Day 2784

I don't think I'll ever buy a gift card again. The gift card company keeps asking for more and more information. It's almost as if they think we're the perpetrators of a fraud rather than the victims of one. We keep providing all the information they ask for, but they don't seem that much closer to refunding our money. Why this investigation process should take ninety days is beyond me. I'm sure they know exactly what happened. There is an entire Consumer Reports website about gift card fraud. The sad truth is that this type of thing has become so commonplace that the company doesn't particularly care. Janet and I are just a statistic.

I like things to be predictable. That's a big reason why the gift card fraud is so frustrating. I've always thought of gift cards as a simple and convenient way to give someone money. If you have to worry about someone else gaining access to the card before you even use it, it suddenly isn't simple or convenient anymore. It's just one more giant hassle in a world full of giant hassles.

I wish Dash knew how much I want life to be predictable. He's driving me crazy by changing his food preference every day. Some days he likes the Hill's I/D that we used to feed Dot. Other days he won't touch the stuff and prefers the Hills I/D Low Fat that the vet wanted us to feed him when his triglycerides were through the roof. Usually, he wants a little wet food mixed in with the dry, but not always. It's really hard to predict what he's going to eat on any given day. Today, I split his dinner into two parts, because he wouldn't wait until 5 PM. He ate the first part of his dinner with gusto. An hour and a half later, he refused to touch exactly the same thing. I removed the food from his bowl, ate my own dinner, and then put Dash's dinner in a different type of bowl. I made sure he saw me stirring the bowl with a spoon and pretending to add new ingredients. This subterfuge did the trick. Dash finished his meal.

There was very little work to do today, so I used my time trying to find replacements for some of the software that refuses to work after I upgraded my operating system to Sierra. My computer used to be able to play Windows videos, but not anymore. Neither Apple of Microsoft seems to have any interest in being compatible with each other these days. It's a shame. Since most of my clients are still on Windows systems, I sometimes have a need to open and play Windows audio and video files. I did a Google search, downloaded a few open source Windows media players, but none of them worked. That's the trouble with Google. Something that got rave reviews in 2013 might not work at all in 2017.

At least computer problems aren't messy. I'm starting to think our shower is leaking again, and that is messy. We had a shower pan leak once before and we pretty much had to rip out the entire shower and re-tile everything to fix the problem. Maybe it isn't as bad this time, but there is a distinct musty smell in the bathroom that wasn't there before. I hate water problems because you can't ignore them. If you ignore a leak, it will eventually ruin everything.

The new grass is already starting to die. It's received plenty of water and it seems to be getting enough sunlight too. It definitely shouldn't be looking spotty and thin so soon. I'll call the landscaper to come take a look, but I doubt that he'll do anything. He'll just say that I did something wrong and that it's my fault. Somehow, it's always my fault.

Lilly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2219

Today was full of little surprises. I got a bill for something connected with last November's water leak repairs. I thought this whole episode was completely finished, but apparently some companies are even slower about getting their invoices out than I am. Hopefully, this is the last bill. I want to put this disaster behind me so I can be ready for the next one.

I discovered that I actually won something on the Powerball ticket I purchased last week. I only won $4 for matching a single number, but that was enough of an incentive to go to the nearest 7-11 and get a few more tickets for tomorrow's billion dollar drawing. I redeemed my $4 prize, added another $6 I had in my pocket and got five more tickets. You could actually make a pretty good documentary by going to a random 7-11 and interviewing people getting lottery tickets. There's always a line of people buying them when there's a big jackpot. I've noticed that even though the odds are impossible, everyone thinks they are going to win. You realize quickly that playing the lottery is a very regressive tax. It is always poor people who buy the most tickets.

My other surprise today was that I unexpectedly have some work to do. With a new website update and three new articles to write, I might have enough work to keep me busy for the rest of the week, especially if I'm not in a hurry. I wish the website jobs had bigger budgets and the writing jobs were more frequent, but I'm not complaining. I'd much rather spend my day writing than cleaning up dog poop.

