Day 2011

I went and picked up Dot's chemotherapy medication after breakfast this morning. When Dash finished his year long Palladia treatment, I was hoping that I'd never see this drug again. The trouble with cancer drugs is that you can't be sure if they really work. The oncologist can cite all sorts of statistics, but in the end they are just statistics. You can still die of cancer even after extensive chemotherapy treatment and it's still possible to go into remission if you do nothing. My instinct is to find the best doctors and just do what they say, but the ambiguity of cancer treatment is still unsettling. Dot will initially take the drug for one week and then she'll have a blood test at the end of next week to determine if the Palladia has adversely affected her red and white cell count. If her blood chemistry looks good and she doesn't have excessive diarrhea, Dot will probably continue taking Palladia for the rest of her life, or until we run out of money. Chemotherapy can be very expensive.

I thought I'd get a lot done today since Dot had to cancel her physical therapy appointment because the underwater treadmill was broken. Unfortunately, I didn't get any more accomplished than any other day. Little things kept getting in the way. I'm beginning to wish that e-mail was never invented. Janet is continually answering work related e-mail at home and even with a smaller client base, I spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with e-mail myself. I'd like to say "not my circus, not my monkeys" to everyone, but if you have a small business like I do, you quickly realize that the problems actually are your monkeys.

At least the weather was nice today. There was a cool breeze when we took the dogs on their early morning walk and the temperature was still reasonable later in the day when it was time for the evening walk. Tropical Depression Bill has moved on and there was actually lots of blue sky today. I don't think there is any rain in the forecast for tomorrow either. All this really means is that it's time to get all the water off the roof again. We got a couple of products to control mosquitoes recently that are supposed to be organic and pet friendly. I did a little research on the Internet and discovered that one of the products was probably as safe as it claimed to be, while the other one was poison. The second product was so hazardous that I can't believe that someone sold it to us as safe to use around dogs. It's hard to trust anyone these days. While the mosquito treatment products may be questionable, at least there was some satisfaction in learning that the food Dot and Dash eat was still the best available. I saw a recent independent study that tested and ranked over 2000 types of dog food and the brand our dogs have eaten for years was among the elite top 25. Hey, at least we're doing something right.

I finished another article today, but I still have several more to write tomorrow. There is a long list of websites that I still need to convert to a mobile friendly format. Since I am no longer doing this for free, the list might actually be shorter than I think. I don't think I'll ever completely catch up with everything. It's an impossibility. I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow. Although the day happens to be my birthday, the important thing is that I'll get to go out for breakfast again.

Rugby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2010

We woke up again to the sounds of rain pounding on the roof and flood alerts beeping on the mobile devices. As soon as I looked out the window, I knew it was going to be a long day. Not surprisingly, both dogs refused to go outside and pee. Dot is like a ticking bomb these days. If you don't get her outside to do her business quickly, she's almost certain to poop on the floor. You can't stop the rain though. What are you going to do? Today's early morning downpour didn't begin to abate until well after Janet had to go to work, so we didn't get the opportunity to walk the dogs together. Amazingly, Dot managed to hold it until the rain took a breather around 9:30 AM. I walked both dogs in turn and a few minutes after I got Dash back to the house, the downpour started all over again. The rain, accompanied at times by very high winds, continued throughout the day. The lights flickered a few times, but the power didn't go out.

I didn't get a lot accomplished today because I spent way too much time answering questions that had piled up in my inbox. Why do people hate to talk these days. They text, they send e-mails, but they never call. I'm so sick of explaining complex technical issues to clients via e-mail that I could scream. I always send detailed answers to all the questions, but it takes so long to type everything.  At least I didn't have to drive up to North Dallas in the rain to meet with my financial adviser. After I told his secretary yesterday that I might want to cancel the meeting if the rain scared the dogs, he called me back and suggested that we just have a conference call instead. This worked out great. I may never go meet anyone in person again. What is the point?

Dot was supposed to start her Palladia treatment today, but the oncologist didn't get things coordinated with the pharmacy in time, so we'll postpone beginning chemotherapy until Friday. I told the cancer center not to include a pair of the special purple hazardous material gloves every time I refilled Dot's Palladia prescription. When Dash was taking the same drug during his year long cancer treatment, I noticed that they charged me five dollars for each pair of these gloves. The gloves last a long time and I've got a ton of them now. You may not think five dollars is much, but it adds up when the chemotherapy lasts for years at a time. I hope these pills don't make Dot's poop soft. Pooping in the house is bad enough, but soft stools will make things even worse.

Maybe I can finally get caught up with work tomorrow. Thursday is usually Dot's physical therapy day, but the clinic called me late this afternoon and wanted to postpone her appointment because the underwater treadmill had broken. I wonder who fixes underwater treadmills?  Dot could probably use a rest anyway. The clinic wanted to reschedule for Monday, but I have an appointment with one of my own doctors on that day. I'm sure Dot won't mind waiting until next week to get back in the tank again.

I usually just throw leftovers in the microwave for dinner, but tonight I decided to cook a warm braised kale salad from scratch instead. The spicy, warm salad was quite good. I surprise myself sometimes. I'm really a pretty decent cook, but I hate the cleanup aspect of cooking. It's a rare day that I ever use more than one pot. Making smoothies in the Vitamix is so much easier.

Tomorrow is a new day. I suspect that it will be exactly like today though. There is more rain in the forecast.

Bali is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2009

Take care of your teeth. I've always had good strong teeth and when I was younger I would frequently go decades between dental visits. This was a mistake. Just because my teeth didn't hurt didn't mean there weren't any problems. The problems grew slowly and painlessly year-after-year, until one day my mouth just imploded with bad news. If you take care of your teeth you can probably just go to a regular dentist. I had to go to a place called The Center for Complex Dentistry.

