Day 2153

It takes at least a gallon and a half of water to flush a toilet. You can use a quart of water just rinsing off a few dishes to put in the dishwasher. It only takes a cup of water to brush your teeth however. I'm learning a lot about water. Like most of you reading this, I use an enormous amount of water without even thinking about it. There's a water bill every month, but water still seems a bit like air. It is just there. It is only when you take away the water that you realize its true significance.

Dot pooped in her bed again last night. I instinctively went to a nearby bathroom sink to wet a rag so I could clean her up. Oops. There is no water coming from these faucets. There is no water coming from any faucets. I carefully pick up as much poop as I can using a plastic poop bag. I know I can't just take the dog blanket outside and hose it down anymore. I wet a rag using a bottle of distilled water I use to make coffee and carefully clean Dot's tail and under belly. The blanket isn't that bad. I put it in a pile of dog blankets that will go to the laundromat. I get a fresh blanket for Dot and we go back to bed. I only used up a cup of water to do all this.

If you want an egg for breakfast, you have to remember that you can't clean the pan. Once the dishwasher fills up with plates that you've carefully rinsed using small amounts of your valuable bottled water, you realize that your should have been using paper plates and plastic cups all along. Old habits die hard. You scrape plates into the garbage disposal and then realize that there's no water to wash the food away. You use more of your stash of water to briefly run the disposal so it won't start to smell next Tuesday. The two large dehumidifiers and the air conditioner working in tandem have already brought the humidity levels back to the normal range. The vent resisters are dry again. We've made a lot of progress.  There is no reason to mess things up at this point by turning the water back on again for a small amount of time so we could take showers and do laundry. The leak is large, so turning the water on again for even thirty minutes could put us right back where we started.

It's not like we're camping out. It's just that the bathroom is ten miles away now. Janet slept in the hotel last night and I went over this morning to take a shower. I'm envious of Dash when I watch him lift his leg in the park and pee wherever he wants. Too bad I can't do the same thing. It sure would make life simpler. When we went grocery shopping today, we mostly bought things that you can simply heat up in the microwave and eat without getting any more plates dirty. I'm wondering whether I can still make my morning smoothies. To clean the Vitamix, all you do is fill the container with about half a quart of water, add a little soap, and run the "clean" cycle. I should be able to do this with my stash of bottled water. The alternative is just to go out for breakfast every morning until the plumber fixes the leak. That sounds pretty good too.

All in all, the day went well. We washed a huge load of towels and dog blankets at a nearby laundromat. Too bad there's not a laundromat for dirty dishes. The humidity in the house is only 41% right now. We're making progress. I bought a bunch of bottled water for flushing toilets at Sam's Club. I even got caught up on some of the website work I was supposed to do yesterday. I watched another new episode of Dr. Who and will probably watch Saturday Night Live, just to see what Donald Trump does. Tomorrow I need to get ready for the tunnel digging crew to arrive. Mostly this involves taking apart a screened in porch without totally destroying it. We'll see if Dot can make it through the night. If she can't, there will be another trip to the laundromat tomorrow.

Chase is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2152

Its started. I'm listening to two large industrial strength dehumidifiers doing their best to suck the moisture out of the house. We're eating off paper plates because there is no dishwasher. I've bought a bunch of bottled water so I can use it to refill the toilet so it will flush if I have to go during the night. There are several more gallons of bottled water to refill the dog bowls. I have a sweater on because my HVAC contractor said that running the air conditioner will help dry things out. Intuitively, you'd think that turning the furnace up would dry things out quicker, but apparently it only makes the situation worse.

If you haven't guessed by now, the water leak got worse overnight and we woke up to a house that felt like a sauna. The humidity inside was over 85% and there was standing water in all the vent registers. The first thing I did was shut the water off to the house at the water main and then spent the rest of the day on the phone with the insurance adjuster, the plumbing company, my HVAC contractor, an environmental cleanup company, and a temporary housing relocation company. Sometimes I had the cell phone to one ear listening to someone while I had the land line phone to the other ear talking to someone else at the same time. It was a madhouse. I had quite a bit of website work scheduled for today and wasn't able to get started on any of it.

As you might expect, Dot wasn't happy about this whole situation and ended up pooping in the house three times. Dot can't hear very well and I actually did a pretty good job of isolating her from all the commotion in the living room. I told the environmental cleanup people to be as quiet as they could, which was kind of silly since the two machines they installed were actually quite noisy. I have to keep the dehumidifiers running 24/7 until the leak is fixed. Sometimes Dot didn't notice that there were strangers in the house until ten minutes after they arrived. When she eventually did notice, she started barking and never stopped. Excited barking always leads to poop coming out the other end these days, so that's why there were quite a few little accidents today. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the washing machine is out of commission too. I'll have to go to the laundromat tomorrow morning.

I have a sore throat from talking so much today. I usually don't talk much during the day, but today it was unavoidable. It seemed like there were questions to answer all day long. Everyone I dealt with today was very nice. More importantly, they all liked dogs and appreciated Dot's situation. Nobody got mad that she barked and pooped during our conversations. The HVAC technician even said that he really felt sorry for Dot because he had a bad back himself and understood what it was like to be in constant pain. Ironically, the insurance company will pay to temporarily put Janet and I up in a hotel while the repairs are being made, but we can't leave the dogs behind. Even a pet friendly hotel isn't going to want a dog that poops all over the place. Probably what will end up happening is that Janet will use the hotel during the week so she can get ready for work. I will stay here with the dogs and just use the hotel to take showers.