I ordered a small adapter that lets me lets me use my movie lights using a different type of battery. I really don't need a V-mount to Gold-mount converter, but it didn't cost much, so I thought I could afford the indulgence. I don't have to worry about becoming addicted to drugs, or alcohol, or chocolate. I do need to worry about buying things I don't need. I love getting packages in the mail. My Dad had this same affliction as he got older. Maybe we both have the hoarder gene. At any rate, when I get bored, I go online and buy something. I seldom spend much money and rarely need what I buy. It's just something to do.

I didn't bother to listen to this evening's State of the Union address. I just didn't feel like hearing more platitudes about how great things are when the reality is quite different. I've never seen the country more divided in my lifetime. We can't seem to unite behind anything these days. My parent's generation united as one to win World War II. A later generation inspired by John Kennedy went to the moon. Now, we just argue with each other. This isn't really about Democrats or Republicans. It's about a great country that has dissolved into a bunch of ineffectual tribes. Self indulgent people are more loyal to their tribe now than to the country as a whole. This can't possibly end well.

I'm not a joiner and don't have a tribe. Maybe that's why I see things a little differently. If I win the lottery, I'm not going to tell you about it. I'll quietly continue walking my dogs and minding my own business. I'll probably always remain a somewhat detached observer, but it would be nice to observe a little more harmony in the world.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2158

Sometimes, you've got to be the squeaky wheel. When Dot pooped in her bed again last night and we still couldn't use the washing machine because of our ongoing plumbing problems, I'd had about as much as I could take. I called the president of the plumbing company and told him as politely as I could that waiting until Tuesday for a plumber simply wasn't acceptable. "Your ads say you guys are on call 24/7," I said. "So, what's with making us wait a week and a half to get this fixed?" When I started going on and on about living in a house full of dog poop without running water, the guy told me he would see what he could do. An hour later the plumbing company said they could have a plumber out early Friday morning. Friday was much better than next Tuesday, so I was happy that my little tirade had achieved its purpose. Another hour passed, and the plumbing company called again and said they'd have someone out this afternoon.

When the plumber arrived he asked me to turn on all the water in the kitchen and utility room to help him find the drain leak under the house. Simply turning on the faucet wasn't producing the desired results, so I filled the kitchen sink with water and then let it go down the drain all at once. Not a good idea! The sink wasn't draining. At that point, the dishwasher, which was also on, began to empty and the water had no place to go. A line broke under the sink and the kitchen was flooded with water. Luckily, there were two plumbers several feet away watching this new disaster unfold.

Eventually the leaking cast iron pipe under the house was replaced, the leak under the sink was repaired, and the entire drain line was snaked out. I ran a load of poopy dog blankets to test the system and nothing leaked.  I think we're back in business! The two plumbers were at the house the entire afternoon. Mercifully, Dot slept for the first three hours. When she eventually woke up, she made up for lost time and barked for the rest of the day. Despite all the barking, she didn't poop in the house again. I think this was because she had already pooped in the vet's lobby, right before she got in the underwater treadmill.

There is still a huge hole under the house and one of the loud dehumidifiers is still running in the living room, but I think we're making progress. The tunneling crew will come back tomorrow to backfill the tunnel, unless another leak appears while I'm taking a shower tonight. I think the old house is trying to tell me something. If houses had "use by" dates like milk, this house would have expired and gone sour by now. Don't let me ever buy a house with a flat roof and a slab foundation again.

Since fixing things was the theme for the day, I tried to fix some ad copy that my client wasn't too happy with yesterday. I also tried to fix the layout in my new mobile friendly website so the iPhone view didn't look so wonky. I tried to explain to the client that making the mobile friendly site look perfect on every available device just wasn't that easy. I told them that the site was a work in progress and it would gradually become more refined with each passing day. I think the plumber tried to explain to me that my house was a work in progress too. There was no way he could fix all my plumbing problems in a single day. Fair enough. There was no way I could pay for everything I need right now anyway. The important thing was that the two major leaks had been repaired. The toilets are working again and I can do the laundry. That's enough for one day.

