Day 3686

It's easy to spend the entire afternoon with the Dalmatians. They enjoy the attention and we enjoy having the opportunity to get to know them better. Everyone has their own personality. Some like to race around and chase after red rubber Kongs. Others like to play with soft plush toys. Sock and Lord like to stay together, while Charlie and Hank seem to do better on their own. Dawn always gives us one of those big Dalmatian smiles when we arrive. She isn't very playful but is probably the most relaxed of the bunch. She was content to just sit quietly with us today.

Something bit me last night. I woke up with a big welt on my back and have no idea how it got there. It's not the season for mosquitos and chiggers, so maybe it was a spider. There are tons of spiders in our yard, but luckily most of them are outside. There definitely shouldn't be spiders in the bed, but you never know. I'd probably hate to know how many critters come out of the woodwork after the lights go out.

Tax documents are starting to arrive in the mail. Jeez. Is it already that time of the year again? Time passes so quickly now. I feel like I just finished with last year's taxes. It doesn't seem fair that Social Security is taxed. This doesn't really feel like income. It doesn't seem like those mandatory IRA distributions should be taxed as income either. Oh, well. Those are the rules. I just collect all the documents and give them to my accountant.

Since we're spending more time with the dogs now. I'm getting a really late start on my Monday walk. I started well before sunset, but arrived home in the dark again. As the sky grew darker I looked for familiar stars. All I really saw was Venus next to a thin crescent moon. I should have been able to see Mercury on the Western horizon about thirty minutes after sunset, but there were too many clouds. It's too bad I'm a little nervous about being in the park after dark. You get a lot better view of the sky away from all the city lights.

The toilet in the bathroom is running again so I spent some time cleaning the complex mechanical parts. Plumbers won't even fix this weird French toilet anymore. They just tell me to get a Toto. I was convinced that the toilet would work perfectly after I put everything back together. Cleaning the little hydraulic parts inside the tank usually works. This time it didn't. The toilet still runs. All of today's efforts were for nothing.

One of these days I'm going to have to try to clean the large format printer again. This probably won't work either. I have waited too long. I just got tired of spending hundreds of dollars on ink cartridges when I didn't really have anything to print. Epson is really just an ink company. The printer is just there to make you buy ink. I have no desire to make large Giclée prints anymore. A rational person would just throw this printer away. I never claimed to be a rational person though.

I hope this coronavirus scare doesn't get worse. I'm going to get nervous about airports soon if they don't stop flights to and from China. Right now there are still daily flights to and from major Chinese cities. I guess I could drive to Florida for the Solar Orbiter launch, but it would take a full scale plague to make me drive that far. Lets hope it doesn't come to that.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3391

I stopped by REI on the way to the gym this morning. I had a coupon for 20% off anything in the store, plus my annual REI dividend. This was the day to get a bargain. I couldn't find anything that I wanted and walked away without buying a thing. This is happening more frequently now and I find it perplexing. I don't need anything. I don't need business equipment because there's no business. I don't need clothes because there's nobody to impress. Dash doesn't care what I wear. I don't need more cameras. I've got plenty of shoes. Anything I might buy will just add to the clutter that I'm trying to eliminate. Janet says she feels more or less that same way after she retired. Maybe this just happens as you grow older.

There is a huge storm in South Texas that's been heading our way all day. It must be really moving slowly because it's still not here yet. I've been prepared for rain since I got up this morning. I walked Dash early. Luckily he was in the mood to walk early. Sometimes he isn't. I cleaned the gunk out of the pumps on the roof and made sure they were working properly. I went to the gym about an hour earlier than I usually do. I'm glad that the storm never materialized, but I sure wish that weather was more predictable.

Grey, damp days are always a good time to do chores. I'm good at avoiding things, but eventually it all catches up with you. I reluctantly tried to unclog the large production printer this afternoon. I waited too long. I've lost interest in this thing, but realize that it's just a big pile of useless metal unless I can keep it running. Unfortunately, I ran out of ink before I could get the lines completely unclogged. Now I have to buy more expensive ink. Since I failed to get the printer running, I thought I'd try something easier. I replaced a broken latch on a cabinet door in the bathroom. I also replaced some rusted out screws in the glass shower door frame.

