Day 3915

Hank and Luckie have left the building. Janet helped transport them to their new home in Austin today. We've already received pictures showing Luckie sitting on the sofa. It doesn't take long for these dogs to adapt to a better life. Charlie is the only Dalmatian at the kennel right now. He probably won't be alone for long. I've heard that two more dogs will be entering the rescue program soon.

After bragging endlessly about the shopping app that lets me bypass the checkout line, the app has failed me two weeks in a row. After entering all my items and heading for the door, the app fails to connect with my bank and I have to erase all the entries and go back and check out all over again with a cashier. This app used to work perfectly until the company decided to "upgrade" it so that the same app could be used for several different stores. It hasn't worked since.

I shouldn't complain. My shopping day is still very simple. I just buy the same things over and over again. Today I filled my cart with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and peaches. I bought some coffee pods for the Keurig and a case of bottled water. That was it. That's not all we eat, but Janet got the other stuff yesterday.

The weather is still pretty nice. We didn't need jackets on our walk this morning, but it still felt like Fall. It was even reasonably nice this afternoon. Maybe Fall has actually arrived. Fall always seems to be the shortest season here in Texas. Some years it only seems to last a few weeks. Hopefully, this year will be different. After a long hot Summer, I could use an equally long Fall.

The bridge that they've been working on in our neighborhood for over a year is finally done. It looks exactly like the old bridge it replaced. Maybe the new bridge is a little wider, but it's hard for me to tell. It sure looks the same to me. I wonder what led to this bridge being replaced? Was the old bridge structurally unsound? Is the city anticipating a lot of growth in this area. Who knows. Road construction in Dallas is a mystery to me. The roads are always torn up. Will there ever be a time when the construction is finished?

Today was really uneventful. There were a lot of things I should have done. I didn't do any of them. The older I get, the harder it is for me to get motivated. You start asking yourself "does this even really matter" and the answer is often no. This is how things start to decay. I don't think I'll ever become like the Beales of Grey Gardens, but I'm starting to see how this all happens.

Dawn refused to come out of the bedroom until Janet returned late this afternoon. She wouldn't even leave the room when I went to the kitchen to fix her dinner. She seemed comfortable enough when I was sitting on the bed with her, but she just wouldn't get off the bed. As soon as Janet came in the front door, Dawn went straight to her bowl and ate her dinner. Weird. Maybe we do need to see a behaviorist.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3726

Adoption fail. I think we've got ourselves a dog. Dawn had a major panic attack on the way to the kennel this afternoon. She was shivering and whining and it was clear that she didn't want to go. It was almost as if she could read our minds. Janet and I were having serious misgivings as well. We'd both become very attached to Dawn during her recovery. How would we know if this was the right home for her? We've known for some time that Dawn already thought she'd found her forever home.

Amazingly, everything turned out well. The lady who was interested in looking at Dawn told us that she really preferred to adopt a male. Dawn was the right age for her, but the wrong sex. We showed her Larry, who we initially assumed was too young and she really liked him. We showed her Charlie too, but he was a bit too wild. Larry ended up being a good match and the woman adopted him. Larry will get a very good home. The woman was very nice and had done her research about Dalmatians. She would have provided a good home for Dawn as well. I'm glad things worked out as they did. The woman got the dog she really wanted and Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. On the way home, she was a different dog. Was the anxiety attack just a big show to pull at our heartstrings? We'll never know. Dawn was pretty relaxed on the way home though. She just fell asleep in the back seat.

Technically, we're still fostering Dawn, but she's made it very clear where she'd like to stay. I'm sure we'll formally adopt her soon. We weren't ready for a new dog, but sometimes fate intervenes. Dawn is a wonderful, quiet, very mature dog. All she wants is a peaceful place to live with good food and a big king size bed to sleep in. We've been good for her and she's been good for us.

