Day 4887

My editor liked my article about the Viasat-3 launch and sent me a press proof of how it will appear in the July issue of SpaceFlight. I'm getting to be a regular contributor to this magazine. Will I be able to make it to the AX-2 launch several weeks from now? We'll see. I paid my credit card bills from the previous launch today and it's not looking promising. Everything is getting way too expensive. Being a space journalist is not a lucrative endeavor. Most of the other rocket photographers I've met down at the space center get paid virtually nothing for their efforts. We all seem to think it's worth it though. Not many people get inside access to view launches like this.

I continue to worry about the weather for the roof replacement next week. I was going to call the roofers today and try to postpone things, but I think I'll wait until Monday. The weather forecast changes daily. If the weather improves we might as well go ahead and get this done. I still don't want to deal with rain while half the roof is pulled off though. I'd kind of rather wait till July when we can go for weeks without any sort of moisture. With my luck, the best time for the roof replacement will probably be when I want to go to Florida for the AX-2 launch.

Today was a typical Friday. Janet did her grocery shopping. Dawn got impatient waiting for her to return. And I took another long walk. It was a good day for walking. The sky was overcast and it was relatively cool with very little wind. I like days like this. Dawn wasn't so sure about her own morning walk. She's scared of the neighbor's cat and won't go down into the park if the cat is outside in the neighbor's yard. We had to take a different route this morning but it all worked out fine. Dawn actually seemed excited to be doing something new.

I did nothing new at all on my long walk later in the morning. I followed my familiar route. Made sure all the resident ducks were accounted for. And tried to keep up a decent pace. I'm hopelessly slow compared to some people I see walking. Fitbit thinks I'm doing a good job though. Walking six miles a day still seems like a better alternative than going to the gym.

My supplemental health insurance went up in price again. I think the cable bill went up too. Everything keeps getting more expensive, while no additional money is coming in. This sucks. It's too bad I am no longer an in demand web designer. I could use a little extra income these days. I hear jobs are plentiful, but I don't think I'd want the type of job seniors tend to get these days. I'm not cut out to be a greeter at Walmart. I'll just have to learn to be more frugal. I was never very good at being frugal.

This week has gone quickly. I need to make a grocery list because my own grocery run is tomorrow. I'm trying to avoid outdoor chores, but the grass will need to be mowed very soon. Can it wait another week? We'll see.

Dixie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4298

I got the car back. It runs fine, but it seemed to run fine before I took it in for the scheduled service. I assume that the mechanics did everything on the lengthy receipt I received, but when I leave the dealership it always feels like I just paid for the world's most expensive carwash. The car never seems any different than it did before. I won't be going back to the dealership any time soon. The prices they charge are ridiculous and they don't even try to be competitive.

As I was leaving, the young service advisor implored me to give him a good rating on the survey I knew would be coming. "My job depends on this," he told me. "I know," I told him. "All your predecessors have told me the same thing." I didn't tell him that none of his predecessors were still working at the dealership. I'll give the guy a good score, even though he basically knew nothing. It wasn't his fault that the dealership charged insanely high prices. It's too bad that the survey doesn't rank the dealership itself instead of a low level employee who had no control over anything.

When I returned home, there was a bill from the plumber in the mailbox. This bill was quite high as well but I didn't feel quite as bad about it. The two plumbers had spent the better part of a day trying to retrofit a 2021 restaurant faucet to a quirky 1950's mid-century modern GE kitchen unit. These two large bills pretty much insure that I won't be going anywhere in October. I'm tapped out and the month hasn't even started yet.

I took my long walk early today because I thought I was supposed to pick my car up at 10 AM. As it turned out, the car wasn't ready until very late in the day, but it was still nice to be walking while the weather was cool. While I was walking I saw park department mowers approaching the meadow behind our house. This was good news. The grass has grown very tall in the meadow and it's full of sticky pollen. Every time we return home from Dawn's sunrise walk we have to get wet rags and clean Dawn's legs and paws. They always let the grass grow longer in the Fall so that it has time to re-seed. I'm pretty sure that this native grass will be back next Spring.

I forgot to mark Cooper as adopted on the Dalmatian Rescue website when I was updating things yesterday. I took care of that this afternoon while I was waiting for the call to pick up my car. It still surprises me that my website development skills have seemingly evaporated. I used to be so good at this stuff. I guess the old adage "use it or lose it" still applies. When you do something every day you're going to be a lot better at it than when you do the same thing once a month.

My Fall allergies are back with a vengeance. I'm always blowing my nose and wiping my watering eyes while I walk. It seems like every year the space between when the Spring allergies end and the Fall allergies begin grows shorter and shorter. I'll be so glad when all the Covid fears are over. I'm always checking Google to make sure my allergy symptoms aren't a sign of Covid instead. I've had seasonal allergies for so long that I ought to know the difference. Unfortunately you don't hear much about seasonal allergies in the news and we are constantly bombarded with Covid news. 

