Day 2592

I have lost the ability to be spontaneous. If I deviate from my routine even slightly, everything falls apart. I almost didn't get my blog posted by midnight last night just because I left the house for a few hours. When I tried to make up the time I'd spent attending last night's meeting, I didn't watch Dot closely enough and she ended up pooping in her bed with her harness still on. This always makes things messier. Even worse, I was so tired that I fell asleep at the computer for a while and didn't notice that Dot had pooped on herself until after midnight when I was getting ready for bed. I had to wake her up and take her outside in the rain where I could clean her off and fit her in a fresh harness. Since I disrupted Dot's sleep to clean her up, she became stressed and peed in her bed later in the evening, which we discovered the next morning. I kept thinking that none of this would have happened if I'd done everything on schedule.

I'm really getting tired of all the rain we've been getting lately. My shoes get muddy every time I take Dot out in the back yard to pee and often I don't have time to take them off again while I am guiding her back through the house to her bed. The rugs are a mess. If I see a brown clump on a rug, the only way I can tell whether it is mud or poop is to kneel down and smell it. Dot has trouble getting traction on the slick, wet ground, so I have to be extra careful that she doesn't stumble and fall. I'm able to prevent a lot of the falls, but I can't catch them all. I felt bad today when she stumbled in the hallway while I was doing dishes and ended up cutting her foot.

Since I'm caught up on work again, I thought I'd get caught up on the bills that are stacking up on my desk. I paid all the December bills today and took them to the post office. I'm glad December only comes once a year. Every time I pay a stack of bills, I'm dismayed by the thought that I'll be doing this on a fixed income in just a few years. When I was younger I always thought the solution to money problems was to just make more money. It seemed to work pretty well when I was in demand, but I'm afraid that train has already left the station. I don't even want to think about what life will be like twenty years from now. Given my family history, I might not even be around by then, but if I am I'll probably be broke.

I need to catch up on sleep tonight. I didn't get to bed until 1 AM and then had to get up again at 6 AM. That's not enough sleep. I wish I could write my blog entries faster. I remain committed to my goal of writing for 5000 consecutive days, but it's getting harder. Eventful days are actually much easier to describe than days when nothing happens. Sometimes I'll stare at the screen for thirty minutes before I can even write the first sentence. This would be so much easier if I were still attending space launches, traveling around the world to create ad campaigns, and getting included in cookbooks.

I certainly won't be doing any of that tomorrow. There are two bananas left and a pint of strawberries, so I'll be having my regular fruit smoothie for breakfast. I don't know what I'll have for dinner though. The refrigerator is looking pretty empty. There's my goal for tomorrow: to find something for dinner.

Dovey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1924

I got quite a bit done today. My taxes are finally ready to go to the accountant. I finished writing two more articles and sent them off to the client. I made an appointment to resume Dot's physical therapy later this week. And I contacted the roofer and told him about the problems I've been having with the peeling elastomer. Considering that today is Monday, this was pretty good.

A small piece broke off the grinder component of my new single serve machine when I was making coffee this morning. This was actually a good thing, because it gave me an opportunity to take this worthless thing back to the store and exchange it for something else. I boxed up the coffee maker and as soon as Janet came home to watch Dot, I took it back to the store and got a Keurig instead. All I want is a nice cup of coffee in the morning without having to spend half an hour cleaning the machine. Who knows if the K-cup pods will be as tasty as the beans I'm currently grinding, but the whole process will certainly be easier. I don't think you have to clean these K-cup coffee makers at all.

Dot continues to get stronger with each passing day.  Today I attached an extension to her Help 'Em Up Harness that lets her support her own weight and just serves as a fail-safe device to keep her from falling if she starts to slip. I was pleased to see that Dot can walk without me holding up her rear legs. On the other hand, I was a bit alarmed to see how awkwardly she walked when I wasn't supporting her. Dot is definitely not ready to walk completely unassisted yet. I'm in no hurry. We'll just continue taking things one step at a time. The stronger she gets, the better she'll be able to walk.

