Day 1189

Dot had her first acupuncture appointment today. I wasn't expecting much, since Dot is generally terrified of going to the vet anyway, and I've already tried acupuncture treatments on another dog with largely inconclusive results. It never hurts to try though. Dot was extremely tense at first, just like I expected. She gradually began to relax though as the needles were applied to pressure points. By the time the session was over, Dot was calmer than I'd ever seen her inside a veterinarian's office. She was strong and confident on her evening walk too, so maybe there actually is something to the treatments. We're going to continue with weekly acupuncture treatments for at least a month and see if there is a noticeable difference. I'm not sure that I believe the traditional explanations of why acupuncture works. Although some studies show that the needles are effective tools for alleviating anxiety and some forms of pain, I'm not sure it has anything to do with the flow of qi through meridians. Maybe the needles just relax the muscles.

Although the acupuncture appointment was the big event of the day, there were a ton of other errands to take care of as well. I got my tax files finished and took them over to my accountant. I got some prescriptions filled and went to the bank twice. I also returned a Leica camera to a friend. I've had the camera a long time. I should have returned it over twenty-five years ago when we broke up, but I didn't. Better late than never I guess.

Every day this month I'm starting to see another variety of Spring flower start to bloom. The surprising thing is that most of these flowers return in exactly the same places where I saw them last year. I've taken so many photographs in the park over the years that I can now go back and see if things are blooming earlier or later than previous years. Who knows, maybe in another ten or fifteen years I'll become the Henry David Thoreau of the neighborhood. I'll probably just get bored and quit taking pictures of flowers though.

I hope the calming effects of the acupuncture needles last at least through tomorrow. Dot has never been calm when there are strangers at the house. Tomorrow will be a three ring circus. There will be a landscaping crew removing all the bad soil and dead St. Augustine sod from the back yard. At the same time, one of the roofing companies is returning to tramp all over the roof and complete their bid for a new roof. After all this commotion, maybe I'll be the one needing acupuncture.

Nick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1188 - St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day isn't much of a holiday for someone who no longer drinks. All it meant to me today is that the park was much more crowded than usual and we had to keep our eyes open for people who didn't have their dogs on a leash. We saw one off-leash German Shepard loosely attached to a Frisbee throwing couple who wasn't paying much attention to him. Luckily, the dog was paying more attention to the Frisbee than to Dot and Dash. There were inattentive people with questionable dogs in the dog park as well. A pit bull who liked to play rough almost knocked Dot over. The dog wasn't mean, but its owner should have been paying attention. Usually dogs who come to the dog park are very well behaved, but holidays and nice weather bring out a totally different crowd. I prefer the quiet, uneventful days.

I'm getting tired of AT&T raising their U-verse prices while they continue to eliminate some of our favorite channels. I thought I'd try Hulu Plus as an alternative and see if we could get by without U-verse. Not as easy as you might think. First of all, the Internet gateway is provided by the U-verse modem, so it would be hard to get rid of U-verse entirely. Secondly, I discovered that I couldn't even connect to Hulu on our TV because the AT&T service technician had disabled the TV's WiFi capability the last time they were out to the house to fix the router. I knew that the TV used to connect to the Internet, because I've watched YouTube videos on it before. I put on my reading glasses, got out the manuals, and got to work. About 45 minutes later, I had the WiFi fixed and the TV hooked up to the Internet again. I clicked on the Hulu button and discovered immediately that it wasn't free. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me. Nothing is free any more. Hulu Plus does have thousands and thousands of TV shows in its database though, so it still might be a much better deal than U-verse.

I'm going to try to get as many out-of the-office errands done as I can next week, while I've still got the Land Rover loaner car. I don't know if I'll ever be able to trust the Defender again. Janet says it's time to give up on the car and buy something new. Maybe she's right. There's nothing out there that I like right now though. I keep waiting for Land Rover to introduce the next generation Defenders, but they keep pushing back the launch date. I thought they were going to introduce the new Defenders in 2014, but my mechanic tells me that it probably won't be until 2017 now. I doubt if my current car will last that long.

