Day 4810

Another cold, cloudy day. No rain though, so that's good. Lately I've been having trouble thinking of something to write about. Time passes quickly, but every day is almost exactly the same. I reluctantly get out of bed when Janet tells me that we'll be walking in twenty minutes. The one mile walk wakes me up. Dawn loves to smell things and always enjoys herself no matter what the weather is like. I usually overdress for this walk because I'd rather be too warm than too cold. When we get back home I change back into my indoor clothes and make the bed.

When I go out to the kitchen to fix my breakfast, Dawn is usually waiting for her shredded wheat. She knows she gets two shredded wheat squares every morning now. As soon as she's had her treat, she goes back to the bedroom to nap. I fix some coffee, take my morning meds and eat my breakfast while watching one of the business channels on TV. I find the business channels less annoying than watching the news. I use half and half with my cereal instead of regular milk and Janet usually leaves me a small bowl of cut up strawberries to put on top. Even though we have a perfectly good dishwasher, I always wash and dry my breakfast dishes by hand and put them away before going back to the office and turning on the computer for the day. Rituals are important.

I always have tons of spam in my inbox. Even more spam is caught by my hosting company before it ever gets to me. Why are there so many spammers? Are people really stupid enough to respond to these messages? People send you fake invoices and shipping notices, hoping that you will reply and say you never ordered anything. They are just trying to extract personal information from you. I've thought about canceling my land line phone because the calls are all spam now. Most even show up as "suspected spam" on the caller ID. Why does the phone company even put these calls through if they know they are spam? Sadly, I think I know the answer. The spammers are probably their best customers.

Modern life is just one small irritation after another. Nothing works smoothly anymore. It's almost impossible to talk with a real person if you need technical help with something. If you do reach a real person they're usually in a call center in Indonesia and you can't understand what they're saying. Grocery shelves are frequently out of whatever you went to the store to get. I couldn't find real whipping cream this week. City traffic is impossible now. Where did all these people come from? I'd like to live in a small town except I'd also like to have easy access to the best doctors and veterinarians. I've got no complaints about health care and veterinarians. Pretty much everything else sucks.

The construction crews are making good progress on the access road they are replacing in the park. These guys start their day early. They were already hard at work when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk this morning. Parts of the road are already finished but I'm hesitant to walk on it yet. I don't want to get tar on my Hoka shoes. The new route I'm taking now to avoid the construction is about a half mile shorter than my regular route. Even something as minor as this throws me off. I like consistency and continuity. 

Dawn seems to be getting tired of wearing the No Flap Ear Wrap. I can't say that I blame her. I usually take it off when she's in the house, but you never know when she's going to vigorously shake her head. So far the hematoma on her left ear hasn't gotten any smaller. Hopefully by this time next month we'll be able to see some improvement. 

Nora is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4806

Dawn had her annual exam today. The lab results haven't come back yet, but it looks like she is in good shape. Dawn, like many Dalmatians, has had problems with crystals in her urine, but hopefully changes in her diet have helped eliminate that problem. The only other problem was her ear. About a month ago we noticed that she had developed a hematoma on her left ear. She shakes her head a lot, which either caused or aggravated the problem. 

The vet recommended a special pet headwrap called the No Flap Ear Wrap that will help the hematoma heal without the need for surgery. The device actually seems to work, although she looks like a little babushka now. Dawn is still shaking her head, but her ears don't flap around any more. Hopefully this will help. I'm not sure how long she will have to wear this contraption, but she seems to tolerate it well. We're not sure why she shakes her head so much. Dash did this too and developed a hematoma as well. It's definitely not an ear infection. Her ears look good..

It took me a while to realize that today was a holiday. I kept wondering why we didn't get any mail and why the park was so full of people. President's Day is kind of a weird holiday, but if you're working and get the day off, I guess you'll take what you can get. Other than Dawn's vet appointment, the day was exactly the same for me. We took Dawn on a sunrise walk, I had my shredded wheat for breakfast, and then I took my long walk.

There was a pretty sunrise and sunset today. I should have taken more pictures. I've spent so many years documenting things in the park a that I'm not very interested anymore. I didn't even take a picture of Dawn at the vet today. I used to do that with Dot and Dash a lot. There's always a phone in my pocket, but I rarely carry a camera with me these days. I used to always carry a little Lumix DMC ZS40 with me. It was about the size of a pack of cigarettes and had a long Leica telephoto lens that collapsed flat when the camera was off. This was the perfect camera to carry while taking long walks in the woods but I can't be bothered anymore. I just spend my walking time daydreaming these days.

