Day 3169

I've stopped going to the library, but I certainly haven't stopped reading. I think one reason my head is filled with useless information is that on slow days like this, I can spend hours reading odd little articles I find on Google. When I click on the Google Discover tab, I'm always amazed that there seems to be an endless supply of things I've never heard about before. I'll read almost anything about astronomy and space. I like reading articles about how the human race is doomed and headed toward extinction. Most articles about Elon Musk catch my attention. I always read articles about the best diet to feed your dog. Sometimes I'll read articles about the pills I'm taking or the stocks my broker recommends. I like articles about exotic cars and vintage guitars. I'm not interested in politics at all, so I skip over a lot of stuff. Apparently, a lot of people are only interested in politics.

Today I read articles about what might have existed in the universe before the big bang, learned about a new mass extinction theory that says the dinosaurs all died in a single day, read about a Ferrari prototype that uses a "virtual" windshield made out of air, and did some research on several stocks my broker wants me to buy.

My broker and I don't agree on much. I like to contemplate large scale trends like young people preferring pets to children and ordering meal kits from Hello Fresh rather than going to the grocery store. I'm bored by technical analysis and usually could care less when a stock dips below its two hundred day moving average. My broker thinks Gilead Sciences is a good buy right now. What? I hate that company. They're the ones who charged me $1000 a pill for Sovaldi. OK. It is a revolutionary drug that cured my Hepatitis C, but $1000 a pill still seems a bit steep. I wish I'd just kept the first three stocks I'd ever bought: Apple, Boeing, and Southwest Airlines. If I'd kept adding to those positions over the years, I'd have done a lot better than decades of hit and miss trading.

Forget about stocks. What I should be researching is what's causing Dash's loose stools. According to everything we've read, what we're feeding Dash now should be very easy to digest and contribute to firm stools. It's just not happening. It's hard to get a definitive answer from the vets either. The older your dog gets, the more "old age" seems to be the cause of everything. I doubt that I'm going to find a cure for Dash's incontinence, but it does get tiring having a world centered around poop.

I've stopped carrying a camera on our walks because I really need to concentrate on keeping Dash upright. It's kind of a shame. This morning I missed a spectacular shot of a Great Egret. Yesterday evening the setting sun reflecting off the downtown skyscrapers was equally spectacular. I still carry my phone in my pocket, but I would have needed a telephoto lens to capture these images. It probably doesn't even matter. Everything I see in the park, I've already photographed dozens of times before. Just to prove my point, I took another picture of Jimson Weed flowers with my phone this morning.

Dash had a good day, but he still hasn't pooped yet. I'm nervous. I still can't decide whether to apply to join the Jet Propulsion Lab team for the InSight landing either. I guess I'm nervous about that too.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3096

Summer is noisy. In the morning I'm greeted with a cacophony of lawn mowers and leaf blowers as the lawn care companies descend on the neighborhood to take care of chores that everyone but me seems to have abandoned. The evenings are filled with the sound of Cicadas. Why are these bugs so loud? Their song starts in the afternoon and continues unabated through the night.

I'm pretty quiet myself. The noisy neighbors would never know I'm here. I never play loud music and I don't even make much noise when I mow the grass. My electric mower is very quiet, but it isn't self propelled like a lot of gasoline mowers. I was very tired after I finished mowing the grass today. I've thought about using one of those lawn care companies myself, but they seem expensive to me. I try to tell myself that chores like mowing the grass are just as effective as going to the gym. I'm pretty sure that I burn more calories mowing the lawn that I do on the treadmill at the gym.

The landscaper didn't replace the dead grass today. Why do people make promises they never intend to keep? Eventually, the dead sod will get replaced, but it will probably take ten more phone calls to get any results. The landscaper is probably hoping that that healthy grass will fill in the dead spots and he won't have to replace so much. Either that, or he is waiting until he has some left over grass from another job.

I've been doing some research on the Internet to find out more about the art I'm trying to consign. It's amazing how much information is out there. Pick a subject and you can find out volumes about it in a matter of minutes. Today, I discovered the name of a painting I've had for thirty years. It has a history.    This thing has been hanging in my office for all these years and I knew nothing about it. The only problem about looking up things on the Internet is that a lot of the information is inaccurate. I've been looking up the names of flowers I see in the park for years, and about half the information I find is total nonsense.

I made some updates to an animal rescue website this afternoon. This time the edits worked. I still don't know what went wrong with my upload yesterday. I'm not even going to bother calling technical support until Monday. You can never get a problem resolved on the weekend. I don't know who they hire to work the weekend shift, but they need to take a refresher course in website maintenance.

