Day 3241

I can't believe it. I was going to apply to attend a Space X launch, but I missed the deadline because I apparently can't tell the difference between midnight and noon. The application said that the deadline was 12:00 PM today. I thought I'd have plenty of time to fill out the form this evening. Oops. 12:00 PM is noon. 12:00 AM is midnight. I should have known better, but shouldn't 12:00 PM be one hour after 11:00 PM?

Dash's paw is still bleeding after walks. I don't know what to do. The sock between his paw and the boot should protect him from any abrasions, but it doesn't seem to work. This is a thick, good quality sock too. I think it's better than the socks I wear. This is the problem with taking blood thinners. The smallest thing can cause you to bleed. I've got to figure something out because it is important to keep Dash moving. If he becomes sedentary, he will lose his remaining mobility very quickly. Luckily, Dash seemed to have a little more energy today. He was willing to walk on his own and Janet didn't need to provide him with a target to follow. I really wonder how well Dash can see. He still responds to movement, but I often think that all he sees are blurs and shadows. We had a good walk this morning, even though Dash lost his way several times. We made it home minutes before it started raining again.

I wish this rain would quit. It's depressing. I keep thinking that the roof leak will reappear and taking care of Dash becomes much more difficult. I wasn't able to go over to the storage warehouse at all today because there isn't much point to moving things in the rain. It always seems cold and damp in the house when it rains, even though the temperature on the thermostat remains the same. I hope that the skies clear by tomorrow. I've got to meet the movers at the storage warehouse tomorrow morning.

I was supposed to receive my first payment from one of the auction houses today. Nothing. I finally called the auction house to see what was going on and they told me that their buyer hadn't paid them yet. "Don't worry," they said. This is why I hate selling things. It always turns into a hassle. The worst part of owning my own business was always getting paid by clients. It looks like downsizing isn't going to be easy either. So far, one of my vintage guitars has already been returned because the buyer decided he wanted something different. Since the guitar was on layaway, the store allowed him to apply his payment to a different guitar. Several of my model trains have been returned for similar reasons. Eventually, things get sold and payments are received but I sure wish the whole process wasn't such a hassle.

I'm glad this week is almost over. I'm tired of the rain. I'm tired of moving stuff from one storage warehouse to another. I'm tired of cleaning up poop in the middle of the night. Mostly, I'm just physically tired. I wish I was 30 again. 30 is a lot better than 70.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2357

I'm convinced that calling tech support is a modern form of torture. I called AT&T today to ask then how to return the new router they sent me. I don't think I need it now, because everything has been working great for the past three days. "You can't send the new router back because we have already reconfigured your account to use it," the tech guy said. "When did you do this," I asked? "About three days ago," said the technician. "I think you solved my problem, I said. "I don't need the new router." "But aren't you already using it," the guy said. "No, I haven't even taken it out of the box yet," I replied. There was a moment of silence. The technician seemed confused and said he needed to run some tests. I knew what was going on. When they had reconfigured my service, they had inadvertently cleared my routing path, which is all I wanted them to do in the first place.

The tech guy still seemed confused that the old router was still running fine with the new settings that were designed for the replacement equipment. "I want you to reboot the router and I'll see if it still shows up in my system with the same serial number." What? Why would I want to do that? I would have thought that the serial number was permanently linked to the equipment. "Oh, no," said the technician, "we can change that." "But if the serial number changes, nothing on my network will recognize it anymore and I'll have to reconnect everything," I said. "There's a 50/50 chance of that," said the technician. Then he added, "You'll have to reboot the router sooner or later anyway, so why not just do it now." I hate these guys.

The conversation continued for quite a while and it was eventually determined that I could keep the old router if I wanted, since it was still working for some unexplained reason. I could also keep the new router as a spare, if I paid AT&T a $150 penalty fee. I think they should have been paying me $150 since I had to spend my entire morning dealing with this ridiculous problem.

