Day 2836

I stayed home this morning and made pancakes. Every time I put a pancake on the griddle, Dash went to the back door and scratched to get out. Even though the pancakes got burnt, Dash still took his sweet time to do his business. Yup. It was another rainy day.

Dash wasn't eating dry food today, but he was eating wet. I got him to eat most of a can of Castor & Pollux stew that he likes while I was finishing my own breakfast. I remember asking the vet yesterday what I should be feeding Dash. "Let him eat whatever he wants," the vet said. I'm convinced that this is vet code for "your dog is going to die."

By the time I finished breakfast, the rain had subsided to a gentle mist and I decided to take Dash on a walk. "Slow walks are good, overexertion is bad," the vet told me yesterday. I didn't think this was going to be a problem. Dash always walks slowly now. I put on his protective boots and off we went. About halfway through our walk, I noticed that one of the boots was missing. I wanted to turn around so we could find it, but Dash stubbornly wanted to keep moving forward. Before we made it home, he lost the second boot as well. I realized then that protecting Dash wasn't going to be easy.

After Dash had gone back to sleep, I retraced my steps through the park and managed to find both missing boots. Dash's dewclaw has healed, but in addition to the small rubber boots he'll be wearing on walks, I still have him wear the cone when I leave the house. Now that he's taking Plavix, I don't want him licking or injuring anything.

I had to go pay my storage warehouse rent today because my year is up tomorrow. I always pay a year in advance because I get the thirteenth month free. I was complaining to the manager about the relentless rent increases I get every year and he tried to convince me that I was actually was getting a good deal. "Almost everybody pays month-to-month and we raise their rent every nine months." "Your rent only goes up every thirteen months," he said.  As he was trying to figure out how to give me the thirteenth month free on the company's new accounting software, we both started complaining about all manner of things. That's just what old men do.

The manager told me that he was working at the storage warehouse because he'd been laid off from his last two jobs because of his age. "You don't fit in with our corporate culture anymore," one of the companies told him. "I'm right there with you," I told the manager. It sucks to be cast aside because someone thinks you are too old. Maybe I'll end up working at a storage warehouse someday myself. If you're not already a Walmart greeter, that's where most of the old people seem to wind up.

Dash was moody today, but he eventually did end up eating enough. I had trouble writing my article, because every time I sat down at the computer Dash started slapping at my leg. He wanted me to come in the bedroom with him and take a nap. A nap sounded good, but I had lots to do today. I'm still waiting for the vet to tell me what to do in case Dash starts bleeding. I'm not sure what to feed him anymore either. Today seemed like the first day in a new long march. I'm determined to give Dash the best chance possible to stay alive. A lot of his future is up to luck, unfortunately. The blood clots in his heart could move or break apart at any time.

Sweet Pea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2628

Today was an improvement. Both dogs slept all the way through the night without any disasters or medical emergencies. Dash held down his food today, even though he seemed a little tired and disoriented. Getting him eating again is the most important thing now. We'll worry about the residual effects of his vestibular disease when we get him stabilized. Dot seemed more comfortable today as well. I've been trying to fine tune her pain meds so that her discomfort is controlled without turning her into a vegetable. So far, giving her the regular dose of Gabapentin at bedtime and cutting the dose in half at breakfast and lunch seems to be working. The pills won't make her stronger, but they do seem to make her less agitated and allow her to sleep peacefully. These are all little things, but I think we made some progress today.

To celebrate today's progress, I thought I'd reward myself with a nice bowl of Pho. There is a new Vietnamese restaurant in the neighborhood and I've been meaning to try their noodle soup ever since they opened. There is something about Pho that is very satisfying. It's a simple dish made with broth, rice noodles called bánh phở, a few herbs, and meat. Basically, it's just soup, but it is so flavorful if it is made correctly. I wasn't disappointed today. I picked up my take-out order on the way home from the post office and enjoyed an early dinner as soon as I got home. The portion sizes on all the take-out meals I order always seem huge. After I ate what seemed like a gigantic, steaming bowl of Pho, there was still enough left over to make another meal tomorrow.

