Day 2360

It's been raining almost every day for several weeks now. At least we aren't getting flooded like our neighbors in South Texas, but enough is enough. It's too bad we can't share some of this rain with California, because they need it more than we do. At least I won't have to worry about the new grass in the back yard dying for a while. The yard is soaked. Needless to say, the roof is covered with standing water as well, but I'm not going up there for a while. It's too slippery.

Being stuck in the house with two storm phobic dogs on a rainy day is not my idea of fun. I have to keep an eye on Dash because he's always trying to crawl into a closet or under the sink to escape. I try to put a blanket under my desk, because he seems to think that's a safe place too. The only problem with having Dash under my desk on a stormy day is that he farts when he gets nervous. Actually both dogs do this. Today was pretty stinky.

At least I had plenty to do today while I was housebound. After a lengthy breakfast which was mostly spent calming the dogs down after each loud thunderclap, I spent the rest of the morning completing yesterday's writing assignment. I got everything finished slightly ahead of schedule and sent it off to my client. Now, I've got to find something else to do. It's hard to believe that I used to do two or three of these assignments every day. Things have really slowed down a bit. Paying bills is a bit more problematic without a steady stream of writing and website assignments. I'm still making ends meet, but there's not much left over anymore. I brood about these things more on a rainy day. I guess that's what rainy days are for.

There's still a leak under the sink. I don't know what to do. The plumber has been out twice and I've checked for leaks countless times. I can run the water in the basin for several minutes and I won't see any drips or obvious leaks. Eventually there is always a small puddle under the sink though. Where is this water coming from? I hesitate to call the plumber again. If you call a plumber too many times for the same problem, things can actually get worse.

It never did quit raining this afternoon, so we had to take the dogs on a walk in the rain after Janet got home from work. Why Dot and Dash haven't learned to quickly poop in the yard on rainy days will forever remain a mystery. Luckily, we only had to walk a block or so for them to do their business, but that was enough to get everybody wet. It took longer to get the dogs dry again than it took to walk them in the first place. That's just everyday life in our house though. This is a common occurrence.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. The dogs and I meet the dog walker for the first time in the morning and then in the afternoon, Dot resumes her physical therapy. I hope everything goes well. Dot always barks at strangers, but maybe this will help her poop. She'll need to get used to this new routine if she still wants to walk. I think Dash will be fine. He gets along with everybody. I'm not sure what to expect when we return to physical therapy. Dot is definitely weaker than she was three weeks ago, but I think the underwater treadmill exercise is still important. We'll see how the day goes. Hopefully, the rain will stop soon.

Amy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2355

Sometimes on a completely normal day I'll suddenly find myself feeling incredibly sad. I don't know why, but I suspect this is because a number of important things in my life are reaching their logical conclusion at the same time. Even on the best of days, I have to acknowledge that Dot is on a glide path, headed directly towards the Rainbow Bridge. It's amazing that she's made it this far. When I watch video tributes to dogs who have left this world, they make me cry. When I watch Dot take painfully slow steps from the bedroom to the kitchen, I remember days when she and Dash could run like the wind. I wish I could turn back time.

As Dot begins the final chapters of her journey, so does my business. It's hard to believe that twenty five years ago I started a company that would soon be making national Pepsi commercials and providing me with opportunities to work around the world. Like Dot's incredible life, I'm amazed that we've managed to make it this far. If only the clock turned a bit slower. When I pull my aching bones out of bed in the morning and survey my crumbling kingdom, it seems like everything happened way too fast.

There was a life before loving Dalmatians and running a small business, but I barely remember it. Did I really play bass in a rock band? Did I used to stay out late and laugh uproariously with friends? Was I really an architect? It all seems like dream memories now. Why did I ever move to Dallas? It's a mystery. All I know is that life is a jumble of memories and after a while you can't even put them in the proper order.

After a while I'll never remember that the plumber came today. He was very nice and tightened all the fittings to eliminate a leak that was so small that I probably should have just ignored it. I was hoping that Dot would ignore the plumber, but the part of her brain that guards the house is still working and she barked the entire time he was here. The plumber was gone in fifteen minutes, but Dot continued to pant and act agitated for the next two hours. She is so weak and tired now that it takes her a while to bounce back from anything.

