Day 2818 - 9/11

With each passing year the world seems to pay a little less attention to 9/11. I was surprised to learn that almost 20% of the US population wasn't even born when the twin towers fell. Do these people even understand how much the world changed that day? It's been sixteen years now. I wonder who will remember when another sixteen years has passed.

I will remember, but I doubt that it matters much. My generation is no longer in charge. If you are my age, you may think you are still relevant, but the torch has already been passed. I hope that future generations will eventually develop an appreciation for history. From what I see, they don't care much about history any more. History is important and you can't just re-write the past because some of it might embarrass you. I will always remember when John Kennedy was shot, when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and when the twin towers fell. These weren't dry events in a history book for me. I was there.

I wonder how long it will take the media to forget about Hurricane Irma? They've already forgotten about Harvey. It's astonishing what a short attention span we have these days. It's almost like the evening news has become a circus. Every Channel had a reporter in a raincoat standing out in the middle of the hurricane, but nobody is reporting about the wildfires on the West Coast at all. I didn't hear much about that huge earthquake in Mexico either. Maybe this is normal, but it seems strange to me.

I have time to think about such things because all I do these days is make pathetic attempts to repair things around the house. Today I got up on the roof with a pole saw and trimmed a lot of low hanging branches. The next time we get bad weather, some of these branches were sure to fall. I probably saved about $300 by doing the work myself, but I'd much rather be busy writing or designing websites, so I could pay someone else to do these dirty jobs.

I wonder how long it is going to take for Dash's dewclaw to start growing back. Every time I take his cone off, he starts licking his paw. It doesn't help that he always used to lick his paws anyway. It's just a habit, but it's a very bad habit right now. The wound needs to heal and scab over. This will take a while. I hope it doesn't take as long as it took my dog bite wounds to heal. Dash and I will both go crazy if that is the case. For the time being, I've resigned myself to taking his cone on and off a dozen times a day.

I guess I need to resign myself to losing work to millennials. Another website I created is being redesigned by a team of millennials. It hurts my feelings, but I would have done the same thing when I was younger. I wasn't shy about taking work from older creatives back in the day. Oh, well. What goes around comes around and time just keeps on marching on.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2817

We had trouble removing Dash's bandage this morning, so we took him to the vet to get some help. Dash must have known that the nurse knew what she was doing, because he was calm and composed and the bandage came off easily. This wasn't the case when I tried to remove the bandage thirty minutes earlier. He didn't want me anywhere near the thing.

Since Dash wasn't limping, we took him on a walk without his cone when we got home. Our beautiful Fall weather continues and we all enjoyed the outing. Unfortunately, the cone didn't stay off all day. I was hoping that Dash would ignore his injury, but I caught him licking it several times and the cone had to go back on. I removed and replaced the cone for most of the day. For the most part, Dash was good, but there were moments when he was paying way too much attention to his leg. In a way it's too bad we couldn't leave the bandage on, but the nurse said the wound would heal faster if it was exposed to air.

Somewhere in the house we have a really nice soft cone, but we couldn't find it. This happens a lot. The cone could be in my storage room, in Janet's storage room, in a box somewhere in the house, or we could have given it to a rescue group. All Janet and I can remember is that we bought a nice cone for Dot once after one of her surgeries and she wore it for a while. I remember the color was blue, but I definitely don't remember where I saw the cone last. It's not worth buying another one, because Dash will only need to wear this cone for a day or two.

I got a chance to go to the gym today while Janet stayed home with Dash for a while. We hate to leave a dog wearing a cone alone, because it is so easy for them to get stuck somewhere or get into some other kind of trouble. Some of our dogs have absolutely hated wearing a cone, but Dash is pretty good. He seems to be able to take a nap with the cone on his head just as easily as without it. That's probably the true sign of a lazy dog if he still lays around and sleeps with a cone on his head.

I had a good workout today. I really need to renew my efforts to go to the gym several times a week. I can tell I'm starting to make some progress. I don't know why it's so hard for me to go three times a week. I certainly don't have a lot of other pressing activities. Just taking care of the basic things seems to take all my time now.

I see my neighbors starting to pile trash in their front lawns in preparation for bulky trash day. This would be a good time for me to go up on the roof with a pole saw and cut some of the low handing limbs. I never remember to do this until the day after bulky trash day. It's a shame that the city only picks up this type of trash once a month, but I guess that's better than nothing.

Dash is sleeping now. I hope he stays asleep. He was eating grass in the yard earlier this evening and that's often a sign that he's going to throw up. One thing at a time please. Dash has gone almost three weeks without throwing up. Let's at least wait until he gets the cone off before we have any more digestive problems.

Cleo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2816

Traveling with Dash in the car is usually a disaster. Today was no exception. We made it to our appointment with the photographer this morning without incident. I think she even got some good pictures. The trip home was the problem. We had almost made it back to the house when Janet noticed that there was blood everywhere. Dash had ripped out one of his dew claws. Don't ask me how it happened. I don't know. He was fine when we got him in the car. He was fairly calm on the way home and didn't appear to get his nail caught on anything. He didn't even yelp or appear in pain. One minute he was sitting on his bed and the next minute there was blood everywhere.

