Day 3146

If I kept this busy every day I'd be in great shape. I had 10,000 steps on the Fitbit before noon. We started out with a nice sunrise walk. It's amazing how much the temperature can vary in a single day. It was in the low seventies when we woke up and back around one hundred by dinner time. Since the weather was cool, I mowed the grass in the front yard right after breakfast. I'm going to have to buy a new battery for the mower. It won't hold a full charge anymore. I barely got the yard finished before the mower went dead. It feels like I'm always replacing batteries.

Mowing was tiring, but I went to the gym anyway. I still feel guilty for not going three times a week, so I try my best not to miss Sunday. I wasn't very good on the basketball court today. My coordination seems to come and go. I'm sure that mowing the grass before my workout didn't help. My heart rate was a bit more elevated today. Maybe that's a good thing. I think your heart rate is supposed to be elevated when you work out.

Dash is getting very picky about his food again. He even turned up his nose at his usual breakfast of a fresh chicken breast. In an effort to keep him eating, Janet decided to start cooking for him again. The recipe she picked smelled really good. It was chicken and rice with vegetables. The dish was made with no seasoning and should be very healthy for Dash. If Dash won't eat this, I'll just add a little salt and pepper and eat it myself. Dash tried the recipe for supper and liked it. Janet made quite a bit, so I hope he doesn't change his mind during the week.

I looked at the vintage guitar website today and one of the guitars I consigned was gone. I hope this means that the guitar sold over the weekend. If so, this would be very good news. The guys initially told me that it could take at least six months for the guitars to sell. It hasn't been nearly that long yet. I wish that everything in the office was as desirable as the guitars and model trains. I'd really like to clear this place out. It's going to be really hard to throw some of this obsolete stuff away, but it may come to that.

I watched the Great British Baking Show again this afternoon. I'm fascinated by baking, but bread isn't good for me. It's kind of become a forbidden pleasure. Unfortunately flour converts into glucose rather quickly in the body and I've got to watch my blood sugar. The contestants made crackers and ginger bread houses today. I had no idea that crackers could be so difficult.

Another uneventful week begins tomorrow. I hope the mornings continue to stay cool. It's amazing what a difference the cooler weather makes with Dash. He's enjoying being outside again. Evening walks are another story, but at least he gets one good walk a day.

It's a good thing that I have a high tolerance for boredom. I miss having interesting website problems to solve, but I don't miss having clients. Keeping clients happy was always a nuisance. It's interesting that I'm making almost the same thing selling model trains as I was designing websites. I don't know if this means the trains were more valuable than I thought or the websites were less valuable than I thought.

Morgan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2273

I'm not sure that going to the gym made much of a difference. You can't get in shape with once a month workouts. Today's visit was more of a symbolic gesture. Maybe it was my way of saying "don't count me out yet." I did all my routines faithfully, elevated my heart rate, and worked up a sweat, but I'm still going to have to do this three times a week to make any real difference.

All I could think about today was the weather forecast. There are supposed to be thunderstorms every day next week. I really hope this isn't true. The combination of rain on the roof, mud in the yard, and dealing with a storm phobic crippled dog will test my sanity. It takes forever to get Dot to pee in the yard on a good day. In stormy weather, it's hopeless.

It's getting warm enough to call the landscapers to come back and replace the grass, ground cover, and bedding plants that died during the winter. We do this every year. Apparently neither Janet or I have anything remotely resembling a green thumb. This year, the yard looks even worse than usual because months of walking behind Dot and holding up her rear legs while she smells things and looks for a place to pee has killed a a significant percentage of the Asian Jasmine and Liriope. This happened once before when an earlier Dalmatian grew old and required assistance. It took at least three years for the ground cover to recover and start looking decent again. Apparently, dogs, cats, possums, and raccoons can walk through ground cover with impunity, but when people start tramping through the stuff, it dies.

I always listen to Ted Talks on the radio while I'm driving to and from the gym. The Ted Radio Hour on Sunday afternoon is probably the best thing on PBS. Today's subject was laughter and after listening for about five minutes, I turned the show off. I just couldn't relate to it. This is probably not a good sign. I can't recall that I've ever turned off a Ted Talk before. If the subject was sadness, the vastness of the universe, or preparing for the day the robots take over, I probably would have been fascinated.

The house smelled good today. Janet was preparing pulled pork in the slow cooker and the pork roast she was cooking gave the house the aroma of a nice barbecue joint. Pork has always been my favorite meat, but I am very conflicted about it now. I love bacon, ribs, and center cut pork chops, but every time I see a picture of a cute little pig on Facebook, I feel vaguely guilty. Damn you Facebook. All you do is destroy my faith in humanity with an endless stream of mindless memes, political rants, and cute pictures of piglets.

After I took that one watch to the watch repairman last week, I've been noticing that many other watches are running slow, are hard to wind, or have simply stopped running. What was I thinking when I thought it would be fun to collect watches? If I'd given the matter any thought at all, I would have realized that my compulsion to repair things and the inevitable nature of mechanical things to break would soon be at odds with each other. It has become impossible to keep all these old watches running, and even if I had the time and money to keep fixing them, it would just be another quixotic gesture.

