Day 2975

I had the best of intentions today. I was going to fix some things around the house, touch base with my remaining clients, and clean up all the dog poop in the yard. Since I got up later than usual, I didn't get off to a roaring start. By the time I finished taking Dash on a morning walk and made my morning smoothie, it was almost 11 AM. I don't think I was always this slow, but it's hard to remember.

The first task on the agenda was fixing a running toilet. This Porcher toilet was made in France about fifteen years ago and is almost impossible to find parts for. Unlike most toilets, you can't just go to Home Depot and buy a new float arm or fill valve. I feel like this thing was engineered by the same people who made Citroën automobiles. It is truly bizarre. The best I can do is carefully take apart the aging mechanism, clean everything as well as I can, and then put things back together. Today, I slowed the leak, but didn't stop it entirely. It was the best I could do.

I tried to find out whether the AT&T technician was going to come out today and hook up the permanent fiber optic cable, but just ended up wasting a lot of time on the phone. The help desk people in Indonesia don't really have a clue where the service guys in the trucks are. I don't really care when the guy comes out. I just wanted to make AT&T aware that there was a buried line in my yard that wasn't hooked up. The two guys that dug the hole yesterday said someone would come out today and finish the job. Not surprisingly, no one showed up.

I've been trying to talk to the guy who replaced the thermistor in my refrigerator a couple of months ago. This repairman seemed more knowledgable that the others the appliance repair shop sent out and I was hoping he could tell me whether it was worth one more try to fix my existing refrigerator. There are two more thermistors in the refrigerator. If all it took was replacing all three of them to get things running reliably again, it might be worth it. I still can't find a new refrigerator that is as good as the one I've got. I can't find the repairmen either. So far, he hasn't returned my call.

It is amazingly warm for February. I think the temperature was over 70 today. I can never get used to this rapidly changing weather. When I'm walking Dash, I always seem to be wearing too much or too little. Today was confusing. The grey overcast skies definitely looked like Winter, but the temperature felt like Spring. Dash seemed confused too. He kept sniffing the air on his morning walk and wouldn't take an afternoon walk at all.

Once again we are wondering how we can stop school shootings. I don't think it will be easy. We live in a world where Call of Duty is the most popular video game. Violent video games and movies have been a favorite of kids for almost thirty years. Mental illness is so common that it almost seems like a lifestyle choice. It is unbelievable how many people are taking anti-depressants and other psychotropic drugs these days. Social media has created a world where everyone demands instant gratification. Nobody has any patience anymore. Worst of all, when anyone talks about restricting guns, people rush out and buy even more guns. It's kind of a hopeless situation.

Personally, I think technology has advanced much more rapidly than our ability to comprehend it. Sure, we have self driving cars and everyone is connected to everyone else, but in the process we've managed to destroy a society that has worked pretty well for thousands of years. If we don't slow down, things are only going to get worse.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2974 - Valentines Day

I don't understand AT&T at all. A couple of guys came out to bury the fiber optic line today. After they'd been working for a while I went outside to see what they were doing. Much to my surprise, they were laying an entirely new cable. "Why aren't you burying the cable that is already hooked up," I asked? "That's just the temporary cable," one of the guys said. They didn't hear me when I mentioned that both cables were exactly the same. "Aren't you going to hook the new cable up," I asked when they were finished. "We don't know how," one guy told me. The other guy said that someone else would come back later in the week to connect the new cable they just buried. Jeez. That's three trips for one cable. I don't get it.

I ended up getting cupcakes after all. I'm superstitious and I hate to mess with tradition on symbolic holidays. As usual, there was a long line at Sprinkles. Every single woman in line was texting someone or checking their Facebook page. None of the men were. This probably means something, but I'm not going to hazard a guess.

I went to pick up a prescription on the way home from the cupcake store. "Medicare won't let us fill this prescription until Saturday," the pharmacist said. "But I'm out of pills," I told her. "You shouldn't be,"  the pharmacist told me. I couldn't convince her that I only had two pills left. I think they miscounted the number of pills they gave me 90 days ago, but there is no way of proving it. Whatever. I guess I'll just skip a few days.

I did get Dash's prescription filled. It's always easier to deal with veterinarians than with my own doctors. I often wonder why veterinary medicine is so much more straightforward and affordable than human medicine. Probably it's because insurance isn't involved. Once insurance companies enter the picture, prices tend to skyrocket.

I was going to pick up something for dinner at Central Market, but I couldn't find a parking place anywhere. Not only were all the spaces filled, there were dozens of car circling around waiting for people to leave. One long line was enough for today, so I gave up and went home. There wasn't much in the refrigerator, but I made some pasta with a leftover meatball, some olive oil, and a piece of cheese. My creation was surprisingly good. It's too bad I don't like to cook because my own meals are almost always better than the take out dinners I live on during the week.

I've started watching the Olympics because it's getting hard to avoid it on TV. Curling is surprisingly interesting. It took me a while to figure out what the brooms and all the sweeping was about. Did the sweeping make the rock go faster or slower?  Apparently, sweeping the ice decreases friction and makes the rock go faster and straighter. The game is kind of like shuffleboard, but involves a lot of finesse and strategy. Admittedly, curling is not as exciting as watching Shaun White do back-to-back 1440s, but it's an intriguingly pleasant game I can watch while I'm eating dinner.

