Day 3012

I was determined to fix the toilet today. I printed out a parts list and drove to the only plumbing supply store in town that has just about everything. The store was closed. If I was thinking, I should have known the store would be closed. Just about the only people who go to this store are plumbers. Have you ever tried getting a plumber on a Saturday?

When I finished the rest of my Saturday errands, I took the flush valve apart and cleaned everything again. This time I must have done something right. When I reassembled the valve and turned the water back on, the water level in the tank was almost an inch lower and the flush valve leak had been reduced to a slow drip. I probably still need new parts, but at least I accomplished something. I'm convinced that Porcher and Citroën must have had some connection in the part. Both French companies feature very clever engineering and make products that are virtually impossible to fix. I have owned several Citroën automobiles. They are wonderful cars to drive but you never want to break down on a lonely stretch of highway. I reluctantly sold my last Citroën when the only Citroën mechanic in Texas retired.

Dash woke me up last night and went racing for the back door. I thought I got the door opened in time. I watched Dash go out in the yard and poop. What I didn't see until the next morning was that he really didn't make it to the yard after all. It was dark and I didn't notice that he'd pooped right on top of the door threshold. When I closed the door and locked up, I inadvertently squished the poop under the bottom of the door and made a huge mess. It was a very unpleasant job to clean the aluminum threshold and underside of the door. The entire door had become a poop sandwich. I thought I was going to get a break from cleaning up poop after Dot passed away, but Dash is already following in her footsteps.

Dash didn't want to take an afternoon walk today. I sure wish this dog could talk. I don't want to make him walk if he's feeling tired or uncomfortable, but it would be nice to know how he felt about things before I spent a lot of time getting him suited up in his protective gear. If he won't walk, I have to remove all the gear because he can't get up on the bed with his boots and leg brace on. We go through this ritual several times every afternoon and I never know what the outcome is going to be. Sometimes he walks and other times he doesn't.

At least the large printer is working again. I finally managed to get the thing unclogged. The printer is making nice prints, but it looks like I'm already going to have to order some more ink. I ended up using half of the expensive ink I received recently running five cleaning cycles. Why do I still have this printer? Probably for the same reason I still have several Beta-SP tape decks. It's a bitch when you've become obsolete.

The grass is already starting to grow in the front yard again. It's almost time to see whether the lawn mower battery survived the winter. I really don't like mowing the lawn, but it's probably no worse than getting the water off the roof or fixing the toilet.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2970

Wow. Fiber optic Internet is really, really fast. Back when I got my first DSL line, people talked about fiber to the home the same way they talked about flying cars. It was kind of the holy grail of connectivity, but nobody really thought it would happen. I guess the future is here.

The first thing the installer did when he arrived was step in dog poop. I was embarrassed, but the guy liked dogs, so all was well. I try my best to keep the yard clean,  but in the Winter it is virtually impossible. If you don't clean up the poop immediately, it just disappears in the leaves.

It always takes longer to upgrade a network than I expect. There are holes to be drilled, mysterious boxes to be installed, and things that need to be configured. I was glad that I got to keep my old router, so I won't have to reconnect everything to the WiFi network again with a different password. It took a while, but the network works just like it did before. It's just faster.

It's amazing that the actual fiber optic cable is so small. How can so much information travel through such a tiny wire? I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that upload speeds are just as fast as download speeds. This was never true with U-Verse or DSL. I could have really used this feature back when I was spending my days uploading websites and sending huge video files to clients.

The fiber optic network is a success, but I wasn't quite as lucky with my refrigerator search. There are apparently no special President's Day deals on the model I've been considering. I saw hundreds of great deals in the store, but the salesperson said specialty appliances, like the odd size refrigerator I need seldom go on sale. "They know you need this one," she said. "They don't have to sweeten the pot with a deal." I know this is true, but it is still depressing. I get very few special deals.

The weather has been almost as erratic as the stock market this year. It's driving me crazy. One day it's seventy degrees and the next day it's twenty degrees. I bet the AT&T technician wished he'd installed the fiber optic cables yesterday. It was forty degrees warmer. It kept getting colder and colder as the day progressed. Another arctic cold front has arrived and I can't wait for it to move out of the area. I think the temperature could be in the teens by morning.

The cold doesn't seem to bother Dash. We took two very icy walks today and he was having a lot more fun than I was. I worry that the cold might make his shivering episodes worse, but they don't seem to be related to the temperature. The shivering and tremors Dash has been experiencing lately appear to be neurological in nature. I hope the tremors don't get worse because there is nothing I can do to stop them.

We had Chili for dinner tonight, which appears to be the prefect cold weather meal. I'm wearing my down booties around the house all the time now. Strangely, my foot doesn't hurt as much when I wear these things. They must improve my circulation. Now, all I need are some down gloves for my hands.  I still don't understand how Northerners deal with ice and snow. All it takes to shut me down is for the temperature to dip below freezing.

Landry is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2914

The weather turned nasty today. As the day progressed, it continued to get colder and around mid-afternoon it started to rain. Since it rarely snows in Dallas, this is how I remember Winter. There is something about a cold winter rain that is particularly miserable. It's hard to warm up on days like this. Since Janet doesn't like me to crank up the heat, I'm walking around the house wearing a wool skullcap and duck down camping booties. I need to find the little ceramic heater I keep under my desk in the winter. The little electric heater works like gangbusters but I've become reluctant to use it as I grow older. I'm much more forgetful now and I'd hate to start a house fire by forgetting to unplug the thing when I go to bed at night. Dash is also a problem. He likes to sleep under my desk during the day and I don't want him to inadvertently burn himself. For the moment, the wool hat is doing a fine job of keeping me warm.

