Day 3544

We moved six dogs today. The new Dalmatians have all finished their initial evaluation at the vet and have been spayed or neutered. They were ready to join the others at the boarding kennel. One lucky boy didn't have to wait long to find his forever home. Less than an hour after he arrived at the kennel, a family from Houston arrived to look at dogs and adopted him.

I think the other five will be adopted soon as well. They are all good looking, healthy dogs with great dispositions. Two have a skin infection that we are treating and one has heartworms, but all in all they are in decent shape. None of them appeared to have had a lot of contact with people before. They were very shy at first and didn't know how to play with toys. Curiosity prevailed over fear though. After about an hour, they were following us around and enjoyed being petted.

Janet and I transported the young male that got adopted today. I wish I'd gotten to know him better because he was a wonderful dog. He was very shy and a bit scared, but it didn't take long for him to fall asleep in my lap on the ride to the kennel. He got a good home today with a family who has had Dalmatians before. I wish him well.

Transporting the dogs took quite a while, so there were no long walks today. It's just as well. It was very hot. I thought our heat wave was coming to an end this weekend, but apparently not. It was 102 degrees outside this afternoon. I still need to mow the grass, but I think I'm going to wait until it gets a little cooler. Walking is one thing. Pushing a lawn mower is another thing entirely.

I had a lot of things on my grocery list today. I'm disappointed that the app on my phone that lets me bypass the checkout line isn't working well anymore. Every time I scan an item, I have to reboot the app and start over before I can scan the next item. Everything worked perfectly for a long time. Then the company decided to improve the app, adding coupons and promotions for things on sale. Nothing has worked since. Why do people keep trying to improve things that are working fine? Restaurants I like change their menus too often. Cars I like seem to go downhill after the first model year. I don't even like Apple computers as much as I used to. I blame it all on focus groups. If you listen to too many people you can ruin anything.

I wonder how we're going to get home next week. There a big sign a few blocks away saying that our road will be closed for three days while the highway department demolishes a bridge. I bet the people who cross the bridge every day are wondering how they're going to get home too. I wish there was less political news and more news about road construction. Roads are torn up all over town and I never know what is going on.

It's time to go to the gym again. Maybe it's finally time to start doing all my exercising indoors. Walking around the small indoor track is boring, but it probably beats being fried to a crisp under this hot sun. Fall can't come soon enough for me.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3543

There was something new on the menu when I went to breakfast this morning. I ordered the Braised Short Rib Benedict basically because anything new on a hot Friday morning is a plus. The odd meaty concoction tasted more like a pot roast than ribs and the creamy sauce definitely wasn't Hollandaise. Hey, I'm easy to please when all I've got ahead of me is a long walk in the park.

I picked up something for dinner on the way home and got ready to walk. It's a little harder to leave the house now with a huge tree blocking the path to the back gate. This weather is really getting old. I'm encountering fewer joggers now and even the cyclists are starting to have second thoughts about a ride through the park. If the prairie grass gets much drier it's going to be a fire hazard. The city doesn't usually mow the areas designated as Native Prairie, but occasionally the risk of a grass fire becomes too great. I wouldn't be surprised to see mowers soon.

Doing all my walking at once definitely saves some time. It also saves me the trouble of taking two showers. After I cooled down for a bit and had a piece of cheese for lunch, I decided to finish my article. I'm pleased to say the first draft is done. I'll do some editing and check for typos over the weekend before sending it to the magazine on Monday. It's admittedly a long shot sending an article to an astronomy magazine about a rainy day at an observatory where I saw nothing. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I say. I made the trip and it definitely was an interesting experience. Maybe others will be interested as well.

I'm still used to being paid well to write very short advertisements. Often a day's work wouldn't even fill up a single sheet of paper. Writing much longer pieces where the prospect of any form of payment is often non-existent seems strange. Luckily, I'm retired and don't have anything better to do. I think this would be a stressful way of making a living if you depended on the income.