I wonder when the fiber optic technician is going to return. I never dreamed this installation would be so complicated. A fiber optic connection is very fast, but I'm not even sure I need fast anymore. I rarely upload or download huge files anymore. I'd rather have rock solid reliability than speed. I was actually happy enough with the 2800 baud modem I used back in the 1990's.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2973

My fitness tracker tells me when I dream at night. It appears that I don't get much deep sleep, but I dream quite a bit. I wish I could click on this dream timeline and recall the dreams. I occasionally remember dreams, but most evaporate a few seconds after I wake up. The few dreams I do remember all involve being lost. I walk endlessly down hotel corridors looking for my room. I can't find my car in parking garages. I get separated from Janet on cruise ships and can never find her again. Sometimes I am walking Dash and he runs away. I wonder why this is such a common theme?

Maybe I am lost. I certainly flounder around a lot during my waking hours. Today I felt like I was sleepwalking. Each day seems like the previous one. I walk Dash. I make my morning smoothie. I clean up the dog poop in the yard. I turn on the computer and pretend like I'm working for a while. Dash gets lunch. I take a shower. If there are bills to pay, I take them to the post office. Dash gets an early dinner at 3:30 and then we take an afternoon walk. He gets the remainder of his dinner at 4:30 after we return and then I see if there are any leftovers in the refrigerator for my own dinner. The only time I watch TV is while I'm eating. Today I sent out my February invoices. This didn't take long. There are fewer and fewer invoices each month.

My day has become so repetitive that the thought of doing something new makes me apprehensive. I've been taking care of sick dogs for so long that I associate something new with something bad. As long as Dash stays the same, we're fine. New behavior is usually alarming. I feel the same way about the house. If things stay the same, we're fine. Something new usually involves a water leak or a broken appliance. If I were starting the blog today, the title would probably be "What new kind of hell is this." I dread the thought of anything new.

I do try to take a new photo every day. Maybe I'm hoping that if the narrative becomes too repetitive, the photo will keep things interesting. Today, I encountered a very inquisitive squirrel. I don't know if he was looking at me or Dash, but we were definitely invading his territory. I'm looking forward to Spring and a return of the wildflowers in the park. There are very few things to photograph on cold, grey days like this.

I'm going to need to go to the store tomorrow. I've run out of coffee and the refrigerator is looking bare. I usually get Sprinkles Cupcakes for Valentine's Day, but neither of us eats dessert anymore. It hardly seems worth the trouble of standing in line for overpriced cupcakes if we aren't going to eat them.

I've noticed that my WiFi only crashes if I'm looking at Facebook. That's weird. I can be doing anything else on the computer and the connection is solid as a rock. I wonder what this means? I think all the autoplay movies in my timeline are causing things to go wonky, but it could just be that I'm spending too much time on Facebook.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2972

Why can't you purchase individual TV channels? Janet and I only regularly watch five or six channels, but for years have been forced to buy an expensive cable package with hundreds of unnecessary channels just to get the ones we like. Cutting the cord sounds appealing, but it's turning out to be just as difficult to find our favorite channels on popular streaming packages. You'd think Hulu Live, Sling TV, or Direct TV Now would include PBS in their lineup. PBS is almost as basic as local news. Nope. Even the most expensive packages don't offer PBS. Nobody offers MeTV either. I like this weird little channel because it has all the old Perry Mason and Twilight Zone shows I watch while I fall asleep. Very few people offer NASA TV. This just seems like a public access channel like CSPAN. I though you had to offer public access channels. Maybe I'm stuck with paying too much for cable. It was a slow day and I had a lot of time for comparison shopping. I couldn't find anything I liked.

I'm still trying to figure out why my WiFi connection crashes occasionally. A quick Google search revealed that lots of other people were having the same problem. So many people were complaining about connectivity issues between AT&T and Apple computers that you'd think one of these companies would have come up with a solution. Nope. Neither of these corporate giants would even acknowledge there was a problem.

Here's where things get difficult. If you want to learn how to fix your car, your refrigerator, or your broadband router on the Internet, you've got to sort through dozens, or even hundreds, of wacko solutions offered by ordinary folks and hope that one of them doesn't make things even worse. You'd think people would agree on how to fix something, but they never do.

Fake news isn't limited to politics. It's everywhere. Most diet plans you read about online are fake news. So are restaurant reviews, miracle cures for cancer, and stories about the best food for your dog. When did people become so confident about information that is at best just an opinion? I try to avoid telling people how to fix things. At least I realize that my opinions are probably no better than all the others out there. So far, I don't have the nerve to reconfigure my router based on something I heard on the Internet.

Hey, I did manage to get my refrigerator running again from watching a YouTube video. I've learned a lot about fixing old watches online too. The problem is that I never actually become an expert by watching a YouTube video. Most things I fix end up breaking again. I read a lot about routers today and I still don't really understand how they work. Why can't AT&T or Apple give me reliable, trouble free WiFI? I shouldn't have to do their work for them.

Maybe I should limit myself to simple things. I'm pretty good at doing laundry and finding dog poop in the yard. My morning smoothies are better than anything you'd find at Smoothie King. I make a mean omelet when I'm in the mood too. Maybe this is enough.

At least Dash had a good day. He ate well, took two nice walks, and only got me up once last night. So far, we haven't has any shivering episodes. I was the only one shivering today. It is still very cold.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2971

It snowed for about two minutes today. I hope that's all we get this Winter. I delayed going to the gym a bit because it was so cold that I was afraid the roads would ice over. I needn't have worried. Within two hours the snow was gone and the roads were completely dry.

After converting to a high speed fiber optic network yesterday, I was disappointed to discover that my WiFi can still crash. Damn. Since only one computer was affected, I began to suspect that the network wasn't the problem. I did some more research and learned there have been ongoing compatibility issues between AT&T and certain Apple operating systems. As usual, nobody seemed to agree on what the solution was. Some people thought the new IPv6 internet protocol was the problem and suggested that I turn it off. I never knew it was on by default. Maybe this happened when I upgraded to Sierra. I eventually figured out how to revert to IPv4 and rebooted my computer. So far, so good.

