Day 3219

I don't know how to keep Dash from pooping on the bed. He's slept on the bed for his entire life and he's not about to stop now just because he's become incontinent. We've tried all sorts of comfortable dog beds on the floor, but Dash isn't interested in them. He's still mobile enough to move around at night, so if we manage to get him positioned on a protective pad, he's usually somewhere else by the time we wake up.

Last night when Dash woke me up trying to reposition himself, I smelled something. Although most of his body was still on his protective blanket, his butt was on the comforter. This was messy poop too. Everybody got up. We cleaned Dash off. I took the large comforter outside and hosed it off and then threw it in the washer on the super hot germ killing cycle. We re-made the bed and tried unsuccessfully to get back to sleep. No wonder I'm sleep deprived. This happens almost every night.

It was raining again when we woke up, so I had to keep checking the weather radar and wait for an opportune time to take our morning walk. Dash doesn't really understand waiting. He pooped in the house again while I was finishing my breakfast. I had to wait until almost 1 PM for the rain to subside, but Dash was still eager to walk when we finally got an opportunity.

Since I was stuck in the house for most of the day, I spent a considerable amount of time watching the Phillips auction in New York. My two lots didn't set any records, but they met their estimates. I'm happy. I must be totally out of touch with today's art world. Artists who I am familiar with often didn't do as well as I expected, but several names I'd never even heard of set off a frenzy of bidding. Who were these guys and why did people want their stuff? I thought I was knowledgeable, but apparently not.

My soggy bills have finally become dry enough to pay and take to the post office. Unfortunately the glue on the flaps of the return envelopes had become wet and sealed the envelopes shut before I could put anything in them. I had to cut the envelopes apart and then tape them back together. What a waste of time. Online payments are finally starting to make sense.

A pair of my favorite dog walking pants tore today. I've repaired these old pants several times before, but I don't think it's worth the effort anymore. They are pretty threadbare. It's finally time to throw these things in the trash and break out a new pair. It's weird. I've got plenty of clothes that I've never even worn. Unless I'm going to a meeting or doing something special with Janet, I just wear the same things over and over again.

I wonder if this rain is ever going to stop? We're starting to get on the news now with lots of stories about flooding in Central Texas. I guess Dash and I were lucky to get a walk at all today. Our little excursion turned out to be the only dry spell of the day. I got caught in a downpour when I went to pick up more Plavix for Dash at the pharmacy and it's still raining now.

There is more rain in the forecast. If cabin fever was a problem today, it's going to be an even bigger problem tomorrow. Where is that new season of The Expanse I've been waiting for?

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2592

I have lost the ability to be spontaneous. If I deviate from my routine even slightly, everything falls apart. I almost didn't get my blog posted by midnight last night just because I left the house for a few hours. When I tried to make up the time I'd spent attending last night's meeting, I didn't watch Dot closely enough and she ended up pooping in her bed with her harness still on. This always makes things messier. Even worse, I was so tired that I fell asleep at the computer for a while and didn't notice that Dot had pooped on herself until after midnight when I was getting ready for bed. I had to wake her up and take her outside in the rain where I could clean her off and fit her in a fresh harness. Since I disrupted Dot's sleep to clean her up, she became stressed and peed in her bed later in the evening, which we discovered the next morning. I kept thinking that none of this would have happened if I'd done everything on schedule.

I'm really getting tired of all the rain we've been getting lately. My shoes get muddy every time I take Dot out in the back yard to pee and often I don't have time to take them off again while I am guiding her back through the house to her bed. The rugs are a mess. If I see a brown clump on a rug, the only way I can tell whether it is mud or poop is to kneel down and smell it. Dot has trouble getting traction on the slick, wet ground, so I have to be extra careful that she doesn't stumble and fall. I'm able to prevent a lot of the falls, but I can't catch them all. I felt bad today when she stumbled in the hallway while I was doing dishes and ended up cutting her foot.

Since I'm caught up on work again, I thought I'd get caught up on the bills that are stacking up on my desk. I paid all the December bills today and took them to the post office. I'm glad December only comes once a year. Every time I pay a stack of bills, I'm dismayed by the thought that I'll be doing this on a fixed income in just a few years. When I was younger I always thought the solution to money problems was to just make more money. It seemed to work pretty well when I was in demand, but I'm afraid that train has already left the station. I don't even want to think about what life will be like twenty years from now. Given my family history, I might not even be around by then, but if I am I'll probably be broke.

