Day 3889

Last night's rain really cooled things down. It was genuinely pleasant outside when we left the house this morning. It warmed up quickly, but for a little while we could convince ourselves that this was the beginning of Fall. These walks have become so predictable that we aren't far away from giving the ducks names. When things become so familiar that you start to recognize individual ducks in a park that's full of them, it might be time to change your route. I imagine that we'll keep walking this way though. We've finally found a route that's just the right distance and seems to maximize the possibility of finding a breeze. A little breeze can make all the difference in the summer.

It was a slow day. We didn't visit the dogs for a variety of reasons. I occupied myself paying online bills and looking for interesting stuff on the Internet. I should have gone up on the roof and cleared away the standing water from last night's rain, but I've learned that water evaporates quickly in the summer. If I wait until tomorrow, there will be much less water to deal with. I still enjoy my morning smoothie, but I've got to find a substitute for watching the news while I eat breakfast. The news is just too depressing.

I've just about given up on hearing from NASA or the Air Force. My various applications for media access to Kennedy Space Center all seem to have fallen into a black hole. I'm not sure if NASA will ever reinstate the social media programs I used to like so much. They've switched to doing virtual events instead, which have turned out to be very popular and reach a much wider audience. I imagine that virtual events are much less expensive as well. With media credentials at KSC becoming harder and harder to obtain, this leaves me with Boca Chica and the Starship. Maybe this is just a pipe dream too, but it's worth exploring.

Janet and I still talk about moving but we can't think of any place to go. Small towns that would have seemed ideal ten or fifteen years ago have already been overrun by people fleeing the cities. The pandemic has accelerated this exodus and even less popular places are seeing their population grow dramatically. Home prices are soaring in many small towns. I don't see this changing any time soon. Why would you want to live in a big city these days? There are still small towns that have remained small, but often there's a good reason. Terrible weather, no jobs, and lack of access to health care are usually at the top of the list.

The older you get, the more important it becomes to have a good hospital nearby. We have friends who have moved to the country who have to travel over a hundred miles if they have a serious medical problem. You get spoiled when there are world class doctors and hospitals just a few minutes away. Even taking your dog to the vet can be a problem in many small towns. The Dallas area has amazing veterinary specialty centers. They've saved our dogs lives more than once. You have to think seriously before giving all this up.

Yesterday's rain has already made our grass look a little greener. I think the weather is going to be cooler for a few more days as well. In mid-August little things like this can make a big difference.

Toby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2724

I got up early this morning to take Janet down to Baylor for some tests. Every time I step inside a hospital, I realize why our health care system is so hard to change. Hospitals are the size of city blocks now. They employ thousands of people. Health care is the biggest industry we have these days. It's no surprise that almost all the young people moving into our neighborhood recently are doctors, dentists, and anesthesiologists. That's where the future is. I'm sure most of these people have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. Truthfully, I can't blame them. Health care has a lot more job security than advertising.

While I was waiting for the call to come pick up Janet again, I fed Dash his breakfast and fixed myself some pancakes and sausages. I thought about going out to eat, but it was starting to rain and most of the restaurants I go to weren't even open yet. I'm starting to think that my own breakfasts are tastier than the ones I used to rave about at my favorite restaurants too.

Dash hates the rain and I couldn't even get him to go outside to pee. We waited and waited and eventually I saw a break in the rain on the radar and convinced Dash to go outside. I don't know how that dog can hold his bladder so long. Once the rain stopped and I got Dash to take his morning walk, I realized that this was a perfect day to take a camera down to the lake. I certainly didn't have anything better to do today.

I always take better pictures when I don't have a dog with me. Dot and Dash always used to scare all the animals away. I saw some Wood Ducks and Great Egrets today. I also saw a Red Tailed Hawk swoop down and grab a mouse with its claws, but I wasn't quick enough to capture a picture. It's relaxing to take pictures of wildlife. I should do this more often.

While I was checking on the rat traps last night, I noticed that there was also a large toad in the atrium. How are all these animals getting inside? Basically the atrium is a screened in porch enclosed on three sides by the house. There shouldn't be any critters getting inside. The rat has discovered how to remove the cheese from the two Havahart traps without setting them off. He stays away from the kill trap. I don't think I'm ever going to catch this rat.