Eventually Dot fell asleep and started breathing normally again. I started up the computer was was amazed to see that everything worked normally today. The UPS man delivered the new router sometime this afternoon, but I'm reluctant to install it. I think I'll just leave it in the box until things start acting up again. It crossed my mind that since tech support calls are usually monitored, maybe the supervisor of the idiot I talked to yesterday listened to my irate call and actually made the minor configuration changes I was requesting. If things aren't working tomorrow morning, I'll chalk today's smooth sailing up to pure coincidence.

Dot has her monthly recheck at the cancer center tomorrow, but since both ultrasound technicians are out sick, I wonder if there is any point in going. Dot won't mind if I have to reschedule, but I'd like to know what's going on. I worry too much already and knowing exactly why Dot has been so tired this week might help me keep things in perspective.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2354

I wish Steve Jobs were still alive. I never used to have problems with operating system updates, but lately the new Apple OS and IOS updates are so buggy that they seem like Beta versions. I'm almost scared to update my phone anymore, because each new IOS update seems worse than the previous one. The combination of buggy system software, spotty U-verse service, and a brand new hosting company has created a perfect storm of bad news. Just about every morning when I boot up my computer, I'm greeted with a new problem. Was my phone causing the problem? Does the WiFi router need to be re-booted again? Have I configured my webserver wrong? It's hard to even know where to begin.

I was in tech support hell for hours this morning, trying to track down why my e-mail wasn't working and I couldn't even access my own website. I finally ended up talking to a very knowledgeable IP guy who told me to call my ISP and tell them to check the routing path and clear it if necessary. This sounded easy enough, so I called AT&T and made the request. "This is beyond the scope of my capabilities," said a voice that sounded like he was talking to me from Pakistan. "I can give you the number of our paid subscription support if you'd like." "You mean that after all I pay you guys every month for U-verse service, you want to charge me extra to unscramble my flaky internet connection?" "I'm sorry," said the hard to understand voice from Pakistan. "Would you like me to send you a brand new router at no charge?" This was crazy. "You mean you guys would rather send me a new router than reset my connection." I said. I hate dealing with tech support. I've still got the problem I started out with this morning. There a new router on it's way to me that I probably won't be able to install correctly. To add to my problems, I can't decide whether to upgrade my phone to IOS 9.3.2 because I read an article that said it could turn your phone into a brick.

Since it didn't appear that my connection problems were going to be resolved quickly, I went to the battery store and special ordered a new battery for my little WiFi hotspot. T-Mobile said these batteries weren't made anymore and tried to see me a new hotspot. They were just being lazy.  I knew this battery was available somewhere because I've been replacing weird batteries for years. The new battery will arrive next Wednesday. The little WiFi hotspot is slow, but it is very reliable. Without it, I would have missed quite a few blog posts over the years.

The weather has been horrible this week. It's so humid and muggy outside that it feels like you could cut the air with a knife. My dehumidifier is working overtime to keep the air comfortable inside. Dot doesn't like the heat and humidity. I've been having a hard time getting her outside anyway now that she's become weaker, and hot, humid weather just adds to the problem. She did poop outside today, which was a small blessing. I just got lucky. When I had her outside after lunch, a big truck drove down the alley behind our house and got her so excited that she immediately started to poop. I wish I could schedule someone to drive down the alley every time I had Dot outside.

The plumber is coming back tomorrow to fix the leaking sink. This should only take a few minutes since the problem is just a compression fitting that wasn't tightened enough. The plumber better not try to charge me for this additional service call. He should have checked his work the first time he was here. After unnecessary car repair charges and a ridiculous attempt to charge me for resetting my router this morning, I'm not in the mood for unwarranted extra charges.

Maybe tomorrow will go smoothly. I'm not counting on a trouble free day, but it would be nice.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2353

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Janet told me this morning, "but the sink is still leaking." I looked under the sink, and sure enough, she was right. The leak was small, but it shouldn't have been there at all. When two plumbers spend the entire day at your house, you'd think they'd check for leaks before they leave. I'm beginning to think it is totally impossible to get something done right the first time. I called the plumbing company and made another appointment. I tried to get some type of assurance that there would be no charge for this visit, since it was the brand new hardware the plumbers had installed just a few day ago that was leaking. "We can't promise anything," the dispatcher told me.

