Day 3325

I think we're well on our way to becoming a surveillance society. Companies know so much about us already, but they still want to know more. I called my insurance agent today to ask about a low mileage discount. I hardly drive at all anymore, so I thought if these things exist, maybe I could lower my bill. The reason I wanted to lower my bill was that I'd just received it and of course, it was higher than it was before. "Sure, we can lower your bill," the agent told me. "Let me send you a small tracker you can install in your car and then all you have to do is download our Safe Driver app on your phone." "How big a discount will I get," I asked. "We can't tell you right away," the agent said. "After we've been able to analyze your driving habits for about six months, we'll revise your premium." "So what you're telling me is that my premium could actually go up after six months," I said. The agent was silent.

My insurance company is becoming just like the phone company, the cable company, Facebook, and everybody else. These companies want to learn your habits, get all your data, and then sell it to third parties who will bombard you with targeted advertising and telemarketing calls. I would have preferred to give the agent two service reports from the Land Rover dealer spaced one year apart that would validate the actual mileage I drove in a year. Apparently, that wasn't an option.

I guess I'm on the wrong side of history. After dealing with the insurance agent, I called another company who wanted me to start paying them electronically. I didn't want to do this. After a long conversation where I explained to them that it was still perfectly legal to pay with a check, they finally relented and let me keep things as the are. I'm sure in about six months I'll get another letter saying that as a "courtesy" my account has been converted to electronic payments.

I've definitely reached the "get off my lawn" stage of life. These companies are just going to have to deal with me for another twenty years. I still like paper. I write letters. I save receipts. And I see no point in talking with Siri or Alexa. As far as I'm concerned the world was a better place when phones were dumb and people were smart. In case you've forgotten, we went to the moon fifty years ago. Have we really advanced that much since then? I don't really thing having my insurance company tracking my trips to the post office and the pharmacy is going to make the world a better place.

Doesn't it seem odd that our society has become obsessed with efficiency and yet nothing actually works. Maybe we should all slow down for a while. We might discover that inefficiency is actually better. Personally, I have lost all interest in speed. Whenever I see someone in a hurry it reminds me of the treadmill at the gym. Sure, you're moving but you're not actually going anywhere.

Today, I made the bed, walked Dash, cleaned up poop several times, fixed a dog boot, did a load of laundry, and took the trash out to the curb. I probably accomplished just as much as all the self-important movers and shakers I saw on TV while I was drinking my morning smoothie.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1902

Dot looks like a football. Her back has been shaved and right in the middle is a huge eight inch incision that is held together with fifteen surgical staples. Despite her appearance, Dot is doing great. When we visited her at the hospital this afternoon, she appeared happy and alert. She was eager to eat the treats we brought and seemed equally eager to walk on her own. One of Dot's nurses brought her to the exam room for our visit supporting her with a sling under her belly, but you could tell Dot was already doing some of the work herself. I'm amazed that Dot can already stand on her own for a considerable amount of time. She couldn't do this before the surgery. After seeing her today, I am convinced that with the proper physical therapy, Dot will learn to walk again.

Since Dot is making such good progress, she will probably be discharged from the hospital either tomorrow or Tuesday. Once she's home, the hard part begins. Very few Dalmatians know how to take it easy. I will have to monitor her very carefully, so she never tries to do something stupid, like counter surfing, or hopping up on the bed. You know how weight lifters frequently use a spotter when doing bench presses to prevent injury. I will be Dot's spotter for quite a while, using the harness to keep her from slipping until the damaged nerves can  repair themselves and her leg muscles grow stronger.

A friend let us borrow some rubber backed rugs that we can strategically place around the house to keep Dot from slipping on the bricks. I think we've come up with a good way to keep her safely confined to a small, well padded space when I'm taking a shower or taking something to the post office. Since I have little desire to leave the house anyway, the extensive rehab period should work out pretty well. Janet will be going back to work soon, because she hates retirement, but I can walk Dash a little earlier in the morning while she is still at home getting ready for work. I'm sure there will be a lot of surprises and there will be times when I'll wonder what I've gotten myself into, but right now I'm uncharacteristically optimistic. We can do this.

I wish the weather would get better. It continues to rain with the temperature hovering right around freezing. It warmed up enough today to melt all the ice off the roads, but tonight it will refreeze again and there will be another thin layer of ice in the morning. I think the cold spell is just about over though. I certainly hope so anyway.

