Day 3621

There are two entrances to the grocery store I went to this morning. People usually enter and exit whatever door is more convenient. Today the store designated one door as "entrance only" and the other as "exit only" and insisted that customers use the proper door. This seemed to irritate people. I have apparently always been entering the store through the exit. Other people seemed to want to leave the store through the entrance. Why would the store do this? I couldn't figure it out. Would this improve store security? Did it create a more efficient traffic flow? Who knows. The only thing I saw were irritated customers.

I cleared the standing water off the roof today. There was a lot of water on the roof and there are still no leaks inside the house. Maybe my repairs worked. Keeping this roof free of water has become my own version of Sisyphus and the stone. I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing this forever. It's going to be a lot warmer tomorrow, so if the roof is completely dry I might try one more round of repairs with the remaining silicon material I have.

Although it was a clear, sunny day, it was still pretty chilly outside. I'm glad I wore a coat on my walk. There was a Christmas art fair in one of the park buildings today. There was a time when I would have stopped and taken a look around. I've bought things at this fair before. Times have changed though. I'm not trying to acquire stuff anymore. There's way too much clutter in the house already. The last thing we need are more things hanging on the walls. I hope all the artists did well, but my collecting days are over.

It was time to remove water under the shower tiles with the wet/dry vac this afternoon. I have to do this at least once a month now. When I emptied the water when I was finished I discovered that there was a lizard inside the vacuum. The lizard didn't seemed harmed, but I felt bad anyway. It must have been terrifying being inside a vacuum cleaner canister for an hour while it was running. I need to remember to check for lizards before I vacuum again.

I was wrong about our road being completely closed today. Traffic was still flowing. It just had to detour around the bridge. I had plans to avoid the bridge completely today while I was running my errands, but I forgot and ended up taking the detour myself. I'll be glad then this construction is finished. Unfortunately it is not going to happen soon. Building a bridge is complicated.

I need to start making my travel plans soon. I love attending these NASA events. I just don't like the process of getting there. I feel the same way about going to McDonald Observatory. It's too bad I was born several centuries to soon for teleportation. I'd be one of the first to say "Beam me up, Scotty."

It's time to go to the gym again. Will I ever do this more than once a week? There just doesn't seem to be enough time. I guess my five mile walks will have to suffice. Outdoor walks are more fun than a treadmill anyway.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3437

A guy stopped me on my walk this morning and wanted to show me some lizards. OK. I wasn't really looking for lizards but at least he wasn't trying to show me snakes. "Over there by that bush," the guy said. I must not have been looking in the right direction because the guy quickly added "No, not on the ground. they're walking on top of the leaves." Sure enough, there was a small, seemingly weightless lizard walking across some broad leaves. The guy told me the name of the lizard and I told him the name of the bush. It looked like the lizard was looking for small insects to eat while the bugs were just trying to eat the plants. That's how the food chain works. Everyone is trying to devour something.

The plumbers came out today and fixed my leaking shower and noisy toilet. I'm glad I didn't try to fix the shower by myself. The fixtures didn't use washers or o-rings. There were special ceramic cartridges installed in the shower faucets instead. I've seen these type of things in a kitchen faucet before, but never in a bathroom. The plumber knew what the cartridges were but didn't have any on his truck. He took the bad cartridges with him to a plumbing supply store and luckily was able to match them. The ceramic disks in the cartridges are supposed to be maintenance free, but the plumber said that grit in the supply lines can get between the disks and prevent them from closing completely. Apparently that's what happened. Our city water is notoriously full of grit and sediment. While the two plumbers were at the house I had them fix the noisy toilet too. I could have kept the plumbers at the house all day fixing small problems, but plumbers are expensive. I think I'm good for now.

I'm glad I got the plumbing problems taken care of, but I wasn't as successful with everything else. The roofer told me that he still hadn't had time to finish the estimate he started in February. My contact at the auction house must be on a trip around the world because I've been getting "out of office" auto-reply messages from him for a long time. I haven't heard from NASA yet either. I guess I've just got to be patient on that one.

It's already starting to get uncomfortably hot. I noticed that the air conditioner was running last night and the temperature has gotten over 90 degrees several times this week. It's hard to believe that it's still snowing in some parts of the country. I wish our Spring would last a little longer. It's the nicest part of the year in Texas. 90 degrees isn't so bad when you've got a little breeze. I'm not sure I'll still enjoy walking when it's 110 degrees in July. Even the dogs didn't like to go outside under those conditions.

It's been a busy day but I think I'm caught up on everything. The week's trash has been taken to the curb, I've done the laundry, and the dinner dishes have been washed. Now I need to decide where to go to breakfast tomorrow. I hope I manage to come up with something better than I did last week.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3436

I need to call the plumber. The leaking shower head is getting worse. I put a bucket under the drip after I took a shower today and it only took a couple of hours for the bucket to become full. I was surprised. It just seems like a little drip, but it is relentless. I don't think I can fix the faucets myself. I took the handles off today to look at the mechanism and it looked unfamiliar. I'd better leave this alone.

Since I couldn't fix the leak, I defrosted the little refrigerator instead. Melting ice is more my speed. I don't know why we even use the little refrigerator anymore. There's plenty of space in the big refrigerator. I guess I just like to be prepared. The little refrigerator can run off a generator. We may need it someday.

