Day 4459

It's hard to believe it might snow tomorrow. Today was beautiful. It's difficult to beat 70 degree temperatures, blue skies, and very little wind. Dawn must have agreed because she seemed eager to take her walk this morning. I'm seeing signs of Spring everywhere. I guess tomorrow we'll see what Winter still has to offer.

I haven't completely given up on doing website design using an old system on an external hard drive. I copied the rest of the files I need from the server this morning and I'll give this a try and see how it goes. It's certainly not very critical how I update websites these days. I only work on two: my own and the one for Dalmatian Rescue.

It must have been a really slow day because I got out the star tracker again and began experimenting with it. I upgraded the firmware for the third time and installed the latest app on my phone. It's counterintuitive how this thing works and I usually end up with the camera pointing backwards when I'm trying to track something. Since I've only been using the unit during the day so far the only targets I practice with are the sun and the moon. The sun is too bright to be pointing a camera at on a day like this, but the moon worked perfectly. I really need to try this at night sometime, but I'm going to wait until it's a little warmer. I actually think the Polaris tracker works quite well. The software continues to improve with each new version. Most of the many errors I've encountered have been caused by me and the lack of an instruction manual. I still think this saga would make an interesting story for Sky & Telescope, but the editors don't appear to be interested.

I've really got to think of a better way to spend my day than taking long walks and complaining about my feet. The foot pain was quite noticeable today, but I was able to complete my entire route. Walking seems so much better than sitting around the house or watching television. It's worth the discomfort. Walking is a pretty mindless activity, but there are lots of things to see and looking at my surrounding always gets me thinking. No deep thoughts, but I do like to daydream.

I'm still doing my best to win Dawn's trust. I don't want her to be scared or depressed when Janet goes on vacation. So far we're still working on the basics. She'll come when I call sometimes now, but not always. When she's real hungry she'll watch me fix her dinner, but usually she waits in the bedroom until I'm finished fixing things and go back to the office. Then she'll come out to the kitchen and eat.  She'll share the bed with me now when Janet is away from the house. That's an improvement. A month ago she would always go out to the kitchen when I came in the bedroom. We've never had a dog that didn't like men before. You have to be very patient.

I'm a lazy person but I miss working. Working gave my day the structure it needed. It would be nice to have some interesting writing or website projects again. Not very likely though. All my old clients have either retired or died. I can't relate to the young people who replaced them at all. For the most part, young people just irritate me. If this sounds like the definition of a grumpy old man, it probably is. I'm hanging in there though. The week's trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm ready for whatever Friday brings.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3458

Janet and I temperament tested a dog this afternoon. I think I've already told you about Xander. He's got a good home if he gets along with other dogs. With the help of the kennel staff we introduced him to a variety of different dogs and he passed his test with flying colors. Some dogs tolerate other animals. Xander really seems to like them. He was curious, playful, and gentle with everyone we introduced him to. Now we just need to see if his potential companion is equally friendly. Xander is not dog aggressive. He doesn't appear to be food aggressive either. Somebody is going to get a wonderful companion and friend.

I went ahead and ordered tires today. The good news is that they will be here tomorrow. The bad news is that since they were a special order, I had to pay for them in advance. At least these tires weren't as expensive as the OEM tires that came with the car. I was glad to hear that they'd been discontinued and replaced with a more reasonably priced tire. Keep in mind that 'reasonably priced' is a relative term when it comes to Land Rover parts. In my experience absolutely nothing has been reasonably priced.

It was weird to be working again. I finished my client's website updates this morning and uploaded the changes to the server. Amazingly, I remembered the client's old passwords and remembered most of the HTML code I needed. It takes a little longer to do this stuff if you don't do it every day, but I guess I passed my temperament test as well. Could it be that coding is like riding a bicycle? I might remember some of what I know forever. At any rate, I think I did a good job. Hopefully, the client will agree.

I took the money I made selling the guitars to the bank. It won't stay there long. My homeowner's insurance is due, I just had a large tree removed, and then there are those pesky Land Rover tires. Everything is so expensive now. I still have prices in my head from the 1970's. Unfortunately those days are gone. I think my favorite year was 1969. It definitely isn't 2019.

I saw a Purple Passionflower today. I haven't seen one of these bloom in years because they grow in a section of the park that wasn't accessible to Dot and Dash after they became sick. As the dogs became older and less mobile, we had to limit our walks to safe, relatively flat areas where they wouldn't fall. Walking was more difficult for me as well, since I was holding up their rear legs using the Help 'Em Up Harness. I've started walking the old trails again. They bring back memories. We'll see how long this lasts. My feet are telling me that I'm going to need a Help 'Em Up Harness myself some day.

This week went amazingly fast, considering that we spent most of it without electricity. Janet and I stayed surprisingly busy during the power outage. Even though we both seem to have good survival skills, I'm glad the power is back. I'm certainly sleeping better now. Everything is more or less back on schedule. I just finished taking the week's trash out to the curb. I hope the trash truck can find everybody's cans. They look insignificant next to the huge piles of tree branches and logs stacked along the street.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3435

I was pleased to see the guys who arrived this morning to bury the new fiber optic cable that AT&T installed last week. I wasn't so pleased when one of the guys digging the trench broke the new cable and I was back to square one again. If there is a lesson to be learned from this, I guess it would be to never let anyone with a shovel get anywhere near a fiber optic cable. Murphy's Law always prevails. Needless to say, the crew with the shovels had no idea how to fix the cable. I had to make an appointment with a fiber optic technician to come out and install the cable all over again.

