Day 3879

I look presentable again. It's hard to believe I haven't had a haircut since early March. My stylist's new salon was a bit of a drive. I kept thinking that I'd been on this road before, but I couldn't remember why. Somewhere out here was a store where I bought my kayak. I think I passed a machine shop where I had some parts fabricated once. I know I used to pull dogs from a small community dog pound in the area. The details are all kind of fuzzy. I think I've lived in Dallas too long.

The salon was surprisingly busy for a place out in the middle of nowhere. I guess I wasn't the only one who needed a haircut. It seemed like everyone was playing it safe. Customers and employees all wore masks. A few people wore those clear face shields as well. There was a long list of rules on the front door but a lot of them appeared to have been forgotten. Nobody took my temperature or asked me to wash my hands when I entered the building. Hopefully, the next time I need a haircut the world will seem a little more normal.

We got started on our walk a little later this morning. A half hour makes a big difference around sunrise. I wish it were easier to get up early enough to start walking a full hour before sunrise. The air is much cooler at this time of day and the trails are mostly empty. Mornings are pleasant, but afternoons feel like I'm walking on a different planet. Sometimes there is a thirty degree temperature difference between sunrise and sunset.

I didn't stay up late enough to watch the Space X launch last night, but I watched the replay after breakfast this morning. I'm amazed at the dedication of my Florida photographer friends. They are always out there. Whenever there is a launch, they will post pictures of it on Facebook within a matter of hours. Even though last night's launch was in the middle of the night, there were still plenty of pictures. I'm still a little jealous. These local guys still seem to be the only ones getting access to the Space Center.

I'm seeing a lot of Egrets lately. These birds migrate, but I think ours hang around all year. I see lots of Great Egrets on our morning walks, along with the occasional Great Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, and Black-Crowned Night Heron. I'll never be a birder, but I'm slowly learning to identify all the local wildlife. We've got quite a variety down at the lake.

It's been a year since we had Hank over to the house for a few days following a medical emergency. It doesn't seem that long ago. I thought he would have found a home by now, but he's still up at the kennel. Dogs with special needs often take longer to place, but hopefully Hank will find his forever home soon. We also went to the Dior show at the Dallas Museum of Art about a year ago and I was starting to plan my first trip out to McDonald Observatory. What a weird year it's been. One year ago I would never have predicted that we'd have a new dog now and that I'd be wearing a mask to get my hair cut.

Tomorrow it's time to get groceries and fill the car with gas again. The precautions are all starting to feel normal now. I hope we don't get used to this. The old normal was a lot better than the new normal.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3540

No long walks today. It was way too hot and we were too busy. After breakfast I tried to get organized so we could spend the afternoon with the Dalmatians. I paid some bills, went to the post office and the bank, and got the car ready to transport Hank. The last time Hank was in the car, he made a mess of things, so I made sure that I added some extra padding this time.

We couldn't pick Hank up at the emergency vet until 3 PM, so we stopped by the boarding kennel and played with the other Dalmatians first. Rolly is in the middle of his heartworm treatment, so he couldn't play, but Treasure and Charlie were eager for some extra attention. Treasure has perfected rolling over for treats and Charlie can catch them in mid air. Dalmatians are very food motivated. The next time we visit, there will be some new dogs. We've picked up two new adults and four puppies. I hope we get to see the puppies before they go to their forever homes. We very rarely get Dalmatian puppies and there is always a waiting list. Puppies are almost always adopted as soon as they become available.

Nothing conclusive was discovered during Hank's diagnostic exam this morning, but the vet is sending some biopsy samples to the lab for further testing. Hopefully, the endoscopy procedure Hank had today will help determine why he continues vomiting and having bloody diarrhea. It is weird that he will be completely normal for weeks at a time and then the bloody stools will return. Diet alone doesn't explain this recurring problem. Something else is going on. I was hoping that they would examine Hank's colon, since the blood is usually bright red, but today's test only examined the stomach and upper GI tract. This is a process of elimination. Hank may need further tests as well.

The traffic was terrible today. The congestion made me miss the empty roads of Jeff Davis County. You can drive for miles without passing a single car. Fort Davis, the county seat and largest city, has a population of around 2,200 people. I think more people than that live in our own little neighborhood near the lake. Despite its small size, Fort Davis has a veterinarian, a good restaurant, and can connect to the Internet. What more do you need? Until we spent some time in the Davis Mountains I don't think I realized the appeal of wide open spaces. I'm not a city person by nature.