My big fear is that Dawn will become old and sick about the same time we are becoming old and sick as well. Dealing with two cancer patients at the same time wore us out. Actually for a time it was three cancer patients, because Janet had cancer as well. You can't spend your life worrying about dying though. Janet and I are still going to travel and do our best to lead active, interesting lives. It helps that we trust the people at the kennel and they love Dawn as well. If we need to go somewhere, we'll be able to board Dawn with confidence. Dawn is healthy now and so are we. We'll enjoy our time now and when things start to deteriorate, we'll deal with it. That's what we've always done.

I'm finally getting organized for my trip to the observatory. It has finally occurred to me that I'm not flying, so there is no need to take a tiny suitcase. This makes it much easier to pack. I can just throw way more than I need in a big bag and go. It looks like the show will go on despite all the coronavirus scares. Probably a remote mountain in West Texas is one of the safest places you could be.

We celebrated an eventful day with a pizza and shared the crust with Dawn. Everybody is happy. Dawn is sleeping on the bed now and I will be joining her soon. I'm glad that my Facebook readers seem to like the solution I've come up with to let them keep reading. For now, all is well in the world.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3725

I think I figured out a way that my Facebook readers can still see the blog. I created a new Facebook Group called Some Assembly Required and each night after I publish my blog entry, I take a picture of the post and upload it to the Facebook Group. There are no links and no text for the robot censors to pass judgement on. The only thing I'm actually putting on Facebook is a JPEG image. The group is private and only people who seem to like reading the blog anyway are invited. I think this is a clever plan. Let's see if Facebook can block this. If you read the blog on Facebook and didn't get invited, let me know and I'll add you to the group. I know who some readers are, but I certainly don't know all of you. If you have trouble reading the blog entry, just click on the picture and it will become larger, making everything much easier to see. I'm not sure if you are notified when new posts are added, but the Group is easy to find once you've joined. Let's see how this works. Posting this way is certainly a lot easier than convincing all of you to move to Twitter.

Today's big event was giving Dawn a bath. We took her to a self-wash place where we always used to bathe Dot and Dash. I didn't expect Dawn to enjoy the bath, but she was much better behaved than we expected. She even let the lady who runs the place clip her nails and clean her ears. Why did we go to all this trouble to get Dawn looking sparkly clean? Someone wants to look at her tomorrow and she might get adopted. Janet and I both have mixed feelings about Dawn going to a new home. She's a wonderful dog and we've become attached to her.

This is why so many fosters fail. I wanted to keep Ginny and it wouldn't have been hard to convince me to keep Hank. Basically, I've wanted to keep every Dalmatian we've had at the house. We knew this would happen when we agreed to foster dogs. The bottom line is that if Dawn gets a great home, that's all that matters. I still think that fostering is important. Janet and I don't have a dog now, which make our home the perfect place for a sick dog to recover or a scared, shy dog to develop trust. That doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to Dawn though. She's just about perfect. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I don't think we would ever let Dawn go to a bad home. Dalmatian Rescue has an excellent record of matching the right people with the right dog.

I'm still worried that the Spring activities at McDonald Observatory are going to get cancelled at the last minute. I was shocked to learn today that SXSW was canceled this year. This is a huge event for the city of Austin. The city will lose millions and millions of dollars. Is the coronavirus really that bad or is this a case of mass hysteria? It's hard to tell at this point. If the observatory is going to cancel their Spring Break activities, I hope they tell me before I start the long drive to West Texas. I'd hate to discover that things have changed when I'm stopping for gas in Amarillo.

I think Spring might have finally arrived. Today was beautiful and I'm starting to see small flowers pop up everywhere. Crow Poison is always one of the first flowers to emerge. I wonder how this plant got its name. There are huge fields of the stuff in the park, but there are still plenty of Crows. Acording to Cherokee legend this plant was used to make a poison that would kill the crows eating their corn. The jury is still out on whether Crow Poison actually kills crows. Don't add any of the flowers to your salad though. The plants are poisonous to humans.

