Day 4198

The weather was a pleasant surprise this morning. It was only 69 degrees outside when we woke up. The rain that brought yesterday's water leak, also brought some much cooler temperatures. Dawn loved her early walk this morning. She really responds well to cooler weather. So do I.

It had warmed up quite a bit by the time I finished breakfast and took my own longer walk, but it was still nice outside. There was no point in going to the gym today. If the weather is tolerable I always prefer walking outdoors. It's easier for the mind to wander on a pleasant long walk. When I'm at the gym I find myself counting laps or being distracted by overheard conversations. A trip to the gym is all about the exercise. A long walk is a way to lose yourself in idle thoughts and daydreams. 

I had planned to get a lot more done today, but I got hopelessly bogged down balancing my checkbook. Usually when I'm out of balance, I'm only a few dollars off and it is easy to find my mistake. Today I wasn't even close. There was a difference of several thousand dollars between what Quickbooks said I had and my most recent bank statement. It took a long time to figure out that I had failed to enter a number of transactions last month and then compounded my error by entering something twice this month. The duplicate entry got saved in the May 2020 ledger though, so it was very hard to find. Why do I bother entering all this stuff in Quickbooks and then writing down the results in a checkbook register as well? Force of habit, I guess. I didn't need to do any of this. My online bank statement was correct all along. 

I make a lot more mistakes than I used to. I spend more time editing the things I write these days because they are riddled with spelling errors. This didn't used to be the case. It's probably good that I'm not working with clients anymore. My old clients were never very forgiving. There's probably a good reason most companies make you retire at 70. You may think you're just as sharp as you were when you were younger, but you're just kidding yourself. The brain deteriorates just like the rest of your body.

As soon as the roof is completely dry again, I'm going to have to go look for the source of the leak. I think I'm going to have to bring a power washer up on the roof to clean away all the scum that has accumulated this Spring so I can see if there are any small cracks in the elastomer surface. I hauled a power washer up on the roof a long time ago using a rope. I was stronger then and the roof was in better condition. It's not going to be easy this time. I've still got plenty of the special silicon coating material, but I've got to know exactly where to place it. I'm not looking forward to any of this. There is no point in calling a roofer though. Been there, done that. Most roofers aren't familiar with my type of silicon elastomer roof and they just make the situation worse. 

No wonder I like to go out to West Texas and stare at the stars. Summers in Dallas seem to be a never ending punch list of loathsome household chores. The ceiling looks awful where the leak occurred. The sheetrock needs to be replaced, but there is no point in doing this now if the roof is just going to leak again. I'll have to make some temporary repairs though, because I hate looking at the mess. We've got to find a way to get rid of all the mosquitos in the back yard and I'm sure Dawn would appreciate it if I'd fill in the bare areas with some fresh St. Augustine sod.

Will I do any of this tomorrow? Probably not. I'll just take another long walk and think about more pleasant things.

Kirby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3800

My visit to the dermatologist wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was diagnosed with actinic keratosis which my doctor assured me could be easily and effectively treated. This was good news because I was a little nervous that the rough skin on my face might be squamous cell carcinoma instead. Left untreated, actinic keratosis can actually turn into squamous cell carcinoma, which is probably why my regular doctor wanted to get me into the dermatologist's office in a hurry.

Treatment was fairly straightforward and involved no cutting. Basically the doctor wanted to destroy the skin lesions by freezing them. Technically this is called cryosurgery, but it felt more like accidentally getting freon on your skin while you were trying to top up your car's AC. The doctor took a pressurized canister of liquid nitrogen and carefully sprayed the skin lesions. "Don't freeze my eyeball," I told the doctor. "I still need these eyes."

The whole process took less than five minutes. The dermatologist wants to see me again in a month to makes sure the actinic keratosis has completely disappeared. He said there would probably be some redness, blistering and crusting in the weeks ahead but not to worry about it. On the off chance that the liquid nitrogen doesn't work, he said that there might be some curettage and excision involved on my next visit. This sounds suspiciously like going under the knife, so lets hope the liquid nitrogen works.

I wouldn't recommend spraying your face with liquid nitrogen. I've felt like I've walked into a hot frying pan for most of the day. A freezer burn is still a burn. The whole purpose of the treatment is to destroy the keratosis. Luckily our new social distancing rules will ensure that few people see me for the next several weeks.

We had a nice walk with Dawn this morning before I left for my doctor's appointment. The sky was overcast, but this kept the temperature down and Dawn was happy. I like overcast days. Everything photographs better without hard shadows. For photographers, an overcast day is like having a giant softbox in the sky.

I watched an interview with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley after they arrived at Kennedy Space Center this afternoon. I noticed that the pair arrived in a Gulfstream corporate jet. Quite a change from the old days when astronauts used to fly their own Northrop T-38 fighters to the cape. I guess they won't be using the old Airstream Astrovans anymore either. These guys will make the final journey to Pad-39A in a Tesla Model-X.

When I handed my ID cards to the receptionist at the dermatologist's office this morning, she handed me back the ID cards belonging to another patient. I recognized immediately that the Medicare cards were wrong, but ended up putting the other guy's driver's license in my wallet. Jeez. I didn't even recognize my own picture. The error was quickly rectified but it made me wonder how the world works at all. We all make mistakes every day. I make many of them myself.

