Day 4961

Today's big event was giving Dawn a bath. Well, it wasn't a big event for Dawn. She thought we were going in the car for ice cream until we somehow wound up at the self bathe place instead. None of our dogs have liked getting a bath, although they seem to enjoy how they feel afterwards. Dawn isn't itching and scratching anymore. If we could just convince her to quit rolling in the grass, she probably wouldn't be itching at all. Hopefully she'll stay clean for a little while, but I wouldn't be surprised to see her rolling in the grass again tomorrow.

We had another enjoyable sunrise walk this morning. I wish these pleasant early morning temperatures would last a little longer. As soon as the sun comes up it's all over. At least there are a few benefits to the hot, dry weather. The house has shifted back and all the interior doors close properly again. I've been unable to close the utility room door for months. Of course doors that close properly don't keep the house cool. The air conditioner struggles to maintain the temperature in mid afternoon. I thought the new insulation on the roof would do a better job of insulating us from the heat, but there is just too much glass in the house. I'm just going to have to resign myself to high electric bills for the next several months.

For the past several nights I've had bad dreams when I sleep. This is a new development and I hope it stops soon. A restful night's sleep is one of life's pleasures. At least I don't remember my dreams. Once I'm fully awake the dreams fade quickly. Of course other thoughts fade quickly in the daytime as well. I've learned to write things down if something seems important.

I still have mixed feelings about skipping the EchoStar Jupiter 3 launch. I really didn't have much interest in going to this launch, but I definitely want to keep getting invited to future launch events. We'll have to see whether skipping an invitation makes any difference. I don't know why they are even trying to launch tomorrow. There's been a lot of rain in Titusville recently and there are bad thunderstorms right now. Truthfully, I've spent more time in the rain in Titusville than under sunny skies. I guess this doesn't really matter to the launch teams. All they need is about ten minutes of good weather to get the rocket off the ground.

I wonder when I can start taking my long walks in the park again? There is no end in sight for this hot weather. Once again I headed to the gym after breakfast. Well, actually I headed to the gym closer to lunch. I still think the place is less busy at lunchtime. The trainers must all be on commission because they all seem to be aggressively trying to line up new customers. I hope they leave me alone. If the trainers start hounding me, I'll have to quit coming. I don't want to talk to anyone or have people tell my how to improve myself while I'm working out. I just want to walk around the indoor track in peace and quiet and maybe shoot a few baskets before I return home.

After lunch Dawn got her bath and then I spent the rest of the day doing essentially nothing. There should be more things that interest me, considering how many serious interests I have had in the past. I guess it's just the ebb and flow of life. I'm curious about many things but I don't think I've ever been obsessed with anything. As long as I remain healthy, I guess I'll be fine.

Smokey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3592

We got an enormous amount of rain last night. I apparently couldn't even escape the rain in my sleep. About 3 AM I woke up from a bad dream in which I was walking through a flooded house. The house appeared to be the house I grew up in, but you can never tell about dreams. Once I was awake, I got a drink of water and looked around. I could hear the pumps running on the roof and I didn't see any leaks, so I went back to bed. There were still no leaks when I got up the next morning, so I thought I was in the clear. Sadly, I wasn't. Later in the day I heard an ominous drip in the office. Water had started leaking through a can light in the ceiling. It was a small leak, but there shouldn't have been a leak at all. I thought I'd done a good job of making repairs.

I decided to take a walk when the rain appeared to stop about an hour after I finished breakfast. Both the weather apps on my phone confirmed that there would be no more rain until later in the afternoon.  It was cold and wet outside, so I wore a warm jacket and my old waterproof dog walking boots. The weather radar apps apparently aren't sensitive enough to measure mist. It wasn't raining, but after a mile or so I realized that I was pretty wet. The mist had soaked my jacket.

The park was empty today. The cyclists, joggers, and dog walkers were all gone. I only encountered two people during my entire walk. There was a Japanese guy in shirtsleeves who tried to give me a pamphlet and asked if I had found Jesus. He looked very cold. Later, I passed a girl in dance attire who was using a camera with a self timer on a tripod to take pictures of herself on a very wet pier.