We took him to the vet to stop the bleeding and see if he needed stitches. They were really busy, so we had to drop him off and pick him up later in the afternoon. When he returned, he had a bandage on his paw and was wearing a cone. The vet thinks he will be fine, but we need to keep him from chewing the bandage or getting it wet. Hopefully, the dewclaw will grow back. Dot lost a nail once when she got it caught in a crack in the pavement while on a walk. Her nail eventually did grow back, but it grew in crooked for some reason.

Dash hates wearing the cone and bumps into everything. Hopefully, we can take it off tomorrow. The bandage needs to come off pretty soon as well. There will be less risk of infection if the wound is exposed to the air. To be safe, he is taking antibiotics, but a damp or wet bandage is not what we want right now.

Taking Dash to have his portrait made and then taking him to the vet to get treated used up a big chunk of the day. I feel bad. Maybe if we had trimmed his nails a little sooner, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe it wouldn't have made any difference. I'm really nervous about taking Dash in the car now. Bad things seem to happen whenever Dash rides in the car.

I ran my Saturday errands while Dash was at the vet and when he returned, I spent the rest of the afternoon with him to keep him calm. It wasn't that hard to keep Dash calm. He was really tired and pretty soon both of us were asleep on the bed.

Janet thought the refrigerator was broken again, but I thought she just left the door open too long while loading in new groceries. It still seems to be working to me. At any rate, the appliance repairmen will be returning next week anyway to install the new thermostats they ordered. I'm more worried about the shower. I had to use the wet/dry vacuum again today to clear away the water that had collected under the tiles. I think the shower pan will prevent the water from getting into the rest of the house, but it still shouldn't be getting under the tiles.

I hope Dash is back to normal soon. One problem after another is wearing me down. I feel vaguely guilty being bothered about trivial problems, because every time I turn on the TV, it seems like the rest of the world is dealing with huge, almost apocalyptic problems. A torn nail is nothing compared to a hurricane. I'm sure it's a big deal to Dash though. The little guy seemed pitiful today.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2815

Sometimes little things make all the difference. Nothing really happened today, but there were some little things that made it feel like a good day. The weather was beautiful. This is the one time of year when the weather is actually nice in Dallas. After a brisk morning walk with Dash, I had an enjoyable and surprisingly quiet breakfast at a place that is often crowded and noisy.

When I got home, I was amazed that I'd gotten a reply to the plea for help I'd sent the roofer a few days ago. Hopefully, he can figure out how to fix some of the mistakes his crew made earlier. My repairs actually look pretty good. When I went up on the roof today to clear away my equipment, it seemed like all my patches were solid. I'm sure there's still some water trapped under the elastomer, but the roof looks better than it did a few weeks ago.

Dash is still moody, but he's eating better now. We're back to eating two regular meals a day now, instead of dividing his food into a bunch of little meals. He hasn't thrown up in several weeks, so that's good too. Now if I could just get him to take normal walks again. For some reason he doesn't want to leave the house. Once we're down in the park, he's fine, but getting him to leave the house is often next to impossible.

You'd think Dash would be eager to leave the house. The place is pretty quiet these days. Dot is gone. Janet is back at work again. My office is no longer a beehive of activity. As a result, we both spend too much time thinking about food. I spend forever fiddling around with breakfast and since Dash never learned to eat slowly and savor his food, he's constantly begging for treats. I usually save some of the banana I put in my morning smoothie for him, but he eats the banana so quickly that I wonder if he even tastes it.

I did get a few things done today, but there was nothing that couldn't have waited until tomorrow. Actually tomorrow will be fairly busy. We need to take Dash downtown to get his picture taken. I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the upcoming Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament. I could have taken Dash's picture myself since I'm a photographer, but that wasn't apparently the plan. I just hope that Dash is good in the car. I definitely don't want to be cleaning up poop again.

I'm mesmerized by reports of the slowly approaching hurricane. I hope everybody stays safe. I have a sister who lives in Florida and I never could figure out why she moved there. In addition to alligators, snakes, and huge cockroaches, they have to deal with hurricanes over and over again. I still think Wyoming is a better place to live.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2814

It was chilly this morning. I wore a jacket on our morning walk for the first time since early Spring. It's hard to believe that in other parts of the country people are dealing with raging wildfires, flooded homes, and an approaching hurricane that is even larger than Harvey. In our little corner of the world the weather is perfect. This weather won't last long, so we'd better enjoy it while we can.

It's been nice having the weather cooperate while I work on the roof. I didn't finish today, but I'm done for a while. I've completely used up the five gallon drum of elastomer material the roofers sent me. I would guess that it's going to take at least ten more gallons to complete the repairs. I wasn't really expecting the repairs to be so extensive, but that's what I get for trusting the roofing crew to do their job properly. It really makes me mad that they simply poured the new coating right on top of the old damaged coating. They should have pulled all the damaged material off and let the water that had gotten underneath dry. It would have taken a little longer to do their repairs properly, but it would have avoided the mess I'm dealing with now. There is water underneath many of the patches that the roofers have made previously because they didn't make sure the surface was dry under the damaged areas they were fixing.  I always wondered how they could do their work so quickly. Now I know.

