Day 2612

Today was a three ring circus. Dash still has balance problems and was walking around like a drunken sailor. Occasionally, when he would lift his leg to pee in the yard, it would throw him off balance and he would fall over. If I hadn't been warned to expect this for the next several weeks while Dash was recovering, I would have been very alarmed. Dot continues to pee and poop without warning, so it was hard to decide which dog to focus my attention on. To make matters worse, Dash refused to eat this morning. I called the cancer center to see if this was a medical issue and they suspected that he had just gotten spoiled while he was at the hospital, since they fed him wet dog food instead of dry kibble. That sounded a lot like Dash. I mixed a little wet food with the dry and he gobbled it up.

As the day wore on, Dash seemed to regain his balance a bit and by dinner time he was eager to take a walk. He was a little too eager actually, because he was still a bit wobbly. Eventually, he settled into a rhythm where he could keep his balance and by the time we returned home, he was starting to seem like a normal dog again. Of course Dot had pooped while we were gone, so there was a mess to clean up. It's going to be a very long two or three weeks.

I made a quick trip to the bank after breakfast, but basically just stayed around the house all day because I wasn't sure what Dash was going to do. He still insists on sleeping on the bed, even though he would be much safer on the floor. I made a step at the foot of the bed to make it easier for him to get up and down, but he still doesn't know how to use it yet. At least Dot has finally given up on climbing in the bed. Life would really be a mess if she was as stubborn as Dash.

The photo shoot I'm involved with this weekend seems to grow more complicated by the day. Now, somebody else wants to light the set. That's OK I guess, although I'm much more comfortable using my own equipment. The person I thought was going to be a stylist turns out to be one of the models instead. I have a feeling that everyone knows what's going on except for me. I've probably missed a few meetings on this job, but in my defense, I didn't ask to do this. I used to be great at pulling a rabbit out of a hat. We'll see if I've still got what it takes on Sunday.

The temperature was over 80 degrees today. I had the air conditioner on for most of the day to keep Dot from getting overheated. Is this really February? It's kind of unreal how the temperature keeps bouncing around. I can remember several years where it was snowing in early February. I know that Dot likes it cooler, but I'll take the unusually warm weather any time I can get it. It's certainly easier to clean soiled rugs in this weather.

I definitely need to get out more. I'm starting to run out of things to photograph for the blog. We don't take long walks anymore and I rarely leave the house. I keep looking for something new on the well worn path that Dash and I follow each afternoon, but it's rare to even see a bug at this time of year. I'll be glad when things start to bloom again.

Stortz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2200

Today felt like a holiday, but it didn't really feel like Christmas Eve. I went out to breakfast this morning, because I knew the place would be closed tomorrow. The roads were empty and so was the restaurant. It was quite pleasant. Breakfast almost felt like I was on a road trip somewhere and had stopped at a small roadside cafe in Wyoming. I savored the quietness, because I knew it wouldn't last.

Later in the morning, I took Dot to her physical therapy session. The clinic was closing early for Christmas, and we were the last appointment of the day. Dot's vet had the flu and wore a mask so she wouldn't give her cold to me. I felt bad for keeping the appointment because she probably could have gone home earlier if it wasn't for us. Dot seemed tired today, so we kept the treadmill at a slower speed. I was a bit tired as well. Both dogs kept us up last night. Dash had gotten into something the day before, and had diarrhea during the night. He kept scratching at the door to go outside about every ten minutes for a while. Not to be outdone, Dot pooped in her bed. By the time the sun came up, both dogs were back to normal and seemed just fine.

I thought I might be able to fix the sliding glass door myself by using a metal file to smooth out some irregularities in the track. Logically, this should have worked, but it didn't. It looks like I'll have to contact a professional. Since I couldn't really fix anything today, I decided to just wash the car and call it a day.

Apparently colder weather is on the way, but it certainly didn't arrive today. It was in the mid-70's for most of the afternoon. I wore shorts when I took Dash on his afternoon walk and turned on the air conditioner briefly when it got too hot in the house. This would have been a good day to clean up the yard, but I sorted through a stack of old mail in the office instead. I really ought to start opening mail when I receive it. In today's stack of mail, I found a letter from my bank saying that I needed to renew my safe deposit box. The letter was dated sometime in October. I'm sure the bank probably just automatically renewed the box for another year and deducted the rent from my account. I'll need to check though, because I'm just guessing on this.

I think I finally fixed the problem I've been having with WiFi reception on my phone. It took quite a bit of research on Google and a certain amount of guessing, since the problem could have been caused by any number of things. The phone still works after I reset everything, so I must have done something right. Now that I have installed a more modern operating system on my main computer, fixed my phone, and upgraded the software on my watch, maybe I can start the new year with all my devices working properly for a change.

