Day 3179

I enjoyed breakfast this morning. There was real china, heavy flatware, and waiters in white coats. The place was quiet and relaxing. Although the menu was limited, my egg sandwich was delicious. Eating in a nice hotel wasn't a bad idea. I'll probably go back.

I was surprised to see how high the lake levels were this morning because we didn't get any rain yesterday. It must have rained heavily to the north of us. Whenever there are heavy rains, huge amounts of trash and litter flow into the lake from the creeks that feed it. The water definitely looked ugly this morning. When the water recedes, this litter will be left on the shoreline. Eventually, people from the Parks and Recreation Department will pick it up. It's a shame that nobody in Dallas seems to be able to throw their trash in a can, but I'm sure other cities are even worse.

I'm glad there was time to take Dash on a nice walk this morning because it was our turn to get rained on today. As the day progressed, the sky got darker and darker. It's raining right now and that means there will be no evening walk. People always say we need the rain, but I don't know why. It hasn't been a particularly dry year. I don't like rain, but I'm slowly learning to respect it. Whenever I see all the forest fires out West and the hurricanes and floods to the East, I realize that Dallas is in kind of a sweet spot. We've managed to avoid weather extremes for quite a while.

I feel sorry for Elon Musk. He's getting crucified for making a casual comment about taking his company private and then smoking pot on TV. Musk is the Thomas Edison of our generation. I think people ought to cut him some slack. Steve Jobs got treated the same way for quite a while. It's weird. If you're a businessman or a politician, you're expected to follow conventional rules. If you're a musician, anything goes.

We've discontinued the probiotic Dash was taking and his poop is slowly becoming firmer. This is counterintuitive but what do I know. The disappointing thing about veterinary and human medicine is that everything is so compartmentalized. Nobody seems all that good at evaluating the big picture. It seems obvious that health is a combination of lifestyle, diet, heredity, and medications. Doctors always focus on the pills though. Somehow, I feel that Dash would be doing better if he were eating exactly the right thing. I'd probably being doing better if I were eating exactly the right thing as well. I don't have any answers, but I do think that nutrition should be just as important as pharmacology in medical school.

I saw the auction catalog for one of the Fall auctions today. It was weird to see my picture right up there with some pretty well known art. I'm no art historian, but I recognized some of the other images up for auction immediately. I'm hoping that this might be is my Antiques Roadshow moment. I don't want to get my hopes up though. Auctions are weird and unpredictable. Nobody might bid at all. I have art in two different auctions and both are in October. Lets hope they do well.

Janet wants to take pictures of some new rescue dogs this weekend. If the weather improves, that's what we'll do. I still am unwilling to leave Dash alone in a storm, but I'm actually looking forward to taking photos again. Life is so slow, that I look forward to doing almost anything.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3176

I got this check from the Federal Trade Commission today, along with a note saying that it was my share of a class action settlement involving light bulbs. What? I wasn't aware of being involved in any sort of class action suit. My first thought was that this was a scam. Have you ever received a check in the mail that has a small disclaimer saying that by cashing said check you agree to a lifetime of magazine subscriptions, a debit card from a foreign bank, or a ridiculously expensive term life policy? I am very suspicious of checks that mysteriously arrive in the mail. There are so many scammers out there. I did some research online and it appears the check is legit. The government recently mailed out fourteen million dollars worth of these checks to people like me. But how did they know I bought the light bulbs? I didn't tell them. I feel sorry for the light bulb company. The suit claims that the company made false statements about the light bulbs brightness and reliability. Jeez. I've had these LED bulbs in my bathroom for over five years and they work great. They haven't burned out and they're pretty bright. This pretty well sums up my feelings about class action suits. For the most part, they're just a way to make lawyers rich. They probably put that company out of business. That being said, I'll go ahead and cash the check. It might pay for gas next week. No, it wasn't a large check. I just don't drive very much.

I've got to figure out how to cure Dash's digestive problems. The loose stools and diarrhea are driving me crazy. I had to clean up another big mess last night and then had a hard time getting back to sleep. The first thing you're supposed to do if your dog has loose stools is take a sample to your vet to test for parasites. Done that. There were no parasites. We're read that a diet of chicken and rice can help cure the problem. That's what he's been eating for over a month and it hasn't helped. Dash is also taking a probiotic the vet prescribed and that isn't doing much either. It's frustrating. We've read that diarrhea is a known side effect of heart disease. If that's the case, there probably isn't much we can do. Diarrhea and incontinence is a really bad combination. At least when Dot became incontinent, her poop remained firm.

