Day 1881

I discovered today that I can use the physical therapy room at the gym on Sunday because the physical therapy staff doesn't work on weekends. I wish I'd thought of this earlier, because now I can do all the rehab exercises properly, instead of trying to improvise something at home. I completed every exercise the therapist taught me and went home with a somewhat flexible but very sore shoulder. I wonder how long this is going to take? Probably a lot longer than I've got patience for.

Yes, it's still February, but it was warm enough to wear shorts today. I enjoyed the unseasonable weather, but even though the temperature was a mild 75 degrees, Dot appeared to be uncomfortable. She just can't handle the heat anymore. She likes the really cold days when the rest of us are freezing, but the warmer it gets, the slower she walks. We had to cut our evening walk a bit short, because she was panting and wanted to go home. I don't think all old dogs are this way, but Dot is definitely going to want the air conditioner cranked up this Summer.

Janet and I went out for dinner this evening. This is a rarity for us, but we found another unused gift card lying around the house and decided tonight might be a good time to use it. Every time I go out to a nice restaurant, I remember how much I like bread. I've almost eliminated bread from my diet since it converts to sugar so readily, but I sure do enjoy the stuff. Now that my liver is functioning properly and my blood work looks good, there isn't as much reason to cut out bread. Nevertheless, I tried not to eat a whole loaf this evening, while I waited but my pork chop to arrive. Cutting down on my wheat consumption was one of the main reasons I lost weight last year. I need to remember that, every time a get near a tasty loaf of bread just out of the oven.

The Grammys are on in another room, but I'm not really watching. Occasionally I hear something good and wander into the bedroom to see who is singing on TV. The best thing I've seen this evening was the duet with Hozier and Anne Lennox. Take me to Church is still one of my favorite songs of the year, and I've liked everything the Eurythmics ever did, so this seemed like an inspired pairing to me. Lady GaGa and Tony Bennett were good, but I thought Hozier and Anne Lennox were even better. Ed Sheeran was pretty good too. I like his voice. That was about it. I skipped most of the rest.

I've gotten hooked on watching rocket launches since I went to Vandenberg Air Force Base to see the SMAP launch. I tuned in this afternoon to watch Space X launch a Falcon 9 carrying the Deep Space Climate Observatory. The launch got scrubbed at the last minute because of a problem with a tracking radar downrange. It's amazing how many things have to go absolutely perfectly to get one of these things off the ground. It would be even more amazing if Elon Musk is able to land the first stage booster of this rocket on a floating barge as he is planning. I'll tune in again when the launch is rescheduled.

I guess tomorrow is Monday. It's getting harder and harder to tell the days apart now that Janet has retired. Without the early morning alarm clock that always used to designate work days, Monday seems just about the same as Sunday. The dogs aren't helping to keep me on schedule either. They've both adapted rather quickly to sleeping in late.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1855

I did end up going out for breakfast this morning in an effort to add some life to this cold, grey day. My meal was delicious, but the weather remained absolutely awful. The dogs and I have reached a consensus not to walk quite as far in the mornings. What is the point? All we get for our efforts are wet paws, muddy boots and a strong desire to take a nap when we return. When I returned from breakfast and opened the back door so the dogs could go outside and pee, they just glared at me from their dog beds. They had no desire to go outside again. I certainly couldn't blame them, since I was planning on spending the rest of the day inside as well.

I didn't have to worry about being bored today. There was plenty to do. I spent most of the day writing, and when I was finished with my assignments, there were the inevitable website updates as well. The work isn't rocket science, but I really can't complain. With all its drawbacks, I still prefer staring at a computer in a quiet house to working in an office. I don't think I could ever go back to an office again.

