Day 3353

Dash seems to have a new schedule. He gets up early to go outside and pee. If we're lucky, he poops as well. Instead of taking his morning meds like he usually does at this time of day, he stumbles back to the bedroom and goes to sleep on the floor. He seems exhausted and is often shivering like he used to do in the middle of the night. I'll wrap him in a blanket and about two hours later he will wake up again. If I'm lucky I can get him to take his pills at this time. He'll pee once more and go back to sleep without touching his breakfast.

These two hour naps will often continue until noon when he seems to get a burst of energy and wants a walk. When we return from our walk, he'll usually eat his breakfast. I'm all about consistency, so I don't really understand these changes. I go along with the new schedule though. Dash body is telling him something. He's probably trying to conserve what little energy he has left.

It's just as well that we didn't take an early walk this morning. It was below freezing outside when I woke up this morning. It had warmed up a little by the time I walked Dash around noon, but it was still really cold. I should have worn a sweater under my jacket because I was freezing by the time we returned home. I need to remember that this is Texas and I always need to check the weather before I leave the house. I was in a hurry today because I could see that Dash was in the mood to go and I wanted to get him down to the park before he changed his mind.

I talked to the roofer that my architect friend recommended today. He seemed very knowledgable and we had a long conversation about the pitfalls of homes with a flat roof. He seemed to know a lot about my house just by looking at Google maps. Apparently he had a software program that could provide a rough cost estimate just by looking at the satellite view of the house. The estimate was horrendously high, but the guy said if would probably be lower when he actually came out and measured things. The other roofer who took a look at the house last month said the cost would be high as well. The cost of installing a flat roof has increased dramatically in the last twenty years. It doesn't help that I need an engineered roof with a consistent slope of 1/4" per foot either. The roof will still look flat with this type of slope, but the water will drain and there will be no standing water. I'm not getting any younger and I'm not going to be able to climb up on the roof forever. Getting a roof that drains properly is imperative.

It's a shame that there are so many large expenses like this in my future. We need numerous repairs inside the house as well. Oh, well. That's life I guess. I think I know where my new car fund is going. Maybe it won't be so bad. I like to stay dry and I don't really like to drive all that much anyway.

I certainly didn't drive much today. I had to pick up some Enalapril for Dash at the vet and some dinner for myself at a nearby barbecue place. In retrospect, I should have had something bland for dinner. The ribs and brisket were delicious, but I've got heartburn again. Damn. I wish I enjoyed eating sensibly. All-in-all, I do a pretty good job of staying healthy, but unfortunately everything I really enjoy is bad for you. I kind of envy people who really enjoy eating vegetables. Discipline and restraint keep me healthy. I'd much rather just eat cheese.

I did manage to get the trash out to the curb this evening, but I have no idea whether I'll go out for breakfast in the morning. A lot depends on Dash and the weather.

Connor os today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3065

I voted today. I don't always vote in primary elections, but I took this opportunity to vote against the candidates who irritated me the most with their incessant robocalls and spammy brochures. I still don't understand why politicians of the same party spend so much time trashing each other in primary elections. Both parties do this. All it does is leave voters trusting nobody when it's time for the general election.

Dash is still getting used to our new schedule. I was pleasantly surprised that he stayed still enough for me to put his leg brace and boots on by myself this morning. He was actually eager to go on his morning walk. Unfortunately, he wasn't so eager to take his pills and eat breakfast when we got home. This was equally surprising because usually a nice walk will give Dash an appetite. I had to experiment to find something he would take his pills in, but eventually we succeeded. He didn't seem very hungry this morning, but eventually he finished his breakfast around 11 AM.

It looks like we're going to have clear skies for the next week. There is no rain in the forecast at all. Now, all I've got to do is get the roofers to come back and finish the job before the next thunderstorm arrives. I tried to contact the foreman and schedule something but I kept getting a message saying "mailbox full" and the call would hang up. It's like pulling teeth to get these repairs completed. I feel certain that when the roofers eventually do return, it will rain the next day.

I went to the grocery store this morning to buy some more Chicken Tenders. When everything else fails, Dash will still usually eat Chicken Tenders. He'd probably like a bucket of KFC too, but I've got to draw the line somewhere. The store was out of Chicken Tenders, so I got some Steak Fingers instead. They might not taste the same, but they certainly look the same.

