Day 2898

This was a good day to test a solar panel I'd purchased earlier this year. It was bright and sunny, so maybe this thing would generate a little electricity. Do I need a solar panel? Of course not. I"m fascinated by survival gear though, so the solar cell fits right in with the various small generators, camping lights, freeze dried food, and hand cranked radios that have caught my attention in the past. The solar panel didn't really generate much electricity. It would probably be great for camping if I liked to camp. I prefer nice, dog friendly luxury hotels, but I do like to be ready for the zombie apocalypse. Maybe I'm just a prepper at heart. After I determined that the solar panel worked, I put it away again. There were more important things to do, like walk the dog and eat breakfast.

I guess I'm done with my website project for a while. After doing some more work this morning, I've now got a working site that the client could go live with if they want. It took me two days to master the Wordpress template. Most of the things that puzzled me in the beginning were just because I couldn't find the right menu. This really makes me wonder about those people who call themselves "professional" Wordpress developers. What do they really do? I still find it hard to believe that my elegant custom sites are being replaced by these templates. Oh, well. It's a little late to complain now. The world has changed. It makes sense that templates would be popular in a world where customers expect things to be easy and free,

Today would have been a good day to work on the roof, but I'm finding it difficult to do more than one thing a day. I wasted a lot of time fiddling around with the solar panel this morning and then I wasted even more time looking for the hidden code that displayed the name of the template company in the footer of every website page I've been building. I didn't want that name there and was very pleased when I managed to find the Wordpress code that generated the company's name automatically on every new page. I deleted the code without destroying anything else. Don't mess with me Wordpress.

The Dow closed over 24,000 today. That's the good news. The bad news is that if the tax bill that precipitated today market rally passes, small companies like mine are going to be in a world of hurt. I've heard that most of the Schedule C deductions freelancers take are going away. I don't know if my business would have survived if I hadn't been able to deduct for having an office in my home and a host of other commonplace deductions. I'm glad I'm nearing retirement. It's a different world out there now. I'm not sure I'd do nearly as well starting today as I did twenty years ago. Hell, even ten years ago things were a lot easier.

I can't figure out why Dash is reluctant to take an afternoon walk again. This has happened before and it just doesn't make sense. Dash is usually eager to take his morning walk, but lately he'll stand at the back door for a long time sniffing the air in the afternoon and then turn around and go back inside. He isn't tired and appears to have plenty of energy. There is just something about the afternoon air that bothers him. If I can manage to get him to the park, he's fine. It's just those first 50 yards that are difficult.

Tomorrow I need to pack up all my equipment for Saturday's photo shoot. I think everything works. If I don't drop something and break it, I'll probably be fine. Every year I think this is the last year I'm going to be doing these Christmas pictures. Then another year goes by and I'm doing them again. I'm still a good photographer, but I'm older and crankier. If I want to do this again next year, I'm going to have to start going to the gym more often.

Belle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2896

I made a lot of progress on my website project today. It was a nice day and I know I should have worked on the roof, but this was more of a challenge. I wasn't going to let a silly template defeat me. After spending the morning dealing with all the things that baffled me yesterday, I feel confident that I can finish this thing. All I've got to do now is add the rest of the pages. With any luck I should be done by the end of the week.  It's a shame that all I'm doing is replicating a perfectly good site that I build two years ago. The objective is to create something that anybody can update. I even offered to continue updating the old site myself, but people don't want a website manager anymore. Godaddy Website Builder, Wordpress, and a host of other drag and drop website tools have made people like me obsolete. I'm sure there are other sites I'll be asked to convert, but I can see the writing on the wall. My coding days are over.

I'm impressed that my new doctor called me this afternoon to go over the results of my Calcium Score Screening. He reassured me that things weren't as bad as they looked. "These scores are frequently over 2000 for someone your age," he said. "You're less than 250."  I was hoping for a score of 0, but apparently that is very rare. My old doctor never called me on the phone with test results in the twenty years I was his patient. I always had to make an appointment and go to his office for a visit. To be fair, I eventually did get the test results and was able to ask questions, but only after spending forever sitting in a crowded waiting room full of sick people. Things are much more efficient and accessible now. I may change my mind later, but so far concierge medicine definitely seems to be worth the money.

I'm glad I have plenty of time. Dash is so slow now that I would never have time to walk him if my business was still busy. He still likes to walk and seems to move freely wearing the knee brace, but he just inches along. He'll walk ten feet and then stop to smell something or pee. Then we'll walk another ten feet and he'll stop to smell something else. For a while I was worried that he might be having trouble moving, but that doesn't seems to be the case. He just isn't in a hurry anymore. Actually this is a good thing. The specialist who treats him at the cancer center said that long, slow walks were good for him. We're definitely taking long, slow walks.

I spent so much time working on the website today that I didn't get around to all the other things on my list. How did I used to be able to get so much done?  Either I'm really slowing down, or life has become more difficult. Fixing breakfast and taking care of Dash seems to eat up half the day. If I can accomplish one other thing with the time I've got left, I'm lucky. I did balance my checkbook today, but that was only because I didn't want to go up on the roof or unpack all my photo gear to test the strobe lights. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

A friend's dog died today. It's so sad that our pets don't live longer. They become such an important part of our lives and then they're gone. I always see Gracie when we take Santa Paws photos. I was hoping that I'd see her again this year. Rest in peace sweet dog. I hope you say hello to Dot at the Rainbow Bridge.

