Day 3170

They've discovered two bats with rabies in our neighborhood. That's a little disconcerting. We haven't had a rabies scare in ages. I don't think I have much to worry about. I rarely see bats in the yard and Dash is current on his rabies shots. He's totally lost interest in going after dead things in the park as well. We never used to have disease scares. Now people worry about getting Leptospirosis from contaminated water in the park. Almost every year there are new reports of someone being diagnosed with West Nile Virus in the area. Now, we've got rabies too. Good grief. We've even had to deal with the Ebola Virus here in Dallas a couple of years ago. I must have led a charmed life as a child. We never worried about anything.

My Dad was a zoologist who studied bats. He used to band them, set them loose in our yard, and see how long it took them to fly back to their caves. We were quite familiar with bats growing up. I don't think the subject of rabies ever came up. I don't think our neighbors were as interested in bats as Dad was. One Summer he released a few that refused to fly home. For the rest of the Summer the bats were a common sight at neighborhood barbecues.

Dash got me up last night, but we made it outside in time. At least I thought we made it outside in time. When he finished his business and we came back inside, I discovered that Janet was changing the bed. Yep. Dash had left another present for us. People ask why I don't use diapers on Dash. They rarely work on large dogs. I don't think they work at all on dogs with mobility issues. Diapers are messy too. It's a lot easier to clean the brick floors.

There are lots of chores I've been postponing. The floors are getting dirty and the grass needs to be mowed. I haven't unclogged the large production printer in a long time. If I was really ambitious, I could try to fix the shower tiles myself. The sheetrock on the living room ceiling needs a lot of attention too. There is an endless list of things that need to be fixed. None of these things appeal to me now. I wonder if this self imposed lethargy will ever change. By the time I finish dealing with all of Dash's many issues, I rarely feel like doing anything else.

I need to do something. Maybe I should apply for that opportunity to go behind the scenes at JPL and watch the InSight Mars landing. Janet will be home with Dash and I could always cancel the trip if his condition got worse. I'm trying to talk myself into doing this, but it's not that easy. I've become very comfortable with being a recluse.

I hope Dash sleeps well tonight. We're off to a good start because he pooped out in the yard this evening. When Dash is able to sleep, I sleep. That's important if I expect to get anything done tomorrow.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2350

The mosquitoes are terrible this year. I must have been bitten a dozen times while we were walking the dogs this morning. Mosquitoes always seems to carry something nasty. Last Summer everyone was worried about West Nile Virus. This year it's the Zika Virus. Of course, the dogs always have to worry about getting heartworms from a mosquito bite. That's why Dot and Dash continue to take a heartworm pill at the first of every month. I wish there was a place where mosquitoes weren't a problem, but I don't think this place exists. Even when I was growing up in Alaska, there was a terrible mosquito problem in the Summer. I don't know how you get rid of the insects without harsh chemicals. We've tried UV bug zapper lights that didn't work very well. One year we had a weird contraption in the back yard that generated a cloud of carbon dioxide gas that was supposed to cause the mosquitoes to move elsewhere. It didn't work at all. There is an organic spray that isn't toxic to the dogs that you can apply with a garden hose. We tried this last year and it worked well until the first big rain washed it all away. I'm not sure what remedy I'm going to try this year, but I'm sure I'll try something. I'm tired of getting bitten by the little beasts.

Today seemed more like a work day than a Saturday. I spent the morning completing a major website update involving adding 73 new pictures with captions. I probably could have waited until Monday to finish this update, but I knew that I'd enjoy Sunday a lot more without a deadline hanging over my head. It took a while to make all the changes, but the job is done. Now I can spend the rest of my weekend vacuuming, cleaning up dog poop, and other fun things.

Butter was on my grocery list today. I always get butter at Sam's Club because you save a lot of money buying in bulk. Unfortunately, I should have looked at the packaging a little more carefully before I made today's purchase. Instead of regular sticks of butter, I had gotten huge logs of butter that must have been meant for restaurants. Jeez, how was I to know. The packaging looked almost identical. I had to drive all the way back to the store and exchange the restaurant sized logs of butter for some regular sized sticks.