Next week ought to be interesting. The landscapers are coming to refurbish the back yard and I'm sure that both dogs will be obsessed with all the activity going on in their territory. I'm already trying to prepare myself for a whole lot of barking. Hopefully, I'll be able to confine Dot to my office for most of the day, so she can't actually see what what's going on outside. If I'm lucky, this will keep things a bit quieter around the house, but as you know, I'm not usually lucky.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1187

I bought a juicer today. When I got home, Janet reminded me that we already had a juicer. Oops! Now, I remember. The old juicer never seemed to extract much juice out of anything. It was also impossible to clean. The juicer quickly got demoted from the kitchen counter to the top of the refrigerator, and subsequently to somewhere else where I completely forgot about it. Hopefully, this new juicer will work better than the old one. If this new juicer is not easy to use and easy to clean, I suspect it will suffer the same fate as the other one. I thought it would be neat to make a fresh version of V8 juice, but when I looked up the recipe on the Internet, I discovered we had none of the ingredients. Maybe I'll start with fresh orange juice. We do have some oranges.

I did my best to avoid the annual St. Patrick's Day parade today. After being stuck in the aftermath of this parade several times, I've learned to stay as far away as possible. In certain parts of town, traffic grinds to a halt for hours as huge throngs of drunken revelers parade from bar to bar. What started as a humble neighborhood event with a few kids waving at people from the backs of pickup trucks has evolved into a huge spectacle with hundreds of floats and well over a hundred thousand spectators. My favorite grocery store is located right at ground zero on the parade route. I wisely decided to do my shopping somewhere else today.

I don't think I'll be having any more furnace problems this year. Now, it's time for air conditioner problems. I bought some new filters at Home Depot and officially turned on the AC today. The temperature got up to 85 degrees and the dogs loved it. Dot spent some quality time outside this afternoon sunning herself on a big pile of leaves. Dash spent his time looking for stuff to eat under the leaves.

Neither of the two roofing companies that stopped by to bid on replacing my roof has given me an estimate yet. I can't believe my roof is all that complicated. It would seem like two weeks was plenty of time to pull some numbers together. Maybe they just don't want to do the job. That wouldn't surprise me at all.

Tomorrow looks like it's going to be a great day to go to the dog park. Clear skies. 85 degrees. What's not to like? It's hard to stay in a bad mood for long when Spring has arrived.

Ruthie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1186

My expensive car repair certainly didn't amount to much. The Defender is already back in the shop. This time it didn't even make it back to the dealership under its own power. The car died on me right in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Dallas during rush hour. People honked at me as I waited for the tow truck to arrive. I was almost certain that I'd be rear ended by someone who was texting while driving, but miraculously, I managed to get the car back to the dealership without further damage. I sure wish that the mechanics had solved this problem when the car was in the shop last week. I certainly described the problem clearly enough. When I left the Defender at the dealership the last time, I told them that it stalled out at inopportune times and leaked oil. They fixed the leaking oil part, but obviously did nothing about the stalling part.

I'm really getting tired of everything falling apart on me. Repairing everything all at once will take copious amounts of money, which I don't happen to have at the moment. Unfortunately, repairing things one at a time, as I'm doing now, requires copious amounts of patience, which I'm a bit short on as well. Maybe I should have elevated car problems a little higher on the list. Right now, Dot's health problems seem the most important, followed by my own health problems. Next would probably be my leaking roof. There are carpets that need to be replaced, walls that need to be painted, and quite a bit of obsolete business equipment. Ironically, landscaping the yard, which is the one thing that actually is getting done in the near future, was always near the bottom of my to-do list. The only reason that this project got tapped for completion was that it was easy to do without disrupting everything inside. I can still get my work done. The dogs may bark a bit, but it isn't going to be nearly as bad as it would be if there were people actually working on things inside the house. Fixing the car always gets put off, because there's always something I need to do in the car. Also, I still naively think that when I do take the car to the shop, that everything broken will be fixed. Never happens!

I'm trying to find a new breakfast restaurant that has a delicious menu that isn't based around eggs, sausages, bread, and gravy. A few places have a really good veggie omelet, but for the most part, these omelets are just eggs with a few onions and bell pepper slices thrown in. Today's restaurant choice was a fail. Don't get me wrong. The food was delicious. It was just traditional heavy, gut-buster fare. Honestly, I don't even know what I'm looking for. I don't want yoghurt. I'm tired of oatmeal, because that's what I eat during the week. I'm supposed to avoid sugar, wheat products, dairy products, and cured meats. This pretty well sums up everything I  have ever enjoyed for breakfast.

At least Spring has arrived. The weather has been spectacular for the past several days. Trees are starting to turn green, the redbuds and dogwood trees are in full bloom, and I'm starting to see a whole new crop of Texas wildflowers. Spring doesn't officially arrive until next Wednesday, but someone forgot to tell the flowering plants.