It seemed more like Saturday than Friday. Janet couldn't go back to work until the anesthesia wore off, so she watched movies with Dash for most of the afternoon. I haven't had any work to do for several days. Maybe this is what retirement is going to be like. I'm still not comfortable with the whole idea of retirement. Where is the money going to come from to pay for all the gear I crave?

I hope the rain stops tomorrow. I've got a lot of errands to do and I'd prefer to be dry.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2647

The rain didn't begin when it was supposed to, but it was still a cold, rainy day. I stayed home and made French Toast this morning instead of going out to eat. I make French Toast better than most restaurants, but that still doesn't make me a good cook. The dogs seemed glad that I changed my plans, although I probably could have left the house anyway. This was a fairly quiet rain without the lightning and thunder that typically upsets Dot and Dash.

Rain wasn't the only thing that slowed me down this morning. We tried a new plan to get Dot out of the house without peeing on the rugs and it didn't work very well. We removed all the rugs before waking Dot up, but as it turned out, cleaning pee off the bricks was just as much trouble as washing the rugs. Actually, some of the rugs got wet anyway when we mopped the floor. I think the only solution is to get a sleeping bag and sleep next to Dot near the back door. Even that might not work, since Dot likes to sleep with the entire family nearby. You might think the obvious solution would be to waterproof her bed well and just let her pee before we even attempt to move her. I've tried that and it doesn't work. Apparently it is motion that causes Dot to start peeing. If I just stand her up in her bed, she doesn't do anything.

Dot and I both ran out of pills today. I had a prescription for me to pick up in one part of town and a prescription for Dot in another. Dot's pills were cheaper than mine. Dogs and people share a lot of the same medications, but when they are prescribed by a human doctor they are almost always more expensive. This just shows how horribly broken our health care system is. I'm convinced that my dogs get better care than I do. Veterinary care is reasonably priced and the veterinarians are highly trained. The specialty vets Dot and Dash see at the cancer center are as good as any human doctor I've ever seen. Nobody expects veterinary care to be free and yet people still take good care of their dogs and cats. I've never really understood why human medicine couldn't be the same.

On my way home from running errands I stopped at Central Market to pick up something for dinner. I was intrigued by a new section of the store that encouraged customers to "build your own bowl." These bowls seemed to be a cross between the trendy Buddah Bowls favored by vegans and hipsters and the meaty Mongolian fare found at Genghis Grill. How did these bowls get to be so popular? Basically, both the meat and meat-free varieties are just a bunch of food served in a bowl. I didn't build a bowl today, but I'll probably try this later. One dish meals have always appealed to me.

I don't know why I'm worried about the coyotes. It's the loose dogs in the neighborhood that are really the problem. A loose dog came after Dot this afternoon while we walking down the street. Luckily, the dog was well behaved, because when I called for the owner and yelled at the dog to stay, it actually did stop and went into a sit/stay. I don't understand people. The owners of this dog have a nice big fenced back yard, but they let their dog out front where there is a busy street and no fence at all. Even if there weren't injured dogs walking nearby, the dog could have easily been run over by a car.

It's been a long week. I'd like to do something besides wash rugs and clean up dog poop this weekend, but that will depend on Dot. She's been keeping me pretty busy.

Chelsey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1847

It's amazing what you can learn when you ask a few questions. I'm not good at small talk, so I've been asking my therapist questions about the body during my physical therapy sessions. I've gained a whole new respect for physical therapy. My therapist appears to know the name of every muscle in the human body and what each one of them is supposed to do. I'm making progress with my shoulder, but it is very slow going. So far, stretching muscles seems to be somewhat like tenderizing meat. I asked if it was possible to get cold laser therapy like Dot, but apparently the dogs continue to get the medical advances first.

I'm thinking about changing pharmacies. One drug I take every month costs $90 at one pharmacy and only $32 for the very same drug at another. This drug isn't covered by insurance, so this is just the monthly retail cost. Why would there be such a huge difference in price? Customers would never stand for such radical price differences in the cars, computers, and clothing we buy. We expect competitive pricing in everything except healthcare. The more I learn about health care, the more I realize that the entire industry is controlled by some very powerful forces. I'm at the very bottom of the food chain. The pharmaceutical companies, the hospitals, and the insurance companies basically control everything. The price that shows up on a bill isn't necessarily the price that a doctor actually charges or an insurance company actually pays. It's all a hall of mirrors.

