Day 3291

Today started oddly. As I was getting ready to go to breakfast, I noticed that the garbage truck was parked right next to my can on the street. The driver appeared to be texting someone or maybe he was having an Egg McMuffin for breakfast. When he finished he drove away, completely forgetting to pick up my trash. Damn. I was the only can of the street he skipped. I quickly ran out to the street and pushed my can to an adjacent street to catch the truck on it's return through the neighborhood. I'm glad my hastily improvised plan worked because I have no place to store two week's worth of trash.

A little later at the hotel restaurant I noticed that a well dressed older man sitting next to me was eating a meal that definitely wasn't on the menu. I was intrigued, because this guy's breakfast looked really good. I asked my server if I could order something off the menu too. She gave me an odd look and just said no. How did the old guy get to order whatever he wanted when I couldn't? I'll probably never know because I didn't want to make a scene. The old gentleman was very polite and clearly was accustomed to privilege. This odd little incident made me realize that I'd love to live in a world where I could walk into a restaurant and ask the chef to whip up whatever I wanted. "Menu? We don't need no stinkin' menus," I'd say.

I've totally lost track of what day it is. Probably everybody else has too. The time between Christmas and New Year's is an amorphous mess. I only remembered it was Friday because of chasing the garbage truck this morning and I only remembered to take the trash out last night after Janet reminded me. Basically every day kind of feels like Saturday.

Cleaning up poop doesn't help me remember what day it is because it happens all the time. It's almost easier that Dash poops in his sleep now because I can place a puppy training pad under him. The poop has been landing on the pad pretty consistently now. When I change the pad and put a fresh one under his butt, he often wakes up and decides he needs to pee. I'm still getting up in the middle of the night but the whole process seems more organized.

I got a lot of things done today, but none of them were important. I repaired several of Dash's boots with Shoe Goo. I calibrated and unclogged the large printer. I updated software on my laptop and recharged a bunch of batteries. By the time I was finished it was time for dinner. Janet is always dusting things around the house and told me that refusing to dust is a sign that you've given up. That hurt. I never dust. I actually think dust protects things from scratches.

As a sign that I never give up, I thought I'd go to the gym tomorrow. Hey, in my own dusty way, I'm determined. This plan lasted about thirty seconds because I eventually remembered that tomorrow isn't Sunday. Everything needs to happen on the correct day whether I can remember it or not.

Dot & Petey are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2953

It was all about Dash today. We got up early to take him to his vet appointment and hoped for the best. Not only is Dash terrible in the car, he's usually not very good when we get where we're going. Today we needed to do three things that he hates. He has an eye infection and will need to take eye drops for a week or so. He always runs away when I try to put the drops in his eye. He was also way overdue for a nail trim and needed his anal glands expressed. He hates these things too. The only thing in our favor was that we were seeing Dash's favorite vet today.

The eye exam went well. Most dogs don't like it when you shine a light in their eye and Dash was no exception. He was well behaved though, so we dodged a bullet. The vet did a test to make sure his tear ducts weren't impacted or clogged and then prescribed some antibiotic drops. I wish I could apply the drops as well as she does. You've got to be quick and decisive.

The vet told us that our friends at the cancer center had good reason to be concerned about trimming Dash's nails, sharing stories of nail trims that went horribly wrong. It is apparently not uncommon for dogs to bleed profusely when their nails are trimmed too close to the quick. The vet was very careful and conservative about how much she trimmed, but one of Dash's nails still bled a little. This is going to be an ongoing problem. We can't ignore Dash's nails, because the longer they get, the greater the risk that he will tear one out. We definitely don't want another episode like the one where he tore his dew claw out in the car. Dash doesn't like it when you mess with his feet though, so nail trims will never be easy. At least there were no problems when he had his anal glands expressed.

After his adventure at the vet, Dash was eager to go back to bed. We skipped our morning walk and I ate a late breakfast. By the time I washed the dishes, took a shower, and cleaned up the dog poop in the yard, it was time for lunch. I don't actually eat lunch myself, but Dash always does. We started giving him a rice cake for lunch years ago because it kept him occupied without making him fat. Now we add some dry food to the rice cake, because it is the only time of day when he will eat kibble. When you start a ritual with a dog, you can never end it. They always remember.

Dash we eager to go outside after he had eaten, so I was able to take him on a nice long walk. The only problem with a noon walk is that it fouls up the evening walk. Apparently, Dash needs a certain amount of time between walks. Just as I expected, Dash refused to leave the yard when it was time for his regular evening walk. I put all his gear on twice, but he just wasn't interested. He didn't refuse to eat though. He was hungry all day.