Harley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3777

I have a feeling that three years from now we'll look back at our current situation as the most colossal overreaction in human history. How did we get here? When British scientist Neil Ferguson published his widely cited Imperial College report predicting that 2.2 million Americans and more than half a million British citizens would die if life as we know it did not shut down for at least 18 months, it caught the attention of politicians around the world. Nobody wanted this kind of devastation on their watch. Even our own president did an about face and radically changed his tune. The country shut down. Ferguson predicted that the demand for ICU beds would be 30 times greater than the available supply and the entire hospital system would collapse. Overnight, convention centers were turned into field hospitals and all the other hospitals stopped doing everything from chemotherapy to brain surgery. The entire hospital system was turned upside down and mobilized to treat the coming surge of coronavirus patients.

A strange thing happened though. After tens of thousands of restaurants, bars, and small businesses shut their doors; after the world economy ground to a screeching halt, Neil Ferguson quietly retracted his predictions. Nevermind, he essentially said. He now feels that the hospital system is well equipped to handle the peak of the epidemic and that British deaths will be closer to 20,000 than the half million he originally predicted. Ferguson never apologized for his wildly inaccurate prediction, but he did say that “We’ll be paying for this year for decades to come.” At least he got that right.

I'm a university brat. I grew up around scientists. I think I learned around the dinner table at a very early age that scientists are not magicians. They are frequently wrong. The scientific method is based on trial and error. You experiment. You learn from your mistakes and eventually you might come up with a solution. Sometimes what you learn is that you started with a false premise.

Do people who are counting on a vaccine to fix this mess realize that the best scientists in the world have never managed to come up with a vaccine for an existing coronavirus? They were never able to come up with an effective vaccine for SARS. To this day there is not a vaccine for the common cold.

There have been some amazing success stories over the years. Polio has been eliminated. Measles has almost been eliminated as well. It took a massive effort to vaccinate the entire world before the polio vaccine was really effective though. Nobody shut down the world while this was happening either. A lot has changed since then. We didn't have a choice about taking the polio vaccine. We all ate the sugar cube. Do you think you could convince everybody to take an unproven vaccine these days? There would be a revolt. We forget that the whole reason for taking vaccines is to speed up the process of building herd immunity. It is not a magic bullet. If everybody doesn't take the vaccine, it doesn't work. It might not work anyway. Most seasonal flu vaccines are only about 50% effective.

We are getting close to the point where the cure is worse than the disease. I think the Chinese knew this all along. With a population of over four billion people, the Chinese government has always been more worried about social unrest than disease. The virus start peaking in China during Lunar New Year Celebrations. Chinese New Year is a huge cultural event that often involves traveling to visit relatives. Rather than forcibly curtailing these activities and risk massive social unrest, the Chinese government let hundreds of thousands of Wuhan residents travel freely around the world for at least a week before mentioning anything about the virus to the rest of us. Do you think this had anything to do with the mess we are facing now? I thought so.

We will never fix this unless we we rediscover honesty. Nobody is honest about anything these days. The Chinese were never honest about the virus in the first place. Our own politicians aren't honest either. Everyone is trying to use the pandemic to score political points. The media is far from honest. You have your truth and I have mine. We all listen to news that supports what we already think. Sadly, nobody believes the news media anyway. We just believe what our friends say on Facebook. It's all a giant clusterfuck. Personally, I don't think what we are doing now is going to work. Maybe three years from now some of you might agree with me.

Chance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3232

I think I made a mistake. I tried moving some really heavy things today and strained my back. I also scratched the paint on my car when I was loading something I shouldn't have been lifting. I'm not sure I can complete this move myself. I called a moving company that had good Yelp reviews but just got a phone message that referred me to their website. I filled out the form, but when I received their automated response, it was clear that the company didn't understand that this was just a storage warehouse that was being moved. The estimate seemed way too high. There is no furniture and no packing involved. I'll see if I can talk with someone in person tomorrow.

After making two trips to the new warehouse, I made a third trip to a charity shop with some stuff that wasn't worth saving. When I realized that my back was starting to hurt, I decided to call it a day. The old warehouse is still pretty full and nothing I'm saving is all that special. This is not going to be pleasant. At least I didn't have to pay for an entire month at the old warehouse. They let me rent for fifteen days in November. That should give me enough time to complete the move. Of course rain could easily screw thing up. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so I doubt that I'll be able to do very much. I should probably rest anyway. There's no sense in making my back any worse than it already is.

Dash didn't need to go outside last night so I got more sleep than usual. He did get me up at 5 AM to go poop, but it was almost daylight anyway. Making it until 5 AM is a win for me. There are so many nights when I hardly get any sleep at all. At least Dash is eating well. He hasn't thrown up in quite a while and seems to enjoy the food we cook for him. He eats better than we do now, but at least he's eating.

I think I'm going to have to buy Dash another pair of protective boots. All three pairs that we currently have in rotation need repairs. Dash is really hard on his shoes. He doesn't lift his rear legs as he walks and ends up dragging his feet. The boots keep him from injuring himself, but they wear out quickly. Maybe I'll go buy him another pair of boots tomorrow. This would certainly be easier than lifting more heavy boxes.