Scooter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2895

I should have quit while I was ahead. I finished my writing assignment this morning and delivered it to the client. So far so good. Next, I started to work on my website assignment. This was supposed to be easy, but I couldn't get the Wordpress template to do what I wanted. I floundered around for hours experimenting and reading tutorials on the theme the client selected. So far, I still haven't found what I need.

Templates drive me nuts. They work pretty well if you don't try to change the default settings. Once you start creating your own settings, you've gone down a rabbit hole. If I was creating this site using HTML and Javascript, I'd be done by now. I'm pretty confident I'll master this eventually. "It's just a template," I keep telling myself. Hey, I went down so many blind alleys today that tomorrow should be easy. I've already eliminated a ton of things that don't work.

I didn't even attempt to work on the roof today. Messy manual labor and messy website development don't mix very well. I was hoping I'd get the website finished today so I could concentrate on the roof tomorrow. That's not going to happen. I guess the weather will determine what I do next. I don't have a firm deadline on the website, but I know I'd got to get the roof finished before it rains.

I also know I've only got a few days to test my lights and cameras for the upcoming Santa Paws photo shoot this weekend. Everything should work, but will it? I haven't used most of this stuff since last years holiday pet photos. I've got an extra Norman power pack, and extra strobe, and an extra camera body in case something breaks. This still leaves a fairly small margin of error. If one light burns out I'm fine. If two lights burn out, I'm screwed. My equipment has worked perfectly for decades, but eventually my luck will run out. Nothing lasts forever.

I wish I didn't worry so much. Every time Dash jumps on the bed, I worry that he's going to tear his ACL. Every time I go in the utility room, I worry that the water heater is going to develop a leak and flood the house. I worry that my car is going to break down every time I leave the house and I worry that we'll be attacked by an aggressive dog every time Dash and I go on a walk. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about Kim Jong-un or rising sea levels. Some things are out of my control. It's the little things right here at home that bother me most.

Maybe tomorrow will go smoothly. If I take care of the easy things first, I should be fine. I need to balance my checkbook. It's time to order more printer ink. I need to re-glue one of Dash's protective boots. I'll do the laundry. When I take care of those things, I'll think about battling Wordpress again.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2888

I got another jury summons today. When I tried to postpone the summons again, I was informed that I'd used up all my postponements and would have to serve. I've noticed that every time I postponed the summons I would receive a lower juror number the next time. Unless I get kicked out during the Voir Dire Process, I'm almost certain to sit on a jury. Oh, well. This is probably the last time I'll ever get called. As soon as I turn seventy, I'm going to request a permanent exemption.

The whole judicial system seems weird to me. If you've ever been questioned during Voir Dire, it quickly becomes obvious that the lawyers from both sides are trying their best to pack the jury with people who are sympathetic to their case. Jury selection seems to be a lot more about winning than about fairness. Even if you're selected to sit on a jury, there's a good chance that the lawyers will reach a plea deal before you ever enter the courtroom. Judges love plea deals because it saves them a lot of time.

I've heard that in China they are already experimenting with robot judges. People tend to like the robots because they seem to be more lenient than human judges. If robot judges work, maybe we ought to try robot juries too. When I'm out and about and take a good look at who my peers actually are, I think I'd trust a robot more.

My new doctor want me to go in for a Calcium Score Screening to check for plaque in my arteries. Even though this test is very effective, it is seldom covered by insurance. As a result, numerous services have sprung up that offer low cost CAT scans. My scan will cost $79. Sounds fair to me. You just pay cash and the test isn't billed to your insurance plan at all. $79 is a small fraction of what imaging labs usually charge for a CAT scan or MRI. When I've had scans before, my insurance was billed between $500 and $4000 dollars. This is why health care is so expensive. It's not the doctors or the government that makes health care expensive. It's the insurance companies. A lot of times I wish health care was more like taking care of your dog. You pay cash for everything at the vet, but prices are much more reasonable. Dot and Dash have both gone through some very complex surgeries. The surgeons were excellent and the facilities were as up-to-date as anything you'd find in a human hospital. The only difference was the price. The prices for veterinary medicine are fair because the customer actually pays the bill. When insurance companies get involved, prices go through the roof.

My package is still lost. It was supposed to arrive today, but of course it didn't. This might be the last time I order online and and select the option to pick up my order at the store. When you order this way, the store doesn't need to provide tracking. Your order just gets put on the truck with all the other inventory being shipped to the store. There doesn't seem to be any particular hurry. I'm sure I'll get my order eventually, but nobody seems to know when. It's just "in the system" somewhere.

I have my first meeting on the new website project tomorrow. I'll try to keep an open mind. I did a little research on the Wordpress template I'm supposed to use and discovered that it's basically just like every other Wordpress template. I still don't understand why people like Wordpress. It's not rocket science, so I guess I can live with the situation. Anyone who can hand code a site can definitely fill in the blanks on a Wordpress template.