Dash continues to do well. Three months ago nothing seemed to be working, but now he seems almost normal. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but that's probably the wrong attitude. You can't spend all your time walking on eggshells. Dash wants us to treat him like a normal dog. No, scratch that. I think Dash really wants us to treat him like royalty. He likes being spoiled.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2878

I wonder why I'm losing interest in going out for breakfast? This has been an enjoyable Friday morning ritual for over six years. It's safe to say that I've explored every single restaurant that serves breakfast within a ten mile radius. I could write a book on the multitude of different ways you can fix hash browns, grits, or sausage. I used to be fascinated by all these small but significant variations, but now I seldom even feel like eating. The meals all seem too hot, too cold, too spicy, or too bland. There is nothing wrong with the restaurants. I think it's me.

Today I went to a place famous for Southern country cooking. The portions seemed way too large. I felt like asking for a doggie bag and nibbling on the meal for the rest of the week. This isn't like me at all. I usually have a huge appetite and find eating to be one of life's few pleasures. I ate my breakfast slowly, wondering what I was going to do for the rest of the day. I really didn't come up with any answers.

When I got home I did some research on the roof coating I've been using and discovered that I've been doing everything wrong. To be fair, the roofers were doing everything wrong too. Before applying the coating, the roof should be power washed to remove all dirt and debris and then sprayed with a solution of bleach and water to kill any remaining bacteria and fungus. A special primer should be applied prior to using the silicon material to ensure that the coating sticks firmly to the roof. If people are going to be walking on the roof, ceramic granules should be mixed in with the silicon material prior to application to keep the surface from becoming too slippery. The material should only be applied when the temperature is above 40 degrees and the humidity is below 50%.

The roofers didn't follow any of these guidelines and neither did I. I'm sure the roofers ignored a lot of this stuff because if you followed the specifications to the letter, it would probably only leave about three days a year where you could safely install a new roof. The manufacturers probably made the specifications so stringent and exacting to cover their ass when customers complained that their roof had failed. This is the way life is. Everybody cuts corners and covers their bases, hoping that nobody will notice. Occasionally, people like me do notice, but it doesn't really change anything.

I'm glad Dash appears to be returning to normal. I'm curious what we'll find out when we return next week for a one month follow up visit to check on the blood clots in his heart. This will be touch and go for a long time. If I had blood clots inside my heart, they would perform open heart surgery immediately. That's not an option for dogs though. We've just got to hope that the Plavix will eventually work.

So many things can go wrong with dogs. One of my neighbors just found out that his dog has meningitis. Scary. I didn't even know it was possible for a dog to get meningitis. The disease is rare but it is so serious that it is one more thing to worry about. I would think one of the biggest problems would be getting the right diagnosis in a hurry. Some vets have never seen a dog with meningitis. You almost always have to have a MRI and a spinal tap to confirm diagnosis too. It's hard to arrange all these tests in a hurry. Luckily, my neighbor's dog was treated in time by one of the best veterinary neurologists in Texas and is going to recover.

I can't say that I accomplished anything today. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1406

There are occasional benefits to dumping everything in the storage warehouse instead of just throwing it away like a normal person. While I was taking some things to the storage room today, I noticed some dusty old coats hanging in one corner. Among the coats was my favorite leather motorcycle jacket. This jacket was fairly snug even when I used to wear it in the 1970's. I haven't been able to get into the thing in decades. On a whim, I tried the jacket on again, and lo and behold, it fit. I know I've lost a lot of weight, but I didn't think that jacket would ever fit again. I dusted the coat off, put it on and continued my errands feeling younger than I have in years.

Although there were no new assignments today, there was still plenty to do. I have a long wish list from website clients that I'm still not sure how to fulfill. Whenever I have some extra time, I do a little research and see what I can learn to make these mostly odd wishes come true. I used to think I knew everything about the web, but increasingly I'm feeling like a stranger in a strange land. A lot has changed since 1995. I try to keep up, but I think I'm probably still a few years behind.

Dash saw a loose dog in the park this morning and panicked. Ever since he was attacked by another dog in the park several years ago, he gets extremely nervous whenever he sees a large dog off leash.  He has good reason to be afraid, since the other dog almost killed him during the attack. I feel terrible when I see how fearful Dash has become, but there isn't much I can do. I can't keep the dogs cooped up in the house all the time and Dallas is full of idiots who think it's perfectly fine to let their dogs off leash, even though there are sign ever 100 yards saying that it is illegal to do so. I just try to stay very aware of what's happening up in front of us and change direction if I see a loose dog.

I tried to make a doctor's appointment today and kept getting a message that said "due to unusually high call volumes, your wait will be longer than normal." I guess never is a lot longer than normal. They never did pick up the phone. I suspect that there never were high call volumes in the first place. It's a lot more likely that the receptionist just didn't show up for work this morning.

That bad thing is that other than driving across town to resolve the problem in person, I'll probably have to repeat this exercise in futility tomorrow. I still need to make the appointment. I did manage to get my toll tag account changed to my new license plate number though. Now, all I got to do is remember what this new number is. It took me years to remember the number on the old Defender plates.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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