I got a letter from the phone company saying that my account had been compromised. So what else is new? This is almost a routine occurrence these days. By now, probably everyone in the world has had an account compromised in one way or another. The letter apologized for the inconvenience, but said that no sensitive information was revealed. Easy for them to say. They apparently did get my phone number though. Maybe that explains the increase in robocalls I've been getting lately. My landline is almost 100% telemarketers and robocalls now. I feel like the phone company should be paying me.

I walked Dash and paid a few bills today. That was about it. Someone got killed last night riding one of those rental scooters I've started seeing all over town. It was only a matter of time. I've seen people riding these things on busy city streets. Nobody wears helmets and the flimsy scooters go pretty fast. Why did the city approve these ridiculous things? I really need to move to a small town. City life is becoming increasingly strange.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3169

I've stopped going to the library, but I certainly haven't stopped reading. I think one reason my head is filled with useless information is that on slow days like this, I can spend hours reading odd little articles I find on Google. When I click on the Google Discover tab, I'm always amazed that there seems to be an endless supply of things I've never heard about before. I'll read almost anything about astronomy and space. I like reading articles about how the human race is doomed and headed toward extinction. Most articles about Elon Musk catch my attention. I always read articles about the best diet to feed your dog. Sometimes I'll read articles about the pills I'm taking or the stocks my broker recommends. I like articles about exotic cars and vintage guitars. I'm not interested in politics at all, so I skip over a lot of stuff. Apparently, a lot of people are only interested in politics.

Today I read articles about what might have existed in the universe before the big bang, learned about a new mass extinction theory that says the dinosaurs all died in a single day, read about a Ferrari prototype that uses a "virtual" windshield made out of air, and did some research on several stocks my broker wants me to buy.

My broker and I don't agree on much. I like to contemplate large scale trends like young people preferring pets to children and ordering meal kits from Hello Fresh rather than going to the grocery store. I'm bored by technical analysis and usually could care less when a stock dips below its two hundred day moving average. My broker thinks Gilead Sciences is a good buy right now. What? I hate that company. They're the ones who charged me $1000 a pill for Sovaldi. OK. It is a revolutionary drug that cured my Hepatitis C, but $1000 a pill still seems a bit steep. I wish I'd just kept the first three stocks I'd ever bought: Apple, Boeing, and Southwest Airlines. If I'd kept adding to those positions over the years, I'd have done a lot better than decades of hit and miss trading.

Forget about stocks. What I should be researching is what's causing Dash's loose stools. According to everything we've read, what we're feeding Dash now should be very easy to digest and contribute to firm stools. It's just not happening. It's hard to get a definitive answer from the vets either. The older your dog gets, the more "old age" seems to be the cause of everything. I doubt that I'm going to find a cure for Dash's incontinence, but it does get tiring having a world centered around poop.

I've stopped carrying a camera on our walks because I really need to concentrate on keeping Dash upright. It's kind of a shame. This morning I missed a spectacular shot of a Great Egret. Yesterday evening the setting sun reflecting off the downtown skyscrapers was equally spectacular. I still carry my phone in my pocket, but I would have needed a telephoto lens to capture these images. It probably doesn't even matter. Everything I see in the park, I've already photographed dozens of times before. Just to prove my point, I took another picture of Jimson Weed flowers with my phone this morning.

Dash had a good day, but he still hasn't pooped yet. I'm nervous. I still can't decide whether to apply to join the Jet Propulsion Lab team for the InSight landing either. I guess I'm nervous about that too.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3166

It drives me crazy that Dash's condition varies wildly from day to day, even though everything in his life is extremely consistent. We've finally found a diet that he tolerates well. The meds he takes every day haven't changed in ages. He has some gentle walks every morning and evening and sleeps a lot in between. Earlier this week his stools had become firmer and looked almost normal. Last night everything became runny again. This is weird because through good times and bad, he is eating boiled chicken breast in the morning and a home made mix of chicken, rice, and vegetables in the evening. A few days ago he seemed sure footed and wanted to walk by the shoreline. Today he stumbled all over the place. I don't know what to do. A slow, steady decline would make sense. All these wild fluctuations just don't seem right.

