Day 1758

The Ebola patient at Presbyterian Hospital died today and a second person was admitted to the same hospital with symptoms. Everyone is a bit nervous. When I sneezed tonight at dog training class, everyone around me gave me a strange look. One woman asked if I was OK. Jeez, it was just a sneeze. I sneeze all the time. I have seasonal allergies and they're pretty bad during the Fall.

I understand why people are nervous though. I'm nervous. Many mistakes have been made already and more will be made in the future. The guy who was admitted to Presbyterian today was a sheriff's deputy who was ordered by his supervisor to enter the victim's apartment before it was sanitized to get a quarantine order signed. The deputy wore no protective clothing at all. Then, when he began feeling sick, he just walked into a suburban CareNow clinic for treatment instead of calling the CDC. These things just keep happening. I still can't believe that one of the quarantined kids left his house and went back to Dallas public schools the day after he was quarantined. They say that 50 people are at risk, but I bet the true number is several hundred. The guy who was admitted to the hospital today wasn't even on the CDC short list.

I was sad to hear that the dog that belonged to the Spanish nurse that has Ebola has been euthanized. Why couldn't they just have quarantined the dog? We love our dogs here in the United States. I think that once people start to realize that their dogs could be at risk, or even killed by government officials during an Ebola panic, it might change people's opinions about our open borders. I keep hearing that you can't stop people from traveling. Why not? If we denied entry from all West African countries, we could put a stop to Ebola in America. People forget that for much of this country's history, if you were sick when you came through Ellis Island, you were turned away.

Today was another busy day. I finished my writing assignments, made a few website updates, and got my October invoices in the mail. I think I've finally managed to catch up with all of my power outage backlog. I guess this means that tomorrow I'll have to go up on the roof and check out the water situation. I've been avoiding this, since my last trip to the roof involved a lot of work. We've had quite a bit of rain recently and it's not going to evaporate with our cooler Fall weather, so I guess that sweeping and pumping away the standing water is almost inevitable.

I can't stand another day of oatmeal, so I bought some bacon while I was at the grocery store today. A little bacon for breakfast is bound to make Thursday a better day.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1757

I kept thinking it was Wednesday today. With so little to differentiate the days anymore, it is an easy mistake to make. Friday's stick in my mind because I go out for a great breakfast. Thursdays I generally remember because I take Dot downtown for her physical therapy session. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday just run together.

I had lots of work to do today, but work doesn't leave the same kind of memories as a good meal. For sanity's sake, I prefer to forget most of the things I work on and depend on my computer to resurrect these projects when it becomes necessary. This is why I take backups and archiving seriously. I have dual backup hard drives and alternate them every other day, just in case. Without these meticulous backups, any garden variety computer crash could ruin me. A lot of people talk about living in the moment, but I really do. The only thing I know about yesterday is that it was very likely exactly the same as today.

Ever since the power outage I've been looking at generators. Most people evaluate generators by their power output, price, and gas tank size. I just look at how heavy they are. With a bad shoulder and carpal tunnel in my wrists, I need something I can lift. I think 60 pounds would be about my limit. This is pitiful, considering the heavy speakers and amplifiers I used to routinely lift when I played in the band, but that's just the way it is. Since your typical generator can weigh several hundred pounds, I am looking at Inverters. This type of design is much lighter and still provides enough power to meet my basic needs. As an added bonus, some types of Inverters can be hooked together in parallel to double the power. Maybe I'll get one tomorrow.

My sister told me recently that she and her husband were going to sell their rural home because of health problems and move to a place where there was better health care. I find this sad, because I know they loved living off the grid and spent years and years building a wonderful retreat in the middle of nowhere. When my parents sold their home and moved to an assisted living facility they really had no choice. Medical issues made the choice for them as well. I think about this from time to time. I'd love to live in the middle of nowhere, but I'd never want to be far away from a good veterinarian. Several of my dogs would have died if a large, full service veterinary hospital wasn't just a few minutes away. It would be nice to have a top quality research hospital nearby for Janet and I as well. I've already seen how much of a difference a good medical team can make. Basically, getting old sucks and there is very little you can do about it.

I must be moving up in the world on Klout. I got a notice today that they were sending me a Honeywell programmable WiFi thermostat for the house. This is certainly fancier than the bag of dog food they sent me last time.

Cupcake is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1756

I awoke this morning to the unmistakable sound of rain pounding on the roof. A few minutes later, a loud thunderclap woke Dot and Dash. The storm phobic dogs didn't want to get out of bed, and frankly, neither did I. On a rainy Monday with lots to do, I'd almost always rather go back to sleep. It was raining so hard at one point that I was afraid we were going to lose our power all over again. Luckily, the downpour was short lived. I postponed walking the dogs while I ate breakfast, in hopes that the skies would clear. By the time I'd finished washing the breakfast dishes, the brief thunderstorm was over and we were on our way.

