Day 2225

I frequently forget what day it is. It seemed a lot like Sunday to me. Since Janet had the day off, we got up late again and didn't finish breakfast until almost lunch time. We walked the dogs a little later this morning on the theory that if the sun was a little higher in the sky, it would be warmer outside. It never did get very warm, but at least it was clear and there was no wind.

Since I didn't go to the gym yesterday, I decided to go today. I'm always surprised at how crowded the place is on Monday, but maybe it was because today was a holiday. I stopped at a new REI store I always pass on my way to the gym. I hadn't been inside a REI store since I used to live in Seattle, but was delighted with what I saw. I love this kind of stuff. There were tons of warm coats and lots of sturdy pants with pockets everywhere. There were boots that looked like they would last forever, although I could probably wear them out in a year. I like to dress like the apocalypse is just around the corner, so this store was right up my alley. Oddly, they were having a Winter clearance sale during one of the coldest days of the year. I found a nice goose down jacket on sale and bought it. When I was at the register the clerk asked me if I was an REI member. I didn't think so, but the guy insisted on looking up my name. "Sure, you're a member," he said. "Did you ever live in Rogers, Arkansas?" "That's my Dad," I told him. "Well, would you like to use his membership for this purchase," he said. It didn't seem right. My Dad has been dead for over a decade.

Since the gym was kind of crowded today, I had to use some different equipment than I normally use. One of the machines required me to move my wrist a lot. Ouch! I hadn't used this particular machine in over a year and it was obvious that during that time my carpel tunnel had gotten worse. I'm not sure what to do about this wrist. I do my stretching exercises, but my range of motion continues to gradually get worse. I definitely don't want surgery. I know several people who have had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and their condition didn't improve at all. I've learned from the dogs that surgery should only be an option when you have run out of other options. Dot and Dash wouldn't be here today without the help of some very talented surgeons, but their cancer surgeries weren't without consequences. It takes a long time to recover from major surgery and the older you are, the more difficult the rehabilitation becomes.

Dot's front leg continues to improve. I think we got lucky, because it appears that all she did was strain a muscle or ligament. We're still taking it easy on our walks though. We walk slow and watch carefully for any sign of weakness. It's always a balancing act with Dot. It is essential to keep her moving to keep her condition from rapidly deteriorating, but she is very fragile, so you've got to be careful not to let her overexert herself. At least for today, I think everything is in balance. Dot had a good day.

Tomorrow should be busy. Janet returns to work and so do I. I have new writing assignments to complete and another website to update. There is a fresh supply of strawberries and bananas for my morning smoothies and a new winter coat if it is really cold in the morning. I measure my days now by my ability to get Dot outside before she poops. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Dovey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1810

I'm having trouble remembering what day it is. Did we wash the dogs today or yesterday? Both days certainly started out the same. We've been blessed with wonderful weather this holiday weekend. We take a long early walk with the dogs, followed by a hearty breakfast of ham and eggs. It's usually almost noon by the time we finish the breakfast dishes, so it seems appropriate to spend the rest of the day doing something useful.

Today, I thought I'd fix the broken storage drawer on the pedestal under the washing machine in the utility room. The front-loader washing machine sits on this raised pedestal to make it easier to load and unload. There is a handy drawer in this pedestal where you can store your detergent, plastic trash bags, or in our case, tons of Tupperware containers that we never use anymore. For some reason, this drawer won't close anymore and I always have to find something heavy to prop in front of it when I do laundry.

You'd think the drawer would just slide out, so I could see if there was anything jammed underneath. Nope! I had to spend twenty minutes on Google, looking for instructions on how to disassemble the thing. I empty all the crap out of the big metal drawer, find the right tools, take the drawer apart, and try to find the problem. Other than a thick layer of dust on the brick floor under the washer, everything looked fine.