I vacuumed and cleaned the house today, so this virtually guarantees that Dot will poop in the house tonight. I've tried again and again to get her to do her business outside this afternoon, but she isn't ready yet. Such is life.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2227

I must have worked harder at the gym on Monday than I thought, because I woke up feeling sore this morning. I think this is the way you're supposed to feel after a good workout, but I'm not fond of the sensation. Both of my arms ache. Maybe the reason I'm not adding any muscle is that my workouts aren't strenuous enough. It was purely accidentally that I had a tough workout on Monday. The place was crowded and the equipment I usually use was busy, so I tried some other machines. As I was getting ready to leave, I noticed that my favorite machines were available again, so I did those routines too. I didn't really think about it, but I probably added about thirty minutes to the workout. Maybe this is what I should have been doing all along.

I took Dash to the vet today for some routine lab work. I'm glad that Dash doesn't need to go to the vet very often, because he's terrible in the car. I don't know whether he's excited or scared, but he sits directly behind me and barks the entire way. If I had to transport him everyday, I'd probably be deaf by now. When I got Dash back home again, I got back in the car and went to the pharmacy to get the prescription I should have picked up yesterday. I could have accomplished this in a single trip, but I think it's wrong to leave a dog in the car, even for a short time. The dogs travel to the dog park and the vet with me, but we don't run errands together.

I had a complex website revision to do today. The job would have been easy in the old days, but using Dreamweaver is just a distant memory now. These new responsive websites are much more difficult. If you see a website that looks nice on your phone, there was probably someone like me who spent hours making sure that the layout resized automatically and looked good on any type of device. Life was so much easier when everyone had a simple Motorola flip phone and a 17" CRT on their desktop.

Life was also easier when I didn't spend half the day dealing with dog poop. I knew that Dash must have done his business in the yard this morning, because he didn't poop on our walk. Usually, when we take the dogs outside to pee when we get up, I keep an eye on what Dash is doing. It's always easier to clean up the poop right away, rather than find it on the bottom of your shoe later. I must not have noticed what he was doing this morning. After breakfast I went looking for the illusive poop, because I hate stepping in it later while I'm following Dot around holding up her rear legs. I'll never figure out why it is so hard to find dog poop in the yard and so easy to accidentally step in it. Eventually, I found what I was looking for, but I could think of better things to do.

I wonder how much further the stock market is going to fall. We've wiped out all of 2015's gains already and it's just January. I'm not very optimistic about the future. Sure, the market will go back up again, but unless you are very disciplined or very lucky, you will never be in the right place at the right time.  I think my parents felt much more secure in their retirement with a nice defined pension plan that they could depend on. Now, everybody's got a 401K that goes up and down with the market. The market is not rational either. It is increasingly driven by current events, and we are all lousy at predicting the future. How do you insulate yourself from this madness? I wish I knew the answer.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2098

Strangely, I actually enjoyed going to the gym today. There's no danger of me becoming a CrossFit fanatic, or buying a bicycle, but it is nice to feel in control of your own body. My dislocated shoulder is very gradually becoming stronger. I'm not gaining weight, even though I'm starting to eat normal food again. I still see some muscle atrophy in my arms and legs, but there is no flab. I'm just thin. I've still got a long, long way to go. Even though I have a much greater range of motion than I did a year ago, my shoulder is still very shaky and I can't even do a single push up without knocking my shoulder out of joint.

I spend most of my time at the gym using the arm crank and an elevated treadmill. The arm crank, or hand bicycle, is often a lonely and largely unused piece of equipment in many gyms. That's good, because there's always one of these machines available for me. The arm crank is a great way to get an intense cardiovascular workout while strengthening your upper body. I always spend at least 20 minutes on the hand bike and another 20 minutes using a treadmill that lets you walk at a steep incline. These two exercises are not for fun. I do one to help stabilize my shoulder and the other to avoid losing bone density. For fun, I shoot, baskets at the free throw line and occasionally punch a heavy bag for a while. Add in several miles of dog walks each day and I'm really not in bad shape for an old geezer.

Sunday is definitely the physical day of the week. We typically attempt to clean the house on Sunday, which usually involves lots of vacuuming and scrubbing things. The house doesn't look much better when we're done, but the Dyson is full of dust, so we must have accomplished something.

Today's chores included writing a bio that Janet needed for her new company. "What do you want me to write," I asked her. "Oh, just make something up," she said. Hmm. Every time I'm asked to do this, I realize that I don't really know much about Janet after thirty years. She seemed happy with the result though. Just another advertising job with zero input from the client. 

After I wrote her bio, I fixed Janet's activity tracker. She said it was broken and was going to throw it away. I suspected that there was nothing wrong and did a soft-reset on the band and plugged it into my computer to recharge. Two hours later, it was as good as new. I've done the same procedure many times on my own Jawbone activity tracker. I like the little UP bands, but Jawbone's quality control is terrible. Jawbone has already replaced three defective bands for me and Janet has had several lemons as well. If Apple can ever come up with a way to get their watch battery to last overnight and add a decent sleep tracker app, I may stop using the Jawbone wrist band entirely.