It took forever to balance my checkbook this afternoon. I used to do this routinely, but now I despise the task and only bother to straighten things out every two or three months. Inevitably, I discover that I've entered something erroneously in Quickbooks that causes a mysterious discrepancy, For a writer, I'm atrociously bad at typing. It typically takes me longer to proofread my articles than it does to write them. Finding math errors I've made takes even longer. If I had more money in the bank, I wouldn't even bother to balance my checkbook at all. Tracking down missing pennies is a waste of time.

I think I could write a book on the nuances of cleaning up dog poop. As Dot's incontinence has gotten worse, my cleanup technique has gotten better. Things that are hard to clean like carpets must always be protected. There are lots of small rugs now that can be thrown in the washing machine after being hosed off outdoors. There are lots of comfy acrylic dogs blankets that can be washed over and over again. Under the blankets are rubberized pads, in case she pees as well. When Dot goes to sleep, I lift up her butt a bit and slide a disposable puppy training pad underneath. If I'm lucky, I can slide the soiled pad out, roll it up and throw it away, without even waking her up when she poops in her sleep. I buy these disposable pads in 100 count boxes now. That's what life has become.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1947

There are days when I feel like I don't even exist. I'm just a ghost in the machine, silently cleaning up dog poop, sweeping rainwater off the roof, and writing articles that are instantly forgotten if they are read at all. I'd like to convince myself that what I do actually matters, but there is often very little evidence that it does. This is the problem with depending on dogs for companionship. You learn to live in the moment, but you don't get a lot of feedback. I know when the dogs want to eat. where they want to walk, and if they are in pain, but I don't really know what they are thinking. Maybe life is just as much of a mystery to them.

It was a shame to waste such a beautiful day up on the roof, but I'm already starting to see mosquitoes and it's more important than ever to dry things out. The warmer it gets, the more the standing water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes. With more reported cases of West Nile Virus every year, you hate to tempt fate. Today, I mucked around in my bare feet so I wouldn't get my dog walking boots wet. The water was warm, but very slippery. I made a mental note not to get near the edge of the roof. The more I see how deep this water gets after a hard rain, the more impressed I am that the roof doesn't leak. It's almost like we've got a duck pond on our roof.

Dot is getting increasingly independent. I'm letting her wander around the house on her own now and I can tell she enjoys the freedom. She still wears the Help 'Em Up Harness all the time, but I seldom need to support her rear legs anymore. I've tied a lightweight nylon leash to the rear handle of the harness that I hold loosely as she walks around. If she starts to slip, this connection to the harness still lets me prevent her from falling. It gives her more independence though and she's learning to walk more confidently on her own. Dot still can't back up very well, or navigate tight corners in the kitchen, but she's getting there. I wonder if her vet will see as much improvement as I have this week when I take her for her physical therapy session tomorrow.

Tax day came and went without incident. My taxes are filed and I'll get a small refund. I can't believe how complex my taxes are, considering how little money I make. By the time the Schedule C, Schedule D, Schedule E, Schedule K-1, home office deductions and half a dozen other esoteric forms are completed, it feels like I'm submitting a book. My accountant makes fun of how little money I make. It's a joke to him, since he remembers when I used to make much, much more, but it's not very funny to me. I should make a lot of money, but my skills just aren't as valuable as they were in the 1980's and 90's. I guess I could have changed professions, but I continue to dance with the one who brung me. I'm a writer who hates meetings and can barely tolerate my fellow man. In many ways I feel lucky that I can still pay the bills on my own terms.

I wanted to install a free Unix program on my computer that could read the dogs MRI scans today, but I discovered that the X-Code application that allows me to run Unix and Linux applications on my Mac was out of date. Increasing, I am being prodded into upgrading to Maverick or Yosemite or whatever the current operating system flavor is these days. I'm still running Lion because this is the end of the road for most of my existing software. It's too expensive to upgrade everything and I don't feel like upgrading anyway. I'm tempted to dig an old computer out of the storage warehouse and start running System 9 again. I was happier in those days.