I cleaned the drawer and its contents. I scrubbed the dirty floor underneath. Then I put everything back together again. After all this work, the drawer still slid forward. I had accomplished nothing. The problem was that the pedestal wasn't level anymore. Over the years, the vibrations from too many heavy towel loads had caused the leveling screws to shift and tilt the entire pedestal slightly downhill. The technicians who installed the washer and dryer had leveled the pedestal very precisely before they placed the very heavy front-loader on top of it. In order to level things again, I would have to remove the washing machine, which was impossible. This is why you should be very careful before you attempt to make a simple repair. Simple things can turn difficult very quickly.

After wasting hours messing around with the washing machine, I barely had time to go to the grocery store and pharmacy before it was time to walk the dogs again. We did have a very nice walk as the sun set behind us and then returned home to enjoy a nice dinner. I suppose that I could have made better use of this beautiful day, but at least I won't wonder why that drawer isn't working anymore. Janet bought something at Ikea today, so I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1807

It did seem a bit like Friday today. I took the dogs on a leisurely walk and then went out for breakfast. I was surprised that the restaurant was more crowded on a Wednesday than it is on Friday. This seemed a bit counter-intuitive. There were also different cashiers and servers than there are on Friday. I guess this makes sense. Everyone is on flextime now. I know very few people who work a traditional 40 hour week anymore. Breakfast was good though. I'm sure it was just a prelude to all the overeating I'll be doing for the next two days.

When I took Dot for her physical therapy session later in the day, everyone was in a holiday mood. Some of the nurses had family coming in for the holidays and others were planning to visit friends and family out of town. I wished them luck on their journey. The traffic was so heavy when I drove to the vet this afternoon that it appeared as if everyone in Dallas was already on the road.

I'm happy that the days of Thanksgiving road trips are behind me. To say my family was dysfunctional would be an understatement. This was always a stressful holiday back in the day. It is so much nicer now that Janet and I just go out to a nice restaurant and have a relaxing meal. If the weather is warm enough, we usually take the dogs to a dog park when we return. There is no cooking, no cleanup, and no arguments. There will be no Black Friday shopping either. Even though I like a bargain as much as the next guy, I don't understand that tradition at all.

I didn't think there would be much work today, but I did get a few assignments. The website revisions were minor and I finished them quickly. None of the writing assignments were even due until after Thanksgiving, so I didn't even bother to start them. Hey, if I get bored on Friday, there will be something to do.

When I was driving home from the vet this afternoon, I listened to an interview with Ray Davis of the Kinks on the radio. They were releasing a special five CD boxed set to mark the band's 50th anniversary. Jeez, it's been 50 years? You Really Got Me was the first song I ever remember playing in public. I played the song in high school. I played it in college. I think I've played it in every band I've even been in. It doesn't seem like 50 years though. It seems like yesterday. It also seems like all the eventful things in my life happened in 1964. Well, not really. We landed on the moon in 1969. That 50 year anniversary will be coming up pretty soon as well.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I love a huge buffet in a grand hotel. Janet and I started this tradition about fifteen years ago and never looked back. This is so much better than arguing about politics, religion, and the state of the world with family. I wish we could bring the dogs. Dot and Dash would love a huge buffet in a hotel.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1471 - Christmas

Janet woke me up at 3:30 AM. I dressed quickly, packed the car, and at 4 AM we headed for the airport. The roads, even the freeways, were absolutely empty. I've had early flights before, but I guess never on Christmas morning. It was eerie, even a little spooky, to travel through a huge city absolutely devoid of traffic. When we entered the airport itself, traffic picked up a bit, and when I dropped Janet off at her terminal, there was actually quite a crowd. Apparently she wasn't the only one squeezing in a quick trip to visit relatives on Christmas morning.

When I returned to the house, I went straight back to bed again with the dogs and didn't wake up again until three hours later when sunlight began streaming through a bedroon window and Dot and Dash informed me that it was time for their breakfast.

