Day 2158

Sometimes, you've got to be the squeaky wheel. When Dot pooped in her bed again last night and we still couldn't use the washing machine because of our ongoing plumbing problems, I'd had about as much as I could take. I called the president of the plumbing company and told him as politely as I could that waiting until Tuesday for a plumber simply wasn't acceptable. "Your ads say you guys are on call 24/7," I said. "So, what's with making us wait a week and a half to get this fixed?" When I started going on and on about living in a house full of dog poop without running water, the guy told me he would see what he could do. An hour later the plumbing company said they could have a plumber out early Friday morning. Friday was much better than next Tuesday, so I was happy that my little tirade had achieved its purpose. Another hour passed, and the plumbing company called again and said they'd have someone out this afternoon.

When the plumber arrived he asked me to turn on all the water in the kitchen and utility room to help him find the drain leak under the house. Simply turning on the faucet wasn't producing the desired results, so I filled the kitchen sink with water and then let it go down the drain all at once. Not a good idea! The sink wasn't draining. At that point, the dishwasher, which was also on, began to empty and the water had no place to go. A line broke under the sink and the kitchen was flooded with water. Luckily, there were two plumbers several feet away watching this new disaster unfold.

Eventually the leaking cast iron pipe under the house was replaced, the leak under the sink was repaired, and the entire drain line was snaked out. I ran a load of poopy dog blankets to test the system and nothing leaked.  I think we're back in business! The two plumbers were at the house the entire afternoon. Mercifully, Dot slept for the first three hours. When she eventually woke up, she made up for lost time and barked for the rest of the day. Despite all the barking, she didn't poop in the house again. I think this was because she had already pooped in the vet's lobby, right before she got in the underwater treadmill.

There is still a huge hole under the house and one of the loud dehumidifiers is still running in the living room, but I think we're making progress. The tunneling crew will come back tomorrow to backfill the tunnel, unless another leak appears while I'm taking a shower tonight. I think the old house is trying to tell me something. If houses had "use by" dates like milk, this house would have expired and gone sour by now. Don't let me ever buy a house with a flat roof and a slab foundation again.

Since fixing things was the theme for the day, I tried to fix some ad copy that my client wasn't too happy with yesterday. I also tried to fix the layout in my new mobile friendly website so the iPhone view didn't look so wonky. I tried to explain to the client that making the mobile friendly site look perfect on every available device just wasn't that easy. I told them that the site was a work in progress and it would gradually become more refined with each passing day. I think the plumber tried to explain to me that my house was a work in progress too. There was no way he could fix all my plumbing problems in a single day. Fair enough. There was no way I could pay for everything I need right now anyway. The important thing was that the two major leaks had been repaired. The toilets are working again and I can do the laundry. That's enough for one day.

Hopefully, there will be no surprises when the tunneling crew returns tomorrow. I've had enough surprises for an entire year.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1654

I finished the initial design for the new website I'm working on today, but I haven't shown it to anybody yet. It's too disheartening to have the layout come back a few hours later marked up with different colors, new pictures, and all the buttons renamed. I think I'll wait till Monday to present the thing. By then I should be able to take the inevitable changes in stride.

Dash had to go to the vet today to get his anal glands cleaned again. I really need to learn to do this myself, since they get full so often. Sticking my fingers up a dog's butt couldn't be any worse than dealing with clients. I don't know why Dash's glands have to be expressed so often. Dot can go years without a problem, but I have to take Dash to the vet every two weeks for this smelly procedure.

I bit the bullet and renewed my storage space for another year this afternoon. There's something very unfair about renting a storage unit. The rent goes up every year, while the value of what I'm actually storing continues to decline. At some point, the whole idea of even having a storage warehouse become ridiculous. I wish there was an easy, painless way to sell stuff without haggling about the price, or dealing with buyers. I hate dealing with buyers. I wish everything was like selling real estate. Selling real estate is OK. You just find an agent you trust. Give them 6%. And they take care of dealing with the buyers. I don't think downsizing is going to be easy. I just don't have the temperment for it.