I hate to admit that I'm a little nervous about having my wisdom teeth removed on Friday the 13th. I need to think of a better excuse than pure superstition before I call the dentist and change the date however. I hate to think of myself as a superstitious person, even though I am. A regular blog reader told me today that he's lived with a dead tooth for over 40 years. That sounds good to me. All I really need is twenty-five years. No self respecting dentist would ever leave a dead tooth in your mouth though. They'll fill your head with dire warnings until you're convinced that you're going to die if you don't have the tooth removed immediately. I don't know why I have such a fear of dentists. I was in far greater danger when I had Hepatitis C, but the fear of having a tooth removed has always trumped everything.

Even since I got my new Bluetooth UP 24 band, I've been noticing that my phone battery has been draining almost twice as fast. This is irritating, because I hate to charge my phone more than once a day. Any decent battery ought to last at least a full day. I tried all sorts of schemes to extend battery life until I stumbled on the obvious. I just turn the phone off at night. Works like a charm. When the phone is completely powered down, the battery doesn't seem to discharge at all. So far, I see no downside to this technique. If anyone calls me in the middle of the night, I don't want the call anyway.

I think I need to tell my physical therapist to back off on the stretching exercises. Every time I go for my therapy appointment, the therapist adds three new exercises. If I did all these exercises faithfully, I'd spend half my day stretching. I have gained some mobility, but it comes at a price. I'm constantly sore these days.

I'm hoping for warmer weather tomorrow. I've got a lot of writing to do so I won't be outside much anyway, but it would still be nice if I didn't feel like I was heading toward the North Pole when the dogs and I head off on our morning walk.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1854

I really wish doctors and dentists would agree on things. Most people just find a doctor they can trust and go along with the diagnosis. Since I don't really trust anyone, I find this difficult. I'm looking for a consensus. If a lot of people come to the same conclusion, I'll tend to believe they are right. On the other hand, if three dentists look at the same x-rays and each reach a different conclusion, I'm confused and a bit nervous. I saw the oral surgeon today and came away with the distinct impression that I could lose from one to three teeth. Everyone agrees that one of my wisdom teeth has to go, but the fate of the other two teeth depends on who you talk to. I told the surgeon that I didn't want to do anything until I returned from my trip to California and got caught up on several work projects. That seemed fine and we settled on the 13th of February. Yup. You guessed it. When I got home and looked at a calender, I'm having dental surgery on Friday the 13th.

On the way home from the dentist, I stopped at Office Depot and got a new 12-month accordion folder for this year's receipts. Why are these paper folders $18 now? It's ridiculous. When I started keeping receipts in accordion folders for my accountant, they were only $8 each. And people still say that inflation isn't a problem. At least shoes don't seem to be going up in price. I also picked up a new pair of waterproof work boots for walking the dogs while I was out today and they were the same price they were five years ago. Of course, nothing is as well made as it was five or ten years ago, but what are you going to do? I still have an Eddie Bauer goose down parka from the early 1960's that is better than anything you can buy today. When I wore this coat to high school in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1963 there was a real guy named Eddie Bauer in Seattle who outfitted expeditions and designed some of the world's best outdoor gear. When he retired, the company was bought and sold multiple times and now the brand is just licensed to other manufacturers who make furniture, bicycles, and lots of clothing made in China. I hate the whole concept of brand extensions and licensing. When I was shopping for boots this afternoon, I saw some with the Caterpillar brand. Caterpillar makes bulldozers, not shoes. Harley Davidson doesn't make sunglasses either. I like Red Wing because they still just make shoes. My new Red Wing boots are pretty decent, but they're probably made in China now too.

Since I don't multitask very well, work kind of stacked up on me today. This means I'll be busy tomorrow. It's just as well because the weather is still so cold that staying home and doing writing assignments and fixing websites seems like a better alternative than anything else I can think of. It's certainly better than more stretching. I think I need to curtail the stretching exercises for a while. My right shoulder seems permanently sore now. I'm sure this is a "no pain, no gain" situation, but personally I'd rather just not lift my right arm very high.