It's hard to believe that it's almost November. Where has this year gone? In a few days we'll have to deal with another time chance. I think we should just forget about Daylight Saving Time. It's such a nuisance to arbitrarily switch the clocks back and forth. Dogs never understand the time chance and wonder why their feeding schedule has changed. Usually we give Dash his evening walk after he's had his dinner. Now, I'll need to walk him before dinner to avoid walking in total darkness. This should be fun. Dash hates making changes even more than I do.

I'll be glad when the election is over. I'm sick of Beto and Ted Cruz making robocalls to my house  and sending text messages every single day. Do these guys really think this helps. It's irritating. Whoever thought robocalls were a good way to influence people has got to be a moron. Probably the only thing that Democrats and Republicans agree on is that they both hate telemarketers.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3185

I've learned to be very patient with Dash. It took about five tries to get him walking this morning. He would go out on the back porch, sniff the air for a while, and then come back inside. I used to think that Dash was too tired to walk when he did things like this. Sometimes he actually is tired, but not always. Today, he just wanted a certain treat we keep in the refrigerator. When I finally figured out what he wanted and gave him the special treat, he turned around and headed straight for the back gate.

Living with Dash is complicated. You have to know the difference between stubbornness, dementia, fatigue, and pain. This morning Dash was being stubborn, but other days he is simply exhausted. I dread the day when Janet and I reach this stage of life. My Dad acted a bit like Dash in his final days. It must be very difficult to realize that your body and mind are deteriorating and know that there is nothing you can do to stop the process. Dash might not be fully aware of what is going on, but animals are smarter than we think they are. He's got to know that he isn't the dog he used to be and I'm sure it is frustrating.

Today was slow, but what else is new. Truthfully, today was exactly like yesterday and the day before. Tomorrow will probably be the same as last Friday. It might be exactly the same, because I'm planning to go back to the same restaurant I went to last week. I might try the French Toast this time.

I wonder why it is mandatory for TV weathermen to do live shots in the middle of a hurricane? Every time there is a bad storm, all the weathermen race to find the most dangerous spot they can and make their reports buffeted by wind and rain. I must have seen six different weathermen waiting on the beach for Florence to arrive today. I'm sure there will be even more tomorrow. Personally, I think living on the beach is overrated. With hurricanes, algae blooms, shark attacks, rip tides, and rising sea levels to worry about, I think I'd rather live in the mountains.

I have to go pick up the lithograph I took to the art conservator soon. The restoration is complete. I'm not looking forward to this. I don't really want to bring the art back to the house and I'm not sure the auction houses want it. Now that a lot of the other art has been consigned, this piece has become an orphan. It seems weird to spend a lot of money just to get a piece of paper to lie flat again, but what are you going to do. If I ever want to sell this thing, it's got to be perfect.

I don't know why I'm making such an effort to fix my mistake. I've bought plenty of stocks that were a mistake. I've accepted jobs that were a mistake. I probably need to accept the fact that storing art and guitars in a storage warehouse was a huge mistake and just accept my losses.

I hope I don't make any big mistakes tomorrow. I'll try my best to keep Dash happy. If it doesn't rain, I'll go out and have a nice breakfast. I'll probably take a few bills to the post office. That's probably enough for one day.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2942

I'm glad I didn't wake up this morning with a message on my phone saying that a nuke was headed my way. It was all a mistake, but that didn't stop the conspiracy theories. Why is it so hard for people to believe simple human error in cases like these? Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were caused by human error. So were the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle disasters. In 1961 a B-52 accidentally dropped two nuclear bombs on the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Luckily, neither exploded. In 1979 a technician put a training tape into an operational computer by mistake causing NORAD to think a major soviet attack was underway. As recently as 2010 the Air Force lost control of over 50 nuclear ICBMs for over 45 minutes. The Russians made similar mistakes throughout the cold war. When you think about it, we're really lucky we're still here.

People love conspiracy theories. They'd rather believe that Stanley Kubrick staged the moon landing on a Hollywood sound stage than the fact that the entire world watched the event on live TV. There are people who believe that pharmaceutical companies invented cancer to sell drugs. Others believe that aliens are living among us. I guess it makes sense that there are people who believe that the alarm in Hawaii this morning was created by hackers for some nefarious purpose.

It's easy for me to believe human error as an explanation for just about anything. Humans are idiots. We tend to think we are much smarter than we really are. I have listened to five people try to explain Bitcoin and how blockchains work. None of them made any sense. Does anyone really know what a blockchain is? Anytime I hear someone tell me that something is completely safe and transparent, I begin to worry. Did you ever see that documentary called "The Origins of AIDS" about how tainted oral polio vaccine distributed in the Belgian Congo in the 1950's led to the beginnings of the deadly disease? It may not be a nuclear bomb that ends humanity, but one way or another we are accidentally going to do something that ends horribly wrong. That's just the way we are.

I almost made a serious error today. I tried to repair the directory on my computer using Diskwarrior without realizing that the version I was using was not compatible with the Sierra operating system. I've used Diskwarrior for decades and it has saved me from some serious crashes. I haven't used it since I upgraded my hard drive and operating system though. Oops. My bad. Luckily, I was able to force the program to abort before it caused any damage. When I was trying to figure out what to do next, I also discovered that the Apple Disk Utility no longer lets you repair permissions on your hard drive. Damn. Yesterday it was my phone. Today it is my computer. Apple is no longer my friend.