It didn't rain today, which meant that yesterday's rain turned into humid mugginess. It wasn't bad early this morning, but later in the day the dogs didn't even want to go outside. It was just too humid for them. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I really need to go get all the water off the roof. All the wet weather we've been having this June is creating a real mosquito problem. The mosquitoes are everywhere this year. They're even getting into the house. If I don't get the water off the roof soon, it's going to become a breeding ground for even more mosquitoes. Other people might have fantasies about retiring to a country lake house. I just want to get away from all these bugs.

I've got an appointment tomorrow with the doctor who wanted all those new blood tests. I don't even care what the tests say anymore. I've had way too many blood tests. I kind of feel the way you do when you take your car in for a safety inspection. They hand you a piece of paper at the end of the inspection with all sorts of engine performance numbers on it, but all you're really interested in is whether you passed or failed the test. Medicine should be more like getting your car safety inspected. The doctor should just give you a sticker saying you're good for another year.

I'm already looking forward to breakfast tomorrow. Conversely, I'm already dreading jury duty, even though it's over three weeks away. I feel the same way about jury duty as Dot feels about thunderstorms.

Derrick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1018

I'm getting really tired of all the political rhetoric. I've never seen such a disingenuous bunch of people in my life. Everyone wants to save the middle class. I'm right in the middle of the middle class. Why do I keep feeling like nobody is talking to me? I think the Republicans like to use the words middle class so people won't think they are talking to the privileged elite. On the other hand, I think the Democrats like to use the words middle class so people won't think they're talking exclusively to Walmart lowlife. I don't trust politicians. I've spent too many years sitting in advertising focus groups to believe any of them. Politicians love focus groups. They like to find out what people emotionally respond to and then that's what they say. Whether what they say is true is irrelevant.

I think the restaurant with good bacon knows I'm taking pictures of their food. Today, the chef brought my bacon to me carefully arranged in an artful star shape on a special plate. That's never happened before. Nobody said anything about this interesting bacon star, but I did think the whole thing was a bit strange.

I think I made it through a very challenging work week with no major damage. A few things came back for revisions today, but the re-writes were minor and quite reasonable. Most of my website revisions are still up as well. I always look at this as a good sign, since sometimes the revisions go up and then come right back down again. Usually, I always worry where next week's work is coming from. Truthfully, I wouldn't mind if people forgot about me for a week. I need a little time to recharge.

I've had my new phone for a week now. I still haven't made a call. I don't think I've received any calls either. This is par for the course. I think I had my first iPhone almost a month before I actually called anyone. I have received four text messages though. They were all from AT&T, asking me to take a survey.

Spanky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 957

Dash was better behaved in the car today than he's been in a long, long time. It would be nice to know what causes his panic attacks, but maybe we'll never know. The only thing that I can think of is that we have finally weaned him off of the Phenobarbital he's been taking for several years. The vet wanted him to take Phenobarbital to reduce the chance of another epileptic seizure, but he hasn't had a seizure in so many years that Janet and I decided to take him off the drug. It takes a long time to get off Phenobarbital. You have to reduce the dose very gradually, so there will be no side effects. The whole process took about three months, but last week he finally had the drug completely out of his system. Maybe there is still a risk of seizures, but I think Dash is better off without having to continually deal with a powerful barbiturate in his system.

I finally completed the animal rescue website I've been renovating this afternoon and re-launched it early this evening. Doing something over again is never quite as much fun as doing it the first time. I think the makeover is actually a big improvement over the original site I designed, but I'm certain that, in my desire to simplify things, I accidentally eliminated some stuff that needed to stay. The original design evolved over a period of many years and eventually became so complex that it was difficult to navigate and almost impossible to update. This new design will be easy to update. In fact, making the site easy to modify was my primary objective. Being the webmaster of an animal rescue site is kind of like being the manager of a motel. You get new visitors almost every day.  Maybe this time around, I won't be faced with re-inventing the wheel every week.

