Day 3792

I got my second of two Shingles shots today. I was a little late, but still well within the recommended time period. I was initially going to postpone this injection until things returned to normal, but now it appears that normal is out the window. My pharmacist gave me the usual warning about side effects. "I didn't have any side effects with the first vaccination," I said. "Well, you might this time," the pharmacist told me. So, what are the most common side effects you might experience after getting a Shingles shot? Fever and flu-like symptoms. Great. That's exactly what I need at this moment in time.

I mainly got the shot today because I have my annual physical exam tomorrow and the injection costs twice as much at a doctor's office. Why? Bureaucratic nonsense. The Shingles vaccine is classified as a prescription drug and most healthcare providers haven't set up billing systems to file claims through prescription drug plans. So if you end up getting vaccinated at your doctor's office, you are required to pay the full retail cost of the vaccine. Why isn't the Shingles vaccine classified as a necessary preventive service under Medicare Part B like flu and pneumonia vaccines? Your guess is as good as mine. Oh, well. The deed is done. Hopefully, my doctor won't turn me away if I have a fever tomorrow morning.

When the doctor's office called to remind me of my appointment tomorrow, they went over their new post-pandemic procedures. They weren't as bad as I expected. No doctors wearing spacesuits or anything drastic. I'll need to wear a mask and they take your temperature at the front door before you enter. That's it. No valet parking anymore either.

We got caught in the rain again while we were walking Dawn this morning. Timing these Spring storms is tricky. After looking at the weather radar, we thought we'd have plenty of time to take a shorter walk. Wrong. We got wet, but luckily we weren't that far from a picnic shelter when the rain started. We waited for about fifteen minutes for the storm to pass while we were inside the shelter and then continued our walk. I'm so glad that Dawn isn't afraid of storms. Thunder and lightning doesn't seem to bother her at all.

Since I've been successful with my first two computer upgrades, I asked Janet if she wanted me to fix her computer as well. She's been telling me that she can't go to several websites she needs. It turned out that she just had an ancient browser installed. The system was pretty old too, but I left that alone. The system seemed to be working fine. My rule of thumb is if it's not broke, don't fix it unless you are really, really bored. After installing a modern browser, everything seems to work fine.

I have to fast tomorrow since the doctor will be doing new bloodwork. With an early morning appointment I won't be able to enjoy my morning smoothie. Janet will probably have to walk Dawn while I'm gone. It's weird that even tiny changes in my personal schedule bother me. Most of the huge sweeping changes imposed by the pandemic I don't even notice. For the most part, my life in the slow lane is just the same.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3787

Oops. My second computer upgrade didn't go as smoothly as the first. I had to remove the battery to exchange the hard drive in my laptop with a new solid state drive that arrived this morning. When I reassembled everything and put the computer back together, the battery appeared to be dead. The computer wouldn't start at all. I plugged it into an AC power source and got a message saying "replace battery now." WTF? I know the battery is good. After doing some research on Apple forums, I discovered that the battery management system needs to be recalibrated whenever a new battery is installed. I didn't install a new battery, but I did unplug it, so the computer probably thought the battery was new when I plugged the cable into the logic board again. The calibration process seems way more complex than it should be and for all I know, the battery might be bad anyway. What a pain. I wish they had mentioned this little wrinkle when I watched the installation video yesterday.

I thought I might actually have a new website job today, but it wasn't meant to be. A friend of mine recently bought a company which included an existing website and he needed to modify it to reflect new ownership. I gave the guy a call to see if I could help, but didn't have the heart to charge him for something I knew he could do himself. I guided him through the process of transferring domains and making simple website edits over the phone and in less than an hour the problem had been solved. Maybe I have mellowed with age, but I hate it when people try to make something easy appear difficult. This type of thing happens all the time with everything from appliance repairs to high priced consultants. Life is too short to inflate your own worth. I'm lazy. If something is easy, I'll tell you in hopes that you'll leave me alone and do the job yourself. I always hope that others will treat me the same way.

We went back to walking Dawn before breakfast this morning. I like these early morning walks but I'm not as hungry as I usually am when we return. I thought I would have a bigger appetite after a long walk, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I'm going to have to figure out how to make a smaller smoothie without changing the taste. It took me a long time to get exactly the right mix of ingredients. It's weird that I'm actually thinking about this. I guess it shows that I'm adverse to changes of any kind. The early walks will probably get even earlier in the months ahead. It's the only way we can give Dawn the exercise she needs without overheating her. The heat isn't kind to Janet and I either. We're still having beautiful Spring weather, but around mid-afternoon I can tell that Summer is on the way.

I just heard thunder off in the distance. I looked at the weather radar and a line of storms are headed our way. We've certainly had a lot of rain this Spring. Every time I manage to get the roof dried out, it rains again. You'd think that with all this rain we'd have lots of lush grass in the back yard. Nope. There are still huge bare spots. I hate to re-sod the yard before the tree guy comes to remove the damaged Oak tree. On the other hand, I hate to call the tree guy because I know he'll knock what remains of the greenhouse over and probably break my new security light as well. It's all a complicated mess. It's easier to do nothing, but that's not a good solution either. Every time I hear thunder I worry that the tree may fall on its own.

