Day 3315

I must have slept better last night because I didn't wake up when Dash pooped in the bed. Luckily, one of us usually wakes up when this happens. These nightly accidents aren't as much of a problem now because we always make sure there's a puppy pad under Dash's butt before we go to bed. We've almost used up the carton of training pads that were left over when Dot died. Pretty soon they're going to be back on the shopping list again.

It's still bitterly cold on our morning walk. Dash's paws have started bleeding again. The bleeding is minimal, but it shouldn't be happening at all. His rear paws are very well protected now. I wish his boots were waterproof. On damp mornings, all three layers of foot protection are wet when we return. Part of the problem is that Dash makes no effort whatsoever to avoid mud puddles. He just goes wherever the smells are the strongest.

The only thing more uneventful than a regular Monday is a holiday Monday. Part of my morning routine is waiting for the mail to arrive and listening to the market reports on the business channels. No mail today and the stock market was closed. I pretty much just drank my smoothie in silence, wondering how I could improve Dash's footwear.

With every passing day, I'm spending more time picking Dash up off the floor. He seldom falls hard. He'll just be standing somewhere with a vacant look on his face and slowly sink to the floor. I leave his harness on in the house now because the handle on the top makes it much easier to get him upright again. It still seems strange that our house has become treacherous for Dash. He still does fine when he is moving forward on our walks. I think the walks are good for him because he has less muscle atrophy than Dot did when her legs began to fail. Dash even has enough strength to walk up reasonably steep hills. It's just standing still that's becoming a problem. I kind of wish I could find a small ottoman or big pillow to place under his belly while he was drinking from his water bowl. He drinks very slowly and usually starts sinking to the floor before he has quenched his thirst. If I could just find something appropriate to place under his belly to prop him up while he drinks, I wouldn't have to spend so much time holding up his rear legs.

Everyone must have been looking at the moon last night. My Facebook timeline was filled with pictures of the eclipse. Some of these pictures were great and others were terrible.You could tell how much people knew about astronomy by what they posted. Quite a few folks took a picture of the moon before the eclipse even started. Others used their phone and the moon was only a very bright dot. A lot of pictures were excellent though. Many were better than mine. Some of the best pictures were from folks I met at Vandenburg Air Force Base when I was there for the SMAP launch. I was glad to see that these people were still interested in space and astronomy several years later.

It's supposed to start raining again tonight. Tomorrow doesn't look good either. I'm tired of looking at the damaged sheetrock in the ceiling and wondering when the roof is going to start leaking again. Sooner or later it will. I don't want to replace the roof while it is raining every few days, but I think it's going to be a long wait until it's warm and dry again.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3314

If you have trouble sleeping, it's just a matter of time before you eventually end up buying one of those My Pillows. The commercials are relentless. I can't turn on the TV anymore without seeing the My Pillow guy. Sooner or later you think "What have I got to lose," and you buy one. I wasn't looking for a pillow today, but ended up getting one when I saw it on sale. We'll see if it makes any difference. If I get even a single additional hour of sleep a night, it would be well worth the price. I'll have to say I'm a bit skeptical though. Shredded foam pillows aren't exactly rocket science. I think my parents used these type of pillows when I was a kid.

What I was really looking for today was a better way to waterproof the bed than the shower curtain we're currently using. I think I found that too. I ended up getting a tent footprint, which is a piece of waterproof fabric that campers put under their tent to protect the floor from damage. These footprints tended to be smaller than your typical tarp and fit nicely under Dash's blankets on the bed. Like my new pillow, we'll see how it works tonight.

Today was even colder than yesterday. There was no wind though, so it was reasonably pleasant to go outside. Yesterday's thirty mile per hour winds were pretty brutal. We still dressed very warmly today, but compared to yesterday, our morning walk was a piece of cake. Dash still does well on these walks, even though he's having increasing trouble walking around in the house. We keep bringing home more rugs, but I don't know if they're doing a lot of good. It's so easy for Dash to lose his balance and fall.