I wish now that I'd never bought this house. Mid-century modern homes typically have a flat roof that inevitably leaks after the first ten years. There is also usually a concrete slab on grade foundation with no basement. This requires that all the pipes and mechanical equipment be placed under the concrete slab where they can never be accessed again. I can't complain to the architect of this house because he is already dead. The modern looking house is 60 years old. My house doesn't even have a crawl space under the foundation. There are tons of water lines, drain lines, HVAC vent pipes, and conduit for the electrical wiring all buried in the dirt under a one foot thick concrete slab. It's kind of insane when you think about it. The technicians who came over today inevitably said one of two things. They either said "I've never seen a house like this before," or they said "Buddy, you've got a real big problem here." Some of the more astonished technicians said both.

I know this is a first world problem. I've still got a roof over my head. There's food in the refrigerator and the dogs are safe. This will get fixed. At the moment it's still a giant mess though, and I'll be real glad when things get back to normal again.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2151

Things have started to return to normal. It wasn't a great day, but it wasn't sheer chaos like yesterday either. Dot was surprisingly strong this morning, especially considering what a tough week she's had. She was confident and surefooted on her morning walk and did equally well on the treadmill during her physical therapy session. She even pooped outside today. I was pleased.

I still fielded quite a few calls from insurance adjusters, plumbers, HVAC contractors, and others regarding my pipe leak, but nobody came to the house today. That was a blessing. Dot is fine with phone calls. She just doesn't like visitors. There still might be a few snags to take care of, but it appears that my complex repair job is moving forward.

I shut off the water at the water meter for a while today. That definitely took care of the leak. The rushing water in the pipes stopped immediately. Of course I couldn't use the washing machine. I couldn't use the dishwasher, I couldn't wash the car, I couldn't take a shower, I couldn't even use the toilet. You don't really realize how much water you use in a normal day until you don't have any. I turned the water back on again after about five hours, because I'd had enough. It's too bad there is no way of shutting off the water supply from inside the house. It's a pain to have to go out in the front yard, take the iron cover off the water meter, and struggle with the rusty master water valve. A few years ago when I took the cover off the water meter, there was a snake inside. I'm OK shutting the water off during the day. I'm not going anywhere near that thing at night.

I'm surprised at how common water problems like mine are. When I described my leak situation to people today, almost half of them either can experienced the same thing themselves or had a close friend with a pipe leak. The dispatcher for my HVAC contractor said that plumbers had to tunnel under their home all the way from one end to the other. Dot's vet said that she was hearing strange noises in their pipes and another person at the clinic said that she had to deal with $800 water bills for three months because of an underground leak. Everyone seemed to share my frustrations at the many difficulties they faced fixing a problem like this. This wasn't exactly a bonding moment though. All these shared experienced just made me more apprehensive.

The rain continued today. We were lucky and stayed relatively dry when we walked Dot and Dash this morning. My luck ran out when I took downtown Dot to her physical therapy session though. As soon as I got Dot in the car, it started to pour. The off and on rain showers continued for most of the day. I'm hoping that the skies clear tonight and that I can start a quiet uneventful day with a good breakfast at my favorite restaurant.  If tomorrow ends up being a repeat of last Friday, I still have plenty of work to keep me busy. I received two new web projects today and there is still a backlog of projects I haven't finished yet. It's nice to be busy, but it's even nicer to get out of the house occasionally. Maybe if it's a gentle rain, the dogs won't even notice.

I don't think I'd make a very good nomad. I couldn't live very long without running water and electricity. Let's hope by this time next week, everything is fixed.

Coach is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2150

I've decided that I need complete quiet and isolation to stay sane. Yes, today was pretty crazy. I was trying to code a fairly complex website today and I kept getting interrupted by phone calls from the plumber, knocks on the door from my insurance agent, more phone calls from claims adjusters and even a mold remediation company. Dot freeks out whenever there are visitors and typically poops on the floor. I have to watch Dash like a hawk, so he won't escape thorough an inadvertently open door or gate when there are visitors. It is very stressful. Dot was kind of wobbly today and at one point I was worried that she might be having vestibular problems again. I was so glad when the calls and visits associated with the plumbing leak finally ended.

I have to really concentrate when I code these complicated new responsive websites I'm building now. I was working on a problem that normally would have taken me about an hour. I kept getting interrupted at a critical point in the process and as a result, I made a series of mistakes seven times in a row before I eventually uploaded something that worked. My little update took me most of the day. If I get interrupted when I'm coding websites or even writing an ad, I lose my train of thought. I'll try to pick up where I left off after I've dealt with the distraction, but often it is a lost cause. That's what happened today. I kept having to start my project over and over again, because the distractions created a roadblock in my one track brain.

The dogs are so used to my quiet and private life that anything abnormal makes them both very nervous. They are much happier when we follow our regular schedule and I give them my undivided attention. I can't really blame today on the dogs though. I need large blocks of completely uninterrupted time to get anything done. I don't multi-task well. Truthfully, I don't multi-task at all. Writing and coding are quiet thoughtful activities that require a lot of time. Since the dogs like to sleep a lot, it works out well. I write articles and code websites while the dogs are sleeping and we go on walks together and have tasty snacks while they are awake.

Dot has not had a good week. I'm worried about her. Hopefully, her vet can give me some good advice about this latest step in the journey when we go for our therapy session tomorrow. I'm not sure what we can do at this point. We're both really trying, but Dot keeps getting older. The last thing she needs is a crew of noisy people digging a tunnel under our house to reach the broken pipe, but fixing the pipe is inevitable. The leak simply must be stopped as soon as possible.

