Day 1956

Good grief. We're under a tornado warning again. As soon as I heard the news, I began recharging my phone, laptop, and tablet. Strong storms and power outages go hand in hand in this part of the country. I'm slowly learning to stay prepared. We're eating dinner in a hurry too, in case the oven goes out. I wish the dogs had taken my advice and taken an early walk. They just stuck their nose out the door and didn't even go outside. I guess they could smell what was coming.

I feel better about Dash's limp. I called his oncologist today and asked about the possibility of bone cancer. He told me that it was very unlikely that Dash's type of cancer would ever spread to the bone. He also said it was unlikely that Dash would succumb to a completely different type of cancer at this point in time. It seems increasingly likely that the limp is caused entirely by the torn paw pad. The oncologist said that his own dog had injured a paw pad once and that it took several weeks to heal. "Give it time," he told me and asked me to call him again in several weeks if Dash's condition didn't improve. This specialist is always very busy. I was amazed that he spent ten minutes talking with me. Dot and Dash have some great doctors. I"m convinced that they get far better medical care than I do myself.

I spent most of the day designing a supposedly simple brochure for a client. They want to print the brochure using Vistaprint, but for some inexplicable reason Vistaprint won't accept Quark Express files. Why? I've been using Quark for decades. This venerable software used to be the gold standard for print designers. Apparently the software has fallen out of favor. I had to design the whole thing in Photoshop instead, which certainly wouldn't have been my first choice. It is cumbersome to have all these layers. The original brochure I was updating was done in PowerPoint and a lot of the images were created in Adobe Illustrator, but saved as a PDF. It was a mess. The actual design was pretty simple, but converting all the files to the proper size and format and remembering what layer they were on took forever. I hope everyone likes what I did today, because I definitely don't want to spend tomorrow doing everything over again.

I reluctantly confirmed my appointment for dental surgery next week. I was very tempted to postpone the surgery again, but I've got to get this done sometime. Since I was originally scheduled to have the wisdom teeth removed in late January, I guess I've delayed things long enough. I hope having this tooth removed solves the problems I've been having, but somehow I doubt that it will. Once you start going to the dentist, you have to keep going to the dentist.

While I was eating breakfast this morning, a group of guys at a nearby table were arguing about whether the original Star Wars trilogy should be viewed before or after the three prequel movies. There was a heated  discussion about whether the movies should be viewed in chronological order or in the order they were shot. Some said four, five, six, one, two, three. While others said, one, two, three four, five, six. They were serious. At another table, a group of older guys were talking about man caves. This pretty well summed up the state of the world today for me. It's hopeless.

I had weird dreams last night and woke up in the middle of the night worrying about Dash's leg. I hope I sleep better tonight. Actually, I'd like to sleep the entire weekend.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1955

I had lots of small problems to resolve today. Individually, they were trivial, but together they wore me out. I was jumping back and forth between Microsoft Word, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver all day. As many of you know, I don't multitask well. I would always rather have one complex project than a bunch of little easy projects that share the same deadline. Although some of today's projects seemed meaningless, they were all important to my clients, so I jumped back and forth until it was time to take Dot for her weekly physical therapy session.

I've got to come up with a better way to transport Dot to the vet. Traffic was bad today and twice I had to put on my brakes hard enough to cause Dot to slide forward in her hammock and get stuck in the foot-well between the rear seats and the back of the front seats. The hammock keeps her from actually falling into this hole, but she can still get stuck if her weight pulls her forward and the hammock dips into the foot-well. She got stuck at a busy intersection today and I had trouble crossing three lanes of traffic so I could pull over and move her out of the foot-well and back to her seat. Dot was squealing and whining the whole time I was stuck in traffic. It was stressful for both of us. I'm thinking of abandoning the hammock and just putting the rear seats down again and having a large flat surface in the back of the car. She's getting strong enough now that I think she's just about ready to start riding in the car again the way she used to.

I've got to find time to go to a Babies R Us store and get some of those baby tube socks with rubberized feet that Dash can wear on his walks. The torn paw pad is still tender and he walks a lot better when I put a sock on the injured foot. The problem is that the short dog socks we got at a pet store don't work very well. Every time Dash scratches the earth with his rear feet, the sock falls off. Longer socks would definitely stay on better. One more thing to add to my "to do" list.

This has been a long week. I'm beginning to understand responsive website design. Dot is beginning to regain her independence. It's still tiring though. All the new knowledge in my head is starting to give me a headache and even though Dot is able to walk around the house without her harness, I've still got to watch her like a hawk. Dash is still limping too. There's more rainwater to remove from the roof, but I'm not even going to bother with that until this weekend. What's the point? It might rain again tomorrow anyway. Our excessive amounts of rain this Spring has caused me a lot of trouble, but the wet, muddy weather definitely has a silver lining. The new landscaping in the back yard looks great and I haven't had to use the sprinklers very much.

I'm looking forward to going out for breakfast tomorrow. It's nice to have a little quiet time with no barking dogs, irritating telemarketing calls, or dishes to wash. It's amazing how that little hour and a half of tasty tranquility can make the entire day seem better.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1954

Slowly but surely, life is getting back to normal. Dash still has a limp, but he is walking better than he was yesterday. Dot is still a little unsteady, but she is getting stronger everyday. I let her walk around the house without her harness for a while today and she seemed to enjoy it. It's a bit of a problem walking the dogs now, since both have leg problems, but we're doing OK. The big breakthrough is that Dot is confident enough now that her separation anxiety has subsided. I can leave her alone for several hours at a time and she is content to just rest on her dog bed. This allows me to run small errands like going to the post office or bank without worrying so much. To be on the safe side, I always leave Dot in a gated section of the hallway and take her harness off, so she can't get tangled up in something. I put a comfortable bed in this safe area and Dot is fine. She slept a lot before her injury and she still sleeps a lot now.