Although Dash took a good walk this morning, he's been very lethargic today. All he wants to do around the house is sleep. It's weird that he can still walk reasonably well in the park, but he can barely stand up at home. He seems to use up all his available energy on his walks and is exhausted when he returns. I'm glad that Janet is still pretty good at getting Dash to take his pills and eat his meals. I couldn't get him to eat anything today.

I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning for a semi-annual physical. Since they want to do new blood work, I won't be able to have breakfast. Do I have my smoothie when I return, or just skip breakfast? Such big decisions these days. I have nothing to complain about this time. I've actually felt pretty healthy during the past six months. I'm always tired, but that's all because of Dash. Anyone would be tired if their dog got them up three times a night. I still have heartburn, but it's very controllable. All I have to do is stop eating Italian food. I hope it's not time for a colonoscopy or anything else unpleasant. I'd just as soon forget about medical things for a while.

Looks like we're going to get some rain tonight. Hopefully, Dash will go outside and pee before the rain starts. I'll turn the pumps on before I go to bed. That's all you can do on a rainy day

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3012

I was determined to fix the toilet today. I printed out a parts list and drove to the only plumbing supply store in town that has just about everything. The store was closed. If I was thinking, I should have known the store would be closed. Just about the only people who go to this store are plumbers. Have you ever tried getting a plumber on a Saturday?

When I finished the rest of my Saturday errands, I took the flush valve apart and cleaned everything again. This time I must have done something right. When I reassembled the valve and turned the water back on, the water level in the tank was almost an inch lower and the flush valve leak had been reduced to a slow drip. I probably still need new parts, but at least I accomplished something. I'm convinced that Porcher and Citroën must have had some connection in the part. Both French companies feature very clever engineering and make products that are virtually impossible to fix. I have owned several Citroën automobiles. They are wonderful cars to drive but you never want to break down on a lonely stretch of highway. I reluctantly sold my last Citroën when the only Citroën mechanic in Texas retired.

Dash woke me up last night and went racing for the back door. I thought I got the door opened in time. I watched Dash go out in the yard and poop. What I didn't see until the next morning was that he really didn't make it to the yard after all. It was dark and I didn't notice that he'd pooped right on top of the door threshold. When I closed the door and locked up, I inadvertently squished the poop under the bottom of the door and made a huge mess. It was a very unpleasant job to clean the aluminum threshold and underside of the door. The entire door had become a poop sandwich. I thought I was going to get a break from cleaning up poop after Dot passed away, but Dash is already following in her footsteps.

Dash didn't want to take an afternoon walk today. I sure wish this dog could talk. I don't want to make him walk if he's feeling tired or uncomfortable, but it would be nice to know how he felt about things before I spent a lot of time getting him suited up in his protective gear. If he won't walk, I have to remove all the gear because he can't get up on the bed with his boots and leg brace on. We go through this ritual several times every afternoon and I never know what the outcome is going to be. Sometimes he walks and other times he doesn't.

At least the large printer is working again. I finally managed to get the thing unclogged. The printer is making nice prints, but it looks like I'm already going to have to order some more ink. I ended up using half of the expensive ink I received recently running five cleaning cycles. Why do I still have this printer? Probably for the same reason I still have several Beta-SP tape decks. It's a bitch when you've become obsolete.

The grass is already starting to grow in the front yard again. It's almost time to see whether the lawn mower battery survived the winter. I really don't like mowing the lawn, but it's probably no worse than getting the water off the roof or fixing the toilet.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3011

I was pleased to discover a repair manual for my French toilet that I'd never seen before. Unbeknownst to me, the float is adjustable. Rotate the float clockwise in the assembly to lower the water level in the tank. Rotate it counterclockwise to raise the water level. Cool. I followed the instructions and the styrofoam float did rotate exactly as advertised. I couldn't move it very far unfortunately, because it kept getting stuck on the side of the flush valve which had somehow frozen in place at a slight angle. In theory, lowering the float should lower the water level, but I wasn't able to lower it enough to make much of a difference. After monkeying around for an hour, I actually made the situation a little worse. No wonder plumbers don't want to touch this thing.

