Day 2503

Today had its ups and downs. I was delighted to see a few Orionid meteors as I was walking Dash before dawn this morning. The light pollution is so bad in Dallas that it is rare to see things like this. I got up so early this morning that I was able to eat a relaxing breakfast before the Friday morning crowds arrived. The hipster restaurant is slowly becoming my new go-to destination. The atmosphere is low-key and relaxing and the food is delicious.

I checked my trash can with some trepidation when I returned from breakfast and was somewhat disappointed to see that the black trash bags were still inside. On further inspection I realized that the truck hadn't even been by yet. None of the trash on the entire street had been picked up. The truck usually arrives about 7 AM, but when it still hadn't appeared by 4 PM, I began to get suspicious. Maybe the driver got mad that somebody complained and decided to ignore the street this week. I was determined to get my trash picked up this time, so I called the city again. Around 6 PM, the truck finally appeared and this time my trash did get picked up.

When I went to the vet to pick up more phenobarbital for Dash, I noticed that they gave me the wrong medication. I went back and had them refill the prescription, which delayed me just enough to put me right in the middle of rush hour traffic for a trip to REI to pick up the pants that the store had agreed to replace for me. Getting off schedule can be dangerous. I wasn't terribly surprised to see that Dot had pooped in her bed while I was gone.

Before running these Friday errands, I finished my new article and shipped it off to the client. I wonder how I used to write three or four of these articles every day. I could never do that now. It's amazing how time consuming these dogs have become. Every time I get started on something, Dot needs attention. Dash has his own quirks as well. Together they are quite a handful.

After completing two minor website updates, I decided to call it a day. I was going to take a short nap with the dogs, but as soon as I lay down on the bed, Dash woke up and both dogs started barking for their dinner. I've started dividing their evening meal into two parts on days like this. Usually, they'll go back to sleep for and hour or so after the early dinner, and then we'll have the late dinner. This ritual may seem a little weird, but it gives the dogs something to do and restores a little sanity to the house. Life was a lot easier when I could just let Dot and Dash outside and let them burn off their energy chasing each other around in circles in the back yard.

As I swept yesterday's rain off the roof, I wondered how long it it will take to reconnect with the roofers again. They didn't show up at all this week. I've got to get beyond worrying about the roof and the garbage, but these things are pretty basic. I definitely need a dry roof over my head, and regular garbage pickup would be nice too. At least I had a nice breakfast this morning and all Dot's accidents landed squarely on the Wee Wee pads like they were supposed to. It's the little things that keep me sane.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2495

I carefully filled the new garbage can today and took it out to the curb. I did my best to make sure that each black trash bag wasn't too heavy or too full. If the truck still fails to empty my trash tomorrow morning, I'm going to conclude that someone is fucking with me. I know there are probably better things to do than fret about my trash, but it beats fretting about whether Dot's poop is too hard or too soft, or wondering why the bananas for my smoothie aren't ripening faster.

I've got a lot of questions for Dot's oncologist tomorrow when we go to the cancer center for another ultrasound scan and recheck. Dot seems to be getting weaker, but the problems don't appear to be related to her cancer. There are just too many things going on at once. The liver cancer is still there and probably contributes to how tired she is at times, but the real problems are with her legs. The neurological damage in her rear legs has caused her to compensate and transfer more weight to her front legs. Now her front legs go out occasionally and I have to be real careful and try to provide some support for all four legs when I take her outside. Today, she slipped and cut her nose when she fell on a stick on the ground. The cut was minor, but it reminded me of just how fragile she's become.

Janet had to work late tonight, so I had to walk Dot on my own. Even simple things like trying to lock the back door while holding Dot upright seemed problematic. I need two leashes to walk her now: one for the front legs and another for the back legs. There are so many strings that it probably appears like Dot is a marionette as we slowly walk down the street. Without Dash to guide her, Dot's pace was even slower than usual. We inched along making our way down the alley behind our house. Eventually she pooped when a neighbor dog got her barking. Sometimes barking does the trick when nothing else works.