I need to catch up on sleep tonight. I didn't get to bed until 1 AM and then had to get up again at 6 AM. That's not enough sleep. I wish I could write my blog entries faster. I remain committed to my goal of writing for 5000 consecutive days, but it's getting harder. Eventful days are actually much easier to describe than days when nothing happens. Sometimes I'll stare at the screen for thirty minutes before I can even write the first sentence. This would be so much easier if I were still attending space launches, traveling around the world to create ad campaigns, and getting included in cookbooks.

I certainly won't be doing any of that tomorrow. There are two bananas left and a pint of strawberries, so I'll be having my regular fruit smoothie for breakfast. I don't know what I'll have for dinner though. The refrigerator is looking pretty empty. There's my goal for tomorrow: to find something for dinner.

Dovey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2412

Another day, another terrorist attack. Throughout the afternoon I kept hearing conflicting reports on social media. One would say the shooter was a neo-nazi who shouted that he hated foreigners. Another would say that he was an Islamic radical who shouted Allāhu Akbar. Clearly one of these reports was a fabrication. Maybe neither of them was true. News is an uncharted wilderness these days. It's all spin. Whenever almost anything happens, someone will quickly try to twist the narrative to suit their needs. Objectivity increasingly seems like a quaint, outdated concept that few people have any use for. Most people, including myself, have no idea what the truth is and just pick the narrative that fits their preconceived notions.

When I flipped back and forth between Fox and MSNBC last night I could have sworn that I was watching two different conventions. One network thought that the event had channeled the inner pulse of middle class America while the other dismissed the whole thing as an unmitigated disaster. I used to think I could discover the truth by listening to both sides of the story, but I'm not so sure anymore. Spinning a story has become an art form and it's almost impossible to tell the difference between fact and fiction. Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him?

Today was slow but it started out nicely. I had Eggs Benedict at my new favorite restaurant and then returned home to finish my remaining website updates. The roofers didn't show up, but at least I got an explanation. It was apparently too hot for the roofers to work. If that's the case, I'm probably not going to get my roof fixed until September.

My pet cam has quit working again. It's so irritating that AT&T keeps tweaking its firewall settings and the apps on my phone keep automatically updating themselves overnight while I sleep. I'll get everything set just the way I want it and then a new version of an app will come out that upsets the apple cart. I have lots of old applications on my office computer for a reason. The apps are stable, don't crash, and do exactly what they are supposed to do. It's hard to keep out outdated apps on your phone, because they update themselves automatically. By the time I get the pet cam working, there will be a brand new version of the app that sets me back to square one again. I often feel like Sisyphus, continually pushing the same rock up the hill over and over again.

I felt like having Pizza tonight, so I went and ordered a nice looking large pie at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. When did ordering pizza become expensive? When I was in college, pizza was one of the cheapest things you could have for dinner. Now, I can order Chinese, Cheeseburgers, or a wide variety of other take-out meals for much less. Pizza still costs less than good barbecue though. We save barbecue for special occasions.

Once again, I screwed up and took my evening meds in the morning. There's a reason they tell you to take Niacin at night. The flushing sensation it can cause can be severe and make you feel like you are burning up. The sensation seldom lasts more than an hour, but it does make me check my meds a little more carefully the next day.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do this weekend.  Anything that involves sleep sounds good to me.

Pongo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2295

I took my tax information over to the accountant this morning. I used to bring a heavy pile of three-ring binders, file folders, and envelopes full of receipts. Now, I basically just bring a single CD with my Quickbooks Pro files. You'd think this would make it easier for the accountant and he'd give me a discount, but he actually charges me more. Times have changed. Oh, well. I've become very fatalistic about taxes. I just pay what I'm told to pay and try not to think about it.

On the way home I stopped at the REI store and got a pair of hiking pants for walking the dogs. It's only a matter of time before I have an entire wardrobe full of REI clothes. They aren't particularly stylish, but they seem extremely durable and well made. The pants I bought today reminded me of my old Defender 90. I don't know why I like indestructible things so much. Maybe it's because I feel we are living in an increasingly apocalyptic world.

With my taxes out of the way, I thought I'd catch up on a few other things as well. I called an audio repair shop to ask about a tape recorder I'd left with them ages ago. They said they were still waiting on a part that was on back order. Jeez, are they getting this part from Pluto? I brought the recorder in for service last October. I'm a very patient person, but this is getting ridiculous.