It was a beautiful day today, but it was still very cold. We had such a mild Winter last year that I keep forgetting that January is almost always very cold. I just leave my Winter coat on the sofa now because I have to put it on every time I take Dash outside. I have to follow Dash around every time he goes outside because I don't want him to eat something that will make him throw up. His rear legs are so weak that he also tends to get stuck in the dense Asian Jasmine ground cover in the back of the yard. If he poops, I carry bags so I can clean it up right away. If I don't, it is almost a certainly that I will step in it the next day.

Hopefully, I can limit my mistakes to stepping in dog poop. It's hard to avoid human errors because there is so much that can go wrong. Will I make any mistakes tomorrow? Definitely. Will my mistakes cause hundreds of thousands of people to panic? I certainly hope not.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2860

The refrigerator repairman arrived right on time. The first words out of his mouth were "We've got a problem." He showed me the box with the part I've been waiting for. "This control board is for a Bosch refrigerator," he said. "You've got a GE." Good grief. The part arrived last Thursday. They had four days to notice that it was the wrong part. They even put the wrong part on the truck and nobody noticed.

I'd already taken all the food out of the freezer and put it in an ice chest before the repairman arrived. I'd even taken all the shelves out of the freezer so the guy could get started right away. I really wasn't expecting him to arrive with the wrong part. I told the repairman I was getting tired of this. I showed him the parts I had ordered myself and said I could have a control board shipped to the house overnight if I need to. There was just no excuse for this level of ineptness. The guy went back to his truck and called his supervisor. He came back a while later and said his company could have a new part shipped overnight as well. He could come back Wednesday and install it. I didn't believe him, but I said "Sure, go ahead."

The repairman left to go to his next job and I took the freezer apart and defrosted the evaporator coil with a hair dryer again. I also installed one of the parts I bought. The other part was more difficult to install, so I'm going to have the repairman replace it when he returns on Wednesday. Why do I think I'm going to get a call on Wednesday morning saying that the control board hasn't arrived yet.

Dash wouldn't walk again this morning. Maybe if Janet hadn't had to go to work early, we could have tricked him into leaving the house, but it wasn't meant to be. I really don't understand this new aversion to leaving the house in the morning. When Janet returned this evening, Dash was eager to walk. I wish this dog could tell me what's wrong. The vets can't explain his behavior, but something has definitely changed.

I had an animal rescue meeting tonight. I thought I wouldn't be able to attend because of the refrigerator repair, but since the repairman didn't actually do anything, I had plenty of time. Not much was accomplished at the meeting, but at least I made an effort to show up. Janet was able to come home early, so Dash got an evening walk as well. It wasn't the kind of day I expected, but I really can't complain. The refrigerator will be fine for another week after I defrosted the coil. Dash ate his dinner and seems happy. I even have plenty of time to finish tonight's blog entry.

I meet my new doctor tomorrow. At least I assume he'll be my new doctor. Who knows. Maybe I won't like the guy. I hope this transition goes smoothly. The last thing I need right now is one more unexpected hassle. I've been postponing my annual physical since last Summer in anticipation of this switch. If I become a patient of this new clinic, I'm going to be immediately due for a lot of tests.

I need to figure out how to get the roofer out here before it rains again. There's an alarmingly large hole in the elastomer that needs to be patched. The house is wearing me out. The roof needs attention, the shower still leaks, and the refrigerator is driving me crazy. I wish everything would return to normal, but does normal even exist these days? I don't think so.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2855

I think I've messed up my day count. This is Day 2855, but according to Blogger I've actually written something for 2865 consecutive days. Where did the missing ten days go? I don't have a clue. I'm sure what happened was that one day I made a typo in the title and then the next day I just added one to that number and kept going. I really don't have the time or the inclination to search through a year's worth of blog posts to find the gap, but this odd mistake will be added to the long list of things that irritate me. I'm so meticulous and always spell check everything. How could I make a mistake like this?

Dash didn't walk at all today. He wouldn't leave the yard this morning and since Janet had to go to a funeral after work, he wouldn't take an evening walk either. I tried everything to get him to take an evening walk. At one point I left all his gear on for an hour or so, hoping that he could get used to it. The knee brace wasn't the problem. He walked around the yard with his knee brace and boots just fine, but as soon as I put a leash on him, he started heading for the house. The days are getting shorter, so this is only going to get harder in the months ahead. I don't know what this reluctance to walk is all about. The knee brace isn't bothering him and he can walk normally while wearing it. He doesn't mind the rubber boots either. He wears these around the house at times and seems to forget he has them on. For some reason that only Dash knows, he just doesn't want to leave the yard anymore.

I finished my article today, but it took longer than I expected. When Dash doesn't get enough exercise, he is constantly pestering me to let him outside. As soon as he's out, he just wanders around for a minute or two and then wants to come in again. In and out we go, all day long. I can't just leave the back door open. An open door is an invitation to all the squirrels, raccoons, and feral cats that wander through our yard. There are plenty of bugs that would fly through the open door as well.

After I shipped my article off to the client, I got caught up on my website revisions. I wish now that I'd never bothered to convert everyone's site to a mobile friendly format. None of my clients even seem to care that their site automatically resizes for tablets and phones. The mobile sites are more complex and harder to change. The worst thing is that I can't use Dreamweaver anymore and need to make my changes using a cloud based design program. Modifications that used to take a few minutes can now take up to an hour. The sad thing is that I've got plenty of time to do all this because there aren't that many clients left.