Hopefully, there will be no surprises when the tunneling crew returns tomorrow. I've had enough surprises for an entire year.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2156

We've got water! The broken pipe was exactly where the plumber said it would be, which kind of amazed me. The leak was located right on schedule too, which amazed me even more. I was afraid it might take weeks to resolve this problem. If you're wondering what actually caused the leak, it turns out that a section of the copper pipe that supplies water to the house was located right next to a larger cast iron pipe that carries waste water away. There were places where the two pipes touched and over the years, the rusting cast iron caused the copper to corrode and fail. That's what the plumber said anyway. He showed me a small hole in the damaged pipe about half the diameter of a pencil. It's still hard to believe that such a small hole could have caused so much damage.

I asked the plumber if there might be other places under the house where the copper supply lines could be touching the cast iron drainage lines. "Sure," said the plumber. "There could be lots of places like this." "Is there anything you can do to prevent this from happening again," I asked. "Nope," said the plumber, "You could have another leak like this tomorrow, or it might never happen again." That wasn't the kind of reassurance I was looking for, but I guess I'll have to live with it. Even though there's a huge hole under the house, it only exposed a tiny fraction of what the builders had put there over sixty years ago. Lord knows what still lurks under the dirt.

In the grand scheme of things, the problems we've experienced this week are tiny compared to the disasters some people have to deal with. The house wasn't hit by a tornado. It didn't catch on fire. A tree didn't crash through the roof. Life was a little inconvenient, but it could have been so much worse. You always see these stories on TV about people rebuilding their lives from scratch after a major disaster has destroyed their home. I don't know how they find the strength to put the pieces back together. Just having no toilets or running water for a week just about drove me over the edge.

There is still a lot of cleanup to do, but life is already starting to return to normal. I ran the dishwasher today and will do a big load of laundry tomorrow. The tunneling company is supposed to come out in the morning and fill in the big hole they created. It's too bad they can't just add concrete walls to the sides and put a door on top. It would be the tornado shelter I've always wanted. They could just keep digging and we could put in a full basement, but it would be much cheaper to just buy a new house.

The environmental cleanup company is supposed to clean our vents before they haul away their big dehumidification machines and leave. When the water was off, I used the opportunity to re-grout the shower stall, so maybe we'll see some improvements there as well. We'll have a lot of bottled water left over when this is all finished with. I was anticipating a long siege and bought too much.

If there's a silver lining to all this, it would be that being trapped here at the house forced me to buckle down and finish the complicated mobile ready website I've been working on. I'm actually caught up with all my work now. Tomorrow I get to see whether the tunneling crew can make the huge mountain of dirt in our back yard disappear. I bet they can't. They'll probably leave us with a smaller pile of dirt and tell us to plant a garden. I'm going to miss taking showers at the hotel. Their shower was so much nicer than ours.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2155

Maybe this is what hell is like. Being trapped in a house with no working toilets while caring for a sick dog who poops all over the place whenever she's barking at the crew of strangers digging a giant hole under your house certainly isn't my idea of heaven. I knew today was going to be a mess, but I was still surprised at how chaotic it actually turned out to be.

I thought the environmental cleanup people were coming back to remove the big dehumidifiers today. I never heard from them. The noisy machines are still running. The foreman on the tunneling crew doesn't like dogs. Apparently, even crippled dogs that can barely walk make him nervous.  I had to wait until the crew left for lunch before I could even take the dogs out in the back yard to pee. Even then, I had to keep Dash on a leash, because he immediately wanted to dig his own hole in the enormous pile of dirt that had been excavated from under the house. I don't know how long the tunnel is by now, but it appears that they're digging to China.

Dot and Dash were actually pretty good, especially considering all the commotion that was going on a few feet away.  I taped butcher paper over the windows in the areas where the dogs usually sleep so they couldn't watch all the activity outside. This seemed to work. The plan worked great with Dot, since she is almost deaf and is a little senile. As soon as she lost sight of the tunnelers, she quickly forgot about them. Dash was curious for most of the day, but he didn't bark much. The problem with Dash was that he always wanted to go outside. This wasn't going to happen because I knew he would either start digging in the excavated dirt and get filthy, run away through an inadvertently open gate, or fall into the huge hole under the house and break a leg. I couldn't even take Dash on a walk to burn off some of his extra energy because I didn't want to leave Dot alone with the unpredictable tunnel crew. She can't hear well, but she can still feel vibration. She wasn't happy about the jackhammer at all.