Carmine is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1185

I had a photo shoot today. More employee photos. Taking employee photos used to be a bread and butter item for my company, but plastering employee pictures all over your company website is gradually falling out of fashion. More and more people are discovering that these photos are way more trouble than they're worth. First of all, employees come and go. Once you've made a commitment to having all your employees featured on the website, you are constantly updating and changing things. All this activity is good for me, but it's not necessarily beneficial for the company. Even if the employees don't leave, they get married, divorced, promoted, change their hair color, or do something else to warrant a change on their page. I only have a few clients left who are still enamored with employee photos. I bet by this time next year, I won't have any. I don't even recommend employee photos anymore.

I asked my vet today what was the source of the muscle spasms that she said were probably causing Dot's rear legs to go out. She said the very same things that cause my own periodic neck and lower back problems. I took that to mean that she wasn't really sure. I still don't know what caused my terrible neck problems in Las Vegas a few years ago. My physical therapist told me that entrapped soft tissue in my neck vertebra was causing the pain. How did the tissue get entrapped in the first place though. I'll probably never know for sure. Dot could have easily strained a muscle walking up a steep hill just before her legs went out, but maybe that wasn't the cause at all. She's walked up that same hill day after day with no problems whatsoever.

I've given up on spotting the comet. I looked again tonight, but there's just too much dust and haze on the Western horizon where the comet is supposed to be located. Oh, well. There's supposed to be an even brighter comet headed our way toward the end of the year. Maybe I'll be able to see that one.

Even with my out-of-the-office photo assignment, I still managed to get a few articles written. I need to convince my client to start actually sending me to some of these events I'm writing about. Hey, I may be wrong, but it seems like interviewing people on the spot would make a much better story than just looking up facts on Wikipedia and then embellishing them with my imagination.

Humphrey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1184

The dogs don't like being walked separately. Both dogs want to be the first one to take a walk and get indignant when they are left behind. Eventually, everything gets sorted out and they are happy again after they've both had their time outside. Dot's legs continue to improve, so hopefully this new arrangement will just be a temporary one. It certainly takes me a lot longer to walk the dogs separately. I know I did other things, but it feels like dog walking was all I accomplished today. Next week I'm going to take Dot in for acupuncture therapy. Acupuncture really helps to reduce pain and inflammation for some dogs, and does absolutely nothing for others. We'll see what happens. I don't think it would hurt to try.

I wonder what would happen if we selected our president the same way the College of Cardinals selects a pope. I kind of like the mystery of the whole process. It probably wouldn't work though. If our senators and representatives went into a secret room that they couldn't leave until they all reached a consensus, I don't think we'd be seeing any white smoke for a long, long time. There's a good chance they'd never reach a decision.

I approved the landscaper's bid and they're going to get started on the back yard sometime next week. That's one ugly eyesore down, three or four ugly eyesores left to go. There are a lot more things that need to be taken care of around the house, but we'll have to deal with them one at a time as money becomes available. Sometimes I think my own services are the only thing that hasn't gone up in price over the years. Everything else has become incredibly expensive.

Tonight was supposed to be the best night to see Comet PanSTARRS. I looked and looked while we were at dog training class this evening, but couldn't see a thing. The comet was supposed to be visible to the naked eye, although I'm sure very few people saw anything inside the city limits of Dallas. There were clear skies this evening, but with all the city lights and haze near the horizon, I had trouble even seeing the moon. I'll try again tomorrow. Comets are rare and it's always fun to see one.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1183

Dot received a much more encouraging prognosis at the vet than I was expecting. She doesn't have an ACL tear, which is very good news. She doesn't have severe Spondylosis either, which is equally encouraging. Even the muscle atrophy in her rear legs seems commensurate with her age. There is still something wrong of course. Today's visit was more to rule out life threatening immediate dangers than to get to the bottom of things. That will take time. While Dot and I were at the clinic, my vet showed me her first book, which had just been published. It is a sweet, beautifully illustrated children's book about a girl and an injured Dalmatian. The book gets its title from the fact that Dalmatians can smile. Dot and Dash frequently give me a big smile whenever I return home. I was really impressed with the book, and it isn't just because I love Dalmatians. The book is a heartwarming story that would make a great gift for any child who likes animals. I'm sure Dr. Barton would be extremely happy if a few of you would go to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble and buy a copy of Smile for a friend, or for yourself.