It was still bitterly cold when we got up this morning. I dressed the dogs in their warmest sweaters and put on several layers myself. In the Summer I always think it would be nice to retire up North. On days like this, I'm looking for a tropical island. The weather continues to be totally unpredictable in Texas. Tomorrow, the temperature is supposed to get up to sixty degrees, but then on Wednesday it is expected to dip down into the twenties again. It's enough to drive you nuts.

I wonder what is happening to me? I got my instructions for traveling to Vandenberg Air Force Base today and they seemed pretty complicated to me. Jeez, this should be a piece of cake. I'm the guy who used to routinely travel to Germany on business and was once responsible for a forty person film crew shooting in the middle of the Olympic National Forest. Now, a trip to the post office is a major ordeal. I hope this trip snaps me out of my reclusiveness.  If I don't get a handle on my recent aversion to travel, I could wind up like those Kennedy sisters in Grey Gardens.

Dash has a trip to the vet tomorrow. Dot has been getting most of the attention lately, but Dash still has a few issues of his own. I need to find out whether a growth I've been noticing on his tail is something to be worried about. He's been licking his coat a lot lately too. I don't know if he has skin allergies again or if this is just another nervous habit. It's probably time to check his urine for crystals again too.

If it's warmer tomorrow, I'm going to go out in the back yard and look for dog poop. Now that all the leaves from our trees are on the ground, it's almost impossible to find the stuff. It just disappears under the leaves. The only way to find dog poop in the Winter is to walk out in the back yard. Then, it almost instantly appears on the soles of your shoes. I'm getting tired of cleaning my shoes evceryday, so it's time to find the illusive poop.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1507

The bad news is that I apparently did dislocate my right shoulder on Tuesday. The good news is that I probably won't need surgery. After spending the better part of the day reading old magazines in two different waiting rooms, I finally received some pain pills and a cortisone shot directly in my shoulder joint. I'm already starting to feel a little better, but I can't walk the dogs for two weeks. When I go to the gym, I need to forgo the upper body exercises for a while as well.

Last night was terrible. I didn't sleep a wink. I finally got so tired of the dogs bumping into my arm on the bed, that I pushed two of their dogs beds together in the living room and slept there. Well, I tried to sleep anyway. It was painful on my back, on my side, and on my stomach. There was just no escape from the painful shoulder. Janet walked the dogs and drove me to the doctor this morning, but it put her way behind at work. We're going to have to find a dog walker for a short time while I heal.

I got a call this afternoon saying that I had been approved to begin my Hepatitis-C treatment. It looks like I will begin taking the newly approved medicine next week. It is absolutely astounding how expensive these little miracle pills are. You could purchase a very nice new car for what it costs to take the new 12-week Solvadi and ribavirin regime. Luckily my insurance will pick up most of the tab. It's hard to believe that a few little pills could ever cost so much, but I guess the pharmaceutical company is trying to recover the enormous cost of developing these pills.

I didn't do well with my writing assignments today. It's hard to type with one hand. It's actually a lot easier to drive with one hand, although shifting can still be a little tricky. I drove to my second doctor's appointment myself and somehow made it home again in one piece. Hopefully, I will at least partially regain the use of my other hand by tomorrow. I have a big photo assignment on Saturday and I'm a little worried that I won't be able to pick up my five pound DLSR. A lot could change by Saturday though. I'm optimistic at this point.

You learn a lot about the healthcare system when you spend your day sitting in waiting rooms. Today, I learned that medicine is way too expensive, waiting rooms are way too crowded, and doctors are almost universally stressed and overworked. I asked my doctor this morning how Obamacare was working out for him.  He said it was total chaos at his clinic. He told me that nobody has a clue about what to charge patients, or even whether the patients are actually insured. The only person I know personally who is a fan of Obamacare happens to own an insurance company. If insurance executives actually like the plan, this tells me all I need to know. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when all those big insurance executives got together with the president. You know they walked away from that meeting with some kind of sweet deal.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1504

What happened to yesterday's balmy seventy degree weather? Today it was closer to thirty degrees with a thirty mile per hour wind. Brr! I'm sure the global warming crowd has a convoluted explanation for these strange extremes, but I've never seen anything like it. When you go from Winter to Summer to Winter again, all in the span of two days, something is messed up.

I picked up some prescriptions today and noticed that the price had gone down again. Apparently the time I had to spend in the dreaded donut hole penalty box was mercifully short. I asked my pharmacist if he knew what was going on, and of course he didn't. The entire healthcare system has become a mysterious black hole that sucks in questions and never regurgitates answers. I have a feeling that Obabacare is just Medicare under another name. If that's the case, lord help all of us.