Janet has a niece living in Florida who decided to ride out the storm. This seemed like a mistake until I looked at the lines of cars trying to evacuate Miami and the Florida keys. These cars are just inching along as far as the eye can see and there's no gas available in many parts of Florida. What happens when all these cars run out of gas? I'd rather be inside a well constructed home when the hurricane struck than out on a freeway in a car that's out of gas. I mentioned yesterday that these were starting to seem like the end times. Nothing has happened today that would change my opinion.

Dash is not adjusting well to Janet returning to work. He liked having everyone home with him. I think he's trying to be the alpha dog now that Dot is gone, but he doesn't really know how. Dash has always been insecure and depended on Dot for leadership. Instead of being strong and confident, he just throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Maybe he'll eventually grow into the role of  being a proper alpha dog, but he has a long way to go.

After I finished working on the roof, I washed the car. For once this didn't seem like a chore. It was nice to be working with fresh, clean water instead of stick white goo. I'm tired of working on the roof, but I've still got to finish the job before our Fall rainy season starts. If history is any guide, it's going to be pretty wet around here by the time Halloween arrives.

It's not going to be wet tomorrow. I think our nice weather is going to continue for another week. I'll get up early, take Dash on a walk, and then go out for breakfast. After that, who knows.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2813

I'm screwed. I think the roofers have been doing shoddy work, but I still need their help. It doesn't matter what kind of repair you are doing. Once you start questioning the quality of the work, most repair people get defensive and never want to see you again. I'm kind of between a rock and a hard place. It will take me forever to repair the entire roof myself, and even if I can convince the roofers to come out again, they'll probably just continue to take short cuts that ultimately make the problem worse.

I spent about three hours on the roof today. Luckily, there was no wind, so I didn't have to worry about leaves falling into the wet elastomer this time. I've only got about a gallon of the material left, so I need to get the roofers to bring me more. If they refuse, I'll have to figure out where to buy the stuff. This silicon elastomer is so messy. It can't be good to get it on your skin, but I can't seem to avoid it. I thought the half full five gallon drum might be light enough so I could lift the entire thing up on the roof. It was still much heavier than I thought. I narrowly avoided a catastrophe when the rope I was hoisting the drum with slipped out of my hands and the sticky elastomer almost fell on my car. I made a save and kept the drum from falling, but still have rope burns on my hands.

My plan to start going to the gym on Wednesdays didn't even last two weeks. I was so tired when I came down from the roof that all I felt like doing was taking a shower and a nap. Since something major seems to break around the house on a weekly basis, I don't know if I'll ever have the liberty to come and go as I please. Even when I took a shower today I had to deal with the stupid leak again. I just can't find the source of this thing. The best solution would be to replace the shower pan and re-tile the entire bathroom. That will have to wait. There are still too many bills to pay.

The one piece of good news is that Dash is showing no side effects from increasing his phenobarbital dose. I hope this continues. I hate giving Dash a strong barbiturate like phenobarbital, but it is very effective at controlling epileptic seizures. Once when he was seizure free for several years, we thought it would safe to discontinue the phenobarbital entirely. That was a mistake. Within a few months, Dash had a horrible seizure. He will be taking phenobarbital for the rest of his life.

With major wildfires up and down the West Coast and back-to-back catastrophic hurricanes pounding the East and Gulf Coasts, it would be easy to believe the end times are here. There are so many things going on at the moment that are almost apocalyptic in nature. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but every year the latest disaster du jour seems to be a little worse. I'm pretty sure the world will be around for another twenty years, but if I was younger, I might be a little worried. I guess you can only worry about one thing at a time, so for the moment, stay safe Florida.

April is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2812

The refrigerator is working again. I was amazed that I was able to get an appliance repairman to come out the same day I called. The two guys who showed up were older and knew their stuff. It turned out that I had a faulty thermostat which prevented the automatic defrost circuit from working properly, causing the evaporator coils to become frozen in a block of ice. After the coil was thawed out, the fridge worked like a charm. The guys will have to come back next week to install the two new thermocouple thermostats they ordered, but they said the coil wouldn't have time to freeze again before they returned. I'm glad we didn't buy a new refrigerator. As it turned out, there wasn't that much wrong with this one.

I got lucky with the refrigerator, but I can't say the same about the roof. As I continue my repairs, I'm discovering that the roofing crew did a really lousy job of applying the previous patches. Instead of peeling away all the damaged elastomer and letting the surface underneath dry thoroughly, they just poured the new elastomer material on top on the old. As a result, when the elastomer cured, it trapped moisture underneath that could never escape. I always wondered how the roofing crews could make their repairs so quickly. Now I know. They just did a sloppy job. Now, I'm faced with making much more extensive repairs than I had planned. If you're thinking of buying a cool looking mid-century modern home with a flat roof, try to resist the urge. A flat roof is nothing but trouble.

Dash's vet wants to increase his phenobarbital dose. I was afraid of this. She says that his current dose doesn't provide enough protection anymore and that it could lead to seizures again. At least the increase isn't huge. He was taking a one grain tablet twice a day. Now, he'll be taking 1 and 1/4 grains twice a day. We'll do another blood test in six weeks to see if this puts him back in the safe zone. I hope the additional phenobarbital won't make him too sleepy or lethargic. He spends too much time sleeping as it is.