I was surprised to get the Defender 90 back from the shop today. Based on previous experience, I was convinced that it would take months to get the repairs done. Probably the dealer was in a hurry to get the cool little Evoque they loaned me back before I put a dent in it. This car was brand new and had less than 200 miles on it. I definitely wouldn't have minded driving the futuristic little Evoque for a few more days. I've never driven a car that didn't need an ignition key before. It was also cool to have a video view of what was behind you appear on the dash every time you put the car in reverse. Electronically, the Evoque seems as sophisticated as the space shuttle. I wonder how long it will last though. Probably not nearly as long as my Defender. The Defender may not have many bells and whistles, but it's built like a tank.

The day was full of surprises. In addition to the good news about Dot and the surprising early return of my car, there was also the reappearance of my missing client. Some of you may remember me telling you about a client that I was convinced had forgotten about me. It turns out that they hadn't forgotten me at all. They had just forgotten to check and see if their e-mail account was working. For over a month, these guys had been sending e-mails out and never questioning the fact that they never, ever got a reply to their messages. Eventually, they figured out that their e-mail account wasn't working and started calling people on the phone. I don't know about you, but I don't think it would take me a month to figure out that my e-mail account wasn't working. I bet within five minutes, someone would be calling me to complain that they hadn't received their files yet.

Some of you probably think I already spend too much time walking the dogs. I think it's going to take me even longer in the weeks to come. I have to walk Dot and Dash separately for a while to keep Dot from overexerting herself trying to keep up with Dash. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I don't think switching to Daylight Saving Time saved anything at all.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1182

It looks like my car is going to be in the shop for a long time. How do I know? Well, the Land Rover dealer called this morning and offered to exchange my Toyota loaner car for a brand new Evoque. I took them up on their offer, of course. The Evoque is closer to a space age Jetsons car than anything I've ever driven. The entire roof is glass. It is a small car with a huge moon roof. There are no ignition or door keys whatsoever. You just put a small gizmo about the size of an iPod nano in your pocket and the car senses you. As you approach, the doors unlock and you just push a button on the dash and the car starts. Your seat automatically adjusts to the best driving position and off you go.

Hey, what could possibly go wrong?  I could just imagine going somewhere in this car and then being unable to get home again because the little gizmo in your pocket broke and you couldn't get the doors to open. I don't know how well this particular Land Rover would do off road either. It's pretty low to the ground. My simple, completely mechanical, all aluminum Defender is still basically the better car.

Dot rested well last night and was able to stand on all fours again this morning. She's still pretty shaky, but she appears much better than she did last night. When I went to make a vet appointment for her, I discovered that her regular vet is on vacation. I made an appointment with another vet for tomorrow and kept her resting most of the day. The only time she wasn't resting was when some landscaping people came over to give me an estimate on re-doing the back yard. Even though I kept Dot penned in my office, she got so upset at the strangers in her yard that she pooped all over the office floor. What a mess. I had tried to get her to go before the landscaping people arrived, but she was so stubborn about not getting her regular walk, that she refused to do anything.

There was very little writing going on today. I spent most of my time updating websites and getting the rest of my March invoices out. I had to attach past due notices to several of the invoices. That's never a good sign. I bet the mechanic working on my Defender and the landscaper looking at my yard today are both doing better than I am. It's hard to live without a car and it's irritating to live with a mud pit in your back yard. I'm probably not the only one who would pay whatever it takes to alleviate these sorts of problems. Unfortunately, the problems I solve in my own business aren't nearly as essential as having a car that runs. I'm learning that people can go a long time without changing their websites at all.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1181

The day started well, but ended with a mishap. Dot's rear legs gave out on her evening walk and she couldn't get up again. I've been afraid this was going to happen for a long time now. Dot is getting old. I knew she could never make it home, so I called Janet to come pick us up in the car. Dot is resting comfortably now at home, but she'll need to go to the vet tomorrow. Hopefully, she just overexerted herself today and maybe sprained something. There's a good chance she tore her anterior cruciate ligament though. ACL injuries are very common with older Dalmatians. Usually when an ACL injury happens, the dog isn't doing anything strenuous. Today, Dot was just walking slowly on level ground. That's the way it happens though. The ligament tears unexpectedly, just like an old rubber band breaking. I'm going to hope for the best and not even think about surgery at this point. We've done the TPLO surgery with other dogs, and it's pretty major. We'll know more tomorrow.