What's the one thing you should never do on a rainy day? Maybe you should avoid washing the car. Well, that's exactly what I did this morning. In my defense, it wasn't raining earlier in the day, but I kind of knew the rain was coming. What can I say. I like a clean car. I'm definitely less likely to go anywhere tomorrow. The car will probably just sit under the carport until everything is dry again.

We had a nice walk this morning, but Dash and I got caught in the rain on our afternoon walk. We should have made it home before the rain began, but I keep forgetting how slow Dash has become. Dash used to speed up when it started to rain. Now, he just keeps poking along, smelling every wet bush along the way. Rain must intensify smells, because Dash spends a lot more time smelling things on rainy days. When we got home, I dried Dash off and threw our wet gear in the dryer. I still haven't warmed up yet.

One of the many things I dislike about winter is that it's much harder to find the dog poop in the yard. The poop blends in with all the leaves on the ground and just disappears. When Dash goes out at night, I have to mark the spot with a colorful piece of plastic. Otherwise, I'll never be able to find it in the morning. There's always one surefire way to find poop in the yard. Just wander around the yard for a few minutes and it will inevitably wind up on your shoes. Yes, I got dog poop on my shoes today. It kind of fit the mood of the day.

I used to watch movies on cold winter days, but the only thing I'm even vaguely interested in seeing is Bladerunner 2049 and it won't be available for streaming until sometime next year. Remember how excited I used to be about Dr. Who? I'm not even interested anymore. I didn't watch the last season at all and I doubt that I'll watch the new season either. I don't know if the show has changed or I have changed, but the writing seems terrible now. The show doesn't seem whimsical or inspired. It just seems stupid. Of course, the shows I do watch seem stupid too, but I just use them to go to sleep. Nothing puts me to sleep quicker than an old episode of Perry Mason or The Twilight Zone that I've seen ten times already.

If the weather clears up, I'll go to the gym tomorrow. If the weather gets worse, I'll take a nap with Dash. Sounds like a plan to me.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2496

I'm confused. When I took Dot to the cancer center today, I was prepared for bad news. To me, Dot seems to be growing weaker. She stumbled a lot this week and seems to be having a harder time walking without assistance. What do I know though? The oncologist, the ultrasound technician, and two nurses all thought Dot looked stronger and more alert than the last time they saw her. Her lab work and scan seemed to confirm their opinion. Dot's tumors are stable and haven't grown at all since her last scan. Her blood work is actually better than it was a month ago. This is all good news, but I still wonder why she seems so weak around the house.

I'm really mad at the city. For the fourth week in a row, the trash truck has failed to empty my trash. Not only was my bagged trash not removed from the can, the robotic arm on the truck actually damaged my brand new trash can. Now, there's a big dent in the can and the lid won't close. I piled the trash in the back of my car and went looking for a dumpster again. I'm tired of this. I called city services when I got home and after a long wait on hold, explained my problem to someone. Nothing got resolved today, but I did get assigned a case number and was told that someone from the sanitation department would be calling me next week.

I didn't get to go out for breakfast this morning, since a thunderstorm was headed our way. I could see lightning on the horizon and hear distant thunder, but we managed to get the dogs walked before the rain actually arrived. The short walk around the block with both dogs went just fine, but Dash almost got me struck by lightning when he refused to curtail his longer walk as the rain continued to get closer. Dash can be pretty stubborn sometimes. By the time we returned home, the sky was looking dark and ominous. I found another package of frozen waffles in the freezer and listened to the rain pounding on the roof while I kept telling Dot that everything was going to be OK.

I've been worried that the new Tramadol pills were going to make Dot constipated, but she put those fears to rest by pooping in the car on the way home from the cancer center. Poor car. Today, it's been pooped in and full of garbage within the same day. It's harder to clean Dot up after she's had an accident in the car. Since she's in a confined space, she can't move away from the mess. Sometimes, it takes me a while before I can safely pull off to the side of the road and attend to her as well. Such is life. It's hard to imagine a trip in the car without one of these accidents these days.

I picked up some Chinese take out for dinner and was dismayed to see that the restaurant had taken all the small sizes off the menu. I used to have a choice of small or large on everything. Not anymore. Absolutely nothing stays the same anymore. Oh, well. At least the restaurant is still in business. I hope we have a quiet, uneventful weekend. I need some time to rest and recharge my batteries before I resume my battle with the city over trash pickup. I'm beginning to think that the robotic arm on the truck has some kind of sensor that rejects my can when it discovers it is full of dog poop.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2437

I had to make some changes to one of the first mobile sites I designed last year and somewhat to my chagrin, I realized that I'd forgotten how to build these things. This happens a lot these days. It doesn't matter whether you're playing guitar or writing a novel, you have to keep your hand in the game if you want to keep your chops up. I'm not as good of a video editor as I used to be, because I don't spend much time editing anymore. I used to be more technically proficient as a photographer too. You really need to do something every single day if you expect to get good at it. It's a shame that I'm already forgetting how to create mobile websites, because I worked so hard to learn this skill. There wasn't as much demand as I'd hoped though. I'm getting a little rusty.

