Day 3530

I was looking for a key this afternoon and realized that I didn't know what half the keys on my key ring even went to anymore. These keys were just the tip of the iceberg. My search uncovered keys to cars I no longer owned, keys to rental property I sold years ago, and a lot of mystery keys that didn't seem to unlock anything. How did I accumulate all these keys? I hate to throw them away because they must have a purpose. I'm sure this is why my office is so cluttered. Everything in here must have a purpose. I did eventually find the key I needed. I'm glad I never threw it away. Now I have an excuse to hang on to other old things of dubious value.

Janet and I went to the Rich-Tones concert tonight. Janet knows some of the singers in this chorus and we have been going to their Fall concerts for many years. I was completely unfamiliar with a cappella barbershop harmony before we started going to these concerts, but I've grown to like the music. This group competes all over the world and have been international champions several times. A hundred people singing four part harmony can sound pretty amazing. I can't handle rock concerts anymore, but the audiences for these events are more my speed. Lots of old people and families. I enjoyed the evening.

I can't say I enjoyed the weather today. It was a little cooler, but the temperature and humidity were still well outside the comfort zone. I only took one walk today, but that was plenty. I hope this outdoor activity is doing me some good. I'd hate to think I was doing all this for nothing. At least the day are getting shorter now. These walks will be a lot more enjoyable this Fall.

I watched a couple of episodes of Have Gun Will Travel and Maverick while we were eating breakfast this morning. I like these old TV westerns. Most of these shows aren't remotely politically correct by today's standards, but the scripts are surprisingly good. I think I like old Hollywood better than new Hollywood. You can have the Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino and Black Mirror. I'll take the simple  black and white morality of Have Gun Will Travel and The Twilight Zone.

I'll definitely go to the gym tomorrow, but maybe I don't need a 20,000 step day. I've got some other stuff to do and it just takes too long to take all these steps. If I'm ambitious I'll just walk a little longer while I'm at the gym. If I'm not feeling ambitious I might do nothing. We'll just see how the day goes.

Hero is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3411

All the unused and expired meds in the house are gone. I took Dash's unused meds to our vet where they will be used to treat rescue animals. My own meds were a little harder to dispose of. I went to the location listed on the disposal day brochure and they told me they were full. "How can you be full," I asked. "You only opened five minutes ago." No explanation. They just told me again that they couldn't take the meds. Several other people with bags of expired medications seemed just as frustrated as I was. Why would someone print a brochure and list this location as the place to take your expired meds if they were going to refuse to take them?

The pharmacist did give me an alternate location to take the pills. This location wasn't listed on the brochure at all and was a lot further away. Since the takeback program was a one day event, I didn't want to wait another year. I reluctantly drove to the alternate location. This new location seemed eager to take my meds. There were lots of volunteers with event t-shirts and four big buckets where you could drop the meds. I thought they were going to check and see what I had, but they didn't seem to care. As I got ready to return to the car they tried to give me a frisbee and a deck of cards printed with the takeback event logo. I declined. The whole point of getting rid of the meds was to reduce the clutter in the house. There was no point in bringing back more clutter.

By the time I finished my weekly grocery shopping and was ready to take my walk, it was already pretty warm. I would have rather stayed inside, but I'm determined to continue walking at least 10,000 steps a day. The park was really busy this afternoon. There was a small music festival near the shoreline with a decent sized crowd. The musicians got lucky. They placed their stage in exactly the same spot were the little circus was last year. You might remember that the little circus got flooded out by weeks of heavy rains. No rain today. It was actually quite nice outside. There was a time when I would have stopped and listened to the music. Not today. The only thing I was interested in was finishing my three miles.

I went to a fundraiser with Janet tonight. I've skipped this event for several years since I needed to stay home and care for the dogs. There was no reason to stay home tonight. There's nothing interesting on TV and it really doesn't take that long to write the blog. We had a nice dinner, played roulette at the casino party, and enjoyed the concert. I can't see making a habit of going out at night, but it didn't kill me to do something different. We had a good time.

I doubt that I'll do anything different tomorrow. It's time to go to the gym again. I should probably mow the grass as well. I could always procrastinate, but the job will only be worse next week.