I keep wondering about the White Pelican I see on my walks. It is apparently never going to migrate. The bird seems content to live by itself on a quiet little bay at the lake. There are probably no other Pelicans within 1000 miles right now but the bird seems happy enough. It catches fish in the lake, sits on logs for hours at a time observing things and occasionally flaps its wings and flies. Maybe this is my spirit animal.

I tried out some different shoes today with thinner socks. Maybe this combination is better. I had very little foot pain on today's walks. The Vibram soles get caked with mud easily, but that's a small problem. Muddy boots clean up easily with a garden hose. I'll wear these for a while and see if they encourage me to walk longer.

I wrote a letter to my sister this afternoon and paid a credit card bill. Credit card bills are frustrating because they are always larger than I expect. It's amazing what you can forget during a month. My Webflow account auto renewed this month. I forgot about that one. I wonder if I even still need this? I subscribed to this advanced web development tool so I could build mobile ready websites for my clients. They all got really nice sites, but eventually left anyway. I haven't built a new website in almost a year.

I wish my plumbing problem would magically go away overnight. I hate dealing with plumbers. Somehow, little problems always end up turning into big problems. In theory, fixing some leaky faucets shouldn't be a big deal, but I've been wrong before. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot like today.

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3276

"And now we wait," I thought as some severe weather rolled into town early this afternoon. I didn't have to wait long. In less than an hour after the thunderstorm arrived, I started hearing a familiar drip in the hallway. My roof leak had returned. Evidently, yesterday's repair efforts were a total failure. I wasn't really surprised. The actual source of a water leak on a flat roof can be almost anywhere. I haven't been up on the roof yet, but it doesn't really matter. Either my temporary patch failed, or my ability to locate leaks is worthless.

The roof leak wasn't my only water problem today. It was time to use the wet/dry vacuum to suck water out from under the tile floor of the shower. I have to do this at least once a week now. Just like the roof, I don't know where this water is coming from. The tile grout still looks pretty good. I think the shower pan is keeping the water under the tiles from getting into the rest of the house, but the leak is still irritating. The only way to fix this problem is to get a tile guy to completely replace the bathroom tile. Since gravity causes water to flow to the lowest point, water could be getting in through a crack in the tile walls or it could even be caused by a slow plumbing leak. Water is not my friend this week.

I must have been really tired last night because I didn't even wake up when Dash pooped in the bed. Janet told me about the mishap in the morning. I'm glad that one of us woke up. The poop is relatively easy to clean up if you deal with the mess while Dash is still asleep. If he wakes up, twirls around to reposition himself, and then sits down in the poop, you've got a real mess on your hands.

We were able to give Dash a morning walk before the thunderstorm arrived, but today was basically a cabin fever day. The weather was nasty and the thunder and lightning only made things worse. Dash is still a storm phobic dog, but he doesn't hear as well as he used to. He didn't even notice the thunder until is got really loud. Actually, Dash was calmer about today's storm than I was. With leaks in four different places, I was worried that I'd run out of buckets.

The rain has stopped for now, but it's supposed to start again around midnight. There's no point in removing water from the roof until the rain stops. These leaks are really unfortunate because Winter is the worst time to replace a roof. I'd much rather deal with this in the Summer when the weather is clear and dry for months at a time. I can't really ignore the problem though. This looks like a pretty serious leak.

There are so many things to fix around the house that I don't even know where to start. The roof leaks. The dryer makes an awful squealing sound when it is running. The sliding glass door to the atrium is jammed. The sheetrock near the roof leaks needs to be replaced. There's even a big pothole in the driveway. It's so hard to find good repair people too. You always hope to get someone like those guys you see on This Old House, but the reality is quite different.

I'm glad this day is almost over. The trash has been taken out to the curb. Dash is calm. I've taken a heartburn pill which should help me sleep tonight. I'll empty the buckets in the hallway before I go to sleep. I'm not even thinking about breakfast tomorrow. I've kind of lost my appetite.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2872

My life is starting to resemble Ground Hog Day. I feel like I am doomed to repeat certain things over and over again until I finally get them right. Today I defrosted the evaporator coil on the refrigerator for the fourth or fifth time. The latest visit by that appliance repairman apparently accomplished nothing. The coil is frozen again. I can always tell that the evaporator coil is completely frozen when the temperature rises in the refrigerator compartment by ten degrees. So far, I replaced three expensive components, but I've always suspected that there's just a loose wire somewhere. At any rate, the appliance repair shop is going to get another irate call from me on Monday morning. I'm really getting tired of this. You'd think the repairmen would have a way to test their work before they leave. Nope. They always just say they think they've solved the problem and tell me to call them again if something goes wrong.

I let the refrigerator cool down again while I went to the grocery store and then I prepared to tackle the roof. Fall is not a good time to be applying a sticky liquid to the roof. The leaves will continue falling until the middle of January and I can' afford to wait until them. It was a nice warm day, but it was windy. By the time I finished my repairs today, dozens of falling oak and elm leaves had already become stuck in the wet elastomer. Too bad it takes twelve hours for this stuff to completely dry.