I hope we haven't upgraded our network for nothing. We've now got a connection capable of streaming 4K movies, but we don't even have a 4K TV. I asked Janet if she noticed any difference in our new service and she said no. I guess that makes sense. Standard definition movies play pretty well on a much slower connection. The only reason I wanted the faster connection was to eliminate WiFi crashes. That didn't happen. Oh, well. I think this is all Apple's fault.

I've noticed that the younger people at the gym are all doing interval training. They have short periods of intense activity followed by short periods of resting. Maybe this is better than spending twenty minutes on the treadmill slowly raising your heart rate. I guess I do circuit training. I move from one machine to another, concentrating of a different set of muscles each time. I never vary the intensity. I don't know if I'm cut out for interval training. Any activity that involves physical or mental intensity seems foreign to me. Even when I'm exercising, I prefer a steady, consistent pace.

I also prefer that all dogs be on a leash. Dash seemed eager to take an afternoon walk, but shortly after we got started, he saw two dogs running loose in the park and refused to go further. We had to turn around and go home. The dogs were probably harmless, but I couldn't get Dash to leave the house for the rest of the day. I wonder if people who let their dogs off leash in a public place even realize how much trouble they cause for others?

I haven't watched the olympics at all this year. I keep forgetting that it's on right now. I used to like to watch the ice skating, but I don't even know who the top skaters are anymore. Occasionally, I'll see something about the olympics on TV, but it's more about Kim Jong Un’s sister than about the performers. I only mention the olympics because they were showing the curling competition on TV at the gym. I saw a YouTube video recently showing team USA curling with cats. Is this a thing? I suspect the video involved some clever CGI, but it could be real. Almost anything could be real these days.

I thought the third season of The Expanse was going to start soon, but it looks like I'm going to have to wait until Summer. Right now Summer couldn't come soon enough. I'm sure that as soon as it arrives I'll be looking forward to Winter again. I'm apparently not very good at living in the moment. I'm always waiting for something better.

Lady Gogh is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2970

Wow. Fiber optic Internet is really, really fast. Back when I got my first DSL line, people talked about fiber to the home the same way they talked about flying cars. It was kind of the holy grail of connectivity, but nobody really thought it would happen. I guess the future is here.

The first thing the installer did when he arrived was step in dog poop. I was embarrassed, but the guy liked dogs, so all was well. I try my best to keep the yard clean,  but in the Winter it is virtually impossible. If you don't clean up the poop immediately, it just disappears in the leaves.

It always takes longer to upgrade a network than I expect. There are holes to be drilled, mysterious boxes to be installed, and things that need to be configured. I was glad that I got to keep my old router, so I won't have to reconnect everything to the WiFi network again with a different password. It took a while, but the network works just like it did before. It's just faster.

It's amazing that the actual fiber optic cable is so small. How can so much information travel through such a tiny wire? I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that upload speeds are just as fast as download speeds. This was never true with U-Verse or DSL. I could have really used this feature back when I was spending my days uploading websites and sending huge video files to clients.

The fiber optic network is a success, but I wasn't quite as lucky with my refrigerator search. There are apparently no special President's Day deals on the model I've been considering. I saw hundreds of great deals in the store, but the salesperson said specialty appliances, like the odd size refrigerator I need seldom go on sale. "They know you need this one," she said. "They don't have to sweeten the pot with a deal." I know this is true, but it is still depressing. I get very few special deals.

The weather has been almost as erratic as the stock market this year. It's driving me crazy. One day it's seventy degrees and the next day it's twenty degrees. I bet the AT&T technician wished he'd installed the fiber optic cables yesterday. It was forty degrees warmer. It kept getting colder and colder as the day progressed. Another arctic cold front has arrived and I can't wait for it to move out of the area. I think the temperature could be in the teens by morning.

The cold doesn't seem to bother Dash. We took two very icy walks today and he was having a lot more fun than I was. I worry that the cold might make his shivering episodes worse, but they don't seem to be related to the temperature. The shivering and tremors Dash has been experiencing lately appear to be neurological in nature. I hope the tremors don't get worse because there is nothing I can do to stop them.

We had Chili for dinner tonight, which appears to be the prefect cold weather meal. I'm wearing my down booties around the house all the time now. Strangely, my foot doesn't hurt as much when I wear these things. They must improve my circulation. Now, all I need are some down gloves for my hands.  I still don't understand how Northerners deal with ice and snow. All it takes to shut me down is for the temperature to dip below freezing.

Landry is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2969

We're upgrading to a fiber optic network. When the technician came out today, he convinced me that fiber was the way to go. It's three to four times faster than the copper connection I have now for the same price. I'm sure that AT&T will raise the price later, but they keep raising the price on my slower connection anyway. I never did find out why my WiFi has been crashing lately. The technician said I'm getting a good signal and the router seems OK. I suspect that I just have to many things hooked up to my WiFi network. The new fiber optic connection is supposed to fix all this. We'll see. Every time I've upgraded my network before, there have been a host of unforeseen problems. I guess four times the speed for the same price is worth the gamble. Don't be surprised if you hear me complaining later though. It's really hard to get a network running smoothly.

Breakfast was pleasant today. I discovered a restaurant where I could order a child size portion of anything on the menu. The smaller plate was just right and I left happy. I don't know why I never thought of this before. Restaurants almost always give me too much food and since I was trained to eat everything on my plate as a child, I inevitably eat too much. Child size meals are less expensive too. It's a win/win for me.