I went to a nearby service station to get a few bags of ice so the food in the freezer wouldn't go bad when the repairmen were working. I asked the guy at the register whether they still had a good supply of gasoline and he said they were almost out again. Jeez. The tanker truck had just filled them up two days ago. I topped my tank up again, just in case.

Now that people have realized how easy it is for an entire city to run out of gasoline, I think a lot more people are going to be driving around with full tanks instead of tempting fate with a gas gauge near empty. Every time there is a power outage or a weather emergency I try to become a little more prepared. I have lots of fresh batteries. I have a generator. It just occurred to me that the little dorm room refrigerator we just got will easily run on a generator. That's good. I can't afford large scale solar power, but that's definitely on my fantasy wish list.

Pick your poison. Maybe it's climate change. Maybe it's Kim Jong-un. Maybe it's back-to-back monster hurricanes. Why do I get this nagging feeling that Armageddon is just around the corner? I hope I'm wrong. I'd much rather spend my remaining years wandering around the streets of Paris than living in a cave somewhere.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2811 - Labor Day

I learned a lot about refrigerators today. I suspect that one of the reasons they don't last as long as they used to is that they've become way too complicated. We saw refrigerators with built-in web browsers. There was one that had a WiFi camera inside the refrigerator that you could access using your phone. If you were at the supermarket and couldn't remember if you needed milk, you could just check the fridge with your phone. Several manufacturers offered convertible models where you could temporarily turn the freezer into a second small refrigerator with the flick of a switch. Jeez. A refrigerator is just a machine to keep things cold. Why did they all have to turn into computers that keep things cold?

We eventually found a few refrigerators that were small enough to fit inside our kitchen alcove. None of them were as nice as the fridge we already have. Like most things in life the basic models have become even more rudimentary and the high-end models have become bloated with an insane array of features. There is no middle ground anymore. All the major stores basically offered the same choices at roughly the same price. Nobody was willing to deliver and install anything in less than fourteen days. We had hoped to find something we liked and get it installed tomorrow. That wasn't going to happen. We needed a plan B.

I was surprised to discover that you could buy one of those little dorm room refrigerators for less than the cost of a good ice chest. In fact, a large Yeti ice chest ended up costing twice as much as a small dorm room refrigerator. Since the freezer still works in our existing refrigerator, we bought one of these little refrigerators so our food wouldn't go bad and I'll call an appliance repairman in the morning. There's a good chance I could get our existing refrigerator fixed in less time than it would take to get a new one delivered. The big problem with appliance repairmen is that they are so slow. They come out and diagnose your problem and then they have to order parts. Usually at least one important part is on back order, so you are lucky if you see them again in two weeks. What ever happened to keeping a stock of parts on the truck?

Hey, at least the gas crisis appears to be over. There were several stations in our own neighborhood that had gas today. I still can't find the leak in the shower, but I am making progress on the roof. I might have finished today if we hadn't spent so much time looking at refrigerators. I didn't do much patching today, but I did haul some materials up to the roof, including a leaf blower which I used to clear away a mountain of dead elm leaves that seemed to have fallen overnight. I actually got lucky. Apparently the leaves fell after the elastomer coating dried, so they were easy to clear away. I really need to get this job finished before the oak tress start shedding their leaves. That would really be a mess.

Janet is going back to work tomorrow. I thought she had another week at home, but apparently not. It doesn't seem like two weeks have already passed since her latest surgery. Of course it doesn't seem like summer is already over either.  Where has the time gone?

I hope nothing else breaks and everybody stays healthy. I'd really like to end this year on a positive note.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2810

Our refrigerator is not cooling properly. I hate the thought of looking for new appliances. The last time we replaced our refrigerator, it was almost impossible to find one that would fix in the small slot designed for it in the kitchen. We have the same problem with the washer and dryer in the utility room. Appliances seem to have grown over the years. What would have been normal for the mid-fifties house we live in just isn't made anymore. Maybe the refrigerator isn't really broken, since the freezer side still works well. I suggested unplugging it for a while and then plugging it in again like we do for everything else in the house, but Janet said the food might go bad. Actually turning the refrigerator off may actually work, since I suspect that the evaporator coils have become frozen. This happens from time to time with the air conditioner. You just let the ice melt and everything is fine. Refrigerators are problematic. If you spend too much time monkeying around with them, the food goes bad. It's always hard to fix something when you're using it.

I didn't fix much today, but I did keep busy. I mowed the grass in the front and the back and then treated the yard for mosquitoes. I hope the treatment works, since I'm getting eaten alive at night when I take Dash out to pee. We had a mild winter and chiggers, mosquitoes, and ticks are everywhere. I had planned on getting rid of some wasp nests too, but I couldn't find the wasp and hornet spray. Usually, after I do a lot of yard work I just feel like taking a nap, but today I decided to go to the gym.

I've come to the conclusion that if I don't work out more, my muscles are just going to continue to atrophy. The older you get, the harder it is to build muscle mass. For a long time I thought I was losing weight because I was eating healthier. I'm really just slowly losing muscle mass. One way or another, I've got to reverse this process. Going to the gym three times a week is probably a good place to start.

I probably should have continued my work on the roof this afternoon, but enough is enough. After my trip to the gym and an afternoon walk with Dash, I was finally getting tired. Janet found gas today, but I didn't bother to take my car to the same station. I may regret this decision later, but I have a feeling this self made gas crisis may soon be over.