Janet wants to clean out the greenhouse so we can get the repairs started. Seems like a good idea. It also seems like a lot of work. The building is filled with materials for projects that never got off the ground. There are old bags of fertilizer, half empty bottles of weed killer, a bunch of rusty garden tools, a tiller that never worked in our rock hard soil, several lawn mowers that broke years ago, and lots of unidentified stuff. I should probably keep the live traps that have caught everything from rats to raccoons. We have a lot of critters in our yard.

Tomorrow, we need to transport some of the new Dalmatians from the vet back to the boarding kennel. There are several dogs, so there will be other people helping as well. The dogs have had a rough life so far and have spent most of their time outdoors. The challenge now is to help socialize them and make sure they are healthy. I'm confident that the second phase of their life will be a lot better than the first.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3444

We picked up Little Penny from the Veterinary Surgical Center today and took her to the rescue group's regular vet so she could rest and recuperate. We call her Little Penny because there is a much larger Penny in the rescue program as well. Earlier this Spring Penny had a tumor removed that nobody thought was cancerous and then when the pathology report came back showing mast cells, she had to return to have a second surgery since the surgeon didn't get good margins when the initial growth was removed. Penny seemed in good spirits when we picked her up today and hopefully she will make a full recovery with no further need for chemo or radiation.

It's sad how familiar Janet and I have become with cancer in dogs. Everything the surgeon was telling us today seemed very familiar. Dash had thyroid cancer. Spot and Dot both had abdominal cancer. Greta had liver cancer and I've lost count of how many rescue dogs have been diagnosed with cancer over the years. Luckily, treatment has gotten very good in recent years. We discovered Greta's cancer too late, but Dot, Dash and Spot all recovered from their treatment and went on to live very normal lives.

It's hard to believe that I used to go backpacking for days at a time when I lived in Colorado right after college. A four day trip between Aspen and Crested Butte carrying a heavy pack was not a big deal. It seems pathetic now that a small three to five mile walk can cause every joint in my body to cry out in protest. What has happened to me? My shoulders are shot. One of my knees feels loose. And I've still got tennis elbow from years of using the Help 'Em Up Harness to hold up Dash's rear legs. Hopefully, things will improve if I keep moving. I'm not doing anything foolish like jogging. I'm just trying to stay active.

It's strange that a lot of common plants go by several different names. I discovered today that Angel’s Trumpet and Devil's Weed are actually the same thing. The botanical name for this plant is Datura and it is commonly called Jimson Weed. Confused? A lot of people call these Moonflowers as well. Maybe this is why I have trouble identifying a lot of flowers I see in the park. I'll find something that looks familiar on the Internet and then later a neighbor will tell me that the plant is something else entirely. A lot of Texas plants seems to go by four or five different names.

This week has gone quickly. I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and am trying to decide where to go for breakfast tomorrow. My daily routine is simple and perhaps a little boring, but it is certainly effective at eating up the time.  I get up, do some stuff, and all of the sudden it's time for bed again.

Ollie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3443

It rained a lot today. I thought I was pretty clever though. I know how long it takes me to walk specific distances and I know there are a lot of little gazebo like structures scattered throughout the park so picnickers can get out of the sun. I looked at the weather radar and plotted a path that would hopefully have me arriving at one of of these covered structures every time a storm cloud was overhead. Amazingly, the plan worked. When a rain cloud arrived I was sitting under a gazebo and staying dry. One of these covered structures was up on a hill where I could see the storm approaching from a distance. You could clearly see streaks of rain falling from a big dark cloud that was getting closer and closer. As the rain approached I could hear the raindrops falling on the water in the lake while the meadow in front of me was still dry. Then thirty seconds later, the rain was overhead. Each storm cell was small and there was lots of space in-between each downpour. I still managed to cover three miles and I didn't get wet. My walk took a little longer this morning, but I wasn't in a hurry. Actually watching the rain from a dry vantage point was quite enjoyable. While I was out today I encountered a beautiful Canada Goose. I wanted a picture, but unfortunately didn't have a telephoto lens with me. I thought about trying to get close to the goose with my phone, but geese can be nasty. I wasn't really in the mood to get attacked by a goose.