I didn't make much progress on my article today, but there's always tomorrow. It's probably best to stay inside anyway. The cooler weather we had when it rained a few days ago is over. We're in the middle of another heat wave. Our August electric bill was horrendous. September won't be much better. I shouldn't complain though. At least we don't have to worry about hurricanes.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3518

All the Dalmatians seemed happy today. Hank was his usual exuberant self, chasing a red rubber ball around the room, but it was hard to tell whether his problems are over. He's still taking a lot of meds and he's only been on his new diet a few days. So far, so good though. The kennel staff have seen no evidence of further bleeding.

Rolly seemed more relaxed than he was last week and seems to be gaining a little weight. He will be ready to start his heartworm treatment soon. Treasure and Charlie continue to show improvements. Charlie even walks well on a leash now. I am amazed at the progress he's made since he initially entered the rescue program. The kennel is kind of a halfway house where these guys can safely make the transition from street dogs to family dogs. I look forward to seeing each of them find their forever homes.

Just before I shut the computer off last night I felt something crawling on my arm. As I reached to brush the intruder away, it bit me. What the hell was this thing? The bite stung like a wasp, but the bug had no wings and didn't fly. I looked it up on the Internet and discovered that it was called a milkweed assassin bug. Their prey usually includes other small bugs, bees, flies, and caterpillars that they immobilize with a paralyzing toxin. These insects, which are also called Wheel Bugs  don't typically bite humans, but when they do they can leave a nasty welt. I was glad to discover that the painful bites weren't really harmful. By morning the welt had gone away.

I received my author copies of Spaceflight Magazine today. The magazine wasn't really a surprise since I'd already gotten a PDF copy of the September issue. It was nice to receive some printed copies though. I added the magazines to a small stack of Dalmatian Quarterly magazines on a shelf in my office. For someone who has been a writer for as long as I have, my published works are few and far between. I guess I haven't tried very hard. I've never had any desire to write the great American Novel. Writing ads and TV commercials was fine by me. The pay was good and for the most part the job was fun. I'll probably never know whether I could have succeeded as another type of writer. Could I have become a syndicated humor columnist like Dave Barry? I always enjoyed reading his columns back when people still read newspapers. Who am I kidding. I'm a blogger. I like being a blogger.

I keep getting these little blotches on my arms when I walk in the sun. The blotches are clearly tiny little pools of blood. Maybe this is what age spots actually are. I need to ask my doctor whether I should stop taking low dose aspirin and fish oil. These are mild blood thinners that can help prevent heart attacks, but they probably make it easier to bleed when you are sweating profusely. The blotches disappear after about three weeks, so I don't think they are harmful, but maybe I ought to get a second opinion. Unnecessary bleeding can't be a good thing.

It looks like it's going to be another hot day tomorrow. I know we have had hotter Summers in the past, but memories fade quickly. In my mind, this seems like the hottest Summer ever. I'm ready for Winter. I'm even ready for rain.

Ellis is topday's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3517

It's time to retire the dehumidifier. It has been running almost continuously since we got it after we had the water leak under our foundation quite a few years ago. This has been one of our most reliable appliances, but nothing lasts forever. The trusty little machine just doesn't remove much moisture anymore. Since this unit is still available, we ordered an identical dehumidifier to replace it. If the new one will run continuously for five years as well, it's hard to complain. Janet wants me to haul the old dehumidifier out to the curb on the next big trash day. I'm more inclined to try to fix it. I will probably fail since I've already tried to fix the machine several times. It's probably just worn out.

I feel pretty worn out today as well. There was no air conditioning at the gym this morning. I'm glad this doesn't happen very often. The place felt like a sauna. I found a brand new basketball when I went on the court today. I was curious whether I'd shoot any better with a new ball. Nope. I was also curious whether I'd burn more calories when the gym was hotter. Nope again. I'm not even sure my Fitbit is working correctly. Maybe it wasn't measuring calories right. It tracked five minutes of "aerobic activity" while I was sleeping last night. I remember sleeping peacefully, but maybe I had a weird dream.

I did manage to get my 20,000 steps today, but if there was anything interesting to watch on Netflix I might have just stayed inside. We are in the middle of a major heat wave. I think it was 105 degrees when I took my long walk this afternoon. I guess the only reason I continuing doing this is to see if I can. I like to have a routine as well. If you have a fixed routine you don't need to think of what to do next.

I'm beginning to wonder whether I should have waited until late Fall or Winter to visit the observatory. Unless it starts to cool down quickly, it's going to be a very hot trip. The weather in the Davis Mountains will be a lot cooler than it is here, but it is a long drive to get there. A rental car is looking better and better. If the rental car breaks down, they'll just get us a replacement. Maybe my next car won't be a Land Rover after all. If reliability issues make me nervous about leaving the city, what's the point of having one?

