Day 1703

Today was pretty nice. The odd thing was that it was almost exactly the same as yesterday, which was terrible. This happens to me a lot. I guess when you lead a fairly regimented life, little nuances can make all the difference. Dash's tail quit bleeding today. That made a difference. With his tail on the mend, I didn't have to keep him away from all the things in the house that are difficult to clean. Dot had a good day too. She still has to go outside to pee about every three hours, but we were better coordinated today and there were no accidents. Work was still boring and repetitious, but today's tasks consisted of small successes instead of small roadblocks and failures. Forward progress can make a big difference in almost any line of work.

Dot had a fantastic physical therapy session this afternoon. She was able to stay on the underwater treadmill for almost fifteen minutes and seemed strong and sure footed the entire time. Her left rear leg doesn't seem as shaky as it did last week either. The vet also said that it was very unlikely that Dot had Cushing's Disease or serious kidney problems based on her recent lab work. This as all encouraging. If we can learn to deal with the incontinence issues, I think everything is headed in the right direction.

Early mornings are quite pretty. It is quiet and serene outside without the ubiquitous Dallas traffic and lawn mower noise. The predawn light is soft and things photograph well. Best of all, the temperature is almost always at least twenty degrees cooler than it is later in the day. I need to remember to get up extra early next Monday. There will be a rare conjunction of Jupiter and Venus low in the Eastern sky just before sunrise. I never thought I'd enjoy getting up this early, but after a week of waking up in the middle of the night to let Dot outside to pee and change the waterproof pads on the bed, sunrise seems almost decadently late.

Dot's condition has improved so much that I no longer feel bad about going out for breakfast on Friday. It's odd that going out for breakfast on Friday morning has become an important part of my week, but like I said earlier, it's the little nuances that can make all the difference. The vet said it would be OK to give Dot a bath this weekend. I didn't tell Dot that though. She had a good day too and I didn't want to ruin it for her.

Elliot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1702

So, what did I accomplish today? I misspelled a client's name on her own website. I replaced dozens of cat pictures on an animal rescue website with pictures of the same cats when they were a little older. I'm no expert on cats, but the two sets of pictures looked identical to me. I haven't been able to come up with an effective way to keep Dash's tail from bleeding, so I spent the day cleaning blood stains off walls and doors. It was that kind of day.

Dot's progress with incontinence has been erratic at best. She has good days and bad days. Today wasn't so good. Basically, she peed every time she took a nap. Dogs nap a lot, so I did a lot of laundry. I'm glad she's learned to sleep on the waterproof mats I've strategically placed around the house, because things would be much worse without this thin layer of protection. I can't figure out why she pees in her sleep so frequently, because she still does her business completely normally outdoors as well. Maybe she's just drinking too much water.

I'm beginning to feel like Sisyphus, or one of those hamsters on a spinning wheel. Every day there are more urine soaked pads and towels to wash. I though I'd managed to get Dash's bleeding tail to heal completely and now I'm starting all over again. Whenever I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I take Dot outside so she can go too. The water bowls get taken up and put on the kitchen counter at 8 PM every evening and refilled again at 6 AM the next morning. The protective vinyl and waterproof pads go on top of the bed every evening and come off again the next morning. It all blends in with my morning oatmeal and the noise of the washing machine and old Dr. Who episodes on BBC that I've seen ten times already. I'd like to think I'm making progress, but sometimes I wonder.

I called to confirm Dash's cancer recheck for next week and the receptionist at the cancer center said "Isn't he up here with us today?" "I don't think so," I told her, "He's standing right her next to me." Apparently, there had been a mix up and Dash's appointment was for today and not for next Wednesday. I wonder why they never called to remind me? The appointment was made months ago, so there was no way of telling who wrote it down wrong on their calendar. We just rescheduled for next Wednesday. I suspect the cancer center was wrong because Dash hasn't run out of Palladia pills yet and Janet thought the appointment was next week as well. I get dates mixed up all the time, but she seldom does.

Tomorrow Dot goes back for another water therapy session. Physically, I think she's making great progress. I'm more worried about the incontinence now. Maybe she has a problem that's totally unrelated to the surgery. I'm probably driving my vet crazy with questions about Cushing's Disease and failing kidneys, but you can't find answers unless you ask questions.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1700

Dash has a bloody tail again. Now, I've got blood to clean up as well as pee. Lord knows how Dash got Happy Tail again. I though his tail had completely healed from the last Happy Tail episode. He was fine when he woke up this morning, but when I took him on his morning walk about 45 minutes later, the tip of his tail was all bloody. It's probably just an occupational hazard of living in our rather small house. He wags his tail really hard and there are plenty of things to bump into. For the time being, I've got to try to keep Dash off the furniture, while keeping Dot on her waterproof pads. It's a three ring circus.