I got a welcome letter from the NASA folks today and now I finally feel comfortable that my acceptance of their invitation was received. NASA is a very bureaucratic organization and there will be further correspondence and forms to fill out before I can actually set foot inside their secure facilities. The trip is officially confirmed though and I'm definitely going. Hopefully, this will be the start of a very interesting summer.

I went with Janet this afternoon to help transport one of our rescue dogs from the veterinary surgery center to another vet where she will recuperate. While we were on our way we got a call saying that there were complications and the dog needed to stay at the hospital under observation for an additional day. Actually, this was good news to me. I always worry about taking a dog home that has just had surgery. Dogs aren't always good patients and there are so many things that can go wrong. Hopefully when we do pick this girl up, her condition will be stable and she'll already be on the mend.

Not a lot happened today but it still felt like a good day. I'm getting a lot of sleep now and am slowly becoming comfortable with the idea of living without deadlines or responsibilities. Janet has always been more involved with rescue than me, but there is nothing wrong with helping her out when I can. Hey, I may become a space and astronomy blogger yet. It must mean something that NASA has invited me to three different events. Things can change quickly, but at least for today, life is good.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2622

I'd hate to be in the restaurant business. Customers are fickle. Reviews are seldom fair. And employee turnover is unbelievable. I ate breakfast this morning at a place I haven't visited for several months and there wasn't a single familiar face. The entire staff was new. The food had actually improved, so maybe the staff changes were a good thing. Like I say, I don't understand the restaurant business at all.

Most of the day was spent taking Dot to her appointment at the cancer center. Janet was able to take some time off work today to help me transport Dot. Having two people in the car seemed to help. Janet sat in the back with Dot and was able to calm her down when she became agitated and tried to move around. Dot arrived for her exam a lot calmer than she usually does, but her blood pressure was still a little high.

We got some more bad news today. Her cancer is progressing and there are now four tumors growing in her liver. There were only three the last time we checked. The oncologist told us that Dot's liver and kidneys are still functioning normally and that even though the cancer was growing, it was growing slowly. She is starting to feel some discomfort though, so we added Gabapentin to her growing list of meds. The oncologist also wants to go back to testing Dot once a month, since the cancer could always start growing faster at any time.

While we were at the hospital we saw a family who had to make the decision to put their dog down. It was sad to watch them say their goodbyes. The dog actually looked in better shape than Dot, but I'm sure there was more to the story than we were seeing. They always tell you that your dog will let you know when it's time to go, but sometimes they don't. It's a big responsibility when you have to make that decision for them. I dread the day when we are faced with making this decision. Hopefully, Dot will make her wishes very clear. Right now it is obvious that Dot still loves life and wants to keep on going. As the cancer continues to grow, things will inevitably become more confusing.

When we got home today Janet asked me if I knew that Dot's oncologist was deaf. "What makes you think she is deaf," I asked. "Well, she was reading your lips," Janet told me. Have I ever mentioned that I'm not very observant. I could tell you exactly what shade of brown Dot's poop was today and I would notice instantly if you moved any of the books on my bookshelf, but I'm not very good at reading faces. Chances are if I met you on the street, I wouldn't even recognize you. I can never tell when people are happy or sad either. I guess it's a good thing that I'm seldom aware when people are mad at me.

We've got a long weekend coming up. I hope this means that everybody will get a little more sleep. The oncologist wants me to watch Dot closely this weekend to make sure that the Gabapentin doesn't make Dot lethargic and lose energy. "But how can I tell," I asked? "She doesn't have any energy right now." I think all Dot's doctors are amazed that she's still alive.

Lexi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2616

Dot threw up last night, which put me back on high alert again. There are so many things which can go wrong at this point that it's hard to keep them all straight. Dot has trouble chewing now and might have swallowed some food that she hadn't chewed properly. I'm always worried that the cancer might have spread and she's starting to lose her appetite. She probably threw up for no reason at all. Dog do that a lot. The worst thing about throwing up right after we've all gone to bed is that she threw up her evening meds. You never know how much the body has absorbed, so you can't give her a second dose. As a result, Dot probably didn't get any blood pressure medication last night.