I need to do something to snap myself out of the cold weather doldrums. Maybe I should go out for breakfast tomorrow. Maybe not though. When you sit by the window, the restaurant is cold. I could just turn up the thermostat a bit here at home, but Janet and both dogs like things just the way they are. I'm the only one that's cold. I'm definitely ready for Summer.
 

Murphy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1849

I got on the phone this morning and literally begged the appliance repair folks to expedite the shipment of the part needed to get my washing machine working again. In an era when you can get literally anything overnight using FedEx or UPS, it just doesn't make sense to wait a week for a washing machine part. After making my case, the company agreed to fix my machine on Friday. I still don't understand why they couldn't have fixed it today. Delays like this are one more reason I hate the whole concept of just-in-time sourcing. Nobody inventories anything anymore. Repair shops used to have huge warehouses full of parts. They don't want the expense of maintaining an inventory these days and prefer to just order things as needed. It's another sign of the apocalypse as far as I'm concerned.

When I went to my physical therapy appointment today I asked the therapist if everybody's shoulder made loud cracking and popping sounds like mine does when I'm doing the stretching exercises. "No, you're the worst I've ever seen," she told me. She also added that the next time I had a shoulder problem, I definitely shouldn't wait five years to look for a solution. The dentists I've been seeing have been basically telling me the same thing. What can I say? I'm great at taking care of the dogs. Not so good at taking care of myself.

I'm ready for Summer. I don't know how you Northerners can stand these frigid temperatures. One week of sub-freezing weather has just about brought me to my knees. The temperatures are still in the high twenties, but when you factor in the wind chill it feels closer to zero. I still don't understand why the dogs appear to like this weather. They get cold on longer walks, but when we follow our normal route, the seem to take the chilly weather in stride.

Work is getting busy again. I had several writing assignments today, along with one big website revision. This work, along with my physical therapy appointment and two dog walks completely used up my day. I was trying to explain to my physical therapist that it was difficult to find time for all the stretching exercises and she seemed perplexed. Most people think that if you work out of your house, you have an almost unlimited amount of free time. Not true! I had a lot more free time when I worked in an office. You really have to manage your time wisely if you want to make a decent living while still being a world class dog butler to two demanding Dalmatians.

The laundry is already stacking up. I'll readily admit that I'm obsessed with doing laundry. I hate seeing dirty laundry lying around the house. I can't stand a dirty car either and am always washing mine. Oddly, a dirty house doesn't bother me at all. Go figure.

Vegas is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1845

The sun finally returned today. It's still a bit chilly, but it was actually a beautiful day. The abrupt change in the weather made me realize that it was time to start the new year. I took down the Christmas tree and put the ornaments away for another year. I went up on the roof and removed a week's worth of accumulated water. I even thought about cleaning the office, but wisely decided not to get ahead of myself.

I've just about given up on getting a response from Jawbone, so I went out and purchased another UP fitness band. This one syncs automatically using Bluetooth, so you don't have to plug it into your phone everyday. I must be a glutton for punishment, since this will be my fourth UP band in just a few years. I love these things, but they just aren't made very well. The batteries don't last very long. The little LED status lights frequently stop working. And, in the case of my last band, they sometimes refuse to go into sleep mode. You'd think I'd wise up and get a Fitbit or something more durable, but I still like the UP band best. It is still the smallest and most unobtrusive fitness tracker you can wear on your wrist. You can wear an UP band with a watch without feeling that you've got a watch on both wrists. And best of all, Jawbone has easily got the best smart phone app to track your results. It's just too bad the company hasn't figured out a way to make these clever little gadgets last more than a year.

I guess I'm officially in the loop for the upcoming launch of the SMAP satellite. I'm starting to get e-mail from my contact at the Jet Propulsion Lab and was invited to join a recently created Facebook group where other people attending the launch can share information. I still haven't made any travel arrangements, but that's on my list for next week. It was kind of unnerving to see that there was snow in Southern California last week, but hopefully the weather will improve by the time I depart. The weather has always been fabulous whenever I've visited the Los Angeles area and I'd hate to break a winning streak.