Amazingly, the technician actually did come out today. I was impressed. The guy told me that even though it was company policy to bury these cables so that they would remain undisturbed, quite a few got damaged anyway. If they would just dig the trench a little deeper I don't think they'd have this problem. Most of these cables that run from the distribution box to the house are only a few inches underground.

It took quite a while to get me back online again but hopefully there won't be any more problems for a while. My neighbor has finished messing around with her fence and I'm certainly not going to be doing any digging. I asked the technician when 5G was coming to Dallas and he told me that it was already here. The super high speed service hasn't arrived in our neighborhood yet, but I'm sure it will.  I'll be getting messages from Apple urging me to upgrade my phone and messages from AT&T urging me to upgrade my network. Personally, I don't think I need a faster connection. Who really needs to download a movie in two seconds anyway? What I need is a connection that doesn't go down every time we have a heavy rain.

I still haven't heard from NASA. I haven't heard from a roofer who still owes me a bid and one of the auction houses I've been dealing with either. Sometimes I worry that important messages are being quarantined or deleted by the industrial strength spam filter on my web server. You never know what winds up in the spam folder. I seldom look at these messages because they don't even come to my computer. I can log into the server and inspect the quarantine folder if I want, but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. There are thousands of spam messages. It's easier to pretend that these messages don't exist.

I'm tempted to stop people I see walking dogs so I can pet them. I haven't done this because I remember when people would stop me when I was walking Dot and Dash. I always tried to give the dogs long enjoyable walks even when I was busy working. Not surprisingly, they always had a way of making me late. It's hard to let your dog smell every tree when you're on a schedule and you definitely don't want to stop and chat when you've got a conference call in thirty minutes. I can tell that a lot of the younger people walking dogs are on a schedule. You can see it in their eyes. I'll sometimes talk to older retired people I know in the neighborhood. I leave the younger working people alone. They've got enough on their plate already.

Janet and I were talking about working the other day. We miss working in a lot of ways. We both enjoyed our jobs but don't want to deal with rush hour traffic anymore or trying to please a much younger boss who knows far less than we do. I'd love to find someone who will give me challenging things to do, pay me well, and then just leave me alone. No meetings and no big collaborative group efforts. Lots of luck with that. Hard to believe now that I actually had this type of arrangement for many, many years. I guess I was lucky.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3143

When I took my car in for service this morning I was surprised that my loaner was a brand new Evoque Convertible. The car only had 72 miles on it. I jokingly told the guys that I wished they'd given me a beat up old clunker instead. Whenever I get a really nice loaner, I'm always worried that I'll get dinged in a supermarket parking lot and have to pay for repairs. The car was cute and fun to drive though. I doubt that anyone really needs a four wheel drive Range Rover convertible, but they built one anyway.

The pleasant surprise of driving the sporty convertible home was countered later in the day with an equally unpleasant surprise. I learned that in addition to the expensive standard maintenance, I needed new brakes. For years and years I thought new brakes just meant new brake pads. Not anymore. Land Rover makes you replace the rotor, pads, caliper, and sensor. "Jeez, I thought I got new brakes last year," I told the service adviser. "You only had the front done, he reminded me. "Now, you need the rear." It's almost impossible to leave a Land Rover dealership with your wallet intact. I think that's why Janet finally gave up and bought an Audi.

Car repairs are never a pleasant experience, but at least the weather was nice today. I walked Dash before I went to the dealership this morning and the temperature was only 69 degrees. This pleasant taste of Fall didn't last long, but it sure was enjoyable. Dash walks so slow now. I don't think my Fitbit even counts these walks as exercise anymore. I can tell that Dash still enjoys being outdoors though. He stumbles along, smelling every bush and tree. We'll keep doing this as long as we can. It's his one remaining link to the days when he could run like the wind.

I bleached the stain off the living room ceiling this afternoon. The odd thing was that the sheetrock didn't feel damp. It was completely dry. Where did this odd stain come from? The longer I live in this house, the more it's starting to feel like it's haunted. Odd things just happen that have no logical explanation. In addition to flickering lights and odd stains, I think we have carpenter ants again. That cruise ship cabin is starting to look better and better.

Janet is at her retirement party tonight. She has already had other retirement parties, but tells me that this time it's for real. We'll see. It's hard to imagine Janet not working. It's actually pretty easy to imagine me not working. That's what I'm doing now. Looking back, I can see that I've been easing into retirement for a long time.

The only reason I'm going out for breakfast tomorrow is that I've run out of some key ingredients for my morning smoothie. If the weather is nice, maybe I'll put the top down on the convertible.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2996

Occasionally I think about going back to work again. I could probably get a job. Janet tells me there is a strong demand for older, seasoned workers. I'm not surprised. I know several business owners who are totally frustrated with the demands and expectations of their millennial staff. The question isn't whether I could get a job. It's whether I could keep one. "You know. you're completely unemployable," a headhunter friend once told me. I asked why and he said that I hadn't had a boss for thirty years. "I can't see you following orders," he said. "You have no respect for authority." The guy might be right. It's been a long, long time since I've been a cog in the wheel of a large corporation. Nevertheless, there are days when I miss eating donuts and sharing stories with co-workers in the break room and getting feedback after I've finished a project. Dash doesn't say much after I've finished writing something.