I quit trying to peel off more of the old coating material because I'm beginning to think that the thin film of water I'm finding between the silicon coating and the asphalt substrate covers the entire roof. From now on I'll limit my repairs to plugging holes. At least I applied the material with the right consistency today. It helped a lot using the stirring attachment I attached to a power drill. I tried really hard to be neat today, but when I was finished I noticed that I'd spilled the elastomer coating all over my leg. If I'd bothered read all the fine print on the bucket, I'm sure I'd learn that this stuff is hazardous to your health. At least it comes off with soap and water. When I return to the roof tomorrow to inspect my work, I'm sure I'll find a carpet of dead leaves glued to the cured silicon.

My repairs were ultimately futile today, but I did accomplish something. The refrigerator will work fine for at least two weeks, whether the repairman returns or not. Also, the next time if rains, I have greatly reduced the chances of a major roof leak. Maybe there will always be a thin film of water between the silicon and asphalt layers, but at least I've sealed the obvious holes.

I had to use the wet/dry vacuum to extract water from under the shower tiles again, but that's hardly worth mentioning anymore. I think I may have found how the water is getting under the tiles, but I can't stand going without a shower for the amount of time it would take to fix it. For the moment, it's easier just to suck the water out with a vacuum every four days.

Janet found some socks for Dash that should prevent the rubber boots from rubbing against his paws. Now it takes even longer to get him ready for a walk. First we fit his regular harness. Then the knee brace attaches to the harness. Next we put on the cotton socks and then finally we put on his boots. It is not surprising that sometimes he has lost interest in walking by the time we get him dressed. I guess it's all worth it though. The nails on his rear paws are starting to grow again and the raw areas have healed.

I should continue repairing the roof tomorrow, but I've had enough for a while. I'll probably just go to the gym and take a long nap.

Ginger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2849

Dash's exam was ambiguous at best. The blood clots in his heart are still there and haven't changed in size. The doctor said that the whistling sound his heart murmur made was softer this time, but was unsure if this was significant. Everyone was pleased that Dash's appetite was returning and that he had more energy, but this change didn't seem to be directly related to the blood clots. Dash is supposed to continue taking the Plavix and we scheduled another echocardiogram in a month from now. The vet did say that blood will still clot while taking Plavix, so we shouldn't worry if Dash cuts his paw again. This won't keep me from worrying, but it was somewhat reassuring.

As usual, Dash's exam took longer than we expected, so Janet and I both got a late start. After a very late breakfast, I strung several garden hoses together and was finally able to water the new grass in the front yard. The rest of the day was consumed with mostly unsuccessful attempts to repair Dash's protective booties. I hand stitched the boots back together and then discovered that the Shoe Goo I bought yesterday wasn't really appropriate for repairing the holes in the rubber fabric. What I really needed was a cap made of stronger rubber that would fit over the tips of these boots.

I took the little boots to my shoe repairmen and asked if he could make something to reinforce the toe. He seemed confused at first and then I drew him a picture of what I needed. He brought out some thin rubber used to resole women's high heeled shoes and it seemed like this material might work. Then he quoted me a price for the repair that was higher than what the booties cost new. At this rate, it would be easier to just keep buying new booties and throw them away when they became worn.

As we were exploring repair options, the repairman started asking me about Dash. Then he started talking about his own dog. He was very frustrated with his dog because it always pooped in the house. I resisted the urge to say "that's nothing" and regale him with my own stories of canine incontinence. I didn't want to argue with the guy, but he clearly didn't have the patience required to deal with sick dogs.

After I struck out at the shoe repair shop, I went to Home Depot where I struck out again. All they had was a rubber hall runner that was way too thick and stiff to be useful. It finally occurred to me to go to an auto parts store, where I bought a big package of rubber inner tube patches. Lord knows whether these will work, but we'll find out tomorrow.

The shower started leaking again today. I wonder where the water goes on the days it doesn't leak? It's probably going somewhere. Probably next year sometime I'll discover a patch of rotted sheetrock in a completely different part of the house. Water is sneaky. It can flow just about anywhere.

It was still dark outside when I got up this morning to get the car ready for Dash's trip to the vet. Orion and all the familiar Winter constellations were visible in the pre-dawn sky. Seeing these familiar faces again was somehow reassuring. I just wish that everything was as regular and predictable as the slow and stately movement of the stars.

Katy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2828

I'm going to have to start writing earlier so I can watch the new Ken Burns documentary in the evening. Maybe The Vietnam War is more memorable for me than some of Burns other films because everyone my age grew up right in the middle of that moment in history. This film makes you realize that there is nothing new under the sun. All the turmoil that is going on in today's society was going on in the mid-60's too. Listening to the Lyndon Johnson tapes is amazing. Nobody really knew what they were doing. I guess it is not surprising that no president made tapes in the Oval Office after Richard Nixon. Ineptness sounds so much worse when you hear it on tape.

I'm going to have to go back and watch this entire series on Netflix sometime later. It is an eye opener. Jeez. If I ever get hooked on history and stop watching science fiction, it will be all the confirmation you need that I've become an old man. Children love Dr. Who. Old men read history. My Dad was a voracious reader and always had a tall stack of history books on his bedside table as he grew older. I'm sure you can learn a lot from history, but I'd like to think you can learn from fantasy too. I guess I can be a fan of Ken Burns and still be looking forward to Season Three of The Expanse.