It took me an hour or so to figure out what I was doing and make the necessary changes. If somebody asks me to do the same thing tomorrow, I'm good. Getting rusty is just a fact of life as you get older. It's hard to stay on the cutting edge, since styles and technologies change so quickly. I don't think my writing has deteriorated as much as some of my other skills, but that's only because I still write everyday. It would probably take me a little longer to write an annual report for an oil and gas producer though. I haven't done one of those in over five years.

If practice makes perfect, I'm probably a world class poop collector. Cleaning up dog poop is definitely something I do everyday. As Dot's incontinence has gotten worse, I've discovered all sorts of little tricks to speed up the cleanup process and minimize any damage. When Dot poops in her sleep, I'm often able to get her cleaned up without even waking her up. These are not skills you'd put on a resume though. These are not even skills you'd brag about in public. People just don't want to hear about dog poop.

It remained cool and overcast today. I almost felt like I needed a light jacket on our morning walk. I'm not going to be lulled into thinking that Fall has arrived early though. I know better. September is often even hotter than August and I'm sure we've still got quite a few triple digit days ahead of us. For the moment, I'm just enjoying my good fortune. Cooler weather definitely makes a difference with Dot. She has more energy and a lot more interest in getting outdoors and moving around a bit.

We've got another physical therapy session tomorrow. I hope Dot does as well as she did last week. I'd love to see her get strong enough so that she could walk around the house without my assistance. I think it frustrates her that I'm always following her around, holding up her rear end with the harness. We'll see how it goes.

If I can find the time tomorrow, I'm going to pick up something for dinner at the new Vegan take out place in the neighborhood. The continually rotating menu seems interesting, and I'd love to see if I can wean myself away from meat. I think I could be a vegetarian if the food was spicy enough. Maybe there will be a nice curry I can take home and reheat in the microwave. If not, I'm sure there's still a few hot dogs in the refrigerator.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2411

Live streaming has revolutionized the way I watch television. I rarely watch the TV in the kitchen or the bedroom anymore. And I rarely watch the same things I used to. Now, whenever a space geek friend gives me a heads up about an upcoming launch, I watch it live on my computer. I'm somewhat of a news junky, so I'll often keep a window open in the right side of my screen, just in case something interesting happens. I usually keep the sound muted, because I can't multi-task. Every once in a while I'll turn the sound up for a few minutes and then get back to work.

I'm not really a political person, but I do find political conventions interesting. One of the first things that caught my eye this week was G.E. Smith. I've watched this guy play guitar for decades in the David Letterman Band. When did he start a house band for the Republican Party? Maybe they decided to have their own house band because they grew tired of musicians saying that they weren't authorized to use their music. I find this amusing. Don't these musicians understand how their own music licensing agreements work. If you want to play Queen's music for example, you don't need to ask Queen personally. Anyone, including both political parties, can secure the necessary rights through one of the three major performing rights organizations. If you run a concert venue, a restaurant, a bar, or an ad agency you can pay a flat fee to these to a licensing agency like BMI which allows you to play any music you want. Queen’s "We Are the Champions" is part of the BMI catalog. A performer doesn't have the option of restricting their music to certain radio stations or political parties. That's just how it works. Back in my agency days I've licensed well known songs for ridiculous advertising campaigns. The musicians might have been embarrassed, but I guarantee that they kept the money.

So did anything catch my eye this evening. Well, Peter Thiel certainly did. Peter is right up there with Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Tim Cook. I wonder what my Silicon Valley friends think about that endorsement. The sound is muted now on my computer, but I wouldn't be surprised if something catches my attention later.

I picked up a prescription today, but that was the only time I left the house. I spent the rest of the day wondering when Dot was going to poop. She has an uncanny ability to have her accidents when I'm in the shower or on the phone. The bed where she sleeps most of the day is in plain sight when I'm working at the computer, but she still manages to surprise me.

This week has gone quickly. I haven't heard anything from the roofers yet, so I have my doubts that they'll show up tomorrow as promised. Dot has done well this week. Her legs are still weak, but she isn't limping now. If she continues to improve, we might go back to physical therapy next Wednesday. The trash has been taken out to the curb and it's almost time for bed. I'm looking forward to having a delicious breakfast tomorrow morning. Eggs Benedict sounds good.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2409

As a writer, I find all the talk about Melania's speech interesting. I don't doubt that there was plagiarism involved. Plagiarism is endemic is today's society. If you're a musician, you might call your plagiarism sampling, or perhaps a remix. If you're an artist, you might say you're paying homage to someone. Like it or not, there is very little original thought in this world.

I've been accused of plagiarism myself. Ironically, I wasn't plagiarizing others, I was plagiarizing myself. If you're an advertising writer, you write the same shit over and over again for different people. How many ways can you tell someone that a bank offers friendly service or a hamburger is juicy? Sometimes I like the way I've described something and I'll use it again. I'm not even aware of doing this, but apparently clients aren't very happy if you use the same words more than once. "Oh, jeez, I'm sorry," I'll say and quickly substitute some other adjectives that say exactly the same thing. I guess I'm not surprised that several people might say that if you work hard you can achieve anything you want in exactly the same way. How else would you express this thought? That being said, someone should have run the speech through one of those plagiarism checker websites that teachers routinely use with students papers. As a lazy person myself, I can tell you that there is no real excuse for being lazy. There's no excuse for trying to destroy someone for a few lines of identical text either.

I don't think I was lazy today, but I certainly didn't accomplish anything significant. I did get out of the house at least. I  found a $20 REI coupon in my wallet, so I went to the store and bought another pair of cargo shorts with huge pockets that could hold my cameras when I walked the dogs. T-shirts and cargo shorts has become my new Summer uniform. I'll probably continue wearing a longer version of these things next Winter. Lots of pockets are great.