I was in the chair for over three hours today. The dentist talked back and forth with his assistant throughout the procedure. At one point I heard him say "This isn't supposed to be that difficult." At another point he called hurriedly for a second assistant, saying "I don't have enough hands to do this." Toward the end, he told me "I think you've made my top 10 list." Apparently, the work I had done was very difficult. I only had two fillings and one crown replaced, but one of the fillings was almost impossible. The dentist lived up to his reputation though. He was very, very good.

Be sure to pee before you have major dental work. Three hours is a long time to sit in that chair. I still have to go back in early August to have my permanent porcelain crown installed, but my long dental saga is almost over. My teeth are in good shape again, and most importantly, I won't need to get implants. I still don't know why it takes over a month to get a crown made, but I guess it does. The temporary crown they made me today fits well and I don't expect problems. They dentist just told me not to eat anything really sticky like taffy or caramel while I have the temporary crown. No problem. I don't eat many sweets anyway.

I didn't get a lot of work done today, since I was at the dentist for so long, but I did figure out a clever way to do a lobby slide show for one of my clients. These type of things used to involve dragging a ton of still images into an editing program, creating dissolves or other transitions between each image, and then burning the Ken Burns style Quicktime movie to a DVD in continuous play mode. I hated to make these things. Now you just have to plug a little Chromecast stick into the back of your TV, link the TV to one of your existing Google photo albums using your phone and you're done. It took me less than 45 seconds to have a nice looking slide show up and running.

It rained sporadically throughout the day but I was lucky enough to have a dry spell at both the beginning and end of the day so I could get the dogs walked. Dot hasn't had any more accidents in the house since I started being much more conscientious about getting her outside frequently to poop.  The days of trying to fit the dogs activities to my schedule are over. In the long run it is a lot easier just to change my schedule to meet the dogs needs. My financial adviser called today to confirm an appointment for tomorrow. I told him I'd be there unless there was a bad storm and I needed to stay home with Dot and Dash. Nobody even questions these type of things anymore. They all know who comes first in my world.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2008

It was definitely Monday this morning. Monday is always the day when things get off to a slow and often rocky start. When I woke up this morning, Janet was already on the phone, having trouble getting an appointment to get her car in for service. Both dogs were barking at me because I wasn't fast enough getting their breakfast. After a fairly peaceful walk, I turned on the computer and discovered even more problems. Somebody must have gotten up even earlier than me. There were short, ambiguous e-mail questions that required long, detailed answers. There was confusion about who was in charge of certain projects. Was I ahead of schedule, or falling behind? I still don't know.

It took a while to get everything sorted out, but after I did, I noticed a letter in yesterday's mail offering me a two month free trial of satellite radio in my car. Since the was no obligation to continue the service after the two months were up, I decided to give it a try. I signed up, and of course when I started the car later in the day, the satellite radio didn't work. It took two more calls to tech support before the satellite found me. "You have to turn off Bluetooth before you can acquire the signal," someone in a far away call center told me. "But I'm talking to you right now using Bluetooth," I said. "If I turn it off, this call will go dead." That's kind of how it went. Eventually the satellite did find my car and I discovered that SiriusXM was just as boring as regular radio. I tuned into a live traffic report channel and found that it only monitored traffic conditions in Boston and Philadelphia. The Rock and Roll channel was just playing very old Elvis Presley tunes. I'll still probably continue listing to NPR instead. National Public Radio does have some good programming, but I wish they quit talking about the Middle East. I'm tired of hearing about problems in the Middle East. I wish there was a channel that just played Ted Talks. A veterinarian channel would be nice too. I'm always interested in learning how to keep the dogs healthy.

Summer has definitely arrived. Every morning I wake up with a new batch of mosquito and chigger bites. I don't know how all these mosquitoes got inside, but they're very hard to get rid of. The air has turned hot and muggy and the fire ants have returned. The birds that poop on my car have returned as well. I don't know where these irritating birds go in the Winter, but our house has definitely become their permanent Summer home. At least we are in no danger of a drought. There is more heavy rain in the forecast for tomorrow, as a big tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico heads inland. I'm glad I don't live in Houston. We'll get wet, but Houston is in danger of flooding again.

I need to get up early tomorrow because I've got a dental appointment in the morning. I hope there are no complications and I can get home again before the rain arrives. I hate leaving storm phobic dogs alone in the rain. I don't like being out in the rain myself, but I want to put this dental work behind me. There's no point in postponing things anymore. The only thing I'd like to postpone is my upcoming birthday. I used to look forward to birthdays, but the years go by too fast. We need to slow these birthdays down.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2007

When I went to the gym this afternoon, I thought I'd try to resume the strenuous workouts I used to do this time last year. I was exhausted. Somehow, being one year older, dislocating my shoulder, and going to the gym on Sunday afternoons instead of three days a week have taken their toll. I made it through the routine, but I'll be sore tomorrow. Perhaps I should have skipped getting the water off the roof and vacuuming when I got home.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the little Philae spacecraft that landed on a comet seven months ago has come alive again. The space geeks among you might remember that Philae's batteries went dead after just 60 hours because it landed next to a cliff and wasn't receiving enough sunlight to recharge the batteries. The comet kept moving though and as the sun got closer and closer, the solar panels began receiving more sunlight and the batteries slowly recharged. It amazes me that we know how to build things this well, and yet we rarely do it. I'm lucky if I can get the equipment around the house to run for two weeks without some sort of mishap, and yet the Philae comet lander and several incredibly durable Mars rovers just keep on working. It's a shame that we've almost lost the concept of things that last a lifetime. People seem strangely content to buy something amazingly cool and just throw it away when it inevitably breaks. I wonder how long our cool new Keurig coffeemaker and Dyson vacuum cleaner are going to last?

