Day 2496

I'm confused. When I took Dot to the cancer center today, I was prepared for bad news. To me, Dot seems to be growing weaker. She stumbled a lot this week and seems to be having a harder time walking without assistance. What do I know though? The oncologist, the ultrasound technician, and two nurses all thought Dot looked stronger and more alert than the last time they saw her. Her lab work and scan seemed to confirm their opinion. Dot's tumors are stable and haven't grown at all since her last scan. Her blood work is actually better than it was a month ago. This is all good news, but I still wonder why she seems so weak around the house.

I'm really mad at the city. For the fourth week in a row, the trash truck has failed to empty my trash. Not only was my bagged trash not removed from the can, the robotic arm on the truck actually damaged my brand new trash can. Now, there's a big dent in the can and the lid won't close. I piled the trash in the back of my car and went looking for a dumpster again. I'm tired of this. I called city services when I got home and after a long wait on hold, explained my problem to someone. Nothing got resolved today, but I did get assigned a case number and was told that someone from the sanitation department would be calling me next week.

I didn't get to go out for breakfast this morning, since a thunderstorm was headed our way. I could see lightning on the horizon and hear distant thunder, but we managed to get the dogs walked before the rain actually arrived. The short walk around the block with both dogs went just fine, but Dash almost got me struck by lightning when he refused to curtail his longer walk as the rain continued to get closer. Dash can be pretty stubborn sometimes. By the time we returned home, the sky was looking dark and ominous. I found another package of frozen waffles in the freezer and listened to the rain pounding on the roof while I kept telling Dot that everything was going to be OK.

I've been worried that the new Tramadol pills were going to make Dot constipated, but she put those fears to rest by pooping in the car on the way home from the cancer center. Poor car. Today, it's been pooped in and full of garbage within the same day. It's harder to clean Dot up after she's had an accident in the car. Since she's in a confined space, she can't move away from the mess. Sometimes, it takes me a while before I can safely pull off to the side of the road and attend to her as well. Such is life. It's hard to imagine a trip in the car without one of these accidents these days.

I picked up some Chinese take out for dinner and was dismayed to see that the restaurant had taken all the small sizes off the menu. I used to have a choice of small or large on everything. Not anymore. Absolutely nothing stays the same anymore. Oh, well. At least the restaurant is still in business. I hope we have a quiet, uneventful weekend. I need some time to rest and recharge my batteries before I resume my battle with the city over trash pickup. I'm beginning to think that the robotic arm on the truck has some kind of sensor that rejects my can when it discovers it is full of dog poop.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2493

The city delivered a new garbage can to our house today. What a surprise. I wasn't expecting them to be so responsive. The new can looks suspiciously like the old can, but we'll give it a try this Friday. If this can doesn't get emptied properly, I may have to paint a sign on the side, telling the trash truck driver to "give it a shake,"

It was discouraging to go up on the roof today and see that the special coating the roofers applied continues to deteriorate. I don't know if the problem is with the elastometric coating itself or with the way it was applied. Something is definitely wrong. I'm kind of at the mercy of the roofers, since I don't have the knowledge or ability to fix this problem myself. I need to call the roofers again, because all it's going to take is a few more good rains and my potential leak is going to turn into an actual leak.

I picked up Dot's pain pills at the vet this afternoon. The receptionist said they were still locked in the safe. I didn't know that Tramadol was a controlled substance like phenobarbital. I guess it makes sense, since it is a synthetic opiate. Dot's vet thinks that a low dose of Tramadol might help with the weakness in her back legs. I'm a little nervous, but this is a very low dose, so we'll give it a try.

I made our Thanksgiving dinner reservations. This elaborate holiday brunch has gotten very popular and the price seems to go up every year. I guess it's worth it though, since neither of us feels like cooking. Hopefully, we'll have better luck than we did last year when an unexpected dog emergency forced us to cancel our reservations at the last minute.