Dot is completely off schedule now, so she will probably poop in her bed sometime during the night. I wouldn't be surprised if running the washing machine continually isn't what caused the pipe leak in the first place. Some things can't be helped. We'll just continue doing the best we can. If I see Santa between now and Christmas, I'm just going to ask for my life to return to normal.

Ginger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2149

My life is about to become miserable. The plumbers have discovered a substantial pipe leak located under my living room floor. There are only two ways to fix this problem. You can jackhammer through the brick and concrete slab to access the underground pipe, or you can tunnel under the house. Either way is messy and expensive. The plumber agreed with me that it would be a disaster to tear up the brick floors. There's probably not a maason still alive who could duplicate the intricate brickwork. You'd never be able to find the Corsicana Red brick pavers either. The brickyard went out of business years ago and the antique bricks are now considered collectible by people who buy and sell them on eBay. At $30 and up per brick, I don't think I'll be replacing this floor anytime soon.

Since I am unwilling to totally destroy my floor, that left the tunneling option. The plumber contacted a tunneling specialist who came out to the house to survey the situation. It seems like the best option is to rip up some flagstones in the atrium, destroy our Japanese garden, and tunnel under the utility room where the leak appears to originate. Before any of this activity can began, I have to contact my insurance company and see if the repairs are covered under my homeowners policy. They'd better be! I'll need to contact my HVAC guy too, since it is possible that the furnace will need to be removed during the repairs. Mid-Century Modern houses get you coming and going. The ubiquitous flat roof covering most of these homes makes it easy for rain to leak in, while the concrete slab foundations with no crawl space underneath makes plumbing and electrical repairs almost impossible. There were good reasons why people have built houses with peaked roofs and full basements for hundreds of years. My home is what happens when architects ignore gravity and common sense.

You may be wondering how the dogs reacted to having plumbers in the house for most of the afternoon. It was a disaster. I tried to fool Dot by putting her in a back bedroom where she couldn't see the plumbers. This worked for a while, but eventually the plumbers had to come through the bedroom to access one of the bathrooms. When Dot noticed the strangers in her house, she started barking uncontrollably. It wasn't long before she pooped on a rug. It's not easy to hold up Dot's rear legs, clean up dog poop, and talk to a pair of plumbers at the same time. At one point I had to gate Dot in the back of the house while I conferred with the plumbers. Unfortunately, I forgot to close the door to the bathroom. Don't wandered into this room while I wasn't looking and slipped on the slick tile floor, which caused her to poop all over again. She fell in the poop and soiled her harness and herself. The floor itself looked like a poopy crime scene. I've been doing a lot of laundry and cleaning today. 

At some point, I had to take both dogs outside for thirty minutes so the plumbers could pinpoint where the leak was coming from. They used stethoscopes pressed to the floor to determine where the leaking water sound was loudest. It goes without saying that with Dot in the house, they wouldn't be able to hear a thing. Dot, Dash and I sat outside on a blanket for 45 minutes. Ironically, when the location of the leak was eventually found, it was located right below the spot where Dot had initially pooped.

Somehow, I managed to get two writing assignments finished during all this madness. While I was writing, I noticed that my client has been misspelling the name of their own products. This was the only humorous thing that happened today. I'm kind of at my wits end. Dot requires constant care and I can't safely take her to doggie day care or a boarding facility anymore. I can't postpone the repairs very long either. This all has to happen soon. Before the plumbers arrived, my biggest problem was inadvertently adding an apple to my morning smoothie. Now I've got real problems.

Wolfgang is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2148

Dot's cancer continues to be in remission. The ultrasound scan we did today showed no growth in the tumor whatsoever. The oncologist was pleased and said that since this was a slow growing cancer anyway, Dot had a good chance of leading a normal life. It is questionable how normal Dot's life actually is at this point, but at least we can concentrate on her neurological issues instead of trying to fight the cancer at the same time. We will continue doing the Ultrasound scans at two month intervals just to be on the safe side, but cancer isn't nearly as high on my worry list anymore.

During Dot's exam, I asked the oncologist about Dash's recent eating problems.  She listened to me describe his symptoms and asked me whether we had any acorns in our yard. Yup. There are thousands of acorns on the ground right now. Evidently acorns can be toxic to dogs and cause nausea and digestive problems if ingested. Dash doesn't have a specific taste for acorns, but he could easily have eaten a few while he was trying to eat bugs, nasty things the feral cats left behind, and other crap in the yard. I never realized that acorns could be a problem, but I shouldn't have been surprised. Just about anything can end up being a problem for Dash.

Today was busy. In addition to taking Dot to the cancer center, there was a growing list of writing and website assignments I needed to deal with. As soon as Janet left for work, I turned up the heat in an attempt to eliminate the dampness we'd been experiencing. I'm not sure my plan worked. The house warmed up quickly, but it still felt humid. Dampness has been a problems for a long, long time in this house. I think it was one of the reasons I got the storage warehouse in the first place. When we first moved here, I stored some of my guitars in a ceiling level storage closet in my office. A year later I discovered that dampness had ruined the finish on two of the guitars. I digress though. In spite of all my fiddling with the temperature and humidity this morning, I still managed to finish several new articles and send them off to their destination. I'll tackle the new website project later in the week.

Dot was a little shaky today. I had to support her rear legs while she was eating to prevent them from slowly sinking to the ground. She also stumbled a bit during her morning walk. On the other hand, Dot seemed active and energetic during her exam with the oncologist. The oncologist was impressed. That's the way it is with Dot. There are good days and bad days and very little is predictable. We are thankful for the good days and do our best on the bad ones.