Dash might say something this weekend. We've got another confusing time change to look forward to. I wish we could just decide whether we liked Daylight Savings Time or Standard Time and pick one or the other. I don't really care if we gain and hour or lose an hour. Just pick something and stick with it. The trouble with time changes is that dogs don't understand them. Once you've got your dog used to eating at a regular time, they aren't very happy about changing their schedule. I can usually be flexible about dinner. It's breakfast that is the problem. Since Dash needs to take his pills and eat before Janet goes to work, we always need to change his schedule when the time changes. Maybe it will be easier this year, but I'm not looking forward to this.

I'm starting to see signs of Spring. I spotted my first tulips today. I'm sure there are daffodils blooming in the park as well. It won't be long before the irises start blooming and then there will be an explosion of wildflowers. I've seen these flowers for so many years now that I know exactly where they will appear. Even though this show is a repeat performance, it never fails to amaze me. Why do the wildflowers return year after year with no care at all and all the things I've planted in my back yard just die?

I sure hope the roofers come over before the Oak trees start shedding catkins. I never realized until recently that catkins were actually flowers. Whatever they are, they are certainly a mess. The sticky yellow dust that covers your car in the Spring is the result of catkins. I think they contribute to my allergies as well. Since we have several large oak trees in our yard, the roof gets covered with catkins when the trees start to bud. When it rains, the catkins turn the water a deep saffron yellow that stains the elastomer coating. There are so many of these flowers that they create miniature beaver dams that trap the water and make it harder to remove. The roof is difficult to deal with at any time of year, but Spring is the worst.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I don't know whether I'm going to go out for breakfast or not. I just can't find a place that I feel like patronizing two weeks in a row. Maybe I'll just stay home and have a bowl of oatmeal.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2930 - New Year's Day

Dash seemed a bit out of sorts this morning. I felt the same way. Maybe I just can't handle alcohol anymore. Against all odds we managed to stay awake until midnight and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the New Year. You wouldn't think a couple of glasses of bubbly would bother me, but who knows. I sure felt strange this morning. I shouldn't be too quick to blame the champagne. For all I know, it might have been the chili we had for dinner last night.

It was way too cold to walk this morning and Dash and I didn't feel like eating. This didn't seem the best way to start the year, but it sure beat last year. If I remember correctly, we began 2017 with Dot throwing up at sunrise and throwing us into a panic since all the vets were closed for the holiday.

Eventually, Dash ate his breakfast and my stomach began to settle down. I kept waiting for it to warm up, but it never did. The temperature remained in the teens for most of the day. Janet went to the gym and I went back to bed for a while. When I got organized enough to take a shower, I noticed that the shower pan was leaking again and got the wet/dry vacuum to suck the water out that had gotten under the tiles. It wasn't much of an effort, but it was all I could muster.

My mid-afternoon it had warmed up enough for Dash to take a walk. It was still cold, but at least the temperature was in the twenties instead of the teens. I bundled Dash up, put on two warm coats and off we went. Dash wasn't bothered by the cold at all. It was just me that had gotten soft.

Several people on my Facebook feed said their New Year's resolution was to stay alive for another year. Sounds like a plan to me. I seldom make New Year's resolutions. A New Year's resolution would be a radical step for someone who doesn't even make grocery lists. I don't need to lose weight. I eat fairly healthy already. I guess I could become a kinder, more caring person, but why bother. Just staying alive for another year is probably as good as it gets.

There isn't much to photograph on cold days like this, but I did see a Downy Woodpecker. The little bird was very industrious, looking for food among the branches. Animals spend all their time eating in the Winter. Raptor sit on top of trees looking for mice. Squirrels dig up the nuts they hid earlier in the year. Egrets and herons look for fish. I just need to make sure the coyotes aren't looking for Dash.

I guess the new year starts in earnest tomorrow. I need to finish my website project. I'm way behind on this design which isn't like me at all. It's hard to get motivated when you know the end result doesn't really matter. Janet, who has always been a workaholic, is thinking about retiring again. She says her heart isn't in it anymore. I know how she feels. As the workforce continues to get younger and younger, it no longer feels familiar. The big question for us is what to do next.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2910

I think I'm finished with my website project. I haven't shown it to anyone yet, so maybe being finished is just wishful thinking. Let's just say it looks nice, it works, and if the universe was fair, I'd definitely be finished. I have mixed feelings about work these days. I enjoy what I do and still like to stay busy, but I'm so close to retirement that it's getting harder to stay engaged. Does this stuff even matter anymore? I'm not sure.

Dash had me worried today. He was fine until right after lunch and then he abruptly became disoriented and started drooling. For a while I thought he was going to throw up, but he didn't. This was definitely a vestibular event, but it wasn't a severe one. I convinced Dash to take a nap with me and pretty soon he went to sleep. When he woke up a few hours later, he was fine. I wish I knew what triggered these vestibular events. He can go for several months without having any problems at all and then there will be periods where he gets disoriented almost every day. Luckily, his recent episodes don't seem to last more than an hour or two.

