Day 1794

We are still in the grip of an arctic cold front that has sent temperatures tumbling to the mid 30's. Surprisingly, the dogs seem to find this cold weather invigorating. They walk along briskly with their noses in the air and their tails straight behind them while I attempt to keep up, bundled in layers of warm clothing. Dot is too unsteady on her feet now to walk in snow anymore, but when she was younger, she would love our occasional snow days. I'm just the opposite. I do my best to avoid extremes and would prefer a year that has only two seasons: Spring and Fall. Seattle was kind of like this, but it rained all the time when I lived there. Occasionally, I have visited places that seem ideal, but unfortunately living in Santorini or Hawaii isn't entirely practical.

Every Summer I fantasize about living in Wyoming or Montana and then on the first day of Winter, I remember how cold those places can get. I spent a Winter in Idaho once and it was far too cold for me. Is there a place where the scenery is beautiful, the cost of living is low, and the temperature is always 70 degrees? Oh, there shouldn't be any bugs or snakes either. Maybe I'm being too picky.

It's hard to believe that we've been doing Dot's physical therapy for well over a year now. I've been a lot more faithful about getting Dot to her weekly water therapy and acupuncture sessions than I've been about going to the gym myself. There is no way of knowing how well she'd be doing without all this extra attention, but I remain convinced that the physical therapy is working. For a dog as old as she is, Dot is still remarkably active. Today was a good day. She did very well in the underwater treadmill this afternoon and still had plenty of energy during her evening walk.

Although the week got off to a slow start, I have plenty of work to do now. I wish the jobs had come in earlier in the week, since I've started thinking of Friday as a vacation day. I can't really complain though. Work keeps the mind agile and pays the vet bills. When I get caught up with the current batch of assignments, I might go see Interstellar at an IMAX theater. They say since Christopher Nolan shot the film using IMAX cameras, it looks spectacular when seen in one of these immersive theaters. Knowing me however, I might just wait until next March when the DVD comes out. It's a long movie and I still hate to leave the dogs this long.

The HVAC guys have rescheduled their appointment to install my new thermostat for tomorrow, but I think I'll still have time to go out for breakfast anyway. The trip to the grocery store may have to wait. The way things are shaping up now, tomorrow looks like a very busy day.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1473

When I saw some aggressive dogs ahead on our morning walk, I quickly changed direction and picked an alternate route. This was fortunate for the dogs, but not so good for me. The new trail was filled with fresh horse poop, which Dash devoured at every opportunity, and lots of mud. I cleaned the mud off the dogs paws when I returned home, but I really wished I could have cleaned Dash inside and out. I don't know how Dash acquired his taste for horse poop, but it's fairly disgusting.

With the morning walk out of the way, I was off to my favorite restaurant for my perennial Friday favorite: two poached eggs served over a bed of pulled pork, peppers, and hash browned potatoes. Yes, it was another completely normal Friday.

After a leisurely breakfast, I picked up some groceries for the weekend, filled the car with gas, and settled down to another day of writing and website work. I often wonder why I stay so busy while doing stuff that really doesn't matter. I guess it must matter to somebody. I'm not exactly setting the world on fire here, but I am paying the bills. When I look at my Google+ stream, I'm humbled by all the people I see doing truly remarkable things. Of course, all I have to do is look at Facebook to realize that I'm actually still doing pretty well.

It's getting harder and harder to walk Dot and Dash together. Dot likes a sedate walk on level ground where she doesn't have to worry about falling or stumbling. Dash loves to race up hills, chase rabbits, and be as disruptive as he possible can. There's nothing wrong with either type of behavior. It's just hard for an old dog and a young dog to agree on things. It's my job to find a middle ground that will keep both of these dogs happy. I figure if I can do this, I can do almost anything.

With Janet away, I'm having a very difficult time telling one day from another. Her very predictable rituals always gave me a clue about what was going to happen next. The dogs don't care what day it is. To them, and increasingly to me, the weekdays and the weekends are all the same. I've got to be careful here, or I could easily end up working straight through the weekend and accidentally squander my two days of rest. My work is so amorphous that I sometime have difficulties telling the difference between work and leisure as well. Am I working all the time, or never working at all? I guess it all depends on your point of view.

I was thinking about going to see Gravity tomorrow in 3-D at a local iMax theater. The nearest iMax theater seems a bit too far away though, so I'll probably just wait until Gravity comes out on DVD in February. I'm not in much of a hurry about anything these days.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day