The range of motion on my right arm is increasing, now that I've been doing the stretching exercises that are supposed to loosen up the muscles in my bad shoulder. Unfortunately, the shoulder still hurts just as much as it always has. I wonder if I've really proved anything if all I can do is painfully extend both hands all the way above my head. Maybe I'm just not being patient enough. I don't really like to exercise and exercise that causes pain is even worse. I'm going to ask my physical therapist if they offer cold laser therapy like Dot is currently getting. The laser treatments seem to be helping Dot, and it certainly seems like I ought to be able to get the same kind of care as my dog.

I had to get some prescriptions renewed this afternoon and I noticed that the price of several drugs had gone up almost 40%. Every year, my drug plan adjusts prices in January and they never go down. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. We're only a few days into 2015 so far, and I'm trying to remain optimistic.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1840

I never realized that there were so many devilishly inventive ways to make my arm hurt. Every time I go for physical therapy, I get introduced to several new stretching exercises designed to increase the range of motion in my right shoulder. I'm definitely making progress, but it's going to take a long time at this rate. I wonder what I did to make this shoulder so unstable? There was never any definitive injury that caused the shoulder instability. It just gradually got worse and worse. I still think the dogs caused most of the problems. They both like to walk on my right side and whenever they try to chase after rabbits or lunge at a pile of fresh horse poop, my right arm always had to absorb the shock. Since I'm left handed, this abuse to my right arm never really bothered me. "At least the important left arm is safe," I thought. I wish I'd been a little more protective of both arms over the years, but it's a little late now.

Usually this last week of the year is completely dead, but I've been getting a surprising number of new assignments. I was kept busy today with an assortment of writing and website jobs. There are a couple of stretching exercises I can do while I'm sitting at my desk. While this is convenient, it is also irritating. Much of what I do isn't much fun anyway. Working with a very sore shoulder just makes the task at hand worse. I would like to be able to lift both hands over my head again, so I guess I'll continue.

I noticed an oddly shaped piece of white plastic in the greenhouse yesterday and was just about to throw it away when I realized that it might be a good way to foil the pooping bird. The plastic sheet was about the length of my car's front door window and had a convenient angle along one side, allowing it to rest just below the window while providing a very unstable platform for the bird. I positioned the plastic sheet against the window after I got back from physical therapy and it seemed to work. The bird didn't want to land on the unstable plastic and there was no more bird poop for the rest of the day. It would be weird if this Rube Goldberg device worked while my very realistic rubber snake did absolutely nothing.

Usually at this time of year, I'm buying equipment for the studio so I can expense it on my taxes. I doubt that I'll buy anything at all this year. There seems little point in buying more video equipment when it seems doubtful that I'll ever get another large scale production job. Everyone has a GoPro now and thinks they're Stanley Kubrick. It's kind of ironic that I'll probably end my career exactly the same way I started it: as a writer. Writing never seems to become obsolete. All you need is a pencil and a few ideas. In a world where nobody reads and writing is becoming a lost art, I can still fill a page. It makes me wonder why I got sidetracked by video production and web design in the first place.

Dot has her last session with the underwater treadmill for the year tomorrow. It's been quite a year! Dot's determination and resilience has been an inspiration. I hope we both can continue to get healthier in the year ahead.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1838

It was cold when we walked the dogs this morning, but as it turned out, this was as warm as it was going to get. As the day progressed it continued to get colder and colder. Now, it looks like it might freeze tonight. Of course tomorrow, the temperature will be back up in the fifties again. I'll never be able to get used to Texas weather.

When I was out shopping this afternoon, I saw several neighborhood Christmas tree lots packing up their tents and disposing of their unsold trees. A Christmas tree lot the day after Christmas is a sad sight. I wonder what these guys do the rest of the year?