There are sections of the park we have to avoid these days. The area where the city has torn up our favorite trail to build a concrete bicycle path has become a huge mud pit after the recent rains. Last Thursday's violent windstorm uprooted an enormous number of trees, leaving some areas completely blocked. You have to be careful where you walk. Often trees that were left standing have huge limbs that were broken off and left dangling up in the tree. These branches can come crashing down at any time, so I'm always looking up before walking under a large mature tree. If your tree trimming business isn't doing so well, you might consider moving to Dallas. There is enough tree damage in this city to keep you busy for a very long time.

There was plenty of work to do today. I don't have local versions of some of the websites I manage on my laptop, so I had to wait until power returned before I could deal with the update requests. When I used to travel more, I would keep all my client's sites on the laptop as well, but they changed so frequently that it was a pain to keep the laptop and desktop computers in sync. I probably should start duplicating everything I do on the laptop again. I'm certain that this isn't the last power outage we'll ever experience.

I was pretty well caught on website changes by the end of the day and am working on writing assignments now. There is probably still a good day's work before I'm completely caught up, however. When I get finished, I'll climb up on the roof and see how much water this morning's thunderstorms left behind. Maybe I'll never get caught up. Today, I had to go out and pick up some more thyroid medicine for Dash. Tomorrow, I'll need to go to the grocery store and pick up some food for the rest of the week. Eating fresh produce has certainly increased the amount of time I spend at the grocery store, but I think it's worth it. Fresh is much better than frozen.

The nasty bird that always shits on my car has returned for the Winter. I don't know how long birds typically live, but I'm convinced this is the same bird. At least the spiders in the back yard are starting to disappear. I'm methodically starting to clean up the spiderwebs littering the back windows now. Maybe we'll have sparkling clean windows again by Thanksgiving. There was one good thing about last Thursday's wind storm. The wind blew away all the remaining dead branches that were stuck in our Live Oak trees after the power company left them behind when they trimmed the trees during last Winter's ice storm power outage. Another problem solved. I always like it when doing nothing turns out to be the right thing to do.

Cassie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1755

Yay! We've got power again. The repair crew arrived in the neighborhood while Janet and I were returning from our Sunday morning walk with Dot and Dash. The five large trucks and twelve man repair crew were greeted like a liberating army. Some neighbors offered the men coffee and others brought donuts. Everybody said a sincere thank you to the crew for not forgetting about us. After we saw the big trucks, we all knew we would have power by the end of the day.

I had no idea how long it would actually take to get power restored, so I drove up the street to pick up a take-out breakfast and some coffee. By the time I returned with the food, the lights were on again and our ordeal was over. You realize very quickly in situations like these that modern society is completely dependent on electricity. Things go downhill very quickly without power. People get grumpy. Store shelves quickly empty of essential items like batteries and food that does not require refrigeration. Knowledge workers are dead in the water without the computers, servers and phone systems they depend on. I'm still wondering what happened on Saturday's new Dr. Who episode. I can't tell you how many people I saw using their cars to recharge their cell phones during the outage. Most people would readily burn several gallons of gas while their car was idling in the driveway than risk their phone going dead. Without our phones, we are lost.

I remember reading once that during the cold war, Russia hardened most of its power grid by burying the electric cables underground. For some reason the United States didn't bother to do the same and now we are paying the price. Our entire power grid is an aging, very insecure, mess. If electric cars like the Tesla ever become popular, there will probably be brownouts every night as the population recharges their cars for the next day. I hope someone in Washington realizes the importance of improving the power grid. ISIS doesn't need to go around chopping off people's heads. All they need to bring the country to its knees is turn off the electricity for a month.

Having power again inspired Janet and I to try to get a grip on the mess that was engulfing the house. We cleaned the refrigerator and started over with fresh food. I bought some new bath towels to replace the old dingy ones that were an embarrassment to take to the laundromat yesterday. I got out the big step ladder and finally summoned the energy to get the big heavy flight case for my synthesizer off a high shelf so I could pack it up and take it to the storage warehouse. The Beta-SP video equipment went to the storage warehouse as well. As important as this stuff was to my business at one time, I know it will never be used again.

I've still got a ton of work to catch up on, but it looks like Monday will just be another normal work day. If you were expecting something from me last Friday, I'm still working on it. I work pretty fast, so with any luck, the backlog will be gone by Wednesday. It's definitely back to oatmeal tomorrow. I think I've gained five pounds by eating out every single day since last Thursday. I really hope that we don't have a repeat of this mess later this Winter. I don't think the nice, dog friendly hotel where we sought refuge during a power outage last Winter will be an option any longer. Dog friendly hotels are usually very clear that if your dog destroys anything, you pay for it. I don't think they would welcome an old dog who has a tendency to pee on the bed.

Lightning is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1754

Our power is still out. We have basically been reduced to camping out in our house. It finally dawned on me today that the dishwasher full of dirty dishes wasn't going to wash itself and the washing machine full of dirty clothes and towels weren't going to get clean by themselves. I found some dish soap and washed the dishes by hand and then I gathered up the dirty clothes and towels in a big duffel bag and went looking for a laundromat.