I was reluctant to leave Dash today, but there were prescription that needed to be filled. I picked up my own meds first and then went to the vet to get pills for Dash. I'm always worried that Dash is going to throw up right after I give him his pills. Timing is everything now. We've learned that he's more likely to throw up at night, so we've started give him his evening meds earlier. In the morning, we observe him for a while before feeding him anything to make sure he is stable. It's all a bit complicated, but Janet and I are getting better at anticipating when the next vestibular event will occur.

It's still too cold to go back up on the roof, but I managed to get quite a bit done today anyway. Breakfast was a failure again. My morning smoothie still has a weird, thick jello-like consistency. Is this week's fruit not juicy enough? Are the bananas too hard? Have the programmed settings on the Vitamix quit working? I can't figure this out at all. Maybe I'll just fix myself an omelet tomorrow.

Does anybody really know what a bitcoin is? The insane increase in value of these things recently has got me wondering. Is it a scam, or is it the future of money and banking? I still can't understand what a blockchain is and why it is so important. They say it takes a tremendous amount of computing power to make a bitcoin transaction. The whole process apparently uses up so much energy that bitcoin is supposed to be bad for the environment. If this is true, why are people in California fascinated by these things? Are bitcoins even real? Nothing tangible even exists. My own investments seem boring by comparison, but I don't think I'm ready to buy a bitcoin. I'm still getting used to Paypal.

I'll probably start on my next website project tomorrow. I don't have the job yet, but I'll have to put together a proposal. It would be tempting to utilize some of the things I've learned on my current website project before I forget them again. Then there's Christmas.  I haven't even started Christmas shopping. It's hard to shop for people my age and older. We don't really need anything.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2770

I went car shopping with Janet today. For me this would have been the beginning of a three month ordeal. Janet is much more decisive and came home with a new car. I was glad she invited me along. I love looking at cars and it was actually a very enjoyable afternoon. We visited several dealerships, but the cars that caught Janet's attention were the Audi's. We spent most of the afternoon at the Audi dealership. I always thought that Janet would get another Land Rover, but prices have gone up and service isn't as good as it once was. I could see why an Audi seemed appealing. These cars were pretty cool.

The first thing I noticed was a lot has changed since either of us bought our last car. I was impressed that you can use Google Earth as your GPS display now. You can also set a destination by just speaking to the car. Somehow, the GPS knows the speed limit of every road in the country and warns you if you are speeding. I'm not sure if I like that, but it is impressive. You can change from a soft to a firm suspension with the touch of a button and there's even a built-in WiFi hub.

By the Time we got around to taking a test drive, I think Janet had already decided she wanted an Audi. The dealership was very pleasant and the salespeople weren't pushy at all. I think the car more or less sold itself. One of our friends from Dalmatian Rescue worked at the dealership, so we caught up on dog stories while the bean counters worked out the numbers on her trade in. I wouldn't have had the nerve to buy a car after a single afternoon of car shopping, but I think Janet did the right thing. The car is beautiful and Janet certainly seemed happy on the drive home.

Dash wasn't very happy when we arrived home two hours after his normal dinner time, but he forgave us as soon as we fed him. It's kind of a luxury to be able to leave the house again. When Dot was sick, we could never have left her alone for this length of time. Dash might have been a little lonely, but he was just fine. I'm sure he slept most of the afternoon anyway.

I was planning on renewing my passport today, but going car shopping was much more enjoyable. I'm not in the market for a new car yet, but it's always fun to dream. I did see a few cars this afternoon that would definitely be fun to drive. Hopefully, my car has a few good years left. Cars have gotten so expensive now that I'm not looking forward to the day when I'll need to go car shopping myself.

When I opened my e-mail this evening, I discovered that I'd lost one of my very last website accounts. The client had replaced me with one of his sons. This is actually the third time that I've been replaced by one my my client's children. I should never have picked a profession that was so popular with millennials. Janet could have a steady job for the rest of her life if she wanted because young people aren't interested in her job. I don't know why millennials want my job. It isn't nearly as glamorous as it seems.

I wonder if I could ever work in an office again? It would certainly be easier to buy a cool new car if I had a steady income. I have a wealth of unique skills and loads of experience, but I haven't had a boss for so long that some of my friends tell me that I'm unemployable. They're probably right. Nobody has told me what to do for a long, long time.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2597

It feels strange now to have a busy work day. A client called while I was having breakfast this morning and wanted some help getting things working properly on his new web server. I listened to what he needed and told him it was a piece of cake to take care of his requests. Of course when I turned my computer on a little while later, I quickly discovered that making the changes wasn't a piece of cake after all. It never is. I called technical support, sat on hold for a long time, and asked why my quick fix wasn't working. The tech support guy was very patient and answered all my questions. Of course, I didn't ask all the right questions, so I had to call him back again about an hour later. Everything is fixed now. At least I think it is. If I ever need to make these type of changes again, I'll be able to say "it's a piece of cake" honestly.

The weather was beautiful today. For the first time in ages the sky was completely clear for most of the day. I should have gotten up early and looked for Mercury on the Eastern horizon before sunrise, but I was too tired. I'm staying up later now, mostly so I can get Dot to pee outside one last time before going to bed. We can usually make it through the night this way, but it necessitates a long week of going to bed late and getting up early. If it's still clear out when I go to bed tonight, I'll make more of an effort to look for Mercury tomorrow morning. There should be a thin sliver of a waning crescent moon to help guide me to the right spot.