I had better luck when I called the landscapers. They said they'd be out to take a look at the yard tomorrow. These guys are good, but they always want to charge me too much. I have to explain that I'm not asking them to do nearly as much as they did three years ago. They seem to like the price they got three years ago. Eventually, we come to a mutual agreement, but it shouldn't have to be this hard. I also called the roofer, but he didn't even return my call. That's pretty typical for a roofer. I'll probably have to bug this guy for a month to get him to come over and patch the current crop of bare spots.

I was so efficient about taking care of unfinished business today that I don't what I'm going to do tomorrow. If the weather stays nice, maybe I'll mow the grass. The first step is to see if the big 24 volt battery will hold a charge. The second step is to take the battery to be re-celled when it dies unexpectedly after five minutes of use. The third step it to actually mow the grass and then complain about how the weeds have taken over again. That ought to take most of the day.

Hopefully, I'll get a good night's sleep tonight. That's a lot more important than what I'm going to do tomorrow. I take a a short nap before I start writing the blog in the evenings now. I know I'm going to be up several times during the night with Dot. Naps are good and interrupted sleep is a lot better than no sleep at all.

Doc is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2238

My fitness tracker has decided that I'm sleep deprived and has started sending me all sorts of friendly tips on how to get more sleep. Leave me alone fitness band. You should be happy that I'm still getting in a lot of steps. I don't need to know when to eat my dinner or how to relax. I'd sleep like a baby if I didn't have to clean up dog poop in the middle of the night. I've gotten so good at predicting when Dot is going to have an accident that last night I got up to check on her and was pleased to see that it was just a false alarm. I went to the bathroom, and on my way back to bed, I smelled a familiar smell. Yep. She pooped while I was in the bathroom. Dot was still asleep in exactly the same position as she was thirty seconds earlier, but there was a little dark pile about six inches away from her on the rug. How did she even do this. I cleaned up the mess and went back to bed.

My favorite machines were broken when I went to the gym today. I substituted twenty minutes on the rowing machine for the hand bicycle and discovered further evidence that my shoulder injury is getting worse. I used to be able to stay on the rowing machine forever without much discomfort. Not anymore. Ouch! I did another obligatory twenty minutes on the treadmill with the elevation set as high as I could. That was it. My heart wasn't really in it today. I didn't use any of the other machines at all and spent the rest of my time shooting baskets. I always wonder about consistency when I'm shooting free throws. My hands and body know what to do by now, but still it's is very hard to get more than five baskets in a row. Hey, even NBA players miss a free throw now and then. It would seem like it wouldn't be that hard to lift your arms and constantly push a ball the thirteen feet it needs to travel to reach the eighteen inch hole above the basket. Apparently, getting hand-eye coordination and muscle memory all working together is much harder than it seems. I am getting better though. Consistency is a worthy goal.

I didn't even bother to vacuum the house when I got home from the gym. The dogs were sleeping peacefully and Janet was already cooking dinner. Vacuuming would have disrupted things. I have the entire upcoming week to vacuum the house. I'm sure I'll be able to find a time when the noise won't bother anybody.

When I checked on my missing package on the FedEx website, I noticed that the delivery date had changed from yesterday to "pending." There wasn't a delivery date listed at all. I guess this either means that the package is lost or that the Fedex employees have lost interest in continually scanning the bar codes of everything they touch. It must get old to have millions of things to deliver and all the recipients want to know exactly where these package is at any given moment in time. Maybe it was better in the old days when the postman just left packages randomly next to your front door whether you were expecting them or not. I need to find a twelve step program for people who track things too much. I track everything from the positions of the planets in the sky to the number of calories I burn each day. I know it doesn't matter, but I'm curious about these things.

I'm not very curious about politics. I'll be very glad when the Iowa Caucuses are over tomorrow night. I can't even turn on the TV anymore without hearing endless commentary and speculation about the Iowa Caucuses. Do these things even matter? I don't think the Iowa Caucuses have actually predicted a winner for a long, long time. Maybe all the candidates from both parties should just put their name in a hat and let a blindfolded Kim Kardashian pick the winner. I guess the real question is in a field that includes an avowed socialist, a guy who is best know for telling people "you're fired," two Cubans, a heart surgeon with no political experience, and a woman who could be indited at any minute for playing fast and loose with national secrets, what the word winning really means. If any of these folks win, we all lose.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day