It remains to be seen whether we will go looking at refrigerators tomorrow. I'm still hoping that the problem miraculously cures itself overnight. This is unlikely. Broken things rarely fix themselves. I'm not looking forward to going back on the roof, but I've got to make sure that everything is patched and has time to cure before the next rain. I'm pretty sure that I've got a few days left, but it's bound to rain eventually.

I guess tomorrow is a holiday. It probably won't seem any different to me. I still have a long list of chores to finish and a refrigerator full of food that keeps getting warmer.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2809

If I wind up in hell, I'll probably be fixing a leaking roof for eternity. This is the worst job. It's messy. You get stung by wasps and bitten by fire ants. It's almost impossible to tell if your repairs are any good until it rains again. Worst of all, if you get too tired, there is always the danger of falling off the roof. I'll really be glad when I'm finished with this little project. No matter how careful I am, I always wind up with the sticky silicon coating on my hands and clothing. I try to wear the oldest, most threadbare pants I can find, because if I spill the elastomer coating on them, I pretty much have to throw them away.

The area I patched a few days ago has cured and seems to have bonded well to the roof. Today it was time for round two. When I started this project, I thought I'd just need to re-coat the fairly small areas that had worn bare. Now I'm realizing that the damage extends much further, because water has gotten under the coating and caused it to delaminate. I'm going to have to go buy some more paint rollers. You can't clean the rollers after you use them to spread the material. Maybe the roofers have a way to clean their tools, but it probably involves some dangerous solvent that I don't want around the house. It's much easier to just throw the paint rollers away. I want to finish this project before the oak leaves start falling. Already some leaves are starting to fall off the elm tree and when they land in the wet elastomer, they are there permanently. On a more positive note, when the coating cures properly, it seems to be impervious to water. If they'd put this stuff on in the roof in the first place, I wouldn't be having the problems I'm having today.

The place I got gas yesterday was empty today. So was the Chevron station where I saw the gasoline tanker yesterday. Evidently it didn't take long to empty the place out again. A few stations actually are being replenished with gas. There just doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the process. Most stations were still empty today, but I did see one station with a line of cars at the pumps. They say Quick Trip stations are more likely to have gas, since they get their supplies from Oklahoma instead of South Texas. I wonder how long this shortage will last? Contrary so what some in the media are saying, this isn't a one day event. I did learn something from all this. My car runs a lot better on regular gas than I thought. The owners manual says to never use regular gas, but so far I can't tell any difference.

It's time to mow the grass again. I usually only mow when my neighbors mow their grass. Yard shaming is actually fairly effective. If I mow the grass, I won't have the energy to go up on the roof again. That's just as well. It really takes two days for the patches to cure anyway. The only reason to hurry on the roof repairs is if there was rain on the horizon. I think we're looking good. The completely inaccurate weather app on my phone says there will be clear skies for at least a week.

I wonder why Dash is so moody in the evenings now. This is something new. He barks at me while I'm writing the blog and if I don't stop what I'm doing and pay attention to him, he starts knocking books off low shelves with his paws. I always get up and see if he needs to go outside and pee, but usually he heads straight for the kitchen. The little shit just wants more food.

I got another jury summons in the mail. I guess I'll postpone this one too. I just don't feel up to dealing with jury duty now.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2808

Maybe the zombie apocalypse has already started. First North Korea threatens to nuke us. Then, Mother Nature actually does nuke us with a Godzilla hurricane, Now, things are starting to get real at home.

I was getting ready to go to bed last night when I heard an ominous cracking sound, followed by what sounded like a rush of water. The supply line to the toilet had burst and high pressure water was spewing everywhere. I tried in vain to close a shut off valve, but it had rusted and was frozen. By the time I found the key to the water main and went outside to shut off the water to the house, the bathroom, hallway, and part of the bedroom were completely flooded.

To make matters worse Janet had to have a colonoscopy today and was right in the middle of colonoscopy prep when the pipe ruptured. If you've ever had a colonoscopy, you'll know that the night before is not the best time to be without running water or working toilets. I was able to use water being collected by the dehumidifier to flush the toilet a few times and then we resorted to using the bottled water we had around the house.

It's amazing we didn't get electrocuted. Several plug strips that were sitting on the floor got covered with water and shorted out. After I got the water shut off, I unplugged everything with gloves on. If I didn't have the wet/dry vacuum nearby, I'd probably still be mopping up water. About 2 AM, things were reasonably dry again and I went to bed.

I called my plumber as soon as their office opened this morning and was told that they were completely booked up until next Tuesday. This was not good. I took Janet to the hospital for her procedure and then went looking for a plumbing supply store, hoping to not use up too much gas in the process. I eventually found exactly what I needed and was convinced that I could make the repairs myself. I'm not very comfortable sweating copper pipe, so I found supplies that I could use without a torch. Surprisingly, my repairs worked perfectly. I saved at least $150 by not having a plumber come out, not that I could find one anyway.

By the time I got the pipe fixed and restored water to the house, it was time to pick up Janet. Since the morning had been relatively successful, I decided to spend the afternoon looking for gas. I know I told you yesterday that I was going to just wait, but it drives me nuts not to be prepared. When I looked at the Gas Finder website this morning, there were even fewer stations that still had gas than there were yesterday. When I drove to the hospital and back I didn't see a single station that still had gas.