I've been seeing a lot of kestrels lately on our morning walks. It used to be rare to spot one of these small falcons, but they're everywhere now. These birds are lazy hunters and often perch at the top of trees, looking for mice and insects in the fields below. I have a strange relationship with birds. I enjoy watching them while I walk the dogs, but I hate them when they poop on my car. Birds of prey like the kestrel have little interest in hanging around my yard and making a nuisance of themselves. It's the bluejays and the mockingbirds that are the problem.

I've been experimenting with my new WiFi scale and have discovered that your weight and body composition change throughout the day. It's surprising how much a normal meal weighs. I guess you should always weigh yourself before you eat a big meal. I also lose about a pound after I go to the gym. Does sweat actually weigh that much, or do the calories you burn directly translate into weight loss? Hey, I'm a curious person and I have to amuse myself somehow. Somebody needs to invent a scale that automatically deducts the weight of the clothes you are wearing to give you a true weight. For a scale that can measure bone mass and pulse wave velocity, it would seem like this would be a piece of cake. All you'd have to do is weight yourself with clothes and then again without and have the scale store the difference in memory. Nobody makes a scale like this that I know of. When I go to the doctor, I'm always about ten pounds heavier because I'm wearing boots and my pockets are full of cell phones and keys. It always irritates me when the doctor says I've gained weight and I'm just wearing heavier clothes than I was on my last visit.

I've got more website updates to make tomorrow. I think I prefer writing jobs, but beggars can't be choosers. It this point, I'll take any work I can get. Truthfully, I won't take any work I can get. I guess this is just a convenient way of saying that I'm still interested in keeping my business alive. I really couldn't do a whole lot of work anyway. Dot has become such a high maintenance girl that I only have about three uninterrupted hours each day. I'm really glad the dogs were healthy when my business was booming. There was a time when it wasn't uncommon to work eighteen hours a day.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2392

Sign of the times. When I went to the bank this morning, I noticed that they had replaced some of the teller windows with ATM machines. There was only one teller working and everybody was lined up to see her. Nobody was using the automated machines, even though there was a video running in the lobby explaining how cool they were. A woman ahead of me in line told the other customers that she never used ATM machines because she was afraid of getting mugged. You could almost see the one overworked teller roll his eyes. I know he wanted to say "Lady, why do you think we moved these machines inside the bank." I knew the real reason had nothing to do with safety. Companies will do virtually anything to avoid hiring people these days. They'd replace everyone with a robot if they could get away with it.

Companies are training us to make our transactions without human intervention. I almost never talk to a receptionist when I make a business call. The phone system is automated. Heaven help you if you actually need to talk with a real person. My grocery store uses an automated checkout system. You scan the items yourself, put your credit card into the machine, and you're on your way. There is even a local restaurant that is experimenting with replacing waiters with touch screen terminals at each table. This is the future. When I hear politicians talks about creating jobs, I want to laugh. Where are these jobs going to come from? Factory floors are automated and use robots to assemble things. Customer service is becoming automated. Cars are learning to drive themselves. If this is happening today, just think what the world is going to be like forty years from now. You may have a job now, but it's going away.

One of the things I dislike the most about an automated world is the concept of auto-renewal. If you ever subscribe to anything on the Internet, you will keep getting charged for it forever unless you make a Herculean effort to remove yourself from the company's database. Netflix, Hulu, Angie's List, domain name registries, software subscriptions, tolltags for your car, and other services too numerous to name will keep renewing you automatically, once they've gotten your credit card number. There's usually something buried away in the fine print about how to cancel your subscription, but who reads the fine print. I thought I had canceled my subscription to Angie's List two years ago, but I keep getting auto-renewal notices. It's frustrating. I'll have to call an automated phone system on Tuesday and express my displeasure.

I'm glad that I mowed the grass yesterday. It was even hotter today. Almost every Summer I wonder why I ever moved here from Seattle. Temperatures were so mild in Seattle that I could easily forgive the continual rain. Hey, that was over thirty years ago though. I can't remember why I did anything thirty years ago. Since we can't magically transport ourselves to Colorado or Seattle, we do the best we can to deal with the heat. We walk the dogs very early now. It's interesting to watch how plants and animals react to dawn. Birds start singing well before sunrise. Some flowers close their petals when the sun hits them, and others open. There is a patch of Bindweed on our way home that is almost as accurate as a light meter. If we're early and it's still dark, the petals are closed. If we're late and the sun is getting hot, the petals close again. Today, we walked by at exactly the right time.

Bud is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2226

I've been thinking about mortality lately. Within weeks of each other, Natalie Cole, David Bowie, and Glenn Frey have all died. Each was about my own age. Add Alan Rickman, and Motörhead frontman Lemmy and it hasn't been a good month for folks in their late sixties. Two neighbors I've known for years are probably going to wind up in an assisted living facility after a bad fall. My own sister, who is only slightly younger than me, is recovering from serious spinal surgery. When I look around, it is fairly obvious that the adventurous folks I know have sold their motorcycles and given up rock climbing. It's pretty sobering. I'm probably living more on the edge than I realize by still climbing up on my roof to remove the standing water.

It was hard to tell whether today was slow, or it was just me who was slow. I got a fair amount done, but it seemed like I was moving in slow motion all day. I picked up some meds for the dogs at the vet, but forgot to pick up my own at the pharmacy. I had to go back to the grocery store, because I ran out of a key ingredient I use in my morning smoothies. Heaven forbid that I do something logical and just eat something else for breakfast. Dot pooped in the house twice. It was probably the 3 AM accident that got my day started on the wrong foot. I don't even bother to track my sleep any more with the activity tracker. What's the point? I don't need technology to tell me that I'm not getting enough sleep. I can feel it.