I bought some more socks and underwear today since I was told to bring enough clothes for my entire trip. Probably most volunteers would do this automatically. I like to travel light and would much rather do laundry every few days. I don't think this is an option.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3669

The weather could have been better, but it was still a very good day. Selena went to her forever home this morning. I think Selena hit the jackpot. The couple who adopted her were wonderful. They were very patient and understood the challenges of building a shy dog's confidence. Selena liked their dog too. She even hopped into their car on her own for the journey back to Houston. A few hours later, Janet and I were happy to hear that Selena and her new family had safely arrived at her new home without getting getting caught in the severe storms that were traveling through Texas today. We were also happy to hear that Lake will be going to his new home tomorrow. There are still a lot of dogs in the rescue program, but Dalmatian Rescue has been doing a great job of finding them good homes.

When we returned home from the kennel, I discovered that I will be going to the Solar Orbiter launch after all. NASA has taken me off the waitlist and given me social media credentials. I wasn't expecting this. These events for social media influencers have become so popular that very few people cancel after they have been accepted. When you are waitlisted, it is usually the end of the line. I actually though I had a better chance of getting traditional media accreditation through SpaceFlight Magazine. That still could happen, but it doesn't really matter now. I will be going to the launch.

All day we've been hearing that severe weather was on the way. There were prediction of extremely high winds, large hail, and a possibility of tornados. One reason we met the couple who adopted Selena so early this morning was so they would have plenty of time to get back to Houston before the storms hit. I'm sure somebody experienced storm damage today, but luckily we were spared. We got a lot of rain, but that was about it. There were no high winds and all the trees are still standing. The storm has already moved to the East and the rain has almost stopped. The weird weather isn't over though. Another cold front is on the way and we have a chance of snow by morning.

Since the weather wasn't as bad as it was predicted to be, I was still able to take a walk today. The walk was shorter than usual and I got a little wet, but I did walk several miles, got my 10,000 steps, and closed all three activity rings on my Apple watch. When I got home I managed to get the pumps working as well, so there shouldn't be a huge amount of water on the roof tomorrow morning.

I always expect the worst when severe weather is in the forecast. I guess today proves that when there is rain, there is often a rainbow as well. It looks like I am going to have a very busy Spring. I have two very interesting trips to plan and one by one all the rescue Dalmatians are finding homes. It would be uncharacteristic of me to say that life is good, but occasionally even I feel this way.

Murphy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3597

Darn went to his forever home this morning. The couple who adopted him seemed very nice and they have had Dalmatians before. I think this is a good home. Darn might not realize it now, but his life is going to get a lot better. Hopefully, he will get a new name. Many of our new dogs came to us with very strange names. Sock and Jelly Bean seemed to know their names, but the others didn't. I wonder if Darn and Sock got named at the same time. Maybe somebody's sock had a hole in it. Darn is one of the shy dogs, but I think as soon as he starts to feel safe in his new home he's going to relax and start enjoying life.

It was very cold this morning. It was also very wet. After the cold front arrived yesterday, it continued raining for the rest of the night. It rained a lot. I left the pumps running overnight, but I don't think it helped much. Just before I got up this morning, I heard the sound of water dripping into a bucket. The water was coming from the same can light in the office ceiling as it was before. I guess my repairs didn't accomplish much.

It was disappointing that I wasn't able to stop the leak. I certainly tried my best. I have no idea how the water is getting in, but when you have four inches of standing water on a flat roof, water will find a way. The new roofer I called is going to come take a look at things tomorrow. I'm not very optimistic at this point, but I'm always open to suggestions.

I made an appointment to take my retainer back to the dentist. I tried to wear it again last night and it is clear that the thing doesn't fit. Soaking the retainer in hot water before trying to fit it didn't help at all. I should have had a proper fitting at the dentist before taking the retainer home, but the dentist and I were both in a hurry. They told me that these things almost always fit perfectly. I guess I am the exception to this rule.