Dot almost made it through the night last night. We all slept soundly until a little after 4:30 AM, when Dot had to go outside. By then it was almost pointless to go back to bed, but everyone was so tired that staying up and starting the day a bit early wasn't even considered. The dogs immediately headed back to bed and so did Janet and I. Every hour counts when you're not getting enough sleep.

One of my stocks shot up over 20% today as a result of some big merger. I was elated at my good fortune until my broker called about two hours later to tell me he had just sold the stock because he thought it was overvalued now. Even though this was the right thing to do, I was still disappointed. It would have been nice to have a big winner in my portfolio for a few days. I need to remember that I have encouraged my broker to take action like this. I don't really have the discipline to buy low and sell high. I've lost big time in the past by hanging on to things too long. Like Kenny Rogers says, "You've got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run." I don't. I probably never will.

I finished the design work on my latest website project today. I can't launch the site yet though, because there is no content. The client was going to provide the content. Right now, the site is just headlines, navigation buttons and pretty pictures. It might stay that way for quite a while. It takes a lot longer to write good content than most people think it does. It's one thing to have an idea in your head. It's another thing entirely to take the time to write it down. I called another client the other day and listened to a message while I was waiting on hold inviting people to send them pictures and stories for their new blog. "What's the address of your new blog?" I asked my client when he picked up the phone. "Oh, we don't really have a blog yet," he told me. "We were just hoping that if people heard this phone message, they would send us enough stuff so we could make one." Yeah, right. That's likely to happen.

It's hard to live in the moment when you don't like the moment you're in. In Texas, it's always too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry. It's rare for me to go outside in the morning and think "Wow, what a fabulous day." I used to feel this way a lot when I lived in Colorado. I was younger then though. I have a feeling that 100 degree August afternoons don't bother you as much when you're 25.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1645

I've got to come up with a new game plan. Much of what I do these days doesn't even matter. I still like to think that I'm clever and essential, but I've become much more of a convenience than a necessity. If I didn't get out of bed tomorrow, few people would even notice. This bothers me. Shouldn't I be following my dream? I don't know. Following dreams has become a tricky business in a world where dreams and passions have become synonymous. I am a dispassionate person. I like to do useful things. Appealing to your emotions? Not so much. Unfortunately, advertising is all about appealing to your emotions. I probably should have been a physicist or a mathematician instead. Years ago, I used to be a good documentary filmmaker. I didn't have an agenda. I just took pictures of what I saw. Documentaries have changed like everything else though. Most current documentaries are all about emotion. The filmmaker wants to win you over to a certain point of view. Even street photography has an agenda now. I find the only thing that's safe to photograph these days are flowers. Ironically, people seem to like these photographs because they evoke some sort of emotion in them.

So here I am. By rejecting the world of emotional persuasion, I am left with some pretty boring tasks. I don't have to do these things, but I like to stay busy. When I'm busy, I don't have time to think about the nature of existence. I hate questions like "Why am I here" and "What was I meant to do." Maybe that's why Andy Warhol was one of the heroes of my youth. Andy wanted to be a machine. He approached things very mechanically, yet he managed to have a rich and interesting life in the process.

If you have read this far, you already know that I wasn't busy enough today. I didn't question my existence though. I went to the gym. I still can't figure out why the gym is so much busier on weekdays than on weekends. It is counterintuitive. The weights and machines I like were still open though, so I had a good workout. On the way home, I went to the grocery store instead of the guitar store as I had planned. That's where my head is at these days. I can't think much further than dinner.

Dash goes back to the cancer center for a monthly checkup tomorrow. He's just getting some routine blood tests and possibly a chest x-ray, but I'm worried about his tail. Dash got his bloody tail at the cancer center in the first place. He is so happy to see the other dogs that he wags his tail constantly in the doggie day care area where he stays until the staff is ready for him. Since the area is relatively small, he is always banging the tail against a wall or a door.  Now that I'm finally getting his "happy tail" injury to heal, I'd hate to start all over again. Hopefully, he'll be a bit calmer when we drop him off for his exam tomorow.

I could probably go to the gym every day this week if I wanted. That's how slow it has been.

Bali is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1641

I got up early to get my blood tested before breakfast. I walked the dogs first, of course, but I was still at the doctor's office before 8 AM. As you might imagine, I'm getting a bit tired of getting blood tests all the time. Everyone seems to want one. The urologist tests for PSA. My team of liver doctors test for liver enzymes and viral load. My GP seems most interested in cholesterol and blood sugar. Even the dogs get frequent blood tests. Dash gets tested once a month to monitor his chemotherapy drugs. Dot got tested recently before she got her teeth cleaned. I think I should have invested in Labcorp stock. I have a feeling that doing lab work for doctors is a growth industry.