I couldn't decide on a restaurant this morning, so I just picked up some precooked bacon and eggs at the grocery store breakfast bar. It wasn't very good. I should have just cooked breakfast myself at home. At least I didn't have to make a separate trip to get groceries for the weekend. I think I'm just not willing to admit that I've lost my interest in food. Nothing I eat seems to taste very good anymore. I know I need to eat to stay healthy, but there are times when I wish I could exist without food.

Dash doesn't have this problem. He seems to want to eat all the time now. This is certainly better than not eating, but I wish we could strike a balance. I don't want Dash to get fat because his rear legs are so weak. If I'm not in the kitchen feeding him, Dash wants me napping with him in the bedroom. He gets irritated when I spend a lot of time at the computer and then starts knocking things over in the office. I try to give Dash the benefit of the doubt because he's got so much wrong with him, but I think our boy has become a little spoiled.

The printer ink I ordered arrived today and I've been watching it disappear as I run the cleaning cycle to clear the clogged lines. Epson is really just an ink company. They sell you complex printers at artificially low prices knowing that you'll have to buy their ridiculously expensive ink. Half the ink is wasted running these cleaning cycles. Pigment ink makes beautiful prints, but it clogs very easily. You've got to keep the printer running to keep it clean. Basically, you should never buy one of these large printers unless you plan to print something every day. If I hadn't become a slave to my machines, I would have ditched this cantankerous printer a long time ago. A big ink jet printer isn't nearly as essential as a toilet.

I finally got Dash to take an afternoon walk, but it wasn't easy. He doesn't like to walk down the alley in the afternoon. I practically had to carry him down the alley today, but once we got to the park, he was just fine. I don't understand this behavior at all. Dash probably thinks the same of me and wonders why I waste so much time trying to maintain old things that any sane person would have thrown away by now.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3010

Dash was in a weird mood today. We'd only walked about half a block this morning when he froze and wouldn't go any further. Although the street was completely empty, he seemed panicked for some reason and was trying to run back to the house. We tried again a couple of hours later and Dash refused to leave the yard. Inexplicably, around 11:30 AM, he decided he was ready to walk and headed toward the park as if nothing had happened. We took a nice long walk without incident and I never could figure out why he balked at the idea earlier.

When I tried to renew Dash's Plavix prescription this morning the pharmacist told me that the prescription had expired. It took forever to get the prescription renewed. The vet would tell me that they had called the prescription in and then the pharmacy would tell me that the hadn't received anything. I kept asking the vet to try again but the prescription wasn't going through. I think everyone was getting annoyed with me, but I really needed to get the Plavix today. Eventually, the vet and the pharmacist connected and I was able to go pick up Dash's meds. I had to pick up something for myself as well. The only problem with my prescription was that it was too expensive.

I haven't used my large format printer in several months, so I was apprehensive about turning it on this morning. I didn't have anything to print today, but knew that the longer I waited, the harder it was going to be to unclog the lines. As I expected, the printer was hopelessly clogged. I used up two of the eight ink cartridges running the cleaning program and was still not able to clear the lines. Reluctantly, I called my supplier and ordered some more ink. I might as well add the printer to all the other broken stuff that needs to be fixed.

There seems to be a perfect storm of bad news that is sending the market into a tailspin. I miss the days when people bought and sold stock based on whether a company was making money or not. Now market moves are almost entirely fueled by fear and greed. Why are people so upset about Facebook? Facebook's entire business model is based on selling our information. We are the product and advertisers are the customers. It's always been that way. It's pretty easy to opt out of just about everything on Facebook too. People are just too lazy to go to their settings page. I don't understand the panic about tariffs either. There is not going to be a trade war with China. Both countries depend on trade with each other. Tariffs are silly and ineffectual, but most modern presidents have imposed them at one time or another. I don't know why rising interest rates would cause a panic either. We actually need interest rates to go up a little. The Fed has kept interest rates artificially low for way too long. Why can't people act rationally about money? I guess that's too much to expect in a world ruled by emotions.

It was a slow day so I did an extensive search of nearby breakfast restaurants. I must have looked at two dozen menus and found nothing that appealed to me. Why is this so hard? I don't think I'm that picky. I've enjoyed a perfect breakfast numerous times. It just seems difficult to find this illusive meal again.