The Jewish holidays have sidelined one of my clients for a while, but I don't know what has happened to the others. It was completely silent today. No e-mails. No phone calls. Nothing. This never used to happen. I guess I better get used to it. It's a collaborative world these days and my lone wolf style of working has gone out of fashion. I used to think it might be fun to go back and work for a large agency again sometime. No one would hire me now. Even if age weren't an issue, I don't seem to play well with others.

I really hope I don't have to load the car up with garbage tomorrow and look for a dumpster again. It kind of spoils my Friday breakfast ritual. Life has become very stressful and I need a couple of hours each week to eat something tasty while I pretend I'm taking a break at roadside cafe in rural Wyoming. Wyoming sounds real nice right now.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1322

I have a working garbage disposal again. Based on what electricians typically charge, I will probably get a $200 bill for installing a simple $2 Single Pole Single Throw Toggle Switch that I happened to have on hand anyway. I suspected that the on/off switch might be the problem and bought another one last week. I should have just done the work myself. I'm a bit reluctant to get involved with electricity anymore though. After several dubious self-repair attempts where I nearly electrocuted myself, I now think it's best to leave these things to a qualified electrician. Live wires, running water, and stainless steel counter tops aren't necessarily a good combination.

I'm frequently faced with situations like this. I basically know what needs to be done, but don't have the tools or experience to do the job properly. I learned the hard way when I used to do a lot of my own auto repairs that there is nothing more irritating than getting an engine disassembled and not being able to get it back together again. Faced with the choice of doing something inexpensively myself or paying someone else to take responsibility for the whole mess, I'll usually opt to pay someone else. I'm convinced that there is good karma involved in paying someone too much to do something simple. I'm sure many of my website clients feel like they're paying me too much to do something simple. Maybe hiring an electrician to install a simple switch is just my way to pay it forward. I'd like to think so anyway.

I finally found a company in England that said it could send me the elusive engine part I need for the Defender 90. I copied down all the information about the part, drove over to the Land Rover dealer and told them to order it. Seems like they could have found this part themselves, but I'm not complaining. Maybe I'll have a reliable car again by the end of the Summer.

One good thing happened today. I stopped by my primary care physician to schedule my next round of blood tests and casually mentioned that I'm on Medicare now.  They didn't drop me! Yay! I've heard so many horror stories about doctors who refuse to deal with Medicare, even when someone has been a patient for years, that I'm a bit nervous to tell my doctors that my insurance has changed. My insurance agent told me that since I got the best available supplemental insurance policy, my medical coverage would be even better than I had before. Not true! So far, my old group plan appears to have been much better.

I did get to go to the gym today. I figured that I needed some kind of reward for dealing with Dot and the electricians. Dot absolutely hates to have visitors over to the house. The only people allowed are Janet, Dash and me. Once again, she got so agitated this morning that she pooped all over the hallway while she was barking. Somehow Dash even managed to get in the line of fire. When the electricians left, I found poop on him too.

Tink is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1321

Today was pleasant. The weather was surprisingly mild for a July day in Texas. Janet fixed a nice breakfast. The dogs enjoyed their visit to the dog park. They even saw several dogs that they knew. When we returned home, I got the lawnmower out and mowed until the yard looked presentable again. I'm more or less caught up on work assignments too. The only thing that was missing today was a mid-afternoon Dr. Who marathon on BBC.

Since I finished my weekend cores early, I decided to brave the crowds at the mall and go looking for a better WiFi camera to monitor Dash when I'm away. I may have overdone it. The camera I came home with not only has a great picture, it also monitors sound, keeps track of the temperature and humidity, allows two way communication, and plays a lullaby on command. Yes, I really bought a baby monitor instead of a pet monitor. I guess people with babies are even more apprehensive than I am with the dogs, since this thing had features that had never even occurred to me before.

The icing on the cake was that the camera actually worked. Sometimes they don't. I read all the reviews and they were split 50/50. Half the people thought this was the best WiFi camera on the planet and the other half thought it was a worthless piece of junk. I bought the camera making the assumption that the 50% who hated the camera had never hooked anything up to a WiFi network before. Routers, firewalls, and wireless gateways aren't always friendly with each other and it is often difficult to introduce a new piece of equipment to the system. Luck was on my side today though. The camera works like a charm.