I had lots of writing work to do today, but still found time to drive downtown for my third blood test in less than a week. Usually, I don't even feel the needle during these tests, but this time I walked away with a sore arm. Maybe I've just been poked too many times in too few days, or maybe the nurse just wasn't paying attention today. Either way, I think I've had enough blood tests to last me for a while. My next test is scheduled for March.

I decided to run the malware checking software I got recently on my large five terabyte backup drive. That was probably a mistake. Almost two days later, the initial scan of the drive still isn't complete. There is a message in the progress bar that says 72 million files have been scanned. That can't possibly be right. Even with the thousands of small invisible Unix files that the Apple operating system installs, how could I have 72 million files on my computer? Even with the separate partition for Linux software that I haven't used in years, this number still seems way, way too high.  It wouldn't surprise me a bit if some of these mystery files were secretly installed by Google or the NSA.  Since a lot of files on any computer are normally invisible these days so you won't erase part of the operating system by mistake, it makes you wonder if anybody really knows what is on their machine.

Apple stock took a huge plunge in after hours trading after a bad earnings report. Every time Apple stock gets down around $500 a share, I wonder if I should buy some again? I used to own Apple and did quite well with it back when Steve Jobs was alive. Now, I'm beginning to wonder if the moment has passed. My latest iPhone is basically the same as my first iPhone. Just about everybody's laptops are basically the same. Lets face it, when your grandparents start to adopt a technology, it's probably time to move on. Maybe 3D printing is the next big thing. I've invested in a few 3D printing companies, but I really have no idea what's around the next bend. I'm afraid if I really could see the future, it would scare the hell out of me.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1476

Janet returned from her Christmas trip today. I only fly a couple of times a year these days, so every time I go to the airport, I'm amazed at all the changes. Anybody who expects job growth to return any time soon needs to take a good long look at DFW airport. People are being replaced by machines in droves. The attendants who used to hand you a parking ticket when you entered the airport have largely been replaced by machines. In many terminals, the ticketing agents have been replaced by machines as well. You print your own ticket and boarding pass without talking to anyone. In the international terminal, there is even a machine that will scan and verify your passport. Flying isn't very exclusive anymore either. To my untrained eye, it looked like the people waiting for their bags at the baggage carrousel had arrived directly from Walmart. I'm sure that all the machines keep costs down so these scruffy looking people can fly instead of taking the bus.

The year is finally winding down. By the end of the day, I looked around the office and realized there was nothing more to do. I'm caught up! Since tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I might actually be finished for the year. I'm not worried that this lull will continue. It never does. Traditionally, January is usually a busy month.

Although the year is ending tomorrow, there is still plenty of unfinished business from 2013. For starters, my neighbor's tree is still sitting on my roof. The owner of the aggressive dogs down the street hasn't fixed his fence either. I need to call my hepatologist and find out when he wants me to start my new Hepatitis C treatment. For several years my doctors have told me that January 2014 would be the date when the new treatment would be approved by the FDA. Now, 2014 is here. Oh, I guess I need to find out what this so called "donut hole" that has made the cost of my prescriptions skyrocket is all about as well.

I'm not making any New Year's resolutions this year. I've given up most of the guilty pleasures already, so there's not much more to abstain from. I'm not trying to better myself either. Maybe I could be a kinder, more sensitive, or harder working person if I really tried, but what would be the point? Life is difficult enough as it is. Maybe I'll just resolve to get up every morning and make the bed.  That should take care of things for another year.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1468

Not surprisingly, the dog park was closed today after yesterday's downpour. There was no more rain today, but the ground was soft and muddy everywhere. I was disappointed that Dot and Dash missed their workout, but saw no reason why I should miss mine as well. Since there wasn't much else to do anyway, I spent even longer at the gym than usual. I guess it shouldn't seem surprising that something I don't particularly enjoy has become such a regular part of my life. The exercise is good for me and I have a strong sense of discipline. If I only did things that I thought were fun, I'd either be dead or broke by now.

There were only three other people in the cavernous gym when I arrived around 2 PM. All the other people must have been Christmas shopping. The traffic around popular stores and shopping malls was unbelievable. Shopping seems to be the one thing that unites the people of Dallas. Everyone seems obsessed with accumulating stuff.