I never would have dreamed that this would end up being a traumatic day. The morning was uneventful, and so was the trip to the dog park a little later. Dot even seemed playful at the dog park. Maybe she was a bit too playful.

I started getting my tax records organized to take to my accountant this afternoon. It's always disappointing to see how much money just evaporates in a normal year with very little to show for it. The gas and electric bills looked pretty normal, but the cost of phone, cable, WiFi, and Internet services has grown exponentially. Health care is even worse. You don't even want to know what I have to pay for health insurance these days. Oh, I sold a house in 2012 too. Uncle Sam is already waiting for his share of that sale. When I look at the numbers, it's hard to feel like I'm doing well. It's hard to feel like the whole country is doing well. I think we are all just treading water.

I'm doing my best to keep the economy alive though. The Land Rover folks should be doing well after they get finished taking my engine apart. Whoever wins the bid to put on my new roof should be doing pretty well to. I certainly haven't gotten any low bids on the roof yet. I've got to hire a landscaper later this Spring as well. I could always do things myself again, but that would just be throwing good money after bad. Everything I've planted in the past three years has died.

Send your prayers to Dot. She's going to need all the help she can get.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1180

Rain, rain, go away. Come again...well, never would be nice. On rainy days like today, I like to speculate about more hospitable climates where we could live. I love the dry, desert air around Las Vegas. I don't like the snakes and scorpions typically found in the desert, however. I went to high school in Alaska. There were no bugs whatsoever in the Winter. Somehow, they made up for lost time in the Summer though. The temperature was perfect in Seattle, but it rained even more there than it does here. Nothing seems right. I'd probably be a good candidate to colonize Mars. I could live in a hermetically sealed building for extended lengths of time and don't mind solitude. It wouldn't be solitude though. There would be other colonists. I guess Mars wouldn't work either. I don't do well in groups.

When I was sweeping the water off the roof this afternoon, I smelled what appeared to be burning insulation. I thought there was an electrical fire and I went back in the house to make sure nothing was burning. Everything was fine. Nothing seemed amiss and I couldn't smell anything at all. As soon as I went outside again, I caught another whiff or the burning insulation smell. Then, I saw smoke coming off my neighbor's front porch and thought their house was on fire. Just before I called the fire department, I saw my neighbors on the porch as well. They were barbecuing something on their grill. This was the worst smelling barbecue I've ever come across in my life. It smelled like they were burning old tires instead of charcoal in their grill. To each his own, I guess.

We photographed Sarge today at the Dalmatian Rescue kennels. Luckily, the kennel had a room we could use, since it was raining outside and I don't think a wet dog would make a very good portrait. Sarge was a very friendly boy and I had trouble getting him to stay still long enough to take his picture. He should find a new home quickly. The real question is why a great dog like this lost his home in the first place. I don't think Sarge was a stray. I think his previous owner surrendered him. I just don't understand how people can abandon their pets this way. There was probably a divorce involved. A lot of dogs come into the program as a result of a divorce. So many people trying to run away from everything. I bet some of them would drop their kids off at the pound too if they could get away with it.

Tomorrow doesn't look like a very auspicious day to go to the dog park. Even if it does stop raining, the dog park is likely to be muddy, and that means it will be closed. A muddy, wet day isn't much good for giving a dog a bath either. Maybe I'll finally have to get started on getting all my tax information organized. April 15 will be here before you know it.

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1179

Well, I discovered why my car had been leaking oil. Virtually all the engine seals have gone bad. Rubber is a great invention, but very old rubber is virtually worthless. My service representative at the Land Rover dealer called me today and told me that the head gaskets, the oil pan gasket, the transmission seals, and a couple of other things that leak on the Defender all needed to be replaced. The gaskets themselves aren't very expensive, but the engine and transmission have to be torn apart to get at everything. This definitely isn't very good news.

The one thing that old houses, old cars, and old people all have in common is that they all deteriorate with age. It's a bitch when all this deterioration starts happening at once. If there is a general theme to my life right now, it is that everything is falling apart.

It wasn't always this way. Janet and I lived in the house for over ten years before there were any problems with the roof at all. The Defender used to run flawlessly for years at a time when it was newer. Most telling of all, I used to be able to have a beer with lunch, two or three glasses of wine with dinner and eat bacon for breakfast every day. Those days are gone. Things are falling apart.