The stores had huge sales on wrapping paper and Christmas ornaments today. I know people that always buy their wrapping paper this way. I don't think that far ahead. I just look for what's lying around the house on Christmas Eve. When I was getting groceries, I saw a crowd flocking to one particular aisle. I pushed my buggy toward the melee to see what all the commotion was about and discovered that all the Christmas candy and sweets were half price. I don't eat many sweets myself but got caught up in the moment and ended up buying a box of half price Godiva chocolates.

I seem to have reached some sort of plateau with the stretching exercises that are supposed to help my shoulder. I was making real progress for the first few days, but now I seem to have hit a brick wall. Maybe, this is as far as my bad shoulder is going to move. It's not that the joint is increasing painful to move, it just won't move at all beyond a certain point. I can lie on a flat surface and extend my left shoulder all the way behind my head with a full 180 degrees of motion. The right shoulder will only extend about twenty degrees past a vertical position. Today, I kept thinking that this is as good as it's going to get, but I'm sure that my physical therapist will think otherwise. We'll see how far she can pull and stretch my sore arm on Monday.

I was worried that the dogs would be too cold today and started to bundle them up in their Winter sweaters. Now that the dogs are both wearing their red Ruffwear harnesses on walks, it's kind of a challenge to add sweaters and coats. These Web Master harnesses are kind of like a coat themselves. Do you put the sweater under or over the harness? I eventually gave up, which is probably what the dogs wanted anyway. They like the cold a lot more than I do. I continue to be amazed at how briskly Dot walks along on these cold mornings.

The rubber snake didn't work. I think all I did was make the bird mad. It not only pooped on the car, it even pooped on the rubber snake. I'll try a different color rubber snake tomorrow, but I definitely think this irritating bird is winning the battle at this point.

I don't really feel like going to the gym tomorrow, but I probably should anyway. I told my physical therapist that I try to go to the gym at least twice a week. Jeez, I'm still having trouble making it even once a week. I think these guys can tell when you're not doing your homework.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1833

I drove down to the UPS Customer Service Center this morning to pick up a package. It's odd that I find this the most convenient way to pick up a shipment, since Fedex and UPS will both deliver right to my door. It's just another case where a modern convenience has turned into a modern nuisance. More and more merchants are requiring a direct signature on deliveries, since there has been an increase in people stealing packages off of front porches. If you have to sign for the delivery, you have to be home. I could be home twenty-tree hours a day and it's almost inevitable that the one hour I was gone would be when the UPS guy shows up. It's just easier to drive to Mesquite.

I think I got another nail in my tire when I was out today. I heard a clicking sound when I was driving and when I stopped to investigate, I saw what appeared to be a small nail or screw protruding from one of the rear tires. When I got home, I looked again, but couldn't find the object anymore. I'm sure it's still there though. I probably just broke the head off the screw while I was driving. The tire still holds air and doesn't appear to be leaking, but I better get it fixed tomorrow. The last time this happened, my warranty got me a free tire. I don't think I'll be so lucky this time.

It was time for another visit with my physical therapist today. This session was for me. Dot's physical therapy is tomorrow. It appears that I have made some progress. I was able to extend my arm further behind my head than I was last week and the manipulations of my arm by the therapist weren't so painful. I got some new exercises to practice at home this week including one called Spider Crawls. For Spider Crawls, you stand near a vertical wall and use your fingers to move or elevate your bad arm as far up the wall as you can. I've been doing this for months to reach the soap in a high shelf in the bathroom. I just didn't know there was a name for this odd activity. My bad arm is still about fifty percent weaker than my good arm, so I've got a long way to go.

Dot seemed stronger today. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to how she feels. She just has good days and bad days. I guess I could say the same for myself. Some days I feel great and other days I can barely move. Today feels like one of the barely move days, but that is probably just because of all the tugging and pulling the physical therapist did on my arm.

