Day 4821

I went to the storage warehouse today and brought home Petey's orthopedic dog bed and Dash's Help 'Em Up Harness. I could start a store with all the dog paraphernalia we've accumulated over the years. It comes in handy though. We're hoping that Dawn makes a full recovery but have no idea how long that's going to take. The x-ray results came back today and Dawn does have a bulging disc in her neck. This would explain some, but certainly not all of her symptoms. We've dealt with lots of illness and injuries before but this one is new. We still can't identify a cause. 

Dawn's problems just seemed to appear out of nowhere. What do a swollen neck and stumbling have in common? Hopefully the Help 'Em Up Harness will help keep Dawn from falling when we take her outside to do her business. She will stumble or collapse with no warning at all. A few minutes later she will seem normal again. The pain medication is helping keep Dawn calm, but we really need to figure out what is going on. We'll talk to the vet again tomorrow, but if there were any easy answers we'd probably already know them.

I missed my chance to search for leaks on the roof because it is supposed to start raining again later tonight. It wasn't a great day to attempt repairs anyway because I need the roof to be dry to apply the remaining Armor Flex. It was a grey day with a light mist in the air for most of the day. It was easy to convince myself that it wasn't worth the trouble to do anything.

I don't mind walking in a light mist so I took my long walk anyway. I didn't get as many steps today because there was no sunrise walk with Dawn, but I kept moving. The mist was so light that I didn't get very wet and it certainly kept things cooler. All in all, it was a good day for a walk. The weather has gotten so warm lately that it's hard to believe there will be another hard freeze. Stranger things have happened though. We've had some pretty heavy snowfalls in March. Let's hope that doesn't happen. I have enough problems without dealing with snow.

I backed another Kickstarter project this morning. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson after backing the Benro Polaris star tracker, but apparently not. Backing the Polaris project was several years filled with delays and frustration, but eventually I did receive the product and it has more or less lived up to expectations. Kickstarter backers usually get a much better price than what the new product will eventually retail for. There's always a risk though. The product may end up being a failure or never ship at all. At any rate, I may get a self leveling tripod someday.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do in April. I haven't received any requests for help from the observatory, so maybe they don't need volunteers anymore. I hesitate to apply for credentials at Kennedy Space Center because we don't know what is going on with Dawn yet. If she's having trouble moving around, it's going to take both of us to help her. I'm not even sure I even want to go anywhere now. You've got to be in the mood.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3110

We walked Dash very early today, so there'd be plenty of time to photograph new rescue Dalmatians after breakfast. The kennel seems a long way away now, but that's just because I don't drive much. For most people in Dallas the drive would just seem like a normal commute to work. There was only one new dog to photograph, but that was just as well because the kennel was very busy. Hopefully, this little guy will get a home soon. Charlie was a friendly boy and Janet wanted me to make him today's Dalmatian of the Day.

I'm sure this isn't the hottest Summer on record, but it sure seems that way. Maybe there have been warmer days, but there sure haven't been larger electric bills. Our June bill was the highest I can remember. This probably says more about the rising cost of electricity than it does about the weather. I think we'd pay just about anything to keep the air conditioner running unfortunately. The heat is merciless. We're all getting older and can't take it anymore. I'll keep changing the furnace filters and hopefully the house will stay cool for the rest of the Summer.

I went to the storage warehouse and brought home some of Dot's low dog beds for Dash. He's having trouble getting on the bed now and is increasingly starting to sleep on the floor. Dot did the same thing as she got older. Hopefully, a few strategically placed dog beds will help keep him comfortable. Our brick floors can be pretty tough for an old dog.

I like Sam's Club and Costco's prices on bulky items, but I sure wish they came in smaller sizes. I got toilet paper today and I think I have enough to last the rest of the year. We have a small house and it takes forever to figure out where to store the big boxes of paper towels and toilet paper. The cabinets are full, but I'm confident that we're good on coffee pods, mineral water, toilet paper, and towels.

