Day 3260

It must have gotten below freezing last night because there was frost everywhere on our morning walk. It's hard enough to keep Dash upright on dry ground and the frost on the grass made things slippery in places. My rubber boots weren't getting much traction and neither were Dash's. We made it home in one piece but I'm already looking forward to Summer.

Dash's paw started to bleed again today. Luckily, this was a very minor cut. I wish he didn't have to take blood thinners. It's so easy for him to get scraped up. At least I know how to get the bleeding controlled now. Dash drags his feet and bumps into things a lot, so rehabilitation is a slow process. We're getting there though. His paws look a lot better than they did two weeks ago.

I wish I could say the same for my office. I tried to do some cleaning this afternoon, but I can't see much difference. I threw away a lot of old magazines and catalogs and went through a huge stack of unopened mail. I hate to deal with mail these days. The vast majority of it is junk. Medicare generates  a lot of junk mail. So do banks and brokerage houses. I should bite the bullet and go paperless because when I eventually do open these letters, I already know the contents. Everybody has a website and anything important is usually on it.

I could get more enthusiastic about cleaning if it made a difference. I threw away a big black trash bag full of paper today and nothing looks different at all. The office is still a mess. Jeez. I'd have to do this every day for a year to make any real progress. At least I've stopped buying things. When you don't have any business you definitely don't need additional business equipment.

I wish I could find some shoes that met my needs. I've been wearing these rubber slip on rain shoes when I walk Dash now but I've already worn out three pair. Sure, the shoes are cheap and made in China, but they should last longer than this. I need something that I can slip on instantly, lasts forever, has good arch support, and doesn't have those Vibram soles that instantly become caked in mud. I can see this shoe clearly in my mind, but nobody makes it. Story of my life. Nobody ever makes the things I'm looking for.

I hope Dash's exam goes well tomorrow. Mostly we need to get his dew claws trimmed before he rips them out again, but I'd really like to know what is causing all the shivering at night. The doctors at the cancer center don't seem to have an answer. Maybe his regular vet can tell us something. We'll be wearing protective boots to the vet this time. I won't make that mistake twice.

The Insight Mars Lander appears to be working perfectly this morning. Wouldn't it be nice if everything worked perfectly.

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2824

There are pumpkins everywhere. It isn't even October yet. I've even seen Christmas lights in a few stores. Couldn't we just give it a rest? I'm sure that some of these early pumpkins will rot before Halloween even arrives. I used to dutifully get pumpkins every year to decorate the front porch. They would often sit there until February when I would eventually notice that they had turned into a pile of mush.

I don't buy pumpkins anymore. We don't cook a big turkey on Thanksgiving either. There is still a tree at Christmas, but it is a very small simple tree. I think I have finally mastered downsizing the holidays. Now, if I could just figure out how to downsize everything else.

I'm going to miss those pictures of Saturn from Cassini. I wonder what the team in charge of this mission is going to do now? They spent more than a decade working together to learn about the planet and now their spacecraft is gone. I wonder if I'll see other missions on this kind of a grand scale in my lifetime? People still thought big when Cassini-Huygens was conceived in 1988. More than 5000 people worked on the project during it's lifetime. The 22 foot tall spacecraft weighed over 12,000 pounds and traveled almost 5 billion miles to take hundreds of thousands of pictures and discover 6 new moons. I wish were still doing things like this. We still could if we weren't tearing ourselves apart with hatred and bickering.

Maybe this is why I'm not all that excited about the iPhone X. We've gone from discovering the universe to discovering new ways to take a selfie. Who am I to criticize though. The folks in silicon valley who are discovering new ways to communicate with emojis are still doing more than I am. All I did today was go to the gym and use the wet/dry vacuum to suck more water from under the shower tiles.

I was looking for some alternate dog walking shoes while my boots are at the shoe repair shop. In a dusty corner of my closet, I found a pair of my Dad's boots I used to wear when it snowed. I forgot I even had these boots because it hasn't snowed much lately. What was amazing is that even though these boots were over fifty years old, they were still in better condition than most brand new shoes today. My Dad wore these shoes trapping animals in Alaska. I've worn them off and on for decades and they still look like they could last a lifetime. I know I sound like a broken record talking about shoddy, disposable products, but it's true. Nothing is built to last anymore.