Dot is still pretty weak, so I canceled her therapy appointment for the second week in a row. We're still just going around the block in the morning. It's not very far, but it seems to be the right balance between getting no exercise at all and becoming exhausted. I wish I knew what I know now when my first Dalmatian was getting old. It takes a long time to learn what dogs are trying to tell you. I think I'm getting pretty good at interpreting Dot's moods and desires, but I've still got a lot to learn. I hope she manages to teach me the wisdom of dogs before Dash gets old. Dash is going to be hard to handle.

I spent quite a while trying to remove some sticky road tar from my car this afternoon. Tar is much more difficult to deal with than dog poop. I don't think I need to worry about anyone plagiarizing me. I've pretty much cornered the market on writing about dog poop. Why would anyone else even want to copy this.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2389

Do you feel like you are inundated with an onslaught of spam and phishing scams? I do. Everyday my inbox is filled with e-mail spam and bogus offers. My land line is worthless. Nobody calls the land line anymore except for telemarketers and scammers. Today I received a voicemail that implied that I was in big trouble and needed to return the call immediately to avoid being called before a grand jury. This seemed highly unlikely, so I entered the phone number in the Bad Numbers website and sure enough it was a scam. Hundreds of other people had received exactly the same message today. The older I get, the more I find myself a target of these scams. Scammers target older people because they are more vulnerable. I don't understand the mentality of a scammer. Some scams are very elaborate and require a lot of thought. Wouldn't it be easier to just get a real job and work for a living?

I could tell that Dot was tired today at our physical therapy session. Part of the problem was that she was stressed from riding in the car. When Dot is stressed, she always poops in the car, which makes me stressed as well. It also didn't help that the water in the treadmill tank was too warm. Dot likes the water cold, although most of the other dogs apparently like it warm. At any rate, she didn't bring her A Game to therapy today. When she got home, she pooped in her bed and made another big mess. She's fine now, but it's been a long day for both of us.

I wonder if the new fiber optic lines in the neighborhood are working? I haven't seen the AT&T installation crews for weeks and everything looks finished, but my Internet speed hasn't improved a bit. If anything, it has gotten slower. I'm not even sure who to ask about this. It's not surprising that the AT&T technical support people in India or Indonesia don't know anything about the fiber optic line. Why would they? I thought the folks at the AT&T store a few miles down the road could give me some answers, but they didn't know anything about the new lines either. If I hadn't seen the men laying the cable with my own eyes, there would be no reason to believe that anything had happened at all.

It's amazing how polarized our society has become. I'm a channel flipper and I compulsively use the remote to switch back and forth between channels while I eat breakfast. Sometimes I'll see exactly the same news story explained in three completely different ways. If you only listen to one account, you'd probably believe what you were hearing was true. When you hear competing views presented in real time as fact, it can get confusing. I think we've gotten truth and belief all mixed up. The Internet is even worse. People go to elaborate lengths to make up false stories and present them as true. I'm not talking about obvious satire or websites like The Onion. There are some serious efforts to deceive out there. Why? I'm a simple person and I'd like to know what's really going on without having to check Snopes.com all the time. What if what I'm reading on Snopes isn't even true? That would be really disorienting.

I've got a day of rest tomorrow and then on Friday, I've got to load Dot in the car again and take her to another vet appointment. She's due for her monthly re-check at the cancer center. This time we'll be doing a chest x-ray in addition to the usual Ultrasound scan and blood work. Sometimes I wonder if this extensive monitoring is even necessary, and then I remember how some of our first dogs died suddenly and painfully when nobody realized that they had cancer. It's always good to know what's going on. There will always be a lot that I don't know, but I do make an effort.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2304

My rubber snakes are gone. When the landscapers were using their leaf blowers to clear away all the leaves in the yard, they must have blown the snakes off the car, bagged them up with the leaves, and thrown them away. The two colorful rubber snakes were the only things I've found so far that were the least bit effective at keeping annoying Bluejays and Cardinals from pooping on my car. It should be an easy matter to go buy some replacement snakes, but rubber snakes are surprisingly hard to find. I found mine at the Dollar Store in a bin filled with cheap children's toys. When I went back to get some more today, they were all gone. Now the bin is filled with little action figures and rubber dinosaurs.

I haven't been having much luck getting Dot to her physical therapy appointment lately. She pooped in the car again on the way downtown. I kind of knew it was going to happen when I had to get off the freeway and take a detour because of an accident. It doesn't take much to get Dot upset. Once she realized we were no longer on our regular route, it was all over. Once we arrived, Dot did pretty well. We've had to slow down the treadmill a bit, but she's still hanging in there. When Dot was getting her acupuncture therapy, the vet kept asking me if I smelled incense. Nope. My sense of smell isn't very good. The only thing I was able to smell this afternoon was poop. It turned out that another customer had brought incense with them. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

I'm going to have three choices for breakfast this Friday. The Dream Cafe has finally opened a restaurant in the neighborhood. I've been waiting for this place to open for over a year. We drive by the location every week on our way to physical therapy and I noticed today that the construction crews were gone and people were eating on the patio. I hope the place is as good as the original downtown location. Maybe I'll go this Friday and try their fried chicken and waffles. If you haven't had chicken and waffles, you haven't had a proper Southern breakfast.