Yesterday, I got a letter from my bank saying that I needed to stop by my branch and confirm some contact information on my safe deposit box. This seemed strange, since I've never changed or modified any information since I opened the account. At any rate, I stopped by the bank on the way to the post office, thinking I could take care of this problem in a matter of minutes. A banker told me that I would have to wait in line behind a lobby full of old people. I'm an old person too, but I wasn't like these people. These were the kind of people who drive ancient Lincoln town cars and wear socks with their sandals. I have no idea what these people were waiting for, but just by looking at them, I knew that their questions were going to take a long time to answer. I asked the banker if there was a time when there weren't any people in the lobby and he just rolled his eyes at me. I think I'll try this again later.

I got a request today to remove a page from a website that I'm almost certain that I removed five years ago. I checked, and sure enough the page was still on the server. Oops. Occasionally, when a hosting company does maintenance on their servers, they will restore a site from a back-up copy. I suspect that this is what happened. They must have restored something that I erased a long time ago. I bet there are a lot of other ghost pages out there. I mostly work with a local copy of the sites I manage and rarely look to see what is actually on the server. I'm kind of superstitious about erasing things on the server. I used to use the server as a convenient archive for all versions of the sites I design, but I can't do that anymore. Google can still find the unlinked pages I've discarded and clients get mad when people click on links to this outdated information. It was easy enough to remove the offending unlinked page, but I still miss the days when the Internet was simple and fun.

It's going to be hard to convince Dash to eat dry food again. He's really liking the canned Hills Prescription ID I'm feeding him to settle his stomach. Dot must like this food too, because when Dash is finished eating, she will come over and lick his bowl. I guess we'll take this one day at a time. Dash still seems to have vertigo and appears dizzy at times. Until he is stable, he can eat anything he wants.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2548

Most of the photo equipment has been put away. I'm glad I went to the storage warehouse early in the morning, because the skies got darker and darker as the day progressed. I managed to unload the equipment, pick up some more Tramadol for Dot at the vet, and fill the car with gas before it began to rain in earnest. I had the usual rainy day problems with the dogs when I returned home, but we're all gradually getting used to the bad weather.

While I was packing up the photo equipment, I thought I'd clean out a closet, because I was convinced that I might have dropped the fitness tracker there on Saturday morning while I was getting dressed. I uncovered a lot of dust and some very nice clothes I'd completely forgotten about, but there was no UP band to be seen. I think the illusive tracker is gone for good.

When I was at the storage warehouse, I noticed that the place had a new manager again. Being the manager of a storage warehouse must not be a very good job, because there seems to be a huge turnover. This new manager didn't seem to give a shit, because the place was filthy. The last manager was friendly and kept the place spotless. I was hoping he'd stay a while. No such luck.

I was glad I didn't have to unload heavy equipment in the rain, but maybe I should have done my website revisions first this morning. When I finally got settled in at the computer and started to work, both dogs decided that they needed attention instead. The revisions I was making today were complicated and every time I got interrupted by Dot, I would forget what I was doing and had to start over. I eventually got the client's site working again, but I started to feel like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill before the job was finished. What should have taken me one hour, took me close to four instead.

Janet and I went to a Christmas party at the Presidential Library this evening. The food was amazingly good, but there were some odd touches to the evening. Even though there was a full dinner being served, there were no dinner knives anywhere. Everyone was cutting their meat with a fork. Maybe this no knife thing is some sort of secret service rule when there is a president in the vicinity. It did seem weird to watch a lot of old people trying to cut their prime rib with a fork. "We're not this old, are we," Janet whispered to me at one point. Yep, I'm afraid we are. I watched one poor gentleman at our table put whipped cream on a cinnamon stick and try to eat it for dessert before his wife told him that the cinnamon stick was meant to stir your hot chocolate with. I was too smart to eat a cinnamon stick for dessert. I had some brightly colored cookies instead, because I knew they would photograph well. It was too dark and rainy to photograph anything else today.