The dogs had a good day today. They seem much more content on weekends when everybody is home and the pace is a little more relaxed. The recent rain has cooled the air down a bit too. When you're walking old dogs, every degree counts. It's a shame that Dot is so fragile. She had a playful moment today where I could tell that she wanted to race around and play with Dash like she did in the old days. I quickly put her harness on and tried to follow her around so she wouldn't fall and break a hip or something, but I think I spoiled the moment. All the vets have warned me that Dot will injure herself if she tries to run without assistance. Watching her move slowly around the house, I believe them.

Protecting dogs from harm while still allowing them to be dogs is difficult. Instincts are strong and Dot would still like to chase after anything that comes down the alley, while Dash continues to follow his nose to the most appealing smells, even if they lead to something dangerous. Since Dash likes to walk along the shoreline, I have to keep a sharp eye out for poisonous snakes in the Summer.  Today, Dash stubbornly wanted to go down a street where I knew there was a dangerous, aggressive dog that sometimes gets loose. We did walk home the safe way, but Dash wasn't happy about it.

I get the rest of my dental work done later this week. Hopefully when this is complete, the onslaught of ridiculously high bills will abate somewhat. It would be nice to have a Summer without any medical emergencies, car problems, or major appliance meltdowns whatsoever.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2006

Something caught my eye when I was reading about Dot's condition last night. It said that older dogs like Dot have a lot of difficulty squatting, and tended to defecate while they were moving. This morning, instead of waiting and waiting in the yard for her to do her business, I immediacy took her on a little walk down the alley as soon as I got out of bed. Worked like a charm. Dot pooped normally after only walking about fifty feet. We then returned home, I finished getting dressed, we had our meds, ate breakfast and everything was fine. No accidents for the rest of the day. It's weird how such a little detail could make such a big difference. For years I'd always let the dogs out in the yard when I first got up and then we took a walk later. That doesn't work anymore. Dot needs to be moving to poop and apparently it doesn't matter to her if she's moving down the road or moving around the house, waiting for us to get ready. She'll still have accidents, but I think this little change in routine will help.

Since it was supposed to rain today, I did all my Saturday errands early. I should do this all the time. People get up later on the weekends and it's so much easier to do your shopping before the rest of the world is out and about. I had an easy time finding parking places, didn't have to wait in lines to check out, and as an added bonus, didn't have to wash my car because I got caught in the rain. Don't ask me why I'm so OCD that I have to wash my car every time it rains, but that's just the way it is.

I was surprised to turn on the TV this morning and discover that a nutcase who recently bought an armored car on eBay was trying to attack the downtown police station with pipe bombs and an assault rifle. I know people who live right across the street from this police station. I don't know if I was more surprised that something like this could happen in a trendy urban neighborhood full of cool restaurants and loft residences, or that someone could actually purchase an armored car on eBay. Is there anywhere left that is immune from all this social chaos? Sadly, I don't think so.

It did rain today. It rained a lot. Luckily, I was able to time things so that the dogs got walked and I was able to take care of all my Saturday errands during the dry periods. During the rainy periods, I went to the office and wrote some new articles while the dogs stayed nearby under my desk. I've started turning the pump on as soon as the rain starts now to slow down the rate that standing water accumulates. The reason this works now when it didn't before is that I've finally managed to find the low point on the roof. That's exactly where I place the pump. I've also built a little guard to keep leaves and debris from immediately clogging the pump's impeller. Maybe if a buy a second pump for the lower carport roof and do the same thing, I won't actually have to crawl up there much at all.

I still can't figure out why U-verse wasn't working last night. One TV was fine and the other kept saying that it wasn't getting a signal. Since the TV in the kitchen worked perfectly, I knew the signal was there. I rebooted the router, tried several different HDMI cables and nothing worked. Usually, I'm pretty good at analyzing and fixing things, but I totally struck out last night. This morning everything worked fine. I don't have a clue what changed while I was sleeping.

It looks like we are going to have a wet summer. Not only are we getting more rain tomorrow, it is supposed to rain every single day next week. The yard looks great, but enough is enough.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2005

Dot has been leaving little "accidents" around the house. She can't help it. Doctors say that this is not true incontinence. It is a common problem with older dogs that have weak or debilitated hind legs. Dogs like Dot have a real difficulty squatting, so they never fully empty their colon when they poop. As a consequence, poop just falls out of them when they bark or when they get up in the morning. I don't think there is much you can do about this other than be as patient as you can. With Dot's weekly acupuncture, water therapy and exercise regime, we are already doing everything we can to keep her legs strong. The disconcerting thing is that this type of thing happens to people as well. It doesn't paint a pretty picture for growing older. One of the last things I remember my Dad saying before he died was "Nurse, there's a turd in my bed."

Dot's pooping problems haven't really slowed her down. I don't even think she's aware that when she opens her mouth to bark, things fall out the other end. Despite all her problems, Dot is still a happy dog. She wakes up every morning eager for breakfast. She loves her morning walks and relishes smelling every bush along the way. Today, the weather was warm and she wanted to lay outside in the grass and sun herself like she used to do when she was healthy. I can't leave her alone in the yard anymore, because if a car came down the alley, she would try her best to run back and forth along the back fence barking at it. Running is something she should never do because she could seriously hurt herself. Both dogs were having such a good time sunning themselves that I just sat on the garden bench for forty five minutes watching them while the mosquitoes bit me. You have to have a lot of patience with an older dog.

U-Verse isn't working again, so I was trying to show Janet how to work the Hulu remote control this evening. I don't watch Hulu and Netflix all that much, but whenever I do, I'm amazed at the thousands and thousands of things just sitting there on our TV waiting to be watched. It makes me wonder why I'm spending all this money on U-verse service when there are all these other things available for next to nothing. Oh, wait. I remember now. It's U-verse that powers my Internet connection and WiFi network. If I dropped the U-verse service, I would automatically lose all the other things that are streamed for next to nothing over the Internet. My high-tech thermostat would quit working too. There's always a catch.