It's hard to believe the week is almost over again. The trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm getting ready for another day of pandemic induced boredom. Hopefully, I won't break any more computers. I need to learn to leave things alone.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3784

I'm disappointed. My application for media accreditation to cover the Space X Demo-2 launch was denied. NASA was telling the truth when they said that media access to this launch would be severely limited. I know people who always seem able to get a press pass who got rejected as well. NASA did send me a nice letter explaining their guidelines for narrowing down their list of applicants, but it didn't help me much. Credentials were issued based on the number of people that NASA thought they could safely shelter in place at the press site in case of an emergency. Major media organizations that lease their own building at Kennedy Space Center got preference because they could shelter in place at their own buildings. I'm sure the small group of reporters who seems to have covered every launch since the 1970's received preferential treatment as well. It will be a very small group of people at this historic launch though. The press site building is small and isn't going to hold many people when they are spaced six feet apart. Oh, well. That's how it goes these days. I'll try again when the Mars 2020 lander launches later this Summer.

So many things completely baffle me about the new normal. Road construction crews had two months to fix the roads here in Dallas while nobody was driving. It would have been the perfect time to fill potholes and get caught up on things. Nope. Road construction ground to a halt last month. Now that our governor has declared the state reopened again, the construction crews are back, blocking traffic and making a mess of things as usual.

I couldn't get the deposit feature to work when I was setting up online banking yesterday, so I had to drive to the bank and wait in the drive-thru line again. Usually there is a little canister that you put your deposits in and then it gets pneumatically sucked thru a tube to the bank. The little canister was gone today. I guess the bank tellers didn't want to touch it. We were told to place our deposits directly in the tube. I wonder how many little pieces of paper got lost today?

We took our walk with Dawn before breakfast again this morning. The place was virtually empty. Either a lot of people have gone back to work, or old habits die hard. The parks are usually crowded during the weekend, but what's the difference between Sunday and Monday these days? Not much, as far as I can tell. At least it was nice to have the park to ourselves again. The pandemic may have taught people to wash their hands but it certainly hasn't stopped people from littering. There was a ton of trash in the park this morning, left behind by Sunday picnickers. Dawn snatched a half eaten hot dog off the ground and I had to get it out of her mouth before she swallowed it. It's not that I worry about hot dogs so much. It's just that there are too many people who intentionally leave poisoned food, or food with razor blades inside for animals to find. You can't trust anything these days.

I ordered the parts I need to upgrade my laptop this afternoon. Do I really need a super fast laptop if I can't go anywhere? Probably not. It's something to do though. At this point anything seems better than cleaning the office.

Crosby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3774

We walked Dawn before breakfast this morning. The weather was cool and the walk was enjoyable. As we begin to enter the Summer months, I think our walks are going to get earlier and earlier. It's the only way to beat the heat. The walks will probably get shorter too. You got to be careful with dogs during Texas summers. Dogs can't sweat and can easily succumb to heatstroke. Dawn does pretty well now, but she's not a young dog. We don't want to push her too hard.

My computer upgrade went perfectly. All the data transferred to the new drive overnight and my applications seem to work. I did have to register Microsoft Office again, but I've done that so many times that it wasn't a big deal. Everything works now and I don't have to subscribe to Office 365. It's weird that the computer is silent. I've gotten used to the noise over the years. There is no whirring noise from the hard drive anymore and since the computer runs cooler with the solid state drive, I rarely hear the fan. I was pleased that I was able to complete this complicated repair. I saved over $200 as well. Replacing a hard drive is no big deal, but taking the entire computer apart to get to the hard drive is. Since I was able to do all this without breaking anything, I might try putting a solid state drive in my laptop too. These SSD drives are really fast.

The city is running behind on picking up bulky trash in our neighborhood, so I thought I'd add a little more to our pile on the curb while I had the chance. I resumed cleaning out the tool shed this afternoon and managed to find quite a few things I didn't need. I seem to have a terrible habit of buying supplies for repairs I never end up making. I found a lot of tile grout and sheetrock mud today along with about a dozen tubes of various kinds of caulking. All this stuff had gone bad from sitting on a shelf in the damp tool shed for many years. I must have been much more ambitious about fixing things back in the day. I wouldn't even bother buying this stuff today.

I found a canister of helium for blowing up party balloons and wondered why I bought it. We never have parties. It must have been for some Dalmatian adoption event. I thought about keeping the helium because it is a rare commodity these days. In the spirit of practicality, I threw it away. I have no need for helium.

I still haven't gotten my stimulus money. It's not a big deal, but I wonder who decides when the payments get made. 80 million people got their money on the first day, but it's crickets for a lot of the rest of us. I've heard that some people who are eligible might have to wait months. With my luck, the country will be up and running again before my turn comes and they'll just cancel the program. I'm never very optimistic about getting anything from the government.

It's time to get supplies again. I basically use the car just once a week now. The grocery trips aren't long now. We've basically got plenty of everything. I go to the store mostly for fresh fruits and vegetables now. We've got enough paper towels, toilet paper, bottled water, and soap to last us until next winter. I don't think I'll need gas this week either. A tank of gas lasts a long time now.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3772

We walked really early this morning to avoid the rain. Although there were all sorts of severe weather warnings, it never rained. It's hard to predict anything these days. There was virtually nobody in the park this morning. I don't think overcrowding is going to be a problem until we get a warm, sunny weekend. Personally, I like the overcast days. Everything looks greener and it's easier to photograph things without hard shadows. I never understood sitting out in the sun anyway. It's terrible on your skin.

Another box of disposable masks arrived today. We're going to have plenty of masks. I'm learning not to sneeze in public. It's not an easy thing to do when you have terrible Spring allergies. Maybe mind over matter actually works. I still have hay fever and sneeze a lot in the house, but almost never do when I'm away. If things get much worse, I'm afraid they're going to start arresting people who sneeze. Definitely don't want that.