Krissy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1625

Medicine gives my life structure. The doctors, veterinarians, pharmacists, and technicians have become my equivalent of co-workers. I've seen some of these people periodically for many years. A few have even become clients. These people know me by name and we exchange the same kind of banter that regular co-workers do on a coffee break. The blood tests are becoming less frequent now. Dash and I have both moved on. I had a routine blood test at the liver center this morning, just to make sure my hemoglobin levels were returning to normal. Pretty soon, these tests will cease completely. You'd think I'd be delighted to put this all behind me, but even though I'm delighted that Dash and I are getting better, I'm going to miss the interaction. I like asking questions and learning something new. That's what you do with doctors and pharmacists. You ask lots of questions.

The neighbor's cat returned to our yard again today and drove the dogs crazy. Our neighborhood is filled with feral cats. Most of them learned to avoid dogs years ago, so it's still rare to actually have a cat in the yard. You'd think that one little cat couldn't cause so much chaos, but Dot and Dash have always seen a cat as a sign of the apocalypse. I had to remove the cat from the yard three times before it decided to look for mice elsewhere. It's a friendly little cat and I don't want the dogs to hurt it. I wish the neighbors wanted to keep their new pet indoors, but they obviously don't. You can't really convince people that having a barn cat in the city isn't right. If they think their cat is happier outdoors, you're not going to convince them otherwise. These outdoor/indoor cats do seem to enjoy roaming around and catching mice and birds. Unfortunately, my dogs enjoy catching cats. Dalmatians seem slow to learn that the cat usually has the upper hand in a confrontation. I had to take Spot, our first Dalmatian, to the vet several times when he got too close to a cat and it scratched him on the nose.

I'm pretty much caught up with work again. I checked the article I wrote yesterday for spelling errors and submitted it for publication. I made some minor website updates and uploaded them to the server. That was about it. The remainder of the day was spent going to the bank, picking up prescriptions, and dealing with the curious cat in the yard.

Although the forecast predicted rain again, it was actually pretty dry today. There were lots of dark clouds, but most of the thunderstorms went either to the North or the South of us. Since it was pretty dry, I went up on the roof and removed the standing water. This almost guarantees that it will rain again tomorrow, but I can't leave the water up there too long. Standing water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and I don't want my house to become a source for West Nile Virus in the neighborhood.

Dot gets her teeth cleaned tomorrow. This means she has to fast tonight and won't get the usually treats just before bed. We'll drop her off at the vet early tomorrow morning and if things go well, she'll return with sparkling white teeth by mid-afternoon. Hopefully, this will be the last vet procedure that either dog will need for a while.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1274

Today could be summed up in four words: more of the same. I added some new animals to a rescue website. I paid a few bills. I wrote an article or two. I also forgot to turn off the sprinklers in the front yard and managed to soak the street in front of the house. It must have been a forgetful day. My doctor forgot to renew the prescription I asked him about yesterday. Maybe it wasn't the doctor's fault though. The phone system at the pharmacy was out of commission all day yesterday. Nothing really seems to go smoothly anymore. I think most of us just muddle our way through the day and are happy when it's finally over. That's why I really miss drinking. Even the most fruitless of days seemed better after a couple of glasses of wine. Somehow, a cup of freshly brewed green tea doesn't seem to work nearly as well.

I climbed up on the roof today to see how quickly the water was evaporating and discovered that the roofers had walked off with my trusty push broom. They probably had to use it so often to get the rain off the roof while they were working that when the job was finished, they ended up thinking it was theirs. It doesn't really matter. The broom was pretty worn out anyway. A new roof definitely calls for a new broom.

Dash went to the vet today, but his favorite nurse was gone. The new nurse didn't know how to express a dog's anal glands, so he had to ask for help from someone else. I really ought to learn how to do this myself, but truthfully, I have no interest in sticking my hand up a dog's butt.  I do enough unpleasant things already.

There was a mosquito in the house today. I tried to swat it with a fly swatter, but it kept escaping and I gave up after a while. I guess this means that I'll have to worry about mosquitoes for the rest of the Summer. Last year Dallas had a huge mosquito problem and there were numerous cases of West Nile Virus in town. We've got ticks that can cause Lyme Disease, mosquitoes that carry the West Nile Virus, and huge brown roaches that are just disgusting. I always wonder how the roaches manage to get inside until I go outside and notice that they are everywhere. I guess things could be worse if we lived in Florida, but probably not much worse. This place is a bug paradise.