Dot had a really good day today, although she didn't poop on her evening walk, which probably means we are in for trouble tonight. She is noticeably stronger than she was a month ago and is even starting to walk at a faster pace. I may be imagining things, but I think she is even starting to gain a little muscle mass back on her left rear leg. While we are working to help Dot get stronger, we are also working to help Dash gain confidence. We take him to the small dog park at least once a week, hoping that he will start to play with other dogs again. Progress has been slow, but at least he isn't running away from the other dogs now. He is the largest dog in the small dog park, but the other dogs seem to accept him. Everything is baby steps these days, but I think we're making progress.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2063

Sunday has become one of the busiest days of the week. Things that tend to get postponed or forgotten about during the rest of the week usually get tended to on Sunday. This is when the house gets cleaned, the gardening gets done, and most of my bookkeeping for the business takes place. When you add in a trip to the dog park for Dash and a trip to the gym for me, it can become a very busy day.

Now that we get up extra early to take Dot on her pre-dawn walk, it seems like I've added an extra two hours to my day. I've never been a morning person, but I might eventually become one at this rate. I've always been a light sleeper. Now, instead of putting my head under a pillow and refusing to admit that I'm awake, I just get up. I've grown to enjoy these early morning walks. It's really the only time a sane person would even want to be outside in August. There's usually a nice breeze before the sun comes up and Dot enjoys smelling things and barking at the occasional rabbits and squirrels we see along the way. We are usually able to take Dot on her exercise walk, feed the dogs, eat our own breakfast, take Dash to the dog park, and still be back home before 9 AM.

This leaves a lot of time to do laundry, change the sheets on the bed, water the plants in the back yard, vacuum the carpets, recharge batteries in the electronic gadgets, and go to the gym. If I time things right, I'm even able to listen to Ted Talks on the radio on the way to my workout. This seems like a good way to spend a Sunday to me. Things get done. I'm able to start the week fresh on Monday morning. And by staying busy, there is little time to brood about how boring my life has become.

I'm not nearly as exhausted as I initially was when I started my Sunday workouts, so maybe it's time to add a few more things to my routine. The hand bicycle and treadmill provide a pretty good cardio workout. I still enjoy shooting baskets from the free throw line, and there are several resistance machines I always use. Maybe it's time to start working with free weights again. Adding an extra twenty minutes to my workout probably wouldn't kill me.

Tomorrow, I'll finally be done with the dental work that started in January. The dentist will remove a temporary crown I've had in my mouth for over a month and replace it with a permanent porcelain crown. Hopefully, now that all my major dental problems have been corrected, I'll just need to go in for a routine cleaning every six months or so. Maybe with these big dental bills behind me, I'll finally have money for something fun. I kind of doubt it though. Life is always full of surprises.

I really hope that Dot's weak leg will start to improve, now that she's off the Palladia for a while. I'll be watching her closely this week, because if the chemotherapy is what was causing the renewed muscle weakness in her rear legs, we should start to notice a change within four days. I'm not expecting miracles. Even a small improvement would be a huge plus. Before beginning chemotherapy, Dot was getting to the point where she could get up and down on her own around the house without assistance from me. This gave her a feeling of independence and made her much happier. Maybe we'll get there again. Like I said, life is full of surprises.

Nautica is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2042

We took Dash to a dog park for small dogs this morning in hopes that the little dogs wouldn't scare him and he would have more fun. Since Dash isn't that small, we were a bit worried that somebody might object to him being there. Nobody had a problem with Dash. It quickly became apparent that he was the most timid dog in the park. Pretty soon a bunch of Yorkies were chasing him around with his tail tucked between his legs. It's a shame that Dash has lost his nerve. He used to love going to the dog park and would frequently find other timid dogs to play with. I think Dot gave him confidence. They always used to do everything together and as long as she was around to protect him, he had a lot more confidence. Sadly, Dot's dog park days are over. Dash will have to find another way to build his confidence back. It's not going to be easy. Dash was attacked by an aggressive dog when he was young and almost died. I don't think he will ever forget the experience.

I took some more stuff to the storage warehouse on my way to the gym this afternoon. Most of the stuff that gets relegated to storage these days are things that Janet wants out of the house. She is trying to declutter. I have little interest in decluttering. I just fantasize about having a huge place where I could spread out and never have to put things away. There would be a big room for music and another even bigger room for photography. I would have a quiet room for writing, a room with powerful computers for developing websites, and a huge kitchen with lots of shelves for pots and pans. We don't have any of these things, so I am constantly taking things out of closets and putting them away again when I'm done. I don't understand the tiny house movement at all. I want lots and lots of space.

My Sunday workouts must be doing me a little bit of good, because they don't seem quite as onerous  as they did a month ago. I still feel like packing up and going home during the first ten minutes, but then my heart rate starts to increase, I begin to sweat, and everything settles into a rhythm. After about an hour, I begin to think that just maybe, going to the gym isn't as bad as I thought it was.

Our U-verse service has gotten flaky again, so I'm going to need to have a service technician come over and check things out tomorrow. I hate it when the cable guy comes over. When I have plumbing or HVAC problems, the repair people usually stick to one room. The cable folks are all over the place though, and the dogs hate it. Now that Dot is weak and has trouble walking, having service technicians of any kind at the house is an even bigger problem than it used to be. When Dot gets upset, she poops. I'm sure she's going to poop in the house tomorrow.