I talked to people today and made decisions. I think I prefer the days when nothing happens.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2887

I'm afraid I'm going to have to retrieve Dot's rugs from the storage room soon. Dash is starting to slip and slide on the bricks. If he would slow down and start acting like the mature dog he is, I'm sure he could navigate the bricks for another couple of years. That's not Dash though. He still likes to counter surf. He'll still race to the kitchen when he hears food being prepared. Since he already has a partially torn cruciate ligament, I'm afraid he's going to ruin his knee joint every time he slips. I've thought about just leaving his rubber boots on all the time, but there's a downside to that as well. I just wish Dash would realize he's getting older and start taking care of himself a little better.

I'm trying to take care of myself better. That's why I switched doctors and continue going to the gym every Sunday. It's no fun growing old, but what are the alternatives? While I was driving to the gym today I listened to a TED talk about recent advances in gene editing. Precise gene editing could bring back the Wooly Mammoth from extinction, eliminate mosquitos in malaria prone areas, and allow parent to choose the hair color, intelligence, and resistance to disease of their babies. What could possibly go wrong? This all sounds like science fiction, but apparently scientists around the world are already using something called CRISPR-Cas9 technology to modify plants and animals at the DNA level. There's a lot of debate about the ethics of messing around with human DNA, but I'm sure there was debate about the ethics of atom bombs before we exploded the first one too. Humans tend to use the things they invent. We just can't resist.

Maybe in the future, people like me won't have to worry about diabetes and arthritic joints. We'll use gene editing to create a race of disease free, almost super human people. Of course, there's an even greater chance that we'll inadvertently create thousands of 100 foot long fire breathing dragons who will eat us while we sleep.

I had a good workout today, but that apparently wasn't enough. Against my better judgement, I actually moved the furniture while I vacuumed this afternoon. I don't do this very often because it is too depressing. It's unbelievable how much dust can accumulate under a chair that hasn't been moved for a year. We also took the heavy comforter off the bed and took it to a laundromat for cleaning. If you let your dog sleep on the bed with you, you quickly realize that white isn't the best color for a bed spread. I liked out old brown comforter better. It might not have been the prettiest thing in the world, but it hid all the damage the dogs caused admirably.

I didn't do my homework on Wordpress this weekend. Oh, well. There's still time. It's hard to get excited about Wordpress. I guess it's convenient if you like to work in teams, but it doesn't do much for me. I can think of so many more elegant ways to design a website. When you're used to sitting down and writing your own code, it just seems cumbersome to use someone else's template.

I see my neighbors beginning to pile up bags of leaves, old kitchen chairs, and discarded children's toys on the curb. This much mean it's time for bulky trash pickup again. I'll need to look tomorrow and see if there's anything I need to throw away. I'm supposed to receive a package next week. I think the package is lost since no tracking number was provided by the shipper. The shipper says everything is fine. We'll see who's right by the end of the week. We're going out to eat for Thanksgiving again this year. This should be a relaxing occasion, so I'm going to try my best not to worry about Dash. There's no need to worry. He's just going to be sleeping on the bed like he always does in the afternoon. I wish I wasn't always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2228

I just solved a problem that has had me stumped for the past three hours. It feels good. I inherited a Wordpress site from another developer who used a lot of strange and unfamiliar widgets to create much of the site's functionality. When I opened the dashboard this afternoon to make a few changes, I discovered that the latest version of WordPress no longer supports the third party widgets. The site was broken. I was totally screwed, because the functions the obsolete widgets added were not included with the theme the original developer used. This is one reason I hate WordPress. The themes only seem easy because they hide all the code away. They can be really hard to fix when something breaks. I needed to figure out an alternate way to duplicate the functions without starting over from scratch. After hours of research on Google and WordPress forums and quite a few unsuccessful experiments, I finally came up with something that worked without destroying the original theme. I still hate WordPress though. I need to convince this client to start over and do a proper responsive website.

The website debacle was just one facet of a rather nasty day. The weather was horrible. It started out cold and damp and kept getting colder throughout the day. It started raining hard just before I had to leave the house for Dot's physical therapy appointment. I was a bit apprehensive, since Dash is just as scared of storms as Dot. He usually sleeps on the bed when I'm gone, but I left the door open to my office because he often hides under my desk when it storms. That's where I found him when I returned. I felt bad, but it's pretty essential that Dot's gets her acupuncture and water therapy.

Dot actually did pretty well today, considering how damp and cold it was. Her vet spent some extra time working on her shoulder muscles during her acupuncture session in an attempt to relieve some of the tension. I think it worked, because Dot was very relaxed on the way home. I wasn't very relaxed because the rain was getting worse and the roads were a mess. I had to drive through a construction zone and the car ended up getting muddier than I've seen it in months. At least the rain washed off the bird poop. The evil bird has started pooping on the right hand side of the car where it is unprotected by rubber snakes. I guess I'll have to go to the Dollar Store and buy some more snakes.