Today was just a typical day of weekend errands, but it seemed busier than usual. Janet had an event to go to, so it was harder to keep track of what both dogs were doing at any given moment. Dot seemed to be having a little trouble with the heat. She doesn't do well in warm weather and the temperature reached over 80 degrees this afternoon. Maybe the slightly labored breathing and the meal she threw up last night are connected somehow. Lots of laundry today. I was talking with a client on the phone when Dot decided to poop in the house again. I think this was the third time today. She wasn't on a protected surface this time and there wasn't much I could do. Just something else to clean up after the call was completed.

Dash has to go back to the cancer center for a recheck on Monday. Nobody mentioned this to me when he was released from the hospital. We just happened to notice an obscure sentence mentioning a recheck when we were reading his discharge summary this morning. I called to confirm and sure enough, he needs to go back for a few follow up tests. I'm dreading this. Dash is a terrible passenger in the car. Whenever I'm taking him home from a vet appointment, I'm hoping that he'll miraculously stay healthy for the rest of his life and I'll never have to transport him in a car again. Traveling with Dash is nerve wracking to say the least.

I wish the dogs weren't so restless in the evenings. Dash gets nervous when Janet isn't around at night and paces around at the front door waiting. This activity gets Dot agitated and she wants to get up too. I think I've taken Dot outside ten times this evening and she still hasn't peed. I'm still cleaning up poop though. Evidently, she kept dropping little plops throughout the house after I got her up to clean up her blankets.

I hope tomorrow's photo shoot goes smoothly. After the pre-light check yesterday, I thought this thing was going to be a piece of cake. Now I'm hearing that there will be lots of costume and hairstyle changes. There have already been changes to the set as well. This could take a very long time. I need to remember to be courteous and not say anything snarky. It sounds like everybody wants to improvise and improvisation is definitely not my cup of tea. At least Janet will be home with the dogs tomorrow and I won't have to worry about that.

It's almost time to give the dogs their evening meds. I hate to wake them up, since they've finally calmed down after a long evening of restlessness and are both sleeping peacefully. I guess it wouldn't hurt to let them sleep another hour. This is the first quiet time I've had all day.

Lady Gogh is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2577

I thought today would never end. We certainly didn't get off to a good start. When I took Dot out to the back yard this morning, she left a trail of pee all the way from her bed to the door. It took me most of the day to get all the rugs washed and back on the floor again. I made her vet appointment for 11 AM, thinking that would leave me plenty of time to get ready. We made it, but just barely. I'm still having trouble coming to grips with how slow and tedious life has become.

Dot used to love riding in the car. As recently as six months ago, she would tolerate our trips to the vet. Now, the car seems to terrify her. Even a very short trip is a nightmare. She won't lie down anymore and keeps struggling to get up. This is not good in a moving car. Hopefully, we won't need to make another journey like this for several months. Other than peeing and pooping in the exam room, she did pretty well today. Her blood pressure and heart rate were good and a couple of things I was worried about turned out to be nothing. The vet clipped her nails, which had gotten way too long, and after an hour or so, we were on our way home again.

The weather has gotten really cold. There has been a stiff wind all day, which makes things seem even colder.  It definitely feels like winter and I'm really glad the furnace is working well. I heard on the news that we may even get some snow later in the week. I'm not looking forward to snow at all. Dot has enough trouble standing up on dry ground. Walking her in the snow might prove impossible.

In anticipation of an approaching storm, I took my hiking boots to the shoe repair shop to get some more heel taps. I have the shoe repair guy put these on every few months and they keep falling off. I reapply them with glue when I can, but eventually they just get lost. Even though the shoe taps are a temporary fix, I think they make my boots last twice as long. I seem to put all my weight on the edge of my heel and can wear out a shoe sole in no time. I wish I could buy a shoe with steel heels. Leather and rubber just don't seem to last long with me.

The refrigerator looked pretty empty this morning, so I picked up some Thai food on the way home from the shoe repair shop. Janet and I both buy groceries, but I don't do a very good job of planning ahead. Sometimes there are enough leftovers to last all week, and other times there are none at all. I guess I really don't think about food unless I'm hungry.