It's hard to believe it's March already. It's time to get my tax return started. It's time to start thinking about re-landscaping the back yard. One more month and we won't have to worry about ice storms for another year. I always look forward to Spring. The next few months won't be easy, but I hope when the wildflowers start to bloom in April and May, I'll be able to walk through them again with Dot at my side.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1901

Although the weather got even worse overnight, Dot continues to get better. I was amazed that Dot's medical team even managed to get to the hospital today, since roads throughout the area were a sheet of ice when we woke up this morning. We were a little nervous when we didn't get our usual morning progress report phone call from the neurologist, but I imagine that things were pretty hectic at the hospital today. When we did get the call, everyone was all smiles. Dot continues to beat the odds with her amazing strength and determination. The neurologist told me that she and and others at the hospital find it hard to believe how old Dot actually is, since she continues to act like a much younger dog.

Dot is using her legs more than she was yesterday and appears to be in good spirits. Her appetite is good and she is sleeping well without strong sedatives. The hospital has already discontinued narcotic painkillers like Tramadol because Dot doesn't appear to need them. I'm glad they did this. I've never liked Tramadol anyway. It can be very addictive and has been responsible for many more accidental overdose deaths in humans than most people realize.

If Dot continues to improve at her current rate, she may end up being one of the lucky dogs who begin walking again in two or three weeks. Her nurse says she is already trying to put weight on her rear legs, although she still receives support from the Help "Em Up Harness whenever she tries to move. When I was using the harness with Dot before her surgery I could easily tell when she was trying to walk. There is a handle on the rear part of the harness just above the dogs hips and you hold it so the rear legs touch the ground without having to bear much weight. It feels a bit like being a puppeteer. As you get better at using the harness, you can sense when the muscles are working and when to provide more support. You can even encourage natural leg motion with subtle movement of your wrist. I think it is fantastic that Dot is already tentatively trying to walk, because I have heard that it can take up to three months before this happens.

The weather is so bad that Dot is much better off at the hospital that she'd be at home right now. Our yard is still slick and icy and the house is a bit chilly. Luckily, our furnace is working great this winter and there haven't been any problems with roof leaks. I'm used to spending lots of time in the house, but Janet is already getting cabin fever. She was determined to get out today and decided to go do her usual Saturday errands anyway despite the bad roads.

As the day progressed, the traffic in front of the house began to move faster and faster until I eventually became convinced that the roads were safe. I bundled up in a warm coat and left to do my errands as well. This was probably a mistake. The first thing I encountered was an enormous downed tree that had fallen across the road, blocking all but a single lane of traffic. When I successfully navigated this logjam, I quickly discovered that everyone in town had cabin fever. The roads were actually crowded today.

Most roads were clear and dry, except when they weren't. There were still patches of black ice here and there and they often caught people driving fifty miles an hour completely by surprise. Even though most of the ice had melted by mid-afternoon, I still saw quite a few wrecks. I drive slowly in this type of weather, never braking hard and coasting to a stop wherever I can. I'm always keeping an eye on my rear view mirror. I learned to drive in Alaska where the roads were icy all Winter. Ice is seldom the problem. It's the driver behind you who ignores the ice that causes most of the wrecks.

Dash has already appropriated Dot's special new dog bed. This is a minor problem though. Dogs are just like children in many ways. Tomorrow we will work on getting the house ready for Dot's return. If her progress continues, she could come home as soon as Monday afternoon.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1857

I saw the sun today. It's amazing what a little sunlight and blue skies can do. It was still cold outside and I had way too much work to do, but today was much more satisfying than yesterday. Let's hope the clear skies continue for long enough for the ground to dry up. Although the sun made me happy today, cleaning my muddy boots didn't. I don't know how Northerners keep their houses clean. It all seems pretty hopeless to me.

I've heard that tonight is an ideal time to try and see Comet Lovejoy. I doubt that I'll be able to see the comet with all the city lights, but since I didn't even think I'd have the opportunity, I'm going to go out with a pair of binoculars and give it a try. The comet is located near the constellation Orion. This is something even I can find in the night sky, so maybe there's hope.

I called the oral surgeon's office today to confirm my surgery appointment and discovered that the estimate they gave me was for having all four wisdom teeth removed. Whoa! I thought that estimate was too high. The last thing I want is to go to the dentist thinking I'm having one tooth removed and wake up to discover that four are gone. The receptionist explained that almost everybody has all four wisdom teeth removed at the same time, so they just assumed I was going to do this too. "That's not what the dentist and I talked about," I said. Jeez. If I ever have to have all my wisdom teeth removed, I prefer to have them removed one at a time at ten year intervals.

