Day 2804

Whenever there's a disaster, my first thoughts are about the animals. There's already been an amazing effort to rescue dogs, cats, and horses trapped by rising waters around Houston. Probably much more will be needed in the days ahead. Among the thousands of animals in danger today were three Dalmatians trapped in a kennel that was being flooded by water that was being released from a nearby dam. I'm not sure, but I think these dogs are safe now. I hope so. It was amazing to see the rapid efforts of many people, some of whom I know, to coordinate an immediate rescue by boat. I'm not a huge fan of social media, but this is where it shines. Not more than an hour after I began seeing stories about the dogs plight on Facebook, boats were on the way. There were probably hundreds of stories like this today, but this was the only one that involved Dalmatians. When a Dalmatian is in danger it catches my attention.

It's already been a week since Janet's reconstruction surgery. Her doctor was pleased with her progress today and even removed some of the stitches. The nurse said that we were doing a good job with the bandages. That was a relief. If all continues to go smoothly, Janet will return to work again in another week.

I wish things were going just as smoothly with Dash. He threw up again after eating a normal breakfast and having a nice walk. Like many of his previous episodes, there was no warning. He just walked calmly to the back door around 1 PM and threw up. Dash shows no signs of distress before or after these incidents. He's been fine for the rest of the day. His vet has suggested that we put him on a mild anti-nausea medication for a month and see if we notice any changes. The theory is that he might be mildly nauseous all the time as a result of his vestibular disease. I hate to add another pill to his already lengthy list of meds, but this might be worth a try. Obviously something is wrong, but it has been very hard to pin down the cause.

We had more intermittent rain from the outer bands of Harvey. It's nice that I don't have to water the lawn every day, but the rain is going to complicate the roof repairs I was planning on making this month. It's going to take an extended dry spell before I am even able to prepare the surface for the elastomer coating the roofers gave me. There's certainly not any dry weather in the immediate future. I should have checked the weather radar before I walked Dash this evening. We got caught in a sudden shower and both got soaked.

It wasn't a very productive day. I got the wet/dry vacuum out and removed another quart of water from under the shower tiles. I don't know how this water is getting in there. I've sealed all the cracks completely with silicon caulk. Things like this are why people eventually give up and remodel their bathrooms. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to locate the source of this leak.

It doesn't matter if it is a shower stall or an iPhone case. Old things just crack and break. I tried to repair my Lunatik iPhone case for the third time this afternoon. I bought this case because it was supposed to be indestructible, but it is so old now that it is developing stress cracks. I took the case apart and applied superglue to the tiny cracks using watch repair tools. It would have been easier to just buy a new case but they don't make these things anymore.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow. One way or another, I'm sure it will involve water.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2799

I took Janet to see her surgeon today. This was her first post reconstruction visit and I think it was mostly so they could teach her how to change her bandages. The building was very impressive. While I was waiting in the lobby, I looked up her surgeon on Google. Wow. She has one of the best rated plastic surgeons in the entire country. I really need to start going to her doctors. They are in a whole different league than mine. Her primary care physician did an amazing job of making sure she had the best specialists possible for her cancer treatment. I have always been a little skeptical of concierge medicine, but the results seem to speak for themselves. I think you do get better care.

I don't even bother to check my e-mail for work assignments anymore. Work is so slow that I need to find other ways to occupy my time. When my chauffeur and nurse duties were finished, I resumed my efforts to fix the leaking shower. I cleaned out the drain and looked for places where the pipes might have separated. I found one area that might be succeptable to leaks, but I couldn't figure out how to seal it. I need to find some kind of putty that can be applied in permanently wet areas. The corners of the shower seemed nice and dry so I applied a new coat of the silicon caulk. Who knows if any of this will work. I'll have to admit that I don't really know what I'm doing.

Now that I've cleaned all traces of dog poop out of my car, I thought it would be good time to remove the dog hair as well. I got out the vacuum and sucked up an enormous amount of dog hair that has found it's way under the seats. I wish I'd paid more attention to all the dog slobber on the back of the front seats. I tried to clean it off today, but it think it has permanently stained the leather. All things considered, the car does look much better now. I was going to wash the outside as well, but I ran out of energy. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. I'll certainly have the time. It doesn't look like there's going to be any writing deadlines for the rest of the month.

I watched a documentary about the Voyager spacecraft this evening on PBS. It's hard to believe it's been forty years since Voyager 1 and 2 were launched. Pretty soon it will be fifty years since we landed on the moon. Where did the time go? I wonder if we will ever be this bold again. So many people alive today don't remember these events. They weren't even born yet. I remember when Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957. I was nine years old and was already reading Robert Heinlein novels. I don't think my interest in space has ever wavered.

My interest in everything else has certainly wavered. The future doesn't look nearly as interesting as the past. I have no idea what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm almost scared to take a shower. Will it leak again? I don't want to see all my handiwork go down the drain. A lot of things are going down the drain. I got a notice from Apple today saying that the new High Sierra operating system will no longer support the legacy versions of Logic and Final Cut Pro. I've used both of these applications for years. Time marches on I guess, but it will be sad to see two of the cornerstones of my business cast aside like yesterday's news. Everything I know and love is becoming obsolete. I saw a show on TV last week about the Citroën SM. This used to be my everyday drive-to-work car when I lived in Seattle. Now it has become an impossible to find relic. My mid-century modern house is becoming a crumbling antique. The JPL project managers they interviewed on that Voyager documentary tonight all seemed so old. Jeez, these guys are just a few years older than I am and the producers of the show seemed amazed that they were still alive. Hey, we're still here. We may be a little perplexed, but we're still here.

Mickey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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