I was startled  when someone called out my name when I was parking my car at the grocery store this morning. It turned out to be an old friend and former co-worker I hadn't seen in a while. Since we are the same age, I was expecting tales of boredom and retirement. Nope. The guy was driving a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet and said he was busier than ever. WTF. I kept wondering what I've been doing wrong.

Hey, I'm happy my friend is doing well. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins anyway. Nevertheless, the encounter made me wonder. Why have I essentially given up on business while other people my age still seem to enjoy the challenge? I don't really have any answers. I've enjoyed quite a few years of success, but I know I'll never make a cold call again. I don't really want new business anymore. I just want to be left alone.

With this kind of attitude, I need a stable, non-volatile stock market. I definitely don't need the turmoil we've seen this week. Some people are blaming the crash on Trump and they may have a point. The theory is that Trump's continual bragging about how successful the market was caused more small retail investors to start buying stock. Since market tops are historically defined by a surge in retail buying, the computers that control all the high speed algorithmic trading interpreted the increased activity as a market top and started selling. Once things started to snowball, it was impossible to stop. If you know how algorithmic trading works, this theory seems entirely plausible. One can only guess what new kind of hell our robot overlords have planned for us next.

Much to my surprise, the roofers returned today. I haven't seen these guys for over three months, so I'd almost forgotten about them. I took them up on the roof and showed them what was happening. They acknowledged that the original product they applied never performed as expected and I used this opportunity to try to get the company to put on a whole new roof. As I explained, there is simply no way to permanently fix this roof a few feet at a time. The guys who came out today said they'd talk to the company owner and try to come back in the Spring when it was dry. Who knows how this will end, but I'm going to try to remain optimistic.

AT&T is supposed to install the fiber optic cable and router tomorrow. Home Depot is supposed to give me a President's Day price and a delivery date for a new refrigerator. Also, an arctic cold front is on the way and temperatures are supposed to drop by 40 degrees. It should be a busy day.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2968

The WiFi went out today. I hate calling AT&T so much that I have a second WiFi hotspot with T-Mobile. Since outages are usually intermittent, it is often easier to use this alternate service than call technical support. I guess I could have done that again today, but I was so irritated that my U-Verse bill has gone up again I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get what I was paying for.

I hate calling technical support. It takes five minutes of talking to a robot before you can connect with a real person. Usually the technician you are speaking to is not a native speaker and the conversation is mostly "could you repeat that, I couldn't understand you." The tech support people are nice enough. They just don't speak English well. Before you can explain your problem, the technicians always wants to run some tests. It doesn't matter that I've already run the tests before I placed the call. They run the tests again anyway. Usually the tests are inconclusive and they want to send another technician out to the house.

That's what happened again today. I've been through this process too many times before. Usually the service guy just replaces the router and then you have to reconnect your entire WiFi network. I tried to explain to the technician that it might not be worth the trouble to send someone out, since I was thinking of dropping U-Verse anyway. He said he already had a ticket open and that was the only way to resolve my issue. "Could this guy you send out hook me up to your fiber optic network if he can't fix my router," I asked. "No, that's an entirely different department," said the technician. I wasted a lot of time today, and I'll waste even more tomorrow when the other technician arrives.

The stock market dropped another thousand points today. This is so irritating. I finally recovered from   the disastrous 2008 crash and was looking forward to smooth sailing in 2018. The market may have gone up too fast, but there is no good reason why it should be going down. Most companies are enjoying record profits. Consumer confidence is up. Manufacturers are hiring again. This is not like 2008 at all. Some people say this crash was caused by hedge funds shorting the volatility index and then having to sell stocks to cover their shorts when the trade went bad. Maybe. I just wish there were more people like Warren Buffet and fewer people trying to get rich quick by gaming the system.

Dash had a good day, but he definitely didn't have a good night. He woke me up several times last night and seemed agitated. He finally pooped, but it took him several tries. When he returned to bed, he started shivering violently. Covering him in a blanket didn't help at all. At one point he seemed to have trouble breathing and I became very alarmed. We've been through this before and knew there was little point in taking him to the vet. We just had to keep Dash calm and wait for the tremors to subside. It took about an hour, but eventually the shivering stopped and Dash started sleeping normally again. He woke up this morning as if nothing had happened.

I think the shivering and tremors are another aspect of Dash's vestibular disease. They also could be caused by the blood clots in Dash's heart. I wish there was something we could do, but Dash's doctors have no answers. Sometimes I wonder why they don't try a different blood thinner like Warfarin or Heparin, but maybe these medicines don't work in dogs.

If Dash is feeling well, I might go out for breakfast tomorrow. I'm not that hungry. I just need to get out of the house for a while.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2967

Someone has started throwing their trash in my garbage can. This shouldn't bother me, but it does. I always bag and seal my trash in big black trash bags. I have a neat and tidy bin. It just seems all wrong to see someone else's loose garbage inside this can. Since all my neighbors have their own cans, I'm beginning to think that this trash is coming from the strange new people I've seen coming and going from my neighbor's house recently. I may be wrong, but I think they've turned part of their home into an Airbnb rental. Jeez. I hope this isn't true. After I read an article about how Airbnb virtually destroyed Crested Butte for local residents, I haven't been a fan of this new form of lodging.

I wonder when I went from living on the cutting edge to being violently opposed to anything new? It must have been a gradual process, because I wasn't even aware that it was happening. These days I wonder why there isn't any good music anymore. I am baffled by all these ride sharing bicycles that have spread like kudzu vines through our city. I think social media addiction is as real as drug addiction and we would all be better off if we went back to living offline. I don't like globalism and think a factory in every small town would be much healthier than massive imports from China. Basically, I'm becoming a Luddite like my sister.

