Day 3568

The older you get, the harder it is to tell whether the aches and pains you feel are completely normal or a sign that something's wrong. When I wake up in the morning I hate to move, because it feels so comfortable to just lie there doing nothing. As soon as I'm up and about, my joints start telling me that I've seen better days. The aches and pains are real. My ankles hurt when I walk long distances, but I suspect that there's nothing wrong. I wear really light Nike Air shoes now because they're easier on my feet but they don't provide the firm ankle support that my old heavy hiking boots did. I'm sure that there is something wrong with my shoulders, but I'm not certain what to do about it. I haven't been good at keeping up with my physical therapy exercises and I don't even want to consider surgery. Everybody I know who has had shoulder surgery never regained a full range of motion. Basically, old bones just aren't as resilient as young bones.

I probably should start going to physical therapy again for my shoulder. It did help a little when I was doing the exercises every day. I'll ask my doctor to recommend someone the next time I see him. I really need to improve my range of motion, but it's hard to do exercises that are painful. I'm not very motivated. It's easier when someone is forcing me to do the right thing.

I've got a dental appointment in the morning and an appointment with the eye doctor later in the month. Doctors always tell me I'm doing great. What does that mean? They probably just mean that I'm doing pretty good compared to other people my age. I remember feeling a lot healthier when I was younger, but it was probably just an illusion. I actually had more medical problems when I was young than I do now. At least I'm eating healthy and taking care of myself these days. Hopefully, I'll never wind up in the ER again.

October is here, but where is the nice Fall weather? Today still felt like Summer. I think my walks will be a lot more enjoyable when the weather is cooler and I don't have to change my clothes as soon as I get back to the house. I keep telling myself that sweating is good for you. At least that's what I hear. Sweating during exercise is supposed to reduce the risk of developing kidney stones, prevent colds, and detox your body. Sounds good to me.

I wonder if I'll have time to take my walk tomorrow? I might not even have time to drink my smoothie. I should have made my dental appointment during the afternoon. These days even 11 AM can seem pretty early. How did I ever used to go to work every morning? I need to ask the dentist whether braces could benefit someone my age. I feel like my teeth are getting out of alignment. Does it even matter? Probably not.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3203

Another month has come and gone. It's getting harder and harder to give Dash his monthly heartworm pill. The pills are large and it is difficult to hide them. When we finished the morning meds and cleaned up the poop on the floor, the first of October was pretty much the same as the end of September.

I saw some people setting up what appeared to be a small circus while Dash and I were out walking this morning. The circus folks better hope it doesn't rain. They were putting their tent in an area that routinely floods. October is packed with outdoor events. The State Fair has already started and in addition to the small circus, there was an Octoberfest celebration going on in another section of the park. I studiously avoid all these events. I don't like crowds. When the dogs were young, we took them to a few outdoor events. They usually had fun because there was almost always food involved. I don't know when the circus starts, but we'll probably change our route for a few days. It's a lot easier to deal with a dog who can barely walk and is likely to poop on your shoe in an area devoid of other people.

I was disappointed to learn that none of my trains sold in September. I was getting used to consistent sales and a check at the first of the month. Maybe October will be better. These trains would make a great gift for a railfan. Hopefully, my friend can sell quite a few during the holiday season.

I had to go to the storage warehouse and bring home another rug for Dash. Pretty soon all Dot's rugs are going to be back in the house. They're ugly, but if they help keep Dash standing, they're worth it. I took some little rugs back when I picked up the bigger ones to avoid unnecessary clutter. I got ahead of myself though. I had to go back to the storage warehouse and retrieve the little rug to fill a slippery place in the kitchen. Hopefully all is well for at least a few more weeks.

Dash has another big exam at the cancer center later this week. I wish there was something they could do that would actually make him better, rather than just monitor his decline. I hope Dash doesn't suffer from Peripheral Neuropathy in addition to all his other ailments. He's certainly starting to exhibit a lot of the classic symptoms. He definitely has a problem with his mouth. If it's an abscess or a decayed tooth, I don't know what we are going to do. Most of his doctors don't think he could survive anesthesia.

I applied for the NASA event in Houston later this month and paid a few of the early October bills. There was some last minute paperwork I needed to sign with the auction house and some routine correspondence that needed to be answered. I didn't have the energy to fight with the roofers again. I'll grit my teeth and try to do that tomorrow.

I'm glad they got a trade deal settled today. It was certainly good for the market. I'm glad Elon Musk got his problems resolved as well. I don't think he was treated fairly by the SEC at all. Few people noticed these events because everyone was fighting about other things. So far the confirmation circus has only succeeded in raising my resting heart rate. I can't think of anything else that might have caused this.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1400

The rainy season has officially started. It is often this way in late October. It will rain for days at a time. This is typically not good for The State Fair of Texas, which occupies this rainy time slot. I remember going to a Rolling Stones concert at the Cotton Bowl late in October and it poured throughout the entire concert. I thought that Keith Richards was going to get electrocuted playing out in the rain, but the weather didn't seem to faze the band. They were all much younger then, of course.