My insurance agent finally called me back to explain why my rates were so high. He offered me several alternatives, which somewhat inexplicably cost even more than what I am already paying now. When I patiently explained to the agent that the whole point of my call was to reduce my rates instead of increase them even further, he seemed perplexed. I guess it wasn't in the cards to save any money today.

One of my clients also happens to be one of my doctors. I didn't feel like driving up to the clinic just to make an appointment, so I thought I try making an appointment online using a new appointment widget I'd added to his website recently. When I clicked the "Make An Appointment" button, I was presented with a calendar that showed all the available appointment times. Every single morning for the rest of the month was available. This didn't seem right at all, because this particular doctor is always busy. No afternoons were available either, which was even more peculiar.  Since the online system seemed all screwed up, I drove up to the clinic and made my appointment the old fashioned way. "Do you know that your online appointment system doesn't work," I told the guy at the front desk. "Oh, that thing isn't even connected to our system anyway," the guy said. "When someone clicks on one of those buttons, the company that sold us the online service calls us and asks if we have that time available. If we do, we call the patient back and confirm the appointment." "So, clicking on the button doesn't actually make you an appointment at all," I said. "Nope," the guy told me. This has got to be the world's worst automated appointment system.

I hope that Dot doesn't poop in her bed tonight. I'd like to get a good night's sleep without getting up at 3 AM to clean up the peculiar smell next to the bed that woke me up in the middle of the night. It happens a lot.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2004

I got a call from Dot's oncologist around dinner time. The cytology reports came back from the lab earlier than she expected. The good news is that her spleen is completely normal. The bad news is that the small growth in her liver appears to be the same type of tumor that we successfully removed from her intestine over a year ago. Since the cancer probably spread to the liver from her intestinal tract, surgery is not recommended. Metastatic liver cancer does not respond well to surgery. If there is any silver lining to this large dark cloud, it is that this particular type of tumor grows very slowly. It has also been successfully controlled using Palladia, which is the same chemotherapy drug that Dash took for his thyroid cancer. The oncologist wants to start Dot on Palladia for six weeks to see how well she tolerates the drug. Dash did fine during the year he was on Palladia, but every dog is different. If Dot doesn't show any adverse side-effects from chemotherapy, she would probably continue taking the drug for the rest of her life. The thing I remember most about Palladia, other than having to wear special purple rubber bio-hazard gloves every time I touched the stuff, was the huge expense of treatment. When Dash took Palladia it cost us around $400 a month for the pills. I don't think Janet and I will ever be able to retire.

Luckily, Dot doesn't know she has cancer. She did great  in the underwater treadmill this afternoon and appeared much stronger than she did last week. Even with limited mobility, she is still a happy and very determined dog. At her age, she's probably got two or three years left in the best of circumstances. I would like those years to be happy, pain free years, so we'll do whatever it takes.

I finished my latest mobile friendly website today and replaced the old static site. The client was delighted. Things usually go well with this particular client because they just leave me alone. I can do amazing things for you if you don't try to micromanage me. Most of the micro managers and divas are gone now, because we just didn't get along. I still have a few left though and I wish I could just get rid of them. There is no satisfaction in working for someone who thinks they could do your job better than you can if they just had more time. These people will never have more time, but they are never happy either.

They found my blood work at the clinic. Maybe somebody was reading the blog yesterday. I can predict what the results will be. The doctor will say my A1C levels still aren't normal yet. He'll want my HDL levels to be higher and my LDL levels to be lower. I'm pretty pleased with my blood chemistry, but my doctor always thinks it could be better. I mostly want to find out if Benicar is really a dangerous drug. I switched from Benicar back to an ACE inhibitor to control my blood pressure. The nagging cough I had before when I was taking ACE inhibitors like Zestril has returned though. I want to switch back to Benicar if it isn't going to kill me. I'm still seeing those 1-800-BAD-DRUG ads on TV though. Who are you going to believe?

I'm so disappointed that Dot's cancer has returned, but we always knew that it might. We'll just do the best we can. I wish the dogs weren't so mind numbingly expensive, but they keep me happy when nothing else can. The dogs are definitely worth it. The rest? I'm not so sure. Today's watch of the day is kind of how I feel.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2003

Dot did great during her biopsy this afternoon. We won't have the cytology report until Friday, but Dot's oncologist said that they got exactly what they needed to find out what was going on in her liver and spleen. I learned something new today. I was worried that since Dot can barely walk anyway, she might have an an adverse reaction to the sedation that would make it difficult for me to get her home again. "She'll be able to walk just fine," the nurse told me. "We reverse the sedation when we are finished with the procedure." I didn't know your could quickly reverse the effects of a sedative, but apparently you can. They give dogs a drug called Dexdomitor to put them under and then give another drug called Antisedan to bring them back again and reverse the sedation. The combo apparently works, because Dot walked out of the treatment room like nothing had happened.

My dogs get so much better care than I do. When I go to one of the specialty vets that care for Dot and Dash, I always feel like I'm in the right place. The nurses are nice and always take time to answer all your questions. The people waiting in the lobby with their dogs are all polite, responsible people who genuinely care about their pets. The doctors themselves are amazing. In this kind of environment, I'm always hopeful. Unfortunately, I can't say the same when I go to a human doctor. A visit to my general practitioner is like a visit to Walmart. Where do these people come from? I usually feel like I'm going to catch something horrible just by sitting in the lobby for more than ten minutes. The lobby TV at the dog's cancer center shows PBS cooking shows. The lobby TV at my general practitioner shows Man vs. Food. Both places apparently know their audience.