Today's picture is pretty pitiful, since Dash wouldn't walk anywhere with me. It's just a crow in the back yard. I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. I might have to take a picture of my morning smoothie. I hope I can figure out how to get Dash walking again. He used to love long walks and certainly needs the exercise. He shouldn't do anything strenuous with the blood clots in his heart, but his doctor said that slow walks would actually be good for him.

The parts I ordered for the refrigerator arrived this morning, but I've still heard nothing about the important mother board that the appliance repair folks ordered. All I ordered were some rubber gaskets and a temperature sensor that the repairman said never goes bad. I could have ordered the motherboard myself as well, but I was afraid I might have to pay for two boards if the repair shop wouldn't send theirs back. Lord knows when this thing will get fixed. I'm still convinced that I could have watched a few YouTube instructional videos and fixed the refrigerator myself weeks ago.

It looks like I might have to take some money from the retirement account to pay the Mastercard bill. That's what happens when business dries up. I guess this is what the retirement account if for, but I'd hoped to leave it untouched for a few more years. Sometimes I wonder if planning ahead even matters. You could have everything all worked out and then there's a nuclear war with North Korea or that super volcano under Yellowstone National Park explodes. Then what? I don't even think the preppers have an answer for that.

Little Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2520

I can describe today in three words. All day rain. I got wet when I tried to walk Dash. I got wet every time I took Dot outside to pee. I got wet when I went to the bank. The pump isn't working on the roof, but it was too wet and slippery to go up and investigate. The dehumidifier was working overtime to remove the humidity from the air. Basically, today was a mess. According to the weather report, it's going to be this way all week. For some reason we always get a lot of rain between Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm going to need a lot of patience to deal with this.

Maybe the rain destroyed my concentration. I had a couple of little projects around the house that went horribly wrong. I was going to superglue some old running shoes back together and ended up spilling some of the superglue on my leg. I ran to the bathroom to look for some nail polish remover, but discovered that the bottle was empty. Damn. It is very difficult to remove superglue from skin. I should have just thrown these shoes away. They're old and I have a new pair anyway. I don't know why I always feel compelled to fix things. At any rate, the superglue is probably going to remain on my leg until it eventually wears away.

I had a couple of minor website updates to complete today, but the work wasn't substantial enough to leave me feeling that I still had a career. I've got to come to grips with the fact that my real job these days is providing hospice care for a really old dog. Dot is a very special friend and I'd do anything for her. I wish being a caretaker made me happy though. Mostly it is very sad to watch a friend decline this way.

There is little evidence that I cleaned the house yesterday. Muddy paws and wet boots have already taken their toll on things. The yard is rapidly filling with falling Oak and Elm leaves and these quickly end up in the house as well. There is little reason to clean things up until the rain stops. Every time I open the back door, the floors instantly seem to get dirty again. Today the real challenge was just staying dry. I had a stack of bath towels by the back door to dry the dogs off with and kept the dryer running for my pants and the dog's harnesses.

I wonder if everything will return to normal after election day tomorrow? Whatever happens, half the country will be terribly unhappy. I hear both candidates saying that they want to unite the country again. Lots of luck with that. I voted, but I don't feel optimistic that my vote will make a difference. My vote will just cancel your vote. We have become so divided that I don't see how we move forward.

Maybe it won't rain all day tomorrow. Even a dismal election will look a little brighter if I can see the sun.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2260

I dropped my car off at the dealership right after we walked the dogs this morning. Amazingly, I was able to replicate the intermittent electrical problem I've been having. This almost never happens. Usually, when I bring my car in with an intermittent problem, it works perfectly for the service technician and nobody believes there is anything wrong. Sometimes, it has taken me three or four trips to resolve these frustrating on-again, off-again problems. Who knows how long it will actually take to get the car fixed, but at least everyone believed me today.

Dot had another accident in her bed last night. She managed to eat most of the evidence again too, before either of us woke up.  Yuk. I'm surprised that Dash didn't have an accident as well. Since it was raining outside, he categorically refused to go in the yard and do his business. I told him that he'd have to hold it until morning, but he didn't seem to care. Luckily, the rain finally stopped, so I think we're back to normal again. I've really grown to appreciate a day with perfect weather. When everything else is a disaster, nice weather can really help. Nope. The weather wasn't very nice today, but it would have made life easier if it was.

Work is picking up again. I have three new articles to write and several website updates to make. There was a time when I could have done all of this in one day, but not anymore. Since I'm still limping along with a nasty cold, these new jobs could take me the rest of the week to finish. It felt like I was busy today, but at the end of the day, I'd accomplished virtually nothing.

The high points of my day were almost pathetic. I used the sanitize setting on the washing machine to clean a particularly messy dog blanket and discovered that the super hot water in the waste water lines accidentally helped to unclog a sluggish shower drain. I was fascinated with the sanitize setting when we first got the front loader, but quickly discovered that it took forever to do a load of wash and wasted a lot of water. Maybe I ought to use this setting more often if it helps to keep the plumbing lines clear. On the other hand, it is possible that this super heated water caused our underground water leak. I'm not certain what the melting point of the lead solder they used to use in old cast iron pipes, but I'm sure it is quite low. The plumber did tell me that the joints in one of the cast iron sewer lines coming out of the utility room had failed when he fixed our underground leak last year.

