Day 2675

I stayed home and made French Toast this morning. As expected, Dot remained active after her morning walk. She needed to go outside twice while I was fixing breakfast and then just as I thought things were settling down, she pooped and made a big mess as she struggled to get up. I took everything off the stove, got some wet rages to clean her up, and fitted her with the spare harness we have for occasions like this. After I got everything cleaned up and started a new load of laundry, I warmed up my breakfast in the microwave and finished my meal. Basically, it was just a normal morning.

The good news is that Dash seems back to normal. His appetite has returned and he didn't seem nauseous at all. By 10:30, both dogs were ready for a nap. I made sure they were sleeping soundly and then ran my morning errands. While I was at the bank, a teller asked me if I was trying to get everything done before it started to rain. "It's going to rain," I asked? She told me that there was a severe weather warning and that there was going to be hail in the afternoon.

Since I avoid rain at all costs, I hurried to get everything done before the bad weather started. I picked up dinner at Central Market and swung by the vet to get Dash's blood pressure medication on the way home. It really didn't look like bad weather was on the way to me, so I checked the weather radar as soon as I got home. The only storm clouds I saw were in Oklahoma. I wonder where the bank teller got her information? She seemed convinced that something bad was about to happen.

The only bad thing that happened today was that the automated garbage truck driver crushed my can again and failed to empty all the trash. There were still two bags in the bottom of the badly dented can when I went to retrieve it. I hope we haven't lost our good driver. For the past three months we've had a very good driver who knew how to operate the high tech truck properly. Now we're back to square one. I hope today's driver was just a temporary replacement. From the looks of things he made a mess of the entire street. After making sure the dogs were still asleep, I took the abandoned trash bags to a dumpster. I'll have to ask the city for a new can again too. I wish the sanitation department could master these new trucks they've got. It shouldn't be that hard to get the trash in the truck.

Dot slept for a long time today. She didn't wake up until mid-afternoon, but after that, she kept me busy for the rest of the day. Dot was eager to walk this afternoon, even though she can barely move. I really hope we are successful at fitting her for a wheelchair next week. Her rear legs have been weak for a long time, but now she is starting to lose muscle coordination. If I don't hold her up properly using the harness, her rear legs start to drag. It's amazing that she still wants to walk, because it seems so difficult.

It's been a long day, but at least we made it through another week. Next week is going to be busy. Dot has a major cancer recheck and we've got a lot of questions for the oncologist. Hopefully Dot will have a new wheelchair next week as well. At least we will test her to see if she would benefit from wheels. If I have time, I'm going to replace the hard drive on my office computer with a higher capacity drive. I'm out of space. I found a place that offers same day service on drive upgrades. I'm sure I can go a day without a computer these days. That's all in the future though. All I'm worried about tomorrow is making sure Dash holds down his dinner and Dot can swallow her pills.

Joe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2502

What was Cardinal Dolan thinking when he invited Donald and Hillary to speak at the Al Smith dinner tonight? Somebody forgot to tell these two that last night's debate was over. I usually love the self-deprecating humor at these events, but this was the most acrimonious and least funny roast I have ever seen. George Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Regan have all been hilarious at these type of events. Trump and Hillary were pathetic. They both told a few jokes and then launched into their stump speech. This was a take no prisoners evening. No wonder so many people are disgusted with this election.

I put my trash can on the opposite side of the street this evening. This isn't much of a plan, but it was the best I could come up with. Who knows. Maybe a different truck picks up the trash on the right hand side of the street. I went back to using my original rolling cart, because the robotic arm on the truck pretty well demolished my new can last week. We'll see tomorrow morning whether my talk with the sanitation department had any effect whatsoever. If my trash isn't emptied properly in the morning, I'm going to be well beyond frustrated.

