Day 3119

About thirty minutes after the roofer made a firm commitment to come out and repair the roof tomorrow, it started to rain. It rained quite a bit, so I doubt that the roof will be dry any time soon. I'm probably back to square one. I wonder if this promise to fix things on a rainy day was on purpose? I'll never know for sure. It is hard to predict the weather here in Texas. The forecast changes every day. I check the weather all the time and today's rain even caught me by surprise.

Whether the roofer comes out or not, it looks like it's going to be a busy week. Dash has a vet appointment on Wednesday, I need to take my car in for an annual required maintenance on Thursday, and I have an appointment with an art conservator on Friday to see if an Ellsworth Kelly that has been damaged by humidity can be saved.

I dread taking Dash to the vet. He's terrible riding in the car. He often poops in the lobby while we are waiting for our appointment. And he's going to need his nails trimmed again. Dash won't let anyone near his feet, but there is one vet who seems to have the magic touch. If she ever gives up on us, we're doomed. I wish Dash's nails didn't grow so fast. They seem to grow even faster now, since we are protecting his feet on walks. It's really important to keep the nails short, since he is taking Plavix. If Dash ever ripped out a nail again, it would be very hard to stop the bleeding.

I didn't accomplish much today, so I guess it was a pretty normal day. I repaired another pair of Dash's protective boots. Dash is pretty hard on these boots, so I always have to keep several pairs in rotation. I fixed a Waterpik that has been leaking for about a month. The leak wasn't bad, so it was easy to ignore. I got the pump started on the roof, but it won't be enough to get things dried out by tomorrow. It probably doesn't even matter. I think it's supposed to rain again tomorrow anyway.

I wonder if people realize that all the turmoil about the Supreme Court nomination isn't exactly new. If memory serves, there was a similar uproar when Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas were nominated. Thomas survived and Bork didn't. I suspect that Brett Kavanaugh will survive, but what do I know. This is basically a fight between people who think the Constitution is the law of the land and people who think the Constitution has become outdated and needs to change. I hate to see Americans fighting like this, but I don't think it's going to stop any time soon.

I wish we had the ability to blend our opinions together the same way I make my morning smoothie. American politics needs a Vitamix. I don't even taste the bananas, strawberries, peaches, eggs, oatmeal, blueberries, cinnamon, and ice cream anymore. My creation is much better than these ingredients. Blending is good. It would be hard to convince me that polarization is equally good.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2985

I went to the gym an hour earlier than usual, hoping to get some time on the court before the mid-day pickup game started. My plan failed. Half of the players were already there, warming up and practicing. For over two years this basketball court has been empty on Sundays. Now it appears to be a popular place for a friendly game. I don't know what has changed but the enjoyable days of having the gym practically to myself might be over.

Having the park to myself is definitely over. Today, another walk was ruined by two loose dogs. Dash has a long memory. Ever since he was attacked by an aggressive loose dog, he equates unleashed dogs with danger. Dogs on a leash are fine, but if he sees a loose dog anywhere, the walk is over. I don't blame him for being frightened. The dog that attacked him many years ago almost killed him.

It would have been a nice day for a walk. This was the warmest weather we've had all month. There were patchy clouds and intermittent sunshine. It was really a pretty nice day. I think we get another day of nice weather tomorrow and then the thunderstorms resume again.

We decided to try to get Dash's nails trimmed this afternoon. Dash won't let me get near his nails, so we have to go to the vet. I don't know why this once simple task is next to impossible now. The specialty vets at the cancer center don't want to clip his mails anymore. One one vet we know is quick enough and confident enough to get the job done, but she only works on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when Janet is at work. It takes two of us to transport Dash these days, so that option is usually out unless we can get an appointment for first thing in the morning. We tried and failed to get the nails clipped today. Dash made such a fuss that the vet tech was only able to trim a single nail. I never dreamed that trimming a dog's nails could be so difficult. Dash needs to be calm because of the blood clots in his heart. The person doing the trimming needs to be quick and confident too. Since Dash is taking powerful blood thinners, we can't risk any bleeding from a nail clipped too close to the quick. I'll have to come up with a Plan B. We certainly didn't accomplish much today.

I'm waking up tired again. There was a short period after Dot passed away that I was getting enough sleep, but now it's Dash's turn to keep me up at night. Almost every day he wakes me up in the middle of the night to go outside. I've grown to anticipate this, so I wake up at 3 AM, even if he doesn't. At least Dash isn't incontinent yet. It's only a matter of time. Incontinence is one of the cruel indignities of aging. Many of our dogs became incontinent toward the end. So did my Dad. I'm certainly not looking forward to this stage of life. It's bad enough getting up at night to pee.