My Dad was kind of reactionary as he grew older, but I think I'm much worse than him. It's probably because I never had children. If you are a parent, you are forced to make an effort to see the world through a younger generation's eyes. Millennials seem much stranger to me than they do to friends of mine with millennial aged children of their own. Maybe everything is as it should be, but increasingly, life seems like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

I wonder how I'd view the world if I were younger myself? Maybe I'd be more tolerant. I'd probably be working in silicon valley. I'm a huge fan of Elon Musk and share his vision of a life on Mars. I can't imagine myself as a political person, but I could get excited about renewable energy and solar power. Anything that gives people more independence is a good thing. Maybe I'd do just fine as a millennial.

Growing younger isn't really in the cards, so I guess growing old gracefully is the next best thing. I get up every morning and try to make sure Dash has everything he needs. We're both grumpy old men now, but he is a good companion. We take our walks and build our days around mealtimes. It's not a bad life. I try not to panic about stock market fluctuations and I hope that Dash doesn't panic about his heartbeat fluctuations.

We had a good day today. Dash finished his entire breakfast after we returned from our morning walk and his appetite remained good for the rest of the day. The shivering episodes have subsided a bit too. Now that he's finished his four day course of Cerenia, I'm hoping that he will be stable for a while. The big event of the day was picking up some spicy Japanese Ramen for dinner. I picked up some new meds for Dash as well. We'll probably do something similar tomorrow.

Stortz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2966

I've been interested in space for a long time, but I never thought I'd see a sporty convertible floating above the earth with a mannequin in a space suit at the wheel. The long awaited Falcon Heavy launch was spectacular. I thought it was audacious of Elon Musk to send his own Tesla Roadster to Mars on the Falcon Heavy's maiden voyage. It was pretty cool to see the two booster rockets return to Cape Canaveral and land simultaneously as well. If this doesn't get people interested in space travel again, I don't know what will.

I defrosted the evaporator coil in the freezer today. There was definitely ice on the coil, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I probably could have gone another week before the refrigerator stopped working. It's a nuisance to take all the food out of the freezer, remove the shelves, and unscrew the back panel to gain access to the frozen coil, but melting the ice with a hair dryer seems to cure the problem every time. It seems odd now that frost free refrigerators are a relatively new development and my parents routinely defrosted their refrigerator this way.

After a thousand point drop yesterday, the stock market had a thousand point intraday swing today. The market was down over 500 points at the open and was up over 500 points at the close. It was a very volatile day for traders. At times like these I think it is best to lay low and do nothing. The economy is good and businesses are thriving, so I think the market will recover. If there wasn't so much high volume program trading by machines, the sell off probably wouldn't have happened in the first place. They say a lot of people who were shorting the volatility index because the market has been so stable lately got totally wiped out. I bet they won't do that again.

Dash seems to be feeling a little better. He still won't eat when he gets up, but his appetite seems to return about mid-morning. I don't know if this is permanent or not, but adjustments can be made. The only real problem is getting Dash to take his morning pills. If the morning and evening meds didn't have to be given twelve hours apart, it would be easy to just have Dash take the morning meds later in the day. Unfortunately, that would push the schedule for his the evening meds back until after our bedtime. Hopefully, this loss of appetite is temporary. It certainly makes life more difficult.

I hear thunder outside, but Dash still seems calm and normal. That's odd. Maybe he's growing deaf along with his many other problems. Dot was virtually deaf in the final months before she passed away and the deafness was a blessing. For the first time in her life, she wasn't scared of storms.

I have no plans for tomorrow. With no deadlines to meet, I'll fret about my jury summons. Then I'll fret about Dash's lack of appetite. Then I'll wonder why our cable bill went up again and how long my refrigerator repair will last. I don't think I'll fret about rain. The rain is supposed to be over by morning.

Landry is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2965

The stars were definitely not aligned today. Everything seemed wrong. Dash is still not eating well. I've just about run out of options. Usually if he's not hungry when he wakes up, his appetite will return after a morning walk. Not today. I kept trying different varieties of food and eventually got him to nibble at a few things. He just wasn't hungry though. The tremors have gotten worse as well. Several times today, I noticed that he was shivering a lot. I tried putting a blanket on him, but he didn't seem cold. I went to the vet and got some more Cerenia pills, but I'm not even sure if nausea is causing his problems. I wish Dash could talk and tell me what was going on. His vets don't seem to have any answers.

I received another jury summons this morning. Jury services has taken away my ability to postpone the summons any longer, so it looks like I will have to appear this time. I think I have some perfectly good reasons to be exempt, but none of them qualify. I don't want to catch the flu by sitting with hundreds of people in the jury pool room. I have a sick dog to take care of. A sick person would be a valid excuse, but they don't seem to care about dogs. I don't think they'd even like to hear that I have no faith in the judicial process.

The stock market not only continued Friday's sell off, it had a spectacular crash, dropping over 1,000 points in a few hours. Not good. I'll be the first to admit that the market has gotten ahead of itself, but this is no justification for the largest intra-day drop in history. The business channels had all sorts of explanations for today's crash, but it all comes down to fear and greed. Greedy people pushed the market too high and fearful people are dragging it too low. I hate these wild swings, even though I've seen them many times before. I have no pension or retirement plan. The market is all I have and on days like this, it's of very little use. Ironically, one of the reasons that the market dropped today was the fear that interest rates will rise. Give me a break. Interest rates are still incredibly low. I actually wish interest rates were high. I miss the days when a simple, safe bank CD could earn you 10%.