The only time I ever go to a laundromat is when there is a power outage, or when the washing machine is broken. I wish I could avoid laundromats altogether. This was a fairly typical laundromat. There was a crazy man talking loudly to himself while transferring his clothes from a black garbage bag to one of the washers. There was a very large woman who kept her cell phone, and apparently everything else she owned, in her bra. There were enough rowdy children to start a daycare center. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Unfortunately, I had to stay quite a while, because someone had forgotten to clean the lint filters on the dryers and it took forever for my towel load to dry.

When I finished doing my laundry, I went to a nearby Home Depot to look at generators. There weren't any. Apparently, the store had completely sold out of all their generators two days ago. When I was still being optimistic about getting the power restored, everyone else was out buying a generator. Every time the power goes out, I think about getting a generator. Unfortunately, I've got no place to keep a decent one. It would either get ruined sitting outside in the weather, or it would get stolen. If you've got a big generator, you need a garage to keep it in. If you've got a little generator, why even bother.

I finally saw someone from the power company in the neighborhood today. These guys weren't fixing anything. They were just the "assessment team," that looks for damage before the repair crews come out later. I asked the guys if the saw the downed power line in my neighbor's yard. They said they hadn't seen any downed lines in the area, so I took them back in the alley and showed them the dangling wire. "Wow. That's the problem," one of the men said. "This is why the lights are out on your street." I'm glad I ran into these guys. They were from out of state and didn't know the area. They may have never found a single downed power line hidden in an obscure alley.

We got the cooler out of the storage warehouse and bought a couple of bags of ice, but the refrigerator ended up being a lost cause anyway. We had waited too long and ended up just throwing everything away. Luckily, the refrigerator and freezer were fairly empty, so we didn't loose much. It was sad to lose all the Gelato in the freezer though. I love Gelato.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Probably more of the same. The power outage is so massive that it will be a miracle if our power is restored tomorrow.  I am starting to see a bunch of out of state power company trucks driving around town today though. That's always a good sign.

Jersey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1753

Today was all about damage control. Yesterday's storm was a lot worse than most people thought. Over 250,000 people are still without power in the Dallas area. I'm one of them. The power came back very briefly about 2 AM this morning and then about two minutes later it went out again with a bang as a transformer in the alley exploded. As I was walking the dogs this morning, I heard at least six other transformers exploding in the distance. Evidently, the power company is having trouble because there are many more downed trees and telephone poles than they expected. If they attempt to restore the power before they find all the downed lines, the circuit shorts out and a transformer explodes. Actually, I think we're losing ground. When I went to breakfast this morning, most of the traffic lights were working. When I went out again later this afternoon to recharge my UPS backup battery at Janet's office, all the lights were out again. I have yet to see any power company trucks in our neighborhood. To tell you the truth, I haven't seen any power company trucks, period. I don't know where they all are.

With limited computer resources and a very dark house, I spent as much time as I could outside. Ironically, the weather was beautiful today. You'll never believe what happened just 24 hours ago. I cleaned up broken branches in the yard and then I went up on the roof where there were many more tree limbs. It was raining so hard yesterday that I didn't even hear most of these branches fall. All I heard was the wind. I was surprised at how many good sized tree limbs were up on the roof. I don't think any damage was done, but it sure was a mess to clean up. Without the help of my trusty electric sump pump to clear the water away, it took hours to remove all the standing water and debris.

You really can't get much done without electricity these days. It seemed like the whole city was just milling around waiting for something to happen. I've never seen my breakfast restaurant so crowded before. It was hard to find a parking place and even harder to find a table. Since the power was out in our entire neighborhood, I think everybody just decided to get out of their house and have a good breakfast.

My backup battery will recharge the laptop once and the phone two times before it goes dead. This give me time to write the blog and answer a few e-mails, but that's about it. The biggest problem with the backup battery is that it takes almost eight hours to fully recharge. My laptop doesn't seem to hold a charge very well any more and neither does the little 4-G hotspot I use for WiFi. Did I ever mention to you how much I hate batteries?

I heard on the news today that the CDC has narrowed yesterday's list of 100 people down to 50 that were thought to have "shared bodily fluids" with the Ebola victim. This amazes me. This guy managed to touch more people in two days than I do in a year. The HazMat team finally came today to sanitize the guys house. Better late than never, I guess.

It's probably better late than never when it comes to getting our power restored as well. Regular readers might remember that it took over four days to get our power turned back on the last time this happened. We ended up having to stay in a hotel for a few days. At least it's not freezing cold this time. Last Winter's big ice storm still seems worse than this, even though I think more trees and telephone poles were uprooted this time.

I'll have to learn to write faster, because my laptop battery is already getting low again. Given what I've seen today, it will be a miracle if our power comes back on tonight. There's a good chance we'll be sitting in the dark until next Monday.