Tomorrow is going to be busy. I plan on making one final, and possible futile, attempt to get my Christmas shopping finished before Christmas Eve. Dot has her appointment with the underwater treadmill tomorrow afternoon instead of her regular Thursday appointment because of the holiday schedule. There's that pesky tire to deal with as well.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1831

I must be getting more confident in the roof. I haven't been up there all week, even though it's been raining almost every day. I know there's a ton of standing water up there, but I still can't bring myself to tackle the laborious job of removing it all. Maybe tomorrow. Of course, I could go to the gym instead and expend the same amount of energy in a warm, dry place. Eventually, I'll have to go remove the water, because it's certainly not going to evaporate in this kind of weather.

The weather's been damp now for long enough now that the dogs are getting exceptionally muddy on their walks. My boots are caked with mud when we return, and even my pants are muddy. Cleaning the dogs paws and my boots before we go inside again seems to add another ten minutes to each walk. I wish we had a mud room like some Northern houses have. Everyone with Dalmatians needs a mud room.

Today was full of busy little chores. The dog blankets got washed, the sheets got changed, and I made a trip to Sam's Club to buy toilet paper, shop towels, detergent, and other sundries in bulk. I don't know when we started buying a three month supply of stuff like this. It wasn't always this way. Buying commodity items in bulk does save money, but it also uses up all your closet space. It took me quite a while to figure out where to stash away all the toilet paper.

When I was going to sleep last night I watched the last Craig Ferguson Show. I didn't know that the final show was going to be last night and just switched it on accidentally. I've always liked Craig Ferguson better than Jimmy Fallon or Seth Meyers. There is an irreverence to Ferguson's comedy that appeals to me. The show is gone though, so I guess I'll just have to go to sleep a little earlier. It's weird how many of these "final" shows I've seen over the years. I remember seeing Jack Paar's final broadcast when I was a kid. I saw Johnny Carson's final show and Jay Leno's as well. I think I even remember seeing the last Ed Sullivan show. David Letterman will have his last show pretty soon as well. It's hard to believe now, but I saw the Late Show With David Letterman live once during a trip to New York. I used to see a lot of shows. Aerosmith, Simon & Garfunkel, Phantom of the Opera, The Rolling Stones, Jersey Boys, The Who, Cirque du Soleil, and countless others. Somewhere along the line, a fear of crowds replaced a love of live performances and I quit going to shows. No regrets though. Peaceful scenes like this morning's foggy lake shore are much more appealing than watching a loud band in a crowded arena.

I'm kind of surprised that my stretching exercises actually seem to to be increasing the mobility in my bad shoulder. I've only been doing the exercises for three days now and I"m already seeing an improvement. Who would have thought...

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1828

It was another wet, cold day. As soon as the dogs finished their breakfast, they hopped right back in bed again. They didn't want anything to do with this day. Since they wouldn't budge, I just crawled back in bed myself. Eventually we pulled ourselves together and took our morning walk. I always have trouble getting the dogs outside on damp days, but once we're on our way they show no desire to return home again. I think the smells must be more intense in damp weather, because they both love to smell things.

I think my shoulder must be worse than I thought. Today was my first physical therapy session and some of the initial stretching exercises brought tears to my eyes. You'd think it would be easy to lie on a table and bring my hands behind my head, but it just wasn't happening. I could see my therapist wince every time she heard popping sounds coming from my shoulder as she manipulated the joint. We did a series of simple exercises to loosen the muscles around the joint and after about fifteen minutes I was able to rotate my arm about 15 degrees further behind my head. This is going to be a long, slow process. For the past several years, I've been compensating for the loose shoulder by tensing the muscles on the right side of my back in an attempt to keep the joint in place while I walk the dogs.  Now these muscles are very tight and are restricting a full range of motion. I think things are worse than they used to be, because I remember I could do some of the stretching exercises we tried today as recently as three years ago when I had physical therapy before. At any rate, I promised to do my exercises the best I could and I will see the therapist again next week. I still don't want to consider surgery at this point.