I'm glad that this week is about over. I've had enough of disastrous stock market losses, cold weather, difficult assignments, and lack of sleep. There's water on the roof again, but it's too cold to deal with it yet. The shower drain is backing up and the refrigerator is just about empty. It's almost time to start thinking about doing my taxes again too. Hey, the skies are supposed to clear off tomorrow. Maybe a good breakfast, some strong coffee, and a little sunshine are all I need to jump start my mood and get my Mojo working again.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2090

The holiday weekend is getting off to a good start. Miraculously, the dogs let us sleep in a little this morning. Even though we got up later, Dot didn't poop in her bed. That's always a good sign. We set off on our morning walk around 7:30 AM, which is much later than normal. Dot continues to get stronger and I've noticed recently that she is actually starting to walk a little faster. Dash, on the other hand, is still acting strange. He is still finicky about eating in the morning, but seems completely normal the rest of the day. I don't know what's wrong. Maybe nothing is wrong at all. We're thinking about switching the brand of food he eats, just to see if that makes a difference. I'll ask the oncologist if we need to bring in Dash for another round of tests when I take Dot for her next Ultrasound scan this coming Friday.

Having bacon for breakfast made it seem like a holiday, but when I turned on the computer and checked my e-mail, I knew it was going to be another work day. There was a long list of website revisions to make. I guess I could have postponed the updates until Tuesday, but it made much more sense to go ahead and do them now. It's not like I was going to do anything special today anyway. Today's changes involved altering a Wordpress site. I've grown to hate Wordpress because clients often pick a template and then immediately set about trying to change it. It is almost always easier for me to create a custom site than it is to modify someone else's Wordpress template. Oh, well. Like I said, I didn't have much to do today.

We're trying to figure out how to clean the rugs we use to keep Dot from falling in the house. The little ones will fit in the washing machine, but most of them are too big even for commercial laundromat machines. The rugs in the kitchen are the worst, because that's where the dogs like to hang out. The Dyson is pretty amazing, but even this super vacuum is no match for two Dalmatians eating breakfast for several months. I'm torn between buying a power washer and renting one of those Bissell carpet cleaners. A power washer might actually work pretty well, since the rugs are all made of synthetic material that dries quickly. I need to clean all the spider webs off the windows anyway, so why not take the rugs outside and clean them both with a power washer at the same time. The only downside to this plan is that we'd have to buy even more rugs, so Dot would have something to walk on while the other rugs dried. If I spent my time trying to solve real problems instead of fretting about dirty rugs and broken optical drives, Lord knows what I might accomplish.

Yes, I did make one more attempt to revive the DVD burner in my desktop Mac. I failed again. The thing is probably just dirty, but there is no easy way to clean these drives anymore. My older Mac towers had flat CD trays that slid out to insert a disc. You could buy special cleaning discs that had a little brush glued to the surface of the disc. You would put some solvent on the brush, insert the cleaning disc in the players and run it for a few minutes. The brush cleaned off the laser head and almost always cured sluggish or faulty optical drives. If worse came to worse, you could just unscrew the entire broken drive from the chassis and replace it with a new one. New Macintosh computers are completely different. Almost nothing is meant to be serviced yourself. Some components are epoxied directly to the motherboard, so they can't be removed at all. I have no idea how I'd remove the optical drive from my current Mac. You can't even open the case. I'm sure Apple would prefer that I just buy a new one.

It looks like I'm going to have time to go to the gym tomorrow. I skipped my workout last Sunday since I was doing the photoshoot with the two children and their menagerie of animals. Nothing exciting like that this weekend, so it looks like I'll have to burn off some calories on the treadmill.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1749

I wish there was a longer gap between the end of Spring allergies and the beginning of Fall allergies. Fall allergies are back with a vengeance and it seems like I only had a single month of relatively pollen-free peace. With literally hundreds of different plants continually shedding their seeds and spores in the park behind our house, I've just about resigned myself to a lifetime runny nose.

Since antihistamines leave me loopy, I've resorted to using those big, blue rolls of shop towels like Kleenex. It's good that I work alone, because it seems like I spend the entire day blowing my nose. I think the dogs are having seasonal allergy problems too. They've certainly been licking  their coats a lot lately. Allergies usually affect a dog's skin instead of their nasal passages, but I'm sure it is equally irritating. I've got my own skin irritations this week as well. I thought yesterday's fire ant bites would have gone away by now. Instead, the red puffiness around my knee has resolved into dozens and dozens of hard red little bumps. It kind of looks like I have chicken pox. I don't know how long it will take for this mess to go away, but at least the ant bites don't itch as much as chigger bites.

I only had one thing to do today, but the task proved so difficult that I still haven't finished everything. I'm not sure I even want to be a website designer anymore. I initially got interested in doing this type of work because it seemed well suited for a solitary guy like me. I could sit at my computer and create beautiful things without having to deal with printing companies and production managers like my print-based contemporaries. This business model worked for a long time, but lately I find myself spending very little time actually doing graphic design. It's all about Javascript, PHP, and SEO these days. The thrill is definitely gone. I don't like modifying other people's Wordpress themes either. That's what I was doing today.