I think I spotted the tip of a new nail starting to grow where Dash ripped his dewclaw out. He still doesn't want me near the area, so I try to clean the wound with saline solution while he is asleep. I'll be glad when his dewclaw has grown back. Dash is not a good patient. I still have to have him wear the cone whenever I'm not watching him closely.

My allergies didn't seem so bad today. I still used a lot of Kleenex and Visine, but it wasn't like yesterday. It's weird how the amount of pollen in the air can vary so much from day to day. I'm going to have to start checking the pollen count every morning.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1634

A friend shamed me into going to a Hallmark Card store today. I'm not really a greeting card person. I don't send them and rarely receive them. I felt guilty though. A former co-worker had gotten very sick and since I could barely remember who this person was, I felt even worse. I looked through the cards and couldn't find anything that seemed right. I never can. The cards either seem too emotional, too disrespectful, or all too often, something only a fan of Duck Dynasty would appreciate. I usually just end up getting a blank card with a picture of a dog on the front. A blank card wouldn't really work in this case, since I didn't know the person that well and wasn't really sure what to say. I was looking for a card that said what I would have said if I hadn't already erased this entire work experience from my memory. It took me forever to find a nice simple get well card that I wouldn't be embarrassed to send. Maybe this is why I hate going into Hallmark stores.

I do still enjoy going out to breakfast on Friday mornings and this is probably what put me near a Hallmark store in the first place. I'm still amazed at how nice the baristas and waiters treat me at the restaurant, since I rarely speak a word. I just eat my meal quietly, staring out the window and wondering about the things I'm seeing. I wonder why so many people wear nylon running shoes everywhere they go. People seem to love these ugly shoes whether they run or not. I still prefer heavy leather Red Wing work boots. These boots are virtually indestructible and I almost always wear them while I'm walking the dogs. Heavy boots kill two birds with one stone for me. They're kind of like wearing leg weights and can can turn an ordinary walk into a decent workout. They also keep my socks dry on wet days and provide a certain amount of protection against snakes. I was the only person in the restaurant wearing work boots though. Everyone else was wearing running shoes.

Even sillier than running shoes are the tight spandex outfits that male cyclists wear. There are always lots of bicycles at the restaurant and every one of them seems to be owned by a middle aged male with a shaved head, wearing a ludicrous spandex suit plastered with cycling logos. I don't get it. You guys aren't riding in the Tour de France, you're just having a burrito for breakfast.

Really, very little makes sense to me these days. I just do the best I can. My utility bills keep going up. Today, AT&T U-Verse joined the electric and gas companies in raising their rates. The rent for my storage warehouse is going up too. Gas is almost $4.00 a gallon and every time I go to the grocery store I seem to pay a little more for exactly the same things I got last week. These people who continue to say that we have no inflation are idiots.

The dogs get to go to a party tomorrow. Our training class is having their annual summer party. Dash enjoys playing a game called "bobbing for biscuits" where the dogs try to grab as many dog biscuits as they can out of a kiddie pool filled with water. Dot is much too dignified for this sort of game. She'd prefer that we just feed her some of the tasty barbecued brisket we always have at the party.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 752

Today was a little different. I actually saw someone face-to-face. After I walked the dogs this morning, I went and had coffee with an advertising buddy I hadn't seen in years. You can't really catch up on fifteen years over a cup of coffee, but we both had an enjoyable time talking about watches, horrendously high property taxes, and how much the the industry has changed since we last got together. After finishing our coffee, we agreed that it was important to see each other at least every ten years and we both went back to work.

Walking back to my car, I realized that there was a shoe store right near the Starbucks and stopped in to buy a new pair of dog walking shoes. I have enough nice shoes to last a lifetime, but I'm continually burning through dog walking shoes. I guess it makes sense. Walking dogs is my life.

When I got back to the office, there was an e-mail that said thirteen new dogs needed to be added to an animal rescue site asap. There was also a new watch article to write and some correspondence that needed to be dealt with before everyone disappeared for the weekend. By the end of the day I had everything finished except for the new web pages I promised I'd make for the thirteen rescue dogs. I guess that means I didn't actually finish very much. Maybe I'll get these web pages done this weekend. There's always the weekend.

It's time to start gathering tax information again. Usually, I've got everything gathered into tabbed ring binders by now. This year, I'm beyond caring. I've got all the information in a big pile of paper, but I don't even want to look at it. Money comes in. Money goes out. Very little money sticks around very long.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day