Going out to eat is a good solution for dealing with dogs that need to fast for an upcoming medical procedure. Dot got her early breakfast with Janet this morning and when I returned from the restaurant a few hours later with my last cup of coffee in a to-go cup, both dogs were sleeping peacefully. They had completely forgotten about the banana I usually give them.

Considering that I spent most of the afternoon up at the cancer center with Dot, I actually got quite a bit done today. I'm making good progress on my latest mobile friendly website project. It's a good sign that each one of these projects gets a little easier than the previous one. I am apparently learning something. I wouldn't call my current project easy, mostly because there are so many pages involved. It's the process that's getting easier. Responsive design is still new enough that I should probably go out and try to get some new business. There are still thousands of old static sites out there and now I know exactly what to do with them.

Tomorrow is a new day. With any luck, I ought to be able to launch what will be my fifth mobile friendly website. We going to let Dot rest tomorrow morning and see if she does any better on the treadmill at her physical therapy session. I don't think she'll miss her walk tomorrow morning anyway. It's getting hot again and she had a pretty big day today. Dot is sleeping now. I think I'll join her soon.

Escher is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2002

I spent most of the day staring at a computer screen. There was a long article with a very short deadline to finish and then there was a seemingly endless series of HTML documents to convert to a mobile friendly format. The website I'm working on now is a labyrinth. It took years to create and there are literally hundreds of pages that are largely forgotten about. I have no idea which of these many pages is still important to someone, so I am slowly recreating them all.

There is always a feeling of accomplishment when I finish something. I like being done with things. This makes longer projects difficult for me. Where do you stop? My current web project is going to take weeks to finish and it's already driving me nuts. I prefer things I can finish in a day or less so I can go to sleep with absolutely nothing on my mind. Now, I'll wake up in the middle of the night with a better way to tackle a problem I was struggling with hours earlier. It makes for a long day.

I got a call from the cancer center reminding me of Dot's appointment tomorrow. Since her mini-biopsy isn't until 2:30 PM, she can eat breakfast normally in the morning, but isn't supposed to eat anything else after 8 AM. Her stomach is supposed to be empty when she goes for her test. This means that I am going to have to go out for breakfast tomorrow. The dogs always eat early when Janet gets up. Typically, this is around 6 AM. We walk the dogs after the early risers in the house have finished breakfast and then I eat later after Janet has gone to work. Both dogs have grown to expect that I'll share my breakfast with them, so trying to eat something tomorrow morning without feeding Dot and Dash their prized slices of banana would not be a pleasant experience. They get tired after their morning walk anyway. It will be much easier to just let them take a nap while I go out to eat.

I thought the Spring rain was over with, but a sudden thunderstorm caught us by surprise this afternoon. The storm just appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't even on the forecast this morning. For thirty minutes rain pounded on the roof while bursts of thunder and lightning scared the dogs into moving to their safety zone under my desk. There was lots of wind and my phone even beeped with a flood alert warning. An hour later the skies had cleared again. By the time I took the dogs on their evening walks, all that was left of the brief storm was a damp, muggy feeling in the air. I'm slowly learning to appreciate the rain. I won't have to water the grass today and the storm cooled the air enough so that Dash was comfortable on his evening walk again. Rain is good as long as your roof doesn't leak.

Today was boring, but very productive. I know I won't get as much done tomorrow. I'm going to stay with Dot during her lab tests instead of leaving her as a drop off at the cancer center. It's the least I can do. Vet appointments always take longer than expected, but at least I'll be there with her and she won't have to be waiting in a cage all day for her thirty minute procedure.

Let's hope the lab reports are positive. I'm really tired of bad news.

Liberty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2001

I think some people should have just stayed in bed this morning. I needed to find out some simple information today and struck out everywhere I called. My insurance agent seemed about two weeks behind on everything and said they couldn't get to my questions because of all the flood damage claims they had to process. My doctor couldn't find the test results from lab work that was done almost a month ago. I had better luck with the veterinarians I called, but they seemed frazzled and overworked too. Jeez, it's only Monday. If everyone is already hopelessly behind on Monday, I wonder what the rest of the week is going to be like.

I'm certainly going to be busy this week. I asked when a new writing assignment was due and the client said as soon as possible. I think this means tomorrow. I finally got up my nerve to convert my most difficult website to a mobile friendly format and almost immediately began to wonder if I had bitten off more than I can chew. When I started working on the site this afternoon, I quickly realized why I had saved this particular client for last. Everything will get done in due time, but this conversion is going to take a while. This is a very large website. I hope Google is happy when all my sites are finally mobile friendly. I don't want to do this again for a long time. If they decide that websites have to look good and be readable on the Apple Watch, I'm going to scream.

I'm going to have to figure out how to keep Dash cool during our Summer walks. I can tell he's already starting to get too hot and it's going to get much, much warmer in the months to come. In the past I've tried soaking a bandana in water before we start and putting it around the dog's neck. I've also tried spraying them with a water mist before we start. There aren't any drinking fountains along the way and Dash hasn't mastered the art of drinking from a water bottle. I wish Dash would just take shorter walks in hot weather. That's what Dot does. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize he's too hot until we're about a mile away from the house. I'm sure we'll figure out something, but I'm already starting to wish that the rain would return.

I've got to figure out how to switch the new fancy thermostat to some sort of reasonable Summer mode. In the Winter, I had it programmed to let the house cool down while we were asleep and then bring everything back up to 74 degrees just before we got up in the morning. This actually saved quite a bit on energy bills. In the Summer, I guess you'd want to pre-cool the house while you were sleeping and then let it warm up again during the day. I don't think this will work as well as the Winter settings though. The house isn't well insulated and the temperature is always hot day and night. Basically, the air conditioner runs non-stop in the Summer. Oh, well. I guess I'd better get used to those high Summer electric bills again.