When we were walking the dogs this morning, I noticed that all the neighbors had stacks of brush and trash stacked near the curb in their front yards. It must be time for big trash day again. If I've got time tomorrow, I need to gather up the fallen tree branches, dead bedding plants, and other junk that has accumulated in the yard since the last big trash day and take them out to the curb myself. With only one bulky trash pickup a month, it can be easy for things to get out of control. Monday's aren't usually very busy, so I should have plenty of time to do this. Oh wait, the cable guy is coming over. I won't have any time at all.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2035

I should sleep well tonight. For one reason or another, I managed to keep moving all day long. We got up early because Dot had another accident in bed. She managed to get herself stuck in an awkward position when she repositioned herself during the night and I think struggling to stand up caused her to poop. There is no real way to prevent this. Like most dogs, Dot gets up, circles around, and then lies down in a different position several times a night. Sometimes she doesn't land quite where she expected to. Since she only pooped a little bit, we got up early and took the dogs on a walk so she could finish the job outside.

When we returned, I threw the dog blankets in the washer and we sat down for breakfast. It was actually a fairly normal morning. After breakfast, I went to the gym. I usually don't go this early, but why not? If I had stayed home, all I would have done was vacuum or work on another website. I can do those things any day of the week. I think all the activity trackers I'm using now are shaming me into having a more effective workout.

I really like the Apple Health app. It aggregates information it receives from my watch and the Jawbone UP band and presents it all on an easy to read dashboard. Even though I'm basically a lazy person, I got my heart pumping this morning and burned a respectable number of calories. I'm thinking of adding a WiFi scale to the mix. It certainly isn't necessary, but I just like tracking things.

On the way home from the gym I stopped at a nearby nursery and bought some Liriope plants to replace the ones that had died in the back yard. When I was replanting the Monkey Grass, it became clear why the plants had died. The soil in this part of the yard was just too dry. Actually, we should have planted grass instead of ground cover in this section of the yard, because it is one of the few areas that receives direct sunlight during the day. The combination of sunlight and tons of small roots from a nearby Oak tree had caused the ground to dry out twice as fast as the rest of the yard. Large, mature trees can really suck the water out of the soil. I love the trees though, so it will always be difficult to keep the grass and landscaping looking nice. It looks nice again now though. We'll see how long this lasts.

Dash got a trip to the dog park as a reward for helping Dot with her walks all week. He has become timid again after we quit going to training class when Dot had her spinal injury. Now, just about anything scares him. Today, a basically friendly dog wanted to play a little too rough and it spooked Dash. He was ready to go home way earlier than he should have. It's a shame that dogs are scaring him again, because going to the dog park used to be one of his favorite things. Dot used to love the dog park too. She will probably never go again though. She is just too fragile.

Since it was such a hot day, we had a great  dinner of sushi and cold salads. Cold food on a hot day is really satisfying to me. The only thing that would have made the meal better would have been a couple of glasses of wine. I can probably drink wine again in moderation, but I an scared to tempt fate after making such tremendous progress recovering from Hepatitis C. I feel extremely lucky to have a fully functioning liver again and foregoing alcohol seems a very small price to pay for staying healthy. That being said, I still think a good wine makes a great meal even better.

It has been a pleasant weekend, but it's back to work tomorrow. I will begin development on my latest website project and I expect the flow of writing assignments to begin again soon. Hopefully, I can find the right balance of exercise and rest with Dot. The Summer heat is tough on her, but she still needs to keep active to prevent her leg muscles from atrophying further. One way or another we'll all make it though the remainder of the Summer and then you can listen to me complain about Winter again.

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1979

Although we had heavy thunderstorms last night, our power stayed on. When the skies cleared and the sun came out later this morning, our power went out. Go figure. It's anybody's guess what caused the problem this time. It wasn't the weather, and it wasn't the trees. The power company had just finished trimming all the trees in the neighborhood a few weeks ago. Maybe a piece of equipment at one of the sub-stations was underwater. We've certainly had our share of flooding recently. I haven't seen the lake this high in years.

There's not a lot you can do when the power goes out. We walked the dogs and Dot did surprisingly well. Earlier in the morning, she threw up, but it was probably just storm phobia stress. The thunder was loud and relentless last night and Dot didn't like it a bit. I was afraid she would try to hop up in the bed and hurt herself, so I slept on the floor with her to keep her calm. No wonder the dogs like to sleep in the bed so much. The floor is pretty hard. Sleeping with Dot calmed her down though, so it was worth the sore back in the morning.

Since the computer, the television, and even the coffee maker were all dead, I decided to wash the outside windows. I've been avoiding this task, since the windows were not only dirty, they were filled with spiderwebs as well. I think most of our resident spiders are harmless, but I've never liked spiders and do my best to avoid them. I disturbed a couple of big ones today, but the windows are a lot cleaner.

Since clean windows didn't bring the power back, I had no choice but to go to the gym. I think it's been well over a month since I've visited the gym and the dogs aren't walking very far either. I'm out of shape again. I tried to do my regular workout routine and was amazed at how quickly I'd regressed. It seemed like I was starting all over again. My doctor says I need to get on the treadmill more, to counteract a gradual loss of bone density, My physical therapist says I need to do lots of stretching exercises to keep from getting a frozen shoulder. If I did everything I am supposed to do, I'd be at the gym all the time.

The power company eventually restored our power and life returned to normal again. I cleared all the water off the roof from yesterday's storms. I fired up the computer and made a few minor website updates. Janet fixed a nice dinner. And I didn't need to worry about making today's blog bost using a laptop with a half dead battery.