It would be nice if the roofers could come out tomorrow. I'm not going to hold my breath though. They probably won't show up until it starts to rain again. Since there is currently no rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, this would be an excellent time to get things repaired. The roof may be dry now, but it's going to take a lot longer before the park dries out. Dash's favorite routes seem to always traverse the soggiest and muddiest areas. I let hm walk wherever he wants though. He's been really good about dealing with all the extra attention I've been giving Dot, and I don't want to rock the boat. Peaceful, happy dogs make life a lot easier.

It's proving to be quite difficult to keep the house clean with a muddy yard and throw rugs all over the place. The vacuum cleaner doesn't deal with the little rugs very well and keeps trying to suck them up. It may be time for a new vacuum cleaner. For now, the house it just getting dirtier by the day. Dot has always been scared of the vacuum cleaner anyway and I don't have the heart to use it while she's trapped in her pen and unable to move. There are so many elements to this rehabilitation effort that catch me by surprise. I'm getting better at finding the dog poop but there's always something new to deal with. Since it's getting warmer, the wasps have returned and I can no longer just leave the back door open while I take Dot in and out to pee with the harness. The wasps are already starting to build nests under the eaves and if I leave the door open very long, they are sure to fly inside. The only good thing about Winter is that the bugs disappear for a while. Now, they're back again.

Ariel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1922

Weekends were always busy. Now, they're becoming impossible. When you try to add a week's worth of postponed activities to your normal weekend errand list, not everything gets done. Janet and I both had lots to do today and neither of us got everything finished. I guess this is the new normal, just like the mismatched rugs covering the floors, the dog beds in every room, and the metal playpen in the living room.

Dot is sleeping much better now. Since we've discontinued the prednisolone, she doesn't have to go outside to pee in the middle of the night anymore. I need to help her when she wakes up and wants to circle around and change positions, but I can almost do this in my sleep. I still had to get up early, so I could walk Dash, mail some bills and go to the bank before Janet had to take her car in for service, but all-in-all, I think everyone got a good night's sleep.

The pet store was nice enough to let us return the crate we got for Dot immediately after surgery. As soon as she got strong enough to protest, she refused to sleep in it. It was a nice, sturdy crate, but if Dot refuses to use it, it is just something else to trip over in the bedroom. Now that we have the circular pen in the living room, we probably don't need a crate anyway. Janet bought some sort of a hammock thing while she was out today that she says is a safe way to transport Dot in the car. I'll read the instructions and install it tomorrow and see if it works. About half the things we get for Dot's rehabilitation work and the other half don't. At least the pet stores have been pretty good about taking back the things that didn't work.

I don't know how much more of this rain I can take. It rained again today. Our yard is as soggy as a wet sponge. The park is a mud pit. And if you don't pick up the dog poop immediately, you can never find it the next day. I got a new pair of waterproof boots, but I continue to wear the old leaky pair and throw my wet socks in the wash as soon as I get home. This doesn't make any logical sense, but I hate to ruin a new pair of shoes before I even get them broken in. At least Dot's incision has healed nicely and I don't need to worry about it getting wet in the rain anymore.

Maybe I'll get more done tomorrow. I certainly hope so. There is still some shopping that needs to get finished, there is lots of water on the roof, I never made it to the post office, and I haven't been to the gym in a long time. I've noticed that the grass is starting to grow in the front yard too. This means that mowing the grass will soon be on my weekend chore list as well. I wonder if the lawn mower battery survived the Winter? Maybe next week I'll find out.

As you can probably tell, I'm totally burned out. Dot's amazing ability to bounce back makes it all worthwhile though. After all she's been through this year, I never would have dreamed that she would have responded so well to the risky surgery. Nobody, not even her surgeon and neurologist, can believe Dot is fourteen years old. She is definitely the Energizer Bunny of Dalmatians. I wish I had Dot's energy. Unfortunately, everybody can believe I'm in my mid-sixties. I might as well wear a sign that says "Grumpy Old Man."

