Day 2063

Sunday has become one of the busiest days of the week. Things that tend to get postponed or forgotten about during the rest of the week usually get tended to on Sunday. This is when the house gets cleaned, the gardening gets done, and most of my bookkeeping for the business takes place. When you add in a trip to the dog park for Dash and a trip to the gym for me, it can become a very busy day.

Now that we get up extra early to take Dot on her pre-dawn walk, it seems like I've added an extra two hours to my day. I've never been a morning person, but I might eventually become one at this rate. I've always been a light sleeper. Now, instead of putting my head under a pillow and refusing to admit that I'm awake, I just get up. I've grown to enjoy these early morning walks. It's really the only time a sane person would even want to be outside in August. There's usually a nice breeze before the sun comes up and Dot enjoys smelling things and barking at the occasional rabbits and squirrels we see along the way. We are usually able to take Dot on her exercise walk, feed the dogs, eat our own breakfast, take Dash to the dog park, and still be back home before 9 AM.

This leaves a lot of time to do laundry, change the sheets on the bed, water the plants in the back yard, vacuum the carpets, recharge batteries in the electronic gadgets, and go to the gym. If I time things right, I'm even able to listen to Ted Talks on the radio on the way to my workout. This seems like a good way to spend a Sunday to me. Things get done. I'm able to start the week fresh on Monday morning. And by staying busy, there is little time to brood about how boring my life has become.

I'm not nearly as exhausted as I initially was when I started my Sunday workouts, so maybe it's time to add a few more things to my routine. The hand bicycle and treadmill provide a pretty good cardio workout. I still enjoy shooting baskets from the free throw line, and there are several resistance machines I always use. Maybe it's time to start working with free weights again. Adding an extra twenty minutes to my workout probably wouldn't kill me.

Tomorrow, I'll finally be done with the dental work that started in January. The dentist will remove a temporary crown I've had in my mouth for over a month and replace it with a permanent porcelain crown. Hopefully, now that all my major dental problems have been corrected, I'll just need to go in for a routine cleaning every six months or so. Maybe with these big dental bills behind me, I'll finally have money for something fun. I kind of doubt it though. Life is always full of surprises.

I really hope that Dot's weak leg will start to improve, now that she's off the Palladia for a while. I'll be watching her closely this week, because if the chemotherapy is what was causing the renewed muscle weakness in her rear legs, we should start to notice a change within four days. I'm not expecting miracles. Even a small improvement would be a huge plus. Before beginning chemotherapy, Dot was getting to the point where she could get up and down on her own around the house without assistance from me. This gave her a feeling of independence and made her much happier. Maybe we'll get there again. Like I said, life is full of surprises.

Nautica is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2008

It was definitely Monday this morning. Monday is always the day when things get off to a slow and often rocky start. When I woke up this morning, Janet was already on the phone, having trouble getting an appointment to get her car in for service. Both dogs were barking at me because I wasn't fast enough getting their breakfast. After a fairly peaceful walk, I turned on the computer and discovered even more problems. Somebody must have gotten up even earlier than me. There were short, ambiguous e-mail questions that required long, detailed answers. There was confusion about who was in charge of certain projects. Was I ahead of schedule, or falling behind? I still don't know.

It took a while to get everything sorted out, but after I did, I noticed a letter in yesterday's mail offering me a two month free trial of satellite radio in my car. Since the was no obligation to continue the service after the two months were up, I decided to give it a try. I signed up, and of course when I started the car later in the day, the satellite radio didn't work. It took two more calls to tech support before the satellite found me. "You have to turn off Bluetooth before you can acquire the signal," someone in a far away call center told me. "But I'm talking to you right now using Bluetooth," I said. "If I turn it off, this call will go dead." That's kind of how it went. Eventually the satellite did find my car and I discovered that SiriusXM was just as boring as regular radio. I tuned into a live traffic report channel and found that it only monitored traffic conditions in Boston and Philadelphia. The Rock and Roll channel was just playing very old Elvis Presley tunes. I'll still probably continue listing to NPR instead. National Public Radio does have some good programming, but I wish they quit talking about the Middle East. I'm tired of hearing about problems in the Middle East. I wish there was a channel that just played Ted Talks. A veterinarian channel would be nice too. I'm always interested in learning how to keep the dogs healthy.