Dot did great at her physical therapy session today. I'm amazed at how much stronger she seems than last January. Since a large part of the year was spent recovering from cancer, her new found strength and stamina seems even more remarkable. I keep thinking that if Dot can do this, maybe I can too. Hopefully, after a year or so, my own physical therapy efforts will start paying dividends as well. I've got to remember that nothing dramatic ever happened during Dot's therapy. There were no decisive moments. She just very slowly began to improve over a long period of time.

There are articles to write tomorrow, broken websites to fix, photo shoots to schedule, and a pile of bills to pay. I'm still going to have a nice breakfast at my favorite restaurant though. I deserve it.

Betty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1856

I think we're setting some kind of Texas record for unrelenting grey days. It's been colder before, and I can remember a January or two with more snow. This is the gloomiest January I can remember though. The combination of dark, grey skies and cold, damp temperatures just saps your energy. All I really want to do these days is crawl under a very warm blanket.

The naps will have to wait however. Not only is my plate full of writing assignments, I think I may have acquired a new client as well. New clients are a rarity these days, since I'm no longer looking for them. This doesn't stop things from falling in my lap occasionally. If this new deal works out, it will involve more writing about luxury goods. I actually enjoy writing about luxury goods, mostly because it is infinitely superior to writing about Walmart or Dollar General.

I've decided I need a little point-and-shoot camera. I've virtually stopped using my big professional cameras for personal photos, because they are just too much trouble to lug around. It's almost embarrassing how often I use my phone instead of a "real" camera these days. The camera on my iPhone is about as good as professional digital cameras were fifteen years ago, but on the plus side, it's always in my pocket. The frustrating thing about the iPhone camera is that there is no optical zoom, and it is almost impossible to focus on certain subjects. I still don't understand why the wizards at Apple aren't able to come up with a phone camera that offers manual focus and exposure control. Maybe nobody else wants these things. At any rate, I think if I had a small cigarette case sized camera with a 30x zoom in my pocket, I could capture a lot more interesting images.

Just when I was about to tell my physical therapist that I had too many exercises to remember, she gave me three new ones. Each of these stretching exercises serves to remind me just how weak my right shoulder has become. It all happened so gradually that I wasn't really aware that I was losing both mobility and muscle tone. The shoulder doesn't hurt when I'm not trying to lift things, so inch-by-inch I just quit using it and began relying on my left arm instead. I never should have done this, but hind-site is always 20-20. I think the main reason I'm putting myself through all the discomfort of rehabilitation is that I never want to become one of those people who walks into a supermarket under their own power and then insists on using one of the store's electric scooters to drive around and shop sitting down just because it is easier. That's not me. I'll continue to walk five miles a day with the dogs and climb up on the roof to get the water off until I drop.

Hopefully my creaky body won't give out tomorrow, because I've got lots to do. Dot has her physical therapy day tomorrow and I continue to think that she's making more progress than I am. Dot probably still has energy because she sleeps sixteen hours a day. As someone who rarely gets more than six hours of sleep, sixteen hours sounds pretty good. I'd probably have insomnia though.

Kasey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1681

Dot started eating solid food again today. She ate a small jar of baby food yesterday, but this was the first time she has been able to hold down solid food since last Thursday. Janet and I fed her some canned chicken when we went to visit this evening and she enthusiastically devoured the entire can. If she doesn't vomit tonight and is able to pass the chicken she ate through her system, we'll finally be able to take the catheter out of her leg and unhook her from all the IV tubes.

Considering that she'd had major surgery less than 24-hours ago, Dot looked great today. Her medical team is very pleased with her progress. We continue to take things one day at a time, but if she continues to improve at this rate, there's a chance she'll be able to come home with us tomorrow evening.

Fifteen years ago, our first Dalmatian had to go through a very similar type of abdominal surgery. Spot survived, but he didn't have the advantage of the advanced medical care Dot is receiving now. I continue to be amazed at the resources veterinarians have at their disposal these days. Getting a CAT scan for Spot in 1999 wasn't even an option. The surgeon just opened him up and started looking around. Surgical techniques and medications are much better now. Actually dogs have more advanced care options than you or I do, since progress isn't hindered as much by government and FDA restrictions. Laser surgery, genetic testing, stem cell transplants, MRI imaging and much more are all commonplace in today's veterinary world.