My website revisions have slowed down this week, but I'm trying to use my time wisely.  I'm still working on getting up to speed about responsive design, so when clients eventually discover that they've dropped in the search rankings, I'll have a solution for them. I learned how to apply transitions and animations across several platforms today. All I have to show for my several hours of study is a single line of type on my company website that slowly fades in and grows to its final size as the site loads. Although this doesn't really prove anything, it's the principal of the thing. I can move objects around and the effect stays the same whether it is viewed on a large desktop monitor or a small phone. Cool. If I contine to learn one new thing a day, I should be pretty good at this responsive design stuff by Summer.

An insurance guy came out to take pictures of the house this morning. He said that needed pictures to substantiate that the construction was load bearing brick. Jeez. I told them that house was constructed using brick bearing walls almost twenty years ago. They must not have believed me. It's weird that it took them twenty years to come out and take a picture though.

I got some more K-cup coffee pods in the mail today. I had written Keurig a while back and asked them what to do if one of the cups split during brewing. One of the cups actually did split and I ended up getting coffee grounds in my cup, but I didn't expect to receive a whole box of K-cups for a single defective cup. I wasn't even mad when I wrote Keurig. I just wondered if I needed to clean the machine after the pod broke. I like this company. It's a nicely designed product that's made in America. The coffee tastes great. And the service is pretty good. What's not to like?

I've got to stop listening to weather predictions I see on my Facebook page. They're almost always wrong. According to my Facebook friends, we were supposed to get huge storms and maybe even tornadoes tonight. I walked the dogs extra early to avoid this ominous storm. I also ate early to avoid a potential power outage. I'm not complaining, but so far it is still dry outside. I think the entire storm system passed about fifty miles south of us. Of course, things could change by morning. This is Texas after all.

Mindy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1953

It's been a long day. Dash woke up limping and he's still limping this evening. I was hoping our vet could come up with a quick fix during his annual exam this morning, but a torn paw pad is painful and Dash will probably continue limping until the pain goes away. The vet cleaned the wound and then glued the split pad back together with medical suture glue. This will keep the cut from getting dirty or infected, but it will still be painful for a while. It's going to be tough on the little guy. He loves to walk and can't seem to keep his protective sock on for more than a minute. The rest of Dash's exam went well, although he does have high blood pressure and is going to have to start taking more or less the same blood pressure medication that I take.

On the way home from the vet, Dash peed in the car. He's never had an accident in the car before. I was really surprised, since he had already peed on his morning walk and again while he was at the vet. Oh, well. I reminded Dash that he and his sister were the reason I can't have nice things anymore, and then proceeded to clean up the mess when we got home. This wouldn't have been a big deal if Dash hadn't lifted his leg and made a direct hit on one of the speakers mounted in the rear door. Since the grill cover won't come off, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to clean the speaker enclosure. The car will probably smell for a long time.

As I updated websites today, I kept wondering how much trouble it will be to convert these sites into mobile friendly versions. It's almost inevitable that I've have to convert all the sites I manage at some point. I"m not looking forward to this. Many of my clients are fond of their old designs and they're not going to be happy that these familiar workhorses will eventually have to be retired. I worked on my own test site a bit more today, but it was slow going. Just because something looks easy on the tutorial video, doesn't mean that it actually is easy. I learned some new things and made a few refinements today, but I'm still not ready for prime time.

Dot was really good while I was at the vet with Dash, This is the first time I've left her alone for any length of time and she did fine. I checked her on the baby monitor and she was just sleeping calmly on her dog bed. Actually, she seemed better behaved while I was away than when I'm home. When I'm here, she's either barking or getting herself stuck in tight places. I could just keep her penned while I'm working, but she's much happier being able to move from room to room. The bedroom and the office are pretty safe, but if she heads for the kitchen, I make sure to follow her. That's where she always seems to get stuck.

Dash's bad leg certainly complicates things. It took me forever to get both dogs walked today. Dot walks very, very slow and Dash seemed to lose his protective sock about every twenty yards. The dogs still want to walk, but they're not at the top of their game right now. If something happens to my own leg, we're really going to be in trouble.

I hope the dogs are walking well tomorrow. I hope I sleep well tonight. Neither of these things happened today. That's probably why everyone is so tired.

Joe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1952

Jeez. Just as Dot is starting to walk again, Dash developed a limp. I noticed that something was wrong on his morning walk. Dozens of things can cause a dog to limp, so I was hoping that he just stepped on a thorn or something. The limp got worse as the day progressed unfortunately, so I began to get worried. I checked to see if he'd torn a cruciate. I felt his spine to see if there were any sensitive areas. I massaged his leg to see if anything made him flinch. Everything seemed normal. I always worry about dogs developing hip dysplasia as they get older. Dalmatians frequently tear cruciate ligaments as they grow older as well. I was expecting the worst, and then while he was sleeping, I noticed that Dash had cut one of his paw pads on the leg he was favoring. A cut or torn paw pad is not something to be taken lightly, but I was very relieved when I saw this cut. I'm almost certain that this is what was causing him to limp. Like many male dogs, Dash scratches the ground with his rear paws after peeing. He does this quite vigorously and he must have encountered a sharp rock or piece of glass. We'll find out how to fix the cut paw tomorrow when Dash has his annual exam. For the time being, I'm having him wear one of Dot's traction socks to keep the cut clean.