I think I've found a dog walker to help with Dot while Janet is away on vacation. This is a relief, since I had no idea how I was going to get Dot out of the house. Walking Dot is a team effort now. She will only walk if she is following Dash, but one person can't walk Dot and Dash together anymore, since he wants to walk so much faster than she does. Typically, I walk Dash, stopping every twenty or thirty feet so Dot can catch up. Janet follows behind with Dot, holding up her rear legs with the Help 'Em Up Harness. It's a slow process, but it works. The walks are an essential part of Dot's therapy. Without them, she would probably be bedridden by now.

It didn't rain today, even though the humidity hovered near 100%. There was a mist in the air when we walked the dogs before breakfast, but by afternoon the mist had turned to steam. It's still incredibly muggy. I've emptied the bucket in the dehumidifier two times already today. Dot can't handle the heat anymore, so we have to cut her walks even shorter on hot, humid days like today. I'm not looking forward to dealing with this situation in July. It may have seemed hot today, but this was nothing. Texas Summers can be brutal.

I'm not sure if I accomplished anything today or not. The Internet is up and running, but I'm not sure why. The refrigerator and pantry are full again, but the house is still dirty and there is lots of water on the roof. I'm glad I found somebody to help with Dot next month. Maybe everything will be OK.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2349

Sometimes I hate the Internet. For several days I've been having trouble connecting to some of my clients websites. My Internet Service Provider says the problem is being caused by the hosting company and the hosting company says the problem is being caused by my ISP. Neither side will admit that they are the reason I can't connect to at least a dozen websites, including my own. I suspect that my ISP is blocking several servers, but they won't admit blocking anyone, despite the fact that it appears to be common knowledge on Google.

I get tired of messing with the problem and switch to my alternate Internet Service Provider. Now, all the missing websites reappear, but within minutes I get an e-mail saying that an unauthorized person is trying to access my Google account. I change my password twice, but can't seem to shake the mystery person trying to login from Denver. I start to think I've got a virus and run all kinds of searches for Malware on my computer. I turn up an odd invisible cache file in my Firefox browser and delete it. The problem seems to go away and then I am mysteriously able to reconnect to everything using my primary ISP. I finally track down the IP address of the unauthorized computer in Denver and begin to suspect that it is my own account. Now, I'm really confused. It appears that AT&T blocks my web server occasionally and T-Mobile connects me to the Internet in Denver instead of Dallas for some unexplained reason. I'll never remember my new passwords. My best guess now is that I wasted hours and hours trying to track down an intruder who was actually me.

I'm starting to get some of my most complicated website update assignments on Friday afternoon. It's been this way for the past month or two. This means that I have to work during the weekends, even though I often have nothing to do during the week. I got started on one of these updates this afternoon, but didn't even come close to getting it finished. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow. Hey, the client is always right, but it sure would have been nice if I could have done these updates last Tuesday.

I went back to the hipster restaurant this morning. I'm really just floundering around now. My well oiled Friday breakfast ritual appears to have crashed and burned. I have lots of place to eat, but I no longer have a special place that knows me so well that they start cooking my meal the moment I walk in the door. That's what I liked best before everything changed. I could just walk in, sit at my favorite table and didn't even have to talk. The staff just knew what I wanted.

My car was supposed to be ready this afternoon, but the dealership called and told me that it wouldn't be ready until sometime next week. I shouldn't have been surprised, since delays like this used to be commonplace. I had one speedy repair a few months ago and thought that everything had changed. Silly me. Nothing really changes. My broker wants to talk. I suspect this means that he didn't like the letter I sent. I'm kind of dreading this talk because I know he'll still try to convince me that the stocks he likes are a good investment. Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. I'm just getting sick of the stock market in general.

I can't really tell if Dot is getting stronger or not.  She appears to have more energy now, but we're only walking her half as much as we were a few weeks ago. Change can be deceiving if it happens slowly enough. Do I set the bar lower with Dot, or do I gradually try to increase her activity again? Do I change brokers or try harder to understand his strategy? Did I get hacked today, or am I just brain dead? Sometimes it's hard to know these things.

Harley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2283

It took forever to get home from Dot's therapy session today. There was an accident on the freeway that shut down all four Northbound lanes. I knew something was wrong when I got on the access road and a couple walking on the sidewalk kept passing me every time a stopped at a traffic light. The traffic was so backed up on the access road that pedestrians were going faster than I was. The access road was still better than the freeway though. At least we were moving. The freeway was completely gridlocked. Every time I get stuck in traffic like this, I wish I lived in a small rural town with a population of 300. Of course this little town would have to have high speed internet, dependable FedEx delivery, and a very good vet, so it only exists in my imagination.