I read an interesting article today where a leading pulmonologist said that if everybody started measuring their oxygen saturation levels using one of those inexpensive Fingertip Pulse Oximeters at home, a lot of coronavirus complications could be avoided. Evidently blood oxygen levels start going down way before you develop pneumonia and he thought that a reduction in blood oxygen might be a reliable early sign that you have the virus. Sounds good to me. It makes sense that if you began treatment before you became deathly ill, you would have a lot better chance of recovering. Maybe I'll get one of these little things that fits on your fingertip. My doctor always uses one whenever I get an exam and they aren't expensive. Actually my Apple Watch is supposed to have this capability after the next system upgrade. Might not be a good idea to wait that long though. By the time this is over, I'll probably have a closet full of high-tech devices to keep me healthy.

I reviewed the installation video for the solid state drive this afternoon and I'm a little more confident that I can do the complicated computer upgrade myself. I pre-assembled a few of the components today and will be ready to take the computer apart tomorrow. I wish this computer was a traditional tower where it was easy to access the internal components directly. I've replace processors, hard drives, DVD drives, memory, and other things in computers many times before. This is different though. I've got to remove the glass front protecting the screen and then remove the entire screen itself to gain access to the broken hard drive inside. There are lots of tiny wires that have to be removed and replaced without breaking them. In theory, this repair should be easy if I'm slow and methodical. I'm kind of clumsy though. It's a miracle I haven't fallen off the roof yet.

I keep checking my e-mail to see if there is any news about media accreditation for the Crew Dragon launch at Kennedy Space Center or about the status of my McDonald Observatory article at Sky and Telescope. In my own little world these things are still important. I don't want to bother people because I know they have more important things on their mind. It's still hard to be patient though. Maybe I'll hear something soon.

Until then, I'll continue drinking my morning smoothie, taking Dawn on long walks, patching the roof, photographing Spring flowers, and writing the blog. It's amazing how quickly little things like this can fill up a day. I could write a book about sheltering in place. I doubt that you'd read it though. Most of you want to get back to normal. For me, this is normal.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3771

I think I'm living in Bizarro World. High tech electronic suppliers who I've worked with for years are now sending me e-mails saying that they've got masks. What the hell. These guys sell computer networking equipment. I went ahead and bought some masks though. These guys are reliable and maybe they know something I don't.

Everybody is wearing a mask now, but nobody is wearing it right. When I went to the post office today I saw a guy pull a dirty mask out of his back pocket, put it on as he went inside and then put it back in his pocket again as soon as he left the building. I've seen people take their masks off to sneeze and then put them back on again. I saw two guys in a bass boat wearing masks while they were fishing alone out in the middle of the lake. WTF? Were the fish going to give them the virus? I don't think anyone's even heard of a sterile field. Does all this even matter? We probably won't know for another two years.

I always wear a mask when I'm out in public. I don't really think the Home Depot sanding masks I wear protect me or others from anything, but they help me blend in and be inconspicuous. Who ever thought that wearing a mask in broad daylight would make you look inconspicuous? These days you want to blend in and become invisible. Like I said, it's a Bizarro World out there. I've always been much more worried about social unrest than about the virus itself. The last thing I want is some stressed out mom rolling down the window of her Mercedes and accusing me of putting her grandma at risk.

I think it's OK to go without a mask when you're walking your dog in a huge wooded park. We don't wear masks when we walk Dawn. Don't you dare leave your mask behind when you go to the grocery store though. You're asking for trouble. I think the people I see who are wearing masks out in the park when they are at least three hundred yards away from another person are missing the point. Fresh air isn't going to kill you. Going to the grocery store every day because you keep running out of cookies might not be so smart though.

I'm not sure if I ever want to get in a crowded elevator again. A completely full Southwest Airlines flight might make me a little nervous too. If I make the cut and end up getting a press pass for the Crew Dragon launch at the end of May I won't worry about flying though. I imagine the planes that are still in the air will be pretty empty.

The parts to upgrade my computer came today. Usually this would be a signature required delivery but the FedEx guy didn't want to get anywhere near me. The package just appeared on my doorstep sometime during the day. Usually I don't like to leave packages out on the doorstep, but this was the only option. The FedEx offices are closed to the public now. It might take me several days to work up my nerve to take the computer apart and make the repairs. I think I need to watch the YouTube upgrade video again.

Janet walked Dawn by herself this morning because I had to stay home and wait for the FedEx guy. Of course, I could have gone anywhere today. The delivery didn't arrive until 7 PM. Dawn continues to do great. There is no real need to train her. If anything, she is training us. So far, Dawn is one of the few good things that has happened during the pandemic. You need a good dog nearby when the world is falling apart

Joe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3767

I woke up early this morning. The last thing I needed was an extra two hours in an already eventless day. I remembered that Jupiter, Saturn and Mars were all located very close to the moon this morning. and went outside to take a look. Sadly, it was cloudy and I saw nothing. I did notice a surprising amount of early morning traffic though. I think the natives are getting restless.

I was even more surprised to learn today that NASA has set a launch date of May 27 for the Crew Dragon mission. I was almost certain that this would get postponed because of the virus. I wonder if my press credentials will get approved. I've already passed the security verification stage of the approval process, but that's only half the battle. I bet that NASA is still trying to decide how many members of the press corps to invite since everything is still so restricted at Kennedy Space Center. Hopefully, I'll hear something soon. I'm definitely going to go to the launch if I get media accreditation.