When I went to pick up a prescription this afternoon, I found the wrong pills waiting for me. The pharmacist seemed to take the mistake in stride. He said that sometimes prescriptions just auto-renew themselves in the computer. He gave me the pills I actually needed and told me to come back in fifteen days for the others. Everything related to healthcare has become ridiculously complicated. How did it get this way? When I was a kid, our family doctor actually made house-calls with his little black doctor's bag. The pills he prescribed were so inexpensive that you didn't even need insurance to pay for them.

I don't have much Christmas shopping to do, but I do have some. I'm going to try to outwit the crowds by doing my shopping tomorrow after people have gone to work, but before they take their lunch breaks. This would probably be around mid-morning. We'll see how that goes. There's a good chance that everyone is on vacation already and my careful people-avoiding timing won't even matter. I've got to believe that Monday morning will be better than Saturday afternoon though. One can only hope.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1156

The specter of medicare on the horizon is already starting to bother me. I've finally got a group of doctors that I like along with some pretty decent health insurance. I'd hate to lose all this when the government takes over. Since nobody seems to know anything specific about medicare except the people who are already using it, I thought I'd do a little research. I discovered that medicare advantage plans and supplemental insurance are completely different. I also learned that you don't need both. I learned that part-d prescription drug coverage is really just another form of supplemental insurance. Most importantly, I learned that insurance companies and health care providers make a ton of money from selling medicare advantage programs and aggressively try to sign you up for their particular plan when you begin to approach the magic age of 65. It all comes down to money. Are you all that surprised?

I'm really hoping that my latest blood test results will vindicate my new somewhat austere diet. Although I'm slowly acquiring a taste for fruits and vegetables, I do miss bacon, french toast and cheeseburgers. When I asked my nutritionist why my new diet wasn't more popular if it could actually reverse diabetes, prevent heart attacks, and improve liver health, he told me that there wasn't any money in a good diet. The pharmaceutical industry is a billion dollar empire with tentacles everywhere. Selling pills is big business. Eating broccoli isn't. Maybe it is really that simple. Look at the ads you see on TV. It seems like 80% of them are selling pharmaceutical products. When you go to the doctor, there are often more drug company reps sitting in the bobby than patients. The pharmaceutical lobby in Washington DC is probably even more powerful than the gun lobby. Everyone wants you to take a pill because pills are wildly profitable. Again it all comes down to money.

Maybe the medical industry's fixation with money wouldn't be so irritating if I made more of the green stuff myself. I consider my company successful because I've managed to stay in business for over twenty years during a period of time where many businesses like mine have failed. I've never been wildly profitable though. I work hard for my money and profits are somewhat self-limiting. I have never been able to take advantage of economies of scale, since it is only me doing all the work. I'm very reluctant to hire people and grow, because that's exactly why several friends of mine failed. Growing too fast can be much worse than not growing at all.

Maybe I should resign myself to walking the dogs and making just enough to pay the bills. I wrote two articles today. That ought to pay the electric bill.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1143

This is going to take a while. Usually, when I'm in a hurry and don't feel like cooking, I'll run down to a nearby barbecue joint and get the brisket platter to bring home for dinner. Tonight, I went to Central Market and got a broccoli, tomato and garlic salad; a grape, walnut and blue cheese salad; and a bowl of tomato bisque. The meal was tasty and satisfying but I couldn't visualize portion sizes very well and bought too much. That's one of the things I don't like about fresh vegetables. They don't stay fresh very long. I forget about the leftovers and they inevitably go bad. Cured meats on the other hand, seem to last forever.

I really haven't had any major goals for quite a while. I have a tendency to just get up and plod through the day, doing whatever is necessary to keep treading water until bedtime. Goals probably aren't such a bad thing. Maybe staying alive a little longer would be an excellent goal to start with. I'm going to try my best to make this healthy diet work. So, if you hear me talking about bacon and cheeseburgers in a month from now, you'll know I'm just another backslider.

We're planning on taking the dogs on a little road trip. We've always wanted to go on a real vacation with them, but so far we haven't been able to go more than five miles without a major mishap. Dot is just as territorial in the car as she is at home. When we pull up at a stoplight, she'll start barking like crazy at people crossing the street or waiting for a bus. Dot's barking usually throws Dash into a panic and he'll wriggle out of his car harness like a canine Houdini and then he's all over the place. Janet is an optimist though. She thinks that if she sits in back with them, the dogs will be calm and well behaved. I have my doubts, but since they spend most of their day sleeping around the house, there ought to be a way to get them to sleep in the car as well.