It was a lazy day, since there was absolutely nothing to do. The weather was nice, so we took an extra long walk this morning. There were lots of joggers on the trails and many of them wore Santa hats. Almost everyone wished us a Merry Christmas as we passed by. I like quiet, amorphous days like this. There appeared to be lots of family activity up and down the street. The smell of smoke from dozens of fireplaces filled the air and cars filled with presents and food arrived and departed with regularity.

My own house was an island of calm. I fixed myself some oatmeal and fruit, brewed a pot of coffee, and watched a Dr. Who marathon that culminated with the annual Christmas special later in the evening. After breakfast I went through a stack of unopened mail and discovered that my stockbroker had made some trades that he had forgotten to tell me about. Actually they were probably trades that we'd agreed about several months ago at our last meeting, but you couldn't prove it by me. I never take notes at these meetings and promptly forget what we've talked about. I reviewed the trades and they all seemed quite reasonable. I still wonder whether we ever talked about this before though.

When I told one of my clients not to send me any work on Christmas Day, he probably imagined that I was off to a big family gathering. The truth is that I just enjoy doing nothing. The world won't end if I do nothing for a few days. I'm sure that all the crazy deadlines will return within a week or so wherever I do.

I found the Dr. Who Christmas Special a bit confusing. Somehow the doctor managed to age 300 years while Clara was having Christmas dinner with her parents. Throughout most of the show the doctor kept telling Clara that he couldn't regenerate anymore and was finally going to die. At the very end however, the time lords reached through a rift of time that I thought the doctor had already taken care of in a previous season, and brought him back to life again. The plot had so many confusing  twists and turns that I wonder if Steven Moffat just makes this stuff up as he goes along.

Tomorrow things will be more or less back to normal. Dot's physical therapy sessions have been rescheduled to Thursdays for the duration of the holidays. I need to get Dash back to the vet for his antigen shot. I wouldn't be surprised if there was work to do as well. There always seems to be work to do on Thursdays.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1458

To hell with going to the gym today. I got more than enough exercise by clearing a safe path through the downed trees behind the house, so Dot and Dash could get into the park again for their daily walks. When that was finished, I moved the huge pile of branches the power company tree trimmers threw over my fence back to the alley where they belong. If I get time tomorrow, I'll haul everything out to the curb, so the city trash removal trucks can pick them up. The power company guys said they'd be back to clean things up, but truthfully, I don't expect to ever see them again. They've already moved on.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get caught up with work. Today was even busier than yesterday. A hosting company glitch knocked one of my clients off the Internet and everyone was in a panic. They couldn't remember the password for their account, and since it isn't my account, I didn't know either. I did remember one password for this account, but it didn't work. I'm sure the hosting company has required customers to change their passwords several times since the worry free days when everyone used something simple like "1234."

My retail customers are all in full holiday mode, which can be just as stressful as a lost password. I don't think Black Friday went as well as many people hoped and now they are scrambling to make up those missing sales. I have trouble getting excited about the holidays, The weather is always horrible and everyone is pulling out all the stops to get their customers to buy, buy, buy. Most of the work I've been doing this week is very time sensitive and "later" just isn't an acceptable answer. I certainly hope my efforts to get people to buy lots of useless stuff are successful, because I always like to see happy clients in January.

I did find a little time to make it to the grocery store and pick up something for dinner. Janet and I are both so busy that we rarely cook anymore. I just pick up ready-to-eat stuff from the deli or chef prepared sections. The food is very good, but it isn't the most economical way to eat. I don't know why people tend to eat more when it's cold. The grocery stores have been packed all week. The ice is all gone now, and the stores are still crowded. Maybe nobody plans ahead anymore and they're all just shopping for their next meal like I am.

I hope that things slow down a bit tomorrow. I'm really tired. There's still the ice and the neighbor's tree to get off the roof. There's still another Santa Paws pet photo event to complete before we're done for the year. My printer is clogged again, because it sat unused for too long during the power outage. Hey, I'm looking forward to a delicious breakfast at my favorite Friday restaurant though. I've got to think positive thoughts.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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