I did manage to finish another article and ship it off to the client. Although my work has slowed down considerably, it is still essential. Writing is comforting and familiar. Just sitting at the computer a couple of hours each day, opening up Microsoft Word, and punching the keys for a while, keeps me from falling down the rabbit hole. I think I understand why Janet went back to work. Retirement sucks. If work is part of your identity, you need to keep working.

I keep wondering when the days are going to get longer. The shortest day of the year was back in December, but it's still dark every morning when we take the dogs on their morning walk. The ironic thing is that when the days actually do start getting longer in mid-March, we switch to Daylight Saving Time again and are plunged back into darkness for at least another month. I prefer sunlight, but at least the pre-dawn skies are interesting. If we have a clear day toward the end of the month, all five visible planets will be arranged in a straight line across the morning sky. This is the first time in eleven years that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all visible simultaneously, so I hope that the skies are clear around February 5.

Dot continues to have good days and bad days. The stock market has become a roller coaster. The daily weather alternates between freezing cold and unseasonably warm. The political landscape is equally chaotic. It would sure be nice to have a little stability.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2145

Such a long day. Unrelenting rain and incontinent dogs isn't a good combination. There was no avoiding the rain this morning. We took as short a walk as we could get away with and we all got wet. Dot did her business immediately, while Dash insisted on walking through the rain to his favorite spot. Dot, of course had to follow, because she didn't want to miss out on anything. Did I mention that we all got wet.

I didn't go out for breakfast at all this morning, because the weather was terrible and both dogs are terrified of storms. There wasn't much left in the refrigerator, but since there were still a few eggs, half a bottle of milk, and a loaf of bread, I made French Toast. It was actually pretty good. It was a good thing that I had lots of work to do, because I was more or less housebound.

I was supposed to get a FedEx package today, but it never arrived. The FedEx website said the package was on the truck for delivery by the end of the day. As the end of the day approached, the status changed to "Pending" and then to "Unable to Deliver. Customer Unavailable." This last message was posted while I was eating dinner, about ten feet from the front door. The driver lied. He didn't make an attempt to deliver at all. I was here the entire time. It was raining pretty hard, he was probably behind for the day, and he just didn't want to get out of the truck. This has happened before. I wish he had just told the truth. If the message had said "Had a bad day. Screw it. I'll try to catch you tomorrow." I would have understood completely.

One of the reasons it was a long day is that Dot had another messy accident on the carpet this morning. I always place her dog bed right next to my side of the bed and then place a much larger waterproof protective tarp on the other side of the dog bed facing in the general direction of the back door. Sometimes Dot gets confused when she wakes up and heads toward the bathroom instead. There just aren't enough tarps to protect the entire house, so it is not uncommon for her to poop in odd places during the night before I can manage to wake up, get out of bed, and point her in the right direction. We're going to have to buy another bottle of Nature's Miracle enzyme cleaner this weekend. We're going through this stuff pretty quickly now.

The only upside to this dreary day was that I did manage to get a lot of work done. I added thirty new pictures to one of the websites I manage and still had time to finish two articles. I still have three additional articles that I was planning on writing next week. If this rain continues, I may end up writing them this weekend instead. Working still beats sitting around waiting for the rain to stop. There just isn't that much to do on a rainy day.

I hope FedEx delivers my package tomorrow. I'll probably have to wait till Monday though. The odds of getting a package delivered on a rainy weekend are pretty slim. I hope the dogs are content to sleep in tomorrow morning. The way the weather looks now, there aren't many reasons to go outside.

Puppies are today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2116

We started the new month with a new schedule. We go to our physical therapy sessions in the mornings now. Mornings are good because Dot is less likely to poop in the car. On the other hand, mornings are not so good because there isn't much time to get ready. By the time we took the dogs on their morning walk, ate breakfast, took a shower, and got the car ready, it was time to go. Dot definitely didn't like riding in the Evoque. I tried my best to make a comfortable flat surface, but her bed still had a bit of a tilt to it and Dot managed to get stuck. I had to stop a couple of times along the way, but eventually we made it to our destination.

Even though Dot wasn't happy about her ride, she did amazingly well in the treadmill today. She was strong enough that we were able to increase the speed and do a small amount of interval training for the first time in several months. No accidents in the house today either. Actually, we have had very few accidents this entire week. I'm not sure we can attribute this pleasant turn of events to the Melatonin we've started giving her before bedtime, but it's the only change I can think of.

Work was surprisingly busy today. I got two new website projects that will keep me busy for a while. I'm not sure how excited I am though. One of the projects is kind of a pro bono deal that I won't make any money on. The other project has such a low budget that it's hardly worth talking about. That's the state of web design these days. Take it or leave it.

There was another tragic school shooting today. Once again the shooter was a young male. Hasn't anyone figured it out yet? Terrorist shootings. Gang related shootings. School shootings. They all have one thing in common. These crimes are almost universally committed by young men. Instead of endless agonizing about mental health and gun law issues, just ban young men from having guns. Period. Make the penalties for possessing a gun so severe that no young man would even want to go near one. So, how would you enforce such a ban? You couldn't. You probably can't enforce any other solution either. That's the problem of living in a free society. The obvious solutions are impossible to implement without destroying the free society we all claim to love. Do we want safety or freedom? Eventually, we have to decide.

