Day 1738

Very little went as planned today. A persistent telemarketer called over and over again at ten minute intervals until I finally figured out how to block the call. I got a past due notice from a vendor I had parted company with and paid in full over two years ago. I also almost threw away a check from a client because the envelope looked like it contained junk mail.

That was just the beginning. All the links suddenly went dead on a website I had just uploaded a few days ago and thought I was finished with. I have no idea what went wrong, but it took me quite a while to fix the mess. The only thing I can think of is that the server reverted to an older backup copy of the site which contained code that I had subsequently changed. Another client gave me the name of a new product they wanted me to write something uplifting about. I did a little research and discovered that they had named their product after an aircraft that had crashed, killing 73 of the 76 passengers on board. Somebody didn't do their homework.

Dot had a small accident last night because we went to bed late and forgot to take her water bowl up. She tanked up on water around 11 PM and just couldn't hold it. I still think her Incurin pills are working. This was our fault. If I drank a ton of water just before I went to bed, I couldn't hold it all night either. 

Dot is still a little sore from the rabies and leptospirosis injections she got on Tuesday, but she still did very well during her physical therapy session. She was able to go fifteen minutes on the underwater treadmill, which was much better than I expected. The only downside to today's visit was that the vet found several fleas on her. Fleas are always a problem, since we live so close to a large park filled with feral cats and other critters. Both dog have sensitive skin, so we can't use Frontline or other topical products. I actually thought her heartworm pills would guard against fleas, but the vet said they only prevented the fleas from reproducing and didn't kill live ones.

It looks like the city is going to tear up one of the trails the dogs and I like to use and replace it with a much wider concrete walkway designed for bicycles and joggers. I'm not looking forward to this. I liked the park a lot better when it was largely abandoned. Now that the park department considers the place an entertainment destination and keeps adding new things to attract more people, the place is turning into a zoo. There's not much I can do about this though. It's not my park. I guess I was lucky that the place lay dormant and unused for so long.

I'm really glad that tomorrow is Friday. From the way things looked today, this week couldn't be over soon enough.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1708

I've been sleepy all day. Dot woke me up about 3 AM needing to go outside and then I had trouble getting back to sleep again. After three uneventful nights of restful sleep, I thought we had put most of Dot's incontinence issues behind us. Evidently not. Rehabilitation is not an exact science. There are still good days and bad days and today was not one of the better ones. When we went for our physical therapy session later in the day, I asked the vet why Dot appeared to be regressing. She said Dot probably just drank too much water later in the evening yesterday and said I should start withholding her water around 7 PM until her kidneys started concentrating urine normally again. Maybe it's as simple as that. Actually, I did let Dot drink water later in the evening last night because I thought she was back to normal. I need to remember to be patient.

It wasn't all bad news though. Dot had another good day on the underwater treadmill and continues to get stronger. I walked the dogs together again this evening and Dot had no trouble keeping up with Dash. Physically, she's doing great. She just pees all over the place. Despite the lingering incontinence issues, I'm still reluctant to give her estrogen. It would be so much better if she can resolve this on her own.

Sometimes it seems like these dog problems are never ending. Exactly one year ago Dot was having some serious issues with seizures. We managed to get those issues resolved and then Dash got sick. Dash appears to have made a complete recovery from his cancer, but he's still under treatment. In fact, he goes back to the cancer center tomorrow for another evaluation. We're hoping that Dash's oncologist will give us the green light to discontinue the chemotherapy. They're going to do an ultrasound tomorrow and if everything looks good, he might be finished with his cancer treatment entirely. We'll follow the doctor's recommendations though. We've come this far and Dash is doing well. If he needs more treatment, that's what he'll get.

You'd hardly know it was Janet's birthday today. She left for work early after we each walked a dog around sunrise. We still don't walk them together in the morning, because Dash likes to walk much further than Dot can manage in the mornings. When Janet came home from work later in the evening we had chocolate Sprinkles cupcakes and opened presents. Then it was time to waterproof the bed again. Our birthdays may not be glamorous anymore, but we've got a lot to be thankful for. Both our dogs have survived some pretty serious illnesses and are happy to be alive. We're also managing to stay reasonably healthy ourselves. We're all survivors. At this point in our lives, that's enough.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1160

It was a good day to go to the dog park. The weather was nice and all the dogs were playful. We stayed quite a while at the park because it is much more enjoyable to watch dogs play than it is to clean the house. Since Janet and I both have the little activity wristlets now, we were probably looking for an excuse to boost our step count too. I feel compelled to walk 10,000 steps a day now. I've probably always walked that much, but now that I'm being measured, I hate to be a slacker.

When we got home from the park, the dogs did the smart thing and took a nap. I decided to clean the bathroom instead. I don't know why it's so hard to get soap scum off the shower tiles. In those Scrubbing Bubbles commercials, the tiles are glistening in just a few seconds. In real life, it never works that way. It's harder to clean shower tiles than it is to clean a barbecue grill.

It's supposed to be a holiday tomorrow, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get any time off. I've already got several jobs on tap that I need to work on in the morning and then I need to go over to Baylor and have an MRI done in the afternoon. I filled out a big stack of pre-admittance paperwork this afternoon, but I'll bet there's more paperwork for me tomorrow. An MRI is pretty painless. The only thing I don't like is when they inject you with dye. It leaves an odd metallic taste in your mouth for some reason.

I'm glad Janet approves of my new diet. It would be much harder to maintain my resolve if she wanted to continue eating cheeseburgers. Luckily, she's been eating healthy all along. All I have to do it eat the same things she does. Well, almost the same things anyway. I'll have to forgo the scotch and red wine.

Too bad I've had to give up alcohol. Drinking all that extra water I'm supposed to have would be a lot easier if I could add a little single malt scotch and a few ice cubes to every glass.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1159

It was a beautiful day. On clear, unseasonably warm February days, everyone is out and about in Dallas. The roads are crowded. The stores are full. The park is filled with people who never walk their dogs on cold, rainy days. The whole town was a three ring circus. Although it actually would have been a good day for me to stay home and read a good book, I decided to join the fray and went to Guitar Center. Not surprisingly, I was already too late for the President's Day doorbuster deals. The AKG headphones that were marked down 79% from list price were long gone. I looked around, couldn't find anything else I needed or even wanted, and left.

The next stop was the grocery store. I didn't even bother to look for deals here. I just put stuff in my buggy as quickly as I could, used the handy automated check out station, and left. Probably the only fun thing I did today was photograph a new Dalmatian in the rescue program. The boy's name was Bosley, which reminded me of those hair loss commercials. This seemed like a strange name for a dog with plenty of hair, but there's no accounting for dog names.

An imaging center sent me six pages of forms to fill out for an MRI I need to have next week. Most of this information I've already filled out hundreds of times before. If we can go to the moon, why can't we figure out an efficient way to have a master patient database, so you'd only have to fill out this information once. Oops, I forgot. We can't go to the moon anymore. Maybe the medical industry can't figure out how to get beyond paper files either. It's weird. All this expensive high-tech diagnostic equipment and still everyone relies on paper records. Every doctor's office I've been to seems to have entire rooms devoted to storing mountains of file folders filled with patient records. Everyone is very particular about their forms too. I've tried Xeroxing forms from another doctor's office to save time, but it's never good enough for them. I'm always handed a ball point pen and told to fill out all the information from scratch.

So far, drinking a lot of water is proving more difficult than eating vegetables. I see people all the time who continually walk around with a bottle of water in their hand. I never understood this obsession with hydration before, and I guess I still don't understand it now. 8-10 glasses of water a day?  Wouldn't two be enough?

Joshua is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day