Truthfully, everything seems somewhat illusive these days. I don't know whether it's me or the world in general, but I'm beginning to feel like a stranger in a strange land. I think it would take a time machine to return me to a place that felt familiar.

Brooke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2870

I left the house early this morning so I could get my lab work done before I ate breakfast. Like I always do, I asked these new guys if they could tell me my blood type. I think it's ridiculous that I'm almost 70 years old and don't even know my blood type. I've literally had hundreds of blood tests, but this is one test that nobody wants to do. "Insurance won't pay for it," they tell me. Why not? It seems like useful information that everyone should have. Apparently, the normal way to find out your blood type is to donate blood at a blood bank. This won't work for me. Nobody wanted my blood for decades because I had Hepatitis C. Blood banks probably still don't want my blood. The nurse said it would cost me $100 extra to run the blood type test. "Never mind," I told her. I don't know why this irritates me so much, but the fact that doctors have taken gallons of my blood to run complicated tests and refuse to do this simple one represents everything wrong with modern medicine to me.

While I was walking toward the elevator in the parking garage, I passed a section where every single car was a Porsche. This seemed odd. The place looked like a dealership. There were several Panamera's, a bunch of 911's, a Macan, and two Cayene's. I looked a little closer and wasn't entirely surprised to discover that this was the reserved parking area for doctors. Even my old doctor in the hood drives a Porsche. I'm amazed that it hasn't been stolen yet.

It's still hard to get used to a medical facility where the lobby isn't crowded and everyone is polite to me. I only had to wait a few minutes before they took me back to the lab for blood work. I have to drive a little further, but I think I'm going to like this place.

I fixed my regular breakfast smoothie when I got home, but it was more like lunch than breakfast. Since it was a warm, clear day, I had planned to spend the afternoon repairing the roof. I don't know why I thought I could do this quickly. Nothing happens quickly on the roof. I started by cutting out the section that had gotten ruined by the rain. When I cleared away the debris, I noticed that there was water seeping out around the edges of the square hole I had made in the coating. I'm beginning to think that there is a thin layer of water under the entire roof. I removed some more of the rubbery material, hoping that I would find the end of the water, but the asphalt under the elastomer coating was damp everywhere I looked. I gave up and went back inside. It was clear that I wasn't going to be able to re-coat this damaged area today. Luckily, there is no rain in the forecast. I'll let things dry out for a few days and try again.

I had a lot more success with the large format printer in my office. I finally managed to get the thing unclogged and running normally again. This is a pointless exercise since I don't make large prints anymore, but I can't stand the idea of having a large nonfunctioning piece of equipment taking up space in the office. The printer will clog again, but if I get the urge to make a huge print within the next two weeks, everything should be fine.

The gift card people finally refunded our money. It took four months and they were rude the entire time. They lost our documentation twice and basically treated us like we were the scammers. All I've got to say is don't ever buy a gift card at a grocery store. This scam is well documented on the Consumer Reports website. It is apparently not that hard for someone to get your information before you even buy the card and when you go to use it for the first time, the money is already gone.

I'm going to get a haircut tomorrow. This is the only time I go to the mall. I"ll probably stop at the Tesla store for a few minutes and look enviously at the Model X. Maybe I'll stop at the Apple Store to and see if I'm tempted by the iPhone X. In both cases, I'm guessing the X stands for x-pensive.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2867

I don't watch baseball very often, but I'll have to admit that last night's World Series game was pretty darn good. It certainly beat watching another Perry Mason rerun that I'd seen five times already. I've been trying to get to sleep a little earlier, but Dash has other ideas. He's usually fast asleep when I go to bed, but just when I get comfortable, he wakes up, drinks a lot of water, and than goes to the back door, waiting for me to let him out to pee. I have to get dressed and go outside with him, so he won't eat cat poop. By the time I lock up and go back to bed again, Dash has already returned to bed and stolen my place. This happens every night.

This morning, I was determined to do something productive. I turned on the large format printer for the first time in over a month and ran the cleaning cycle. As I expected, the printer was hopelessly clogged. I ran the cleaning cycle three times and just as the lines were starting to clear, I ran out of ink. I called my supplier and ordered some more ink. It's insanity to keep this printer running when I no longer use it, but it is a perfectly good machine. I can't bring myself to toss it.

