Day 1839

When I was cleaning the bird droppings off the car this morning, I inadvertently rammed my head into the edge of an open car door. I was on my way to the gym, but I had to wait about twenty minutes until the bleeding quit. The last thing I wanted to do was answer a bunch of questions from total strangers about why there was a big bandage on my forehead. Luckily, my blood clots quickly. I fed the dogs a couple of extra dog treats while I was waiting and then I was on my way.

The TED talk on the car radio today was about memory. Evidently most of us are very selective about our memories and forget the vast majority of what happens to us each day. I probably forget more than most of you. The guy on the TED stage was explaining how we can train our memories to remember much more, but I'm not sure I'd want to do that. I'm convinced that my lack of memory has been responsible for much of my success in life. I reinvent the wheel continually, since I have very few formulas stored away. I am able to do routine things over and over again without getting bored, because it all seems new to me. I'm convinced that thinking of new and original solutions to everyday problems keeps the brain a lot more agile than simply pulling a tried and true solution out of your memory bank. Advertising would have driven me insane decades ago if I remembered every ad I ever did.

The Nike running shoes I wear to the gym are wearing out, so I thought I'd pick up a new pair while I was out and about today. Good lord! How do you rationally select a pair of running shoes these days? There are literally thousands of styles, colors and prices to choose from. Each model seems purpose built for something or other, but without trying on dozens and dozens of shoes, I didn't have a clue which I would like best. I didn't like the new featherweight styles that looked like they'd fall apart in three weeks. I didn't like all the neon colors or high-top basketball styles either. I finally found something that looked more or less like my old shoes and bought a pair. I probably need to start looking for some new dog walking boots too. My sturdy waterproof Redwing boots aren't waterproof anymore. They just don't make shoes like they used to.

It's hard to believe that it will be 2015 in just a few days. It seems like yesterday when Janet and I opened a bottle of champagne to welcome a new millennium on December 31, 1999. Everyone was worried about the Y2K bug and the year 2000 sounded very futuristic. Oddly, not much has changed in fifteen years.

I've got an early morning physical therapy session scheduled for tomorrow. It seems all wrong to have physical therapy before breakfast, but it can't be helped. This is just a weird holiday scheduling anomaly. Pretty soon it will be 2015 and everything will be back to normal.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1640

Today was strange. When I picked up the mail this morning, there was the letter I'd mailed my sister last week. "Return to sender, forwarding address unknown," the letter said. I gave her a call, to see if anything was wrong and discovered that the line had been disconnected. My sister had vanished without a trace. To her credit, if anyone was going to vanish without a trace, this would be the person to do it. She had already retired fifteen years early, moved to a small rural farm in Southern Ohio, and showed absolutely no interest in anything related to the Internet. Basically, she had disappeared a long time ago.

It did rain today, but it wasn't exactly the severe storm that the weather forecasters had predicted. We got a little wet on our morning walk and Dot barked at the thunder once or twice when it started raining harder after we returned home. That was about it. The thunderstorms were basically a non-event. I'm still glad I got most of my errands taken care of yesterday. Without places to go and things to do, I had a pretty relaxing day.

I watched a Torchwood re-run while I was eating breakfast, did some research on how to solve a puzzling website problem that has currently me stumped, and wrote a letter to my direct contact at a company that I probably won't be working with much longer. I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings. I enjoyed working with this guy. It's not his fault, or mine, that his miserly boss thinks I'm too expensive.

I'm still having problems keeping Dash's tail from bleeding. I called a couple of vet tech friends today to ask for advice and they admitted that "happy tail" was a problem for them as well. Dogs can wag their tails very hard, as anyone who has had their dog clear everything off the coffee table with a single wag can attest. You can't keep dogs from wagging their tail, and it's pretty hard to keep them from chewing off a bandage too. I'm having trouble even making a bandage that will stick to the tail. Dalmatian tails are thin and slippery. Nothing appears to stick to them.

I need to try to brush Dot's teeth this evening. I promised the vet that I'd try to brush her teeth three times a week. Dot doesn't like her teeth brushed any more than Dash likes me messing with his tail. If I have a bandage or a toothbrush in my hand, the dogs run away. I'm supposed to have another blood test tomorrow. I don't know why, since I've already had dozens of these tests this year.  Too bad that doctors don't have a better way of sharing information. It's not a big deal though.  I'll go early and have the test and then go have a delicious breakfast at my favorite restaurant on the way home. Sounds like a plan to me.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day