Dot did very well on the treadmill today, considering the uncertain way we started the day. I woke up early this morning to the distinctive sound of a dog trying to throw up. I quickly got Dot in her harness and we took her outside. Once outside, she seemed to calm down. She didn't throw up at all and pooped and peed instead. After that, we all went back to bed. For the rest of the day she seemed completely normal. Odd little episodes like this are one reason I get very little sleep these days. There's always something unexpected going on.

Even work is full of unexpected surprises. A client wanted me to remove a page from his website because he said it contained a virus. The page was just a simple HTML document and nothing was wrong with it. I didn't argue though. It was much easier to remove the page than to explain why it couldn't possibly contain a virus. Was the website infected a virus? Nope. Did the client have a virus on his own computer? Probably.

I picked up Dash's blood pressure medication today. I was initially confused, because I could have sworn that I'd just picked up blood pressure meds two days ago. Janet reminded me that I'd picked up Dot's prescription and that the two pills were completely different. I still don't know why Dot and Dash are taking two different pills for exactly the same condition. The fact that I take a third medication to control my own high blood pressure makes things even more confusing. There are literally dozens of medications that have been approved to treat hypertension. Each doctor or vet has their favorites and nobody seems to agree on anything. I hope the dogs pills have fewer side effects than my own. I will say that all three pills work. Dot, Dash and I all have normal blood pressure now.

After several years of taking Dot to physical therapy on Thursday, I keep thinking that tomorrow is Friday. Nope. Eventually I'll get used to our schedule change. Sooner or later I'll get used to Daylight Savings Time too. I wish I could get used to rain. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow.

Ruthie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2240

I felt something bite me on the neck while I was sitting at the computer this morning. When I looked in the mirror, I discovered it was a tick. Damn. This is the second time this year I've found a tick crawling on me. Ironically, the dogs are completely free of ticks. Now that we've finally found an effective flea and tick preventative for the dogs, I think the ticks have started looking for greener pastures. Apparently, I look pretty appetizing.

The adapter I ordered arrived today, but unfortunately it didn't fit very well. It was supposed to snap into place on top of a battery plate to allow a different type of battery to be used. The connection was just too snug for a reassuring snap. I could press the thing halfway into place, but that was it. I called the manufacturer and the service representative told me to press harder and that if the adapter broke, he'd send me a new one. This wasn't very reassuring. I suspect that if I look very closely, I will find the words Made in China stamped on the poorly fabricated piece of junk.

This must have been my day to talk with customer service representatives because when I finished talking to the guy from the lighting company, I got a call from the company that makes my fitness band. "Are you still having problems," she asked. Of course I was still having problems, so we spent the next twenty minutes talking about possible solutions. I'd already tried most of the things she'd suggested, so the conversation basically went nowhere. After we'd talked for a while, she told me that my fitness tracker was out of warranty and she couldn't replace it anyway.

Dot was panting more than usual today. We almost didn't give her a walk this morning, but she quit panting and seemed perfectly normal once we were outside. Later in the day, she started panting again, just walking around the house. I was going to take her temperature, but I couldn't find the dog thermometer. Eventually, I found two digital thermometers, but I wasn't sure which one was for people and which was for the dogs. I got this wrong once before and all the sudden we had two dog thermometers. You kind of hate to put a thermometer in your mouth after it's been in a dog's butt. 

I was confused about an upcoming photo shoot, so I called the client to get some clarification. She didn't really know what was going on either and told me to just show up on the specified day and go with the flow. OK. I can do that. That's basically what I do every day. It would be nice to know what I was supposed to do, but in all honesty it won't make a big difference. Sometimes work is actually easier when you don't know what you're doing.