My mouth has finally healed enough from the wisdom tooth extraction for me to go see a different dentist next week. I'm not looking forward to this, but it would be silly to postpone things. The whole reason I had the wisdom tooth removed in the first place was to save the tooth next to it. If I delay getting this tooth repaired, it might have to be pulled as well. This whole dental journey has been like opening Pandora's Box. I just hope it all ends reasonably soon.

I think we'll see a little sunshine tomorrow, but starting Tuesday the thunderstorms return. The long range weather forecast says to expect the storms to continue all the way through Memorial Day. Too bad we can't send some of this water to California. We've got way too much here.

Susie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1861

My physical therapy is drawing to a close, so I thought I'd ask my therapist if I was doing my regular workout correctly. Nope. Not even close. Apparently, I am running through the routines on all the machines I use way too fast. Instead of doing the allotted number of reps on each machine as quickly as I can, I should be adding more weight, and doing fewer reps in a slow measured way. Jeez. If I do things correctly, it will add 45 minutes to my workout. It soon became obvious that I just wanted to do the resistance routines as fast as I could and go home. When I explained my time constraints to the therapist, she seemed to give me a troubled look that clearly said "You're doing this all wrong."

The dogs got a bath this morning. Usually we bathe the dogs on a Saturday, but Monday morning is much better. Dot and Dash both got a tub at the dog washing place immediately, with no waiting at all. Dash was calmer too, since there weren't a lot of other dogs barking and creating a commotion. I'll have to remember to save Monday mornings for dog baths. This is the first time I can remember that bathing Dot and Dash wasn't an ordeal.

After the dogs got their bath, I drove down to the UPS regional service center to pick up the little point-and-shoot camera I ordered last week. It's weird that I find it so much easier to pick up a package at a UPS facility, rather than have them deliver it directly to my house. Home delivery sounds like a good idea until you have to wait around all day to sign for a signature required package. I'm the same way about the post office. Even though I know that our mailman will pick up letters if I leave them in the mailbox, I always drive them down to the post office instead. Mail is a one way journey at our house. It arrives in the mailbox, but it never leaves that way.

I finally made an appointment to have my crooked wisdom tooth removed. I'm in no real hurry to have this surgery after trying my best to avoid it for twenty years. I just asked for the first day when the dentist could remove the tooth at 10:30 AM. I have an appointment with a different dentist tomorrow to fit the retainer he had made for me a few weeks ago. I've kind of forgotten why I even need this retainer. I don't think I'd need it at all if I had all four wisdom teeth removed like the oral surgeon suggested. One tooth is plenty though. This has all become very complicated. Dot has one of her periodic cancer rechecks tomorrow as well. She gets an ultrasound scan every three months to make sure that no new tumors have re-appeared. Maybe someday I'll do something that doesn't involve doctors, dentists, or vets.

My anti-virus software is expiring soon, so I looked on Google to see where I should go to renew it for another year. When I clicked on the link to the software company, the anti-virus software told me that this was a dangerous and suspicious site and blocked me from going there. I thought this was funny and a bit ironic. Evidently dentistry isn't the only thing that is becoming too complicated.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1636

I hooked up the Roku streaming stick to the TV this morning. It worked. I was curious how this little gizmo could offer so many channels for free and it didn't take me long to find out. The first free channel I added was PBS. When I tried to use the channel, I got a message saying that I had to provide my e-mail address before the channel could be activated. So, that's how it works! Now, the never ending pledge drives on PBS will wind up in my e-mail Inbox as well. Sure enough, the next time I checked my e-mail, there was already a message from PBS asking for a donation. I'm sure the other free channels work the same way. Before they can be activated, you probably have to agree to let advertisers send you e-mail spam. Personally, this is not a big deal to me. I already get such a monumental amount of spam every day that I won't even notice a little more.

I went back to the gym this afternoon. I think Sunday is my favorite day to workout. The place is never crowded on Sundays and since Janet is usually home, I don't have to worry about leaving the dogs alone for long periods of time. I can easily see myself going to the gym more often in the future. It's not a bad way to kill time and my doctors have told me that exercise is just as important as my diet.

It's probably good to get out of the house on Sundays anyway. When I'm home I tend to find myself doing things like cleaning toilets and knocking down wasp nests. I did both of those things today, along with adding those 56 new dogs and cats to the animal rescue website. As you can probably guess, it was hot and muggy outside today. It rained a little bit in the morning but it all turned to steam by afternoon. No mowing the grass today. I even dealt with the wasp nests under the eaves from the inside by opening windows and knocking them down with a stick.

I'm still having a hard time keeping Dash's tail from bleeding. As soon as the cut area at the tip of the tail starts to heal, he shakes or wags really hard, typically banging the tail against a wall which starts the bleeding all over again. My vet says that bandaging the tail isn't a really good idea, since it could cut off circulation. Janet found a couple of tail protecting devices on the Internet, but they seemed way too complicated. I couldn't leave anything on his tail while I was gone anyway, because he might chew it off and eat it. There's always the cone of shame, but Dot and Dash absolutely hate wearing the cone. I'll save that as a last resort.