A friend of mine wants to send a little health care business my way. He asked if I had ever done any of this type of writing and of course I said "sure." I knew I'd done quite a bit of health care writing. I just couldn't remember what it was. A quick search revealed that I'd written an ad campaign about impotency, some brochures about surgical scrubs made out of paper, and a physical therapy video that featured a lot of old people bobbing around in a huge swimming pool. I've done a huge amount of work for veterinarians, of course, but I'm always a bit hesitant to tell doctors and hospital administrators that I consider veterinary medicine to be more or less the same as whatever they're doing. We'll see how it goes. My new business pitches usually go pretty well unless someone wants to actually see me in person.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1122

I got the Apple Lombard back today. It worked perfectly. Well, actually it didn't work perfectly. I couldn't connect to the Internet anymore. Unbeknownst to me, during the years that the Lombard sat unused in my closet, WiFi standards had changed and the built-in Airport WiFi card didn't work anymore. This was kind of ironic, since it was this computer that practically invented built-in WiFi. I don't even think you could even buy a laptop with built-in WiFi before the Lombard.

I don't want to keep kicking a dead horse, but this is just one more example of how little respect that old electronics get in today's world. Old computers get about the same amount of respect as soured milk or stale bread. It doesn't seem fair to me. Vintage guitars and amplifiers are revered by musicians. Vintage mechanical watches are often worth much more than their contemporary counterparts. Even old vinyl record albums have their fans. When I tell people that I still have a working Osborne-1, all I get are glassy stares. Nobody even cares.

I got a call from a friend today that I hadn't seen in a while.  When I rhetorically asked him what had been happening in his life since we last talked, he told me that he'd had a heart attack, was unable to work for almost a year, sold his house, and was now on permanent disability. Whoa! I wasn't expecting that. This guy was very athletic and I always thought he was healthy as a horse. Apparently, so did he until the heart attack hit him. I think that our health is much more fragile than most of us would like to admit. It was also disconcerting to realize that, unlike my friend, I didn't even have long term disability insurance. I'm not even sure it matters if you're a writer though. Insurance companies are getting pretty tough. Most of them tend to think that if Stephen Hawking can still write, then other writer's disabilities must be trivial.

The weather was much nicer today, and so was my mood. The roof is clear and dry again. The buckets are gone in the living room and the house looks more or less normal if you don't look up at the ceiling. Even the dogs stayed clean today. The only fly in the ointment was my visit to the muffler shop. I was going to get the rattling catalytic converter replaced, but when the technician pounded on both converters with a little hammer and told me he thought it was the left hand converter that had gone bad, it gave me pause. For months I've been driving around thinking that the right hand catalytic converter was the bad one. I'll have to think about this one.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1114

Every time I have a doctor's appointment in a hospital environment, I am amazed at the sheer size of what we have come to call our healthcare system. I grew up in a small town and the only reason people went to the hospital was to have a baby or to get their tonsils out. What a different world we live in now. Hospitals have become small cities with thousands of employees and hundreds of ways to die.

I don't like to go anywhere near a hospital. You're more likely to get sick in a hospital than in almost any other place in the world. I got Hepatitis C when I received tainted blood products in a hospital during the 1970's. Back then hospitals routinely bought blood from winos and the medical community wouldn't even discover what Hepatitis C was for another twenty years or so.

I think things are even worse today. You hear stories almost every day about people going to the hospital with a very minor ailment and leaving with a nasty antibiotic resistant MRSA infection. I guess it makes sense that bad things happen in hospitals. That's where all the sick people are. Luckily, I didn't have to stay long today. It was just a quick trip for a second opinion. It took me longer to get in and out of the multi-level parking garage than it did to see the doctor. As you might expect, the doctor I saw today disagreed with the previous doctor. This happens a lot. It wasn't so bad though. I liked this doctor's conclusion a lot better than the first one, so I think I'll just go with it.

The stock market had a banner day today. Equities went up. Gold went up. Even my managed futures accounts went up. This financial trifecta almost never happens. It's kind of ironic to me that Wall Street is celebrating some last minute compromise legislation that isn't going to solve anything at all. Even though there wasn't a lot of logic in today's huge gains, I'll take what I can get. I learned long ago that the stock market is nothing more than a barometer that measures the world's collective fear and greed. Today, the fear subsided just a little, and the greed took over.