Tomorrow, we deal with the plumber. Neither of the dogs like repairmen in the house and Dot poops whenever she barks these days. It should be an interesting day. I seriously doubt that the water heater will be replaced tomorrow, but hopefully the plumber will be able to diagnose the problem. I could keep a plumber busy for a long time if we addressed all the water related issues in the house. Some aren't serious though and can probably wait. If the dogs are cooperative, I ought to get the plumber to fix all the faucets while he's here. One of the toilets needs a new flushing mechanism too. French Porcher toilets are impossible to find parts for. You just can't go to Home Depot to fix these things and many plumbers are unfamiliar with the oddly designed French components. We'll see how the day goes. I'll be happy if the plumber can just stop the hot water from flowing through the pipes when it isn't supposed to.

I'm optimistic at this point. I could just as easily be pessimistic. It probably wouldn't make much of a difference.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2147

Dogs don't understand Daylight Saving Time. Frankly, I don't either. The whole concept of "gaining an hour" or "losing and hour" is bizarre. We all follow the same circadian rhythm and arbitrarily turning back the clock so it will be light when you drive to work in the morning doesn't really prove anything. I'm sure that's what Dot and Dash were thinking when they got us up at 6 AM on a Sunday morning. According to their clock, we were already an hour late for breakfast. We wanted to sleep in a little longer, but it doesn't pay to ignore Dot these days. When we didn't respond immediately to the dogs desire to get the day started, Dot got up on her own and promptly pooped in the hallway.

I had plans to go to the gym in the morning, but got sidetracked by setting all the clocks in the house back an hour. You don't realize until the time changes that almost every device in your home has a clock in it. There's a clock in the thermostat. There's a clock in the coffee maker. There's a clock in the television. There's even a clock in the old land line phone. In addition to these clocks are wall clocks in the bathroom, office, and kitchen, plus two clock radios. You are either forced to change all of these clocks, or ignore them all. Just changing one or two clocks creates confusion.You never know which one is right. I even set one clock back to Daylight Saving Time by mistake this morning. It is ironic that in a house filled with watches and clocks, I am perpetually late everywhere I go.

Since we have a lot of single pane glass in our house, cold weather can cause water to condense on the inside of our windows. This condensation can make the entire house feel damp. There is nothing new about this damp weather condensation, but today it made me feel like it was caused by our invisible water leak instead of the weather. I still see no evidence whatsoever of a leak, but the water keeps running in the pipes. I hope the plumbing company sends out a really good plumber. I hate these kind of mysteries.

I went to the gym this afternoon even though I knew it was raining and I would feel compelled to clean the car when I got home. I had cabin fever and needed to get out of the house. I did clean the car when I got home, but it was no big deal. Sunday is just a giant cleaning day anyway. After I cleaned the car, I vacuumed all the rugs and carpets with the Dyson. I continue to be amazed by the enormous amount of dirt and dog hair that I sweep up every week. I used to wonder why Dyson made the dirt canister out of clear plastic so you could see all the gross gunk you had removed from your carpets. Now, I think that they want you to see all this dirt so you will be impressed by how strong their vacuum cleaner is. Probably all vacuum cleaners suck up the same amount of dirt, but most just hide it away in a bag that your forget about until it is full.

So far, November is looking busy. I have an appointment to take Dot back to the cancer center for one of her periodic exams. She'll get another Ultrasound scan tomorrow to measure whether the tumor in her liver has grown. Dash is fine for the moment. He is eating normally and all four legs are working fine. I haven't seem him limp for almost a week. I think there is already enough work on the books to keep me busy for most of the week. I have three new articles to write, along with a website that needs to be updated and converted to a mobile friendly format. All these projects will be finished in good time, while I spend my time fretting about where to find fresh peaches. My morning smoothies were much better with peaches in them.

Jeda is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2146 - Halloween

When I was walking Dash this evening, I noticed that some of the neighbors were turning a nearby tennis court into a Halloween party. There were spooky Halloween decorations and tables had been set up with baskets filled with candy. This seemed like an odd way to trick or treat, but I guess it made sense. There aren't many children in the neighborhood and since parents only seem to take their kids to houses with other children of the same age, having a central trick or treat location probably saved these people a lot of driving across town. Dash seemed curious about what was going on, so I took him down to the tennis court to investigate. Right after we arrived, someone decided to test the sound system by playing spooky witch noises. The cackling witch scared Dash and he immediately lost interest in the party preparations and headed toward home. Poor Dash. He is scared of just about everything.

It was a dreary day, but after 24 hours of solid rain, damp and overcast was just fine. We didn't have the flooding problems that plagued Austin and Houston this week, but we certainly got a lot of rain. Basically, we received our entire Summer's quota of rain in two days. Once I determined that things were drying out, I went up on the roof and cleared away the standing water. Every time I do this I find thousands of new acorns on the roof. I sweep them over the edge and more appear the next day. This bumper crop of acorns probably means that there will literally be hundreds of little Oak seedlings sprouting in the St. Augustine grass next Spring.

The FedEx driver did make an appearance this morning to deliver my package. I was glad to have that issue resolved. I could have asked the driver why he blew me off yesterday, but what would that prove? Yesterday is in the past and I have my package now. It made more sense to just sign for the package, thank the driver for coming out on a Saturday, and move on. The package wasn't damaged either, so that was a bonus.