The electrician is coming to fix the garbage disposal at 7:30 AM tomorrow. Lord knows why he wants to come so early, but it's just as well. Maybe he'll be able to get the faulty wiring fixed in time for me to take the dogs on a walk at their normal time and proceed with my Monday work day. You never know with electricians though. He may fix the problem in five minutes, or he may tell me that the entire house is not up to code and that everything needs to be rewired.

I hope I have time to go to the gym tomorrow. It's been more difficult to establish a regular schedule than I anticipated. Dash has a vet appointment every other Tuesday and Dot has a vet appointment every Wednesday. Walking the dogs and carting them around to their various appointments eats up a lot of time. Work is erratic too. Some days there is so much to do that I don't even have time to eat. Other days are so quiet that I have trouble staying awake. Workout or no workout, I'll be a happy camper if I have a working garbage disposal at the end of the day.

Queenie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1319

The plumber arrived promptly at 8:30 AM, right on schedule. Plumbers make a point of being on time. I see plumbing trucks all over town with big signs on the side saying "If we're late, we pay for the call." Unfortunately, a punctual plumber isn't always a perfect plumber. Sometimes nothing gets fixed at all.

That was certainly the case today. It didn't take long for my plumber to tell me there was nothing wrong with my disposal. "Your problem is electrical," he told me. He even took the disposal out and hooked it up to a wall outlet to prove that it still worked. "Can you fix it," I asked? "No, you'll have to call an electrician for that," the plumber told me. "Well, at least hook things back up the way you found them," I said.

When the plumber was hooking the disposal back up, he proceeded to blow a fuse, knocking out my kitchen TV and the coffee maker. Then he handed me a bill for $117 and left. Since the fuse he blew was one of the old fashioned glass kind that screws in like a light bulb, I had to search all over town to find a suitable replacement. My first try was a failure too. I brought home a fuse that had the wrong pitch on the screw-in threads and it wouldn't fit in the socket. By the time I found the corect fuse and went out for breakfast, it was lunch time. I had my eggs anyway, and then I called an electrician.

Yesterday I finally found the correct part number for the elusive engine part I've been trying to find for my Defender 90. I though I'd use this part number as a search term on Google and see what turned up. Much to my surprise, I found four places that still carried the hard to find harmonic balancer or engine damper as some places called it. Just to make sure I was buying the correct part, I called the contact number on each of the the websites instead of just clicking the "Buy Now" button. All four companies I called told me that the part had been discontinued several years ago and was no longer available. "Why is it still for sale on your website," I asked? The answer was always the same. It was just too much trouble to update the website. I asked one of the companies what would happen if somebody actually bought the part in question. "Oh, we just wouldn't fill their order," the guy said. Oh, well. So much for the digital revolution.

The day really didn't get much better. Dot got so worked up while the plumber was in the house that poop flew out her rear end whenever she barked. I had to clean up a lot of little poop bullets on the floor. Then, I broke my new push broom while sweeping water off the roof. I also broke my reading glasses while I was trying to replace the burned out fuse. On the positive side of things, neither dog had a seizure today and my car started nine times without incident while I was out running errands.  I'm still glad it's Friday.

Smokey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1318

Just before the appliance repairman was scheduled to arrive this morning, I got a call from the technician asking me if I really wanted him to come to the house. "Garbage disposals can't be repaired," he said. "They can only be replaced." "Can you just replace it then," I asked. "Only if the plumbing connections exactly match those on your old unit," the technician told me. "Well, what if it's just an electrical problem," I asked. "You'll have to call an electrician," said the technician. I canceled the appointment and called a plumber instead. It was apparent that this guy was going to come out to the house, charge me for a $75 service call and end up telling me he couldn't fix anything. Now, I've got to go through this whole charade again tomorrow with the plumber. Maybe I'll get lucky though. I did call a good plumber.

Since the appliance repairman didn't come today after all, there was little point in spending the entire day writing. I finished two articles with short deadlines and went to the gym instead. Some people must go to the gym every single day. No matter when I go, there are a few folks who always seem to be there. They are usually working out on the same machines too. Since I don't go at any particular time, I find this strange. It's almost as if these guys live at the place.

