Day 4828

Dawn is continuing to do well. We took her on two short walks today and there were no problems. Tomorrow she finishes her pain meds, and we're hoping that she continues to be comfortable. It's been several days since Dawn has stumbled or fallen. Her neck is still a little swollen, but that looks better too. With any luck, life can return to normal soon. It's going to be a while before I'm comfortable leaving her alone on the bed, but we can always gate her in the hallway with a dog bed if we both have to be out of the house at the same time.

I took my long walk early today because I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. I had to cut a mile off the walk to meet my appointment on time, but I still got my steps. It was chilly and overcast today but there was no rain. I'm getting bored making this five mile trek day-after-day, but it's still a lot easier than driving to the gym. It's surprising how quickly everything has turned green. It's starting to look like Spring has arrived.

My trip to the dermatologist was uneventful. Every six months the doctor freezes the keratosis spots on my face and scalp with liquid nitrogen and they always grow back. The keratosis is so minor that I tend to forget it is there. The doctor says it is important to monitor these areas though because they can turn into basal cell carcinoma. I've been going to this doctor for five years now and nothing has happened, so I hope things stay this way.

Janet's heart doctor wanted her to get a Kardia Mobile Heart Monitor to track her heart rate while exercising. She's supposed to send the results to her doctor periodically, but so far neither of us can figure out how to export the EKG files from the Kardia Mobile and attach them to an e-mail message. Usually I'm very good with devices like this, but I'm stumped so far. It probably doesn't help that something is wrong with my own e-mail account, so it's been hard to test the thing. I can usually receive e-mail just fine but I'm having trouble sending anything. I spent over an hour this morning talking with someone in a call center but got nowhere. Tech support seems to be getting worse and worse. I keep getting a message saying that my mail server has an invalid certificate, but the hosting company says everything's fine. Things were so much easier when you could actually talk to a software engineers yourself. Dealing with offshore call centers is an exercise in frustration.

It's weird having a non-functional e-mail account. I'm not working anymore, but I still have this need to stay connected. What if I miss a message about my press credentials at Kennedy Space Center? What if I need to change something quickly on a rescue website? How can I check on things I've ordered online? This is frustrating. Things seem to be getting worse so it looks like I'm going to have to deal with the call center people again. Oddly, this blog still seems to work fine.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4371

Santa has left the building. Another year of Santa Paws events is in the books. It's hard to believe that we used to do five or six of these events a year. We're all getting older now and two events seems plenty. We had a good day today and photographed quite a few dogs along with two cats. Even Charlie and Oliver got a picture with Santa today. We had quite a few Dalmatians at today's event. Dalmatians are very photogenic but they are not always the best behaved. Santa had his hands full. It was lots of fun to see some of our Dalmatian Rescue alumni though. I've known a few of these dogs since they were puppies. We tried to figure out how long we've been doing Santa Paws pictures and our best guess is fourteen years. We might be off by a year or two either way though.

Janet and I walked Dawn even earlier than usual this morning so we would have time to set everything up before the event. This was the first morning this Winter where the temperature was below freezing. Dawn wore her new sweater for the first time and seemed to be comfortable wearing it. The cold doesn't bother Dawn much. Personally, I prefer warmer weather. I dressed very warmly and had to shed a few layers before I left for the event. It seems to take me longer to load the car and set everything up now, but even though I got a late start I was still ready for our first customer. I really need to buy some new stands for the backdrop before next year's events. These stands have seen better days. Everything still worked though. Since most of this equipment was build for daily use in a studio, it might last forever since I basically only use it once a year.

I'm still not sure where my FedEx package is. I know it has arrived in the Dallas area though. Since I wasn't sure if the customer service agent I talked to yesterday understood my request to hold the package at a nearby Fedex Print Center, I also put a vacation hold on the delivery. I was successful at preventing the package from sitting on my front porch all day, but I'm still not sure where it is. There was a cryptic message on the FedEx website this morning that just said "address corrected." I hope this means that the address was changed to the location where I hope to pick up the package tomorrow. It could mean something else though. We'll see. 