It is terrible that Dot has to deal with the complications of major surgery and possibly cancer. She is lucky to live here in Dallas though. We have some of the best specialty care facilities in the country right here. I like to think that Dot is in the Mayo Clinic for dogs right now. Her doctors are taking very good care of her.

I'll have to admit that I'm getting some very good care myself. Tomorrow I go for my last regular  visit to the liver clinic. I will repeat all the tests I had at the beginning of my treatment, and if all looks good, I am officially cured of Hepatitis-C. Technically, I've been virus free for several months now, but these doctors are very cautious about over promising things.

We took Dash to dog training class by himself tonight. Janet thought it would be good for him to be around other dogs again. Dash seemed to enjoy himself until a cold front blew through and he sensed a change in the weather. Rain was on the way. I don't think Dot can hear the rain inside the hospital. I hope she can't anyway. She needs to get a good night's rest.

Jewel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1465

The incompetence of government agencies continues to amaze me. I got a letter today saying that it was time for me to renew the vehicle registration on my Defender 90. What was all that paperwork I signed when I sold the car? Surely these guys must know by now that I no longer own the Defender. I get dozens of letters from Medicare and I have yet to understand any of them. I bet you could reduce the cost of healthcare significantly if you just fired all these useless letter writers. Even the dogs have their problems with government bureaucracies. Every year, Dash gets a letter from the city saying that his city registration has expired. This always takes place about one month after my vet issues Dash brand new registration tags. It's no real surprise that the ObamaCare website doesn't work. Nothing in government at any level works. I have no faith in government anymore.

Does anyone want to buy a Citroën SM that has sat untouched in an aircraft hanger for ten years? The car ran great a decade ago, but I suspect that it will take quite an effort to get it running again. I'm sure the fuel lines and gas tank are gummed up and will need to be removed and cleaned. I've done this once before and it's not an easy job. All five suspension spheres will need to be replaced. The car will certainly need a new heavy duty battery and probably new tires as well. Hopefully, no corrosion has taken place in the engine itself. I loved this car when I bought it in 1972, but in recent years it has become an albatross around my neck. The mechanics who used to keep the car running smoothly have all retired or moved on. My favorite mechanic is now a DJ on a local jazz radio station. Parts are next to impossible to find these days. Even ten years ago I was scared to drive the SM around town because I knew that there were no more new body parts available worldwide. If I had unlimited resources, I would ship the car off to SM World in California and have it completely restored. Unfortunately, I haven't had unlimited resources in a long, long time. Even though the car is highly collectible and Jay Leno has one, it's time to sell the thing.

I've had a lot of cars over the years and the complexities of keeping old cars running are one of the main reasons I switched to collecting watches instead. Watches are little and you can keep them in a drawer. I enjoyed watches for a while until they began to fall apart just like my cars. A good watch needs a watchmaker just as much as a car needs a mechanic. Watch repair is expensive and time consuming. In the long run, I don't think I will be any better off with watches than I was with cars. They all break eventually. I think Janet will have the last laugh at my obsession with collecting stuff. She has no interest in collecting things and prefers travel instead. Travel is all about collecting memories and in my experience, memories tend to get better over time. Eventually, the memory is better than the actual experience was. She'll have great memories, while I preside over a kingdom of rust.

To keep my body from turning to rust, I went back to the gym again today. Another week of regular workouts and I'll be back to where I was before the ice storm. I don't enjoy exercising that much, but I do enjoy seeing progress. Hey, I finally got the large printer working again. That's progress. The city hauled away most of my downed tree limbs this morning. That's progress too. Surprisingly, something seems to happen almost each and every day. There's always some sort of progress. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll sell the Citroën SM too.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1064

I used to be real careful about the software I installed on my computer. Before using something new, I would typically wait until a friend had already installed the same software on their computer with no ill effects. Only then would I go to the store and pick a box off the shelves to install on mine. Now my computer has developed a mind of its own. It's starting to act a lot like my phone. Almost every week I'll launch a familiar tool and receive a message saying a new version is available. Would you like to download the new version now, says the message. If I ignore this message, it will just reappear again the next time I launch the software. I've gotten in the habit of downloading and installing the updates just to make the irritating message go away. As a result, when I begin to use my supposedly familiar software, I often find that a favorite feature has been replaced by something I never wanted in the first place.  I know that somewhere off in the cloud there are people looking out for my best interests, but I would rather make these decisions myself.