Big Boy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1761

It started raining just before we went to bed last night and continued until just after sunrise. Ordinarily, a night of heavy rain would upset Dot so much that none of us would get any sleep. Dot slept soundly though. She's starting to lose her hearing and didn't even notice the rain. When we woke up this morning, it was surprisingly cold. I had to look for a heavier coat before we took our morning walk, because my light Fall jacket just wasn't warm enough.

The temperature dropped so much that the plastic gas container I got for the generator fuel looked like it has imploded. I had filled the container with gas yesterday afternoon when it was quite warm and then sealed it. The change in air pressure literally caved in the  sides of the container. I think the same thing happens to your tires in the Winter. Supposedly, I don't need to worry about increasing my tire pressure in cold weather anymore, because the tires are filled with nitrogen now.

I kept busy today, but nothing of any consequence happened. I had to look for an odd sized nickel-metal hydride backup battery I needed for one of my audio recorders. I could have ordered the battery online, but I didn't have anything better to do today anyway. Eventually, I found the illusive battery, filled the car up with gas at a nearby station, and returned home to clear the water off the roof.

The park has gotten so muddy from all the recent rain that I've started walking the dogs through the neighborhood. I've avoided walking through the neighborhood ever since Dash got attacked by a viscous dog at the end of the street. It's been a long time since the attack and the aggressive dog finally got old and died. Two other aggressive dogs I've been worried about have moved out of the neighborhood, so maybe it's safe again. I like walking in the park better, but it's interesting to see how much the neighborhood has changed over the years. As older couples die or move, they are replaced by young couples with children who think the simple frame houses aren't big or fancy enough. On street after street, perfectly good homes are being scraped and replaced by McMansions. The original homeowners, who build here right after World War II, wouldn't even recognize the place anymore.

I'm still taping the new Dr. Who episodes every Saturday night, but haven't had much desire to actually watch the shows. For the most part, the scripts this season have been terrible. For a show where you are regularly expected to suspend disbelief, a lot of the new scenarios are just ridiculous. Clara and the new doctor don't seem to mesh very well either. I still like the 2005 series with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper the best.

It's almost time to turn the furnace on. I'm wearing a light jacket around the house because I'm cold, but Janet thinks the temperature is perfect. I never win these thermostat battles, especially when the dogs like the temperature cooler in the house as well. Eventually, everyone will agree that we need the furnace. Until then, I guess I'll have to bundle up.

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1559

Weekends come with a bonus these days. There are no complicated cancer protocols to follow on weekends. Dash gets a little rest and the dogs can just be normal dogs. Even though it was a normal weekend filled with the usual weekend chores, it seemed much easier to deal with than the previous week.

Since the weather was nice, I thought I'd do some gardening and finish up what the landscaping guys forgot. I went to Home Depot and bought a couple of flats of Liriope to fill in a few bare areas. I thought the landscape guys were going to do this themselves, but apparently we weren't on the same wavelength. They did have extra Monkey Grass in their bid, but when I told them to fill in the bare areas, they started on the East side of the yard and methodically worked their way West. I thought they'd start with the worst looking areas and proceed to slightly less shabby areas until the Liriope ran out. There would have been plenty of ground cover to go around if they'd done this. Instead, they just told me that they ran out of Liriope before they even reached the big bare spot on the West side of the yard.

I should never do gardening. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and I hate mud and dirt. Gardening is all about mud and dirt, so I always make a bigger mess than I anticipate. It took a while, but the yard now looks the way I imagined it would. I also took some of the white pea gravel I had the guys add to the path and moved it to the small decorative circles that serve as sculpture bases. Just like the Liriope, there was already plenty of pea gravel to accomplish what I wanted. The landscapers just didn't seem to know what I wanted to do with it.  I found the extra gravel I needed under the garbage cans behind the back fence. It wasn't doing much good there, so I shoveled it into buckets and moved it to the two circular areas on either side of the curving path. After I was finished, there was still plenty of left-over gravel.