Dash seems to tolerate the doxycycline he's taking pretty well. So far, there has been no upset stomach or other side effects. I'm hoping when Dot has her mini-biopsy on Wednesday that everything is normal with her. It would be nice to have both of these dogs healthy again. Maybe when I get my dental work finished later this month, life will finally return to normal.

Lacey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2000

2000 days might not mean much to most of you, but it's kind of special to me. When I started blogging five and a half years ago, I never dreamed that it would lead to sharing the major and minor events in my life for 2000 consecutive days. I haven't missed a single day yet. Power outages, scheduling conflicts, dog emergencies, fatigue, travel, and a lack of anything interesting to say, haven't put a dent in this blog. Somehow, I've always managed to keep on going. I've probably mentioned this before, but I've never been this consistent about anything in my life. Hey, I'm a Gemini. I typically start things with a lot of enthusiasm and then just quietly abandon them when no one's looking. This is different. I actually think the blog means something. I'm just not sure what it is.

There have probably been many days just like this before. I've already written about some of them. The days are similar, but writing this endless journal has taught me that no day is exactly the same. Each day is kind of like the moon. It sits there in the sky unchanged for millions of years, and yet when I look at it tomorrow, it will look a little different. It's the perception of things that changes. I may be doing exactly the same things I was five years ago, but they look different through older, and hopefully wiser, eyes. Maybe that's the value of a journal like this. It allows you to begin to see what happens as we age. You have to look closely, but there are small but noticeable differences already in my perspective on life. I wonder what you'll be reading if I can manage to reach Day 5000.

I'm still amazed at how quickly our cool, wet Spring is turning into a typical hot, dry Texas Summer. The temperature has risen by more than thirty degrees in just a few days. The vegetation is still lush and green as a result of the unprecedented amount of rain we got in May, but the ground is already drying up. There is no more mud in the park. The only evidence of the rain is an ugly outline of Styrofoam cups and trash around the shoreline of the lake, serving as a reminder of how high the water was just a few weeks ago. The temperatures got into the mid-90's this afternoon. It was way too hot for Dot and Dash. Several dogs succumbed to heatstroke at a big rescue event in town today. I'm glad we didn't go. As the days get warmer, I will continue to get up even earlier in hopes of getting the dogs walked before it become too hot for them. I'm not a morning person, but there's not much of an alternative.

To beat the heat, I continued working on my new website project this afternoon. I'm making good progress, but it's hard for me to work for more than three hours at a time. The work is tedious and if I keeps staring at the screen for too long, I start to make mistakes. When I arrived at a good stopping point on the website, I went to the gym. It's going to be a while before I can figure out how to make it to the gym three times a week like I should be doing, but at least I'm going on Sunday's now. You've got to start somewhere.

I'm still surprised at how I got such a clear handheld picture of the moon this morning while I was walking Dash. I had the camera in one hand and Dash's leash in the other. Sometimes you get lucky.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1999

For the second night in a row, Dash woke me up at 3 AM to go outside and poop. Something isn't normal. He doesn't have diarrhea, but he can't hold it till morning either. He also began taking doxycycline for Lyme Disease today. I don't think these two events are related. They are just part of a never ending saga of dog problems. I'm still not sure whether Dash actually has Lyme Disease, or whether the antibiotics are just a precaution. We'll probably never know. The test just said that he was exposed to the disease.

The replacement part I ordered for the refrigerator arrived this morning. After a quick repair, the ice maker works again. It's probably too early to celebrate though. I still don't know what actually caused the auger inside the ice maker to break. I read on the Internet that there is a special sensor in the freezer that periodically triggers the automatic defrost cycle. This is why you don't have to defrost modern freezers anymore. If this sensor goes haywire, the defrost cycle can stay on too long, causing ice in the ice maker tray to melt a bit and then freeze back together in a clump. This big clump of ice is usually too much for the plastic auger which moves the ice to the dispenser on the freezer door. Big clumps of ice probably caused the auger in our refrigerator to break. If the new auger I bought breaks too, I'll probably wish that I had just called the appliance repairman. For the moment, everything works perfectly.

Things dry up quick in Texas as soon as the rain stops. I noticed that the ground wasn't wet and mushy anymore, so I ran the sprinklers for the first time in over a month. It would be a shame to let the lawn wither and die after it got off to such a great start in May. I don't think I have to worry about yellowing, dried up grass quite yet though. Everything in the yard is still growing nicely. Things are growing so nicely in fact that is was already time to mow the grass again.

With the grass mowed and the yard looking better, I went and ran my regular Saturday errands, stopping to pick up Dash's doxycycline at the vet on the way home from the grocery store. Dot was feeling stronger today, but neither dog wanted to spend much time outside. Dalmatians don't like the heat, and it was over 90 degrees this afternoon. The dogs were smart to spend most of the day napping on their dog beds. Just mowing the grass in the unfamiliar heat wore me out.

I followed the dogs lead and spent the rest of the afternoon indoors, getting started on my fifth mobile friendly website. I'm becoming familiar with this new landscape now and am designing in a much more structured way. I have to be much more methodical about coding than I was before. All-in-all, it is much harder to put together a website using this new responsive design methodology. What Google wants, Google gets though. I just don't see many other alternatives. One surprising bonus from my new found consistency is that my designs actually look better than they used to. Consistency was never one of my strong points, so the forced discipline of structured HTML is actually very beneficial.