Hobbs is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1752

As if an Ebola outbreak wasn't enough, our fair city is now shrouded in darkness. We are currently experiencing a massive power outage after a severe thunderstorm ripped through town about 4 PM this afternoon. I think that there are over 200,000 outage reports in the general area and one of them is ours. I've heard that the straight line winds were as high as 90 miles an hour at one point. This was certainly enough to uproot trees all over the city and blow a large section of our neighbor's roof off their house. The roof is currently sitting against our back fence. We were very lucky this time. There were no downed trees in our yard and so far, there have been no leaks through the roof. The wind was strong enough to blow water through the bottom of the back door, but that was about it. There is still a downed power line in the alley that was severed by the flying roof. I'm not sure if the wire is touching my metal fence at any point, but I'm definitely not going to touch the fence until the power company comes out and fixes the line. It goes without saying that I'm operating on battery power at this time.

Somehow the number of people in town who have been exposed to Ebola has gone from just a handful, to a dozen, to over 100 in less than 24 hours. This isn't good. I heard on the news today that one of the exposed, and presumably quarantined, kids went back to school yesterday. This in insane. Nobody even noticed the kid was gone until the school notified the CDC. So much for this "self-quarantine" they've been talking about. A judge had to get a court order to keep the people in their house. Now there are armed guards to make sure they don't disappear. The whole thing is a mess. The CDC hasn't even sent a HazMat team to decontaminate the apartment where the guy was staying yet. I've heard that the dirty sheets that the infected man slept on and even vomit are still untouched inside the house.

My vet is worried that nobody has even asked whether these people have a dog. Dogs are known hosts of the disease in Africa. If a dog was exposed and it is still running around around, Lord know what might happen. I'm still worried about poop. Did this guy use the bathroom on the plane? You know how airplane bathrooms work. They just open a little hatch and eject everything in the sky when they're at cruising altitude. There may be a little ticking time bomb in some farmer's field, or in your back yard.

Dot seemed tired and a little nervous during her physical therapy session. I bet she sensed that the storm was coming. Dot is unusually sensitive to weather changes and seems to be able to predict oncoming storms better than our local TV weathermen. Luckily, we made it home from the vet before the storm started. As severe as the winds were, I definitely wouldn't have wanted to be out on the roads during the worst of today's weather.

Who knows what will happen tomorrow in Dallas. The Cowboys are actually winning football games again. There's an Ebola patient who has exposed hundreds of people less than ten miles from my house. I'm sitting here in the dark, wondering if I can get this posted before my laptop battery or my little 4-G hotspot dies. Maybe this is the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. It's certainly been a weird week. I sure hope they've restored power to our neighborhood by morning. I'm going to need a good breakfast after all this and if my power's out, I bet my favorite restaurant is sitting in the dark too.

Bailey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1751

It was interesting to see how the Ebola news developed today. First you would hear local chatter on Twitter. There are so many people who either work or have friends in health care that news travels quickly. Shortly after rumors start flying on Twitter, local talk radio shows are filled with callers talking about the same thing. A few hours later, the same stories start to appear on prominent local, and even national, media blogs. TV news crews seem to pick up the story very late in the game, and finally, at the end of the entire process, a public official eventually issues a statement. There were Tweets about where the Ebola victim lived, what airline he flew to Dallas on, and where the children he exposed went to school several hours before the same news appeared on the local television stations.

With all the talk about how Ebola is transmitted, there's been a lot of local interest in the safety of the sewage system. Surely the guy pooped after he arrived in town. Where is that poop now? They say the virus can live a long time under moist conditions. At any rate,  I wouldn't want to be a worker at the local sewage treatment plant. I don't think I'd want to be a plumber either. One of the most persistent questions I hear is "If there is nothing to worry about, why are all you guys wearing HazMat suits?" I wonder about this myself.

Other than the occasional worry that Dallas will be where the zombie apocalypse begins, it was a fairly normal day. I spent the day doing the usual mix of website revisions and writing assignments. Some of the website work I did today involved redoing what did yesterday. That's pretty normal too. If I didn't redo a lot of things, I would have very little to do.

When we went to dog training class tonight, the sodium vapor lights that illuminate the field at night unexpectedly went out. Without these lights, it is really dark. I'm surprised that the dogs did as well as they did under these conditions. I could still see Dash pretty well, since he is basically white with a few black spots. The owners of the Labs weren't so lucky. Their dogs just seemed to disappear in the darkness.

I thought my fire ant bites would be gone by now, but they seem to have gotten worse. After doing a little reading, I discovered that this was normal. When the hard red welts caused by the bites start to blister, they can itch intensely. I'm in the itchy stage right now. They say that this can last for up to a week. It helps to keep things in perspective though. An ant bite is no big deal when there's an Ebola outbreak a few miles down the road.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1750

Good grief. Flu season is here. The State Fair of Texas just started. And a guy with the Ebola virus was admitted to Presbyterian Hospital after wandering around town for a week. What could possibly go wrong? I guess it was inevitable that Ebola would make it's way to America, but did it have to come to Dallas first? This is a little too close to home. Presbyterian Hospital is only four or five miles from my house. The gym that I go to is actually owned by the Presbyterian healthcare network.