Dot's acupuncture vet has moved. We've got a longer drive now to her weekly appointment. We'll see how things go tomorrow. Hopefully, the negative effects of riding in the car won't completely negate the positive effects of the acupuncture treatments.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 989

I knew this was going to happen. I've finally used up the stack of pre-printed FedEx forms that's been sitting in my desk drawer for ten years. Without the forms, I have no idea what my FedEx account number is, so I take my packages down to the FedEx office to find out. They've never heard of me. "But I've been coming to this office for almost fifteen years," I tell the woman at the desk. "I must be in your computer somewhere," I say. "I've used up a two inch thick stack of pre-printed forms mailing stuff with you guys." "We have no record of you." says the woman. "Would you like to set up an account with us?" "But I already have an account," I say. "When was the last time you shipped something," says the woman? "I know I shipped something last year," I say. The woman starts laughing. "You're an inactive account," she says. "We deleted you."

I finally get my packages shipped and go home to feed the dogs. They both want to lay outside in the backyard after lunch, but the mosquitoes are back. After all the spraying the city has done this Summer, there are still just as many mosquitoes as there ever were. Two friends of ours in the neighborhood have already caught the West Nile Disease. They said for them it was like a bad case of the flu. I wonder if I've been infected as well. Some people just don't show any symptoms. All I know is that I've been bitten by a ton of mosquitoes this Summer. I guess I'll find out when I have my annual physical next month. West Nile Virus antibodies do show up in blood work.

After a week of feeling like I've had too much to do, I've just about caught up with my workload. By this weekend, I think I will have caught up completely. With a three day weekend coming up, having nothing to do appeals to me. Maybe Janet and I will think of something fun to do with the dogs on Labor Day. 

Since things are more or less back to normal, I'll be looking for somewhere interesting to have breakfast tomorrow. I may even venture out of the neighborhood.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 977

Dot is sitting shivering under my desk, wrapped in a blanket. It's raining again. I wonder how she knows it's going to rain. She's better than the weatherman. Over an hour before the rain started, she was nervously pacing around the house, trying to tell us that the world was about to end. I've gotten to know her mannerisms so I checked the weather radar on my iPhone. It didn't look so bad. Dot knew better. Almost on cue, the rains started immediately after she went to her protected spot under my desk. It's a good thing I got my chores done earlier. I mowed the grass and got all my weekend shopping done before the deluge started. I hate rain at this time of day though. By the time the storm passes through, it will be too dark to go up and get the water off the roof. It will be another night of listening for leaks.

I got a good example of why Apple is so successful this afternoon. I needed to buy an audio cable, so I went to Guitar Center because they have tons of cables. "Oh, you've got to go to the Apple Store for Apogee cables," the sales guy said. "Apple owns Apogee, so they'll have all the cables there."  I stopped by Radio Shack first.  The Apple Store is always crowded on Saturday and Radio Shack has lots of Apple stuff too. The Radio Shack manager told me that I needed to go to the Apple Store too. "That's not a very common cable," he said. "We don't carry those." So, I fight the mall crowds and go to the Apple Store. "That's a specialty item," says the Apple sales guy. "You'll have to order that from our online store." Two different stores, who probably had this particular cable online too, just lazily sent me to the Apple Store instead of trying to get me to buy from their online stores. Apple got the sale.

I'm trying to decide which gear to take on an assignment next week. The assignment involves taking both video and still images. Since DLSR cameras take pretty good video these days and many video cameras can capture high quality JPEG stills, it's not an easy decision anymore. Of course, I could just pile everything I own in the car, but I'd rather travel light and take no more than I need. I wish these companies would make it a little easier for me. My video camera captures sound better, but I like the picture on the DLSR the best. Writing jobs are so much easier. All I need is a laptop and a ten year old copy of Microsoft Word.