Dot pooped in her bed twice today. She didn't even wake up when she had the accidents, which is definitely a new development. In the past, Dot was always aware of what was going on and made an effort to get up and move away from the mess. If this happens in her sleep now, it probably means that something is getting worse. There are all sorts of subtle signs that Dot is slowly going downhill, but since she still has her good days, it's easy to convince yourself that everything is fine. Every week, I make a list of new developments for the vet, but there not much more I can do to slow down the aging process. We just do our best to keep her comfortable and happy.

Maybe I'll have something exciting to tell you tomorrow. Nah. Just kidding. Nothing ever happens on Wednesday.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2236

When I was having breakfast this morning, I noticed at least five different men having breakfast with their kids. This got me thinking that I almost always see more men having breakfast with their kids than women having breakfast with their kids at this restaurant. I don't think social roles have changed that much. It's more likely that the men are just unemployed. The women tend to come in earlier. They are dressed nicer, often in a hurry, and typically just order coffee and a muffin to go. The men linger. I could be wrong. Maybe these men aren't unemployed. They could all just be web designers like me.

It appears that something has changed on my auto insurance policy and that I'm not covered anymore when I drive someone else's car. When I called my agent to find out what is going on, he said not to worry, explaining that just the language in the policy had changed. When I read him the paragraph in question, he paused for a minute and told me that maybe I didn't have coverage after all. He said he'd research the situation and get back to me. This is the modern world. Nobody has a clue what is going on. Someone makes a decision somewhere, but by the time it filters down to the people who are supposed to implement it on a local level, it gets lost in translation. Corporate bureaucracies. Government bureaucracies. They are all the same. Confusing car insurance policies are just the tip of the iceberg. Health care is where it really starts to get messy.

Everyone, including me, is perplexed by the road repairs currently going on in the neighborhood. The old road was full of potholes and needed to be replaced, but instead of just putting in a new road, the construction crews are cutting out damaged sections of the old road with jackhammers and concrete saws and pouring small little sections of concrete all over the place. The road looks like a patchwork quilt. This must be the preferred method of road repair these days because I've seen this technique used all over the city. It is very labor intensive, disrupts traffic for weeks at a time, and looks like shit when the work is finally finished. I keep thinking that it would be easier, and perhaps even less expensive, to start over and just put in an entirely new road.

The road repairs didn't deter the garbage truck this morning and my trash got picked up again. This was great, but it makes the odd Wednesday trash pickup even more of a mystery. I didn't actually see a garbage truck on Wednesday. Maybe someone just stole my trash. Nah. That would be too weird. If somebody actually did steal Wednesday's trash, all they got was a bunch of dog poop.

The very last Land Rover Defender rolled off the assembly line in Solihull, England today. After 67 years, there will be no more. In an unrelated note, Paul Kantner, one of the founding members of Jefferson Airplane died today, continuing the demise of rock icons that defined my youth. We are approaching the end of an era. Most of the original Mercury and Apollo astronauts have already died. All my college professors have died. It's frightening now many rock legends have died this month alone. I find it interesting that the first Land Rover Defender was assembled at the Solihull factory in 1948, the same year I was born. Nothing lasts forever I guess. I'm going to look on the bright side though. As long as Keith Richards is still around, I think I'm fine. When the Stones go, I'm going to start to worry.

Spirit is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1935

I never could decide what day it was today. Janet was off work, so it seemed like Saturday when I woke up. After I walked Dash, I went and had my regular Friday restaurant breakfast anyway and then it seemed like Friday for a while. A lot of people seemed to be having a holiday picnic in the park today, but the mail got delivered and the bank was open. My Jewish clients took the day off for Passover, but very few of my Christian clients took the day off for Good Friday. I wonder why the stock market was closed and the banks were open? For most of the morning I thought it was Saturday and then several of my clients started sending me website revisions and I thought it was Friday again. It was a very confusing day.

Dot seemed tired today. I hope we didn't work her too hard on the treadmill yesterday. Janet thinks I worry too much. The vet thinks I worry when I should. And I always think that I'm overlooking something terribly important that could cause a setback. I don't spend much time thinking about my own health, but I really want Dot's recovery to go as smoothly as possible.