I listened to the press conference held this afternoon by the CDC. The only thing I could think of was that every single post-apocalyptic end-of-the-world movie I've ever seen starts with some government bureaucrat standing in front of a microphone telling people that there's "nothing to worry about." Every time I hear that this disease can't be transmitted through the air, I think of all the other things that couldn't possibly happen, like Fukushima and Chernobyl.

I'm sure for the next week of so, everyone who gets a fever in Dallas will think they've come down with Ebola. It doesn't help that officials are very close-lipped about the whole situation. They won't reveal the airline the guy flew here on. They won't reveal who his family is, or where he was seen in town before he arrived at the hospital feeling sick. Why do they let people from West Africa continue to fly here? This is an uncontrolled pandemic that has already claimed over 3,000 lives in a short amount of time. It is insane to keep pretending that "there is nothing to worry about."

I awoke this morning to the sound of a dog trying to throw up in the bed next to my head. I've heard this sound before, so I immediately picked Dot up and quickly took her outside where she proceeded to throw up on the back porch. It's probably nothing, but when a dog is recovering from cancer you always worry that the cancer may have returned. Both dogs have sensitive stomachs and are prone to eat crap in the park. It's not a good combination. I've been keeping an eye on Dot today and she seems completely normal. All dogs throw up from time to time and hopefully this was just a fluke.

I completed my troublesome website project today and wrote two new articles. I consider this a good day. It would have been an even better day if the stock market hadn't taken a tumble. It's depressing to toil away at the computer to earn a few hundred dollars when you're simultaneously losing thousands in the market.

The yard is rapidly becoming covered with dry, yellowed elm leaves that the dogs and I inevitably track inside. The elm tree loses its leaves first, and then the oaks and pecan trees quickly follow. Fall has definitely arrived.

Thelma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1749

I wish there was a longer gap between the end of Spring allergies and the beginning of Fall allergies. Fall allergies are back with a vengeance and it seems like I only had a single month of relatively pollen-free peace. With literally hundreds of different plants continually shedding their seeds and spores in the park behind our house, I've just about resigned myself to a lifetime runny nose.

Since antihistamines leave me loopy, I've resorted to using those big, blue rolls of shop towels like Kleenex. It's good that I work alone, because it seems like I spend the entire day blowing my nose. I think the dogs are having seasonal allergy problems too. They've certainly been licking  their coats a lot lately. Allergies usually affect a dog's skin instead of their nasal passages, but I'm sure it is equally irritating. I've got my own skin irritations this week as well. I thought yesterday's fire ant bites would have gone away by now. Instead, the red puffiness around my knee has resolved into dozens and dozens of hard red little bumps. It kind of looks like I have chicken pox. I don't know how long it will take for this mess to go away, but at least the ant bites don't itch as much as chigger bites.

I only had one thing to do today, but the task proved so difficult that I still haven't finished everything. I'm not sure I even want to be a website designer anymore. I initially got interested in doing this type of work because it seemed well suited for a solitary guy like me. I could sit at my computer and create beautiful things without having to deal with printing companies and production managers like my print-based contemporaries. This business model worked for a long time, but lately I find myself spending very little time actually doing graphic design. It's all about Javascript, PHP, and SEO these days. The thrill is definitely gone. I don't like modifying other people's Wordpress themes either. That's what I was doing today.

I often envy the dogs. We like a lot of the same things. They like to eat. So do I. They like to smell every bush while we take our walks. I like to photograph every bush. It works out nicely. When we come home, the dogs go to sleep. I wouldn't mind going back to sleep either, but unlike Dot and Dash, I've got bills to pay. I wonder if they realize how lucky they are.

I hope I can get my website project finished quickly tomorrow, because some new writing assignments came in late in the day. Tuesday is usually when I have to update one of my animal rescue websites as well. No rest for the weary. I'm already looking forward to Friday.

Sweet Pea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1748

The golf tournament photo shoot ended well, but it certainly didn't get off to a good start. I loaded my gear in a golf cart after I arrived and was just about ready to get in the cart myself when two other golfers commandeered the cart and drove away. I had turned away for just a few seconds to talk with someone and when I turned back, my cart was gone. I told two nearby club pros what had happened and they went looking for the cart. Within five minutes I had all my gear back. No harm was intended. The other golfers just thought the cart was empty and didn't notice the stuff in the back.

About ten minutes later, I kneeled down to get a better angle on a guy teeing off and I stuck my right knee straight into a fire ant mound. Almost instantly I had hundreds of fire ants crawling all over my leg. I knew I shouldn't have worn shorts. Yikes! These little critters can really sting. One of the nearby golfers asked if I needed to worry about anaphylactic shock. Thankfully, no. Luckily, I'm not allergic to bee stings and ant bites because I tend to get stung a lot.

