Day 2161

The other day, I was listening to an old radio interview with Allen Toussaint on NPR. It occurred to me that Allen's song Working in The Coal Mine, was the perfect sound track for my weekends. The tune was certainly appropriate today. I outdid myself with backbreaking activity. Yesterday, I noticed that my neighbors were piling up trash in front of their houses, so I was determined not to let another big trash day pass me by. I hauled a huge pile of nondescript rusty stuff that had been accumulating in the green house out to the curb and made my own pile as well.

Once I started my pile, it became obvious that this would be a good time to cut down the three dead Photinia Bushes near the back fence. I didn't have an extension cord that would reach that far, so I finally found a good use for my generator. The generator provided plenty of power for my trusty reciprocating saw and the unsightly trees I'd been meaning to cut down for at least two years were finally gone.

It was time to put the screen porch back together too. If I waited to find time to locate new extra wide screen wire and purchase new hardwood trim, there would have been a big gap in the screen until sometime next Spring. I carefully reused the old materials and although I can't say the porch is as good as new, at least it's as good as it was before. When the environmental cleanup people come to clean the vents and retrieve their big dehumidifier tomorrow, the house will finally be back to pre-leak condition.

When I was hauling trash to the curb, I noticed that there was a lot of nice fresh white gravel back by the garbage cans. I shoveled up a big pile of this gravel and traded it for the muddy gravel on the gravel walkway the tunneling crew had messed up. It was probably this activity that reminded me of  Working in The Coal Mine. I was tired at the end of the day, but felt like I'd accomplished quite a bit.

On my way to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions, I stopped by my storage warehouse to look for backdrops for our upcoming Santa Paws photo shoots. I found quite a few muslin backdrops, but couldn't tell which was which without unfolding them all. I dropped off the plastic fencing that had been keeping Dash out of the atrium while the tunneling crew was working and returned home for dinner. I'll save getting ready for the December photo shoots for another day.

The dogs were lucky to get both their walks today. It looked like it was on the verge of raining for the entire day, but the rain didn't actually start until after dinner. There is still lots to do. I need to find how water is still getting out of the shower stall after all the expert grouting work I did last week. I need to finish a website that should have been complete three days ago. All in good time. What I need to do most is post this and go to sleep.

Honey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2160

We went to a rescue event today. Dash was an ambassador for Dalmatian Rescue at Pet Fair. We told him he need to be on his best behavior. This meant no excessive loud barking, no knocking over other vendors booths, and no pooping in front of a crowd of little children. Generally, Dash was pretty good. He was a little too eager to sample the treats at the Hills Science Diet booth, but he let everyone pet him and was very friendly with all the other dogs.

Dot used to go to rescue events like this all the time. Sadly, she had to stay home today. These type of public events are simply too tiring for her. I drove home midway through the event to check on her and she was sleeping peacefully. I took her out to pee and she immediately thought it was dinner time. It was actually only 2:30 in the afternoon, but how was Dot to know? When she wakes up from a nap, she usually eats.

It was good to give Dash an opportunity to do something social today. It has become so difficult and time consuming to care for Dot, that we don't get out much anymore. He was still a little timid, but he seemed to have fun, making friends with other dogs and begging for treats from anyone who would feed him. When the days start to get longer again, we should probably start taking him back to our Wednesday training class. He was never that wild about the training exercises themselves, but he loved seeing the other dogs.

Now that I've had a chance to look around, I realize that we've got quite a mess to clean up in the back yard. Although the tunneling crew did a good job of backfilling their tunnel, there is still leftover dirt and mud all over the yard. I naively thought that the cleanup would be so good that there wouldn't be a trace that anything had happened. They did lay a bunch of 4x8 plywood sheets on the ground to protect the grass, but a lot of the excavated dirt seemed to land elsewhere. I'm probably going to spend the rest of the Winter cleaning mud off my shoes. When I take Dot outside to pee at night, I inevitably step in mud now. I guess stepping in mud is better than stepping in poop.

If I have time tomorrow, I'm going to reassemble the screened in porch that I had taken apart to give the tunneling crew access to the leak. I had thought about replacing the aluminum screen panels and buying some new wood for the finishing trim. In theory this would have been a simple task, but nothing is simple with this house. The extra wide screen material is not generally available in hardware stores anymore and standard dimensions for lumber have changed over the years. To exactly match the existing trim, I would have to buy lumber and have it milled to the proper size. It's not an ideal solution, but I think I'll just reuse the old aluminum screen wire and try my best to replace the old wood trim without cracking or splintering the wood.