When I got home I threw my clothes in the dryer and had no desire to go outside again for the rest of the day. The dripping noise in the office finally got to me though. I went up on the roof to try and find the source of the leak. I failed. I still have no idea how the water is getting in. All the patches I applied the other day held up very well. I couldn't find any new areas where water might be getting in.

Unfortunately, the water is getting in somehow. I cleared all the standing water away and hope that the roof will have a chance to dry again before the next rain arrives. I need to find the source of this leak. There are still a few areas where the old acrylic coating was never replaced with the silicon material. When the roof dries out again, I will first look for suspicious damp areas and then make sure that the entire roof is coated with the more durable silicon material. Will that work? Who knows.

Because I am losing patience with this roof, I called a fourth roofer to give me a bid for replacing the roof. This guy comes highly recommended, but so did the other three. So far, nobody agrees on the best way to solve my problems. It doesn't help matters that the architect who designed this mid-century modern house thought it would be cool to have an garden atrium right in the middle of the house. Having a big square hole right in the middle of the roof definitely complicates the process of replacing the roof. The house was built in 1955 and like all old houses has settled over the years. Water now drains toward the atrium at the center of the house instead of toward the edges of the roof.

I hope I sleep better tonight. When I was young I used to have exciting dreams where I could fly and do amazing things. Having a dream where your house is flooded is just a bit too close to real life.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1956

Good grief. We're under a tornado warning again. As soon as I heard the news, I began recharging my phone, laptop, and tablet. Strong storms and power outages go hand in hand in this part of the country. I'm slowly learning to stay prepared. We're eating dinner in a hurry too, in case the oven goes out. I wish the dogs had taken my advice and taken an early walk. They just stuck their nose out the door and didn't even go outside. I guess they could smell what was coming.

I feel better about Dash's limp. I called his oncologist today and asked about the possibility of bone cancer. He told me that it was very unlikely that Dash's type of cancer would ever spread to the bone. He also said it was unlikely that Dash would succumb to a completely different type of cancer at this point in time. It seems increasingly likely that the limp is caused entirely by the torn paw pad. The oncologist said that his own dog had injured a paw pad once and that it took several weeks to heal. "Give it time," he told me and asked me to call him again in several weeks if Dash's condition didn't improve. This specialist is always very busy. I was amazed that he spent ten minutes talking with me. Dot and Dash have some great doctors. I"m convinced that they get far better medical care than I do myself.

I spent most of the day designing a supposedly simple brochure for a client. They want to print the brochure using Vistaprint, but for some inexplicable reason Vistaprint won't accept Quark Express files. Why? I've been using Quark for decades. This venerable software used to be the gold standard for print designers. Apparently the software has fallen out of favor. I had to design the whole thing in Photoshop instead, which certainly wouldn't have been my first choice. It is cumbersome to have all these layers. The original brochure I was updating was done in PowerPoint and a lot of the images were created in Adobe Illustrator, but saved as a PDF. It was a mess. The actual design was pretty simple, but converting all the files to the proper size and format and remembering what layer they were on took forever. I hope everyone likes what I did today, because I definitely don't want to spend tomorrow doing everything over again.

I reluctantly confirmed my appointment for dental surgery next week. I was very tempted to postpone the surgery again, but I've got to get this done sometime. Since I was originally scheduled to have the wisdom teeth removed in late January, I guess I've delayed things long enough. I hope having this tooth removed solves the problems I've been having, but somehow I doubt that it will. Once you start going to the dentist, you have to keep going to the dentist.

While I was eating breakfast this morning, a group of guys at a nearby table were arguing about whether the original Star Wars trilogy should be viewed before or after the three prequel movies. There was a heated  discussion about whether the movies should be viewed in chronological order or in the order they were shot. Some said four, five, six, one, two, three. While others said, one, two, three four, five, six. They were serious. At another table, a group of older guys were talking about man caves. This pretty well summed up the state of the world today for me. It's hopeless.