The storage warehouse still looked pretty full when I went to get the dog beds this afternoon. I wonder if I'll ever be able to remove enough stuff so I can move to a smaller space when my rent comes due again. I've cleared out a bunch of stuff, but it still looks the same. This is going to take a lot of work. The storage warehouse management doesn't give customers access to their dumpster anymore either. That sucks. How can you throw stuff away if there's no place to put it?

It's hard to believe the year is half over. I certainly haven't accomplished very much. I wish I realized earlier how difficult it was going to be to simplify things. If you haven't used something in five years, I would encourage you to throw it away. It doesn't get any easier after ten or twenty years. I wonder what ever gave me the idea that at a certain age you could just magically transition to a house on the beach?

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2534

I've been tired all day. Dot had a major accident last night and when I took her outside to clean her up, I tripped and ended up cutting my leg as I tried to keep Dot upright as I fell. These emergency cleanup operations don't always go well. It's dark, so I can't see the full extent of the damage and I'm usually half asleep. By the time I got Dot clean, changed all her bedding, and bandaged my cut, I was exhausted. As I lay in bed trying to get back to sleep, I felt my heart pounding like I'd finished a strenuous workout. This isn't good.

It's really cold in the mornings now. I wear a Winter coat and compression tights under my pants on our early walks. By noon, everything has changed. When I took some bills to the post office early this afternoon, it was warm enough to wear shorts again. The temperature changes so radically during the day that I sometimes change three times a day and switch back and forth between the furnace and the air conditioner. Life would be easier if I didn't want to always feel like it was 72 degrees.

While I was running errands this afternoon, I went back to the REI store to look at some camping mattresses I noticed over the weekend. I thought one of these things would make a great dog bed for Dot. The mattresses were large and comfortable, but were only about an inch and a half thick. They seemed perfect. I wish I'd noticed earlier that these mattresses were inflatable. Inflatable things don't last very long with dogs. My trip was a wasted effort, but it really didn't matter. The whole day was a wasted effort.

I updated some websites this morning and got caught up on my bookkeeping, but by the end of the day all I could remember was getting up in the middle of the night with Dot and trying to stay awake at the computer. I just couldn't stay focused  today. Wisely, I decided to wait until another day to upgrade my computer's operating system. I'm going to need my wits about me when I embark on that foolish project.

I'm going to have to do some research and see if there is something else I can feed Dot.  She's having loose stools now, which makes my cleanup efforts ten times harder. I noticed the other day that the bird that shits on my car is back for another Winter. Normally, this evil bird drives me crazy, but I hardly even noticed it this year. I've got bigger problems to deal with now.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2082

Not my circus. Not my monkeys. This has become my universal response to just about everything I see these days. The world has become such a strange and chaotic place that I am having difficulty relating to things that are apparently normal now. Almost every time I turn on the TV I am reminded of this old Polish idiom. I feel the same way on those rare occasions when I visit a client's office or go to a public event. "What planet am I on," I sometimes think. Coincidentally, I drove by an actual circus when I was running errands this afternoon. I didn't see my monkeys there either. Even this little parking lot circus seemed strangely out of place to me.

Reading books used to seem normal to me, so I bought a book today. I've been meaning to read Andy Weir's The Martian for quite a while, but somehow never got around to it. I've known about the book for ages since it is a favorite of the space geeks I follow on social media. I've actually read big chunks of the book online, but have never read the whole thing. Maybe now would be a good time. I always like to read a book before they make a movie out of it. 9 times out of 10, the book is better than the movie.

I went to the storage warehouse today and picked up the equipment I'll need for this weekend's photo shoot. The equipment seems to get heavier every time I load it in the car. It would be nice if there was a place in the house to store this stuff, but that option disappeared years ago. Now that Dot has trouble moving around, the house has become more crowded than ever. There are dog beds everywhere, so she'll have a comfortable place to rest wherever she is. Dot has limited mobility, but she is much happier when she still has free reign of the house. She has a comfortable bed in every room now and I don't have to confine her in a small pen to keep her safe. When we go to sleep, I move several of these beds together to create a large area that she won't slide off of when she tries to re-position herself during the night. One of the beds goes in the car whenever we go to her physical therapy sessions. I feel like I'm always moving dog beds around.

