Day 2578

I got a call from an old college friend who was passing through town today. We talked for almost an hour, which is almost unheard of for me. First we compared notes about who was dead and who was alive among the people we used to hang out with. Then we compared notes about doctors and ailments. Jeez. How did I ever get this old? My friend and I used to play in a band together back in the day. Back then, I don't think either of use would have ever dreamed that we would be having a conversation about Medicare some day in the distant future. Hey, I'm glad my friend still remembered me. There are a lot of people that I don't remember anymore.

Today was even colder than yesterday. I think the temperature is going to continue to drop for the rest of the week. Dot seems to be the only one who likes this Winter weather. You'd think with all her problems that she'd be the one who would want to stay inside, but cold weather invigorates her. She actually seemed eager to walk this morning. I wish she'd been a little more eager to get out of the house when she woke up. We had another accident on the way to the back door and more rugs that needed to go in the washer.

I paid some bills and did a little bookkeeping this afternoon. I'm starting to hate automatic payments, I tend to forget about them and when I eventually do remember to enter them into the ledger, it is always disappointing to realize that I have less money in the bank than I thought I did. Merchants seem to love automatic payments and subscriptions that auto-renew. I prefer to decide who to pay first myself, but there are a few things like health insurance that I'd hate to see expire because of my forgetfulness. I imagine that the older I get, the more I'm going to depend on automatic payments. I'm only mildly forgetful, but there are times when Dot seems to forget what planet she's on. Her vet thinks we ought to try giving her SAMe because there is some evidence that it is effective in slowing down canine dementia. Maybe Dot and I both ought to start taking SAMe.

I went to the vegan store to pick up something for dinner and was disappointed to see that they are already starting to raise their prices. The place has been open less than a year. You'd think they'd wait a while longer before the inevitable price increases. Restaurants and grocery stores need to be careful about price increases. People are particular about what they pay for their food. I think a price increase led to the demise of my first breakfast restaurant. The customers revolted again the price increases, so the management rolled prices back, but lowered the quality of the ingredients to maintain profit margins. That only made matters worse. I still like the vegan meals, but it kind of weird that a plate of vegetables costs more than a big juicy bacon cheeseburger at Chili's.

I think I washed everything in the house today. Dot's incontinence is getting worse and I'm not sure if there's anything we can do. One of our vets recommends adding Phenylpropanolamine to the Incurin she is already taking. Other vets say that Phenylpropanolamine can cause a dog to have strokes, just like the drug does with humans. I hate dealing with pharmaceuticals. All too often the side effects are worse than the cure.

Tomorrow we start all over again. In a lot of ways my life is starting to seem resemble that movie Ground Hog Day. I need to remember to take things on day at a time and always enjoy the good moments even though they might be fleeting.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1725

I seem to be spending more and more time doing less and less. The dogs have slowed down, and so have I. Our morning walks take twice as long now. Dot isn't a sprinter anymore. We walk slowly and enjoy the surroundings. Now that the dogs aren't tugging at their leashes and racing ahead, they seem to enjoy smelling things more. They smell their way from bush to bush and eventually we find our way home again.

I work faster when there are tight deadlines to meet. Without deadlines, just about any job expands to fill the available time. It is ironic that I actually feel busier when there is less work to do, but that's just the way it is. I know I wouldn't have spent so much time on today's web project if I had something more important to do.

I lose things and spill things more often than I used to. I must spend several hours a week looking for my reading glasses. I take them on and off so frequently that I never know where they're going to wind up. Ditto for the remote control on the television. Dot may pee on things, but I spill things. I seem to have a perpetual cup of coffee in my hand and when the cup is full, it tends to spill. Sometimes I spill water in the kitchen when I'm doing dishes and then I'll look down later and think that Dot peed on the floor. Nope, it was just clumsy me.

Janet and I decided it was time to start giving Dot the Incurin pills. Her incontinence has actually gotten worse this week. It's been long enough since her surgery that we should have seen some sustained improvement by now. Several people I know have given their dog these estrogen replacement pills and all of them were happy with the results. My vet says that she has treated over a dozen dogs for incontinence using Incurin and said there were significant improvements in every single case. I had considered using phenylpropanolamine instead, but several people told me that dogs build up a resistance to the drug over time and that you have to keep increasing the dosage. You do the opposite with Incurin, gradually decreasing the dosage after an initial two week loading dose. It would be better if Dot could resolve this problem herself, but it doesn't look like this is going to happen. We have actually waited quite a bit longer than the six weeks the specialists at the cancer center recommended and I think it's finally time to do something. We should know within two weeks if this is going to work.

Just about every time I picked up my new phone today, it kept asking me for passwords. I had to reset most of them, because I just couldn't remember the old password. Some passwords were easy to re-set and others were so difficult they required a call to tech support. I have over 80 apps on my phone and probably use less than ten of them. It will probably be easier to delete the applications I no longer use than it is to reauthorize all of them. At any rate, the important apps are all working now. I'll probably never get around to the rest of them.

Breakfast was good this morning. It's probably only a matter of time before I start going out for breakfast every morning.

Alie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day