The temperature was in the 90's this afternoon. I didn't even try to take Dash on an evening walk. He just can't handle the heat anymore. As the temperature warmed up, I could tell he was reluctant to even go out in the back yard and pee. Thank goodness it is still cool around sunrise. We need a cool morning breeze or we won't be able to walk at all.

I set the DVR to record tonight's episode of The Expanse. I might as well just watch the show live. There isn't much else to do this evening. We've still got to take our evening pills. I'll do fine with mine, but I'm not so sure about Dash. He certainly wasn't very enthusiastic this morning.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3064

Dash and I have a new schedule for a little while. Janet is traveling and I need to remember to do all the things she usually does. Janet usually prepares Dash's meals and gives him his pills. The meals are a guessing game, since you never know what he's willing to eat on any given day. No matter what his mood is, he always has to eat something early in the morning, because he can't take his phenobarbital on an empty stomach. Dash used to take his pills in a dog food meat ball, but now we have to resort to more exotic temptations. Today, I hid the pills in soft slices of banana bread with a little peanut butter on top. This worked pretty well. Meals are just as challenging. I opened three different cans this evening before I found something he would eat. When a dog turns up his nose at fresh chicken breasts, you know you are getting desperate.

Luckily, we were able to give Dash a good walk early this morning before Janet left for the airport. I knew I would have trouble with the afternoon walk, and even though I tried, we didn't even make it out of the back yard. Dash turned around and threw off one of his rubber boots before we even reached the back gate. When I got the boot back on again, he refused to move at all. Hopefully, he will still walk with me in the mornings. Morning walks are an essential part of the feeding routine. Without a walk, he rarely has much of an appetite.

It's not normal for a Dalmatian to lose interest in food. Something is definitely wrong, but so far his veterinarians have not been able to pin down a cause. We've done every type of test imaginable and so far the only plausible cause for this loss of appetite is the nausea that is commonly associated with vestibular disease. So far, we've always been able to get Dash to eat something, but it's getting harder and harder.

I think I got lucky with the roof. The rain that was supposed to arrive today never materialized. The area the roofers patched yesterday has had a full 24 hours to cure, so I think the elastomer coating is stable now. We may still get some rain later tonight, but if the roof stays dry, my next job is to get the roofers back to finish the rest of the repairs.

I paid some bills this afternoon and picked up the new antibiotic that is supposed to cure the infected area on Dash's lip. Hopefully, this pill won't interact with any of the other pills he's already taking. Dash takes so many meds now that it gets complicated. I always hope that we'll be able to reduce the number of pills at some point, but that's probably being realistic. Dash hasn't had an epileptic seizure in year, but he will always need to take phenobarbital to prevent them from reoccurring. Even though the blood clot in his heart has seemingly dissolved, he will need to continue taking Plavix to keep new clots from forming. The list goes on and on. He has to take thyroid medication because he doesn't have a thyroid anymore and he takes blood pressure medication for the same reason I do.

I think we're going to go to bed early tonight. Why not? We've both finished our dinners. Dash has taken all his evening meds. And I'm almost finished with tonight's blog post. We're probably going to need a good night's rest. Tomorrow might be challenging.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2703

It's even harder to tell what day it is now that I'm not going out to breakfast on Friday morning. I'll have to say that my pancakes were pretty good though. They were better than any restaurant pancakes. The only problem was that I had to reheat them in the microwave half a dozen times because every time I took a bite, Dot wanted to go outside.

Dot's new schedule is perplexing. She generally wakes up in a good mood. We take our early morning walk and sometimes she eats a little while Dash is eating his breakfast. By the time I give Dot her morning pills, Dash is usually taking a nap. After taking her pills, I try to feed Dot again, but usually she isn't hungry. She doesn't want to rest either. I might as well just skip breakfast because I'm constantly moving Dot around for the first hour or so after she takes her medication. She doesn't seems to be uncomfortable. She is just restless. We walk around a lot. I figure this is good exercise for her. Eventually she gets tired and goes into a deep sleep. She sleeps more soundly during this period of time than she does at night. By the time I wake her up for her afternoon pills her appetite has generally returned. She eats most of her food between 4 and 6 PM. Sometimes she'll eat more as the evening progresses. If I'm lucky, she'll take a nap when I'm writing the blog and then just when I'm getting ready for bed, she becomes active again.