Summer has definitely arrived. Every morning I wake up with a new batch of mosquito and chigger bites. I don't know how all these mosquitoes got inside, but they're very hard to get rid of. The air has turned hot and muggy and the fire ants have returned. The birds that poop on my car have returned as well. I don't know where these irritating birds go in the Winter, but our house has definitely become their permanent Summer home. At least we are in no danger of a drought. There is more heavy rain in the forecast for tomorrow, as a big tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico heads inland. I'm glad I don't live in Houston. We'll get wet, but Houston is in danger of flooding again.

I need to get up early tomorrow because I've got a dental appointment in the morning. I hope there are no complications and I can get home again before the rain arrives. I hate leaving storm phobic dogs alone in the rain. I don't like being out in the rain myself, but I want to put this dental work behind me. There's no point in postponing things anymore. The only thing I'd like to postpone is my upcoming birthday. I used to look forward to birthdays, but the years go by too fast. We need to slow these birthdays down.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1981

My loaner car has a new feature called intelligent start/stop. I hate it. When your car comes to a stop at an intersection, the engine shuts off completely. When you take your foot off the brake and press the accelerator again, the engine starts and off you go. Who thinks of these things? I've spent almost my entire driving life trying to avoid having my engine stall out at a busy intersection with a bunch of angry drivers behind me. Now this behavior is called a feature? It's crazy.

My service adviser  told me that intelligent start/stop systems will be mandatory on new cars starting in 2017. Maybe these things will work for a little while, but what happens when the car gets older and your battery starts to get weak? Dead batteries are another thing I try to avoid. I noticed that all the electronics on the car, even the air conditioner, continue to run while the car is sitting at a stop light with it's engine off. That probably puts a strain on the best of batteries. Call me old fashioned, but I think a car's engine should always be running when you're behind the wheel. I don't know how long it will take to repair my damaged wheel, but while I'm driving this loaner, I'm going to disable the fancy Eco-Start system.

Dot seemed really tired today. I hope she hasn't strained a muscle or injured anything. Progress is much slower now than it was during the initial weeks following her surgery. I need to remember how far she's come. Considering that she was completely paralyzed a few months ago, it's remarkable that she's walking at all. I still hope her legs continue to get stronger and that she will eventually be able to walk without the Help 'Em Up Harness. Maybe that's expecting too much though. Dot is a very old dog. I let her set the pace these days. On a good day, we'll have a nice slow walk in the park. When she's tired, we don't even make it around the block.

I've noticed that Dot is never too tired for breakfast. Janet feed the dogs their regular breakfast when she gets up, and later they get to share a banana with me. Dot and Dash used to get excited when I cooked sausages, because they always got a taste. I think they like bananas even more than sausage though. They're going to be really disappointed if I ever lose interest in having banana smoothies.

I spent a long time today learning how to make responsive objects that you can click with a mouse on your computer and swipe with your finger on your phone. I see these things on mobile websites all the time. Swiping to the left or right with your finger is the primary way you navigate when viewing a mobile site. Mouse-over behaviors don't work at all, since you don't use a mouse on your phone or tablet. It's still seems pretty complicated to me, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Each time I update my test site, it gets a little better.

I have an appointment with the dentist tomorrow. This is the dentist that fills teeth and makes crowns. My other two dentists specialize in oral surgery and dental implants. I hope the dentist I'm seeing tomorrow can successfully repair tooth #30 and send me on my way. If he can't, I may have to go back and see the other two dentists. Like I said earlier, I've opened a Pandora's Box of dental misery.
        

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1908

Today was kind of a preview of what's to come. Dot was restless and wanted to move around, but wasn't strong enough to move by herself. I held her up with the harness while we went inside and outside and walked back and forth from room to room. Periodically, she would get tired and rest in her dog bed for a while, but just as soon as I got started on something myself, she wanted to get up again. Dot likes to sleep in the kitchen and near a big window in the bedroom, but she's decided that she doesn't like the office anymore. She seems to be looking for brightly lit areas and the office is admittedly the darkest room in the house. This is unfortunate, because the office is still where I need to spend the most time.

