Day 3344

Rain, rain, go away. Needless to say, I'm tired of this. Dash was lucky to get one walk today. I checked the radar as soon as I woke up and realized that we had a short window of opportunity before the downpours started. Janet had an appointment this morning, but she helped get us started. Some mornings Dash won't leave the house without someone to follow. Janet led the way to the park this morning and then as soon as there were lots of things to smell, he totally forgot she was there. Janet returned home and Dash continued smelling his way along one of his familiar routes. I was worried that the approaching rain would overtake us, but we completed our walk with minutes to spare.

Rainy days are murder on Dash's protective boots. Everything gets wet and the fitted bandage that we use as the first layer of protection often gets ruined. There were no bloody paws this morning, but there were a few small red spots that indicated something was rubbing. I'll be glad when the weather is dry again. It's much easier to deal with these assisted walks without a lot of mud and slippery wet grass.

I got a letter from NASA today saying that a postponed event that I had applied to attend early last Fall had finally been rescheduled and that I had been approved. This was a surprise. The event is an opportunity for bloggers to go behind the scenes with the NASA Orion program and see how this four man capsule will be used to return to the moon. I get the Orion, Crew Dragon, and Boeing Starliner programs confused sometimes and wonder why we are developing all three. Maybe this trip to Johnson Space Center could provide the answer. Since Houston is close and the tour is just a one day event, I think I'll probably accept the invitation. Janet says Dash will be fine with her for the day. I probably worry too much, but Dash does need a lot of assistance.

I wish I was better at predicting how Dash was going to respond on any given day. I never know when or where he is going to poop and I always worry that we might be overdoing things on walks. Dash did great this morning. We took a long, leisurely walk and Dash enjoyed smelling everything in his path. He seemed fine when we got home and then about an hour after we returned, he has a severe shivering episode. Was this shivering caused by the cold weather? Was it some sort of tremor related to his vestibular disease, or maybe a mild seizure? I don't know. I wrapped Dash in a blanket and sat with him for about 30 minutes until the shivering subsided and his breathing became normal again. These shivering episodes come and go. He hasn't had one in a while, so I was hoping they were a thing of the past. Dash is fine now, but you never know what is going to happen next.

The rain was pretty heavy today. Luckily, both pumps on the roof were working well. I assume things were working well anyway. Lots of water was flowing through the hoses. I'm not going to go up on the roof and inspect things until the rain stops for good. So far, the repairs the roofers made are holding up well. I have seen no evidence of the roof leak returning. The sheetrock on the ceiling is still ugly and stained, but it's dry. I still have very little confidence in the overall integrity of the roof, but every dry day is a good day.

They say the rain will be gone by morning. I certainly hope so. My day will be more or less the same whatever happens, but at least the inevitable cleanup will be easier if things are dry.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3215

What a mess. The rain was relentless today. Just as I predicted, the roof started to leak again. Lately, it's been leaking whenever there's been an extremely heavy downpour. The fact that standing water alone doesn't cause the roof to leak ought to tell me something. I still can't find the leak, unfortunately.

Although I've got buckets on the living roof floor again and can still hear a steady drip, drip, drip as water hits the buckets, my problems are small compared to the little circus in the park. I really feel sorry for these guys. When Dash and I took our evening walk, I noticed that their tent was totally underwater. The water was three to five feet deep. I saw circus performers and crew standing waist deep inside the tent, trying to salvage chairs and props. Some chairs were actually floating away in the lake.

I wonder why nobody bothered to tell these guys that they were pitching their tent in a flood plain and that this was the rainy season in Dallas. Sadly, there is another city park less than five miles away on top of a hill. If they had located there instead, they never would have had a problem. One of the performers told me that they had four shows scheduled today. There were two matinees and two evening shows. The show obviously didn't go on.

Amazingly, in spite of the downpour, Dash still got two walks. The rain didn't start until almost 9 AM and by 6 PM, it was all over. In between, there was lots of thunder, a very scared dog, and a pretty soggy trip to the grocery store. It's sad that Dash has such limited mobility now. During thunderstorms, he still wants to crawl under my desk. This is his safe place. Unfortunately, he gets stuck in small spaces and can't get up. When he starts to struggle, his fear only increases. I had to block the office off today with a gate for his own safety.

When I went grocery shopping this morning the rain was coming down so hard that I could barely see the road. Several cars appeared to have stalled out and were sitting on the side of the road with their blinkers flashing. Nevertheless, this was still just rain. It's hard to even imagine what people in Panama City Beach are going through now. I've seen the pictures and it looks like this little costal town was totally destroyed by the hurricane.

The weather forecast says the rain is likely to continue through the end of next week. I'm not looking forward to that. Janet told me that there was a roof leak over at the storage warehouse. I'll have to take a look tomorrow and make sure that my unit is still dry. The pump on our roof still works, but it doesn't do much good. Right now, it is only removing water from the carport. I'm not even going to attempt to clear the standing water away until the rain stops. It's dangerous and ultimately the effort is pointless.

If it has to rain tomorrow, I hope there is no thunder. Dash has enough problems as it is. He definitely doesn't need to deal with storm phobia. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Maybe I'll still go to the gym. Maybe I'll just stay under the covers.

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