I can't say that Dash loves his new soft cone, but he tolerates it. I think it is much more comfortable for him while he is sleeping. The one good thing about the old plastic cone was that it was transparent. This new one restricts his vision a bit more. He has a little trouble eating out of his bowl with it on, so I make sure to remove it whenever he is eating. The one thing I can't do is forget about him for any length of time while the cone is off. It doesn't take him long to rediscover the dewclaw injury.

The shoe repairman did a great job on my boots. They look as good as new. The only problem is that I know I'll be reluctant to wear them for a little while because they look too nice. I have plenty of clothes, but I tend to wear the same things over and over again. The things I actually wear are incredibly beat up. Maybe the worn clothing is more comfortable, or maybe I don't want to ruin the nice looking stuff. I don't know. I'll probably start wearing the boots again regardless of how I feel. They are the only comfortable off-pavement shoes I have. I'm sure it won't take long to return them to their beat up status.

I've figured out that it takes three days for water to start leaking out of the crack in the shower tiles. A little water must seep under the tiles every time I take a shower and on the third day, enough has accumulated to reach the level of the crack. I sucked the water away again with the wet/dry vacuum but am still unsure how to repair things. Is this a job for a plumber or a tile guy? I think the leak is in the drain itself, but I'm not sure. If I hire a tile guy, it will turn out that I needed a plumber. If I get a plumber, it will turn out that it was just bad grout in the tiles. That's just the way it goes.

I can't decide what I want for breakfast tomorrow. I make a lot of substitutions now. Some of the things I'm hungry for aren't on any menu. Maybe if I'm nice, someone will cook them for me anyway.

Rowe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2819

I spent the day mending fences with clients, solving odd website problems, and trying to keep Dash from continually getting stuck in corners with his cone. I wish Dash would quit trying to lick his wound whenever I take the cone off, but I guess that's what dogs do. Dash hates wearing the cone and I try to take it off whenever I can, but he's not being very cooperative. Whenever I turn my back, he's quietly licking his injured dewclaw again.

It was actually enjoyable to be working on websites today. I like to stay busy, but work is hit and miss these days. Usually when I'm busy, it's because someone has a crisis. Most of my bread and butter work has gone away. I should have stayed in architecture. My writing work has declined because younger people don't read, and my design work has declined because there are too many easy alternatives to hiring someone like me. Every time I turn on the TV I see ads from GoDaddy promising that you can build your own business website for next to nothing in less than an hour. It's hard to compete with that.

I suspect that my career would be nearing an end by now even if I'd stayed in architecture. Many of my classmates from architecture school have already retired. Some are traveling. Some have taken up painting. Some have died of cancer. At least I'm still alive. I don't have a house filled with floodwater either, so I guess I'd better quit complaining.

I was kind of astonished by the new iPhone X introduction today. Would you pay $1000 for a phone? I saw some pundit on one of the business shows try to rationalize the exorbident price by saying that unlike your car, which just sits in your driveway most of the time, your phone is an essential part of your life and you couldn't function without it. Have we really come to this? I could get along just fine without my phone. I got one phone call today and it was on my old land line. Staying connected is overrated.

I postponed jury duty again. Eventually, I will have to serve, but I'll keep delaying things as long as I can. Sitting in the jury pool room is one of my least favorite things. I don't know why I keep getting jury summons. I've been called many times and have never been asked to sit on a jury. I don't seem to be what the lawyers are looking for. I probably wouldn't make a good juror anyway. I think everyone is guilty.

The shower didn't leak this morning. I don't know why. My latest theory is that there is a very slow leak and it takes about three days for enough water two accumulate under the tile floor that it starts leaking out of a crack. I may be wrong. I don't have any theories about why Dash continues to lick his paws. He used to lick them even before his injury.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2816

Traveling with Dash in the car is usually a disaster. Today was no exception. We made it to our appointment with the photographer this morning without incident. I think she even got some good pictures. The trip home was the problem. We had almost made it back to the house when Janet noticed that there was blood everywhere. Dash had ripped out one of his dew claws. Don't ask me how it happened. I don't know. He was fine when we got him in the car. He was fairly calm on the way home and didn't appear to get his nail caught on anything. He didn't even yelp or appear in pain. One minute he was sitting on his bed and the next minute there was blood everywhere.

We took him to the vet to stop the bleeding and see if he needed stitches. They were really busy, so we had to drop him off and pick him up later in the afternoon. When he returned, he had a bandage on his paw and was wearing a cone. The vet thinks he will be fine, but we need to keep him from chewing the bandage or getting it wet. Hopefully, the dewclaw will grow back. Dot lost a nail once when she got it caught in a crack in the pavement while on a walk. Her nail eventually did grow back, but it grew in crooked for some reason.

Dash hates wearing the cone and bumps into everything. Hopefully, we can take it off tomorrow. The bandage needs to come off pretty soon as well. There will be less risk of infection if the wound is exposed to the air. To be safe, he is taking antibiotics, but a damp or wet bandage is not what we want right now.

Taking Dash to have his portrait made and then taking him to the vet to get treated used up a big chunk of the day. I feel bad. Maybe if we had trimmed his nails a little sooner, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe it wouldn't have made any difference. I'm really nervous about taking Dash in the car now. Bad things seem to happen whenever Dash rides in the car.

I ran my Saturday errands while Dash was at the vet and when he returned, I spent the rest of the afternoon with him to keep him calm. It wasn't that hard to keep Dash calm. He was really tired and pretty soon both of us were asleep on the bed.