I made a breakthrough today in my ongoing effort to understand responsive web design. I've been using my own company site as the guinea pig to test out new ideas. It's been a slow process. I'll break part of the site and have to undo everything so the site works again before I try another idea. If I didn't take these slow painstaking steps, my errors would start to compound and pretty soon it would be impossible to get the site back to it's original state. I must be learning something, because I was finally able to put up a landing page that didn't look like shit. After several hours of tweaks and refinements, I actually got the page to function. By the end of the day, I had a site that passed Google's "mobile friendly" tester.  I've still got a long way to go before I'm ready to do this for clients, but "mobile friendly" is not a word I fear anymore. I can do this.

I wish I had my old mail carrier back. I used to have a fabulous mail carrier, but the post office changed her route and gave our neighborhood to someone else. I am not impressed. I've been waiting for a signature required package and it was supposed to arrive today. I don't like signature required packages because they always arrive when I'm taking a shower or am out in the back yard with the dogs. Today's mail carriers don't try very hard to find you. They leave a form telling you to go pick up your package at the post office. I left a note for the mail carrier saying she should call my cell phone if I didn't answer the door and to be sure to knock, because the doorbell isn't very loud. I needn't have bothered. While I was updating websites this morning, I saw the mail carrier out the office window just throw the package on the ground below the mailbox. She didn't even bother to get a signature. Little things like this drive me nuts.

Dot had one of her best days in a long time. She was strong and confident around the house and when we took our daily walk she didn't want to turn around. It probably helped that the weather was nice and cool today, but it wasn't just the weather. Dot is feeling better these days. Janet and I walked both dogs together this evening since Dash needed to take a short walk because of his inured paw. Dash walked slower than normal because of the sock he was wearing on his rear leg and Dot seemed visably pleased that she could keep up with him. She was even walking faster than Dash at several points. There was this look in her eye that clearly said "I'm back."

Wilson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1951

A few miles down the road, what is being billed as the world's largest award show concert is taking place right now. I would have enjoyed being in the audience at tonight's Academy of Country Music Awards if it weren't for the fact that I hate crowds, avoid freeway traffic at all costs, and am convinced that everything that takes place at Texas Stadium is hugely overpriced. The show looks pretty good on television though. Every time I see something like this, it reminds me that country has become the new mainstream rock and roll. There isn't a lot of difference between many of the groups that performed tonight and old school rockers like The Eagles, The Byrds, and Bon Jovi. That's OK by me. I always liked The Eagles, The Byrds, and Bon Jovi.

Instead of going to a live concert with 60,000 of my neighbors, I went up on the roof for the second day in a row and removed the water from last night's thunderstorm. Hopefully, today's efforts will last a bit longer than my futile effort yesterday. I hate doing this over and over, but I don't know of any alternative. Water is heavy and if I don't remove it quickly, the excessive weight will cause the roof to sag even more. Maybe I'll start going back to the gym when the rainy season is over. For now, this is all the exercise I need.

In case you're wondering, Dot and Dash were really quite good during yesterday's power outage and severe thunderstorms. They stayed quietly with me in the office during the entire event and didn't panic at all. It's a shame that they only listen to me when they're scared, but at least they listen sometimes. The power was only out for two hours, but when measured in dog years, it probably seemed longer.

I started creating a little test site this afternoon to see if I understand responsive web design. I didn't get very far. There's a lot of code involved to get a website to automatically resize and change its layout for tablets and smartphones. It would help if I understood Cascading Style Sheets better. I understand the basics and use CSS to set fonts, background colors and other simple tasks, but that's about it. This is much more complex. Even automation tools like Webflow and Macaw that are supposed to make the coding process easier are pretty complex. I feel like the last guy riding a horse when everybody else began driving automobiles.

I shouldn't complain though. I doubt that I'm going to be flooded with new web design jobs, even if I do learn to make them responsive. I'm doing this mostly for my own benefit. I'll practice a bit more with the fancy code tomorrow, but most of my day will be spent making updates to a very traditional website I created about ten years ago. Hey, it still works. That's more than I can say for myself these days.

Marley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1950

This may be shorter than usual. Our power just went out. There's a big storm headed our way, but it hasn't even arrived yet, so a power outage with no wind and no rain is a bit unusual. A feather could knock our power out though, so I'm not terribly surprised. If I'd known this was coming, I'd have charged up all the device batteries. The laptop is only half charged and the phone is even closer to dead than that. I do have the little generator now, but it's so much trouble to hook everything up, that I'm hoping that I can write fast and get this posted before everything goes dead.

The power outage wasn't the only thing that caught me by surprise today. I didn't have a clue that a big storm was headed in our direction. It was clear and sunny for most of the day. Since the weather was nice, I thought it would be a good time to get the water off the roof. I spent two hours getting everything cleaned up. That was a total wasted effort. In two more hours the storm will be here and the roof will fill with water again. I think the roof must have sagged a bit in the center, because a few years ago there was never this much standing water after a hard rain.

There wasn't really that much to do today. After I finished sweeping the water of the roof, I got groceries, filled the car with gas, and listened to a few more tutorial videos about responsive web design. Creating adaptive, mobile friendly websites might seem easy for a hard core coder, but the learning curve is going to be pretty steep for a visual designer like me. I'm curious whether I still have it in me to learn something difficult and new, so I'm going for it. Ask me in six months whether the experiment was a success.