It looks like I'm going to have to take the freezer apart and defrost the evaporator coil again. The refrigerator is starting to get warm. I guess it's still worth waiting for the President's Day sales, but trying to keep the current refrigerator running for another month is getting real old. I could do the defrost procedure in my sleep by now, but it is still a giant pain in the ass. I've tried keeping the freezer on a warmer setting so the coil won't freeze quite as fast, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. Every week and a half, I'm faced with transferring all the food to a large cooler and taking the freezer section apart to expose the evaporator coil. Hopefully, by this time next month there will be a new refrigerator in our kitchen that will last until it's time for me to be shipped off to assisted living.

Today's events would have been bad enough on a sunny day, but cold temperatures and dismal, grey skies made things even worse. This weather is crazy. Yesterday I was wearing shorts and today it's back to long underwear and a down ski jacket. Oddly, Dash enjoys the cold weather. Even though he had an upset stomach and got me all stressed out with his shivering episodes, he still wanted me to take him on his daily walks. These two walks were probably the only things normal about today.

Zorro is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2964 - Super Bowl Sunday

I've never been a fan of the Patriots or the Eagles, but I'll have to admit that today's game was great. I didn't know who was going to win until the very last play, but I'm glad the Eagles pulled off the upset. They might have been the underdog, but they certainly deserved this win. The commercials weren't nearly as good as the game. Most of the ads sucked. Ad agency creative types seem to have lost their sense of humor. Some of the commercials didn't even make sense. To make matters worse, the Budweiser Clydesdales didn't make an appearance at all. I guess Justin Timberlake was OK, but he didn't even come close to the epic performances of Michael Jackson and Prince.

Even though Janet and I aren't huge football fans, we always have a Super Bowl dinner worthy of the game. I went out and got several pounds of ribs from our favorite barbecue place and we enjoyed them with potato salad and baked beans. I even had beer with my dinner, which is extremely rare for me considering that I don't drink anymore. Dash got to enjoy a little barbecue, but we didn't let him get anywhere near the bones. Years ago, one of our dogs grabbed a pork rib off the table and swallowed the entire thing including the bone. We thought Spot was going to need emergency surgery, but the vet said to wait. The bone slowly dissolved and after a week or so it was soft enough to pass through his system. We were very lucky and made sure that our dogs never got near rib bones again.

For the first time in years I didn't buy a thing at my favorite Super Bowl Sale. Today's styles seem just as weird to me as today's Super Bowl commercials. Jeez. When did skinny jeans get to be a regular item in a clothing store that caters to grown ups? I'm thin enough that I can wear these pants, but they look ridiculous. The narrow legs don't cover your shoes like a normal pair of pants. They just bunch up on top of the shoes. Are you supposed to buy a shorter length or just let the fabric bunch up? I hate stretch fabric too. Men shouldn't wear stretch denim. I guess I can avoid these issues by continuing to buy regular old fashioned boot cut jeans at a western store.

Dash's appetite still hasn't returned to normal, but at least he seems better than he was yesterday. He had no interest in food when he woke up this morning, but after his walk he ate a little. He would return to his bowl and take a few bites throughout the morning and by noon, he had almost finished his breakfast. We gave him another Cerenia pill this morning and hopefully this will help stabilize his system.

I thought the gym would be empty today since it was Super Bowl Sunday, but it was surprisingly full. I had to wait to use the basketball court because there was a full court game going on when I arrived. These guys were burning way more energy than I do shooting a few baskets. The more I looked, the more I realized that everybody at the gym was working up a sweat except for me. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I'll probably have heartburn tonight after eating a big plate of barbecued ribs, but the meal was worth it. The game was worth it too. All in all, it was a pretty nice day. Tomorrow it's back to wondering where the next job is coming from and looking for a replacement refrigerator. If I'm lucky, the stock market sell off will stop and Dash will start eating normally again.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2963

Dash wouldn't eat this morning. It took forever to get a minimal amount of food in him so it was safe to give his morning pills. Since it is critical that Dash always takes his phenobarbital on a regular basis to control seizures, a loss of appetite can be pretty dicy. Dash wasn't even interested in banana bread this morning, so we knew this was bad. We decided to give him a Cerenia pill, even though he wasn't showing obvious signs of nausea. Cerenia was really the only tool we had. Three hours later, he started eating again.

Nobody has ever explained how Dash's various symptoms are interrelated. Maybe they aren't. There are so many things that can go wrong with this dog and some of them are life threatening. To me, it is very stressful. My best guess is that the periodic eating disorders are related to his vestibular disease. Depending on how bad the vestibular event is, it can appear to be a stroke, a seizure, vertigo, or an upset stomach. Dash's worst vestibular seizure put him in intensive care for four days. Today's mild event just gave him an upset stomach. By mid-afternoon, he was back to his old self again.

While I was running my Saturday errands, I did some more appliance shopping. I learned that it would be a good idea if I just put a hold on things until President's Day. Evidently you can get some of the best appliance prices of the year during President's Day sales events. I guess it is a tradition to lower prices on refrigerators on President's Day. I'm happy to wait. I wasn't looking forward to buying a refrigerator today anyway.

Now that I'm more or less living on a fixed income, sales have become more important to me. I'll be going to the annual Super Bowl Sale at my favorite clothing store tomorrow. This is the only time when I can actually afford these clothes. I realize that when someone offers you 75% off on anything, they're just trying to get rid of old merchandise, but what do I care. When you're almost 70 years old, nothing ever goes out of style.