There was only one station within a fifteen mile radius that still claimed to have gas today, so I drove there and got in line. There were sixteen pumps at this station and only two of them were still working. The only thing left was regular gas, so I reluctantly filled my tank with regular. I've never done that before, but I didn't want to run out of gas on a long holiday weekend. On my way home I saw my first gasoline tanker. There were a long line of cars following this tanker and when the tanker eventually pulled in at a Chevron station, all the cars followed. This is madness. There really wasn't a gas shortage in the first place, but we have created one. The tanker trucks usually just top up the tanks at the stations once a week. Now all the tanks in the city are completely empty. It might take a while to get back to normal.

It was an odd day, but I'm happy. We've got running water again and I've got a full tank of gas. What more could you ask for?

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2807

Dallas is out of gas. No, there isn't a fuel shortage. Everyone just panicked and decided to fill their tank at the same time. The gas lines were unreal today. I haven't seen anything like this since the 1970's. I still had plenty of gas in my tank, but eventually succumbed to the panic myself. I figured that if so many people were waiting in long lines for gas, they all must know something I don't. The first line I joined ran out of gas right as I approached the pump. I had waited thirty minutes for nothing. I tried one more time and this time all the station had left when I approached the pump was diesel. I gave up at this point and came home. I don't drive very much and could probably make my remaining gas last three weeks if I had to. If gas still isn't readily available in three weeks, I'll just have to assume that the zombie apocalypse has started. They say that if everyone had continued filling their tanks the way they normally do, there would have been no lines at all today. This was all just a Facebook induced panic. One of our local TV stations kind of stirred the pot last night as well.

Since it wasn't a very auspicious day to be driving around town running errands, I decided to get started on my roof repairs. I didn't get off to a good start. The can of sealer the roofers gave me was way too heavy for me to lift up on the roof. I couldn't even pull the container up with a rope. I made a big mess in the driveway transferring the sticky liquid from the five gallon drum to smaller one gallon paint cans. When I cleaned and prepared the damaged areas, I discovered that the problem was worse than I thought. Water had entered through the bad spots and seeped under the good spots. Large sections of the coating that I thought were OK, just peeled away when I pulled on it. I sealed about a 25 square foot area, but this is just the beginning. I don't think I have enough of the elastomer on hand to complete the repairs. I'm not even sure that the sealer I applied today will work. I called the roofer and asked him to come out again. I think this repair is way beyond my pay grade.

I need to take Janet to Baylor for some more tests tomorrow and was planning on running a few errands on the way home. I don't think I'll be getting in any more gas lines though. If tomorrow is anything like today, you could run out of gas just looking for gas. I'll wait until the tanker trucks return. When gas is available again I bet there won't be any lines at all. Everyone in town already has a full tank.

I dread going up on the roof tomorrow. There is so much more that needs to be done and until my first set of patches have fully dried, I won't know whether they are firmly adhered to the substrate. I've got enough of the elastomer material to make quite a few patches, but I'm afraid that this is just a temporary solution. What I really need is a new roof.

Dash has been very moody this week. He doesn't want to eat at the regular time. He turns up his nose at his regular food. Lately, he's been stealing my place on the bed at night. I wish he understood that life is so much easier when he's a good dog. The problems are minor and usually they get resolved. I'd just like a day without any problems though. That would be nice.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2806

It was a little unusual to go to the gym on Wednesday, but why not. There is nothing to differentiate weekdays from weekends anymore. I've decided that stopping or reversing the muscle atrophy I've been experiencing is as important as anything else that's on my plate. I might as well go to the gym whenever I've got some free time.

Truthfully, I could go to the gym every single day if I enjoyed it as much as some of the other people I see working out. Some of them seem to live at the gym. It doesn't matter what day I pick. They're always there. I actually did pretty well today, considering that I'd already been up on the roof. If I could bring myself to consistently exercise like this three times a week, I might actually see some results.

Preparing the roof for my repairs was actually a lot more work than my workout. I cleared away the remaining standing water today. Tomorrow I will clean the damaged surfaces and hopefully on Friday I can apply the new elastomer patches. Since there is no more rain in the forecast, there is a reasonable chance of success. It is so discouraging to go up on the roof. I think the materials that were originally used to coat the roof were defective, but the roofer won't put on a completely new roof. The whole thing is eventually going to be patched one square foot at a time.

I could spend the rest of my life repairing broken stuff around the house. I think I understand now why people sometimes just get in their cars and drive away from it all forever. There is so much that needs to be fixed now that it seems a bit overwhelming. If it was hard to find a good contractor before, it's going to be impossible now. Everybody is going to be down in Houston rebuilding the city for the next ten years.

I stopped by the REI store on the way to the gym and there was absolutely nothing that I wanted or needed. I left the store empty handed. I felt the same way the last time I visited the Apple Store. Maybe I am finally moving beyond my need to constantly accumulate stuff. It would be a good thing if this was true. Every amazing gadget turns into a pile of broken stuff after three to five years. I have enough broken stuff already. Maybe possessions are actually a liability. This would be a totally new concept for me, but it's something I see looming on the horizon.