It's harder to keep an eye on Dot now that she's feeling better. She wants to move around, but she's still pretty shaky. I try to maintain a balance between giving Dot some freedom around the house, while still being able to get to her quickly if she looks like she'd going to fall. I had to put her in her pen while I was up on the roof, but for the most part she wandered around the house on her own this afternoon. She's really a lot happier if she has a little freedom. We can't overdo it though. She was pretty tired after her short evening walk.

The first wave of rain has already arrived and we're starting to hear thunder and lightning now. The dogs are getting restless and my backup batteries are getting low. I've got both dogs penned in the office with me. We have two small camping lights and each dog has their bed. It seems cozy to me, but Dot and Dash still look nervous. I definitely don't want Dot to wander off in the dark house and trip over something. This seems as good a time as any to call it a day and get under a blanket with the dogs for the rest of the evening. This usually calms them down. I sure hope the power is restored before morning.

Mattie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1949

I woke up with an uneasy feeling about today and as the day progressed, it turned out that there were good reasons for my apprehension. Service was unusually slow at breakfast this morning because they were trying to work in a new employee and I just barely got home in time so Janet could leave for work. I hate feeling rushed before eight AM. Later, someone from my insurance company called and said they needed to to photograph my house again. Why? This would be the third time they have done this. I called my agent and he didn't have a clue why the company was requesting these pictures. It can't be good. They probably want to charge more for insuring flat roof houses or something. If this were true, it would be totally unfair. I'm probably the only one in the neighborhood who hasn't gotten a new roof as a result of storm damage. Sadly, leaks don't count as storm damage.

These minor problems were nothing compared to my growing apprehension about my future as a web designer. For over a year, I've been hearing that the static sites I typically create will all be gone in a few years. Over 30% of people primarily use their phones to view websites now. To reach this growing audience, it is becoming mandatory to create responsive websites that automatically resize themselves to fit any platform they are viewed on. It is no longer enough to re-direct iPhone traffic to a much smaller vertical site. There are so many different platforms and such a multitude of potential sizes that making a separate static site for all of them would be impossible. What you need now is smart code that makes your site look equally good whether it is viewed on a phone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, or something that isn't even invented yet. This is responsive design and I don't know how to code it yet. To me, it's kind of like going from addition and subtraction to calculus in a single step. I've been reading tutorials for a month now, and it still seems Greek to me.

I got a call from the cancer center today saying it was time for Dot's six month recheck and another ultrasound scan.They didn't even know about her spinal surgery and the long journey to teach her to walk again. When I explained Dot's current condition to the doctors, we all agreed that it would be best to postpone the exam for a while. Dot is making great progress, but she's not ready to be a drop-off patient yet. Dot sailed through her last exam with flying colors, but I'm a bit apprehensive about going through all this again. If the cancer ever returned, I don't know what I'd do. The poor girl has been through enough.

I know I've mentioned that nothing happens on Fridays, but today was surprisingly busy. I finished two articles, did some laundry and household chores, and spent quite a while researching responsive web design. If I don't learn how to create these adaptive, mobile friendly sites soon, I'll probably be out of business within a year. I'm pretty good at dealing with today's increasingly interactive world, but I really miss print. Creating a 4-color magazine ad was fun. Creating a website that looks just as good on a phone as it does on a 30" monitor, not so much.

It's raining now. To beat the rain, I had to leave Dot alone again while I took Dash on a quick evening walk to do his business before the thunder and lightning arrived. I could hear Dot barking when we left, but she was just fine when we returned. I remembered to take her harness off this time as well. We're definitely making progress. I have a feeling that Dot will be doing back-flips and handstands before I even begin to understand responsive design.

Bella is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1948

It doesn't really take much to turn a bad day into a good day. It was supposed to rain this morning, but it didn't. I managed to located a missing UPS shipment and it will be here this weekend. I found a better source for my favorite Italian Roast coffee. I even took some decent photographs of baby ducks on my evening walk with Dash. Little things like these made me forget that I saw a giant spider in the kitchen this morning, woke up with a lot of shoulder pain, and discovered that one of my favorite watches had quit working. All you need is a little good to cancel out the bad.

Dot seems to share this attitude. Even though she stumbles a bit and can't seem to walk in a straight line, she seems quite happy with the limited mobility she has been able to regain. Dot's vet continues to be impressed with her progress, but she reminds me from time to time that Dot is fourteen and not to expect miracles. Dot gets stronger every day, but she gets older as well. I am so process oriented that I sometimes think if I faithfully continue her rehabilitation, she will eventually become a young dog again. That's not going to happen. The best we can hope for is a graceful balance between aging and recovery. Dot did great on the treadmill, but was very tired this evening. I guess that is to be expected.

I left Dot alone for the first time today. After we returned from physical therapy, I took a stack of bills to the post office and picked up some prescriptions at the pharmacy. I was only gone ten minutes, but you've got to start somewhere. When I returned, Dot was still sitting in her dog bed and didn't seem frantic at all. The experiment was a success. The only thing I forgot was to take off her harness before I left. Occasionally, one of her feet gets caught up in the harness while she is sleeping, and I don't want that to happen when I'm gone. We'll try this for a little longer when I take Dash for his annual exam next week. If that goes well, I think the dogs will be fine when I have to go for dental surgery toward the end of the month.

I hope I get some interesting projects next week. This week was slow and pretty dull. When I talk with clients they tell me that they have lots of stuff in the pipeline for me. I just hope it doesn't all hit the fan at once. There's only so much I can do in a day. I never seem to be able to regulate my work load very well. It's been feast or famine for over twenty years now, and I don't expect that to change soon.

