Day 4317

What a beautiful sunrise this morning. The days keep getting shorter, so we'll continue to start our walks with Dawn just before dawn, at least until the time changes in early November. I hope this weather continues for a while. It is usually brisk and cool in the morning. I wear a light jacket on our sunrise walks and it is still brisk and cool without the jacket when I take my long walk after breakfast.

I took two Tylenols when I got up this morning because I wanted to have an enjoyable walk. Tylenol actually seems to work better for arthritis pain than for headaches. Who knew? I won't take any tomorrow and we'll see what happens. I do think my foot is gradually getting better, largely because of the new shoes.

I've got to think of something new for breakfast. I don't feel like returning to making smoothies every morning, but I'm getting tired of the shredded wheat. I've eaten just about everything over the years. There was a period where I had a grapefruit every morning. I had yoghurt for a while, although I hate it now. I made pancakes from scratch and went through a period where I fixed myself elaborate omelets. One of my omelet recipes was even featured in a cookbook once. If you've been reading the blog long enough, you may remember the SXSW Cookbook. I started making smoothies when Janet got a Vitamix but never really used it. I thought the Vitamix was magic. I started making delicious soups for dinner and then discovered smoothies for breakfast. Somewhere along the line I started going out to restaurants for breakfast every Friday. Covid ended that activity. I need to make breakfast interesting again. It used to be my favorite time of the day.

I'm a lazy person by nature, but I feel guilty doing nothing on Tuesday because that's when Janet cleans the house. To make myself useful today, I cleared away all the brush that had taken over the narrow side yard on the East side of our house. I almost forget that this small patch of land exists. This is the side of the house where the bedrooms and bathrooms are and the windows are glazed with frosted glass. This lets lots of light in, but blocks the ugly view. You don't need curtains either. I'm still impressed at how clever the architect of this house was in the mid 1950's. It's too bad that seventy years have passed and the house is falling apart.

I cleared away a mountain of brush and small trees and hauled them to the curb just in time for the bulky trash truck which arrived about an hour after I was finished. I had totally forgotten that it was bulky trash day today, but it turned out to be convenient timing. After the side yard had been cleared, I cleaned the windows. They were covered in spiderwebs because spiders seems to love our house. That's one good thing about Winter. The spiders are gone. Everything looks nice now and I hope it stays that way. I don't want to go in that side yard again until next year.

When I was walking this morning, I saw two helicopters in the distance that appeared to be circling my house. This was a little alarming. I worry about fire a lot since I hear so many firetrucks going up and down our street. As I got closer to home, I thought that it must be a bad auto accident instead of a fire. Our street is way too busy for it's size. For a while it was used as a detour when a freeway was under construction and a lot of people kept using the road after the freeway was finished. I started seeing a lot of police cars and wondered how many police cars you really need for a wreck. About three blocks from home a lady walking her dog passed me and said "be careful, they're chasing bad guys." I never did find out what was happening. Just another day in the city I guess.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4316

It was a pleasant, very normal Monday. I walked and visited the Dalmatians. That was about it. It became clear this morning that the reason I felt better yesterday was largely due to the Tylenol. I didn't take any today and the foot pain quickly returned. The arthritis that doctors started showing me years ago on x-rays has finally reached the point where it is impossible to ignore. All my joints ache and right now it is my feet that want all the attention. It was a nice day and I took my long walk, but I didn't set any records. I still don't like pain medications. I'm reluctant to take strong meds like Tramadol at all and even over the counter stuff like Tylenol bothers me. If your body is trying to tell you something, you should listen. Maybe I should slow down for a little while. I always prefer lifestyle changes to meds, but sometimes this doesn't work. When you reach a certain age, your body just starts to wear out.

We met the new girl at the kennel today. Pepper is a livewire. She's three years old and full of energy. Playing vigorously for 45 minutes didn't wear her out at all. She knows how to sit, but it isn't her favorite thing. It made me dizzy trying to follow her around with the camera. Eventually, we had to put a leash on her to get her to sit still for her website photo. I have a feeling that Pepper is going to get adopted very soon. She is small, very pretty, and super friendly. She doesn't listen very well, but that's what training is for. When we left the kennel today, we took Pepper with us and dropped her off at the vet to be spayed. All the rescue dogs have to be spayed or neutered before they can be adopted. For such a wild, playful girl, Pepper rode extremely well in the car. She just sat quietly and looked out the window. I suspect that we'll see Pepper next week, but she isn't going to be around long. There's often a waiting list for dogs like this.