Dash has become very needy as he's growing older. Janet is at an animal rescue event tonight and Dash has been throwing a tantrum since she isn't around to sit in bed with him. This is what they do in the evening. Janet watches Netflix movies while Dash takes a nap. He's more than welcome to come in the office and nap while I write, but apparently that isn't good enough. He want's me to sit in the bed with him now.

When I was taking Dash out to pee this evening, I saw a guy lurking around in the dark. He seemed startled when he saw Dash and I and told me he was looking for his Airbnb rental. Given the state of the world today, the guy could have been completely legit. He also could have been a burglar. I told the man that nobody I knew in the neighborhood had turned their home into an Airbnb and he got in his car and left. I felt like telling him that it wasn't wise to go lurking around in the dark in a residential Texas neighborhood. It's a good way to get shot.

I still don't understand the popularity of Airbnb, Uber, and all those ugly Limebikes that are littered around town. If I take a Yellow Cab, or stay at a Holiday Inn, I know exactly what I'm getting. I suspect that I don't possess the level of trust required to participate in the sharing economy. It all seems like buying a pig in a poke to me.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2962 - Ground Hog Day

I felt better this morning, but I still didn't go out for breakfast. A bowl of oatmeal seemed just fine. After breakfast, Dash and I had a nice long walk before I got started on an equally long day.

I called the vet who prescribed Carprofen for Dash and expressed my concerns. He said that there was another nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory that didn't have Carprofen's side effects, but that he wasn't very familiar with it. We decided to just discontinue the drug until next month's exam and then see what our options were. Since the Carprofen has very little to do with Dash's heart condition, this seemed like a good plan to me. Next, I talked to a different vet to ask some questions about Dash's eye infection. It's getting better, but we ran out of eye drops before the infection cleared up. She said to continue the drops until the infection goes away and renewed his prescription.

I felt a little more comfortable about Dash's health, so it was time to deal with the refrigerator again. I called the sales guy at Nebraska Furniture Mart to see if the model we are currently looking at is really out of stock until the middle of March. It was. Since this same model is also for sale at Home Depot, I drove over to our neighborhood store to check on its availability. I didn't get any answers because there was no one available in the appliance department to answer my questions. Somebody in the plumbing department told me to come back tomorrow.

Even though I was busy today, it's doesn't seem like I accomplished much. The vet convinced me yesterday that Dash was uncomfortable, probably as a result of arthritis. Since his solution to the problem was Rimadyl, I still don't know what to do. I really don't think Rimadyl is a safe drug. Janet seemed surprised that I haven't bought a refrigerator yet. I tried to explain that it wasn't that easy, but I don't think she liked my answer.

I'm really disappointed that the stock market dropped 666 points today, although I don't think this inauspicious number is a sign of the beast. I just think a lot of people are nervous and wanted to take some profits while the market was near an all time high. Jeez, I'm nervous myself, but I can't think of any rational reason to sell. The business climate is good around the world and most companies are optimistic about the year ahead. That being said, I still wish that the stock market wasn't ruled by fear and greed. Irrational fear is at the root of most market sell offs.

Apparently ground hogs are just as divided on the issues as humans. Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of Winter, but Staten Island Chuck predicted an early Spring. I wasn't aware that there were so many of these prognosticating rodents. Six predicted a longer winter, and four predicted an early spring. One of the prognosticating ground hogs isn't even alive. Washington, D.C. relies on Potomac Phil, who was taxidermied quite a while ago. Why am I not surprised that Washington, D.C.  would use a dead ground hog for this all important task?

I don't think our neighborhood squirrels could predict anything. Their only interests are tearing up the yard and pestering the dogs.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2961

Dash's blood clot isn't any bigger this month. It isn't any smaller either. His doctor thinks this is good news, but it would be a lot better news if the clot was starting to shrink or dissolve. The vet wants Dash to discontinue one of the blood thinners and start taking a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug called Carprofen instead. The plan sounded reasonable during the exam, but when I did some research on the drug later I discovered that it is exactly the same chemically as Rimadyl. Years ago, one of our dogs died of kidney failure after taking Rimadyl for a long time. I swore that I'd never use the drug again.

Why is life so complicated? Now I've got to call the vet back and express my concerns. He'll probably say that most dogs tolerate the drug well, just like vets have always told me when they prescribe Rimadyl. Known side effects of Carprofen include increased risk of heart attack, staggering, stumbling, or partial paralysis, loss of coordination, and increased aggressiveness. Why would you ever want to give something like this to a dog like Dash?

I made some calls about the refrigerator Janet likes and discovered that it is on back order at Home Depot until February 28, and isn't available at Nebraska Furniture Mart until March 15. I doubt that our current refrigerator is going to last until then. Again, why is life so complicated? I should have been able to find an acceptable refrigerator and had it installed by now.

Dash seems to be frightened of the alley behind our house now. I can tell he wants to walk when we leave the house, but as soon as we get to the alley, he freezes and won't go any further. This is unfortunate, because the only way to get to the park is to walk down the alley for about fifty feet. Dash has been walking down this alley for his entire life, so I don't know what is going on. After several tries, I finally got him to take a morning walk, but I never could convince him to go on our evening walk.

I think I've come down with some sort of stomach flu. I woke up with a stomach ache this morning and have had one all day. It is very rare for me to have stomach flu, but whenever I do I think I've been poisoned. I picked up a burger for dinner yesterday. Maybe the meat was bad, or maybe the cook dropped it on the floor. Who knows? I am so suspicious of other people that I should probably fix all my food myself. At any rate, I'll probably be getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom for a while, just like Dash.