Sunday has turned into the busiest day of the week. Our walks tend to be longer on Sunday. I almost always go to the gym and then come home and vacuum the house. Sometimes I do other chores as well. My Fitbit loves days like these, but I find them tiring. I could clean the house or go to the gym any day, but old habits die hard. I still do things almost exactly the same as I did while I was working.

I was hoping to see the Saints and the Chiefs in the Superbowl but it wasn't meant to be. The Saints lost after officials clearly missed calling pass interference late in the game. The Chiefs basically lost when they didn't win the overtime coin toss. What does this prove? I guess it proves that life isn't fair.  These were both exciting, well played games, but I'm tired of seeing the Patriots in the Superbowl.

The lunar eclipse has started. It's a little cloudy, but the moon is clearly visible. The moon is so high in the sky that I don't see any dramatic photo opportunities. I'll take a few shots anyway. I'm sure I'll be asleep before the eclipse is over. The days when I'd sit in a lawn chair and watch things like this for hours at a time are long gone. It's way too cold outside and I've seen the moon before. It's always worth another look though. Just before I went to bed I went outside again and the sky had completely cleared. There it was in all its glory: the Super Blood Wolf Moon. Now I think I'll go try out my new pillow.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2960

I drove halfway to Oklahoma to look at a refrigerator and came back with nothing. If you've never been to a Nebraska Furniture Mart, you ought to go sometime. The store was amazing. They had the odd size refrigerator I was looking for, in addition to hundreds and hundreds of other models. I've never seen so many appliances in a single place in my life.

I almost bought the refrigerator I had traveled so far to see until the salesman opened one of the freezer drawers and said "there's just one more thing" as he pulled out an odd looking filter attached to a long hose. It almost seemed like an episode of Columbo. Unlike most refrigerators, this one had an external water filter that needed to be placed somewhere else in the house. It was apparently too complicated for the regular delivery crew to install, so I would need an additional extra cost professional installation team. "This thing looks European," I said. "How is it going to hook up to my plumbing?" The salesman assured me that they had successfully installed many of these refrigerators, but I wasn't very confident. I tried to have a plumber install a German kitchen faucet once and it was a nightmare. I have also had similar problems with a French toilet.

Since just about every refrigerator in the world was out on the showroom floor, I asked to see what else was available. There were a few choices that would fit in the space I have, but all of them had a full width door. I needed a side by side refrigerator or a french door model, so the door won't stick out so far when it is opened. Like I've said, my space is very limited. I had the sales guy print out specifications for everything I'd looked at and I took them home for Janet to look at. She went on the Internet and picked out something entirely different. It's a good thing I didn't buy anything today.

I got a good look at the lunar eclipse this morning. The eclipse was just starting when I had to take Dash outside to poop during the night. A few hours later, I had to take him outside again to pee and the moon was a thin crescent. I was hoping to get a nice photo of the red "blood moon" at totality, but it was too near sunrise and the moon was already obscured by haze near the horizon. I took a photo anyway, but you can barely see the moon at all.

The weather was really nice today, but Dash wouldn't take an afternoon walk at all. I wish I knew what that dog was thinking. At least he got a fairly decent morning walk. Tomorrow we go back to the cancer center for our monthly echocardiogram. I really hope his condition has improved or at least has stabilized. Dash is taking some powerful blood thinners now and I'm always worried that he'll get cut and I won't be able to stop the bleeding.

I guess I'll go and look at the refrigerator Janet likes on Friday. There probably isn't time tomorrow since it is a vet appointment day. I just want to put this refrigerator mess behind me. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to be able to find exactly what I want. If I can find something that keeps food cold and won't block the door to the utility room, I'm fine. Part of me still wants to fix the old refrigerator, but we won't even go there. I've already lost that battle.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2112

A yellow warning light appeared on the dashboard this morning when I was driving to the golf tournament. Suspension Fault the message said. The warning light was a little alarming, since I was driving on a busy freeway.  At least this warning will validate my assertion that something is wrong with the suspension when I take the car in for service next week. I continued on my way to the tournament, not really knowing if the warning meant a wheel was about to fall off, or that I should just prepare myself for a big repair bill next Wednesday.