I wonder if all the rain we've been having is going to wash away the mosquito spray? It's been bone dry around here for weeks, but just as soon as the city began its aerial spraying program to combat the West Nile Virus, it began raining cats and dogs. Mosquitoes love the rain, so probably this wasn't exactly what the city had planned. So few things go according to plan for me personally, that it's kind of reassuring to know that they don't go according to plan for anyone else either. I wonder if the city has a Plan B if the mosquitoes come back? I learned long ago that you've always got to have a Plan B.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 975

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the outbreak of West Nile Virus in Dallas. The mayor has declared a state of emergency and the city is beginning aerial spraying of the entire city this evening. I got two phone messages from the city telling me to stay inside after dark tonight. There is a lot of controversy about the spraying program, but personally, I have no problem with it. When you compare the downsides of the Pyrethenoid insecticides they'll be using with the downsides of having the disease, I think I'll go with the insecticides.

I'm not sure it matters anyway. I've been bitten by mosquitoes several hundred times this summer and nothing has happened. Either I've gotten lucky or I've got an immunity to the virus. Truthfully, I'm more worried about the dogs. They get bitten by mosquitoes a lot more than I do. Mosquitoes are just a fact of life down South. No matter how much mosquito repellant you spray on yourself, you're still going to get mosquito bites.

I think people forget how common spraying for mosquitoes used to be. I grew up in Arkansas and during the Summer the spray trucks would come down our street at least once a month. A lot of times people didn't even bother to go inside when the trucks came by. They would just continue barbecuing, or sitting on the porch, or whatever they were doing as the cloud rolled past and dissipated in the evening air. It's kind of amazing to realize how many people survived and continued living perfectly normal lives after breathing in insecticides every Summer and driving around without seatbelts smoking cigarettes.

I wish I'd start getting some money in the mail. I've been billing things out at a fairly normal rate, but the checks are arriving slower and slower these days. It wasn't that long ago that just about everyone paid within 30 days. Now the average is somewhere between 45 and 60 days. Sign of the times, I guess. I still have to pay my own bills on time though. That's what I did this afternoon. I paid the electric bill, the water bill, various phone bills, and my car insurance. The depressing thing is that most of these bills will arrive again next month, whether any money arrives in the mail or not.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I've still got enough money to buy myself a little bacon for breakfast. I've still got about 20 minutes left today to let the dogs outside to pee before the mosquito spraying planes begin their flyby. I'm hoping that the spray kills some roaches and spiders too. We have entirely too many bugs this Summer.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 954

It's weird that after all these years, certain things still baffle me about HTML. Today, I noticed that when I inserted a rather ordinary nested table into a page I was working on, the entire page shifted a few pixels to the left. If I took the table out again, everything would shift back to the right. Obviously, there was something wrong in the code, but I just couldn't find it. Maybe it was something as small as a single misplaced tag. I wasted a huge amount of time looking for discrepancies, but the table itself seemed to work perfectly. I finally gave up and inserted a similar invisible table in all the other pages on the site, so everything would shift a few pixels to the left. The site looks and works perfectly now, but two or three years from now I won't have a clue why this particular website has tables with nothing in them strewn all over the place.

Project Runway is back. It's hard to believe that this show has been on the air for ten seasons now. Back when I still drank alcohol, Janet and I would have Martinis while we watched the show. I never cared much for shows like Survivor or even American Idol, but Project Runway was always one of my favorites. As contrived contests go, this one seemed pretty genuine. I can hear the show off in the distance on the TV in the kitchen as I write this. Janet must be watching. I've got to finish the blog first. The show's not the same without a Martini or Cosmopolitan in my hand anyway. I only watch TV during breakfast now. A long leisurily breakfast has become my one remaining luxury.

I read something recently that said dead Blue Jays were a sign that the West Nile Virus might be in the area. I saw a dead Blue Jay this afternoon while I was walking the dogs. Actually, you see quite a few dead birds if you are walking in the woods, but mosquitoes are bad this year and I'm starting to get nervous about the West Nile Virus. That's all I need on top of everything else that's wrong with me. Thinking you're not going to get bit by a mosquito in the South is ridiculous though. There are millions and millions of the little bugs and even if you spray a whole can of Off® on your arms and legs, you're still going to get bit occasionally.

I'm already looking forward to my regular Friday breakfast outing. The trash has been taken out to the curb. All my e-mail has been answered. It's been so hot this week that I even went up on the roof today to look for tiny cracks. I found some too. All in all, it's been a very productive week. I'm ready for bacon now.

Smokey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day