It's a safe bet that tomorrow won't be very busy. Friday's never are. I think this is how the tradition of going out for breakfast on Friday got started. Without pressing deadlines, I finally had a little time for myself. I'll get up a extra early tomorrow and walk Dash in the dark, so there's still time to go out for breakfast before Janet leaves for work. This little oasis of time is often the high point of my week. As Dot continues to improve, I imagine that I'll be able to go back to my old schedule at some point. There's no hurry though. All in good time.

Backer is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1947

There are days when I feel like I don't even exist. I'm just a ghost in the machine, silently cleaning up dog poop, sweeping rainwater off the roof, and writing articles that are instantly forgotten if they are read at all. I'd like to convince myself that what I do actually matters, but there is often very little evidence that it does. This is the problem with depending on dogs for companionship. You learn to live in the moment, but you don't get a lot of feedback. I know when the dogs want to eat. where they want to walk, and if they are in pain, but I don't really know what they are thinking. Maybe life is just as much of a mystery to them.

It was a shame to waste such a beautiful day up on the roof, but I'm already starting to see mosquitoes and it's more important than ever to dry things out. The warmer it gets, the more the standing water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes. With more reported cases of West Nile Virus every year, you hate to tempt fate. Today, I mucked around in my bare feet so I wouldn't get my dog walking boots wet. The water was warm, but very slippery. I made a mental note not to get near the edge of the roof. The more I see how deep this water gets after a hard rain, the more impressed I am that the roof doesn't leak. It's almost like we've got a duck pond on our roof.

Dot is getting increasingly independent. I'm letting her wander around the house on her own now and I can tell she enjoys the freedom. She still wears the Help 'Em Up Harness all the time, but I seldom need to support her rear legs anymore. I've tied a lightweight nylon leash to the rear handle of the harness that I hold loosely as she walks around. If she starts to slip, this connection to the harness still lets me prevent her from falling. It gives her more independence though and she's learning to walk more confidently on her own. Dot still can't back up very well, or navigate tight corners in the kitchen, but she's getting there. I wonder if her vet will see as much improvement as I have this week when I take her for her physical therapy session tomorrow.

Tax day came and went without incident. My taxes are filed and I'll get a small refund. I can't believe how complex my taxes are, considering how little money I make. By the time the Schedule C, Schedule D, Schedule E, Schedule K-1, home office deductions and half a dozen other esoteric forms are completed, it feels like I'm submitting a book. My accountant makes fun of how little money I make. It's a joke to him, since he remembers when I used to make much, much more, but it's not very funny to me. I should make a lot of money, but my skills just aren't as valuable as they were in the 1980's and 90's. I guess I could have changed professions, but I continue to dance with the one who brung me. I'm a writer who hates meetings and can barely tolerate my fellow man. In many ways I feel lucky that I can still pay the bills on my own terms.

I wanted to install a free Unix program on my computer that could read the dogs MRI scans today, but I discovered that the X-Code application that allows me to run Unix and Linux applications on my Mac was out of date. Increasing, I am being prodded into upgrading to Maverick or Yosemite or whatever the current operating system flavor is these days. I'm still running Lion because this is the end of the road for most of my existing software. It's too expensive to upgrade everything and I don't feel like upgrading anyway. I'm tempted to dig an old computer out of the storage warehouse and start running System 9 again. I was happier in those days.

Krissy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1946

My impacted wisdom tooth is starting to hurt again, so I reluctantly re-scheduled my dental surgery. Since this surgery was supposed to take place in early February, I was kind of hoping that we would have to start all over again with new consultation visits and the surgery itself could be postponed until June or something. No such luck. They were able to work me in rather quickly. No extra visits needed. One of the reasons I postponed the surgery so long is that the money I had put aside to pay for it got used for Dot's spinal surgery. The other reason, was that I never wanted to have my wisdom teeth removed in the first place. I have been warned that painful teeth can go from mildly unpleasant to excruciating almost overnight, so I can't continue to delay this forever. I'm always a little nervous that even good dentists seldom use board-certified anesthesiologists for surgical procedures. They often just handle the anesthesia themselves. Jeez, I'd hate to wind up the way Joan Rivers did.

Since my mind was on medical things today, I also made an appointment for Dash's annual physical.  Last year when Dash had his annual exam, he was still going through radiation treatment for his thyroid cancer. I hope this year's exam is a lot more routine. The exam won't be long and Dash's vet is nearby, so this will be a good time to see how Dot does on her own. Since she can sit and stand reasonably well now, I think she'll be fine. I'll leave her in a secure area with a non-slip rug under her feet and hope she doesn't bark the entire time I'm gone. If this goes well, I'll feel better about leaving her for a longer amount of time when I go to have my wisdom tooth removed.

There was a noisy commotion in the alley behind our house this morning when city street crews brought in a road grader to grade the surface. Years ago the city greatly improved the dirt alley by mixing a cement product with the gravel that created a hard surface after being exposed to water. For some inexplicable reason, the grader removed all of this hard surface today. Now, the alley is just raw dirt, which will instantly turn into a mud pit the next time it rains. Luckily, we don't use the alley for our cars, but this new development will make the dogs harder to clean up on rainy days. I'll be the first to admit that the alley needed improvements, but the city just made it worse. Go figure.