I finally received a credit from the water company to for the water we lost during the pipe leak. Unfortunately, I thought the credit notice was a water bill and wrote a check to the water company for the amount of the credit. How was I to know?  The credit memo looked exactly like a bill if you didn't notice the tiny type that said "no payment required. Luckily, I finally did figure out what was going on while I was looking for a stamp for the envelope and I tore up the check. I guess I should have noticed that the dollar amount on the bill was negative too. I always forget that the standard way to show negative numbers is to put them in parentheses. I'm glad I noticed my mistake, because the water company would have taken my money and just sent me a larger credit notice next month.

I know you're tired of hearing about how yucky having the flu feels, so I'll quit whining about it. Eventually, I'm bound to feel better.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2249

I had a strange experience today. I received an official looking letter from a law firm addressed to somebody I'd never heard of in my life living at my address. Only three people have ever lived in this house since it was built in 1955, so I knew something was fishy. I Googled the name of the law firm and discovered a laundry list of complaints, saying that these people were scammers and to never pay them. There were an almost equal number of comments saying that the firm was a legitimate collection agency often hired by municipalities to collect unpaid traffic tickets, toll road tolls, and court judgements.

I opened the letter and sure enough it was an order demanding the mysterious recipient immediately pay a local Justice of the Peace court $800. I called the court and sure enough, the man named in the letter was real and had a case file. They didn't know how my address had become associated with the case and told me that they had sent the collection agency a different address several years ago. They didn't seem very concerned and told me to call the law firm that sent me the letter if I still had questions. I called the law firm, expecting a lot of trouble because of all the bad Yelp reviews, but they were quite nice and told me they would take my address out of their database and I wouldn't be getting any more threatening letters. When I asked how my address had become associated with the person they were actually trying to reach, they didn't have a clue. Both the court and the law firm were so casual about this mix-up that I got the impression that it happens everyday. They just didn't seem to care. This unusual civics lesson certainly didn't inspire much confidence in either our legal system or bureaucracies in general.

The cancer center called today with Dot's initial lab results. It appears that her kidneys and liver are still functioning normally, but they still want to see her again next week. I tried to get a blood pressure reading while Dot was at her therapy session this morning but the clinic's blood pressure monitor was malfunctioning. I'll have to schedule weekly blood pressure monitoring at the cancer center instead. One more vet appointment in a long list of ongoing vet appointments. Dot did quite well in the underwater treadmill today. She seemed to have more energy than I did.

When I was preparing dinner tonight, Dot looked like she was getting ready to poop. I rushed to get her outside and quickly pushed all the food to the back of the kitchen counter so Dash wouldn't eat it while I was outside. When I returned a few minutes later, I was surprised to discover that one of the stove-top burners was on and had partially melted a nearby bottle of mayonnaise. Yikes! When I pushed the food to the back of the counter, I must have inadvertently turned on one of the burners. This just goes to show that there are very few scenarios where something can't go horribly wrong. Luckily, no harm was done, but the incident reminded me of the dangers of being in a hurry. I am so slow and methodical that it drives people crazy, but apparently I should have acted a bit slower in this situation.

I have a photoshoot this weekend where my client is actually a committee of people. I think I will have to multiply the amount of time I think the job should take by the number of people in the committee to find out complicated this assignment really is. The fewer the people the better has always been my motto, but I'll do the best I can. One of the people on the committee is another photographer, which ought to make things even more interesting. Anybody who works with ad agencies would find this situation completely normal, but I haven't dealt with agencies for quite a while. I'm going to have to be on my best behavior so these people won't think I'm a grumpy old man. Who am I kidding? I am a grumpy old man.

Laday Gogh is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1737

Dash went to the vet to get his blood tested today. Unfortunately, we will need to repeat the whole process next week. Dash's blood sample contained lipids, which meant the thyroid test he was having would show inaccurate results. Dash needs to fast for at least 12 hours next time so the lab can get a better sample. When I have problems with lipids, the doctors refer to it as bad cholesterol. When a dog has problems with lipids they just call it fat in the blood. I guess it's more or less the same thing.

Ever since my doctor convinced me to start taking Foltanx to improve cognition and prevent memory loss, I have been having very active dreams. I haven't noticed any difference whatsoever during the day, but my dreams are much more complex now. This isn't exactly what I wanted. I think my cognitive abilities are just fine. I make my living using them. The only reason I went along with the doctor and started taking the drug, which is basically just an expensive multi-vitamin containing Folate, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12, was that I'd read it was effective at combating some forms of neuropathy that cause numbness in your extremities. I still feel numbness in my feet occasionally, so I really don't know if this stuff works at all. There are lots of reasons for weird dreams, including waking up five times each night to see if Dot has peed in the bed. Maybe this is just one more junk pill that does nothing.

The trouble with meds is that you have to trust the person who prescribed them for you. Unfortunately, doctors don't agree on much and some of them are nuts. Pick just about any drug and you'll find ten different opinions about it. It's frustrating to say the least. Is Niacin a great way to lower bad cholesterol, or will it just increase your chances of getting diabetes? Why am I taking Carvedilol to slow my heart down when it's ticking pretty slow already? Some doctors think Statins can cause memory loss. Other doctors think Statins actually help with brain function and are prescribing them for Alzheimer's patients. I just wish everyone could get on the same page.