I never did find Neptune last night. The sky clouded over again and I don't think my binoculars were powerful enough anyway. Actually, I felt a bit foolish when I realized that the moon was already below the horizon when it passed in front of Neptune. I guess I need to read about these events a little more carefully on Google.

Hopefully, tomorrow will go a bit more smoothly. I feel like I never caught up today. It's weird that a simple event like a vet appointment is enough to throw the entire day off schedule. Dot is finally sleeping peacefully, and I hope to join her soon. It's been a very long day. I never realized that doing nothing could be so tiring.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2459

It's amazing how a few simple things can eat up an entire day. I don't ever plan anything on Dot's physical therapy days anymore. It seems to take forever to get her down to her appointment and back again. No matter how early I get started, I always seem to arrive late. Dot did well in the underwater treadmill this afternoon, but she didn't do so well in the car. I had to stop several times because she squirmed around and got herself stuck in an awkward position. When she gets stuck, she whines and cries and I have to look for a place where I can stop quickly so I can re-position her. I really try to avoid freeways now. Sometimes I wonder whether the rehab is even worth it, but I try to stay optimistic.

I got a couple of new writing assignments today. When I was looking through the input material, I noticed that the client misspelled the name of one of their products again. This has happened before. Nobody pays attention to details anymore. You'd think getting the name of your own product right would be a no brainer, but apparently not. It probably doesn't even matter. I suspect that people's inability to spell accounts for a lot of the really weird product names out there.

It was so hot today that Dash didn't even want to go outside. When he doesn't want to walk on a day like this, I figure that he knows best. Heatstroke in dogs is very common here in Texas. It's better to just let your dog rest on a hot day. Dot actually got the best deal today. The water in the treadmill was nice and cool. She was a little slow this afternoon, but I think she enjoyed being in the water.

I certainly didn't accomplish much today. Breakfast wasn't relaxing at all. Dot was sleeping nicely, but Dash woke her up barking for his banana. Pretty soon both dogs were barking and by the time I fixed their treat and got them quiet again, my smoothie was too warm and I had to put it in the freezer for a while. The temperature has to be just right for breakfast to be enjoyable. I'm always warming up my coffee in the microwave and putting my smoothie in the freezer. Dot and Dash never did stop barking. By the time I finished washing the breakfast dishes, the dogs were tired and so was I.

I"m going to try to get both my articles written tomorrow. I thought I'd have time to get started today, but it wasn't meant to be. If the dogs are cooperative, completing two articles should be a piece of cake. My big task tomorrow is figuring out how to load the garbage can so the robotic garbage truck empties it properly. I think I filled the big plastic trash bags too full last week and they got stuck in the can. I'll try twice as many half full bags this week. It's hard to outwit a robotic truck. I hate that truck.

There are so many little things I need to do. It's time to get a haircut again. The large printer has run out of ink and is probably clogged. Janet says the electric element in the oven is starting to fail. Where do you find a part for a fifty year old oven? The shower is starting to leak again too. I thought I did a really good job of sealing the shower stall, but my repairs didn't even last six months. I can't forget to call the roofer too. I found new areas that need to be patched. No wonder just taking a nap seems so appealing.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2144

When I was getting Dot suited up in her harness to go to physical therapy, Dash woke up from a nap and immediately started coughing and choking. I took him outside to see if he was trying to throw up or eat grass. He actually seemed pretty calm, but continued coughing. What was this all about? I called Dot's vet and asked if I could postpone her appointment until I figured out what was going on with Dash. I considered putting both dogs in the car and taking Dash to the vet with me, but I knew that wouldn't work. It's hard enough to transport Dot by herself. Since Dash wasn't frantic, I thought that he might have gotten some dog hair stuck in his throat while he was licking his fur. Maybe the hair was irritating him. Dalmatian hair is short and surprisingly sharp. I got a dog hair stuck in my eyelid once and it was very uncomfortable. To test my theory, I fed Dash some canned dog food in hopes that it would moisten his throat and cause him to swallow the loose hair. Gradually, the coughing subsided and I resumed getting Dot ready for her appointment.