Dot seemed tired on her morning walk. Usually she is perky and energetic on these early walks, but she seemed lethargic today. Maybe she was sore from yesterday's water therapy session. I guess that would make sense. I'm certainly sore the next day after a workout. I didn't want to push her too hard, so we turned around and came home much earlier than we usually do.

I had an animal rescue meeting after dinner this evening. When the meeting was over, my car was hard to start. Hopefully this was just because it was so hot outside, or because the car was at an angle on a hill. I'm afraid the starter motor might be starting to go out though. That's about the only expensive thing I still haven't replaced. We'll see how the Defender starts tomorrow. If I have to wait for the plumber a long time, I might not be going anywhere anyway.

I'd hate to miss my regular restaurant outing tomorrow morning, but I'd hate even more to go much longer without a working garbage disposal. To keep the sink from clogging, I have to fish little bits of food out of the disposal every time I rinse the plates off after a meal. Even though the machine is completely turned off, I don't trust it. I certainly don't want the disposal to mysteriously come back to life with my hand is inside it.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1317

Dot did a lot better during her first water therapy session than I expected. She doesn't like water and she doesn't like surprises, but she adapted to the underwater treadmill surprisingly well. It took her a few minutes to figure out what the treadmill was all about, but after sliding to the back of the tank a few times she quickly got the hang of walking underwater. The whole experience is very non-threatening. The tank is dry when the dog initially walks inside and then the water level is very slowly raised as the treadmill starts to move. I can see how this would be great exercise for an older dog. With the water level around her chest, Dot began to take exaggerated high steps, working muscles that are typically unused in a normal day. I was very pleased with her first session. I am hoping that this type of low impact exercise will help keep her muscles from any further atrophy.

Health and fitness seems to be a growing theme in my life. When I'm not trying to improve my own deplorable condition, I'm doing my best to keep the dogs healthy. If you lump together the dog's lengthy morning and evening walks, my own trips to the gym, shopping excursions for healthy food, and all the doctor visits for blood work and scans, it's a wonder I have time for anything else at all. Maybe if I'd paid more attention to maintaining a healthy lifestyle during the first half of my life, some of this new found discipline wouldn't be necessary. I don't think I'd trade a life of bacon, burgers, and beer for a big plate of kale though. I really enjoyed all those years of gas guzzling cars and gut busting meals. A life of moderation would have been very boring.

The weather today was surprisingly mild. The weather reports on TV were predicting temperatures in the triple digits, but a surprise cold front blew through and left things almost twenty degrees cooler than I expected. There was a nice breeze when we took our morning walk and even though it warmed up quite a bit during the day, it was still pleasant when we went to dog training class this evening. Dot and Dash seemed to enjoy the temporary reprieve from the Texas heat. Both dogs did exceptionally well in class tonight. They didn't win any ribbons, but they didn't embarrass us either.

I should get a lot of writing and website work done tomorrow. I'm going to be stuck in the house all day, waiting for the appliance repairman to come fix the garbage disposal. Repairmen never come when they promise. If they give you a window of between 1 PM and 4 PM for a service call, it is almost inevitable that they will actually show up at 5:30 PM. Usually repairmen don't arrive until I've given up on them completely and have started to do something else. All will be forgiven though if the repairman is able to fix the disposal. I'm discovering that a functioning garbage disposal is a very essential appliance.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1315

It took forever to make an appointment with an appliance repairman to come out and fix the garbage disposal. After talking on the phone for fifteen minutes with a friendly, but almost unintelligible customer service representative based far outside the borders of the United States, the line went dead and I had to call again and repeat the entire process all over again. The actual repair visit seems like it will be just as convoluted as the call to set things up. I asked if the repairman could put a new disposal on the truck, just in case the old one couldn't be fixed. Nope, this couldn't be done, I was told. Repairs and installations were two different departments with completely different technicians. If the repair was unsuccessful, I would have to call a second technician to come out later and install a new disposal.