The one bright spot amid all this dry rot and deterioration is that I'm actually starting to feel better as a result of my new diet. I have more energy now and I've actually lost eight pounds in the last two months. I really shouldn't lose much more weight, since I wasn't fat to begin with, but it's nice to be getting back to the weight I maintained for the first forty years of my life.

I got a little adapter in the mail today that allows me to use the headphone jack with my new indestructible iPhone case. I'll add the adapter to the shoebox of weird adapters and plugs I've already bought to resolve awkward connection issues. I could take my phone to the South Pole now, although I doubt that it will ever leave the neighborhood. The phone used to look like a sleek BMW roadster. Now it looks like a H1 Hummer.

Lots of dog activities on tap for this weekend. Dot and Dash get a bath. There's a new dog to photograph at the Dalmatian Rescue kennels. And of course there's always Sunday's trip to the dog park.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1178

What a busy day! I started things off by taking my car to the Land Rover dealer for some much needed service. I should have done this several weeks ago when the problems began, but I was stubbornly holding out for a Land Rover loaner car. These nice loaners are always in short supply. Luckily, sanity finally prevailed and I decided to settle for a Toyota Corolla. I have no idea what is wrong with my car, but I told the service representative that four quarts of oil had leaked out before I topped it up again, that the engine periodically stalled at stoplights, that the car was hard to start on cold mornings, and that the engine didn't seem to have much power above 4000 rpm. I am confident that the Land Rover folks will find some sort of problem. They wouldn't be able to overcharge me for repairs otherwise.

The real reason I took the car in today, instead of waiting for a better loaner car, was that I didn't want to miss my doctor's appointment. My team of liver specialists is booked so far in advance that I knew it might take months to reschedule my appointment if I had to cancel due to car problems. The Toyota isn't flashy, but it certainly is reliable. Today's visit was very encouraging. The doctors were pleased with my efforts to modify my lifestyle and diet. Better yet, lab results showed that some of the things I've been doing were already starting to show some positive results.

One of the cool things about being treated at a world class research hospital is that you get to participate in clinical trials and research experiments. Today, I got to try out a brand new machine that has the ability to detect fibrosis and cirrhosis scarring in the liver with almost the same degree of accuracy as a biopsy. The machine isn't certified by the FDA yet, but the doctors seemed very impressed with it. A representative of the company that manufactured the machine did the test and told me that I had no evidence of fibrosis in my liver. I asked how long it would take to get this technology approved and the factory guy said it was hard to tell because the FDA was so slow. Then I asked how the technology had been developed. Apparently, it has been around for several years and is already in use in European hospitals. The sophisticated scanning machines were originally developed by the French to determine when cheese had fully matured during the ripening process. I guess somewhere along the line, somebody got tired of pointing the machine at cheese and decided to look at their liver instead.

Despite all the running around I did today, I still managed to get my writing assignments finished. I think a few more things will land on my desk tomorrow, but I have high hopes for finishing the week with absolutely nothing to do over the weekend. One final bit of good news! My European client only took two days to pay me for the waste-water treatment article I wrote recently. I wonder why it takes some of my American clients over two months to do the same thing?

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1177

When the estimator came over this morning to look at my roof, I was pleasantly surprised at how knowledgeable he was. He seemed familiar with all the options available and I am confident that he can give me an accurate price. I'm not so confident that he'll be able to give me a price I can afford, however. I don't have any numbers yet, but when we were talking about what was needed to prevent my roof problems from reoccurring in the future, it became apparent that the new roof was going to be expensive. I am going to get several estimates, but the chances of getting a bargain and a good roof at the same time are slim.

My car started acting up again today. I called the Land Rover dealer and asked if I could bring it in for service tomorrow morning. Nope. They're all booked up for the next several days. It's just my luck that I have a doctor's appointment that is very difficult to reschedule tomorrow. If the car won't start, I'm really out of luck. It would take me half a day to get to the hospital by bus, and I don't really trust taxis around here either. Hopefully, the Defender will decide to work properly tomorrow.

I stopped by the Unrefined Bakery today to get a loaf of Paleo Bread. I wanted to see what the wheat free bread tasted like, because I really like my eggs on toast. The bread, which is baked using almond flour and flax seeds, was actually quite tasty. The small, freshly baked loaf cost me $13 however. A bit pricy for morning toast, I think. We'll see if there's any more Paleo Bread in my future. Maybe I'll save enough by keeping my liver healthy and diabetes at bay that I can afford little extravagances like this.