When I took yesterday's letters back to the post office, I mailed out my October invoices as well. My monthly billings are so small now, compared with what they used to be, that it seems pathetic to even send them. The monthly bills are relentless though, and every little bit helps. It's been a long time since I bought an expensive camera lens or piece of electronic gear on a whim. I really have to plan my frivolous purchases now and it it often takes months to save up the money. Oh, well. It was good while it lasted. I have to remember that I started my company in 1990 and twenty five years is a long time in my line of work. A lot of my contemporaries bit the dust long before I did.

I got a surprise text from a high school friend who was in town for the day and wondered if I wanted to meet him downtown. It might have been fun to catch up on things, but going downtown for a long lunch is out of the question these days. I'm glad I didn't go. Dot had kind of a bad day today. She does best when she takes her walks and then rests for most of the day. Sometimes she gets frustrated and tries to stay active and ends up tiring herself out. That's what happened today. I could tell she was getting exhausted and starting to stumble as I walked her around the house, but she just didn't want to sleep. It happens sometimes.

I have no plans for tomorrow, but I'm sure it will feel like a busy day anyway. I"m convinced that those hamsters who spend their day spinning a hamster wheel inside their cage feels like they've been busy too.

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2489

I wasn't expecting rain this morning, but that's what we got. Dash refused to go outside and pee. Dot, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to the rain and drug me outside in the rain as she slowly wandered around the yard looking for the perfect place to pee. By the time I changed my wet clothes and dried Dot off, it became obvious that the dogs weren't going to get a morning walk. I wasn't going to get to go out to breakfast either, because I kept hearing thunder off in the distance. Dot and Dash are fine in a gentle rain, but thunder and lightning throw them into a panic. I found a package of frozen toaster waffles in the freezer and resigned myself to spending the rest of the day with my two storm phobic dogs.

When I went out to retrieve my trash can after breakfast, I discovered that the truck didn't pick up my trash for the third week in a row. I'm trying to figure out why this keeps happening and the only thing I can think of is that there's a new driver on our route. I remember I used to see the robotic arm stop at the top of it's arc and shake the cans before lowering them to the ground again. This was to make sure that everything gets dumped into the truck. The mechanical arm swings the cans in an arc very quickly to position them upside down on top of the truck. As the arm is moving, I have a feeling that centrifugal force keeps the trash bags pressed against the bottom of the can. If the arm doesn't stop long enough at the top of its arc and allow gravity to empty the cans, then that might explain why my trash bags are still inside the can even after the truck has picked up my can. This driver is in a hurry and isn't stopping to shake the cans.

Since I'll never be able to explain my perfectly reasonably theory to the driver, I went on the City of Dallas website and requested as new garbage can. Maybe a new can will help. My neighbors all have newer trash cans than me and they don't seem to be having the same problems I'm having. I have my doubts that the city will even respond to my request. I've requested services on the city website before and never got a response. Who knows. Maybe the online forms don't even work.

Dash can be incredibly stubborn. He kept refusing to go outside and pee until the rain eventually stopped. He didn't get his walk in the park until almost noon, but that was apparently what he wanted. Poor Dot didn't get a walk at all. After the dogs had been taken care of, I loaded the trash bags in the car and went looking for a dumpster. I'm getting sick of this. After decades of reliable trash service, I don't understand why this is happening now.

I didn't sleep well last night. I remember having very lucid dreams that had people I know in them. I remember my dreams about fifteen or twenty seconds after I wake up and then they're gone. It's too bad that the dreams are so fleeting, because I'm sure they're more interesting than my day-to-day life. My fitness tracker tells me that I get lots of REM sleep but very little deep sleep. If REM sleep and dreaming help to consolidate memories, maybe I don't have to worry about Alzheimer's after all.

I wonder if that hurricane on the East Coast had everything to do with all the rain we got today. Probably not. I'm glad we don't have to worry about hurricanes here in Dallas. Tornadoes are bad enough.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day