Day 2728

I spent most of the day cleaning. Janet has to have surgery later this month and she wants the house spotless to reduce the risk of getting an infection when she returns. The chances of making our house spotless are about the same as you'd have of riding a unicorn to the moon, but I'm giving it my best shot anyway. Today I cleaned inside the air conditioning vents, which were full of dust and dead bugs and under the bed where I found an enormous accumulation of dog hair. I don't know how our house gets so dirty. We never open the windows and always use the best HEPA filters on the HVAC system. Dalmatians do shed a lot, but dog hair is only a small part of what I vacuum up every week. When I was a kid we lived across the street from a mechanical engineer who designed a special positive air pressure system for his house. When you opened the front door inside air flowed out, but outside air never flowed in. His house was always dust free. I wish I had something like that. I suspect that the engineer's custom made system was pretty expensive. I've never seen anything else like it.

Now that the envelope printer is working again, I finally managed to get my invoices in the mail. It's not like it matters much anymore. Every month I seem to bill out less than I did the previous month. The last time I saw my financial adviser, I asked him to run a projection to see what my odds were of outliving my money. I didn't like the results. I suppose I'll be just fine if I'm real frugal, but who wants to be frugal. I'll have to stay reasonably healthy too. That's always a problem.

I'm worried more about Dash's health now. I made an appointment to take him in for his triglyceride test early tomorrow morning. The last time we did blood work on Dash, his triglyceride levels were through the roof. I'm hoping that the last test results weren't accurate. Dash didn't fast for 12 hours before the previous blood tests and that can often skew the results. This time we'll do it right, even if it means that Dash will have to wait until later in the morning for his breakfast.

I'm having a hard time deciding what to do about the solar eclipse. Should I fly to Kansas City and rent a car? Should I take some camping gear and drive up from Dallas so I can stay flexible? I'd really like to go out to Wyoming where the chances of clear skies are better, but that's either a very long drive or a very expensive flight. I need to be more optimistic. Right now I keep thinking that whatever destination I choose will be the one place where it rains all day.

I was surprised to get a comment today from someone who used to read my posts on Usenet back in the early 90's. Am I the only one who misses Usenet and dial up modems? I liked the Internet a lot better when it was a quiet text-only place that only a few like minded nerds bothered to visit. It's like a ten lane freeway at rush hour now. I think we've become too connected. OK, I'll admit that I look at Facebook every day just like you do, but I think I could live without it.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2727

I thought today might be a good day to renew my passport. It wasn't. Things have certainly changed a lot since the last time I renewed a passport. I was thinking that I would be in and out in ten minutes, but the line extended outside the building. Entire families appeared to be applying for passports. I quickly turned around and went home. If I joined that line, I would have been at the passport office for the rest of the day. I dread going back to that building, but it doesn't appear that I can renew online. You can renew a passport by mail, but I tried that once years ago and after weeks of waiting, they told me that the photo I sent wasn't the official size and they rejected my application. I'm not doing that again. It's weird that you can't renew online like you can with a driver's license, but I gave up trying to understand the government years ago. Sometime this Summer I'll have a day with absolutely nothing to do and I'll go see if the line is any shorter.

The trip to the passport office wasn't the only thing that didn't go smoothly today. Dash is reluctant to walk again. I finally convinced him to take a short walk this morning, but I couldn't get him to leave the yard this afternoon. I wish I knew what was going on in his head. Our walks in the park used to be his favorite part of the day.

It was time to send my June invoices out today, but when I turned on the envelope printer, it was out of ink. This printer is old, so a lot of places don't carry the ink anymore. Unfortunately, I can never figure out how to print envelopes properly on the other printers. I thought I was going to make my second wasted trip of the day, but amazingly, Fry's had the ink I needed. The fact that nobody shops at Fry's anymore probably worked in my favor. The boxes of ink were dusty and had probably sat on the shelf for years.

I was planning to take Dash to the vet tomorrow for his triglyceride test, but I couldn't find anyone to confirm whether he's waited long enough since his previous test. I know they told me at the time, but I forgot. I'll try to call the vet tomorrow and schedule something for Wednesday. Dash hates the fasting tests that force him to delay his breakfast. He doesn't even know that he dodged a bullet today.

I wonder when life is going to start feeling normal again. It still feels pretty empty. After three years of making Dot's special needs my only priority, a lot of stuff just doesn't seem to matter anymore. I suppose things will change, but I don't know when. For the time being, I'll just keep checking necessary chores off my list. It keeps me busy.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2702

Dash's bloodwork came back today and his triglyceride levels were sky high. This wasn't just a little spike. The tests showed triglyceride levels that were ten times higher than they should be. Dash's vet wanted us to change his diet immediately. This should be interesting. Dash is picky about food already. I can see him turning up his nose at the special low fat diet.

Abnormally high triglyceride levels can mean a lot of things. Sometimes the levels are high if the blood test are done right after a meal. Other times they are an indicator of poor thyroid function, pancreatitis, or liver disease. Hopefully, we just tested Dash too soon after a meal. We'll have to test him again in a couple of weeks. He'll have to fast this time. That's always fun. Dash hates to miss a meal.

I wish Dot and Dash could eat the same thing. Life is complicated enough as it is. Now we have to feed Dot a high calorie, high fat diet and Dash needs to eat just the opposite. The triglyceride levels could have become elevated just from all the food Dash steals out of Dot's bowl. At any rate, we need to get this under control. One sick dog at a time is plenty.

Dot still isn't eating in the morning. This makes giving her morning set of pills quite a challenge. It always worries me when Dot refuses to eat. So far, her appetite always seems to return late in the day, but I'm sure there will come a day when Dot quits eating completely. I don't know why Dot has adopted this strange new schedule, but I'm trying to adapt to it. I never used to appreciate how consistant the dogs were about just about everything. They always ate at the same time, walked at the same time, and slept at the same time. Now any semblance of consistency is out the window. Every day is a new day.

I bought some audio gear online today. I could justify the purchase because the gear was on sale and I got a tremendous bargain. That wasn't the reason though. I bought the stuff because I was frustrated. I always buy gear when I'm frustrated. The gear doesn't necessarily make me take more photographs or write more songs, but I always hope it will. I remember when I used to spend almost every evening writing and recording songs. Those were good times. Maybe someday the urge to write and record will return. I want to be ready when it does.

This week has gone quickly. I almost forgot to take the trash out to the curb this evening. It didn't seem like Thursday. I won't be going out to breakfast in the morning. Like songwriting, that activity has been postponed until sometime in an indefinite future. I do have pancake mix though and there are sausages in the freezer. It's always easy for me to eat. I just wish it was equally easy for Dot.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day