I wanted to check on a package on the UPS website today and discovered I couldn't log in because I'd forgotten my password again. I hate sites that keeping asking you for a ridiculous combination of upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols before they'll approve your password. I can never remember these complex passwords. What's even worse is that many sites don't allow you to re-use a password that you have used before. It doesn't take long to completely run out of easy to remember password ideas. I'll be glad when you can just use a fingerprint or retinal scan to identify yourself. Apple is getting there with its new fingerprint recognition technology, but so far you can only use your fingerprint to unlock the phone. You should be able to use it for everything.

I wish I could teach Dash to read the weather radar. I thought I'd found a nice little window between rain showers to take the dogs out to do their business this afternoon. Dot, as always, peed and pooped quickly and efficiently. Dash was oblivious to the approaching rain and dawdled around until the rain caught up with us. He eventually pooped, but we were all drenched by then. By the time I finally got the dogs back in the house, cleaned their paws, and dried them off with a bath towel, the only sensible thing to do was take another nap. We ended up right where we started, in a big dog-pile on the bed.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1823

I was very impressed with my physical therapist today. She was thorough, informative, and was able to map out a comprehensive two month treatment program that should lead me toward greater mobility. It turns out that there is a lot more wrong with me than I thought. My shoulder problems were obvious, but there were also still problems with my neck and left hand. The therapist said that I didn't exhibit any of the classic symptoms associated with carpal tunnel syndrome and suspected that I have damaged or injured some of the small bones in my hand instead. She said that my right shoulder wasn't dislocated, but that the shoulder muscles on that side of my body were extremely tight and were preventing the shoulder joint from operating properly. The remedy is lots of supervised stretching exercises.

Some of you may remember the horrible problems I had with my neck during a trip to Las Vegas a few years ago. The physical therapy I had after that painful incident worked amazingly well, but it wasn't pleasant. They gradually stretched my spine, so that the soft tissue that had become encapsulated or pinched between the vertebrae were freed and my neck could move again. At one point they put me on a machine that seemed very similar to a medieval rack and literally stretched my entire neck. Yikes! I hated those sessions, but they worked. I've never really had a problem with my neck again. I think I've got a lot of uncomfortable stretching in my immediate future.

My cold seems to get worse every day. I guess it isn't really getting worse. It just continues moving to the next phase. My initial fever seems to have ended. My sore throat isn't as bad either. Unfortunately, these symptoms have been replaced by a terrible runny nose and a persistent headache. When I get a bad cold, it almost always lasts at least a full week. I've still got several days to go before the worst is over. I was really hoping that I'd start feeling better before this weekend's back-to-back Santa Paws photo shoots, but that's not going to happen. I need to remember to throw a big roll of paper towels and a large sack of cough drops in my lighting bag tonight. At this rate, I could probably be part of the photos, as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

I haven't felt like cooking all week, so I picked up a barbequed pulled pork sandwich at Central Market's new little in-store restaurant on the way home from my physical therapy appointment. The sandwich and accompanying fresh sweet potato fries looked delicious, but I don't think I appreciated my dinner as much as I should have. A bad cold destroys your sense of taste. I could have been eating cardboard. What I should have done was skipped dinner entirely and just gone to bed early.

I saw on the Internet today that NASA is going to provide full press credentials to a select group of bloggers, so they can write about an upcoming satellite launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base. I think I'm going to apply for this press pass. If NASA accepts your application, you will get to interview space scientists, take a special tour of the Vandenberg launch facilities, and watch the launch itself from an up close VIP location. I've always been a huge fan of the space program and all NASA wants is a chance to expand their social media presence in new and different ways.  Hey, I'd be more than happy to write about a satellite launch on the blog. This isn't a contest or a prize. It is just chance to get official NASA press credentials. The only downside is you have to pay for the trip to California for the launch yourself. This is a media event, so I guess that Some Assembly Required would have to pick up the tab. It would certainly be exciting to be accepted though. I hope I do better on this than I did on the Amtrack Writers in Residence grant. That didn't go too well. Too bad I didn't get accepted for that one. Then I could have taken the train to California.

Savannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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