It's hard to fight progress though, so I usually just click the download button and learn to live with the results. I've come to the conclusion that it's a lost cause to make decisions by yourself these days. Sharing and collaboration are revered and everybody needs to be on the same page. Like it or not, we live in an age where an iconoclastic thought will never get you as far as a picture of a cute cat.

I've started to wonder how I can make my own thoughts appear like cute cats. As an experiment, I've uploaded some photos of mine to Google+ and then a few months later, uploaded exactly the same photos that are tagged with a currently trending Meme. The photo linked with a popular Meme always gets far more attention. The photos are absolutely identical, but the one without a popular reason to like it always gets ignored. This is counter-intuitive to me. Here I've been thinking that it was originality that got me noticed, when it apparently it takes a village after all.

I only mention all this because when I was taking Dash to the vet this afternoon for his antigen shot I got talking with the director of a rescue program I work with about the theme for an upcoming event. She wanted me to take a photo of a dogs paw pressed against a human hand as a symbol of people helping animals. Sounded like a good idea to me. When I got home, I opened up Facebook and immediately saw a picture of exactly what she was talking about in my stream. Weird. Had she already subliminally seen this picture, or does everything just happen in parallel these days?  Oddly, the fact that this visual idea has already been done will make it seem more powerful to some in the rescue group. There won't be the worry of being the first anymore.

Can you tell I'm rambling. Nothing really happened today. Oh, I did go to the shoe store and discovered that my feet have grown wider.  Boo. Apparently, I should be wearing an 8 1/2 extra wide now.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 958

I burned some PDF files to a CD and drove them over to a client this morning. It was easier to drive across town than it would have been to explain yet again how to use YouSendIt or Unzip large files. Sometimes I worry that I could lose all my clients at the drop of a hat. None of them are very tech savvy, and most don't seem to have any use for the Internet at all. One client still prints out their website so they can read it on paper. You might think that dealing with Luddites would be stressful, but I find the old ways reassuring. Truthfully, it's still a lot easier to send a fax than it is to communicate using GoToMeeting or Evernote.

It appears like I'll never be able to completely relax when walking the dogs. There is always some sort of danger on the horizon. Last week I noticed that a guy with two aggressive dogs had moved into one of the rent houses down the street. The house where the guy lives has a very rickety back fence. I know that the previous renters who lived in this house have had their dogs escape through this fence. When I see the aggressive dogs racing around in the back yard, I have this sinking feeling that this isn't going to end well.

I just don't have a whole lot of faith in my fellow man anymore. Some of the nicest people I know are completely incompetent. On the other side of the coin, many of the most competent people are complete jerks. Where is the balance? It seems like there should be more people who are brilliant, completely practical, and nice all at the same time.

The new website I launched yesterday seems to be getting good reviews. This is a huge relief to me, because I don't think that all the king's horses and all the king's men could put the old site back together again. When I was going through the process of updating the site, I frequently became baffled by the code I wrote in 1995. What was I thinking? A lot of this code doesn't even make sense to me anymore. Of course, the Internet was different then. Most of my clients were using Windows 95 and Flash hadn't even been invented yet. Those were the days. I don't think I would even hear about PHP, API's and all the other complexities that bedevil me today until quite a few years later.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 489

I'm making progress. I got two big website projects finished today, which brings me more or less up-to-date with everyone. With the help of my client, I also got a hotel room in Houston reasonably close to Reliant Park where the Offshore Technology Conference takes place. Now, I need to figure out whether I'm supposed to provide my own Internet hotspot, or if there will already be adequate bandwidth available for video uploads at the conference. Oh, I've got to make airline reservations too. I can't forget that.

It was kind of weird to be making arrangements with corporate types as I was washing dog pee out of the painted backdrop I used at yesterday's Easter pet photo event. That's my life though. The corporate jobs pay my bills. And the dog pee keeps me humble.

The house looks a lot better now that all the bulky photo gear has been carted off to the storage warehouse again. I think next on the agenda is to get a decent night's sleep. The dog's woke me up three or four times last night because they never could decide which side of the bed they wanted to sleep on. Once again, it was a car crash in the middle of the night that woke the dogs up. This wreck must not have been a bad one though. I thought I heard a horn blaring for a while, and a bit later the sounds of a wrecker towing a car away, but that was it. This morning, when I looked out in the front yard, there were no signs that anything had happened. Maybe I just imagined the whole thing.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day