I was expecting to hear from the roofer today and was hoping to learn whether I'd been credentialed for the Crew-6 launch as well. I guess nothing happens on holidays. We'll see if anything happens tomorrow. I won't be that disappointed if I don't get credentialed for this launch. Life will be simpler without having to arrange a last minute trip to Florida. Life would be simpler if the roof didn't leak too, but you can't have everything.

I need to remember that it's time for bulky trash pickup this week. There are still leaves that need to be raked in the side yard. Raking leaves is not my favorite activity, but these leaves don't seem to be going anywhere on their own. There have been several really windy days and I was hoping that they would just blow away. No luck there. If anything, more leaves seems to be blowing into the side yard.

It was unseasonably warm today and almost got up to 80 degrees. I think it's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. That's fine by me. As long as it doesn't rain, the weather can do what it wants.

Odie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2939

I had a surprisingly enjoyable meeting with my financial adviser today. I basically quit going to meetings when Dot got sick, so this was the first time I'd actually seen the guy in person in several years. It's much easier to talk about your financial future when the stock market continues to set new records. We did make some contingency plans today, but both of us agreed that the business climate was still fundamentally sound. Hey, I heard Warren Buffett say basically the same thing on TV this morning, so I don't think we're out on a limb here. As long as Kim Jong Un doesn't decide to nuke somebody, the near-term future looks relatively bright.

We spent a little time talking about estate planning today. It's not a subject I like to think about, but I've seen the estates of several people I know turn into a horrible mess after they died. At least I have a will. I can't believe how many people my age don't even have a will. You're never going to see "Brought to you by the Sealander Foundation" at the end of your favorite PBS program, but maybe there'll be enough left over to rescue a few dogs after I'm gone. Nobody can predict the future, but it never hurts to anticipate the future. Hey, at least I've started the conversation.

I got caught up in rush hour traffic on the way home from my meeting and started worrying about Dash. He can't hold his bladder very well anymore and sometimes he has a vestibular incident when he wakes up from a sound sleep. Dash was asleep when I left and was asleep when I returned. I have no idea what happened in between. I used to obsessively check the baby monitor when I was away, but if you're 45 minutes away from home, it's sometimes better not to look. At any rate, everything was fine today.

I didn't get started on my second writing assignment until I'd finished feeding Dash and taking him on an afternoon walk. This didn't give me enough time to finish the article, but I needed something to do tomorrow anyway. I wish I had an article a day to write indefinitely. Writing is much less stressful than website design or film production. Even commercial copywriting is strangely relaxing. I'm not sure how to get good writing jobs anymore though. Nobody reads. I find it ironic and a bit humorous that Facebook and Instagram "stories" don't really involve writing. Nowadays, what people call stories are really just little videos.

I've got to make an appointment to see a podiatrist soon. My left foot is really starting to hurt and I don't know why. I suspect that it has something to with this summer's dog bite. There was internal bleeding when I got bitten and my foot became swollen. Even though I slept with my feet elevated and used icepacks to reduce the swelling, a hematoma formed in my leg. Maybe there is still a small hematoma in my foot that is causing the discomfort. Or maybe there is something else going on. That is why I need to see a podiatrist.

The refrigerator is getting kind of bare, so I'm going to need to pick up something for dinner tomorrow. Do I go to the smoked meat store and get something delicious and unhealthy, or go to the vegan store and get something healthy and a little bland? It shouldn't be so easy to do the wrong thing.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2751

When I took Janet to see the surgeon this afternoon, we were moving so slowly from the car to the lobby that it made us laugh. We were pathetic. She couldn't use her arms very well and I couldn't use my legs. Janet was holding on to a pouch with tubes hanging out of her and I felt like I needed a walker. I'm feeling better than I did last night, but this is going to take a while. Basically, it feels like someone shot an arrow through my legs.

Janet reached a milestone today. Her doctors felt that she had improved enough so that they could take out the remaining drainage tubes. She'll probably be able to drive in a few days. There is still a long journey ahead since it will take at least three months to complete reconstruction. Things are looking good though. My case is much simpler. Assuming I don't get an infection, I should be good to go as soon as the hematoma in my leg is reabsorbed. I'm not sure what to do about the hematoma, since they do tend to heal on their own. It takes a long time though and there is occasionally a risk of a blood clot. Some people say ice packs can reduce the swelling. Other people prefer heat. I'll continue taking the antibiotics and hopefully I'll notice an improvement in a couple of days. I hope that I don't have to have the hematoma drained, but that is always a possibility.

