Day 3091

We're making progress. The landscaper said he's coming over and will replace the dead grass. The roofer contacted me and said they were very busy with hail damage, but hadn't forgotten about me. The art auction house sends me about three e-mails a day and we are inching closer and closer to a deal. All this stuff will get taken care of. It just takes time.

There was blood on the bed again this morning. I don't know where Dash is bleeding. When I look in his mouth, there are no obvious signs of bleeding and all of his paws look fine. The blood is obviously coming from somewhere. Maybe Dash is coughing it up. When I mentioned the bleeding to the vet at Dash's last big exam, he didn't seem very alarmed. The bleeding is sporadic and only seems to happen about once a week. I guess I'll just keep an eye on things. It's probably nothing. Plavix can make even minor cuts seem alarming.

I got some Thai food the other day that was way too hot. Janet suggested rinsing the noodle dish with warm water in a colander to remove a lot of the spicy sauce. Surprisingly, this worked great. I had the noodles for dinner. They were still tasty, but were only half as hot as they were yesterday. Live and learn.

I like the picture of the purple thistle I took this morning. You may be seeing a lot of thistles. The park is full of them this year. There isn't a lot of variety in this years crop of wildflowers, but there are a ton of Texas Thistles, Engelmann Daisies, Native Sunflowers, Yucca Flowers, and Horse Nettle. I wonder what happened to the other flowers this year? Sometimes the meadows are a carpet of colorful plants. This year, not so much.

I'm watching the coverage of the big summit in Singapore. It appears like every reporter in the world is over there. Non stop coverage and nobody has a clue about what's actually going on. It's non-stop speculation. Kim went sightseeing. What does that mean? Why is Dennis Rodman wearing a pot crypto currency t-shirt? Kim is smiling? What does that mean? It's a circus. I wouldn't be surprised if something significant actually does happen. Why not? It would be pretty easy for the two leaders to formally end the Korean War. If it were up to me, I'd start with a meaningful symbolic gesture like this and leave the hard stuff for later.

I'm all for leaving the hard stuff for later. That's why I didn't do much of anything today. It's weird not having websites to update. For years and years I had websites to update and articles to write every single day. Now I spend my days figuring out how to dispose of things I acquired during the busy years. Working is winding up a watch and retirement is watching it unwind.

The roofer and the landscaper didn't show up today, but at least they called. There's always tomorrow. Maybe I'll see these guys tomorrow.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2869

I thought I'd fix breakfast early this morning, so I could finish eating before Dash wanted to walk. All this accomplished was that Dash decided to walk earlier than usual. Apparently, it is not the time of day that motivates our boy. It is how much he can disrupt my schedule. Truthfully, it doesn't really matter when I eat breakfast or run my errands. I'm just happy that Dash is walking again. We were out for over an hour this morning. Dash was slow, but he was walking normally and seemed comfortable. I'm always worried that something will happen with Dash's heart when we're far from home, but the only alternative is to do nothing. Doing nothing would frustrate Dash and a frustrated Dalmatian is not good for anyone's health.

A firetruck went by with sirens blazing while we were walking today. Joining the siren was a cacophony of howling coming from a thicket of trees about a quarter of a mile away. I knew this sound well. We have a den of coyotes in the neighborhood again. From the sound of the howling, the pups are still very young. This Winter, they'll be old enough to hunt though. I wish I could warn the bunnies and the ducks. I made a mental note not to let Dash get too close to the coyote's den. I don't really trust urban coyotes. They have lost their fear of people.

The weather was nice today, but there was still water on the roof from yesterday's rain. As I expected, the patches I applied yesterday were ruined. I swept the water away and hopefully the roof will dry in time for me to make my repairs before it rains again. I had trouble mixing the viscous liquid yesterday, so I went to a hardware store and bought a paint stirring tool that I can attach to a power drill. I don't think I mixed the coating completely when I opened the bucket because it didn't have the same consistency as the first batch I used. The silicon compound is much thicker than paint, so it is hard to mix. I also got a ladle so I could transfer the coating from the large heavy bucket to a smaller can without making a huge mess. Hopefully, if I'm better prepared, I'll have a greater chance of success the next time I try this.

I had some website revisions to make today. The jobs are so few and far between now that it almost seems like I've gotten the assignments by mistake. Today's revisions took a couple of hours, but it certainly wasn't enough to fill the day. Recently, I was listening to NPR in the car and an author was being interviewed about a book they'd written about aging. Part of the conversation was about finding fulfillment by continuing to work. Website design was mentioned as one of the jobs that old people are well suited for. I had to laugh. The only way old website designers are going to find work is if their clients are even older.

The refrigerator is working great now. Too bad it is almost empty. I didn't feel like grocery shopping, so I picked up some Thai take-out again. I thought I had enough reward points for a free meal, but the    lady at the check out counter said that you have to use the points within thirty days or they expire. This happens to me all the time. I'm always throwing away Bed Bath and Beyond coupons and forgetting that I have accumulated reward points somewhere. Everyone has some sort of loyalty program these days. I'm a very loyal person, but these programs don't seem to benefit me.