I bit the bullet and ordered everything I need to upgrade my computer with a super fast two terabyte solid state drive. I've watched the installation video three times now and think I can do this upgrade myself. I'm a bit clumsy, but I'm also slow and methodical and follow directions well. At any rate, doing this myself seems a lot easier than dealing with a computer repair shop during the lockdown. I've called several repair shops and I got the impression that my computer might sit there for weeks. Things aren't running very smoothly in the retail world right now.

We have a new rule in Dallas that everyone must wear a mask when they are out in public. It was cold today, so when I went to the post office with a stack of bills and letters, I wore a black wool skull cap and leather gloves with my new black mask. I looked exactly like a bank robber. I think the city finally realized that if they were demanding us to wear masks when none were available, they would have to open the fabric stores they closed last week. I heard on the news this afternoon that fabric stores are back open again. Janet has some nice Dalmatian print fabric she was going to use to make dog scarves. All we need is some Pellon from the fabric store for the middle layer of the mask and we'll be sporting some spiffy Dalmatian themed masks next week.

I think seniors aren't getting their stimulus money until May. I guess that makes sense. There are a lot of people who need the money a lot faster than we do. I still really feel sorry for the restaurant owners. The really got screwed. All the yard maintenance crews, tree trimmers, and roofers in our part of town seem busier than ever. Restaurant are dead in the water though. They all have signs saying they still do take-out, but they aren't very busy. A lot of local restaurants aren't going to survive. I wonder who decides what is essential and what isn't. I'm still amazed at how many new television commercials I'm seeing. Advertising agencies must be adding a third shift.

I'm glad that Dawn enjoys our long walks. Walking is the high point in our day. There certainly isn't much else to do. Walking is healthy and is usually a solitary experience. I can't believe a number of states have banned taking walks outside. Some states won't even let you walk your dog. As far as I'm concerned this is a good time to be a Texan. We're doing a good job of containing the virus without going batshit crazy. I never realized all those years ago what a smart move it was to leave Seattle.

Bella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3147

You know you've finally come to terms with your dog's incontinence when he poops in the bed and you're just happy that the poop is firm. I thought I smelled something last night, but I was really tired and Dash farts a lot anyway. I didn't notice that he'd pooped in the bed until morning. This was a first and I hope it isn't a sign of things to come. At least the mess was on Dash's dog blanket and it was easy to clean up.

We've been through this before with Dot.There was a period of time between when she initially became incontinent and when she lost the ability to climb on the bed that we were doing a lot of laundry. I hope Dash's instinct to head for the back door continues for a while. It makes life a lot easier.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to write on Monday. Nothing ever happens on Monday. The big event of the day was putting the new vehicle registration sticker on my windshield. If the state doesn't need a safety inspection sticker anymore, I wonder why they still need a registration sticker? Probably it's just a different bureaucracy that's involved. I can tell that the carpel tunnel in my wrist has gotten worse. It was surprisingly difficult to position the sticker in the bottom corner of the windshield. It probably would have been easier if I wasn't such a perfectionist. The sticker had to be absolutely parallel.

Dash had a nice walk this morning, but as soon as we returned home, he seemed exhausted. We walked really slow and he seemed to be enjoying himself, but maybe we are overdoing things. It's hard to tell. Dash went to sleep while I was fixing my smoothie and didn't return to the kitchen to eat his own breakfast until 10:30 AM. He does still eat his meals, but there is no real schedule anymore. I just leave the food in his bowl and he eats when he's hungry.

It looks like I won't be able to upgrade my computers anymore. Apple just announced that it's new Mojave operating system won't run on any of the computers currently I have. Apparently, they are all too old. Apple is actively trying to make the operating system in their computers work more like their phones. Pretty soon your desktop computer is just going to be a big, giant iPhone. I guess a lot of people like this idea. Not me. I have a feeling that I'd probably be happier using Linux now. Apple is working way too hard to please the millennials.

I wonder if anything interesting will happen tomorrow. I need to write my sister and I should probably call the guitar store to see if the guitar that disappeared from the website actually sold. If it sold it would give me an excuse to drive over to the store and pick up a check. There's always naps. I took a long nap with Dash today. It wouldn't be difficult to do the same thing tomorrow.

Margo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2856

We tricked Dash into walking this morning. Janet walked with us down the alley and into the park. As soon as Dash started smelling interesting things in the park, he didn't even notice that Janet had turned around and gone back to the house to get ready for work. The rest of our walk was completely normal. It still seems odd that Dash hates to leave the house, but once our yard is out of sight he seems to enjoy himself. I'm probably the same way about vacations. It's like pulling teeth to get me to go on a vacation. I'll come up with every excuse in the book to avoid leaving home. Once the plane has left the runway, I'm fine. The only way to explain this is that I probably have the attention span of a dog. As soon as I'm somewhere new, I completely forget about the old.

The refrigerator part arrived at the repair shop today, but they won't be able to come out and install it until Monday. This means that I'll probably have to take the freezer section apart again and defrost the evaporator coil one more time this weekend. This sucks, but I'm really not surprised at the delay. Now, I have to decide whether to quietly install the new parts I ordered myself before the repairmen arrive, or ask them to install them for me. One way or another, I'm determined to get this refrigerator working again.