Rainy days increase the likelihood of an accident in the house. Since it was exceptionally rainy today, I had pee and poop to clean up. Dot's last accident happened just before we were getting ready to leave for dinner. I tried to clean up the poop without getting any on my suit. Somehow, everything worked out fine. Incontinence definitely forces you to keep things in perspective.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 990

When I was eating breakfast this morning, I noticed that the waiters knew sign language. "That's cool," I thought. I hear waiters speaking to customers in Spanish all the time, but I run into very few who sign. I actually wish everybody used sign language. The world is way too noisy. Year ago, when I worked on the American Airlines account, I proposed that the airline scrap their smoking and no smoking sections on the planes and substitute talking and no talking sections instead. As you might expect, that went over like a lead balloon. I still think it is a good idea though.

Lots of older people go to the restaurant I visited this morning. I've noticed that the older women tend to eat in groups of three or four and are almost always happy and smiling. The old men almost always eat alone and look miserable. The only time when the old women seem to look miserable is when they are dining with their grumpy old husbands. There were a few younger people in the restaurant too. One young woman was wearing a t-shirt that said Kiss Me in the Dark. A bright shaft of light was shining directly on her through the restaurant window. I thought that was funny.

I didn't really get caught up today, but I feel more or less up to speed again. There's only one article left to write and it isn't due until sometime next week. All my websites are current again. My clients are happy with the stuff that I sent out by FedEx yesterday. It seems like a good time to slack off a bit and enjoy the Labor Day holiday.

Dot and Dash have a rescue event to look forward to this weekend. They've both turned out to be good little ambassadors for the breed. Dot likes these rescue events because she gets to be bossy and act like she's running the show. Dash, always the social butterfly, just likes to get petted by strangers.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 899

The stock market is an unmitigated disaster. The Dow was down another 274 points today. I don't think I've seen things in this big of a mess since I started investing. Nobody seems to know what to do anymore. The slightest whiff of bad news can send stocks tumbling. You wonder why a bad jobs report would cause this much turmoil? Doesn't everybody already know that there aren't any jobs?  Doesn't everybody already know that jobs aren't coming back soon? When manufacturers discovered that they could make things dirt cheap in China and Malaysia, they're not going to come back here and make things the expensive way anymore. That ship has already sailed. We can't just give everybody government jobs like they did in Greece either. Then we'll just end up like Greece. Personally, I think we're a lot closer to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome than we care to admit.

Breakfast was pleasant today. Instead of having a trendy fusion cuisine creation or an omelet packed with every kind of smoked meat imaginable, I just had pancakes. I haven't had pancakes in quite a while and the simple meal was quite satisfying. I used to make pancakes myself fairly often, but they seem to taste better if someone else makes them. I wish I could afford to eat out every day. I'm starting to realize that I really prefer eating in restaurants.

I had to pick up some prescriptions this afternoon. Whenever I go to the pharmacy, I end up in line behind a bunch of old people who take forever to get their prescriptions filled. I feel like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol when he is visited by the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Will I ever be this slow or have this many pills to take? I certainly hope not! Lord help me if I creep up to the counter with a cane and take 30 minutes to get all my pills sorted out. It's not a pretty sight.

This weekend was when we were hoping to get 101 Dalmatians out to the new dog park. Things aren't going so well. Maybe we were a little ambitious. The invitations have gone out, but based on the responses we've been getting so far, we're going to be lucky if we get 10 Dalmatians out to the park. Oh, well. I still think it was a fun idea.

June is here. I think I'm going to sell my rent house this month. I know I'm going to get a year older this month. I have no idea whatsoever what the stock market is going to do.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day