Janet thought the refrigerator was broken again, but I thought she just left the door open too long while loading in new groceries. It still seems to be working to me. At any rate, the appliance repairmen will be returning next week anyway to install the new thermostats they ordered. I'm more worried about the shower. I had to use the wet/dry vacuum again today to clear away the water that had collected under the tiles. I think the shower pan will prevent the water from getting into the rest of the house, but it still shouldn't be getting under the tiles.

I hope Dash is back to normal soon. One problem after another is wearing me down. I feel vaguely guilty being bothered about trivial problems, because every time I turn on the TV, it seems like the rest of the world is dealing with huge, almost apocalyptic problems. A torn nail is nothing compared to a hurricane. I'm sure it's a big deal to Dash though. The little guy seemed pitiful today.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2813

I'm screwed. I think the roofers have been doing shoddy work, but I still need their help. It doesn't matter what kind of repair you are doing. Once you start questioning the quality of the work, most repair people get defensive and never want to see you again. I'm kind of between a rock and a hard place. It will take me forever to repair the entire roof myself, and even if I can convince the roofers to come out again, they'll probably just continue to take short cuts that ultimately make the problem worse.

I spent about three hours on the roof today. Luckily, there was no wind, so I didn't have to worry about leaves falling into the wet elastomer this time. I've only got about a gallon of the material left, so I need to get the roofers to bring me more. If they refuse, I'll have to figure out where to buy the stuff. This silicon elastomer is so messy. It can't be good to get it on your skin, but I can't seem to avoid it. I thought the half full five gallon drum might be light enough so I could lift the entire thing up on the roof. It was still much heavier than I thought. I narrowly avoided a catastrophe when the rope I was hoisting the drum with slipped out of my hands and the sticky elastomer almost fell on my car. I made a save and kept the drum from falling, but still have rope burns on my hands.

My plan to start going to the gym on Wednesdays didn't even last two weeks. I was so tired when I came down from the roof that all I felt like doing was taking a shower and a nap. Since something major seems to break around the house on a weekly basis, I don't know if I'll ever have the liberty to come and go as I please. Even when I took a shower today I had to deal with the stupid leak again. I just can't find the source of this thing. The best solution would be to replace the shower pan and re-tile the entire bathroom. That will have to wait. There are still too many bills to pay.

The one piece of good news is that Dash is showing no side effects from increasing his phenobarbital dose. I hope this continues. I hate giving Dash a strong barbiturate like phenobarbital, but it is very effective at controlling epileptic seizures. Once when he was seizure free for several years, we thought it would safe to discontinue the phenobarbital entirely. That was a mistake. Within a few months, Dash had a horrible seizure. He will be taking phenobarbital for the rest of his life.

With major wildfires up and down the West Coast and back-to-back catastrophic hurricanes pounding the East and Gulf Coasts, it would be easy to believe the end times are here. There are so many things going on at the moment that are almost apocalyptic in nature. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but every year the latest disaster du jour seems to be a little worse. I'm pretty sure the world will be around for another twenty years, but if I was younger, I might be a little worried. I guess you can only worry about one thing at a time, so for the moment, stay safe Florida.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2805

What a surprise to wake up to blue skies. If the rain is over for us, maybe it will stop soon in Houston as well. It was such a nice day that it seemed like a good time to do something different. Instead of doing our normal chores, Janet and I went out to lunch together and then went to a museum.

I almost never eat lunch anymore. Three meals a day is way too much for me now. After I took Dash on his morning walk, I just had a small bowl of fruit, instead of my usual enormous breakfast. This seemed to do the trick. I was hungry at lunch. Maybe I should just eat lunch and skip both breakfast and dinner. After my meal, I felt full for the rest of the day and just had a small salad for dinner.

While we were at the museum I was interviewed by a reporter from a French newspaper. This seemed a bit odd. I can't imagine a French newspaper sending a reporter all the way to Dallas for this show. Maybe she was on her way to Houston to cover the hurricane and was just killing time in Dallas for an afternoon. Who knows. I can't say that I'm an art expert or even a Dallas expert, but I answered her questions as best I could. I thought the woman was German until she corrected me. All Europeans speaking English sound German to me.

For some reason nothing leaked when I took a shower this morning. This was a mystery to me, since it leaked a lot yesterday. Maybe this was just an omen that today was going to be a good day, but I'm still curious about what is happening under the tiles. Why would the shower leak yesterday and not today when  all the variables were exactly the same?

Janet bought some of those little solar powered garden lights for the back yard and when they arrived today, I discovered that the instructions were in Spanish. I had a little trouble putting the things together, but I must have done something right because they lit up this evening when the sun went down. The only problem with solar garden lights in our back yard is that we don't get any sun. The thick tree canopy is the main reason the grass doesn't grow well. We'll see how long the little lights continue to glow. I'm guessing that two hours from now they'll be dead.

When we went to the museum there was an app you could download to your phone that described the exhibits. There is an app for everything now. I remember when museums had little tape recorders and headphones you had to rent. None of the visitors were the least bit surprised by the app. They seemed to expect something like this and were all holding their phones up to their ears as they walked through the gallery. Maybe I should have become an app developer. Never mind. I bet the percentage of seventy year old app developers is just as low as seventy year old web designers.