It's time for my annual physical, but since I'm thinking of switching doctors I don't know whether to go ahead and schedule an appointment or wait until I find another doctor and start over with a clean slate. Why did my doctor have to fire me as his web designer? I was reasonably happy until this happened. Now I hate to even visit the clinic. Janet's doctors are great, but they are in a whole different league than mine. It's pretty obvious that the quality of care she gets is worth the extra money, but it's still hard to put aside money for health that could be used for a new camera. Nevertheless, I'm fairly certain I'll eventually go ahead and make the switch. The older you get, the more you realize that staying healthy is the only thing that matters.

I'm glad the rain finally stopped in Houston. Hopefully, the flood waters will start to recede soon. As hard as things are now, I think it will be even harder when the news crews disappear and people are left with the enormous task of rebuilding their lives from scratch. A tornado roared through a suburb of Dallas a few years ago and the residents are still wrangling with insurance companies and trying to rebuild their homes. We'll see what happens, but I think Texas has been changed forever.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2805

What a surprise to wake up to blue skies. If the rain is over for us, maybe it will stop soon in Houston as well. It was such a nice day that it seemed like a good time to do something different. Instead of doing our normal chores, Janet and I went out to lunch together and then went to a museum.

I almost never eat lunch anymore. Three meals a day is way too much for me now. After I took Dash on his morning walk, I just had a small bowl of fruit, instead of my usual enormous breakfast. This seemed to do the trick. I was hungry at lunch. Maybe I should just eat lunch and skip both breakfast and dinner. After my meal, I felt full for the rest of the day and just had a small salad for dinner.

While we were at the museum I was interviewed by a reporter from a French newspaper. This seemed a bit odd. I can't imagine a French newspaper sending a reporter all the way to Dallas for this show. Maybe she was on her way to Houston to cover the hurricane and was just killing time in Dallas for an afternoon. Who knows. I can't say that I'm an art expert or even a Dallas expert, but I answered her questions as best I could. I thought the woman was German until she corrected me. All Europeans speaking English sound German to me.

For some reason nothing leaked when I took a shower this morning. This was a mystery to me, since it leaked a lot yesterday. Maybe this was just an omen that today was going to be a good day, but I'm still curious about what is happening under the tiles. Why would the shower leak yesterday and not today when  all the variables were exactly the same?

Janet bought some of those little solar powered garden lights for the back yard and when they arrived today, I discovered that the instructions were in Spanish. I had a little trouble putting the things together, but I must have done something right because they lit up this evening when the sun went down. The only problem with solar garden lights in our back yard is that we don't get any sun. The thick tree canopy is the main reason the grass doesn't grow well. We'll see how long the little lights continue to glow. I'm guessing that two hours from now they'll be dead.

When we went to the museum there was an app you could download to your phone that described the exhibits. There is an app for everything now. I remember when museums had little tape recorders and headphones you had to rent. None of the visitors were the least bit surprised by the app. They seemed to expect something like this and were all holding their phones up to their ears as they walked through the gallery. Maybe I should have become an app developer. Never mind. I bet the percentage of seventy year old app developers is just as low as seventy year old web designers.

When Janet is home from work, every day seems like Sunday. It's kind of disorienting. I had some website updates to make today and I thought I'd save them until Monday morning. Then I realized that it was already Tuesday. It's going to be hard to remember that tomorrow is Wednesday. Nothing happens on Wednesday anyway.

Duke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2804

Whenever there's a disaster, my first thoughts are about the animals. There's already been an amazing effort to rescue dogs, cats, and horses trapped by rising waters around Houston. Probably much more will be needed in the days ahead. Among the thousands of animals in danger today were three Dalmatians trapped in a kennel that was being flooded by water that was being released from a nearby dam. I'm not sure, but I think these dogs are safe now. I hope so. It was amazing to see the rapid efforts of many people, some of whom I know, to coordinate an immediate rescue by boat. I'm not a huge fan of social media, but this is where it shines. Not more than an hour after I began seeing stories about the dogs plight on Facebook, boats were on the way. There were probably hundreds of stories like this today, but this was the only one that involved Dalmatians. When a Dalmatian is in danger it catches my attention.

It's already been a week since Janet's reconstruction surgery. Her doctor was pleased with her progress today and even removed some of the stitches. The nurse said that we were doing a good job with the bandages. That was a relief. If all continues to go smoothly, Janet will return to work again in another week.

I wish things were going just as smoothly with Dash. He threw up again after eating a normal breakfast and having a nice walk. Like many of his previous episodes, there was no warning. He just walked calmly to the back door around 1 PM and threw up. Dash shows no signs of distress before or after these incidents. He's been fine for the rest of the day. His vet has suggested that we put him on a mild anti-nausea medication for a month and see if we notice any changes. The theory is that he might be mildly nauseous all the time as a result of his vestibular disease. I hate to add another pill to his already lengthy list of meds, but this might be worth a try. Obviously something is wrong, but it has been very hard to pin down the cause.

We had more intermittent rain from the outer bands of Harvey. It's nice that I don't have to water the lawn every day, but the rain is going to complicate the roof repairs I was planning on making this month. It's going to take an extended dry spell before I am even able to prepare the surface for the elastomer coating the roofers gave me. There's certainly not any dry weather in the immediate future. I should have checked the weather radar before I walked Dash this evening. We got caught in a sudden shower and both got soaked.