Dot and Dash hate the rain. It messes with their doggy instincts. If they were practical dogs, they would just go out in the back yard and poop quickly on rainy days. Nope. They can't do this. They have to go on their regular walk, where they get wet and muddy. Light rain makes them mad and heavy rain sends them into a panic. You just can't win on rainy days.

Everything got dirty today. The dogs got dirty, The car got dirty. The floors got dirty. I felt like I spent half the day doing laundry and drying the dogs off. I did manage to get some articles written and got caught up on correspondence, but personally, I would have much rather just taken a long nap. I know there is a ton of standing water up on the roof, but I'm not even going to bother to go up there until I see the sun again.

When I took Dash to the vet for his antigen shot today, he took an unhealthy interest in some guinea pigs that were up for adoption in the lobby. I don't know whether he thought the guinea pigs were small cats or large squirrels, but he definitely though they were meant to be chased and barked at. Sometimes Dash can be embarrassing.

It would be nice if I woke up to a crisp and clear Fall morning tomorrow, but I'm expecting more rain. Although driving in the rain is one of my least favorite things, there are lots of places to go tomorrow. I'll start the day with a tasty omelet at the Wednesday business breakfast meeting. Then I've got to demonstrate a website prototype, and take Dot downtown for her acupuncture session. I have a feeling I'll be wishing I could take a long nap tomorrow as well.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1385

I finally upgraded to IOS 7 today. Janet kind of shamed me into the upgrade, since she already upgraded her own phone a few days ago and experienced no problems. I used to be the first to adopt any new technology, but lately I've been dragging my feet. When I get familiar with something now, I'd just as soon keep it forever. Now that IOS 7 is up and running however, I'm wondering what all the fuss was about. I don't particularly like the new flat page layout, or the way apps open and close, but other than that, everything seems to work just as before. They say that Siri works a lot better with the new operating system. I wouldn't know. I never talk to my phone.

Monday seems to be the one day I can always make it to the gym. I can tell that I'm getting stronger, since I can do more repetitions on the resistance machines now. There are still no signs of increased muscle mass however. If anything, I seem even thinner than before. Several people at the golf tournament yesterday said I looked way too thin. Who knows? For the most part, my doctors have applauded my weight loss, because it reduces the risk of diabetes, but maybe I've gone too far.

I continue to experiment with a variety of cloud based widgets and apps to improve the websites I manage. Today, I replaced several manually created calendars with Google calendars. I don't know why I never tried this before. Now I've got self updating calenders that I don't have to mess with. For years, one of the first things I did every month was go and create new HTML code for the sites that had calendars. These Google calendars are so much easier. I can even designate someone else to update them and add upcoming events.

It's hard to believe that it's October already. Where has this year gone? Now, there's just Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in quick succession and the year will be over. Time goes by so quickly now. There have been a lot of superficial changes this year, but it doesn't feel like anything has changed. I still get up every morning and do exactly the same things as I did last year. Hey, the dogs are still healthy. That's the important thing.

Friends are telling me that I've become way too negative. It's weird that my own perception is so different. I just like to think that I have an perversely ironic sense of humor.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1021

This is the only time of year when you can open your windows in Texas. The weather is beautiful in October and the month certainly got off to a good start today. Did I open my windows and enjoy the cool breezes and mild temperatures? Well, no. You see, if I opened the windows, a ton of wasps would fly inside. Over the summer, lots of wasps have built imposing nests under the eaves. The window screens would keep the wasps out, you might think. Well, no. I went on a tour of homes a while back and noticed that a house on the tour which resembled ours looked much better without the window screens, so I took the screens off our house as well. The house does look better, but I haven't been able to open the windows since. Unfortunately, that's the way it is with me. Pretty wins over practicality just about every time.

The dogs didn't seem all that eager to get up this morning. I think yesterday's golf tournament tired them out. They normally sleep so much during the day that having people come up and pet them all afternoon was more activity than they could handle. I thought they would go to sleep in the car on the way home last night, but they don't seem to like the smaller seats in the little Kia rental car. Nobody seems to like the Kia. Janet and I have gotten so hooked on GPS navigation that we frequently get lost without it. Since we'd never been to the Bridlewood golf course before, we weren't sure how to get home without the Land Rover GPS until we realized that the iPhone had a turn-by-turn navigation app. A little voice in the dark guided us safely home. It is kind of weird how ubiquitous technology has become. I didn't even question putting my faith in a little artificial voice coming out of a telephone.

I've started looking for an alternative to Entrecard and so far I don't like what I see. Most of the other blog advertising networks seem to either be pay-per-post schemes, which I don't like, or require huge readership stats to attract national advertisers, which I don't have. Several of these blog networks suggested creating a niche blog with content devoted exclusively to one subject like parenting, vampires, or knitting. I guess talking about wasp nests and sleeping dogs doesn't count.

There are days when just doing your own thing seems a lonely road to follow. I don't know what else to do, however. I'm kind of set in my ways and I'm certainly not much of a team player. I told one of my advertising friends that I couldn't imagine spending all my time writing about one subject. "But you do spend all your time writing about one subject," he said. "You just write about yourself." Touché.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day