The day ended well and I wound up getting hundreds of nice shots of golfers, Dalmatians, and golfers with their Dalmatians. I did find myself briefly going the wrong way on a one way street while I was driving home from the tournament. It was just that kind of day. I'm glad we left the dogs at home today. As accident prone as I was this afternoon, I probably would have dropped Dash's leash and he would have run off.

It's hard to believe that the rescue group has been having these charity golf tournaments for well over a decade now. I think this year's tournament was our thirteenth. We're all older now and there aren't as many dogs in the program. Dalmatians aren't as popular as they were when the Disney movies made the breed famous. That's a good thing, because far fewer dogs are being abandoned. I doubt that we would have the energy to deal with twenty-five dogs at a time like we used to anyway.

Janet won a gift certificate for 24 Sprinkles cupcakes at the tournament silent auction this evening. At the rate we eat cupcakes, this should keep us in birthday and celebration cupcakes for another year. The birthdays are all finished for this year, unfortunately. We'll have to figure out something else to celebrate, because those cupcakes sure are good!

It looks like next week is going to be busy. I've already got several new projects queued up and it isn't even Monday yet. I could have showed you dozens of people hitting a little white ball off a tee today, but I thought the clouds overhead were more interesting. This was definitely a Texas sized sky.

Spanky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1747

Today we declared war on fleas. Both dogs have been seen with fleas lately and we suspect that they are probably inside the house. Fleas love to hide in carpet, bedding, dog blankets, and of course on the dogs themselves. Both dogs got a bath this morning, and then to make sure new fleas didn't just crawl back on each dog, I started systematically washing and cleaning everything. I'm still not finished. I think there are enough dog blankets in our house to sink a ship.

The house needed a good cleaning anyway, so hopefully this will help. You might think it would be a lot easier to just use a topical flea preventative like Frontline, but our dogs have sensitive skin and products like these leave their skin red and raw. Personally, I'd rather deal with the fleas than with a bad skin condition.

It took forever to get the dogs washed this morning. The place where we go only has four tubs and they are often filled when we arrive. Today a mother and daughter cut ahead of us in line, saying they had an important school event to attend and were running late. The daughter, who supposedly was in such a hurry, proceeded to text her friends on her phone while she was washing her dog. She was impossibly slow. An employee was grooming a dog in one of the other tanks while we were waiting. This girl left to go on a break, just leaving her wet dog sitting in the tank. She could have easily moved the dog to one of the kennels in the back and let some of the waiting customers bathe their dogs while she took her break. She also could have finished her job before she took her break. That's what I would have done. I'd leave these people a bad review on Yelp if it weren't for the fact that, despite all the problems, it's still the best dog washing place in the neighborhood. The manager is a nice guy and keeps the place very clean. It's his customers and employees who are the problem.

I noticed that Dot's dog bed was wet this afternoon, but I couldn't tell whether she had peed in the bed again or whether she was still a bit wet from her bath. The wet spot didn't really smell like pee, but my sense of smell isn't so good, so I took the cover off the bed and washed it anyway. Once I get in a washing kind of mood, it's hard to stop me. I recorded the new Dr. Who episode on the DVR again this evening because it doesn't look like I'll have time to watch it any time soon. By the time I get all the cleaning done and charge up the camera batteries for tomorrow's photoshoot, it will be time for bed.

I saw our yard possum again this morning. Luckily, the dogs didn't. I have a feeling that the possum lives somewhere in the back of the yard, because it certainly doesn't go far. I don't know why it likes our yard so much, because their are plenty of larger and much grander yards just down the street. Maybe it feels at home here. I'll have to admit now that the St. Augustine grass is dying and the ground cover beds are full of spider webs and weeds, the yard does look like a place a possum might enjoy.

Tomorrow will be busy. I keeping thinking that I have way too many aches and pains to do sports photography anymore. Then I remember that I'm just taking pictures of golfers. It isn't all that strenuous. I just follow the players around in a golf cart and take picture of them teeing off and putting. Occasionally, I get a good shot. I know the golfers are having more fun than I am, because they're drinking beer, while I'm still just drinking water.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1746

There were no pretty wildflowers to photograph this morning. I didn't feel like waiting around for a sunset picture either, so this photo of my breakfast will have to suffice. You've heard about my Friday breakfasts for quite a while. This is why I like them so much. It's hard not to like a plate filled with fresh local eggs, chorizo, tortilla strips, tomatoes, onions, skillet browned potatoes and lots of savory spices. Oh, did I mention that the coffee is roasted on the premises too.

After a breakfast like this and a quick trip to Central Market to pick up something equally tasty for dinner, I'm usually ready for anything.  Fridays are typically busy, but since one of my clients has closed up shop for Rosh Hashanah, all I had to do today were several routine website revisions.

