Day 2622

I'd hate to be in the restaurant business. Customers are fickle. Reviews are seldom fair. And employee turnover is unbelievable. I ate breakfast this morning at a place I haven't visited for several months and there wasn't a single familiar face. The entire staff was new. The food had actually improved, so maybe the staff changes were a good thing. Like I say, I don't understand the restaurant business at all.

Most of the day was spent taking Dot to her appointment at the cancer center. Janet was able to take some time off work today to help me transport Dot. Having two people in the car seemed to help. Janet sat in the back with Dot and was able to calm her down when she became agitated and tried to move around. Dot arrived for her exam a lot calmer than she usually does, but her blood pressure was still a little high.

We got some more bad news today. Her cancer is progressing and there are now four tumors growing in her liver. There were only three the last time we checked. The oncologist told us that Dot's liver and kidneys are still functioning normally and that even though the cancer was growing, it was growing slowly. She is starting to feel some discomfort though, so we added Gabapentin to her growing list of meds. The oncologist also wants to go back to testing Dot once a month, since the cancer could always start growing faster at any time.

While we were at the hospital we saw a family who had to make the decision to put their dog down. It was sad to watch them say their goodbyes. The dog actually looked in better shape than Dot, but I'm sure there was more to the story than we were seeing. They always tell you that your dog will let you know when it's time to go, but sometimes they don't. It's a big responsibility when you have to make that decision for them. I dread the day when we are faced with making this decision. Hopefully, Dot will make her wishes very clear. Right now it is obvious that Dot still loves life and wants to keep on going. As the cancer continues to grow, things will inevitably become more confusing.

When we got home today Janet asked me if I knew that Dot's oncologist was deaf. "What makes you think she is deaf," I asked. "Well, she was reading your lips," Janet told me. Have I ever mentioned that I'm not very observant. I could tell you exactly what shade of brown Dot's poop was today and I would notice instantly if you moved any of the books on my bookshelf, but I'm not very good at reading faces. Chances are if I met you on the street, I wouldn't even recognize you. I can never tell when people are happy or sad either. I guess it's a good thing that I'm seldom aware when people are mad at me.

We've got a long weekend coming up. I hope this means that everybody will get a little more sleep. The oncologist wants me to watch Dot closely this weekend to make sure that the Gabapentin doesn't make Dot lethargic and lose energy. "But how can I tell," I asked? "She doesn't have any energy right now." I think all Dot's doctors are amazed that she's still alive.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2454

How did I go from being curious about everything to being irritated at everything? It all happened pretty quickly. Today, I was particularly irritated at the garbage man. Ever since the city switched to these new robotic garbage trucks, my garbage can fails to be emptied about half the time. The robotic arm on the truck picks up the can and lifts it above the truck to dump the garbage in the hopper, but the process happens so fast that none of the bagged garbage actually falls out of the can. The truck thinks it has done its job and just drives away, leaving a full garbage can for me to live with for another week. This never used to happen when real people emptied the garbage and threw the trash into the back of the truck. The city loves these new robotic trucks because they are very efficient and only require a single person to operate. Unfortunately, the trucks just don't work very well.

It's bad enough that the city only picks up the trash once a week now. Playing Russian roulette with the garbage truck every week only makes the process worse. Today, I'd had enough. I loaded all the garbage in the back of my car and went looking for a dumpster. A lot of dumpsters are locked away now, because they don't want people like me using them. Hey, it's not my fault. If the garbage truck did it's job, I definitely wouldn't be driving around with trash in the back of my car.

Breakfast was crowded today. I would have gotten an earlier start if I wasn't looking for an empty dumpster. I probably should have gone someplace else, but I was in the mood for pancakes and the cinnamon pancakes at the overcrowded restaurant are particularly good. All the regular tables were taken, so I had to sit at a long communal table that everyone tends to avoid. The inconvenience was worth it though, because the pancakes and sausage were delicious.

Today was particularly busy. I finished a lengthy website update that involved adding and changing out a ton of new photos. When that task was finished, I started writing my new article. In the old days, this type of workload would have been considered completely normal. I probably would have finished everything before noon. Today, I felt a bit overwhelmed. I haven't had this much to do in weeks. I got everything done though and still had time to do a load of laundry and clean up Dot's poop.

The satellite radio worked this morning when I started the car. This was odd, because there was a failure message on the screen when I pulled into the driveway yesterday. How did the radio acquire the satellite when the car was off? I don't pretend to know how satellite radio works. I'd rather have a WiFi hotspot in the car instead, but this is a free trial, so what do I care.