I got a call from the Land Rover dealer today telling me that they are working on my car. Does this mean it will be done soon? Not necessarily. I've gotten these sorts of calls before and then waited a week or more before the car was actually finished. I don't really care how long it takes, but I'm guessing that Dot would really like to have things wrapped up before next week's physical therapy session. She hates the Evoque.

There's already another update to the buggy IOS 9 on my phone. I'm downloading it now. The current system is causing all sorts of problems with my WiFi network, but you have to be connected to WiFi to download the new system. This may take a while.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2101

Nobody won tonight's debate. Everyone on stage made a few good points and everyone seemed equally frustrated by the way questions were asked. Just like the first debate, the moderators tried everything they could to provoke a fight between the candidates on stage. The whole format was wrong. If a candidate mentioned another person's name, that person automatically got time to respond even if the moderator's question was dumb in the first place. The moderators really wanted tonight's event to be about personalities and conflict. I don't know why I bothered watching. That being said, Carly Fiorina did a great job within the strictures of the ridiculous format. Maybe she did run Hewlett-Packard into the ground, but the woman is smart and very quick on her feet. I'll give her the win, although I did get bored with the whole thing and quit watching long before it was over.

I made my bi-monthly trip to the mall this afternoon to get a haircut. Every time I go to Northpark, I feel like I'm in Las Vegas. The temperature and humidity are carefully controlled. Each store has it's own scent pumped through the ventilation system. The merchandise is beautifully displayed. People in Dallas even seem to dress nicer when they go to the mall. The whole thing is completely artificial, but that's OK. I spend a lot of my time tramping through nature with the dogs. I get bit by fire ants. I need to keep an eye out for snakes. It's always too hot or too cold. There's a lot to be said for artificial. The mall is pleasant as long as I can find a parking place. I always like to visit the Apple Store and the Tesla Store when I'm at Northpark. I'll probably never be able to afford a Tesla, but it's fun to dream.

I know I spend way too much for a haircut, but in the grand scheme of things it's a small indulgence. I don't drink anymore. I rarely go out to dinner. I can't even remember the last time I took a vacation that wasn't work related in some way. Hey, I think I can afford a nice haircut. My stylist likes to talk about animals and travel. I do pretty well holding up my end of the conversation when the subject is dogs and cats. I'm coming up short on travel stories though. I just don't go anywhere anymore.

Most of my travel stories these days involve going to the vet. Today I picked up some more Allopurinol at the vet for Dash. Tomorrow I go to a different vet for Dot's physical therapy. On Friday, I take Dash to a third vet for his six month cancer re-check. There always seems to be a trip to the vet on the calendar. I'm not complaining. Taking a dog to the vet is definitely preferable to client meetings and other forms of torture. The only time I don't like going to the vet is when Dot or Dash is sick. Then I worry.

Tomorrow is Dot's day, but I'm still going to try to get some work done. I just don't know what I'm going to be working on yet. There were a few website revisions to make today, but I'm basically up to speed on everything again. Hopefully, I'll find a few new assignments when I open my e-mail tomorrow morning. Until then, I just hope that Dot sleeps all the way through the night.

Phantom is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2066

My teeth have never looked better. Actually, they probably looked a lot better when I was a kid, but they haven't looked this good in a long time. When the dental hygienist asked me if my previous dentist had me on a six month cleaning plan, I laughed and told her that it was more like a ten year cleaning plan. I was a bit embarrassed to admit how seldom I go to the dentist, but I did add that I faithfully use a Sonicare toothbrush and Waterpik every day. She told me that she might have to sand blast my teeth but she could keep them looking good again if I would agree to come in every six months for a cleaning. I promised I would. I have passed the age where I can keep ignoring my health. I remember the terrible problems my Dad had with his teeth as he got older and I'm determined not to suffer the same fate. I've got good strong teeth, but I can't continue going to the dentist once every ten years.

Dot has only been off the Palladia pills for three days now, but I can already see a difference in her attitude. Her left rear leg is still extremely weak, but she is more alert and active now. She tries to get up on her own around the house and seems more eager to go on her two daily walks. I'd like the see her muscle tone and overall strength improve, but this new attitude has to be a good sign. I'm no expert, but I suspect that the chemotherapy was making her uncomfortable and contributed to the increased weakness we've been seeing for the past month or so. If dogs could talk, we'd have a lot better idea what some of their symptoms actually mean. Dot has always been pretty stoic about pain, so things have to get pretty bad before she lets you know something is bothering her. On the other hand, if the UPS delivery guy knocks on the door, or she sees a cat, she'll let you know right away how she feels.

I'll be curious to see whether Dot's vet thinks she has improved when we go for our physical therapy session tomorrow. She hasn't seen her for a week, so she'll have a more objective opinion than I do. I want Dot to get better so badly, that I might be seeing signs of improvement that aren't really there. If Dot continues to become more active, I'm going to ask her oncologist to continue this Palladia free experiment for an additional two weeks. After she has been off the Palladia for a full month, we'll do another Ultrasound scan and measure the tumor again. If the tumor still hasn't grown or spread, there's a chance we could take her off the drug completely. We can only hope at this point.