I looked at the dehumidifiers they had on display in the store at Lowes and most of them were crap. You could never use one of these smaller machines to dehumidify an entire house and since they were all made of plastic, they probably wouldn't last a year anyway. Commercial dehumidifiers cost well over $1000 and are generally made in the USA. The machines at Lowes cost around $200 and were all made in China. Like everything in life, you get what you pay for.

I doubt that I'll make it to the gym tomorrow. I've still got lots of website work to catch up on and the house is filthy. My shower stall repairs didn't really work either. I'd prefer to take a long nap, but it looks like wall-to-wall chores tomorrow.

Puppies are today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2159

Life is returning to normal. Water is flowing. The large tunnel under the house has been filled in. The dogs have quit barking. The only reminder of our plumbing problems is a big blue dehumidifier humming away in our living room. Since I knew the tunneling crew would be arriving early this morning, I masked off the windows again so Dot wouldn't see strangers in her yard and picked up some take-out breakfast tacos instead of going out for breakfast like I normally do on Fridays. Apparently, it is much easier to fill in a hole than to dig one. The tunnel took about fourteen hours to dig, but only about four hours to backfill. By mid-afternoon, the crew had packed up their tools and left.

I turned the furnace on this morning for the first time since the leak started and the humidity in the house didn't rise appreciably. I no longer have to huddle around the little ceramic heater while I work. It seems decadently luxurious to have a warm, moisture free house with working toilets and a washing machine that can handle as many blankets as Dot is able to soil. I think we're back in business.

Dash got a bath today in preparation for a big animal rescue event tomorrow that he will be attending. I took a bath today to give the shower stall I've been attempting to repair one more day to cure and dry. That was a mistake. I'm definitely not a tub person. I'm going back to the shower tomorrow whether my grout work is ready or not. How can you wash your hair in the tub? I think it's impossible.

It is so sad to watch what is happening in Paris tonight. I'm glad that Janet and I had an opportunity to spend time in that wonderful city when life was sane and the city was peaceful. I've spent a lot of time in Europe and used to work there frequently. I don't know if I'd ever feel comfortable traveling there again. Every time I see wave after wave of refugees descending on European countries from the Middle East, I think that this isn't going to end well. I'm convinced that hidden in the midst of these refugees are many more of the same terrorists that are currently laying seige to Paris. Western nations need to start getting serious about closing their borders, or this is only going to get worse. I don't understand what our military planners are thinking. Bombing these people just makes them mad. What we really need to do is totally isolate them. If they want to continue living in the middle ages, let them do it in their own countries.

I got my November invoices out today. Hmm. This isn't going to pay the plumbing bill. I've got to come up with a new source of income, or I'm going to be fretting about money for the rest of my life. I've gotten good enough at designing responsive websites that I could probably get hired by one of the big interactive design shops. Then I would have to go to work though. That's not going to happen. I don't think I'm even capable of leaving the dogs anymore. We have bonded. I'm not a team player anymore either. Actually, I was never a team play, but I was pretty good at faking it. When you get older, faking it loses its appeal. Poor, uncompromising, and a little frustrated. Maybe that's my destiny.

Puppies are today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2158

Sometimes, you've got to be the squeaky wheel. When Dot pooped in her bed again last night and we still couldn't use the washing machine because of our ongoing plumbing problems, I'd had about as much as I could take. I called the president of the plumbing company and told him as politely as I could that waiting until Tuesday for a plumber simply wasn't acceptable. "Your ads say you guys are on call 24/7," I said. "So, what's with making us wait a week and a half to get this fixed?" When I started going on and on about living in a house full of dog poop without running water, the guy told me he would see what he could do. An hour later the plumbing company said they could have a plumber out early Friday morning. Friday was much better than next Tuesday, so I was happy that my little tirade had achieved its purpose. Another hour passed, and the plumbing company called again and said they'd have someone out this afternoon.

When the plumber arrived he asked me to turn on all the water in the kitchen and utility room to help him find the drain leak under the house. Simply turning on the faucet wasn't producing the desired results, so I filled the kitchen sink with water and then let it go down the drain all at once. Not a good idea! The sink wasn't draining. At that point, the dishwasher, which was also on, began to empty and the water had no place to go. A line broke under the sink and the kitchen was flooded with water. Luckily, there were two plumbers several feet away watching this new disaster unfold.