I got my warm coat back from the tailor today. The last time they put in a zipper for me it cost $16. This time it cost $40. As far as I can tell, the zippers on both coats look exactly the same. Go figure. I have a feeling that I was charged more for the zipper on today's coat because it was a more expensive coat. I didn't complain though. Maybe there's a zipper shortage.

At least I was warm then I took Dash to dog training class this evening. I don't think Dash was very warm though. He didn't seem to want to be at class at all. I put his sweater on before we left the house, but he still didn't want to sit on the cold ground. I don't blame him. If it was up to me, I'd just skip training class until spring.

Lilly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 926

I was surprised at the Supreme Court's decision this morning. It wasn't what I was expecting. This just goes to show that what I was telling you yesterday is true. Nobody, including myself, can predict the future. I've got a lot of mixed feelings about health care. Health insurance is my biggest single expense. I would love to have a high quality, affordable health care system. Somehow, I don't think what we got today is the solution though. Human nature says otherwise.

I'm convinced that health care is so expensive because hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and everyone in the entire flying circus we call the healthcare system knows that people are scared of dying and charge accordingly for their services.  They could charge less, but they don't, because we will pay exorbitantly to live.

How do I know this? Well, for starters I take very good care of our dogs. They get CAT scans, MRI's, complex orthopedic surgery and more. They get whatever they need, no questions asked. Since I have had some of the same procedures myself, I know what things cost. The difference in cost for an MRI for your dog and an MRI for yourself can be staggering. The imaging equipment is exactly the same. The technicians have exactly the same training. Some vets even have more extensive training than their physician counterparts, because they have to deal with a multitude of different species. The difference in the cost of care is almost entirely due to the fact that hospitals and doctors know they can get away with charging more to people.

If there were no insurance and everybody knew that the money was coming out of their own pocket when they went to the doctor, most medical procedures would cost a lot less. If people didn't sue their doctors at the drop of a hat, things would be even less expensive. I trust my vet more than I trust my own doctors. My vet provides top quality care at a reasonable price. Isn't that what we all want?

Vets aren't free though, and health care shouldn't be free either. I've worked hard all my life and I don't mind paying a fair price for health care. I don't like footing the bill for totally irresponsible people who don't even try to do the right thing though. This drags us all down. Remember that old Seinfeld episode about the Soup Nazi? I feel that way sometimes. Everyone should have access to quality health care, regardless of their income or circumstance. This doesn't mean that health care should be free however. I've got only one thing to say to those people who think they are entitled to completely free health care: "no soup for you."

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 631

If I told a veterinarian that one of my dogs was showing signs of pain in the spinal area, they would tell me to bring the dog in immediately for a CAT scan so they could identify the pinched nerve. When my doctor finally called me back and I explained my condition to him, he told me to put an ice pack on it. This, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with out medical system today. Veterinary Hospitals are for profit businesses that attract customers by providing the advanced services people want at prices they can afford. Doctors and hospitals operate by a completely different business model. Their customer isn't the patient. It is the insurance company that ultimately pays them. They know exactly what the insurance companies will approve and what they won't approve and design their care accordingly. I certainly don't blame the doctors. They're just trying to make the best of a very bad system. It is the insurance companies that are the bad guys.

I didn't tell my doc that I'd already tried an ice pack yesterday. The ice really didn't deaden the pain very much and the ice bag leaked as well, soaking my shirt with cold icy water. I think I'll stick with Bengay rub and my pain pills till I get home.

We had breakfast at the Bellagio this morning. I've always thought this was one of the prettiest hotels in town. The fountains are a work of art in themselves, and if you look up over your head in the main lobby, you'll see the most spectacular blown glass chandelier you could ever imagine by glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. Today, there were giant umbrellas hanging all over the place. I have no idea what the umbrellas meant, but they were quite pretty.

We're going to go see Rod Stewart tonight. Jeez, this guy makes me seem young. The guy's a senior citizen and he's dancing around the stage like Mick Jagger....who is also a bona fide senior citizen. Go figure. At any rate, I wish I had a little of whatever they're taking. Most of my memories of Rod Stewart are from the earlier years when he was playing in the Jeff Beck Group with Ron Wood. I also remember Every Picture Tells a Story being one of the best albums of the early 1970's. It will be fun seeing if the guy still has his chops tonight.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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