My service guy at the Land Rover dealership called this afternoon to tell me my car was ready. He seemed pleased that he and the service manager had been able to shave almost $800 off my bill. I thanked him for looking out for me and then asked what I still had to pay. "Oh, you'll only owe $2,100 now," he said. Jeez, give me a break. This car is still under warranty. I hate to think what's going to happen when the warranty runs out.

I'm still having problems with my Internet connection, so I called AT&T tech support again. I talked to somebody who was quite knowledgeable the other day, but I wasn't so lucky this time. Why do these big companies have to outsource their tech support to countries where English is a second language. I couldn't understand this guy at all. The conversation became so frustrating that I told the guy that I'd just call back and try again later with a different agent. He persisted in asking me a bunch of questions that had nothing to do with my problem, so eventually I just hung up on him. Two minutes later, the guy calls me back and continued to read from his script. I couldn't believe it. I had to hang up on the guy twice.

I canceled Dot's physical therapy appointment because I didn't think I was going to have a car tomorrow. Now that I have the car back, I debated whether to try to reschedule the appointment. I decide to leave things alone, because Dot has to go back to the cancer center for another ultrasound scan on Friday anyway. One car trip this week is probably enough. Dot seems to be enjoying her lighter schedule, but I don't want her to get any weaker than she already is. We'll go back to therapy next week and have her vet reevaluate her to see if she's still strong enough to continue the water therapy at all.

It wouldn't be a normal day if I didn't have battery problems. Since I've been having issues with my U-verse service, I've been using my little T-Mobile WiFi hotspot a lot. Last week the battery died and I have to use the unit plugged into an AC outlet. The hotspot is only about four years old, but the battery has already become almost impossible to find. I finally located a supplier who said they could special order me a replacement cell. I felt good that something had finally gone right today, but even this small success shouldn't have been so difficult.

Work has become so slow that I'm beginning to wonder whether my clients are reading the blog and have collectively decided that they want a happier person to work on their accounts. Truthfully, I'm too tired to care. All I want right now is a good night's sleep and a poop free day tomorrow. I'll probably get neither.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2345

I find dealing with money very frustrating these days. People want to pay me less than they did ten or fifteen years ago, while the cost of everything I use in my daily life is going through the roof. Everything is topsy turvy. Interest rates are near all time lows, but the the purchase price of a home has gone through the roof. Interest rates were over 14% when I bought my first home, but it wasn't a problem because the homes themselves were quite affordable. Cars were a bargain. I remember when you could buy a new Porsche 911 for under $8000 and a cool looking Jaguar E-Type was even less. The stock market was kind to me when the Dow was under 8,000. Not anymore. This is why I hate meeting with my financial adviser. I don't want to listen to complicated schemes to tame today's increasingly volatile market. All I want to do is go back to the early 1970's when I was a young copywriter making a paltry salary but still seemed to have more left over at the end of the month than I do today.

I didn't feel very comfortable taking any of my broker's suggestions this afternoon. I have a gut feeling that things are going to get a lot worse no matter who wins the election. We are in uncharted territory. People are voting for Hillary because they hate Trump and voting for Trump because they hate Hillary. Nobody actually likes either candidate. I think the political system has failed us if the best we can come up with for presidential candidates are two of the most disliked people in history. Can't we do  better than this? Maybe not. We complain that all the jobs have disappeared, but we still want cheap stuff made in China. People in Dallas complain about illegal immigration but still want to keep their gardeners and yard guys. You can't have it both ways. I didn't have an iPhone in the 1970's, but I had a Walkman and everything was fine. Maybe you like the way things are today, but I'd prefer to go back to the days when you could buy a new Porsche for $8000 and the most expensive house in town was less than $50,000.  I'm sure my attitude is infuriating to stockbrokers and financial advisers who are trying to get me excited about today's latest rabbet hole to jump down. I'm sorry guys. Today's investment opportunities suck.

I broke down and called a plumber today. The leak under the bathroom sink has gotten worse and I'm not ready to remodel the entire bathroom just to fix it. I'm prepared to hear that the fixtures in the sink are too old and that it's a waste of money to repair them, but what are my alternatives? Modern faucets won't fit in the old sink and a new sink won't fit in the old bathroom. The plumbers will complain, but I'm confident that they will be able to fix the leak. That's what plumbers do, isn't it?