Janet's doctor isn't taking new patients anymore, but there are other doctors at the practice. I made an appointment to meet one of them next week. They call this initial visit a "meet and greet." I've had the same primary care physician for a long time now, but it's probably time for a chance. I'm definitely not getting any younger. I was so impressed at the quality of care Janet received during her cancer treatment that it seems crazy not to have access to the same type of care myself. I always used to think that Dot and Dash had much better doctors than I did. Maybe this new concierge practice will   put me in the same league with the care that Dash is receiving at the cancer center.

I wish I'd never upgraded my computer to Sierra. All my aging software worked perfectly with Mountain Lion. Now, I run into little snags and hiccups almost every day. The most irritating problem is that Dreamweaver won't save login information for web servers anymore. I have to manually enter user ID and password information every time I upload something. There are a lot of passwords to remember and if I forget them, I can't count on the clients to remember them either. Old Quicktime movies won't play anymore either. I would be tempted to reinstall Mountain Lion, except that it's usually not a good idea to go backwards. I'm sure that since I've changed hard drives when I upgraded the system, it would be almost impossible to return things to exactly the way they were. I also need to remember why I upgraded in the first place. My accounting software wasn't going to be supported anymore. In my line of work, you need Microsoft Word, you need Photoshop, and you need accounting software.

After I took today's mail to the post office, I stopped by a little neighborhood Cuban restaurant and picked up a Cuban Sandwich to go. Everyone seems to make a Cuban Sandwich a little differently. This one was supposed to be very authentic, but how would I know? I'd been curious about this restaurant, since it gets very good reviews. I drive by this place every week and it only took me a year to stop and order something. The sandwich was pretty good.

I can't decide whether to go out for breakfast tomorrow. I guess it will all depend on how much trouble it is to get Dash to take a walk.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2790

I finally went back up on the roof today. What a mess. In addition to the usual two inches of standing water, there were twigs and small branches everywhere. The neighbor's pecan tree is starting to drop nuts as well. As soon as I got things cleaned up, I called the roofer again. There are at least half a dozen new places where the elastomer coating has deteriorated or torn. I am so tired of water problems. Over the years, the vast majority of problems we've had with the house have been water related. There have been roof leaks, underground plumbing leaks, shower pan leaks, dishwasher leaks, and toilet leaks. Water leaks are inevitably followed by mold and mildew. I'm sick of it all. I wish there was a way to buy a house that came with a 100 year guarantee against any form of water damage.

I was finally able to contact the watchmaker who has had three of my watches for almost five years now. I told him that I had given up on him and that I would come by and pick up the broken timepieces. He immediately apologized for the lengthy delay and said that if I could give him one more month, he would have all three repaired. I have actually heard this before, but what have I got to lose. I can't even remember what these watches look like anymore. I'll call him again at the end of the summer.

It was still raining this morning when we woke up and although Dash had slept like a baby during last night's rain, he immediately became frightened when he heard a distant thunderclap. This complicated our morning routine, because Dash won't eat when he is scared. I like Dash to eat his breakfast before I start fixing mine, because as soon as he sees me fixing something, he immediately loses interest in what is in his bowl. I fooled him this morning. I got out a bunch of pots and pans as if I was fixing my own breakfast and then fixed his instead. He eagerly ate his meal, took his morning pills, and then wanted to go on a walk. I ended up eating pretty late this morning, but at least I got Dash walked before it started raining again.

The shower stall still leaks a little, but I think I made a huge improvement. The problem is that if there is any leak whatsoever, my repairs will ultimately fail. Moisture will gradually seep under the ceramic tiles again and cause the silicon caulk to come loose. I don't even care if the repair lasts forever. If the musty smell starts to go away and I don't have to mop up small puddles after I take a shower, I'm happy. When the repair disintegrates, I'll just fix things again.

I've just about resolved all my computer upgrade problems, but I still can't print on DVD's. I don't know why this bothers me so much. I haven't had a need to  make a label for a CD or DVD in almost a year. Nobody even uses DVD's anymore. Losing this capability still frustrates me. I have a printer that lets you print directly on blank discs and I used to use it a lot. Upgrading to Sierra has made this printer obsolete.

I'm helping Janet find a new iPad. It's surprising how hard it is to just go to a store and buy one of these things. Most stores, including the Apple Store, want you to buy online and then they'll ship it directly to you later. Depending on the configuration you choose, delivery can take from three days to over three weeks. It's a shame that stores don't carry much inventory anymore. Shopping was so much easier when you could go to a store and know that they'd have everything you needed right in the store.

I'm pretty confident that I have everything I need at home tomorrow. Dash has plenty of food. There's still a good supply of fresh fruit for my smoothie. There are enough leftovers from tonight's dinner to feed me tomorrow. I'm good. If I get really bored, there's always Netflix.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2784

I don't think I'll ever buy a gift card again. The gift card company keeps asking for more and more information. It's almost as if they think we're the perpetrators of a fraud rather than the victims of one. We keep providing all the information they ask for, but they don't seem that much closer to refunding our money. Why this investigation process should take ninety days is beyond me. I'm sure they know exactly what happened. There is an entire Consumer Reports website about gift card fraud. The sad truth is that this type of thing has become so commonplace that the company doesn't particularly care. Janet and I are just a statistic.

I like things to be predictable. That's a big reason why the gift card fraud is so frustrating. I've always thought of gift cards as a simple and convenient way to give someone money. If you have to worry about someone else gaining access to the card before you even use it, it suddenly isn't simple or convenient anymore. It's just one more giant hassle in a world full of giant hassles.