I turned on the computer out of habit, but there was nothing going on. I've finished my writing jobs for the week and nobody seems interested in changing their website. I need to find something to watch on Netflix because I've certainly got the time. Maybe I'll watch Black Mirror. They say it's like a modern version of the Twilight Zone.

Space X did a static firing of the Falcon Heavy rocket today. This means that it will probably be heading toward Mars with Elon's Tesla Roadster sometime next week. Now this is something I definitely want to watch. There is also going to be an eclipse of the moon toward the end of the month. I may not be interested in much, but astronomy, space, and dogs still keep me tethered to the world.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2186

This morning was busy. We walked the dogs a little earlier so I could take Janet up to the Land Rover dealer before work to get a loaner car while hers was in the shop. Dot and Dash were a little miffed that they had to wait for their breakfast, but all was well as soon as I returned. By the time I finished fixing my morning smoothie and had my requisite two cups of coffee while watching the morning news, it was already time to take Dot downtown for her weekly physical therapy session. I don't know whether I'm unusually slow, or if time is running faster these days. Whatever it is, it's getting harder and harder to get anything done.

There are so many daily rituals that just didn't used to exist. It takes forever to sort through my e-mail each morning. Most of it is spam and junk, but there's always something important from a client buried in the spam folder, so I have to look at everything. I have to move all Dot's dog beds from their nighttime to their daytime positions each morning and wash anything that got soiled. Now, emptying the dehumidifier bucket is a regular ritual too. The machine has an automatic shutoff when the bucket gets full, but I've discovered that it is quite heavy and easy to spill on the floor if you let it fill to the top with water. There are so many little things like this that it is often 10:30 AM or even later before I get around to doing any actual work.

Dot did great at her therapy session today. She even rode better in the car on the way to the vet and I didn't have to stop and re-position her this time. Dot's vet was one of our locations for Santa pictures this year and I was happy that everyone enjoyed the event and was pleased with their pictures. Now, they want Dalmatian Rescue to come back and do another photo event later in the year. We used to shoot photos on all the major holidays, but everybody was younger then. Now, we mostly just work during the Christmas season. Valentine's Day pictures were surprisingly popular though. A lot of people think of their pet as their favorite valentine.

I got my December invoices in the mail today. Billings were pitiful this month. The declining nature of my business is a big reason why I was upset with my financial adviser yesterday. I always expected that as I eased into retirement, my investments would replace the lost income and allow me to maintain my lifestyle indefinitely. It's not working out that way. I never dreamed that interest rates would drop to 0%, that the entire middle class would start to disappear, and that my hard earned skills would become a somewhat worthless commodity. At least I'm not burdened with debt. I'd hate to have a lot of debt at my age. A lot of my friends still do.

It's all about the little things now. I'm pleased that I've temporarily outwitted the bird who poops on my car with my clever rubber snakes. I'm pleased the the dehumidified continues to suck water out of the house. I'm pleased that the bananas we bought last weekend lasted all the way through the week. I'm especially pleased that Dot pooped outside after dinner. Enough time has passed that I've almost forgotten the mess she made in her bed this morning.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2123

Everyone seemed tired today. Dash wasn't eager to leave the house and just slept on the bed for most of the day. Dot was slow on her morning walk and even slower in the underwater treadmill later in the day. I was tired too, mostly because I didn't sleep well last night. Dot had an accident in her bed during the night, but that wasn't really what kept me awake. Occasionally, I just don't sleep well.

There was a medical emergency when we went to the vet for Dot's physical therapy session and we had to wait a while to get started. It was OK though. We sat in a quiet room on Dot's acupuncture mat and I almost fell asleep. We had to slow the treadmill down a bit today, which was a bit of a disappointment. Dot did so well last week that I was hoping her improvement would continue. You've got to take things one day at a time with an old dog though. Some days are better than others.

When I mentioned Dash's recent problems with his rear legs to Dot's vet, she thought it might be more serious than I was initially led to believe. Of course, Dash wasn't even there, so this diagnosis didn't really mean much. I might not have even been describing his condition accurately. It was good to learn more about a luxating patella however. This floating kneecap condition can result in temporary lameness when the kneecap slips laterally out of position. The condition is often self correcting and the kneecap snaps back into position in a matter of seconds, but in severe cases it can get stuck out of joint and surgery may be required. If your dog has a floating kneecap, it is important to keep them moving, because strong leg muscles help keep the kneecap in place. Glucosamine and Fatty Acids can help lubricate the joint. Sometimes Adequan injections help as well. Dash has another appointment next week to see if the inflammation has subsided. Like everything else in our life, we'll just take this one day at a time as well.