Chance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2802

Every year around this time we go see the Rich-Tones at the Eisemann Center. One of Janet's friends is in the group and she hasn't missed one of these annual shows in years. She certainly wasn't going to let a little surgery keep her from tonight's concert. If you don't know who the Rich-Tones are, imagine Pentatonix with 100 people in the group instead of five. I wasn't that familiar with a cappella singing when we started going to these things many years ago, but I've grown to appreciate the genre. Tonight's show was very enjoyable. There was lots of new material and for once we didn't have to worry about leaving a sick dog. I checked on Dash once during intermission and he was sleeping peacefully on the bed. He was still sleeping when we got home.

A few of Harvey's outer rain bands arrived in Dallas today. There was no wind or danger. All we got was a gentle rain. We may get more rain later in the week as the hurricane continues to move inland, but we are too far away to worry about severe weather. The storm will either dissipate or move back to sea long before it would arrive in Dallas. It's an entirely different story in Houston. The city is already starting to flood.

Janet can't drive yet, but she's feeling well enough that she wanted to get out of the house for a while. I took her grocery shopping and basically just pushed the cart around while she got a new supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. Since we've virtually stopped buying canned and frozen items, it seems like we're going to the grocery store a lot more frequently these days. It's probably worth the effort. We're both eating healthier now.

Dash's blood test results came back from the lab today. His Phenobarbital levels are still in the normal range, but just barely. I have a feeling that the vet is going to want to increase his dose because she feels that there might not be enough Phenobarbital in his bloodstream to protect him from seizures anymore. I'm sure we'll get this all worked out, but I'd really hate to see him taking any additional meds. I think he takes too many already.

Today's mail was full of flyers for Labor Day sales. Isn't Labor Day when Summer is unofficially over? This has certainly been an eventful Summer, but I don't think either of us would want to repeat it. Here's hoping that Dash stays healthy and that there are no new medical emergencies for the rest of the year. We may get more rain tomorrow. I guess it doesn't matter, since I don't feel like going anywhere anyway. If it's a rainy day, I just may join Dash for a good long nap.

Cammy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2448 - Dot's Birthday

I feel bad about not doing more for Dot's birthday. We're all getting old and tired. I know Dot is at least 16 years old and may even be 17. It hard to know the exact age of a rescue dog. Usually their birthday is just the day you adopt them.

We used to have elaborate parties for all our dogs, but they seem like distant memories now. The few dog friendly restaurants that remain in town are too far away and I don't think Dot would enjoy being transported in the car anyway. Even if she wanted to go, I don't think we can get two dogs in the same car anymore. Dot needs a lot more room with her injuries and I don't know where we'd put Dash. There used to be two places in town that made beautiful birthday cakes for dogs, but they both went out of business. The cakes were expensive and a lot of people didn't want to pay that much to treat their dog. After trying to make similar cakes myself, I quickly realized that these cakes were a bargain. It's a shame that these businesses didn't succeed. That's all in the past though. Last year, we got them some dog cupcakes at Sprinkles but it wasn't much of a party. They both ate the little cupcakes in about two seconds.

I saw a snake in the back yard this morning, but I wasn't able to catch it before it slithered away. I was trying to lift it up with a stick and toss it over the back fence, but the snake was faster than I was. I didn't want to pick the snake up with my hands, because it looked a lot like a baby copperhead. I don't want to mess with those things. The venom is actually stronger in baby snakes. I don't know why. Hopefully, the snake continued it's journey and is somewhere in the park by now. I definitely don't want Dash to discover it.

We went to a concert tonight because one of Janet's friends was performing. We hear this group almost every year. They are a large a cappella chorus that performs all over the world. When we first started going to these concerts, I wasn't that wild about this barbershop style of singing, but either they've gotten better over the years, or I've grown to appreciate them. The concerts are quite good.

When I used the Scan and Go app at the grocery store today, I noticed that there was a new welcome screen that said "No purchases over $750." I'm never going to buy that many groceries, but I wonder what this message means. Apparently, even though the app has been around less than a month, someone has already figured out a way to scam it. I wish everyone was honest and played by the rules. If everyone were honest, I wouldn't even need passwords on all these apps.

It was really hot today and there were no Summer showers to cool things down. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for Winter.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2314

We went to a concert tonight. One of Janet's friends is a singer in the group and we go and see them perform from time to time. This evening's event was a fundraiser and there was a barbecue dinner, a silent auction, and casino night gambling. Janet was probably hoping that I wouldn't look at the baby monitor on my phone, but I couldn't help myself. I worry about Dot. The first time I looked, she was sleeping. The second time I looked, she was barking and appeared to be struggling to get up. I could hear Dash barking too in the background. We left the event early and came home.