This was our fourteenth annual golf tournament. It's hard to believe that Janet and I have been working with the rescue group this long. We didn't even have a golf tournament when we initially started volunteering with Dalmatian Rescue. Tournament attendance probably peaked a few years ago, but there were still a respectable number of players today and everybody was having a good time. The weather was great and the course at the Tour 18 club was in good shape. All we needed were a few more people. It's really hard to sustain an event like this. People get older and interests change. Die hard golfers always enjoy a round of golf though, so I imagine that we'll continue having our tournament for many years to come. This is almost always our biggest fund raiser of the year and we've helped a lot of dogs along the way.

Even though the tournament was a long way from Dallas, our dogs didn't have to stay alone long. Janet went first to check people in and then when I arrived to take pictures a few hours later, she went home again. Dot and Dash were fine today and probably end up being left alone for much longer periods of time on a normal weekday. It would have been a lot different if we'd just taken one car. Neither dog can really handle being left alone all day anymore. When Dot and Dash were younger, we used to take them with us to these tournaments. The rescue group always picks a dog friendly golf course and many people still bring their dogs with them. Those days are over for us. Dash would freak out on an hour long car ride and Dot is simply too frail.

There were light clouds on the Eastern horizon this evening, but I still got to see tonight's rare super blood moon lunar eclipse. There have been a lot of lunar eclipses this year, but there won't be another super blood moon until 2033. I wonder if I'll still be around then? At least this eclipse was early in the evening, so I didn't have to get up at three in the morning like the last blood moon. I need to get a bit more serious about taking pictures of the moon. Once again, I just pointed a hand held camera at the sky and depended on the camera's image stabilization to keep the moon in focus. It was interesting that I could see the red color more clearly in the camera's electronic viewfinder than I could with my eye. Maybe the sensor is more sensitive to red light.

There was no time to clean the house or go to the gym this weekend, but there should be plenty of time to catch up on things next week. Work is still alarmingly slow. Maybe when the Jewish holidays are over, my writing jobs will pick up again. Until then, I've got plenty of time to read. I think I'll go out and buy a copy of Jennifer Lawson's new book. She was one of the people who got me interested in blogging back in the beginning. I wish more bloggers would break out of obscurity and wind up on the New York Times best seller list. It doesn't happen nearly often enough.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1936

I got up several hours before dawn to watch this morning's lunar eclipse. I left the house quietly, so I wouldn't wake Janet and the dogs and went out to the street where I cold get a good view. Apparently, watching eclipses wasn't a high priority in the neighborhood. All the houses were still dark and the roads were empty. It was quite peaceful.

As the dawn approached, I could hear birds begin to sing as the moon shrunk to a smaller and smaller crescent. This was supposed to be a Blood Moon, but I couldn't see the red glow at totality. Since the moon was near the horizon, it just gradually disappeared as it sunk into the low lying haze and ground fog. I went back to bed for a while after the moon disappeared and then started the day all over again when the dogs woke up and wanted their breakfast.

Janet takes Dot on a short walk now while I walk Dash. Dot made it all the way to the end of our street this morning. She was feeling good. The constant tremor in her rear legs is largely gone now. She is learning to stand normally and her paws seldom knuckle under anymore. We have reached the point now where she feels better than she did before the surgery. The main challenge now is to build back the muscle mass she lost both before and after the surgery. Her rear legs are very weak, but each week they become stronger. Surgery is always risky and sometimes you don't make the right decision. I think in this case, the surgery really helped.