A paid some bills today and did a little bookkeeping. As usual, I made a few incorrect entries in Quickbooks Pro and couldn't get everything to balance. I wish there was some equivalent of spell-check in Quickbooks that would warn me about entering payments incorrectly. Sometimes it takes me fifteen minutes just to find a fifty cent error.

Dot seemed tired today. Maybe it was just a reaction to the rabies shot she had yesterday. We all went to training class this evening, but Dot mostly sat on the sidelines and watched Dash and I go through our paces. I think Dot still enjoyed being included in the activities. She seemed happy just sitting in the grass and watching the other dogs. Dash did pretty well, but I think he would have preferred to sit in the grass as well.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1591

I managed to compound the problems I was facing with an already busy day by making small mistakes in virtually everything I touched. Maybe I just had too much on my plate today. I suspect it might have been my tendency to ignore the details however. The details I forget are inevitably the first thing my clients always notice. All's well that ends well though. I think I managed to get everything fixed.

Dot did great at her physical therapy session today. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that she was actually getting younger. Her rear legs seem stronger now and she doesn't stumble as often. More importantly, she hasn't had a seizure since  we started to do acupuncture on a regular basis. I asked the vet if there might be a connection between the acupuncture and the seizures, and she said that although there was no way to prove things conclusively, at least two other patients of hers quit having seizures when they started having acupuncture. There is some anecdotal evidence that acupuncture can help prevent seizures in certain situations. Maybe Dot is one of the lucky ones where acupuncture really makes a difference.

I went back to eating oatmeal this morning, but the whole time I was fixing my breakfast, I kept thinking that tomorrow was Friday and I would finally get to go out for a real breakfast. I need to come up with a better solution for feeding myself. I'm actually a pretty good cook, but my OCD tendencies make cooking excruciatingly slow. I often find that I've wasted half the day fixing myself a simple meal. When I'm chopping vegetables, I have to cut everything into precise little squares. The meat has to be browned just so, and heaven forbid that I substitute another spice for the missing one in the spice rack. None of my compulsions make the food taste any better, but they sure do waste a lot of time. I've also noticed that I tend to wash all the dishes by hand before I put them in the dishwasher.  I don't know why I do this, but I suspect it has something to do with trying to make things easier on the machines. By some twisted logic, I think that the dishwasher will last longer if it doesn't need to deal with excessive amounts of dirt.

One of my clients mentioned that she had an idea for a TV series that she would like to pitch. There was a time when I would have jumped at this obvious opportunity to help her put together a pilot episode. I have the experience and I have the equipment. I just don't have the energy anymore. Production is a lot of work. Fifteen years ago I was going to SXSW every Spring, hoping to make connections and find funding for video projects I wanted to do. Now, I'm wondering if I'll ever get behind the camera again. Years ago, I was totally perplexed at all the changes my Dad went through as he got older. Now, I think I'm starting to understand.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1338

I took the Defender in for service this morning and ended up driving home in a new Range Rover Evoque. I'm kind of glad the dealer gave me a loaner with hail damage because I'm always nervous of getting a ding in these loaner cars. This one was so full of dings that I've got nothing to worry about. The Evoque seems to get a lot of good press, but I'd never buy one. It's too small, too low to the ground, and has terrible viability. I don't know who they're marketing this car to. It's not an off-road vehicle. It's not a family SUV. And it's not really pretty enough to be a sports car. I sure hope they don't make the new Defender look anything like these things.

This was another day where I had to schedule everything around a series of brief but intense rainstorms. The dogs managed to get both their walks, but just barely. Both times, there was a downpour within minutes of returning to the house.  When the sun came out right after lunch, I used the opportunity to clear the water off the roof. That was pretty dumb, because two hours later, it was raining again.

I was a little nervous about taking Dot to her acupuncture session today. Now that Dash has decided he's scared of rain too, I kept wondering if a sudden thunderclap might trigger another seizure. All was fine though. Although the sky was dark and ominous looking, it didn't rain at all while Dot and I were away. When I checked in on Dash using the nanny cam, he was sleeping on the bed, just like he always does.

In case you think I do nothing buy cater to the needs of spoiled dogs, there was other work to do as well. I finished several new articles, answered some client questions about online forms, and paid a pile of new bills that arrived in the mail today. When I entered the payments in my accounting software, they didn't balance. This happens a lot these days. No matter how careful I am, I inevitably make an erroneous entry and end up having to check everything a second time. This seems to be an unfortunate by-product of growing older. Even the simplest things seem to take an excruciatingly long time. The same thing happens when I'm writing. There are typos galore.

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow, because I've got a photo shoot scheduled. It's just some industrial photography that will ultimately wind up on a website, but it's still a nice break from sitting in a small room and writing with two dogs under my desk that think the sky is falling. I need to charge all my camera batteries and make sure the equipment is in working order before I go to bed tonight. The photography side of my business is not immune to my forgetfulness.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1273

I got my articles written today. I got my June invoices out. I even found time to experiment with a new variation on my morning oatmeal. Despite all the activity, it was basically a boring day. If Dot could talk, she'd tell you that the dog days of Summer are here again. We're going to have to start getting up earlier. By the time we took our morning walk, it was already hot and humid. As the Summer progresses, it's only going to get worse.