Who knows what I'll be doing this week. It's still a mystery to me. I'm typically crazy busy at the first of the year. Things always slow down a bit during the Summer and than I get busy again in the Fall. That's the way it's been for as long as I can remember. I used to spend my Summers worrying that the Defender 90 would overheat in traffic and leave me stranded. Sometimes it did. Hopefully the new car will eliminate that concern for at least a year or two. I've got a birthday coming up pretty soon, but at my age birthdays aren't as exciting as they used to be. Wouldn't it be nice if after a certain age, you just started getting younger again. I'm already tired of getting older.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1629

I saw a dead possum in the neighbor's yard while I was mowing the grass this morning. I wonder what killed it? It didn't look like it had gotten run over by a car, so I began to suspect poison. I'm always worried about the dogs getting into something poisonous. Lots of the neighbors put out rat poison and insecticide. Others use powerful herbicides to control weeds. The park maintenance crews often use herbicides themselves. The park has its share of crazy people as well. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that someone had put out poison just to harm animals. At any rate, I try my best to make sure the dogs don't eat anything in the park. I can keep them away from most things, but I'm having trouble with all the horse poop in the park. Horse poop is disgusting, but I guess it's pretty safe. Especially if you see it come out of the horse. Dash loves to eat horse poop. It is a never ending battle to keep him away from the stuff.

The yard looks nice now. I mowed both the front and the back today. I've been postponing mowing the back yard until the roots on the new St. Augustine grass got fully established. The grass needed to be mowed however, since it had already grown taller than the Liriope ground cover. If the roots aren't firmly established by now, they probably never will be. After the grass was looking nice, I tried to find the remaining creeping vines that almost strangled the trees last summer. These vines are everywhere and wrap around tree trunks and branches, creeping up the tree until they have totally taken over. I think I've ripped up most of the vines, but they'll all be back by July.

Today turned out to be a good day to go to the gym. Most of the machines I typically use were empty and there was nobody using the basketball court. I think there were only five other people in the entire gym. I've gotten back to the point where where I can do my full workout again. Next step is to try and do this more than once a week. Three times a week would be ideal, but I'm still too busy for that. Work has slowed down a bit though, so twice a week ought to be pretty easy now. Maybe this Wednesday would be a good day to start.

I got gas today and noticed that the price had gone up again. I got a letter yesterday telling me that the rent on my storage warehouse will be going up again when my contract comes up for renewal. Prices for everything keep going up and up, but I get nothing but grief when I try to raise my own prices. Probably this just proves that people need gasoline for their cars and warehouse space a lot more than they need writing. The storage warehouse folks could probably charge whatever they want. I think I'm the only long term customer they have. Just about everyone else rents for a month or two when they're desperate for space. People that just moved to town or just got divorced seemed to like storage warehouses. I've had my space forever though. There have been five different managers of the warehouse since I first started storing stuff away that I couldn't bear to part with.

It's hard to believe that it's June already. The dogs got their monthly heartworm pill this morning. The air has started to turn hot and muggy and insects abound. The Summer heat is brutal and lots of things break. You always hope that your air conditioner keeps working during the Summer months though. The air conditioner is essential.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1622

On my way to the gym on Sunday, I often listen to the TED Radio Hour in the car. The show starts at 2 PM, and by coincidence, that's usually when I leave for the gym. TED talks are one of the few things I continually find interesting. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, but these wide ranging talks can be about virtually anything. I always learn something. I wish there was a station that ran these talks non-stop, because they are a lot more interesting than listing to Hip Hop, old 80's rock, or ads from mattress stores. Today's talk was about fear and I listened to a fascinating conversation with astronaut Chris Hadfield as he explained what it was like to be strapped to the top of a rocket when the odds were about 1 in 35 that it would explode.

The odds were much better that I'd have a good workout today. I'm getting stronger now. I'm sure that having a fully functioning liver again helps. If I can manage to find the time to get back to my goal of three good workouts a week, I imagine I'll really start seeing some progress. Something is always better than nothing though, so for the moment, I'm trying to make the most of my once a week schedule.

I wrote my monthly essay for my writers group this afternoon. Why this afternoon? Well, the deadline was today. Like I've said many times, I'm very deadline oriented. Without a deadline, I'd probably do nothing. I'm skeptical of people who tell me that they are motivated by simply loving what they are doing. That isn't enough for me. I need a deadline, combined with the fear of public humiliation, to find the motivation I need.

The neighbor's new cat returned to our yard this morning. It's a shame that Dot has such a strong prey drive, since the little cat is very friendly. I think it has decided that it would rather live with us than with the people next door who adopted it. I've got to figure out how to convince the neighbors to keep their new cat indoors. If this is going to be an outdoor cat that is attracted to our yard, Dot will eventually hurt the cat, or hurt herself. She is much too old and frail to be chasing cats.

We had burgers and home made potato salad for dinner. It seemed like a perfect meal for a three-day weekend. I'll be the first to admit that I've led a fairly sheltered life. Like many baby boomers, I spent my life living between major wars and never served in the armed services. The period between the Vietnam War and the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was probably the longest period of extended peace in our country's history. It's easy for people like me to forget what this Memorial Day holiday really means. My parents both served proudly in World War II. They had something most of my own generation lacks. Patriotism wasn't just a word to them, it was a way of life. In honor of their service and of the service of the thousands who continued to fight and die after them, I hope that we can all agree to start treating our veterans better. It is simply unbelievable to me that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay receive better medical care than many of our own veterans. Maybe this Memorial Day holiday, we can finally decide as a country that the time has come to do much, much better.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1586

I got lucky today. When I went to the Interstate battery store to get my lawn mower battery repaired, the technician noticed that the defective cells he was removing from the case were still under warranty. The one year warranty on the two battery cells was going to expire in four days. I had forgotten that the old battery even had a warranty. I've just gotten used to replacing these batteries every year. At any rate, the technician refurbished my battery for free. If I had waited until next week to take care of this chore, it would have cost me $90.

