Day 1537

I used to be really good at fixing things around the house. Apparently Elvis has left the building when it comes to home improvements. I suck at fixing things now. My heart just isn't in it anymore. I measured the can lights in the bathroom and went to Home Depot to find a replacement for the blinking light that's driving me nuts. Can lights have changed a lot over the years. Not only couldn't I find anything that looked remotely like the light in my ceiling, I couldn't even figure out how to install the new lights I was looking at in the store. So much for electrical work, I thought. I'll just paint instead. I got some painting supplies and went home to repair some of the window trim that this Winter's excessive condensation had ruined.

As soon as I got home, Janet went off to run her errands. We're trying to alternate being out of the house, so someone will always be around to keep an eye on Dash. So far, Dash is being an excellent patient. Unlike some dogs, he hasn't tried to pick or scratch at his stitches at all. For the most part, he just slept while I attempted to paint. The trouble with painting trim is that you have to sand off all the old paint before you can begin. I scraped and sanded off five layers of paint before I reached raw wood. That's probably about right for a 60 year old house. It took me most of the afternoon to prep one little window. The more I sanded, the more I realized that I never liked painting in the first place. I finally primed everything, cleaned up the paint I'd spilled and put my tools away. We'll finish this job later. Perhaps in June.

It got so warm this afternoon that we had to turn the air conditioner on. Amazingly, it worked like a charm. I remember many warm Spring days like this when I flipped the switch for the first time and nothing happened. The HVAC system is one of the few reliable things left in the house these days. The furnace and the air conditioner are both relatively new and the were installed by people who actually knew what they were doing, in contrast to the idiots who put the can lights in my bathroom ceiling. These lights were part of a remodeling project and were never as good as the original lights that came with the house. The original 60 year old ceiling lights were built like a tank and every single component was replaceable. I've taken them apart many times over the years to replace aging sockets and wiring. There is absolutely nothing that is replaceable on the newer bathroom lights.

I finished yesterday's writing assignment and sent it on its way. Luckily, I can still write a lot better than I can paint. I'd never make much of a living as a house painter. By the time I got my writing done, cleaned the sheets, made the bed, and vacuumed up the mess from my home improvement efforts, it was time to give the dogs their evening walk. Dash is still taking a much shorter walk until he is off the pain medications. I have to trick him into coming home early by walking in a circle. He won't turn around and come home if he's not ready, but apparently he doesn't even realize we are returning home if I chart our course in an extended circle. Whatever works is my motto. On a good day, I can still outsmart a dog.

Unfortunately we won't be able to go to the dog park tomorrow. It might be a long time before Dash is ready to go to the dog park again. In anticipation of another housebound day, I bought a copy of "Gravity" while I was out-and-about this morning. It probably won't be as impressive on my computer as it would be in a large 3-D theater, but at least I'll finally get to see it.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1526

Another stressful day. We've known for some time that Dash has a lipoma in his neck. These fatty tumors are very common in dogs and most of them are benign. When I took Dash for his antigen shot today, his vet thought that the lipoma had grown a bit and wanted to run some tests to make sure it wasn't malignant. She aspirated cells from several sections of the tumor and sent them off to a pathologist for analysis. We should know the results before the end of the week. If the growth is a normal fatty lipoma we don't need to do anything. If the cells are abnormal or malignant, more tests and even surgery may be required.

I certainly hope the growth isn't cancer. We have had two dogs that have had cancer. Spot, our first Dalmatian, remained cancer free after some serious surgery that removed six inches of his intestines. Gretta wasn't so lucky. She died two days after a surgeon tried to remove a cancerous lobe from her liver. She didn't even make it home from the surgery center. Hopefully, the growth in Dash's throat is benign. It is in a difficult place, right next to his carotid artery. It would take a very skilled surgeon to successfully remove it.

If any of you have had to switch to Obamacare, you have my sympathies. I'm on Medicare now, and even though the government has had decades to work out all the kinks, Medicare is still a huge mess. I'm almost certain that Obamacare will be worse, since it's brand new. I found out today that even though I enrolled in Medicare over six months ago, none of my claims have been processed. Apparently Medicare still thinks my "employer" is paying for my health insurance, not realizing of course that I have been my own employer for over twenty years. The group insurance plan I discontinued last June when I enrolled in Medicare is still listed as my primary health insurance and Medicare is listed as secondary insurance on Medicare's own website. After calling three different numbers and sitting on hold for almost an hour, I finally ended up talking to someone who understood my problem. They have an entire department dedicated to resolving these type of problems because they are so commonplace. I think it's called the Coordination of Benefits Department. The lady I talked to was very nice and told me that she had updated my records to indicate that Medicare was now my primary insurance. She never told me how the group plan I discontinued over six months ago had gotten into the system however. Evidently mistakes like these are quite common when you are self-employed. When I asked if there was anything else I needed to do, the lady casually mentioned that I needed to have all my doctors submit their claims again. "But you already have all their information," I said. "Can't you just reprocess it?" No can do, the lady told me. The doctors will have to start over and resubmit all their claims. They'll have to wait ten days before they do this too. That's how long it takes for the government databases to be updated with the new information they entered today.

A can light in the bathroom ceiling burned out this morning. I got a ladder and looked at the fixture, but couldn't find anything wrong. I hate to call an electrician because they will charge me $300 or more to do something simple that I could do myself.  I hate to do this job myself either. If I remember correctly, the last time I tried to fix something up on the ceiling was when I managed to get my neck out of joint and had to go to physical therapy for three months. Whatever happened to the fixture also managed to ruin one of my fancy new LED light bulbs. These LED bulbs are supposed to be indestructible and last forever. Apparently not.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. I can't think of many good things that happened today at all.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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