I wore my winter clothes on this morning's walk. Maybe our hot summer wasn't so bad after all. The temperature was around forty degrees but there was a very strong wind. The wind chill effect made it feel like it was below freezing. I think it actually is going to dip below freezing later tonight. This is our first freeze warning of the fall. I finally remembered to bring the 24 volt battery for the electric lawnmower inside for the winter. It's anybody's guess whether the battery will still be good next spring, but at least I've made an effort to save it.

We can look forward to another very cold day tomorrow. At least the rain is over for a while. I went up on the roof this afternoon and swept all the water away. This stopped the leak for the moment. I'm sure it will return with the next heavy rainfall. All this is frustrating, but at least the tornado didn't blow down our house. We passed through some of the tornado damage on our way back from the kennel this morning and it looked even worse than the pictures I've been seeing. It's still hard to believe that all this destruction happened in just a few minutes.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3595

The Dalmatians are doing well. Jelly Bean and Soldier have been adopted. There is someone who is interested in Ginny and I think Darn is being looked at as well. Lord and Leftie are still painfully shy, but they are making progress. They both seem to gain confidence when they are together. Jasmine is almost finished with her heartworm treatment and Ginny is about ready to begin hers. Luckily, these two girls are the only dogs that are curently heartworm positive. Hank is eating well, but seems to be losing weight again. The bloody stools haven't returned, but we still can't figure out why this dog is so thin. All in all, this is a good report card, but kennel life is stressful. Each of these dogs will do even better when they find their forever homes. A Dalmatian isn't really happy until they can counter surf and sleep on your bed.

I am totally frustrated with the weather forecast. It was supposed to be clear today but ended up raining this afternoon. I hope my roof repairs had time to dry properly. The rain was just a light drizzle, but moisture is moisture. As long as the silicon has developed a skin on the top surface, I think it should continue to cure even if it gets wet. We'll see. I'll go inspect things as soon as the weather dries out again.

I finally received my new retainer. I thought the dentist was going to mail it to me last week, but it never arrived. I called to see if the retainer was finished and we stopped on our way home from the Dalmatian kennels so I could pick it up. Hopefully, this will keep my teeth from getting even further out of alignment. It seems weird that your teeth keep shifting slightly throughout your life, but that's just the way it is.

I had to take a shorter walk today so I'd have time to visit the Dalmatians. It's just as well I didn't complete the entire five miles. It was one of those foggy, damp days were you start out dry and end up wet, even though you aren't aware of rain falling. I wonder if the little circus in the park will come back next year. They've had terrible weather for two years in a row. I can't imagine that they've made much money this year. At least half of their performances have been rained out.

Roofer number four is going to come look at the house later this week. I don't expect their estimate to be much different than the first three roofers, but at least I'm doing something. Maybe they will suggest something new. An old house that has settled is full of problems. Cracks develop. Doors and windows stick. Plumbing starts to leak. All this seems minor compared to the roof though.

I don't know why I'm not sleeping well. Right after Dash died I started sleeping a lot better. Now I'm back to waking up several times a night. I don't have insomnia. I just wake up a lot. Life is full of little mysteries. As always, I'll go to sleep tonight watching an old episode of Perry Mason that I've seen many time before and hope for the best. It seems to be a lot easier to walk 20,000 steps than it is to sleep eight hours.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3040

I enjoy visiting the rescue Dalmatians. I often wonder how these wonderful dogs wind up stray, in animal shelters, or being surrendered by their owners. They all deserve better. The great thing about rescue organizations is that dogs like these get a second chance. For many, many years the dogs that Janet and I share our lives with have come from the Dalmatian Rescue group that we both volunteer with. This group has found good homes for hundreds of dogs like the ones we visited today. When they become part of the rescue program, the dogs are often scared, abused, and in poor health. It is our job to make sure that when they find their forever home, they are all healthy, happy, and well adjusted pets. I don't spend as much time with rescue as I used to, but I still think it is one of the most important things you can do. Even if you are not fond of people, you can still make a dog's life better.