Since Dot still sits down really hard if we aren't there to steady her and is prone to stumble at the least little obstacle, Janet and I still divide our time watching her. I ran my errands in the morning, so she could run hers in the afternoon. It would have been nice if the dogs felt like sleeping, because I picked up the Interstellar DVD while I was getting groceries. I thought I might get a chance to watch it this afternoon, but that turned out not to be the case. Dot didn't want to sleep. She wanted to bark and continually move from one dog bed to another. Every time I created a safe enclosure so she couldn't hurt herself, she wanted to go somewhere else. She didn't want to be penned at all and wasn't shy about letting me know. When Dot starts barking, Dash chimes in and starts barking too. It was a lot more peaceful when I was watching the eclipse by myself at 6 AM. The only way I was able to keep any semblance of sanity this afternoon was to divide the dog's dinners into small portions and feed it to them at two hour intervals.

I never was able to watch my movie, but I did manage to get some work done. It was a shame to stay inside on a beautiful day like today but I didn't seem to have much choice. I certainly can't blame Dot for being restless. I'm sure she would have rather chased squirrels in the back yard and barked at cars going up and down the alley. If Dot understood the cause and effect between exercise and being able to do the things she loves, maybe our sessions in the underwater treadmill would go smoother. We're getting there though and have really made an enormous amount of progress since February.

I should make an effort to go to the gym tomorrow. I need to spend as much time on my own physical therapy as I am on Dot's. It's kind of pitiful in a way. An old guy with a dislocated shoulder probably isn't the best choice to help an old dog with bad legs get back in shape. Maybe by Summer I'll be able to move my arm freely again and Dot can return to her walks in the park.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1582

Not a bad day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was cool enough to keep the dogs happy, and warm enough to keep me happy. There aren't many days like this in Texas, so I try to take advance of them. As an added bonus, I was able to start the day off with a clear view of the total "blood moon" eclipse. As luck would have it, I actually did wake up to to to the bathroom about 2:30 AM and this was just about the middle of the eclipse in our time zone. I'm glad I went outside and took a look, since the dark red moon was quite spectacular. Red was definitely the theme of the night sky, since Mars made it's closest approach to Earth last night as well, glowing a rusty red slightly to the right of the blood red moon.

When the dogs were younger, it would have been impossible to go out in the back yard in the middle of the night without Dot racing out the back door and waking up the entire neighborhood with her barking. Neither dog woke up at all last night and slept soundly through the entire eclipse. I'm glad they didn't wake up. As soon as Dot and Dash wake up, they think it is breakfast time.

I generally don't like meetings, but I had a surprisingly good meeting with a client this afternoon. We tackled a tough problem and came up with a innovative solution that we both thought would work. Trust me. This doesn't happen very often at client meetings. I even got the go-ahead to develop a prototype and see if the idea works. If this happened every day, or even every week, I might actually enjoy working.

My mechanic called today and told me he might have a buyer for my old Maserati. The potential buyer is some guy in Holland why likes to buy cars in American and ship them back to Europe to restore. Unfortunately, the guy wants the car for a dirt cheap price. I could get a lot more for the car if it was running, but then I'd have to pay quite a bit to make the necessary repairs. Some of the parts the car needs are virtual impossible to find anymore. They just don't exist. My gut tells me that it would probably be better to sell the car "as is" in non-running condition. I could spend a small fortune fixing the thing with no guarantee of finding a buyer when all the repairs were finished. Selling an old car is a lot like selling real estate. Often the best time to sell is when you actually have a buyer.

I'm proud of myself. Janet got a free loaf of delicious looking artisan bread from Central Market last week when she was grocery shopping. So far, I haven't touched the bread, even though I would have loved to have turned half the loaf into a big stack of french toast this morning. As tempting as french toast drenched in maple syrup sounded, I had my regular bowl of oatmeal and fruit instead.

Sometimes it's hard to stay strong, but when I was watching Dot trotting along in the water treadmill this afternoon, I kept thinking "Hey, if she can do it, so can I."

Krissy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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