When Janet is home from work, every day seems like Sunday. It's kind of disorienting. I had some website updates to make today and I thought I'd save them until Monday morning. Then I realized that it was already Tuesday. It's going to be hard to remember that tomorrow is Wednesday. Nothing happens on Wednesday anyway.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2804

Whenever there's a disaster, my first thoughts are about the animals. There's already been an amazing effort to rescue dogs, cats, and horses trapped by rising waters around Houston. Probably much more will be needed in the days ahead. Among the thousands of animals in danger today were three Dalmatians trapped in a kennel that was being flooded by water that was being released from a nearby dam. I'm not sure, but I think these dogs are safe now. I hope so. It was amazing to see the rapid efforts of many people, some of whom I know, to coordinate an immediate rescue by boat. I'm not a huge fan of social media, but this is where it shines. Not more than an hour after I began seeing stories about the dogs plight on Facebook, boats were on the way. There were probably hundreds of stories like this today, but this was the only one that involved Dalmatians. When a Dalmatian is in danger it catches my attention.

It's already been a week since Janet's reconstruction surgery. Her doctor was pleased with her progress today and even removed some of the stitches. The nurse said that we were doing a good job with the bandages. That was a relief. If all continues to go smoothly, Janet will return to work again in another week.

I wish things were going just as smoothly with Dash. He threw up again after eating a normal breakfast and having a nice walk. Like many of his previous episodes, there was no warning. He just walked calmly to the back door around 1 PM and threw up. Dash shows no signs of distress before or after these incidents. He's been fine for the rest of the day. His vet has suggested that we put him on a mild anti-nausea medication for a month and see if we notice any changes. The theory is that he might be mildly nauseous all the time as a result of his vestibular disease. I hate to add another pill to his already lengthy list of meds, but this might be worth a try. Obviously something is wrong, but it has been very hard to pin down the cause.

We had more intermittent rain from the outer bands of Harvey. It's nice that I don't have to water the lawn every day, but the rain is going to complicate the roof repairs I was planning on making this month. It's going to take an extended dry spell before I am even able to prepare the surface for the elastomer coating the roofers gave me. There's certainly not any dry weather in the immediate future. I should have checked the weather radar before I walked Dash this evening. We got caught in a sudden shower and both got soaked.

It wasn't a very productive day. I got the wet/dry vacuum out and removed another quart of water from under the shower tiles. I don't know how this water is getting in there. I've sealed all the cracks completely with silicon caulk. Things like this are why people eventually give up and remodel their bathrooms. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to locate the source of this leak.

It doesn't matter if it is a shower stall or an iPhone case. Old things just crack and break. I tried to repair my Lunatik iPhone case for the third time this afternoon. I bought this case because it was supposed to be indestructible, but it is so old now that it is developing stress cracks. I took the case apart and applied superglue to the tiny cracks using watch repair tools. It would have been easier to just buy a new case but they don't make these things anymore.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow. One way or another, I'm sure it will involve water.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2803

Everyone in Dallas knows someone in Houston. I've been mesmerized by the news coverage today. The flooding seems biblical. It just doesn't seem possible that we are talking about feet of rain instead of inches of rain. I saw a picture of the Houston airport today. It was a lake. Freeways are under so much water that even the overhear directional signs are buried. I've been to Houston many times and I can't even comprehend this scale of devastation.

Dallas is 400 miles away and even we are getting rain from this storm. The rain here is gentle and in many cases needed, but the fact that the outer bands of rain reach this far shows you just how big this weather system is. I've heard that they're opening a huge center for hurricane evacuees here in Dallas tomorrow. Similar centers will probably be opening all over the state. The problem is that I don't think many people can evacuate yet. The roads in and out of the area are flooded.

I didn't do much today. Dash got his walks in between rain showers. It was so messy outside that I didn't feel like going to the gym. When I took a shower this morning, I noticed a small leak. I still haven't been able to completely seal the shower floor. I used to be much better at this sort of thing. I'm losing my touch.

Today would have been a good day to take a camera down to the shoreline and photograph water birds, but I'd let my camera batteries run down and by the time I got them charged again the light was fading. It's probably just as well that I stayed inside. If I took my camera down to the lake, I almost certainly would have gotten caught in one of today's many intermittent rain showers.

It would have been Dot's birthday today. We don't know if she was actually born on this day, since she was a rescue, but we adopted her on September 27, 2004. I remember the day she came home with us well, but it seems like such a long time ago now. We have had many dogs and some of the memories are starting to muddle together in my head. Dot's memories haven't faded yet. I still can't believe she's not here with me. I wonder if that amazing dog ever knew how important she was in my life.

It's probably going to be a while before I can use the can of elastomer coating material the roofers left on my porch. It looks like we'll be getting intermittent rain every day until Harvey completely dissipates. It's hard to believe that they're forecasting even more rain for the Houston area. How much more rain can that city take?

Janet has decided that she feels well enough to start driving again. She ran a short errand as a test this afternoon and will drive herself to the doctor tomorrow. I'm glad her recovery seems to be going so smoothly. I hope the surgeon approves of the way we've been changing bandages. I have a feeling that we're using twice as much gauze and tape as a proper nurse would, but we're doing the best we can. It hasn't been a great summer. I think 'doing the best we can" might sum things up for quite a few people this year.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2800

I wish weather forecasts were more accurate. Earlier in the week, I made an appointment to take Dash back to the vet for another fasting blood test on Friday because it looked like it was going to be the only sunny day this week. My plan was to walk Dash very early to make sure that he would poop before he got in the car. I definitely don't want a repeat of Tuesday's disastrous trip to the vet. Now that Friday is approaching, it looks like it is going to rain early tomorrow morning. That might spoil my plans for a walk. Jeez. It was dry as a bone on Wednesday and Thursday when it was supposed to rain. The little weather app on my phone is never right. I don't know why I even look at it. Hopefully, this new forecast is wrong too.