I still haven't bought a new refrigerator. The roofers never replied to my latest e-mail and there's more rain on the way. I've got to fix the tiles in the shower stall, but I don't want contractors in the house. These should be easy problems to solve, but I can't even think about them when I've got a dog who doesn't want to eat and refuses to let anyone clip his nails. Worst of all, I've still got jury duty. I'm dreading jury duty.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2934

I tried to get caught up on things today, but had a hard time staying focused. For the first time in weeks I made some real progress on my new website project. I came up with a very practical, but somewhat ugly solution. I can't decide whether to present it to the client or delete it and start over. I'll look at the files again on Monday and decide.

It was cold this morning, but the temperature warmed up considerably later in the day. All in all, it was a very nice day. In my little world that meant it was time to go up on the roof. I don't know what I expected, but I certainly didn't expect ice. The small amount of ice I'd seen in the yard and on our walks had long since disappeared. It figures that the last place I'd still find ice was on the roof.

The roof wasn't the only place I discovered ice today. The little emergency refrigerator we got when our kitchen refrigerator was broken doesn't defrost automatically. I assumed it would defrost automatically like any modern refrigerator, but I guess not. As always, you get what you pay for. When I went to get some cream for my coffee this morning, I noticed that ice was building up in the tiny freezer compartment. It was time to defrost. I didn't think we'd keep using this refrigerator after the big refrigerator got repaired, but it turned out to be the perfect place for dairy products. It's kind of handy to have two refrigerators you can keep at different temperatures. At any rate, I put the milk, eggs, and butter in the main refrigerator, unplugged the little one, and let the ice melt.

The vet didn't want to trim Dash's nails yesterday because Dash was being a being a little shit about the procedure. He said that things were so fragile with his heart that he didn't want to do anything that would make Dash agitated. I wanted to explain that Dash is always agitated, but we left with untrimmed nails. The vet suggested that I walk Dash without the rubber boots for a while and let the nails wear down naturally. I tried this today and it was a little alarming. Dash's rear legs have grown weak and his feet drag when he walks now. With every step he took, I would hear his rear nails clicking and dragging on the pavement. At this rate, it won't take long at all to grind down the nails. I think I'll go back to the rubber boots tomorrow. It's clear that his feet need to be protected.

I got some breakfast tacos this morning at a little place that was more of a sports bar than a restaurant.  The sound on the big screen TV's was turned down, but the closed captioning was still on. When you read what some of these morning show hosts are saying, it seems even more ridiculous than hearing the words. We are doomed. I'm beginning to think that just about everybody is an idiot. I will say that TV without sound is not that bad. Maybe I'll turn on the closed captioning on my own TV. Although the ambience was terrible, the cheap tacos were pretty good. Maybe I'll go back to this place.

It's nice to see the DOW over 25,000. Let's keep this rally going for a few more years so I can actually retire. When I bought my first stock in the early 1980's the DOW was still under 1,000. This is why equities are still the best long term investment you can make. The periodic market crashes are painful, but inevitably the market starts going up again. I can't figure out why young people don't like stocks. It's certainly doesn't take much money to get started. Young people think stocks are too risky, but they love Bitcoin. Go figure.

Thanks to everyone for showing so much concern for Dash. It means a lot. We don't know how much time he has left, but we're doing our best to minimize the risks he faces and make his remaining time as enjoyable as possible.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2862

Janet helped me get Dash's orthopedic and protective gear on before she left for work this morning. I let him wander around the house while I was fixing breakfast, hoping that he'd forget he had it on. This plan seemed to work. He quickly became far more interested in begging for treats from me than in obsessing about his knee brace. About halfway through breakfast, Dash headed toward the back door and I knew he was ready. I was ready too. I put my smoothie in the refrigerator, grabbed a leash, and off we went. Could it be that Dash just wants to walk a little later in the day? Who knows. We took a nice long walk and then I finished my breakfast.

Since this little excursion went well, I decided to take him to the vet to get his anal glands expressed. As usual, he was terrible in the car, but at least I didn't have to worry about poop. He'd already taken care of that on our walk. While we were at the vet, I had the nurse trim his remaining dew claw. Since he tore the first dewclaw riding in the car, I'll always be apprehensive that this type of accident will happen again.

By the time I got Dash home and finished washing the breakfast dishes, it was almost noon. I'd already spent almost half a day dealing with a lovable but very stubborn dog. I fired up the computer to see if there was anything important that I needed to deal with. Of course there wasn't. It was time to get ready for the refrigerator repairman.