The grocery store was near the doctor's office, so I decided to get my weekend shopping done on the way home. I wanted to put the groceries in the refrigerator before I went out for breakfast, but Dot didn't agree with this plan. She thought I was home for good. When it became apparent that I was going to leave again, she started barking. I checked in on the dogs using the baby monitor when I got to the restaurant and Dot was still barking. I could tell by her tone that she wasn't alarmed at anything, she was just mad. I felt a bit guilty, so I only had two cups of coffee instead of my usual three and went straight home again. One I got home, the barking stopped and the dogs just went to sleep.

When I'm not really busy, I keep trying to improved my knowledge of WordPress. I'm not very fond of WordPress, but increasingly, this is what my clients want me to use. It's easy to understand why I'm not a fan. Easy-to-use WordPress themes are slowly but surely destroying my web design business. You can put together a WordPress site in a couple of hours without any coding knowledge. The themes are dirt cheap to buy and generally include some pretty sophisticated features. What's not to like, you might ask? First of all, it can be difficult to make a WordPress site look truly unique. All the themes look more or less the same to me. My ISP tells me that they are not very secure either. I tried modifying a standard WordPress theme this afternoon to give it my own special style. I wasn't very successful. Using a theme is easy. Changing a theme is hard. Since I'm the one who keeps wanting to change these themes, I suspect I'm wasting my time. My clients don't even care.

Dash did a good job at keeping his tail from bleeding today. I didn't have to bandage or clean it at all. Maybe he just didn't do much wagging today. Whatever he did, I hope he keeps it up. A few more days like this and the tail might actually have a chance of healing.

I didn't make it to the gym this week, but I can't really remember why. Somehow, I managed to go twice last week when I was busier than I am now. I'll probably have time to go workout on Sunday. I'll get the rest of my exercise by mowing the grass and pulling weeds. Father's Day won't be a big deal. I'm not a father.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1640

Today was strange. When I picked up the mail this morning, there was the letter I'd mailed my sister last week. "Return to sender, forwarding address unknown," the letter said. I gave her a call, to see if anything was wrong and discovered that the line had been disconnected. My sister had vanished without a trace. To her credit, if anyone was going to vanish without a trace, this would be the person to do it. She had already retired fifteen years early, moved to a small rural farm in Southern Ohio, and showed absolutely no interest in anything related to the Internet. Basically, she had disappeared a long time ago.

It did rain today, but it wasn't exactly the severe storm that the weather forecasters had predicted. We got a little wet on our morning walk and Dot barked at the thunder once or twice when it started raining harder after we returned home. That was about it. The thunderstorms were basically a non-event. I'm still glad I got most of my errands taken care of yesterday. Without places to go and things to do, I had a pretty relaxing day.

I watched a Torchwood re-run while I was eating breakfast, did some research on how to solve a puzzling website problem that has currently me stumped, and wrote a letter to my direct contact at a company that I probably won't be working with much longer. I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings. I enjoyed working with this guy. It's not his fault, or mine, that his miserly boss thinks I'm too expensive.

I'm still having problems keeping Dash's tail from bleeding. I called a couple of vet tech friends today to ask for advice and they admitted that "happy tail" was a problem for them as well. Dogs can wag their tails very hard, as anyone who has had their dog clear everything off the coffee table with a single wag can attest. You can't keep dogs from wagging their tail, and it's pretty hard to keep them from chewing off a bandage too. I'm having trouble even making a bandage that will stick to the tail. Dalmatian tails are thin and slippery. Nothing appears to stick to them.

I need to try to brush Dot's teeth this evening. I promised the vet that I'd try to brush her teeth three times a week. Dot doesn't like her teeth brushed any more than Dash likes me messing with his tail. If I have a bandage or a toothbrush in my hand, the dogs run away. I'm supposed to have another blood test tomorrow. I don't know why, since I've already had dozens of these tests this year.  Too bad that doctors don't have a better way of sharing information. It's not a big deal though.  I'll go early and have the test and then go have a delicious breakfast at my favorite restaurant on the way home. Sounds like a plan to me.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1636

I hooked up the Roku streaming stick to the TV this morning. It worked. I was curious how this little gizmo could offer so many channels for free and it didn't take me long to find out. The first free channel I added was PBS. When I tried to use the channel, I got a message saying that I had to provide my e-mail address before the channel could be activated. So, that's how it works! Now, the never ending pledge drives on PBS will wind up in my e-mail Inbox as well. Sure enough, the next time I checked my e-mail, there was already a message from PBS asking for a donation. I'm sure the other free channels work the same way. Before they can be activated, you probably have to agree to let advertisers send you e-mail spam. Personally, this is not a big deal to me. I already get such a monumental amount of spam every day that I won't even notice a little more.