The roofers came back today to retrieve their tools and clean up the debris pile on the side of the house. I'm pretty sure they're finished with things now. This means it's time for me to pay for the stupid thing. A flat roof is not a very satisfying purchase. It just sits there. Under normal circumstances, you can't even see it. I would have much rather have spent the money on a new Canon C300 Cinema Camera.

Apple finally announced the long awaited Mac Pro that's been on my wish list for several years now. I'm disappointed. The weird shiny black cylindrically shaped thing reminds me of the ill-fated Powermac G4 Cube. I bought one of those and it never did what I wanted. This new Mac Pro has some of the same failings as the Cube. It's odd shape is not compatible with standard PCIe cards. It's not compatible with standard 2.5 inch solid state drives either. I don't know if it's compatible with anything. Although, this new tech toy looks pretty cool in a retro sci-fi kind of way, I don't think it was what video editors like myself were wanting or expecting. Lord, I just hope that Land Rover does a better job of re-imagining my beloved Defender 90. I hate to wait so long and end up so disappointed.

Another prescription expired today that was supposed to have been renewed for another full year. This is the second one in two days. I'm beginning to think that all my meds were only renewed for three months instead of one year when I had my annual physical this Spring. It's little things like this that really eat up your time. It's easy enough to resolve these types of mistakes, but I shouldn't have too. There are way too many other things on my to-do list already.

The dogs have the right idea. After their morning walk, they slept until is was time for their rice cake for lunch. After a quick trip outside to pee, it was back to sleep until dinner time and their evening walk. I can't tell you how tempted I was to join my lazy dogs today.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1256

While I was having my Black Bean Benedict breakfast this morning, two people seated at the next table were trying to explain the concept of purgatory to each other. I can't remember when I've heard a more confusing and convoluted explanation of anything. I'm not much of a believer. Belief requires a certainty I just don't have. I am a good observer though and try my best not to pass judgement on what I observe.

It was difficult not to pass judgement on the roofers carpentry skills however. When I got home from breakfast, I noticed that the new fascia trim the roofers had just finished attaching to the edge of the carport didn't match the existing trim on the house. The lumber they used for the fascia was an inch wider than the existing trim. Didn't the guys notice the obvious mismatch at the joint where the new trim met the old trim at the corner of the house? Jeez! I wish they'd measured the lumber before they nailed it up on the house. When I pointed out out the disparity in the two sections of trim, the guys seemed angry with me. Did they actually think I wouldn't notice this?  One of the roofers finally told me that they would fix the problem, but didn't tell me how. They all left for the day immediately afterwards.

The assignment to provide photography and social media coverage for one of my clients at a big watch and jewelry trade show got approved today. The schedule has changed though. Now I'm leaving earlier and staying longer than I anticipated. I wish I'd known this new schedule several days ago. I recently ordered an airport friendly rolling carry-on camera case in anticipation of this assignment. The UPS website says the case is scheduled to arrive the day after I leave.

It's raining now. The main roof is more or less finished, so I imagine we'll stay dry inside. I wouldn't be surprised if the cars were wet tomorrow morning though. The carport is definitely still a work in progress. When I looked this afternoon, it certainly didn't appear very waterproof to me.

I hope the wet weather clears up soon. We've got a three day weekend ahead and it would be nice to have some beautiful, sunny weather to go along with the holiday. I know the dogs are going to expect a trip to the dog park. Personally, I don't know what to expect anymore.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1204

Today was full of questions with very few answers. I was on the phone for hours with roofers, insurance agents, equipment suppliers, and clients and ended the day just as confused as I started. Finding the answer to something over the phone is kind of like winning the lottery. Your chances of success are very, very small. Every once in a while you get lucky and end up talking to someone knowledgeable. Most of the time you just get shuffled from one person to another until you eventually give up. I think most of the customer service people I talk with on the phone are just reading from a prepared script they see on their computer screen. They can answer very simple questions, but that's about it. I'd like to tell these people that if my question was that easy, I'd have found the answer already on their company website.

I think I got bitten by a spider last night. That seems like a reasonable explanation for the two swollen lumps I found on my arm and leg this morning. I didn't even bother going to the doctor, since I knew they they would just give me a cortisone shot and send me on my way. I've been bitten by spiders before and the trouble with these type of bites is that unless you actually see the spider biting you, the reaction they produce could be caused by any number of things. So, why do I think I was bitten by a spider? Just a guess, actually. I did see a big spider on the bed a few days ago though. If it actually was a spider, I don't think it was a Brown Recluse, or anything serious. The reaction would have been more immediate and alarming. If the swelling doesn't subside tomorrow, I'll go see a doctor. I just don't like taking steroid shots for any and all types of inflammation. Steroids aren't good.

Dash almost got the wrong shot today. There was a new nurse who didn't know Dash's records well. Luckily, when he mentioned the medication he would be injecting, I noticed that it didn't sound right. He ended up getting the right shot, but it's another lesson that you always have to be on your guard. I wish this wasn't the case, but it is. I would like to just put my brain on automatic pilot for a while and coast. I don't think there would be a happy ending it I did this though. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a paranoid person and certainly don't think anyone is out to get me. I do think a lot of people are incompetent however. Incompetance is everywhere.

It rained today, but the weather radar app on my iPad allowed me to successfully navigate the storms and walk the dogs without any of us getting soaked. Since there isn't much to do on rainy days, I got some more articles written. By the time my client gets back from vacation, I'll probably be all caught up again.

Miracle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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