Work was still slow today, so I continued my quest to rediscover my inner audio engineer. I downloaded missing instruction manuals for more old audio gear and began to re-learn what I used to know by heart. I could probably spend the rest of my life re-learning essential skills that I've forgotten. After I become competent at recording and mixing again, I could get out my watch repair tools and learn to fix watches again. I've certainly got plenty of watches that need fixing. I could learn to process black and white film again and start taking pictures with my old Nikons. I could hook up a keyboard and learn to play the piano again. The list is endless.

I enjoy dabbling. It's too bad I still need to work to pay vet bills, dentists, landscapers, and accountants. I'd be fairly content to get up every morning and re-learn things I've forgotten. If that got boring, I could start re-reading books in my library. These books will seem like new again, since I can't remember how half of them end anyway. I doubt that I'll get the opportunity to be this indulgent though. Re-learning how to record tunes on forty year old gear and re-reading a floor to ceiling wall of novels isn't going to pay the bills.

Flash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1945

I spent quite a while today getting re-acquainted with Pro Tools. I used to use this software frequently and knew it well. Not anymore. It's been several years since I've had a need to create or edit audio files. There was a time when I was always thinking about music. I wrote songs, played in a band, and knew my way around a recording studio pretty well. Once upon a time, I even took an audio engineering course and learned to run a 48-track SSL console. I've still got a lot of audio gear to remind me of those days, but I've forgotten virtually everything. Use it or lose it, as they say.

Maybe if I was more familiar with Pro Tools. I might start writing songs again, I thought to myself this morning. It's possible. I suspect it's the other way around though. If I started writing songs again, I might have a need to use Pro Tools. I still hate to forget things though, so I played around for hours with the software and was somewhat amazed at all it could do. Without an active project to throw myself into, what I rediscovered today will probably stay in my brain for about a month. Then I'll have to re-learn it all over again if I ever have the need.

It's hard to believe that I used to be able to program simple games in FORTH, create and render three-dimensional objects using Maya, and do architectural drawings using AutoCad. I had working versions of all these programs running on my Mac at some point, but it eventually became pointless to dabble with these complex applications. Unless you did computer animation for a living, you never really understood Maya. Unless you were an architect or engineer, there was little reason to master the complexities of AutoCad. Even veteran programmers didn't know what to make of FORTH, but to this day it is the only programming language that ever made sense to me. I suspect that the odd language appealed to me because the variables and basic operators were defined as words. A programming language based on creating things using words seemed magic to me at the time.  I even went to FORTH user groups for a while.

I get nostalgic when I try to re-learn something. I spent the entire afternoon playing with a little two track audio file, re-learning how to route compressors, equalizers, and other effects processors through the send and return buss. I was going to try working with a MIDI synthesizer, but then I remembered that all the synthesizers were in the storage warehouse. Since I have forgotten even more about playing the piano than about playing the guitar, I doubt that those synthesizers would have done me much good anyway.

I am curious about almost everything, but since I had no desire to become a full-time computer animation expert, multi-track recording engineer, or even a practicing architect, many of the skills I learned over the years just withered away. It was just too difficult to keep learning a lot of complex things you never used. I always returned to writing because there was no software involved. In a pinch, a yellow pad of paper and a #2 pencil will do just fine.

I'll probably be writing something for someone tomorrow. With all that has died on the vine over the years, I guess I should be glad that there is still one thing I do that people seem to need.

Valli is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1944

In case you haven't noticed, there isn't much point to this blog. I'm not selling anything. I don't even care if I have a lot of followers. This is just a marathon record of everyday life, which I slowly expand, one day at a time. Maybe it will mean something one day. I don't know. When I started this, I knew I wasn't very good at making commitments. I thought writing something that I would continue until the day I died would be rather audacious. It probably is. I haven't missed a day yet, but I sometimes wonder how much longer I can continue this quest before it drives me stark raving mad.

The trouble with everyday life is that in between the occasional awards, accolades and moments of discovery are long stretches of nothing. Maybe finding meaning in the long stretches of nothing is what life is all about. Today, when Dash and I were walking in the park we crossed paths with an avid birder who was trying to take pictures of owls. He wasn't able to find the owls today, but seemed excited that he saw a rare red headed woodpecker. We talked for a while and I realized that even though I was no naturalist, I had observed every one of the animals, including the rare woodpecker, that the birder regularly drove across town to catch a glimpse of. This guy knew a lot more about birds than I'll ever know, but I had an advantage. I am always here. Day after day I watch the seasons slowly change and I see things. I see things that others don't because I don't have to be lucky to be at the right place at the right time. There's always another day. Maybe that's what this blog is really about. When you relentlessly do something over and over again, you eventually start to see things that others don't.

Dot is really feeling better. She still stumbles and her legs are weak, but she walks with purpose now. You can tell she wants to walk, and that's probably the key to her recovery. Today she made it all the way to the top of the small hill we are now including in her short morning walk. It's taken about a week to conquer the little hill a few steps at a time, but we're making progress. This is one thing I've learned by keeping this extended journal. Change doesn't often happen fast enough and it seldom happens on your schedule, but changes do occur if you are patient enough. By taking things slowly and not expecting miracles to happen overnight, Dot is slowly but surely beginning to walk normally again. Maybe, over time, my shoulder will return to normal as well.

The yard looks nice now. I mowed the grass in the front yard this morning and watered the new grass in the back. I think I've gotten rid of most of the Tent Caterpillars, but there could be thousands more hiding in places I can't see. I saw my first snake in the yard while I was pulling weeds this morning. It was just a baby snake, but baby snakes have mothers. Have I mentioned I don't like snakes. Why can't there be more nice animals in the yard, like the pretty turtle I saw today at the lake? Of course if this turtle actually did live in the yard, lord knows what it would do. I'm sure it would eat something I planted.