Everything looks great now, but my gardening efforts took so much longer than I anticipated that I didn't make it to the gym after all. By the way my shoulder feels now, I probably got more exercise gardening than I would have at the gym anyway.

I'll be real glad when my Hepatitis C treatments are finished. Now that my Hemoglobin levels are low, I find that I'm frequently getting nosebleeds in addition to waking up with a cold every morning. When I was making the bed this morning, I leaned over to straighten the sheets and noticed little drops of blood on the pillows. "What the hell," I thought. "Where is this blood coming from?" Then I realized that it was dripping from my nose. It's a nuisance, but a very minor nuisance compared to getting a liver transplant sometime later in life.

Janet and I tried to attach our little bird scarecrows to small suction cups to make them easier to place on the cars. It was an idea that should have worked, since the suction cups seemed to stick easily to a variety of things around the house. They wouldn't stick to the cars though. I don't know why. Oh, well. This was a minor failure. The yard looks nice. The dogs are relaxed and happy. It was a nice weekend.

Ariel 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 1120

I got my January invoices in the mail today. I also got Dash's anal glands cleaned at the vet. Both events held about the same degree of excitement. There's something about an all day rain that just takes the wind out of my sails. When I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions, I saw a wet pencil lying in the road and it seemed to sum up my day.

The dogs seem to think that I have the ability to stop the rain, the same way I can open and close doors for them and make food appear when they're hungry. Every time I would let them outside today, they would give me this "make it stop" look. I wish I could make the rain stop. I could certainly have used the hours I spent cleaning mud off the dogs, off my shoes, and off the floor for something better.

Rain always makes me nervous about water leaks. No leaks today, but I could hear the dreaded dripping sound at any moment. I joined Angie's List recently in hopes of finding a good roofer. So far, Angie's List has been a huge disappointment. The minute I joined, I started getting tons of junk e-mails for all sorts of household services. What's that all about? I thought the whole point of Angie's List was to avoid advertising hype. Apparently not. The list, and its companion universe of post cards, e-mail blasts, magazines and coupons are jam packed with ads. You don't really see many negative reviews on the list either. I think people are wary about saying negative things online now in the wake of all these lawsuits resulting from a bad review on Yelp.

At any rate, I'm still not sure that a roofer who truly understands residential flat roofs even exists. There are plenty of companies who know how to put a quality flat roof on factories, warehouses, gymnasiums, and other large expanses of real estate. These companies aren't interested in residential roofs though. They're too small, and it isn't cost effective for them to mess with them.

So far, giving Dash a snack at night seems to be working. He hasn't thrown up for three days in a row and the only difference is that he now gets a rice cake just before bed.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1115

I had a photo shoot today. The theme for the assignment was "helping hands" and the models were a baby, a pre-teen girl, their mom, and a puppy. I thought the shoot went pretty well, but I'm not sure the baby would agree. Every time the puppy touched her hand, the baby said "owie".

After taking hundreds of images, I'm sure I managed to get something the client will like. My favorite is to your left, even though one of my models appears to be missing. If it wasn't for lugging all the heavy lighting equipment around, I would enjoy photography more than writing. Photography is definitely more immediate. Writing and photography are both about capturing moments to me, but writing seems to require a bit more introspection on my part.

In an effort to keep from spending my entire day cleaning Dot's paws, I raked all the leaves in the  back yard over the top of the muddy path Dot always uses when she races out the back door to bark at things in the alley. This temporary fix will probably work for about ten seconds, but I had to do something. It doesn't matter if the yard is muddy or dry as a bone. Dot always insists on bolting out the back door like a race horse out of the starting gate.