I learned how to make those transparent frames that you often see on birthday card websites. These frames allow people to superimpose their own uploaded pictures inside a transparent area on a pre-existing template to create their own customized postcards to share on social media. I knew Photoshop could do this, but it took me a while to get all the layers in the right order. I finally figured everything out and uploaded the finished template to my client's iPhone app. Yes, clients aren't content with websites anymore. They want their own iPhone and Android apps. I guess this makes sense, since everyone except me finds most of their information using their phone these days. Call me old fashioned, but I still use the desktop computer for almost everything. Just about the only thing I use my phone for is to take pictures and to check how many steps my UP band has logged for the day.

Every once in a while Facebook is actually useful. A friend was complaining about telemarketers on her feed a few days ago and someone else left a comment said she ought to try Nomorobo to eliminate all the robo-calls. I was intrigued and looked up Nomorobo on Google. It was free and seemed to work with my U-verse phone system, so I installed it. Almost immediately, the number of telemarketing calls I receive dropped dramatically. I don't really know how this works or why it is offered for free, but I'm glad someone told me about it. Telemarketers are the bane of my existence. Sometimes I get fifteen calls a day. If this service can cut that number down to five calls a day, it is definitely worth it.

Since I thought it was Saturday for most of the day, I'll probably think it is Sunday tomorrow. It really doesn't make much different which day it is. Weekend errands are still just weekend errands on either day. There are still bills to pay, groceries to buy, and a new lawn that needs to be watered.

When I was a kid, my parents always use to wake us up really early on Easter morning and take us to an Easter Sunrise Service that was held in a drive-in theater for some reason. My Mom, if she were still alive, would be upset that I haven't maintained this tradition. If I see the sunrise at all, I will be walking Dash.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1768

It was a remarkably normal day. Both dogs got a bath at Dirty Dawgz. We didn't even have to wait long for a tub this time. I mowed the grass for what I hope is the last time this season. I changed the bed sheets and washed the dog blankets. I filled the car with gas and picked up some bulk items at Sam's Club. It was just an ordinary Saturday.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. There was this one little snag. A train station less than two miles from our house was completely shut down and the train was taken out of service when a woman with a fever got off the train at our neighborhood station and vomited on the platform. Janet actually saw all the police and hazmat crews as she was driving home from running errands. Rumors swirled for most of the afternoon. The woman was on the quarantine list. She used to be on a quarantine list. She never was on anyone's list at all. Nobody knew for sure. I kept hearing that she lived at the Ivy Apartments where Thomas Duncan became ill. I'm not even sure if this is true. Evidently, there was a lot of confusion because the woman in question kept changing her story. The woman now says that she threw up because of a spider bite. Of course she could have just been drunk. When asked for a comment, a DART Rail official said the woman was the sixth person today to have thrown up on one of their trains. This is why I prefer not to use public transportation.

Once again, I failed to watch tonight's new Dr. Who episode. This used to be a Saturday night ritual for me, but I just don't find the new season all that interesting. Maybe things will get better as the season progresses, but so far, these new shows don't even come close to the classic ones like Vincent and the Doctor, where the doctor and Amy meet Vincent Van Gogh, or Blink where the doctor has to utilize "easter eggs" hidden on seventeen different DVD's to convince Sally Sparrow and her friend Larry to send the Tardis, which was stuck in 1969, back to him. Maybe the new shows will seem better after I've seen them a few times. I tend to like re-runs better than new programming anyway. Oddly, I read an article recently that said watching re-runs makes people happier than watching new shows. Works for me. I've started re-reading books I've already read too.

Since the dogs are clean and the yard is tidy, I have no idea what I'll do tomorrow. I'm even all caught up with work at the moment. Maybe I'll play the guitar a bit. Maybe I'll replace a bunch of dead watch batteries. Or maybe I'll forget what I did today and do everything all over again.

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1618 - Dash's Birthday

Dash got a birthday treat today. We returned to our Wednesday evening training class for the first time this year. Dash was so excited to see the other dogs again that he could hardly contain himself. Actually, he couldn't contain himself and barked incessantly throughout the class. Everyone was really glad to see Dash again until the barking started. Then they probably remembered how peaceful it had been without him. I was actually surprised at how much Dash remembered tonight. He still did some of his exercises perfectly. It was hard to get him to sit or stay, but it didn't really matter. The class was very forgiving tonight.