Janet baked a pumpkin pie this evening, so there is a holiday smell in the house. There are more presents for the dogs under the tree than for us, but that's the way it should be. Maybe we'll get to sleep in tomorrow morning. That would be a nice Christmas present from Dot and Dash. We'll have Christmas dinner at home this year and whatever happens, we're looking forward to a quiet, enjoyable day.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1159

It was a beautiful day. On clear, unseasonably warm February days, everyone is out and about in Dallas. The roads are crowded. The stores are full. The park is filled with people who never walk their dogs on cold, rainy days. The whole town was a three ring circus. Although it actually would have been a good day for me to stay home and read a good book, I decided to join the fray and went to Guitar Center. Not surprisingly, I was already too late for the President's Day doorbuster deals. The AKG headphones that were marked down 79% from list price were long gone. I looked around, couldn't find anything else I needed or even wanted, and left.

The next stop was the grocery store. I didn't even bother to look for deals here. I just put stuff in my buggy as quickly as I could, used the handy automated check out station, and left. Probably the only fun thing I did today was photograph a new Dalmatian in the rescue program. The boy's name was Bosley, which reminded me of those hair loss commercials. This seemed like a strange name for a dog with plenty of hair, but there's no accounting for dog names.

An imaging center sent me six pages of forms to fill out for an MRI I need to have next week. Most of this information I've already filled out hundreds of times before. If we can go to the moon, why can't we figure out an efficient way to have a master patient database, so you'd only have to fill out this information once. Oops, I forgot. We can't go to the moon anymore. Maybe the medical industry can't figure out how to get beyond paper files either. It's weird. All this expensive high-tech diagnostic equipment and still everyone relies on paper records. Every doctor's office I've been to seems to have entire rooms devoted to storing mountains of file folders filled with patient records. Everyone is very particular about their forms too. I've tried Xeroxing forms from another doctor's office to save time, but it's never good enough for them. I'm always handed a ball point pen and told to fill out all the information from scratch.

So far, drinking a lot of water is proving more difficult than eating vegetables. I see people all the time who continually walk around with a bottle of water in their hand. I never understood this obsession with hydration before, and I guess I still don't understand it now. 8-10 glasses of water a day?  Wouldn't two be enough?

Joshua is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1153

I shouldn't have been this tired today. We had a leisurely breakfast and attended a pet parade. That was about it. Maybe I just didn't get enough sleep. The dogs woke me up during the night, frightened by a passing thunderstorm. By the time I got back to sleep again, it was morning. The first thing I did when I got up was sweep the water off the roof. Since we were going to be away at a Mardi Gras parade for most of the day, I didn't want to give the water the upper hand.

After breakfast, we loaded the dogs and a bunch of Dalmatian Rescue stuff into the car and drove 32 miles north to McKinney, Texas. It took longer to drive up to McKinney than it took to parade around the town square. This was a very short parade. I think the dogs enjoyed themselves, but they were quite tired when they returned home late in the day.

Janet liked the little tracking wristlet I got the other day and bought one for herself. Not surprisingly, she is more active than I am. We both walked more than six miles though. Not bad for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Most of my walking was taking stuff back and forth from the car to where the Dalmatian Rescue tent was set up for the event. I'm glad this is the last event for a while. Like I said, I'm tired.

I've got to find a more effective way to get rid of the bugs that are finding their way into the house. This had been the worst Winter for bugs that I can remember. Other people we know are having the same problem. Maybe it's the warm Winter, or maybe the bugs are just getting tougher. They're certainly hard to get rid of this year. Especially, when you can't spread copious amounts of poison around the house. The growing population of feral cats in the neighborhood has pretty well taken care of the rat problem we used to have in the neighborhood. I guess these cats don't like bugs though. Or maybe the rats used to eat the bugs. I don't really know how the critter food chain works in the park.

It looks like a busy week ahead. It's time to start working on my taxes again. There are several writing jobs to complete. The house could use a good vacuuming too. I still don't know what to do with all the extra time I've unlocked by eating oatmeal. My elaborate breakfasts used to be one of the best time wasting activities I had.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1082

Three down two to go. Today's Santa Paws event was a marathon. We had more appointments per hour than we'd ever done before. I photographed big dogs, little dogs, puppies, seniors, well behaved dogs, stubborn dogs, shy dogs, and some dogs that didn't look like dogs at all. All these dogs probably thought they looked ridiculous dolled up with a bright red bow. Their owners seemed to like the pictures though. Some of them were returning for the fourth year in a row.