I went back to the gym this afternoon. I think Sunday is my favorite day to workout. The place is never crowded on Sundays and since Janet is usually home, I don't have to worry about leaving the dogs alone for long periods of time. I can easily see myself going to the gym more often in the future. It's not a bad way to kill time and my doctors have told me that exercise is just as important as my diet.

It's probably good to get out of the house on Sundays anyway. When I'm home I tend to find myself doing things like cleaning toilets and knocking down wasp nests. I did both of those things today, along with adding those 56 new dogs and cats to the animal rescue website. As you can probably guess, it was hot and muggy outside today. It rained a little bit in the morning but it all turned to steam by afternoon. No mowing the grass today. I even dealt with the wasp nests under the eaves from the inside by opening windows and knocking them down with a stick.

I'm still having a hard time keeping Dash's tail from bleeding. As soon as the cut area at the tip of the tail starts to heal, he shakes or wags really hard, typically banging the tail against a wall which starts the bleeding all over again. My vet says that bandaging the tail isn't a really good idea, since it could cut off circulation. Janet found a couple of tail protecting devices on the Internet, but they seemed way too complicated. I couldn't leave anything on his tail while I was gone anyway, because he might chew it off and eat it. There's always the cone of shame, but Dot and Dash absolutely hate wearing the cone. I'll save that as a last resort.

Who knows what I'll be doing this week. It's still a mystery to me. I'm typically crazy busy at the first of the year. Things always slow down a bit during the Summer and than I get busy again in the Fall. That's the way it's been for as long as I can remember. I used to spend my Summers worrying that the Defender 90 would overheat in traffic and leave me stranded. Sometimes it did. Hopefully the new car will eliminate that concern for at least a year or two. I've got a birthday coming up pretty soon, but at my age birthdays aren't as exciting as they used to be. Wouldn't it be nice if after a certain age, you just started getting younger again. I'm already tired of getting older.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1593

Dash threw up last night. This hasn't happened since he started his cancer treatments and I was hoping that it wouldn't happen at all. Since it is important that he always has his phenobarbital pill, I instinctively looked through the mess on the carpet to see if the pill was still there. He had just taken his night time meds an hour earlier, so there was a good chance that it would be. While I was looking for the illusive pill, I remembered that the cancer center folks told me in the very beginning that if Dash ever threw up, I was supposed to consider it as toxic waste and not to touch the vomit with my hands while I was cleaning the mess up. Oh, well. Too late now. It seems almost inevitable that I will eventually poison myself before Dash is finally finished with his lengthy chemo regime. Since Dash has eaten two regular meals today and has seemed fine all day, I don't think the episode last night had anything to do with his cancer. We just ate dinner and fed the dogs way too late yesterday and Dash drank a lot of water just before he went to bed. Dogs frequently throw up for no reason at all. I just wish he would put this behavior on hold until we manage to get through with this cancer treatment.

When I was taking the groceries out of the back of the car this afternoon, I happened to look up and noticed that there were little spots of blood all over the headliner. Damn. I immediately knew what had happened, but it didn't help much. You know how dogs shake when they get out of the water? Well, Dalmatians shake like this after they do anything at all. One day last week, Dash had "happy tail" when he came home from his radiation treatment. Dalmatians often wag their tails very vigorously and end up hitting things with their tail that get in the way. If the wagging goes on too long, some times the tip of the tail starts to bleed. Usually when this happens, I just put a little Hydrogen peroxide on the tail and everything is fine a few minutes later. I guess I forgot that Dash always does this shaking routine right after he gets in the car. He must have ended up shaking little drops of blood from the tip of his tail all over the white headliner. So much for the new car look.

The scar on Dash's neck was still moist when he woke up this morning. This is not good. I need to figure out a reliable way to make sure the wound gets lots of air so it can dry out, while still keeping the area well protected from any attempts to scratch the incision site with a rear paw. Everything is fine if I make sure Dash is always nearby whereI can see him,. Unfortunately, he likes to wander off where I can't see him. I haven't come up with a good solution yet.

Dalmatian Rescue is having another of their periodic casino party fundraisers tonight. This is the first time in quite a while that I stayed home and won't be spinning the roulette wheel. It's just too long to leave the dogs alone. Ever since Dot ate the carpet, I've been penning her in a small brick area in the hallway where she can't get into trouble. I don't leave blankets, pillows or rugs in the area, just in case she might decide to chew them. Unfortunately, the bricks are pretty hard on her tired old bones and I hate to leave her here for very long. Since Dash threw up last night and has a scar that seems to be turning into an infection, I don't want to let him out of my sight at all. Hopefully, Janet won't get overwhelmed running the roulette table by herself.

I've been really tired and probably pretty irritable lately, The entire Spring has seemed like a long journey to an uncertain destination. I keep looking for the finish line, but I don't see it yet.

Brady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day