The days go by so quickly now. Each day has a little ritual that acts like a placeholder. Today it was taking Dot to physical therapy and getting the week's trash hauled out to the curb. Tomorrow I have my breakfast outing and Saturday I stock up on groceries. There are monthly rituals as well. Pretty soon it will be time to sent out my October invoices. Every night before I brush my teeth I run a test print to keep the large printer from clogging. My morning smoothies have become a ritual and unfortunately, so has cleaning up dog poop in the house. People have learned that it's usually not a good conversation starter to ask me what I'm doing this weekend. Usually, they already know.

I hope Dash's condition improves. One lame Dalmatian is enough for anyone. It's good that slow walks are actually beneficial for dogs with a floating kneecap. Dot enjoys having a companion to walk with and slow walks are all she's got left. The walks are definitely a ritual. The dogs keep their noses to the ground looking for interesting things to smell, while I keep my nose in the air, looking toward the sky. Today the Moon, Venus, and Mars formed a tight little triangle in the eastern sky. I'm still hoping to catch a glimpse of Mercury.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2113

Each day is kind of like our morning walks. We cover the same terrain over and over again, but still manage to find something new. I like the way the seasons change and the stars progress across the sky. I see faces and shapes in cloud formations and notice the migration patterns of birds. I'm quick to notice a new flower along the trail and can detect a temperature change of one or two degrees. Noticing the little things keeps life interesting. Well, it helps anyway.

Appreciating nuances is an acquired taste that has taken me decades to master. I'll try different blends of coffee each morning, but I'll always limit myself to two 10 ounce cups. Sometimes I'll substitute strawberries for peaches in my morning smoothie. I try to find variety within a two mile radius, but I'll seldom venture further. I'm fascinated to discover there are still things to learn from books I've already read and movies I've already watched. Even though my job requires me to keep up with the latest technology, I'm still discovering new things I can do with Photoshop 7.0.

If I didn't appreciate nuances, I'd probably go stark raving mad. Not much happens in an average day. I submitted some new photos to Shutterstock this morning. At this rate I should be able to earn a comfortable living from stock photography by the time I'm 95. I vacuumed the house this afternoon because I promised Janet I'd clean all the rugs and carpets if things weren't busy this week. Why postpone things? I couldn't even pretend that things were busy today. Dot seemed to appreciate the effort I made cleaning things, because there were no accidents today.

The geek community on the Internet is buzzing about the discovery of liquid water on Mars. I guess I always suspected there was water there somewhere. Comets are made of water. Hydrogen and oxygen are among the most abundant elements in the universe. Temperatures on Mars are often above freezing. Why wouldn't there be water? I doubt that the water on Mars is drinkable, but some of the water on Earth isn't either. I imagine that we'll find lots of water on other planets in the next hundred years. What really surprises me is that we live on a planet where the sun and the moon are almost exactly the same apparent size in the sky. What are the odds of having a moon that almost exactly covers the disc of the sun during an eclipse? That certainly doesn't happen on Mars.

I need to find a more interesting way to spend my days. This minimal life of mine can't really be healthy. What to do? I don't really like volunteering or travel, and I'm not sure that work will ever pick up significantly. I thought my clients would be excited when I learned how to do mobile websites, but most of them didn't even notice the improvements I made to their sites. I doubt that they are going to tell their friends how cool their new responsive websites are if they don't even understand what they've got. Oh, well. I'll upload some more images to Shutterstock tomorrow. Maybe I'll go photograph a squirrel.

Spanky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2089

Do you ever feel that your life is starting to look like a reenactment of Groundhog Day? I'm sure you remember the movie where Bill Murray was forced to repeat the same day over and over again until he finally got it right. Sometimes I feel this way. Every day I eat the same things. Almost every day I clean up poop and wash the soiled dog blankets. Every time I do a load of laundry, I plug the floor drain in the utility room with a rag so water from the rinse cycle won't come back up through the drain and flood the room. After I take a shower I always put rags around the edge of the shower stall to soak up water that has seeped through cracks in the tile between shower walls and floor. Every evening I print the same JPEG file to keep the ink lines in my large printer from clogging. There are literally dozens of little rituals like this. The dogs get the same two walks every day and I patch up and repair the same websites over and over again. I know that I've got to break out of this monotonous cycle, but it's a comfortable rut and I feel no urgency. Hopefully, I won't be stuck in the time loop as long as Phil Connors was in Groundhog Day.