We've got a long holiday weekend coming up. Will we do anything festive on Labor Day? What do people normally do on Labor Day? I don't have a clue. As always, I just hope that the dogs act normally and that I can catch up on sleep.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1984

Today didn't exactly go as planned. I didn't get my car back from the shop because, after the wheel was repaired, the paint shop didn't match the color of the other three wheels. It has to go back to the paint shop for a new, and hopefully more accurate, powder coating. The U-verse service technician didn't arrive as promised either. I waited and waited and finally the guy showed up around 4:30 PM. He was supposed to arrive at 1 PM. Since Dot is hard of hearing, she didn't notice when the technician knocked on the door. Several minutes later she saw him in the living room and barked so hard that she pooped on the carpet. This is why you don't want to get an old dog too excited. Barking and pooping often happen simultaneously.

It turns out that the U-verse problem wasn't the router, the TV receiver, the WiFi hub, or anything else in the house. The entire line that runs down the alley has gone bad and needs to be replaced. My technician said that they needed a different type of technician to fix the wire, so I've got a new service appointment for tomorrow. U-verse service is still down. Oddly, even though U-verse is down, Roku, Hulu, Chromecast, and the pet cam, which all connect to the same IP network still work. In many ways losing U-verse is no great loss. Telemarketers are the only people who call on the land line. Roku and Hulu a pretty good alternative to U-verse TV. And my little T-Mobile 4G hotspot is even faster than U-verse Internet service. I wonder why I even bother with U-verse.

Since I was stuck in the house for most of the day waiting for the U-verse technician to arrive, I had lots of time to work on various Internet projects. I added some online forms to one client's site and had enough time left over to finish my first real mobile site. The site looked pretty good, so I went ahead and launched it. Hopefully the client will like what I've done. If they don't, I built in a back-door that will let me revert to the old site very quickly if needed. Working this way is so much faster than trying to schedule a meeting to present something. I don't mind changing things if I've gotten something wrong. It's easy to get feedback from clients if a site is live and almost impossible if they're just speculating about something that doesn't even exist yet.

It looks like the rain is going to continue through the weekend. According to the long-range forecast on my phone, the rain will continue forever. The app looks ahead two weeks and there is a little thunderstorm icon on every single day. It's rained so relentlessly that I'm actually starting to adapt to it. I've rigged up a pump on the roof that will remove about 80% of the water with me needing to be up there. This won't keep the roof dry, but it will significantly reduce the weight of the standing water and make it easier for me to sweep off the remaining water when the rain quits. I'm becoming adapt at finding dry intervals to walk the dogs too. Even the rainiest days have little gaps between the storms.

Supposedly my car will be finished tomorrow and U-verse service will be restored. I kind of doubt that either of those things will happen. The only thing I'm sure of is that the dogs will get two walks and we'll all enjoy a good breakfast

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1809

We decided to wash the dogs this morning, but it didn't exactly work out as planned. When we arrived at our regular dog washing place, we discovered that it was closed for the holidays. We eventually managed to find an alternate facility that was open, but they were so slow that seemed to take forever to walk away with two clean Dalmatians. At least this chore is over with for a while. Dot and Dash managed to stay clean for the rest of the day and all is well.

I forgot to take the garbage out to the street last night, but when I rushed out early this morning to try and beat the approaching trash truck, I noticed that everyone else on the street had forgotten it was trash day as well. My trash container was the only one on the street. This only goes to prove that eating too much affects everyone the same way. Your mind goes blank and all you want to do is watch television.

Forgetting the trash wasn't our only forgetful moment today. Janet left her jacket at the dog washing place, so I had to go back and retrieve it later in the day. While I was out, I got gas, since I forgot to fill the tank on Wednesday. We even forgot to go to the grocery store and ended up getting take-out dinners at Chili's instead. I think this is perfectly normal for the day after Thanksgiving. I'm sure I'll get back to remembering things tomorrow.

I thought about going to the gym today, but decided to finish my writing assignments instead. While I was writing, Janet decided to clean or wash everything the dogs slept on, which ended being just about everything we own. Now, in addition to clean dogs, we have clean throw pillows, clean sheets, a clean bedspread, and tons of clean dog blankets. This won't last long. As soon as it rains, everything will be dirty again.

Since it was Black Friday, I was expecting lots of traffic when we were running our errands today. Surprisingly, the roads seemed kind of empty. We didn't venture within five miles of a Walmart, Target, or Shopping Mall however. I would just as soon go to Chernobyl as a Walmart on a day like this. When you can't tell the difference between TV coverage of a Black Friday sale and unrest in the Middle East, it's probably better to just stay away.

It seems like Sunday night, but we've still got two more vacation days left. I probably should follow Janet's example and do some cleaning myself. I'm sure that house cleaning would burn up just as much energy as going to the gym, but at least going to the gym is over in an hour or so. House cleaning is like opening a Pandora's Box. Once you start, it seems impossible to finish.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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