Day 2804

Whenever there's a disaster, my first thoughts are about the animals. There's already been an amazing effort to rescue dogs, cats, and horses trapped by rising waters around Houston. Probably much more will be needed in the days ahead. Among the thousands of animals in danger today were three Dalmatians trapped in a kennel that was being flooded by water that was being released from a nearby dam. I'm not sure, but I think these dogs are safe now. I hope so. It was amazing to see the rapid efforts of many people, some of whom I know, to coordinate an immediate rescue by boat. I'm not a huge fan of social media, but this is where it shines. Not more than an hour after I began seeing stories about the dogs plight on Facebook, boats were on the way. There were probably hundreds of stories like this today, but this was the only one that involved Dalmatians. When a Dalmatian is in danger it catches my attention.

It's already been a week since Janet's reconstruction surgery. Her doctor was pleased with her progress today and even removed some of the stitches. The nurse said that we were doing a good job with the bandages. That was a relief. If all continues to go smoothly, Janet will return to work again in another week.

I wish things were going just as smoothly with Dash. He threw up again after eating a normal breakfast and having a nice walk. Like many of his previous episodes, there was no warning. He just walked calmly to the back door around 1 PM and threw up. Dash shows no signs of distress before or after these incidents. He's been fine for the rest of the day. His vet has suggested that we put him on a mild anti-nausea medication for a month and see if we notice any changes. The theory is that he might be mildly nauseous all the time as a result of his vestibular disease. I hate to add another pill to his already lengthy list of meds, but this might be worth a try. Obviously something is wrong, but it has been very hard to pin down the cause.

We had more intermittent rain from the outer bands of Harvey. It's nice that I don't have to water the lawn every day, but the rain is going to complicate the roof repairs I was planning on making this month. It's going to take an extended dry spell before I am even able to prepare the surface for the elastomer coating the roofers gave me. There's certainly not any dry weather in the immediate future. I should have checked the weather radar before I walked Dash this evening. We got caught in a sudden shower and both got soaked.

It wasn't a very productive day. I got the wet/dry vacuum out and removed another quart of water from under the shower tiles. I don't know how this water is getting in there. I've sealed all the cracks completely with silicon caulk. Things like this are why people eventually give up and remodel their bathrooms. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to locate the source of this leak.

It doesn't matter if it is a shower stall or an iPhone case. Old things just crack and break. I tried to repair my Lunatik iPhone case for the third time this afternoon. I bought this case because it was supposed to be indestructible, but it is so old now that it is developing stress cracks. I took the case apart and applied superglue to the tiny cracks using watch repair tools. It would have been easier to just buy a new case but they don't make these things anymore.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow. One way or another, I'm sure it will involve water.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2544

I never know what to expect when I open my e-mail in the morning. Today there were more new assignments than I'd had all week. It was going to be a busy day. After taking Dash on a long walk and finishing breakfast, I got started on a lengthy website revision. It seemed like I'd just changed this site recently, but I guess it was time to change it again. It's not my role to question these things.

The dogs were good this morning, so I was able to work quickly and efficiently. Before noon, I was ready to get started on a new writing assignment. Neither of today's assignments were very exciting, but I was glad to have them. It's still important to have something to do besides cleaning up dog poop.

The replacement parts I ordered for the Waterpik and the LunaTik iPhone case I ordered on Black Friday both came in the mail today. I love getting things in the mail. If I had more money, I'd order even more stuff I don't really need. I think the main reason I started collecting watches many years ago was that I liked getting little packages in the mail. I was never a very orthodox collector. I seldom bought expensive or traditionally "collectible" watches. I preferred obscure brands with odd looking dials. People always worry about being scammed when buying watches online. I never worried at all, because who is ever going to go to the trouble to counterfeit a cheap watch. Whenever a package comes in the mail these days, it reminds me of my collecting days. Eventually, I realized that most of the fun was over as soon as I opened the package. I don't collect anymore, but I make no apologies for the money I've wasted on useless stuff. When you work alone for years at a time, you've got to use your imagination to keep your day interesting.

If you saw my closet, you'd probably think I collected coats. In my mind, I'm just being practical. Each coat represents a ten degree difference in temperature. Today I picked one of my warmer coats for our morning walk. This was the first time this year that the temperature was in the 30's when I woke up. Nothing froze, but it got pretty close. I dread the day when the temperature actually does drop below freezing. The garden hose on the back porch has become an essential component in my continuing efforts to keep Dot clean. It is much easier to take Dot outside and clean the poop off her butt with a hose and then dry her off with a bath towel than it is to try and accomplish the same thing inside using wet rags.