I think I'm going to skip Dot's physical therapy for an additional week. She seems to be enjoying her lighter schedule and is slowly regaining some strength. Maybe we were just pushing her too hard. She's probably not walking enough right now, but the goal will be to slowly get her back to where she was before. I wish the underwater treadmill wasn't so far away. The water therapy is good for her, but a long ride in the car isn't. I have a feeling that transporting her to and from the vet canceled out some of the benefits of the therapy. We'll be back though. Dot's not a quitter and neither am I.

Dash and I walked past a big patch of wild ornamental onions today. I don't think these are the type of onions you eat, but the bees seem to like them. Some people call these flowers Allium. Others call them chives. I've been walking past this patch of wild onions for many years and watching them bloom every May. I wish the stock market were this reliable.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2333

It's kind of two steps forward, three steps back with Dot. She has an amazing ability to rebound, but at the end of the day, we're still losing ground. We skipped the walks today and let Dot sleep. It seemed to help. By lunchtime, she wanted to get up and have her rice cake and by dinner time, she was eager to go outside again. Sure, she pooped in the house a few times, but her abdomen doesn't appear painful anymore and she's putting weight on her left rear leg again. It's a delicate balance. It's is essential to keep Dot moving to prevent the muscle atrophy in her legs from getting even worse, but it's equally essential not to overdo it.

If Dot continues to improve, we'll try a short walk tomorrow morning. When Dot needs to rest, Dash gets to enjoy a much longer walk by himself. We call it our 'Boy's Walk." All I have to say now is "Do you want to take a Boy's Walk Dash?" and he gets all excited. Dash is very good about walking slowly in front of Dot in the mornings to give her something to follow, but I'm not sure he understands how essential he is. I can tell he misses the old days when the three of us would walk for miles at full speed. Before Dot became ill, we could cover three times the distance in the same amount of time that our slow journey takes now.

I'm still having serious connectivity problems with my office network. The hosting company says everything is fine on their end and that the problem originates with my ISP. The ISP says they are unaware of the problem I describe and tell me to call the hosting company. After doing a little research on my own, I've discovered that my ISP is selectively blocking several servers owned by the hosting company, saying that the machines are known sources of malware. The hosting company says than none of the accounts on their servers are spammers or hackers and nobody should be blocking them. Neither party will actually admit to doing anything at all when I press them on the issue. When I tell them that there are tons of other customers complaining about similar  connectivity issues on Internet forums, they basically just tell me that you can't believe what you read on the Internet. It's frustrating. It appears like my ISP is having a little war with my hosting company and I'm caught in the middle.

I still haven't called the plumber. I think the leak originates under one of the fixtures, but I'm reluctant to deal with the issue, because I've already tried to get these faucets replaced before without much success. When I was having plumbers out to the house almost every day during our big underground pipe leak last year, I asked if they could replace the aging faucets. It didn't seem like a big deal to me, but the plumbers made all sorts of excuses. They told me that they didn't carry faucets or fixtures on the truck and that I would have to purchase the fixtures myself if I wanted them to install them. Since the sink is very old, I knew I could never find a match for the old faucets at Home Depot. I thought the plumbers would be happy to take care of this for me, but apparently not. I didn't press the issue because they were trying to fix a major leak under my foundation and I didn't want to make them mad. I'm beginning to think that absolutely nothing is easy to fix anymore.

I don't know where to eat tomorrow morning. I'm just floundering around, in search of a new Friday breakfast place. There are only about five restaurants that serve breakfast and are close enough to the house to meet my somewhat strange criteria. I guess I'll try them all again and see if something clicks. There was a reason that I abandoned each of these places in the past, but things change quickly in the restaurant business. Maybe one of these places is fabulous now.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2158

Sometimes, you've got to be the squeaky wheel. When Dot pooped in her bed again last night and we still couldn't use the washing machine because of our ongoing plumbing problems, I'd had about as much as I could take. I called the president of the plumbing company and told him as politely as I could that waiting until Tuesday for a plumber simply wasn't acceptable. "Your ads say you guys are on call 24/7," I said. "So, what's with making us wait a week and a half to get this fixed?" When I started going on and on about living in a house full of dog poop without running water, the guy told me he would see what he could do. An hour later the plumbing company said they could have a plumber out early Friday morning. Friday was much better than next Tuesday, so I was happy that my little tirade had achieved its purpose. Another hour passed, and the plumbing company called again and said they'd have someone out this afternoon.