This type of activity is not conducive to getting much done. It's not great for getting a lot of sleep either, because now there's an additional trip outside to pee every morning around 2 AM. We've learned to adapt to the incontinence, the mobility problems, and the eating difficulties. It makes you wonder what's going to happen next though.

After Dot went to sleep, I drove to Central Market and got some food for the weekend. They were having some kind of celebration of southern cooking, so there were all kinds of tasty new items in the Chef Prepared section. We seldom cook anymore, so something new in the deli section is always a treat. Tonight we had grilled shrimp and Andouille sausage over a bed of smoked grits and red onions. It would have taken hours to make something like this at home. Cooking is overrated.

Dot's changing moods throughout the day make me wonder how the pain pills actually work. I would think by giving her the medication every eight hours, that she would be pain free all the time. Maybe the pills don't really last eight hours though. Maybe it takes a long time for the medication to actually enter her bloodstream. I hope Dot's restless periods aren't just times where she is still in pain. This will be a question for the oncologist when we go back to the cancer center for a recheck next Tuesday. Cancer pain and neurological pain are very different. I'd like to learn more about what is actually happening when we give her these pills.

There are supposed to be thunderstorms tonight. I can see them on the radar West of Fort Worth. Let's hope the go to the North or South of us. I'm not in the mood for thunderstorms.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2297

I'm beginning to wish that I could move Dot's physical therapy appointment back to Thursday. Traffic is worse on Wednesday. The vet clinic seems busier too. As a result, Dot and I spend at least an hour and a half longer away from home. It's not like I have that much to do anyway, but I never realized that switching our appointment would make such a difference. I'll have to admit that there are some benefits to the new schedule. I don't have to struggle to get Dot ready anymore. We leave right after I feed the dogs their lunch now, and it's always easy to get Dot up when there is a meal involved.

Dot seemed stronger than she did last week. She did really well in the underwater treadmill today. I'm convinced there is a reason for everything, but I can never figure out why Dot has good days and bad days. She has had some very good days after resuming her chemotherapy, which is somewhat counter-intuitive. She has also had bad days when she is relaxed and well-rested. The only thing for certain is that every day is a new day. I never really know what to expect.

The rain returned today. There were severe thunderstorms and even tornado warnings in the area, but luckily all we saw in our own neighborhood was a gentle, steady rain. Today's storms didn't last all day, so the dogs still got their normal walks. I'm sure there is water on the roof though. I'll deal with the standing water and a very dirty car when the skies clear again.

I think my transition to the new web server is just about complete. I've finished troubleshooting the online forms and all the e-mail accounts are working now. The only difference I've noticed in performance so far is that the new server occasionally gets overwhelmed by heavy traffic. It's just like U-verse in a lot of ways. The site will go down for a few minutes, but by the time I get through to customer service, everything is running fine again. Maybe big hosting companies are like the airlines and try to keep things as close to capacity as they can. At any rate, it's going to take a while to get used to this, since my old server hardly ever went down at all.

Tech support people are probably going to hate me as I grow older. I can already see that I'm turning into one of those irritating people who continually call with some esoteric, weird problem just to have someone to talk to. During my transition to the new web server, I've already called tech support half a dozen times. I'm a curious person and generally just wanted to know why things were configured a certain way. I used to have lots of geeky friends to ponder these issues with, but now tech support will have to do. Maybe somebody knows why the favicon has disappeared from this blog. The little icon is loaded on the server and the code I added in the blog header is correct, but the favicon doesn't show up anymore. One more of life's little mysteries.

A bigger mystery is where all the writing jobs have gone. Last year at this time, I was swamped with writing assignments. This year my work load has slowed to a trickle. I write about watches and the oil and gas industry a lot. Both of these industries have suffered setbacks in recent years. Hopefully, when the dust settles, the writing assignments will return. Life is easier when there's always something to do. It's also nice to have extra money at the end of the month.

I have no idea what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'm pretty well caught up on almost everything.
 

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2269

Well, lifting Dot in and out of the car definitely isn't good for a bad back. Yikes! Maybe this is how I messed up my back in the first place. I was literally begging Dot to work with me today, but she was just dead weight. I don't think she wanted to go to her physical therapy session in the first place. I'm not so sure about our new schedule. It is certainly easier to get Dot ready in the afternoon, but the traffic is much worse. As a result, my overall level of irritation is exactly the same. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. No matter what I do these days, my overall level of irritation is exactly the same.