I really hate off-shore call centers. You used to be able to pick up the phone and talk directly to almost anymore. Not anymore. Everything is automated now. I'm so tired of sitting on the phone forever to listen to a series of automated prompts that never seem to refer to what I was calling about. Press 1 if you want blah, blah, blah, etc. By the time the robotic voice reaches Press 9, I usually get frustrated and just hang up. If I do eventually manage to reach a real person, it is usually someone in the Philippines or Malaysia that I can barely understand. I remember a time when the FedEx driver in our neighborhood would give me his personal cell number. If I was away when he came to make a delivery, I could just give him a call when I returned and he would swing back by. Those days are gone forever.

I was more organized than usual today. Instead of leaving all the photo gear lying around the house for a week, I took it directly back to the storage warehouse on the way home. Usually, I am too tired to do this, but it is nice to have all this stuff out of the way. Now all I have to do is wash the backdrop, recharge all the camera batteries, and I'm done.

I'm not sure if we'll go back to the kennel tomorrow. We were there all day today and got to see Charlie and Oliver anyway. We still might go, since it is a regular part of our Monday routine. When you are retire, you've got to have a routine or you completely forget what day is is. 

Savanah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1316

Sometimes dealing with tech support is like Chinese water torture. I found myself locked out of my voicemail this morning and ended up spending hours talking to three different levels of tech support. When one technician couldn't solve my problem, they would escalate my call to the next level. I don't know why turning on my voicemail account again was so complicated, but it apparently was. At one point I was talking to one person on my cell phone, another person on the land line and had to put both phones on speakerphone and set them next to each other so the technicians could hear each other. Most of these folks spoke English as a second language, so I was constantly saying "Could you repeat that please." I did manage to talk to one native English speaker, but he had a terrible stutter, so I couldn't understand him either.

When the problem was eventually resolved, I listened to my new voicemail messages and they were all from telemarketers. Jeez! Why did I spend hours trying to listen to messages I didn't want to receive in the first place? On days like this technology hardly seems worth the effort. Everything seems to work for the moment though, so if an important call comes in tomorrow, I'm right on top of it.

While Dash was getting his antigen shot today, I talked to the vet about alternatives to Phenobarbital in case his seizures returned. She mentioned that she had success using Potassium Bromide and thought it was safer than Phenobarbital. I looked up the drug on the Internet when we got home and discovered that possible side effects include ataxia, increased urination, skin disorders, nausea and vomiting. Doesn't sound very safe to me. Potassium Bromide won't damage the liver like Phenobarbital though. Of course, the alternative I like best is not to put Dash on any drugs at all.

I routinely experience the same frustrations with my own meds. The devil is always in the details. I've been wondering why I've had this strong metallic taste in my mouth for the past several months. A quick Internet search revealed that the metallic taste was probably caused by the Metformin I take to control blood sugar levels. I have a feeling that my doctor didn't mention the metallic aftertaste because he was afraid I wouldn't take the drug if I knew about this common side effect.

After making a trip to the post office to pay some bills, I stopped by Home Depot to get some wasp spray to combat the growing number of wasps and hornets building nests near the house. After I got out my reading glasses and read the warning label on the side of the can, I took the spray back and exchanged it for a much milder organic product. It was amazing to me than anyone would even sell a product with so many potentially toxic side effects. I guess a bug spray that will kill a snake is too strong for normal use.

Getting to the gym several times a week is proving to be harder than I thought it would be. I only made it once last week and it looks like this week will be just as busy. Tomorrow Dot starts her water therapy and Thursday is when the garbage disposal gets repaired. Throw in an article or two each day, along with the usual website revisions and a dog walk and my day is gone. Maybe I can find some free time on Friday.

Jewel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day