Janet thought I should go to the gym today, but mowing the grass was plenty of exercise for me. The only place I went today was to the pharmacy to pick up some prescription refills and to the vet to get more heartworm pills for Dot and Dash. There was really no need to get out today. I had bacon for breakfast, the dogs were in a good mood, and I'm pretty well caught up with work. Even though nothing really happened, it was a good day.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1943

My accountant called and told me my taxes were done. My refund this year wasn't even large enough to cover the cost of preparing the tax return. Too bad you can't deduct pet expenses. I would have come out a lot better this year if I could have deducted all the vet bills for Dot and Dash. I would have come out better if I had remembered to send in my Quarterly Estimated Taxes too. Oh, well. At least I won't have to worry about taxes for another year.

I may have to worry about Tent Caterpillars though. When I was watering the lawn this afternoon, I noticed that we have a huge infestation of Tent Caterpillars. There must have been hundreds of the bugs on one tree alone.  The annual invasion of insects has begun. I never know what to expect. One year it will be bagworms. The next year it could be wasps. A few year ago we had to have beekeepers come out and remove a huge bee hive that appeared one Spring inside the roof of our house. We could hear the bees buzzing above us when we went to sleep at night. At this time of year there are tons of Crane Flies. These slow moving insects look like giant mosquitoes and are attracted to light. They gather around the back door and whenever I open the door to take Dot outside, they fly inside. The bugs are harmless and easy enough to catch, but they are a giant nuisance at this time of year. The house is full of them because when I help Dot outside using the Help 'Em Up Harness, I leave the door open so Dash can come out too. Dash takes his time, but the bugs are very quick.

I ran my Saturday errands early this morning, so Janet could do hers later. When I picked up a prescription at the pharmacy, I asked the pharmacist why the price of one particular drug kept changing every time I picked up a new bottle. "The price of this one just goes up and down," the pharmacist said. Why? I still have no earthly idea.

The dogs were good today. I was able to do several loads of laundry, wash the dishes, change the sheets on the bed, and kill a bunch of Tent Caterpillars while they were sleeping. Dot seems much more content now that she has a bit more freedom. She never liked being confined. Before her injury, she would spend most of her time sleeping under my desk, unless I was headed toward the kitchen where there was food. Now that she has to spend time in her pen, she always seems to have things to do and places to go. It certainly didn't take her long to learn that barking was the quickest way to get out of the pen and go somewhere else. Today was peaceful though. There was only one minor barking episode. When I looked at my watch I realized that the dogs were right and I was wrong. It was time for their dinner.

I wonder if I'll ever get back to the gym. It's time to mow the grass again and the car is looking dirty as well. I forgot to pick up more heartworm pills for Dot and Dash and I'm sure there are a number of other things I've forgotten too. Sunday is a time to remember what you forgot on Saturday. For a brief time right after I joined the gym, I went three times a week. How did I ever have that much free time?

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1942

When I went to breakfast this morning, there was a group of older men sitting at the next table. Judging from their shirts and caps, they were all mechanics at a nearby neighborhood garage. Nobody in this group was looking at a cell phone. They didn't even seem to have phones. The men just talked and laughed and told jokes. Everybody used to be this way. Now, these guys seemed like the last practitioners of the art of conversation. I looked around and everyone else in the restaurant was texting or checking their Facebook feed. It's kind of sad that this is what the world has become. I don't think there's any turning back though. We have forgotten how to have a decent conversation.

When I was walking Dash this morning, we met Janet and Dot on the way home. Dot was walking up a small hill and doing great. She's so much happier now that she's starting to get her life back. These short walks are tiring for Dot, but you can tell that she enjoys them. The exercise is making a difference. The atrophy in her rear legs was so severe right after her surgery that her legs just seemed like skin and bones. Now she's starting to get some muscle back. I can already feel the difference.

I was unusually busy today. Usually Friday's are slow, but not today. In addition to my dog wrangling duties, I finished writing several new articles and managed to get my April invoices ready to mail. I've been hearing that Google is going to start penalizing websites that aren't mobile friendly later this month, so I did a little research to see how hard it would be to convert some of my older legacy sites. My own company website is probably one of the worst offenders. I haven't changed it much since the mid-1990's. As it turns out, older table-based static sites like these are some of the hardest to make mobile friendly. I never should of made my sites look like multi-column magazines. One of the reasons why single column sites and sites without navigation buttons are all the rage now is that they are so much easier to re-size.

It's hard to believe that the Apple Watch sold out in just a few hours on the very first pre-order day. It's just as well. I can't afford one now anyway. I bet a lot of companies wish they had Apple's mojo. You come out with an overpriced product with a battery that doesn't even last 24 hours and you still manage to sell more watches in a single day than Android does in a year. Maybe by the time I get one of these gadgets, Apple will have figured out how to improve the battery life.

I don't know what I want to do this weekend. Sleep would be nice. I haven't been getting much sleep lately. My UP band log says that I average 5 to 6 hours a night. Much of that is light sleep too. Since I occasionally fall asleep writing this blog, 5 hours clearly isn't enough. Light sleep is probably why I have all these weird dreams about losing things too. Who cares about a goal of 12,000 steps a day? I think my goal should be 8 hours of sleep every night.