Tonight's episode of Dr. Who seemed more like an episode of the X-Files. The whole show seemed to be some sort of an allegory about immigration, terrorism, and other contemporary events. A lot of fans seem to think Season 9 is great. Personally, I prefer the Christopher Eccleston/Billy Piper era. I got bored with the show at some point and switched over to Saturday Night Live, watching Barack Obama introduce the opening sketch wearing a Barack Obama mask. Strange times. I couldn't decide if it was weirder to see Dr. Who making a thinly veiled statement about radicalization and terrorism, or see the President of the United States wearing a Halloween mask of himself.

Janet wanted to dress the dogs up for Halloween when we took them on their evening walk. The complex harnesses they both wear now don't lend themselves to costumes though. We found an old tutu that Dot used to wear and just put it around her head like a necklace. It's just as well. If she wore the costume properly, she would have peed on it or worse. Dot has worn many memorable costumes over the years, but she probably never liked any of them. Halloween and Daylight Saving Time don't make much sense to a dog. When the time changes tomorrow, we're going to think it's 6 AM, but Dot and Dash are going to think it's 7 AM and time for a walk. So much for sleeping in.

Roxie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2145

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

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

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

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

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

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

Puppies are today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2144

When I was getting Dot suited up in her harness to go to physical therapy, Dash woke up from a nap and immediately started coughing and choking. I took him outside to see if he was trying to throw up or eat grass. He actually seemed pretty calm, but continued coughing. What was this all about? I called Dot's vet and asked if I could postpone her appointment until I figured out what was going on with Dash. I considered putting both dogs in the car and taking Dash to the vet with me, but I knew that wouldn't work. It's hard enough to transport Dot by herself. Since Dash wasn't frantic, I thought that he might have gotten some dog hair stuck in his throat while he was licking his fur. Maybe the hair was irritating him. Dalmatian hair is short and surprisingly sharp. I got a dog hair stuck in my eyelid once and it was very uncomfortable. To test my theory, I fed Dash some canned dog food in hopes that it would moisten his throat and cause him to swallow the loose hair. Gradually, the coughing subsided and I resumed getting Dot ready for her appointment.

Dot had her own little crisis in the car. I always fold down the rear seat to give Dot a nice big flat area to ride in, but instead of staying in the middle of the car like she should have, she moved directly behind the drivers seat and managed to get one of her front legs stuck in the small gap between the folded rear seat and the door. Why does this always happen when I'm on a freeway? Dot was squeeling and I was stressed. I got off the freeway as soon as I could, pulled into a nearby parking lot, and repositioned her in the center of the cargo area. Dot was fine, but she could have injured herself if she struggled too hard to free her leg. We arrived about an hour late, and I was thankful that Dot has such a nice and accommodating vet. I try my best not to be late, but sometimes events are out of my control.

On days like this, I often feel like everything is out of my control. I'm still hearing water flowing in the pipes when all the faucets are turned off, so I made an appointment to have our plumber come out and figure out what is going on. Unfortunately, he can't come until next Tuesday. There's got to be a leak somewhere, but I can't find it. I hate plumbing problems. Plumbers are quite comfortable cutting a hole in your wall to access a pipe, but they never fix the damage they've made. After the leak is fixed, you have to go out and find your own carpenter or tape and bed guy to repair the walls. Then you have to find a painter to repaint them. The whole process often takes weeks. The dogs don't like having repairmen in the house either and bark continuously while they are here. I'm not looking forward to next week at all.

The weather report says it is supposed to start raining about 5 AM tomorrow morning and continue raining for the rest of the day. I really hope this forecast is wrong, because a sustained rain almost guarantees that Dot will poop in the house. I received five new writing jobs this afternoon, so there will be plenty to do tomorrow if we're housebound. I need to wait for the FedEx guy to deliver a package too, so maybe staying at home all day isn't such a bad idea. I should have done a better job of planning ahead for days like this. There is no more fresh fruit or bananas to make my morning smoothie tomorrow. I think we're out of the cream I put in my morning coffee too. Why do I obsess about food so much? If worse comes to worse, I'll make an omelet, fry up some sausage, and then spend the rest of the day fretting about the mystery plumbing leak while I write my articles.

Dakota is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2143

I went and got the blood tests that my doctor needed right after we walked the dogs this morning. They always want you to fast before these tests, so it's easier to do them first thing in the morning and eat breakfast afterwards. A lady I'd never seen before approached me with a pile of forms to sign before they drew my blood. She said she was a representative of the lab that did the testing. I read page one of the forms and they basically said that I had to pay for anything that insurance didn't cover. What was this all about? Insurance has always covered everything before. I told the woman with all the forms that it was my doctor who insisted on all these tests and it was his job to get them paid for. The whole incident was irritating. Maybe I'll eventually get a bill and maybe I won't. That's not the point. The whole process of navigating the healthcare system is kind of like being lost in a corn maze. It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

Today was a writing day. I didn't think my writing assignments would take me as long as they did, but sometimes the muse just isn't with you. I struggled today. I often find that the "no-brainer" jobs are the hardest, because it can be very difficult to write something compelling when there is nothing to say. Really innovative products sell themselves. The rest provide job opportunities for people like me. I'm not complaining, mind you. I'll write about virtually anything if you pay me.

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my defective watch winder was being replaced for free with a brand new model. Today, I was disappointed to discover that it will cost three times as much as I originally anticipated to fix my old multi-track tape recorder. These two different approaches to a repair problem illustrate perfectly how we have become a throw away society. The watch winder was made in China and it was actually less expensive to throw the old unit away and replace it with a new one than it would have been to ship the winder back to the Chinese manufacturer. The tape recorder had to be repaired because it was no longer in production. Most of the repair cost was labor. The cost of the parts themselves was minimal. In the future I don't think anything will be repaired. It will all be replaced. It's so much easier to throw the old stuff away and let the robots build more.