I've been wondering why traffic seemed so bad this week, and then I realized that school was back in session. There literally seems to be twice as many cars on the road. I pass a private school on my way to breakfast every Friday and I see cars lined up for ten blocks as parents queue in the right hand lane to drop their kids off for class. Luckily, I am going in the other direction. The same cars return every afternoon to pick the kids up. When you add the additional trips for band practice, soccer practice, and other school activities, the roads are always busy. It certainly is a different world from the one where I walked or rode my bicycle to school. I wonder how parents find any time to themselves these days.

The stock market had another miserable day. When is this going to end? I feel like my retirement income is an ice cube sitting out in the hot sun. It is just melting away day-after-day and there is very little I can do about it. I think people are going to regret the day when politicians sold them this idea that a 401K Plan that they managed themselves could provide a much more secure retirement income than the old fashioned defined benefit plans their parents generation relied on. It hasn't worked out all that great so far. I'd trade my 401K for my Dad's pension any day. He and my Mom lived comfortably on that pension for many years. I can't say that I'm going to do nearly as well. I might not be able to retire at all.

Work was busy for a change. I added a new section to one of my client's websites and changed out photos in another. There have been no writing jobs all week though. It's always feast or famine. I can never manage to keep a nice, steady workload for very long. At least I can still pay the bills. There's not much left over anymore unfortunately, and that's a bit worrisome. 

We've got a three day weekend coming up. I don't know what we'll do with the extra day, but maybe we'll think of something. I know we won't be sleeping in late. That's just not in the cards anymore. If we don't get Dot outside early, it's a virtual certainly that she'll poop in the house. Of course if she poops in the house in the middle of the night, I can always sleep in a bit longer after I've cleaned things up. That's what I did last night. Oh, well. Here's hoping for a relaxing weekend, starting with no barking dogs at breakfast tomorrow morning.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1991

We got a horrendous amount of rain last night. You probably saw it on the morning news. Eight inches of rain in just a few hours is definitely newsworthy. There was severe flooding in many parts of town, including some areas not far from where we live. We are nearing all time record rainfall levels now. This is uncharted territory. The rain seems to be the main topic of conversation with everyone I see. Every time we have a storm like we did last night, I'm really glad that we live on top of a hill. It's a modest, very gentle hill, but it does put us at least 50 feet above the nearest water. Last night's storms knocked out our power again, but the outage didn't last long. By the time I calmed the dogs down and called in the outage report on my cell phone, the power had already been restored.

Nobody got much sleep last night. The thunder was loud enough to wake Dot, and the lightning was bright enough to send both dogs into a storm induced panic. I got a blanket and slept on the floor with Dot for a while in an effort too calm her down. When my bad shoulder started to hurt, Janet traded places with me. By the time her back started to hurt, the worst of the storm was over. When we all woke up this morning, the storm had turned into a gentle shower. The dogs got their morning walk right on schedule and then I went out for breakfast like I usually do on Friday mornings.

It's a good thing I was headed South towards the restaurant, because Northbound traffic was gridlocked in front of our house. I suspect that a major intersections a few miles down the road was still underwater. Most of the small creeks that feed the lake behind our house are outside their banks and low lying areas are flooded. Since I wasn't headed downtown to go to work, I didn't have a problem. I left the roads with bridges and underpasses to other people had a nice breakfast in the neighborhood instead. By the time I finished my meal, a lot of the high water seemed to have subsided. With things returning to normal, I went to Central Market to get groceries for the weekend, and then headed home to finish this week's work.

Today was busy. I cleared the water off the roof again, updated a few more websites, and finished writing another article. That was more than enough for one day. I'm getting used to all the new rituals imposed by wet, stormy weather and aging dogs, but it is a bit tiring. Everything is peaceful now, although another wave of thunderstorms is scheduled to arrive sometime after midnight. Lets hope that tonight's rain isn't accompanied by thunder and lightning like it was last night. We all could use some sleep.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1987

I'm running out of ways to describe a rainy day. Rain has become the new normal. Once again it was raining when we woke up and the dogs had to wait for their morning walk. We ate breakfast while waiting for the skies to clear and kept checking the weather radar until we found our opportunity. The ground is so saturated with water that everything is soft and spongy. Dot and Dash normally like to smell things in the grass, but even they prefer walking on the roads lately. It's amazing how green and lush the park looks this Spring. All the neighbors lawns look great and Spring flowers are blooming everywhere. I imagine that water bills all over the city will be lower this month.I haven't seen anyone using their sprinkler system all month. I was amused listening to an interview with a local car wash owner on TV this morning. He said that business was way down and that only ten people had washed their car today. I kept wondering how even ten people could think it would be a good idea to take their car to a carwash on a day like this.