Good days or bad, life goes on. I ran all my usual Saturday errands while Dash was taking his morning nap. I can never figure out pricing for the things I buy over and over again. Fresh fruit, which I love, seems very inexpensive. Blue shop towels and furnace filters, on the other hand, seem ridiculously expensive. Gasoline is a total mystery. It seems to change in price every single day.

Water has become my nemesis. The dehumidifier started leaking again this morning. Damn. I really thought I'd managed to fix this a few days ago. I had to suck water out from under the shower tiles again with the wet/dry vacuum as well. This happens about every three days now. It's irritating to do this so often, but I don't want to spend the money to rip out all the bathroom tile and start over. Been there, done that. It was quite a bit more expensive than I expected.

Dash seems depressed this evening. He's always been a mama's dog. Janet went to a friend's wedding and he feels abandoned. I wish he wasn't such a little shit about things like this, but it's hard to reason with an old dog. He wants someone to sit on the bed and watch Netflix with him. Dash wouldn't walk this evening and I've been having trouble getting him to eat his dinner and take his evening meds. So far, the only thing he's done right on schedule is poop in the house. Oh, well. The night is young. We'll get this done eventually.

Things continue to roll toward a conclusion at the auction houses. I got asked today to approve the descriptive text for some of my art in the auction catalog for the first auction. One of the pictures in the catalog hung on my bedroom wall for decades. Now, I could never afford to bid on it. Lets just hope that everything sells.

I got an invitation to apply to join the Insight scientific team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory this November for a behind the scenes look at the spacecraft's upcoming landing on Mars. I'm frozen when these opportunities come my way. I don't want to leave Dash. I remember that the last time I did this type of thing, I had a car accident in California. It's expensive to take these type of trips and I'm not even sure I'd get accepted. Hey, my blog isn't as popular as it was when I was invited to view my last space launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base. I'm just making excuses. I'd still like to do this. One of these days I'll get up my nerve to apply to become a NASA social media reporter again.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3163

Some days are all about Dash. He didn't want to eat today. I had to really use my ingenuity to get him to take his morning pills. When worse came to worse, I could always put a pill directly down Dot's throat. This trick doesn't work with Dash. He'd bite me if I tried. Our walk was exceptionally slow this morning. Dash didn't appear tired. He just seemed disoriented at times. We took our time and made it home OK. By the time I finally got him interested in breakfast, it was noon.

This disinterest in food  is making it difficult to cure Dash's loose stools. The real goal is to get him to eat anything at all. Eating something that will make his poop firm again is just a bonus. Something is wrong, but I don't know what. There is no sign of blood in his stools anymore. His gums are nice and pink. His blood work looks good too. Dash is taking so many medications now, that the vets hesitate to add more. We're kind of on our own here.

When I woke up this morning I was almost certain that I was going to need to make an emergency doctor's appointment. My wrist hurt pretty bad and looked swollen. I strapped on my brace and soon became preoccupied with Dash. Several hours later when I was finishing my own breakfast, I realized that the wrist wasn't as painful anymore. I took off the brace and noticed that the swelling had subsided a bit as well. As the day progressed, the wrist continued to return to normal. It was surprising that this had happened so quickly. I was expecting to live with the sprained wrist for at least a week. To make a long story short, I'm glad I didn't call the doctor.

Truthfully, I didn't do much of anything today. I didn't order a new dehumidifier because the water leak seems to have disappeared. Maybe cleaning the unit out was all it needed. I didn't go up on the roof for obvious reasons. I didn't call anyone about my collections either. As I said before, the day was mostly about Dash.

He likes to sleep under tables and in awkward places these days. It seems like I'm always trying to extract him from these cubbyholes when he gets stuck. I've read that dogs seem to feel safer in small enclosed spaces when they feel sick. This certainly seems to be true with Dash. There are still places in the house where his lack of mobility wouldn't hinder him. Dash isn't interested in wide open space though. He seems to prefer a cave.

We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm finally starting to get tired of my morning smoothie, but I don't know what else to eat. In five years of going out to breakfast on Friday mornings, I've tried just about everything. Nothing seems that appealing. In an odd way I can understand what Dash is going through. We both still need food to survive, but seem to have lost the joy of eating.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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