Dot pooped in the car on the way to the vet, but at least she was feeling better today. I described Dot's symptoms to the vet the best I could, but didn't get must closer to figuring out what was going on. Something that only happens once a month is hard to pin down. Although Dot is still holding down her food and seems more or less back to normal, she still seemed a little tired today. There was no sense in pushing her too hard, so we shortened her time in the underwater treadmill and spent a little extra time with her acupuncture.

I wrote my new article this morning before we went to the vet. This gave me one more reason why Dot's old therapy schedule might have been better. It's always best to start writing when there is nothing on the back end of your day. I never know how long writing these articles will take and it's easier if I'm not interrupted. I guess I wasn't fast enough today, because I had to pick up where I left off when we returned. The article did get finished and the change of schedule wasn't really a big deal. It just illustrates how reluctant I have become to changing anything in my life.

It's time to start working on my tax returns again. I don't do my taxes myself anymore, but I still have to gather all the information together and take it over to my accountant. It's depressing that it costs just as much to do my taxes in a bad year as it does in a good year. I have a feeling that 2015 was a very bad year. The only saving grace was that I sold most of my oil and gas stocks at the end of the year. I thought I was just taking a tax loss at the time, but as it turned out, I was actually saving money. All these stocks continued to drop further in January and February. It was a good thing I got rid of them when I did. The market is just a crap shoot these days, but every once in a while you still get lucky.

I've got to figure out a better way to sleep. I usually sleep on my side, but my spine doesn't seem to like this. Ditto for sleeping on my stomach. The only position that seems comfortable is on my back and that keeps me awake longer. I was tempted to sleep on the floor with Dot last night, but that would just be an invitation to get pooped on. I've also noticed that the stretching exercises I do for my shoulder seem to aggravate my back pain as well. At least I'm over the flu. One of these mornings, I'll wake up, my spine will be back in place, and everything will be fine. I hope that morning is tomorrow.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2116

We started the new month with a new schedule. We go to our physical therapy sessions in the mornings now. Mornings are good because Dot is less likely to poop in the car. On the other hand, mornings are not so good because there isn't much time to get ready. By the time we took the dogs on their morning walk, ate breakfast, took a shower, and got the car ready, it was time to go. Dot definitely didn't like riding in the Evoque. I tried my best to make a comfortable flat surface, but her bed still had a bit of a tilt to it and Dot managed to get stuck. I had to stop a couple of times along the way, but eventually we made it to our destination.

Even though Dot wasn't happy about her ride, she did amazingly well in the treadmill today. She was strong enough that we were able to increase the speed and do a small amount of interval training for the first time in several months. No accidents in the house today either. Actually, we have had very few accidents this entire week. I'm not sure we can attribute this pleasant turn of events to the Melatonin we've started giving her before bedtime, but it's the only change I can think of.

Work was surprisingly busy today. I got two new website projects that will keep me busy for a while. I'm not sure how excited I am though. One of the projects is kind of a pro bono deal that I won't make any money on. The other project has such a low budget that it's hardly worth talking about. That's the state of web design these days. Take it or leave it.

There was another tragic school shooting today. Once again the shooter was a young male. Hasn't anyone figured it out yet? Terrorist shootings. Gang related shootings. School shootings. They all have one thing in common. These crimes are almost universally committed by young men. Instead of endless agonizing about mental health and gun law issues, just ban young men from having guns. Period. Make the penalties for possessing a gun so severe that no young man would even want to go near one. So, how would you enforce such a ban? You couldn't. You probably can't enforce any other solution either. That's the problem of living in a free society. The obvious solutions are impossible to implement without destroying the free society we all claim to love. Do we want safety or freedom? Eventually, we have to decide.

I got a call from the Land Rover dealer today telling me that they are working on my car. Does this mean it will be done soon? Not necessarily. I've gotten these sorts of calls before and then waited a week or more before the car was actually finished. I don't really care how long it takes, but I'm guessing that Dot would really like to have things wrapped up before next week's physical therapy session. She hates the Evoque.

There's already another update to the buggy IOS 9 on my phone. I'm downloading it now. The current system is causing all sorts of problems with my WiFi network, but you have to be connected to WiFi to download the new system. This may take a while.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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