I spent most of the day working on a project that doesn't even have a deadline yet. It was actually kind of relaxing to have time to experiment with things without worrying about being late. Sadly, a lot of the projects I get these days have almost impossible turnaround times. Probably the only reason I get these jobs is because I'm very fast. "Hey, can you get this back to me this afternoon," they ask?  No problem.

Somebody called this afternoon to tell me that they had my blood test results. It wasn't a voice I recognized, so I was totally confused. Were they talking about me, about Dot, or about Dash? All three of us have had blood work done recently. Eventually I realized that this was a nurse from the cancer center who was talking about Dash. Evidently, the blood panel they ran Monday when I took him in for an exam came out fine. It could have been any of us though. Dot has had blood work done recently in preparation for next week's dental cleaning. I still have frequent tests as well to make sure the Hepatitis-C virus hasn't returned. I know people who haven't had their blood tested in years. I rarely go two weeks without some kind of test.

It looks like this is going to be a good year for wildflowers. There are a rainbow of different colored blooms in the meadow behind out house. I like watching each new variety appear. This week the Firewheels started blooming. I can't remember if Firewheels are the last to bloom, or if there is another wave of flowers that has yet to appear. Even though exactly the same flowers appear year after year, it is still interesting to anticipate what I'm going to be seeing next. Some of these flowers will last into June, but by July the lush meadows will be dry and brown again.

This week has gone quickly. Not quickly enough however. I wish tomorrow was Friday. Maybe I could pretend it was Friday by going out to breakfast tomorrow.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1597

When I called to confirm my appointment at the liver center tomorrow, they congratulated me on taking my last pills today. I told them that I'd actually taken my last pills yesterday, and they seemed confused. "Do you think you lost a pill," the nurse asked me? Nope. I took every last one of them. I think I know what had happened but it would be hard to prove things at this point. The first batch of pills arrived a day earlier than expected and when I called the liver center to let them know that they'd arrived, whoever I talked to on the phone said to go ahead and start taking them immediately. They must have left the original projected start date on a spreadsheet somewhere. This just proves that if you do anything long enough, the inevitable memory fog trumps everything. I vaguely remember starting the pills one day early, but my memory of the whole situation is a bit suspect as well.

I've started to notice that when we tell the nurses at the cancer center that we're worried that Dash might be in pain, they give us a prescription for pain pills. When we worry about  infections, they give us an antibiotic.  When we say nothing, they give us nothing. So, are they just giving us these pills to keep us happy, or are they actually prescribing them because Dash really needs them? I don't know. Pain pills and antibiotics are among the most over prescribed medications for both animals and people. I think doctors have gotten used to passing out pills like candy because their patients demand them. We are a nation hooked on pills. I wish I knew if Dash really needed these additional pills, but he's not talking. I hate unnecessary medication, especially antibiotics. On the other hand, antibiotics are absolutely necessary at times. How do you know if you're are doing the right thing? The information I received about supplements from my nutritionist was largely proved wrong and some of stuff I took did more harm than good. Several medications my doctors wanted me to take ten years ago are now featured on those 1-800-BAD-DRUG commercials you see on TV.  Things change all the time, and doctors and vets, like everyone else, are far from infallible. All that being said, they know far more than I do about health and healing, so I usually do exactly what they tell me.

My work load is starting to wear me out. One of the animal rescue sites I maintain has tripled the number of animals in their program. I am constantly adding and subtracting adoptable pets from their website. As soon as I finish processing one batch of animals, there's another waiting for me the next day. Writing has been erratic lately as well. If I knew exactly what I was facing, it would be easier to plan. Now, I'm usually in a situation where I'll go several days with nothing and then have a ton of website and writing projects all due on the same day. I must have been dreaming when I though that I might be able to retire to a tropical island when I turned 55. If you have a small business in today's economy, you're probably doomed to keep working forever.

I had to pick up some more groceries on my way to get Dash this afternoon. The combination of trying to eat healthy, fresh food and being busy all the time is causing me to have to go to the grocery store a lot more often than I used to. You can't stock up on a week's worth of fresh vegetables and expect them all to stay fresh forever. I've started to buy food as I need it, but it's a lot of trouble. Life was so much easier when I could just pull a frozen pizza out of the freezer and grab a beer from the refrigerator.