Dot and Dash had a great time at the dog park today. I was really surprised, since it was just as hot outside as it was last Sunday. Somehow, both dogs had more energy this week and raced around like it was a Spring day. I have no idea where this burst of energy came from, but some of it must have rubbed off on me. When we got home, I mowed the grass, vacuumed the house and had enough mojo left over to finally finish the animal rescue website.

I was pleased to get a lot done today, but I don't really expect today's get-up-and-go to last through tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is Monday. You can't expect much out of a Monday. I'll dip my toe back into the muddy waters of deadlines and delays. When I pick up the phone, I'll probably get put on hold. The postman will probably bring a pile of bills as well. That's what happens on Monday's. I suspect that I'll eat cold cereal for breakfast. I never have a desire to cook on Monday's. I don't have a desire to do much of anything on Monday.

Tink is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 937

I got a request for the recipe for yesterday's tomato casserole. I'm usually happy to oblige with requests like this, because it shows that someone is actually reading the blog. I actually feel like a proper mommy blog now. Hey, tasty recipes and nice doggie stories. What more could you want? Truthfully, I'm in awe of mommy blogs. Somehow, I don't think guys with Dalmatians would ever qualify for their own special blog category. At any rate, I hope you enjoy the recipe.

I managed to finish updating the animal rescue website I was working on this weekend. I'm sure the site won't stay current for very long. Animal rescue sites are constantly changing as dogs and cats get admitted or adopted.  Nevertheless, it's good to have everything up to date again.

Once I completed my website project, the rest of the day was uneventful. About mid-afternoon I got a request to re-write another writer's article. I tried to weasel out of the job, but the client wasn't taking no for an answer. I never like to revise or re-work other people's writing. I'm just not a very competitive person and it seems distasteful to change someone else's work. Even if the writing is absolutely atrocious, I'd just as soon leave things well enough alone. Truthfully, 90% of advertising writing is rubbish anyway. Why split hairs over who's rubbish is better?

I wonder when the new season of Dr. Who is going to start? I've seen all the old episodes at least three times by now. Sadly, even these endlessly repeating re-runs are more interesting than most of the new shows on TV. I have yet to understand the popularity of shows like 30-Rock and Two and a Half Men. I guess shows like these are still classified as sit-coms, but they're not nearly as well written as shows like Sienfeld or Fraiser. Hmm. Maybe there actually is one category of 'other people's writing' that I wouldn't mind changing. Most of what's on television today desperately needs a re-write.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 807

I forget how long some of my clients have been around until they start asking for really old files. I've usually totally forgotten about these old jobs, but apparently clients never forget. Periodically, I'm asked to bring one of these old projects back to life. I'm sure my clients think that these resurrections are a trivial matter, but usually they are a nightmare. It's a miracle if you can even find one of these ten or fifteen year old files. Once you've found it, getting it to open is another matter entirely. Today, I was asked to revise a flyer that was created on an OS 8.0 computer, using completely different software than I use now, and then print the thing for them again using a different printer than I had back then. Needless to say, this was hard to do, and even harder to explain exactly why it was to hard to do.

That's what people pay me for though. To solve problems. Eventually, I just recreated the file from scratch, but it took so long that it put me behind on everything else. At least it's Friday tomorrow. February was a very busy month and it looks like March is going to be the same.

Everything is blooming already. Almost every day I see a new variety of wildflower in full bloom in the park. If I knew this weather was going to continue, I'd go ahead and start planting the new St. Augustine sod in the back yard. The sooner the sod gets established, the sooner we'll have grass again. I think I'd better wait a little while though. I'm not very good at predicting the weather. I have a feeling that if I put the sod in now, it would almost definitely snow or freeze a few days later. Anyway, what's the hurry? Installing a new turf is fairly labor intensive and I always like to put off manual labor as long as I can.

I'm finally starting to remember to take the trash out to the street every Thursday evening after dinner. I hope this doesn't become the Thursday diversion I've been asking for. I need something more interesting than this.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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