Eventually the leaking cast iron pipe under the house was replaced, the leak under the sink was repaired, and the entire drain line was snaked out. I ran a load of poopy dog blankets to test the system and nothing leaked.  I think we're back in business! The two plumbers were at the house the entire afternoon. Mercifully, Dot slept for the first three hours. When she eventually woke up, she made up for lost time and barked for the rest of the day. Despite all the barking, she didn't poop in the house again. I think this was because she had already pooped in the vet's lobby, right before she got in the underwater treadmill.

There is still a huge hole under the house and one of the loud dehumidifiers is still running in the living room, but I think we're making progress. The tunneling crew will come back tomorrow to backfill the tunnel, unless another leak appears while I'm taking a shower tonight. I think the old house is trying to tell me something. If houses had "use by" dates like milk, this house would have expired and gone sour by now. Don't let me ever buy a house with a flat roof and a slab foundation again.

Since fixing things was the theme for the day, I tried to fix some ad copy that my client wasn't too happy with yesterday. I also tried to fix the layout in my new mobile friendly website so the iPhone view didn't look so wonky. I tried to explain to the client that making the mobile friendly site look perfect on every available device just wasn't that easy. I told them that the site was a work in progress and it would gradually become more refined with each passing day. I think the plumber tried to explain to me that my house was a work in progress too. There was no way he could fix all my plumbing problems in a single day. Fair enough. There was no way I could pay for everything I need right now anyway. The important thing was that the two major leaks had been repaired. The toilets are working again and I can do the laundry. That's enough for one day.

Hopefully, there will be no surprises when the tunneling crew returns tomorrow. I've had enough surprises for an entire year.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2157

Three steps forward, two steps back. I woke up this morning thinking our plumbing ordeal was over, but when the tunneling crew returned to fill in the large hole they'd created, it didn't take ten minutes before one of them knocked on my door and told me that I still had a leak. It was lucky that I just happened to be doing a load of wash at the same time the tunneling crew decided it was time to fill in the hole. The new leak was located in the cast iron drain pipes. Unless the washing machine or dishwasher were running at the time, you would never notice it. I was lucky. If the tunneling crew has arrived two hours earlier or two hours later, they would have seen nothing wrong and proceeded to fill the hole while the pipe was still leaking. Since the cast iron drain line and the copper supply line are so close together, I suspect that the two leaks are related. One pipe leaked first and over time cause the other pipe to fail.

Now, instead of moving on to other things, I have to reschedule everything. The plumbers have to come out and fix the drain pipe. The environmental cleanup people, who just removed the big dehumidifiers this morning, may have to bring them back. The people who were going to clean the vents on Monday now have to wait until everything else is finished. I have to go over all these new developments with the insurance folks as well. It is all very frustrating. The plumber said we could use the shower and toilets, but not to use the washing machine or dishwasher until the leak is fixed. Ironically, the drain leak would have never been discovered in the first place if I hadn't been using the washing machine to clean blankets that Dot had pooped on while barking at the environmental cleanup crew while they removed the dehumidifiers. Like I said, three steps forward, two steps back.

With all the problems I was having today, it would have been nice if my work projects had gone smoothly. They didn't. I have to edit a writing project to make it seem more general and vague. Hmm. I always thought specifics and details where what made writing interesting. One of my website clients is already making layout changes before the layout is even finished. These things take time folks. Give it a rest.

I went to the post office and bank today completely forgetting that it is Veterans Day and everything was closed. I guess I was confused because there was mail waiting for me in the mailbox this morning. I have a feeling that I must have forgotten to look in the mailbox yesterday. It wouldn't be surprising. I can hardly remember what day it is anymore. Everything has just merged into an endless awful mess. I wish we still had our hotel room, but we had to check out this morning. I decided to re-grout the shower stall while the water was off and the grout still isn't completely dry yet. Maybe it will be dry in the morning. I'm going to need a shower.