I finally made it back to the gym this afternoon. I really need to figure out how to do these workouts on a more regular basis. It was starting to seem easy when I went three times a week. Now that I can only make it to the gym sporadically, these workouts are killing me. It took me about three months to build up a good rhythm and now it appears I'll have to start all over again. No rest for the weary, I guess. I don't even like going to the gym, but I do like the results. I'd hate to start gaining weight again.

While I was at the gym, Janet called and said she'd lost her car keys at the grocery store. I drove home and found a spare pair of keys to take over to her. While I was home looking for the spare keys, the dogs were very indignant that I wasn't feeding them their dinner. Both of them started barking loudly when I left the house again about five minutes later. You'd think having their dinner thirty minutes late was the end of the world.

I got another letter from the city today saying that Dash's animal registration had expired. This happens every single year. I always get new city tags for the dogs when they have their annual physical exam. My vet sends the updated information to the city immediately, but somehow the city is permanently three weeks out of sync. If they would just wait a few weeks before they send out this noncompliance letter, they might realize that Dot and Dash always have current city tags.

The park is going to be a disaster area tomorrow. Every Easter, throngs of people descend on the park to have family Easter egg hunts. Nobody hides real eggs anymore though. They all just hide candy for the kids. For weeks after Easter, I have to be especially vigilant when walking the dogs. There are are tons of candy left in the grass that the kids failed to find, along with assorted chicken bones, beer cans, and dirty baby diapers. I liked this park a lot better before the city discovered it. It's still nice on weekdays after everybody has gone to work, but weekends and holidays are a madhouse.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. If the weather's nice, there are still a ton of chores with my name on them. Mowing the grass will probably be at the top of the list. If it rains tomorrow, I'll probably just take a long nap  with the dogs.
 

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1566

Today was a catch up day. I went up on the roof and swept away the remains of last week's thunderstorm. I charged camera batteries and updated software. I did some cleaning. I even made it back to the gym. Since it was such a nice day outside, the gym was practically empty. Between walking the dogs, cleaning standing water off the roof, and my first full workout in several weeks, I was pretty tired.

I can't say I actually enjoyed any of this activity, but it all needed to be done.  Although I do spend a lot of time staring aimlessly into a computer screen, I'm not a lazy person. I continue to push myself, and am determined to never become an overweight Walmart shopper or a professional victim. I remain convinced that we all determine our own destiny. Each and every one of us.

I'm starting to worry about Dot again. I've noticed that her stools have been darker than normal this week. It's not the dreaded tarry black that indicates internal bleeding, but still it's not normal. I'll get a lab test done to make sure nothing's wrong. Dot is so absolutely consistent about everything, that anything abnormal stands out like a sore thumb. Now that Dash is sick, I depend on Dot more than ever as a source of stability. Luckily she is.

It's hard to believe that April is just around the corner. So far, 2014 has zipped by amazingly fast. We seemed to have survived the Winter. The trees in the back yard are turning green again. Most of the shrubs and ground cover survived. The roof shows no signs of leaking and I'm beginning to think that the roofers did a better job than I initially thought they did. If Dash and I can just put our health problems behind us, it might turn out to be a very good year.

Right now, I'll just settle for another good week. Dash resumes his radiation treatments tomorrow.  While he's away, the HVAC guys will be getting the AC ready for Summer. I need to see if I can get Dot's vet appointment rescheduled for Tuesday. And then on Thursday, I've got a doctor's appointment of my own. I'm sure that in between all this, there will be articles to write and websites to revise. It will definitely be a busy week, but it will be April. April is always one of my favorite times of year in Texas.

Sparky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1545

Did you know that Amtrak has a writers residency program? They'll send selected writers on a free long distance train trip, and all the writer has to do in return is write about the experience. Hey, I'm in. I love train travel and writing about a train trip would be a piece of cake. Probably 10,000 other writers thought the same thing when they heard about this, but I filled out the application anyway. I think Amtrak is only going to pick 24 writers for the travel grants, but what do I have to lose? Like most government websites, the Amtrak site was a bit buggy. When I hit submit, my application just disappeared. I have no idea if it actually went through, since there was no acknowledgement of any kind. We'll see.

I'm back to doing my full workout at the gym. This doesn't mean my shoulder has healed completely. It's tolerable though. I figured that if I didn't get back on schedule soon, I'd lose everything I'd gained. I can already tell that I've got some work to do. My hour and a half at the gym seems a lot harder now than it did when I was going three days a week. Better something than nothing has always been my motto. As time permits, I'll try to work my way back to three visits a week.

The weather was beautiful today. I kept thinking "this time Spring is here for sure" for most of the day. I've been fooled before, however. Once or twice, we've had snow this late in the year. Hopefully, we won't get another freeze now. Trees are budding everywhere and I'm starting to see wildflowers in the park. It's definitely time to rake the leaves in the backyard, or better yet, get someone else to do it for me. I think I'll opt for the second option this year.