While I was on the phone trying to get some medical records this afternoon, Dot had a major accident in the house. I smelled it before I saw it. It was like a poop explosion. She pooped all over the carpet in my office and then stumbled and fell in the poop. First I had to clean Dot up. Then I had to take her harness off and hose it off before I put it in the washing machine. Then I had to do my best to clean the carpet itself. It sure would have been nice if Dot had pooped on one of the dozens of small rugs we've spread around the house to help her walk. I can take the rugs to the laundromat or hose them off outside. The carpet is more of a challenge.

Tomorrow is another day. I'm hoping that Dot does well at her physical therapy session. I'm hoping that it doesn't rain. I"m hoping that the carpet still smells clean after it dries out tomorrow.

Abi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2142

When I was reading the new issue of Electronic Musician this morning I was surprised to see that there is now software that allows you to add realistic sounding vocals to songs you've written without using a real singer. The voice synthesizer software is called Cyber Diva and you just enter lyrics and a melody into digital audio workstation applications like CuBase and you've got an instant lead vocalist that sounds pretty real. I was intrigued. I'm way past the stage in life where you get together with other musicians at 2 AM to lay down a demo on a tape machine in your bedroom. Been there, done that several decades ago. Something like Cyber Diva might make it easier for me to get back into songwriting again. I used to always have other singers record my songs because I inherited my mother's terrible singing voice. Maybe synthesized vocals are the next big thing for the solo songwriter. I did a little research and discovered that this sort of thing is already popular in Japan. Not surprisingly, the software is Japanese. Most of the available voices are Japanese too. Cyber Diva is their first attempt to create an electronic voice that sings in American English.

I finally heard from the watch winder people today. Evidently my defective unit is too old to repair and not being manufactured anymore. The good news is that the company is sending me a brand new replacement three motor winder at no charge. I was pleasantly surprised. I sure wish that other companies worked this way. It would be nice to hear my service representative at the Land Rover dealer say "I'm sorry sir, we can no longer repair your car, so we're just going to give you a brand new one."

Today was another slow day. After I finished some minor website updates, I did what I often do on slow days. I washed my car. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that I'd driven through some fresh road tar. It's much easier to drive through road tar in Dallas than to get the sticky stuff off your wheels. In many ways, life is a lot like driving through road tar. You're minding your own business and all of the sudden you're in the middle of a big mess. Just like the road tar, you often don't realized how bad the mess is until long after the incident is over. At any rate, an easy task quickly turned into a difficult one. I found some solvent in the utility room and methodically cleaned the wheels. I still don't know where the tar came from. That means I could easily drive through the same patch again tomorrow.

I did manage to see the planetary trio this morning when we were walking the dogs. Mars, Venus, and Jupiter weren't as quite close together as they would have been yesterday morning, but it was still an impressive sight. When I looked up at the sky I kept wondering whether I'll be accepted to the next NASA launch. I don't think my application was as inspired as my initial application last January. I guess it all depends on who else applies.

Tomorrow should be busier. I have several new articles to write, along with the usual assortment of useless activities that constitute my day. Dot and Dash are continuing to have a good week. You can't ask for more than that.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2141

Dash is much better today. The swelling has gone down on his paw and he's walking more or less normally again. He remembers where the bee stung him and won't walk in that section of the park. He's a nervous dog, but he's a very smart dog who learns from his experiences. I wouldn't walk on that trail either if I'd been stung yesterday. I had been thinking about making another vet appointment because Dash had been having some digestion issues last week, but that problem seems to have resolved itself. Dash is eating normally again. He's about as normal as he's going to get.

I didn't see the cluster of three planets this morning, because the sky was very overcast. It wasn't raining though. That's always a good thing. By around 10:30 this morning the blue sky I was hoping for suddenly materialized and it was nice for the rest of the day. Since it was a typical slow Monday, I used this opportunity to clear off the roof again. You would think that I could find better things to do with my time than to spend it perpetually removing water from the roof. Maybe. I can tell you one thing. Once you've had a bad water leak with sections of wet sheet rock falling from the ceiling, you never really trust water or your roof again. I'll always be looking over my shoulder when it rains.

Although my website business has slowed down quite a bit, I still get update requests every couple of days. Most of these updates are simple and don't provide much of a challenge. Sadly, they don't provide much of an income either. I keep hoping that these maintenance clients will spread my name around and one of their friends will eventually bring me a big new project that will keep me busy for months. That probably isn't going to happen though. Everybody has a website these days, but not everybody needs one. Some of my clients look at their website like an electronic Yellow Pages ad. Others have forgotten that they even have a website until I remind them. It can be discouraging to realize that you're not exactly setting the world on fire. On the other hand, it's kind of nice to have clients who still keep using you even though they don't need you at all.

I'm getting to the age where I see far too many obituaries. I see most of these notices on Facebook, because that's where you see everything these days. I haven't subscribed to a newspaper in years. Most of my college teachers have died by now. Many of my former ad agency bosses and early mentors have passed away as well, including one more today. It's kind of sobering to realize what a limited amount of time we have on this planet. Whenever I read that a friend or co-worker has died, I renew my resolve to put my remaining years to good use. This resolve usually lasts about an hour and then I revert to my old ways.