Actually, I'm already frustrated because  today's rain ruined my chances of getting the roof repaired this week. The last time I called the roofers, they promised me that they'd be out again toward the end of the week. Now, they have the perfect excuse to keep ignoring me for a while longer. The coating material can't be applied unless the roof is completely dry, and the rainy season is approaching. It's going to become harder and harder to find a time when the roof is dry and the roofers are available.

The dogs were unusually needy today and it was hard to get anything done. If Dot wasn't demanding attention, Dash was. Dash always gets nervous on rainy days and it was hard to get him to go outside until the skies finally cleared. I knew he had to pee when I got up this morning, but it took four or five attempts to get him out the door. Dot didn't even bother. She just pooped in the house. It seemed like every time I tried to fix breakfast of dinner, there was another mess to clean up. There's nothing like the smell of dog poop when you're trying to enjoy your dinner.

I got another writing assignment this afternoon, but there was no need to finish it today. This will give me something to do tomorrow. If the weather cooperates, I'll look forward to going out for breakfast again. It's been a long week and I need to get out of the house for a while.

Emily is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2499

A lady from the sanitation department called me this morning. She listened politely as I explained the problems I've been having with trash collection. I thought we were getting somewhere when she told me that the city had hired a lot of new drivers recently and seemed to agree with my theory that the driver didn't know how to operate the fancy robotic garbage truck. When I finished my story and asked what was going to happen next, I instantly became disappointed. "I'll talk to my supervisor about this," she told me. This is going to end like every other encounter I've had with a large bureaucracy. Maybe this supervisor will talk to his supervisor, or maybe it won't even get that far. I doubt that anything will happen. The drivers are probably protected by their union and can't be fired anyway. The driver might not even be at fault. There's always the chance that the city added fifty extra streets to his regular route and he is just doing the best he can to keep up with the added workload.

A little later, a representative from SiriusXM  called and asked if I was enjoying my free trial and wondered why I hadn't activated my subscription yet. Normally, I don't even answer these type of telemarketing calls, but this guy surprised me by calling my cell phone. I explained that I only listened to one channel in the car and their package prices seemed pretty expensive if all I was going to use satellite radio for was to avoid having to listen to all the annoying pledge drives on the local over the air public radio station. I took this opportunity to complain about the tinny, compressed quality of all the voice offerings on SiriusXM. The guy thanked me for my input and agreed that I probably wasn't the target audience they were looking for. I don't know why companies like these don't adopt an à la carte pricing structure. If I could just pay for the stations I actually listen to, I'd gladly subscribe to SiriusXM. I feel the same way about my AT&T U-Verse account. Why should I have to pay for hundreds of channels when I only watch ten at the most?

I went to the vegan take-out store to buy enough meals to augment the leftovers in the refrigerator for the rest of the week. I love this store and hope they manage to stay in business. There is no way I could cook all these interesting meals myself. Cooking for one is hardly worth the trouble. It's hard to buy small quantities of vegetables and if you buy larger quantities, the stuff goes bad before you get around to eating it. I talked to the lady who started the store today and she told me that she got the idea when friends of hers kept saying that they'd love to become vegetarian, but that it was so much easier to just get a burger. This store is easier than going to McDonalds. I'm hooked.

On my way home I dropped off one of my favorite watches at my local watch repair place to get the band fixed. It doesn't matter if your wear the watches or not. Eventually, they all just fall apart by themselves. I doubt that I'll wear this watch anymore, but it was an old friend that deserved some respect. I have no idea how the watch broke. It's been sitting in a drawer for years.

Dot seemed so tired today. I don't think the Tramadol pills are having much of an effect. I had hoped that they might help her walk a little easier, but that isn't happening. We'll continue the pills for a few days longer in case there is some sort of delayed reaction, but I think this is just an experiment that failed. I wish it were easier to transport Dot. I think the water therapy still might help, but I hate to put Dot through the ordeal of getting her to the vet and back on a regular basis if all it does is cause her stress.

Maybe something interesting will happen tomorrow. I'm not counting on it though.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day