I thought for sure that  I would have heard the results from Dash's pathology report by now. I'll find out what is going on next week. It wouldn't be the first time a doctor had simply forgotten to tell me something important. I'll have to admit that I've been a bit reluctant to bug the vet about the results. Dash seems so much better after the surgery that I'd like to think he's out of the woods now. It would be a huge disappointment to discover that the surgeon hadn't gotten all the cancer and Dash still needs radiation or chemotherapy.

I can't say that I'm a real fan of Daylight Saving Time. Why do we need this time change at all? The time is just what is is. Pretending that it's an hour earlier doesn't really change anything. Before the time change, the sun was coming up when I woke up in the morning and I still had a chance to photograph some cool looking sunsets on my evening walks with Dot and Dash. Now, it's dark again in the morning and way too light in the evening.

In case you think nothing pleases me, I was pleased with dinner tonight. Janet cooked steaks and they were delicious. Dot and Dash seemed a bit miffed that they didn't get a big steak too, but we've learned the hard way that people food isn't good for them. I think they'll survive.

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1531

Dot and Dash had a great day. Our mild Springlike weather continues, making it possible to give the dogs several long walks, in addition to the trip to the dog park they'd both been anticipating. It was beautiful today. The redbud and dogwood trees are already starting to bloom, and if you looked closely, you could see tiny green buds on most of the other trees as well. I hope all this early growth isn't cut short by a final hard freeze, but it usually is. That's just the nature of things in Texas.

When the dogs had finished smelling every tree at the dog park, we came home and I finished the writing assignment that threw me a curve yesterday. It all seemed to go smoothly this time and within an hour I was ready to go to the gym.

I think my shoulder might be as good as it's going to get. I was able to go back to my old workout routine this afternoon and everything seemed fine. The shoulder still hurt, but it hurt before the injury too. The important thing was that it was able to bear weight and wasn't falling out of the socket anymore. I'm more careful now and try not to do things that would pull my right arm away from my body. All in all, I think it is better to stay active. If I babied the shoulder too much and did nothing, it would probably be worse on my body in the long run than what I'm doing now.

Janet fixed cheeseburgers for dinner. I did eat a kale salad as a token gesture to good health, but that was about it. There are few things better than a good cheeseburger and fried onion rings. It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but you could do a lot worse. Good lean beef, artisan cheddar cheese, some fresh heirloom tomato slices, and a little arugula on a freshly  baked whole grain bun. That sounds healthy doesn't it?  There's got to be more to life than oatmeal and kale. If I can ever get my liver working properly again, I might even enjoy the ocassional glass of wine with dinner again. That would be nice.

Tomorrow is the big day. We can't feed Dash anything after 10 PM tonight, since he will probably have to be anesthetized for his CAT scan tomorrow. I'm trying to keep an open mind, since almost anything could happen. Depending on what the oncologist finds, he could come home with a bottle of pills to take for a week and be good to go, or he could be rushed into emergency surgery. I don't know how parents with small children handle these situations as well as the do. We've had a lifetime of different Dalmatians, and I always remember the medical emergencies the most vividly. Spot had a tumor inside his spinal cord and I thought he might be paralyzed for life. It was a long, tough surgery, but he bounced back to lead a normal life. Much later, he was back on the operating table again with intestinal cancer. A six inch section of his small intestine was removed and he survived that as well. Petey almost died after he got pancreatitis from eating a duck's foot he found in the park. Greta did die after liver surgery failed to completely eliminate the cancer that was growing there. I'm hoping for the best with Dash. He had a very tough life before we rescued and adopted him. We promised him that things would be better now, and we'll continue to do our best to keep that promise.

Joey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1463

There were moments today when I felt like things were being accomplished. I think I might have resolved a health insurance billing error that has been nagging me for months. The owner of the house down the street with the aggressive dogs has finally agreed to fix her deteriorating fence, so the dogs can't escape and kill me. I think all my missing UPS packages are now accounted for. This would all have been very satisfying if I wasn't left wondering at the end of the day whether anything had really happened at all.

You see, I've dealt with all these issues before. I've even thought that I'd resolved them before. These problems and many others keep coming back like a bad penny. I've come to the conclusion that it's virtually impossible to genuinely fix anything these day. All you can do is kick the can down the road like the politicians do.

I did manage to get back to the gym this afternoon. Now I know why you need to go to the gym on a regular basis. I've skipped my regular workouts for over a week and a half due to the ice storm and a host of work related deadlines. Today felt like I was starting over. How could I deteriorate so fast? Unfortunately, going to the gym is like everything else in life. You've got to be consistent and keep plugging away before you can reap the benefits.

When I don't write something every day, my writing deteriorates. If I don't clean every day, it doesn't take long before the house looks like shit. If I don't walk the dogs every day, I'm faced with some very angry dogs. Basically, just about everything in my life needs to be done every day. The only way you get good at something is to do it over, and over, and over again. I remember very early in my career when someone told me that the definition of a professional was the ability to do good work on a bad day. I never forgot those words of wisdom. They've gotten me through a lot of bad days.

I'm crossing my fingers in hope that this week's nice weather will continue through the end of the week. It was almost Springlike this afternoon. The dogs enjoyed sunning themselves on the back porch. I ran my errands without the need of a Winter coat. I think the roof is finally dry again. Against all odds, I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day