Since rain is in the forecast this week, I redoubled my efforts to get the roof fixed. I called the roofer again, and then I found a commercial supplier who carries the special coating material used on the roof. Ouch. The stuff is expensive. I ordered a five gallon can, because what choice do I have? After I committed to buying the material, the roofer finally returned my call and told me that he'd have his foreman drop some elastomer product by the house. It's probably just as well that I bought my own elastomer. The roofer didn't exactly say when he was going to come by. Given his track record, it could easily be Christmas before I see him again.

I noticed a raw spot on one of Dash's paws where the hair was starting to wear thin. It looks like the boots might be rubbing against his paw while he walks. Good grief. Now I'm going to have to make socks to go with the boots. I thought the insides of the boots felt soft and smooth, but something must not fit as well as I thought. This is getting complicated. If I have to put on socks, and shoes, and the knee brace, along with his regular harness, it's going to take forever to get him out the door in the morning.

Since I wasn't able to obtain any of the roof coating today, I turned my attention to the shower drain. I thought if I cleaned out the inside of the drain, I might be able to see a crack that was allowing water to seep under the tiles. It was a messy job. I sure wish soap manufacturers would invent a soap that didn't leave a film of soap scum behind. I thought the soap scum was bad on the tiles, but it was even worse on the inside of the drain. I did find one area that might be leaking, but it's in an awkward place and I don't know how to seal it. The best solution would be to have a plumber replace the entire drain and then get a tile guy to repair the damage the plumber made. I don't even want to think about something this drastic yet. Maybe I can just use some of the roof coating material that I'll hopefully receive tomorrow to seal the small crack.

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. It sure would be nice to repair the hole in the elastomer before the rain turns it into an even larger hole. With my luck, I'll have everything I need to make the repair the day after it rains.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2585

I keep forgetting what day it is. There certainly isn't much to distinguish one day from the next. I know you're tired of hearing about dog walks, dietary quirks, and disappearing clients, but those are the most interesting parts of the day. Maybe you'd rather hear about my efforts to unclog a slow shower drain, or lubricate a sticking sliding glass door. There are days when I feel like the king of a kingdom that's in ruins. Why is everything falling apart? The house could use a new coat of paint. The large trees in the back yard are nearing the end of their natural life. The warranty on my car will run out this Summer. My passport is about to expire. There are so many things that need attention, but I've used all my energy on caring for the dogs.

Everybody knows about Dot's problems, but Dash is getting old too. He has trouble getting in the car now. Last week I noticed that he was having difficulty hopping up in the bed. Occasionally, he sleeps on the floor with Dot. Sadly, his years of running and jumping are almost over. When our first Dalmatian began having problems with his rear legs, I had a special step made to help him get in the bed at night. I went to the storage warehouse and got this step for Dash today. Sooner or later, all our dogs have ended up using it. I'm glad that Dot finally accepted sleeping on the floor next to me. The step helped her for a while, but she is way beyond that now. Trust me, you don't want an incontinent dog sleeping in your bed.

I ran five cleaning cycles after I installed the new ink cartridges that arrived for my printer yesterday, but the printer is still clogged. The folks at Epson are evil geniuses for using expensive ink to clean their printers. They could give the printers away for free and still make a ton of money. I've easily spent more on ink than I spent on the printer in the first place. It costs over $400 to fill this printer with ink and I'm convinced that over half of it is used to continually unclog the lines that carry the ink from the cartridges to the print head. Some of my designer friends have thrown their large printers away and just use online print services when they need to print something large. This makes a lot of sense, but like I've told you many times, I have trouble throwing things away.

A life where everything is falling apart wears you out. It breaks my heart to see Dot falling apart. The house can be fixed, but there is no remedy for old age. I'm really hoping that Dash stays reasonably healthy while Dot is still with us. Dealing with two dogs who can't walk at the same time might be too much. I'm so tired of dealing with things that break. The shower drain flows freely now, but I'm sure it will clog again. The sliding glass door in the living room opens now, but every year the house settles a little more. Eventually. the whole thing will need to be replaced. Every time I do a load of laundry, I wonder if this is the day the washing machine will give up the ghost. The last time I got a new washer and dryer, it was hard to find something that would fit in our small utility room. It will probably be even harder now. Furniture and appliances keep getting bigger and bigger.