Dot has seemed a little shaky all week. It's probably just the added stress of dealing with all these strange new people in the house. Dash is handling things better than Dot. I'm probably doing the worst of all. I've had enough. Did I mention the Internet is down too. Sometimes I think U-Verse is worthless. I'm having to use my T-Mobile hotspot again. It's nice to have a backup. Too bad I don't have a backup plumbing system.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2156

We've got water! The broken pipe was exactly where the plumber said it would be, which kind of amazed me. The leak was located right on schedule too, which amazed me even more. I was afraid it might take weeks to resolve this problem. If you're wondering what actually caused the leak, it turns out that a section of the copper pipe that supplies water to the house was located right next to a larger cast iron pipe that carries waste water away. There were places where the two pipes touched and over the years, the rusting cast iron caused the copper to corrode and fail. That's what the plumber said anyway. He showed me a small hole in the damaged pipe about half the diameter of a pencil. It's still hard to believe that such a small hole could have caused so much damage.

I asked the plumber if there might be other places under the house where the copper supply lines could be touching the cast iron drainage lines. "Sure," said the plumber. "There could be lots of places like this." "Is there anything you can do to prevent this from happening again," I asked. "Nope," said the plumber, "You could have another leak like this tomorrow, or it might never happen again." That wasn't the kind of reassurance I was looking for, but I guess I'll have to live with it. Even though there's a huge hole under the house, it only exposed a tiny fraction of what the builders had put there over sixty years ago. Lord knows what still lurks under the dirt.

In the grand scheme of things, the problems we've experienced this week are tiny compared to the disasters some people have to deal with. The house wasn't hit by a tornado. It didn't catch on fire. A tree didn't crash through the roof. Life was a little inconvenient, but it could have been so much worse. You always see these stories on TV about people rebuilding their lives from scratch after a major disaster has destroyed their home. I don't know how they find the strength to put the pieces back together. Just having no toilets or running water for a week just about drove me over the edge.

There is still a lot of cleanup to do, but life is already starting to return to normal. I ran the dishwasher today and will do a big load of laundry tomorrow. The tunneling company is supposed to come out in the morning and fill in the big hole they created. It's too bad they can't just add concrete walls to the sides and put a door on top. It would be the tornado shelter I've always wanted. They could just keep digging and we could put in a full basement, but it would be much cheaper to just buy a new house.

The environmental cleanup company is supposed to clean our vents before they haul away their big dehumidification machines and leave. When the water was off, I used the opportunity to re-grout the shower stall, so maybe we'll see some improvements there as well. We'll have a lot of bottled water left over when this is all finished with. I was anticipating a long siege and bought too much.

If there's a silver lining to all this, it would be that being trapped here at the house forced me to buckle down and finish the complicated mobile ready website I've been working on. I'm actually caught up with all my work now. Tomorrow I get to see whether the tunneling crew can make the huge mountain of dirt in our back yard disappear. I bet they can't. They'll probably leave us with a smaller pile of dirt and tell us to plant a garden. I'm going to miss taking showers at the hotel. Their shower was so much nicer than ours.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2155

Maybe this is what hell is like. Being trapped in a house with no working toilets while caring for a sick dog who poops all over the place whenever she's barking at the crew of strangers digging a giant hole under your house certainly isn't my idea of heaven. I knew today was going to be a mess, but I was still surprised at how chaotic it actually turned out to be.

I thought the environmental cleanup people were coming back to remove the big dehumidifiers today. I never heard from them. The noisy machines are still running. The foreman on the tunneling crew doesn't like dogs. Apparently, even crippled dogs that can barely walk make him nervous.  I had to wait until the crew left for lunch before I could even take the dogs out in the back yard to pee. Even then, I had to keep Dash on a leash, because he immediately wanted to dig his own hole in the enormous pile of dirt that had been excavated from under the house. I don't know how long the tunnel is by now, but it appears that they're digging to China.

Dot and Dash were actually pretty good, especially considering all the commotion that was going on a few feet away.  I taped butcher paper over the windows in the areas where the dogs usually sleep so they couldn't watch all the activity outside. This seemed to work. The plan worked great with Dot, since she is almost deaf and is a little senile. As soon as she lost sight of the tunnelers, she quickly forgot about them. Dash was curious for most of the day, but he didn't bark much. The problem with Dash was that he always wanted to go outside. This wasn't going to happen because I knew he would either start digging in the excavated dirt and get filthy, run away through an inadvertently open gate, or fall into the huge hole under the house and break a leg. I couldn't even take Dash on a walk to burn off some of his extra energy because I didn't want to leave Dot alone with the unpredictable tunnel crew. She can't hear well, but she can still feel vibration. She wasn't happy about the jackhammer at all.