I've been wondering what to do with the extra garbage can the city sent me last month. One of my neighbors solved the problem for me. They stole it. Why they would want a broken garbage can is beyond me, but at least it isn't sitting behind my house in the alley anymore. I've actually been having pretty good luck getting my trash emptied recently. Maybe there's a new driver on our route. I haven't had any problems in well over a month, but I'm still superstitious. When I took the trash out this evening, I made sure to place it in my lucky spot. If a car is ever parks in this spot on Thursday night, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Dot is sleeping now, but she still hasn't pooped since early this morning. It makes me nervous. This is an accident just waiting to happen.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1995

Today was busy. As soon as we finished our morning walk, I took Dash to the vet and dropped him off. Then I came home so Dot and I could eat our breakfast. Then I went back to the vet, with a brief stop at the bank along the way, and met with the vet for Dash's 9:30 appointment. We won't get the lab work back for about a week, but everything looks good so far. Hopefully, this visit will take care of Dash for the rest of the year.

When we got back home again, Dash was eager to have his breakfast, which meant that Dot wanted her breakfast all over again. I put a little bit of kibble in her bowl while Dash was eating, so she wouldn't feel left out and then I had another cup of coffee and a somewhat stale doughnut I found in the refrigerator.

I was feeling confident enough about my latest mobile website experiment to give my client an opportunity to exchange his old static site for this new mobile friendly version I've been working on. How could he refuse. I was offering him the new site for free. When the client accepted my offer a few hours later, I began completing the site I had started a few days ago. By the end of the day I had something that looked pretty nice. I'll probably launch the new site on Thursday. I've eventually start charging for these things, but for right now this is a good way to learn.

I wonder when the city is going to start spraying for mosquitoes? Every Summer people get in a panic about West Nile Virus and the city starts a massive spraying program to eradicate the mosquitoes. Then a different group of people get upset about the spraying and make the city stop. I'm sure these two factions will be at each others throats again this year. Due to all the rain we've had recently, the mosquitoes are worse than I've ever seen. They're everywhere. By the time I've let the dogs out the back door to pee, ten mosquitoes have flown inside. There's one buzzing around my head right now. I hope the city starts spraying soon.

I still can't decide whether to get an Apple Watch. There are few things that I need less than an Apple Watch, but I still find shiny things like this mighty tempting. It's probably a good thing that I can't afford a watch right now. When I get finished paying for dental bills, next year's homeowners insurance, and Dot's next round of scans, there might already be a second generation watch with better battery life and more robust software. Too many times I've been an early adopter of Apple products, only to get left in the dust when they inevitably improve the product and lower the price. I've already got what some might call a first generation Apple Watch anyway. It's a square iPod Mini in an aluminum LunaTik case. I wore this watch for about a month before I got bored with it.

I think the coyotes that used to live in our section of the park have moved on. I'm seeing tons of bunnies this Spring. For a while there were very few rabbits to be found because the coyotes ate them all. It's nice to see that the bunnies are back. There are a lot more baby ducks this season as well. The city was always trying to encourage people to co-exist with the coyotes, but few people in the neighborhood liked them. Personally, I'm glad they've moved elsewhere.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1781 - Halloween

I was right. The plastic forks didn't even last a week. When I went to breakfast this morning, the regular metal silverware was back. It's good to see that common sense prevailed. The parking places are still too small, but I can live with that. I didn't seem to have as much trouble parking today.

Ordinarily, I'd share a picture of a pumpkin with you on Halloween, but I didn't see any pumpkins today. Maybe I didn't look very hard. There certainly weren't any pumpkins left in the stores. All the stores have moved on to Christmas by now. Halloween is pretty much a non-event at our house anyway. Halloween is a holiday for children and cosplayers and we don't have either in our neighborhood. We haven't had trick or treaters in years. With all the Ebola worries in this town, probably a lot of people aren't opening their doors to strangers anyway.

Commercial spaceflight certainly hasn't had a good week. First the Orbital Sciences Antares Rocket explodes and then today Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo explodes during a test flight. If I was Elon Musk, I'd be a little nervous right now. I was watching TV when the news broke and was astounded at the damage to the spacecraft. Nothing was left. It was amazing that one of the pilots was able to eject, since it all happened so fast. Even if I had the ridiculous amount of money it takes to secure a ticket on one of these Virgin Galactic flights, I don't think you could talk me into going. I'm a huge fan of spaceflight as long as I still have both feet on the ground. I throw up on roller coasters. I wanted to get a pilot's license once, but flunked out of the flight training class for the same reason. I still remember one of my flight instructors telling another instructor, "You take him up this time, I cleaned out the plane last time." Somehow, I don't think the five minutes of weightlessness everyone is looking forward to would sit very well with my stomach.