Needless to say, I didn't get a lot done today. When Janet was home earlier in the day I was finally able to get the water off the roof but it was probably a wasted effort. There is more rain in the forecast for tomorrow. When I'm up on the roof, I feel like Sisyphus, eternally pushing a huge boulder up a hill. It is necessary to remove the water because it is heavy and over time will warp the roof beams and cause the roof to settle even more if I just ignore it. Standing water will also cause another leak if I just ignore it. Nothing is waterproof forever. Water is very patient. If you leave it alone, it will eventually find a way inside. All this being said, it is still very frustrating to spend hours removing all the water from the roof and then have it rain the very next day.

My teeth, which had seemed just fine for months, suddenly became sensitive to cold again yesterday. This worries me, because I've decided to put off all the dental work I need until I get Dot's surgery bills paid off. I had been planning to get the wisdom teeth removed in early February, but it wasn't meant to be. Dot's spinal injury intervened. I can only deal with one crisis at a time. The last thing I need right now is a dry socket from a tooth extraction while Dot is having serious problems of her own. Luckily, Dot seems to be getting better. Maybe by Summer, Dot will be walking normally again and I can move on to overcoming my fears of going to the dentist.

Tomorrow, we will be able to cut Dot's prednisolone dose in half. Prednisolone causes dogs to increase their water intake. Dot drinks water constantly now and can't make it through the night without going outside to pee around 3 AM. On a lower dose, I think we'll all sleep better. I'm sleeping so lightly now, that my fitness tracker app asks me whether my nighttime activity is really sleep. I miss the days of having two lazy dogs on the bed who didn't want to get up at all.

Of course, daylight saving time goes into effect tomorrow and this will mess up my sleep schedule even more. I don't know why we need more daylight in the evening anyway. I want more daylight in the morning, so it's easier to wake up. The days were just starting to get long enough for the sun to come through the bedroom window a little before 7 AM. Now, after the time change, it will be dark again when we need to get up.

Dot is sleeping peacefully now. I wish she was sleeping peacefully this afternoon when I had a long list of chores to do around the house. Now, I'm too tired to finish these chores. Oh, well. There's always tomorrow. I have a feeling that I'm going to be saying "there's always tomorrow," quite frequently in the days and weeks ahead.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1484

Dot and Dash don't like the new cold weather schedule. Instead of walking them right after I get up in the morning like I usually do, I've started eating breakfast first to allow things to warm up a bit before we venture outside. To me, this is an excellent plan, since the temperature warms up quickly once the sun is up and starts to thaw things out. The dogs don't like this additional wait however, and bark at me as I do my best to eat my oatmeal in peace. They don't seem to realize that I'm doing all this for their own good. As far as I can tell, the extra hour I spend eating breakfast usually results in a five degree increase in temperature. This is only when the sun is shining, of course, but so far we've been lucky and it's been sunny all week. Once we're underway, all is forgiven. The dogs love to walk and maybe they realized that as a result of their short wait this morning, they only had to wear one coat instead of the two they wore yesterday.

I'm hoping the year will grow more exciting in the ensuing months. I've got plenty of work to do but it's all pretty dismal so far. I need more time with absolutely nothing to do, so I start inventing my own personal projects again. I don't think I've done anything that didn't involve clients, the dogs, or my own health in months. I wonder now how I ever found the time to play in a band, plan elaborate photo exhibitions, and even take cooking classes. The irony is that when I was doing all those things, I was actually making more money than I am now. At least the market was up today. When the stock market is up, it helps to compensate for all the boring, low paying advertising jobs. I keep telling these kids I compete with these days that they've got to raise their rates and quit living with their parents. They don't listen though. They don't even believe how good it used to be before they ruined everything by undercutting the prices of old dogs like me.

Dash had some lab work done while he was at the vet today to make sure his kidneys are still working properly. We'll have to wait for the results, but his veterinarian seemed to think he was doing very well. I was glad to hear that his teeth aren't in as bad shape as I thought. His gums are still healthy and it looks like a simple cleaning procedure to remove the plaque will be all he needs. I made an appointment to get his dental work done next week. When Dash's teeth are gleaming again, we'll deal with Dot's teeth. Maybe, when both of the dogs get their dental work done, I'll go see the dentist myself. I probably need to see a dentist a lot more than the dogs.

My Wednesday morning networking breakfasts resume tomorrow. We haven't had these early morning meetings during the holiday season and three weeks of sleeping in on Wednesdays has reconfirmed that I'm never going to be a morning person. Most of the other people still appear to go to these meetings to make contacts and pass out business cards. That's fine by me, but I'm still going for the bacon.

Misty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day