this year and still have all the daily website updates that kept me busy to begin with. I doubt that I'll be able to keep this pace up forever, but for the time being, it keeps me from dwelling on the boring nature of my life.

Dot had a great day at her physical therapy session. She completed her interval training on the underwater treadmill like a boss and seemed relaxed and happy during her acupuncture therapy. This was the best Dot has done on the treadmill in several months, so I was pleased. When I arrived at the vet's office this afternoon, I saw someone make a u-turn through her parking lot and then drive directly over a street sign. The sign ripped the front bumper off the car and made a general mess of things. When I told the vet about the incident, she said that  the sign was a warning telling people not to make u-turns through her parking lot. Karma at work, I guess.

We haven't taken the dogs to their Wednesday evening training class for almost a month now. It's just been too cold. Dot and Dash certainly don't seem to mind. I think they both realize that lounging around on fluffy dog blankets in a warm house is a lot more pleasant than following orders in a cold, and often muddy field. We'll return to the class in the Spring though. I don't know why, but it is just something we do.

The weather report says it's going to get down to fourteen degrees tonight. Brrr! I don't know how you Northerners tolerate this kind of weather. We're not even halfway through Winter yet, and I'm already sick of continually changing back and forth between multiple layers of heavy outdoor clothing and lighter indoor wear. The large expanses of single pane glass in the house seems to condense buckets of water every morning, and I'm always wondering whether the car is going to start. Basically, I'm just a Winter wimp.

I wish I could tell you that it was Friday tomorrow, but we've got one more day to go. I try not to get ahead of myself, but I'm already looking forward to the weekend.

Zorro is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1195

Janet's favorite household appliance is the paper shredder. She shreds everything. I, on the other hand, tend to save paper forever. Today, as part of my continuing efforts to declutter my life, I threw away some of the paper that has been accumulating in my office. I shredded brokerage statements from companies that disappeared during the financial crash of 2008. I shredded credit cards that had expired before I even got around to opening the envelope. I shredded disputed medical bills from 1995. How did I acquire all this paper and why did I save it so long? I could probably spend the rest of my life just cleaning out this one little room. Maybe after I get the humongous stacks of paper in order, I'll start throwing away all the keys that don't seem to unlock anything. The big job will be figuring out what the five shoe boxes full of wall wart power adaptors adapters actually power. I seem to have hundreds of these little adapters and no idea of what they were initially used for. Why can't electronics manufacturers standardize their power supplies so one type of wall wart would work for everything? Better yet, why can't they just make things that plug directly in to the wall outlets. It just makes too much sense for this to ever happen.

It was so cold this morning that I had to dig out my Winter goose down ski jacket again. What happened to the beautiful 75 degree days that ushered in Spring just a few days ago? It seemed exceptionally cold when I was sweeping the accumulated water from last night's rain off the roof. I'm tired of sweeping water off the roof. When I was digging through piles of paper this afternoon, I found the original bill and warranty from the last roof I put on the house. The roof was guaranteed for three years and even the materials the roof was made of were only guaranteed for ten years. It's been a lot longer than ten years since I put that roof on.  It's definitely time for a new roof.

I believe in Karma. I'm sure that the Karma gods are still try to extract retribution for awful things I've done in the past, but I think it's about time we call things even and start over with a clean slate. I miss the carefree days when I had no responsibilities whatsoever. Of course, those days were probably when I built up most of my Karma debt in the first place.

When I was cleaning this afternoon, I found a picture of me sitting on a sofa with a Dalmatian I didn't recognize. I asked Janet what the dog's name was and she started laughing. "That's not you," she said. Oh, well. I never was very good with faces. I still don't know who the dog was, or the guy I thought was me, for that matter. The day wasn't a total waste though. I've decided to start wearing boxers instead of briefs. I don't know whether this is a sign of early dementia, or if I've finally acquired some common sense. Boxers are a lot more comfortable.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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