If I take Dot outside every three hours, she doesn't pee in the house anymore. Maybe the Incurin is working. We still have problems making it all the way through the night, but this is a definite improvement.  We still have a week to go before the loading dose period is over, so there's a chance that this restart will succeed. I'm not sure where the big victories are going to come from anymore, so I relish the little ones. Today's victory was getting Dash to walk in the afternoon again. He's been refusing to take his afternoon walk for three days now. I finally figured out what was wrong. He was mad that I was walking Dot first. The little shit was just being moody. When I walked him first this afternoon, all was fine.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2556

We didn't make it to the back door this morning, so there were a lot of rugs to wash. This one was my fault. I knew Dot had to go as soon as I woke up, but I failed to make sure that the back door was already open before we made our race for the back yard. Slowing down just a little to give Janet a chance to open the door was all it took and Dot peed all over the place.

I'm learning to get everything done in the morning now. After their morning walk, Dot and Dash will still go back to sleep for a few hours. Today, I used that time to take my invoices to the post office and run a few errands. I left the house before I took a shower or even turned on the computer. I really didn't know how long I had.

Maybe it's the Tramadol pills that are giving Dot a little more energy. Maybe it's something else. I'm glad to see her moving around more, but it sure keeps me busy. I've tried to let her wander around the house on her own, but it doesn't work very well. Dot is still very unsteady on her feet and she usually falls within a minute or two if I am not supporting her rear end. Since her incontinence has gotten worse, she also tends to leak a lot. Whenever she falls, there is usually a puddle of pee on the ground when I lift her up.

I've thought about trying a doggie wheelchair for her, but they don't work very well for larger dogs. Our first Dalmatian used a wheelchair during his last year, but he was always tipping it over. A wheelchair is terrible for a dog that likes to alternate between walking around and lying down. You spend all your time hooking them up and detaching them from the contraption. A wheelchair might be good for longer outdoor walks though. I'm almost at my wits end and am willing to try almost anything.

I think I'm coming down with a cold. I rarely get sick, but if I do it's almost always during the holiday season. Everyone seems to have a cold in December. Even though I do my best to avoid people, there is inevitably someone coughing or sneezing nearby. So far, I've just got a mild sore throat. Hopefully, that's as far as it goes. I'll see if I can shake this one off.

The large format printer is clogged again. I wish I could bring myself to just throw this albatross away. I have a lot of compassion for old dogs, but it's hard to be sympathetic to an old printer. At some point I'm going to realize that I get nothing in return for all the expensive ink and maintenance I pour into this relic. I need to find a twelve step program for people who are attached to obsolete gear. Keeping all these things running is getting ridiculous.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2231

If you happen to follow my Instagram account, you've probably noticed that certain images appear again and again. On Sundays, there is often a picture of a basketball. On Thursdays, you frequently see Dot exercising in the underwater treadmill. On Fridays its almost always a picture of my breakfast. Although these pictures are similar, they are not the same. Each one records a specific event that will never happen again. To me, repetitious pictures like this are an affirmation. They are a way of saying that I'm still here. Life itself is fairly repetitious. The sun comes up every morning and sets every night. We brush our teeth, we shower, we fix our meals, over and over and over again. Some try to escape this monotony with wild adventures. I celebrate the tiny little nuances that make even the most repetitious event unique.

Today was like most Sundays. We slept in a little later and waited until after sunrise to walk the dogs. I can eat a bigger breakfast on weekends because I know I'm probably going to work it off. According to my fitness band, Sunday is the most active day of my week. Today when I vacuumed the house, I not only cleaned the rugs and carpets, I got down on my knees and cleaned baseboards, under tables, and even under the bed. I'll have to admit that Janet shamed my into this additional cleaning, but the house does look pretty nice now.