I wish Dash knew how much I want life to be predictable. He's driving me crazy by changing his food preference every day. Some days he likes the Hill's I/D that we used to feed Dot. Other days he won't touch the stuff and prefers the Hills I/D Low Fat that the vet wanted us to feed him when his triglycerides were through the roof. Usually, he wants a little wet food mixed in with the dry, but not always. It's really hard to predict what he's going to eat on any given day. Today, I split his dinner into two parts, because he wouldn't wait until 5 PM. He ate the first part of his dinner with gusto. An hour and a half later, he refused to touch exactly the same thing. I removed the food from his bowl, ate my own dinner, and then put Dash's dinner in a different type of bowl. I made sure he saw me stirring the bowl with a spoon and pretending to add new ingredients. This subterfuge did the trick. Dash finished his meal.

There was very little work to do today, so I used my time trying to find replacements for some of the software that refuses to work after I upgraded my operating system to Sierra. My computer used to be able to play Windows videos, but not anymore. Neither Apple of Microsoft seems to have any interest in being compatible with each other these days. It's a shame. Since most of my clients are still on Windows systems, I sometimes have a need to open and play Windows audio and video files. I did a Google search, downloaded a few open source Windows media players, but none of them worked. That's the trouble with Google. Something that got rave reviews in 2013 might not work at all in 2017.

At least computer problems aren't messy. I'm starting to think our shower is leaking again, and that is messy. We had a shower pan leak once before and we pretty much had to rip out the entire shower and re-tile everything to fix the problem. Maybe it isn't as bad this time, but there is a distinct musty smell in the bathroom that wasn't there before. I hate water problems because you can't ignore them. If you ignore a leak, it will eventually ruin everything.

The new grass is already starting to die. It's received plenty of water and it seems to be getting enough sunlight too. It definitely shouldn't be looking spotty and thin so soon. I'll call the landscaper to come take a look, but I doubt that he'll do anything. He'll just say that I did something wrong and that it's my fault. Somehow, it's always my fault.

Lilly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2753

Janet and I have to do all our errands together now. She can drive, but her doctors don't want her to lift things. I've got one good hand for lifting things, but I can't drive. Together, we make a pretty decent team, although I still don't understand why we are doing our shopping on busy weekends. When we were out today, I saw a couple of old people who had personal assistants. "We need one of those," I said.

I'll be glad when I don't have to wear the splint on my wrist anymore. I wish I had the forethought to fall on my right wrist instead of my left. I am so totally left handed that it's hard to even write my name or hold a fork these days. I am getting better though. The swelling is starting to subside on my left leg and I find it easier to sleep now. I'm going to have to revise my position on pain pills a bit. They do have their uses. When I took a Tylenol-Codeine pill before I went to sleep last night, it really helped dull the pain in my wrist. I may not even need a pill tonight. The pain is not as bad today.

Dash is a lazy dog and loves to nap, but I think even he is becoming bored with us. Janet and I both get tired so easily now. After we finished our shopping today, we both went back to bed and went to sleep for two hours. Although it is becoming easier to walk, I still can't be on my feet for too long. Moving around a bit is good for circulation, but moving around too much is bad. You really have to stay focused on healing. You can't pretend that everything is fine when it isn't.

This whole incident has made me realize that you have to start taking falls seriously as you get older. I've fallen many times before. I've even landed on my wrists before. It's kind of natural to try to break a fall with your hands. Although I've fallen hundreds of times for dozens of reasons, I've never put myself out of commission like this before. I'm going to have to be real careful when I go up on the roof. Old, brittle bones aren't very forgiving.

The animal control people were back in the neighborhood today. They were still looking for the owners of the dog who bit me. Janet and I have told them several times that the owners are out of town, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. When the guy knocked on my door again this morning, I gave him the owners cell phone numbers and asked him to please call them directly. Just knocking randomly on neighbor's doors and asking people if they'd seen the owners isn't going to prove anything. It's weird that animal control is ruthlessly efficient, but I can't get the sanitation people to empty my trash. When I look at how city government functions, it's no surprise that our national government doesn't work very well either.

My newly upgraded computer seems to be working well. Even though the cloned hard drive was supposed to be absolutely identical to the old drive, I'm noticing all sorts of little differences. The computer seems to know that there's been an organ transplant. Some icons look different now and the computer seems to want to go into hibernation and disconnect from WiFi when it has been sitting idle for more than thirty minutes. Maybe this is a good thing. The computer is idle quite a bit. Lord knows how much electricity I've wasted over the years.

I'll be glad when I can get back to walking Dash again. I miss our early morning walks. One of the best signs that I've been totally out of it lately is that the battery on my fitness tracker has been dead for three days and I only noticed this morning. I'll try to keep the battery charged, but it's going to take a while to get back to taking 10,000 steps a day.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2745

Today was busy. I started things out by going someplace new for breakfast. The food was good, but a bit weird. I thought when I ordered biscuits and gravy. scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns, they would all come separately on a big plate. Nope. Everything was served mashed together in a bowl and covered with melted cheese. I guess this was some sort of ultimate Texas gutbuster of a meal. To my credit, I finished everything, but I don't think I'll be back for a while. This was too strange for me.

I took Janet to see one of her doctors this afternoon and she got good news. The pathology report came back and apparently the surgeon had good margins on the malignant mass that was removed and it appears there will be no need for additional chemo or radiation treatments. The oncologist will have the final say on this, but everything is looking good at this point.