I was planning to have the repairman install the new temperature sensor I bought, so I watched a YouTube video to locate where the old sensor was. Locating and installing the sensor seemed simple enough, but after watching the video, I learned that the repairman was right. This particular sensor had nothing to do with my problem.

When the repairman arrived, he had the correct part this time and it only took him about thirty minutes to install it. We didn't bother to defrost the evaporator coil this time, because I'd already done this less than two days ago. The repairman said he was confident that the refrigerator would work this time, since we'd replaced all the parts connected with controlling the defrost cycle. I hope he's right. Having to deal with food that could spoil and go bad is almost as irritating as having to go to the laundromat when your washer breaks. When the repairman left, he told me not to worry. The parts are guaranteed for a year and if the evaporator coil still keeps freezing, he'll keep coming out until the problem is resolved. I thanked the guy and told him I hoped I wouldn't see him again for a long time.

A stray cat has been pooping in our yard and Dash is obsessed with finding and eating the stuff. Now, I've got to shadow him every time he goes outside to pee, so he won't sneak off and eat cat poop. The elusive poop is very hard for me to find, but apparently very easy for Dash to smell. I don't know how I'm going to put an end to this nuisance. The smell will go away eventually, unless the cat keeps coming back. Feral cats should know better than to hang around this neighborhood. There aren't many mice anymore and some of the cats routinely get eaten by coyotes.

I contacted the roofer again and tried without much success to get him to commit to finishing the repairs. This is the only major issue left on my Fall to-do list. There are a couple of holes that need to be patched immediately. I'd much rather have the roofing crew repair the damage, but I'd settle with another five gallon drum of the elastomer material at this point.

If I wasn't so apprehensive about leaving Dash, I'd go see Bladerunner 2049 tomorrow. I'm not very busy. This would be a good time to go. The film has done so poorly at the box office that it probably won't be around much longer. There are even matinee showings now. It won't be long before it will be at the dollar theaters.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2861

I love my new doctor. It was refreshing to make an appointment and actually see the doctor at the scheduled time. I'm used to sitting in the waiting room for hours, then waiting some more in the exam room, only to end up seeing the doctor for a few minutes. The waiting room at my old doctor's office seems like a scene from The Walking Dead. This new place was quiet and sedate. Everyone was friendly and there was even valet parking. Best of all, this new doctor took the time to listen to me, instead of rushing around trying to see five patients at once. Janet told me that concierge medicine was a completely different experience. She was right.

After three unsuccessful attempts to get Dash walking this morning, I decided to leave his harness on, just in case he felt like going out again later. I finished my breakfast and when I was doing the dishes, I saw him scratching at the back door. I was ready to go, so I quickly grabbed a leash and off we went. This time I didn't waste time putting the knee brace or the protective rubber boots on. This seemed to do the trick. Maybe Dash just hates all the protective gear. I made sure that we walked on grass, so he wouldn't injure his paws and kept the pace slow, trying to avoid a knee injury. We had a nice slow walk along the shoreline. Dash seemed to be enjoying himself and walked very normally. This evening when Janet came home, we put the protective gear back on for our evening walk. He still walked normally. I just need to get him used to wearing the protective gear in the morning. Based on my experience so far, this may take a while.

I had trouble sleeping last night. This is so rare that it was kind of alarming. I'd hate to have insomnia  on any kind of a regular basis. When you're lying in bed and can't get to sleep, time seems to move much slower than usual. I occasionally had insomnia many years ago when my company was busy. I would just get up, turn on the computer and go to work. There's little point in doing that now. There's no work to do. I think I'd rather lie in bed and listen to my dog snore than look at Facebook at 3 AM.

I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up something for dinner on my way home from the doctor's office. I used to think that all grocery stores were basically the same, but they definitely cater to specific audiences these days. Whole Foods seems to be for upscale vegans. Central Market is for upscale meat eaters. Sprouts is for people who like the idea of a small neighborhood market. I guess Albertsons and Kroger are for older people who haven't realized that shopping has changed. I have no idea who Walmart is for and I don't intend to find out.

It's time to clip Dash's nails again. It's weird that something so simple can be such a problem. I hate taking Dash in the car, but I'm terrible at clipping his nails myself, so he always has to go to the vet. Sometimes the techs clip his nails too short and they bleed. This happen more often than you'd think with Dalmatians, since some nails are black and you can't see the quick. Bleeding of any sort is not good, since Dash is taking Plavix. I can't ignore his nails though, since he might pull out a dewclaw again. This whole procedure only takes a few minutes, but I've already spent hours thinking about it. I worry too much.

I'm really hoping that tomorrow will be the end of the refrigerator repair saga. I need to get this thing fixed before something else breaks.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day