I'm easily amused on a rainy day, so I spent the afternoon trying out all the attachments on the new Dyson vacuum cleaner. I had already vacuumed the office yesterday and was astounded to pick up just as much dust as I did yesterday in the supposedly clean office when I vacuumed the shelves and hard to reach corners with the special attachments. The shelves above eye level were exceptionally dusty, but luckily the clever Dyson people made a special tool to clean areas about your head that you can't see. The best thing about the Dyson is that it is relatively quiet and it doesn't scare the dogs. Our old Hoover always sent them into a panic, but they both just ignored me while I was cleaning today.

I keep thinking of ways to improve the mobile sites I'm building, so I went back and fixed some mistakes I'd made earlier in the week. I'm definitely a late bloomer when it comes to responsive design, but I'm starting to get enthusiastic about the possibilities it presents. As I continue to become more familiar with CSS and structured HTML, I doubt that I'll ever build a static site in Dreamweaver again.

I've started wearing a plastic Essix retainer at night that one of my dentists created for me just before I had my wisdom tooth removed. Since some of my upper teeth are unopposed by lower teeth anymore, this retainer is supposed to keep the upper teeth from continuing to grow downward. I thought only rodents had teeth that continued to grow, but apparently ours do as well if they are not held in check by another tooth directly above or below. I thought I'd hate the retainer, but it is strangely comforting. It fits perfectly and is not unpleasant to wear at all. Putting it on, taking it off, and cleaning it, will add one more element to an already lengthy  set of morning rituals.

The rain finally stopped around 6:30 PM. There was just enough time to give Dot and Dash their evening walks and take a quick photo of a surprisingly beautiful sunset. There will be more rain tomorrow, but we're getting used to it.

Ranger s today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1920

Things are looking up. Dot seems a little stronger today. Her energy level and ability to walk varies from day-to-day, but today was one of the good days. Dot and Dash both seemed calmer than yesterday. They were content to sleep while I worked and let me eat my breakfast without any major disruptions. I wish I knew why Dot seems better on some days than others. Her recovery is not a linear process. Maybe she just got a good night's sleep last night. Maybe I slept better as well. From what I can see, a relaxed family seems to be a happy family.

Towards the end of the day, the UPS man delivered the collapsible dog pen that we've been waiting for. So far, Dot seems to like it. The pen is large enough for her to stretch out and reposition herself when necessary, but it is still small enough to keep her from getting into trouble. The six-sided, segmented metal pen is heavier than I thought it would be, but it is well made and should be durable. We'll see how easy it is to move it from room to room later.

All things considered, I got quite a bit done today. I made some website revisions, finished my writing assignments, and made quite a bit of progress in getting my tax materials ready for the accountant. I'm getting used to the new coffee maker and all the household appliances are working properly. On days like this I think that maybe I'll survive this ordeal after all.

It probably helped that it didn't rain today. Rain was in the forecast, but all we got were a few light sprinkles. I think the rain just got postponed until tomorrow. All the current forecasts suggest that tomorrow will be very wet. It doesn't look like I'll get to go out for breakfast tomorrow. I'm still not comfortable leaving Dot alone in the pen and there may be thunderstorms anyway. I guess I can survive one more day eating cold cereal.

Now that our house is filled with cheap rugs and there is a metal playpen in the living room, I'm feeling better about our rehabilitation program for Dot. We've had a few false starts and bought some things we didn't actually need, but we're getting there. Now I just need to figure out an easy, safe way to transport Dot back and forth to her physical therapy sessions. So far, I've found some easy solutions that aren't really safe and some safe solutions that aren't easy to implement. I know there is something better out there. Dot is doing well, but when we are able to resume her acupuncture sessions and underwater treadmill workouts, I think we'll see even more progress.

It's weird not going to the bank, post office, and pharmacy almost every day. I do these things on weekends now. These little rituals only took me away from the house for a few minutes at a time, but somehow they made all the difference. I can tell that Dot is really looking forward to regaining her freedom. So am I.

Pringles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day