Breakfast today was just a couple of Jimmy Dean microwave sausage biscuits and three toaster waffles. It wasn't great, but there were no dishes to do. Paper plates and plastic cups are the order of the day. The only concession I made to real dishes was my favorite coffee cup. I've got to have my morning coffee in my regular cup, no matter how much bottled water it takes to clean it.

There was plenty of work to do today, which was probably a good thing since I was trapped in the house anyway. I finally made some real progress on the new mobile friendly website I'm currently working on. I haven't done enough of these responsive sites yet for the procedures to permanently embed themselves in my brain. I still find myself re-learning tricks I'd used on a previous mobile site. Eventually, all the new things I've learned will stick, but apparently not quite yet. Today I had to re-learn how to get background images to resize properly when viewed on a tablet or phone. It took about five tries, but eventually I got it right.

Tomorrow the tunnel grows longer and deeper. Hopefully they will find the broken pipe soon. Today I was a little worried that they would end up tunneling completely through the house and my car, which is located on the other side, would fall in the growing hole. I hate to even think how expensive this is going to be. I have a whole new appreciation for water now.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2152

Its started. I'm listening to two large industrial strength dehumidifiers doing their best to suck the moisture out of the house. We're eating off paper plates because there is no dishwasher. I've bought a bunch of bottled water so I can use it to refill the toilet so it will flush if I have to go during the night. There are several more gallons of bottled water to refill the dog bowls. I have a sweater on because my HVAC contractor said that running the air conditioner will help dry things out. Intuitively, you'd think that turning the furnace up would dry things out quicker, but apparently it only makes the situation worse.

If you haven't guessed by now, the water leak got worse overnight and we woke up to a house that felt like a sauna. The humidity inside was over 85% and there was standing water in all the vent registers. The first thing I did was shut the water off to the house at the water main and then spent the rest of the day on the phone with the insurance adjuster, the plumbing company, my HVAC contractor, an environmental cleanup company, and a temporary housing relocation company. Sometimes I had the cell phone to one ear listening to someone while I had the land line phone to the other ear talking to someone else at the same time. It was a madhouse. I had quite a bit of website work scheduled for today and wasn't able to get started on any of it.

As you might expect, Dot wasn't happy about this whole situation and ended up pooping in the house three times. Dot can't hear very well and I actually did a pretty good job of isolating her from all the commotion in the living room. I told the environmental cleanup people to be as quiet as they could, which was kind of silly since the two machines they installed were actually quite noisy. I have to keep the dehumidifiers running 24/7 until the leak is fixed. Sometimes Dot didn't notice that there were strangers in the house until ten minutes after they arrived. When she eventually did notice, she started barking and never stopped. Excited barking always leads to poop coming out the other end these days, so that's why there were quite a few little accidents today. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the washing machine is out of commission too. I'll have to go to the laundromat tomorrow morning.

I have a sore throat from talking so much today. I usually don't talk much during the day, but today it was unavoidable. It seemed like there were questions to answer all day long. Everyone I dealt with today was very nice. More importantly, they all liked dogs and appreciated Dot's situation. Nobody got mad that she barked and pooped during our conversations. The HVAC technician even said that he really felt sorry for Dot because he had a bad back himself and understood what it was like to be in constant pain. Ironically, the insurance company will pay to temporarily put Janet and I up in a hotel while the repairs are being made, but we can't leave the dogs behind. Even a pet friendly hotel isn't going to want a dog that poops all over the place. Probably what will end up happening is that Janet will use the hotel during the week so she can get ready for work. I will stay here with the dogs and just use the hotel to take showers.