When the plumber arrived he asked me to turn on all the water in the kitchen and utility room to help him find the drain leak under the house. Simply turning on the faucet wasn't producing the desired results, so I filled the kitchen sink with water and then let it go down the drain all at once. Not a good idea! The sink wasn't draining. At that point, the dishwasher, which was also on, began to empty and the water had no place to go. A line broke under the sink and the kitchen was flooded with water. Luckily, there were two plumbers several feet away watching this new disaster unfold.

Eventually the leaking cast iron pipe under the house was replaced, the leak under the sink was repaired, and the entire drain line was snaked out. I ran a load of poopy dog blankets to test the system and nothing leaked.  I think we're back in business! The two plumbers were at the house the entire afternoon. Mercifully, Dot slept for the first three hours. When she eventually woke up, she made up for lost time and barked for the rest of the day. Despite all the barking, she didn't poop in the house again. I think this was because she had already pooped in the vet's lobby, right before she got in the underwater treadmill.

There is still a huge hole under the house and one of the loud dehumidifiers is still running in the living room, but I think we're making progress. The tunneling crew will come back tomorrow to backfill the tunnel, unless another leak appears while I'm taking a shower tonight. I think the old house is trying to tell me something. If houses had "use by" dates like milk, this house would have expired and gone sour by now. Don't let me ever buy a house with a flat roof and a slab foundation again.

Since fixing things was the theme for the day, I tried to fix some ad copy that my client wasn't too happy with yesterday. I also tried to fix the layout in my new mobile friendly website so the iPhone view didn't look so wonky. I tried to explain to the client that making the mobile friendly site look perfect on every available device just wasn't that easy. I told them that the site was a work in progress and it would gradually become more refined with each passing day. I think the plumber tried to explain to me that my house was a work in progress too. There was no way he could fix all my plumbing problems in a single day. Fair enough. There was no way I could pay for everything I need right now anyway. The important thing was that the two major leaks had been repaired. The toilets are working again and I can do the laundry. That's enough for one day.

Hopefully, there will be no surprises when the tunneling crew returns tomorrow. I've had enough surprises for an entire year.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2071

A busy day is not always a productive day. I was very busy today, but I don't feel like I accomplished anything. Dot seemed weak when she woke up this morning, but we still managed to finish our pre-dawn walk. I made my breakfast smoothie and listened to the dogs bark at me as soon as I began to peel the bananas. Eventually the loud barking stops but it's not an atmosphere where you'd want to linger over your last cup of coffee. I can tell that Janet is eager to get out of the house and off to work. Early mornings can be pretty chaotic.

After breakfast, I went and found a place where I could get my vehicle registration sticker. They didn't even ask to see my safety inspection results, or my proof of insurance card. All that information was already on their computer screens. You'd think since they've made the registration process simpler, that prices would come down. Nope. They actually went up quite a bit. I remember when the annual vehicle registration sticker was in the $30 range. Then it was $50 for a long time. Today I paid over $75 dollars for my sticker. Oh, well. At least I'm legal for another year.

The second of my Dad's two sisters died this morning. She was 99 years old. My parents both passed away quite a while ago, but now all the Aunts and Uncles are gone as well. We were not a very prolific family. To the best of my knowledge, I'm the last remaining male Sealander. For years I used to think that the family name would die out with me since I never had children. Now I'm not so sure. The rules for marriage and gender have changed so much in recent years that maybe one of the Sealander girls will decide to keep the name going.

A lot of people are saying that it's going to rain later this week. I'll believe it when I see it. There actually is rain in the forecast though. I'm glad that the roofers finally came out and made all the patches I requested. I'll have to take a look tomorrow and make sure they dried properly. There is nothing that could turn these highly anticipated showers into my old nemesis again like another roof leak. The roof is actually in pretty good shape, but roof leaks have been a part of my life for so long now that it's still hard to believe that I've managed to put these problems behind me.