I need to remember to get the lab work for my annual physical done tomorrow morning. I won't be able to have breakfast before I leave the house. Hopefully, this temporary change of schedule won't throw Dash off his game. I wonder if he'll still walk if there isn't a meal he can interrupt?

Jeda is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2620

Today was the opposite of yesterday. The sky was clear and there was hardly any wind at all. Even though Dot seemed weak when she woke up, she enjoyed her walk this morning. As far as I can tell, Dash seems back to normal. The only reminder of his scary seizure episode is a huge vet bill.

Since the weather was so nice today, I went up on the roof to assess the situation. It's much easier to remove the standing water now that all the leaves are gone. It didn't take long to figure out why my pump wasn't working yesterday. It had gotten tipped over and was just pumping air. After I removed the water, I noticed a few new areas where the elastomer coating had peeled away. It looks like I'm going to have this problem forever. It's time to call the roofer again.

It's time to call the tree guy too. He promised to have my trees trimmed this month and the month is already halfway over. Hey, maybe he's planning on getting started tomorrow. I just don't have a lot of faith in work crews. A big chunk of my life is spent reminding people about things they forgot. In fairness, people spend a lot of time reminding me of thing I've forgotten too. Life has just become too complicated to remember everything.

Yesterday I sent out invoices. Today I paid bills. I wish the money coming in equaled the money going out, but it never does. This month was even worse than usual because my car insurance was due and Dash ran up a big bill at the cancer center. At least the stock market is still going up. I hope investors don't become discouraged and sell everything when the tax cuts they are anticipating don't materialize as quickly as they hoped. I'd like to think that the market sees prosperity ahead, but I'm cynical enough to realize that traders are probably just taking advantage of a short term opportunity. This rally kind of feels like a bubble that's about to burst.

I spent more time than usual cleaning up poop today.  It's much easier to clean up the mess when Dot is asleep. You just quietly slide out the disposable puppy training pad she's sleeping on, roll it up, and put it in a plastic bag. Usually I can lift her hips a bit and slide in a new pad without even waking her up. When Dot's awake, it's a whole different story. She panics and tries to get up, typically smearing the poop all over the place. We had two accidents today when Dot was waking up. I spent a lot of time doing laundry.

I picked up some Thai food on the way back from the post office today, but forgot we still had a pork roast in the refrigerator. I wish I was organized enough to label all the leftovers. I hate for food to go to waste, but I often forget about stuff that gets pushed to the back. I also sometimes forget to eat the oldest food first. I need a few big Tupperware containers with the day of the week on them. If there was something in the refrigerator that said Thursday on it, I would eat it tomorrow. I wouldn't care what was in the container.

Maybe we'll get two clear days in a row. The dogs are always easier to deal with on a clear, sunny day. I'm easier to deal with too. If I can't see my shadow, it's not a good day.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2577

I thought today would never end. We certainly didn't get off to a good start. When I took Dot out to the back yard this morning, she left a trail of pee all the way from her bed to the door. It took me most of the day to get all the rugs washed and back on the floor again. I made her vet appointment for 11 AM, thinking that would leave me plenty of time to get ready. We made it, but just barely. I'm still having trouble coming to grips with how slow and tedious life has become.

Dot used to love riding in the car. As recently as six months ago, she would tolerate our trips to the vet. Now, the car seems to terrify her. Even a very short trip is a nightmare. She won't lie down anymore and keeps struggling to get up. This is not good in a moving car. Hopefully, we won't need to make another journey like this for several months. Other than peeing and pooping in the exam room, she did pretty well today. Her blood pressure and heart rate were good and a couple of things I was worried about turned out to be nothing. The vet clipped her nails, which had gotten way too long, and after an hour or so, we were on our way home again.

The weather has gotten really cold. There has been a stiff wind all day, which makes things seem even colder.  It definitely feels like winter and I'm really glad the furnace is working well. I heard on the news that we may even get some snow later in the week. I'm not looking forward to snow at all. Dot has enough trouble standing up on dry ground. Walking her in the snow might prove impossible.

In anticipation of an approaching storm, I took my hiking boots to the shoe repair shop to get some more heel taps. I have the shoe repair guy put these on every few months and they keep falling off. I reapply them with glue when I can, but eventually they just get lost. Even though the shoe taps are a temporary fix, I think they make my boots last twice as long. I seem to put all my weight on the edge of my heel and can wear out a shoe sole in no time. I wish I could buy a shoe with steel heels. Leather and rubber just don't seem to last long with me.

The refrigerator looked pretty empty this morning, so I picked up some Thai food on the way home from the shoe repair shop. Janet and I both buy groceries, but I don't do a very good job of planning ahead. Sometimes there are enough leftovers to last all week, and other times there are none at all. I guess I really don't think about food unless I'm hungry.

I never did find Neptune last night. The sky clouded over again and I don't think my binoculars were powerful enough anyway. Actually, I felt a bit foolish when I realized that the moon was already below the horizon when it passed in front of Neptune. I guess I need to read about these events a little more carefully on Google.

Hopefully, tomorrow will go a bit more smoothly. I feel like I never caught up today. It's weird that a simple event like a vet appointment is enough to throw the entire day off schedule. Dot is finally sleeping peacefully, and I hope to join her soon. It's been a very long day. I never realized that doing nothing could be so tiring.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day