I wish now that I'd never bought this house. Mid-century modern homes typically have a flat roof that inevitably leaks after the first ten years. There is also usually a concrete slab on grade foundation with no basement. This requires that all the pipes and mechanical equipment be placed under the concrete slab where they can never be accessed again. I can't complain to the architect of this house because he is already dead. The modern looking house is 60 years old. My house doesn't even have a crawl space under the foundation. There are tons of water lines, drain lines, HVAC vent pipes, and conduit for the electrical wiring all buried in the dirt under a one foot thick concrete slab. It's kind of insane when you think about it. The technicians who came over today inevitably said one of two things. They either said "I've never seen a house like this before," or they said "Buddy, you've got a real big problem here." Some of the more astonished technicians said both.

I know this is a first world problem. I've still got a roof over my head. There's food in the refrigerator and the dogs are safe. This will get fixed. At the moment it's still a giant mess though, and I'll be real glad when things get back to normal again.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2151

Things have started to return to normal. It wasn't a great day, but it wasn't sheer chaos like yesterday either. Dot was surprisingly strong this morning, especially considering what a tough week she's had. She was confident and surefooted on her morning walk and did equally well on the treadmill during her physical therapy session. She even pooped outside today. I was pleased.

I still fielded quite a few calls from insurance adjusters, plumbers, HVAC contractors, and others regarding my pipe leak, but nobody came to the house today. That was a blessing. Dot is fine with phone calls. She just doesn't like visitors. There still might be a few snags to take care of, but it appears that my complex repair job is moving forward.

I shut off the water at the water meter for a while today. That definitely took care of the leak. The rushing water in the pipes stopped immediately. Of course I couldn't use the washing machine. I couldn't use the dishwasher, I couldn't wash the car, I couldn't take a shower, I couldn't even use the toilet. You don't really realize how much water you use in a normal day until you don't have any. I turned the water back on again after about five hours, because I'd had enough. It's too bad there is no way of shutting off the water supply from inside the house. It's a pain to have to go out in the front yard, take the iron cover off the water meter, and struggle with the rusty master water valve. A few years ago when I took the cover off the water meter, there was a snake inside. I'm OK shutting the water off during the day. I'm not going anywhere near that thing at night.

I'm surprised at how common water problems like mine are. When I described my leak situation to people today, almost half of them either can experienced the same thing themselves or had a close friend with a pipe leak. The dispatcher for my HVAC contractor said that plumbers had to tunnel under their home all the way from one end to the other. Dot's vet said that she was hearing strange noises in their pipes and another person at the clinic said that she had to deal with $800 water bills for three months because of an underground leak. Everyone seemed to share my frustrations at the many difficulties they faced fixing a problem like this. This wasn't exactly a bonding moment though. All these shared experienced just made me more apprehensive.

The rain continued today. We were lucky and stayed relatively dry when we walked Dot and Dash this morning. My luck ran out when I took downtown Dot to her physical therapy session though. As soon as I got Dot in the car, it started to pour. The off and on rain showers continued for most of the day. I'm hoping that the skies clear tonight and that I can start a quiet uneventful day with a good breakfast at my favorite restaurant.  If tomorrow ends up being a repeat of last Friday, I still have plenty of work to keep me busy. I received two new web projects today and there is still a backlog of projects I haven't finished yet. It's nice to be busy, but it's even nicer to get out of the house occasionally. Maybe if it's a gentle rain, the dogs won't even notice.

I don't think I'd make a very good nomad. I couldn't live very long without running water and electricity. Let's hope by this time next week, everything is fixed.

Coach is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2149

My life is about to become miserable. The plumbers have discovered a substantial pipe leak located under my living room floor. There are only two ways to fix this problem. You can jackhammer through the brick and concrete slab to access the underground pipe, or you can tunnel under the house. Either way is messy and expensive. The plumber agreed with me that it would be a disaster to tear up the brick floors. There's probably not a maason still alive who could duplicate the intricate brickwork. You'd never be able to find the Corsicana Red brick pavers either. The brickyard went out of business years ago and the antique bricks are now considered collectible by people who buy and sell them on eBay. At $30 and up per brick, I don't think I'll be replacing this floor anytime soon.