Lets hope that Dash sleeps through the night this evening. It would be nice if whatever is giving him the runs turns out to be something simple like eating horse poop. If it is related to Lyme Disease, it could be more serious. I saw on TV that the new dog park in our neighborhood is finally open. I bet Dash would like to try out this new park. He's been so good at walking very slowly with Dot in the mornings, that he deserves a chance to race around like a nut in the dog park.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1998

Poor Dot. Her Ultrasound scan this morning showed a small growth on her liver and an unexplained shadow on her spleen that were not there in a previous scan taken about eight months ago. Her oncologist told me that there was no reason to get alarmed yet. The vast majority of small growths like this turn out to be benign cysts. We were at a cancer center though and cancer doctors want to know if an unexplained growth might be cancer. The oncologist wanted me to bring Dot back next week so they could aspirate some cells from the questionable areas and send them to a cytology lab for analysis. Since she will need to be sedated for this procedure, I went ahead and had a full blood chemistry panel done today. At least that part of her annual exam later this Summer is already done.

Dot's oncologist is a realist. She said that no matter what the results turned out to be, she couldn't see herself recommending surgery. Dot has had just about all the surgery she can handle at her age. I agree with her that it's good to know what's going on though. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the new growth in her liver was just a cyst. I've had several small benign cysts in my kidneys for years. Cysts and growing older just kind of go together. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with today's test results. Dot is my miracle dog. After all she's been through this year, I was really hoping that her lab reports today would be perfect.

I noticed this morning that my breakfast restaurant has raised its prices. The cost of my favorite meal has gone up a dollar. Truthfully, I was surprised this had not happened sooner. This is still one of the most reasonably priced quality restaurants in town. I don't begrudge their modest price increases a bit. I just wish I had a way to raise the price of my own services. The cost of just about everything continues to go up, and yet people continue to want to pay less and less for website design.

At least there is plenty of work. I had an initial meeting with a new website client this afternoon and we all got along well. I got the job and will begin building their new site later this month. I also decided that my mobile friendly skills were ready for prime time and almost immediately got a job to convert an older static site to a mobile friendly design. I'm going to be busy this month.

I was certainly busy today. In addition to my trip to the cancer center with Dot and the new business meeting later in the day, I still had time to write a new article and send it off to its destination. By the end of the day, I was tired. We didn't get a lot of sleep last night, mostly because Dash had an upset stomach and kept getting me up to take him outside. I've never seen a dog who is so indecisive about pooping. I knew he had to go, but it took three trips to the back door at thirty minute intervals before he finally did his business. It doesn't help that the sodium vapor security light in the back yard is starting to go out and every time it blinks on and off Dash thinks it is lightning and races back inside again. Eventually, we all got back to sleep but it was almost morning by then.

For all his peculiar habits, Dash is a very smart dog. Sometimes I think he knows English. Usually, on our afternoon walks he like to take a right turn when we get to the alley and go directly into the park. Today when he tried to turn right, I told him that we needed to go left today. "If we turn right, you might get bit by the neighbor dog again." He gave me a worried look and immediately turned left.

Scooby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1997

It's always something. When Dash and I were returning from our walk this evening, one of the neighbor's dogs came charging through an open gate and started attacking Dash. Sadly, this has happened before. The neighbor always apologizes profusely and sometimes offers to pay for any damages. I can't seem to get them to lock their gate though. This time they said their yard guy must have left the gate open. As the large Shepard mix tried to grab Dash around the neck, I tried to command it to sit and stay while grabbing it firmly around the collar and pulling the dog away from Dash. I held both dogs at arm's length to keep them apart while walking slowly up the hill toward my house. Luckily, I didn't get bitten myself. I get so frustrated by people who can't control their dogs. I see unleashed dogs in the park every week and do my best to avoid them. People may think their dog is friendly, but you never know. I've worked in animal rescue for long enough to understand that dogs can be very unpredictable. In the right circumstances, any dog can bite you. I've been bitten numerous times.

Dot seemed tired at her physical therapy session today. We had to run the treadmill slower and her muscles seemed tight during her acupuncture therapy. The vet said we should curtail her exercise walks for a couple of days and let her rest. It's hard to keep the right balance of exercise and rest. She needs to keep moving to keep her leg muscles from atrophying, but she's an old dog and you don't want to push her too hard. I had Dot tested for exposure to Lyme Disease too while we were at the vet. We still haven't decided whether Dash should start taking doxycycline though. Since this is the drug of last resort for many very serious problems, you definitely don't want your dog to build up a resistance to this antibiotic. Dash shows no symptoms of Lyme Disease whatsoever, so it might be wise to save the doxycycline in case he needs it for something even more serious later. We'll see. We're going to do a few more tests to see if yesterday's results might have been a false positive.

The ice maker on our refrigerator broke recently and I am so frustrated with the high cost of appliance repair that I was determined to see if I could fix things myself. I found a website that sells appliance parts directly to the consumer and also features very detailed YouTube videos showing exactly how to make the necessary repairs. I looked at the video for fixing the ice maker on my refrigerator and quickly realized that this was something I could do. I ordered the part and ended up paying less than a third of what it would have cost to have a repairman come out. I should have done the same thing when the washer and dryer broke earlier this year. The wax motor door latch assembly for the washer only cost $79 on this website and it came with explicit instructions for how to remove and replace the faulty latch assembly. I paid a repairman over $350 to replace exactly the same latch assembly. I won't be doing that again.

The ease of repairing things yourself got me thinking about my own business. I've been losing business for years to template based website solutions that let people quickly and very inexpensively design their own websites with no coding required. I can't really blame people who would rather pay $25 for a template than give me several thousand dollars to create a custom site for them. I'd probably do the same thing myself. The problem is that nobody wants to be poor. Appliance repairmen, watchmakers, website designers, and car mechanics keep charging more and more in hopes of maintaining their lifestyle in a changing economy. Eventually everyone puts themselves out of business because they are too expensive. It's hard to even find a good appliance repairman anymore. In five more years they might all be gone. It's hard to compete with cheap parts on the Internet.

