Day 2565

I had to do some last minute Christmas shopping today, so I used my free time while the dogs were sleeping to make a quick trip to the mall. I'll have to remember that early mornings are a good time to go to the mall. Even though it was only a few days before Christmas, the crowds weren't that bad. I had no trouble finding a parking place. If I had waited until this afternoon to do my shopping, parking would have been impossible. Sad to say, I'm still not feeling the Christmas spirit. I navigated my way through the holiday shoppers and mall displays filled with thousands of Poinsettias as quickly as I could. My time is limited these days.

Dot was just starting to wake up when I returned and there was no poop on the floor, so I considered my trip a success. I should have gone to CVS and bought a giant bag of cough drops. I should have gone to the Container Store and bought some new wrapping paper. I should have done a lot of things while I was out, but I just didn't want to clean up any more poop.

Since I had already squandered today's productive time, I had trouble finishing my one remaining article. I literally had to write the thing one sentence at a time. I don't know why Dot is so active in the afternoons now. She sleeps from the time she returns from her morning walk until about 1 PM. After that, she tries her best to stay on all fours for the rest of the day. I think it's great that she's trying to walk around; I just wish she was more successful at it. To keep Dot from injuring herself, it is really essential that I have her back at all times. I follow her around, steadying her rear legs by holding up the rear of the Help 'Em Up harness. Dot is showing signs of dementia. Sometimes she just forgets where she is. Other times she is alert and seems like a young dog trapped in an old dog's body. I'm learning how to adjust to these changes and hope that she is too.

Caring for Dot has got me wondering what will happen to me when I get really old. Humans without strong family ties are pretty much on their own. It's bad enough now, and I'm still pretty healthy. I often feel like I am operating without a safety net. What would happen if I had a heart attack or fell off the roof? Nobody would even notice. Even if I managed to call 911, I worry that the dogs might escape or get taken to the pound when the EMT's arrived. With that in mind, my goal while Janet is away is just staying alive.

I wish I could shake off this cold. It has lingered far longer than I thought it would. I still haven't taken any antihistamines. I just try to remember to keep a few cough drops in my pockets in case I need to talk with someone. The cough drops won't cure anything, but they do seem to prevent violent coughing spasms. It probably doesn't help matters that I race out of the house every morning in my underwear, trying to keep Dot from peeing on the floor. Once I see her start to wake up, there just isn't time to get dressed. I was successful this morning, but the odds are about 50/50 that we won't make it to the door.

I guess I'll finish writing my article tomorrow. I don't think there's much else on the agenda. I'm going to try my best to go out for breakfast in the morning. I've had to skip my weekly breakfast outing for several weeks in a row due to bad weather or dog emergencies. A tasty meal and an hour or two of peace and quiet can make a big difference.

Two sisters are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1827 - Blogiversary

I'm finally getting over my cold. For the first time in over a week, I woke up feeling reasonably normal. It was nice to get through the day without consuming an entire bag of cough drops or box of Kleenex. Usually, when I catch a cold, it only lasts for a few days. This was a nasty one. I've still got a bit of chest congestion and cough occasionally, but it looks like the worst is over.

I continue to be amazed at how few things it takes to completely fill up my day.  Either I'm getting a lot slower, or simple things are becoming more difficult. I had only one fairly routine website assignment today, and I still struggled to get everything finished. Household chores and paying bills seemed to eat up most of my time today. I'm thinking of switching a number of monthly bills to EFT payments, because writing checks and addressing envelopes is so time consuming. Was it always this way? Carpal Tunnel or not, it is becoming increasingly painful to write anything manually anymore. I find typing much easier. Cooking meals seems to take longer than it used to and walking the dogs takes forever. I really enjoy walking the dogs though, no matter how long it takes. Dot takes baby steps now, but I can tell this is still the high point in her day. Dash doesn't seem to mind going slower either. I think he's learned that he has more opportunities to snag something nasty to eat along the trail, now that I concentrate more on keeping Dot from falling.

After I finished today's website assignment and paid a big stack of December bills, I took a little gift card from my favorite clothing store and went shopping. These holiday gift cards the store mails out to regular customers every year are a brilliant marketing ploy. Somehow, I always think I'm going to save $50 and end up spending $200 instead. It never fails. I keep forgetting that this store isn't Kohls.

I also finally got around to taking care of my meager Christmas list on the Amazon website. I was pleased to see that regular shipping will still get there by Christmas. I wasn't quite as pleased when I noticed that several items in my shopping cart had a small notice that said "usually ships in two to four weeks." Hmm. "That's not going to work," I thought and abandoned the checkout procedure to start over again with gifts that shipped immediately.

Here's how forgetful I'm getting. Yesterday was my Blogiversary and I completely forgot about it. Oh, well. I guess we'll celebrate today. In case you haven't noticed, I've been blogging six years now without missing a single day. I wonder if anybody's been reading for six years? Writing this ongoing journal is a weird little accomplishment, but an accomplishment nonetheless. I don't think I've done anything this consistently before in my entire life. Tomorrow I start physical therapy for my shoulder injury. We'll see how consistent I can be with that.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1824

Today was pure misery. My cold was worse than ever. I don't have a fever anymore, but I seem to be having all the other symptoms concurrently. My nose was running, my throat was sore, I had a headache, and my sinuses were congested. I kept sucking cough drops all day long so I wouldn't break into coughing spasms and frighten our customers. After a while the sweet cough drops started making my bad tooth hurt. Yikes! Then my shoulder started to hurt from holding the heavy camera for such a long period of time. Santa wasn't in much better shape than I was. He claimed that he was all over the cold he gave me last week, but I didn't believe him. If he didn't have a cold anymore, why was he still coughing? Even our imaging wizard, who crops and prints the photos on the spot, was coughing and wheezing. He claimed that he just partied too hard last night, but I think he caught Santa's cold too. We were a mess today.

The photos looked just as professional as they always do, but I think everyone was dying to get home and take a long nap. I was so loopy that I took several photo sequences without a memory card in the camera. I had to go back and do the photos all over again. Santa had his beard on crooked several times and we had several computer crashes that might have just been operator error. We were all tired. At least tomorrow is our last event for the year. One more of these to go and we're all finished. I hope nobody books us for Valentine's Day. I don't think I will have recovered by then.

I've noticed that we're doing a lot more family portraits this year. It's probably a sign of a bad economy when people decide to go to a pet photographer for their family Christmas pictures. Several families didn't even bring a dog with them. I'm curious about these families and wonder why they ended up choosing me. I don't ask questions though. That would be rude. I just try to take a family portrait that would make their grandmother proud.

When I was complaining that I kept waking up at night with a terrible sore throat, by doctor gave me this nasal spray and told me to takes it every evening just before I went to bed. I still don't know what the stuff is, but it actually works. Every night I've been taking it, I've slept soundly and didn't have much of a sore throat when I woke up. I though about using the stuff today while I was shooting photos, but I wisely decided to read the warning label first. "Causes Somnolence" the label said. "Do not drive or use machinery while using this product." Well that explains why I slept so well. Reading further, I noticed that the clinical trials for this product weren't even finished yet. Jeez. I don't think my doctor has ever met a pill he didn't like. I'm not going to be taking this stuff much longer.

Tomorrow's location is traditionally where most of the Dalmatian owners go for their Christmas pictures. I'll probably see some old friends tomorrow, but I'm still glad that it's our last event for the year.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day