Day 3835

Dawn got a bath today. Yes, that was the big event of the day. We took her to a neighborhood dog-wash place and probably erased weeks of car conditioning efforts. As far as Dawn is concerned, a bath is even a worse destination than the vet. None of our dogs have liked getting baths, but it was time. The dog-wash place was busier than we expected, but everybody was wearing masks. I thought the restaurant we went to on my birthday felt safer. I'm sure Dawn would have agreed. She would have loved to accompany us to the steak house.

Since Dawn was good about getting bathed, we took her to get an ice cream cone on the way home. All is well now. We have a clean dog and Dawn is starting to think that all car rides end with ice cream.

I forgot what day it was again. For a while this morning I thought it was Tuesday. I guess it's understandable that the days would blend together. The pandemic has made them virtually indistinguishable. It's a shame that infection rates are going up in Texas. I was hoping that things were returning to normal. I'm hearing now that some stores and restaurants are thinking of closing again. I might have missed my chance to get a haircut. We'll see what happens in the next week or so, but things aren't looking good.

Things aren't looking good in Florida either. I really doubt that I'm going to get media accreditation to attend the Mars 2020 launch now. Especially since states are starting to impose travel bans on other hot-spot states. Even if I did get approved, I'm not sure if it would be wise to go. Air travel still seems questionable. Now that we are all getting used to the idea of distancing, I wonder if people will ever feel safe on a plane again. Do you remember how crowded a full plane actually is? Yikes. I haven't been that close to other people since this whole mess started.

Our early morning walks are still enjoyable, but it is definitely getting warmer. At least the rain is gone for a while. I don't know if we could get started any earlier. I'm half asleep when we leave the house as it is. The only way to get more sleep would be to get to bed earlier. I've tried, but it seems to take longer and longer to finish the blog every evening. It's hard to write when you've got nothing to say.

I got a call from the dermatologist's office today saying that my biopsy results were negative. What biopsy? I didn't even know they did one when they removed the keratosis from my face. I guess this is good news. The blemishes were not melanoma or even a pre-cancerous lesion. It's a little late now, but I didn't need to have these things removed in the first place. Better safe than sorry though. You don't want to mess around with anything that might turn into cancer.

It looks like I'm going to have to go up on the roof tomorrow. There's still water up there from our recent rain. The hotter is gets, the worse it is up on the roof. Being a roofer has got to be one of the worst jobs in the world. Oh, well. I've got to keep the roof free of water. It's the only way I'm going to keep the leak from returning.

Hopefully, I'll remember that tomorrow is Thursday. I can't forget trash day since we seem to generate a lot of trash. I hope nothing terrible happened today. I didn't even turn on the TV.

Rio is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2003

Dot did great during her biopsy this afternoon. We won't have the cytology report until Friday, but Dot's oncologist said that they got exactly what they needed to find out what was going on in her liver and spleen. I learned something new today. I was worried that since Dot can barely walk anyway, she might have an an adverse reaction to the sedation that would make it difficult for me to get her home again. "She'll be able to walk just fine," the nurse told me. "We reverse the sedation when we are finished with the procedure." I didn't know your could quickly reverse the effects of a sedative, but apparently you can. They give dogs a drug called Dexdomitor to put them under and then give another drug called Antisedan to bring them back again and reverse the sedation. The combo apparently works, because Dot walked out of the treatment room like nothing had happened.

My dogs get so much better care than I do. When I go to one of the specialty vets that care for Dot and Dash, I always feel like I'm in the right place. The nurses are nice and always take time to answer all your questions. The people waiting in the lobby with their dogs are all polite, responsible people who genuinely care about their pets. The doctors themselves are amazing. In this kind of environment, I'm always hopeful. Unfortunately, I can't say the same when I go to a human doctor. A visit to my general practitioner is like a visit to Walmart. Where do these people come from? I usually feel like I'm going to catch something horrible just by sitting in the lobby for more than ten minutes. The lobby TV at the dog's cancer center shows PBS cooking shows. The lobby TV at my general practitioner shows Man vs. Food. Both places apparently know their audience.

Going out to eat is a good solution for dealing with dogs that need to fast for an upcoming medical procedure. Dot got her early breakfast with Janet this morning and when I returned from the restaurant a few hours later with my last cup of coffee in a to-go cup, both dogs were sleeping peacefully. They had completely forgotten about the banana I usually give them.

Considering that I spent most of the afternoon up at the cancer center with Dot, I actually got quite a bit done today. I'm making good progress on my latest mobile friendly website project. It's a good sign that each one of these projects gets a little easier than the previous one. I am apparently learning something. I wouldn't call my current project easy, mostly because there are so many pages involved. It's the process that's getting easier. Responsive design is still new enough that I should probably go out and try to get some new business. There are still thousands of old static sites out there and now I know exactly what to do with them.

Tomorrow is a new day. With any luck, I ought to be able to launch what will be my fifth mobile friendly website. We going to let Dot rest tomorrow morning and see if she does any better on the treadmill at her physical therapy session. I don't think she'll miss her walk tomorrow morning anyway. It's getting hot again and she had a pretty big day today. Dot is sleeping now. I think I'll join her soon.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day