I often envy the dogs. We like a lot of the same things. They like to eat. So do I. They like to smell every bush while we take our walks. I like to photograph every bush. It works out nicely. When we come home, the dogs go to sleep. I wouldn't mind going back to sleep either, but unlike Dot and Dash, I've got bills to pay. I wonder if they realize how lucky they are.

I hope I can get my website project finished quickly tomorrow, because some new writing assignments came in late in the day. Tuesday is usually when I have to update one of my animal rescue websites as well. No rest for the weary. I'm already looking forward to Friday.

Sweet Pea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1641

I got up early to get my blood tested before breakfast. I walked the dogs first, of course, but I was still at the doctor's office before 8 AM. As you might imagine, I'm getting a bit tired of getting blood tests all the time. Everyone seems to want one. The urologist tests for PSA. My team of liver doctors test for liver enzymes and viral load. My GP seems most interested in cholesterol and blood sugar. Even the dogs get frequent blood tests. Dash gets tested once a month to monitor his chemotherapy drugs. Dot got tested recently before she got her teeth cleaned. I think I should have invested in Labcorp stock. I have a feeling that doing lab work for doctors is a growth industry.

The grocery store was near the doctor's office, so I decided to get my weekend shopping done on the way home. I wanted to put the groceries in the refrigerator before I went out for breakfast, but Dot didn't agree with this plan. She thought I was home for good. When it became apparent that I was going to leave again, she started barking. I checked in on the dogs using the baby monitor when I got to the restaurant and Dot was still barking. I could tell by her tone that she wasn't alarmed at anything, she was just mad. I felt a bit guilty, so I only had two cups of coffee instead of my usual three and went straight home again. One I got home, the barking stopped and the dogs just went to sleep.

When I'm not really busy, I keep trying to improved my knowledge of WordPress. I'm not very fond of WordPress, but increasingly, this is what my clients want me to use. It's easy to understand why I'm not a fan. Easy-to-use WordPress themes are slowly but surely destroying my web design business. You can put together a WordPress site in a couple of hours without any coding knowledge. The themes are dirt cheap to buy and generally include some pretty sophisticated features. What's not to like, you might ask? First of all, it can be difficult to make a WordPress site look truly unique. All the themes look more or less the same to me. My ISP tells me that they are not very secure either. I tried modifying a standard WordPress theme this afternoon to give it my own special style. I wasn't very successful. Using a theme is easy. Changing a theme is hard. Since I'm the one who keeps wanting to change these themes, I suspect I'm wasting my time. My clients don't even care.

Dash did a good job at keeping his tail from bleeding today. I didn't have to bandage or clean it at all. Maybe he just didn't do much wagging today. Whatever he did, I hope he keeps it up. A few more days like this and the tail might actually have a chance of healing.

I didn't make it to the gym this week, but I can't really remember why. Somehow, I managed to go twice last week when I was busier than I am now. I'll probably have time to go workout on Sunday. I'll get the rest of my exercise by mowing the grass and pulling weeds. Father's Day won't be a big deal. I'm not a father.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1639

The roofing folks knocked on my door this morning and said they were here to inspect the roof. I had asked them to give me some advance notice before they came, but since I was here anyway, I guess it didn't matter. I went up on the roof with them and they said that considering I lived in a wooded area and the roof didn't drain properly anyway, it was doing pretty well. This was hardly a ringing endorsement. I showed them the spots I thought might be deteriorating. Sometimes they said "We can fix that." and other times they told me that there was nothing wrong. I told the guys to repair any areas that they thought might cause me problems in the future and went back inside to work. Later in the day, I went back up on the roof to see what they'd done. There were a bunch of little repair spots scattered over the roof, but none in the areas that I thought might be a problem. I actually have no idea what the roofers did.

I got a request to add some custom features to a client's WordPress theme today. Many of my clients love WordPress themes because they are cheap and easy to update without any coding skills. Themes are easy to switch too. The problems start when people like their existing theme but just want it to look completely different. You should really just pick a theme and leave it alone. I get requests that would be very easy to implement using HTML. Unfortunately, with my limited knowledge of PHP, it always takes me longer to modify a dynamic site than it would to create an entire static site from scratch. I've grown to hate WordPress, even though many people absolutely love it. I'm trying to keep up with the times though. I'm learning to develop nice looking, full featured dynamic websites, even though I'd really rather still be doing magazine and newspaper ads.

Dot did really well using the underwater treadmill today. We generally do the treadmill workout first, let her rest a bit, and then finish with acupuncture. The acupuncture relaxes Dot, and she almost always leaves her session feeling relaxed and happy. I wish there were something that did the same sort of thing for me. Relaxed and happy is definitely not my normal state. Maybe I ought to just sleep eighteen hours a day like the dogs. It seems to work for them.