I had weird dreams last night and woke up in the middle of the night worrying about Dash's leg. I hope I sleep better tonight. Actually, I'd like to sleep the entire weekend.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1412

My brain didn't see much use today, but my body certainly did. I was up early this morning to remove the standing water from last night's rain from the roof. The dogs got a nice walk and a trip to the dog park. I even had time to go to the gym. I was surprised that the dog park was even open, since it rained so much last night. Maybe it didn't get as wet up North as it did in our part of town. The net result of all this activity are two tired dogs sleeping soundly on their dog beds and one somewhat sore guy typing out his last task of the day.

My new exercise regime seems to be working. I certainly feel stronger anyway. The one obstacle on my road back to good health seems to be my inability to get a good night's sleep. My Jawbone UP band tells me that I've been averaging four to six hours of sleep a night over the past three months. That's not enough. I've always been a light sleeper, but this is getting ridiculous. The dogs wake me up. My perpetual dry mouth wakes me up. Even bad dreams wake me up. I don't have nightmares. Just mildly irritating frustrations. Last night I dreamed that I was making the perfect hamburger. I carefully piled condiments and relish on my bun until everything was just the way I liked it. Just as I was getting ready to put the bun together and enjoy my meal, someone ran up and stole the meat from my burger and ran away with it. I was left holding an empty bun and woke up with a dry mouth.

Janet wanted me to pick up some groceries on the way home from the gym and I discovered that Sunday evening isn't a great time to shop. The store was packed. What were all these people shopping at this hour for?  Even though my list was short, it took me forever to get out of the store. Usually I go shopping at odd times like 11 AM or 2 PM when stores are empty, I'll have to remember not to go grocery shopping at 5 PM on a Sunday afternoon again.

We saw a cute Halloween costume for the dogs on the Internet yesterday. You start with one of those plastic cones that your dog sometimes has to wear when they come home from the vet. Then you attach a stick with some oversize olives to the cone and call the dog a Martini. This would be an easy costume to make for the dog class party, but we've also found some great Christmas costumes in the storage warehouse that I'd forgotten about. I know it's a little early, but Dot and Dash could go as Santa and Mrs Santa.

Thanksgiving is a lot easier to plan for. We just leave the dogs at home and go out to a nice restaurant.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1328

It's a shame to drive thirty minutes to a nice dog park, only to find an overly aggressive dog getting in fights with the other dogs when you get there. This doesn't happen every week, but it certainly happens more often than I'd like. Usually, the owners of these aggressive dogs aren't even apologetic about their dog's deplorable behavior. They'll typically pull the fighting dogs apart, then let the instigator go right back to mingling with the other dogs like it was the most normal thing in the world. Meanwhile, Dot and Dash are huddled in one corner of the park until the mean dogs leave. As far as I'm concerned, there are no bad dog breeds, but there are plenty of bad dog owners.

Yes, I'll admit I'm geeky enough that I turned on the TV this afternoon to catch a live special where the BBC announced the identity of the next Dr. Who. Will Peter Capaldi make a good Dr. Who? He's certainly a lot older than recent era doctors, but I've enjoyed watching him in The Thick of It. He'll probably make a very good Twelfth Doctor. I'm pretty accepting of these changes anyway. After each regeneration, I usually completely forget about the previous doctor in a matter of weeks.

I got a little lesson in how automated our lives have become this afternoon. I had to go to Home Depot to pick up some odds and ends. The furnace filters and grass seed didn't present a problem, but there was only one of the little stainless steel sink strainers I needed left in the plumbing department and it didn't have a UPC code. I told the checkout clerk what the price was, but he couldn't ring the item up without a bar code to scan. After several unsuccessful attempts to enter the price manually, he just gave me the strainer. Apparently, it just wasn't worth the effort to sell something without a bar code.

I'm not sleeping well. I can't blame it on the dogs anymore either. Dot and Dash have been sleeping quietly all week, even leaving me plenty of room in the bed for a change. I'm still waking up with bad dreams in my head. I've never gone through such a sustained period of bad dreams. When I was young, I had fabulous dreams where I could fly. Then I went through an odd period where I dreamed I was walking from one city to another and could remember every step of the journey. Now, the dreams are just a jumbled mess. Nothing works. I'm lost in giant hotels. My dogs run away. I'm playing with my old band, but we can never get our instruments tuned. I'm looking for a restroom, but they are all occupied. There are never any monsters. Just a lot of small irritations that keep piling up until they eventually wake me. Sometime it's hard to tell when the dream ends and real life begins.