With a slow day, I had time to finish my September writer's group assignment a little early again. This month's prompt was "sleep," so I wrote about my dreams. I probably did this because I wrote something about dreams yesterday on the blog. Today's essay was a little longer, but it was essentially the same thing. When you write as frequently as I do, it's easy to feel like the well is running dry. This wasn't the first time I've borrowed from the blog to do something else, and it won't be the last.

My e-mail account has adopted a new way of identifying spam. Instead of dumping all the suspicious mail in a junk mail folder on my local computer, they keep it on the server and send me a summary once a day. I have to look through all the listings and choose whether to whitelist, delete, or block the detained mail. I know this is for my benefit, but it takes a lot more time than my old method of dealing with spam. I would routinely ignore everything in the junk folder, knowing that it would be automatically be erased when I closed my mail client. I'm sure I've lost a number of legitimate letters this way, but it sure was easy. I dread having to actually look at all the junk I get each day. On an average day there are over a hundred spam messages.

This weekend will be busy. The dogs get a bath tomorrow and Sunday is the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament. I won't be able to go to the gym on Sunday, but shooting photos of the players on all eighteen holes of the golf course will be a workout in itself.

Suki is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1745

I finally saw our elusive possum. I got up last night about 2 AM to get a glass of water and there he was, methodically perusing the yard right outside the living room window. He wasn't digging anything up, but he sure was looking for something. This must have been a young possum, because he was much smaller than I anticipated. It's a good thing the dogs were both asleep, because possums move really slow. I asked our vet today if these animals posed a rabies risk like bats and racoons, but she said no. They are marsupials and are not carriers of rabies. This is good to know, but I still wouldn't want the dogs to tangle with one.

I've been having strange and complicated dreams lately. Unfortunately, I can't remember any of them. When the dogs wake me up during the night, I'll often think "this is a weird dream," and then the dream just vanishes about ten seconds later. I can't remember anything at all. I wonder if I'll recall these dreams later in life. I can't remember any recent dreams, but some of my childhood dreams are quite vivid. A few are so real that I occasionally wonder if they actually happened. It's hard to tell. All these dreams are floating around somewhere in my mind, but they are only accessible after a long period of time has passed. During those fleeting moments when the dream is fading away, I often notice that Dot and Dash are dreaming too. I wonder if we're all dreaming about the same thing?

Dot had another good physical therapy session today. We're back to our regular routine of a twenty minute workout in the underwater treadmill, followed by acupuncture. The vet was happy that Dot was responding well to the Incurin treatment and I was happy that there were no embarrassing fleas on Dot this time. I'm really glad that things are getting back to normal.

Today was busier than I expected. In addition to Dot's vet appointment, there were articles to write and several last minute website revisions. The fact that I got everything done with only a half a day of actual computer time means that I'm becoming more productive again. I think it helps that I don't have to get Dot up and outside to pee every few hours now. In fact, Dot gets indignant if I try to take her out too often. She gives me this look that says "Hey, I can hold it now. Leave me alone."

There's a mosquito buzzing around my office that I can't seem to find. I know I'm going to wake up with a mosquito bite in the morning, but it's not worth the trouble to get out the stepladder and a flyswatter to get rid of the irritating bug. It's a sign that it was a pretty good day if the mosquitoes don't bother me. Hey, if Thursday was OK, Friday should be great. You guys already know how much I love Fridays.

Zorro is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1744

When I was walking the dogs this morning I noticed a bulldozer ripping up the trail we normally use. Now there is just a lot of loose dirt that will immediately turn into a mud pit as soon as it rains. I think the city is planning to replace the trail with a much wider concrete bicycle highway to accommodate all the cyclists who like to ride in the park. I'm not looking forward to this. The trail has been a nice, peaceful place to walk the dogs for many years and as soon as the cyclists arrive, it will just be another place to avoid. Bicycles and dogs on a leash don't mix. The dogs and I have almost been run over by Type-A cyclists too many times to count. When you're on the same trail together, these guys, and they're almost always guys, don't want to slow down or move over for anybody.

I probably won't have to worry about the bicycles for quite a while. City projects move exceedingly slow. It will take at least a month for them to rip out the old trail. Then it will take another month to construct the wooden forms and place the steel rebar reinforcement before actually pouring the concrete. Sooner or later though, this bicycle highway will be finished and I'll have to find a quieter place to walk the dogs.

Life is gradually returning to normal. The dogs are healthy again and Dot's incontinence problems seem to be over. My workload has returned to a predictable mix of writing and website design. I'm busy, but not too busy. There seems to be plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and long dog walks while still meeting deadlines. The familiar routines aren't all that exciting, but they're comfortable. As long as the dogs stay healthy, I'm OK with this.

Dot was stronger today and participated in many of the exercises at our training class this evening. Both dogs seemed to enjoy the cool, pleasant weather. Since the autumnal equinox was yesterday, the days will start to get noticeably shorter now. It's already dark by the time training class is over and pretty soon it will be dark before we even begin. The sky was clear and I recognized a few constellations overhead as Dash and I did our training exercises tonight. It made me wish I'd bought something when I went to the telescope store the other day.

