Day 1480

My biological clock finally seems to have reset itself. It's a Friday and is actually feels like a Friday. The guys at my favorite restaurant know me so well now that I don't have to say a word when I arrive for my Friday breakfast. The barista has my coffee waiting for me and my order is on it's way to the kitchen before I even arrive at the register to pay for it. Consistency can be boring, but it does have its benefits. I like consistency.

My liver doctor called today and told me that the newly FDA approved medication for Hepatitis C is available now and they want to get my treatment started this month. Finally! I've been waiting several years to hear this news. The new treatment is supposedly much more effective than the traditional Interferon and Ribavirin combo, with far fewer serious side effects. I've really been trying to avoid the Interferon and Ribavirin treatment because it is horrendously expensive, makes you feel like you've got the flu for a year, and can cause serious problems with anemia. I was also never wild about injecting myself with the Interferon. Hopefully, this new medication is a pill.

I made it back to the gym this afternoon, but I didn't have time to complete my entire workout. Several tight deadlines really chopped up my day. I'm having increasing difficulty completing all my assignments. Either the work I'm getting now is more difficult, or I'm getting slower. Maybe it's a little bit of both, but I certainly don't have much free time anymore. Free time is good. If I had more free time, I'd probably be a lot more interesting person.

It's getting to be an effort to maintain my healthy diet. When I started eating healthy six or eight months ago, I scoffed at people who didn't have the willpower to maintain their diets. Dieting is easy, I thought. I did really well for a long time, but now I'm starting to have a little more sympathy for friends who find it difficult to diet. My enemy is boredom. I was eating all the right foods, but now I'm bored with them. I'm tired of Kale, and those evil twins, sugar and wheat are tempting me again. I'd love to have French Toast for breakfast tomorrow, but I won't. I think I can keep fighting the good fight, but it does leave me wondering why the fun things in life are almost universally bad for you.

Janet tells me that there are some new rescue Dalmatians to photograph, so maybe we'll do that in the morning. It might be a good day to go to the dog park too, especially since it is supposed to get up to 65 degrees tomorrow, before dipping below freezing again on Sunday. Did I mention I like consistency?  This inconsistent weather is driving me crazy.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1316

Sometimes dealing with tech support is like Chinese water torture. I found myself locked out of my voicemail this morning and ended up spending hours talking to three different levels of tech support. When one technician couldn't solve my problem, they would escalate my call to the next level. I don't know why turning on my voicemail account again was so complicated, but it apparently was. At one point I was talking to one person on my cell phone, another person on the land line and had to put both phones on speakerphone and set them next to each other so the technicians could hear each other. Most of these folks spoke English as a second language, so I was constantly saying "Could you repeat that please." I did manage to talk to one native English speaker, but he had a terrible stutter, so I couldn't understand him either.

When the problem was eventually resolved, I listened to my new voicemail messages and they were all from telemarketers. Jeez! Why did I spend hours trying to listen to messages I didn't want to receive in the first place? On days like this technology hardly seems worth the effort. Everything seems to work for the moment though, so if an important call comes in tomorrow, I'm right on top of it.

While Dash was getting his antigen shot today, I talked to the vet about alternatives to Phenobarbital in case his seizures returned. She mentioned that she had success using Potassium Bromide and thought it was safer than Phenobarbital. I looked up the drug on the Internet when we got home and discovered that possible side effects include ataxia, increased urination, skin disorders, nausea and vomiting. Doesn't sound very safe to me. Potassium Bromide won't damage the liver like Phenobarbital though. Of course, the alternative I like best is not to put Dash on any drugs at all.

I routinely experience the same frustrations with my own meds. The devil is always in the details. I've been wondering why I've had this strong metallic taste in my mouth for the past several months. A quick Internet search revealed that the metallic taste was probably caused by the Metformin I take to control blood sugar levels. I have a feeling that my doctor didn't mention the metallic aftertaste because he was afraid I wouldn't take the drug if I knew about this common side effect.

After making a trip to the post office to pay some bills, I stopped by Home Depot to get some wasp spray to combat the growing number of wasps and hornets building nests near the house. After I got out my reading glasses and read the warning label on the side of the can, I took the spray back and exchanged it for a much milder organic product. It was amazing to me than anyone would even sell a product with so many potentially toxic side effects. I guess a bug spray that will kill a snake is too strong for normal use.

Getting to the gym several times a week is proving to be harder than I thought it would be. I only made it once last week and it looks like this week will be just as busy. Tomorrow Dot starts her water therapy and Thursday is when the garbage disposal gets repaired. Throw in an article or two each day, along with the usual website revisions and a dog walk and my day is gone. Maybe I can find some free time on Friday.

Jewel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day