It turned out that it was more difficult that we anticipated to change Janet's bandages. We didn't have all the supplies we needed, so I had to make a trip to the specialty pharmacy before we even started. You'd think that nothing could be easier than changing a bandage, but these have several layers and each layer must be applied exactly right. You don't want to do anything that would disturb the delicate sutures and you definitely don't want to do anything that might cause an infection. I think we did a good job, but it is nerve wracking. I think we would both rather just drive to the doctor's office every day and have them do it. That wasn't an option unfortunately.

I think I discovered how water is getting under the shower tiles, but I'm not sure how to fix the problem. I taped the area where the shower door frame attaches to the tile floor with painters tape so water couldn't seep into a small space that was designed to let water dripping down the glass doors drain back into the shower. There is no way to access this drainage cavity because it is covered by the door frame itself. I think some of the tiles have cracked under this frame due to foundation settling and that's how water is getting between the tiles and the shower pan. None of this is fix it yourself stuff. The only way to see if I'm right would be to remove the entire shower door assembly from the wall and look underneath. Since you can't unscrew the frame from the wall, or remove the heavy glass doors, I think this is beyond my pay grade. I guess I could just leave the blue painter's tape where it is. It is ugly and is probably not meant to be where I placed it, but it has dramatically diminished the leak.

Dash was a very finicky eater this morning. He wouldn't eat his regular food and wasn't interested in Dot's either. The only other food we had on hand was a holistic blend that we discontinued about six months ago because it made his poop soft. Wouldn't you know. Dash loved this brand of kibble today. This doesn't bode well for tomorrow morning. I really don't want him to poop in my car again.

I'm glad I don't live in Houston. It looks like a hurricane is headed their way this weekend. We have the occasional tornado here in Dallas, but the chances of actually getting hit by a funnel cloud are very low. Hurricanes are much harder to avoid. Here's hoping that the hurricane changes course. Let's also hope that Dash has an uneventful trip to the vet tomorrow morning, and that Janet and I will soon become pros at changing bandages.

Hero is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2798

Today was a disaster. I took Dash to the vet right after I got up so he could be tested to make sure he was still getting the right amount of Phenobarbital to control his seizures. This is a fasting blood test, so I couldn't feed him his breakfast before we left. The test didn't take long, but Dash was irritated and began barking incessantly on the way home. All the frantic barking made him poop in the car. This wasn't an ordinary mess. It was a poop explosion. It took the rest of the day to get the car clean and I'm still not sure I've found all the poop.

To make matters worse, the vet called while I was cleaning the car and told me that Dash's blood sample hadn't been been prepared properly so they couldn't send it to the lab for analysis. I'm going to have to fast Dash again for 12 hours and take him back to the vet for another blood test.

I thought I'd clean the hopelessly soiled cargo mat in the back of the car with the pressure washer. After about three seconds, the pressure washer broke. This thing is almost brand new, so it had to be defective. We couldn't find the receipt, but I took it back to the hardware store anyway and tried to exchange it. Eventually, they gave me a new model, which will probably break in two months, just like the first one.

I had a lot of errands to run today and every time I got in the car I smelled poop. When Dash gets agitated he starts twirling around. He was a poop cannon today, spraying poop in places I didn't even think were accessible. I think I finally got the car sanitized, but it was a lot of work. I'm pretty sure Dash significantly lowered the resale value on my car.

I figured the day couldn't get much worse, so I resumed my efforts to remove the water from under the shower stall. I removed another two quarts using a special attachment on the wet dry vacuum. This doesn't prove much though, unless I can find out where the water is coming from. Now I'm thinking that it may be the drain that is leaking. I remember when plumbers replaced the shower drain many years ago, they used PVC pipe instead of the original cast iron pipe. I'm always suspicious of plumbing that has glue joints. I could be wrong, but I bet that the glue has deteriorated and water is leaking around the pipe joints.

I've been impressed with all the spectacular eclipse pictures I've been seeing on Facebook today. Several of my friends took amazing pictures. I'm also surprised last how easily people are fooled by Photoshop. I saw several spectacular eclipse pictures that supposedly were taken by astronauts on the International Space Station. These was all Photoshop fakes. The space station didn't pass through the moon's umbra at all during the August 21 eclipse. I haven't seen any actual astronaut photos yet, but the best they could see from space was a partial eclipse.