There's not much point in going out for breakfast tomorrow if I've got a stomach ache. Maybe I'll just fix myself a bowl of oatmeal. We'll see if Dash will walk in the morning. If he won't, I'm just going to crawl back in bed with him and take a long nap.

Myles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2960

I drove halfway to Oklahoma to look at a refrigerator and came back with nothing. If you've never been to a Nebraska Furniture Mart, you ought to go sometime. The store was amazing. They had the odd size refrigerator I was looking for, in addition to hundreds and hundreds of other models. I've never seen so many appliances in a single place in my life.

I almost bought the refrigerator I had traveled so far to see until the salesman opened one of the freezer drawers and said "there's just one more thing" as he pulled out an odd looking filter attached to a long hose. It almost seemed like an episode of Columbo. Unlike most refrigerators, this one had an external water filter that needed to be placed somewhere else in the house. It was apparently too complicated for the regular delivery crew to install, so I would need an additional extra cost professional installation team. "This thing looks European," I said. "How is it going to hook up to my plumbing?" The salesman assured me that they had successfully installed many of these refrigerators, but I wasn't very confident. I tried to have a plumber install a German kitchen faucet once and it was a nightmare. I have also had similar problems with a French toilet.

Since just about every refrigerator in the world was out on the showroom floor, I asked to see what else was available. There were a few choices that would fit in the space I have, but all of them had a full width door. I needed a side by side refrigerator or a french door model, so the door won't stick out so far when it is opened. Like I've said, my space is very limited. I had the sales guy print out specifications for everything I'd looked at and I took them home for Janet to look at. She went on the Internet and picked out something entirely different. It's a good thing I didn't buy anything today.

I got a good look at the lunar eclipse this morning. The eclipse was just starting when I had to take Dash outside to poop during the night. A few hours later, I had to take him outside again to pee and the moon was a thin crescent. I was hoping to get a nice photo of the red "blood moon" at totality, but it was too near sunrise and the moon was already obscured by haze near the horizon. I took a photo anyway, but you can barely see the moon at all.

The weather was really nice today, but Dash wouldn't take an afternoon walk at all. I wish I knew what that dog was thinking. At least he got a fairly decent morning walk. Tomorrow we go back to the cancer center for our monthly echocardiogram. I really hope his condition has improved or at least has stabilized. Dash is taking some powerful blood thinners now and I'm always worried that he'll get cut and I won't be able to stop the bleeding.

I guess I'll go and look at the refrigerator Janet likes on Friday. There probably isn't time tomorrow since it is a vet appointment day. I just want to put this refrigerator mess behind me. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to be able to find exactly what I want. If I can find something that keeps food cold and won't block the door to the utility room, I'm fine. Part of me still wants to fix the old refrigerator, but we won't even go there. I've already lost that battle.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2959

Finding a refrigerator that will fit in our house is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I spent most of the day visiting stores and talking to people on the phone and still haven't found what I'm looking for. It's frustrating. I found one model that looks like it would be a perfect fit for our kitchen alcove, but nobody in the Dallas/Fort Worth area has one on their showroom floor. I'd hate to buy a refrigerator without seeing it in person first. One thing I've already learned is that there are a lot of surprises. The descriptions on the internet aren't always accurate, for starters. When you are trying to fit something in a space with only a half an inch of clearance on either side, measurements must be accurate.

Even how the door opens is important. Depending on where the hinges are placed, some doors will still open when placed next to a wall and others won't. Some models require two to three inches clearance behind the refrigerator and others can live with one inch. I think this is why I tried so hard to repair my existing refrigerator. It is really hard to find something that will fit in my kitchen.

If General Electric still made the model I currently have, I would just buy another one. This side by side model lasted a long time and came with with an icemaker in the door which isn't even available in smaller refrigerators anymore. I saw refrigerators today that had built in internet browsers, WiFi cameras, and little doors so you didn't have to open the big door to grab a can of pop. There was even one refrigerator that has a built in Keurig coffee maker. All this useless stuff and I couldn't find a single model with the icemaker I wanted. I couldn't find anything with as much space as my current refrigerator either.

I had a scare last night. I woke up about 3 AM and Dash felt very cold and was shivering. He was still asleep, but something didn't seem right. His breathing was too slow and I began to worry that one of the blood clots had broken apart and gone to his brain. I covered him up with a blanket and the tremors gradually subsided. About an hour later Dash woke up quickly and headed straight for the back door. I wasn't fast enough unlocking the door and he ended up pooping on the living room floor again. Dash isn't incontinent yet, but we are headed in that direction. At least his breathing seemed normal again though. I cleaned up the poop and we all went back to bed.

Dash wanted to walk today but he didn't seem to have much energy. Our walks were very, very slow. I'm glad we're going back for another echocardiogram and exam this Thursday. I hope his new medications are working and that we'll be able to go back to a single blood thinner soon. Dash bleeds way too easily now. It makes me real nervous. Last night he brushed against a low branch while I was taking him outside to pee and ended up getting a cut on his back. The scrape was very, very minor, but he bled anyway.

It was really disappointing to have a big stock market sell off today. It was inevitable, and quite normal that this would happen, but I'd be a lot happier if the market would just keep going up indefinitely. Even a 5% correction makes me fret these days. There doesn't seem to be any room for error anywhere. I've got to keep Dash calm and hope the blood clot doesn't shift. I've got to find a refrigerator that fits in our impossible alcove. I've got to find a way to make my investments last in an increasingly volatile world. Maybe I'm imagining things, but life seemed a lot easier thirty years ago.

Malcolm is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day