I tried to rig up an alternate pet cam this afternoon. The baby monitor that I use to monitor the dogs when I'm away has been crashing a lot lately. It makes me nervous when I open the app on my phone to see what's going on and all I get is an "unable to connect" message. I usually fix the baby monitor the same way I fix every other electronic device in the house. I turn the thing off and then turn it back on again. It's amazing how simply rebooting something just about always solves the problem. At any rate it would be good to have an independent back up camera in case the baby monitor goes wonky again.

It doesn't take a lot to make me happy. I saw Mars on the Eastern horizon as we walked the dogs this morning. I got one of the three good parking places when I went out for breakfast. Dot didn't poop in the house at all today. And I'm all caught up on the week's work. Quite a few things make me unhappy as well, but maybe it I don't turn on the TV, don't pick up the phone, and avoid rush hour traffic I won't notice them so much.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1900

When Dot's neurologist called this morning to give us a progress report, she seemed pleased. Dot is already eating and drinking water on her own, so she was taken off of IV fluids today. When the nurses help her out to pee using a special sling under her belly, Dot moves her rear legs and even squats fairly normally. She can't support her own weight yet, or walk unassisted, but the neurologist assures me that this is normal at this stage of the game. Dot is still very weak and on a lot of pain medication, but everyone at the hospital thinks she's doing even better than expected. Her doctors are optimistic that she will learn to walk again.

I'm glad Dot is safe and warm at the hospital now, because the weather in Dallas has turned cold and nasty. It snowed most of the day and the temperature never got above freezing. Traffic was a nightmare and there were lots of wrecks all over the city. Janet and I both canceled afternoon appointments when we saw how the traffic was inching along in front of our house. It just wasn't worth trying to get out in this mess. You don't really worry about snow or ice when you venture out on days like this. You worry about the other drivers. A single idiot who doesn't know how to drive on snow can snarl up traffic for hours.

Dash is such a baby about walking in the rain that I didn't think he'd go out in the snow at all. Much to my surprise, he seemed to enjoy the stuff. We took a long walk where he hopped around in the small drifts, smelled the tracks left by other animals in the snow, and peed on everything. I think I got cold long before Dash did. I took some pictures while we were out to document the rare snowfall. The one I liked the best captured a single perfect snowflake caught in a spiderweb. If you look carefully, you can see the six sided flake suspended in the web.

We were going to visit Dot this weekend, but that will depend on the weather. It could get better tomorrow, or it could get worse. I think even the weather forecasters have given up trying to predict things. Two days ago, they said it was going to be sunny today. UPS delivered Dot's new rehabilitation dog bed this evening. It looks like it's about the right size and can be easily repositioned around the house when needed. Now we've just got to figure out an easy way to quickly assemble a secure fence around the bed when we have to leave. A friend said that that we could use some of the rubber backed rugs she'd used when she had an older dog who had difficulty walking. Slowly but surely, we're getting the house ready for Dot's return.

I'm glad I went to my favorite restaurant yesterday, because I certainly didn't feel like venturing out in the snow today. Apparently, not everybody shared my aversion to the wet stuff. Schools closed early and children were enjoying sledding down hills all over the neighborhood. I guess I've lost the fascination with snow I had as a child. I didn't build a snowman or even make a snow angel. It was fun watching Dash cavort around in the snow on our walk, but even he was glad to get back inside again where it was warm. I've got my fingers crossed for another sudden temperature reversal and a quick return to warmer weather. With the fickle Winter we've been having, it could happen at any time.

Thanks for keeping Dot in your thoughts and prayers. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's report from her medical team and I'll keep you posted on how she's doing. This remarkable dog has beat the odds again and again. Dot has been an inspiration to me for many years and it looks like the old girl is not ready to relinquish her role as the head of the household yet.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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