I was almost certain that there was either a thunderstorm in the area or that Dot had pooped in her bed, but everything was calm when we returned.  I have no idea what got the dogs so upset. It's probably just as well that we came home a little early. It takes me longer to write the blog that it used to. If we stayed for the gambling, I would never have gotten tonight's entry completed before midnight.

The weather forecast looks ominous. There is supposed to be wind, rain, and severe thunderstorms for the next ten days. This is one reason I was worried about the dogs this evening. Dot and Dash are both very storm phobic and tend to panic when there is thunder and lightning in the vicinity. The rain is supposed to start later tonight, so I thought it might have arrived a little early. Probably it is me who has the real storm phobia in the family. Bad storms freak me out. Trees have fallen on our roof twice since we bought the house, and if a tornado ever blew through, we are sitting ducks. There is so much glass in the house that there are no safe rooms anywhere. Even the interior walls are pretty close to floor-to-ceiling glass windows. With a flat roof and no basement, this house wasn't designed to weather much of anything.

For the past few weeks I've been noticing that the price of gas is going up again. Why? When I filled the car up today it seemed that prices had risen even further. The price of oil has been basically falling for the past two years. It seems like the price of gas should stay low for a long time. I've gotten used to seeing prices gradually go down. It will be a low blow to watch them go up again. I guess it doesn't really matter. I don't drive much anyway.

The new grass in the back yard is starting to grow. This is always a good sign. Every year when we refurbish the yard I think that this might finally be the year that the grass takes root and thrives. It never seems to happen though. Grubs eat the roots below the ground and squirrels eat the grass above the ground. In the Summer there is always a thick canopy of Oak leaves overhead that blocks most of the direct sunlight. The grass always has an uphill battle, but I keep thinking that one of these years it might make it.

I'm not sure whether I'll be going to the gym tomorrow or sitting at home watching an approaching storm on the weather radar and hoping the power doesn't go out. You never know about Texas weather. I hope the rain doesn't start until after we've walked the dogs in the morning. Life is much more peaceful once we've gotten the morning walk out of the way.

Becker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2083

We woke up to rain for the second time in as many weeks. Maybe the seasons are finally starting to change. The dogs always notice the rain first. I think they smell it. There was no thunder or wind this morning, but Dash went into his rain panic mode anyway. Dot taught him well, because now he's even more storm phobic than she is. Since Dot is half deaf now, she sleeps through a lot of things until Dash wakes her up with his barking and whining. She must have known what he was talking about this morning, because it didn't take long for her to go into storm panic mode too. It was a gentle rain and I knew she was going to poop soon, so I took her outside in the rain and walked her down the alley. We got wet, but it didn't take long. After barking at the weather a couple of times, she did her business.

I was hoping that we could go back to bed for a while, but Dash was wide awake when we returned to the house and he wanted his breakfast. So much for sleeping in on Saturday morning. By the time we fed the dogs and had a little something ourselves, the rain has stopped. I wish I had gotten all the pecan shells off the roof yesterday, like I had planned. Pecan shells must contain some sort of natural dye, because whenever it rains in the Fall, the broken shells on the roof immediately turn the water a dark tobacco brown that stains everything. If you're wondering why the pecans are all broken, it's because the squirrels feast on them. We gave up on eating the pecans or making pies with them years ago, because the squirrels always get them first.

When I went up on the roof later in the morning to check things out, there must have been ten pounds of broken pecan shells mixed in with the water. It was an ugly mess. It took me over an hour to get things cleaned up, and just like they always do, the broken pecan shells had stained the white roof even further. The roof looks terrible now, but at least it doesn't leak. In my ongoing battle with nature, it's the squirrels, spiders, and armadillo who always win. To add insult to injury,  I saw two well fed squirrels pulling up my St. Augustine grass by the roots and eating it while I was putting the Sump Pump away.

I thought one of my clients was a telemarketer this morning and refused to pick up the phone three times in a row. Janet, who is more curious about repeat phone calls than I am finally picked up the line and apologized for my behavior. Hey, it seemed like a telemarketer to me. There was no name on the caller ID and telemarketers often call several times in a row. They know you'll eventually pick up the line.

We went to the Eisemann Center tonight to see the Rich Tones. Janet has friends who sing in this group and we go every year to this annual concert. I didn't think I'd like a 100 member women's barbershop chorus when we first started going to these concerts, but the music grows on you. The group often takes pop hits like Lady Gaga's Born This Way or Michael Jackson's Beat It and re-arranges them as massive acapella numbers for their 100 voice choir.  The show was good tonight, but I worried that we were leaving the dogs alone too long. Of course, they were just fine when we got home.