Since I am unwilling to totally destroy my floor, that left the tunneling option. The plumber contacted a tunneling specialist who came out to the house to survey the situation. It seems like the best option is to rip up some flagstones in the atrium, destroy our Japanese garden, and tunnel under the utility room where the leak appears to originate. Before any of this activity can began, I have to contact my insurance company and see if the repairs are covered under my homeowners policy. They'd better be! I'll need to contact my HVAC guy too, since it is possible that the furnace will need to be removed during the repairs. Mid-Century Modern houses get you coming and going. The ubiquitous flat roof covering most of these homes makes it easy for rain to leak in, while the concrete slab foundations with no crawl space underneath makes plumbing and electrical repairs almost impossible. There were good reasons why people have built houses with peaked roofs and full basements for hundreds of years. My home is what happens when architects ignore gravity and common sense.

You may be wondering how the dogs reacted to having plumbers in the house for most of the afternoon. It was a disaster. I tried to fool Dot by putting her in a back bedroom where she couldn't see the plumbers. This worked for a while, but eventually the plumbers had to come through the bedroom to access one of the bathrooms. When Dot noticed the strangers in her house, she started barking uncontrollably. It wasn't long before she pooped on a rug. It's not easy to hold up Dot's rear legs, clean up dog poop, and talk to a pair of plumbers at the same time. At one point I had to gate Dot in the back of the house while I conferred with the plumbers. Unfortunately, I forgot to close the door to the bathroom. Don't wandered into this room while I wasn't looking and slipped on the slick tile floor, which caused her to poop all over again. She fell in the poop and soiled her harness and herself. The floor itself looked like a poopy crime scene. I've been doing a lot of laundry and cleaning today. 

At some point, I had to take both dogs outside for thirty minutes so the plumbers could pinpoint where the leak was coming from. They used stethoscopes pressed to the floor to determine where the leaking water sound was loudest. It goes without saying that with Dot in the house, they wouldn't be able to hear a thing. Dot, Dash and I sat outside on a blanket for 45 minutes. Ironically, when the location of the leak was eventually found, it was located right below the spot where Dot had initially pooped.

Somehow, I managed to get two writing assignments finished during all this madness. While I was writing, I noticed that my client has been misspelling the name of their own products. This was the only humorous thing that happened today. I'm kind of at my wits end. Dot requires constant care and I can't safely take her to doggie day care or a boarding facility anymore. I can't postpone the repairs very long either. This all has to happen soon. Before the plumbers arrived, my biggest problem was inadvertently adding an apple to my morning smoothie. Now I've got real problems.

Wolfgang is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2148

Dot's cancer continues to be in remission. The ultrasound scan we did today showed no growth in the tumor whatsoever. The oncologist was pleased and said that since this was a slow growing cancer anyway, Dot had a good chance of leading a normal life. It is questionable how normal Dot's life actually is at this point, but at least we can concentrate on her neurological issues instead of trying to fight the cancer at the same time. We will continue doing the Ultrasound scans at two month intervals just to be on the safe side, but cancer isn't nearly as high on my worry list anymore.

During Dot's exam, I asked the oncologist about Dash's recent eating problems.  She listened to me describe his symptoms and asked me whether we had any acorns in our yard. Yup. There are thousands of acorns on the ground right now. Evidently acorns can be toxic to dogs and cause nausea and digestive problems if ingested. Dash doesn't have a specific taste for acorns, but he could easily have eaten a few while he was trying to eat bugs, nasty things the feral cats left behind, and other crap in the yard. I never realized that acorns could be a problem, but I shouldn't have been surprised. Just about anything can end up being a problem for Dash.

Today was busy. In addition to taking Dot to the cancer center, there was a growing list of writing and website assignments I needed to deal with. As soon as Janet left for work, I turned up the heat in an attempt to eliminate the dampness we'd been experiencing. I'm not sure my plan worked. The house warmed up quickly, but it still felt humid. Dampness has been a problems for a long, long time in this house. I think it was one of the reasons I got the storage warehouse in the first place. When we first moved here, I stored some of my guitars in a ceiling level storage closet in my office. A year later I discovered that dampness had ruined the finish on two of the guitars. I digress though. In spite of all my fiddling with the temperature and humidity this morning, I still managed to finish several new articles and send them off to their destination. I'll tackle the new website project later in the week.