Dot goes for her Ultrasound scan tomorrow morning. These type of high-tech services aren't going to go out of business soon. You can't just go out and get your own MRI machine. Even my vet friends are feeling the squeeze though. They purchase all this expensive diagnostic equipment for their practice and then their customers still want to get all their pet's meds on discount Internet websites like 1800PetMeds. The age of the big retail markup is over. Janet buys all her clothes on the Internet now and I haven't been to a camera store in years. And people wonder why there are no jobs. It's kind of ironic that all these people are clamoring for a higher minimum wage now. They are just going to be replaced by robot kiosks anyway.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1996

I finished my fourth mobile friendly website today. The site is up and running and the client likes it. I feel proficient enough doing these things now that I'm almost ready to try converting some of my more difficult designs. I've actually enjoyed learning this new skill, but if I'm true to form, as soon as I get really good at something, I lose interest. We'll see what happens. I doubt if there's going to be a stampede of people wanting me to build mobile sites for them.

I got a call from Dash's vet today. His test results have come back and one of the tests indicates that he's been exposed to Lyme Disease. This particular test gives false positives frequently, so the vet said there was no reason to get alarmed yet. She is going to contact Dash's oncologist to see whether he thought Dash should begin treatment even though he shows no symptoms yet. Evidently the veterinary community is not in agreement on whether a dog that is not showing symptoms of Lyme Disease should start taking doxycycline immediately. Some say yes, others say no. Ordinarily, I'd want to go ahead with antibiotics, just to be safe, but Dash has had a lot of Clavamox recently to treat his infected paw. You don't want to overdo antibiotics. One thing is certain. There are a ton of ticks in the park, so Dash could have easily been exposed.

It looks like our nice, mild weather isn't going to last very long. Even though yesterday was unusually cool for June, the temperature shot into the 90's today. That's Texas weather for you. It's always bouncing back and forth between extremes. It was kind of funny in a way that two days ago I was fixing the furnace so I could warm the house up a bit and today the air conditioner was running all day. At least the water bill was low this month. I hardly ran the sprinklers at all in May. I need to remember to get the roofers to come out again now that things have dried out. The patches they made earlier this Spring held up well during the May rains, but some additional areas of the original elastomeric coating have starting to bubble up. It is going to be a long, slow process to get a roof that I can completely depend on.

I've got a new business meeting on Friday with a potential website client. The project is for a small non-profit charity that doesn't have much of a budget. I promised one of my neighbors, who is involved with the charity, that I'd do the site, but otherwise I wouldn't be all that interested. I'll look on the bright side though. The simple site will be easy to design and it will give me another chance to polish my responsive design skills. Some of you will wonder why I never seem to be excited about work. Others of you who have been in advertising as long as I have will understand completely.

Since Dot and Dash have different vets now, I always have a chance to get a second opinion. I'll ask Dot's vet if she is at risk for Lyme Disease too when she goes for physical therapy tomorrow afternoon. Who knows. Maybe even Janet and I are at risk. Humans get Lyme Disease too. I had always thought that Lyme Disease was primarily a problem for people on the East Coast. I also thought that only deer ticks transmitted the disease. The disease is starting to creep into Texas though, so maybe I'm wrong on both counts. I'd never know if I had Lyme Disease anyway, since the most common symptoms are fatigue, muscle aches, and joint pain. This is the way I feel all the time.

Friday can't come soon enough this week. I'm tempted to go out for breakfast tomorrow morning and just pretend it's Friday. It's been a long week.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1995

Today was busy. As soon as we finished our morning walk, I took Dash to the vet and dropped him off. Then I came home so Dot and I could eat our breakfast. Then I went back to the vet, with a brief stop at the bank along the way, and met with the vet for Dash's 9:30 appointment. We won't get the lab work back for about a week, but everything looks good so far. Hopefully, this visit will take care of Dash for the rest of the year.

When we got back home again, Dash was eager to have his breakfast, which meant that Dot wanted her breakfast all over again. I put a little bit of kibble in her bowl while Dash was eating, so she wouldn't feel left out and then I had another cup of coffee and a somewhat stale doughnut I found in the refrigerator.

I was feeling confident enough about my latest mobile website experiment to give my client an opportunity to exchange his old static site for this new mobile friendly version I've been working on. How could he refuse. I was offering him the new site for free. When the client accepted my offer a few hours later, I began completing the site I had started a few days ago. By the end of the day I had something that looked pretty nice. I'll probably launch the new site on Thursday. I've eventually start charging for these things, but for right now this is a good way to learn.

I wonder when the city is going to start spraying for mosquitoes? Every Summer people get in a panic about West Nile Virus and the city starts a massive spraying program to eradicate the mosquitoes. Then a different group of people get upset about the spraying and make the city stop. I'm sure these two factions will be at each others throats again this year. Due to all the rain we've had recently, the mosquitoes are worse than I've ever seen. They're everywhere. By the time I've let the dogs out the back door to pee, ten mosquitoes have flown inside. There's one buzzing around my head right now. I hope the city starts spraying soon.

I still can't decide whether to get an Apple Watch. There are few things that I need less than an Apple Watch, but I still find shiny things like this mighty tempting. It's probably a good thing that I can't afford a watch right now. When I get finished paying for dental bills, next year's homeowners insurance, and Dot's next round of scans, there might already be a second generation watch with better battery life and more robust software. Too many times I've been an early adopter of Apple products, only to get left in the dust when they inevitably improve the product and lower the price. I've already got what some might call a first generation Apple Watch anyway. It's a square iPod Mini in an aluminum LunaTik case. I wore this watch for about a month before I got bored with it.

I think the coyotes that used to live in our section of the park have moved on. I'm seeing tons of bunnies this Spring. For a while there were very few rabbits to be found because the coyotes ate them all. It's nice to see that the bunnies are back. There are a lot more baby ducks this season as well. The city was always trying to encourage people to co-exist with the coyotes, but few people in the neighborhood liked them. Personally, I'm glad they've moved elsewhere.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day