It looks like we are finally going to get some rain tonight. All three weather apps on my phone show a band of rain headed towards us. The yard is dry and we really do need the rain, but all I can think of is roof leaks.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3225

I voted today. The lines were not as bad as I expected, although I did have trouble finding a parking place. As usual, I was the only one standing in line who wasn't looking at their cell phone. I continue to be amazed by how much time some people spend texting. It's rare if I send one text message a month. The lady ahead of me in line never stopped texting. I can't even imagine texting continuously for 30 to 45 minutes. My fingers would hurt. Since I wasn't using my phone, I had plenty of time to look at people's shoes. Nobody wears decent shoes anymore. Young and old alike were all wearing ugly running shoes. I don't know what this means, but the old people were definitely winning in my precinct. There were at least ten old people in line for every young person.

I wonder why early voting has become so popular? Evidently there were huge lines yesterday when early voting started. It's not like an early vote counts any more than a late vote. I actually prefer to wait until election day because our precinct still uses paper ballots on election day. It also rains a lot on election day, which is why I voted today. Our early voting locations all use electronic voting machines. I guess these things are legit, but they don't inspire confidence. How do you know if your vote is even counted? I often wonder if my voting machine is even hooked up to anything.

I'm sure the country is as divided as everyone says we are, but you'd never know it from standing in line at my polling place. Everyone was very friendly. It felt like people were neighbors first and voters second. Neighbors can be sneaky though. Probably a lot of people were actually voting to cancel out the vote of another neighbor. I know I was.

Dash woke me up several times last night. Once I had to catch him before he fell off the bed and the other times I had to take him outside. I thought we were safe when I saw him squat in the yard, but then I turned around and realized he'd left a trail of poop all the way from the bedroom to the back door. It's so hard to get back to sleep after you've spent fifteen minutes cleaning up poop.

I got caught up with some correspondence today. I'm not nearly as good about answering letters as I used to be. After I get finished writing the blog, there just isn't that much to say. I guess there's nothing wrong with repeating myself. The few people I still write never read the blog anyway.

I made an appointment to get a haircut tomorrow. I'm long overdue. Under normal circumstances I might stop by the Apple Store on the way home and get the new Series 4 Apple watch. I'm feeling poor though. The stock market is doing terrible and my storage warehouse rent is due next week. The watch will have to wait.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2997

Dash wasn't happy that I finally started working on my taxes. I had to pen him out of the office because the floor was covered with documents I needed to sort through. I couldn't spread the documents out on my desk because it was already completely cluttered with other things. It was hard to concentrate because Dash kept barking at the gate, but eventually I began to make sense of 2017. It wasn't an auspicious year. The company didn't make much but the stock market did well, so I'll probably have to pay something. Tax preparation is discouraging. Each year looks a little worse than the previous year. It is obvious that I am in the middle of a long, slow decline.

I remember reading a book called "Die Broke" when I was younger. The theory was that it was pointless to leave a lot of money behind. Dying broke sounds OK, but running out of money fifteen years before you die doesn't sound like such a good idea. How do you fine tune this if you have no idea how much time you've got left? I wish there was some kind of scan a doctor could do that would tell you exactly when you were going to die. It sure would make planning a lot easier.

I don't even know how much time Dash has left. When the specialists at the cancer center discovered the blood clots in his heart, they sounded so alarmed that I though we might only have a few weeks left. That was months ago. It's kind of amazing, but Dash actually seems to be getting better. He's eating regularly now and has more energy. He eagerly ate all his food today and took two long walks. As recently as Christmas this would have seemed impossible.

Dash has become more needy since he started having vestibular seizures. The heart problems haven't helped either. He doesn't like to be left alone now and always seems to be demanding something. I try to be patient. If I was dealing with all the medical issues he's been facing, I'd probably be feeling pretty needy too.

I kind of felt bad that I had to pen Dash out while I sorted through my tax documents. It had to be done though. I'm running out of time. It was probably worth the effort. I think I've got things organized enough to take to my accountant on Monday.

I did end up going out for breakfast this morning. Dash wasn't happy about that either. I should have just stayed home and had a bowl of oatmeal. My meal was a big disappointment. I ordered Chorizo con Huevos and knew I was in trouble when the cheese on top was just one of those Kraft single serve sandwich slices. I don't think that stuff is even really cheese. The spicy taste of this dish is supposed to come from the sausage, not from the chili power they inexplicably added. Jeez. I won't be going back to this place any time soon.

I miss the restaurant that got me started on going out for breakfast on Friday mornings. The food was fabulous until suddenly it wasn't. That's why they went out of business. If I can't find somewhere that makes a meal worth waiting all week for, I'm just going to have to become a better cook.