We are still supposed to get some severe thunderstorms tomorrow. I sure hope that whatever they put on the roof today dries fast. If there is a downpour tomorrow, it would be just my luck that all the new coating material washes away in the rain. Who knows? Tomorrow might be hot and sunny. I never put much faith in Texas weather forecasts. I'm still glad I got Dot's vet appointment taken care of today. Driving around with Dot in a thunderstorm is not a pleasant experience.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1600

There were a ton of events to attend this weekend, but we were too tired to even think about most of them. A decade ago, I could have spent the entire weekend wandering around the big guitar show at Fair Park. It hardly seemed worth it though when I haven't even taken the Stratocaster out of its case in several months. Janet and I usually go to the annual Dalmatian Rescue crawfish boil, even though we never eat crawfish. This year, it all seemed too complicated. Dot can't take the heat anymore. Dash is still too sick from his radiation treatments. The event seemed way too far away this year and both of us were really tired. The event was a  no show.

The only event we made an appearance at today was our vet's Wine on the Roof animal rescue fundraiser. We've gone to this event every year since it started. It's hard to believe it's been thirteen years now. Times have changed. Our house is too full of clutter to bid on silent auction items anymore, and I haven't had a glass of wine in five years. It's still a good cause though, and the event is only a few miles from our house. Janet had some wine. I grabbed a few little sandwiches from the buffet table. And we watched a pet fashion show where dogs and cats were dressed up like characters from fairy tales. Less than an hour and a half later, we were back home.

If I had written the blog earlier in the day, I would be asleep by now. Unfortunately, earlier in the day I was sitting at my desk trying to figure out how to put together the new website that is due on Tuesday. I wish I'd kept my big mouth shut and hadn't told my client that it would be easy to replicate the look of a Wordpress site she likes using HTML. Now, that I'm actually looking at the code, it isn't going to be easy after all. Oh, well. I actually didn't mind working on the website project this afternoon, since my other alternatives were mowing the grass or weeding the gardens. I didn't actually finish the website today as I had hoped, but at least I made significant progress. I did fall asleep at the computer for a while, but it was that kind of day.

Dash had a good day. He wasn't as listless and lethargic as he was yesterday and even seemed to enjoy a short afternoon walk. The pain pills much be working. His neck still looks red and raw, but he isn't trying to scratch at the wound anymore. Hopefully, having a two day rest from the radiation will give him time to rest and relax.

I don't know what we'll do tomorrow. If today was any indication, we'll probably sleep in late. There is still a lot that needs to be done, but I doubt that it all needs to be done tomorrow.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1569

As soon as I heard we would be having severe weather tomorrow, I began to reschedule my Thursday appointments so I wouldn't have to leave the house. I've spent so many years around storm phobic dogs, that I've become storm phobic myself. To me, rainy days are when tree limbs fall during a thunderstorm and crush your lawn furniture. Rain is when your car gets pelted with golf ball sized hail. It's when your dogs panic and dig a hole in the carpet or try to jump through the living room window. Rain makes your roof leak and your electricity go out. I don't like rain.

I was able to move most of tomorrow's appointments to either this afternoon or Friday. This made today pretty busy, but I'm glad I cleared the deck for tomorrow. If the dogs don't like the look of things tomorrow, we'll all just get under a blanket and wait things out.

Dash's blood work looked good, so the cancer center renewed his prescription for Palladia for another two weeks. Hopefully, my own blood work looked good as well. That lab test was one of the Thursday appointments I rescheduled for this afternoon. I think they are testing Dash's and my own blood for exactly the same thing. The doctors don't want our platelet count to become so low that we become anemic.  So far, so good for both of us.

I thought I was going to get a lot of writing done today, but there were a few snafus and I didn't get much done at all. This just means I will be even busier tomorrow. One of the website clients I lost late last year launched their new replacement website today. I was curious, so I took a look. The new site was much more elaborate than anything I typically do. Could I have designed something this fancy? I suppose so. Could I have done this site for the price the client probably paid? I doubt it. I'm not positive, but the new site looked a lot like one of those customized Wordpress templates. Sure, the companies that crank out these sophisticated template sites can offer them at a very low cost. They specialize in a particular industry and all the sites are essentially the same. Clients don't seem to care. They just want all the bells and whistles for a low price. I still like to design one-of-a-kind sites from scratch, but I'm becoming a dinosaur. Who am I kidding. I already am a dinosaur.

People often ask why I don't just do Wordpress template sites myself. To make this business model work, you need economies of scale. In a nutshell, you need to be a much bigger company than I am willing to be. When you can sell essentially the same thing over and over again to a huge audience, you can charge a much cheaper price. When you only do something once, you have to charge more.

I can't believe that there has been another shooting at Fort Hood. I don't understand why soldiers on a military base need to be unarmed. Using weapons is what most soldiers are trained to do. If the Fort Hood soldiers had their own sidearms, both of these Fort Hood shooting incidents might have ended quite differently.

I even stocked up on groceries today, so there is no need to leave the house at all tomorrow if the weather turns bad. I actually hope the weather forecasts are wrong and the thunderstorms leave us alone. Staying inside with two storm phobic Dalmatians on a rainy day is no fun at all.

Miracle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1399 - Columbus Day

It certainly didn't feel like a holiday today. Janet got the day off, but all our planned activities were rained out. The rain continued unabated for most of the day, so it was difficult to even find a few dry moments to take the dogs out. I'm not complaining though. The new roof continues to keep the water out, and that alone is a blessing.