I missed another opportunity to view a Space X launch at Kennedy Space Center. I'm not even going to apply for NASA credentials anymore. The Dragon Cargo Spacecraft launch is tomorrow. I'll watch it on my computer. Leaving town just isn't going to happen while I'm taking care of Dot. Hopefully, NASA will continue their social media outreach program for bloggers like me. I went to one of these launches as NASA's guest a little over a year ago, and I'd definitely like to do it again some day.

Until then, I'll keep doing laundry and cleaning up poop. I learned a long time ago that life isn't always exciting. There are ups and downs punctuated by long periods where nothing happens at all. I'd like to think that taking care of Dot is as important as anything else I've done, but it does test my patience at times. I haven't seen any rocket launches lately, but I've learned to appreciate little things like a good night's sleep and looking forward to chicken and waffles.

Paxton is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2227

I must have worked harder at the gym on Monday than I thought, because I woke up feeling sore this morning. I think this is the way you're supposed to feel after a good workout, but I'm not fond of the sensation. Both of my arms ache. Maybe the reason I'm not adding any muscle is that my workouts aren't strenuous enough. It was purely accidentally that I had a tough workout on Monday. The place was crowded and the equipment I usually use was busy, so I tried some other machines. As I was getting ready to leave, I noticed that my favorite machines were available again, so I did those routines too. I didn't really think about it, but I probably added about thirty minutes to the workout. Maybe this is what I should have been doing all along.

I took Dash to the vet today for some routine lab work. I'm glad that Dash doesn't need to go to the vet very often, because he's terrible in the car. I don't know whether he's excited or scared, but he sits directly behind me and barks the entire way. If I had to transport him everyday, I'd probably be deaf by now. When I got Dash back home again, I got back in the car and went to the pharmacy to get the prescription I should have picked up yesterday. I could have accomplished this in a single trip, but I think it's wrong to leave a dog in the car, even for a short time. The dogs travel to the dog park and the vet with me, but we don't run errands together.

I had a complex website revision to do today. The job would have been easy in the old days, but using Dreamweaver is just a distant memory now. These new responsive websites are much more difficult. If you see a website that looks nice on your phone, there was probably someone like me who spent hours making sure that the layout resized automatically and looked good on any type of device. Life was so much easier when everyone had a simple Motorola flip phone and a 17" CRT on their desktop.

Life was also easier when I didn't spend half the day dealing with dog poop. I knew that Dash must have done his business in the yard this morning, because he didn't poop on our walk. Usually, when we take the dogs outside to pee when we get up, I keep an eye on what Dash is doing. It's always easier to clean up the poop right away, rather than find it on the bottom of your shoe later. I must not have noticed what he was doing this morning. After breakfast I went looking for the illusive poop, because I hate stepping in it later while I'm following Dot around holding up her rear legs. I'll never figure out why it is so hard to find dog poop in the yard and so easy to accidentally step in it. Eventually, I found what I was looking for, but I could think of better things to do.

I wonder how much further the stock market is going to fall. We've wiped out all of 2015's gains already and it's just January. I'm not very optimistic about the future. Sure, the market will go back up again, but unless you are very disciplined or very lucky, you will never be in the right place at the right time.  I think my parents felt much more secure in their retirement with a nice defined pension plan that they could depend on. Now, everybody's got a 401K that goes up and down with the market. The market is not rational either. It is increasingly driven by current events, and we are all lousy at predicting the future. How do you insulate yourself from this madness? I wish I knew the answer.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2143

I went and got the blood tests that my doctor needed right after we walked the dogs this morning. They always want you to fast before these tests, so it's easier to do them first thing in the morning and eat breakfast afterwards. A lady I'd never seen before approached me with a pile of forms to sign before they drew my blood. She said she was a representative of the lab that did the testing. I read page one of the forms and they basically said that I had to pay for anything that insurance didn't cover. What was this all about? Insurance has always covered everything before. I told the woman with all the forms that it was my doctor who insisted on all these tests and it was his job to get them paid for. The whole incident was irritating. Maybe I'll eventually get a bill and maybe I won't. That's not the point. The whole process of navigating the healthcare system is kind of like being lost in a corn maze. It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

Today was a writing day. I didn't think my writing assignments would take me as long as they did, but sometimes the muse just isn't with you. I struggled today. I often find that the "no-brainer" jobs are the hardest, because it can be very difficult to write something compelling when there is nothing to say. Really innovative products sell themselves. The rest provide job opportunities for people like me. I'm not complaining, mind you. I'll write about virtually anything if you pay me.

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my defective watch winder was being replaced for free with a brand new model. Today, I was disappointed to discover that it will cost three times as much as I originally anticipated to fix my old multi-track tape recorder. These two different approaches to a repair problem illustrate perfectly how we have become a throw away society. The watch winder was made in China and it was actually less expensive to throw the old unit away and replace it with a new one than it would have been to ship the winder back to the Chinese manufacturer. The tape recorder had to be repaired because it was no longer in production. Most of the repair cost was labor. The cost of the parts themselves was minimal. In the future I don't think anything will be repaired. It will all be replaced. It's so much easier to throw the old stuff away and let the robots build more.

While I was on the phone trying to get some medical records this afternoon, Dot had a major accident in the house. I smelled it before I saw it. It was like a poop explosion. She pooped all over the carpet in my office and then stumbled and fell in the poop. First I had to clean Dot up. Then I had to take her harness off and hose it off before I put it in the washing machine. Then I had to do my best to clean the carpet itself. It sure would have been nice if Dot had pooped on one of the dozens of small rugs we've spread around the house to help her walk. I can take the rugs to the laundromat or hose them off outside. The carpet is more of a challenge.

