Day 1519

I've certainly seen better days. We started things out with a dog emergency. As most of you know, I have to walk Dot and Dash separately now, because of my shoulder injury. I walked Dot first and she seemed just fine. Then I returned and walked Dash. When Dash and I got home again, I discovered that Dot had eaten a big hole in the bedroom carpet and seemed very distressed. When I pulled a long string out of her mouth, I got worried and immediately took her to the vet. It can be quite dangerous for dogs to swallow things like string, pantyhose, or anything else that might get stuck or cut through their intestines. The vet said that Dot was in no immediate danger, but that I should watch her very carefully for the next 72 hours and bring her back immediately if she appeared to have an obstruction. Dot has never done anything like this before. I'm baffled. She eats grass occasionally when her stomach is upset, but has never attempted to eat anything in the house. Especially the carpet.

Hopefully everything she ate will pass through her without any problems. She certainly isn't the first Dalmatian to eat something bad. We have had Dalmatians in the past who have eaten socks, paper towels, and even glass. They all lived. You always worry though. Our emergency vet has a glass case in their lobby filled with unlikely things they have taken out of a dogs stomach. It is unbelievable what some dogs will try to eat.

I had a disagreement with a client about an invoice today. I hate arguing about money. I don't like to wheel and deal and I don't like to negotiate. I've always thought that my services were quite reasonable and have always wondered why people who think I'm expensive don't just go somewhere else. They don't seem to realize that I don't really care whether I keep their business or not. At my age, there's not a single client left who will make an appreciable difference in how I live my life. The die has already been cast. I mostly just work to stay busy. If someone will humor me and treat me with respect, they can get me for a song. If they insist on proving that they are the boss, I'm gone. Life is too short.

I can't decide whether to go to the networking breakfast tomorrow. I probably should, because I've never told these people that I'm growing bored and the omelets are no good anymore. I promised that I'd build the group a good website though, and I'm still not done. I always keep my commitments, so I guess I'll continue getting up early for a while longer. My heart isn't in it anymore though. Eventually the website will be done and I'll probably go back to sleeping in late on Wednesdays. That's just the way it is. What's the point of networking with a bunch of folks when you don't even really want their business?

Janet and I are thinking that maybe Dot has acid reflux.  I had acid reflux for many years and it often made me miserable. I never tried to eat the carpet though.

Lady Gogh is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1350

The trouble with working is that I'm too busy to get started on any of my ambitious bucket list projects and not busy enough to make any real money. I feel like I'm treading water at times, but I guess this is still better than drowning.

When I find the time, there's all sorts of things I'd like to try. I've been meaning to hook a camera up to a Meade Cassegrain telescope I acquired at a charity auction. I bought the necessary fittings to attach a camera about three years ago, but still haven't found the right opportunity to photograph anything. There are only about three or four days a year when the sky is sufficiently free of haze to take advantage of this super telephoto lens, but so far there has either been a dog emergency or a client crisis whenever the ideal day arrives.

I need to make a cutting board for the kitchen. For some reason, all the wooden cutting boards I've seen available in cooking stores are the wrong size. I found a local specialty hardwoods lumber company on the Internet, but have never found the time to spend several hours searching for a perfectly proportioned piece of rosewood or mahogany. It doesn't help matters that I will also have to buy a router and learn how to use it in order to create the kind of cutting board I really want.

I'd like to put rock sliders on the Defender 90, build a model train layout, and start recording my songs again, but I'll openly acknowledge that some of these things will never happen. There are always practical necessities like painting the house and caulking cracks and crevices so bugs can't get in that supersede the fun stuff. I guess I could start on some of my bucket list projects if I didn't go to the gym several times a week, but the workouts have become a practical necessity as well. Too many of my friends have already had heart attacks. I don't want to be the next one.

When I was walking the dogs this morning, one of my neighbors brought me up to date on the Summer's ongoing neighborhood disputes. I'm glad I really don't keep up with these things. I try to pretend that the park behind my house is out in the wilderness somewhere, and it is always distressing to realize that it is just a small patch of green in the middle of a big city. I would like to live in the middle of forty acres of land with no neighbors at all. The trouble with this type of arrangement though, is that there are seldom good veterinarians nearby.

When I was at the gym today, I discovered something else that is murder on my carpel tunnel hands. The gym has a really nice basketball court, so I thought I'd shoot a few baskets while I was there. Yikes! This used a few wrist muscles that I haven't moved in a while. My hand-eye coordination isn't what it used to be, but I did manage to dunk a few.

Cammy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day