Pebbles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1314

I helped Janet get her laptop ready for making a presentation on a big flat panel TV and was a bit surprised that I'd never tried to hook up a laptop to our TV before. I guess that just shows you how important presentations are to me these days. I don't think I've made a formal presentation or even shown my portfolio to anyone in almost ten years. Hey, if you don't already know what I do, it's probably a little late to show you now.

Hooking up the Macbook Pro to the TV was much easier than I thought it would be. I went to Fry's and got a Mini DisplayPort adapter and some HDMI cables. I hooked the computer up to the TV, set the computer screen to mirror mode and all of the sudden I had a huge image of the computer screen on the TV.

It's to bad that it wasn't this easy to figure out why the garbage disposal isn't working. I'm going to have to leave that task to an appliance repairman who will hopefully come out and fix things very soon. A garbage disposal doesn't seem like a very essential appliance until you've got a non-working one still hooked up to your plumbing. I'm discovering that the sink clogs up very quickly when the garbage disposal isn't doing its job.

Dot and Dash really enjoyed their trip to the dog park today. Dash saw a dog that he recognized and liked and proceeded to race around the park showing his friend how fast he was. Dot took advantage of the mild weather to sniff every tree in the park. She seemed to have more energy today than she usually does.

I wish I had more energy than I usually do. Mowing the grass today was tiring. I think I've reached some sort of plateau with my new diet and exercise regime. I saw dramatic incremental improvements for a while, but now not so much. I think from now on out, it's going to take a lot more effort to continue losing weight while I'm building my strength and adding muscle mass. I probably don't actually need to lose any more weight, but I do need to keep working on building my strength.

I had a terrible dream last night. I frequently have dreams about being lost as I futilely try to find my way back to the dream's starting point. In last night's dream, not only was I lost, I also seemed to have lost my luggage and all my money. When I was young, I found myself lost in caves a lot during these types of dreams. Now I'm usually lost in labyrinth-like hotels. I guess that's an improvement of sorts.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1218

Dot went to see the neurologist today. I don't know what Dot thought, but I found the entire visit a bit unsettling. After I described Dot's symptoms, the vet asked me a bunch of questions and then proceeded to tell me that in about 40% of cases like Dots, they were never able to determine what was causing the problem. After that, she proposed a number of tests, all of which required that Dot be under general anesthesia. The MRI she wanted to do would be taken at another facility, which meant that Dot would be transported to and from the specialty clinic on some of the worst freeways in Texas while still under anesthesia. I didn't like this idea at all. She also wanted to do a spinal tap, which made me nervous as well. I guess spinal taps are safe, but I've heard some terrible things about them.

I didn't mention this to the vet, but what made me the most nervous of all is that the recovery facility where Dot would be staying overnight after the MRI had gotten some terrible reviews on the Google Maps website. I know that some of the things people say online aren't fair, and in some cases aren't even true, but multiple bad reviews does make you stop and think things over. At any rate, I postponed the MRI and other tests until I could talk to Janet and my regular vet again. Dot is thirteen years old. Certain things could definitely help her, but sometimes the cure can be more traumatic than the disease. I think she's too old and frail to even consider spinal surgery.

I think my memory is shot. I completely forgot about Dot's acupuncture appointment yesterday. I looked on the computer and discovered that I had failed to make an entry for the appointment. I've gotten to where if something doesn't beep and remind me on my phone, I don't remember it at all. I didn't even think about the appointment until I was trying to remember my vets name at the specialty clinic this morning. There are just too many things going on for me to remember them all. At least I remembered Dash's antigen shot this afternoon. It seems like I spent my entire day at the vet.

I had terrible dreams last night. I frequently have dreams where I am lost and trying to find my way back home. Sometimes I am in a hotel, or in a city that I visited long ago. This time I think I was in Las Vegas. At least I started there. Every time I went through a door, or stepped out of an elevator in this dream, the environment changed completely and I was somewhere else. Then the door disappeared. There was no retracing my steps. I became increasingly lost and disoriented until eventually I didn't even know what planet I was on. Luckily, one of the dogs woke me up and when I got up to go to the bathroom, the dream disappeared.

