Day 3703

I felt foolish today when I got a letter from one of my editors, saying that he didn't always have time to respond to my mail because he gets 200 to 300 e-mail messages a day. Oops. I guess I've forgotten what it's like to be busy. I probably get 2 to 3 messages a day. I'm sure I still get tons of spam, but I don't even look at my spam folder anymore. Messages of any importance are few and far between. OK. Lesson learned. I guess I don't need to send long chatty letters to busy people.

I do need to get started on my article about the launch. I started editing pictures today and reviewing my notes. It usually takes me three or four days to finish an article. I don't think there is any hurry. I'm not even sure at this point if anyone wants the article. The magazine that sent me to Kennedy Space Center just wanted pictures this time. Writing is always good practice though. The more you write, the better you get.

Dawn still seems to be doing well. She seems a lot more comfortable now that the drainage tube has been removed from her neck. She's finished some of her meds as well and her pill schedule is less complicated. With every passing day Dawn gets a little closer to returning to her normal self. Dawn is a quiet, gentle girl. A lot of Dalmatians are constantly getting into trouble, but Dawn is a model of good behavior. This dog is the perfect companion for a solitary writer like myself. I like peace and quiet just as much as she does.

We're finally starting to see some blue sky again, but it still seems very cold. I think we're supposed to get a hard freeze tonight. I don't have to worry as much about setting the outdoor faucets to drip before a freeze anymore. They all leak anyway. I checked a few faucets in the back yard this evening and they were already dripping.

The roofer hasn't responded to my letter. I'm not really surprised. I have to be persistent to get any sort of response from the guy. The current forecast says it is supposed to get up to to 75 degrees this weekend. I hope this is true. If the weather gets warm enough, I'll use the last of the silicon material I have and do my best to stop the leak myself. I wish the roof wasn't such a problem but everyone has problems. This one just happens to be mine.

I just noticed that there's a new restaurant in the neighborhood. Maybe I'll give it a try tomorrow morning. I looked at the menu online and a brisket breakfast taco sounds pretty good right now. Dawn is getting comfortable around the house, so I think it will be fine to leave for an hour or so. I'm going to start writing my article tomorrow as well. I won't bother any editors though. I promise.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2011

I went and picked up Dot's chemotherapy medication after breakfast this morning. When Dash finished his year long Palladia treatment, I was hoping that I'd never see this drug again. The trouble with cancer drugs is that you can't be sure if they really work. The oncologist can cite all sorts of statistics, but in the end they are just statistics. You can still die of cancer even after extensive chemotherapy treatment and it's still possible to go into remission if you do nothing. My instinct is to find the best doctors and just do what they say, but the ambiguity of cancer treatment is still unsettling. Dot will initially take the drug for one week and then she'll have a blood test at the end of next week to determine if the Palladia has adversely affected her red and white cell count. If her blood chemistry looks good and she doesn't have excessive diarrhea, Dot will probably continue taking Palladia for the rest of her life, or until we run out of money. Chemotherapy can be very expensive.

I thought I'd get a lot done today since Dot had to cancel her physical therapy appointment because the underwater treadmill was broken. Unfortunately, I didn't get any more accomplished than any other day. Little things kept getting in the way. I'm beginning to wish that e-mail was never invented. Janet is continually answering work related e-mail at home and even with a smaller client base, I spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with e-mail myself. I'd like to say "not my circus, not my monkeys" to everyone, but if you have a small business like I do, you quickly realize that the problems actually are your monkeys.

At least the weather was nice today. There was a cool breeze when we took the dogs on their early morning walk and the temperature was still reasonable later in the day when it was time for the evening walk. Tropical Depression Bill has moved on and there was actually lots of blue sky today. I don't think there is any rain in the forecast for tomorrow either. All this really means is that it's time to get all the water off the roof again. We got a couple of products to control mosquitoes recently that are supposed to be organic and pet friendly. I did a little research on the Internet and discovered that one of the products was probably as safe as it claimed to be, while the other one was poison. The second product was so hazardous that I can't believe that someone sold it to us as safe to use around dogs. It's hard to trust anyone these days. While the mosquito treatment products may be questionable, at least there was some satisfaction in learning that the food Dot and Dash eat was still the best available. I saw a recent independent study that tested and ranked over 2000 types of dog food and the brand our dogs have eaten for years was among the elite top 25. Hey, at least we're doing something right.

I finished another article today, but I still have several more to write tomorrow. There is a long list of websites that I still need to convert to a mobile friendly format. Since I am no longer doing this for free, the list might actually be shorter than I think. I don't think I'll ever completely catch up with everything. It's an impossibility. I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow. Although the day happens to be my birthday, the important thing is that I'll get to go out for breakfast again.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day