Dot has her annual exam tomorrow. I still can't decide whether she's going to be fourteen or fifteen years old on her birthday. You never know for sure with a rescue dog. Today Dot seemed more like 25 years old, but that was probably just because I was feeling pretty tired myself. It's been a long, hard journey this year. I'm glad my family has good genes. It's going to take some hereditary magic if I ever make it to 99 years old.

Toby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1272

We woke to the sound of a torrential downpour pounding the roof, and nothing leaked. Maybe a new era of carefree living has begun. After striking out twice, we finally found a dog park that was still open in spite of the recent rain. Not surprisingly the park was very muddy. The dogs had a good time though. They would have had an even better time if we'd remembered that the annual dog training class Summer party was this afternoon as well. While we were at a muddy dog park, the obedience class dogs were right behind our house having a party in the park. It's a shame we missed the whole thing, because Dash really likes the bobbing for biscuits game and there's always some really tasty barbecue for the people as well.

Since the new roof appears to be finished, I went to Home Depot this morning and bought some spackling compound and a trowel to repair the damaged Sheetrock in the living room.  I thought I'd try to do this myself first, since I dread having workmen in the house with the dogs. Having some tape and bed guys in the living room would be an open invitation for non-stop barking from Dot and Dash. Anyway, what could be so hard about repairing a little damaged Sheetrock?

Several clients have warned me to expect a busy week. I hope this is not the case, but I ought to be grateful for the work. There are certainly a lot of bills to pay this month. Dot is back on schedule to resume her acupuncture treatments and it's time to get my June invoices out as well. From the looks of things, it probably will be a busy week.

It's hard to believe that the year is almost half over. It still seems like I was putting up Christmas decoration just a few weeks ago. I've been a busy bee this year, but it doesn't really feel like I've accomplished much. I'm still dealing with exactly the same issues I was last year and the year before. Maybe that's just the way life is.  I do try to live in the moment, but somehow it always seems to be the same moment.

Tomorrow ought to be exciting. I bought some flax seed to mix in with my morning oatmeal. Oh, there's a new type of tea in the cupboard too.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1269

My models for today's photo shoot were a small puppy and kitten, sitting together inside a gold crown. I didn't think a dog and cat would play nice together for long enough for me to get the shot I needed, but we had an unusually calm kitten and some very good animal wranglers. I think the shot came out fine. I definitely don't think Dot or Dash would have been this calm in a similar situation.

Our power went out today during another surprise thunderstorm. After about six hours of being dead in the water, the power is still out. I can hear a repair crew from the power company back in the alley replacing a transformer on one of the telephone poles, so I have high hopes that our electricity will be restored this evening.

There was another roof problem today. The roof is mostly finished, but there is a small section of rotted wood that still needs to be replaced directly above the kitchen door. It rained so hard during today's thunderstorm that water got into the unfinished area and came spilling into the house through the top of the kitchen door. As I have mentioned already, I couldn't have picked a worse time to put on a new roof. It's usually not so bad at this time of year, but this has turned out to be the wettest Spring I can remember.

It was bad enough that it was raining cats and dogs while I had to pack up all my equipment to go photograph some cats and dogs. It would have been even worse if the rain and ensuing power outage had happened yesterday though. I would have hated to be forced to complete my Photoshop marathon using a laptop with a low battery as my primary resource.

Everyone seems in a hurry except for me. I feel out of sync with just about everything this week. My client in New York is in a hurry to get all the Las Vegas pictures. My veterinarian client is in a hurry to get the kitten and puppy pictures. The roofers are in a hurry to get paid for their still unfinished roof. I'm trying my best to keep up with all the requests, but the only thing I'm in a hurry for is the weekend.

Dot and Dash did pretty well today, especially considering all the chaos going on around them. I had to leave the dogs right in the middle of the rainstorm, and amazingly they both seemed pretty calm when I left the house. I think they sensed that this was a day where I had few options and they were doing their best to help.

Hopefully, the power will be restored this evening and tomorrow will be calm and uneventful. I'm looking forward to sunny skies and my favorite Black Bean Benedict for breakfast.

Gypsy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1247

The roofers came out today to measure things and get all the wires, cables, and sump pumps off the roof before they started preparations for the new roof tomorrow. As soon as they removed the pumps and left for the day, it started to rain. Damn! I think this was nature's way of telling me that I'll never, ever win this battle.