Since I was confined indoors for most of the day,  I thought I might as well get some work done. I continued my quest to master the intricacies of Wordpress, and after four hours in Wordpress hell, I came to the conclusion that trying to design your own themes from scratch was not very rewarding. It is very easy to buy a pre-made theme and fill it up with your own words and pictures. If you want more control than this, lots of luck.

We made an appointment to take Dot for an MRI brain scan on Friday. I am always nervous when a dog has to be anesthetized for a procedure. I just don't like anesthesia and even getting the dog's teeth cleaned worries me. There is no alternative though. If we want the MRI, Dot must be anesthetized during the scan. The animal imaging facility where we're taking Dot is one of the best in the entire country and all the vets assure me that Dot will be safe. I still worry though. Too bad that Dot can't just stay still, like I do when I have an MRI.

Much to my surprise, the framers were super nice and were able to frame the print I'm donating to Janet's charity event while I waited this evening. Some of the guys even remembered me from the old days and treated me like a legitimate working artist instead of someone with a big pile of unsold prints in a storage warehouse. I hope a lot of people bid on the picture at the silent auction. The framers did a great job and the photo looks fabulous.

I hope the weather is better tomorrow. It's always easier to take Dash to the vet on a nice day. Actually, everything is easier on a nice day. The dogs and I got caught in a sudden downpour on our evening walk. I thought I had timed things so we could make it back to the house before the rain started again, but Dash had other plans. Dot knew it was going to rain and did her business quickly. Dash lives in the moment though. He dawdled around smelling things like it was a sunny day. Then the moment he got wet, he panicked and started tugging Dot and I back to the house as fast as he could. Even though we all got soaked, I still managed to snap a few nice flower pictures on the way home. I guess there's always a silver lining somewhere.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1388

Dot is much better today. With both dogs, if you didn't actually see the seizures, you'd never believe they actually happened. When the dogs have recovered from the seizure, they are completely normal again. Even though I have experienced multiple seizure episodes with both Dot and Dash, it is still hard to know what to do while the seizure is happening. It is important to leave the dog alone during the seizure, but equally important to get them to the vet immediately if the seizure lasts too long. Where do you draw the line? I guess the next step with Dot is to schedule an MRI scan of her brain. It would be nice to be able to rule out a brain tumor as the cause of these seizures. Of course, if she does have a brain tumor, what do you do then? I'm not sure subjecting a very old dog to aggressive chemotherapy is the answer either.

It's a good thing I don't fret about my own health as much as I worry about the dogs. There's so much wrong with me that I'd probably be totally dysfunctional if I worried at all. The dogs are different though. I feel like I'm their protector. You want to do everything you can to keep them healthy, but there's only so much you can do. Unfortunately, life is just as unpredictable for dogs as it is for people. The pretty little flowers I photographed today are called Crow Poison. They are toxic and should never be eaten. Of course, these little flowers bloom everywhere in the park right after a rain. One more hazard, in a long list, to watch out for.

Recent events have made me realize that life is chock full of unexpected hazards. You shouldn't have to worry about being attacked by a motorcycle gang while you are minding your own business driving home with your wife and two year old child. You probably shouldn't be shot and killed either, just because you forgot to take your meds and happen to drive your car into the White House gate. I was really surprised today to discover that the cause of all the panic in Washington DC was a 34 year old dental hygienist driving alone with a small child. She didn't even have a gun. Couldn't the police have just shot out her tires?

It's probably a good thing that I spend most of my time sitting at a computer and writing. If I knew what was really going on around me in Dallas everyday, I would probably be appalled. Janet and I hope to retire to an idyllic, small town with no crime someday. The only problem will be in finding such a place.

Until then, I'll just keep on working. I did some major website updates today and then wrote an article that will have to be completely re-written tomorrow because I managed to get all my facts wrong. Oh, well. At least I have something to do tomorrow. I had an out-of-the-office meeting this afternoon where I found myself actually recommending Wordpress as a solution to the client's problem. I was astounded and somewhat mortified to hear the words come out of my mouth. Was I possessed by the devil? Jeez, I hate Wordpress. Too bad it works so well

Hobbs is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1386

Today didn't get of to a good start. I got up late. The dogs were exceptionally slow on their morning walk. Even though I rushed through my normally tranquil breakfast, I felt like the day was half over before I began to immerse myself in a long list of projects with immediate deadlines. It might have been brain fog, but the articles on my plate today seemed more difficult than usual. Then there was that troublesome Wordpress site I'm developing. Even though I'm learning more and more about Wordpress with each passing day, it is still a thorn in my side. Today, I learned that my favorite Javascript applets don't work in Wordpress. I haven't really mastered the art of editing Wordpress themes in Dreamweaver either. I guess you're just supposed to buy a theme and leave it alone.

I got so tangled up with work problems today that I almost forgot about Dash's vet appointment. Luckily the vet was flexible and I was able to re-schedule his regular 2 PM appointment for 3:30 PM. Sometimes I feel like a full-time dog nanny. Dot has her own vet appointment tomorrow.  Taking care of the dogs takes a lot of time, but it's still the only thing that seems genuinely important. Everything else is basically BS.