It wasn't a very productive day. I got the wet/dry vacuum out and removed another quart of water from under the shower tiles. I don't know how this water is getting in there. I've sealed all the cracks completely with silicon caulk. Things like this are why people eventually give up and remodel their bathrooms. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to locate the source of this leak.

It doesn't matter if it is a shower stall or an iPhone case. Old things just crack and break. I tried to repair my Lunatik iPhone case for the third time this afternoon. I bought this case because it was supposed to be indestructible, but it is so old now that it is developing stress cracks. I took the case apart and applied superglue to the tiny cracks using watch repair tools. It would have been easier to just buy a new case but they don't make these things anymore.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow. One way or another, I'm sure it will involve water.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2803

Everyone in Dallas knows someone in Houston. I've been mesmerized by the news coverage today. The flooding seems biblical. It just doesn't seem possible that we are talking about feet of rain instead of inches of rain. I saw a picture of the Houston airport today. It was a lake. Freeways are under so much water that even the overhear directional signs are buried. I've been to Houston many times and I can't even comprehend this scale of devastation.

Dallas is 400 miles away and even we are getting rain from this storm. The rain here is gentle and in many cases needed, but the fact that the outer bands of rain reach this far shows you just how big this weather system is. I've heard that they're opening a huge center for hurricane evacuees here in Dallas tomorrow. Similar centers will probably be opening all over the state. The problem is that I don't think many people can evacuate yet. The roads in and out of the area are flooded.

I didn't do much today. Dash got his walks in between rain showers. It was so messy outside that I didn't feel like going to the gym. When I took a shower this morning, I noticed a small leak. I still haven't been able to completely seal the shower floor. I used to be much better at this sort of thing. I'm losing my touch.

Today would have been a good day to take a camera down to the shoreline and photograph water birds, but I'd let my camera batteries run down and by the time I got them charged again the light was fading. It's probably just as well that I stayed inside. If I took my camera down to the lake, I almost certainly would have gotten caught in one of today's many intermittent rain showers.

It would have been Dot's birthday today. We don't know if she was actually born on this day, since she was a rescue, but we adopted her on September 27, 2004. I remember the day she came home with us well, but it seems like such a long time ago now. We have had many dogs and some of the memories are starting to muddle together in my head. Dot's memories haven't faded yet. I still can't believe she's not here with me. I wonder if that amazing dog ever knew how important she was in my life.

It's probably going to be a while before I can use the can of elastomer coating material the roofers left on my porch. It looks like we'll be getting intermittent rain every day until Harvey completely dissipates. It's hard to believe that they're forecasting even more rain for the Houston area. How much more rain can that city take?

Janet has decided that she feels well enough to start driving again. She ran a short errand as a test this afternoon and will drive herself to the doctor tomorrow. I'm glad her recovery seems to be going so smoothly. I hope the surgeon approves of the way we've been changing bandages. I have a feeling that we're using twice as much gauze and tape as a proper nurse would, but we're doing the best we can. It hasn't been a great summer. I think 'doing the best we can" might sum things up for quite a few people this year.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2802

Every year around this time we go see the Rich-Tones at the Eisemann Center. One of Janet's friends is in the group and she hasn't missed one of these annual shows in years. She certainly wasn't going to let a little surgery keep her from tonight's concert. If you don't know who the Rich-Tones are, imagine Pentatonix with 100 people in the group instead of five. I wasn't that familiar with a cappella singing when we started going to these things many years ago, but I've grown to appreciate the genre. Tonight's show was very enjoyable. There was lots of new material and for once we didn't have to worry about leaving a sick dog. I checked on Dash once during intermission and he was sleeping peacefully on the bed. He was still sleeping when we got home.

A few of Harvey's outer rain bands arrived in Dallas today. There was no wind or danger. All we got was a gentle rain. We may get more rain later in the week as the hurricane continues to move inland, but we are too far away to worry about severe weather. The storm will either dissipate or move back to sea long before it would arrive in Dallas. It's an entirely different story in Houston. The city is already starting to flood.

Janet can't drive yet, but she's feeling well enough that she wanted to get out of the house for a while. I took her grocery shopping and basically just pushed the cart around while she got a new supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. Since we've virtually stopped buying canned and frozen items, it seems like we're going to the grocery store a lot more frequently these days. It's probably worth the effort. We're both eating healthier now.

Dash's blood test results came back from the lab today. His Phenobarbital levels are still in the normal range, but just barely. I have a feeling that the vet is going to want to increase his dose because she feels that there might not be enough Phenobarbital in his bloodstream to protect him from seizures anymore. I'm sure we'll get this all worked out, but I'd really hate to see him taking any additional meds. I think he takes too many already.

Today's mail was full of flyers for Labor Day sales. Isn't Labor Day when Summer is unofficially over? This has certainly been an eventful Summer, but I don't think either of us would want to repeat it. Here's hoping that Dash stays healthy and that there are no new medical emergencies for the rest of the year. We may get more rain tomorrow. I guess it doesn't matter, since I don't feel like going anywhere anyway. If it's a rainy day, I just may join Dash for a good long nap.

Cammy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day