Breakfast today was just a couple of Jimmy Dean microwave sausage biscuits and three toaster waffles. It wasn't great, but there were no dishes to do. Paper plates and plastic cups are the order of the day. The only concession I made to real dishes was my favorite coffee cup. I've got to have my morning coffee in my regular cup, no matter how much bottled water it takes to clean it.

There was plenty of work to do today, which was probably a good thing since I was trapped in the house anyway. I finally made some real progress on the new mobile friendly website I'm currently working on. I haven't done enough of these responsive sites yet for the procedures to permanently embed themselves in my brain. I still find myself re-learning tricks I'd used on a previous mobile site. Eventually, all the new things I've learned will stick, but apparently not quite yet. Today I had to re-learn how to get background images to resize properly when viewed on a tablet or phone. It took about five tries, but eventually I got it right.

Tomorrow the tunnel grows longer and deeper. Hopefully they will find the broken pipe soon. Today I was a little worried that they would end up tunneling completely through the house and my car, which is located on the other side, would fall in the growing hole. I hate to even think how expensive this is going to be. I have a whole new appreciation for water now.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2154

This was the last day before they start digging a tunnel under our house, so there was lots to do. The day started normally enough. We got up early, cleaned up a small mess Dot had made and then took both dogs on their morning walk. It was surprisingly cold this morning. The temperature was in the low forties. For the first time in ages the outside humidity was in the low forties too, so we could finally open up the doors and windows and air out the house without worrying about raising the humidity again. We didn't even attempt to cook breakfast at home this morning and went to a nearby restaurant instead. This was a restaurant I'd been meaning to try, so I was curious about the food. The Eggs Benedict I ordered was good, but I still like my regular restaurant better.

I'm wondering if we'll have to go to the laundromat every day. Janet did a big load of dog blankets yesterday and there are more soiled blankets today. We had to go buy more water too. We forgot and used the wrong toilet in the middle of the night and had to refill it with 6 gallons of water instead of the 1.5 gallons that the more modern toilet uses. It's a learning process. Janet wants to buy one of those big dehumidifier machines now. The house really feels better now that it isn't humid anymore. The machines not only sucked out the moisture related to the plumbing leak, they continued to suck trapped moisture out of the brick walls, the rugs and even the clothes in our closets.

The big job today was providing an entrance for the tunnel diggers. They are planning to access the broken underground pipe through an interior atrium garden that is enclosed on three sides by the house, with a screened porch as a fourth wall facing the back yard. There are several panels to the large screened-in wall, so I decided to remove one of the screens. The 60 year old nails holding the trim in place seemed fused to the partially rotted wood. The nails had all rusted and were hard to remove without breaking the trim in several pieces. I was eventually able to remove the screen wire and might even be able to re-use it later. I cracked one of the wooden trim pieces than hid the exposed edges of the screen wire. All in all, the job was a success. I didn't totally destroy anything.

After I had created a passageway so the tunnel diggers could remove the dirt they were excavating, it occurred to me that Dash will want to investigate this new opening in the atrium and would probably jump in the hole and wind up getting stuck under the house. I went back to the storage warehouse and got some plastic fencing that we used as temporary kennels at rescue events. I turned this dog pen into a makeshift gate that will keep Dash out of the atrium while the tunnel crew is digging the hole.

It's nice having the hotel as a place where we can take refuge when necessary. When I finished taking apart the atrium this afternoon, I drove over to the hotel to clean up and take a shower. This is a nice hotel and I always look like hell when I arrive. I usually look much more presentable when I leave a few hours later. The shower in the hotel is really nice. The tile grout is sparkling white. The water is nice and hot. There's even a clever, invisible anti-slip surface so you won't fall and bust your butt. I guess we could have a shower like this too if we just ripped out the old one and put in something new.

When I was working outside this morning, it occurred to me that the weather was absolutely perfect. The sky was clear, the temperature was 68 degrees with very low humidity. There wasn't even any pollen in the air today. I was enjoying the clean, fresh air and then I began to smell wood smoke. Yup. That time of year again. When the temperature dips below 80 degrees, Texans start lighting fires in their fireplaces. I attribute this odd behavior to non-stop Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel, but it could be anything.

My last job for the day is to cover up a large picture window in the hallway with brown wrapping paper. I have this theory that if Dot can't see the workers tomorrow, she won't bark at them. We'll see how that goes.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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