Day 1531

Dot and Dash had a great day. Our mild Springlike weather continues, making it possible to give the dogs several long walks, in addition to the trip to the dog park they'd both been anticipating. It was beautiful today. The redbud and dogwood trees are already starting to bloom, and if you looked closely, you could see tiny green buds on most of the other trees as well. I hope all this early growth isn't cut short by a final hard freeze, but it usually is. That's just the nature of things in Texas.

When the dogs had finished smelling every tree at the dog park, we came home and I finished the writing assignment that threw me a curve yesterday. It all seemed to go smoothly this time and within an hour I was ready to go to the gym.

I think my shoulder might be as good as it's going to get. I was able to go back to my old workout routine this afternoon and everything seemed fine. The shoulder still hurt, but it hurt before the injury too. The important thing was that it was able to bear weight and wasn't falling out of the socket anymore. I'm more careful now and try not to do things that would pull my right arm away from my body. All in all, I think it is better to stay active. If I babied the shoulder too much and did nothing, it would probably be worse on my body in the long run than what I'm doing now.

Janet fixed cheeseburgers for dinner. I did eat a kale salad as a token gesture to good health, but that was about it. There are few things better than a good cheeseburger and fried onion rings. It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but you could do a lot worse. Good lean beef, artisan cheddar cheese, some fresh heirloom tomato slices, and a little arugula on a freshly  baked whole grain bun. That sounds healthy doesn't it?  There's got to be more to life than oatmeal and kale. If I can ever get my liver working properly again, I might even enjoy the ocassional glass of wine with dinner again. That would be nice.

Tomorrow is the big day. We can't feed Dash anything after 10 PM tonight, since he will probably have to be anesthetized for his CAT scan tomorrow. I'm trying to keep an open mind, since almost anything could happen. Depending on what the oncologist finds, he could come home with a bottle of pills to take for a week and be good to go, or he could be rushed into emergency surgery. I don't know how parents with small children handle these situations as well as the do. We've had a lifetime of different Dalmatians, and I always remember the medical emergencies the most vividly. Spot had a tumor inside his spinal cord and I thought he might be paralyzed for life. It was a long, tough surgery, but he bounced back to lead a normal life. Much later, he was back on the operating table again with intestinal cancer. A six inch section of his small intestine was removed and he survived that as well. Petey almost died after he got pancreatitis from eating a duck's foot he found in the park. Greta did die after liver surgery failed to completely eliminate the cancer that was growing there. I'm hoping for the best with Dash. He had a very tough life before we rescued and adopted him. We promised him that things would be better now, and we'll continue to do our best to keep that promise.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 439

When we got up to the dog park this afternoon, we were surprised to see four police cars in the parking lot. Just before we arrived, several cars had been broken into and purses and personal items had been stolen. This was in broad daylight when the park was open. There must have been fifty people nearby, but this didn't seem to deter the thieves in the least. They smashed the side windows, grabbed what they wanted and were gone in less than two minutes. It's sad that this kind of thing is becoming so commonplace in Dallas. Nobody in the park even seemed alarmed. Ironically, there must have been ten German Shepards in the park when the robberies occurred, but they were apparently too busy playing to go after the robbers.

On a brighter note, it seemed more like April than February outside today. I've noticed that the Dogwood trees are already starting to bloom. There were several pretty Dogwood trees in the park that were in full flower. Hopefully, it won't freeze again. That's what usually happens here in Dallas. Everything starts to bloom and then there is one final freeze that nips all this early growth in the bud.

I packed the boxes I brought home yesterday with an assortment of scale models and piled them up to take back to the storage warehouse again. Why I ever collected so many die-cast models of construction equipment in the first place is a mystery to me. I have little interest in the models anymore. If I can ever got rid of this stuff, maybe I'll tackle the autographed footballs next.

Janet kept telling all this trivia about the Oscar nominees as we watched the famous folks walk down the red carpet during dinner. How does she know all this stuff about these people? I didn't even recognize many of them. For the second year in a row, I haven't seen any of the films nominated for best picture. I think I'm doing better than I was last year though. At least this year, I was planning on seeing two of the films. Never got around to it though. That's why DVD's are so nice. Eventually, when most people have already forgotten about them, I probably will make a point of seeing The Social Network and The King's Speech.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day