Tomorrow is Dot's physical therapy day. She's still not quite as strong as she was before her illness, but she's getting close. Her progress reminds me that physical therapy actually works. I really need to get one of my doctors to refer me for physical therapy myself. It would sure be nice to have a functional shoulder again.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1743

Surprisingly, everything turned out well today. I walked Dash while Janet fed Dot her breakfast and when we returned, Dash just went to sleep until it was time to go to the vet. I didn't expect this, but it made life a little easier. Dash's blood was free of lipids this time, so we got a good sample for the thyroid level tests. Dot got her DHPP and Bordetella vaccinations when she went to the vet a little later, and so far she has had no adverse reactions. Hopefully, we're done with shots and lab work for a while.

Despite the multiple vet appointments, I still managed to get quite a bit of work done. There were the usual website updates, along with a new writing assignment. I didn't finish the writing assignment, since it was longer than usual, but it will give me something to do tomorrow.

I'm wondering what's so special about IOS 8. I installed it on my phone several days ago and still haven't noticed anything different. There are supposed to be hundreds of new features, but apparently none of them have any impact on the five simple apps I actually use. The camera is supposed to gain several additional features with the new operating system, but it still doesn't have the features I've been wanting since the very first iPhone. I can't understand why you can't manually focus the camera, or control the f-stop. These two things seem pretty basic to me.

One of the dog's vets was telling me today how much her kids liked Dr. Who. I'm pretty fond of Dr. Who myself, so it made me wonder if I was still basically a kid at heart. I certainly don't tend to see "adult" solutions to most of the world's problems. The world is simple to me. Unemployment? Just start manufacturing things in this country again the way we used to and there will be plenty of jobs. Global warming? If global warming is caused by man like everyone says it is, just quit having kids for a generation. The population growth will slow dramatically, nature will reclaim what it lost, and everything will be fine. Terrorism? Just don't let these guys on planes. Ever! No exceptions for anyone. Keep your oil and keep your camels and let the rest of the world get back to business.

None of this will ever happen though. Too many people still believe that globalization is a good thing and that by relentlessly promoting diversity, we can somehow all learn to get along. Not very likely. If your own family can't get along at Thanksgiving dinner, how is the whole world going to get along?  Personally, I think we have made such a mess of things that we ought to give the place back to the whales and the dolphins.

Enough with the seriousness though. It's not really part of my narrative. I prefer to talk about dogs for a reason. Dogs aren't Democrats or Republicans. They may bite you, but they'll never lie. Feed a dog and treat it properly and you've got a friend for life. People are a bit different.

Sage is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1742

I paid a final visit to the telescope store before it shuts its doors for good at the end of the month. I didn't plan to buy anything and very little of the remaining merchandise even tempted me. I guess this was more of a symbolic visit to pay homage to all the esoteric small businesses like this that are rapidly disappearing from the landscape. Maybe I was hoping to rekindle my interest in astronomy as well. It's amazing in a way that a store that only sells astronomical telescopes managed to stay in business in Dallas for as long as it did. There isn't a big market for telescopes to begin with and with all the haze and light pollution in a big city, you're lucky to see the moon on most nights.

Visiting the store was kind of sad. One of the owners appeared to be discussing financial problems on the phone and the remaining merchandise was mostly of Chinese origin. Maybe that's where good, semi-affordable telescopes come from these days, but I would still prefer a genuine made-in-America Questar. I couldn't afford a Questar when I was younger and I still can't afford one today. They still make these astronomical Ferraris though. Right here in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Dash had an upset stomach last night and woke me up three three times to go outside. The first two times he just sniffed around the yard and did nothing. As soon as I got back in bed, he would be scratching at the back door to go out again. The third time he finally pooped and we all went back to sleep. I'm sure Dash ate a June bug or cicada again. I don't think this dog will ever learn that these things aren't good for him.

Today was busy, but I'm almost positive than in a day or two I'll completely forget what I was working on. Much of my work just isn't that memorable these days. There is a routine that almost never varies. I get up, make the bed, walk the dogs, eat breakfast, wash the dishes, and then reluctantly turn on the computer to see what I need to do for the day. I finished my web site revisions and writing assignments a little earlier than I expected this afternoon, which is why I went to the telescope store.

Tomorrow, both dogs go to the vet. Dash needs to get his blood retested to check his thyroid levels. Hopefully, with no food after 10 PM tonight, this fasting blood test will provide the vet with a usable sample. Last week's sample wasn't usable because there were Lipids in his blood. Maybe I should quit giving the dogs a little dollop of whipping cream as a treat when I make my coffee in the morning. Dot needs to get her DHPP vaccination as well, which will protect her from parvo, distemper, canine hepatitis and parainfluenza. These back and forth visits to the vet will take a lot of time, so hopefully my workload will be lighter tomorrow.

A good night's sleep would be nice tonight. I'm not counting on it though. I'm beginning to think that there's a better chance of getting a Questar telescope than a good night's sleep.

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day