Since Janet is getting cabin fever sitting at home, I took her shopping after she finished her doctors appointment. The tubes actually hide pretty well under loose clothing. Unlike me, Janet actually likes to shop for groceries. We went to several stores where she picked out a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. As a reward for being her chauffeur for the day, she bought me some barbecued ribs at one of the city's better barbecue joints on the way home.

Dash wasn't happy at being left alone for so long, but he perked up quickly when I started fixing his dinner as soon as we returned. It was good that he got a short walk this morning, because it was way too hot for him this afternoon. I tried to take him down to the park around sunset, but he wasn't interested. Dash knows best. I never try to force a dog to walk in the summer. They probably have a much better instinct for what can cause heatstroke than I do.

Today was the day I upgraded all my computers to the Sierra operating system. The slow upgrade process went on for most of the day while I was away. It's a good thing I wasn't around to see the progress bar on the screen say "thirty minutes remaining" for at least three hours. The download and install were successful and only five applications turned out to be incompatible. That's actually pretty good for an Apple system upgrade. I installed the new accounting software I got yesterday, deleted the incompatible applications, and I'm back in business. Supposedly I can talk to Siri on my computer now and share files with my phone and iPad. Knowing me, I'll probably never use any of these new features. I was happy enough with the computer I was using fifteen years ago.

Although it has seemed like Saturday all week, tomorrow really is Saturday. There will be more errands to run and several chores that can't be ignored much longer. It's time to mow the grass again and I really need to see how much standing water still remains on the roof. When it's hot, the water evaporates fairly quickly, so hopefully I won't need to do a lot of sweeping.

I know some of you would like to see my gutbuster breakfast, but I think I'll show you a tiny bunny instead. There are lots of rabbits in the park this summer. Maybe this means the coyotes have moved on to greener pastures.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2712

I've lost all sense of time. Dot was restless last night and I ended up walking her around and around in the back yard around 1 AM. I think she wanted a walk, but I'm not walking down the street with a crippled dog in the middle of the night in Dallas. Eventually Dot got tired and we all went to sleep. I don't know why she is always restless right around the time I want to go to bed. Dot is usually calm and peaceful after her first and second set of pills. After her third set of pills around 10 to 11 PM, she becomes active and restless. I don't think she is in pain. She is just restless for about two hours every night. Unfortunately those two hours are always after midnight.

I didn't bother going to the gym today. It was a gray, rainy day and I had plenty to keep me busy at home anyway. Getting Dot to eat has become an all day challenge. You can't force her to eat, so you have to take advantage of those brief moments when she is interested in food. I actually got her to eat something this morning which is a rarity these days. A little later in the day, I discovered that she wanted to eat my leftover bacon from breakfast. I hand fed her little pieces of bacon and since my hands smelled like bacon, I was able to put other food in my hands and she'd eat that too. Eventually, Dot ended up eating almost a full cup of dry kibble in between bites of bacon. In hope that this trick might work again tomorrow, we cooked up some more bacon so it would be ready if we needed it again.

I changed the sheets on the bed and washed a few rugs that got peed on today. My fitness tracker refused to sync with my phone this morning, so I looked for a solution on Google. As usual, there were other people who were having exactly the same problem and it only took about five minutes to find a fix. Since that reset went relatively smoothly, I decided to go ahead and update the system on my phone ad iPad. I also unclogged the large format printer for the first time in weeks. Electronic housekeeping seems to take more time than real housekeeping these days. There's always something that needs to be updated or fixed. Meanwhile in the real world, I still need to vacuum.

It was so humid today that I've already had to empty the dehumidifier bucket twice. I don't know how we lived so long without the dehumidifier. It's ugly and a bit noisy, but we don't have much of a problem with mold and mildew anymore. Now I need to find a solution for slow drains. It might be time to call Roto-Rooter again. All our drains seem slow.

I have a feeling that the house will remain a disaster as long as I'm dealing with Dot. It takes an enormous amount of time to make sure she's comfortable, is still getting a little bit of exercise, and is eating enough to keep from starving. I genuinely think this is what Dot wants, but I can't read a dog's mind. Although Dot is very weak and has a ton of serious problems, she certainly seems to want to stay with us for a while longer. 

Tomorrow is a holiday. It's a luxury to be able to sleep in two mornings in a row. The downside of this extra sleep is that Dot pees in her bed. We were prepared though. This morning, I removed the wet puppy training pad, cleaned her up a bit, and placed a fresh pad under her butt without even waking her up. Then I went back to bed.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2542

I need to rearrange how I spend my day. I can't change getting up too early. We have to get the dogs fed and walked before Janet goes to work. I can't change going to bed too late either. I'm usually the only one still awake to take Dot out to pee at the end of the day. In between, there's still a little flexibility. I need to try and get anything important done between 9 AM and 2 PM. So far, it's a pretty safe bet that this is when both dogs will be asleep. After they eat their rice cake for lunch, all bets are off. I don't know where Dot got her new burst of energy, but she's active almost all afternoon now.

I wish she was steady enough on her feet so that I could just let her wander around on her own. Unfortunately, she's not steady at all. She falls down a lot, gets stuck behind furniture, and poops when you least expect it. Afternoons are a three ring circus, but it's good to see Dot active again.