I figured out how to hook up one of my cameras to a WiFi network today. Pretty cool. Now, I can control the camera and take pictures using my iPhone and send the pictures directly back to my computer, or even to the web. The installation was far from intuitive, but eventually I got everything working. Unfortunately, this geeky task put me behind on everything else. I wasn't able to finish all my writing assignments today, which is a rarity for me.

No dog training class tonight. It's still pretty chilly outside and Janet had to work late anyway. Dot and Dash don't seem to mind that this is the third week in a row we've skipped class. They'd throw a fit if we ever skipped going to the dog park on Sunday, but missing training class is just fine.  I think I know exactly how they feel.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1176

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all time high today. Unfortunately, my own portfolio is still nowhere near its all time high. This seems irrational and even a bit irritating to me. You'd think that my investments would have recovered proportionally with the rest of the market. They probably would have if I had just left them alone. It's hard to leave well enough alone when the whole world is in a panic though. When the big market crash hit toward the end of 2008, I tried my best to stop the bloodbath, just like a lot of other investors. Five years later, the results are in and they aren't pretty. Instead of frantically buying and selling and putting money into gold, I should have just done nothing. During the big financial crash of 1987 that was exactly what I did. I didn't look at my brokerage statements for almost three years, and eventually I recovered virtually everything. It was a lot harder to do this in 2008. All the pundits were predicting Armageddon and nobody knew whether it would take five years or fifteen years for the market to fully recover. I'm a bit chagrined by today's market news. I guess it just proves that the more decisions you make in life, the greater your chances are of being wrong.

I had to sit around and wait for the FedEx guy today, so I actually got quite a bit done. I couldn't leave the house until I had signed for my package and I had no excuses. I redoubled my efforts to annihilate the bugs that have invaded the house. I wrote several articles. I updated several websites. I even got caught up on my invoices. If I had to wait on the FedEx guy every day, who knows what I might accomplish.

What I didn't do today was spend much time outside. There was a fierce wind all day that made it seem much colder than it actually was. The dogs ears were flapping in the wind during our walks today and I think Dot and Dash were both happy to return to the house where they could take a snooze on their warm new velour blankets.

Tomorrow, the first of the roofing companies I asked to bid on replacing the roof is coming over to give me an estimate. I kind of dread this whole process, because I've been through it before with contractors. Everybody talks a good game. You get all excited listening to the sales reps explain all the benefits you are going to get and then when the workers show up later with their hammers and saws it is usually a huge disappointment. Contractors typically plan on doing a job as quickly as they can, so they can keep prices reasonable. I'm always envisioning having a group of master craftsmen around for an extended length of time who will do everything according to my specifications. Not very likely! Contractors hate people like me who work out of their house. They'd much rather do their work when the homeowner is away at the office somewhere. At any rate, I'm still hoping I can find a good roofer.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1175

I got the indestructible TakTik Extreme iPhone case I ordered a while back in the mail today. It should come as no surprise that my Jawbone activity tracking wristlet won't fit in the earphone jack slot, so I can't sync it to the phone anymore. Why is this so common these days. Nobody even seems to care about compatibility. I've got a whole shoebox full of weird little adapters designed to hook incompatible devices together again after the manufacturers failed to standardize their connections. Now, I've got to find yet another adapter that will let me use this new case, or I'll have to send it back.

The inability of manufacturers to standardize electronic connections is just one tiny example of a world where virtually nothing is compatible anymore.  Congress and the president aren't compatible. Workers and their employers aren't compatible. There are literally hundreds of different sizes of watch batteries, when one would have done just fine if the manufacturers could have ever reached an agreement on battery sizes.

I finally got around to calling for bids on replacing my roof. I'm hoping that the two roofers I'm getting estimates from will at least agree on what type of roof I need. There are so many alternatives, and all of them have their supporters and detractors. Asphalt, coal tar, sprayed on foam, EPDM synthetic rubber membrane, PVC membrane, modified bitumen? I have no idea which is best, because there are so many conflicting opinions. Once again, it would be nice if people could agree on things.

The bugs are returning again. I thought I put out enough poison to take care of the problem for at lest a year, but apparently not. I applied more poison and bait in areas that are not accessible to the dogs, but I'm not sure that this will solve the problem. These bugs are smart. I think they'll just move to other parts of the house that are accessible to the dogs.