Apple is really getting sloppy about its upgrade program. During the past two weeks I have installed three different IOS upgrades to my phone plus another two upgrades for my watch. I just installed another Apple Watch upgrade this afternoon. Each of these upgrades was designed to fix a series of flaws and omissions found in the previous upgrade. I wish they'd tested these patches before they released them. I'd rather wait a little longer than hurry to install software that is full of bugs.

There will be one more chance to see Mars, Jupiter, and Venus packed into a tight little triangle tomorrow morning. The best viewing time was today, unless you had a sky full of thick clouds like we did. Maybe we'll get lucky tomorrow. Clear skies, no dog poop in the house, and a new job in my morning e-mail: that would be my tight little triangle.

Pearl is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2140

Poor Dash can't seem to catch a break. Just when his back legs were getting back to normal, he gets stung by a bee on his evening walk and now he's limping on his front leg. Actually he was doing a lot worse than just limping at one point. I was worried that he was having an adverse reaction to the sting and managed to get him to the vet five minutes before they closed for the day. Dash can't take antihistamines or Benadryl because he is still taking Phenobarbital to control his seizures. The vet removed the stinger, which I had been unable to find, and gave Dash a steroid shot to reduce the inflammation and pain. He is resting now and should feel much better in the morning.

Before all the bee sting drama, it was just a normal Sunday. For the most part, a normal Sunday involves vacuuming the house and going to the gym. There are always a lot more steps on my activity tracker on Sunday than on any other day of the week. There was a police car in the parking lot when I arrived at the gym and it was still there when I left an hour later. It made me wonder if the gym was having problems with crime in the area. Just about every other part of town is having problems, so it wouldn't be that surprising if this area had an incident as well. Whatever the cause, I was glad to see the police presence. I just wish they'd patrol the park a little more frequently.

There were quite a few people working out today and many of the machines were occupied, so I had to do my normal workout in reverse order. Surprisingly, I burned up more calories doing things backwards like this. I usually do the difficult routines first to get them out of the way. Maybe doing the most strenuous exercises toward the end of my workout when I was already tired burned up more energy. Who knows. I wasn't as good at basketball today either.

The temperature was in the low fifties for most of the day. Shouldn't the bees have moved on to someplace warmer by now? Maybe the bee that stung Dash was a straggler. I usually don't see many bees this late in the year. It would have been hard for a bee to sting me today. I wore my Winter coat for the first time this season. It seemed a little much at first, but I ended up being glad I overdressed. The air was damp and there was a brisk wind. This always makes it seem even colder than it really is.

I hope there is a break in the clouds early tomorrow morning. There is a rare conjunction of Jupiter, Venus, and Mars in the morning sky called a planetary trio that won't occur again until 2021. I've been watching these three planets move closer and closer together for the past month now. If the sky is clear, I should set up a tripod and try to get a decent picture of the event. Usually there's no time to do this sort of thing, since it takes so much time to get the dogs walked and fed before Janet leaves for work.

At this point, I don't think Dash will be going on a walk tomorrow morning, and it is questionable how far that Dot will walk without him. Dot was barking during dinner because she smelled the Beef Stroganoff that Janet had cooked for our evening meal. I told Dot that she had to be good, because she was the therapy dog today. For the first time in a long time, Dot was actually in better shape than Dash. To say we have high maintenance dogs would be an understatement.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2139

The dogs are full of surprises. It was still raining when we woke up this morning, so I thought we were going to have a huge problem getting Dot and Dash to do their business. Our plan was to take them each out in the alley behind our house and faced with the alternative of pooping quickly or getting very wet, they would make the sensible choice. Reliable Dot had everything taken care of in a matter of minutes. When we got her dried off and ready for breakfast, it was time for me to repeat the process with Dash. Dash hates rain, so I thought he might refuse to leave the porch. Nope. He headed straight for the park. Maybe as soon as he got to his regular pooping place, he would turn around and come home. Nope again. Inexplicably, he seemed to be enjoying himself. He wanted to go on his regular long walk. By the time we eventually returned home again, we both were completely soaked. The dog who hates rain, baths, and any other form of water, looked like he had a good time.

I know that I wasn't going to mess with the roof until our current rainy spell was over, but I saw a couple of pictures on the Internet of storm damaged homes where the roof had caved in and it got me nervous. I'm not really sure how strong our roof actually is, but tons of water adding to the structural load can't be good for it. It took me about an hour to pump and sweep last night's accumulation of water away. I'm sure the water will return, since the remnants of Hurricane Patricia are headed our way. The storm is dissipating quickly and should pass south of us, but I would still anticipate a lot more rain.

I can't find peaches anymore for my morning smoothies. I guess they're out of season. It's weird that some fruit like strawberries and blueberries are generally available all year long, but peaches are still strictly seasonal. I guess I could try substituting pears or plums, but I've grown fond of the taste of peaches and bananas. I spend way too much time fretting about such things. It would be easier if I just had a glass of orange juice like the rest of the world.

A cold front must have swept through town with last night's rain. I needed to look for a warmer jacket this morning. Actually, what I needed most was a good raincoat. Of course, since I didn't anticipate being gone for an hour, I just wore a light jacket and got cold and wet. The colder weather reminded me that it's about time to get the Winter coats out of the storage warehouse. I don't have enough closet space as it is and when the heavy coats are in the house, the place seems even more crowded than usual.

I saw a small dragonfly hovering around our living room window this evening. It's was probably trying to get inside where it was warmer. I usually see these things flying around on hot August afternoons. It seemed really out of place seeing one today. I guess there's always someone who didn't get the memo.

