Day 2107

I wonder who reads this? According to Google, I have between 200 and 400 visitors every day. I can only account for about 17 of these people however. Actually, 17 readers is pretty generous. Maybe there are only 5. Back when blogging was new and somewhat popular, I though I might become an online Dave Barry, regaling readers with the humorous absurdities of everyday life. It is now pretty obvious that I am writing for myself. I write for the same reasons that a fitness advocate becomes compelled to do 50 push-ups on waking, or ride twenty miles on a bicycle before breakfast. It's an obsession.

I've convinced myself that writing is a more effective way to postpone dementia than solving Sudoku puzzles. It certainly helps take my mind off a perpetual cycle of cleaning up dog poop and fixing broken things around the house. That being said, it will probably take more than a blog post to compensate for today. Dot had three separate accidents in the house today. As soon as I got one set of soiled rugs and blankets cleaned, it was time to throw a new set in the washer. Sometimes I can predict when Dot needs to go outside. Other times I am completely surprised. Today was a bad day, but tomorrow might be completely normal. The incontinence certainly isn't Dot's fault. As much as I hate cleaning up dog poop, I've just got to learn to go with the flow. This is all part of the aging process and the same thing might happen to me someday.

I watched the Pope arrive in Washington DC this afternoon and was amused to see him drive off in a tiny little Fiat 500 after greeting the president and dignitaries. It looked like a clown car. Everything has become a symbol in today's world. I'm sure the small, humble car wasn't an accident. Democrats see the Pope as their friend because he cares about the plight of immigrants and worries about global warming. Republicans see the pope as their friend because he is does not support abortion or gay marriage. Everyone seems to forget that the Pope is not a politician at all. He's a religious leader. If the Pope agrees with you it is only because the Catholic Church agrees with you.

Dot's vet is changing her schedule around and we will no longer be able to have our physical therapy sessions on Thursday afternoons. This week, our physical therapy session will be tomorrow. We've never gone on Wednesday before, so hopefully it's not a bad traffic day. After a transition period, we will start doing our therapy sessions in the morning. I'm not sure I like this, but like I said earlier, you have to learn to go with the flow.

Sometimes things turn up in my photographs that I'm not even aware of when I take the picture. Tonight's picture of the setting sun revealed a jet contrail that was tangent to the base of the sun. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can clearly see the jet and its exhaust plume. It kind of looks like a thread of fire being pulled out of the sun.

I wish we didn't have to wait until November for Daylight Saving Time to end. The days are getting shorter and it is really dark when we start our morning walk. I can still see the constellation Orion in the morning sky, along with the planets Venus and Jupiter. I'm always amazed at how quickly the sky brightens at sunrise. The stars are out when we start our walk and the sun is up before we finish. It's really a beautiful time of day. Dot pooped so much today that maybe there's nothing left. Let's hope so. I'd like a good night's sleep.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1436

I woke up late and barely made it to my breakfast meeting. Wednesdays aren't my favorite day anymore. There's just too much going on. I usually change three times on Wednesdays. I wear a suit to the networking breakfast. I change into raggedy dog walking clothes and work boots when I return. Then later in the day, I put on some respectable casual clothes to take Dot for her weekly physical therapy session. I try to complete at least one writing assignment between the dog's morning walk and Dot's vet appointment. Then when I'm back to the office for good, I tackle the day's website revisions.

I'm sure that many of you have much more hectic days than this, but I don't do hectic anymore. If I did, I'd still be sitting in a status meeting at a big ad agency somewhere, instead of working in a quite room with a dog under my desk.

I'm still having problems with my large printer. I guess I waited too long between cleaning cycles. Since I no longer have a need for large museum quality prints, maintaining this complicated printer has become a giant nuisance. The printer is so heavy that I can't even move it by myself, so taking it to a repair center is problematic at best. I had to have a friend help me install the thing years ago and it's sat in the same dusty office corner ever since. Remind me to never buy anything that uses ink ever again.

One of my doctors wants me to take a pill that he says will improve my cognitive abilities. I scoffed at the idea at first and was actually a bit insulted. Hey, my business is thinking up solutions for people and I feel at times that my life is like doing a complex Sudoku puzzle that never ends. Maybe the Doc is right though. Janet changed the dog's food recently and now I can't seem to remember which dog eats which bag of kibble. I have a feeling that I've been feeding Dot's food to Dash for several weeks now.

There are thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow. I hope the forecast is wrong. Rain slows me down tremendously. I think I'm only half as productive on a stormy day. The dogs are terrified of thunder and lightning. I don't like to drive in the rain. And even though I put an entirely new roof on the house this year, I still worry about leaks.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day