After the Christmas and New Year's holidays are over, it's always hard for me to come to grips with the fact that there are five work days in every week instead of four. Four work days seems plenty to me. Janet thinks I should get used to seven work days. That's what the world is coming to apparently. Until that day comes, I'll continue to treat Friday as my own little holiday. I'm looking forward to another big breakfast tomorrow. After that, I may write a small article. That should do it for this week.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1110

I thought I'd go look for a lamp today. I've been so pleased with the LED bulbs in the ceiling can lights that I thought I'd find a nice looking floor lamp that used these high tech bulbs as well. The floor lamps in the living room and bedroom are the only lights in the entire house now that haven't been converted to LED bulbs. I went to a lighting studio that I remembered from the days when I was obsessed by furniture and was astonished at how expensive nice looking lamps had become. I found a lamp that would look quite nice in the house, but I wasn't about to pay more for a lamp than I paid for my laptop computer. A floor lamp is not a complex object. It's basically just a bulb at the end of a pole. How something so simple could get so expensive is beyond me. Maybe I should have gone to Ikea instead of a fancy contract lighting studio.

Although I failed to come home with a lamp, I did get a few things done today. I found the air compressor and my tires are now all at the correct inflation pressure again.  I got Janet some fresh blueberries at the grocery store. I got Dash's antihistamine prescription renewed at the vet. I even found a little time to practice my guitar.

Am I the only one who's getting completely sick of hearing about the fiscal cliff every time I turn on the television? If congress does nothing, very little will change in our day-to-day lives. Conversely, if they get their act together and pass some sort of legislation before the end of the year, very little will change either. The country will still be in debt and most of us will still personally be in debt. No matter what happens, we will continue to get up in the morning and plod along the best we can. Some things will get better and other things will get worse. The world will change and the next generation will still think all the changes are completely normal. What's not normal is listening to some of the local news anchors continue to call this year-end financial mess the "physical cliff."  Don't they know? The physical cliff has nothing to do with spending and taxes. The physical cliff was what Thelma and Louise drove their car over at the end of the movie.

I hope Dash's sinus problems clear up soon. I'm getting tired of getting up at 4 AM every morning to let him outside to throw up. Even though he's a lot lighter on his feet than Dot, he still tracks in a lot of mud too. I've got to get better at cleaning muddy paws when I'm half asleep. The bed was covered with paw prints when I woke up this morning.

Alle is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1108

Somebody please send me a little glamor. I spent the day chopping a big sheet of ice up on the roof into little blocks I could remove. When I got cold, I would come back inside and write articles that seemed a lot like the metaphorical equivalent of blocks of ice. The whole process reminded me of the woodpeckers I see on our morning walks. Such industrious little birds, but there must be a better way of finding food and sustenance.

A note to the folks who depend on me to write their fake press releases. I've got a nice wool Ralph Lauren tux that still actually fits. You might consider actually sending me to a few of those glamorous events instead of just asking me to pretend I was there. Another note to those who continue to send me Christmas cards long after they have fired me. Wouldn't it have showed a lot more Christmas cheer to have simply kept me on your payroll a bit longer?

While I was eating breakfast this morning, Dot had to go outside and pee. When I let her back inside again, her paws looked like they were wearing clown shoes. Big, brown oak leaves had cemented themselves to a layer of sticky red clay that was all that remained from this Summer's St. Augustine turf. The whole mess, in turn, cemented itself to each of Dot's paws. She looked ridiculous and I had to laugh, despite the fact that it took me at least fifteen minutes to clean her up again.

This is the trouble with Winter. It's just so messy. I don't mind the cold nearly as much as I mind the mess. Every Winter I am continually wiping condensation off of large expanses of single pane glass, so the window sills won't rot. There is a continual load of laundry running from all the towels I use to clean mud off the dogs paws. I never seem to catch all the mud on their paws either. I'm always discovering muddy little surprises on the bedsheets, the sofa and the dog beds. The zippers on my Winter coats always keep breaking too. I've got to take another coat to the tailor tomorrow.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I'm already thinking about what to order for breakfast. There's a short week to look forward to as well. I always like a week with a holiday right in the middle.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day