I'm seriously thinking of switching to Janet's doctor. Everything went perfectly on her surgery since they assembled such a great medical team. It's always been hit and miss with me. Sometimes I'm referred to a good specialist, other times not so good. Your realize after a while that it makes a difference where your primary care physician has hospital privileges. Some hospital are better than others. Janet has always seen Baylor physicians. I tend to go to Medical City. If something was seriously wrong with me, I'd feel much more comfortable being treated at Baylor.

Dash didn't get a walk at all today. He seemed a bit confused at first, but then he realized that he had more time to nap. Janet's doctors don't want her walking a dog yet, because it could cause some damage if the dog pulled of tugged on the leash. I just can't walk very well at all right now. Hopefully, things will improve within a week or so. I think I'll try sleeping with an ice pack tonight.

I've got my replacement hard drive formatted and ready to go. I think I'll take my computer to the repair place tomorrow and make the switch to a 4 terabyte drive. That should last me for quite a while. It took me quite a few years to fill up the 1 terabyte drive. I used to be in a panic if I was without a computer for even a day. Now, I could probably be without a computer for a week and it wouldn't make any difference. Work is really that slow.

The neighbors called me today from wherever they're spending their vacation. They seemed very concerned about the dog bite. Since they are lawyers, they were also probably concerned that I might sue them. Not to worry. I have no interest in suing anybody. All I want in life is to be left alone. That sentiment applies to most people and it definitely applies to biting dogs.

Cisco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2750

Well this sucks. I found a credit card in our alley this afternoon and though it might belong to friends of our neighbor. They'd had a Fourth of July party yesterday and there were a lot of people walking back and forth down the alley yesterday evening. I knocked on the neighbor's door and before the door was even fully open, their German Shepard ran out the door and bit me in the calf. I fell down and before I could get up, the dog bit me in the other leg. I was just trying to do a good deed by returning the credit card and got some bad dog bites for my efforts.

I've been bitten before and know that puncture wounds aren't to be taken lightly. One of those new stand-alone emergency rooms had just opened up in the neighborhood, so I decided to go there. They told me that they didn't accept Medicare and I would have to pay cash. Forget that. I drove down the street to a Primacare and they told me there would be a two hour wait. The lobby was empty, so I don't know what the problem was. I was still bleeding and growing frustrated. Luckily, I remembered that my own doctor was open until 8 PM. I got in the car and drove there, arriving just before the place closed.

A nurse cleaned my wounds, gave me a tetanus shot, injected me with an antibiotic, wrote me a prescription for more antibiotics, and bandaged me up again. If I'd waited for the Primacare folks to do this, I'd probably be sitting in the waiting room until midnight. Something needs to be done about the neighbor's dog. They claim he's friendly, but he's bitten me three times in the last ten years. It's probably time to call animal control.

I was hoping the nurse could stop the bleeding, but she told me that letting the blood flow would help prevent infection. I'm probably going to need to do a lot of bandage changes for a while. Just when I thought that Janet's bandage changes were becoming less of an issue, now I've got my own to deal with. The bad thing about dog bites is that they take a long time to heal. Been there, done that.

The rest of my day was pretty uneventful. I walked Dash, took Janet to a few stores to get her out of the house for a bit, and started cloning the hard drive on my desktop computer in preparation for installing a larger and faster drive later in the week. It was just a normal hot July day until the dog bit me.

I never dreamed it would take so long to clone a terabyte of data. Everything has slowed down to a crawl while the files are being copied. I've been waiting for Photoshop to open for twenty minutes now. I hate to cancel the cloning operation, since it's been running for five hours now. Oh, well. I learned a long time ago that when you start something, you've got to finish it.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. It looks like I've got a hematoma in my left leg since it's swollen quite a bit. Everything hurts, but the nurse said I should be fine. At least Janet is improving. The drainage is subsiding and if she's lucky they'll take the remaining tubes out at her doctor's appointment tomorrow.

I hope I don't bleed on the bed tonight. The nurse did a good job with the bandages, but I don't know if they'll hold all night. I probably should take a pain pill, but Tylenol is bad for your liver and you aren't supposed to take ibuprofen if you're bleeding. Jeez, I really thought this was going to be a good day, but life is full of surprises.

Isabella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2264

When I went to breakfast this morning, something seemed missing. The place was half empty and when I entered the building, the coffee roasters where I always got my morning coffee were gone. I was confused at first, but it didn't take long to figure out what was going on. Directly across the street there was a brand new competitive restaurant. The little coffee company that shared space with my restaurant, along with half the customers seemed to have jumped ship. I even noticed a number of familiar cars parked at the restaurant across the street. I found this all a little unsettling. Where did these people's loyalty go? Like me, most of these customers had been coming here for years. Jeez, I skip one week because of the flu, and when I return, everything had changed. You know how I feel about change. Now, every time I go for breakfast I'm going to feel torn between a sense of loyalty for my familiar meal and a sense of curiosity about what's just across the street. I would have preferred that this didn't happen.