Work is finally starting to pick up again. I have new writing assignments and more websites to revise. It's nice to stay busy as long as things don't get too busy. It's hard to keep the right balance. I'm either way too busy or there's nothing going on at all. Even today, when I had things pretty well planned out, I ended up being late to the dentist because I encountered unexpected road construction along the way. You just can't plan everything. I didn't have my French Toast and sausages either, because I forgot to take the sausages out of the freezer. We'll see how tomorrow goes. As long as I remember a little more than I forget, I think I'll be OK.

I was trying to remember something I did back in the 80's this morning, so I looked through a few of the old journals I used to keep. They went all the way back to 1983 and were remarkably similar to this blog. The only real difference was that I wrote my posts in a little blank book using a ball point pen and nobody read them. If the Internet had been invented a little earlier, I would have been blogging for over thirty years now. That's pretty amazing.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1990

I'm torn between a desire for more work and an equally strong desire to just pack it in and formally retire. It would be nice to be able to buy a new car whenever I felt like it and acquire new cameras and watches with reckless abandon, but I'm not sure it is worth the effort any more. When I started my company, I used to tell students and freelancers to never work for anyone who paid you out of their own pocket. Things were much easier when all my clients were large corporations and the bills went to the accounts payable departments instead the owner of the company. Now virtually all my customers are small businesses and nothing is ever fast enough or cheap enough. It becomes tiring after a while.

I only mention this because some new work came my way today and all of it seemed about as interesting as cleaning up Dot's dog poop. Truthfully, I have been interested in learning how to design responsive, mobile friendly websites, but I'm not making any money doing this. I actually gave away my first two mobile friendly sites because I felt vaguely guilty that my clients didn't have this capability already. I'm just not very aggressive about making money anymore. When people ask me to do something these days, my first response is usually to try and talk them out of doing the job. It's only when they're persistent that I agree to take on new work. I usually know in advance that the job isn't going to pay very well and the client is going to be picky anyway. It's hard to get excited about all this because I still remember the days when corporate clients used to fly me around the world and pay me large sums of money for just coming to their meetings and talking a good game.

I still put in a good days honest work, but what matters to me now are the dogs. They both got a long, rain-free walk this morning and Dot spent the afternoon with me at her physical therapy session. She did great today in the underwater treadmill and seemed to enjoy her acupuncture therapy. Even the vet was impressed at how much she'd improved since last week. I think last week's lethargy might have been weather related. At her age, Dot is bound to have arthritis, along with all her other problems. Muggy, rainy weather just isn't good for anyone's arthritis.

I got a lot done today. The roof is clean and dry again. The dogs prescriptions have been renewed. The trash has been taken out to the curb for Friday morning pickup. Dot got a good workout at her therapy session and I paid the last of the recurring bills for May. Tomorrow I've got several new articles to write and I've got to decide whether to pursue these new jobs that are being dangled in front of me. All in good time. The most important thing tomorrow is going to my favorite restaurant for a leisurely breakfast. It didn't rain today. Maybe it won't rain tomorrow either. There's always hope.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1891

I got a call from an old friend this morning, asking if I'd like to work with him on a new business proposal. It was kind of therapeutic to have something to think about other than sick dogs. If we got this business, it would be fun to work on. Almost like old times. I gave my friend an enthusiastic "yes" to his proposal and will begin working on a budget for the project tomorrow.

Janet and I are having a tough time making a decision about spinal surgery for Dot. We have both talked to friends with back problems and some have opted for surgery while others wouldn't even consider it. Spinal surgery is very different from repairing broken bones or removing tumors. Even the surgeons themselves are very guarded about promising a successful outcome. All I know is that sometimes it works and other times it doesn't.

For the moment, Dot seems happy enough. She isn't depressed and doesn't appear to be in much pain. Dot spent a big part of her day sleeping before the injury and she still spends a big part of her day sleeping. She still very enthusiastic about eating her dinner and she can pee and poop relatively normally with my assistance. The only thing she really misses is her morning walk. I can see the disappointment in her face when I take Dash on a walk without her. If I walk Dash, Janet stays behind with Dot. If Janet walks Dash, I stay behind. One of the things I need to ask the neurologist before we make a decision is whether she will ever be able to take a normal walk again, with or without the surgery. Dot loves her walks, and if her walking days are already over, it might be pointless to put her through the trauma of risky major surgery for nothing.

This month's credit card bills took my breath away. The trip to Vandenberg Air Force Base to watch the satellite launch, the recent cancer re-checks and ultrasound imaging for Dot and Dash, along with Dot's recent MRI were all on the same bill. I definitely hope my friend's big new project materializes. One way or another, I'm going to have to step up my game a bit to pay for this stuff.

Dot's vet is terrific. She's going to make another house-call tomorrow to give Dot acupuncture and evaluate her condition. I've seen improvements in Dot's condition every single day, but I don't know whether these small changes will continue or ever be enough. Even with the prednisolone, Dot still can't stand up on her own. The question I have for all vets at one point or another is "what would you do if this was your dog?" Usually they're pretty honest.

All in all, today wasn't bad. Dot and I are working out a routine that gets us through the day. Janet already has a nice job offer on the table from someone she respects. For the past two days I've been able to take care of Dot while still completing my normal workload. Maybe we can get through this after all. It was even relatively warm and sunny today. By the time Dash and I took our evening walk, it was 60 degrees.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day