It was a good day to visit the kennel. The weather was dismal today, so most weekend chores were out of the question. We did manage to give Dash his morning walk before the rain started, but after that it was better to stay inside. I guess this is normal Spring weather, but it sure seems wet to me. The trouble with Texas is that as soon as the rainy season is over, it's going to be hot and dry for the rest of the year.

Dash didn't seem to mind that we were gone today, but he was really interested in smelling our clothes when we returned. I wish he would get his eating habits sorted out. I had to open three different cans of food before I found something that he would eat for dinner. I wish I knew if he always felt symptoms from his vestibular disease. I'd hate to think that eating has become unpleasant, because every Dalmatian I've even known lives to eat. This was certainly true of the dogs we visited today. It would have much more difficult to photograph them if we didn't arrive with a pocket full of dog treats.

I think the silicon wrist band I repaired the other day has fully cured, but I still haven't had the nerve to wear it. Maybe tomorrow. It certainly didn't take much glue to fix things. If this stuff works, I have enough glue on hand to repair silicon watch bands for the rest of my life.

Janet made spagetti for dinner tonight. I love Italian food, even though it almost always gives me heartburn. I wonder how Italians deal with this? Tomato sauce is a well known trigger for acid reflux. If you have problems with acid reflux, the first thing your doctor will tell you is to avoid acidic foods. It's a shame that pizza and pasta are often at the top of the list. I could live on this stuff.

The best time to view the Leonid Meteor Shower is tonight. That's not going to happen. It's still raining. Dash didn't even get an afternoon walk today. I hope the weather clears up tomorrow. I need to go to the gym and it's time to start doing some serious yard work.

Joe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2992

I'm not guessing anymore. I've definitely got a cold. All the symptoms are there. I've got a lot of congestion. My nose won't stop running. I have a sore throat. And I'm feeling very tired. All this happened overnight. When I went to bed, I still thought I might be suffering from seasonal allergies. Nope. This is a cold.

I didn't get a lot of rest because the cold actually feels worse when I am lying down. The sinus congestion is terrible when I am in a horizontal position. I tried the trick of pressing my tongue against the roof of my mouth while applying pressure with a finger between my eyebrows. This accomplished nothing. I can't take antihistamines, so I tried an Alka-Seltzer too. That didn't do much either.

Since resting didn't make me feel any better, I just went about my normal day. Janet and I walked Dash in the morning and then we all ate breakfast. After breakfast I went to the gym. Surprisingly, the congestion went away while I was using the hand bicycle. It came back again unfortunately while I was on the treadmill. I'm pretty sure I got this cold from Janet since she has exactly the same symptoms. Where she got it is anybody's guess.

I guess this is my yearly cold. No matter how hard I try to avoid people and stay inside my protective cocoon, I still manage to get sick occasionally. If you want to catch a cold quickly, just hang around people who have children. Children always seem to have colds in the Winter and they quickly spread to their parents and teachers. Maybe teachers build up an immunity. I think I would be sick all the time if I were a teacher.

At least Janet and I don't appear to have the flu. Neither of us had a fever. If it weren't for the fact that my head feels like it is going to explode, I really don't feel all that bad. Maybe if I get a good night's sleep tonight, I'll feel better in the morning. I certainly hope I'm not under the weather for very long. I've got a lot to do next week.

I tried to watch the Oscars for a while this evening, but after about ten minutes I'd had all I could take. Hollywood celebrities seems like alien beings now. I have so little in common with them that I can't even relate to anything they're saying. When did this all change? I can remember years ago that I enjoyed the Academy Awards enough that I would go to Oscar watching parties with my friends. The only film I've seen all year is Blade Runner 2049 and I think it is only nominated for Best Cinematography. Some of the films that were nominated this year I've never even heard of.

I added some new dogs to the Dalmatian rescue website this afternoon. I haven't met any of these dogs yet, but they all look fabulous. A few lucky people are going to be very happy with their new companion. The dogs will be even happier to finally have their forever home.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day