I hope tomorrow goes a bit smoother. Today was a mess. I haven't even taken the replacement pressure washer out of the box. It might stay in the box for quite a while. I'm not very fond of pressure washers at the moment. I'm not fond of anything that gets wet. Water is not my friend unless it is helping me clean up poop.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2789

I hope my shower repairs are successful. I spent a lot of time today cleaning and preparing the ceramic tile for the silicon caulk that will hopefully make the shower stall waterproof again. If I had three weeks to let everything dry properly, I would have used a Dremel Tool to remove all the old grout and then re-grouted the entire shower. Traditional grout takes so long to dry though. If you use the shower too soon, the grout just washes away. The silicon dries quickly, but unless the tile is absolutely clean, it doesn't stick to the surface very well. If the contractors had done a good job when we remodeled the bathrooms fifteen years ago, I wouldn't be having this problem. Contractors could care less what happens fifteen years later. They're long gone by then. I really need to have a new contractor re-do the entire bathroom, but I'm afraid that I'd find someone even worse than I did the last time. Sanded silicon caulk will have to do.

We really got a lot of rain last night. We did lose power for a few minutes, but luckily it came back on again quickly. Even momentary power outages are a nuisance. All the clocks need to be reset and for some reason the washer and dryer always turn themselves on automatically when the power returns. I have to remember to turn the air conditioner and any other power hungry appliances off if I am anticipating a power outage, so a surge won't knock the power out again when service is restored. In theory, my neighbors should be doing the same thing, but I doubt that they are.

Last any rate, the storm came and went without causing any damage. Dash got scared and spent about three hours cowering under my desk, but eventually he came back to bed. At least he didn't throw up. We've started giving him his evening meds a couple of hours earlier, just in case he has another episode. So far, so good. We've also started keeping a record of whenever he vomits or won't eat to see if we can detect any sort of pattern to this seemingly random behavior. I hope we can figure this out.

I was using the leaf blower this afternoon to clean up the back porch after the storm and all of the sudden I noticed that there were hundreds of small ants crawling all over me. The ants were coming out of the leaf blower. This was certainly a surprise. I was able to brush most of the ants away before they were able to bite me, but I did about a dozen ant bites. I was glad these weren't fire ants. The bites would have been much worse if they were. What makes thousands of ants take up residence inside a leaf blower? Who knows. The insects are definitely winning this summer. I'll probably have to take the leaf blower apart to completely get rid of the ant colony, but they aren't as much of a problem as the spiders. It wasn't that long ago that I removed all the spiders from around the house with the pressure washer. Now, they're back again. Nature is relentless. Ants of all sizes are everywhere. Spiders love to spin their webs on our windows. Roaches seem to use our underground HVAC ductwork as their own private subway system. I still don't like to use insecticides because of the dogs, so eliminating these pests is fairly hopeless.

I missed the Perseid meteor shower this year and will miss the upcoming solar eclipse as well. Janet has the final part of her reconstruction surgery that day and I didn't really have the money to travel anyway. With all I've been reading about the eclipse, I'm almost glad I'm not making plans to travel to the totality zone. A lot of hotels have been acused of  price gouging by raising room rates by several hundred percent on eclipse day. People are selling fake eclipse glasses online that don't provide any eye protection at all. Monumental traffic jams are still predicted in many parts of the country. And then there always a chance it will rain.

I can live without seeing the eclipse. I just want a shower that doesn't leak.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2788

Dash threw up again last night. It's always the same. He has a completely normal, uneventful day. He goes to bed at the usual time and then wakes up again an hour or two later with an upset stomach. Usually he goes outside and throws up and then goes back to sleep again. You'd think that if he was having digestive problems, they would show up after his morning meal as well. He eats exactly the same thing for breakfast as he does for dinner. Nothing really makes sense. Sometimes we think this periodic vomiting is related to his vestibular disease. Other times we thing he ate a June Bug. Since Dot vomited occasionally before we discovered that she had intestinal cancer, we worry about that too. Today we gave him his evening meds early, so that at least he won't throw up his phenobarbital if he vomits again tonight.

Today was busy. I decided that I really couldn't postpone fixing the leaking shower stall any longer. I got out the wet/dry vacuum and adapted an attachment so that I could suck out all the water that has seeped between the shower pan and the underside of the tile floor. It took several hours to extract about a quart of water through a crack in the tile. While the vacuum was running, I went to Home Depot and looked for some sanded silicon caulk that would match the tile grout. This won't last as long as completely re-grouting the shower, but it is much easier and if I can remove enough water from under the tiles, the repair should last at least a year. Hopefully, Janet and I will remember to not take a shower tomorrow morning, or then I will have to vacuum the water out all over again.

I woke up last night around 3 AM and though I'd go outside and look for meteors. This was supposed to be the ideal time to view the Perseid meteor shower. Surprisingly, the sky was mostly clear, but I didn't see any meteor trails. When I looked to the East where the meteors were supposed to be, all I saw were two very bright security lights on a house across the street. The combination of an almost full moon, the headlights from a stream of cars returning home after the bars had closed, and the glare from the security lights made seeing a meteor trail virtually impossible. After ten minutes of futile looking, I went back to bed.

We finally got that rain today. There was a pretty good downpour around mid-afternoon and It looks like we are going to get even more rain tonight. The last time I looked at the weather radar, it looked pretty ominous. I hope we don't lose power. It's always a pain to get this posted when there's a power outage. I hear thunder now, but at least Dash is sleeping soundly. The last thing I wasn't is to have him needing to go outside and throw up during a major thunderstorm.

Assuming that the roof doesn't leak and that we still have power in the morning, I'll probably go to the gym. Oh, wait. I need to finish caulking the shower stall before I go anywhere. Removing the water is only step one. The most important thing is making sure that the water doesn't seem back under the tiles again.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day