Later in the day, I laboriously got all the water off the roof again. Then, while I was eating supper, it started to rain again. To hell with it. The roofers can figure out how to get the remaining water off the roof when they arrive tomorrow.

It was still raining when I took Dot to her acupuncture appointment this afternoon. I was surprised at how well she rode in the car during the bad weather. Maybe the acupuncture is making her a calmer dog. She actually seemed less nervous than I was. Traffic is terrible when it rains in Dallas and I definitely don't want to get a ding in the new loaner car before I return it to the Land Rover dealer. I've had the loaner car for almost a month now. Lord knows what's wrong with the Defender.

Work was slow today. One of my clients is sick and another gave the entire staff the rest of the week off in observance of Shavuot. The rest of the clients are probably waiting until Friday afternoon to surprise me with things that have to be done over the weekend.

I'm curious how the auto-focus mechanism on the iPhone camera works. It will immediately bring small water drops into sharp focus, but when I'm an equal distance from certain types of flowers, the camera won't focus at all. What good is a camera if you can't focus it? This is frustrating for me, because there doesn't seem to be a way to manually focus the camera at all. Maybe you're just supposed to take pictures of cute cats with the thing.

I hope the rain quits soon. I hate it when the sound of dripping water wakes me up during the night. Hopefully, the new roof will put an end to all this. Jeez, what will I talk about on the blog if the roof stops leaking? I'm sure most of you have heard enough about roof leaks.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1179

Well, I discovered why my car had been leaking oil. Virtually all the engine seals have gone bad. Rubber is a great invention, but very old rubber is virtually worthless. My service representative at the Land Rover dealer called me today and told me that the head gaskets, the oil pan gasket, the transmission seals, and a couple of other things that leak on the Defender all needed to be replaced. The gaskets themselves aren't very expensive, but the engine and transmission have to be torn apart to get at everything. This definitely isn't very good news.

The one thing that old houses, old cars, and old people all have in common is that they all deteriorate with age. It's a bitch when all this deterioration starts happening at once. If there is a general theme to my life right now, it is that everything is falling apart.

It wasn't always this way. Janet and I lived in the house for over ten years before there were any problems with the roof at all. The Defender used to run flawlessly for years at a time when it was newer. Most telling of all, I used to be able to have a beer with lunch, two or three glasses of wine with dinner and eat bacon for breakfast every day. Those days are gone. Things are falling apart.

The one bright spot amid all this dry rot and deterioration is that I'm actually starting to feel better as a result of my new diet. I have more energy now and I've actually lost eight pounds in the last two months. I really shouldn't lose much more weight, since I wasn't fat to begin with, but it's nice to be getting back to the weight I maintained for the first forty years of my life.

I got a little adapter in the mail today that allows me to use the headphone jack with my new indestructible iPhone case. I'll add the adapter to the shoebox of weird adapters and plugs I've already bought to resolve awkward connection issues. I could take my phone to the South Pole now, although I doubt that it will ever leave the neighborhood. The phone used to look like a sleek BMW roadster. Now it looks like a H1 Hummer.

Lots of dog activities on tap for this weekend. Dot and Dash get a bath. There's a new dog to photograph at the Dalmatian Rescue kennels. And of course there's always Sunday's trip to the dog park.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1121

Days like this you simply endure. The rain started late last night and never stopped. It's still raining. Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that the roof did leak again. The leak wasn't that bad this time, but it was enough to make a mess. The dogs were true to form too. They insisted on going out, and then as soon as they realized what the weather was like, they wanted to come back inside again. We all got soaked on our walks, because even though Dot and Dash hate the rain, they still insist on pooping at their regular place, over a mile away. While we were walking, I noticed that the lake was getting pretty wet too. One of the piers was almost completely under water.

I thought I might have time to clear the water off the roof during a brief lull in the storm, but before I was even halfway finished, the rain started again in earnest and erased all my hard work. Some of you have wondered why I don't just go out and get a new roof. Well, it's not as easy as you think. The house is fifty years old and has settled in several places. As a result, water on the roof puddles into ponds, instead of draining off the edge like it is supposed to. It is not enough to simply put on a new roof. All the plywood decking under the roof must be leveled and replaced with a new decking that has a slight pitch so the water will drain properly. This is called an "engineered" roof and it is quite expensive. I've learned that roofers don't want to do carpentry work. I've also learned that general contractors, who could help find the proper carpenters, don't want to hire good roofers in the first place, so they can keep more money for themselves. Worst of all, the few commercial roofers who are experienced at covering large flat spaces don't even want to give me a bid. I don't have a large flat space. I have a very small flat space and they don't think it is worth their time.