Tomorrow is another day. I'm hoping that Dot does well at her physical therapy session. I'm hoping that it doesn't rain. I"m hoping that the carpet still smells clean after it dries out tomorrow.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2134

I found the stuff Janet wanted at the storage warehouse. It was a children's game we'd created a number of years ago where kids could add a spot to a large outline drawing of a Dalmatian. I can't remember what the point of this game was, but the children seemed to enjoy it. The life sized drawing of the Dalmatian with no spots had been printed on a piece of white corrugated plastic and there were black vinyl spots that could be applied to the dog. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the spots. Maybe they didn't even exist anymore. I did remember where I'd had the poster printed, so I drove over to the printer and asked them if they still had any of the peel apart black vinyl they'd given me to make the spots in the first place.

"Who is your account representative," said a girl I'd never seen before. "I don't know," I replied. "I've had quite a few over the years." She looked up my account and seemed surprised to discover dozens and dozens of job orders for various posters and signs. I used to come to this place frequently back when I had a lot of retail clients. I was probably doing posters before this girl was born. Once it was established that I was an ancient, but quite legitimate customer, the girl was very helpful and found me exactly what I needed. She gave me the tail end of a roll of black vinyl peel apart material, saying that they didn't use the stuff anymore. I bet I was the one who started using this roll, many years ago.

I took a small check to the bank and then drove over to the post office and paid some large bills. I wish I was taking large checks to the bank and paying small bills, but that not the way it works anymore. If I was following the script I was given, I would have retired gracefully to a gated community or a beautiful cabin in Taos. I've never followed the script however. It sucks to realize that you are slowly becoming irreverent, but at least I haven't had a heart attack, a nervous breakdown, or been denied coverage for an essential surgery. All these things have happened to friends of mine, so I really shouldn't complain that my business is going down the toilet. "You need to find a hobby," I hear people tell me. It's hard to explain to these people that for all these years my business actually has been my hobby. I made an entire career out of doing stuff I thought was fun.

Dot is off schedule again. She can go about six hours without pooping in the house, but if she happens to go at an odd time, it almost guarantees that there will be an accident later. Today, she didn't go on her morning walk, because we'd stayed up late the night before and she pooped in the back yard just before we all went to bed. I spent the rest of the morning waiting for the inevitable mess, and sure enough, Dot pooped in her bed about 10:30 AM. At least Dot's stools are nice and firm. If Dash ever starts this kind of behavior when he gets older it's going to be a disaster.

If I was writing this blog thirty years ago, it would be full of pretentious talk about first class airline tickets and fancy restaurants. Now I spend my time writing about dog poop. Maybe this is what Karma is all about. I was kind of an asshole in my younger years. It makes sense in an odd sort of way that the karmic debt would be paid by cleaning up dog poop. It's been a learning experience, but what I've learned has been good. I just hope I'm half as graceful about aging as Dot has been. Nobody lives in the moment better than dogs. Dot can't run and jump anymore. She can barely walk. Even with her diminished abilities, I can tell that every morning is a new day. She wakes up happy to be alive and goes about her business doing whatever she can. An old dog would be a good role model for all of us.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2129

Tough day. Dot had another one of her episodes where she appeared extremely stressed and started panting rapidly. When this happens, she usually wants to eat grass and if the condition gets worse, she wants to eat anything, including her dog blankets. I couldn't find the dog thermometer to take her temperature, so I had to use mine. I'll think twice before putting that in my mouth again. I felt a little better when her temperature was within the normal range. Once when this happened, her temperature was over 105 and she had to go immediately to the emergency room. I can't leave the house when this happens because the entire house is filled with rugs and things she can eat now. I can't take the rugs up either, because she can't get up on the slick brick floors and could hurt herself if she started to struggle. My only alternative is to sit with her until she calms down and returns to normal. Everything seems fine now, but I'm going to have the vet evaluate her to make sure there are no new surprises when we go for our physical therapy sessions tomorrow.

When Dot's emergency was under control, I carefully boxed and wrapped my watch winder and took it over to the UPS store so I could return it to the manufacturer. UPS didn't like my nice wrapping job. They told me that my package will spend most of its journey to California on automated conveyor belts that like to eat up brown wrapping paper. I asked how I should pack things in the future and the clerk told me to just put it in a plastic bag. It's a strange new world we live in. I've wrapped packages for years and have never been told that my sturdy brown Kraft paper packages tied with twine couldn't survive the journey.

I had a lot of website updates today and most of them were straight out of left field. It takes me a little longer to respond when I don't really know what is going on, but I think eventually everything got straightened out. I thought it was going to be an easy day and I'd spend my time watching old Dr. Who episodes or reading a book. It didn't turn out that way. Between panicking about Dot's health and trying to meet several tight website deadlines, there was no time left over at all.

Dash didn't help matters when he added his own brand of weirdness to the mix. When I took him on his afternoon walk, he just wandered around aimlessly. He usually loves long walks, but for the past several days, he just wanders around behind the house, I usually think these meandering walks are aimless until I realize, usually too late, that he's headed straight toward a big pile of horse poop. Since he got into horse poop this afternoon, he'll have loose stools tomorrow morning. Ten minutes after we got home, Dot pooped in the house. I'm sick of dealing with poop.