On my way to the gym this afternoon I stopped by the REI store again. I'm kind of fascinated by the stuff inside this store. I got a pair of mountaineering pants. I'll never go near a mountain with these clever pants, but they seemed perfect for walking dogs. The knees in my regular jeans wear out way too fast because I'm always kneeling down to get Dot's harness on and off or clean Dash's paws. Maybe these heavy duty, reinforced pants will last longer. Shoes wear out pretty fast too with two walks a day over rough terrain. I finally retired my old dog walking boots and started wearing a new pair this morning. The odd thing was that I'd had these new boots for over a year. A receipt in the box said I bought them on January 12, 2015. This is typical of me. I tend to wear old clothes as long as I possibly can, because they become more comfortable with age, but I always have a replacement waiting in reserve.

I wonder if I'm going to be able to see Mercury during the short window of opportunity I have between now and early February? I went outside around 6 AM this morning with a pair of binoculars when I knew the planet would be above the horizon, but once again it was obscured by clouds. For the past several days skies will be crystal clear around midnight, then around dawn clouds will roll in. Later in the day the clouds will burn off and it will become clear again. I'll try again tomorrow.

I need to remember to order printer ink tomorrow. The longer I wait, the harder it will be to unclog the printer. I'm not sure how busy I'll be tomorrow. If there aren't many websites to update, I might see if The Martian is available on Hulu. I currently watch old TV shows on Hulu, but haven't used it yet for pay per view movies. I've noticed that falling leaves are starting to accumulate on the front and back porch. It might be time to use the blower again. Janet couldn't find rubber snakes this weekend either, so she got a rubber lizard to protect her car. We'll see how that goes. The pooping birds are definitely still around. They made a mess of the lawn furniture yesterday. All this may sound insignificant and somewhat boring to you, but it's really not. I'm already looking forward to my banana and strawberry smoothie in the morning.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1481

I took the Christmas tree down today. The dogs got their first bath of the year as well. I guess 2014 has officially started. We didn't make it to the dog park after all. There were simply too many errands to run. We may not make it tomorrow either. According to the latest weather reports, it is supposed to be very cold tomorrow. I don't expect much sympathy from my friends up North however. Even though it is expected to be well below freezing tomorrow morning, we are still one of the warmer places in the country. I'm just glad I don't live in Minnesota right now.

The large printer is clogged again. This printer is so frustrating. It is too heavy for me to get it out to the car alone, so taking the thing to a repair shop is problematic at best. There is little point to having one of those repair people who come out to your office take a look. These guys have no magic bullet. They'll just say that I need a new print head and charge me $1500. What I really need is someone who will just change out all the ink lines. Unfortunately, this seemingly simple task is virtual impossible due to the way Epson designed the printer. I've really grown to hate this printer, but I still want it to work properly.

I'm beginning to wonder why I ever got AT&T U-Verse service. In theory, there are several hundred channels, but on closer inspection there is never anything worth watching. They play the same movies over and over again, so it doesn't take long before you've seen all the ones you like. My favorite stations are the same way. I used to like watching the NASA Channel until I discovered that they have a very small inventory of broadcast material that they play over and over and over again. All they want to do is put something on so they don't have dead air. I hate all the reality shows like Storage Wars, Duck Dynasty and Pawn Stars. There are literally dozens of channels filled with this crap. Even the oldies channels that play black and white episodes from The Twilight Zone and Perry Mason have run their course. I'm beginning to realize that I've seen all these shows before. It's almost as bad as when I used to watch Fawlty Towers on PBS and realized that I'd seen Basil try to catch Manuel's pet rat before the hotel inspectors could find it at least ten times. Maybe I ought to just read a book.

The leaves have all fallen off the Oak trees in the back yard by now. The thick carpet of brown leaves is actually kind of pretty and effectively covers all the dead grass. On the down side, it also covers the dog poop, which is much harder to find now. I stepped in some today and will probably continue to step in poo until Spring. I used to spend endless hours raking leaves, but I think I'll just leave them all on the ground until Spring and then hire someone to haul them away. I've finally decided that life is too short for raking leaves.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1447

Our favorite dog park is slowly but surely becoming just like all the other dog parks in Dallas. Aggressive dogs used to be a rarity at this park, but now we encounter one almost every week. More and more people don't even bother to clean up after their dogs and the once pristine grass is now a mine field of poop. Even though the park is huge, the people with nice dogs tend to congregate in one corner, staying far away from the unruly dogs and their inattentive owners in the other corner. The problem isn't the dogs. It's the people. It's always the people.