Tomorrow, the dogs get their monthly heartworm pills. It's trash day as well, so I'll need to remember to take the garbage can out to the curb. Sooner or later, it will be Friday again. I can't wait.

Bea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1225

Today was confusing. Another cold front blew through last night and suddenly it's Winter again. This cold weather won't last long, but it is odd to go from t-shirts to a down jacket in less than twelve hours. I got the third roof bid in today. I had convinced myself that this was going to be the low bid, based on my conversations with the roofer, but it actually turned out to be the high bid. There weren't any low bids. The Land Rover dealer called me today and made an appointment to get my car in for service again. The were real nice, but never acknowledged all the times they had ignored my calls last week. I didn't bring the subject up again either. It's time to move on.

Dash came close to getting a clean bill of health at his annual physical exam today. No crystals in his urine anymore. A strong, steady heart beat with no appreciable murmur. The skin problems that plagued Dash for years have vanished. The boy is looking good. The vet wasn't sure what was causing him to rub his snout on the carpet periodically though. She thought it was most likely either a minor gum infection or an irritation in one of his eyes. We're going to start with some eye drops and see if that clears things up. If that doesn't work, Dash is due for a dental cleaning early this Summer anyway. There's also the possibility that rubbing his snout on the carpet doesn't mean anything at all. I also made sure to get a new city tag for Dash, so he'll be legal with the city again. They always seem to think his tag has expired.

I don't know where my mind has gone. I heard Dot barking at a garbage truck this morning and raced out to get our garbage can out to the street in time. It was only when I had the can out at the curb that I realized that it was Tuesday and the trash wasn't picked up until Friday. I took the trash can back to the house and wondered why all days are starting to seem the same to me lately. I think Dot must have heard the trash being picked up in the neighborhood across the street from us. They have a different pickup schedule than we do.

I was a little more organized with my work assignments. I got two articles finished today, which is pretty good, considering that I had website revisions to do as well. Tomorrow, there is more to write and more to remember. Hopefully, it will be a little warmer though.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 588

Here's a little irony for you. I think I lost the translation job I've been telling you about as the result of a translation problem. When the company initially contacted me, they told me they needed the translation job completed by next Friday. I wrote back and said this was fine and that there would be no problem completing everything before August 5. This date, of course, is next Friday. Later in the day I got another e-mail saying that they awarded the job to another company. They explained that they needed everything done by July 29, which is actually this Friday. They thought when they said next Friday, I would understand this to mean the next Friday that appeared on the calendar, which happens to be this Friday. Confused yet? So am I.

I think I'm becoming addicted to Google+. It's easy to get distracted because I'm constantly logged into my Google account anyway. Since I already use Google documents, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Search and a raft of other Google products on a daily basis, the Google+ icon seems to always be waiting for me at the top of my browser menu. Every few minutes it tempts me with that little red box which tells me something new has appeared in my stream. Usually these new things are posts written by semi-famous Internet pundits who seem to have all day to sit around and share links and opinions with each other. These guys don't seem any wiser than the normal folks you'd hang out with at your local Starbucks, but since they're famous, ever word they utter seems to garner a million +1 recommendations. I find myself adding my own two cents to some of these threads, but I don't expect the Illuminati to add me to their own circles any time soon.

It's so hot outside that all the park critters are getting real lethargic. Dot almost caught a raccoon this afternoon while it was sleeping near the base of a tree. Last week, Dash almost caught a rabbit the same way. I definitely don't want the dogs to catch a raccoon, since these critters are notorious carriers of rabies and other diseases. The drought has become so bad that I see all kinds of animals in the back yard trying to drink out of the bird bath. I never thought I'd say this, since I complain about water on my roof so often, but I'd welcome a little rain at this point.

I'm invited to another of those networking breakfasts tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll wear a suit. I never wear a suit anymore. There just aren't many occasions to wear a suit anymore. Nobody seems to wear a suit to work, or even to church these days. Hey, I'm too old for weddings and too young for funerals. I think my suits are all going to get eaten by moths.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day