My project for today was seeing which applications still worked on the laptop after the big system upgrade a couple of days ago. I haven't tested everything, but so far I've only had to delete four applications. That's actually pretty good. There isn't room on my desk to set up a second computer, so I had to work on the kitchen table. The dogs didn't like this. If I'm in the kitchen, they think it's time to be fed. If I ignore them for too long, they both start barking. Needless to say, I didn't get as much accomplished as I'd hoped. Maybe I've done enough. Microsoft Word works. Final Cut Pro works. And I think Pro Tools works. The web browser and e-mail work too. That's all I ever used to use when I was on the road anyway,

I meant to get the water off the roof today, but I didn't get around to it this morning when the dogs were sleeping. This afternoon, Dot would never settle down long enough for me to get anything done. I didn't want to be up on the roof if she fell or pooped somewhere. It probably wouldn't have even mattered if I was up on the roof. Dot wandered into the office just before dinner time and promptly pooped all over the carpet. I'd taken her outside at least ten times today, including once five minutes before she messed up the carpet. Why she couldn't poop while she was outside remains a mystery to me. Basically, I'm so tired of cleaning up poop I could scream.

The humidity was actually lower outside than in the house today. This is a rarity. The weather was nice, so I opened the windows and let the house air out. 25% relative humidity is a lot nicer than 85% relative humidity. I hope the dry weather continues. It would be nice to spend the Winter without worrying about mold.

I started charging batteries for this weekend's photo shoot. Tomorrow I'll unpack the strobes and make sure that they still work. I've got all this equipment, but mostly I just take pictures with my phone these days. I thought oday's sunrise was worth putting on my camera roll. Dash didn't even notice the beautiful sunrise. As always, he had his nose to the ground, trying to sniff out nasty things to eat.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2515

Today was so disorganized that it was almost time for lunch by the time I finally finished breakfast. I wasn't able to get Dot outside in time this morning, so we started the day with lots of rugs to wash. I can't decide whether cleaning up pee or poop is worse. When Dot looses bladder control on the way out the door, the mess certainly covers a wider swath of territory. Dash decided to take a fairly long walk this morning, but that only put me further behind. Dot was sleeping peacefully when I started breakfast, but Dash decided that he wasn't getting enough bananas and began barking loudly enough to wake her up. Since Dot is almost deaf, it takes a pretty loud bark to get her riled up. Basically, this morning was a three ring circus.

My watch keeps telling me to stop and take a deep breath. This is so irritating that I almost feel like learning how to use Siri, just so I can tell the watch to shut up. I'm tired of the continual barrage of software upgrades from Apple. Most are designed for newer hardware and tend to make older equipment like mine run worse. This fact doesn't keep Apple from annoying me with upgrade notices though. I'm still running Mountain Lion on my office computers. I think this was the last good system they made. I wish I'd stopped upgrading my phone. It hasn't been stable and reliable since IOS 7.

When I did finally get around to turning on my computer today, I was greeted with a complicated website update request. I dread updating this particular website, because I didn't design it and still can't really figure out how it works. The client should have kept the original designer, because every time I look at this site, it gives me a headache. I think I made most of the changes correctly, but one or two things still have be puzzled.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. I always worry about the first rain after a roof repair. Will the repair survive?  Will it perform well?  You never know. I really hope that everything holds up as promised, because Lord knows when I'll be able to get these roofers to come out again.

I can't figure out whether Dot is feeling better or worse. She's more active than she was a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure what this means. She wants to move around more often, but she isn't any stronger. Sometimes when I take her outside, she just stares off into space and doesn't seem to know where she is. There are other times when her brain appears to be working just fine. It's pretty obvious that she's beginning to show some signs of senility. I try to be kind and patient with Dot and hope that someone will return the favor when I become senile. Losing your mind is a terrible thing.

I wonder why my appetite keeps decreasing?  I'm just not as hungry as I used to be. It's easy to eat less for dinner, but I'm having a hard time with my breakfast smoothie. After months of experimenting, I finally got the taste just right. Now I have to figure out how to adjust the ingredients without changing the taste. It's harder than it seems. If I stop using a whole banana, what do I do with the leftover part? The easy answer would be to just eat it, but that would defeat the whole purpose. I'm trying to eat less.

Leftover bananas and dog poop are what I worry about these days. You guys can worry about who's going to start World War III. 

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 671

Life is certainly a long and winding road. Every time I start to feel like I've arrived at a destination, somebody moves the finish line. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get caught up with work, or feel financially secure, or get all my health issues resolved.

My only solution is to just keep moving. I'm renewing my efforts to find some new clients. Today, when I went to physical therapy, I took along my iPad and made a quick presentation to the owners about how they could use outdoor advertising and short videos to help market their business. I think presenting to people who already have to see you anyway is a great strategy. Making a cold call presentation these days is almost impossible.

There seemed to be quite a bit of interest in adding video demonstrations and testimonials to the existing physical therapy website. Will I get the job? Who knows. I think I've got a fair shot at it, but then again, the owners both have children in college who are majoring in marketing. It's hard to compete when the client's kids do the same thing as you do.

I discovered today that I installed the wrong version of Avid Media Composer on my computer. I installed v5.5.2 and I was supposed to install v5.5.3. Damn. Now I've got uninstall everything and start over. I'm trying to get my desktop computer ready to upgrade to the Lion OS, but there are so many conflicts and problems like this that it hardly seems worth the effort. Maybe I'll just keep using Snow Leopard forever.

I stopped by a sporting goods store and got some light free weights for my shoulder exercises on the way home from today's physical therapy session. As soon as I got home, Dash fished the weights out of my shopping bag and started running around the house with them. He thought they were dog toys.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day