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2439

I keep getting e-mail messages from companies trying to convince me to automate my house. Why? If I got one of those fancy WiFi door locks, it would only work a few months a year. The soil shifts a lot in Dallas and for much of the year doors and windows don't line up exactly, making them difficult to open. The front door is particularly difficult to open in August. It will be fine again in December. Elbow grease works fine for sticky doors. I'd be pretty irritated if I bought a WiFi door lock and had to wait until December for the deadbolt to line up perfectly with the door frame. I suppose I could turn the lights on and off with my phone, but I think the conveniently placed light switches on the wall are much easier to use than my balky WiFi network. I already have a WiFi thermostat that I can talk to. We seldom have conversations though. It's much easier to adjust the temperature manually on my way to the kitchen. My point is that all of these new automated home systems rely on your phone to function properly. I'm sorry to tell you this AT&T, but my phone is the least reliable piece of equipment in the house.

I paid a bunch of bills today and I feel poor again.  If I just had three or four new clients, I wouldn't have to deal with these monthly ups and downs. I think about this every month, but I'm not sure where the business is going to come from. Most of the marketing directors and brand managers I've worked with over the years have either retired or died. It's certainly not hopeless, but I think there's a better chance of me living on Mars than striking up a working relationship with the current batch of millennials who have taken my place in the ad industry. What I need to find are some really old people who think they need a website even though they actually don't.

The rainy weather continues. I haven't gotten sick of the rain yet, but that day is coming. If it's a rule that Dot only poops when I'm in the shower, it's a corollary to that rule that it starts to rain whenever I have to run an errand. For the past three days, it has started to rain as soon as I backed the car out of the driveway. It could be worse though. I'm dry in the car. What I really hate is when it starts to rain when I'm about a mile away from home walking Dash.

I'm having e-mail problems again. Messages are sent, but they are not received. I've almost concluded that it isn't worth the trouble to resolve these problems. They are usually temporary and they seldom have a plausible explanation. Even tech support sometimes says, "Just try it again in a few minutes." The first ten years I was online, I seldom had any problems. I miss those days. Dial-up modems and renting VHS movies at Blockbuster were just fine by me. I miss my old analog OKI 900 phone too. Those were the days.

Dot didn't have any accidents in the house today. Of course the day isn't over yet. I remembered to take the trash out to the curb too. Even though it was wet and rainy, it wasn't a bad day at all.

Lucy 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 1947

There are days when I feel like I don't even exist. I'm just a ghost in the machine, silently cleaning up dog poop, sweeping rainwater off the roof, and writing articles that are instantly forgotten if they are read at all. I'd like to convince myself that what I do actually matters, but there is often very little evidence that it does. This is the problem with depending on dogs for companionship. You learn to live in the moment, but you don't get a lot of feedback. I know when the dogs want to eat. where they want to walk, and if they are in pain, but I don't really know what they are thinking. Maybe life is just as much of a mystery to them.

It was a shame to waste such a beautiful day up on the roof, but I'm already starting to see mosquitoes and it's more important than ever to dry things out. The warmer it gets, the more the standing water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes. With more reported cases of West Nile Virus every year, you hate to tempt fate. Today, I mucked around in my bare feet so I wouldn't get my dog walking boots wet. The water was warm, but very slippery. I made a mental note not to get near the edge of the roof. The more I see how deep this water gets after a hard rain, the more impressed I am that the roof doesn't leak. It's almost like we've got a duck pond on our roof.

Dot is getting increasingly independent. I'm letting her wander around the house on her own now and I can tell she enjoys the freedom. She still wears the Help 'Em Up Harness all the time, but I seldom need to support her rear legs anymore. I've tied a lightweight nylon leash to the rear handle of the harness that I hold loosely as she walks around. If she starts to slip, this connection to the harness still lets me prevent her from falling. It gives her more independence though and she's learning to walk more confidently on her own. Dot still can't back up very well, or navigate tight corners in the kitchen, but she's getting there. I wonder if her vet will see as much improvement as I have this week when I take her for her physical therapy session tomorrow.

Tax day came and went without incident. My taxes are filed and I'll get a small refund. I can't believe how complex my taxes are, considering how little money I make. By the time the Schedule C, Schedule D, Schedule E, Schedule K-1, home office deductions and half a dozen other esoteric forms are completed, it feels like I'm submitting a book. My accountant makes fun of how little money I make. It's a joke to him, since he remembers when I used to make much, much more, but it's not very funny to me. I should make a lot of money, but my skills just aren't as valuable as they were in the 1980's and 90's. I guess I could have changed professions, but I continue to dance with the one who brung me. I'm a writer who hates meetings and can barely tolerate my fellow man. In many ways I feel lucky that I can still pay the bills on my own terms.

I wanted to install a free Unix program on my computer that could read the dogs MRI scans today, but I discovered that the X-Code application that allows me to run Unix and Linux applications on my Mac was out of date. Increasing, I am being prodded into upgrading to Maverick or Yosemite or whatever the current operating system flavor is these days. I'm still running Lion because this is the end of the road for most of my existing software. It's too expensive to upgrade everything and I don't feel like upgrading anyway. I'm tempted to dig an old computer out of the storage warehouse and start running System 9 again. I was happier in those days.

Krissy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day