Janet and I will be going up to visit the Dalmatians tomorrow. That's what we do on Monday's now. Hank is back at the kennel again and they say that the bleeding has stopped and his stools are normal. Hopefully, all he needed was a change in diet. Hank is going to have to be monitored carefully for the next several weeks, but it is encouraging that he appears to be getting better. At least all his vital signs are good. He's been tested for just about everything.

I guess I'm ready to start another week. The laundry is all done and I've got a new supply of fresh fruit for my smoothie. Maybe something exciting will happen this week, but I hope not. All I want at this point is cooler weather.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3516

I just noticed that the cicadas are gone. I don't hear them anymore on my daily walks. When did this happen? I'm trying to be more observant, but there are so many things to notice in our daily lives that a lot of things fall under the radar. I heard a few individual bugs chirping when I took out the trash this evening but the constant buzz appears to be over. I wonder why these bugs do everything together. It's all or nothing with them. I doubt that the cicadas stopped singing today. I have been hearing a lot of other birds lately, but I failed to notice that this was because it was quieter outside. It's interesting how the brain works. I'm finally starting to notice things that I've actually been seeing for years. When I was walking dogs, I was always focused on them. I was looking ahead for other dogs. Especially loose ones. I kept an eye out for critters the dogs might go after. Was someone limping? Were the dogs too hot? I was busy and totally ignored a lot of other things in the park. The only time I noticed cicadas when I was walking Dot and Dash was when one of the dogs was trying to eat them.

There was no blood in Hank's stools today. We've changed his diet and this seems to be helping. It would be convenient if all the dogs in the rescue program could eat the same thing, but they can't. Some Dalmatians tend to develop crystals in their urine and there is a special diet for that. There are diets for kidney problems and even diets for cancer patients. Dot could eat anything, but Dash was on a special diet for most of his life. Hopefully adjusting Hank's diet will prevent the bloody diarrhea from reappearing.

The grocery store is playing hide and seek with the strawberries again. They hide the boxes of good berries underneath boxes of berries approaching their expiration date in hopes that people will buy the bad berries first. I had to sort through a lot of berries this morning to find two boxes of fresh, bright red strawberries. Who is the produce manager trying to fool? Everybody knows the good berries are on the bottom. I always see other people doing the same thing I am. They ought to sell the older berries separately at a lower price? People always buy cheap stuff. They could even make juice out of the darker berries. You'd never know the difference if you were looking at a bottle of juice.

I stopped at a rental car place on the way to the grocery store to ask about renting a car for our trip to McDonald Observatory. I thought all locations for a particular brand would be the same, but they're not. You can get a lot better selection of cars at the airport than you can in town. The lady I talked to basically encouraged me to just go to the airport. She said that they would probably never have the car I wanted. "Couldn't you just get the airport location to sent one over," I asked. "That's not the way it works," she told me. Apparently very few things work the way they should.

It keeps getting hotter. We're supposed to have triple digit temperatures for another week. When cooler weather returns it will still be in the nineties. Personally, I'm ready for sweater weather. I've got lots of sweaters but only one skin. Sweating might be good for you but I doubt that tanning has the same benefits.

It's funny that absolutely nobody seems to believe that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. Some people even think he faked his own death and is already in the witness protection program. The rest seem to think Hillary did it. This is the world we live in. When the conspiracy theories start to seem more plausible than the "factual" information, you are already living in the Twilight Zone.

J-Lo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3515

Hank is a 50 pound puppy. You couldn't find a sweeter dog if you tried, but he knows nothing and tries to eat everything. We thought we'd dog proofed the house pretty well before we brought him home last night. Within a matter of minutes Hank had found things we didn't even know we had and was carrying them around in his mouth. After we retrieved a ball of lip balm, a rubber door stopper, and several shoes Hank had snatched, we methodically went room to room and placed everything loose on a high shelf. We had forgotten the primary rule of puppyhood: if you can chew it, you will chew it.

We don't know much about Hank's background. He's probably around two years old. He was picked up as a stray and clearly whoever owned him first never bothered to provide even the most rudimentary training or socialization. It's a shame that a beautiful, sweet dog like this has gotten off to such a bad start. Despite his lack of manners, Hank was good around the house. We weren't well prepared with gates and crates, so we just let him sleep on the bed with us. He did pretty well. For the most part he slept soundly, although he did wake me up once trying to pull the Fitbit off my arm and had an episode of the zoomies, chasing a rubber ball around the house at 3 AM. He also tried to drag the blanket off our bed. All of this was pretty normal for a young dog. We've had old, sick dogs for so long that we'd almost forgotten what a young Dalmatian is like.