In between the vet visits, I managed to complete quite a few small writing assignments. Dot ended up skipping breakfast for nothing, but she is happy to be home. I skipped breakfast as well. I didn't need to fast. I just ran out of time.

Becker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 939

I decided to merge the blog with Google+ this morning. I'm not sure what the implications of this move are, but Google has made the whole process so easy and transparent that I'm beginning to wonder if they are making plans to just abandon the Blogger platform at some point. The blog looks pretty much the same, so I'm happy enough. Who knows? Maybe I'll even find some new readers.

I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. I think one of the reasons I'm waking up tired every morning is all the weird dreams I've been having. I'm not much at dream interpretation, but these dreams are so consistent that they've got to mean something. I always seem to be wandering around looking for something that should be easy to find. I wander the halls of large hotels, looking for my room. I go from deck to deck on cruise ships, looking for my companion. Sometimes I just ride elevators up and down for the longest time. I've found myself in ad agencies where I used to work, looking for my office. Last night I dreamed that I was watching TV in bed and couldn't find the remote to turn the TV off. At first I wasn't sure that this was a dream, because I actually was in bed. When I woke up however, the TV was off and the only noise I heard was a dog snoring next to me. These aren't exciting dreams, but they are tiring.

I used my waking hours this afternoon to catch up on correspondence and finish some writing assignments. I'd already wasted half the morning watching back-to-back Dr. Who episodes while eating French Toast and sausages. Maybe travel would make things more interesting. One of my European clients caught my interest the other day by dangling the prospect of a trip to Singapore in front of me. The temptation was brief and tenuous at best, but it was enough to get me researching flights from DFW to Singapore. Wow! Singapore is a long way away. Travel time varies from around 24 hours to well over 48 hours, depending on how many stops you have to make along the way. One of the more popular routes to the Far East from Dallas goes through London. This seems backwards at first, until you look at a globe and realize the benefits of traveling over the pole. I'd love to go to Singapore to do the interviews for my new assignment, but somehow I have a feeling I'll be sitting right here at my desk, doing my research on Wikipedia.

The weather was beautiful for dog training class tonight. The nice weather didn't seem to impress the dogs however, because most of them weren't very obedient. The only thing Dash wanted to do tonight was the long down exercise, where the dogs had to lie down and stay in the same spot for five minutes. Dash is good at lying down and doing nothing. It is one of his favorite things.

Sophia is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 875

My photo shoot went well today. Admittedly, I wasn't conjuring up the ghost of Richard Avedon or Helmut Newton. I was just shooting architectural interiors inside an industrial building. The pictures were necessary though to complete a job that I'm currently working on. Photography isn't always exciting. I still shoot a lot of things professionally, but the most interesting photos I take are the ones I capture with my iPhone while I'm walking the dogs.

It must have rained a lot last night. I heard rain pattering on the roof when Dot woke me up about 2 AM with one of the panic attacks she gets when she thinks a storm is on the way. The rain didn't sound bad though, so I went back to sleep. When I went up on the roof to check on things this morning, I was greeted by a sea of water. I'm surprised there weren't ducks swimming around on the roof. Since clearing the water off the flat roof always takes priority over other things, I didn't get started writing until almost noon.

I'm not sleeping well lately. The dogs wake me up several times a night. When the dogs are asleep, allergy related sinus problems wake me up. When I awake, I inevitably have a dry throat from breathing through my mouth and go out to the kitchen to get a drink of water. By then, I'm wide awake. When I finally get back to sleep again, I have bad dreams. I long for the days when I could sleep solidly for seven hours while having pleasant flying dreams. I never dream that I can fly anymore.

If I could get a good night's sleep, maybe I'd have more energy to finish moving everything to my new storage warehouse. I really need to get my butt in gear and finish this job, because my contract on the old storage space runs out soon. The warehouse folks have probably already rented my space to someone else who will want to move in the day my contract expires. I watch that show Storage Wars Texas occasionally, but I definitely don't want my own unit to be featured on the show. Maybe tomorrow, I'll go move some more stuff.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day