After breakfast, I went to the nearest early voting location and voted. I still can't figure out why the early voting locations have modern touch screen ballots and the regular voting locations still use paper ballots where you select your candidate by making a black dot in front of the name with a pencil. I'm still a little suspicious of the electronic ballots, but I suppose my vote gets counted. Like I expected, there were several pages of judges to vote for. I had no idea who most of them were. Unless a judge has gotten involved in a scandal and been on the local news, I'll probably never recognize their name. I vote for judges the same way I bet on horses. I just pick a nice sounding name and go for it.

Dot did not want to go to the vet today. I had a hard time getting her in the car and when we arrived, I had an even harder time getting her inside the building. Usually, she is fine about going to the cancer center, but not today. I could tell she was nervous when we were sitting in the lobby, but I couldn't figure out why. There were no scans today or anything that might be remotely frightening. I felt bad. Dot struggled while the vet tech tried to draw blood and ended up getting a hematoma in her neck. The oncologist wants to continue her chemotherapy for another three weeks and then do another scan to measure the growth of the tumor in her liver. We'll decide at that point whether this has all been worth it.

Although voting and Dot's vet appointment ate up a big chunk of the day, I still managed to get quite a bit of work done. I completed a big website update, balanced my checkbook, and picked up something for dinner at the grocery store. That seems plenty for one day. Although it was still quite cold this morning, there's already a feeling of Spring in the air. The trees are starting to bud and I'm already starting to see some early Spring flowers. Spring flowers are always a good thing.

Bingo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2019

Today was stressful. Dot's platelet count was normal and she got the green light to continue her Palladia treatment, but the nurse had trouble finding a vein and Dot ended up having a big hematoma on her neck. I had the doctor look at it and she said Dot would be fine. The big swelling had to be uncomfortable though. Dot was also surprisingly shaky today, considering how strong she's been for the past week. There's really no rhyme or reason to this at this point. Dot has good days and bad days. Hopefully, she'll be feeling better tomorrow.

Hopefully, I'll be feeling better tomorrow as well. It's sucks getting old. Although I've fixed the screen door half a dozen times before, it has never been as difficult as it was today. I couldn't even raise my right arm enough to reach the top hinge and remove it so I could get the door off. My shoulder has really deteriorated since the last time I did this. I finally got the hinge off by standing on a chair, but it was so much easier when I could reach above my head with both arms. Carpel tunnel has taken its toll as well. I usually attach the screen mesh to the door using a staple gun and than attach the wooden trim back to the door using a different type of staple gun that shoots little brads into the wood. These are heavy duty staple guns, but I've never had trouble using them before. This time I often had to use both hands to squeeze the handle hard enough to fire a staple. To make matters worse, there were mosquitoes everywhere. I had to go back inside and change into long pants and a long sleeve jacket to avoid being eaten alive. It was 100 degrees too, so I was soaked with sweat by the time the job was finished. The door looks nice though. Hopefully, I won't have to do this again for a while.

I found a less expensive source for Dot's Palladia drug online and asked her oncologist if she'd write a prescription so I could purchase the chemotherapy pills this way. I was surprised when she was very reluctant to let me use the online source. She said that she couldn't guarantee that the pills would be effective. "They might have sat in the heat too long, or even be past their expiration date," she told me. "But these are sealed bottles in the pharmaceutical company's original packaging," I said. I knew that this was a reputable pharmacy, because I'd done my research. "Well, could you sell me full, sealed bottles like the ones I see here on the website," I asked? If I received sealed bottles from the manufacturer, I wouldn't have to pay the cancer center's $40 hazardous material handling fee every time I renewed my prescription. "We can't do that," the oncologist said. "We have to count the pills and repackage them to make sure you get the right amount." This made even less sense. I'm pretty sure the count would be right in a factory sealed manufacturer's bottle. Actually, I remember now that the cancer center miscounted Dash's chemotherapy pills once and gave me five fewer pills than I should have gotten. Five pills doesn't sound like much, but at $25 per pill, it can add up. The whole conversation was frustrating to me.

I watered the lawn this morning because it was really starting to get hot and dry. I shouldn't have bothered. As I write this, the dogs are both huddled under my desk and we are right in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. I wasn't expecting this storm and it caught me completely by surprise. Actually, quite a few things caught me completely by surprise today. My breakfast was good this morning though. No surprises there.

Derrick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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