Apollo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1941

I wish I'd stop having dreams about being lost or losing things. For decades, I've wandered around in my dreams trying to find my car in a parking garage, trying to find my room in a large hotel, trying to find a connecting flight at an airport. The list goes on and on. Last night I picked out two pair of pants in a clothing store and then lost them before I could get to the register. You'd think it would be easy to find these pants, but I never did. These dreams aren't scary. They're just irritating. I hesitate to analyze any of my dreams. They probably mean something, but not anything I'm eager to know.

We got up earlier than usual today. I'm not sure if Janet had to go to work early or if I was just trying to avoid the rain. It was windy and warm this morning and I could see the moon through thin clouds. There was no pretty sunrise and I just had cold cereal for breakfast when I got home. It was that kind of day.

Don't get me wrong. Parts of the day were very good. Dot did great at her physical therapy session and her vet continues to be impressed with her progress. She walked almost ten minutes in the underwater treadmill and this was in addition to a pretty impressive morning walk. She made it all the way to the entrance to the park this morning. It's not really that far to the park entrance, but this was still a personal best for Dot. She even walked up a gentle hill today to help strengthen her leg muscles. For the most part, Dot is able to walk on her own. We only have to help her if she is trying to climb over a curb or encounters an obstacle.

I've noticed that Dot rests more comfortably in the house, now that she's getting to go outside again. I let her sleep outside her pen now, as long as I'm nearby to keep an eye on her. I'm still housebound, but life is starting to seem a little more normal now. I was thinking that Dot was almost ready to start staying alone for short periods of time and then she managed to get her leg tangled up in her harness today. I quickly unsnapped the harness and freed her stuck leg, but the incident made me nervous about leaving her alone. Maybe it would be better to put her in a small safe area and take the harness off completely if I have to leave the house.

I only got one of my writing assignments finished today, but there is still plenty of time to complete the other. It's hard to get a lot done when Dot has physical therapy. She's only in the treadmill about ten minutes, but it take time to get her situated in the hammock where she rides in the car. It takes time to dry her off after her water therapy, and it takes lots of time to navigate the Dallas traffic. It's a good thing I'm seldom in a hurry, or this whole process could be very frustrating. I actually like going to the vet and don't particularly care how long it takes. These Thursday afternoons are a nice change of pace. I hope Dot enjoys the outing as well.

This week went quickly. I've already taken this week's trash out to the curb for tomorrow morning's garbage pickup and am looking forward to another meal at my breakfast restaurant. I'll have to get up early again so I can walk Dash and get to the restaurant when it opens at 7 AM. I don't even mind getting up early anymore. It's certainly better than weird dreams about being lost.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1940

I spent the day making plans for projects that may or may not ever take place. I have a client who likes to use a teleprompter, so I did some research on teleprompter systems that would work well with my camera. I eventually found something vaguely affordable that would attach to the 15 mm rods I use with my matte box. This system, like most these days, works in conjunction with an iPad. I have an old iPad I thought I'd use, but had trouble finding teleprompter software that would run on IOS 5.1.1. Yes, I have a first generation iPad that isn't even supported anymore. Most of the teleprompter software I saw needed at least IOS 7.0. I finally found something that would run on my old machine and downloaded it. That's enough for one day. If we ever do the video, I'll buy the rest of the system later.

Next on the list was trying to figure out how to route a Pro Tools music file through some old studio  equipment I used to use and then feed it back into the computer again. I've been meaning to do this for years, but never got around to it because of all the wires and interface boxes I had to hook up. There wasn't anything better to do today, so I got to work. Since I didn't really know what I was doing, it took me forever to get the digital signal out of the computer, into the old analog EQ and compressor I wanted to use, and then back into the computer again. I experimented with dozens of different configurations, making a huge mess of tangled wires, extension cords, and electronic boxes, until something accidentally worked. Now, the difficult part will be remembering what I did this afternoon when I actually need to use this technique six months or a year from now.

I probably could have solved today's problems a lot quicker if Dot wasn't in such a demanding mood. She was feeling good today, and didn't want to be in a pen at all. I decided to let her roam the house when she felt like it, always following close behind to assist if she started to slip. Every time I had a good idea about how to configure the audio system, Dot would decide to move about and I had to leave the computer to follow her. Dot really did well. She walked a little awkwardly, but didn't stumble at all. She even managed to sit down in a somewhat controlled manner a few times. If she continues to improve at this rate, I think it's just a matter of time before we can safely walk her on a leash without the special Help 'Em Up Harness.

I received two new writing jobs toward the end of the day, so there won't be any weird experimentation tomorrow. I've cleaned up the mess in the office and am happy that I learned something new. It's good to know that some of my old audio equipment can still be put to good use. Whether I'll ever actually use the old rack of outboard gear in a Pro Tools session is another matter entirely. At least I know I could if I wanted too.

I'm cooking more elaborate breakfasts now. You don't have to worry about me becoming a chef or anything, but I've definitely grown tired of cereal. I think I could live on eggs, sausages, cheese, and salsa. Just about everything I cook starts with these four ingredients. Looking back, I don't know how I survived on oatmeal for so long. A nice spicy omelet is so much better than oatmeal. That's why I fixed one this morning.

There are thunderstorms in tomorrow's forecast. I hope the forecast is wrong. It's hard enough getting Dot to her physical therapy session when the weather is perfect. Dealing with the dogs various storm phobias in the car is not a pleasant experience. I know I can't cancel or reschedule everything I do when it rains, but I'd like to. Rain is problematic. I think the only thing you should do when it rains is get under a blanket and watch a movie.

Livy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day