In between drying off wet dogs and positioning buckets over dripping spots in the ceiling, I wrote watch articles. This didn't seem very glamorous either. I keep thinking that real watch writers get invited to polo matches in Argentina and fly around the world going to watch conventions. I can't imagine that the other watch writers spend most of their time cleaning mud off of two Dalmatians.

The Macintosh repair guy called today and told me he could fix my Lombard laptop. He seemed real excited about the old Lombard and called it a collectors item. This wasn't all that surprising to me. Just about everything I have is a collectors item to somebody. I have very good taste. I'm just not very practical. So here I sit, listening to water drip into plastic buckets as I tell a technician to go ahead and fix an aging laptop that I will probably never even use.

Mack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 881

What the hell? There was a clear blue sky this morning. The weather was beautiful. The roof was dry. Nevertheless, there was water dripping from the ceiling in the living roof when I woke up. This wasn't clear water either. It was stained a dark brown. The only thing I could figure was that this water had leaked through the roof sometime during last week's rains and then traveled along the wooden framing until it found a hole in the Sheetrock ceiling below and entered the house. Like Dr. Who said during the Waters of Mars episode, "Water is patient. Water always wins."

I assembled my new industrial shelving over at the storage warehouse this afternoon. There are three generations of industrial shelving over at the storage space and each new shelf is shoddier than the previous one. The first shelves I bought were so tough that you could stack them full of lead pipes if you wanted. They were made in America. The second set were manufactured in China, used thinner steel and had particle board decking. The shelves I bought this weekend were absolute rubbish. The steel was so thin and flimsy that it kept bending out of shape while I was assembling it. I think that the decking was made of plastic this time. All the shelves were exactly the same dimensions. They was all roughly the same price too. Somebody had just decided that if fewer materials were used in manufacturing, there would be more profit. This is the problem with a lot of stuff you buy from Lowes, Home Depot and Wall Mart these days. The prices are great. The quality, unfortunately is not always so great.

I took my watch back to the repair shop today. They apologized for charging me for the repair, even though they had done absolutely nothing. Easy mistake to make I guess. I've probably charged people for doing absolutely nothing myself. At any rate, they promised to make things right and do all the repairs I had originally asked for at no additional charge. I don't even know why I'm fixing this watch. There is nothing special about it and it will probably just gather dust again when the repairs are complete.

I had thought that there would be more room in the bed at night now that it's just me and the dogs for a while. No such luck. Somehow, Dot and Dash have figured out how to stretch out even further than they did before and once again I find myself scrunched in a corner on the edge of the mattress. I don't know how two Dalmatians can take up so much space.

Lady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 877

The plumber came today. Need I say more? The dogs hate it when repairmen come to the house and the result of these visits is usually total chaos. Dot barks so loud and so frantically that I'm surprised I'm not already on some sort of repair blacklist. Today she worked herself into such an agitated state that whenever she barked, little bits of poop shot out her back end like a rocket. I think I had a bigger mess to clean up than the plumber. While he was snaking out the lines and getting rid of some awful look black sludge, I was cleaning up after Dot the canine poop cannon.

Everything works fine now though. The dishwasher doesn't leak anymore. The sluggish drains run freely. Even the toilet seems to work better. Who know how long this watery bliss will last though. Plumbing problems seem to recur with regularity at our house.

My new website is almost finished. This phase of the design is always fun. I put pictures wherever I want. I choose colors with reckless abandon. Everything is placed precisely where I want it to go. When everything is perfect, I show the site to the client and then we start over again. I think most websites look their very best the day before you show them to your client for the first time.

My real estate agent called and told me he had already shown my rent property to two prospective buyers. He said both of them really liked the place. Of course, that doesn't mean that anyone will make me an offer. Even if they do make me an offer, it doesn't mean the banks will give them a loan. Buying and selling property isn't nearly as easy as it used to be.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I can't decide where I want to have breakfast this week, but I'll be sure to let you know.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day