It's hard to believe it's December already. This entire year has gone by in a blur of uneventful days. I haven't really accomplished much this year. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself though. In today's topsy-turvy world, just staying afloat is a major accomplishment.

We put up the Christmas decorations this weekend. These items are so old and familiar now that the dogs don't pay any attention to them. We no longer worry about a dog knocking over the Christmas tree or wiping the coffee table clean with a casual wag of the tail. Dot and Dash ignored everything this year, with the exception of of two bright red Christmas blankets we got for each of their dog beds. They immediately knew the blankets were for them, and they approved.

Although Sunday may be a bad day to go to the grocery store, it has turned out to be a great day to go to the gym. I love going to the gym on Sunday, because I practically have the cavernous hall to myself. There's no rush either. I can stay as long as I like, without any worries about being late for whatever is next on the agenda.

I guess I'm going to have to resign myself to printing something small every day. It seems wasteful to print a photo and just throw it away, but my Epson representative assures me that this will be far more economical than wasting tons of expensive ink every month trying to unclog the lines. When I asked the Epson folks what the secret was to keeping this temperamental printer running reliably in the future, they told me "Just use it. It was meant to be used." This makes perfect sense. It just doesn't suit my needs. I'd like a printer I can use to make a single huge, beautiful Giclée print once every three or four months. My printer wasn't designed to do this. It was meant to be used in a production environment every day.

Nest week looks busy already. There are three new articles that need to be completed before the end of the week and a brand new website that needs to go live before the end of the year. There are doctors appointments and vet appointments on the calendar as well. One thing I won't be doing this month is Christmas shopping at the mall. When I discovered a few years ago that you could take care of everything with a few clicks on Amazon, that was the end of the mall. The only thing I go to the shopping mall for anymore is a haircut. I haven't figured out how to get a haircut on Amazon yet.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1446

It's hard for me to remember what day it is on holiday weekends. Since I did most of my regular weekend chores yesterday, there was little for me to do today. With Thanksgiving out of the way, it was time to go looking for the Christmas decorations at the storage warehouse. I'm always amazed at how neat and tidy the warehouse looks in comparison to our house. I wish my office looked as nice as my storage warehouse. Maybe it would if everything in the office remained untouched for months at a time.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that doing things almost inevitably creates a mess. Doing things with dogs creates an even bigger mess.  I don't help matters by being such a pack rat either. Almost everything in my tidy storage warehouse came out of my messy office. It's hard to believe that I have removed so much stuff from the office and it still looks full.

The weather was so warm today that I decided to wash the car. I like washing the car. It is a simple task with tangible results. Getting my large format printer working again is a much more difficult task. I've been using the supplies that UPS finally delivered with mixed results. I think I'll eventually be able to clear the clogged lines, but it is almost certain that I will use up all my ink in the process. I'm beginning to wonder if there's a point to this madness. I feel the same way about the watches I've collected. At some point in the distant past they all worked. Now, the batteries in the watches with quartz movements are all dead and many of the mechanical watches need cleaning. I took three of these watches to my watchmaker over two years ago for service. They still aren't done. These watches are still making better progress than the repairs on my Citroën Maserati. That car has been in the shop for over nine years.

My possessions are literally screaming at me to simplify my life. I won't live long enough to replace all the dead batteries,  re-solder all the loose wires, and clean all the gunk out of various dirty fuel lines. Mechanical things make me happy, but why do they always break? Oddly, things seem to deteriorate whether you use them of not. Batteries corrode and leak inside of old tape recorders. Gas goes bad and won't even ignite after several seasons of sitting in the fuel tank of an unused rototiller. Radiator hoses crack and break even if the car they're connected to is sitting on blocks inside a garage.

What's a boy to do? I don't need to be reminded that it's all ashes to ashes and dust to dust in the end. My own body has been telling me that for years. All is not lost though. There's actually a smile on my face right now. As I was writing this somewhat gloomy missive, I received a message on the printer display panel that the lines are clear. The printer lives!

Belle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day