Not to worry, said the service representative on the phone. Apparently, my disposal was still under warranty and the repairs might be free. "If the disposal is still under warranty, why don't we skip the repairs and just install a new one," I said. Nope, they couldn't do that either. I apparently only had a "parts warranty," not a full warranty for the entire disposal. If the disposal was completely trashed and new parts couldn't fix it, there was no warranty at all.

It looks like my recipe will be included in the SXSW Cookbook. I won't know for sure until the book is actually printed in March of 2014 though. Truthfully, I was quite surprised that my recipe made the cut. I called my dish "Lazy Man's Savory Sausage Omelet" and the directions for preparing it would make any real cook cringe. The recipe was authentic though. I didn't copy anyone else's recipe. This mess is all mine.

Even though today was a slow day, I almost didn't make it to the gym. I wasted so much time making an appointment with the appliance repairman as well as answering several confusing client questions via e-mail that the day seemed over before it began. Nothing seems easy these days. Simple tasks that used to take five minutes now seem to drag on for hours. I don't know whether to chalk these frustrating delays up to simple incompetence or look for something more fundamental. Something has changed though. Nobody will give you a simple, straight answer anymore. You have to first fill out an online form, or answer a long series of automated questions on your phone. I usually just say "Speak to a Representative" over and over again when the phone asks me what I'd like to do next. Sometimes this gets me a real person, and other times it doesn't.

Dash seems completely back to normal again. I still set up the nanny cam every time I leave the house, but it might be years until he has another seizure. Dash's blood work came back completely normal today and he has no tick borne diseases. I guess I'll just add seizures to my long list of life's mysteries.

Pongo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1314

I helped Janet get her laptop ready for making a presentation on a big flat panel TV and was a bit surprised that I'd never tried to hook up a laptop to our TV before. I guess that just shows you how important presentations are to me these days. I don't think I've made a formal presentation or even shown my portfolio to anyone in almost ten years. Hey, if you don't already know what I do, it's probably a little late to show you now.

Hooking up the Macbook Pro to the TV was much easier than I thought it would be. I went to Fry's and got a Mini DisplayPort adapter and some HDMI cables. I hooked the computer up to the TV, set the computer screen to mirror mode and all of the sudden I had a huge image of the computer screen on the TV.

It's to bad that it wasn't this easy to figure out why the garbage disposal isn't working. I'm going to have to leave that task to an appliance repairman who will hopefully come out and fix things very soon. A garbage disposal doesn't seem like a very essential appliance until you've got a non-working one still hooked up to your plumbing. I'm discovering that the sink clogs up very quickly when the garbage disposal isn't doing its job.

Dot and Dash really enjoyed their trip to the dog park today. Dash saw a dog that he recognized and liked and proceeded to race around the park showing his friend how fast he was. Dot took advantage of the mild weather to sniff every tree in the park. She seemed to have more energy today than she usually does.

I wish I had more energy than I usually do. Mowing the grass today was tiring. I think I've reached some sort of plateau with my new diet and exercise regime. I saw dramatic incremental improvements for a while, but now not so much. I think from now on out, it's going to take a lot more effort to continue losing weight while I'm building my strength and adding muscle mass. I probably don't actually need to lose any more weight, but I do need to keep working on building my strength.

I had a terrible dream last night. I frequently have dreams about being lost as I futilely try to find my way back to the dream's starting point. In last night's dream, not only was I lost, I also seemed to have lost my luggage and all my money. When I was young, I found myself lost in caves a lot during these types of dreams. Now I'm usually lost in labyrinth-like hotels. I guess that's an improvement of sorts.

Katie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1313

It's hard to believe that it's been 44 years since we landed on the moon. I still remember those grainy pictures of Neil Armstrong slowly exiting the Lunar Excursion Module like it was yesterday. I was in college at the time and watched the landing in the ballroom of the university student union because I didn't have a TV of my own in the rooming house where I lived while going to architecture school. Those were good times. The Summer of 69 was a magical period in history when anything was possible. A month after the moon landing was Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix and Neil Armstrong defined my world. A few years later I graduated, completely convinced that both the moon landings and the spirit of Woodstock would last indefinitely.