Dot was a little shaky today. I had to support her rear legs while she was eating to prevent them from slowly sinking to the ground. She also stumbled a bit during her morning walk. On the other hand, Dot seemed active and energetic during her exam with the oncologist. The oncologist was impressed. That's the way it is with Dot. There are good days and bad days and very little is predictable. We are thankful for the good days and do our best on the bad ones.

Tomorrow, we deal with the plumber. Neither of the dogs like repairmen in the house and Dot poops whenever she barks these days. It should be an interesting day. I seriously doubt that the water heater will be replaced tomorrow, but hopefully the plumber will be able to diagnose the problem. I could keep a plumber busy for a long time if we addressed all the water related issues in the house. Some aren't serious though and can probably wait. If the dogs are cooperative, I ought to get the plumber to fix all the faucets while he's here. One of the toilets needs a new flushing mechanism too. French Porcher toilets are impossible to find parts for. You just can't go to Home Depot to fix these things and many plumbers are unfamiliar with the oddly designed French components. We'll see how the day goes. I'll be happy if the plumber can just stop the hot water from flowing through the pipes when it isn't supposed to.

I'm optimistic at this point. I could just as easily be pessimistic. It probably wouldn't make much of a difference.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians 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 2138

Today basically sucked. I woke up with a sore back because I spent a good portion of the night sleeping on the floor with Dot. There were severe thunderstorms during the night and it was the only way I could keep her calm. For some reason, the dogs like to sit in the shower during storms and I didn't want her slipping on the tile floors in the bathroom or pooping all over the house. I must have been tired, because I promptly fell asleep on the floor and has a dream that Dot and I were watching wild animals through the bedroom window. Sleeping next to her did keep Dot calm though, so I guess it was all worth it.

We found a short dry spell to walk the dogs in the morning, but basically it rained all day. I thought about staying home for breakfast, but we were out of peaches and bananas, so I drove to my breakfast restaurant in the rain. The storm knocked most of the traffic lights out, so the short trip took much longer than usual. I certainly didn't prove much by getting all the acorns off the roof yesterday. Last night's wind and rain knocked thousands more off the trees, so the mess I was trying to avoid is up there anyway. It is supposed to rain for the next five days, so I'm not even going to bother going up on the roof. It's futile to remove the water now.

Water on the roof isn't my only water problem. I keep hearing water running in the pipes even when all the faucets are turned off. There are no obvious leaks anywhere that I can find, so the only thing I can think of is that there is a small leak under the slab. If this is what's happening, it's not good news. Any kind of plumbing problem under the foundation usually ends up being a giant expensive mess. I'll check next month's water bill to see if water usage has gone up. This month's water bill was actually smaller than the previous month, so if there's a leak, it's probably a small one.

I discovered that the reason I haven't heard from the watch winder company is that the guy I shipped the defective winder to is on vacation. It would have been nice if he'd told me he was going on vacation before I sent the package. Now, my claim won't even be processed until the guy returns. Ironically, right after I hung up the phone with the watch winder people, I discovered that the motor in another watch winder had burned out. Since I bought these things all about the same time, maybe all of them are getting ready to die on me. Does it really even matter? Probably not.

Apparently the Postal Service creed doesn't mean much anymore. You know how the saying goes: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." The postman used to deliver our mail in all types of weather, but our new mail carrier is definitely a fair weather friend. I've noticed for quite a while now that whenever we have a big storm, we don't get any mail that day. I don't know if the post office sanctions this or whether our mail carrier just throws the mail in the trunk of her car and waits for a sunny day. It's not like it used to be though.

Hopefully, we're going to get a break from this rain sometime this weekend. It's going to be a long two days otherwise. I'm accustomed to the rainy season by now. So far, it appears to be right on schedule. This will be our first Fall and Winter where we're dealing with Dot's limited mobility though. It makes things a bit harder.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day