Today went well. Even though we photographed dozens of dogs, none of them knocked over the set or peed on the backdrop. With only two more events to go, I'm optimistic that we can make it through the holiday season without a major mishap. The real test will come tomorrow, when Dot and Dash get their pictures taken.

It's hard to believe that it's December already. The temperature was in the mid-80's this afternoon. If it wasn't for the Christmas tree lots on every corner, you could have sworn it was Summer. I was too tired to take advantage of the warm weather and get some yard work done. I'm sure the yard will wait.

More printer problems today.  One of Janet's printers has a clogged line and the black ink won't print. If someone would just invent a printer that never ever clogged, I think they should get the Nobel Prize. We don't use our printers all that much and inevitably the tiny lines that carry ink from the cartridges to the print head get clogged. You would think that Epson could make these lines something that the user could replace, since they get clogged so often. Nope! I've asked Epson how to solve these clogging problems many times and the only answer I get is that I ought to use the printer more often.

I hope Dot and Dash don't wake me up in the middle of the night like they usually do. We've got another one of these photo events tomorrow and it would be nice not to fall asleep with my finger on the shutter button. I need to remember to recharge all the batteries tonight, including my own.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 806 - Leap Day

Leap Year is a weird concept for me to wrap my head around. This extra day inserted right in the middle of things pushes everything else out of whack. I'm not very hard to confuse. The watches I have with perpetual calendars usually aren't smart enough to compensate for leap year either, so tomorrow they'll need to be reset. I used to actually reset all the errant watches, but that's become too anal even for me. These days I just don't worry about what time the watch says until I actually wear the thing again.

It turned out to be really convenient to have Fedex hold my package for me. They sent me an e-mail when the package was ready to be picked up and then I just drove over and got it. This was much more convenient for me than waiting for the truck to arrive. I discovered at the Fedex office that you can only request a package be held if it was shipped by air. If it was shipped Fedex Ground, you're stuck with waiting for the truck. If you wonder why this is a big deal, you probably don't live in a large city. There are people who follow the trucks around and routinely steal unattended packages left outside.

I'm beginning to think we may have avoided Winter entirely. So far, there have only been a couple of days where the temperature even got close to freezing. Today it was over eighty degrees again. I'm delighted by the mild weather. The only downside to the unseasonably warm temperatures is that it never got cold enough this year to kill the bugs. The dogs are picking up more fleas and ticks than usual. Wasps and Mud Daubers are beginning to build their nests again. Worst of all, some nasty looking roaches have made their way inside. A few days of below freezing weather usually puts an end to this invasion of pests, but I don't think it's going to happen this year.

The weather this evening was perfect for training class. The lack of wind and nice temperatures didn't seem to impress Dash though. He barked continually and disrupted the rest of the class. I have no idea what he was barking about, but I did hear some of my classmates complain. Eventually, Dash did settle down and we did pretty well with the remaining exercises.

Tomorrow is March 1st and that means it's time to start looking for a new tenant for my rental property. I hate interviewing renters. I just don't seem to be able to pick a good one.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 800

We had a scary incident in the park this morning. A large white dog that looked almost identical to the one that attacked Dash when he was younger came after us again. If it was the same dog, it was considerably older now, and maybe that's what saved us this time. I screamed at the dog to stay while keeping my body between it and Dot and Dash. Amazingly, the dog did stay, while we made our retreat. Dash was terrified. I don't think he will ever forget the attack that almost killed him. I was bitten during the attack as well and will never forget the incident either. To this day, I am extremely nervous around loose dogs in our neighborhood. People need to keep their gates and fences secure and always keep their dogs on a leash in public areas. I just don't understand why so many people let their dogs run loose in a busy city like Dallas.

I think the groundhog might have been wrong this year. It was over eighty degrees today. I can't remember a February this warm. Usually, this time of year is pretty nasty. If there is going to be snow or ice in Dallas, it almost always happens in February. Hey, maybe we'll catch a break this year. It was so warm today that I seriously considered turning on the air conditioner. The only reason I hesitated is that I remembered doing unseasonal things like this with the HVAC system usually causes it to break. I left the AC alone and opened the windows instead. It's such a novelty to actually open your windows in Texas. It's almost always either too cold or to hot to do this. Today was the exception though, and we enjoyed a nice breeze through the open windows and hopefully cleared out some of the stuffy air inside the house.

Did any of you guys actually think I would be able to go 800 days without missing a single post? I certainly didn't. This is day 800 though. I made it, despite neck problems, power outages and the occasional weird travel schedule. Now, 1000 days really seems within reach.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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