The big photo shoot is tomorrow. I"m supposed to take a group portrait of several dogs and cats, a large lizard, two snakes, a rabbit, and a guinea pig. Maybe there's a parrot too. I hope the snake doesn't eat the guinea pig.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1712

I took my car to the Land Rover dealer to get a new safety inspection sticker after we ate breakfast this morning. I enjoy going to the dealership. They know me there, they have fresh coffee, and they always wash and vacuum the car, no matter what they are doing to it. The Land Rover dealer is kind of like the Apple Store or Design Within Reach. It's the absolute antithesis of Walmart.

Dot had a good day. She made it through the night without an accident and even though we were both too busy running errands to take her outside every two hours, there were very few accidents inside the house. It was virtually a pee free day. Dot has been making such good progress lately that we decided it was OK to leave the dogs for the evening and go to a concert. Dot was fine while we were away, but I don't think she approved of this plan. When we checked the nanny cam to see how she and Dash were doing, she apparently spent the first hour barking. When Dot is barking and Dash is still asleep, it usually just means that Dot is mad. It is only when they both are barking that I begin to worry.

We went and saw the Richtones at the Eisemann Center this evening. Janet has a friend who sings in the group, and we usually go to their Fall concert every year. I never thought that I'd like barbershop style music, but I've grown to like the group almost as much as Janet. A chorus of 120 women singing acapella Lady GaGa hits is actually pretty impressive.

The possum has been coming back almost every night this week to tear up a new patch of St. Augustine grass in the back yard. I think the possum is still looking for grubs, but he's not finding any. We did a pretty good job of treating the yard for grubs in the Spring, and I still haven't seen any signs of them. So far, the lack of available grubs hasn't deterred the possum at all. This irritating creature seems determined to tear up our lawn one square yard at a time until he finds something tasty to eat.

I hope I remembered how to set the DVR to record the new Dr. Who season premiere this evening. We were at the concert when the show initially ran, but if the DVR actually recorded anything, I'll get a chance to watch the premiere tomorrow. I always think I'm not going to like the show anymore when the doctor regenerates and a new doctor takes his place. Peter Capaldi is a lot older than all the other recent doctors, but I'm sure he'll suck me into watching the new season, just like all his predecessors have. Apparently, Jenna Coleman will be leaving the show soon, so there will be a new companion as well.

I can't think of a single good reason to avoid going to the gym tomorrow. The weather looks good. Dot is getting better. I'm more or less caught up on my work assignments. It looks like it's time for a good workout.

Mickey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1348

We went to see The Rich Tones and Street Corner Symphony at the Eisemann Center this afternoon. I wasn't always a fan of acapella music, but I've grown to like the genre. Janet has a friend who sings with the Rich Tones, so we've gone to quite a few of these concerts. The Rich Tones are hard to describe. Imagine 100 women singing "Born this Way," with more energy and better harmonies than Lady Gaga and you get the idea. Street Corner Symphony were pretty amazing as well. These guys were the runners up on Season 2 of NBC's "The Sing-Off" and their acapella rendition of Train's "Hey Soul Sister" sounded even better than the one you always hear Patrick Monahan singing on your car radio.

I discovered today that the touch screen on the Range Rover Evoque isn't broken after all. A valet parking guy just put the car in Valet Mode and I don't know how to get it back to Normal Mode. Evidently Valet Mode locks the screen so the parking guy can't see your travel history on the GPS or your telephone contact list. Way too fancy for me. Valet Mode on the Defender 90 consists of me asking the parking attendant if he knows how drive a stick shift without a synchromesh transmission. Most guys say they know, but it's easy to tell they're lying when they grind the gears as they drive off with your car.

Not surprisingly, I didn't get all my Saturday errands finished today. Going to a matinee concert in Richardson took up a lot of time, but it was definitely more fun than mowing the grass. I did manage to get clean sheets on the bed, but that's about it. Maybe tomorrow. Or then again, maybe not. Tomorrow is a busy day as well. There a trip to the dog park on the agenda, and then later in the day Dot and Dash get another chance to be ambassadors for Dalmatian Rescue at a "meet and greet" event.

Truthfully, I"m not in a big hurry to  mow the grass. It's still way too hot outside. Maybe if I try to get a head start on some writing assignment tomorrow, I can postpone the outdoor chores a bit longer.

Hero is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day