Dot had her own little crisis in the car. I always fold down the rear seat to give Dot a nice big flat area to ride in, but instead of staying in the middle of the car like she should have, she moved directly behind the drivers seat and managed to get one of her front legs stuck in the small gap between the folded rear seat and the door. Why does this always happen when I'm on a freeway? Dot was squeeling and I was stressed. I got off the freeway as soon as I could, pulled into a nearby parking lot, and repositioned her in the center of the cargo area. Dot was fine, but she could have injured herself if she struggled too hard to free her leg. We arrived about an hour late, and I was thankful that Dot has such a nice and accommodating vet. I try my best not to be late, but sometimes events are out of my control.

On days like this, I often feel like everything is out of my control. I'm still hearing water flowing in the pipes when all the faucets are turned off, so I made an appointment to have our plumber come out and figure out what is going on. Unfortunately, he can't come until next Tuesday. There's got to be a leak somewhere, but I can't find it. I hate plumbing problems. Plumbers are quite comfortable cutting a hole in your wall to access a pipe, but they never fix the damage they've made. After the leak is fixed, you have to go out and find your own carpenter or tape and bed guy to repair the walls. Then you have to find a painter to repaint them. The whole process often takes weeks. The dogs don't like having repairmen in the house either and bark continuously while they are here. I'm not looking forward to next week at all.

The weather report says it is supposed to start raining about 5 AM tomorrow morning and continue raining for the rest of the day. I really hope this forecast is wrong, because a sustained rain almost guarantees that Dot will poop in the house. I received five new writing jobs this afternoon, so there will be plenty to do tomorrow if we're housebound. I need to wait for the FedEx guy to deliver a package too, so maybe staying at home all day isn't such a bad idea. I should have done a better job of planning ahead for days like this. There is no more fresh fruit or bananas to make my morning smoothie tomorrow. I think we're out of the cream I put in my morning coffee too. Why do I obsess about food so much? If worse comes to worse, I'll make an omelet, fry up some sausage, and then spend the rest of the day fretting about the mystery plumbing leak while I write my articles.

Dakota is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1933

When I'm not busy enough, I notice things that I'm otherwise oblivious to. Today I noticed that we have carpenter ants in the house again. There were little piles of wood dust at various places that indicated the ants were active. We've had problems with carpenter ants before and they are difficult to get rid of. You cant ignore them though. In many ways they are just as bad as termites. Left unchecked, they will reduce your house to rubble.

I also noticed that our resident squirrels were eating the new St. Augustine grass. We've had problems with this before as well. Squirrels seem to love fresh green grass, and just about every time we've put in more St. Augustine, the squirrels immediately descend from the trees to eat it. In the Spring it's the squirrels who do the damage. In the Fall it's mostly possums and armadillos who are intent on destroying things. The birds do their part as well. The eat the berries off the Holly bushes and then poop them out again on my car.

Since Dot has her physical therapy session tomorrow, I reconfigured that car with her special hammock. This took longer than I thought, but I really don't have any other choices. I guess I'll just leave the hammock in place until Dash needs to go somewhere. I also watered the new lawn with a hose a couple of times. I don't know why a sprinkler wouldn't have worked just as well, but the landscapers said this was better. Although the yard looks great, it doesn't smell so great. I think there must be cow manure mixed in the mulch that was spread over the flower beds and ground cover. I should have been more specific instead of saying "just do what you did last year." Last year we needed mulch. This year we don't.

The dogs were pretty good today. There is always a frenzy of barking around dinner time, but for the most part, things were pretty peaceful today. I've got to watch Dot like a hawk. She can get up on her own now and will start walking drunkenly around the house if I'm not looking. I use to race to grab her harness when this happened, but now I just follow along behind her to provide support if she starts to slip. She needs to learn to keep her balance and walk with confidence. Constantly holding her up might actually hinder her progress. I still worry that she's going to fall, but she keeps getting stronger every day. Several times I have seen her sit normally, but she can't always do this when she's tired. I think the hardest thing for Dot to do on her own is poop. The way dogs typically squat takes a completely different set of muscles and hers aren't strong enough yet.