I wrote a letter to Lunatik asking if they'd replace my broken iPhone case. I bet they won't, but it's worth a shot. The ads for this thing showed the case being run over by a motorcycle and surviving all sorts of punishment. It certainly shouldn't break just sitting in your pocket.

The concrete trucks were back in the park today, pouring another segment of the new bicycle superhighway. Most of the neighbors seem to like this new development, but I still think it is a colossal waste of money. If I knew that this is how the money would be spent, I probably wouldn't have voted for the bond issue that funded this and other efforts to gentrify the park and turn it into a recreation destination. All I want is a quiet place to walk the dogs.

Roxy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1029

It's been almost a year since I started taking a camera with me when I walk the dogs. During my first three or four months as a dog walking photographer, I would see something new and interesting almost every day. Now, I've started to notice that nature repeats itself with remarkable regularity. Flowers appear and disappear with clockwork precision. Birds return to exactly the same logs and pilings where I photographed them last year. Squirrels seem to be perpetually digging up the same nut. I feel like I've documented every square inch of my tiny little world. There must still be new things happening all around me, but I'm just not seeing them. I guess I'll have to look a little harder.

An estimator came out this morning to measure the utility room and recommend a new furnace. The room is so small and cramped that I have no idea how everything got in there in the first place. The furnace, the washer, the dryer and the water heater all seem too large to even fit through the door. The estimator assured me that installing a new furnace would be no problem. This was reassuring, but I think he was being overconfident. Everything about this house ends up being a problem. Problems or not, we should have a new furnace installed by the end of the week.

I'm glad the Jewish Holidays are finally over for a while. I've had some camera equipment on order from B&H in New York City since before Rosh Hashanah and it still hasn't been delivered. I completely forgot how many holy days there are during September and October. I had thought about ordering from Adorama instead, but it wouldn't have done much good. They follow exactly the same holiday schedule. Basically, it's just not a good idea to buy a camera in October.

Since I wasn't having much luck with the camera, I went and bought an iPhone case instead. Why doesn't anyone make the kind of case I like anymore? I loved the soft Griffin perforated silicon case I had for my old phone, but nobody makes these things anymore. Now, big clunky cases like OtterBox are popular. Boo. I finally bought a trim looking white Speck case, but it wasn't what I really wanted. Maybe I'll get one of those fancy LunaTik cases when they start selling them later this Fall. It would be just like me to get a case that costs more than the phone.

Maverick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 436

Slowly but surely, I'm working my way through this month's to-do list. Yesterday, I got my hair cut. Today, I got the oil changed in my car. I've always kind of enjoyed going to the Land Rover dealership. I've had the car for so long that everybody knows me by now. The service is great. You don't really expect someone to offer you a beverage and a copy of Architectural Digest to read while you've having your oil changed, but it's a pleasant experience. Maybe this is a guy's equivalent of having a pedicure. They washed my car too, which was great because this was the next thing on my to-do list. Sure, I know. I could have gotten my oil changed for quite a bit less at Jiffy Lube, but who wants to go to Jiffy Lube? I may not be able to afford one of those $100,000 Turbocharged Range Rovers they have sitting in the showroom, but I can definitely afford the same Castrol oil they use.

My LunaTik watch arrived in the mail today. I continue to be impressed by this company. Somehow, they managed to go from an idea in Scott Wilson's head to shipping finished products in less than three months. The LunaTik is a simple product, but it is revolutionary. The company was entirely funded through the Internet. There probably aren't many employees at all. Everything is outsourced. The product quality is very high and the order tracking system is amazing. I watched on the web as my watch moved all the way from the factory in China to my house in only three days. If I ever have an idea for something people would actually buy, I could probably do the same thing as Scott Wilson. So could you. The combination of Internet funding and global outsource partners make it possible for literally anyone to start their own manufacturing company.

I was sad to hear that the last flight of the Discovery space shuttle launched today. There will be two more space shuttle missions before the shuttle program is officially over, but the Discovery itself will fly no more. Launch Pad 39b, which was home to dozens of Apollo and shuttle flights, is already being demolished. They say they are going to recycle the steel to make sewer pipes. That pretty much says it all. In thirty years we've managed to go from landing on the moon to making sewer pipes.

Spring seems to be the fundraising season for all types of charities. Both of the charities I work with have their hearts set on finding a celebrity to help with their seasonal fundraising efforts. Why is everyone so obsessed with celebrity these days? Call me old fashioned, but I'm still more interested in what the dogs are doing on my own carpet than in what someone else is doing on the red carpet.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day