I got a notice that I'll have to sign for a FedEx package tomorrow. This will be another wasted day. It is totally impossible to predict when the FedEx guy will show up. I can sit waiting for nine hours and then leave for five minutes to run to the post office. That five minute interval will inevitably be when the guy shows up for the signature.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1174

The leaf blower made its first appearance today. It was a warm and windy day and it seemed like the thing to do. The leaves wanted to blow away anyway and I just gave them a little nudge in the right direction. It's amazing how many leaves the big oak and elm trees in our backyard can drop during the Winter. I wish I could think of something useful to do with all these leaves, but it's not going to be compost. We've tried to plant vegetable gardens at various points in the past, but the neighborhood squirrels, rabbits, possums, and rats relentlessly eat everything we plant. It's just not worth the aggravation anymore. Our yard is next to a large wooded area. Every season, I think the yard is trying to tell us that it wants to be part of the forest too. It just doesn't want to be domesticated.

As we were leaving the dog park this morning, we saw three police cars and an ambulance arrive. I looked around and couldn't see any problems. Nobody appeared to have been bitten by a dog. Nobody had a heart attack. No cars had been broken into. No purses had been stolen. I couldn't see a single reason for such a show of force. The police were definitely there though. Life in the city, I guess. There isn't always a reason for everything.

I can't figure out why our house is so dusty. We seldom open the windows and always use the best available furnace filters. Somehow, the dust continues to get in though. Lots of dust. I tried to dust and vacuum the office this afternoon and it seemed like an impossible task. Layers of dust covered everything. It hadn't even been that long since I'd cleaned the place either. Nature seems to have taken over, inside and out. When I'm fighting these losing battles, I often wish I lived on the the seventeenth floor of a brand new high-rise. Instead of cleaning on Sunday afternoons, I would just take the elevator down to the first floor and have a cappuccino with friends in a nearby coffee shop. This isn't going to happen though. The dogs definitely prefer things just the way they are.

The dogwood trees are in bloom all over town. They are quite pretty. In a few weeks, it will be the azaleas turn to shine. Sometimes I think Dallas has more azalea bushes per square mile than any other city in the world. The entire city turns pink. While the azaleas are blooming, there is often a brief  explosion of bluebells and other wildflowers alongside the major freeways. Then it will be time to mow the grass again. Spring never lasts long enough in Texas.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1173

When I was out shopping today, I stopped by a gluten free bakery to look for alternatives to wheat. I'm supposed to seriously cut back on my consumption of wheat. There's only one problem. I love bread. For most of my life my favorite meals have included French Toast, BLT sandwiches, and all forms of Panini. I don't even know what I was looking for at the new age bakery, but I definitely discovered something I'd never seen before. It was called Paleo bread. The stuff is gluten free, grain free, yeast free, dairy free, and soy free. The loaf looked like bread, but it definitely wasn't. There wasn't a single bread-like ingredient in it. I learned later that the odd bread took its name from the Paleolithic diet, which is basically eating like the cavemen did. None of this stuff is new. It's all been going on behind my back while I've been eating cheeseburgers.

I've noticed that my little activity tracker wristlet has started challenging me to walk further. What's that all about? How stupid do these app designers think I am? Do they think I'm just a Pavlov's dog who will walk longer because a silly iPhone app tells me to set a goal of 12,000 steps a day. Jeez, isn't 10,000 steps enough?  I did take a longer walk with Dot and Dash this evening though, so maybe I am just a Pavlov's dog. I'm secretly irritated that Janet somehow manages to take 20,000 steps a day. That's much more than me. I think she just takes smaller steps.

Wasn't all hell supposed to break loose today when sequestration went into effect? So far, I haven't noticed any changes at all. Personally, I don't think much is going to change whether the folks in Washington ever come to an agreement or not. I don't even know why this thing is even a big deal. Just about everyone in America has had to trim 2% off their family budget as a reason of this dismal economy. You just give up a few things and life goes on. If ordinary people can trim their household budgets, why can't the government do the same thing?

Do any of you guys use Angie's List?  I joined the website several months ago, in hopes of finding a first rate roofer. So far, I've never used the list though. I've become suspicious of the whole thing after I started receiving booklets of Angie's List coupons in the mail every few weeks. How can Angie run ads on TV saying that no amount of money can buy a good review on the list, and then turn right around and sell ads to anyone who wants one in her magazine. I may be forced to use the list anyway though. I still can't find the roofer I'm looking for. I've had plenty of friends recommend friendly roofers, honest roofers, and reputable roofers. So far, nobody has actually recommended a good roofer though.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day