Hank seemed healthy and happy while he was at our house, but after we took him up to the vet for evaluation, they reported a few hours later that he'd had bloody diarrhea again. He wasn't throwing up blood after all. The blood was in his stools. This will help the vet diagnose the problem, but we're still not sure what is going on. His blood work and lab tests look normal and an x-ray showed no obstructions in his stomach or intestines. There are many things that can cause bloody diarrhea. The fact that the blood is still red would indicate that the problem is probably in his colon instead of his stomach or upper intestines, but he will need further tests to determine what is wrong. Hank is still at the vet. He is eating a bland diet and taking medication that will help with any irritation he might have in his digestive system. Hopefully nothing is serious. Hank is young and deserves a long and healthy life.

I took Janet to one of my breakfast restaurants on the way home from the vet and then we both resumed our daily routines. It took a long time to get the dog hair out of the car. Hank sheds even more than Dot and Dash did. The cable guy came and hooked up the new buried fiber optic cable this afternoon, although I never saw him. When I came home from my morning walk, the old temporary cable was still attached. The next time I left the house, everything had been fixed. I never heard a thing. The technician must have come while I was taking a shower.

Taking Hank to the vet in rush hour traffic made me glad that I am retired. Drive time traffic in Dallas is horrible now. I don't know how people can stand to do this everyday. It's been so long since I've driven to work on a regular basis that I forget how much Dallas has grown. It feels like I'm driving in Los Angeles now. I'm glad I was able to work out of my house while I had my own company. It kept me sane.

If we have another dog emergency, we're going to have to assemble a dog emergency kit. It would have been good to be able to gate off a few rooms last night. We definitely need to retrieve some water and food bowls from the storage warehouse. Leashes, a sturdy harness, poop bags, a first aid kit, and a few indestructible Kongs are all necessities. I'm glad we were able to help Hank last night. It was nice to have a dog around the house again.

Nautica is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3514

Today was not your typical day. We went downtown to see the Dior show this afternoon. It's been a long time since either of us has been downtown. The retrospective exhibit was enormous, taking over the entire Dallas Museum of Art with over 500 items on display. I guess fashion exhibits are popular with art museums now. This one has been sold out for months. The show is closing soon which is why we went to see what all the fuss was about. I'll have to admit that the show was very interesting. A lot has changed since the House of Dior was established in 1946, but a lot has stayed the same. Was this art or a cultural history? Probably both.

There was a big crowd this afternoon, but I only saw three other men. There were a lot of well dressed older women, including many using canes and walkers. This is probably why one of the docents kept telling people to be careful not to fall. Sure enough, within fifteen minutes one of the ladies tripped and fell into one of the exhibits. I remember that the museum had another exhibit featuring the work of Jean Paul Gaultier a few years ago. We went to that show too. Janet likes fashion and I used to be a fashion photographer, so it was an enjoyable afternoon.

When we got home I took my morning walk late in the afternoon. I just couldn't bring myself to skip walking altogether. I had to get at least 10,000 steps. After dinner we got an emergency call saying that Hank had been throwing up blood at the boarding kennel. Since Janet and I don't have other dogs now, it was decided that we would be best to watch him overnight and then take him to our vet first thing in the morning. Hank seemed perfectly normal when we arrived at the kennel, but it definitely looked like blood he'd thrown up earlier.

Hank has already been to the vet earlier this month with vomiting issues. It looks like we'll need to do more tests to see what is going on. On the ride home we quickly discovered that Hank doesn't like to ride in the car. He barked the entire way home. Once we got back to the house he calmed down quickly though. He's definitely a Dalmatian. It didn't take him five minutes to decide he wanted to sleep on the bed. That's fine with us. All our dogs have slept on the bed.

Hopefully, there's nothing seriously wrong with Hank. He is a very sweet dog. I think he's tired now because he's resting calmly on the bed with Janet. We'll keep an eye on him this evening and take him up to the Dalmatian Rescue vet in the morning. If something happens tonight, there a very good emergency vet nearby. We've been there often.

Neither of us expected to have a dog in the house again so soon. We're good with sick dogs though and know what to do. So far Hank seems fine. He probably enjoys being out of the kennel. If he throws up tonight it won't be the first time. We've had every type of dog mishap in this house that you can imagine.

Maybe this is our role for now. To just be there when a dog needs us. Hank is definitely a keeper, but we won't be keeping him. We just want to make sure he gets healthy and finds a good home. If he stays with us for a while, that's fine too.

Lilly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day