I was wrong of course, but I'm certain that the optimism I felt during the Summer of 69 contributed to my early success. It was easy to get a job back then. I was hired as a junior designer by a well known architect in Seattle. I was given an opportunity to make documentary films. Nothing really seemed like a struggle. I don't think I would have fared nearly as well in today's world.

I still can't really tell you how the kid who thought he was going to be the next Richard Avedon wound up taking pictures of Dalmatians instead. It's been quite a ride though and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Actually, taking pictures of Dalmatians is quite enjoyable. Janet and I photographed one of our new rescue dogs today. Sterling is a young guy who seems to be filled with the same exuberant optimism I felt in 1969. It was hard to get a good picture though, because Sterling wouldn't stay still. Hopefully, I captured the happy boy that he is. He should find a home quickly.

Later in the afternoon when I took Dot and Dash on their afternoon walk they both heard a loud thunderclap off in the distance. The noise triggered their storm phobia and I could barely hold on to them as they tried to make a hasty retreat back to the house. I tried my best to get the dogs to slow down, since this was exactly how Dot lost a nail last year. It never did rain very much, but the thunder alone was enough to convince Dot and Dash that the sky was falling. I got under a blanket with them and watched a cooking show on PBS until they calmed down.

I made another attempt to figure out what was wrong with the garbage disposal today. I took the faceplate off the control panel for the oven and other kitchen gadgets and tried to trace the wiring for the disposal. No loose or burned wire found. Everything seems completely normal. The disposal still doesn't work though. I added making an appointment with an appliance repairman to next week's to-do list.

It's hard to say whether the dogs will get their Sunday trip to the dog park tomorrow. The mornings start out clear and sunny and then by mid-afternoon little thunderstorms start springing up all over town. We'll see what happens. So far, it's been a nice weekend.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1312

Sometime I wonder how people with small children cope with all the uncertainties that come along with the inevitable childhood illnesses and injuries. Just dealing with one sick dog is more than enough for me. I had a lot of errands to run today and I was still worried that Dash might have another seizure. I found myself checking the nanny cam feed on my phone every five minutes or so. Dash was fine. The only thing I observed was that he is a very lazy dog. He didn't move an inch the entire time I was away. I wish I could say the same thing for Dot. There were scattered showers again today and Dot was a nervous nellie. Even though I was watching the camera to check on Dash, it was Dot who forced me to return home. At some point during the afternoon, I could tell she was going into her storm phobia mode. I looked at the weather radar app on my phone and sure enough, there was a storm directly over our house. I knew what to do. I curtailed a trip to the gym and came home. The dogs spent the rest of the afternoon huddled under my desk until the rain stopped.

It would have been nice to go to the gym, but I probably got enough exercise today anyway. I swept the water off the roof again this morning after another overnight rain. So far, the new roof is exactly like the old roof except that it doesn't leak. I'm surprised at how much rain we're getting in July. Most of my efforts to get the standing water off the roof have been an exercise in futility. Usually it is dry as a bone at this time of year. Since the roof doesn't leak anymore, I'm actually kind of happy to have the rain. It keeps the temperature lower, which means that Dot can still take her walks.

The garbage disposal quit working this morning. It didn't get stuck or jammed. It just won't turn on anymore. I can't find a circuit breaker on the disposal either. Do I call a plumber, an electrician, or an appliance repairman?  It could be a mechanical problem with the disposal itself. It could be an electrical problem. Or maybe there's some sort of internal fuse that burned out. The only thing I'm certain of is that I'm not going to try to fix the garbage disposal myself. Years ago, I tried to fix one of these things and ended up with such a bad leak under the sink that I had to call a plumber anyway.

I still haven't picked a recipe to send to the film festival recipe book. I think the deadline is tomorrow. My few original recipes are so simple and boring that a child could make them. I asked Janet what I should do and she told me to just pick something I liked out of one of our many recipe books and change it up a little. Wouldn't that be cheating I asked? She said that most recipes originate from other recipes anyway. This is probably true. There are literally thousands of recipes for lasagna, but they are all just different kinds of stuff layered between lasagna noodles and cooked in a baking dish. Omelets are all pretty much the same too. Beat some eggs, pour them into a skillet, and fold in whatever you want. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a cook. I'd still like to be featured in that cookbook though.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day