Each dog has their favorite toy. Pepper and Charlie like the green octopus, while Oliver prefers the red Kong ball. He'll bring you the ball and drop it at your feet so you'll throw it again. Cooper would never do this. He always wanted you to play tug with him. Charlie likes to thrash the toys around and kill them. If a squeaker is gone from a toy, Charlie probably had something to do with it. We're convinced that playing with these dog helps to socialize them. If Pepper is still around in the coming weeks, we're going to try to teach her some simple commands.

Apple has certainly changed from the Steve Jobs days. Each time I update my watch and phone, they become more intrusive. The watch talks to me now. It frequently asks if I'd like to record a walk. If I'm sitting at the computer for a long time, it will encourage me to do breathing exercises or meditate. I finally figured out how to disable the fall detection feature. I toss and turn in my sleep and one night it automatically dialed 911, thinking that I had fallen and wasn't responding. This is all a little much for me. I don't need a watch to be my friend. It's just a tool. I think Steve Jobs would have agreed with me, but clearly the young people that are running the company now have other ideas.

Do I take two Tylenol tonight or just roll the dice and see what happens? Wearing better shoes makes sense to me. Taking pain meds without figuring out what the underlying problem is doesn't make sense. Maybe I'll just wait and ask the next doctor I see. It looks like there are plenty of those on the calendar.

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4314

I woke up this morning with terrible foot pain. What have I done? This was the right foot which had never given me problems before. It was the left foot that I went to see the foot doctor about. My foot didn't appear red or swollen, but I could hardly put any weight on it at all. Since I couldn't get back to sleep, I applied some Voltaren cream to the sore area, took two Tylenol, and transferred the orthotics from my old Hoka shoes to the new ones.

It was odd that the pain came at night while I was sleeping. I felt a little better when I was wearing the new shoes, so I thought I'd try going along on Dawn's sunrise walk. That didn't work very well. I couldn't keep up with Dawn and Janet and quickly decided to turn around and go home. It was a shame that I didn't feel better, since the weather was beautiful.

Eventually, the pain started to subside. I think the new shoes helped, but maybe it was the arthritis cream and the Tylenol that did the trick. By the time we finished breakfast, I felt like I could still do my Saturday grocery shopping. I guess my old Hoka shoes were pretty worn out, because the new ones kept my feet in a lot better position. I wasn't walking on the edge of my feet anymore. As the day progressed, the pain gradually became a background noise. It still hurt, but I could deal with it. By mid-afternoon I felt it would be OK to take a short walk. I walked slowly and carefully, eventually completing about two miles. It did feel that putting weight on my feet felt better than resting in bed.  This didn't make any sense, but I was happy to be feeling better. 

Things are definitely getting more expensive. I was surprised at how much I spent filling the car with gas this morning. Everything seems to go up a little with each passing week. You have to wonder how this is going to end. Inflation basically hurts everybody. I didn't do any panic buying today, but I did pick up a big package of toilet paper. The toilet paper aisle was starting to look a little bare. Better safe than sorry, I thought. Hopefully the top of the cedar chest in the entryway won't start to look like it did during the early days of the pandemic. You never know though. I'll buy what's needed and am just going to take this one week at a time.

I guess I'll take some more Tylenol before I go to bed tonight and hope that the pain doesn't return. The Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament is tomorrow but I don't feel like I'm in any shape to spend the day photographing golfers. I'll stay home with Dawn while Janet goes to the tournament. This is good in a way, since we would have had to board Dawn if we both went to the tournament. Dawn may have other ideas. I'm sure she wishes that I was gone for the day instead of Janet.

It's a shame that I couldn't walk further today because the weather was absolutely perfect. The temperature was in the low sixties for most of the day and the cold front seemed to sweep away a lot of the pollen in the air. I mostly just hung around the house this afternoon. I watched a replay of the Lucy launch. I would have liked to be there but if I'm going to have a foot problem it's much better to be home. I seldom wear shoes inside the house, but I kept the Hoka's on all day. The support they provided helped a lot.

Dawn won't get her Sunday outing tomorrow unless we decide to go later in the day after Janet returns. She's a lazy dog and will be content just napping on the bed unless I decide to take a nap next to her.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day