I'm starting to forget what normal looks like. I think the last time I had any real fun was when I got invited by NASA to view the satellite launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base. That was last January. Oh, wait. I got involved in a car accident on that trip, so that wasn't entirely fun either. I probably expect too much. Hey, there are still some fresh bananas in the kitchen for my breakfast smoothie. Maybe I'll see Mercury again if I get up early tomorrow. Maybe Dot will have a good therapy session and be able to spend a full eighteen minutes in the underwater treadmill. Anything could happen.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2078

There's nothing like starting your day washing your hair and discovering that there is a giant cockroach in the shower with you. That ugly little incident kind of set the tone for the day. Later, while I was eating breakfast, I watched the stock market drop over 1000 points within a few minutes of the opening bell. The market did recover a bit, but still ended the day with a loss of 588 points. This is not very auspicious, especially after last week's huge losses. Just as I thought life was returning to normal, Dot wandered into my office while I was working on a writing assignment, quietly dropping a long trail of poop behind her. I thought Dot was fast asleep, but apparently not.

It's easy to clean up dog poop. It's not so simple to clean up the mess that China has made of my investment portfolio. I haven't gone into panic mode yet, but I am frustrated. When China sneezes, we all catch a cold. How did we let ourselves  become so dependent on a Country that isn't even our friend? China buys our debt and we buy their cheaply made products. We have become completely co-dependent. Life was so much better when every American town had a factory and we made all our own stuff. Don't people realize that these factories were what provided the well paying jobs that everyone is clamoring for these days? Not everyone is destined to become a rocket scientist and factory jobs were what created the middle class in America. I've never been a fan of globalization. All it has done is create immensely rich multi-national corporations. I'd gladly return to a world where products were made by my neighbors in my own home town. Sure, everything would cost a little more, but is cheap Chinese made stuff at Walmart really worth all we've lost?

I'm pretty certain that nothing I say about China, or anything else for that matter, will make much of a difference. I don't exert much influence over my clients anymore. I seldom change Janet's mind either. Even Dot and Dash don't listen to me. I do have opinions, but I'm tired of tilting at windmills. It's much easier to just drink my morning coffee, take care of the dog's needs, and mind my own business.

I helped a Luddite friend add a bank account to her Paypal account this morning. This wasn't nearly as easy as it should have been. Every time I did something on my computer, Paypal would call my friend to confirm that it was really her. Of course it wasn't my friend doing the typing, it was me. She'd get a phone call asking for a confirmation number that was actually appearing miles away on my screen. I think we eventually got the account set up, but it would have been a lot easier if she'd just learn how to use her computer. I have a sister who is the same way. She won't use a computer at all and I have to send her letters through the mail. I may occasionally want to travel back in time to the 1950's, but I'm a realist. I do know how to use a computer.

Janet got home late from work, but we decided to walk Dot around the block anyway. It was starting to get dark, but we were hoping that Dot would poop again and we might be able to get a good night's sleep. Dot found something to bark at along the way and that short moment of excitement actually did cause her to poop. I couldn't have asked for more. A day that started with killing a wet cockroach actually ended pretty well.

Hero is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2075

I feel poor. After paying a horrendous batch of August bills and watching the Dow plunge 531 points in a single day, it was easy to feel a bit discouraged. The stock market is right back where it was in 2011. Four years of gains have been erased in a single week. I just wonder how all this is going to end. Everything is getting more expensive, but wages aren't going up. The stock market rises and falls on political unrest instead of market fundamentals. Everybody wants a job, but fewer and fewer people have marketable skills. It's a mess.

Dot pooped in the house again. This time I was ready for her. I quickly moved a rug out of the way, held her harness so she wouldn't fall, and made sure she did her business on the brick floor instead of ruining another rug. We need to move some of the rugs around. She often poops while she is eating because food makes her excited, but unfortunately the biggest area rug we have is right under her food bowl. We need to start buying Outright by the gallon. Without enzyme cleaners like Outright and Nature's Miracle, many of our rugs would have been totally ruined by now.

I think we're just going to have to learn to live with Dot's condition. You can't leave her outside in the yard to do her business because she can't stand on her own. I can spend half an hour outside holding her harness, but she just won't go until something makes her bark or gets her excited. The challenge now is just looking for the best ways to control the damage. I talked to Dot's oncologist today and she agreed to discontinue the Palladia pills for another two weeks based on the initial results we have witnessed so far. Dot may not be any stronger, but she is definitely feeling better now that we have stopped the chemotherapy for a while. When a full month has passed, we will scan Dot again and see whether discontinuing the Palladia has caused the tumor to grow. Until then, we'll just hope she continues to grow stronger.

I managed to finish almost everything this week. My writing assignments have been turned in. Websites have been updated. Bills have been paid. And new piles of poop have been cleaned up. I'm ready for the weekend. My breakfast restaurant was kind of quiet this morning and I managed to snag one of the three good parking places. For some inexplicable reason, most of the parking places have been re-striped so they are about a foot narrower. Only a smart car of a Mini will fit in these small slots, but that doesn't keep the F-250 pickups from trying. I usually park far away to avoid door dings.

I tried again to get the big rug that Dot soiled yesterday clean. I've washed the rug thoroughly with a hose, but it's going to take about a week for it to dry. Janet already bought a replacement rug, but I'd like to see if I can clean the rug anyway.  I'm sure this is going to happen again. If the rug wasn't so stiff, I could probably take it to a laundromat and wash the thing in one of the big commercial washers. I don't think it would fit in the machine though. You can tell that my brain isn't being fully utilized if my big problem of the day was dealing with a poopy area rug.