Maybe Dash went on a walk in the rain today because he was bored. I kind of think this is why he no longer likes his regular food either. He might want a change of pace. It's a shame when even your dog thinks you lead a boring, predictable life.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2138

Today basically sucked. I woke up with a sore back because I spent a good portion of the night sleeping on the floor with Dot. There were severe thunderstorms during the night and it was the only way I could keep her calm. For some reason, the dogs like to sit in the shower during storms and I didn't want her slipping on the tile floors in the bathroom or pooping all over the house. I must have been tired, because I promptly fell asleep on the floor and has a dream that Dot and I were watching wild animals through the bedroom window. Sleeping next to her did keep Dot calm though, so I guess it was all worth it.

We found a short dry spell to walk the dogs in the morning, but basically it rained all day. I thought about staying home for breakfast, but we were out of peaches and bananas, so I drove to my breakfast restaurant in the rain. The storm knocked most of the traffic lights out, so the short trip took much longer than usual. I certainly didn't prove much by getting all the acorns off the roof yesterday. Last night's wind and rain knocked thousands more off the trees, so the mess I was trying to avoid is up there anyway. It is supposed to rain for the next five days, so I'm not even going to bother going up on the roof. It's futile to remove the water now.

Water on the roof isn't my only water problem. I keep hearing water running in the pipes even when all the faucets are turned off. There are no obvious leaks anywhere that I can find, so the only thing I can think of is that there is a small leak under the slab. If this is what's happening, it's not good news. Any kind of plumbing problem under the foundation usually ends up being a giant expensive mess. I'll check next month's water bill to see if water usage has gone up. This month's water bill was actually smaller than the previous month, so if there's a leak, it's probably a small one.

I discovered that the reason I haven't heard from the watch winder company is that the guy I shipped the defective winder to is on vacation. It would have been nice if he'd told me he was going on vacation before I sent the package. Now, my claim won't even be processed until the guy returns. Ironically, right after I hung up the phone with the watch winder people, I discovered that the motor in another watch winder had burned out. Since I bought these things all about the same time, maybe all of them are getting ready to die on me. Does it really even matter? Probably not.

Apparently the Postal Service creed doesn't mean much anymore. You know how the saying goes: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." The postman used to deliver our mail in all types of weather, but our new mail carrier is definitely a fair weather friend. I've noticed for quite a while now that whenever we have a big storm, we don't get any mail that day. I don't know if the post office sanctions this or whether our mail carrier just throws the mail in the trunk of her car and waits for a sunny day. It's not like it used to be though.

Hopefully, we're going to get a break from this rain sometime this weekend. It's going to be a long two days otherwise. I'm accustomed to the rainy season by now. So far, it appears to be right on schedule. This will be our first Fall and Winter where we're dealing with Dot's limited mobility though. It makes things a bit harder.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2137

It's weird to see rain again. It's been dry for almost two months here in Dallas and I'd almost forgotten all the little rituals we go through whenever it rains. It's always been difficult to get the dogs to go outside and pee when it rains. Now, it's even hard to find a comfortable place for them in the house. Dot's primary dog bed has a clear view of the windows, so she can easily see any approaching storm. Since she can't hear very well anymore, I could just turn her around so she was facing a wall if it weren't for the fact that Dash is scared of storms too and likes to huddle up with Dot. I had a hard time today finding a place where both dogs felt comfortable and I still haven't been able to get Dot to go outside and poop.

One hidden benefit of Dot's new morning therapy schedule is that I was able to get her to the vet and back again before the rain even started. Dot actually did quite well in the underwater treadmill today. She was able to walk in the tank for a full seventeen minutes and even had two short intervals where we raised the treadmill speed a bit. Dot's resilience and tenacity are really pretty amazing. When we got home, it looked like the approaching storm was imminent, so I immediately went up on the roof and swept away a huge accumulation of pecan shells and acorns. The squirrels had already eaten most of the pecans, but there were an enormous amount of acorns on the roof. Now that the roof is clean, it will be a lot easier to remove the water when the rain stops. I probably did the squirrels a favor too. All the acorns are on the ground now and it will be much easier for them to dig unsightly holes in my St. Augustine grass when they bury their nuts for the Winter.

I sent in my application to NASA to attend the Orbital ATK CRS-4 launch. I have no idea if or when I'll hear back from them. The last time I applied to cover a launch, I thought they had totally forgotten about me until I received a surprise e-mail out of the blue telling me that my application had been accepted. We'll see what happens this time. I hope my Klout score and blog readership numbers don't influence their decision. Both these numbers are trending down. It's kind of ironic. I think my blog posts have improved over the years, but I actually had more readers in the early days when my posts were crap. It's all being in the right place at the right time. Any way you slice it, blogs just aren't as popular as they used to be.

It's raining hard now. There's no way we're going to get the dogs outside during this downpour. If Dot poops in the house in nice weather, she's certainly not going to make the effort to go outside during a storm. Hopefully, most of these storms will pass through the area tonight and we'll be able to take our regular walk tomorrow morning. If Dot and Dash don't get their walk, tomorrow is going to be miserable.

The world continues to change around me while I stay the same. One of Dot's favorite nurses has unexpectedly moved on to a new opportunity at another hospital. We didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. I certainly can't fault young people for taking advantage of every opportunity that comes their way. I worked at 17 different ad agencies before I finally realized that the only way to avoid having problems with my boss was to be the boss. So far it has worked out pretty well. Nobody can fire me now and my little company will celebrate its 26th Anniversary at the end of the year. That should impress NASA, but it probably won't.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day