Are you guys as tired of Congress as I am? This whole attempt to shut down the government to protest Obamacare is absurd. Hey guys, just leave things alone. If Obamacare works and people end up liking it, so be it. If Obamacare doesn't work and people end up hating it, it's not going to last very long. I've been in business long enough to realize that sometimes things just sink under their own weight. You don't even have to try to sink them.

Tomorrow looks like it will live up to its reputation as the busiest day of the week. I've got my 7 AM business networking breakfast to attend. Dot has her afternoon water therapy appointment. And it looks like I've got at least two new articles to finish. Hopefully, I won't even think about Wordpress tomorrow. At least the weather is nice. October is typically the prettiest month of the year here in Texas and if today is any indication, the month is getting off to a great start.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1382

I fired up Quark Express today to put together a print ad. It's hard to believe that I used to use this application almost every single day. Now, I can go months without using Quark or InDesign. Print may not be completely dead, but it certainly appears that way. Client meetings revolve around social media now and I can't even remember the last time someone I know actually ran an ad in a newspaper. Although it was kind of enjoyable to have total control over fonts and image placement again, I don't think I'll upgrade to Quark 10. What would be the point? I doubt that I'll be asked to design many print ads in the foreseeable future.

I don't know what the dogs were thinking today. They started barking for their dinner around 2:30 this afternoon, and kept bothering me until I finally relented and fed them early a few hours later. I would have appreciated a little quiet this afternoon, because I was still trying to figure out the mysteries of Wordpress. So far, I'm not a huge fan of this popular blogging platform. It's super easy to throw something together using the hundreds of readily available themes. When you try to modify those themes in Dreamweaver though, you're dealing with an entirely different animal. I haven't even tried to create my own themes yet. The frustrating thing for me is that most Wordpress files reside on the server. It's hard to show a client a local, in-progress version of a site without actually putting it online.

Whenever I try to make thing easier on myself, I usually end up making things worse. Now, I've got to go up on the roof before it rains and get rid of all the accumulated pecan shells so they won't stain the puddles of standing water that still accumulate when the roof gets wet. I've already lost the battle to keep the new roof sparkling white. Just about any form of tannin stains the white coating an ugly brown. Since dead leaves, pecan shells, and tree bark usually litter the roof, there's quite a bit of ugly brown already.

Janet wants to give the dogs a bath tomorrow, so they'll be clean for the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament. They probably won't stay clean for long, since it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I hope the rain moves on and the skies are clear again on Sunday. We've managed to avoid rain on tournament day for over a decade. Last year, it was raining when we left the house, but by the time we actually arrived at the golf course. the skies had cleared and it ended up being a beautiful day. We need this kind of luck again this year.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1370

There wasn't enough time to take the dogs to the dog park we like in North Dallas this morning, so we went to another one right in the neighborhood. This park wasn't as well manicured as its North Dallas cousin. The dogs were a bit scruffier too. Dot and Dash certainly didn't seem to care. As long as they got to run around and smell things off leash, they were happy campers. It would certainly be easier to take the dogs to this nearby park, but I've seen fights break out when people brought aggressive dogs to the park, and our vet told us that one of her patients caught Leptospirosis from stagnant water in the park. If we can keep the dogs safer by driving a bit further to a cleaner, more polite dog park, it is well worth the effort.

I mowed the grass for the last time this season. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm sure I'll be mowing the front yard for several more months. There is a slight leak in one of the front yard faucets and I startled a few frogs who had made the damp grass around the leak their Summer home. I wish frogs were all I had to worry about in the back yard. The armadillo has returned every night this week and is making a mess of things. I discovered a large hole that the critter had dug under the fence to get in and out and filled it up with dirt again. Maybe this will keep the armadillo out, but I doubt it. If an armadillo can dig one hole under the fence, it can probably dig another.

I thought I'd install a webserver on my laptop so I could show my client the new Wordpress site I've been building. Much to my chagrin, I had to read the installation tutorial all over again. In less than a week, I'd already forgotten how to do the installation. I had a general idea how to do the installation, but that wasn't good enough. Servers and databases just won't work unless you have all the passwords and permissions set correctly. I finally got everything working properly, but as I have mentioned many times before, I'm not really a detail person.

I keep vacillating back and forth about buying a new car. Some days I feel like keeping the Defender and finding someone who could retrofit a new engine. Other days, I feel like taking money out of savings and getting myself something plush and extravagant. Today, I felt like getting a car just like Janet's. Her car is quite nice, somewhat affordable, and it's certainly been more reliable than mine over the years. If I wasn't obsessed with having something totally unique, this whole process would be a lot easier.

I don't know why I went up on the roof today. It hasn't rained in weeks. What I saw surprised me. The entire roof was covered with a layer of broken pecan shells from the neighbor's pecan tree. I knew the squirrels liked pecans, but I didn't know they liked them this much. I must have swept ten pounds of cracked pecan shells off the roof. Doing this little chore now will save me a lot of trouble later. Pecan shells will turn a puddle of standing water the color of iced tea. There are a lot more pecans that are still hanging on the pecan tree though. It is almost inevitable that by by this time next year, my nice white new roof will be the color of iced tea as well.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day