We're invited to a party tomorrow. I'm always apprehensive about parties, but we'll probably go. There's a fine line between being a little reclusive and becoming completely anti-social and I don't want to cross it.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2074

I don't think the stars were aligned today. Janet got the third nail in her tire this month and Dot pooped all over the place. Now that Dot is feeling a little stronger, she doesn't poop in her bed as much. Instead, she gets up and poops on the carpet as she is heading for the back door. If I notice that she is up, I will take her outside immediately, but I slept through the whole thing last night. When Janet got up to take a shower this morning, she stepped in the poop, but I didn't wake up then either. I was really tired.

Needless to say, there was lots of laundry to do today. I washed the dog blankets, two little rugs, and Janet's house slippers. I took a much bigger rug outside and hosed it off. I think this rug is a lost cause though. We will probably have to throw it away. When I finally got the house cleaned up and smelling good again, it was almost time to take Dot downtown for her physical therapy session. I took her outside for a good ten minutes to make sure she didn't have to go again. She did nothing. As soon as we were on our way and stuck in busy traffic, she pooped again in the car. What a mess. Now, I'll have to start carrying a spare protective pad with me in the car. I asked the vet if there was any pill that worked for poop the same way that Incurin does for pee. The Incurin really did cure Dot's urinary incontinence. Evidently, our current problem isn't the same. Dot just doesn't have the strength to empty her colon anymore. It's not her fault, but it does make life difficult.

It didn't rain much today, but we got a huge amount of rain last night. This meant I had to get up on the roof again. I was pleased to see that the patches the roofers made last week seemed to have held up pretty well. I think the roofer has changed brands of the elastomer coating material he uses, because this new coating seemed to be much stronger than the original material. It actually kind of looked like what he promised in the first place. I'll have to call the roofer tomorrow and see what's going on. I know that some of you are convinced that I'm going to kill myself up on the roof, but this is the least of my worries. I'm far more concerned about getting attacked by an aggressive loose dog in the park, or getting involved in a traffic accident with one of the thousands of idiot drivers on Dallas roads. At least my work on the roof is somewhat under my control.

I got some new writing and website assignments toward the end of the day, but I'm not going to worry about them until tomorrow. Even when I'm a day late, I'm still more responsive than anyone else I know. The world just doesn't seem to work anymore. People are either perpetually tired or they just don't care. Sometimes I look around and think I'm witnessing a global burn out. No matter what people are doing, they always seen rushed. I get put on hold a lot when I call my clients these days. There seems to be lots of activity, but nothing actually gets accomplished. How did things get this way?

I have some friends who live near where all those forest fires are located in Washington State. I hope they don't get burned out. I complain about the weather a lot, but at least we don't have hurricanes, forest fires, and mudslides. I can't decide whether I want more rain tomorrow or not. It's a lot of trouble to get all that water off the roof, but even after last night's downpour, the yard still looks dry. I guess I hope it does rain tomorrow, but that it doesn't start until I've finished walking the dogs and returned from my breakfast restaurant. I'd like to wake up refreshed tomorrow morning after getting six hours of deep sleep, This would be so much nicer than waking up in the middle of the night to the smell of dog poop.

Blackjack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2067

It's hard to know what Dot's limits are. She seems more enthusiastic about life now that she's not taking the Palladia pills, but she's not really very much stronger. Will continuing her exercise walks make her stronger, or will this activity just wear her out? I don't know. Walking Dot is like driving a car held together with duct tape.

Dot stumbled around when she first got up this morning and pooped in the house again, but seemed eager to walk a few minutes later. She seemed strong and confident even on the tough hills, but crashed as soon as we got home. I was hoping that she'd continue sleeping while I fixed breakfast, but the smell of sausages cooking woke her up and she got up and went to the kitchen where she could be certain that I would hear her barking. The entire day was like this. I'd be thinking that I'd worked her too hard and then she would roar back to life for an hour or two. Considering how active she was today, Dot did very well in the underwater treadmill. She's sleeping now though. Probably enough is enough.

It didn't take that long to get caught up on my assignments, since there were only two of them. Today was just about right. I did a little writing, did a little website work and still had time to fix myself French Toast and sausages. I even managed to get Dot to the vet on time, since the traffic was surprisingly light this afternoon. If it weren't still unbearably hot, I would have little to complain about today.

I find it fascinating that a 73 year old socialist and a 69 year old egotist have captured the nation's political attention. Who would have thought? Everyone is always talking about being sick of the Washington establishment, but maybe this time they mean it. If I was a politician, I'd be a little worried about Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. I'm not all that fond or either political party, but I definitely don't think we need another Clinton or Bush in the White House. It's time for something different. Don't expect me to get excited about the upcoming election though. I'm still a little nervous about democracy in general. Walmart and the Kardashians are great examples of democracy at work. You can never underestimate the will of the people. Basically, whoever wins, we deserve exactly what we get. If we really thought about who we were electing, we would do things a lot differently.

The roofers have promised to come out and patch my roof tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I really don't have much faith in anybody these days. With no rain in sight, I guess there's no hurry in getting the elastomer coating repaired, but it will rain eventually. Probably the day after it rains will be when the roofers actually arrive. I've already taken the week's trash out to the curb. Maybe I'll go get my car safety inspected tomorrow. I've got to do it sometime this month anyway. I'll definitely go out and have a tasty breakfast tomorrow morning whether I make it to the dealership or not. My go-to Amigas plate is less expensive than a safety inspection and a lot more enjoyable.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day