I read some instruction manuals for old audio gear in the studio this afternoon. I do this several times a month now for different types of equipment. There is so much I have already forgotten and I am determined not to forget it all. Most of my gear is obsolete now, but it certainly got the job done back in the day. I used to use this gear all the time, but now it mostly collects dust. I don't have many production jobs these days anyway and when I do get one, I don't need a rack full of equipment. I just use Pro Tools or Final Cut Pro. I like all this old equipment though. I really wish the world hadn't changed. There's an old multi-track recorder sitting in a corner that still has a mix-tape loaded in it. The tape is dated 1986. Jeez, that's 29 years ago.

I'm curious what the vet will say when she sees Dot tomorrow. I think she's made a lot of progress since her last physical therapy session. I'm waiting for the day when the vet says it's perfectly safe to leave Dot alone in the house again. A month ago I though that this might never happen, but I think Dot has other ideas.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1928

I was a model of efficiency today. I got up at 6 AM and walked Dash in the dark. Less than an hour later, I was eating breakfast at my favorite restaurant. By the time Janet left for work, I had already returned home, switched on the computer and was ready to start the day. It's too bad that I'm not a morning person. It's actually quite pretty walking the dogs just before Dawn. I could still see the stars when Dash and I left the house this morning. As the sky slowly brightened, the birds began to sing. By the time  we returned home, the Eastern horizon had an orange glow and the day had commenced. As pretty as this celestial progression was, I'd still rather sleep in.

I had lots of work to do today and the dogs were surprisingly cooperative. They both slept soundly for most of the morning, allowing me to write two new articles and update five websites. Dot didn't even wake up when the roofers arrived around 10:30 AM. I was sure that all the banging around on the roof would startle Dot and start a frenzy of barking, but she slept through the entire repair job. Dot is slowly going deaf and occasionally that's a blessing. I doubt highly that the roof is as good as new, but the roofers were quite nice and took care of everything I pointed out to them. With any luck, the roof is good to go for at least another year, when we'll probably have to patch and repair all over again.

I'm amazed at how well Dot is walking now. Several times a day, I take her out in the back yard with a leash tied to the rear handle of her harness. This way she can walk on her own, while I still have a way to protect her from falling if she slips. Each day Dot's sense of balance and her ability to hold up her own weight improves a little more. We walked around in the yard for almost ten minutes this afternoon and Dot never faltered or slipped. My main job now is to keep her from doing something stupid. She would still run after the neighborhood cats if she could and she hasn't quite learned that the only way to stay stable is to walk on the carpets and stay away from slick surfaces. We're getting there though, one step at a time.

I've already got a long list of things to do tomorrow. There are checks that never made it to the bank, bills that never got paid, and prescriptions that need to be refilled. The grocery list is pretty long as well. The only thing I don't seem to need is gasoline. I don't spend very much time at the pump anymore, since I don't go anywhere. I think I only spent $9 on gas last week.

This would probably be a good weekend to see if the lawn mower works. If I wait much longer to mow the front lawn, the grass will be too tall for the mower to handle. I think all the vegetation has come to the conclusion that Spring is here. Lawns are green again and flowering trees like redbuds and dogwoods are in bloom. The wildflowers are still a long way from reaching their peak, but I see a new variety start to come into bloom almost every day. The only bad thing about Spring is that the wasps and roaches return. It's almost time for the snakes to return as well. Before I get too euphoric about Spring, I need to remember that this is when my seasonal allergies start to flare up as well.

Now that I have the car configured perfectly for Dot, I just realized that I will have to take everything apart again whenever I need to transport Dash. Dash won't let me pick him up and place him in the car. He flays about in a panic whenever I try, so I just let him jump in by himself through the tailgate when we need to go somewhere. I'm not sure where he's going to ride now.

Despite all the difficulties, this month has gone pretty fast. Problems get solved and new problems arise to replace them. I guess this is what life is all about. Sometimes I think it's all a weird game of Whack-a-mole.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day